If you do ask them, they might. If they can see that you really can’t keep up with the payments you agreed to, they might decide that the best way of getting their money back is to accept smaller payments, so you can repay what you owe (even if more slowly than expected). That doesn’t mean they will, but they might.

So – how can you improve your chances of negotiating successfully with them? A good way of starting is to get some debt advice from a professional who’s dealt with lenders – and borrowers – many times before.

They can show you, for example, how to draw up a ‘Statement of Affairs’ so you know exactly where you stand with your finances: how much you earn, how much you spend, how much you can afford to put towards your debts every month, etc.

There’s no point just getting in touch with lenders and telling them you can’t afford the payments – they’ll need to know what you can afford to pay.

If you get some debt advice, you’ll also find out how you should propose to split the available money between your different lenders. This would be done ‘pro rata’ – you’d offer each lender a portion of the available money in relation to how much you owe them.

If you have three lenders and owe them £5,000, £4,000 and £3,000, that makes £12,000. Say you can afford £120 per month (just to keep it simple), you should offer them £50, £40 and £30 respectively. That way, they’d all see (a) that you’re paying as much as you can each month, and (b) that you’re proposing to split that money fairly between your creditors – don’t be tempted to pay more to the one who ’shouts the loudest’, because that wouldn’t be fair on the others.