Step 3 Choose your debt solution 3 Can my non-priority creditors add interest and charges? Debts can include the money you borrowed, interest, administration charges and late-payment charges. Check your statements to see if interest and charges are still being added. If you’re not sure what can be added, check your agreement. Then you can compare what your agreement says with what has actually been added to your account. If you need a copy of your agreement, see Getting a copy of your credit agreement or account statement below. The Standards of Lending Practice – Personal Customers These guidelines set out good practice for dealing with credit cards, overdrafts and unsecured loans. They say that creditors ‘should consider freezing or reducing interest and charges when a customer is in financial difficulty’. Remind your creditors of this. For a copy of the standards, go to www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk. Always ask your creditor to freeze interest and to stop adding charges to your account. Sometimes, when a creditor accepts your offer of payment, they don’t say what they will do about interest and charges. If this happens, ask whether they have frozen interest and stopped adding charges. If they haven’t, ask them again. If any of your other creditors have already agreed, point this out. See our Freeze interest sample letter. Getting a copy of your credit agreement or account statement You usually have the right to ask for a copy of your credit agreement and an account statement. There are different rules which allow you to ask for different types of information. For some requests, you have to pay a small fee. If your creditor doesn’t give you the information, they may be limited in the further action they can take. See our Credit agreements - getting information fact sheet for more information. Page 91