The drop was seen across all age groups and income brackets of some 5,200 adults. Tom McPhail from pensions investments firm, Hargreaves Lansdown, says, “We need to recapture a savings culture in this country; we should all be thinking in terms of ‘for every £10 I earn, I’ll give £1 to my long-term savings.”

At the end of 2011 the CSA said that’s members were handling 32 million cases of debt. That is the equivalent of one debt per UK household. The figure was up from 28 million six months previously.

The CSA has said that the debt is “fresh debt”, meaning it was less than six months old and the chance of recovering most of it was high.

You should not have to program a special ringtone to avoid their calls, they are mostly limited to three phone calls a week.

2. They cannot call you at ungodly hours

Depending on what country you live in, they are legally allowed to call you between 8am to 9pm Mondays to Saturday and 1pm to 5pm on Sunday. They are not allowed to call you on official holidays. You should not be getting a call on 9am on Christmas morning.

3. They cannot threaten you

They cannot threaten to blab your debt to all your family and friends and they cannot tell you they will sue you when they won’t. That is harassment and illegal.

4. They cannot verbally abuse you

When a debt collector starts swearing at you or calling you names, hang up and immediately put it in writing to their manager.

5.  They cannot talk to anyone about your debt

Debt collectors are allowed to legally speak to your spouse and attorney and no one else. They are allowed to call your employer to verify your information. They are allowed to make this call only once.

6. They cannot share your information

Some misinformed debt collectors have threatened to publish the names of people who are in debt in newspapers. In truth they have a responsibility to keep your debt information private.

7. They cannot report false information about your credit report

They are allowed to tell the truth about what you have not paid, but they are not allowed to lie in any way to ruin your credit record. Make sure you are always well informed about your credit report

8. They cannot lie about who they are

They cannot call you telling you they are the police or a lawyer. They must tell you that they are a debt collector and are calling to collect debt. Always verify this if they do not.

9. They cannot lie about what they are doing with your debt

They cannot tell you that they are selling your debt to another agency when that is not what they are doing.

10. You have the right to tell them not to contact you anymore

If you request in writing that they not call you anymore then they have to comply. They will still be responsible for your debt and can pursue legal action after a time and they can then contact you through a lawyer. You also have the right to request in writing that they stop contacting you at work.

The Fair Debt Collectors Practices Act, which came into effect in 1978 does not explicitly prevent debt collectors from posting on your wall or asking your relatives about your whereabouts but the OFT has deemed any activity used by a debt collector, whether on social media or otherwise that will either deliberately or negligently embarrass a person could result in serious action against the debt collector.

You can protect yourself by adjusting your privacy setting and never accepting a friend request from anyone you don’t know, debt collectors often set up bogus profiles. Don’t engage in any contact with a debt collection on social media. Some agencies are able to track you down on some social media sites with your emails address, so refrain from giving this out to them and only correspond with them by letter.

Add up the balances of all the credit cards (and loans) you owe. And list the rate you are paying on each card. List all your essential expenses each month (rent, petrol etc) calculate the difference between your essential expenses and your monthly income giving you your discretionary spending. If your discretionary spending is a zero or a minus figure see a good debt counselor. For a couple of months try record everything you spend money on. You could be surprised on how the little things add up.

2. Prioritize your credit card debt

Keep up the minimum payments on all your cards but pay a little extra on the one with the highest rate. Once you have paid off that card move pay a little extra on the one with the next highest rate and so on. By doing this you will eventually conquer you credit card debt little, by little.

3. Minimize your spending on luxuries

As hard as it is, make a decision not spend any of your discretionary spending on little luxuries. Everything adds up, evening that daily latte. Use a credit card calculator to find out how long it will take to pay off each card and set realistic goals for yourself.

4. Contact your credit card company

If you are struggling to even make the minimum payments call your credit card company. Keep it short, without launching into any personal garble and simply tell them that you are temporarily struggling and need some help. They may be able to reduce your minimum payments. Credit card companies tend to keep a record of any correspondence that has been made with you and it is much wiser that for them to see that you are staying in contact and not running for the hills.

5. Check out balance transfer cards

Do some research on balance transfer cards? They can provide a zero balance introductory rate on the balances you transfer for 6 to 21 months. A 3% to 4% balance transfer fee added to your account. Unfortunately, if your credit score has already been ruined you won’t have much like with this.

6. Beware of debt settlement companies

Many companies that claim to persuade credit card companies to minimize the balance that you owe them turn out to be cons. In truth it could take months and even years before a credit card company will negotiate your debt.