Money speak.
Think of me as Martin Lewis, the 'Money Saving Expert' but without the 'snazzy' dress sense and camp-as-fuck mincing swagger.

The most effective way to pay off your debts when in difficulty is to prioritise them in order of interest rate rather than outstanding amount. You should pay off the higher interest debts first as they're costing you the most money in interest.
Also, if you're really in the shit and can't afford to make minimum payments etc. you should deal with the creditors yourself. Although debt chasers are usually right pushy bastards (they presume you WON'T pay rather than CAN'T) their job is essentially to recover money. You can often negotiate for them to suspend interest charges by agreeing to certain criteria.

Basically, if you explain that you're in the shit you can normally agree a reduced payment plan to clear the debt. If you get onto it early enough this can even avoid CCJ's as they'd rather have a small ammount of regular money from you than have all the fuck on of taking you to court.
(Greencloud Wanted to go fishing on, Fri 2 May 2008, 12:11, Reply)