**You should always pay off priority bills before any debts, even if these other debts are gaining interest**

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Sort your debts out by interest rates with the highest interest first, also any non-defaulted accounts should be placed before any defaulted regardless of interest rates. i.e. it should look like this...

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The amount of debt outstanding does not need to be taken into account when using this method, we aim to pay priority bills off first followed by the highest interest charging accounts that have not yet defaulted, and then we move onto the already defaulted accounts.   

 

*where you have a promotional 0% APR, you should try to make the minimum payment in order to not lose the promotional rate which may then become a higher interest rate than your other non-defaulted credit accounts.

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The next step is to contact your credit card providers to see if you can freeze your accounts from gaining interest and you can usually do this by explaining that you are in arrears with priority bills and wish freeze your account, they will usually ask you to fill out an income and expenditure report.