Debt management companies that run and supervise personal debt management plans are not government funded and exist to make a profit by helping people with their debt problems. The fees that they charge are a legitimate way of making a living for insolvency experts assist their clients to find their way out of debts. This service attracts a fee which is often included as part of the management plan.

Before signing any debt management plan, it is essential that you are fully aware of any costs that you will need to meet as part of the plan. You are employing the services of experienced and licensed professionals who will assist you with your debt problems until they are resolved.

Initial advice from a debt management company should always be free. Do not pay for a consultation when there are many companies that will be happy to see you initially for free.

There are often two different types of fee involved.
The first is an initial start up or set up fee, which can be waived by some companies but might be as low as one hundred pounds. If someone's financial circumstances are particularly poor, the company may waive that fee. However, a waive set up fee might be more beneficial for the company than the individual debtor, someone with a large debt may take years to repay their debts.

Further to this, there are often monthly debt management plan supervision fees, often simply known as management fees. Again, ensure that you know all the costs before you sign anything, it is essential that you are completely aware of what you will be spending on this plan and more important that this will benefit you more than your present situation. If the debt will take thirty years to pay off, the debt management fee could also be considerable. This is why it is important to aim for as low monthly management rate as you can get from the company. Paying nothing up from but fifty pounds per month for thirty years would seem like false economy.