For many years, obtaining a loan from banks or other lending companies was far too easy. Too many people would find themselves with debt which they couldn't afford to repay for one reason or another.

We would hear time and time again, "Britain has crashed thought the Trillion pound barrier in debt" as though it was nothing more than just a cute headline. Infact, the reality of it is families in debt were struggling to put food on the table because they simply could not keep up with their financial commitments.

It was inevitable that something like the Credit Crunch would come along. If banks and financial industries are lending money to people who could not afford to pay it back, it would only be a matter of time when reality struck and someone realised that this type of careless lending would have an adverse affect on the credit industry.

When we talk about lending, we don't just mean people who want to buy a new kitchen or a new car, we are also talking about businesses, mortgages, remortgages and the likes.

It isn't just unsecured loans that created the problem, it was people who took secured loans on their properties to find that they were repossessed because they couldn't keep up with the payments, as well as failed businesses for one reason or another. Everyone is affected.

In 2004 the new Bankruptcy law was bought into force which lifted the 3 years restriction on people to give people a chance to get back on their feet. Since this law was bought into force, the number of people petitioning for bankruptcy rose higher than ever before. However, the lending systems did not change.

People were still seeing advertising campaigns on their TV's and through the letter box that borrowing was the way to financial freedom. We were on a rollercoaster which was doomed to crash at one time or another.

Debt advisors were crying out for the Government to call for a toning down of advertising and easy lending systems as well as educating our children about the risk of taking out credit.

The Credit Crunch may not have come directly as a result from our pleas, but never the less, it still came. We built the rod for our own backs, and now we have to deal with the consequences.

The positive thing about the Credit Crunch is that credit is not as easy as it used to be to come across. This means, that borrowing money may not be an option for people to pay off existing debts. Instead, people must find a way to repay their debt without borrowing more.

There is always a solution for anyone who has a debt problem. Debt is not a crime and there are many options available nowadays to help people out of their own financial crisis.

Debt solutions such as Debt Management, Individual Voluntary Arrangements or even Bankruptcy are available as viable solutions to tackle debt.

We are in the place now where people need to deal with their debt head on without the temptation from advertising to borrow more money to pay off existing debt.

There are many ways to look at how the Credit Crunch has affected us as a nation, however, for the debtor, it is one way to give us no choice but to deal debt head on which in time, will place us back on the road to recovery to reduce the debt in our homes as well as out nation.