StepChange Debt Charity Avis 2 311

I reached out to stepchange in May 2020 after I had taken ‘hardship payment holidays’ from my creditors, and realised that once those 3 months were up and the interest was back, I would sink.

Over the course of my almost 6 years with them, I have paid back just under £27,000 with EASE and FLEXIBILITY.

Every interaction I have had with Step change, via email or over the phone has been so incredibly positive and understanding. If I needed a payment holiday - that was no problem, if I needed to change my payment amount - that was no problem.

The entirely of my plan, I was in complete control, which at a time where you think you’re sinking with no lifelines is lifesaving.

Stepchange helped me take control back of my life when I thought I was financially ruined, and I will forever be grateful!

Gave it 4 as there’s that many people in the same boat takes ages to get through on the phone…..apart from that 5 outta 5, been a life changer for me, can finally sleep at night without the worry of debt collectors coming. Best thing I ever did.

Fantastic support. Sympathetic and knowledgeable help on the end of the phone when needed. No hidden costs or penalties.
Straightforward process and simple to understand plan. It works!!
Thank you Step Change 😊

Incredibly helpful and flexible. It allowed me to pay my debt when nothing else would. Very friendly and easy reach. Very much recommended.

Heading aimlessly in life, burdened and worried about what appeared to be insurmountable debt, I was recommended to contact StepChange to show me the path to follow. They were patient, helpful and lifted my mood and showed me that life can, once again be good. I would suggest that anyone with debts, large or small, gets in touch with the charity to see a brighter future.

Such a simple and easy service to use , literally a weight lifted off my shoulders overnight

Highly recommended, changed my life as took the stress out of the debts. Friendly staff that made you feel at ease. Wish I would have done it earlier! Thank you so much!

Stepchange really have changed my life, my debt is now cleared and my plan was so easy to follow and they have supported me so much throughout my journey!

Really helpful, but also quite long winded process to help budget…which I know is needed but I found it particularly hard to concentrate and focus which is why I had debt is the first place!
Once my budget was set up though I was helpful knowing that each month was getting closer to me being debt free! And now I have one month left! :)

I initially completed all the relevant requested information on 31st of Jan and to date no DMP has been set up, my creditors have had no contact from Stepchange and all I have received is requests for information I've already given , I've chased this up twice and had no response , which left me with no choice but to raise a complaint last week to which I have had no acknowledgement to that either. Whilst my creditors have been understanding and applied breathing space, this is fast running out and Stepchange have done nothing to contact the creditors in order to set a DMP up , this is just causing me more stress by the people who claim to be here to help people in need this is starting to have a negative effect on my mental health and I do not know what to do.
I have answered all questions and sent all relevant information but I've had little to no response from Stepchange.

I was at my wits end until I reached out to Stepchange and with their help managed to arrange a VA. Very supportive and understanding, didn’t judge my situation just listened and helped, ensuring that my monthly payment was affordable and comfortable for me and my budget. So glad I took the plunge and reached out to them for help.

I would highly recommend StepChange. They are helpful, non judgmental and give you the information and help you need when facing insurmountable debt. I have and will continue to give their details out to friends or Colleagues.

Had a conversation with them on day one was then taken into hospital for two weeks. In that time had numerous whatsapp messages final one being "You seem to be just wasting my time do you want help or not?"
Sorry was in ICT and couldn't get to my phone.

The people at StepChange were professional and understanding. They accomodated my various communication needs, and I never felt judged by any person I talked to.

The whole process was great and the agents were exceptional every time I called they were amazing. My VA competed in incredibly good time I’d recommend StepChange to anyone Five Stars I wish I could have give them ten .

I have been in a debt management plan with StepChange since February last year. My experience honestly has been varied, but I do feel that I have had number of challenges I have had to try and resolve whilst under this plan which have been incredibly frustrating. Such as payment made seemingly going missing and not reaching the creditor.

I have ended up as a go between for StepChange and my creditors when these issues have occurred, when my understanding is that this should be the other way round. When I have tried to address some of these issues I feel like the help and support provided at times has been minimal, as has their attempts to explain things to me in ways I understand. I can’t imagine how difficult this process must be for someone with little financial literacy.

I have had repeated issues contacting them by phone, I imagine this is due to under resourcing. I am regularly met with an automated message that they can’t answer my call today as they are too busy. I get that they are a charity but then when I then email them providing as much detail as I can, I instead get told to call them. They have also given me deadlines by post for me to call them that they are unable to meet because they don’t have the capacity to take my call.

I entered this process thinking it would take some of the load off and reduce some of the stress of managing my debts. I had heard so many positive things about StepChange and thought I would be in good hands. But honestly, at the moment I feel more stressed about money than ever, with the added stress of having little or no autonomy when things do go wrong.

I do very much appreciate this is a charity and they are likely very under resourced and stretched, but still feel it important to share my experience of using their service.

A wonderful supportive system that really saved the day. The people I spoke to gave so much support and encouragement beyond what I had expected.

I had substantial debt from credit card and loan repayments, the interest was swallowing every penny I paid off and I was getting nowhere. I contacted another company who were going to take a percentage of my payments for their fees, then I saw Stepchange mentioned on the Martin Lewis website. They were really easy to contact, super helpful and non- judgemental and set up an affordable plan for me. I had to contact all my creditors to let them know I was going on a DMP, that was also really simple, no arguments or judgement. It's taken a little longer than originally planned to clear my debts, my payments had to reduce for a while when my husband was ill and we were down to one wage, but six years on I'm now debt free. It's a slog but you just have to keep your head down and plough on, the support is there when you need it and clearing your debts is an amazing feeling. If you have money worries of any size, don't hesitate to use Stepchange.

Things were OK until I discovered a problem with my e-mail account, which was blocking random inbound mail, presumably due to AOL's anti-spamming software "improvements" not working properly. I tried to alert Stepchange by mailing to all their e-mail addresses, in the hope of a reply, but no response. Absolutely impossible now to contact anyone at the call-centre. Their complaints e-mail is not working either ! They only seem to want to return my payments ! All very stressful and confusing, all they needed to do was telephone me at a time convenient to themselves and leave a message. Especially since I cannot contact them other than by post.

12 Feb 2026
Having said it was impossible to speak to your call-centre, I have now received a response suggesting "I give you a call". Absolutely priceless ! I am usually at work and cannot spend all day trying to get through to your call-centre, so please let me have a direct line of someone I can actually speak to. Either that or an e-mail address that will produce a reply, please.