Q I have built up several thousand pounds of debt on three credit cards and am struggling to meet payments.

With all my other bills rising I am not likely to be able to pay them off any time soon. Is there anything I can do to bring the debt down to a manageable level?

A Credit cards are a useful tool so long as you use them wisely. Ideally you need to know that you can afford to pay back the spending over a time frame rather than using them to fund spending you can’t actually afford.

But we don’t live in an ideal world and most of us use them to pick up the extra spending and worry about the repayment another day.

The problem with credit-card debt, as you are finding, is the rates of interest charged are often extortionate, between 20-40 per cent for someone with a good credit rating and much higher for those with credit issues in the past.

So paying back the debt itself can seem impossible, especially only repaying the minimum amount each month.

Assuming your credit rating is OK, I would recommend you transfer your debt to an interest-free credit card, then put it in a drawer so you can’t use it. These cards give you up to two years or sometimes more to pay off the debt while it doesn’t attract interest.

According to moneyfact.co.uk, which lists the best balance-transfer cards, if you needed to transfer £2,000 and could afford £100 a month repayment, your best option would be the Sainsbury’s Bank 19 Month Low Balance Transfer Fee credit card.

It has a 19 months interest-free period but at your repayment level it would take 21 months to repay so you would end up repaying £2,002 as several months would attract interest, currently at 21.9 per cent.

Although there are cards with longer interest-free periods, many have balance-transfer fees, which increase your initial debt. So, for example, another option would be the M&S Credit Card Transfer Plus Offer Mastercard, which offers 28 months interest-free credit. But it has a 2.99 per cent balance transfer fee (minimum £5) so you would end up paying back £2,060 even though you would repay the debt within the interest-free period.

The Sainsbury’s Bank card is open to anyone, but if you are a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank customer, their balance-transfer credit cards offer the best deal, with 22 months interest- free credit and no balance-transfer fees, which means you would only have to pay back the £2,000 if you made £100 monthly repayments.

If you need longer to repay — for example, you could only afford £50 a month — a card with a longer interest-free credit period would work out best.

Sainsbury’s Bank offers a 34-month balance transfer credit card. It has a 2.88 per cent (minimum £3) balance-transfer fee, which means you would end up repaying £2,084 over the 42-month repayment period, which includes interest currently charged at 21.9 per cent.