Yes, they can help. If you go down the route of some form of debt solution, then yes it will affect your credit for 6 years. For example, If you put a DMP in place, the accounts would go into default and this would only be removed from your credit record after 6 years from the date of default.I manage to pay the minimum amounts of my debt each month - a loan and a couple of credit cards but don’t make any dents in them . If I spoke with Step change could they still help me as I’m not behind on payments and would this damage mycredit score? I do have a mortgage and my current rate runs out in March, if they offer me a further low rate will they do credit checks etc then? My income has also reduced after being put at risk of redundancy and accepting a lower paid role
As for the remortgage — some lenders do a new credit check but others don’t as it’s not a new application. Stepchange (and other debt charities) would be able to advise.