The culture of buy now pay later created over one trillion pounds worth of debt last year and over 60,000 people declaring themselves bankrupt, according to industry figures.

Consumers who find themselves overstretched often resort to becoming bankrupt to clear debt but this has negative long term implications whereas an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) may be a better alternative.

An IVA, increasingly popular in recent years, is a legally binding agreement negotiated between the consumer and their creditors which allows a debtor to repay what is owed in affordable monthly installments over a fixed period of time, on average five years.

Whilst under the IVA process, creditors can no longer charge interest or late payment fees and after the stipulated period the consumer will still be able to apply for credit.

"Most consumers take debt seriously but the majority of people who come to us had a change of circumstances that put them into debt," said Andrew Smith, from ClearDebt IVA.

"We are in a culture where we get what we want now and we think about how to repay later. But when something hits us, like when a relationship breaks up and you end up with all the debt on your credit card, we don't have the financial elasticity to deal with it."