I cleared all the money I owed on a credit card (following an unavoidable emergency where I had to use it) with a bank loan at a much lower interest rate and it's going to be gone in two years.
I now do not use my credit card at all, in fact that was the only time I ever used it, prefering a debit card, the account for which, I transfer money into if I ever need to use it. So if I can't afford something, I just do not buy it. Simple as that.
Of course now I show up as not having any credit card debts on ratings, and as a result of that, I get hammered with junk mail offering me credit cards with ridiculous limits which I would simply not have a prayer of repaying, I even got offered a gold Amex card once LOL. The Government could, and should, make offering crap like that illegal. But they don't want to do that, since a large proportion of those in power are making money out of all this misfortune being laid upon those least able to afford it.
Chock