I really think that you ought to take advice from an insolvency practitioner as to your options. If you are now starting to rely on credit cards to pay for household and personal expenditure, your debt situation is only going to get worse. An IVA or a DMP might be suitable options if your believe that you have a debt problem, rather then just a debt management problem.
Why not draw up an income and expenditure account on a monthly basis for the next three months - including repayments to your creditors to see if you can afford to live without credit and maintain the contractual payments. You may have to make some sacrifices, but this will be far better than leaping straight into a formal insolvency process - although with debts of £40,000 I suspect this may be difficult.
There are several banks who will allow customers to have bank accounts if they are in IVAs.
Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.
To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp
See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp