I think what is interesting in all of this is that
people don't know the advice they don't get. I can completely understand people defending the path they selected. It's only human nature. But knowing that, if people can look at these issues as a third-party it will help to make them clearer.
Some groups handle people that don't qualify for for their target service in different ways but generally it is done by being polite but once you see they don't qualify then get the consumer off the phone and send out the "fob off pack" as I've heard it called by former advisers of a large group. This is typically a pack of self help information and it gets the consumer off the phone in a way that they feel like they have been served.
Let me again reiterate that these issues that we are alluding to or discussing really have nothing to do with the kind person on the phone with you but how management looks at people it helps with closure rates, on-call times, conversion rates, etc.
In my humble opinion I think if you look at tangible things like this site and others, you will find a whole host of educational material, caring advice and just general information and assistance that does not appear on some sites where you would expect it to. Curious. Why not? Are they about consumer assistance or customer qualification?
Some things in the debt management world should change. For example, "Free Debt Management" is misleading. It creates an expectation that there is no charge for the service delivered and while there may not be a fee charged to the consumer, a fee is charged or funding received by someone.
Interestingly, one group says "Rather than charging our clients, we receive donations from the credit industry." which makes them sound like a charity, which they are not. Otherwise why not just say "Rather than charging our clients, we are compensated by the credit industry for the service we deliver that benefits them." How would you feel if they said that?
If you follow the 'free' logic would you feel the same if debt collection companies called and said they offered "Free Debt Management" solutions? They could. After all they are not charging you and they are managing your debt.
Now that fee might be paid by the creditor to the debt agency and you may feel that service is better but all I ask you to consider is if a debt agency can really serve two masters? How independent can they be if their funding comes from the creditors? Do creditors that provide funding get preferential treatment in repayment? Are repayments calculated using a fair and reasonable pro-rata formula or by using the creditor suggested repayment formulas? And if you are not inside the debt management world, how would you know?
It could be easily argued that a debt agency that is compensated based on a percentage of the money they collect from you and send back to the creditors is a pay for performance debt collection setup.
Just put yourself in those shoes. If you are running a business that receives the bulk of its funding from Bank A, are you going to do anything that might make Bank A angry with you? Are you really going to speak out against a policy that Bank A has like unfair bank charges or PPI? Are you going to stand up and fight hard for consumers against Bank A?
And if you say that doesn't happen, it does and it happens every day. One executive of a huge debt management company that I know provides me with inside updates but is afraid to go public because if the creditors that give them money found out it might impact his business, income and employees. Many people in the debt management world agree with the things I am saying but they are afraid to say them themselves. The good people know what needs to change.
I think I have been very open about these issues and even laid it all out in more detail in an article that I previously wrote that you can find via the link below. I also think you'll find the comments to that article interesting as well.
http://myvesta.org.uk/articles/articles ... Page1.html
Points to ponder.
Steve
