Trade body speaks on digital marketing

The Debt Resolution Forum (DRF), a training, monitoring and representational body for the debt sector, has commented on the OFT’s revised debt management guidance which details the regulator’s stance on internet marketing.

DRF welcomed the new guidance and applauded the OFT's decision to step back from banning the use of sponsored links and social media by debt firms, but remained concerned about the impact of the guidance on other areas of internet marketing.

Commenting, David Mond, DRF chairman and CEO of ClearDebt, said: "The OFT's consultation document made it clear that the OFT thought Twitter and Facebook were "unlikely to be an appropriate means of providing consumers with sufficiently balanced and adequate information". In our response to the consultation and in conversation with the OFT DRF disagreed, believing that micro-blogging and sponsored links are only a signpost to a page offering a service. This page, DRF agrees, must be transparent and compliant.

"The new guidance reflects this and not just in relation to the internet, stating that the degree of detail required in various marketing messages "will be applicable, in varying degrees" dependent on the circumstances and is an important step forward."

DRF is concerned that the guidance continues to include reference to the use of inappropriate keywords in internet search, whether paid for (PPC) or not, as an "unfair or improper practice" and extends this to terms "even if allowed/suggested by internet search engines.

DRF believes that debt solutions firms that take pains to avoid misleading terms and which use landing pages which are fully transparent, clear as to the nature of the organisation and otherwise compliant cannot be held responsible for the natural search algorithms of major search engines like Google, or for the automated results produced by PPC advertising. DRF has revealed that the association will be continuing its dialogue with OFT on this point.

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DEMSA speaks on OFT DM guidance

Michael Land, Chairman of DEMSA, has commented on the publication of the regulator’s new, stricter guidance. He said:  “I am pleased that the OFT has today set out a stronger set of guidelines for debt management companies. As the principal trade body in the commercial debt management sector, DEMSA has been working closely with the OFT in the process of forming this new guidance. I am pleased to see that the provisions in this guidance demand of firms a more exacting standard of practice, which customers can have confidence in.” 

Mr Land continued: “I am encouraged that the guidance recognises the importance of having training in place to ensure advisers are sufficiently skilled and knowledgeable to carry out their role. It is this concern which underpins the new professional qualification in debt advice for advisers working in DEMSA member firms, provided by the Institute of Money Advisers.”

DEMSA members have long been committed to raising standards in the commercial debt management sector.  DEMSA is the only trade body in the sector to have received approval of its Code under the OFT’s Consumer Codes Approval Scheme. 

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Schofield Speaks: Regulation and respect

Tuesday 11th October 2011

Where would we be without fee-charging Debt Management companies? 

As news broke this week that the number of Debt Management companies surrendering their licences to the OFT increased to 61 I thought back to a quote I heard at the DRF Conference last week.“It’s arguable that if it wasn’t for the fee charging commercial sector then the debt charities would have collapsed under the volume of enquiries several years ago.”Back in 2009 the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) announced they were dealing with 9300 new debt problems a day. I think it’s a fair assumption to predict that this number will only have increased since 2009. I travel past my local CAB every morning on the way to work and regularly see queues of people at 8 o’clock in the morning, if the fee-charging sector was to disappear overnight then these queues would get longer and longer and longer.But what would happen if in fact it was the free sector that was to disappear? As a person in need of help with their finances what kind of service could they expect to receive?When the OFT published its Debt Management Guidance, it announced that 129 companies needed to improve their practices; so far 61 have had their licence revoked or relinquished. This leaves many companies who do provide a quality service and who are operating within OFT guidelines.Industry body the Debt Resolution Forum (DRF) has introduced a qualification that is the equivalent to an A level and accredited by EDEXCEL to ensure levels of competence and knowledge of staff increases.All DRF members are inspected by the Insolvency Practitioners Association – an inspection which checks, amongst other things, that Marketing, Terms and Conditions of business, Call scripts and complaints handling are of a satisfactory standard.They will be charged a fee for the service they are provided.What other credible alternatives to the fee charging sector is there?Without any, the fee charging sector is here to stay. Will a fee charging DM company ever provide a high enough standard of service to gain the respect of the free sector?
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Neil Morrissey speaks out about debt problems

The British TV actor Neil Morrissey has spoken out to the press this week about the financial pressure he found himself under when his business collapsed. At one point, the former Men Behaving Badly star was believed to have debt problems totalling £2.5 million.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror, Morrissey explained how the hotel and pub business he had built up over the last decade had failed and how he was left with a hefty pile of debts to pay. He said:

“At one point it was so bad, I could have lost the shoes I was standing up in, but rather than go bankrupt, I decided to step up and try to pay it back.

“I did have days with a sick ­feeling in the pit of my stomach and I thought. ‘when will this end?’

“But everyone has those ­feelings at one time or another. I just had to pick myself up and get on with it. I had to sit down with the creditors and have a realistic chat about what I could afford to repay.”

Morrissey was advised by debt help experts to consider an IVA (individual voluntary arrangement). He is currently halfway through his IVA plan, which will see him pay back more than £1 million of his debt management problems.

As well as acknowledging the support of his long-term girlfriend Emma Killick in helping him through his cash crisis, Morrissey has also taken on more work recently. He has returned to TV in the BBC’s Waterloo road, and has even undertaken a regional theatre tour, all to help him reach his goal of being totally debt-free in 18 months.

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Posted in: about,Morrissey,problems,speaks