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For a while I was a volunteer adviser in my local Citizens Advice Bureau. The work was very interesting and, thanks to a huge database of knowledge, very effective. It was also completely free of charge to our clients.
The questions we advisers were asked covered a whole range of problems: neighbours fences and overhanging trees, faulty goods, noise pollution, school discipline, dodgy car salesmen, unfair dismissal ... you name it, we dealt with it.
One of the principal issues we dealt with was that of debt and it was quite extraordinary how folk managed to get themselves into it. Of course, there were the odd occasions when you could see that someone had deliberately run up a debt and then tried to avoid payment but, generally speaking, the others were ordinary folk who imperceptibly descended into a spiral of ever-increasing debt. Many of these transferred debts between credit cards or took out additional loans to the point where their desperation was often heartbreaking.
Some of our clients who were struggling with debt expected to be referred to one of the many debt management companies that advertise so often these days. They were usually very surprised to be told that these firms charged for their services and that, in fact, their debts could be restructured and managed free of charge by agencies such as the CAB.
So I was glad to see that the Office of Fair Trading has imposed a series of requirements on two firms they considered were making misleading claims in their advertisements.
In truth, I don’t like the debt management advertisements one sees on television and in local papers. If they all had to explain at the outset that the same advice could be had for free, they’d all be out of business tomorrow.
.
For a while I was a volunteer adviser in my local Citizens Advice Bureau. The work was very interesting and, thanks to a huge database of knowledge, very effective. It was also completely free of charge to our clients.
The questions we advisers were asked covered a whole range of problems: neighbours fences and overhanging trees, faulty goods, noise pollution, school discipline, dodgy car salesmen, unfair dismissal ... you name it, we dealt with it.
One of the principal issues we dealt with was that of debt and it was quite extraordinary how folk managed to get themselves into it. Of course, there were the odd occasions when you could see that someone had deliberately run up a debt and then tried to avoid payment but, generally speaking, the others were ordinary folk who imperceptibly descended into a spiral of ever-increasing debt. Many of these transferred debts between credit cards or took out additional loans to the point where their desperation was often heartbreaking.
Some of our clients who were struggling with debt expected to be referred to one of the many debt management companies that advertise so often these days. They were usually very surprised to be told that these firms charged for their services and that, in fact, their debts could be restructured and managed free of charge by agencies such as the CAB.
So I was glad to see that the Office of Fair Trading has imposed a series of requirements on two firms they considered were making misleading claims in their advertisements.
In truth, I don’t like the debt management advertisements one sees on television and in local papers. If they all had to explain at the outset that the same advice could be had for free, they’d all be out of business tomorrow.
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