Have you used a Debt Management Company ?

[Amethyst]

The OFT want to hear YOUR experiences with Debt Management Companies and Free debt advice charities to see if the guidance they published in September 2008 has had a positive effect on the industry. This is important as the Ministry of Justice is currently considering legislating on the actions of Debt Management providers.

They have published a form specifically for consumers to tell them their views - You can download this http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/con...sumer-form.doc and once complete should be emailed as an attachment to debtmanagementguidance@oft.gsi.gov.uk

Or return by post to:

Debt Management Compliance Team
Room 2 North
Office of Fair Trading
FREEPOST
London
EC4B 4AH

On 3 November 2009 the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced that it is undertaking a formal compliance review of the Debt Management Guidance (the Guidance). The aims of the compliance review are to assess compliance levels across the industry, identify the reasons for any non-compliance and to obtain feedback on the Guidance itself

As part of the debt management compliance review, we want to find out whether providers of debt management services are complying with their legal responsibilities. This complaint form is designed to help you tell us about your recent complaint concerning the practices of the debt management company that you have been in touch with.

Please provide as much information as you can and, where possible, provide copies of any relevant documents (for example agreements/contracts). If you run out of space to complete your response to any question please continue on an extra sheet of paper and add this to the form as necessary.

The OFT has no authority to become involved in individual disputes between consumers and traders so we cannot advise you directly in this matter. For specialist, face-to-face assistance, or intervention, you may wish to contact Website of the UK government : Directgov. The Financial Ombudsman Service can help with most complaints about consumer credit products and/or services if your debt management company fails to satisfactorily resolve the matter directly.

Legal Beagles would also love to know your views. If you don't wish to contact the OFT or feel you don't have enough information to complete and submit a full complaint then please feel free to email admin@legalbeagles.info with any experiences you wish to share, and we can include peoples views in our full response.

Just to confirm this includes free providers such as Payplan and CCCS, as well as fee paying companies such as Gregory Pennington and Debt Release Direct (nb. just random companies for example we do not recommend any fee paying company)

The Office of Fair Trading: OFT accepts undertakings from debt management firms to improve practices

The likes of the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), National Debtline and the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) give you the opportunity to have a one-on-one session with someone paid to help you rather than make money from you. They use a variety of techniques and can help you organise a debt management plan.

Thank you.