The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is going to ask at least thirteen businesses which run 27 websites, offering debt advice, to change their sites or shut them down.
There is nothing wrong with offering debt advice, and obviously more people are turning to these businesses. However some of these sites attempt to masquerade as free advice sites, such as The Citizen's Advice Bureau, and do not make it clear that you will end up paying for the debt management plan that they set up for you. These debt management companies are deliberately misleading people by using website addresses similar to those of charities.
If you are need to ask for financial advice, do please ask the person who is offering to help whether they have a consumer credit licence.
The OFT will either prosecute those firms that are not licensed, or remove the licence from those that are, if they do not comply.
"There is a danger that with increasing unemployment, more people could run into financial difficulty and we are concerned that at the point where they are most vulnerable and seeking advice, they are being deliberately misled by people who are trying to gain a commercial advantage from them," says Ray Watson, director of credit at the OFT.
"We believe they are misleading consumers by holding themselves out as free advice agencies such as Citizens Advice, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, the Money Advice Trust and Advice UK."
The 13 companies have not been named, but many of the genuine charities have been concerned about fee-charging debt management companies who aim to give the impression they are connected with government organisations or charities.
Do research the company who you are thinking of approaching. You can look at the 'about us' tab in order ot get more information about them.
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