Until we came across Progress Debt Recovery we used to spend a huge amount of time chasing debtors without success, instead of concentrating on our core business, which is, as you know, a public relations consultancy.

The value of your service in the past 12 months has been invaluable to us and has increased our collection rates on bad debts by 100%.

Thank you again for your professionalism and please send my best wishes to everyone at Progress Debt Recovery.”

www.contactpr.co.uk

With more and more media focus on debt and debt recovery, there are now plans to create a register to prevent cold-calling credit companies from encouraging vulnerable people into unmanageable debt.  Half the adult population are considered to have some type of debt problems and are struggling financially and some may be tempted into further debt by borrowing money they can’t afford to repay.  As with the phone preference service barring unwanted callers, the register would list people who do not want to be offered credit or loans.

The Registry Trust, who is public body managing the register for county court judgments, is now considering the new measure for preventing debt by creating a register for people who do not want to be plunged further into debt.  It is proposed that lenders who ignore the registered names and still provide credit would be at the end of the queue should the debtor have difficulty repaying the debt.  The concept is very much at an early stage and may require a change in the Law to support the register.

Later this year students will be charged £9k to study at universities in England and Wales and will be offered loans of around £16k to help with tuition fees and living costs. Once graduated and earning a salary of £21k per annum, repayment of the loan commences at nine per cent of salary. The higher the salary the higher the interest payment on the student loan and someone repaying a £40k loan would have been penalised by £2k. Many parents and students are very concerned about accruing a lifetime of debt in funding student education and the scrapping of potential penalties for repaying the student debt early is a small victory for the thousands of students who continue to struggle with their finances.

I have always found Progress friendly and sympathetic to deal with, and they have always kept me up to date on progress in each case. Where cases have dragged out, I have followed up their progress myself and always received a prompt and courteous reply from Progress as to the status of each individual case.

In the current climate, I consider a good debt recovery partner to be a boon and a necessity, and Progress has always fulfilled that role to my full satisfaction.

www.timdavies.co.uk

The main advice regarding debt problems is to seek assistance early on before the debt problem is critical and panic sets in. Talking to creditors and agreeing payments or discussing issues with a debt advice agency can save a lot of stress and strain in the future. Ignoring mounting debt levels is a recipe for disaster and may ultimately cause a visit from the bailiffs. However, talking through debt issues and rescheduling payments with creditors is usually far less stressful than dealing with bailiffs and is certainly a more positive approach to debt recovery.