Abacus Daily Debt News

National newspaper survey bemoans lack of service from free debt advice organisations

The Sunday Express ran an article on 18th Nov 2007 on the responses from some commercial debt advice organisations against some free organisations. The results were interesting, to say the least. 

Two commercial organisations, Freeman Jones and Payplan were tested with a particular scenario and both scored well for information given, response times and general product knowledge.

When the 2 free services, the National Debtline and the Citizens Advice scored 0/10 were called neither answered the phone at all.

The National Debtline kept the reporter hanging on, with automated messages for seven minutes.

The Citizens Advice had a recorded message, but no answerphone.

To be fair, both websites scored reasonably highly, and the newspaper made the valid point that these organisations are hard to criticise due to being seriously overstretched, and in the case of Citizens Advice, staffed by volunteers.

If you have had any similar experiences, or have any comments to make at all, please feel free to do so.

Alternatively, if you need immediate debt advice then call now and our highly trained staff will be happy to help.