FOS hits out at lenders using debt-advice firms
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The Financial Ombudsman Service has hit out at lenders who insist on involving a debt-advice agency with customers who are experiencing financial hardship, even when this is not what the customer needs.
In its latest newsletter, the FOS suggests that insisting on involving debt-advice agencies may not be “in anyone’s interests, and it may even delay progress in obtaining a speedy resolution to the problem”.
The appropriate way forward, says the FOS, is to tailor a “package” of suitable measures to meet the consumer’s individual needs.
Financial Ombudsman Service interim chief ombudsman David Thomas says: “Consumers who are already in financial hardship are more than usually vulnerable to the knock-on effect to their finances of poor administration by the lender.
“It is important that, having agreed on a course of action with the consumer, lenders take particular care to record and administer the arrangements correctly.”
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