QUICK DISCLAIMER: All views & OPINIONS expressed in Matt's Column are his own and the topics are that of his own choice. These are not articles.
Debt collectors are to be banned from “hounding” people through social networking sites such as Facebook & Twitter, a consumer Watchdog has said.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has updated its Debt Collection Guidance to reflect new methods of communication, to prevent people suffering the "stress and embarrassment" of having their money troubles made public.
He said of contacting people through social networking sites: "It's unfair and improper and it makes that private correspondence public. It causes stress and embarrassment to the debtor. It is not good business practice to do that."
The OFT said it had so far only received a "handful" of complaints from people who had been contacted by such methods. The spokesman said: "It is not a widespread trend. We are future-proofing the guidance. We have had a couple of complaints which we have dealt with."
Debt charity the Consumer Credit Counselling Service welcomed the new guidance.
Director of external affairs Delroy Corinaldi said: "Many debtors are understandably anxious to keep their debt problems private from friends and work colleagues - and the possibility of being contacted by a debt collector on Facebook or Twitter causes serious worry for many. Debt collectors should respect confidentiality at all times and treat debtors in a fair and proper way."
I do think this is a relatively good idea. In genuine emergency's you may NEED to borrow money from somewhere in order to get through the days and in some cases it takes a lot for some to swallow their pride and admit they need help. Other cases however is a bunch of people that are simply fraudulent. Changing their names, addresses and details to try and get a credit rating is downright law breaking. To not pay bills is also unacceptable if the person runs away from the debt, eventually it shall catch up with you. I think debt collecting agencies need to be far more selective in how they handle cases in stead of taring everyone with the same brush. Some debt collectors go too far in a sense of them breaking the law themselves and recently their has been numerous law changes to exactly how the likes of debt collectors and bailiffs can actually handle a situation. Genuine people who are in genuine need of cash need to be treated with respect, if they are genuine they shall pay it back, though of course if you haven’t got the money you can’t pay it. The fraudulent people however, should be hounded until their debt is paid... simple! we all have to pay for things and for those individuals that think that rule differs for them, not only need a good shake but the reality needs to come crashing down onto them that the rule certainly applies to them also! Again, it is law breaking.
Life would be so much simpler if people followed the rules and indeed the law. There is that fine boundary and debt collectors have that reputation of crossing it on most occasions, that needs to stop! though can you really bad name them when at the end fo the day they have a job to do? They aren’t going to “come looking” for you if you aren’t trying to brush things under the carpet, I say good on them for doing it! The law did need tightening up for them though and quite frankly I think this shall be a good rule change for all concerned. A fair and reasonable approach is all that is needed. Confidentiality and respect for the genuine cases. If people didn’t try to take advantage and continually think bills don’t need to be paid they wouldn’t be in existence! Again, a fine example of what the United Kingdom is in the year 2011!
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