Collection agencies slammed by professor

29/06/2009

Britain's lenders are becoming increasingly trigger-happy in sending customer debts on to collection agencies, a leading academic has said.

Professor Nick Wilson at Leeds University's business school also believes that the automated processes used by these firms are adding to the stress of people suffering from high amounts of debt, the Observer reports.

Personal debt levels have risen over the past year and the average amount owed by debt-hit households stands at over £20,000, according to charity Credit Action.

This trend appears to have led to more and more loan, mortgage and card providers passing on their customer debts to specialist agencies.
According to figures cited by the newspaper, these firms are to have around £20 billion worth of business this year.

Professor Wilson added: "We're seeing a big rise in personal bankruptcies and a massive shift from the big lenders collecting debts themselves. It used to be a last resort to call in a debt collecting agency, but now there's a trend to sell the debt off quickly.

"The debt collecting agency is quite sophisticated - it's basically a big call centre with a lot of technology, a lot of automation which means a lot of automated letters being sent which can be hard to stop. The lack of contact with a real person adds a lot of extra stress."

Tags; Housing Debt and Bills, Credit Card Lifestyle, Recent Graduate Debt,

Regional Debt Advice; Debt Advice Leeds,

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