Location, Location, Location - MCM Relocates & Upgrades

Mint CM recently moved to a prestigious Grade II listed building in the professional district of Wycombe Town Centre with easy access to both the M40, M4 and M25 with mainline service into Marylebone and also used the opportunity to relaunch an improved website which better serves it clients and the developing business that is Debt Recovery Services. This allows for better browser interaction and will also offer more online and payment options.

Mint Credit Management has now also implemented new bespoke DCA software which has been specifically designed to better serve clients by providing them with “snapshot information” at a button click through a secured online login. There is also an automated workflow management system which enables collectors to use their time more effectively to find anomalies and patterns in debtor activity and deal with specialist requests that certain clients may have. Furthermore the system allows the seamless transition from client loading of files through the recovery process all the way through to bulk online processing of court summons, if so required. Our bespoke response to individual files is our biggest strength and the new systems and processes can only serve to strengthen our commitment to become the best agency in our division. ( Source MCM UK Ltd)

UK Consumer Debt Hits £1 Trillion

The amount of money owed by consumers has broken through the symbolic £1 trillion barrier for the first time. The Bank of England (BoE) has said that consumers owe more than £1,000bn on cards, mortgages and loans. According to the BoE, about 80% of UK personal debt is in the form of loans secured against homes, such as mortgages and re-mortgages. Debt charities are warning consumers to think hard about how to manage their debts as interest rates rise. After taking on an extra £11.23bn of debt during June, consumers now owe £1.004 trillion or £1,004,290,000,000.

According to the National Consumer Council, about six million families are already struggling to keep up with credit commitments at a time when borrowing is rising. Meanwhile, Citizens Advice has seen a 44% increase in the number of people seeking help for debt problems over the past six years. "We have been warning for some time now that personal debt problems threaten to overwhelm large numbers of people in this country, with potentially devastating consequences," said Teresa Perchard of Citizens Advice. The BoE has raised interest rates four times since November, taking the base rate to 5.5%. (Source BBC Online)

IVA Forum Threatened With Legal Action

Web forum iva.co.uk has been forced to remove comments posted on its site after the threat of legal action from an IVA provider. The comments are understood to relate to allegations of bad practice and people giving bad advice, in particular one individual at one firm. A spokeswoman for the site said it had removed the contentious remarks from a thread, but refused to name the provider that complained.

“As the forum has got more busy, it is becoming more of a problem trying to make sure that there's nothing defamatory on there," she said. "We try hard to make sure it is transparent and open because that's the point of the forum."
Use of the site has rocketed since the forum was set up last year. More than 2,000 members have joined and it gets 2.4m hits a month. (Source Credit Today)

Dealing With Debt

If you're in debt and you are finding it hard to cope, it's important to deal with the problem straight away - the longer you ignore your debts, the worse the situation becomes. The first job is to sort out exactly what you owe, and to whom you owe it (your creditors). You then need to put these debts in order of importance. The most important ('priority') debts aren't necessarily the biggest ones. Priority debts are ones where serious action can be taken against you if you don't pay what you owe.

To find out what debt repayments you can afford, work out a weekly or monthly budget to see what you need to live on. It's important to be realistic and honest with yourself.

Your budget will show how much money you can afford to commit to paying off your debts. Your budget may also show you where you can save money.

Once you know what you can afford, you can talk to your creditors about your situation and what you're going to do about it. Offer to pay each debt off in a way you can afford - it's important not to offer to pay more than you can afford, and not to assume you'll be able to pay more in the future.

It's important to follow up a phone call with a letter confirming what you said and agreed.

You may have little or nothing left to offer your non-priority creditors. You should still talk to them, explaining the situation; you may be able to set up a nominal payment plan until things improve - but don't make promises you can't keep as it could prompt legal action in the future (Source direct.gov.uk)