A diary of a debt adviser

National_Debtline

tiger_eyes wrote: »

Fascinating diary. Just wanted to thank you and your colleagues for providing free, impartial, probably lifesaving advice to people in desperate circumstances.

Thank you so much, it's very kind of you to say! I really enjoy spending time reading everyones' diaries here on MSE, I find it incredibly empowering!

:T

cazmanian_minx

Wow, that really has exploded over the past three years Thank you very much for sharing.

National_Debtline

cazmanian_minx wrote: »

Wow, that really has exploded over the past three years Thank you very much for sharing.

You're welcome!

Prior to internet borrowing, it used to be the case that payday loans had to be taken out in person. From 31st December 2004 it was possible for someone to 'sign' an agreement online - it was this change to the law that paved the way for internet-based payday loans. It's clear that the economic downturn created a greater need for payday loans - and a few firms spotted the gap in the market. Regulation of payday loan providers will be soon taken over by the Financial Conduct Authority, it will be interesting to see how they will approach the industry. It appears that the rules will be far tougher with greater emphasis placed on fairness for the customer:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/loans/2014/03/payday-lenders-face-debt-collection-probe

We often have callers that have taken out loans to pay for other debts, it's nearly always better to arrive at an arrangement with the original debt than use further borrowing.

Thanks for your question, if there is anything else you would like to know about any aspect of our service, please do let me know!

David.

fermi

Just catching up with this. Thank you for posting such a useful and informative thread.

National_Debtline

fermi wrote: »

Just catching up with this. Thank you for posting such a useful and informative thread.

Thank you!

In other news our brand new website has just gone live. You're the very first people I've told (outside of our organisation!).

Here's the url: https://www.nationaldebtline.org

We will be migrating the nationaldebtline.co.uk address over to it over the next few days.

Any thoughts and opinions would be glady received!

David.

fermi

I love that with one click I can go to an easily readable list of all your factsheets.

Much easier, and also great for finding the right one to link to on here.

fermi

I also like that the categorisations and menus/navigation follows a more thought based "what are you here wanting to do" type structure. Think that will likely let people home in on the info they need quicker, and see ranges of options.

National_Debtline

Thank you, we're all grateful for the feedback. The amount of work that's gone in to it is phenomenal. We have a small team of guys who are responsible for the content who work tirelessly. They'll really appreciate your kind words

National_Debtline

Hello all!

The early feedback on the new site is very positive, We hope it improves on the old site. As much as the old site was informative it was a little difficult to navigate at times. One of my favourite features on the new site is that people can down download and save their financial statements.

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/steps/step2/Pages/Step_2_11.aspx

There are also new sections that give brief overviews of the key debt topics that get raised the most, such as bailiffs. The internet plays an important part in peoples' lives these days, more and more people use it to seek help and support (as this forum clearly demonstrates!). We hope that the new site can help more people achieve a debt-free future.

From an adviser's perspective I think it is wonderful. I often guide people through the site whilst on the telephone to them. As it is now more user-friendly this should be an easier task! If any of you have any comments or suggestions please free to let me know!

Best wishes,

David.

mfmaybe

Very interesting diary.

On the site, I like the way it's very obvious that you need to switch between the Scottish site and England and Wales. It's rare that this happens at all, let alone be so clear.