“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me!”

It seems that for many people in Britain, assumptions are being made about of lot of things.  People assume only a certain type of person falls into debt, and others assume only a certain type of person has no debt, and what follows from all these assumptions is that the solutions to debt are tagged as “get out jail free” cards.  They’re not.

So imagine my shock, when seeing msn money news yesterday, and reading an article claiming IVAs are the easy way out, followed by a very vague and blasé article damning all commercial debt management companies and shedding a ray of angelic light on those who do the same job under the title of not-for-profit.  If it’s still there, you can see it at:
http://money.uk.msn.com/consumer/gallery.aspx?cp-documentid=15538925&dub-gallery-photo-number=1

I suspect the journalist behind the article either didn’t take the time to collate her facts, or at some time, had her own brush with debt and has now tarnished all debt related companies with the brush of the shoddy company she went to…. (the latter statement is actually an example of an “assumption”…if she’s reading this, I wanted to demonstrate what an assumption feels like so she can understand how I felt when reading all the assumptions she made in this article.)
So without further ado, I’d like to make a few facts known:

– Although the article wasn’t about us specifically, speaking from ClearDebt’s point of view, we’ve worked hard to prove ourselves as one the most trusted debt solution providers in this industry.  Through our hard work, we’ve helped raise the bar with our counterparts on the ethics and service levels provided to clients and creditors.

– Unlike the implication made in the msn money news story, creditors don’t dictate the monthly repayment fee, but work closely with clients to agree a repayment level, which is affordable, based on individual income and expenditure.  In some cases, repayments can be as low as 15p in the £1.

– Unlike this journo implies, an IVA doesn’t take a limitless amount of years, but more often than not, lasts 5 years.
For such a respected news brand, I’m surprised such a blasé news article would be released. It’s both inaccurate and offensive to many people who are in an IVA and doing their best to face up to their situation, swallow their pride, and repay the debt they owe; Furthermore, I’m quite sure this piece offends anyone who works in the industry and like me, takes their work very seriously.  We do all we can to ensure we provide an honest and highly supportive service to both our clients and creditors – to read articles like this, is just disappointing and misleading on so many levels.