Financial options ‘often fail to deliver’

Financial packages offered by some of Britain’s most prominent building societies and banking groups are often not as beneficial for customers as they seem to be, it has been claimed.

Stuart Bernau, the executive director of the Nationwide Building Society, suggests that financial service providers are guilty of making their products seem attractive to consumers, but often these deals “fail to deliver”.

Problems with debt management can be the end result for some misinformed Britons and the entire financial industry ought to be made more transparent, Mr Bernau asserts.

“The industry, comparison websites, and best buy table providers all have a duty to ensure consumers are aware of issues like adverse order of payments on credit cards, introductory deals on savings accounts and unnecessary fees with mortgages, to name but a few smoke and mirror tactics,” he said.

Credit Action’s latest figures show that the UK’s overall debt management mountain is worth in excess of £1,363 billion.