Members of the Debt Resolution Forum (DRF) are welcoming the result of the Citizen Advice Bureau's (CAB) 'super complaint' to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) regarding up-front fees and cold-calling by debt management companies.
As reported earlier, the DRF helped the OFT with their investigation and advocated a full ban on cold-calling clients offering debt management solutions, however they strongly pointed out that many complaints were from people who actually signed up with the company themselves or agreed to a third-party passing on their details.
The investigation found that this was a perfectly arguement and accepted by the OFT. There report says:
"It would appear that the majority of the unexpected marketing calls, emails and texts received by consumers are being made with consumers' consent. This contact is not therefore regarded by businesses as being cold calling.
"The OFT also notes that unexpected calls will not in themselves always cause consumer detriment. Indeed, some consumers who were unaware of the existence of a service may, for instance, benefit from an unexpected call even if they did not remember giving their consent to receiving it."
The OFT's full report can be found here (PDF)
