Dylan Jones
CEO, IE HUB
Mark McElvanney
Client Services Director, IE HUB
New Consumer Duty rules mean that financial services firms need to be more customer-focused. This is a benefit for people in debt who need to explain their income situation to multiple lenders.
If you’re in debt, the worry can be all-consuming. Unfortunately, this situation — which affects more of us than ever in the current climate — can be more anxiety-inducing when you talk to the entities you owe money to.
Consumer Duty helps people dealing with debt
“Statistics show that people in debt are liable to owe money to between six and eight different lenders,” reveals Dylan Jones, CEO of IE HUB, a free online income and expenditure management tool. “Each conversation they have about their financial situation will take at least an hour. That’s a number of extremely stressful and long phone conversations, which they’ll need to have multiple times a year.”
However, Mark McElvanney, Client Services Director, IE HUB, explains that, since July 31, new Consumer Duty regulations have made dealing with this issue easier for people in debt. “These new rules set higher consumer protection standards for financial services firms,” he says. “It means companies have to be more customer-focused and engage with people who owe them money in a more holistic and helpful way.”
Filling in separate budget forms for different
lenders can be frustrating and time-consuming;
new tech can take the sting out of this.
Removing the need to have stressful calls with multiple lenders
Take the issue of budget forms, for example. If you are having repayment problems, your lender may ask you to fill in a budget form (otherwise known as income and expenditure form), so they can better understand your finances and the amounts you can afford to pay back.
Filling in separate budget forms for different lenders can be frustrating and time-consuming; new tech can take the sting out of this. For example, by using IE HUB, you only have to fill out one form, which can be shared with all your lenders. The information you input into the platform is secure and only given to entities that you endorse.
A reasonable repayment plan can then be agreed upon with each lender, removing the need for you to endure a string of difficult phone calls. After the budget form has been completed, the system can also perform a benefits check to calculate if you are entitled to any additional income from, for instance, means-tested benefits or water tariffs.
“People are embarrassed to have phone calls about their debt,” says Jones. “If they can be empowered to manage their situation in their own time, it puts them in control. More importantly, it removes some of their financial anxiety — and offers them a pathway out of debt.”