Scottish financial service under fire for illegal debt-collecting methods

Debt collectors and skip tracers can learn from the mistakes of Scotland's Financial Ombudsman Service, the Scotsman reports. The financial service received more than 500 complaints and over 3,000 inquiries in regards to questionable and offensive debt collecting methods. In some cases, skip tracing tactics were carried out illegally, according to the news source. Common complaints also involved cases of harassment and threats from third party debt collectors. The Citizens Advice Scotland overviews the complaints and is addressing the issue. However, Lucy McTernan, chief executive of CAS, states that the drastic effects of the collections agency's actions remains. "Over 40 percent of Citizens Advice Bureau debt clients have told us they have gone without food or fuel in order to try and pay off their debts - in many cases because they were being pressurized aggressively by their creditors," she said. The Bank of Scotland reported that in 2010, the Financial Ombudsman service was one of the most disliked financial organizations in all of the United Kingdom. For companies considering alternative methods to debt collecting, threats and harassment should never be on the to-do list.