Credit management

This category refers to disputes over credit management action. This may include conduct on the part of service providers or collections agencies employed by service providers; for example, where a collections agent continued to pursue a debt even though the consumer had notified them that the debt was in dispute. Alternatively, it may include conduct whereby a service provider failed to notify the consumer before suspending or disconnecting their service for credit management reasons. 

The main claims that consumers made about credit management issues included that service providers:

• failed to notify consumers before suspending or disconnecting services. This category has remained a consistent component of credit management complaint issues over the past three years
• continued, either directly or via a collections agent, to pursue consumers for outstanding debts even where such debts were in dispute
• suspended or disconnected services despite knowing that an outstanding debt was in dispute
• not having adequate mechanisms or tools to assist consumers to monitor or control their use of the services so as to minimise exposure to financial over-commitment
• listing debts with credit reporting agencies despite being aware that debts were in dispute
• listing debts with credit reporting agencies without advising or notifying consumers before doing so
• refusing to negotiate or re-negotiate payment arrangements with consumers who found themselves in positions of hardship.

Categories of credit management issues

	2006/07		2007/08		2008/09
Suspension disconnection notification	2 137	18.9%	3 029	17.6%	6 205	16.5%
Collections agents disputed debt	1 686	14.9%	3 040	17.6%	5 499	14.6%
Suspension disconnection disputed debt	1 085	9.6%	2 089	12.1%	4 677	12.5%
Overcommitment adequacy of supplier controls	571	5.0%	1 315	7.6%	4 513	12.0%
Credit default disputed debt	1 513	13.4%	1 876	10.9%	3 293	8.8%
Credit default notification	1 032	9.1%	1 286	7.5%	3 058	8.1%
Payment arrangement refusal to negotiate	1 244	11.0%	1 619	9.4%	2 706	7.2%
Failure to suspend collections disputed debt	329	2.9%	439	2.5%	1 798	4.8%
Overcommitment advice credit control tools	336	3.0%	495	2.9%	1 551	4.1%
Overcommitment usage meter	61	0.5%	175	1.0%	876	2.3%
Payment arrangement refusal to re-negotiate	535	4.7%	717	4.2%	771	2.1%
Credit default failure to update	273	2.4%	334	1.9%	629	1.7%
Others include complaints about a failure to record a payment arrangement, poor conduct by collections agents, refusal to provide a service or restriction of a service on the basis of credit assessment, a failure to suspend collections when there is a payment arrangement, bankruptcy or an old debt, and a failure to assess a consumer’s credit	507	4.5%	827	4.8%	1 974	5.3%
Total	11 309		17 241		37 550

> NEXT: Provisioning