Hard-up people struggling to stay afloat during the cost of living crisis could could save thousands of pounds in fees under new rules in the pipeline.
Money regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is proposing that debt solution providers are banned from receiving referral fees after customers were given poor debt advice and charged unfair fees by firms offering Individual Voluntary Agreements (IVAs).
An IVA is an alternative to bankruptcy. If you can get the companies and people you owe money to to agree, you set up an agreement to pay back over a set period of time, usually five years, and at the end of this time, debts are frozen and any amount not repaid is written off.
