So, just how easily can you spot that dodgy debt advice website?

You can do this in about one minute of your time, that’s all, and if you find that even just one of the following points applies to the website you are looking at then the alarm bells must surely ring out.

Does the website clearly show the following?

1.       A link clearly explaining their fees

2.       A link to their complaints policy

3.       A link stating that any debt option will affect your credit rating

4.       A link offering contact details of the debt charities as an alternative

5.       A telephone number to call, that is UK based and with an address to write to

6.       Details of their membership with a trade association such as DEMSA or DRF *

7.       A link to ‘The Insolvency Service Debtor’s Guide’ **

* DEMSA and DRF are the two trade associations, to at least one of which a bona fide debt advice organisation, other than a charity or Payplan, needs to be a member of.

** The Insolvency Service Debtor’s Guide is required by the Office of Fair Trading to be in a prominent position on the home page of any debt management advice website.

Do the two minute test

Try Googling ‘debt advice’, as I did on 29/4/12 and compare a few debt advice websites (don't forget the sponsored links as well) against my 7 point test and see how they compare against www.debtwizard.com. Most websites that came up failed miserably!

Having just spent around two minutes examining the website, ask yourself this question, ‘Do you feel you can you trust them’? If the answer is no then you know what to do, don’t you?