The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Money
Google ‘pushes people in debt to paid-for management companies’
Vulnerable people with debt problems looking for advice from charities such as StepChange are being pushed towards paid-for alternatives by Google.
This week the Financial Conduct t Authority, the City regulator, issued a warning over “copycat” firms pretending to be the National Debtline, a free debt advice charity. . Last month StepChange sounded a similar warning.
Companies can pay to appear at the top of Google for any search term. When someone searches for a word or phrase, an automatic bidding ng process will begin and the winning firm will appear at the top of the results page, marked with “ad”. When en someone in debt searches Google for or “StepChange” or “National Debtline”, e”, companies can pay to appear at the top of the results – above the charities’ entries.
A StepChange spokesman said: “We have to pay to appear as ads just to make sure we are seen at the top of search results rather than these firms. Our costs have risen substantially as a result. This is a growing issue.”
Someone who clicks on the links and puts in their details will be contacted by a firm offering to help them manage their debt for a fee, the charity said.
One person in financial difficulty said they were charged £40 a month
by a firm to administer a repayment plan, while another was charged an upfront £600 fee, equivalent to three months of repayments. A third said they were encouraged to lie on official forms so they “came across better”.
The StepChange spokesman said people who clicked on these ads often believed they were speaking to advisers from the real charity, or that it had passed p on their details to the company, which adds a veneer ven of legitimacy. Google Go said it had reviewed revie the adverts, found foun some that broke its rules rule and removed them. However, How when Telegraph Money Mo checked the following foll morning they were we still live and visible. When W this was pointed po out to the search se engine company co it removed more, m but these were simply si replaced by the th same firm with the t link spelt slightly differently. Google said it had terminated some advertising accounts. a A spokesman said: “We take dishonest di h tb business i practices very seriously and consider them to be an egregious violation of our policies. If we find ads that violate our policies, we remove them immediately. “We also have a tool where anyone can report ads and these complaints are reviewed by our team.” Telegraph Money recently reported that savers looking for low-risk investments were being advertised highly risky options in the same way by Google’s search algorithm.