Press
Debt Mediators Australia is known for debt solution expertise and effectively helping people, as featured in the media. Presenting an accurate picture of what we see every day is our responsibility. We deal with the realities of personal financial problems on a daily basis, from debt collector harassment to repossessions and other family troubles. This is why we’re considered a trusted authority in the field, and called on to report about debt related issues.
Today Show
60 Minutes
Channel 7 News
Channel 10 News
SBS Insight
Radio National
Australian Financial Review
Cosmopolitan Magazine
Local Papers
Today Show
The Today Show chats with Debt Mediators about aggressive debt collectors and ways to deal with those overdue debts. One of our senior debt advisors gives Lisa Wilkinson and the Today Show viewers some practical tips for staying afloat when those debts start getting on top of you. For a free consultation about your options in dealing with your debts, call us today.
60 Minutes
Debt Mediators advisor Ben Paris appears on 60 Minutes to discuss the tendency of Australian youth to binge on credit cards, how many are facing bankruptcy, and what options are available to them. The story tracks the lives of the real Australians that Debt Mediators have helped to overcome crippling debt.
Channel 7 News
Channel 7 News visits the Debt Mediators office to discuss the rising levels of debt stress in the Australian community, including a sharp surge in bankruptcy and debt help enquiries. This video outlines how rising living costs, unemployment and other sudden shocks have left many Australians struggling to cope with their current debts.
Channel 10 News
Channel Ten News speaks with senior Debt Advisor Ben Paris, about Australia’s recent interest rate increase and the difficulty it is causing for many Australians. In the video, Ben discusses a surge in calls from distressed borrowers. He also outlines a range of assistance measures from debt consolidation to bankruptcy that can help people deal with rising interest rates while clearing their debts.
SBS Insight
Watch the real-life story of a young girl who found herself $23,000 in debt by the time she was only 23 years old. After picking up the phone to talk with Debt Mediators, she finally found relief. With the help of Debt Mediators Australia, she will be debt-free in just three years!
Radio National
Listen to one of our consultants, Ben Paris, chatting with Radio National about Generation Y and the Financial Crisis, where he shares his understanding, advice, and solutions.
Should you not have 49 minutes to listen the to the above interview, you may prefer to read the Radio National Transcript.
Australian Financial Review
Personal bankruptcies are climbing across Australia, with Western Australia and Queensland are suffering the worst of it. An exclusive report with insights from Debt consultant and DCS Group owner Michael Paris.
More go bust, Especially in WA and QLD
Marsha Jacobs
The Australian Financial Review www.afr.com Friday 9 October 2009
Personal bankruptcies are climbing across Australia, and WesternAustralia and Queensland are experiencing the biggest jumps due to the winding down of the mining boom last year.
General insolvency activity, which includes bankruptcies, debt agreements and personal insolvency agreements, is up 8 percent in the September quarter compared with the corresponding period last year, statistics released yesterday by the Insolvency and Trustee Service Australia show.
Bankruptcy advisers said a lag in the statistics meant bankruptcies would keep growing even as the economy improved.
BDO Kendalls bankruptcy trustee Stephen Dixon said the rise in bankruptcies in WA and Qld – up 38 percent and 20 percent respectively- was worse because of the mining wind-down.
“I suggest that the coming off of mining industry and loss of jobs in that market are contributing to the figures in WA and Qld – those two states are really a different economy to the rest of Australia,’.’ he said.
NSW is still the nation’s leader in bankruptcies, with 2671 recorded in the last quarter, the figure is up less than 1 percent on the corresponding time last year.
Part X personal insolvencies, a flexible way for a debtor to come to an agreement with their creditors without formally becoming bankrupt rose 34 percent compared to the corresponding quarter last year, to total 150.
Mr Dixon said he had done more Part X agreement this year than in the previous five years combined.
Jones Partners managing partner Michael Jones said the vast majority of personal insolvency was debtor driven heavily weighted by consumers with out-of-control debts rather than business bankruptcies.
In the past three months, 7329 people were declared bankrupt. Some 971 of those bankruptcies were directly related to a personal interest in a business representing roughly the same percentage of business bankruptcies as the corresponding period last year.
“This is a big cultural issue driven by the availability of consumer credit, and I don’t believe the banks are pulling back on the availability of that credit,” Mr Jones said.
A lag effect meant numbers of personal insolvencies could rocket over the next l8 months. New legislation proposing a one-year bankruptcy period (rather than the current three years) and tightening of access to information about bankrupts could also lead to a pick-up in bankruptcy figures, Mr Jones said.
Debt consultant DCS Group owner Michael Paris said levels of enquiry to his business were as high as ever, with a notable increase in the past two to three weeks.
“There is a peak every year at this time – people spend their tax refunds then run into problems,” he said
He said this week’s rate rise was unlikely to have a big impact on bankruptcies because most people entering bankruptcy did not have mortgages, but high-interest credit card and personal loan debts run into problems.
Cosmopolitan magazine
Around 75% of Australians worry about how they are going to pay their debts. Are you drowning in debt? Read an interview with Australia’s leading debt experts, intended to help Australian women stop complaining and start saving.
Local Papers
Debt Mediators has long been a trusted source of information regarding the impact of debt on communities. We have been featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Bulletin, The West Australian, Brisbane Times, The Courier-Mail, Blacktown Advocate, Northside Chronicle and Wynnum Herald to name a few.
Sydney Morning Herald
The Morning Bulletin
Wynnum Herald
Northside Chronicle
- Northside Chronicle and one of our senior consultants discuss growing debt amongst Brisbane Northsiders. Read more
The Courier-Mail
- The Courier-Mail interviews a member of our experienced debt consultant. Read the Article
The West Australian
- The West Australian and Debt Mediators discuss the growing number of West Australians drowning in debt. Read more
North West News
- North West News asks us for five hot tips to manage debt. Read the Article
- North West News talks to Debt Mediators about the post-Christmas surge in demand. Read the Article
- Debt Distress for northwest
The Blacktown Advocate
- The Blacktown Advocate interviews us about debt and bankruptcy stemming from family vehicle purchases. Read the Article
- The Blacktown Advocate writes about an out of luck teen with a large credit card debt, who could not get a debt consolidation loan and we helped. Read the Full Article
Brisbane Times
- Debt by postcode – who’s in the red?
- When dream homes become a nightmare
- Queenslanders on the brink of mortgage ruin
- Debt-stressed Gen Y is the ‘new poor’
- Secret debts ‘tear apart’ families
- Queenslanders nursing hangover from credit binge
- Queenslanders bankruptcies ‘to rice 5 percent’
- Wanted: Financial counsellors
- Christmas mortgage stress: ‘People already calling in tears’
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