Working together with PayPlan

PayPlan is one of the UK’s largest free debt advice providers. We started out by helping Police Officers with their debts back in 1992 and now help over 100,000 clients every year. We work with a range of organisations and individuals to provide a friendly, bespoke and accountable free debt advice service.

For us, client outcomes are key. Our partners know that when they refer a client to PayPlan, they are in safe hands. We provide monthly data updates to organisations in as much or as little detail as they need. This 360-degree view of advice stops the perceived black hole of debt advice.

Our digital advances have also seen PayPlan become recognised as the UK’s leader of digital debt advice. Clients can easily switch between channels, including Live Chat, WhatsApp, our digital debt advice tool Planfinder, email and telephone.

How we work with our partners:

Specialist services, campaigns and policy change:

What makes PayPlan different?

Innovation and digital advances – As a family-run business, our passion and culture come through in the way that we support our clients. It also means that we’re very agile in our nature. Over the past three years, our technology and operational colleagues have worked tirelessly on optimising our digital debt advice process. These advances have helped to remove many of the barriers around seeking advice, resulting in more people getting the support they need.

Reporting – Partners receive regular anonymised data on the number of people they have referred and their current status within the advice journey. We believe this reporting is vital to make sure that individuals don’t fall into a debt advice black hole, which is seen across some of the sector.

Visits and audits – At PayPlan, we encourage our partners to come and see how our processes work. They will meet our advisers, and can quality assess calls and processes. It’s important for us that our partners understand our organisation, just as much as we understand theirs.

Campaigning for change – Aside from our operational service, our Partnership Team is also passionate about making change. In recent years we have campaigned for changes to council tax laws, worked closely with national Domestic Abuse charity Refuge to improve debt advice for survivors of domestic abuse and supported voluntary programmes like GamCare’s Advisory Panel to improve gambling related harms.

How is PayPlan funded?

Free Debt Management Plans – Instead of charging our clients or partners, we receive voluntary donations from the credit industry, known as Fair Share. That means that 100% of our client’s monthly payments go to paying off their debts.

While we work with hundreds of creditors, we are not affiliated with any one organisation, meaning that our FCA regulated advice is completely impartial. Our number one priority is to work with clients individually to present their available options and find the best solution that’s affordable and sustainable for them.

Funding from Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and Trust Deeds – These are both formal solutions where clients can see a large percentage of their total debt amount being written off.

Regardless of which company manages these solutions, IVAs and Trust Deeds incur costs due to the legal expertise and work that goes into setting them up. These fees will be explained from the outset of the plans and are included in the clients’ agreed, affordable monthly payments.

As with every solution, the client will never pay more than they can afford and there will be regular reviews of circumstances to make sure that their affordability hasn’t changed. If a client takes up the recommendation of an IVA, they will be referred to one of our sister companies, PayPlan Partnership Limited or PayPlan Bespoke Solutions Limited, who will set up and manage the arrangement.