Citizens Advice has complained to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) over debt management firms in a sign of tensions emerging between the free and paid-for advice sector.

Citizens Advice claims customers are "targeted" by firms that cold call offering to help find a loan. The body adds people are charged a "hefty fee" for a loan that often fails to materialise. The body is demanding a ban in up-front fees.

Citizens Advice, which last month received funding that reprieved up to 900 staff faced with redundancy, said 840 million cold calls were made by debt management firms in 2009 and loan fee scams affecting at least 110,000 people a year and costing the UK public £190m.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice in England & Wales, said: "The framework of consumer protection about unsolicited marketing and up-front fees charged by credit brokers is not only complex, but loopholes give too much room for bad practice to flourish."

The complaint will be closely watched as tensions between the read more here