Debt Help & Advice Ltd, the debt management business, has announced it has ceased trading.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) believes the company – based in Stockport but registered in Cumbria – has between 3,000 and 3,500 customers that have a plan with it or its many affiliated firms. The FCA has warned people with a debt management plan with Debt Help & Advice Ltd should cease making payments to the company immediately. The Regulator says that, while valid debts will still need to be paid, as Debt Help & Advice Ltd is no longer operating, consumers should not continue making payments to them as those payments will not reach their creditors. The company has a troubled history. In October 2013, Stockport-based First Step Finance Ltd (FSF) was stripped of its credit licence by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), after the then regulator identified “serious concerns” about the transparency and integrity of its practices......Read more here