by MARIA BRADSHAW

INCREASING NUMBERS

of Barbadians from all walks

of life are finding themselves

in high levels of debt.

They owe on credit cards, hire purchase accounts, rent, vehicle payments, loans, and for other miscellaneous goods and services.

Bianca Williams, managing director of Caribbean Credit Bureau, formerly CrediChek,

told the WEEKEND NATION that even though 65 per cent

of Barbadians had relatively good credit ratings the delinquency rate was still as high

as 51 per cent.

She said there were too many repeat chronic bad debtors

in the system.

"They have accounts with several companies and they have learnt the system and they abuse it. There are those behavioural patterns where we are seeing

the same offender over and over again," Williams added, pointing out that there was need

for a more effective way

of linking the credit check system so that information could be adequately shared.

Williams cited failure to make credit card and hire purchase payments, and a rise in returned cheques as two of the problematic areas, noting that Barbadians seemed more committed to paying their mortgages and vehicle loans.

Dramatic increases

But she said they could get out of debt by improving their ratings through financial counselling

and debt consolidation.

Debt collection agencies were also reporting increased clientele as well as dramatic increases in the number of people they pursue for debt payments.

Everton Depeiza, managing director of Creditel Collection (Barbados) Ltd, said his agency had been going after both individuals and business people for defaulting on rent, bouncing cheques, and failing to pay credit card accounts, as well as supermarkets, restaurants and other businesses that failed

to pay wholesalers for goods

and services.

Creditel's clients include banks, credit unions, hotels, wholesalers and also overseas entities.

"We go after amounts as small as $100 to thousands of dollars," said Depeiza, adding that his company had recently sold about five repossessed vehicles and

had another three for sale.

He said he had encountered cases where people had reported their cheque books lost but were caught issuing the same cheques, while there were also people

who had issued unworthy cheques and had left the island.

Depeiza said while every opportunity was given

to debtors to settle, Creditel's measures also included going

to court if necessary.

On disappearing debtors,

he said publishing their names was a last resort.

Perennial problem

Depeiza added that payment

of rent in particular was becoming a perennial problem and tenants were finding clever ways

of beating the system,

such as challenging

unregistered landlords.

He said his company would soon launch another service - Landlord and Tenant Bureau Services - to provide both landlords and tenants with information about each other.

Mike Grannum, managing director of Equity Collection Agencies, said there was

a desperate need for debt settlement or financial management service organisations to help people

to better manage their debt.

(MB)