A 20-year-old service industry worker says his attempt to resolve credit card debt through a debt consolidation company instead escalated into bankruptcy proceedings and high-cost borrowing, in a case that has raised concerns over the practices of some debt relief intermediaries.
The man, identified as Sam, told Sing Tao Probe, a sister publication of The Standard, that he had accumulated about HK$170,000 in debt from credit card spending and loans from multiple finance companies. Earning around HK$20,000 a month, he said his financial difficulties began after repeated overspending on travel and leisure, which later led him to borrow from both mainstream and smaller financial institutions to cover repayments.
Sam said he later approached…