Kruk S.A.

5 November 2009 witnessed the launch of the "Our Debts" national educational campaign.  Its goal is to increase public awareness of managing private finances and on responsible debt acquisition.

For the purposes of the campaign, the Economic Behaviour Research Centre headed by prof. Tomasz Zaleśkiewicz conduced a study of the attitude of Poles towards debts. The main results of the study showed that:

- 45% of Poles have bigger financial problems today than before the crisis
- 77% of society think that people who had taken out loans before the crisis have now bigger problems with repayment
- 49% of people contracted loans before the financial crisis
- 27% of people contracted their loans already during the crisis, of which 20% more than one loan
- 26% of Poles were in arrears with paying their debts and 56% of them are still unable to overcome their debt problems
- 1/3 of the respondents have difficulty paying their credit card debts of which 33% hope that their problems will get resolved by themselves

The goal of the “Our Debts” campaign is to stir public discussion on the problem of debts incurred by the general public as well as to educate Poles on personal finance management. Top quality of activities performed is guaranteed by the most important institutions dealing with debt education of the public which agreed to be the campaign’s content sponsors. The following persons and organisations agreed to share their knowledge and reputation: Conference of Financial Companies in Poland represented by Andrzej Roter, General Director, Association of Polish Consumers represented by Grażyna Rokicka, President of the Board, Michał Macierzyński, analyst for Bankier.pl, and prof.  Tomasz Zaleśkiewicz of the Economic Behaviour Research Centre. Piotr Krupa, CEO of KRUK S.A., Poland’s largest and the most innovative debt collection company which was the originator and organizer of the “Our Debts” campaign, presented innovative ideas for solving debt problems.

The www.naszedlugi.pl website, the first Internet tool dedicated to debtors, will be the main communication platform and source of knowledge about ways to deal with debts. The service includes advice for persons experiencing problems with paying their liabilities and offers the possibility of contacting debt experts and sharing individual experience on the forum.

- We hope that www.naszedlugi.pl will help people struggling with mounting debts to find answers to their doubts and as a result to resolve their financial situation. Via the service, we also want to convince Poles that reaching an agreement and conclusion of settlement with a debt collection company is the fastest way out of the debt trap. Each person having a debt with KRUK SA may adjust the repayment terms (instalment amount, payment schedule and repayment period) to their financial capabilities. As a result, repayment of a debt of a few thousand zloty may be arranged in the form of several dozens of instalments of less than PLN 100 each. More than 195,000 people who have signed such settlements and are currently paying their proposed instalments have already became convinced that KRUK SA keeps its word, said Piotr Krupa, KRUK SA CEO.

To keep the public aware of debt problems, 17 November 2009 will be Poland's first "Day without Debts". The idea behind that day is to encourage debtors to contact their creditors or debt collection company, to pay even very small amounts of the debt, not to buy on credit and not to incur excessive debts. Also on 17 November the results of an Internet study will be published which will show the attitude of individual job groups to debt repayment.