Debt recovery sites 'almost as embarrassing to use as porn hubs'

Online portals that contractors use to act on late payment are almost as embarrassing as visiting porn websites, a poll reckons.

‘Debt recovery’ being found in their browsing history would cause almost one in three Brits to blush, not far off the just over five in 10 who’d be red-faced about X-rated visits.

That makes ‘Pornography’ the top taboo when looking online, ahead of a raft of other “guilty pleasures,” the pollsters said, like ‘Gambling’, ‘Sex Toys/Lingerie’ and ‘Sugar Daddy’ websites.

So ‘Debt recovery’ is a bit of an anomaly in the findings from the poll, run by Laptops Direct, puzzling even the experts in recovering cash for contractors, like Safe Collections.

“We can't see why people taking steps to clear the debts they owe is seen as embarrassing,” said the debt recovery firm’s Adam Home.

“With personal debt in the UK now at a record high, it’s likely many households will encounter a debt collector and they should have no fear about meeting these issues head on.”

Reading between the lines of the poll, which involved 1,123 Brits, the payment of debts they owe (rather than those owed to them) is the embarrassing bit to ‘Debt Recovery’ site users.

So the 27 per cent who would be embarrassed if a friend or family member found such sites in their browsing history is likely down to them not wanting it known that they owe money.

On a similar basis, ‘Addiction Recovery’ would humiliate 19% and perhaps due to a stigma around some, ‘Dating Website’ would embarrass 34%, behind the 36% who would feel sheepish if found to have Googled ‘Medical Diagnosis.'