Buried in Debt With Nowhere to Turn; Bankruptcy Guidance Long Absent

Earning only about HK$7,000 a month yet carrying over HK$400,000 in debt, some resort to credit-card cash advances and borrowing from family and friends to repay old debt with new, staying awake through the night, some even entertaining thoughts of ending their lives. Indebted Hong Kong residents report that, faced with the two paths of bankruptcy and debt restructuring, most cannot tell the difference between them, their costs or their consequences, with reliable information scattered and scarce.

More thorny still, numerous intermediaries touting bankruptcy-handling services have appeared, charging tens of thousands of dollars (HK$) for procedures people could handle themselves, while neutral debt-counselling channels are hard to reach, leaving those in financial distress prone to trusting quack remedies at their most vulnerable moment. When a financial decision that can mean life or death still has to be pieced together from anonymous online Q&A and word of mouth, it reflects a long-standing absence of trustworthy, accessible guidance in local personal-debt support.