You asked us

"We recently instructed you to undertake a trace enquiry overseas, but the fees were noticeably different to your normal ones. Why?" 

For international work we use trusted agents worldwide. Wherever possible these agents are also members of either The Credit Services Association or a recognised overseas association. When it comes to fees we are very much in their hands but we do try and get quotes from a variety of agents if possible for comparison purposes. Fee structures overseas are very different to here and it may be because of a lack of central records/databases (much more investigative work involved) or even the distance involved in travelling to assignments. In some cases there are fees payable to overseas departments such as "Land Registry" records that are considerably higher than our own. Each country is different, indeed there are even some countries where we will not recommend work be undertaken because of the unusual cash payments that are sometimes requested. 

And so it continues!

So, the News of the World issues have been knocked off the front pages by crashing stock markets, more Eurozone problems and now riots throughout the country. Where will it all stop?

Furthermore, according to our friends at Begbies Traynor, 5179 companies in the UK were facing critical problems in the second quarter of this year representing liabilities of nearly £60bn. Their Red Flag report, issued in July, tells us that the number of companies in critical condition shows a 12% increase on the previous quarter. As possibly expected, the sectors which have continued to suffer are retail, hotels & accommodation, and travel & tourism.