Our partnership with ClearScore

Delivering better outcomes through earlier identification of problem debt and seamless referrals into debt advice.

When it comes to tackling debt, time matters. More than half of our clients wait over a year to get help with their debts, and over 90% said they wish they’d got help sooner. This can have devastating impacts on people’s lives, so we partnered with ClearScore to do something about it.

“Working strategically together, we were able to identify and engage ClearScore users most in need of financial support. Our partnership delivered better outcomes for these customers, reducing average monthly debt repayments by more than £600 a month and putting them on a sustainable path to a better financial future.”

Joe Wiggins
Corporate Communications Director, ClearScore

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ClearScore are the UK’s leading credit score and report app, with over 15 million users in the UK. ClearScore’s mission is to help everyone, no matter their circumstances, achieve greater financial wellbeing. As part of this mission, ClearScore wanted to provide expert support to their users who were at risk of experiencing financial hardship and problem debt. That’s why we partnered together.

What we did

Reaching customers earlier in their debt journey can help them to tackle their debts before their financial situation gets worse. The extensive data ClearScore holds enables them to identify early signs of financial difficulty, before the consumer or their lenders may even notice that they have a problem.

This enabled us to take a data-led approach and target the ClearScore users most in need of our support.

Working together we:

Identified the right users: Identified the ClearScore users at risk of experiencing financial difficulty - those who had missed 2 or more credit or utility payments in the previous six months.

Integrated StepChange Direct: Presented our digital referral tool StepChange Direct to these users in the ClearScore app.

Engaged users through multi-channel comms: Used push notifications, emails, and text to follow up and engage users.

Provided the right support: Users accessing StepChange Direct were signposted to the right help for their own unique situation.

StepChange Direct

StepChange Direct is our quick money health check that makes it easy for customers to access our award-winning debt advice and wider support services through their preferred channel. It can be integrated into any stage of the customer journey and after asking a few simple questions, directs the customer to the right support for their individual circumstances.

The results

The partnership has achieved fantastic results, helping hundreds of ClearScore users to take the first steps towards tackling their debts.

The targeted approach was highly successful, with the ClearScore users who completed debt advice having average unsecured debts of over £14,000 each, totalling more than £20m.

In the first 12 months of the partnership:

Nearly 6,000 users accessed StepChange Direct
86% were recommended to seek debt advice*
42% of those who started debt advice completed their advice session and were recommended a debt solution
Over a third of these customers started a managed debt solution
Clients taking a Debt Management Plan reduced their monthly debt repayment costs by over £600 a month on average

_{*86% of users completing the Money Health Check were recommended to seek debt advice.}

“We’re delighted that our users could benefit from StepChange’s free, impartial support and that many are now on a sustainable path to a brighter financial future."

James Smith
Head of Product, ClearScore

Find out more

Get in touch today to discover how StepChange Direct can support your customers.