The financial advice you need when you buy your first apartment. welcome to MyMoney.intrum.se

In December 2008 Intrum Justitia launched a new website, MyMoney.intrum.se, with financial information for young adults between the ages of 16 and 30. Compared to similar sites, it places less emphasis on savings and more on managing money. The aim is to offer advice on personal finance, loans, credit and debt in an easily accessible way. To help, Intrum Justitia has brought in a monkey puppet named Alejandro Fuentes Bergström, who became popular among the target audience through a comedy series on Swedish television.

Intrum Justitia helps businesses operate more efficiently by facilitating payment flows between parties, both companies and consumers. By show­ing young people how to be financially sensible, Intrum Justitia can prevent situations that lead to debt traps. The vision is to thereby improve credit management and contribute to a sounder economy in general. "We have extensive knowledge of how businesses and consumers can build a sound economy, as well as how to avoid winding up in financial straits. By working preventively, we want to educate young people to spend more respon­sibly," says Mats Göransson, acting Managing Director of Intrum Justitia in Sweden. The target audience for MyMoney does not necessarily have to be in debt. The main purpose of the website is to provide Intrum Justitia with a channel to work proactively and preventively with young people so that they can steer clear of financial problems. This is a vulnerable group in society that does not always realize the consequences of impulse purchases or what things really cost.

Website is right forum
Young adults are a large target group that is very active online. This is what convinced Intrum Justitia that the right website would be a good way to reach them. An interactive website also gives Intrum Justitia a platform to "sound out" the target audience through their comments, questions and posts on MyMoney's blog. "Everyone benefits when people and businesses pay their bills," adds Mats Göransson. "We are able in this context to utilize our knowledge of sound credit management, people's payment habits and payment patterns to help young people." The initiative has a direct connection to Intrum Justitia's operations, since it is working preventive­ly with its clients' customers. But it is a CSR project as well, in that it targets young people who are not customers. All young people who need support to avoid problems are just as important to reach.

Money and humor
MyMoney contains information, facts and advice on how to manage your finances, what it means to borrow money and advice for those who are already in debt. On the blog, visitors can also dialogue with Intrum Justitia. Another feature is a monkey puppet named Alejandro Fuentes Bergström, famous in Sweden for his appearances on the television series "Humorlabb" and a popular character online. With his warm, engaging per­sonality, he has attracted a large audience and has many fans among the target group for MyMoney. Alejandro appears in a number of films online, where he discusses various subjects from his own personal perspective. "The idea was to get young people more inter­ested in, and read about, managing money. It can be a pretty boring and difficult subject sometimes. We wanted to try a new way to talk about personal finances and fell for Alejandro's penchant for order­liness, which also happens to be an important quality when it comes to sound financial manage­ment," says Mats Göransson. MyMoney clearly manifests Intrum Justitia's repositioning from a debt collection specialist to a strategic CMS partner that puts people at the center of everything it does.

In the last eight years the number of young Swedes with financial problems has doubled. The Swedish Enforce­ment Agency currently has around 35,000 young people in its register, and the number in debt is increasing. Most cases involve unpaid mobile phone subscriptions, SMS loans and student loans. One of the most significant trends in recent years is the rise in consumer spending, and that both companies and consumers are taking on more debt. Intrum Justitia is tackling this trend head-on by helping clients to issue credit more responsibly and at the same time educating consumers on more disciplined spending. Mymoney.intrum.se contains informa­tion, facts and advice on how to manage and borrow money and what to do if you get into debt. The site also contains a blog and films by Alejandro Fuentes Bergström, famous from the Swedish television series "Humorlabbet."