*** Update: 26th March *** A few people have been paid this morning. but not all. See comments below for details. *** Administrators update 19th March *** See Wonga's home page for details: The Joint Administrators have now attempted to make dividend payments to over 443,000 creditors representing 98% of the creditor population. This includes payments to creditors whose payments were … [Read more...]
Debt news – March 8th
My pick of last week's news is the simply astonishing blog by the Amigo founder, James Benamor. Graph of the week Today’s figures lay bare a frankly disastrous 7% decline in the incomes of the poorest fifth over the past two years, leaving them no better off than in 2004-05. Making up for 14 years without income growth should be a top policy priority. pic.twitter.com/w98QXleeAM — … [Read more...]
Board room bust-up at Amigo
On 4 March 2020 the founder and majority shareholder of Amigo, James Benamor, resigned from the board which he had only rejoined in December. In the evening he published a blog saying that the company was "committing slow motion suicide". Benamor said the board needed to choose between challenging recent FOS decisions on affordability complaints in court by Judicial Review or accept that … [Read more...]
Debt news – March 1st
My pick of last week's news is the BrightHouse story. Tweet of the week "Are you lonely?" "Yeah, no-one's ever asked me that before... I am, very"@vicderbyshire has been to meet those sleeping rough in London's financial district This is the story of Daisy and Jade.https://t.co/GB43uDMlUX pic.twitter.com/CHCsxRgllC — Victoria Derbyshire (@VictoriaLIVE) February 27, … [Read more...]
BrightHouse “close to collapse” because of increasing affordability complaints
On 29 February 2020, Sky News reported "Rent-to-own giant BrightHouse on brink of collapse". This said: there has been a "surge" of complaints which are currently costing BrightHouse more than £1million a month; management is worried about getting increasing numbers of complaints from claims companies; they are talking to the FCA about a possible "Scheme of Arrangement" but discussions … [Read more...]
Lloyds/Halifax overdraft fees – down, then up, now down (mostly)
From 2017 to 2020 people with the Lloyds group of banks - Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland -have seen their overdraft charges change dramatically several times. This article charts the extraordinary rollercoaster of these fees. Overdraft charges before 2017 People were charged multiple fees on a Lloyds overdraft: a £6 a month for having an arranged overdraft; a £10 a … [Read more...]
Should I end my IVA and change to a DRO?
If it's getting hard or impossible to afford your IVA , you may be wondering if you can switch to a Debt Relief Order (DRO). Your IVA may have been sensible when it was started, but a change in circumstances (pay drop? rent increase? new baby? separation?) may now be making it hard to afford the payments. Or perhaps a DRO would always have been better than an IVA for you - quicker, cheaper, … [Read more...]
How to improve your credit rating after a DRO
A Debt Relief Order (DRO) only lasts for a year and then your debts in it are wiped out. But it will be shown on your credit record for six years. This article looks at what should happen to your credit record during the year of your DRO and at the end of it. If some of your creditors have go tt this wrong, you need to ask them to correct any problems. And finally it looks at how to start to … [Read more...]
Will the Money Shop really pay 80% of refunds? No – now may be 10%…
UPDATES In August 2019 the Money Shop announced a Scheme it expected would pay c 80p in the £ to customers of the Money Shop, Payday UK and Payday Express who are owed compensation for unaffordable loans. I said pigs might fly - see the article below. And I think other people such as the FCA and the Ombudsman also express some scepticism... A month late, in September 2019, a revised version … [Read more...]
Debt and mental health problems
Even a "mild" problem with depression, anxiety or other mental health issues can make it harder to manage your money. Reading letters, taking decisions, paying by a deadline and talking to creditors may feel like impossible tasks. Recent research has found that one in five people with mental health problems are in problem debt - that's more than three times the rate as people without mental … [Read more...]
Debt news – February 23
My pick of last week's news is the blog on bailiff reform - body-worn cameras are not enough. Tweet of the week "Evidence and theory say the same thing - migrants don't significantly depress wages...but the media prefer to give a platform to racists than educate people about economics." https://t.co/7vaZnb3Bee — Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) February 22, 2020 Debt news A year on … [Read more...]
Debt news – February 16
My pick of last week's news is the Citizens Advice report Making Ends Meet. Tweet of the week The @financialombuds statistics for Q4 2019 show VERY high affordability complaint uphold rates. 90% guarantor loans - 86% home credit - 75% instalment loans - 73% payday loans. Time for all the lenders to learn from FOS decisions as DISP says! pic.twitter.com/wZDYEdBjXY — Debt Camel … [Read more...]
Don’t let credit rating worries make your debts worse
If you have too much debt, you may not want to do anything that will harm your credit score. But do you have any better alternatives? That depends on three factors: what is your credit record like at the moment? If it isn't good, then it isn't worth trying to protect! Check your credit score now, so you have accurate information. can you make the monthly payments to your debts? The … [Read more...]
How the borrower of a guarantor loan can complain
Guarantor loans are very expensive. Often the lender didn’t check properly that you will be able to manage the loan repayments without having to borrow more. If proper checks would have shown that you couldn't afford the repayments, complain! There is a template letter in this article to help you. You can get an existing loan reduced so you only repay the amount you borrowed, or get a refund … [Read more...]
90% of guarantor loan cases won at Financial Ombusdman
The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) complaint statistics for Oct-Dec 2019 have just been published, see Product Complaints Data. For guarantor loans, FOS decided in favour of the consumer in 90% of cases: this is even higher than the 83% that were won in April-Jun 2019. these figures are a dramatic increase from the uphold rate of only 32% for the 2018 financial year. This … [Read more...]
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