Debt news and policy Archives

Debt news and policy

Debt Camel articles on what's changing - and what ought to change - in the world of personal debt in Britain.

If you are interested in a specific area, look at: High cost credit news & policy and Insolvency news & policy.

Covid-19 – you can have up to 6 months of mortgage breaks

UPDATE In 2023 with rising mortgage rates, see Worried about the cost of your mortgage? Find out the help your lender can offer. In 2020, all mortgage lenders will provide a three-month mortgage payment holiday for borrowers whose household finances are affected by coronavirus. By May 2020, 1.8 million people had taken a mortgage payment holiday. If you have already had … [Read more...]

Payday lender Sunny heading for administration

UPDATE - Sunny went into administration on 29 June. See 500,000 Sunny customers owed refunds will get little or nothing for the latest news about what customers will get. And see Kerrigan v Elevate Credit – an “unfair relationship” for my thoughts on the court case Sunny lost, badly. Elevate Credit International Limited, which trades as Sunny, has filed a Notice of Intent to appoint … [Read more...]

MaPS to give £38 million more for debt advice – it’s badly needed!

The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) has announced an increase in its budget for debt support in England in 2020/21 by £38million. And an additional £5.9 million is being allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This new money is in addition to the existing MaPS budget for debt advice of £64 million. It will come from a combination of government funds, reallocated MaPS budget and … [Read more...]

Coronavirus & the reform of Personal Insolvency in England

This article builds on the arguments I put forward in Coronavirus – how the debt advice sector should be planning, looking at one area that needs to be tackled urgently - personal insolvency. Coronavirus will cause a large increase in the numbers of people who should choose insolvency over the next couple of years. I am not trying to predict how many, but it is likely to be large enough to … [Read more...]

Wageday Advance – administration now completed

Summary of the administration Curo Transatlantic Limited (Curo) had two brands: Wageday Advance (WDA), a mid-sized payday lender; and Juo Loans, a small guarantor lender. Curo entered administration on 26 February 2019 because of the number of payday loan affordability complaints they were receiving. They appointed KPMG as Administrators. The Administrators … [Read more...]

Coronavirus – how the debt advice sector should be planning

As lockdown is gradually phased out and furlough payments eventually stop, many people will not be able to return to their pre-Coronavirus situation of being able to manage their debts and bills. Now is the time the debt advice sector should be considering how to prepare for the large demand it may face and what may need to change. We don't know how many people will have problems We don't … [Read more...]

Coronavirus & payday loans – 1 month break with no interest

On 24 April 2020 the FCA published its guidance for payday lenders on customers with Coronavirus difficulties. With other types of credit, customers can have three month payment breaks but interest continues to be added during these breaks. This applies to mortgages, unsecured loans and credit cards, and car finance. But the FCA has taken a very different approach with payday loans. The … [Read more...]

Wonga – administration ended, company dissolved

The administration of WDFC, the legal company who operated the Wonga brand, was completed in August 2020. The company was finally dissolved in December 2020. See Companies House records for details. Background to the administration - rising complaint numbers A payday loan is "unaffordable" if repaying meant you had to get into more debt, by borrowing again or getting behind … [Read more...]

BrightHouse “close to collapse” because of increasing affordability complaints

UPDATE - BrightHouse went into administration on 20 March 2020. See BrightHouse enters administration – how does this affect customers? for details. 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 … [Read more...]

Will the Money Shop really pay 80% of refunds? No!

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...]