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.

Q1 2019 – IVA numbers – the upward trend continues

On 30 April the Insolvency Service published the personal insolvency statistics for the first quarter of 2019. Comparing this quarter to the last quarter of 2018: bankruptcy and DRO numbers were about the same; IVA numbers dropped from 22,943 in Q4 2018 to 20,325 in Q1 2019. The upward trend of IVAs continues It is a mistake to make too much of this fall in IVA numbers, because the … [Read more...]

Guarantor loans – why guarantors & borrowers need extra protection

Guarantor loans are coming into the regulatory spotlight. The FCA wrote to CEOs in March 2019 saying it will be looking at affordability and whether potential guarantors have enough information to understand how likely it is that they may have to make the loan payments. In a speech, Jonathan Davis said: Recent work we have done in this area showed that many guarantors are making at least 1 … [Read more...]

2018 FOS statistics – most complaints about QuickQuid

New statistics for July-December 2018 from the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) show how payday loan complaints have jumped in the second half of 2018 and give details for how many complaints the larger lenders had. Almost all these cases are affordability complaints where a customer was given payday loans without proper affordability checks and is asking for a refund of interest paid. The … [Read more...]

Why is QuickQuid going to delete old customer data?

QuickQuid has told some customers that it plans to delete loan data over seven years old with effect from today, 15th April 2019. It says this is to comply with its legal obligations. QuickQuid has sent emails to the affected customers asking if they would like a copy of their data before it is deleted. It seems to me that this new policy is not in the customers' interest because it will … [Read more...]

Wonga – the adminstrators’ report – March 2019

The Wonga Administrators’ six month progress report to end February 2019 was emailed to creditors on 27 March 2019. The creditors include the so-called "redress creditors". These are the customers who complained to Wonga saying they were given unaffordable payday loans. Collecting outstanding loans When Wonga went into administration, the Gross Loan Book totalled £77 million. So far … [Read more...]

How many Wonga victims are there? 10k, 40k? More!

In February, Nicky Morgan, who chairs the Treasury Committee, said: It cannot be right that over 10,000 people who may have been mis-sold loans are just cast aside, especially as many will be vulnerable consumers. The Wonga administrators replied, saying: The total number of redress claims is currently more than four times the number you referred to in your press statement on 26 February and we … [Read more...]

The FCA’s High Cost Credit supervision priorities

The FCA has published its Portfolio Strategy Letter to firms providing high cost lending. This was sent on 6 March to firms that provide: guarantor loans (eg Amigo) payday loans high-cost unsecured subprime loans home-collected credit (eg Provident) logbook loans pawn-broking rent-to-own (eg Brighthouse). This letter doesn’t cover overdrafts, subprime credit cards or … [Read more...]

Guarantor loans – open to financial abuse #IWD2019

Guarantor loans are wide open to financial abuse, where the guarantor is pressured into agreeing to the loan, often without full knowledge of the borrower's situation. This can take many forms, but today, for International Women's Day 2019, here are some recent comments from women who were bullied into agreeing to be the guarantor for their partner or their ex-partner. I was bullied … [Read more...]

A takeover bid for Provident (PFG) by much smaller NSF

Non Standard Finance (NSF) made a surprise bid for the much larger Provident Financial Group (PFG) in February 2019. The bid was eventually withdrawn by NSF in June 2019. Every debt adviser will be familiar with "the Provvy" but it's interesting to take a look at the two companies and their respective brands - they cover most sorts of high cost, bad credit lending in the UK. NSF's … [Read more...]

IVAs in 2018 – numbers jump and so do failure rates

On 29 January 2019 the Insolvency Service published two sets of statistics for 2018: Insolvency Statistics: October to December 2018 Individual Voluntary Arrangements: Outcome Status 1990 – 2017. Here are what I think are the three most interesting points. 1. IVA numbers again rose faster than bankruptcy & DROs In 2018 IVAs increased by 20%. Already the most common type of … [Read more...]