UPDATE - mortgage payment breaks are ending at the end of October 2020. See When mortgage payment breaks end, can you pay your mortgage? for what support your lender will have to give you if you are still struggling. 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 … [Read more...]
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.
And for my weekly round-ups of debt and poverty news items, see Weekly News Summaries.
Payday lender Sunny heading for administration
UPDATE - Sunny went into administration on 29 June. See Sunny now in Administration for details, including the implications for customers. 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 administrators. It told the … [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...]
Money Shop, Payday UK / Express – Latest News & FAQs
A "Scheme of Arrangement" is in place paying some money to borrowers from the Money Shop, Payday UK or Payday Express who were given unaffordable loans and who submitted a Claim before the deadline in April 2020. It is now too late to submit a Claim if you have not already done this. The following information comes from the latest Scheme report dated 22 May 2020: 182,566 Claims were … [Read more...]
It’s harder to get good 0% transfer deals in 2020 – but worth trying!
For more than two years the 0% balance transfer credit cards on offer have been getting slowly less good. And there aren't so many, so they are also harder to get. This steady decline has not got a lot worse because of Coronavirus. You may have been shuffling credit card debt around for years with not much problem, but it is becoming harder. Banks are offering a lot fewer deals Two years … [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 – payments of 5.68p in the £ are about to start
UPDATE On 20 May 2020 the Administrators announced: everyone will get 5.68p in the £. people should get an email sent today “or shortly afterwards” saying their dividend payment has been made. payments are being made to the bank accounts they currently have on file. It is too late to change this account. if you get this email but no payment is received within 7 days, you need to … [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...]
COVID-19, financial decisions & those tricky exponential numbers
This is a guest post by David Steele, Policy and Research Manager at The Money Charity (currently furloughed). He was previously Policy Manager Financial Services for Age UK and Head of the Research and Statistics Unit at the UK Film Council. This blog is written in David’s personal capacity and does not necessarily represent the views of his current employer. With the Sunday … [Read more...]
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