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.

And for my weekly round-ups of debt and poverty news items, see Weekly News Summaries.

Not so many 0% balance transfer deals in 2019 & they are shorter

For two years the 0% balance transfers on offer have been getting slowly less good. Here is how they have been falling over the past two years: back in May 2017, you could have got a 43 month deal in May 2018 there were 37 month deals on offer in February 2019 the longest offer was 32 months in March 2019 that had dropped to 29 months in June 2019 29 months is still the longest … [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...]

Were you sold a car on unaffordable finance?

The FCA has published its long-awaited review of car finance: Our work on motor finance – final findings. This work began back in April 2017. News reporting has seized on the FCA's findings that commission structures give dealers an incentive to charge higher interest rates. For example: Car buyers overcharged £1,000 by dealers for loans, says watchdog. But here I am interested in the FCA's … [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...]

Wageday Advance – website down as FCA decision looms

Update: on 26 February the FCA announced that Wageday Advance has gone into administration. See Wageday Advance (WDA) goes under – pre pack sale to Morses Club for details. The UK payday lender Wageday Advance (WDA) is currently not lending, as its website has been down for at least three days as of 22/02/19. It is blaming technical problems: We're experiencing some technical issues with … [Read more...]

Islington Council & Debt Hacker – settling the score with payday lenders

This is a guest post by Councillor Andy Hull, Islington Council’s Executive Member for Finance, Performance and Community Safety and Alan Campbell, the founder of Debt Hacker. For many of us, it only takes one unexpected expense or change in circumstances to throw our finances out of kilter. Since 2006, payday loan companies operating in the UK have been profiting from people’s urgent need … [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...]

Wageday Advance proposes cutting the refunds it pays

Update: on 26 February the FCA announced that Wageday Advance has gone into administration. See Wageday Advance (WDA) goes under – pre pack sale to Morses Club for details. Curo, the American parent of payday lender Wageday Advance (WDA), is in talks with the FCA about a Scheme of Arrangement (SOA) for its redress liabilities in the UK. See Curo's statement in its end of year … [Read more...]