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.

Amigo – why the Ombudsman released a guarantor from a loan

The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) has recently published two important decisions about guarantor loans, one where a borrower complained and one where the guarantor complained. I have covered the borrower case here: Ombudsman – Amigo did not check properly that a borrower could afford the loan. This article looks at the FOS decision about the guarantor for a loan. I have selected points from the … [Read more...]

Ombudsman – Amigo did not check properly that a borrower could afford the loan

The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) has recently published its decision on Miss G's complaint against Amigo. This FOS decision criticised Amigo's inadequate assessment of Miss G's income and expenses. It said her poor credit record meant Amigo should have verified the figures, for example by looking at bank statements. So FOS ordered Amigo to refund all the interest and charges she paid, plus 8% … [Read more...]

Amigo guarantor loans – more refunds being paid!

In May 2019, adjudicators at the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) made several dozen decisions upholding affordabilty complaints by people with Amigo loans. Amigo has accepted all these decisions and has paid out refunds. These adjudicator decisions are not published by FOS but readers have sent me copies of them. This article has some extracts so you can see what FOS is looking at in guarantor loan … [Read more...]

Credit card minimum payments – developments from 2000 to 2019

This is a guest post from The Money Charity, the UK's financial capability charity. If you would like to receive its monthly statistical report The Money Statistics, sign up here. This paper was written as background research for The Money Charity’s responses to the Financial Conduct Authority consultations on the short term credit market. As a reference document it may be of interest to … [Read more...]

SpeedyCash in administration – send affordability claims by end July 2019

SpeedyCash had several high-street stores which stopped lending in 2017. It was the trading name of SRC Transatlantic Limited which went into administration at the end of February 2019. SpeedyCash had c 183,000 former customers. If you borrowed from SpeedyCash, you may have a claim for unaffordable lending. An unaffordable loan is one you could not repay, or which you only repaid with … [Read more...]

Aperture – no longer taking new IVAs

Aperture has told many debt advisers it will not take referrals for Individual Voluntary Arrangements after the end of June 2019. The debt advice firms received an email saying: I write to inform you that Aperture Debt Solutions LLP has recently taken the decision to suspend our client acquisition strategy in the IVA sector; as such, we will be unable to deal with your client referrals with … [Read more...]

Loans2Go’s interest rate – “outrageous” – how to complain

In January, a reader told me about a loan he had for £650, with 18 monthly repayments of £147. This adds up to a total repayment of £2,650 - an eye-watering amount and more than four times what he borrowed. At first I thought this was probably taken out years ago. But in fact, it was borrowed in late 2018 from Loans2Go. Loans2Go also offer logbook loans, but this article is just about their … [Read more...]

Money Shop – redundancy plans and stores closing

UPDATE - June 15th Money Shop to close – two million customers will be informed On June 21 the Daily Mail reported that : In a letter sent to employees and seen by This is Money, ICL said it plans to close or sell off all of its UK stores following 'poor financial performance' and an 'unprecedented number of customer complaints'. The Money Shop has already shut down or sold … [Read more...]

Panorama’s “Easy money, Tough debt”

Panorama on 17 June 2019 showed Easy Money, Tough Debt? It's on iPlayer for 11 months if you missed it. It covered a wide range of high cost borrowing, with stories from people who had problems with payday loans, with high-cost credit cards and catalogues, and guarantor loans, with a borrower and a guarantor being featured. Everyday stories of high cost borrowing For a debt adviser, these … [Read more...]

Optimism bias, the planning fallacy & debt advice

Research shows that most people underestimate the chance of a negative event and overestimate the chance of a positive event happening to them. This is called Optimism bias as it results in us having an unrealistically optimistic view of the future. For example: although about half of Western marriages end in divorce, few people getting married think it may happen to them; and we … [Read more...]