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.

I write a weekly round-up of debt and poverty news on Sundays. There are only kept for a month or two, see Weekly News Summaries.

Amigo – many customers may do better in Administration than a Scheme!

This article relates to Amigo’s first Scheme, which was rejected in May 2021. See Amigo’s Scheme rejected – now looking at a new Scheme for the latest news. When Amigo announced it was proposing a Scheme of Arrangement in December, it said: Amigo continues to explore alternative options but it is likely the alternative options would result in those with Redress Claims receiving … [Read more...]

Lessons from Amigo & Provident – FOS needs to be faster

In administration, customers with complaints at the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) have them returned to the administrators to resolve. The same happens in a Scheme of Arrangement which has been proposed by Amigo in December 2020 and by Provident in March - there FOS complaints are returned to the Scheme to be determined. FOS said in January 2021 it had about 13,000 open Amigo cases and about 500 … [Read more...]

Amigo’s Scheme – who’s next? Implications for the bad credit market

If Amigo's proposed Scheme of Arrangement is allowed to go forward by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), what would be the impact on the guarantor market and the wider bad credit market? UPDATE - the FCA opposed the Amigo Scheme on the ground that it was not the fairest possible for customers. The Scheme was rejected by the court in May 2021. See Court rejects Amigo Scheme of Arrangement for … [Read more...]

Will an Amigo Scheme of Arrangement abandon vulnerable customers?

A whole book could be written about the different ways vulnerable customers can have problems with guarantor loans - I wrote about some of them in Guarantor loans – why guarantors & borrowers need extra protection. But here are a couple of very recent cases for illustration. Case 1 - mental health problems The borrower informed Amigo when he made an affordability complaint in September 2020 … [Read more...]

Amigo Scheme – my estimated numbers don’t look good

This article relates to Amigo’s first Scheme, which was rejected in May 2021. See Amigo’s Scheme rejected – now looking at a new Scheme for the latest news. When Amigo announced it was seeking a Scheme of Arrangement on 21 December 2020, I said there were very few details and asked some questions. On 25 January more information about the Scheme was given see see my article Amigo’s … [Read more...]

Amigo seeks refuge from refunds in a Scheme (December 2020)

UPDATE - on 24 May 2021 the court rejected the Amigo Scheme accepting the arguments of the FCA that it was not the fairest that could be proposed to customers. See Court rejects Amigo Scheme of Arrangement for details. UPDATE - on 25 January 2021 Amigo published more details about the Scheme. See Amigo’s Scheme - timetable for approval & how it may work . Amigo announced on 21 … [Read more...]

Barclaycard to hike minimum payments in January – are you affected?

Barclaycard emailed customers in November 2020 about changes to their credit cards. With the title "Dear [customer name], we're updating your T&Cs ", you may have ignored it. But many people will find their minimum payments are going to be increasing from 26 January 2021. And some of the increases will be very large. This affects Barclaycard holders with Cashback, Freedom, Forward, … [Read more...]

3 month car finance payment breaks because of Coronavirus

In April 2020, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA ) set out new rules for car finance lenders on how they should respond to customers who are affected by coronavirus. It followed the general "three-month payment breaks" approach used for other credit from mortgages to credit cards. In July, the FCA these rules were extended to allow for a first or second payment break to be taken up until … [Read more...]

Why all coronavirus payment breaks should be extended

UPDATE: On 2 November the FCA said it WILL be proposing further extensions for other types of consumer credit - that if you haven't had a break so far, you can get a 6 month break and if you have had a 3 months break since July, you can have another 3 months. On 31 October, after the Prime Minister had announced a month national lockdown, the FCA issued a statement: we will propose that … [Read more...]

Barclaycard send letters saying they raised credit limits too high

UPDATE in April 2021, Barclaycard has made another set of cuts to customers' credit limits. In July 2020 Barclaycard sent out letters to some customers saying their credit limit may have been set too high. They say: We've recently reviewed the way we set some of our customers' credit limits and can see that the limit we gave you previously may have been higher than it should have been … [Read more...]