UPDATE the Scheme is now live After the court approved the Amigo scheme in May 2022, the Scheme is now live. The deadline for making claims has now passed. See Amigo’s Scheme – waiting for claims to be decided for details. UPDATE on the result of the voting Amigo announced on 13 May that c. 89% of people voting had voted in favour of the new Business Scheme. the next stage in the … [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.
Vanguard Insolvency closed down – a rogue IVA firm
On 13 May 2022, the Insolvency Service announced that Vanguard Insolvency had been wound up "in the public interest". Vanguard set up and ran Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs). These are long-term agreements between a customer and their creditors that are increasingly criticised as being mis-sold to vulnerable customers. However, Vanguard has not been shut down for mis-selling IVAs, … [Read more...]
Debt advice in an age of inflation
At the beginning of 2021, UK inflation was under 1% but by the end of the year it was about 5%. In May 2022, it was up to nearly 9%. More than 20 million household say their energy bills go up by over 50% in April. Petrol price increases are hard for anyone commuting to work by car or living in a rural area. And of course rising food prices are affecting everyone. When it raised UK interest … [Read more...]
BNPL is now often on credit records, but it’s ignored in credit scores
Klarna details will start to be added to TransUnion and Experian records from June 2022. TransUnion says: Incorporating this data into credit reports will support consumers that are using this type of point-of-sale finance, whilst also ensuring lenders have a comprehensive picture of a borrower’s financial position. But this year TransUnion will not be using the BNPL information when it … [Read more...]
BrightHouse in administration – unlikely to be any money for refunds
UPDATE - in April 2022 the administrators said there was unlikely to be any money to pay any refunds to customers. See below. On 20 March 2020, BrightHouse went into administration. BrightHouse sold electrical appliances, furniture, computers and mobiles on hire purchase. Its customers made weekly payments, sometimes described as "rent-to-own". Coronavirus has meant that its 240 shops … [Read more...]
QuickQuid administration is paying 53.5p in the £
Payments - UPDATE - 25 April 2022 Administrators have started sending emails to everyone with an upheld claim telling them what they will be paid. "The Joint Administrators are now in a position to declare a first and final dividend of 53.5p in the £" The average claim value is c £1,700. Someone with that claim value will get a payout of about £910. The payout details are given in the … [Read more...]
Robo advice – can it deliver good quality debt advice?
"Robo advice" is being used increasingly to provide investment advice to people who can't afford individual advice from an IFA. Can a similar approach deliver good quality debt advice through an automated online process? Face-to-face advice is sometimes seen as both expensive and a process that not all clients may want or need. In this article I examine what robo debt advice can do well, the … [Read more...]
Scarcity – why people in debt need a breathing space
Scarcity: Why having too little means so much by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir is a very interesting read for anyone interested in personal debt advice and policy in Britain. Scarcity doesn't just mean lack of money Having less than you need - scarcity - warps your decision making in similar ways whatever you are short of, whether that is money, or time, or if you are on a strict diet or … [Read more...]
More than a third of IVAs fail – and this may get worse
This post was written based on statistics published in 2022. Since then, statistics have been complicated by the special measures during COVID that temporarily prevented many IVAs from failing. Statistics published in early 2024 show: one in three (33%) IVAs that started between 2016 and 2018 failed of IVAs that started in 2022, 5.6% failed in the first year. This was about the same as … [Read more...]
Provident’s uncashed cheques – at last they pay out
Provident has at last done the right thing and is paying customers who have cheques from Provident that are too old to be banked. Good! I expect this may affect several thousand people who have cheques ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds. If you have one of these cheques, Provident should have sent you an email about it. Here is an example of what a Debt Camel reader's email … [Read more...]
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