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 have had to shut and many customers are likely to be asking for payment holidays as their income has fallen and they can't manage … [Read more...]
High cost credit news and policy
Amigo stops most lending & so do some other high cost lenders
On 24 March 2020 Amigo announced that: given the ongoing uncertainty that the economic implications of Covid-19 could have for our customer base, Amigo has taken the decision to temporarily pause all new lending activity, except for lending to key workers in exceptional circumstances. This article looks at why Amigo decided to do this and why other lenders, particularly high cost lenders to … [Read more...]
Wonga refunds – some people STILL haven’t been paid!
*** Update: 26th March *** A few people have been paid this morning. but not all. See comments below for details. *** Administrators update 19th March *** See Wonga's home page for details: The Joint Administrators have now attempted to make dividend payments to over 443,000 creditors representing 98% of the creditor population. This includes payments to creditors whose payments were … [Read more...]
BrightHouse “close to collapse” because of increasing affordability complaints
On 29 February 2020, Sky News reported "Rent-to-own giant BrightHouse on brink of collapse". This said: there has been a "surge" of complaints which are currently costing BrightHouse more than £1million a month; management is worried about getting increasing numbers of complaints from claims companies; they are talking to the FCA about a possible "Scheme of Arrangement" but discussions … [Read more...]
Will the Money Shop really pay 80% of refunds? No – now may be 10%…
UPDATES In August 2019 the Money Shop announced a Scheme it expected would pay c 80p in the £ to customers of the Money Shop, Payday UK and Payday Express who are owed compensation for unaffordable loans. I said pigs might fly - see the article below. And I think other people such as the FCA and the Ombudsman also express some scepticism... A month late, in September 2019, a revised version … [Read more...]
90% of guarantor loan cases won at Financial Ombusdman
The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) complaint statistics for Oct-Dec 2019 have just been published, see Product Complaints Data. For guarantor loans, FOS decided in favour of the consumer in 90% of cases: this is even higher than the 83% that were won in April-Jun 2019. these figures are a dramatic increase from the uphold rate of only 32% for the 2018 financial year. This … [Read more...]
QuickQuid – the Casheuronet administrators’ Proposals & Voting
The Administrators for Casheuronet LLC (CEU) have published their Proposals for how the administration should be handled. CEU went into administration on 25 October 2019. CEU is better known by its brand names: QuickQuid, Pounds To Pocket and Onstride, all major UK payday lenders. If you have a complaint against one of these payday lenders you may have been sent a copy of these Proposals and … [Read more...]
More payday lenders go under – was anything learned from Wonga?
In the last six weeks, Britain's largest payday lender, QuickQuid, went into administration followed by three smaller lenders: 247 Moneybox, PiggyBank and Swift Sterling. Have the lessons from Wonga's collapse last year been leaned? And how can regulators and debt advisers do better in future to protect borrowers, not just of payday loans but other sorts of high cost credit as well? My 6 … [Read more...]
Amigo’s half year results – the rising cost of paying refunds to customers
Amigo's half-year results for April-September 2019 show a big increase in complaint costs about its guarantor loans. The majority of these complaints are affordability complaints, by the borrower or by the guarantor. Here is the management presentation on the results. What Amigo says about complaints Here my thoughts on some of the points Amigo makes about complaints in the management … [Read more...]
Sunny concerned about lack of regulatory clarity – really?
Many people hoping for a payday loan refund from Sunny were watching for the third quarter results from Elevate, Sunny's US parent. Would Elevate decide to close Sunny, so they wouldn't get their refunds? Two weeks earlier QuickQuid had gone into administration after its American parent announced it was exiting the UK. That left Lending Stream and Sunny as the largest payday lenders in … [Read more...]
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