In November 2023, MSE announced that its Credit Club report would soon switch to cover TransUnion data, not Experian data. MSE has told subscribers: The need-to-know change: Experian is stopping giving us access to its full credit report. So ... we’re moving to one of the other three big credit reference agencies, TransUnion. MSE has tried to dress this up - the first paragraph was headed The … [Read more...]
General debt news & policy
Here are my articles on news and policy except for high cost credit and Insolvency, which are separate as there as so many of them.
27% of adults use Klarna or other BNPL – regulation is needed
The FCA has published new research on Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) usage which shows that BNPL was used by 27% of UK adults in the last 6 months of 2022. That is a large increase - only 17% of UK adults had used BNPL in the 12 months ending May 22. But if this is interest-free credit, does this matter? Other statistics from this research suggest that it does. What is BNPL? In this article, … [Read more...]
PPI – does new legal action mean you can still get a refund?
In 2017, the FCA imposed a deadline of August 2019 for PPI claims that could be taken to the Financial Ombudsman. That deadline has now passed and you now can't start a new PPI complaint with a lender and take it to the Ombudsman. But there are still some court cases being brought to get PPI refunds. These are being brought following a Supreme Court judgment in 2014 on the Plevin v … [Read more...]
The FCA’s Consumer Duty – a new overarching principle
On 31 July, the FCA's new Consumer Duty came into force, bringing in higher standards of consumer protection. You may not have heard of it, but financial services firms have been working for a couple of years to be ready for this. Delivering good outcomes for retail customers is the new 12th principle in the FCA's handbook and is described as the overarching principle. That sounds very … [Read more...]
Big hikes in Paypal interest rate & minimum payments
Paypal's interest rate increases Readers have reported getting an email from Paypal in June or July saying their interest rate will be going up a lot. In the email, Paypal warns: You will pay more each month and take longer to repay any outstanding balance on your account. Not good! A poll I ran on Instagram suggested more than half the Paypal accounts in the UK may be seeing an interest … [Read more...]
Are you still paying fees on an old Gregory Pennington DMP?
For many years Gregory Pennington (GP), part of the Financial Wellness Group (FWG), has charged its clients monthly fees for running Debt Management Plans (DMPs) But MaPS awarded Gregory Pennington a contract that began on 1 February 2023. And it can't charge fees for DMPs under this contract. StepChange, Payplan and CAP have always provided "fee-free" DMPs, where all a client's payments go … [Read more...]
Klarna starts charging late fees and claims this will benefit customers
Klarna is going to charge fees to customers in the UK that miss payments. From the mid March 2023, these will be: £5 a late fee; no more than two late fees will be charged on an order; late fees cannot total more than 25% of the value of an order. This is a major shift for Klarna, who has so far charged late fees in other countries but not in the UK. Clearpay and Laybuy charge £6 … [Read more...]
2022 – a very bad year for debt advice
This is my annual review, looking at the major events of 2022 for the debt advice sector and with some thoughts about 2023. It concentrates on the bits I was most interested in. As it's aimed at debt advisors and people interested in debt policy, I haven't explained terms and acronyms they will all know. A year of interlinked crises Inflation One of the first articles I wrote in 2022 year … [Read more...]
The FCA consults on supporting mortgage borrowers
On 7 December 2022, the FCA issued a consultation on Guidance for firms supporting their existing mortgage borrowers impacted by the rising cost of living. FCA consultations are normally lengthy, but here the FCA said: To ensure we can act quickly to enable firms to help consumers, we are consulting on this guidance over the next 10 working days. This is the sort of short deadline the FCA … [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...]
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