UPDATE: in March 2021, Provident said it is asking for a "Scheme of Arrangement" that will mean it pays very little to complaints that are upheld. This is bad news for people with complaints. See Provident proposes a Scheme to cap refunds for details about the Scheme. Doorstep lending - also called home credit - is where a collector comes to your house to collect the repayments. Many people … [Read more...]
Articles about Provident
Provident Financial Group (PFG) specialises in bad credit lending in the UK. Founded in 1880, Provident is Britain's largest doorstep lender.
It also owns the Satsuma payday lending brand, the Vanquis credit card brand and the Moneybarn car finance brand.
Provident’s Scheme – will customers get less than 2% ?
In my summary of the Provident's proposed Scheme, published on 15 March, I said I would be looking at some aspects of it in more detail. The £50m the company is putting up to pay refunds is not nearly enough to pay everyone. The whole point of the Scheme for Provident is that it will cost it less than if it were to pay full refunds. This article looks at how much customers might hope … [Read more...]
Provident proposes a Scheme to cap refunds
On 15 March 2021 Provident Financial Group (PFG) announced it is proposing a Scheme of Arrangement to reduce the refunds it has to pay to customers. They are the second major lender to seek refuge in a Scheme - Amigo is also proposing one. The PFG announcement also said that the FCA has started an investigation into Provident's affordability assessments and complaint handling since February … [Read more...]
Amigo & Provident complaints soar – new Ombudsman data
On 3 March 2021, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) published two sets of statistics. quarterly data for October-December 2020 summarises the types of complaints FOS has received. half-year data shows which firms had the most complaints in July-December 2020 and how often FOS upheld the customers' cases. Caroline Wayman, the FOS CEO says: "Excluding PPI, new complaints are up by … [Read more...]
Provident complaints rise – but are its offers too low?
The Financial Ombudsman (FOS)'s latest quarterly statistics, published on 25 August 2020, highlighted a rise in the number of complaints received about some types of high cost credit. In the period April-June 2020, new complaints about home credit rose by 77% to 1,166. UPDATE in the second half of 2020, FOS was sent over 10,000 new Provident complaints! Provident is the major lender in the home … [Read more...]
A takeover bid for Provident (PFG) by much smaller NSF
Non Standard Finance (NSF) made a surprise bid for the much larger Provident Financial Group (PFG) in February 2019. The bid was eventually withdrawn by NSF in June 2019. Every debt adviser will be familiar with "the Provvy" but it's interesting to take a look at the two companies and their respective brands - they cover most sorts of high cost, bad credit lending in the UK. NSF's … [Read more...]
FCA’s consultation on home-collected credit, catalogue credit & store cards
This article has my proposed responses to some of the FCA's questions in its Consultation on High Cost Credit 18/12. I'll be sending them in next week. (My comments on the two FCA questions with an earlier deadline are here: Introducing a cap on the cost of Rent To Own lenders such as Brighthouse.) Rent to own Q3: Do you agree with our proposals for a point of sale ban on extended … [Read more...]
Provident – home credit crisis & FCA investigates Vanquis
On 22 August 2017, Provident Financial's share price dropped c 70% after a profits warning. For a FTSE 100 company such large price moves are extremely rare. The Daily Mail shrieked: Provident Financial goes into meltdown ... now 800,000 customers of its doorstep collection business are at risk. Provident's doorstep lending re-organisation Provident's doorstep loans used to be … [Read more...]