Balance transfer bounce back continues: Banks boost 0% terms after credit card availability hit an all-time low There are now 59 balance transfer deals and 56 purchase deals available Although below pre-pandemic levels these are more than were around in 2020 Banks have increased their interest-free term lengths since the start of the year This … Read more
Treasury pledge to fund £3.8m no-interest loan pilot for hard-up borrowers ‘a step in the right direction’ say debt charities and lenders Scheme could help those who cannot afford to pay interest on loans It is based on an Australian-style community lending scheme Initiative was proposed by previous Chancellor Philip Hammond in 2018 As many … Read more
Thousands of Britons are complaining to the Financial Ombudsman Service about being mis-sold unaffordable guarantor loans, new figures reveal, as Payment Protection Insurance was finally dethroned as the most complained about financial product. Complaints about PPI numbered 6,679, meaning it was not the most complained about product in a three-month period for the first time … Read more
Loan gripes soar during the pandemic as families struggle to afford repayments By Amelia Murray For The Daily Mail Published: 22:01 GMT, 2 March 2021 | Updated: 22:01 GMT, 2 March 2021 Complaints about loans soared last year as families struggled to afford repayments in the pandemic. Guarantor loans, which are typically taken out with … Read more
Surge in internet credit buys: Buy now pay later deals were fastest-growing online payment method last year By Ben Wilkinson for the Daily Mail Published: 22:01 GMT, 23 February 2021 | Updated: 22:01 GMT, 23 February 2021 Credit boom: Buy now, pay later schemes are predicted to account for 10 per cent of UK online spending … Read more
A company which began life in 1985 as a way for serving police officers to pool their Christmas savings might not sound like the ideal recipient a £200,000 prize aimed at developing a new generation of fintech lenders. Yet that is exactly what happened to Police Credit Union last March. The member owned co-operative, which … Read more
Britain’s biggest retailers should take buy now, pay later services off their websites and prevent shoppers from signing up for debt financing at the checkout by default, MPs have said, after the £2.7billion industry was found to pose ‘significant’ potential harm to shoppers. A review into the booming sector published earlier in the week found … Read more
Britain’s transition into a nation of accidental savers last year certainly had an impact on its credit card bill. Those with extra disposable income and nowhere to spend it as a result of the lockdown opted to pay down their debts and fatten their bank balances, where once the nation eschewed a savings habit. Britain … Read more
Millions of Britons in need of debt advice due to the coronavirus pandemic could be pushed into unsuitable debt solutions by companies seeking to profit from commission, regulators have warned. Britain’s ‘individual voluntary arrangement market is broken’, the Financial Conduct Authority said in a 68-page review into the state of Britain’s credit and debt landscape … Read more
Borrowers of Britain’s booming £2.7billion ‘buy now, pay later’ industry will soon be able to complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service after it was announced lenders would be regulated under new government plans. It comes as regulators warn there was an ‘urgent need’ to protect shoppers from ‘a number of potential harms’, including the possibility … Read more