Consumer Credit Awards winners announced

The winners of the UK’s largest consumer-voted awards for the consumer credit industry have been revealed at a ceremony in Mayfair. Over 27,000 consumers voted in this year’s Consumer Credit Awards, sharing their thoughts on 137 firms.

Launched in 2016, Birmingham-based not-for-profit Fair For You took home 2 awards, including ‘Best Newcomer’ and ‘Consumer Credit Champion’, beating some of the UK’s largest consumer credit businesses along the way. Fair For You is a rent-to-own retailer that provides lower cost credit.

Mike Fotis, Founder of Smart Money People, who run the awards said, “UK households now are sitting on an eye watering £197.4bn of consumer debt (excluding student loans), so it’s fairly obvious that the consumer credit industry is booming. The Consumer Credit Awards aim to find the very best firms in this field, and it is particularly pleasing to see that among our winners this year are firms intent on doing a better job for customers and on solving the very real credit problems faced by millions of consumers.”

Drafty took home the much coveted award for ‘Innovation of the Year’ for their personal credit line product which looks set to grow in popularity as an alternative to payday loans over the coming year.

Full List of Winners

• Best Newcomer: Fair For You
• Innovation of the Year: Drafty
• Consumer Credit Champion: Fair For You
• Customer Service Champion: Mr Lender
• Treating Customers Fairly Champion: Sunny
• Best Finance App: Barclaycard
• Best Personal Loan Provider: Bamboo
• Best Consumer Credit Broker: Freedom Finance
• Best Guarantor Loan Provider: Amigo
• Best Short Term Loan Provider: WageDayAdvance
• Best Credit Score Provider: ClearScore
• Best Car Finance Provider: MotoNovo
• Best Logbook Loan Provider: Varooma
• Best Pawnbroker: H&T
• Runner-up: Customer Service Champion: Ferratum
• Runner-up: Treating Customers Fairly Champion: TFS Loans

Angela Clements, CEO of Fair For You said, “Fair for You is a new Community Interest Company, set up to challenge high cost credit and change the way we lend to lower income households in the UK. We came out of the credit union sector to create a UK wide solution that can be a real alternative. We provide small loans to households to buy the essential things they need in their home, on flexible, affordable, transparent and supportive credit. We are thrilled to be recognised by our customers voting for us at the Consumer Credit Awards.”

Mike Fotis added, “The results of the Consumer Credit Awards help us to find out what’s really going on across the consumer credit industry, and it’s particularly pleasing to see such a wide variety of firms represented amongst our winners.”

The winners were revealed at an awards ceremony on 13^th July at the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair.