Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The UK credit card market is showing signs of recovery, with new accounts up by 16% month-on-month in November, and by 162% since the May 2020 low, according to data from the latest Equifax Market Pulse series. Credit limits, an indicator of lenders’ risk appetite and applicants’ financial health, are however still sliding, down 10%…
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One in three gifted more cash to loved ones last Christmas than they did the year before, despite 40% scaling back overall Christmas spending according to new analysis by Paragon Bank. A survey of more than 2,600 customers carried out by the Bank found that 37% of savers were more likely to choose to gift…
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Older homeowners released more than £3.4 billion in property wealth last year with most of the money used to make their finances more resilient and help families via gifting according to new data from equity release adviser Key. Key says that against the backdrop of the ongoing global pandemic, there was a strong end to…
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Research from credit-builder credit card, Vanquis reveals the average consumer wants to save more (27%), spend less (24%), pay off debts (15%) and make a budget plan (13%) this year, while one in three (33%) of those with existing debt say they want to start paying it off. The research comes as an estimated 1.2…
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Latest data published by UK Finance has revealed that spending across debit and credit cards fell in October 2020 compared to the previous month, as additional social distancing measures were introduced across the UK. There were 1.7 billion debit and credit card transactions in the UK in October, a 0.4 per cent decline from September…
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Household financial wellbeing declined faster at the end of 2020 than at any time during the five years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Scottish Widows UK Household Finance Index (HFI). The headline seasonally adjusted index which measures households’ overall perceptions of financial wellbeing registered at 41.1 during the final quarter of 2020,…
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Younger drivers more than twice as likely as older generations to have deferred car financing repayments in 2020 according to new research by Deloitte. The research, based on responses from more than 1,500 driving-age consumers in the UK, revealed that 27% of drivers aged 18-34 have requested a payment deferral on car financing in 2020,…
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The coming year is set to mark the peak of the pandemic-induced living standards downturn for households, especially those on lower incomes, even as the economy enjoys a vaccine-induced recovery, according to new Resolution Foundation research. While the debate around the current economic crisis and recovery tends to focus on GDP, the annual Living Standards…
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Personal insolvencies increased by 2% to 9,518 in December 2020 when compared to November’s figure of 9,328, and were 13.4% higher than December 2019’s figure of 8,391. Further analysis of the data on personal insolvencies has revealed a 38% increase in England and Wales over the last three months compared to the same quarter in…
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Nearly a third of people (34%) organising a funeral for a COVID-19 related death has been pushed into financial difficulties according to Sunlife’s ‘Cost of dying’ report. The report also reveals that funeral costs have risen for the seventeenth year in a row, with the average cremation now costing £3,885 and the average burial £5,033,…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business fell in November 2020 by 16% compared with the same month in 2019, and remained 18% lower in the eleven months to November 2020 than in the same period in 2019. The retail store and online credit sector reported…
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New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that the consumer car finance market reported a fall in new business volumes of 24% in November 2020 compared with the same month in 2019. In the eleven months to November 2020, new business volumes in this market were 20% lower than in the…
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According to KIS Finance’s financial survey, only 31% of adults in the UK could correctly identify what an APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is, including its purpose and how it should be used. Whilst 68% of credit card holders don’t know what an APR is, bearing in mind that the APR is undoubtedly one of the…
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