Credit, collections & insolvency news
Ofcom says that it is concerned about the number of complaints it has received from Virgin Media customers who have tried to leave but said the company had made it difficult. The regulator says that some people have struggled to get through to an agent on the phone, and some found their call was dropped…
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Nearly half (48%) of older people in England on a low income have struggled to keep up with their broadband bill in the last 6 months, according to new research charity Independent Age. One in five (20%) found it a constant struggle, and 28% struggled from time to time to pay their bill. Independent Age says…
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Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt agreed a new action plan with regulators to try to ensure consumers are being treated fairly and help those struggling to make payments. As part of the government’s plan to halve inflation this year, the Chancellor chaired a roundtable with CEOs from the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), Financial…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for May 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,839.7 billion at the end of March 2023. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,513 and per adult was £34,589, around 105.3% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending shrunk by…
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As many as one million people cut off their broadband in the last year as the cost-of-living crisis left them unable to afford internet access, according to new research from Citizens Advice. People receiving Universal Credit were badly affected. The research found them to be six times more likely to have stopped spending on broadband…
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New research from National Debtline, the free debt advice service run by the Money Advice Trust, has revealed that the average level of priority debt – including council tax, energy and rent arrears – held by callers has risen 54 percent since 2018, from £2,642 to £4,080. The findings, based on a survey of National…
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More than half of low-income households are in the dark about broadband deals that could save them around £200 a year, with just 5% of eligible households signed up to a discounted package. These special offers, known as social tariffs, are available to an estimated 4.3 million households that receive one of a range of government…
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Debt charity StepChange has released its client data for February 2023, which shows monthly client volumes continue to rise, they were 19% higher in February 2023 (16,076) compared to February 2022 (13,543). StepChange says the average (mean) unsecured debt per client has increased by 25% from £11,176 in 2021 to £13,941 in 2022. There was also…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for March 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,837.4 billion at the end of January 2023. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,434 and per adult was £34,546, around 105.2% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending rose by…
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Two in five (41%) young adults are worried about their ability to pay household bills at a time when many costs are set to rise over the coming months, according to Comparethemarket’s latest Household Financial Confidence Tracker. As the cost of living has risen over the past 12 months, 44% of 18 to 24-year-olds feel…
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Credit Connect’s hosted its sixth Online Collections Technology Think Tank 4.1 last week which saw collections strategies and the impact of cost of living economic stresses discussed by thirteen collections professionals from a variety of industry sectors. The themes of collections risk, customer engagement, affordability and the future of collections were discussed by panelists and…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for February 2023 Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,832.8 billion at the end of December 2022. The average total debt per household, including mortgages, was £65,946 and per adult was £34,653, around 105.7% of average earnings. Net mortgage lending rose by…
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Households expect to need more than £200 extra per month to cover the increase in bills set to take place in April, according to Comparethemarket.com’s latest Money Action Index. The index tracks the proportion of households who are concerned about the rising cost of living and are taking action to get their finances under control. The latest index…
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