Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the latest analysis from its Financial Lives survey. The report found that unsecured debts in rural areas are generally lower with the average amount owed by a town or city resident over a £1,000 more (£3,600) compared with someone in a rural area (£2,510). In rural areas, where…
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Ireland’s Central Bank has published its latest mortgage arrears statistics from Quarter 1 of 2018. Highlights include: The number of mortgage accounts for principal dwelling houses (PDHs) in arrears over 90 days continued to decline in Q1 2018, marking the eighteenth consecutive quarter of a fall in the number of accounts in this category. While the…
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Ofgem has published its annual report on how suppliers treat their customers in vulnerable situations, including those in debt and at risk of being disconnected. Last year the total number of prepayment meters installed under a warrant granted by a court to recover customer debt rose from 81,000 to 84,000 compared to 2016. This works out at…
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South Tyneside Council has announced that they have agreed on a collection contract with judicial services firm, Marston. Marston will enforce failed debt payments on behalf of the council and South Tyneside Homes, the firm will also take from debtors at the local authority’s request. Cabinet member for resources and innovation and chairman of South Tyneside Homes, Coun…
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A new service enabling people to report the death of an individual to several major financial services providers at the same time has been launched. The free, online Death Notification Service is available to anyone who wishes to notify, in a single step, one or more of the member organisations1 that a customer has died. The gateway service…
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Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for June 2018: Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1.539 trillion at the end of April 2018. This is up from £1.535 trillion at the end of April 2017– an extra £949.30 per UK adult. Per adult in the UK that’s an average debt of…
Read moreOfgem has launched an investigation into the way that Utility Warehouse manages its customers who are in debt. Ofgem will investigate whether the supplier has breached rules related to the way it manages these customers, particularly whether it puts in place appropriate repayment options for its indebted customers. This includes whether it does enough to…
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SSE’s has announced that it will increase its energy prices by 6.7%. The price rise will affect 2.36m customers. Commenting on the news Gillian Guy, Chief Executive at Citizens Advice, said “It’s extremely disheartening to see SSE join the rest of the ‘big six’ energy suppliers in raising prices for its standard variable customers. Today’s price…
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Latest figures from the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) show that complaints about borrowing – ranging from store cards to payday loans – have risen by 40% in the past year. Concerns have been raised about lenders’ treatment of customers with high-cost loans. Excluding complaints about payment protection insurance, almost one in four complaints to the ombudsman…
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The number of debt decrees registered against Scottish companies sharply rose during the first quarter of 2018, according to latest figures released by Registry Trust. During Q1 2018, 7,259 debt decrees were registered against Scottish consumers, six percent more than in Q1 2017. Despite rising in number, a 14 percent fall in average value led…
Read moreOver two-thirds (70%) of UK consumers would like customer service to be more convenient and offer more channels to get in touch with organisations, according to a new report, ‘Customer engagement – the road to 2020’, commissioned by West Unified Communications Services. This shows that contact centres are still behind in offering digital technologies that…
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Nearly two-thirds of UK adults (63%) say that stress over money has affected the mental health or wellbeing of someone they know according to new research from the Money Advice Service released in support of Mental Health Awareness Week. Adults in the UK are most likely to have been worried about the mental well-being of…
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Debt Purchaser Lowell, has announced its latest set of quarterly results for the period 1 January to 31 March 2018. Commenting on the results Colin Storrar, CFO, said: “We have built on the momentum of the final quarter of last year and started 2018 positively. Focus has been maintained on the delivery of our core strategy…
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