Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research from Tink has found that almost one in four (23%) consumers are ‘financially vulnerable’, with the majority (56%) expecting their situation to get worse over the next 12 months. The research also found that 56% say the situation will worsen as they expect their discretionary income to fall over the next 12 months.…
Read more
Nearly a third of homeowners (30%) are struggling to cover the increased cost of borrowing having seen the monthly cost of their mortgage increase by hundreds of pounds a month following interest rate rises, according to new research by Barrows and Forrester. The survey of 2,304 current homeowners with a mortgage found that 57% have…
Read more
A new Smart Data Council has been set up to help lower bills for consumers and small firms by making it easier to switch utility providers, the Department for Business and Trade has announced. The loyalty penalty, the difference between what loyal and new consumers pay for the same service, currently sits at £1,114 a…
Read more
Energy regulator Ofgem has revealed that British domestic energy suppliers have signed up to an updated Code of Practice and tougher Ofgem oversight of prepayment meters (PPMs) that are enforced under warrant installations or remotely switched without consent (all involuntary installations). The Code of Practice sets out clear procedures that suppliers must follow, strengthening protections…
Read more
Data from the Bank of England shows that banks and building societies have seen an increase in defaults. In the three months to February, lenders said that default rates on secured loans to households, such as mortgages, and unsecured loans, such as credit cards, increased and are expected to increase further in the next three…
Read more
Low-income households will be left an average of £209 short on their energy bills this financial year, new Which? research has found, as the consumer champion calls for an energy social tariff to protect the most financially vulnerable. Even with the government’s decision to keep the Energy Price Guarantee at £2,500 for an average household…
Read more
The Government has announced an extension to its mortgage support for benefit claimants. The new change will mean that an additional 200,000 Universal Credit claimants will be able to access quicker support with their mortgage. The move will mean support for Mortgage Interest loan scheme extended to 200,000 additional Universal Credit claimants in efforts to…
Read more
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…
Read more
Ofwat is calling on more water companies to trial innovative ways of charging customers, to make bills more affordable and help encourage customers to use water wisely. Affinity Water, which supplies drinking water across South East England, plans to be the first to implement a charging trial under new Ofwat rules. Due to go live…
Read more
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…
Read more
For the first time household debt has risen to over £2 trillion, which is almost the equivalent to the UK’s GDP. The fresh findings, from PwC’s Strategy& UK Consumer Credit Confidence report, also shows that UK consumers struggle to answer basic financial multiple choice questions. This is despite 88% of consumers reporting that they felt…
Read more
Inflation and rising bills mean households are spending 12% more on essentials than they were a year ago, with almost four in 10 people having to use credit cards to cover these costs, research by Nationwide Building Society data shows. The monthly Spending Report analysed around 208 million debit card, credit card and Direct Debit…
Read more
The cost of living crisis looks set to deepen generational financial inequality as Gen Z and millennials are four times more likely to need to take on new debt this year to meet rising costs according to research by Credit Karma The research found that nearly three quarters (70%) of UK currently use credit, holding…
Read more