Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
Eight in ten tenants feel ‘trapped’ in the rental cycle – as ONS figures show house prices for first time buyers have risen by an average of 18 per cent in the last two years, an increase of £39,680. A study of 2,000 adults who live in a rental property found 86 per cent dream…
Read more
PwC has joined the Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility in forecasting that Britain will avoid a recession this year. PwC estimates that the UK economy will grow by 0.1% this year before returning to 1% growth by the end of 2024 and 1.6% by end of 2025. It believes GDP will rise…
Read more
New analysis of UK credit card activity from FICO has revealed worrying payment patterns amongst customers who have held their cards for between one and five years, known as the established vintage. This group is showing increased rates of missed payments and other signs of financial stress. The research found that established vintage of credit…
Read more
New research from TransUnion has found that nearly four in 10 (38%) adults are using buy now, pay later i(BNPL) when shopping online, which is consistent with the previous year. More than half (53%) of those that used buy now, pay later in the past 12 months spent a total of between £100 and £499…
Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority and the Payment Systems Regulator have launched a fresh push to encourage more competition in banking services via third-party firms. As co-chairs of the Joint Regulatory Oversight Committee, the regulators issued a joint statement saying: “While significant progress has been made, there is more to be done to deliver the full…
Read more
Household spending increased last month but continued to trail behind inflation rates, according to new figures from Barclays. The figures showed that consumer card spending rose four per cent year on year in March, less than half the latest CPIH inflation rate of 9.2 per cent, as consumers made further cutbacks to cope with the cost-of-living…
Read more
New research by Fairer Finance has found that the majority of consumers are baffled by the most basic terms of their credit agreements, like how much interest they’ll be charged. Fairer Finance says that to protect consumers from being hoodwinked by credit providers, the Consumer Credit Act prescribes the information a company must give consumers…
Read more
Latest figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that consumer finance new business fell by 2% in February 2023 compared with the same month in 2022. In the first two months of 2023, new business was 1% lower than in the same period in 2022. The retail store and online credit sector…
Read more
Latest Bank of England (BoE) data has shown that consumer credit grew at 7.7 percent in February 2023 as consumers borrowed an additional £1.4 billion in consumer credit, of which £0.8 billion was through other forms of consumer credit (such as car dealership finance and personal loans) compared with £1.7 billion borrowed during January. This…
Read more
UK consumer confidence rose to its highest level since March 2022, latest figures from the GfK Consumer confidence barometer show. The Overall Index Score increased two points in March to -36. Three measures were up, one was unchanged and one was down in comparison to last month’s announcement. The index measuring changes in personal finances…
Read more
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has announced a 9.5% rise in complaints it received about financial products in the last six months of 2022. FOS received 79,921 compared to almost 72,978 in the first six months of 2022 (H1 2022). new complaints between the start of July and the end of December, compared to the…
Read more
Research by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has found that one in four (26%) of savers are taking more risks with their money in an effort to land bigger returns amid the cost-of-living crisis. A poll of 4,000 adults saw 23% of consumers with a pension say they have either decreased the percentage they…
Read more
Gifts and loans from the Bank of Mum and Dad totalled £8.8 billion in 2022, according to the latest analysis from property firm Savills. This amount has increased by almost £4 billion since the start of the pandemic (2019), as a result of a more stringent mortgage market and higher deposit requirements. In total, 170,000…
Read more