Credit card spending rises continue

25th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

£10.5 billion was spent on credit card purchases in June 2019 according to the latest figures from UK Finance. Credit card spending was 1.1 per cent higher than the same month in 2018  whilst the outstanding level of credit card borrowing grew by 4.0 per cent in the 12 months to June. Repayments have remained…

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Households miss out on switch savings

25th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Households are missing out on savings of over £400 by failing to switch the energy, home and car insurance providers. Research from comparethemarket.com has shown that the top three regions where households can save the most by switching are the West Midlands (£732), the East Midlands (£665) and the North East (£660). The insight from…

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Half of muslim consumers have never used Islamic finance

25th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Nearly half of Muslim consumers have never used Shariah-compliant products, marking a wake-up call to the UK Islamic banking industry, new research by Home Purchase Plan provider and Shariah-compliant bank Gatehouse reveals. 46% of Muslim consumers say they have never used Shariah-compliant products, according to the study. The figure — which rises to 53% among Muslim women…

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Money Statistics: July 2019

24th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for July 2019: Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1,640 billion at the end of May 2019. This is up from £1,592 billion at the end of May 2018, an extra £922 per UK adult over the year. The average total debt per household, including mortgages,…

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Quarter of students think they will be able pay back loans

23rd July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Nine in ten students have a student loan or plan to have one, but only 26% think they will be able to pay it back in full, according to research from the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) conducted by Opinium Research. The figure is lower among graduates with a student loan, with only 13% expecting to…

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FCA launches fair treatment of vulnerable customers consultation

23rd July 2019 Consumer Collections |

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a consultation on proposed guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers. The guidance sets out the FCA’s view of what the FCA Principles require of firms to ensure that vulnerable consumers are consistently treated fairly across financial services sectors. The FCA wants to see doing…

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Metro Bank announces Executive appointments

23rd July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Metro Bank has announced two new leadership appointments to the Bank’s Executive Committee, subject to regulatory approval. Cheryl Newton will be joining as Chief Information Officer. She will be responsible for developing Metro Bank’s technology agenda to further enhance the service it provides to colleagues and customers, across all of its channels. Newton is a…

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MPs urged to act on mortgage mis-selling and overpayment complaints

23rd July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Legal technology business, ME Group has asked MPs for help in encouraging regulatory bodies to speed up thousands of claims for mortgage mis-selling and mortgage overpayments. In its submission to the Parliamentary Inquiry by the All Party Mortgage Prisoners Group, ME Group says that it’s specialist subsidiary firms have carried out extensive assessments on mis-sold…

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Personal insolvencies increase for third successive year

18th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

More women than men in England and Wales became insolvent in 2018, following a pattern which has been in place for several years, says insolvency trade body R3, commenting on the annual personal insolvency statistics released by the Insolvency Service. The statistics all showed that the total rate for personal insolvencies increased for the third…

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Households facing highest risk of recession since 2007

17th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Britain is facing the highest risk of a recession since the financial crisis and preparations need to be made to mitigate the impact, according to the Resolution Foundation annual audit. Typical household incomes are estimated to have fallen by 0.5 per cent over the past two years – between 2016-17 and 2018-19 – the Resolution…

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Halifax introduces credit card freeze option

17th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Credit card provider, Halifax has announced that customers will now have a greater range of options to control where and how they use their credit card with access to ‘card freeze’ through their mobile app, allowing them to stop their credit card being used in a number of different ways. Card Freeze lets customers choose…

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70% experience debt do due to life shock

17th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

Around 23 million people have experienced a life shock in their household in the past two years. New research from StepChange Debt Charity finds that people who had experienced a life event in the last two years were three times as likely to be in problem debt than those who had not. This points to…

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Lenders can withstand no-deal Brexit

15th July 2019 Consumer Collections |

The Bank of England has said the lenders could withstand the worst case no-deal Brexit and a full-scale global trade war, but warned “material risks of economic disruption” remain from a cliff-edge EU withdrawal. In the latest report from the Financial Policy Committee (FPC), the Bank said it had assessed lenders against a doomsday no-deal…

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