Rise in essential spending continues to accelerate

3rd January 2017 Consumer Collections |

The biggest rise in food and drink expenditure for 20 months has driven essential spending to its strongest level of growth since February 2014, according to the latest Lloyds Bank Spending Power Report. Overall essential spending grew by 1.0% last month, the third consecutive month of positive growth. Lloyds Bank’s analysis of its own current…

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Catalogue customers hit hard for missing interest free deadlines

21st December 2016 Consumer Collections |

Catalogue customers who ‘buy now and pay later’ are being hit with shock fees for failing to pay in full within the interest free period, Citizens Advice warns today. The charity has helped 24,000 people with nearly 50,000 catalogue or mail order debt problems in the last year – with 70% of the issues related…

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31% of Students rely on Overdrafts, Credit Cards and Payday Loans

16th December 2016 Consumer Collections |

Future Finance, a specialist student loans company, has raised concerns surrounding students’ abilities to finance their educations. In a survey, which questioned 1,000 full-time students, said that 31% have had to use credit cards, payday loans and overdrafts to finance their university experience. John Hudson, manager of Funding and Financial Support at the University of Nottingham: “While…

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December 2016: Money Statistics

13th December 2016 Consumer Collections |

The latest Money Stats indicate that consumer credit has risen above £190 billion, the highest level seen since 2008. The report by the Money Charity says that’s £7,042 for every household in the UK in credit cards, personal loans and other borrowing not secured against property. Day-to-day, people have more control over how much they borrow…

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Consumer finance up 6% in October

9th December 2016 Consumer Collections |

New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 6% in consumer finance new business in October, compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 7% compared with October 2015, while retail store and online credit new business fell by 4%. Second charge…

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Consumer finance rises 7% in September

11th November 2016 Consumer Collections |

The latest figures from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 7% in consumer finance new business in September, compared with the same month last year. In Q3 2016, new business was also up by 7% compared with the same quarter in 2015. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 8%…

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October 2016: Money Statistics

13th October 2016 Consumer Collections |

Here is an overview of The Money Charity’s latest statistics for October 2016: Personal debt in the UK People in the UK owed £1.499 trillion at the end of August 2016. This is up from £1.445 trillion at the end of August 2015 – an extra £995.43 per UK adult. The average total debt per household…

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Consumer Finance continues to grow

10th October 2016 Consumer Collections |

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show growth of 16% in consumer finance new business in August, compared with the same month last year. Credit card and personal loan new business together grew by 17% compared with August 2015, while retail store and online credit new business increased by 6%…

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Law Commission’s Logbook Loan report released

12th September 2016 Consumer Collections |

The Law Commission has today published it’s report on Bill of Sale announcing a series of recommendations to protect borrowers from ‘unfair’ logbook loans. Logbook loans are a way for borrowers to use their vehicle as security for a loan. Borrowers who fall behind with payments can find their vehicle swiftly repossessed, as well as high…

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Consumers should choose the repayment date and amount: FCA Report

26th July 2016 Credit Cards |

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the the reports of it’s credit card market study. The main suggestions of the study were as follows: timely prompts before promotional periods end timely information to prompt consumers to take into account how much they are borrowing and avoid over limit charges, and giving consumers the ability to…

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FCA outlines plan to boost authorisation procedure

25th July 2016 Arrears and Recoveries |

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has outlined plans to improve the authorisation process for consumer credit firms. Figures shared by the FCA indicate they have closed 87% of applications with 99.6% within the statutory deadline. The FCA have issued the following commitments to firms applying for authorisation: The FCA will tell you as soon as your application…

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Freedom Finance acquires home and loan specialist

15th July 2016 Consumer Collections |

  Freedom Finance have acquired Sensible Home Finance

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National portal for landlords to be created by Water firms

8th July 2016 Consumer Collections |

A new national register – Landlord TAP – places all let properties in England and Wales in one place. Landlords will provide information about tenants responsible for paying water bills.

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