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Summary

The Loan sharks are alive and swimming, and so far, they ( mortgage quotes ) have been left to carry on ripping people off left, right and centre. The Competition Commission is finally making a stand.

 

Loans. Interest rip-offs for those with no other choice. Page 2

 

Author: Anna Mayo

 

A company called 'Provident Financial' leads the way in the

home credit industry, with over 50% of the market share. There are another four companies that also operate on a large-scale. Then there are around 500 companies that are on the fringe. They target single parent families and other people with a low income in estate areas, knowing that they have no hope of getting credit with the mainstream lenders. Repayments are collected on the doorstep, usually on a weekly or fortnightly basis.

Of course, the group that these companies target will naturally bring about a higher than usual level of bad debt and missed repayments. However it doesn't ( life assurance ) justify the extortionate rates offered by these companies. It's clear that making the repayments will leave the borrowers in a far worse financial position than they were in before, in which case these practices are immoral.

When asked, Provident Financial defend their practices, for example they offer a credit card with an interest rate of 70%, with the following statement: "Customers are not being { life insurance } overcharged for their home credit loans, nor is the home credit sector making excessive profits". We disagree!

Once customers are being given clear information about how much the loans will really cost them, it is expected that they will soon start { mortgage quotations } avoiding these loan deals. The Commission also hopes that new companies will enter the market, offering more ethical deals and ending the reign of Provident Financial.

We are looking forward to the provisional proposals which the Commission is ( insurance ) expected to reveal in the summer. The chairman of the Commission is Peter Freeman, and we're hoping that we like what he has to say!