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It would seem that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is about to clean up the act of used car dealers (fat chance). It will be issuing new guidelines later this year when consultations are completed on 12^th March. The action has been taken as a result of used car complaints topping the list of complaints received over the past 3 years by Consumer Direct, the Government’s independent advice service. In 2008 Read more »

The Treasury Select Committee has questioned whether individuals should be charged for copies of their credit report. At the moment it costs £2 or you can obtain a copy for free but it requires you to apply online to one of the credit reference agencies, provide credit card details as though you were going to pay monthly for anytime access, then cancel as soon as you’ve downloaded your current report, Read more »

On the subject of the new EU Consumer Credit Directive there is a change to the 14 day cooling off period that is given to consumers when they sign the finance agreements off trade premises. Currently you can cancel an agreement if it is regulated under the Consumer Credit Act and signed away from the premises of the funder, the broker or the dealer. However, if you sign on trade premises you don’t have the 14 day Read more »

For those that like to own their vehicles and have a penchant for hire purchase there is some good news, you can now receive treatment for this condition, known as ‘bonkers’, on the NHS. OK serious stuff. I reported last year that the EU had issued a directive that meant that, amongst other things, the ability to voluntarily terminate your agreement once 50% of the full cost has been repaid would no longer apply to Read more »

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is launching its 2010 Scams Awareness Month by highlighting how scammers are targeting unsuspecting people using increasingly sophisticated and manipulative techniques. New research carried out on behalf of the OFT shows the scale and types of scams carried out by post, email, text, phone or Internet aimed at vulnerable people and getting them to part with cash or personal Read more »

Cleaning up your credit file has never been more important. Less money is available to lend which means that you really must make sure that you have no errors on your file and anything that can be corrected is corrected before you apply for finance. Even using a bad broker, who makes multiple applications to several finance companies, using your single finance application, can cause you to have your credit Read more »

Carsite, the online reseller of ex lease cars, has used their experience gained over the last few years to identify the top 10 contributors to a sharp intake of breath from the car dealer, when you part exchange your car, which results in much less being offered for you car than would have been otherwise. They have even suggested what the dealer is likely to knock off his offer as a result. Some things are damage items such Read more »

As we know credit has been harder to arrange of late with some vehicle finance funders down to around a 20% acceptance rate. But if you foolishly believed that the situation would ease this year, considering the fact that bankers are again paying themselves some massive bonuses, you would be wrong! You see years ago credit card companies were credit card companies and leasing companies were either part Read more »

A few years ago I was a consultant to Yes Car Credit, a company that I hugely respected because, in many ways, they got it right! However, becoming the UK’s largest seller of used cars in about 4 years carried with it a number of problems that the UK press, as always, was eager to pounce upon. The company was selling nearly 50,000 cars per annum at the point of its demise and I would admit that the combination of Read more »

 The House of Commons Treasury Select Committee has been looking into credit reference agency ‘footprints’. A footprint is created each time a credit search is made on a person or business recorded by the credit reference agencies. Over the last few years car finance comparison sites have cropped up on the internet with some very shady providers freely advertising on them. A common routine is to Read more »