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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 »

Brake, the road safety charity and Direct Line have issued a warning article about the care of safety components such as tyres and brakes, things I have touched on previously. The fact is that far too many drivers rely on a service or MOT to identify faults and wear when in fact drivers should take more responsibility themselves. Andy Goldby, director of underwriting at Direct Line said ‘Drivers seem to be willing to Read more »

If you have an iPhone – you poseur, I don’t of course, but if you do there are now apparently ‘apps’ for just about everything – so I’ve been told. Apps. standing for applications or software programs. One of the latest ‘apps’ comes from a company called Wonga who provide what are known as ‘payday loans’, allowing people to borrow a sum of several hundreds of pounds to tide you over till payday. But what has Read more »

Do you know the most likely place in Great Britain to leave your car parked and have it broken into? Nope, it’s not Liverpool, how rude of you to even think it. Nor is it London – surprisingly, the top five spots, according to Endsleigh insurance, who carried out the survey, are headed up by Hull, followed by, in order, Nottingham, Bradford, Manchester and Doncaster. The safest place is Swindon with the fewest 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 »

Whilst the world’s biggest car manufacturer flounders around trying to find out why their cars have a habit of accelerating out of control and then not stopping with horrendous consequences, General Motors, in the US, is capitalising out of Toyota’s problems by offering incentives for people to move out of their Toyota and into a GM car offering such incentives as 5 year interest free finance, cashbacks and help to Read more »

A Department for Transport study found that healthcare workers needed more guidance on assessing whether a patient is fit to drive. They feel that more responsibility should be passed to the driver who should be made aware of the DVLA medical standards and make their own decision as to whether they feel as though they are fit to drive within the guidelines. Some things are fairly obvious such as a broken foot or Read more »