Doorstep Loans in the Uk, Help with Door to Door Loan Lenders

'High price' of doorstep lending

Credit conditions for people at the bottom of the ladder are getting tighter.

Consumers pay a "high price" for the convenience of home credit, according to the Competition Commission. The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) referred the home credit industry to the Competition Commission last December.

The commission said it found consumers were generally happy with home credit, whereby repayments on loans are collected from the customer's home.

However, the commission noted that there may be a lack of competition in the market.

It appears that home credit customers obtain the loans they need with repayment arrangements that suit them - but pay a high price for doing so.

Many of the people targeted by door-to-door lenders are on low incomes, sometimes with poor credit histories, and may have been refused credit by mainstream High Street lenders.

Most customers do not shop around, instead developing a special relationship with these doorstep lenders.

The bulk of the home credit market is in the hands of four providers. The NCC has argued that this makes the market uncompetitive and allows high interest rates to be charged.

Provident Financial, which controls about half of the UK's home credit market, said the sector was "increasingly competitive".

Doorstep lenders turning away business? What do they know that everyone else doesn't?

Cattles, A leading Uk doorstep Lender is right to be cautious about lending. Consumers are facing rising costs, which always impacts on the people with the least money first. And the news on that front isn't getting any better.

In other words, they're being more picky about who they lend to. In fact, they're being so picky that they expect the amount of new loans they sell to actually fall.

British Gas owner Centrica warned that customers' energy bills are set to rise again in 2006, following a 15% hike in September 2005.

Centrica's shares rose because investors like the idea that the company will make its money back by passing its surging costs directly onto its customers. But it's not such a pleasant prospect for those facing yet another year of rising energy bills. Meanwhile, accountancy group Grant Thornton predicts that nearly 20,000 people will go bankrupt in the first quarter of 2006. That would be the highest number since records began in 1960. The group reckons 6,500 of these will be as a direct result of spending too much over Christmas.

If you are or have been in the clutches of door step lending agents and companies, please contact our free debt helpline now 0800 018 6868 to discuss how to break free from these weekly collection arrangements you maybe subjected to.