Good morning / 12.10.08
Consumer Home
Consumer Home
27 October 2005
Consumers who rely on home credit may be settling for convenience ahead of a good deal, a report has claimed today.
Door-to-door loan lenders offer a service that people seem generally happy with, according to the Competition Commission, but a lack of competition in the industry which is dominated by four main providers - is said to be pushing up customer costs.
The commission was asked to investigate the home credit industry by the OFT last December, after a complaint from the National Consumer Council that the service it provides relied upon often by people earning low wages and those with low credit ratings lacked consideration for its consumers.
The acting chairman of the commission, Peter Freeman, said that, while people are getting the service they want, they're paying out for the privilege.
"From the evidence so far 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," he said.
In August, BBC News published a feature on its website showing people without access to loans from mainstream banks and thus effectively cornered into the home credit market citing examples of people saddled with interest payments of over 30 per cent.
© Copyright Adfero Ltd
