Super complaint delivers ‘excellent result’ for home credit customers

Commenting on today’s final Competition Commission report on the UK’s £2bn a year home credit industry, Ed Mayo, chief executive of the National Consumer Council (NCC) said:

‘This is an excellent result for Britain’s two million poorest. They have been paying £75 million over the odds every year for these small cash loans collected at home. The new obligations on doorstep lenders should inject more competition into this market and bring down the cost to hard-pressed consumers.

‘But the Competition Commission’s remedies must be accompanied by efforts to increase the range of affordable credit choices for people on low incomes. As the Commission’s inquiry found, there is no real alternative to home credit. Reforms to the government’s social fund and more voluntary sector credit initiatives would make a big contribution in this direction.

‘Today’s news is also an excellent result for the new super complaint process – and a wake- up call to other markets that are letting down consumers. Our first super complaint succeeded in turning the official spotlight onto the home credit market and how lack of competition significantly damages the interests of low-income consumers. Without it, the home credit industry would not have been put under such close scrutiny by UK’s highest competition authority.’