By borrowing money from one of the companies that are signed up to the Code of Practice for Consumer Lending, you may be asked to do the following as part of their acceptance of the code.
Credit assessment
The companies are committed to acting in a responsible manner. They do not wish to place any customer in a position that is likely to cause financial difficulty.
Your application will receive a proper and sound credit assessment which may require you to provide certain information about you and your financial affairs.
Information you may need to provide
You may need to provide details of:
- all other loans or borrowings that you already have
- all other regular and known financial commitments eg rent, mortgage repayments and maintenance obligations
- total monthly income (identifying what you are certain of receiving and any variables eg overtime or commission) and committed / necessary expenditure
This will help the companies to identify the income you have available to service the proposed borrowing. When providing this information, you should ensure that you do not underestimate your outgoings and allow enough for emergencies. You must not conceal any facts that may materially affect your application.
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Financial hardship
You should tell the companies straight away if your financial circumstances change, so affecting your ability to repay any of your financial obligations. They will consider cases of financial difficulty sympathetically and positively.
The sooner you discuss any problems with them, and the more you tell them about your full financial circumstances, the easier it will be to find a workable solution. In doing so, they will always try to make sure that you are left with enough money to pay reasonable day-to-day expenses.
If you are in financial difficulties, they will tell you where you can get free financial advice. If you ask them to, they will work with the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB). The CAB may complete a financial statement on your behalf which they will consider as the basis for negotiations with you in drawing up a debt management plan.
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