MANY LOAN ADVERTS FOUND TO BE BREAKING THE RULES
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| Article date: 29/09/2005 : 16:59:52 |
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Over 60 per cent of regional newspaper adverts and 68 per cent of adverts in car magazines for personal loans were found to not fully comply with new regulations.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) set up a review of credit advertising, which was undertaken by trading standard services across Britain.
It discovered that many adverts did not wholly comply with the Consumer Credit (Advertisements) Regulations, which came into force on October 31st 2004.
The main reason for the regulations being broken was the presentation of typical APRs in the adverts.
Some adverts did not display a typical APR while others displayed more than one and there were many adverts that did not show the APR next to information on payments and charges.
Sir John Vickers, OFT Chairman, said: "The findings of our sweep are most unsatisfactory for consumers, who must have clear information on the costs of loans.
"The OFT and trading standards services are working with business to drive up compliance, and will take enforcement action where necessary."
If companies continue to not comply with the regulations after advice and support from the OFT, then they could be taken to court.
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