It has been announced that the UK government’s consumer minister is currently trying to ban logbook loans due to the fact they are seen as a predatory form of lending with companies taking advantage of the poorer members of society.
A log book loan is a loan in which the consumer signs over their vehicles logbook to a lending agency in exchange for cash. The car itself stays with the owner but if they fail to repay their debts on time the lender will take possession of the car and sell it to cover the remaining money owed.
Its certainly true that these secured high interest loans are best avoided at all costs. They may have a use for people who are desperate for cash and need to get access to credit immediately and have nowhere else to turn. The problem is that although they might provide a little short term relief the end result is often that the borrower ends up in ever deeper trouble than when they started.
If you rely on your car as your sole method of transport the using it as collateral for a loan is about the worst thing you can do at the best of times. Logbook loans companies though won’t give you a loan which even nearly matches the value of your car so if you end up unable to pay your debts you are going to lose much more than the money lent i the first place.
One top of the risk of losing your car there is also the terrible problem of the 400% interest rates incurred. Even if you never fall behind in your payments and clear your debts on time every week, you are still going to take a financial pounding by using the log book loan. You will often find that by the time you have paid off your debts you have given the lenders nearly three times the initial loan. If you were in financial trouble before you got started, God help you by the time your bad credit loan is paid off.
These secured loans obviously are going to appeal to people who need cash in a hurry and as such are not going to think long and hard about the consequences of their actions. Its for this reason that it might actually be a good thing if they are made illegal, even though I believe in the right of the consumer to choose.
If the bill goes through it will mean that under the Consumer Credit Act a loans for logbook lender will no longer be able to seize a car without a court order. My guess is that these lenders will find a new way to do business that allows them to still get away with charging their exorbitant rates but this seems to be a step in the right direction.
It looks as if the need for a new law has arisen because of the increase in the number of people using them in the last couple of years, probably due to the fact that the credit crunch is effecting an ever larger number of us. Estimates show that over £30 million worth of this single type of loan have been taking out over the last year. And with over 1,000 complaints to the Office of Fair Trading over 4 years it looks like to government has finally decided that it is time to act.
The chief executive of the citizens advice bureau David Harker is quoted as saying: “CAB advisers have seen cases where borrowers have been subject to unfair or misleading sales practices, with lenders failing to ensure borrowers clearly understand the terms of the agreement before they sign up to it, and failing to check they can afford the repayments.
“Missed payments can lead to aggressive debt collection tactics, and problems with bills of sale debts do not end with repossession. The CAB has seen cases where lenders pursue shortfalls after sale aggressively, including putting people’s homes at risk through the use of charging orders – a second chance at securing a previously secured debt.”
According to the newspapers who are reporting this story the logbook loan is a remnant of laws which were introduced in the times of Charles Dickens. It certainly seems as if they have had their day and if society is to progress we need to protect citizens from dangerous loans for people with bad credit that can lead them into even more trouble.
If you have already fallen victim to the logbook loan and are finding it difficult to repay your debts to one of these lenders then you are going to have to get some professional help to find the best way to get out of debt. In the UK your best bet is to contact the Citizen’s Advice Bureau for some expert, impartial advice. With luck you should be able to work towards a solution with doing any more damage to your finances or your credit rating.
