Clause 19 - Unfair relationships between
Consumer Credit Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Chris Bryant (Rhondda, Labour)
I cannot comment on the hon. Gentleman's incompetence, but I give him credit—I have just been urged to say that—for bringing the issue further to our attention. On a serious point, my experience last week of phoning to have my new credit card authorised for use involved the company trying to sell me another five products, none of which I wanted. I said very early on that I did not want any other products, and that I was simply ringing to get my credit card started again. The industry should examine how they train people to deal with customers, particularly over the telephone.
In my constituency, where there are many families whose financial situations are complex or finely balanced, it is all too easy for the process of acquiring further debt—which they could not afford in the first place—to lead to financial ruin. The Government's regulatory impact assessment in the run-up to the Bill's publication cited irresponsible marketing—and irresponsible lending based on irresponsible marketing—as one of the major mischiefs that the Bill aimed to tackle. In some measure, the Government dealt with the issue of marketing techniques through the Consumer Credit (Advertisement) Regulations 2004, which emerged late last year and which laid out the wordings that must be used when someone wants to consolidate a series of loans into a single loan that is then secured on their home.