Home collected credit

21 January 2005 - Download the OFT's reasons for referring home credit to the Competition Commission (pdf 275 kb).

20 December 2004

The OFT has referred the supply of home credit to the Competition Commission for further investigation.

Home credit is the provision of credit, typically small sum cash loans, the repayments for which are collected in instalments (often weekly or fortnightly) by collectors who call at the customer's home.

The OFT's consideration of this market follows a super-complaint under section 11 of the Enterprise Act 2002 made by the National Consumer Council (NCC) on 14 June 2004.  Having considered the NCC super-complaint, and the responses to the follow up consultation, the OFT is of the view that the legal test for a market investigation reference is met. Competition among home credit lenders appears to be restricted, with lenders having limited incentive to compete on price or to attempt to win business by taking over other lenders' loans. 

See press release

Download terms of reference (pdf 22 kb)

Further information

The OFT published its response to the super-complaint and a consultation document on a market investigation reference to the CC on 10 September.

See OFT press release 10 September 2004
Download OFT response to the NCC's super-complaint (pdf 98 kb)
Download consultation paper (pdf 123 kb)
See OFT statement 14 June 2004
See NCC website for details of super-complaint

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