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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Time for New Labour to get real over debt demands AM.
August 31, 2006 8:29 PM
Local Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black, has demanded swift and decisive action to clamp down on extortionate rates of interest.
Mr Black has repeated his demand after learning of a Visa credit card to be launched by a subsidiary of Provident Financial, one of this country's biggest doorstep lenders, which will have an APR of up to 64.9%. This is sixteen times higher than the Bank of England base rate. The card will be marketed by Vanquis Bank.
Mr Black said, "This rate is twice that charged by store cards, and well above that charged by the High Street banks. Not only that, but Vanquis have said that they will be charging an annual fee for the privilege of having their card."
"This opens up once again the issue of whether interest rates on loans and credit cards should be capped in the UK as they are in many other European countries. The whole financial sector needs to get its act together over such things as high interest rates, penalty charges that bear no relation to the actual costs incurred by the lenders, targeting vulnerable customers, targeting young people, and hiding things away in the small print."
"New Labour professes to be concerned about the levels of personal debt in the UK. If that is truly the case, then they must act now to set an upper limit on the amount of interest that can be charged, and be much more pro-active in encouraging the growth of credit unions and other ethical community-based lenders. It is time for New Labour to get real over debt."
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