Call for online 'credit curfews'
Money Box
BBC
4.2 • 825 Ratings
🗓️ 25 May 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
New safeguards for victims of bank fraud come into effect from Tuesday. Over 350 million pounds was stolen from accounts last year through what's called Authorised Push Payment Fraud - that happens when a person is tricked into transferring money into a fraudster's account. Often the banks have refused to refund victims but now they will have to.
Figures released this week by StepChange - one of the UK's largest debt charities - show a big rise in the amount of debt relief orders in England and Wales. But what is a debt relief order and why are they at a four year high?
Researchers at Newcastle University have found that a ban on online borrowing between 11pm and 7am could protect consumers and are calling for the introduction of 'credit curfews'.
And when a Money Box listener's partner died suddenly just days after they had taken delivery of a new car she could no longer afford the repayments. But the finance company initially told her it would cost tens of thousands of pounds to get out of the contract. We speak car finance with a consumer contract lawyer.
Presenter: Adam Shaw Reporter: Dan Whitworth Producer: Alex Lewis Editor: Emma Rippon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In Northern Ireland, from the late 70s to the early 90s, the IRA killed over 40 alleged informers. |
| 0:08.0 | But the man who often found, tortured and sometimes killed these people on behalf of the IRA |
| 0:12.0 | was himself an informer, a secret British army agent with the codename Stakeknife. |
| 0:18.0 | Who gets to play God? And why me? Why my family? When lies are still being told to this day, |
| 0:24.0 | who do you believe? I wouldn't even know where to start and I'm with the IRA. |
| 0:28.5 | Steakknife. Listen first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts. |
| 0:36.9 | In today's program, a call for a credit curfew, banning people applying for loans between 11pm and 7am in the hope it will stop impulse borrowing. |
| 0:48.1 | There's been a rise in the amount of debt relief orders in England and Wales, which have reached a four-year high. |
| 0:53.3 | We look at how they're being |
| 0:54.5 | used to help people out of debt. And trapped in a finance deal, we examine what your rights are |
| 1:00.3 | after a finance company insisted a widow paid tens of thousands of pounds to get herself out |
| 1:06.1 | of the contract after her partner suddenly died. But first, new safeguards for victims of bank fraud come into effect from Tuesday. |
| 1:15.4 | Over £350 million was stolen from accounts last year |
| 1:19.6 | through what's called authorised push payment fraud. |
| 1:23.3 | Now that happens when a person is tricked into transferring money into a fraudster's account. |
| 1:28.6 | Often, the banks refuse to refund the victims, saying it's the customer's fault. |
| 1:34.0 | And that means the victim can lose life-changing parts of their savings, |
| 1:38.3 | as we've heard many times before on Moneybox. |
| 1:41.0 | Well, as far as redress goes, it's a bit of a momentous time, as this new voluntary |
| 1:46.5 | code of conduct should mean that consumers are much better protected. Well, I spoke to Chris |
| 1:52.8 | Helmsley, the co-managing director of the payment systems regulator, responsible for the new code. |
| 1:58.4 | The code makes a real difference to the level of protection available to customers. |
... |
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