Consumer finance

A Guide to Personal Finance - a practical pack to use with constituents
(PDF - 2 MB)
Aimed at MPs, Councillors and members of the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies, the pack provides guidance on the wide range of financial products and issues experienced by consumers in their everyday lives.

Money Advice
(PDF - 1.3Mb)

If you are having money difficulties and cannot repay your loan agreement, this leaflet will guide you through your options and tell you who to contact.

Your Credit Decision Explained
(PDF - 51Kb)

As responsible lenders, FLA members take account of your personal circumstances to find out what the appropriate level of credit is to grant you. To help them do this, they may assess applications using a process called credit scoring. This leaflet explains the credit scoring process.

Repaying Your Loan Early
(PDF - 107Kb)

If you are thinking of repaying your loan early, you will need to know exactly how much you will need to pay.  You may want to know how your lender has worked out how much you owe on your account, and the laws that they must follow. This leaflet will help you through the process. 

This leaflet covers fixed-sum loans (where you are given a single amount of credit or where you are given credit to make one purchase on a particular occasion) taken out on or after 31 May 2005.

It also covers some loans taken out before 31 May 2005. These are fixed-sum loans:

• up to 10 years long, which are settled on or after 31 May 2007; and
• of 10 years or longer which are settled on or after 31 May 2010. 

Repaying Your Loan Early - Rule of 78
(PDF - 109Kb)

This leaflet gives the same guidance as the Repaying Your Loan Early (above) but covers fixed-sum loans (where you are given a single amount of credit or where you are given credit to make one purchase on a particular occasion) taken out before 31 May 2005 and repaid by a single payment before:

• 31 May 2007, for loans up to 10 years; or
• 31 May 2010, for loans of 10 years or longer.

Why should I check the history of a motor vehicle?
(PDF 238Kb)

This leaflet tells you about some of the information that you can get from agencies that can investigate the vehicle’s background for you before you buy it.

Final Demand: Debt and Mental Health
(PDF - 3MB)

Debt and Mental Health is a guide for mental health workers to assist them in helping their patients through a debt problem. It has been written by a research fellow from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and was sponsored by FLA, allowing for its distribution to 13,500 mental health workers throughout the UK.

Common Financial Statement (CFS)
(PDF - 115.3Kb)

A partnership approach to dealing with debt (April 2005)

Members of the FLA’s consumer finance division are bound by the CFS, under the requirements of the Lending Code.

Related documents:
Common Financial Statement - Budget form (PDF - 132Kb)
Common Financial Statement - FAQs (PDF - 57Kb)
Common Financial Statement - Flowchart (PDF - 27KB)
Common Financial Statement - One page (PDF 95Kb)

Credit Repair Advice

If you are looking for credit repair advice, please be careful when dealing with companies which claim they can ’clean up’ your credit history. FLA works in partnership with other organisations on a Credit Repair Working Group.

 www.FinancingYourCar.org.uk

FLA has launched a new online resource to help consumers understand the breadth of finance options available to them. Our research found that there is an information gap which we hope the website will go some way to filling.

The website is not a comprehensive guide to buying a car - there are plenty of sites that do that – but it provides consumers with an impartial, informative and simple to use source of advice and information on financing their car.