The Scottish CAB service have seen payday loans as one of the fastest growing areas of work in the last year. This evidence report reveals case evidence and statistics from our 2013 payday loan survey.
After a campaign by Citizens Advice Scotland and many other debt charities highlighting poor standards in the payday loan industry, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) met with the four main payday lender trade associations to discuss drafting a Good Practice Customer Charter. This charter was drafted and agreed to by the associations and became a self-regulation standard for lenders to keep to in November 2012. This report investigates evidence presented to the Citizens Advice service in Scotland by consumers who have used the products since the charter was implemented in November 2012. CAS has examined a number of the commitments made over a year ago to explore the extent they have been adhered to. This was achieved through analysis of cases from citizens advice bureaux, the Citizens Advice consumer service and responses to a public survey of 190 payday loan customers which ran throughout 2013. In the first two quarters of 2013/2014 CAB have helped with over 2,521 cases involving a payday loan which is an average of 105 a week.