Payday loans the next financial disaster

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaVTYoVoZaE A financial disaster is looming unless there is an urgent response to expert recommendations to clean up payday loans and consumer leases. As pressure...
April 19, 2016

Vendor terms and rent-to-buy schemes

Vendor terms or 'rent-to-buy' schemes promise to help you buy property when you don’t have the income, savings or credit history to get a regular mortgage. Often there’s a broker or agent who advertis...
March 4, 2016

Submission: SACC Review Interim Report

Consumer Action has made its submission in response to the SACC Review Interim Report. We continue to push for tighter regulation on payday loans and consumer leases, which have been shown to cause si...
January 22, 2016

Payday loans: Julie’s Story

Julie is a single mother who subsists on Centrelink payments. She was recently involved in a family breakdown and suffers from mental health issues. She has had her Centrelink reduced and as a result...
October 21, 2015

Payday loans: James’ Story

James says he has had approximately 8 to 12 payday loans from a payday lender (that also operates as a pawnbroker) in the last 12 to 18 months, but he's lost count. James says that he was recently pro...
October 21, 2015

The common car product you might get a refund for

Australians are demanding better from the products sold with used cars and winning. Sarah from Melbourne’s south east thought she had to buy an extended warranty in order to get a loan. Consumer Ac...
October 20, 2015

Payday loans: Laura’s Story

Laura lives in public housing and receives a Centrelink pension. She has a mild intellectual disability and suffers from mental illness. Laura has two young children one of which has a mild intellectu...
October 19, 2015

Add-on insurance – watch out!

Consumer Action has helped a client take on one of Australia's biggest finance companies about add-on insurance and a high-cost loan. In April 2013, our elderly client asked for a loan of $10,000 to...
October 16, 2015

Rent-to-buy products must be kicked off Centrepay

Leading consumer groups are calling for the Australian Parliament to support moves by the Senate to protect the integrity of Centrelink’s budgeting tool for essentials, Centrepay, by excluding rent-to...
September 10, 2015

Submission: Financial System Inquiry Final Report

The Financial System Inquiry (FSI) Final Report was released in December 2014. Consumer Action has made a submission to the Treasury as part of consultation on the final report. A full copy of our su...
March 31, 2015

Submission: Financial System Inquiry Interim Report

Consumer Action welcomed the panel's interim report, particularly that fairness, as much as stability and efficiency, are important objectives for the financial system. We strongly support the panel's...
September 1, 2014

Submission: Consumer Credit Regulations

Consumer Action and the Consumer Credit Legal Centre NSW have made a joint submission to Treasury on exposure draft consumer credit regulations affecting payday lenders. In summary, we are supportive...
March 5, 2014

Federal Court finds ANZ late fees were penalty charges

The Federal Court has ruled that ANZ’s credit card late fees were penalty charges rather than a cost recovery measure.  This is significant because, while businesses can recover the costs of late paym...
February 14, 2014

Direct Share Purchasing Corporation – defence kit

This self help kit was written at a time when Direct Share Purchasing Corporation had sued a number of consumers.  Changes to the law have made it unlikely that consumers will see these types of cases...
October 1, 2013

Report: The Hidden Cost of ‘Rent to Own’

We’ve all seen adverts promoting ‘Rent to Buy’ or ‘Rent to Own’ arrangements, where customers rent a product for a number of years before being given the option to buy or keep that product, but our la...
September 13, 2013