Home Compare Payday Loans

OFT Say No To Yes Loans

John

Yes Loans have decided not to appeal against the OFT decision to revoke their credit licence. The Directors were given 28 days to appeal at the hearing in March where the credit licences were withdrawn from 3 associated firms.

The Office of Fair Trading found that Yes Loans were misleading customers into believing they provided unsecured loans when in fact they were credit brokers. The OFT also found the company were deducting their finders fee up front without pointing out a fee was even payable and in many cases without then finding a suitable unsecured loan. In many cases they were also failing to provide refunds when customers complained they had not been offered a loan.

The final nail in the coffin though was when it was discovered Yes Loans were signing many of its clients up to payday loans rather than the longer term unsecured loan they wanted and thought they were getting.

In 2009 the OFT had warned Yes Loans it must change its business practises or face closure but despite making a few changes the warning went mostly unheeded according to the OFT statement released today.

“Despite these changes, the OFT determined that the evidence of prolonged engagement in deceitful and oppressive business practices, and the continuing presence of some of the staff responsible for running the businesses, makes them unfit to hold a consumer credit licence.”

As well as Yes Loans, the credit licences for associated firms Blue Sky Personal Finances ltd and Money Worries ltd were also withdrawn.

Directors of the companies responded with the following statement:

“After long and careful consideration, it has been decided that we will only be pursuing an appeal on behalf of Money Worries Ltd. Therefore this means Yes Loans and Blue Sky no longer have consumer credit licences and, whilst they are still able to trade, they will be unable to perform any regulated activities covered by those consumer credit licences, in particular loan brokerage.”

“For the avoidance of doubt, our decision not to lodge appeals in respect of Yes Loans and Blue Sky is a strategic one, and in no way should this be considered as acceptance of the reasons given by the OFT to revoke the licences.

“We are saddened and disappointed at the stance taken by the OFT in their determination and lack of recognition of the major re-engineering that was undertaken towards the end of 2011 which addressed the major concerns they had highlighted.”

Licences have been terminated immediately although it seems the company even now prefer to flirt with the OFT rather than be honest with potential customers. A visit to the Blue Sky Personal Finance website home page reveals a splash screen announcing they are not currently taking on any new clients rather than stating they no longer have a credit licence and are no longer able to trade.