The company that had its licence to trade cancelled by the Office of Fair Trading last month, together with another related company, has decided not to appeal against the decision and therefore is no longer able to offer short term loans.
Yes Loans, which had its headquarters in Cwmbran in South Wales, together with two related companies, Money Worries and Blue Sky Personal Finance, all had their licences to trade revoked in March because of what were termed “deceitful and oppressive business practices,” according to the OFT.
The trading watchdog said at the time that the decision had been made that the companies had used high pressure tactics to sell their short term loans products and at the same time had misled their clients with insufficient information about terms and conditions and also had taken upfront fees from their clients’ bank accounts without telling them.
At the time of the decision by the OFT, it was widely reported that the directors of the three companies were going to appeal the decision as they thought that the changes they had made to their business practices late in 2011 were sufficient evidence of their intent to modify the things which the OFT had found reprehensible.
The directors issued a statement declaring their disappointment at the OFT’s decision and that their own decision not to go ahead with an appeal which was their right was not an acknowledgement of their acceptance of the reasons for their licence revocation.
The OFT had taken some time to come to their original decision and Yes Loans in particular had been in their sights for quite some time. Their final decision was based on what they termed “unfair business practices”, which included such things as pressurising customers to reveal their debit and credit card details in order to carry out creditworthiness checks.
The OFT also claimed that the company was only acting as a short term loans broker, but did not clearly spell this out to customers, who were led to believe that they were dealing with a loans provider itself.’
Other issues that the OFT considered “unfair business practice” included the deduction of brokerage fees without the consent of borrowers and not providing refunds when they were due in good time.