Citizens Advice warning over ‘unsolicited lending’

The Citizens Advice charity has warned that the banking practice of increasing credit limits without proper solicitation is contributing to the debt management woes of many UK consumers.

With this in mind the charity, which offers debt advice to thousands of Britons each month, has expressed its disappointment that the newly-established banking code of practice does not address these issues and concerns.

Teresa Perchard, Citizens Advice’s director of public policy, said: “We are disappointed that the opportunity has not been taken by the code reviewer, or the banks, to end the practices of unsolicited increases in credit limits and unsolicited issuing of credit card cheques.

“Such practices do not sit easily, in our view, with the commitment in the code to lend responsibly and may have contributed to a culture of consumers sleepwalking into higher levels of debt.”

Figures released by Citizens Advice in September showed that the number of Britons approaching its staff for debt advice had doubled since 1997.