Credit Action

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Credit Action is a UK charity founded in 1994 that promotes money education and financial literacy. Credit Action works with government, regulators and the lending industry and has a close partnership with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), a debt counseling and management service.

The charity has offices in[Bloomsbury], London, but works nationwide.

Aims

Credit Action aims to generate ‘better thinking about money,’ by promoting sensible and effective personal money management. In additional to general information about financial subjects of interest to consumers, the non-profit organization provides specific "money guides" for students, single parents and those in debt.

History

Credit Action was founded in 1994 by Keith Tondeur with support from the Jubilee Centre, working primarily through the church in the UK. In 2002 Credit Action transferred its financial advice helpline to CCCS as demand was greater than Credit Action could meet.[citation needed] They have been known to make a stand for consumers where they believe that they are being exploited by unfair lending practices. A prime example of this is the campaign launched in May 2008 criticizing illegal credit advertisements on social networking sites.[1]

In November 2007 Credit Action, in partnership with GE Money, launched a mobile phone budgeting tool called the Moneybasics Spendometer[2][3] as a key part of their strategy to develop practical money management solutions.

At the start of 2008, in conjunction with One Parent Families, Credit Action released a handbook for single parents - as single parents often specific money management issues to deal with.[4]

Credit Action has highlighted the growing issue of payday loans in the United Kingdom, with Credit Action's Chris Tapp saying in mid-2008: "Over the past year, payday loans have become an issue in the UK, and the growth in people who have problems who have such a loan has been notable in the last six months.".[5]

Credit Action is having an increasing role in helping form government policy in financial education and over-indebtedness. Most recently, they were mentioned by Lord Anderson of Swansea and Archbishop of Canterbury in a debate on indebtedness in the House of Lords.[6]

The charity was recently selected by New Philanthropy Capital as a recommended charity for donation in its July 2008 report Financial Exclusion: short changed[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Facebook users warned about ads". BBC News. 2008-05-12. Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
  2. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCUDJlxnFyQ
  3. ↑ http://www.techgadgets.in/features/2007/15/spendometer-is-your-perfect-money-manager-says-head-chris-tapp/
  4. ↑ Insley, Jill (2008-03-23). "One-parent families fear cuts forced by crunch". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-04-30. 
  5. ↑ Between August 2007 and June 2008, the number of loans made grew by 130%. Gráinne Gilmore (2008-06-26). "Rise in payday loans show credit problems still to come". The Times (London). Retrieved 2008-07-07. 
  6. ↑ http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2003-10-21a.1569.7
  7. ↑ http://www.philanthropycapital.org/research/research_reports/community/financial_exclusion.aspx

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.