The Advertising Standards Agency has announced that it has banned a national press ad for claims management company, Unfair Credit Direct, following a complaint.
The ad, headlined “Mis-sold Mortgages”, stated: “Your unsecured loan & credit card agreements may be unenforceable? Call us now to find out! Do you know that through brand new legislation 70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable?”
The complainant challenged whether the claim “Do you know that through brand new legislation 70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable?” was misleading and could be substantiated, whilst the ASA challenged whether the ad should have made clear that a fee applied to the claims handler’s services.
Unfair Credit Direct said they had used the ad for two years and had worked with the Ministry of Justice to ensure they also were satisfied with the ad, explaining that they had based the claim “70% of credit agreements may be unenforceable” on their initial studies conducted from within the industry.
The firm added that they had made many agreements unenforceable, and that more cases were still in progress. Unfair Credit Direct said, once those cases were completed, they believed the 70% claim would be proved to be accurate. In the interim they had included the word “may” to make clear that the figure may not be correct.
Unfair Credit Direct said, as a result of the legal uncertainty created by test cases in this area, they had decided to withdraw the service from their portfolio and would not be advertising it again.
The claims handler said they did not charge upfront fees but did charge fees once they were in a position to move forward with contesting a client’s agreement, and that these fees were made affordable to clients through a month by month payment arrangement. They said their terms and conditions made clear that they fully refunded clients for whom they had not successfully made an agreement unenforceable.
However the ban was upheld by the ASA, who believed that simply using the word “may” was not sufficient to counter the overall impression of the ad. The agency also said that Unfair Credit Direct had not shown any evidence that 70% of credit agreements might be unenforceable.
The ASA noted that, while Unfair Credit Direct did not charge upfront fees, they did charge for their services. It was considered that the ad should have made clear that a fee applied to the advertised service, and because it did not the ASA concluded that the ad was misleading, and ruled it must not be shown again in its current form.
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