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The Act was implemented in 3 phases:
6 April 2007: the remit of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) was extended to cover consumer credit and the Unfair Relationships Test was introduced for new agreements.
6 April 2008: the Office of Fair Trading’s (OFT’s) new strengthened licensing regime was introduced, the Consumer Credit Appeals Tribunal (for appeals against the OFT’s licensing decisions) was established, the financial limit (of £25,000) was removed so all new credit agreements (unless specifically exempt) are regulated, and the Unfair Relationships Test was extended to all existing credit agreements.
1 October 2008: a requirement for lenders to provide borrowers with much more information about their accounts on a regular basis, such as an annual statement and notices when consumers fall into arrears or incur a default sum was introduced, the OFT’s regulation was extended to credit information and debt administration services which means debt administration and credit information (repair) service providers need a consumer credit licence, and consumers can go to the courts asking for longer to pay back their loan (a time order) when they receive an arrears notice (prior to October, consumers could only seek a time order when they received a default notice)
