Just when I thought my confidence in the Office of Fair Trading’s regulatory prowess could sink no lower, the inbox pings and a press release tells me more about the “great” work it is doing. I can’t say that I agree. Around five years ago I was asked to investigate a credit broker that traded under the name of Yes Loans UK. I found that the Cwmbran-based intermediary had been accepting up front ‘administration payments’ of £49.50 a time to process subprime loan applications and had not refunded the so-called fees for up to six months afterwards, even when applications were declined. While this practice was outlawed by the OFT a long time ago, the story was aggravated by the fact that the company then waited for hard-up customers to call them to secure the return of their cash. These customers were then put on hold for long periods on a telephone line charging 10p per minute, with some customers clocking up bills of up to £52.50 for one call.....Read more here--: COMMENT: Consumers abused while OFT ‘regulates’