Call to force four payday lenders to stop trading

Citizens Advice is urging the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to use new powers to suspend immediately the licences of four payday lenders which it believes have been "causing significant distress" to customers.

The powers, available to the OFT from 19 February 2013, allow it immediately to suspend the consumer credit licence of companies to protect consumers, for example if firms are using business practices that are deceitful, oppressive or unfair. Currently lenders can continue trading as normal while being investigated.

Citizens Advice refused to name the four payday loan firms involved, saying it did not want to affect any investigation, but it did state that two are household names.

The problems uncovered by the charity include: firms charging excessive fees; continuing to take money when debts have been paid off; firms preventing customers from making repayments online or over the phone, then slapping them with a charge for late repayment.

The charity also said that the firms had been harassing customers with repeated telephone calls, text messages and emails, as well as chasing people for debts on loans when the individual had not applied for a loan in the first place.

Citizens Advice's chief executive, Gillian Guy, called on the OFT to take immediate action to investigate and suspend the companies involved.

"These firms pose a real risk to people looking to get a short-term loan to help tide them over," she said.

"Our evidence shows these lenders are behaving as a law unto themselves. Excessive fees and charges are escalating debts and people are worried sick as companies bombard them with texts, emails and phone calls, often overstating their debt collection powers."

In a statement the OFT said: "The OFT will now be considering this letter but it is not appropriate to discuss its detail any further at present.

"We would like to highlight that the new power to suspend can only be used in the most serious cases of immediate harm, but we won't hesitate to use it where cases fit that bill. In addition, we expect to report within the next few weeks on our ongoing review into the payday sector."

Citizens Advice said it is "gathering evidence" of other lenders who are also found to be contravening OFT guidance. The charity said its Citizens Advice Bureaux in England and Wales advised 2.1 million clients with debt problems between April 2011 and March 2012 – 31% of the total problems dealt with.