CONSUMER CREDIT Citation, commencement, interpretation and revocation 1 1 These Regulations may be cited as the Consumer Credit (Quotations) Regulations 1989 and shall come into force on 1st February 1990. 2 In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires– “ the Act ” means the Consumer Credit Act 1974; “advance payment” includes any deposit but does not include a repayment of credit or any insurance premium or any amount entering into the total charge for credit; “the APR ” means the annual percentage rate of charge for credit determined in accordance with the Total Charge for Credit Regulations and Schedule 3 to these Regulations; “cash price” in relation to any goods, services, land or other things means the price or charge at which the goods, services, land or other things may be purchased by, or supplied to, persons for cash, account being taken of any discount generally available from the dealer or supplier in question; “cash purchaser” means, in relation to any quotation, a person who, for a money consideration– acquires goods, land or other things; or is provided with services, under a transaction which is not financed by credit; “Consumer credit tables” means tables contained in Parts 1 to 15 of “Consumer credit tables” published in 1977 by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office as modified by Correction Slips so published in December 1978 (being tables calculated in accordance with the principles set out in the Total Charge for Credit Regulations); “contract of insurance” means a contract of insurance to which the Insurance Companies Act 1982 applies; “current account” means an account under which the customer may, by means of cheques or similar orders payable to himself or to any other person or by any other means, obtain or have the use of money held or made available by the person with whom the account is kept, and which records alterations in the financial relationship between the said person and the customer; “customer”, except in the above definition of “current account”, means an individual requesting a quotation from a trader; “hire payment” means any payment to be made by a person in relation to any period in consideration of the bailment to him of goods, other than an advance payment; “premises” includes any place, stall, vehicle, vessel, aircraft or hovercraft at which a person is carrying on any business (whether on a permanent or temporary basis); “quotation” means a quotation within the meaning of section 52(1) of the Act or section 152 in so far as section 52 is applied by that section to a business of credit brokerage, being a quotation given in response to a request to which regulation 4 below applies made to a trader or to a person acting on his behalf by a customer or by a person acting on his behalf; “total charge for credit” shall be determined in accordance with the Total Charge for Credit Regulations and Schedule 3 to these Regulations; “the Total Charge for Credit Regulations” means the Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980 ; and “trader” means a person who carries on one or more of the following– a consumer credit business; a business of credit brokerage; a consumer hire business; and a business in the course of which he provides credit to individuals secured on land. 3 Any reference in these Regulations to bailment is in Scotland a reference to hiring. 4 In these Regulations, references to repayment of credit are references to repayment of credit with or without any other amount. 5 In these Regulations, any reference to the name of any person is– a in the case of any person covered by a standard licence, a reference to any name of his specified in the licence; and b in the case of any other person, a reference to any name under which he carries on business. 6 Where any expression is used in these Regulations and in the Act, for the purposes of these Regulations that expression shall be construed as if in the Act (except section 8) references to consumer credit agreements and to regulated agreements (being consumer credit agreements) included references to personal credit agreements secured on land. 7 The Regulations specified in Schedule 4 to these Regulations are hereby revoked to the extent specified in the third column of that Schedule. Form and content of quotations 2 1 Where a trader or a person acting on his behalf receives a request to which regulation 4 below applies for a quotation from a customer or any person acting on his behalf the trader shall give, or cause to be given, to the customer a document containing in the case of a quotation relating to credit the information set out in Schedule 1 to these Regulations, and in the case of a quotation relating to the bailment of goods the information set out in Schedule 2. 2 A document under paragraph (1) above shall indicate the minimum period during which the information contained in it is to apply and may be framed as an offer or in any other way. 3 Where any information set out in Schedule 1 or 2 to these Regulations cannot be exactly ascertained by the trader, whether because the request contains insufficient information or for any other reason, the trader shall either– a give such information as may be exactly ascertained by him at the date the quotation is given and, subject to paragraph (4) below, include estimated information based on such assumptions as he may reasonably make in all the circumstances of the case and an indication of the assumptions made in any document given under paragraph (1) above together with a statement indicating that if these assumptions are incorrect the customer may make a request for another quotation based on additional information supplied by him; or b give notice in writing to the customer that the request does not contain all the information necessary to construct a quotation relating to the transaction mentioned in the request and shall– i specify the information which is required; and ii indicate that the trader will give a written quotation if the customer makes another request containing that information. 4 The trader shall not base estimated information under paragraph (3) above in relation to information about the APR set out in sub-paragraph (2) of paragraph 6 of Schedule 1 to these Regulations on assumptions which are inconsistent with the assumptions set out in that sub-paragraph. 5 In the case of a quotation relating to a debtor-creditor agreement enabling the debtor to overdraw on a current account under which the creditor is the Bank of England, an institution authorised under the Banking Act 1987 , the Post Office for the purposes of a transaction entered into in the ordinary course of that part of the business of the Post Office which consists of the provision of banking services or a building society incorporated (or deemed to be incorporated) under the Building Societies Act 1986 , for any reference in Schedule 1 to these Regulations to the APR there may be substituted a reference to the statement of– a a rate, expressed to be a rate of interest, being a rate determined as the rate of the total charge for credit calculated on the assumption that only interest is included in the total charge for credit; and b the nature and amount of any other charge included in the total charge for credit. 6 The APR referred to in Schedule 1 to these Regulations shall be denoted in quotations as “APR” or “annual percentage rate” or “annual percentage rate of the total charge for credit”. 7 The specific information referred to in Schedules 1 and 2 to these Regulations in every quotation shall be clear and easily legible and, subject to the following provisions of these Regulations and except for the name and address, shall be shown together as a whole and not interspersed with other information. Prominence to be afforded to the APR in quotations and wording of prescribed information 3 1 The APR referred to in Schedule 1 to these Regulations shall be afforded in every quotation– a greater prominence than a statement relating to any other rate of charge; and b no less prominence than a statement relating to– i any period; ii the amount of any advance payment or any indication that no such payment is required; or iii the amount, number or frequency of any other payments or charges (other than the cash price of goods, services, land or other things) or of any repayments of credit. 2 Where words are shown in capital letters in any prescribed form of statement set out in Schedule 1 or 2 to these Regulations and are reproduced in a quotation they shall be afforded no less prominence than any other information relating to credit or bailment of goods which is required or permitted to be included under these Regulations in the quotation except the APR. Requests for quotations 4 1 These Regulations apply to a request which– a is for a document giving information about the terms on which the trader is prepared to do business with the customer or in the case of a credit-broker about the terms on which any person to whom he effects introductions is prepared to do business with the customer, being business comprising a transaction indicated in the request; and b is– i made in writing; ii made orally, in the presence of the trader or a person acting on his behalf, on premises where a business is carried on by him; or iii made orally on the telephone in response to an advertisement which gives the number of a telephone by means of which the trader indicates that requests can be made under these Regulations. 2 In this regulation, “transaction” means a prospective personal credit agreement secured on land or a prospective regulated agreement. Information given voluntarily 5 Where a trader gives information in writing to an individual pursuant to a request– a which does not fall within regulation 4(1)(b) above; or b to which these Regulations do not apply by virtue of regulation 6(1) below; and which is a request for written information about the terms on which the trader is prepared to do business with the individual, being business comprising a transaction indicated in the request, he shall give the information in a document which complies with regulations 2 and 3 above as if the document were a quotation. Application of Regulations 6 1 Subject to paragraph (2) below, these Regulations do not apply to a request for a quotation which– a relates to fixed-sum credit to be provided under a debtor-creditor-supplier agreement, where the cash price of the goods, services, land or other things to be supplied under a transaction financed by the agreement does not exceed £50; b relates to a transaction in respect of which a quotation (not being a quotation given under regulation 2(3) above) was given by or on behalf of the trader to the customer within the period commencing 28 days before the request is received; c is made by or on behalf of a customer residing outside the United Kingdom at the time the request is made; or d is made by or on behalf of a minor. 2 Where a request within regulation 4 above relates partly to credit specified in paragraph (1)(a) above or partly to a transaction specified in paragraph (1)(b), and partly to other credit or another transaction, these Regulations apply to the request in so far as it relates to that other credit or that other transaction. 3 These Regulations do not apply where the trader, within a reasonable time after receiving a request for a quotation, informs the customer or a person acting on his behalf by notice or orally in his presence that the trader does not intend to do business with that customer or does not intend to do business with him except business which is arranged by another person, being business comprising a transaction indicated in the request. Francis Maude Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry 5th July 1989