20 October 2005
Celebrities appearing on adverts for personal loans may be luring customers into financial trouble, an article has claimed.
The New Statesman notes that personal finance firms' campaigns have long been the preserve of famous faces such as Phil Tufnell, Carol Smillie and Carol Vorderman, whose allure may be inviting those who hold the rich and famous in high stock to borrow more than they can afford.
Vorderman's Firstplus campaign, in particular, was criticised in January by MP Peter Pike, who emphasised that her words – whether placed in her mouth or not – hold plenty of weight with viewers.
He told Commons at the time: "People know her and her expertise in mathematics from her role in Countdown, so they listen and believe that she offers a way forward."
The small print, Mr Pike asserted, is often ignored in such circumstances and customers may neglect to realise that a loan might need to be secured with their homes.
The warning follows last month's findings, released by the OFT, that two-thirds of loan adverts in newspapers fail to comply with new regulations designed to enforce greater transparency where consumer charges are concerned.
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