Consumer Credit or Hire

Licensing

Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 you are likely to need a credit licence if you:

• sell goods or provide service on credit
• hire or lease out goods for more than three months
• lend money
• arrange credit for others
• offer hire purchase terms
• collect debts or purchase debts
• help people with debt problem
• advise people of, or help them find information on, their credit standing
• administer agreements (but do not collect debts).

Even if you don't charge for your services or are non-profit making, or you don't do these activities all the time, you may still need a licence.

You are not likely to need a credit licence if you are:

Only planning to accept credit cards issued by other businesses

Only deal with limited companies

Applications for a new licence, or renewal of an existing licence, can be made to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) online, or the forms can be downloaded as pdf files from the OFT website

Information on fees, which must accompany the application, can be found Here