Loan sharks

A loan shark is someone lending money without a licence from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Unlicensed money lenders or ‘Loan Sharks’ are operating illegally.

You should be aware they:

• Rarely give any paperwork, making it difficult to track repayments
• Often use threatening behaviour
• Charge extremely high rates of interest
• Take away people's bank cards or log books as 'security'
• Are often involved in other criminal activity

If you have concerns then you can check if a lender has a licence using the Consumer Credit Register search on the OFT’s website.

If a lender isn't listed as having a current licence, don't borrow money from them.