With £1.3 trillion pounds worth of debt in the UK, Scotland’s Citizens Advice Bureau ( http://www.cas.org.uk/ ) has welcomed a new Bill to regulate lenders and protect borrowers from creating un-repayable levels of personal debt.

Chief executive Kaliani Lyle said: "For years, Citizens Advice Bureaux have been dealing with case after case of ordinary people who have been enticed into unsustainable debt.”

"The existing legislation - the 1974 Consumer Credit Act - is simply too antiquated to deal with the explosion in aggressively marketed credit that has taken place over the past decade or so.”

The Consumer Credit Act is set up to outlaw “extortionate” interest rates, however it has proved to be ineffective as it doesn’t actually define what is regarded as extortionate.

This coincides with an investigation being carried out by banking watchdogs, into suspected mis-selling of personal loans and credit cards at bank branch levels. Following on from the BBC’s Real Story programme which revealed banks are offering large staff bonuses to encourage sales of expensive loans, credit cards and other financial products. Staff at Lloyds TSB were shown to have encouraged customers to accept sums of money they could not afford to repay.

Which? ( http://www.which.net/ ) said it believed it was time the industry had a proper debate over sales incentive structures. The BBC also criticised the expensive cost of the bank’s payment protection insurance and how credit cards were pushed onto customers. Graeme Millar, of the Scottish Consumer Council, said: “Consumers themselves need to act responsibly and ensure they are not asking for money they cannot afford to

About the Author: Lives in Edinburgh drinking vegetarian energy drinks.