Protection
Protecting a credit file against fraud
The controls are free, quick to set up and almost never used until after something has happened.
Protection
Fraud, freezes, guarantors and the consumer rights attached to credit.
20 articles · updated August 11, 2026 · page 1 of 2
Protection
Guarantors and joint borrowing carry the whole debt
Guaranteeing a loan is not a character reference. It is an agreement to pay the entire balance.
More in Protection
Protection
What a lender must tell you when it declines you
A refusal comes with information rights in most regulated markets, and asking for them is how you find out what actually went wrong.
Protection
Automated decisions and the right to ask for a human
Most credit decisions are made by software in seconds, and several legal regimes give you a way to require that a person looks…
Protection
When a loan should not have been granted in the first place
Responsible lending rules place the duty to check affordability on the lender, and complaints about failures to do so are a real…
Protection
Withdrawal and cancellation rights on a new credit agreement
Many jurisdictions give a short window to walk away from a credit agreement you have just signed, and the clock is unforgiving.
Protection
Continuous payment authorities and how to stop them
A payment set up on a card is not a direct debit, follows different rules, and is cancelled in a different way.
Protection
Vulnerability, illness and the support you have to ask for
Regulated lenders in many countries are expected to make adjustments for customers in difficult circumstances, and almost none of…
Protection
Scams that specifically target people in debt
Financial difficulty is a marketable signal, and a whole industry buys it. Knowing the pattern is most of the protection.
Protection
Credit repair firms and what they cannot do
Everything a paid file-fixing service can legitimately do, you can do yourself for nothing. Everything else it cannot do at all.
Protection
Coerced debt and borrowing taken under pressure
Debt created through control or intimidation by a partner or relative is a recognised pattern, and there are routes out of it.
Protection
What happens to debts when someone dies
Debts are generally settled from the estate rather than inherited, and the exceptions are the ones that catch families out.