Creation Consumer Finance

Creation is a UK lender that specialises in credit arranged at the point of sale: finance offered by retailers when you buy goods, personal loans, and car finance arranged through dealers. Many people never choose it directly. Instead, they sign a credit agreement in a shop, at a garage or online, and only later notice that the lender named on the paperwork is Creation. Its website is www.creation.co.uk¹.

The firm has a long history of trading under other names. Its previous names include AA Loans, AA Financial Services, Creation Loans, Creation Premium Finance and Open + Direct Retail Finance, so you may be dealing with it without recognising the brand¹. Its Companies House record shows an active company incorporated on 19 June 1997². This page explains what Creation offers, how its agreements work, how to pay and manage your account, and where to go if something goes wrong.

What Creation offers: retail finance, personal loans and car finance

Creation's core business is regulated consumer credit. Its FCA permission is to enter into regulated credit agreements as a lender, though not for high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreements or home collected credit agreements¹. In practice that covers three broad types of borrowing:

• Retail finance: credit arranged with a retailer to pay for goods. The Financial Ombudsman Service describes this kind of borrowing as a "point-of-sale loan, a loan arranged by the retailer to pay for goods", and it is one of the forms of credit covered by Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974³. If you buy something this way and it is faulty, or the seller disappears, the lender can share legal responsibility with the seller for purchases in the Section 75 range.
• Personal loans: instalment credit repaid over a fixed term. Creation has traded under names such as Creation Loans and AA Loans in the past¹, and personal loans are among the debt types the Consumer Credit Act normally regulates⁴. If you are comparing borrowing options generally, see our guide to loans.
• Car finance: credit that finances the purchase of a vehicle, often arranged through the dealer. Creation trades as Omoda Jaecoo Europe Finance, a name tied to those car brands¹. Car finance agreements are regulated credit agreements, and commission arrangements between lenders and credit brokers have been the subject of industry-wide redress schemes, covered later on this page.

Creation does not appear to issue credit cards, and its permission excludes the highest-cost forms of lending such as payday-style credit¹. For how credit cards and other borrowing compare, see credit cards.

Who provides Creation finance and the names it trades under

The lender behind every Creation agreement is a company registered in Northern Ireland with the company number NI032565². On the FCA Register it currently trades under two names besides its own: Omoda Jaecoo Europe Finance and BNP Paribas Personal Finance¹. The BNP Paribas name reflects the group the firm belongs to; for a borrower, what matters is that the legal counterparty on the agreement is the authorised firm, reference number 311518¹.

The list of previous names is long, and each one is a name the firm has previously traded under, not a separate company¹:

• Creation.Co.Uk
• Creation Premium Finance
• Creation Loans
• Creation
• AA Loans
• AA Financial Services
• Open & Direct Retail Services Limited
• Open + Direct Retail Finance
• Creationpersonalloans.Com
• Creationpersonalloans.Co.Uk

If an old agreement names AA Loans or Open + Direct, the creditor is the same firm. You can check any of this yourself. The FCA's Firm Checker tool exists to let consumers confirm whether a firm is authorised and has permission to sell products and services⁵, and the FCA Register can be searched using a firm's reference number for the most accurate results⁶. Searching for 311518 shows the current names, permissions and status¹.

How Creation finance agreements work

A Creation agreement is a regulated consumer credit agreement under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. The Act defines a restricted-use credit agreement as one made to finance a transaction between you and the creditor or a supplier, or to refinance existing indebtedness⁷. Retail and car finance are typically restricted-use: the credit exists to pay for a specific purchase.

Where the credit is tied to a specific purchase from a specific supplier, the lender can be jointly liable with the seller under Section 75 for misrepresentation or breach of contract, including on point-of-sale loans³. Not every agreement is regulated in the same way, though. The rules have changed over time, and whether a debt is regulated can depend on when it was taken out and how much was borrowed⁴. For example, before 6 April 2008 a personal credit agreement providing credit exceeding £25,000 fell outside the definition of a regulated agreement under the Act⁸. At the other end, the law treats agreements for credit not exceeding £50, other than hire-purchase, conditional sale or regulated deferred payment agreements, as "small agreements" with their own rules⁹. Most retail, loan and car finance agreements sit between these extremes and carry the full protections of the Act.

If you are struggling with any regulated debt, including store finance, personal loans or hire purchase, free help is available through debt advice services, and your rights under the Act are set out in our consumer protection guide.

Making payments to Creation, including by bank transfer

Your agreement or welcome letter will set out how much to pay and when. Direct debit is the usual method for instalment credit, but bank transfer is sometimes used, especially for one-off or early settlement payments. Two practical points apply whenever you pay a lender by transfer.

First, always confirm the account details before sending money, using contact details you have verified independently. Loan fee fraud works by persuading people to send money to accounts that look plausible but are not the lender's; MoneyHelper advises checking you are using a legitimate loan provider by searching the FCA Firm Checker and using the contact details listed there, not the ones given to you¹⁰. Second, tell the lender you have paid. Official guidance on loan accounts is blunt on this point:

Without notification, a payment can sit unallocated and your account can show as unpaid. For transfers generally, lenders commonly accept payment by BACS or CHAPS, or by standing order set up from your bank account¹²:

If you are paying off the whole agreement, ask for a settlement figure first, because the amount outstanding includes how interest is treated, not just the remaining instalments.

Managing a Creation account online

Creation manages customer accounts through its website, www.creation.co.uk¹. As with most lenders of this kind, you can typically view your balance, see your payment history, download statements and make payments after registering your agreement details online. The firm's permission covers entering into regulated credit agreements as a lender¹, so its online service is built around servicing those agreements rather than offering current accounts or savings.

If you cannot access your account online, or you have lost your agreement details, contact Creation using the details on its website or those listed on the FCA Register¹. Keep copies of anything you send, and ask for written confirmation of anything agreed by phone. If you are unhappy with how your account is being handled, that becomes a complaint, covered next.

Other names you may see on your agreement

The name on your agreement can differ from the name you know, and this is common across the car finance market. The FCA publishes a list of car finance lenders that shows how one authorised firm can trade under many brand names; for example, Santander Consumer (UK) Plc appears under names including Vauxhall Motor Finance, Volvo Car Financial Services and Hyundai Car Financial Services¹³. Creation is the same: its current trading names are Omoda Jaecoo Europe Finance and BNP Paribas Personal Finance¹.

So if your car finance paperwork mentions Omoda Jaecoo, that is Creation trading under a motoring brand name. If an older agreement mentions AA Loans, AA Financial Services, Open + Direct Retail Finance or any of the other previous names, the creditor is still the same authorised firm¹. The name to check on the FCA Register, whatever appears on your paperwork, is the firm with reference number 311518¹.

Complaints about Creation and where to get help

Firms carrying out consumer credit activities must have FCA permission or authorisation, and they must have a formal complaints procedure¹⁴. So the first step is always to complain to Creation directly, in writing if possible, setting out what went wrong and what you want it to do. The firm has eight weeks to give you a final response.

If you are unhappy with the outcome, or eight weeks pass without one, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The ombudsman handles consumer credit complaints covering payday loans, the affordability of lending, the quality of goods bought or hired with credit, and other types of lending¹⁵. It follows the FCA's consumer credit sourcebook (CONC) when deciding these cases¹⁵, and you start by filling in its complaint form¹⁶. Consumers who feel they were given unaffordable credit, or that a lender acted irresponsibly, may be able to complain this way¹⁵.

For car finance specifically, there have been industry-wide redress schemes about commission arrangements between lenders and credit brokers. The FCA's schemes cover whether there was inadequate disclosure of a discretionary commission arrangement, the payment of commission, a tied arrangement, or any other arrangement incentivising a broker to introduce customers to a lender, for agreements in defined periods including 2007 to 2014 and 2014 to 2024⁸. The FCA publishes a list of lenders covered, with a complaint form and a template complaint letter you can download and complete¹³. Check whether Creation appears on that list before deciding how to pursue a car finance complaint.

The ombudsman can also look at whether a firm met the Consumer Duty, the FCA rules that require firms to support customers while using their product or service and to be flexible with customers in vulnerable circumstances¹⁶. If the complaint involves discrimination, that too can be part of an ombudsman complaint¹⁶. Free, impartial help with complaining about a lender is available from National Debtline and MoneyHelper¹⁴.

How Creation is regulated and what that means for borrowers

Creation is authorised and regulated by the FCA, the body that regulates financial services firms in the UK to ensure consumers get a fair deal⁵. Its permission is to enter into regulated credit agreements as a lender, excluding high-cost short-term credit, bill of sale agreements and home collected credit agreements¹.

For a borrower, this regulation has practical consequences. Regulated agreements must be administered under the Consumer Credit Act and the FCA's consumer credit rules, and the Act covers the debts people most commonly hold through firms like Creation: store cards, store finance, personal loans, hire purchase and catalogues⁴. It does not cover everything: mortgages, debts to family or friends, loan sharks, household bills and some business debts are not regulated in the same way⁴. The Consumer Credit Act 2006 also introduced rules on "unfair relationships" between borrowers and lenders, which can be a ground for challenging an agreement's terms¹⁴.

Two protections are worth knowing:

• Section 75 can make the lender jointly liable with a supplier when you buy goods on credit it arranged, including point-of-sale loans³.
• The Consumer Duty requires firms to act in good faith toward customers, including supporting those in difficulty¹⁶.

One thing regulation does not give you here is deposit protection: the Financial Services Compensation Scheme covers deposits and some advice-related losses, not money you owe a lender, so FSCS protection is not the relevant safeguard for a Creation credit agreement⁶. The safeguards that matter are the Act's rules, the FCA's supervision of the firm, and the free right to complain to the ombudsman.