The repayments on many loans and car finance are too high to be manageable so people get deeper into debt trying to repay them.
When you applied, a lender should have checked a loan would be affordable for you – often they did not check properly and you should never have been given this loan.
This article describes how to complain, with a template to use.
Many people have won complaints using this. If you win, you get the interest refunded in cash. When you still owe a balance, the interest is removed so you only repay what you borrowed.
These complaints do not hurt your credit record if you carry on making the loan repayments while the complaint goes through.
Contents
A quick overview
What types of loans?
- any personal loans, including high-cost lenders, bank loans, and credit union loans;
- you can complain if you are still paying the loans, it has already been repaid, it has defaulted, or you have a payment arrangement/DMP;
- a consolidation loan may have been cheaper than the credit cards it cleared – but it may still have been unaffordable!
- you can also complain about car finance. But if you are still paying car finance, be careful – read Car finance affordability – what you get if you win a complaint
- the complaints here do not apply to mortgages or business loans.
What is “unaffordable”?
The regulator says “affordable” means:
you can make the repayments without hardship or having to borrow elsewhere.
For large loans, a lender should have made adequate checks at the start. The larger your loan, the worse your credit score and the more other debt you had, the closer a lender should look.
If your loan was fine at the beginning and only caused problems later when you lost your job or your mortgage repayments went up, you are unlikely to win an affordability complaint as this could not have been predicted at the start.
How does this work?
You first make a complaint to the lender saying the loan was unaffordable and ask for a refund of the interest.
There is a template here you can adapt to say what happened to you. Send it by email.
The lender has up to 8 weeks to reply. Lenders reject many good complaints, so you can send a rejection to the Financial Ombudsman.
Complain to the lender
Email addresses for lenders
If your loan has been sold to a debt collector, send your complaint to the original lender not the debt collector.
It’s easiest if all communications are by email – free, instant and you have a copy with a date stamp to show the ombudsman.
For banks, see this list here: email complaint addresses for banks.
For car finance and logbook loans, see this list: email address for car finance lenders
Here are the email addresses for some non-bank lenders. There are a lot of other smaller lenders, including many Credit Unions. If your lender is not listed, ask in the comment below for an email address.
Abound (used to be Fintern) complaints@getabound.com
Admiral loansquality@admiralgroup.co.uk
Anico complaints@anicofinancialservices.com
Avant Credit emailcomplaints@avantcredit.co.uk
Bamboo Loans complaints@bambooloans.com
Better Borrow enquiries@chetwood.co
Castle Community Bank complaints@castlecommunitybank.co.uk
Creation customercare@creation.co.uk
Everyday Loans – for loans after 31 March 2021, see Evlo and use the template in this article. It is no longer possible to make complaints about their loans before that date
Evlo (rebrand of Everyday Loans) chioma.nwachukwu@evlo.co.uk
Fair Finance complaints@fairfinance.org.uk
Finio Loans (rebrand of Likely Loans) complaints@oakbrookfinance.com
Fluro (used to be Lending Works) cx@fluro.co.uk
Koyo loans info@koyoloans.com
Lendable complaint@lendable.co.uk
Lifestyle Loans info@lifestyleloans.co.uk
Likely Loans – see Finio
LiveLend support@livelend.co
Loans by Mal (Monthly Advance Loans) Complaints@loansbymal.co.uk
Loans 2 Go read Loans2Go – how to complain
MBNA mbnaonlinecomplaints@mbna.co.uk
Moneyline headoffice@moneyline-uk.com
My Community Bank complaints@mycommunitybank.co.uk
Novuna (used to be called Hitachi) ComplaintsTeam@NovunaPersonalFinance.co.uk
Plata complaints@plata.com
Plend complaints@plend.co.uk
Progressive Money complaints@progressivemoney.co.uk
Quick Loans customerscare@quickloans.co.uk
Reevo complaints@reevomoney.com
Salary Finance (Neyber) complaints@salaryfinance.com (for loans, not “pay advance”)
Savvy info@savvy.co.uk
Shawbrook Customercare.team@shawbrook.co.uk
Snap Finance customer@snapfinance.co.uk
Tandem pl@tandem.co.uk
TM Advances info@tmadvances.co.uk
Updraft complaints@updraft.com
Vanquis customer.relations@vanquisbank.co.uk
Zopa complaints@zopa.com
118 118 Money complaints@118118money.com
Use this template
Email the lender to begin your complaint. Put AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT as the subject of your email.
Template for you to adapt:
I have moved since the loan started. My current home address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Please do not send any letters to other addresses there may be on my file. [only include this if you have moved!]
Please confirm the date this loan started, the amount, the interest rate and the monthly repayments. [don’t include this if you already know the information]
I am asking for a refund of the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record. [the refunds for car finance can be a lot more complicated than this, see but this is all you need to put in your complaint]
I also want the CCJ that I have for this debt set aside. [delete this sentence if you don’t have a CCJ!]
I attach copies of my bank statements and credit report from the time I applied for this loan/these loans. [delete if you don’t yet have them yet, but they help your case if you do. Even if they show gambling, that supports your argument the loan was unaffordable.]
I didn’t know that the lender was supposed to check that I could repay the loan without having to borrow more. I only found out in [2025] when I saw a newspaper article in the Sun/an advert on Facebook for refunds/a friend said they had made a complaint/posts about them on Instagram/TikTok, whatever. So I am complaining within 3 years of having found out that I have cause to complain. [only put this paragraph if some of your loans are more than 6 years old. It explains why you haven’t complained before. It’s only an example so change it so it really covers what happened to you!]
Add extra information if you want – see below for some ideas – you don’t have to do this.
Do you need a payment arrangement now?
If you want an affordable payment arrangement now, add a sentence to the complaint saying this. These complaints may take months to sort out – a payment arrangement can get your finances into a safe place:
- a payment arrangement shows on your credit record, but if you win the complaint all negative marks will be deleted
- talk to a debt adviser such as National Debtline if you want to know more about payment arrangements
- but don’t risk a payment arrangement for car finance or a logbook loan – one would put your car at risk.
Other details to add if you want
The template above is fine, you don’t have to add a lot more details.
But you can add extra points if they apply in your case, for example
- my bank statements and credit record (attached) show that I was unable to afford the loan repayments.
- this was a large loan, you knew I had poor credit and may have been in a difficult position so you should have tried to verify my income and expenses. If you had done this, you would have rejected my application.
- during a telephone call, your agent suggested some figures should be lower to get my application accepted.
- if the lender was your bank – you should have seen from my bank account that I was in financial difficulty, I was using my overdraft a lot, I was only making minimum payments to my credit card from you.
And some examples of points about top-ups:
- a credit check would have shown that my finances had got worse since the first loan
- I had said the first loan was to consolidate debt, but you should have seen that this hadn’t happened.
While you are waiting for a reply
Try to get copies of your bank statements from 3 months before a loan to three months afterwards. You can get statements from closed bank accounts, normally going back 6 years.
Also get a statutory credit report now and download it. You can get one from TransUnion. Do this as soon as possible as sometimes the details change, so you want a full one saved to show the Ombudsman later if necessary.
Do not wait until the Ombudsman asks you for credit records or bank statements – you want them ready to hand. They really help your case as they prove your financial situation when you took the loan out.
You should get a response from the lender within 8 weeks. If you don’t, phone them up and ask when you will get it – a couple of days is worth waiting for but many responses are rejections, so don’t wait weeks for one, go to the Ombudsman straight away.
Go to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a good offer
Don’t be put off by a rejection! Sometimes lenders send long, complicated replies designed to make you look as though you should give up:
- if they say the loan was over 6 years ago, see below for “time limits”. The Ombudsman may go back further than 6 years.
- they may say you were going to use it to consolidate more expensive debts – that doesn’t mean this loan was affordable, just not as unaffordable as the other debts;
- if the lender said it was your fault because your loan application wasn’t accurate – the lender should have made checks to verify it.
I suggest you rely on your instinct – if the loan caused you problems, send it to be looked at by the Ombudsman.
If you aren’t sure, ask in the Comments below this article. You only have 6 months to send the complaint to FOS, so it’s best to do this as soon as possible.
It isn’t usually worth trying to negotiate with these lenders, you are just wasting your time.
Send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
This is easy with the online form here: Send a complaint to the Ombudsman. It asks you for all the details they need.
The main part of your complaint can be a version of what you sent the lender in your complaint. Add any more details you want, including pointing out mistakes in the lender’s reply. Also attach:
- the reply from the lender
- Trans Union statutory credit record
- bank statements starting 3 months before first loan
- do not worry if you don’t have A copy of your credit or finance agreement – lots of people don’t. The lender will supply a copy if FOS asks for it. Don’t delay sending a complaint to FOS while you try to get this from the lender.
Other information that may help your case
Don’t delay sending a case to the Ombudsman while waiting for this information.
If you don’t have the bank statements from the time of the loan application, get them now. You can get these going back at least 6 years even from closed accounts. And you can often go back a lot further with an account that you are still using.
This is a good point to ask the lender for a Subject Access Request (SAR) if you are missing information that may come in useful at the Ombudsman. This could be your loan applications, all credit and other affordability checks and assessments, and a statement of account for the loans, and – if you think this will help – a record of all phone calls.
Your lender will have details of how to ask for this information on their website – it’s often included in their Privacy Policy, with a link at the bottom of web pages.
“Is there a time limit?”
You can’t complain about a loan that started before April 2007 – that is when the law changed to allow these complaints.
Lenders will often reject a complaint if the loan started more than 6 years ago.
But if your loan was still being repaid within the last 6 years, the Ombudsman may well decide they can look at it. So if your loan started in 2017 and finished in 2021, send this to the Ombudsman if the lender says it’s too old, because it isn’t.
The ombudsman may also look at older loans if you had a continuous stream of borrowing which carried on into the last 6 years. So if you had 2 loans, the first from 2014-17, when it was refinanced into a loan from 2017-2021, the Ombudsman may decide they can look at the earlier loan as well. And if you had two overlapping loans, eg from 2014-2019 and 2017-2022, the Ombudsman may look at both.
But if your loans from this lender ended more than 6 years ago, then it is very unlikely you will win a case at the Ombudsman.
Need some help?
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive, often incompetent and use a similar template to the one in this article.
Instead, ask a question in the comments below.
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Refunds from cards and catalogues
Stacey says
Hi Sarah!
Just wanted to say I used your template for loan refunds and after Zopa initially rejected my complaint I took it the FOS and they’ve now upheld it! Were it not for you I’d have never had the knowledge or confidence to do this, so thank you so much! It’s always worth trying!
Becca says
Hey Stacey. That’s great news! Do you mind me asking what stage did it get to? I’ve had a positive stage 1 decision but waiting to see if Zopa come back to challenge the investigator’s initial decision. Just trying to second guess the likelihood of Zopa pushing back
Kelley says
I also have complaints against Zopa. They rejected my complaint about a current and a paid-off loan. The FOS investigator has upheld on the old one but not the current one, which seems odd as I think I was in a worse overall financial situation with the more recent one. I think it is because I had more credit card debt on the first loan, but more loan debt on the second one, and they’ve worked out monthly commitments (based on 5% of balances) that seemed higher around the time of the first loan.
I will check the figures before getting back to the investigator but I am probably going to agree to accept the decision if Zopa do, but if they push for it to go to an ombudsman I’ll say I want both loans reviewing.
Does anyone have any updates on their cases with Zopa please?
Thanks.
katie says
Hey, how long did it take for FOS to make the decision from when an investigator was allocated to your case?
AQ says
Hello Sara,
I am considering to raise affordability complaint against PayPal. My worry is I opened this account in February 2020. If PayPal rejects it can I take it to FOS or they won’t entertain it? Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people seem have older PayPal cases being looked at, so worth a try
Jordan Williams says
Hello,
My partner has car finance and we believe she should never have been accepted for £22k HP finance.
She has had the car for two years and has two years remaining, she pays £380 per month, the balloon payment is £7k at the end.
What’s the deal with complaining whilst she still has payments to make and the car hasn’t officially been paid off?
Will they take her car? We are worried if this would be the case. The loan is with Close Brothers.
Thankyou
Jordan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
22k was the amount she borrowed?
Did she (or you) have car finance before this one that started before Jan 2021?
Jordan Williams says
Hi!
Yes I had car finance in 2021 January and in 2020
Sara (Debt Camel) says
use this free MSE tool to start a possible claim for a refund of commission on the old finances: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-car-finance/
if this works, there won’t be any money until next year
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you confirm if you borrowed 22k? or did that include the interest that is added?
how much in total has been paid to this so far?
Sharon says
Hi there
Hoping for some advice about complaints time limits. I’ve made a complaint about a secured loan that was taken out in 2016. In summary, huge interest, hard selling, used to pay off short term loads that were escalating etc…I complained in 2025 as I had only just became aware that responsible lending complaints were possible about secured loans (I knew about Paydays loans etc as these are widely publicised). The FOS is claiming that I should have been aware sooner and therefore won’t explore my complaint. Any advice on how to challenge this would be hugely appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All you can do is repeat that if you had had any idea that an affordability complaint was possible about a secured loan, you would have complained in 2017 when you made complaints about payday loans. Point out that there is no conceivable reason why you would not have done this so this is actually evidence that you did NOT know about this sort of complaint back then.
Ask the investigator to reconsider and send the case to an Ombudsman if they dont change their mind.
Dean says
Hi Sara I messaged a while back about the HP claim going on I’ve message black horse with the template around 9 months ago shall I now message the ombudsman now with my complaint?
Many thanks
Dean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is this an affordability complaint or about a refund of car commission?
Dean says
Car commission I messaged a while back and you said about the verdict was this December from the high court or something but I’ve never sent it to the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I said the FCA has allowed lenders to “pause” complaint handling and they don’t have to reply until December 2025.
A Supreme Court Case was held in April. The judgement should be out this month or early August. The FCA will then make announcement on its proosed way forward 6 weeks after that judgment is handed down.
Dean says
Amazing thank you so shall I send to the ombudsman then now or wait?
Manybthanks
Dean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wait – there is no point in sending this to the ombudsman now.
Paula Smith says
Hello
Firstly I would like to say thank you for all your help and assistance I have had a few claims now settled.
I just have one more question I settled a credit card full and final settlement in January 2024 as my husband paid it off for me and never heard anything from them.
They have now agreed to settle my affordability claim but are trying to take the difference off, that they reduced to give me a full and final settlement figure.
Can they do this?
I thought a full and final settlement figure was binding. I have spoken to them on the phone but getting nowhere.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so your husband settled the card for less than the balance?
If he did, then yes it’s right to reduce your refund.
Let me give a very simple example with unrealistic figures . Suppose you spent 5000 on a card and £150 interest was added for each of the first three months and you never paid them anything, the balance would then be £5450
Say you then offered to settled for £5,100 and the lender accepted.
Then you made an affordability complaint and won. You are not going to get a refund of the £450 interest added because you have paid that much. You can only get a refund of the £100 interest you actually paid.
Paula Smith says
Thanks for getting back to me I really appreciate your time.
The balance on the card was £2900, we paid off £2140 as a full and final settlement figure n January 2024 and noted on my credit file balance zero on 6th February 2024. The FOS said this card should never have been given and for interest to be paid back, charges, let fees and 8% if the balance was clear. I had the
card for 28 months and the refund they have processed is for £174, and put over £800 towards my BIP account.The Apr on the card was about 39% . Is the £174 about right?
Sorry for asking but I’m useless trying to work it out.
I have contacted BIP but they aren’t helping I don’t know whether to try and send it back to the FOS
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This was a newday card? when was it opened?
When was Bip opened? Did you also complain about that?
Paula Smith says
I had two cards one was marbles which I was still paying to a debt recovery company but they have refunded £1540 which cleared the balance( this was the first card I got through new day it had a £2000 credit limit I got that card in 2021). The card I refer to above was New Day BIP card taken out in July 2022 and I made the payment in January 2024 and this is the one they have refunded me £174 on.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so the Marbles card and the refund to that are totally separate to this BIP issue – correct?
The balance on the BIP card was £2900, we paid off £2140 as a full and final settlement figure n January 2024 and noted on my credit file balance zero on 6th February 2024.
So that was a reduction of £760, right?
The FOS said this card should never have been given and for interest to be paid back, charges, let fees and 8% if the balance was clear. I had the card for 28 months and the refund they have processed is for £174, and put over £800 towards my BIP account.The Apr on the card was about 39% . Is the £174 about right?
So they have used over 800 to clear the BIP balance which you think was already clear? And given you £174 in cash?
Have I understood this correctly?
Paula Smith says
Hi Sarah
Yes that correct Bip refund totally separate to the marbles refund.
Yes they have used the £800 to pay the bip balance which I paid in full as a full and final settlement in Jan 2024 and updated as agreed on my credit file as zero balance and close in Feb 2024
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so I think they were entitled to do this. You never actually paid that much in interest because of the final settlement, so you wont get it all back in cash.
Whether their figure are right is a different matter. Can you add up from the statements the total amount you have paid in interest and charges in the 28 months? I can’t guess at that amount. Bip seem to say its about 800 + 174 = 974.
Even if you can only see a few statements that would help?
Paula Smith says
That’s great thanks for getting back to me.
I will contact BIP and ask to provide me with the details of interest and charges paid as I no longer have access to my online account as when made the final payment they closed the account.
Thanks again
Gareth says
Looking for advice. I sent a complaint to Vanquis for a sunflower loan I had, I hadn’t heard anything
back so I contacted them to see and they said they just closed the complaint as a had a final resolution 1 year
ago but that resolution was for an old loan I had before and not the current loan. Now should I complain
straight to the ombudsman or send a new complaint to Vanquis explaining that it was for a different loan. Only issue
now it’s over 3 years and I’m afraid they’re going use that excuse that they can’t look into it due to being over 3 years.
When i originally complained in May it was under the 3 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to them and say that response didn’t cover your current loan
Gareth says
Thank you. Ive emailed them now so hopefully will get sorted
Caroline says
Hi Sara, hoping you can give me a little advice – really appreciate the work you do here!
I made a complaint about three loans I was given by RBS and the FOS has not upheld it as they say there’s nothing in my credit reports or statements to show I was struggling financially.
I think this is unfair based on the circumstances but I’m not sure if I’m right or if its worth pursuing, and if so what I should say/do in response.
Basically, I had two accounts with RBS with combined overdrafts of £3200 for many years (monthly income was about £2k). In 2018 I told them I was struggling with these plus a credit card. Agreed a £10k loan in July but I didn’t close the overdrafts and was back to relying on them by October 2018 so took another £8k loan online. When I finished paying both loans off in 2021 I was still in both overdrafts monthly and still had a high amount of CC debt. So I took out another loan with RBS online for £13.7k to consolidate these.
I am still in a large amount of debt, paying this loan and CCs. Obviously I have personal issues related to emotional and impulse spending which I am working on, but I think RBS could have done more to help me, or at least curb my borrowing, based on the fact I approached them and told them I was struggling.
Do you think I have any case here to appeal to the Ombudsman? I have complained separately about the overdrafts but it is still being reviewed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so did you clear the card with the first two loans? and again with the second?
Caroline says
I cleared the card yes and the overdrafts but then kept using them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the cost of the loans was a significant part of the reason you ended up using the cards again, I suggest you send this to the ombudsman
Caroline says
I will, thank you!
Steven says
Hi Sarah
After a bit of advice had a 2 loan chain with natwest did not upload loan 1 which I had for only 5 months but have found in my favour loan 2 this is my only uphold where I still have money left to repay.
So was wondering what this means the loan was £12,150 from January 2022 I pay £292.12 per month there will be 15 payments left after this month.
My advisor said this in her uphold providing Natwest except.
NatWest should have not of opened loan 2 due to the high level of gambling and would not of been affordable but due to a wining streak.
Therefore the interest was unfair but should pay back capital owed. So I have made 43 payments of £292.12. So she said.
A- Add up total repayments made and deduct them from total amount paid if this results on having paid more then received repay and any 8% as a refund.
B- if any capital remains to organise a repayment schedule. I would not actually need that.
As never had an uphold with balance outstanding for her decision do you think it’s likely what I have paid would clear the loan or still something left to pay?
Happy enough either way as it’s my only remain loan.
I have successfully used your templates to get full upholds on over loans I had.
Thanks
Steven
Sara (Debt Camel) says
43 payments of £292 totals £12,556. That is a small bit – 446 – more than the loan of 12,150
So the balance should be cleared and you should have a cash refund of £446. Plus what will be a very tiny amount of 8% interest.
Great result – what other results have you had?
Steve says
Got 7200 refund off Novuna and got lots of my payday loans refunded using your site and few small victories on single loans they where all between £200 and £750.
My last one is Zopa but that might take a while as original adjudicator took a leave of absence at the end of May abc heard nothing since is there a general contact I can ask about that or will I just have to wait until my initial decision?
Thanks
Steve
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would wait until the end of the month and then ask
Pamela says
do you mean your whole loan was paid of and closed off or just interest? i had one complaing upheld and they agreed to refund charges but i still cant afford to pay the loan?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you can ask to make lower monthly payments
Steve says
Hi Sara
Natwest accepted the FOS finding
I contacted the FOS re my Zopa complaint they had issued a response to me on 20.6 but I never received it. They have upheld both loans in a chain of 2.
I went back to my advisor as obviously they gave the standard 2 week thing but we Witt me not receiving not sure what will happen next.
Thanks
Steve
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask FOS for another copy of the decision.
Steve says
They sent that to me yesterday I asked my advisor if there would be a delay but he did not reply so I will give him a ring.
Steve says
Hi Sarah
He came back to my Zopa accepted his decision for loan 1 but not loan 2 which is odd. So his has gone back to them to say he does not agree and that thinks both where not affordable.
He was hoping to get them to accept in the next week or so.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Odd decision. Well this need to go to the Ombudsman if they don’t accept both loans
Steve says
Hi Sarah unfortunately yes, but my adjudicator says my uphold is strong so would just delay my payment.
So hoping they accept loan one with Zopa was only £1500 and Loan two was £4000.
Thanks
Steve
Ollie says
Wanted to leave a message with a big thank you to Sara!
I followed your template with a complaint to Salary Finance. They upheld the complaint without any issues or further questions and it has knocked off just over £9000 the amount, meaning I have only one payment left.
So thank you so much Sara.
CM says
I recently used this template to send an affordability complaint to 118 loans. They upheld my complaint (with no input from the ombudsman even needed!!!!) and I have been offered a refund of all my interest (£3300+) as well as all negative credit markers to be removed from my report.
Can’t thank you enough for this, will truly help and reducing my debt!!
Z says
Hi Sara.
I submitted a complaint with Fund Ourselves who acknowledged this around 9 weeks ago. Since then I haven’t heard anything and haven’t received my final response. I have since sent this through to the FOS who have replied and said they have been aware of liquidity issues and they’ve decided to put all complaints on hold regarding this business. Where do you think this leaves me?
The debt has been settled for each loan. I had 3 loans in total- £400, £320 and £400. (07/23,09/23 and 01/24). Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They may be running out of money. Whether they can continue may depend on whether they can get any investment.
There isn’t anything you can do except wait and see what happens. (If you had still owed a balance on the last loan, you would have had the difficult decion about whether to stop paying them, but that isn’t relevant for you)
Z says
Thanks for the advice. I will leave it with the FOS and hope for the best. I also submitted a complaint with Zopa regarding 2 loans- they didn’t uphold the first but did agree to uphold the second. I am currently waiting for a redress of around £800. Is it worth submitting to the ombudsman to see if they can uphold the first? I believe the first loan was around £3250, which was more than the second loan. I am also not 100% sure but think the first loan may have been topped up.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think the first loan was unaffordable, yes send that to the ombudsman
HAs your financial situation stabilised? Can you get through the months not using a credit card?
Z says
Yes I do believe that was also unaffordable.
No, I don’t believe it has stabilised apart from not using payday loans anymore. I still use my credit card and usually only make the minimum payments required.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case i think you should also talk to Stepchange about a debt management plan for all your debts. Winning any complaints will speed this up.
https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx
Do not leaver any debts out and go for very comfortable expenses – you want a budget you can live within for a year, not hope to scrape through on next week if everything goes well.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Fund Ourselves went into administration on July 21. See https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/fund-ourselves-limited-enters-administration
We won’t know for a while if there is likely to be any money to pay refunds to people like yourself with loans that have been repaid
The Ombudsman will now return any cases it has to the Administrators to deal with
Rachael Dickson says
Please could you find me a contact email address for the following loan companies:
Mr Lender
Salad Money
Sara (Debt Camel) says
in this list of payday lenders: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/
Emma says
Hi Sarah
Thanks to your advice I’ve just received a full refund from Tesco credit card plus 8% statutory.
Thankyou so much again
Nicola says
Hi Everyone.
I finally got round to complaining to a number of companies about loans i have had over the years. My credit rating has been low but i have managed to get them from the companies that often have higher APR.
I have had a couple of response’s acknowledging the complaints and saying they have 8 weeks to investigate. My Community Bank has requested a little more information…
We have received your complaint regarding your loan with My Community Bank. To help us investigate your complaint, it would be helpful for us to receive some more information on why you think My Community Bank should not have provided you with a loan at that time.
You can also tell us if you have faced any change in your financial circumstances after receiving the loan. Please feel free to include any documents that you think will help us investigate your complaint.
Please send us your reply within the next 14 days. Your email address is your reference. If we do not hear from you, your complaint will be reviewed based on the information we have.
Has anyone dealt with this company before and what was the outcome? Also, would explaining that my credit score was low at the time of getting a loan and max-ing out credit cards at the time be enough of a reason?
Thanks,
Nicola
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long ago was this loan?
Nicola says
Hi Sara.
The details of the loan are; Got the loan in May 2025
Your loan amount £3,000.00
Your total interest £1,238.02
Your total to pay back £4,238.02
Payback over 22 months.
I did have to borrow more money after this and my credit rating was poor when i received the loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you got it in May and have already had to borrow more in June? Did you use it to clear other debts or what?
Nicola says
That’s right. I consolidated debt and then realised my payments were still high in the short term so borrowed more to spread the payments over a longer period. I haven’t had to borrow since and have cleared off credit cards. It’s only when I’ve started to look at when the payments are due to be finished and the interest rates.
I got the dates slightly messed up. I had taken out a loan in the March from another lender and then had this one in the May.
I have maintained payments up to date for both he loan and paid off my credit cards since however, credit card usage is creeping in to pay for essentials.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I suggest you make complaints against both loans, as it doesnt sound like the March one was affordable either?
It isnt a low score on its own that means you shouldnt be offered any credit. It is a question of whether the monthly repayments for a loan were managemable, whether you could repay the loan AND all your essential bills AND all your other debts ANd have enough money left for eessantials.
So a low credit score suggests a lot of debt or a poor repayment history, and it is those that should have meant that a lender looks carefully at your application
Nicola says
Thanks Sara, appreciate the advice. Hopefully i will get a positive outcome from both Lenders…. both have acknowledged the complaint with personal emails.
Nicola says
Hi Sara,
I decided to also approach NatWest about x2 loans i have had over the last 3 years.
October 2023 – £9000 25% APR to be paid back over 24 months
March 2025 – £5k 31% to be paid back over 24 months.
2nd loan helped pay back the first.
I had to have a payment break during the first loan (I lost my job) and had to catch up on the arrears. I then took a second loan.
I have banked with NatWest for a long time and i am always in my overdraft (was £1500 now down to £1000) so they would have seen my commitments financially.
I also asked for a SAR to which NatWest responded to within hours. Just got off call with them and hopefully the info will possibly support any claim i have.
Nicola says
Hi Sara,
Quick update. Lendable (the second loan) did not uphold the complaint and provided a detailed explanation. I have escalated it to the FOS with x3 months of bank statements before and after the loan. I also requested a SAR from them which they havent acknowledged as yet but i would be interested to know whether anyone else has done this and whether it helped their complaint.
Will keep you updated.
Nicola
Frank says
Hello Sara
I’m back now thankfully 6 months gambling free hopefully forever.
Is there grounds for this claim and payday loan claim when lenders only check payslips and not bank statements?
Because my bank statements would paint a complete different picture in terms of gambling. Also this gambling was done via crypto but I’ve heard banks treat crypto purchases as gambling so would it still have grounds?
Also I was offered a £500 credit card while my IVA was still on record eventhough I settled that early it was still on file. This was raised to £1000 and now at £2000 and from £1000+ I’ve always been at the limit.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
which lenders have you borrowed from? Can you list the lender name and then the loan amounts, in order if you had more than one loan from that lender.
eg Cashasap 400,600, 500
Antonia says
Hi Sara
I had a disappointing response from the ombudsman not upholding my complaint.
My situation was that I had three loans with Moneyboat, at the same time I had numerous other loans (approx 8) with other lenders, maxed credit card and full overdrafts.
I had minimal money at the end of every month.
The ombudsman has come back to say they aren’t even looking at bank statements as one of the items I mentioned in my list of debts was school fees which doesn’t appear on my credit report – so they said moneyboat wouldn’t have known.
I appreciate ombudsman decision is final, but not to even look at my financial situation on my bank statements doesn’t seem right. Have you heard of this before?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was this school fees debt and what were you paying to it each month? Were you also paying other school fees?
Have you looked at complaints about the larger loans, the payday loans may have been the highest interest but lenders for larger loans have to make more detailed checks?
Antonia says
Thanks Sara I was paying £2500 per month to school fees. But Ombudsman said moneyboat wouldn’t have taken this in to account as it doesn’t show on my credit report.
I have written to the other lenders.
I just thought it was odd that an ombudsman wouldn’t review my bank statements to see I was in financial hardship.
Hopefully I will have more luck with others
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large were these Moneyboat loans, in date order, so 500, 800, 700?
Antonia says
£800 in Dec23, for two months, £1500 in Jan24 for 6 months and £1500 in Aug24 for 6 months.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok those second and third loans were VERY large for a payday lender.
I suggest you read this Ombudsman decision against the Money Platform https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4689466.pdf looking at a three loan case, all 1000 loans.
There are some bits in there that you may find useful in helping you to argue your case. eg
“In my view, there were a number of things flagged up as part of what was gathered for Mr C’s application that were difficult to explain and The Money Platform needed to question how and why an individual, apparently with a level of disposable income in excess of £725 a month, had a need for further expensive loans immediately after repaying previous ones.
I remain satisfied that this is the case even though Mr C took out less than four loans in total – particularly as the amount of the monthly payments were high. I also think it important for me to emphasise that this is why I don’t think that it was reasonable to rely on the information gathered at the time of loans 2 and 3 even though it was reasonable to do so at the time of loan 1.
Bearing this in mind, I’m satisfied that The Money Platform needed to find out about Mr C’s actual non-credit related expenditure before concluding that the payments to loans 2 and 3 were affordable for him. As The Money Platform did not do this, I’m not persuaded that the
checks it carried out before arranging loans 2 and 3 for Mr C were proportionate. “
Antiona says
Thank you, is there somewhere else I can escalate too as it says the ombudsman decision is final. Thanks again Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh sorry, I assumed this was a first investigator decision. No, there is no where else you can take this, except court. And I wouldn’t recommend that unless you have professional help from a solicitor.
Jamie says
Just heard back from one stop money shop- not upholding my complaint about the £1000 loan repaid over 12 months -£158 per month total interest £899.
However showing me the (account score) think this is open banking- used for my income and expenditure it clearly states gambling and betting. So they woudkve saw this and still lended to me ? Also numerous other payday loans however they’re argument is 0 missed payments – doesn’t mean I wasn’t spiralling out of control- should this go to ombudsman I’m aware of timescales etc- not really bothered about it it takes what it takes just wondering if it’s worth my time it will be paid off by then but it’s still £900 interest at the end of the day. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
However showing me the (account score) think this is open banking- used for my income and expenditure it clearly states gambling and betting.
can you quote exactly what they said?
Jamie says
They never mentioned anything about the gambling and betting- however they sent me a picture sort of a graphic of my monthly pay and expenditure- from open banking and below the account it said – gambling and betting. No mention of this in the writing however and when they emailed me the FRL this wasn’t in it. Only in the letter they actually sent out to me. And I’ve just noticed they’re only speaking about my most recent loan. Not about my loan before that which I paid of and took another out right away. This seems sneaky to me? Is this normal
Jamie says
They’ve said there was no gambling transactions on my account- I gamstopped due to gambling issues a few years back but can still access unregulated crypto casinos. I remember salad money didn’t offer me a loan due to crypto/ gambling transactions just before I got better how can they pick this up but one stop money shop apparently can’t ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send this to the Ombudsman right away.
Use the FOS form here https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/help
In the bit where it asks why you disagree with the firms response say
(a) they were aware of your gambling, see the screenshot you have attached that they sent you from open banking
(b) they have ignore your first loan and only mentioned the second
Sara says
Hi
Had a loan for about 12k with creation in 2017. Had numerous other debts at this point and ended up in an IVA in 2018.
IVA finished in 2023.
Is it worth pursuing creation? If I were to succeed would I actually get anything as the debt was never paid in full.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how much were your creditors actually paid in the IVA?
Philip says
Hi Sara,
Just wanted to thank you for all your support and guidance. I complained to Admiral Money over a £20,000 loan that I felt was unaffordable. I complained to them and they rejected it back in January 2025. I referred it to FOS which took a long while to be allocated to an investigator. Once allocated it also took a long time for them to investigate. The investigator upheld my complaint and agreed it was not affordable. Admiral rejected the investigators response and requested it be sent to an Ombudsman. Thankfully the Ombudsman agreed in my favour and Admiral have had to refund all the charges and interest for the loan. This has taken £3,300 off the overall amount left to pay and has reduced the length of time I will need to take to pay off my DMP.
Thanks so much.
Pamela says
hi,
I’m wondering if Bank agreed it was unaffordable lending and refunded my charges, is there anything more to do? since they agreed they shouldnt lend me could they posssibly close the loan? or i should be happy they refunded charges and leave it there?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They should have removed any interest and charges from the balance, reducing it to the amount you borrowed less what you have paid so far. Which lender is this and is this what the lender has done?
Pamela says
hi,
it was LLoyds bank loan, I have overdraft with them for over 2 years now. yes they have removed charges and paid back what they charged however its still unafordable to pay monthly for this loan, what else I could do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They wont clear the loan – unless you have a major health condition or something else where they will look at a write off.
But they should accept you repaying this debt at a lower, affordable amount.
Do you have other debts as well?
Steve says
Hi Sarah
Just to let you know my FOS adjudicator reached out this morning Zopa have now accepted his decision to uphold both loans. So just in the wait period to get my refund same as my Natwest.
These are the final loans I had thanks to your page I have made multiple successful claims debt free.
So whatever I get from Zopa is just a nice bonus think like you say my NatWest one will be around £450 but pays of my last loan and saves me 17 months repayments of £292.13 a month.
Thanks
Steve
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good result!
Emma says
Just wanted to come on and say a massive thank you to Sara. I’ve just had two emails this week one from Bamboo offering a £200 refund of interest even though they aren’t upholding my complaint which I’ve decided to accept. But in bigger news I’ve had a response from lendable and they’re upholding my complaint without referral to the ombudsma. I’m getting a refund of interest + 8% for a £5000 and £2000 loan which I’ve calculated to be around £4000. This should really help me with clearing my debt and I feel like I’ll actually be able to sleep at night.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are you sure that bamboo offer is a good one? They will often increase it if you push back
Emma says
I wasn’t sure that it was the best offer possible. I wasn’t aware that I could go back and push for more. My only reason for not pressing further is that I’ve currently got 2 open complaints with the financial ombudsman and to be honest I’m really tired and worn down with it all and the thought of taking a 3rd one to the financial ombudsman and going back and forth for months was causing me a lot of stress. I may try and push them directly first though.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
tell me about the Bamboo loan and their offer – do you still owe a balance to them? If not, how much interest did you pay – thats the total you paid less the amount you borrowed?
Emma says
So I repaid the loan early in November with a loan from a family member so I don’t currently owe them anything. The loan was for £2000 and there was £1316 interest added. It was due to end in May this year so I can’t remember if I pay have had a partial refund of interest when I closed the account early.
Emma says
With the refund from lendable and then if my other two complaints are upheld by the ombudsman it should decrease my total debt by around 11,000 to £6000 which will be manageable for me to pay off over the next couple of years alongside putting an emergency fund away so I think that’s also part of the reason I accepted Bamboos offer.
Steve says
Hi Emma
It’s a common tactic with Bamboo they offered me £150 I refused said I was going to the FOS ended up with full refund of the interest over £800.
Sarah jones says
I just want to say a massive thankyou! I used your template and have just received £1728 back from ZOPA Ltd. I made a complaint about a 5k loan which I settled and closed 1 year ago. It was really quick! Thanks so much it’s life changing x
Debtfree_eventually_ says
Just wanted to say a big thank you for your help and advice with this!
I have managed to get a £1500 settlement with Abound (which I deffo wouldn’t have got without your help!) After they originally offered me £250 goodwill.
Thank you again!!
kathryn says
Hi I am in the process of escalating to the ombudsman my not- upheld complaint loan affordability complaint with Betterborrow/Chetwood Financial LTD. The debt was sold to Lowell, and they have provided the CCA agreement for the loan. Since I have raised a CCA request from Lowell there are now uploaded documents on their portal such as the CCA and 1 statement of payment from 2021/2022 from presumably Chetwood – I have never been sent this statement via email/post previously. There are no other statements showing what I have paid yearly to Lowell or any uploaded emails/correspondence from before I made the CCA request. They have never sent me yearly statements of the account. Should they have? Does this affect anything in terms of the Betterborrow/Chetwood complaint or does it allow me to make a new complaint to Lowell regarding this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The CCA provides for various notices to be sent to a borrower. Talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about your loan, when it started, when it defaulted and what notices/statements you should have been sent.
Steve says
Hi Guys
I know companies have 28 days to pay out after they have agreed to the FOS uphold I was wondering if anyone has had any recent experience with a payout for Natwest or Zopa via the FOS.
I currently at 2 weeks after NatWest agreed and 10 days for Zopa.
Thanks
Steve
Jamie says
118 money have responded about my £1000 loan. They said at the time I passed the checks but if it was to be done now I wouldn’t of been given a loan and offered me a goodwill of £164.84 which is 33% of the total interest on the account. Is this a good deal or should I go to ombudsman to get 100% of all interest back potentially.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How long ago was this?
Jamie says
Loan was taken out on 21/02/25 – £1000 and £499.52 interest. Paid back £374.48 so fair. Weird offer. Thoughts ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes its a weird response. This loan was only given 6 months ago, and yet 118 says it has changed its policy and now wouldn’t give that?
Do you think reducing the interest like this is a fair response?
If you do, then accept it, there is no reason for you to try to claim more if you are happy.
If not, send it to the ombudsman if you think your situation was very bad in February and they should never have given you the loan.
Leonie says
Hi do you have an email address for Great Western credit union please? Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
try info@gwcu.org.uk and put Affordability Complaint as the title of the email
Kelley says
Does anyone have any experience with complaints about Santander loans? I submitted one nearly 9 weeks ago, and I just called for an update (was on hold for nearly an hour before they answered) and was told they haven’t allocated it to a case handler yet. I think I’ll take it to the FOS, and if they respond in the meantime, I can update FOS.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think they seem to have a backlog