Guarantor loans are very expensive. Often the lender didn’t check properly that you will be able to manage the loan repayments without having to borrow more.
If proper checks would have shown that you couldn’t afford the repayments, complain! There is a template letter in this article to help you.
You can get an existing loan reduced so you only repay the amount you borrowed, or get a refund if your loans have been repaid
Amigo is now agreeing with many complaints. If your complaint is rejected you can send the case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS).
If you are not the borrower but the guarantor, read Complaining if you are a guarantor which has a different template letter to use, as the points a guarantor can make are different.
Contents
What is an affordability complaint?
Guarantor lenders should have checked the loan was affordable for you before giving you the money.
A loan is not affordable if paying it left you so short of money you had to top up the loan, or borrow more from another lender or get behind with bills.
If this happened to you, you can make an affordability complaint.
You can complain if you are still paying the loan or if the loan has been repaid.
If you win your affordability complaint:
- interest is removed from a loan you still owe, so you only repay what you borrowed;
- your guarantor is released from the loan; and
- you can arrange to pay the remaining balance at a reduced rate.
When your loans have already been repaid, you get a refund of the interest you paid.
What should the lender have checked?
Before agreeing to lend, the lender should have made sure you were likely to be able to make the repayments for the whole length of the loan.
You should have been asked about your income and your expenses.
Guarantor loans are large financial commitments. So I would expect a lender to have asked for evidence of your income, to have checked your credit record, and to have verified your expenses.
Just making the payments doesn’t prove the loan was affordable!
You may have been repaying with difficulty, taking out other loans, because you didn’t want your guarantor to be affected.
Some things a lender may have got wrong:
- It doesn’t matter how well off your guarantor is, the loan had to be affordable for you!
- You may have given answers to questions about your expenditure that were too low, because you were guessing or desperate. If the figures looked low the lender should have verified them.
- You may not have mentioned some debts. If this didn’t match your credit record, the lender should have double-checked this.
- If you were self-employed or had overtime that varied, the lender should have considered at this.
- Were there recent applications for credit or recent problems on your credit record? The lender should have been careful if your position was getting worse.
- When you top up a loan, the lender should check the new larger loan is affordable. If the current loan was causing you problems or your finances had got worse you shouldn’t have been given a larger loan.
If you feel there was something else unfair about your case, add that into your complaint as well!
What would a “fair solution” be?
If the lender or the Ombudsman decides the loan wasn’t affordable, this is what happens:
- The loan has been repaid, then any interest you paid should be refunded to you.
- The loan is still outstanding, then interest should be removed from the balance that is owing, so you only repay what you borrowed. Your guarantor should be released from the loan. The lender should accept an affordable monthly payment from you to repay the rest.
- Any payments made by the guarantor are refunded to the guarantor, not to you.
Will a complaint affect your guarantor?
Complaining won’t affect your guarantor if you carry on making the payments. The guarantor should not be told you have complained.
But if you stop paying the loan when you make a complaint, the lender may decide to get your guarantor to pay it.
If you don’t want this to happen, you have to somehow carry on making the payments even though it’s hard.
If you can’t afford to carry on paying and you don’t want to hurt your guarantor, this is a very difficult situation. I suggest you should talk to a debt adviser about your options.
Making an affordability complaint won’t make your position any worse, but it isn’t an immediate escape from your problem.
Think about whether your guarantor also had a good reason to complain – see Complaining if you are a guarantor for details. If they win a complaint, they will be removed as a guarantor, which would take a lot of pressure off you.
How to complain to the lender
A template complaint to use
It’s best to complain to by email – here is a list of lender’s email addresses.
I suggest SUBJECT ACCESS REQUEST AND COMPLAINT BY BORROWER as the email title. Here is a template you may find helpful.
Change this so it describes what happened to you. No one will use everything in this template, delete what doesn’t apply to you.
Only put this in if it applies to you: I took a top up of [£700] in [March 2018]
Add a reference number for the loan or give some other details such as your date of birth and your address when you took the loan out.
Please send me a copy of all the personal information that you have about me, including but not limited to all credit record checks, a copy of my loan application(s) and recordings of all phone calls from me. You have 30 days to reply to this Subject Access Request.
I am making an affordability complaint. This loan was/These loans were unaffordable for me and you would have realised this if you had checked properly before giving me the loan(s).
Delete or change any of the following so they are right for you:
[You would have seen from my credit record that I had recently missed payments/had defaults/was in a debt management plan/was in an IVA.]
[I was on a low income/My only income was my pension/benefits.]
[You did not ask me for proof of my income or expenses and you did not ask about my expenses in detail.]
[I have health problems and get ESA/PIP/DLA but you did not ask me if I had any extra expenses because of this.]
[I had a gambling problem which you would have seen if you had looked at my bank statements.]
If you topped up the original loan: When I topped up the loan you should have seen from my credit record that my financial situation had got worse. [delete if not relevant: You ignored the fact that I had made several payments late to you]
If you still owe money:[I am asking you to remove the interest from the balance so I only have to repay what I borrowed, release my guarantor and allow me to make lower monthly payments.]
If the loan has been repaid change that to [refund me the interest that I have paid plus 8% statutory interest.]
If you don’t want your guarantor to be told: [I want to carry on making the normal monthly payments because I do not want my guarantor to be affected in any way by my complaint.]
I understand that you have 8 weeks to respond to my affordability complaint before I send it to the Financial Ombudsman.
If you would like some help with this, then go to your local Citizens Advice. Citizens Advice can also help you to draw up an Income & Expenditure statement to be included with your complaint showing how unaffordable the loan is.
Also send bank statements!
It’s good if you can attach bank statements to your complaint. Send three months of statements before each loan or top-up. Some lenders such as Amigo often ask for bank statements, so it speeds things up if you send them at the start.
Don’t worry if there is gambling showing on the statements – that helps your case!
Don’t delay starting a complaint if you are trying to get your bank statements. You can always add them later. But now is a good time to get the statements as they help a lot if your case has to go to the Ombudsman.
What to do with your personal information (SAR) when you are sent it
Copies of personal information (SARs) are often sent out by post, so if you have moved, make sure the lender has your new address. You should get the information within 30 days. It is often sent on a CD with a password.
This information is not the lender’s response to your complaint. Most lenders will send that separate from the SAR, usually a few weeks later.
You don’t need to do anything with the SAR, just keep it safe. You have asked for it now so that you have the details in case the lender rejects your complaint or makes a poor offer so your complaint has to go to the Ombudsman.
Taking a complaint to the Ombudsman
If the lender rejects your complaint, go to the Ombudsman
Don’t be surprised if a lender says No, the loan was affordable or The regulator doesn’t say we have to check your bank statements or We based our decision to lend on your application which was inaccurate.
Lenders seem to reject many complaints and hope you give up!
If the lender says No, or you haven’t had a reply 8 weeks after sending your complaint, send your case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS).
This is free to do and easy – you don’t need a solicitor to help. You don’t have to quote laws or regulations. Just use plain English to say what happened to you and why you feel it is unfair. If you aren’t sure what to do, ask in the comments below this article.
You can just send FOS the complaint you sent the lender. If you disagree with anything the lender said in their reply, mention that as well.
If you want to add more details, read How Subject Access Request information can help an affordability complaint. But you don’t have to do this – you can keep your FOS complaint short if you want.
Don’t delay in sending a case to FOS o it has to go within 6 months. And while you have an “open” complaint, with the lender or at FOS, the lender cannot start court action.
If only some loans are refunded, think if this is fair
Sometimes a lender will agree that the last loan is unaffordable and remove the interest. Which is good news, but should it be better?
If the first two loans were small and the next two loans were much larger, you may think this is a fair result. Or if the first loans were a long while ago when you didn’t have big financial problems.
But if the earlier loans caused you a lot of difficulty and led to you having to take more top ups, then you can send your complaint to FOS and say you think the earlier loans too should be refunded.
Are you likely to win your Ombudsman complaint?
From May 2019, a lot of guarantor loan complaints are being upheld at FOS.
Not everyone who complains will win their case, but these recent FOS decisions are good news! Guarantor loans are large and people are winning their case if they only had one loan.
One Ombudsman decision against Amigo went into a lot of detail so I have summarised it here: Ombudsman – Amigo did not check properly that a borrower could afford the loan.
Only a small number of Ombudsman decisions are published, most are settled at the earlier “adjudicator” stage. Here is my summary of some adjudicator decisions this summer: Guarantor loans – more refunds being paid!
Cases are also being won against other guarantor lenders, see this one as an example: UK Credit.
It is much simpler to win a case at FOS than a court case. If Amigo or any other lender has already started a court case against you, Citizens Advice can help you get the court case “stayed” (that’s legal jargon for put on hold) while you take an affordability complaint to the Ombudsman.
Complicated cases & help with guarantor loan complaints
If you want help with these complaints, Citizens Advice can help. Every Citizens Advice has access to the national Specialist Debt Advice Service if this isn’t something an adviser has come across before.
If your situation is complicated a complaint is usually possible, but leave a comment below this article to discuss what to do or talk to Citizens Advice if:
- your guarantor has made a lot of payments.
- insolvency – read guarantor loans and insolvency (bankruptcy, DRO or IVA).
- you have a CCJ from the guarantor lender – read guarantor loans and CCJs.
- if your debt has been sold to a debt collector.
Do not use a Claims Firm or a solicitor that is acting as a claims firm. There are two good reasons why you should avoid them:
- they will probably do a very poor job. They are not experts. They won’t put time into looking at your personal information. These complaints are VERY individual, not a simple checkbox exercise like PPI.
- if you win a case but still owe a balance, this is usually just reduced. But the claims firm will expect you to pay their high percentage fee immediately even though you have not received any cash refund and still have the rest of the loan to pay.
How to ask for a payday loan refund
Panorama program covers guarantor loans
Complaints about large high cost loans
amy says
Hello , I’ve currently got an amigo loan and have had them since 2008 (ish I think ) it started at £1000.00 and has been topped up to £6750.00
which was taken out 2017, I’ve only just found out about maybe being able to get some help with the interest as the money was always taken out due to needing help fund bills and rent etc.
I did not know I could do this on my own and have recently put a claim in with [claims firm]
I’m hoping this was a good idea?? I’ve googled the company and the reviews are very good, has anyone done this before?
Many Thanks, no harm is trying I guess :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh dear. That claim firm – I have edited out the name – will send almost the same letter you could have used for free in the article above. They aren’t totally incompetent like some claims firms – they are unlikely to lose your claim or forget about it.
But they know very little about guarantor loan complaints and I wouldn’t want to rely on you being given good advice by them. Have they asked if you want to carry on paying the current loan while your complaint goes through? If you don’t say that you do want to do this, Amigo may cancel your DD and go after your guarantor. Is that what you want?
And they will take a huge amount of your refund. And if a lot of your refund on earlier loans is used to pay off the balance on the current one, they will still want 30% of that amount, even though you haven’t actually ended up with much cash to pay their large bill :(
If you are within the 14 day cooling off period you may want to see if you can cancel with them and do it yourself. Or I think they charge £180 if you cancel out of the cooling off period. If you win your case – and it sounds a very strong one! – that could be a bargain.
Amy says
Oh bugger , I’ve only used that company today I will cancel asap and go ahead and do it myself, do I have to do all indivudually as I have had 9 loans including the 1 I still have ? Many thanks :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, tell Amigo immediately by email that you are withdrawing your permission for the claims firm to act on your behalf and you will be sending a complaint to them directly.
You only have to send one complaint for all your loans. Read the article above through first to get a feel for how this works. Then look at the template letter and how you can change it. You can leave it simple or you can put in a few extra points eg the number of loans you had with them.
Amy says
That’s great thank you , I’ve not signed and sent anything back to that company, I’ve only don’t the first part of it and awaiting the claims pack , I’m going to sit down and go over it all now :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good luck!
There are a lot of comments on here from other people making complaints which you may find helpful or encouraging. Look back through some of the pages of older comments.
PS I have been deleting your surname as you may not want your full name on the internet?
amy says
Thank you , yes I’ve been reading them :) it’s all very helpful.
Oh I didn’t realise 🙈 thank you.
Once I’ve heard I’ll let you know :)
Roly says
Just had an email from the adjudicator looking at my case with Amigo, they have approached him with an offer to repay the interest on all loans, plus 8% and remove all negative entries from my credit file. Am delighted to say the least as the interest I paid on my 3 loans with them was over £7k. Thank you Sara, for this wonderful site and all the information here. My partner and I are finally in a place where we can manage our finances and get out from under the yoke of high cost debt, due to the success we’ve had. In total we have received just under £6k so far, with this latest result due soon.
Sadly, we were too late for Wonga (both of us), QQ (both of us) and paydayexpress (mine), so will only get a small amount of what we should have been due, but we have had success with Lending stream, sunny, paydayexpress (partner’s) and ferratum. Adjudicator has found in our favour with Satsuma (though as part of Provident they are taking their own sweet time dealing with it!), and we are awaiting info from 118118, Everyday and Provident (doorstep) still.
To everyone out there waiting, hang in there. I started this journey in January of this year, and though I know I have a wait ahead of me on some of the outstanding complaints, I have already had more success than I ever imagined possible.
Sarah Reid says
Hi Sara
Amigo have now come back and said they are in agreement with FOS to repay all overpayments with interest on both loans Do you know roughly what I might expect to receive?
First Loan – May 2013 – £3000
Top up Loan – Dec 2013 – £5000 – which some of it was used to pay off the first loan.
Paid off loan in full May 2018
Many thanks for your help
Sarah Reid says
Hi Sara
For the fist loan I was paying monthly – £161.01
For the top up loan I received in cash – £2,064.91
For the top up loan I was paying monthly – £197.62
Broker Fees – £300
I am not sure if I paid any late fees/processing fees, its hard to decipher from my statements? It may be worded as interest as I can see double entries for interest from Amigo for most months?
Many thanks
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the first loan, did you get £3000 and they added the broker fees on? or did they reduce what you got to £2700?
Were there any broker fees on the top up?
How many months did you make monthly payments to the first loan? To the second? And was there a final settlement amount paid to the last loan as id doesn’t look like a simple 4 or 5 year loan?
Amigo are normally clear on their statements what a charge is for eg “Letter Charge” and “Late Payment Charge”. I think they may have stopped adding these charges, the ones someone reported were back in 2011/12,
Sarah Reid says
Hi Sara
The first loan the broker fee of £300 were on top of the £3000. No broker fees on top of the top up.
For the first loan I made 7 monthly payments from Jun 2013 through to Dec 2013 before topping up
For the second loan I made 52 monthly payments and then a final payment in May 2018 of £2711.09 to settle the loan.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For the first loan you borrowed £3000, made 7 payments of 161 = £1127, then it was settled with (5000- you cash payout of 2064)=£2963. Overall you paid 1127+2963-3000 in interest and fees = £1063. That was in 2013 so the 8% interest on top will be about £500.
For the second loan you borrowed £5000, made 52 payments of 197 = £10,244. Then you settled it with £2711. So in total you paid 10244+2711=£12955. That is £7955 in interest and fees.
BUT the figures for the second loan look on the high side to me. I can’t say they are wrong but something doesn’t feel right.
Sarah Reid says
Hi Sara
Thank you for your calculations.
I have now gone back to my statements and double checked the payments I have made to both loans. I can confirm the following payments were made:-
Loan 1 = £3,300- made 7 monthly payments of £161.01 = £1,127.07
Loan 2 = £5,000 – made 50 monthly payments of £197.62 and a final settlement of £2,711.09 in May 2018 = £12,394.47
Thanks Sara
Donna says
Hiya sara my loans 1,5,6 weren’t upheld so I have sent them to FOS my ex partner was guarantor and he has complained sayin how he paid my 6th loan off but he put it in my bank account and I paid it off whichya can see on my statements they have til the 2nd of December do ya think he has a chance of getting that back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“he has complained sayin how he paid my 6th loan off but he put it in my bank account and I paid it off”
I haven’t seen one of these situations go through to the end, but I THINK Amigo will say that from their point of view, you, the borrower, paid that loan, not him as guarantor. So a complaint by him will not work.
Have Amigo released the guarantor from your last loan yet? And have they agreed to accept lower payments from you for the balance?
Donna says
Yes they have released him from the loan and FOS is taking in my case for 1,5,6 loans ya can see on my bank statements which he said he put the money into to my bank and I paid it off as I was in a hell of lot of gambling erm nd I haven’t been to afford to pay them the last 2 months as I am really struggling with money
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well wait and see what happens.
Emma says
Hi Sara, the 8 week deadline for my complaint to Amigo is due up on Friday 29th. My next instalment is due on the 1st… do you advise that I leave my direct debit as is and let the payment go through?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a difficult decision.
Previously you said “3 top ups so far I’ve repaid £9500 on the latest loan of £6500”. That sounds like a very strong case to have the last loan refunded which would mean that there is no balance left as you have already repaid more to it than you borrowed.
But it can’t be guaranteed Amigo will do this. And recently a few people have been told it will take another couple of weeks to review their complaint :(
I guess you could cancel the DD and then pay them manually on Monday if they haven’t upheld your complaint?
Emma says
Good plan… I’ll do that! Thank you… fingers crossed for a good result, thanks Sara
Lesley says
Hi sarah ,
I have been reading all comments about amigo and put in a claim on 22/ 10/ 19 .. i recieved my c.d yesterday with a letter saying due to data protection the password is encrypted and say they have sent password to my primary email address and mobile which i have not recieved ..
On 23 /7 /16 i took out £4000 – total to repay was £7025.76 and was paying it at £195.16 per month ..my fiance was guarantor for this .. i paid every payment but did push the repayment dates back on a few occassions i got the loan down too 4,460.13 and on 10/11/17 i took out 5,250 settled old agreement of 4,460.13 and the paid me 789.87 .. my fiance was guarantor again been paying £325 per month since then but my fiance paid 2 of these paymemts and family member paid 1 payment as i was struggling as i had a gambling problem amongst other debts paydays .. if my compliant is a success do you know how much i could get back ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell Amigo you have not received the password.
It’s hard to work out numbers from what you have said. Can you add up what you paid to the first debt? And to the second debt? Did your fiance make the 2 payments because she was the guarantor, or did she give you the money to pay them?
Lesley says
thankyou for response
My first loan was 4,000 with 7,025 to be paid back. I paid £195 for 17 months and the balance remaining was £4,460.
i then took out £5250 and settled the £ 4,460, which left me with £790 paid to me,
i have been paying £325 from 10/11/17 until now never missing a payment my balance remaining is £290 which i will pay on the 30th of this month, then that’s me cleared,
my guarantor did pay twice and family member once, as i had a bad gambling problem and numerous other payday loans to pay, was just wondering with those figures if i was successfull in claim, if you could work out how much they could offer me,
i will email them about password for cd sent as me and my guarantor havent recieved password for cd
I really appreciate you replying
Thankyou sarah
Lesley says
Round about 2,500 i paid to 1rst loan and i have paid 7500 on 2nd loan
Lesley says
Hi sarah ,
Was just wondering if u could help estimate what i may be offered if they exept ,
My first loan was 4,000 with 7,025 to be paid back. I paid £195 for 17 months and the balance remaining was £4,460.
i then took out £5250 and settled the £ 4,460, which left me with £790 paid to me,
i have been paying £325 from 10/11/17 until now never missing a payment my balance remaining is £290 which i will pay on the 30th of this month, then that’s me cleared,
my guarantor did pay twice and family member once, as i had a bad gambling problem and numerous other payday loans to pay, was just wondering with those figures if i was successfull in claim, if you could work out how much they could offer me,
i will email them about password for cd sent as me and my guarantor havent recieved password for cd.
Round about 2,500 i paid to 1rst loan and i have paid 7500 on 2nd loan
Thanks sarah
Lesley
Stacy says
Hi, my Amigo case was picked up by an adjudicator 4 weeks ago,I spoke with then on 21st,they confirmed they have received all info they need from them, does anyone have a rough idea how long it takes after this for a decision and will it come from adjudicator or amigo if there is to be a positive out come
Thank you
Annie says
Took the adjudicator 3 weeks once he had all the info and gave amigo 2 weeks to reply which they did within a week and agreed to FOS recommendations, then a further week from when I signed and emailed back acceptance form to ask for bank details and said would send refund breakdown due within 5 days which again they did on day 5, then was 3 working days for payment into my bank. So all in all Amigo were actually pretty quick from accepting to sending payment and stuck to all timescales they gave.
The only thing I would say is that they did not add the broker fee I paid on my first loan, I emailed Amigo to query this last week and they said it would be investigated, no email to say but the £300 fee was refunded to me today, so make sure they include any fees or charges.
Stacy says
Hi, that’s great thank you for letting me know and well done on winning your case
Gemma says
Uk credit said I can’t make a complaint about my 2012 loan as it was too long ago- is this worth taking up with the financial ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it is. FOS has upheld some complaints about loans more than 6 years old. Do you have the details about your loan?
amy says
I’ve sent my email with all the the dates and amounts, I’ve had a reply explaining that it is going to be looked into and been to sent to the relevant place.
Fingers crossed as I started my first loan in 2008 for a £1000 and I still have a loan outstanding, I worked out my current loan for £6750 which has been topped up over the years, after 3 years of paying £267.66 a month I’ve paid back nearly £10000 already.
Joe says
I received this today from amigo today after emailing them last night to see what’s happening as it’s nearing the end of the 8 weeks.
Thank you for your email. We are currently working to have our final
outcome for you as soon as possible and will update you on your
complaint no later than the close of business on the 5th December
2019.
Adam Williams says
Hi,
I have been told that amigo have upheld my complaint for loans 2 and 3.
Loan 2 (£2500) was taken out on 04/01/2012 and was settled with a reloan on 03/09/2014.
In total I paid about £2900 interest.
Loan 3 (£4250) was taken out on 03/09/2014 and was settled in full on 28/11/2016. In total I paid about £3500.
Total interest is about £6400. I don’t understand how to calculate the simple interest of 8%. Could someone help me and give me a rough figure. It’s possible that I will be paid this just before Xmas. I can’t believe it :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you add up all the payments you made to both loans. Ignore if Amigo says they were interest or not. It’s unlikely you will have paid £2900 in interest on a £2500 loan in under 3 years.
Adam Williams says
Hi, I paid £108.69 X 31 which totalled £3369.39 then settled the rest of the balance £2056.77 which meant in total I paid £5426.16 I then took the £2500 from that which means I paid £2926.16.
The £4250 loan I used the same calculation and got £3500 ish interest. Have I done something wrong?
So Total payments made by me is £13451.97 – £6750 initial amount (£2500+£4250)
Total interest looks like £6701.97.
Does that mean that 8% interest is about £500 a year owed? Would that total £4000 so over £10k?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The caclculations sound right. There may have been a broker fee on the first one which you also get refunded which may explain why the “interest” looks high as it actually included other fees as well.
The 8% is complicated as it’s worked out on each payment you made. So for the first loan the refund will perhaps be an average of 6 years of 8%s and the second loan an average of 4 years of 8%. So about £2,500 very roughly.
Adam Williams says
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your responses earlier.
I have had a response from amigo.
They say I paid £6216.43 interest in total on both loans. They have worked out my interest at £1143.06.
Does this sound accurate? I feel as though it’s wrong as I had my loans from Jan 2012 and finished paying in November 2016.
What do you think?
Many thanks
Adam
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo seem to be using a version of the 8% calculations that no-one else does :(
Amanda says
I have received and email from them I only sent it this afternoon is this right? Il paste most of it below thanks
Good Afternoon Amanda,
Thank you for your email, I’m sorry to hear you’re unhappy with your loans.
Due to what you’ve advised, I have raised a complaint on your behalf. Our Customer Relations Team will be in touch within 3 – 5 working days.
I’ve also raised your subject access request and passed this to the relevant team. Please be aware that we have up to 30 days to send you this information.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds standard. You get the personal information on a CD after 4 weeks then you have to wait until 8 weeks have gone before you get the reply to your complaint.
Amanda says
Thankyou will keep you posted
Jason says
Hi.
I have used your template and sent this to amigo loans. I have a current loan with them and I am maintaining a lower agreed amount due to not being in a financial position to put he original term.
I have received my CD with my data on and on the last day of the 8week response deadline I received an email from Amigo advising they are really busy etc etc and aim to respond within 2 weeks.
Should I wait for this potential response or forward over to the ombudsman now? If the later what do I send to the ombudsman and where do I send it.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would give them two weeks. They are upholding a lot of complaints, I don’t think your response being delayed means it is a difficult case or more likely to be rejected, just no-one has looked at it.
Amy says
Hi Sara
I put in a complaint on the 27th sept and on Friday I received the email to tell me they will give me a final response within the next 2 weeks. Could you help try to work out what interest I have paid please and what I could be due back?
I got £4000 Dec 2016 and made 25 payments of £195.16 I then topped up £3500 in Feb 2019 and paid a settlement fee of £2018.78 for the first loan which left me with £1489.22 I have so far made 9 payments of £170.76. my current balance left to pay as of today is £3013.06
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For the first loan you borrowed £4000, made 25 payments of 195 = £4875, then it was settled with 2018. So overall you paid 875+2018-4000 in interest and fees = £2893. The 8% extra is hard to work out but at least £300 I would expect.
For the second loan you borrowed £3500, made 9 payments of 170 = £1,530. So you haven’t yet repaid the amount you borrowed on this loan. If the interest is removed you will still have £1970 to pay. But that will be more than covered if there is a refund on the first loan as well, then I would expect you to get about £1200 back in cash.
Amy says
They’ve emailed me stating that I’ll be refunded £977.
Thank you for all your help and advice xx
Lou7 says
Do amigo have a time limit to send information to the ombudsman? I have emailed my adjudicator and she said she is still waiting for information from the earlier loans and amigo haven’t sent it yet. It was picked up by the adjudicator on the 15.10.19. It’s so annoying because they don’t wait for payments!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no :(
Abigail says
I have just received the following (I was asked to send 3 months of bank statements 4 days ago and have not yet done so, just wondering if that is still what I should do??)
“We write further to our letter dated 30th October to let you know that we are continuing with our investigation into your concerns.
As we are currently carrying out a high number of investigations, we have been unable to issue our final response to you. We apologise for the delay and we will write to you again when we have the results of our investigation into your complaint.
We anticipate, based on our current volumes, to be able to respond to your complaint in the next two weeks. However, we will endeavour to respond sooner.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely send those bank statements!
Amy says
I sent mine on the 27th sept and put in the complaint that if they want bank statements they’ll need to provide me with an address to send them as there is so much paper……I received an email stating they need another 2 weeks and they’ve still not requested bank statements…..is there a reason for this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No one has looked at your complaint. The point of sending the statements now is so that at the end of 2 weeks you don’t get an email asking for them, with another 2 week delay.
You need to send the bank statements for the 3 months before each loan or top up. so if you borrowed in Jun 2016 and topped up in Nov 2016 you send Mar-May 26 and Ayg-Oct 17.
Rebecca W says
I took an Amigo loan out in 2010 for £2000 and then topped it up to £5000 about 10 months later. A year or so later my fathwr then offered to move the remaining balance to a 0% credit card but due to costs I have only been able to pay £50 a month and I am still only paying the interest off on this almost 10 year old debt.
Am I able to claim in this situation? Many thanks for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the Amigo debt was cleared and you are still trying to repay the resulting credit card debt? Was your father the guarantor, if yes, did he pay Amigo directly?
Rebecca W says
Yes I’m still trying to pay the debt that is on a credit card in my Father ‘s name.
And he was the guarantor and he paid it off with amigo via his log in.
Rebecca W says
The credit card is in my Father’s name and we have the bank statements showing payments from me to him, him to the credit card.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what is the remaining balance on the credit card?
what are the rest of your finances like at the moment?
I assume your father’s finances were pretty good back then if he could get a 0% credit card deal?
(Sorry for all the questions!)
Rebecca W says
We’re currently on a DMP and struggling – the debt is declared on the DMP too.
My Father’s finances were and still are good but mine were improving until I took the Amigo loan out.
There is about £1650 remaining and I’m only paying the interest at present.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry I missed your reply. Yes you can claim that both the loans were unaffordable. If you win (and it sounds as though the loans were unafffordable – you are the best judge of that – did the repayments make your situation worse?) then you would be refunded for any interest you paid and your father would be refunded for all the payments he made – ie the large settlement payment. He will get that back plus 8% interestest. BUT you would then be left owing the loan which was no longer settled… that’s OK as the interest will be removed from that loan and your dad can then give you back the money to settle the loan.
That must all sound complicated! but providing you and your dad are on good terms it should all work out and you should get back overall the interest that you paid. Which will help you clear the rest of that credit card debt to your dad!
Jo says
Hi
I put a complaint to Buddy Loans but they have not upheld it, I have sent this to FO, any idea on the timescale for them to get back to me. I got automated email saying they received my complaint
John says
Hi Sara,
Amigo loans upheld my complaint yesterday and came back with an offer today. I had two loans with them, but looking at the figures, It doesn’t look like they included my first loan. They insist that they have included refund and interest on both loans
loan 1 (01/02/2017) £1500
Monthly payment £92.72
Total amount to be paid £2225.28
Number of payments paid when I top up the loan 12 * 92.72 = 1112.64
Top up loan 1/02/2018 (£2500)
Monthly payments £154.54
Total amount to be paid £3,708.96
Number of payments made so far 22 x 154.54 = £3399.88
Can you please help and check if that’s accurate, am not sure how they did the calculation
Offered amount for the two loans from amigo loans including interest
Interest = £1,670.40
8% Simple Interest = £39.02
Balance before refund: £256.48
Amount to be refunded: £1,709.42
Balance after refund: -£1,452.94
Thanks
John says
£901.40 was used to settle the old loan.
So a top up £2500
Payout of £1,598.60
Settlement of old statment £901.40
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When you wrote:
Balance before refund: £256.48
Amount to be refunded: £1,709.42
Balance after refund: -£1,452.94
I assume that means the balance is being wiped and you are being paid £1452.
For the first loan you borrowed £1500, made 12 payments of 92 = £1104, then it was settled with 901. So overall you paid 81104 + 901 – 1500 in interest and fees = £505.
For the second loan you borrowed £2500, made 22 payments of 154 = £3,388. You have paid £888 in more than you borrowed – this is the interest that should be refunded.
So I would expect you to get a refund of £1393 plus the 8% which it’s hard to calculate but I make about £112 after tax is taken off. So that’s a bit more than they are offering.
You could go back and ask them what the interest paid for each loan is. And how they worked out the 8%.
John says
Hi Sara,
Please below Amigo’s response
Loan1
Interest refunded = £514.04
8% simple interest = £0
less 20% basic rate tax deduction on 8% simple interest £0
Total to be refunded = £514.04
Loan 2 (Top up)
Interest refunded = £1670.40
8% simple interest = £39.02
less 20% basic rate tax deduction on 8% simple interest £9.75
Total to be refunded = £1709.42
Remaining payment balance on loan = 256.48
£1709.42 – £257 = 1452.94
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loan 1 the interest to be refunded is exactly right (my previous calculations i had ignored the pennies). But why haven’t they added on 8% simple interest?
Loan 2 That is a very bizarre way to quote the figures! They have put the £514.04 into the “interest to be refunded” line for loan 2. And they also include the “balance” figure in there which they then take off at the end.
I suggest you now ask them why they haven’t calculated simple interest on the first loan. And how they calculated it on the second loan, as that looks too low.
John says
Hi Sara,
Message from amigos
I have attached a table explaining the interest that accrued on each loan, as well as the 8% simple interest.
The 8% simple interest is only calculated on any overpayments made. As you did not make any overpayments on the loan 32315051, there is no 8% simple interest added to this loan.
In order to explain the method of calculation, below is some further background as to the principles applied when determining the amount of statutory interest that is due to you in this regard
The principal of the FOS guidance is that so long as the customer (yourself in this instance) has the benefit of the money borrowed, the principle amount should be repaid in full. Statutory interest of 8% is only due where the customer has repaid to the lender (ourselves) more than the principal they have borrowed. Therefore when considering a statutory interest calculation for a string of agreements, our policy is to calculate the cumulative cash borrowings and cumulative repayments at each point throughout the customer’s borrowing history and at any point in time where the customer has repaid more then aggregate of the cash received they are eligible for a refund of the over payment plus 8%.
We trust this information helps clarify our policy but further guidance can be found on the FOS website:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/consumer-credit/guarantor-loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply that at the point the first loan was settled you had repaid more than you borrowed which is why you should be paid 8% interest on the interest paid on the first loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the rules aren’t as hard and fast as Amigo are saying. Most payday lenders calculate 8% interest at the level of each loan. If Amigo persists, it’s up to you if you want to take the case to the ombudsman to say Amigo is calculating interest in an unreasonable manner. My guess is it would make a difference of about £100 to your overall refund, but that’s a real guess.
Jenny says
Hi Sara, firstly thanks again so Much for your help on this site.
I had a great refund in October and only last week realised that they had not refunded the broker fee. O sent an email to ask for this plus the 8% interest and although I received no correspondence at all my bank account today is £400 higher!! This is of course fabulous but why does the broker fee not attract the same 8% interest ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A £400 broker fee – interesting, the ones other people have mentioned are £300.
Yes, 8% should be paid – how long ago was it?
Jenny says
It was back in 2011 so by my calculations the 8% interest is approx. £250ish so I’m definitely glad I asked for them to add this too. Whether they will or not is another matter but good to know that they should. Weird that there was no correspondence at all before they suddenly put the £400 in my account.
Jenny says
Hi Sara, for info. This is the reply I got from Amigo about the 8% interest on refund of brokers fee…
Further to my previous email this morning.
Our Accounts Department have provided me with an explanation.
8% simple interest is only calculated on any over payments made over the principal loan amount. We don’t include the broker fee in the principal as it’s a separate cost, so it’s just refunded directly back to the customer.
This is in-line with FOS guidelines on the award of 8% simple interest.
Do you think this is correct??
Annie says
Hi, looking for some advice, Amigo have paid out refund of interest on all my loans, they did not include the broker fee of £300 from my 1st loan so I queried this and this was also refunded Pretty quickly but should this have had the 8% simple interest added? As it was 8 years ago that’s approx another £200. Have they tried to be crafty? Should I also chase this up with them or am I wrong?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are right, they should have added the 8%
Annie says
Thank you Sara for all you advice and help over the last 2 years, my plight is now over and I have had decent refunds from Wonga, payday Uk, casheuronet and amigo. I was very fortunate to get refunds before they all went into administration. Since I started my claims 2 years ago, I have never had to borrow so I now feel in a much better position than I ever though I would be, life is no longer worrying and I have a nice amount of savings now. Bless you for all you do, your generosity with your time is so undervalued and a massive thanks you and viral hug.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
pleased it has gone so well for you!
Amy says
Hi Sara,
I’d asked Amigo for a breakdown of my redress, as it’s probably my maths but wasn’t sure if it looked right.
1st loan £3000 x5 interest payments Sep 13 – Dec 13 total £422.03, 2nd loan after top up £5000 x38 payments of £197.62 + £248.94 Feb 14 – Apr 17, interest repaid £4263.81. Together £4685.84 and they’ve added the 8% as (after tax) £0.00 for 1st loan and 2nd £548.41 = £5234.25 total refund.
Minus £1895.24 payments made by guarantor (refunded to husband along with 8% £524.94, and all looks good) leaves £3339.01 refund.
Only thing I wasn’t sure of is the other simple interest as I’ve calculated each payment using the formula on the other page and it seemed would come out at a fair bit more even after tax. But not out of the question that I’ve done it wrong or misunderstood! So just thought I would see if you had any thoughts before I confirm and obviously it’s great if it sounds about right :)
Many thanks again!
Amy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo are using a very odd version of how to calculate the 8% interest. I don’t think it’s reasonable. See John’s comments above where he has the same problem. For him is wasn’t a lot of money. For you it looks like more.
It would be good to get the ombudsmna to look at this calculation, but that means you saying you don’t accept the offer. You won’t get LESS than they have offered by going to FOS, but it could take a while.
I hope FOS would pick up queries like this fast as they don’t involve much work for them to resolve and they could prevent more cases going to them in future.
Amy says
Thanks Sara I did think.
Adding up all the payments I’d reckoned about £204 for first loan and £1591 for second pre tax but given their figures wasn’t sure if I’d made a mistake and well off the mark! Would you say that sounded more like it?
I think I’ll go back to them to query and ask how they’ve calculated, as probably just me but can’t make out what they’re trying to say from response to John, and see if can challenge out with FOS, but that this is an option am prepared to look at.
Emma says
Hi Sara, I had the email today to advise they are still investigating and will respond within 2 weeks… should I make the payment on Monday do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you do it without hardship? Can you explain to your guarantor what is happening?
Skids says
Hi, I submitted my complaint to amigo 4 weeks ago I used the template letter from here. I received my CD from them today with all my information on however there is only phone recordings from the previous 12 months I have had loans with them since 2016 so all the calls I have had with them in regards to affordability are not in there. Has anyone else had this issue? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t remember anyone else mentioning them. I suggest you go back to them and say you think the SAR information sent is incomplete.
Chris says
Further on for my complaint with Amigo Loans, which was passed to the Ombudsman, the adjudicator ruled that the loan of £4000 I received was unaffordable and for Amigo Loans to pay all the interest plus the 8% interest back to me. Amigo were given the date of 22nd November to get to the Adjudicator decision, Amigo apparently did write back and asked for another week 29th November. Amigo failed to reply back to the Adjudicator so now it has gone to an ombudsman to make a final decision.
Not sure what the difference is between an Adjudicator and an Ombudsman or how long this could take. If anyone else has had a similar issue?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See my comments below to Andy.
Sorry no idea what the time to get an ombudsman decision is. I don’t think there can be much in the guarantor loan queue so I hope it could be quite quick.
Chris says
Thank you for the information, I hope the Ombudsman comes to the same conclusion.
Andy says
Hello people
Just looking for thoughts here.
A couple of weeks ago I had recieved my adjudicators decision to uphold loans 2 to 5 with amigo loans.
Since this time I have had a payment due I didn’t make also fos gave both me and amigo until the 29th to respond. Ofcourse I responded straight away.
In the mean time amigo has threatened to attempt to collect from my guarantor, I since managed to get them to apply breathing space until the 29 of November when our deadline to fos was due, no contact from them on the 29th so I called them this morning and apparently the team dealing with the investigation are in training that’s why I didn’t have a response yet.
I was also told on the phone the other day by a staff member who placed the first hold on my account that they will probably just reject the findings of the investigation, can they do this?.
Thanks guys this forum is quality stuff
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“they will probably just reject the findings of the investigation, can they do this?”
Yes they can. If they do, the case goes to the second “ombudsman” level for a Final decision. In 90% of cases the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator, A Final decision is legally binding and the firm must payout.
So far Amigo have not, so far as I know, rejected an adjudicator decision.
But Chis’s comment above is one where Amigo haven’t responded in time. We know Amigo are snowed under at the moment as they aren’t responding to complaining within the 8 weeks.
From Amigo’s point of view the big downside of rejecting an adjudicator decision is that Ombudsman level decisions are published on the FOS website – the borrower’s name is anonymised.
Aden says
Hi Sara
Had good news as you know with bamboo loans however I have had my response from UK credit, they have rejected my claim as they feel they did sufficient checks even though they didn’t ask for statements at the time. Not sure how to respond or what to do- do I really have to wait so long for FOS to reply ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you send bank statements with your complaint?
What other debts do you have apart from the other guarantor loans?
Are you still gambling?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Also what are your guarantors finances like?
Aden says
I did send a statement last week but they have emailed me back today saying the follow :
Dear Mr ****
All elements of the sale of the loan have been investigated, and I will not be changing the final decision, or removing your guarantor from the credit agreement.
In the section under, “You do not believe the loan was ever affordable” I have explained why UK Credit did not request a bank statement during the sale of the loan.
I informed you in the final response that you can make an arrangement regarding your contractual monthly instalment. If you contact our collections team, they will reassess your new financial situation to come to an affordable, sustainable monthly repayment. If this arrangement has a lower monthly repayment than the contractual amount, we will contact your guarantor for the difference.
Kind regards
Feel like they are just being difficult about it or i have unfortunately got the wrong person dealing with my claim. Complete different response from my bamboo loan.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are just being difficult – I don’t remember any complaints being upheld by UK Credit.
There is nothing you can do here except send the case to FOS.
What other debts do you have apart from the other guarantor loans?
Are you still gambling?
What are your guarantor’s finances like?
Aden says
Hi Sara
Thanks will send UK credit to FOS, today received response from buddy loans upholding complaint which was taken out the same time as UK credit. Recieved email from from amigo saying it will be a further up to 4 weeks !! Shocking ! Good news about buddy though.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should send the Amigo one to FOS too. 4 weeks is way too long. See my replies today to Kalvin.
Chris says
Does gambling effect your claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Having gambling showing on your bank statements actually supports a complaint that if a lender had looked proper at your situation the loan would not have been given.
Jason says
Hi Sara.
I have just received my final response from amigo via email. It says they have partially upheld my complaint, advising the 1st loan I took out they done everything they should of and was affordable. However the 2nd loan they feel not enough was done and will be paying the 8% interest etc etc.
The thing I’m confused about is I only ever had one loan application and sum with them? Amount £10,000 on 29/03/2018
They will be contacting me again in 5working days with figures.
Any ideas what they are referring to?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like you have been sent someone else’s response… I suggest you phone them up and say this. Don’t waste a week waiting.
Julia says
Does it have your name and address at the top of the attached letter?
Julia says
Hi Jason,
This sounds suspiciously like you received a copy of my final response which I received myself less than 24 hours before your comment. I would be very grateful if you could check the name and address on the final response letter attached to your email and let me know if my name ‘Julia’ is there. Many thanks! :)
Jason says
Hello Julia. It was my final response letter. They didn’t mean to put 1st/2nd loan. They have upheld my complaint in full and I’m awaiting the figures through.
Just not sure what the 8% simple interest should be
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If this was the only loan you have, if you haven’t paid more than 10k to it in monthly payments, there will still be a balance owed and 8% isn’t relevant.
Julia says
Excellent news! Well done! :)
Julia says
Received over £6000 refund yesterday after complaining to Amigo using the template on this site. I really can’t believe it was that simple!!
It took about 30 -45 mins to write the initial complaint. Amigo confirmed receiving it the same day. They wrote to me 8 weeks later saying that hadn’t yet made a decision. I referred it to the ombudsman immediately (so friendly and helpful on the phone and only took about 20 mins). Three days later amigo wrote to me advising of the refund.
All in all about an hours work from me and a bit of patience has resulted in a huge refund and a much better quality of life for me and my family going forward!!
Please please do it if you think you may even have a slight chance of your complaint being upheld.
Sara, thanks so much for creating this excellent and informative site.
Abbie says
Have just had an email confirming that Amigo are going to uphold my complaint and will calculate my refund within the next 5 working days. :-)
Can’t fault them on response time, they have not once argued the case with me!
Thanks to everyone in this forum that has helped with advise etc and good luck to all
Laura P says
Hi
I recently complained to Bamboo about a loan in Feb 2017 for £3500. They have sent their final response saying they won’t uphold my complaint. When I took out the loan I was never asked for any proof of income or expenses and they said because I’d made payments, they were affordable.
At the time I took out the loan, I had a few pay day loan defaults and 2 CCJs on my credit file, and I was behind on paying my priority bills. I fell further behind with some bills due to paying the loan, and my guarantor made a few of my Bamboo loan payments. The account is in default and has been sold to a debt collection agency as we couldn’t afford the repayments.
In their response they said I passed all their checks and my credit score was positive (which I highly doubt!).
Is this worth taking to the FOS? Has anyone won a case with Bamboo? I only seem to see cases against Amigo.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A couple of people have won Bamboo loan cases but most have to go to the Ombudsman.
One person got Bamboo to change their mind by going back with more arguments after a rejection. That surprised me, but if you want to try this, you could say that you will be sending the case to the Financial Ombudsman if they don’t reconsider this, point out that with payday loan defaults and 2 CCJs on your credit record, your credit score cannot possibly have been classed as positive and list the priority bills you were behind with when you applied. If you didn’t send bank statements with your original complaint, attache your bank statements for Nov, Dec 16 and Jan 17.
Otherwise send it straight to FOS as this sounds like a good case.
Catherine says
Hi Laura
I got my final response from Bamboo on the 2nd of Dec,I replied asking for a member of the compliance team to look at it further and responded to every part of their reply-
Example-The business states in their response………however the business had ……..information that showed over ££££ of debt already etc etc and literally argued every point with a statement to back it up.
I also said I had sent it immediately to the FOS on receipt of their response but if the business agreed to investigate my complaint further and reconsider its decision I would withdraw straight away.
36 hours later and I had a email wiping over £5000 in interest which reduced long term by 17 months and after a payment of £416 my loan will be settled and I will be over £300 a month better off.
Really take your time to go through the response and draft a reply and check the figures as they actually said that even though I earned X amount they only needed to prove I had X amount of income for the loan to be affordable,but when I used this figure and deducted the housing and expense amounts they put in the response,they themselves had actually evidenced that the loan was unaffordable as it meant only £85 would be available for a payment to them but my payment was £283.
Check and carefully write a response and cross your fingers.
Good luck
Laura says
I have just checked this and with their verified income figure, I was about £60 a month short to make their repayments. I’ve sent them an email and said I will be sending it to the ombudsman as they basically proved themselves that it was unaffordable! Thank you!
Catherine says
Hi Laura,I messaged further down about success with my bamboo loan,I should add that mine was a personal loan from bamboo not a guarantor loan but that doesn’t mean requesting a further review by the compliance team if yours is a guarantor loan would be any different.
Callum says
Hi
I have received my final response letter. It has been partially upheld.
Loan 1: £5000 settled
Loan 2: 10000 Live
They have said loan 1 wasn’t unaffordable to me and they carried out the necessary checks and expenditure was done and cross referenced.
Loan 2 has been upheld and calculations being made.
Should I contest the decision on loan 1? If so how do I do that?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Getting the live loan settled must be a huge relief. But if you could also get loan 1 refunded as well, that would be even better.
How long had you been paying loan 1 when you took loan 2? Can you say a bit about your circumstances when you took loan 1 out?
Danielle says
Hi,
Just phoned amigo about my affordability complaint as I’m almost at the 10 week mark and still haven’t had a final decision. They told me that it is likely they will extend the deadline even further as I wont hear tomorrow due to them not making any progress at all with it in the last 10 weeks. This is ridiculous, is there anything I can do to hurry them up or should I just send it to FOS?
Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you been the sent the CD with your information on it yet?
Do you still owe them money? Can you say something about your loans from them?
Danielle says
I havent been sent a CD (I didn’t ask for the information they have about me) and they havent requested any bank statements from me.
I had a loan of 5000 early 2018.. they didnt ask for any proof of income, my income was very low as I was a full time student with a part time job. I had old defaults on my credit record but they were from 2013-2014. At the time I had multiple pay day loans open from several different companies. I also had a bad gambling problem.
I lost my job in october 2018 but continued with my studies so had roughly £800 per month from student finance, gambling problem was over by this point. Phoned amigo in November to request a payment plan which they refused and said my guarantor would be asked to pay, continued to have payday loans to fund amigo payments. Fell behind with pay day loans, got 1 new default on my credit file in November 2018.
Applied for a top up in january 2019 after being made homeless due to rent arrears. Amigo requested 1 bank statement which showed an income for that month of £345.
Amigo approved my top up loan of £7500, which cleared the remaining balance of £4115 from the first loan. Payments were £296 per month.
Couldn’t afford it so my guarantor made a payment of around £6000 in June. Havent made any payments since as I cant afford it, balance owing is £2437.
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well you can’t complain they didn’t send you the CD if you didn’t ask for your personal information.
Why didn’t you send bank statements? The article says send them and that these help you case even if you have gambling showing.
I suggest you:
1) leave Amigo a bad review on Trust Pilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/amigoloans.co.uk saying they have missed not just the 8 week deadline that the regulator sets for complaints but also the extra two weeks they asked you for.
2) send the FCA, Amigo’s regulator, an email. This won’t help your case directly, the FCA won’t look at individual complaint, that is for the ombudsman, but Amigo may hate this and actually do something about your complaint. And it’s quick & easy to do. Email to consumer.queries@fca.org.uk. Copy this email to nick.beal@amigoloans.net and complaints@amigoloans.co.uk, the email addresses given on the FCA register.
In the email say that you had a loan from Amigo despite the fact you had gambling showing on your bank statements, you got behind and asked for a payment plan which they said guarantor would be asked to make payments but then Amigo allowed you to top up so your monthly payments were even more. Say you have complained that they didn’t properly check you affordability but they haven’t responded within the 8 weeks allowed, they asked for an extra two weeks but they have then missed this deadline too.
End by saying you understand the FCA will not investigate your complaint and you are sending it to the Financial Ombudsman but you wanted to report their very poor complaints handling to their regulator.
3) send your complaint to the Finacial Ombudsman as the article above suggests.
Danielle says
I didnt send bank statements as I wasnt sure how to download and attach these using my phone and didnt want to login to my bank via a library computer.
Thanks so much for this advice, I will follow it all and post the outcome on here!
Sam says
Good Evening,
I have just sent a complaint email to Amigo to start the process, would you kindly be able to help me work out if i will get anything back if I am succesful please.
I took the first loan out in February 2017 for £2500 (payments made 106.94 x 1)
I then took a top up loan which cleared the first loan for a total of £5250 in April 2017 (payments made 256.14 x 1)
June 2017 I took out another one which again cleared the current balance, the new total was then £8000 (payments made 390.32 x 2)
and in September 2017 I took out a final loan at the maximum allowed of £10000. (payments made so far 395.25 x 25)
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
First having 3 top ups in 6 months, going from 2,500 to 10,000 suggests that you have a very strong complaint for the current loan to be found to be unaffordable.
At the moment you have paid 9,875 towards the last loan. By the time your complaint is decided in 8 weeks, you will have made 1 or 2 more payments and will have paid over £10,000. So yes, you should get some refund.
If you want me to guess at how much can you go back and find out how much of the first top up was used to settle loan 1, how much of the second top up was used to settle loan 2 and how much of the last loan was used to settle loan 3.
Sam says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for such a quick response.
It’s hard to tell as I don’t have access to the old accounts to see the statements, but I think it is:
£1500 from the 5250 to pay off the first loan.
£3250 from the third to pay off the second loan
£8050 from the fourth to pay off the third.
These amounts seem awfully high but that is worked out from the payment from my guarantor’s bank to mine.
I hope that makes sense.
My current balance is £10,015.12 :(
Many thanks for your help.
Andy says
It’s heartbreaking isn’t it paying 25 payments and still at your original loan about 😡
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is Amigo? Can you not see the statements online? Those figures don’t look right to me.
Your current balance can be ignored as all the interest will be removed from the last loan.
Sam says
Yes, Amigo.
It doesn’t show me anything before the last loan top up.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, well you have asked for a copy of all your personal information, it will all come through with that.
Rachel says
Hi.
I put in a complaint with amigo on the 8th october 2019 the 8 weeks is up today. I have received an email saying they are inundated and that my complaint will need a further 2 weeks. If I am not happy to contact the FOS. Do i wait or contact FOS?
Thanks
Rachel
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you leave them a bad review on Trust Pilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/amigoloans.co.uk but allow them the extra two weeks. Did you send bank statements with your complaint?
Rachel says
No unfortunately I didnt silly me I will admit I didnt see the part on your advice until a few days ago. Should I send them now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes I suggest you send them now. They may not be needed – Amigo may uphold your case without. But for some cases they may make the difference between Amigo upholding your complaint and rejecting it.
Rachel says
Hi Sara
Thanks I have just sent them now and looking at it I had borrow £10000 in 3 1/2 months!!
Rachel
amy says
Hello Sarah,
If I’m entitled to anything which I’m unsure of could you possibly have any ideas on how much please ,
I had my first loan in 2008 for £1000 I paid £48.79 for 2 months
then topped up to £3000 (closing first loan) I made 12 payments at £146.37
then topped up too £5000 (closing off loan) I paid 18 payments of £197.62
then topped up again to £5000 (closing off loan) 20 payments made of £197.62
then topped up again to £5000 (closing off loan) 16 payments of £197.62
then topped up again to £5000 (closing off loan) 29 payments of £297.62
then topped up to £5250 (closing off loan) 7 payments made at £207.51
then topped up to £6750 (closing off loan) 34 payments made at £266.79, still paying off and I still owe £5500 (ish)
I’ve worked it out I’ve paid around £28000.00 to amigo after every payment made :(
Do I stand a chance?
Many Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 6th loan – should that have been 29 payments of 197 rather than 297?
On the last loan you have already paid more than you borrowed. So if that is decided to be unaffordable (and with all that repeat borrowing you have a strong case!) you will be getting the last loan cleared and a refund.
I can’t tell how large a refund unless you know the figures for each top up. Do you remember how much cash you received for each top up? Then I could work out how much was used to settle the previous loan.
amy says
Hi Sara, thanks for the quick reply , yes it was 197 not 297 sorry, I have contacted the bank and have all the statements being posted to me if needed if asked so it should tell me on that what I received so I can let you know asap, i was in a position where I had to borrow the money which then left me in financial difficulty but i always paid as I never wanted my guarantor to pay as she was retired herself so did not have a lot of money. I really hope something can be done as after so many years it’s been very stressful.
amy says
I’ve just checked my last loan that I topped up to £6750 , I paid off my loan of £5145.64 and received £1604.36
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, to show how this works:
for loan 8, the last one, you borrowed 6750 and have paid 34 x 266 (ignoring pennies) = 9044. So you have paid 9044-6750=£2294 in interest which should be refunded to you. And of course that will go up by £266 for every month you makie a payment while the complaint goes through.
for loan 7, you borrowed 5250, you made payemnst of 7 x 207=1449, then settled this with 5146 from the next loan. So overall you paid 1449+5146-5250=£1345 in interest which should be refunded to you.
When you get the pay out amounts from the earlier loans – either from your bank statements of from the info Amigo will be sending you – we can look at the earlier loans and how much interest you paid on them.
amy says
Thank you Sara , as soon as I know I’ll let you know :) You are an amazing person helping everyone out with all this information :)
Amy says
Hi Sara,
Following post the other day re simple interest I asked Amigo about their calculations and essentially received the same reply as John, no overpayments on the first loan so 8% not calculated then the rest of rationale.
Guess part of problem is i’m not great with numbers so don’t really understand what their method really entails, and certainly not been the experience so far. Have checked the link to FOS page and it only seems to mention “If this results in the borrower having paid too much, then any overpayments should be refunded, adding 8% simple interest” so assume is what they’re interpreting.
I guess the question is whether FOS would agree and could uphold. Given everything that’s gone on recently I won’t be alone in feeling anxious about the prospect of a further delay having reached this stage, but at the same time they do also reference this as their policy on response so don’t envisage any negotiation. Was thinking of maybe giving FOS a call to see if anyone could advise.
Also given how confused I am about it all now would appreciate any guidance as to how best frame response to lender, and am not even sure if the figures I’d calculated above were roughly right if someone were to ask how much I think repayment should be!
I had just worked out each interest amount using x days x 8 / 36500 formula then added together, am I right in thinking this would give the final amount of simple interest or is there another stage?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is the right formula.
Ljc says
This was in my local paper this morning Sara
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/18078268.amigo-loans-told-give-information-guarantors/
Amy says
Hi Sara I’m almost up to the 10 week deadline (Friday) and I’ve still not heard anything….I’ve had my cd and they’ve received my bank statements. Is it worth emailing them or anything to help try and push a response…….I see you mention the FCA should I threaten them with that or will it not help? I’m worried they’re going to try make me wait another 2 weeks!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you just have to wait.
Amy says
Do you know if it is likely that they will extend another 2 weeks? And if they do should I just wait again or go to the fos? As that will then be 12 weeks. I’ve got another payment due soon and was hoping it would be sorted before then
Mark says
My 8 weeks was up with TFS today, I recieved a phone call from them, completed security and they asked am I talking to the account holder I said yes.. she ok it’s just to let you know that you will recieve our response today via email and we will send it in post… the response I got was they are unable to respond to my complaint as they have concerns who is making the complaint! They have requested my passport, driving licence and a signed letter!
I sent it to them and rang, the lady dealing with my case who said she was completely independent had finished for the day until Friday. What I dont understand is when I spoke to them on the phone I said I cant understand why anyone else would make the complaint on my behalf, I also said that 4 weeks ago they requested bank statements from 5 years ago which I provided, how on earth would someone impersonating me get these bank statements as well as speaking to them almost weekly about the complaint. I believe this to be a stalling tactic to avoid responding to me in the 8 weeks. I rang the FOS straight away and they said they would take the case on as it doesnt seem right they have taken 8 weeks to request such information. When I told TFS this they said it would take a maximum of 30 days … What should I do!! Just cant believe it. I suffer with heart problems and anxiety and depression this is ruining me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is VERY poor behaviour by TFS. You have done the right thing to send the complaint to FOS now.
I hope given your health problem FOS will treat this as a priority – if you haven’t told FOS about your health, make sure you do this.
Mark says
I’m in the process of filling out all the information for the ombudsman now, I couldn’t do it on the phone earlier because I had geared myself up waiting for the 8 weeks and to have that reply was such a disappointment. I havent heard anyone winning a case with TFS so thought it’s best I get the ball rolling with the FOS to put it all right. I just cant believe they came up with such a feeble excuse, who would make a complaint on my behalf ?! Completely unbelievable
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is right up there with the worst responses ever!
Beth says
HI, I have put an affordability complaint in with Amigo, who have advised that they have sent me out my Data Access request via post in the form of a CD. Is there anything else I need to do? Do I need to send out another email for the second stage or just wait for the final response? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can just put it on one side so you have the details in case the case has to go to the Ombudsman.
Danielle says
10 weeks have now passed since submitting my affordability complaint to Amigo, received no correspondence from them at all so phoned and was told they wont be able to meet the deadline and aren’t able to give me a timeframe as they still have alot to get through before mine. Left a detailed trust pilot review two days ago.. no joy. As advised, I will be emailing the FCA and passing the case to FOS today.
Ian says
Just thought I would update you on my Uk Credit complaint. I got a response back from my adjudicator today who has upheld the complaint which is great. Ive since had an email from Uk Credit asking for my nak statements as they never had these so wanted to verify what was written in the complaint. Im still not convinced that UK Credit will uphold the complaint and are likely to send to the Ombudsman. But im still happy the Adjudicator has seen in my favour. Ill keep you updated once I hear what UK Credit are going to do
Lou7 says
Hi all,
I am so annoyed!! I sent an email today to the adjudicator and she said she is still waiting on information from the first 4 loans. Amigo haven’t sent it to her, only info from the last 2 loans. She said without this she can’t progress the complaint. Is there anything I can do as I think it’s unfair that I miss out because they are being awkward?? Information would be greatly appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your first 3 loans were a long while ago.
Which loans do you have bank statements for?
Lou7 says
Hi Sara,
All of them but the adjudicator as not asked for bank statements. She is saying she needs the dates of old loans, amount, monthly payments etc but I sent her all that via email because all that information was at the top of the statement. I was hoping it would have been sorted by now to be honest because it’s been nearly 12 months. It’s just frustrating when the payments are due.
Kalvin says
Just got my response from Amigo after the 8 weeks :
“We write further to our letter to let you know that we are continuing with our investigation into your concerns.
As we are currently carrying out a high number of investigations, we have been unable to issue our final response to you. We apologise for the delay and we will write to you again when we have the results of our investigation into your complaint.
We anticipate, based on our current volumes, to be able to respond to your complaint in the next four weeks. However, we will endeavour to respond sooner.”
Should I just take this straight to the Ombudsman or will I be better off waiting the extra 4 weeks (feels like a kick in the teeth after waiting 8 weeks…)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
4 weeks! That is very poor. I suggest you send it straight to the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As well as sending the case to the Financial Ombudsman you can also:
1) leave a bad review on Trust Pilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/amigoloans.co.uk saying they have missed not the 8 week deadline that the regulator sets for complaints and are now asking for an extra 4 weeks, but they expect borrowers to make all their payments exactly on time!
2) send the FCA, Amigo’s regulator, an email. This won’t help you directly as the FCA doesn’t look at individual complaint, that what FOS is for, but Amigo may hate this and actually do something about your complaint. And it’s simple to do. Email to consumer.queries@fca.org.uk. Copy this email to nick.beal@amigoloans.net and complaints@amigoloans.co.uk, those are the email addresses on the FCA register.
Say you have complained that they didn’t properly check your affordability but they haven’t responded within the 8 weeks allowed and they have said they need an extra 4 weeks. If you are struggling to repay this so as not to affect your guarantor, add that you think you are being put under an unfair amount of pressure because of their slow complaint handling.
End by saying you know the FCA will not investigate your complaint and you are sending it to the Financial Ombudsman but you wanted to report their very poor complaints handling to their regulator.
Lou29 says
Hello,
Today I received an email from Amigo confirming the amount of refund plus interest I am due and it’s just over £3100 I am over the moon, and all thanks to this website and templates!
Thank you!
Rachel says
Hi
Well done!! I was wondering when you put in your complaint to amigo how long until you git the decision?
Lou29 says
I put my complaint in on the 27th of September, they came back to me at the end of the 8 weeks saying they needed more time but should have my response within two weeks, and I got it two days before the end of the two weeks saying it had been upheld. Just waiting for the money now.
Emma says
Hi Lou so pleased for you! Did you send any bank statements? I haven’t and I’m worried they will ask for them once the additional 2 weeks is up on Friday!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why didn’t you send bank statements?
Emma says
Sara I didn’t think too… have I made a mistake not sending them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sometimes they uphold complaints without them. Sometimes they reject them. Sometimes they ask for bank statements – I am just trying to speed up the cases where they ask for them.
Do you mind me asking something? I’m not criticising you, but lots of people seem to have not sent statements and I am trying to work out why to improve the article… Did you see my suggestion to send the statements? If you didn’t, was that because you had sopped reading and just sent the complaint? Or did you see it but it didn’t feel important or you just never really focused on it?
Emma says
To be honest I think I got so caught up with writing the complaint that I didn’t read the whole article… I had been struggling and so disheartened with the repayments for so long that when I came across your article I couldn’t believe it! I was full steam ahead!
I’m really hoping for a positive result, for years this loan has been hanging over me I’m crossing everything but I’m not hopeful
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s understandable. Fingers crossed you get a good result & soon!
Lou29 says
Hi Emma,
No I didn’t sent any bank statements and it was still upheld.
I didn’t purely because it was rather over complicated for me as I have 4 different current accounts and the thought of getting statements for them over years and then sending them off seemed quiet a task.
Hope you get a positive outcome!
Kalvin says
I have posted my review and also sent them an email as you suggested, how long approximately does the ombudsman take to start moving things forward?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hard to say, not many Amigo complaints have been going through to FOS recently. What is your guarantor’s situation at the moment? What are your other debts like?
Kalvin says
Is it possible for them to still reply before the 4 weeks is up whilst it’s been submitted to FOS or should I be expecting a few months of a wait? My guarantor has just been made redundant at his work so he’s unemployed with no income, all my other debts are in a DMP which is making it slightly more controllable but still causing me a tremendous amount of stress…
Stevie says
What a good thread to find :) I sent my email using the template on 2nd December and had an email back acknowledging they had revived it so fingers crossed
Adrian says
Hi,
Today I received an email back from Amigo about my complaint (thank you for the templates)
The loan was as follows…
Borrowed £2000 in Nov 2017 but topped up to £4500 in Dec 2017 over 3 years (the £2000 was paid back with the new loan)
I’ve paid 18 payments of £219.20
This is the refund outcome from Amigo…
We added up the total amount of interest that accrued across your loans. This was then deducted from your current loan.
Your balance has now been updated accordingly. Interest has been frozen, and all future payments will be deducted from the remaining capital loan amount.
Interest Refund 8% Simple Interest £0.07
Loan balance before your interest refund £3,348.14
Interest Refund £3,291.43
Loan balance after refunds £56.64
Is this good and acceptable? I’m not sure if this is what I should be expecting.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you never made a payment to the first loan? How much did you receive in cash when you topped up?
Are you sure you have only made 18 payments? It has been more than 18 months since the top up was taken out?
Has your guarantor made any payments?
Adrian says
I made one payment of £97 on the first loan and the next loan was paid out on 23rd Dec 17 for £2,520.90 with the other £2000 covering the other loan.
I checked and only paid 18 payments of £219
My guarantor didn’t make any payments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have only paid 1×97 to the first loan. After the top up it was closed and in all you only paid £115 of interest. The second loan you only paid 18 x 219 = £3942, so less than you borrowed…. On my figures you should still owe c £440 on the last loan.
But Amigo are offering to reduce that to £56 so I suggest you accept their offer!
Adrian says
Hi Sara,
Many thanks for your advice on this. I will go ahead and accept their offer.
All my other complaints have been rejected so I will take those to the FOS as all these loans were given to me around the same time.
I’d also like to say that this site has some great information on it and has helped me so much. Thank you for all the hard work you put into it.
Amy says
So I’ve just received my email stating that they have upheld both my loans!!!
My mum made 1 payment towards the loan for me as she was guarentor which I paid back to her but they want her to contact them to see if she wants a refund…..if she tells them that I paid her back will they proceed with the refund as normal or is it best for her to take the payment that she made and then just give me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Excellent! I think it’s probably simpler for her to get the refund and then send it to you.
Lou7 says
Hi all
Just a quick question. Who decides if a complaint can go ahead with loans over 6 years old?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman. BUT if the lender has no information about the earlier loans, you may need to provide proof of what you paid,
Lou7 says
Thanks Sara. Amigo sent me info from all my loans right back to 2008. I had the credit agreement and the statements. I hope they cooperate soon. Thanks again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In this case, I think you should phone FOS up and say you want to speak to a manager and then that you want to make a complaint about the slow progress of your complaint as you have already supplied FOS will all the details of the loans. Say that in view of the excessive delays and your mental health problems you want FOS to reach a decision on the case without waiting any further for Amigo to send over details.
Lou7 says
Hi Sara I think I will give them a ring tomorrow then. After I sent all the info I had the adjudicator came back with this email.
I appreciate what you’re saying, however Amigo have said that we are unable to consider the first four loans because they were more then six years – I am discussing this with them which is why it is taking longer then usual.
I am still no further forward than I was in October. I don’t know what more she needs really.
Michael Lord says
Hi.
I put my complaint in 8 weeks ago so hoping to hear back soon, but it seems everbody’s getting put off longer than 8 week, is this the case for every complaint.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A few seem to be going through on time – or at least people don’t mention that their response has been delayed. but a lot are being told an extra 2 weeks or now 4 weeks. W
When it was 2 weeks I was telling people they may as well wait. Now it’s gone up to 4, I think that is getting ridiculous and people should send the complaint straight to the ombudsman at 8 weeks if they get that answer. If Amigo comes back and uphold your complaint, you just tell FOS it has been settled.
If there are too many complaints, Amigo needs to employ more staff and start handling them faster.
Amy says
Hi Sara,
Just an update re 8% calculations.
I have just been speaking with an investigator from FOS to see if this is something they’d look at.
She did say the method isn’t something they’ve usually seen done but having advised of my case my case she can understand their calculations in terms of the cumulative repayments, and having also spoken to a colleague she explained in layman’s terms that it is based on the fact that the interest repaid on both loan amounts was not more than the amount borrowed, so I didn’t have the benefit of the funds as the principle amount would always have needed to be paid and she felt this was reasonable.
To be honest I still don’t really understand fully the ins and out and what it all means but just wanted to advise for anyone that is in same situation as it doesn’t look like would be a matter for FOS to disagree with.
Lou7 says
My adjudicator said that without amigos consent she cannot look at the first four loans. Frustrated and annoyed!! Any advice??
Lou7 says
Rang ombudsman only for him to say that what the adjudicator said is right. I just want to cry
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is disappointing. But you should still get a good result from the last three loans – it will be a huge improvement if they are upheld.
Andrew says
Hi Sara.
This is grate what you are doing.
I took my first loan with amigo in October (or September) 2015 just after when I lost my job. The first loan was £3500. I have been repaying this until September 2016, where they offers me top up for £7500.
I’m repaying this loan until now – monthly £296. Now I have two years to end this loan but the amount is still around £6500.
Not sure what I can do.
I remember that when I apply they were pushing me to change my answers while processing the affordability checks. I had no job and they even did not checked this. I had other debts which they mot even mentioned while checking my credit score.
Andrew says
I have submitted m complain yesterday with bank statement. Thanks for the template.
I attached to the complain my bank statement, credit report, and also a dismissal letter from work to show that I had no job when i applied for first loan. And also I attached payslip showing my low income on time applying for the to up in 2016.
Not sure if that will help.
This morning they send me a response (the Customer Relations Team):
”Thank you for your email.
Following this, a complaint has been raised so that we can investigate the matters that have been brought to our attention. Whilst your complaint is ongoing, your loan will continue as planned.
We have a maximum of 8 weeks in which to investigate your complaint, and issue a written response to you. However, we will endeavour to reply to you as soon as possible. I’ve acknowledged your DSAR request, please note we have up to 30 days to provide you with the information you’ve requested.
Should you wish to discuss your complaint further during this period, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on xxxx.
I have included a copy of our complaints procedure, for your information.”
Stacy says
Hi,I received my final decision from the Foa, they have wrote to Amigo today to tell them that my 1st loan and 3 tops ups,they have to pay interest back plus 8% plus £500 compensation as to how I was treated,they have until the 16th to reply do amigo normally message me directly after this?
Thank you so much to this group,it has changed my life for the better, happy Christmas everyone
Stacy says
Can I ask has thetw been cases where Amigo disagree with the decision of the adjudicator,
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
not recently. Though it is sometimes slow in accepting the decision and there are a couple waiting at the moment.
Stacy says
Great ty, adjudicator has gave them until the 16th dec so fingers
Thanks again
Catherine says
Any one awaiting a complaint to be investigated by Everyday lending ltd,George Banco.Just wondering on response times and if people are hearing in the 8 weeks,only 6 weeks in but imagine it would be extended because of Christmas period.
Had 1 initial loan,then 2 top ups.
Anyone had theirs upheld without going to FOS?
Adrian says
I had a reply from both these companies and it was within a few weeks. They both refused the claims so I’m having to go through FOS
louise allen says
hi sara could you please give me some information please basically i put a complaint into amigo regarding loans being unaffordable i am yet to hear anything about a decision but my dad who is guarantor has received an email today saying he has been removed from the loan? could this mean good news for me
thank you in advance
louise allen says
hi sara could you please give me some information please basically i put a complaint into amigo regarding loans being unaffordable i am yet to hear anything about a decision but my dad who is guarantor has received an email today saying he has been removed from the loan? could this mean good news for me
thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your dad didn’t make a complaint, then Yes, this sounds like good news for your complaint. fingers crossed for you! How long ago did you complain?
louise allen says
thanks for quick reply it was around the 4th of october
louise allen says
no he didnt make a complaint only me i dont have a clue of what ive paid and lost count on top ups one i paid off in jan 2018 then i took another out
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you are overdue a response. I suggest you phone them tomorrow if you haven’t had an email first thing.
louise allen says
ok thanks for your help
louise allen says
hi sara i have spoke to amigo and they have partially upheld my complaint for the last 3 but not for the previous do i accept this and take the others to fos? thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Great! But as you say it could possibly be better, so it’s good to think about this not just collapse with relief at what you have been offered.
The simple answer is that you have nothing to lose now by sending your complaint to FOS. Amigo has already released your guarantor, you can immediately set up a lower, really affordable payment arrangement for the current loan so you won’t be under any pressure while your FOS complaint goes through.
(If you have a lot of other problem debts, this might be a good time to set up a debt management plan and put the last Amigo loan into that – then any refund you later get will be able to speed up the DMP payments. If you want to find out if this is a good idea for you, talk to StepChange and explain that the guarantor has been released from your Amigo loan.)
If you can say something about all your borrowing, it would be possible to see what Amigo’s current offer will actually look like and how much more you might get if earlier loans are included. You said earlier you had lost track of how many top-ups you had. All this information should be on the CD Amigo sent you. And you may be able to see it in your online account at Amigo – have you looked there?
louise allen says
my online account only shows the loan from may this year, so am i unable to accept there offer and still go fos for the previous loan or if i accept thats case closed? if i was to take it fos could i end up with nothing? thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They have released your guarantor, right? They can’t go back on that decision! That’s why you can now stop paying the full amount
What FOS usually does when someone says “I was offered a refund on loans 4-6 but I think I should also have a refund on the earlier loans” is start by saying “well both sides agreed 4-6 should be refunded so I will just look at loans 1-3 where there is a dispute”.
The only time someone ends up with nothing is if the lender has said “We don’t agree any of your loans were unaffordable but we are sorry you complained and are prepared to offer you £50 as a goodwill offer.” If you say No, go to FOS who agree that all your loans were affordable you then can’t expect to get the £50 goodwill offer.
I do think it’s worth looking at what the refund you would get now is and how large the possible refunds from the earlier loans might be. HAve you had a look at your CD? You could ask Amigo for a list of your loans – how much borrowed, date, what payments you made to the loans. point out they aren’t on your online account.
louise allen says
hi ive just looked and by what i can find on previous emails is 31/12/16 loan of 1250 monthly payment £128 2/2/17 top up to 5500 monthly payments £227 top up 17/11/17 £7000 monthly payments £296 loan settled jan 2018
feb 2018 new loam given 5000 monthly payment £296 top up 14/5/19 £7750 monthly payments £306 im sure there was one other top up but cannot find this i have asked amigo for a list of my loans, i cant see me getting anything other than some took of my outstanding loan
:(