UPDATES:
Do not use the templates on this page for the following lenders, instead see the specific page:
- Amigo has set up a Scheme of Arrangement. The deadline for making a claim has now passed, see Amigo’s Scheme for details.
- Buddy Loans went into administration in September 2021, see Buddy Loans goes into administration.
- George Banco & Trust Two set up Scheme of Arrangement, the deadline to make a claim to this has passed, see Everyday Loan Scheme for details
- TFS Loans went into administration in February 2022, see TFS Loans goes into administration.
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. If your complaint is rejected you can send the case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) who is upholding a lot (90%!) of guarantor loan complaints.
If you are the guarantor not the borrower, read Complaining if you are a guarantor which has a different template letter to use.
Contents
What is an affordability complaint?
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.
Does this sound like you? Then make an affordability complaint.
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.
You can complain if you are still paying the loan or if you have repaid it all.
If you win your 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 been settled, you get a refund of the interest you paid.
What should the lender have checked?
Guarantor lenders should have checked the loan was affordable for you before giving you the money.
The lender should have made sure you were likely to be able to make the repayments for the whole length of the loan.
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.
Some things a lender may have got wrong:
- It doesn’t matter if your guarantor is well off, the loan has to be affordable for you!
- You may have given said your expenditure was lower than it was, because you were guessing or desperate. The lender should have checked your figures.
- If you were self-employed or had wages that varied, the lender should have looked at how your income went up and down.
- The lender should have checked your credit record to see all your debts. If you had recently taken more loans or missed payments/defaulted, the lender should have been careful as 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 shouldn’t be told you have complained unless your complaint is being upheld.
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 talk to a debt adviser about your options in this difficult situation.
Making an affordability complaint won’t make things worse, and it may help in a few months time, 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
Don’t use this for Amigo of Buddy – see the update at the top of the page.
For all other guarantor lenders, including ones that have stopped lending, send your complaint by email – here is a list of lender’s email addresses.
Use SAR AND COMPLAINT BY BORROWER as the email title.
Here is a template. Change it to describe what happened to you and delete what doesn’t apply.
Only put this in if it applies to you: I took a top up of [£2,500] 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 (SAR).
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 DMP/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 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 could have seen from 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. Please note I do not want my guarantor to be informed about my complaint unless my complaint is upheld.]
You have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint before I send it to the Financial Ombudsman.
If you would like some help with this, then go to your local Citizens Advice.
Definitely 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 and two months afterwards. So if you had a loan in August 2017, send statements for May-September 2017.
These statements will show how unaffordable your loans were. 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 – just add them later. But now is a good time to get the statements as they can help your case.
Also get a copy of your credit record if this will show defaults, that your debts were increasing, that you had a large overdraft etc. Download this and keep it.
What to do with your personal information (SAR)
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 delay in sending a case to FOS – it has to go within 6 months. And while you have an “open” complaint at FOS, the lender cannot take you to court.
Lenders seem to reject many complaints and hope you give up! So don’t be surprised if a lender says No, the loan was affordable or We based our decision to lend on your application which was inaccurate.
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) the best way to do this is by using the FOS online form.
This is free to do and easy – you don’t have to quote laws or regulations. You can just send FOS the complaint you sent the lender. And if they have replied and said something that’s wrong, mention that as well.
You don’t need to go into details – a short FOS complaint is fine. 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.
If only some loans are refunded, is this fair?
Sometimes a lender will say that just a few loans are unaffordable and remove the interest. Which is good, but should it be better?
If the rejected loans caused you difficulties and led to you needing a top-up, send your complaint to FOS and say you think the earlier loans too should be refunded.
Are you likely to win your Ombudsman complaint?
The Financial Ombudsman is agreeing with the customer on 90% of cases!
It is much simpler to win a case at FOS than a court case. If a 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.
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.
- you have been bankrupt, in an IVA or a DRO – read guarantor loans & insolvency .
- you have a CCJ from the guarantor lender – read guarantor loans & 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 case.
- if you win a case but still owe a balance, this is usually just reduced. But the claims firm may 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.
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Card limit too high? Ask for a refund
Complaints about bank & other large loans
Amy says
Hi,
I’ve just submitted an affordabilty complaint against trust two .
Has anybody else had any luck with this company ?
I’ve emailed trust two and everyday loans there are 2 email addresses on trust two one for everyday loans complaints department .
I’ve received an email back from trust two saying their mail box is full so cannot receive new messages to the inbox, and another message from everyday loans saying if the complaint is with trust two to contact trust two. It Seems like I can’t get through to anyone with my complaints email 😡.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you email both addresses again and add chioma.nwachukwu@everyday-loans.co.uk as well. Say the Trust Two email box is full. Your complaint against them is below – copy it in. Say if you do not receive confirmation within 2 days that your complaint has been accepted you will be informing the FCA and FOS.
Amy says
Thankyou for your reply Sara, I will be doing this straight away hopfully I can get through to them.
Syed N says
Hi Amy,
I have made a complaint to trust 2 loans i am waiting for a response from them it has been 8 weeks now. i called Tuesday asked for an update there said hopefully should get an update next weeks. I have raised it with FOS now.
Hope this helps you
Peter says
I complained to Trust Two back in September. I have had 4 guarantor loans over the past 5 years (£2500, £3000, £2500, £10000 – still paying this last one). They rejected my irresponsible lending complaint in full after 8 weeks.
Sent to FOS on 1st November. Just received an email today saying they are beginning to look into my case and will assign an adjudicator soon.
Rachel says
I’ve had the same information regarding Trust Two , from what I can tell they aren’t holding up any complaints , fingers crossed for both of us !
Syed N says
Hi Sara,
Can you help me how much refund will i get if Amigo upheld my complaint
I have had four loans with them
Loan 1 was £750 in May 2014
Loan 2 was £1250 in Dec 2015
Loan 3 was 27500 in March 2017
Loan 4 was £7000 in Sep 2018.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to say how much you have paid to each loan eg loan 1 – 17 payments of £75. And also when you had a top up, how much cash you received.
Syed N says
Loan 4 was £7000 and settlement of old agreement £2,583 and pay put was £ 4,416 made – 13 x £276, 2 x £500, 1 x £274 , 1 x £22, 1 x £34, 2 x £10, 2 x £30, 2 x £285 and 1 x £293.
Other loans i will give you information tomorrow as i don’t have any with me.
Ron says
Hi Sara
1st time poster but have been following this closely.
I am on top up number 2 with amigo since 2016.
I made my complaint Jan 1st and have sent over bank statements showing I was firmly in my overdraft at each top up, 80% of transactions were for gambling ( shamefully) and a reliance on payday loans.
Could you advice me if the gambling will be of detriment to my case?
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That much gambling showing on your statements should HELP your case.
Have you also made complaints to any payday lenders you used several times?
Ron says
Yes. Money box and cashasap upheld my complaints and myjar rejected, now sent to FOS.
Rachel says
Hi Sara ,
I have now contacted the FOS and explained that my situation is getting worse and I’m feeling under a lot of stress. They were very helpful and advised they would try to assign to investigator very soon. And I have sent bank statements also.
Also my guarantor has logged a complaint with Trust two and TFS to be removed as the guarantor.
Just a couple of questions I wondered if you could help. I’ve asked both companies for lowered payments for the time being as I’m struggling to cope , non have been compliant and have said no. Is there anywhere I stand on this ?
Also in the response letter from TFS I noticed a a line in the response that said because I said my partner paid all house hold bills which wasn’t the complete truth “are you now saying you falsified the application “.
Well yes I did because I was desperate money borrowing if I wasn’t then I wouldn’t be applying for a loan with a 49% interest rate. I feel this is trying to make me feel like I’ve broken the law or something ? Should I be worried ?
Thank you so much in advance
Rach
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m afraid there isn’t a way to make them accept less and not go after your guarantor, and you have already explained why you don’t want to do that.
Are you on any medication for stress etc?
You don’t need to worry about “falsifying the application” – FOS knows that many desperate people do this and they say that is one of the reasons that guarantor lender should verify your income and expenses by looking at your bank statements.
What is your partner’s financial position?
Rachel says
I am on medication now yes. Low dose 10mg citalopram.
It’s unfortunate that they are being so unreasonable with accepting lower payments.
I don’t have a partner , I’ve been single for over 3 years now. He pays maintenance monthly but we were never married and the loans were never anything in his name.
Feel so stuck at the moment , especially as it’s been with the FOS for over 11 weeks and still not assigned
Rach
AG says
Same with me – complaint submitted late October, on the 19th of December I was told I’d get a full response by end of business on 27th. On the 27th I got an email saying they would be taking 4 more weeks. I have suffered immensly from this to the point I’ve been off work with stress and already suffer with mental health issues. I am getting in more debt to pay this each month because I was still threatened with pre-litigation despite my open complaint. Already raised with the FOS also but no longer holding out much hope – I can’t take much more of this. I’m at 10 weeks now with absolutely nothing from Amigo not even being told it’s assigned to someone.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi AG, who is your guarantor, could they afford the repayments? I’m not suggesting that you should ask them to…
AG says
Hi Sara, I am the guarantor, I was in an abusive relationship and now that I’m free from him this is his last bit of control – not paying this to ensure I’m left with literally nothing. Amigo have been told all of this and have transcripts from Women’s Aid, letters from my psychiatrist, expenditure done with Citizens Advice and still don’t seem to care how badly it’s affecting me.
Tina says
Hi Sara,
Wondering if you can advise. Both myself and my husband have taken out amigo loans including top ups with different guarantors however all our money goes into the same joint account. Our joint account is firmly in the overdrawn apart from a few days after payday before all the bills are paid. Would this make it difficult to show unaffordability with having 2 wages going in and different debts going out. Would you suggest highlighting what debts are mine on my set of bank statements and highlighting my husbands debts on his? Or just send them as is? I don’t want to prolong the process by them questioning each transaction as to who pays what. Thanks in advance for any help :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds as though it is going to be pretty obvious you were both in a mess. If Amigo had asked to see your bank statement, would a reasonable lender have given either of you a loan? probably not.
It’s up to you if you think it needs to be made clearer. I would get the complaints in asap though, any clarification can be added later.
Sara says
Hi, Sara.
I was wondering if you could please calculate my figures.
Update on my complaint, I’ve just spoken with a customer service advisor, and they stated that my complaint has been acknowledged and that someone should be assigned within the next week or so. I complained on the 1st Jan.
Loan 1 – £1,750.00 (12 months) – 21/12/16
Payments made: 8 x £180.35 (Total = £1,442.80)
Cash recieved: £1,750.00
Loan 2 – £2,000.00 (12 months) – 22/8/17
Payments made: 1 x £123.63 (Total = £123.63)
Cash recieved: £1,338.31
Loan 3 – £3,500.00 (36 months) – 21/09/17
Payments made: 2 x £170.76 (Total = £341.52)
Cash recieved: £1,556.04
Loan 4 – £5,000.00 (60 months) – 30/11/17
Payments made: 2 x £197.62 (Total = £395.24)
Cash recieved: £1,568.41
Loan 5 – £6,250.00 (60 months) – 06/03/18
Payments made: 5 x £247.03 (Total = £1,235.15)
Cash recieved: £1,099.70
Loan 6 – £8,000.00 (60 months) – 29/08/18
Payments made: 15 x £316.20 (Total = £4,743.00)
Cash recieved: £1,742.17
The end date for my current loan is 19/09/2023.
My balance remaining, with interest, is £14,229.00.
If settled today, 09/01/2020, the balance is £7,674.35.
Many thanks for all your help!
Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming your guarantor hasn’t made any payments.
I make the interest you have paid on the repaid loans:
1 352
2 67
3 272
4 545
5 1243
total 2479
On the last loan you have paid 4740 towards the 8000 borrowed, so still have 3260 to repay that.
But the 2479 from the previous loans will clear most of that, leaving 781 to be repaid. Which will be down to nearly nothing if you make two more payments while the complaint goes through.
Sara says
That’s correct. My mom is my guarantor and hasn’t made any payments.
I worry because she cannot afford it now due to a change in her circumstances.
I’m currently waiting for a wonga refund (which is how I found this site), so I was wondering if this would impact my complaint in any way.
Everything is crossed that I’m successful. I hate money.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All those top ups looks like a strong case to me.
No other refunds can affect whether you have a good affordability complaint.
Sara says
That makes me feel a bit better as I feared they may not accept my main because they might think I’m getting a pay out.
They’ve never asked for bank statements, proof of income etc.
I work as a part time carer, single parent to two small children. I hope I can get some closure on this.
Thank you.
Debtfreein2020 says
I’ve just heard back from Amigo regarding a guarantor loan and top up I took out with them a few years ago.
Initial amount was £2000 and I topped up to £3000 only 3 months later.
It has taken them 12 weeks (4 weeks late) to come to the decision that they agreed with my complaint and have refunded interest to the account and frozen any further interest.
They have also agreed to remove any negative information from my credit file. My guarantor has also be relinquished of any responsibility. A huge weight off.
My outstanding amount was £2500 and this is now £1000, any payments I make will be come off the balance due to there being no interest. They have also agreed to bring down my monthly payment to something more affordable.
A big win for me on a stupid loan I regretted taking out because I couldn’t afford it with all my other debts.
I have to say Amigo treated me very fairly and with respect and it was worth giving them a little extra time to look at.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good! Love your user name…
Debtfreein2020 says
Thanks to you for amazing website and advice Sara. You are some kind of angel!
I have other complaints in the pipeline but freezing the interest on this one alone has given me so much hope that I can clear all my credit accounts. I’ve also stopped fearing opening letters for the first time in a really long time 👏🏻
nazim nawaz says
Hi i have received a reply to my tfs complain in which the agent has replied back saying that gambling addictions and all expenses were not disclosed so they couldnt have figured out if the loan wasnt affordable for me. They have stated they are at fault partially and they would reduce the interest by 50%. I have written them another email to reconsider their decision because they need to verify by documentation whatever is said on the phone is true and just not believe what was said on the phone.
Mr F says
Hi all
I have a query thanks to this site I’ve managed successfully to have redress on some payday loans (well not exactly on 1 as my complaint was not upheld but as a gwg they cleared the balance approx 800) the other with safetynet upheld wiped over 1000.
My query though is with a gaurantor complaint with amigo I had a loan and two top ups with them
Loan 1 £3,500 Sept 2012
1st top up £5,000 DEC2008
2nd top up £3,000 Jan2006
Interest is 42.3% all over a 5 year period, because of all my financial problems I’ve moved banks a few times and the accounts I had at time of above payments have long closed and hence I can’t get bank statements, is this going to have a drastic impact on my case, and any idea if it was upheld what I could potentially be looking at.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was 2006 the first loan and 2012 the 2nd top up?
You won’t be able to take a complaint about any lending before April 2007 to the Finacial Ombudsman.
You can try complaining about the later two loans, but it may be hard if you have no evidence about affordability from your bank statements.
Unless you can say what you paid, I can’t guess how much interest you paid.
Mr F says
Hi sara yes 2006 was the first loan
3500 over 60 months repayments were 186
Top up 1 2008, 5000 over 60 months payments went down to 180
Top up 2 3000 again over 60 months – cash received 750 repayments dropped to 138
I stupidly got a gaurantor loan with uk credit of 5400 60 months @ 180 in February 2017 which I used in part to clear amigo (have a claim in with them because I’d become a bit of a gambling addict before I took it out)
To be fair I wouldnt have dreamt of even complaining a year ago now with amigo upholding complaints based on fos decisions I have a small hope at least- if amigo hold it up will be a bonus if ukcredit uphold il be on cloud 9, (might finally get to take the better half on an actual honeymoon after 10yrs)
Mr F says
And to be fair to amigo they are at least looking into it an seem to understand I can’t provide bank statements just got to cross my fingers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The UK Credit complaint sounds an excellent one – straight to the Ombudsman if they refuse.
Mr F says
Top up 1 – £5000 -45 payments of 180.66 totalling 8129.7 leaving balance of
Top up 2 – 3500 cleared 2750 from top up 1 and cash received 750 payments made 52 of 138.34 totalling 7193.68
Saying my calculations are correct am I right in thinking I paid 6823 in interest.
I’ve not included the original loan as although I’m positive of the payments 60 payments of 186 Totals £10839
Yet there were only 35 months between loan 1 and the first top up which totals 6696 (interest seems well to high)
jamie says
Hi Sara,
Success with loans2go complaint which i am chuffed with.
Now Trying to get a response from Amigo. 11 weeks into my complaint, so hoping for a resolution shortly. I had 7 loans with them as detailed below:
– £1,250 paid out on 25/09/14. made 4 payments of £128.82 before I topped up.
– Top up to £2,000 on 03/02/15 with payout of £1,102.54. Made 12 payments of £123.63.
– Top up to £1,750 on 27/01/16 with payout of £583.83. Made 7 payments of £108.18.
– Top up to £4,000 on on 29/08/16 with payout of £2,623.43. Made 12 payments of £247.26.
– Top up to £3,750 on 04/09/17 with payout of £1,353.36. Made 13 payments of £231.81.
– Top up to £3,000 on 30/10/18 with payout of £770.22. Made 7 payments of £309.17.
– Top up to £3,000 on 04/06/19 with payout of £1,612.88. Made 7 payments so far of £309.17.
I currently have a balance on the account of £1,762 with next payment due out on 23/01. Sadly, this is before i am expecting a reply from Amigo.
Now, not expecting to get the first 3 loans refunded as fairly small, plus struggling to provide bank statements for this period but they have bank statements for the subsequent 4. Any rough idea what kind of refund i can hope for ? struggling to calculate the interest!
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those figs (and I assume your guarantor hasnt paid anything) I make the interests on each loan:
1 160
2 619
3 383
4 1361
5 1483
6 551 – total 4557 for 106. total 2558 for 4-6
current loan 837 still owing when interest removed
So if you get loans 4-6 refunded, you would get a refund of 2558
If you had them all refunded you would get a refund of 4557.
1-3 aren’t that old – it is easy to get bank statements that far back even for closed accounts.
Sara says
Hi, all! (Again)
I feel as though this site has become a bit of a lifeline… I check it daily!
My complaint is with Amigo (just in case it works differently with different companies) and I wondered what the actual process is.
I sent my complaint, spoke with an advisor today after calling them for info and they told me my complaint has been acknowledged and that someone will be assignment within the next week or so.
So… What happens now?
I’ve already sent in all my bank statements. Will I just randomly recieved an email saying nope or yes?
Thanks!
Michael Lord says
Hi sara when did youbsend it in? Usually takes 8 weeks but everbody has been extended from 8 to 12, then you get an email with decision
Sara says
I only sent it on the 1st Jan.
But do they just make a decision and that’s it? Do you have to answer any questions first?
Lesley says
Hi sarah,
Im due a response from amigo on tuesday or before , i put my complaint in 22 oct , they asked for the xtra 4 weeks , i was just wondering if you could help me out with figures please ive been trying to work it out but cant
First loan march 2016 of 2,000 cash, i paid 7x 206
I then topped up in nov 2016 i dont know how much loan was for but i recieved about 2200 cash i paid 8x 195 and 2 x 278
then topped up again on nov 2018 and got 5,250 they cleared my balance with that which was at 4460 i gave me the remaining 789 cash , i have paid 23x 325 and 1 x290 and my loan is now paid off thankgod ,
do you know how much i could recieve if i win
Thankyou sarah your website has helpes me loads
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry, not without knowing how large the second loan was.
Lesley says
Im sure it was 4,250
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“then topped up again on nov 2018” Are you sure? because I can’t see how you could then have made 24 payments to the loan. Could this have been nov 17? or is the number of payments wrong?
Lesley says
Maybe am wrong about the top up in 2018 , as i think i only have had 2 loans but when i was looking through my banks statements i see the amounts changed making me think i must have topped up , all the payments above i have defo made can u work out how much it would be if a didnt take top up
Thankyou
Lesley
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry, I don’t think there is any point in making guesses here. Let’s wait and see what Amigo say.
Lesley says
Ok thanks sarah
Lesley says
Hi sarah ,
Wondering if you can help i recieved an email saying my loans were upheld can you please help me work out what i will get ,
March 16 recieved £2000
7 × 206 payments made
Topped up nov 2016 to 4,000 recieved 2,200
8 x 195
2 x 278 payments made
Topped up nov 17 to 5,250 recieved £789
23 x 325
1 x 290 that was my loan cleared after that last payment
They also said i will get 8% back also
Thanks sarah for all your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I make the interest paid on each loan:
loan 1 – £1242
loan 2 – £2577
loan 3 – £2515
total £6344
Amigo’s 8% calcs never seem to add up to much.
Lesley says
Hi again sarah ,
I dont have breakdown of loan yet but i can still log on to my amigo account and its saying refund 4,793.98 , i know you got it to 6344 , just wondering if tax maybe deducted or something it say …
Refund – 4793.98
Bank transfer (cr) 187.89
Interest (cr) 306.76
Interest(cr) 189.26
Interest(cr) 1088.45
Interest(cr) 516.47
Interest(cr) 2505.15
I will compare it to your figures when i get the breakdown sent to me but now its on my amigo account as refund do you know when it will be paid out , and if that is including the 8% they said i would get also , THANKYOUUUUUU AGAIN SARAH 😘
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, tax is only deducted from the extra 8% and I didn’t try to guess that.
When you get a break down, come back with it? I can’t make any sense of those credits.
Lesley says
Thanks sarah ,
Yeh it will make more sense when i get breakdown sent to me , i know you know your stuff , im rubbish with figures , ive been on this site daily from 22 oct and i know you know your stuff , you should be on countdown next carol vorderman 😃 … do you know when i will get a payout now if its on my amigo statement as refund ? Xx
Lesley says
Hi so ive just read email and it doesnt give me breakdown al show you what ive just read ..
On the 16th January, we wrote to you to confirm that we’d refund the interest that you have paid towards your loans. I’m writing to confirm the details of your refund.
Total amount borrowed £17,750
Total interest to be refunded £ 4,606
8% simple Interest after tax £187.89
Total offer
£4,793.98
We have received confirmation of your bank details, and the transfer should be made in the next day or so. Once the payment has been sent, please allow 3-5 working days for the funds to become available in your account.
If you would like to talk to us about your refund and compensatory interest, please let us know.
Please note that we cannot give tax advice. If you have any questions about the basic rate tax deduction and whether you can claim this back, you will need to contact HM Revenue and Customs.
Yours sincerely
Does this seem correct to you sarah ? Xx
MR Ali says
Hi SARA
First of all great website, i am just about to send a complaint to two guarantor loans with amigo and bamboo.
The amigo loan has just been top up last year and the bamboo is on going,
I have not missed payments on either loans but am struggling with the payments
I will be using the Templets that are on here.
How far back of bank statements do I need to send, as there is regularly gambling payment which I have a problem with.
It will be an affordability complaint as my credit score is messed up and even when I topped up they did not check my credit score or even ask for recent statements.
I had to use another guarantor as the previous one did not pass with them which I believe sould have made amigo do further checks on me. They did not do another affordability check as is said nothing changed but I did which they would have seen from bank statements
All help is very much appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to send the bank statements for 3 months before each loan or top up. So if you took a loan on May17, send the statements for Feb, Mar, Apr 17. If these show gambling transactions that actually HELPS your case as if the lender had bothered to check before giving you the loan, then would have seen the gambling and said No…
Do you have other problems debts as well? Are you making payments to those?
Mr ali says
I have a attachment of earning order originally from 1st stop personal loans which is now with other companies, link financial payments all which have stopped interest on the original loans which I regularly pay.
Going to proceed with the amigos and bamboo and if I can claim anything back for other 3rd party will try will update regularly as I behave taking info from website it is worth also giving back on how it all go.
Thanks
JM says
H Sara
i received a reply from Amigo what does this mean? would they have released my guarantor?
Our reasons
As part of my investigation, I’ve reviewed the payout process that you completed when you applied for all four loans. This included the income and expenditure assessment you completed for each loan, and the results of our searches on your credit file. Having done so, we feel that a responsible lending decision was made in regards to paying out the third and fourth (current) loan, however, we believe we could’ve asked you more about your financial situation before the first and second loans were paid out. Therefore, we believe the fairest option is to refund the interest that accrued on these loans and remove any negative trace of them from your credit file. Moving forward
To calculate your refund, we’ll remove the interest that accrued on the upheld loans. If the repayments you made exceed the capital loan amounts, the overpayment will be refunded to you along with 8% simple interest.
If your current loan is not settled as a result, we’ll stop any interest accruing in future. This means that all future payments will go towards the capital loan amount.We’re currently in the process of calculating your refund, and will contact you within 7 working days to confirm what this will mean for you and your current loan.
JM
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh! This is a new variation from Amigo. Thay have said your current loan is affordable so I don’t think they will be releasing your guarantor :(
I think it’s an odd decision. If the loan amounts and monthly payments were going up (were they?) it is hard to see how the first two loans could be unaffordable but the second two were affordable!
I am not sure what they meant by “If your current loan is not settled as a result, we’ll stop any interest accruing in future.”. If they think the last loan is affordable, why would they stop charging interest? I am worried that they are going to turn round and say this is an error.
Do you know what payments you made to each of your loans? If you do I can look at what Amigo have offered and what you could get if all 4 loans were refunded. I need to know for each loan – how much you borrowed. if it was a top up, how much you received in cash, and what monthly payments yopu made to that loan.
You have already sent this to FOS? You can just phone FOS and say you now have the Amigo response and you don’t think it is right as the last two loans were unaffordable.
JM says
Hi Sara
Thanks for looking at this.
Loan 1 3000 paid 6 x £128.33
Loan 2 £4000 top up £1160.50 paid 21 @ £158.10
Loan 3 £8000 top up £3303.11 paid 2 @ £316.20 plus my guarantor paid £1100 extra on top
Loan 4 £8000 top up £1110.75 paid 28 @ £316.20
I am getting more and more in debt with my mortgage and council tax because of this.
Jm
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So loans 3 & 4 were a lot larger. I think this is an excellent case to take to FOS (or in your case, let it continue as it is already there!)
Your guarantor paid money to the 3rd loan. Were they asked to do this by Amigo because you had missed payments? Or did they just pay and amigo may have thought the amounts came from you?
JM says
no they paid extra to help me out. Once Amigo come back with an offer I will let you know what they say. Should I update FOS with what they say?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If all 4 loans were refunded…
interest paid on 1 – £608
2- £4015
3 – £622 BUT if Amigo know £0100 came from your guarantor, they may refund that to your guarantor not you
4 – £848.
So you would get £6093 (perhaps your guarantor would get £1000 of this) and your balance wiped.
I can’t guess what Amigo are going to say as I don’t understand how they are going to treat the last loan. waiting until you see what they say may clarify things! So perhaps don’t say anything to FOS until then.
(If Amigo ask you to accept their offer, don’t do this until you are sure you don’t want to go to FOS. )
JM says
Hi Sara
I have heard from Amigo and they have paid interest on the first two loans and have halved my balance and frozen the interest. They also put “We will never expect you to make a payment you can’t afford. If you need to discuss your repayments further, please contact our Collections Team”
Should I ring them to say about the last two loans were unaffordable still and they should have still done further checks or contact the FOS
JM
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think this is such a clear case it is worth pushing back to Amigo.
I suggest you phone them and say it is quite obvious that if you were unable to afford the £158 a month payment to loan 2 then the £318 a month payments to loans 3 & 4 were also unaffordable and your current mortgage and council tax arrears prove that.
Ask them to reconsider and refund the loans 3 & 4 too, otherwise you will not be withdrawing your FOS complaint.
JM says
Thanks Sara will phone them and put my case to them. I appreciate all the help you give to me and others on this.
JM says
Hi Sara Amigo have come back and say there is no evidence to suggest they did anything wrong with the 3rd and 4th loan. Should i go back to the FOS and tell them they have halved the loan, frozen interest but wont upheld loans 3 and 4 and its making me behind on major bills?
JM
Dennis says
do i have an obligation to communicate with Amigo by phone call my complaint was rejected & ive now took my complaint to FOS i just do not want to speak to any members of staff of this
vile company i will communicate by email only
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are they saying they want you to phone them?
Shahid Ali says
Hi Guys
I have got a partial uphold from Amigo. I wanted to know what this means? They have admitted they should have done more checks.
What would be a fully upheld complaint? What does that mean?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from them? They won’t have given calculations of refunds or balances, but they should have been clear about which loans they think were unaffordable. Or have they asked you for bank statements?
Shahid Ali says
I had 2 loans and have been refunded all interest paid plus 8%.
Sent bank statements over too. They have said that they ‘should have asked more’ and ‘probably not accepted’ the application if I provided the information.
It still states only partially upheld. I want to know what it actually means fully upheld.
Jamie says
In your case it means they will agree to refund one of your loans
Shahid Ali says
But they refunded both loans. That’s what’s confusing.
When do they fully uphold a complaint and what does that mean when they do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh good, that sounds like they are just hiding behind “probably”s to pretend they don’t fully agreeing with your complaint as they don’t want to admit they screwed up totally by giving unaffordable loans.
But you have a “full refund” it sounds like!
Amy says
Hello Sara, my 8 week deadline is up next week , I just wanted to see if I give you all my figures could you possibly try and work out what i would get if my loans get upheld..
1st loan
£1000.00 paid 2 months at £48.79 so total paid £97.58 then topped up to £3000.0
2nd loan £3000.00 paid off the previous loan
paid 12 months at £146.37 total paid £1756.44
then topped up to £5000.00 paying off previous loan.
3rd loan £5000.00 paid 18 months at £197.62 total paid £3557.16 then topped up to £5000.00 paying off previous loan
4th loan £5000.00 paid 20 months at £197.62 total paid £3952.40 then topped up to £5000.00 paying off previous loan
5th loan £5000.00 paid 16 months at £197.62 total paid £3177.92 then topped up to £5000.00 paying off previous loan
6th loan £5000.00 paid 29 months at £197.62 total paid £5730.98 then topped up to £5250.00 paying off previous loan.
7th loan £5250.00 paid 7 months at £207.51 total paid £1452.57 then topped up to £6750.00 paying off previous loan
8th loan £6750.00 paid 36 months at £266.79 total paid £9604.44 so far with just over 2 years remaining .
If there is any chance you can help me work it out please that would be much appreciated :)
Thanks Sara.
Michael Lord says
Tbf your probably best to wait untill you get a decision as they may only uphold some loans and not others , so its pretty hard to second guess,
Is your loan with amigo? As they are taking atleast 12 weeks before they respond , you may get an email on the 8 week deadline asking for another 4 weeks,
If it was me i would wait untill you get your final response
Amy says
Yes you’re probably right , I’ll wait and see what happens, yes it’s Amigo loans.
I am waiting for the email to say about the wait as they seem to have done that to most people. I’ll be sure to put a post on once I hear anything.
Thank you.
Beate says
Hi, is it better to complain through Resolver or just write email to lender with a complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you! If the template letter above looks straightforward, why not use that?
Lesley says
I have just spoken to the complaint dept as i am due my final response tommorrow and the women who was nice on phone spoke to the women dealing with my complaint and says that i will get a email tomorow but shes not sure if it will be a final response as they are really busy .. thats 12 weeks i have waited , what do you suggest if i have no final response tomorrow
Jamie says
12 weeks and still no response is absolutely disgraceful
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Straight to the Financial Ombudsman if no reply tomorrow! You can always withdraw the case if Amigo make you a good offer.
Lesley says
Thanks sarah ,
I will post at close of buisness tomorow if i recieve a response or before if i get one
APS says
(1/3) I really hope somebody can advise me where to go with this as I am at the end of my tether with it all now.
Back in Aug 2018 I was asked by a so-called friend and his wife to be to be guarantor on a loan of £6k with Bamboo. I was unable to oblige as I had just left employment through redundancy. Things got a little heated as they knew I had been paid some money as part of a redundancy package and I was threatened with being outed as a gay man to my family and friends. I was forced into agreeing as this would break my family and I couldn’t risk that happening. At no point did Bamboo check me to see if payments were financially viable for me but the couple assured me that it wouldn’t come to me as they could afford the payments. It started off well with the payments being made, then a couple were late and deferred to me. They were then paid again, and none had defaulted to me and no one had contacted me to tell me otherwise I thought all was fine. Previously I had received texts and or calls to advise me.
APS says
(2/3) In June 2019 I took a call advising me that they could not make contact with the wife of my ‘friend’ (she had the loan in her name) – the phone number was a dead line and they were not replying to any written correspondence. After some research (I went to the address), I was advised that they had been evicted from the rented property and they were just putting any letters in the bin as there was no forwarding address. Bamboo told me that was not their issue and that it would naturally default to me. In fact, the operator was quite rude about it all. I advised them on a later telephone conversation that I had been threatened and had since been able to make contact with the husband who then proceeded to threaten me and stated that there was no intention of it ever being paid back. They weren’t interested at all and said that was a personal issue between me and them. I asked if they had continued to write to them and they said yes but no letters had been returned so basically, they didn’t know If they lived there or not. The husband told me they have split, and she has had an IVA which now means she doesn’t have to pay anything – I don’t understand what that means? He also said that he has spoken to her, but she doesn’t care.
APS says
(3/3) Today I have had a very strong letter saying they are coming to me for the full amount as it is now in arrears (I am unemployed) for the sum of £11k. They have not been writing to the address on the agreement but a correspondence address and despite me telling them this they aren’t interested. The woman resides at this address, I have been to that address and seen her enter and leave the house, yet they don’t want to do anything about it.
Please, please can some help me with some advice. I haven’t made a complaint to Bamboo yet as I need some guidance, but I am worried, and this is causing me mental health issues now. I don’t even want to leave the house.
I hope someone can give me some guidance as I feel that Bamboo have been very unhelpful and looking back didn’t complete checks on the affordability of the loan and keep me updated when things weren’t being paid which has meant its got out of hand.
nazim says
I got this reply from amigo today any help please
As part of my investigation, I’ve reviewed the payout process that you completed before the loans were paid out. This included our check on your credit file, your budget plan and other checks we completed.
Your income and expenditure assessment confirmed that the repayments were comfortably affordable to you. The checks that we completed on this information also supported this.
We compared the expenditure figures you provided to national averages. If you budgeted less than expected, we asked you to confirm why, to ensure this was accurate and sustainable.
nazim says
You have raised concerns that you had monthly expenditure including food and fuel expenses. When completing your budget assessment, you confirmed that your household costs were low as you lived at home. However, you confirmed an amount that you spent on food and fuel each month. You confirmed that nothing was likely to happen to make your income decrease or spending increase throughout the loan term. We would expect you to provide us with accurate information and we had no reason to believe this was not the case.
We verified your income using a check called OI, provided by the credit referencing agency TransUnion (Call Credit). OI used a number of data points to assess whether the total expenditure provided, the monthly instalment, and an emergency buffer were affordable for you, based on your income.
You have since raised concerns that you had payments to existing creditors at the time the loan was paid out. Your credit file was reviewed to ensure that all of your expenditure was accounted for within your budget. This confirmed that you were managing your own existing credit well. We budgeted for any payments you may have had to make towards existing creditors.
You have also raised concerns that you had a gambling addiction at the time the loan was paid out. Without making us aware of this, we had no reasonable way of knowing and therefore can’t guarantee that this would have changed our lending decision. Having verified the information provided was realistic based on your living circumstances and our checks via OI, we were confident that you could afford the loan repayments. If we had been concerned about any of the information you provided, we would have questioned this further, or potentially requested supporting documents.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So that was a long reply. I assume they rejected your complaint? Can you say more about your case? Did you just have one loan with them? how large? Do you still owe money on it? Was this taken out before or after the TFS guarantor loan you had?
What did your credit record loom like when you took out the loan?
Were there payments missing from the I&E they drew up – you had petrol costs, were other car expenses also included (insurance, servicing etc)
nazim says
only one loan with amigo 5k and i still owe them over 5k as loan was taken out this april and it was in the same month as amigo. Amigo is completely denying to upheld complaint. I have send them email again saying they need to review their decision because they need to check bank statements to verify what was said on call but they claim that everything was checked on credit file and verified income using a checked called OI.
Other then that tfs said they are 50% at mistake and i also emailed them to review their decision they said they have a meeting their director on tuesday and they ll review my case and get back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you send Amigo bank statements showing the gambling?
nazim says
They have not upheld my complaint and didnt ask for statements. They said you didnt tell us about gambling addictions before taking loan out so we would not know about it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Its a shame you didn’t send statements with your complaint as my template letter suggested, they can really help with cases involving gambling.
I suggest you send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
Thomas says
I’d be interested to know the answers to these questions too as I have this written on my complaint and have 2 top ups.
Lesley says
Yep 12 weeks tomorow and she said i will recieve a email but may not be a final response advised me to phone up at the end of the week if i dont get response so thinking just to take it to the f.o.s if a dont hear back tomorrow
afaq tariq says
Hi i helped a friend to get refund from amigo using the same process i got refund for myself but they have completely rejected his application saying we did all the checks on credit file and some OI and bank statements were not necessary to ask. What can we do in this situation.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send it to the Finacial Ombudsman? I have no idea how a good a claim it is – you won’t win a claim just because Amigo didn’t make checks, unless the checks would have shown that the loan was unaffordable. Would they?
Amy says
I took a £3500 loan in April 2013 and a top up loan of £5000 in January 2015. I made a complaint to amigo 12 weeks ago and they have just come back to say they will uphold my complaint on the second loan however the first loan is too old and I haven’t complained in a reasonable length of time so they will not even look at it. Is this right or should I take this to the FOS for the first loan? They have told me this is the regulation set by the FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Amy,
sorry I missed this comment when you left it.
FOS will look at loans that are over 6 years old. They have a rule which says you can complain within 6 years or withion 3 years from when yiou found out you could complain… which was probably last year!
I know this was a month ago, but you are still in time to take the complaint to the ombudsman about the earlier loan.
Amy says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your reply. That’s great to hear. I will follow that up now.
Lou7 says
Hi Sara
Thank you.
Loan 1 £3,000
Paid 12x £137.46
Top up2 £5,000
Received £2,643.98
Paid 13x £180.66
Top up 3 £5,000
Received £501.27
Paid 17x £180.66
Top up 4 £5,000
Received £737.19
Paid 24x £180.66
Partner paid £2,523.10 for me to clear it.
New loan £5,000
Received £5,000
Paid 14x £197.62
Top up £7,500
Received £3,024.05
Paid so far 39x £296.44 this one is the current one.
Hope this helps Sara and thank you for your ongoing support and advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the “top up 4” – was your partner your guarantor? If yes, dod Amigo take this settlement from him as guarantor?
Lou7 says
Hi Sara
It was my partner not the guarantor who paid it off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, that makes it easier. On those figures I think you paid the following amounts of interest on each loan:
1 £1001
2 £1839
3 £2323
4 £1843
5 £2234
6 £4004 so far.
Chris says
Good evening. I have been successful in winning my irresponsible lending claim against amigo . So far they have paid me :
First loan took out 11/4/11 refunded £966 interest
Second loan took out 25/3/12 interest refunded £1037
Third loan took out 11/3/13 interest refunded £7,395.76
Now .. they say they are paying me 8% interest but only on loan 3 as I’m not eligible for 8% on loans 1 and 2 as I didn’t pay back more than the principal amount , which is bizarre as I paid interest on top which made it more than the principal amount borrowed.
How do I calculate my 8% on the payments please. On loan 3 they have said that the 8% is £648.43 which does not seem right to me and I am sick of arguing with them
Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When was the last loan repaid?
They seem to be using an odd 8% calculation. You can take the case to the Ombudsman if you want, but amigo are not going to budge unless you do. I haven’t seen a decision from the Ombudsman on this.
Chris says
The last loan was repaid 1st December 2018
Thank you Sarah
Dip says
Hi Sara,
Put my complaint in with Amigo on the 23rd October, they emailed at 8 weeks asking for 4 more, which is up tomorrow. I wondered how strong you feel my claim is – I had many payday loans and other loans too. On my SAR the credit check shows that for the first loan I had £4907 in debts, but come the time of my top up, I had £13,312 in debts, and a CCJ. £3752 of this is showing as cleared debt, which I assume is the first loan being cleared before the £5000 top up was paid.
I originally assumed that the fact that my finances had got so much worse and it shows more loans and the CCJ that this would be an irresponsible lending decision. Do you think this is the case?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that sounds like a good case. For the top up loan the huge increase in your debts and recent CCJ should have been a big warning flag that you weren’t able to manage the repayments on the first loan. So they should never have given the top up.
But also it sounds as though the first loan was unaffordable too, so that too should be refunded.
So your options tomorrow:
– If you don’t get a response tomorrow, if they ask for more time, send the complaint straight to FOS.
– If they off you a full refund, great!
– if they offer you a refund on the second loan but not the first – and they seem to be doing this more and more – come back here and we’ll look at the numbers and whether you should send the complaint about the first one to FOS.
– if they offer you a refund on the first loan but not the second, that’s daft, send the complaint straight to FOS.
Dip says
Thanks for the reply! I already sent the case over to FOS at 8 weeks when they asked for the 4 week extension, as I know from reading on here they are swamped right now.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow!
IP says
Hi Dip,
I am in the same situation. They actually got back to me having complained on the 28th of October to ask for 4 extra weeks. I am going to file the complaint with FOS. Have you received any replies yet?
Thank you,
IP
Dip says
Well, they officially have until tomorrow night to reply, so fingers crossed. I rang last week and was told its on track to be this week.
James says
Hi Sara,
The 12 week mark for my amigo claim is today.
I wonder if you could figure out how much I will have left to pay if they accept my complaint.
1st loan 17/10/16 – £2,500
11 payments of £98.81 – total £1,086.91
2nd loan 21/10/17 – opening ballance £3,500. Payout £917.59
2 payments of £138.34 – total £276.68
3rd loan 23/1/18 – opening ballance £4,750. Payout £1,151.85
16 payments of 187.74 – total £3,003.84
Total left to pay £4,707.70
Thanks in advanve
James
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I make it you have paid £1161 in interest on loan 1, £375 on loan 2 and so far you have paid £4346 to the last loan so you haven’t paid any interest on it.
If they are all refunded, I think your balance should drop to c £222.
James says
Hi Sara, I forgot to ask
Is the ballance that you think will roughly remain of £222 include the interest of loan 1 & 2. I’m not very good at these things
Thanks very much
Beate says
Hi, I am a little confused.
So when you top up a loan with Amigo they settle your old balance. Does it count as repaid loan and I can ask for 8% statutory interest?
I do still owe them 4930£.
I took a loan on 2017 december 2000£
Then top up on 2018 july 3250£ from which got 1553£
Then top up on 2018 december 4000£ from which got 1011£
Then top up on 2019 march 4750£ from which got 729£
Is it correct to ask them the following:
I am asking you to remove the interest from the balance so I only have to repay what I borrowed and refund me the interest that I have paid plus 8% statutory interest., release my guarantor and allow me to make lower monthly payments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes that’s fine. the 8% interest isn’t likely to add up to much, especially as amigo uses a strange calculation, but that looks like a strong complaint with all those top-ups in such a short period.
Beate says
Thank You. Would it help to mention in the complaint that they told me to change my expenses to get a loan? Not sure if they recorded that conversation and if I can prove that.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That may well help your complaint! So far as I know, Amigo record all their phone calls. The template letter in the article above asks for a copy of all your personal information, which will include phone calls so check it out when you are sent it.
Vanessa says
Hi Sara
We have been waiting nearly 12 weeks for a decision on our affordability complaint to amigo myself and guarantor .
As previous emails to yourself I am the person with the DRO my daughter is my guarantor and is on benefits with a disabled child which she was when I took out the first loan in 2914 and when I topped up in 2015.
We are getting worried as she keeps getting threatening emails and texts from amigo. Can they act on a litigation whilst complaint going through? Many thanks Vanessa
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No they can’t. Amigo can’t take her to court while she has an open complaint with them or with the financial ombudsman.
When did she send in her complaint?
Vanessa Enticknap says
Hi
She sent it in same time as us 11 weeks ago.
Many thanks Vanessa
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so only 1 more week to go then hopefully.
Lesley says
Hi jamie , did u get a response today , i myself have waited 12 weeks today bit lady dealing with it emailed to say i womt get final outcome today , but it will be soon but cant give me a date when
James says
Hi lesley,
sorry I haven’t replied sooner.
No I didn’t even receive an email of any sort, not even a courtesy email.
I phoned up today and was told my case has been assigned to someone.
Might have to refer to the financial ombudsman soon
Lesley says
Hi jamie ,
Check your junkmail , i got email from them at 10am today , just noticed it saying all loans are upheld thankgod
James says
I finally got my reply yesterday.
Excellent, so happy for you Lesley!
Luckily they have upheld my loans also
Lesley says
Awww welll done you , happy for you too , and a big massive THANKYOUUUUUUU TO SARAH with out your help and this site i wouldnt have even known i could get a refund i am forever greatfull 😘
Chris says
If anyone is not getting any answers in the correct time frame I would advise to send it to the CEOs email address hamish.paton@amigo.me . I did this when mine has over run and it got sorted straight away . Also I originally had loans 1 and 2 refused as they were over 6 years ago but there is a section in the ombudsman guidelines that basically says it could be looked at under exceptional circumstances. I quoted that irresponsible lending had only been brought to light for public attention following wongas administration so I could only put in a claim when I knew about this information. On that basis both of the original rejected loans were accepted . Hope this helps
Jamie says
Hi
Unfortunately hamish Patton left the company in December
IP says
he still appears as a director on companies house though
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think he is still in place until his successor is recruited.
Chris says
He didn’t as he has emailed me this morning
PHump says
FOS have asked Amigo to send them all the info they hold on me – but Amigo have come back to the FOS and said that they have deleted the info the hold on me and therefor can’t send anything to them.
Does anybody have any experience of this?
Adjudicator is allocated to my case but they haven’t been in touch with me yet so not sure what to expect
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how old is this loan from Amigo? Do you have bank statements to show what was paid?
S says
Hi Sara,
I hope you are well. You know when we give Amigo’s 8 weeks from initially complaining, does this include weekends? I am trying to work out when my 8 weeks would be over but was unsure whether its business days only or if weekends are included.
Many thanks.
Michael Lord says
Hi S
8 weeks total includes weekends but expect an extension of 4 weeks so about 12 weeks, expect the worst them anything sooner is a bonus, took mine 11 weeks 4 days ish
S says
Hi Michael, Thanks for replying.
I got a random email at the start of the month saying we are still investigating your complaint. This could be because we need extra time or your complaint needs extra investigation.
I have two weeks left til the 8 week deadline so I emailed two days ago asking for an update but I haven’t yet received a response.
Tony says
hu sara can you pleases try and work out what I will be left owing after partial uphold.
loan 1 3000 not upheld
top up 5000 cash recieved 1953 pay off 1st loan
top up 6500 cash recieved 1712 pay off 2nd loan
top up 7250 cash recieved 1228 pay off 3rd loan
top up 8000 cash recieved 865
balance showing as 7350 as of today. Loans 2 to 5 have been upheld.
Regards
Tony
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you give the total of monthly payments (eg 13 payments of £187) you made to each of loans 2-5?
And to loan 1 as well, that would help.
Tony says
loan 1 4 x 146
loan 2 6×243
loan 3 6x 317
loan 4 3×286
loan 5 13x 316
loans 2 to 5 upheld
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so the interest paid on each loan look like
(remember you may have typed in numbers wrong or I may have, this is just a guess)
loan 1 £611
loan 2 £1246
loan 3 £1424
loan 4 £743
loan 5 no interest paid so far, still £3892 to pay until the amount borrowed has been repaid.
So if loans 2-5 are refunded, You will still owe £479 on the last loan. Your guarantor should be released and you can make an arrangement o pay at a lower rate.
If the first loan was included, the last loan would be wiped and you would get a refund of £152.
Tony says
thank you sara if thise figures are correct I will be well happy. Almost debt free thanks to you and this site. Thank you
Katie says
Hi sara,
Im still awaiting a response from amigo, the 8 weeks is up on 3rd feb…which is also the date of my next payment. They have been in quite regular contact, asking about my anxiety, telling me i can reduce my payments without it affecting my guarentor etc. I have refused all of their options as I know i was given the loans irresponsibly & believe even if amigo dont uphold, the fos will, who loans someone £7.5k when their income is lower than the loan repayments.
Anyway, ive logged on tonight & they have cancelled my direct debit? The last email i had off them was to confirm i had stated i was continuing payments so as not to have my guarentor involved & the last part of her email i didnt think much of…she said just continue to make manual payments until i get a decision but continuing would mean ive always done that but ive always paid via direct debit.
When i login it now says we have no way of taking repayments (no payment method set up) easiest way to pay is via dd etc.
Any idea why they would cancel the direct debit their end?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have they said they will accept lower payments and not go after your guarantor? That’s unusual, but if they have said that, why not go for it? You can still carry on with your complaint.
Emma says
Hi Sara, have commented as requested. Amigo have said the can not uphold my first loan due to being older than 6 years. They have upheld the rest though.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so the question is, is it worth pursuing this first loan?
I have just worked out the numbers for Tony who has had loans 2-5 upheld here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-18/#comment-335611
If you can get all the loan info like he has, I can do the same for you?
Katie says
Yes they did sara, I only refused it because I thought they may be trying to be sneaky & say well, you can pay less then we’ll say no to the irresponsible lending because you’ve agreed to pay less (what you can afford) so we’re being nice by saying you can pay less than the original agreed amount.
katie says
This was the actual email. I dont know why but I just felt they were maybe trying to be a bit shady with it all
Hi Katie
We have options available for you to pay less than the monthly instalment without involving your guarantor if we can see you do not have the funds available to pay the full amount. This is something we can consider, as long as we can see that you are paying a reasonable amount and this will not extend the loan term beyond a reasonable amount of time.
However, in order to look in to this, we would need to complete a new budget with you as explained, I would urge you to call us on 01202 464592 to discuss this further if you are struggling to pay the full amount at present.
Our Customer Relations team will investigate your complaint and the concerns you have raised in regards to irresponsible lending will be addressed in the final response that is issued to you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh ok, that is their standard response. I think they will be expecting you to pay quite a bit, not much less than the normal payments. You can go through that if you want.
Otherwise you need to make the normal payment to them, manually if they have cancelled your DD.
katie says
Comments are getting jumbled up my end. The one that sent this has been sending me a few more personal emails, she was in quite an in depth convo. I didnt want to give too much info to her but just enough to know i was serious. I’ll make them manual but hope for a decision sooner rather than later
Catherine says
Hi Sara
Could you work out what I would get if all 3 loans get upheld please?This is with George Banco.
Also could you do a calculation for just loan 1 as they have upheld that but are reviewing bank statements for the two top ups as they didn’t look at them as part of my complaint as I forgot to send in for top ups.
I just want to see if your calculation matches theirs as it’s abit confusing.
Catherine says
Loan 1
1500 7x £73
Top up 2500
Settlement of loan 1 £1421 & Payout cash £1078
14x £121
Top up 3500
Settlement of loan 2 £1925 & Payout cash £1574
23x £216
1 final payment of £216 left to pay on Feb 1st.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The interest paid on each loan looks like roughly (remember you may have typed in numbers wrong or I may have, this is just a guess):
loan 1 £432
loan 2 £1119
loan 3 £1468
So if they were all refunded you would get back c £3019
Catherine says
Approx what stat interest would I be looking at do you reckon.
Thank you Sara for your help,I’m due a further response on top ups this week.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no idea, you haven’t given any dates! what do GB say?
Catherine says
Oh sorry.
Loan 1 6th May 2016
Loan 2 top up 5th Dec 2016
Loan 3 top up 5th Feb 2018 to finish Feb 2020
Thanks
Mr f says
So I’ve managed to track down my amigo loans and payments
loan 1 3000 payments for 36 months of 151 total paid 5442.
loan 2 5000 payments for 45 months 180 totalling 8100
Top up 1 3500 cleared balance and received 790.10 60 payments 53 payments of 138.34 totalling 7332, 1 payment of made 840 and final payment made of 100.34 total payment made 8272
Am I right in thinking interest paid
Loan 1 2442
Loan 2 3100
Top up 4772
Interestingly whilst searching I found an email from just after the 2nd loan Regarding a discussion of late payment
‘It’s very important to us that our customers keep to their promises of paying on time. We’re only a small company, and all of the money that comes in to us as repayments gets used to pay out loans to new customers needing our help. Having late or part payments to our loans could stop us lending money to somebody that really needs it.’
Along with other cajoling messages to make payments and they will not add the charges for late payments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loan 1 & 3 look right but in your calculation for loan 2 I don’t think you have taken account of the settlement amount of 3500-790 from the top up loan, so I make the interest ion that about £5810.
Mr F says
Ok so
Loan 1 2442
Loan 2 5810
Top up 4772
Now only time will tell,
Syed.N says
Hi All,
I made a complaint which is coming to 12 weeks end of week. I have emailed Amgio no reply and also I have raised it with FOS.
Anyone in same boat as me .
Cherie says
I am now on my 11th week after them asking for the four week extension I emailed yesterday to ask for a update and got of a reply of basically we will tell you once we are finished.
Jamie says
Same Cherie.
I am almost at 12 weeks and emailed yesterday for an update. Got a snotty reply saying we told you we want 4 more weeks to look into your complaint and we will try to respond within this extended period.
Also reminded by them that if I don’t like this then to escalate to the FOS (which I have anyway)
Nick says
Hi,
If I submit an affordability complaint to Amigoloans will it affect my claim if I miss a payment during the course of complaint and my garantor has to step in to make the payment in my place?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it won’t hurt your complaint.
What is the financial situation of your guarantor like?
Nick says
Thank you for your reply, I just wanted to get the process underway and see if it would be a stumbling block. The financial situation of my guarantor is good. Is their financial situation relevant to my claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, but if it was poor they too could make a complaint and get released as guarantor. but that sounds not relevant.
If you win your complaint, any money paid by the guarantor is refunded to them, not to you.
Nick says
Ok, thank you for advise.
Philippa says
I have had this reply from Bamboo….what should I do now please? They are telephoning every day sometimes 3 or 4 times. I could not access the recorded call they sent.
CONCLUSION
Our investigation has shown that:
• You received both verbal and written communications from Bamboo, prior to e-signing the Guarantee and Indemnity document which demonstrates that you were fully aware of your responsibilities as a guarantor for this loan
• The loan was demonstrated to have been sustainably affordable for you, should you be called upon to make repayments
• Your credit report did not indicate any significant adverse information, or that you were experiencing any financial difficulties
On this basis, we are unable to uphold your complaint or remove you as a guarantor for this agreement.
In relation to your Subject Access Request (SAR) request, this information was sent to you on the 11th December 2019.
We hope that you are fully satisfied with the outcome achieved.
Bamboo
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you were on ESA when you became the guarantor for this? I suggest you send the complaint straight to the Ombudsman.
Have you heard back from Amigo?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When yiou have a complaint at the Financial Ombudsman Bamboo cannot take legal action against you.
I suggest you also email them and say the complaint has gone to FOS, say you cannot afford to poay them and that the number of phone calls / texts you are getting amounts to harassment. Say you do not want to be contacted any more by phone, so can they please just email you.
Not being able to access the phone recording – do you know why? do you think you have been sent a file which doesn’t work? Or don’t you kniw how to access it?
Philippa says
Yes I am on ESA. And Amigo have emailed to say they have a backlog of complaints they are working through and will be in touch soon.
I was unable to play the cd as i am not very good with computers and it seems i dont have the right computer to read the disc.
Do you have a templater that i can follow when i write to the ombudsman and where to send it please?
Many thanks for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The “Taking a complaint to the Ombudsman” section in the article above says what to do. It’s better to use the Ombudsman online form (link above) than send a template letter or email as the form asks a lot of questions you might not think to answer in a letter (they are easy, like is this a joint claim and what is your birthday, but FOS needs the answers).
You can copy bits from your complaint. Your main reason to complain is the loan repayments would be unaffordable as you are on ESA and the lender should have known this if they had checked properly. you want to be released from the guarantee (and a refund if you have made any payments?)
Rachel says
Hi Sara
I put in a complaint with amigo back in october 2019 I received a reply from amigo on the 18th december 2019 saying they where not going to upholding my complaint. I phoned FOS same day to make a complaint. I haven’t heard from anyone at FOS since the 18th dec 19 is it a long wait for FOS to investigate?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you phone FOS up and tell them about your health problems?
Rachel says
I am talking to them now about it now someone is going to speak to a manager and call me back regarding my health issues
Dip says
Well, Amigo didn’t send a final response today (4 weeks after the original 8), and emailed me after I queried with an email that stated:
“Whilst we asked for an extra four weeks, this was only a guideline”
I called them and they said they are swamped and dealing with complaints in the order they came in, and cannot give me any timeframe. I’ve already forwarded to FOS at the 8 weeks, but they said again today I should do that and they will continue to investigate.
C says
Anyone had any joy with Amigo? My 8 week deadline was up today but not received my final response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have they asked for more time?
I suggest sending it to FOS tomorrow. Some people aren’t getting replies after waiting 4 more weeks :(
Michael Lord says
Took mine 12 weeks and im seeing now people are waiting longer
C says
I rang them today. All they said was I’d get my final response via email one day!!!
Chen says
Hi Sara
First of all I want to say thank you so much for this website and information! Without you, I would be stuck mentally and emotionally with debt I could never afford.
I have made a complaint and it was upheld :) Would you be able to help me figure out how much I may still owe on my current loan?
This is an excerpt of their response “ To calculate your refund, we’ll remove the interest that has so far accrued on these loans. If the repayments you have made exceed the capital loan amounts, the overpayment will be refunded to you along with 8% simple interest.”
Loan 1: £3500
I made 4 payments of £170 and topped up.
Loan 2 (top up): £5000
Settlement of loan 1 – unsure of how much received in cash
Made 4 payments of £197 and topped up
Loan 3 (top up): £6500
Settlement of loan 2 unsure of how much received in cash
Made four payments of £256 and topped up
Loan 4(top up & current): £10000
Settlement of loan 3 and paid £3522.48 in cash.
Made 8 payments of £395
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Great!
But sorry, you need to look back at the loan details or your bank statements to find what you received in cash for the loan 2 & 3 top ups. Those figures are essential
It looks pretty likely you will still owe a fair amount though. Your guarantor should be released from the loan so you can then make an affordable payments arrangement – this is now an interest free loan. What are your other debts like?
Chen says
Thank you so much for your response I have found the payout amounts.
For loan 2 I received £1477 cash
For loan 3 I received £1524 cash
My other debts are in a DMP and are currently very manageable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then the interest paid on each loan looks like roughly (remember you may have typed in numbers wrong or I may have, this is just a guess)
loan 1 – £703
loan 2 – £764
loan 3 – £1002
they add up to £2469
loan 4 – no interest paid so far, still £6842 to pay until the amount borrowed has been repaid, so this will be reduced by the refunds from the first three loans, bringing it down £4371.
I suggest you talk to your DMP firm and ask them to include the remaining balance in your DMP.
Chen says
Thank you!
Syed.N says
Hi Sara,
I received my final response today by amigo. There only upheld my loan 4 the first 3 loans there said we did proper checks. There will calculate everything and let me know how much I own on the loan or refund. All the negative information will be removed from credit file And my friend is gaurtoe will be removed also all the interest will be stopped.
What will you suggest should I take the first 3 loans FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so you had loans of £750, 1250, 2750 and 7000. SAY IF THIS IS WRONG!
So the interest paid on each loan looks like roughly (NOTE you may have typed in numbers wrong or I may have, and there were a LOT of odd numbers for that last loan, so this is just a guess)
last loan – I make that you have paid £7352 in all – can you double check that? If so, you have paid £352 more than you borrowed and that should be refunded to you.
On the earlier loans you had paid:
Loan 1 315
loan 2 611
loan 3 504
So that adds up to £1430 – that is the extra amount you could get by going to FOS if all the loans are upheld.
I think only you know how “unaffordable” the first 3 loans were. The first one was pretty small and you nearly paid it all off – if course that doesn’t mean it was affordable but you know if it did cause you to have to borrow elsewhere.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
PS – good result on the last loan – what a huge relief for you!
Syed N says
Settlement was £2,583
Payout was £4,416
Balance was £7000
15 x £276 paid
1 x £500
1 x £556
1 x £266
1 x £286
1 x £295
1 x £293
1 x £315
1 x £300
1 x £329.
These payments are updated if you can double it please let me know.
I am so happy and glad your a life saver and thank you for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what do they add up to?
Syed N says
I will wait and see what they will offer as refund. Will let you know.
Thanks
Nick says
Hi Sara,
May be a silly question, I have a shared bank account with my partner that we both pay a lump sum into each month for rent, bills, food etc and the account is used only for these purposes and nothing else. Should I include this accounts statements with my Amigo complaint to justify the monthly transfer?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could, or you could just attach a note saying the transfer to X is to a joint bills account which you can give the statements for if necessary. if it goes to the Ombudsman, do include the joint account statements.
Nick says
Ok sounds good, thank you.
JM says
Hi Sara
Not sure if you saw my previous comment
‘ Amigo have come back and said there is no evidence to suggest they did anything wrong with the 3rd and 4th loan. Should i go back to the FOS and tell them they have halved the loan, frozen interest but wont upheld loans 3 and 4 and all this is making me behind on major bills?’ also they wont release my guarantor either.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sorry, I missed that. OK, send it straight to FOS.
I suggest you tell Amigo that you have done this and also say that, as your balance has been halved, you want to halve your monthly payments and you want them to agree that this will not affect your guarantor as this will not increase the length of time to repay the loan.
What is your guarantor’s financial position like?
JM says
my guarantor can afford the payments but i don’t want them to pay as they are looking to get their own mortgage. i will inform them that is what i am going to do. I have a case number now from the FOS .
Thanks
JM
M says
Hi,
Would somebody be kind and help me work out what would happen if my complaint gets upheld by Amigo.
Details below,
Loan. Loan Date Amount Top Up
1 07/2017 £7,750.00
2 11/2017 £10,000.00 £2,600.00
3 03/2018 £10,000.00 £550.00
4 06/2018 £10,000.00 £750.00
5 11/2018 £10,000.00 £730.00
6 04/2019 £10,000.00 £900.00
7 06/2019 £14,500.00 £4,500.00
Top Up Total £10,030.00
Repaid TD £16,279.92
Outstanding £12,975.40
Many Thanks
M
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those “top up” figures are the amount you received? Are they exact, because that is unusual, the amounts to settle a loan are rarely an exact number.
What is the “repaid TD” number?
M says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your response.
They are estimated top up figures. The actual amount is more, usually because I’ve given my guarantor a little for their troubles.
Repaid TD – is the amount I’ve paid Amigo since my first loan.
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Could you give the actual figures, otherwise I can’t calculate what interest you have paid. To the nearest £10 is fine.
So the repaid TD is the total of all the monthly payments? Not including any settlement amounts from the top ups? Can you say how much yopu paid to each individual loan? If you do, I can give you the interest figures on each loan – and you may want to know those if Amigo comes back saying they will only uphold a few of the loans.
Out of curiosity, did Amigo ever ask you for bank statements?
M says
Loan Loan Date Amount Est. Top Up Repayments Monthly Amount. Months
1. 07/2017 £7,750.00 1437.21 479.07 3
2 11/2017 £10,000.00 £2,600.00 1854.48 618.16 3
3 03/2018 £10,000.00 £550.00 1854.48 618.16 3
4 06/2018 £10,000.00 £750.00 2472.64 618.16 4
5 11/2018 £10,000.00 £730.00 2472.64 618.16 4
6 04/2019 £10,000.00 £900.00 1236.32 618.16 2
7 06/2019 £14,500.00 £4,500.00 4952.15 707.45 7
I don’t have the exact figures unfortunately, they aren’t too far off.
And the Repaid TD is all the monthly repayments, not including settlement amounts.
They didn’t ask for any bank statements, which has been mentioned in my complaint sent to them today.
I really appreciate your help. Thank you very much!
M
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So on those figures interest paid is,
loan 1 £1087
loan 2 £1298
loan 3 £1098
loan 4 £1734
loan 5 £1564
loan 6 31232
total 1-6 = £8013
last loan – still short by £9551 of repaying what was borrowed,, so after applying refund from 106 there would be a balance of £1538 still owing
If you have understated the cash you receoved from the top ups, this will have overstated the interst paid on the previous loans.
M says
Hi Sara,
Thank you very much.
I’ve used this website for my last two complaints against other lenders and won both cases with sizeable refunds. You truly are a wonderful person.
Many Thanks
M
Sara (Debt Camel) says
those are very big loans – I haven’t seen anyone borrow that much. I will be interested to hear what Amigo say!
Dip says
Sara! Many, many thanks, they have upheld my complaint in full, it seems. It was in my junk email from this morning! 12 weeks+1 day.
“Having done so, we feel that we could have asked you more about your financial situation before the loans were paid out. Therefore, we believe that the fairest option is to remove the interest that accrued on your loans and remove any negative trace of these loans from your credit file.”
I had 2 loans total, so I assume from reading this they mean both?
My details are as follows:
11/10 2014
£4000 loan
49 months
£171.10 monthly
13/10 2015
£5000 loan
48 months
£213.88 monthly
> £3,744.72 settlement of old agreement
> £1,255.28 payout
27th July 2019
£1771.68 paid to clear loan
I know they will pay my guarantor first for payments he made (I’ve already spoken to him and he received a similar email this morning, but called them and they said they didnt send one!), but what would you expect in payments from this?
Thankyou SO much for all your help!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Another good result!
If you took a loan in 2014 then topped it up in 2015, you can’t have made 49 payments to the loan. Same problem with the second loan – you settled it early so you won’t have made 48 months of payments.
I need to know how many payments you actually paid to each loan.
Did you guarantor pay a lot? Did he make the final settlement on the second loan?
Dip says
Hi Sara!
I make it that I paid 11 payments on first loan, and 44 on the second. Guarantor settled the loan in July, and made 1 other payment toward the second loan (£213).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers (this isn’t accurate and of course you may have got the numbers wrong or I may have, treat this as a guess)
– you paid £1626 interest on the first loan
– £6134 interest was paid on the second loan BUT your guarantor will get back £1771 + £213 of that, you should be refunded £4159 on this loan
– so a total of £5785 to you.
Dip says
That’s fantastic news, thanks Sara. Does that include Amigos ‘weird’ 8% calculations too?
I cant thank you enough for this site and your help so far.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, there should be another few hundred added for those, but you settled the last loan recently so it wont be a lot.
Mark says
Hi Sara
I took out a loan of £6500 in sep 17
I topped this up to £10000 in sep 18
Ive paid 12 payments of £278
Then 14 payments of £395
I’ve put a complain t in and I’m awaiting a response.
Can you confirm what the outcome looks like if my complaint is upheld?
Thanks
Mark
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When you topped up, how much cash did you get?
Syed N says
Hi Sara,
I made an affordability complaint to TRUST 2 LOAN. Can you assist me to help me with a calculation if my complaint is upheld. there said to me they did not I was on DMP plan. I said you should have checked correctly to see it shows I am DMP. Any advice, please.
Loan 1 – 20-MAR-2018 £1,600
Payments made 9 x £63.28.
Loan 2 – Advance £1,810.28 08-JAN-2019 Settle Existing EDL Loan £1,589.72
payments made 12 x £134.48 so far.
Thank You
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers I think (remember you may have typed in numbers wrong or I may have, this is just a guess):
– you have paid £556 interest on the first loan
– no interest paid so far on 2nd loan, still £202 to pay until the amount borrowed has been repaid
but if both loans are refunded the balance will be wiped out and you should get c £354 back.
Syed N says
Thanks a lot will update you soon
Catherine says
Great news today.After a partial uphold for loan 1 from George Banco everyday lending at the end of December,I sent further information(that I forgot to send initially)to support why I thought the 2 top up loans should be upheld.
Today they have come back to say all 3 have been upheld.
I got into debt as I was gambling my wages and then borrowing money to pay bills.I have been gamble free since 2018 after registering with Gamstop.
I highly advise anyone with a gambling problem to do this,as it’s pointless putting complaints in and getting potential refunds if you would still have access to gambling as you will end up back in the same situation.
I had a gambling problem for 10 years and honestly can say that finally by the end of 2020 my life will finally be debt free and gamble free.
New decade,new me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“New decade,new me.”
Love that!
Catherine says
Surely if I settled loan 1 with loan 2 then the calculations should go in order and the 8% calculated on payments that include any settlements of old loan.
It looks like they have calculated it by addressing loan 1 at the end to avoid more 8% payments but I may be wrong.Its just with the initial just loan 1 uphold they included the settlement amount as a payment but now they are not.
I’m confused,I though the 8% on each loan would be more.
Catherine says
Hi Sara
help with the 8% calculations please
Below Loan 234700 is the response they put for loan 1 that they upheld but then after upholding all 3 Im confused with the way they have worked things out.
Loan 234700: You took this loan on 3rd May 2016. The loan amount was £1500.00 with monthly repayment of £73.07 and total amount payable of £2630.52 over a term of 36 months. By the time the loan was settled you had paid a total payment £1932.53, therefore we would refund £432.53 plus 8% statutory interest.
Please see below calculations:
Payments made over £1500: £432.53
Interest @ 8%: £106.18 (This is subject to 20% HMRC tax deduction)
Total Refund*: £538.71
Refund due: £517.47 (£21.24 deduction as per legislation going to HMRC)
Catherine says
This is the response calculation for upholding all 3 loans
Loan 355182: You took this loan in December 2016. You borrowed £2500 out of which £1421.04 was used to settle your first loan account and you had use of £1078.96 paid directly to you. At the time the loan was settled you had personally paid only £1705.06. This means you had paid £626.10 more than the amount you had use of.
Please see below calculations:
Payments made over £1078.96: £626.10
Interest @ 8%: £106.78 (This is subject to 20% HMRC tax deduction)
Total Refund*: £732.88
Refund due: £711.52 (£21.36 deduction as per legislation going to HMRC)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you want me to see what I think it should have been – which may be the easiest way to check what they have done – can you say
a) what monthly payments you made to each loan, eg 7 x £161; 4 x £230 etc
b) if your guarantor made any payments?
c) what you have copied has all the info I need on the loans and settlement amounts.
Catherine says
May 3rd 2016
Loan 1 1500
6x £73
Dec 5th 2016
Top up 2500
Settlement of loan 1 £1421 Payout cash £1078
14×121
Feb 5th2018
Top up 3500
Settlement of loan 2 £1925 Payout cash £1574
23x £216
Guarantor didn’t make any payments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so sticking those figures into my spreadsheet, I make it that you have paid the following interest:
loan 1 £360
loan 2 £1120
loan 3 £1468
which adds up to £2948
By their figures, ignoring the 8% added, you have paid:
loan 1 -£988
loan 2 £626
loan 3 £3397
which adds up to £3035
So the totals are nearly the same, may well just be rounding errors in there, but what they have done is (a) only treated you as borrowing the cash amounts and (b) ignored the amounts settling the previous loan.
Got to say it’s a mad and very confusing approach. But the end result is much the same EXCEPT that there was they will pay less 8% interest because they have forced the interest payments to be counted from a later date. (Which is bit like what Amigo is doing. But not quite.) but the 8% they have calculated looks too high on their figures, I cant see how they have done it. They make it about £284.
A very rough squint by me using a “normal” approach came up at £298. So in practice you don’t seem to be losing much!!!
I may be missing something. This is all headache inducing… But to me it looks like a pretty OK offer.
Catherine says
Thank you Sara,really appreciate you taking the time to check figures for me.
Now just waiting for Amigo to respond and all other complaints,12weeks up end of Feb(Avant,Satsuma,118,livelend,Buddy,Shawbrookand Hitachi)are in a queue at the FOS but will no doubt be waiting a long time for those to be looked at.
Bob says
Good afternoon Sara,
Can I ask you a question. I have made and affordability complaint for a loan in March 2014 to amigo which is currently within its 9th week. I received my CD containing all my info and calls on the loan. Problem is the CD doesn’t contain any information regarding my income and expenditure in text or phone call logs. When I queried this with amigo they said ‘After checking with the team that compiled the information, they advised this information was removed due to our data retention policy, and that for this reason we weren’t able to include it. The only information I can see we hold for you at a glance is your account statement, which you should have received.’ surely this means they have no way of proving my loan was affordable if they don’t have records of this?. Do you think my complaint will be upheld?.
Many thanks, Bob
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it makes it very hard for them to show they made proper checks! If your bank statements will show the loan was unaffordable you probably have a good chance of winning this.
Elaine says
I had a loan with amigo, but it was over six years ago and they say they have no details for me, surely they still keep files for that length of time or am I wasting my time
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you still have records about the loan? Emails, bank statements? When did you take the loan and when did it finish? Might the guarantor have kept any records?
Elaine Forbes says
No, bank statements only go back six years
No my guarantor was my sister and I asked her she hasn’t any details either
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long ago was this loan? when did it start and when did it end?
Syed N says
Hi Sara and All,
Update from Amigo they have upheld my four loans and removed my Guarantor and cleared my balance of and refund for £373.
there will remove anything on my credit file.
Sara, you’re a lifesaver thanks so much.
Sara says
Just to touch base.
I have recently discovered that I need to keep checking my junk mail because I had an email in there from Amigo acknowledging the complaint.
I called them today (I only complained on the 1st Jan) but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to pester.
The guy said that no one is assigned to my complaint yet, but they do have a backlog at the moment. He explained that by 27th Feb (when the 8 weeks is up), the backlog of complaints may have been cleared up by then – which should make mine on track, or it could still be backed up – leaving me with a possible 4 week extension notice etc.
I keep overthinking about whether I am eligible or not. In my mind, I feel like they’re just going to tell me that I agreed to their terms and that’s that!
What are some good points that would make me more eligible for this complaint?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You had 5 top ups in just over 18 months. Amigo should have been checking VERY carefully that your financial situation wasn’t getting worse and that each new, larger loan was affordable for you. And as a poorly paid single parent even the payments on the first loan of £180 a month would be a lot for you to have been able to manage.
It looks like a strong complaint to me!
Sara says
Thank you, Sara!
This site has given me so much information and finally a little hope at the end of a dark tunnel.
I’m so glad I found this website. Thank you for everything you’re doing!