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
S says
I started my complaint with Amigo in Apr last year. Fast forward to much backward and forwarding (mostly involving them denying I existed). It was sent to FOS at the 8 week point (i eventually received my final response in Nov 19, with it is outside of the 6 year rule).
i was assigned a Investigator in Jan 20 and I am at the jurisdiction phase with my 14 day reply window from amigo last week.
No sign of any movement, I would suggest you are in for a VERY long wait!
George says
Hi Sara, would you be able to help me. I have my loan complaint sent to Amigo now and awaiting a response but I am almost certain they will decline it. I have already had a call with them about a year back about not being affordable and they lowered the monthly payments after months of calls and making my guarantor pay it first. What I would like help with is what you think would happen if i was to win my case. I have paid about 10,300 from my estimation so far and my loan still sits at about 12,300 outstanding. Seems never ending but was wondering how much I would be looking at wiping off if i won? Original loan was 4000 with a bump to 6000 and then to 9000
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, these are the figures I need to know.
How much did you pay to the 4000 loan (eg 11 payments of £165).
The 6000 top up. How much did you get in cash? How much did you pay to this loan.
The 9000 top up. How much did you get in cash? How much have you paid to this loan so far? How much has your guarantor paid to this loan?
Also did your guarantor make any payments to the earlier loans?
George says
So with the 4000 loan, I made 6 payments of 150 I believe. The 6000 I believe I made a further 6 payments of around 210 and I got about 1000 in top up. 9000 I got about 2000 in cash and then continued to pay 365 for roughly 22 months and then 4 months of 160.
My guarantor hasn’t actually paid any as it was me giving him the cash still and Amigo knew this but he did take over for 3 months. So 1080 was made by him.
He made no payments to earlier laon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“then continued to pay 365 for roughly 22 months and then 4 months of 160.”
does this include the £1080 that came through the guarantor or is that on top of those amounts?
George says
This includes the 1080 from my guarantor.
K says
Has anyone else sent to the fos & had them agree to prioritising the case? If so, how long did it take from them saying they would prioritise did it take to get a response? I am at 9 weeks & 2 days & the fos have today confirmed they have agreed to look at my case as a priority so i do not have a long wait but said they couldnt confirm exactly how long as they do have a large amount of amigo & other guarentor complaints at the moment but did say it wouldnt be the 3-6 month guideline it would of been but after a manager has looked at my case shes agreed it should be a priority so curious as to how long people have waited roughly
Sarah Reid says
Hi I placed my complaint to the FOS in February last year, was upheld and paid out on Mon 9th Dec 2019.
In October I asked for my case to be prioritised due to my circumstances – FOS agreed and awarded in my favour.
I would advise that if you haven’t already done so, to submit your bank statements prior to each of your loans with AMIGO as the FOS will need them to support your complaint. I did not submit mine as I should have and this delayed my complaint by four weeks.
Good luck
K says
Yes i submitted my statements to amigo & to the fos when i logged the complaint at 8 weeks with fos. They have agreed to look at my case as a priority due to my financial situation & the stress it is causing me. Hopefully it doesnt take too long to be assigned to an adjudicator
Catherine says
Amigo rejected my complaint after 14 weeks,they said I had a disposable income of over £828,if I had that much I wouldn’t of needed a loan as I could of used that to reduce other debts.
They didn’t even refer to bank statements I sent in their response.
Does anyone know if there is a higher team than customer relations like customer compliance to see if I can ask for a further review to avoid the wait at FOS.
Luckily payments are not as much of a struggle now after having Bamboo and George Banco loans upheld but still using overdraft to make payments as you not affect my guarantor.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, I have not seen any sign that trying to get through to anyone senior at Amigo is at all effective.
I hope your complaint is already at FOS?
Julie says
I have just been rejected by George Banco they said they did relevant checks I had said I was living with my mum and they have said I said I was earning more than what I was but if they had looked at my wage slips they would of seen this wasn’t the case they have said they worked out from my credit report that I would be left with 462.00 spare a month I know I shouldn’t of lied but I have bills to pay but lied because I was desperate also they never asked for bank statements or my wage slip and also have gambling on my account x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you send bank statements with your complaint?
Julie says
I have just looked in my sent and can’t find them attached but I am sure I sent them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well make sure you end them to the Ombudsman with the complaint as they really help.
Catherine says
Go back and say that you don’t believe they have considered the information from your bank statements,and either they were not looked at or were for some reason not added to your case file.
I did this after they only upheld first loan and I’d realised I only sent a bank statement for first loan,I then emailed back with the above and said I have again attached the bank statements relevant to the two top up loans and ask that the additional information is reviewed as I did not believe they had looked at all the evidence,2 weeks later and both top ups were upheld too.
Calculation and refund in bank in 3 days.
Go back and ask for them to review other statements,all my loans were upheld due to gambling on my statements.
Please let me know how you get on.
Good luck
Fellowman says
Just putting this out there for information purposes for those with complaints in with Amigo.
I sent mine on november 4th 2019.
I had 6 loans in total. Over a 18 month period. Paying for 3 years. Final balance £10,000. Total interest paid over £15,000.
They have not upheld my complaint.
Amigo have claimed to have carried out in depth affordability assessments. Supplied figures that in the response that aren’t accurate. £828 was mentioned in mine, just like someone else in the comments, along with other similar figures. I think they are fudging figures to suit their decision to decline.
No evidence of these recorded in my DSAR. In fact little evidence in my request.
My bank statements pretty much ignored.
I know its not great news for others who are waiting. But looks like the FOS is now peoples only chance of winning an affordability complaint with Amigo. As they have decided to reject everything
Goodluck everyone.
Keep up the good work sara. Your site is an amazing resource on money matters.
Catherine says
Hmmm It was me who said they had said I had a disposable income of £828.46,out of interest what other figures did they state?
Fellowman says
Other figures were income, based on trans union OI gathered data, mine were not accurate but similar to another post on here.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This article has some extracts from adjudicator decisions against Amigo last summer – https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-more-refunds-2019/
Catherine says
Mine said income £2200,regular expenses £375 and disposable income £828.46 with £996 for existing creditors.
All of which don’t match SAR data.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Catherine, can I check I have understood this?
Your rejection letter from Amigo mentions income £2200, regular expenses £375 and disposable income £828.46 with £996 for existing creditors. But those figures are not the ones that show on the I&E that Amigo has sent you in the SAR?
How different are the numbers? Did you only have one loan from them?
Fellowman says
Catherine.
My response has similar figures to yours. Income slightly higher, but creditors payments also slightly higher. Disposable income the same 828.46.
As for any record of I&e records in SAR there are none. No calls with these being taken. No record of affordability assessments.
It seems all affordability has been judged on information given at original application stage and info from CRA based on national averages or realistic values based on data collected. It does not take into account increased indebtedness for each top up, actual expenditure. Both easily confirmed if they carried out thorough checks with each loan.
PF says
Hi all,
Just wanted to give a bit of hope – I had one loan with Amigo taken out in 2010. The initial complaint in June 2019 was rejected by Amigo without being investigated due to the 6-year rule. Escalated to FOS in August 2019, picked up by a really helpful investigator in January 2020, complaint upheld by the investigator, agreed by Amigo and eventually after nearly 4 weeks since they agreed – Amigo paid out. I really didn’t believe I would win this one but I trusted the process and the system – Sara your help has been phenomenal and truly helped me get a handle on my finances.
Guys with complaints, be patient, don’t be put off with long-winded final responses and follow the advice from Sara – it works!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done!
Did Amigo have the information about this old loan or did you have to provide it?
PF says
Hi Sara,
They had everything and sent it as requested on the CD.
PF
joe says
Hi My sister took out an amigo loan a few years back i was her guarantor i think it was for around 5000 she made two payments and got a top up loan to make it up to 8000. from there she made i one payment and defaulted, around 10-15 days the money was taken out of my account, the repayments were around 700+ per month. now because i trusted my sister she filled all the stuff in and i just stupidly agreed to sign. now i think i made 3 payments to them but from then could not afford to keep paying, my credit is great so i tried to negotiate with them, said could pay a less amount which they didn’t, they sent letters saying about defaulting etc and they were passing it to there pre lit dept which again i tried to negotiate with to no avail, it went to court in Jan 19 but before it got to court paid around 7000 to settle this. Strangely whenever i spoke to the company they had me down as living in number 55 even though i live in number 57 but i would still receive the letters from them, they also had me down as joe when my name was joseph. i believe when my sister filled in affordability for the top up loan she filled out these details incorrect. i tried to argue they couldn’t of done a credit check on me as they had the wrong address, i noticed that there was no file on my credit search. Reason i am asking this is there anything that can actually be done about this or because i have settled it is there anyway to complain?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were the monthly payments (I don’t think they can have been £700 on an £8000 loan) actually affordable for you?
Did they ever speak to you on the phone before the loans were agreed?
How long ago was this? (I am just trying to get a clearer picture, you may still be able to complain if it was a long time ago.)
joe brown says
Hi Sara
no they weren’t affordable to me which i did tell them pretty sharpish but obviously being naive i skimmed a lot of the stuff and let my sister do it.
Yes they called me i think when the court documents come they sent me a transcript of the calls.
i think the loan was around 3 years ago in october november just gone.
Stressed out says
I have a complaint in regarding my Amigo loan, initially taken out in 2014, topped up 2017 & 2018. I had a gambling problem and have sent all bank statements required except from the original loan as awaiting old bank to send me them.
My guarantor was my then husband who wasnt aware of my gambling and we were reliant on each other for finances. He has now also put in a complaint.
We seperated and i have spent months juggling finances to try and get this paid. I have significant mental health issues which I made them aware of following a suicide attempt in april and asked for a reduced payment while sick and my email was completely ignored. This month I cant pay it.
I tried to offer a payment plan and was rejected and they immediately issued me with a default. I spent 35 minutes on the phone crying to them yesterday saying I would reduce my hours to allow me to reduce childcare costs if they would tell me how much would be the minimum they would accept- I was refused any information.
The girl told me that their complaints team were working several weeks behind the 8 week deadline and that these complaints are like the new ppi and people are just complaining without any proper reason to….
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That all sounds very bad.
Just so I am clear, you sent them an email last year in April in which you said you had mental health problems following a suicide attempt and you never had an answer from them?
Has your ex cancelled his DD to Amigo so they can’t take money from him?
It sounds to me as though you have a strong case because of the top ups and the gambling. If your guarantor can simply refuse to pay while your and his complaints go through then this would take the pressure off you and you too can refuse to pay as amigo are being unreasonable in not talking to you about an affordble payments.
Stressed out says
Yes. I notified them as initially I said it would be late, explained reasoning as was off work as a result and was told they would move my file to a specialist team to deal with because of the mental health and to let them know how they could help. I replied asking to reduce payments temporarily while dealing with my issues and was completely ignored. I then ended up juggling finances since to help sort.
He has cancelled everything and asked them not to take payments while complaints are ongoing.
I was basically told over the phone yesterday that while I had a problem, it wasnt their fault… and they would be continuing to take payment from my ex anyway despite me telling them he had stated not to while his complaint was ongoing (was told that has no impact on payments). Was given some rubbish about it was put me in a situation with arrears building and being in a far worse situation. I literally was crying down the phone and it was like talking to a robot-and this was meant to be someone in the specialist team trained to deal with people in my situation.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What are the rest of your finances like? Are you behind with any priority bills?
Stressed out says
Not good. Not behind in priority Bill’s. My childcare costs take the majority of my wages, and I get universal credit which covers my rent etc. I am in the process of starting a DMP for a few credit card Bill’s.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
a DMP is a good idea. If you win this Amigo complaint you can then dump any balance still owed into the DMP.
Mr F says
Hi Sara
Quick question, I’ve happened to have come across some old payslips that I can send on to amigo instead of bank statements, seems I’m a hoarder as got them all the way back to 2006. My question is can overtime commission payments or bonuses be considered as income in regards to affordable, I would assume not as they cant be guaranteed but thought i’d check before sending supporting evidence.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is this because you don’t have the bank Statements?
payslip show what your income was (sorry to point out the obvious) so they can help if Amigo have got that down incorrectly – have they?
Amigo should have considered whether they should take account of overtime etc If is =t was regular every month they mat decide yes. If it varied a lot them common sense would suggest no!
Mr F says
Hi Sara,
not able to send bank statements as the loans I had were 3000 payments were 137 for 3 years in jan 05 (on jsa at the time didnt start job til Dec 06- found proof of my employment contract earlier too) topped up in sept 08 to 5000 ( it cleared the remainig 244 from original loan and increased payments to 180 a month then top up of 3500 in Sept 12 paid Out only 752) because of how long ago they were I cant get bank statements. Commision and overtime did vary. Ive been expecting them to say that due to time they wont look at but they are investigating sent me incorrect dsar but had email today to say correct one now sent And told me today that id have a response by 2/3/20 if not before (8 week point – I fully expect an email asking for more time) I also found proof of a dmp showing low payments to high levels of debt is it worth sending these to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If this had to go to the ombudsman, they won’t be able to consider the first loan as it was before April 2007.
Do send payslips & that DMP evidence as well.
Mr F says
Thanks
On another note also found my statements from amigo (then Flm) from April 07 til the top up in Dec 08 and accross the middle of nearly every one in large capitals it states you are eligible for a 5000 top up talk about waiving temptation in your face. Hopefully they will uphold without going to ombudsmen especially with ombudsmes stats on upholding complaints for Oct – Dec 19
Mary says
I put a complaint to Amigo and it has taken them a few hours for their final response. They said because it was 2010 they do not have any information anymore that I am out with the time scale. I did send a statement showing the final payment my guaranter made on the 25 March 2013. Is this the case it is too late
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It isn’t too late to take a complaint to the Ombudsman. See this comment left by PF today: https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-21/#comment-346393
Rob says
Just to let others know I also had my affordability complaint rejected (after a 14 week wait). My complaint was about 3 loans and it provided evidence of unaffordability and gambling in all cases. This included bank statements 3 months prior to each loan. They have blamed me for not giving them accurate information at the time of my application and have said that they had no reasonable way of knowing about my gambling. Well of course, if they had checked my bank statements at the time they would have easily have known that I could not afford the loans and that I was gambling. Obviously, my case is now at FOS and it appears there will be another long wait until this is reviewed. But, like others, I am getting the impression that Amigo’s tactics have changed and that they are pretty much rejecting everything now regardless of the evidence provided. This might be something to do with their current strategic review and the fact they are up for sale? Whatever, their behaviour does not seem to that of a company that wants to put right past wrongs. And I certainly don’t think we should just give up
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You certainly shouldn’t give up! The Ombudsman upheld 90% of guarantor loan cases from Oct-Dec 2019.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some good news today. I know a lot of people are depressed at the thought of having to go to the ombudsman and you may be worried about how good your case is.
The Ombudsman has just published its statistics for Oct-Dec 2019. In that time they upheld a massive 90% of complaints about guarantor loans!
Mr F says
Thats amazing news but unbelievable
Andrew says
Could you please share link to this statistics Sara??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sure https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/product-complaints-data – click on the Product Complaints Data.
They are labelled third quarter statistics because FO’s year starts in April, so their 3rd quarter is Oct-Dec.
Fellowman says
Thank you sara.
Encouraging to know. The article you posted further up in the comments regarding FOs decisions and reasoning when upholding complaints against amigo is also a very good resource.
Thanks again..
Sue says
Hi
I have a complaint against amigo in with the FOS and it has been prioritised since beginning of December. Monday I got an e-mail from the adjudicator assigned saying they would ring me Tuesday and wanted bank statements from 2010 – 2011. I phoned FOS Tuesday PM and today as Adjudicator has not rang. I also sent e-mails to her which have not been replied to.
I am unable to get bank statements because of the account being closed and the age. However we was being assessed at the time for fostering/residency and in the Social Workers assessment she clearly states my earnings, the fact we had residence support given and certificate for legal aid. Would that be enough without providing bank statements to show income was obviously low?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS are generally very understandaing when bank statements that old can’t be produced. Any info you have about your income and expenses from that time can help FOS see the picture of your finaces at that time so yes the Socla Worker assessment could be useful.
Anon says
Hi Sara, not sure if this is the right place for this query. I have an open complaint with an open trust two guarantor loan, I’ve checked my credit report on clear score and Experian and the trust two loan is randomly no longer showing on open loans but it is on credit karma, do you have any clue why this might be? Wasn’t sure if the complaint had anything to do with it..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hard to guess, sorry. Human / Systems error, TT in process of changing who they report to… I wouldn’t get excited by it.
Charlotte says
Hi Sarah… I’m. Just getting together my bank statements. I have two bank accounts. Do I need to send both account statements as I use both accounts? Or the one that we used for the loan direct debit to come out of? Will this be an issue for the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would send them both – you are trying to give a full picture of your finances.
Lou7 says
Surprise surprise amigo have ignored the adjudicators 2 weeks and still not made a decision as to if they agree or not. They now have an extra 5 days. It’s so frustrating. They won’t wait for a payment though. I’m stuck now and just want to cry.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
honestly I think you can stop paying them and tell your guarantor to cancel her DD. They have already offered to refund loans 4-6 so your guarantor will be released. The only thing being argued about is loans 2 & 3, right?
Lou7 says
Hi Sara,
Yes before the adjudicator had made a decision she said amigo had contacted her for a deal on loans 4-6 but she said I couldn’t accept that if I wanted her to look at loans 2 & 3.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, but what are the chances here of loans 4-6 not being upheld? Very close to zero! I know it feels risky, but it sounds as though the risk and stress of making these payments isn’t good for you at the moment.
Lou7 says
It certainly is stressful Sara. You’re right. I sent an email the other day explaining that I had to fetch a prescription and my cat needed treatment at the vets and I couldn’t afford it but all they replied with was if you need to talk to us about paying your monthly payments give us a call. I have sent another email today asking for a decision because it’s affecting my mental health and making me really anxious but that’s been ignored too.
Lou7 says
Sara I have taken your advice and cancelled my DD. They replied to my email saying they could send me a questionnaire if I wanted to about my mental health!! I asked why it’s taking so long for a decision and they ignored that question and just said they have till the 18.2.20 to respond to adjudicator decision.
Brandon says
We handled your complaint and felt that it was fair to remove all outstanding interest on the account, and to settle the loan. This meant that you had made a large saving in interest, and no longer needed to make any payments to the loan. The FOS have also reviewed our decision and agreed that this is correct and fair for you.
I understand that your guarantor has made payments to your loan, and has a separate complaint regarding this. We aren’t in the position to discuss this with you, or whether we agree that it is fair to refund any payments to her. I understand that you have been contacting our agents to discuss this, however, they are unable to provide you with any detail about her complaint, and I’d therefore suggest that she contact us directly if she has any concerns.
If we did ever determine that a guarantor refund is due, these payments will still be owing, and our standard process would be to apply the payments back to the loan, for the borrower to repay. If we determine that this is necessary for your guarantor, we will be back in contact to make you aware about how this impacts you, if applicable.
Received today from the person dealing with my complaint in October any advice please Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not sure what you want me to say. As I said before now your guarantor has complained letting that run through seems the simplest thing to do.
Brandon says
Good morning Sara ,
They’ve asked for an extension with my guarantor regarding their complaint but I’ve asked regarding the issue they have said any refund they feel due to the guarantor would be taking away from the remaining balance of the loan.
The loan was found to be irresponsibly lent and settled at amount of £6595 but surely they can’t take the guarantor refund away from that and have said I would be liable for the remainder of the balance of found in favour of the guarantor
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The guarantor should send the complaint to FOS straight away. Too many people are now getting rejections after 12-15 weeks for this to be worth waiting for.
Assuming that Amigo eventually refund the guarantor, either through their inhouse decision or because FOS tells them to…
It is likely that Amigo will then rework the last loan to take out of the payments that have now not been received by them from the guarantor.
But you wrote before “I made payments of 25 x £296.44 which was £7411 of the £7500 loan”. And as you won your complaint, no interest can be charged. That means that even without the payments from the guarantor, you would still only owe 7500-7411 = £89.
So you won’t be asked to pay all the money the guarantor had paid, just the very small amount left on the loan. And your guarantor will be getting £3552 + 8% interest back. That is why what Amigo did in October was not fair and why this is worth fighting over.
(NB I am assuming the figures you gave were correct here.)
Is that clear?
Brandon says
That’s all correct all figures given as I went of the statement they had sent me and I will tell them to pursue it with the FOS also thank you again Sara
Bad gambler says
Hi ,I’ve had guarantor loans with one plus one ,glo as well as amigo which I’ve started my complaints ,can I send the templated letters to glo and one plus aswell as I think I’ve got good grounds with them aswell ,one plus one was in 2011 glo was 2016 and I’ve had 5 loans all in (3 top up)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Exactly the same approach applies for all guarantor loans. Amigo is much the largest so they are mentioned most here. If you think the loans were unaffordable send in complaints.
Suzanne says
I have had an email asking me to complete a questionnaire. See below
Were you aware at the time you applied for the loan that you wouldn’t be able to afford to repay it?
Yes/No
Why do you believe your loan was unaffordable?
The income stated at the time we paid out this loan you received £2,642.00, was this correct?
Yes / No
What is the reason your income is different?
The expenditure stated at the time we paid out this loan was £2,069.46, was this correct?
Yes/No
What is the reason your expenditure is different?
What should I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this Amigo? It sounds a bit like the text Maria has just been sent by them. See below for a general reply you could make.
Suzanne says
Yes it was amigo. I sent the same response as Maria and then emailed them over my back statements with the following:
I answered the questions.
I had during 2017 a total of 7 pay day loans from sunny and 3 wonga loans. My bank statements show this and also shows my gambling with sky bet. Had you checked you would have noticed I was constantly in debt and I was always taking out loans the day after my pay day to keep up with paying my bills and general living.
My annual bank transactions for the year 2017 show all this
Year 2018 will show I had to take more loans to pay your amigo loan
My loan was for £10,000. I have paid 39 payments of £395 so I have paid back over £15400. I hope and pray they at the very least just say closed you don’t need to pay anymore
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a good reply.
Maria says
Hi Sara,
Amigo have sent me a text message with links to each of my loans asking the following:-
1. Were you aware at the time of applying that you would not be able to repay
2. Why do you believe your loan was unaffordable.
3. Was the income stated correct
4. Was the expenditure stated correct
Sorry to bother you but l am not sure how to answer – everything l said to them was correct and l took out the amigo loan because l could not get another loan anywhere else.
Please can you help with the answers
Franki says
I’ve just had the same email just now, not sure what to respond yet
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go into detail if you want but Amigo aren’t always very nice to deal with so you could give a general reply:
“I thought I could afford the loan [or loans] but I was stressed and may not have been thinking clearly. Now with hindsight it is clear that it the repayments were always probably going to be too much for me to afford without borrowing more or getting behind with bills. I don’t remember all the details of the loan application so when you have sent me the copy of my personal information that I have asked for I can have a look at that.”
Obviously change that if it isn’t right for you!
If you have sent bank statements, add in a sentence saying “You can see my income and expenses from my bank statement which I have sent.”
Maria says
Thank you Sara, l have given this reply “I thought I could afford the loan but I was stressed and may not have been thinking clearly. Now with hindsight it is clear that it the repayments were always probably going to be too much for me to afford without borrowing more or getting behind with bills. I don’t remember all the details of the loan application.
You can see my income and expenses from my bank statement which I have sent. I did not realise the interest would be so high and added on a daily basis. Trying to repay the loan without having to let down my guarantor has caused me great distress anxiety and depression.
I hope l have answered correctly.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds clear. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers here. You have said how you feel and that is fair
Maria says
The only other worry I have is the question “ The expenditure stated at the time we paid out this loan was £861 was this correct?
I said no and then there was a drop down box giving 2 options the (1) I gave this expenditure to get the loan (2) not sure. I gave the (1) option
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you text them again saying you can’t remember what you put in the application as it was very quick and you don’t think it’s fair to be asked this sort of thing by text message. Add it was their responsibility as the lender to check the loan was affordable for you, including asking questions in detail and verifying what your answers were and that you don’t think they did this or they would have seen the mess you were in.
Julia says
15 and a half weeks since I submitted my complaint to Amigo and I’ve just received a lengthy email explaining they won’t uphold it.
“For your third loan, the credit check showed that you were now managing a Current Account, three Credit Cards, and seven Unsecured Loans.
Your credit checks showed a good overall picture of repayment to your credit items. Some items of credit were not being maintained. As a responsible lender, Amigo still completed a full affordability assessment on your credit commitments..”
FOS it is!
Charlotte says
My reply was similar. I just thought they should have seen by the time I had my last two top ups the significant debt on my credit file that wasn’t settled and all defaulted that they would have been increasing my debt more and I vikusky shows I couldn’t manage what I already had.
Julia says
They also state that my payment history is perfect, therefore I clearly am not struggling.
My payment history is perfect because I’ve been borrowing from Peter to pay Paul!
Apparently because I ticked a box to say that my financial situation would remain constant, and that I agreed to their interest of 13k on a 10k loan ( plus a previous 9k that I paid on the first part of the loan)
They said they specialise in lending when no one else will. Says it all really…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman is not usually impressed with any of those arguments!
Connor says
So I recently started an affordablity complain against amigo… I had 5 loans with them and paid over 16k interest… it;s been progressed and hats off to amigo, they don;t wait the 8 weeks to reply, they have contacted me twice within the last 2 weeks to gather more infromation… the latest one was a questionaire about affordablity… asking “when I applied for the loan did I know I couldn;t pay it off”
I have put YES (as in I did know I couldn’t pay it), I had so many payday loans at the time and they’d of seen that if they did they checks, I struggled paying the payday loans off nevermind a guarantor loans…
Because I’ve said “yes”, do you think this iwll go against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They should still have checked that the loan was affordable!
The Ombudsman knows that people applying for loans are often stressed and not really focussed on anything apart from getting through the next month or two. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
Connor says
Very similar to what I put… I didn’t answer “yes” or “no” to any of their questions, I simply stated in the “other” text field… that I “never knew any accurate figures as I was behind on other payments from ongoing payday loans and they’d have seen that if they performed the relevant checks.”
I think that should be okay?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds clear to me. And many people will have felt like that.
There isn’t really any “right” or “wrong” answer here. You know how you felt. Lots of people don’t have a clearly worked out budget before they apply for a loan. They may hope it will be better than payday loans but not realise how hard the high monthly payments for such a long while are.
There is no need to go into a lot of detail if you can’t remember it clearly. Don’t make things up or just copy what someone else has said. If you don’t remember, say so.
Richard M says
Hi I had an email today from Amigo regarding my original affordability complaint back in November 2019. They’ve partially upheld my complaint as they have stated that not all of the required checks were done on my guarantor and on this basis have removed my guarantor from my file? This is all they’re willing to do… Surely the whole purpose of a guarantor loan is to have an acceptable person who they have done the required checks on prior to giving the loan? They have said they have done all the checks on me and all were dealt with accordingly. So on this basis, the loan will carry on but I do not have a guarantor. Is that right?
I didn’t have any loans prior to this loan and I’ve paid over £7,000 so far, the majority of that being interest. I still have another 3 and half year to go on my loan at it was £10k over 5 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh! I have never seen amigo do this in response to a complaint before.
what is the rest of your debt situation like? Do you have other problems debts? Are you paying them all?
Richard Morton says
I have had to take out other loans and credit cards to get by. I’m now at a point where they’re all maxed out and I’m £1k overdrawn. Gambling has increased trying to win quickly and give myself some breathing space. This month will be the first month where I won’t be able to make all the payments as my overdraft has maxed.
Catherine says
Hi Richard,
Ask your other creditors to set up a lower repayment plan until your situation improves.
You need to register on Gamstop to stop gambling ,It’s easy to do and will change your life,takes 2 mins to do,make sure you register all your numbers and emails.
I gambled for years and got in a right mess and I constantly chased losses.Only ever one winner,it was hard to take the step and admit I had a problem but it’s honestly the best thing you could do in 2020
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s good advice from Catherine. About gambling and a lower repayment plan.
Now with your guarantor released, you can look for a debt solution for all your debts.
The Amigo loan now has a balance of c £12000 remaining. If you take the case to the Ombudsman and win, that would reduce to about £2800. Would that reduction make your debts repayable?
One option is a debt management plan to pay off that and all your other debts. Talk to StepChange about how long that would take.
If it would be too long, then a simpler option may be for you to look at bankruptcy now. Gets rid of the Amigo loan and all your other debts. (I am assuming here you don’t have a house with equity or any assets to protect.) StepChange can take you through all the pros and cons of the different options.
https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx
Richard says
I do have a home and I have a mortgage so I don’t think a debt management plan would be viable. The balance on the amigo site is just under £9k left to pay. Bankruptcy, isn’t an option either due to being a home owner as I have checked this also. I may be eligible for an IVA i believe and this way my home isn’t impacted in anyway, the creditors may ask you to remortgage at the end of the IVA but 90% of the time you can’t because of being in and IVA. Really unsure at what to do next.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Owning a house rules out bankruptcy.
A debt management plan is perfectly fine when you have a mortgage. It doesn’t do your credit rating any good but it’s not as disastrous as an IVA is! I suggest you set up a DMP now with StepChange including the Amigo debt and also send your Amigo complaint to the Ombudsman – it would be a big help to get the Amigo debt down to under £3k!
Do you mind saying what is the total of your other debts? And have you managed to stop gambling?
You are very unlikely to be able to get an IVA unless you have been free of gambling for a reasonable period. StepChange also do IVAs, so they can talk about this as an option.
Richard says
My total debt is over £20k. I’ve been reading up on DMP and it says that’s the creditors can still apply credit and arrange CCJ’s etc. My main worry is my home and my mortgage. I can still afford that but my current situation after being paid leaves me with nothing and £1k overdrawn which is my limit.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This total debt excludes the Amigo loan?
Some points about DMps and IVAs:
IVA firms like to make DMPs sound difficult, because they get very large fees from setting up an IVA.
In practice CCJs are rare in a DMP. The creditor that is most likely to go for one is Amigo! So sending your case to the Ombudsman now is important as Amigo cannot go to court when you have a case with FOS and will never be able to go to court if you win the Ombudsman case.
CCJs are also not as bad for your credit record as an IVA.
At the moment 30% of IVAs fail because you can’t keep up the monthly payments for the 5 years – or 6 years if you have a house with equity. A failed IVA leaves you back with all your debts and a destroyed credit record with insolvency on it.
This is why at the moment I am suggesting you talk to StepChange. They do DMPs and IVAs and very importantly their IVAs have a very low failure rate (see the statitsics published last month by StepChange here https://www.stepchange.org/media-centre/press-releases/stepchange-comments-on-insolvency-service-data.aspx). They will not suggest an IVA to you if it is likely to fail. Some less scrupulous IVA firms may :(
DMPs are flexible, the payments can be reduced.
IVAs are not, the payments in an IVA can only be reduced a small amount unless your creditors vote to approve a bigger reduction.
And as I said before, an IVA is simply unlikely to be agreed unless you have been clean of gambling for many months.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But it sounds as though you have a financial crisis. Someone needs to go through your complete situation with you. That is not me! This needs to be done in private looking at your debts, income, expenses etc.
I suggest the following as a possible way forward because your guarantor has been released (the guarantor has been told this?):
1) send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman
2) cancel the DD to Amigo and tell them you are taking debt advice and will get back to them within a month
3) stop all payments to your other debts apart from your mortgage and any priority debts but cancelling DDs and CPAs at your bank. Tell them you are taking debt advice.
4) talk to StepChange about your options – DMP, IVA etc They will cover all the pros and conns, explain the Amigo debt may reduce if you win the FOS case. If a DMP is set up, StepChange will contact all your creditors.
5) get yourself a new basic bank account with a bank you do not owe any money to and move all your income and the mortgage, council tax and other essential bills to being paid from the new account. Your overdraft is then just another debt than goes into the DMP. And the overdrafts fees should stop when a DMP is set up.
Then if a DMP is set up, you sit back and wait for the FOS case to be decided. Look at other ways to improve your situation. Stop gambling. Get a lodger?
Then when the FOS case is finished and at least 6 months have passed, you look again at your debt options with StepChange.
Richard. says
My amigo loan is included in that balance and is currently with the FOS. I have been on stepchange and they’ve advised me to declare bankruptcy but that’ll impact my home surely. I’ll speak to them about a DMP and see what they say. My partner takes care of all the bills I transfer her the money so the bank account won’t be an issue I believe.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talk to StepChange again about your house and bankruptcy. If you have negative equity sometime bankruptcy may be a possibility but this needs to be looked at very carefully.
the bank account is an issue because you have an overdraft that needs to go into your DMP. You don’t want to carry on paying overdraft fees do you?
Richard says
No I don’t but the main thing is my home. I’ve only recently got put on the mortgage with my partner so I really don’t want my home to be impacted in this. I know that may not be an option. I’ll speak to them again. Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ahaha! If you have only recently been added to the mortgage the question is whether you actually own any of the equity… Talk to StepChange. They are not in the business of suggesting that people go bankrupt and lose their houses.
If they say they think you will be OK and you want a “second opinion”, talk to National Debtine on 0808 808 4000. Choosing to go bankrupt when you have a house is a very big step so double checking is a very good idea.
Stuart . says
Hi D.C
I have just started the process of complaining to Amigo concerning irresponsible lending And affordabilty.
I am using Resolver as a intermediary Amigo have requested statements from me but I am wondering why they want this info and if I should give them what they are asking for also due to the funds being paid into the guarantors account I am wondering what exactly Amigo are looking to get from the statements.
any advice is much appericated I have had two loans am still paying these off I have had two or three missed payments and the intrest is unreal,
many thanks I will look out for a reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely send the statements – they can only help your case as they show the loan was unaffordable.
Read the article above – the Resolver template is pretty similar but I think my article goes into more details so you may find it helpful.
Mr F says
So finally received my dsar from amigo and thankfully this time it was the correct cd not much on there (due to time I suppose) my loans were 3000 in 06 top up to 5000 in 08 and top up by 3500 in 2013.
I was however surprised they have my original application for my loan in 06 showing a low credit score, low income and no sign of expenditures (here’s hoping they uphold as I know fos can’t touch this first loan) my application for my top up of 5000 confuses me though as on the first page income is 925 monthly after tax but a few page on it has wage 0 other income 0 payments for this loan 180.66 disposable income -180.66. And no sign of expenditures anywhere.
Then with the final top up I have a call where they ask me about expenditure of rent, council tax, gas, electric, water, internet food(he specifically says food) and tv license. He then questions the 3k debt on my credit file and I tell him 5 debts in a dmp that if I pay 60 a month to them will wipe off my debt in two years didn’t bat an eyelid at it it And then he mentions because my guarantor is so close to the line of being accepted he’s sure they can help him see something he can cut back on to enable him to be guarantor “if he’s that good a friend I’m sure he will cut back on something for you”.
I’m hoping amigo start to uphold again and uphold all three but if not I feel now I have a strong case for the two top ups at fos if required (am I wrong to be getting a bit more hopeful)
Just proves companies do keep records over 6 years wasn’t expecting. 14 years though.
Lauren says
I’m also on the same boat! I took a loan out for £5000 then paid it for a year and then topped up to £8000. Iv been paying it back for 2 years and 10 months and I’ve paid £11,000 back so far to my second loan never mind the first one. I still have 32 or more payments to make on the second loan. I’m a single mum to 3 kids and I’m a full time student on disability benefits. I suffer from bipolar affective disorder (which they know about) so at the time I took the loans out I was thinking illogically and manic. I haven’t missed a payment and I’m up to date but I have lots of other debts because I’m scared the go after my guarantor if I don’t pay amigo first.. What would u suggest in the first instance for me?
Steve norman says
I’ve put my complaint in against amigo along with 3 months of bank statements prior to the loans being taken out, they’ve replied and asked for bank statements for the next 2 months after the loans were paid out, is this normal?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They seem to be doing this now.
Natalie says
Hi sara
Looking some advise. First took a loan out with amigo in March 2014. Monthly payments £46. Kept getting offered top ups every 6-9 months and as I was stupid and desperate I agreed. They never asked for my bank statements which would have shown persistent debt. Payday loans. Other guarantor loans. Numerous direct debit reversals. Payments to debt collections etc
Surely if they done the proper checks I wouldn’t have been offered the loan? Last top up was 2017. Monthly repayments are £277. Circumstances have changed. New baby. Single mum to two kids. I’ve asked to cut my payments down temporarily but they said no. I have raised a complaint with them but the person I spoke to basically said when I applied in 2014 I said I could afford it.
I raised another complaint today using your template.
I have never missed a payment but that’s because I’m scared incase they go after my guarantor. My priorty bills ie rent etc are in constant arrears as I put this loan first
Natalie says
Can anyone advise me why amigo ask for bank statements when you raise a complaint and not when you actually applied?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think they should have asked when you applied – it is the simplest way to check your income and expenses and be sure you can afford the loan.
But they very rarely did this with borrowers. So now when the borrower complains, they ask for your statements to check the loan really was unaffordable.
You will only win an affordabilty complaint if Amigo didn’t make proper checks and the loans were unaffordable.
Natalie says
They definitely didn’t ask for proof. From myself or my guarantor.
The loan goes back to 2014. I can’t get these statements. What happens then?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You normally can statements back 6 years even from closed accounts. Have you asked your bank? When are the oldest statements you can get?
Amigo will just have to consider your complaint without them. And the Ombudsman also will. Not having statements doesn’t kill a case, but having them makes it easier.
Natalie says
I haven’t asked my bank. Just went onto my banking online.
Nationwide goes back 4 years.
This is the bank I use to get my wages etc.
Santander goes back to 2014. I use this for bills etc.
It shows on the statement constant direct debit reversals. Payments to debt collections. Payments to other guarantor loans etc.
Will this go in my favour.
My credit score has always been shocking.
Will this also go in my favour.
Natalie says
I have two accounts. Nationwide and Santander. Nationwide only go back to 2017. This is where my wages is sent. Santander go back to 2014. My bills etc are paid for this. It shows many direct debit reversals and non payment fees. Payments to other guarantor loans. Payment to collection companies. Surely if they had the statements they would have seen I couldn’t afford the payments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so send the Santander statements. They are good evidence of some of your expenses and the problems you had.
Stacey says
Hi sarah I received this from amigo asking about tbe affordability do I answer it honestly in saying yes I lied and got I knowing that I was in debt or do I not
Were you aware at the time you applied for the loan that you wouldn’t be able to afford to repay it?
Yes
No
Why do you believe your loan was unaffordable?
The income stated at the time we paid out this loan you received £2,732.00, was this correct?
Yes
No
The expenditure stated at the time we paid out this loan was £859.37, was this correct?
Yes
No
I confirm all information I’ve provided as part of this questionnaire is accurate.
rachael says
Hi Sara, just wondering if you could help. I have put an affordability complaint in with Amigo. they have come back to me till fill in a questionnaire…. the questions ask ‘were you aware at the time you applied for the loan that you wouldn’t be able to afford them, the income I stated was that correct’….. I knew at the time I would struggle to pay it back and my income I did exaggerate a bit but at the time I was desperate for the money- I am panicking what to put back as if I say I have lied will they just say no to complaint????
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Stacey & Rachel,
a couple of people mentioned getting asked this sort of question yesterday by text or by email. It feels to me as though Amigo are trying to deliberately make the process of complaining feel difficult and stressful for people, which is poor complaint handling.
So several points:
1) you do not have to reply at all. You have sent your complaint and Amigo have to consider it. They can’t reject it simply because you don’t reply to this sort of thing.
2) There are a lot of reasons why people may not have accurately completed an application form. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. A lot of payday lenders have made threatening noises about this sort of thing and so far as I know nothing has ever happened when someone has taken their case to the Ombudsman.
3) it is the lender’s job to make sure they ask enough questions about your income and expenses and verify your answers before they give you the loan. Lenders know people are often rushed and desperate and don’t know clearly what their budget looks like or how affordable the new loan will be. You may have thought – well it will be cheaper than my payday loans, which is true, but that still doesn’t mean it was affordable!
If you want to reply, I would say keep it short. Don’t write an essay, don’t feel defensive, if you don’t know or are unsure, that is the best reply Your bank statements are what Amigo should be looking at!
You can ignore the questions especially if they have drop down answers to select which may not really explain your situation. Amigo aren’t always nice to deal with. You could just send something like the following changed so it is right for you:
“I thought I could afford the loan [or loans] but I was stressed and may not have been thinking clearly. Now with hindsight it is clear that it the repayments were always probably going to be too much for me to afford without borrowing more or getting behind with bills. I don’t remember all the details of the loan application. I remember it was very quick to apply and I am not sure what you asked about. I have asked for a copy of my personal information which you have not yet sent.”
If you have sent them bank statements (which is a very good idea!) add a sentence saying “You can see my income and expenses from my bank statement which I have sent which shows how unaffordable the loan was.”
George says
Hi everyone,
Have my complaint in with Amigo and didnt hear back anything until i sent another email explaining everything in detail. Including the anxiety and depression i have suffered and then i almost instantly got an email back. They seem to be emailing me alot now with different responses and asking how they can help etc. I am just awaiting there final response but going off from the past few days, I expect this to be in the next week. Praying to just get it all rectified now but has anyone else had similar outcomes from Amigo where they began emailing fast and alot to respond to everything?
Wanting to know what time frames I am looking at and if the result came back good for anyone else who told them similar?
Thank you.
K says
You will be waiting a while. They work through them in date order they receive & i know some are waiting still at 15 weeks. I got an email on the evening of hitting 8 weeks asking for 4 more weeks, nearly 2 weeks into those 4 weeks & still no further forward. I sent to the fos on week 8
Mr A says
Hi SARA
So today I decided to ring them to see if they could help and reduce payments I have never missed payments and my guarantors has never had to make payments. I told them that I am struggling and have future events that will change my situation and a gambling problem.
They point blank refused to do anything after saying it would be irresponsible for them to do this and I would use the xtra money to gamble and focused on that point not that I have a new baby due and have personal marriage issue which I also said
A few hours later I get a the following text
Hi
Thanks for the call earlier. I have spoken with another manager to ensure that the decision I came to on the call was advised correctly. Upon reflection, I do not think you showed a lack intention to make payments going forward and feel this was not the correct decision. For this reason, I would like to ask you to call me back on 01202 629105 so that we can reassess your financial situation and give you an opportunity to resolve the future payments. I apologise in advance for misleading you and wish to try and help.
Thanks, Amigo.
What are your thoughts do I ring them back and try reducing my payments with the complaint in or do I bite the bullet now or use this to help my case that i am still vulnerable and they would not listen
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can I ask what your guarantor’s situation is? Amigo may allow you to reduce your payments a bit, but it may not be a lot or they will go after your guarantor for the rest.
Also are you getting help to stop gambling?
Mr A says
My guarantor is a family member and I would never make them payments unless it helps my situation that I send the payment to them.
I have called help lines and spoken in forums
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok but could your guarantor afford to make your monthly payments (How much is it?) out of their income and still be able to pay all their other bills, expenses and debts? Because if they couldn’t, they also could put in a complaint.
Rob says
Good evening Sara, I hope the Wonga thread hasn’t aged you by 20 years. I’m still awaiting my £60, but let’s not get into that.
I’ve made a complaint to Amigo, and having read previous posts about them rejecting strong cases, I opted against sending bank statements. There’s a lot of gambling previous to both loans, and also payday loans etc, so I feel my case is good enough to feel confident when I inevitably have to contact the FOS. I have recently signed up to Gamstop and opened up to my partner about where all of my money was going, so I feel like it’s the beginning of a brighter future.
Onto the main reason behind this post. Myself and my partner have a joint account from which the majority of our bills and food shopping goes out of. This account is currently only in my partners name as we haven’t been to the branch to add my name to it yet. Will this have an effect on what they view as my monthly expenditure? If it does, will that at least give my partner reason enough to make a complaint on affordability, because put together, the amount we both spend would equate to roughly 70% of her income.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sending bank statements helps you win cases with gambling.
Is your partner your guarantor?
Rhys says
Hi Sara
My partner is the guarantor for a loan with Amigo, for £10K following pressure from 3 friends. They have stopped paying the loan since last year (I was only aware of this in early Oct 19). We complaied in Oct and they have since stopped payments and refunded a little. She was having to pay £320 each month and she’s been unemployed for 15 years with a disabled son and having a disability herself with minimal income as it is (we’re not cohabiting). Amigo replied today (4 months later) saying they are denying the complaint as she “sounded” like she was fully aware of the terms despite me pointing out the fact that she has Dyslexia, a mild learning difficulty and doesnt get these pitfalls, unemployed and no way of making these amount of payments and the immoral nature of her being accepted by both Amigo and the borrowers behaviour. I also used your template to complain initially. I’m disgusted and fully intending to go straight to the Ombudsmen as its been 4 months not 8 weeks. This will destroy her, her and her sons quality of life which they are on minimal income anyway and its stopping us from moving in together as you can imagine with the associated risks (as I’m employed and have my own debts), it’s extremely stressful and soul destroying for us all and I feel she should have never been accepted by Amigo. Thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Rhys
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“We complained in Oct and they have since stopped payments and refunded a little.”
Is this Amigo? So they haven’t been taking payments up until now?
Why did they refund her “a little”?
Are Amigo now saying they will start payments again?
Do you have a house you are anxious to protect?
Rhys says
Thanks for your speedy response Sara, yes it’s Amigo, they started taking payments since the borrower defaulted around July, taking £80 per week for a few weeks before my partner broke down and told me. When I complained and requested a hold (Oct) they refunded circa £200 and stopped this until the response today which says as she’s had a refund, and from the SAR CD, they believe her to be fully understanding and will start payments again in March.
No house to protect, I’m in debt, facing imminent redundancy and don’t want my financial burden to impact her and her son and vica versa to be honest, we’re both in financial turmoil from recent developments so I thought it best to sort them separately beforehand. Thanks again for any advice, I’m sorting the FOS application tomorrow
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well I suggest she cancels the DD with her bank to Amigo so they can’t take money she can’t afford while her complaint goes through FOS. Does she have other debts such as credit cards, catalogues, loans? Or priority debts such as council tax or behind with rent or bills?
If you are facing redundancy, read https://debtcamel.co.uk/redundant-debts/ and think about getting some debt advice now.
Are you both renting privately?
I think it’s good to mention everything in a complaint, so
1) you feel she was pressured to be the guarantor is one point
2) she has dyslexia and mild learning difficulties so may not have understood what being a guarantor entailed (have you listened to the phone call?)
3) she could not afford the repayments.
The third one may be the simplest to prove from her bank statements, but the others are very relevant and so include them too.
Rhys says
Thank you Sara, I rent privately (shoe box flat) but she has a council rented property which I’m hoping to move into. She has no other debts at all and she is up to date with all bills (apart from a credit union loan for Xmas purchases which she does every year but never behind on payments). The response also has some inconsistencies such as her confirming a single parent with a disabled child only costs her £165 per month (on what planet???) according to her income / expenditure which they say they have compared to the national average and she can afford the repayments of over £355 per month (which I’ve researched the average cost of a single child to be £400!! not including disability). They’ve stated they wouldn’t discriminate against her due to disability where I was arguing that they have preyed on that weakness not discriminated (as evidenced by the fact they have suggested £355 per month to which my partner said no she can’t afford they then but managed to get her to agree to £82 per week instead where she thought they meant £82 per month – it adds up to the same amount so it clearly seems like they’ve preyed on her lack of understanding here to get the max payments to them). I’m listening to the CD today but the email isnt written very well and the more i’m reading it the more seeing holes and contradictions. Thanks Sara :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds as though she has had a hard life and has managed her money very well until getting talked into this guarantor loan :(
What is the £165 a month for her and her child supposed to include? It sounds absurd. Presumably not rent, council tax, fuel bills? But food, toiletries, clothes, mobile, TV?
How old is her child & do you mind saying what the disability is as that impacts the likely extra costs that should have been allowed.
I wouldn’t quote the £400 a month for a child – that is probably some sort of all-inclusive figure with rent and other things.
“as evidenced by the fact they have suggested £355 per month to which my partner said no she can’t afford they then but managed to get her to agree to £82 per week instead where she thought they meant £82 per month – it adds up to the same amount so it clearly seems like they’ve preyed on her lack of understanding here to get the max payments to them”
OMG
Rhys says
I love the OMG (my sentiments exactly!). The £165 per month consists of C. Tax-£5, Gas-£20, Electric-£20, Water-£40, Phone-£20 and food-£60 (it’s a 3 bed house so bedroom tax also applies and even though they cliam she confirmred this as relasitc I would argue this is not realsitc in the slightest which they should have queestioned). Her son has just turned 15, has Autism and attends SEN education (as she did). With his Autism he typically enjoys computer games intensively which as you know is expensive and didn’t even have internet until late 2019 which is another bill they’ve not considered come to think of it. Nor TV license. Nor energy increases or even Birthdays and Xmas is even considered.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those figures are absurd.
She may have been confused when she said the figures were right between weekly and monthly expenses – £60 a week for food sounds more reasonable for the two of them. This is exactly the reason Amigo should have asked for bank statements so they can verify the numbers.
You can see from her bank statements what her actual expenditure was on council tax, gas, electric, rent to cover the shortfall due to the bedroom tax, water (that one may be accurate?), phone, broadband, TV license etc etc. All these numbers should have included as expenses.
Does she have no transport costs?
There should have been an allowance for clothes for both of them – a 15-year-old boy is presumably still growing!
Get her to think what extra things she spends more on because of her son’s autism – some people find they have more things broken around the house, pay for swimming as it helps him be calm, need a more expensive diet etc etc it doesn’t matter how odd this sort of thing sounds, that is what disability benefits are there to cover.
Natalie says
I read in November. The article outlined affordability complaints regarding guarantor loans.
I have a guarantor loan with U.K. credit and was struggling financially to make the £350 payments per month.
On 4th January I made a complaint, using your template, and today I received a decision.
I have been successful, they admit appropriate checks were not carried out. They have removed interest and released my guarantor.
The loan, with interest removed has gone from over £9k to just over £5k. They have removed payment due dates and have agreed to accept a payment which is affordable to me.
This has made an unbelievable difference to my life
Sophie says
Hi, has anyone had any dealings with Hamilton and Greig – now hero loans I believe? I’ve submitted my complaint for a loan I had in 2012, but just wanted to see if anyone else had? And if anyones had a yes or no from them? My amigo loan from 2010 is with the FOS but I’m not holding out for that one as i dont have any bank statements (I do have emails trails showing debt collectors for council tax and payday loans at that time though)
Any insight to Hamilton Greig/ Hero Loans would be appreciated :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They have only been mentioned once here. The borrower was offered £500 by hero. May not have been a good offer but I am not sure if she took the case to FOS.
Lou7 says
Has there been many amigo complaints that have been rejected at adjudicator level and had to wait for an ombudsman decision? Amigo seem to be making things very difficult and dragging things out over the 2 week time period.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No. Apart from you, there is (I think) one other person commenting on here in the same situation. So there is no experience at all of what the timescales are.
Lou7 says
Thanks Sara. I don’t know if amigo want to go to the ombudsman or are just being a bit awkward. Surely if they wanted to send it to the ombudsman they would have told the adjudicator already? But who knows with them. They are hard work.
Maria says
Hi
Has anyone had a successful claim with Bamboo? I put in my claim 3 weeks ago which I know isn’t long but have only had an acknowledgement
Catherine says
I had a complaint not upheld by Bamboo,I went back and asked for it to be looked at again by a member of the compliance team and argued every part of their final response and took parts from my credit report(like I had over 64 settled accounts in 24months,5 active loans at the time of application totally over 20grand,heavy overdraft use etc etc)
3 days later they upheld it and removed over £5000 interest,18 months of repayments wiped.
Carefully look at their affordability calculations when you get your response as when I took the figure and deducted the expenses they put in their reponse they had actually demonstrated themselves in writing in what unaffordable.
Nix says
Hi I have received an email yesterday from the fos stating that they uphold my TFS complaint from 2009. I borrowed £4000 . I eventually paid it off via a family member as it was crippling me. I think I was paying about 240 a month. I know when I repaid it back it was more than the original loan. My case has been with the fos nearly a year..
Julia says
I’m wondering if anyone knows how long Amigo( or any other company ) have to provide all their information when the FOS have requested it?
Are they given 3 months for example to provide this? I’m sure there will be some legislation.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They should provide it as quickly as they can. No timescale is given. Is your FOS case waiting on the Amigo proving the case file to FOS?
Kaz says
Looking for advice. Amigo have shifted their goalposts with my loan. I signed a contract that states I will make 60 payment of 276.67. I queried my outstanding balance with them as it what they had did not match my records. They have now said I need to make a further 3 payments on top of my 60 because “ The reason you are paying slightly more back than you may have expected is due to your loan being paid out before we had an interest cap in place for your first installment. Your interest accrues daily so from the day your loan was paid out 21/05/2015 it would have had interest accrue against the balance when at its highest point until you made your first payment on 01/07/2015. As this was a six week period it exceeded our original projection.”.
Now this was not explained to me at the time nor have I received any kind of notification explaining the extra payments. Where do I stand with this? I do want to put in an affordability complaint as at the time I had debts, defaults on a part time wage and tax credits. Constantly borrowed from family and over the course of the loan I’ve missed payments on rent/council tax, defaulted on cards all just to pay amigo. I only have bank statements for the top up loan is that acceptable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you want to complaint about two things – first that the loan was unaffordable and second that you have been asked to make three extra payments your contract did not mention which appears to have been because of an Amigo administrative error.
I suggest you use the template letter above and amend it to say that you have two complaints. For the second one, I suggest you ask Amigo to write off these extra payments as it is unfair to charge them now when you have not been told about them before.
Your bank statements – you have them for the last 5 year top up loan? How many loans did you have before that?
Kaz says
I have bank statements for the last top up loan yes. Before I topped up, I defaulted on a catalogue the month before, missed credit card payments and missed payments to another mail order account. I’ve only had two loans one for £5k then topped up 10 months later with £7K. I found my P60 from the tax year when I took out the first loan should I send that or not bother?
Kaz says
I have already sent the template re affordability. Can you help me with a template for my second complaint? This was also in their response “ however you original contract before the loan was paid out does state it would be based on your first payment being a month after the payout of your loan” but I can see nowhere on either contract stating this. Also shall I send this to their complaints email or respond to the person who emailed me with the information? I also have the email from them when they sent me a copy of my signed agreement. Should I send that or hold onto it for later?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I sent you a complaint about affordabilty on dd/mm/yy. I would like to add another point to that complaint. I feel it’s unfair that you are now asking me to pay more than the 60 payments my loan paperwork mentions. You mentioned “however you original contract before the loan was paid out does state it would be based on your first payment being a month after the payout of your loan” but I cannot see that. And even if it is there, I think that would be an unfair contract term. 3 extra payments is a lot of money that I was not expecting to pay. I would like to ask you to write these extra payments off.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It can’t do any harm. But I would try to get the older bank statements as well, this can be possible, even from closed accounts, as they may help.
Kimberley says
Hi I have currently started a complaint with amigo. I’m still paying the loan but have been borrowing money from my parents to help with bills after paying the loan. When I originally took the loan out in 2017 I was only earning roughly 800 a month. The original loan was for 7000 and within 2 months I had a top up to 9000 I had only made 1 payment before the top up so how could they know the loan was affordable for me. Also my mother in law is my guarantor, she is retired therefore doesn’t bring in a lot of income herself. We’ve got behind with the council tax and are in direct earnings attachments with them now which they take from my husbands wages at £60 a week. We are in financial difficulty and have been since I took out the loan. Do you think I have a good case seeing as the loan is £355 a month and my income is still only 940 now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The fact you have been in financial difficulty since you took the loan suggests that it is unaffordable for you. And, as you say, needing a top up so soon after taking a large loan should have been a warning signal to Amigo.
Can I ask about the rest of your finances and your husband’s? Apart from the council tax arrears do either of you have a lot of other debt? Are you renting, if so privately?
Your mother-in-law – £355 a month is a lot for a pensioner to be able to afford – she may have a good case to be removed as the guarantor. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/. If you win your case, this won’t matter, but if she could complain as well, her case may go faster than yours… if she could be removed as guarantor it would take all the pressure off you.
Kimberley says
Yes we rent privately. Had to get a credit card with a high apr in 2018 in my husbands name to afford Christmas. We also borrow money from my parents a lot and have to use their catalogue to get essentials. My credit rating is terrible. It’s just over 100 at the moment. We both have debt which is with lowell which we only pay off at £5 a month as that’s the most we can afford but even miss payments on those. It’s causing me serious depression and anxiety im just glad the council took this route rather than bailiffs as had experience with those before and it was awful.
Kate says
Hi
I’ve recently filed a complaint against amigo, they gave me 8 top ups to the maximum amount available to borrow. This loan has been settled. They’re asking for bank statements for two months prior and after each top up, but I had a gambling addiction for years which they do not know about and I am worried about sharing these as it won’t add up to my income/expenditure but have told them I will happily send them to the ombudsman if it goes that far. They’ve also sent me questionnaires about each of them asking if they were affordable and if my income was correct etc. What should I do? Should I send them bank statements despite my income/expenditure being completely wrong in comparison to my bank statements?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s your choice. Bank statements showing gambling support an affordability complaint and I encourage people to send them.
But Amigo at the moment seems to be rejecting most complaints so you may decide it’s not worth sending them.
They’ve also sent me questionnaires about each of them asking if they were affordable and if my income was correct etc.
I have recently added a new section If the lender comes back and asks questions to the above page about this. As that says, you don’t have to reply.
Denis says
Hi there I have a top up loan from amigos I have put in a complaint a few days ago. I am a disabled person and only live on benifits, I believe they did not check very well if I could afford the loan in fact I believe the process was far quicker than when I originally asked for a loan, they basically asked have your circumstances changed and they had not really. Now I may have my money dropped because the DWP have changed the benifits.
Do I have a case and could I stop the payments as I am making a complaint. Thanking you in advance for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large were the loans?
There is no rule that says you can’t have a loan if you are on benefits, but obviously Amigo should have considered your situation very carefully to make sure you would be able to afford it.
So did the expenses on the application form really match what your expenses were?
Things that are often forgotten include TV license, broadband, clothes & shoes, toiletries and cleaning stuff. And many people underestimate food costs (some people think about their weekly food shopping bill and then put that down as the monthly amount – it’s easily done by mistake).
You may have underestimated your debts eg overdraft charges are often forgotten.
Depending on your disability you may have higher costs because of having to take minicabs, needing the house to be warmer, having a special diet, having higher laundry bills, having to pay for some help around the house etc.
What other debts do you have?
Who is your guarantor? What is their financial position like?
Beth says
Good Morning
Has anyone had any success with single George Banco loans? I had many payday loans and an Amigo loan at the time of taking out the loan, so was wondering if it is worth pursuing an affordability complaint against them? All help is gratefully received.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Single guarantor loan complaints are being won a lot. GB is a small lender so not much mentioned – but who the lender is doesn’t really matter. If you think the loan was unaffordable – the repayments caused you problems, having to borrow elsewhere or get behind with bills – then make that complaint!
Brandon says
Afternoon Sara and Thread ,
FOS have my guarantor case will be cross reference to my complaint aswell for figures the guarantor has to sign a declaration as my guarantors partner has to speak on her behalf with her being deaf also ,
Fingers crossed it’s a straight case and the guarantor payments are refunded to her with the 8 percent 9 weeks with amigo now so hopefully the FOS gives it a push more for resolution as no final response been given as of yet
Keep the faith everyone
Brandon
Mr A says
Wow
Have just revived an email from bamboo, initially thinking they are upholding my complaint
Only then to realise they have sent me somebody else information and all there personal details about there complaint!!!!
GDPR nightmare am now waiting on a phone call back from team leaders
Proves how they check things!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask for compensation. £100 is about the going rate…
Matt says
Hi everyone,
I’ve just had my complaint not upheld after 15 weeks, no surprise. They didnt look at the first 3 loans due to them being over 6 years. The 4th loan they ‘looked’ at however didnt answer any points of my complaint around affordability. Luckily I found this website around week 7, so I was totally expecting it not to be upheld so I started my complaint with FOS after week 9, so I’ll await them.
On a separate matter I’ve just spoken with FCA as I was speak with them regularly with my job and mentioned Amigo and the fact they are taking well over the 8 weeks on most complaints. Its something they are very interested to hear about as if a they receive enough calls/emails regarding this matter they will take some form of action against Amigo. I know it wont help peoples individual cases but more pressure on Amigo the better in my opinion and it took a few mins to report to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If people want to tell the FCA, who is Amigo’s regulator, how slow Amigo’s complaints handling is and how they are not upholding complaints in line with recent Ombudsman decisions, email the FCA at consumer.queries@fca.org.uk.
The FCA will not investigate your complaint. But as Matt says, they may be interested to hear your report if Amigo are already over the 8 weeks. don’t email before then, wait until Amigo have already missed the deadline.
I suggest keeping any emails quite brief, just give a short summary of your borrowing from Amigo, the time Amigo has taken with your complaint, say if you are under a lot of stress because of not wanting to harm your guarantor. End by saying you understand the FCA won’t look into your complaint and you have already sent it to the financial ombudsman.
WJ says
Hello Sara,
I recently put in a complaint with Amigo. When applying I told them I was self employed and I was only able to give a rough average of income. Sometimes I earn less than the average. They didn’t ask me about expenses directly related to my self employment (which change on a client to client basis). Unfortunately my guarantor needed to make dozens of the monthly repayments (£400) due to the fact my work took a dip.
I had hundreds of defaults and lots of CCJs. Amigo never asked for bank statements or called me for anymore information about my situation. They were more concerned with my guarantor. I have since sent them copies of my credit reports AND bank statements.
Anyway, two questions.
1. How strong do you think my case is?
2. They recently sent me an email that asked:
* Were you aware at the time you applied for the loan that you wouldn’t be able to afford to repay it?
* The income stated at the time we paid out this loan you received £xxx, was this correct?
* The expenditure stated at the time we paid out this loan was £xxx, was this correct?
What should my response be? Or should I wait for the deadlock letter and go right to the FOS? Also, I have recently had 3 cases with the FOS upheld and 2 cases settled directly! Thanks for all your wonderful support and advice!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1. It sounds as though Amigo should have looked very carefully at your case because of your very poor credit record, especially if any of the credit record problems were recent.
2. I have suggested in the article above in “If the lender comes back and asks questions” what you could think about replying. You don’t have to reply to this, you can always just wait and go to FOS.
Has the loan been settled? Have you repaid your guarantor?
WJ says
1. Yes my credit problems were recent with some accounts still in default or with late payment markers. Interestingly, on one of my upheld cases, the company argued that the credit report they had didn’t show my full circumstances and that they “couldn’t assess what they couldn’t see” – the FOS were not impressed.
2. The loan isn’t settled yet, only one late payment 2.5 years into a 5 year loan, thanks to my guarantor. I have not yet repaid my guarantor. After my work took a dive I was unable to secure an income that was adequate enough to cover both my necessary bills and my loan commitments. The initial amount is practically repaid from what I borrowed, apart from the staggering interest that will be looming for the next 2.5 years.
If the case is upheld, does that mean the guarantor is likely to be released and would you say it’s worth them putting in a complaint then to perhaps get a refund?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your complaint is upheld, your guarantor will be released and any payments they have made will be refunded to them. This will then leave you owing the amount you borrowed less the amount you (not your guarantor) has paid. Do you have any idea what thay will be?
What are the rest of your finances like? Do you still have CCJs and other debts you owe money to?
WJ says
Thanks Sara,
My guarantor has contributed about £7K to the loan.
Currently, out of the 8 defaulted accounts, I have settled 5. The other 3 are almost 6 years old but not settled. I don’t know if it’s worth leaving them as they could be statue barred in a few months? 2 out of the 3 CCJ’s are now satisfied.
Also relevant: 6-7 years ago I took multiple loans with payday companies averaging 4 loans per company. I was in a really bad cycle of debt. They were all paid back and I only missed one payment but thanks to your site I realised they should have done more. Some of these companies offered me increasingly larger loans back to back, knowing other payday loans were on the credit report. It’s hard work as some have stated they can’t even find me as a customer (I had to send them proof).
Wonga (upheld), PiggyBank (upheld), MrLender (upheld), Unclebuck (with FOS), MyJar (with FOS), 247MoneyBox (administration), WageDayAdvance (administration)
Mr A says
Hi Sara
Need some advice please so Bamboo have now upheld my complaint as a gesture of good will,
I have nearly paid 3k in interest and have just sort of 2 years left of payments
5k loan taken in November 2016
197.87 payment not missed
Do I accept the gesture of good will or do I try and claim back the interest
Have spoken to them and they said it’s up to me on how I proceed do I bite the bullet and move on
Or is it easier now that they have accept (as a gesture of good will) to claim interest back
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so you have made 37 or 38 payments? That would be about 7500/7600? So you have paid about £2500/2600 in interest.
It is indeed up to you whether you think that is a “fair” offer. Have they asked you to confimr you will accept it? Have they already released your guarantor?
Mr A says
Hi
They said if I accept they will close the account down and release my guarantor,
All I have to do is reply back to the offer email and it is done straight away they said.
But if they have offered to settle does not that mean they are taking responsibility or using the (gesture of good)will as an easy get out clause
What are the chance of them accepting if I take the complaint further and not accept still make monthly payments is my concern
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that sounds as though if you don’t accept they will still expect you to make the payments while this goes through the Ombudsman.
If you want to push them again, you could go back to them and say that the FCA has said (https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/correspondence/dear-ceo-letter-consumer-credit-firms-handling-complaints.pdf):
“We also saw surprisingly high levels of exgratia payments (both volumes and amounts paid). We noted that, for the same type of complaint, the average amount of exgratia payments (for complaints not upheld) was very close to the average redress payment (for upheld complaints).Considering our other findings this could be a cause for concern as, for example, it may indicate that some complaints had not been assessed competently or were not upheld when they should have been.
Your firm is free to make ex gratia payments and usually these are used in the interest of customers to achieve a positive outcome for both parties. However, these payments are not a substitute for investigating complaints competently and impartially, for ensuring the customer receives appropriate redress and for accurately reporting complaints data to us.It is also important to ensure that any underlying root causes of complaints are identified and dealt with.”
and say that their offer to you does not seem in line with FOS recommendations.
in
Mr A says
Hi
Could I contact them and state the info you provided from FCA to them before accepting or declining to see what they are willing to do.
Can they cancel the gesture of good will if I push them without making a decision?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can go back and quote that and ask them to look again.
I can’t say it’s impossible they will get fed up and withdraw their offer and tell you to go to FOS.
In theory, they can withdraw a goodwill offer and you may get nothing from FOS. All I can say is this only seems to happen when a lender has made a really small goodwill offer, say £25 or £50. And most guarantor loan complaints are being won at FOS.
Sorry, no guarantees though. there must be a small element of risk and I can’t guess how small.
If they refuse, its up to you if
Kat says
Hi Mr A, just to let you know I have just accepted the £500 GoG from Bamboo. I have paid over £3.5k interest on my loan, however for me the important thing was that they have written off the remaining loan (around £3.2k left to pay) and it has now gone. I took advise from Sara (thank you Sara!) and I just felt that the £500 and written off balance were just enough. No more stress and worry with this loan. I was concerned they would remove the £500 GoG and while the prospect of over £3k more was tempting there were no guarantees and the £500 is just too important to me at this moment in time. It wasn’t an easy decision but I am glad I took it and can focus on Amigo and my payday loan complaints.
Catherine says
I’ve recently had my complaint with Amigo not upheld,they did not review bank statements and when I asked why they said they didn’t require them at the time of the loan issue and therefore will not look at them now.I sent them again and asked for a review and why they were now sending emails to borrowers asking for statements but would not look at mine.
They said it is now a new part of the complaints handling but as it wasn’t before my final response was given it doesn’t apply to my case as they didn’t need to verify any info at the time of the loan they would not consider it as evidence.
Awaiting allocation at FOS and I have added a complaint about the above to it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
To be honest I don’t they are looking at them now any more, they are just asking to make things sound difficult to the person complaining.
Amy says
Hi Sara , I’ve had a email from Amigo saying that they have no update for me and I can phone customer relations and speak to them??
I’m at 12 weeks today , (went to fos at 8 weeks) My complaint is in a queue with the fos.
Do i call customer relations or leave it for a further email as they told me I would here by 12 weeks (today) I’m a little confused as to what is happening, just feel like they are fobbing me off.
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Amy,
no idea!
you may as well phone up and ask! If you aren’t sure what they are saying or you are worried by it, ask them to email you it.
Brandon says
Good afternoon Sara ,
My guarantor has had her reply back from amigo they have said there is no refund due to her as they have closed the loan with a balance outstanding and they find this a fair outcome , it’s with the FOS now anyways so they will be dealing with it don’t understand how they reject her complaint when it should of been refunded the payments she had made
Fingers crossed it gets sorted
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, let us know how this goes.
Stacey says
Hi, my partner has made a complaint using the template above, he has now recieved an email requesting bank statements, one prior the loan and 2 after. The loan was took out 4 years ago to which the bank account that was used has been closed down for nearly a year now. They have said in the email they will just use there current information to complete the investigation. Is there anything he should specifically reply with or say or do. And due to him not being able to send the evidence will this largely affect his complaint. Surely they should of asked for his bank statements when he took the loan out to prove the information he put down was correct?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think everyone is now being asked for bank statements – but if they can’t be produced, the complaint will still be considered.
And you can win a case at the Ombudsman without statements, although they do make a complaint simpler as it tends to be very obvious the loan was unaffordable!
It is almost always possible to get statements going back 4 years from a closed account. I suggest he starts trying to get these now, so he will have them if the case has to go to the Ombudsman.
Kat says
I have had a letter today from UK Credit upholding my complaint!
To say I am over the moon is an understatement. The interest is being applied to my balance leaving me with £4566.54 balance left to pay (instead of over £20k with interest).
They will be in touch to arrange an affordable repayment plan on the balance remaining and the loan and any negative credit markers will be removed from my credit file.
The only thing they have said is that my guarantor will remain named on my account. He has a separate complaint in to be removed, but if this is not upheld do you know what this will mean for him? Will he still be liable? They do not specify so I don’t know if anyone else has come across this with them.
UK Credit have been really good to deal with and I am grateful to them for their quick response. Bamboo also settled. Now just Amigo (and my payday loans) and I am NOT holding my breath!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Great news!
What are the rest of your finances like? If you have other problem loans or cards or overdraft, this would be a good time to set up a debt management plan for them all, including the remaining balance on the UKC loan. Talk to StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx about how this works. This has the big plus that StepChange do all the dealing with your creditors so you don’t have to, and you just make one affordable payment a month – like a consolidation loan at 0% interest!
Your guarantor – have they complained that the loan is unaffordable for them?
Kat says
Hi Sara,
Yes he has made a complaint – he did it on the same day as me but he has only just been able to send his supporting documents in. The woman dealing with mine was the same as that dealing with his so I am hopeful he will get a response soon.
I still have the Amigo loan to resolve, and we all know how they are going at the moment and I still have a couple of weeks to the 8 weeks. My guarantor is the same for Amigo as for UKC. I have been paying over £1000 a month on guarantor loans so once these have reducedmy finances will be ok, manageable as I am in re-payment plans for all of the payday loans now. Will stepchange still be a good idea if my Amigo loan is still running? Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, I suggest he goes back to UKC and says because they have upheld your complaint, he wants to add to his complaint that he feels he should be released from the loan because they should never have made it in the first place. So he will be taking his complaint to FOS with both reasons – that the loan was unaffordable for you AND the loan was unaffordable for him if they do not accept it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
With StepChange you would still have to pay Amigo the full amount, so that would be complicated. let’s hope the Amigo one too is resolved quickly…
Lou7 says
Hi all,
A couple of quick questions. Has anyone had an adjudicator decision and amigo haven’t responded? Can amigo still make a decision even if it’s in the ombudsman queue? Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry but there has been hardly anyone in your situation. Yes Amigo can still agree to accept the adjuidcator offer at any point.
Lou7 says
Sorry Sara. I know I keep asking the same questions but I don’t know why amigo are dragging it out. It’s just so frustrating. I would have thought they would have wanted it sorted.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I understand your frustration. they are losing this case, why don’t they just give in, pay out and move on?
Natalie says
Hi all
I’ve read 90% of cases are being upheld.
What reasons is the other 10% not being upheld?
If you can’t provide bank statements amigo said they will use the information given at the time of the loan (obviously it was incorrect otherwise no complaint would be put in) what is the outcome likely to be
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That s all guarantor loan complaints, it will include people complaining their credit record is incorrect, that the charges for arrears were wrong, that a settlement value was incorrect etc etc.
Dan says
Hi Sara
I recently put in an affordability complaint against Amigo (30th Jan 2020) I have been advised that it is being looked in to, so not expecting an outcome for at least 3-4 weeks, however I have had a notification from my ckearscore account (credit report) saying
Upcoming Updates
A unsecured loan account will be removed from your March report.
Organisation Name: Amigo Loans
Account Number: ****7237
Company Type: finance house
It says unsecured but surely its secured because of the guarantor and myself and the guarantor haven’t received communication from Amigo since the complaint was lodged, does this mean my complaint has been upheld?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“secured” on a credit report means against your house. Legally an Amigo loan is unsecured even though Amigo has the benefit of being able to get your guarantor to pay so that gives them in non-legal terms a lot of extra security.
I don’t know why the loan is being removed from your Equifax credit record (Equifax is the CRA that ClearScore reports to). there are various options including administrative error and Amigo changing to using a different CRA. I suggest not getting your hopes up that this means your complaint is about to be upheld.
Amy says
Hi Sara , my complaint with amigo was at 12 weeks yesterday (did go to FOS at 8 weeks ) I had an email saying no further update and to call customer relations if I want to talk to someone. Shall I call or leave it until I recieve a further email from Amigo or just wait for the fos to get involved ( I’m in a queue with the fos) Thanks Sara :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Amy,
I don’t think there is any point in calling unless you want to try to persuade them to accept less. But in that case they may just go after your guarantor.
I don’t think calling will speed up your complaint.