UPDATE: Amigo is asking the regulator for a Scheme of Arrangement, see Amigo seeks refuge from complaints. This is very early days – nothing may happen – if it goes forward all customers will be asked to vote to approve it.
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 already 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
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.
And do 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.
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.
At the moment (mid 2020) Amigo is deducting money for “unpaid interest” if they only uphold the later loans. This seems just wrong! So here you can go to the Ombudsman and say you think this deduction is unfair as the earlier loans were settled. Also say if you think the earlier loans were unaffordable so they too should be refunded, but if you aren’t worried about the earlier loans you can just ask FOS to remove the unpaid interest deduction.
Are you likely to win your Ombudsman complaint?
From mid 2019, a lot of guarantor loan complaints are being upheld at FOS.
Guarantor loans are large and people are winning their case even if they only had one loan.
One Ombudsman decision went into a lot of detail so I have summarised it here: Ombudsman – Amigo did not check properly that a borrower could afford the loan.
Here is my summary of some other FOS decisions in mid 2019: Guarantor loans – more refunds being paid!
Cases are also being won against other guarantor lenders, for example UK Credit.
It is much simpler to win a case at FOS than a court case. If Amigo or any other lender has already started a court case against you, Citizens Advice can help you get the court case “stayed” (that’s legal jargon for put on hold) while you take an affordability complaint to the Ombudsman.
Complicated cases & help with guarantor loan complaints
If you want help with these complaints, Citizens Advice can help. Every Citizens Advice has access to the national Specialist Debt Advice Service if this isn’t something an adviser has come across before.
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 will expect you to pay their high percentage fee immediately even though you have not received any cash refund and still have the rest of the loan to pay.
How to ask for a payday loan refund
Board room bust-up at Amigo
Complaints about large high cost loans
Emma says
Hi Sara, I have just spoken to Amigo who have advised they sent the FOS an offer on the 22nd September, apparently FOS responded to say it wasn’t clear what the offer was and there hasn’t been any communication since!
I haven’t heard from the FOS and Amigo have just said that the team haven’t responded to them either. I am at a loss as to what to do? When they say offer I’m guessing they haven’t agreed with all of my complaint? It’s just stuck in limbo now 🤷🏼♀️
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you tell FOS the problem and ask what the unclear offer said?
Emma says
I’ve spoken to them they said my complaint is on hold as they are investigating a wider issue of Offers where guarantors are involved. My guarantor did make a few payments on my behalf but was never asked by Amigo to pay them. She paid and I repaid her on my pay date to avoid me missing a payment.
I am confused. I have said to FOS that if my guarantor is refunded then she would return the funds to me anyway.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so these cases are on hold and this is the cause of the problem, not some failure of communications. If your guarantor is happy to write and say that you have already repaid her and she doesn’t require a refund this *may* speed things up. But it may not.
Emma says
Thank you, should she write to Amigo or the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest she emails Amigo and ccs it to you.
This may not work but worth a try.
Anna says
Hi,
I have made a complaint to amigo using this site and just waiting now to hear back, I have received my SAR via email with password which has all my credit checks etc on it, my ratio was 101% which that alone makes me believe I was missold, I first took out a loan for 3000 in around March 2018 paying £146.37 a month, then topped up to 4,500 in June 2018 paying £181.80 and then to 7500 in august 2018 paying £306.32, (on 60 month term) my balance is STILL £7500 after paying all this time? Can you please help on what I would be looking at if my complaints were upheld and if I have a good chance, thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think topping up twice in 6 months suggests that you may well have been struggling and Amigo should have looked very carefully at your situation.
If you would like me to look at the numbers, I also need to know:
– how many payments you made to each of the loans
– for the top up loans, how much you received in cash.
Anna says
Hey,
3 payments to loan 1
Then got 1250 payout
2 payments to loan 2 then got a 3,335.51 payout then so far made 23 payments of loan 3 at the 306 a month
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers you have paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £688
loan 2 £27
current loan – stilll not repaid the 7500 borrowed, so if interest is removed you would still owe £462
If all three loans are upheld, the balance on the last loan would be wiped and you would receive a refund of £253
As you are still paying the current loan, your refund will go up with every payments you make from now on.
Look out for Amigo upholding the last loan but not the others, then adding a line for “unpaid interest”. this would mean you sill owe them a lot… and it isn’t fair, so come back if it happens to you.
Paul says
Hi there, I recently wrote to Amigo thanks to the help of this site. I took out an Amigo loan for £4000 in Feb 2018 paying £412.23 per month for 12 months and upon paying it off I took another loan in the same month for £10,000 in February 19, was paying £618.16 per month. I borrowed money to clear all these high interest debts and paid it off in full for £6236.09 in March 2020.
May I please ask if they’ll refund me if I’m able to show that I had a gambling problem during the taking of the first loan and also that I had pay day loans previously on my credit file as well as bankruptcy for pay day loans back in 2014.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you went bankrupt 4 years before, I think Amigo should have looked very closely at your application. If your bank statements would have showed a gambling problem, then I think they should have declined it.
can you say how many payments you made to each loan. And confirm the second loan was a brand new loan, not a top up?
Paul says
Many thanks for this, I made all 12 payments to the £4000 loan and 13 of the 24 payments to the £10k loan before clearing it with a full and final payment.
also, the 2nd loan was brand new I’m sure. There are two separate loan agreements.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers you paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £944
loan 2 £11,068
so if both are upheld you would get a total refund of £12,012 plus at a very rough guess about £700 in 8% interest.
As the second loan is so much larger and as it wasn’t a top up, you may be very happy if they Amigo just uphold the second loan and not the first one.
kris says
hi sarah im beginging to think knowone is getting any money i got offered 7k 6 weeks ago and still nothing,do u think anyone will get it eventually because im really starting to have my doubts about this .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of people are getting paid but not many where their guarantors have made payments, they went on hold a while ago.
kris says
will we still get it,i never missexd a payment and my guarontor told amigo that i owed her nothing and still on hold
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would hope yours is a simple case that will get sorted. I just can’t guess how long.
Ruth says
Hello,
just wondering if anyone has had any responses from Amigo recently? I have an outstanding loan where the complaint was made 17th August 2020 but I still haven’t even had the SAR. They have acknowledged it is late but cannot tell me when I will get a response (I’ve sent to FOS in meantime). My guarantor made 3 payments but we have both contacted Amigo to confirm that those I repaid back to my guarantor in full – Amigo have acknowledged this. I’ve been bugging them with emails but if anyone has a number to get through t the right department that would be brilliant. Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suspect this is held up because of the guarantor issue. I was hoping they would put the easy cases like yours through if the guarantor confirmed they did not want a refund.
Becki says
Hi, I have been told that the refund (due 29th Oct) is now on pause and with a review team. Had to speak with 3 people to find this out.
My guarentor paid off the load and made payments.
Has anyone had any experience with this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, cases where the guarantor made payments do seem to be on hold.
Have you repaid your guarantor?
Becki says
Hi no I haven’t
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So would you want the refund to go to your guarantor? Or if it came to you would you repay your guarantor?
DM says
Surprise Surprise, no communication from Amigo other than a generic e-mail saying that I can forward to FOS until response (complaint dates back to 2011 3k with 5 top ups up to 9.5k in 2018). Should I send now or wait a couple of days for an offer? Guarantor has never made a payment so if these are on hold would have thought they had more time to deal with the complaints where people have made payments. In short borrowed 12.5k including top ups over 9 yrs £26k paid total so far to date and £7.3k outstanding. Are they delaying redress where there are higher sums involved? I Have set my expectation on wiping the £7.3k with a min £3.5k redress if they don’t approve all loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are they delaying redress where there are higher sums involved?
Not that I am aware.
I suggest you phone them up and say if you don’t have a response by the end of Monday, you will be sending it to FOS.
Do you know how many payments you have made to each loan? And how much you received from the top ups in cash? If you do, I am happy to look at the numbers for you.
Matt says
Hi Sarah,
Could you look at my numbers and give an idea of what my offer may be if they accept irresponsible lending. My details are:
Loan 1 – £2000, made 18 payments of £97
Loan 2 – top up to £2250, cash received of £545, made 5 payments of £85
Loan 3 – top up to £2750, cash received of £538, made 4 payments of £134
Loan 4 – top up to £3500, cash received of £828, made 26 payments to date of £149 with a balance remaining of £2346
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers you have paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £1,451
loan 2 £387
loan 3 £458
current loan £374
If they are all upheld, the balance on the last loan will be wiped and you should get a cash refund of £2,670
njw says
Hi,
I got a refund on loan 4 back in mid 2019 before this became such a big thing (Amigo) At the time I didn’t challenge any of the other loans as I was in dire financial difficulty. Based on the way things are going now I think I probably should have had loans 2 and 3 back aswell. I’m guessing Amigo wouldnt look at them again even if I claimed I only accepted it due to financial pressure etc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s very unlikely BUT do check their offer to you. It should have told you that you had the right to take your claim to FOS – did it?
Njw says
It probably did, but amigo were also aware that they had to explain the response on the phone as well as put it in writing as I have issues with information processing so often need a verbal explanation And they didn’t tell me about it
Stacey Robinson says
Hi, I’m just wondering what’s people’s average wait time with amigo accepting FOS findings and possibly paying out. I’ve recieved an email today from FOS saying that amigo need to upheld my complaint and they have untill 5th November to respond. So was just curious how this planned out for others and at what timescales? Thank you.
Simon says
Unfortunately the wait will cont6as they go through their process of you accepting and the guarantor accepting or turning down their offer. After that its anybody’s guess how long it will take. I would email and phone them to ask them what they are doing about the FOS decision. Good Luck
Justin says
I’ve just noticed something very strange on my Amigo account. I’ve made a complaint in which they upheld the third loan of four, I sent this on to the FOS and it is still there. The strange thing is on my online Amigo account they’ve stopped charging me interest on the loan. I took a payment break during furlough, but it doesn’t seem like they’ve turned the interest back on, my loan is reducing nicely however lol
Simon says
If you have been paying this back over a long perioid then the interest eventually reduces to nothing and your full monthly payment then comes off.
Justin says
Hi Simon
I’m half way through 36 months, so I doubt I’ve reached the amount of interest they’d take for the full loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Strange I agree. It may be some error in the way the account was set up for the payment break.
It will not matter at all if you win your FOS case of course.
Justin says
Well I’ve just been looking further into my statement, after my two month payment break they took interest on the next full payment and then stopped for the last three months, someone’s done something wrong somewhere, but doesn’t surprise me with this lot, however I’m not bringing it to their attention and I’ve taken screen shots for when they try to adjust it later.
Jaz says
Hi Sara
I had my complaint upheld with my adjudicator to my favour, their stated Amigo should’ve not given me the loan, as I had ccj at the time when the loan was given to me, and that all interest should be payed back to me plus 8% statutory to be paid on top, my guarantor did make some payments towards the loan, but I payed them back, and their ready to confirm this with Amigo. Amigo has disagreed with my adjudicator decision, so it went back to my adjudicator since June and their said it can take them a few months to reply back to Amigo, The adjudicator said it can take them a few months to respond back to Amigo. My guarantor is ready to phone and confirm to Amigo that I have paid them all the money back, does that mean all the interest will be paid to me. It’s been 4 months now and iv heard nothing back from my adjudicator, im not sure if I should phone my adjudicator or wait for their response, Im a bit concerned that i have seen in similar cases that Amigo has accepted with the adjudicator decision, and payed out, but this is the first iv seen them disagree with the adjudicator/FCA decision. Thanks again Sara i hope you can advise me on these few issues I have.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So is your case waiting to be picked up by an Ombudsman at FOS?
Jaz says
Hi Sara
Thanks for getting back to me, Its not gone to Ombudsman at the moment, my Adjudicator said it’s still with them, and that their are still looking at it, and have to reply back to Amigo as their have sent them a lengthy reply why their disagree.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone up and ask that this is either speeded up or put in a queue for an Ombudsman.
Njw says
Just had a response on a service complaint to FOS who stated the following
“The particular intricacies of this product area have needed to be reviewed in a lot of detail, for us to be confident that the decisions our ombudsmen reach are correct, fair and reasonable to both our consumers and businesses. This in turn has meant our ombudsman aren’t able to issue decisions on cases such as yours until these considerations are fully looked into and resolved. These are currently under review at a higher level and as soon as these things are sorted the ombudsman will be able to start issuing their decisions.”
This is about guarantor loans, does this mean they’re all on hold?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not all guarantor loan cases are on hold so far as I know. Two types of cases are on hold while a decision is reached, those where a guarantor has made some payments and the ones involving a deduction for “unpaid interest”.
Njw says
Oh thanks, what’s the unpaid interest about? I settled my guarantor loan with TFS early (through further borrowing) is that what you mean or something else? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No this is a weird Amigo invention where a top up loan is upheld But the previous loan isn’t.
Mike says
Hello Sara,
Firstly thanks for all you do with site, I’ll certainly be making a donation to my local CAB if my claim is successful.
Today was day 1 and I just sent the initial email as per the advice on this site.
Just looking for some clarity on what I would be owed if successful. As per a lot of people here the loan was entirely unaffordable and I have attached the 3 months of bank statements (that In my case showed extreme levels of gambling)
I know there isn’t a simple answer but how likely is it that my case would be upheld?
Details –
£10,000 loan taken out July 2018
19 x £427.75 (payments all made my myself without involving the guarantor)
Total – £8127.25
March 2020
Remaining balance paid in full £8282.07
Many thanks,
Mike
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This was your first loan from them?
How did you pay off the balance?
Mike says
Yes it was my first loan from them.
I borrowed the full amount from a friend to help get me out of this debt.
Mike says
Yes it was my first loan from them.
I borrowed the full amount from a friend to help get me out of this debt.
Does paying the balance off in full hurt my case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, but it gets much more complicated if your guarantor paid it off for you.
You paid £16409 in interest, that should refunded plus very roughly £4-450 in 8% interest.
Mike says
Amazing, thank you for these figures.
I called amigo, they said they expect to deal with these cases in 8 weeks or less.
The gentleman I spoke to said that they’re currently taking 9-10 weeks for new cases right now due to the spike in new complaints. I hope this doesn’t cause the company to go bust and not result in a payment. :/
My guarantor didn’t pay it off for me, he made no payments and was nothing to do with the settlement loan.
I borrowed the whole settlement amount from a friend of whom I am still in debt with.
Would I need to prove this to Amigo?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, unless the money was sent to Amigo by the guarantor, they will assume it did not come from the guarantor.
Lyndsay says
How do I check/apply to see if I’m entitled to any money back please? Anyone have a link? X
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are already on the best page! Read the article above, it explains what an affordability complaint is and what refund you can get if your complaint is upheld. It has a simple template letter to email to Amigo to start your complaint if you think your loans were unaffordable.
85% of these sorts of complaints have been upheld at the Ombudsman so far.
But although that is very good news, it isn’t really the same as you being “entitled” to money back. You will only get a refund if the Ombudsman decides that (a) Amigo didn’t do proper checks AND (b) the loan was unaffordable for you so you had to borrow more or get behind with bills to keep on paying it.
Don’t believe any claims company that has a simple “eligibility checker” – they are just lying to get you to sign up with them. They then send the same email you can get for free here.
Jacqueline Best says
Hi I approached amigo about a loan for £3000 + £300 set up fee I repaid the loan myself over 4 years I took out in 2010 to 2014 and amigo said they had no record of my loan as they destroy customer records over 6 years. I could not find a copy of my loan agreement. I sent them bank statements showing the loans and my repayments and they still rejected my appeal. How did you prove to them that you took out the loan. Did you have a copy of your loan agreement. Hopefully you receive the refund which you fully deserve
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you give up on Amigo and send your complaint straight to the Ombudsman. With the bank statements that show the loan, the repayments and the rest of your financial position.
karen says
that is not true, they have lied to you there. i have not started my complaint yet but i emailed amigo asking for details of all four of my loans and they forwarded statements for each account back to me that day 2 were older than 6 years old, they went back to 2012.
Andrew says
Hi Sara
Had a email with my redress figures today and 2 payments were made by guarantor. My guarantor emailed amigo stating she didn’t wish for a refund as I’ve already paid her. In the email amigo state as your guarantor doesn’t wish for a refund we have proceeded with your claim. So it’s important that people know this so they can do the same what I did.
Roy says
Hi Andrew… My guarantor has done the same and I haven’t heard back from Amigo. When did your guarantor send the email?
I would also want to know is how much total was paid on the agreement as interest and i.e. 5k capital 4k interest so total 9k paid by you and a guarantor.
Did you get back all the interest on top of the agreement or did Amigo deduct the guarantor payments and pocket their payments for themselves? I.e. they kept more than the capital?
Andrew says
My guarantor only made two payments of £256 I don’t really know if they’ve deducted this off and kept for themselves, but my redress is £3,287.99p while writing off £3,289.65p so over 6k in interest paid. If I’m honest without doing numbers I think they have kept them payments.
Emma says
Hi there, this is what I have done with FOS and they have allowed mine to go through also. Can I ask what email address did your guarantor use to send to Amigo? I’m going to ask mine to email Amigo also just so there are no delays. Thank you!
Andrew says
My guarantor just replied to the email she received that released her from any liability. But she did state can you forward this email to the relevant department which I gather they did. It’s important to know that since 1st October I’ve been on phone every day sometimes twice a day asking for updates and as I have a current balance and I’m not making anymore payments and that if my account goes into arrears and you inform credit reference agencies I’ll issue a new complaint and seek compensation. I’ve been a complete pain in the rear while also being polite when speaking to the complaints team.
Ruth says
Hi Andrew,
Great you have a result! When did you submit your complaint if you don’t mind me asking?
I’ve been waiting since mid August and rang the other day but was just told to give them another couple of weeks.. Thanks!
Andrew says
Hi Ruth,
First complained in October 2019 they rejected roughly 12 weeks later then sent off to ombudsman asap, ombudsman only picked up case last month then amigo decided to settle before ombudsman could investigate. It’s been a long time coming. But stick to ya guns
Bryan says
Hi Sara
I have made an affordability complaint (22nd sept) for 7 of my loans with amigo dating back to 2015. Recieved email yesterday notifying me my claim is still being looked at, however today my credit report at clearscore told me an unsecured loan would be removed from my next report on 25th October. When I checked it, the loan is the same account as my current loan with amigo. Do you think they have already settled the account on their end and haven’t written to me with an outcome? Do you have any ideas. Thanks :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suppose it’s possible, but I am always reluctant to read much into odd changes at CRAs
Andrew says
Hi Sara
I’ve had my redress figures off amigo and I need to supply bank details on Monday but is there legislation or just guidelines on how long they have to pay my redress, or is there nothing at all to say they have a certain timeframe to pay amount owed. Would like to know before I ring them so I can have all the information at hand in case they try and fob is off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No legislation
Andrew says
Thanks for the info.
Guess I’m in for another long wait then :(
M says
Hi, just general info for some people RE Amigo loans based on my experience so far…
I raised a complaint 8 weeks ago, the deadline passed today. I spoke with someone regarding the complaints. I had three loans in total over the course of 7 years, the last loan my guarantor made payments towards.
She said they are in talk with the regulators which have been ongoing for 5 weeks or so and they’ve asked for a couple more weeks before they start processing the complaints. (although I feel like it will get extended again!)
She also said that she doesn’t understand why some people have been told to ask their guarantors to write / call in to confirm they have had their money back as this still keeps the case on hold and they won’t look at it until the discussions with the regulators have ended.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I still think it’s a good idea to get your guarantor to write in if they are happy for all the refund to go to you. Even if this doesn’t speed up the case now, it may make your case quicker to settle when a way forward has been agreed.
Andrew says
Well redress excepted 9am today been told up to 10 working days to process so let’s see how long it takes. Get a strong feeling I’ll be ringing up on day 10 asking where my money is.
Tanya says
I put my complaint in with amigo on 1st October, I still haven’t received an email from them to say they have received it, when the 8 weeks are up do I just send it to the FOS or ring amigo to see if they received it
thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would phone them up now to check they have it. People usually get some confirmation.
Clare says
Hi Sara,
My case was handled by Amigo very quickly, in haste I accepted their offer. However they only upheld the last loan of three and took over 2k in unpaid interest. I have complained to the FO, but because I did accept the offer have I blown it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo are normally letting people accept an offer and take the complaint about the unpaid interest to FOS. Many people like you may not have noticed the unpaid interest line or may have thought it was normal – which it isn’t.
Greg says
Has anyone had issues with Amigo buying accounts back from Intrum and waiting for redress?
My complaint went through FOS, Amigo made an offer, 4 weeks have now passed, no closer to confirming redress figure as they are buying accounts back from Intrum, in bulk. just wanted to know if anyone has had the same issue
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes these always seem slow to sort out.
Ruth says
Just spoke to Amigo and been told that my complaint is still on hold with the guarantor having made payments and still in talks with FCA…they’ve said it will be another couple of weeks even though their website says end of October. My guarantor has emailed in to say I repaid him back in full. Anyone else heard differently?
M says
Hi I have heard the same too, they also told me even though 8 weeks have lapsed they haven’t provided these cases with outcomes so as it stands they said they have a huge backlog due to the regulators and it would be a few more weeks before they tackle the backlog once the regulators give them the green light. Even if your guarantor made a payment and they don’t uphold your case, you won’t know until they are allowed to start looking at the cases.
Kyle says
I’m an online gambling addict (13 months free). I
suffered from depression most of my life, had countless credit cards, payday loans and maxed overdraft limits, have used debt management companies twice and even topped up my amigo to the highest amount whilst under a DMP. I have previously been successful for more than 7 payday loan claims so today used resolver to claim against amigo. I’ve had 3 loans with them and 6 top ups, The largest amount being 8.5k. Just the interest alone on my most recent loan with them totals 4.5k before the 8% interest so I’ll be debt free and then some if my complaint is upheld. I’m hoping they can do the right thing and put my financial situation back to how it should have been if they hadn’t lent to someone with such clear problems. My bank statements were riddled with casino transacations, payday loans etc… they clearly should not have lent to me. I do not have access to my money so don’t worry, if they do payout then I will not be able to gamble again :)
T says
How long are people waiting for ombudsman after adjudicator?
Joanne says
I’ve been waiting since July for ombudsman to look at it been told will take a good few months….. :(
Lucy says
I’ve been waiting since the start of June so almost on month 6! Such a long wait :(
laura says
hiya just wondering if anyone can help been waiting 8 weeks on amigo sending files over to fos a just keep getting amigo are reviewing account and will send files over in due course how long roughly have people been waiting and what does reviewing account actually mean surely its just a case of sending files over that they have whats to review
Kyle says
My one is on priority with FO and it took for them to request it 3 times and they got ignored so I complained and then someone higher up in FO must have sent a message coz they received it after that. They tend to take a fair while delivering that information. I’m currently waiting for FO to review my information and come to a decision, they have said they are looking into it now. It’s been roughly 5 weeks. Fingers crossed it’s soon and positive. I’m not sure how long it takes to reach a decision, so who knows :) hahah :)
laura says
I feel like am constantly on the phone and emails to get the same answer everytime that there liaising with them but there clearly not mines has been requested twice by the fos looks like I am going to have to keep pestering them
Becki says
What I don’t understand with amigo is that they constantly say the guarantor will definitely receive the money but they’re currently on pause.
Why not pay the guarantor out and continue to review whether the borrower should have a new loan instated.
They have continously refused to speak to either me or my guarantor about each other due to data protection as the cases are “differnt” but now the payments paused to allow them to reassess the borrowers?
I couldn’t make up the policies and ways around things amigo have if I tried
Simon says
Because they have paid some guarantors over £30,000 and that balance has then been placed onto the borrowers despite them winning their complaint. The Implications of paying guarantor that amount had a huge impact on borrower. Some people have been in this process well over a year.
matt says
Hi Sara & everyone,
I found this very helpful website at the end of August this year, which helped me submit an affordability complaint to Amigo Loans in September & pleased to say I have now had a response from them. I was just looking for some further advice as to what you all think of their Redress offer.
I have had 5 x Amigo Loans since March 2017, with the final loan issued in November 2018 which was £10,000.
The remaining balance now is £6,500 approx. Amigo Loans have upheld the Affordability Complaint on the 2 final loans & defended the first 3.
This means their offer is approximately £5,500 leaving an outstanding balance of £1000 to pay, approx, with the Guarantor removed etc.
Prior to taking out any loan with Amigo I had virtually no other Debt, and that as of today 28.10.20 I now have in Credit Card an approximate debt of £9,500, which I partly accumulated because the payments of the amigo loans were so high (£353) , I turned to other Creditors to help afford ‘normal’ monthly expenses.
I therefore included in my complaint a request to be compensated for this, which they have rejected.
Does anyone have any advice for taking this further with the FOS, or do you think I should accept their initial offer. I’m not sure what to do, as to be honest, it’s a huge relief to have had pretty much the whole £6500 wiped out which would have taken me years to pay off.
Regards,
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have they deducted an amount for “unpaid interest” – if so, how much?
The first three loans – how large were they? How many payments did you make to each of them?
Would you say your financial position got worse with loans 2 and 3?
matt says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for the reply. Appreciated.
Yes, for Unpaid Interest the have deducted £254.35p
First three loan amount were, Loan #1 £750, Loan #2 £1,500, Loan #3 £1,750.
My financial position got worse between Loans 2 & 3 – I can say that with unequivocal certainty unfortunately.
Where/ how can I find out how many payments I made on each Loan?
Do you know how long I have to accept their offer?
There is so much in their email – it’s massive. Took me at least 30 minutes or so to read through it all
Matt
matt says
Hi Sara,
Trawled through the SAR Excel workbook with sheet called ‘Full Statement’
Here are the figures I believe you were asking for. Hope this helps. Thanks so much.
Loan #1
2017-03-07 – Payout of 750 with 1 x payment of 759
Loan #2
2017-07-03 – Payout of 1500 (balance now 1,500) with 4 x payments of 154.59 (balance at 1,083.40)
Loan #3
2017-11-17 – Payout of 666.60 (balance now 1,750) with 3 x payments of 180.35 (balance at 1,549.15)
Loan #4
2018-02-08 – Payout of 2450.85 (balance now 4,000) with 3 x payments of 247.26 (balance at 3,814.05)
Loan #5
2018-06-13 – Payout of 3435.95 (balance now 7,250) with 13 x payments of 353.72 + 2 x payments of 200 and 1 x payment of 100 + 1 x payment of 81.37
Loans #2-5 were all taken out/ topped up within one 12 month period – would this help my case with the FOS to support the claim the loan were unsustainable/ affordable?
the last payment was on 01-04-20 and I have not made a payment since then due to payment holiday & breathing space applied which has now expired so they want to resume full payments
Regards,
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So on those numbers you have paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £9
loan 2 £200
loan 3 £340
loan 4 £556
loan 5 – still not repaid the 7250 borrowed – £2,661 to go.
If loans 2-5 are all upheld (obviously loan 1 doesnt matter at all) then the interest on loans 2-4 would be used to clear some of the balance on loan 5, leaving a balance of £1565for you pay.
Your guarantor would be released and you would be able to set up a lower payment arrangement for that balance.
What is the rest of your financial situation like at the moment?
What was your guarantor’s financial position at the time you took the loat top up loan out? Could they really have afforded to make all the payments to that loan and still paid their own debts, bills and living expenses?
Matt says
Hi Sara,
So ref Financial situation i currently have 4 credit cards totalling £10K which were all taken out since the first Amigo Loan. All cards are on repayment plans and one credit has cancelled the card on that. The largest is £5K with Marbles.
My partner’s situation is about the same so £10K in credit cards.
She would not have been able to make the repayments either especially as 18 months ago she had 9 months maternity leave.
Partner is my Guarantor, and made no payments towards any of the loans
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so your options now are:
– accept their offer and make a lower affordable payment arrangement with Amigo. Amigo can be pretty difficult about this and you need to insist. The simplest way is usually to set up a debt management with StepChange. As you have credit card debt that too can be included and so can any ovedrafts. that way Amigo have to accept whatever StepChange work out is a fair offer from what you can afford . See https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx
– send the case to FOS and ask then to look at loans 2 and 3 being included and the “unpaid interest” being removed. It’s hard for me to say how much this would actually benefit you because i don’t understand where Amigo have reached the “balance owing of about £1000”. On the figures you giave me it should be about £2000.
What is clear is that you and your partner have a lot of debt. Are you renting? Privately or Social?
staci says
i rejected when they only accepted one of mine and sent it to ombudsman and they accepted it with ombudsman for all them even before they investigated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes this is the stupid thing about the unpaid interest. Many people may be happy with the offer to not uphold all, but not the deduction – so then they complain and get all the loans upheld! In your case without Amigo even trying to justify their partial uphold to the Ombudsman.
staci says
hi so the ombudsman received offer they are going to accept ALL LOANS are unaffordable , how long if anyone has had this does it take fr them to calculate the redress figures, its only been a week so far but my complaint went in in JANUARY 2020
Andrew says
Hi staci
Amigo told the fos it wanted to settle on the 29th September I excepted offer 30th, had my redress figures 24th of October (Saturday) then excepted 26th amigo said it would be paid out in 10 days. Have a feeling it won’t be though.
staci says
thanks andrew- probably be the whole year before its sorted then lol.
Bob t says
Hello
After nine months rhe ombudsman have forced amigo to settle
They have gone straight to guarantor and agreed a figure with him
He was not aware of stat interest and accepted
Amigo say that stat interest only applies to overpayments well surely interest that shouldnt have been taken is a overpayment
What is the position with extra payments outside of interest repayments what are we entitled to
Is their compo for mental damage done /stat interest
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you saying the guarantor is not being paid statutory interest?
Holly says
Hi guys , amigo deemed my complaint unaffordable and I accepted a reduced balance minus £200 I believe , I can’t now take to fos can I ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you just have the one loan? Can you say what you borrowed? How much you had paid to it? What Amigo changed your balance to?
Have Amigo agreed to accept a lower monthly payment?
Holly says
With great difficulty they accepted a lower payment the loan was for £1,500 and they’ve taken £200 off x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That £200 was the amount you paid them? If it was, and if this was your only loan, then this is a “full refund” and I am not sure how you could dispute it.
Jaz says
Hi Sara
I just had a email back from my adjudicator, they have responded back to Amigo now for the 2nd time. This was because Amigo declined the adjudicator 1st complaint they made to my favour, Amigo had sent some lengthy documents to the adjudicator, to why they disagree with their decision. It took a further 4 months to reply back to Amigo because of this. With further investigation the adjudicator reviewed everything to what Amigo had said, and replyed back to them saying their still strongly agree that they don’t think Amigo Loans have acted fairly. The loan was unaffordable for me and that looking into my bank statements it shows clearly. Amigo should’ve realised this if their had asked for my bank statements, and the ccj i had was ignored, and my income was lower than what I stated, plus my outgoing were not realistic to what it showed on my bank statements. Amigo has up to the 9th November to reply back. This has been going on since last year June 2019, I just wanted to know Sara if this still can be declined by Amigo as the adjudicator investigated this twice now and agreed 2nd time on my favour. If the adjudicator has looked into this carefully and carried out further investigation, and now have evidence this was unfordable and given irresponsible by Amigo. What are the chances I still got. It just feels like forever waiting and not getting any where. I really appreciate your time and the help you have given us thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes this can still be declined, in which case it goes to be looked at by an Ombudsman. But if FOS have already replied in detail to all Amigo’s point, they will hopefully accept this decision.
Jaz says
Hi Sara
Thanks for your reply Sara, fingers crossed, I hope their will agree. I had one more question Sara, My loan was £4250 pounds, my guarantor made about 6 payments towards the loan, then after 2 years my guarantor cleared off the loan, as the interest was to high, I then after payed off all the money to my guarantor, and their are ready to confirm this with Amigo. I was wondering will Amigo then pay me all the interest if my guarantor rejects the refund, as iv paid them back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Settlements involving cases where the guarantor made payments are going very slow. If you can Get your guarantor to write to Amigo saying they have been refunded and don’t want a refund from Amigo, this may help.
Jaz says
Hi Sara
Thank you for your help Sara, I will get my guarantor to write to them and confirm this, thanks again for all the help.
DC says
Hi Sara,
looks like things are picking up with the accounts on hold with Guarantor payments – I got the following email today.
“Following your recent complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service, we wanted to get back in contact with you today.
The Financial Ombudsman Service have confirmed that you have accepted Amigo’s offer of redress.
Your guarantor, ****, has made a payment towards the account. We have now removed your guarantor’s liability for the loan and have contacted them to ask whether they would like a refund of the payment they made towards the loan agreements. If your guarantor accepts the refund the loan balance will be updated accordingly, and you will be liable for this amount. If your guarantor does not respond within 14 days, we will assume that they do not wish to accept our refund offer and their payments will remain credited to the account.
We will send you a separate letter detailing the breakdown of the redress amount and confirm any outstanding balance or refund amount no later than five working days after 12th November.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.”
I called and they are still going to wait the 14 days either way in case guarantor changes their mind.
Hopefully be getting some money back in the next 4 weeks then.
DC
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Interesting – so that is just back to what they did before.
DC says
They confirmed on the call that once the 14 days have passed they will get figures across (again) and payment will follow 10 days after accepting
Emma says
Can I ask how long from accepting the offer with FOS did Amigo get in touch? I am in the same position accepted the offer on Friday
Dan says
Hi Sara
Just looking for some advice. I made a complaint to bamboo loans as they gave me a loan with my dad as guarantor when I was on benefits and wasn’t able to afford. I paid back £2,500 of the loan and today I have received this from them, I am happy they hve written the loan off but I am wondering should I be able to receive some of the £2,500 back which I have paid? I just don’t want it to mess up them closing the account.
Thank you
RESPONSE
We are very sorry to hear of your circumstances, following a thorough investigation of your complaint, we have identified that there are sufficient grounds to support some of the claims that you have made and so have agreed to uphold your complaint.
We therefore agree to waive all of the £4,744.07 interest due under your current agreement, together with the interest paid on your first agreement of £99.72, a total amount of £4,843.79. To date we have received payments of £2,436.00 against the loan advance of £5,000.00. This means that, after the reduction, there would be a remaining balance of £2,464.28. However, we also agree to waive this remaining balance which means that your account can now be closed.
We also agree to remove your guarantor from this agreement from this point on. This means he will no longer be liable for the obligations as a guarantor.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you had two loans from them, the first one you only paid £99 of interest on. Presumably you topped this loon up very quickly with the current loan?
The second loan you have borrowed £5,000 and paid £2436 towards it. Correct?
The standard Ombudsman offer here would be to remove the interest from the cuurent loan which would leave you owing £2463.
But Bamboo have offered to write that off.
That is a very good offer from them, much more than most complaints would get from the Ombudsman who normally says people should repay the amount they borrowed, in your case £5000.
Unless you think some of their figures are wrong, for example you have repaid a lot more, then I think this is probably the best you can get.
Daniel says
Hi thank you very much for your reply. I will except this offer you don’t understand how good I feel with this lifted of my shoulders and it’s all thanks to you reading your posts thanks again.
James says
Hi Sara,
Firstly thank you in advance, you are really helping people here!
I have been reading the comments and had a question.
I took out a loan of £5,000 on September 2018 making payments of 243.95 pm.
Which is total – 24 x 243.95 = 5,854.8
I also took out a payout of £546.67 last year (when I was unemployed… sigh)
Still have to ‘pay’: £3,851.
I used your missold email layout and requested that amigo remove the interest and release my guarantor. However now that I have (in total) paid off the original amount, should I angle to get the full amount/refund and is that possible (worked for others)?
*have multiple loans and a terrible credit record
NJW says
I’ve just been on the phone to FOS who have told me that my Guarantour loan complaint is on hold as FOS have put on hold some high interest/long term loan complaints whilst they are reviewed at a senior level in order to make sure there is a consistent approach. The lady wouldn’t go into detail nor would she confirm how long this had been happening. This was in response to a service level complaint I had raised about timeliness so not sure how accurate it is
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has your guarantor made any payments to the loan?
if not, can you say a bit about your case?
Njw says
No, my guarantor didn’t make a single payment, borrowed 7.5k from TFS loans, paid it all back. Raised affordability complaint, adjudicator found in my favour, TFS disagreed now in queue for ombudsman. I mad a service complaint regarding timeframes, it was handled badly they phoned me today and this was what they explained. Not sure that I buy it- she said it was not specifically guarantor loans but high cost loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No idea!
Ali says
Hi Sara, hope youre well
I submitted an affordability complaint to Amigo in May and received an email from them in August – where they didnt accept the complaint and it Wasnt upheld
Although I have sent it off to the FOS, and explained the case just as I did to Amigo I am worried I am not expressing myself correctly
I mean, there was Thousands of Pounds of gambling 3 months before and after the date I took out the Loan and the figure i gave Amigo as my income was incorrect as I was desperate, and there was no such income on my statements
Amigo only responded by saying “how could we have known your gambling problems if you didnt tell us” – i mean how can they not uphold when the statement clearly show these gambling transactions, and it has got me worrying that my case isnt strong, will FOS consider this as a strong case in your opinion
Thank you so much!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t worry about whether you have expressed your case as well as you could. You have sent FOS your bank statements and your credit record, so FOS have a good picture of your situation at the time you applied for the loan.
FOS has been upholding a large percentage of Amigo complaints – all those people had a rejection or a poor offer and were worried thus meant they had a poor case.
Andrew says
Hi everyone
Does anyone have a contact email address for a Gary Jenninson?. He’s apparently the new ceo of amigo loans. My redress according to amigo should be paid by next Friday and it it’s not (it won’t be) I’ll be sending a strongly worded Email. If That fails complaint to the FCA then if that fails I’m up a creek without a paddle.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of people have been paid in the end, later than the date Amigo gave.
K R says
Hi I took out a loan in feb 2017 of £2000 made 3 payments of £97 before topping up in June 2017 for £4250 (so an extra £2250). Only made one payment of £207 and then topped up again in July 2017 £5250 (so another £1000) and made two payments of £324 (one of which was late). I then took out another top up of £6750 (so another £1500 extra) I have been paying that off regularly since then until April 2020. From May till now I haven’t been able to pay as I haven’t been working. However I’m starting to make payments again from October onwards. I have struggled with gambling addiction and has many defaults and late payments. Could you please guide me and let me know if I’ll be able to get the balance reduced?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Topping up that much should have shown Amigo that you were in trouble. Well worth a complaint and to send the case to the ombudsman if not upheld.
What is the rest of your financial position like at the moment? Are you getting help with the gambling?
What was your guarantor’s financial position at the time of the last top-up – could they really have afforded to make all the payments and still pay their own bills, debts and living expenses?
K R says
My guarantor is financially stable.. I have got help with gambling and I’ve stopped it now for quite a few months now.. I’m paying my bills off at the moment although some of them are late.. I still owe amigo £7100.. would they be able to reduce the amount and wipe of the interest?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the last top up loan is upheld, the balance will reduced and your guarantor will be released. All interest is removed so you only have to pay the 6750 less what you have already paid to this last loan, which sounds a lot.
Any of the previous loans being upheld would then fursther reduce this balance. From what you have said you may well get all the top up loans upheld or even all the loans including the first.
If Amigo don’t uphold all the loan, look out for a deduction line which says “unpaid interest” – this is a new deduction Amigo invested a couple of months ago, not used by FOS. You can send the complaint to the Ombudsman and ask for this to be removed and the previous loan upheld as well.
K R says
Original loan: £2000
First top up cash amount: £2250
Second top up cash amount: £1000
Final top up cash amount: £1500
So far I’ve made 29 payments of £266.79
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you had a loan of 2000 and the next loan was 4250, – the amount you would have received in cash is not the difference between these numbers. it could have been say £1874 with all the rest of the 4250 going to settle the previous loan.
I need to know the cash amounts you received.
K R says
Oh sorry.. for the first one I got £2000 then I got £600 and then £1500.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers (which look very approximate), you have paid the following interest on each loan so far:
loan 1 £541
loan 2 £607
loan 3 £648
loan 4 £964
So if they are all upheld the last loan will be cleared and you sould get a cash refund of £2,760. Plus a small amount of 8% interest.
K R says
Thanks for the help.. I have emailed amigo.. do I need to do anything else or do I just wait for their reply? Also what sort of time frame am I looking at for a reply?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just wait for their reply. At 8 weeks you can send the complaint to the ombudsman if Amigo have not replied.
Emma says
Morning Sara,
I just wanted to let you know I have finally received an outcome, after first complaining a year ago! I have a result and I am shaking! This will change my life for the better and I will be debt free! I can’t thank this site and you for your support enough – thank you, you wonderful wonderful lady!
Following your recent complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service, we wanted to get back in contact with you today.
Your guarantor, Aimee, has confirmed that she does not wish to receive a refund of the payments she made towards the account. Therefore, we have proceeded with your refund.
We’ve calculated the refund due and I’ve included a breakdown of this below:
Interest paid to be refunded to you : £14,527.41
8% statutory interest awarded : £1,758.06
20% tax already deducted from 8% : £439.51
Total interest refund due : £16,285.47
This interest refund will be applied to the current outstanding capital balance on your current loan. This will settle the loan and the remaining amount of £12,373.71 will be paid out to you.
My guarantor had made 2 payments (not asked of by Amigo) and after a conversation with the FOS and an email from Aimee this has moved my complaint along. Hang in there everyone… there is an end in sight!
Andrew says
I had the same email last Saturday, have given bank details yet I’m still waiting to be paid.
Emma says
Have you received your refund yet Andrew?
Amanda says
Hello,
I complained to Amigo about the affordability of my loans, started in 2011 and got 3 top ups with the last being 2016. I have not had my complaint upheld. Am I right in thinking that if I had a CCJ active when I applied for my final top up I should not have been eligible? I paid all loans and did not have any payments made by my guarantor although I don’t feel this is an indication, as they do, that I could manage it is more of an indication that I didn’t want to land my guarantor in debt. I have forwarded onto the ombudsman. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Am I right in thinking that if I had a CCJ active when I applied for my final top up I should not have been eligible?
There is no absolute rule about that. But if you got a CCJ while you had one Amigo loan, then that sounds to me as though they should have noticed your position was getting worse and refused to lend more.
don’t feel this is an indication, as they do, that I could manage it is more of an indication that I didn’t want to land my guarantor in debt.
Exactly. These loans place considerable pressure on the borrowers.
Sutton says
Hi all, I made a complaint through a claims company, my loan was fully paid off, my guarantor has just had confirmation that they are receiving a full refund from amigo, I’ve not had any info from my claim company as yet? I’m now worried that they might chase me for their fee? Anyone had experience with this? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you looked at your claims company documentation to say what the fee is in this situation? It might be different for different claims companies.
Is your account being reopened so you now owe a lot again?
Sutton says
I need to look through it all, I’ve not had any emails from amigo at all, I need to contact them and find out, I thought they would deal with me, didn’t realise they could re open an account from 2 years ago then charge me back for the amount paid off the total loans were about 19k and my guarantor paid 8k final balance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you repaid your guarantor?
Sutton says
No fully, paying them monthly, thay called me and said amigo are refunding them, now they have to give me money back
Lisa says
FOS upheld my complaint on 4th September and gave Amigo until the 18th to respond. No responce received and Amigo were given an extension until 3rd October. Still no response from them. I emailed adjudicator and was advised to give them extra time due to COVID rather than going to Ombudsman just yet. Not sure how long I will give it. Left comments on Trust Pilot and was given the usual excuse of COVID.
Thomas says
Hi Sara,
I got my final responce from Amigo, very long winded, rejected my complaint as they say using third party to check credit files and the national avergage for bills etc and that 6 months prior to me taking the loan out I had no defaults. Which I did. I also had taken out a loan with mobile money on the 30.10.2015 for 1,900. Then they approved and paid out my loan for 7,000 on the 14 december 2015. I already also had another G. Loan with everyday loans(trusttwo) I sent them a reply through resolver saying Thankyou for your letter and bringing to my attention your findings. I then basically said. I would like to bring to their attention that I still hadnt recieved my SAR Request and that I would be sending my complaint to the FOS and outlined the facts I mentioned above. Massive Gambling problem Every bank statement showed this. Whats your thoughts on my chances please and big thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think for a loan that large Amigo should have verified your income and expenses properly, not relying on a third party and national averages.
I suggest you send it to FOS now, no reason to delay. I don’t remember a recent case where Amigo have changed their mind when someone went back with further arguments.
Kyle the tent liver says
Hey, how do you think this new lockdown will affect FO time? My FO said she reviewed amigos information it had on me and then asked for my bank statements, I gave it to her and she said she can reach a final decisions when she receives them. She said she will review them this week and I was wondering if this new lockdown will slow things down or halt stuff? Fingers crossed for me guys.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think it will change it. How is coronavirus and lockdown affecting you?
Kyle the tent liver says
Well a rat has decided to take a shine to my blankets and keeps pooping on them and I have to clean them or buy new ones, so that’s annoying. But I can’t complain really. I spend most my time in cafe Nero writing my novel :) it’s warm and cosy. Thanks for the response.
Claire says
I’m in same situation with ombusman
Been to amigos, adjudicator back to amigos on the financial ombusman waiting list since April.
I had a email last week to ask for more bank statements
Fingers crossed im on the home stretch
Kyle the tent liver says
Fingers crossed for you :)
Mandy says
My guarantor has taken the redress owed to her and the amount she got has been added to my loan, Amigo stated that this was being looked into as people had complained about the money being added to customer loans, does anyone know anything about this?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much do you now owe Amigo?
How many loans did you have with Amigo and were they all upheld?
Had you paid your guarantor back some or all of the money?
Mandy says
I had 3 loans in total, one still current from 2019, they upheld all 3 loans, the total outstanding on my current loan was £11600, they paid £9136 back to me in interest, paid my guarantor £9374, then added £7342 back onto the remainder of my loan, leaving me owing still over £9000, I discussed this with them and they said the company was in discussions regarding this being unfair to the customer and they should have a decision soon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can send a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) if you don’t think what Amigo has done is fair. FOS has quite a few of these complaints at the moment, I have no idea how long it will take to get these resolved but it’s probably good to get yourself in the FOS queue straight away.
The good news is that your guarantor has been released so this is now just a normal loan for you and you can get a lower, more affordable payment arrangement.
What are your current finances like? Do you have other problem debts you have payment arrangements with? If you do, very often the easiest way to deal with Amigo is to put all your debts including this Amigo loan into a debt management plan with StepChange. That way you don’t have to negotiate with Amigo, who are not nice, they just have to take what StepChange sends them. If your balance is later reduced because FOS tells Amigo to handle the guarantor payments differently, then the DMP will be paid off sooner.
Have you been affected by coronavirus/lockdowns? If you are, have you taken a payment break with Amigo? Because if you havent yet had 6 months of breaks, new rules are likely to come in this wek or next which will allow you to have more payment breaks.
Chris says
Thought I would give up update on my situation. I have had a total of 9 loans/ tops from amigo from 2014-2019. Should never have been accepted by any due to multiple defaults on payday loans etc. Complsint went to amigo on 25th of August. Received a reply with hours to spare saying they would need more time and will update in a month. Now sent to finical obdusman. All loans were paid off by myself with the exception of 1 payments from my guarantor in 2014 and 1 in 2016. Multiple guarantors used on all loans and top ups applied for within months of new loan majority if the time. Amy idea when I could expect any contact from finical obdusman?. Thanks in advance
Kyle the tent man says
You’re probably looking at at-least 5-6 months I recon.
Derek says
Hi,
I just recieved confirmation from the FOS that Amigo are going to uphold all three loans.
Does anyone have any idea the timescale of when redress figures are received from when you initially accept the offer from FOS.
Cheers
Emma says
Hi Derek, I accepted the offer with FOS on 23rd and had my redress figures on the 29th accepted and confirmed bank details same day and just waiting for the refund now
Dee says
Hi Sara
I hope you are well. The FOS gave a decision beginning of October 2020 and this is Amigos response today –
We are trying to align our decisions with the most recent financial regulations, and so we are reviewing these processes in several areas of the business, to ensure that we reach the fairest outcome for all our customers who would be affected. This is especially important in cases where a refund issued to a guarantor would re-open a loan, and potentially cause the borrower’s financial situation to worsen.
This is not something that has been raised solely in your case. Any case where the guarantor has made repayments on the upheld agreements are currently under review.
We are currently in discussion with the FCA concerning these cases, and so they are under review while we attempt to clarify our position going forward, so that we can improve processes and enhance our customer focus.
Unfortunately there is no time frame for this at the moment, however it will be a case of weeks rather than months.
However we are hoping it will be sorted as soon as possible, as soon as we have an update we will be in contact.
Thank you in advance for your patience
Debbie says
Wondering if you can help
Sent my complaint 7 weeks ago snd got a final response today
They have offered £12484.20
Pay off my existing loan which they say is £8412.54
Leaves cash pay out £4071.66
But when I log in to Amigo online today and spoke to an advisor they all state my balance owed is £5716.22
Do you think they have just made a mistake or can they take back more money then the balance? It’s been referred to correct department so just got to wait again for their response.
Also they upheld 2 loans both from 2013 but rejected the one from 2016. The 2016 one was the one I was complaining about more really and I supplied all the evidence for. I was late paying 4 months running prior to the top up, my bank showed many missed payments and I was on a debt management plan. When I done the top up I just filled a form in online so no evidence was supplied to check.
Can I accept the offer for the 2 upheld ones and then send the rejected one to the FOS?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Leaves cash pay out £4071.66
But when I log in to Amigo online today and spoke to an advisor they all state my balance owed is £5716.22
I have no idea what has happened here – it sounds very wrong.
Also they upheld 2 loans both from 2013 but rejected the one from 2016
Can you have a look at the response with the figures – is there a line labelled “unpaid interest”? How large is it?
Debbie says
I’ve spoke to Amigo and they had by mistake added the guarantors payments made to the balance which is why it was higher. I’ve already paid the guarantor back so he rejected the offer when Amigo called yesterday. Today they got me new offer letter sent out and I accepted. They said payment would be in my account within 10 days. What’s the issue lots keep stating about complaint on hold due to guarantor payments? I was still thinking of sending all the info to FOS for the 3rd loan they rejected.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What’s the issue lots keep stating about complaint on hold due to guarantor payments?
You are unusual in getting a payout. Many people have been told their claims are on hold because of the guarantor payouts.
Did you check to see if there was a deduction for “unpaid interest”?
Debbie says
Fingers crossed I receive it all fine then – they took my bank detail on the phone yesterday and told me to give it 10 working days
Also a lady who I have dealt with for last 8 weeks via email also confirmed it yesterday via email.
Loan interest £10,512.07
8% interest £1,160.68
20% Tax £290.17
Fees and charges £811.45
Unpaid interest in non upheld loan £0.00
Total to pay me £12,484.20
Current loan £ 5,800.48
Guarantor £0.00
Cash to me £6,683.72
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, I wasn’t thinking clearly, there won’t be an unpaid interest charge in your case as the non-upheld loan was AFTER the upheld ones.
Has your guarantor been released?
You can say you want to take the current loan to FOS. If you do, Amigo may decide not to pay you the cash for the other loans until this FOS case is sorted, I don’t know, your situation is quite rare.
Steven Smith says
Hi Sara,
Do you know the general length of time that Amigo are taking just now to make a decision?
On Friday it’ll be 12 weeks since I made my complaint.
I received an email from resolver on behalf of Amigo last week to say things are taking longer due to COVID and influx of complaints.
Cheers.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hmmm they are supposed to be back to dealing with them within 8 weeks.
Did your guarantor make any payments?
Andrew says
Hi just to let people know My account has been changed and now showing minus 3k. So hopefully few more days and it will be paid out. So from October 2019 to November 2020 this is how long it has taken.
Andrew says
Hi Sara
Funds have hit account today 5.45pm so it’s finally over. Would like to thank you for all your help and will be making a donation to my local cab.
M says
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/nov/03/amigo-loans-complaints-covid-outbreak
FYI… Article today. Interesting read
Ruth says
Latest email from Amigo. 11 weeks since I complained..”As you know, some complaints are more complex and are taking longer to issue a response, however please rest assured this is to ensure the fairest outcome. Your complaint has been assigned and we are working to get this resolved for you as soon as possible. I am sorry I have no further updates at present.
With regards to your Data Subject Access Request, there is a back log, however I can see from your account this is is also being processed.”
M says
Hi, did you have to chase for the email ?
Also when did you raise your complaint?
Ruth says
Hi I raised the complaint 15th August 2020 and I emailed their complaints department asking if the FCA had finished their investigation.
Claire says
I got that email 18 months ago. Fingers crossed yours is quicker x
Ruth says
18 months 😮 have you had a resolution now?
Claire says
Nope still waiting on ombusman!! Joke right !!
Siobhan says
Same, mine has been going on since April 2019! Adjudicator has made decision, Amigo have missed the deadline for response. Never ending and very disheartening
Suzanne says
We’ve been waiting nearly a year for the fo, original complaint went to amigo in October 19, had a no December and straight to fo.
Amigo still haven’t sent the fo the info they need
Sandra says
Hi Sara I received an email about two weeks ago from amigo saying they will send a letter before court action but I did have a complaint with them they didn’t uphold my first two loans but have with the last four now this was about three months ago, I have my complaint with the fos since start of August about the first two loans that they didn’t uphold and the interest also and I do ring them every few weeks for an update, I rang today and the lady said it’s in the right place it’s in the queue waiting for someone to pick it up, I also told the lady from fos about them threatening me with a letter before court action and she said if you receive anything like that send it to us immediately and we will contact amigo and sort it so really just letting people know In case they have the same email from amigo or in a similar place as myself, I don’t know how some of them sleep at night it’s awful sending people emails like this especially in the times we are in.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is what I have been saying to people. In the UNLIKELY event that Amigo decide to go to court (which they shouldn’t) then FOS will gave your case priority.
M says
They’re taking their time. My 8 weeks were up 9 and a half weeks ago, end of this week will be 10 weeks and I am told that I will definitely get a reply, which I don’t believe at all. Especially as they’re looking into guarantor payments where their internal review will also apparently “end” this week too… I wouldn’t hold my breath.