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
K says
FOS cases how long have you been waiting? I had my redress in Jul but I sent it off in Aug for the interest and fees charges as more I thought and read on here I realised how wrong and unfair it was of Amigo to do that.
I wonder if I had paid off my loan in full would they have come back and said I was due a further £2k?! I think not! My case is still to be assigned to an adjudicator which is a little frustrating but get they are swamped and covid wouldn’t have helped.
To be honest the longer it goes on the less hopeful I am – they are either going to agree with Amigo or Amigo will go under 😔
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The only ones of these “unpaid interest” cases i have heard have been settled are those where Amigo have popped up and said they changed their mind and will instead refund all the loans, in which case the unpaid interest element goes away.
K says
Do you mean they’ve contacted customer at a later date or paid out at time of redress? Were the cases won via FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo decided on a partial uphold with a deduction for inpaid interest. Borrower sent case to FOS. Amigo told FOS they had changed their mind and would pay full redress on all loans.
From memory a couple of people have reported this happening.
K says
Thanks Sara. I have already taken loan 2 redress then fired off to FOS as got from here the charges was a new thing and unfair – would they have chased me for the interest once I had finished paying off loan 2 I wonder?
Kyle the tent dude says
Hey any advice?
The FO has looked into my expenditure and is still looking into it. I had got a little bonus from work for being there for 10 years, so I got £195. I spent a bit more money that pay day on treats because I was depressed and had that extra money, I told her this and she said it would be impossible for amigo to know this unless I told them so it could be perceived as disposable income. Also my rent was never taken out in whole because I was renting a room with my partners sister so she didn’t want it all at once. So my bills and such are not as clear cut to see on my band statements. So even if amigo checked them they wouldn’t be able to see my expenditure unless they asked and I showed them like I did with the FO. I did have a small provident loan that went into dept collectors and that showed up on my bank statement, although they only took 30 pounds a month. I was in overdraft -£250 each month so I dunno if that’s enough for them to make a decision in my favour :( I’ve got all my fingers crossed but I’m sceptical it will go in my favour coz of them not being able to verify my outgoings.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All you can do is talk this through with FOS. All cases are very individual and what happened to anyone else may not be helpful to you.
John says
Hi Sara,
I know you get quite a lot of these but just wondering if you can do the necessary calculations for me prior to receiving my Redress figures.
Loan 1 – 2016 – £1000 – 12x £103.06
Loan 2 – APR 2017 – £2000 – 24x 123.63
Loan 3 (Top up) – NOV 2017 – £2500 36x £121.97 – Loan 3 paid off Loan 2 settlement of old balance £1562.64 and received payout of £937.36 for Loan 3.
Thanks for your help!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How payments did you make to loan 2 before topping it up?
Have you just made the last of the 36 payments to loan 3?
John says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your prompt response.
I made 7 Payments of £123.63 before taking the top up.
Yes there is still £76 to settle the latest loan then it will be complete.
Thanks,
John
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming you will have paid 36 x 122 = 4392 to the last loan. I’m not quite sure why you owe £76 now, but if this is extra, then add that amount to the numbers below.
On that assumption you have paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £236
loan 2 £424
loan 3 £1,892
If all three are upheld you would get a refund of £2,552 plus a small bit of 8% interest.
John says
Great Thanks Sara,
I think i maybe paid a bit extra one month, that is why i still owe £76.
Really appreciate this! helps greatly.
John
Stacey says
hi just double checking that when everyone got their redress figure WITH AMIGO – did t hey calculate the 8% massively weird – they put my 8% as so small compared to what i worked out – i worked out the 8% as the total as previous guarantor loans did .
redress Interest paid to be refunded: £14,055.14
8% statutory interest awarded: £158.09
20% tax already deducted from 8%: £39.52
Total interest refund due: £14,213.23
current loan, which stands at £12,594.21 to clear this in full. You then will be refunded any difference and this is expected to come to £1,619.02.
I Mean i want to agree to this but every way i work out my loan payments and these they just totally are different to their figures- all i get is its calculated differently – HMM FISHY
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes their calculations are very weird. So far as I know no-one has yet bothered to take a case to FOS to challenge them, most people are just very happy to never have anything more to do with Amigo.
Sam says
Please could you assist me with working out a refund
Loan 1 May 2015 £3000 36 x £146.37 12 payments made
Loan 2 May 2016 Top up to £6000 received £3600 60 x 237.15 6 payments made
Loan 3 November 2016 Top up to £7000 Received £1240 60 x 276.67 19 Payments made and then £6091.08 cleared June 2018
They have acknowledged my claim and agreed that they did not do enough checks. What kind of refund should they be offering please
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this Amigo?
Have they said they will refund ll three loans?
Did your guarantor make any payments?
PS it isn’t secret how to do the calculation I do, but it takes so long to explain that it’s simpler and quicker to just do it!
Sam says
Sorry Yes Amigo. Upheld all three loans.
The last payment was mine but on my mums card so they have been in touch with her as she was guarantor.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your mum needs to respond that you have repaid her in full for the last settlement and she does not want any refund from Amigo. If she doesnt do this it will really delay things.
So treating the settlement as though it came from you, on those figures I make the interest you paid on each loan as follows:
loan 1 £1,152
loan 2 £1,182
loan 3 £4,335
Which is a total interest refund of £6,669. Plus at a very rough estimate about £1800 in 8% interest added, from which 20% tax c.(£360) will be deducted.
If you are a basic rate tax payer you can probably reclaim £200 of this tax deducted, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Chace says
Just want to say…
I discovered this site a couple of years back and took Sara’s advice and claimed against sunny and received £9754 redress straight into my account.
Then a further £2200 from my jar
Then around 5 week ago I put a claim in against my current uk credit loan with your template letter. I had £9841 outstanding and 5 payment holidays on it plus 6 months suspension due to covid. In other words I had atleast 12k to pay over the next 3 years.
Today I got an email accepting my claim and Giving me it all back in redress. I now owe £205 and that’s all down to you. Sara you don’t understand how much this site has helped me. I haven’t been as happy as this in years.
Than you so much.
Is there anywhere I can make a donation
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A small donation to your local Citizens Advice would be great.
J D says
Hello Sara,
Does Amigo email or send out a letter regarding the outcome of the complaint? My 8 weeks is up on Thursday and I hope to have heard from them by then.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it’s usually an email.
Amanda says
Can someone help? I was the guarantor for an amigo loan and top up my son took out. He paid it off in full but there were some months they chased both he and me for payments. However there were no missed payments. They were relentless and I did answer a series of questions on my earnings etc. Would he be entitled to claim a refund under these circumstances?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think the Amigo questions are really relevant to whether the loan was unaffordable. Although if they were wrong and he had always paid on time and there were a lot of them I suppose he could ask for some additional compensation. (The “if” is because you would not be the first guarantor who was not told the whole truth by the borrower.)
But the question now for your son is how affordable the loan repayments were. He may have paid every one on time but the loan could still have been unaffordable if he had to take out other debt or got behind with bills. Can you suggest he reads the article above?
Thomas says
Hi Sarah,
Please can you give me some advice on a lender giving false information about my paymeny history via statement. Lender in question, Mobile Money! The problem is they gave a perfect account of my payments were on time every month. However reported the true payment history to the credit organisations. This is holdinf me back from claiming with carcashpoint.
My second question is that 1+1 loans rejected my claim and gave me detailed account of everything I apparently said through my application and phone calls etc. Yet they were not as forth coming with the SAR Request that asked from them. It was never Sent. They wouldnt respond through Resolve. I only got my final responce letter through the post a day after the 8 weeks..
1+1 said I should have told them i had a gambling problem. All my payments were up to date. They were not 8 months behind with mobile money as it states on my credit file. They are ruthless 1+1 and i have felt thretened by the 2 replys I have had from then. Sorry for the essay and really bad spelling Sarah
Many Thanks
Thomas
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mobile Money – can I be clear – were your payments on time but MM said they were behind? Or were you behind but MM said they were up to date?
1+1 – if you know the loan has been unaffordable for you, causing you to have to borrow more or get behind with bills or deeper into your overdraft.credit card limit, then send the complaint to the Ombudsman. All guarantor lenders are losing a lot of these complaints at FOS at the moment because they aren’t doing a good job of assessing complaints the way FOS does.
And if they haven’t sent you the SAR, tell them again that you want this and tell FOS as part of your complaint that they haven’t sent it. Then you will have a recording of your phone calls and you will be able to see the Income & Expenditure statement that 1+1 should have considered before lending to you.
Thomas says
Hi Sarah
Mobile Money said they were on time every month. There was at least 6/8 months with no paynents at all.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so what has happened to the MM debt since then? have you repaid it?
Jade says
Hi Thomas I also had a complaint against 1+1 and I thought they had done the same thing as Amigo the adjudicator found in favour of 1+1 Thing is I got all money back for amigo loan I took out. 1+1 done a lot more checks than amigo and they do open banking where they scour your bank statements etc. I think if you had amigo your onto a winner but 1+1 not so much.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If 1plus1 had checked open banking, they could have seen that he was NOT paying MM every month!
Thomas should send a complaint to FOS if he knows a loan was unaffordable for you and let the Ombudsman make the decision.
It is also worth telling the Ombudsman if 1plus1 were very difficult to deal with – in this Ombudsman case https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/25143/DRN0337754.pdf the borrower was given an extra£200 compensation for the way it didn’t treat the borrower in a sympathetic way.
Thomas says
HI Jade,
Thanks V. Much for your reply thats giving me some confidence to keep going with 1+1 I also had a rejected claim with amigo. Sent it off to F.O.s the other day.
Cheers Thomas
Thomas says
Hi Sarah,
With Mobile Money I hadnt hardly paid for nearly 6/months. Not late completly missed payments.
I took out another log book loan with car cashpoint, who paid it off and lent me another 1000.00 They cleared Mobile Money which was around another 1000.00 but going back to 1+1 they said my payments were up to date and in good order. My credit file tells the truth which was 6/8 missed montly payments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am not sure why 1plus1 would have been talking to CCP about your MM debt.
But regardless of this, my suggestion is to send the 1plus1 case to FOS to investigate as you know it was unaffordable.
And if you think the MM loan was unaffordable send them a complaint.
Thomas says
Hi Sarah,
Im confusing the two different cases im taking about.
Car cashpoint gave me a loan for another 1000.00 along with clearing MM for 1000.00 as MM had Sent a Perfect payment history statement. Although as I trying to explain I had missed more than 6 months payments. I was going to complain to car cash point when i noticed this. I am sorry for confusing what im trying to get accross. My heads a mess with all this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so think about the two loans separately. Just think “was the MM loan affordable for me?” and “was the CCP loan affordable for me”. If you think a loan was affordable, don’t complain. If you think it wasn’t, send the lender a complaint.
M says
Does anyone know what’s happening with the pause at amigo?
I read the post from Lisa which talks about a trial but I called up, coming up to 14 weeks now and I haven’t heard anything at all just that the pause is still on going.
Lisa b says
M hi I’m still waiting to hear I was told 7 days that was on the 6 th but I’m still waiting the email on 6th was from a claims company I stupidly used
M says
Oh fair enough. Odd how Amigo would communicate and inform a claims company of a process under trial but whenever a customer calls they keep hush. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait longer. When did you send your initial complaint?
Lisa b says
Yes but at the moment nothing with amigo surprises me
Ruth says
Spoke to Amigo today and apparently the hold on some complaints is being lifted this week. Fingers crossed!
N G says
Hi
I have had two buddy loans one was for £4000 total loan which was £6018 in total over 24 months 247 per month
I had 6 months left and they topped up by £1000 and also £1255 to cover rest of loan so £2255 in total over 24 month again.. 168 per month which I have made 6 months payments.
Unfortunately the reason I needed was to fund gambling which my guaranteur didn’t know….
It’s my 74 year old father and I don’t want to cause Cause him any stress,
My bank statements were a mess at the time and weren’t requested … is there anything I can complain about as was my fault I was gambling?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what was your credit record like – would that have shown you were in a mess before the first loan? Had the amount of your debts gone up by the time of the top up?
N G says
Has always been a mess, that’s why I couldn’t get a normal loan….yeah I had more ccj
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then this sounds like a good complaint that the first loan was not affordable and when it came to the top-up BL should have seen your situation had got worse.
N g says
Where do I go from here? And would my dad be made aware I was complaining? As worried about his current health
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The article above these comments looks at how to make a complaint in detail and has a template letter. Read it all, as some of it may come in useful later!
If you did hasn’t made any payments, he should not be told until you win the complaint. But you do have to carry on making the payments until then.
Sean says
Hi Sara
I’ve been reading the comments here. I wondered could you please take a look at my figures for me? I was desperate for money when I took out the Amigo loans and eventually had to ask my guarantor to loan me the money to pay them off. I’m still paying her back at the minute.
Loan 1 10/7/2012-15/12/2014 £2250 @£100 per month
Loan 2 15/12/2014-2/7/15 Topped up, cash received £1014.95. 7 payments at £106.94
Loan 3 2/7/2015-21/7/2016 Topped up, cash received £1589. 12 payments at £158.10
Loan 4 21/7/2016-23/2/2018 Topped up, cash received £1720.35. 19 payments at £235.26
Loan 5 23/2/2018-6/7/2018 Topped up, cash received £892.96. 5 payments at £268.34
Loan 6 6/7/2018-16/10/2018 topped up, cash received £1012.57. 3 payments £267.35
Loan 7 16/10/2018-20/5/2018 Topped up, cash received £844.01. 7 payments of £276.67
Had to borrow £7000 to pay them back a closing balance of £7045. Although I’m paying a personal loan off to cover this thankfully it’s a lot less than what I was paying Amigo.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have said how much cash you received, which is helpful, but I also nede to know how large each of the top up loans was. And how many £100 payments did you make to the first loan?
Sean says
Loan 1 £2250 and 29 payments
Loan 2 £2500
Loan 3 £4000
Loan 4 £5500
Loan 5 £5550
Loan 6 £6000
Loan 7 £7000
Thanks
Sean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers I make the interest paid on each loan as follows:
loan 1 £2,136
loan 2 £653
loan 3 £1,676
loan 4 £3,623
loan 5 £778
loan 6 £957
loan 7 £1,977
which is a total of £11,800 if theyare all upheld. Plus more than £2500 in 8% interest added.
Sean says
Thank you so much for this. Really appreciated
N g says
Should I admit to gambling and take screen shots to add to complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes and I suggest you send your bank statements (not screen shots) with your complaint.
Ng says
Hi
I have only internet banking is that an issue? So could only screenshot
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talk to your bank. There is normally a way to download a print file or a PDF.
Jack says
Hi all
Just an update for everyone that had paused amigo complaints.
This got uplifted today so you should get an update in these next 2 weeks
jack says
Hi,
For everyone awaiting response from amigo with regards to the paused loans, this has now been lifted so you should start to see responses within the next week or so.
Gareth says
Hi all,
I had three loans with amigo between 2013 and 2015. I had other loans and payday loans at the time as well as other credit with vanquis and capital one. Whilst I managed to pay the loans off I had to fall behind on household bills to do so. I had a response off Amigo today saying that according to the national average for income and expenditure the loans were affordable. If they’d checked bank statements and payslips they would’ve seen that my wage was below the national average and my expenditure was above the national average.
I have a couple of questions:
Is this a reasonable way for them to check affordability?
Is it worth me escalating my case to the financial ombudsman?
How long on average does the ombudsman take to deal with a case?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this a reasonable way for them to check affordability?
FOS usually seems to say that if your credit record showed a lot of problems or the loan was large then Amigo should have verified your income and expenses directly eg by looking at bank statements rather than using national averages.
Is it worth me escalating my case to the financial ombudsman?
At the moment FOS is upholding a very high proportion of guarantor loan complaints, so the lenders are clearly not making decisions in the same way that FOS do.
I also suggest that if your credit record showed that you had got further into debt for loan 2 and loan 3, then that suggests the previous loan was not affordable and Amigo should have been very careful to verify your situation when you asked for the top ups.
How long on average does the ombudsman take to deal with a case?
There isn’t really an average at the moment. We don’t know how many cases FOS has from Amigo. For most of the summer FOS was progressing very few cases as Amigo was doing a mass review so there was no point.
But does this matter? Just send the case off and see how it goes!
Gareth says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your response. I’ve sent it to FOS complete with proof of income and expenditure at the time. Fingers crossed. Just a waiting game now.
Claire says
A little update from me
My complaint on a whole has been running for 2 years now!! Finally got on the ombusman waiting list in April this year.
The actually ombusman has been emailing over the past few weeks for more information, (i feel he’s like the wizard for the wizard of oz…behind the curtain!!)
Lol.
But it goes to show they are doing things properly
My adjacator agreed I was mis-sold these loads but im not gonna lie im nervous…this disision will change my Financial life.
Lottie says
Hello Sara, I submitted a complaint against Buddy loans, they didn’t verify my income, my bank statement didn’t confirm the income they had me down for. My credit file showed 3 unpaid CCJ’s 11 Defaults and recent defaults. They said they are not upholding the complaint, as they feel it was affordable to me and the guarantor. I submitted my complaint to FOS on the 10th Sept, still not even been assigned to a case handler. I am paying £300 a month, as I can’t let my guarantor down, as they are struggling, and I don’t want it to affect them. But it’s crippling me to pay. I have not missed 1payment in 3 years 4 months, but I still have another 1 year 8 months to go. Do you know if. FOS have a time scale? I have let them know I have serious mental health problems and the financial problems it’s causing but they still can’t look at my case due to the amount of cases they have. Do you know if its worth still complaing with FOS and how long FOS take to look at the complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know if its worth still complaining with FOS and how long FOS take to look at the complaint?
Your case is with FOS, it is hard to say how long it will take but they should give you some priority because of your mental health problems.
Yes it’s worth complaining even if this takes a long while because what better alternative do you have?
Lottie says
Thank you, I don’t have any other options. FOS
Said it’s a priority but still had it over 9/10 weeks now. Will leave it with them. I didn’t want to waste their time when they are so busy. But will just leave it until o hear back. Hopefully it won’t be much longer now. Many thanks Lottie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should call FOS every two or three weeks – you are NOT wasting their time. And try not to think about in between calls.
Mikey says
Hi,
Update on my claim.
Amigo have upheld 3 of my loans. And not on 2 which will still leave me with a balance of £2k. If they upheld all loans they would have actually owed me £2k.
Spoke to a lady at amigo and she said if I accepted i could still go to the FOS on the other two. Is that worth doing? Or is it best just send it all to the FOS and decline their offer?
On another hand I complained to safetynet credit on the 8th October and with no questions asked have wiped £1.2k and are actually sending me £1.3k refund. Bonus!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you decline the offer Amigo are likely to apply the reduction to your account anyway.
Is there an “unpaid interest” line in the calculation they have sent you?
Mikey says
Ah ok, yeah the unpaid interest is £2858.
Redress amount was £6359
Balance owed £8432
Balance minus redress is £2073
I had 5 loans and they didn’t uphold the 1st and 4th loan. Not upholding the 4th loan seems a bit odd when my financial position had been the same and only 6 months until the upheld 5th loan began.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That does seem very odd.
In your complaint to FOS mention that. Also that you think the unpaid interest deduction is unreasonable.
I really don’t understand why Amigo are doing this. If it wasn’t for the deduction, your loan would have been cleared and you would have had a small refund. You may well have decided that was good enough and just accepted it! So no FOS fee for Amigo, no more admin on the complaint and no chance that the extra loans will be found to be unaffordable so they have to pay you an even larger refund.
Mikey says
Thanks Sara, I have rejected it and will go through the FOS. I mean I’m not looking to make money back, just be happy to wipe the entire loan.
Step in the right direction though, I’ve also set up breathing space until January now as Dosnt want to carry on paying £335 a month, so will see if they will automatically deduct the £6k anyways. I’ll let you know how I get on.
Thanks again Mike
Chris says
Hi Guys,
Logged affordability complaint with amigo in August. 8 weeks came and they said needed to investigate further. Now they are not replying to emails 12 weeks in. Sent to FOS 4 weeks ago but besides generic email I’ve not heard from them. Should I be nervous as I can see some people get responses within the 8 weeks?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, it probably means no one has looked at it yet. I don’t think they deal with the easy cases first, it’s just random.
Greg says
i didnt hear from FOS for over a year about mine. Pandemic has affected their service levels.
im still waiting for amigo to buy account back from intrum.
raised another complaint due to them providing me with false information on progress of refund and buying account back
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don;t think other people’s experience of claims put in more than a few months ago is relevant to new claims.
And refunds after accounts have been sold always take longer. But Intrum are usually pretty efficient so the delay probaly is at the Amigo end.
Dan says
Hi Sara I had a complaint that was accepted by amigo. If payed off in full to the reduced amount of 260 by the 20th October. Last month. I payed the balance and closed the loan in full. I’ve received a letter from them saying they have confirmed the loan is now closed. Since then I have had alerts on my clear score app saying amigo removed then re added the loan to my credit file why would this happen?. They agreed in their final response the loan along with any negative marks would be removed. I have moved address since taking out the loan and paying off the final amount last month would this cause the loan to be readded? I have amigo the new address to forward the confirmation letter to
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Moving addresses should not cause a change in the status of your debts.
It may be possible that they deleted the debt in error and have added it back but that it is still showing as closed?
Clear Score reporting can be behind, I suggest you look at your Equifax statutory report, which is up to date, to see what the Amigo debt currently looks like – get it here: https://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html
If the Amigo debt now shows as not settled, with a balance owing, you need to phone Amigo up, ask why this has happened and tell them to correct the error.
Dan says
Amigo have readded the loan still showing arrears. How long have other people had to wait in general for their amigo loan to be removed from their credit file?
M says
Hi, I just phoned up Amigo and they said the hold is still in place, although they’re getting close to a solution. So not sure how people are getting mixed messages around the hold being lifted when I have been told it hasn’t.
Ruth says
I was told it was being lifted Monday. Very poor from Amigo with the mixed messages…
BB says
I phoned yesterday as I was effected by the pause and ours has been moved forward and will be paid out in the next weekly payment batch. I imagine that they’re making decisions and working through the cases. I do feel that members of staff at amigo are mis informed as I have had plenty of information that has been conflicting, I have since raised a complaint regarding this also.
C G says
Hi Sara. Thank you for the help you give us all. I want to open a complaint against amigo. I have 3 credits with them (the initial one and 2 top ups). You recommended us to sent them bank statements 3 months before taking the loan and 3 after. My question is if i have to sent them for all 3 credits? It’s there a problem if I lied about my incomes? In the same time, if I lied about my expenses and paid the rent in cash, should I attach to the email the receipts from the agency? Many thanks for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what were the dates of the loan and the top ups?
Costel G. says
Hi Sara
I’m back to you with the numbers.
The initial loan ( August 2018 ) was £750 and I made 7 payments of £77.29
The first top-up ( March 2019 ) was £5000 ( received £4654.88 ) and I made 6 payments of £243.95
The second top-up ( October 2019 ) was £6750 ( received 2089.29 ) and I made 4 payments of 329.33 and 1 payment of £150 ( this month )
Because of this pandemic, I had a breathing space from March to November. In November I talked with them and reduce my monthly payments from £329.33 to £150 per month. At the moment my current balance is £7726.63 and I have 508.66 in arrears. Also, my initial payday was 26 every month, and I changed to 15 every month ( I don’t know exactly in which month I did it ).
How I told you in the previous message when I made the first loan I lied a lit a bit( a lit a bit more ). I overestimated my income ( I was self-employed ) and underestimated my expenses. When I take the first top-up I was employed but I didn’t tell them this. I keep my income and my expenses the same as I tell them from the beginning. The same thing for the second top-up. One more point: From October 2018 I had a gambling addiction and I bet a lot and at the same time I receive and sent a lot of money to a friend.
What you suggest and if my complaint will be a successful one, what I need to expect back from them?
Many thanks for your time and I wish you all the best!
Costel G
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the first loan was very small, it’s hard to tell what the decision on this might be. You have paid £135 interest on the first loan
You paid £1119 interest on the first top up loan.
So far you have paid £1466 to the last loan, so as you haven’t paid more than the 6750 you borrowed there is no interest to be refunded and there would be a balance of £5284 to pay. This would be reduced if either of the two previous loans is refunded.
Do you have a lot of other debt?
What is your guarantor’s financial position like? Could they really afford to mamake the £329 a month payments and still pay their own bills, debts and expenses?
Costel G says
When I take the first loan I had in default one loan and also I had some unpaid bills. My guarantor don’t afford to pay because she have her on loan’s and bills. She is on overdraft from long time. In the same time she had a loan in default. Also when I did the first and second top up, Amigo didn’t do a proper check. At the moment I don’t have any other loan but my expenses are really high. So what would you advise me?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes i think it’s worth a complaint. As i said, it’s hard to say whether the first loan would be upheld but for the later ones, they are large and Amigo should have verified your income and expenditure eg by looking at bank statements and then they would have seen the gambling…
Yes send bank statements and also rent slips as you were paying that in cash. That will show your full situation.
Costel G says
Ok. I will do it! Thank you very much for your advice and I will let you know what they will say. All the best!
Tyrone says
Hi Sarah,
I have made a complaint against Trust two who have upheld my complaint for all 4 of my loans.
They have agreed to write off my current loan and refund any excess.
I would just like your assistance to see if they have worked out the interest correctly.
The loan amounts are:
Payments made
1/01/16 Loan 1 1500 7 x 118.64
15/08/16 Top up 4200 10 x 157.86
10/06/17 Top up 5800 24 x 218.11
29/06/19 Top up 7000 8 x 276.21
I have also asked for the application fees of £1300 to be refunded but they have refused so far.
I am currently in financial difficulty due to covid-19 could I accept the offer and still refer my complaint to the FO for the admin fees?
Also if i do not accept the offer will the loan be on hold whilst it with the FO?
Thanks for you help with this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you say how much you received in cash for each of the loans / top ups.
The application fees should be refunded.
Tyrone says
Hi Sarah,
Initial loan was 1500
Top up 1 – 3076.45
Top up 2 1861.04
Top up 3 2025.74
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers I make the interest paid as follows:
loan 1 £450
loan 2 £1,309
loan 3 £4,407
loan 4 not repaid the 7k borrowed, £4,792 still to go.
So if theyare all being refunded, the refunds from the first three should clear the balance of £4792 and give you a cash refund of £1374. Plus some 8% interest
If they aren’t refunding £1300 of application fees, then that refund may reduce to £74…
Have they quoted you any numbers?
Tyrone says
Those number above are not including the application fees. They have offered 1800.
Yes the fees were not part of the loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the offer sounds fine, but not refusing to refund the £1300 application fees.
I suggest you ask TT to reconsider including it and ask if you can accept their offer and send the case to the Financial Ombudsman about the application fees if they won’t change their mind. Add that if you have to send the case to FOS you will also be informing the FCA as you feel they are trying to take advantage of vulnerable customers by not offering a full refund that FOS would.
Trust Two is currently being looked at by the FCA, so TT may not like this idea…
Tyrone says
Thank you for your help with this.
I have told them that I will accept the offer and pursue the admin fees separately.
They refuse to budge on the admin fees. I think I will log a separate complaint or send straight to the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have they agreed to you accepting their offer and taking the admin fees to FOS? Starting a separate complaint will not help – they will just say that that you accepted their settlement offer on your previous one.
I suggest you email the FCA at consumer.queries@fca.org.uk and copy this to chioma.nwachukwu@everyday-loans.co.uk
Subject: Everyday Lending Ltd trading as Trust Two (724445) agrees my loans were unaffordable but refuses to refund the charges
Put in a few short details about your complaint – your three loans, how TT has agreed thay are all unaffordable and has offered to refund the interest. But say there was £1,300 in application fees for the loans and TT is refusing to refund these, even though FOS tells lenders to refund all interest and charges on unaffordable loans.
Say this is a lot of money for you and you think TT are just trying to take advantage of the fact you are in a difficult financial position and get away with offering you less than FOS says is right. But you need the money and are in a difficult position as it could take months to go through FOS.
Say you don’t think it’s treating you fairly to offer less than FOS would after they have accepted the loans should not have been given.
Say you know the FCA will not look at your individual case but you thought the FCA should know how unfair TT are being.
Tyrone says
So just to provide an update – they have comeback to me saying that the document fees have been cancelled?
I have gone back and said that surely the document fees form part of the settlement when the loan has been topped up.
Waiting for a response.
Will update once received.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ah. So you didn’t pay these separately?
This may be ok then. The calculations I did just looked at cash movements, so if the application fees were somewhere in the accounts and settled through the settlement amounts, they would have been factored in for the refund.
Tyrone says
They haven’t factored them – they are basically saying the fees have been cancelled but that is not the case as when the loans were settled they did not refund the document fees according to the statements. The document fees are separate to the principal but not factored in the refund.
George says
Hi Sara,
Long time viewer of your website whilst getting the courage to submit a complaint. I have shyed away for so long but no more – complaint is submitted to Amigo and I’m 1 week into 8 waiting for them to reply. I just wondered if you could give me some help working out what the potential redress could be should they uphold both the loans? I had 2 loans, had a CCJ unsatisfied at the time as well as various payday loans which were being paid back via a debt collector. Borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, was an idiotic university student. Not sure if these are considered high value loans but who knows!
Loan 1 – £4,500 – May 2017 – £177.86 per month – made 5x payments
Loan 2 (Top-up) – £6,500 (received £2063.39) – December 2017 – £256.91 – made 18x payments
Paid the loan off in full July ’19 with £6,041.93 payment.
I hope I’ve provided what you need. Thanks in advance :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers I make the interest paid on each loan:
loan 1 £822
loan 2 £4,149
so a total of £4,971 plus about £800 in 8% interest
From those numbers you may think you will be happy if they just refund the second loan…
But Amigo at the moment are adding a deduction for “unpaid interest” when they do this, which in your case is likely to be large. So look out for that – if they do it you may want to complaint to FOS abount the deduction and the fact the first loan isn’t upheld.
George says
Are they generally upholding complaints at the FOS for unpaid interest do you know?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the first cases only went in late August. So far the only results I have seen have been a couple of cases where Amigo has popped up and said it has changed its mind and will refund all the loans – obviously a win for the borrower but it means we haven’t yet seen a FOS decision on these.
Rosie says
Hi, I have been reading a lot of your stories on here, and pleased to hear your success stories.
I have a current claim in with amigo, it’s been 6 weeks and I haven’t heard anything yet.
I opened my account with amigo feb2017 starting at 3k, I extended my loan 5 times in the 8 months after that, eventually to 10,000. Not once did they ask me to confirm my earnings (part time work) ask for bank statements or proof of my expenses.
I literally missed payments the whole way through and they still kept lending to me. I was in a dire state and the time and desperate.
Anyway I paid my payments for 1.5 years late pretty much every time as I was trying to gather the money together and then my guarantor took out a loan from his bank (lower interest) and paid it off in full for me, I know pay him back a much lower monthly payment.
I don’t believe they did any checks on either of us, because neither of us could afford the repayments. I do take part blame because I kept taking from them because I was desperate but I don’t understand how it was allowed to top up my Loan 5 times in 8 months. How can this not set alarm bells of?
Anyway I’m just wondering what you think the outcome with be? What happens with the guarantor paying off the loan? We are on good terms and I know if he gets a refund he will give it to me as I have nearly finished paying the loan he took from the bank.
Many thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think 5 top ups in 8 months after missing payments sounds like a very good case.
As your guarantor settled it, he will be asked if wants a refund. If you are on good terms, the d=simple thing is for him to say yes and then refund you the money you have paid, some of which you can use to clear the new balance Amigo will say you owe them because of the refund.
Rosie says
Yes, I agree, I think they have actually changed it now so you have to pay for 12 months before they allow you to top up. At the time I took the loans, I had only paid one payment then had a top up then another payment and another top up. Not once did I have to prove anything I was putting on the application form. I took a further 7 grand over 8 months, on 5 different top ups. Not sure how they can call that responsible lending.
I think I paid around 18000 in the end to them. So do they refund all the money to the guarantor because he paid 11,500 off for me.
So I worked out if they refund that to him I had only paid 6500 off the 10000 so would owe them 3500 is that right?
Obviously this is if I win the case.
I’m finding it so confusing and I don’t want to be left out of pocket by winning if that makes sense, as I have nearly finished paying the new bank loan off now and honestly it’s a massive cloud gone from over my head!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you and your guarantor are on good terms and he gives you back the money you have repaid him you will NOT be left out of pocket as you will get a refund for the interest both of you paid to Amigo.
Would you like me to look at the numbers for you?
For each loan I need to know:
– how much you borrowed
– how much you received in cash
– how much you paid to the loan eg 2 payments of £167
– how much your guarantor paid to the loan eg to settle it.
Rosie says
Yes please if you could, I’ve included the most recent loan as well. Not sure what will happen with that as it’s a year later.
06/feb 17 £3000 payout – 1 x 146.37 paid
01/March 17 £1068.64 payout (4000)-2 x 195.16
03/may 17 £1608.58 payout (5500)- 1 x 217.39
05/June 17 £1512.97 payout (7000)- 3 x 276.67
04/sept 17 £1618.45 payout (8500) -2 x £294.44
13/nov 17 £1505.26 payout (10000)
4 x 395.25 1 x 80,00 1 x 315.25 1 x 50,00
This is where it gets confusing as I changed payment dates and missed payments/ did part payment in this time.
13/sept 18 1x 1135.75 1x 10,382.14 this settled the loan. both payments on 13 sept 18 were made by the guarantor.
21/ June 19 payout 1500 17 x 73.18 (992.41 if was cleared today)
Hope all that makes sense to you. If you need anything else let me know.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so you had 1 loan then 5 top ups, your guarantor settled the last loan. Did your guarantor make any other of the payments apart from the last settlement? Then after a 9 month gap you took out another loan?
Rosie says
No the guarantor only paid the last two payments on 13sept17.
Yes I then took out a loan 9 months later with the same guarantor but have been making payments on this as planned.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so let’s park the last loan for the moment.
And let’s assume all your loans are upheld. (I think with so many quick top ups there is a good case to say they were probley unaffordable right from loan 1.)
At the moment cases with guarantor payments are on hold, but the following is what I think Amigo used to do. I can’t guarantee it will still happen, but if you and your guarantor are both happy to say the same thing – that the refund should go to your guarantor and don’t get into endless arguments about how much you have repaid your guarantor or what interest rate your guarantor is paying, just keep it very simple – then I think this will still be an option for you.
Your guarantor’s refund is straightforward. They paid £11515 about a year ago so they should get that refunded plus about 10% interest (depends exactly when this is settled) = £12,600
Then Amigo will remove the guarantor payments from the account for the settled loan. That leaves you as having paid the following interest on the first 5 loans:
loan 1 £78
loan 2 £282
loan 3 £205
loan 4 £710
loan 5 £583
so in total £1858
Loan six you paid £2025 towards, so when interest is removed from that loan you would still owe £7,975. which the £1858 interest refund from the previous loans will reduce to a balance of 6117
Then it is between you and your guarantor what your guarantor should refund you. They could refund you the £11515 they settled the loan with, less whatever is remaining on the loan they took out? If you had made all the payments to Amigo, you would have had a refund of £5398, instead you are left owing £6117.
As I said, I wouldn’t get drawn into complications with tell Amigo how much you have paid your guarantor. I don’t see it’s any of their business, it isn’t clear how the loan your guarantor took out is factored in, and any small discrepancy between what you say and what your guarantor says could lead to a lot of delays and you being asked to produce proof of payments! So keep it simple and say you want the refund to go to the guarantor because you haven’t paid them back, then you two can reach a fair settlement betwen you.
Rosie says
Thank you very much! Yes that makes sense to me.
I will update when I get a reply from them, but if they are on hold I could be waiting a while. Should I email them and say that I’m not expecting a refund I would like the guarantor refunding? Would that help?
John says
If amigo upheld 3 of my 5 loans can I accept and then take the other 2 to fos. Does this affect final payout as in all my payments back for all 5 loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I thought your case was already with the Ombudsman?
John says
Its waiting for an adjudicator. But is with FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so it’s not a question of accepting an offer and taking the other loans to FOS, you already have an open FOS case. Have Amigo come back and made you a new offer or are you just thinking what might happen? in which case there isn’t any point in trying to guess, you have to wait and see what any offer looks like.
John says
No new offer from Amigo think I just need to wait for adjudicator.
m says
Very interesting update from the FOS this week regarding a complaint I have. I understand that they are reviewing complaints that involve gambling transactions and where a consumer has an outstanding balance. Not sure whether to look at this positively or not.
Nick says
Hi Sarah, Amigo declined my claim earlier in the year, I have now been told by FOS that I am just waiting for an adjuctacator to pick my claim up with them. I have a reference number from them now so its progressing but FOS have told me it could take up to 4 months?
My loan was for 5000 totalling 8750 with interest over 3 years. I have now paid 6000 and currently owe 2700. If my claim with FOS is successful will they clear the remaining what I owe?
I also requested my SARS and the a copy of the last telephone call I had with them, it has now been 77 days since I requested it, I believe I should of received it by now?
Thanks for your help and your advice for everyone!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you have paid more than you borrowed, if your claim is upheld they will clear the balance and refund you about £1000 ( plus a very small amoutn of statuitory interest).
Did you make a SAR when you originally sent in the claim ? What is there in the recent phone call you need a copy of – I had hoped Amigo were improving their customer service…
Brian says
Hi Sara
Submitted affordability complaint to amigo for 7 loans totalling 27,750….. Extra interest of 24,931.55 at start of September, recieved reply from them on 2nd November completely rejecting all 7 loan applications, despite me having a CCJ at time of 2nd application ( top up)… And being in a ton of debt, unstable employment and complete fabrication of incomings and outgoings, even an address… ( I was homeless and in a desperate situation..)…FOS have agreed to take on my case as a priority. I still have not recieved my DSAR from amigo… Do you know why they are withholding this? Could it be because there is evidence that improper checks were conducted? Any advice would be great. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They may not be “withholding” it, they may just be being very slow. Have you asked Amigo again for it?
Brian says
Hi Sara
No I haven’t asked amigo for it again, they said it would be on its way, if I hadn’t recieved yet. This was on 2nd November after they rejected my complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you could remind them…
Bonnie says
Hi wondering if anyone could give some advice . Ive had my complaint in with fos since the 1st of september thats when they gave a ref. Number and still waiting. I know it takes a while but ive emailed twice for an update in the past couple of weeks to see if its been picked up and had no reply, not sure if its one of the accounts on hold as my gaurantor had made a payment . Am I better just phoning fos? Thanks
SP says
Hello Sara,
After reading your website and using the affordability Complaint template, I have sent this over to Amigo. I have just received a generic email from them about how they lend responsibly and completed checks but at the bottom it states the below:
I have raised a complaint on your behalf. Our Customer Relations Team will acknowledge your complaint within 3-5 working days and they will then issue a final response addressing your concerns.
Do you think it’s unlikely my complaint will be upheld or is the above just a generic email?
I have forgotten to ask for SARs so I replied to their above email requesting it incase I disagree with their decision and to take the case to FOS.
Please can you advise.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it sounds like an auto reply to everyone to me. Don’t expect to hear much before the end of 8 weeks.
SP says
Thank you so much for you REPLY Sara.
Hopefully they will send over my SARs in the meantime so I can go through it and if they refuse my case I can take the evidences across to FOS. I will update here if I receive any more correspondance from Amigo. I have put a complaint in with UK Credit aswell and they have requested my bank statements 2 months prior to loan taken and 1 month after loan taken. Not sure if that will show a clear picture of my financial situation as it’s only few months worth of bank statements.
Will have to wait & see if they uphold the complaint which will help me dramatically as I’m currently paying £259.17 a month.
Thank you
J says
What is the current situation with Amigo and FCA?
Are Amigo offering redress figures now?
My guarantor made payments on the first loan.
Firstly – why is there a hold up? Are they just buying more time? as my guarantor has not been contacted.
Thanks,
J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some of these cases are really complicated, many aren’t, but they all seem to be on hold.
J says
I wonder what the legal basis is on that.
People’s situations are getting worse as they “hold” this.
I suspect they will have a further influx of people requesting damages for this period.
George Charlton says
Sarah I have just received my offer after 5 months from Amigo. They have said that they will remove all interest and pay me redress with 8% simple interest.
So i have paid in total – 10,143
The original loan was 9000
The loan currently sits at 11,150 with interest.
Their offer states I still owe them 1800.
I dont see how this is correct. Surely the interest is removed as stated in their offer. Doesnt seem theyve worked payments out right also and does not seem to have any interest added on.
Pauline Evans says
Contacted Amigo re refund. They acknowledged my letter and would investigate. This was in June 2020.
I contacted them in August they said due to the amount of correspondence they had received the response would take longer.
I contacted them last week to be told (A) that they had now employed more managers to investigate the cases and apologised . (B) reply from another department, my details were no longer on file so nothing could be done.
Can I now take this to the ombudsman?
Thanks for all the help on the web page.
Kind regards
Pauline Evans
Jacquie says
Pauline I got the same response and I had sent copies of bank statements showing the amount of loan and advised that I could show bank statements for all payments made . I also sent a copy of my credit report which shows the loan , my loan was for £3000 from sept 2010 to April 2014 . I was £50.000 in debt when I took this loan out. I intend to appeal to the financial ombudsman. Sara do you think I have a case
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, quite right to take that to the Ombudsman.
Jack says
Hi
My guarantor made 2 payments we have both received and email today just to see if I paid him back or not. There was a short questionnaire to fill out. They said mine should be completed within 14 days now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
MAKE sure you both say EXACTLY the same same. Any discrepancies and you may be asked to produce proof which could lead to endless delays.
if you are on good terms so he will refund you any money or vice versa, the safe thing is for you both to go for the same easy option…
– EITHER say you have repaid him in full and the refund should all come to you
– OR say you haven’t repaid him at all and the refund should go to him.
If you aren’t on good terms, then can you explain more about your situation…
Jack says
Hi
He is my best mate he had only made 2 payments which I paid him back the question for him was did I pay him back in full he said yes and I said i had paid him back in full.
So I believe now the redress will now all come to me .
M says
Hey there. When did you raise your initial complaint?
I rang up Amigo and someone else said they are trialling the new method in batches.
Chris says
Trialling a new method when the old one might just cost them millions of pounds more…There is no end to their horrendous practice
Jack says
Hi,
My complaint went in July 25th This year
Will let you know how it goes
MrN says
Another good day for the fight.
2 complaints made December 2019;
1st company (UK Credit) settled in February 2020 with no intervention needed – £10,500
2nd company (GLO) have today agreed with the FOS recommendation – Over £8000 and a cheque is en route.
Another donation will be made to citizens advice as Sara likes.
Once again, thank you for the information you put up here for us all.
1 more still to go with the FOS (TM Advances) and that whole sorry saga and 6 months of my life is forgotten about.
Thanks again and keep safe.
Megan says
Hi, I have just heard back from the investigator at the financial ombudsman agreeing that amigo loans were in the wrong and sold me my 4 loans that were unaffordable. What’s the chances amigo will accept their offer? I have to wait 2 weeks for amigo to hear from them and I feel sick/nervous waiting. This will change my life if they accept. Praying for good news after the worst year. If anyone’s won a case against amigo through the FOS please reply! Thankyou x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo usually accept most FOS decisions, fingers crossed for you!
Mr F says
i too had a response from fos today agree all three of my loans were unaffordable the first one being in 2006, im praying amigo give a quick response they arent lending currently so they should have extra advisors free to deal with existing / old customers and the complaints. heres praying for a life changing christmas present, ive had a quick workout and if i total the three loans its 11, 500 and i paid back 24,000 odd so without 8% its at least 12,000 back
Siobhan says
FOS upheld with me 5 weeks ago, Amigo are 3 weeks late with their response. Mine is a very straight forward clear case, one loan. I’ve rang and emailed them, they’re refusing to tell me anything.
Megan says
Oh wow fingers crossed for you! I feel the same. It would completely change my life. Praying so much they accept it! Best of luck :)
Mr F says
Any news Megan I’m waiting on the same timescale as you the two weeks is up today for me but I’m still waiting
Jemma says
Hi just an update regarding Amigo
Received an email today
Whilst the investigation is currently ongoing, we would be grateful if you could provide us with some additional information, in order to assist us in calculating any redress due.
Our standard approach to redress
Our records indicate that your guarantor has made some of the payments against one or more of the loan agreements that are the subject of your complaint.
Our normal approach to calculating redress is to refund your guarantor for all the payments that have been made by them in respect of any loan agreement for which your complaint is ultimately upheld. We offset these refunds to your guarantor against any redress that we owe to you. In some cases, where the redress due to your guarantor is greater than the redress due to you, there may be an increase in your outstanding loan balance.
However we are aware that, in some instances, borrowers and guarantors may have entered into separate arrangements whereby some or all of the guarantors payments may have been refunded by the borrower. Amigo wants to ensure that the redress we calculate for yourself and your guarantor best reflects the situation, and that the calculation of redress reflects the reality of payments that have been made.
Had to complete an online questionnaire and I have supplied evidence to show i have repaid my guarantor. I’m hoping this is a step in the right direction.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
MAKE sure you and your guarantor both say EXACTLY the same same. Any discrepancies and you may be asked to produce proof which could lead to endless delays.
if you are on good terms so the guarantor will refund you any money or vice versa, the safe thing is for you both to go for the same easy option…
– EITHER say you have repaid him in full and the refund should all come to you
– OR say you haven’t repaid him at all and the refund should go to him.
If you aren’t on good terms, then can you explain more about your situation…
Chris says
It shouldn’t make a difference what terms people are on. Why is more not being made of the fact these businesses are making up redress rules for themselves? There might not be a ruling to say they cant do that but there certainly isn’t one to say they can either. The loan company chose to pay redress to the guarantor and not the borrower. The borrower cannot possibly be expected to then repay that. What kind of complaint process decides to do something but then reopens the loan to be paid again? This is scandalous and will surely lead to a legal challenge?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am just saying that if the guarantor and borrower are on good terms and are happy to effectively split the refund between them, there is a short cut to a possible solution that will leave both happy.
But you don’t have to take this short cut.
You can carry on with a FOS case – I do not know what the likely result will be there.
I think you would be ill-advised to go to court without professional advice from someone who is familiar with this area, but that too is an option for you.
Chris says
I would love to know why they thought doing the redress this way was never going to be challenged? Are there any cases challenging this at present? Imagine explaining the redress system and reopening of a loan to a district judge…Yes I won my complaint sir but I now owe more money because once again the business is pulling a fast one.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There are cases at FOS.
And I can imagine a DJ saying that you chose to reopen your closed contract by putting in a complaint and asking for the interest to be removed.
I’m not saying what Amigo is doing is right, but it isn’t nearly as simple as you think.
Ruth says
Finally received DSAR 13 weeks after initial complaint..fingers crossed a final response soon (one of the people that has been on hold)
Mr F says
Hi Sara
finally had the adjudicator get back to me and they are upholding all three loans from amigo
Settlement (my name removed)
To settle the complaint Amigo should do the following:
To add up the total amount of money received as a result of having been
given loans one, two and three. The repayments made should be
deducted from this amount.
a) If this results in x having paid more than he received, then any
overpayments should be refunded along with 8% simple interest (calculated from the
date the overpayments were made until the date of settlement).
can you help me work out what sort of refund im going to get (i know amigo still have to agree but i can’t see them challenging this as they provided the statements showing failed payments ect…) i cant remember the figures and cant find them anywhere i did give them here back in jan / feb if you can locate one of my original posts
how quickly are amigo responding to the adjudicators at the moment and how quickly once they do am i looking at a payout.
MR F
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you said you were sent a SAR so you can work the numbers from that?
For each loan – what did you borrow? if it was a top up, how much did you receive in cash? what is the total of payments you made to the loan?
Mr F says
Hi Sara
here’s the correct details
loan 1 jan06 3000 paid 34m of 137.46 &1m 244.23
loan 2 dec08 5000 pay-out of full 5000 paid 44m of 180.66
loan 3 sep12 3500 received pay-out of 744.85 balance cleared of 2755.15 paid 50*`138.34 in feb 17 paid a lump sum of 1034.
leaving a balance of 100.74 which was paid feb 2018 (no interest was charged between feb17 and feb 18)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I make the interest paid on each loan as follows:
loan 1 £1,658
loan 2 £5,676
loan 3 £4,535
total £11,869
Plus at least £3000 in 8% interest.
Mr F says
thank you again
Really can’t thank you enough this really will change my life and make me completely debt free l, (which I haven’t been since I was 18.) with a small something left over,
now I just pray amigo respond and agree quickly and then payout in a timely manner. would be great for Christmas.
Chelsea says
Hi Sara,
I lodged an affordability complaint on August 10th directly with Amigo.
I had a couple of generic emails from them but nothing concrete I called about two weeks ago and a lady told me that my claim was in the final stages. Today I received my SAR finally and I’m still really confused about the figures. Are you able to break them down for me?
1st loan £500 16/05/17 £51.53p/m for 12 months
2nd loan £2500 10/04/2018 £121p/m for 36months
3rd loan £4250 09/04/2019 £167p/m for 60 months
My guarantor made a few payments but I paid every one of them back so we can both verify that on an email.
Thank you
Chelsea
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So this has been more than three months. Have you sent the complaint to the Ombudsman?
Those are the details of the loans you took out. If you would like like to know how much of a refund you might get if they are decided to be unaffordable, can you say the payments you made to each loan eg 11 payments of £121? And also say for the top up loans the amount you received in cash.
Chelsea says
Hi,
Thanks for your reply! Yes well over three months but I haven’t sent in to the FOS as I feel I will be back to square one and it will take longer again.
Yes,
Figures are
16/05/2017 borrowed £500 paid £51.53 x 11 and finished loan
10/04/2018 borrowed £2500 36 months 121 X 11
09/04/2019 topped up £4250 60 months
£2136 to settle previous loan
Paid out to me £2113
£167 x 19
Curren balance £4317.05
I received and email on Friday with a questionnaire I completed it explaining I paid all payments made by my guarantor back. He didn’t received his email so logged on to his account to see they had an incorrect email, he has updated it and I have also emailed to say please forward another questionnaire to updated email. He will also ring tomorrow to make sure this is done.
Thank you
Chelsea
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sending a complaint to FOS does not put you back to square one – Amigo still has to respond to your complaint. It just starts a second track for you to get redress – the sooner this is started, the better if Amigo reject your complaint or make a poor offer. I suggest you phone then and say if you don’t a response by Friday the complaint goes to FOS.
Are you sure you only made 11 payments to the first loan, with no final settlement payment? That’s unusual. But on those numbers you have paid the following interest:
loan 1 66.83
loan 2 968
loan 3 still 1077 to pay until you have repaid the 4250 borrowed
so if all three loans are upheld, the interest on the first two is used to clear some of the the 1077 remaining balance on the last and you will be left with a remaining balance owing of £42.17
If the first loan is rejected , the balance owing would be about £110.
if the first two loans are rejected the balance owing should be 31077 but here Amigo is likely to deduct money for “unpaid interest” – I think this is unreasonable and if they do this you should ask FOS to look at it, first to see if the second loan should be refunded and second to see if the unpaid interest is fair. Some people who have been sending these complaints to FOS have had Amigo change their mind and refund the earlier loans!
Ann says
How long was your complaint with the FO I had mine with them since May 20 still waiting it takes over your life constantly checking emails
Mr F says
sent my complaint In March 20, amigo sent business file to them in aug had outcome Nov
James C says
Hi Sara,
I used resolved for my complaint and Amigo have 4 days to provide a final response/decision, hoping to know something next week.
At the time of taking out this Amigo Loan, I was in over £10,000 worth of debt to payday lenders as a majority. This loan at the time seemed like the best option to try consolidate my debts but it just made it far worse and stretched for far longer as I didn’t know what I know now.
At the time I was earning £1,000 per month living at home with parents, in the end I ended up going onto a DMP which the documents provided by StepChange clearly showed I wouldn’t have been able to keep up with payments. I did ask Amigo if they could freeze interest and charges, instead they froze my account, told me to contact them to resolve it otherwise they’d take payments from my father. I was worried they’d contact him so I demanded them to re-instate, I have a feeling this may go against me.
I’ll keep you up to date on progress.
James C says
My monthly payment equated to roughly 27% of my wage and as a result I defaulted on other PayDay loans so I could continue paying Amigo. The loan was originally for £5,000 then a few years later topped up to £7,000. Honestly the worst decision I’ve ever made.
Nt says
Hi Sara
I wanted to provide an update about my complaint with Amigo. They upheld 2 of my 4 loans on 06/08/2020 following the complaint i logged on 19/05/2020. The redress from these 2 loans was applied to my balance of just over 9k on 16/10/2020 and I was left with 2.4k to pay. My guarantor was refunded 197.00 plus 77 interest on 16/10/2020 too.
As I advised you in my previous post I logged a FOS complaint for only my 3rd loan on around 08/2020 which was for 7k. I called Amigo often to make sure my file was sent over to FOS to avoid delays and at one point a few weeks back Amigo told me an email had been sent to FOS on 27/10/2020 upholding the 2 loans they didn’t uphold. My adjudicator had not had any email but we both chased regularly.
FOS called me yesterday to say Amigo have upheld the 2 loans, 7k and 10k and provided calculations. I am now waiting on FOS to work out the calculations they provided to them and will let them know I accept.
I am so relieved this will be over soon thankyou so much for the support through this site. I should receive hopefully minus the 2k I have left to pay, a payment of approx 10k.
Thsnkyoy sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Very good news – another person who had the “unpaid interest deduction” has had Amigo decide to refund all the loans.
Jo says
Hi I have had an email with the statement that they are looking to redress. They have emailed both myself and the guarantor the questionnaires mentioned. We have both answered the same.
We are now in week 11, after 8 weeks they emailed to say they would reply withing 4, which they have with the look to redress email. How long does it usually take after this do you know? We are really struggling to pay the next payment, we were turned down for a payment break/ reduction previously a couple of years ago when my husband was out of work. Is it worth asking them for a payment holiday this month while they are looking at the redress? Hoping it will not take too much longer to settle.
We had a top up loan in 2017 which tool it up to 10k, 6682 of that was used to pay off the first loan of 4k that we had been paying for about 18 months. Just wondering whatbthey current timeline is and if we can / should ask for a holiday payment this month?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry no idea about timescales, this is a New Invention and I gave no idea how many people are being asked to do it. If a lot of cases prove complicated then if voukd turn into an administration nightmare.
Have they upheld your complaints about both loans?
If you can give me the figures I can make a guess at what the decision is likely to be…
You had two loans?
For the first loan of 4k What payments did you make? Eg. 13 payments of £142 what payments did your guarantor make (if any)?
For the top-up loan of 10k, you received 3318 in cash? What payments did you make? Eg. 13 payments of £142 what payments did your guarantor make (if any)?
Have you paid your guarantor back for some/all of the payments they made? Do you want your guarantor to be refunded by Amigo?
Clare says
Can I follow on from this pls…. I had three loans with amigo. The third was upheld and cleared approx 8 weeks ago. But I lost over 2k from the first two loans.
I accepted their offer but then sent this to FCO quite some time ago. Friday I emailed Amigo to tell them what I had done, within an hour I had a text from Amigo to tell me my DSAR was being sent to me, could this mean they are going over my case again? I have heard nothing from FO
Clare says
Should have said lost over 2k in unpaid interest.
I’m assuming if they uphold the first two loans, you get the interest back from them and the unpaid interest charge?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t really guess. It is possible they have the DSARs being sent out on a completely different work stream, not linked to the decision making on complaints.
If they uphold the first two loans you get the interest back from them and no unpaid interest can be relevant.
So these “early loans upheld” cases aren’t decisions on the unpaid interest element, that has just vanished, but who cares as the people are now getting a full refund…
clare says
Hi, following on from this. I have had an email from Amigo today to say that FO have been in touch with them to discuss the first two loans that were not upheld and the unpaid interest charge.
Amigo advised it’s being investigated. She said the DSAR is sent my another department and may or may not be relevant.
Sara, if at all possible, could you please work out what my potential redress would be on the first two loans?
Here are my figures.
Loan 1 – £3500
7x payments of £170.76
Settlement of old agreement £3213.78
Loan 2- £5000
18x payments £197.62
Settlement of old agreement £4373.67
Both of the above were not upheld.
Loan 3 UPHELD
£6750
18x payments of £266.79
This loan was deemed unaffordable and was cleared, but I was given an unpaid interest penalty of £2300
Any advise on redress for the first two loans would be much appreciated.
Clare
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers I make the interest you have paid as follows:
loan 1 £904
loan 2 £2,919
loan 3 not yet repaid the 6750 borrowed, still £1,962 to go to repay that
If all three are upheld, the interest from the first two clears the reduced balance on the last one and you should get a cash of £1,861. Plus a very small bit of 8% interest.
Clare says
Amigo have emailed me today to say they are currently discussing my case with the FO, I’m hoping this is positive news.
DM says
Hi Sara, please can you have a look at the below for me. I have managed to get Amigo to start looking at my complaint from the 6th Aug after a number of calls (guarantor made one partial payment of £67 in July 2013) which was holding it up and we have both completed the survey confirming I have paid him pack. Please can you work out what my redress could potentially be for each loan:
Loan 1 Nov 2011 FLM -£3300 x8 payments of £161.01 (included £300 broker fee)
Loan 2 Dec 2012 – £5000 ( Settlement £2429.33 -payout £2570.67) x28 payments of £197.62
Loan 3 May 2015 – £5250 (settlement £4008.97 – payout £1241.03) x15 payments of £207.51
Loan 4 Aug 2016 – £7000 (settlement £4830.62 – payout £2169.38) x17 payments of £276.67
Loan 5 Feb 2018 – £9500 (settlement £6317.22 – payout £3182.78) x32 payments of £375.49
Outstanding balance 23/11/20 £7115.03
I make it total benefit £12463.86
Total Paid £25365.08
Not expecting them to uphold all loans but if they did would be refund of Total interest paid £12901.22 and balance of £7115.03 written off?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I make it total benefit £12463.86 – I agree with that
But I make the interest paid on each loan as follows:
loan 1 £418
loan 2 £4,525
loan 3 £2,686
loan 4 £4,010
loan 5 £2,500
so a total of total £14,139 – that would be your cash refund and the balance is written off.
Plus about £1500 in 8% interest.
Justin says
Hi Sara
Can you help workout how my redress would be if my loans are upheld please?
1) 26 Oct 2017 £10,000.00 48 months
£427.75pm for 6 months
2) 07 May 2018 £10,000.00 36 months
£487.89pm for 6 months
3) 05 Dec 2018 £10,000.00 36 months
£487.89pm for 6 months
4) 31 May 2019 £15,000.00 36 months £731.84pm
(I haven’t been charged interest on the last loan for six months, since I made a complaint)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you say how much you received in cash from each of the top up loans please.
And the total payments you have paid so far to the current loan – ignore if they are interest or principal, just the amount of money you have paid them.
Justin says
Loan 1 – £10000 received. Paid back £2566.50
Loan 2 – £10000 top up. £501.53 received. Paid back £2927.34
Loan 3 – £10000 top up. £584.10 received. Paid back £2927.34
Loan 4 – £15000 top up. £5476.39 received. Paid back £10265.76
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers I make you have paid the following in interest on each loan:
loan 1 £2,061
loan 2 £2,338
loan 3 £2,446
loan 4 not yet rep[aid the 15k borrowed £4,735 short
So if they are all upheld the interest on the first three loans will be used to clear the balance of 4735 and give you a csh refund of £2,110. Plus a small amount of 8% interest.
Michelle says
Hello Sarah ,
Iv just had 2 out 3 of my loan complaints with amigo up held , my last loan with amigo was 08/2018 they have said they lent to me irresponsibly and have refunded the interest , my question is , a month later 09/2018 I also took a U.K. credit loan out , does that mean if amigo lent to me irresponsibly so did UK credit a month later ?
Thanks
Jack says
Yes Michelle, I done exactly the same. Get a complaint sent into uk credit I found them very quick and easy to deal with.
Sam says
Hi,
I put an in affordability complaint in with amigo for 4 loans. I just want to check I can do all 4 (includes 3 top ups) under the same complaint?
Also do I have to wait until the 8 week make to take it to FOS? as it’s been 6 weeks and I don’t feel confident they will reply, they did send me the SAR Though
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, you are complaining about all their lending to you in one complaint.
You have to wait for 8 weeks.
Tina says
Hi Sara,
Amigo have finally upheld loan 1 :) I am now waiting on a redress.
Would you be able to work out what this may be with the figures I have given?
Thank you 😊
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’ve put this in a new thread as the previous one was old and long (https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-49/#comment-378061)
Excellent. Amigo give in again on an unpaid interest case by agreeing the other loans were unaffordaable.
So are these the correct numbers?
Loan 1 £5000 – March 2014 26 x £197.00
Loan 2 -5000 – June 2016 Cash payout – £1264.58 32 x £197.00
Loan 3 -£5000 – March 2019 Cash payout – £1434.00 13 x 197.00 or have you made more payments?
Tina says
Hi Sara,
No, I haven’t made anymore payments since the above figures.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok then I make the interest you have paid so far is:
loan 1 £3,858
loan 2 £4,870
loan 3 only paid £2561 so £2,439 of the 5k borrowed
If they are all refunded, the interest paid on loans 1 & 2 wipes out the balance of £2439 on the current loan, giving you a cash refund of £6,289. Plus a few hundred in 8% interest
Tina says
Hi Sara,
Just a little update. I received my redress yesterday which was as follows
“Interest paid to be refunded: £4,071.16
8% statutory interest awarded: £96.12
20% tax already deducted from 8%: £24.03
Reversal of unpaid interest: £2,356.49
Total interest refund due: £6,523.77
This interest refund will firstly be applied to the current outstanding capital balance on your current loan, which stands at £95.51 to clear this in full. You then will be refunded any difference and this is expected to come to £6,428.26.
I believe the 8% is a little low but after having a conversation with Amigo I realised I was fighting a losing battle so I just accepted their offer.
Thank you so much for all your help. This is going to go a huge way in clearing the debt I have gotten into trying to keep up with this loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So that is pretty close to my estimated of wiping out the balance and a cash refund of £6,289 plus a few hundred in 8% interest.
Not sure why Amigo’s base refund is a bit higher and the 8% looks low, but overall I would agree that doesn’t seem worth arguing about.
Well persevered with this!
Andrea says
Hi Tina, did you accept their first offer? To uphold the first two loans or did you reject it? Step in the right direction and well done, good news for everyone who’s waiting on the Ombusman
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Her first offer was to uphold loans 2 & 3, and she sent it to the Ombudsman. I don’t think FOS made a decision, I think Amigo changed their minds :) This has happened to several people.
Tina says
Sorry Andrea, I have only just seen this. I rejected their offer of upholding loan 2 and 3 and took my case to the fos. It was only when amigo started chasing me for money again ( I was on a payment break) that amigo advised I could have accepted offer for loan 2 and 3 and still sent loan 1 to fos. My case was then picked up with fos, who then recommended to amigo that loan was also unaffordable. Amigo told 3 weeks to go back to fos to accept their recommendation and will uphold loan 1 as a “gesture of goodwill”
My complaint was originally submitted in January so it’s not been a quick process but finally at the end :)
Hope this helps and good luck 🤞🏻
Debbie says
I’m in a similar position- they accepted loans 1 and 2 and just paid out redress yesterday but rejected the 3rd loan which I found strange as my complaint and evidence was all regarding the 3rd loan. Do you advise I send it to the FOS and make amigo aware I’m doing this? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
did you tell Amigo you accepted their offer? Did they say it was in final settlement of the complaint?
Debbie says
Yes it was as the final offer and I told them I accepted the redress but dispute the defended loan. The lady was really nice who has dealt with it all and said she understood and I could send all the information on to FOS and she supplied me with all the details to contact them. It’s just the more I think about it I keep thinking did she mean before I accepted?! But she didn’t word it like that in the email as I said I accept the offer but will dispute the non upheld loan. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then send the case to FOS now.
You were clear. They either accepted you sending the latest loan to FOS or they should have been very clear thst you couldn’t.
Natasha says
Debbie can I ask did you reject an initial offer,? I just did and now im worried they will just tell me its tough ive had my chance
Thanks
Debbie says
Hi,
No I accepted the offer on the 2 loans that has just been paid out and sent all the information to FOS last week for the rejected loan.
Suzi says
Hi Sara, I’m currently guarantor for an Amigo loan. The borrower has recently had a redress of thier loan under an interest complaint. They have an affordability complaint for 2 loans, that went to the obudsman in September but I suspect there will be some delay as I made a single payment of 335.96 last year. My main question is if thier complaint is upheld will I be released as guarantor? I sent in a complaint to Amigo last week saying that they should have never given to loan out I the first place due to it being unaffordable to the borrower. Was I too hasty since the borrower hasn’t had his verdict yet?
The borrower is an old work colleague I worked with and I have said in my complaint that I felt pressured into it. I recieved my DSAR yesterday but they haven’t included the “budget plans” I did online, do Amigo keep those on your file?
I’ve been so stressed about this for the past few years and only became aware last week that I as the guarantor could complain as well.
Thanks for your hard work,
From Suzi
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My main question is if thier complaint is upheld will I be released as guarantor?
yes you should be.
Were the loan repayments unaffordable for you?
they haven’t included the “budget plans” I did online, do Amigo keep those on your file?
can you say some more about what these are?
Suzi says
Thanks for your swift reply, the budget plan is the form filled out online. In the phone calls we had Amigo say I filled out most of it online but I cannot find it any where in the DSAR they sent me. I’m looking into the affordability for myself I’m just trying to gather as much evidence as possible before proceeding with it. If the borrower is successful with his complaint then in theory I should be released as guarantor and I won’t have to take any further action.
I’m not sure how long the wait will be for results and they’ve sent out a default notice to the borrower, which is causing me a lot of anxiety.
Thanks,
From Suzi
Lisa says
Hi
does anyone know what is going on with Amigo. They upheld loans 2 and 3 for me ages ago and I received redress but i took loan 1 complaint to FOS. I had a decision that it was upheld and Amigo were given a date in September to respond to adjudicator. They failed to respond and were given two further deadlines with the last on on 13th November which they have also missed. The adjudicator has said they have passed this to a senior at FOS but i havent heard anything since. I have just logged into Amigo on their website to try and get a contact number so I can chase them and they have a notice on there stating they are not accepting any new loan applications due to COVID. Should I be worried they are going into liquidation?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Should I be worried they are going into liquidation?
A lot of lenders aren’t lending at the moment.
They have just appointed a new CEO and a lot of new board members. They aren’t acting like a firm that is just about to go under, although I suppose it must be possible.
Lisa says
Phew, i missed out to too many that i dont want to miss this one too. Thank you for your reply as always.
Lisa says
I emailed the FOS for an update saying Amigo had stopped issuing loans and this is the response:
We are aware that Amigo Loans are not in financial difficulty, they are at present attempting to resolve something with the Financial Conduct Authority, which is why they have stopped new lending.
frogman says
Hello All,
Please has anyone who had missed payment recorded on their credit file by Amigo checked their credit file again after Amigo upheld, refunded and closed account ?
My account is showing as settled and closed but I can still see the missed payment. This should have been taken off as per communication from them after they upheld my claim. The ‘close date’ on credit file is 25th of Sept so over two months now. I have the same problem with Lending stream with account showing settled but the default still there.
I have written to them and below is what I got.
”I have passed your case over to the relevant department so they can investigate it. Please bear in mind that after we send our update request to credit agencies, the process will normally take around 3 months. Occasionally this can take longer, especially if the agencies have a backlog to work through”
Jack says
Hi
Anyone who has complaints paused with amigo that has to fill the questionnaires in has anyone had a response since? They still seem very slow and don’t know when they will likely get round to a response…
Ruth says
Still waiting on the questionnaire. Rang today and the guy said it would be “weeks not months” in receiving it and then I would get a response “pretty much straight after”…..that last part made me chuckle a bit, I’m expecting nothing until end of the year. It’s been 14 weeks since they acknowledged my complaint…did receive the DSAR finally last week though
M says
I’m still waiting on my questionnaire but they said that once it goes out and they receive it, it goes back into a queue with the case handler and they would then look into it and make a decision of uphold or defend. Amigo should prioritise people who have waited well over 8 weeks but from what it sounds like they’re treating new complaints and old unanswered ones in no particular order.
Lisa b says
I’m on week 18 just had my email questionnaire if that helps any
Jack says
I had my questionnaire last week now they say it’s with a case handler but can’t give a time frame on how long it will take. The idea of the questionnaire is that the loans should be upheld they just need to figure out who the redress goes to I believe , correct me if I am wrong.
Ruth says
That would certainly be more sensible given all the time it’s taken already! Fingers crossed for everyone
Lisa b says
Hi jack have you heard anything yet I’m about a week behind you
Thanks
Jack says
Hi Lisa,
No i have heard nothing, i keep pestering them everyday because i cant see what the hold up is now. my case is very simple and i would of thought that my investigation should of been complete pending the pause of the guarantor payments.
God knows if they are trying to cover up anything else. my redress wouldn’t be to much i think around 2k… i have seen others complain after me and been paid out already
I have also looked on here for people that had the questionnaires before me but not seen anyone write anything.
Lisa b says
Hi thank you for your response can I be a pest and ask you to
Keep us updated please
Both I and my guarantor has said I didn’t pay them back
Holly says
Buddy loans are driving me insane apart from money boat they have been so awful to deal with – I’ve put in an affordability complaint which they rejected now with FOS I’ve set up a payment plan with them they’ve accidentally taken the full payments twice so I’ve had to call them to sort it out . Guarantor has lost her job and has been diagnosed with a mental health condition they’ve asked her to check in with them every 30 days to see if she now has a job to cover the short fall – my payment plan was supposed to be an ongoing thing I now have to send them another income and expenditure with bank statements all over again . I myself have been suffering with mental health and am finding this extremely draining and frustrating .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why don’t you cancel the direct debit to them and set up a standing order instead, so they can’t get it wrong?
have you told FOS about their mistakes and your mental health problems?
Holly says
That’s a good idea sara thank you – and no I haven’t actually I shall add that on