UPDATES:
(1) Amigo are proposing a second Scheme of Arrangement, after their first was was rejected as being unfair to customers. If you haven’t already put in a complaint, it is now too late to send one in by email using the template on this page.
(2) Buddy Loans went into administration on 7 September 2021. See Guarantor lender Buddy Loans goes into administration if you are a Buddy customer.
Guarantor loans are very expensive. Often the lender didn’t check properly that you will be able to manage the loan repayments without having to borrow more.
If proper checks would have shown that you couldn’t afford the repayments, complain! There is a template letter in this article to help you.
You can get an existing loan reduced so you only repay the amount you borrowed, or get a refund if your loans have been repaid
If your complaint is rejected you can send the case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) who is upholding a lot (90%!) of guarantor loan complaints.
If you are the guarantor not the borrower, read Complaining if you are a guarantor which has a different template letter to use.
Contents
What is an affordability complaint?
A loan is not affordable if paying it left you so short of money you had to top up the loan, or borrow more from another lender or get behind with bills.
Does this sound like you? Then make an affordability complaint.
Just making the payments doesn’t prove the loan was affordable! You may have been repaying with difficulty, taking out other loans, because you didn’t want your guarantor to be affected.
You can complain if you are still paying the loan or if you have repaid it all.
If you win your complaint:
- interest is removed from a loan you still owe, so you only repay what you borrowed;
- your guarantor is released from the loan; and
- you can arrange to pay the remaining balance at a reduced rate.
When your loans have already been settled, you get a refund of the interest you paid.
What should the lender have checked?
Guarantor lenders should have checked the loan was affordable for you before giving you the money.
The lender should have made sure you were likely to be able to make the repayments for the whole length of the loan.
Guarantor loans are large financial commitments. So I would expect a lender to have asked for evidence of your income, to have checked your credit record, and to have verified your expenses.
Some things a lender may have got wrong:
- It doesn’t matter if your guarantor is well off, the loan has to be affordable for you!
- You may have given said your expenditure was lower than it was, because you were guessing or desperate. The lender should have checked your figures.
- If you were self-employed or had wages that varied, the lender should have looked at how your income went up and down.
- The lender should have checked your credit record to see all your debts. If you had recently taken more loans or missed payments/defaulted, the lender should have been careful as your position was getting worse.
- When you top up a loan, the lender should check the new larger loan is affordable. If the current loan was causing you problems or your finances had got worse you shouldn’t have been given a larger loan.
If you feel there was something else unfair about your case, add that into your complaint as well!
What would a “fair solution” be?
If the lender or the Ombudsman decides the loan wasn’t affordable, this is what happens:
- The loan has been repaid, then any interest you paid should be refunded to you.
- The loan is still outstanding, then interest should be removed from the balance that is owing, so you only repay what you borrowed. Your guarantor should be released from the loan. The lender should accept an affordable monthly payment from you to repay the rest.
- Any payments made by the guarantor are refunded to the guarantor, not to you.
Will a complaint affect your guarantor?
Complaining won’t affect your guarantor if you carry on making the payments. The guarantor shouldn’t be told you have complained unless your complaint is being upheld.
If you stop paying the loan when you make a complaint, the lender may decide to get your guarantor to pay it. If you don’t want this to happen, you have to somehow carry on making the payments even though it’s hard.
If you can’t afford to carry on paying and you don’t want to hurt your guarantor talk to a debt adviser about your options in this difficult situation.
Making an affordability complaint won’t make things worse, and it may help in a few months time, but it isn’t an immediate escape from your problem.
Think about whether your guarantor also had a good reason to complain – see Complaining if you are a guarantor for details. If they win a complaint, they will be removed as a guarantor, which would take a lot of pressure off you.
How to complain to the lender
A template complaint to use
Send your complaint by email – here is a list of lender’s email addresses.
Use SAR AND COMPLAINT BY BORROWER as the email title.
Here is a template. Change it to describe what happened to you and delete what doesn’t apply.
Only put this in if it applies to you: I took a top up of [£2,500] in [March 2018]
Add a reference number for the loan or give some other details such as your date of birth and your address when you took the loan out.
Please send me a copy of all the personal information that you have about me, including but not limited to all credit record checks, a copy of my loan application(s) and recordings of all phone calls from me. You have 30 days to reply to this Subject Access Request (SAR).
I am making an affordability complaint. This loan was/These loans were unaffordable for me and you would have realised this if you had checked properly before giving me the loan(s).
Delete or change any of the following so they are right for you:
[You would have seen from my credit record that I had recently missed payments/had defaults/was in a DMP/IVA.]
[I was on a low income/My only income was my pension/benefits.]
[You did not ask me for proof of my income or expenses and you did not ask about my expenses in detail.]
[I get ESA/PIP/DLA but you did not ask me if I had any extra expenses because of this.]
[I had a gambling problem which you could have seen from my bank statements.]
If you topped up the original loan: When I topped up the loan you should have seen from my credit record that my financial situation had got worse. [delete if not relevant: You ignored the fact that I had made several payments late to you.]
If you still owe money:[I am asking you to remove the interest from the balance so I only have to repay what I borrowed, release my guarantor and allow me to make lower monthly payments.]
If the loan has been repaid change that to [refund me the interest that I have paid plus 8% statutory interest.]
If you don’t want your guarantor to be told: [I want to carry on making the normal monthly payments because I do not want my guarantor to be affected. Please note I do not want my guarantor to be informed about my complaint unless my complaint is upheld.]
You have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint before I send it to the Financial Ombudsman.
If you would like some help with this, then go to your local Citizens Advice.
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 will expect you to pay their high percentage fee immediately even though you have not received any cash refund and still have the rest of the loan to pay.
Credit limit too high? Ask for a refund
Complaints about large high cost loans
John says
Hi Sara,
I am seeking some advice. IV contacted you before to say that I accepted a basic offer of repayment of interest however still awaiting the redress figures. It has now been 6 weeks since accepting the offer through the FOS. What further action can I take to try and obtain redress figures from Amigo.
My guarantor made some [payments.
Cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you been asked to complete a form saying if you have repaid the guarantor for any of those?
John says
No, this is why I’m so confused.
I accepted the generic offer prior to the whole questionnaire fiasco. However no redress figures to date.
Thanks
Lisa b says
Has anyone heard anything after filling in questionnaire yet ?
I have rang been told weeks not months
13 days since I have sent mine back
Jack says
Nothing yet, It’s just one of those things where we will have to wait … It is abit silly though the time people are having to wait. I’m on 9 days now so hopefully soon.
Ruth says
No nothing, also been nearly 2 weeks. Just keep getting told it’s down to the case and no definitive time frame. Absolutely ridiculous
Lisa b says
Would be so nice for it be sorted before Christmas
njw says
Hi
Just had an update regarding my Guarantour loan complaint (not amigo). It doesn’t involve any guarantour payments. FOS have said my complaint is currently on hold until a senior ombudsman makes a decision on how FOS review some of their complaints. They wont tell me what they are reviewing or why though?? Any one had a similar experience?
Jon says
Hi all.
My amigo complaint was picked up by an investigator yesterday at the financial ombudsman, has anyone got any sort of timescale of how long it takes them to make a decision.
Chris says
Jon, when did you send to FOS. I sent in October and have heard nothing. Amigo will not reply to me now. I feel like I’m stuck in limbo.
Jon says
Chris.
I sent my complaint to the financial ombudsman on the 30th June. Unfortunately there’s not a lot you can do to speed the process up but sending a copy of your credit file with your complaint helps and get old bank statements ready in case these are asked for, apart from that, it’s pretty much a waiting game.
pol says
Hi jon, my case was upheld in June by an adjudicator but was rejected by buddy loans, was then passed to ombudsman for final decision and I’m still waiting to hear. Its just a waiting game
Siobhan says
My timescale is a long one. Originally complained in April 2019, sent to FOS in sept/Oct 19, was picked up end of June this year, had to send bank statements etc to adjudicator. FOS made their decision to uphold my complaint early October, only a week after I’d sent them all the info. Amigo was given until 3/11 to respond, well they haven’t. They won’t give me a timescale and are being extremely offhand. I’ve got another complaint with them because they sent me details of someone’s loan that wasn’t nothing to do with me.
Holly Bruce says
Hi Sara,
Wonder if you could advise me further, original loan taken out in 2012, I have written to Amigo who have advised they have searched and my data has now been removed from their systems. Suggesting if I feel this is inappropriate then I can complain to the ICO.
How does this help me now? Any tips of how to proceed with this?
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have details of this loan eg emails? or bank statements?
Holly Bruce says
Hi Sarah,
I have a copy of my credit report detailing the loan and can obtain bank statements.
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I suggest you send the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman now. And get those bank statements now as they will be needed.
Don’t send it to the ICO – that is a very misleading thing for Amigo to say to you!
Holly Bruce says
Thanks Sara. In your experience are these kind of claims normally successful?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It all depends on the individual case but yes, over 80% of guarantor loan cases are being won at the Ombudsman.
Karen says
That’s very strange, I took a loan out with them in 2012 I recently emailed to ask for a full statement of the account they sent me a list of all the payments wonder why they are saying they haven’t got yours from that time.
Holly bruce says
That’s interesting. It’s all very confusing! Think I’ll proceed with the ombudsmen 👍🏻
Gareth says
I have got my SARS request back from Buddy Loans do I need to do anything or do I still wait for a response to time claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have to wait for a response to your affordability complaint. If you haven’t had a response by 8 week, you can send it to FOS then.
If the case has to go to FOS, the SAR has information you may find useful. But there is nothing that needs to be done with it at the moment.
Megan says
Hi Sara. I just want to say a massive Thankyou. Today Amigo accepted the offer from the FOS and are upholding all 4 of my loans. I’m over the moon. I couldn’t of done this without your help. If possible could I have a rough estimate of what you think I may get back in interest? I took 4 loans out which in total came to £7,250. I’ve worked out all my payments and since the very first loan I have paid £10,626.22. What figure do you think I would be looking at for a refund? Thankyou again!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
has your last loan finished or do you still owe a balance? If it is finished, when was the last payment?
did your guarantor make any payments?
I took 4 loans out which in total came to £7,250
is this the total of the loan amounts? or is it the total of the amounts you received in cash?
since the very first loan I have paid £10,626.22
is this the total of the monthly payments made? or does it include loan settlement amounts from the top up loans?
Megan says
Hi Sara sorry just seen your reply above! Apologies! I’ve answered the questions you asked below..
has your last loan finished or do you still owe a balance? If it is finished, when was the last payment?
-no it still has a balance of £6,700. I made my most recently payment of £286.56 in October 2020 and won’t be paying more.
did your guarantor make any payments?
-my guarantor has made no payments
I took 4 loans out which in total came to £7,250
is this the total of the loan amounts? or is it the total of the amounts you received in cash?
-Sorry I don’t understand what you mean by this, is this not the same thing?
since the very first loan I have paid £10,626.22
is this the total of the monthly payments made? or does it include loan settlement amounts from the top up loans?
-this is how much I have paid in monthly payments since I first took out the very first loan.
Thanks, megan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you had a top up loan of say £2500, some of that would have been used to settle the previous loan and the rest is given to you in cash.
I am asking if the £7250 figure is the total you received in cash? Or the toal amount of the loans?
If it is the total amount of the loans, I will need to know how much you received in cash.
Megan says
That makes sense! So what would be under ‘pay out’ on my statements..
It was ..
Loan 1 – £3,000
Loan 2 – £1,257.74
Loan 3 – £787.41
Loan 4 – £2562.65
Which totals to: £7,607.80
Jon says
Hi Megan.
How long did it take, from the time an investigator picked your complaint up, to the time they reached a decision, as my complaint got picked up by an investigator this week.
Thanks jon
Simon says
The time it takes will depend on things like how many loans you had and the FOS getting your business file from Amigo. The latter can cause delays as obviously Amigo dont see it as urgent as yourself and they will have many cases to respond too. I very much doubt you will get a response now before Xmas. One bit of advice….Dont keep checking every few hours on your emails as it will drive you mad. If you do get a redress, thos can be equally painful in terms of the time it takes for them to pay it. Hang in there!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless a case has been given priority with FOS they won’t normally pick up a case until the lender has supplied the case file.
Megan says
Hi Jon, it took a good couple of month. But I have still been complaining to amigo since and been an itch they can’t scratch. I think they’re glad to be rid of me to shut me up haha. Hope all goes well! X
Shannon says
Hi I just want to ask when they ask for the banks statements and the loans have been paid but it was 2016 and 2017 I’m no longer with that bank so how would I get bank statements to prove it
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just ask the bank – That isn’t long ago and you should get the bank statements easily but it may not be quick, so ask now so you have them ready.
Harry says
Hi Sara,
I wrote to you beforehand as Amigo used the “cant find your details, complain to the ICO” line with me for a loan in 2012-2015. I sent off for the bank statements as suggested (just waiting on them now). In the meantime I write to amigo and said what will the ICO complaint achieve as it seems irrelevant, attached my loan agreements, explained I’d have bank statements and take it to the FOS. They then replied stating “ Thank you for your email and apologies for the miscommunication from our previous emails.
I’m sorry to hear you’re unhappy with your loan.
I am writing to you in regards to a complaint that was raised so that we can investigate the matters brought to our attention.
We will be issuing a written response to your complaint, following our investigation.
Our guidelines allow us 8 weeks in which to respond to you. As we’re currently trying to help lots of customers, please don’t worry if you don’t receive a reply from us before the 8 weeks is up, we will keep you posted with the progress of your complaint and when you can expect to receive a reply from us.“
Should I get the bank statements when they arrive and go to the FOS, or wait the 8 weeks do you think please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so I suggest you tell them the complaint goes to the Ombudsman 8 weeks from dd/mm/yy which is when you sent it to Amigo.
Harry says
Ok great, thank you. Will update in here if anything changes as I have seen others getting similar responses.
Cheers as always!
Karen says
I am about to send in my complaint to amigo they sent me statements from all my loans of all payments made on in starting 2012, did you send bank statements to amigo or do you just send them to FOS if the case goes there
Karen
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send statements to Amigo. See the And do send bank statements! section in the article above.
Miss Sunshine says
Hi All……Has anyone had any luck with TFS Loans! How long did anyone wait for settlement after ombudsman ruled in favour?
Andrea says
Still waiting since March and no further on.
My loan was 10 days over 6 years and they wouldn’t look at it. Straight to Ombusman, waited till August to be picked up by Adjudicator. He agreed with me and says yes I can pursue, they have ignored him and finally says take to Ombusman, been waiting a further 2 months for the Ombusman to look at it. If they agree we can then start putting the case across.
TFS won’t take any adjudicators word they play for time. Don’t expect any results soon.
Miss Sunshine says
Nightmare Andrea,
Both adjudicator and Ombudsman have ruled in my favour so who knows what will happen now. Good luck with your case!
Andrea says
And you too, how long has it taken you to get to that point?
Miss Sunshine says
Since February Andrea!
Jordan says
Good evening, I was wondering if you could help.
I received a payment from Uk credit after they admitted they lent irresponsibly.
I have the same claim in with amigo as I took both loans out at the same time with both companies. I had 2 £10000 loans out with both companies at the same time.
Uk credit have been amazing and I’ve received the money in my bank with in 6 weeks of claiming.
Still awaiting Amigos response but Am I pretty much guaranteed the same outcome from amigo? Should I expect them to admit to lending irresponsibly to?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a good chance that the Ombudsman will uphold the Amigo case! But whether Amigo will, who knows…
If it has been more than 8 weeks, I suggest you tell Amigo that the case goes to FOS in a week’s time if they haven’t responded by then.
Toby says
Hi
Thought I’d share my experience of how my complaint against Amigo has gone for others who are still at the early stages. I’ve basically had 5 loans since 2015.
I raised my complaint in June this year directly to Amigo through the Resolver web site. Pretty much got a generic email every so often telling me they were still looking into the complaint, they went well over the 8 weeks they should have to responded by.
September they make an offer on 2 of the 5 loans I had and rejected the other 3. I accepted, money was in account within 2 days.
Once I received the payment I then went to the FOS about the remaining loans as didn’t agree they can accept fault for 2 loans which were loans 1&5 but not the middle loans 2,3&4 as them loans would never have happened had I not taken out the very first one they have accepted responsibility for as that’s the one that led to the constant top up loans.
November (two weeks ago) FOS contact me saying they’ve gone in my favour and Amigo are to pay all interest on every loan I had with them, plus 8% and removal of any bad info on my credit file.
It’s been a long process but finally getting somewhere. If anyone’s had the FOS go in their favour, would love to know the process from now as still haven’t heard from Amigo in terms of the FOS decision so don’t know if I should be expecting a letter, email or text etc?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo normally do accept adjudicator decisions, but they can be slow about doing this.
Jaish says
Hi Sara
I had several ( 15 loans) 7 months term jewllery pledge with Pickwick pawn brokers. Several time extended the loans. I paid all charges and took out my jewllery now. I don’t owe anything. Could I be able to claim anything from these loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but the affordability rules don’t apply to pawned items.
Zameer says
Hi i have recently submitted a claim to Amigo for irresponsible lending, I have followed the guideline set out on your website. Both me and my guarantor have been struggling financially. I am however still getting emails and letters from Amigo saying that a CCJ could be issued on your account. Is it possible for them to issue a CCJ before they respond to my complaint? Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo should not start court action while there is an open complaint with them or if they say No and you send it to the Ombudsman. The regulator’s rules say they should not go to court when a debt is in dispute.
Amigo seems to still send out threatening letters but no one, borrower or guarantor, has been taken to court in this situation that I can remember. I think they are just being unpleasant and trying to bluff you into paying.
What was your guarantor’s financial position at the time you took the loan out? At that point could they have afforded to make all the repayments and still paid their own debts, bills and everyday living expenses?
Liam says
I have a complaint against TFS loans that started in March regarding 2 loans the adjudicator agreed in my favour on the 30th October and gave TFS loans until the 13th November to submit their response the adjudicator has emailed me this morning stating that TFS loans have asked for the case to be referred to an ombudsman does anyone have any idea what chances I have of them also agreeing and how long it takes for the ombudsman to come back with a decision ?
Andrea says
I’m awaiting the same, currently 2 months in and a Ombusman not even picked it up yet.
AmigoAmigoYeeHa says
Hi Sara
How far are they going back on Amigo loans?
I was just about to wipe an old hard drive out when I discovered all my credit reports from 2011 to 2015
They all have FLM/Amigo entries.
Loan was for £3k, started Jan 2011 ended May 2013
£151 a month.
Interestingly there were 5 payday loans, 3 home shopping, 1 HP that all appear as open prior to the Amigo start date. (Had successfull claims for PPI of shopdirect and refunds on 2 or 3 payday – others pending the Administrator payouts)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go back to April 2007. If they reply that they don’t have any evidence about the loan, send them your credit records.
AmigoAmigoYeeHa says
Yeah got the email this morning saying they can’t find an account as I asked for GDPR..
So told them exactly from two of the files what it contained.
I bet this is going to be fun.
Can you please point me in the direction on how I can work out the APR.
All I have is the loan amount and the monthly contractual payments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it was probably 49%. But it doesn’t matter, you aren’t arguing the interest rate is too, high, you need to be able to show the monthly payments were unaffordable.
Any chance of getting you old bank statements? You can still win a case at the ombudsman without these but it makes things easier.
AmigoAmigoYeeHa says
I might be able to but it will cost me about to get them.
As halifax says it’s £5 per statement.
Can I get account history via GDPR?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, you can say you don’t need copies of the statements, just a list of balances and transactions. And if this was just lone loan, you only need 6 months worth – 3 months before you took the loan and 3 months afterwards.
AmigoAmigoYeeHa says
Well despite sending them the info they have said tried to locate information which we may still have on file. due to age data may have been removed for data protection.
Also goes on to say they also may never have had a loan agreement with me!!
So based on that, that would be a full and final response wouldn’t it – FOS next or ICO (as they have said to log a complaint with them?)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS. There is absolutely no chance that complaining to the ICO will help you.
Did Amigo tell you you had the right to take the complaint to FOS?
AmigoAmigoYeeHa says
Nope.
This is the exact message they sent:
“Thank you for your email. I have tried to locate information which we may still have on file. From this review I believe that due to the time which has elapsed the data may have been removed for data protection.
However, we also may never have had a loan agreement with yourself.
You can submit a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you feel this information should be on record. Their helpline number is 0303 123 1113. “
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well send this to FOS now. Also say in your FOS complaint that you think Amigo were unhelpful and obstructive in telling you to complain to the ICO when they should have told you you had the right to take your complaint to FOS.
Tom says
Hi all,
Around 2 weeks ago I sent off the supporting documents to the adjudicator and today received an email asking for small additional information. He confirmed that after looking over my bank statements that there is evidence of the 5 loans I took out with amigo, and he said that he hopes to complete the assessment of my claim by the end of next week.
The loans with amigo put me in more financial trouble, and my family had to help pay off around 9000 of the balance, and in total I think I paid around £17k to amigo in loan repayments.
Here’s hoping at least one of them is upheld, as it will finally allow me to become debt free.
I will update when I have my decision, fingers crossed it the good news I’ve been hoping for.
Regardless, this website helped me claim back around £1000 from other loans, so I’m so grateful of the advice I’ve had over the past few years.
Thank you Sara.
John says
Hey looking for some advice, November 2018 I took 3 pay day loans, an unsecured £1000 loan with bamboo and a guarantor loan with amigo in the space of 4 days, Amigo being the last one of the 5 of £1000 over 12 months, I made a payment to amigo in December and January 18/19 for £103 the other 4 loans i never made a payment, I then took a top up guarantor loan from amigo in January 19 for £5000, £875 to clear loan 1 and received the £4125 i made 7 payments by card of £243.95 on time but DD then bounced on most of the payments of that 7. From then every payment is made by card by guarantor before due date and DD bouncing. I personally think that it’s irresponsible lending all payments are made up to date and currently still owe £2796 at 14 months of payment. There is absolutely no way I could have passed an affordability check and my default history along with my worsening financial situation in those 3 months should never have been passed if they’ve even done the proper checks. I am wondering where I stand with a an irresponsible lending claim, also would that count as guarantor paying the payments all those months or me? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are you on good terms with your guarantor? are they able to make these payments without problems for them? have you repaid them any money?
John says
I am on good terms with the guarantor but it’s starting to cause problems, I paid all loan 1 £1000 which was with another guarantor, 2 payments then i topped up £5000 and paid loan 1 off and first 7 payments from loan 2 with help from the guarantor,and from then it’s been paid by card and every DD has bounced on the date, the problem that we both have is I couldn’t afford it and the guarantor didn’t want to miss a payment as one payment was short and they contacted him by phone and emails. I at time of loan 1 I had at least 5/6 or 7 other form of loan/credit in arrears. To then the top up 3 months later it was even worse terrible, I’m 99% sure amigo didn’t ask for bank statements from me, if they did they would have seen all other creditors, missed payments, huge gambling transactions, credit card outstanding. Credit check with Bank accounts with maxed overdraft, loan defaults, I think that they were irresponsible lenders on both occasions and most certainly the top ups, the guarantor feels that by them lending irresponsibly they’ve trapped him by telling him that the loan was affordable for myself when in my opinion looking at it I should never have been approved. Do you think it’s worth raising a claim, also where would we stand on who’s paid the loans as it’s been paid on time at great distress so technically it’s not defaulted?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The fact the payments have been made on time is not relevant, most people here who have won guarantor loan affordability complaints made all the payments on time.
Amigo are likely to treat the repayments from your guarantor’s card as having been made by them.
If you win an affordability complaint (and from what you have said it sounds a strong one) then Amigo has to decide whether to refund you or your guarantor. They will ask you and your guarantor whether you have repaid them. If you both say NO, then Amigo will probably refund the payments to your guarantor and then remove the payments from your account and also remove all the interest from the loan.
That may leave you owing more or less than you do at the moment – it depends on the exact numbers…do you know how much your guarantor has paid them?
If you are left owing more, you can complain to the Ombudsman that it is unfair that you have won your complaint and are left in a worse position.
Of course the big advanage of winning the complaint is that the guarantor is refunded and removed from the loan. So even if you do still owe Amigo money, you can then make an affordable payments arrangement to repay it, or get a debt management for that and all your other debts.
John says
I guess it all depends how it’s counted but from what I can gather, the guarantor has paid £3888 and i have paid £1458 with 13 payments of £243 left to go on my open loan of £5000. It sounds to me the guarantor should receive the redress and I would be liable for the short fall but would be without interest? If it helps one of the payday loans taken days before loan 1 was with quickquid who actually sent me an email this morning to say that it was unaffordable,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
would be without interest
interest would be removed from your balance.
There won’t be much 8% interest paid to the guarantor, but you won’t be liable for that.
John says
Sorry Sara, one last question if the ruling goes in the favour of me and the guarantor gets his payments back, can it be used to clear the balance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes!
Sophie says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for all the invaluable information and support.
I was just wondering if you could work out what I might expect from amigo (so they don’t try and fob me off).
Guarantor has not made any payments and the current balance is 8088.72
1st loan dec 2018- payout 2750
4x payments of 134.17
13th may 19-top up 1 settlement of agreement £2625.65
Cash Payout- 2624. 35
Balance- 5250
6x payments of 207.51
3rd Dec 2019 top up 2- settlement of old agreement £5218.95
Cash Payout- 3281.07
11x payments of 335.96.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On those numbers I make the interest you have paid on the three loans as:
loan 1 412
loan 2 1211
loan 3 not repaid the 8500 borrowed yet so no interest paid, still £4815 to go if interest is removed from this loan
So if all three loans are upheld, the interest from the first two is used to reduce the balance on the last loan, down to £3192. Your guarantor would be released and you can make a more affordable payments arrangement to clear this balance.
If one or both of the earlier loans are not upheld but the last one is, Amigo may make a deduction for “unpaid interest” which would leave you owing more. In this case you can send the case to FOS where it will join the long queue of complaints about this unfair deduction. If FOS decided this deduction is unfair (which I think it is!) then Amigo will have to settle all the outstanding complaints on that basis.
Alex says
Hi sara I’ve had my loan complaint upheld. The loan was for 3600 in 2010. My guarantor was my nan. My bank was a mess at the time she made 4 payments then took a personal loan for me that was more affordable. She paid about 4 payments of 140 then cleared it off at about 3300. Waiting for redress figures but am I right in thinking that they should refund her 3600ish plus 8 percent per year interest then add 3600 to me as a loan? Or will they add 3600 plus the interest to me as a loan balance? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What a pity she didn’t take that bank loan at the time for you and you never got involved with these high cost guarantor loans.
what date did she clear the loan?
have you repaid her since then?
what are your finances like at the moment?
Alex says
I know tell me about it. She cleared it around January 2011. I’ve paid her back already some time ago now. My finances are OK not great but got a good job now and pretty stable no big debt or anything unmanageable. Cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so if you tell Amigo you have repaid your guarantor and she says the same, then this should just be treated as though you had made all the payments and all the refund will come to you (assuming you win the complaint of course!)
The only disadvanatge of this is if Amigo decide to ask you both for proof that you have paid.
The alternative is for you both to tell Amigo you haven’t repaid her so she will be refunded and you will be left owing a debt. She could then refund you the money and you can clear the debt.
Alex says
Thanks sara. If we do that will she also receive 8 percent interest ? That would roughly
double the amount of redress so I could pay it off and shed be left with 3000 plus from the interest?
Loan payed out oct 2010 £3300
Payments made 4 x 151
Final payment to clear £3000 March 2011
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your guarantor would receive 8% interest on the whole amount she paid. As the borrower you would only receive 8% interest on the interest you paid… So between the two of you, you do get more interest if the guarantor claims the refund not the borrower.
This isn’t usually that big a difference but for these old loans the 8% definitely adds up!
Mr Echo says
Hello Sara,
I began an amigo loans affordability complaint 15/10/20
The loans run as follows:
Loan 1 – 23/09/2010
Loan amount £2000
24 monthly payments of £129.92
Interest – £1,118,08 (£200 of which is a brokerage fee so I’m not sure how that works)
I made 7 payments of the loan (one of which my guarantor paid)
With help I cleared the balance in total from here settling with £1729.48
Loan 2 – 21/09/16
Loan amount £2500
Interest £591.74
12 payments of £257.65
Loan 3 – 01/05/2018
Loan amount £5000
Interest £3,782,20
30 payments of £243.95 made
6 payments of £243.95 outstanding
Outstanding balance is £1463.70
If successful how much would I be due?
After 8 weeks I received an email saying I can move onto the financial ombudsman and that they hadn’t come up with a final decision.
They only just sent me the sar information on week 9 via an online cloud (egress) they say I have 30 days access to the information to download it.
They also contacted both my guarantors which I thought they weren’t meant to do. I filled out my questionnaire as did my guarantor who made no payments. My first guarantor who made 1 payment didn’t because he’s lazy but we’re on good terms so whatever the outcome we can sort it between ourselves (I paid him back in 2010 for his payment).
How long can amigo drag out a final response?
I read further up it’s a positive for my case they’ve contacted my guarantors, is that right?
Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers you have paid the following interest on each loan:
loan 1 £562
loan 2 £584
loan 3 £2290
So if they were all upheld, the balance would be wiped and you would get £3436 in cash.
I’m not sure it is positive that they contacted your guarantor if they didn’t make any payments – it sounds like more incompetent!
Mr Echo says
Hello Sara,
Thank you for your quick response, would that be inclusive of the 8% interest?
Also thank you for your help, I’ve made a few affordability complaints for payday loans whilst most of them are in administration or are already liquidated it’s well worth getting negative marks on your credit file. I’ve also claimed back £500 already, I’ve only been following since early October this year.
Great work
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, there would be some extra 8% interest. But not much as most of the refund amount is from the very recent loan.
Miss Sunshine says
Hi Sara,
Could you help please?
My Guarantor has sadly passed away, and I have had a ruling in my favour against Amigo by the FOS.
Guarantor had made some payments towards the said loan so how will that affect my case?
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Had you repaid your guarantor?
Do you know who is dealing with your guarantor’s estate?
Miss Sunshine says
Hi Sara,
Yes I had paid them back. Nobody dealing with Estate as passed away over 5 years ago.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case when Amigo don’t get a reply from him they will eventually agree to give all the refund to you.
Shannon says
Hi Sarah
Please can you help, I have been sent a letter from amigo to state that I will receive a refund of £10,238 as a garantour from payments I paid plus 8%. I am wondering if you can help as they are saying this debt will then go back to the borrower? He is on benefits and would not be able to pay the debt … so basically giving me a refund but then allowing the borrower to pay it off again? Is this right. Also if o was to accept the amount would it be taken out of my benefit monthly would it go down as earnings? Thank you! Sharon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has the borrower paid you back for any of the payments you made?
Does the borrower have a lot of other debt?
How many loans did the borrower have from Amigo that are being refunded? Did you make payments on all of them?
what benefits are you getting? Do you have any debts or are you behind with bills?
Sharon says
No not paid me back for anything yes he has a lot of debt. Two loans are being refunded and I’ve made the majority of them.
I am on Universal credit and work part time. I have some debts which are in a debt management plan a d I’m behind with a few bills.
Please help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so two issues:
the effect on the borrower
the borrower will effectively have the repayments you made that are being refunded to you put back onto the debt. BUT they have the interest from the debt removed, so that should make a big difference to them. They can then out this debt into a DMP, no effect on you any more, it’s just a normal debt.
They can also complain to the Financial Ombudsman if winning this complaint has left them worse off overall – FOS is looking at a few of these cases and FOS may decide the borrower can’t be left worse off, so Amigo would not be allowed to put them back into debt. This shouldn’t affect the refund that you get.
the effect on your benefits
A refund you get is not treated as income, it is treated as capital. If it is over £6k your Universal credit would be reduced… BUT you can use this money to pay off the debts in your DMP and get up to date with your bills, so that may take you to below the 6k?
Sharon says
thanks Sarah
How would UC know that I have Over 6k? As soon as it lands in the bank I was hoping to pay off another debt and get up to date with bills which would
Leave me under 6k like you said. Therefore it shouldn’t effect me should it?
Thank you! Fretting over this now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have to tell them, no one monitors your bank account. In practice if it takes you a few days to repay debt and settle bills this won’t matter – just sign into your UC account and report a “change of circumstances” – say you received £x on dd/mm/yy and have had to spend £yon paying bills and debts so you now have £z left in your bank account.
If the amount you have left is under 6k this shouldn’t be a problem. If it is, come back here and I’ll tell you the UC regulations to quote that say repaying debt does not count as deprivation of capital.
Kate says
Hi all,
I have been following this site since the beginning of the year. I lodged my complaint against amigo in February 2020. I currently owe them £12,000 after multiple top ups and have had a number of old loans with them that I paid off. They did not agree with my claim in July 2020. I had already gone to the ombudsman after the 8 weeks. Got allocated a case handler about 6 weeks ago. Sent my credit check and bank statements etc. She contacted me last week to say she should have a decision for me in the next two weeks. I am very nervous to say the least.
However, weirdly amigo didn’t take my payment last month. I have a dd set up and had kept aside enough money to cover it. I have not been contacted by them, nor has my guarantor.
Has anyone had experience of amigo not taking payments when a complaint is in?
Kate says
Hi all, just an update. I finally had a decision from the ombudsman yesterday and they agree with my complaint on loans 2-6. They have agreed with amigo on loan 1 only. They have given them until 13th Jan to respond. They have asked for me to only be charged for the money I actually received, refunded the interest etc and the 8% also.
It is such a relief but I am wary of amigo’s new scheme and whether I will be caught up in this. I just want the enormous debt gone. I asked my case handler about the scheme yesterday and she said they are being told to assess and make decisions as normal.
So, nearly a year later I am waiting to see whether amigo agree or not to the ombudsman decision, largely in my favour. I just wanted to say thank you for all your help from this site, even if my complaint continues to rumble on. I can see a chink of light in the distance. At 40 years old I may finally be debt free. This is the last thing left, as I have spent some time paying off other debts slowly.
Fingers and toes crossed that I, and you all have a positive outcome.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the Scheme goes ahead you will almost certainly be caught up in it.
Do you know if this decision would clear your debt?
kate redwood says
I have no idea how to work out what redress I would have so I am unsure. the five loans that the ombudsman agreed with were as follows:
loan 2 – £5000 taken out in July 2017 – loan term 48 months – repayments were £213.88
Loan 3 – £5500 taken out in October 2017 as a top up – loan term 36 months – repayments were £268.34
Loan 4 – £7000 taken out in January 2018 as a top up – loan term 60 months – repayments were £276.67
Loan 5 – £9500 taken out in June 2018 as a top up – loan term 48 months – repayments were £406.37
Loan 6 – £11500 taken out in May 2019 as a top up – loan term was 60 months – repayments are £454.54
I have never missed a payment but had a 6 month break over the summer due to COVID. I still paid £100 a month during that time. My guarantor has never had to make any payments for me. How do I work it out?
kate redwood says
The ombudsman has asked amigo to do the following:
– to add up the total amount of money I received as a result if being given the loans. the repayments I made should be deducted from this amount.
– if it results in me having paid more than I received, then any overpayments should be refunded along with 8% interest – calculated from the date the overpayments were made until the date of the settlement.
– If any capital balance remains outstanding, then to set up an affordable repayment plan with me.
– to remove any negative info recorded on my credit file (I don’t believe there is any as I have always paid)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you also say how many monthly repayments you made to each loan? And how much you received in cash from each of the top up loans?
Kate says
I have checked and I paid and received the following.
Loan 2 – received £5000 cash. Paid 3 payments of £213.88.
Loan 3 – received £600 cash. Paid 3 payments of £268.34.
Loan 4 – received £1635.81 cash. Paid 5 payments of £276.67.
Loan 5 – received £2413.34 cash. Paid 11 payments of £406.37.
Loan 6 – received £2339.33 cash. Paid 10 payments of £406.54, payments totalling £650 during my 6 month covid payment break and just paid them £259.08.
SP says
Hello Sara,
I have raised a complaint with Amigo on the 14th November, requested SAR at the same time. I haven’t received the SAR as of yet, but I am aware they have 30 days from the time of request. I have just received another Generic email from them as per the below:
Further to our letter acknowledging your complaint, I’m writing to confirm that we are still investigating the complaint you have raised. This is due to your complaint requiring a more detailed investigation or because we haven’t been able to pick it up as quickly as we had hoped. However, your complaint is important to us and I’d like to assure you that we will be responding to your concerns as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience. We’ll send your final response, or an update on when you can expect to receive this, within 8 weeks of the date we received your complaint.
Have you come across other people with the same email, is this a good or bad sign is it more likely I will end up taking the case to Fos?
Thank you, I look forwaed to your reply.
Kind regards
SP
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s a standard email. It’s no news, not good or bad news. Very likely no-one has yet looked at your case.
SP says
Thank you Sara, I have received a similar email from UK Credit earlier aswell as I have raised a complaint with them at the same time as the complaint to Amigo.
A massive thank you Sara as Safety net has upheld my complaint which I have used your template on the site. They have written off my outstanding balance of £750 and given me a payout of £624.
Thank you so much, wouldn’t of know how to complaint if it wasn’t for your site.
Fingers crossed that I will get some good news from Amigo, UK Credit, Casahasp and Satsuma.
Alex says
If its any help I received a response from UK credit 8 weeks to the day that I put my complaint in. It was upheld.
SP says
Thank you for your reply Alex. Can I ask if UK Credit made any contact for further information after you have submitted your claim to them?
Alex says
Hi SP no they never asked for any additional info. Just got an email to say they’d upheld my complaint and made a redress offer and I received it about 5 working days after that.
SP says
Thank you so much for the information Alex.. 4 more weeks to wait to see what happened.. Fingers crossed they will uphold.. Well done on your complaint..
Sarah says
I had the same email. I only had 1 x loan and never missed a payment and they sent me SAR afterc4cweeks and then 3 weeks after agreed they kent ne irresponsible. And accepted their offer of 6k and was in ny bank within 2 hours if accepting. No need for fos
SP says
Hello Sarah, was the complaint against Amigo or UK Credit? That’s brilliant news on your 6k offer. Hopefully I will hear some good news..
Sarah says
Amigo loan from 2012. They come back and said they never did the correct checks
SP says
That’s good. Hopefully I will be able to hear back before the 8 weeks deadline.
Thank you.
Martin says
Hi Sara,
I took out an amigo loan 3 years ago for £4000 and had a couple of top ups since but all paid off now. A CMC told me that even though I could afford the loan I can still claim for compensation because they are getting so many complaints like PPI did, is this correct and would you recommend giving it a try?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh you can’t trust everything a CMC says… but the issue here may be “what is affordable”?
Just because you made all the repayments on time doesn’t mean the loan was AFFORDABLE. The Financial Ombudsman is upholding 80%+ of these complaints and most of them had made all the payments on time.
If you remember making the loan repayments gave you problems and so you had to borrow more, or got behind with bills, then the loans were not affordable. Perhaps that was why you needed 2 top ups so soon? 2 quick top ups is often a sign of difficulty. If your other debts – cards, overdrafts, loans, bills, went up while you had the Amigo loans then they probably weren’t affordable.
If you know the loans weren’t a problem for you and you simply repaid them then it’s unlikely you would win an affordability complaint.
Marc says
Hi all,
Just a quick question if anybody could help me understand.
I recently sent back the questionnaire in regards to guarantor payments and am still awaiting a response like most. I had a loan with Amigo that was topped up twice, all of which have been fully paid back. However I was wondering, if my guarantor made 5 payments on the first loan I received but I paid every other payment, how would you expect the redress to workout? I understand my guarantor would get a refund of what they had paid, but would I still get paid back the interest on the rest, minus the figure my guarantor would receive back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, that is how it should work.
Darren says
Hi Sara
Just to update you and others, I have today received a response from Amigo. They have upheld my complaints for both loans!
I am just awaiting redress figures now.
Thank you so much for all of your help, here. Just some hope for others out there.
Take care,
Amy says
Hi Darren,
That’s amazing – very happy for you!!
Can I ask when yo use the your complaint in and if they asked for any other statements??
Jack Murphy says
Hi Darren
Was your loaned originally paused? For guarantor payments?
Cheers
Jack
Darren says
Hi Amy and Jack
My complaint was submitted in early August. Yes, it was paused due to some Guarantor payments and I filled in a questionnaire.
All the best,
Jack says
Hi Darren
Sorry to pester you , when did you fill the questionnaire in as I done mine 4 weeks ago and still not heard a thing.
Cheers
Jack
Darren says
Hi Jack
I filled in my questionnaire around the same time as you – about a month ago. I suspect they are getting round to everyone.
Good luck,
K says
Hi Sara ,
I was wondering if you could help me out with some figures if my case gets upheld against Amigo.
I originally took out a loan in June 2016 for 5000 over 36 months and paid 243.95 per month. (Didn’t pay off fully).
However after this I got a top up in April 2018 for 4250 with a settlement amount 2,650.08.
The amount I received on this was 1,599.92.
I have now paid on this loan 20 payments of 262.72 and additionally two payments off 600 in the last month.
My balance is now at 350 and will be cleared by the end of December.
No guarantor payments have been made. Everything solely paid by myself.
Thanks for all your help..
K
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you know how many monthly payments you made to the first loan before the top up settled it?
K says
22 payments @ 243.95
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers you have paid the following interest so far:
loan 1 £2997
loan 2 £2190
So if both are upheld now, that would be a total cash refund of £5187 and the balance wiped.
If you have paid £350 more to clear the loan, then that increases the refund by £350.
K says
Thanks Sara, is that including the 8%?
Just an update submitted a complaint on the 23rd November got a final response last night.
Rejected …. now taking to the ombudsman claim submitted.
Fingers crossed thanks for your help!
sam says
hello, if i have 2 loans with amigo which have been settled, no payments made by the guarantor in either. When i make a complaint will they contact my guarantor?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No they shouldn’t. (Not sure why it would matter if they did?)
Tom says
Hi Sara,
So I received the report from the adjudicator assessing my case today, and they have found in my favour for all loans, and have advised that Amigo should repay all interest paid for the 5 loans I had with them, plus 8% interest. He has given them until 28th December to respond with any evidence they feel will help their side but they have not been in contact as of yet from the other emails FOS sent to them.
I have worked it out to be around £12,000 I could potentially be due back…which is incredible. That would clear my remaining debts, and leave me with about £7000 letting over.
Fingers crossed Amigo don’t contest. The adjudicator said that from my bank statements he found that after utilities, short term loans, rent etc I was left with around £40 disposable, so of amigo had carried out through checks rather than take my word of my income and outgoings, they would’ve concluded that I could not afford any of the loans.
Thanks again for your help and support Sara, truly, its amazing work that you do.
Tom says
If possible, please would you be able to calculate the potential amount I could be refunded…I think I made an error in my estimate.
Loan 1 (2015)
Received £5000
Paid 9 x £197.62
Loan 2 (top up – 2016)
Received £2194.19
Paid 2 x £276.67
Loan 3 (top up – 2016)
Recieved £574.45
Paid 7 x £296.44
Loan 4 (top up – 2017)
Recieved £2269.04
Paid 8 x £375.49
1 x £3800
Loan 5 (top up – 2017)
Recieved £529.59
Paid 11 x £276.67
1 x £6703.11 – Gift from family to clear balance. Loan closed from this payment.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you know how large the top up loans were?
Tom says
Hi Sara,
Original loan was £5000
Top up 1 was £7000
Top up 2 was £7500
Top up 3 was £9500
Top up 4 was £7000
Sara (Debt Camel) says
on those numbers you have paid the following interest:
loan 1 £1,579
loan 2 £478
loan 3 £1,803
loan 4 -£29
loan 5 £2,739
So that would be a total refund of £6,570 plus very roughly £1000 in 8% interest
But the interest for loans 4 looks wrong – it shouldn’t be negative. I think some of your figures mya not be right.
Tom says
I took those repayment installment numbers from the account statements that Amigo sent. When I totalled the amount received it was around £10000, and in total I paid them around £20000…but thats across all loans and repayments so not sure whether it matters?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well I can’t guess what the problem is but I am just saying you shouldn’t relay on those numbers being correct.
Siobhan says
Has anyone had an adjudicator uphold their complaint, given Amigo a deadline and Amigo haven’t responded?
My adjudicator gave Amigo a deadline of 3/11, they haven’t responded, I’ve contacted them numerous times and they keep fobbing me off. Not sure whether to get in touch with my FOS again or just leave it.
I’m in dire straits money wise and could really do with paying off some of my other debts.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s very poor. A lender can reject an adjudicator decision but they shouldn’t just ignore it!
I suggest you email the FCA and tell them what you think of Amigo’s slow complaint handling. The FCA will not intervene in an individual case, but as Amigo’s regulator they ought to know what is happening.
If you want to do this, email consumer.queries@fca.org.uk and copy this to nick.beal@amigoloans.net and complaints@amigoloans.co.uk
Subject: Very poor complaint handling by Amigo (708284).
Give your Amigo reference number, your name and address.
Give a couple of sentences summarising your loan, Amigo’s rejection, sending it to FOS and what the adjudicator decided in Mid october. Then say how Amigo keeps missing deadlines and just not responding.
Say a bit about your financial situation and how much you need the refund now.
End by saying you know the FCA won’t look at your complaint but you wanted to tell them how poorly Amigo is treating customers.
Siobhan says
Thank you. It’s so annoying especially since mine I straight forward and a small amount compared to others. It’s been going on since April 19. I’ll contact FCA and if I ever get a refund I’ll make sure to make a donation
Siobhan says
Good news, after copying Amigo in to my complaint to FCA, they have finally responded to say they have replied to FOS today. I’ll update when my adjudicator contacts me.
Siobhan says
My adjudicator has come back to me, Amigo are disputing the decision. I honestly feel like crying. Adjudicator is going to send the evidence to Amigo, so I’m probably in for another 6 week wait. What happens now? If they dispute again I know the ombudsman give a decision but how likely are they going to side with Amigo? My credit commitments were more than half of my pay prior to the Amigo loan. I had a defaults on my credit report (which Amigo supplied to FOS) with the amigo monthly payments, my credit commitments were 3/4 of my wage.
I knew this would happen.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Oh no. The Ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator in 90% of cases.
Michelle says
I took out an amigo loan as I had a bad credit history and lots of defaults on my account at the time, I had paid of my trust deed in full a cpl years earlier but my credit file was still in a very sorry state and my car ended up off the road and I needed a new car quickly, my friend became my guarantor and I got my load from amigo loans. I piled every spare bit of cash I had into paying the loan off as quick as I could when I realised exactly how much it was going to cost me long term and managed to pay it off within 17 months instead of 5 years, whilst at the time I never incurred any major financial debts I did become very ill and was unable to work for a number of years, I have mental health issues and now also fibromyalgia. My trust deed previously had been cleared in full because of a redundancy payment from work. Now whilst I may not have racked the debts up again(a few late payments elsewhere) or missed any payments on the loan myself and my family went without a lot of things we had previously enjoyed because I was making the loan my priority. What hope is there for me and people like me who made themselves ill worrying about debts like these ?
are there any voluntary agencies that would help support a application for a claim because at the moment my mental health is at an all time low and I honestly don’t know if I could honestly cope with doing a claim alone
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These cases are very individual. If you managed to pay off the loan years early and your other debts weren’t going up, it may be that was excellent money management on your part! But my advice is to trust your instinct because you know what being in this loan felt like. If you feel it was unaffordable and placed too much pressure on you, then send in a claim. You can talk to your local Citizens Advice and ask for their help.
Zoe Loveday says
Hi quick question finally a year after fos ruled in my favour I got my offer £15000, loan balance was £8500 and Gaurentor took refund of £8300 and I am left with £2000 on the balance, how? Looking at the email I am essially paying £17000 for a loan, where the final top up amount too me was £9456. I’m feeling confused
Sara (Debt Camel) says
From your previous comment, you complained last year, it was sent to FOS and Amigo made you an offer to settle through FOS in November 2019 which you didn’t see as one of your children was ill but then Amigo never actually contacted you with that offer so you only found out about in September?
Has your guarantor been paying all this time? Has she been made the offer of a refund?
Have you just been resent this old offer? Can you give more details about it – how many loans did you have and how many have Amigo agreed to refund? Can you copy out the section with the numbers and paste it here please?
Zoe Loveday says
Yes my guarantor was paying since then. I have asked for specific figures as I had about 8 top up at least but can’t access any figures and I have asked for them but they haven’t sent it,
We’ve calculated the additional interest and I’ve included a breakdown of this below, this includes all the loans you have had with Amigo:
Interest paid to be refunded to you: £15,113.27
8% statutory interest awarded: £0.00
20% tax already deducted from 8%: £0.00
Total interest refund due: £15,113.27
We have contacted your guarantors, who made payments towards the loan agreements that we are upholding, and Virginia has confirmed that they would like to receive a refund of their payments. This means that any balances on your loan agreement will change by an amount equal to the payments they made towards the loan agreements. This will reduce the total amount that has been paid towards the loan agreements and this change is shown below.
Previous Loan Balance: £8,911.17
Sum of Guarantors Refund: £8,383.51
New Balance (after guarantor refund) £17,294.68
New Balance Less Redress: £2,181.41
Cash Refund: £0.00
This interest refund will firstly be applied to the current outstanding capital balance on your current loan, which stands at £17,294.68 to reduce this to £2,181.41.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, my guess is they are refunding all your loans – they should have been very clear if they were only refunding a few of them.
If you get the numbers for all of your loans, this is what I need to know to calculate your repayment to see if the numbers are right:
For each loans – the amount borrowed, the amount you received in cash (this will be less than the amount borrowed for the top up loans), the number of monthky payments made eg 5 lots of £178 (doesnt matter if you or your guarantor paid them).
Can you ask your guarantor how much they are being refunded? It should be more than £8,383.51 as they should be paid 8% interest and you should not be charged for this.
What is the rest of your financial situation like at the moment? Can I ask if you had any gambling on your account? (That isn’t a criticism.) Do you have any priority debts at the moment?
Zoe Loveday says
Thanks for the reply, the amount in the email is what the guarantor is being paid. I have emailed amigo back asking again for what seems like the hundredth time for the full breakdown figures. I do have quite high priority debt arrears which steamed from paying amigo and not them, that’s one of the reasons my guarantor took on the payment so I could chip away at this .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you ask your guarantor how much of that is 8% interest? because I don’t think Amigo should be deducting that from your balance.
Joe says
Hello,
The FOS investigator upheld my complaint against Buddy Loans after they rejected my complaint, hence me escalating it to FOS. This was decided on 4th Sept 2020, Buddy Loans did not agree so it was sent to an Ombudsman – I am assuming not on 18th September when I was contacted about this but on 2nd October when the investigator said this was the date any further information needed to be received.
How long realistically do I expect to hear back from the ombudsman? Clearly, this will probably be a case of how long is a piece of string… but any ball parks as I guess just under three months is not a huge amount of time to wait.
thanks for any help!
Sarah Heydon says
Hi Sara, I have the affordability complaint in with Amigo. I have had my SAR and both me and my gaurentor have filed out the emails sent about payments about 3 weeks ago. I have also had an email of FOS to say they have received my complaint.
Today I had a missed phone call off Amigo and they left a message saying my account was going to fall into areas and they need me to call them as it would be taken further and affect my credit file.
Are they able to for this while a complaint is in, I am currently on a covid payment break and was hoping to resume payment in January.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you are on a covid payment break it should NOT affect your credit record. How long have you been on this break?
Sarah heydon says
It will be 6mths in January
Laura says
So in week 7 I’ve had a response from bamboo stating that as my guarantor didn’t need to make any payments (not true), I only had one loan (true) and no missed payments on my credit file (not true), they do not feel they have done anything wrong. However, they have offered £750 as a gesture of goodwill.
My loan was for £5000 and I’ve calculated that between me and my guarantor we have paid approx £12000 (£216 per month for 5 years). The loan is now paid.
Is this worth me taking to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like it is – why would they offer you a significant amount (I mean not “here’s £25 Tesco vouchers” to go away) if they thought they had done nothing wrong!
But Bamboo are one of the few lenders that you can try to reason with, so it’s worth going back to them. First point out your guarantor did have to make some payments, so have they really looked at your case? Send then bank statements from the time of the loan if you have them. And be clear the case is going to the ombudsman if they don’t make you a better offer.
Laura says
Thank you Sara. I will reply to them and see what their position is.
Jack says
Hi Sara,
Do you know if anybody is currently getting anything back from amigo? Seems like they have completely slowed down.
I have had a questionnaire completed it over 2 weeks ago, I don’t know if this has been a stalling tactic or not.
M says
I sent my questionnaire two weeks ago and they said I should have a response in a couple of weeks. I phoned today and they still said there is a backlog due to the pause and the case handler will get to it when they can. No timelines or anything.
I also submitted the complaint to FOS 6 weeks ago as that’s when the 8 weeks were up and I get an email today saying it will take 4 months for FOS to look at my case!!!!
Jack says
It’s getting silly, I got the questionnaire at week 10, it’s now week 12.
Yeah if they would give an update on even a vague time would be fine, but being left in the dark is annoying.
Alex says
I did my questionnaire on the 20th November
Received a reply (upheld) on 11th December. Theyve said my redress calculations will be sent within 5 working days of 25/12/2020.
Belle says
Good evening. Just wondering roughly what the FOS timescales are. I have an affordability complaint against Bamboo. Originally Bamboo rejected complaint, then came back and offered to clear the loan with a refund of £1000 which I have rejected.. I sent this to the FOS in May but it has still not been picked up by a case handler. I have sent a couple of emails to the FOS but had no reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone FOS up and ask if Bamboo has supplied their case file.
Belle says
Hi Sara, I have just spoken to the FOS the lady I spike to said she will look to get it assigned as it has been with them for so long and they have received the case file from Bamboo. She did say that I shouldn’t expect Bamboo to remove all interest as that wouldn’t be fair to them, I explained loan was unaffordable and FOS and Bamboo have my bank statement to prove that. I said I dont believe that the loan should of been given to me in the first place but she seemed to think I should of just accepted their offer of €1000.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t pay much attention to that – it doesn’t sound as though she knows much about typical redress in this situation.
Belle says
Thank you Sara. I will keep you updated. Thank you for all your help, it’s very much appreciated.
Callie says
Good morning.
I have just heard from amigo and are upholding 2 of my 7 loans/top ups.
Of which they are my guarantor made quite a few payments, they said are contacting her to offer first then whatever is left will be of my remaining balance. Although I believe I will end up owing money back.
Is it worth going straight to financial ombudsman as I believe the others should be upheld. My only trouble is my guarantor has made so many payments for me, will this affect her. Do I have to wait to see what they are offering her first before I go to them?
Finding this so stressful and I really don’t understand terms and I really want to avoid using a company because I don’t understand what I’m doing.
Thank you for may help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you repaid your guarantor?
do you still owe a balance and is the last loan one of the two being refunded?
what is the rest of your financial situation like apart from Amigo debts?
I can look at what the offered refund might be but I need to know the details of the lending and repayments.
For each loan I need to know: how large the loan was, what you received in cash (this would have been less than the loan for the top-up loans), how many monthly payments you made to it (eg 4 lots of £142), how many payments your guarantor made to it.
Callie says
To be honest I’m really not sure how many I paid back. I paid a few but my guarantor has but it on my bill and I’m paying her back monthly, I still owe 12, 258.79 on the last loan and that one isn’t being up held. I’m in arrears of £2,753.
Apart from amigo I am in a significant amount of debt. They said because my last loan is still outstanding they won’t release my guarantor.
This is what they sent me this morning.
Your complaint outcome
Following a detailed investigation, we have decided to partially uphold your complaint. The following table shows a summary of your loan agreements .
10 Nov 2008 -£1,100 over 36 months
01 Dec 2009 – £2,000 over 36 months
23 Apr 2013 – £1,750 over 36 months (upheld)
30 Dec 2013 – £4,000 over 60 months (upheld)
29 Sep 2015- £5,000 over 60 months
31 May 2016 – 7,500 over 60 months
11 Apr 2017 – £9,250 over 60 months
Our systems show that you entered into and commenced payments towards 7 loan agreements from 10 November 2008 and note that you took out a number of loans and top ups
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they haven’t upheld the three largest loans. As the last loan is huge and it isn’t being upheld, I suggest you don’t bother to wait but send the complaint straight to the Ombudsman now, no need to wait for the detailed numbers because they aren’t likely to make you change your mind.
What was your guarantor’s financial position when you took the most recent loan? Could they have managed to make all the payments to the loan and still paid all their own debts, bills and everyday expenses?
Callie says
They was in a good position but retired and now she’s not in the position to help me. What do I put to the financial ombudsman. I don’t even know where to start. Thank you ever so much for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sending a complaint to FOS is easy – see the Taking a complaint to the Ombudsman section in the article above which has a link to their online form.
I’m not suggesting you should stop paying so she has to, I was wondering if she too could make a complaint that the loan was not affordable for her over the 5 years period and so she should be released as guarantor.
Callie says
Thank you so much, I have just completed a form to the ombudsman
Joe says
Hi Sara
What balance would my refund be roughly from Buddy Loans.
I received a loan of £5000 and am due to pay back £11, 894.67 in total across 60 months. This is made of up £5000 credit and £6894.67 charge for credit.
To date, I have made all payments (apart from a 5 month payment break April to August due to coronavirus but resumed my payments again in September).
So far, in total I have paid back £6762.83 and will be making a further payment of £197.62 on the 28th December.
Not sure if you are able to work out my refund, which FOS said needed to be anything above the £5000 that I borrowed and 8% interest but not sure what that means.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
anything above the £5000 that I borrowed
This means you have repay what you borrowed, but no interest. So far you have paid 6762-5000=£1,762 more, so that will be your refund of the interest you have paid. If you make the December payments then the refund goes up by another £197.
The 8% interest doesn’t add up to much on loans that haven’t been repaid.
Joe says
Thanks very much!
Suzanne says
Hi
I sent my complaint in and advised they would be in touch within 8 weeks which is fine, however I got an alert on my credit tile that there is four new entries off amigo. This has confused me. Any help would be great and sorry if I have missed a previous discussion on this.
J says
Hi,
Does anyone have an ETA of when you accept the redress to when payment is received from Amigo?
Thanks,
J
John says
Because Amigo have stopped lending does this mean they are growing to wind up
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, they are hoping to start lending again in the first quarter of next year.
NJ says
Hi I submitted my claim in June and it is now with the FOS of which have received fully business file from amigo and all info from myself, they informed me they try to complete each case within 90 days once they have everything gathered.
I however have still not received a response from amigo at all?
FOS are quite surprised and thought I would have received a final response from them by now.
Has anyone else been left in this position where they just hear nothing back from amigo?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you asked Amigo why you haven’t had a reply?
NJ says
Yes numerous times but they have just been reiterating to me that my case in now with the ombudsman and it is up to them whatever the outcome will be. And that they will not give me a response, confusing right considering they usually give others a response at some stage of the complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is absurd.
I think it’s worth telling the FCA about. They are Amigo’s regulator – they won’t investigate an individual complaint, but they be interested that one of their authorised firms seems to be refusing to reply to a complaint.
If you want to do this, email consumer.queries@fca.org.uk and copy this to nick.beal@amigoloans.net and complaints@amigoloans.co.uk
Subject: After more than 5 months Amigo (708284) have still not replied to my complaint.
Give your Amigo reference number, your name and address.
Give a couple of sentences summarising your loan(s) and when you complained to Amigo.
Say you thought Amigo had agreed to respond to all outstanding complaints by the end of October, but they haven’t replied at all to yours. Say you have sent this to the Ombudsman but you still think Amigo should reply to your complaint.
If the loan is still open and repaying it is causing you hardship, say a bit about this.
End by saying you know the FCA won’t look at your complaint but you wanted to tell them how poorly Amigo is treating customers.
NJ says
Hi sara I followed your advice and sent an email off regarding no response and copied both the FCA and Nick Beale.
This is the response I received
‘I am writing to you in regards to your recent email to Nick Beale. Thank you for getting in touch.
In terms of the complaint you have raised with us, we will now be liaising with the Financial Ombudsman Service regarding this moving forward, following the referral we received from them. We will provide them with an update in due course, ‘
I think it is off the way they don’t just give me a decision and everything is now through the ombudsman
Harry says
Hi Sara,
I have just had my SAR through from Amigo, just the telephone calls as they’ve deleted everything else apparently. I have provided them with bank statements which show the mess I was in at the time (late payments, returned DD’s, payday loans etc), and explained all of this should be on my credit report.
The calls show their affordability check was them asking me how much I earn and what my outgoings are etc, I obviously lied at the time as I was desperate and stupid, does the complaint still hold as they didn’t check?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
To win a complaint two thinks have to happen:
– Amigo must have failed to do the right checks (or had ignored what they showed)
AND
– the right checks would have shown the loan was unaffordable.
The Ombudsman typically decides that just asking the borrower is not enough to verify income & expenses.
Steve says
I have been given a re adress payment that ive accepted, HOWEVER my debt was bought by a debt company ( guarantor couldn’t pay it either, as it was my wife with no. Income) im now on working day 9 of waiting for payment, but my question is, in there letter they stated the guarantor is no long liable for the debt does this mean the debt company can no longer expect payment for the debt at it was mis sold?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
who is the lender? They should be buying this debt back from the debt collector, or otherwise settling it.
Steve says
Hi
the lender was amigo loans that i took the loans with 1 loan and 4 top ups to pay for those loan re payments.
When i spoke to them to accept the re adress payment they didnt mention anything about it and ive got the copy of thw re adress information they sent me stating the loan had been paid. Even tho i know it defaulted. And we have been paying the company that bought the debt.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so it was probably sold to Intrum?
Are Amigo refunding all the loans?
Steve says
Yes it was sold to intrum and yes all loans are being refunded they asked for my bank details and said the money would be with me within 10 working days ( tomorrow is the 10th day)
Dose this mean that i wont be receiving the payment?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh. Well I suppose they could be resolving the Intrum situation but that would be very very fast, so they may not have realised they had a loan to buy back when they quoted you that timescale.
Phone Amigo up and tell them you expect the debt that is with Intrum to be settled as part of this. Also tell Intrum what has happened and that you will be stopping paying them – send them a copy of the Amigo decision. Intrum are normally pretty good about this but Amigo can be painfully slow.
NJ says
Thanks so much for this advise sara I will get right onto it
Akram abu-oun says
Hi all,
Back in april/may I made an unaffordablity complaint against buddy loans. They came back to me pretty quickly to be fair (within 4 weeks) to reject my complaint, so I sent it to the FOS. It took about 4 months for them to pick it up but last week they came to a conclusion and sided with me. Today I received a response from buddy loans who accepted the outcome. For reference, I had one load with buddy loan for £2.5k which was spread over 2 years, when I made the complaint the loan was already paid off. I had a a number of loans and a gambling addiction (which I have thankfully overcome). This is the end of a very long road for me, I won all the complaints I put forward (thanks to the advice from Sara and others on this site). The refunds have enabled me to be debt free for the first time in years and have a close to £10k which I am using towards a house purchase. Thank you Sara for this site!
Victory says
Hi Sara
It’s been a while but I have finally heard back from FOS regarding my George Banco loan(S). GB have sent the redress calculation but the wording is quite odd. Could you dissect the below for me:
Loan xxx:You took this loan on the 24th July 2014. The loan amount was £4,000. As this loan has been found to be unaffordable to you at the time it was approved, we would require you to pay back the amount you borrowed with no interest. Before your loan was topped up you paid a total of £1,287.30. You have therefore underpaid loan xxx by £2,712.70. This amount will be deducted from the total redress due.
Loan yyy: You took this loan on the 19th January 2015. The loan amount was £6,000. After settling loan xxx you were advanced £2,375.49. As this loan has been found to be unaffordable to you at the time it was approved, we would require you to pay back the amount you borrowed with no interest. To date you have paid a total of £10,523.15. You have therefore paid £8,147.66 more than the amount borrowed. We would now refund this amount plus 8% statutory interest.
The total amount to be refunded is set out below,
Overpayment made: Interest @ 8%:
Total Refund*: Refund due:
£8,147.66
£2,605.65 (This is subject to 20% HMRC tax deduction)
£10,753.31
£10,232.18 (£521.13 deduction as per legislation going to HMRC)
As previously mentioned, we will now deduct the underpayment from loan xxx
£10,232.18 – £2,712.70 = £7,519.48
I really don’t understand it Sara. If the first loan has been deemed unaffordable and the it was paid off by the second loan then how did I under pay?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, setting aside the weird sounding calculation for the moment…
do you agree that the monthly pay ments you made to the first loan added up to £1287?
and to the second loan added up to £10523?
Victory says
Yes I agree. That calculation is correct.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok then the end result of their calculation is correct.
I get to it by what seems to me to be a more logical route…
Loan 1, you borrowed 4000, repaid 1287 and settled it with 3623 from the second loan. So overall you paid 910 in interest on it.
Loan 2, you borrowed 6000, reapid 10523 so that is overall interest paid of 4523.
Add up 910 and 4523 and you get 5433 refund plus 8%
They calcuklated the 8% at 2605 less 515 tax – (I cant work this out but it doesnt look wrong), so you would get 5433+ 2605 =7515
Which is what they made it (less a few pounds as I ignored the pennies)
They got to the same number as they didn’t settle the first loan, which left you 3623 down, but they only made you repay 2377 for the second loan, whereas my way makes you repay the full 6000. So that’s 3623 up. Which cancels out.
So bottom line you are being made what looks like a fair offer to me.
Victory says
Thanks Sara, you always make the impossible seem possible. Well i have sent an email to the FOS adjudicator to accept the offer. I guess it is a waiting game from here. I will make a donation to the Citizens Advice Bureau once the redress has been received.
Shan says
Hi
I have accepted the refund from amigo on Monday. They have told me 10 working days and I am relying on the money now but the more I read about amigo the more I worry because everybody seems to not get it by the 10th day? Has anybody ever received it by the 10th day, they are also shut from the 24th so nobody to ring if I do not receive it. Please can anybody help :( the woman I spoke to yesterday was adamant that hardly anybody gets it late? Yet all the reviews tell me different.
Thank you
Shan
Jack says
Hi,
What number do you call. I need to speak to them
Shan says
The number I’ve been ringing is 01202 835170. Have you had a redress ? I’m
So on edge just want the money and it to be over with them!
Hope you get the answer you need!
Steve says
Hi shan
Im currently on day 10 with no money ive spoken to them this morning aparently they have alot of sicknesses in the department im waiting on a phone call back to find out when im getting mine
Good luck
Shan says
How annoying!! If it says 10 days it should be 10 days surely they could do an instant payment it makes no sense!!
Shan says
To the last comment I can’t believe it! When we ring they are adamant we will have it by the 29th, they are liars because they know they are shut and there’s no way I can ring over Xmas! Crazy. Let me know if you actually get it, if you’ve not got yours there’s no hope for me haha!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am not saying you are unlikely to get the money on time.
But in general it is unwise to rely on this. Sorry I have seen too many people who made firm plans for the money eg to repay rent arrears and were then very stressed when it was late.
And delays over the xmas period could be for more than just the odd day.
Fingers crossed though yours arrives on time.
Debbie walker says
Mine was 3 days late – take in account it’s 10 working days to so Christmas bank holidays won’t count. My delay was the redress team had staff off on holiday so was delayed as they only do one batch process of payments a week so the week mine was due none got processed due to this specific person being off ( I did complain about this as seemed ridiculous) but then was processed on the Monday the following week when the member of staff was back in. Once was processed was in my account within 24hrs
Shan says
I just really hope it is in before Xmas would be fab haha! Did you have to ring up for them to process it or did it just happen after the three days late? Glad you got it sorted maybe they will stop robbing people now! Interest is crazy
Debbie says
To be fair I rang every day from the 7th day onwards just to check all was on Track and so I didn’t wait to the 10th day then hear of issues..I was always polite and they was also helpful and contacted the redress team then always came back to me with responses later in the day
Fingers crossed you should have by Xmas but if not before the end of the year 😊
Steve says
Hi shan still nothing but as above when i spoke to the complaints department they said they have alot off on holiday and sickness so this could be the issue ill be calling again today as they didnt bother ringing me back yesterday as promised. Just seems silly to give a timeline and then not stick to it. When we missed a payment we would have 5 phone calls an hour lol
Stuart says
Hi I received the questionnaire off ameigo about payments my dad made which add up to 13,356 I have ticked to say I have repaid which if my dad gets his questionnaire will verify , but it says only submit the form if I can prove with a paper trail how can I do this as iv paid him here and there and don’t have a paper trail thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you on good terms with your dad?
Stuart says
Yes 100% we are we both need to know best way to progress he said he will confirm I have repaid him no problem
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so the problem here is other people have been asked to produce evidence of the repayments even if the guarantor agrees… why, I have no idea. (Surely it can’t just be to make the whole process a lot slower…. )
The only thing I can suggest is that it might speed things up if you both say you have NOT repaid the money and that your guarantor should get the refund. This will leav you owing Amigo money, but if your dad gives you the refund back, then you can pay off the Amigo debt and with some of it and the rest will be your refund. You won’t lose out doing this – provided your dad does give you the money!
Anthony says
Hi,
I have just received a response to a complaint from Amigo Loans. There was an initial loan, followed by two top-ups.
Amigo have upheld the initial loan, and the last top-up, but claim the first top up we could afford. Because of this the £2200 in interest I have paid, will not be used to lower the total outstanding balance. This does seem unfair, is there anything that is PARAMOUNT that we include in a FOS complaint?
If the FOS come back and reject our argument that the interest should be used to lower the total outstanding, will Amigos Initial offer still stand or do they withdraw it?
Kind regards and hope you can help
(It seems as though they’re using 1 topup to cancel out everything else!!)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is the £2200 you mention listed as a deduction “for unpaid interest”?
Also make sure you argue that the first top up was unaffordable, not just that the unpaid interest deduces unfair.
This isn’t a “goodwill offer”, Amigo won’t retract it.
As the current loan has been upheld, your guarantor will be released and you can make a lower payment arrangement for the balance, which should make the waiting for a FOS decision much easier.
Steve says
Hi Sara
You were completely right, ive finally spoke to someone who actually knows what there doing, they are buying the debt back off interum, to then see how much ive paid and then sort the re adress from that.
I dont think i will get any money back, what do you personally think they will do have i got a chance of them writing the debt off in full?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It seems very unlikely you will get any money quickly. I can’t tell without looking at the details of your loans and payments how much you should get in the end.
You said you had 1 loan and 4 top ups, all being refunded. Can you say for each loan:
– how large the loans was
– how much you received in cash if it was a top-up
– how much you paid Amigo (either the total or 4 lots of £142… cash paid, ignore if this was interest or principal)
– for the last loan, how much you have paid Interum.
Steve says
Hi sara
My intial loan was 2000
My 1st top up was 2000 cash paid( total debt 4000)
2nd was 500 cash paid ( 4500 debt)
3rd was 1000 cash (5.5k debt)
4th was 1250 cash (6.75 debt)
I only Made 5 payments to amigos as i was using the top ups to miss payment schedules as i just couldnt afford it, total payments – £1195.62
They sold the debt to Interum for £9000
My guarantor ( my wife) has paid interum £214
Thanks for all your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have received £6750 in cash and between the two of you you have paid them £1409.
I don’t know if Amigo will be able to work out if you or your wife paid intrum.
If they do, then they should refund her £214 in cash and you would owe a balance of £5555. If they don’t, then you would owe a balance of £5341.
What is the rest of your financial situation like – do you have a lot of other debts, any priority debts? Are you in work? Are you buying or renting?
I have not heard of Amigo wiping out anyone’s remaining balance.
christopher says
Hi Sara
Hope you can help calculate my payout for me. I have had a letter today from amigo upholding my complaint but waiting for the final figures which will be after the new year. my loans and top ups were as follows
27/50/10 £1100 payments £50.39
14/02/12 £1375 payments £85.00
27/06/13 £1500 payments £73.18
03/12/14 £1750 payments £108.18
03/12/15 £2500 payments £98.81
06/06/16 £3500 payments £138.84
09/09/16 £5000 payments £197.62
04/01/17 £6500 payments £256.91
Remaining balance £3771.58
Hopefully thats the information you need, many thanks in advance hoping to be debt free from the outcome of this
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you say how many payments you made to each of the loans.
And also how much you received in cash from each of the top up loans.
christopher law says
Hi Sara sorry I dont have a full breakdown from amigo, only the dates and amount of the top up, I can call amigo for these figures if that would help. I have worked out the amount of interest paid on the last loan which is £7812.89 which is adding up all the interest charged using the app.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The detailed figures are needed, sorry. I don’t need to know how much Amigo says the interest repaid was. It is much simpler and quicker to just “follow the cash” – how much did you receive from them and how much did you pay to them.
A says
Hi Sara,
Today I received a decision from the FOS in my favour concerning my amigo loan.
I took one loan out for £5k and paid in full over the 5 years with the account closed.
Please can you tell me how much my refund will likely be with the 8% interest.
I made 60x £197.62 if that helps
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You paid £6820 in interest. How long ago was the loan settled?
Was this a decision from an adjudicator or an Ombudsman?
A says
Hi Sara,
The decision was made by the adjudicator, initially Amigo rejected my complaint because of the time bar but then allowed the adjudicator to look into my complaint.
The loan was taken out in 2013 and fully repaid in 2018
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I hope Amigo accept the adjudicator decision.
A says
I really hope so too.
Do amigo normally accept the adjudicators decision or reject them?
Please can you explain how the 8% interest would be calculated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 8% would at a very rough guess be about £1700.
Amigo used to almost always accept adjuidcator decsiosn but recently they have been refusing some.
A says
Thank you so much for the reply.
I really hope they do as it has taken a year to get up to this point, hoping this will be over with soon.
Chris l says
Hi,
Amigo complaint sent in august. Questionaire filled in. Last month. After chasing amigo for updates they have said the FOS had been in touch at start of Dec and all correspondence will now be sent through FOS…is this correct?
I logged complaint with FOS in oct but have not heard anything back from them.
Amigo being very evasive.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Evasive seems a good description. Let’s hope this gets sorted soon.
Carl says
Hi Sara,
I’ve won affordability complaint with bamboo and balance still of 2k with them afterwards. I set up a £50 payment plan but couldn’t pay it last month so paid £20 instead. They have sent me a letter saying I’m hundreds of pounds in arrears due to not making usual contractual payments and if don’t clear it then will send to a debt recovery. Can they do this when it was irresponsible lending and I’m making token payments due to been furloughed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could give a big shrug if they sell your debt – most debt collectors are nicer to deal with than guarantor lenders!
What is the rest of your financial situation like at the moment? If you have other problems debts you can’t pay in full, putting them all into a debt management plan including this Bamboo one can be a good option.
Carl says
Thank you. I’m only worried if they sell it then I would receive a default etc. I’d be happy to deal with a debt recovery company.
All other debts are in plans manageable now after winning a lot of cases. Only have Amigo and bamboo who are both threatening me with this action. And I won irresponsible lending with both these company’s.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I strongly suggest getting a DMP then with StepChange. Amigo and Bamboo are both very likely to stop these threats if you do – from that point it is clear they are being treated fairly.
If you do get a default, then you can complain about that.
How large is your total debt?
Carl says
My total debt is 2k with bamboo 4K with amigo and I have 2 payday loans which have about £40 left on them so mainly just those 2 debts left now and normal living a month with usual costs but with furlough I don’t have a lot spare to pay them more at the moment and just doing token payments of £20 or £40. I don’t think there is need for DMP as now I e got rid up f nearly 20 payday lenders I can manage again but with furlough at present I’m not receiving normal Full pay to be able to pay them larger amounts. Plus I have car finance and this would have a big impact for that.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
car finance is a priority debt – that wouldn’t go into a DMP.
It’s your choice, I’m just saying it would stop Amigo and Bamboo complaining.
Carl says
Is it worth just keep paying the token payments to bamboo and Amigo and letting them put them to a debt recovery company. Can they do any harm to my credit file or take me to court when I’ve won affordability complaints with them for all loans taken with them?
I can afford the token payments of £20/30 a month at present for them both but it’s just that they are saying they want the arrears paid with not paying usually contractual original payments which was irresponsible.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There aren’t any rules written down here. They shouldn’t hamr your credit record or take you to court, but I am still not sure why you don’t see StepChange as a simple answer to your situation.
Carl says
I just thought they were for severe debt problems where you can’t live and need help. As I’ve got rid of all other debts now I thought I should manage these 2 that are left.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A DMP is just a sort of payment arrangement where you make a single monthly payment and the DMP firm divides it between your creditors. When your creditors are being difficult, this can make your life easier as they will normally just accept what StepChange is the correct amount.
Andy says
Morning all.
I’ve just read the information in regards to Amigo seeking refuge.
How do you think this will effect new claims?
I submitted a claim last week.
Total of loan 3250 Inc brokerage fee over a period of 36mths back in 2012.
Payments approx £151per month.
Is there a way of calculating the repayment towards the Principal sum and what the payment for monthly interest would have been
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For anyone who hasn’t seen it, here is my new article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-seeks-scheme-arrangement-complaints/
For claims in progress, including new ones, it will depend on whether the FCA agrees to let the scheme go ahead. They have turned down similar Schemes in the past. If it’s rejected, back to normal complaint handling.
If the scheme gets the FCA go ahead, then it has to go to a vote of creditors – that means all current and previous customers!
Your loan – so you got £3000 in cash? and made 36 payments of £151? That would be 5436 so you paid £2436 in interest and charges (you would get the broker fee back). Plus very roughly £1200 in extra 8% interest.
Andy says
Yep loan £3000 paid into guarantors bank account.
Exact payment amount was £151.19 according to statements.
8 payday loans, a high interest card and HP payments feature on statements and credit reports. Looking at the reports in the search history there is nothing stated for FLM (name at the time) when the loan was issued – this is both experien and Equifax ( have reports for the month taken and then every mth after upto 2015:))