UPDATE: Amigo is asking the regulator for a Scheme of Arrangement, see Amigo seeks refuge from complaints. This is very early days – nothing may happen – if it goes forward all customers will be asked to vote to approve it.
Guarantor loans are very expensive. Often the lender didn’t check properly that you will be able to manage the loan repayments without having to borrow more.
If proper checks would have shown that you couldn’t afford the repayments, complain! There is a template letter in this article to help you.
You can get an existing loan reduced so you only repay the amount you borrowed, or get a refund if your loans have been repaid
If your complaint is rejected you can send the case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) who is upholding a lot (90%!) of guarantor loan complaints.
If you are the guarantor not the borrower, read Complaining if you are a guarantor which has a different template letter to use.
Contents
What is an affordability complaint?
A loan is not affordable if paying it left you so short of money you had to top up the loan, or borrow more from another lender or get behind with bills.
Does this sound like you? Then make an affordability complaint.
Just making the payments doesn’t prove the loan was affordable! You may have been repaying with difficulty, taking out other loans, because you didn’t want your guarantor to be affected.
You can complain if you are still paying the loan or if you have repaid it all.
If you win your complaint:
- interest is removed from a loan you still owe, so you only repay what you borrowed;
- your guarantor is released from the loan; and
- you can arrange to pay the remaining balance at a reduced rate.
When your loans have already been settled, you get a refund of the interest you paid.
What should the lender have checked?
Guarantor lenders should have checked the loan was affordable for you before giving you the money.
The lender should have made sure you were likely to be able to make the repayments for the whole length of the loan.
Guarantor loans are large financial commitments. So I would expect a lender to have asked for evidence of your income, to have checked your credit record, and to have verified your expenses.
Some things a lender may have got wrong:
- It doesn’t matter if your guarantor is well off, the loan has to be affordable for you!
- You may have given said your expenditure was lower than it was, because you were guessing or desperate. The lender should have checked your figures.
- If you were self-employed or had wages that varied, the lender should have looked at how your income went up and down.
- The lender should have checked your credit record to see all your debts. If you had recently taken more loans or missed payments/defaulted, the lender should have been careful as your position was getting worse.
- When you top up a loan, the lender should check the new larger loan is affordable. If the current loan was causing you problems or your finances had got worse you shouldn’t have been given a larger loan.
If you feel there was something else unfair about your case, add that into your complaint as well!
What would a “fair solution” be?
If the lender or the Ombudsman decides the loan wasn’t affordable, this is what happens:
- The loan has been repaid, then any interest you paid should be refunded to you.
- The loan is still outstanding, then interest should be removed from the balance that is owing, so you only repay what you borrowed. Your guarantor should be released from the loan. The lender should accept an affordable monthly payment from you to repay the rest.
- Any payments made by the guarantor are refunded to the guarantor, not to you.
Will a complaint affect your guarantor?
Complaining won’t affect your guarantor if you carry on making the payments. The guarantor shouldn’t be told you have complained unless your complaint is being upheld.
If you stop paying the loan when you make a complaint, the lender may decide to get your guarantor to pay it. If you don’t want this to happen, you have to somehow carry on making the payments even though it’s hard.
If you can’t afford to carry on paying and you don’t want to hurt your guarantor talk to a debt adviser about your options in this difficult situation.
Making an affordability complaint won’t make things worse, and it may help in a few months time, but it isn’t an immediate escape from your problem.
Think about whether your guarantor also had a good reason to complain – see Complaining if you are a guarantor for details. If they win a complaint, they will be removed as a guarantor, which would take a lot of pressure off you.
How to complain to the lender
A template complaint to use
Send your complaint by email – here is a list of lender’s email addresses.
Use SAR AND COMPLAINT BY BORROWER as the email title.
Here is a template. Change it to describe what happened to you and delete what doesn’t apply.
Only put this in if it applies to you: I took a top up of [£2,500] in [March 2018]
Add a reference number for the loan or give some other details such as your date of birth and your address when you took the loan out.
Please send me a copy of all the personal information that you have about me, including but not limited to all credit record checks, a copy of my loan application(s) and recordings of all phone calls from me. You have 30 days to reply to this Subject Access Request (SAR).
I am making an affordability complaint. This loan was/These loans were unaffordable for me and you would have realised this if you had checked properly before giving me the loan(s).
Delete or change any of the following so they are right for you:
[You would have seen from my credit record that I had recently missed payments/had defaults/was in a DMP/IVA.]
[I was on a low income/My only income was my pension/benefits.]
[You did not ask me for proof of my income or expenses and you did not ask about my expenses in detail.]
[I get ESA/PIP/DLA but you did not ask me if I had any extra expenses because of this.]
[I had a gambling problem which you could have seen from my bank statements.]
If you topped up the original loan: When I topped up the loan you should have seen from my credit record that my financial situation had got worse. [delete if not relevant: You ignored the fact that I had made several payments late to you.]
If you still owe money:[I am asking you to remove the interest from the balance so I only have to repay what I borrowed, release my guarantor and allow me to make lower monthly payments.]
If the loan has been repaid change that to [refund me the interest that I have paid plus 8% statutory interest.]
If you don’t want your guarantor to be told: [I want to carry on making the normal monthly payments because I do not want my guarantor to be affected. Please note I do not want my guarantor to be informed about my complaint unless my complaint is upheld.]
You have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint before I send it to the Financial Ombudsman.
If you would like some help with this, then go to your local Citizens Advice.
And do send bank statements!
It’s good if you can attach bank statements to your complaint. Send three months of statements before each loan or top-up and two months afterwards. So if you had a loan in August 2017, send statements for May-September 2017.
These statements will show how unaffordable your loans were. Don’t worry if there is gambling showing on the statements – that helps your case!
Don’t delay starting a complaint if you are trying to get your bank statements – just add them later. But now is a good time to get the statements as they can help your case.
What to do with your personal information (SAR)
Copies of personal information (SARs) are often sent out by post, so if you have moved, make sure the lender has your new address. You should get the information within 30 days. It is often sent on a CD with a password.
This information is not the lender’s response to your complaint. Most lenders will send that separate from the SAR, usually a few weeks later.
You don’t need to do anything with the SAR, just keep it safe. You have asked for it now so that you have the details in case the lender rejects your complaint or makes a poor offer so your complaint has to go to the Ombudsman.
Taking a complaint to the Ombudsman
If the lender rejects your complaint, go to the Ombudsman
Don’t delay in sending a case to FOS – it has to go within 6 months. And while you have an “open” complaint at FOS, the lender cannot take you to court.
Lenders seem to reject many complaints and hope you give up! So don’t be surprised if a lender says No, the loan was affordable or We based our decision to lend on your application which was inaccurate.
If the lender says No, or you haven’t had a reply 8 weeks after sending your complaint, send your case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) the best way to do this is by using the FOS online form.
This is free to do and easy – you don’t have to quote laws or regulations. You can just send FOS the complaint you sent the lender. And if they have replied and said something that’s wrong, mention that as well.
You don’t need to go into details – a short FOS complaint is fine. If you want to add more details, read How Subject Access Request information can help an affordability complaint. But you don’t have to do this.
If only some loans are refunded, is this fair?
Sometimes a lender will say that just a few loans are unaffordable and remove the interest. Which is good, but should it be better?
If the rejected loans caused you difficulties and led to you needing a top-up, send your complaint to FOS and say you think the earlier loans too should be refunded.
At the moment (mid 2020) Amigo is deducting money for “unpaid interest” if they only uphold the later loans. This seems just wrong! So here you can go to the Ombudsman and say you think this deduction is unfair as the earlier loans were settled. Also say if you think the earlier loans were unaffordable so they too should be refunded, but if you aren’t worried about the earlier loans you can just ask FOS to remove the unpaid interest deduction.
Are you likely to win your Ombudsman complaint?
From mid 2019, a lot of guarantor loan complaints are being upheld at FOS.
Guarantor loans are large and people are winning their case even if they only had one loan.
One Ombudsman decision went into a lot of detail so I have summarised it here: Ombudsman – Amigo did not check properly that a borrower could afford the loan.
Here is my summary of some other FOS decisions in mid 2019: Guarantor loans – more refunds being paid!
Cases are also being won against other guarantor lenders, for example UK Credit.
It is much simpler to win a case at FOS than a court case. If Amigo or any other lender has already started a court case against you, Citizens Advice can help you get the court case “stayed” (that’s legal jargon for put on hold) while you take an affordability complaint to the Ombudsman.
Complicated cases & help with guarantor loan complaints
If you want help with these complaints, Citizens Advice can help. Every Citizens Advice has access to the national Specialist Debt Advice Service if this isn’t something an adviser has come across before.
Leave a comment below this article to discuss what to do or talk to Citizens Advice if:
- your guarantor has made a lot of payments.
- you have been bankrupt, in an IVA or a DRO – read guarantor loans & insolvency .
- you have a CCJ from the guarantor lender – read guarantor loans & CCJs.
- if your debt has been sold to a debt collector.
Do not use a Claims Firm or a solicitor that is acting as a claims firm. There are two good reasons why you should avoid them:
- they will probably do a very poor job. They are not experts. They won’t put time into looking at your personal case.
- if you win a case but still owe a balance, this is usually just reduced. But the claims firm will expect you to pay their high percentage fee immediately even though you have not received any cash refund and still have the rest of the loan to pay.
How to ask for a payday loan refund
Board room bust-up at Amigo
Complaints about large high cost loans
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:))
SP says
Morning Sara,
Thank you for posting the article this morning in regards to Amigo to seeks refuge from complaints. Does that mean there will be a chance Amigo will slow down on the complaint process until a decision has been made? It will be 6 weeks this weekend on my complaint to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes there is a chance, but whether that is 90% likely or 50% likely I can’t guess.
Jemma says
Evening Sara,
I received my redress from Amigo on 7/7/20 and it would leave me owning £3,336.03 and still had not removed the guarantor but as they disputed the first two loans I sent it to the fos.
I received a letter this afternoon from the fos explaining a new offer.
“I took out 4 loans with Amigo” (I took out 5)
Amigo refunding the interest that you paid on the loans
Your refund will include interest at the simple rate of 8%
Amigo removing any negative information that has been recorded on your credit file,
Your refund will look like
Total interest paid £11,556.03
Less interest due back to amigo due to top up loans £865.40
Total settlement due £10,690.63
You will receive a refund of £10,690.63
Please note there maybe slight variations in calculations when amigo apply the refund to your LOAN ACCOUNT due to simple interest being owed up to the date of settlement.
So I checked my account
Balance to settle £12, 519.32
Arrears £5,776.15
Now I have been paying since 2016 and I stopped paying last year as I was in a shocking situation financially but I feel I’m missing something.
My debt has gone up due to interest which I was told would be stopped, I’m still left owing Amigo money and they’ve not given the fos the correct amount of loans.
I’ll be ringing tomorrow but what on earth am I supposed to do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it would leave me owning £3,336.03 and still had not removed the guarantor
so the current loan was not upheld?
which of loans 1-5 were upheld?
can you tell which one is missing from the 4 they are now talking about?
Jemma Walker says
Thanks for replying,
It was the first two that had not been upheld by Amigo, the last three had been which is why I want to the fos.
No the letter isn’t specific, I do intend to ring tomorrow anyway but I’ve got so many different figures I’m genuinely confused.
Jem
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if the last one has been, I have no idea why your guarantor hasn’t been released!
Laura says
Little update on my complaint with bamboo. After pointing out the inaccuracies in their final respond (and ultimately the reason for rejecting the complaint) they came back still denying any wrong doing but with an increased offer of £1950. I’ve worked out approx £7000 was paid in interest so I have today escalated to the FOS. Looks like I am in it for the long haul, however, none of this would have been possible without Sara and this site so thank you for all your hard work and dedication, please keep fighting the good fight and educating us all.
Tom says
Hi Sara,
Just a question regarding the ajudicators final decision which was sent to amigo last week. They have given Amigo until the 28th to respond to their decision (the adjudicator found that all of my 5 loans were unaffordable and I should be refunded all interest and 8%). I emailed the adjudicator yesterday to ask whether the amigo announcement would affect my claim, but recieved an out of office reply saying they were away until the 4th. So was wondering whether another adjudicator from FOS would respond on or around the 28th since the one handling my case is away. Or would I have to wait until the 4th to hear Amigos response?
I have since read the article you posted and the comments on how its difficult to predict the liklihood of the scheme to go forward.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suspect Amigo may not reply within that timescale. I’m sorry, you just have to wait and see what happens.
John says
Hi Sara, hope you are well. Today I have received my SAR today through another site, I am pretty clueless on what it all actually means, is it worth someone loooking through it for me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is Amigo? Have you sent in the complaint? How long ago?
John says
Yes Amigo, sorry should have made clearer, I raised a complaint on 12th of December and asked for SAR at the same time.
John says
Hi Sara, is theee anyone that you can recommend to look over my credit files sent from amigo?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At the moment Amigo seems to have stopped all complaint handling because of their proposed Scheme of Arrangement. There is nothing useful you can do at the moment. Come back when it gets to 8 weeks and see what is happening then.
Jon says
Hi Sara.
I’ve been asked for bank statements for my amigo loans but four of my loans are from more than six years ago and my bank only has six years worth of statements on record. I know this will have an impact on the outcome of the investigation but in your opinion how big an impact could it possibly have and is there anything I can do about it.
Many thanks
Jon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Asked by FOS?
Jon says
Yes by the fos
Anon says
I had 5 guarantor loans at once with 5 different companies and the same guarantor, 4 upheld so far, 1 left with ombudsman and 2 contacted my guarantor after the complaint was upheld to pay the money to them even though they had not made any payments toward it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who are the 2 that went after your guarantor? Has this been resolved?
L says
Hi Sara,
Looking for some advice regarding my Amigo complaint.
I am now over 16 weeks into my complaint with no response, hundreds of calls to Amigo and many excuses for why no final response. I escalated this at 8 weeks to FOS but no update from them as of yet.
I am now worried that I was told yesterday by Amigo complaint department I will now not hear anything till at least March 2021 despite completing questionnaire around 6 weeks ago.
Can you advise how the proposed scheme of arrangement will affect me as I not able to afford over £300 to month to Amigo and my mental health is deteriorating massively, Amigo have doctors reports and my medical history.
I have waited over 16 weeks and I am sick and tired from the misadvice of Amigo staff
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am wondering if your guarantor also has good reason to complain… What was your guarantor’s financial position like when you took this loan out, could they have afforded to pay £300 a month to this loan and still paid all their own bills, debts and living expenses?
L says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for the response.
My relationship with my guarantor no longer exists and Amigo continue to threaten me with default if I do not stick with current payments which are now up to £300 due to arrears. My guarantor current position he is not in a position to pay this amount per month either. I was told yesterday by Amigo I will not be hearing anything now until at least March 21 despite being 16 weeks into my ongoing complaint. This is crippling me and I keep making them aware of this.
chris law says
hi sara
with the recent request by amigo I am wondering if i will be affected. Amigo has upheld my complaint and I am just waiting on the final figure which they say will be around the 1st jan. My complaint was upheld on the 18th Dec so would this then pre date the request they have put in and my final figure would be worked out as normal ? Just thinking I am going to get shafted at some point here.
Thanks and merry christmas
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know if you will be shafted. The Amigo announcement sets they will pay out on “reviewed and upheld complaints where a Final Response Letter has been issued to the customer, dated before 21 December 2020”. I don’t know whether what you were sent is “a Final Response Letter” or whether that is the later letter with the numbers calculated, which you have not yet received.
Alex says
Hi sara merry Christmas first of all. Just for clarity I’m in a similar position to the above poster. The opening paragraph of my upheld complaint letter ends with “and I am able to provide you with our final response”. I’m still awaiting figures myself between 25th and 5 working days they quote in the letter. The wording of the letter and announcement would suggest that the ones of us in this position will be unaffected. Thanks for all your hard work with this and have a great day xx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Fingers crossed for you!
christopher law says
fingers, toes and everything else crossed at the minute lol.
Thanks for all your help
chris law says
Hi Alex just wondering if you have had any news about your final figures yet as it was 5 days from the 25th ?
Lewis says
Hi Sara, I have had my complaint upheld but still owe amigo in the region of £5000.00. I am trying to set up a monthly payment with them which I can afford but they keep rejecting my offers and as there is no arrangement in place they keep threatening me with an LBA. Can they do this if my complaint has been upheld by the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you have other problem debts as well? how much are you offering Amigo a month?
Louis says
I have been offering £50.00 a month as that is all I can afford at the moment due to being on furlough and having others debts.
I am currently making minimum payments. I have about 4 credit cards with debt totalling around 12000.00. My job should also be safe when furlough ends, so I could make a bigger repayment when I’m back in work.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you told Amigo that you expect to be able to increase the payments when furlough ends?
Are any of your credit cards Barclaycards? If yes, is your minimum payment going up in January?
17k of debt overall is a lot, cards where you can only make the minimum payment go down VERY slowly. It may be sensible for you to talk to StepChange about a debt management plan and just include the Amigo debt in that.
Christopher w hill says
Hi Sara,
I made a claim several months ago, and it was sent to the FOS, who decided that all of my loans and top ups were unaffordable, so FOS wrote to amigo telling them so. Their 14 day deadline ran out on 23rd October, but I’ve still not heard anything back. Im feeling a bit lost as FOS said we have to wait it out for a bit. What do you think?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo complaints aren’t likely to be progressing at the moment, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-seeks-scheme-arrangement-complaints/.
It isn’t definite this Scheme will go through but until that is known I would be surprised if Amigo do anything on your case.
Christopher w hill says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your response.
What would the likely outcome be for me, seeing as FOS has already instructed them about my loans?
Both if the scheme goes through, or if it doesn’t?
Thanks,
Chris.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This was an adjudicator decision? do you still owe a balance? And if yes, did you have a previous loan before this?
Christopher w hill says
Sorry, I only just saw your reply.
Yes it was an adjudicator decision. I still have just over £5000 outstanding, and I’ve had a few loans and top ups with them, totalling approximately £15000.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, with a few top ups you are very likely to have your complaint upheld in a Cheme or in Administration. In which case the balance should be cleared if the refund is larger than the balance. If the redress is larger, you would be unlikely to get more than pennies back in the Scheme
Until it’s clear how Amigo will calculate the redress you can’t really guess if you would get more in a Scheme or in administration. In administration the administrators are likely to be pretty straight about the calaulations. In the Scheme, who know if Amigo will try to get away with upholding fewer loans or adding in an “unpaid interest” deduction?
Carly says
Hi all.
I currently have an Amigo guarantor loan (£1500). A friend being guarantor. At the time, this loan was affordable for me. However when the pandemic hit my finances took a massive hit. I took the 6 month payment break and did make small payments during that time. However, interest was only stopped for 3 months. I have only made one full payment to them since March. I had built up some credit thankfully, which covered a couple of payments for me (incl my Dec instalment). However, the balance is just getting bigger & its giving me anxiety. It is sitting at around £1600 at the moment, and in the last 18 months I don’t think it has ever dipped below that. It appears I am going to continue on furlough & I am truly going to struggle making my payments, as I have done since the beginning of Covid. I am not disputing this is my debt, and I am happy to pay it as at the time I could afford it. But right now, and for the foreseeable, I absolutely cannot and haven’t for almost a year now really. I do not want my guarantor involved at all, and I worry should I make any kind of complaint they will tell her or chase her for payment, which naturally I do not want to happen. I want to work with them, without guarantor involvement.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well that is the problem with guarantor loans. Horrible products, you never anticipated being in this position when you took the loan out.
If you have other debts as well (and almost everyone who was so desperate as to take an Amigo loans does) then I suggest you should talk to a debt adviser about your whole situation.
But your options for this Amigo loan are to:
1) struggle on and pay it somehow. I don’t know how realistic that is. Don’t get behind with rent, council tax, utilities in order to pay Amigo!
2) try to get Amigo to accept less and not go after your guarantor. At a guess this is more likely to succeed if you offer 80% of the payment not 20%
3) read the article above and think again about whether the loan was actually affordable. If it wasn’t, send in an affordability complaint. It doesn’t solve your immediate problem of the payments but in the medium term if you win interest will be removed and your guarantor released.
4) think about your guarantor’s situation. If she couldn’t afford to make all the payments and still pay her own debts, bills and everyday expenses, she can complain and ask to be removed as guarantor. That would mean all the pressure is off you and you can offer Amigo whatever monthly payment you can actually afford.
Carly says
Thinking about it, it probably wasn’t affordable. My income/expenditure was based off of what I was paying out when I flat shared (which was minimal) and as mentioned, the money was for moving.
If I make an affordability complaint to Amigo, will my guarantor be notified about this? That is my only worry.
As I said, I am more than happy to accept this debt is mine. And pay it. I just wish when I was paying it the debt was getting lower, as opposed to just covering the interest mostly.
I am not due now to make another payment until the end of Jan.
My guarantor is in a good financial standing. She is a home owner, and has no debt other than mortgage & credit card she pays off monthly. She does however have bad mental health. I suspect she could argue that to them, as she is also autistic. However, again, I’d rather deal with this by myself.
Jon says
This scheme of arrangement that amigo are proposing to do is just another shambolic, shameful and disgusting delaying tactic. I can’t imagine any court in the land, would give the green light for this to happen. When amigo floated on the stock market, it was valued at 1.3 billion pounds(admittedly that has dropped some what in the past couple of years) and paid its shareholders 300 million pounds in bonuses, so I can’t see them going bust anytime soon. As frustrating as these delaying tactics are, we just need to be patient and hold out for the full amount that is owed to you. Hopefully the FCA will pull their finger out and tell amigo, this scheme of arrangement is a no go and to start paying out again.
dave says
They were valued at 1.3bn but now they are less than 40m. That is because they can’t afford complaints and would likely go bust if there is no scheme. In that case, I think we would see next to nothing paid on our complaints.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See my recent aticle – https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-scheme-estimated-numbers-not-good/. In the current Scheme people who do not have a current loan will get next to nothing.
The Board says it has other options – I don’t know what they are.
But it is also possible the Scheme could be made fairer, so the bondholders and the shareholders do much less well and the customers do not get all the pain.
But the FCA may well reject this Scheme because they have to consider the wider market not just this one lender.
Chris says
Sara,
I had a reply of amigo on the 22nd Dec to say they are continuing to investigate my complaint due to ombudsman pushing them for final response as a priority case. However from news about amigo they are pausing all complaints handling?
SP says
Hello Sara,
Just want to say a massive Thank you for setting up such a useful and informative website along with your advise.
Not a bad end to 2020 I have received the final response letter from UK Credit upholding my affordability complaint.
The loan was taken out in June 2019 for £7K with 48 months loan term.
They have offer to credit the account with the interest paid to date along with the 8% statutory interest £3,149.32.
So instead of £5,939.91 outstanding to pay, the balance has reduced down to £2,790.59 and my guarantor will be released from their obligations under the agreement and any negative information will be removed from my credit file.
I really appreciate everything you have done. Thank you so much.
Another one down just CASHasap, Satsuma and Amigo to go now.
Hope you have a wonderful New Year and may 2021 be a great one for everyone!
Lindsey says
Hello, my case is currently with FOS against amigo
Can you work my figures out for me please?
Loan 1, £2000. 4 payments of £123.63
Loan 2, £3500. 10 payments of £170.76
Loan 3, £6000 4 payments of £256.65
Loan 4, £6750. 2 payments of £288.73
Loan 5, £7500. 4 payments of £206.44
Loan 6, £9000 20 payments of £384.98
I have an outstanding balance of over £9000 as I haven’t been able to pay since March so incurring interest. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you say what cash payout you received when you took the top up loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
has Amigo been asking your guarantor to pay?
Lindsey mccallum says
I can only find the latest payout which was £1357.68 do you know how I can find my payout for the others?
They actually took a payment out of my guarantors bank which I now have to pay her back. Amigo refuse to put my loan on hold while I have a case with FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your bank statements? Or the loan accounts if you can see them online.
Lindsey says
I can’t find info on top up 3 sorry
Top up 2 payout £1,570
Top up 4 payout £637
Top up 5 payout £650
Top up 6 payout £1000
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You said before:
“I took out a £2000 loan in 2016 and have topped up six times”
Is that right, in which case the 1357 is the top up 7 amount?
Or did you have 1 loan and then 5 top ups?
Lindsey says
It was one loan and 5 top ups… thank you
Shan says
Hi
Can somebody please help. I currently have a loan with uk credit … I have two years left on it and already been paying for two. It’s a garantour loan abs my garantour was in a very bad place when he agreed (I was unaware of this at the time) he still isn’t 100% better but I have never missed a payment & I am wanting to know if I complained about the loan as it’s still not 100% paid off would they contact him to tell him I’ve complained ? He’s never made a payment to it but the stress of being contacted by loan companies give him anxiety as he has his own money worries now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They shouldn’t contact him if you carry on making the payments. If they do, you can reassure him you are making the payments and he cannot be affected.
But how much difficulty was he in when the loan was taken out? he may have a good reason to also complain and ask to be removed as guarantor for the loan. This would be a weight off his mind and good for you, as you can then just make a payment arrangement while your complaint goes through the Ombudsman if necessary.
And how much difficulty is he in at the moment? Could you suggest he should take debt advice, whilst reassueing him you are going to carry on making the payments but are trying to get interest removed from the loan?
If he is already stressed and in difficulty, these are postive helping messages for you to give.
Megan says
Hi, just wondering how long after Amigo agreed to uphold your loans with the FOS was it that you received a figure off amigo? They upheld my loans on the 9/12/20
Thanks, Megan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo seem to have slammed the brakes on all payouts at the moment. I am hoping this is just temporary.
Megan says
Oh no! Thankyou got the reply! X
DM says
Just wondering anybody’s experience in getting the COVID payment break from Amigo, what information is required? Do they inform your guarantor? Still no final response on complaint for my loan and x4 top ups. As they seem to be intent on using delay tactics I would rather take the £375 I am currently paying to clear off some smaller debts for the next 3 months and free up an additional £170 a month (still have 7k balance and have worked out redress on all loans would have been an additional £14k but know I am never going to see any of this or a couple of pence in the pound)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have your finances been affected by Covid?
Are you on good terms with your guarantor?
Because with 4 top ups it is highly likely that your complaint would be upheld for at least the later loans and the balance cleared…
DM says
Thanks Sara, yes my wife is going on part time furlough. Have a good relationship with my guarantor but as have made all the payments apart from £63 in 2013 which Amigo advised was holding up the investigation and despite filling in the questionnaire have not had a final response since Aug 26th. Had held off sending to FOS as kept being assured it was going to be looked at and was at least hoping to get balance written off and intended to escalate any that were not upheld with any withheld intrest. I have been using my redress with other creditors as part of a debt snowball and have 270, 400 and 800 balances I could get them cleared a lot quicker if I add it to the 40,60&130 I am currently paying on these and if Amigo address drags on for at least another 18-24 months whether scheme is approved or they limp into administration would at least have these balances cleared with more disposable income and the accrued intrest would be dealt with when I get a final outcome? One thing I am also concerned with is that when my Guarantor applied for his mortgage a couple of years ago it was picked up by the broker/lender and affected his application and would not want to impact him additionally when he remortgaged in March if looks like I cannot afford the payments due to the balance not decreasing because of payment holiday?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Had held off sending to FOS as kept being assured it was going to be looked at
That was a mistake which could turn out to be big :(
If the Scheme doesn’t go ahead and they limp along for 6-12 months before going under, it will be better if you were earlier in the FOS queue.
As your finances are affected by Coid-19 then you should be given a 3 month furlough by Amigo. Which they should later extend by another 3 months if you still need it. Have you sent them some proof of your wife’s furlough? eg forwarded an email from her employer?
when my Guarantor applied for his mortgage a couple of years ago it was picked up by the broker/lender and affected his application
Does the Amigo loan show on his credit record? That would be very unusual… Perhaps he told the lender about it.
I cannot imagine how a payment holiday by you could possibly show on his credit record. Payment holidays are visible to mortgage lenders who check bank statement/Open Banking, but only for the borrower. The guarantor has only a contingent liability, I don’t think that could ever be picked up.
If Amigo refuse to give you a payment deferral, then you can complain to the Ombudsman. This sort of complaint would not be part of the Scheme (well again I am guessing, but I can’t see the FCA would allow Amigo to sweep all complaints about anything by current borrowers into the Scheme and out of FOS jurisdiction.)
But fundamentally you are facing the problem that if the Scheme goes ahead OR they go bust, then every month from now on you are throwing £375 away as you will get almost nothing of it back. I suggest you talk to your guarantor about this, as it would need you to stop paying and your guarantor to also cancel the DD to Amigo.
Tom says
Hi Sara,
Amigo were due to respond to the adjudicators decision on the 28th and the adjudicator emailed today to say they had not recieved a response from Amigo so he was passing my case onto the ombudsman to make a final decision. I gave the go ahead as they agreed all of my loans were unaffordable.
I was just wondering what the typical timescale is for a case going to the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think any past experience is relevant to Amigo cases at the moment.
Neil says
Hello
Quick question, I took out a loan for £5000 in 2014 and paid it off with no guarantor payments. Is there a time limit to make a claim? I read you had to do it within 6 years of taking out the loan on one reputable site but no where else.
I currently have a loan with them for £3000, if I claim will it adversely affect it?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The time limit for claims is April 2007.
What is this “reputable site” that didn’t know that?
(If you are wondering why, that is when the Unfair Relationship provisions of the Consumer Credit Act came into force. And when the Financial Ombudsman had jurisdiction over consumer credit contracts. When a loan is over 6 years old, the Ombudsman still accepts cases where the customer has only found out within the last three years that they could complain. That is the vast majority of cases. In lender administrations, it’s normal for the administrators to use the April 2007 cut off.)
Not sure what your last question was:
– If the earlier loan is upheld it will reduce the balance owed on the current one.
– making a claim in general has no adverse affects on a current loan, how could it?
Neil says
So I can still make a claim on the loan I took out in 2014? The site was money saving expert.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they do… I will suggest they should change that, thanks.
Yes, you can definitely make a claim for a 2014 loan. Amigo are more likely to reject it so it may need to go to the Ombudsman. And of course we have no idea how these claims will proceed… but that’s not a reason to delay starting yours now.
claire foster says
Hi Sara,
I follow your page regularly, I have had a complaint in with Amigo that was partially upheld, I accepted their offer and then referred the rest to the FO (this included an extortinate unpaid interest charge).
FO prioritised my case but as yet I have heard nothing. Am I right assume that all cases regardless of where they are at are now on hold?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think Amigo is doing any work on them.
Whether FOS is doing much, I don’t know. Its website says:
We are aware of the recently announced news that Amigo Holdings PLC has made an application to the FCA for a DISP waiver to suspend complaints handling in anticipation of a proposed scheme of arrangement. In the meantime, we will continue to look at complaints and consumers can continue to bring any new complaints to the ombudsman service.
As you have a priority case, you could phone them up and asl what is happening?
Chris says
Hi Claire,
I am in a similar position. Logged in august with amigo and oct with FOS. Case was made a priority just before Xmas. Amigo emailed on the 22nd Dec to say they are continuing to investigate and after 5 months I finally recieved my SAR file from amigo yesterday. However as I’ve been borrowing from amigo / Flm for the last decade with loams top ups…my SARS request had 100s of files which have blown my mind tbh.
Jo says
I just see a comment someone put on trust pilot with regards to Amigo loans saying they’ve received something that says Amigo are not paying out any redress claims. Amigo agreed with the investigator after I put my claim in back in May 20 and finally on the 14th Dec 20 the adjudicator emailed me and said Amigo will write to me with a refund offer and have accepted they should have never lent to me. Am I right in thinking I’m not going to see this offer now as what this other person on trust pilot has written?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not clear whether what Amigo said to FOS is a final offer from them.
And of course we don’t know if this scheme will be going ahead.
Sorry, no clear answer for you.
Matt says
I’m in exactly the same position (adjudicator told me Amigo were making an offer on 17th Dec). I emailed Amigo to ask what would happen and they told me they were still going to send a final calculation of my offer out to me, but could not give a time frame for when that would happen. Whether that offer is then subject to their scheme of arrangement is anyone’s guess.
It feels a bit like Amigo have told the adjudicator what they want to hear so that they don’t need to do any more work on the case, but knew that they were always going to delay sending out any offer calculation until their scheme proposal had been reviewed.
Sarah h says
Hi Sara,
My covid break with Amigo has finished and I have to start repayments this month. I was paying £600 a month before the break and was falling behind with priority bills Rent and council tax, my husband has now also been furloughed. I have asked if I can pay half for the time being without them asking my gauerentor for the rest. There is no way my garuentor could afford to do this and then i would have to find the money to pay her back. Can they make me pay the full amount. I have an affordability complaint in with them and just before Christmas the FO said they had received my complaint and it was being allocated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you suggest your guarantor cancels her Direct Debit to Amigo? Better safe than sorry if she can’t afford to make the payments.
Have your guarantor’s finances also been affected by Covid? If yes, she can then ask for a 3 month payment holiday if you stop paying and for another 3 months when that ends. That would mean you could stop paying anything for this time. Allow you to catch up on priority debts.
If her finances haven’t been affected, then if she can’t afford it she should still not pay. This will not affect her credit rating – the Amigo loan doesn’t show on a guarantor’s credit record.
Amigo should not go to court while a complaint is underway at FOS – they may threaten this but so far they haven’t actually done it.
Michelle says
Hi
Similar happened to me I had my payment break for covid went back paying my normal payments but I’m self employed work got quiet again I phoned them went thru my finances they let me off with paying this month and I’ve to pay half next month and they won’t ask my guarantor unless I don’t stick to the arrangement so I would definitely give them a call
Sarah h says
Thank you so much for your reply, I am waiting on them to get back in touch with me. Fingers crossed.
I won’t get a redress off them if my affordability complaint does go through, I will still owe them £1500 so I am thinking if I can make small payments now then hopefully but the time the complaint is sorted I will owe them very little.
Tom says
Hi,
So I raised an affordability complaint with Amigo back in June along with a SAR request. They managed to final address my complaint in mid August, saying they were rejecting the complaint which didn’t come as a surprise. But they completely ignored my SAR request, when I asked them to please comply with my SAR, they said, ‘we will take a look into this and get back ASAP.’ I still have not had a response from them to this day.
I took it straight to the Ombudsman as soon Amigo rejected my complaint, just to reiterate this was back in August when I first spoke to the Ombudsman. Now I checked in with them in October and my case still wasn’t assigned to anyone, and I have checked in again today and it is still sat outstanding.
Of course I’m aware of the current situation with COVID and businesses needing to adapt, to top this off I guess the situation with Amigo will be manic too when you take into account the number of complaints that are being thrown their way lately.
I guess my question is, has anyone else experienced this with the Ombudsman? What would be a usual amount of time you would expect them to turn something like this around? I wasn’t expecting nearly 5 months for my case to not even be assigned to anyone yet. Has anyone else had similar experiences?
Thanks
Tom
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you asked FOS if Amigo have supplied your case file yet? Unless your case is being treated as a priority, FOS won’t assign it to an adjudicator until they have the case file from the lender.
Carl says
I’ve had a case with ombudsman since April and they have the case file since July and my case has still not been assigned to an adjudicator first investigation. Same with another 2 of my case where they have the case files since August but still not been assigned to anyone. Drafty, 118 loans and lendable.
LEE says
I’m in the same position, case file has been received from Amigo but FOS have yet to assign an adjudicator
Tom says
I had this reply from FOS twice now,
‘ At this time, your case is still awaiting allocation to an investigator that specialises in Guarantor Loans. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer now.’
So what would be the best option for me to get the wheels moving on this, contacting amigo and asking them to send this over to FOS?
Or is it simply a waiting game for me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t know at the moment if the case file is the problem. You could phone FOS up and ask.
But at the moment there may be little you can do to speed this up as Amigo isn’t doing any work on these cases.
Sandra says
I had put my complaint in with amigo in June I rejected there offer in August After 10 weeks of waiting I then went to fos as they didn’t uphold the first two loans then fos I did ring every two weeks for an update to see if it had been assigned or see what was happening eventually it had been assigned to a fos handler to look at end of October and they got in contact with me asking to attach some
Bank statements which I did to show the first two loans were also not affordable which amigo didn’t uphold the last I heard from fos was the 18th of December haven’t heard anything since still waiting and expect to wait a lot longer hope this helps
John says
Hi Amigo have gone to court to set up a new way of looking at claims and have stopped paying out. If you ring this number it explains it all 01202835170
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They haven’t yet gone to court. First the FCA has to approve. And there are no useful details as yet.