UPDATES:
Do not use the templates on this page for the following lenders, instead see the specific page:
- Amigo has set up a Scheme of Arrangement. The deadline for making a claim has now passed, see Amigo’s Scheme for details.
- Buddy Loans went into administration in September 2021, see Buddy Loans goes into administration.
- George Banco & Trust Two set up Scheme of Arrangement, the deadline to make a claim to this has passed, see Everyday Loan Scheme for details
- TFS Loans went into administration in February 2022, see TFS Loans goes into administration.
Guarantor loans are very expensive. Often the lender didn’t check properly that you will be able to manage the loan repayments without having to borrow more.
If proper checks would have shown that you couldn’t afford the repayments, complain! There is a template letter in this article to help you.
You can get an existing loan reduced so you only repay the amount you borrowed, or get a refund if your loans have been repaid. If your complaint is rejected you can send the case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) who is upholding a lot (90%!) of guarantor loan complaints.
If you are the guarantor not the borrower, read Complaining if you are a guarantor which has a different template letter to use.
Contents
What is an affordability complaint?
A loan is not affordable if paying it left you so short of money you had to top up the loan, or borrow more from another lender or get behind with bills.
Does this sound like you? Then make an affordability complaint.
Just making the payments doesn’t prove the loan was affordable! You may have been repaying with difficulty, taking out other loans, because you didn’t want your guarantor to be affected.
You can complain if you are still paying the loan or if you have repaid it all.
If you win your complaint:
- interest is removed from a loan you still owe, so you only repay what you borrowed;
- your guarantor is released from the loan; and
- you can arrange to pay the remaining balance at a reduced rate.
When your loans have been settled, you get a refund of the interest you paid.
What should the lender have checked?
Guarantor lenders should have checked the loan was affordable for you before giving you the money.
The lender should have made sure you were likely to be able to make the repayments for the whole length of the loan.
Guarantor loans are large financial commitments. So I would expect a lender to have asked for evidence of your income, to have checked your credit record, and to have verified your expenses.
Some things a lender may have got wrong:
- It doesn’t matter if your guarantor is well off, the loan has to be affordable for you!
- You may have given said your expenditure was lower than it was, because you were guessing or desperate. The lender should have checked your figures.
- If you were self-employed or had wages that varied, the lender should have looked at how your income went up and down.
- The lender should have checked your credit record to see all your debts. If you had recently taken more loans or missed payments/defaulted, the lender should have been careful as your position was getting worse.
- When you top up a loan, the lender should check the new larger loan is affordable. If the current loan was causing you problems or your finances had got worse you shouldn’t have been given a larger loan.
If you feel there was something else unfair about your case, add that into your complaint as well!
What would a “fair solution” be?
If the lender or the Ombudsman decides the loan wasn’t affordable, this is what happens:
- The loan has been repaid, then any interest you paid should be refunded to you.
- The loan is still outstanding, then interest should be removed from the balance that is owing, so you only repay what you borrowed. Your guarantor should be released from the loan. The lender should accept an affordable monthly payment from you to repay the rest.
- Any payments made by the guarantor are refunded to the guarantor, not to you.
Will a complaint affect your guarantor?
Complaining won’t affect your guarantor if you carry on making the payments. The guarantor shouldn’t be told you have complained unless your complaint is being upheld.
If you stop paying the loan when you make a complaint, the lender may decide to get your guarantor to pay it. If you don’t want this to happen, you have to somehow carry on making the payments even though it’s hard.
If you can’t afford to carry on paying and you don’t want to hurt your guarantor talk to a debt adviser about your options in this difficult situation.
Making an affordability complaint won’t make things worse, and it may help in a few months time, but it isn’t an immediate escape from your problem.
Think about whether your guarantor also had a good reason to complain – see Complaining if you are a guarantor for details. If they win a complaint, they will be removed as a guarantor, which would take a lot of pressure off you.
How to complain to the lender
A template complaint to use
Don’t use this for Amigo of Buddy – see the update at the top of the page.
For all other guarantor lenders, including ones that have stopped lending, send your complaint by email – here is a list of lender’s email addresses.
Use SAR AND COMPLAINT BY BORROWER as the email title.
Here is a template. Change it to describe what happened to you and delete what doesn’t apply.
Only put this in if it applies to you: I took a top up of [£2,500] in [March 2018]
Add a reference number for the loan or give some other details such as your date of birth and your address when you took the loan out.
Please send me a copy of all the personal information that you have about me, including but not limited to all credit record checks, a copy of my loan application(s) and recordings of all phone calls from me. You have 30 days to reply to this Subject Access Request (SAR).
I am making an affordability complaint. This loan was/These loans were unaffordable for me and you would have realised this if you had checked properly before giving me the loan(s).
Delete or change any of the following so they are right for you:
[You would have seen from my credit record that I had recently missed payments/had defaults/was in a DMP/IVA.]
[I was on a low income/My only income was my pension/benefits.]
[You did not ask me for proof of my income or expenses and you did not ask about my expenses in detail.]
[I get ESA/PIP/DLA but you did not ask me if I had any extra expenses because of this.]
[I had a gambling problem which you could have seen from my bank statements.]
If you topped up the original loan: When I topped up the loan you should have seen from my credit record that my financial situation had got worse. [delete if not relevant: You ignored the fact that I had made several payments late to you.]
If you still owe money:[I am asking you to remove the interest from the balance so I only have to repay what I borrowed, release my guarantor and allow me to make lower monthly payments.]
If the loan has been repaid change that to [refund me the interest that I have paid plus 8% statutory interest.]
If you don’t want your guarantor to be told: [I want to carry on making the normal monthly payments because I do not want my guarantor to be affected. Please note I do not want my guarantor to be informed about my complaint unless my complaint is upheld.]
You have 8 weeks to respond to my complaint before I send it to the Financial Ombudsman.
If you would like some help with this, then go to your local Citizens Advice.
Definitely send bank statements!
It’s good if you can attach bank statements to your complaint. Send three months of statements before each loan or top-up and two months afterwards. So if you had a loan in August 2017, send statements for May-September 2017.
These statements will show how unaffordable your loans were. Don’t worry if there is gambling showing on the statements – that helps your case!
Don’t delay starting a complaint if you are trying to get your bank statements – just add them later. But now is a good time to get the statements as they can help your case.
Also get a copy of your credit record if this will show defaults, that your debts were increasing, that you had a large overdraft etc. Download this and keep it.
What to do with your personal information (SAR)
Copies of personal information (SARs) are often sent out by post, so if you have moved, make sure the lender has your new address. You should get the information within 30 days. It is often sent on a CD with a password.
This information is not the lender’s response to your complaint. Most lenders will send that separate from the SAR, usually a few weeks later.
You don’t need to do anything with the SAR, just keep it safe. You have asked for it now so that you have the details in case the lender rejects your complaint or makes a poor offer so your complaint has to go to the Ombudsman.
Taking a complaint to the Ombudsman
If the lender rejects your complaint, go to the Ombudsman
Don’t delay in sending a case to FOS – it has to go within 6 months. And while you have an “open” complaint at FOS, the lender cannot take you to court.
Lenders seem to reject many complaints and hope you give up! So don’t be surprised if a lender says No, the loan was affordable or We based our decision to lend on your application which was inaccurate.
If the lender says No, or you haven’t had a reply 8 weeks after sending your complaint, send your case to the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) the best way to do this is by using the FOS online form.
This is free to do and easy – you don’t have to quote laws or regulations. You can just send FOS the complaint you sent the lender. And if they have replied and said something that’s wrong, mention that as well.
You don’t need to go into details – a short FOS complaint is fine. If you want to add more details, read How Subject Access Request information can help an affordability complaint. But you don’t have to do this.
If only some loans are refunded, is this fair?
Sometimes a lender will say that just a few loans are unaffordable and remove the interest. Which is good, but should it be better?
If the rejected loans caused you difficulties and led to you needing a top-up, send your complaint to FOS and say you think the earlier loans too should be refunded.
Are you likely to win your Ombudsman complaint?
The Financial Ombudsman is agreeing with the customer on 90% of cases!
It is much simpler to win a case at FOS than a court case. If a lender has already started a court case against you, Citizens Advice can help you get the court case “stayed” (that’s legal jargon for put on hold) while you take an affordability complaint to the Ombudsman.
Complicated cases & help with guarantor loan complaints
If you want help with these complaints, Citizens Advice can help. Every Citizens Advice has access to the national Specialist Debt Advice Service if this isn’t something an adviser has come across before.
Leave a comment below this article to discuss what to do or talk to Citizens Advice if:
- your guarantor has made a lot of payments.
- you have been bankrupt, in an IVA or a DRO – read guarantor loans & insolvency .
- you have a CCJ from the guarantor lender – read guarantor loans & CCJs.
- if your debt has been sold to a debt collector.
Do not use a Claims Firm or a solicitor that is acting as a claims firm. There are two good reasons why you should avoid them:
- they will probably do a very poor job. They are not experts. They won’t put time into looking at your personal case.
- if you win a case but still owe a balance, this is usually just reduced. But the claims firm may expect you to pay their high percentage fee immediately even though you have not received any cash refund and still have the rest of the loan to pay.
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Card limit too high? Ask for a refund
Complaints about bank & other large loans
Louise says
Does the 8 weeks start the day you make the original complaint or the day after?
I sent my Amigo complaint 8 weeks ago today and had nothing so far
S says
I think it starts 8 weeks from when they acknowledge the complaint.
Natalie says
8 weeks from receipt of complaint. So if you send a complaint by e-mail then they acknowledge it 2 days later the 8 weeks started when they received it.
Emma says
Just an update having received the interest back on my amigo loan. I originally thought the payments my guarantor made where to be added but it was only the amount that went towards paying off the loan so it was only a small amount without the interest.
Also my first loan has been upheld after sending bank statements. ( I also sent other info which helped eg. Arrears mortgage letters)
So now wiped off!!
Thanks to Sara for fantastic advice
Sarah says
Hi my complaint is with the financial Ombudsman now. I complained to Amigo loans December 2018 to which they didn’t up hold on the basis of they do not lend based on your credit file or credit history. Also because my payment was up to date and I had only missed one payment. I was and still have to borrow to pay the £395 a month after having to give work up due to adoption and depression. The last top up was given after i came out of work. My partner is my gurantor and no longer in work. Recently I asked to reduce the amount each month and they offered me another top up. The Ombudsman have asked for this letter and are now looking into it. Fingers crossed for something even just the monthly payment to be reduced and interest stop. As its extortionate the amount that add in interest. This month they added £595.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
fingers crossed here for you! offering a top-up after you have asked for lower payments is, frankly, outrageous.
Crissy says
Good luck with your complaint they are a nightmare to deal with
Sarah Harrison says
So i worked out that since the last loan was taken out 1.8.2019 i have paid £4740 and i borrowed £175.78. Very scary and i wish i realised how much interest they added. Still waiting on the finical Ombudsman. Who have said they have a back log. But I still have to keep the payments up ofv£395 a month on universal credit and my partner is my gurantor and we both care for our adopted daughter. :( if only we knew.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“since the last loan was taken out 1.8.2019” should that be 2018?
I am thinking it might be a good idea for your partner to complain and ask to be removed as guarantor. If this could happen, it would take a weight off you and you could just include this guarantor loan in a debt management plan or look at other options such as bankruptcy or a debt relief order.
Mr Parrimore says
I am pleased to announce that I have had my final response from Amigo today who have partially upheld my complaint!
I complained direct to Amigo 8 weeks ago, so wasn’t escalated via the FOS, which I thought some of you may be interested in knowing as i’m aware there have been mixed results/outcomes from people on this forum.
By way of some background (for those interested), I had 8 loans in total which stretch back to 2012 and at the time of complaining had a loan open with them. The redress we have agreed means I now only owe them £489 and I had a balance remaining of £8,864. My guarantor will also get £1.1k paid to them. It goes without saying that I am absolutely over the moon as I still had 3 years left on this and knowing I will pay it off in 2 months is a huge relief.
More importantly, I want to pass on a HUGE, HUGE thank you to Sara and everyone else on this site because without your help and hard work I wouldn’t have been able to manage my complaint. I know that Sara is recording numbers of successful complaints with Amigo, either direct or via FOS, so I really hope that everyone who has complained has the same or similar success.
I appreciate some of you may have questions so i’m happy to help where I can, as I know I have benefited from others help too.
Crissy says
I’m so pleased for you this site is brilliant and really helped me !
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many of your loans have been refunded?
Mr Parrimore says
4 refunded – the last 4.
The first 2 were taken in 2012 and 2013 so I had a feeling they’d reject those from info I read on here.
The other two were taken in 2014 and 2015. I know I could have taken it to the FOS as I had the same scenario as the 4 they paid out on, i.e. several PD loans, gambling transactions on bank statements, defaults on credit file and the fact is topped up after the minimum 6 month period. However, knowing it would take many months for the FOS to respond and having the option to have my loan cleared I decided to stick rather than twist.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like you got a great result, so that’s fair enough!
Mr P says
I did, thank you 😊
Craig says
Hello,
First I like to thank you.
Eight weeks ago I used your template and sent a email to amigo loans, yesterday they email me back with there decision.
Saying there freezing the interest and refunding it all back plus 8% totalling £5018 so instead of playing £7200 Ive now only have £2100 left.
So I would just like to say thank you ago,
When no one would help I can across your forum.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good result! They should also agree for you to repay them at a slower rate if you are struggling with the current repayments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Mark – did you hear anything?
Mark says
Yes they have partly upheld my complaint so have to send in 3 months worth of bank statements before each loan. Just waiting on the first 3 months statements from bank from first loan as I have all the rest then emailing them off. Will see then what offer they come back with.
Bill says
Hi Sarah, after over 12 months since starting the complaint against Amigo ( A long drawn out frustrating one) Amigo have finally given information on the loan my wife took out for a horrible con man in April 2012, initially Amigo told us if you remember they don’t hold details on loans after 3 years, although our adjicator has been working throughly on the case and has informed us Amigo have suddenly found the information of the loan, without telling too much at this stage the person who asked my wife to be guarantor was in a much better financial possition than her at the time as my wife wasn’t working but he was, we now know Amigo only gave the loan because my wife was a house owner and he wasn’t! The loan was repaid after he vanished, the loan was £3.800 but paid off £4.700 including interest to pay the loan off, do you think we can reclaim the money Plus interest?
Bill
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your wife wasn’t working when she was accepted as guarantor then unless she had a large amount of other income, it is very hard to see how the loan could have been affordable for her.
If that’s what the adjudicator decides, then she should be refunded all the money paid plus 8% statutory interest.
(I am assuming there isn’t going to be an argument here about whether the loan is too old – over the 6 year point – as it sounds as though FOS has agreed to accept it.)
Bill says
Hi Sarah, we don’t know about the six year rule as of now but will find out quite soon, what I can confirm is Amigo checked to see if she was on the land registry and did not ask if she had any any documents to support if she was working or eveidence to make the payments if the borrower like he did failed to make payments!
In my view Amigo where happy to lend to guarantors who owned property as they knew they couldn’t loose out by placing an attachment via the courts on the property
Craig says
Hi all
It’s been a great help finding this article and comments.
I’ve sent my initial complaint and have received acknowledgment from amigo.
My question is I have now got bank statements together. Which is the best way to send/explain to amigo I’m sending them my statements for the 3 months prior to taking my loans and top ups?
All help appreciated. Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just email them and say you have attached your bank statements for the 3 months before each loan and top up because you think they prove the loans were not affordable.
Craig says
Thanks Sara.
I took my initial loan january 16 for 4000 paid it off with help of family. Then took a second loan July 16 for 3000 followed by top up to 5500 October 16 top up to 7500 November 16 then finally top up to 8500 in August 17. I believe these loans have been given to me irresponsibley by amigo and would of been unaffordable if not for family support.
I finish paying amigo this month.
Without knowing all the details do you think this looks a little suspect?
Thanks for your time :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Having to take so many top-ups suggests that your situation was getting worse. Amigo should have stopped and wondered if it was their loans that were the cause of this!
If you complain to Amigo, they may offer you a refund on the later loans. It’s then up to you if you think that is fair, of if you want to take the case to the ombudsman because none of them were affordable, as your bank statements would show.
lisa says
Hi Guys, good news, I received an email today 11am from Amigo, claim upheld directly, no FOS, all interest refunded and 8% statutory interest added on both loans, my loan has been settled and I have a refund of £2443 to come back to me. Am so pleased with the outcome, thanks Sara for your help and advice along the way.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good news!
Amanda says
Hi,
Has any one done a complaint to TFS loans or welcome finance?
Would you use the same template as amigo?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
TFS – yes use same template as Amigo. there are several complaints in progress, with TFS or having gone to FOS after being rejecte by TFS.
Welcome Finance – was that a guarantor loan?
amanda says
great. I sent mine off to TFS two weeks ago and used the same template as I did with Amigo so hopefully I can get the same outcome.
Welcome Finance didn’t need to have a guarantor, but they come to your house. This is for a friend who i advised my great success with Amigo and they wanted to see if it could be done with Welcome Finance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So this page https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ would be better for a complaint to Welcome Finance. But Welcome Finance are no longer lender, she may find this difficult to win.
lisa says
Hi I contacted welcome finance direct, they gave me all my agreement numbers and details how to make a claim for PPI, they are no longer trading but I was successful and was paid over £3300 for loans dating back to 2002, unsure if you would be able to claim affordability claim but PPi was large on these loans and years of interest at 8% amounts to a lot. I was paid out by the underwriters.
Welcome were regulated from 2005 but I believe they were members of an earlier body so will consider complaints from a date in 2003 I believe. The underwriter will take complaints from around 2001 to 2003. However, prior to that, there is no-one to complain too.
Amanda says
Thank you will pass on to my friend
Ian Bland says
Hello, has anyone had anything back from uk credit? Looking at the ombudsman decision page their is very minimal complaints on there, which is either a lack of complaints or its been dealt with by an adjudicator or the company. I have been rejected by the company (Not a surprise), so its now with the FOS to look at.
Just interested to see if anyone has had any success with these?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Here is Soph reporting Ombudsman upheld her case at the end of July: https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-6/#comment-309649. The delay to getting these cases published on the decisions website is c 8 weeks st the moment.
Mark has just said today that Ombudsman has upheld the adjudicator decision UK credit rejected: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-153/#comment-313312
Peter reported a FOS uphold https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-5/#comment-306081 but I am not sure if that was an Ombudsman or adjudicator decision.
Other complaints in progress are A a ron, Kate, Cat’s mum and Afaq.
Stuart says
Hi guys
Just to let you all know I have received my response from amigo a day earlier than expected. To say I’m over the moon is an understatement! I only had 1 payment left to make from an initial 7500 loan over 3 yrs with no top ups.
I registered my complaint direct with them just under 8 weeks ago and they have cleared the last payment and are crediting me back all the interest plus 8% which is 6451.00.
I hope you all get the same responses from them and a big thank you to Sara for all your advice
Lisa says
Well done Stuart, good day today for us, enjoy your refund. Good luck to everyone else.
Stuart says
Thanks Lisa I’m pleased you had a good result too and like you say good luck to everyone else
J says
Hi,
I took out a loan guarantor with Bamboo in December last year, the loan was not have been affordable as I have an awful lot of debt and defaults.
Should I make a complaint? Is it guaranteed that my guarantor won’t be contacted as long as I keep up my payments?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should complain. Today the Financial Ombudsman has published statistics showing that it is agreeing with the customer in a massive 83% of guarantor loan cases – the lenders aren’t checking properly that the loan is affordable.
The template complaint letter above says that you want to carry on making the monthly payments as you do not want your guarantor to be contacted. It may be a struggle, but if that’s important to you y, you have to manage the payments.
Joanne McLeod says
Good evening all I hope you are well.
Has anyone had any luck submitting a complaint to UK Credit regarding Guarantor Loans?
Thanks
Joanne
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes! Soph won her case at the end of July: https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-6/#comment-309649.
Mark said today that Ombudsman has upheld the adjudicator decision UK credit rejected: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-153/#comment-313312
NAd there are half a dozen more complaints in progress, with UK Credit or at the Ombudsman.
Joanne McLeod says
Thanks Sara for your reply – that’s good to hear. I sent a letter of complaint in July, they have sent me all information requested and have just received a letter from them today asking me to send 3 months worth of bank statements prior to getting a 3rd loan with them. So will wait and see 😊
Tmac says
Hi
I have received this response from Amigo … anyone else had similar and is this correct . I have all my paperwork and had sent them a copy
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to find your account with the information in your message, given that you have suggested that your loan was taken out in 04/06/2013, if this was then settled over 4 years ago then we will have removed your information in accordance with GDPR guidelines.
If this is the case then sadly I wouldn’t be able to comment on your previous agreement or supply any information, because we no longer have this information available.
Would welcome feedback
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have your bank statements? because they will show how much you borrowed and when.
you can also try asking your guarantor if they still have any of the documentation.
Tmac says
Hi
I have all the loan paperwork and have sent that to them , showing original loan and then top up loan – however they are saying that because they don’t actually have any of their own paperwork about my loan ( because of GDPR 4 year rule) that they cannot look at my complaint because they have none of their owm paperwork
Dean says
Good morning.
On the 6th of August I received a phone call from an investigator within the FOS high cost credit team. They informed me that they were going to take a second look at my complaint. By the 9th they had ruled in my favour on all 3 of my loans. Had an email this morning that Amigo accepted the decision.
Very greatful to this website for all the help. I got there in the end.
Good luck everyone
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Another success!
For anyone interested, Dean’s complaint was originally rejected by an adjuicator back in February and it has now been reviewed. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-3/#comment-292586
Laura says
That’s great news Dean, well done!
Gives me hope as my complaint was originally rejected by the adjudicator, still waiting to hear after the review with the high cost credit team…
Dean says
Thanks Laura. Good luck
James says
Hi,
I took out a guarantor loan with Bamboo in December last year.
I have really adverse credit with a number of defaults – do you think I could make an affordability complaint?
Thanks
J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Guarantor loans are aimed at people with bad credit, but the fact your credit record is so poor means Bamboo should have looked VERY carefully at your finances before agreeing to the loan as it may not have been affordable for you.
So definitely send them an affordability complaint using the template email in the article above. And send the complaint to the Ombudsman if Bamboo reject it.
PS I deleted your surname in case you don’t want that showing.
Linds says
I claimed against Bamboo and they upheld it, I owed them £1100, they removed the interest I had paid and my balance is now £202.
KF says
Hi There Sara,
I have been reading the above with interest (forgive the pun) and was hoping to see if by me complaining would be worth doing.
I borrowed £5k over 5 years in october 2017 at £198 pcm. which shows i’m paying some very high interest – when taking out the loan, they refused the higher amount requested based on my Guarantor credit and basically told me what would be accepted through my Guarantor and would pass through – even though I had very bad credit. I have never missed a payment, but hate payday as of the amonut I am paying back as it kills me finacially every month.
would i be best trying and seeing where it goes?
thanks
KF
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely worth a go! Is that Amigo? It sounds like 50%APR which is what they charge, you will be paying about £12,000 to repay that £5000 loan. If you can get the interest removed that would be a huge gain.
KF says
Yes, With Amigo.
in 20 months, I have paid £3960 and that hasn’t even touched the sides of the loan.
it is the worst thing I have ever agreed to do!
I’ll update when I hear back. (Fingers and toes crossed)
KF says
Hi Sara,
on the 01/09/19, I put my complaint in with 3 months worth of bank statements, but I haven’t had anything back from amigo in terms of acknowledgment of complaint… is the normal, as I have read that others had been told theirs had been received!
any advice would be greatly received!
Don says
Hi KF,
I had the same issue in thinking I hadn’t received any acknowledgedment from them really my complaint and contacted them again. Still no reply so contacted them for a third time complaining I’d not heard anything back. They sent me a nice text message to say they had sent replies to all emails but didn’t think I was receiving them and asked me to check my spam and gave me the dates they replied. Sure enough sat there in my spam folder were the replies. I didn’t expect a reply to go in there as I’d sent them an email so automatically thought it would come straight to my inbox. I moved them back to my inbox and the email I’ve had since from them came straight into my inbox but amigo also sent me a text message with the info on again.
So in short haha if you haven’t already it may be worth checking your spam/junk folder just in case.
Katie says
Hi Sara
First of all I want to say a massive thank you to you as today I had an email from Amigo saying they are clearing my balance.
I was just wondering if you could give me a rough idea if they have worked it out correctly.
I borrowed £10,000 over 60 months
I have paid back to date £8141.27 in interest over 25 months
They have cleared the balance of £8392 and offered £580 back to me
Is this about right
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have paid back to date £8141.27 in interest over 25 months” do you know how much you have paid them over the 25 months? Regardless of whether it was interest or repaying the principal, just the total of your payments?
Katie says
Hi
I was paying £395 per month
So I have paid in total £9875
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If that was your only loan the offer sounds fine.
Katie says
Thank you, it was a top up loan but they are only upholding the loan for 10,000.
Just thought it was odd that I had paid back more then what what they have offered me so I wanted to check
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s good to check! But you haven’t yet repaid more than you borrowed, so that offer looks good to me.
Stacy says
Hi, just came across this site,thank goodness,amazing.
I sent a copy off the letter you have to advise of miss selling of loan, I 1st took out a loan in sept 2016 then I topped up another 3 times dec 16 june 17 dec 17, my question is I did send bank statements with 1st loan, I had a ccj on my credit file plus token payments on my bank statements to creditors, will this go against me and should I send 3 months bank statements for each top up I took out,I’m also on pip and suffer with sever depression which they never looked into, I’ve had to move my payment dates si many times to try not miss payments.
Any advice would be great
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I had a ccj on my credit file plus token payments on my bank statements to creditors, will this go against me ” no, this suggests you were in a lot of financial trouble, the lender “was it Amigo?) should have seen this from your credit record and looked very carefully at your situation before agreeing to lend to you.
“should I send 3 months bank statements for each top up I took out” It might be easier to send all your statements from Sept 16 to Dec 17.
“I’m also on pip and suffer with sever depression which they never looked into,” I’m sorry to hear that, it can make money worries even harder to manage. the lender must have known you were on PIP, did they never ask about your health? And if you had extra expenses because of this?
Stacy says
Hi,thanks for your reply, Amigo would have seen it on my bank statements also I put it on my income, they did ask me on last top up did a suffer from mental health issues! They never asked about what or how my illness affected me nor what other experiences I have to payout due to this.
Thanks will update,as only sent 1st email on sat,haven’t had a reply
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These are some good points to make if your complaint is rejected and it has to go to the Ombudsman. but for now you have started the complaint and you just have to wait 8 weeks until you get the response. Fingers crossed!
Stacy says
Hi,where do I attach bank statements to,do I need to write anything? Still haven’t had a confirmation email to say they received my email.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you wait until they reply to acknowledge your complaint. Then you can reply to that email and attach the bank statements. There is no desperate rush at the moment.
Sarah Harrison says
Im waiting for the Ombudsman to look into this and now thinking i should go back to amigo and ask them to relook at my complaint. I complained in 2018 and they said that they don’t lend based on my credit file. Also because at the time I hadn’t missed a payment. Which now im really struggling with. What would anyone recommend?
jaz says
I made a complaint against Amigo loans for irresponsible lending, I just today had a reply back from Amigo loans stating there can’t deal with my complaint as it has gone past the timeframe, Amigo loans are saying my loan was taken out August 2012, so its passed the timeframe to complain, but I was not aware that i could make a claim at the time, I only found out about affordability complaint from a friend of mines. I have sent this to the fos, I was just wondering if I still can make a claim being I took the loan out on 2012.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you have done the right thing to send this to FOS – they are the ones that decide if a complaint is too old or not. I think a few older loan cases have been won – not many, but that is because guarantor loan complaints have really expanded in the last few years so most complaints tend to be more recent.
Do you have your bank statements for the few months before this loan? If you don’t, you need to try to get them from your bank now.
Jaz says
Thanks Sara for that advice, i have not got my bank statements for that period but I can ask for them from my bank, and have them ready when needed, will my bank give me these statements as there was from August 2012.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Most banks will but it can take some time so get onto this right away.
matthew says
Hi all, i put my complaint in last week, has a response back from Amigo acknowledging my complaint and have agreed to send me requested info. At no stage did Amigo ask for statements to prove income or expenditure, if they did they would have seen from bank statements that at the time I had numerous payday loans and was in debt management, I took out 3 loans, first one for £5000 in 2012, topped back up to £5000 again in 2013 then the 3rd in 2016 for £5500. I sent them the template which i found on this site so fingers crossed I get refunded my interest! they have until 16th October to come back to me.
This website has been a god send.
i will let you know how i get on
Jamie says
Hi,
I took out a guarantor loan with Bamboo back in December last year.
Its my own fault I should never have gone for it as the payments are ridiculous. They did ask me for proof of income however I have around 8 defaults on my credit file and a CCJ – should this have been taken into consideration to see what mess I am in with debt?
Thanks for your help
Jamie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Guarantor loans are aimed at people with bad credit, but that means Bamboo should have looked VERY carefully at whether the loan was affordable. Not just checking your income, but also all your expenses as well and checked against your credit record.
This is well worth a complaint – use the template letter in the article above.
But you have to carry on repaying while the complaint goes through if you don’t want it to affect your guarantor. If you win your complaint, interest will be removed so you only have to repay what you borrowed, and at a more affordable rate, and your guarantor should be released from the loan.
R says
Hi Sara,
I’ve been pondering over this one for a while now, so would like your opinion please?
I took a loan out, with Amigo, and a close friend acted as guarantor. She wasn’t too keen on doing this and the company bombarded her with constant emails and calls, which proved really embarrassing for me. The reason I took the loan out was to get myself out of the payday loan trap and, had they done sufficient checks, I don’t believe they should’ve approved the loan. However, they did seem far more interested in the guarantor, rather than me as the actual borrower. The only sticking point here is that I believe the loan was more than 6 years ago so a) would they still have my account details to hand and b) are they obliged to look at this, because of the 6 year rule? I will ask them for a SAR, but feel they may just reject even this request, based on the time.
Many thanks,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My guess is that Amigo will reject this as it’s over 6 years old. But the Ombudsman may be prepared to look at the case. Do you have your bank statements from that time? If Amigo has no evidence of the loan you need to be able to provide proof.
Sarah says
Good news from FOS today.
Amigo have decided to uphold my complain in full, after initially rejecting it. And are repaying interest on every loan I had.
And have told FOS I should receive payment within 2 weeks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
excellent news!
So this was with FOS but they hadn’t looked at it?
Sarah says
FOS contacted Amigo and just decided to refund me, my adjudicator said there was no investigation needed
Amigo initially rejected my complaint back in July 2018 – its taken this long to be picked up! So i guess with your article about Amigo now upholding complaints they just decided to uphold without the need of a FOS investigation
I emailed Amigo after the call from FOS to confirm my bank details and they contacted me with my refund amount today and it should get paid within 3-5 working days – £5667 refund in total
So please with the result, and its all down to you Sara – thank you so much
Luke says
Hi Everybody,
I have been lucky enough to have been given a full refund on my two loans(kudos to Sara!)
I can’t reiterate enough CHECK WHAT THEY HAVE REFUNDED YOU. I asked for a statement of what I have paid and this is now the fourth time I have gone back with interest missed.
Jane says
Hi Luke,
Me too! If you’re referring to Amigo! I must have sent 10 emails but, to be fair the customer service manager was excellent.
They do not work the simple interest out in a simple way!
May I ask was it the simple interest you were questioning or the actual loan interest?
Best wishes,Jane
Luke says
Hi Jane,
Yes I was referring to Amigo. I haven’t even calculated if they have worked out the simple interest correctly, I will do that now!
The actual loan interest, they refunded me about 70% of it and my guarantor about 10%. There was about 6/7 months which they had completely forgot to refund!
Can I ask did they refund you the broker commission that was applied at the start of loan? They have refunded the commission, but are refusing to pay simple interest on it.
Many thanks,
Luke
Stacy says
Can I please ask how you work all this out,I had main loan in 2016 then 3 top ups in 2017, my repayments are £343 a month ,I’ve still £8750 left owing
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well first of all, you don’t have to work anything out at the moment!
But if you want to give it a go, you have to work out each loan separately to get close to the right numbers. Each top-up is actually a new loan. This may seem long but there is no shortcut
So say for loan 1 you borrowed £1,000 and made 4 payments of £150 = £600. Then you topped up with a new loan for £2500, where £1,100 of which was repaying the first loan and £1,400 came as a new loan to you. The end result is that for the first loan you paid 600 + 1100 = 1700, so take off the mount your borrowed and you paid 700 in interest.
Then do the same for the 2nd loan (the first top up). Then for the 3rd loan (2nd top up).
For the last loan (third top up) top-up, it is going to depend on how much you have paid to it. If this is less than what you borrowed, there is a balance to be repaid, which be done from the refunds on the earlier loans. If you have repaid more then you borrowed then the difference in the interest you paid.
Stacy says
Great thanks very much,does anyone no if the letter works with satsuma loans I’ve got 2 at min and really struggling with them as well
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For Satsuma I suggest using this other letter over here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/. Also tell them you need a payment arrangement as you cannot afford the normal repayments, don’t offer more than you can afford, You need to be able to survive without any more borrowing while these complaints go through, which can be many months. Any other high cost borrowing?
Stacy says
Great thank you,I’ve sent the template letter,hopefully it works. Not that need sorting as low repayments just amigo and satsuma that needed sorted.
Could I also ask what these companies do if complaint upheld,does it differ per case
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The “standard offer” is that if they decide a loan is unaffordable, if the loan is outstanding, then interest is removed so you only have to repay what you borrowed. If you have already paid more to that loan than what you borrowed, the excess is refunded to you. If the loan has been repaid (eg your 1st satsuma loan? your Amigo loans before the last top-up ) the interest you paid plus 8% simple interest is a refund to you, but that is first used to clear any balance remaining on your last loan.
Elaine says
Hi
Just wondering did Amigo stick to the 8 weeks timeframe for getting back to you regarding your complaint? My outcome is due by the 8th September.
KellyE says
Hi Sara, I took a loan with Amigo in 2012, I used the template from this website and sent them an email yesterday (27/8/19), I sent them the bank statements and my details as I still live at the same address as back in 2012, they’re claiming to have no record of me or an account, do you know if this is normal response? I’ve responded back to them asking them to check again and utilise the bank details on the statement which has all the dates of the DD. I finished paying the full loan over a year, my guarantor was only contacted once but didn’t have to pay anything to clear the loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they can’t find the loan details, you can send the complaint to the financial ombudsman- your bank statements prove what you received and what you paid.
KellyE says
Thank you, I will send to FOS.
Tmac says
KellyE – I received same response from them – that due to GDPR they didnt hold anything that was over 4 years old. They werent interested that i had letters/statements etc and said they couldnt help
I have gone to financial ombudsman as Sara advises.
KellyE says
Thanks TMac.
Amigo told me in an email today (04/09/19) that because my loan was taken in 2012 I am not able to claim as it had been six plus years and they no longer have any details about me, my loan payment finished in 2013. I gave them ample opportunity to put things right, but like you I will send the complaint to FOS.
Josh says
Hey I’ve made complaint to amigos this week, I’ve used them for a few years now and I’ve topped up 4 times. They never checked my income or anything like that and at the time I first took my loan out I was on dmp, worse mistake I’ve ever made using this company and especially going back again and again.
My financial situation when I topped October 2018 wasn’t great and don’t think I should be allowed to have got it, just wondered if you had any advice how amigos may deal with my complaint. I’d advice no one to use them because they will make your situation worse. At the time I took my last loan with them I had a bad gambling problem which I now have dealt with but if they had been a responsible lender I think they would have seen I was in a good financial place to be borrowed the money, I’d never make the same mistake again with dealing with amigos
Jo says
Hi
I had a loan in 2017 with buddy loans then had a top up, in 2018 I took out another loan with Amigo can I claim the interest back on both of these.
Jo
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think the loans were unaffordable, yes. For a loan to be affordable the regulator says you have to be able to make the repayments without hardship and still pay all your other bills, debts and living expenses. So if you had to keep borrowing more or getting behind with bills, then the guarantor loans may well have been unaffordable.
You can complain if the loan has been repaid or if you are still paying it. Where you are still paying it, you have to carry on repaying it while the complaint goes through if you don’t want your guarantor to be affected.
Jo says
Many thanks Sara, and yes I have been borrowing more and more. Going to send the email now. 👍😀
Rebecca says
Hi I took out a top up loan In feb 2013 with amigo bringing my new loan total up to £5000. I finished repaying them in October 2018 after they added an extra 6 months due to interest which I still don’t understand how I total I repay nearly £14,000 and have struggled massively at times going to food banks just so I wouldn’t miss the payment and it get taken off my mum :( I made a claim through a ppi solicitor/company in April 2019 and we have still not heard anything ? Can I make my own claim still ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Oh dear, I have heard these leeches are now going after guarantor loan claims.
If they sent a claim in April, then they would have had a reply in June. Either they never sent it, or it was rejected as they didn’t had the right details or authority from you, or they had had the reply and ignored it.
Non of those are competent :( you will be charged a fortune for very poor service. I suggest you send Amigo a Subject access request by emailing them at hello@amigo.me and asking for a copy of all your personal information. See what you get back – that resolve the question of what (if anything) your useless Claims Company has done.
Sarah Harrison says
I’ve heard back from Ombudsman about my complaint with Amigio loans. They have said that they have written to Amigo giving them a chance to put things right first. Im confused as i have told them i have already written on two occasions asking for them to look into my complaint both times they declined my complaint. I sent the email to the Ombudsman on their request. So no more time for me to wait knowing that they will decline the complaint again. Anyone have any advice. Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo have now changed the way they review complaints, so it’s not likely that you will be rejected. It’s gets your complaint looked at quicker this way than waiting for an adjudicator from the Ombudsman. If they make you an offer and you aren’t sure of exactly what it is or if it’s enough, pop back here? Yiu can always say no and ask for an adjudicator to look at it. But most people in this situation have had ok offers – fingers crossed that you do!
SARAH HARRISON says
Ah OK thanks I hope so because im struggling to make the payments and at the I have be paying in half and half again but in the same month. I have worked out i have paid off what I have borrowed and now its just interest. So far £4.958 is interest. They have my total balance at £10395 i only borrowed £1500 on loan one and loan two £1000 and loan three £956 so a lot of interest. Thanks Sarah
Lou7 says
Hi Sarah
Can I ask when did you send your complaint to the ombudsman? I sent mine in December 2018. I am the same as you with regards to finding it hard to pay every month and I asked amigo if they would be looking at my complaint again as they have done so with many others and they said no they are working with the FOS regarding my complaint but I haven’t heard anything from the ombudsman for about a month, when I asked for an update and they said it was still in the queue for an investigator to look at it. The waiting is hard.
Sarah Harrison says
Hi around January I complained to Amegio in December 2018. Its shocking how much interest they add as every time you make a payment they are adding the same amount on in interest. So technically you will never break even unless you are paying more than the amount each month. I feel very foolish for taking the loan out in the first place :(
I pay £395.16 a month for a £1,560.06 top which they took too £10359 total balance. I have paid £4698 so far over a year its horrendous
Lou7 says
Hi Sarah
Yes I do too. It was the big mistake. I know that’s so true. I pay £296.44 every month and the interest every month is crazy. I am hoping to hear something soon.
G says
I have just recently won my affordability claim with Amigo loans which was great news. i didn’t have to take this as far as the ombudsman luckily.
around the same time i took out a Guarantor loan with Amigo i also took one out with Guarantor my loan (match the cash). They have declined my affordability claim and i have started the ball rolling with the FOS for this.
has anyone had any success with winning with the smaller companies? i know Amigo have a dedicated team for these complaints where the smaller companies wont? but surely the same rules would apply for the affordability?
Good luck to everyone
D78 says
Hi, I first took out an Amigo loan in 2014, have had 3 top-ups since then.
I never had to submit bank statements or payslips.
Unfortunately I suffer from a severe gambling addiction and was in rehab for 4 months last year for treatment and am pleased to say I am now doing well.
Whilst in treatment Amigo were harassing my guarantor for payment even though Step Change contacted them to advise of my situation. They also contacted me at my rehab placement and informed me that if payments weren’t made by my guarantor then they would be seeking a charge on her property. Anyway, when I was out of treatment I made a complaint regarding their failure to support a vulnerable person. They didnt accept this and my complaint went to FOS. They eventually said that the terms and conditions were followed by Amigo and they note that Amigo apologised for causing stress at a difficult time and that was the end of it. In my original complaint I also mentioned that the loan was not affordable, again this was dismissed.
A look at any of my bank statements would show thousands being deposited to online gambling. A look at my credit report would also show debts increasing at each top up loan request, normally to payday lenders.
My question is “Can I complain again” and just focus on the affordability. I have paid thousands of pounds of interest and anything refunded would go towards other debts I incurred during my gambling days.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you have a go – what do you have to lose? I would start off by just sending a request to Amigo for a copy of all of your personal information. Then when you get this write out a detailed affordability complaint using this new evidence that you did not have before – most people don’t need to do this with Amigo at the moment, but it seems a good idea for you, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/sar-affordability-complaint/ for what to look for.
Jon says
Well after one guy at amigo said questions should of been asked, when chasing they rejected one complaint and reduced the loan by an insultingtly small amount and didnt acknowledge the affordability part of the complaint.
I complained via the form on the ombudsman site 3 weeks ago but apart from the automated acknowledgement ive heard nothing from them.
I understand they are tremendously busy but has anyone one here lodged a complaint for amigo with the ombudsman and if so how long was it before you heard something? Dont know whether I should be chasing them on phone again but was on hold for 20 minutes with no luck on two occasions
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you said before “2 loans one of 3250 which was settled when i increased the amount to 6500.Going off statements ive paid over 7400 in interest to them just on the 6500 loan.” Can you say what the Amigo offer was? I am curious, not suggesting you should have taken it.
Your guarantor – could they afford the repayments without hardship? If not, it would be a good idea for them too to put in an affordability complaint – if they win that, you can just reduce your payments while the FOS complaint goes through.
Aaron says
Hi I have a question.
5 years ago I took out a £5000 loan out with amigo, 2 years later I topped up a further £1500. I’m sure no one explained that they pay the existing loan of then start you off at £6500. I continued to pay my monthly charge of £272. After 5 years had passed from the first initial loan I checked online thinking I was near the finish line, only to see I still had an outstanding balance of £4000. Got to admit I was pretty shocked so phoned them up and went through all my payments to see that I had already paid back over £15000. Now here is the thing, I refused to pay anymore, and my guarantor who happens to be my sister put them on her iva which they accepted. I then tried to do an iva which they refused. Now I have just received a phone call from them saying that I’m still legal to pay for the loan, even though the contract that was signed said that if I fail to pay they claim from my guarantor. Am I correct in thinking that they can’t proceed to take anything from me and that they now can only receive from my guarantors iva. They threatened to take me to court, but when I answered please do I would love to have you in court they back tracked and said oh we don’t want to go that far, we just want to sort out some kind of arrangement plan with you.
Please let me know where I stand.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo can always go after you until your guarantor has repaid the loan in full. As your guarantor put the debt in an IVA, they won’t repay it in full.
I suggest you send Amigo an affordability complaint saying the loan and the top up were not affordable. Use the template email in the article above. You may even be able to get a refund!
Sarah says
I submitted my complaint to Amigo yesterday which they have acknowledged today. My claim is from 2014-2016. I only read about bank statements after I’d sent the complaint email. Should I send another email with them? They show payments to multiple payday lenders before and after taking the loan out with amigo and also gambling transactions? Only problem is I had two accounts at time of loans don’t ask me why think I lost debit card for one so got paid in one and was transferring into other to pay for things. Is it worth sending both account statements or shall I just wait until amigo ask? Thanks in advance. I hope this works out of all the lenders I dealt with in my bad years think amigo were the worst!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can just wait until they ask for statements – only thing wrong with this is it is at the end of the 8 weeks they are allowed, so it prolongs the process by a couple of weeks.
Or you could wait until Amigo acknowledge your complaint and reply to that email with your bank statements. Send them for both bank accounts.
You aren’t the first person to say Amigo are the worst lender they ever dealt with!
Sarah says
Is it the two years worth of statements ? Or just a few months near application of loan.
Thank you! Really appreciate all of your advice this page is a god send
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t guess what Amigo might ask for. The maximum would be from 3 months before the first application to the end of the loan or the present day if you are still repaying. In practice 3 months before and three months after each loan or top up should be more adequate.
Rob says
So Sara,
I received a call and subsequent email from the FOS stating Amigo had made an offer. This is prior to be assigned an adjudicator. One thing I’m questioning is the 8% interest from settlement. If it’s the final one it’s not a lot (assuming they don’t count a top up as a settlement which would be against their own process). Personally I think it’s worth stating if this is true or if it’s 8% simple interest.
Amigo has now told us it would like to make an offer in full and final settlement of your complaint. And we wanted to let you know about this offer so that you can decide whether or not you want to accept it.
Amigo’s offer
Amigo will write to confirm the full detail of its offer including any amounts due – however, it has told us that it will follow our general approach. This includes:
– Amigo refunding all of the interest and charges (if any) that you’ve paid on all the loans you’ve had with them;
– As your loan has been repaid, your refund will include interest at the simple rate of 8% per year (less any tax properly due), from the date you repaid the loan until the date of settlement;*
– Amigo removing any negative information that has been recorded on your credit file concerning the loan; and
.
Sarah Reid says
Hi Rob
When did you submit your complaint to the FOS please ? Had you repaid your loan with Amigo at the time of your complaint?
Many thanks
Sarah
Rob says
I submitted it earlier this year (around Feb time I think).
I paid it off in June after receiving a lump sum elsewhere. Is complained about the FOS taking a long time on another complaint so they said they’d look at my amigo one sooner.
I’d asked Amigo to reconsider but they said as it’s with the FOS they wouldn’t be dealing with it so I rang FOS earlier today to ask an update and they hadn’t assigned it to someone. A couple of hours later I get a call from the FOS to explain Amigo had made an offer and would be in touch with details.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The date of settlement here would be the date your complaint is settled.
Each payment you made would have been partly used to repay interest. When you took the top up,part of that would have been used to repay the remaining interest after the early settlement calculation.
Have you worked out how much interest you paid on the first loan? That is easier than working out the 8% exactly and can get you a “worst case” number.
So if first loan was £2000 and you made 11 payments of £130, you had paid £1430 to the loan and interest when the top up settled it. (All numbers just made up!)
Now look at the top up loan details. The amount you borrowed (ignore interest added) less the top up you received is the amount used to settle the first loan. So if you borrowed £3500 and had a top up of £1400 then £2100 settled the previous loan.
Then you know how much interest you paid on the first loan – it’s 1430 (your monthly payments) plus 2100 ((the settlement amount) minus 2000 (what you borrowed) = £1530.
If you then work out the 8% on that 1530 from the date the loan was settled to to new complaint settlement date you get an amount which is the minimum – it should be more as some of the interest was paid a few months earlier.
Peter says
Has anyone got any experience of complaining to TRUST TWO?
I took a Guarantor loan out with them in October 16′ for £5000, paid it for two years then in October 18′ I was offered a top-up of £10000 over 5 years which i took. I havent missed a payment but £360 a month is killing me on this and I have really struggled the past 3 years with payday loans etc. I think I need to complain.
Thanks in advance.
Louise says
Update from Amigo.
They said they’re not upholding loan 1, but will uphold loans 4 to 8.
For loans 2 and 3 they requested bank statements to review before making a decision.
I sent them in and got a response to say that as I spent money available to me on non-priority costs they’ve rejected 2 and 3.
I replied to them saying that the majority of the transactions are food shopping (priority) and payday loan repayments (hence unaffordable). In the statements you can see I have had to take out 3 or 4 payday loans every month to stay in the black.
They replied again, still not upholding 2 and 3. This time their reason is “You told us that your budget was an accurate representation of your finances. When completing your budget our website then asked you to confirm that “nothing is due to happen while I’m repaying the loan, to make my income go down or my spending go up.”
It’s been sent to FOS now, but disappointed with Amigo’s response.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is disappointing. Do you still owe money on the last one?
Louise says
Yeah, they have refunded me just over £2000 from loans 4 to 8 (they were all top ups of loan 3)
Loan 8 is now frozen so I owe just under £5000.
Loan 2 is the one I wanted because that one has been paid off in full with no top ups.
I’ve just had a look at one of the statements I sent them. I’ve added what Amigo call priority bills (rent, food, phone and travel) along with the cost of glasses as I think that’s priority, added loan repayments and it left me with £130 of my salary left that month. Amigo repayment was £170 so not sure how they’re not upholding it.
Hopefully FOS will though
Scott says
I have just started a complaint against tfs loans. I took out a loan of £7500 and have struggled to making payments and have often made late payments. Also my guarantor was in a debt management plan when they were accepted as my guarantor. I’m wondering if anybody has made any complaints against tfs and been successful. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
From memory a couple have won complaints at the adjudicator level at the Ombudsma but they were rejected by TFS and are now waiting for a Final “Ombudsman “ decision. No-one has lost one recently :)
Can you suggest your guarantor also complains, as they should NEVER have been accepted if they were in a DMP. And TFS should have looked at their situation in detail to make sure they could afford it. Separate page for a guarantor complaint with a slightly different template is here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/
rachel says
Hi Sara
I have complained to Bamboo loans (guarantor) and they have emailed me today and have upheld my un affordability complaint.
They have said they have upheld because there was a lot of missed/late payments on my file at the time of my loan been taken out.
they have offered to take off the interest on my £1000 loan and I just pay the difference, which works out around £250 and have offered to settle on a lower Monthly payment if I fill in an income/expenditure form. I am grateful for this response I just wondered if they have accepted they were at fault is this the usual route they take to sole the complaint and should I accept?
many thanks
Linds says
Hi Rachel,
I had the same response from Bamboo, I took a £1000 loan (not with a guarantor), they removed the interest so my outstanding balance is £202, instead of £1123, which I pay a small amount as its on my DMP.
I was happy with the result.
Linds
rachel says
Thats great news Linds!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much have you paid them so far for this loan?
rachel says
its £720.92 to be precise! :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then you probably do owe about £270 – a good result (I am assuming this was your first loan from Bamboo).
Make sure your income & expenditure leads to a monthly payment you really can afford.
rachel says
Yes I think so! was just checking this was their normal response. I have taken my Amigo loan complaint to FOS so hoping that will be positive too! :)
Thank you.
Trevor says
Hi, yesterday I processed a complaint using debt camels excellent email template. Today I have received an email confirming receipt of my complaint confirming that they have 8 weeks to respond. I would like to know how long others in the same position have waited for Amigo’s decision on a complaint?
I have borrowed and topped a total of 6 loans with an estimated accrued interest of £12500 dating back to mid 2013 and at points been paying a crippling £525 a month.
Thanks in advance for any responses.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Spot on the 8 week mark is the most common experience.
Sarah says
Hi I’ve just used your template to complain with amigo I took out a loan in March 2018 the intrest is 169 Varys each month I pay £197 a month it’s crippling me I’m just wondering as I’ve got a gambling problem will they look into my bank statements I’m ashamed but I’m getting help now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Having gambling on your bank statements supports your complaint because if Amigo had bothered to check properly, they would have seen that and not lent to you. Good luck!
Michelle says
Hi Sara,
I just wanted to give an update with my Amigo situation. I wrote here last month saying Amigo only refunded the interest my 1st loan and not the top up (they just wrote it off).
I went back to the FOS and got an email on Friday saying they have told Amigo to re-run the calculations for my second loan. So today I got an email from Amigo saying I’m due an extra refund of £2771. Extremely happy with this and thank you for your advise!
So in total I will have received a refund of £4,250!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
VERY GOOD NEWS! well done for sticking up for what you knew was right.
Josh says
Hi Sara
I’ve had numerous loans with amigos, I was in a dmp when I took my first loan out. Some of the loans I’ve had I’ve made only one payment and been able to top up to easy (I was also late making that payment) just wondered if you had any advice about how amigos might deal with the complaint I’ve made, they’ve ruined my life and just want some sort of normality because my payment of £386 is killing me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Being in a DMP when you took the first loan suggests that one was probably unaffordable. Getting several top ups suggests Amigo wasn’t property checking them either.
Have you sent bank statements with your complaint?
Josh says
No I haven’t, would you suggest doing that? One of loans id paid double what I owed, my loan I’ve now I pay £386 and they add average around £360 in interest when I make that payment
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo may reject your whole complaint or uphold it all.
But quite often they say they should have done more checks on loans 2 & 3 (say) so they would like to se your bank statements for those loans. That is at the 8 week point. If you send the statements now, it should take a couple of weeks of the time to a final offer from them. But you don’t have to.
Onak says
I’ve been waiting 1 year now for ombudsman to deal with Amigo complaint !! They said a couple months ago I’m still in the queue and I have since sent another message to them to check whats going on, just wondering how if anyone else has been waiting as long ?
Rob says
I submitted mine in Feb and they got back to me. They were going to prioritise as I’d complained about another complaint taking too long and the company went into administration (or will do if it doesn’t get a deal). Either way I’d have ended up with less than I’m actually due.
When they contacted me they said Amigo had themselves made the offer without them investigating (FOS requested the info). I suspect this is because I went back to Amigo to review the complaint. Amigo claimed they wouldn’t because it was with the FOS yet less than a week later I get an offer.
Try talking to Amigo first then the FOS.
PJ says
Rob,
How long Amigo took to pay money once they agreed to repay?
PJ
Rob says
Dunno, I literally got the call from the FOS on Monday and Amigo emailed this morning saying they’d be sending through my calculations and for me to ring them with my bank details.
When I know I’ll post
Pj says
Thanks Rob, I received a call from FOS on Tuesday awaiting amigo to contact me with calculations. Congratulations with winning your case.
Rob says
I received funds today (Wednesday) after receiving an email on Monday evening stating the amount due back. Looks like 4 days since I gave them my bank details
KellyE says
Hi Sara, I took out one loan with Amigo back in 2012, i submitted a complaint and sent bank statements because they claim they could not find my records, I received a further e-mail from them stating that as they were unable to locate any records on me, that means my claim will not be investigated any further because the loan was more than six years ago, is that correct or can I still go to the FOS re: this complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can still send this to FOS. FOS may decide they can’t look at it, but it is their decision, not Amigo’s, so what do you have to lose? Some people have won cases about over 6 year loans but not enough for this to be reliable.
Chris says
Hi Everyone,
I had a response from Amigo at the end of the 8th week since my complaint, they said they were partially upholding my compliant and have requested bank statements from 3 months before I took out the loan, I sent these straight over on the same day. It has now been 2 weeks and I have heard nothing back from Amigo. I was just wondering if anyone had a similar response from Amigo and what the outcome is likely to be / how long it took Amigo to get back after receiving statements.
Any views much appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you say you will be sending your complaint to the Ombudsman if they haven’t come back with a suitable offer by the end of the week.
Elaine says
Can just ask how long should I leave it before I take my Amigo complaint further ….. the 8 weeks is up on Monday next week and I haven’t heard from.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They usually seem to reply on the last day of the 8 weeks. You have to wait until the 8 weeks is up,
Jim says
Hi all,
I have taken out four loans with Amigo loans:
1st – Aug 2014 loan amount – £3,000 – total interest paid £1,639
2nd – Mar 2016 loan amount – £6,250 – total interest paid £4,428.40
3rd – May 2018 loan amount – £8,000 – total interest paid £2,078.42
4th – Dec 2018 loan amount – £10,000 – total interest paid £2,783 (to date)
On each of these loans/top-ups, I had defaulted many times and in some instances, my guarantor and to step in to make the payment.
During the times i took these loans out, I also had credit cards, payday loans, store cards and other guarantor loans with other companies. I one point I had three Guarantor loans at once!
I clearly experiencing financial difficulty and it seems that Amigo preyed on this, often emailing me to top-up my loan. Also, with that said, when I did top-up my loan, all of my details on the application was pre-populated from my existing loan, so all I had to do was press next a couple of times and finalise/sign everything.
From your experience and expertise, do you believe that I have valid grounds for a compliant?
Any comments, guidance and advice will be greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that sounds like a very strong case – Amigo should not have offered you another loan when you had missed payments to the current one without out looking into your situation in great detail, eg by asking for bank statements and talking to you about what had changed so that the new loan would be affordable for you.
I also suggest you should put in complaints to the other guarantor lenders, even if you only had 1 loan from them, these cases are being won. And also affordability complaints about payday loans too.
Jim says
Hi Sara,
Thank you coming back to me so promptly.
I have taken your advice and written to two of the lenders, namely Amigo and TFS Loans.
With TFS Loans, I was issued with a CCJ, as was my mother (guarantor( which has now been settled, as my boss fortunately paid the debt on my behalf and I am repaying him on a affordable monthly basis.
The third lender is UK Credit, the balance outstanding is £9,200 and again they have issued a CCJ and request an attachment of earnings from my employer.
I received this over a month ago and they advised me that a letter was sent to my boss. I received the letter, however my employer has yet to receive this.
Can I inform the courts that I am in the process of making an affordability claim against the lender, and do you think they will suspend the order until it has been resolved?
When I received the letter from the court, I was advised that I had 14 days to appeal the decision, which has now passed. Do you think they will consider this?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the TFS loan, if they uphold your complaint, tell them you want the CCJ removed (the legal term for this is “set aside”). And then your mum could also complain and ask for the same thing. If it has to go to the Ombudsman, say in your complaint to FOS that you want the interest refunded and the CCJ removed.
For UK Credit, it sounds as though the attachment of earnings is probably already approved by the court. in your complaint to UKC, ask them to stop requesting any money through this while your complaint goes through and for the CCJ to be removed. Send it straight to FOS if they reject this.
Jim says
Hi Sara,
I have followed your very useful and helpful advice, just waiting for responses now.
I do have a query though, my employer paid off the following loans in January 2018:
1. TFS loans in Jan 18. The amount paid to close loan £8,873, initial loan £5.000, interest and court fees £2,623
2. Amigo loans in Jan 18. Amount paid to settle loan was £5,144, initial loan amount £6.250, interest paid was £6.100.
My question is, if my complaints were to be upheld and all of the interest paid is repayable, who would receive the payment? I have repaid my boss via payroll deductions, and he was not my guarantor.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not come across this situation before, so thinking about it… When refunds are made to a guarantor, these are not because the guarantor paid interest that is being refunded, but because the guarantor should never have been bound to the loan as it was unaffordable and should not have been given. This doesn’t arise with a payment by a third party, your employer, who the lender has no contractual relationship with. So I think the refunds should come to you…
Were either TFS or Amigo aware who was paying the settlement?
The TFS CCJ. Was this settled within a month so it doesn’t appear on your credit record?
Number crunching –
The TFS loan. You borrowed 5000. How much did you pay to TFS, either before or after the CCJ?
The Amigo loan. How much did you pay to Amigo?
Jin says
Thank for your reply Sara.
I informed both lenders that my employer paid the loans.
The CCJ was issued sometime in October 2017 and they updated my credit file in January 2018, to shows it as satisfied. In my complain to them, I have requested that they set this aside.
TFS – I am not too sure how much i paid, maybe £1,000
Amigo – again not too sure, I only know the interest paid, the initial loans was for £3,000 (interest paid £1,639) in Aug 14 and topped up in March 2016 to £6,250 (interest paid £4,429).
Amigo then let mehave another loan, despite poor previous track record and knowing that my employer paid off the balance. The new loan was for £8,000 in March 2018 (interest paid £2,078) and my guarantor made 8 out of 9 payments to December 2018, where I was given a top-up in the amount of £10,000 (interest paid to date £2,784) Current outstanding balance £9,111
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I hope you don’t mind me asking, but are you actually pretty well paid with a gambling problem? Or some other addiction?
Who is your guarantor? Why did you guarantor agree to the last top up after they had had to make most of the payments to the original loan?
Jim says
It is an amalgamation of things if I am honest Sara.
I have history of chronic back problems and have had several surgeries to try and correct this.
I have also been diagnosed with over issues concerning the bladder and chronic headaches.
These problems have caused me to take lengthy time of work, consequently not having a steady/consistent income, leading to monetary problems and developed severe metal health issues, which I can still currently going through now.
To try and facilitate my loss of earnings, I admittedly turned to gambling and found myself in further turmoil.
The first two loans, my guarantor was my father and the second is a friend of mine.
Vk says
Hi Sara,
I made a complaint to amigo on affordability basis 4 weeks back and today I got a reply saying that they have posted me the Sar CD which has all the phone call and recording communication.
Does it mean they are saying the loan looks fine and they can’t uphold.Do I need to reach out to Fos now and complain
Many thanks
Vk
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you used the template letter in the article above, this starts by asking for a copy of your personal infomration. They have now sent you that. This isn’t a reply to your complaint, that will come after about 8 weeks.
You can just put all the personal infomrtion to one side at the moment, it’s good to have it in case the complaint has to go to the financial Ombudsman, but for now you just need to sit tight for another 4 weeks.
Tom says
Hi Sara I had an email back from amigo and got response a lot of other people got over 6 years is that they can’t find a lot of details of my loan and need bank statements for 3 months before so I sent them this reply I’m just wondering if it and ok reply really and if I should say the say thing to FOS
I would like you to reconsider on this basis
I am unable to get my bank statements from 2009 which I wish I could as you would see between 2008-2010 I was in a lot of debt at the time with payday loans and huge gambling transactions. This was not looked into by yourselves I have recently just won 2 cases through the FOS for payday loans and just waiting to hear back from 9 others dating back to 2008-2009 so when I pass this on they will see the level of loans I had at that time.
The loan was for £3,300 for 3 years and yet the loan was only repaid in 2017/2018 that is 9 years after I took it out and the reason behind that is due to me struggling to pay every single month on top of that interest and charges was consistently added meaning when I did pay my loan it was never reducing. My credit file dating back to 2014 shows payments were upto 6 months late and then the following year show upto 4 months late.
I will prepare all of this for FOS including all loans I had at that time of this loan which are currently sat with them aswell. I will give two weeks for a reply to this email if there is no reply I will send it to the FOS
Thankyou.
afaq tariq says
Hi i received reply from amigo today regarding my complain. My loans were running from 2015-2018 in this time i made 5 or more different applications. In the reply the guy has completely denied of any mistake by amigo and said they completely checked everything to make sure it was affordable but for 2018 year they have asked for bank statements and said i have withheld complaint for that and happy to check it. What shall be my response now. I have prove of gambling transactions before every single loan application from 2015. I see the guy over here is trying to take the last application which is still ongoing and not much has been paid so even though they have to refund they refund a tiny amount and get done with it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send your bank statements back to 2015 and ask them to review their decision, or you will be sending the case to the ombudsman as your statements clearly show the earlier loans were unaffordable.
afaq tariq says
Also in the last few applications they didnt even ask for payslips just agreed to it from worth of mouth obviously i lied as well to get the loan as i was desperate to get the money. I am not working from 2017 march. Is it going to go against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman takes the view that the lender should have know some applicants are desperate and should therefore have verified what the customer said their income and expenses were. And when you topped up, the lender should have asked themselves if their previous loan had actually helped you or if your financial situation had got worse.
afaq tariq says
Awesome i will do that. I have full proof of income and gambling transactions. Is there any template please you can send for my second email to them which I can use.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, just say in simple English what happened and what you want them to do – look again at all your loans as they were unaffordable and your bank statements show this. Say the case goe to the ombudsman in 2 weeks time if they have not come back with a suitable offer.
Josh says
Hi Sara
On one of my top ups I processed my guarantor wasn’t in the same job he was on the previous loan and wasn’t earning as much as he was previously, amigos did no checks on this. My earnings weren’t 100% what I give either because I had a gambling problem and was in debt but they never looked deeply into my situation, I’ve got a complaint in just wondered what you fort of this
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think your guarantor should put in a complaint and ask to be removed as the guarantor, there is a slightly different template letter for this, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/.
And you should put in an affordability complaint using the template in the article above about all the loans/top-ups as if Amigo had verified your expenses by checking your bank statements they would have realised you had a gambling problem and a lot of debt and not given you the loans.
Josh says
What action would they take on these circumstances?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you mean if yiu win the complaint?
If your guarantor wins the complaint, they are removed as the guarantor and this just becomes a standard loan for you. Yiu could then make a payment arrangement, put it in to a DEbt Management Plan, go bankrupt, whatever you need to do knowing it can no longer harm your guarantor.
If you win your complaint, for each loan that was unaffordable a refund will be calculated of all the interest you paid. For the outstanding loan, th interest is removed so you only repay what your borrowed. And the refunds on the earlier loans are then used to pay off as much of the remaining balance as possible. You may still owe something or it may be that the refunds are large enough to wipe the current loans and you will get the rest in cash.
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah How long does it take Amigo to get back to you after the Ombudsman writes asking them to relook at a complaint they denied. It says on the letter from the Ombudsman that they have eight weeks from the date i originally complained. That was the 6th of April 2019 and prior to this November 2018. I have emailed Amigo and text the number i have had replied on when they asking about payments. They are quick in replying about late payment etc but pretty much no response about complaints. Anyone have any advice? Thanks Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you go back to the Ombudsman and say you haven’t yet heard anything from Amigo.
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah Amigo loans are saying that because i have kept good payments. Also they don’t lend based on your credit file and my guarantor has never had to make a payment. They say that they were right in giving me the loan and all the top ups. I have struggled to pay since September 2018 due to not working to care for my adopted daughter with autism. They say this is irrelevant to them giving me the top up loan in August 2018.
I have been in touch with the financial Ombudsman and they will now ask for the files from amigo and look into it further. They have copies of my bank statements from when the loans were given. They say the will base their findings on this and my credit file. Also the fact i have numerous other payday loans on my credit file at the time is an indication that the loans should not have been made. What are other people advice? If anything id be happy to just get the monthly payments down
2017 £3,000 60 Months.
October 2017 Top Up £4,000 36 Months. Actual £2000.
November 2017 top up £5500. Actual £1000
January 2018 top up £7000. Actual £950
April 2018 £9000. Actual £ 700
August 2018 £10000 Actual £650
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry to hear Amigo haven’t upheld your complaint when they looked again at it – that looks like a lot of top-ups to me and it generally sounds like a strong complaint.
I think you said your partner is your guarantor? In that case, Amigo should have been very careful to make sure that your partner could pay the loan if you were unable to pay it, because that may well mean that you also wouldn’t be able to contribute to other bills around the house so your partnew would have to pay everything…
I suggest it might be a good idea for your partner to put in a separate complaint asking to be removed as guarantor. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/ for the different template letter for this. If your partner is removed as guarantor, you can then just say you want to pay a lower amount while the complaint goes through FOS. Much less pressure on you.
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah my complaint with the Ombudsman is in both our names and they are looking into it for us both now we have had further clarification from Ameigo loans. thanks Sarah