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
Rob says
Does anyone know how long it takes Amigo to refund cash once you’ve provided bank details? M still waiting for them to tell me how much they’ll be refunding as well.
Jane says
Hi Rob,
My refund in July was around 3-4 days from supplying bank details.
Worth giving them a call on a Monday with any concerns…I can only hope you don’t have long to wait.
Debbie says
Hi Sarah,
I’m looking for some advice. Amigo have agreed that the loan and top should not have been given and they will be refunding the interest on both. Amigo said at the beginning of August they had to buy the debt back from Intrum before they could complete the refund and that this should be done by the end of August. As I have not had any contact since I emailed Amigo and got this response:
“I’ve spoken to our Transactions Department who’ve confirmed that Intrum are still in the process of passing the debt back to us. However, I will be checking your account at regular intervals and will let you know as soon as this has been completed.
I’m sorry we’re not able to provide any further information at this stage”.
I also emailed Intrum after receiving this response and their reply was:
“Following your request, we wish to advise you that due to the nature of our business we have a legal obligation to complete checks and follow procedures before we are able to pass an account back to the original client.
However, we wish to assure you that we are working with Amigo to have your account passed back to them as soon as it is possible.”.
My question is do I have to wait until the debt has been passed back in order to get a refund and are Intrum & Amigo just time wasting?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They aren’t time-wasting – neither Amigo nor Intrum is going to gain from this going on any longer than it has to. It’s a fiddly bit of administration – other lenders have exactly the same problem, it always causes delay. It will get sorted in the end!
Rachel says
Hi Sara
I found your sight a couple of weeks back and it’s gave me a lot of hope. So firstly thank you for the help. I have 3 guarantor loans …. stupidity , greediness and other debts pushed me to a desperate time 3 years back and its crippled me since! I pay back over £600 to 3 loan companies Amigo , TFS and Trust Two. I have written to all three companies using your template. I’ve had a reply from TFS to confirm receipt of the email and that the complaint has been opened . Now amigo sent me a very long winded reply saying they were well within their rights to not check the income or ask for statements as I completed a budget form? Which I’m ashamed to say I did lie on out of desperation. I said my partner paid all house hold bills and mortgage. Which is untrue I also have very poor credit rating with CCJ’s and defaults. They also said they checked my earnings via a credit reference agency? Which I’m totally unsure of I never showed them a thing Income related ? And as stated the loan should of been affordable to me. Not my guarantor ? Whom wasn’t asked for any proof either. I’ve had 3 top ups with them also.
Trust two haven’t replied at all. Can you advise on any of this for me please ?
Also worth knowing I am struggling to pay debts and have fell behind on utility / council tax etc just to keep up repayments.
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Rachel,
first, don’t kick yourself! Just about everyone posting here thinks taking out an Amigo or other guarantor loan was their worst ever financial decision, much worse than payday loans, and they cannot believe how stupid they were to do it. But when you are in a big financial mess, you aren’t thinking clearly and more money can seem like the only way to get through the next few months. And those top-up loan offers were deliberately designed to be so tempting.
TFS – they have acknowledged, just wait for their response.
Trust Two – I suggest you gave it another couple of weeks and then phone them up to confirm they have your complaint.
Amigo – have they actually rejected your complaint? Or has this long reply asked you for any more information? Or does it seem as though it is just to make you feel you have a weak case?
“they were well within their rights to not check the income or ask for statements as I completed a budget form” The regulator’s rules don’t say exactly what a lender has to check. For a £200 payday loan, the lender wouldn’t have to look in detail if this was the first loan. But As the Ombudsman points out in this case https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-ombudsman-decision-borrower/, guarantor loans are large, long term, and the lender cannot assume that national average figures sourced through a credit reference agency are applicable to people with poor credit. Read that article – it’s very interesting for people in your situation.
afaq tariq says
I have sent my bank statements back to amigo which proves irresponsible lending. I was also given loans when i was jobless which I lied about to amigo and they made no checks and just took my word for it. Can it go against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well lying isn’t good, but bad credit lenders such as Amigo know people applying for loans may be desperate and so recent Ombudsman decisions are saying they should have verified what people put about their income & expenses on a loan application.
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah i have fully checked all my borrowing and worked out ny repayments to Amegio and im very confused as to why my balance is what it is. The currently have my balance £10,123.26
January 2017 borrowed £3000 payment £118.26 a month this was paid for 10 months paid £1,882 top up October 2017 £935 paid £135 October top up £1,568.24 paid £195 for three months £595 top up January 2018 £1,403.05 paid £276.29 for eight months £2,210.32 im total i borrowed £8,003.77i have now paid £8,328.44 yet they still have my outstanding balance at £10,123.26 surely that is wrong? Or a lot of interest.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The best thing is to look at this one loan at a time – each top up is actually a new loan, most of which repaid the previous loan and the rest went to you as the top-up.
So for each top-up, you need to find out how much you borrowed and what the top -up amount was. This will be on the loan documentation you were sent. The difference between these two figures is the amount that was used to repay the previous loan.
So the first loan was £3000 and you made 10 payments of £118, you had paid £1,180 to the loan and interest when the top up settled it.
Now look at the first top up loan details. So if you borrowed £4000 and had a top up of £935 then £3065 settled the first loan. (I made these figures up)
In all you have then paid 1180 + 3065= £4245 to the first loan, which is £1250 in interest.
Then repeat that for all the following top ups. the answer is probably that you have paid a LOT of interest…
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah thanks what was I thinking :( but needed the cash after adopting and needing to give work up. But hopefully the Ombudsman will help. Thanks Sarah
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah, the Ombudsman are now happy thry have received ameigos final letter dated 2018. I have complained since but they just said they will not re look at it as their letter is final. The Ombudsman have requested for all files from Ameigo and they said they will get back to me ASAP. Im still lost why the Ombudsman passed it back to Amegio after i had sent the final response to them back in July. Its just seems like more time. Have you any idea what happens next thanks Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if FOS saya they will look at it asap, I would hope you get an answer in a couple of weeks.
Soph says
Just found out a guarantor loan I have with George banco is actually Everyday Loans! Has anyone had any success with these Sharks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
GB were taken over by EL about 2 years ago.
Tony Brittain says
My wife was a guarantor for a loan with George Banco. After a complaint to them about it not being affordable to her if it was defaulted George Banco sent a final response saying that they did all necessary checks and would not remove her as guarantor. Sent complaint to the ombudsman who sided with my wife in that they did not do enough checks and that at the time it would not have been affordable to have her as a guarantor. Very happy with decision Geirge Banco are not helpful at all via calls even threatened legal action until it was with ombudsman. Stick with the complaint. Ask your guarantor to complain also if they didn’t check the loan was affordable. Good luck
C says
Hi Sara,
After waiting 8 weeks amigo have partially upheld my complaint and have asked for 3 months bank statements! I’m not happy yet as the bank statements could make or break it! But I just want to say a big thank you for your template, without the template I wouldn’t have been able to put in a good argument!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
fingers crossed for you…
Joanne says
HI there
I complained to UK credit about my guarantor loan being unaffordable and they requested my bank statements – they have replied to say that when they did the affordability over the phone the figures I had given did not match my bank statements. Also that the experiean credit check only showed a couple of credit accounts – this cant have been right as I was in a debt management plan due to getting in over my head with payday loans. Can I tell them I was in a plan at that time? Please could anyone assist?
thanks
Joanne
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Reply that the Ombudsman typically says that a guarantor lender should have verified the figures. And if they had looked at your bank statements, they would have seen the DMP payment. Add that if they are rejecting your complaint you will be sending it to the Financial Ombudsman
Joanne says
Thanks Sara for your response
The thing that worries me is that I didn’t tell them about the DMP – I should have – Can they not reject the complaint as I wasn’t honest about it? I was just in that much of a mess I didn’t tell them. I still don’t understand why it wouldn’t have shown on my credit report? I will have a look on my current credit report to see if there is anything still on it related to that time which might help as well.
thank you :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well obviously it is better if you had told them about the DMP. But the regulator (the FCA) and the Ombudsman take the practical approach that lenders – especially bad credit lenders – should know that they do not always get given accurate infomration, whether by accident, ommission or deliberatey because someone is desperate. So the onus is on the lender to verify the debts and expenses and income, not take your word for it.
For a small £250 payday loan, the lender doesn’t have to check in detail. But read https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-more-refunds-2019/ which has got some comments from several FOS adjudicator decisions saying the lender should have verified the numbers, not taken your word. They were all against Amigo, who has 85% of this market – they aren’t worse than other guarantor lenders, they just do a lot more loans so there are a lot more complaints about them.
Johnny Dett says
This site is unbelievable for how much informatiom it provides i can’t thank you enough & for such quick replies to questions I’ve had
👌JD
Emma says
C and anyone else that has been asked to send bank statements. I recommend sending any other documents you might have e.g.. letters which state arrears etc.
Amigo said they would not have upheld going of my statements but because I sent mortgage arrears letters they upheld my complaint!
C says
Thanks Emma, can these be during the loan period as well or just 3 months before the loan?
Emma says
I would say mainly before but I suppose if having the loan has caused hardship during the loan then it’s all evidence.
Good luck C
Chris says
Hi All,
I have received the following response from Amigo, and just wanted to check if this is the normal practice, I am currently trying to get hold of my guarantor to accept the refund. The loan was for £5000 of which I paid interest totalling 3063 and my guarantor then settled the loan paying 3177. Any advice on what payment can be expected will be appreciated,
Dear Chris,
Thankyou for your patience whilst we have been reviewing your bank statements. After my review of these I can confirm that these reflect it may not have been in your best interests for us to have lent to you. Due to this, I am looking to arrange a refund of interest with 8% interest.
Since your guarantor Mark paid to settle your loan, I need to check first if he is looking to receive the amount he paid back on your behalf. Please be aware that if he does chose to accept this refund, the payment would be posted back onto the account and your refund adjusted accordingly to ensure that the principal loan balance of £5000.00 was repaid.
I have tried to call Mark and also sent an email confirming we are looking to hear from him. Once we have I can make the relevant adjustments and arrangements for the refund.
If you would like to discuss anything further, please contact me or the team on 01202 835 170.
Kind regards,
Lisa
Customer Relations Team
Amigo Loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I paid interest totalling 3063” do you mean you made payments totalling that amount?
How long ago was the loan taken out and how long ago was it settled?
And did you repay Mark any amounts after the loan was settled?
Chris says
Hi Sara,
Sorry I think I have explained my situation very badly, I have paid a total of 21 monthly payments of £243.95 a total of £5122.95 based on the statements Amigo have sent me £3063.44 of this was interest. My guarantor closed the loan paying £3,177.80 which would have been a mixture of capital and interest.
I wasn’t sure how the redress would be calculated, would my gurantor only get redressed the interest he has paid and I get the redress on the interest I have paid, or would the guarantor just get all there money back first and then I would be left with what redress was left if anything?.
Sorry for the confusion.
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK! that is very different.
I don’t know how exactly Amigo will look at this, but let me explain what I think should happen.
The loan was for 5,000. Because Amigo have agreed that it was unaffordable, you should only have to repay that 5,000 with no interest. But you paid 5,122. So you have repaid the loan in full already and paid £122 more which you should be refunded. Plus 8% on that but that’s obviously going to be small!
In addition all the payments your guarantor made should be refunded to him plus 8%. So about £4,066.
Effectively the guarantor is getting the lion’s share of the refund.
There is really the problem that your guarantor has got paid twice for some of this, oncee by the payments you are making to him and once by the refund from Amigo. If you are on good terms with the guarantor and he has happy to take the payments you made as repaying whatever the other loan your had from him was, then you should see something positive come out of this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is no way you can be left owing any money to Amigo – you don’t need to worry about that.
John says
Hi everyone,
I am very interested in this thread as I had 2 loans with FLM/AMIGO. I borrowed initially £2500, paid on time for a year and was allowed to top up to £5000 to clear the leftover balance of the initial loan aswell as receiving the leftover funds.
I have asked for statements and paid over £5200 to them across both loans! 🤯
I will define be complaining, as I see to recall being in financial difficulty at the time and my credit record would have been less than perfect to say the least.
I made all payment on time for fear of defaulting and letting down my mother who was my guarantor! I also think I was borrowing from Payday loan companies at the same time.
I just wanted to check with anyone else who had loans with them for the following:
On both loans, they have added a £500 set up fee to each loan and added this to the total amount due according to the statements they sent me.
Does anyone know:
A) what this fee was for exactly as £500 seems an awful lot for a set up fee
B) are they allowed to charge interest on this fee?
Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t really matter what the set up fee was or whether they charged interest on it, if you wain an affordability complaint all interest, fees and charges are refunded.
But paying £5200 if the top up loan was £5000 doesn’t sound right. Can you double check what you borrowed, from the loan agreements? And what you paid, from your bank statements?
And get your complaint in ASAP as the first loan may be quite old?
John says
Hi Sara.
Thanks for your reply.
The 1st loan I borrowed £3000, paid 8 payments of £177, which left a balance of £2270 (after they had added interest etc). This loan was then cleared by a top up of £5000, leaving me with £2730 cash left after paying old loan.
Total interest charged on this loan was just under £700.
On the £5000 loan I made 36 payments of just under £270, paying just under £4550 in interest.
Total interest paid just over £5200.
The 1st loans was taken out in Nov 2010 and settled in Aug 2011. 2nd loan taken out Aug 2011 and settled in Oct 2014.
Is that too late to claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo may well say its too late as both loans are over 6 years old. At the moment we haven’t seen enough of these “old loan” complaints go to FOS to know what FOS will decide. But send your complaint into Amigo and then onto FOS if they reject it and we’ll see!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See the update below from Charlie H who has had a positive response from Amigo about an over 6 year loan case.
Jean says
Hi sara
I submitted an affordability claim ti amigo l have had 2 loans with them 1 in 2015 which my sisiter paid of for me and another one in 2017
They have partially upheld loan 2 which was fir £7500.00
They are stating they should have made more checks and could see from the credit report l had numerous payday loans and was over my limit on my credit card and had a overdraft which l was always over ……
Looking at the numbers on my statements it says that made payments of. £7255.59 in total in interest payments and totals payments to them is £9303.64
How much will l get back
I may be wrong but looking at these amounts l have technically paid the loan off already 🤦🏽♀️
Can you give me some indication has to how much l will get back if anything???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Looking at the numbers on my statements it says that made payments of. £7255.59 in total in interest payments and totals payments to them is £9303.64” Thats eems rather confusing.
Are these figures just for the second loan?
The first loan had already been settled earlier? How large was the first loan and do you think that was affordable?
Jean says
Hi sara
These numbers were taken of my online statement there was one row for interest and underneath was a section for actual payments the first loan was paid off in full by my sister it was not affordable hence why my sister paid it off……
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, let’s try to disentangle all these numbers.
the first loan – just look at actual payment numbers, ignore whether Amigo said they are “interest” ….
how much did you borrow?
how much did you pay – say 11 payments of £130 = £1430
How much did your sister pay to settle this?
and did the settlement amount come from your sister or did she give you the money and you settled it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then the second loan – where you still owe a balance:
Again ignore Amigo’s statements and just look at the cash paid.
how much did you borrow?
how much have you paid to it so far?
Jean says
hi sara
The second loan was not a top up it was just a second loan ….. the amount was for £7500.00 payments l have made total over
£9400.00 and the balance on the loan is £5300.00
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so if you have paid 9400 and you borrowed 7500, then you have already repaid more than you borrowed. If you complaint about this loan is upheld now, you will be getting a refund of 9400-7500=£1900 plus possibly a bit of extra interest.
And if the first one is also upheld, you will get a refund of all the interest you paid on that.
Jean says
Thank you sara sent in bank statements so now waiting for amigo to get back to me will let you guys no what they decide
Charlie H says
Hi Sara,
I received a response from Amigo today telling me that they partially upheld my complaint and are asking for bank statements from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010. I can’t provide the majority of these as I no longer have them and the banks will only go back 6 years. I do have them from 2010 so will send them these. My guarantor will also provide a letter confirming that he cleared my balance as I was struggling with the interest and payments. It should be noted that have repaid him the full amount back and due to interest not being charged, I was able to meet that albeit over additional time. They also stated that more questions should have been asked as to why I had not kept up with my payments to other creditors and was increasing borrowing etc. It take that as a positive that my complaint will receive at least a partial refund. Am I right to think this and will my inability to provide statements from so long ago, inhibit the complaint in any way?
As usual, your advise is so very much appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely send in the bank stat you do have. And any other evidence of financial problems before that – any letters, emails, court papers, from debt collectors or about rent, council tax, bills etc.
It’s good that Amigo haven’t refused to look at the case on the grounds the loans were over 6 years old.
They are asking for bank statements because all they have decided so far is that they didn’t look closely enough at your case to be sure the loans were affordable, but they don’t know what they would have seen if they had looked in detail.
This is the approach the Financial Ombudsman also uses. But FOS does understand that people can’t always produce very old bank statements and then makes a decision as to what is likely to have happened.
In a payday loan case where there is a lot of borrowing, a typical decision is for the refunds to start from loan 3,4,5 or 6, often depending on whether the loans were getting bigger or if there were gaps between the loans. Where bank statements can’t be produced, it’s more likely that there wouldn’t be a refund for a few more loans at the start but this is is very case specific.
But for guarantor loans the normal refund is from the first loan. I don’t know what FOS would decide here, it may depend on what evidence there is about other borrowing getting worse. I don’t really like guessing in this sort of situation but if Amigo only offer you a refund on the last loan, I would definitely be inclined to say send it to FOS and ask for a refund on more. But if Amigo offer a refund on all except the first loan, perhaps take it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your guarantor settled the last loan, then the refund for the settlement amount will probably go to them… hopefully you are on good terms so they will send it to you? If not, you should object strongly to Amigo saying that you have repaid that amount…
Did your guarantor have to make any payments to the earlier loans? If they did, or if you missed any payments but then made them up, that is also strong evidence that the next loan to you should not have been given.
Da says
its been about 10 and a half months, is there any turn around time that the FOS have to adhere to. i sent the claim in in november 18, seems like an awfully long time to wait to look at this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you still owe a balance?
Mike says
There is no timescale. I sent my complaint in September 2017 and got my decision and response 2 weeks ago. Just be wary and double check everything as Amigo try and wriggle out of everything. I was awarded all interest and payments to be refunded and for them to remove negative entries. They are now saying only interest paid is to be refunded. They are very sneaky.
Da says
Well there not going to give you their money back are they. of course it is only the interest you paid that you would get back.
No i dont have a balance any longer.
borrowed the below
3250 16/05/2012
2250 11/09/2014
4250 03/04/2015
5000 29/04/2016
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, it’s good you don’t owe them any money, it’s a very difficult situation havin unaffordable Amigo repayments while a complaint sits waiting at the Ombudsman. With those top-ups you probably have a strong case!
John says
Just wondering if it is possible to get bank statements that are older than 6 years old for bank accounts which are now closed?
I have sent off a complaint to Amigo this morning but I am anticipating they will want bank statements.
The loans I had stated in 2010 and were paid by 2014.
To make matters worse, I used a total of 4 bank accounts to make payments to FLM/Amigo over the course of the loans.
What happens if I am just not able to provide the statements if they ask, but can supply statements covering some of the time I had loans with them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can sometimes get statements from closed accounts. Set about getting these now from all of your accounts, don’t wait another couple of months until Amigo ask for them.
If Amigo reject all your loans, then you obviosly have to send the case to the ombudsman. If you had 4 loans and they have agreed to refund the last two, say, because you didn’t have statements for the ealier loans then you have to make a choice between accepting their offer of sending the case to FOS.
FOS will look at cases where there aren’t bank statements but it makes it easier to win a omplaint if you have them.
Kelly B says
Hi I put in an affordability complaint to amigo 80 days ago and today they have got back saying they will refund 3 out of 6 loans for interest and also add the 8%. December 2013 I had one loan for £1000, August 2014 one topped up to £3000, February 2015 I had one for £4250, December 2015 £5000, August 2016 £6750 and December 2017 £8250. I defaulted my stepchange plan to be able to go through Amigo. Before this time I also had other defaults such as wonga and micro credit as well as others. I also was in receipt of dla and didn’t get asked enough about that. They have asked for 3 months statements prior to each of the 1st 3 loans to review them as they cant make a proper decision unless they have them. I also dont know how much interest I have paid, how do I work this out? Amd will I send the statements or take it further? Thankyou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s good news!
Definitely send the bank statements they have asked for. They do often but not always decide to refund more loans having seen them.
I don’t know what you think would be a fair result for you. You may think the first loan was small and not really a problem so a refund from loan 2 would be OK? Or you may blame loan 1 for a lot of your subsequent problems. Or you may want to know how much interest is involved for each of the loans before you can make a decision…
When you have had 5 top ups working out the interest may seem a pain, but after you have done the first couple it becomes clearer what you are doing.
For loan 1 you borrowed £1,000 and made (say, I am making up the figures here!) 7 payments of £60 = £420. Then you topped up with a new loan of £3,000, where £950 was repaying the first loan and £2,050 came as new money to you. The end result is that for the first loan you paid 420 + 950 = 1370, so take off the mount your borrowed and you paid 370 in interest.
Then do the same for the 2nd loan (the first top up). You borrowed £3000, made 6 payments of £150 = £900. Then you topped up with a new loan of £4250, of which £2700 was settling the second loan and £1550 came as the top up money to you. So for the 2nds loan you paid 900 + 2700 = £3600 less what you borrowed mean that you paid £600 in interest.
Repeat for loans 3,3 and 5.
The last loan you are still paying. Can you say how many payments of how much you have made to it so far?
Kelly B says
Hi Sara
Of the £8250 I have made £5543.36 in payments. They have also removed my mother who was my guarantor for this loan as they hadn’t carried out enough checks on her also. I feel the first loan got me into the mess as they had emailed me everytime I had made 6 months of payments for a topup and it was always too tempting. I really regret ever going through them. The past 5 years have been tough. When I started out I had a lot of defaults as well as health problems and was in receipt of low dla for that. I feel they maybe should have questioned more about this? I have sent them proof of stepchange debt plan along with the statements etc. Have you any idea how long it takes when they are revising statements? Thanks so much for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you have a really strong case. And I think Amigo know this too.
Great they have removed your mum – takes all the pressure off you.
They should look at your bank statements and get back to you within a couple of weeks.
Go through the procedure I outline and work out how much interest you paid on each of loans 1,2,3,4 and 5.
Are you currently making any payments?
Kelly B says
I’m so relieved my mum is removed. The pressure of worrying about her having to make payments if I couldn’t was awful. I am still currently paying, although a few days late with this months as I have had problems with my income. Tax credits made a blunder with my renewal but getting sorted and will be making another payment to them within the next fortnight to bring it back up to date. I never have missed any payments before this. Thank you so much for all the help. Without your knowledge and templates letter none of this would of been possible. So grateful:)
PJ says
Hi Sara
Should they remove loan entries from credit file? Wording suggest for them to remove negative entries only, surely they must remove the original loan entry from credit file as they should have done checks in first instance.
Regards
PJ
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman normally says that only negative entries should be removed. The loan itself, without the negative entries, doesn’t harm your credit score. Some lenders delete the loan as this is easier for them.
Rob says
So just an update on my amigo case. After putting a complaint in back in feb 2019. Amigo rejected. Sent to FOS when amigo rejected it.
Reached out to amigo in August upon learning of cases being won which they’d rejected, amigo stated they wouldn’t be changing decision as it’s with FOS (last week in August). Get a call from FOS next day saying Amigo has made an offer to refund all interest on all loans.
Provided bank details to Amigo in September and 4 working days later I received my refund.
Total refund was £8205. Very happy to have won this.
Only 2 more complaints to go, ICL and Wonga (both in awkward places with administrators (Wonga) or some deal (ICL) so not expecting much back).
In total across payday loans and guarantor loans I’ve received just shy of £20k. I’m officially debt free and now have a large chunk of savings. I cannot thank Sara and this site enough for the help in getting out the mess I was in and getting back what was wrongfully paid. Just a shame it’s not 100% refunds due to the issues with companies going insolvent. Serves them right personally
Sara (Debt Camel) says
great result!
Scott says
Hi rob What did you put in your second complaint to Amigo as they rejected mine last year but I didn’t follow it up with the ombudsman
Rob says
I didn’t resubmit my complaint. I complained to Amigo, they rejected so I forwarded to FOS. Whilst at the FOS, I contact Amigo to get them to reconsider. They didn’t. It was my first and only complaint.
If you’ve not sent your complaint to the FOS after 6 months then I’m sure you can’t take it further unless you have additional information/evidence not considered the first time round.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Scott,
when you complained to Amigo last year, they will probably have sent you a final response which says you can take the complaint to the Ombudsman. unlike almost all lender, Amigo do not put a time limit on this, so you can still send this complaint to FOS now even though it is more than 6 months old. good luck!
Vk says
Hi Sara,
Can we complain to Amigo and For parallely as it looks now adays Amigo is rejecting a lot and Fos takes atleast 6 months to resolve.
Can we not raise with Fos parallely so that a case worker can be assigned and if Amigo rejects we can send the CD and rejection email which can save 2 months of time.
Kelly B says
Hi Sara just an update to say they worked the last 3 loans out that over £12000 was owed to me and have cleared my loan and are also refunding me the extra £3,696.87 to my account. They have acknowledged I have sent further evidence for the 1st 3 loans and said they will take it all into consideration and get back to me within 2 weeks. A brilliant result. Thanks again for everything and I will keep updated how the other goes
Sara (Debt Camel) says
fingers crossed they uphold the earlier loans too!
Andrew says
Hi Sara
I have put claim in against Amigo with the help of this website but Amigo unfortunately rejected my claim back in May.
I have forwarded it to the FOS and am currently waiting for Amigo to respond to the FOS.
I had the following loans from Amigo:
£3500 November 2015
£4500 July 2016 (top up)
£1750 March 2017
750 September 2017
£1500 November 2017
£2750 January 2018 (top up)
£3500 May 2018 (top Up)
Amigo’s main argument is that I managed to pay loans off early and therefore evidence they weren’t unaffordable. This is far from the case. In fact I was fortunate to receive a loan from a family member to try and get me out of the pay day loans. cycle. Only to fall back in to it.
I have asked Amigo to reconsider but they are saying they will await the FOS decision. Do you think there is anything worth trying to push them to reassess my claim?
Many thanks
Andrew
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think you can push them. but I hope FOS will be asking them to look at more of the outstanding cases.
The fact that you paid some loans early is not a strong argument. And the top-ups suggest that you were getting into more difficulty.
Is paying the current loan difficult? Your guarantor, could they manage to repay it each month from income? I am not suggesting you should ask them to do this, but if they couldn’t afford it, then they could put in a complaint and ask to be removed as the guarantor?
Andrew says
Thank you for the reply.
My guarantor wouldn’t be able to afford the repayments as she is on maternity leave. I am on a DMP and it would be great if I could get Amigo included in that.,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Would your guarantor have been able to afford the loans at the point you took the loan? How long ago was that?
Andrew says
No I doubt it. My guarantor also has very tight finances.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, then you could suggest to your guarantor (how do you know her?) that she should put in a complaint and ask to be removed, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/. NB she has to explain that the loan would have been unaffordable last Mat when the Application was made, not now.
Also you could look at reducing your DMP payments while the complaint goes through.
Lou7 says
Hi all,
Do the FOS deal with complaints in date order? Only I sent mine December and have heard nothing back except a letter in April saying it’s going to be a while before it’s sorted. I did contact amigo and ask them if they were looking at my complaint again and they said no, they are working with the FOS to deal with it. I don’t want to keep asking but it’s getting a bit frustrating now and paying it is very hard.
james says
I sent mine first week of september and my investigator was assigned 6 weeks ago, still awaiting outcome.
John says
Hi,
I submitted my complaint to Amigo yesterday and they have come back today with their full and response.
They have rejected my claim as the loans date back to between 2010-2014 and say they are too old. (Although I do recall seeing the other day on here that they were looking at someone’s complaint going back to 2007 onwards, so just wondering how mine isn’t being looked at)
What are my next steps?
Could I say that I wasn’t aware I could complain and have only just realised now?
Do I just to FOS anyway, or will they reject aswell?
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have they denied having any information about the loans?
John says
Hi Sara, no they sent me statements showing all the loan information.
They just refused to look at my case based on the age profile of the loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, send the complaint straight to FOS then.
afaq tariq says
Hi I have a ongoing loan with amigo and my refund for previous 4 loans including this one which is ongoing comes upto around 10k. If i was to win the case and amigo refunding my interest. Would they just write off the loan or send me this payment.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A refund will first be used to reduce/write off a balance. Then any remaining will be paid to you.
Joshua says
Hi I put in a complaint with amigo and they have sent me a CD I know this may sound silly but I’ve never done this before but we having struggled financially in order to keep paying amigo, do I need to do anything or should amigo also answer my complaint as well as having sent me a CD containing Data Subject Access Request info?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This disk has all your personal data on it. If you used my template letter in the article above, this is in response to the first part of that letter:
“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.”
This is not the answer to your affordability complaint. They have 8 weeks from your complaint to give you the answer and Amigo usually takes most or all of thet 8 weeks.
You don’t have to do anything with that CD at the moment. It is there as back up, in case Amigo reject your complaint and it has to go to the financial ombudsman. If it does, then there may be details on the CD that will help you, which is why you ask for it right at the beginning.
Do you have any other high cost loans? or have you had in the past?
Joshua says
Have had 2 loans with amigo one completely paid off and a top up, also have loans with provident which was used to get through the sticky patches that amigo leave us in each month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, also look. At making an affordability complaint to Provident. Template letter here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/
P says
Hi Sara,
I have submitted a complaint to Amigo, 8 weeks ago, and they have responded to tell me that they have rejected. The email said that they will look into it further if I can provide bank statements 3 monts prior to my application. I remembered that I had to send them something like this when I applied.
I checked with Lloyds about historic statements – my account is now closed – and the said they can only go back 5 years and my loans were from a little under 6 years ago so no luck there.
When I check my email sent folder I have found what I had sent to them originally and they accepted my loan based on me sending a screenshot of my wages going into my account but they weren’t actually statements – just a list of money going into my account and no outgoings.
Does it sounds normal to accept a list of ingoings as proof of affordability?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So send Amigo the oldest bank statements you have. Say your income and expenses were much the same earlier, or explain if they were different. Ask Amigo to reconsider or you will send the case to the Ombudsman in 2 weeks.
Also send Lloyd’s a DSAR , see https://www.lloydsbank.com/help-guidance/customer-support/privacy-explained/data-privacy-notice.asp#11 asking for a copy of the older statements. Sometimes this works, but you have to assume it may not.
Vk says
Hi Sarah,
Just want to check few things here.I had received CD from amigo last week and I still have 3 more weeks to complete my 8 weeks window.
If amigo is replying at the end of 8 weeks does it mean the complaint is uphold and they will cut the interest.
Just want to check if they still need complete 8 weeks to reject our complaint.
Are there any cases were they rejected the complaint at the end of 8 weeks window?
Many thanks
Vk
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Amigo have to respond by 8 weeks. Sometimes they. Uphold your complaint, sometimes they ask for bank statements (which is why I suggest you send them now, don’t wait), sometimes they reject your complaint. If they reject it, send it to the Ombudsman.
John says
Hi Sara. Just looking for so advice re Amigo.
Basically I complained and they’ve not upheld my complaints based on age profile of case as I said yesterday.
Today I have received an email from them with the following:
“Yesterday afternoon I sent you an email outlining my outcome to your complaint raised on 10th September 2019. I hope you have had the opportunity to review this and understand how the outcome has been reached….
In the process of issuing you with a final response, an error was made, resulting in some of your information being disclosed to another customer….your name, address, reference number and your complaint outcome was sent to another customer.
As a result of this error I would like to offer £75 as a gesture of apology for the service you received. You can choose to receive this via bank transfer or in a voucher of your choosing.
Once again I would like to offer my sincerest apologies…”
I have already raised complaint with FOS, but does this now give me some leverage with regards to my complaint, or would I accept their offer of £75 (or ask for more)?
I see this to be quite a serious data security breach considering the information they have released to a 3rd party, so I just wanted to get an opinion.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£75 is typical for this sort of data breach. And it doesn’t give you any leverage for your complaint.
Wayne says
Hi John and Sarah,
I too had my claim rejected yesterday. Bit of a co-incidence but I was the person who received your email John along with mine at the same time. They said that my 5k loan in December 2012 is out of date. I’ve made a complaint to the ombusman and ICO with regards my claim and the data breach. I sent my credit report which shows there was no way the loan was affordable. Will the ombusman also say it’s out of date?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is up to the Ombudsman what complaints they think they can consider.
In the last few months i don’t remember FOS rejecting a case because the loans are over 6 years old and I have seen several adjuicator decisons saying that refunds should be given on older loans.
I can’t say FOS will always take this view.
And it’s important to remember that it may be harder to win a complaint about older loans if there is little evidence about your situation at the time of the application. It will help a lot if you have old bank statements. Any old correspondence about insolvency, CCJs, debt collectors, DMPs, anything that shows you were in financial difficulty.
Austin says
Hi Sara, I think what you’re doing is great. I’ve got a loan with amigo at the minute. My first 1 was for £2000 which I repaid once month and they then offered me a top up. At the time I had problems with getting paid at work and took it up. They gave me £2750 top up, the pay out was £727.69.
The phone call my guarantor got at this time was to sort expenditure and affordability and they bluntly said just to tweak some bits as we didn’t quite meet the criteria. Surely this is against the law ???
I have paid £4025.10 off so far with £1058.80 left to pay. Working out the interest I’ve paid on both loans it equals £2211.51 on both loans. On the latest loan the interest is £2065.57.
If a proper check was done on my credit file and/or bank statements they would see I had no money and sometimes no income and various payday loans at the same time I got a loan with them.
What should I do next?
Ps. You’re a diamond.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should send them an affordability complaint about both loans. Use the template in the above example.
I wonder how affordable the loan would be for your guarantor… it could also be useful for YOUR complaint to get a recording of that call to the guarantor… can you suggest your guarantor also puts in a complaint? See https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/ which has a slightly different letter.
Faye says
Hi I sent your email template to amigo three weeks ago. I’ve today received a CD in the post. I e not heard anything otherwise about the complaint do I need to do anything else?
Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, you don’t have to do anything. See my reply above to joshua who asked the same question.
Simon t says
Hi Sara
Just an update on a case I raised against Amigo 8 weeks ago, they have contacted me with a final response of clearing £5200 balance and a payment of £4400 to me. I would like to echo what others have said and thank you so much for all your help, this site has changed my life.
I would also tell everyone to keep positive and patient and I’m sure they will get the right results also
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good result!
afaq tariq says
Hi received this from amigo today. Seems like i need to send mt case to obsduman
Thank you for your emails and for providing those bank statements I requested. A member of our team will review these in due course and update you with our findings. We will aim to get back to you within 2 weeks of when you sent this information.
With regards to the statements you have provided relating to your first two loan agreements, we will not review these statements as at the time you completed our payout process there was no reason for us to request any additional information. we had no concerns with the information you’d provided and you were managing all of your creditors very well.
As explained above, a member of our team will be in contact in due course to review your statements and the information you have provided.
Laura clark says
Hi Sara,
I have received a disk with all my information back off amigos but I’m not aware of where to go from here? I did the letter of unaffordabilty complaint and not sure what to do next. Please can you help me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to do anything at the moment, the reply to your complaint will follow in another few weeks, See my reply above to Joshua above for details.
Josh says
Hi all, I submitted my complaint on 13th September to FOS about Amigo, exactly one year later I’ve just received my outcome stating that all of the lending (6 loans) was unaffordble and amigo should repay everything back with interest, I had paid them all off so should be about £14k back in total, just waiting for Amigo to respond.
Hang in there everyone who is still waiting!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good to hear these old complaints are finally being deal with – and very good result!
Claire says
Hi all
Just thought I’d share my good news re amigo
Sent affordability email just over 8 weeks ago re my loans (originally 3k in 2016 topped up four times to 10k all within a few months of each one )
They sent me the info disc after 4 weeks
Final response on Friday past, exactly 8 weeks later
Did not uphold first loan , asked for 3 months statements for second which I sent immediately.
Upheld all subsequent
I received an email yesterday thanking me for sending statements and informing me I will get a response within 2 weeks if any further interest due to me ..
the very best bit though, is that they’ve calculated their figures and refunded me £9400 leaving me a new balance of just £130 !!!! I’m actually ecstatic with this result and now £400 a month better off. My online account already shows the adjustment has been made
Thanks Sara for this site it’s invaluable and really does change lives!!
Top tip anyone who is complaining/is thinking of doing so .. send statements with your complaint as advised above :)
Sarah Harrison says
Hi Sarah i have let ameigo loans know that i have mental health issues. They are now asking for me to say what I have been diagnosed with and what medication im on. I have asked to defer a payment to the end of the month as I was meant to pay £395 16th September. The case has now been taken on by the financial Ombudsman as i complained about irresponsible lending and unfair interest being added. Do I have to tell them what I have and what medication I take. Thanks Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to tell them anything, but it supports your request if you do.
Has your case been picked up by an adjudicator at the Ombudsman or have you just had an acknowledgement.
Sarah t says
Hi Sarah it was picked up by an adjudicator, however they misplaced ameigo loans final response letter and had passed it to them to relook at the case. But they refused saying that they have written a final response back in 2018. So I went back to the Ombudsman and they are treating it like a new case. The have emailed me to say they have asked for all the files and an adjudicator will be in touch with me. Thanks Sarah
ruby2sday says
Hi Sara just been on phone to amigo l had 3 loans first£4000 then 10months later top up to£5000 then top up to£7000 l am 3 1/2 years in to 3rd my cd came back with log book loans and pay day loans over and over l rang them to ask what statements they need and he said it won’t make a difference as l agreed to the payments and it was highly unlikely that l could win an unaffordable complaint because they don’t look at statements it’s all on trust do l send them or hold tight l now feel like they are going to not go in my favour after he spoke to me gutted
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Trust me, if your credit record showed logbook loans and payday loans and you topped up twice you probably have a strong complaint.
I suggest sending your bank statements for the 3 months before the original loan and the three months before each top-up.
ruby2sday says
Ty Sara your reply has made me feel a lot better so let the waiting game begin! Again thank you
M says
Hi Sara
Thanks for your help so far. I received a response today as follows and really need some advice as still unclear.
In total I had 5 loans, inclusive of 3 top-ups. They have upheld all 5. All were paid off some time ago so there is nothing outstanding. However for two as my mum had made large payments they offered to either:
Refund her all interest + 8% simple interest (did not disclose the full amount) but did caveat and say if accepted my loans would also be reopened again. Other option was to only receive 8% simple interest which was £4,482.
I have on 3 of my loans had an offer for £4,450.06 + 8% simple interest which is £859.84 compared The the £4K mum has been offered.
I’m really unsure as why if mum accepts a full offer they’d reopen loans (but would use my interest of hers to clear it)
Difficult to understand which way to go?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have on 3 of my loans had an offer for £4,450.06 + 8% simple interest which is £859.84 compared The the £4K mum has been offered.” so these were the three where your mum had not made large payments?
The two problem loans. Do you know for each of these loans:
how much you borrowed?
How much you paid towards the loan – just the total of the monthly payments, ignore if this was supposed to be principal or interest?
were these loans repaid in full or settled by a top up?
robboa says
So my case has finally been assigned to an adjudicator – hooray. complained in november 2018.
Does anyone know how long it takes for an adjudicator to come to a decision(roughly) i’ve sent across all statements etc now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Honestly, it depends how complicated your case is. ow many loans, any joint accounts, lots of accounts etc But typically you will hear in the next couple of weeks.
robboa says
4 loans over 3 bank accounts so i guess might take a bit longer
Mike says
Hi
I have had 3 loans in total with amigo all being top ups. My last one which was taken in September 2015 for £7000. I’ve just gone through the statement and I’ve paid a mind boggling £10783.97 in interest alone yet the balance outstanding is £5883!!
My question is do I use the same template to start my claim and I’d successful would I be awarded just the interest that I’ve paid to date on my existing loan and also on the 2 previous ones which were paid off by way of top ups?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, use the template letter above. You want to ask for a refund on all loans and top-ups.
If all your loans are refunded, the current balance would be wiped out and you would get a refund of the amount over £7000 that you have paid so far to the last loan. And you would get a refund of the interest you paid on the previous loans / top-ups.
Amigo may just offer to refund the last loan – if you don’t know if that is a good enough offer, come back here and discuss it then?
Mike says
Thank you so much for your prompt reply Sara! I shall put this process into place straight away and will keep you posted.
Thank you so much again!
Ruth says
I’ve just had my complaint not upheld by amigo after sending bank statements,it was partially upheld before I sent in statements where they agreed they didn’t make enough checks they have advised I had no payday loans after it and I could afford it but I had loads which show all over my credit perport and the month my top up was made I was on ssp. Should I challenge this, many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they haven’t upheld any of the loans?
Ruth says
No none, before they asked me to send statements it was partially upheld as they said they should have carried out more checks and I had a top up in October and December 2017, I sent the statements and they requested, showing very low wages in the months prior to the top up. Amigo have advised that the bank statements show I was able to afford it and I wasn’t taking out payday loans (they all started after the amigo loan to afford the repayments subsequently defaults were issued by other creditors and my debt increased, amigo put this on their final decisionand acknowledged it) however today they have advised none of the 3 loans are unaffordable at 270 per month which is a third of my wage. WhAt should I do from here? Thanks for any advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry to hear that. I think you already sent this to FOS, didn’t you? You should be asking FOS for a refund on all three loans.
You may be able to get Amigo to reduce your monthly payment a bit while the FOS complaint goes through without it affecting your guarantor. But they won’t agree to reduce it very low without asking your guarantor for money.
Ruth says
Hi Sara
Thanks for your reply, I have sent it all to the ombudsman, I currently have no payday loans as I paid them all off. With the payday loans and amigo and other creditors nearly £600 per month was taken from a wage of £800, I’m a single parent and was receiving child maintenance which i know they calculated into my income, I no longer recieve that payment and haven’t for a nearly a year which has odviously impacted my finances as well. Can they calculate maintenance payments into a budget (the DWP don’t because it is not reliable)
I have forwarded everything to the ombudsman and my guarantor has now moved into her own home so she has nothing left? I suffer with anxiety and the thought of asking amigo anything puts me into a state as I requested a date change once and had all type of talk about late payments etc and I can’t let my guarantor down.
They have even emailed my guarantor advising that I put in an unaffordability complaint and that she may have to make payments if I don’t (I have never missed one)
I have credit card debts and other debts that I am currently paying off and only since trying to maintain the amigo loan have I being in this situation, if they would have looked closer they could and have seen from the statements that my wage as being very low as I had a breakdown and was off work for nearly 3 months getting paid ssp, currently I am paying 400 a month out on creditors, my wage being only 800. Just not sure where to go with this, hopefully the financial ombudsman will be able to shine some light, thanks for your advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So your complaint is already underway at FOS – good!
I think you should tell FOS that you want to add to your complaint that Amigo informed your guarantor even though you said she shouldn’t be told and you have never missed a payment. Tell FOS that this is causing you a lot of stress and explain about your anxiety.
I think you should consider asking your other creditors for a payment arrangement. I am being realistic that it could take months to get a FOS decision. If your anxiety makes this difficult, you could talk to StepChange (https://www.stepchange.org/) and get them to talk to your creditors?
If you are getting behind with bills and its hard to afford food and the essentials, then those are your priorities, not your other creditors.
Tasha says
I complained to amigo some time back & they came back saying they wouldn’t be repaying anything and they didn’t agree they’d acted unfairly etc. I contacted them as realised I’d not gone to financial ombudsman (I’d put the response in the drawer in a huff) I then went back to amigo about a month or so ago and asked if I could go to FOS and they said no as it’s been more than 6 months however they would reconsider if I have anything else I want them t take into account. When I’d complained the first time around they didn’t ask for any bank statements etc. Having read this* I realise I could have gone to them and it seems amigo have acted clever in reassessing it their self. They told me they’d have reviewed all statements by 12th September. I’m yet to receive a response. Have chased them up & been advised it’ll be by the end of the week. I’ve had 1 loan and 2 top ups eventually at £10,000. The last top up was over a year ago and the amount due is still at over £10,000 due to interest and late payments as it’s unaffordable each month. Any ideas what the result could be with having such a high amount outstanding. First loan was 5,000 then £7,500 then the £10,000. Late payments made from the very first one but still kept topping it up.
—————————————–
EDIT by Sara
* Tasha was replying to a previous thread where I commented that Amigo did not usually tell people they had to go to the ombudsman within 6 months, so if they didn’t in your case, you can still go to the FOS after 6 months.
I have moved this to a separate thread as it is long!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you checked your previous reply from Amigo and did it say you had to go to FOS within 6 months? Assuming it didn’t say that…
It was naughty (to say the least) of them to say you couldn’t go to FOS… but if they now uphold your case it will have been quicker than going to FOS, so you will have got a good result.
And if they reject it you can still go to FOS as their reply didn’t tell you there was a time limit. Go immediately, don’t think about it!
In general I think that anyone with top-ups after they had missed several payments (not just you were 2 days late on one payment) has a very strong case the top ups should not have been given. And many people are winning one loan, no top up cases at FOS. What was your financial position before the first loan? At that point did you have payday loans or other big problems?
It’s a good idea for you to work out now how much you could get back from each loan being upheld as Amigo may come back and say they will up hold the correct loan but not the previous ones, or the current loan and the previous top up but not the original loan… and then you have to decide whether to take the offer of go to FOS to try to get more. Knowing the rough numbers helps with that decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So how to do a ROUGH calculation about refund amounts from each loan. This means ignoring all the stuff on Amigo’s statements about how much interest you have paid and late charges. You just look at what you borrowed and what you have paid.
8% added interest will be on top of these refund amounts. At the moment just view those as a nice extra bonus and do the basic refund calculations.
Once you start doing this, I think you will find it all makes sense so it’s not as bad as it seems! You need to know
a) how much you borrowed for each loan,
b) how much you paid to Amigo in monthly payments (I am assuming your guarantor didn’t pay any?) for each loan. which will be on your bank statements, and
c) how much of each top up was used to settle the previous loan – this will be on the top up loan agreement.
EXAMPLE – made up figures!
For loan 1 you borrowed £3000 and made 7 payments of £200 = £1400.
Then you topped up with a new loan of £5000, where £2400 was repaying the first loan and £2,600 came as new money to you.
The end result is that for the first loan you paid 1400 + 2400 = 3800, so take off the amount you borrowed and you paid £800 in interest that would be refunded.
Then do the same for the 2nd loan (the first top up).
You borrowed £5000, made 6 payments of £250 = £1500.
Then you topped up with a new loan of £10,000 of which £4400 was settling the second loan and £4600 came as the top up money to you.
So for the 2nd loan you paid 1500 + 4400 = 5900 less what you borrowed mean that you paid £900 in interest.
For the last loan that you are still paying:
You borrowed 10,000.
You have so far paid 13 payments of £350 = 4550.
If this is the only loan refunded, what would happen is that all interest and late charges are removed from the loan, so you only repay the 10,000 in total.
As you have paid 4550 already, that brings the balance remaining down to £5500. And you can then agree an affordable payment arrangement for what remains.
If the first and/or second loans are also refunded, the refund from those is used to reduce the balance on the last loan.
If you had paid more to the last loan than you borrowed, then you would get a refind of the difference.
Tasha says
I am currently paying £395 per month and those payments started 1st June 2017 and current balance is £10,043.45. The settlement figure was £5589.50 on 29th April 2017 and £4410.50 paid on the same date. The guarantor has made payments (not all) but they tend to help themselves to this when it’s behind. More so over the past few months & less frequent with original loan and first top up.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you guarantor made ANY payments to the first loan, then I don’t think you should have been given a top up. And I suspect that the Ombudsman will agree! You should be assuming at the moment that you have a very strong case for a refund on all the loans as obviously even the fist one was unaffordable.
The settlement figures are pretty irrelevant.
Any payments made by your guarantor will be refunded to your guarantor, not to you – kind of fair as why should you get back money you didn’t pay? But that doesn’t reduce the balance that you owe… it’s best to wait and see how this all works out.
Tasha says
I’ve told her if I get anything back I’d work out what she paid.
Am I right in thinking that the interest for this current loan is astronomical. Worked out based on payments I’ve paid them £11,076 and the loan balance is still at £10,054.47. So surely that £11,076 is all interest at this stage?
I’ve emailed to ask for the previous figures as I’ve gone on my statements and they only have the current loan and settlement etc recorded. No show of the previous 2 so have asked for amounts, dates and what was paid out & what was paid off. I have quite a bit of it from bank statements and emails but not all of it. Also just re-read my response from last time & there is no mention of the FOS in the letter?! Crooks!
Kathy says
I sent all my details to Amigo was told they would have a response last Tuesday and now they have put me back to this Tuesday. I have sent bank statements and copy of court letter showing i was at the stage of eviction due to debt. Hopefully i get some good news on Tuesday.
I sent complaint back 4th July 2019, they replied exactly 8 weeks saying they were not upholding my first few claims, but wanted bank statements etc on my latest loan. they advised they would have an answer for me last week. (but in meantime I was able to get bank statements and letters from my housing association showing bad arrears etc). they came back last Monday thanking me for information and saying they would need another week to process the information
I was also going through divorce, where my ex husband had also loans in my name, which i ended up liable for.
what does it mean if they say they are partially upholding this part of claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kathy,
sorry, there was a systems problem and some of what you wrote today got lost. You don’t need to type it out again. I will be looking out for your post on Tuesday and I hope it is good news.
By a “partial uphold’ Amigo seems to mean that that think there MAY be a problem as they didn’t do enough checks but they want to see your bank statements to see if they show the loan was unaffordable for you.
Let’s see what they come back with next week. It is possible they may agree the last loan is unaffordable but you may still want to go to the ombudsman about the earlier loans.
Kathy says
Now Amigo are saying they need even more time and hope to respond next week!.
Julieann says
I took out a loan with Amigo in 2012 and topped it up in 2014. Altogether I borrowed £8000.
I sent my complaint to them at the end of July not really expecting any kind of positive outcome. However I received an email this morning telling me they were refunding me £10,950 (the interest paid + 8%) I have phoned them with my bank details and just received another email saying the payment had been process and will be in my account in 3-5 days.
I really can’t believe this outcome but I am very grateful for it. Without this website I wouldn’t even have known I could complain.
Thanks for everything
Sara (Debt Camel) says
great result!
Debbie says
Hi Sarah
Please could you help me to work out if what Amigo is offering works correctly I’m stumped by how to work out the 8% interest.
I took 1 loan out and 1 topup. The original loan was in October 2011 and for £1925 I made 18 pmts of £93.92 so paid back a total of £1690.56. I then took out a topup loan of £5000 in April 2013, Amigo took £1342.21 from the loan to pay off the interest on the loan 1. I then made 30 pmts of £197.62 before having to ask Amigo to accept a reduced pmt of £60 per month which they did and I then paid 40 pmts of £60 so have paid back £8328.60. So in total have paid Amigo £10019.16 for loans of £6925. Amigo have agreed to repay me the interest on both loans and 8% but I have no idea how they have worked out their figures and arrived at their offer.
Amigo offer is:
original loan – £1925 interest on loan £1019.83 8%int on loan £589.74
topup loan £5000 interest on loan £7366.12 8% int on loan £2292.31
So the total refund is £11268.10 minus the outstanding balance £4054.89 = £7213.21
What confuses me even further is that when I reduced my payments I clearly wasn’t paying enough to cover any interest accrued that month and a contribution to the actual loan so the balance outstanding is all interest. While I’m over the moon at Amigo agreeing to refund me such a large amount I want to make such that it’s correct.
Once again many thanks for your help and support
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“The original loan was in October 2011 and for £1925 I made 18 pmts of £93.92 so paid back a total of £1690.56. I then took out a topup loan of £5000 in April 2013, Amigo took £1342.21 from the loan to pay off the interest on the loan 1.”
So for the first loan, in total, you paid interest of 1690 + 1342 – 1925 = £1107 in interest.
I don’t know how Amigo got to £1019… that looks too low to me!
Assuming their 1019 is correct, their calculation of 589 statutory interest amounts to about 7.2 years of interest, which looks ok at a quick squint. so the total refund from loan 1 on Amigos figures is £1608.
For the second loan, the fact your monthly payments weren’t covering the accrued interest showing on your statements doesn’t matter because in a refund situation Amigo effectively has to reduce the interest to ZERO….
So think of it this way… when you had made 30 payments of £197 that is already more than the amount you borrowed… And once you have repaid the amount borrowed every payment you make, even if it is less than the contractual amount, is “interest”.
I find a lot of the figures there confusing, some are in your favour, some aren’t. As an overall result, I suggest you accept it.
I have to say as a warning that I am just looking at what you typed in. If there is a typo in any of your numbers then it may not be a good an offer. but at the moment it looks fine to accept.
Stacy graham says
Can someone help please as I’m lost, tried to work out interest but stuck
Took 1st loan
28th sept 16 £2000 £123.63 a month
Top up
1st dec 16 £5550 £268.34 a month
Top up
22nd July 17 £6750 £288.73 a month
Top up
11th dec 18 £8500 £335.96 a month
Still owe £8790.50
Thank you
I also moved my payment dates to many time to count. Struggling to get my head around this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hi Stacy,
You have a lot of the figures you need there but not all.
For each loan you have said what the monthly payment was, but you also need to know exactly how many you made. So for that first loan, did you make 1 or 2 payments?
To finish the interest calculation on a loan, you need to know the amount paid to settle it from the next top up. This should be on the top up loan details you were sent.
Moving payment dates doesn’t matter unless it meant the amounts you paid changed. You are just adding up cash – how much you paid to Amigo.
Miss E says
Hi everyone I contacted Amigo 7 weeks ago with an affordability complaint, I received my SAR on disc a month later, I didn’t even view this just put it aside as I only had 1 loan with them (£2000) and really wasn’t expecting a good result but thought nothing ventured….. I received an email on Thursday saying they are upholding my complaint and refunding interest etc.
They didn’t ask for bank statements or anything (maybe because it was only one loan and a relatively small loan??) I’m very pleased with this outcome and for the fact I don’t have to take it further. I have complaints in with WDA and TMS but as others have mentioned, not holding much hope out for those, I have been given a figure of £478 from WDA but again not expecting anywhere near that and as for the TMS I believe voting is still ongoing, I had large loans with them and again don’t expect a significant refund.
Happy with the outcome from Amigo, although not a life changing amount every little helps!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like a good result to me!
Andy says
I would like to thank you Sara in my first complaint being solved ! I had 3 unsecured loans and a current garantor loan with bamboo , they replied yesterday saying the will refund the interest I paid which was 599.77 as credit on my current garantor loan . The garantor loan was for 4100 and I had to repay 7800approx , I have payed around 1300 so far and they have taken away the interest and that 599.77 so now I owe them 2300 approx . I accepted this offer as this was supposed to be for another 3-4 years but now I will pay this off withing 11 months which I am more than happy with .
Andy says
The interest was so small on the first 3 because I paid them early
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good! if you need to reduce your payments to this to a more affordable level, they should let you.
Andy says
Id rather get it out the way I’ve been in debt for way too long but I can manage this amount hopefully I get a few more refunds so I can pay it off early thanks for your help
J says
Hi Andy,
Was your complaint with Bamboo recent? I currently have a complaint with them but they have around 4 weeks left to respond.
Thanks
MelD says
Hi Sara, hope you can help.
Had a guarantor loan with TFS loans, I emailed asking for my SARS information, and that I was making an affordability complain, within a day they sent a letter saying they cannot uphold my complaint as the loan is over 6 years old, and in their words ” the financial ombudsman states it can’t be older than 6 years” No other information was sent that I asked for, just a straight up no.
Is this information correct?
Thanks,
Mel
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, it’s not.
The rules about whether FOS can consider a complaint are set out in the FCA’s CONC rules. These say FOS cannot consider a complaint if it is sent to FOS
“more than:
(a) six years after the event complained of; or (if later)
(b) three years from the date on which the complainant became aware (or ought reasonably to have become aware) that he had cause for complaint.”
The 6 year rule is what is normally applied. You can’t just put in a complaint saying your bank got a debit wrong on your current account 15 years ago, say. But for Payday loan affordability complaints FOS looked hard at this and decided that it can look at complaints about loans over 6 years old as people have only just recently found out they can complain. And that is now being applied to other affordability complainst eg doorstep lending.
In the last few months I don’t remember FOS rejecting a guarantor loan case because the loans are too old. I have seen several adjudicator decisions saying that refunds should be given on older loans.
I can’t say FOS will always take this view. But it is up to the Ombudsman what complaints they think they can consider, not TFS.
So you should send your complaint straight to the Ombudsman.
You should also reply to TFS saying you are sending the case to FOS and repeat that you still want a copy of all your personal information which you asked for on dd/mm/yy.
It will help the FOS case if you can send bank statements from the time when you took out the loan.
MelD says
Ok that’s great thank you I appreciate you’re help and feedback.
I have emailed them asking for information soon I receive this I will send it all onto the FOS.
Thanks again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would send it to FOS now. Otherwise it will mean another few weeks wait. You can always add more infomration to a FOS case later.
Energy says
Hi Sara can you help?
I sent a complaint earlier this month but only took the loan late July this year, end of this month (September) would only be my second payment (£73) (£1500 loan). Can anything positive come out of this for me? I know it seems cheeky and odd because of the timeframes but i only discovered this website and process recently and the loan is unaffordable as i have lots of paydays loans to pay off as well.
What do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes this is worth a complaint. You may think it’s too soon, but sometimes it’s obvious right from the start that a guarantor loan was a huge mistake and that it was unaffordable.
If you had lots of payday loans, the lender (who is it?) should have checked affordability very carefully by verifying your income and expenses, eg by looking at your bank statements. If they didn’t, then they are in the wrong, not you.
BUT have you also started affordability complaints about all your payday loans? The current lenders and any you used in the past? If not, kick those off right away. Template letters here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/
Energy says
Hi Sara,
It’s with Amigo and yes iv’e sent the other complaints using your template methods + information sent. Those are in the pipelines and just waiting for 8 week final responses.
The loan with Amigo was incredibly easy and quick, maybe because my guarantor is a good one with a house and good credit rating and everything. A simple check of bank statements would have been evident it wasn’t affordable like you said.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The regulator’s rules say the loan has to be affordable for both you and the guarantor. Just having a well-off guarantor shouldn’t have meant they did less checks on you!
john says
I had a amigo loan in Sept 2011 for £5000 and topped up in May 2013, back up again to £5000 if i have the agreement number can i still complain as it was over 6yrs old?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can. If Amigo reject it because it is over 6 years old, then send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. It is up to FOS, not Amigo, to decide if a complaint is too old, see my reply to MelD yesterday.
It is going to help if you have bank statements for this period. Set about getting these now if you don’t have them, it is good to have as many as possible if you don’t have them all.
C says
Hello Sara,
I had my complaint partially upheld 2 weeks ago subject to sending in bank statements which I done straight away I didn’t hear nothing back after sending them, where’s others have said they had a follow up email after doing so. I’ve emailed them for an update and not had a response which I would of usually had one back by now. So I’m just wondering what do I do from here? Because I’m starting to think they’re ignoring me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you email them again and say if you haven’t had a suitable offer by the end of the week, the case to to the ombudsman.
i think you had one loan and one top-up? DId they partailly uphold both of them?
C says
Hi Sara, I’ve emailed them again so I’ll wait until tomorrow before I call and let them know. My payments due very soon and I would like an answer before then! No they only upheld the second loan which was a top up to £7000
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many payments did you make to the first loan? It may be that if they uphold the second loan it is still worth you ending the case to the ombudsman to get the interest back on the first loan.
Vk says
Hi Sara,
Please can you advice here please.
I took a loan of 5000 during nov 2017 and then topped it up to 10k in July 2018.I have gambling problem for those 2 years which I completely stopped now.If amigo can verify my statements before nov 2017 there are 1000 of pounds transactions on bank statements from betting sites.
I have now made a complaint on affordability 6 weeks back and waiting for there reply.Do you really think it’s worth to Send my bank statements now before they provide the outcome?
Does it stand as a strong case as they never checked my bank statements before giving me loan
Many thanks
Vk
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think they should have looked carefully at affordability for the first loan and VERY carefully at such a large top up so soon.
Yes, I think you send bank statements now. The gambling transactions support your claim. If you don’t Amigo may “partially uphold” your complaint and ask for statements – which will then take another few weeks to consider. Send them the three months before the first loan and the three months before the top up.
Vk says
Hi Sarah,
Do I need to clearly mention that I have gambling problem and payday loans on bank statements which you guys never asked for statement or just attach the statements and they will just review
Many thanks
Vk
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would say “Here are my bank statements for the three months before each loan. these clearly show that I had a significant gambling problem and that repaying any large loan was likely to be unaffordable.”
John says
Hi
Given the above and reading the comments i too have put two claims in against George Banco and Amigo. I currently have loans with both £5500 and £7500 (half way through both)
Due to redundancy I have had to evaluate all my finances and one was to see if i could reduce the large outgoing of these two loans. After reading the above comments both businesses didnt do thorough checks on my financial history as i had many payday loans and was borrowing Peter to pay Paul.
I have since worked on the payday loans and got rid of them with execption of one and gained money back through claims in the same process.
My question is the George Banco one operate the same as Amigo as they never really delved into my history.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If GB didn’t ask for your bank statements, then they probably do the same less-than-through checking that Amigo do.
How well off is your guarantor? Is the same person for both loans? Could they make the repayments? I’m not suggesting you stop paying, but to see what other options there are.
John says
Hi Sara
Yes my brother is on both and he has said that he wouldn’t be able to help this month whilst I am unemployed looking for work.
I don’t think they asked him what he was fully paying out either. He has been made aware of myself making a claim.
Amigo have just responded acknowledging my complaint.
Regards
John
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, if you don’t think he could manage the monthly payments without problems, he too could send in complaints, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/amigo-complaints-by-guarantor/ for a slightly different template for the guarantor.
Presumably you didn’t take both loans at exactly the same time? So the second lender should also have taken into account the first loan. That would have shown on your credit record, but wouldn’t on the guarantors… I wonder if the second lender asked him if he was the guarantor for another loan for you?
Stacy graham says
omeone help please as I’m lost, tried to work out interest but stuck,I’ve got mental health problems and this is a mine field to me.
I’ve recieved my CD from amigo,so just a waiting game, just wanted to have figured so I can get my head around any offers they make
Took 1st loan
28th sept 16 £2000 £123.63 a month
Top up
1st dec 16 £5550 £268.34 a month
Top up
22nd July 17 £6750 £288.73 a month
Top up
11th dec 18 £8500 £335.96 a month
Still owe £8790.50 next payment due 17th oct
Thank you
I also moved my payment dates to many time to count. Struggling to get my head around this.
Reply
Tasha says
You need your settlement figures that was given at each top up in order to work out what you’ve paid interest.
Stacy graham says
Hi where do I find that as on my online account it’s only showing the £8500 top no others
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Stacy,
It doesn’t matter if your payment dates moved around a lot, what matters is how much you paid to the loan, not when.
How about doing just the first loan now? That will give you a good feel for how it works.
So for the first loan how many payments did you make and were they all £123.63? I can’t guess this. It may have been one or it may have been two? Can you look at at your Oct & Nov 16 bank statments to see?
Then when you had the 2nd top-up loan, some of the £5550 will have been settling the first loan. This should be on your loan docs for that second loan – can you check?
Stacy graham says
Hi, thank you so much, I paid 2 payments of £123.63 to the first loan
Here is the information you’ve requested.
The figure I will providing is the balance (settlement figure) before the top up was activated.
Loan 1 – £1,888.15
Loan 2 – £5,104.71
Loan 3 – £7,210.41
Current loan – £8,838.10 as of the 24th September 2019.
Thanks again
Stacy graham says
Hi I’m still struggling to work this out, im really sorry. Just cant seem to get my head around it all
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry I didn’t see your previous reply.
Looking at Loan 1:
You made two payments of £123.63. That is £247.26 in total. good – that is one of the figures needed.
But “The figure I will providing is the balance (settlement figure) before the top up was activated.” That may not be the exact figure needed. When you took the top op loan, it was for £5550. Do you remember how much was paid to you as the top up amount?
Stacy graham says
Hi sara is this what I needed sorry, that you for getting back to me x
The figure I will providing is the balance (settlement figure) before the top up was activated.
Loan 1 – £1,888.15
Loan 2 – £5,104.71
Loan 3 – £7,210.41
Current loan – £8,838.10 as of the 24th September 2019.
1st loan
£2000 paid 2 x £123.63
Top up £5,500 paid 3 x£268.34
Top up £6,750 paid 4 x £288.73
Top up £8,500 paid 20 x £335,96
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those numbers – were they the actual numbers on the top up loan documentation? So of the top up 1 loan, £1888.15 settled the first loan and £3661.85 came to you? I don’t want to know any other numbers from about that time, just what was on the top-up loan documentation.
Stacy graham says
Hi, as far as I know,I messaged amigo for settlement figures this is what they sent x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok for loan 1 you made 2 payments and that settlement – total 2135.41.
Take away the 200 you borrowed and you paid £135.41 interest on this.
This was back in Sept -Dec 2016 so roughly 3 years ago. So about 24% extra statutory interest would be added to that, giving about £165
That is a small figure as the first loan was small and you repaid it very quickly so there wasn’t much interest.
If you can work out exactly how many payments you made to loan 2,3 and the current one, then can work out the interest on those.
Linds says
Update on Amigo complaint.
Final Response received today, 2 days before 8 weeks.
Refund of £9’365.75.
Outstanding loan cleared with this.
Remaining refunded to my bank £1’125.80.
Guarantor refunded to her bank £1’014.93.
(she made some payments for me when I was struggling, her refund came from the remaining balance).
I’m very happy that I no longer have a loan with Amigo and I was paying £427 a month, so knowing I have that amount in my own bank every month is a lovely feeling.
Thanks Sara for everything!
Linds
Stay positive all and good things will come.
Andy says
That’s a nice result I know how it feels I pay 900 in loans a month it had serious affects on your day to day life enjoy the extra cash !
Tasha says
Can I just ask what was your grounds for complaint to get it all back. They keep putting my response date back which is annoying. My account was always low t times of applying for both first loan and top ups and showed a payday loan being paid off. My guarantor also made payments on the original and both top ups. Has made several on most recent one! Just wondering if I’ve got a cat in hells chance. Because they keep stringing it out I’m convinced they’re going to come back with a big fat no so just wondering what people’s circumstances are that have been successful
Linds says
Hi Tasha,
I complaint with Irresponsible lending, I had a lot of payday loans and other loans.
I also topped up my loan 4 times.
I thought the 8 weeks was up on Saturday so I sent them an email asking for an update. They confirmed the 8 weeks was on Wednesday, but they gave the final response today.
I hope this helps.
Linds
Andy says
Ive currently got 2 garantor loans with amigo and bamboo , amigo havent replied get but bamboo same back with an offer as they took my gambling and my spiral of payday loans into consideration. They refunded me of my personal loans interest which was 599.77 and whipped my current garantor loan of the interest so left me with 2300 to pay rather than the 6000+ (can’t remember how much exactly) but I was happy enough to except as it should of been another 2 and half years of paying 219 but it will only take me 11 months to pay now Good luck
Andy says
My interest was low as I took out loans to pay this off quickly *
Tasha says
Thanks, I’ve topped up twice & currently at £10,000 loan is at £9,800 & been paying £395 a month for 27 months! They refused my complaint months ago & I went back to ask for a review of decision which they stated they would do if I sent statements. I did all that & they said I’d have a decision by 12th September. I chased them & they said end of last week. Chased again they said today. Chased today no reply! 8 weeks is up on Thursday. No response today as of yet. My guarantor has made payments on all 3 & has been late payments on all 3. Also had payday loans from beginning & was paying one off when applied for first one & statements show wasn’t left with much at end of each month. Just really hoping they give something back so can get on top of things! Worked out I’ve paid over £21,000 in interest
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tasha, I think I have said this before to you but I am going to repeat it.
Anyone with 2 top ups has a strong case. And as your guarantor had made payments to all the loans, the top-ups should NEVER have been made. You should want to be given a refund for all the loans, not just the most recent one.
Tasha says
Yeah I’m holding out for a refund on all of them as together it’s about £21,000 which would pay it off, give my mum a good chunk as guarantor and then have some besides. Just have a gut feeling that they’re going to say no & really frustrating me taking so long with coming back & moving the goal post. I’ve emailed tonight asking for an update as if they’re not going to uphold it then I am keen to get it off to ombudsman to see if that pushes them a bit. Fingers crossed for a reply tomorrow!
Sarah says
Hi how long did it take the Ombudsman to asign an adjudicator? My complaint was from may and rhey passed it back to Amegio loans to relook at and because they issued a final response letter back in November 2018. They refused to relook at it. So i have gone back to the Ombudsman who said it has to be assigned a new adjudicator.This was 16th September and im still waiting and can’t afford to pay this month’s payment of £395 i can no longer work due to depression. Any help or advice would be appreciated thanks Sarah
Amanda says
Hi,
Has anyone had any luck with TFS loans?
I submitted the exactly same complaint to them as I did to amigo and won amigo, but TFS have completely knocked my claim. They said they can’t see any defaults on my credit report ( when there is ) or any late payments ( when there is).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send the complaint straight to the Finacial Ombudsman.
Amigo has now lost dozens of these cases at FOS so it knows a lot more about them. The smaller lenders may have only lost a couple and may still be hoping that they can win them… or that you will feel you don’t have a case and will give up.
MelD says
Within a day the sent me a letter to say they can’t look into my claim as it’s older than 6 years old.literally 6 years old on the button too. Which Sara has stated that’s for the FOS to decide.
Also didn’t send me my SAR Request but I complained to FOS anyway and emailed TFS LOANS again requesting my SARS and they said they will reply on or before 30th of sept.
Good luck. Sounds like they hoping to get away with it.
Amanda says
I’m still waiting on my SAR from tfs which is now past due. They have sent me a final response yet they haven’t sent my SAR
Lani G says
Hi Sara,
I submitted a complaint to Amigo on the 1st August and had a response today (2 days before 8 weeks) they have partially upheld my complaint (3rd loan and are ‘calculating the payment amount’ which I am expecting in the next couple of days (apparently). I have gone back to them and explained it concerns me that after only one repayment of my first loan, I applied for, and was approved, for a second loan almost immediately after making my first payment, due to the nature of speed in which I applied for a new loan I feel like Amigo should have and could have asked for more information.
My loans were:
£1000 November 2017
£1500 December 2017
£2250 March 2017
I also applied for £3500 in July 2017 but this was rejected based on my guarantors’ affordability – not mine.
I suppose my queries are:
– should I be asking for a refund of all loans, how long can I expect to wait to get the refunded amount? I don’t have any outstanding loans as I was able to get an interest free loan from my employer in October 2017 to pay it off.
– how would I calculate the refund amount, bearing in mind I currently don’t have access to the statements for the 1st and 2nd loan?
Thanks,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you calculated how much interest you paid on each of the the first two loans?
Lani G says
No, I’ve asked for the statements from amigo (and from my bank as that account is now cloased)
All I can see is I took out the 2nd loan in December 2016 (one month after taking the first for £1,000) for £1500, I then topped this up to £2250 in March 2017, paying £1446 off the 2nd loan. I then paid £2891.59 between March 2017 and October 2017 (paying the loan off completely at the end of October 2017.
My payment amounts for the 1st loan were £119.00 per month (ish) but otherwise, that’s all the information I have at the minute.
Lani G says
So they’ve offered £654.86 which I have queried as the interest paid on my 3rd loan was £641.17 and this was paid off in October 2017, so even if I add wimple interest to the whole amount from then I get appx £740 due.
They’re stuck to their original offer of loan 3 only and to be honest for the amount of interest I paid on it it’s not really worth the hassle. I’ll be happy if the figure they’ve given is plus 8% simple interest.
Kelly B says
Hi Sara
Today would have been 2 weeks from I’d sent statements and other evidence in for loans 1, 2 and 3 with Amigo. I didn’t hear anything so thought I’d send an email this morning to find out if there’s any news, but they havent replied even though they normally would have before this. How long should I leave it before contacting them again? And is it normally 2 weeks exact or a little over for people to hear an outcome? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
2 weeks is just the max I think they should take. Can you face phoning they up and asking?
Kelly B says
Hi Sara
I decided to give them a call after seeing they open to 6pm. The adviser I spoke to couldn’t tell me anything. She said there wasnt anything on the system or even the email I had sent this morning, so she will forward all my evidence on to complaints again and will let them know I am waiting on a follow up regarding it. Hopefully wont be long