If you had doorstep loans from lender such as Provident, you may be able to get a refund of the interest you paid if the lender should have realised the loan was unaffordable for you.
Doorstep lending – also called home credit – is where a collector comes to your house to collect the repayments.
Doorstep loans are used by over 1.3 million people in Britain. Many people have been borrowing from the same lender for years.
Provident is much the largest lender, but everything in this article also applies to the other lenders including Morses Club, Mutual and Loans At Home.
Contents
What is an “unaffordable” loan?
The regulator says that a loan is unaffordable if you couldn’t make the repayments without borrowing again. This could be borrowing from the same lender, from someone else, getting deeper into your overdraft or by not paying a bill such as a utility bill.
So even if you always paid your loans on time, they could still have been unaffordable. Especially if you had several Provident loans at the same time or often had to refinance/top-up a loan.
Often the first few loans may have been just about affordable, but Provident should have realised their loans were making your life more difficult when you kept getting more loans.
If you were struggling, your agent should have suggested that you could repay the current one a lot more slowly with no extra interest being added. But too often people were just offered another larger loan.
That was irresponsible lending and you should get a refund back of the interest you paid.
You are very unlikely to get a refund for only one loan. But if you borrowed several times and if you took out a new loan when you were having problems paying an existing one, then complain.
How to ask for a refund from Provident or other home credit lenders
For the last few years, lots of people have been getting large refunds from payday loans, see How to ask for a payday loan refund. The good news is the process is exactly the same for doorstep loans – the regulator’s definition of affordability is the same for all sorts of lending.
And now people are having success with complaints about doorstep loans – see the comments at the bottom of this article!
The template letter here for doorstep loans is very similar to the payday loans, but it has some extra points that may be important for a claim about doorstep loans.
Template letter to ask Provident for a refund
As I do not have all the details of my loans, I want you to send me a list of them, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added and what I repaid – this will enable me to assess any refund you offer me. [delete this if you already have your loan details.]
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[If any of the following happened to you, add a couple of sentences describing this. If the problems didn’t happen for all of your loans, add the words OFTEN or SOMETIMES. Delete any that didn’t happen to you.]
- I have borrowed from you continuously for [say how many years]. Every time I repaid a few payments my collector encouraged me to take a top up and refinance it. My collector never explained I would have paid less interest if I just took a new loan and carried on repaying the old one.
- I missed several payments and the collector knew I was in difficulty as I had lost my job/had my hours cut/benefits reduced but I was just offered a new loan. I was never told that I could have a repayment plan for my existing loan instead.
- When I asked my collector if I could pay over a longer period, he/she said I couldn’t unless I took a new loan.
- For the first loan my collector looked at my payslip but after that he never checked and never asked if I was getting the same money – I wasn’t.
- My collector said I needed to change some things on my application otherwise it wouldn’t be approved.
- My collector filled out the application and gave it to me to sign, I didn’t have time to read it.
I didn’t know that the lender was supposed to check that I could repay the loan without having to borrow more. I only found out in [say when and how you heard about these refunds – article in the Sun? Facebook advert? friend told you?]
Also include your customer reference number if you had one. And explain if you have moved address or changed your email so they can locate your account.
Contact details for doorstep lenders
- Provident & Greenwoods Use their online form: complaints to Provident and copy your complaints letter into the “message you want to send us” box.
- Morses Club & Shopacheck You have to write to them, see complaints to Morses.
- Loans at home email with COMPLAINT in the title to customerservice@sd-taylor.co.uk.
- Mutual email to complaints@mutual.uk.com.
- Compton Finance email mark.phillips@comptonfinance.co.uk with AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT as the title
- Short Term Finance (Birmingham) Use their online form and copy your complaints letter into there: complaints to Short-Term Finance.
- Naylors Finance email with COMPLAINT in the title to admin@jrnaylors.com.
- Skyline Direct complaints@skylinedirect.com
- Swift ivan@swiftdl.co.uk
Keep a copy of online complaints or letter sent – if you email it to yourself it’s easy to pass on to the Ombudsman if needed.
How strong is your complaint?
It can be hard to win a complaint for just a couple of small loans.
Two useful guidelines are:
- The more loans you had, the better your case. Borrowing for long periods by taking out new loans or refinancing existing ones shows you were dependent on the loans.
- The larger the loans became, the better your complaint is. The first few loans may have been affordable but if they kept going up, that is a sign of increasing trouble.
You should get a response in 8 weeks
This letter or email starts off the affordability complaint. The clock is now running and the lender has to reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it.
Provident is being very slow about replying to complaints and they often don’t make a good offer. They may ask for two more weeks several times… I suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman straight away after 8 weeks.
If the lender rejects your complaint or makes a poor offer
If you think you have a good case, don’t be put off if the lender rejects it. People are winning A LOT of these cases at the Financial Ombudsman.
It’s normal to not get the first few loans refunded. If Provident has offered you a refund of loans 5-12 that is probably a good offer. But if they have offered a refund on just loans 10-12 it probably isn’t – you may be able to get a lot more by going to FOS.
If you are offered a small amount, don’t worry you will lose this offer if you go to the Ombudsman. We have never seen this happen.
If the lender says the loans are more than 6 years old so you can’t complain about them, ignore this and send your case to the Ombudsman who is looking at older loans (but not loans before April 2007. you can’t get a refund on them).
I have written more about Provident’s low offers in 2020.
Sending a complaint to the Ombudsman
The easiest way to send a complaint is to use their online application form because that asks all the questions they need to know the answer to (most of these are easy, such as would you like to be contacted by letter, email or phone?)
You probably won’t get a refund back of all the interest you paid but ask for a refund on all loans and let the Ombudsman make the decision about where your loans became unaffordable.
You don’t have to calculate anything or ask for a specific amount. if you don’t yet have a list of your loans, say you have asked for one but the lender hasn’t sent it. O
What should you say to FOS?
You can just copy the complaint you sent to the lender. But here are some more things you may want to add:
It’s worth emphasising if you had a poor credit record, especially if it got worse as you carried on borrowing from the doorstep lender.
It can help to show the links between your loans if there were a lot of them. Something like this can explain your case:
I took loan 2 out as soon as I repaid loan 1 and it was for a larger amount. I then took out loan 3 whilst loan 2 was still going. After a few months I couldn’t afford the payments so my collector suggested I took out a loan to repay off the loans 2 and 3 and spread the repayments over longer. So loans 2 and 3 were repaid early only because I borrowed more. etc etc.
It is also worth emphasising if you repaid some loans early because you borrowed more that month from the same doorstep lender. This is sometimes called “refinancing” your loan.
In this case you may have paid more in interest than you would have if you had just been given an extra loan because of the way the “early settlement calculation” was done. If this wasn’t explained to you by your agent (and I bet it wasn’t!) then you paid more interest than you should have.
It is also worth pointing out to the Ombudsman if it was always your agent suggesting you borrow more, perhaps because it was getting near to Christmas, or in August when you might need more money for new school uniforms, or because you had paid off a lot of a previous loan.
A lender such as Provident should only have offered you a loan if you had asked them in writing for it. The collector shouldn’t have sat in your home and offered new loans. So if this happened to you, mention it in your complaint to the Ombudsman.
Send your bank statements and credit report
Send your bank statements with your complaint. If you haven’t got them all, send ones you do have and set about asking your bank for the rest, then send those. You are more likely to win a complaint if you send them, especially if you only had a few loans.
If you have borrowed for many years and the pile of statements would be HUGE, it’s still a good idea to get them all now, but you could then wait and see that the ombudsman asks for.
Don’t be worried because your bank statements show a lot of gambling. Here is one case Ombudsman decision about a Provident case involving gambling which shows that FOS just accepts you have a gambling problem, you can still win these complaints.
Also get a copy of your free TransUnion Statutory Credit report and send it to the Ombudsman with your complaint. Don’t worry you can’t get an old credit report – the Ombudsman knows this isn’t possible.
What about your current loan?
If you are still repaying a doorstep loan, you can still complain. If you tell the lender you want a payment arrangement, they will allow you to pay less each week over a longer period without adding any more interest.
But if you have other problem debts as well, talk to StepChange and they can see if a debt management plan would help. You can still complain if you are in debt management.
Need some help?
Your local Citizens Advice can help with writing these complaints, that will be free.
You don’t need a lawyer or a claims company. They take a LOT of your refund and you can make a better claim on your own than they can. A good claim involves telling your own story, you know what happened and a claims company doesn’t!
Comments or questions?
Hundreds of readers have posted comments below about how their Provident complaints are going and the successes they have had. If you have a question, ask it here!
Payday loan refund template letters
Too high a credit card or catalogue limit?
Borrowers are getting refunds from Amigo
Lauren Birkinshaw says
Hi sara, thanks for your response, I havent had any info at all about me loans, how many etc. What do I send to fos please. Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See the Sending a complaint to the Ombudsman section in the article above. Your complaint can be quite short and simple, just a copy of what you sent to Provident. Say you sent your complaint on dd/mm/yy but you haven’t yet had a response or a list of your loans, but you think you borrowed roughly between 2010 and 2017 (or whatever).
Debbie says
Got paid today from loans at home even tho yesterday after speaking to a lady from complaints team she said it would be next week as needed authorising and the person was away, well today she rang me back to say she had took it to another person to get it authorised and within hours I received it (thankyou lady). This as took me 16 month in total but was to be expected as loans was from 2007.
Good luck everyone.
Jane says
Hi I have taken out loans from 2012 until now the total amount loaned is Loans 3850
Interest 3068.20 just wondering if anyone can give me some info I have logged a complaint 5 weeks ago and have recieved a break down of my loans over the years thanks
Jamie says
Hi
What is Neils email address
Georgina says
It’s Neil.Iveson@provident.co.uk
Sarah says
Hi… I but a complaint in on 14th August 2020, I had a reply saying they where going to deal with it that reply letter came 21st August 2020, then yesterday ( 16.9.2020) I received my statements and loan details but only going back 6 years at my current address, I rang and spoke to someone and asked them where the rest of my statements where from my 2 previous addresses and their reply was we only hold records for 6 years does anyone if this is true? As if it’s not true then I’m due statements going back to 2007. From reading the above comments my 8 weeks make will be 9th October 2020, what do I do next?
laura says
i had this problem i sent email everyday i had phoned the complaints and customer services numerous times too they tryed to say i only had 12 loans and thats all they sent in my list when low and behold i eventually got all loans threw today and there was 45 of them if i was u i would just be persistent and constantly phone as i think they are just trying to fob people off
Gail Lyle says
Hi Sarah
I submitted a complaint and received my statements by email today.
The ones they have sent me go all the way back to to 2008
I was worried about this my loans were between 2008 – 2013 so thought they would say the same
Hope this helps
Gail
Sarah says
Hi Gail .. my loans only date back to 2014 as they have told me they don’t hold records for more than 6 years .. but I have loans dated all the way back to 2003, I know I can’t claim from 2003, but I should have records of loans from 2007-2014 but they said they haven’t got them x
Gail Lyle says
Hey
Well they definitely do as i received mine today :/
Id give them another call maybe x
Sarah says
Ok Hun will call them tommorow thank you x
Stacy says
Hiya. Can I ask if you called them quite quickly after the initial enquiry was submitted? Did you use the form on their website?
Gail Lyle says
Hi All
I submitted a complaint on the 23/08/2020
Received confirmation on the 25/08/2020
Received my loan breakdown today
Had 11 loans in total from 2008 – 2013 (I had a lot more but were pre 2007)
8 of the 11 loans were turned over before paying up in order to get the next loan, which was always bigger.
Based on the comments Provi have been quite quick to respond to me. Just need to wait for next step now.
Can i just clarify, is the 28 days given to respond for the full complaint of just (i used the template off this site) to respond with the list of loans?
Thanks in advance
Gail says
Sara,
Are you able to advise me on this please –
Can i just clarify, is the 28 days given to respond for the full complaint of just (i used the template off this site) to respond with the list of loans?
Thanks
kirsty chapman says
I submitted my complaint on 14/07/20 and so far I’ve had nothing but too emails saying they are still looking into it and i do have the right to go to the FOS if I do wish.
I rang them yesterday and asked what was going on as they had gone over their own timescales to be told they’ve received thousands of complaints, and they’ve taken in extra staff last week to deal with the back log. I asked why I hadn’t even received my breakdown and I was told I’d get one with my outcome letter or I could go a SARS request. I opted to go for the SARS request and they’ve just emailed me asking g FYI or my full name and DOB and they’ll respond ASAP with my info. I did ask for confirmation about going to the Ombudsman as my email said I had 6 months from the date of the last email to do this, is this correct, as the email was just to say they were still lookingInto my complaint and nothing more. I’m absolutely petrified to get my breakdown as I know I’m going to be utterly disgusted, both myself and my partner had loans from 1999 until last year!!!!
Claire says
I am at exactly the position, I submitted my initial complaint 8/7/2020 had two emails saying they are still looking into the complaint. I put in a SARS request on 16/9/2020 as i cant remember any dates or loan amounts (i do remember there were lots). I forwarded my complaint to the ombudsman on 2/9/2020 but this is yet to be picked up due to their backlog of work. Its all a waiting game!! Once i have the loan details from provident i will begin to collate bank statements and proof of my financial struggles during that period which i can forward to the ombudsman. I would forward your complaint to the ombudsman now, you can do it online and just copy your initial complaint that you sent to provident, this will get the ball rolling. Good luck…
Kirsty says
Thanks for your advice, I think I’ll crack on post haste!! Good luck x
Kerry Smith says
My Provident loawas from 2009 to 2014 I never really paid them off I always paid the interest and now I have been paying a debt recovery for the past 2 years can I claim off Provident even though it’s gone to a debt recovery thanks for reading
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can!
stefanie turner says
Hi Sara had a payout from provident a couple of months ago, they said part of my claim would go to Lowell to pay off my debt £2450 but I only owed them £928 as I’d paid the rest off, should I get the remainder back do you know? Thank stef
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you should, ask Provident what has happened.
stefanie turner says
I have but keep being thrown from provident to Lowell to vanquis but none of them seem to know
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was the payout direct from Provident or via FOS?
Ash says
Have asked previously but think my question has been missed? Ombudsman have ruled in my favour and given provident til today (17/9) to respond. What happens if they don’t respond by the date? Thanks for any help.
Matt says
Good luck provident has until 20 August to respond to me from adjudicator
Still waiting
Disgusting company
Jayne says
Hi Ash
I’m in the same situation.
Adjudicator ruled in my favour and gave provident until 19th August, I’ve emailed the adjudicator twice and they keep saying be patient, provident have a backlog and they’re taking longer to respond to their assessments. It makes me wonder what the point of the timescale is if they don’t adhere to it?
stefanie turner says
It was from provident
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then tell them you are sending your complaint to the Ombudsman if they haven’t got this sorted in 2 weeks.
stefanie turner says
Thank you for your advice,much appreciated
Kaz says
Some good news at last, adjudicator has ruled in my favour for all loans issued. They have given Provident until 2 October to respond. What happens if they don’t respond by the date? Apologies if this has already been asked and thank you for any help.
dave says
hi the adjudicator gave me a date 23.july still waiting no reponse from fos or provident thanks
Tracy says
Hi. My partner and I have received an offer. Only on a couple of loans but are probably going to accept it. My question is as we are currently on benefits will this affect them?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Only on a couple of loans – did you not have many loans, or are you saying thus isn’t a good offer but you are happy with it?
Do you have other debts? How large is the offer? What benefits are you getting?
Tracy says
My partners recieved a 825.31 refund on two loans. I received 868.10 on one. We are ok with this offer and cheques arrived this morning. Only received offer yesterday !!
We are currently in receipt of carers allowance, pension credit, state pension & PIP.
I don’t know if the DWP will count this as income with the statutory interest being liable for tax.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think this is treated as extra capital you get not income. The capital allowance if 10kfir pension credit
Jamie says
How long did it take? Since complaining
Tracy says
Ok. Thank you for your help. Much appreciated.
Tracy says
I filled in the comllaints form on the 2nd July.
Tom says
Hi i send the letter away, provident saying they will look into my complaint only took couple of days for them to acknowledge your template thanks. However my loans are from 2000 to about last payment 2012ish , i have no information at all. can i use information on loans pre 2007 as evidence or will i only get information from that yeat on?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They should send you a complete list of loans. It can be hard to get this put of them as you will see if you read back through the comments here.
If there is a list of loans pre 2007, then these can be taken into account in establishing a pattern of repeat borrowing.
Tom says
Thank you Sara real helpfull. Will keep updates on progress. Tom
Pat says
Anyone had any luck with Morses? Myself and my hubby put complaints in back in March. Morses wrote back saying they didn’t see any evidence of mis-selling so both cases have been escalated to the ombudsman. I rang them for an update and they said Morses complaints are a lot more complex than the others. Just wondering what the chances are of the ombudsman ruling in our favour as Morses don’t see any wrong doing. And also any idea on how long it takes. Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In the first half if 2020, Morses lost 2/3 of the cases at FOS.
Pat says
Ombudsman have just ruled in my favour for Provident on every loan I had so do you think they will say the same for Morses?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Possibly, but thus is a separate complaint and you shouldn’t assume you will get the same result.
Timbouk says
I’ve only been with Provident since October 2018 but between then and March 2020 have had 11 different loans with them a never fully paying off a loan as a new loan is offered to include the balance. Thinking back I was never asked about existing credit card payments in my income and expenditure with the customer agent. All that was said is ‘ I can see other stuff with I guess you are sorting’.
I am now struggling to make my weekly payment do you think it is worth raising a complaint ? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think the payments are too high for you to be able to make without having to borrow again, then complaint.
While the complaint goes through – which can take a long while – look at a payment arrangement letting you repay the current loan at a lower more affordable rate. If you have other probable debts, it’s usually easier to talk to StepChange and get a DMP to cover all the debts. Then if you win an affordability case the DMP will get paid off much earlier.
Kelly McCandless says
Hi all, I was wondering if anyone could tell me how long it takes or should take for loans to be removed from your credit file after having a complaint upheld by the ombudsman? Although they are showing as settled they will still have an adverse affect on my credit file. My complaint was upheld in may. They paid out quickly and issued my tax certificate but haven’t removed them from my file. Thanks in advance.
Kelly
laura says
hi sara just wondering how does the 8% intrest work out if you have more than one loan i have 41 but no sure if it is per loan or per claim all in if that makes sense do you know at all
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s complicated. It depends which loans are refunded and when you made the payments to them. Have you gad an offer from Provident?
laura says
no but just wondering as with amigo they didnt uphold the 8% do was just wondering how it all works tbh still got a few weeks left with provident but no hopefull reading some the comments on here is roughly 14500 intrest alone
Sharon says
Hi can anyone tell me, that once you have gone to the ombudsman, and they advise that you did not complain 6 years ago, or ought to have known there was a problem, 3 years ago, what are people’s responses to that?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yoh should reply saying when and how you found out that the lender should have checked the loan was affordable for you. eg (and this is just an example, don’t copy thus out, change it so it is right for your case)
“I didn’t know Provident was supposed to check I could afford these loans until my sister said In February this year that she had seen an advert on Facebook about claims. Until then I thought I just was good with money which was why I had to keep on borrowing.”
It doesn’t matter how or when you found out out, you may have seen a newspaper article, have got an email from a payday lender saying you could claim as they had gone into administration, have a friend who is putting in a claim about a guarantor loan. There are no wrong answers, just say what happened.
Sharon says
Hi Sara
I have done all of this, but they have said, that it is out of the jurisdiction, I said that I knew I was paying a lot of interest in 2017, but did not think that was cause to complain, I just thought it was my fault, and that it was only in 2019, that I saw an ad and realised, that I could complain, I have asked the adjudicator, to pass it to the ombudsman, but I know that they usually agree, with the ombudsman, I had 16 loans with Loansathome4u, and now feel gutted, that I won’t see a penny of what I have paid, any other advice please.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, well nothing more to do except wait for the Ombudsman’s decision.
Sharon says
Thanks Sara
Will let you know the outcome.
Christopher Patrick says
Hi
I have contacted short term finance and they called me today saying they can’t look at claims over 6 years. Do these companies keeps records before this as they said they have no records of me. I was wondering how far back you can claim.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go back to 2007. Do you have any details of the loans?
Sarah says
Hi Sara,
I complained to Morses back in March and received a letter saying they wouldn’t look at it due to the timeframe and being outwith 6 years. I stupidly didn’t go to FOS at the time, and I then found out that Morses own Shopacheck, so wrote again regarding shopacheck, but they replied back saying they had already looked into it. So it turns out they assessed my loans with both companies at the same time, but this was not clear or mentioned in the letter. I’m now 2-3 weeks outside the 6 months to refer to FOS, have I lost my chance with this one?