UPDATE: in March 2021, Provident said it is asking for a “Scheme of Arrangement” that will mean it pays very little to complaints that are upheld. This is bad news for people with complaints. See Provident’s Scheme for details and the latest news.
Doorstep lending – also called home credit – is where a collector comes to your house to collect the repayments. Many people have been borrowing from the same lender for years.
If you had doorstep loans from lenders such as Morses Club, Mutual and Loans At Home, 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.
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.
So even if you always paid your loans on time, they could still have been unaffordable. Especially if you had several 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 the lender 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 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 similar to the one for payday loans, but it has some extra points that matter for doorstep loans.
Template letter to use
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. I would like you to send me a complete list even if you consider that some of the loans are too old to be refunded. [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 The template letter on this page is no longer relevant – see Provident proposes a Scheme to cap refunds for what is happening for Provident loans,
- Morses Club & Shopacheck You have to use their form, see contact Morses– put COMPLAINT at the top of your message.
- Loans at home email with COMPLAINT in the title to customerservice@sd-taylor.co.uk.
- Mutual email to complaints@mutual.uk.com.
- CLC Finance email complaints@clcfinance.com
- Compton Finance email mark.phillips@comptonfinance.co.uk with Affordability Complaint as the title
- GR Finance email grfinanceltd@gmail.com with Affordability Complaint as the title
- Naylors Finance email with COMPLAINT in the title to admin@jrnaylors.com.
- Pinewood Finance C0 email tracy.evans@pinewood-finance.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.
- 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.
You should get a response in 8 weeks
You may get a list of your loans on its own. This is NOT the response to your complaint, which will arrive later. You don’t need to do anything with the list of loans, just keep it. If the lender makes you an offer, it will help you to see how good or bad it is.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it.
Lenders may be 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.
How strong is your complaint?
Very large numbers of these complaints are being won at the Ombudsman – in the last quarter of 2020, 84% of doorstep lending complaints were won by the borrower.
In all of those Ombudsman cases, the lender had either rejected the complaint or made a poor offer.
So don’t be put off if this happens to you, send it to the Ombudsman!.
Three 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.
- It can be hard to win a complaint for just a couple of small loans.
- It’s normal to not get the first few loans refunded. If a lender has offered you a refund on 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.
- The larger the loans became, the better your complaint is.
- The Ombudsman will usually look at loans that are over 6 years old, but many lenders just refuse. You can go back to 2007.
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.
What should you say to FOS?
There isn’t a separate template for this. You can just copy the complaint you sent to the lender. But here are some more things you may want to add.
- Say if you had a poor credit record, especially if it got worse as you carried on borrowing from the doorstep lender.
- Say if you repaid some loans early because you refinanced your loan. Here you may have paid more in interest than if you had just been given an extra loan. 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.
- Also tell 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 in your house should only offer a loan if you had asked them in writing for it. 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 what the ombudsman asks for.
Don’t worry if your bank statements show a lot of gambling. The Ombudsman 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 that you can’t get an old credit report – the Ombudsman knows this isn’t possible.
Do you have a current loan?
You can complain when you are still repaying a loan. If you tell the lender you want a payment arrangement, they should 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 also still complain if you are in a debt management plan. But don’t bother if you are in an IVA, bankruptcy or a DRo.
Need some help?
Your local Citizens Advice can help with these complaints.
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 complaints are going and the successes they have had. If you have a question, ask it here!
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Tim says
Hi. Has anyone had much success against CLC Finance for unaffordable lending. They are a bit crafty loans are split into multiple amounts meaning if you borrow 600 pounds they will give you seperate loans of £200 pounds each. Also taking your repayments by card payment in the middle of the night giving them priority over other debts. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are rarely mentioned. If they gave you 3 £200 loans on one day, I think FOS will view that as the same as a £600 loan. If they don’t make you a good offer take the complaint to the Ombudsman if you know repaying the loans caused you a lot of problems.
Gina says
I’ve currently got a complaint against CLC finance with the Ombudsman. I first complained to them over a year ago about the 33 loans I had with them.
The adjudicator ruled in my favour to refund from loan 9 onwards. The reason they gave for not including the earlier loans was because I had no bank statements to show income from that time (2015).
CLC didn’t agree with the adjudicator so now awaiting an Ombudsmans decision. My adjudicator contacted me last week letting me know my case has now been allocated to an ombudsman. Hopefully not long now for the outcome.
Anne says
Hi there,
I first submitted a claim to CLC last February. They rejected my complaint so I sent it to FOS. Adjudicator ruled in my favour upholding loans 6 to 38. CLC again rejected this so it went to the ombudsman. Today I’ve had the final ruling from the ombudsman – they’ve ruled in my favour loans 6 to 38! Theyve been instructed to contact me to arrange the refund and I need to go back to FOS in 4
Weeks if they haven’t sorted it. I have a feeling they’ll drag their feet with the refund though. They’ve been nothing but difficult!
Gina says
I’ve just recieved a letter stating CLC are going into liquidation. I’m so annoyed at this its the forth time I’ve tried getting a refund from these types of company’s and lost out due to them throwing the towel in. Even with the fos ruling in my favour, I have lost thousands because of the length of time it takes them to issue a decision. By the time I get an outcome the company has gone into administration. Its so unfair.
Rose says
Sorry to hear this Gina – it’s sucks… I got nowhere with Swift Sterling as it was the Malta-based iteration, then Wonga, Wageday Advance, Payday Express, Payday UK, Pounds to Pocket and txtloan (My Jar) went into administration and I ended up getting pennies in the pound. That said, I am really grateful for Sara and the site, as I have had success with other lenders, but I’m pretty sure that one or two of the ones that are currently with FOS are likely to go bust before any potential payout.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That letter isn’t clear if they are contemplating a solvent liquidation or insolvent. If it is solvent, creditors should be paid in full.
I suggest you contact the ombudsman urgently about this and them if they know what is happening.
Annie says
Has anyone ever had irresponsible lending case with Likely Loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes lots … see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ which has the template for this sort of complaint.
Annie says
Thank you.Do they take a while to deal with them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask on the other page – more likely to be seen by people who have complained to them.
Linda and Roy says
Could you please send a other letter out please I filled it out wrong
Thank you we both had loans since I been 18years old this is for a refund
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Linda & Roy,
was this a letter from Provident?
Peter says
Hi Sara
Just received my response to my complaint to Morses. Despite using the Debt Camel’s template letter (adjusting it slightly to reflect my circumstances) they didn’t even answer my complaint. I initially received confirmation that they had received my complaint, and yesterday received a large envelope containing all my previous signed agreements/statements with a very short letter “I trust this clarifies your request”. (Think they mean “satisfies”).
Not sure if this is worth persuing as I still have 3 outstanding loans with them where I am making a token payment. Including these 3 loans (current balance £261.72) I have had a total of 7 loans with an overall total of £1,650; after interest I would have repaid £2,580. One thing that always puzzled me is that each time I took a loan they performed a credit check which I passed despite having a CCJ and numerous defaults showing on my record.
Any thoughts?
Peter
P.S. Good news from MoneyShop though; received my settlement at the beginning of June. Fingers crossed with Provident/Greenwoods. Thank you Sara for the website.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It may be they have just sent you a list of your loans? When did you send them your complaint?
Trenwick1 says
My partner had the same, his paper copy of loans. They then sent a letter a few days later saying they are looking into the complaint.
carole clark says
Help!can anyone help me with this one.
Pawnbrokers are moneylenders except they want your goods first.
The interest rates are unbelievable
Example.i spawned some diamonds because I needed the money urgently. I borrowed £1000and had great difficulty paying it back I was very worried,these diamonds were worth 10 times what I pawned them for.every month I was trying to pay the interest.this went on for 3 years. I paid something in the region of £5000 and then the £1000 on top of that. The pressure was unbelievable and I overdosed many times so I could go to sleep and not think about it
I finally got the diamonds back but guess what? The diamonds are back in and only today tha calls have started for the ticket to be renewed. I am ill with it all. What do I do
There is no regulated for pawn shops. Help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sorry but the affordability rules do not apply to pawnbrokers.
I know you won’t want this suggestion, but if you can get the diamonds back, how about selling them and clearing a lot of your debt?
If you can’t get them back, talk to a good debt adviser about your situation – phone National Debtline on 0808 808 4000.
bobby says
hi can someone help me with some device please i have hd multiple loans with naylors. the old agent i had used to come to my address to give me money before it went in to the new online system i’m behind with some of my bills due to repaying loans back but i did ask for subsequent loans myself after the first one. which a man just turned up looking for previous tenant and then asked me if i wanted a loan that’s when it all started back in 2015 but my agent would ask me what i pay in bills and ask me about my income and he would just shovel figures around add some on take some off till it was suitable never asked to see proof of anything and still have loans of them which i am behind in arrears. would this be accepted for refunds does anyone no. thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a lot of loans – repeat lending is usually a sign of a strong complaint.
bobby says
ok thank you, sorry about the spellings using a different device. thanks i’m just not sure we’re to start and yes it is a lot of loans when i think about it now. i also have 2 loans from loans at home will that affect my claim? and also do i go to the ombudsman of naylors or go direct to naylors first sorry.? sorry never done anything like this before
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The article above takes you through it step by step – you complain first to Naylors. The complaint includes a request for a list of your loans and how much interest you have paid – you need that to assess any offer they make.
If they reject, send it to the Ombudsman. If they make what sounds like a poor offer, some back here and ask? You can’t change your mind if you accept an offer…
bobby says
ok brilliant thank you very much i will start the process tonight. then let you no with an update once i have heard back before i make any more steps. Thanks for your help sara
Kayleigh says
I had two loans with Morses and got into arrears and set up a repayment amount. When I contacted them to set up a repayment amount the woman wasn’t very polite on the phone as basically said it was my own fault for getting into arrears. she then looked into my details and realized that the woman who provided my loan didn’t complete the income and expenditure correctly and has missed out elements of using a car i.e. insurance. petrol and tax. Do you think i should complain about this and see if they will remove my interest? I’m happy to repay the monies just not the interest?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Absolutely. Send them an affordabilty complaint, template above, and add to the template what you were told on the phone. It will help if you can attach copies of your bank statements for the 3 months before each loan. If they refuse to remove the interest, send the complaint to the Ombudsman.
Did you set up a payment arrangement?
Kayleigh says
Hi yes I have a repayment in place for £20 per month but they are hammering my credit score with late payment notifications whilst other lenders have set up special arrangement notices. I have sent them an email using the template and bank statements.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you win the affordability complaint, they will have to delete the negative marks on your credit record :)
CC says
I made an unaffordability claim for loans taken out with Morses some years ago. They repeatedly loaned to me and used ‘top up’ loans to pay off existing ones, which was encouraged by their agent. I recently provided all address history, personal details including reference numbers for my Morses account and even sent further information when I found it.
They sent me two letters saying they have been unable to trace any account information and therefore say I have no grounds to complain and consider the matter closed. Are they allowed to do this and just refuse to take any responsibility by saying they cannot find the data, not even with reference numbers I supplied which I know are correct? There is nothing from them on my credit file though. Do I just presume the loans are too old to do anything about even though their practices were questionable to say the least and they are still trading as the original company as far as I know.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you have the details of these loans – what you borrowed, the dates, what you repaid?
CC says
No sadly I haven’t, just the account reference number and some old letters with a balance on when the loans were active. I thought they would have those details and used your excellent template letter to ask for the loan information when I contacted them but all I received was the ‘brush off’ letter (twice). I did provide everything I thought they would need to trace my account with them but it is as if it never existed according to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long ago was this?
CC says
I think the last loan and paperwork I had from them was in 2011/12 so about 9 years ago. Is this too long ago to do anything now? I just find it puzzling they have no data and cannot find anything even with reference numbers and full personal details that I supplied.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they don’t have the data (because they have wiped it) and you don’t , then there is little that can be done :(
CC says
Oh well never mind :( hope other people have more luck with this lender who continues to trade (hopefully with better practices than they used before). Thanks so much for the information Sara.
Stef says
Hi all,
Has anyone ever recieved an email update from the ombudsman that says
“Your case is currently in a queue waiting to be assessed by an adjudicator and we’ll be ready to give you our answer once we’ve considered all the information that we have on the case.”?
If so, does anyone know how long this stage is likely to take?
Thank you 😊
CC says
I have two cases lodged with the Ombudsman. The first submitted and accepted in Nov 2020 and the second one in Jan 2021. Although I have spoken to them and get updates via email neither of the cases have been allocated to an officer yet. I don’t whether they assess the urgency of cases and allocate accordingly but I was initially told it would be 4 months because of delays but my first case has been waiting over 7 months and the second one almost 6. They are obviously extremely busy at the moment.
Rose says
I put in two cases in November, and a separate complaint, about one of the initial lenders I was making an affordability complaint, in January. The January one was allocated and resolved first. One of the cases from November was assigned in February, and was a bit of a faff (settled last week) because Safetynet Credit initially refused to accept their adjudication (this was to do with their final) and the other was assigned in April, and settled in May. So there doesn’t seem an awful lot of rhyme and reason, in my particular case, about what gets picked up when.
I put another in last week, and will be doing another next week: I am expecting both not to be resolved until some time next year, based on what I’ve seen so far, and I know they have a huge backlog at the moment also.
Margaret says
Hi has anybody had any complaints against GR Finance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you have been the only person to mention them – they are a small lender.
Nicki says
Hi Sara,
I used your template for Morses/Shopacheck, they have sent my statements through today, but have told me to contact Welcome for the ones previous as they only took on the open accounts- is this correct and what happens from here
AllyG says
Just wanted to say a huge thank you to this site, and yourself Sara . I only came across it 2wks ago didn’t even know I could put in a complaint about being Miss sold doorstep loans,after reading comments I realised I certainly had so I used you’re template on the 28th June. I finally got a offer from LAH today after just 2wks of 19K+ 👍if wasn’t for this site I would of been none the wiser,They were giving me loan after loan sometimes 3 at once;never checked my income only on first loan in 2010.When I was going through cancer even got me to redo loans,they should be ashamed,never once a offer of help or a break while going through my Chemo treatments,they have upheld my loans 7-68 !! going even over the 6yrs and time barred accounts some being upheld ..
Thanks Again
Emma turner says
Hi I need help as safety net credit has replied saying they was right with the outcome of the loan but they have gotten the income at the time wrong and saying I was on 2grand a month which is not what I was on at all.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to them and point this out. Say the case goes to the Financial Ombudsman in a week if they do not reconsider and make you an acceptable offer.
Lea says
Hi i currently have a claim in for Morses refund with ombudsman for many loans, i have outstanding loans with them but realised today im only paying the interest off now as ive paid way over what i borrowed on each loan. Should i stop paying?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are the repayments actually affordable? if paying Morses means it’s hard to manage your other debts and bills, then yes you should probably stop.
Stopping paying will also mean that you are better off if Morses go into administration and your claim is then upheld – I have no reason to think they are in trouble, but you may be worried about this.
The only downside to stopping is that it will harm your credit record, but any negative marks will be removed if you win your case.
You say “many loans” – how many? if it was a LOT then it’s very likely you have a strong complaint.
Lea says
I have had 2-3 loans runningqll the time with them for about 15 years and yes its hard to afford it thats why i wondered a out paying. Im on benefits have been for 15 years as disabled and been paying out 135 to morses every fortnight. Course then they have you as you always need that renewal they offer
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a VERY strong case. I suggest you tell them you will not be paying until your Ombudsman case has been decided.
Nic says
Has anybody had any joy complaining to mutual??
Julie says
Does anyone know how long is it taking for cases to be allocated to an adjudicator?
I have a complaint against morses club which is with the financial ombusman waiting for it to be allocated.
I recieved an email this morning from a company called Lantern (Debt collector) saying that my debt with morses club is now with them and that I need to set up a payment plan to pay the debt off.
I’m not sure what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell Lantern that you are disputing the debt with Morses and there is an open complaint at the Ombudsman.
Julie says
Ok. Thank you.