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. The four largest lenders are Provident (includes Greenwoods), Morses Club (includes Shopacheck), Mutual and Loans At Home.
What is an “unaffordable” doorstep 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 Provident loan on time, it could still have been unaffordable.
If the lender should have realised the loan was unaffordable they shouldn’t have given it to you – that was irresponsible lending and you should get a refund back of the interest you paid.
With doorstep lending complaints you don’t usually get a refund of all your interest, the common award is a refund on interest on the last few loans.
You are very unlikely to get a refund for only one loan. But if you borrowed several times and especially if you took out a new loan when you were having problems paying an existing one, then complain.
How to complain about doorstep loans
For the last 18 months, 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!
That article has template letters for complaining and it describes what you need to do and when to take your case to the Financial Ombudsman. You can use the payday loan refunds template letters – just delete the word “payday”! But also read the following Special Points…
Special points for Provident and other doorstep lenders
Here are some points that often crop up with doorstep lending.
If any of these happened to you, add a similar sentence to the standard payday loan refund letter:
- “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 told the collector I had lost my job and she offered me a new loan to tide me over”;
- “When I asked my collector if I could pay over a longer period, he said I couldn’t unless I took a new loan”;
- “I have borrowed from you continuously for four years. Every time I cleared some debt, I was offered top ups”;
- “I missed several payments but you kept lending me more”;
- “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.”
Contact details for doorstep lenders
Include your customer reference number if you had one. Explain if you have moved address or changed your email so they can locate your account. 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.
- Provident Use their online form: complaints to Provident and copy your complaints letter into the “message you want to send us” box. (Same for Greenwoods).
- Morses Club You have to write to them, see complaints to Morses. (Same for Shopacheck).
- Loans at home email with COMPLAINT in the title to customerservice@sd-taylor.co.uk.
- Mutual email to complaints@mutual.uk.com.
- 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.
How good is your complaint?
The more loans you had, the better your case. Borrowing for prolonged 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.
Some people have had Provident loans for a very long while. You will not be able to have a complaint about loans before 2007 considered.
If you think you have a good case, don’t be put off if the lender rejects it. People are winning these cases at the Financial Ombudsman. The payday loan refund link above describes how to send your complaint to the Ombudsman, what details to include etc.
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.
What will the Ombudsman say?
Read What happens at the Financial Ombudsman for an overview.
You can take cases with doorstep loans more than 6 years old to the Ombudsman. The lenders may say they haven’t kept the records of the credit checks for these older loans … but they don’t seem to be very good at producing the records for the more recent loans either!
You probably won’t get a refund back of all the interest you paid – most refunds given are for your more recent loans. But ask for it all and let the Ombudsman make the decision about where your loans became unaffordable. You don’t have to calculate and ask for an amount.
Some things worth saying to the Ombudsman:
You had a poor credit record
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. Get a copy of your free Noddle report – this will show defaults and missed payments going back 6 years. Send that to the Ombudsman with your complaint. Don’t wait to be asked for this, send it straight away.
Did you “refinance” loans?
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 that you would have if you had just been given an extra loan because of the way the “early settlement calculation” were 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.
Who suggested you borrow more?
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.
The FCA (the lenders’ regulator) said in a report (it’s long – look at page 32) in May 2018:
“Section 49 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA) prohibits the canvassing and soliciting of cash loans off trade premises where this is not done in response to a signed written request made on a previous occasion.”
That means a lender such as Provident should only have offered you a loan if you had asked them in writing for it, they 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.
Describe what happened with the loans
It’s important to try 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.
Send your bank statements
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. Don’t wait to be asked!
Don’t be worried because your bank statements show a lot of gambling. Read Gambling and payday loans complaints for examples of how the Financial Ombudsman handles this sort of case -it is hardly ever a problem.
What about your current loan?
If you are still repaying a doorstep loan, you can still complain. If you tell the doorstep 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 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 it 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?
Asking BrightHouse for a refund
steven says
hi all if you have a default on your credit file who will of put it on is it the debt collectors like Lowell are is it the original lender ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Normally it is the original creditor. Then the debt collector will use the same default date the original creditor did.
Carrie says
Hi Sara
I’ve had a final response from Morses Club. They have partially upheld my complaint for 3 loans out of 15. Should I escalate the case to the financial ombudsman now as I’m unhappy with their response? I gave them all the info that they would have needed so I can’t understand how they have come to their conclusion. My bank statements would have shown that I was struggling to make repayments because of how much was left in my account etc. Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You still owe them a large balance. Can you say what the details of their offer are? Do the loans they are offering a refund on include the ones that are still owing?
Carrie says
Hi
I still owe them £900 they have offered to refund interest on the remaining loans that I have outstanding with them which leaves a balance of £450. The loans that they haven’t considered come to a very large amount of money so I’m definitely not happy with their response.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they haven’t picked the largest loans or the most recent? This sounds like a poor offer. I suggest you send it to the Ombudsman.
Carrie says
Hi
They’ve picked the most recent ones but left all the largest loans out so I will forward the complaint to the fos straight away. Thanks Sara
alison cairns says
Hi – I posted a couple of weeks ago initially – saying FO had given Provident until 21 March to consider all loans over 6 years old. I have found out Provident have agreed to look at all loans.
I posted the other day about missing Bank Statements./financial info… My bank are adamant I can not obtain more than 6 years. (maybe being awkward as I don’t use them anymore). Anyway I have got some of 2013/2014. (last loan ended end of 2013.) I was unemployed for a year from May 13 up until Feb 2014. I have also got proof of what my rent & CT costs where at the time the borrowing started/finished. I have done an income & expenditure for the period of borrowing when I was part time.. I never worked full time when I was borrowing due to having young children and being on my own. Infact – I was not much better off working but its something I needed to do.
Sarah do you think this will be enough for them?…. They have also said another FO will pick this up to look at the ‘affordability bit’. So does any one else know the timescale of this once they were told to look at the old loans – how long before the next step ???………..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that sounds like a lot of information. FOS knows it can be hard to get older bank statements.
Timescale – sorry, I know a few provident cases have been held up on the 6 year jurisdiction issue but I don’t have a feel for how long it will take to get an adjudicator to look at the case.
Alison cairns says
That’s fine thank you x first leg is done on agreeing loans 6 yrs and over so it’s not as if the ball is not rolling x
Annie says
Ive not heard anything as yet.Ombudsman looked at it,requested more information.Got it back but still heard nothing.Is this a good sign…she obviously reviewed it and needed more but heard nothing yet
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but no news is simply no news. These are all very individual cases – I can’t guess what the ombudsman has asked for or why.
Carrie says
Hi all
Provident have until 5th April(tomorrow) to either accept my adjudicators decision to uphold my complaint or reject the decision. Has anyone else had any experience with provident in this scenario? Thanks in advance
Annie says
Hi Carrie…have you heard anything yet.
Carrie says
Hi Annie
No I’ve not heard anything yet. They were suppos d to respond by Friday but they didn’t so I spoke to the adjudicator and she chased them Friday evening.
Annie says
Hope you get it sorted soon .All the best.
Carrie says
Thanks me too
Sue says
Hi all, I’ve had a few provident loans over the years can I claim back ppi from them or do I have to go to the ombudsman.
Many thanks
Sue
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think there has ever been PPI on Provident loans.
But you may be able to claim a refund of interest if the loans they gave you were “unaffordable”. Read the article above which looks at this and how to do it.
Ann Turner says
I have been With Provident for 20 Years Last Loan I had Was for £500. intrest was 600 0dd. 2018. ask for Loan not long ago and got turned down, Made a Complaint no Reply. thats What You get for being a good Customer.
Paul Wakeman says
I have 3 loans with Provident at the moment which I have referred to the Financial Ombudsman for a number of reasons. Following a complaint to Provident they have stated historically that between 2008-2015 I had 22 loans from them. With all of the interest added this totals over £27,000. I have 2 questions which are 1. Can I submit a claim for all of the accounts back to 2008? and 2. Do I need to wait for a response from the Financial Ombudsman regarding the current case before submitting another complaint to Provident? Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
” With all of the interest added this totals over £27,000.” just to be clear, if you win an affordability complaint, you would only get the interest refunded.
” Can I submit a claim for all of the accounts back to 2008?” yes – you can’t go back before April 2007. Complaints about loans that are more than 6 years old are likely to go very slowly at FOS as provident is objecting to the over 6 year loans being considered so FOS has first to decide that it can look at them before it actually starts doing this.
“Do I need to wait for a response from the Financial Ombudsman regarding the current case before submitting another complaint to Provident? ” can you say what the current complaint is about?
Paul Wakeman says
Many Thanks for the prompt reply. The interest alone totals over £14,000 going back to 2007 so I will certainly be starting the process against them soon! With regards to my complaint with the Ombudsman, I had/have 3 current loans totalling £6,600 from Provident and unfortunately last year was a bit of a nightmare and without going in to too much detail, my children are now living with me due to Child Protection Issues. I took out numerous payday loans etc as well (which I am now in the process of making complaints) and stopped paying Provident. They never contacted me (apart from a letter every six months stating I was in arrears) and I admit I never contacted them but I had a lot going on. In January of this year I started reading about doorstep lenders and payday loans complaints so I raised a complaint with Provident about how I shouldn’t have been offered the loans, how the Agent was trying to hit her targets and the fact I never asked for them but was always offered them. Provident rejected my complaint so I referred the case to the Ombudsman with a lot more information than what is here and I am now waiting to hear back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, but your complaint was just about your current loans? If it was, I suggest you ask FOS if you can expand that to include previous loans or if you need to start a new complaint for them.
Good luck!
Paige says
I have had 2 loans from provident since 2017. I had one for £400 in May 2017 and was in employment for a zero hour contract. I was then offered a £1000 loan in November 2017 and was advised by the collector to pay the remaining loan off which was around £300. A showed one weeks payslip to the collector but wasn’t asked for anymore. Like I stated I was on a zero hour contract and pay varied. 3 weeks after getting the new loan I lost my job and wasn’t able to afford the payments. I still owe £1500 on the loan and have only been able to pay £30 per week back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Whether you can win an affordability complaint will depend on what was on that payslip. It isn’t provident’s fault that you lost your job a few weeks later – things can go wrong with loans and it doesn’t mean that the original loan was unaffordable.
But if you feel you should never have been given the £1000 loan – had you been having difficulty repaying the previous smaller loan? – then it is worth making an affordability complaint and asking provident to remove the interest from your current loan balance, so you only repay what you borrowed.
Carrie says
Hi all
Provident had until 5th April to respond to my adjudicator. They didn’t reply so I chased them up and they’ve said it could take two weeks to reply so I’ve now put in a complaint against their complaint handling saying that I am being treated unfairly. Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unfortunately it is common 😠
Carrie says
Hi Sara
Do you know of any cases that have gone to the fos that have been upheld by the adjudicator and then rejected by the ombudsman?
Jay says
Heya Carrie,
I use this alot in my job and have kept an eye on decisions again Prov for my complaint. Some of them do get upheld at ombudsman level and others don’t. They seem to have a higher degree of legal/regulation knowledge.
https://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk
You can toggle the filters to change the type of case it throws up.
Carrie says
Hi Jay
Thanks for that. After reading a few of them for the last six months it appears that the ombudsman usually agrees with the adjudicator decisions. So fingers crossed if mine goes that far then that will be the same in my case. I’m trying to stay patient but it’s hard lol.
Annie says
Mines was rejected by adjudicator and now been passed to ombudsman.Been told she’s reviewing it at present and will get decision in few weeks.Thatcwas about 4 weeks ago.Just taking it as it comes …I don’t think adjudicator looked into it properly.As I always said i don’t have good feeling about it but time will tell
Carrie says
Ah ok well mine was accepted so fingers crossed the ombudsman also upholds it. If it goes that far.
Gazza says
Hi provident have agreed with adjudicator about unaffordable lending to my self so just wondering what the next steps will be if anyone can help many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good news! Provident will now calculate what the refund amount will be.
Gazza says
Thanks sara is there a timescale in which they have to do this many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should be paid within 28 days. I assume you have told the adjudicator you agree with the decision? Does Provident have your correct bank details?
toni says
Hi guys, how do I go about claiming back? basically I am a single mum and have been on income support and jsa and at one point I had so many loans out I was paying £80 a week!I got to this stage as I would struggle to pay so would either refinance or get a new loan then would be ok for a few mths then would get in that circle again. I don’t understand how they would let someone on benefits get so high? I am currently paying off the last bit with an arrangement with Lowell …. however they they let me get a new loan ( I no my own fault but was desperate at xmas with a kid) and I was shocked I was accepted. I now have 2 loans that’s £30 a week and my jsa is only 102 a fortnight so I cant afford to pay £60 out of that. I have emailed a complaint asking for all interest paid back from over the years but now I am not sure what to do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Emailing Provident is the best first step. The fact they let you get a new loan when your previous loan had been sold to a debt collector is a strong point in favour of your case.
You also need to say you can’t pay them £30 a week and offer something affordable such as £1 a week. These complaints can take many months to go through so you need to get yourself into a safe position where you don’t have to keep borrowing again.
Annie says
Hi Toni that’s how I was on benefits and at one point over 90 pounds a week due to refinancing in to bigger loans and longer payments and last one refinanced even though in mega arrears.Adjudicator said he couldn’t see that provident has done any wrong.Ombudsman looking in to it now.She asked for more info from them which was sent yet I’m still waiting on decision.Jyst been told they are still reviewing complaint and will here soon
Toni says
Its stupid isn’t it as I didn’t even get that much a week on benefits, and they no how desperate we are and so keep offering more x
Annie says
One question I always mean to ask is does ombudsman e mail or write to you with decision
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It normally a letter for a Final Decision from an Ombudsman.
Annie says
Thanks Sara.I was thinking e mail but then thought it would hold a lot of information so maybe letter.
Gazza says
Hi Sara sorry for late reply it was actually a phone call to fos that i had they told me that provident had agreed with them so not had anything in writing or emails as yet thanks.
Annie says
Just had call from FOS to say will be a few months with my case now as they have to re look at how these claims are being dealt with.My case is with an ombudsman who has everything in front of her to make decision but has a lot of cases to do.Im just going to forget about it for while now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, hope they come back to you soon!
Annie says
Well fingers crossed won’t go on too long..said a few months at most .Feeling a bit optimistic thinking if she’s been through it and got everything back she needed which was screenshots of any payslips etc or what they used to do credit check. ..they wouldn’t have any as I never worked and had poor credit history with them on my credit file…feeling a tiny bit positive but you never know
Carrie says
Hi Sara
I’m still waiting for Provident to respond to the fos. I called them and they are waiting for approval from a manager. I asked what this meant and the guy on the phone said that if there has been a proposed refund then a manager has to approve the decision! So I’m waiting rather impatiently now. How long do they normally take to respond? Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry I don’t know!