UPDATE: The Morses Scheme has failed. See Morses – what is happening to loans and refunds
UPDATE: in March 2022, Loans At Home went into administration. There is no money to pay any refunds. Any remaining loans have been written off and you should not make any payments to them.
UPDATE: The Provident Scheme has now closed and it is too late to make any Provident complaints.
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, 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
Here is a template letter you can use. Change it so it tells what happened to you.
Template letter for doorstep loan refunds
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. 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 have all 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
- Cockle email enquiries@cocklefinance.co.uk with Affordability Complaint as the title
- 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
- Mutual email to complaints@mutual.uk.com.
- 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
- Valleys Finance admin@valleysfinance.ltd.uk with Affordability Complaint as the title
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!
Are you struggling to pay car finance?
Is your credit limit too high? Not affordable?
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Timbouk says
Am I right that it costs Provident at least £500 for every complaint that goes to the ombudsman regardless of the outcome? I submitted a complaint on August 20th and have had two emails since then saying they need more time. The last one said because of the wait I can take them to the ombudsman. I rang up to ask how long roughly provident would take to get back to me with an outcome and was told no one had yet been assigned to look at my complaint.
Would prefer for provident to at least give me an outcome before going to the ombudsman. I think I will give them to more weeks to respond then forward to ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, but that doesn’t make any difference to the way they handle complaints.
It’s up to you when you go to FOS. People can wait a very long while and get a very poor offer in the end.
Bernadette says
Hi I’m looking for a bit of advice my mum uses provident she has done for the best part of 40 +years and he comes to the door to collect payment could she be entitled to a refund .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A lifetime of paying Provident’s high interest rates… yes if she sends in a complaint she may well be able to get a refund of the interest she has paid since April 2007. These claims can’t go further back than that. If she doesn’t use the internet much, could you help her?
Moira says
Hi all,
Update on the loans at home situation:
Sent email as advised by Sara (thankyou) to fca and loans at home. Received email today from loans at home saying should have final response by end this week. Fingers crossed after all this waiting it will be worth it!
Alyson says
Does it take a while to hear back from fos after sending in your complaint for the first time, it was the 1st nov I sent it….. also should I still email provident asking for my breakdown as they have still not sent anything thankyou
Carly says
Hi again. I had an email this morning, an adjudicator introduced himself. He said he is awaiting more details from Provident. Ive still not had a final response from Provident. Typically how long are cases with the adjudicator? Thank you in advance :)
Tim says
Hi Carly. How long ago did you send complaint to F.O.S. ?
Carly says
Hi Tim, I sent to FOS on 5th October.
Tim says
Cheers for that Carly, Sent mine on 6th June. Provident sent my case file over 19th November. F.O.S. not picked it up yet. Does anyone know how long it takes for them to check claim and make a judgment on it? Thanks
mat says
Hi guys,
the 28 days has now past since my complaint to provident, they replied with what looks like a generic email that ive pasted below.
They did send me the details of my previous loans though.
My first query is does this mean that if i dont take it to the ombudsman theyll just shelve it and ill not hear anything back?
and if i do take it to the obudsman is there any better ways of filling out he boxes of how its affected me etc.
any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks
Mat
“We are sorry that we have been unable to resolve your complaint at this time.
We can assure you that this matter is still under investigation and is receiving our urgent attention. We expect to be able to provide you with a full response in due course.
If we require any further information or you feel you have any supporting information to help resolve your complaint we will contact you or please contact us using the details below. We would like to apologise for the delay and appreciate your ongoing patience.
In view of this and in line with our complaints procedure. You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge, ………”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is their generic reply at 4 weeks. It isn’t the response to your complaint. You have to wait for 8 weeks until you can send it to the Ombudsman.
Mat says
thanks Sara, sorry i hadnt realised about waiting an additional 28 days.
im sure youve been asked a million times but is their any way of calculating what would be approximate a good offer if i get one in the mean time ? all my loans show the next one was taken out before completion of the previous and tbh some of the missed payments still show on my credit report
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have? How much did you pay in interest?
matt says
Hi Sara,
11 loans with total of £5708.11 interest charged from 2010 – 2018 all were refinanced whilst in arrears and before the end date from the previous loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well a good offer would probably a refund from loan 3 or 4 say. You may even get from loan 1 or 2 from FOS, but that’s more unusual.
If Provident offer you less than a refund from loan 6. that is poor in my book.
but it’s your chopice whether you feel their offer is acceptable. It’s easier to make the decision with an actuual offer on the table rather than come up with lots of scenarios in advance.
mat says
thanks Sara ,
ill keep things updated on here as and when it comes through and once sorted will send a donation through for your site.
Fortunately these days im in a much better place with my finances, it was only when looking into mortgages did they highlight i had many many missed payments off provident which is what really annoyed me about them, ie if i missed a payment on week 6 of a 78 week loan i was never told i had to pay double the next week and it was implied as long as i paid by the loan end date it would be fine and chances are id be refinancing the loan before completion so that was fine just meant i lost a little bit when refinancing, but now i can see on week 7 when i made my payment they put it as week 6s payment and so on and so forth until the refinance, which resulted in me having insane amounts of missed payements marked on my credit report.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, I don’t take donations, but it would be great if you can send a small one to your local Citizens Advice if you get a good result.
Mat says
Hi again Sara, i will gladly send a donation through to CA as advised once resolved.
Provident have just emailed an offer through saying theyll refund on one loan (the final loan) at £801
i think the response is too big to copy and paste into here and im not sure if its a generic response is their anyway i could send it to you to get your thoughts on it? no problem if not though appreciate your very busy.
thanks
Mat
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just send it to FOS – that sounds like a VERY poor offer.
mat says
and just wondering do they have access to a more indepth credit report, theyve offered to amend my credit report but i cant go back that far for the loans but they have wrote:
“Having performed a detailed review of your credit file at the point these loans were issued and the way in which you managed your existing loans and specifically those directly prior to the loans I am defending, I believe we should have probed further in to your personal circumstances before these loans were issued to you. I cannot find evidence to suggest that didn’t happen but equally I cannot see that it did.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no, but if you have asked them for a copy of all your personal information, you should be able to see what they saw
Mat says
all they provided for my data request was a table showing my loans nothing else was attached in it. Will send to fos no problem thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then send it to FOS and also ask Provident for the details of the credit checks and affordability assessments they did for each of your loans.
Luke kyle says
Hi provident have offered to refund me three loans out of seven my question is if I accept there offer and cash the check can I still ask the ombudsman to look into the other four loans for me that they rejected
Vanessa McGowan says
How far back can you claim ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
back to April 2007
Dean says
Hi Sara,
I’ve just been lurking on this website for the last few months but decided to finally post something just to say thank you. I don’t think I would have been able to make a claim for my mum without help from this website. Again thank you and keep up the good work.
Alex says
I sent your complaint letter template to Provident on the 16th of October. They asked me for evidence of my claims so I reminded them that I had requested the information of my loans. I was told that they will have this with me within 28 days.
It’s been 28 days and I’ve not received the information yet they state they are planning to deal with my complaint by the 9th of December? What is the best thing to do now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wait for their response and send it to the Ombudsman if it doesn’t arrive by 9th December. Provident’s offers are often poor at the moment, no point in waiting longer for a poor offer!
Alex says
Ok, thank you. I just thought it was funny how they expect to resolve it when they haven’t done anything I’ve asked. I’ll wait till the 9th and Sen day it to the Ombudsman as you have suggested.
Ash says
How long have people waited for cheque to arrive once Provident have agreed with FOS? Says allow 4 weeks. I’m on week 3.
Jayne says
I rang provident and got the breakdown the day after I’d called them, the cheque followed day after breakdown
Richard says
Provident accepted the decision of the FOS adjudicator on 23rd. Sept. 2020. Still waiting for a cheque as of 06/12/20 despite two deadlines set by FOS (28 days then 7 days) having been ignored.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is DREADFUL Richard. A few refunds just seem to get stuck.
See this thread where I suggested what Hellene could do and it seemed to work :)
https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/comment-page-29/#comment-390257
Anon says
Hi should I recommend to my sister to take her reply to the ombudsman? 5 loans from 18/213 to 4/11/13 final one paid off 5/6/17 the final one was for 600.00. They state in the letter that at the time of the loans she declared income of between 98 and 250.00 per week and that credit file stated she had an average disposable income of 59.50. They use the work ‘in your home’ many times in the reply yet most times she would meet the agent in her car at the back of the property where she could not been seen by family as she was ashamed (she later admitted this to us after she broke down and opened up).
Any advice would be much appreciated as I would like to continue supporting her through this to the end.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they have rejected her complaint? If she feels the loans were unaffordable, causing her to have to take another one, then yew, send the case to the ombudsman and let FOS make the decision. A very large percentage of Provident cases are being won at the Ombudsman – provident are not making decisions in line with the way FOS does.
Anon says
Yes they rejected it. Thank you I will get her to do that.
Beckie North says
Hi,
Out of 41 loans from 2010-2017, they have only upheld 1, I have now sent this to the Ombudsman. They are sending me a cheque for the 1 loan, can I cash this cheque or will it be a case of I can’t take this further if I cash the cheque.?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask them if you can cash the cheque and still send the case to FOS.
J says
Just a quick update on my Provident complaint.
After Provident went back to the FOS following an adjudicator decision (in my favour) I was so stressed, I was thinking the worst and hating on myself because I’m a mess right now with Covid and everything.
I just received an email from the Ombudsman this morning confirming that Provident have agreed to compensate me in line with FOS recommendations! This is such a huge relief, I don’t really have much in the way of debt (everything is well under control now) but wow! Psychologically this is a huge relief as I was getting really anxious about the whole thing but now I can relax, safe in the knowledge that the hard part is over :)
I have the original breakdown from Provident, I think it will be about £6k ish? But whatever it is, this will be an amazing end to 2020 or start to 2021 :)
Big thanks to you Sara and this amazing site!
Ash says
I must be the minority when it comes to getting your settlement. I’m going into week 3 since FOS advised provident are upholding all loans and my breakdown and cheque will follow. Have just rang prov for an update and was told it hasn’t been picked up yet! It’s so frustrating! I waited 3 weeks for morses to payout after giving my bank details. How are people getting their settlement so quick?
Shirley says
Im nearly on 18 months and still waiting its so frustrating. 😉 good luck
Ash says
What? After them agreeing with the FOS decision? I think you need to chase that up! They have 6 weeks to send my cheque (as stated in my email) and I will be straight on to them if it doesn’t come by then!
Shirley says
Haha no from first sending my claim sorry beg July 2019 year😹
GRAEME says
I’ve been reading this article and related comments and am sure that this situation applies to me but my circumstances are slightly different. I borrowed money from Provident for several years, constantly having to refinance to rearrange my debt, but getting deeper into debt with them and always taking bigger loans. I finally managed to pay them off a couple of years ago after having to make a payment agreement during a particularly difficult financial period. I no longer have any records from Provident, ie payment books, and my bank statements don’t reflect what I paid to them every week as it was always cash. I don’t know how much of my debt to them from my loans would show on my credit report as I think they only go back six years and my loans stretch a lot further back than that. Should Provident have kept ALL my records? How do I prove I had all these loans of they say they can’t find the records? Can you advise me on best course of action?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send in a complaint and ask for details of your loans. many people are just sent these – no need to anticipate problems before they arrive.
Jason Rock says
Good afternoon.
After the obusman agreeing with all my loans today apart from loan 7 which unfortunately for me it was sold to vanqious in 2014.but obusman said if I could send them the information on this it would be used.
But how do I get a file from them I know longer live there 4 years ive got a new phone number so how can they link my accounts.
And my equafax don’t go back that far..
And once again thank you for this sight.
I’ve won cases from amigo/loans2go/leading stream/likely loans/myjar/Wonga. And now looking like provident yes its been a strange year but after this 1 I will be debt free but this seems a complicated one to find my final bit of info on. Its almost 10000 pound paid from 2012 till now so I imagine the interest owed will be high..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is the ombudsman saying they don’t have any information at all on loan 7?
or that loan was affordable?
how many loans did you have?
are you sure who it was sold to, because “Vanquious” isn’t a name i know? did you pay them back?
Jason says
I’ve spelt vanquise wrong .its that credit card company still can’t spell it..no saying not affordable but just want to know if the debt was payed when sold on. I had 18 loans in total
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, I understand.
You have taken a lot of loans from Vanquis Bank and you are saying one of them was sold to some debt collector.
(I was confused as this page is for Provident doorstep loan. Vanquis Bank is very rarely mentioned here as it operates as a seperate entity. And you said the loan was sold to Vanquis, not by Vanquid to someone lese. But that doesn’t matter, now I am clear.)
Do you remember this loan being sold? Did you make any payments to it?
Jason rock says
Morning yes its a little confusing..no all loans were provident but loan 7 was sold on to vanquise. After me keep defaulting on it then I moved so forgot about loan 7.
But later on that year in my new address I took on another loan and was never asked about it so just carried on borrowing.
So obusman states that provident should have checked all these and did not .and why they kept allowing me to borrow when they were made aware that I kept falling behind and was continuing to borrow
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, never heard of that happening!!!
Vanquis and Provident are part of the same company so provident should be able to get the repayment figures (if any – sounds like not!) from Vanquis. tell the Ombudsman this.
Jason rock says
Thank you ive just sent them everything I can find..
Now curious on what I could be owed.
Aint it strange that when I went to provident myself they flat refused and I was only asking about 2 loans but now obusman have got involved they going to get me fefunds on 15 loans..
If only provident would have done the decent thing they would not have had to refund me as much
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I agree – you may have been very happy if they had offered to refund you 8 or 9 of those loans!
Jason rock says
Thank you sara I been told will get a response by next Friday.
But won’t hold my breath all complaints have been taking a while but patience and perstance have paid off .
I know will be next year and im fine with that but with out you and your website I would have been in a sea of debt and drowning.
Now the light of the end of the tunnel is close.
Why did I not find this sight years ago.
Your amazing debt free because of you in just over a year.
And if my so called sister would have paid me my amigo loan what she was not entitled to half id be debt free now but I cant complain so far in a happy place.
And if provident pay me all im owed on my sums im debt free with a little spare.
Mike D says
Good on you mate. It may take a little time but don’t give up, don’t let them grind you down and i’m confident it will all work out for you. Good luck Jason.
Jason rock says
Much appreciated Mike.
I will get there
Shirley says
Thanks for all your help Sara, after 18 months I have finally had my refund this morning. I will be making a donation to a local food bank and another local charity close to my heart. Good luck to everyone waitingx
john says
did not make any contact with provident, yet my wife received on 28/11/20 3 cheques for interest wrongly charged on 3 loans.
£86.51, £62.63, £26.22. We have been customers for over 20 years and had countless loans, is this a ploy do you think? to forestall any claims
we might make.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I really hope not…
Your wife should have been sent a letter with the cheques – does this mention any like “in full settlement of any complaint about your borrowing”?
Jeff says
Hi Sara.
I complained about Provident in February 2020. As I have been at home a lot I have kept on chasing this. They have finally agreed with the FOS adjudicator and I am waiting currently for an offer from them. I paid over £9000 in interest on the 11 loans that they have agreed with. Including the 8% interest rate – longest loan 12 years ago shortest 6 years ago what would be the lowest offer that I should accept. My calculations based roughly on a payment I got for one loan from Satsuma (part of provident) was £435 on a £600 loan. I would therefore be expecting in the region of 10K or am I just dreaming. TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Most people found their borrowing went up over the years. If that is the case, most of the interest you are being refunded will be on the later loans so it will geain from a smaller num,ber of 8% years being added than the earlier loans.
My guess is somewhere in the £5-6000 in added 8% interest. But that could be way out.
Claire says
Has anybody had a response from the FOS lately regarding loans before 2010? My claim is being held up by the FOS until they clear up why provident are using 2010 and not the 2007 date that had been used in the past. Its been another 4 since the issue was raised and I wondered if it was just my adjudicator that was querying the date or if all adjudicators are querying this too?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So far as I know FOS do not see this 2010 date as important, they are going back to April 2007.
J says
Hi Claire,
My loans going back to 2007 were approved for refund by the FOS and Provident have agreed, this was only last week. My guess is that Provident are maybe trying to pull a fast one and convince people 2010 is the cut off date perhaps.
Good luck!
Claire says
Thank you for your response, I dont understand why my adjudicator is telling me that he can’t progress my claim its been another 4 weeks, its driving me insane, I will give him a call tomorrow.
Moira says
Hi J,
Could I ask how long it took the fos to deal with your case? Congrats on the result!!
J says
Hi Moira,
So… Timeline from start to finish is roughly;
Mid Jan – Complaint to Provident
End of Jan – Initial reply from Provident
Mid Feb – DSAR (list of loans and dates) supplied by Provident
Late March – Escalated to FOS
Early June – Rejection letter from Provident (forwarded to FOS for inclusion in complaint)
End June – FOS assigned to someone to investigate
Start of October – FOS agree with my complaint and contact Provident to advise
Late November – FOS confirm Provident agree with them
So 3 months for FOS to assign it to someone, another 3 months for their response, 2 months for Provident to agree with FOS
Moira says
Hi J,
Thanku for the time line, a very long process but am glad it was worth the wait. Have a lovely Xmas! Stay safe!
Moira says
Hello all,
After waiting almost 18 weeks Loans at Home have sent my final response and are upholding all but the first loan which is an amazing result for me!! Thankyou sara for all your advice and good luck to everyone!!
Rab says
Brillant result Moira. I aslo had the same last week from Loans at Home and had the money in my bank the next day. Well done.
Moira says
Thanks Rab!! After the rough year its a nice ending. Stay safe everyone!
Moira says
Hi, am shocked, the money has been paid In!! Only received the email at 4pm! Am so happy right now. Good luck to everyone still waiting x
Kelly says
Hi moira congratulations on your result with loans at home. One the ombudsman makes final desision I must say I couldn’t fault them with how quick they were 3 days from desision to money in bank. Just a pity they dragged it out 18 months before lol. Remember and ask them to send you through your tax certificate, then go online and claim the tax back. Again they were very quick and I had my tax refunded in 10 days. Good luck and well done.
Carrie says
Anyone had any luck with Naylors finance and do there go back to 2007 also used them from 2008-2016/7 I think
kaz says
hi, ive just started a claim against them a few months back – i got offered £1.200 pay out (cant recall exact amount) – i rejected it and wrote to them to say i was rejecting it. I havent heard anything else from them. They did send the collector and the area manager round to my house in the beginning and told me noone had won against them. I wrote telling them to never call to the house.
I have now sent it to fos and am waiting for a case manager – they said it would take up to 4 months for someone to take on my claim.
gillian says
hi sara after taking your advice over the last two years and getting back over 20000 pound from payday loans the last one I had was with welcome finance from about 2014 the ombudsman found in my favour in december2019 but they went into liquidation the same time so thought I would end up with nothing but joy today I got a letter stating I am owed 3191.08 and will be receiving the full amount (with tax taken off 2958.28)and thanks to you I will claim the tax back)you have changed so many lives for the better you deserve a knighthood or more A BIG BIG THANK YOU AGAIN
Jeff says
How do you claim the tax back as I have read this quite a lot ? MTIA
gillian says
I typed claim tax back on intrest paid government site(think it was form R40 correct me if I am wrong sara)you just have to know how much tax they took it should tell you on your final notice of refund it was easy just filled it in and it was paid back within two weeks for me
Jeff says
Thanks Gillian
Charles says
Hello Gillian,
I have read the case against welcome finance with intterest. I had a secured loan from them in 2008. How do go with a claim against them? Do i use the same template?
Thank you.
gillian says
I think it is to late to put in a claim against welcome finance(they been in liquidation since dec2019) now I first put in my claim in may 2018 it as took over two years but pleased with the outcome because when a lot of the loan firms go into liquidation you only get about 5percent payout but I am getting 100 percent(I think maybe because not a lot of claims I think they have not been lending since I think they stopped payday loans about 2014
gillian says
sorry I think it is to late to put in new claims I first put in my claim in may2018
Charles says
Thank you Gillian.
Alyson says
I sent to the fos on the 1st of November, should I of heard back by now or is it just a waiting game
I e also still emailed provident requesting my break downs another 3 times with not 1 response back, is there anything else I can do or email to get this breakdown of loans thanks
Kaz says
Does anyone have an email address for the complaints team at Provident? I have Neil Iveson’s but he hasn’t responded so was wondering if there is another contact that people have used. Thanks for any advice.
Mike says
You could try joe.sweeney@provident.co.uk as i think he is at a senior level. I know the CEO of the group is called Malcolm LeMay but not too sure on his direct email. Hope this helps abit.
Jack says
Dear Mike
There are two further email addresses you might do well in trying, Richard.Linney@provident.co.uk (he is their Senior Technical Customer Care Manager, and is the next level up from Neil Iveson) , and Tom.Jeffery@provident.co.uk (he is their Head of Customer Care, two levels up from Neil Iveson).
Jack
Kaz says
Thanks everyone. I have no intention of being rude, just want to know when my cheque is being sent. They agreed with FOS on 13 November and I really am hoping it comes before Xmas. I have rent arrears mounting up which is giving me huge anxiety so really need it sorting. Thank you again I will send each of them an email lol.
Jayne says
Give provident a call tomorrow Kaz and tell them, it’s cheque writing day Thursday so they may be able to push it through for you, good luck! x
Jeff says
I have just spoken with Neil Iveson, and apart from the company he works for he is a very approachable and decent guy. I sent 2 emails before he responded, and that was via a personal phone call. I am not defending him but he does receive 100’s of emails per day. I found by being polite and not being disrespectful might have aided my contact. He also said he had listened to all my telephione conversations. Keep sending the emails it does work. He is even looking into my wifes complaint that was done at the same time as me and isnt even at FOS stage yet, so fingers crossed. I will pst the outcome once received.
Manxcat says
Hi there
The FOS have asked for certain bits of information which I have forwarded, Is there an average time til I will be assigned an adjudicator? Or is it just the random waiting game now?
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS has probably also asked Provident to send over your case file. This can cause a delay.
Jane Davies says
Im hoping for mine b4 christmas also ..provident agreed with fos desision on 16th of november but iv heard nothing since about what they will be offering .just seems to be dragging it out
Hayley G says
I’ve been waiting a year. This is the latest email from FOS last week
Dear Sir/Madam
Thank you for your email.
We currently have not yet received a reply from business in response to our request for their file on your case. Once we receive the business file the case will be assessed by an adjudicator and they’ll be in touch once all the information has been considered.
Should you need any further assistance, please feel free to contact us on the numbers below or by responding to this email.
Where do I go from here? It just seems unfair that provident aren’t sending anything
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you email the FCA at consumer.queries@fca.org.uk and copy this to joe.sweeney@provident.co.uk and Neil.Iveson@provident.co.uk
Subject: Provident (700144) hasn’t sent FOS my case file after [x] months
Put in a few short detail about your complaint – how many loans you had, what provident offered (if anything) and the date you sent the case to FOS.
Say you have been told by FOS they asked Provident for your case record i[x] months ago but Provident haven’t yet sent this which is preventing FOS from starting work on your case.
Say you know the FCA will not look at your individual case but you thought the FCA should know how slow Provident’s complaint handling is as you don’t think a firm should be allowed to carry on lending to people if it can’t manage to respond to the Ombudsman in a reasonable time.
Vickie says
Hi there,
I made my complaint to provident back in September and they asked for more time the usual. Then I waited the 8 weeks and sent the complaint to fos in November. I haven’t heard anything from FOS today but provident have emailed there full and final settlement email advising they are upholding 1 of 10 loans and its the final loan (which I really don’t understand as my finances didn’t really change through out). They are advising they are sending a cheque of 2500. I’m not happy with this response obviously having paid over 8000 on interest alone over the 10 loans etc. Am I likely to get a better response for FOS if I wait for their decision? It also states in the email if I cash the cheque it will be a fill and final settlement. So I’m assuming I won’t cash the cheque then and wait to hear from FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They sent a cheque for £2500 for just one loan?
Was it a lot larger than all the other loans?
Vickie says
Hi Sara,
Yeah they have said they are sending out a cheque for 2,500 for that one loan Inc interest etc. That was the last loan I had with them they are agreeing with and it was the largest. But the loans range from 300-1,500. The loan before the one they agree with was for 1,300 and only issued 6 months before my final loan so not sure why they aren’t agreeing with that one?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think Provident should be behaving like this. it’s not fair to send a cheque and tempt you to cash it. They know how many people really need that sort of money now, just before Xmas.
If you would be happy to compromise, but just not that much, you could go back to provident and say you be prepared to accept it if they also include the previous loan? I don’t know what they would say to that. And you would certainly be likely to get a LOT more by going to the ombudsman.
Or you could just send the case to the ombudsman and tell the FCA, provident’s regulator, about this unfair behaviour. See what I wrote here to someone else about this: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/comment-page-31/#comment-396163
https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/comment-page-31/#comment-396163
Vickie says
Hi Sara,
Okay thank you I appreciate your help ! I have already sent my complaint to fos on the 10/11 so will wait to see what they say. It just is so hard when provident are tempting you with money like you said this close to Xmas. I will defo send a email to the FCA to. Hopefully I hear from FOS as soon as possible.
Michelle says
Provident done this to me. They wiped my outstanding balance of over 2k and I received a cheque for £1400 during lockdown, I’d just had a baby and the money was tempting so I cashed the cheque. My case was with the financial ombusdman but I hadn’t heard back. A few months later I heard from the ombusdman and they had advised Provident uphold 20+ more loans so I was gutted thinking I’d been too hasty cashing the cheque and I’d blew my chances of a decent redress. Provident then got in touch and in October I received another cheque for over 7k.
Kaz says
I have emailed Neil Iveson, Richard Linney, Joe Sweeney and Tom Jeffrey this morning so hopefully one of them will respond and hopefully sort it for me. My anxiety levels are through the roof, I just want it sorted and hopefully before Xmas. Thanks for your advice.
Kaz says
Good news I have just had a response to my email, they have began working on my redress and aim to have it sent by the end of the week! I feel so much better now. Thank you to everyone for the advice given.
David says
Hi just wondering which email address got back to you. I am waiting on my cheque and just want to check it’s progress.
Kaz says
Neither of them got back to me, it was someone called Anna in the Complaints Dept who responded. My letter was generated on 3/12 along with the cheque, I have received the letter but am still waiting for the cheque! To say I’m frustrated an understatement!
Pat says
Who can claim back the tax on refunds? I don’t work so am I able to?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you don’t pay tax, you can claim it all back. Most basic rate tax payers can only get £200 back. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
M says
Hi,
How long does the company have to reply to fos when they ask for the details of the complaint?
Fos asked morses club 3 weeks ago and just wondered how long these things take
Many thanks for all your help
Gina says
Hi, I sent my complaint to FOS against CLC finance in June. I got a standard email back stating how busy they were due to Covid19 and they would he back in touch when my case was assigned to an adjudicator.
I’ve not heard anything back so sent an email to chase it up. They have replied stating they sent a request to CLC for the case file back in September but they have not responded. They said they would now send another request.
I was just wondering how long they should be giving them for the case file before looking at my complaint? If they do not respond does that mean I am unable to claim back any redress?
Jason says
Good afternoon all.
My case seems to be going very well.
But just a follow up question and any answers would be much appreciated.
Provident have agreed with the ombudsmen to repay all my loans after initially refusing them some 3 months ago.
Just received a email from obusman saying Provident have not got the figures 2 hand will be in touch soon.
So what kind of time scale am I looking at before I chase Provident for refund as would be amazing for Christmas.
Keep fighting all
Kaz says
Hi everyone just had my breakdown from Provident and have paid quite a bit of income tax. It states in the letter – If you are a non-tax payer or you are not liable for income tax at all, then you may be able to reclaim from HMRC any income tax deducted – please contact your local tax office for further details. As I don’t work or pay tax am I entitled to claim this back and if so how do I go about it? Am happy with my final redress and can’t wait to get the cheque. Thank you for any advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you don’t pay tax, you can claim it all back. Most basic rate tax payers can only get £200 back. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Vickie says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your help the other day. I just thought I would update you. After sending my final response from provident that I didn’t agree with to fos and also a complaint to FCA. I also called provident today to ask about the cheque and why I “cannot continue my complaint after cashing the cheque as stated in their final response”. The gentleman I spoke with advised that I can cash the cheque and if FOS go in my favour they will send a cheque for the redress difference. To make sure that nothing goes wrong I also got him to send a written email to confirm this. I then received an email stating this.
“I can confirm you can cash your cheque, should the Financial Ombudsman rule in your favour and any further redress is issued we will take in to consideration the cheque you have already received.”
Thank you for your help! I wouldn’t of known I could of even get money if it wasn’t for this website. It is most appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
excellent. Hope the FOS case goes well but this will take some of the pressure off.
Karen says
Thank you Sara 😊
Karen says
Struggling with the R40 form, am I being thick? Do I just fill in section 3? What figures do I put where? So sorry for being a pain this is all new to me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No you also have to complete section 2. See Complete an R40 form to claim tax deducted in https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/ which has some examples. If you don’t know your income for this year yet it may be easier to wait into April 2020 when the tax years ends.
Karen says
I don’t have any income as I don’t work so do I just put 0 in the boxes?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
a few benefits are taxable, see https://www.gov.uk/income-tax/taxfree-and-taxable-state-benefits
Karen says
I only receive child benefit. I’ve put 0 in the income boxes, what amounts do I have to put in section 3, is it just the total income tax paid? So sorry for all the questions.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you need to know the total of the 8% interest, the tax deducted from it, and the total of the 8% less the tax deducted.
Do you know these figures from provident?
Karen says
Redress £3,429.70
Notional Interest* (8% simple) £1,584.55
Income Tax Withheld (20%) £316.91
Overall cheque refund to be paid to you£4,697.34
These are the figures I’ve received.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Notional Interest* (8% simple) £1,584.55 = gross interest, goes in 3.3
Income Tax Withheld (20%) £316.91 – tax deducted, goes in 3.2
3.1 is the net interest – which you work out as the gross interest minus the tax deducted
Karen says
Thank you so much Sara you’ve been great 😊
Brian says
This is very interesting, I have had Providents for many years when I lived at my old address… sadly I don’t have bank statements or proof of loans (via provi books} in fact when I got my 1st loan I wasn’t asked for payslips or anything, should I still make the complaint as I don’t have proof… With them being a loan company I take it they have to keep our files for a while?
thanks
Brian
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long ago was the borrowing?
Tim says
Hi, Has anyone had any success in claims against Bamboo loans for unaffordable lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/ if this is a guarantor loan and https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ if this is a normal loan. Further questions best asked on those other pages, not here.
alyson says
Hello i finally got my breakdown and their response with what they want to offer me, i will copy my breakdown first with the dates and just the interest,
10/07 —- 204.00
12/07 —-272.00
08/08 —-272.00
11/08 —-284.00
06/09 —-355.00
11/09 —- 560.00
05/10 —- now this one says a loan of 920 but the interest is 0 so dont get that
07/10 —-375.00
11/11 —560.00
07/12 — 1,232.00 took 3yrs to pay off
05/15 — 445.00 too 2yrs to pay off
06/17 —- 174.40
06/18 —- 174.40
09/18 — 130.80
05/19 —- 305.20
08/19 —- 174.40
03/20 — 305.20
As you have raised concerns for loans obtained prior to The Financial Ombudsman Service
having jurisdiction (6 April 2007) we are unable to consider your concerns for loans issued to
you prior to this date.
Having reviewed your loans, I can see that you declared your income at the point of applying
for loans was between £400.00 and £301.89 per week. After considering your outgoings
based on what you told your Agent in your home and what your credit file stated, you had an
average disposable income of £125.18 per week. This meant the loan you had requested
was affordable for you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you have raised concerns for loans obtained prior to The Financial Ombudsman Service having jurisdiction (6 April 2007) we are unable to consider your concerns for loans issued to you prior to this date.
That is correct. I am pleased that provident have stopped the nonsense of telling people they only have to look at loans after 2010.
05/10 —- now this one says a loan of 920 but the interest is 0 so dont get that
your next loan was only 2 days later but that was a lot lower. Is it possible you changed your mind about the first loan and sais you didn’t need that much and returned a lot of the money to the agent?
I think that is a lot of borrowing. And with two loans the repayments had to be spread over a long period, presumably because you were struggling?
Your case is already at FOS. I suggest you email FOS with the rejection and the loan details and say you would like them continue to look at your complaint.
alyson says
i did try to copy the whole email to you but have had to shorten it i will try to pick out important parts to add here,
No i never returned any loan every loan i carried on with.
Loan repayment performance
After your first loan and before issuing any further loans to you, we also carefully reviewed
your previous repayment performance. We do not believe that good repayments mean you
can afford a new loan or that a Provident loan is suitable, however it does indicate that you
are able to manage your finances well. I can see from your history with us that you managed
your account well and your repayment performance didn’t cause any concern when your
requests for further loans were received – showing you were a responsible borrower by
repaying the loans you had.
I note that you have said loans were issued to you during a period where you were unable to
afford the repayments, however I cannot see that you made us aware of any financial
difficulties or requested any support with your account when visits were made to your home.
I would like to highlight that had your Agent been aware of your financial difficulties then this
would have been considered prior to issuing any further loans as it is not beneficial for you…
I am upholding your complaint about the following agreements we issued to you.
Agreement Issued Value Interest Weekly Rate Paid Up
1131082213 09/06/2017 £200.00 £174.40 £7.20 20/06/2018
i have just called the FOS to see if it had been picked up, the gentleman said they do have it and their in communication with the business so i guess just a waiting game ( i hate waiting lol) as provident are so slow to respond, i only got my breakdown as i emailed Jeffery but it looks like it was his wife who responded to me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so they are only upholding 1 loan – not a good offer.
You will probably get a cheque in the post for that amount.
If you phone provident up and ask if you can cash the cheque and still let the FOS complaint continue, they may well say yes. If they don’t, come back here.
re the mystery no interest loan. I suggest you ask provident why there is no interest on it. That is a large loan.
Alyson says
There is no money to cash they have used the interest from that 1 small loan plus added a good will gesture payment to clear the 300 I still owed to them but I know that’s so bad, they put half of the loans as being responsible lending yet every one of the loans was taken out.
I will email them though to query that loan, and also make it clear to them I was a single mother to 5 who’s reps would tell me the company said I can renew and while they are saying if I struggled I could of rearranged a payment schedule this was made clear the only thing that was made clear was that I could get a second loans to run along side the first one
Mike t says
Hi I’m just wondering how I download the letter template as I had loans as well as my partner arising to about 30000 we were paying back over 250 per week for years always being told to take another loan to pay off old one put us in quite financial difficulties at the time my last loan payment was 7000 to pay off all loans to get away from these people who prayed on people in financial difficulties so if I could get something back from them would be great
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can just copy it and paste it into an email or a Word document.
you and your partner should put in separate complaints.
Mike t says
Yes we are I have already requested all loan information for both of us as some were joint loans thanks will update later
Ruth says
Is there a number for Provident I can phone about cashing my cheque as I only want to do if if it will not affect my case with the FOS?
Vickie says
Hi, I did this last week and awaiting my cheque now. I called the number that was on my document in the offer email they sent me. Should be at the bottom of the email. Hope this helps!
Shell says
Has anyone actually been made an offer from provident within the eight week timeframe.
Vickie says
Hi there, I think it’s very rare as they are pretty slow. I made my complaint to provident originally on the 16/09/2020 and got a offer from them on the 01/12/2020 but it was a poor offer agreeing to 1 out of 10 loans.
Shell says
Thanks for the reply,you’re right that is a poor offer,I hope you get it sorted out soon.
RS says
Just want to thank you sara ! Such an amazing job you are doing.
I put my claim in against provident at the end of June , didn’t even get as far as the ombudsman as I got home today and have received a cheque for £5339.
This will help me get debt free so thank you 😊
Kaz says
Does anyone know if you pay tax on refunds from Morses? Never had a breakdown and have emailed them but no response as yet.
Sonny says
I have had several provident loans over the years with a rediculas interest rate and was told use would be able to help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sonny,
if paying back these loans has left you so short of money that you had to borrow again, then the Provident loans were probably “unaffordable”.
Read the article above these comments which has a template letter you can email to Provident to ask for refund of the interest.
John says
Hi Sara
I used your template to write to provident about loans my mom had. She is 97 now. So I,m trying to do this for her.
I fill the request which says about her not being able to afford the loans as she was a pensioner. They said the would reply in 5 days which they have done.I have copied there reply and send it to you attached to this letter.
Your data rights request has been completed.
As part of our commitment to keeping your personal data secure we have partnered with OneTrust, a Global Leader in Privacy Management Software. OneTrust operate our secure data privacy portal to provide further information and updates/outcomes related to your privacy-policy request.
To view your completed request in our secure data privacy portal, click the following link.
Open Request
If you require any further help or assistance, you can enter a message regarding your request on our portal or alternatively you can contact us at informationrequests@provident.co.uk quoting your Request ID.
Regards,
The Rights Request Team
Provident Financial Group
I opened the link and it showed all the break downs of all the loans she had.
So I’m just asking you for advise on what to do next please. Do I have to contact them to see if there going to offer anything ?
Or do they get back to me now saying what happens next. Or do I contact the fob ?
I would be very great full for any help from you or anyone else in the same boat.
Kindest regards john
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that is the answer to the part of your email which asked for a list of her loans. It isn’t the answer to her complaint about affordability, that will come separately. How long has it been since you sent the complaint in?
John says
I sent it in about 8 days ago. Then I had that email saying that yesterday. I don’t know if I have to wait to here from them again. Or reply the email. As I feel if I don’t reply I could have waited another month without hearing from them. As them might have been waiting to here from me. If that makes sense..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
just make a note in your diary that you will send this to the ombudsman when it gets to 8 weeks. There is nothing to do before then.
John says
Is there a template to send it too the ombudsman ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, but it’s easy, see the Sending a complaint to the Ombudsman section in the article above.
Karen says
Hi, I got in touch with Morses to see what tax I paid on my recent refund. They have given me the figure but that is all. Is there a way of calculating the figures myself as I want to claim it back ASAP. Morses don’t seem to work like Provident I have had no formal breakdown just how much I was getting.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Morses need to tell you the amount of 8% interest that was included in your refund and the amount of tax they deducted. They have to say this. Go back to them if they haven’t.
Claire Louise grant says
Hi I sent off to STF, I had my final response out 8 loans they are only upholding 7/8 and taking it off my debt that I owe them.
Shall I send this off to financial ombudsman service now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That doesn’t sound like a good offer, does it? Sending it to FOS to look at is a good idea.