If you had doorstep loans from lender such as Provident, you may be able to get a refund of the interest you paid if the lender should have realised the loan was unaffordable for you.
Doorstep lending – also called home credit – is where a collector comes to your house to collect the repayments.
Doorstep loans are used by over 1.3 million people in Britain. Many people have been borrowing from the same lender for years.
Provident is much the largest lender, but everything in this article also applies to the other lenders including Morses Club, Mutual and Loans At Home.
Contents
What is an “unaffordable” loan?
The regulator says that a loan is unaffordable if you couldn’t make the repayments without borrowing again. This could be borrowing from the same lender, from someone else, getting deeper into your overdraft or by not paying a bill such as a utility bill.
So even if you always paid your loans on time, they could still have been unaffordable. Especially if you had several Provident loans at the same time or often had to refinance/top-up a loan.
Often the first few loans may have been just about affordable, but Provident should have realised their loans were making your life more difficult when you kept getting more loans.
If you were struggling, your agent should have suggested that you could repay the current one a lot more slowly with no extra interest being added. But too often people were just offered another larger loan.
That was irresponsible lending and you should get a refund back of the interest you paid.
You are very unlikely to get a refund for only one loan. But if you borrowed several times and if you took out a new loan when you were having problems paying an existing one, then complain.
How to ask for a refund from Provident or other home credit lenders
For the last few years, lots of people have been getting large refunds from payday loans, see How to ask for a payday loan refund. The good news is the process is exactly the same for doorstep loans – the regulator’s definition of affordability is the same for all sorts of lending.
And now people are having success with complaints about doorstep loans – see the comments at the bottom of this article!
The template letter here for doorstep loans is similar to the one for payday loans, but it has some extra points that matter for doorstep loans.
Template letter to ask Provident for a refund
As I do not have all the details of my loans, I want you to send me a list of them, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added and what I repaid – this will enable me to assess any refund you offer me. 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 Use their online form: complaints to Provident and copy your complaints letter into the “message you want to send us” box.
- Morses Club & Shopacheck You have to write to them, see complaints to Morses.
- Loans at home email with COMPLAINT in the title to customerservice@sd-taylor.co.uk.
- Mutual email to complaints@mutual.uk.com.
- CLC Finance email complaints@clcfinance.com
- Compton Finance email mark.phillips@comptonfinance.co.uk 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.
How strong is your complaint?
It can be hard to win a complaint for just a couple of small loans.
Two useful guidelines are:
- The more loans you had, the better your case. Borrowing for long periods by taking out new loans or refinancing existing ones shows you were dependent on the loans.
- The larger the loans became, the better your complaint is. The first few loans may have been affordable but if they kept going up, that is a sign of increasing trouble.
You should get a response in 8 weeks
You may get a list of your loans on its own. This is NOT the response to your complaint, that will arrive later. You don’t need to do anything with the list of loans, just keep it as 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.
Provident is being very slow about replying to complaints and they often don’t make a good offer. They may ask for two more weeks several times… I suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman straight away after 8 weeks.
If the lender rejects your complaint or makes a poor offer
If you think you have a good case, don’t be put off if the lender rejects it. People are winning A LOT of these cases at the Financial Ombudsman.
It’s normal to not get the first few loans refunded. If Provident has offered you a refund of loans 5-12 that is probably a good offer. But if they have offered a refund on just loans 10-12 it probably isn’t – you may be able to get a lot more by going to FOS.
If you are offered a small amount, don’t worry you will lose this offer if you go to the Ombudsman. We have never seen this happen.
If the lender says the loans are more than 6 years old so you can’t complain about them, ignore this and send your case to the Ombudsman who is looking at older loans (but not loans before April 2007. you can’t get a refund on them).
I have written more about Provident’s low offers in 2020.
Sending a complaint to the Ombudsman
The easiest way to send a complaint is to use their online application form because that asks all the questions they need to know the answer to (most of these are easy, such as would you like to be contacted by letter, email or phone?).
You probably won’t get a refund back of all the interest you paid… but ask for a refund on all loans and let the Ombudsman make the decision about where your loans became unaffordable.
You don’t have to calculate anything or ask for a specific amount. If you don’t yet have a list of your loans, say you have asked for one but the lender hasn’t sent it.
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.
It’s worth emphasising if you had a poor credit record, especially if it got worse as you carried on borrowing from the doorstep lender.
It is worth emphasising if you repaid some loans early because you borrowed more that month from the same doorstep lender. This is sometimes called “refinancing” your loan.
In this case you may have paid more in interest than you would have if you had just been given an extra loan because of the way the “early settlement calculation” was done. If this wasn’t explained to you by your agent (and I bet it wasn’t!) then you paid more interest than you should have.
It is also worth pointing out to the Ombudsman if it was always your agent suggesting you borrow more, perhaps because it was getting near to Christmas, or in August when you might need more money for new school uniforms, or because you had paid off a lot of a previous loan.
A lender such as Provident should only have offered you a loan if you had asked them in writing for it. The collector shouldn’t have sat in your home and offered new loans. So if this happened to you, mention it in your complaint to the Ombudsman.
Send your bank statements and credit report
Send your bank statements with your complaint. If you haven’t got them all, send ones you do have and set about asking your bank for the rest, then send those. You are more likely to win a complaint if you send them, especially if you only had a few loans.
If you have borrowed for many years and the pile of statements would be HUGE, it’s still a good idea to get them all now, but you could then wait and see that the ombudsman asks for.
Don’t be worried because your bank statements show a lot of gambling. Here is one case Ombudsman decision about a Provident case involving gambling which shows that FOS just accepts you have a gambling problem, you can still win these complaints.
Also get a copy of your free TransUnion Statutory Credit report and send it to the Ombudsman with your complaint. Don’t worry you can’t get an old credit report – the Ombudsman knows this isn’t possible.
What about your current loan?
If you are still repaying a doorstep loan, you can still complain. If you tell the lender you want a payment arrangement, they will allow you to pay less each week over a longer period without adding any more interest.
But if you have other problem debts as well, talk to StepChange and they can see if a debt management plan would help. You can still complain if you are in debt management.
Need some help?
Your local Citizens Advice can help with writing these complaints, that will be free.
You don’t need a lawyer or a claims company. They take a LOT of your refund and you can make a better claim on your own than they can. A good claim involves telling your own story, you know what happened and a claims company doesn’t!
Comments or questions?
Hundreds of readers have posted comments below about how their Provident complaints are going and the successes they have had. If you have a question, ask it here!
Payday loan refund template letters
Too high a credit card or catalogue limit?
Borrowers are getting refunds from Amigo
Lynne says
Thank you Sara and others on here for the invaluable advice you’ve given, as I said I’d received the FOS adjudicator’s recommendation earlier this week to Provident and opening emails this morning find that Provident have agreed to the recommendation that loans 5 to 11 were not affordable and that they’ve offered to repay them in line with FOS adjudicators recommendation. No idea of the sums involved yet, so a waiting game now, but it will be nice for the new year. So hang in there everyone. Good luck to all and hopefully a Happy Christmas to all.
Mike says
Ok so I have had the break down of all the loans I’ve had from provident I am astonished at the amount of intrest I have paid
Loans came to £25850 In total £12840 was intrest what the likely hood of me getting a thing back any help appreciated thanks mike
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Provident are often making very poor offers at the moment, even to very strong case. But a very large proportion of these large provident complaints is being upheld by the Ombudsman.
Mike t says
Ok so I should send templates letter and see what happens
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, and if you get a poor offer or a rejection, send it straight to the Ombudsman.
John says
Hi Sara
I sent off to provident about my loans I had on Oct 2020. About me being unable to afford them at the time. I explained that I was lending money off family and friends to pay them back. And also they was asking me to either renew an old loan from sometimes 500 to a 1000. So you was paying double the interest then. Then the next time you asked what you owed. They would just say have a fresh loan. Pushing you deeper into debt. And that’s without even looking to see if I could afford them. I had a letter off them on the 17 nov with the loans I had for about 5 years saying I could afford them as I didn’t miss many payments. So they said there is nothing I can do. I had 8 or 9 loans in one year alone.which worked out to about 150 a week. They said unless I have anymore proof I couldn’t afford them . That was the end of it. Can I copy and paste the letter of my accounts to you private or on here. And what would be my next step please from your point of view.
Kindest regards john
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi John,
your story sounds very common – I don’t need to see the details you have, I completely believe you.
LOTS of people have then got a good payout from ignoring the Provident rejection and sending their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman – this is easy to do, see Sending a complaint to the Ombudsman in the article above.
Kaz says
I just want to say a massive thank you to Sara and anyone else that gave me advice. I finally received my cheque yesterday and it has already cleared in my bank so it’s going to be a great and very stress free Christmas for me and my family. It’s a long process and sometimes very frustrating but keep going because it’s definitely worth all the hassle. Good luck to you all and Merry Christmas x
Michael says
I had 26 loans with the Provident. They rejected my complaint completely. I contacted the Ombudsman and after five months I received an email stating the Provident should not have loaned 4 to 26!. I received that email yesterday 15 December. Today, the Ombudsman emailed me to say the Provident accepted the findings in full!
Don’t want to tempt fate, but hopefully the money will be refunded without more effort.
I have to say I am greatly impressed with the efforts made by the Ombudsman, as a person with mental health problems the help was invaluable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good to hear that – I hope Provident pay out speedily.
Michael says
Many thanks Sara, could not have done this without you.
John says
What did you say in your letter to the ombudsman guys Michael to help your case please ? As mine sounds so similar to yours if you don’t mind me saying so. Thanks john
Michael says
Hi John,
To be honest I said very little. I did not provide any information such as bank statements, I just said the Provident continued to loan me money when they knew I couldn’t afford it. The Ombudsman relied entirely on information provided by Provident. It was clear that loans were being taken out on a regular basis and for increasing amounts. I simply found it too easy to get the loans, very little checks were made and the Provident knew it.
It does take time and I don’t know when I will get my money but I am hopeful the matter has been laid to rest!
Hope that helps and good luck John.
Michael
John says
Thanks for getting back to me. And good luck .
Pat clark says
Same happened to me last week ombudsman upheld 19 of my 24 loans provident have to 8th jan to settle good luck with yours.
Robert says
Very confused as provident told the fos I had 16 loans and must have provided evidence for this. Fos said loans 4-16 were not affordable, provident didn’t object, and accepted the Fos ruling, now provident are saying they made a mistake and I only had 11 loans. Refund is about 7k in total
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans do you think you had?
Did provident not send yo a list of your loans when you complained?
Is the 7k what they are offering now or what you should have got with all the “extra” loans included?
Lisa b says
Does anyone know how long loans at home are taking reach a decision my 8 weeks are up on Friday do you will I will get a response by then ?
Moira says
Hi Lisa,
My complaint against loans at home took around 19 weeks in total but they did refund all loans bar the first one without ombudsman getting involved. Keep emailing for an update and fingers crossed you will get result soon
Lisa b says
Thanks will send it off on Monday when my 8 weeks are up
M says
Hi all,
My complaint against morses club is with fos not and am awaiting an adjudicator. Anyone any ideas how long this takes? Many thanks and merry Xmas to everyone!!
Becky m says
Hi
Just letting you know that I’ve today had an offer off Shopacheck for £1543. I’ve excepted the offer but I need to know what the form is called that you can claim the tax back.
Many thanks
Becky
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the R40 – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Mark says
So had a letter from provident today after 8 weeks saying taking my loans back to 2007 saying that they had not lended irresponsibly , total loans is 7750.44 and interest is 5682.40 but they have refused and said i could afford because my credit file said so .have forwarded to ombudsman and await an outcome .
Manxcat says
Hi Mark, I also got an email of Provident today, (I filed my complaint in July ) , they have rejected my complaint saying the loans were affordable. I have forwarded my complaint to the FOS who have only recently asked for information, so hopefully they will begin working on it in the New year. Let’s hope we both get a good result.
Mark says
I havnt had a reply from fos i only got mine the other day and also did in july but havnt heard back from fos yet so will try after christmas , will keep fingers crossed for both , i didnt have the 80 quid a week disposable as they think i did .but we will see .
Mike says
Hi where do I send the complaint letter for provident had break down of all loans thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you have to use their online form: https://www.providentpersonalcredit.com/contact-us/contact-form/
Lisa says
Hey, I’ve not wrote here for a while. But long story short Provident only acknowledge a few of my loans. And said all were affordable . I went to the FOS back in August and only had one standard reply saying they will look into this.
I’ve heard nothing more.
Could someone resend me the Fos Email address please. (Can’t find in my sent or received )
Many thanks Lisa
Pat says
ShortTermLending@financial-ombudsman.org.uk high lisa i first went to FOS in may and i only heard from them once i june just to tell me they are dealing with it then i got an email from them 10 days ago upholding my complaint and have intsructed provi to pay interest back on 19 of the 24 loans i had and they agreed to do it so just waiting for my cheque now, so it is a while before you hear anything but good luck.
Lisa says
Thank you Pat, was worried maybe they’ve forgotten me haha
Good luck with your payout
Jo says
I have 3 loans is it worth me taking it further? Im struggling to pay the weekly amount but I agreed originally. I have bipolar and spending money is a trigger for me they made it so easy….
If so did you just stop paying the amount back??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large were each of the loans? were there any gaps between them?
Provident are actually easy to negotiate a payment arrangement with. Do you have other problem debts as well as the Provident loan?
Would you like to make it harder to borrow money in future?
Craig says
Hi there has anyone put in any complaints to morse club and how did they find it.
Thanks Craig
Kaz says
Put my complaint in in March and it was finally settled November. Had to escalate to FOS as they refused to accept irresponsible lending. It’s a long process but worth it in the end. Good luck.
Mike t says
Put my complaint in yesterday to provident let’s see how long it takes
Kristopher says
Hi Sara
I have had my complaint upheld and provident have agreed to settle inline with the adjudicators decision. I have an active CCJ with regards to 2 loans within the complaint. Lowell have just sent a letter instructing bailiffs. I have spoken with both companies and Lowell claim the CCJ is still ‘live’ therefore enforcement action will still be taken.
Where do I stand on this situation?
Will the CCJ be removed from my file altogether or will it stay and clearly state ‘satisfied’
Thanks,
Kris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell Provident about the CCJ. Tell them you want the CCJ set aside (that is the legal term for deleted) and the debt settled with Lowell. Unfortunately Provident are not speedy about this.
Bailiffs, urghhh. Do not open the door to them, they have NO right of entry. Do you have a car that you own parked on the street or your driveway?
Send Lowell a formal complaint in writing using their complaint form here https://www.lowell.co.uk/contact-us/. Say Providnet has accepted the FOS decision that the two loans Lowell now own were mis-sold and they will be settling the account. Say you are happy to forward Lowell the email correspondence about this. Ask them to call back the debt from the bailiffs as it is would be unfair to attempt to enforce a CCJ now Lowell are on notice that it will be set aside. Say you will be sending a complaint about Lowell’s behaviour to the ombudsman if they do not agree to do this.
Kristopher says
I have already done all you have stated however they say the CCJ is still live. Provident have sent a request to bring the loan back but it goes through that many different departments they say it takes time. This is also going to be further delayed with the Christmas period.
will the CCJ be set aside or will I have to ask for this to be done. I assumed the two (CCJ and upheld decision) would automatically be part of the same process.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The CCJ is still live, but Lowell can choose not to enforce it. Have you sent a formal complaint about this which they have rejected?
You need to be clear to provident now that you expect the CCJ to be set aside. Don’t just assume this will be done/
Kristopher says
The best the could do was put a 14 day delay on the enforcement action as they’ve not heard from provident to say otherwise. I will contact provident again to ensure the judgement is set aside.
On another note I need some advice.
This claim was upheld in June and promised to be settled within 6 weeks for which I had used a claims management team in the form of allegiant to manage the whole process. It has been close to 6 months before the situation has been rectified. The only reason it has been now sorted was because I was making numerous calls to the ombudsman and provident directly as allegiant were none existent. It was taking 3 weeks to get a reply from any email from allegiant and they also took the decision to turn off the telephones leaving me further frustrated.
Should I take a complaint regarding allgient to the ombudsman with regards to their fees as I seem to have been doing most of the work and persistently chasing the complaint to further progress. This longer timescale has caused further mental health issues, coupled with losing my job to the Pandemic and subsequently missed payments on other committments causing extra charges.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is NOT the best Lowell can do. Have you sent a formal complaint? If you have and it has been rejected, tell them unless they agree to put the account on hold for several months to enable this to be sorted you will be sending a complaint about them to FOS.
Have you sent Allegiant a formal complaint? You have to allow them 8 weeks to reply before you go to the ombudsman.
Gemma says
I had a nightmare with Lowell my provident loans was sold to them. My complaint was upheld in March and I had to put a complaint in to Lowell as of August they still hadn’t removed my defaults! I got compensation from them and they were finally removed last week! Took nearly 9 months!!!
Kristopher says
Thanks Sara I will send over a formal complaint as stated.
I have made a complaint to allegiant to which the lovely Tim replied “Thank you for your email. The issue of delay is due to your lender not paying, our fees are based on results, not the length of time it takes for your lender to make a payment – it should be noted that whilst you were waiting to be paid, as were we. We agree this is too long, but we cannot physically extract the money from Provident. – our fee is not payable until you are in receipt of the funds from your lender, it is in our mutual interest that you are in receipt of the funds in a timely manner and we have been chasing regularly for you. Our fee is based on your agreement to pay us 30% including VAT – it is result based billing. This fee is based on our running costs and is justifiable based on the software and legal input required to have formulated our service and staff wages. We charge less than our rivals, quite considerably, in fact, some CMC’s charge anywhere up to 42% inc. VAT. You are legally required to pay this fee under contract and as you have observed yourself, the problem here is Provident. I personally have a lot of sympathy for you, we are on your side but we do need to manage your expectations – our service is designed to establish liability for misselling, which we did very successfully using our tried and tested methods. It is your lender who is in default.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well he isn’t wrong…
Kristopher says
I agree however, as a management company I expected the full process to be ‘managed’ Whats your thoughts is it worth taking to the ombudsman once I receive a reply from my complaint from allegiant ( I’ve sent them a formal complaint after the email was sent
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know, haven’t seen a complaint like this taken to FOS. FOS may decide a firm is not at fault if the problem was not caused by it.
Really your argument is with Provident not your CMC. I suggest you read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/comment-page-29/#comment-390257 and try what I suggested there.
Richard Pearson says
Back in the 1990s and early 2000’s, my wife left me with two small kids aged 3 &5 after I developed a number of chronic illnesses. I was surviving on DLA and a small disability pension. I used both Greenwood’s and Provident at the time just to get food for the kids. I saw the recent note from here to say it is possible to reclaim interest. I sent a data request to Provident with the relevant addresses but they say there is no record of my accounts and to provide more information. I can just about remember the first name of one of the Agents. Is this a stalling tactic? It was a long time ago. The addresses were correct.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am afraid you can’t get refunds for loans before April 2007.
Liam says
Hi Sara,
Provident have replied and offered a settlement on the final loan out of 6 (being the highest loan) but I can’t work out how much interest is actually owed across all 6. Am I able To email you?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry, No.
But if you tell Provident you want to consider their offer but need to know how much interest you have paid on each loan they should send you that.
Do you still owe a balance on the last loan?
How large were each of the 6 loans?
Were there any gaps of more than a month, the time from paying off one loan to taking out the next?
Liam says
Issued Value Interest Weekly Paid Up
26/05/2018 £200.00 £86.00 22 18/06/2018
12/07/2018 £300.00 £261.60 10.8 27/02/2019
15/02/2019 £170.00 £148.24 6.12 06/11/2019
22/03/2019 £500.00 £553.00 13.5 07/11/2019
15/06/2019 £150.00 £130.80 5.4 07/11/2019
04/11/2019 £1,610 £2,241.12 37.03 29/06/2020
They’ve upheld the last loan with interest owed being £1,085.50
No balance is owed – Thanks Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so if you took it to FOS my guess (knowing nothing about your circumstances) is that loans 4 & 5 might also be refunded.
Liam says
Sorry. Thanks Sara. I’m not sure it will be worth all the hassle for maybe a few hundred pounds more. As looking to clear my wifes loan with Likely loans (that we have raised an affordability complaint against).
I will wait to see what provident come back with in regards to interest paid.
Merry Xmas anyway and thanks for all your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That may be a sensible decision.
Do check how much you will save by paying off the Likely Loan – it could be a lot less than you hope. I have seen cases where it makes more sense to pay off credit cards even though their headline interest rate is lower, but get the numbers and then decide.
Simon says
Hi since been with provident I’ve found there attitude to be very bossy at times if even one payment has been missed Steve was very un polite at one stage it’s the interest part is the worse if a refund of something can be down I’d be most grateful in cheque method please you been so threatening at times and it’s not nice with having mental health issues problems anxiety and depression
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Simon, do you want to know how to complain to Provident? The article above these comments looks at these affordability complaints and has a template letter you can use to get your complaint started. Then you can ask questions about how it goes here.
Gary kennedy says
Hi all I put a complaint in to the provident in July about unaffordable loans I had 8 loans totalling 6900 plus 5630 Interest i received my final response on sat past offering me a refund on loans 3 and 4 total 688.00 . I had a balance previous of 1766 now bringing it down to 1077 …….I am just wondering do I accept or take it to the ombudsman thanks ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds a poor offer – those can’t have been the largest loans. I suggest you send it to the Financial Ombudsman to look at.
You will probably find that Provident reduces your balance to £1077 even though you haven’t accepted their offer – this isn’t anything to worry about.
Gary says
No they were the 2 smallest, the other ones were for apart from a 200 pound loan 1600 700 700 700 700 and 1000
Loan 1 17/7/08
loan 2 27/4/17
loan 3 6/10/17
loan 4 4/12/17
loan 5 16/4/18
loan 6 8/12/18
loan 7 17/9/19
loan 8 28/11/19
that’s the dates sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Dreadful.
What would the Ombudsman say? let me make an informed guess…
The 2008 loan was just one and a very long time before loan 2, so it would not be refunded.
Loan 2 was then the first of the series of loans. It may also be ignored – although it may be refunded if it was 700 and that would be much more likely if it was 1000 or 1600.
Then provident have agreed to refund 3 & 4, so the ombudsman would accept they should be refunded.
But then it is VERY likely that all 5,6,7,8 would be refunded.
This sort of “let’s try to get away with a very low offer” response from Provident makes me mad. They should not be doing this. They should be making decisions in line with what the ombudsman would.
Sending it to the Ombudsman is the next step. But if you too are annoyed, you could also tell the FCA, Provident’s regulator what has happened. This won’t help your case, the Ombudsman has to do that, but hopefully Provident won’t like it and they will stop behaving like this.
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: Absurd offer from Provident(700144)
Say a bit about your complaint – how many loans over how long a period, how much interest you have paid. Say you know the first loan wouldn’t refunded as there was such a long gap, but all the others have formed a chain of lending.
Say how Provident has chosen to refund two small loans and none of the later large ones. Say you think Provident is trying to take advantage of vulnerable people who will just accept what they are offered and give up.
If your situation is especially difficult at the moment, say this.
Say you know the FCA will not look at your individual case and you are sending it to the Financial Ombudsman but you thought the FCA should know that Provident is trying to settle complaints very cheaply, ignoring what the Ombudsman is likely to do.
Claire says
I have finally had my response from the ombudsman who have said that provident should refund me from loan 4 to 20, I had only been offered 3 loans previously from provident. I am over the moon and so glad I didnt accept their offer, do provident usually accept the ombudsmans decision?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
they often do, but they can be very slow about it.
Charlie says
Hello,
Hope all members had a merry Christmas and are looking forward to a prosperous new year.
I just received a letter from Lowell dated 22/12/2020 that they have agreed with Provident to return my outstanding loans to Provident with immediate effect. That all default reporting to credit reference agencies will be removed and I should allow 4 – 6 weeks for this to be updated.
I never received any offer from Provident but they have sent my file to FOS. The last time I spoke to FOS about a month ago, they said they received the file and it takes upto 4 months to allocate an investigator.
I hope the long wait will soon be over.
Thank you.
Regards.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sounds promising!
Charlie says
Thank you. I am keeping my fingers crossed
Carly says
Hi all, I woke up this morning and thought I would email my adjudicator, to see if Provident had replied to them, as I have heard nothing since they told me they were still investigating, and for me to send to the ombudsman if I wished. My adjudicator replied within the hour and told me that, he has looked at my case, and he has sent Provident recommendations, and they should reply by 12th January. He also said that Provident might come back with new information that could change things, has anyone experienced this? What new information could change things?
The adjudicator has said that loans 4-28 should be upheld. I am so excited, and its all thanks to this page :)
Claire says
Provident accepted the ombudsman decision today (in record time according to my adjudicator) and have agreed to send me a cheque within the next 28 days, I am over the moon, thank you Sara for all your help. This is literally life changing amounts of money, good luck to everybody still fighting….you will get there xxx
Carly says
Well done. How long did it take for Provident to agree, if you don’t mind me asking :)
Claire says
My adjudicator sent his decision to provident on boxing day and they replied to him today.
Carly says
That’s amazing. Hopefully they continue being quick. My adjudicator sent my recommendations off today so fingers crossed :)
Hopefully they are just as quick with your cheque. X
Mike t says
How long did you whole complaint proses take thanks mike
Claire says
I sent my complaint to provident in July, they made me a very poor offer in September so I forwarded to fos which was picked up in October, I think I was quite lucky as others seem to have waiting longer.
Louise says
Hi all found this page recently and made a complaint to provident. They came back with a list of my loans. I had 8 in total from 2006 and the interest added up comes to roughly £3000. They have made me an offer of £1500 on my last one only. If I cash the cheque can I still send it to the FOS? Really could use this money right now and don’t want to be waiting months
Sara (Debt Camel) says
8 since 2006 – were there any big gaps between them? Time from repaying one loan to taking out the next?
Louise says
Sorry that should say from 2016
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ah that makes a big difference!
You have repaid the last loan so that is a cheque for 1500?
Louise says
Yeah and it includes the 8%
1st loan interest was £99 paid up on 15-11-16
2nd 07-10-16 £100.80 interest paid up 24-01-17
3rd 14-11-16 £328 interest paid up 22-11-17
4th 23-01-18 £369 interest paid up 04-04-18
5th 27-06-18 £205 interest paid up 29-08-18
6th 18-11-18 £514 interest paid up 31-10-18
7th 27-10-18 £1416.80 interest paid up 18-06-20
I had another loan but got it written off because of the agents shoddy dealings.
M K says
Hi, has anyone had complaints with morses club? Began complaint august, they made me a low offer so sent to fos in October. Not heard anything from fos since. Anyone any idea how long these things take? Many thanks
Mike t says
Sent mine to provident a week ago got reply yesterday saying there looking into it and will come back to me within 10 days
Ruth says
Hi
I opened my case through Resolver in July 2020. Sent it to FOS in September. A week later I had a poor offer from Provident and received a cheque which I haven’t cashed. I rang FOS in December who said they were eating for the case file from Provident and would be in touch once they received it. Today I have received an email from Resolver saying my case has been closed as they haven’t heard from me for a while. Do I need to reopen this to allow the FOS to continue to deal with it or has it moved over to the FOS with no need for Resolver? Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Resolver (and indeed any claims company) aren’t much help in this sort of situation. But it may be more complicated to untangle yourself from Resolver than it’s worth – possibly simpler o just tell then the case is still open as you haven’t had a reply from FOS.
Did you call Provident about cashing the £1100 cheque?
Are you in financial difficulty at the moment? If you are, you could try to put some pressure on Provident to let you cash the cheque… If you want to do this. email the FCA who won’t look into your case, that is the job of the ombudsman, but they are Provident’s regulator.
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) case with FOS but why can’t I cash the cheque I need?
Say a bit about your complaint – how many loans over how long a period, how much interest you have paid. Say that provident only offered to refund a couple of loans in the middle of your 20 loans and that the offer was only 10% of the interest you paid them.
Say you think Provident is trying to take advantage of vulnerable people who will just accept what they are offered and give up. But that you actually need this money niow. If you have priosity bills (utilities, council tax, rent) mention this. If your situation is especially difficult at the moment, say this.
Say you know the FCA will not look at your individual case which is already with the Financial Ombudsman but you thought the FCA should know that Provident is trying to settle complaints very cheaply, ignoring what the Ombudsman is likely to do.
Ruth says
I’ve spoke to both Provident and FOS in regards to cashing the cheque and both have said that if it is cashed it is accepting that as final and full payment. The FOS did say that they had given provident until 24th November to send the details over but as of 20th December they were still waiting. I think I will take your advice and email the FCA as with being furloughed yet again I am beginning to feel a financial strain and don’t want to take the slippery road of doorstep loans again.
Carly says
Just thought I’d give an update. This morning I woke to an email, Provident have agreed with all the Adjudicators recommendations. Thank you Sara and everyone who has helped!
I started with my complaint in August, and had very little correspondence from Provident.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
great start to the New Year for you!
Claire says
Excellent news…congratulations, lets hope they pay us just as quick x
Carly says
Thank you :) I’m guessing you haven’t had anything from them yet Claire? Fingers crossed it won’t be too long. X
Claire says
I called provident this morning (I’m just too impatient) they said they haven’t worked out the figures yet but I will hear within 28 days.
Carly says
Any joy Claire? I called on Friday and they basically told me the same.
Claire says
Not heard anything yet x
Pat clark says
Hi claire great news could you please let me have the phone no you phoned provident on as my 28 days have passed and i still haven’t heard from them thank you.
Claire says
I called 0800 9166421, I did wait 30 minutes to get through.
Pat clark says
Thank you.
Hayley says
Hi all
I have had a lot of provident loans going back 20+ years but none for the last 6 years could I still make a claim? I don’t have have details anymore but my loans were constantly layered, taking a new 1 to pay it off only they got bigger and bigger until I accepted was out of control and just got rid (wasn’t easy) and they never ever offered lower payments, i did actually work for them as a collector for a little while but I couldn’t cope seeing people struggle to make payments on a loan with ridiculous 4 digit APR rates where paying back more then they were lending! Anyway diverting sorry, given that I don’t have my account number or details and its at least 6 years since my last loan could I still apply?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can – you ask for a list of your loans as part of making your complaint. For a few people nott much or nothing can be found, but you don’t know until you try.
John says
Hi Sara
Has anyone been successful without providing bank statements? I am unable to get statements for my old account back in 2007 to 2010 when I took out loans.
I have sent off my ombudsman complaint but don’t have these. I have highlighted in my complaint that there was times I only owed provident £600 and then would take out loan for £1200 pay off the £600, receive £600 cash and then we now £1800 in debt. I did this continually with all my loans and have evidence of that with payment statements from provident. Debt with them just got big and bigger as sometimes I would take out loans for £1500, £2000 and pay them £1100,£1200 for old loan and end up £2500-£3500 in debt for the extra amount received in cash.
John
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, repeat lending over a long period, particularly if the amounts are increasing, tells its own story.
It is just simpler if you have the bank statements and you may get more of the early loans included ina refund.
John says
Thanks for answering my question. I have sent them details of all my loans even ones from 2002-2006 as evidence so they can see I was in a constant cycle of borrowing loans for years before 2007.
John
Louise says
Hi I used your template and sent my complaint in November, Wednesday they replied with an offer. They have agreed to loans 3-8, 8 loans total over 3 years. I think I may be a rare case? They have said the cheque will arrive within 14 days, are they sending them as stated as it just seems to good to be true. First 2 loans they aren’t refunding are £300 and £200 and the rest adds up to £6100 refund.
Thank you for the template and info on this site
Sara (Debt Camel) says
excellent – that’s a decision that sounds in line with what FOS might say.
Louise says
thank you Sara, no need for FOS in my case then. I shall await my cheque. Fab site thank you so much!
Tim says
Hi sara. Has Bamboo loans had many complaints against them. And what success rates have people had?. Just thinking as i have complained to them about a month ago. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. They often make poor offers but can sometimes be negotiated to with to improve them. lots of success at the Ombudsman.
Further questions best asked on https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ (or https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/ if it is a guarantor loan).
Mo says
Hi, how long does it take the fos to allocate a case handler? My complaint has been with fos for 10 weeks and haven’t heard anything from them. Many thanks
Claire says
I called them every week they assigned me an adjudicator after 6 weeks, the phone number is 0800 0234567, they were always very nice and helpful.
Maureen says
Thankyou Claire. I will give them a call and see if I can find anything out.
Alyson says
Yay finally got my email off the fos that it’s picked up and their awaiting for provident to come back to them, and requesting the things they ask for which I’m going to send now, fingers crossed this last part goes fast
Louise says
I had an email with attached letter on the 6th Jan with an offer from provident. They said they are sending out a cheque, can anyone advise on how long this takes? I haven’t had to forward my complaint to fos the offer is good. I rang to enquire and I was just told they send out cheques once a week.
Thanks
Jayne says
Hi Louise,
I think cheques are printed on Thursdays, I would suggest giving provident a call every Wednesday for an update to make sure it’s not slipping to the bottom of their pile, hope you’re not waiting much longer .
Louise says
Thank you Jayne I rang them this morning and was told they can’t tell me if it has been sent or not. The man was incredibly rude!
I will ring them again next week.
Jayne says
Oh really, they were quite helpful when I called, yes give them another call next week, you may receive it tomorrow or even Saturday morning
Lorraine 4820 says
Hi, the FOS emailed me yesterday regarding my partners complaint saying the following: So in my view, the pattern of lending itself shows that the loans from here were
unsustainable – so I don’t think you should have given Mr S any loans from loan 5 onward.
How to put things right
You shouldn’t have given Mr S loans 5 and 6. If you have sold the outstanding debts
you should buy these back if you are able to do so and then take the following steps. If you
are not able to buy the debts back then you should liaise with the new debt owner to achieve
the results outlined below.
A) You should add together the total of the repayments made by Mr S towards
interest, fees and charges on all upheld loans without an outstanding balance, not including
anything you have already refunded.
B) You should calculate 8% simple interest* on the individual payments made by Mr
S which were considered as part of “A”, calculated from the date Mr S
originally made the payments, to the date the complaint is settled.
C) You should remove all interest, fees and charges from the balance on any upheld
outstanding loans, and treat any repayments made by Mr S as though they had been
repayments of the principal on all outstanding loans. If this results in Mr S having
made overpayments then you should refund these overpayments with 8% simple interest*
calculated on the overpayments, from the date the overpayments would have arisen
They also said Provident have until 26/1/21 to respond, i just want to know what is the likelihood that Provident will accept FOS decision?
Loan 5: £800 plus £656 interest FULLY PAID loan taken out 10/9/15
Loan 6: £800 plus £656 Loan taken out 1/9/16 … £224 remaining sent to debt collection. Also, based on these figures does anyone have a rough idea on how much would be refunded? Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At the moment Provident seem to be accepting most adjudicator decisions, sometimes slowly.
Do you know how much you have paid to Provident on Loan 6 – and how much you have paid to the debt collector? Is the debt collector Lowell?
lorraine 4820 says
Hi Sara,
On loan 6 £1,232 paid (loan was £800 plus £656) £224 remaining which was sold to Capquest debt recovery. Not paid anything to them due to his ongoing complaint with provident since last year and loan 5 was £800 plus £656 interest (paid in full) The Ombusman said: As you’ll see, I’ve given Provident Personal Credit Limited time to think about what I’ve said and reply to me. They have until 26 January 2021 to do this.
Aimee says
Does anyone know how far back you can go for claims? I remember as a kid my mum was always tied into a provident Loan and the lady would come round with her little collection book! I’m wondering if she could possibly get anything back but I’m 37 now so would’ve been between 25 and 30 years ago so I’m guessing unlikely
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not before April 2007, so probably not. Unless yiur mum has carried on borrowing from them…
Mo says
Hi Sara,
I put in a complaint to morses club in aug 2020, they offered me £1050 and my outstanding balance written off. I feel this was very poor as to me reckoning it should be around £3500. I forwarded this onto the fos in November and am still waiting to hear from them. Morses text me today saying I could apply for another loan which I am not doing but I text back saying all the above. What are the chances they will offer me a higher final response? Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know. I suggest you let FOS know that that are still trying to give you more loans!
Mo says
Will do sara thankyou for all your help
Lottie says
Hello Sara. Well after 8 months, I finally have heard from FOS regarding my complaint about Provident.
Provident advised they can only go as far back as 2009 and nothing prior. Even though others are getting their information as far back as 2007. Provident have said out of 10 loans from 2009- 2014 only they only would say loans : 4.8, 9 & 10 were mis-sold. Loan 1 they can’t say was, as the loan before that their data does not go as far back prior to this date. Loan 2 was sold by their partners Greenwood’s, but they can not consider this. And therefore the same for Loan 3. Loans 5,6, &7 they do not think was wrong even though they have no evidence on these. I am at a loss on their findings and it’s taken so long. Is it worth pursuing further or should I just accept what FOS say? Any help would be appreciated.thank you Lottie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are Provident saying they have no records of earlier loans before 2009? or that they won’t consider them?
Do you have any records of the earlier loans?
Have FOS suggested you accept this or have they just told what Provident have offered?
Lottie says
Provident say they have no records prior to 2007. I have nothing. FOS said unless I Can provide it, there is nothing they can do. Provident sent me a cheque for £375 before Xmas. I have not cashed it, because it said final settlement offer. FOS said they have until 21st to come back with an answer. Regards Lottie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Provident say they have no records prior to 200
but between 2007 and 2009?
Lottie says
No , NO records before 2009. So the loans I had from 2007/2008 can not be looked into. Only loans from 2009 onwards.
Lottie
Rob says
I had a turn down from Provident today- said they had done nothing wrong. I am not keen to go to FOS
at the moment as it really is a lottery who picks up the case. They seem to say no a lot also.
Any ideas? Should I now go back to Provident and try to present them with my evidence of bank statements and list of creditors?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You will be wasting your time going back to Provident – just send it to FOS, there is no sensible alternative.
Rob says
Will do thanks Sara