The repayments on many loans and car finance are too high to be manageable so people get deeper into debt trying to repay them.
When you applied, a lender should have checked a loan would be affordable for you – often they did not check properly and you should never have been given this loan.
This article describes how to complain, with a template to use.
Many people have won complaints using this. If you win, you get the interest refunded in cash. When you still owe a balance, the interest is removed so you only repay what you borrowed.
These complaints do not hurt your credit record if you carry on making the loan repayments while the complaint goes through.
Contents
A quick overview
What types of loans?
- any personal loans, including high-cost lenders, bank loans, and credit union loans;
- you can complain if you are still paying the loans, it has already been repaid, it has defaulted, or you have a payment arrangement/DMP;
- a consolidation loan may have been cheaper than the credit cards it cleared – but it may still have been unaffordable!
- you can also complain about car finance. But if you are still paying car finance, be careful – read Car finance affordability – what you get if you win a complaint
- the complaints here do not apply to mortgages or business loans.
What is “unaffordable”?
The regulator says “affordable” means:
you can make the repayments without hardship or having to borrow elsewhere.
For large loans, a lender should have made adequate checks at the start. The larger your loan, the worse your credit score and the more other debt you had, the closer a lender should look.
If your loan was fine at the beginning and only caused problems later when you lost your job or your mortgage repayments went up, you are unlikely to win an affordability complaint as this could not have been predicted at the start.
How does this work?
You first make a complaint to the lender saying the loan was unaffordable and ask for a refund of the interest.
There is a template here you can adapt to say what happened to you. Send it by email.
The lender has up to 8 weeks to reply. Lenders reject many good complaints, so you can send a rejection to the Financial Ombudsman.
Complain to the lender
Email addresses for lenders
If your loan has been sold to a debt collector, send your complaint to the original lender not the debt collector.
It’s easiest if all communications are by email – free, instant and you have a copy with a date stamp to show the ombudsman.
For banks, see this list here: email complaint addresses for banks.
For car finance and logbook loans, see this list: email address for car finance lenders
Here are the email addresses for some non-bank lenders. There are a lot of other smaller lenders, including many Credit Unions. If your lender is not listed, ask in the comment below for an email address.
Abound (used to be Fintern) complaints@getabound.com
Admiral loansquality@admiralgroup.co.uk
Anico complaints@anicofinancialservices.com
Avant Credit emailcomplaints@avantcredit.co.uk
Bamboo Loans complaints@bambooloans.com
Better Borrow enquiries@chetwood.co
Castle Community Bank complaints@castlecommunitybank.co.uk
Creation customercare@creation.co.uk
Everyday Loans – for loans after 31 March 2021, see Evlo and use the template in this article. It is no longer possible to make complaints about their loans before that date
Evlo (rebrand of Everyday Loans) chioma.nwachukwu@evlo.co.uk
Fair Finance complaints@fairfinance.org.uk
Finio Loans (rebrand of Likely Loans) complaints@oakbrookfinance.com
Fluro (used to be Lending Works) cx@fluro.co.uk
Koyo loans info@koyoloans.com
Lendable complaint@lendable.co.uk
Lifestyle Loans info@lifestyleloans.co.uk
Likely Loans – see Finio
LiveLend support@livelend.co
Loans by Mal (Monthly Advance Loans) Complaints@loansbymal.co.uk
Loans 2 Go read Loans2Go – how to complain
MBNA mbnaonlinecomplaints@mbna.co.uk
Moneyline headoffice@moneyline-uk.com
My Community Bank complaints@mycommunitybank.co.uk
Novuna (used to be called Hitachi) ComplaintsTeam@NovunaPersonalFinance.co.uk
Plata complaints@plata.com
Plend complaints@plend.co.uk
Progressive Money complaints@progressivemoney.co.uk
Quick Loans customerscare@quickloans.co.uk
Reevo complaints@reevomoney.com
Salary Finance (Neyber) complaints@salaryfinance.com (for loans, not “pay advance”)
Savvy info@savvy.co.uk
Shawbrook Customercare.team@shawbrook.co.uk
Snap Finance customer@snapfinance.co.uk
Tandem pl@tandem.co.uk
TM Advances info@tmadvances.co.uk
Updraft complaints@updraft.com
Vanquis customer.relations@vanquisbank.co.uk
Zopa complaints@zopa.com
118 118 Money complaints@118118money.com
Use this template
Email the lender to begin your complaint. Put AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT as the subject of your email.
Template for you to adapt:
I have moved since the loan started. My current home address is xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Please do not send any letters to other addresses there may be on my file. [only include this if you have moved!]
Please confirm the date this loan started, the amount, the interest rate and the monthly repayments. [don’t include this if you already know the information]
I am asking for a refund of the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record. [the refunds for car finance can be a lot more complicated than this, see but this is all you need to put in your complaint]
I also want the CCJ that I have for this debt set aside. [delete this sentence if you don’t have a CCJ!]
I attach copies of my bank statements and credit report from the time I applied for this loan/these loans. [delete if you don’t yet have them yet, but they help your case if you do. Even if they show gambling, that supports your argument the loan was unaffordable.]
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 [2025] when I saw a newspaper article in the Sun/an advert on Facebook for refunds/a friend said they had made a complaint/posts about them on Instagram/TikTok, whatever. So I am complaining within 3 years of having found out that I have cause to complain. [only put this paragraph if some of your loans are more than 6 years old. It explains why you haven’t complained before. It’s only an example so change it so it really covers what happened to you!]
Add extra information if you want – see below for some ideas – you don’t have to do this.
Do you need a payment arrangement now?
If you want an affordable payment arrangement now, add a sentence to the complaint saying this. These complaints may take months to sort out – a payment arrangement can get your finances into a safe place:
- a payment arrangement shows on your credit record, but if you win the complaint all negative marks will be deleted
- talk to a debt adviser such as National Debtline if you want to know more about payment arrangements
- but don’t risk a payment arrangement for car finance or a logbook loan – one would put your car at risk.
Other details to add if you want
The template above is fine, you don’t have to add a lot more details.
But you can add extra points if they apply in your case, for example
- my bank statements and credit record (attached) show that I was unable to afford the loan repayments.
- this was a large loan, you knew I had poor credit and may have been in a difficult position so you should have tried to verify my income and expenses. If you had done this, you would have rejected my application.
- during a telephone call, your agent suggested some figures should be lower to get my application accepted.
- if the lender was your bank – you should have seen from my bank account that I was in financial difficulty, I was using my overdraft a lot, I was only making minimum payments to my credit card from you.
And some examples of points about top-ups:
- a credit check would have shown that my finances had got worse since the first loan
- I had said the first loan was to consolidate debt, but you should have seen that this hadn’t happened.
While you are waiting for a reply
Try to get copies of your bank statements from 3 months before a loan to three months afterwards. You can get statements from closed bank accounts, normally going back 6 years.
Also get a statutory credit report now and download it. You can get one from TransUnion. Do this as soon as possible as sometimes the details change, so you want a full one saved to show the Ombudsman later if necessary.
Do not wait until the Ombudsman asks you for credit records or bank statements – you want them ready to hand. They really help your case as they prove your financial situation when you took the loan out.
You should get a response from the lender within 8 weeks. If you don’t, phone them up and ask when you will get it – a couple of days is worth waiting for but many responses are rejections, so don’t wait weeks for one, go to the Ombudsman straight away.
Go to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a good offer
Don’t be put off by a rejection! Sometimes lenders send long, complicated replies designed to make you look as though you should give up:
- if they say the loan was over 6 years ago, see below for “time limits”. The Ombudsman may go back further than 6 years.
- they may say you were going to use it to consolidate more expensive debts – that doesn’t mean this loan was affordable, just not as unaffordable as the other debts;
- if the lender said it was your fault because your loan application wasn’t accurate – the lender should have made checks to verify it.
I suggest you rely on your instinct – if the loan caused you problems, send it to be looked at by the Ombudsman.
If you aren’t sure, ask in the Comments below this article. You only have 6 months to send the complaint to FOS, so it’s best to do this as soon as possible.
It isn’t usually worth trying to negotiate with these lenders, you are just wasting your time.
Send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
This is easy with the online form here: Send a complaint to the Ombudsman. It asks you for all the details they need.
The main part of your complaint can be a version of what you sent the lender in your complaint. Add any more details you want, including pointing out mistakes in the lender’s reply. Also attach:
- the reply from the lender
- Trans Union statutory credit record
- bank statements starting 3 months before first loan
- do not worry if you don’t have A copy of your credit or finance agreement – lots of people don’t. The lender will supply a copy if FOS asks for it. Don’t delay sending a complaint to FOS while you try to get this from the lender.
Other information that may help your case
Don’t delay sending a case to the Ombudsman while waiting for this information.
If you don’t have the bank statements from the time of the loan application, get them now. You can get these going back at least 6 years even from closed accounts. And you can often go back a lot further with an account that you are still using.
This is a good point to ask the lender for a Subject Access Request (SAR) if you are missing information that may come in useful at the Ombudsman. This could be your loan applications, all credit and other affordability checks and assessments, and a statement of account for the loans, and – if you think this will help – a record of all phone calls.
Your lender will have details of how to ask for this information on their website – it’s often included in their Privacy Policy, with a link at the bottom of web pages.
“Is there a time limit?”
You can’t complain about a loan that started before April 2007 – that is when the law changed to allow these complaints.
Lenders will often reject a complaint if the loan started more than 6 years ago.
But if your loan was still being repaid within the last 6 years, the Ombudsman may well decide they can look at it. So if your loan started in 2017 and finished in 2021, send this to the Ombudsman if the lender says it’s too old, because it isn’t.
The ombudsman may also look at older loans if you had a continuous stream of borrowing which carried on into the last 6 years. So if you had 2 loans, the first from 2014-17, when it was refinanced into a loan from 2017-2021, the Ombudsman may decide they can look at the earlier loan as well. And if you had two overlapping loans, eg from 2014-2019 and 2017-2022, the Ombudsman may look at both.
But if your loans from this lender ended more than 6 years ago, then it is very unlikely you will win a case at the Ombudsman.
Need some help?
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive, often incompetent and use a similar template to the one in this article.
Instead, ask a question in the comments below.
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Refunds from cards and catalogues
Stacey says
Hi Sarah!
Just wanted to say I used your template for loan refunds and after Zopa initially rejected my complaint I took it the FOS and they’ve now upheld it! Were it not for you I’d have never had the knowledge or confidence to do this, so thank you so much! It’s always worth trying!
Becca says
Hey Stacey. That’s great news! Do you mind me asking what stage did it get to? I’ve had a positive stage 1 decision but waiting to see if Zopa come back to challenge the investigator’s initial decision. Just trying to second guess the likelihood of Zopa pushing back
AQ says
Hello Sara,
I am considering to raise affordability complaint against PayPal. My worry is I opened this account in February 2020. If PayPal rejects it can I take it to FOS or they won’t entertain it? Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people seem have older PayPal cases being looked at, so worth a try
Jordan Williams says
Hello,
My partner has car finance and we believe she should never have been accepted for £22k HP finance.
She has had the car for two years and has two years remaining, she pays £380 per month, the balloon payment is £7k at the end.
What’s the deal with complaining whilst she still has payments to make and the car hasn’t officially been paid off?
Will they take her car? We are worried if this would be the case. The loan is with Close Brothers.
Thankyou
Jordan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
22k was the amount she borrowed?
Did she (or you) have car finance before this one that started before Jan 2021?
Jordan Williams says
Hi!
Yes I had car finance in 2021 January and in 2020
Sara (Debt Camel) says
use this free MSE tool to start a possible claim for a refund of commission on the old finances: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-car-finance/
if this works, there won’t be any money until next year
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you confirm if you borrowed 22k? or did that include the interest that is added?
how much in total has been paid to this so far?
Sharon says
Hi there
Hoping for some advice about complaints time limits. I’ve made a complaint about a secured loan that was taken out in 2016. In summary, huge interest, hard selling, used to pay off short term loads that were escalating etc…I complained in 2025 as I had only just became aware that responsible lending complaints were possible about secured loans (I knew about Paydays loans etc as these are widely publicised). The FOS is claiming that I should have been aware sooner and therefore won’t explore my complaint. Any advice on how to challenge this would be hugely appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All you can do is repeat that if you had had any idea that an affordability complaint was possible about a secured loan, you would have complained in 2017 when you made complaints about payday loans. Point out that there is no conceivable reason why you would not have done this so this is actually evidence that you did NOT know about this sort of complaint back then.
Ask the investigator to reconsider and send the case to an Ombudsman if they dont change their mind.
Dean says
Hi Sara I messaged a while back about the HP claim going on I’ve message black horse with the template around 9 months ago shall I now message the ombudsman now with my complaint?
Many thanks
Dean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is this an affordability complaint or about a refund of car commission?
Dean says
Car commission I messaged a while back and you said about the verdict was this December from the high court or something but I’ve never sent it to the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I said the FCA has allowed lenders to “pause” complaint handling and they don’t have to reply until December 2025.
A Supreme Court Case was held in April. The judgement should be out this month or early August. The FCA will then make announcement on its proosed way forward 6 weeks after that judgment is handed down.
Dean says
Amazing thank you so shall I send to the ombudsman then now or wait?
Manybthanks
Dean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wait – there is no point in sending this to the ombudsman now.
Paula Smith says
Hello
Firstly I would like to say thank you for all your help and assistance I have had a few claims now settled.
I just have one more question I settled a credit card full and final settlement in January 2024 as my husband paid it off for me and never heard anything from them.
They have now agreed to settle my affordability claim but are trying to take the difference off, that they reduced to give me a full and final settlement figure.
Can they do this?
I thought a full and final settlement figure was binding. I have spoken to them on the phone but getting nowhere.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so your husband settled the card for less than the balance?
If he did, then yes it’s right to reduce your refund.
Let me give a very simple example with unrealistic figures . Suppose you spent 5000 on a card and £150 interest was added for each of the first three months and you never paid them anything, the balance would then be £5450
Say you then offered to settled for £5,100 and the lender accepted.
Then you made an affordability complaint and won. You are not going to get a refund of the £450 interest added because you have paid that much. You can only get a refund of the £100 interest you actually paid.
Paula Smith says
Thanks for getting back to me I really appreciate your time.
The balance on the card was £2900, we paid off £2140 as a full and final settlement figure n January 2024 and noted on my credit file balance zero on 6th February 2024. The FOS said this card should never have been given and for interest to be paid back, charges, let fees and 8% if the balance was clear. I had the
card for 28 months and the refund they have processed is for £174, and put over £800 towards my BIP account.The Apr on the card was about 39% . Is the £174 about right?
Sorry for asking but I’m useless trying to work it out.
I have contacted BIP but they aren’t helping I don’t know whether to try and send it back to the FOS
Any advice would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This was a newday card? when was it opened?
When was Bip opened? Did you also complain about that?
Paula Smith says
I had two cards one was marbles which I was still paying to a debt recovery company but they have refunded £1540 which cleared the balance( this was the first card I got through new day it had a £2000 credit limit I got that card in 2021). The card I refer to above was New Day BIP card taken out in July 2022 and I made the payment in January 2024 and this is the one they have refunded me £174 on.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so the Marbles card and the refund to that are totally separate to this BIP issue – correct?
The balance on the BIP card was £2900, we paid off £2140 as a full and final settlement figure n January 2024 and noted on my credit file balance zero on 6th February 2024.
So that was a reduction of £760, right?
The FOS said this card should never have been given and for interest to be paid back, charges, let fees and 8% if the balance was clear. I had the card for 28 months and the refund they have processed is for £174, and put over £800 towards my BIP account.The Apr on the card was about 39% . Is the £174 about right?
So they have used over 800 to clear the BIP balance which you think was already clear? And given you £174 in cash?
Have I understood this correctly?
Paula Smith says
Hi Sarah
Yes that correct Bip refund totally separate to the marbles refund.
Yes they have used the £800 to pay the bip balance which I paid in full as a full and final settlement in Jan 2024 and updated as agreed on my credit file as zero balance and close in Feb 2024
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so I think they were entitled to do this. You never actually paid that much in interest because of the final settlement, so you wont get it all back in cash.
Whether their figure are right is a different matter. Can you add up from the statements the total amount you have paid in interest and charges in the 28 months? I can’t guess at that amount. Bip seem to say its about 800 + 174 = 974.
Even if you can only see a few statements that would help?
Paula Smith says
That’s great thanks for getting back to me.
I will contact BIP and ask to provide me with the details of interest and charges paid as I no longer have access to my online account as when made the final payment they closed the account.
Thanks again
Gareth says
Looking for advice. I sent a complaint to Vanquis for a sunflower loan I had, I hadn’t heard anything
back so I contacted them to see and they said they just closed the complaint as a had a final resolution 1 year
ago but that resolution was for an old loan I had before and not the current loan. Now should I complain
straight to the ombudsman or send a new complaint to Vanquis explaining that it was for a different loan. Only issue
now it’s over 3 years and I’m afraid they’re going use that excuse that they can’t look into it due to being over 3 years.
When i originally complained in May it was under the 3 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to them and say that response didn’t cover your current loan
Gareth says
Thank you. Ive emailed them now so hopefully will get sorted
Caroline says
Hi Sara, hoping you can give me a little advice – really appreciate the work you do here!
I made a complaint about three loans I was given by RBS and the FOS has not upheld it as they say there’s nothing in my credit reports or statements to show I was struggling financially.
I think this is unfair based on the circumstances but I’m not sure if I’m right or if its worth pursuing, and if so what I should say/do in response.
Basically, I had two accounts with RBS with combined overdrafts of £3200 for many years (monthly income was about £2k). In 2018 I told them I was struggling with these plus a credit card. Agreed a £10k loan in July but I didn’t close the overdrafts and was back to relying on them by October 2018 so took another £8k loan online. When I finished paying both loans off in 2021 I was still in both overdrafts monthly and still had a high amount of CC debt. So I took out another loan with RBS online for £13.7k to consolidate these.
I am still in a large amount of debt, paying this loan and CCs. Obviously I have personal issues related to emotional and impulse spending which I am working on, but I think RBS could have done more to help me, or at least curb my borrowing, based on the fact I approached them and told them I was struggling.
Do you think I have any case here to appeal to the Ombudsman? I have complained separately about the overdrafts but it is still being reviewed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so did you clear the card with the first two loans? and again with the second?
Caroline says
I cleared the card yes and the overdrafts but then kept using them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the cost of the loans was a significant part of the reason you ended up using the cards again, I suggest you send this to the ombudsman