The repayments on many loans are too high to be manageable so people get deeper into debt trying to repay them.
If you have an unaffordable loan, you can complain and ask for interest to be removed from your balance. If the loan has been settled, you can ask for a refund of the interest you paid.
This article describes how to complain, with templates. Many people have used them and got refunds – see the comments below.
If you win your complaint you will get the interest refunded or – if you still owe a balance – removed so you only have to repay what you borrowed.
The complaints here are for unsecured loans.
You can also use this approach for logbook loans and car finance. But for car finance you may have a better option than an affordability complaint, so first read HP/PCP car finance problems.
If you have a guarantor loan, read Refunds from guarantor loans as it’s very different, and the guarantor may be able to complain as well.
Contents
Refunds from unaffordable loans – what is unaffordable?
A lender should have checked when you applied that a loan is affordable for you. The regulator says “affordable” means:
you can make the repayments without hardship or having to borrow elsewhere.
This applies to most forms of credit, including large, long term loans, logbook loans and car finance.
It isn’t just for “bad credit” loans – but as bad credit loans have very high interest they are more often unaffordable.
For payday loans, it’s hard to get a refund if you only had one or two payday loans. That is because those loans are usually small so the lender doesn’t have to make good checks for the first few loans.
But the good news is that for larger and longer-term credit, the lender should have made better checks at the start!
Making a complaint and asking for a refund
Email addresses for lenders
It’s easiest if all communications are by email – free, instant and you have a copy with a date stamp to show the ombudsman. So here are the email addresses to use for the main bad credit, large loan lenders. There are a lot of small lenders including Credit Unions – if your lender is not listed you can still complain, look at the lender’s website to find how.
Anico complaints@anicofinancialservices.com
Avant Credit emailcomplaints@avantcredit.co.uk
Bamboo Loans complaints@bambooloans.com
Everyday Loans complaints@everyday-loans.co.uk
Koyo loans info@koyoloans.com
Lendable complaint@lendable.co.uk
Lifestyle Loans info@lifestyleloans.co.uk
Likely Loans loans@likelyloans.com
LiveLend support@livelend.co
Loans by Mal (Monthly Advance Loans) Complaints@loansbymal.co.uk
Loans 2 Go ps@loans2go.co.uk – also read Loans2Go’s interest rate – “outrageous” – how to complain
Moneyline headoffice@moneyline-uk.com
Moolr admin@moolr.co.uk
MyJar in administration but you can still send in complaints – email myjar@harrisons.uk.com with CLAIM as the title
Progressive Money complaints@progressivemoney.co.uk
Quick Loans customerscare@quickloans.co.uk
Satsuma now in a Scheme – see Provident and Satsuma Claims for what to do.
Savvy info@savvy.co.uk
Vanquis customer.relations@vanquisbank.co.uk
1st Stop customerservices@1ststop.co.uk
118 118 Money complaints@118118money.com
Here are some logbook lenders and bad credit card finance lenders:
Advantage complaints@advantage-finance.co.uk
CarCashPoint complaints@carcashpoint.com
CarFinance247 customercare@carfinance247.co.uk
First Response johnf@frfl.co.uk
LoanOnYourCar customerservice@loanonyourcar.com
Loans 2 Go ps@loans2go.co.uk
Mobile Money complaints@mobilemoney.co.uk
Moneybarn complaints@moneybarn.com
MoneyWay complaints@securetrustbank.co.uk
Motor Kitty customercare@motorkitty.co.uk
Ramsdens (logbook loans) customerservices@ramsdensforcash.co.uk
Varooma complaints@varooma.com
If your loan has been sold to a debt collector, you send your complaint to the original lender.
For guarantor loans, there is a different approach – see guarantor loan complaints by the borrower and guarantor loan complaints by the guarantor for details.
Start the complaint – ask for personal information & get your credit record.
Get a copy of your current credit report saved immediately. You can get one from TransUnion. Do this first thing as lenders may later change the information on there, so you want a full one saved to show the Ombudsman later if necessary.
Then email the lender and begin your complaint. Put AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT as the subject of your email.
You probably already know when you took out the loan and any top-ups. But it’s good to ask the lender to send you a copy of all the personal information they have about you. This will give you a lot of information that can be useful later if you have to send the complaint to the ombudsman, so ask for it right at the beginning.
Sample email:
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.
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, but they will help your case if you do.]
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 [2020] when I saw a newspaper article in the Sun/an advert on Facebook for payday loan refunds/a friend said they had made a complaint/whatever. So I am complaining within 3 years of having found out that I have cause to complain. [delete if all your loans are less than 6 years old. This explains why you haven’t complained before. It’s only an example, don’t copy it, 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.
I am also making a Subject Access Request (SAR) for all the personal information you hold about me including, but not limited to, my applications, all credit and other affordability checks, a statement of account for my borrowing, and a record of all phone calls.
SARs are often sent out by post, make sure the lender has your new address if you have moved!
If you want an affordable payment arrangement now, add a sentence to the complaint saying this:
- this is often a good idea as these complaints can take a long while to sort out so a payment arrangement gets your finances into a safe place while this gets sorted
- 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 payments arrangements
- a payment arrangement for a logbook loan will put your car at risk, so you may have to keep paying this.
While you are waiting for the lender’s reply, try to get copies of your bank statements from 3 months before a loan to three months afterwards.
Also read Lender says I lied. That looks at the various reasons why your application may not have been accurate. People have won complaints where they lied because they were desperate but there are other reasons too, so think what (if any) may have applied to you.
Other details you can add if you want
The template above is fine, you don’t have to add a lot more details. I am not even sure some lenders read what you write.
It is better to write a short complaint summarising your problems than send pages telling the lender stuff they already know. For example the lender doesn’t need a list of your loans.
But if you want you can include extra points in the initial complaint above. Or send the lender another email afterwards to add to your case.
When you have the SAR back from the lender, you can look for things that the lender knew but chose to ignore or didn’t ask about. See How Subject Access Request information can help an affordability complaint which has details about what to look for.
Here are some points that may apply to your case:
- 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 details. If you had done this, you would have rejected my application.
- My bank statement would have shown that I was spending more than the application said. You should have noticed that some figures were too low or missing, for example from my application : x,y,z, car costs, TV licence, opticians and dental costs, presents, clothes, school uniforms.
- During a telephone call, your agent talked me into agreeing that some figures should be lower in order to get my application accepted.
- I didn’t include payday loans as credit commitments on my application as I thought that was for long term credit, but you could see I had several from my credit record.
- you made deductions straight from salary/had my child benefit paid to you which has caused me difficulty when I have needed to ask for a payment arrangement.
And points about top-ups:
- a credit check would have shown that my finances had got worse since the first loan
- you didn’t ask if my income or expenses had changed, and they had.
- you didn’t ask for bank statements so you could check if the new repayments were affordable.
- I had said the first loan was to consolidate debt, but you should have seen that this hadn’t happened.
- you increased my interest rate, showing you realised I was in a more difficult position but you did not check whether I could actually afford the new repayments.
The lender replies – go to the Ombudsman if a poor offer
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.
Don’t be put off by a rejection! Or if the lender saying it was your fault because your loan application wasn’t accurate. Sometimes a lender will send a long, complicated reply designed to make you look as though you should give up.
Lenders are obliged to do checks. For one small payday loan, these checks could have been brief. But for your large loan, the lender should have made sure they knew enough to be confident you could afford it, even if was your first loan from them. If they didn’t, send your case to the Ombudsman.
I suggest you rely on your gut feel – if you know repaying the loan caused you a lot of problems then it is worth sending the case to be looked at by the Ombudsman.
If you aren’t sure, ask what other people think 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 oon as possible.
It isn’t usually worth trying to negotiate with these lenders, you are just wasting your time – one exception is Bamboo.
Send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
It’s easy! I suggest you use the “do it online” option to 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 complait. Add any more details you want, including pointing out if you think there are errors 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.
Your complaint will first be looked at by an adjudicator. If either you or the lender rejects the adjudicator’s decision, it will then be looked at by an Ombudsman.
“What about a bank loan?”
The affordability test is the same – could you repay the loan without getting deeper into debt elsewhere. But the interest rates are lower than “bad credit lenders” so it’s harder to show that the smaller repayments are unaffordable – unless the loan was very large.
So it can be harder to win a case involving a typical bank loan, especially if your credit record was OK. But if you know the loan was unaffordable then give it a go and use the template letter here.
These affordability complaints do not apply to secured loans or mortgages. If you have a priblem with one of these, talk to your local Citizens Advice.
Need some help?
If you need help to complain, go to your local Citizens Advice, they will help for free.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. And if you still owe money, then you may just get the interest removed so you owe less… which is great, but you don’t want to have to pay a claims company in cash when you never had a cash refund to pay it from.
Can you get a refund for doorstep loans?
Is a card or catalogue limit too high?
Examples of gambling & payday loan refunds
Lottie says
Hello Sara,
Do you know how long the ombudsman are taking to look at complaints at the moment? I have really bad MH and a terrible financial situation, and they have had my case after Logbook loans declined the adjudicators findings saying the loans were unaffordable. They have had it since August this year, not that long. But for someone like me with MH it feels forever. As I have already been in this process since June 2020 many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you phone FOS and tell them about your mental health problems and ask be treated as a priority.
Vickie says
I had a logbook loan with auto advance and then a top up loan. Neither was affordable due to being a compulsive gambler. Sent in complaint following the template on here. Autoadvance took the full 8 weeks to respond but did agree that the top up loan was unaffordable but disagreed that the original loan was unaffordable. Both loans have separate agreement numbers etc. They have refunded interest for the second loan. My question is this matter now closed or am I able to send the first loan to FOS? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did they ask you to accept the settlement offer?
Vickie says
Yes. They rejected loan 1 and offered settlement offer in relation to loan 2.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
And you accepted this? Did it say it was in full settlement of your complaint?
gez says
Hi How long does the financial ombudsman take get back to people.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s pretty variable. Who is the lender?
Gez says
Its safety net credit
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, when did you send FOS the case?
SNC normally send the case file over without much delay when asked. And they typically accept adjudicator decisions, so thus isn’t a particularly slow sort of case.
Tom says
Avant update … redress of £10k landed in my account this morning.
Thank you Sara for giving me the tools, and this forum the encouragement, to see these things through. I am so thrilled and very nearly at the end of my debt journey…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wow!
Alisa says
Hello Sara!
I’m in a pretty bad financial situation at the moment. I’ve made irresponsible lending claim, still awaiting for reply, money were borrowed for trading, however, all gone left me in debt hole.
Do you think I have any chance to get something out of my claim. At the time of borrowing it was clearly that I couldn’t afford it. My biggest worry is if I will be asked for bank statements they will see where money were transferred and they will report me as a fraud.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who was the lender? How much did you borrow?
What is you current financial position like?
Alisa says
Lender is Hitachi £25000, pretty bad, I have other four loans as well my current salary £2200 (had to opt out pension) at the time of loans was about £2000
only loan payments £1820, I have mortgage, bills, childcare etc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the problem here is that if you win your complaint only the interest is removed and you will still owe the 25k, which sounds unaffordable.
How much equity is there in your house? What is the total of your debts?
Alisa says
£87K total
Equity of the property about £150k
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you need to talk to a debt adviser about your options. Winning this Hitachi complaint won’t make much of a dent. In 87k of debt, as it’s only the interest that would be refunded. An IVA is one possibility, another is selling the house and settling them. I suggest you talk to StepChange.
AO says
Hi All,
Experiences with Moneybarn
Finally after 18 months my investigator has ruled in my favour with MONEYBARN and sent his findings over and Moneybarn has agreed with him.. this was back in 2013, Moneybarn revoked the car after 6 months.. anyone had dealings with them as I needed to send bank account number over but since then no communication at all or break down of the redress, to be fair it’s only been a week.
Thanks
james aylwin says
Has anyone had any experience with with TM Advances?
Bingbang says
Yes. I won a case against them with FOS. Adjucator denied my complaint then Ombudman overturned it. From complaint to FOS decision took about 12 months.
James Aylwin says
Once the FOS found in your favour how quickly did TM advances take to provide the refund?
Bingbang says
They were fairly quick once I chased them. 1-2 weeks at most but make sure to forward the decision to them and also call so they are aware.
James Aylwin says
OK. Thank you that is really helpful. They rejected the adjudication so it is going to ombudsmun for a final decision. Hopefully i don’t have to wait to long. I will definitely forward the decision and phone as well thanks for the advice. Did they pay the 8% interest as well?
Bingbang says
Yes they paid 8% interest. In my experience the ombudsman is much faster at reaching a decision now, especially if they agree with the adjucator so hopefully it’s all sorted for you in a couple of weeks.
James says
Thank you.
Njw says
Has anybody had any joy with go car credit? I’ve got a case at ombudsman
Tom says
I put a complaint in to Bamboo in May 2020. They roundly rejected it, so I sent it off the FOS.
An Adjudicator picked it up on Friday, and Bamboo got back in touch with me directly to say that having re-looked at my complaint, it was groundless but since going through the FOS would cost them money, they were prepared to offer me £750 as a goodwill gesture.
I had to think very carefully about this as if I won at FOS, I stood to be paid about £5k but to my mind, it wasn’t the strongest of my cases – it was unaffordable but there was a lot less evidence of it than other cases I’ve won.
So… I negotiated. In the end, we settled on £3k, plus £250 for the time it has taken, on the proviso it was paid within 5 days. They’d paid it by the end of the day!
I’ve seen it said on here before, but clearly you can negotiate with Bamboo! Shame they let it sit with the FOS for 14 months but a good result ultimately.
Lee says
Another success Tom. Congrats mate. Sent you a message above about Avant. Just wondering on timeframes. As got my Avant one waiting to be assigned to an adjudicator at the FOS.
H says
Hi Sara – are there any cases on here for Salary Finance please?
Hi all – anyone logged a complaint with them please?
thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Only the one you have seen and asked about
Alex says
Hi Sara, they rejected my complaint and it’s been sent to the FOS but nobody contacted me yet. It’s been a while. They aren’t nice to deal with. I clearly could not afford it and they haven’t done any checks at all, but said it was affordable. I had 5 more loans at the time and they’ve all accepted it’s been unaffordable..I’m still waiting for the FOS to pick up my case, which takes ages seems like …
Sally says
Hi Sara ,
I have just 2 more cases left and both are with ombudsman, one is for logbook loan carcashpoint ,where adjucator ruled in my favour but they did not agree and now pending with ombudsman for last 6 months .
2nd one is with 118118money , where the adjucator did not rule in my favour and I told her that I would like an ombudsman to review it , nearly after a month the same adjucator called me up to say that she is reviewing my case again was she thinks she might have missed some information, I have not provided any further information, hopefully it goes in my favour , previously I have had success with lending stream, safety net credit ,myjar , casheuronet , sunny , amigo , aqua credit card all ruled in my favour
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a lot of bad credit lenders! Hope these last two get sorted in your favour.
Tom says
Hi Sara,
I have just noticed that Bamboo carried out a hard search of my credit file, labelled as ‘credit application’ last week. This is when I was settling my complaint with them.
Are they allowed to do that? It seems unfair that I should be showing as having made a credit application when I haven’t…
I know only one search probably isn’t too bad, but it is annoying when I have gone to such lengths to repair my credit report…
Any advice? Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has your complaint been settled satisfactorily?
Tom says
Yes, no issues with the complaint, just the hard search…
Maybe I’m worrying about nothing!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send them a complaint and tell them to delete it!
anne says
Hi, with one thing and another I received a reply from Likely Loans saying that they did not uphold my complaint.
Is there a time limit as to when I can send this through to the Ombudsman?
Or would I have to send another complaint to Likely Loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
6 months. If you are beyond that point it is too late – unless you have a very good reason for the delay, not “one thing and another”.
If you are beyond that time, you can’t start again by sending a second complaint to LL – they will reject it on the grounds that they have already replied to it. And the Ombudsman will not look at it.
Ha says
I have had a letter from the adjudicator saying he sides with my complaint and gave them until today to respond. What happens if the debt was sold by the original lender.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The lender has to resolve the situation with the debt collector. Have you been paying the debt collector? Are you expecting a cash refund once the balance is cleared?
HA says
I’ve been paying step change who have been paying the new collector. I took a £5000 loan out in 2016 and the interest was £4680 I’ve been paying them back ever since and think I still owe them around £6000. I’m hoping they just clear my balance but unsure how it all works
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so it may not clear your balance as it sounds as though you have paid less than the £5000 you borrowed. In that case I would just let StepChange carry on paying and the lender can sort it out.
Dom says
Good evening, I am currently in a DMP with a ramining balance of £9331, I pay back £382 a month. It is made up of 7 creditors. My question is I have 3 complaints in with the Financial Ombudsman, 1 of them being with Everyday Loans, the remaining balance is £6966 with a interest repayment at the moment of £1077 without the interest added. Obviously should i win this affordability complaint it would take a huge chunk out of my debts, it’s been 4 months, i’ve seen you say before you can ask the FO to prioritise you, what would allow this to happen? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS will normally give priority to people who are in danger of losing their homes through eviction, or where their mental or physical health is being affected.
Lex says
Hello sara
Peachy loan have sent me an email saying my compensation is £231 but will only get £10. Is this normal ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes I am afraid so – someone reported yesterday (https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-214/#comment-444845) that they were paying out less than 5%.
Max says
I got a similar email, they’re only paying out 4.65p in the £1.
Max says
Hi Sara,
I’ve not see Livelend (Chetwood Finance Ltd) mentioned much here, so thought I’d share my story as been very, very impressed with their response to my complaint.
I borrowed £5,000 about three years ago with x 12 monthly repayments of around £450. The APR was relatively favourable (for me!) at sub-20%,
I made a (relatively weak) complaint in mid-August, they completed their investigation last week, upheld my complaint 48 hours ago, and the money is already in my account.
They said in summary: “Typically we’ve seen customers with a similar financial profile to yours have been able to maintain their contractual monthly payments. However, we appreciate that each customer is different and having reviewed your specific circumstances we can see that there may have been signs of financial stress on your credit file.”
My refund – including 8% interest – was around £100 less than what the FOS case fee would have been, but whether that was a factor in their decision is unclear.
I feel lots of other high-cost lenders could learn from their approach.
Max
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for that feedback.