The repayments on many loans from bad credit lenders 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. It is a variation on the standard approach for payday loan refunds – this works better where the loans are very large, longer term and you only had 1 or 2 loans, possibly with top ups.
NB the complaints here are for “normal” unsecured loans and HP/PCP car finance. You can also use this approach for logbook loans. 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
Like payday loan refunds – but you can get a refund for just one loan
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 is the same test as for payday loan refunds. It applies to most forms of credit, including large, long term loans and logbook loans.
The payday loan refund template letter has got tens of thousands of people refunds. That letter emphasises the problems that repeat borrowing caused. Because payday loans are usually small, it’s hard to get a refund if you only had one or two payday loans.
That sounds like bad news for these complaints about large loans, where you normally only have one loan plus possibly a top up or two…
But the good news is that because these loans are larger and longer-term, the lender should have made better checks before giving you the first loan!
So the letter here is for large loans.
Making a complaint and asking for a refund
This is what you need to do:
- Get a copy of your personal information from the lender and a copy of your credit record.
- Put in a detailed complaint.
- Consider lender’s response.
- Send the complaint to the Finanical Ombudsman.
Send your complaint by email – here are the addresses
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 and lenders:
Avant Credit emailcomplaints@avantcredit.co.uk
Bamboo Loans complaints@bambooloans.com
CarCashPoint complaints@carcashpoint.com
Everyday Loans complaints@everyday-loans.co.uk
Likely Loans loans@likelyloans.com
LoanOnYourCar customerservice@loanonyourcar.com
Loans 2 Go (and their logbookloans.co.uk brand) ps@loans2go.co.uk
Mobile Money complaints@mobilemoney.co.uk
Moneybarn complaints@moneybarn.com
Moolr admin@moolr.co.uk
Motor Kitty customercare@motorkitty.co.uk
MyJar (including Myjar Plus) generalcomplaints@myjar.com
On Stride support@onstride.co.uk
Progressive Money complaints@progressivemoney.co.uk
Quick Loans customerscare@quickloans.co.uk
Ramsdens (logbook loans) customerservices@ramsdensforcash.co.uk
Satsuma onlinecustomercare@satsuma-loans.co.uk
Savvy info@savvy.co.uk
Vanquis customer.relations@vanquisbank.co.uk
Varooma complaints@varooma.com
1st Stop customerservices@1ststop.co.uk
118 118 Money complaints@118118money.com
I have included a couple of payday lenders there – Myjar and Satsuma – because they often give very large loans. If you borrowed a lot from those lenders, use the main payday loan refund letter. But if you just had a few very big loans, use the letters on this page.
For guarantor loans, there is a different approach – see guarantor loan complaints by the borrower and guarantor loan complaints by the guarantor for details
Stage 1 – 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 Credit Karma. 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. The clock is then going and the lender has 8 weeks to respond to you. 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 infomration 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.
[add extra information if you want from the stage 2 email – you don’t have to do this]
[delete if you have repaid the loan] I would also like an affordable repayment plan to be put in place if I still owe a balance after this refund.
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. I understand you are not allowed to charge me for sending this information.
SARs are often sent out by post, make sure the lender has your new address if you have moved!
NB The template says you are asking for an affordable payment arrangement at the end of your complaint. If you want, you can ask for an affordable payment arrangement immediately unless you have a logbook loan, where you have to keep up the payments or you may lose your car.
While you are waiting for the lender’s reply, assemble some other information that may help your case:
- copies of your bank statements from 3 months before the first loan.
- your free Credit Karma credit report (used to be called Noddle).
Also read Payday 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.
Stage 2 (OPTIONAL) – add more details
This step is optional because your complaint has already started. Many lenders don’t seem to think about what you write, they just do some internal check on your borrowing before sending you a response. So you may decide it’s not worth spending time to send them more detailed information which they will ignore…
But here is what to do if you want to write more. It helps you to understand how good your case is and this is the sort of infomration it is useful to send to the Ombudsman.
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.
Change the template below so it reflects what happened to you. Where I have given some options, you can delete them all and put in another one if that is more accurate.
No-one will include all these points!
It is better to write a short complaint summarising your problems than send pages telling the lender stuff they already know eg the lender doesn’t need a list of your loans.
You can see from my bank statements and credit record that I was unable to afford the loan repayments. [Delete if not relevant] [For example, I had to borrow from X payday lender and I defaulted on my Y debt.]
When I completed the loan application, I understated some of my expenses. This was because: [put what actually happened! this could be something like] I wasn’t very aware of the amounts I was spending and completed the application hastily. OR I wanted to hide the fact I was spending a lot of money on gambling/cigarettes/alcohol. OR I was desperate and wanted to make my expenses sound low so you would give me the loan.
The FCA says that you should not accept an application where you ought reasonably to know the figures are not truthful, you can’t rely solely on the information on an application, and that you should not accept information which is inconsistent with what you know.
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.
For example [delete or add to these as appropriate]:
- You should have noticed that some figures were too low, for example: x,y,z
- I didn’t include amounts such as [delete/add as appropriate]: car insurance, TV license, opticians and dental costs, presents]
- My bank statement would have shown that I was spending more than the application said. Either you saw my bank statement and ignored this or you never asked for my bank statement to verify this.
- During a telephone call, your agent talked me into agreeing that some figures should be lower in order to get my application accepted.
- Your application didn’t ask me for details of my other credit commitments and I didn’t realise I had to include them.
- 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 should have seen that the figures I put in for other credit commitments were inconsistent with my credit record.
When I applied for a second loan/a top-up [delete/add as appropriate]:
- you ignored the evidence on the credit check that my position had got more difficult OR you didn’t do a new credit check. If you had done this you would have seen the new credit I had taken out and the new problems showing on my credit record.
- 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.
Stage 3 – consider lender’s response
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.
Normally you can tell straight away if a response is acceptable or not good enough. If you aren’t sure, ask what other people think in the Comments below this article.
Don’t be put off by a rejection. Or if the lender saying it was your fault because your loan application wasn’t accurate.
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.
It isn’t usually worth trying to negotiate with these lenders, you are just wasting your time.
Stage 4 – send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
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 Stage two. 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
- Credit Karma 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 reject the adjudicator’s decision, it will then be looked at by an Ombudsman.
“Is this really going to work?”
Here are some recent comments from people who have had refunds for this sort of loan. They show how some people get a good result directly and others have to go to the Ombudsman. Don’t assume a rejection by the lender means you can’t win!
Andy: A flat out refusal from 118118 Money. One loan (£1,000) plus one top up (£2,500). Stating they had done nothing wrong, all payments made on time and paid top up loan off early. Saying I had a good income, verified by a bank statement and they had phone call recordings that I had made it clear the repayments were affordable.
Sent to FOS as I was in loads of debt at the time, loads of repeat pay day loans etc. Didn’t hold out much hope but thought I may get a positive decision on the top up loan. Adjudicator held in my favour on both loans. 118118 accepted decision and offered circa £800. I had my loan statements and the total interest (plus 8% interest) was nearer £1,300. Adjudicator queried this for me with 118118. They agreed with my calculations. Adjudicator gave them 28 days to pay. It was in my bank the very same day.
Dan: I had a complaint upheld by the adjudicator at the Ombudsman against Avant Credit: Refund of all interest and 8%, £75 compensation, removal of loan from my credit file. Avant Credit agreed with the adjudicator.
Louise: Have had my response from Everyday Loans and complaint upheld. All interest been removed and I only have to pay back what they lent. Excellent outcome. Lent 5000 and have paid 3k so just 2k left to go. On my DMPthe balance was showing at 6.5k still left. Took them 5 weeks to uphold my complaint a lot of emails going back and forth.
Soph: Had 2 loans from Avant Credit. Rejected within 2 days, sent to FOS Jan, upheld in March, Avant agreed with FOS and refund in the bank within 7 days.
Robert: I was successful in getting all interest wiped from my topped up loan with 118 118, didn’t go to the FOS or anything.
“What about a bank loan?”
The affordability test is the same – could you repay the loan without getting deeper into debt elsewhere. But there are two problems with normal bank loans:
- their interest rates are lower so it’s harder to show that the smaller repayments are unaffordable; and
- if your credit record was OK or even good, the bank wouldn’t have been alerted to the fact you may have difficulty.
So it can be hard to win a case involving a typical bank loan, especially if your credit record was OK. But if you want to try, use the template letters here.
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.
Getting a payday loan refund if you owe money
What to put in an affordability complaint
Examples of gambling & payday loan refunds
Lindsey says
My 118 complaint went to the FOS in July 19 and I haven’t heard anything since. My outstanding balance is also with Moorcroft who I’m making monthly payments too.
mike lord says
Hello Sara
I put a complaint in with varooma and it was rejected , they had me down as earning £4000 a month when the income on my bank statements were from my LTD company income and it was to pay for the running of my vehicle and staff/supplies
I have sent to FOS but do you think this will get me anywhere? they have repossessed the van now anyway and I still owe them 3800?
also can they take the case to court whilst I’m awaiting the FOS ?
thanks for any help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t say what the chance of winning is but £4000 a month sounds like an implausibly large income for someone needing a logbook loan…
The lender should not start court action while there is a complaint outstanding at FOS. of they threaten this, point this out. If they send you a letter Before Action/Claim (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/ for what this looks like) then come back here. But I haven’t seen them try this in practice.
Mike lord says
As always thanks for the help, the bank statements show i had decent money going in but also going out, the did the affordability sheet but i hardly put anything down, all in all it said my disposable income was 2900 and my loan was only for 2000
Fingers crossed, i guess FOS will take a very long time anyway
Daisy says
Has anyone had any luck hearing back from FOS on 118 money loan complaints? This seems a particularly long one for many people, including myself. I call once a month but just get informed they have the info from me and the business and I’m still in the queue. Complaint submitted July 2019.
DM84 says
Mine has been with them since December 2018 so I would expect a lot longer to wait.
Roy Baines says
I have a few complaints including 118118 from about Feb 2019 and still waiting. Surprisingly the complaint I made at the same time about Sunny and the 44 loans they gave me over 4 – 5 years period was resolved within the time frame stated by the FOS. I hope thats not a case of processing the easy complaints and leaving the more difficult ones for later :o
Lee Walker says
I’ve had a reply from bamboo, complaint not upheld for a loan with them- now referred to FOS and I’ll forget it for now.
118118 Money replied to say they weren’t upholding the initial loan complaint, not a second loan but they did agree the top up wasn’t done right and have knocked all interest off the remaining loan halfing the amount owed to them saving me about £700 in interest. I’m going to refer this one too but has anyone had similar and did they get a result through the FOS once a complaint from either of these two wasn’t upheld/partially upheld.
Thanks
Lee
Catherine says
Hi Lee,
If you haven’t already,go back to Bamboo and say you do not agree and explain why and ask for it to be reviewed by the compliance team.My one loan was not upheld,I went back and addressed every point on their response and attached evidence,statements,screenshots,info from credit report etc and also addressed part of their response where they stated regardless of the income I put,they said they only needed to prove I received a income of XXX but when I took that figure and deducted the expenses etc they put in their response,they themselves had demonstrated the loan was unaffordable.3days later and over £5000 of interest was wiped.
Good Luck
rikki says
Hi Looking for some advice i have just made a complaint to 118118 and i have had this reply via email.
IRRESPONSIBLE LENDING COMPLAINT RECEIVED. IF CUSTOMER REAPPLIES WE REQUIRE THREE MONTHS’ WORTH OF: PROOF
OF INCOME (PAYSLIP/BANK STATEMENT) & PROOF OF EXPENDITURE TO SUPPORT FIGURES ENTERED ON APP (BANK
STATEMENT). APPLICATION MUST BE ASSESSED ON THESE AND REFERRED TO COMPLAINTS FOR FINAL REVIEW IF APP IS TO BE
ACCEPTED (IF DECLINED, PLEASE DECLINE USING USUAL PROCESS).
After reading through all of the details in the request they sent on proofpoint i can see that they have said no to an iva within the last 36 months and i had been out of my IVA for around 6 to 9 months.
could someone please inform me of what i should do next.
Thanks
KH says
Hi Sara,
Firstly thank you as others have said for this site!
So far I’ve had complaints upheld with Lending Stream, MyJar, Safety Net Credit and am just waiting for the money to come through.
I have a satsuma case with the adjudicator that I am hopeful for too.
I have just had a response from 118118 after chasing the compliance director (9 weeks) ..
They have upheld 3 and 4 but not 1 and 2 .. they have reduced my balance from 6k to 2k (already done on my account) .. am I able to escalate 1 and 2 to the FOS even if they have already reduced the balance??
Fraggle23 says
I entered an affordability complaint with Everyday Loans in 2018. The adjudicator recently ruled in my favour. Does any one know what EDL are like for agreeing/disagreeing with the FOS decision.
Lisa G says
Hi Fraggle23.
I don’t know the answer to your Q but I was wondering in which month in 2018 you sent your Everyday Loan complaint to the FOS. Mines been with them since Oct 2018 and not yet been picked up. I’m just wondering where they’re up to when looking at complaints.
Thanks
Fraggles23 says
Hi Lisa,
I sent mint to EDL 29th Aug 2018. They rejected my complaint with a letter date 18th Oct.
Might be worth giving the FOS a call to see if they can give you an update. My Adjudicator did tell me they were dealing with high volumes but mine been assigned for a while with the final decision coming through last week.
Good Luck
Fraggles23 says
The adjudicator has emailed to advise me that EDL have asked for more time to consider his decision.
Has anyone else experienced this?
A says
Hi I have a complaint against 118 money at the fos just now. I have not heard anymore after the email with my reference number. I have just recieved my new clearscore credit report which has gone up but all traces of my 118 loan and credit card have disappeared. My 118 account online hasn’t changed. Any idea why this would happen?
Linds says
Hello,
I also have a complaint with the FOS for 118, It’s been with them since July 19, not heard anything back.
I have just checked my credit score and like you, my outstanding balance with 118, had disappeared. I don’t know why this has happened?
DM84 says
It has always confused me with 118 loans and how they appear with Clearscore. I too have no record on my Clearscore account who obtain their information from Equifax, it does not appear on my free Equifax statutory report either. It does however appear on my Credit Karma account who get their information from TransUnion.
They all confuse me as no report ever shows the same info, I also have a loan with another company that appears on Clearscore but not on Credit Karma.
Might be worth checking if yours is the same at other sites suchas Credit Karma (formally noddle) etc
Linds says
I’ve checked on Credit Karma and it does not appear on there? It is strange.
Mike says
Hi Sara
Just a little update with regards to my complaint I put in against a credit union.
I asked earlier this year if they had to abide by the same lending rules as everyone else and after explaining to you that I would have to send bank statements each time I applied and each one would showed lots of gambling transactions yet they continued to lend me £1000’s .
Well complained to the credit union July who dismissed it within 5 days, not even asking what my complaint was actually about.
So sent to FOS and heard from them November apologies for time but said we’re very busy. They said they had requested info from CU and I would be contacted by the person who would be looking into my complaint.
January 3rd was contacted and introduced themselves with a summary of what my complaint was about. Also asked if any other info I wanted to add which I did. They explained how they had asked the CU for more info and he would give me an update when he received it.
Today got an update, thanked me for my email going into more detail and explained he had asked the CU for more info ( 3rd time they have asked for even more ) and explained how he hoped to receive it by the end of next week.
He would then give me another update or give me his opinion…..
Don’t quite know what to make of it now?
Surely the CU only have so much info and why they are being requested to send more?
Does this sort of thing bode well for me?
What do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should ask what is happening at the end of the month. there isn’t much point in speculating.
Mike says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for responding to my vague question yesterday. I did email the investigator at FOS yesterday and asked why he needed to ask for more information for the 3rd time from the CU. I received an email today which has me more intrigued.
Good afternoon Mike
Thanks for your email.
I did receive the information I’d requested, but I have had to go back to them as the information I received raised further questions.
Whilst I’m conscious of getting my opinion to you as soon as possible, I also need to ensure a full investigation is conducted to give you an answer I believe is fair and reasonable.
I appreciate your patience, and I’ll be in touch as soon as possible.
I guess it’s good he has not had to ask me more questions, just them.
Just wanted to keep you updated.
Also considering how long people have to wait for an investigator I have to say they have moved quite quickly for this complaint.
Jamie Fleming says
Hi all,
Need some brief advice re Varooma if possible.
I made a formal complaint on the grounds of irresponsible lending and provided a very detailed complaint including 6 months bank statements prior to loan that shows extensive gambling transactions (I am now in treatment for Gambling Addiction) as well as payments to a Debt Management Plan. Varooma allowed me to provide an overview of my direct debits instead of the full bank statement which meant I was accepted for the loan, this is essentially the basis of my complaint.
Varooma turned down my complaint and I instantly referred it to the FOS about a week ago, I have been in communication with Varooma and they have offered me a settlement figure of £1,800 reduced from £2,800. This will essentially mean the loan is closed and I would have paid them £500 in interest overall. I offered to close the complaint if they bring it down to £1,300 to bring all payment back to neutral but they have refused and I have stated that we will await to outcome of the FOS.
My only concern is the timeframes of the FOS and the interest I am being charged in the meantime by Varooma (monthly payments £283). I am not in a position to pay them £1,800 currently but I will be in a position in April to look to settle again but not sure if I should or just let it run with the FOS.
Anyone have any views on this? Thanks so much in advance,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s a tough decision. sorry, no guarantees over the FOS timetable.
if you would be happy to repay the £1800 over a period of several months you could offer that, explaining you are not in a position to accept their settlement and pay a lump sum now.
Jamie Fleming says
Thanks so much for your prompt response Sara
I find it interesting that they are not accepting responsibility but happy to knock £1,000 off the settlement just like that. I referred them a FOS case that is almost identical to mine that was upheld, this then led to them offering me the reduction.
I think I will continue saving over the next 3 months to be in a position to clear the debt, hopefully in that time I may have had initial contact from the FOS, if not they I may offer them a payment plan as you have stated.
Thanks again Sara, the work you do for everyone is amazing!
Bill says
Referring to other comments re:)118118) I to have a complaint currently with the fos, my loan has also disappeared from credit karma, totally money and Equifax! I wonder I wonder?
Bill