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 Financial 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 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.
[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 Transunion Statutory Credit Report
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 information 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 licence, 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 rejects 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.
Payday loan refunds if you owe money
What to put in an affordability complaint
Examples of gambling & payday loan refunds
Chez19 says
Hi Sara, thanks for your reply, I will be sending an affordability complaint to them, I have since found the bank statement that showed I had borrowed £1000 from Bamboo and used £341.82 to settle the 1st loan off with 118 118 money in Oct 2019, then I was offered £2000 in Dec 2019 (via the app) with me not having to complete any expenses etc. As I have quite a lot of debt and also been helping my partner pay some of his house hold bills due to COVID-19 I come to an agreed reduced payment plan with them and have since started paying the full loan amount again, they sent me a letter chasing me for the arrears which I thought was just a standard letter, which I ignored, I rang 118 118 today to find out why my outstanding loan is not showing on the app, to which they replied that have now sold it to a debt collector!!! What should I do, continue with affordability complaint and try to negotiate an affordable payment with debt collector??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, continue the affordability complaint with the original lender and when the debt collector gets in touch, set up an affordable payment arrangement with them.
Chez19 says
Ok will do thank you for your advice, now the debt has been sold to a debt collector does this mean interest is no longer added or will it be already included in the amount owed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is likely that it has already been included in what is owed.
Pn123 says
Good morning I had a decision from the adjudicator on a 12,000 loan yesterday not upholding my complaint the figures they gave said I had a disposal of around £180 however when going through it myself my disposal was far less between £5-50 on average
My average wage was worked out at 1700 but some months could be less depending on hours worked
When they did the credit check it apparently showed a small default of £8 and that I was overlimit on a credit card
He has said they should have been concered with some of this data and the checks were not propotiate
They also had my income down as 1957 which was supposedly verified however as said I was earning roughly 1700
With average expenditure totaling 1326 on regular bills and average shopping spend before making the loan payment of 370 once this was taken it made my monthly expenses 1696 on a wage of 1700
Is it worth appealing this I had sent a email back asking for this to be looked into by the adjudicator again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
who was the lender?
They also had my income down as 1957 which was supposedly verified however as said I was earning roughly 1700
Are you saying that you declared an income of 1700 on your application because it varied? but the lender assessed your application on a higher “verified” amount?
Pn123 says
Ratesetter I cannot remember the monthly figure I put down by they have said I put 30k a year on application
However it wasn’t that much it was 1700 a month but the 12 months average may 2015 to may 2016 when the loan was taken was around 1450 the wage increased in the few months before the loan a a change of job
However I don’t see how they can supposedly verify my wage at the higher amount also there was no bank statements or payslips looked at
Regards
Matt says
Moneybarn update.
So not good news. The Ombudsman has provisionally not upheld the complaint and overturned the Investigators decision.
The reasons….not clear on my financial situation at the time me outgoings etc and they want to confirm Moneybarn’s stance on gambling. I have sent more info to answer their main questions. One I had expenses for travelling paid by my company which they included as income. And 2 proof of my rent payments in cash (I lived with my parents so paid them cash for house keeping) i got my mum to write a letter to the Ombudsman confirming this.
Very very deflated after 2 years and desperately hoping the Ombudsman changes their mind with the new information 😕
PF says
Hey Matt,
Really sorry to hear about this – though at the moment I am not surprised. Although my complaint is still with the Investigator, I have had quite a few conversations recently and am expecting pretty much the same response. I was in such a bad situation through gambling and most of the family outgoings were paid in cash and I have no bank records so I can’t prove the finance was unaffordable. Although I do have a multitude of bank statements with thousands of pounds of gambling transactions. So frustrating that we are being asked to prove that the finance was unaffordable, surely it should be Moneybarns responsibility to prove it was affordable. The fact that an income and expenditure form was never even completed or bank statements looked at at the time of my application should prove this was an unfair lending relationship.
Matt don’t give up hope, keep fighting maybe Sara has any help or advice. Sara is there anything in Conc. that helps?
Fingers crossed for you.
PF
a. says
I have been waiting for the fos to look at my 118 complaint for months now. They emailed in May saying they had all the information they needed to look at the complaint but have still not got to mine. Today I have recieved an email saying they are discussing how they look at these cases and will get back in touch when they are able to investigate. I understand how busy they are but this is now getting very frustrating!
Dean says
Hi a I did mine in April after the 8 weeks and have been waiting ever since I put the same in with amigo and that’s all done and dusted with. Keep in there it will happen just takes time.
Amy says
Hi Sara do you have details of where to send complaints too Zopa and Hitachi please? I can’t seem to find the email address for them , many thanks 😊
Sara (Debt Camel) says
complaints@zopa.com
complaintsteam@hitachipersonalfinance.co.uk
Amy says
Thank you Sara 😊
matt says
Hi PF
The letter from the Ombudsman feels a bit contradictory. They say in one breath if they had checked bank statements and credit report they would not have made the decision to lend and the checks were not proportionate. Large ammounts of payday lending etc. Then they say they haven’t got enough of my financial situation to rule that the loan was unaffordable. Ombudsman says there were several occasions where the direct debit bounced but Moneybarn were never made aware of me being in any financial difficulty!
They say about gambling…. this appears to be a new matter and has not been considered by Moneybrn in it’s final response but it appears Moneybarn is willing to let us consider this new point in this complaint. If I am mistaken about Moneybarn’s’ position
on this might Moneybarn tell us so in any response it makes to this provisional decision. In any event, I have already found that Moneybarn did not carry out enough checks before it
lent. The history of this gambling especially the amount of the gambling and its
timing on bank statements just before he took out the agreement is something I
think it would have found out about if it had done the checks it should have done. If
Moneybarn agrees I can look at this part of the complaint it would be helpful for it to
comment on this issue too in its response to my provisional decision.
That appears to be my last hope that Moneybarn agree to look at it. Deflated but not defeated just yet
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hen they say they haven’t got enough of my financial situation to rule that the loan was unaffordable.
You have supplied bank statements for 3 months before & three months after the loan was given to FOS?
What do these show? You best hope here is to argue in detail that the statements prove the loan was not affordable in practice.
matt says
Hi Sara
They have all the statements. The initial problem wasthere was no proof of rent etc. I paid my rent in cash t my parents. I have sonce got my mum to write an email to the investigator to confirm this. There are several cash transactions that should match this up. I did fall behind on occasions but the “large cash withdrawals” as the Ombudsman put it should hopefully now tie up with what my parents email says. Secondly my salary and work travel expenses (I worked in Aerospace so a lot of travel expenses previosuly) were all paid from a bank account called “business account”. The Ombudsman asked if I had another acct called business account. I confirmed I didn’t and my old company wrote an email to confirm salary and travel expenses were paid from this account.
Matt says
Further to this complaint.
According to the attached bank statements I obtained payday loans in a very short space of time leading up to application (some on multiple occasions and varying amounts at extremely large interest rates) The lenders I borrowed from are listed below.
wonga
cashongo
quick quid
quid.co.uk
ACTIVE
MR LENDER
TRUSTED QUID
THINK FINANCE
DATA CASH SERVE LTD
WAGE DAY ADVANCE
NOVA LOANS
PEACHY
CASH GENIE
CASH 4 U NOW.
This is clearly someone in terrible trouble financially and someone who was using any form of credit he could obtain to pay other creditors off and fund a gambling addiction that was out of control. To be granted a further loan for a car of over 4 years at £498 a month was not reasonable and unaffordable.
My work expenses were paid on 11/6/13
31/7/13
From memory my acct with Nationwide did not have a card I could use to make payments on as it was a basic bank account. For work expenses I juggled the use of credit cards from
Halifax
RBS
CAPITAL ONE
AQUA
When I returned from my travels I would put receipts into the finance department and they would re-emburse these from an account called Business account, I believe you have confirmation of this now.
I really hope this helps conclude your investigations and agree that Moneybarn leant irresponsibly and to someone who was vulnerable both financially and mentally.
Matt says
Going down fighting at least :-(
PF says
Hi Matt, i’m really pleased to hear you’re not giving up. You are so right the response does seem to be very contradictory. Just reading the response i thought i was reading a complaint that had been upheld! I still don’t see how it is up to the complainant to prove that the finance was unaffordable. Shouldn’t the approach from the FOS mirror that of a rsponsible lender – they have already mentioned that ‘they would not have made the decision to lend’ – this is quite a damning statement – it seems the FOS have lost their stomach for a fight! They have already admitted they are looking for a way to stop the back and forth so want an easier way to settle these complaints but by only having one approach (making complainants prove the loan was unaffordable) they are not judging each complaint on it’s own merit and this is a very new and poor approach from them.
I’m still a little confused with the approach to the gambling – are the FOS saying they need permission off Moneybarn to consider the gambing as part of the evidence in the complaint? If they don’t recognise the harm caused by a gambling addiction and don’t accept it as evidence then it would be interesting to see how a number of gambling charities interpret the approach and dismissal of this dibilitating addiction by both the FOS and Moneybarn.
Keep fighting Matt, fingers crossed for you.
PF
Ms A says
Hi Sara, thank you so much for this site, it’s been invaluable. The adjudicator has just upheld in my favour on 3 x loans with 118 118 Money. I’d since paid the last one off with a larger from my bank.
Mark says
I sent a complaint to 118 September 2019,not upheld so sent to FOS and only 4 weeks ago I got a email saying 118:will contact me directly to refund me £2500.They have not contacted yet but overall it took over a year.
Westley says
Just had my final response from satsuma to say they’ve rejected my complaint, and that the checks they did proved I could afford the loan. At the time I was desperate for money so as I’m sure many do, make there finances sounded better.
I had 5 loans over the course of 3 years. Each time the amounts borrows got bigger, whilst the monthly repayments were more.
I’m still paying off my last one in a repayment plan. For £2000 loan.
Isit worth sending to the FOS?
Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely! That is a HUGE loan – it would be worth sending to FOS if you only had 1 loan. But to have 5, each getting bigger – that should have been 4 warning flags to them!
westley says
Is there a certain way in which I should approach the FOS, in terms of email format etc?
Ive also complained about 118 money. Although it was one loan it was a large amount, just as my credit score was starting to go up. I still believe that shouldn’t have been approved as they’d have seen months of bad marks leading up to being accepted. It also lead me back down a bad path with more struggles after i was starting to turn a corner. Same as money boat, although small, was 2 or 3 loans in quick succession which should have been a warning to them. Can I add all these to one email for the FOS or will each one have to be a separate email/subject?
Thanks
Wes.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Stage 4 – send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the article above has the link to the FOS webpage. That is better than sending them an email.
You need to do this separately for each lender – each is an individual complaint.
Westley says
Thank you. Just finished filling the complaint form out for each companies complaint. Will wait for the response.
Matt says
I’m the same, got a response from Satsuma last week rejecting my complaint. Had so many issues with their response…
Firstly they went to great lengths to explain how good their affordability checks are, claiming they declined loans in Oct/Nov 17 as they weren’t affordable. However they approved loans in Jul 17 and Jan 18 when my financial position was exactly the same. I’ve asked them to provide more details on the declined loans so i can see the difference between them and the approved ones..
Secondly, they providied details on all 9 loans i had with them and disposable income on all loans (their calculations and mine) was between £600 and £1200 a month. Yet all but 1 loan was for between £150 and £500 payable over 12 months. Surely showing so much disposable income but having to borrow such small amounts so consistently should raise alarm bells!!
Finally they mention the first stage of application is a credit file search and they have “strict requirements which must be met before an application can be approved” In particular with the early loans i had my credit score would have been showing as very poor and my file would have included defaults, arrears, late payments, notices of debt management and multitudes of payday, short term and guarantor loans over the previous years. No idea what their strict requirements are as doesn’t appear any adverse information would lead them to declining.
Asked them to clarify a few points and then sending to FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you give them a time limit to reply of a week before going to FOS.
Matt says
Thanks Sara,
I emailed them on Monday so if i’ve not heard by end of week will go to FOS next Monday.
Tom says
Hi Sara. A question for you if I may…
I took a loan in January 2016 from Moneyway for £5,500. It was certainly unaffordable – I was in the midst of a monumental gambling addiction and had borrowed over £45,000 from the likes of Avant Credit and Bamboo in the two months running up to my getting the loan from Moneyway.
Around May 2018, my Moneyway loan (which was up to date) was sold to Alpha Credit Solutions and I had to pay them until it finished a couple of months ago.
Two questions:
1) I’d like to pursue an affordability complaint which presumably would be against Moneyway. I think they still exist but note that they don’t do personal loans anymore. Do I write to Moneyway in the normal way?
2) The only entries on my credit file are from Alpha and given the struggles I had, there are lots of missed payments. If I can get a complaint against Moneyway upheld, how do I then deal with Alpha?
Hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you complain to Moneyway. Say in your complaint that you want the interest you paid refunded and the negative entries added to your credit record by Alpha deleted.
If your complaint is upheld by them, or by the Ombudsman, these entries should be removed but mention it specifically.
I assume you have already complained about Avant, Bamboo etc?
Tom says
Thank you for the prompt response. I will get a complaint in the morning.
Yes, thanks to your help from this site, I have lodged complaints where appropriate.
Everyday Loans, UK Credit, Amigo, Safetynet and Cashfloat upheld my complaints.
The FOS upheld complaints against Satsuma and Myjar which they had originally turned down.
Bamboo, Lending Stream and Avant Credit I am waiting on the FOS for.
It’s been a very interesting process!!
Tom says
Hi Sara, just following up on this. I sent a complaint in to Moneyway and they came back saying: “We have forwarded your query to Alpha Credit Solutions for investigation as the loan has been sold to them.”
Presumably it is Moneyway that must undertake the investigation as they gave the loan and therefore they made the decision to lend?
Any advice? Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you are right.
Go back to Moneyway and say unless they respond to your affordability complaint you will be sending it to the ombudsman.
Tom says
Hi Sara
I did and they’ve come back to say that it is Alpha CS and not them as Alpha “assumed all liability when they purchased the portfolio” which presumably could be right…?
I’m thinking I’ll just let it run for 8 weeks and if I haven’t heard back, get it off to the FOS. Does that sound sensible to you?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
well you could put in a complaint to Alpha and say Moneyway says they have assumed all liability
Tom says
Hi Sara,
I have now heard back from Alpha Credit Solutions and they have ‘dismissed my complaint without consideration of its merit’ because of the time limits (DISP 2.8 of the FCA handbook). They say that for them to have considered it, I must have complained:
a) within six years of what I am complaining about; and/or
b) within three years of when I realised (or should have realised) that there was a problem
They say that I can send to the FOS to ask them to consider the complaint which of course I will – I just wondered if you had any tips, because I can’t see how they are right on any level.
The loan was taken in January 2016 so it is well within the six years. I only realised that I could complain when coming across this website this year but in any event, had I decided half way through the loan term (which was 48 months) that there was a problem, I’d still be within the three year limit so if they are relying on ‘b’, it seems pretty unreasonable. I have submitted and won complaints on loans older than this and they have all been considered with nobody mentioning timescales.
As I say, I will certainly write to the FOS and put my case – I just wondered if you had any particular advice?
With thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if the loan was taken out within 6 years, it is within time. The three year part is irrelevant.
Go back to them and ask if they will reconsider or the case goes to FOS.
Stu says
Hi, anybody had any joy with TM Advances? The adjudicator did not uphold my complaint against them after being refunded by 7 other payday loan companies. This was the only one not to be upheld by them although loans were all taken out roughly the same period. I have sent onto ombudsman for final decision which will be in the next couple of weeks….
Hassan says
Yes, ombudsman overturned adjucator decision and ruled in my favour. Said they should’ve done more checks.
Sarah says
Hi Sara
The ombudsman has upheld my complaint against EDL provisionally, even though the adjudicator didn’t uphold it. Great news and thanks to your support with this website.
They have given EDL until the 1st November to give any additional information and if they don’t I assume the ombudsman decision is final?
What sort of additional information could EDL put forward? Surely if they had anything that could help their case, they would have put it forward in the first place?
Once the 1st November gets here and if they don’t offer anything more, does the ombudsman just send the final outcome a s EDL have to pay up? If so, how long does this normally take?
Many thanks for your help so far.
Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
An Ombudsman’s decision is legally binding on a lender.
I can’t guess what else EDL may say, it is completely case dependent.
Josephine Wild says
I had a loan with Avant credit for £8,500 but got into difficulties paying it back. The loan which was remaining £3,500 was sold to a collection agency and I paid it back in full via a dmp. Can I still claim against Avant?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can. if you win the case, Avant has to settle it taking into account all the payments you made to the debt collector.
John says
An update on my complaint against Loans2go – received an email today with the ombudsman provisionally upholding my complaint on 2 loans ( Loans2go allowed them to rule on an extra loan) . Deadline of 7th November for both parties to provide extra info to potentially change her mind. Fingers crossed
Tyler N says
JOHN – Can I ask how long has it taken for your case to reach this stage with Loans2go?
I sent my complaint to FOS in Oct 2019, been chasing the FOS every month, especially more since it was prioritised with FOS over 2 months ago.. But they still havent assigned an adjucator yet, have you waited like 2 years+?
Sara – my latest phone call with FOS regarding the above, they said they are still waiting for the case file off loans2go..
And i just thought its been a year now.. Really nothing at all still?! Can i do anything else to try speed this up?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you email the FCA at consumer.queries@fca.org.uk and copy this to g.badejo@loans2go.co.uk and ps@loans2go.co.uk
Put LOANS 2 GO (679836) won’t send my case file to FOS as the subject.
I complained to loans 2 Go in [August? 2019]. I sent the complaint to the ombudsman in October 2019. My FOS reference number is [99999999].
FOS have agreed to give my case priority because of [………]
But loans 2 Go have still not sent through my case file. They are being obstructive and trying to stop FOS reaching a decision on my case.
I thought you should be aware of how one of your authorised lenders is just ignoring the Ombudsman.
Tyler N says
Thank you for the template! & the emails addresses.
Not a bad guess on the date usually, but they were extremely prompt here .. Fully rejected my complaint with a final response, 3 days after i raised it.
Hopefully these emails will get the wheels turning! Thanks Sara.
John says
Hi Tyler , I raised my complaint September 2019 . It got picked up by an adjudicator at the start of Aug who upheld my complaint by the start of Sept. Obviously Loans2go disagreed and asked for it to go to Ombudsman. I had a deadline of 17th September to provide further info for the Ombudsman then this latest email today. So in all 13 months to this point.
Good luck
Stu says
Hi John hopefully u get a result. I raised my complaint about loans2go in December 2018 and waited 13 months for an adjudicator. I have now been waiting 9 months for an Ombudsman with no end in sight. I am a tad confused as to how they assign cases.
Shan says
Hi Sara
I sent an an affordability complaint to 118 118, they have emailed me back today to say they aren’t upholding my complaint and they did all correct checks. They also said that I filled out expenditure form and they put their trust in me that I was telling the truth all though I was in a lot of debt at this time and my mental health wasn’t the best which I’ve stated.
They have said I can send it to the financial ombudsman? What do you suggest I do.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you know the payments were too high for you to afford without borrowing more money elsewhere then send the complaint straight to the Ombudsman – where lots of people are winning against 118.
Julie says
Hello everyone,
Has anyone else received separate payments for their redress. I have been paid the statutory interest but not the actual redress.
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not heard of this – who is the lender? It sounds like a cock-up?
Julie says
118. I recieved this email on Wednesday
Good morning,
Thank you for your email.
Your bank details have been passed to the customer relations manager, who will be issuing your refund.
Please note, as outlined in our response, this may take up to 14 working days to reach you.
Our response also outlined your redress amount, which stands at a refund of £2,702.06, plus statutory interest of £399.16.
Regards,
Customer Relations Team,
118 118 Money.
I recieved the £399.16 but that was all.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it sounds like an error. Phone them up and ask.
Shaun says
Good evening,
Sorry to tag on this conversation but just basically had same email has Julie.
I am delighted and can’t wait for the 14 days to pass hoping they don’t go into administration.
My question is though it says tax is not deducted and I might have to declare the refunds. Is this necessary or can I just leave it and let the tax people sort it?
Thanks for any advice
Holly says
I received mine in two payments with In about 4 hours of each other, first the statutory interest the. The refund, but defo worth a call
Liam says
Can I ask, how long after confirming your refund did it all take? I’ve just had a complaint against 118 money upheld and wondered how they have been with other people timeline wise.
Julie says
I recieved the adujacator decision and on the same day, I received an email from 118 asking for my bank details. I recieved confirmation that 118 had received my email containing my bank details on Monday and my refund was paid on the Friday, in 2 payments. I have not declared to the tax as this is normally something that the company would do and I wasn’t sure how to do it.
David Maundrell says
I have just started the process with Varooma, they have sent the first reply with a day and have a quite clear process on the document sent through. Hopefully won’t take too long as the £1100 or so that I have calculated would be very handy right now!
Liam says
Just had confirmation yesterday the FOS have upheld my complaint about 118 118 money, absolutely thrilled as I really needed that default removed. Just wondered has anyone else won against them, and what were their timelines afterwards? The FOS chap told me they’re (118 that is) traditionally hard to get hold of when they need info, but oddly are very responsive once a decision has been made. I’ve never been in this situation before and have no idea if they’ have previous with accepting the findings quickly, or appealing them?
Shaun says
Hi Liam,
My complaint took a while with 118, but as you have herd once I got the adjudication which was end of September they gave 118 a week to respond which I was happy with and they did reply after 9 days! So things moved very quickly once they respond. Just waiting for pay out now! Good luck 👍
PM says
How long did It take FOS to come back to you? My complaint against 118 was submitted 6 months ago and is yet to be assigned to an adjudicator
Delyth Jones says
118118 upheld my complaint. I didn’t have to go to the fos thankfully. Once they’d received my complaint they gave me the refund within 7 weeks in total.
I also bartered with cash4unow. They were offering the interest of one of three loans. I said I wanted 2 refunding and I got that agreed and paid within 24hrs.
Amigo paid out straight away, clearing almost all of my current loan.
My main outstanding loan (£15000) with polo has not been upheld so I’m off to the ombudsman with that one. Fingers crossed for more good news.
Thank you Sara for the advise and knowledge.
Matt says
Afternoon
I have received notification from FOS have upheld my affordability complaint with EDL and EDL also agree. FOS said I now need to wait 4 weeks for the refund plus interest dating back to 2006!
Are they likely to respond within 4 weeks as they didn’t respond to deadlines throughout the complaint?
Calvin says
Hi Matt. Congrats! My EDL complaint was upheld at ombudsman level a little over 2 weeks ago. I contacted EDL myself after 10days to request final details and they responded with a “we need time to review the findings and we’ll be in touch”. I’ll give them another week and then remind them they have 1 week remaining.
What is the process if they don’t act within the 4 weeks?
Sarah says
Hi Calvin
Was the ombudsman decision provisional, subject to there being no further information from EDL?
EDL have until 1st November to add any information, and if they don’t, that will be the final decision.
I’m sure that if they had anything to sway it their way, they would have done so before now?
Sarah
Matt says
Hi Calvin, good to know EDL are accepting FOS decisions!
I was told if I haven’t heard anything within 4 weeks, to get back in touch with FOS. So they have two more weeks
Lisa G says
Hi Calvin,
What number were you calling EDL on? Is it your local branch that you have called or is there a central number?
I had a provisional decision by the ombudsman. EDL didn’t respond by 03/10 and today I’ve received a final decision upholding all 3 loans. I’d like to chase EDL now but don’t know where to call that would deal with this!
Julie says
Hello everyone.
Still having major problems with agreeing with 118 about the statutory interest. They did send me a table of breakdown. So they gave me back the interest I paid on loans 1 and 2 which was £2702.06. Loan 3 I had the interest wiped and I only paid the principal. But looking at the table they sent, they have paid the interest on singular payments that I made towards the principal amount of loan 3 and only half of what I paid on loan 2. No interest for loan 1. I don’t understand why they have done this. Has anyone else had this problem?
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you asked them?
Ruth says
Hi Sara,
My complaint against 118 118 was agreed by adjudicator but rejected by the company in May 2020, so escalated to the Ombudsman. It was immediately prioritised due to reduced income going on maternity (wasn’t entitled to SMP with starting job part way through pregnancy and had outstanding loans elsewhere)……a couple of weeks ago my adjudicator emailed to say case was now with an Ombudsman so rang for an update today and was told it never had an Ombudsman allocated? I emailed my adjudicator to find out what was going on but just got a standard reply saying it was waiting to be allocated – no explanation…is this normal? Thankyou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it’s not. Ring again and ask when it will be allocated, point out your case has been given priority.
Shaun says
Good evening, I replied the other day over my 118118 claim. It has been settled all paid. Massively surprised after them accepting the FOS decision how quick it’s gone. So anyone waiting on 118 there is positive news/outcomes.
Just a quick question regarding tax they mention they have not took it. Does that mean I need to ring taxman or just leave it?
Thanks for any advice
Zara says
The fos have come back and upheld my complaint. I’m still waiting for 118 to reply. Have you any indication how long they take to reply and pay out?
Thanks
Liam says
That is exactly me. Friday last week adjudicator agreed with me regarding 118 and they have 14 days to reply I believe, so a week to go.
Nands says
Hi there, has anyone made successful claims against a logbook lender? Various, CarCashpoint or Motorkitty? Any information will be appreciated. My case with FOS, and now referred to Ombudsman, after adjudicator didn’t uphold my claim…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, quite a few have been upheld. You need to set out in writing why you think the adjudicator was wrong. Did they ignore something?
Timka says
I received an outcome from the investigator and he upheld my complaint to Likely loans. Asked Likely loans to refund all interest on all loans (1 loan and 4 top ups)
In that letter he asked Likely loans to respond by 07/10. Today I received an update saying that initially Likely “have initially disagreed with my outcome, so I am currently in discussion with them about it. Once I receive a response I will update you. Thank you for your patience.”
Has anyone else had a similar experience? Don’t know if this should be escalated to ombudsman since Likely loans did not agree with the outcome or does an investigator negotiate something in the end.
Likely loans have been the worst from day one. I had many complaints and have reached many agreements with other companies, Likely loans just do not care whatsoever.
Julie says
Hello Sara,
I was sent a table to show 118’s working out for the Statutory interest but I dont understand it. And I dont agree with it.
I had 3 loans. Loan 1 was paid off in 2015, loan 2 was paid off in 2017. Loan 3, they wiped the interest and I had £594.65 left to pay. All loans were upheld.
Payment made,
17/08/2020, 16/09/2019, 19/07/2019, 28/06/2019, 15/05/2019, 15/04/2019, 15/03/2019, 15/02/2019, 15/01/2019, 17/12/2018, 04/12/2017
Claim amount,
£156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £156.15, £1,140.56
Overdue,
38, 374, 433, 454, 498, 528, 559, 587, 618, 647, 1025
Yearly,
£12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £12.49, £91.24
Daily,
£0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.03, £0.25
Total interest,
£1.30, £12.80, £14.82, £15.54, £17.04, £18.07, £19.13, £20.19, £21.15, £22.14, £256.24
TOTAL £418.32
Does this make sense to anyone? xxxxx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask them where the 8% interest on the loan one payments is shown.
Julie says
I did. This is there response:
We appreciate that you remain unhappy with our explanations, however, there is little else we can say, other than what has been said.
Here is what the Ombudsman Service advised us to do:
To settle Mrs Sage’s complaint 118 118 Money should do the following:
• To add up the total amount of money Mrs Sage received as a result of having been given loan one and loan two. The repayments Mrs Sage made should be deducted from this amount.
• If this results in Mrs Sage having paid more than she received, then any overpayments should be refunded along with 8% simple interest (calculated from the date the overpayments were made until the date of settlement).
You will see from the above, that the Ombudsman Service advised that any ‘overpayments’ should be refunded, along with the 8% interest. Below is the table of what was advanced to you, vs. what you repaid:
Agreement: 178313, 575528, 2164098
Advanced: £1,500, £1,500, £2000
Paid: £1,562.60, £4,734.11, £1,405.35
Total advanced: £5,000.00
Total paid: £7,702.06
Refund/overpayment: £2,702.06
You will see from the above that the ‘over payments’ are the amount of £2702.06. As a result of this, we calculated the 8% statutory interest on the most recent payments you made to us, as these were the ‘overpayments’.
Sarah says
Hi
Can someone please give me a rough idea of the 8% refund would be please.
The refund of interest is approximately £7000. The loan was 6 years and finished in July 2018.
Thank you,
Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Between £2000 and £3000.
Sarah says
Thank you for your help Sara 😊
Liam says
Just had confirmation that 118 have agreed to my refund of just under £1000, so happy as it as my only loan with them and I was a bit pessimistic that it would be agreed to.
Once they agreed they said it’s 14 working days for refund to reach me, anyone shed some light on actually when it does arrive? I know Satuma (I think it’s them, or PiggyBank) say 28 days but pretty much everyone gets it on day 26. Just wondered.
N says
Hi I’m also in the 14 day waiting period so would also be interested in knowing what date people were paid..
Dave says
Hi there, just wondering if anyone has put a claim i against Progressive Money? Also how the process went? I’ve put a complaint in but got rejected, just awaiting to be picked up by and adjudicator.
Cheers
Lisa G says
Hi Dave.
I put in a case against Progressive Money. Progressive rejected it. I sent it to the FOS in April this year.
FOS have the business file and my statements, credit report etc… I’m too just waiting for it to be picked up by an adjudicator.
Keep me updated on how you get on.
Dave says
Hi Lisa
I sent mine initially in March, and got a response in June saying an adjudicator would pick it up within 4 months, so I may chase this as I haven’t heard anything. But I will keep you updated, as it doesn’t appear many have raised cases against Progressive. Let me know if you here anything? Cheers
Matt says
Hey all
I’ve just been paid out from EDL of just under £14k and that was upheld at adjudicator level. Thanks all and Sara for your help.
Matty
Tom says
Congratulations! Really good news.
I had two loans with EDL – they upheld the first but not the second (now what I was expecting!) so the second is with the Ombudsman. I have to say, and I can see it is not the experience of a lot of people on here, they were really good to deal with! Prompt, helpful and answered questions when I asked them!!
Nic says
Hi, I had a logbook loan in 2012 with Auto Money which I could never afford to repay as I was already in debt with other payday loan companies and had poor credit.
I defaulted and it ended with them repossessing my car, when I was at work they sent bailiffs to my house and threatened my mum for the keys and took the car. The car was worth more than what was left to pay on the loan.
I did set up a an IVA with stepchange but automoney would never accept the low monthly payments so they sold my car.
I wrote it off at the time as it being all my own fault, but now after doing a lot a reading online I realise I wasn’t totally to blame.
I’ve tried contacting Auto Money through their website but they have told me that the owners of the company at the time of my loan were Quick Click Loans and now it is Mobile Money. They say they hold no responsibility- I can’t find any contact details for Quick Click Loans.
Any advice? Do you think I have a claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know. You could talk to the financial Ombudsman. But after 8 years there may be very little evidence remaining.
CMcK says
Hi,
I’ve been using rolling high credit loans for ages, and I’m thinking of putting in a claim, but I’m worried it would damage my credit report.
I’ve paid off 118118, I have a loan with Bamboo (4th I beleive inc top ups) and one with likely loans (about 5000 pounds, top up from a 3000 pounds loan). Interest is between 60 – 70% from memory.
Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Complaining doesn’t damage your credit record. In fact it can improve it as any negative marks are removed if you win the complaint.
If you stop paying that would harm your credit record. If you win the complaint those missed payment markers would be removed, but if you don’t win they will continue to harm your credit score.
But anyway, your credit score must be pretty bad to have to borrow from these lenders!
Maria says
Hi Sara
Can you please let me know who Shawbrook Bank are. I have received a letter advising they are still looking into my complaint! Are they part of Avant
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are a bank, they give loans but under their own name. Nothing to do with Avant so far as I know.
Maria says
Thank you Sara I’m a bit worried as I haven’t had a loan with them but they have sent me two letters updating me on a complaint!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
well it will be interesting seeing their response!