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
Bob says
Sara if I send a credit report now to the adjudicator, all the unaffordable loan complaints ive won have been removed. Would this be a problem?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you not have a copy from earlier?
Bob says
Nope, my bank statements show everything going out, would this be enough?
Would the fos have credit reports from my previous complaints?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think FOS will still have your credit records.
JD says
Hi. Does anyone know why EDL website is down? General Maintenance or foreshadowing of things to come?
I know they stopped accepting new applications when lockdown started and have been paying out a lot lately. Had anyone heard anything?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
their other brands (George Banco, TrustTwo and Loans At Home) all have websites which seem to be working, so probably a glitch or maintenance.
Zoe says
Hi I started a complaint with 118, they have sent on to me SAR, but said nothing in relation to complaint is that normal or is there a way I should chase that.
Lo says
They took ages with mine. Around 6-7 weeks. They also just declined but I have gone back and haven’t heard anything for over a week so will be sending to FOS
Adam says
Hi Guys
Firstly thank you Sara this dite is amazing and has helped me.
I have a complaint against 118 118. Adjuidcator upheld in my favour.
I was paying the loan monthly and I had 2 final payments expected to be made in July and August due to covid 19. So my loan term was extended from the original date of june to august.
Last friday 19th June I recieved a text from 118 saying my loan had been paid off to my suprise. They wiped the remaining balance off.
I called them and confirmed it was not sold to debt collectors and no further payment is needed. I’m of course happy they have done this. I questioned if they were in agreement with the fos upholding in my favour.
My question does this mean there possibly doing a redress calculation as is quiet a big sum I am due if there in favour of the adjudicator?
Has anyone else experienced anything similar.
I’ve had similar experience with Satsuma where they wiped the loans and were later in favour with the fos.
Thank you
Adam
Andrew says
Hi Chris
How long did ccp take to pay you or anyone else that can let me know would be great
Sam says
Hi Sara I’m just wondering if u could help me work this out plz I have got a complaint in against loans2go log book loans has any one had an affordability compliant upheld against these
Loan 1 cash recieved £500 made 3 payments of £82.78
Top up £1000 cash recieved £605.90
Payments made £1345.02
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t matter what the company is, many people have won logbookloan cases at the Ombudsman so if L2G say No, send it straight to FOS.
Stevan says
I have 118118 complaint in and due to hear back off them next week. Thats the 8 week period up but expect them to say they need more time to investigate.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you if you want to give them more time. You can send the complaint to FOS straight away at 8 weeks.
stevan says
I will sending straight to FOS after next week.
matt says
Just had a call from my investigator who upheld a complaint which Moneybarn rejected. Apparently it is with an Ombudsman but all cases with them are delayed due to “high level people” from both organisations talking to each other and trying to resolve something. He couldn’t tell me what.
Any idea what this could be Sara?
PF says
Hi Matt, you have my sympathy. I have been waiting for the FOS Investigator to give his assessment on my complaint against Moneybarn since the end of Feb. I was advised in the middle of May that my complaint was back in the hands of the Investigator after some high-level discussions had taken place during March/ April. At the end of May, I was advised that the Investigator was upholding my complaint but the FOS were trying to work with Moneybarn to get them to accept more Investigator decisions so still hasn’t issued his assessment. It’s very disappointing to hear that you have been told they are back at the discussion stage and that my Investigator hasn’t communicated this to me directly.
Look on the bright side at least you have got in the queue for the Ombudsman :)
Best of luck you get a decision soon.
PF
Matt says
Hi PF
Pretty infuriating, I originally complained in August 2018! And sent to Ombudsman in September 18!the case is so old it’s on their old system I am told! Adjudicator originally disagreed with me, until I highlighted some points (mainly large payday loan useage and after a few months came back (said he consulted with a senior colleague) and upheld in January). Moneybarn rejected one March and have been waiting since then for an Ombudsman.
I have lost a large amount of potential refunds due to the Wonga and Quick quid delays and am getting a little concerned Moneybarn might go the same way! Potential redress for this is around 8-9k. I just hope the Ombudsman agrees with the Investigator as this will put me nearly debt free after 10 years of misery!
Matt says
Also PF, wishing you all the best in your case! Hopefully not much longer for either of us.
PF says
Cheers Matt,
I have just emailed my Investigator to get an update, especially as the news about Sunny has just come out. If I hear anything useful i’ll let you know.
PF
Matt says
Just had an email saying Ombudsman asking for bank statements and a couple of other bits of info.
Fingers crossed!
I can see all of them going to the wall eventually
Tony says
hi guys heard from adjudicator today with reference to my wifes likely loans. he has agreed that the lian should not have been given and has passed back for likely loans to reply by 09 July. Fingers crossed that accept adjudicator decision will be over 1k plus a little interest. keep at it there is light at end of the tunnel. I also have one at FOS for likely loans and have just been assigned adjudicator. They upheld my initial top up but refused the initial loan. I would like to know what checks they did differently for the initial loan. I’m not holding my breath..
Em says
Hi! I can’t quite believe it. I complained to Amigo loans in January and today heard back they have upheld my complaint and getting a refund of 3 grand!! I can’t believe it. They have said will be in my bank with 15 days, has anyone had to wait longer?
Thanks so much for this great site!! Happy Friday!!!
Linds says
Hello,
My refund was in my account on the 7th day! I don’t think it would be any longer than 15 days.
Lo says
Hi Linda, how long did you wait to hear back from amigo?
Jay Ant says
Has anyone been successful with on stride? They show on my credit karma report but not my Equifax report. I have emailed them but no response yet.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are in administration, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-casheuronet-administration/
Andrew says
Hi so I have been told I will get loans 1 to 4 refunded how do I work out the simple interest first one was 2012 last one cleared 2015 I never cleared one though they rolled over I worked out all I paid minus how much they gave me so I have a rough amount
When do I start the interest calculation for loan 1 when loan 2 was issued and use the amount from then to present day and do that with 4 different figures?
Also with sunny seperate loan adjudicator was just about to make a decision but hasn’t yet will they continue to work on it or will it be put on hold now?
TIA
Jay Ant says
Anyone have any experience with Avant. They have responded with their normal we will get back to you email. Just wondering how easy they are to deal with. I had a £4500 loan and paid £1682 in interest over a 13 month period. the account was closed in 2015 after I paid it off with another loan. Hoping to get this back with interest.
jaz says
Hi Sara
I had a reply back from my adjudicator saying 118 118 money has accepted to pay back 2 of my loans from the 4 I took out with them, 118 118 money mentioned across the 2 loans the total advance to me was £2,750 and that I repaid them back £2938,27, my balance remaining on my last loan was £506 which their said their have cleared off, and to refund me £188,27, but I have added the total what I had paid back so far, it was £4.760,59 in total that I have given them, and their saying I payed a total of £2,938,27, iv got the statements of the 2 loans showing how much I have paid so far towards the 2 loans, and it has added up to the total of £4,760,59 at the moment as it stands. I have made the adjudicator aware, and their have emailed 118 118 money to show how their come with the calculation, it’s been 3 weeks and still not heard anything,
Sarah says
Hi
I wonder if anyone on here had put in a complaint to EDL and the adjudicator agree with them that their loan was affordable,
It has gone through to the ombudsman, but I know that they tend to agree with adjudicators.
When I applied for the loan, I had payday loans coming out of my ears. When they checked 1 bank statement, they chose to ignore the fact that I had missed my mortgage payment that month, plus I’d got a £179 payment going out to my dad for a car loan (in his name), which again they chose to ignore. When i got the SAR from EDL, they had circled the £179 payment and written ‘one off payment’.
Considering the loan was £5 (which equated to 10k with interest), I argued that they surely should have checked more bank statements, especially with the missed mortgage payment and £179 payment showing.
The adjudicator just couldn’t see where I was coming from, it was as though he was looking at completely different statements to what I was looking at.
I just wondered whether many cases do come back with a difference of opinion.
Many thanks
Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that sounds like a good enough case to take to the ombudsman.
You may want to write out a short explanation saying why you think the adjudicator’s decision was wrong and ask your adjudicator to send it to the ombudsman.
Sarah says
Thank you Sara
It has already been sent to the ombudsman so I will drop them an email stating why I didn’t agree with the adjudicator’s decision.
Thanks again for your help
Sarah
Tom says
Hi Sara, Avant credit came back to me at the 8 week mark saying they hadn’t yet been able to look at my complaint. Is there any point my sending it straight to the ombudsman? Presumably they won’t look at it until Avant have replied? I asked for a timescale and they came back to say they had ‘no idea’ when it would be looked at!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you. If they had said you would get a reply next week, then waiting would be reasonable. Without any indication I would have thought you may as well dent it to FOS now.
Craig says
Hi Sara,
Along side other payday loan complaints that I have with the FOS at the moment I also have 2 complaints about logbook loan companies (I went through a really really tough financial time 8-9 years ago and was desperate). One is with Mobile Money and the other is Loans2go.
The one with Loans2go was 4 loans and the FOS decided to uphold my complaint on loans 2 and 4. Loan 2 resulted in me surrendering my vehicle and loan 4 after they have removed the interest and charges I have over paid by about £380.
As I didn’t trust Loans2go to play fair I asked the FOS to get a settlement figure before accepting and low and behold Loans2go tried to say I still owed money on Loan 2 which swallowed up the over payment from loan 4.
The issue I have with this is that I got Loans2go to email me to say that my surrender of my car on loan 2 was ‘Full and Final’ settlement which they did (I have forwarded a screenshot of the email to FOS) so my question is this, Can a company who have emailed me to say that the car has been accepted as full and final settlement then say there is an outstanding balance 5 years after because they didn’t get enough from the sale of the car? As I understand it full and final settlement means just that? I have rejected their settlement with the FOS adjudicator and it has now been passed to an ombudsman but I just wanted help with the legal side of Full and final settlement. Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you can reasonably say that as L2G accepted your offer in settlement, it would be unfair to unpick that settlement and claim you still owed them money from that.
It’s not so much “the legal side” as making out an argument to FOS that is reasonable and centred around fairness.
Craig says
Ok thank you, Loans2go originally agreed that they were going to repay myself the £51 they got for the car ( before I had asked for a figure) but I have since replied to the FOS to state that it would be unfair for them to do that as this was accepted as full and final settlement for loan 2 so I would only be looking for the overpayment to be returned with the usual interest. Thank you again
Linds says
Is anyone still waiting for an adjudicator to pick up a complaint against 118 118?
Mine has been nearly 12 months and still not been picked up. The FOS assure me it is progressing but it does not feel like it 😞
Craig says
Hi Linda,
My complaints are not 118118 but are Mobile money and Loans2go and have been with the FOS since April last year. Although some other payday loan complaints I submitted at similar times came back a few months ago so I’m not sure if there’s a set amount of time?
Linds says
Craig,
Thank you for your reply, hopefully we get an update soon.
Thanks
Paul says
Hi Linds, I’m in exactly the same boat as you with 118. I’ve had mine in with them for roughly the same amount of time and they haven’t picked mine up either. I’ve enquired about it a few times and they’ve come back and said it’s with a different department and there’s a queue etc etc etc. Majorly frustrating.
chris says
Just a positive note to leave for those with 118, I took two loans out with them, one for £2200 and in February this year a top up one for 3500 with interest of just under £1500. I only complained about the second loan as the original one I accept was affordable. They got back to me today exactly eight weeks to the day upholding my complaint against the second loan, waving interest and removing it from my credit file.
Thank you to everyone on here!
Ricky says
Same. I received a final response from 118 118 saying they are not upholding my complaint due to me lying about my expenses. Of course I underestimated some of my expenses, I wasn’t going to put down Mr William Hill and Mrs Ladbrokes (betting shop) as expenses. They are saying this can be seen as fraud. I supplied them with bank statements with various betting transaction.
Stevan says
I had a response from 118 118 saying they are not upholding my complaint due to me having enough income to meet the payments and that I had underestimated my rent by 200 pound. They also said it fraud by not declaring the correct expenses. I didn’t get asked for any bank statements. but at the time I had multiple PD loans and other high interest loans on the go.
I have a 118118 credit card to which they have said in the above response that it will be closed due to the nature of my complaint and I will need to organise payment or repayment plan with them. Surely the loan and credit card are separate items?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
118 are being aggressive about rejecting complaints and alleging fraud, but as with other lender that try this (Uncle Buck did, Money Boat still do) they never seem to follow through with their threats of you send your complaint to FOS.
What are your finances like at the moment, can you afford the card repayments? Your other debts?
Stevan says
Hi Sara,
I am able to meet all my financial obligations and in full time work. I got into a serious rut 2 years ago with PD loans and credit. managed to get back on top of it all. At one point I was 30k in debt. I stumbled across these site and managed to claim over 2.k back from sunny and satsuma. still got claims against amigo 3k redress accepted and at day 14. lending stream 2k claim with FOS. My jar 8k with FOS. 118118 is the final company at roughly 2k.
not missed a payment on the CC and its only 400£ limit.
Thanks to help am in a much better position financially and will never go back to the place I was a few year ago.
Sam says
Hi Sara just wanted some advice I put a complaint in to loans2go last week and they have just emailed to say my loans was affordable but as a good Will gesture they will take 50% off the balance and let me set a payment plan up just wondering if to accept or send to fos
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how much did you borrow? how much have you paid so far? what is the current balance?
Sam says
Hi Sara I have just worked it out and I lent £1100 I have paid back £1500 and they Are outstanding payments as I haven’t paid since January they have said I still owe £1500 but Will half it as a good Will gesture but it looks like to me I’m just paying interest back any ideas of what to reply thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then that isn’t a good compromise for you, is it.
If you want the refund of the £400 you have paid so far, you may have to take this to the Financial Ombudsman.
But if you would be happy if they just right off the balance, then you could go back and say their offer is not acceptable, if they will write off the whole balance and remove any negative marks on your credit record then you are prepared to accept that as a compormise, otherwise you will send your complaint to FOS.
Sam says
Thanks I’ll email them now and see what they say I’ll keep u posted
Ricky says
Bamboo Loans have rejected my complaint on the basis they followed all the appropriate and proportiante checks. Even do my SARS showed my indebtness to be 96% at the time. They ignored priority bills such as Rent and council tax and used ’high tech tool’ to determine disposable income. Bamboo are now saying if I pay the advanced funds borrowed of £3000 they will waive off all the interest. I don’t think this is a fair offer. Does this give me hope if I send this to Ombudsman?
I did go back to them but the manager was arrogant and signed off the email with ’this is our final response on this matter’.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they have offered to remove the interest so you only repay what you borrower?
If that is right, then that is all you would get from going to FOS.
How much are you supposed to pay a month and what can you really afford?
GH says
I’ve posted on here before about likely loans. I borrowed £2500 in May 2018 . Only ever had this loan with them. I’m still paying it back now, I’m on a payment plan balance still £1500. I put in a irresponsible lending complaint. At the time I had multiple paypay loans with other lenders. I had their final response today saying its not being upheld as they state they saw no other payday loans on my credit file. I have my experian credit file clearly showing open loans with other lenders when my application was made. Before I go to the Financial Ombudsman has anyone here argued the final response with them in their favour before going to the FOA. Tia
Tony says
my wife has just had upheld at FOS. likelylians said they did enough checks. adjudicator said they didnt and if they had looked at her credit record and constant overdraft she would be borrowing more to repay the loan. just awaiting LL to agree and hopefully around 1300 in interest back.
GH says
Thats great thanks for the feedback, how long did it take with the Ombudsman? I’m expecting a wait tbh
Ricky says
They have said they would only remove the interest if I pay the £3000 in one lump some. I can’t really afford it. Monthly payments are £207 also I’m getting redundant end of the month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ah no, that isn’t reasonable. Send your complaint to FOS and also tell Bamboo you need a 3 month payment holiday as you are losing your job at the end of the month because of Covid-19 (I assume that is the reason?)
Bev says
Hi Sara,
I received an email today out of the blue from FOS to say that Shop Direct have made an offer which I have accepted. However one of my accounts with them which was a Littlewoods account was sold to Cabot and eventually went to a CCJ which I have now paid off. I asked the FOS if I would be able to get the CCJ set aside as they have now made an offer, they advised that because Shop Direct did not file the CCJ then this would not be possible but I was wondering if I contacted Cabot it might be possible.
Any advice of this would be great.
thanks
Bev
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Does the offer you have accepted include refunding the money you have paid to Cabot?
Samuel Webber says
Good afternoon.
I have been making overpayments on a logbook loan and built up around £503 in the green due to overpayments. As these are not within the contract.
I have requested if i can be refunded my overpayments due to financial problems this month.
They have turned around and said no.
Is this a legal requirement to hold and retain overpayments considering its not their money as it is outside of contractual monthly amount.
Any help and advice greatly apriciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why were you making overpayments, was this to reduce the interest you would be paying?
Sam webber says
Hi Sara
Thanks for the reply
Just to clear down the balance as best as i could usually 40-50 extra each month
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am afraid that was a mistake. A lender is not there to act as a savings account for you. Have you asked if you can miss a payment this month because of the overpayments you have made?
Bev says
Hi Sara,
No I don’t think so, it just says refund of buy now pay later interest and administrative charges. They advised that shop direct will contact me directly to sort things out and will apply the 8% once the offer is accepted.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did this just refer to some BNPL deals? Had you bought other things on the account as well?
Bev says
Everything I purchased was on my credit account so buy now pay later I can’t remember there being any specific deals. This was some time ago, 2011 and I don’t have any of my old statements. When I originally complained, shop direct just sent me details of how many credit limit increases i had but not a breakdown of my actual payments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case you could go back and say you were expecting a refund of all interest and charges, including those added by the debt purchaser relating to the CCJ.
Bev says
OK many thanks for your help Sara.
Bev
C.Jones says
Hi Sara
I have a question. I have an unaffordable loan case against Motorkitty at the moment with the FOS. I have had an email today from my case worker who has found in my favour. What I don’t understand is that in his email he is asking them to remove interest, take away my previous payments from the initial loan, and if there is a balance left that I owe from the £100 loan taken allow me to pay it back at an affordable rate, or If they owe me money refund it with the 8% interest. Where I’m stumped is that they took my car away (in the most horrendous way) and it’s currently been at an auction house for 4 months. They won’t reply to my emails about my belongings or anything etc. If my car sells say for £3000 then will they be allowed to just keep that money? I know I have already payed the £100 loan back With previous payments as I’ve worked it out, but does it mean they will still profit from me when my car sells? I know about bill of sale but if the loan was unaffordable in the first place surely I have some right there too? Any help is much appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to your case worker and say you think your car should be returned as well.
Linds says
Hello,
I just want to say a thank you to Sara and this site, it has saved me thousands of pounds just with the help and guidance.
Whatever the reason maybe that we have come on this site, to get help, we need to understand we chose to take out the loan in the first instance.
I have affordability complaints with the FOS which I’m waiting for a response, but I completely understand the reason I am on this site, receiving this help, is still down to me.
We have to understand the basic line which is if I have borrowed an amount, for example £100. I at least need to pay the £100 back, it’s the interest that is the main point.
If you do receive an offer from your lender that says (for example “you borrowed £100, your total amount to pay back is £320 including interest, however you have paid £80, we will accept a payment of £20”, that would be a fair answer. Because you borrowed £100, you have paid back £80 so far, therefore £20 to pay. (The lender has removed the interest).
That is reasonable because you did take the £100 and spend the money so paying it back is reasonable.
I have suffered with a lot of debt due to gambling and it has ruined my life, however I understand it was ME that has made the problem. I feel so thankful to this site because I can redeem some money I lost, but it does not take away the reason why it happened.
Bob says
I had an email from the FOS adjudicator in my favour regarding a 118118 loan this morning.
How are 118118 at the moment with regards to settlement, are they dragging their heels through the ombudsman or are they settling painlessly?