The repayments on many loans and car finance are too high to be manageable so people get deeper into debt trying to repay them.
When you applied, a lender should have checked a loan would be affordable for you – often they did not check properly and you should never have been given this loan.
This article describes how to complain, with a template to use.
Many people have won complaints using this. If you win, you get the interest refunded in cash. When you still owe a balance, the interest is removed so you only repay what you borrowed.
These complaints do not hurt your credit record if you carry on making the loan repayments while the complaint goes through.
Contents
A quick overview
What types of loans?
- any personal loans, including high-cost lenders, bank loans, and credit union loans;
- you can complain if you are still paying the loans, it has already been repaid, it has defaulted, or you have a payment arrangement/DMP;
- a consolidation loan may have been cheaper than the credit cards it cleared – but it may still have been unaffordable!
- you can also complain about car finance. But if you are still paying car finance, be careful – read Car finance affordability – what you get if you win a complaint
- the complaints here do not apply to mortgages or business loans.
What is “unaffordable”?
The regulator says “affordable” means:
you can make the repayments without hardship or having to borrow elsewhere.
For large loans, a lender should have made adequate checks at the start. The larger your loan, the worse your credit score and the more other debt you had, the closer a lender should look.
If your loan was fine at the beginning and only caused problems later when you lost your job or your mortgage repayments went up, you are unlikely to win an affordability complaint as this could not have been predicted at the start.
How does this work?
You first make a complaint to the lender saying the loan was unaffordable and ask for a refund of the interest.
There is a template here you can adapt to say what happened to you. Send it by email.
The lender has up to 8 weeks to reply. Lenders reject many good complaints, so you can send a rejection to the Financial Ombudsman.
Complain to the lender
Email addresses for lenders
If your loan has been sold to a debt collector, send your complaint to the original lender not the debt collector.
It’s easiest if all communications are by email – free, instant and you have a copy with a date stamp to show the ombudsman.
For banks, see this list here: email complaint addresses for banks.
For car finance and logbook loans, see this list: email address for car finance lenders
Here are the email addresses for some non-bank lenders. There are a lot of other smaller lenders, including many Credit Unions. If your lender is not listed, ask in the comment below for an email address.
Abound (used to be Fintern) complaints@getabound.com
Admiral loansquality@admiralgroup.co.uk
Anico complaints@anicofinancialservices.com
Avant Credit emailcomplaints@avantcredit.co.uk
Bamboo Loans complaints@bambooloans.com
Better Borrow enquiries@chetwood.co
Castle Community Bank complaints@castlecommunitybank.co.uk
Creation customercare@creation.co.uk
Everyday Loans – for loans after 31 March 2021, see Evlo and use the template in this article. It is no longer possible to make complaints about their loans before that date
Evlo (rebrand of Everyday Loans) chioma.nwachukwu@evlo.co.uk
Fair Finance complaints@fairfinance.org.uk
Finio Loans (rebrand of Likely Loans) complaints@oakbrookfinance.com
Fluro (used to be Lending Works) cx@fluro.co.uk
Koyo loans info@koyoloans.com
Lendable complaint@lendable.co.uk
Lifestyle Loans info@lifestyleloans.co.uk
Likely Loans – see Finio
LiveLend support@livelend.co
Loans by Mal (Monthly Advance Loans) Complaints@loansbymal.co.uk
Loans 2 Go read Loans2Go – how to complain
MBNA mbnaonlinecomplaints@mbna.co.uk
Moneyline headoffice@moneyline-uk.com
My Community Bank complaints@mycommunitybank.co.uk
Novuna (used to be called Hitachi) ComplaintsTeam@NovunaPersonalFinance.co.uk
Plata complaints@plata.com
Plend complaints@plend.co.uk
Progressive Money complaints@progressivemoney.co.uk
Quick Loans customerscare@quickloans.co.uk
Reevo complaints@reevomoney.com
Salary Finance (Neyber) complaints@salaryfinance.com (for loans, not “pay advance”)
Savvy info@savvy.co.uk
Shawbrook Customercare.team@shawbrook.co.uk
Snap Finance customer@snapfinance.co.uk
Tandem pl@tandem.co.uk
TM Advances info@tmadvances.co.uk
Updraft complaints@updraft.com
Vanquis customer.relations@vanquisbank.co.uk
Zopa complaints@zopa.com
118 118 Money complaints@118118money.com
Use this template
Email the lender to begin your complaint. Put AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT as the subject of your email.
Template for you to adapt:
Please confirm the date this loan started, the amount, the interest rate and the monthly repayments. [don’t include this if you already know the information]
I am asking for a refund of the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record. [the refunds for car finance can be a lot more complicated than this, see but this is all you need to put in your complaint]
I also want the CCJ that I have for this debt set aside. [delete this sentence if you don’t have a CCJ!]
I attach copies of my bank statements and credit report from the time I applied for this loan/these loans. [delete if you don’t yet have them yet, but they help your case if you do. Even if they show gambling, that supports your argument the loan was unaffordable.]
I didn’t know that the lender was supposed to check that I could repay the loan without having to borrow more. I only found out in [2024] when I saw a newspaper article in the Sun/an advert on Facebook for refunds/a friend said they had made a complaint/whatever. So I am complaining within 3 years of having found out that I have cause to complain. [only put this paragraph if some of your loans are more than 6 years old. It explains why you haven’t complained before. It’s only an example so change it so it really covers what happened to you!]
Add extra information if you want – see below for some ideas – you don’t have to do this.
Do you need a payment arrangement now?
If you want an affordable payment arrangement now, add a sentence to the complaint saying this. These complaints may take months to sort out – a payment arrangement can get your finances into a safe place:
- a payment arrangement shows on your credit record, but if you win the complaint all negative marks will be deleted
- talk to a debt adviser such as National Debtline if you want to know more about payment arrangements
- but don’t risk a payment arrangement for car finance or a logbook loan – one would put your car at risk.
Other details to add if you want
The template above is fine, you don’t have to add a lot more details.
But you can add extra points if they apply in your case, for example
- my bank statements and credit record (attached) show that I was unable to afford the loan repayments.
- this was a large loan, you knew I had poor credit and may have been in a difficult position so you should have tried to verify my income and expenses. If you had done this, you would have rejected my application.
- during a telephone call, your agent suggested some figures should be lower to get my application accepted.
- if the lender was your bank – you should have seen from my bank account that I was in financial difficulty, I was using my overdraft a lot, I was only making minimum payments to my credit card from you.
And some examples of points about top-ups:
- a credit check would have shown that my finances had got worse since the first loan
- I had said the first loan was to consolidate debt, but you should have seen that this hadn’t happened.
While you are waiting for a reply
Try to get copies of your bank statements from 3 months before a loan to three months afterwards. You can get statements from closed bank accounts, normally going back 6 years.
Also get a statutory credit report now and download it. You can get one from TransUnion. Do this as soon as possible as sometimes the details change, so you want a full one saved to show the Ombudsman later if necessary.
Do not wait until the Ombudsman asks you for credit records or bank statements – you want them ready to hand. They really help your case as they prove your financial situation when you took the loan out.
You should get a response from the lender within 8 weeks. If you don’t, phone them up and ask when you will get it – a couple of days is worth waiting for but many responses are rejections, so don’t wait weeks for one, go to the Ombudsman straight away.
Go to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a good offer
Don’t be put off by a rejection! Or if the lender said it was your fault because your loan application wasn’t accurate – the lender should have made checks.
Sometimes a lender will send a long, complicated reply designed to make you look as though you should give up. If they say the loan was over 6 years ago, see below for “time limits”.
I suggest you rely on your instinct – if the loan caused you a lot of problems, send it to be looked at by the Ombudsman.
If you aren’t sure, ask in the Comments below this article. You only have 6 months to send the complaint to FOS, so it’s best to do this as soon as possible.
It isn’t usually worth trying to negotiate with these lenders, you are just wasting your time.
Send to Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
It’s easy! Use the “do it online” option to send a complaint to the Ombudsman. It asks you for all the details they need.
The main part of your complaint can be a version of what you sent the lender in your complaint. Add any more details you want, including pointing out mistakes in the lender’s reply. Also attach:
- the reply from the lender
- Trans Union statutory credit record
- bank statements starting 3 months before first loan
- do not worry if you don’t have A copy of your credit or finance agreement – lots of people don’t. The lender will supply a copy if FOS asks for it. Don’t delay sending a complaint to FOS while you try to get this from the lender.
Other information that may help your case
Don’t delay sending a case to the Ombudsman while waiting for this information.
If you don’t have the bank statements from the time of the loan application, get them now. You can get these going back at least 6 years even from closed accounts. And you can often go back a lot further with an account that you are still using.
This is a good point to ask the lender for a Subject Access Request (SAR) if you are missing information that may come in useful at the Ombudsman. This could be your loan applications, all credit and other affordability checks and assessments, and a statement of account for the loans, and – if you think this will help – a record of all phone calls.
Your lender will have details of how to ask for this information on their website – it’s often included in their Privacy Policy, with a link at the bottom of web pages.
“Is there a time limit?”
You can’t complain about a loan that started before April 2007 – that is when the law changed to allow these complaints.
Lenders will often reject a complaint if the loan started more than 6 years ago.
But if your loan was still being repaid within the last 6 years, the Ombudsman may well decide they can look at it. So if your loan started in 2017 and finished in 2021, send this to the Ombudsman if the lender says it’s too old, because it isn’t.
The ombudsman may also look at older loans if you had a continuous stream of borrowing which carried on into the last 6 years. So if you had 2 loans, the first from 2014-17, when it was refinanced into a loan from 2017-2021, the Ombudsman may decide they can look at the earlier loan as well. And if you had two overlapping loans, eg from 2014-2019 and 2017-2022, the Ombudsman may look at both.
But if your loans from this lender ended more than 6 years ago, then it is very unlikely you will win a case at the Ombudsman.
Need some help?
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive, often incompetent and use a similar template to the one in this article.
Instead ask a question in the comments below.
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Refunds from cards and catalogues
Get a car finance commission refund?
Lisa Rhodes says
That’s great thanks.
Jax says
I’m still waiting on an outcome from an ombudsman regarding my Zopa complaint. It was allocated 12 weeks ago and the adjudicator keeps saying it hasn’t been looked at yet. The adjudicator has changed since the original adjudicator too. Is this usual?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it sometimes happens that an adjudicator changes roles at FOS, leaves or is unwell. I suggest you ask every couple of week swhat is happening and if they need any more information from you
Jax says
On another note, Barclays refunded charges and interest on my overdraft last December back to 2016. In August 2017 they gave me a 5k loan. Today I have had a very protracted online chat with someone at Barclays. I asked them to remove the default from my credit file as the loan was funded during the time they deemed my overdraft to be unaffordable. They said in the chat that the charges on my overdraft were refunded due to lock down as a gesture of goodwill. Obviously lockdown wasn’t until March 2020 so I challenged this. They also said I could have asked for a payment holiday during lockdown and I didn’t. Barclays had already defaulted the loan by that time. I’ve asked them to raise a formal complaint requesting a refund of all interest and charges and removal of the default. I was only really bothered about the default initially to be honest but after the chat experience I thought I’d ask for a refund too. Loan is paid off. Let’s see what happens.
Jax says
Also, they continued to add interest after the loan was defaulted so I’ve raised that too.
Sam Carvell says
Hi Jax
Unfortunately, they can add interest to the total defaulted amount, until it is paid in full, you will find those terms in your contractual agreement, that you agreed to.
Sam
Lydia says
Hi Sara.
I just wanted to ask advice on a potential affordability complaint to Natwest.
Mar 22 – Took out loan £7450 (Apr 22.19%)
Sep 22 – Took out Credit card £2200 with transfer at zero % for 22 months – Transferred over prev debt from other high cost cards – Fluid
Dec 22 – Took out further £4000 loan from Natwest (Apr 27.9%)
Had year’s of living in overdraft with Natwest £500 limit) and around 6k debt currently on cards with 118/Vanquis/Fluid/Next/Very catalogue
My partner was supporting me with payments against this credit, however we have now split. I earn roughly 1.5k per month and have two young dependents. Do I have grounds to make complaints?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have just taken out the second loan? Was this before or after your separated from your partner? What was this loan for?
Do you have a house with a mortgage?
Lydia says
Hi Sara, partner was paying rent but now that’s going to fall on me. Renting and used to fund gambling habit unfortunately. Nov 22 (not dec) before separation
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was the gambling habit clear on your bank statements.
Are you getting help with this?
Private rented or social housing?
Lydia says
Private renting, some are clear others were transfers to partner for their account. I wasn’t the one with problem but now left with debt if that makes sense.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
On the basis that some payments were showing and there were large and unexplained payments going to your partner, I think this is worth a complint. A bank should not lend money when it suspects there is a gambling issue. In particular it should have queried why you needed a second loan less than a year after the first – the fact the interest rate is so very high shows the bank knew your finances were in a difficult poision.
I think you should also look at making affordability complaints to all the credit cards you had if they increased your limit when you were only making minimum payments. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/
Lydia says
Thank you so much for getting back to me.
Gary says
If you have been through FOS and won case but money is still outstanding at debt collectors, can the debt collectors take you to court or legal proceedings if the debt is not paid? Even though all bad marks ets are removed from credit file
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, but they should not if you make an affordable offer to repay this. This has not been a problem in practice.
Gary says
Thank you for reply, once gone through to debt collectors can they put the debt on credit score even though FOS told original loan company to remove any bad marks. Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if this was sold before the FOS decision, then the original lender will arrange fr the debt purchaser to remove negative marks.
if it is sold after the FOS decisio, it should be sold with the condition that no negative marks are added.
(NB this does depend on you make a sensible, affordable offer to repay, you can’t just decide to offer £1 a month to a 5k remaining balance when you could afford a lot more.)
Kirsty says
Will doing this negatively impact my credit rating? I had several loans in 2020 (that have been consolidated as they were unaffordable) and I am sure I could successfully get money back from Virgin Money, Post Office Loans, Oplo and First Direct but I don’t want to do this if it will impact my credit rating negatively. Will it show on my credit file? Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it doesn’t show on your credit record. Only the lender (and any other companies in their group) know you have made a complaint.
If you win a complaint any negative marks (missed payments, defaults) should be removed so your rating improves.
MJ says
Hi Sara
Thank you in advance for any guidance you may be able to provide. My situation is as follows:
In 2018, I took a loan for £4000 with Bamboo, the third loan I’d had with them in the space of two years. I defaulted on repayments due to a change in employment, but more significantly, the impact of a serious gambling addiction. This came at a time when I was juggling loans from multiple payday/short term lenders on a weekly basis.
Since then, the debt was sold to TBI whose tactics have included regular emails and phone calls, including one call to my most recent employer. I have just received a default notice from TBI asking the balance of £6560.45 to be paid in full before January 23rd.
So, today, I sent a mail to Bamboo, following the guidance above. I included bank statements from my main bank account but the funds were paid in to a second account which is now closed. I will try to track down statements from that account also.
Have I left it too late? Is it a question of waiting? Any guidance, greatly appreciated and thanks for all the help and expertise you provide to people. 👏
MJ
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not too late (although earlier would have been better as you may not be getting the hassle from TBI.) Yes it is just a case of waiting.
Tell TBI you are disputing the debt with Bamboo.
Have you also complained about the payday loans and other high cost debt?
MJ says
Hi Sara
Update on this following my complaint to Bamboo:
Following the submission of the complaint, TBI suspended any pending action.
Today, I received an email from Bamboo with a “final response”. In that, they have said:
“Bamboo believes it made a fair lending decision in approving your loans after carefully considering your circumstances and affordability and we are therefore unable to uphold your complaint.”
They have offered “to reduce your balance by £2,084.23. This is equivalent to 50% of the interest on the (current) loan.”
There’s no mention of gambling in their assessment of my bank statement, in spite of significant gambling transactions being visible on my bank statements.
What would you recommend?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what would statements from the other bank account have shown?
MJ says
The account that the funds were paid in to shows multiple gambling transactions. My other account, which I also provided to them, was used for two earlier loans and that also shows gambling and other payday loans at that period.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, if the statements you have sent showed gambling, it doesnt really matter that there is another account that also showed gambling. But the Ombudsman will want to see all the ststements.
Your choices now anre to go back to Bamboss and ask them to look again, say the complaint goes to FOS in a week if they don’t make suitable offer, or to send it straight to FOS,
MJ says
I replied to Bamboo and said I would consider a revised offer if it also corrected the negative marks on my credit rating. They replied with the following offer:
“agree to remove all negative information from your credit file once the capital balance (ie the £4000.00 that you borrowed from us) has been repaid”
I’v already repaid £1600 on this loan so it feels like there may still be something to be gained from rejecting this latest offer? Any thoughts appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What is the rest of your current financial situation like?
Do you have other problem debts? Have you made affordability complaints about other debts?
How much can you afford to pay to this Bamboo debt a month?
Are bamboo proposing to buy the debt back from the debt collector or get the debt collector to adjust the balance?
MJ says
What is the rest of your current financial situation like?
Currently unemployed with no savings
Do you have other problem debts? Have you made affordability complaints about other debts?
I tried using the third party tool to chase other loans but with no success. Some payday providers who folded paid out meagre sums.
How much can you afford to pay to this Bamboo debt a month?
£100?
Are bamboo proposing to buy the debt back from the debt collector or get the debt collector to adjust the balance?
They’ve mentioned arranging this with TBI.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So do you have other debts?
MJ says
Hi Sara, no, only other current debts are c. 1k credit cards but those accounts are all in good shape.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you are unemplyed I don’t see how you can manage to pay 3100 a month to Bamboo.
They havent offered to remove all the interest, and it would take you a very long while to repay the ba;ance they are suggesting, so it may be sensible to send this to the ombudsman.
MJ says
Final update on this one. Bamboo called me after I’d notified them I was going to the ombudsman. It went before their senior management weekly meeting and they have agreed to wipe off the loan completely and remove any negative references on my credit rating. Very pleased with the outcome and have to give credit (no pun intended) to Bamboo for their communication and willingness to resolve this.
Couple of other observations:
1. It appeared to be the high volume of gambling transactions which made it a strong case.
2. I was at pains to point out the appalling behaviour of TBI who they had sold the debt to and I’m hopeful that will lead to some changes in their tactics
Finally, I’d like to thank you again Sara. You give your time and energy for free on here and it’s incredible. If it wasn’t a community of folks in debt then I’d say that you should charge for it! Thank you 🙏.
Bj says
Has anyone had any dealings with AA Loans regarding affordability complaints, just wondering how they processed or if they were hard to deal with
Jax says
The Ombudsman has upheld my complaint against Zopa. As this is a decision from an ombudsman rather than an adjudicator do businesses typically tend to accept the decision now or may there be a further disagreement from the lender?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
a decision from an Ombudsman is legally binding – Zopa will pay.
(In theory the lender can take the ombudsman to court for a judicial review. This increadibly rare and has never happened for an affordability complaint.)
Jax says
Great thanks Sara, just a waiting game now for calculations and payment then.
Nikki says
Hi jax just wondering how long did it take for an ombudsman to pick up your case after the adjudicator decision?thanks
Jax says
Hi Nikki it’s taken about 16 weeks from being referred to an ombudsman to the decision being issued.
Tim says
Hi Sara,
I took out a loan in September 2022 for £3000 with a logbook loan company and secured it on my car. At the time I was going through some personal problems and also suffering with a severe gambling addiction. Whilst at the time I had excluded myself from online gambling, it is clear to see there was an issue there with thousands of pounds each month being transferred from the bank account the lender viewed prior to approving to loan to the bank account I was using for my gambling. I believe the lender should have asked where the money was going and why there were so many transactions before approving the loan.
I appreciate this was my own doing and thankfully I am on a better path now, but does the lender have a duty to check this before approving a loan or are the statements they ask for purely to confirm income?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you actually stopped gambling. Are the repayments affordable?
Tim says
Hi Sara,
I have stopped gambling now and haven’t placed a bet for 3 months. The repayments are £435 per month over 12 months, I can make this payment (although it does leave me a bit short). My question is regarding irresponsibility rather than unaffordability.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Affordability and irresponsibilty are two sides of the same coin. If the Ombudsman doesn’t think you have lost out by being given an unaffordable loan you are pretty unlikely to get any refund or reduction in your balance.
But if the payment leaves you “a bit short” does that mean that you are borrowing more elsewhere? or getting behind with any bills? If it does, then you do have an affordability complaint and yes, the lender should have taken note of the gambling showing on your bank statements.
Hayley says
Hi Sarah
I sent an affordability complaint to 118118 money for a £2000 loan I had taken out the total amount I had to pay back was £3779, I had quite a few gambling transactions coming out of my bank at the time and was not in a good financial situation, I sent the complaint 16/11/22 they acknowledged the complaint and said the had logged it for that date, Today is the 8 week mark and I still haven’t had a final response from them, Should I get in touch with them and chase this up ? Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would wait until tomorrow then phone them up and ask when you will be getting a reply – say it goes to the Ombudsman on Monday if you hadn’t had a reasonable offer by then.
Steve says
Hi
Have a case agaonst 118 with the FOS – original loan in 2019, top up in 2020. Found in my favour by adjudicator this week – wondered how often 118 accept this or whether they usually go to the ombudsman to make final decision – evidence seems pretty stacked in my favour of being unaffordable both times. Reading the comments I see the wait for ombudsman can be 9 months or so
Becky says
118 responded straight away to mine and refunded in 8 weeks
kimberley says
Hi,
I’ve recently come across your website thanks to an instagram page of someone you helped early last year!
I’ve sent a few of your email templates to likely loans, 118 118 money and Vanquis, I’m just waiting to hear back from them!
I have a few questions as I have a car finance that I’m still paying off aswell. Basically the situation is:
Got a Vauxhall Corsa on Finance through Imperial Car Supermarket on the 31st May 2015 with the finance done through Barcalys Partner Finance, I struggled to make the payments as I was a student at the time. The car was then repossessed on the 15th March 2018, sold at auction and I have been paying off the remaining finance ever since. I have £1164.78 left to pay with this due to end 21st June this year. This account is currently owned by Hoist Finance and its on a you pay/ we pay scheme. I pay £180 a month and they pay £51.14 towards it so a total of £231.14 is paid.
What I am struggling with is, if I use the templates attached, I can’t get access to my bank statements from 2015 as its nearly 8 years ago. Is it worth still sending the email? Will the ombisman throw it out straight away due to the length of time thats been or shall I just send it?
Thankyou! sorry for the waffle!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have other evidence about your finances in 2015? Have you tried to get the bank statements or are you just assuming that you can’t?
Kimberley says
No, I haven’t got any other evidence, when I go onto my online banking my statements can only go back as far as 2016, if I go in to my branch will they have them going further back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes they may well have if you haven’t changed banks during this time. Worth a try!
Gemma Gordon says
Hi Sara,
I messaged a while ago about a complaint I’ve put in to the ombudsman about First Plus/Elderbridge that was submitted after 6 months because firstplus/elderbridge were corresponding to the address the loan was secured against back in 2005, where I hadn’t lived since 2012, despite my complaint stating clearly the address I was living at when I made the complaint & my email address.
The ombudsman have just come back and said first plus are refusing to allow them to proceed because my complaint was placed after 6 months of their final response. They are asking for evidence of why it was late. I’ve re-sent my original evidence that they’ve clearly not looked at.
In my original complaint I attached a copy of the complaint email I sent 21/09/21 that’s date stamped and clearly shows my address for correspondence at that time & my email address. I’ve also attached the letter from elderbridge sent to my new new address in September 22 that alerted me to the fact they had received my complaint but had been corresponding to the wrong address.
Had they corresponded to the address I provided them with in the email (where I’d lived for 10 years), I’d have received their response before I moved again to my current address in Feb 22. I’m still collecting post from that address and nothing has been sent there by them.
Do you think this will be enough evidence to show they were obstructive & I actually couldn’t make the complaint to the ombudsman in time?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds enough to me… let me know how this goes?
Louise says
Hi , I submitted my complaint at beginning of July but as yet it still has not been assigned to a handler. Would this be normal? I did email to say I was in extreme financial hardship and would appreciate it moved on but didn’t get a response.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume this is the Ombudsman?
I suggest you phone them up and ask if your case can be given some priority.
Louise says
Thanks Sara,
I have just now received my response and the adjudicator has received my file from car cash point including the final letter they claim to have sent.
I explained this letter simply was never sent by them and I truly believe it was fabricated to prevent me making a claim. I outlined the various reasons why including they never ever posted me letters it was always attached to email yet they say they never emailed this one ( when being asked for proof of email) . The letter when read in context with other letters being emailed back and forth ( as I was in email contact at least twice per day trying to clear balance) it makes no sense as you can tell from reading both letters there is no way they were sent on dates alluded to as they make no sense. I am infuriated to be honest as obviously I have no way of proving I received no such letter and they have no way of proving they did which makes it extremely tricky. I paid thousands for a 2 thousand pound loan and feel devastated that they will more than likely get away with this. Feel so upset over it :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so they are saying you took this to the Ombudsman more than 6 months after this alleged letter?
Louise says
Yes. When I made my complaint in early July 22 they sent me a letter back saying we already responded to this and have no further comment to make. I told them firstly I didn’t believe I had made a formal complaint (albeit I did mention when trying to settle that this was unaffordable but it was a small part of a long letter about trying to come to settlement). I am at fault there but regardless I did not receive the letter they are now saying they sent me in response. They did indeed respond to my letters at that time attached to emails and finally the payment was made and sorted but there was absolutely no final letter sent to me in January 21 which they are now stating they did send and that obviously I cant then complain in July 22 as they have already responded. I have absolutely no way to prove they did not respond though I presume they have no way to prove they did. Only thing I suppose in my favour is that every single letter was always via email yet they say they posted this one and the wording of it doesn’t make a lot of sense in taken with the context of the other letters emailed by them on the same day. For example the letter on same day thanking me for agreeing to pay and confirming amounts etc and various things which seems to be repeated in this alleged letter but would make no sense to put this in another letter on the same day. Sorry Sara I know I’m waffling now but I cannot explain how much this has upset me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Only thing I suppose in my favour is that every single letter was always via email yet they say they posted this one and the wording of it doesn’t make a lot of sense in taken with the context of the other letters emailed by them on the same day.”
Then this is what you should argue to the Ombudsman.
Gemma Gordon says
Thanks Sara,
Sent them an email with all the evidence and followed up with a call this morning.
Apparently sending correspondence to an incorrect address is a valid exceptional circumstance, so the person I spoke with has raised a case to the exceptions investigation team to investigate.
I don’t understand what needs to be investigated though? It’s clear from the evidence supplied that I provided them with my correct address within the original complaint which they chose not to correspond with? Seems pretty cut and dry to me that at best they innocently made an administrative mistake, at worse deliberately corresponded to an incorrect address to obstruct me from taking this to the ombudsman within the 6 month time limit because they know full well they are losing the vast majority of these claims?
Seems very odd they were able to use my correct address 8 months after sending the final response to the wrong address? Or am I just bad minded?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My guess is that only a few people at FOS are allowed to agree this sort of exception, so it has now been passed to the correct team to do this.
Steven W says
I have just had a response from Lendable – they are not going to uphold my claim because I made all the repayments. There is one loan left open with 2 years left to pay at £155pcm but I recently had to move out my flat and in with family because I could not afford rent, bills and all credit commitments. I will refer this to the FOS immediately.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
[I edited this because of your second comment. I hope that is ok]
Yes send this to the Ombudsman.
Jason says
Hi Sara, I posted this in another thread but thought I’d ask the question on this one instead..
I had/have 3 loans with Likely Loans, Loans 1 and 2 are paid off and currently paying off loan 3. I made an affordability complaint over all of these.
I have heard back and they have upheld loan 1 and loan 3 but not loan 2.
I want to take loan 2 to Ombudsman as that was a much higher loan than all the others despite financial situation not changing.
As they are 3 separate loans, can I accept and receive the refunds they’ve offered on loan 1 and 3 and take loan 2 to ombudsman? Or if I do that will they hold the refund until the Ombudsman responds and treat it all as one big refund? As I could do with refund money from loan 1 and 3 now but worried that if I accept that then I won’t be able to go to Ombudsman for loan 2?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like they are trying to get away with paying as little as possible :(
But no, you can’t accept the two loans and take the third one to the Ombudsman.
Jason says
Yes it does. Oh that’s a shame. It’s the same with my Drafty Ombudsman case, I can afford to wait a month or so for the outcome but if Ombudsman takes longer than that then I will be in a bit of a sticky situation in the short term, even if it comes back in my favour. Do you know approximately how long Ombudsman takes at the moment? Just weighing up whether it’s worth me just taking their offer and being better off short term or going to them and struggling for a month or two but then potentially being much better off… Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can reasonably stop paying the last loan as they have agreed that it is unaffordable. This will harm your credit record but that will get cleared when the case is finalised.
Drafty – see what they come back with.
Jason says
I spoke about Drafty in a separate thread and they’ve made it really confusing. They’re refunding £1982 of £2200 but I feel like should be much more. So that will be going to Ombudsman
Do you have any idea how long Ombudsman cases can take?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It can be very variable I am afraid. the Likely Loans case sounds very straightforward based on what you have said.
Drafty you are happy with what they have offered but don’t think they have calculated it right? Then FOS should only have to look at the calculation, not decide on the affordability issue. Someone else here said they have had the same problem with Drafty.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you worked out how much money is at stake here? Because your finances and credit records must already be poor to have had to borrow from these sorts of lenders. It may be better to sit tight for a while and get a better settlement vis FOS.
Damion says
Back in March 2008 I went into lloyds to ask for an increase on my overdraft I was unemployed at the time I was told I needed to speak with someone to discuss this whilst we where discussing this they offered me a £6500 loan I had already explained to her I was unemployed and I already had a loan with them at the time I reluctantly accepted it as she put a 3 month grace period on it till I had to start replying it I used the loan to pay off the current loan which left with some money left over when it came to repaying I couldn’t afford to pay it back it put me in a really bad financial struggle to which I’m still paying it off today I put a complaint in for unaffordable lending I had a reply off them after 6 weeks saying they can’t investigate it as it was so ongoing ago and they used the 6 year rule any advice would be appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Would you like to say more about your current situation – do you still bank with Lloyds? If so, do you have an overdraft you are in most or all of the month?
What are your current and other recent debt problems?
Damion says
Yes I’m still banking with lloyds I also have an overdraft with them which ‘m constantly in every month I also have a credit card I have a ccj and 2 other loans I’m paying off
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large is your current overdraft?
how large are your card and loan balances? and the CCJ?
Damion says
My overdraft is £500 my credit card is £250 my ccj is £480 my loans are £234 and £677
Damion says
Bit baffled with this just had a letter off lantern saying morses has sold my debt of £420 to lantern who are now saying I owe them £1512 iv emailed them to ask how they’ve come to this figure awaiting a reply from them I understand I owe money but there taking the #### with that figure
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, you didn’t mention this morses debt in the ones you listed above. Are there any others you are ignoring?
How many loans have you had from Morses? when was this last one?
re your overdraft – send the complaint to the Ombudsman. They may decide that can’t go back to 2008 but they should be able to go back 6 years at least, so that would be a help.
what debt was the CCJ for?
can I ask if you are working? resnting privately or social?
Louise says
Hi Sara , I was unable to reply to last comment from you. I did tell the ombudsman’s office the points re them always corresponding via email and the context of their letter making no sense. I did explain I felt the company had never sent a final response as I certainly never received any such letter. I also explained I felt they have acted terribly throughout the whole saga and I have no doubt that they constructed a letter to stop me having any recourse action. I was advised that ombudsman office must take them at face value and on balance of probabilities accept it when they say they did post the letter. I did point out a scenario wherein the following was to happen: If I was to post a letter to Ombudsman’s Office, had no reply and chased them up for them to say oh we never received a letter who does the mistake lie with? I can say I posted them a letter though I can’t prove I did. They say they did not receive it though can’t prove they didn’t but the onus of truth falls with me for simply saying I posted it. Not withstanding the fact it’s very suspicious I email you everything else but strangely omit to email you this. I post it and you don’t get it but I’m believed simply as I say I posted it. I can’t figure how the balance of probability falls one way in this instance. To say I’m devastated that I have lost out on this claim which was potentially worth around 5000 to me is an understatement.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I understand your frustration. It is a great pity you did not ask why they hadn’t replied to your complaint.
Louise says
Absolutely I unfortunately have to accept that part of the blame. I actually didn’t realise I had made a proper complaint at all. I had incorporated the bit about unaffordable lending in a paragraph in a long letter trying to get them to agree to take a payment plan / settlement amount. That was the main focus at that time so to be honest when I got that bit sorted I never even thought of anything else. It was only a number of months after this when I finally paid it all that I sat down wrote an official letter wherein they said u already complained and we replied but what is also telling is they say here is all your SAR info we didn’t include it with our final response due to covid!! But u can have it now. Obviously as it showed the date of that day when they pulled all info together and very convenient also that was left out of the supposed letter at the time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
explain all this to FOS.
Steve says
Got a few cases with FOS currently. Upon completion going to post key summary and timeline on this site to give a realistic current timeframe to others who may be going through similar.
First one: Lendable 6k loan. Complaint reason- irresponsible lending. Submitted to lender 7 Jul 22 – Rejected, my fault bla bla.
Adjudicator upheld 4 Nov 22- Lendable rejected decision.
Ombudsman upheld 24 Nov 22. Outcome- remove any interest only pay back capital. Agree payment plan. Remove any adverse info upon repayment- Lendable have been courteous here and put in good standing throughout whilst I continue to pay capital back at a sustainable amount. Very quick on this one which could be pot luck. Any questions, happy to answer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for giving the details. Other people are always interested in them!
Steve says
No worries. Wanted to provide some form of thanks/usefulness for the help you have provided myself and others. It’s very easy to ask for advice on here then not post results which could be very useful to others. Have a great weekend
L Taylor says
Thanks Steve! I’ve just submitted a complaint to lendable myself for two loans I have. As it’s stands I’ve actually paid the capital on the loans so essentially the balances I have remaining is just interest – I have pointed this out to them and also mentioned the times I’ve sent requests for reduced payments etc that weren’t followed up on.
However expecting them to reject… but if I could use your case as an example it might help speed things along. Do you have the link to the case on FOS?
Steve says
Hi, I wouldn’t recommend specifically using my case as my circumstances at the time of borrowing were probably different to your situation. What I would suggest is you just review decision letters both upheld/not upheld and pick out points that would relate to your circumstances. Takes time but very worthwhile. I honestly don’t think there’s a way of hurrying these things along. Good luck.
Steven W says
Thanks Steve. I have just had a knock back from Lendable so have sent it over to the FOS based on irresponsible lending. I am still making my payments and it on that basis I was knocked back despite me making it clear I had to give up my flat and move in with family to keep up creditors payments. Will see when the FOS say but it could take months obviously. I am also waiting on Likely Loans and Bamboo to respond.
Steve says
My top pieces of advice arethe following:
-If possible, compile a comprehensive list of income/expenditure at the time of lending
-If possible, provide reasons as to why the lender should have thoroughly reviewed your I&E before making a lending decision, eg payday loans/credit card cash withdrawals/heavy use of overdeaft facility
-Evidence hardship through bank statements/Credit file close to the time of lending to the FOS
-Read lots of ombudsman decisions both upheld/not upheld on their website. This will give you a better understanding of what the Ombudsman sees as fair lending, for example.
-Try and make the Adjudicator/Ombudsman’s job as easy as possible to uphold for you through evidence
Good luck
Steven W says
Sound advice! I have been providing copies of bank statements showing constantly overdrawn and other loans and credit cards being paid for also.
Can you access your case file and add files / Statements once you have submitted a claim to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you don’t have to have it all there at the start. So don’t delay sending a cvase to FOS whle you get hold of the bank statements.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/morses-proposed-scheme-implications/ – I don’t think so
Ernest says
Good afternoon Sara .. l need advice on this for my friend.. he took loan in 2008 of £11k . Ombudsman want more information.
She can see that you quickly defaulted on this loan in 2009, and it would seem that it was possibly sold on to a third party in 2013. So clearly it has been a delinquent account for more than a decade. Given all those very serious problems, the Ombudsman fails to understand why you didn’t realise at that point that maybe Santander didn’t get everything right when it granted the loan. Can you answer the following questions please:
– When you applied for the loan, what did you think the business was doing when it looked at your application? You say you didn’t know it had to check affordability. So what did you think it was checking when you applied, and why it was asking you questions? When you defaulted on the account, why did it not occur to you that Santander maybe shouldn’t have given you the loan in the first place?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What questions was he asked when he applied for the loan?
Ernest says
He can’t remember because is too long time .. but he was struggling financially at the moment . He took the money to pay some bill etc mortgage .. also he just have a new born baby …
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well he could say he doesn’t remember being asked many questions and he was too stressed at the time to think about what the lender was doing and why. He probably thought it was his fault for borrowing too much rather than the banks fault for giving him the loan?
Steven W says
Has anyone complained to Bamboo? I have had a response offering me £310 which is equivalent to 3 months payments as a good will gesture, has anyone else has this similar response? I can see I had 3 loans, car finance and 7 credit cards and a maxed out overdraft when they offered me the loan last February so I think the FOS might uphold this one… thanks. The loan was for £1500 and has 1 year left to run…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Bamboo is one of the few lenders that is prepared to negotiate with you…
How much have you paid them so far? And what are they offering to reduce the balance to?
Ems says
Bamboo loan taken out 2019. £5000 over 5 years. £6825.37 interest so £11825.37 in total to be repaid. Just under £4k left. Complained due to a gambling addiction at the time plus 5 defaults registered in the few months prior to taking the loan out. They have offered me £2k off the balance saying they weren’t required to ask for bank statements that showed the gambling transactions and they did everything they were required to. Do I push for more? They say my disposable income was plenty to cover it although only asked for payslips and used ONS for expenses.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have paid about £7900 so far?
Jax says
I had a similar issue with Bamboo. I sent my bank statements to them showing the sheer volume of gambling transactions and they responded within a day agreeing to remove all interest from the loan and it was removed from my credit file. I am pretty sure that the Ombudsman would have found in my favour if I had needed to escalate it to them. Good luck.
Ems says
They didn’t say they weren’t required to ask for bank statements? They have told me they consider their checks were sufficient and proportionate and they had no reason to ask for bank statements which would have shown the gambling as they had payslips from me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is no rule that says a lender always has to ask for bank statements.
But the Ombudsman says “a less detailed affordability assessment, without the need for verification, is far more likely to be fair, reasonable and proportionate where the amount to be repaid is relatively small, the consumer’s financial situation is stable and they will be indebted for a relatively short period.” (see https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/consumer-credit/unaffordable-lending)
in your case the laon was large, your credit report showed recent difficulty and the loan was not a short term loan. They knew you must be in difficulty so in your case they should nor have relied on ONS averages for your likely expenses – they should have verified them.
Ems says
Yes. Another 16 months left. 3 of the defaults were registered the month before the loan was taken out.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So if this goes to the Ombudsman and you win, you would get c. £2,900 refunded.
If you want that, you should send this to be looked at by the Ombudsman now.
Your other option is to go back to Bamboo (who will often negotiate) with copies of your bank statements and say the loan was so large their should have verified your expenses and that if they do not agree to clear the loan you will be sending the case to the ombudsman. If they agree, that would be quicker – it’s up to you if you think that would be a satisfactory compromise.
Ems says
They have my bank statements. I sent them with the complaint. They are saying they didn’t have to ask for them.
I don’t know what to do as I risk losing their offer to wipe £2k off the remaining balance..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds a pretty good complaint to me.
And if Bamboo knew they had a good case, why would they have offered you £2.000 off?
But why not push and see if you can get them to clear the debt if you would be happy with that compromise?
Ems says
Will do. Thanks for the advice.
Andy says
Hi Sara
I won an unafforable lending claim against Avant which they paid out to me for. They are sitll reporting the account to my credit file however even though it should have been removed (I have this in writing). I’m getting absolutely nothing back to them via email. Do you know if disputing the account with the CRAs directly could work, I am not sure if Avant are still trading or not as it’s not clear on their website?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
they are still trading in the accounting sense that the firm is still going. But they haven’t been lending for several years.
I suggest you send them a new complaint to support@avantcredit.co.uk and copy this to compliance@pollencap.com. Title “COMPLAINT – Avant Credit has failed to correct my credit record as they agreed”
Attach the original decision from Avant where they said they would do this. Point out it has been [however long] and you emails about this are being ignoredSay if it is not resolved in 8 weeks you will be sending this to the Finacial Ombudsman and asking for compensation for the hassle this has caused you.
Paul says
Hi, was wondering if anyone has had success with unaffordable lending claims against 1st Stop / Oplo?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Car finance? Yes quite a few wins. Are you still paying the car finance?
Paul says
Hi Sara, it was a personal loan which I used to purchase a vehicle. Yes iam still paying the loan, I have around 2 years left to pay it off.
I had a high borrowing history with payday lenders and poor credit rating around time of borrowing, with some missed payments on my credit file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this an unsecured loan you have have done anything with? Or Hire Purchase secured on the car?
If it was HP, how much did you borrow (not including interest) and what is the total of the monthly payments you have made?
Paul says
Hi Sara, no wasn’t HP. Was an unsecured loan for £12,000 which I used to purchase a vehicle.
Total borrowed £12,000 and total interest £8640.24 / monthly payment £286.67. Currently have 2 yrs left to pay off at present.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok so the fact you bought a car is irrelevant, this is just like any other large loan. I only remember seeing car finance complaints against them..
just use the template in the article above to complain. Get your bank stat from the time nd teach them to the complaint. And send it to the Ombudsman if it is rejected – for such a large loan they should have checked closely it was affordable.
Paul says
Thanks Sara, I will gather everything I need and start the process…. See how I get on! I’ll keep you posted… Many thanks Paul
Steve says
Hi
I wondered uf any had any experience of refunds from 118 – went through FOS, accepted the offer on 26/01 but it is very hard/impossible to speak to anyone in the customer relations department. Only way is via email – got a response saying it can take up to 10 working days to respond but should receive my refund within 14 working days. Currenty on day 8 and no further correspondence from them other than 118 accepting outcome of adjudicator. Just wondered how quickly other people received their refunds
Steven W says
Can I ask was the complaint about a current loan or one from the past? I had a 118 loan from 2019 – 2021, thanks
Steve says
Past loan – 2019 and a top up loan 2020
Sara (Debt Camel) says
your offer – if there was 8% statutory interest added, can you see if they are deducting tax on it?
Steve says
Not deducting tax and said it is up to me to declare this
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, how large was the 8% interest?
Hayley says
Hi Steve
I had a complaint against 118 which the Adjudicator went in my favour and asked them to pay all interest back etc plus 8% did you get your refund back within the 14 days or did you have to chase this up?
Many thanks
Hayley
Steven W says
Like all these things it always takes the magic 10-14 days but I understand it is frustrating when you don’t know. I would give it until the end of the week then chase up again. How long did your complaint take from start to finish? I assume they knocked it back initially?
Gia says
Sara, I want to thank you for this article, I made a complaint and took it to the Ombudsman. I have received this today..
“As you will be aware, this complaint was upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service and therefore, there are certain steps we need to take.
Due to the above mentioned decision, I can confirm that a refund of interest is due. The total refund of interest due is £4686.81.
In addition to the above, we must also calculate the 8% statutory interest that’s due on the refund – this has been calculated as £880.79. Please note that we have not deducted tax from the refunds and as such, you may need to declare the refunds to HMRC, but this will be dependent upon your tax status.”
What do they mean by declaring this to HMRC? Will this have any affect on my wages?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who was the lender?
Are you a basic rate taxpayer?
Gia says
118 and yes I believe so
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, what 118 should have done is deduct 20% tax from the statutory interest part.
Not from the interest refund – that is your own money you are getting back so there is no tax on it.
That would have come to about £170. on your £880
BUT as a basic rate tax payer you are allowed to earn £1000 pounds in year in this sort of interest. So unless you had other savings interest during this tax year (April 2022-March 2023) which takes you over the £1000 mark, you have no tax to pay.
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/ which explains this.
Gia says
I don’t have any other savings. Thank you for explaining. I’m so grateful to you for this website. Thanks again and take care x
Hayley says
Hi Gia
Did you receive your refund within the 14 working days or did you have to chase it up? I’m currently on day 12 waiting for my refund. I am so grateful for this forum, thank you so much Sara for all your help
T says
Hi Sara,
I made a complaint to Halifax about a loan from 2015 which they rejected due to time passed so has gone to the FOS. Whilst I havent heard from FOS on this case, in putting together other information for other complaints I have realised I should really complain about a series of earlier loans all with Halifax. When FOS get in touch about my complaint can I expand it to the earlier loans based on Halifax’s initial response or do I need to raise a complaint with Halifax first?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t come across this situation before.
I think you may as well make a complaint about them – it’s almost certainly going to be rejected. Then you can add this in as an update to the FOS case if it hasnt been picked up. or tell your adjudicator if it has been picked up.
T says
Thanks Sara, I will put together a further complaint to Halifax covering all the loans taken out with them and highlight that for my Credit Card complaint that the Ombudsman has already sided with me that they can investigate the whole sale and limit increases which date back further than 6 years.
Jack says
Hi
I have used the help of this site to successfully pursue claims on various pay day lenders but would be grateful for some guidance now on a First Plus/Elderbridge matter.
I have nearly paid off a long standing loan that was set up initially with First Plus and now wish to submit a claim as this loan really was the start of the issues i have endured for far to long, just so i am clear any complaint now should go to Elderbridge as they have taken on all of the First Plus lending ? Is the question of when the loan was taken out relevant re the 2006 point mentioned ?
Thanks
Jack
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Anecdotally some cases against Firstplus/Elderbridge have been taken to the Ombudsman and there settled by an offer being made by Firstplus/Elderbridge. These have not gone to an Ombudsman decision so the decsions are not published.
If you look at the Ombudsman statistics for the last half year (https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/half-yearly-complaints-data/half-yearly-complaints-data-h1-2022) you will see that Firstplus has lost 95% of cases, which suggests the rumours about them being keen to settle cases are correct.
Here is one Firstplus decision that was published https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN8861142.pdf where Firstplus offered 50k to settle it which the Ombudsman thought was fair – it isnt clear what the complaint relates to.
Apart from the affordability of the original loan I have rumours about claims for the variable interest rate being increased after 2008 unreasonably.
I am sorry I cannot help with these cases except to say that some Firstplus/Elderbirdge customer may have a very good reason to complain.
I can give you details of a solicitor who deals with these cases and who may be prepared to take the case on no win no fee basis if you do not want to go through the FOS route. I am not saying you will get a btter result doing that.
Luke says
Hi,
I have just submitted multiple affordability complaints to different lenders, and asked for a reasonable payment arrangement in the meantime, however these payments are due by direct debit Monday 27/02/2023. Is it reasonable for me to cancel the direct debits and manually pay what’s affordable until I get a response from the lenders with a payment arrangement agreed?
Cheers,
Luke
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you cannot afford to pay the minimums and get through the month without borrowing more, then you need payment arrangements – this has nothing to do with having made an affordability complaint. Lenders will not allow you to pay less just because you have complained. So you need tio phone them up about the payment arrangement and make an offer of an amount you can afford – expect to have to talk to them about your financial situation.
With a lot of lenders it is usually simpler to ask SteChange to set up a debt management plan for you rather then neotiate amounts your self with all of them.
Luke says
Thanks for your prompt response. If I set up a DMP with StepChange, will I need enter all of my non priority debts? Because there are some non priority debts I’m not complaining about, so adding them to a DMP will leave a negative mark that has no chance of being removed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you afford to make all the minimum payments to all the debts, or would that leave you so short you have to borrow more?
Yes all debts should be included in a DMP. But the same applies to payment arrangements – if a lender thinks you are trying to make a payment with them but pay other lenders the full amount, they may not agree to it…
Also you cannot assume that all or most of the complaints will be successful. It is possible that some will have to go to the Ombudsman so you need a debt solution that will keep you safe for many months while these complaints go through.
Simon says
Hi, I have just had my complaint against Moneybarn rejected from the adjudicator. There reason is that my credit file, that I provided them as Moneybarn were unable, did not show that at the time I was having difficulties. I also provided bank statements which Moneybarn did not even ask for at the time. The bank statements clearly show that at for the 6 months leading up to the finance I was living in my £1500 overdraft and also shows multiple pay day loans. I think my mistake was providing them my credit file. Is this worth asking them to send it to the Ombudsman for a final decision?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The bank statements clearly show that at for the 6 months leading up to the finance I was living in my £1500 overdraft and also shows multiple pay day loans.
did they not show on your credit report?
Simon says
Hi, they show as defaulted and now settled as they went to debt collection in the end. Does not state overdraft though, just Lloyd’s bank
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long ago was your Moneybarn application?
Simon says
2017 I believe. I got my complaint in just in time. What’s strange is that I won another complaint from the same for another car finance (partners car but in my name) The adjudicator does seem interested in my bank statements one bit
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you can point out that the bank statements show that you were heavily in your overdraft and your credit record at that point would have shown this.
Ask for this to go to an Ombudsman if the adjudicator does not change their mind.
Simon says
Thanks Sara. That is pretty much what I have said but they are not interested. I will ask for it to go to the Ombudsman. Thank you
Tess1981 says
Has anyone complained about irresponsible gambling to the betting companies themselves and been successful?
I’m referring to when multiple, large, repeat daily deposits have been made and the betting company has not questioned if you can afford this? I.e duty of care and have failed to spot a pattern of .
Do I have a case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sorry but I only cover the debt aspect. I don’t know if you have any chance of making a claim to the betting companies.
Steve says
I wouldn’t waste your time currently, the industry is corrupt (imo) and funded by the gambling operators. If you want to know more, there are a lot of ‘passionate’ people in the Twitter space who have been pushing for this action for a very long time. Currently even if you follow the ADR route, you will not get anywhere. There needs to be an independent Ombudsman but again, we are years away from that. The gambling operators also heavily lobby government officials at an unacceptable level. I wouldn’t waste your time despite the comment below being correct around checks that should be made etc… They (the operators) literally control the complaints departments and the gambling commission at present.
Jason says
Hi Sara,
I took out a £4,000 loan with Likely Loans paying back £207pm which I made a complaint about and it was upheld. They have refunded interest and taken it off the balance which brings it down to approx £1,100 left to pay back. I am struggling to pay £207pm for the next 5 or so months so my question is because they have admitted and rectified that I shouldn’t have been given the loan in the first place, does that invalidate the contract (with £207pm repayments) and am I within my rights to say to them that I can only afford to pay them back less each month (say £100) without it affecting and them reporting to credit agencies? Thank you for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can Ask to repay at a more affordable rate and this should not affect your credit record.
Rikke says
Hi
I’ve got a couple of very old loans with Lloyd’s.
Taken out around 2008-2010. They definitely tick all the boxes for a refund. However is it simply to long ago and therefore pointless to try? I’ve got my original loan agreements and other bits of old paperwork to support the claim.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That depends what other paperwork you have to show that the loans were unaffordable.
Damion Razey says
I’m in same position as you I put a complaint for unaffordable leblding in to lloyds got rejected because of the time scale they didn’t even attempt to even look into it the final decision letter was interesting though couple of pieces in it saying they contacted me to discuss my complaint which hthey didn’t they admitted it was put in the letter by mistake so i made my feelings clear about it and took my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman let’s see where it goes fingers crossed
Sean says
Good afternoon,
I had a put in a complaint against lendable for irresponsible lending of which I got a full reply within 5 days. I subsequently sent it to the ombudsman and today and it has been picked up by an adjudicator. I have sent all evidence off today in my case against the creditor.
I am wondering this usually takes quite a while to pick up. Should I be getting my hopes up?
Thanks
Steven W says
Hi Sean, I also complained to Lendable. They were quick to reject the complaint so I sent mine over to FOS about a month ago, not heard anything yet! good luck
Lauren says
Hey all,
Anyone had Lending Stream refuse their initial complaint and then take it to the FOS and won?
I still have a balance with them which they’ve sold on and had enormous charges added to it. They have come back and openly admitted that they didn’t check my credit file when I applied as they didn’t think this was necessary (I had 1k CCJ as well as 4/5 outstanding balances on credit cards, other payday loans etc). I was on a small earned wage with a top up of UC and I’ve pointed this out to which they’ve said this isn’t what I told them (I put my income in however there was no space on the initial application form to state my income was topped up by benefits so I wouldn’t have been able to show them this). They said based on the above and the fact I provided misleading information they do not uphold my complaint. As I only had the one loan with them will I get far with the FOS? I haven’t asked for anything more from them other than them to recall the debt from ACI and remove the charges/adverse credit markers on my report so I can pay off the original balance owed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the loan?
What is the rest of your financial position like at the moment, do you have other problem debts you have defaulted on? Other debts you are paying?
MH says
Hi Sara,
I received this from zopa
I have been in contact with the underwriting department to discuss the application you made. It has been confirmed that all minimum lending requirements were met.
When assessing any loan application, our underwriting team considers several factors including (but not limited to) credit profile, credit history and affordability. Decisions are made based on information given in the application itself and obtained from various Credit Reference Agencies.
After assessing your application, I am unable to agree that the decision to approve your loan was irresponsible. I’d also like to take this opportunity to explain that we do not charge late payment fees and as such, no such fee has been levied against your loan.
My conclusion
Following the reasons above I have not upheld your complaint on this occasion, however if there is further evidence that you can provide to support that the loan was unaffordable, we would be happy to investigate your complaint further.
My question is, is it worth providing them ‘further evidence’ to reinforce the other unsecured lending I had on my bank statements (upto 3 months previous) of them approving the loan application? Or straight to the FOS?
Thanks M
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you sent them copies of your bank statements?
How large was this loan?
MH says
£2500 over 2 years currently paid £345 in interest has 8 months left on it
Yes they have had them and they show:
In: 2,105.79
Out: 3,332.01
In: 3,758.59
Out: 3,593.33
I also started this on my letter:
If you had properly checked my bank account you have seen that I relied on loans from family member, living in my overdraft month to month and all the other unsecured debits coming out of my bank would have told you this loan was unaffordable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then they have all the information. I doubt there is any point in going back to them and trying to get them to change their mind – very few lenders will do this.
I suggest you send this to the Ombudsman.
MH says
Brilliant cheers Sara!
Jax says
I had the exact same reply from Zopa. I sent them my bank statements and they said they made no difference to their decision. I sent to FOS. They agreed it was irresponsible to lend to me but Zopa disagreed so it went to an ombudsman. Ombudsman agreed with the adjudicator and Zopa applied the redress very quickly afterwards. I wouldn’t bother trying to negotiate with Zopa and would just send your complaint to FOS. Good luck.
MH says
Cheers Jax, roughly how long did that take? Was this recently? Thanks
Jax says
Sorry MH I have only just seen your question. I complained to Zopa in April 2022. They rejected it within 2 weeks so I sent to FOS. It was picked up by an adjudicator in August 2022. Zopa disagreed with the adjudicator so was put in the queue for an ombudsman in September 2022. I got the outcome from the Ombudsman in early January 2023 and Zopa settled within 2 days of this decision. So all in all, around 9 months from start to finish. All the best with your complaint.
Jamima says
My partner stupidly took PCP out on a car with motorpoint who use Blackhorse finance, while in a IVA. However covid then hit when the car was due to be returned, the car is now sitting in our driveway, he is getting letters stating he owes them the final payment. However has requested the car to be collected but this has not been done. He has also requested a SAR, however they are refusing to do this, I’m now at my wits end of it all so now looking for advice as he should never have managed to get car finance with the amount of debt he was in. he has a car that is not being used, and a company refusing to even entertain any communication. Where can we go from here, as this is having a negative impact on our relationship as well as our family.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
covid then hit when the car was due to be returned
At the end of the PCP?
He told them at the time he wanted to return the car and they never explained what to do?
has he been insuring/driving it since then?
John Duddigan says
Hi Sara
As you know I have a complaint in with FOS ref Startline Motor Finance Ltd which is nearing a conclusion.
I the meantime I am getting calls from Startline Motor Finance Ltd pressurising me to make a payment towards the arrears owing.
I pay the normal monthly payment but can only pay something towards arrears if there any spare funds at end of each month once all priority bills are paid but they don’t want to listen.
Any advise would be gratefully received
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sorry but all I can say is what i have said before, you should be making the payments to them, including to the arrears, even if this means missing payments to credit cards etc.
You are choosing to walk a tightrope hoping to get through this to your complaint being upheld without maying these arrears. That to me is not a safe option and I don’t recommend it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you have also not paid the total amount you borrowed so far, so even if you win the complaint there is a risk you may lose the car.
John Duddigan says
Ok I will offer them £50 a month towards the arrears.
FOS have Split my complaint into 2 complaints.
1 complaint is to Startline and 2 complaint to Trusford for the extras
I have paid the value of the car.
The outstanding amount is the extras and Interest
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a sensible plan.
John Duddigan says
I have just made 1st Payment towards Arrears.
LYNDA says
Hi Sara
In Feb 2018, I took out a secured loan with Optimum Credit (OC) recommended by Fluent Money (FM) to consolidate credit cards. It was unaffordable and I fell into financial hardship. It did not consolidate all my debt, left previous consolidation loan outstanding of £330 a month as well as a credit card. It went from being over 5 years to 13 years just before completion. My income is £1647 p.m. Child Ben £35 pw CTC £73 pw. My mortgage is £330, this secured loan was £330 a month.
I lodged a complaint with FM and OC for mis-selling me the secured loan, it not being affordable and irresponsible lending which they rejected.
I lodged a complaint with the Ombudsman, the investigator did not find in my favour. The decision was one-sided in favour of FM. Accepted I am in financial hardship but says FM weren’t to know that and i said I would to pay off the Halifax loan and not use my credit cards again. They recognised I suffered financial hardship but FM were not aware of my financial difficulties/struggles. The DMP allocate me £75 a week for food for me and my two boys now 18 but still school age. I am in arrears with my mortgage. I have £2,500 debt to E.on Next gas bill. Council Tax arrears. Can you provide me with any advice please or let me know anything I should do to the Ombudsman for consideration.
Kind Regards
Lynda
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was this secured loan?
When did your DMP start and how much a month are you paying to it?
Your mortgage – is it on a fixed rate? How large are the arrears and when did they start?
Grace says
Hi Sara,
I am currently putting in some complaints and was just wandering if the extortionate rise in living costs were an argument for not being able to truly predict affordability/costs on loan applications. We got an insanely big loan at ridiculous interest rate last Aug but we had no idea that everything would just spiral so much.
Thanks,
Grace
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That may explain why you have run into trouble. But you won’t win an affordabilty complaint if it seemed likely at the time the loan was given that you would be able to repay it.
Of course the lender should have allowed some buffer. If it looked like yoyu had £400 a month spare income then a loan of £380 a month you could argue was not reasonable.
Who was the lender, what was the interest rate and how much did you borrow?
Are you managing the repayments?
Ernest says
Good morning Sara.. pls l need your help am filling work form for any job… they ask the questions.. (1 questions) are you insolvent?( unable to pay monies owed to lender? (2 questions)*Are you subject to an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA) or consolidation order in respect of your debt?
But l never miss payment
2
I have 2 credit and PayPal credit l have arrangement with them.. is that the same as this questions pls?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did it say consolidation order? Or composition orde?
Ernest says
Consolidated order in respect of your debt.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a term I don’t know.
You definitely don’t have an IVA.
And you are making the payments to your debts and are not in any form of insolvency.
Victoria says
Just wondering if anyone ever got a successful outcome after complaining about a loan with creation finance. I took one out in December 2022 to pay off credit cards but very quickly the cycle of borrowing began again as I needed to fall back on the cards to keep up the payments. I am ashamed that I did say on my application form that my wages were bigger than they really are and because of this I feel I can’t really complain. I have since paid off the £6000 loan by replacing it with other credit but I am struggling now again with my credit cards.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, but they reject many good complaints which have to go to the Financial Ombudsman.
Creation should have verified your income and expenses for such a large loan.
see this example of an Ombudsman decision https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-3704536.pdf
So I suggest you talk to StepChange about a debt management plan to get you into a safe financial position as well as making a complaint. Winning the complaint will then really speed up your DMP.
Victoria says
Sarah Thank you so much. I will take your advice and let you know the outcome
Luke Usher says
First off a big thank you to for operating this Sara.
We are looking to put in a irresponsible lending claim against a second charge mortgage we got with Evolution Lending Ltd. I just wondered if there’s much experience/success with these type of claims?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Very little experience. Let us know what happens!
Charlotte says
Hi Sara, hoping for some advice. I took out a loan from Lendable in 2020 for 12k to consolidate loans that I was drowning in. I had previous payday loans on my credit file when I took this out plus numerous lots of other loans some of which I used the money to pay off. I eventually entered a DMP IN 2021 with stepchange as I had still had over 4k of debt with PayPal plus 2k Tesco cc debt plus a few other small debts which were all active when Lendable loaned me the money. The question I have is should I apply to Lendable a affordability claim to remove the interest? I repaid them 3 1/2k in repayments before I went into my DMP. Since being in DMP they have frozen the interest.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lendable loans are normally a very expensive way to consolidate debt. If making the repayments to Lendable proved difficult from early on in the loan, leaving you too short of money so you used Paypal or other debt to get by then definitely make a complaint to them.
Also what were the debts that you consolidated? Look at affordable complaints to them too. And to Paypal.
Sam says
Anyone have any experience dealing with Likely Loans? I had a couple of large loans from them, they rejected my complaint but it was upheld by the FOS. The FOS gave Likely Loans until the 8th of March (on the 1st) to reply with any further evidence or accept/reject the adjudicator’s decision but I’ve just spoken to the FOS and they haven’t received a reply. What happens in this situation?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS normally gives them another couple of weeks. After that it gets put in the queue for an Ombudsman. The Ombudsman upholds 90% of adjudicator decisions over all its complaints.
John Duddigan says
FOS Investigator did not uphold my Complaint about STARTLINE MOTOR FINANCE.
I have asked it to go to Ombudsman for a second opinion
John Duddigan says
Hi Sara
Is it worth me asking if the Interest on the Balance I owe can be reduced.
FOS Investigator did not uphold my Complaint so I have asked it to go to Ombudsman.
One point she kept on bringing up is the Rent I paid at the time of loan.
At the time I paid my Rent in Cash as that what Landlady wanted. I was a Lodger really not a Tenant but didn’t have a Signed Agreement.
I took home £1300 at the time. £600:was Rent all inclusive and £250 was Household Bills which left £450 of which the £241.96 Car payment was taken and the balance left was left for all other expenditure ie Car Insurance, Tax and Fuel . So i was living on the bread line but Investigator says Loan was Affordable when taken out with Startline Motor Finance Ltd.
The Part with Trustford is being Investigated separately.
Is it worth me asking Investigator to take another look or leave it to the Ombudsman to make the final decision.
Have their been many cases where Ombudsman overrule Investigator
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the rent was all inclusive, what household bills were you paying?
John Duddigan says
Council Tax and Energy
I paid TV Licence and Home Contents Insurance myself
Not sure how I was supposed to afford Car Insurance, Car Tax, Car Maintenance and Petrol on what funds were left
Rebecca says
Hi, just wondered if you had any advice. The ombudsman has rejected my complaint due to the time frames stating;
This rule says we can’t look at a complaint if it was made more than:
-Six years after the event complained of; or if later
-Three years from when the customer was aware, or ought reasonably to have been aware, of cause for complaint.
This is in relation to 2 loans taken out in 2015 & 2016, totaling £25k in less than 12 months. The latter I cleared within a year by selling my car as I couldn’t keep up with both repayments. The other loan is still outstanding and I haven’t been paying anything towards it for some time now so has defaulted.
I made it clear when asked that I was not aware until the end of 2022 that I had grounds to make a complaint however they are saying as I paid off one loan in 2016 I should have been aware then that Halifax could have been to blame.
Would it be worth me continuing the complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes it’s worth continuing with this.
You can say that you cleared one of the loans to try to reduce your monthly payments to an affordable level. That doesn’t mean that you thought in 2017 that Halifax was partly responsible for your financial mess. You were just taking what you thought your only option was to improve your situation as you had no idea that Halifax should have checked the loans were affordable.
Ernest says
Good afternoon Sara … l just received email from. Investigator by not uphold my complaint …Halifax offer my alone of £1500 to reduce my overdraft from £2000 to £500 to consolidation… with Apr 19.9%.. but am paying interest on the loan of £1500 and also paying interest on the remaining £500..You applied for a £1,500 loan to reduce your overdraft debt. At the time of your application your overdraft limit was £2,000. It’s clear from the statements I’ve seen you were heavily reliant on your overdraft, and regularly used it up to the limit. It’s also clear that you were struggling to make inroads in to paying your overdraft off. It’s important to note your overdraft attracted interest of 49.9% APR.
Halifax agreed a loan with an APR of 19.9% – much lower than what they were charging you for using your overdraft. When your loan was agreed it was paid into your current account, putting your account in to a positive balance of £277.85. At the same time your overdraft limit was reduced to £500. So, the amount of credit that Halifax were making available to you remained constant at £2,000. So, in essence all Halifax did was move most of your debt on to a much lower interest rate.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you could replay that even at the lower rate of interest this was not affordable. Halifax should not have given you this loan but should instead have offered forebearance on the overdraft.
(assuming you agree that that is accurate in your case.)
Ernest says
Because Halifax weren’t making any new money available to you, they didn’t need to carry out a thorough review of your income and outgoings. Lenders are required to take note of gambling transactions when lending money, because of the potential of contributing to a borrower’s exposure to increased financial harm. But here, Halifax’s loan wasn’t giving you access to any new money; the loan paid off your overdraft, which then had the limit significantly reduced. Halifax actually reduced your exposure to gambling related financial harm; by lowering your overdraft limit you had access to a smaller revolving credit facility with which to use towards gambling. And the loan they agreed couldn’t be used for gambling because it was used to pay off your overdraft…
I have alot of gambling transaction in my account that time and struggling financially that period.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Reply that you don’t think this is fair, Halifax should have considered everything they knew about you – just because they reduced your exposure to gambling doesn’t mean the loan was affordable. Instead the gambling should have made them consider your full situation. Ask for this to go to an Ombudsman if the adjudicator doesn’t change their mind.
Gemma says
Hi Sara,
I’ve just had an email from FOS advising First Plus (Elderbridge) claim to have no record of my original complaint or sending me a final response. This is after they originally rejected my FOS complaint on the basis of being submitted after 6 months. It was, but only because First Plus had ignored details of my current address I’d stated within my complaint, and wrote to an address I hadn’t lived at in 10 years. Ombudsman accepted my evidence of this & told them they would be proceeding. Now that they’ve done back, First Plus magically have no evidence of my original complaint & are asking for 8 weeks to investigate!
This seems like another stall tactic from them. The FOS have a copy of the final response I was able to get from Elderbridge, along with the correspondence to my new address asking if I’d accept £2000 no fault payment.
I’ve just spoken to FOS , who were going to allow First Plus 8 weeks to investigate, and asked them to confirm they have the final response I sent them (they do) & then why would they be allowing First plus another 8 weeks to investigate something they’ve already investigated and sent a final response too? Surely they have all the evidence they need, just send them a copy and proceed with my FOS complaint.
Is there a way to escalate an FOS complaint? Mine isn’t even with an investigator yet.
The behaviour of First Plus also seems odd to me? Have you seen similar?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS likes to start with a copy of the creditor file on the complaint. They can investigate without, but it will be much slower.
Gemma says
I see!
To me then, it looks like they want to avoid handing over their file at this time.
Will be interesting to see if they actually do try & settle outside of the FOS undertaking an investigation.
Thanks Sara, you do such an amazing thing operating this site for people. I wouldn’t have known to put in any complaints without Debt Camel.