Provident's Scheme of Arrangement has been approved in court. The court hearing was on 30 July 2021 and the decision has now been given. The Scheme was proposed because Provident could not afford to carry on paying full refunds to customers winning affordability complaints. The Financial Ombudsman was upholding 75% of complaints against Provident who often did not make proper affordability … [Read more...]
Refunds for unaffordable lending
The articles here look at how affordability complaints can be made for different sorts of borrowing. Most of them have a template letter you can use.
The regulator says that a loan is "unaffordable" if you couldn't make the repayments without borrowing.
This could be borrowing again from the same lender, from another lender, using more of a credit limit, getting deeper into your overdraft or by not paying a bill.
So even if you always paid your loans on time, they could still have been unaffordable if paying them made your finances worse.
Doorstep lending – a template letter to ask for a refund
UPDATE: in August 2021, the Provident Refund Scheme was approved in court. People now have 6 months to make a claim to it. See Provident's Scheme for how to make a claim and the latest news. Doorstep lending - also called home credit - is where a collector comes to your house to collect the repayments. Many people have been borrowing from the same lender for years. If you had doorstep … [Read more...]
Can you get refunds from catalogues, credit cards & overdrafts?
Have you had a catalogue, credit card or overdraft where you were given a high credit limit? So high that the monthly repayments were hard to manage so you got into more debt? Many people were originally given sensible limits, but the lender kept increasing them. You may have a good complaint that the lender was irresponsible in allowing you to borrow so much that the debt was … [Read more...]
Refunds from large loans (including logbook & car finance)
The repayments on many loans are too high to be manageable so people get deeper into debt trying to repay them. If you have an unaffordable loan, you can complain and ask for interest to be removed from your balance. If the loan has been settled, you can ask for a refund of the interest you paid. This article describes how to complain, with templates. Many people have used them and got … [Read more...]
How the borrower of a guarantor loan can complain
UPDATES: (1) Amigo are proposing a Scheme of Arrangement, see Amigo’s scheme rejected - now looking at a new Scheme. If you haven't already put in a complaint, it is now too late to send one in by email using the template on this page. (2) Buddy Loans went into administration on 7 September 2021. See Guarantor lender Buddy Loans goes into administration if you are a Buddy … [Read more...]
How to complain when you are the guarantor for a loan
UPDATE: Amigo are proposing a Scheme of Arrangement, see Amigo’s Scheme – how to vote & how it will work. If you haven’t already put in a complaint in, it is now too late to send Amigo one in by email using the template on this page – instead you will be able to make a Claim in the Scheme. If you are a guarantor for a loan you can ask to be removed as the guarantor: if you couldn't … [Read more...]
How to get a payday loan refund – with template letters that work
Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing? You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans. It's easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or if you still owe money. This article covers everything you need to get started. It's easy, free and many … [Read more...]
Were you sold a car on unaffordable finance?
In March 2019, the FCA has published Our work on motor finance – final findings. The FCA regulates the providers of car finance and their review began nearly two years before and has been long-awaited. News reporting has seized on the FCA's findings that commission structures give dealers an incentive to charge higher interest rates. But here I am interested in the FCA's findings on … [Read more...]