Have you had an email or a letter from Vanquis saying it is refunding you some money? In late 2018 tens of thousands of people are getting these refunds.
Nice? Yes, but it may be too low…
Some people are being given tens of pounds when I think they should get hundreds. And people getting hundreds should be getting thousands!
There were no details of the refund in the email or letter sent to you, so there is no way for you to check it is accurate. I have seen many refunds across loans and credit cards and I think these ROP refunds look too small to be correct.
Vanquis has provided a detailed example on its website. I think there are two major problems with this example.
Vanquis don’t agree and they say that people who have queries should contact them. So it’s time to complain!
Contents
The background to these refunds
In February, the FCA told Vanquis to give refunds to a million customers who had the Repayment Option Product (ROP) for their credit cards. This is because you were charged interest on the ROP and Vanquis never explained this to you – so Vanquis should refund all the extra interest you paid.
For more details, read my article Vanquis ROP – a million customers will get refunds.
The first refunds started to be paid to customers with active Vanquis accounts in May and June. But they looked surprisingly low…
I had seen a lot of customers complain about ROP in 2017 so I knew what the refunds they had received. Those 2017 refunds also included the ROP itself – but that didn’t account for why the 2018 refunds are so much smaller.
The two problems with Vanquis’s detailed example
In August Vanquis finally published a detailed example in the FAQs. It’s here, under How is my Repayment Option Plan interest refund being calculated.
I see two major difficulties with this published example. It is possible there may be other problems as well.
1. Purchases should be repaid before ROP charges
It says:
Step 2: Once the cash balance is paid off, any remaining payment is shared between purchases and the Repayment Option Plan in proportion to their balance.
That is simply wrong.
The ROP was added to your account as though it was something you had bought with your credit card. You were then charged interest on the ROP at the normal rate on your Vanquis card.
But this extra interest was never explained to you, so the FCA says you should be refunded the interest – that is the same as saying no interest should have been charged.
The FCA’s rules (CONC 6.7.4) say that where your card balance is composed of transactions which carry different rates of interest, your monthly payment should be used to pay off the amounts with the highest interest rate first.
So your monthly payments should, in order:
- first be used to clear any cash withdrawals as they are charged at a higher rate of interest.
- then be used to repay what you bought with the card and the interest that has been added because of those – these are charged at the rate of interest of your card which may have been 39%, 49%, or even more.
- lastly be used to clear ROP and the interest that has been added because of this, because these should have been charged 0% interest.
If this is done, unless you usually repaid all or almost all of your balance every month, the amount of ROP in your balance will continue to get higher.
But in its calculation Vanquis isn’t doing this. Instead it is using some of your monthly payment to repay the ROP instead of using it all to pay off your purchases.
This may sound technical but it makes a huge difference to many people’s refunds. Compound interest at Vanquis’s high credit card interest rates adds up to a lot of money!
I think Vanquis should: rework all the calculations so that ROP (and the additional interest charged because of it) is paid off last.
2. The calculation stops too soon
The second problem is the point at which Vanquis stops the refund calculation.
Vanquis sent customers a letter or an email in late 2016/early 2017 detailing the cost of the ROP and the extra interest being charged. The FCA agreed that Vanquis didn’t have to give a refund for the extra interest charged after a customer received that email, on the grounds that the customer could have cancelled the ROP at that point.
So Vanquis says in its FAQ:
we have stopped the calculation 30 days after sending the email.
But this is unfair.
Suppose that £500 of your Vanquis balance was caused by the ROP charges. And suppose that you read this email, were horrified at the cost of the ROP, and phoned Vanquis up and cancelled the ROP.
This would have stopped your ROP problem getting any worse, but that £500 is still sitting in your balance and you are still being charged interest on it every month. Just cancelling the ROP doesn’t get rid of this accumulated ROP so you should get this ongoing interest refunded to you.
I don’t think what Vanquis is doing is in line with the FCA’s Final Notice, which – in my opinion – Vanquis has misinterpreted.
I think Vanquis should: carry on refunding all interest that relates to any ROP that was charged before the email. This should only end when the refund calculation is made. For ROP payments that were charged after the email, Vanquis doesn’t have to refund the extra interest added on these.
Vanquis don’t think there is any problem
I made these points to Vanquis. They replied:
We are confident that we are doing exactly what the FCA has required us to do in the way that they require us to do it and are complying with the letter and spirit of our regulatory obligations. We are unable to cease to follow the direction from, and agreement with, our regulator at your request. Our focus remains on completing the programme as quickly and as accurately as we can for the benefit of all of our customers. Additionally, as we have previously mentioned, the calculation for customer refunds has been verified by an independent third party to ensure that the calculation is accurate.
This is a simple denial. It doesn’t address my points about the fairness of the refund calculation at all.
How this affects your refund
If you normally repaid your balance in full, you will only get a very small or no refund. And these two calculation issues probably won’t have made a major difference to this.
But for everyone else:
- the first problem will have resulted in a refund that is much lower than it should have been;
- the second problem, ending the calculation too soon, will have affected you unless your Vanquis account was closed by late 2016/2017;
- and there is a third problem than Vanquis are not refunding overlimit charges, even though those would have been cause by the extra ROP interest – that’s not fair.
How to complain!
Look at the examples in here: Vanquis – are the refunds right? They show how some people are getting refunds which look very small compared to what would be expected.
Cancel the ROP
First, if you are still paying ROP, think about phoning Vanquis on 0330 099 3105 and cancelling it. It is very expensive and less use than PPI was…
You are being given a refund for the previous interest added, but from now on, you will still be charged all this extra interest and you won’t be able to get a refund for it!
Complain to Vanquis
Complain to Vanquis by sending an email to ROPRefundsTeam@email.vanquisbank.co.uk with COMPLAINT as the subject. You want to:
- ask them to look again at your calculation because you think it is wrong;
- ask them to refund any over-limit charges on your account; and
- tell them if you never received an email or letter in late 2016/early 2017 about the total cost of the ROP (some readers say they never had this).
At the same time, think if you have a case for saying that the ROP itself (not just extra interest, because you are going to be compensated for that) was not explained properly to you. If you think the ROP was mis-sold, then you can ask Vanquis to refund that as well.
Here is a template you can use for this email. Change it so it reflects what happened in your case.
[Add details so you can be identified: the number of your Vanquis card, your name, address, date of birth.]
I think my refund has been calculated incorrectly.
A) It says in the example on your FAQ page that you are sharing my monthly repayments between paying off purchases and paying off the ROP. This is not right – as no interest should have been charged on the ROP, the ROP should have been paid off last.
B) I understand you are saying that you sent me a letter or email in late 2016/early 2017 detailing how much I was paying for ROP.
choose one of the following three options:
EITHER
I cancelled my ROP when I got this email. But I think the refund calculation should continue after this email as I still had ROP payments and the interest charged on them accumulated in my statement balance, so you have continued to charge me interest on those.
OR
I do not think this letter was accurate. It quoted the cost for Repayment Option Plan including interest for the next 12 months but as this would have been done using your calculations, which give too low an amount for the interest, I think the letter was misleading. If I had realised the true cost, I would have cancelled the ROP. I think I should get compensation for the extra interest resulting from ROP charges after this date.
OR
I didn’t get this email or letter. So I should also get compensation for the extra interest resulting from ROP charges after this date.
C) Only if you had over limit charges:
I also want a refund of the over-limit charges that have been added to my account. If it wasn’t for the extra ROP interest, I do not think I would have exceeded the limit, so these fees should be refunded.
D) Only add this bit if you consider the ROP was mis-sold to you, giving the reason why you think this. It is better to give the reason why the ROP was mis-sold and not just say you didn’t know you had it, as it is shown on your statements. There are a couple of examples here but there could be many others depending on what was said in the sales call to you.
I am also complaining that the ROP was not correctly explained to me, because [ insert reason eg I thought it was automatically included with my card and I didn’t realise I could cancel it / I felt under pressure to accept it or I would not have been given any credit limit increases / the sales call didn’t explain that interest could be frozen on my account if I got into difficulties even I didn’t pay for ROP, if I had known this I would not have paid for the ROP.]
E) If you reject any part of this complaint, please treat this as a Subject Access Request and send me: a summary of each month’s statements showing the details needed for the ROP calculation, a copy of all the emails and letters you have sent me, and a recording of any telephone calls relating to the ROP on my account. I will need these details to send my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
If Vanquis rejects your complaint
Vanquis has eight weeks to respond to your complaint. If it is rejected, send it to the Financial Ombudsman — it their job to decide what is fair in situations like this. The Financial Ombudsman can order Vanquis to pay a larger refund if necessary.
It’s easy to do this using the Ombudsman’s online form which asks for all the details they need, such as how to contact you.
And why not add a comment to the bottom of this article? It really helps if people know that others are going through the same process.
Cat says
Okay so called up for an update and got told a chq for £732 was sent on the 7th December..not received it yet. Would it normally take this long? Not sure if £732 feels too low. Also can I claim overlimit charges back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can ask to have the overlimit charges refunded.
laura says
Still waiting . dose this financial joke of a company actually think people are going to put up with this absolute farce ( some people receive the correct amount 1 or 2 and the rest of us are getting ripped off) I hope the f o c are watching very carefully . I actually don’t think they are , and if they are why are customers having to put up with so much hassle getting their OWN MONEY back .okay so we wait till Feb and obviously receive an incorect amount it then will continue for another 6 or 12 months, unless the f o c grow a back bone and actually put this absolute joke of a financial company to the sword.
BH says
Got to agree Laura, how come the banks can do it in a couple of months and get it right virtually every time when this Mickey Mouse company get away with treating all of us so badly.
So much for financial controls being in place to protect consumers when Vanquis can just give everyone two fingers.
JB says
Simple case of them being able to say look how many refunds we have done on paper – never mind the paltry amounts!!! In the meantime everyone who receives a ‘refund’ then has to file yet another complaint and wait a further 56 days whilst VB sit on our money gathering more and more interest which will reduce the shock to their board and shareholders when they actually have to finally pay up and refund all of us our money!!! Appalling company!!!
Tam says
I have just emailed Vanquis with a rather strongly worded email telling them I want this sorted now, I’m sick of all this waiting (since feb) with no correspondence, tried calling get the usual line of it’ll be sorted by feb next year. Absolute joke of a company, time they had there knuckles rapped severely.
Cat says
Hi all. Received my cheque:
ROP charges – £724.67
8% simple interest – 9.67
Witheld Tax – -£1.93???
Total – £732.41
£3000 limit maxed out and paid off twice. Held account 2011 – 2018.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The withheld tax is the 20% tax deducted from the 8% simple interest as the taxman sees that as equivalent to getting interest on savings. You can claim this back from HMRC but for £1.93 you probably can’t be bothered…
You mentioned before “I received a partial ROP (only) payment back of £486, and was told that to save medalling with the interest refund they would leave this to be calculated separately as part of the separate FAC ruling. (Still not received)” – does that mean the ROP charges line includes that £486 plus the interest added? if it does, it looks WAY too low
I think you said you had overlimit charges – you should definitely ask for those to be refunded.
Did you get a letter or email in about December 2016 saying what ROP had cost you in the previous year?
I think the 8% simple interest looks way too low – because you cleared your balance down several times I would have expected that to have been higher.
Matt says
Hi
I received a cheque today for a grand total of £2.20
I had this card 10 years ago with a £500 limit and over £300 in over limit charges.
I assume this is incorrect?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
wow… Did you have ROP for all that time? it sounds as though you didn’t often clear your balance to zero?
Matt says
I had the card from 2008-10 with ROP charges around a couple of quid per month. Always near my £500 limit with excess of £300 charges.
Can I at least claim back my charges?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are only going to be able to get back overlimit charges if you can show they were caused by the ROP charges. You may be able to do that for some of the later ones, but with such low ROP amounts each month probably not earlier ones. I suggest you ask Vanquis to send you a breakdown of how this £2.20 was calculated and also details of the months where you were charged overlimit amounts.
Tom says
Hi Sara,
A few weeks ago after seeing all the comments on here I decided to complain to Vanquis even though my refund hadn’t been credited yet, so I wrote a complaint based on your template with a few tweaks, and emailed them on the 20/11.
Heard nothing from them until today, when I checked my balance and had been refunded £1,267.78. I received a letter in the post today stating the breakdown as:
ROP fees and interest: £1,009.38
Charges: £204
National interest: £68.00
Withheld tax amount: -£13.60
Card balance was always close to the £1,500 limit,opened at £500 in June 2014.
Just wanted to say a big thank you to you and everyone else who has commented about their refunds. Shows it pays to complain, even if your refund hasn’t been processed yet!
AP says
Hi
I received an interest payment last week of approximately £150. It looked low as I’ve had the cars since 2010 and always been on the limit. I complained and received my SAR today including the calculation. It is very clear that there are not compounding the figures, they are doing the calculation on a month by month basis. I have complained to the FOS who advised they have had a few similar cases for Vanquis. Shall see what happens next.
clint says
well i received my cheque today and as indicated when i used the telephone banking my refund was £285.22
interest on rop charges £251.38
simple interest £42.29
withheld tax £8.45
total refund amount £285.22
considering i had the card for 9 years before clearing it in 2016 and a credit limit of £2500 which in later years was often close to the limit and paying often just the minimum payment
I have emailed them complaining but also asking they treat my letter as an SAR request if they decide to reject my complaint
Considering it has taken them this long to send such a pathetic amount i expect to be waiting for at least 2 months before a response but i have made it clear that i want an acknowledgement that they have received my complaint
Jen says
Hi All
I received my refund cheque today after an 8 month wait. Ironically after sending an email last week requesting an update, may be coincidental of course but my breakdown is as follows:
Interest on Rop charges: £860.63
Simple Interst at 8% : £180.71
Withheld Tax: £36.14
Total Refund: £1005.10
I’m not sure if this is correct and how they worked it out, I had my card from 2012-2016 when I closed it always maxed out never cleared any balance which was up to nearly 3K at that point.
However, it does state on the letter “You are entitled to a refund of interest relating to ROP when you were first charged for ROP up until 20/02/2017, as this is 30 days after our communication of 20/01/17 which provided details of the plan” I didn’t receive such letter as I’d moved house then so it may have gone to my old address – would it be worth asking Vanquis for a full breakdown of how it’s been worked out? I’m pleased with my outcome either way God knows it took long enough! Perseverance goes a long way guys good luck to everyone and Merry Christmas :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Asking Vanquis for a full breakdown of how this is worked out is a good idea.
If you ever had over limit charges you can ask for them to be refunded.
The mythical letter – very few people seem to have received these and Vanquis seems to have a problem producing a copy of it – I suggest you just deny having had one and ask them for a copy.
Amanda says
I’m left very confused. I received a cheque for 2.45 today for ROP I think this must be a joke. I was paying ROP for six years. How do I challenge this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£2.45 can’t be right unless you almost always repaid the full balance of your account every month.
you can use the template in the above article
Amanda says
I never paid the full balance each month, I either paid the minimum or less and then the ROP was added often making me over my limit. Thank you for the letter template.
African Queen says
Hello Sara,
I hope you are keeping well.
I came home to a cheque for £1524.24 as a my ROP interest refund.
I don’t want to sound greedy but I feel that this is far less than what I was expecting. I had my card from 2004-2013. My credit limit rose to £2250 very quickly and the card was always maxed out. I had ROP all that time as well.
The detail they have provided is:
Interest on ROP charges £1141.85
Simple Interest at 8% £477.98
Withheld Tax £95.59
Total £1524.24
What do you think? If I complain, do I cash the cheque?
I look forward to your thoughts.
Thank you x
African Queen says
I forgot to say that I never cleared my balance to zero.
Thank you x
African Queen says
Hello Sara,
Any advice for me?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is there anything on the letter which says the cheque is in final settlement of any complaint you have about your account? Or something that sounds a bit similar?
African Queen says
No, just that the could have done a better job of explaining the way interest was charged in relation to ROP and I am entitled to a refund of £1524.24. Cheque enclosed.
I just feel that having had the card from 2004 – 2013, it seems very low.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case you can cash it and complain – use the template letter above.
African Queen says
Thank you. I will let you know how I get on
Eve says
I complained about my interest refund amount being incorrect and the overlimit fees. I received a text on 11th December giving me a CAT number for that complaint.
I then complained on 14th December about purchase interest being added to the ID Protection as I wasn’t aware of that until I received my breakdown of calculations.
Today I have received a letter with the new CAT number reference and this is what Vanquis say :-
“Dear **** *******
I refer to your recent correspondence regarding the Repayment Option Plan. This was previously resolved under complaint reference CAT?******. I have attached a copy for your perusal.
Should you wish to contact us, you can call us on 0345 1300 164 between 9am and 5.30pm, Monday to Friday. Alternatively you can write to us at the above address or email us at customer.relations@vanquis.co.uk. When contacting us please quote our reference number.”
The copy of the letter they attached is the same wording as the one I received when they first refused me which was dated 29th December 2017, but the date on the copy is 14th December 2017?
I will phone them in the morning as it looks like they haven’t even tried to recalculate my interest refund or look at the overlimit charges??
Sara, can you please also advise me if they are allowed to charge both default interest and purchase interest on overlimit charges as that is what they seem to have done on my account (according to my SAR and statements)? .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your 2017 complaint was asking for a refund of the ROP on the grounds of mis-selling?
Eve says
Yes it was Sara, hence why I can’t understand why they have given me this answer. My new complaint was about the wrongly calculated interest refund and overlimit charges. I’m just about to phone them and will let you know what their response is.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok then you need to be clear that your current complaint relates to the way they have calculated the interest refund, it has nothing to do with your previous complaint.
Don’t mention the minor detail of the December dates, that gets in the way of your main point.
Eve says
The lady I spoke to on the phone couldn’t explain why I was sent this letter. She agreed with me that the previous complaint was for the mis-selling of ROP and she couldn’t find anyone in the department that could explain the reason I got this letter.
She found the other complaint that I raised on 14th December where I questioned why I was being charged purchase interest on both ID Protection and default fees (even though I was also charged default charge interest on the default fees).
She has now added my complaint regarding the miscalculated ROP interest refund and overlimit charges to the other one and has said someone will look into all these points and informed me that they have 56 days to resolve this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
huh. when did you put in the complaint originally about the interest calculation and overlimit fees?
Eve says
I’ve just checked my e-mails and I sent the complaint about the interest calculation and over limit fees. on 6th December.
6th December : I sent the complaint about the ROP interest calculation and over limit fees
11th December : Received text acknowledging my complaint and giving me a CAT number.
14th December: Received breakdown letter for ROP interest calculation dated 7th December. That was when I saw all the extra things that had purchase interest charges on them.
14th December: Raised separate complaint about the extra products having purchase interest on them.
19th December: Received confusing refusal letter dated 14th December.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So 2 weeks ago. Really the 8 weeks should start then. It’s up to you if you want to point this out to them and say your case will go to FOS 8 weeks after 6 December.
Dave says
Hello just got my sar from vanquis and there are two payments of £820.46 gone out in 2010 for a ZAP ACCOUNT on the same day , has anybody ever had this on their Vanquis acc as I have no idea what it is, anybody help will be appreciated
Dave
Eve says
I’ve no idea what that is Dave, I’ve never had anything like that on mine. That’s a lot of money to have been taken from your balance, can you not remember buying anything in 2 instalments?
gillian says
hi sara I have just received a email from vanquish saying they are refunding me 337 pound 27 pence of intrest on rop chargers for my vanquish account not sure what this is as they have already given me a refund of 3000 pound after I sent my complaint to the ombudsman in feb after they rejected my claim and then in September the ombudsman got in touch with me and said they had changed thier mind and would refund all rop payments and intrest charged (but I am not going to refuse this other refund sent today)just not sure what they doing ty
MrsNurse says
Good morning,
I received my statements and had ROP
from 2006 until end of 2011. I have so far received a refund of £130, breadown emails says that £5 of this is interest, however being as this was so long
ago, I would have thought it would be 8% per annum?
How far back is Vanquis paying
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, if you closed the account in 2011, the 8% element should come to more than £5.
Also the rest of it sounds very low as well, unless you often cleared your balance every month? I suggest you send in the template complaint letter above and add a paragraph saying the 8% calculated amount looks to be wrong as well.
Let us know what happens?
Mrsnurse says
Hi,
I’d already sent a letter off anticipating that the statements would show I had it years back.
Would have cleared the balance max max once per year.
I’ve still got the account now!
Sarah says
I was informed by Vanquis that my ROP refund cheque was posted 14 dec 18. I know that the post is slow around Xmas but I still haven’t received anything. On speaking with them they have told me to wait 3 weeks. Has anyone else had the same issue. I don’t quite understand how the post would take 5 weeks to deliver a cheque. I am starting to wonder if it has actually been sent.
GM says
In my case, when I spoke with them, they said that it usually takes 10 working days for delivery.
However, when they issue a cheque is not the case of getting the cheque book and filling it. They instruct their own bank to issue a cheque, which goes through several authorisation steps and then it get sent. It’s those processes that don’t depend interest on Vanquis that delay the cheque delivery.
Mine was authorised at the same time as yours and they told me I should wait until the 7th of jan to receive the cheque.
Dave g says
When they sent my cheque it took exactly 21 days to get to me
David says
I received a cheque on 18 December but the letter was dated 28 November.
Now waiting for Vanquis to come back to me with a statement as to how the amount I’ve received was calculated.
Dave says
I said in November that I had got my interest refund back of £2010 and that I had asked for a SAR which arrived just under 2 weeks ago so looking at it I noticed I had been charged 18 times at the overlimit fee of £12, I wrote a email stating exactly what it says on this website stating the ROP interest made me go over my limit and today they called me and offered me all the fees back and interest totalling £710.34 which was just over £210 in over limit charges plus interest since 2005 so quite happy about this
Thanks for all ur hard work on this amazing website
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good result!
Simon Latham says
Having had ROP and spent last few years maxed out on the credit limit of £3k / £3.5k. I received a refund of £576.78 which when the letter arrived had already applied to my account. No explanation/breakdown of how they’ve come to that figure and I’m none the wiser knowing if it’s correct or not. Are they meant to send a breakdown or do I need to ask for it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask for the detailed calculations if you want – they won’t send them if you don’t. But it’s probably simpler and quicker to just send them a complaint using the template in the article above. The letter you have should say when they are stopping the refund calculation so you can put that in section (C) of the complaint.
Also if you are still paying ROP, phone them up and cancel it!
Kate says
I received a refund for £21 . I had the card in 2009 and sent them a letter in 2014 cancelling the ROP as I said I was missold it and didn’t know why I was paying it, they cancelled it and refused to refund me back in 2014 . I still use my credit card and have a £4000 limit, which is maxed but back then it was about 3k, I feel I should get more then £20 back :-(.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds daftly low unless you often cleared your balance down to zero? Send in the template complaint letter in the article above.
Your complaint in 2014 – did they tell you that you had the right to go to the Financial Ombudsman?
Katie says
I don’t remember to be honest . I just remember them dismissing it, saying it wasn’t PPI and I won’t get a refund . They have a note on their systems about it, so maybe I could complain about it now?
GM says
They dismissed me back in 2012 using exactly the same “it’s not a PPI” argument.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well send off the standard complaint letter in the article above. At the end in (E) that asks for a copy of all your personal data. If that shows that they did NOT inform you of your right to go to the Ombudsman when you asked for a refund of the ROP in 2014, then you can still take that complaint (about the ROP mis-selling) to FOS and Vanquis can’t object that it is over 6 years old.
Jenna says
Finally received a reply after the best part of a year. Amount was nowhere near what i was expecting. There is no breakdown to say how they reached that figure. Needless to say I have asked them to look at it again. So frustrating.
Nancy says
Hi I received a cheque as follows , I had this card from 2009 and paid ROP till I cancelled it in January 2018 , it carried a £500 credit limit and although making the minimum payment every month I soon had a balance of £900 , this started to reduce after ROP cancelled
So cheque arrives saying they could have done better explaining The way interest was charged in relation to ROP ,
Refund £1006.43
Interest on ROP charges £998.15
Simple interest. £10.35
Withheld tax £2.07
Total amount £1006.43
My balance of. £758.25 was cleared and cheque received for difference £248.18
I don’t know if this is correct , but at least I’m shot of the debt
Thank you Debt Camel . Happy new year x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think over nine years that probably is too low, even though your credit limit was low. It sounds as though most of every months payment was being eaten up by the ROP interest.
Also were you getting over limit charges added? If you were, these were caused by the ROP and the extra interest being added, so you can ask for them to be refunded too – that could add up to a lot for you. You could send the standard complaint letter in the article above, or just ask for a refund of the over-limit charges.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
PS close the account!
Nancy says
Thanks so much Sara … I will do xx
tracy says
hi everyone. im loosing the will with vanquis. i had/ have my accound since 2012, stated at £500 now defaulted at £3500. my account is being managed. i have been crrdited with £231.78 Rop refund, but for a letter from vanquis it stated the rop charges for 2016 were £201.02?? ive sent the template letter requesting SAR and been told they have sent out there responce to tgis matter, that was on 3/12/18. i never cleared my balance, and have over limit charges which i have requested to be refunded. i dont have alot of statements but im sure this refund is not accurate. how do i take this further? what would you suggest to do next. its so draining. Tracy.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what did their reply on 3/12 say?
They don’t have to refund the ROP charges themselves, just the interest they added because of them. But as Vanquis’s card interest is so high and this compounds, over the years this normally adds up to more than the ROP payments themselves unless you often cleared your balance down (and it sounds as though you didn’t.)
tracy says
sara, ive not revieved the response dated 3.12.18 (thats if ones even been sent out) ive never cleared my account to 0 and always ended up paying little over the minimum ammount, but never clearing much due to the interest and late fee charges. id just like some transparency on my statements to check if this refund is correct but vanquis are being evasive.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unfortunately the statements won’t help you much as they don’t show the interest that is being charged because of the previous accumulated ROP fees, it’s all hidden in “purchase interest”. They will show how many over-limit fees you had added though.
Can I check you did send the full complaint template? Or was it just a request for SAR?
I suggest you go back and say you have not received their response dated 3/12 and ask them to send it again.
JB says
After receiving my ‘refund’ of only £670 from 2007-present on a credit limit of 2500 – I filed my complaint and received a letter saying that they will deal with said complaint immediately but that it usually takes 12 days for a resolution!!! I won’t be holding my breath!!!
Gaynor says
hi Sara, again :) have just sent complaint in about refund amount being incorrect just wanted your opinion on the last part i added if you don t mind …..”.I want a complete breakdown of how my calculation was worked out each month as i do not believe you have 1) compounded the interest on each months calculation 2) altered the actual ROP amount each month without the ROP interest which means that every single ROP payment following the very first one has been incorrectly calculated by you because of the interest you added on to each and every following calculation and then re added more interest that shouldn t have been added 3) a partial refund of all following ROP payments worked out from the new balance on my account each month 4) an understandable breakdown of how each interest payment over the last 8 yrs has accumulated interest each month. ” is my thinking correct ??? ddoes it make sense lol???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s pretty hard to see how Vanquis have calculated the refunds. Some bit of it are clearly wrong, so wrong they can be obscuring other things that are also wrong. Asking for a breakdown is a good idea, but you may not get anything very useful back.
Paul says
Hello
Is this a common response from vanquis after I asked for a breakdown and overlimit fees? The email they sent is:
I confirm we’ve agreed with the FCA Over Limit fees won’t be refunded. The reason for this is we assess your account each month when we produce your statement, and if you’re over your agreed credit limit by more than a certain amount; you may be charged a fee. This assessment is carried out before any ROP is charged.
In light of this, we’ve refunded you the interest you were charged on ROP balances as agreed with the FCA, but we aren’t required to reconstruct your account as if ROP interest had never been applied.
They gave me a refund of 495 pounds after I had ROP for 5 years without ever clearing the balance and going over the limit a lot.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, so far they seem to have been paying out on over-limit complaints. Perhaps they have decided this is too expensive?
I suggest you reply:
“The reason I went over the limit so often [any idea how often???] is because of the accumulated interest charged on ROP that increased by balance. The fact you did the overlimit calculation before adding the next lot of ROP is not relevant. I would like you to reconsider this and if you don’t I will be taking my case to the Finanical Ombudsman.”
Ross says
A bit of a hypothetical question, but is anyone else of the same opinion (as me) that there’s no way all of these refunds will be processed by the time of their (alleged) target of February 2019? The reason I ask is that I have not received ANY communication, from Vanquis, since a text message, apologising for the delay which, was so far back, I can’t even remember when it was. I feel it pointless to email their customer relations address, as you only ever get back the bog-standard response ‘We’ve been given until February 2019, by the FCA… blah-blah-blah’ and, whilst I appreciate it may be a huge task, the regulator appears uninterested.
Does anyone know the ACTUAL date they have been given to refund by and, if nothing has happened by then, what’s the next steps?
How they have been allowed to get away with this, for so long, is beyond me?
Sharon says
Hi, has anyone on here been told their cheque was sent out on 14th December? If so have you received your cheque
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hi Sharon how large is the refund you are getting? Some people are getting decent amounts, others way too low.
GM says
my cheque was issued on the 19th when i spoke with Vanquis and i received on the 31st through the post.
Sharon says
Hi
My refund is supposedly £5,263.19, but i will believe it when i see it. I will let you know if/when i receive the cheque.
I had the card from about 2007 until last year when i cleared it.
Angie says
I’ve had my card since 2007 and only received £780. Jesus how come you received that much? Great for you though .
Sharon says
I’m guessing it is to do with the credit limit i had, and the fact i only paid the minimum payment and never cleared balance, until last year. I also had lots of over limit fees which i’m sure they haven’t refunded, so i will be writing to them requesting them.
JB says
Me too Angie, had mine since 2007 till present and have received a refund of £669!!! Unbelievable really.
Sarah says
Hi Sharon, I was also told my cheque was issued 14 Dec but I haven’t received anything. I am waiting for the post to be delivered on Monday as a few people on this forum have said that it has taken 21 days for them to receive their cheque. Mon will be 21 days (with 3 public holidays on top of that).
Diverkev says
I have just found that I was refunded £208.39 on the 14 Dec no letter or email to explain how they came to that figure opened a Vanquis card in May 14 £500 limit at max within 2 months by Jan of 16 limit had been increased to £3000 and was at limit ROP was not cancelled until I found this site May last year a compliant went no where as apparently I had used the suspend payment facility in 2017 so must have understood what it was and how it worked I had actually called them to send me the explanation pack I had never received when I opened the account as thought it maybe some form of PPI and was going to make a claim. What triggered the call was a annual (apparently) letter informing me that interest was charged on ROP which was news to me and led to me cancelling it.
I have now used your template email above and made a further complaint.
JustJulz says
Sent an email off asking for an update and also putting in a ROP claim for being missold at the same time. Any idea how long they are taking to reply, account has been closed for sometime.
Pete says
With regards to the update they will probably send back the normal response which is they have till the end of feb, in regards to your complaint they have 56 days and from what I can tell they generally drag it out the distance most of the time.
Nikki says
I received a text 7 days after enquiring about ROP. I might be entitled to it and they will contact me by end February 2019 which was beginning of December. I’m not hopeful that I’ll hear by that date!
African Queen says
Hello,
After I complained to Vanquis about my refund – I got just over £1500 for a card I had from 2004 – 2013, this the response I received at the weekend, below.
Thank you for your email. Firstly, I apologise for the delay in the response to your email. The refund is only for the interest that has been charged on the Repayment Option Plan and not the total interest charged on your outstanding balance. Your refund has been calculated from the date your first Repayment Option Plan charge was applied to your account. This was from December 2004 up until the date of your refund communication. To get to the value of the refund, firstly we use your transaction and payment information to calculate how much of your balance was due to ROP for each relevant month. We worked out how much interest was charged on your ROP balance each month and added them together to get your total refund. So for example, if a quarter of your balance was due to ROP we would refund a quarter of your purchase interest that month. So in your case, in January 2005 your interest charge was £13.49, of which £0.08 related to ROP. This is what we are refunding you for that month. As agreed with the FCA, over limit and late charges have not been included in the calculation and we would not look to refund these charges. In order for me to raise a subject access request for you, please can you confirm your date of birth and postcode.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do supply them with the info for the SAR.
I suggest you also say something along the lines of:
“I understand that you are not automatically refunding over limit charges. But as you have refunded me £1500, it is clear that for a long period a substantial amount of my balance was cause by the interest added to my account because of the ROP and that therefore this was a major cause of me going over my credit limit [add something about how often this happened?]. This may not have been the case for everyone, but it was for me.
In addition, I am complaining that your calculations are incorrect because you used some of my monthly payments to repay the accumulated ROP and ROP interest. This is wrong and unfair as all my payments should have first been used to repay the purchases on which interest was correctly charged. What you have done makes me pay more interest on the real purchases and refunds me less of the interest that should have been attributed to the ROP.
I would like you to reconsider this or I shall be taking my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.”
African Queen says
Thank you so much, Sara. I will do that and keep you informed of progress.
Jason says
I got a refund of £300 a few months ago I thought it was for overcharged intrest on my account
I just signed up to the phone app and see that i am paying £40 a month for this ROP
I contacted them asking what this is as i know i have never agreed to it and have been told that i agreed to it on the phone back in 2012 which i know never happend
Because it was so long ago they have told me they wont even look into it
Is there anything i can do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can send in a complaint using the template above. even if you don’t win on the mis-selling bit because it is more than 6 years ago, you may be able to get a larger refund. And cancel the ROP today if you haven’t already done that!
Tam says
This company should be taken to task by the fca, I have been waiting since last feb for my refund, I have sent numerous emails to them and have only received one reply see below today:
Hello Thomas,
Thank you for your email.
We have agreed with the FCA that all ROP Interest Refunds will have been repaid to customers by 27th February 2019. Your account is currently waiting to be reviewed. If any refund is due, you will receive a letter or an email detailing your refund amount and how this has been paid back to you. We will keep you updated from time to time so there is no need to contact us unless you have a specific query.
I am now at the stage of telling them not to bother as they will probably get this refund wrong, going by previous posts from other complainants. The big banks can process refunds within 8-10 weeks but this Mickey Mouse can’t even do this in 8-10 months!!!!!!
Ross says
Totally agree Tam. They even appear to have given up on sending ‘time to time’ updates. I received a text, sometime, last year. Since then, absolutely nothing. Of course, the more the delay, the more the money sits in their bank account, rather than ours. I am VERY doubtful they will have even scratched the surface, of these refunds, by the end of February. Await a further announcement, stating that they’ve been given more time, by the FCA.
Tam says
Exactly, I think the only reason I got the email was down to me bombarding them with emails demanding to know what was going on. I agree this will not be cleared up by end of feb, I think if the fca fine them again this should go towards improving people’s refunds
Sharon says
I have now received my cheque 25 days after they told me they had posted it. There is no breakdown as to how they have got to the figure. Has anyone on here been automatically refunded over limit charges or do i need to write to them requesting a breakdown, and asking for the over limit charges to be refunded?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They aren’t refunding overlimit charges automatically. You can ask for a breakdown but if you know you had a lot of overlimit charges you could get straight on with sending the template complaint letter in the article above.
If they refuse to refund the overlimit charges, send your complaint straight to the Ombudsman. You can still cash the cheque you have been sent.
Sharon says
Ok thanks, i will do that straight away
Jodie says
I have received a letter from Vanquis saying my refund is £130.00 but as my account was passed to Lowell Debt collectors all they are doing is telling them to reduce the debt rather than send me a cheque.
This happened about 5 years ago and I never agreed with the £450 debt as it was all made up of charges. Vanquis didn’t want to know but after being passed to 3 different DC’s and all of them passing it back to Vanquis, Lowell then agreed to write off the debt and also removed the default.
Where do I go from here though, I am actually entitled the cash??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is an interesting question.
The fact that Lowell wrote off the debt and removed the default does suggest that you made out a strong case for the debt being wrong.
I suggest you tell Vanquis you had disputed the debt with Lowell and they wrote it off and removed the default, accepting that you did not ow the money. So ask Vanquis to send the cheque to you. If they refuse, write to lowell and ask for the money to be sent to you. If lowell refuse, put in a written complaint and send it to the ombudsman.
Jodie says
I complained that they should have sent me the cheque and not just knock it off “the debt” and yesterday I received a cheque.
I also complained at the same time that I don’t agree with the amount and want it looked at again and also I would like the over limit charges refunded but there was nothing about this in the letter with the cheque, they had just reworded the last letter to say they should have dealt with the ROP issue “before” it got passed to Lowell.
I’m hoping that I will get a separate answer regarding the other issues.
David says
I received a cheque for £292.04 from Vanquis just after Christmas (despite it and the letter accompanying it being dated 28 November).
I immediately e-mailed them asking for a full breakdown of how the amount had been calculated (as opposed to the simple breakdown they supplied) and a statement of all transactions on my account.
Whilst I’ve received the latter, it doesn’t appear to be correct in that there are a number of interest charges missing, but despite being told one would be posted to me I haven’t received a full breakdown of the calculation.
I have therefore now e-mailed Vanquis’s ROP refunds team to complain about the amount of the refund and will let you know as and when I get a response.
Thanks for all the help and advice so far.
Ranah says
I called Vanquis today as there had been no communication as I had a closed account.
The lady advised the cheque was in the process of being printed. She told me it was to the value of £756. This is for the period 2010 until I closed my account 2016. I have had the card since 2008 and queried why it wasn’t from that period. My card was always at the maximum £3k with overlimit charges each month. I always paid the minimum which usually was around £145 per month.
I have asked for a breakdown of calculations and she offered to make the payment by Bacs as I would receive the money quicker than a cheque.
I mentioned that the value looked low and if I accepted a BACs payment could I still query. She said I can query but kept repeating there is no mistake with the calculation. I did advise that given this should have never happened I cannot take her word for it.
She said the paperwork should be with me in the next two weeks and the payment will reach my bank by 23/01
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have had the card since 2008 and queried why it wasn’t from that period. ” good question!
Also you should definitely object to overlimit charges to being added.
But as you say the overall value looks low even for 2010-16.
I suggest you put in a complaint as soon as you get the paperwork. No point in asking them to look at it again.
Ranah says
Thank you Sara. I will this site has helped immensely thank you.
I will update you as soon as I have heard back from them.
Ross says
I’ve just emailed Vanquis, to ask for an update on where they are at with my case. I had a text, months ago, apologising for the delay. As they’re due to complete this by February *cough* I’ll be interested to see what their response will be. The usual is ‘The FCA have given us until February 2019 blah, blah, blah’. Well, that’s just a couple of weeks away now, so I’ll be interested to see what excuse they’re going to come up with this time?
Nikki says
Funny enough I’ve just had the same email!!! They have until 27th February and my account is still to be reviewed. Not hopeful for that date!
Tam says
Same response as myself, only been waiting since last feb and still to be reviewed, same old line trotted out every time, I don’t believe there’s any chance this will be sorted next month either.
Ross says
Well, it appears that Vanquis have now given up on responding to requests for information now as well. Since sending them an email, yesterday, I have no acknowledgment or response. Still, I suppose it beats their usual ‘The FCA have allowed us until February 2019 blah blah blah’ response. The wait continues…..
Huw says
i made a claim for the ROP refund in November, i received a letter saying that i will be refunded the interest charged on the ROP balances but not any over limit fees. i complained about this using the template and today received another letter confirming that i will NOT be getting the over limit fees as agreed with the FCA. Vanquis are sending me a breakdown of the ROP interest refund. Is it now worth going to the financial ombudsmen about the over limit fees. i had the account from 2012-2017 when it was passed to lowell company as i ended up with a £1400 balance on a £1000 credit limit due to extra charges.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, I think it is worth going to FOS.
To be clear, the FCA said Vanquis didn’t automatically have to refund overlimit fees. But there is no reason why Vanquis cannot look at an individual case such as yours where it is clear that the overlimit fees have been caused by the ROP interest – in which case it is only fair to refund them.
Huw says
Thank you for the reply. Should I word the compliment to FOS similar to the template above.
African Queen says
Hello Sara,
After emailing my concerns as you kindly advised me to, I received this email on Monday
Thank you for your email. In relation to The Repayment Option Plan, we have escalated this to our Customer Relations Team as a formal complaint. The Customer Relations Team will acknowledge your complaint within 5 days from the date of your email and have up to 56 days to respond. Your reference is Cat/xxxxx. Your request for information has been forwarded to our Data Rights Team who will contact you shortly. Your reference is DSRR/xxxx. I have organised for a full breakdown of your refund to be sent to you via post. You should receive this in around 7-10 working days.
As soon as I have an update, I will post an update.
Thank you
Angela Fordham says
Well, just emailed Vanquis to complain about the meagre refund £140.00.my credit limit is £4000 now and has always been close to limit throughout all my time with Vanquis 8/9 years with all credit increases.
I feel £140.00 is definitely wrong calculation, so have now complained using a form of the complaints letter provided by yourselves.
Let’s see what they come back with.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is absurdly low!
Antony Footitt says
I’ve been dealing direct with a Resolutions Manager for Vanquis. I requested official written confirmation of their response to my complaint that the ROP interest refund was too low, so I could go to the Ombudsman…
“Apologies for the delayed response.
I am sorry that you are unhappy with the ROP interest refund amount and calculation.
The underlying methodology for the refund calculation has been agreed with the Financial Conduct Authority. It is really important to us that we refund you the right amount, so we asked an independent company to validate the calculation before we started issuing refunds to our customers. Under the circumstances, I am unable to improve the refund beyond the amount already offered.”
[edited to remove staff names]
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so straight to the Financial Ombudsman then.
Antony Footitt says
Yep, but the Ombudsman say I have to have it in writing that this is Vanquis final decision, and advising me of going to the Ombudsman if I disagree, so I have to wait now.
lawrence says
Hi, thought I’d add my latest communication with Vanquis, having not heard from then since last year.
Thank you for taking the time to email us on 16 January 2019 with further concerns about
your complaint. It’s important we reach the right outcome, so I’ve reviewed your concerns
and addressed them below.
I’m sorry that you’ve not received your refund yet. The process of refunding interest on the
Repayment Option Plan (‘ROP’) is very complex and is taking longer than we first
anticipated. This is because we’ve focused on making sure the refunds are 100% accurate
and externally verified before starting the refund process for all our customers.
We have agreed with the FCA that all ROP Interest Refunds will have been paid to customers
by 27th February 2019. We aim for the majority of refunds to be completed by this date but
I regret that I’m not currently able to provide you with a specific date.
Daniel Miller says
I’ve had ROP for years and never made a complaint or asked for a refund. How do I complain and get a refund? Is there a template I can use for my initial complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When did you open the Vanquis account?
Daniel Miller says
March 2016
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case you are only likely to get a very small refund from the current automatic program which will only refund the interest accumulated from payments up to a point at about the end of 2016.
I suggest that your first step should be to cancel the ROP, so more of your monthly payments will go to reduce your debts!
If you want to complain that it has been mis-sold to you, you can put in a complaint about that and ask for a refund of all the RP that you have paid so far, plus accumulated interest. the template letter above has this as section (D) of a broader complaint. In your case your overall refund will be small so it’s probably not worth bothering about waiting for it before complaining about the mis-selling, so just complain about this on its own. (D) above lists some reasons but there may be others – it depends why you feel it wasn’t properly explained to you.
Tam says
Hi Sara
Finally received a cheque I post today for £468.85
Breakdown
Interest rop. £341.85
Interest 8%. £160.00
W/Held tax. £32.00
Don’t know if this is right though, had the card for 7 years always at max limit and balance very seldom cleared, limit started at £250 rising to £2500 quite quickly.
Do you think that’s right?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Which years did you have the card for? Did you ever have over limit charges?
Tam says
Hi Sara
2006 to 2013
Kara says
I received a cheque today for £204.52 comprising:
£173 interest on ROP charges, £39.39 simple interest at 8%, -£7.87 withheld tax.
I paid approx £880 in ROP charges between 2012-2016.
My limit started at £150 in March 2012and increased to £550 in Feb 2013, £1500 in July 2013, £2500 in Dec 2014 & £3000 in May 2014. I was at the limit for pretty much the whole time, apart from getting it down to £800 in July 2014 before going straight back to £2500- £3000 until August 2015 when I started bringing the balance right down and eventually paid off in april 2016. When it was at its limit I was generally only paying minimum payments.
Does my refund look proportionate or should I challenge it?
Many thanks,
Kara.
Kara says
Hi. Does anyone have any thoughts on my post above please? It is a higher figure than I was expecting but still seems lower than it should be…
Thank you.
Alan Garnet says
Hi,
I received an ROP refund back in Nov, the cheque was for £18.50, I had the card a few years ago with a £500 limit, I pretty much lived with it at max for a couple of years before clearing it. I can’t remember if I cancelled the ROP but I do remember it sending me over my limit a few times. I’m planning to complain based on the article here but should I bank the cheque meanwhile or does that qualify as a settlement – the letter doesn’t state that.
thanks,
Alan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the letter does not say it is in settlement of any complaint (or similar words) then you should safe to bank it and still complain. Don’t spend it all at once!
Echo says
I received a letter from vanquis today saying that they have paid £2142.64 into my vanquis account which has a limit of 3500, I am quite OK with the amount I have eventually received from them there is no breakdown of charges but I had rop for about 5 years, I don’t understand why I have this amount when others received a paltry few hundred.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is a mystery. Honestly some of the numbers just seem to have come from a random number generator.
If you have so far been mostly making minimum payments, one way to make the most of this refund is to try to carry on making the same monthly payment now on the much lower balance – it will start to fall a lot quicker!
Echo says
Thank you Sara, I plan to make roughly the same amount of monthly repayments so should hopefully clear the debt by the end of this year and can say goodbye to vanquis especially as they seemed to increase payments around the time they announced rop repayments.
tracy says
so when im looking at my transaction summery from vanquis, i get charged rop as purchase interest (which they are not refunding) billed finance charges- as purchase interest and billed deferred finance- as purchase charges, thats three purchase charges as well as whatever i actually did purchase!!! can anyone clarify which they should be redunding. after each cluster of charges (as purchases) there is mostly a over limt charge too. these charges alone are over £1000 and my refund was £237, any advice people??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is the problem with this transaction summary, it doesn’t move you much further forward in knowing how they calculated the £237.
Have you made a complaint or just asked for a breakdown?
Eve says
Hi Tracy
My old statements matched my SAR but the breakdown calculation is a nightmare.
On the breakdown it looks as if the billed deferred finance charges and purchase interest were combined together into one column labelled “Purchase Interest” . My ROP amount is listed in a separate column and I have a column for purchases which I couldn’t understand as I didn’t purchase anything with my card, only did cash transactions. But when I studied it, it looks like they have classed overlimit fees, ID Protection and evanquis from my statements as purchases and charged purchase interest on them. So for anyone who has also purchased stuff this would be really hard to work out.
It also looks like they have been charging both default interest and purchase interest on overlimit fees. The percentages they have listed on my breakdown do not tally up either.
All in all it’s a total mess and I’m still awaiting an outcome on my complaint about the wrong interest refund for ROP and the overlimit fees.
Eve says
I meant to mention that the 3 Billed Finance Charges on my SAR each month were for (1) Default Charge Interest, (2) Purchase Interest and (3) Cash Interest and on the SAR there is also 1 Billed Deferred Finance Charge each month. I have no idea what that is for.
tracy says
i have made a complaint back in june last year, lots of back and fourth but no progress. they have stated that my complaint was settled in november when they issues thier refund. can i take this further, i feel like they just was me to gove up and im feeling close. ive still got an outstanding balance that im trying to clear aswell
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sure they want you to give up! I suggest you send them the complaint letter from the template in the article above. For you the over-limit fees are an important issue! And send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman if Vanquis reject it. The fact the FCA did not tell Vanquis to refund over-limit fees automatically does not mean that they shouldn’t in individual cases.
Ross says
I’ve (finally) received an email, from Vanquis, stating that my account has been reviewed and that I am entitled to a refund of £125.67. As the account was closed so long ago, and I know that I cancelled the ROP fairly quickly (when I realised it was a load of cobblers), I am unsure if this is correct and/or I should challenge it. I’ve waited so long, that I just want closure on the whole thing.
However, here’s the amusing bit. I had the email on 21/01/19. I asked them to send the refund, by BACS, as that was one of the options they gave in the email. Today, 25/01/19, I have still had no refund and, when I contacted them, I was told to expect it on or around 30/01/19. So, in essence, once they get around to reviewing your case, and confirming the refund amount, they then want to take another 10 days to refund it. This whole thing has been totally farcical, from start to finish.
Joanne says
Hi
Looking for some advice I have a Vanquis card from 2015. I am maxed out at £2250 and have always only paid minimum repayments . I have been over my limit quite a few times. I have ROP on account and received a letter saying they could have done a better job explaining how interest was charged on my ROP and they are refunding me £17.94 which was taken off my balance. This seems incredibly low. Does anyone think I might have a chance at getting more back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The first thing to do is to cancel the ROP – it is very expensive and if you get into financial problems Vanquis have to consider freezing the interest on your account whether or not you are paying for the ROP. That won’t help you get a refund but it will that much more of your payment each month actually pays off the balance on your account.
That seems like a very low amount.
Everyone can complain about Vanquis’s calculations being wrong – that’s point (A) in the template letter in the article above.
One of the main factors for you will be that they are stopping the calculation at about the end of 2016 – your letter should mention a date you were sent a letter about ROP? If you do not recall getting this (and many people don’t) that is a good reason to complain about that. That is point (B) in the template letter above.
If you get a big refund, you can argue that the over limit charges were caused by paying this extra. At the moment point (C) isn’t goping to work for you as the refund you are getting is so small.
Do you remember the phone call when you opened your account about the ROP? Do you think it may have been mis-sold to you for any other reason apart from the fact that they were charging interest on it and didn’t tell you about it. If yes, put that in your complaint, point (D).
Lorraine says
Hi,
I’m in need of some advice please, as reading others info on here my issue is a difficult one and i dont know what to do. I’ve had a vanquish card since 2013 with the max of £1700 always the time, i was paying off the minimum every month for months & months – approx £70, then i got into financial difficulty in mid 2016, i tel vanquish who agreed to freeze interest and pay them only £1 a month, i was paying this for approx 10 months, then my circumstances changed again and i had other debts. I wanted to pay all my debts off once and for all but couldn’t deal with these myself. I was advice to contact step change charity, by this time i still owed vanquish approx £1500, since may 2017 S.Change has been paying approx £65 -£68 a month to them to clear….i’m still paying this off and now owe approx £300, i have never received any info about ROP so not sure i have had this? never recd. any email, first i knew of this is a email from step change themselves about this ruling just 3 days ago. My query is, because i only paid £1 a month for a period and i’m now with SC charity is it worth making a claim? SC say that if i’m owed anything they will contact me automatically – i’ve heard nothing. Would anybody please be able to advice me on my info given? i’ll be so grateful. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t need to make a claim, this refund is paid automatically to everyone that had ROP.
If SC say you have received a refund – ask how much it is. If you think that looks low, or you aren’t sure, come back and ask?
Lorraine says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your reply. SC has not said i have received a refund for myself….it was just a general email telling me about the ruling of vanquis and how they have to repay customers who had/in receipt of a vanquis card, this was the first i have ever heard of these refunds after receiving this info. I have never recd. a refund, letter or any email off vanquis myself, now i’m just wondering because i’m with a SC charity – they are not refunding any ROP or even if i’ve paid any ROP?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think you need to worry about Vanquis not paying you because you are with SC. If you want to put your mind at rest, email ROPRefundsTeam@email.vanquisbank.co.uk and ask if you had ROP on your account.
Lorraine says
Thank you for your help – I will email them
CMcK says
Hi all,
So, I’ve been reading this and wanted to see if anyone had any input on my current situation.
I have a Vanquis card, have had it since I was 18 and apparently had ROP. My limit ended up being 3500, and after losing my job I defaulted on this in 2016, and set up a payment scheme where I’m paying back 100 per month with frozen interest. Don’t know how I pulled that one but I haven’t been in touch with them since as I thought, well, I’ve been very lucky.
I didn’t know anything about this ROP business until a couple of days ago when I noticed my account coming down by £800. I phoned to ask (although almost didn’t in fear of it being a mistake) and was told about the ROP issue.
I’ve put the above claim in, just to see. I do remember a very pushy call with the bank to take ROP, and being a child still took it as I thought it was going to get my accepted!
I think I went over limit quite often in the early years, and my ROP payments were likely substantial given my credit limit, am I being greedy to try to get these repaid as I’ve not paid interest for 2.5 years or shall I still try?
Kind regards,
Ciaran McKeown
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The fact they have refunded you £800 means your balance has been too high for a long while. That was the main cause of you going over the limit! So yes, you should complain and ask for a refund of the overlimit charges. If (When?) vanquis reply that the FCA has said they don’t have to refund these, reply that you know that but in your case the overlimit charges were only incurred because of the ROP interest, so it’s only fair you should get them back. And send your complaint to the Finanical Ombudsman (that’s easy!) if they refuse.
PS They haven’t been very helpful by freezing interest, as an authorised lender in the UK they are obliged to look at helping customers who get into difficulties as you did when you lost your job. This would have happened whether or not you had the ROP.
CMcK says
Hi Sara,
thanks for your reply.
Thats good to hear, how long do they usually take to get back? I’ll have paid it off completely before long (3 months, now that they’ve paid me back £800!) and then the account is shutting down, so sooner the better really!
Good to know, lets see if we can get it going! Is 800 more than is expected? £3500 seems like a high limit for a vanquis card too, I never requested a rise in limit they just kept doing it! And me being a teenager I spent it happily with no mind to the consiquences!
Ciaran
Brian Hunter says
Hi Sara,
My original settlement from Vanquis was £57 which I decided was derogatory. Following your advice and using the template letter I made a complaint.
Today I got a letter offering me £1539.50. Not sure If it is correct but I feel that it is a result that I can probably live with.
Many thanks.
Charlotte says
Hi,
I’ve just received an email from vanquis which states they will credit my balance with £30.09 for ROP refund.
I’ve had my card since 2011 until now, with a limit of £3,500.
Vanquis has said that I’m entitled to a refund of interest from the start up until the email received recently. I’m wondering if the amount sounds correct?
Kind regards x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you had ROP all this time?
Charlotte says
I didn’t even know I had it, but judging by their email, I think the answer is yes
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case your refund is much too low unless you often cleared your balance down to zero. The article above looks at some of the ways their calculations are wrong! Use the template letter in the article above to complain.
Charlotte says
I thought it looked too low! I’ve never cleared it to 0, and was only paying minimum payments each month. I’ll use the template and let you know how I get on. Thank you 😊
African Queen says
Hello,
I have just received the information that Vanquis say they hold on me. They say in the letter that they are not obliged to provide copies of statements, just a list of account transactions. Actual statement copies will cost £5 per copy. Unfortunately, the information doesn’t show if I went over my limit because of ROP being charged and therefore, incurred over limit charges. Tte account balance column is not included in the report so I can’t see the impact of the charges on my overall balance
Not sure f they do this to frustrate us.
Should I complain to them and give them a chance to rectfy this or just go to the FOS?
Thank youx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you complained that your refund is too low? If not, you have to do this, you can’t go straight to FOS – use the template letter above.
African Queen says
Thank you Sara.
I have added this to my original refund complaint and I will wait to hear from them x
Nikki says
Hi Sara
I received my ROP correspondence this morning and does this sound correct. I have not had a vanquis card for about 6 year but the response said this:
You are due a ROP refund of £48 but we waived waived £159.67 previously so we have therefore offset the ROP against this waiver.
Can they do that?
Thank you
Nikki
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes they can. This also happens in other situations eg where you get a PPI refund.
BUT was your £48 refund large enough? How many years did you have your Vanquis card for, did you often repay the whole balance or normally just the minimum payments, and do you remember roughly how large your balance got?
It may be that your refund should be a lot larger than the £159 that was written off…
Nikki says
Thanks Sara
I had the card for about 3 year and limit was £2500. I was maxed out all the time and paid minimum payments. I’ve asked them for a full details of the ROP payments and statements.
Hopefully they will come back soon as they have been very responsive on the generic email. Fingers crossed!!
Heather says
Hi
I posted in December regarding my very disappointing interest refund of £110. I complained to them in July regarding being missold the top and received a quick response to say it hadn’t been missold. Surprisingly I logged into my account yesterday to see I had an ex gratia payment of £2440.93. I haven’t had any correspondence regarding this I am assuming it is for top not just the interest. Ironically if I had had a reasonable interest refund before the end of May I probably wouldn’t have complained.
Many thanks for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good! I don’t care if they want to call it an ex gratia payment providing people get a sensible amount back!
Bexcob says
Hi Sara
My complaint regarding missold ROP has been with the FOS since May last year, since the initial response saying it would be looked into, I have had nothing, In September I spoke to them regarding a separate case and they said it was being assigned to an investigator, I have still heard nothing so rang them beginning of January but they couldn’t get through to the person they needed, I received an email that night saying it was waiting for investigator, I am 2 weeks away from being a year into my initial complaint, is this normal? or is there someone else I can complain to?
On a positive note I have received my interest refund of £555.43, but have had the card since 2010, ROP until 2017 limit of £3000 and often near limit and minimal payments. I did almost clear my balance once in 2016. Not sure if the calculation is right but I have put in the complaint anyway. My card is now clear and cancelled.