Amigo Loans Irresponsible lending complaints thread

glennstar

TripleH wrote: »

If those figures are correct, that is shocking that they write-off £3 for every £10 earned. That indicates that despite lending to people with a good credit history, (but at more sub prime rates) these loans still suffer write-offs. This shows either Amigo's business model is flawed or/and guarantors with good credit history are having their records heavily trashed by agreeing to such terms.

Subprime lenders operate on pretty thin margins these days. The payday-hay-days are pretty much gone. Regulation, interest caps, compensation, GDPR, rollover restrictions... the list goes on and on. Any high cost lender operating at less than 20% default is probably doing OK, those that can achieve 10% are stellar. If you look at the market, there have been a significant number of firms (some of which are massive/well backed) have gone bust (Wonga, Dollar Financial, Wage Day Advance) or are scaling back or are replacing their payday product for other products like current account top-up or longer term higher value loans.

TripleH wrote: »

Further evidence to never be a guarantor to such loans and instead take a cheaper loan out yourself to pay back.

I disagree. At least with a guarantor there is a contract in place, your proposal generally leads to all sorts of problems, unless you are gifting the monies.

TripleH wrote: »

I assume being a 'guarantor' on an amigo loan would trash a good credit record anyway as ostensibly you are the one taking out the sub prime loan?

I'm not sure why you would arrive at this conclusion. Whilst CRA's know who the PoR contributor is, other participants (Lenders) are not aware of the company. At most they will be able to make a determination based on an inferred profile; loan amount, repayment schedule, defaults followed by payments, defaults followed by re-loans and so on. You can easily see a doorstep loan vs a phone contract vs a mortgage vs a credit card, etc. I guess the point I'm making is that paying what you owe is good, regardless of the circumstances. Very few lenders will penalise you for paying a loan back.

glennstar

antrobus wrote: »

On the contrary. Amigo Holdings PLC runs a profitable business. Although it's share price has taken a big hit recently.

If you are a lender, the price of your loan needs to factor in the risk of default, The higher the risk the higher the price.

Amigo appears to be running a 23.7% exposure (up from 21.3% on the previous year) (page 27/28) so I don't agree that they are making lots of money - but yes, they are in profit. They appear to have made 1.1 times borrowings (down from 1.2 last year) which probably gives an insight as to why their share price is on the slide... along with the breach of FCA, ICO, CMA and DMA regs which are on the horizon.

robboa

That 83 percent figure is before the case has to go the ombudsmand those 49 are complaints that have gone to the ombudsman.

The 83 percent are the adjudicators being sided with the debtor and people finally getting their money back.

I literally never asked anyone to come on here and judge - i asked for success stories. So sorry i handed over 12k in interest - sorry i had bad credit and had to take an amigo loan.

Go and troll another user

Willing2Learn

robboa wrote: »

I literally never asked anyone to come on here and judge - i asked for success stories. So sorry i handed over 12k in interest - sorry i had bad credit and had to take an amigo loan.

Go and troll another user

Sorry robboa. But this is a public forum. You touched a subject on which people have very strong opinions. On a subject that has evolved and moved on from your OP. And as this is a public forum, your thread has meandered off...

Apologies, as I am guilty of having posted a lot in this thread...

antrobus

glennstar wrote: »

Amigo appears to be running a 23.7% exposure (up from 21.3% on the previous year) (page 27/28) so I don't agree that they are making lots of money - but yes, they are in profit. They appear to have made 1.1 times borrowings (down from 1.2 last year) which probably gives an insight as to why their share price is on the slide... along with the breach of FCA, ICO, CMA and DMA regs which are on the horizon.

I was quoting from the announcement of their first quarter 30 June 2019 results. Their impairment to revenue ratio has got worse.

To repeat;
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/901700/amigo-warns-of-higher-impairments-as-it-prepares-for-regulatory-crackdown-and-hard-brexit-901700.html

,,which also refers to a 'regulatory crackdown' as an explanation for the share price collapse.

TripleH

I'm not sure why you would arrive at this conclusion. Whilst CRA's know who the PoR contributor is, other participants (Lenders) are not aware of the company. At most they will be able to make a determination based on an inferred profile; loan amount, repayment schedule, defaults followed by payments, defaults followed by re-loans and so on. You can easily see a doorstep loan vs a phone contract vs a mortgage vs a credit card, etc. I guess the point I'm making is that paying what you owe is good, regardless of the circumstances. Very few lenders will penalise you for paying a loan back.[/QUOTE]

Ah ok. Sorry, having read previous threads on here, i interpreted that taking any "sub prime" loan out was bad news, even if you paid it back in full. I assumed that with amigo as the guarantor took out the loan their record would suffer albeit not as much as the person to receive the funds.

robboa

So this is what i got from the ombudsman yesterday

"We’ve been speaking to Amigo about the cases we’ve been seeing with issues similar to those you told us about in your complaint. In particular, how Amigo looked into your financial position and whether you could afford the repayments before it agreed to lend.



Amigo has now told us it would like to make an offer in full and final settlement of your complaint. And we wanted to let you know about this offer so that you can decide whether or not you want to accept it.



Amigo’s offer



Amigo will write to confirm the full detail of its offer including any amounts due – however, it has told us that it will follow our general approach. This includes:



- Amigo refunding all of the interest and charges (if any) that you’ve paid on all the loans you’ve had with them;



- As your loan has been repaid, your refund will include interest at the simple rate of 8% per year (less any tax properly due), from the date you repaid the loan until the date of settlement;*



- Amigo removing any negative information that has been recorded on your credit file concerning the loan; and



* If you have any questions about this tax, you can get in touch with HMRC.



What happens next



If you’re happy with the offer, you could send me an email saying you accept the offer as soon as you can and where possible by 9 October 2019.



If we don’t hear from you by this date we will assume you accept the offer and ask Amigo to get in touch with you to make payment. If you need longer to think about this, please let us know.

If you decide that you don’t want to accept the offer, then please let me know by 9 October 2019.



If I can’t resolve things, then an ombudsman here can look at everything again and make a final decision. If you need more time, then please let me know.



If you have any questions, please get in touch."

Therese were the loans i had

3250 16/05/2012
2250 11/09/2014
4250 03/04/2015
5000 29/04/2016

So despite everyone going off topic i hope people complain and get some money back!

robboa

and before all the trolls, muppets and people on their high horses come along to troll me. I paid every penny back to amigo.

glennstar

robboa wrote: »

and before all the trolls, muppets and people on their high horses come along to troll me. I paid every penny back to amigo.

I'm not aware of anyone making such a statement... and the letter above suggests you have fully repaid, although implies there may have been late payments - which might or might not be generic. So not too sure about the troll aspect of your response. If it helps you to feel better, thinking like that, then I'm not sure anyone here will argue with you.

Congratulations by the way, Amigo are a terrible bunch.

AndyPrecious

I totally aggree. A lot of folk on here clearly show no empathy whatsoever. To some people, that can seem daunting. A lot of people are in a desperate situation and they have no other form of help. They have got a poor credit history, sometime down to themselves or ex partners etc. I had a loan from these, I really didn't want the loan , I applied for car finance for bad credit and somehow ended up with this. My anxiety and Depression didn't help. I needed a car for work. 25 miles a day I do at the moment. Anyway, the interest is astronomical. I wish I could just pay it off, it's making me suicidal knowing that they have a grip on me. The relationship between myself and guarantor (my dad)is being tarnished dramatically. I've recently lost my job, found another job on minimum wage and I'm a bit behind.
People on here are so judgemental. I bet most of them have never been to the bottom of the barell before. When you have suicidal thoughts almost every day and constant regret, the Do gooders MSE brigade don't necessarily help. Almost each and everyone of them have no idea what some people are going through, like myself. Hiding my pain and thoughts with this mess. Yes, I shouldn't have signed up etc... But when you need assistance, you need assistance.