Borrowed in my partners name

Duk

Hi All,
Before you start judging, I have some serious questions I need to bring up as me and my partner are both trying to clear our debts.

For about 7 years I was unable to get my Bipolar diagnosis under control 2011 - 2018. We borrowed a lot of money (40+k) to just keep afloat as I was the sole earner but was sick a lot of the time. We are only down to 2k now!

I have always handled finances in the household which most likely was not wise then. but in 2017 I got 2 x £750 loans of provident (satsuma) in my partner's name (she sometimes gets stuff like phone contracts in mine, it's not uncommon for us). At the time though I was very ill and was taking medication which altered my state of mind. My partner was not made aware of this loan for over a year after and we put it down to... "it must have been when you were ill" 

Now provident have just started chasing us for it and looking at the date that we got the loan out my partner had received 6 other payday loan defaults on her account for 3 months running and her credit was rock bottom, She was not working so I put in my wage as earnings when satsuma asked for her earnings.

Now I understand how irresponsible this was of me, but I was sick. but I also think provident should have done more to prove that it was my partner taking out the loan and that it was affordable because they should never have lent to someone with 6 payday loan defaults already surely? They should have also asked for payslips or bank statements as proof of earning. 

We owe them £1900 and have offered them the partial settlement of £1500 (all we have currently) and they have refused, So I have requested on my partner's behalf a Data Subject Access Request so they can send all data they own about her to us.

Now my questions.
i) Should I ever bring up that I took out the loan without my partner knowing? is that criminal even though she would not press charges?
ii) Should the state of my mental health come into this when the loan was taken out due to the medication I was on as further evidence they should have done more checks?
iii) Do you think I should bring this forward to the ombudsman along with a record of my partner's credit reference from that time period as irresponsible lending?

Thanks for any help. we are 38k out of debt over the last 5 years, provident just seems to be the final hurdle.
Regards,
DCUK

To add. Me and my partner have no dispute over this debt, we don't want to report fraud or police reports, we know our issues and we are a couple and work things out together,

[Deleted User]

Satsuma lend to the high risk market, so they were happy with the risk your partner posed. And you'll have done a sufficiently good job of pretending to be her to satisfy them that the application was genuine.

1) If you want the loan off your partner's records, you'll need to confess to the fraud. But that's a matter between the two of you. 

2) No, as a) you didn't tell them about your mental health and b) even if you had, you didn't apply in your name. You applied in hers.

3) Up to you. But Satsuma were happy with the risk and the loans were low value. You'll also increase the changes of your fraud being uncovered. It's unlikely criminal charges will be pressed by Satsuma, but a CIFAS marker would be almost certain to follow.

All in all, you're best off getting it paid.

Carrot007

i. It's not going to help you, they will just persue harder, only you partner can insist it is fraud.

ii. Again not going to help you. Your partner applied for the loan and only her starte of mind is relivant (and if it was bad it is very very very hard top proove it to the extend of getting anything from it anyway).

iii. Potentially but I doubt it will go anywhere. If her credit was goof enough and you did not lie on the application (beyond you not beign your partner) then it seems reasonable. It is ultimatly up to the customer to assess what they can afford (within reason). It you lied about yout partners detailso n the application then again that is fraud by you and absolves the company if it was wrong.Ahh I just saw that you indeed did, so no this is not going to help you as again you lied.

These companies are terrible and will try unlikelu bufge on anything but full payment. Unfortunaly with a fraudulent application your ability for complaint have diminished unless your partner wants to hold you responsible. (if this would likely just end with your bankruptcy, it might be a reasonable option).

Duk

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

ThisnotThat

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Duk

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

ThisnotThat

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

That's not really the point.  It's rather unfair to chastise a company for wanting all the money back that they lent you.

If you'd asked for £750 x 2 and they'd only given you 78% of it but expected you to pay 2 x £750 back I'm sure you'd be rather upset with that arrangement, understandably so.  I don't see any difference between that and you only offering to pay back a portion of what you borrowed.

Yes,. some people will get away with making partial settlements but it certainly shouldn't be expected.

Duk

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

That's not really the point.  It's rather unfair to chastise a company for wanting all the money back that they lent you.

If you'd asked for £750 x 2 and they'd only given you 78% of it but expected you to pay 2 x £750 back I'm sure you'd be rather upset with that arrangement, understandably so.  I don't see any difference between that and you only offering to pay back a portion of what you borrowed.

Yes,. some people will get away with making partial settlements but it certainly shouldn't be expected.

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

That's not really the point.  It's rather unfair to chastise a company for wanting all the money back that they lent you.

If you'd asked for £750 x 2 and they'd only given you 78% of it but expected you to pay 2 x £750 back I'm sure you'd be rather upset with that arrangement, understandably so.  I don't see any difference between that and you only offering to pay back a portion of what you borrowed.

Yes,. some people will get away with making partial settlements but it certainly shouldn't be expected.

I agree it should not be expected, but I offered them back the money we borrowed £1500 minus the interest. They get the money they have been chasing for years and we get a partial settlement, but they are chasing for interest also not just the 2 x £750 loans. I think what I offered was reasonable considering it was over 4 years ago now and they have not had a single payment from us. That's why I was surprised they did not take it.

ThisnotThat

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

That's not really the point.  It's rather unfair to chastise a company for wanting all the money back that they lent you.

If you'd asked for £750 x 2 and they'd only given you 78% of it but expected you to pay 2 x £750 back I'm sure you'd be rather upset with that arrangement, understandably so.  I don't see any difference between that and you only offering to pay back a portion of what you borrowed.

Yes,. some people will get away with making partial settlements but it certainly shouldn't be expected.

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

ThisnotThat said:

Duk said:

Thanks, zx81 (I had one of those!), I will not mention me at all in this then and we will pay off in my partner's name, I think it's pretty crappy of them not to accept a 78% payback in one lump sum rather than us pay monthly, its suprising.

Company in "we want all the money back we lent to you" shocker!

Considering I'm still sole earner and we only have some money that was given to us from my grandparent dying, I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

But thank you for your input it was EXTREMELY helpful.

That's not really the point.  It's rather unfair to chastise a company for wanting all the money back that they lent you.

If you'd asked for £750 x 2 and they'd only given you 78% of it but expected you to pay 2 x £750 back I'm sure you'd be rather upset with that arrangement, understandably so.  I don't see any difference between that and you only offering to pay back a portion of what you borrowed.

Yes,. some people will get away with making partial settlements but it certainly shouldn't be expected.

I agree it should not be expected, but I offered them back the money we borrowed £1500 minus the interest. They get the money they have been chasing for years and we get a partial settlement, but they are chasing for interest also not just the 2 x £750 loans. I think what I offered was reasonable considering it was over 4 years ago now and they have not had a single payment from us.

Lenders make money by lending money to people, getting it back and getting interest on top.  If people aren't paying the interest, they'll very quickly go bust (which, well, they basically did.)  

Grumpy_chap

Duk said:

I can afford a one-off sum but not monthly.

I am sorry to hear about your grandparent but, if you can afford the one-off sum but not the monthly, there may be some options:
1. Pay the one-off sum to reduce the balance so that the remaining interest and monthly is much less.
2. Put the lump sum you do have in a bank account and use strong will-power to only draw that money to pay the monthly payments of this debt.
Option 1 will be the lowest cost overall.

sourcrates

Give it some time, ignore satsuma for now.

In a couple of months time they will most likely sell the debt on to someone like Cabot, Lowell or some other debt purchasing company, who will be more than happy to accept an offer from you, once they have gone through there standard template letter process with you obviously.

As with everything in life, there is always a procedure to follow, debt purchasers pay very little for the debts they buy, therefore they can normally offer much better settlement terms than the original creditor would have done, its just knowing when to respond, somewhere in between the "we want to help you" and the "we may take further action" letters, there should come the settlement offers, strike while the iron is hot, would be my advice.

Full and final settlement at around 40% should be achievable.