Irresponsible Lending

miaboo

Hi 
Probably around 15 years ago I opened up a very account, From what I remember it was a very quick basic credit check, For the last 10 years I've been a stay at home parent but just about managed to pay the mininum amount every month, There was a period over lockdown I think where I had late fees and had to play catch up.
Also during this period my credit limit was also increased without any checks or conversations.
I've recieved a letter not long ago noting that they have now realised that I am only making the mininum payments and if it continues they will review my account 
Can I put in a claim for irresponsible lending as they have let this slide for years and also put my limits up without checking it was affordable 

tacpot12

I think you should try to complain about this. There is a sample letter here that you can tailor to meet your situation -   you would need to change it to show the difficulties that repaying them had created for you: Letter to complain about a loan - Citizens Advice

If you feel they should have spotted that you were only ever making minimum repayments, and they never contacted you to see if you were struggling, then I would mention this as part of your complaint. 

born_again

You can try, but letter will be the standard persistent debt on that all credit lenders will send out if people are only paying min amount. Which was introduced in early 2018 to describe a situation when people have been paying more in interest and charges than their credit card's actual balance for a period of at least 18 months. This was a FCA directive.

fatbelly

I agree

Useful factsheet here

https://debtcamel.co.uk/credit-card-pay-more/

Note there's a link at the end to a template letter

[Deleted User]

There is no "claim" for irresponsible lending

You can complain for sure, but equally they can dismiss the complaint, partially uphold it, fully uphold it or even just give you some "go away" money and close the complaint.

I have never had a single credit limit increase that wasn't done in writing (by snail mail) offering me the option to accept or reject it, if Very has records proving they did this and you accepted it (by not rejecting it) then it was your choice to spend on the card - if it was unaffordable but you continued to buy things that were not essentials, then it's hard to put a case for irresponsible lending as they didn't force you to spend. You could ask for a financial hardship case to be considered, they may be able to freeze interest, refund some fees etc, it's worth an ask at the very least

fatbelly

Don’t be put off by a rejection – send the case to the Ombudsman

If a lender rejects your complaint or offers a low “goodwill” gesture, don’t be fobbed off – they want you to give up.

In particular, if the lender says you had made all the payments to them on time so they had no reason to think you had problems, you can ignore this. The lender should have made other checks before increasing your credit limit! Or if the lender dismisses your complaint as the account was opened over 6 years ago.

When you have a Final Response from the lender  – or after 8 weeks if you haven’t had a Final Response –  send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The simple way to send FOS a complaint is their online form – it asks for all the little things they need to set up your complaint correctly (eg your date of birth and whether this is a joint complaint).  You can just copy out what you put in your complaint to the lender but if the lender has rejected your complaint or given a poor offer, mention why you think this wrong.

If your credit record shows that you had other debt problems, send FOS a copy of it. If you have kept some, send the oldest one you have, otherwise send the current one. Also get your bank statements if they will support your complaint and send those to FOS too – don’t wait to be asked for these.

FOS is a friendly service but not fast. You can just use normal English, not legal terms. Using a claims company or a solicitor will not speed this up or make you more likely to win your complaint.