affordability complaint questions

ArtyJ931

I realised my debt was unaffordable last month! Having spent years thinking because I didn't miss a payment I could afford it (regardless of the fact that the amount I owed never seemed to reduce)

ArtyJ931

first lot of responses have come back 4 loans plus one credit card with the same provider. They have disagreed with my complaint.

I have challenged this via the financial ombudsman. No idea what rate of cases to the FOS are upheld but it was all very nerve wracking doing the application

Rob5342

It's pretty common, maybe even normal, for lenders to reject your complaint. All but one of mine were rejected by the lender but the FOS found in my favour on a good number of them.

The FOS were very straightforward to deal with for me. I just got an email saying they'd picked it up, another email asking for some statementa and credit reports, and then an email with their decision. It can take them a good number of months to work through them, it was about 4 months before I first heard anything when I used them a few years ago.

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81979475#Comment_81979475

thank you for that - very reassuring!

ArtyJ931

so one of my cc (virgin) has responded to my affordability complaint saying that due to me declaring an annual income of £120,000 on the application they assumed I could afford the debt?!?! I am absolutely baffled by this response. I have never and will never reach the giddy heights of £120,000 of income and I know for a fact I have never written that anywhere as my income.

I know from my many years of income outgoings spreadsheets that my income then was 2046 per month after tax and NI, student loan and pension. I earned an additional £246 from a second job as a carer and got child benefit for my son (87.20 per 4 weeks). He also got £700 ish per 4 weeks for PIP. Even taking into account household income my parter was earning around £18000 a year.

even adding up total household income it would have been 68,880 but that was not my income and I would have never declared it as such anyway.

The response came back within a day and has left me so confused I have then ignored it for a couple of weeks but now I’m thinking - is it likely they’ve made a mistake ? Why would they say I had put that when I haven’t?

I’m aware this may be me being too literal and assuming they’re telling the truth? Any advice? Should I just refer to FOS

RhiBi

This is a very simplistic thought, but is it possible that too many zero’s were entered on the application, so should have been £12,000? That doesn’t take away from the facts that they should have made sufficient checks that income was correct.

I’m awaiting a response to a Virgin write off, they’ve replied saying they’ll look at it on an “ad hoc” basis, which I take to mean when they feel like it!

ManyWays

A lender should make some attempt to verify an income before giving you a large limit.
i suggest you send the complaint to the ombudsman and say
1) you never declared that as your income and you have no idea where the number came from
2) a lender should have made some attempt to verify the income.

ArtyJ931

ok I will have that as today’s job! I was so baffled by the response I’ve kind of been frozen and not known what on earth to do

ArtyJ931

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82042336#Comment_82042336

I couldn’t believe they had investigated and responded within a day! All very strange.

sourcrates

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82042417#Comment_82042417

Its a typical initial response to an affordability complaint, could be your income was entered incorrectly, it happens more often than you would think, or given how quick damage limitation was initiated, it might be a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters and confuse you, after all deception, and mis-truths are all part and parcel of how these companies operate in response to complaints about their service, they tend to "close ranks" around things like this.

Its all designed to throw you off the scent, to make you think you do not have a case, and most importantly to dissuade you from escalating the matter to the Financial ombudsman.

They won`t have investigated anything, the scenario likley went something like this:

"Got a compliant from Arty about affordability, what can we do to put them off?"

"I know, lets say they inflated their income in order to get a higher credit limit, just add a couple of zero`s in there"

"Great idea, that might put them off, do it".

Do they state that this is their final response?