In lots of debt and need help getting out.

spareapenny

Although, when I took out the loans, I was in overdraft, so maybe these companies could have investigated further. (They would have found that I was in overdraft due to gambling, which then sort of begs the question as to whether I should have been allowed an overdraft!)

Maybe I should not be poking the hornets nest here as these companies, while not out of the goodness of their heart, their help meant that I could pay rent and council tax that month.

However, I believe that if I have a case against anyone, it's Monzo. Lending me so much money when two days prior I told them I had a gambling addiction and needed help (to which they failed to do anything but that was another complaint which was settled for £30!)

It saddens me to think of the Oakbrook loan. I saved £547.80 of it, the rest went towards gambling. I was so stupid.

I unfortunately can't hold them to account as there is no way they could have known about this problem, from an affordability perspective it looks like I have enough left after bills are paid. Although, as a sub-prime lender, they should do better checks.

The reality is they don't have the bank statements, Monzo does. However, it would suck because any affordability complaint win would just be applied to the balance, leaving me not that much better off.

For anyone wondering why I'd hire a forest bike while in overdraft I was running late for work 😅

sourcrates

Lots of information, help, template letters etc etc, on unaffordable lending, on the debt camel site:

Affordability refunds from loans · Debt Camel

Complain sooner rather than later, as time limits apply to complaints.

MasterG83

Just wanted to say good luck with this, I really admire how you have acknowledged and accepted your debt and gambling issues and now dealing with them, 👏

I cant add anything that people already have but I hope your journey is enlightening and successful.

Holsten1888

hello @spareapenny .1st thing you need to do is put in affordability complaints on your loans and credit cards and as @sourcrates has put links in Debt Camel will guide you through and there is templates and you can adjust accordingly .There is a six year time limit from when credit taken out

1st thing to do is send your complaint to your loan companies about affordability and not carrying out enough necessary due diligence when lending or when a credit company has increased your limit until you cant pay anymore

Some or most companies will come back and knock your claim back but then you then get FOS involved with your claim and it takes around 30 mins to register a claim .You have nothing to loose and everything to gain .These companies that charge high interest prey on people like yourself and me at one point

This not a boast but when I was in a financial pickle a few years back this is what I done and below was the outcome

Bamboo loan 2k loan …..got all interest removed after got FOS involved about £1.3k ..payed back the 2k

118 118 Money £4250 loan …118 118 agreed with my claim and removed all interest of about 3.2k …payed off loan

Lendable 1.4k loan …..got all interest removed after FOS got involved about 1.1k ..payed off loan

Fluid Credit Card …..Fluid agreed with credit limit increase not being appropriate and gave me all interest and charges from last credit increase which amounted to 3.7k from 4.5k limit …payed off the rest of card

in total I got around 10k of debt removed for spending a bit of time ,organizing bank statements and drafting emails and sending them

You have nothing to loose and everything to gain ….all the can say is no and this is regardless if you have gambling transactions on your relevant bank statements that you provide

spareapenny

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82062396#Comment_82062396

Hi, thanks for your time!

I've put in an affordability complaint to Monzo today, who have quite frankly a lot to answer for giving a lot of money to someone who told them a few days earlier that they were uncontrollably spending a lot of money gambling and they needed help. I proceeded to gamble the entire loan (surprise surprise) and started paying it back from my overdraft. Still do.

I asked them to write off the loan, I know this is quite rare to happen, but let's see what they say.

As for the other loans, I'd have a really hard time trying to argue unaffordability without it looking like I just want my money back. They had no way of knowing I had a problem with gambling, or that I was already knee deep in overdraft.

As far as they're concerned if (my salary - my outgoings - minimum loan repayments > 0) then all is good. They did their "due diligence", and asked me if I know of anything that could affect my ability to repay.
(N.B: which I'd not answer honestly as I want the money to gamble with!)

I could argue "I'm applying for a high interest loan. I've a bad credit record. I'm very clearly desperate for this money, therefore you should have done further checks including asking for my bank statements at which point you could reasonably conclude that I had maximised my overdraft gambling and wanted more to gamble with, leaving me unable to repay the loan. Or, at the very least, you would have had cause to ask if I had a gambling issue."

However, they might take the view that for a small loan of £2000, etc, that these detailed checks are not necessary, and that it's not part of their procedure, and that it's unreasonable to expect them to have done this. I'll draft something up and see if I can make my point to the other lenders.

It's nice to see that the affordability complaints have worked out for you, it gives me some hope.