DMP vs non DMP advice??

Rob5342

It has to be done by post to be a valid request. Have a look on national Debtline for a template letter, you need to include a £1 fee too although it's often returned, presumably it's not worth the hassle of them cashing it.

RAS

If you use an open postal order, it's likely to come back unused.

worldsnooker147

Hi all

Thanks so much for all of the replies. I really do appreciate peoples time and effort to respond.

Just to update, re the affordability claims with my creditors. I have emailed all of them and most have responded with mixed responses.

Some said they will investigate and nothing else other than they may need to contact me.

Some have said they need to confirm my DOB and nothing else.

Some have asked for my bank statements leading upto acceptance of the loan.

Some have asked for confirmation of DOB and the length of the loan.

One has asked for evidence re gambling (which i dont have as on a bank account which was closed as part of my debt due to an overdraft being part of the issue)

One has asked for a raft of information including income and expenditure, 3m of bank statements prior to loan, existing debt info at the time of the loan being agreed, any change of my circumstances and evidence of financial hardship.

So as you can see its a varied response from different creditors. My question is what do i need to actually provide to help my claims? Do i actually need to provide anything and isnt the point of the my claims that they didnt check these things properly at the time of giving me the credit?? Or am i along the wrong lines here?

Im wary some of the info they want may be for their benefit and not mine, so a little reluctant to send anything before getting some advice from you lovely people. Some of the information as you can see, i cant provide them anyway due to closed bank account i was using at time the credit was taken out.

Any advice and guidance on the above would be most welcomed, before i send anything

Thanks

Paul

RAS

Creditors routinely decline affordability claims in the first instance.

You'll then need to appeal and your claim will be enhanced by providing much of the sort of information requested.

Have you read the debtcamel advice pages ?

worldsnooker147

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82020493#Comment_82020493

Hi RAS

Yes i did have a skim read of the information on DebtCamel. I used their templates to form my emails.

I think the worry for me as i say, is i cant provide some of the information they need. Is it more than likely my claim would be kicked out on appeal as i dont have what theyre asking for?

BW

Paul

worldsnooker147

Hi all,

Quick update on my affordability complaints. Last weekend I made Affordability Complaints again all 9 of my creditors via email. I have also asked the x4 debt sitting with the Debt Collection Agencies (x3 with Link previously all with Zopa and x1 with Lantern previously 118118) to provide me with the CCA documentation.

I am still waiting on the CCA replies.

I have had my first Affordability Claim completed via 118118 today (quick I know!!) and positively this has been UPHELD and they are refunding all of the interest from the original loan (£2,227)!!!!

This debt was sold to Lantern with £3,427 on the remaining balance. 118118 have advised in letter that they are contacting Lantern to reduce my balance with them by this amount, which can take up to 60 days it states on letter.

Is this normal? They clearly state debt was sold to Lantern and is not owned or managed via 118118. It just seems a little odd??

Thanks

Paul

sourcrates

Lantern will have bought the 118118 debt for around 15% of its face value.

What they have described is standard industry practice, for a sold on debt, when you win an affordability complaint.

What they won`t tell you is how much of the purchase price they will also refund to Lantern due to the reduced balance.

worldsnooker147

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82024145#Comment_82024145

Thanks Sourcrates, that makes sense now as i was wondering why Lantern would agree to reduce my balance as asked by 118118, if they no longer own or manage it!.

I will post further updates re other claims as i receive reply from them.

ManyWays

You can get bank statements going back 6 years from now from closed bank accounts. It may be a good idea to do this now so you get as many as you can as some may be asked for by the ombudsman.

worldsnooker147

Hi all,

A quick update on x1 loan from My Community Bank. Looking for some advice on what to do next as this feels like a general response with a few personal details added in to make it look more personal and thorough. This is their response:

Any advice or pointer on below and should i appeal? send to ombudsman or is it not worth it? The interest on this loan paid to date is 1k.

Final Response Letter

I’m writing in response to your complaint, received on 29/05/2026. Thank you for your patience whilst I
investigated your complaint.

My understanding of your complaint is:
• You believe the loan was unaffordable and that adequate checks weren’t carried out.
• The loan has contributed to the financial difficulty you are experiencing, and you have had to enter
a Debt Management Plan (DMP).
• You were struggling with a gambling addiction which would’ve been evident on your bank
statements.

If I have misunderstood your complaint, please contact me using the details provided in this letter.

I have investigated your complaint by:
• Reviewing your application

My Findings:
On 07/05/2023, you applied for a personal loan of £3,000 over a term of 48 months for the purpose of
debt consolidation. You provided personal details including your name, address, date of birth,
employment status, and annual salary.

As part of the application process, we are required to conduct a creditworthiness assessment and an
affordability assessment to ensure the loan is affordable and you can maintain the contractual monthly
instalments for the period of the loan. We used Experian Credit Reference Agency to review your credit
report and we obtained the following information relating to your credit history and profile:

• You had 5 active accounts (for example: loans, credit cards, bank accounts, insurance policies,
mobile phone contracts, or utilities)
• There were no hard searches in the three months before you applied (this tells us how many
applications for credit you’d made)
• You had no insolvency records registered
• There were no defaults
• You’d taken out no additional borrowings in the three months before you applied to us
• You had 3 monthly credit commitments with a total payment of £801.65 a month

You also told us in your application that you weren’t expecting any changes to your financial circumstances that would impact your ability to repay your loan.

As part of our checks we:
• Confirmed your income using details from Experian
• Confirmed your general spending (like bills, groceries, and rent) using data from the Office of
National Statistics (ONS)
• Added up your existing repayments, including credit commitments, spending and rent. Because
you told us the loan would be used for debt consolidation, a discount was applied to your credit
commitments. This came to £1,669.83 which was 72% of your monthly take home pay
• Calculated that if we added the additional monthly payment of £86.05 for this loan, your total
repayments would be £1,755.88, which was 76% of your monthly take home pay
• Concluded that after these expenses, you’d be left with around £565.21 disposable income, which
was 24% of your monthly take home pay

Our checks looked at your finances, including your debts and regular expenses. After considering all that, we found that you’d still have enough money after paying your existing debts, regular expenses and the new loan payment. So, we concluded that the loan was something that you could afford.
As part of our decision, we used Experian’s affordability check, which looks at more than just your income and spending. It also considers your overall level of debt to make sure that taking on a new loan wouldn’t cause financial strain. The results showed that you should be able to manage the loan repayments comfortably over the term. We also reviewed your credit file from the time of your application. At that time, you appeared to be managing your finances well, and we did not identify any signs of financial difficulty, such as missed payments or approaching your credit limits.

Finally, we are sorry to hear about the difficulties you are facing. However, because your application
passed all of the checks outlined above, there was no requirement for us to carry out further checks. As
such, we did not review your bank statements and therefore, would not have been aware of any gambling transactions. We can see you have been in a DMP since March 2025, and we rescheduled your loan in December 2025 to align with your DMP payment amount.

My Conclusion:
After looking into your complaint carefully, we’ve confirmed that we did all the correct checks. These
checks were appropriate and fair considering the amount of money you wanted to borrow.

The results of the checks didn’t show any problems or suggest that giving you the loan would be
irresponsible. We don’t agree that we acted irresponsibly when we gave you the loan. So, we are not
upholding your complaint.

This is our final response