Thanks dx This is the last couple of paragraphs of the letter.... What you need to do If you're happy with the decision and would like us to refund you, please click on this link to tell us where to send the money. We'll make any changes that are needed to your credit file.It may take up to 45 days for the changes to show in any reports your look at. Our final response This is our final response to your complaint. Please consider the settlement offer provided here as full & final. You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge - but must do so within six months of the date of this email. If this complaint is not referred in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider this complaint and will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances, for example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances. What do you reckon? Safe to take the refund and continue to pursue? I do think i have a case to send to the ombudsman and hopefully if they agree, take a lager refund of all loans. But as mentioned, i could really do with the extra money right now!!! Thanks

Good Afternoon, A few weeks ago i sent a complaint to Lending Stream regarding my view that they have acted irresponsibly when providing a number of consecutive loans to me over the past 18 months. In total there are 9no loans dating back from March 2019 to July 2020. My Complaint My complaint is based on my belief that i should not have been given the loans in the first instance. When entering my application i was asked to enter my outgoings as you would generally expect, however, i was not given the option to enter the actual amount of outgoings, just simply select from a drop down list. The problem i have with this is that the drop down list only went up in £50 increments up to £500, then the last option to select was >£500. As my rent alone was £1200, i could obviously only enter >£500. My issue is that i cannot see how Lending Stream could have assessed my affordability correctly when they do not have the correct info in the first instance. Had they known the actual amount of my outgoings, then i'd like to think they would not have offered the loan. As the loans were always paid on time (therefore no adverse marks on my credit file), it may seem that the loans were affordable.... however this was only affordable at the time as i kept topping up the loan or get a new payday loan to pay off another. Recently i applied for yet another loan from Lending Stream (to consolidate my current loan with them and leave me with extra funds over the Xmas period) but noticed they have changed their application process to now include Consents Online Limited, which i understand links to the bank account and checks the actual income and outgoing to determine affordability. My recent application (using Consents Online process) was declined. I can only assume that had this process been in place for my first loan, then i would not have been approved and wouldn't be in the mess i'm in right now! Lending Stream Response Just before Xmas i received a letter attached to an email confirming they have looked into my complaint and confirmed they believe loans 1-6 were affordable and so do not agree to my complaint. They have also confirmed they believe loans 7-9 to also have been affordable based upon the information provided BUT they do agree that they should have considered the number of loans being taken and the short space of time between loans and so they partially agree to my complaint. Lending Stream have offered to refund the interest paid on loans 7-9, including 8% simple interest and remove any adverse marks on the credit file for these loans. The total refund comes to £891.03. They have provided a weblink to enter my account details so the refund can be sent to me. My Query I believe I have a case to go to the Ombudsman with and would like to think i could also achieve a refund of the interest from loans 1-7 as when considering my finances at the time, these were even less affordable than loans 7-9 of which Lending Stream agree to my complaint. However, i could really do with the money at the moment, so i am tempted to click on the link they provided and enter my banking details. My couple of queries are, do you think i have a case to go to the Ombudsman with? And also, would i be able to enter my details and take the refund now, then pursue the rest through the ombudsman? Or by taking this refund would that close the complaint? Thanks in advance! Matt

Good Evening all.... Apologies, but this is a bit of a long story! A bit of history on this was posted back in 2012 as the following link; https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/293875-urgent-mortgage-payment-problem/ Well, this escalated further and we eventually gave up the fight and accepted that we were losing our home. After months of trying to come to a sensible arrangement, the monthly repayments continued to rise until it came to a point where we were given yet a court summons in August 2012, which we attended and although the Northern Rock representative was extremely keen on taking possession of our property, the judgement ended up in our favour and a repayment arrangement was made. It was a huge relief after a very tough time for me and my family. Then it got worse! I was out of work for 11 weeks and fell behind again. If i remember rightly, we were asked to pay approx £5k within just a couple of weeks to stop yet another eviction in November 2012. We literally had no fight left in us and simply had no means of finding the money NRAM demanded, so we gave up. We packed all our belongings and moved to another county for a fresh start in rented accommodation. ***Before anyone mentions it, yes we know this may not have been the right thing to do, but we were completely fed up with the never-ending rate increases, house price dropping and unrealistic demands from NRAM*** In May 2013, we received a letter from NRAM, confirming our property had been sold for £128,000 leaving a shortfall of £38,470. This came as a huge shock to us, as we had the property valued at £160,000. We also knew someone that worked in the local estate agents who ended up selling the property and they told us that although they had advised a much higher price, NRAM insisted on selling the property for £128k. I certainly did not have the means to pay this debt. I was furious at the price the property was sold for, so even if i did have the money, i probably wouldn't have paid it to them if i'm honest! I was expecting approx £10k debt, but definitely not £38k. My thoughts at the time were that they do not have anything they can take away from me anymore, so they can get in the queue with the rest of the people i owed money too (most of which lent me the money to avoid previous evictions). I ignored them. In February 2015, we received a letter from NRAM and this showed the outstanding balance to be £45284.74. I emailed the customer relations department to query the balance and advise that i had already been in touch with Mackenzie Hall (apparently working on behalf of NRAM) but never received a response. I received no response. In June 2016, we received correspondence from Mackenzie Hall advising that their client (NRAM) is pursuing me for the mortgage shortfall of £38470 again! I had still not received any responses to my email of March 2015, so decided to not waste any more time responding to them again! If i'm honest, I look back now and think this is the best thing we have ever done (although not the most responsible). The phone calls and letters stopped and we were able to make a fresh start with new employment, a new home (albeit rented) and we were and still are genuinely happy. fast forward to June 2019 and we've just started receiving text messages asking to call NRAM regarding 'an urgent matter'. We've also received a letter requesting proposals to repay outstanding balance of circa £45k and threatening further action. I'm really not sure where we go from here, as I can't afford £45k and although i could afford a minimal monthly payment, the amount I can pay wouldn't make a dent in the £45k for a long time. I obviously don't want to be 'running away' for every and would like to get this sorted one way or another.... Its over 6 years since NRAM made us aware of the debt and i've noticed the debt is no longer shown on my credit file which is great... I'm just not sure if there's anything i can do to stop any further threats in the future??? I appreciate this is a bit of a long read and I don't have copies of old correspondence so i'm just trying to remember exactly what happened and when. I know i've paid a ridiculous amount of charges on the mortgage since first falling into financial difficulties and I'm also sure we had a PPI policy with the mortgage (although i think this was provided by a broker rather than directly with NRAM at the time). Can anyone advise on how best to proceed with this as I just want to face it now rather than ignore them again in the hope they will disappear (as i know they won't!) Thanks in advance!

Full letter from Ombudsman.... Thank you for sending us details of your complaint. It seems that you have referred the matter to us more than 6 months after the firm issued its final response to your complaint. I am sorry to have to tell you that we cannot deal with such cases unless the Ombudsman is satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances for the delay in referring the matter to us, or the firm does not object to our considering your complaint. I have not yet told the business that you have asked us to consider your case and i do not know whether or not it will object. But if you would like to proceed please write to me and set out the reasons why there was a delay in sending us your complaint. Please include all relevant dates of the exceptional circumstances including any documentary evidence which you would like top rely on. Upon receipt of this, i will pass the complaint to our casework teams and let the business know that you want us to look at your complaint. If the business then objects my colleagues will be able to assess whether or not we can proceed. I am returning your papers. They sent me back all the correspondence and forms that i originally sent to them.

Hi everyone! Further to the last 2 threads i had on here regarding my PPI case with Black Horse over 5 separate loans, thanks to the help of you guys i finally re-submitted the claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service who have now responded. Brief History; 1st Loan taken in August 2000. A further 4 loans taken out between 2000 and 2005 (each one paying off the previous loan and giving me extra funds). Loans settled in 2006/2007. April 2008 - Sent a letter to Black Horse requesting a full refund of PPI premiums paid. April 2008 - Received a response from Black Horse informing me that they will not uphold my claim. February 2012 - I finally realised Black Horse were wrong not to refund and so decided to write to Ombudsman asking for their help. I sent a completed Financial Ombudsman Complaint form along with a completed consumer questionnaire for each loan explaining why i feel the PPI policies were missold. I also sent a copy of all loan agreements and the correspondence received from Black Horse in 2008. I have now had a response from the Ombudsman basically saying they cannot deal with my complaint as i have referred the matter to the Ombudsman more than 6 months after the final response received by Black Horse. The letter does go on to say that they can look into the complaint if they are satisfied that there are exceptional circumstances for the delay in referring the matter to them. Can anyone please advise how i should proceed??? Basically, when i received the response from Black Horse in 2008 i just thought that was the end of it. It is only recently that i have been made unemployed and have finally had the time to look into it in more detail (i.e. the CAG forums). With all the adverts on the TV and in the newspapers, text messages i receive, letters, etc it has become apparent that Black Horse were wrong to not refund the missold PPI, which is why i am now pursuing. The extra money would be a life-saver now too seeing as i am completely out of work and been told i am not entitled to any benefits (except jobseekers allowance). Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks for your advice Lea. I've been trying to call them for nearly three hours now and no luck. The one time I finally got through to someone they tell me their systems are down and asked me to call back in ten minutes! That was an hour ago and I'm still trying now. I need to get something in writing to them ASAP. Do you know an email address??? I can then make a bank transfer...

In September 2011 i paid just over 9k to clear all arrears. There were then a further two incidents where i didn't meet the agreed pay dates (and failed to phone and explain to them) and i had another eviction notice. I was told the only way to stop the eviction was to clear all arrears (which was about £1800) which was paid in full so the eviction was stopped. The only money i owe them right now is the february payment of £912.20. If i pay nothing today (which is not what i intend on doing) then i'm guessing they will say tomorrow i owe them £1824.40 arrears. Does that make sense?

Thanks for your reply Ell-enn, i'll do just that when i speak to them. I'm just worried they will say no and start repossession proceedings again if i don't make full payment. i'm guessing they will say the March payment is due on 1st March (tomorrow) and so by end of play tomorrow i will be over 1 month in arrears (i.e. march payment and whatever i do not pay them today). Don't know until i ask though i suppose...

Thanks HB, i'll look into that ASAP... initially just need to know what is best to do right now... i.e. pay them full mortgage payment so its fully up to date, pay a token payment now and keep the rest for living, etc... but i will definitely look into any benefits i could possibly claim for, although i'd rather not take any benefits and just get back into work! My wife asked me this morning if we have any PPI on the mortgage and if it would be applicable or not... to be honest i really don't know if we do or don't! and not sure if it would even apply as i am self-employed... one of the questions i'll ask northern rock when i call them.

Basically i just need to know if i should pay them by end of play tomorrow, or just give a token payment tomorrow and at least have some money left to get me through the next few weeks.... Any advice would be appreciated... i really do not want to be evicted.... but i can't starve my family!

Please can someone here help me and advise how i should proceed???? I have a mortgage with Northern Rock and when the fixed term expired approx 2 years ago i was stuck on the variable rate which almost doubled my mortgage payments at the time. This got me into all sorts of problems and subsequent arrears. Unfortunately my house price has decreased in value so much that i am now in negative equity of approx £20k and so cannot remortgage without a huge deposit. In September 2011 it got to the stage that i had an eviction notice enforced unless i could pay £9k in approx 2 weeks. Somehow, with hours to spare, i managed to beg/borrow the money from friends and family and paid Northern Rock. There have been another 2 occasions since then when i have had eviction notices but again managed to pay before losing my home. This has happened for a number of reasons, illness, lack of employment, etc. Last month i finally got back on track and brought everything up to date (or so i thought), but at the beginning of this month i started receiving letters saying i was still 1 month in arrears which i couldn't understand. When i spoke to Northern Rock, it became apparent that the month of arrears they claim i am in is actually Februarys payment which was due 1st February. Now this hasn't been the case throughout the mortgage, i have always paid on the last working day of the month and so expected tomorrow to be payment day. Northern Rock explained that this isn't a problem as long as the payment is made before end of month. I have the money in my bank ready to make the February payment tomorrow, but unfortunately last week i was let go from my job (i am freelance) and now i have no income whatsoever. I don't expect to be out of work for too long, butits difficult finding work at the moment and i had expected to be in the same place for another 2 months at least so haven't lined up anything else yet. The problem i have is, i have £920 in the bank ready to pay the February mortgage payment, but thats literally EVERY penny i currently have and i can't be sure when i will next earn (hopefully not long). Basically do i pay the mortgage payment??? Could i lose my home if i do not??? I doubt they will give any leeway due to the previous problems. I have a wife and 2 young children at home that i need to support an feed... what am i supposed to do??? I have no fuel in my car and so even if i get a job interview, i won't be able to get there... things really are desperate and i just need a few weeks to get myself another income.... Basically i just need to know if i should pay them by end of play tomorrow, or just give a token payment tomorrow and at least have some money left to get me through the next few weeks.... Any advice would be appreciated... i really do not want to be evicted.... but i can't starve my family! Please can someone urgently advise???

am i right with this... After the 4 payments were made to loan 3, i would have paid £26.44 from the total of loan 2 leaving a balance of £136.80. I would have also paid a total of £57.04 towards loan 3 PPI total of £351.70 (should this include an element of interest?) leaving a outstanding balance of loan 3 ppi of £294.66. PPI 2 balance is 3.6% of the total loan amount (136.80/3761.05 *100), therefore i should add to the spreadsheet 3.6% of £139.35 (loan 5 payments) = £5.02 Is that right??? That made my head hurt, so i won't carry on to work out the proportion of the third loan until you confirm i'm right, or let me know what I'm doing wrong!!!

Loan 3 PPI was £351.70 plus total charge for credit £75.10, making a total of £427.80 (£14.26 for 30 months) I'll download the spreadsheet now.

Yep, i get it mate. Thats great mate, its much easier doing it in stages like this... i thought id done it like this last time, but my total figure didn't end up anywhere near i expected, so its good to get your help...

yes, got it...