Unaffordable Lending Claim: Reclaim Interest & Charges

By the eLitigant Editorial Team · Reviewed for current forms, fees & procedure · How we check our guides

Free to start · no sign-up · no card. Tell Chris what has happened and see whether we can help before you pay anything. One matter · one case folder · a full day of drafting. If the drafts are not up to the standard you expected, email us within 7 days of paying for a full refund. If money is tight, Help with Fees can remove the court fee entirely, and Citizens Advice is free — we will always tell you when you do not need us.

Skip the claims company’s slice. Chris drafts your complaint for free — you sign, send and keep every penny.

Quick answer: If a lender gave you loans you couldn’t realistically afford — payday, doorstep, guarantor, catalogue or other high-cost credit — without proper affordability checks, you can complain and reclaim the interest and charges (often plus 8% interest). Complain to the lender first; if unhappy, escalate free to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Irresponsible lending complaints are among the most common the Financial Ombudsman sees. If repeated borrowing left you trapped, you may be owed a refund — and you can claim it yourself.

What is an unaffordable lending complaint?

A complaint that a lender failed to carry out proper, proportionate checks on whether you could afford to repay — and lent anyway. The remedy is usually a refund of the interest and charges you paid on unaffordable lending, with 8% statutory interest, and removal of related adverse credit-file entries.

Who can complain & when

Anyone who was lent to without affordable, sustainable repayments — classic signs are repeated re-borrowing, rolling loans over, or borrowing to repay other debt. It covers payday, short-term, doorstep, guarantor and catalogue/credit lending.

Deadlines & key rules

Complain to the lender first — it has up to 8 weeks to give a final response.
If rejected or unresolved, refer to the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of the final response — it’s free.
Time limits also run from when you knew (or ought to have known) you had cause to complain, so don’t delay.
If the lender is insolvent, you may need to claim through its administrators or the FSCS instead.

How to complain — step by step

List the loans (lender, dates, amounts, how often you re-borrowed).
Explain why the lending was unaffordable — your income, existing debts, and the pattern of borrowing.
Ask for a refund of interest and charges with 8% interest, and removal of adverse credit data.
If you’re not satisfied with the final response, escalate free to the Financial Ombudsman within 6 months.

How Chris helps

Tell Chris about the lending and your circumstances and Chris drafts your complaint to a high, professional standard — you check, sign and send. Not a law firm. No middleman, no commission — free to start. Claims management companies typically take a cut of your payout — often 10% or much more — simply for filling in a form for you. eLitigant is not a claims management company and not a law firm: Chris drafts your complaint to a high standard, and you just sign and send it yourself. No commission, no calls, no chasing — and you keep 100% of any refund or compensation.

See it done — an unaffordable-lending complaint, drafted in minutes

An irresponsible-lending complaint, drafted to a high standard — Chris builds it from your borrowing history in minutes. Scroll the sample below.

DRAFTED BY CHRIS · sampleSCROLL ↓

Dawn Walsh

To: Customer Complaints, Sample Loans Ltd

Complaint — unaffordable/irresponsible lending, account SL-44120

Dear Sir or Madam, I am complaining that the loans you provided to me were unaffordable and lent irresponsibly.

Between January 2019 and August 2020 you lent me 9 loans totalling about £4,300. At the time my take-home pay was around £1,100 a month and I was already repaying two other short-term loans, so the repayments were not sustainable and I had to keep re-borrowing to cover essentials.

I do not believe you carried out proper, proportionate affordability checks. Had you done so, you would have seen the lending was unaffordable and that I was caught in a cycle of debt.

I ask you to refund the interest and charges I paid, with 8% statutory interest, and to remove any adverse information about these loans from my credit file.

Please treat this as a formal complaint. If I am not satisfied with your final response, I may refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of charge.

Yours faithfully, Dawn Walsh

Illustrative sample with fictional names and details. Chris drafts yours from your own facts; you check, sign and send.

Draft your complaint →

Last reviewed: June 2026 · UK-wide · CIC No. 16566612 — not a law firm, not a claims management company.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Would you rather we drafted it for you?

Tell us what has happened and what you need. Every document is quoted case by case, on its size and the time it needs, and the price is agreed with you by email before any work starts. Nothing is charged until you say go.

Once agreed, it comes back to you within one working day (business documents usually within the hour). You read it, check every date and figure, sign it and file it: it stays your document throughout. No need to attach anything now — once we reply, you send your papers by email.

We use your details only to reply to this enquiry. eLitigant CIC is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. You remain the author of your documents.