Do I Have An Unaffordable Lending Claim?
Most people who think they may have an unaffordable lending claim do, in fact, have something worth investigating — but not all situations lead to a successful complaint. The factors that decide whether your case is viable are: what kind of credit you had, when it was given, what was happening in your life at the time, what the lender knew or should have known, and whether the time limits still allow a complaint. This page walks through each of those, so you can get a realistic sense of where you stand before going any further.
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Step 1: was it a regulated credit product?
Most consumer credit in the UK can in principle be the subject of an unaffordable lending complaint. The main categories are:
- Credit cards and store cards
- Personal loans (unsecured)
- Overdrafts
- Catalogue credit and home shopping accounts
- Doorstep (home-collected) loans
- Guarantor loans
- Payday and short-term high-cost loans
- Buy Now Pay Later, for agreements taken out from 15 July 2026 onwards
Mortgages, most car finance hire-purchase agreements, and pre-Regulation Day BNPL agreements have their own separate rules and are generally outside the scope of the standard unaffordable lending route.
Which types of credit can be claimed as unaffordable?.
Step 2: was the lender FCA-authorised?
For the standard route — complaint to the lender, escalation to the Financial Ombudsman if needed — the lender has to be (or have been) FCA-authorised at the time of the lending. Most consumer credit lenders are. Where a lender has gone bust without a successor, the standard route closes; redress (if any) becomes a matter for the administrator or scheme of arrangement.
Lenders that have collapsed include Wonga, QuickQuid, MyJar, Peachy, Wageday Advance, Safetynet Credit, and Morses Club. Provident’s doorstep operation closed via a Scheme of Arrangement in 2022, and Amigo’s guarantor loan scheme closed for new claims in November 2022. If your lending was with one of these, the route is different and the recovery is usually much smaller.
Step 3: are you within the time limits?
The Financial Ombudsman can normally only consider a complaint that is brought within:
- Six years of the event being complained about, or
- If later, three years from when you became aware (or ought reasonably to have become aware) that you had cause to complain.
The “three years from awareness” branch is what allows complaints about lending that is more than six years old. FOS has consistently accepted that for many borrowers, awareness only came years after the event. There is also a separate six-month deadline for referring to FOS once the lender has issued a final response.
Step 4: were there signs the lending was unaffordable?
A complaint succeeds where the lender either failed to carry out reasonable and proportionate checks, or where proper checks would have shown the lending was not affordable. The kinds of factual indicators that support a complaint are:
- You were already in arrears or had recent defaults on your credit file when the credit was given.
- The repayments left you unable to meet essential living costs — rent, utilities, food, council tax.
- You could only meet repayments by borrowing again, from the same lender or another.
- Your credit limit was repeatedly increased without a fresh assessment, or to levels that obviously outpaced your income.
- You had multiple short-term loans, payday loans or doorstep loans active when fresh credit was given.
- You only ever made minimum payments on a credit card or catalogue account, with no end to the borrowing in sight.
- You were in financial difficulty, in a debt management plan, or in an IVA when the lending was given.
- The lender’s own data — returned direct debits, late payments, repeat overdraft use — showed strain that was not acted on.
Any one of these on its own may not be decisive, but a pattern of two or more for a particular period of lending is a strong indicator a complaint is worth investigating.
Step 5: do you have, or can you obtain, the evidence?
What evidence do I need? covers the practicalities. If you have nothing at all, see Can I claim without old loan paperwork?.
Quick eligibility check
Most people who satisfy the following are likely to have something worth investigating:
- You had regulated consumer credit (card, loan, overdraft, catalogue, doorstep, guarantor, payday) within the last 10–15 years.
- The lender is FCA-authorised or was at the time, and has not collapsed without successor.
- Either the lending is within the last six years, or you only became aware in the last three years that you had cause to complain.
- There were factors in your life at the time that made the credit unaffordable to repay sustainably — and those factors were either visible to the lender or would have been on a proper check.
If three of those four apply, your case is worth a closer look.
What happens next
How a claim works step by step for a step-by-step walkthrough — and refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman free of charge if you are not satisfied with their final response. Most people we talk to would rather not handle the case themselves and prefer to use a regulated claim partner, who builds the evidence, drafts the complaint, deals with the lender and handles any FOS escalation. The choice is yours; the pros and cons are weighed up in Do I need a claims company?.
Related guides
- What is unaffordable lending?
- How far back can I claim?
- What evidence do I need?
- How a claim works step by step
- Which types of credit can be claimed as unaffordable?
Check If You Could Be Owed Compensation
You may be eligible to complain if a lender gave you credit you couldn’t afford. Start a free check in minutes — no paperwork needed. No win, no fee if you choose to proceed.
