Bamboo Loans Unaffordable Lending Complaints
If you were given a Bamboo loan — whether a current personal loan or one of the guarantor loans Bamboo previously offered — and the lending was unaffordable for you to repay sustainably, you may be entitled to a refund of interest and charges. Bamboo Limited is FCA-authorised and continues to operate, which means complaints can be brought through the standard CONC and FOS route. This page explains how.
Check your agreements on Recoup, our claim partner’s site
About Bamboo Loans
Bamboo Limited (FRN 720565), based in Southampton and London, is a UK direct lender focused on the near-prime and non-prime personal loan market. Currently it offers unsecured personal loans of £2,000 to £15,000 over 1 to 5 years, with representative APRs around 49.7%. The lender accepts applications from customers with less-than-perfect credit, including those with prior CCJs.
Until relatively recently, Bamboo also operated guarantor loans, winning “Best Guarantor Loan Provider” at the 2020 Consumer Credit Awards. Following the wider collapse of the guarantor sector, Bamboo withdrew the guarantor product from its range and now offers only unsecured personal loans (with no guarantor required). Historic guarantor loans remain serviceable and complaints can still be brought about them.
The FCA has issued clone-firm warnings about unauthorised firms posing as Bamboo. The genuine entity is Bamboo Limited, FRN 720565.
Bamboo personal loans — affordability framework
Under CONC 5.2A, Bamboo has to carry out a reasonable and proportionate creditworthiness assessment before issuing or topping up a loan. For the personal loan product:
- Loans of £2,000-£15,000 are substantial commitments and demand serious scrutiny.
- Customers approaching Bamboo typically have impaired credit or limited mainstream options, which raises (rather than lowers) the standard for proportionate checks.
- Bamboo’s representative APR (around 49.7%) means the cost of credit is meaningful — the affordability question is whether the borrower could sustainably repay at that rate without falling into difficulty.
Bamboo historic guarantor loans
For Bamboo customers who took out a guarantor loan during the period the product was offered:
- CONC 5.2A applies to both borrower and guarantor assessments.
- CONC 5.2A.32R specifically requires assessment of potential significant adverse impact on the guarantor.
- Across the guarantor sector, FOS upheld complaints at very high rates, particularly for formulaic checks.
- Bamboo remains active, so complaints proceed through the standard CONC and FOS route — not constrained by a Scheme of Arrangement or administration as for Amigo, TFS or Buddy.
Common patterns in Bamboo complaints
- Personal loans given despite obvious distress on file — recent defaults, payday loan use, or short-term credit cycling visible at the time of the application.
- Top-up loans extended where the existing loan was already in difficulty — a fresh affordability obligation on each top-up, not always met.
- Income verification not proportionate — declared income taken at face value despite affordability red flags.
- Guarantor checks formulaic — the same patterns that appeared sector-wide.
- Vulnerability indicators missed — health, mental health, recent life events visible from the application or credit-file evidence but not factored in.
How a claim works
- Eligibility check on the loan and your circumstances at the time.
- Subject Access Request to Bamboo — produces application data, the credit search, the affordability assessment, and account history.
- Bank statements from the period and statutory credit report.
- Complaint to Bamboo — eight-week response window applies.
- Escalation to the Financial Ombudsman if the response is unsatisfactory.
- Redress if successful — refund of interest and charges, 8% statutory interest, removal of adverse credit-file entries, balance offset where applicable.
Time limits
Repayment by continuous payment authority
Bamboo collects loan repayments via continuous payment authority (CPA) on a debit card, rather than by direct debit. This affects how missed payments and disputes are handled — CPAs can be cancelled by the customer through their bank if needed (which doesn’t cancel the underlying liability, but stops further automatic collection). For affordability complaints, the CPA history forms part of the evidence picture.
Frequently asked questions
Bamboo no longer does guarantor loans — can I still complain about my old guarantor loan?
Yes. The withdrawal of the product from sale doesn’t affect complaints about lending decisions made when it was available. Bamboo remains FCA-authorised and bound to handle complaints about its historic lending in the normal way.
What if my Bamboo loan is still active?
You can complain at any time. If the complaint succeeds, the redress is applied against the outstanding balance first, with any surplus paid out.
Related guides
- Guarantor loans claims hub
- The CONC rules on affordability
- How the Financial Ombudsman handles unaffordable lending complaints
- How a claim works step by step
- Do I have an unaffordable lending claim?
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.
