Not upheld: irresponsible lending and unfair assessment of affordability complaint against Inclusive Finance Limited, trading as Creditspring

Decision detail

Summary

Miss M complained that Creditspring irresponsibly lent to her by providing two loans (£600 in June 2023 and £1,000 in June 2024) without conducting adequate affordability assessments. She argued that Creditspring should have reassessed affordability before releasing each instalment and that the loans were unaffordable. Creditspring rejected the complaint, stating it had conducted income and expenditure assessments and CRA checks showing the loans were affordable. The ombudsman found that Creditspring's affordability assessments were reasonable and proportionate, the loans were modest in amount with limited initial exposure, and Miss M's later financial difficulties were not foreseeable based on information available at the time of lending. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Creditspring's affordability assessments were reasonable and proportionate to the level of lending. The modest loan amounts, limited initial exposure (50% drawdown), and verification of information through CRA checks supported the conclusion that the loans were affordable and sustainable based on the information available at the time. The ombudsman rejected the argument that affordability should have been reassessed before each instalment drawdown, noting that only six months elapsed between instalments and Miss M's exposure was further limited by the staged drawdown structure. The ombudsman was satisfied that Miss M's later financial difficulties were not foreseeable based on the information obtained during the application processes.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website