Upheld: incorrect payment taken from account; failure to implement agreed payment arrangement changes complaint against Inclusive Finance Limited trading as Creditspring

Decision detail

Summary

Miss V complained that Creditspring took incorrect payments from her account despite agreeing not to do so and failed to implement her requested changes to reduce her monthly repayment to £40 and change her repayment date. Creditspring acknowledged the administrative error and offered to waive the £217.14 membership fee, but made this conditional on Miss V maintaining a specified repayment plan. Miss V subsequently agreed to a £10 monthly arrangement but sought the entire balance written off and £250 compensation. The ombudsman upheld the complaint, finding that while the fee waiver was reasonable, conditioning it on a specified repayment amount was unfair given Miss V's financial difficulties and inconsistent with FCA forbearance principles.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Creditspring made an undisputed error by taking payments despite agreeing not to do so, causing Miss V distress and inconvenience. While the offer to waive the membership fee was reasonable, making it conditional on a specified monthly repayment amount was unfair given Miss V's financial difficulties and inconsistent with FCA principles requiring forbearance towards customers in financial difficulty. Creditspring should honour the fee waiver and work constructively with Miss V to agree an affordable repayment plan.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website