Not upheld: Irresponsible lending complaint against Moneybarn No.1 Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss P complained that Moneybarn No.1 Limited provided her with an unaffordable conditional hire agreement. The ombudsman reviewed bank statements covering three months before the lending decision, which showed Miss P had part-time income, modest non-discretionary expenditure, was living with parents, and was managing existing credit commitments reasonably well. Although Moneybarn's pre-lending checks were not reasonable and proportionate, the available evidence demonstrated the agreement was sustainably affordable for Miss P. Miss P maintained the agreement in line with contractual obligations, repaid it within the original term, and did not raise affordability concerns until her 2026 complaint. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the FOS approach to irresponsible and unaffordable lending complaints. While finding that Moneybarn's checks were not reasonable and proportionate in isolation, the ombudsman concluded that the available evidence, including Miss P's bank statements, demonstrated the agreement was sustainably affordable. Miss P had regular income, modest expenditure, was managing existing credit commitments reasonably well, and maintained payments throughout the agreement term. The contact notes showed payment difficulties were due to salary timing issues rather than affordability concerns, and Miss P did not raise affordability issues until her 2026 complaint.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website