Not upheld: irresponsible lending complaint against Clydesdale Financial Services Limited trading as Barclays Partner Finance

Decision detail

Summary

Miss C complained that Barclays Partner Finance irresponsibly provided her with 10 interest-free loans between October 2022 and January 2024 for mobile phone purchases. The ombudsman found that BPF conducted appropriate credit checks and affordability assessments for the first five loans, with Miss C's income and expenditure suggesting repayments were affordable and her credit file showing no adverse information. Although the ombudsman agreed that further checks should have been conducted from loan six onwards, Miss C's bank statements showed no evidence of financial difficulty, no missed payments, and a healthy account balance, with no obvious concerns regarding affordability. The complaint was not upheld as BPF's lending decisions were fair based on the information available at the time, and Miss C did not disclose her actual circumstances until January 2025.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that BPF's lending decisions were fair based on the information available at the time. For the first five loans, BPF conducted appropriate checks and Miss C's disposable income appeared sufficient for repayments. Although further checks should have been conducted from loan six onwards, the bank statements showed no evidence of financial difficulty, no missed payments, and a healthy account balance. The ombudsman noted that Miss C did not disclose her actual circumstances until January 2025, and there was no evidence of compulsive spending or unsustainable borrowing patterns that would have been apparent to BPF.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website