LOANS 2 GO – COMPLAINTS & REFUNDS

Loans 2 Go, the trading name of Loans 2 Go Limited, have been established for over 20 years. They also have the trading names Minty Loans and Simplefast Loans, so if you have, have had or are thinking about having a loan with any of these “companies”, please read on to find out why they are deemed by customers to be one of the worst loan providers in the UK, with many hundreds of complaints asking for refunds.

If you live in the UK, are 21 or over, employed with a regular income, and have a UK bank account and debit card, you are eligible for a loan with Loans 2 Go. If you have a County Court Judgement against you, or have a bad credit history, Loans 2 Go will still consider lending you between £250 and £3000. Sounds great, right, especially if you can’t get a loan anywhere else due to a CCJ or poor credit score and you are desperate.

Sky High Interest – are they Payday lenders and following the rules?

With the amount of bad press that Loans 2 Go are still getting in 2021 about their costs/interest rates, you might assume that they were a Payday loan provider, as they were deemed the worst of a bad bunch! In fact, many borrowers thought they were borrowing from a Payday lender and believed they would be protected by the FCA’s rulings! But Loans 2 Go do not have FCA permission to offer Payday loans, as they offer loans ranging from 18 months or longer which falls outside the regulator’s definition of Payday loans. Regrettably, this also means that they do not have to abide by the FCA rules regarding the cap on the amount of interest and charges added, which cannot be more than the amount borrowed.

Why you should avoid Loans 2 Go

Unfortunately, most customers who have taken out a loan with Loans 2 Go have, in my opinion, been led down the garden path, and it’s a dirty, ambiguous one! So, Loans 2 Go give a representative example ,as below, to tell you how much interest you will pay on your loan:

Max APR 937.8% (based on £550 over 18 months) - Representative example if you borrow £550 over 18 months at a flat rate of 180% per annum (fixed) with a representative 770% APR you will make 18 monthly payments of £113.06, repaying £2,035.08 in total. Anyone can immediately look at this example and see that the cost of the loan (£1485.98) over 18 months would be ridiculously high and certainly more than double the original. However, as so many customers have pointed out, it is NOT clear that even if you apply for a loan with a repayment period of say 2 months, you can only borrow for 18 months or over! On Loans 2 Go website it states, in VERY small print: “Standard personal loans term is 18 months. The interest we charge is directly related to the length of time you have your loan”. Avoid like the plague (or COVID-19) if you don’t want to be paying up to 4 times the loan value to this company!

Complaints about Loans 2 Go

Many, many customers have complained about the fact that they had applied for repayments over a lesser period, not realising that the minimum repayment term is 18 months – as one reviewer (2021) states : “During the final stage of application, it will not allow you to read the other disclosures, I tried to click it but it was greyed out, so I clicked next I thought it will bring me to the next document but it wasn't, instead, my application was completed”. Wisely, this customer double checked, and on finding that he/she was liable for payments for 18 months, rang and cancelled!

Another reviewer (2021)said:  “When I received an email, a disclosure was attached and it says, that for £1,000 payable for 18 months, a total of £4,114.08 I need to payback to the company”.

There are many more examples of Loans 2 Go failing to be transparent when providing the nitty gritty details about the loan cost, along with complaints about affordability not being checked properly, or customer services not helping when borrowers find themselves in hot water due to changes in their fortunes. Fortunately, many borrowers now know that they can complain about Loans 2 Go, either directly or by using a Claims Management Company like Redbridge Finance Limited, and in a substantial number of cases, Loans 2 Go have had to refund the interest charged or reduced or cleared outstanding debt, so it is always worth complaining if you feel you were mis-sold a loan.