"I was charged a fee for my loan before it was agreed"

Consumer Credit

We look at Ian's complaint about a credit broking fee. 

What happened

When Ian needed a loan, he applied through a credit-broking website. He hadn’t heard anything after 3 days, so he checked his bank account and found £79 had been taken out.

Ian hadn’t received a loan. The broker said £79 was their standard fee, but they didn’t have any evidence that Ian had agreed to pay it.

Our decision

Ian had queried the charge as soon as he’d noticed it, so we thought it was most likely he hadn’t been aware of the charge. We told the credit broker to refund the money.