Pawnbroker firm to refund customers £2million for unaffordable loans – will you get a refund?
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THOUSANDS of borrowers could be refunded for unaffordable loans given out between April 2014 and October 2019.
Pawnbroker H&T has said it will refund customers by more than £2 million after it was found that more than one in 10 loans should never have been made in the first place.
As many as 9,800 loans that were given out to 8,000 customers should have been refused by H&T.
But that money is on its way back to customers, so if you borrowed cash between the dates you could be owed some back.
Specifically from high-cost, short term (HCST) loans the business made during the period.
Around 11.5% of HCST unsecured loan customers are eligible for a the refund.
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From the £2million total, £1.6 million is on course to return to them directly in refunds.
It means on average, each customer will get £264, the business said.
The company has been looking into these loans since 2019.
Regulators found that these products were unfairly sold to people and that the provider didn't carry out the right affordability checks.
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The Financial Conduct Authority has now given the go-ahead for compensation for customers.
The other rest of the £2million pot of cash will be available to adjust the balance of customers' outstanding loans.
The business doesn't offer high cost, short-term, unsecured lending products anymore.
But you could be refunded for any mis-sold loans, even if you paid the debt back years ago - so it's worth checking.
That's especially the case if you struggled with repayments or had to borrow money to keep up with them and got into debt as result.
H&T revealed that customers whose loan should not have been granted and who are due money back, will be contacted directly though, so you shouldn't have to do anything to enquire about the refund.
Chief executive of the pawnbroker, Chris Gillespie, said: "H&T is committed to providing services which maintain the highest standards of customer care and regulatory compliance, and we have co-operated fully and constructively with the FCA throughout this review.
"We are pleased that the review is now concluded and that the majority of HCST loans granted by H&T are considered to have been lent responsibly."
We have asked the firm if there is a deadline to apply for the refunds, and will update this story once we know more.
And the same goes for customers who think they are affected but haven't been contacted, too - we will update this story once we know more about how you can apply.
Exactly how much you get back will depend on how much you borrowed and for how long.
You might have to provide details about the loan you took out with examples of emails or letters.
And you might have to show evidence that you couldn't afford to take out the loan at the time that you borrowed it.
It comes after millions had the chance to claim back money from payday loans at the beginning of the year.
Customers of Provident Financial, Greenwood, Flo and Satsuma had until the end of February to claim for the mis-sold loans that were given out between April 2007 and December 2020.
Meanwhile, QuickQuid customers could get a payout of £850, on average.
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And customers of Money Shop, Payday Express and Payday UK began to see cash refunds back at the beginning of the year.
Check out our guide on how to claim from missold loans and find a template letter for making a claim from the DebtCamel blog.
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