Despite the fact the Yes Loans website states “we like to say yes” and “unsecured loans specialist” they are in fact a broker and do not provide unsecured loans or any other type of loan so what they say yes to is anyone’s guess.
You give them your details and for a fee they will then attempt to introduce you to an actual unsecured loan company – at least that’s how the theory goes.
When you make an application to Yes Loans you will give them some info about yourself and then you are told the system is checking your data and as long as you meet their criteria you will be accepted by Yes Loans. Don’t expect ‘the system‘ to say no though – although you soon may wish it had.
After a short while the telesales person will tell you the good news that you have been accepted and they just require you to pay the £69.50 admin fee to secure your loan.
The truth is you have not been accepted by any lender as yet because Yes Loans haven’t passed on your details to anyone. You have only been accepted as a Yes Loans client.
The £69.50 goes straight into the coffers of Yes Loans should you choose to pay it (and sometimes even if you don’t) and only then do they set about contacting the lenders they work with to see if they can find you a suitable loan.
The lenders who then receive your details via Yes Loans will treat the application as any other and run a credit check as well as passing you through their own loan criteria before making a decision. If the answer comes back as no – which happens 3 out of 4 times – you are then faced with the problem of trying to get back your £69.50
Consumer forums and industry watchdogs are full of disgruntled Yes Loans customers who were promised a loan, paid the fee and then got neither a loan or their money back. Here’s one of the typical Yes Loans complaints we found online from a Lady named Colette.
I applied for a loan with yes loans. Once I gave them my debit card number they took a payment of £69.50 straight from my account without my knowledge. This left me with no money for food for me or my disabled daughter. I phoned them telling them I no longer wished to use their service as I could not afford the fee they took without my permission. They became very snotty on the phone. They said I would have to write to them. I tried to obtain the address to write to and was told I received it on the letter they sent. I have not received any letter and they will not give me the address when I phone them…… Original complaint posted here
According to respected financial investigator Tony Hetherington the company was set up by the late Keith Chorlton despite the fact he had been banned in 2000 from serving as a company director after he had siphoned off half a million pounds from one of his companies that was on its way to bankruptcy. Chorlton personally made £5 Million from Yes Loans before he died and passed on the reigns to current Directors David Cowdery and Martin Brawn.
Both David Cowdery and Martin Brawn also have a less than perfect history. Cowdery previously received a 2 year suspended sentence for fraud and was struck off as a chartered accountant whilst Brawn has a severe reprimand on his file from the Institute of Chartered Accountants after his firm had charged a client for work that hadn’t been done. Read the rest of the report here.
The Financial Ombudsman Service says Yes Loans complaints have the highest rate upheld against it in the finance industry with a staggering 77% of the cases investigated by the Ombudsman found in favour of the complainant.
Meanwhile the BBC’s Newsbeat carried out their own investigation last Christmas and were told by a former employee of Yes Loans that they were trained to scam the customer into believing they were being offered an unsecured loan rather than just being accepted as a client.
“We were encouraged to really overhype it, build them up to this massive sort of climax and they’d only hear certain little buzz words. The script wouldn’t say, ‘You’ve been accepted for a loan’, but it would say ‘Congratulations! You’ve been accepted as a client of Yes Loans.’ And they would hear, ‘accepted.’”
Newsbeat were also unhappy about how Yes Loans take the £69.50 payment from people. They went undercover and applied for a loan and say early into the conversation the telesales operator asked for their debit card details.
They were told they used the card to verify identity. The telesales person told the Newsbeat undercover investigator:
“We have to check you are who you say you are. Those three digits on the back, the CVV2 number. If you give me three fake numbers it will come back saying the card is not in your name.”
By this stage in the call, there had not been any mention of the £69.50 admin fee yet Yes Loans spokesman Gordon Bon has admitted the reason they ask for the card details is so they can take a payment rather than verify identification though he denies suggestions the company is not being upfront enough. Read the Newsbeat report here.
How To Get a Yes Loans Refund
The Office of Fair Trading tells us under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 anyone paying an upfront fee to Yes Loans or any other loan broker is entitled to a refund within 30 days less a £5 admin charge if they do not end up with a loan – and that is whether the customer turns down the offer for any reason whatsoever or if the broker fails to find a suitable loan offer for the client.
Phoning or emailing Yes Loans will not get you your refund. They will just keep you on hold or pass you from person to person in the hope you give up as they did for Colette above so don’t waste your time, you have to make your request official to let them know you won’t be stopping until you receive your money back.
To get your refund write a letter to them with the following details:
- Your full name and address
- The date the payment was taken
- Include the personal ID code they give you at the end of the phone call if you have it
- Clearly state “I hereby request a refund”
- Make sure you date the letter
Make a copy of the letter and then send one of the copies to:
Administration Dept. Yes Loans LTD, Tintern House, William Brown Close, Llantarnan Park, Cwmbran, NP44 3AB
Not essential but sending the letter via recorded delivery means you have proof of the date it was received by them.
If you don’t get your refund (less the £5) within 30 days then proceed to step 2 below.
How To Make an Official Complaint Against Yes Loans
If you have applied for a refund but haven’t received it or if you wish to complain about some other part of your dealings with Yes Loans write to them with the details of your complaint together with how you consider the matter can be resolved and send it to:
Customer Services Dept. Yes Loans LTD, Tintern House, William Brown Close, Llantarnan Park, Cwmbran, NP44 3AB
You should receive a response within 8 weeks. If you do not or you are unhappy with the response and do not consider the matter resolved, move on to step 3 below.
Who To Complain To About Yes Loans
If you requested a refund but didn’t receive it or you made an official complaint to Yes Loans regarding some other matter but did not get a timely or satisfactory response you should forward your complaint to:
The Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR
Include any copies of letters sent to or from Yes Loans and give them as much detail as possible.
You can find more details about The Financial Ombudsman on their website by clicking here.
Our Yes Loans Review
Yes Loans claim to offer loans for tenants and homeowners alike regardless of credit history, CCJ’s and defaults. They can help you with unsecured loans from £500 to £25000. Debt consolidation loans, bad credit loans, car loans…. you name it, Yes Loans can help you with it.
The truth though is that they can’t do any of the above because they don’t lend money. If you are lucky you will be introduced to a lender who is happy to take you on as a customer and if you get the loan you wanted at a reasonable APR then the £69.50 will probably seem money well spent although applying direct to lenders yourself will save you the expense of paying Yes Loans.
With the BBC’s Newsbeat stating only 1 in 4 applicants are actually found a loan by Yes Loans the odds are very much against you. A more likely outcome will see you wasting time having to chase your refund and fending off phone calls from salesmen offering a whole host of financial services and products.
Give Yes Loans a wide berth and don’t fall for the sales pitch.
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