Compensation: Valerie and Patrick Jennings
Money Mail readers Valerie and Patrick Jennings have won £5,000 compensation after being mis-sold a solar panel loan.
This newspaper first exposed how the couple were duped into taking out a £8,995 loan in October 2015.
They were cold-called by now-bust energy firm Clean Green, and believed it charged 0.79 per cent interest a year. But 18 months on they realised it was 9.5 per cent a year – or £4,971 in interest over the ten-year loan.
To avoid the charges, Valerie, 69, and Patrick, 74, cashed in £8,000 of Premium Bonds to pay off the debt.
Five years later, they complained to Shawbrook Bank, which provided the loan and were awarded £4,928.
Valerie, from Dunstable, Bedfordshire, says: ‘I was elated, I never thought we’d get that much back.’
The Financial Ombudsman has upheld a majority of 7,000 complaints about solar panel loans in the past four years. Shawbrook Bank says it made the offer using an agreed approach with the Ombudsman.
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