THOUSANDS of customers who took out payday loans and borrowed money through doorstep lending have had their debts written off.
Anyone with an outstanding loan with Provident or Satsuma will no longer need to make repayments on what they owe.
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Provident announced earlier this year that it was closing its doorstep lending after nearly 150 years in business.
The lender’s online payday lending business called Satsuma was also shut down.
Since then it has not taken on new customers, but anyone with an existing loan still had to make repayments.
Now, Provident and Satsuma customers with outstanding loans have been told they will no longer have to pay back money they owe.
Both businesses will close for good by the end of the year and outstanding balances will be wiped to zero.
A Provident spokesperson said: “Provident Financial Group has informed home credit and Satsuma customers that as of Dec 15, it has stopped collecting payments from them and any outstanding customer loans are now written off.
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“Credit records for customers are also being updated to show a zero balance. PFG’s consumer credit division will close as planned on December 31, 2021.”
It’s understood that tens of thousands of borrowers are affected by the loan write-off.
They will see their loan marked as settled or partially settled on their credit report and don’t have to do anything.
No more repayments will be taken after December 31 and anyone who makes one after this date will have the money refunded.
If your money has been passed on to a debt collector acting on behalf of Provident or Satsuma, the loan is written off.
But if your loan has been sold on to another company because you fell behind you still owe the money and MUST carry on making repayments.
Sara Williams of debt advice website DebtCamel, said: “This write-off is a nice Christmas surprise to people with Provident and Satsuma loans who were struggling to repay them.”
But customers who have their debt written pff should also still make a claim if they think they were mis-sold a loan from Provident or Satsuma.
She said: “Everyone who has had this write off should now think about making a claim to the Provident Scheme.
“Getting the balance cleared may have been your top priority, but if your claim is upheld, any negative marks on your credit record for unaffordable Provident and Satsuma loans will be removed.
“This may be worth more to you than getting some money back.”
Cash back for mis-sold loans
Around 4million customers could be owed cash if they were mis-sold a loan.
This goes for those who still had an outstanding loan that’s now been wiped and those who have paid it off already – even many years ago.
Anyone who took out a loan from Provident or Satsuma between April 6, 2007 and December 17, 2020 could be eligible.
They need to claim the cash though, and have until the end of February next year to apply.
Customers who took out loans from Greenwood or Glo, which were also run by Provident, could also be owed cash.
To get a refund your loan has to be found to be “unaffordable” and the majority of complaints about Provident were upheld due to a lack of proper affordability checks.
A loan is only affordable if you could make the repayments whilst also being able to pay all your usual bills and living expenses.
On the other hand, if your loan repayments meant you had to get further into debt or default on payments it was likely unaffordable.
How much you get back will depend on how much you borrowed and for how long, as well as how many others apply for a refund as there is a set pot of cash to give out.
The cash will be dished out after the refund scheme closes on February 28, 2022.
You can find out more about how to claim if you think you were mis-sold a Provident or Satsuma loan in our guide.
You could be owed thousands of pounds from other providers who mis-sold loans and other financial products.
Half a million Sunny payday loan customers had their credit file wiped last year over mis-sold loans.
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