Discretionary Commission Arrangements - Compaints and refunds

SAFETY NET CREDIT – REFUND CLAIMS

Now In Administration

 

Indigo Michael Limited (Trading as SafetyNet) Placed in Administration

The financial services provider known as SafetyNet, Indigo Michael Limited, was just placed under administration. The company was established in 2012 and immediately earned a reputation for offering a variety of loan products and other comparable services to UK clients.

What exactly is administration?

Administration is a formal insolvency procedure that protects corporations from legal action while allowing them to restructure their obligations or find an alternative way to trade their way out of financial troubles. During the administration phase, creditors must halt any pending litigation against the corporation until further notice.

Why did Indigo Michael go into administration?

"difficult market conditions" was stated as the key reason for the company's decision to enter administration. In addition, regulatory changes over the past few years have made it increasingly difficult for non-traditional lenders like Indigo Michael to provide customers with fair and competitive lending packages.

What Effect Does This Have On Customers?

Current clients who had arranged loan agreements with Indigo Michael can continue to make payments under the new administrators, but any questions must now be referred to them rather than SafetyNet's customer care department. It is vital to highlight that the customers' present terms and rates will stay unaltered during this period, and they should not be responsible for any additional administrative fees or charges unless their lender notifies them beforehand.

What is the Next Step?

It is still unknown what will happen to Indigo Michael; nevertheless, it is anticipated that the firm will be sold or liquidated in order to satisfy creditors who are owed money by the corporation. Unfortunately, any employees affected by this statement may not get full redundancy compensation if the company completely collapses due to inadequate funds available to make distributions as required by law.

## Concluding Remarks

The administration of Indigo Michael Limited (trading as SafetyNet) is yet another moment of difficulties for non-traditional UK-based financial service providers. It is still unclear where this tale will go from here; however, current clients can continue obtain loans from former SafetyNet personnel during this time while keeping an eye on subsequent developments regarding their lender's long-term prospects.

 

WHO ARE SAFETY NET CREDIT

Safety Net Credit (SNC) is the trading name of Indigo Michael Ltd (IML), and they are a credit line company that offer customers a revolving, flexible line of credit.  IML is essentially a lender that accesses your banking details online and then provides credit facilities to individuals by monitoring and assessing its creditworthiness.

For ordinary people what this means is that even if you have a poor credit score you can still apply for an SNC account.  SNC offers customers a line of credit to save them from excessive bank fees or penalties.  The line of credit is an alternative to a pay-day loan, as you have a credit limit that SNC imposes on your account once they have assessed your banking details.  You can then use this credit limit to borrow as much money (up to the credit limit) as you want.

PROBLEMS WITH SNC

However, SNC has been criticised for offering credit lines to customers who did not realise that the interest rates were so high. SNC offers customers something very similar to a bank overdraft facility.  Many customers can find it difficult to get out of the cycle of borrowing and repaying monies owed. The more they borrow, the more interest they owe, and then they borrow more.

Here at Redbridge Finance, what we would look at is whether SNC offered you any irresponsible lending or unaffordable lending.  According to the Financial Ombudsman, lenders must undertake full due diligence when assessing someone should be offered a line of credit.

WHAT IS A LINE OF CREDIT?

A line of credit is an amount of cash a lender makes available to you to use when you need it.  You then pay interest on the amount you borrow and repay the initial amount withdrawn plus interest.

Once you have repaid what you borrowed, the credit line limit is reinstated so you can start borrowing again.

WHAT DOES SNC OFFER?

SNC use an open banking system to access your bank account and undertake all the investigations and assessments they need to see if you are eligible for an account.  SNC will use the banking information and your credit history to decide whether they will offer you a line of credit and what the limit of that line of credit should be.

When you start to use funds from the credit limit you will immediately be charged 0.8% interest daily.  This equates to £0.80p per £100 you borrow, per day.  The interest charges mount up very quickly, and this means many borrowers soon end up owing SNC a lot of money.

WHO IS LIKELY TO USE THE SERVICES OF SAFETY NET CREDIT?

SNC customers tend to be those people who are usually close to their overdraft limit and do not want to incur bank fees and penalties. 

However, what many of these customers do not realise is that SNC interest charges can often exceed the overdraft charges of many banks so in the long run they end up paying more.

CAN SAFETY NET CREDIT AFFECT MY CREDIT RATING?

The simple answer to this question is yes.  SNC acts as a lender, and it will therefore supply details of your repayments to credit reference agencies that request the information.  If you miss any repayments then this will affect your credit score negatively

It is also important to note that when SNC checks your credit history before offering you a line of credit, their searches will also leave a footprint on your credit record.

WHY YOU SHOULD AVOID USING SAFETY NET CREDIT

SNC charges interest rates of 0.8% a day.  This is almost the legal maximum that they are allowed to charge their customers.  It is therefore advisable to only use SNC as a last resort as the interest rates are very high, and this means you will end up repaying a lot more than you borrow. 

Another reason to be wary of using SNC is the privacy concerns it raises.  As SNC will need to assess your banking and transaction history, this means that you will be handing over access to your personal financial information to them.

You can set up the SNC account so that when your bank account drops below a certain level you automatically borrow from SNC.  This is problematic in many ways, as it means you could be borrowing money without expressly requesting it and you can end up accruing a substantial debt. 

PROBLEMS CUSTOMERS HAVE HAD WITH SNC

  • SNC never stop chasing customers for the debt. They will contact you via email, mobile, text messages, and social media.
  • High daily interest rate charge that continues to accrue
  • Customers end up borrowing more than they intended with automatic borrowing
  • Poor credit scores after opening an SNC account
  • Customers ending up in a vicious cycle of owing SNC money and borrowing more from them to repay their debt

DOES SNC HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHASE ME FOR PAYMENT?

Yes, they do have the right to chase you.  What they cannot do is harass you or intimidate you.

If you ignore their correspondence they could take action against you for repayment, therefore it is important that you take action as soon as possible if you fall into a situation where you cannot make your repayments.

HOW CAN YOU HELP ME?

We can help you by seeing if you have a claim against SNC.  If you feel that SNC lent you money when it was clear that you could not afford the repayments then we could assess your claim to see if you were mis-sold the service they offer. 

Our claims experts can take on your case and make a claim for a full refund of all the interest and charges you have been charged by SNC. If you want to make a complaint against SNC then the process is very simple.  All you need to do is sign up on our site and let us know which lenders you want to make a claim against.  We will then assess the information you provide and take your claim forward by making a complaint on your behalf.  We will deal with the response from SNC and keep you informed every step of the way.

If you have had problems repaying your loan or think you might have been mis-sold you could be entitled to a refund.  Contact us today by signing up on the site www.redbridgefinance.co.uk so we can assess whether you have a claim.

More About Safety Net Credit

Safety Net Credit offers a line of credit type of borrowing. This is similar to a bank overdraft facility. It is a very clever system that Safety Net Credit have developed and while we make complaints against them, we do admire the technology they have developed and use. We believe that the same technology is used for Safety Net's sister company Tappily

We believe that the main issue with this type of borrowings is that it is easy for a customer to get stuck and rely on the facility in the same way that once a person is permanently using a banks overdraft facility, it is really difficult for them to stop using it. Safety Net Credit charges the maximum that a lender is allowed to charge, being 0.8% of interest per day. They do limit the time that interest is charged, so they are reasonable with their customers. We do find that Safety Net Credit, or SNC as they are often referred to, are fair when they investiagte a complaint. In fact they are probably one of the fairest lenders whenit comes to upholding complaints.

We know how to get Safety Net Credit to accept complaints quickly and efficiently. However, Safety Net Credit will often go behind our backs and make small offers directly to customers in the hope they can avoid fully paying out. We feel that this is pretty insulting on the customer as it implies that Safety Net Credit think the customer can be easily bought off. We always ask customers, when we make a Safety Net Credit Refund Complaint, not to accept these small offers as we feel they are designed to kill off the complaint quickly and cheaply.