Vanquis credit card holders due over £100 in refunds

Credit card holders are due more than £100 in refunds after The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) ordered credit card lender, Vanquis, to repay £168,781,000 in compensation to customers who were unknowingly charged interest.

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The customer repayments come after Vanquis failed to disclose the full price of the add-on, credit management tool called Repayment Option Plan (ROP).

The compensation is due to around 1.2 million Vanquis customers and constitutes to the amount of charges not disclosed to customers when they bought the ROP.

The interest will be paid back to customers who were charged ROP from June 2003 to 31 March 2014.

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Customers who also had a Vanquis credit card issued under a different brand, such as Argos or Black Diamond, could also be entitled to the refund.

Vanquis has also been fined £1,976,000 by the FCA.

Mark Steward, Director of Enforcement and Market Oversight at the FCA, said: “Vanquis failed to make sure customers were informed about the full cost of the ROP when it was offered to customers.

“Most Vanquis customers chose the ROP to help manage their credit without realising instead that the product might lead to their indebtedness increasing. Customers are entitled to be told all relevant information when being offered financial products. These were very serious breaches.

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The FCA said that the firm breached Principle 6 (Customers' interests) and 7 (Communications with clients) of the FCA Principles for Businesses.

Steward added: “Vanquis has decided now to do the right thing by acknowledging the wrong-doing and offering to compensate its customers. We are pleased the firm has extended the compensation to customers who purchased the ROP before we took responsibility for regulating the consumer credit market.”

Current and former Vanquis customers who took out the ROP and are due a refund will be contacted directly by the firm.