Evidence checklist — what to gather before you complain.

The signed credit agreement showing the loan amount, repayment terms, interest rate, and any conditions. This is the foundational document for any complaint.

Any documentation provided before or at the point of signing — including information about complaints procedures and what protections apply to your loan. If this mentioned FOS coverage, that is significant.

Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, your lender is required to send you an annual statement for the duration of the loan. GC Business Finance has admitted in its December 2024 remediation letter that it failed to send these as required. If you never received annual statements, document this — it is a regulatory breach and forms part of your complaint.

If your account was in arrears, your lender was required under the CCA 1974 to send you a Notice of Sums in Arrears (NOSIA). GC has admitted in its December 2024 letter that it either sent inaccurate NOSIAs or failed to send them at all. Request via SAR all NOSIAs ever issued on your account. If none were sent, or if they were sent incorrectly, this confirms the non-compliance GC has already acknowledged.

The lender's formal written response to your complaint. They have 8 weeks to provide this. If they have exceeded 8 weeks without a response, that itself is a regulatory breach.

If you have already referred your complaint to FOS and received a jurisdiction decision, keep this document. It explains why FOS did or did not accept the case and is important context for any further escalation.

Download or screenshot your full credit report from Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion (all three can differ). Note the exact date any default was registered and what information appears. These are free to access.

Any formal default notice sent to you. A lender is required to issue a default notice giving you at least 14 days to remedy the situation before registering a default. If you did not receive one, that is significant.

Any written communication about arrears, forbearance, payment holidays, or repayment plans. If there was a long period of no contact, the absence of correspondence is itself evidence — document when the contact stopped.

Some borrowers in the 2020 cohort received an email referencing a "State Aid" figure, sometimes denominated in euros. If you received this email and believed it meant your loan had been resolved or written off under a Covid support scheme — it had not, but that reasonable misunderstanding is relevant to your complaint. Request this email via SAR if you no longer have it.

Any record of you disclosing a mental health condition, health issue, or personal circumstance to your lender — whether in writing, by phone, or via a form. Also note if the lender ever asked about vulnerability and how you responded.

The full Subject Access Request response, including all account notes, call logs, internal flags, vulnerability records, and correspondence history. If you have not yet submitted a SAR, this should be your first step. See Know Your Rights.

Your own record of any phone calls with your lender — date, time, who you spoke to, what was said, and any reference numbers given. If you do not have these, the SAR response should include call logs from the lender's side.