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Money Shop to close? Implications for refunds

UPDATE – June 15th Money Shop to close – two million customers will be informed

 

The Daily Mail has just published Hundreds of jobs at risk as payday lender The Money Shop goes under following ‘unprecedented number of customer complaints‘  which says:

In a letter sent to employees and seen by This is Money, ICL said it plans to close or sell off all of its UK stores following ‘poor financial performance’ and an ‘unprecedented number of customer complaints’.

The Money Shop has already shut down or sold many branches

Once Britain’s best-known high street payday lender, the Money Shop had 551 branches in 2014. By June 2018 this had dropped to 233.

After the Money Shop stopped providing payday loans at the start of August 2018, the branch network was cut some more:

  • 27 stores have been sold to TM Sutton, a sister company in the group;
  • Ramsden’s bought 18 Money Shop branches in March 2019 and four more in May 2019.

Recently more Money Shop branches have been closing. Local papers have reported closures in Lowestoft , Rhyl, Nottingham and Bulwell.

Its website says:

Your local store may have closed because continued trading from that location was not viable for us.

There seems to have been a widespread closure program, affecting around 80 stores because the Money Shop website now only lists 97 open shops. The Mail article reports that these will be closed or sold and that staff have been issued redundancy notices.

Payday loan regulation and affordability complaints

The Money Shop brand is owned by Instant Cash Loans Ltd (ICL).

ICL also owns two major online payday lenders: Payday UK and Payday Express. These two brands stopped lending in October 2017.

All three brands were affected by the new regulator’s rules in 2015 limiting the interest that could be charged and the number of times a loan can be rolled over.

They have also been badly hit by affordability complaints from customers who were given payday loans they could not afford to repay unless they borrowed more money.

More complaints in 2018

Affordability complaints were already a problem for the ICL brands in 2017, but this got much worse in 2018 as Claims Management Companies started sending huge volumes of complaints in. Some of these were spurious as the person complaining hadn’t had a loan from that lender.

The publicity around Wonga’s failure at the end of August 2018 will have led to another spike in complaints.

In the last half of 2018, FCA figures show that ICL received 45,000 complaints, more than any other consumer credit firm (excluding PPI complaints.)

Complaint timescales have become very long

My page on Refunds from Payday UK/Express & the Money Shop looks at how these they have been responding to these complaints.

The comments beneath that article reveal how the complaints process itself is getting very prolonged with these lenders, probably because of the sheer number of complaints.

A lender is supposed to reply within 8 weeks, but readers are then often asked for more information which then takes more weeks to consider. And then it takes weeks, sometimes more than the allowed 28 days, for people to get paid their money in the end.

But people have often been made reasonable offers, better than many other payday lenders.

The cost of paying affordability complaints

In the ICL accounts for the year to June 2018, there is a provision of £47million for the costs of settling affordability claims.

ICL was sold by its parent Dollar Financial in February 2018. As part of this sale, Dollar put aside some money to cover “certain customer regulatory claims“. Dollar’s liability to pay these is limited to this amount.

ICL’s accounts say that “the cost of redress payments in respect of affordability complaints in the UK” is a significant uncertainty. If they are greater than expected the company may not be able to continue.

More payday loan victims if ICL goes into administration

At the moment complaints about the Money Shop, Payday UK and Payday Express with the lenders and with FOS are continuing as normal.

But assuming the Mail’s story is accurate, it seems likely that ICL may be going into administration. If this happens:

  • people with agreed refunds will be “unsecured creditors” of ICL;
  • people with complaints in not yet agreed will be potential unsecured creditors;
  • any complaints at FOS will be returned to the administrators to handle;
  • the administrators will have to sell the assets of the company and find a way to decide all the current complaints and new ones they may be sent;
  • the available money will be divided up between all unsecured creditors by the administrators

If they do go into administration – this has not yet happened – it won’t be clear for a long while how much money there is left to pay compensation to its customers for unaffordable lending. But it may well be that there isn’t enough money and people only get a small proportion of what they should have received.

There is no compensation fund for customers in this situation. My estimate is that there are more than 100,000 Wonga victims.

I think between the Money Shop, Payday UK and Payday Express, ICL probably had more customers than Wonga. So there may well be another 100,000 people who get less compensation than they should for irresponsible lending.

I have closed comments on this article. All comments on the more recent one: Money Shop to close – two million customers will be informed

Why the FSCS doesn’t cover payday lenders

Payday Loan Refunds

Payday loan affordability complaints

Asking QuickQuid for a refund

Comments

  1. This is awful. Looks like I will never see my refund ;(((( so unfair! I complained back in September!

    • The same happened to me with Wonga. I sent my complaint in a good while before they went bust and it wasn’t assigned to anyone when they went bust, so had to complain all over again. It was a nightmare. Then the administrators of Wonga got in touch and helped to sort it – so there is help, it’s just a waiting game. Hope you get your refund x

  2. I have had umpteen loans from payday uk . ( at least 24 ) Money shop refused to pay out on these loans as they were older, they tried to speak with me on the phone but I refused and it’s currently with the financial ombudsman since 1st April. . Looks like I won’t get anything back then .😔

  3. I had an offer from them on loans less than six years old back in October, but had the complaint with the FOS regarding those more than six? Have I said goodbye to the offer now?

    • I’m sorry, I don’t know. you could tell them you want to accept the old offer, but I don’t know what is going to happen to payments in progress. If the company does enter administration these are stopped immediately.

  4. While I don’t imagine that any except those owed compensation will weep for The Money Shop going into administration, it does also illustrate the pernicious impact of aggressive and unscrupulous claims agents. These became regulated by FCA on 1 April, and not before time, but most of the 900 or so agents are still operating under temporary permissions while they go through the FCA authorisation process, which I expect many or most to fail. One of my old, FCA-regulated clients, a small firm dealing only with institutional clients, has received dozens of entirely spurious complaints from these ambulance chasers about sales of a fraudulent mini bond. The client never sold or arranged deals in the bond, never advised on it, and had never had any contact with the complainants, but the name of their firm was fraudulently listed on the bond’s prospectus by its promoters as having signed off on it as a section 21 promotion. All of the complaints have been rejected by FOS but dealing with them has wasted hundreds of hours of my client’s management time, and has probably wasted equal amounts of FOS time, as the rejections are typically 6 page letters.

      • How is it the fault of CMCs precisely when they are achieving broadly similar uphold rates to that of customers complaining directly. The CFA and its media buddies seem to have succeeded in blaming CMCS. Utterly remarkable – remember who did the mis-selling.

  5. I accepted a refund yesterday of £1173.00 but dont know if it will now be paid. I wonder where all the profits went to.

  6. I received confirmation that my refund would be processed in 10 working days….is there any chance I will receive this payment? Have they actually gone into administration yet the article is not clear.

    • The article says “Assuming the Mail’s story is accurate, it seems likely that ICL will be going into administration.” which is as clear as I can be.

      • Thank you…ive just called them to ensure they have my correct bank details & they said payment will be in my account by next Friday

  7. I don’t think there is reason to panic just yet, nothing has been announced formally as yet, and I’m never 100% confident about The Daily Mail stories, they can’t even get the weather right!

  8. I feel very very lucky having just read this!

    I’ve just had my 2nd pay out following request for bank details.

    In total I’ve got back £10,292.42 for 46 loans that were taken out from 2010. Complaint was also outside the 6 year cut off but they still paid out!

    So so happy!

    • Wow that’s amazing , I was thinking maybe £2k not that’s its looking likely I will see anything now. . Well done you 😁

    • Hi Joy
      How long did it take from supplying your bank details to getting paid? I accepted an offer yesterday but i am worrying that i won’t get paid

    • Beth check your account now. They might be a surprise there for you. I just got paid payment are in at 4pm. Enjoy

  9. Hi Sara. Do you think they will go into administration in the next two months?
    Thanks

  10. For those guys awaiting payment, I accepted my offer 11 days ago from Payday Uk and the money was in my account this morning. Payday Uk said they send the acceptance form to another department on Fridays and then that department processes payment each Friday.

    • Thank you Joanne, I accepted my offer last Friday, so hoping for a nice weekend, but nothing in there yet :-(

  11. I’ve just received an email this very second

    They are refunding me £2100 inc 8% interest

  12. I also feel lucky, got my payout in Feb this year after nearly waiting for a year. Even back then in Feb , the signs were already there that there were struggling with the volume of payouts because there were reporting of issues with their treasury department which processes the payments. It was only a matter of time.

  13. Ahhh crap. It makes sense now why my PDUK complaint had not been picked up by an adjudicator, possibly the FOS is privy to impending administration, and why the company has objected every step of the way.

    This is horrendous news. I would be owed thousands in compensation if/when my complaint was upheld. Luckily I’ve escaped the payday cycle no, but this still sucks ass.

  14. Damn… i compalined to them in September 2018 and been with the FOS since november. got a letter from FOS last week that the business is refusing to look at the loans (they are over 6 years) and that it will take possibly months to be picked up. i guess i’ll have to kiss goodbye to any decent compensation.

    • GM,
      That is terrible news (recall us being in a similar position on timing and loans over 6years)
      Luckily I was appointed an adjudicator earlier this year. After a lot of emails I agreed on 12/16 loans to be refunded from PDUK. They were hopeless to deal with even with my adjudicator.
      Payout was first week in May so seems I’ve totally dodged a bullet here.

      • Laurence, yes I remember your case. Like you, I was paid for the MyJar case but it was only at the end of may, so I was hoping that the PDUK was going to be picked up soon after being at the jurisdiction team. I emailed the adjudicator that looked after MyJar case to see if he could also look at the PDUK and QQ cases, but i was told that “Due to the complex nature of some of these cases we cannot guarantee that the same adjudicator will look at the cases as it all depends on what department the cases fall into, however I will try and pass on your recommendation.”
        However, I was lucky with WDA as I got paid not long before the company went under, so i did dodged the bullet there!
        Oh well…

  15. My Payday UK complaint, all loans over 6 years, was submitted to FOS in May 2017, adjudicator found in my favour October 2017 but all my updates since have been that they are still looking into it. I received a letter recently that told me it would still be some months before they can update me again.

    Has anyone else been waiting this long? The trend on this thread seems to be people who submitted Sept-Oct 2018 are starting to get the over 6 year payouts? Finding it a little frustrating now :-(

  16. I submitted report in in Nov 2016. Finally got decisions on money shop, payday express and payday UK this week. All upheld. Guess I’ll see nothing now. Hugely frustrating after waiting close to 3 years!

  17. I complained and had a final response that they rejected it. This week I complained to the fos now it’s folding where do I stand

    • You never had an offer, so you had no option but to go to FOS.

      At the moment we do not KNOW if they are going under. It seems likely but it isn’t definite yet.

      If they do go into administration or liquidation then there probably won’t be enough assets to settle all complaints in full. But that isn’t definite yet.

  18. If they’re not making an income from issuing new loans they can’t pay us out. Pawnbroking and foreign exchange won’t pull in the millions needed, especially as they don’t know how many millions.

    Only a matter of time before some others fall.

  19. Hi Sarah my adjudicator has written to TMS saying they should refund on 22 out of 29 loans will TMS still continue to deal with the complaints they have already received from the FOS or will everything now be on hold? Thanks

    • Hi Ann, I have added some more details to the article above. ICL is not yet in administration – until they are, complaints handling will continue as normal.

      • Hi Sarah my main worry now is that TMS will reject all adjudicator decisions and refer to Ombudsmen by which time who knows what position the Business will be in

  20. Hi Sara,

    I complained on 2nd week of May 2019. Do you think I am likely to get anything at all? Literally a week and bit before it comes up to the the 8 weeks they are given for a final response. Surely they would have had ample time to look into my claim? I tried to contact them (money shop and payday UK but they are not open on weekends). It seems so unfair, for the last 10 years they ve taken so much of money from me and others.

    Tan

    • I’m sorry, there isn’t much point in me guessing. So far as I know, the Money Shop haven’t made any comment on the Daily Mail yesterday. They may not be closing all the shops. If they are, there may be other options apart from administration.

      All you can do at the moment is take your complaint forward and keep an eye open for news.

  21. I’ve decided I’m going to accept the offer I received back in November time from them and hope it’s paid. I’ll say again. The FOS have been less helpful than the Money shop. Hope others get what they want.

  22. What are the rules when it comes to a company going into administration and giving its employees redundancy notice?
    The company has to wait to go into administration after all the employees are gone, in this case a good couple of weeks.
    Any ideas?
    Thank you.

    • It sounds as though you are hoping that there will be a delay to going into administration until redundancy consultation and notice periods are completed. Sorry, there are no rules to say this has to happen.

      Also I have been using the term “administration” loosely here. There are different options possible eg Scheme of Arrangement, pre-pack sale, Company Voluntary Arrangement, Creditors Voluntary Liquidation.

  23. Hi Sarah. I’ve accepted my offer from money shop last Monday 17th and checked they have everything they needed – which they confirmed. They told me it takes up to 28 days to settle. Should I demand payment on Monday morning when they open? Or would this be pointless

    • I suspect it will be pointless – there isn’t anything you can do if they say no.

    • I accepted my offer of £1900 on the 12th June and haven’t received my refund yet. Was also told that it would take up to 28 days but I am not holding out much hope now :(

  24. Hi Sara
    I had many loans with the Money Shop and reading all the above I’m not sure if it’s worth pursuing an affordability claim with them. I do have a question you may be able to help with though, the last loan I took from them they never took the final 2 payments from me which amounted to £426, this was nearly 2 years ago but still shows on my credit file as ‘up to date’ should I attempt to have this removed from my file and is there a chance they will pursue the outstanding amount? I dont know why it happened they just failed to take those last 2 installments. Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you

    • The Money Shop gave some automatic refunds to some customer in 2015/16, but that sounds as though it was before your last loan where the payments were not taken.

      It’s always hard to be sure what the best course of action is where a lender appears to have made a mistake. But exploring your options…

      If you ask for your credit record to be corrected, then it seems likely that:
      – either someone is going to look at your case and may well ask you to make the last two payments
      – or you will be told that you defaulted (which may be wrong if they didn’t take the payment) and your balance has ben sold to a debt collector.
      In either case someone is likely to pursue you.

      If you don’t ask for your credit record to be corrected:
      – either it will sit there permanently (not a good option) and you won’t be pursued for the money
      – or if the firms does go into administration the error may be found then when the outstanding loan book is sold to a debt collector.

      None of those seem like good options for you.

      But as you had lots of loans with the Money Shop before it seems likely you should get a refund. So a more positive approach is to make an affordability complaint now. If the firm goes under, then people may only get paid a small amount of that BUT if you owe them £426, your refund will be used to settle that, and you will only get a proportion of the rest of the refund. And your credit record will be restored.

  25. Hi Sara,

    Was just reading the above and I had several loans with the money shop and Payday UK and I was never contacted in 2015/2016. I am angry, they didn’t contact me, as I was borrowing from them continuously since 2009! Pretty much every month. I checked my emails and I had nothing from these companies in their various names, including MEM consumer finance, Dollar Financial UK. If they had looked at my case, back in 2015, part of me thinks I won’t be in this much debt, even now. Can I go back to my complaint I made in early May 2019 and add this to it? The fact they missed me out. Do you think this will make a difference? Thank you.

    • No, they were only refunding for some very specific reasons then, not general non affordability. Most people didn’t meet those criteria,

  26. So… my complaint against PDX is with FOS now. Regardless of what may happen re any monies owed to me (or not), if PDX/PDUK/MoneyShop were to fall into administration, what would happen to the default on my credit file? Would it be removed if the lender is no longer in business?

    FWIW I won my case against PDUK and not only received a decent payout, but the default on my credit file was removed. Credit score on what was noddle has jumped 98 points in the last 3 weeks :) The tide is turning.

  27. Good morning all,
    Is anybody still getting updates regarding their claims with PDEx, PDUK and TMS?
    They keep saying to me that they need more time to analyse the information I provided.
    Is that because of the latest news or what?
    Thanks

    • They have been extremely slow for a year now and that was due to sheer volume of complaints and the lack of staff to deal with it.

  28. Hi all,
    Is anybody still getting any updates regarding their claims with PDEx, PDUK and TMS?
    I was on the phone with them over the last couple of weeks and they keep telling me that they need more time to analyse the information I have provided.
    Is this time waisting because of the latest news?
    Thanks

    • Stef I wouldn’t be overly concerned .

      They replied to my complaint 2 days before 8 week deadline .

      They rejected my claim but offered me the chance to appeal .

      I appealed and 10 days later they agreed to refund £2100 from loans way over 6 years ago

      I have sent my email to accept last Friday

      Hope yours goes through too

  29. Without tempting fate … I haven’t seen any more news about the money shop going into administration since last Friday 👀

    • There isn’t anything new in that article. It is all from the last set of accounts, which I linked to in The cost of paying affordability complaints above.

      • Just a bit twitchy as the have gone over the 8 weeks by a couple of days, sent me a final letter saying I didnt complain in time so I replied explaining i saw article in newspaper etc but they say it now has to go back to a decision maker and it couple be a couple of weeks. Not sure what to do.

        • It’s a hard decision if you go to FOS the lender stops looking and there will be a long delay. If you leave it with the lender you may get an ok or even good offer in a few weeks or a couple of months but if you don’t you will regret not going to FOS earlier.

  31. Received a call from a FOS Adjudicator picking up a Money Shop complaint.

    Business as usual for them.

      • Six months and loans were from 2009 and 2010. They’ve paid out other loans but I couldn’t get any bank statements that far back so they were ‘unable to determine’, went to the FOS around Christmas.

        Called out the blue today. My last adjudicator decision took seven weeks and went in my favour. Can only hope TMS stay in business that long.

        • This is exactly what I’m on about. Not about or against you Iain… Mine went to the FOS in October. I had bank statements going all the way back and they’ve only contacted me recently to say there is still no update. Is there a method of complaining about the FOS :) half joking

          • Me too. loans from 2009/10 and sent to FOS at the end of October. I was told last week there was no update yet.

          • That’s interesting. There’s obviously no absolute queueing filter. Perhaps adjudicators can pick and choose cases?

  32. Think it was wishful thinking that my refund may have been sat in my account this morning when I checked my online banking…

    I really dont have a good feeling about getting my refund since all of this news about the money shop has been released.

    I’ve been reading through the comments on this page and also the main refunds page and dont understand how some people who accepted their offers around the same date, and even after me have already had their refunds.

    For those who have had refunds from the money shop recently, what date did you accept your offer and what date did you get your refund?

    Think I’ll give them a call today but will more than likely get a standard response.

    • I have seen that they make payments during the day, not necessarily overnight. If other people have had refunds they may be able to give us a clearer picture of when payments are usually made. I too am waiting for a payment, accepted my offer on 14th June, so currently 14 days in to the 28 day window.

        • Thanks, didn’t realise this. Will keep my eyes peeled and keep you updated.

          Are you also waiting for payment Darren?

          • Alex yes

            But I only sent my acceptance on Monday . The processing team received it on Wednesday

            They say it should be in my account 12 July

            There’s a small chance it could go in the Friday before

          • Mine went in the same time period, but they’ve told me the 5th. Also had a call from the FOS today. It’s Almost like they’ve picked it up after I accepted the offer.

      • Hi Beth,

        I accepted my offer late in the day on the 12th June so we have more or less been waiting the same amount of time.

        I will keep you updated if any payment is made today.

        Alex

  33. Great to see you guys getting refunds hopefully my adjudicator decision upheld however looking at Nelsons post earlier saying they need another 4-6 weeks makes me think that by that time company will be in administration after a years wait it’s so frustrating

    • So was unable to get hold of my adjudicator today so called TMS as deadline they had been given for a response was tomorrow the TMS advisor said there was a backlog and the FOS are aware of this so are allowing them further time to reply to adjudicator assessments. I really think this is is unacceptable considering TMS have had our complaints the best part of a year and are still using these delaying tactics, surely the FOS can enforce some kind of action against this company?

    • Selling Money Shop branches and pawnbroking books will raise money to pay more refunds.

  35. Hi all, My complaint to paydayuk was sent in on 12th June. On the 15th June I received this response:
    Thank you for your correspondence, we are sorry that you feel you have cause for complaint and appreciate you making us aware of this issue. We assure you that your complaint will be investigated by Customer Relations and enclose a copy of our Customer Complaints Handling Procedure for your information.
    A reply will be sent to you in writing once we have completed our review and this letter is called a ‘Final Response’. Whilst we try to respond within four weeks of receiving your complaint, if this is not possible we will let you know. The Financial Conduct Authority gives us a maximum of eight weeks to respond to any complaint. The ‘Final Response’ letter will inform you of the following:
    If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.
    A leaflet from the Financial Ombudsman Service will be enclosed for your information with your ‘Final Response’ letter.
    My question is – are paydayuk usually quick to send the final response letter or do they drag it out?

    Thank you

    • Thanks Sara. Because they sent me an ‘acknowledgment of my complaint’ on 15th June, do I wait 8 weeks from that date before I escalate my case? Or is it 8 weeks from when I lodged my complaint?

      • The problem is that if you go to FOS it will be many many months before you get a decision AND the lender will then stop looking at your case. But if you let one of these three lenders have extra time, many people actually get a good offer after 12 or 16 weeks…

        • Sara is correct. They came back to me after 12 weeks with an offer for loans less than six years old all held up. It’s been with the FOS since October and they only contacted me last week to say it’s been assigned. Just a week after I’d finally accepted their offer.

  36. I have been advised today by TMS that “the redress payment due for case X is due to be processed 5th July” so fingers crossed.

  37. Darren, they’ve never sent me an email confirming the date. When I called them to ensure they had received my acceptance form I was told the 5th July.

    • Some people said they have received emails though. Guy at TMS said they never give a payment date.

      They send it to the processing team who then issue the refunds

      They have no idea when the funds will be released (his exact words). Well confusing

      Nobody ever responds to my emails neither.

      All I’m asking for is a date .. you’d think I was asking for a code to enter Fort Knox

      It’s ridiculous

  38. Well let’s see if my money goes in today .

    Not a single response to my emails to advise . I’m
    Not holding my breath

    • It’s normally after 4pm if that helps? They never confirm by email or phone as to when.

    • I’ve just spoken to them after being on hold for over 10 minutes. Apparently the COO didn’t authorise the payments and it “should” be done early Monday. So payments should be received Monday.

      Sorry to be the bearer of bad news

      • Wow, this company is deplorable.

        No money and no one picking up the phone. Vile company.

        I am writing letters to BBC Watchdog and Panorma re the below directors of Instant Cash Loans parent company HPS Partners;

        Justin Staadecker
        Jonathan Ashley
        Alpesh Kumar Patel
        Christoph Roever

  39. Hi all there doesn’t seem to be any update on them going into administration yet. Hopefully you will all receive your refunds on Monday. Their shops are still trading although I do know the Glasgow store is continuing to trade but have been sold to another company. I am no expert but I thought of they have the means to raise money they wouldn’t go into administration of an I totally wrong?

  40. So let me get this right .
    TMS have confirmed our refunds from Friday will hit our accounts early Monday ?

    << holds breath

    • Darren, the lady I spoke to said it “should”. I pushed her to say whether that means it will and she couldn’t say for certain.

      After that I asked her whether it would be late in the day and she said no. It should be authorised over the weekend or early Monday so it should be before late afternoon.

    • Very concerned as I’m waiting on agreed £2.2k redress plus another potential £2k with the FOS. Customer service is absolutely useless.

    • It will shortly be lights out for the moneyshop (I am owed money as well). Just read an article in Nottingham live saying they lost almost £150 million in the last 2 years and have failed to pay rent for shops etc.

    • All crossed payment made soon xx if they do go am very sorry for everyone claiming, have already lost thousands with Wonga and WDA but this time round this is a huge payout for me. Its starting to dominate my life, will I get paid out or not…….

  43. Well after much deliberating I have bit the bullet and accepted payday express offer. Albeit significantly lower than the interest I paid over 3 years of continuous lending, just didn’t think it was worth the risk of waiting 9 months for the FOS. Now have to join the rest of you in the anxious wait as to will they or won’t they pay out before going into liquidation not looking forward to that part.

    Congrats to everyone who was paid today. I’m keeping my fingers crossed and will update any progress on here.

  44. Still waiting for mine. Accepted on 28th June. Have heard nothing back since and was just told to wait up to 28 days. Getting worried I won’t see the refund in my bank 😔

  45. Accepted my offer from the money shop regarding my payday express claim on the 5th July had no confirmation email to say they are processing it, so phoned them up only to be given a whole load of excuses on how they don’t send out email confirmations! If they don’t how do you know when the 28 days starts from???!!! I also sent other information in regarding to loans over 6 years old against paydayuk and why I hadn’t claimed in the three years since I had known about it, haven’t received anything back from them regarding the investigations!!! Very poor company will try to send to the ombudsman’s to investigate but doesn’t seem likely I will get anything if they close up. Hoping I receive what I have accepted on my other claim soon.

  46. Is anyone having problems trying to get in touch with the Money Shop?
    I have tried all their numbers and the phone is not even ringing. I am very concerned 😟 just thinking have they definitely gone into Administration!! I only last spoke to them on Friday 5th July 2019.

    • I spoke with a very nice lady on the 01903 number. She says there is a fault with the 0800 numbers being resolved by IT and should be back up and running by this afternoon or Monday.

  47. Hi Michelle i posted on a different thread about this. I checked TMS website earlier and there is a different number on their homepage, so might be worth trying 0203 901 7171 hope this helps

    • If numbers are allowed. I had success with them on this number. 01903 768769 This is where someone confirmed they pay on a Friday and if you send your acceptance in before Friday it’s processed that Friday and paid the following Friday. If that makes sense. Hope it helps

  48. Just spoke to a gentleman i the 01903 number and he said funds should be released today around 3pm although there is no confirmation from the treasurer wether this will happen just yet so I will check my balance at 3pm. Fingers crossed everyone

      • I rang back up at 4pm and they told me they would not be processing today but couldn’t give me a reason why they just said that they were waiting for the treasurer to sign off the refunds but it didn’t happen. They have now told me that it will be the next working day which is Monday but I’m not holding out much hope to be honest.

    • Hi Elle they did process them last Monday for customers expecting them in the Friday. I’m gonna call the FOS helpline tomorrow to see if they have had any updates as don t think adjudicator available on the weekend. I’m hoping it’s just poor business practice given the fact it’s happened before. They are regulated and the FSA and according to them they are not in administration yet.

      • Thanks for that Ann. Hopefully like you say it’s just poor business practice. I’ll see what happens Monday then I will get back on the phone to them. Hopefully you receive your refund too.

    • Hi Elle like I said on a previous post why would they confirm refunds with customers and adjudicators if they weren’t in a position to do it. The FOS and the FCA would hav e to made aware of any updates with the business. I think we are all understandably a bit panicky about the situation, but there has not been any official update on their business status.

      • I think you’re right Ann. Thanks for putting my mind at ease a little. I’ll ring them on Monday and then I’ll keep you posted on what they say

  49. Just to add, yes it’s poor from them seeing as they did the same last week to us. My funds eventually landed around 2:40pm on the Monday. I have found people on the 01903 number more helpful than anyone (including the FOS). Hope you all get what’s due.

  50. Hi all I called the FOS this morning they have been made aware of IT issues that ICL have been having e.g. Telephone lines not working etc. The advisor said they have not been advised that the business is deliberately not paying out refunds and said ICL hoped to have the issues fixed by Monday. They are still dealing with the complaints and advised affected customers should contact ICL on Monday and if no refund processed then to contact either the FOS or if it’s been a complaint decision via an adjudicator contact them. So fingers crossed

    • That sounds a bit more promising Ann. I’m going to try and call them on Monday morning and see if I can get a clear answer off them. Hoping they process refunds on Monday and don’t try and fob us off until next Friday.

  51. It’s great that some people are getting paid out that are on this site 😁 , even if it means you need to wait over the weekend to get your money . There’s loads of people like myself I’m sure where as the loans are over 6 years old they have refused to pay and it’s sitting going nowhere at the ombudsman service ,my loans were valued at around £16,000 rolled from month to month ,I think I have a great case , obviously they don’t . Don’t see what else I can do but wait and hope they don’t go under .😔

    • I had a mixture of loans over six years and under six years. TMS got back to me in about 10 weeks accepting loans under six years and making me an offer. My complaint had already gone to the FOS at that point. So they wouldn’t talk to me anymore. Once the rumour of administration started I accepted their initial offer. It wasn’t worth the risk as the FOS just seemed to me to be waiting it out. Didn’t help when others who had sent their complaint to FOS after me were getting offers back before me. Like many things in life the site can’t tell you what to do. Only to give you enough facts to decide what’s best for you. I hope you get sorted.

      • Thanks. , glad you got something at least. , just seemed like they used the six years thing as an excuse as all mine were over that so no offer for me. Just need to wait and hope I guess .

        • Hi Dougie, I feel your pain, I’m in the sane position as you with all loans over 6 years and have been with FOS since November 2018. I haven’t heard anything from the FOS to say TMS are refusing to pay on these. Did they tell you that? I know for sure there are loads of people on this site who are having loans over 6 years dealt with and offers made both through the FOS and those who have just dealt with the Money Shop without going through the FOS. So am confused as why they are not paying all all loans over 6 years.

          • Hiya not heard from FOS at all. Just from money shop. Well loans were with PDUK . I was hoping as my pay out may be so high they are disputing it. (Wishful thinking maybe )

    • Hi Dougie,

      It’s a shame you didn’t wait a few weeks. Sorry to hear. I really hope you get a resolution sooner rather than later. It might be worth calling FOS, a few times a week? stating other people have had response who submitted their complaints before you have received responses and is there anything you can do to help to speed things up? Just a thought. I am still waiting, just gone over my 9 weeks 😔 and they keep saying it will be another few weeks. But I try and call them so they don’t forget about me.

  52. Sorry mixed up my previous response to what GimmeMoney and Dougie said. PDUK and MoneyShop are one of the few who do pay out on loans taken out before 6 years ago. I was recently made an offer on loans before 6years so Dougie you should query and emphasise this with FOS? I am sure you have though. That’s confusing. How come some people do get over on old loans and some don’t? Sara, is this acceptable/ normal? Is it because the payout is very high? I mean how do they decide.

    • It is confusing , think that’s the way they like it Tan maybe it’s because all of mine are over 6 years. Or maybe as all are PDUK. I DUNNO .

  54. Please let me know how you get on Elle …. I was about to call for my refund as I couldn’t get hold of them last week, like yourself.

    My refund was agreed on the 10th of July and I am really worried about the implications of this. Nothing on their website to say anything either?

    • Hi mark. I got through and basically they said they can’t be certain if payment will be today as they are still trying to chase the treasurer to approve it. Nobody could explain why payments weren’t made on Friday either. I was told to just check my account and ring back after 4pm if nothings gone in. It doesn’t sound good does it

    • Hi Mark did they give you a date when you would receive your refund I accepted mine last week and was told it would be in my account on the 19th

      • Hi Ann,

        To be fair I only accepted on the 9th of July …. Spoke to a guy earlier who checked the ‘Spreadsheets’ for payments either on the 12th or 19th and I was not on there. Got hold of another guy who said my accpetance letter was recieved and I will recieve it within 28 days (But they expect sooner) So I guess mine is due on the 26th?!

        Either way I do not feel as depressed as I did on Friday as it looks like, from an outside perspective at least, they are still operating so every cloud I guess.

        Does appear that the week after acceptance letter is sent is the ‘admin’ week and they payment is then made the following Friday (Negating the fact people were not payed last Friday) which still is a bit random.

        Fingers crossed for yours and other peoples payments.

        • hi Mark I’m not worried especially after calling their head office who assured me all confirmed refunds will be processed its just so frustrating this happening to us all at the last stage after almost a year.

  55. Waiting for a refund of over £2K accepted on 27th June…do you think there is much hope?

  56. After on hold for over an hour I got through to no one :( at this rate the money shop should be giving back 16% extra due to stress that they are causing us :(
    Anyone had any joy?

    • I got through at 3.49pm and they said that they were still trying to pay people today but if not today then tomorrow. I think we are getting fobbed off. Over an hour I’ve spent on the phone today and not got a straight answer once

      • Hi Elle i was optimistic after speaking to FOS and FCA and also TMS head office i have emailed my adjudicator as doesn’t seem to be looking too good now for us the FCA just said they are still trading so should be giving the refunds and if not to contact FOS

        • Just seen the news on the other thread Ann. So disappointed but at the same time I think I had a feeling after the non payment on Friday. 😩

  57. Hi Elle it’s just so unfair i don’t hold out much hope for me as was meant to getting refund this Friday but hopefully you guys from last week might get yours

    • I’ll give the FOS a call tomorrow and see what they say but I think it’s probably best to not get any hopes up now. Just feel sorry for everyone who was really depending on the refund.

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