Payday loan refunds – how long till a lender replies? pays out?

When you get a payday loan, it arrives very quickly… so why does it take some payday lenders so long to pay out refunds for unaffordable lending? Especially as a few lenders are very fast?

Hundreds of people have left comments on the How to get a payday loan refund page on the progress of their claims. This article summarises recent comments about the large and mid-sized lenders. It covers when firms reply to your initial complaint and how long it takes for a refund to be paid.

It also gives an indication as to whether it is worth trying to negotiate when a lender has rejected or made an offer which is too low… You should always go back to the lender if there is a fundamental error e.g. they have the wrong number of loans. But is it worth bothering if they have just made the wrong decision? For many lenders, you are just wasting time and mental energy as the lender doesn’t listen – send your complaint to the ombudsman straight away.

Don’t forget…

Your case is an individual one. You may get a good result quickly from a lender who has a reputation for being difficult. Or you may have a good case rejected by a lender that other people have found fair to deal with – that doesn’t mean you are wrong and it’s a bad case. The ombudsman is agreeing with customer complaints in 68% of payday loan cases!

So seeing what has happened to other people is interesting but it doesn’t really help you decide what you should do. The main payday loan refund page describes the whole process, including if you should take a case to the Ombudsman and how to do it. That page is the best place to ask questions… and also to say how your case is going!

The big three payday lenders

Wonga

With Wonga now in administration from end August 2018, what has happened with previous refunds is no longer relevant. See Wonga refunds after administration – latest news for up to date information.

Payouts from Quick Quid (and their smaller sister company Pounds To Pocket)

They usually ask you to send payslips and bank statements. You don’t have to if you don’t want to – just tell them to consider your complaint as it stands and that you will supply more information to the Ombudsman. I haven’t seen any sign that they actually pay attention to anything you send them. Very often they make low offers, only on a few loans. They usually reject complaints about loans over 6 years old and loans in 2015 or after.

Response time – in the last of the 8 weeks normally but some rejections come earlier.

Worth negotiating? No. But they may make you larger offers while you are waiting in the adjudicator or ombudsman queue.

Do they add 8% statutory interest?  Yes.

Payout timescales – After dragging complaints out, people normally get paid in a couple of days. Chase if you haven’t been refunded after a week.

Also see separate article about Quick Quid complaints.

Payouts from Payday UK, Payday Express and the Money Shop

In autumn 2017 both these brands stopped lending but they are not in administration and are paying out. And their complaints handling has improved significantly!

Make sure you are clear about what is being offered. If you are complaining about Payday UK and Payday Express, sometimes they usually combine your complaints in a single offer.

See the separate article about Payday UK etc complaints.

Response time –  rejections may come earlier but most responses are right at the end of the 8 weeks and they sometimes ask for more time. I suggest sending your case straight to the Ombudsman at 8 weeks if they do this.

Worth negotiating? No.

Do they add 8% statutory interest? Yes.

Payout timescales – Random! In the last few months, people have reported 3 days, 5 days, 5 working days, some have been a month, but the most common is about 3 weeks.

The mid-sized payday lenders

Lending Stream refunds

Response time – They often respond fairly quickly by rejecting the complaint. Many people are told they had what sounds like an absurdly high credit score so ignore this. Sometimes they don’t say this is their final response, and if you ask if it is, they don’t reply – in this case, send to the Ombudsman at 8 weeks or whenever you get fed up!

Worth negotiating? No.

Do they add 8% statutory interest? No.

Payout timescales – They were as slow as they possibly can be, even going over the 28 days the Ombudsman allows. Tell your adjudicator if this happens. In mid 2018 they started to pay out in a couple of weeks for some people then it got slow again. leaving a bad trust Pilot review sometimes speeds things up!

Lending Stream is so bad at complaint handling that I’ve written a separate article: Lending Stream’s poor and slow complaint handling. The only good thing is that people are getting large refunds in the end from them!

Mr Lender refunds

Response time – usually in the first few weeks, some within days.

Worth negotiating? Definitely. They seem keen to reach a sensible settlement directly, so if you think extra loans should be included argue your case.

They also get upset if you post a bad Trust Pilot review and try to resolve the issue with you.

Do they add 8% statutory interest? No, but people are normally happy to settle without this as Mr Lender has been prompt and helpful about the process.

Payout timescales – a few days.

Myjar refunds

Response time – replies used to be in the 8th week but in late 2018 they started asking for an extra 2 weeks (10 working days) at the end of 8 weeks..

Worth negotiating? Some people have had success at getting one or two extra loans included in the refund. Some people have got refunds after being rejected when they replied detailing how many other payday loans they had at the time.

Some people who were sent a rejection and replied saying they were sending the case to the Ombudsman then got an offer!

Other people have kicked Myjar into action when they are ignoring an adjudicator decision by leaving a bad Trust Pilot review.

Do they add 8% statutory interest? Yes usually. If you didn’t specifically ask for it in your complaint, go back to them and they will add it.

Payout timescales – In August 2018 many people were saying they took a very long while, others about two days.

Peachy refunds

Response time – usually reply very fast but sometimes several weeks. Make sure the offer is reasonable though – as it’s often the first you will get if you are making several complaints, some people say yes then only later realise it wasn’t good.

Worth negotiating? Some people have reported a success after getting a rejection, but they had to push pretty hard. Some people have had additional loans included in a refund when the first offer was too low.

Do they add 8% statutory interest? No. But if you go back and say you will accept their offer if they add it, they sometimes do.

Payout timescales – within a few days.

Safetynet Credit refunds

Response time – Whilst you are waiting, make sure you have cancelled the CPA with your bank as SNC have a bad habit of waiting 30 days then collecting all the money, even though the complaint is still ongoing. Usually reply somewhere in the 4-6 week region.

Worth negotiating? No. Ignore their lengthy comments that they are not a payday lender, that you are just using a template letter (so what? they are using template replies!), that they credit checked you (they may have done but then ignored it!), that your income was fine (haha). They should have seen from your bank statements that you were reliant on borrowing from them – send the case to the Ombudsman.

Payout timescales – same day or next day.

Sunny refunds

Response time – usually in the 7th or 8th week.

Worth negotiating? No. Only exception if the refund offered is OK but they haven’t mentioned deleting the credit card record – if this is important to you it’s worth asking them to do this rather than have the case go to the Ombudsman.

Payout timescales – sometimes ok, but sometimes very slow! People have speeded things up by leaving a bad review on Trust Pilot – this often makes Sunny talk to you immediately.

Uncle Buck refunds

They normally ask people to supply a credit report and bank statements. I suggest not doing this as they rarely make good offers and can be unpleasant. Tell them to consider the complaint on the basis of what they know.

Response time – in the last few days of the 8 weeks.

Worth negotiating? No. This is definitely not a lender you want to talk to.

Trust Pilot reviews: If UB is ignoring a decision by an adjudicator so you are told it has to wait for an ombudsman, trying leaving them a very bad review on Trust Pilot. This has worked for several readers.

Payout timescales – 28 days.

 Wageday Advance refunds

Wageday Advance went into administration in February 2019. What happened previously with refunds from them is no longer relevant. See Wagdeday Advance refunds after administration for the latest news.

247 Moneybox refunds

Response time – Sometimes people are offered a write-off very quickly, but usually they are slow. Send cases straight to the ombudsman at 8 weeks if they haven’t replied. They are also slow to send the case details to the adjudicator and sometimes ignore an adjudicator’s decision.

Worth negotiating? Possibly. Some people have succeeded saying they will accept the offer if it is changed to include 8% statutory interest. But they may ignore your emails. But some people have had an offer after they have told Moneybox 247 that the complaint has been sent to the Ombudsman.

Payout timescales – They were very slow, sometimes not paying out within the allowed 28 days after an Ombudsman decision. But in late 2018 some people reported getting payouts in under a week.

More resources

There are a LOT of articles about payday loans refunds on this site. Some of the most useful include:

• Refunds where you still owe some money – some write-off offers are not nearly as good as they look!
• Payday lender says I lied
• How gambling affects payday loan complaints
• Ombudsman can look at loans over 6 years old
• Some reasons payday loan complaints are rejected by the ombudsman.