Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing?
You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or if you still owe money.
This article covers everything you need to get started. It’s simple, easy, free and many people are winning large payouts.
The comments below this article have thousands of stories of the refunds people have got using these letters. It is a great place to ask questions!
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
Was a loan affordable because you managed to repay it? No! If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
Payday loans are meant to be used to solve a short term problem. If you kept rolling a loan or repaying one then getting another loan soon after, the lender should have stopped lending to you.
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans.
Many lenders ignored even very obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size or borrowing very soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate what a fair refund is or which loans were unaffordable.
Just ask for a full refund from the lender and see what you are offered. This is simple and it works well.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen tens of thousands of payday loan affordability complaints. A typical decision by the Ombudsman is that the payday lender should refund all the interest you paid interest after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
This is because payday loans are meant for short term problems and the lender should not have carried on giving you loans. This may be earlier – from the first or second loan sometimes – if your first loans were rolled or topped-up or were very large.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
Use the letters on this page to make an affordability complaint to most UK payday lenders, see the email list for payday lenders. The larger lenders include:
Lending Stream, MyJar, Satsuma, Mr Lender, Ferratum, CashASAP, Moneyboat, Smart Pig.
Also use these letters for the very high-cost sorts of “flexible credit”, including:
SafetyNet Credit, Drafty, Polar Credit.
But the process described here – complain to the lender and then send to the Financial Ombudsman if the lender says No or gives you a poor offer – won’t work if the lender has gone bust:
- Sunny – read Sunny goes into administration – what should customers do? for how you can put in a complaint
- 247 Moneybox, Peachy, Piggybank, Swift Sterling, Uncle Buck are in administration. Send a complaint to the administrators, see the lenders’ websites. You may not get much back but this is very easy to do, just send a short email saying you were given unaffordable loans;
- QuickQuid – read What will happen in QuickQuid’s administration for how you can put in a complaint.
- Wonga, Wageday Advance, the Money Shop, Payday UK, Payday Express and lenders who gave up years ago – it is now too late to make a complaint about these lenders, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use here:
- Provident,
- Amigo and other guarantor lenders,
- 118 Money, Everyday Loans and other high-cost large long-term loans.
First, before you send in a complaint
Doing these four things now will make your life easier later.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you later have to go to the Ombudsman. Don’t get an Experian or ClearScore report instead – many payday lenders don’t use those.
If you can log-in to the lender’s website and see your loans, take a copy of them as sometimes they vanish when you complain.
If you still owe money to the lender:
- unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
- read the Stop making payments? section in Payday loan refunds when last loan not repaid. If you want to offer a lower affordable amount, add a sentence to your complaint letter saying this.
- if you have a lot of borrowing at the moment, read Escape from the payday loan trap which looks at how a debt management plan can help you.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you still complain to the original lender but also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. Don’t skip this bit or a debt collector may go to court. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Step One – start your complaint & get loan details if you don’t know them
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Then send your complaint email. Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[delete this sentence if you know what all your loans were.] I know the difficulties your loans have caused me but I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added and what I repaid – this will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
[delete this sentence if none of your loans were sold.]If a loan was later sold to a debt collector, please inform me of the date of sale and the name of the debt collector.
[Only put this bit in if some of your loans were more than 6 years old. This explains why you haven’t complained before. It ‘s only an example, don’t copy it, change it so it covers what happened to you!] [I didn’t know that the lender was supposed to check that I could repay the loan without having to borrow more. I only found out in November 2019 when I saw a newspaper article in the Sun/an advert on Facebook for payday loan refunds/a friend said they had made a complaint/whatever.]
This email starts off your affordability complaint.
The lender has to reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. That 8 week clock has started ticking… don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response. In April 2020 some lenders started asking for more time because of Coronavirus – here are my thoughts on that: Should you allow a lender extra time?
Step Two (OPTIONAL) – send more details
When you get your loan information, you can send in more details about your complaint if you want. You don’t have to do this, your complaint is already underway.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. But it’s easy to do – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Change this template so it tells your story.
I have had x loans from you from [2015 to 2016].
Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
For this period my take home pay was about £x a month.
[Include the following details if you know them, but if they varied a lot miss this out My living expenses were roughly: rent/mortgage £x. Council tax £x. Utilities and bills £x. Transport costs £x. Clothes £x. Food, toiletries etc £x. Child expenses £x Other debt repayments £x. Total £x per month.]
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. [Add more details eg how often you borrowed or rolled loans if you know them, how the amount borrowed generally went up etc]
[Include/change this if your credit record would have shown big problems: My credit reports would have shown all my other debts and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. I am asking you to refund the interest and charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete negative information from my credit record.
Some ways to improve this
Add any points that help you describe what happened to you. And delete any bits that don’t matter to you. Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- If you weren’t treated fairly while you were borrowing add a bit about this.
Don’t worry that the lender will say you should have cut back on your living costs, just put down your normal expenses. You don’t need to include evidence about your expenses.
Send credit record and bank statements?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, your payslips or bank statements. This is mostly to be difficult – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want.
Don’t send payslips – they won’t help an affordability complaint and the ombudsman never asks for them.
Send bank statements if you want, but think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Depressingly most lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Some people feel these are personal and they don’t want to send them to a payday lender. If you don’t want to send them, tell the lender you will send the Ombudsman any information that is needed.
Step three – go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
Instead you can send your case to the Financial Ombudsman. This is easy and free.
Tens of thousands of these cases have been sent to the Financial Ombudsman where there is a higher success rate for these affordability complaints than any other type of complaint!
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had thousands of pounds refunded after a complete rejection!
Just ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications and you didn’t give the full facts – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- you repaid some loans early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- your borrowing didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record.
- your loans are over 6 years old – the ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
Will a lender improve an offer?
You may be wondering if you should go back and try to get the lender to give you a better offer. Most lenders won’t do this, but a few may if you make out a good case. For example if they have offered to refund loans 6-12 you would be happy if they included one or two more, you can say why you think loans 4 and 5 should also be refunded. See When and how to negotiate about payday loan refunds for more details.
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Don’t worry that you will lose a small offer from a lender by going to the Ombudsman – this doesn’t happen.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept if you think you paid a lot more than that in interest. Some lenders offer a few hundred pounds to people who get ten or twenty times as much from the Ombudsman.
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound good … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well, see Refunds when you have a balance owing for details.
- if getting defaults or late payments removed from your credit record is important to you, are you happy with what the lender is proposing to do? Don’t assume your credit record will be cleared if the lender didn’t mention this.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was rolled or topped up several times; or
- the loan was large. Here is a single MyJar loan case that was won even though it was an instalment loan and the borrower had a good income because it was for £3,600. And a single loan Sunny case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay too long – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender.
Don’t wait until all your lenders have replied before sending the first one to the Ombudsman!
One reader said: They couldn’t be any nicer. Caroline Wayman, the Chief Ombudsman, says:
It’s really OK to phone up and say, ‘I don’t think it was fair.” It’s not court; you don’t have to turn up with your ‘heads of claim’, you don’t have to write a fancy letter. Tell us your story and we will do the rest.
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and takes you through your complaint step by step.
You can just copy what you said in your complaint to the lender. Add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you. Include a paragraph about having only just found out you could complain if some of the loans are more than 6 years old.
Things to attach:
- the reply you have had from the lender.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed – if you don’t have them, start the process of getting them now, don’t wait until FOS asks for them.
- a copy of your TransUnion Statutory credit report.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
You will normally be contacted within a couple of weeks and asked for a copy of your credit record and your bank statements if you haven’t sent these. If you have sent these on one complaint, then when you complain about a different lender they will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
Need some help?
If you need help to complain, go to your local Citizens Advice, they will help for free.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. It’s easy to do this yourself and you can ask questions below and get replies from other readers who have done this.
Ask for a refund for large bad credit loans
How to complain about a guarantor loan
LC says
Hi Sara
Just wanted to say thank you for this forum. Today I received my offer from Provident for my Greenwood loans and it is pretty much to the penny what I worked it out to be. The cheque should be arriving in the next 14 days. And The person who has dealt with my complaint after it came back from the FOS adjudicator is also dealing with my provident loans and is now waiting for confirmation that my debt was cleared with the debt collectors before he calculates my redress from my provident loans which he’s hoping to sort next week. He’s apologised that it wasn’t originally dealt with last yet when I first complained.
Pee says
Sometimes an apology just doesn’t cut it. Especially when you know they’re most likely lying through their teeth. Play your cards right and you could get a lot more. That’s my best advise. Take it or leave it. Upto you.
A says
Hi Sarah,
Just to say THANK YOU! I received today a £850 refund from Lending Stream following FOS upholding my affordability complaint. FYI Lending Stream had said no right off the bat but sent over to FOS with the help of this website. First complained to LS in April 2020 and paid Sept 2020.
Thanks again,
A
David says
Hi A how long from the FOS upholding your complaint till you receiving your money thanks David
Pee says
David. Mine was 3 months. And I had to chase and chase.
David says
Thanks pee chatting to them today am on 19 days out off 28 days it will be in my account before or on the 24th🤞
Pee says
David. They say that to everyone. If I was you I would believe it when the redress is in your account. Talks cheap. Actions speak louder than words.
Tina says
Hello, I’m just wondering whether anyone could give any advice? In 2012 and 2013 I had loans with quickquid and poundstopocket. I defaulted on both and they were both passed on to debt collectors. These have since changed hands a few times and I don’t know exactly what I have paid to who over the years. I now have logged a claim with casheuronet but I am not sure what to do about the solicitors chasing me. For one of them I think my initial loan was £800 but I still owe over £900, I can see from old emails that I have lots of confirmations where I made my monthly payments before it defaulted so I think I had paid quite a bit of it back anyway. I’m just lost with what to do at the minute as I can’t afford to pay it all back to the solicitors.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell the solicitors in writing that you dispute the debt because you have put in an affordability complaint to Casheuronet. Look out for court papers and this https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/ which should be sent before they start a court case. Come back here if you get either.
do you have other problem debts as well?
Tina says
Hi Sara, thankyou so much for replying. I don’t think they have my current address I think they will still have an old one. But they have my email address and phone number as I have previously corresponded with them this way. Should I give them my new address?
I have a number of debts at the moment but this is the only historic one which is with a debt collector. None of my current debts are in default and all are regularly paid if that makes sense.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not having your current address will not prevent them from going to court but it may mean you do not get the court papers. I suggest it probably is better to give them your current address.
Tina says
Thankyou, I will update my address with them.
Sorry, just one more thing, will I be able to dispute the debt with them if I have previously made payments towards it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can still dispute it. I’m not saying this is going to be easy, but the aim is just to get the debt collector a to hold off until you have a decision on your Claim from the administrators.
Peter says
Hi Sara,
I am now in the kind of waiting around for responses period, having made all my complaints to the companies so I am wondering if there is anything I can do to strenghten my cases in the meantime?
Eg, I when I have had replies with DSAR data I have been able to say, look how many loans and missed payments I had out when you granted me the loans.
I have read that just before the 8 weeks is up some complanies might ask to see bank statements, so want to avoid this and be in a position where they have to issue their final response (and hopefully offer) bang on 8 weeks.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have your bank statements to hand? If not, organise those now.
Who are the lenders, how many loans and how large?
Peter says
Hi Sara, the loans total are:
Satsuma £5,570
H&T £800
Lending Stream £2,860
Avant Credit £2,000
My Jar £6,850
Moneyboat £1,800
Cash 4 U Now £1,270
Mr Lender (at least £2,000 but they wont actually tell me!)
All are multiple loans bar Avant Credit.
I have ordered my bank statements just in case but don’t have them yet. Because the companies have to reply to your DSAR within a month my plan is to see what they hold on my/what checks they did before I send them the bank statements.
Cash 4 U Now sent me my DSAR yeserday and there was no evidence of them undertaking any credit checks whatsoever at the time of them granting me the loan! surely that isn’t responsible lending!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large were your Cash 4 U loans, can you list them in order?
Peter says
July ’17 – £170
Sep ’17 £300
Jan ’18 – £800
I think there is about a balance on the Jan 18 one too
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then it can reasonably be argued that the lender should have checked the credit record for the third loan – but the Ombudsman will probably say not the first two.
Peter says
really! I thought credit checks were totally mandatory for any credit applications, regardless of the amount
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no, a lender only has to make “proportionate” checks. The Ombudsman usually says checks arent need for the first few loans if they are small. Thats why a common offer is a refund from the 4th or 5th loan.
Peter says
thanks Sara. Most of my lenders have given me 3 or 4 loans, but mostly they are £800 and upwards so still unaffordable, so hopefully it shouldn’t matter that there weren’t more
frogman says
Just a quick update for people that are dealing with Lending Stream.
I was refunded yesterday, after 21days FOS accepted on my behalf. I didn’t receive any formal communication from Lending Stream after adjudicator ruled in my favour but as someone suggested here, I just chased them up through their live chat, submitted my bank statement showing my bank account details for the redress. I had defualted on these loans and was owing about £1k which is now gone and I had £515 in my bank account yesterday. I first lodged my complaint in May, LS rejected in July and forwarded to FOS immediately.
David says
Glad to hear am on day 20 so hopefully not to long to wait🤞
Ryan says
I’m enquiring regarding Satsuma Loans. I sent my initial letter back in 20 June 2019. They came back in the September of 2019 with a response throwing out my case. I was working away at the time and once I had time I referred this to the FOS and they contacted me on the 31st of January, asking for my final response letter. They then contacted me again on the 14th of February, my Adjudicator then summarised my concerns. I’ve had numerous emails since then stating that they are awaiting additional information from satsuma. Then on the 14th of July I received another email from a different Adjudicator, saying they were now dealing with my case and they had all the information but were awaiting additional information from Satsuma regarding my loans. They also said they have chased this up and hope to have an out by the end of the month (July). I’ve then had same style emails since with this new adjudicator, how they are awaiting additional information etc. I have recently sent an email on the 11th of September after no contact for 4 weeks and no response. Have you heard of any cases been settled with satsuma recently? Seems like I’m getting nowhere.
Peter says
Hi Ryan, how many loans did you have with them? I am on a similar case with Satsuma – they are my biggest lender by a mile
Cazza says
My partner made a complaint with Satsuma and they came back quickly with a standard rejection which has gone to the FOS, I have complained and it seems to be taking forever, I’ve had another email today saying they require a further 28 days but O can’t understand why there is such a difference in the time they take.
Ryan says
Well since I first heard from the FOS it’s been 9 month. Yet they are still awaiting information from Satsuma. Think they are using Covid to their advantage, which is wrong and people shouldn’t have to wait this long for an outcome.
Ryan says
Hi Peter, I had 5 loans with them in total. I’ve had success with other pay day loans companies and received back thousands in refunds. I think I have read that they are one of the worst for irresponsible lending complaints, I just wanted to know if people are having success with them recently?
KarenH says
Hi Ryan
Satsuma have agreed with FOS to pay me redress payment just a week ago. Apparently it will be paid by cheque & within 28 days so fingers crossed.
Ryan says
Thanks for the reply.
How long did it take for the FOS to give you an outcome? I expect to wait some time but it’s just taking forever this time round. Had success with other companies through FOS.
KarenH says
Hi Ryan
I first lodged my complaint against Satsuma with FOS on 14 April & had final outcome/offer via FOS on 8 sept. In between FOS have kept me informed of when they’ve requested info from Satsuma & when they’ve delayed! Hopefully will get my cheque soon.
Vee says
Hi Karen
Have you recevied your cheque from them? Or had anyone recvied a cheque from them? Waiting on a cheque been 4 weeks now
Peter says
Has anyone dealt with Fancy a Payday/ response funding as far as refunds are concerned? I would like the negativy entries removed from my file but find it difficuly to get anyone meaningful to contact
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you emailed james@thl-uk.com ?
David says
Hi anyone waiting on a lending stream refund looks like they pay out on the 21st day out of 28 mines went in today👌👌
James says
Anybody waiting on Piggybank? Yes had my redress accepted in March. Not heard a thing since then. 6 months is quite a long time not to hear anything
Pee says
What does it say on the portal??
Peter says
They are in administration aren’t they? I got all excited because they upheld my claim of £900 but then the small print said I would get a fraction of that
Carl says
Hi,
Anyone had any luck with lending stream?
The adjudicator upheld my loans – 30 of them and asked them to recalculate Redress etc but they did not reply so it went to ombudsman. Ombudsman have now upheld 30 loans also and given them until 27th to show any additional evidence to argue it and they still have not replied.
No idea what will happen if they don’t reply by the 27th when the ombudsman said to both party’s to rely by.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My guess is that the Ombudsman will make their decision final. That was a couple of weeks ago now, why don’t you ask your adjudicator what is happening?
Carl says
The ombudsman made a provisional decision and and gave till the 27th sep for both party’s to reply With additional evidence. Lending stream have not replied as far as today. In ombudsman’s decision they said their final one would be the same if no additional evidence provided. What will happened on 27th because. Pearly lending stream have no intentions. Will ombudsman say so long to pay me and they have to by that date? As there isn’t any further up the ladder I can go with this redress they owe. It’s been since March and gone all the way to the ombudsman and still no reply from them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok 27 September. If LS don’t reply by then the Ombudsman is likely to make the decision final. Then LS have 28 days to pay.
Carl says
Another 28 days. Goodness me. They are so quick in demanding money of me just now though. Terrible company.
Thanks for the help! Again!
KarenH says
Hi Carl
3 weeks ago FOS informed me that lending stream had agreed to pay me redress for 25 out of 27 loans & would be in touch with me directly. Very happy with offer. I hadn’t heard anything from them so contacted them a couple of days ago via their chat & was told they needed my bank details. Offered to give details there & then but they said that they needed to have them via FOS! I’ve emailed my adjudicator & waiting to hear. Think LS are giving me the run around!
Carl says
Hi Karen,
Thanks for this. I’m going to call ombudsman Monday and ask. Such a bad company to sea with. Let me know how you get on 👍
Mike_p says
They are definitely one of the worst companies to deal with. They ignored messages I sent them to ask about updates and even ignored my adjudicator when she asked for an update. I’ve dealt with other lenders and although some have been slow to pay out or provide a final response they at least had the decency to reply when you asked them something.
J S says
Satsuma!
Ombudsman made decision in my favour on 22 July. Still waiting on them agreeing/disagreeing with decision. I chased up Ombudsman about 1 month ago and they were giving them a further 2 weeks to reply.
Anyone else been waiting so long for Satsuma?
Katy says
Been waiting a ridiculous length of time for both the ombudsman and satsuma – I have chased and chased the FOS as they seem to give satsuma as much time as they like. Lasted update from them was that satsuma hadn’t responded to their findings by the given date so some other department has been advised to chase them – FOS have found in my favour but won’t hold my breath for anything to happen any time soon
J S says
Hi Katy, only just seen your reply.
I found the email address for Provident Financial CEO and emailed him directly.
Got an email back today saying the team were looking into the complaint.
Just happy to at least get an acknowledgement from them. If I don’t hear in 1 week, I’ll just keep emailing him until its resolved.
I mean, I doubt he will even look at the emails, sure it’ll be his PA or something but…
Malcolm.lemay@providentfinancial.com
Katy says
Hi,
Thank you for this – going to get all my dates etc sorted and email this guy – see if I get any sort of acknowledgement
B says
Hi Sara
Even though sunny are in admistration, should they still be maintaining credit files? I settled a loan with them In FEBRUARY that is still showing as open on my credit file. I contacted them in March to ask why it hadn’t been updated and was told it had been requested but had likely missed trans unions update window and should expect to see it settled in 30-90 days (Don’t think that time is at all acceptable but wasn’t anything I could do) it’s now nearly October and its still showing as open and I’m getting really frustrated now. Can they even do this? is it legal?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back and say you will report them to the ICO for a breach of GDPR as they are reporting inaccurate information to a credit reference agency.
Pee says
That’s a good one. 👍
ernestkola says
Hey sara .. hope you are ok? Pls just quick question ..l want to make a irresponsible lending for Halifax overdraft.. is that very hard to win pls?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They aren’t easy. How large is the overdraft and has it been increased?
ernestkola says
£2000.. increased like 4 time
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/. These aren’t easy complaints to win but if you think you have A case, give it a go.
Kat says
Hi Sara, just a quick question..the FOS have rejected my claim again Satsuma and when I said I didn’t accept this they said that lenders do not have to check my credit score. Is this correct?This was my second loan with them…
Loan 1 £800 May 2018 repaid early after Amigo loan taken out
Loan 2 taken out November 2019 £1000 at this point I had 3 guarantor loans and numerous payday loans.
Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this rejected by an adjudicator or n Ombudsman?
Ruth says
Is it normally difficult to get the adjudicator to escalate the case to the ombudsman?
I disagreed with the adjudicators decision and below is what happened since then
28/08/20 Requested my case to be passed to the ombudsman
09/09/20 Adjudicator emailed a load of spiel and asked if I am sure about ombudsman
09/09/20 I replied saying that I appreciate their time but ‘Yes, as requested on 28th August, I would like you to refer my case to an ombudsman.’
21/09/20 Adjudicator has again emailed saying that 118 are not in the wrong and asked if I am sure about ombudsman
(My case is 3 loans £3500 each over a short period of time and over £35k of debt on credit file)
Why will the adjudicator not do as I ask and is there anything I can do about this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This isn’t normal. I suggest you phone up and say you want to complain that your adjudicator won’t send your case to the Ombudsman.
Ruth says
Thanks Sara, will do that.
Very frustrating as such a long wait and now they have set me another month behind by not passing it on.
Pete says
Hi Sara,
I made a DSAR and an affordability claim against Mr Lender and today they dismissed my claim so I am going to appeal to the FOS.
Mr Lender lent me 3 sums of £700, £1,000 and £1,000 within 6 months of each other = and loan 2 was granted the day after loan 1 was settled, which seems pretty clear that I was borrowing more because I couldn’t afford the repayment of loan 1.
there were missed payments and deferrals on both loans 1&2, and loan 3 was defaulted after I had paid about £500.
In the affordability section, I had declared outgoings estimates of £2,530 against a net salary of £2,900, and the monthly repayments took that up to £2,660 -so 92% of my income
They sent a 3 page final decision by post (refused to email it), and maintained they had been responsible in their lending, even though I had multiple high interest loans open at the time (with lots of late payments) and many credit accounts opened within 6 months.
They said as a gesture they would waive the interest on loan 3 and ‘only’ require I pay the remainder of the principal.
I think that even loans one and two should be classed as unaffordable, because of the reasons I explain above and the fact that they were quite large sums.
Do you think I have a case for redress of all 3?
Also – they sent their final decision before they complied with my DSAR which I founf very odd. Is it?
thanks again.
Pete
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you are unlikely get the first loan refunded at FOS, although it’s possible, but may well win the second loan.
Mr Lender will sometimes negotiate – if you would be happy with a refund on loans 2 & 3 I suggest you phone them up and say this. Point out the large amount and the missed payments in loans 1 meant they should have checked more closely.
Complaint processing and SAR processing are often totally seperate, it doesn’t seem that odd that the SAR arrives after.
Peter says
Thanks Sara. The problem is that the bulk of the potential interest redress is tied up in the first loan because I settled the second one early (albeit with borrowed money), so if I don’t get that one back then I will still owe for the principal of loan 3, which is money I don’t have.
If you really don’t think I have a case for getting loan 1 refunded do you think they might agree to just wipe the existing debt on loan 3 and call it quits? I’d like to get the default off my credit file if poss.
I don’t have any money at all to pay them, so perhaps if I tell them that they will take a pragmatic view and just get the complaint off their desks?
Is it better to call them rather than email for this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So what interest did you pay on loan 2? And what are they offering to reduce your balance to?
Do you gave An email address for them? They are one of the lenders that trues to make things as difficult as possible for you to email them.
Peter says
Loan 1 £700 granted 10/05/17 closed 23/10/17 total repaid £1,318
Loan 2 £1,000 granted 24/10/17 closed 21/11/17 total repaid £1,218
Loan 3 £1,000 granted 06/03/18 closed 31/05/18 total repaid £525 (defaulted)
They are offering to reduce the balance to £475 which is just the principal on loan 3.
I just have the complants@mrlender.co.uk email
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So getting the £218 from loan 2 off the balance would be a reasonable improvement.
There is no downside to asking Mr L to include the second loan and remove the default on the third – if they say No you just go to FOS. They aren’t offering you any cash so there is nothing to lose.
You can push harder if you want and say that FOS is very likely to include the second loan , may include the first and anyway yoh are in no position to make even a token payment (enclose an income & expenditure sheet to prove that) so if they don’t wipe the last laon you are Going to FOS. But at a guess Mr L is less likely to agree. Up to you.
You can try that email but it may not get a response.
Peter says
Hi Sara,
I have received an email from Lantern UK chasing a balance of £1,046 they say relates to a debt owed to Wage Day Advance, who went bust.
I told them that I wouldn’t be paying it as the loans were unaffordable and asked them to write it off, which they said no to but offered a 50% discount. I can’t pay anything anyway as I am now unemployed, but I am wondering what I can do and legally what powers they have to recover the debt (given that the lender no longer exists)
I have no idea what the sum relates to or whether I have had multiple loans in the past with WDA or just 1 and can’t login to the site.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Any idea when these loans were? Do you have other problem debt you can’t pay now and/or which you may have been ignoring?
Peter says
Since 2015 but aside from that I have no idea.
I have loads of debt I have ignored, but have recently started trying to find out what I owe and what I might not have to pay. I can’t pay anything now.
I have made affordability complaints with lots of companies.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Roughly how much debt? Who are the lenders? Do you expect your financial position will improve?
Peter Keppie says
It actually isn’t as bad as I was fearing because thanks to your site I’ve had a lot written off by high cost lenders.
It’s £6.5k to HSBC (now with a debt collector who have offered to knock £1.5k off), £1.5k to Barclaycard (also with a debt collector), and other with high cost lenders probably totalling another £2k but I’m trying to get most of them written off.
My financial position isn’t going to improve any time soon, but I think my debt is actually below £10k which I’m delighted and slightly surprised by. I thought it was far far more than that and that I had no option but bankruptcy.
I can’t pay that WDA debt, but even if I could I don’t want to given that they aren’t trading now. Interestingly, I can’t find that debt anywhere on my Transunion or Equifax credit reports – either in the name of WDA or ‘lantern’
Tom says
Hi Sara/all,
I am currently in the process of awaiting responses from several companies regarding unaffordable loans.
However, I actually began this process in a panic in Dec 2019/Jan 2020 and many of the companies did not respond, however, Lending Stream did respond, not upholding my complaint, although, in the state I was in at the time, I did not see the response.
Recently I complained to Lending Stream, they did not respond within the 8 week timeframe, so I sent it to FOS and they responded telling me they cannot do anything as it is outside the 6 month timeframe for me to respond.
Is there anything I can say that may help my case? Does anyone have any examples of when FOS have been able to disregard this deadline?
Thanks,
Tom
Pee says
Tom. There is no way that the onbudsman will break the 6 month rule. Absolutely not. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Lots of people tried in the past. But no joy.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it is possible eg if you have been seriously ill, or in prison, or sectioned, or looking after a partner/child who is seriously ill. But it is unusual and you have to have a very good reason.
Tom says
Thanks both, was certainly worth asking the question, but never mind.
Thanks,
Tom
Marc says
HI Sara,
I am also currently in communication with 4 companies regarding unaffordable loans.
3 of them have said they are investigating so just waiting to hear back now.
However, one of the companies (Myjar) has requested the following:
-Bank statements (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us showing the below data)
Bank name and logo/Account holder’s name/Account number/sort code
-Pay slips (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us)
-Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us)
I read your guidance in regards to these requests, but just wondered how it would affect me or the claim if I wasn’t to provide this info? Would the FOS look down on it?
The loans were from about 2011-2013 so currently do not have access to the statements or bank slips from then, nor do I remember the specific dates of loans. I have requested an SAR which would hopefully give me this. Should the question of affordability not be determined by whatever checks/info they recieved at time of making a decision to lend? I I understand I would need to provide my bank statements for FOS so would try hard to get them.
Many thanks in advance.
Marc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Roughly how many loans did you have from Myjar?
You may be more likely to have Myjar uphold you Case if you provide bank statements.
You need to be asking for those bank statements now. Don’t wait.
Do you have other evidence about the loans, eg emails?
Marc says
I had around 12 loans with them in all, spread over the course of a few years. I do not have anything like emails, as from memory when a loan was approved I was only ever sent text messages to confirm this. Do I need to provide them with the full years bank statements, with all other transactions?
Matt says
Hi Marc,
I complained to MyJar and got asked for the same information. My loans were more recent so i was able to supply them with bank statements. Didn’t provide payslips as my statements showed my pay going in. I had a final response within 3 weeks of officially complaining upholding my complaint and refund was in my account within a further 2/3 days.
If you can find and supply statements it definitely seems worth it.
Marc says
Hi Matt,
Thank you for this. I am going to call the bank today to see if I can get the historic bank statements at least. Did you just provide the starements from the month you took out each loan, or full years?
Thanks for your help
Matt says
Hi Marc,
I sent them statements from the 2 months prior to each loan. Was actually suprised by how quick it was all resolved after sending them the statements.
B says
Hi Sara
I commented this week that Sunny have left loans as open on my credit file despite being settled in feb & march. I emailed them this week about it and they responded basically saying they were sorry about the situ and that they were aware of the delays but due to the administration theres nothing they can do until they’ve reached an agreement with the administrators on how to maintain GDPR data but that if I query it on my credit file they wont “dispute it” (I know unbelievable right?) even though trans union cannot do anything without a reply from the business, which they haven’t had despite now querying it twice!!! I then threatened to report them as you suggested and got “Sorry you feel that way, if you wish to make a complaint we’ll get back
To you within 8 weeks” I’m at a loss as to what to do with this at this point, it’s disgraceful.
ernestkola says
MYJAR ask me bank statements aswell but l reply to them by saying.. why don’t you ask me the bank statement when l took out the loans and why you asking me now. That am to going to provide any statement. And 2days after my email l got refund £1450
Peter says
Has anyone had any luck getting responses from Quidmarket? I don’t think my emails are being received and the phone numbe on their site is now obsolete.
Who are the administrators and how do you contact them? I have made an affordability request and DSAR and have had no response whatsoever.