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 you still owe money.
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 just because you repaid 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 solve a short-term problem. If you kept 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 ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or borrowing again soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate this. Just ask for a 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.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times you could get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
You can complain to lenders that are still in business, even if they are no longer lending. These include:
Lending Stream, Cash Converters, CashASAP, Drafty, Dot Dot, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves, Kabayan, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, MyKredit, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, The Money Platform, WageMe, Wizzcash,
See this email list for payday lenders for a longer list and all the contact details to use.
If the lender has gone into administration, including CashForUNow, Piggybank, Ferratum, Oakam:
- make a claim to the administrators – there is normally a simple form for you to complete, see the lender’s website for details – but there will be a time limit for doing this.
- you may not get much cash back but this is very easy to do. A balance may be reduced or cleared even if there is no cash to distribute. And if you win the complaint any negative marks on your credit record will be removed.
It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up years ago, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- 118 Money, Everyday lonas, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, Bamboo, car finance, bank loans and other long-term loans.
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these 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.
If you still owe money to the lender, read Will an affordability claim hurt my credit record, and other questions. These looks at your options for stopping paying, the effect on your credit record etc.
If the rest of your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time to go through at the Ombudsman. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
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.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you complain to the original lender. But also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Start your complaint & get loan details
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next 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.]
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.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. You don’t need to list the loans – the lenders knows them.
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 or when you could not make a payment, add a bit about this.
You can attach bank statements if you like, This is a good idea as these show how unaffordable the loans were for you. If you have gambling showing, this helps your complaint, it doesn’t harm it.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. I
it’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large, read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a very difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed once or twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win an affordability complaint than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
They may send the list of loans first and later respond to your complaint. So don’t be surprised if you get sent info on the loans but nothing about your request for a refund.
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 has already begun and the lender has to reply.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. Make a note in your diary for 8 weeks time and chase the lender up if you don’t get a reply.
Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Send your bank statements or other information?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want. But you should download a copy of your credit record asap as the Ombudsman will ask for it. Don’t put this off, the sooner you get a report downloaded, the further back it goes which is good.
Don’t send payslips.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Again this is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years even if the account has been closed.
Lender says No or makes a poor offer
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints, despite being rejected by the lender.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had large amounts 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 accurate 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 – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked more closely;
- some loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
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 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 it if you think the lender should have realised a lot of the other loans were unaffordable;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound convenient … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well;
- 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 large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an instalment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan 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. When you aren’t sure, send the complaint to FOS. This is free and easy to do – let FOS make the decision.
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!
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. You can add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you.
If some of your loans were over 6 years ago, tell the Ombudsman when and how you found out about these complaints. For example:
“I knew the loans were causing me difficulty in 2018, but I thought this was my fault for being bad with money. I didn’t find out that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable until June 2024 when my brother told me about these claims/I saw an advert from a claims company on Facebook/I read an article about these claims” – change this so it is right for your case!
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
- if you dont have the credit agreements, FOS will get them from the lender.
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 FOS 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!
More help
You can ask a question in the comments below – you may get a reply from someone who has been in your exact situation.
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.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
Andrew Lammas says
So what happens if you can’t get hold of historic bank statements is your claim doomed to failure at stage one or a possible ombudsman once they request them bank statment are form 2011/12/13
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should be able to get bank statements from that period! Go through a Subject Access Request to the bank if just asking isn’t getting you anywhere. If the bank says in writing it is impossible, the Ombudsman may look at your case without.
Lor Cuzz says
I commented a few weeks ago after complaining to Cash Float (western circle) about irresponsible lending (5 weeks on Monday since I complained). I haven’t heard anything as yet. My loans date back to the end of 2014 covering a 30 month period (19 in total some payable over 2/3 months). On two occasions I fell into difficulty and was on repayment plans (I still have the emails) and both times they lent to me again straight away. Loans varied from £200-£600 a time. Since I complained I noticed they have added a new page onto their site specifically about why they are responsible lenders. I wonder if they get many complaints and I never see them mentioned here? Regardless if they don’t fully or in part uphold my complaint I will be taking my account statements, credit reports from that period and emails showing my financial difficulties to the FO. I’ve had a lot of success in this area already having been in the cycle for years. I’m hoping they return with a decent offer I can accept though as the FO wait seems to be an age.
https://www.cashfloat.co.uk/compliance/responsible-lending-policy/
AK says
I had only two loans (£400 and £540) with Cashfloat, one was still outstanding when I complained. Cashfloat was very difficult, rejected the adjudicator’s decision and asked the case to be sent to the Ombudsman. It was a long process (almost a year) but at the end the Ombudsman upheld my complaint on both loans, I repaid £32 to Cashfloat for the outstanding loan. End of story! Don’t give up. Good luck!
Stuart says
Hi, I have had a decision from wageday advance who agree but only for loans 7-12 out of the 20 loans I had with them. Should I email and reject this as its pretty poor??
DECISION
Having reviewed the matters outlined above, we agree with you on some of these points
PROPOSED RESOLUTION
In order to resolve your complaint, I would like to offer the following in full and final settlement: A refund of all interest and charges relating to loans 7 to 12. This amounts to £258.40, Statutory interest on the above amounting to £45.34, As you have an outstanding balance on our final loan of £922.53 we propose
to reduce this to £627.86 using the redress amount above, As the 8% statutory interest is subject to income tax, the amount of £9.07 has been deducted from the redress amount, This reduces the balance to £627.86. In addition will also remove £83.66, which is all interest applied since the complaint was raised on 13th May 2018. This means the total amount that remains payable by you is £544.20. Therefore, the outstanding balance on your account is £544.20 and remains due.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds a very poor offer – they haven’t even removed the interest from the outstanding loan. I suggest you send it to the Ombudsman.
Nats says
UPDATE Wage day advance. I disputed via email them partially upholding my complain and offering payment of £1500 on loans 21-29. I asked them to consider 7-20 aswell as the 1-6 was time barred. I explained that loans 7-20 were taken out in 2013 when I had several defaults on my credit file including a ccj and they continued to lend to me. My advisor has just emailed me back saying she is forwarding my email to the head of complaints as she thinks I’ve made valid points. Fingers crossed for a better result here!
Andrew says
So my first decision come back £3100 for 3 loans 1 loan rejected and 3 unable to determine this was from payday uk sent the form back for the 3 they ruled on can find it on the system they saidaybe it ain’t been delivered oh I said strange Royal Mail tracked delivery says it was on Tuesday oh well it takes time and he was getting flustered
Told him if I owed them 3 grand they would be calling me morning noon and night for their money
matt says
UPDATE
My first FOS complaint upheld last week against PDUK and now had this
We have now heard from the business and they would like to make the following offer in
full and final settlement of your complaint:
• Refund of interest and charges on loans two to four: £900
• Add simple interest at 8% to the above figure: £316.01
• Less 20% tax £63.20
• Total refund £1152.81
• Remove any adverse information from your credit file
Woo hoo. This is my smallest complaint and was initially rejected out of sight by PDUK so I am so happy! Thanks again to this site and Sara so so appreciative.
Matt
Nicola says
Fab news, I am also waiting for my refund of £747 from Payday UK. I sent the signed settlement form to my adjudicator a week ago and have heard nothing since despite several emails! Will be calling them later today if don’t hear anything. Hope you get your refund soon :-)
Annie says
Hi, thanks for all the great advice on the site.
Got a final response from Payday UK, They are now deeming the 2nd loan unaffordable 6 weeks after sending them bank statements. Have to send acceptance form back so a nice £744 back from them and only had 2 loans!
Casheuronet (QQ& & p2p) FoS heave ruled on my favour for loans 3-5 and 11-19 which I am now need to wait for QQ to respond whether they accept this or have any new information, don’t think they will have anything new to add as according to FOS report, I doesn’t look like they could supply very much supporting evidence! So hopefully they will comply and not stall. Thanks again everyone especially Sara. Hopefully this is now the end of payday loan hell!
Louise says
I have also had my response today and Payday UK have agreed loan 2/3 and 4 but not loan 1 (I have accepted as loan 1 interest was £68.50 only)Refund of interest on loans two to four £3539.78
Add simple interest at 8% to the above figure £1665.72
less 20% tax £333.14
Total payable £4872.36
Bank details sent and have up to 28 days from today 5.7.2018
Timescale they had to respond to adjudicator by the 11.7.2018 however, responded this am. So within the timescales. Really pleased!!
In relation to money shop – they have raised an objection so the adjudicator advised me today that it will take time as the loans were over 6 years unless I want the loans before 6 years to be looked at – However, I have never got a statement off them so I am unsure and so is she so I have advised I will wait as long as it takes for this one.
Kara says
Apologies for being slightly off-topic…has anyone made an affordability complaint against Welcome Finance? I’ve recently found that they gave me a £4.5k loan when I was borrowing from 3 payday lenders and had 3 active credit cards & a loan. The interest was nearly as much as the loan itself. They responded to my request for a Statement of accounts very quickly and I have since submitted a complaint.
Jamie says
Anyone had any dealings with Quidmarket? It will be 8 weeks next Tuesday since I complained and not even had an acknowledgement of receiving the email despite chasing them and asking them to confirm it had been received.
Nats says
Hi, They responded to me on the last day of the 8 weeks with an insultingly low offer of £200. My calculations of the interest are over 2k and that’s before the 8% would be added. Sent straight the FOS
Claire says
Hello all,
Does anyone know if you can apply once your DRO has finished or would this complicate the situation, look forward to feedback.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a small risk that getting a large refund could mean that your DRO was cancelled. BUT this is incredibly rare once a DRO has ended. And LOTS of people have reclaimed PPI back after DROs and i have not heard of any having a problem.
Andrew says
Wonga just replied to me they stated loans over 6 years they won’t consider them and not will the ombudsman !
Said I should have complained within 3 years once I realised lol
Sharks lot of em
Off to the ombudsman we go
matt says
UPDATE
I called the FOS for some updates on my cases. All 8 are awaiting to be picked up by an adjudicator.
Quick Quid is my largest and i have around £3k’s worth of interest more than six years old. They asked me if I wanted to proceed without them assessing the older loans but I have asked them to hold fire and proceed with the whole case (I am pretty sure if I owed QQ £3k they would be nailing me to a post).
All the others are within the 6 year deadline and complaints were sent in Mid April so I am hoping not too long away now from being picked up.
Tony says
Hi,
Just a quick one for quick quid,
When you request a list of your loan history and are sent statements detailing payday loans, are flexcredit accounts within these? Or are they separate?
I have asked qq to sort access to my online flexcredit account but I am still waiting.
Thanks in advance
Holly Jane says
Yes they sent me a statement of ALL the loans I had with them.
Kate says
Hi
Just want to say thanks to this website I have managed within 8 weeks to claim back 6.3K from Wonga and 1.1k from sunny in 6weeks
Thanks so so much
Lor Cuzz says
I’ve had a response from cash float (5 weeks later) effectively not upholding my complaint. They state that they acted responsibly and at each application my credit worthiness was considered and a full assessment was carried out. However as a gesture they’ve offered £200. Bearing in mind I had 19 loans and repaid £2347 in interest over 30 months (some loans were multi month repayments) and on two occasions had to go onto repayment plans and they lend to me again straight after (I have the emails about the repayment plans arranged at the time). Off to the FOS I guess…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, that doesn’t sound like an OK offer
Lor Cuzz says
I’ve also found an email where one of their members of staff overrode my declined application because I was a ‘good customer’ I’ve also sent that to them…
Now have increased the offer to £400 again have declined and sending to the FO today
Jonno says
Hi guys,
If my debt was bought by someone else who are now chasing me for it, would I be able to use the same tactic (asking to write off the debt or claim it was irresponsible to lend it to me) with the DCA? Or could I only write to the original lender?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your complaint needs to go to the original lender because they were the one that made the irresponsible lending decision. But tell the debt collector that you are making a complaint to the lender and ask them to hold off court action until the complaint is resolved – once a court case has been started this is much harder, so now is the time to complain!
g rice says
Would i be able to make a complaint if lending stream gave me 4 loans whilst i was in an iva, i am no longer in the iva, it completed in 2016.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes if you feel the loans were unaffordable – which you were in an IVA they probably were!
Jonnym says
Hi all,
I have had the adjudicator find in my favour for Wonga and wageday advance. The Wonga loans are less than 6 years as I decided to proceed forgetting about older loans. The wageday advance are from 2009.
Is it likely that these companies accept at this stage or is there a trend that they push back to the ombudsman?
If they accept what is the procedure from now and timescales? Thanks
Sean says
Hi, does anyone have much experience with safety net credit? I still have an outstanding amount from 2017 however the amount of withdrawal’s and deposits made in 18 months (most on the same day or a few days apart) as well as them upping my spending limit I feel I have a case to complain that my loan was clearly unaffordable. I sent template 1 around 2 weeks ago & 2 around a week ago once I received my sum of borrowing. They have today sent a sum of arrears email, is this just them trying to follow legalities? I have also not had acknowledgement of the second template. Any recommendations going forward would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
tom price says
Hi Sean
I had a reasonably good experience with safety net , after the first template letter – they acknowledged they lent irresponsibly and sent em a reasonable offer which I accepted and it was paid within 3 days
Kyle says
Hi Sara,
I probed a little further with Wonga, asking why all loans under 6 years old were not included in offer and got this response.
“We can confirm that the loans that were not included in our final response was deemed as affordable”
I can confirm that there are 16 loans I had that have interest of £2,673.82 attached. Wonga have offered me £1,857.92 in interest and fees I paid on 5 loans using the above reasoning (excluding 8% additional interest).
Thinking about sending just loans under 6 years old to FOS
Hoping you can answer some of these questions:
1) How do Wonga deem a selection of loans affordable? (Paying on 5 but not the rest)
2) How long do you typically see FOS complaints taking from submission to completion?
3) Would I lose any of original offer by disputing and do FOS rule in favour of customer vs Wonga often?
Thanks
Kyle
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1) who knows? But from the interest amounts, it looks as though Wonga is refunding the larger loans, as the interest on the 6 loans they are refunding is c £1800 and the total interest on the 15 is only £2,600. So the interest on the loans they are NOT offering to refund is c £800 – correct?
2) that depends a lot on the lender and how well organised they are. Wonga are not particularly difficult but they are busy. Adjudicator normally picks up a case in 10-14 weeks after you send it in and takes a week or two to decide it. Then it depends if Wonga accept adjudicator ruling, your case sounds straightforward so I would hope they do but no guarantees.
3) I haven’t seen a case where someone got less than a Wonga offer by going to the FOS. Yes people often get good refund from going to the Ombudsman with Wonga cases.
This isn’t a dreadful offer from Wonga but it could be better – they are offering most of the interest under 6 years, the most extra you could get is c £800 (plus 8% interest). It’s up to you to decide what you want to do.
Tim says
Got my final response from Piggybank today offering £689 refund. Does anyone know how long they take to transfer the money?
Also had response from Uncle Buck saying that all loans were considered as affordable because they were instalment loans so they didn’t take that much of my income, have sent this to the financial ombudsman now.
Just waiting for 247 moneybox and Moneyboat now
John Heart says
Hi DebtCamel,
I emailed Lending stream a week stating irresponsible lending, I’ve just received this response…
Loans (XX, XX, XX, XX, XX, XX and XX) borrowed on (10th November 2015, 6th February 2016, 8th February 2016, 12th February 2016, 19th February 2016, 5th March 2016 and 30th August 2016) were approved based on the following affordability information and checks:
· Where available, your stated monthly income, expenditure and disposable income were compared with the average monthly payments due on these loans at the time of approval. In some cases, as you took further loans, we also independently verified your income with third party sources
· In some cases, we used national averages for expense categories where data is available as a third party verification of your submission, and we revised upwards your total stated expenses while computing the disposable income
· A credit worthiness check was completed and the third party credit reference agency confirmed a rating which was satisfactory for the loan obligation
We hope the above addresses your query regarding affordability checks done on your loans.
Would you say they’ve got a good case or is it worth escalating to the FO?
Thanks
Adele bruce says
Hi, that is the exact same letter they sent me, word for word, I sent mine straight to the FO.
Thanks
Jackie says
Hi, just wondering has anyone had a refund awarded but it has been sent to their completed iva practitioner. If so, did all of the funds go to the completed iva or did you get anything back.
Just been awarded over £3.5k from Lending stream but been told it will be paid to the iva I was in that completed April 17. I am aware that any PPI awards do go to the iva and there are disputes over wether a payday loan refund should be classed as a “windfall”. This refund would have gone to pay off current outstanding debts so am slightly gutted it’s going to closed debts ????
my LS loans were during and after my iva. Thanks
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this refund agreed directly with Lending Stream or with the Financial Ombudsman? Who is your IVA firm?
Any refunds for any loans taken out after the IVA ended should be going directly to you – I can’t imagine any legal argument about that.
There is a good case that refunds for loans taken out before an IVA started should go to the IVA firm, because of the Green v Wright case which applies to PPI refunds. As IVAs are so long, this hardly ever crops up – I don’t remember a case.
The question about refunds for loans taken out in the IVA is more complicated. But Green v Wright has no relevance at all for these loans, GvW applies to assets at the start of an IVA. The IVA firm would need to make out a reasoned argument why the refunds should come to it.
Jackie says
Hi Sarah
Some were taken out during and some after. The company was payplan. These loan complaints were resolved by the ombudsman. Ive also had 2 other complaints upheld but again been informed that the refunds will go to the creditors of my completed iva ???? I try to log on to my payplan account but it says “ this account is now closed” I will give it a week or so and then see what is happening – I should get confirmation from either the ombudsman or payplan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So who said the refunds had to go to your IVA – the Ombudsman or LS? I don’t think you should leave this, it is best to challenge it now.
James Jonez says
Hi Sara,
Had a response from MrLender Declining my complaint.
Based on the information provided at the times the loans were taken they see this as affordable.
Their response seems more tailored to my affordability assessment rather than my credit check.
In 2 months I borrowed 4 times with increasing amounts and the last loan they increased my credit limit to £1000 . I couldn’t keep up payments and had to go on to a payment plan as I lost my job.
While this was going on I had 5 loans with other lenders, 2 personal loans totalling 10k and 5 credit Cards totalling 17k. All in all my debt was almost double my annual salary. I would assume they would see this on my credit score which they have only referenced on once. Surely this would not be the same for all loans,
Eventually I had to borrow from a relative to pay it off as the stress was getting to me.
Would it be worth taking to FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that is worth taking to the Ombudsman – borrowing 4 times in 2 months and increasing amounts clearly suggests you were in trouble and Mr Lender should have noticed. But first you could try going back to Mr Lender and saying you will accept a refund on either the last loan or the last two loans… they do listen to a reasoned argument quite often. And you are unlikely to get a full refund on all 4 loans from the FOS.
Rory says
Just wondering if there are any available refunds for payday loans with 118 118 money for around £2.4k when a loan was taken out in my name in a case identity fraud when my passport went missing on a night out, which the bank did not want to take responsibility for a few years back. I have fallen into severe depression I didn’t have a job then and no longer have one now to clear the debt. I directly spoke to the manager of the company over the phone due to the bank not taking proper action of this incident of fraudulent activity; the manager did not solve the problem and left me with £2.4k debt to clear off. It is now affecting my credit score badly I cannot even a phone contract in my own name and cannot open a student account for university. This whole situation has absolutely ruined my financial credit status as well as psychological frame of mind as I was in chronic depression for approximately 2 years and a half years. At the time this happened I was 19 years of age in full time education with parents who did not work either so no financial support was put into place for me.
Any help pls
Thank you
Lee says
Hi, Just wondered if anyone has recently had a refund from 247 Moneybox following a final ombusdman final decision.
I got my final decision on 22nd June. They have until 23rd July to pay me. 247 Moneybox have not been in contact with me at all to request correct bank details or anything. I’ve sent 2 emails & 2 letters to them and phoned them 5 times (on hold for around 40 minutes all times before giving up). Got through once last week in 5 minutes though to someone who confirmed they had my final decision but couldnt pass me to the relevent section to ask what was going on. Very fustrated drained trying to deal with them and just want my money now.
Nats says
Does anyone know how long wage day advance take to pay out once you have accepted an offer from them? This has been done directly and not through the fos. Thanks
Eva says
I had settlement direct with them. Took 4 days to have money in my bank and credit file deleted within z week
John Smith says
Hi,
The Financial Ombudsman agreed that QuickQuid should pay 10 out of the 13 loans, which when I worked it out comes to £2k in interest, the FO said that QuickQuid would contact me for a settlement figure but I have not heard anything from them for 8 weeks? Should I wait or contact FO or QQ, I first put my claim back in June 2017, not sure what the delay is though?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good result! I suggest calling QQ and if they don’t immediately leap into action, tell your adjudicator.
Eva says
I had settlement figure emailed to me from the adjudicator when he said QQ agreed with his findings.i then accepted. Now waiting for payout
Lauren says
Hi,
I’ve finally had a final ombudsman decision who has agreed with the adjudicator on the complaint I have with QQ on 8 loans. The final decision has a response deadline date of 25 July. I have responded to say I accept the decision and the FO have advised they will let me know when QQ respond.
For those who had complaints with QQ – do they respond quickly or do they wait right up until the deadline? Also at the deadline – how long does it take to receive the funds from QQ? I’ve yet to supply any bank details – is it worth me contacting QQ or waiting until the FO give me an update?
And a big thanks to this site and the great info! without it I would never had known I could put in this complaint!
Annie says
I have a case with the FOS for QQ and P2P in which the adjudicator has upheld loans 3-5 and 11-19. I phoned FOS for an update and QQ are disputing some of the adjudicators decisions, the FOS have wrote back to QQ and they have another week to agree or it goes to ombudsman. If they don’t agree to settle, it’s now going to take another few months to be picked up by the ombudsman. I really hope the agree to pay out as I really don’t want to have to wait again. The original deadline was 29th June and QQ only replied after the deadline. So I would advised waiting until 25th July then contact FOS.
Sweets says
Hi Sara, still no news on the QQ and Wonga loans over 6 years?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am optimistic there may be a decision on the test cases soon – but I have been wrong before.
James Jonez says
I just wanted to say a huge thank you.
I had a response from Ferratum who have not upheld my complaint however as a gesture of good will have taken my interest of £326.97 from my previous loans and also any interest oweing on my outstanding loan and reduced my outstanding balance from £1526 to just £326.67. Over £1200 reduced. They have also confirmed that this will be marked as settled in full on my credit file. Your help has been much appreciated.
Laura says
Does anyone know how long it takes an adjudicator to get in touch after picking up your complaint? My first complaint had been acknowledged by FOS 18 weeks ago and still not been picked up by an adjudicator..frustrating..
Carl Bareham says
I had a similar concern, phonecall from Adjudicator on 29th May and nothing since. I phoned the FOS today and got an update on that complaint and my other 3 all within 15 minutes. Call Them on 0800 023 4567.
Sarah says
Hi, after some advice, after submitting complaints to Wonga and Quick Quid, I’ve had responses from both. QQ are saying no they are not upholding my claim, so I have completed a form for the FOS for that one. I have calculated the interest and charges from QQ were around £3000. Wonga have replied via email today to say that they are upholding my complaint and my offer of compensation is £10.17… the interest and charges from loans I had from them were around £1100. Feel a bit deflated, and will go and raise it with the FOS too, just wondered if you thought it was a waste of time, or worth pursuing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from Wonga, over what period? Have they just picked one loan to refund?
Lou says
Good Morning
I am a little concerned. My case with QQ and P2P was outright rejected and has now been with the adjudicatior since 24th May 2018. I have sent all bank statements and credit files etc. I asked for an update on 11th June asking very politely for a rough time frame but got a very curt email back (fair enough). I asked QQ/P2P for a statement of account as even though I had asked in my initial email they never sent this info. I received this yesterday (looks like I’ve paid about £6000 in interest) and forwarded to the adjudicator, who then replied to say as 2 of the loans were over 6 years the claim would go to the jurisdiction team. If it hadn’t been for this website I wouldn’t have known I could ask them to drop the 2 loans outside of the 6 years and the adjudicator never even mentioned this as an option. I emailed back asking them to drop the two loans and the adjudicator replied saying he would do just that. My worry is. I feel like my adjudicator is not being very helpful in this process, or providing me with all my options. Any time I send an email I’m made to feel like a nuisance. This is troubling me as I thought they were supposed to fight my cause. Can anyone put my mind at ease or offer any advice please? TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
” I thought they were supposed to fight my cause” no actually they are supposed to look neutrally at a complaint.
All I can say is, some people have lovely friendly adjudicators and some people worry that their adjudicator isn’t sympathetic. But it doesn’t seem to make much difference to the end result, so hang on in, it sounds as though you have a good case!
shez says
i have accepted redress settlements from payday loan companies. however, looking back, i should have reviewed their offers and escalated my complained to FOS. can i still do this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No sorry … a lot of people have accepted low offers, either because they were desperate or because they didn’t appreciate how much more they could get – but you have accepted that offer in full and final settlement of your complaint.
The only way you could re-open one of these complaints is if
EITHER the reply from the lender was factually wrong, for example did it say you had 5 loans and you now realise you had more?
OR the lender failed to tell you that you had the right to take your complaint to the Financial ombudsman.
Pamela says
The adjudicator said I should get the interest and fees back on all of my quickquid loans. Quick quid rejected this and it’s now gone to the ombudsman, how long does the ombudsmans decision normally take?
Annie says
I am in the same boat, adjudicator upheld my loans and QQ have disputed it, they have been send another letter by adjudicator and have a week to reply so it looks like they are going to reject the decision. As far as I am aware it’s another few months to be picked up by the ombudsman. I hoping it won’t need to go that far but got a feeling it will.
AK says
In my case it took almost 4 month, the adjudicator sent my case to the Ombudsman in the end of February as QQ rejected adjudicator’s decision. Only on 23rd June I received the final decision. Luckily the Ombudsman made the same decision as the adjudicator and upheld my complaint on all my loans except two oldest ones. I’m on my third week of wait for the settlement. If I’ll receive money in July it will be 11 months since I sent my initial letter to QQ.
Mark Nightingale says
Mine is exactly the same. Got blown out by QQ in January. FOS upheld complaint and QQ paid 5.5 k into my account Last week. Just wait, it will come. The time it took was about 11 months from start to finish.
Declan says
Hi Sara,
Looking for a bit of advice please.
I had 25 loans with Quickquid over the period of 19/04/12 – 26/12/14. This equates to over £5000 of borrowing. I ended up paying over £3100 in interest back for this period.
I had payday loans with around 13 other companies during this time so I was literally borrowing from one company to pay another.
4 of my loans have now passed 6 years which I am happy to drop as part of the investigation. I have however had a response from quickquid offering me the below :-
Please find the breakdown of the offer below:
-Contractual interest and/or charges £350
– Interest at 8% simple £142.33
-20% tax withholding on interest £28.47
-Amount to be paid to your account £463.86
This seems ridiculous in terms of how much I actually borrowed. They haven’t mentioned which loans they are upholding. Should I send this to the ombudsman or does this seem normal?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you could ask them which loans they are refunding – but the offer is so low you may decide you don’t care and just send the case to the Ombudsman now.
Stuart says
Hi all,
Anybody know how long Safety net credit take to pay out, I excepted a refund of £2970 from them today.
Thanks
Louise says
Hi,anybody had a refund off The Money Shop through fos.How long do they normally take to make a decision?
Scott Proctor says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your help so far. I have followed steps 1 & 2 and have had an offer from QQ. I’m not sure whether to accept this or not based on what I sent. This was the loan info I got from SAR request
Loan info Principle / Interest / Fee
1 (4432901) 07.05.12. 100 25 12
2 (4798176) 03.07.12. 50 25
3(5308440)23.09/18.10 200 100
4 (5707772) 23.11.12 600 300
5 (6116507) 19.01.13 900 225 12
6 (6515985) 15.03.13 900 225
7 (6715789) 12.04.13 900 225
8 (6923548) 12.04.13 900 225 12
Total 4550 1350 36
This was the offer i received:
CONCLUSION: COMPLAINT UPHELD
We take seriously our responsibility to treat customers fairly and to that point we uphold your complaint as it relates to irresponsible lending. As such, we are offering you a refund of £325. We’d also like to offer to waive the remaining balance of £305.86 which equates to the interest charged plus 8% statutory interest on loans 6116507, 6715789, 6923548.
OFFER BREAKDOWN
Please find the breakdown of the offer below:
-Contractual interest and/or charges £474
– Interest at 8% simple £196.07
-20% tax withholding on interest £39.21
-Amount applied to your outstanding balance £305.86
-Amount to be paid to your account £325
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those numbers look odd. Either ask QQ to explain or just send it straight to FOS
Scott Proctor says
Looks like you’re right Looking at the interest on the SAR request
I’m pretty sure the loan 8 details are correct. I could sent you the loan details if possible as I could be reading it wrong!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, just ask QQ to explain it.
Allison says
A success and an update on timescales. Adjudicator decision in my favour against Wonga on the Friday at 5.40pm. Wonga accepted on the Tuesday. They emailed me for payment details two days later wanted bank statement or copy of front of card as proof of account. They paid out on day 13.
Jonnym says
Did Wonga accept via your adjudicator or did they contact you directly?
Adjudicator has found in my favour with Wonga and has told them so and given them 14 days to agree or disagree. It’s day 14 today!
Allison says
Wonga accepted via my adjudicator then contacted me directly when I’d returned the signed form to the FOS.
Jonnym says
I complained middle of Feb to Wonga and then sent to FOS 7 weeks later after they rejected. Was picked up 3 weeks ago by adjudicator. Adjudicator has found in my favour with Wonga and has told them so and given them 14 days to agree or disagree. It’s day 14 today! I have not heard from anyone. Do they usually come back to me or the adjudicator within the 14 days? Thanks
Emma says
Hi, after some advice please, I have completed the steps above and have had a response from quickquid, snotty email but said they upheld my complaint for the £350 loan I had in 2013 and would offer me £31.00. I said I don’t think that’s correct as I have paid them back £599.12 due to having to go into debt management plans. The debt has been paid off now. I have just rang them as I wanted to check the initial loan and I have realised that I actually had three loans in a short period of time dec 2012-£150, feb 2013 £200 and then 8 days later another £150.
What is the best way to approach this now, should the original complaint for the one loan(which I had stated as £350- was actually one loan and a top up) be sent to the FO or does £31 sound correct? Should I send a new complaint about the original loan in dec or should I include this on the letter to the FO if that’s the way forward or should I accept the £31 refund?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£31 is clearly wrong if they have said they are refunding all interest and charges on that loan – £599-350 = £249 and you would get 8% interest on top.
If you want them to also look at the earlier loans, you should ask for these to be added to your current complaint, not start a new one.
Bern says
Hello
I took out 9 loans from QQ totalling £2500. The interest and fees on these totalled £769.31 (rollovers, late fees). They have today offered me £602 as a refund on 4 loans, would you suggest accepting or fighting for a higher amount?
If I emailed them back arguing, have they ever changed their figure without it going to the FO?
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, they don’t usually. Is there any logic to the ones they have refunded?
Kirsty says
**** please help ****
I wrote to sunny with the template letter, they’ve now come back today saying they lended to me “responsibly” I have to send this to the ombudsman.
Sunny haven’t sent me over any evidence of my loans etc.
The only evidence I have is from my clearscore report on closed debts. I wrote everything down and totalled over 7k from 2015-2017
Some with 4 loans taken a month!
How can I send this to the ombudsman? Shall I call them?
Any help will be appreciated
Kind regards
Kirsty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a lot of borrowing. Did you ask Sunny for a list of your loans? Do you have your bank statements for this period?
Kirsty says
I emailed them back and told them they have failed to provide me with evidence of my lending and that th ombudsman will be in touch. I have just called the ombudsman and am starting my complaint :(
I will be able to locate statements via the bank.
I had to borrow money from my family to pay the final loan, I even called sunny and they agreed a payment plan, I didn’t even start the payment plan I paid it off with the help from family.
I will never ever touch a payday loan again!
I feel horrible complaining but they really did screw me with the interest, I was always chasing my tail :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I feel horrible complaining but they really did screw me with the interest, I was always chasing my tail :(” I think everyone here knows exactly that feeling! It’s common to think it’s your fault for being stupid, but these lenders make their profits out of lending to you again and again.
Aaron says
Hi Tim,
I also had a similar offer through from Piggybank yesterday, i have replied by email with the details they requested but have not heard anything back yet, did they send you a confirmation after you agreed to the refund?
Tim says
Hi aaron
No, they didn’t send me anything, I sent them the bank details I wanted the funds transferred to and then they went quiet – I called them 2 days later to see if they had received and they said they could see the email and would send it through to the relevant team, then I got an email saying the money would be in my account in 3-5 days, was in there the next day
Thanks
Marie says
I have just chased fos again about my complaints to give them a friendly nudge, 3 more have got the case files back from the company but they have no idea about when i will get an adjudicator assigned. But my longest complaint is lending stream who haven’t even sent the case file to the fos and they are still allowing them another 14 days now and have sent them another email. I think the fos now need to take some responsibility for being soft on lending stream, as allowing them 5 months for them to reply even the young girl i spoke to at the fos seemed a bit embarrassed. I have now insisted they make a ruling on evidence they already have after this latest 14 days given to lending stream and she agreed that this can happen so let’s see.
Izzy says
Hi could anyone help me… it has taken me some time but now appear to have been very successful with trying to get the interest back on a few loans with the likes of Wonga, lending stream and pounds to pocket and sunny. I have however now been going through my bank statements and have had deposits a couple of years ago from –
– mem consumer finance
-mr lender
-express finance
– pacnet services ltd
-pay day express
Can anyone tell me who some of these relate to the actual companies as I can’t find anything on the search for them and would like to contact them to see if I have any joy
Thanks In advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mem Consumer finance, Express finance and Payday Express are all current or previous brand names of the group which owns Payday Uk and the Money Shop.
Mr Lender is a medium size lender still operating.
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/ for their email addresses for complaints.
Pacnet was a payment mechanism, not a payday lender itself and it has closed.
Eva says
FINAL UPDATE. Today received money un my bank. Called them just to ask if they received my acceptance form to be told they cant talk to me about it and that i have to ask questions via adjudicator. Told him where to go and suddenly 2hours later 2 emails apologising for delayed communication and payment has been made and loans deleted from credit file.
Update on Quick Quid. Originally rejected by QQ. Sent to FOS 05/01/18. Picked up by adjudicator 02/05/18. Decision made 15/06/18 for loans 2-5 to be refunded with 8% interest (loan 1 was older than 6 years at the time of original complaint). QQ response back on time agreeing with adjudicator. Acceptance form.sent off 02/07/18 so now waiting time to see how long it will take them to pay out.
Louise says
Me too Eva with Payday Uk – money in bank within 2 hours told them if it 28 days add the extra interest till its received :)
Tom says
Revived a response from Quickquid. They advised that only had two loans but acknowledged I also had flexi credit, however advised the following ‘I also note you had a Flex Credit account which is not a payday loan but a running credit account which is designed to provide customers with the option to drawdown credit up to their approved credit limit and repay it over a maximum of 10 months. Just like a credit card, we are not under an obligation to conduct an affordability assessment each time you drawdown on your credit limit.’ Is this correct?? I had two loans with them, however withdraw credit from them around 60 times, with an average of 5 times a month. And over time this credit limit increased.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ignore them and send it to the ombudsman – people are getting refund on flexi credit accounts and it is misleading of QuickQuid to suggest otherwise. they should certainly have checked for affordability before increasing your credit limit!
Lou7 says
Hi all,
I had my decision from the adjudicator about payday uk. They seem to agree with payday uk and think all the checks they did were appropriate. I borrowed £1,800 over several months. Is it worth going to the ombudsman? Any info, advice would be appreciated.
Jackie says
Hi, I disagreed with the adjudicator as I missed payments on a loan and yet was still given further loans by payday uk. I asked for the ombudsman to look at it again and he upheld my complaint. I think if you have further support for your complaint it’s worth a go. Hope this helps
Izzy says
I too today have had the same response about the same company from an adjudicator… I got the feeling from his reply it was just a standard template letter he sent and didn’t even look into my case as at the time of the borrowing I had 6 other payday loan companies to replay plus living in overdraft, bank loans and 2 credit cards!!! Not sure if to disagree or just accept it!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As i said before, i think you should send this to be looked at by an Ombudsman. Why would you just accept it?
Izzy says
I have had some response back today from the adjudicator who states that agree with mem that the lending was affordable when at the time I had loans with quickquid, sunny, pounds to pocket, Lloyds, mr lender, lending stream and various other credit cards…
Wonga and sunny agrees straight away and didn’t question they refunded me, adjudicator agreed that lending steam and quick quid shouldn’t have lent me the cash and asked them to refund me…..
The letter they sent me agreeing today doesn’t to seem to take any of this into account should I ask it to go to ombudsman or just let it go?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it’s worth asking for an Ombudsman to look at that.
James says
Hi has anyone had much success with loans over 6 years old? I have had quite a few loans 5 of which where over 6 years, I just received an email from FCA asking do I want to continue without including the 5 loans over 6 years old. The only thing putting me off is the interest on them 5 alone amounts to roughly £500. If I want them to be considered is there a chance my entire claim could be rejected?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who is the lender? How many loans did you have that were under 6 years and what is the interest on those?
“If I want them to be considered is there a chance my entire claim could be rejected?” No, that can’t happen. The worst that could happen is that your complaints sits in a pile for a while and then the FOS decide they can’t look at the older loans so your complaint will become just about the under 6 year loans.
Also the “6 year mark” is determined when you sent the complaint to the FOS, so you don’t need to worry that every month that passes means one fewer loan will be considered.
LJC says
Has anybody had any joy with Ablemarle and Bond / speed loan as emailed them in may re S.A.R…not heard anything ….4 weeks later I’ve emailed them again and still nothing …can anyone advise me what to do please as have had loans with both
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you sent the template one complaint in that is the start of your affordability complaint. If it has got to 8 weeks, you should send it to the Ombudsman.
Louise says
Update – Payday UK.
Just a brief update in relation to timescales:
Complaint – took 4 weeks by Payday Uk and went to FOS mid march, picked up by adjudicator mid June. Upheld all loans (4 but rolled considerably from 2011 to 2014) Payday UK agreed loan 2/3 and 4 as loan 1 was minimum £62.50 interest paid on that loan and with the 8% would have only been in total probably £180 I accepted on the 2.7.2018. Didn’t sign an agreement form was verbally done as my adjudicator called me she passed on the information via email and requested bank details same day 2.7.2018.
Today I emailed Payday Uk as not had acknowledged and given me a breakdown (was told verbally the breakdown so was aware and write it down) said this is not acceptable and then 2 hrs later on the 13.7.2018 money in my account.
Sara – can I claim the tax back? As I have requested the breakdown from them? Do I need this I know the tax paid was over £333 .
Hope this helps others.
Louise.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks – people love to hear all the details!
Yes you do need PDUK to tell you in writing what the 8% added interest was and how much tax they deducted. Then if you are a basic rate tax payer you can claim £200 of this back if this is the first refund you have had this tax year, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Helpwanted says
Hi everyone.
I have a complaint with the money shop which is currently with an adjusticator for irresponsible lending. I was on a repayment plan which I stopped paying once it went to the ombudsman.
Today I received a default notice demanding payment of the full amount by the 9th of August.
‘CONC 7.14.1: (1) A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds.’
I have replied with that and stating I will make catch up payments once the complaint is settled if needed but want the action to be stopped.
Where do I stand with this?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Technically sending out a default notice wouldn’t be classified as a step in recovering a debt. Why did you stop – was the repayment plan unaffordable?
Helpwanted says
Thanks for the reply. I felt the loan was missold so wanted to redo the payment plan once the complaint was settled with the correct amounts outstanding. I have kept the funds aside to make a payment once this had been completed however so sent an email offering to pay the amounts missed off the payment plan to prevent the default, but should they reject that I’m worried this complaint has in essense made me give myself a default