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?
Jasmine says
Hi Sara
I have got decision from adjudicator for lending stream
Do you thing this is good offer ? Should I accept the offer?
“
If the checks the business did were enough, we won’t usually say that it shouldn’t have agreed to the loan.
If we don’t think the checks were enough, and we feel that more proportionate checks would have revealed you couldn’t have afforded the loan, we’ll ask the business to put things right.
what did it do?
Before agreeing to lend to you, Payday UK asked you to provide details of your monthly expenses
I think the checks Payday UK did before agreeing your first loan went far enough.
As this was the first time you had borrowed from Payday UK, they wouldn’t have held a lending history with you, so I think it would’ve been reasonable for them to have relied on the information you told them at the time to be an accurate reflection of your financial circumstances and I think it would’ve been enough for them to determine if your loan would be affordable.
their offer
As stated in their final response letter, Payday UK have determined that your second loan was unaffordable and their offer is as follows:
– Refund of interest paid on loan two: £89.85
– 8% interest added as compensation: £31.15
– 20% deducted from as per instructed by HMRC: £6.23
– Total refund: £114.77
If you would like to accept this offer, please let me know and I’ll contact Payday UK on your behalf.
Thank you Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have got decision from adjudicator for lending stream” I assume this was a mistake as the rest of your comment refers to Payday UK.
Is it correct that you had two loans from payday UK? How much did you borrow for the first loan? And for the second loan?
Tony says
Hi, I have just received this from the FOS regarding QQ,
”
We would also like to make you aware that Quick Quid has told us they are raising an objection into us looking into this complaint because you’ve not brought it within the correct time scales. We’ll need to look into the jurisdiction objection raised in order to know whether this is a complaint we can take forward on not. After we’ve looked into the jurisdiction objection that has been raised it may mean that we can’t take part of your complaint any further.
It’s taking us a bit longer than usual to look into these types of complaints so please bear with us as we’re unable to give an exact time frame as to when you can get an answer.”
I have already told them that I complained as soon as knew I had cause to, should I be doing anything further?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are all your loans over 6 years old or just some of them? If just some, how many are over 6 years and how many are under 6 years?
Anthony says
The majority are, approx 4k in interest over 6 years and approx £500 under six.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so giving up on the older loans to speed things up is not a good idea. I am afraid you need to settle in for what may be a long wait. I don’t think there is anything you can do to speed this up, but you might like to ask the FOS every couple of months what is happening.
Lindsay says
Hi Sara, having read your info on irresponsible lending from PDL, I have now sent step 1 complaint letters to 4 companies. Wonga, P2P, QQ and LS. I have had acknowledgment emails back from them so I’m getting ready for step 2. I just wanted to say that I’m glad I am now in a place where I feel I can tackle this issue. I unfortunately got trapped in the downward spiral of payday borrowing. I ended up really worse off. Financial and mental. Looking at the lending agreements reminded me how worried I used to feel about working all month to pay them back just so I could borrow my wages back. I really don’t know what I was thinking when I used them in the 1st place. Hindsight is a great thing. Anyway thank you for having this information available.
David says
Hi all
Anybody on here dealt with Fernovo/Quidie?
Sent my complaint on 19th July. Stated in my complaint that I couldn’t afford to resume payments on my current balance and would need an affordable payment arrangement.
Received an acknowledgement of my complaint but no mention of a payment arrangement.
Emailed again on 25th and reminded them that I couldn’t afford the payments and the need for a payment arrangement. Also requested my CPA be cancelled and to send me alternative payment details.
Received a response agreeing to cancel CPA and they sent alternative payment details, but still no mention of a payment arrangement.
Have had no response since then and now received email/text saying my account is 7 days overdue and to contact them?
Any advice would be gratefully received
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know what you can afford? If you have a lot of other complaints in, it can be hard to know what to offer to each.
David Burza says
I know, obviously the plan would be to see what I can afford then split it on a pro rata basis according to what I owe each lender.
It’s the fact it took a 2nd email for Fernovo to agree to cancel the CPA and send bank details and I have still to receive a response to my request for an alternative payment arrangement
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t ASK for an alternative payment arrangement, you TELL them what you can afford and say it will be reviewed after your complaint has been resolved.
Pro rata is the technically correct way but it’s much simpler to offer them all £10 a month at the moment.
Catherine paterson says
Hi
I need some advice on payday loans as I have got myself into a pickle.
I have a credit card which I had maxed £2000 and also I had taken a loan out with Avant of £2100 and this is all in the space of 4 month this would have been on my credit file. I have over the years applied and repaid back so many payday loans Wonga, uncle buck, wageday advance and Lending stream.
In July 2018 I had taken a Wonga loan of £400 for 4 months to repay back £199 a month, then I had taken another payday loan with Wageday for £100 repaid £140 end of this month. I had taken another payday loan with Uncle Buck for £500 payments over 4 months £184.33 over 3 months and last payment of £176.61, then I took another payday loan with Lending stream over 6 months £224.31 for 5 month the last payment of £118.45.
Really the payday loan company should have seen these on my credit file and should have never given them to me. I am now in arrangement to repay them back and I’ve asked them to freeze interest and charges. Do I have a case where this is irresponsible lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have over the years applied and repaid back so many payday loans Wonga, uncle buck, wageday advance and Lending stream.” Ok, in this case you need to put in complaints to all those lenders. Include in this complaint any recent borrowing, but you are complaining about ALL the loans you have had over the years.
David says
Submitted a complaint to cashasap on 19th July stating I couldn’t afford the repayments on my loan. Acknowledged the complaint but nothing else. Emailed another twice with no response. Decided to send 4th email today and received this response within 20 minutes
Hi David,
Thank you for your message.
We want to help you repay your cashasap.co.uk loan in a way that you can afford and we understand that not everything always goes according to plan.
We can agree to freeze your balance at the current amount due of £285.34, subject to you agreeing to a fair and reasonable repayment plan.
Please note your repayment plan will show on your credit file so we would encourage you to settle your loan in full ahead of 28th January 2019 if you can afford to do so.
Please confirm if you agree to proceed with the repayment plan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well hopefully your complain will lead to a reduced balance so you can settle it. But in the meanwhile, yes you need to go ahead with a repayment plan. If they are asking for something unaffordable and you have other complaints, handing the whole lot over to StepChange might be a good idea.
Steve says
Anyone have any experiences with Sunny, regarding responding to a FOS recommendation? i.e how long did it take sunny to respond and any success with Sunny agreeing? Deadline given to Sunny by FOS is 8th Aug, but no response as yet.
John says
I am currently waiting on sunny responding to my letter of settlement from FOS. They have given sunny until the 16th to either agree with FOS findings or not so it’s just a waiting game now I have already managed a few refunds many thanks to this page for all the template letter and taking me through step by step
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My impression is that Sunny accept more adjudicator decisions that some other lenders, but they still reject some very good ones which are then upheld by the Ombudsman.
Jackie says
Steve, Sunny were given till 9th August to contact me about the refund they have agreed to pay. I have emailed them everyday, even tried via their social media support page but noresponse/acknowledgments whatsoever. I’m going to try the live chat facility on their web page later and then start ringing. Fingers crossed we both hear soon
Jen says
Hi with sunny n me they settled at adjudicator stage, I returned signed acceptance to adjudicator on 18/7/18 money in my acc 30/7/18. I’ve not had any e.mail/call/txt frm sunny to say it was goin in or any up to date breakdown of interest, no contact at all from them, the money just appeared in my bank, check ur bank daily
John says
The only lending company I have had a problem with so far is My Jar they offered a settlement to which I agreed yet have not paid me out and it has almost been 4 weeks since the date of agreement other lenders seem to be very fast for payout.
Rosie says
hi, my husbands claims were rejected by the companies, so i’m keen to go to the ombudsman. In the mean time he is unemployed and is suffering from mental health issues – exacerbated by the loans, for which he is unable to deal with. I am happy to take over the accounts, for which he has to give me authority to do so. Can i ask that that the interest is frozen and that we can pay only what he can afford? Will this damage his or our credit rating? Is there anything ‘bad’ financially that can happen if i ask them to do this?
thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman will be happy to let you handle his complaints if he gives you authority.
Yes you can ask for interest to be frozen – if he is unemployed he will only be able to make token payments of £1 a month or even nothing.
If he has more than a couple of creditors it may be easier to set up a debt management plan with StepChange, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
Yes payment arrangements (or a DMP, they are much the same) will affect his credit rating, but if he can’t make the normal repayments (which sounds impossible) then there is no alternative to this. Borrowing more to make other debt repayments is a cycle you do not want to get into.
If he wins the complaints, the amount he owes should be reduced, possibly to zero and there may be a cash refund if he had borrowed a lot with the same lender before. The Ombudsman will say that the late / missed / arrangement to pay / default markers for any loans being refunded should be deleted. So the harm to his credit record will hopefully be temporary. And any cash refunds can be used to clear other debt.
Good luck.
J says
Hi Sara,
I was wondering if you had any further info on the stalemate between QQ/P2P and the FOS re: loans over 6 years?
I had a poor offer from CashEuroNet (£500 refund when £2510 in interest was paid) so forwarded to the FOS at the beginning of April.
Five of my loans are over 6 years (all QQ), with 3 under 6 years (QQ & P2P). The difference in not including the loans over 6 years would be at least £1200 in interest, £1900 including statutory interest. I still stand to potentially receive a refund of £2000 just looking at loans under 6 years, along with potential removal of a default from my credit file.
I could really use a refund of the remaining loans, as I am currently in financial difficulty and absolutely do not want to borrow any more money to ease the situation.
I just wondered if the stalemate would end very soon, or whether it would be best for me to drop the loans over 6 years and progress with the complaint as quickly as possible?
Thank you very much for all your help so far.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am hoping it will be resolved very soon. I am sorry but that is a very difficult decision. Would a temporary debt management plan help you get through this period?
Andrew says
Hi everyone
My adjudicator has sent their assessment to
Wonga requesting they refund loans 9 to 43 and loans 45 to 50 – including interest it comes
to around £7500
Wonga originally offered me £1200 but given the amount of loans I was given and amount of those loans I rejected based on all the great advice on here. Wonga can reject but will need to
Explain why and provide new information otherwise the ombudsmans decision will not differ from The adjudicator ( as per the last paragraph of the assessment)
They have until 17th Aug to respond – if they accept what happens next?
Sara – I have three other complaints with the same adjudicator. ( Sunny, Lending Stream and Quick Quid) these are slightly different to the Wonga loans as some of them are instalment loans so based on what my adjudicator has told me they are working with the lenders to work out what their stance will be on these as the monthly payments are more affordable – that said, I had three loans live with Sunny at the one time and 4 with Lending Stream so certainly helps my case as the instalment plan speech from them won’t wash when they have allowed me to take out 4 loans at the same time – adjudicator certainly agrees
Have you heard anything about how they are looking into these type of instalment loans?
Hopeful these will go the same way as the Wonga assessment
Jon says
Hi all, got a decision for payday express from the adjudicator 4 weeks ago but as yet payday hasn’t contacted me. The FOS said that they would wipe of interest but because I still owed them from my last loan I had to pay the £81 which was a reduction from the O/S balance of £450. The debt was sold to Prac and being administered by BW Legal, have spoke to Bw and they are not helpful at all does anyone have a number for Prac as the number on their website just goes to a voicemail? Thanks Jon
Sarah says
Has anyone had an issue with lending stream?
They have responded with the below, and I cannot see any acknowledgment that I want a refund for unaffordable loans etc.
{ Before doing so, we would like to highlight that Lending Stream conducts rigorous affordability assessments for all its customers on each and every loan application.
Our Findings
Between 27th March 2012 and 29th November 2017, you borrowed thirty one loans). All loans were successfully closed. In-fact one or more loans were pre-closed before the original loan term. Below, we highlight the affordability checks conducted on each loan which was offered to you
· 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
We hope the above addresses your query regarding affordability checks done on your loans
Any idea on what I should respond to this with? Or should I just forward to FO?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Reply saying “Is this a rejection of my affordability complaint? Because if it is, I will be sending it to the Financial Ombudsman.”
31 loans is a lot – this sounds like a very good complaint, so don’t be fobbed off if they just offer to refund a few loans. If you aren’t sure, come back and ask.
The fact you closed some loans early does NOT mean they were affordable.
James says
Sara, I had EXACTLY the same response yesterday from LS, I had 23 loans. I went back with additional evidence but they just said it was already their final response so it’s already with the FOS.
Keith says
So in addition to the Wonga, Halifax and 118118 loans refund I have now had accepted Avant Credit loans refund of £1500 and PDUK of £1700 (they even went back to 2007!)
Now I will try Very and my credit cards… particularly Aqua and Vanquis. If I win off them that It’s big money in interest. Would clear off last remaining debt and give me enough to buy my ex out of the flat we still own together. Yay! Debt free and my home will be mine at last – fingers crossed!
Good luck to everyone else!
John says
It has now been 4 weeks since my jar sent the ombudsman and myself a settlement fee and I have still not yet received the funds….. has anyone else had this problem with my jar
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell your adjudicator you haven’t been paid. “On dd/mm/yy Myjar offered a settlement of £x through you and I accepted it. It is now 28 days later (or however long) and I have still not received the money, can you help?”
A says
I had several loans in 2011/12 but the one that still haunts me is Speedcredit. The borrowed amount was for £400 and when I fell into difficulty, after a few months they wanted over £4K from me. After I paid back over £1.5K of this debt (stupidly because they threatened me with bailiffs showing up at my home and work) they seemed to go quiet.
I then saw that they had gone into administration around 2013, so I thought even though I had paid more, atleast they couldn’t harass me for anymore.
Then in 2016, United Kash email with a payment demand saying I owe them £800. I responded asking where and what does this amount come from? They then tell me it was the Speedcredit loan that they bought. And with the new FCA rules where you can’t pay more than double what was originally loaned, they kindly reduced the amount to only £800.
I paid £100 of this immediately because I thought they were going to take the same route Speedcredit and make my life hell.
I made another payment of £100 shortly after that and then I stopped. 2017 passes and I hear nothing from them.
Last week I receive an email from CRS with a payment demand of £700, for the United Kash debt!
So i guess they kindly added ANOTHER £100 onto this ridiculous debt.
Bottom line is I know I paid back what I owed, over 3 times in fact and I am still being chased for this.
What options do I have other than to pay this to make it dissapear??
JD says
Got my final response from cash converters. They rejected me because of the following.
Even though I had 67 loans over 6 years, 1 of those years I didn’t need my maximum available credit so it was clear I wasn’t relying on them.
They accepted I place 18 items in for pawn during the same period but that didn’t show a sign of monetary problems.
Even though they never once did a credit check, there was no indication to them I had defaults it CCJ’s
As I never failed to repay the loan on time it was affordable
They can see on my statements I have Netflix, Sky and bought items from clothes shops it’s clear I had disposable income.
I made 2 large payments to Disney for holidays (3 days before both payments my mother in law transferred in the funds to cover these, both again on the statement.
They offered to write off the last outstanding payment of £486 and offered to transfer £389 (the maximum credit I could have) as a gesture of goodwill. It transpired I paid over £4600 in interest.
Have sent it off to the FOS, but they have me believing I’m wasting my time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
” they have me believing I’m wasting my time.” well that is what they wanted, isn’t it! Oddly enough the Ombudsman doesn’t think you should have gone 6 years without buying any clothes. And if someone else paid for the holidays, then just point this out to the ombudsman. And pawning items is usually a sign you are in financial difficulties!
Nat Garvey says
Hi Sara, I just wanted to thank you for putting this site together as it is extremely helpful!
I am also in the process of filing unaffordable complaints to various payday loan companies and I have a question. Wonga have replied to my initial complaint asking for bank for bank statements to “help them” further investigate my complaint. Do you think I should send them over to them? I recently had a letter from Peachy loans asking for my payslips and bank details, and I refused; saying that if it goes to the FOS and they request these documents, then I’ll send it to them. I also mentioned that they had enough information about me when they carried out their credit checks etc.
Really appreciate your help.
Thanks
Just some general information:
My claims were all started on the 30/7/18.
Wonga – As above
Peachy – As above
Savvy – only took 1 week to get a final response – sent to FOS
Avant Credit – only took 4 days to get a final response – sent to FOS
Sunny, OnStride, SafteyNet, Lending Stream, Satuma, 118, JD Williams, Littlewoods, Vanquis – received email notification
Smart Pig, Aqua Card – No response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to send bank statements. A year ago I would say that the lenders either never looked at them or only looked quickly for things such as gambling which they could then use to reject your complaint (not that complaints with gambling should be rejected, but that’s what a few lenders did). But now many more lenders are asking for them and if you have them you may as well send them off. If nothing else, it shows you are all organised to go to the Ombudsman!
But don’t bother with payslips – that info is on your bank statements.
Emily says
Hi All,
Had a weird reply from Wonga yesterday evening! Bit of background:
I sent my complaints in on the 19th June 2018 and only complained about loans taken out post June 2012 to avoid loans over 6 years old.
I took out 65 loans from 2012-2017 with Wonga totalling over £9k.
One of those loans was deemed unaffordable and written off back in 2013 (or 14 I’m not sure) I had contacted them about this loan as I couldn’t repay it (it was for £800) and had set up a DMP with them. I then received an email from them one day saying it had been written off.
However, I think they are now using this as an example of why they shouldn’t have to refund me? They are (I think) trying to suggest that because I ‘knew’ or ‘should have known’ I was in financial difficulty then they do not need to look into my complaint?
I’m obviously going to take this to the FOS but what is concerning me is this excerpt (taken from their final response):
Emily says
“You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge. The Ombudsman might not be able to consider your complaint if:
what you’re complaining about happened more than six years ago, and
you’re complaining more than three years after you realised (or should have realised) that there was a problem.
We think that your complaint was made outside of these time limits but this is a matter for the Ombudsman to decide. If the Ombudsman agrees with us, THEY WILL NOT HAVE OUR PERMISSION to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances.”
I’m just concerned that they might not allow the FOS to look into the affordability of any of the loans predating the one they wrote off because I set up a DMP with them? I used your template above to send the complaint in but I did not include the part where it states “I only found out I could make this sort of irresponsible lending complaint in [April 2018]. I understand the Financial Ombudsman will consider all my loans, including those that are more than 6 years old” as none of my loans were over 6 years old?
I sent courtesy emails to both Sunny and Mr Lender after receiving my final response, to thank them for looking into my complaint and to inform them of my intention to take it to the FOS. I was thinking of adding the statement above into my response to Wonga for clarity?
Emily xx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it is more likely that Wonga is confused because some of your loans are over 6 years old.
NB the 6 year for the Ombudsman starts when you send them the case, not when you sent Wonga the complaint. So an extra loan or two may now be over 6 years. So it’s urgent you send the complaint to the Ombudsman to get as many loans as possible included.
If you only want a refund on the under 6 year loans, because they were the large majority and you want to avoid delays, I suggest you send the complaint to the Ombudsman and say in it something like “I am only asking for a refund on my loans taken out within 6 years, but I would like my previous loans with Wonga to be considered when deciding when Wonga should have realised by loans were unaffordable and stopped lending.”
Donna says
I’ve just received this email from pounds to pockets and quick quid
What should I do now ?? Any help is much appreciated
We are in receipt of your complaint dated 24/07/2018 where you allege that QuickQuid irresponsibly lent to you. As a responsible lender, we have reviewed your lending as it relates to QuickQuid and Pounds to Pocket as these brands are both owned by CashEuroNet.
I’ve investigated your complaint and would like to bring your attention to the following points:For instance, when I reviewed your file I found that you were never charged a late fee, which shows a sound financial history and ability to sustainably repay with us.The investigation of your complaint considered all relevant information It was noted your monthly income was stated as £1816 per month. I compared your income to your total monthly repayment for each loan you took with us. From this Isee that the income you made during each payday loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan and thus I cannot agree with you that your loans were unaffordable.
Donna says
cont
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. Yet if you were dependent on taking out one loan to repay the other then you would have taken out numerous loans, for equal or increasing loan amounts, and with very little time between paying off one loan and taking out the other. When I reviewed your loan history I see that you held a total of 2 loans which given the low number does not exhibit financial dependency. 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.
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. Yet if you were dependent on taking out one loan to repay the other then you would have taken out numerous loans, for equal or increasing loan amounts, and with very little time between paying off one loan and taking out the other. When I reviewed your loan history I see that you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.
HARDSHIP
Finally, our records indicate that at no point did you notify us of any financial detriment or financial hardship. Had you alerted us to your difficult financial situation, we would have put you in “hardship” status, as is our process.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is QQ’s standard “we are going to make your complaint sound as bad as possible by writing something very complicated with a lot of negatives in it” reply.
Do you know how many loans you had from them? Was it two? If it was, could you give some details for each loan.
Donna says
I had first loan £400 May 2013 then borrowed £120 Nov 2013
All paid off March 2015
Basically Paying just under £30 a week back to then from May 2013 to March 2015.
That’s the pounds to pocket one.
I couldn’t afford to pay all of the QQ one back so I need to check that over.
But the email I had today says that pounds to pocket and QQ are the same company
How do I send my complaint to FOS? Is it easy to do?
What do I say?
QQ and pounds to they have rejected my claim
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The article above these comments explains how to send your complaint to the FOS. It’s easy to do and if QQ and PTP send you a combined reply, you can just put in one complaint about them, not two. If you miss anything off your complaint to FOS you can always add it later. Good luck!
Lee says
Hi thank you for the time and effort put into this site,,it took me about three hours to trawl through my bank history online and to set up and send templates off plus also to chase up vanquis.
So far vanquis and sunny have replied and I only did the forms yesterday,I’m waiting on Wonga pay day uk quick quid Avant pounds to pocket express finance and speedy dosh.the loans I had were for a period 2011-2015 my credit history is now good although I had two defaults when taking out the loans which was duly noted on my emails to these lenders,my debt worries came to an end when I stopped using payday lenders and consolidated using Avant and pounds to pocket then when struggling to make payments my parents paid £4400 to clear the loans which I duly repaid back to them interest free.
many people on here are being advised to drop loans over 6 years old which I’m happy to do in certain cases but with reference to Wonga I had over fifty loans in a 30 month period of which twenty are now over 6 years old and every month that now goes by another one falls foul of the six year rule so with this in mind is it worth me hanging out if needs be and if needed to go to the ombudsman as time is no longer an issue for me financially,but obviously would like the money back
Plus with bank statements if requested do I send to all or can I send copies as to obtain potentially four years bank statements for nine lenders would prove costly even before I post off recorded delivery
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“is it worth me hanging out if needs be and if needed to go to the ombudsman as time is no longer an issue for me financially,but obviously would like the money back” if you aren’t desperate for the money, why not wait the Wonga one out however long it takes? Hopefully you will get refunds from the other ones in the meantime.
It’s fine to send lenders copies of bank statements and you don’t need to post them recorded delivery.
Karen says
Hi
I sent a letter to H&T loans and I was told that they were affordable when I took them out so they not doing nothing about my complaint
I was told to take to a ombusman and it’s been with them for weeks now and still its not been allocated to a ombusman as yet to be looked at I rang the ombusman up yesterday and that what they told me
what else can I do about these loans from H&T
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you just need to sit back and wait for the FOS to reach a decision. This can be a slow process.
If you currently owe money and you cant afford the repayments, ask for a payment arrenagement
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so you just need to sit back and wait for the FOS to reach a decision. This can be a slow process.
Tony says
Hi Sara,
I have forward my complaint to the Fos against quickquid following their final response on 30th May 2018. I’m still awaiting to be assigned an adjudicator. Is this a normal waiting time? I only had 2 loans over 6 years old so have asked them to not look into this.
I have called for an update twice and they have just said it is waiting to be assigned.
I have sent bank statements and credit report etc. How long should the process take once an adjudicator has been allocated to the case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It normally takes 12-15 weeks at the moment for a case to be allocated to an adjudicator. Some are quicker, some are longer. After it is picked up by an adjudicator it can be quick, but it depends how complicated your case is.
Darren says
so after waiting 8 whole weeks to get a response from 247moneybox they reply saying I only had one loan with them and that was last month and because I haven’t repaid that they wouldn’t be able to offer a refund. with my puzzled face I reply saying:
im afraid this does not resolve my complaint and I have sent this the Financial Ombudsman.
Your final response which wasn’t my details shows a sign of checks not being carried out correctly. The fact the response was so wrong it questions whether the original loans were carried out correctly. I therefore have no faith your have carried out a correct investigation.
I will await there response. I have forwarded them the original final response along with my bank statements
I haven’t used this service since 2012 where I took out 6 loans all paid back in the end.
they have since come back to me saying we would like to resolve this with you what do I see as a settlement of my complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Assuming you paid back the first two loans on time, I suggest you reply a refund of the interest you paid on loans 3-6 plus 8% interest? if you think that would be a suitable settlement?
Georgie says
Hi there, I’ve used your Step One template to all my lenders (thank you!) Some have taken this as my complaint without sending me the list of loans. With a few of them they have sent me outcomes but the loans they list or total do not match those on my statements which I’ve now obtained. Do I go back to the lender and dispute the number of loans or go straight to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is unusual to be given an incorrect list of loans by a lender. Who are these lenders?
Possible reasons include:
– you using more than one email address
– loans being rolled over – you may think these look like several loans but the lender may view them as just one loan
– flexi loans, where you can borrow up to a certain amount – again over the months this may look like several loans to you but to the lender it is one loan
You really need to try to resolve these with the lender first, so you have a clear case to go to the ombudsman.
alison says
Hi Sara,
Could you please advise if I should accept the offer or continue with going to the Ombudsman?
My claim is against Wonga and the adjudicator advised them that they were wrong to issue me with 90 loans.
They have came back and said they will refund 62 of them.
The adjudicator says if I choose not to accept then the next step will be for an Ombudsman to look at my complaint as Wonga has not agreed with the adjudicator.
I’m not sure what the next step with the Ombudsman involves.
The interest for the 90 loans would be £953 and the 62 would be £738 – they were small loans for a week mostly
Any help would be appreciated!
V
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK. The procedure if it goes to the Ombudsman is basically that it sits in a queue for while – 8-12 weeks is typical but a few faster and some longer for no clear reason. Then an Ombudsman looks at the case. In most cases they agree with the adjudicator, in some they will “tinker” with the number of loans refunded, so they may decide to refund either 80 or a 100 loans instead of 90.
It would be very unusual for them to decide that you should get less than Wonga has offered, that doesn’t seem to happen.
If some of your loans were VERY small the Ombudsman may say they shouldn’t be refunded, so the number could drop. But that’s small for you, not for someone different who was earning a lot more.
It’s up to you if you just want this settled and to take the money now.
Sam says
Hi Sara,
I have just been sent a refund calculation by Wageme, on the calculation they are showing they have taken tax off the refund for interest AND the 8% interest. I was under the impression they would only take off tax (20%) from the 8% interest? Please help so I can go back and confidently dissagree with this.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are right, they are wrong.
You could tell them to look at some Ombudsman decisions as they usually make this clear.
gillian says
sara could you help me again please I am now coming to the end of my claims for refunds for payday loans thanks to you I have had a refund from every single payday company I have used after checking my noodles filei had been using clearscore to see my loans these don’t appear there I see that I had 6 loans with mr lender from 4/72014 to 20/10 /2017 this being when I received my first refund from another company so could stop borrowing these were my lowest loans they were 400 on 04/07/2014 to 24/10/2014
500 on 25/10/2014 to 13/10/2015
500 on 04/11/2015 to 08/04/2016
600 on 08/04/2016 to 23/09/2016
600 on 23/09/2016 to 07/04/2017
250 on 24/04/2017 to 20/10/2017 do you think this is also a good claim to put in as all my other loans I have had refunds for were during this time but I don’t want to clog up the ombudsman ty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think this is worth doing. You had 6 loans, all taken out within a few days or weeks of the previous one ending. And until the last one, the amount you were borrowing was the same or going up. That is a pattern of dependency.
So put in a complaint to Mr Lender and say you were only able to stop borrowing in 2017 because you had a refund of £x from X payday lender.
See what a reply you get. Mr L is unusual in that they do often listen to a reasoned argument if you don’t think their offer is good enough.
Jenn says
Hi, I have sent in some stage 2 letters to various payday lenders, including Sunny. I logged in and it says my account has been closed? And to phone a number if I would like to speak to someone about it. I had paid all my loans off a few months ago so I don’t owe them anything but was just wondering if anyone had anything similar when raising a complaint? I also sent to moneyshop and payday UK nearly 2 weeks ago and never received a confirmation email or anything? Is this normally what they do? Thank you.
J says
Hi Jenn,
I think a few people on here have found that they are unable to access their details online when they submit a complaint – much further back in the thread there are examples of this happening with Wonga.
It would be ok to call and chase an acknowledgement of your complaint from Money Shop and PaydayUK. PaydayUK are generally good with correspondence from mine and other people’s experiences on here. The Money Shop are very slow and I had to do a lot of chasing to get the information I needed, so keep chasing them.
Hope this helps.
Martin W says
Hi Sara,
I have used your templates to claim irresponsible lending against 5 companies so far. Namely, Cash Euronet (P2P, QQ), Wonga, Payday UK/Express, Lending Stream and My Jar. There are others that I could potentially go for but wanted to see how it went, I somehow had over 100 payday loans in 2012/2013 with little or no recollection of the majority of them.
6 weeks later I now have 2 finals, one declining (Cash Euronet) and 1 upholding Payday Uk/Express who have offered £1500 for 7 loans, including stat interest but less approx £600 for outstanding debt so a good result. I’m guessing the £600 would include lots of charges should I ask for that number to be revisited or is that too cheeky do you think?? I think I’m going to accept it anyway as the ladies response who looked into it was spot on, clearly actually looked at the problem objectively and had good rationale for what was upheld and declined (unlike Cash Euronet that was clearly just flannel and gobbledegook with no intention of even thinking of upholding).
As for the others they are still looking into my query. If they don’t hurry though the FOS will be getting busy as armed with your website I know exactly where I stand and what the process is. Keep up the good work, everyone else keep the faith. It might take time but we will win!!!
Laura says
Tony, I sent mine in for QQ on 1st March this year and still not been assigned an adjudicator (20+ weeks)..a long wait I’m afraid..
Bill rowan says
Hi Sarah,
I recently took a loan with likely loans, loan was £2000 over 3 years, repayment will be £4000, with the new lending criteria is it legal to charge 100% interest on a personal loan?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
unfortunately yes it is legal – the cost cap only applies to payday lenders, ie short term loans.
But you may have a good affordability complaint against Likely Loans – the affordability rules are the same for all lenders.
Donna says
I was just wondering with wonga.. they sent a email to me back in 2014 saying they had written off my debt .. can I still claim or not ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can. Think of the write off you had in 2014 as the first part of your refund. If you had borrowed a lot before then, you may still get a good refund now – people have had thousands! But if you hadn’t borrowed much before the write off, then you may not get much more back now.
Dan says
I have had an update from my adjudicator handling my case with 118 money. They have said there are ‘inconsistencies’ with the credit checks and they have written to the underwriter for more information. Does anyone know what this is likely to mean?
Just for an update on timelines for other people. I had my adjudicator rule in my favour against QQ however QQ rejected it. This was on the 29th of May and I had an email on the 6th of August stating my case had been picked up by an Ombundman. So roughly 10 weeks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“inconsistencies” don’t know but it sounds promising for you – they are usually quick to reject if everything looks straightforward at their end. Did you just have 1 loan from 118 or was it topped up?
Thanks for the Ombudsman timeline – people always like to know. Fingers crossed you get a good result!
Caitlin says
Hi Sara,
I received a reply from Wonga this afternoon (incidentally, 8 weeks to the day that I sent in the initial complaint).
I had 65 loans with them, and borrowed over £10,000, from the period of 2012-2017. They have got back to me and said that they are upholding 1 loan (from 2013) out of 65 and are happy to refund me £369.77. I’m in no rush to accept an offer – especially a low one – from them, do you think it would be worth referring this to the financial ombudsman? This particular loan they’re upholding was of a very low amount compared to the rest, I’m unsure why they’ve decided to uphold this one in particular.
Also, I’ve now made 4 full subject access requests to them, which they have thus far ignored. I have however gone through my bank statements dating back to 2012, so I have some idea when each loan was taken out, interest paid etc. but I’d like the chance to match it with their records – particularly, when going forward and making a case to the FO. Is there some other way I can access this information, or should I just keep asking until they give it up?
Thank you so much for your help, this website has been invaluable!
Caitlin.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest sending your complaint to the FOS straight away, don’t wait for a SAR.
How long ago did you make a SAR? there is no point in simply making new ones, you want them o reply to your first one.
Caitlin says
Hi Sara,
The first request I made was on 26/06/18, and nothing was sent through then or since then.
I have a FOS complaint in at the moment for Quick Quid, so I will do the same for Wonga as it just doesn’t sound right to me that they would uphold such an old loan, of such a low amount – and, not the others. Hopefully the FOS will agree.
Thanks for all advice.
Caitlin.
Gillian says
Hi Sara
When initially applying for PDLs I understated all my living expenses in order to obtain the loans. Now that I’m making claims I’d like to submit more accurate figures but worried that these will be rejected because of inconsistencies with previous figures. I don’t have bank statements to prove any of this, as my loans and living expenses were over 2 separate bank accounts, both now closed. Does anyone have any experience of this?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Understating expanses is quite common. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. If you only borrowed once or twice from a lender this can be a big problem. but the more you borrowed, the less it matters as the lender should have been able to see that you were in trouble from your repat loans.
You will need to get bank statements from your two closed accounts. This can be done.
Greg says
Hi Catlin
I was the same with Wonga – 50 loans between 2013 and 2018 totalling 17k
They upheld two of the complaints and offered to refund me £1200. I rejected, Sent to the FOS and had a response back from the adjudicator to advice she is telling Wonga to refund 42 of the loans
Don’t accept and get it to the FOS as soon as you can
Caitlin says
Thanks Greg! That’s what I’ll do.
Lynette says
I have just completed the whole process only to find that I shouldn’t bother because I was declared bankrupt in 1999. Surely if the amount of interest and charges is more than that of the bankruptcy they should pay out the rest to me. I in no way mind paying for previous debt but find it really unfair that the companies will get away with irresponsible lending because of this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were your loans after you were discharged from bankruptcy? If they were, then the refund should come to you.
Lynette says
Yes, 7 years after the bankruptcy. I’ve sent it all off anyway, fingers crossed had 51 loans in 12 years
I’ll let you know either way, thanks????
Lee Sharratt says
Hello. Mem consumer are refusing to look at loans before 2012, I borrowed £3500 between 2011 to 13, case with the fo. Fingers crossed guys
Ella says
Update on my cases:-
Payday Express – complaint emailed 9th December 2017 – refund in January 2018 for all loans
Payday UK – complaint emailed 9th December 2017 – refund in January 2018 for 95% of loans
Wonga – complaint emailed 9th December 2017
Rejected by Wonga 5th February 2018
Sent to Ombudsman 5th February 2018 with all our information
Wonga sent info to Ombudsman on the 9th March 2018
Adjudicator picked up case 29th July 2018
Adjudicator upheld complaint for 16 out of 30 loans, all small loans rejected (fifty pounds or less), all large loans upheld which we
thought was 3800 pounds including 8% interest and tax removed however, the actual figure was 5486 pounds with 8% interest and tax
removed which is alot more than we thought.
Wonga agreed on the 8th August 2018 and sent us forms for filling in.
QuickQuid – still waiting on response from QuickQuid
Provident – Still with Legislation – however after speaking to the Ombudsman today who told us about the 6 + 3 rule we may have a claim after all for loans from 2007 to 2017
I also got brave and put in PPI claims and have already heard back from a couple of companies to say I have a claim. I have never done it before and did all the payday loans and PPI claims without going through a company, but all with the help of Sara at DebtCamel, a BIG thank you Sara for all your help and advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done, it does feel like being brave taking back control of your finances!
Cath Shepherd says
Hi, I sent your template letter asking for a subject access report to 8 lenders. Safety Net Credit have sent this back to me but have not made any comment about me making a complaint and asking for a refund. Should I now send the stage 2 letter of complaint that you show on this site? Any help is very much appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. Your complaint started when you sent them the first template letter (That said you were making an affordability complaint) so the 8 weeks clock is already ticking. But it;s good now to write a full step two complaint letter and say this is an addition to your complaint which you sent on dd/mm/yy.
Gillian says
This is great Ella, thanks for posting. Do you mind if I ask you what level of information you provided to the lenders and to the FO? Was it bank statements, or your own summary of income and outgoings? Just at the start of the process myself
Thanks, Gillian
Ella says
I did not provide lenders with any of my info. I sent bank statements for six years and the november credit report i had to the ombudsman along with a detailed history of why the financial problems for the initial three years and they had enough to complete with all of the above. Sent all by pdf and only once for all claims as the fos connect them all which is great for us.
Gail S says
Hi there,
I’ve just had an outcome email from Wonga, they said they couldn’t find any loans in my name and then sent an outcome rejecting the complaint. To my embarrassment, I’ve remembered a very old email that might have been associated with the account. Can I go back to them and ask them to check or do I now need to raise a brand new complaint.
Can’t believe I’ve been so stupid. It’s about £5000 worth of loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to them and ask them to look at the old email.
Cath says
Hi,
I’ve had an offer from satsuma which I want to reject and send to the FOS. Should I reply to satsuma to tell them that I reject the offer and that I will be sending a complaint to the FOS
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to tell Satsuma, but it is polite, so why not?
Laura says
Hi everyone,
I called up the FOS last week for the first time for a update because I was approaching six months and was told I was assigned an adjudicator last week, yay! Haven’t heard from them yet but does this stage take the same amount of time?? What’s people’s experience? Thanks
Neil says
from what i have heard it will take about 2-4 weeks for their decision, depends on how complicated the case is. I’m waiting for mine to be assigned so i am only going off what i have read here.
Neil
Jonnym says
Hi there.
The adjudicator found in my favour regarding loans from wage day advance from 9 years ago. Hi have them a deadline which they missed. He then contacted them and they disagree and wanted another week as didn’t want it to go to ombudsman. They have been contacted again and again disagreed with adjudicator and asked for more clarification and asked for another week.
What exactly could they be considering at this stage? Surely they either agree or not why are they drawing it out so much? Is this usual for them?
Thanks in advance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who knows? WDA certainly don’t do this for all cases, whether they often do it for those including loans over 6 years, I don’t think I have seen enough comments to tell.
It’s annoying, but fingers crossed they will decide to accept it.
Shannon says
Jenn, Sunny close your account when you make the affordability complaint to stop you borrowing more. You will still be able to access your personal details they hold and borrowing history through your online account.
Rosie says
My husband has emailed Lending stream about 10 times in the last 3 weeks and called them to ask for details regarding his interest and also for transcripts to conversations he’s had to send onto the ombudsman. They have not responded at all and he is yet again stuck on hold speaking with someone who seems to have no authority. He’s now received a letter threatening defaulting his account, but has not received any recognition of his requests. What can we do?!! They are being impossible!!!
Rachel says
I succeeded against Wonga today.
I made the initial complaint directly to Wonga on 5th January 2018, they came back within 12 weeks and offered £62.00 – I referred it to the Ombudsman and 2 months later, Wonga had increased the offer to £800, which was £60 less than the Adjudicator recommended we offer.
I accepted the offer rather than wait for it to go to the ombudsman, with all loans cleared from my credit file. It took them just 5 days from accepting the offer to transferring it to my bank also. Result!
Quick quid next!
Couldn’t of done it without these templates – thanks x
FingersCrossed says
Wondering if anyone has recent experience of Wonga’s response after an adjudicator’s findings. Adjudicator has just advised Wonga that 21 of my 28 loans with them were unaffordable and that I should be refunded the interest and charges and have the information removed from my credit rating. They have been given 2 weeks to respond but I wonder if people have had things move faster / slower than that. Basically trying to work out what to expect from here. Slightly nervous after the recent news about their financial issues. Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
New article on the extra refunds QuickQuid are now sending out to some people who had a refund directly from QQ last years: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-sending-extra-refunds/
Marie says
Hi,
My claim with Wage Day Advance has been going on for around 1.5 years now, and has been with the ombudsman for around a year approx. they say they have no update because I have claims that are older than 6 years.
Is there no time limit that they have to come back to the Ombudsman by? I just keep getting told that it’s still being looked at.
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Stacey
Leon mckee says
Hi can you please help me how do I go about this now? I had previous loans with them in 2010, TIA
This is there reply after receiving my old records off then I sent in my complaint.
As all your loans were taken more than 6 years ago the rules say that Wonga and the Financial Ombudsman Service may not need to consider a complaint about these loans. However, we first need to look at when you knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that you had cause to make a complaint.
As this complaint relates to loans being unaffordable, we think it should have been clear that the loans sold more than six years ago were unaffordable by the time you came to repay them, so you needed to complain within 3 years of the original loan due date that you agreed when taking out your loans. As you did not complain within 3 years we believe your complaint is out of time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So all your Wonga loans are more than 6 years old. You should send your complaint to the Ombudsman but expect this to be VERY slow. Wonga and the Ombudsman are currently arguing over whether they have to refund loans more than 6 years old. Some other lenders have already accepted that the Ombudsman can look at these older loans, but not Wonga. Get your case in now and then try not to worry about it as it is out of your hands when it will be picked up.
Jane says
Just thought I’d add my story so far. On the 22nd July I sent first letters to Lending Stream, MyJar, Payday Express, Pounds2Pocket, Quickquid, Wageday Advance and Wonga with regards to loans taken from 2008 – 2014. I was in a mess. I still am, I’m repaying half of these companies through a DMP to this day and can’t even have a joint account with my husband or a mortgage with him.
Anyway! Pounds2Pocket and QuickQuid have been dreadful, they don’t seem to have kept my accounts in good records at all and they haven’t been updating my credit file. I’m hoping this will help, I’ve just sent a complaint to the FOS today after they offered me a grand total of £12.
Still waiting on the rest! Have sent second letters to Lending Stream, MyJar and Wonga and I’m still waiting on the SAR from WDA and Payday Express.
Keeping everything crossed, if anyone has any helpful tips on these companies I’m all ears
Karen says
Hi
I got onto ombusman today and I was told ombusman sent a email to H&T and got a response from them they told ombusman that they can’t look at this case of mine for the loans i have with H&T with no exsplaion why the ombusman can’t look at it abit weared to me
The ombusman sent another email asking why would I have to wait for H&T to respond to them before I go any further and what could I do after this or is there something I can do now
Thank You
Pamela says
Hi in have just started the refund process by looking at my crefit report.Ive tsken around 63 loans from 2013_2016.Do i need the full account number for each one.Only have last few digits of each.The amount of interest is terrifying!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Frightening isn’t it…
If you don’t have your old account numbers, the lenders will be able to trace your account if you give them your name, address, email address you used when borrowing and date of birth.
Iain says
Hi Sara
Firstly thank you for your advice a while back on my bankruptcy and changing will. I have taken all your advice and everything is working out. I have just seen this thread and looked back at my pay day loans and have a few questions.
1. My bankruptcy should be discharged in Dec. Should I wait till then to start the complaints process?
2. The loans started 6 years ago and lasted for 2 years. Most one after the other give or take a month a few from different lenders at the same time. Borrowing of peter to pay Paul so to speak. Is there a time limit that you can go back to?
3. There were 2 loans that were £4 and £5 thousand that were not payday lenders during that period. Should I include these?
4. If I was to succeed would I have to pay that money to the people who are dealing with my bankruptcy. I have to pay an amount monthly for 4 years.
Thanks in advance and good luck to all who are brave enough to get debt free. It took me years to start and life is amazing now.