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?
Dean says
Hi Sara,
I have adapted my payday loan complaints and filed a complaint against safetynet credit. Do you think this would work?
I also want to file one against step stone credit
Thanks in advance
Carl says
I’ve just heard back from safety net. They lent to me when I had 4 other PDL’s. No quibble or disagreement, simply refunded all interest paid, added the 8% and left the £500 that I owed as £111.
Try it, you nothing to lose.
gavin says
Ive had a reply from Satsuma, basically saying i could afford the repayments, as i had filled in i had a disposable income of £1100 which was obviously not true. AT the time of this loan i had 3 ‘normal’ loans, 3 defaults, 2 credit cards and at least 4 other payday loans.
on my affordability, i have put no mortgage/rent and £300 living cost…..
They are saying that if i lied it is fraud.
What should i do next?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if the loan was large, send it to the Ombudsman
Lilly says
Hi Sara, i can’t thank you enough for your advice however I have another question if you don’t mind helping with. I made a complaint with Wonga on the 27th July but didn’t receive aknowledgment until 3rd of August. If I haven’t received a response I will take it to the ombudsman but do I count the 8 weeks from the date I sent the complaint or when they acknowledged it please? I am still waiting on responses from Fernovo, sunny and myjar also as it’s still within 8 weeks and am yet to here back. Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s unlikely you won’t get a response and at the moment it’s unknown if any new Wonga cases can be taken to the Ombudsman – I suggest waiting and seeing what offer you get from Wonga and then see what your options are.
Paul says
Sara,
I have had in offer from a company removing the interest and charges.
Should I be pursuing the statutory interest and at what stage would the company be required to amend my credit report?
They have stated they won’t amend credit report until I make full payment first and then they will apply settlement despite advising they would remove interest fees. At present, it is likely to have a small amount still owing to the company but no mention of the statutory interest etc.
Regards,
Paul J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What lender is this and how many loans have you had from them?
Paul J says
Sara,
The lender incase is Monkey Dosh but I am dealing with My Finance Club. They were pretty quick as offering interest when I mentioned FO but nothing further. I had two initial loans but these were both rolled over twice each.
Also, Wonga in 2014 cleared my debt to zero and cleared my credit file due to irresponsible lending. I’ve worked out that interest would have been greater than what was clear. Is it still worthwhile making an affordability complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not all lenders will offer 8% – many people are very happy if a lender quickly offers to refund all interest and charges but doesn’t add 8%, seeing this as a fair offer and a reasonable way to settle the complaint.
The Ombudsman also doesn’t have to add 8%, although that is normally done. But there is a chance you could spend a long while and not get any more. And also a pretty small chance that you could get less if the lender withdraws their offer and the Ombudsman says the first loan was affordable. It’s very rare – it can normally be discounted but this sort of case where you been offered a full refund it is there.
Have you done the arithmetic on the balance? A full refund on two loans where you have already paid 2 months roll over charges on the second would often mean there is no balance to pay.
Andrew Smith says
Yes I realise I can’t/shouldn’t borrow anymore. I applied with Stoneacre for the car in Feb this year and that is what they offered me, no it’s a loan for another 4 and half years. Yes have a Vanquis CC which is maxed at £2,750, £250 on a 118 credit card and £450 on Marble CC, Jacamo acct £250
JD says
Hi. Spoke to the FOS today and Cash Converters have asked for an extension on providing their file on me. Is this normal?
Plus the company has only be covered by the FCA since 2016, will that affect my complaint for loans taken prior to that?
45 on the 67 loans were from 2012 to 2016.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Point out to the Ombudsman that they have covered Cash Converters before 2016. Come back here if they don’t change their mind over this.
LO1 says
Dear Sara
A quick update and thank you
QQ-paid the interest on all loans within 6years 4weeks after my original complaint.
WDA-unable to reach a conclusion within 56days, as such have given them a further 5 working days to come to a final response before I send to FOS, admittedly these loans are all over 6year.
Lending Stream-sent a rejection within 3 weeks, but was not marked final response, have been back-and-forth with their complaints team. But despite assurance of issuing a final response-failed to do so within 56days; thus sent to FOS
MYJAR-I offered them a settlement figure which equated to approx. 80% of redress including interest that they agreed to on the 55th day
PDUK/PDEX-unable to reach a conclusion within 56days, have given them a further 5working days before sending to FOS
To date over £14k in refunds, which shows what an utter shambles my finances were in , but am very thankful to you and this website. Shall keep you informed as things progress
JS says
Hi,What Can i do if i entered a debtmanagement plan 6 months ago and just now tried to log in with my details to paydayuk and it s not letting me log in so i could get my loans history?
Julian. says
Hi Sara,
Are you aware of Capfin Loans (Early Pay Day Loans – EPDL) going into receivership and closing down? I couldn’t find any information about this anywhere, but I was told this by the FoS. I had loans with EPDL from 2004 to 2008. However, EPDL declined my complaint based on it being over 6 and 3 year grounds. The FOS have said that as EPDL was not regulated at all by the FCA until April 2007, the FOS is not able to look at any loans prior to that time. They have said the 12 loans I had after 2007, could be looked into, but also that Capfin were closing down and I may not get anything back because of this and there are a number of complaints being looked into by then and it will be done on a first come first serve basis, but they would look into my case. I sent all the relevant bank statements, previous correspondence with EPDL and my credit file yesterday to FOS and will wait and see what happens.
Also, are you able to advise whether if I send a SAR request to a lender and have had no acknowledgement or communication from them, whether I should wait until the end of the 8 week period complaint timescale or can I escalate now straight to the FOS, as they have missed the SAR 40 day request deadline and completely ignored my request?
Many thanks Sara.
J.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for info on Capfin. The FOS will never consider any complaints pre April 2007 for any lender – it’s an absolute rule. Hope you get something back from the later loans.
The SAR – no you have to wait 8 weeks before going to the Ombudsman. Who is the lender?
Mark says
JS,
Send PDUK a Subject Access Request (SAR), requesting details of all loans (See step 1 on here).
David says
Hi all
Opened an account with SNC on 27th May. They gave me a £400 credit limit. Eventually maxed that but no limit increases.
Decided to make a complaint and received my final response just now upholding my complaint.
I submitted my complaint less than 48 hours ago.
Julian says
Thank you Sara.
Just so I am clear, there’s no point making any complaints to any PD Lenders or filing complaints with the FOS for any loans prior to April 2007? The lenders who have NOT acknowledged my SARs made on the 24th July 2017 are:
*1monthloans.co.uk (I think parent company is Sunny)
*Payday Express
*Payday Store
On another note, I received a final response from Northway Financial for Poundstillpayday (PTP) today, who say: They state:
* They no longer own PTP and are only responding as they were the creditors for those loans.
* I owe a balance of £918 which is still on my account. Loans were taken out up to August 2011. I think I paid this off through a debt
collection agency and will check my paperwork. However, they say as a gesture of goodwill they will write off £918 and clear my account
but do not admit nor accept any liability. I had a total of 58 loans over a period of time and paid approximately £5K in interest.
* The rule for raising complaints in Malta (FOS has no jurisdiction over them because they are Malta based) is 5 years and so I have missed the
deadline and based on this they are rejecting my complaint.
Should I still take my complaint to the Maltese Arbiter?
Many thanks Sara.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“there’s no point making any complaints to any PD Lenders or filing complaints with the FOS for any loans prior to April 2007” correct.
Malta – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/swift-sterling-pounds-till-payday/ and work through the recent comments there.
Chelsea says
I took out a QQ loan of £100. 2 days late I got a top up of £150. 2 days later I got another top up of £250. This was then paid back. 4 days after I paid this back I got another loan for £275, then a top up. This was ongoing for several months. The loans and top ups were to pay off loans to other companies as well as paying priority bills.
I am in the same situation right now with Lending Stream.
LS gave me a total of 6 loans equalling £700 in the space of 26 days.
Do you think this is worth filing a complaint for?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that looks like complaints to both QQ and Lending Stream.
What are your priority debts? Are they now sorted?
Chelsea says
Thank you.
The priority bills were rent council tax and water. They are all up to date now thank you.
I didn’t even know what priority bills were until today.
I think I will complain to both QQ and LS. I will post my updates here
Mrs R says
Hi All –
Any recent experiences on…
I’ve just accepted an offer through the FOS for MY Jar, settlement form has been signed and sent back as confirmed by the FOS.
How long does it take for My Jar to contact you for bank details and then for them to make payment?
Thanks!
Jo Taylor says
Hello there,
I am going through the process of seeking redress for irresponsible lending from payday loan companies (I got myself in quite a pickle a few years ago) I have hit a brick wall with both Swift Sterling and Liquid Advance and don’t expect anything from Wonga. The thought occurred to me that two of these debts were sold on, to MMF and MT Collect. If I cannot claim redress from the original lender, could I do so from the company who bought the debt?
I would really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you for an amazing resource and website!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people have managed to get interest removed from the outstanding balance with a debt collector – it’s worth trying for this.
Tom says
Hey guys
I’ve just had an email from 247 Money box.
It reads:
You have borrowed a total of £1,291.00 from us, and you have repaid a total of £1,210.05. This means that you have not repaid the principal amount lent to you (ie minus any charges). As the principal has not been repaid, there is no redress we can offer.
As a gesture of goodwill however, we are happy to resolve today by writing off your outstanding balance of £455.46, in full.
Please confirm this acts as full and final settlement.
I did have other active loans at the same time and my loan amounts were increasing with 247. I’m tempted to have the balance write off but maybe I could reply with details of my mental illness at the time for them to reconsider.
He also said at the beginning of the email that whilst they follow responsible lending policy, they expect us to be responsible borrowers
What would you recommend ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Tom,
“You have borrowed a total of £1,291.00 from us, and you have repaid a total of £1,210.05” are these figures across ALL the loans you had from Moneybox 247? If they are, then this is an excellent offer and you should accept it.
But you may want to check that no negative information will be recorded on your credit record if you do.
Mark says
Tom,
The best way to decide whether to accept their offer is to compare what they are offering with the MAXIMUM you COULD be awarded by the FOS, if they decide in your favour. To do this you need to get details of all loans and payments by making an SAR (as per step 1 above).
Once you have the two figures to compare, you can then decide based on fact and this should help to prevent future regret.
Personally, if the offer was at least 75%-80% of the maximum possible FOS award, I would accept and save the weeks/months wait, but that that I purely my preference. However, in some cases that could be thousands of pounds difference. As they say…..YOU DECIDE! :-)
Good luck and keep us posted.
Emma says
Hi
I had a complaint with 24/7 and this page suggested that I declined the first offer and they would come back with a better offer which they did!
I didn’t owe anything outstanding though so it might be different.
Good luck
Carl says
Afternoon All,
First of all may I say what a great help this site is, so thank you in advance!
When I send my bank statements into the relevant companies, should I just send the month for when I took out the loan(s)?
Thanks
Carl
Mark says
Carl,
I sent bank statements covering the same date ranges as the ones the FOS request. That is 3 months prior to the loan(s) up to 1 month after the loan (e.g. if the loan was paid into your account 15/04/15, send statements covering the period 15/01/15 to 15/05/15). That way the lender will be getting exactly the same info as the FOS (if it gets that far) and it means you already have the statements downloaded/scanned ready to send to the FOS when you make the complaint to them (again, if it gets that far!). Hope that helps.
John M says
Hi Sara and all,
Update on PayDay UK. I received my response today from Adjudicator and he has advised I am refunded from loans 2-5 plus 8% simple interest. They had only agreed to refund loan 5 so I think I am going to be due about £2000 instead of the £168 they originally offered providing they accept adjudicators findings.
This would leave Cash Genie to issue a cheque (already agreed) plus Wonga and Quick Quid with FOS as more than 6 years ago so a long wait for those.
I’ve had refunds from Pay Day Express (relatively straightforward), Wage Day Advance (very straightforward), MyJar (very straightforward), 247 Moneybox (nightmare but don’t give up with them, keep asking for what you think you are owed) and EPDL (Capfin) who were the easiest to deal with. I did get a token amount from Swift Sterling as well but I only had 2 loans with them so for the drama of going through Malta etc I didn’t think it was worth pushing too hard.
Can’t believe that if and when I get Cash Genie and PayDay UK back I will have got £10k back and with a baby on the way that will come in very handy.
Keep going all of you, it is worth it and I am more than happy to help with advice if anyone needs it.
Mark says
Well done John!
Good luck with the baby and thanks for updating us.
Luke says
Hi Sarah,
Following your advice the Ombudsman have recommended Quickquid refund me all interest plus the 8%. However I’ve recieved a message to detail Quickquid have provided further arguments and that it is being reassessed – what is the typical outcome of this?
Thanks,
Luke
Sara (Debt Camel) says
often no change, but it does depend on what QQ say!
David says
Hi all
Anyone had any dealings with Ferratum?
Lodged my complaint on 16th July. Only recieved the acknowledgement on 2nd August. Made my offer of repayment on 6th August, no response. No 4 week update and the 8 weeks were up on Monday and have not heard a peep from them since the acknowledgement of the complaint. Obviously I am going to the ombudsman but is there anything else I can add concerning the lack of communication?
Any help appreciated
Ross says
Hi David,
Ferratum were very good, when I complained, and everything was settled within 48 hours. Their emails were very kind and to the point. I would recommend giving them a friendly ‘nudge’ (email) and advise them that you’re taking your case to the FOS. It may help them speed up?
David says
Thanks I will.
How did your complaint turn out while we’re on the subject?
Ross says
I had taken several loans with them, which increased in size each time. When I complained, they offered to refund all of the interest I had paid on the earlier loans, to help pay off the existing loan. This left a balance which, as a gesture of goodwill, they offered to write off. It was a generous settlement, in my opinion, and one which I didn’t have to think twice about. I hope you’re successful.
david askew says
Hi guys,
When you receive email responses from the payday loan companies requesting you send them copies of your bank statements and payslips from the time of the loan is it something we have to send them??
Ross says
It’s your choice entirely, but you don’t have to. The point is that they should’ve done these checks PRIOR to issuing the loans, so it’s a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted! You’ll definitely need these for any cases that you send to the FOS though. You only need to send them once, which cover all of the periods you had loans for. They’ll use these for all cases you send.
Richard says
Not sure if this has been covered before, but I can see a couple of people above have had issues with either P2P or QQ presenting further arguments when the adjudicator has ruled against them.
From what my adjudicator has told me, this is some sort of general argument about all loans from 2015 and not specific to my case.
Does anybody know what they are arguing or if this is just a stalling tactic? Personally, it’s quite frustrating for me as they defaulted me as soon as I said I was struggling to pay, and I’m obviously keen to get this removed from my credit file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well they can make general arguments if they like, but the Ombudsman is usually more interested in the facts of each case. And at the moment 69% of QQ cases are being upheld…
B says
Hi,
Bit of advice please. I’ve had a final response from Peachy stating they were not obliged to check credit reports and could therefore only base their lending on my pay and outgoings so they said they acted responsibly. They offered a refund for the rollover fees on my last loan because I had extended it twice.
I’ve seen posts stating never to accepted their first offer, but as it’s a final response – I can’t see them changing it as they’ve already said that if i’m not happy to go to the FOS
History is: borrowed, repaid early and re-borrowed the same day for 4 loans ( repayment early was me paying it all off when got paid and re-borrowing as the payment alone would have left me shorter of money). They then declined my next application, 6 monts later I was then approved again and extended this loan 3 times.
I had also asked them to block my account but they allowed me to unblock and re-apply
Whats everyones thoughts?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like a good case to send to the Ombudsman. The fact they weren’t legally obliged to check a credit report is irrelevant. If you kept borrowing they should have looked more closely at your case eh credit checks or asked to see bank statements before deciding the loans were affordable. And if you had asked them to block your account (did you have a gambling problem?) then they should also have looked closely when you decided to unblock it.
Alice says
Hi everyone
The 8 weeks for my complaints are up tomorrow so really I would have expected final responses by today with it being the weekend tomorrow. I received a ‘no’ response from QQ and P2P fairly early on which is now with the FOS. This means I’ve had no final response from
Myjar
Payday Express
Wageday Advance
Lending Stream
Wonga
Wonga I understand may be a problem due to them going bust but is it usual to not have responses from the others in the 8 weeks? Should I send all straight to the FOS?
Tim says
Hi Alice
My jar, wageday advance and lendingstream all waited until the very last day before sending me a final response. Strangely the one from WDA arrived In the post on the final day so you may receive tomorrow. Since it’s been more prominent in the news it’s becoming more common for the lenders to come back at the 8 week point and say they are still investigating, I had this with a couple and sent straight to the ombudsman. Good luck
Tim
StevieC says
I just received my final response from Ferratum 2 days before the 8 weeks are up. Despite not upholding my complaint as a goodwill gesture they have removed interest from current loan and used all interest paid on previous loans to leave a small outstanding balance to be repaid on the principal. I have replied asking for negative marks on my credit file to be removed.
Emily says
Hi,
I also had a relatively positive experience with Ferratum.
I used them as my ‘ad hoc lender’ when I was in the height of my problems so all my loans were few and far between, about 12 loans in total over 3 years (around £600 in interest -with the 8% interest added on) I sent it off anyway, they said I would hear back at the 4 week marker but I did not and I actually only got an email from them the day AFTER the 8 week marker.
They offered me £160 as a good will as they stated (and I somewhat agreed) that a lot of my loans had long gaps between them, I always repaid on time and I never borrowed large amounts. I went back and asked for £250 and they countered with £200 which I accepted. This negotiation occurred over a 24hr period and the money was in my account within 2 hours of accepting the £200 they offered.
So definitely negotiate! Remember – asking for more won’t make the original offer disappear! :-)
Good Luck
James says
Received a ‘final response’ letter (by email) from Mr Lender tonight some 5wks after my complaint letter basically rejecting all my points, but ignoring the salient point that I repeatedly borrowed just to service the original debt. Very disappointed to have no acknowledgement but assume this is a case worth taking to FOS?
Mark says
James,
Many lenders just send a template final response letter as they are struggling to deal with the volume of complaints.
They dismiss most complaints, in the hope that the customer will except it and not take the matter further. In other words, it’s a commercial decision, as if just 10% of people accept their dismissal, it’s profitable for them to take this action. Not based on the complaint merits.
So, my advice is to complain to the FOS ASAP. It’ll take no more than 30mins and a few weeks/months of patiently waiting for them to investigate. What do you have to lose?
Good luck and keep us updated on here.
James says
Thanks Mark, used online form to complain to FOS yesterday. (working day after the response.) Although there were some case specific details in the response it did smack of a generic rejection…to my mind their position on affordability simply isn’t plausible. Is worth £1k in interest alone to me so definitely worthwhile.
Alice says
Hi Tim
Thanks for your advice. I actually had an email from WDA at about 5pm saying they were still investigating, I’ll send this one straight to the ombudsman. I’ve been really struggling to get old bank statements from old, closed accounts for my QQ complaint and I’m really worried that this means that all my complaints will be rejected by the FOS.
I wonder why on Earth I’ve not had responses from the other companies
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Many of the lenders are just struggling to deal with the number of complaints they have.
Stevie C says
I just had my final response from Unclebuck claiming i earned £4800 after tax some months? If i did I would never have looked for a bad credit loan. I really wonder where they get their details from because i know I did not say that and clearly if I had that would be an alarm bell for them to check the validity of it!! I have referred the complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is it possible they have your monthly wage down as weekly?
Stevie C says
There reply stated I earned between 2400 to 4800 monthly which is ridiculous.
Ant says
Morning Sara. Just a quick note to say thank you for your amazing website. I was pessimistic that I’d get anything back, but had some good news yesterday. I got myself into a horrible debt cycle which ended a year ago thanks to StepChange. I then encountered this website and started to write emails to a large number of companies. Following weeks of anticipation and a couple of rejections (most notably, MyJar – now sent to FOS), I’ve had emails from Sunny and Lending Stream, who offered me £500+ and £400 respectively, and I’ve accepted both. I’m still anticipating more replies, but it’s a good start. Thanks again!
Amy says
Lending stream- 6 loans from 22 April to 27th August totalling of £840 being borrowed.
Also had 4 loans from Sunny from 30 August to 11th September totalling £500 being borrowed.
Also have a loan with 118118 money .
Can people give me advice if I should go ahead and complain about this?
John M says
Hi Amy,
Those loans seem very close together. Was the amount you borrowed increasing each time?
Think you can certainly send in your complaints and see what they say as loans are very close together.
Let us know how you get on
Amy says
Hi John,
No the loan amount didn’t increase with lending stream, they just continued to tell me I was eligible to apply again. They were willing to borrow me more than I actually wanted with Sunny. I was given £1000 from 118118 money on the 29th July also. I got myself into a little bit of a rut with the whole lending thing. I’ve never done this before could you advise me what’s best to say to the companies?
Amy says
My credit score is extremely low too as I’ve just checked it
John M says
Hi Amy,
If you follow the template letter on the website then you can advise you had other borrowing as well and you are in a debt spiral. Be honest about your position and tell them what your position is.
You can speak to your bank and stop your CPA which means these companies can’t take anything and put your complaints in straight away.
Anna says
Hi all.
Submitted my complaint to PAYDAY UK on the 19th July. They have come back to me on Wednesday just gone, (1 day short of 8 weeks) saying they need further time) I’m reluctant to send straight to FOS without at least giving them a couple of more weeks?? Has anyone had anything similar and if so how much longer? Thanks for reading
Nichola says
Hi,
My partner had a similar response and like you, we were reluctant to go straight to ombudsman. One week later (yesterday) and they have responded to say they have completed their investigation and should have asked more questions at the time of lending, although they are undecided how this would have affected their decision of whether to loan or not. They have requested bank statements which we have forwarded which should confirm that the loans were unaffordable and i sent these yesterday also. Awaiting their reply although am hopeful as they have admitted they did not do enough checks. Hope this helps.
Marie says
Satsuma have now missed 2 deadlines set by the fos to issue me with my cheque refund. Should i be asking for compensation at this point for the inconvenience?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. Whether you will get it is a different matter, but don’t ask, don’t get!
Vicky says
Hi all
I found this site after looking on MSE and it popped up about payday loans and possible interest refunds.
Unfortunately and embarrassingly around 6/7 years ago I was in a very dark place with the loans and was loaning from 9 different lenders, lending from one to pay the other, loans often increasing in amount as I was ‘living off’ them from one month to the next. I’ve spent an hour trawling through my emails and although I had an idea of the terrible state I was in (mentally I was in a very bad place) I’m absolutely horrified about the money I was lending and the interest I was paying. I earned minimum wage!
With that in mind, I have started the process to complain using the templates. I’m not very good with all the ins and outs and I was wondering if someone might be able to help me with what to say and do in the next step when they inevitably tell me they won’t uphold the complaint. I’m feeling very overwhelmed with it all and am the type of person who will not fight it whereas a lot of you have done incredibly well and have not taken no for an answer.
I have had loans with: QuickQuid, Lending Stream, Peachy, Myjar, Wonga, Payday Express, Uncle Buck and 1 Month Loan.
Any help will be appreciated – I feel absolutely overwhelmed!
Vicky
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Vicky, welcome to the club!
This is often a long, slow process, especially as it sounds as though many of the loans are over 6 years, so settle in and take it steady. It’s easier on your nerves if you don’t expect immediate responses and keep checking your emails every few minutes!
Have you started with the first template and asked for details of the loans from each lender, or gone straight to step two as you have your emails?
African Queen says
Please try not to feel overwhelmed, Vicky.
You have come to the right place.
I love this forum as there are no egos.
We have all been in the same position as you and we are all still fighting and supporting each other.
Just send your letters off using the templates that Sara has provided and be patient. It will come good in the end and it will be worth it.
You will be fine xxx
m says
Hi
I have received the SAR from Wonga -( I know their complaints may not even be looked at but just wanted to try and see what amount I should receive if this was looked at?) as I may just forward this onto the fob instead of waiting for them to reply as they advised they are not sure if the 8 week response time will be upheld.
the total interest on my borrowing shows – £1515 is there anything else I need to work out of what I should receive or just this ? and if there is something missing what should it be ?
the total amount in fees totals to – £182
just not sure if there is anything I would need to add to this or not to see what I should expect if this was to get looked at?
thanks
Mark says
M,
You don’t really need to calculate the totals at all when sending to the FOS. As long as you state in your complaint to the FOS that you want “a refund of all interest/fees/charges that were applied above and beyond the capital repayments”, that would suffice. They will do the rest.
If it’s just for your own piece of mind/calculations, simply add up all the loans you received (A), then add up the total repayments you made (B). Deduct A from B and that will be the total you would be due if you received a full refund of interest/fees/charges.
Hope that makes sense?
Good luck
Mark says
Stevie,
I had the same experience with a couple of lenders……I sent all lenders a FSAR (Full Subject Access Request), asking for ALL information/documentation the held on me. That way you will receive all the “affordability & creditworthiness” documentation. I.e everything they used to determine if you could afford the loan(s) they completed. In my case most of the Income & Expenditure figures were wrong, made up or just plain crazy (one of the lenders had my monthly food cost down as £15 p/m!). Once you have this info I would go back and explain how wrong each figure is. This will make your case much stronger if/when it gets to the FOS. So far the lenders have upheld all my complaints where I have taken this tact (2 out of 12), the others will be going to the FOS if they reject. Good luck!
Lee Sharratt says
Hello . Should I accept the offer from payday uk. They are refusing to look at Loans older than six years old, case is with the fo, they said either wait or accept? He worked it out. Before 6 years there is about 1000 pound in interest and charges. What should I do?
John M says
How much interest did you pay after 6 years and how much are PayDay UK offering you?
Lee sharratt says
Only looking at loans from August 2012. I had an outstanding loan off 300 pound, they offered 950 minus the 300, so 650, which I thought was on insult, borrowed over 4000 since 08/13.
Mark says
Long answer:
Best way to evaluate the offer is to work out exactly what you could get back if you were awarded a total refund of all loans Vs the offer you have already. Then you must also allow for the time it may take to be resolved by the FOS, as they are still trying to fight the test case(s) in order to allow them to investigate complaints older than 6 years. This result is due anytime soon, but no one knows for sure how long this will take AND if the FOS will win that argument.
My advice is to work out the MINIMUM you would be happy to accept, then go back to the PDUK and ask for that amount plus 20%. Some lenders do negotiate. Others do not. If you don’t get an offer of that minimum, then take your chances with the FOS but be patient.
Short answer: Up to you ;-)
Gareth Moore says
Hi,
Only recently discovered this website when I was searching about the ROP Vanquis refund delays and stumbled on the Payday loan interest refund claims!
Since then, I’ve slooked at through all my Payday Loans from 2011 up to 2014 and was horrified at the amount of loans taken and interest paid.
Myjar, several consecutive loans in 2012 & 2013 totaling £4k. Quick Quid £5.5k, from DEC 2009 to DEC 2010
Cash Genie and Wonga refunded me in the past, out of the blue, when they closed down and bought back debts from Debt collection agencies respectively.
MYJAR and QQ are with Resolver now, but due to age, QQ looks a bit tricky judging by the coments made here. QQ, however, send me all the SAR info in less than 2 days!
Steve says
Hi all,
Quick update on my situation so far:
24/7 Moneybox: Upheld complaint, refunding £196.61 + removal of loans from credit files
SafetyNet Credit: Upheld complaint, refunded £578.58 from balance, now owe £460
PoundstoPocket: Not upheld, gone to FOS (£940.07 interest)
MyJar: Not upheld, gone to FOS (£534.64 interest)
Moneyshop: No response yet (£293) – response by 24/09/18
LendingStream: No response yet (£658.66) – response by today (17/09/18)
Wonga: No response yet (£252.53) – response by today (17/09/18)
Fingers crossed to hear from the others soon!
Steve says
Just to say re 24/7 Moneybox, money was in my account by 4:30pm, so less than two hours after sending them my bank details.
They also re-confirmed the removal of all six loans from my credit files, which is a better result than I was expecting!
Lending Stream emailed me yesterday to say I only emailed my complaint to them on the 15th August so they have 8 weeks from then, but I actually emailed them on the 23rd July so I’m not sure if that’s just a delay tactic?
Neil Thomson says
Hi All,
Has anyone had any success claiming back form Lending Stream and or Ferratum.
I have had over forty loans from Lending Stream , re borrowing after each loan was repaid.
I have had over thirty consecutive loans with Ferratum.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of successes against Lending Stream, not as many against Ferratum but they are a MUCH smaller lender so that’s what you would expect. Both sound like very good complaints. Good luck.
Carl says
Afternoon Steve,
Thanks for the update!
247 Moneybox have just offered to remove the loans from credit file but no refund offered currently, so have gone back to dispute. Still waiting for them to send me the loans I took / interest etc etc.
Did they say how long it would take to remove loans from credit files? I took out 17 loans in 2 years with them.
Steve says
Hi Carl!
No problem!
I got their final response letter an hour after agreeing, and in it they said they’ve already contacted the credit agencies they use (Equifax and Call Credit) for them to make the changes, but the agencies tend to take up to 30 days to update. I should have the refund within 24 hours.
Good luck, they were actually really friendly and understanding!
Luke says
Hi, I am about to send out an email to QuickQuid requesting a refund for the loans I have taken out in the past.
I took 27 loans out over a 2 year period between 2012 and 2014.
I have a couple of questions however before I want to send the email off. In the first year of taking out these loans I was living with my parents and thus was not paying any rent/household bills. However in the 2nd year of taking out these loans I started university and so started paying rent and bills.
As I am required to give my financial details during the period of time I took out these loans, and my financial details differ quite a lot from the first and second year, should I give two sets of details? One for whilst I was living with parents and the other for whilst I was at university? Or should I just draw up an average of my finances for over the two year period? Do I also have to include any maintenance loans that I received from the Student Finance whilst at University?
Many thanks for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it would be helpful to give two sets of details. The standard template is just a starting point, change it so that it describes what happened to you.
Do you remember QQ asking you for details of your expenses? I think they often didn’t.
Maintenece loans would count as income over this period.
Bobby says
Hi Sara, I thought PDUK were one of the companies that are paying out on loans over 6 years? Has this changed recently? I had two periods of borrowing with them, one over 6 years and one under 6 years. I complained about both and they only replied about the loans under 6 years and ignored my complaint about loans over 6 years. So I raised a complaint to FOS and then eventually they responded three weeks later regarding the older loans confirming that they should have undertaken more checks and asked me to supply bank statements, who’s I did. Then when I chased them for an updated response they said they couldn’t reply as it had been raised to FOS and they shouldn’t have asked me for my bank statements. Very frustrating! Anyway my concern is that they were prepared to pay out on the loans over 6 years but have now changed their policy.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A few people have mentioned this recently. This is going to sound vague, but it can be hard to tell if a firm has changed its policy or if something else is going on until there is a clear pattern.
Sy says
Hi,
Could anyone advise how long it takes MyJar to refund after accepting their refund offer please?
Thanks
tom says
mine was 5 days
Aaron Myers says
I complained against Safetynetcredit about a loan I took out last year, I didn’t pay any of it back and was having gambling problems at the time. They accessed my bank account and could see the transactions coming and going for said gambling also that I had no income at the time other than the gambling as I was unemployed. They emailed me back saying they weren’t upholding my complaint and that I have no basis for a complaint, given my credit rating is very bad and was just as bad at the time if not worse I think they shouldn’t have give me the loan. They say I still have to pay the £264 I owe them. Just wondering if I refer it to the FOS do I have much of a case at getting the debt wiped off? Or even the interest wiped off the debt?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One loan cases are tricky, but where they saw your bank statement showing you had no income and a lot of gambling, this sounds worth going to the Ombudsman. But you won’t get the loan wiped, only the interest removed. In this situation, I think it’s worth going back to them, pointing out what they should’ve seen and saying you will be sending the case to the FOS unless they remove the interest from the balance and let you set up an affordable repayment plan.
Aaron Myers says
At first when I emailed about them removing the interest and setting up a payment plan they said no and that their previous response was final. I offered to set up a payment plan to pay the full £264(couldn’t be bothered going to the FOS and waiting for the sake of £64) then they have emailed saying that was fine, today I received a further email saying they’ve wiped the interest off and I just have to pay back the £200. Weird way they’ve gone about it but the result I wanted so not complaining.
Ben says
Hi Sara,
One of my loans I am disputing from LS has now been sent to court by TM legal services on behalf of Asset Collections and I have received a claim form. The original loan was for £700 and they are now claiming £1441 including costs. I was under the impression you could not be taken to court if still under dispute? I sent my complaint letter on 12th August and have not had a final response from lending stream. I also haven’t escalated yet to FOS as eight weeks not passed / final decision given by LS. Should I now arrange a payment plan to stop it going to court or reject the claim as it is still being disputed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you tell the debt collector that you had started a complaint against LS? When were you sent a pre-action letter which is described in this article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/
Ben says
I have informed then only when I received the claim form. They are saying they will progress ahead anyway but I could set up a monthly fee and avoid going to court.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That was a mistake – it’s why the article above tells you to inform a debt collector when you make a complaint.
“They are saying they will progress ahead anyway but I could set up a monthly fee and avoid going to court.” well that is true, you don’t have to go to court, you could just complete the “I admit the debt” form and offer a monthly payment. You do get a CCJ however.
The alternative is to try to prolong this case by defending it for as long as possible. This can usually be done for quite a few months, 6 months or more may be possible, it depends a bit on timescales at your local court. This may or may not be enough time to get the LS refund resolved, but you should also use this time to save up money to pay off the debt if/when you lose the court case. If you pay the court judgment amount within 30 days the CCJ will disappear from your credit record.
If you want to try this, I suggest you post on the Legal Beagles forum asking for possible defences and saying that your main aim is to postpone the judgment for as long as possible: https://legalbeagles.info/forums/forum/legal-forums/court-claims-and-issues/
david askew says
Hi all,
I am currently in communication with Satsuma and they have asked for details of my loans.
I ordered my old bank statements to go through them and identify my loans with them.
Was just wondering if anyone knows or is aware of Satsuma showing as something else on bank statements?
I know with some companys I used the name showing on my statement was different from the company name, and on my bank statements there are payments that are obviously payday loans but I do not recognise who they are from.
Anyone know of any alternative names used by Satsuma for payments?
thanks,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why are Satsuma asking you about the loans? Can’t they trace them?
List the payday loan payment names and see if they ring a bell with someone here
Mark says
David,
Just checked my bank stat’s (the ones I sent to the FOS), but the Satsuma Loans paid into my account in 2015/16 all had Satsuma Loans and a 16 digit ref number.
Have you tried googling the names on you statements? That should direct you to the PDL companies in question and will hopefully refresh your memory.
Tim says
Hi Sara
After raising a case with the ombudsman and they have everything they need for me and the business, is there a time limit they have to allocate the case to an adjudicator and send a response or is it simply first come first served on the cases they already have logged with them? Spoke to the ombudsman this morning and they advised for one of my cases they were waiting for an assesment to be made by the case handler (raised at beginning of May) and for another said they had 3 months to provide a decision?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There are no time limits.
Mar says
Hi All,
Just wanted to share my outcome with ferratum as I know there have been a few comments with people dealing with them.
Sent my complaint 30/07 regarding 4 loans I had with them, one which is currently outstanding and unpaid.
Just received a response today on the 1st day of the 7th week, they dispute they did anything wrong however stated ‘as a gesture of good will’ they will remove all the interest off the 4 loans from my remaining balance meaning I have to pay them back £198., however saving £468 on interest.
Im quite happy with this and I am going to request that they remove the last loan from my credit file once paid.
Dee says
Hi
I was wondering what response times people received from Payday Express, PaydayUK and Wage day Advance? I sent my emails off on Friday for details of my loans held with each, received an automated email from WD.Advance straight away but nothing from the others.
I have some details of my loans in my emails but I’m not sure it is all.
Also I changed banks a few years ago so cannot access statements from my previous bank i don’t think, this bank would show some of the loans and payments I made. will this be an issue?
Gareth Moore says
So, I had 19 loans with MyJar, from feb’12 to oct’13, with a total of £4K. They were consecutive loans (there were a couple of period of just over 2 month between loans) and paid £1250 in interest.
Put the complaint through two weeks ago and they asked for statements and payslips, but I only sent the statements yesterday and told them that the salary was showing in there. Let’s see the outcome.
At the same time, I had cash genie rollovers and a few 247 money box here and there.
I think I have a good case as they never did checks, only the usual texting for a loan and that was immediate approval.
QQ is a different case: from dec ‘09 up to dec ‘10, (consecutively including a few rollovers) I borrowed £4.4k, paid £1.9k in interest. The last £900 was fully paid, except for £100 interest that were defaulted and sold to a debt collection agency, which was then paid.
I sent the complaint with QQ who promptly sent all the loan history and contracts. They asked for bank statements but I can’t get these as the bank account I had was closed mid 2011.
Tara says
I also had the same with my jar. Borrowed from them since they were Txtloan up to last year. In last 3 years I borrowed over £10,000 and just 4 loans I paid nearly £5000 in interest. I also sent statements etc on Sunday with a email stating that if they look closely they can see I took other loans out with Wonga of the same amount that I used to pay them off before applying for next loan and they also didn’t do checks on my credit report as they would have seen what my borrowing situation was like and the many defaults I had and the fact I was on benefits but still they gave me big loans like £3000. Let’s hope we get a good result. You will have to let me know how you get on and I will let you know how I did.
Kerry says
Hi I’d like some advice I had 2 loans from 24/7 money box but they were over 6 years old I’ve just had this response as follows
Thanks for your email. We are confident that the required assessments were carried out prior to the advance of all loans. We are able to substantiate fully the information on which lending decisions were based.
You have had a total of 2 loans with us – this is not indicative of repeated, or irresponsible lending.
You have borrowed a total of £275.00 from us, and you have repaid a total of £201.72. This means that you have not repaid the principal amount lent to you (ie minus any charges). If you ask a third party mediator to look into this, they are likely to recommend you repay what you have borrowed (the principal amount). In this case that would mean they would recommend you repay £73.28 to us.
As a gesture of goodwill, we are happy to resolve today by writing off your outstanding balance of £463.88, in full.
Please confirm this acts as full and final settlement
Is it worth taking to the financial ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If these details are correct “You have had a total of 2 loans with us… you have borrowed a total of £275.00 from us, and you have repaid a total of £201.72.” then this is a good offer and you will not get any more by going to the ombudsman. One sorted!
Carl says
Afternoon Dee,
I emailed those three companies on 04/09/18 but yet to hear back.
Thanks
Dee says
I think im going to have to learn some patience with these ones lol
thanks for your response, and Sara I will get onto my old bank for statements so im not wasting time if requested later on = )
David says
Hi all. Waiting on refunds from PUK and PDEX. Although everything was done through email I was asked to post the form. Sent it 1st class on Friday still to receive any confirmation they’ve recieved it yet even though I’ve been emailing. Anybody had their refund sorted through phone or email
Julian says
Hi Dee,
I sent a subject access request (SAR) to Pay day UK on the 25th July 2018. They acknowledged my complaint a few days later and have just received my loan history with them today. It’s not very clear how they have set it out and I’m going to have to work out what their status means to try and calculate the interest. I had loans with them from 2008 to 2014. I also had loans with Payday Express and WageDay Advance. Not heard anything regarding Pay Day Express at all. I also wrote to both companies on the 25th July 2018 with a SAR. WDA provided my loan history on the 22nd August 2018.
WDA said:
regarding your complaint, I advise it appears you have raised this issue previously on 29 April 2015. Our final response was issued on 22 February 2016 and therefore, we do not agree to investigate this complaint again.
I do not recall making such a complaint as I was not aware of being able to make this type of complaint until July 2018. The only thing I can think of is me asking them to freeze the interest on my last loan with them and setting up a payment plan. I have escalated my complaint directly to the FOS.
Hope that helps and good luck.
Julian.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you sent WDA a Subject Access request that asked for all your personal information, not just your loan details, then they should have supplied you with details of your previous complaint and their response to it. If you haven’t asked for this, i suggest you do this now.
Julian says
Hi Sara. Thank you. WDA have only sent the loan history. And the final response saying they don’t acknowledge the complaint. I went straight to the FOS because of their response and I am still waiting for the case to be allocated to an adjudicator.
Can I still go back to WDA and ask for a copy the the complaint they said I made or do I have to leave it now with the FOS?
Many thanks.
Julian
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your case with the FOS carries on. But whether they reject your complaint or not, they have not sent your the SAR information you asked for and they are legal obliged to do this, so treat getting the SAR as a seperate matter, pursued at th same time as your affordability complaint.
Julian says
Hi Sara,
I received a final offer from Uncle Buck today. I had 5 loans with them which they agree. The interest I paid was £701. They are upholding my complaint in part for loans 3 and 4, but not loans 1 to 3. They are offering me £251 in interest fees and the statutory 8% as a final settlement. They said at the time of taking my first loans there was nothing to indicate by the checks they did that they were unaffordable, but could see that for the later loans I started to become reliant due to my loans being funded within quick succession. I am planning on declining their offer and escalating this to the FOS. My bank statements show that I was using other payday lender at the time had a high overdraft and within a couple of days, was out of money.
I had taken loans with them on:
15 November 2014
1 December 2014
30 December 2014
1 February 2015
25 February 2015
Would you agree that I should take this to the FoS?
Thank you in advance as always for your help.
Kind regards
Julian
Julian says
sorry that should be they are upholding loans 4 and 5.
Mark says
Julian,
I would also take this to the FOS, it’s highly unlikely (I must stress that it’s not impossible), that the FOS will reduce the offer that the lender has made.
I think often the lenders really have no rhyme/reason for their offers, it’s just a numbers game for them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large were each of the loans? Would your credit records have shown recent defaults or other problems?
Julian says
Thank you Mark and Sara for your responses.
Sara, all 5 the loans totalled £2,400 (£200, £300, £600, £650, £650) plus interest and admin fees of £700 so £3,100 in total. I have escalated to FOS, but also wrote to them saying I will accept an interest refund for the last 3 loans which is a most £500. Will wait and see what they say.
Thanks again.
Razza says
Hi Sara
Had an offer from Myjar off £587.40 with 8% interest of £201.40 minus 20% tax totalling £789.40. This offer is just from the loans within the last 6 years though of which they have given a full refund. I have loans older than 6 years with interest totalling another £464.80. Do you think it would be worth challenging for the rest or Should I be happy with my lot?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So MyJar are refunding all your interest paid on the loans that are less than 6 years old. Realistically if you take this to the Ombudsman you probably wouldn’t get a refund on all the older loans, but it’s hard to guess what you might get.
This is quite a personal decision – on it’s own £587 would be an OK offer, Myjar have added on 8% which some people would think makes this into a reasonable offer – you have a decent refund with little effort. Other people had a horrible time with payday loans and want to get back the as much as possible to improve their current situation.
Razza says
Thanks for replying Sara 😊. Yes I think it is actually a reasonable offer and will now probably accept but it just niggles away to think what I could have been offered if I’d have done this sooner. At least Myjar have broken down what they are offering and why though unlike QQ who have just come up with a random amount. I will definitely be pursuing them via the FOS even if it’s just for the loans within the last 6 years. P.S keep up the good work Sara 👍🏻
Edward says
Evening all – has anybody dealt with smart pig? Loans specially for students seems ludicrous they can even exist for students on minimal income.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, some success but they are quite a small lender so not often mentioned. I think there should be a special place in hell reserved for payday lenders that deliberately target students…