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, Safetynet Credit, Tappily:
- 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, Likely Loans, 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 – they won’t help an affordability complaint and the ombudsman never asks for them.
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;
- your 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 installment 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 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 2016, 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 2022 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
- a copy of the credit agreements for the loans if you have them. If you don’t, don’t worry, 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 they will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
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?
Nat says
Hi,
Anyone dealt with uncle buck on instalment loans, I had 6 loans in a row from them, but on 3 month instalment plans? Would these still come under the same criteria??
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes exactly the affordability rules.
Nat says
Thank you, they have come back to me with an offer on One of payday loans I had and declined all the instalment loans.
Thanks for all your help and advice the website has been a fantastic source of information and help
I have applied for refunds to 7 companies, had 3 successes so far, 4 still fighting now.
I have also left a comment on the swift sterling page as they have also declined all and hinted that the Financial Arbiter may not be able to consider your complaint if a period of more than two (2) years has lapsed between the date of the final transaction and the receipt of your complaint. Is this right??
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK well send the UB case to the Ombudsman then!
Julian says
Hi Nat,
I had recently a payout from uncle buck. They made an offer of £250 for my complaint of £700 plus 8% interest. I said if they pay me the interest for 4 loans instead of 3 they were offering, I Would wave the 8% interest and accept and not go to FOS. They agreed and paid me £485. I was happy with that. Rather than go through the couple of months wait. I’m not saying that’s what you should do but just wanted to share my experience about then with you.
mike says
Hi
quick question, when looking on the FO page at various rulings on cases some of them mention the ombudsman’s provisional ruling. when on my ruling there wasn’t a provisional ruling – is this where it hasn’t been looked at by adjudicator initially?
Thanks
Michael
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the ombudsman usually issues a provisional ruling where they have changed the adjudicator’s award in some way – that then gives both parties the ability to comment. but if the Ombudsman upholds the adjudicator’s decision, then there is no need for a provisional decision as both parties have already had an opportunity to comment.
Colin says
Got a complaint rejection email from QQ yesterday about 4 weeks short of their 8 week deadline. In the detail they say they cannot consider over 20 of the loans as they are over 6 years old. Of the rest they say the amount was not increasing, so they could be afforded.
They have not considered the other parallel loans with other PDL companies nor the fact that I was insolvent at the time and they should not have lent to me as I had zero disposable income.
Payday Express has agreed a settlement of around £880.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send the complaint to the Ombudsman.
Also read https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/. As that recent article (last week!0 describes, the Ombudsman has just published a couple of important “over 6 year” decisions.
Jenn says
Hi, I have just received an email from payday UK today saying I had 13 loans with them and they have said that the first 2 were affordable but they were unable to determine the last 11 and are asking for bank statements. I had a bad gambling problem at the time and there are lots of transactions on my bank statements. Should I send them to Payday UK still or do I not have much of a chance getting a refund? The money shop offered me a refund without asking for statements. Thanks
Jenn
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well if you don’t send the statements, you won’t get a refund. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/ which describes how people are winning these cases at the Ombudsman.
John M says
Hi Jenn,
I had a large number of gambling transactions on my bank statements and I still got offered a refund once I had sent my statements in. Don’t be discouraged, send the bank statements and if you still don’t like their reply then feel free to take it to the FOS. I have just been refunded almost £2k from Pay Day UK after going to the FOS because the original offer wasn’t great.
Eve says
Hi John M /Sara ,
this website is brilliant !Thank you for all the support given .
I got an disappointingly low offer from PayDay Uk after 9 – 10 weeks and I already sent complaint to FO after 56 days ( as did not receive Final Reponse Letter within 8 weeks – I should have got it by 21st of Sep2018) .
Can you advise how long the process take to get final response and hopefully higher Refund with FOS from original Final Response letter from Payday UK ( got Final response Letter from Payday Uk on 4th of Oct 2018)
I had PD Uk agreed to pay refund for loans within 6 years
they disagreed to pay refund for loans before 2012 . This is why I chose to send case to FO. ( they received my complaint on 28 th of Sep )
I did send to FO all my bank statement , SAr reports, credit reports, correspondence with Payday Uk
Do you think I can see more money come in this year ?
Many Thanks
Sarah says
Hi,
Quick question please… I started the process of contacting previous loan companies with your template above (thank you) but Im fearful they will ask for my bank statements…. I got into so much trouble by not being able to afford my loans that it impacted my bank too. I changed bank accounts and my bank got shut. Is there any point in me Continuing with the claims process if I physically can’t send them my bank statements from that period?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How long ago was this?
Sarah says
From 2012/2013/2014
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is within the last 6 years – you should be able to get your bank statements easily from a closed account. Many people are getting them further back than 6 years.
Sarah says
Thanks. How would I go about this? Just simply contact the bank?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. if a simple request doesn’t get you the statements, or they want to charge you for them, send them a Subject Access request – if you look on the bank’s website, there should be a section about Privacy which explains how to do this.
Sue says
Hi Sara
Just want to say thank you. Since finding this website I have had the following decisions:
£200 from MyJar refunded
£1400 from WageDayAdvance
£4308 pending agreement with adjudicator decision or they can appeal and will go to Senior for final decision.
FOS have dealt with my cases as a priority due to health reasons so all in all they took around 4 weeks from sending to FOS to getting their decision. Still awaiting results from 2 further companies.
Another response that is still within the eight weeks and awaiting Cash Genie but won’t hold my breath on them. Thank you so much
SS says
Can I ask where you sent your Cash Genie complaint too? I’ve been unable to find any email for them!
Sue says
Hi I sent it to the e-mail on their website bu the person responding issomeone calls Julie uses this e-mail: l.hodge@cashgenie.co.uk
Megan Simpson says
Just had the adjudicator decision on Payday Uk. I had 14 loads in total over a 2 year period and they offered interest refunds on 4 back in March 18. It’s taken a long time but the adjudicator has ruled that 10 of the loans were unaffordable so a great result. The adjudicator has written to the business so I am just in the 2 week waiting period to see if they accept the decision. Thanks for your advice Sara
Jay says
Just wanted to share for any EPDL customers. FOS adjudicator uphelp my complaint today. Uphelp 17 of 28 loans as unaffordable. This is from 2007 to 2011. Waiting for them to respond. Thank you Sarah again for your sound advice.
Tony says
Good morning,
Just a quick update, I have had a copy of a letter sent from the FOS relating to 60+ loans taken between 2009 and 2014 from PDEX (so over 6 years) stating to PDEX that despite their objections, the FOS think they CAN look into these loans! Which is excellent news.
This complaint went to the FOS in Sept 2017 and has been with “a specialist team” since.
Hoping for the same with QQ and WDA which fit the same criteria.
It seems like things may be moving with the 6yr+ loans.
Thank you Sara for your advice and this incredible website, I will keep you updated.
Jen says
I’ve had the same with PDEXPRESS over 6 yrs sent to FOS may 17, hopefully moving forward with the 6 yrs plus now, still waiting on adjudicator decision tho, gd luck
John M says
Good news Tony.
My main 2 complaints were with QQ and Wonga. I appreciate Wonga isn’t going to happen but QQ rejected as was over 6 years. Would be great news if this moved forward for me.
FYI I am meeting my MP on Monday to discuss this so will update the site to let you know what was discussed.
matt says
Question.
My case has just been picked up against QQ. There are loans over 6 years which I originally said I would leave out. This was shortly after the Wonga Administraion and was worried they would follow suit and thought I was better making it quicker.
I have seen some comments recently suggesting that there is some movement on the over six year cases. My question is can I change my mind and say I want these looked at now or is it too late Sara?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know – you can ask – but it may slow down the case still.
K says
I’ve recently had decisions from my adjudicator in favour of myself and ready d’s agreed of 1600 from lending stream and 1000 from myjar they both got my acceptance yesterday.
Anyone any idea how long they both take to pay out?
Thanks
Sue says
My Jar paid out the very next day to me. Hope this helps
Rob says
Hi,
How long did MyJar take to respond to your adjudicator decision?
Im a week in waiting for my response
Cheers
Rob
Sue says
Hi Rob
Just a couple of days. If you are a week in go to their website and fill a complaint form in, that might push them along
K says
Hi Rob
They took the full 2 weeks and when I rang to check they had the right contact details (as my adjudicator said they would be in contact to arrange payment) they had no idea what I was talking about when I said I’m calling about my refund so god knows will just wait it’s been 3 days
matt says
Hi All
Does anyone have any recent experience on Mr Lender replying to the adjudicator? Do they usually agree or does it get dragged out longer?
Allison says
Mr Lender rejected my adjudicator decision two days after deadline. They offered one loan – adjudicator said from 3rd rollover of loan one and 2-5. Went to Ombudsman who again ruled in my favour last week upholding the adjudicator decision in full.
Hopefully having just had a very long ombudsman decision go against them they will play ball again. Before they rejected mine they had been one of the better ones and looking on that FOS site not many of their cases do go to ombudsman. Good luck.
matt says
Thanks Alison.
Been a frustrating period but hoping for some good news on this one, could do with it not being dragged out any longer as this potential refund gets me out of a hole debt wise! So close but yet so far!
Matt
Allison says
Oh I know. I complained in January 2018 and although i’m still waiting for the money it’s been worth it. Mr Lender were the first one to come back with an offer back in February out of all my complaints and I agonised over whether to accept it as everyone says they are so easy to deal with and I was new to all this and worried if I did would I loose it all. When they rejected the adjudicator, I thought maybe I’d made a big mistake in not accepting their first offer again. It’s taken 10 months but that £614 is now £3600!
Stick with it. Will be worth it in the end.
matt says
Hi Allison,
Glad you got the win you deserve!
How long did it take from adjudicator to Ombudsman?
Allison says
Went from adjudicator to ombudsman on 29th April 2018. Reply 30th September from Ombudsman
Ombudsman used Royal Mail not email.
Paul J says
Hi,
Mr Lender offered me a reduction of £1 today regards my affordability complaint – stated that they did’t agree but as a gesture of goodwill they would offer me a £1. Have advised I am referring to the FO.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£1 ? Seriously? That now gets the prize for the lowest ever offer. Did they give a reason for only offering that much?
Paul J says
Sara,
They stated that they carried out all the correct checks for all of my loans in accordance with their lending policies. However, they later stated in the letter than they could have reviewed and taken steps to not allow the last loan to have been approved and that further assessment questions should have been asked. They stated for this reason they would reduce the remaining balance on the last loan by £1, as a gesture of goodwill..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That seems a rather confused letter. Mr Lender are normally one of the better lenders to deal with…
Could you summarise your borrowing from them?
Jim says
Hi,
Is it required that the borrower mention to lenders in the complaint about a gambling issue.
Or do you just wait and use that as supporting evidence when and if the case needs to be referred to the Ombudsman?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, you don’t have to tell the lender. Some people would not want to talk to a payday lender about this.
Jim says
Thanks Sarah.
If a lender requests to see bank statements and payslips after a complaint has been made for unaffordable lending should the borrow send them to the lender?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can send them if you like.
I’m not convinced it makes much difference to a lender’s decision though – with the exception of payday UK and {Payday Express, where they ask for specific statements relating to specific loans and they do look at them. Other lenders seem to apply very crude criteria that don’t include what is on your bank statements. Certainly I would not want to spend money posting them to the lender, but if you have digital copies that would be free.
Payslips are pointless as that info is on your bank statements – the Ombudsman who always wants bank statements doesn’t ask for payslips.
Glynis says
Hi. Has anyone had dealings with MyJar. They E-mailed me a week ago offering me a £655.89 refund and for me to provide bank details so they can deposit my refund. I sent them an e_mail with my bank details and today I e_mailed them and asked them where my refund is. They E-mailed me back saying they need my acceptance in writing which they hadn’t previous said. Anybody else had this trouble.
Mia says
Hi
I’d previously posted about 247, they have been really slow in the whole process not responding to emails and then after I’ve escalated to the fos they have ignored correspondence to supply the business file. I’ve contacted them and they’ve said that they have never heard from the fos? They also said they would be willing to negotiate with me. I’ve told them what I would be prepared to accept but now they aren’t replying again. Should I keep chasing? Will they reply eventually? Just looking for opinions and experiences please
Thanks in advsnce
John M says
Hi Mia,
247 Moneybox were a nightmare from day one. However I kept going and kept trying and eventually got exactly what I requested. Keep pushing them and keep asking them for updates.
Mia says
Hi
Thanks for this. They just seem to ignore all emails!! Then reply to a random one!! Can I ask how long it took you to negotiate with them? I think I’ll just email them everyday until they get bored of me 😀
John M says
It took a good 10 weeks after the 8 weeks were up so keep pushing them. Honestly it will be worth it. They want to push you to stop trying so keep at it with them.
Mia says
They’ve just replied saying their offer of wiping out the £543 is reasonable as they conducted all checks. I had 18 loans over 24 months, one loan after the next! Paid roughly £4000 in interest and on 2 occasions told them I was in financial difficulties set up payment plans but once paid off I was allowed to borrow again. All this with around 10/15 other payday loans from other companies. I’ve told them I’m not accepting said again for the 5th time what I would accept. I’m not being crazy am I? That’s not a good outcome at all is it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds rubbish. But as you seem to be banging your head against a brick wall, just send it t the Ombudsman. Just because someone else got them to see sense, doesn’t mean you will … and this is a big claim.
Mia says
Hi
Thanks for this
It’s already With the fos. The new dialogue has started as they haven’t sent the business file despite it being with the fos 3 months and then writing to them twice. Will the fos proceed without the business file? Yeah definitely not getting anywhere so frustrating as as you say a big claim
Thanks for all the help
Vicky says
Hi all
I just received an offer from MYJAR – I had, in total, 57 loans from them, every month without fail. They have agreed (in so many words) that these loans were sold incorrectly but will only refund interest and fees for loans 42-57 since loans 1-41 were over 6 years ago. Do I have a good chance to take this to the FOS and receive some of the older loans also? For reference they have offered me £311 + £97 interest for these 15 loans.
Any help would be very gratefully received!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Vicky,
sorry i didn’t see your post earlier.
I think you have a good chance – the FOS has recently published a couple of general decisions as guidance to lenders saying that it can look at these older loans, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/
Adam says
Hello everyone,
I have had an offer from sunny today, they are going to refund me all the interest I paid £656 + £235 8% , now I remember having to go to a debt management plan with sunny and other PD lenders so I don’t know if this is a low off, the maths add up with numbers they have sent me I just don’t trust them. Just short of £900 refund is a good offer, don’t want to sound greedy but would I get more from the FOS .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not a question of being greedy, it’s a question of what is right. In general Sunny are pretty straight with their offers, and if they are are refunding all interest on all loans, then you won’t get any more by going to FOS. But some situations are more complicates so it’s worth asking a few questions before you decide to accept. You can’t change your mind afterwards! Sunny would rather sort this out now than have you send this to FOS so they shouldn’t mind any questions.
Has Sunny sent you the details of all of your loans?
If they haven’t you should reply saying that sounds like a good offer but you can’t consider it until they have sent you a statement showing how much you borrowed and what you repaid for all loans.
If they have, then you need to look at this and work out if the last loan was sold to a debt collector. There could be more than one, but it typically with Sunny it is just the last one that you defaulted on. It is normally clear when a loan was defaulted and sold. But if the last loan just shows as closed even though you didnt pay much towards it, ask Sunny if the loan was sold, if so, who to.
If the last loan wasn’t sold, it doesn’t matter that you were in a DMP, all the payments would have gone to Sunny so they will all show up on the statement Sunny sent you. Just add up what you borrowed across all the loans and then add up what you repaid (ignore if that was principal, interest, charges, whatever, just add up every payment you made). If the difference between these figures is £635 then Sunny’s offer is great.
Adam says
Thanks for the reply Sara, they have sent me all my loans and everything I can’t fault them at all. From what I borrowed to how much I paid back in interest it all adds up, so I think I will settle once they get back to me.
I’m just been untrusting due to some lenders telling me I only borrowed X amount but when I’ve got on to my bank statements I’ve borrowed X+ amount.
But due to the DMP I couldn’t see all my transaction on my bank statements.
Again thanks.
Anita says
Hi Sarah,
After 13 weeks of my complaint PDUK came back with final response. I had a loans 2009-2011. In their final response they say’ I can see all your loans are more than six years old. So for me to consider this loans I need you to tell me why you did not complain until now. ‘
Then they say if I am not happy with their decision I can escalate to Ombudsman.
Does it mean they will reconsider if they i tell them why I or is they it final response?
I will call them but would you kindly advise what shall I say.
Thank you
Kelly Webb says
Hi Anita, I had exactly the same final response and was confused as to whether they were expecting a reply, so asked the same question on here. I did reply and received the following response from PDUK within a few days:
‘Thank you for your email of the 7 September 2018, your comments therein have been duly noted.
I have looked at your file and can tell you that the decision in our Final Response Letter still stands, however if you disagree, then you still have right to refer your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) should you so wish.’
It didn’t make any difference in my case but nothing to lose by responding. My case is now with FOS.
Anita says
Thank you for your response. Lack of logic and consistency on their side apparently.
I will try to speak to them anyway.
Any suggestion how to respond?
Thank you so much
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Anita, you should tell them when and how you found out what an affordability complaint was. See the “FOS will ask people how and when they found out they could complain” section in this recent article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/
Steve says
Update on Pounds to Pocket complaint:
Adjudicator has not upheld my complaint. I did think it was a long shot as it was a one loan complaint, but still, wanted to check!
“As it stands because you took out 1 loan with Casheuronet we would not have expected them to do extensive checks like asking you for your bank statements. And as they did ask you about your monthly expenditure, which included other credit commitments I think that the checks they did were proportionate and that we would not require them to do anything further.
In terms of next steps, you can accept the view as it stands and we will close down the case, or you can take the case to an ombudsman for a final decision. Just to manage your expectations an ombudsman will look at the case in the same way that I did so it is unlikely that the outcome would change.”
The loan was for £1150, and the interest paid was £940..!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s quite a large loan – how large were the monthly repayments? Did you also borrow from QuickQuid? Would the credit commitments you put on your application have matched what your credit record said?
Steve says
Hi Sara, I was paying back £174 a month. Only a month later, I took out 2 loans from Wonga because I couldn’t keep up! I *think* my application was slightly lower than what my credit record said at the time. The link is broken for my SAR data so I’ve just re-requested it.
Annie says
After 3 months p2p have sent me an email saying I can log into my account to access my data request but when I log in there is nothing there in the menu to allow me to access this information. I have sent them a reply to let them know and told them if I do not have a reply within 48 hours then I will take this further as they should have provided the request within 30 days anyway. Does anyone know if I am missing something trying to access the info or are p2p being difficult as my account information has also vanished off the site.
Thanks
David says
Hi I was wondering what other people’s experiences with wage day advance were.
Recieved my final response upholding loan 4 of 14. Basically in their response said they didn’t use credit reference agencies as the information would be inaccurate.
Are they worth negotiating with or straight to FOS?
Rachel says
David how long did you wait for a reply from them? I have been waiting 9 weeks :(!
Lucy says
Hi
I sent my complaint to WDA on 30 August 2018 and they emailed me this afternoon saying that I will receive a final response on the 24 October 2018. Fingers crossed.
Lisa says
Received confirmation today from adjudicator payday uk is paying out on one loan I took out in 2010!
Taken a year but worth the wait. There’s hope for all loans over 6 years.
Lee sharratt says
I had loans from 2011 with payday, with the fo. Think I’m in for a long wait. Sent it in July
karen wilson says
I believe the turnaround changed from upto 6 months wait to 6-12 months now as high volume of claims and with wonga going bust causing delays too im 5 months in with 6 claims only one of them paid out so far
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga going bust will actually speed things up! No Wonga cases are currently being worked on so far as I know, so the adjudicators and Ombudsmen who would have been on those are now dealing with others.
Neil says
Hi All,
Just had a response from Ferratum saying they do not believe the loans I had with them were unaffordable as they relied on the information I supplied and I always paid back on time etc etc.
I must have paid around £2,000 in interest to them during the time I had loans with them.
They offered as a gesture of goodwill to refund me £500.
I would accept a refund of around £1,000 to avoid going to the FOS and waiting for them to look at my complaint.
I have two questions :
1) Is it worth contacting them to negotiate for a higher amount and pointing out I have a strong case , because I was continually re borrowing month after month for nearly thirty months and they should have looked more closely at my applications?
2) If i accept their gesture does this mean that I can no longer take my complaint to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1) you can try. Let us know how they respond!
2) you cannot go to FOS if you accept their offer.
neil says
Thanks Sara,
If I try to negotiate for a higher amount and they refuse can they or do you think its likely that will withdraw their original goodwill gesture ?.
Not sure what to do for the best at the moment as £500 although not a fortune would really help at the moment.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It always seems risky to turn down £500! Although in theory they could withdraw it, it’s unlikely and anyway yours sounds like a strong case. And anyway you aren’t actually turning the £500 down at the moment, just going back and arguing for a bit more.
I suggest that you actually calculate in detail what the interest is on all the loans. Then calculate what the interest is on all the loans excluding the first three, as that is a common decision by FOS. Sometimes working out these figures makes it easier for you to decide what to do. How long ago were the loans?
Neil says
Hi Sara,
Stopped re borrowing two months ago and they are all paid off.
I think i’ll try to negotiate a higher amount and let you know .
How long do you think I should give them or can i send to Ombudsman anyway and try to negotiate whilst its with the Ombudsman and then withdraw if negotiations are successful?.
They responded with this offer just today, five weeks after original complaint and said it was their final response.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you would probably get very roughly 8% extra in statutory interest if you go to FOS.
Well it’s up to you, but they have been speedy so far. I would give them a week.
Andy says
Good news case updates to hopefully give others hope.
Uncle Buck – Complained 8 weeks and 2 days ago. Chased today as no response giving them 48 hours to reply or I would escalate to ombudsman and seek compensation for lack of reply. Final decision letter received offering £648. I estimate I could have got around £750 so offer accepted.
118 – Got back to me today exactly 8 weeks after complaint, removing all interest from current loan – around £3200 interest removed due to rolled over loans. Happy with this decision and not pursuing any more compensation
Wonga – I was very lucky and my complaint and final settlement was just in time prior to the collapse and I received £4500.
Don’t give up – keep pushing the companies
Good luck everyone
Jane says
Great news Andy, really pleased for you!
I’m at the 6 week mark and it’s been a very interesting process. From my experience sending bank statements/credit files and additional information to support my case has certainly kept the communication open, though getting SAR or FSAR details has been difficult!Only Quick Quid responded with SAR details quickly though that claim skipped straight off to the FOS!
Hope to share good news soon, even if it’s one win out of eight!
Andy says
Hi Jane,
Ive been lucky in so much I could go back over bank statements and not need to put in the initial SAR – I could go straight to step 2 as could work out when loans were and what interest was.
I had a battle initially with Wonga disputing address, and stating hadn’t received my emails, then with Uncle Buck not replying on time but when clearly stated I would escalate to Ombudsman I received a decent offer from both. 118 were easy to deal with. I did not need to send statements/payslips or any other information.
I’m sure you will get more than 1 out of 8. I’m 3 out of 3.
Good luck :-)
Miss Jacqui's says
Thanks Sara
Have been back to them on Monday and they are not budging, even though i have paid back well over £1150.00 before i went into DMP and then carried on making payments which amounted to £645.00, they still insist i owe the princple amount of £474.00 just does not make any sense. I have reffered it back to the Ombudsman but it’s so frustrating as they are just stringing it out. Have seen this from Speedy cash before?
And thanks for confirming what i already suspected, i will let you know how i get on.
Paul says
After sending the initial SAR asking for details to all my previous loans to Lending Stream, Sunny, Satsuma, PDUK, WDA and Piggybank – only Lending Stream and WDA replied giving me the details. Sunny and PDUK came back stating that they’d look into my complaint even though they’d ignored my request for info and I haven’t heard anything from Piggybank or Satauma. Today was the 8 week point and Sunny (who i’d had 14 loans from in a 12 month window) came back saying they wouldn’t be upholding my complaint and also said they won’t be lending me anything in the future (charming) as I’d mentioned financial hardship during the times of the loans between 2014-2015. Lending Stream (had 22 loans from these over 2 years) haven’t replied with a decision, PDUK and WDA both came back saying they hadn’t come to a decision yet and asked for another 8 weeks! I had to get all info from old bank statements which took ages to go through. I’ve referred Sunny, Lending Stream and PDUK to the FO today with bank statements, lists of loans and included info on family members lending me money to get me out of trouble. I’ve got a lot of gambling transactions on my statements which rightly or wrongly I’ve acknowledged as an issue in my complaints to the Ombudsman. I thought I had strong cases accross the board and felt really confident but with nothing coming back successful, I’m feeling pretty demoralised actually and not confident at all now but let’s see.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“ I had to get all info from old bank statements which took ages to go through” annoying though this is, on the bright side you now know you have accurate information and you have avoided the horror of having to read PDUK’s bizarre and confusing statement of accounts!
“I thought I had strong cases accross the board and felt really confident but with nothing coming back successful, I’m feeling pretty demoralised actually and not confident at all now but let’s see.” Many cases involving gambling have to go to FOS. To the lenders your income probably looked good compared to what you were borrowing and often with gambling and loans from family some loans would have been paid off early, so it may not have been clear that the loans were unaffordable. Of course they should still have wondered why you kept borrowing…
Paul says
One thing I missed off there is that there doesn’t appear to be any record on my credit file going back years of any dealings with Sunny. Maybe they’ve deleted these from my credit file, I’m not sure. Seems strange though.
Tim says
Hi Paul
I had the same thing happen with regards to gambling transactions, I had 5 loans at the ombudsman and 3 of them have been upheld after rejection by the lender, I’m still waiting to hear back on the other 2. In all 3 cases so far he ombudsman has said that the lender did enough checks for the first 3/4 loans but all interest after should be refunded as they should have done more checks. Hopefully you get the result you are looking for
Tim
Paul says
Thanks Tim, that’s encouraging.
Tony says
UPDATE
Recieved further comms from FOS on 6yrs+ loans with WDA, agreed ALL loans CAN be looked at, given the business 1 week to respond.
Only QQ outstanding now, will keep you posted.
Cheers
Anita says
Just wondering if that would be reasonable to ask the lenders after rejection for reconsideration due to the latest Ombudsman decisions. Would they be able to change final decision?
What do you reckon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you mean for a case currently at the Ombudsman? Or one where you settled for the under 6 year loans?
Anita says
I mean for the cases that were rejected by the lenders and are not yet with Ombudsman.
Qq, WDA, MY JAR +TXT LOAN said it is outside the time limit of 6 years and they not obliged to look into them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have just had the rejections, then why not, go back to them. But also send them to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a positive reply in a week!
m says
just had a email from sunny loans
advised me total interest was £75 over the 4 loans I had that totaled £1700, they have upheld my complaint and said we felt we did the right checks to give you what we thought was reasonable to afford.
my question is should I bother going to FOS for this as its only £75 of interest I paid is it really worth it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that seems a very small amount of interest… it could be right if the loans were very short term, only for a few days? But otherwise, have they sent you details of the loans – how much you borrowed and how much you repaid? could you list these as there are only 4 of them?
m says
hi yes these are the details of the loans
Borrowed £1,700.00
Repaid: £1,775.85
Interest: £75.85
loan amount dates borrowed
£550.00 0.56% 26/03/2018
£750.00 0.80% 01/07/2018
£50.00 0.80% 11/08/2018
£350.00 0.80% 11/08/2018
the repaid amount
£556.16
£806.89
£51.60
£361.20
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the £75 interest is correct. And there was a gap of several months from loan 1 to loan 2. And loans 3 & 4, whilst taken on the same day were together for a lot less than loan 2.
I doubt you will get anywhere with the Ombudsman for these loans.
Leanne says
Hi Sara
Just had a reply from Sunny, I had a total of 24 loans from them. At times I had top ups and the maximum allowed amount of 4 loans at one time.
Response “ i am able to inform you that we conducted creditworthiness checks and assessed your affordability and how you we’re managing your debts, based apon this it was considered responsible to advance credit to you”
Having said that they have partially upheld my complaint saying “ factors in place should have prevented three of your loans from being granted”
These three loans were the very first loans I applied for so I find it strange that they have acknowledged they should not have given them too me but then deemed it ok to provide me with a further 20 loans.
The offer is just over £1k, do I accept of will I have a good chance with the FOS?
Help please 😃
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That does sound a strange offer. And not a very good one – do you know how much interest you paid on all 24 loans? It is probably a very good case to take to FOS – normally people dont get the first few loans refunded, but Sunny have already conceded those!
Leanne says
Hi Sara
The total of interest paid back was just over £8k.
I appreciate that not all interest will be refunded but just find it odd that they have concealed the first 3 loans as it’s normally later loans that are upheld and the first couple are deemed as affordable.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At a guess, they may not have some of the documentation about the first three loans, such as your application details.
Leanne says
Thanks Sara
I think I will send to the FOS, I think it’s odd And have a good chance to have a few more of the 24 loans upheld.
The 8 week deadline is nearly up for my other claims to QQ and Amigo so hopefully receive response soon.
Jordan says
Hi Sara
The adjudicator up help my complaint against Capfin but they have gone bankrupt, what will happen now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to ask your adjudicator. If they are in administration, it depends whether there is any money to pay refunds. If you had negative marks on your credit record, they at least should be removed even if you don’t get any money.
Jordan says
Hi I’m new to all this but I’ve had quite a few payday loans in the past on 10th August got a company to send letters to some payday loan companies for me looking for a refund…I am currently in a DMP with stepchange with about £1600 left to pay to creditors (this was £8000 last year) and I’m looking to get something back from these payday loan companies.
I’ve had the first reply back from Sunny and they have rejected my claim and just wanted some advice please. Below is what I borrowed from them and when and how much I had to pay back with interest.
21/02/2017 borrowed £400 with £714 to pay back
24/02/2017 borrowed £150 with £262 to pay back
31/03/2017 borrowed £400 with £579 to pay back
12/05/2017 borrowed £150 with £178 to pay back
They sent me a letter saying they have rejected my complaint and also in the letter included a summary of my borrowing with loan IDs etc they said they carried out their assessment of me correctly for each of the 4 loans but surely It shows I was in financial difficulty to borrow twice within 3 days.
Do I have grounds to go to the Financial ombudsman or go back to sunny directly saying I’m going to the financial ombudsman?
I’m currently waiting for a reply from QQ also, they have another 10 days before the 8 weeks is up and with them I ‘topped up’ on loans…
Thanks in advance!
Jordan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done on paying off the DMP – that seems to be going very well!
What does the claims company say about these Sunny loans?
Jordan says
Thanks Sara! The claims company haven’t actually contacted me yet about my rejection from Sunny ha. Sunny emailed me directly with the rejection letter and copied in the claims company.
I feel as though I may have a case though because of the fact I borrowed so quickly and there was hardly any time between loans. My credit score will have been getting progressively worse while still borrowing from sunny because I had 7 or 8 open loans with other payday companies at the same time.
What do people think?
Thanks,
Jordan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s worth a try. I should make this complaint to FOS detailed (and annoyingly this means writing it yourself even though the claims company will pocket a third if you do get a refund) by listing from your credit record what Sunny would have seen when you applied for loan 1, for loan 2 etc.
Richard Barnett says
Hi all I sent a complaint to safety net credit on the 26th June 2018 had a automatic response from then to investigate the complaint I had to wait till the last day of the 8 weeks for them to come back and say that they did nothing wrong on there side but as a goodwill gesture they would pay off the last loan that I didn’t pay back of 420 and remove any adverse credit mark in which I rejected and sent it to fos on the 1st of September just had a email from Adjudicator today saying that safety net credit have just changed there offer and they are going to refund all interest and charges
Safety Net Credit said in total you’ve paid £1,478.71 in interest. 8% on this amount is £484.29, for a total of £1,963. Safety Net Credit is required by HMRC to deduct 20%, or £96.86 from the interest payment, leaving a refundable interest amount of £1,866.14.
Because you have an outstanding principal balance of £300, this will be taken off the refundable interest, leaving an amount of £1,566.14 payable directly to you.
I would like to say thank you to everyone
Still Waiting on 4 more that are with fos
Tony says
Hello Richard/ SARA,
I am considering making a complaint to Safteynet credit. I have been borrowing since 2014 with them alongside other payday loans. I borrow directly after I repay.
If I complain should I cancel the repayment option? Surely having access to my bank account they should realise the financial difficulties?
Were they fairly easy to deal with?
Thanks
Richard Barnett says
Hi tony
Yes I would cancel your repayment option.
Then start your claim to them first , it will take up to 8 weeks for them to respond.
They rejected my claim with a good will gesture which I declined And sent it straight on to fos.
I didn’t even know an adjudicator was signed to it but then had an email a few days ago saying that safety net contacted them with a change of offer which was all my interest back and 8%.
Then they took the balance off what I owe as I stopped my repayments.
Hope this helps and definitely go for it!
Tony says
Hello,
Thanks for the advice. How did you cancel your CPA?
I have emailed and they haven’t got back to me
Richard Barnett says
Tony
Ring your bank and tell them that you don’t want anymore payments coming out from safety net credit and they will stop them
Good luck
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely cancel your CPA to them with your bank, they had a very bad habit a while ago of telling people who put in a complaint their account was on hold for 30 days, then at the end of it, with still no answer to the complaint, going in and helping themselves to your money. They may have stopped this now, but don’t risk it!
Their offers are erratic, but as Richard says, sometimes they reject than offer the lot at the Ombudsman.
JD says
Hi
I wonder if anyone could let me know about their experiences with the FOS. I have sent 5 complaints to them and have received 4 letters saying they have now contacted the company in question. How long from this point does it usually take. I assume none of my cases have been assigned to an adjudicator yet as they would have told me.
Thanks,
JD
Tim says
Hi JD
My cases got assigned to an adjudicator about 3 months after I received the letters saying the businesses had been contacted. I had 5 in total with FOS and I am waiting for 1 more outcome (other 4 upheld from loans 3/4 onwards). Just a case of being patient
Good Luck
JD says
Hi Tim
Sounds like some good results. Congrats!
I thought I’d be in for a long haul.. I did receive my first letter of that kind over 9 weeks ago and still no adjudicator so assuming I have a few more weeks to wait still. Just wondering what the process is like and how long it takes once you do have an adjudicator assigned. Will they ask for more info? Do they consider things I didn’t mention in my original complaint and do they keep you updated during the process?
Thanks,
JD
Tim says
Hi JD
The adjudicator will usually give you a call to introduce themselves when the case is assigned to them- they will ask for bank statements for the period you had the loans and possibly leading up to so is a good idea to have these ready. The adjudicator assigned to my cases has been faultless, he has called me every time he has an update and once assigned to him he provided an outcome for 2 of them in 3 weeks and the other 2 on the 4th. With regards to considering things you didn’t mention, I think it depends if they are shown clearly on your bank statements and if the lender would have seen if they had asked you for statements for additional checks (although I’m not 100% sure, Sara probably better to provide an answer on this)
Tim
Glynis says
Hi. Has anyone had problems with MyJar paying out after accepting their offer. Thanks
Rachel says
Yes me I am still waiting I emailed them again yesterday :( how long have you been waiting?
Rachel says
Okay just checked my bank again and it’s just gone in, so maybe check yours again? I have waited at least two week, good luck
Glynis says
Hi Rachel. They havnt paid me yet. How long was you waiting
Rachel says
24th September – Received offer
24th September – Accepted offer and asked for the 8% interest
4th October – Came back and said ‘Initially, 8% was not requested in your letter of complaint, therefor this was no included. As you have now specifically asked for the statutory interest please view the paragraphs below with our revised offer.’ Etc ‘Please allow 10 to 15 business days for the refund to be processed. This payment will be made in full and final settlement of this complaint and acceptance will indicate your agreement to this condition.’
15th October – Paid out
Hope that helps :)
Laurence says
Update – Final response letter from Mr Lender
Fully rejected and offered me 0.
I had 7 loans over nearly 4 years. One loan I paid in excess of £2,200 interest alone on £700 borrowing.
Sending my case straight off to FO.
Can’t say I can fault them with responding, very efficient and quick to provide all docs.
Uncle Buck I’m now about to come to week 8 with zero response to my SAR I issued them in August (7 separate emails sent)
Chased them threatened ICO even wrote a scathing review on Trust Pilot about them. (They replied on this within hours of course) but have now gone completely silent again.
Awaiting responses on WDA, PDUK, QQ
Thanks again Sara for all help and a great site.
African Queen says
Hello,
I wanted to give a quick update.
After submitting my complaint against Lending Stream to the FOS in May, I eventually got a ruling in my favour yesterday for 3 out of the 4 loans. The FOS have given Lending Stream until the 26th of this month to respond. I will post any updates as I get them so hopefully give others an idea of timelines.
One another note, I am still awaiting a decision from FOS on my complaint against MyJar. When I checked my credit file yesterday, MyJar have registered a late payment record which has brought my credit score down by 138 points. I have written to MyJar as well as the FOS as I don’t believe that that they can do this whilst the case is with the FOS. MyJar have always known that I had escalated to the FOS because I informed them. Thisis so unfair as I have been working hard to increase my credit score and was succeeding.
Sara, any thoughts on MyJar’s conduct?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
technically Myjar are correct – you have missed a payment. If you win your complaint, the last loan with the balance will normally be one of the ones being refunded and the late payment marker will be removed.
There isn’t a way out of the payday loan trap of unaffordable loans except by not paying the last one.
African Queen says
Thank you Sara – I do hope I win my complaint. It has been with the FOS since May.
I will post updates as I get them. This has really upset me :(
Mike says
Hi, how long should I wait after sending the original complaint before chasing them up about it? I sent 7 on the 26th August. 2 have been sorted. Another 2 have said they haven’t managed to resolved it within 4 weeks but should be resolved within another 4 weeks. However, the other 3, I haven’t received any acknowledgement or anything at all since I emailed the complaint. Is that usual? Should I email them again asking what’s the progress of the complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you asked for a list of your loans? Or just made the complaint because you already have all the details?
Mike says
Already have the details.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case just sit back and wait for the 8 week point.
Blinky says
Hello!
Looking for some advice if anybody is able to help me please! I have had numerous loans with about 13 different lenders from 2014 – 2018.
I was enrolled in a debt management plan from late 2016 – June 2018 with a beginning total of just under 4K. (I didn’t finish paying it & they stopped my plan)
April this year got a loan with uncle buck. Didn’t make any repayments & have complained about irresponsible lending, they have sent their final response today and not upheld my complaint.
Some things they have said:
During our assessment of whether you were able to afford the repayments, we took into account the monthly income and expenditure you supplied on your application. You indicated on your application that you had enough disposable income to pay the loan back. The figures you provided did not highlight that you were experiencing financial difficulty at the time.
As there is no independent way to check a customer’s expenditure, we expect customers to provide us with true and accurate information in this regard. I do not find it unreasonable that we relied on figures you provided as part of our lending decisions.
Do these reasons really give them grounds not to uphold my complaint or do you think I could send it to FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well first have you complained about the 13 other payday lenders?
One loan cases are not easy to win. How large was the loan? And your income? Would your credit record have shown a lot of recent problems? How accurate was the information on your application form
kevin thompson says
Hi Thanks Debt Camel
just got a refund from Mr Lender for £478 using your template letters
they was very polite think i could have gone for more but this was a reasonable offer
Anita says
Sarah,
Just had a final response from Uncle buck. I had 5 loans between 200-500. At the time of my application I was few years in DMP. They did not uphold the complaint saying they did a credit check, internal check…
They also said ‘I consider it prudent to highlight that you repaid all the loans either on or earlier than the repayment dates as set out in the loan agreements. We don’t consider this action indicates financial difficulty, on the contrary, we consider it indicates these loans were affordable for you.’
I sent email asking for reconsideration with no chance for success. My question is do I have any chance with Ombudsman due to the fact the loans were settled.
Appreciate your comment and advise
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The fact the loans were settled is irrelevant – what matters is if after settling them you could get through the next month without borrowing again. Even settling early makes no difference – it doesn’t suddenly mean you got rich, just often that you were paid early.
What were the “gaps” between the lans – the time from repaying loan 1 to taking out loan 2 etc? And the amount you borrowed tend to go up?
Anita says
Date Loan Taken Loan Type Loan Amount Interest and charges paid Account status
24/10/2014 Payday Loan £200.00 £84.90 Repaid
05/11/2014 Payday Loan £300.00 £119.85 Repaid
11/12/2014 Payday Loan £250.00 £102.38 Repaid
07/01/2015 Instalment Loan £500.00 £235.85 Repaid
14/04/2015 Payday Loan £200.00 £35.20 Repaid
04/05/2015 Instalment Loan £500.00
Anita says
That is six of my life loans literally 1⃣ after another. Not sure if it is worth to send it to Ombudsman.
Another question. Shall I wait for their response or shall I send the bank statements. Due to the fact that I will be coming back to my country before Christmas is it possible sensible to ask Ombudsman for priority?.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that’s worth sending to the Ombudsman. At the point you took the £500 instalment loans out, you had had back to back payday loans for 3 months – even if the installment loans didn’t have higher monthly repayments, UB should still have wondered why you needed more money.
The last loan – was that repaid? You actually had six loans?
I’m sorry but I doubt FOS will give this priority – you can still manage the case by email from outside the UK.
Anita says
Yes, I had 6 loans. Last £500 was also repaid.
I will send it to Financial Ombudsman.
Thank you for your advice. Much appreciated
Anita says
Hi Sarah,
Quick update. I called UB today as sent a request for reconsideration. I spoke to complaints department. They said I lied apparently if now I am saying the loans were unaffordable. We were talking and hitting ping pong ball. I said it would be beneficial for all of parties as Ombudsman will look into my complaint. They offered good will gesture £235. I was torn apart as paid around £700 but accepted the offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
UB can be pretty unpleasant :(
It’s now settled, and you have some money. It’s not a bad result, it’s very unlikely you would have got all £700 back
Anita says
Exactly. It is just a hint for anyone who has a case with UB. Just talk to them.
Thank you for your advice.
Tim says
I currently have a case with Uncle Buck – Anita , are you able to advise how quick Uncle Buck are at paying out? The Ombudsman have upheld my complaint and told them to refund me almost £600 + 8% interest, if I say to them I will waive the 8% if they pay out by close of business this week, does anyone know if this is likely to get them to pay out sooner as I really need the cash?
Thanks
Anita says
They told me the refund will be done within 5 working days. Let’s see.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Honestly I doubt that will speed up a refund. Each lender has its own process for calculating exactly what it should be. When it’s done, it then goes to the queue to get paid. It’s not one person’s job which they can choose to prioritise yours, it’s just a series of small administrative steps.
K says
I had my refund from uncle buck last week I sent my signed form to the adjudicator on the Monday money was in the bank on Thursday they were very quick. Lending stream took a week and a half and myjar took 2 days
Andy says
UB paid our within 3 days for me….
Stuart says
Does anybody know if it is worth trying to negotiate with Ferratum? They have rejected my complaint but offered to settle my loan as a gesture of goodwill. Even though I haven’t accepted the offer they have settled the loan anyway. They even stated in there final response that I worked for BT which I dont and earned £1750 per month which i dont and when I corrected them they apologised and admitted the error.
Lisa G says
Hi Sara / all,
3 days before my 8 weeks was up I received my SAR from both PayDay Uk and The Money Shop. Most loans are unfortunately over 6 years old for both.
My questions are; with The Money Shop I had taken out cheque loans (you give them a cheque, they give you the money minus interest and they don’t cash it until you say, so if you roll over the interest they take the interest and hold the cheques). In total I gave £3350 in cheques and paid £3091 in interest between April 2010 and June 2013 (many rollovers). Has anyone had success with this?
Secondly; looking at my PayDay Uk SAR I had 3 loans with them borrowing a total of £1320. I rolled these over many times and paid £2687 in interest… this seems colossal, over twice the amount borrowed. Is / was this normal for PayDay Uk back in 2010? Again, has anyone with this scenario had success with them without the FOS?
Lastly, I also had 7 loans with Payday Express paying £2550 in interest (again all but 2 were over 6 years old). My claim has recently been rejected, they rejected the last 2 loans and wouldn’t consider the first 5. I’ve gone back to them to ask them to reconsider in light of the recent FOS ruling and have argued that had all 3 companies communicated together they’d have seen the financial hardship I was in. Has anyone had any luck this way or have they gone straight to the FOS? I know it’ll probably end up with the FOS however it would be nice to avoid the long wait!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes lots of people have got large refunds in the end from the Money Shop – but they aren’t goog at making direct offers.
If you rolled the PDUK loans a lot that sounds quite normal :(
I am afraid most complaints with loans over 6 years have to go to FOS. the lenders know many people will settle for poor offers on the under 6 year loans rather than wait a long while.
I am hoping that from now on things will speed up, not just because of the over 6 year decisions but because the FOS is also being very clear that lenders should be paying out more on long chains of borrowing.
Lisa G says
Thanks Sara, that gives me an idea on where I’ll stand. If I haven’t heard anything from them within 2 weeks I’ll forward it all to the FOS and sit in for a wait.
Adrian says
Just wanted to say thank you to this site. My Jar agreed to refund over £2100 and a couple of others have agreed to refund me smaller amounts while correcting entries on my credit file all without even needing the FOS. Great site and good luck everyone with your claims!
John M says
Hi All,
I met my MP last night to discuss my loans over 6 years with QQ and Wonga and he advised he believes loans from over 6 years should be in the process of being resolved as per your advice Sara. He believes that people are likely to get 1p in every £1 for Wonga but this is not confirmed as yet.
He is going to follow up my QQ case with various people which is very helpful.
He also discussed gambling online with credit cards as something he wants to get abolished. I know not for this site as such but a positive step never-the-less.
Mia says
Hi
Bit of a moan more than anything! Just so fed up with waiting!! I’ve had claims against 10 companies, hundreds of loans between 2011-17. Payday uk and mr lender upheld complaint all the rest now with fos since may/June. None have come back. I’ve tried contacting the companies again see if we can negotiate but none willing to budge. The fos saying they don’t know when they will be assigned and definitely not in the next month!! Have already waived all the over 6 year loans. Just feeling really deflated, I thought I had quite a good case with most of the loans but fact they aren’t willing to negotiate now worries me. And it’s just taking so long with the fos I know they have a backlog but god!! Anyone got any advice thanks
matt says
Hi Mia
Most of my complaints went in Mid April and some still not assigned. I have had a couple picked up by an adjudicator last month and waiting on responses from the lenders It is a game of patience and waiting.
karen wilson says
Me too got my claims in late may and still not assigned in fos you would think by now they would at least be assigned!
Jen says
Hi Mia it’s just a waiting game, I had 1 with sunny timeline complained to them end 17, offered really bad offer jan 18 sent to FOS end jan 17, adjudicator decision July 18, paid out aug 18, I sent in all my statements & all paper work, credit reports, final response etc in early feb 18, I didn’t hear anything to say assigned to adjudicator until I got their decision by e.mail
Jen says
I also asked the adjudicator if they could pick up other 1 sent to FOS same time, they did that after a week or 2, they were under 6 yrs, my 1s over 6yrs were sent may/June 17 and only 1 of them is picked up 2 weeks ago, just sit tight I know they are even busier now more than ever, just send them all the info from your side that’s all u can do, keep smiling 1 day these companies will no longer exist hopefully 😀
C says
Mine went in March and still waiting
What I will say though, when we took these loans (I know I didn’t) did anyone think we’d get this money back.
That’s what I go back to in my head. Although we were hard done by, at least we have an opportunity to make things right again…….. it’s just a wait.
I’d rather wait for money back rather than have no opportunity at all. Just a thought
Jen says
Totally agree C the refunds I’ve had so far had a major impact in my life, found this site in may 17 after a post on Hotukdeals, Sara is doing an amazing job pointing us all in the right direction, I’m still checking and waiting a year and a half in, still a few to get looked at but I’d nought before I started this process, I’ve been able to pay off some debt and treat my kids to new bikes I thought I could never afford 😀
Carl says
Morning All,
Just had my first ‘win’ – 247 Moneybox are refunding me £500, I worked out the most I could have got would have been £800.56 plus 8% interest.
1 down, 7 to go.
Thank you again for this website Sara
Tom C says
I had my first and only win with 247 Moneybox, have to say, they were really responsive, all loans were over 6 years old and after a bit of negotiation they offered £550 (think it would of been £700 max), accepted and paid within a few days, took less than 4 weeks from original complaint.
Had two rejections (final response) – escalated to FOS.
And waiting to hear from 6 more companies – 8 weeks deadline is end of this month.
JD says
Is there a particular way they assign cases?
I’ve seen people get adjudicators after 12 weeks and some still waiting 5/6 months later.
Do they just say “here’s your case files get through them when you can, assign different companies to certain adjudicators, put cases involving over 6 years at the back of the list, cases where they have received the business file at the front so they don’t have to chase them up?
Surely they have a priority system? There must be a reason some are getting looked at early
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Nothing is published. But there are answers to some of your points:
– until FOS has received a business case from the firm, it is VERY unlikely to be assigned.
– until recently all cases (unless the lender agrees otherwise) involving over 6 year loans have been awaiting a decision on jurisdiction before they can be assigned to an adjudicator. And these cases have been on hold. With the new decisions, the hold should in theory be lifted, but I think in practice FOS is probably working with some of the lenders to try to get them to accept the new decisions rather than fight each one through individually. the new FCA letter to lenders this will should help with this, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/dear-payday-lender-ceo-redress/
– some adjudicators seem to handle certain firms.
JD says
That’s great thanks.
So hopefully for me it won’t be much longer as the FOS have received the business file, and I have no loans over 6 years. It’s been with them 3 months now, so hopefully I hear soon enough.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well, some time in the next 3 months… Back in May I was cheerfully saying 10-14 weeks, but since then complaint volumes to FOS have gone up a lot. 4-6 months is now more standard.
Paul says
Just a quick question regarding referring cases to the FO. I went on their site and referred them online last week but I haven’t received an email notification to say I’ve referred them or anything. Is this normal?
Lisa G says
I think so. I referred MyJar via email on their site. Didn’t hear anything, was wondering if I should call to make sure they got it then I got a latter I’m the post with a reference number etc and it said they’d contacted MyJar for all the information on me. I think that letter took about 5 weeks to arrive.
J says
Hi Paul – it seems to be. I registered one recently and got the confirmation letter within 10 days but the first one took 3 weeks. I think it is dependent on how busy they are. However, if you have heard nothing in 4 weeks I would recommend calling them and they will look it up – by then it has progressed and they can view it / confirm the attachments. Useful, as they run through everything there and confirm whether you need to send anything else – they did this for me so that when it gets picked up for assigning it saves time at that stage. Hope that reassures a bit.
Paul says
Thanks for the replies!
Funnily enough, I’ve received an email today asking for the email communications with Lending Stream so I know that they’re definitely being addressed which is reassuring.
Paul says
I’ve seen quite a few people state that they have negotiated with some of these companies and have received offers. I’d be interested to hear what negotiating techniques people have used and general wording.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My tips:
– put in a standard complaint asking for everything. Don’t try to negotiate to take less from the beginning.
– then wait until you have been sent an offer – don’t go back and offer to try settle lower to get a complaint sorted quickly.
– it’s not worth bothering if you get a total rejection or a daftly small offer – £120 when you have paid over £2000 in interest say. Only negotiate if including one or two more loans, or them adding 8% would mean you accept the larger offer.
– if there is a balance outstanding, check you know exactly what they are offering and read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/
– know your facts. Work out the gaps between your loans, work out which loans were rolled, if there were any late payments, how much interest you paid on each loan etc
– point out any errors in what the lender said (“You said there was a 14 month gap between loans 12 and 13 which shows I wasn’t dependent on you. But during this time I made two loan application to you which were rejected.”)
– make a reasoned argument – not “I’ll settle if you up the £250 offer to £500” but “I think you should also be refunding loans 3 and 4. Loan 3 was taken out only 5 days after I repaid loan 2 and was a lot larger than loans 1 and 2. Loan 4 was a bit smaller than loan 3 but was taken out the same day as loan 3 was repaid.”
– if you want to argue that the lender should have checked your credit record, supply a copy of your Noddle credit report with the email and also set out in detail what they would have seen ” When I applied for the third loan in November 2016, my credit record would have showed that I had 4 outstanding payday loans and that I had missed payments to credit cards and loans in the previous 6 months.”
What doesn’t work well – pointing out it will cost the £550 if your case goes to the FOS so it will cost less to settle. You may think this is logical, but the lender knows they would soon be broke if they agreed to every complaint on that basis.
Paul says
Very useful information, thanks Sara.
jane says
Fantastic information Sara much appreciated!
Claire says
Hi,
I’ve had a response from WDA, i only had one loan with them in 2009 but thought it was worth a shot as at the time i ended up paying it back in £5 instalments i was struggling that much. They have issued a final response of a flat out no, basically saying due to the extensive media coverage since 2013 relating to payday loan complaints i should have been aware earlier about complaining and now the loan is ‘time barred’. i thought they may decline on this basis.
Do you think it is worth taking this one to FOS or not to waste my time? I do have other complaints just at lender stage at the moment, this is the only final response I have had so far but I would imagine I will be going to FOS with a few others anyway. I’m just thinking it will be difficult to get the bank statements this far back and might be waste of time?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you set about getting your old bank statements – they will probably be needed for some of your complaints if not this one.
Wageday Advance are wrong that this old debt is time barred, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/. But one loan complaints are hard to win. Your bank statements may show this loan wasn’t affordable, but that isn’t enough to win a complaint with FOS, you also have to show that WDA should have known this. With one that that will be very hard. It’s up to you but this one doesn’t sound worth pursuing to me.
Jay says
Hey Sara,
Firstly thanks for all the information here.
I complained my MYJAR, I had a total of 10 loans with them, the first three were under £250, then four for £300, then two for £200 as I tried to get my finances in order, this didn’t happen and I had to take out another for £500 all loans were taken a few days after my paydays consistently after I’d payed back the loans.
The £500 I couldn’t pay back and the debt was passed on to a collection company. I paid them £290 and I currently have £210 outstanding to pay.
MYJAR have offered me the £290 refund only for the last loan I couldn’t repay plus writing off the £210 I still owe, plus removing this from my credit file.
Do you think this is a good offer from them? Or do you think I should be taking this to the FOS?
Also, there’s nothing mentioned in their response about 8% interest, if I do decide to take their offer, how should I go about getting this? Or is it already added?
Also can I ask what the FOS actually look for when checking bank statements?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can I ask about the last loan – you said you borrowed £500, you have paid “them” (was that Myjar or the debt collector?) £290 and still have £210 outstanding – is that correct? Because it suggests there is no interest on the last loan?
Jay says
My last loan was for £500, the total to pay back was £620, when I contacted them to say I had financial difficulty they offered me a repayment plan and the total to pay back on the plan was £751 in one payment. I couldn’t pay that and gave them a token of £23 payment to set up another plan, so after that the total outstanding was £728. I paid myjar £400 in total then the plan failed again and went to a debt collector – Secure recoveries. They contacted me and said the total amount outstanding was £500 and they added another £100. So I needed to pay them £600. I paid them a total of £325 and the plan failed again. I was then contacted by another collector called DRS that said my balance outstanding was £210 (this is the outstanding amount).
When MYJAR contacted me to offer a refund they said the £290 was the interest I paid on the last £500 loan and I still had £210 outstanding to pay them which they would write off.
I should have been clearer in the first message but I would appreciate your help as this is so confusing for me I’m getting this data from my emails.
Thanks for your response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Last loans where there were difficulties can be very confusing!
It sounds as though Myjar are offering you a “full refund” on the last loan. I can’t see if they have included 8%, the numbers don’t seem quite right – if they haven’t then they will usually add this if you ask them to.
Is this a good offer? Not really! You borrowed consistently and Myjar should have stopped and asked questions about this at loan 4 or 5 I would suggest.
Do you know how much interest you paid on loans 4-9 (that is EXCLUDING the complicated last loan?)?
Jay says
Hey. Thanks for that, the total interest for 4-9 is £301.60. All of the loans were paid on time.
Do you think I should be going back to Myjar to tell them it’s a poor offer and ask them to consider these loans too? Or go straight to the FOS. Or any other advice is greatly appreciated.
MATT says
UPDATE
After chasing FOS i have received this…
Initially, Uncle Buck had until 3 October 2018 to reply to my assessment. However we’re aware that the business is experiencing some delays, so this was extended by a further two weeks.
As such if I don’t receive a response from them by Friday, I will be preparing the complaint for an ombudsman to look at.
I hope this answers your concerns, but if you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Q says
I had this exact same response regarding unclebuck. They never replied after the additional 2 weeks. It was then sent for a final decision from the ombudsman on 28/08. I spoke to the FOS yesterday regarding this and was told it was very unlikely it would be picked up this year! Hopefully they will reply to your adjudicator if not prepare for a long wait. Fingers crossed they don’t go into administration aswell.
matt says
Yep, not expecting this to be resolved anytime soon! Thanks for the reply Q.
Tara says
So it looks like I’m going to FOS with myjar.
Got email today saying they don’t believe I couldn’t afford my loans with them because I paid back all my loans early other than the last one which I defaulted on. They believe my payment of £517 a month was affordable whilst on benefits. Said I wasn’t borrowing sporadically even though I borrowed from Wonga often then paid them and when I repaid early I got next loan the same day often within 10mins of paying it off. There’s no way they done full credit history checks each time as the loans were instantly given. They don’t think I borrowed more and more each time even though my last 5 loans went from £1000 to £3500.
Anyway can you advise me on how I go about sending to FOS please.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“They don’t think I borrowed more and more each time even though my last 5 loans went from £1000 to £3500.” that is a rather large factual error. I suggest you go back to Myjar, point this out and ask them to reconsider. But send to FOS after 5 days if they don’t agree.
The article above ^^^ explains how to send a case to the Ombudsman.
Tara says
I have asked them for a full sar. I want all details they hold on me including credit check info, what they have down as my income and outgoings for entirety of my account with them. Told them I am going to FOS
Tara says
I would send the letter over but it’s too long to put on here.
Laurence says
Hi Sara,
I’ve been chasing Uncle Buck now for nearly 8 weeks following my SAR. (No reply despite lots chasing)
I sent them all my details (account number with them, full name, previous address, mobile number etc) so they could locate me.
I also sent them email correspondence regarding some of my loans.
Today I finally received a reply.
“I can see the emails below are from 2010, we were using a different system back in 2010 and we are only allowed to hold records on file for a period of six years so this could be the reason we are having difficulty locating an account with the reference number you have provided”
What would happen if they cannot locate my account which is what this sounds like?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The best thing is if you can get your bank statements from this period – they can be used to recreate the details of the borrowing from UB< showing what they paid you (the loan amount) and the details of what you paid them.
Laurence says
Thanks Sara,
I just received this response too.
“It is possible that the accounts have been removed from our system under GDPR which states that we must not keep customers information in excess of six years”
Jen says
Sara just a quick question, what is a reasonable amount of time for a payday lender to remove any defaults from my credit file, it’s been over 3 months since I agreed through adjudicator with sunny and still showing defaults, last updated by them 4 weeks after they agreed with adjudicator, sent another complaint e.mail today to them. Just wondering how long on average it should take them to correct it. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Before now! I suggest you tell your adjudicator.
Jen says
Thanks will do
mike says
Hi
So Sunny agreed yesterday and have offered me a good sum. I sent the signed agreement back via email to my adjudicator yesterday morning. Does the adjudicator usually confirm they have received it? and what the next steps are?
Bill says
Hi mike,
How many loans did you take out if don’t mind asking, I had 25 over 15 months, total borrow £5000
mike says
27 over a few years, they ruled 8 to 27 in my favour.
Bill says
Doesn’t seem a lot, what happened to the other 19?
mike says
they ruled all 19 in my favour. 8 to 27 not 8 and 27. good luck
Billy says
Oh right, cheers mate, one last thing, how long did it take from final response to decision by adjudicator?
Mike says
About a year
Grant says
Hi
Has anyone had a case declined by an adjudicator saying it was affordable? I was borrowing everytime upon repaying within a couple of days.
They have got some of my figures wrong but wondered if anyone got this overturned. I was gambling at the time which is where the money was going so don’t know if worth adding regarding this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from that lender?
Is this a final decision from the adjudicator? If not, you need to go back and argue your case. They do change their minds!
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/ and the FOS cases linked to there. Some of those may give you some ideas about what you can say to your adjudicator – you can’t say “In this case FOS decided” as previous decisions do not affect future decisions. But you may find some of the words that were used are good ways to explain your situation and why the lender should have realised and stopped lending.
Grant says
Around 8 but had loans with 5 other lenders also. Not sure if final said could send any other pertinent info or get send to ombudsman who would agree with them (adjudicator)
Have sent a reply making my case as they had my figures wrong n
JD says
Hi
So I just got off the phone to the FOS. They mentioned that regarding one of my cases (so far) that the company being complained about has told the FOS that some of my loans were over 6 years old and that I didn’t complain within 3 years of the loans. That was all stated on the rejection letter that I received from the company back in August. They said that they don’t know yet whether my case will be picked up because of this reason. I did say that I only became aware I could make these types of claims recently and mentioned that’s why all the other complaints I made are grouped together. Is there any reasonable way I need to prove I didn’t know about these time limits because I definitely did not about making complaints like this until I found your website.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t “prove” this. Read the “FOS will ask people how and when they found out they could complain” section in here https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/ which shows what you are likely to be asked. At the moment you are just talking the an early stage case handler, not an adjudicator.
Wazza says
Update – Hi Just had an offer from safety net credit – can anyone advise if they think i should accept? ——–
Having investigated your complaint fully it is our view that our original decision to lend to you was
justified. However, we consider that allowing further borrowing in October 2015 may not have been
appropriate.
Ensuring credit is affordable is a key priority for this business. That is why we, unlike other lenders,
use real life and real-time data to perform our affordability assessments. This data is provided
through a secure, read-only access to an applicant’s real time online banking transactions. If an
applicant does not agree to provide such access their application will be declined.
We use the transactional data to help us develop a clear picture of an applicant’s financial
circumstances. It allows us to see what income an applicant has and to determine from their
expenditure how much uncommitted income they have. From this we can make a decision on
affordability based on real behaviour and not, as is the case with other lenders, self-certification or
estimated spend.
The transactional data that you granted us access to when you applied with us for an account shows
that you had an average salaried income per month of £1,181.28 from ” between
June 2015 to August 2016. You were also in receipt of regular bank transfers which increased your
monthly income.
Wazza says
As well as analysing income, our affordability assessments also take into consideration all regular
monthly outgoings.
After taking this and all other outgoings into consideration, your average monthly disposable income
was in excess of £335.82 at the time you were approved for your initial credit limit of £250.From our assessment of your bank transactions, use of payday or short term loan accounts was
deemed affordable, and so these repayments were reflected in our calculation of your disposable
income.
On the basis of the above we determined that you could be provided with credit and set an initial
credit limit of £250.
Once you became a customer, we continued to carry out affordability assessments on a weekly
basis. These checks are to ensure that any potential credit remained affordable.
For running account credit, the test of affordability is whether a borrower who took the whole credit
limit on day 1 as a customer could afford to repay that amount in a reasonable period. In your case
it is clear that your disposable income meant you could easily repay the full amount within 1 month.
As such the credit was clearly affordable.
We also performed a full credit check with information provided by CallCredit. From these checks
we can see that you no CCJ’s or defaults and a low overall debt. There was nothing to suggest that
you should not be accepted for credit. This information was used alongside your disposable income
to deem your credit worthiness.
Wazza says
However, on review, we can see that there was a change in your circumstances due to an increased
spend on gambling in the months prior, we feel that allowing further borrowing from the 13th
October 2015 may not have been in your best interests.
In circumstances where the Financial Ombudsman Service finds in favour of the complainant they
normally propose that a full redress of interest plus an 8% statutory interest repayment is made to
the customer, with the principal outstanding balance being deducted from this amount.
Therefore, we propose that we provide you with a redress of all the interest that you have paid since
13th October 2015 (£334.58), plus statutory 8% interest (£65.14). In line with HMRC guideline we will
deduct 20% (£13.03) from your statutory interest and pay this to HMRC, meaning that you will not
have to declare this redress in your tax returns.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When did you start borrowing from them? Was your credit limit increased? Do you still owe a balance?
Wazza says
Started borrowing 10/7/2015 and no current balance. The limit was increased to 500.
Thanks for the help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So then from Oct15 sounds OK then? Have you checked their figures, as the interest calculated from then sounds quite low?
Wazza says
Seems odd as the figures they have given me total interest = 449.07. And the interest from the 13/10/2018 which they agreed from = 228.70 however they said the total interest from this point was 334?
Claire says
Hi,
I’ve had my SAR request back from Uncle Buck today. Its a jumbled mess of excel spreadsheets, are they known for ever sending incorrect information at all? The info they have sent says my loans were 2014 & 15 but I know for a fact they weren’t. They were just about the 6 year mark. Has anyone had issues with the information provided incorrect?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds as though they may have sent you someone else’s info… I suggest you ring them up and tell them this.
If this goes to FOS, make sure you also ask for additional compensation as you were sent incorrect information.