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?
MATT says
UPDATE LENDING STREAM
Had this email
We apologize for the delay and inconvenience caused.
We acknowledge the receipt of your email dated November 16, 2018, and we would like to confirm that we have received your bank details on November 9, 2018.
Please note that we received your acceptance for the settlement offer on November 9, 2018. We would like to inform you that we would carry out the settlement within stipulated time frame of 28 days, i.e., no later than December 7, 2018.
However, as per your request we will expedite the process for refund.
The money is actually in my account! Been a long process but drawing to a close now! Only QQ and Wageday advance to go now. Wonga I am not expecting much from but so far my refunds total £17,470.34! Absolutely life changing!!
tom p says
Same for me Matt – over 15k back so far -Adjudicator found in my favour for WDA and they are dragging it along still have another 3 with the FOS so I might be lucky and beat your total!!
Moe says
I tired to make a complaint to Lending Stream by email but it just bounces back. Does anyone have a email address for them I tired both complaints@lendingstream.co.uk and payments@lendingstream.co.uk.
kirsty pote says
Just had a reply from Safety net credit, im confused with there calculations help
kirsty pote says
Therefore, we propose that we redress all the interest that you have paid since 11th March 2018 (£294.85), plus statutory 8% interest (£12.89). In line with HMRC guidelines we will deduct 20% (£2.58) from your statutory interest and pay this to HMRC, meaning that you will not have to declare this redress in your tax returns.
We will also remove any interest that has accrued on your outstanding balance (£379.69) and then deduct the interest you have paid since 11th March 2018 plus the statutory 8% interest from your principal outstanding balance (£955.95).
This will leave a principal outstanding balance of £690.79 which remains payable. This is the amount of money you have borrowed with all the interest removed. Any adverse markers relating to your SafetyNet Credit account at this time will be removed from your credit file.
Outstanding Balance is £1375.64
On the 11th March 2018 £665.63 was owing
Should I accept not sure on there calculations
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much do you think your current balance owed to SNC is? And when did you open your account with them?
Kirsty pote says
1375.64 is the current balance I owe, opened account on 9 September 2017 interest paid between sept 17 and march 18 was £578.36 bit since said I could afford it until march 18
Patrick Brady says
Hi,
I have an on going complaint with wda, they emailed me today asking how I found out I could make a claim.
Is this normal?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is normal from them if some of your loans are more than 6 years old.
Patrick Brady says
Thanks for replying.
My loans are just over 6 years old but they were rolling loans and I’ve added the interest up and I paid over £1200, not as much as others I know but would still be nice to get something back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok just go back to them and say that although you knew you had big problems in 2012, you didn’t realise that a lender had to check the loans were affordable then, say when and how you found out what an affordability complaint was and that you have then complained promptly
John says
Hi, this maybe isn’t so much about a payday loan refund but may go down this route.
I got a loan with Peachy, and stopped paying it to stop the cycle. This was due to reduced pay on shared paternity leave and needing to borrow to make ends meet.
I set up a payment plan with them but it wasn’t affordable, so this plan broke.
I checked my credit file and they have given me a default, but never actually sent me any default notices, warnings of default or a formal default notice. This was back in august.
On 14th November I received an email threatening of a default unless I came to arrangement within 14 days. So I contacted them and they confirmed in writing that I would NOT receive a default if made an arrangement with them. Today I received letter, threatening of giving me default (official follow up to email).
My question is, what are my chances of having the default notice removed from my credit file if
A) I was not given a default notice
B) They have advised (in writing), that I won’t be given a default notice if arrangement is made?
It’s almost as though they don’t know that they have given me a default already and are now officially threatening me with one.
Any ideas where I stand with this and do you think I should go down the refund route and involve Ombudsman If need be?
Sorry if this is in wrong thread or not allowed.
Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is confusing because the same term “default” is used for two different things.
First is adding a default to your credit record. here the lender is NOT obliged to tell you before hand or give you a chance to correct – your credit record is just a record of what actually happened and here you weren’t making the payments you had originally agreed to for several months so a default is probably correct.
The email you got in November will was threatening a default under the Consumer Credit Act. This sort of default will be formal it will say “‘Default notice served under section 87(1) Consumer Credit Act 1974” and it has to be served before a lender can go to court for a CCJ.
“they confirmed in writing that I would NOT receive a default if made an arrangement with them” so if you make a new arrangement and stick to it, you won’t get a formal Default notice, but that doesn’t affect the default on your credit record.
But if you stopped paying Peachy to get out of the cycle of borrowing, then probably the last loan was not affordable, and possibly previous ones weren’t either. So read the about article on affordability complaints and see if you think you have a case. If you win a complaint the default should be removed from your credit record.
Adam says
What are Lending Stream like when it comes to responding to the complaint within 8 weeks? My 8 weeks is up tomorrow for Lending Stream and 8 weeks is up next week for MrLender.
Thanks
Casey says
Hi Adam,
With my complaint they never responded within the 8 weeks. At 9 weeks I chased them up and they said they didn’t accept via the resolver tool and I would need to resubmit again. I told them that was unfair and submitted to the FOS. I also resent the complaint in to them via the email requested .. a few days later they refused all .. same info repeating throughout. It’s now with the FOS and been there since April 18.
I personally have found lending stream to be the worst and very obstructive
Carl says
Hi Adam,
I chased LS on the 8 week deadline and they say that only my second email to them counted as the first time I complained. My first email to them even had “Loan Complaint” as the subject. I just sent it to FOS after their response.
Good luck
Chris Mitchell says
Hi – Could someone tell me please if the Money Shop and Payday UK are the same company?
C Smith says
I have raised a irresponsible lending complaint against both. And they are both being dealt with under the same, so yes.
Matt says
Hi Sara
Is it more difficult claiming on recent payday loans as I’ve got quite a few from this year…
Many thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It depends. Claims with a lot of loans are always easier than ones with a few loans. But a claim for a few loans is often easier now than if the loans were in 2013 say as now the lender is more likely to have some checks so they should have noticed big problems and other lending on your credit record which they should have taken notice of. And A few lenders reject all recent claims so they have to go to the Ombudsman, but others will settle them more quickly as if there is an outstanding balance, it can often be easier to get some or all of that written off than if all the loans have been repaid.
Mikaela Robinson says
Hello,
Has anyone tried getting a refund from cash converters? I had several loans that I rolled over before the end of each loan. Are they classed as payday loans ? The repayments were taken by cont authority and I was going through difficult times when I took out the loans. Is it worth sending a template letter ? Thank you
JD says
I’m currently at the FOS with Cash converters. Had 67 loans over 6 years and they responded with a rejection of my complaint stating they didn’t believe I relied on it, and as a gesture of goodwill offered to write off my last loan of £486, and offered £389 cash (highest amount of credit I was allowed without the interest) paid into any account I wanted.
John says
I had payday loans with H&T and Herbert Brown at the same time. This was a while ago when I used my cheque book to roll them over. Eventually after probably several months of rolling over they both allowed me to conver into an instalment loan of 12 months.
My questions are.
1. Can i make a claim against them for a payday loan refund as well as a claim for the instalment loans I had with them
2. Both payday loans & instalment loans will be older than 6 years, so can I still claim anyway?
I am aware of something going out re time barred requests, but don’t quite understand if it is something the FOS will look at in all cases.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1. yes
2. yes but the progress may be very slow and the lender may try to fob you off saying they are too old – don’t be impatient, just keep going.
Elaine says
Hi
I have put in my complaint to pay day uk and it has been 8 weeks.
Do they email the final response or do they send it in the post?
Thanks in advance
Elaine
Claire says
Hi
They emailed me bang on the 8 weeks
Rich says
They also emailed me bang on 8 weeks, but saying they need an additional 3-4 weeks which seems to be popular. It’s been 10 weeks in total for me and still no final response, all they keep saying that’s it still under investigation. I just hope them taking that long means they are actually going to put an offer together. But i doubt it :( FYI – I sent initial complaint 12 Sept for both PDUK and PD Express
Has anyone had the same experience, and what were their outcomes?
GM says
same here for PDUK. 8 weeks was up on 02/11 and emailed saying it would take an extra 3 to 4 weeks. that” be the 22nd and the 29th this month, so not long to go now.
Rich says
GM – you managed to get any response from PDUK?
GM says
Rich, the 22nd has gone and no response from PDUK and not replying to my emails. Waiting now for the 29th which is the 4th week after the initial 8 week deadline.
Laurence says
Exactly the same for me. Bang on 8 weeks they said they needed another 3-4 weeks for my case. This week (week 4) they say they need more time but can’t give me any indication how long it will be.
Crazy…….
given up and sent to FOS. I have a very strong case so happy to let it run
Dalton says
They are very difficult. Not deliberately obstructive or unpleasant or anything, as they seem to be perfectly polite and professional but only because of the sheer volume that they have to get through.
It do ultimately send final responses via email but they do tend to ask for another 3 or 4 weeks and then can also ask for a further 3 or 4 weeks when that time is up. I haven’t heard of any in recent time that have been resolved within the 8 week period.
I have also found that they go through phases of not replying to emails, whereas at other times they communicate in quite reasonable timescales.
Elaine says
Thank you for replies I have emailed Payday UK for an update.
I have had a reply from sunny saying they are not upholding my complaint . :(
Has anyone had any success through FOS concerning sunny
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, lots of wins at FOS with Sunny complaints. How many loans did you have from them?
Elaine says
Hi Sara
They say only one but I kept topping it up
I need to check my bank accounts my credit report shows I defaulted with other payday loans in 2014
Deposit Date/Date of Loan
Loan Amount
Daily Interest Rate (%)
Amount Repaid to date
Outstanding Balance (capital + interest)
1
21017798
30/03/2014
£825.00
0.97%
£1,263.30
£0.00-debt sold to third party
Still owe £645
To motormile
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, you need to know how much you borrowed in total and how much you have repaid. Have you told motormile there is a complaint about the debt?
Elaine says
Hi Sara
No I haven’t do I need to ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well if you were borrowing over a long period, it can be very unclear how much you borrowed and how much you repaid. Have Sunny not sent you a statement of account?
Elaine says
Hi Sara
No sunny haven’t
I will send for a DSAR and I will check my bank statement s
Thanks
Nat Garvey says
Hi Sara, an adjudicator ruled in my favour against Savvy Loans. I have posted an extract of the letter below:
“Following this, you provided a copy of XXXXXXXXX’ bank statements from XXth 20XX – XXth 20XX which you obtained during his loan application. Having considered all the information you gathered, I’m satisfied you took reasonable steps to verify the information XXXXXXXXX provided about XXXXXXXXX monthly income and expenditure. However, following receipt of XXXXXXXXX bank statements, I think you should’ve asked more questions about XXXXXXXXX circumstances. And had you done this, I think you would’ve seen the loan was unaffordable.”
The adjudicators goes on to say that, “From everything I’ve seen about XXXXXXXXX’ circumstances, I don’t think it was reasonable to lend to XXXXXXXXX in these circumstances. So I think you were wrong to approve the loan.”
The adjudicator is recommending a full refund of all interest and charges and all negative marks be removed from my credit file.
What are your thoughts about the outcome Sara, as it isn’t a standard one where the company have been told that their checks at the application stage weren’t proportionate?
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they asked the right question but ignored the answer – fingers crossed Savvy Loans accept the decision.
Nat Garvey says
Indeed, they have 2 weeks to respond.
Paul says
Success at last!! 🙏
I’ve got 4 claims in with the FOS and I was waiting on two more decisions from PiggyBank and Avant before shipping then off to the FOS.
PiggyBank – I had 5 loans with them and they came back today upholding my claim on loans 4 & 5 giving me £285.77 which I’ve accetped.
Avant – Unsure what to do with this one. I had 2 loans with them. They’ve upheld my complaint on loan 1 which I believe will be around £160 but strangely they’ve asked me to accept this before telling me how much it is exactly but I think it’s £160 anyway. The haven’t upheld loan 2 though which was more and I would’ve got back around £500 back from this one. The first loan was for £800 and as soon as this was paid off I took out another loan with them for £1000 and I mean as soon as that first one was paid off. Apart of me is thinking it’s Christmas, take the £160, but some gifts and wait for the claims at the FOS. Also, I’m reluctant to risk them going under and getting nothing. The other part of me is thinking £500 is a lot of money to not contests and as they’ve agreed the first one, why wouldn’t they pay out on the second if it was straight away and even higher credit? Need to think.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they haven’t given a reason why they are refunding loan one that doesn’t apply to loan two, it sounds as though they are just trying to settle this one cheaply. It’s your call if you you are happy with what they have offered.
I don’t think Avant are getting more than a handful of complaints, no reason to think they are in difficulty.
Paul says
My spelling in that message was atrocious.
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too. They haven’t explained at all why they’ve upheld the complaint against loan 1. They have explained why they haven’t upheld loan 2 but I don’t agree with it. I’m leaning towards passing it to the FOS.
Thanks for your help and advice throughout Sara.
Colin says
Hi,
Uncle Buck claim
Does anyone have any experience of dealing with Uncle Buck?
I sent my final complaint to them on 3-11-18. They were very quick to give me my information regarding the loans I had with them but nothing since my final complaint.
I had 44 loans with them between February 2012 and December 2016 most of them rolled over month after month after month. I think at one period I had an incredible 9 loans in 9 months, apart from a quick phone call that was it.
My average income over this period was £1400.
My outgoings were £600 rent, utilities and bills £200, food £200, debt repayments £400
Total outgoings £1400.
Made a claim saying they were irresponsible lending me the money as they were just getting me into further debt. At no point did they ask to see bank statements, if they did they would have seen it was irresponsible to lend to me, also the massive amount of times I borrowed was not helping my debt problems. On these grounds I have asked for all interest, charges and statutory interest to be refunded. Not heard back yet but just wondering what the likely outcome will be and if others have had similar experience with them.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Colin
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like a very strong case – send it straight to the Ombudsman if they don’t offer you at least a full refund of all loans under 6 years.
Colin says
Do you mean refund of the interest/charges/statutory interest or actual loans Sara?
Do any companies make an offer after the second letter or do they always require further information? Bank statements etc? Uncle Buck have not replied to my second letter, just curious as to what is likely to be there next
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A refund of the interest that you paid. You will NOT get a refund of the loans themselves.
Not all lenders ask for more information. Often you hear nothing until the end of week eight.
Matt says
Hi
Has any successfully claimed against Drafty credit facility?
At the time they gave me this I had 4 other payday loans, credit card, debt management plan with 7 defaults and a very poor credit score.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes!
If your credit limit was increased by Drafty make sure you mention this and say they did not do adequate checks before doing this. Also add a sentence in the Step 1 letter to say “To help me explain the details, I want you to send me a list of my loans, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added and what I repaid. Also please send me a copy of all credit record or other verification checks that you made on my application or when you raised my credit limit. I understand you are not allowed to charge me for sending this information.”
If they just send you your Experian “score” go back to them and say you want the complete check including a copy of all the information about you that they were sent.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See comment on Nov 23rd from someone who has just had an adjudicator uphold his Drafty case at the ombudsman.
ClaireR says
Hi, just a quick question,
My complaint with Uncle Buck was not upheld and I a trying to work out a repayment plan with them.
After them suggesting a payment which left me with a disposable income of £12 a month, which is laughable,
they have come back offering a more realistic repayment.
My question is that they say my balance is £500, but when i log into their site, If i were to make a payment today
to clear the loan, it says £199.00
I have asked them to clarify what my balance is, and they just came back with £500.00
I’m reluctant to agree to the repayment plan until I understand this.
ClaireR says
Apologies, realise this is on the wrong page, and after looking at the website again, the wording is
“to bring your account up to date” £199.00
Guess that is the arrears.
Miles says
Ok so I been reading the posts on this site for ages now and I’ve contacted loads of payday lenders a few years ago and got some refunds of interest but I’m in a bad situation with pay day loans… I currently have 12 active loans all in a repayment plan of 50-80 pounds each and two credit cards maxed out…. this is where I need some advice… I have taken out 4 loans in the last 3 months loans2go,wageday advance, Mr lender and oakam amounting to around 1300 pound my credit score is 53 out of 700 on clear score I am just about being able to pay all 12 loans monthly but I have any chance of getting refunds of interest on some of these loans.?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you saying that you got some refunds a few years ago, or you have recently got some refunds from loans that were a few years ago?
Tom says
This is the latest email from safety net, I think the regular transfers was from gambling winnings, but someone please advise if this is a good offer or just trying to get out of paying and if it’s worth sending to FOS
Thank you for your recent contact.
We would like to advise you that whilst you were using the account we could see that you had a stable salaried income from which averaged £899.40 per month. You were also in receipt of regular bank transfers which increased your monthly income.
After taking all necessary outgoings into consideration we could see that you had an average disposable income of £340 per month.
We could also see that you there was very little use of Pay Day loans until March 2014. Whilst there were payments towards personal loans these amounts were affordable and there was no evidence that you were borrowing and therefore we had no indication that you were dependent on credit.
Whilst we could see some defaults these did not deter us from lending to you as the transnational data you allowed us access to showed that the credit offered was affordable.
On this basis we do not believe that the credit was un-affordable. However as a gesture of goodwill and as to bring a close to this matter we have offered to write off your remaining balance and remove the adverse markers from your credit file.
Please advise in your response how you wish to proceed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what is your current balance? How much have you borrowed over the months /years and how much have you repaid so far?
tom says
my current balance stand at £210, I have had 36 loans with them borrowing £100-£200 each time and each time repayed in full and repaying interest of £1-£1.50 a day, this was over 14 months from January 2013 until may 2014
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I know it’s not easy with SNC, but try to work out how much you have paid them and how much you have borrowed, then the difference between them is the interest you paid. Trying to think in terms of a daily interest could be quite misleading.
Jon says
Firstly let me thank you Sara for providing this very valuable service. My questions are, do you think a refund of 33% is adequate compensation to be offered from a payday lender who has admitted to irresponsible lending practices? In your experience, what is the percentage level that the ombudsman may award? In short, QQ have offered £500 compensation based on 4 loans that amounted to £1500 of interest being paid. Kind regards.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It isn’t a simple percentage.
As it’s only 4 loans, can you give the details on each of them. So:
Loan 1 – amount borrowed, interest paid, date borrowed, date repaid. etc
Which loan are they offering to refund? I assume the last loan was repaid?
Jon says
I’m sorry I don’t have all the detail on each loan, this was there response in part
‘In looking at the information you provided to us as part of your loan applications, I note that you self-reported your maximum monthly income as £1550 per month. However, when I compared your stated income to your total repayment amount for loan 7905502, your average monthly repayment amount was £ with a monthly income at the time of £1550, which given an estimate of your monthly expenses is more than 80% of your total reported income’
OFFER BREAKDOWN
Please find the breakdown of the offer below:
-Contractual interest and/or charges £421.86
– Interest at 8% simple £167.55
-20% tax withholding on interest £33.51
-Amount applied to your outstanding balance £83.02
-Amount to be paid to your account £472.88
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but I suggest you ask them for a statement of account showing the details for each loan. Without this it’s impossible to say if the offer is very poor or OK.
GM says
WDA Update from WDA… Actually, nothing happened
When the 8 week deadline expired, they asked for 3 more weeks and after a week they rejected due to time barring unless I came with a good reason why I didn’t complained earlier.
I replied with my reason and they accepted it saying they would re-visit my complaint and review all loans but would need a maximum of 10 working days to issue a final answer.
Well, the 10 working days were up yesterday and no reply from them. I emailed them saying that if there’s no reply, I would take the case with the FOS. It’s been 11 weeks since I started the complaint… I think I’ve been very patient.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for the update, we won’t be recommending that approach to other people!
Laurence says
They should reply to you soon. Sounds very similar to my case with them which was wrapped up this week. (On the 11 week mark)
Get onto them keep emailing and chasing, sounds like they are ready to issue a final reaponse to you any time now.
Mine was worth the wait (6k) hopefully yours will be too
GM says
I hope so.
During the 10 working day period I emailed them 3 times ( I was having direct contact with a particular person there) but had no answers.
The 11th week mark was yesterday as well as the 10 working day deadline.
GM says
… and result!
Upheld loans 4 to 8 (all more than 6 years old) which had nearly £2k worth of interest. this, plus the 8% statutory meant that the payout is 2.8k after the 20% deducted. I’ve accepted and expectiing payment with 7 days.
That’s another WDA case being solved for loans more tha 6 years old.
I’m now waiting for PDUK, and it’s been 11 weeks since the complaint went in and 3 weeks since they said they would issue a final answer within 3 to 4 weeks.
Thank you very much, i’kk keep you posted
Maggie says
Well done GM, unfortunately I, and countless others are on the wrong end of WDA decision to consider loans over 6 years old. I have had my complaint in since February 2017! yet they seem to think I should have known I could complain earlier unlike you who 11 weeks ago shouldn’t! go figure that one. I will however continue waiting for an ombudsman to tell them they will look at it (been in the queue for that for 5 months now!) I have contacted the FCA and FOS to advise them of the unfair and discriminating way they are dealing with complaints and whether that gets me anywhere i don’t know. I have also left a very lengthy review on trust pilot airing my views lol which I will continue to update with details. Once again, well done and to anybody else out there who is in the same boat as me, get your reviews on trust pilot. The more the people complain the more they hopefully will recognise that they can’t pick one rule for one and one rule for another. I waited long enough for a decision about Wonga and over 6 year loans and look where that got me – they went into administration. Good Luck everybody on all your complaints.
GM says
Hi Maggie,
I know how you’re feeling as I’m in the same boat as you with QQ, MyJar and PDUK which are now with the FOS and they are good and straight forward cases.
These companies don’t seem to have any consistency in their decisions.
With Vanquis, some people had full ROP refunds within a few weeks after complaints and no fuss. With me, they came up with the time barred argument… go figure!
You had your complaint for quite a while now, so it could be the fact that these companies changed guidelines.
When I had the first refusal I made a very good case and ironclad response as to why I didn’t complained earlier. There was no way they could argue my response, hence why they accepted it. To be fair, reading a lot of the FOS decisions helped too.
Good luck with your case.
Lisa G says
Hi, I have a question. I have an outstanding loan with MyJar. When I put in my complaint with them they froze my account until my complaint was resolved. They sent me an email to inform me of this.
When my complaint was rejected they said they’d begin to take payments again from me. I called them and set up a payment plan.
In the meantime I sent off my complaint to the FOS who have requested information from MyJar.
So MyJar, as yet, have not taken any money from me since I set up the payment plan and I have received no correspondence from them… it’s been 2 months now.
Is this because they do not take payments whilst a complaint is being looked at by the FOS? Is this normal for MyJar? Has anyone else had this? Or is this an error on their part to have not taken any money?
Advise of others experiences please! I do understand I could just call them and ask but wanted others experiences first.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See Shammi’s comment above and Casey’s reply to Shammi.
It sounds good practice to me for a lender not to try to collect any payment when a complaint is at FOS. If you can afford to make the payments then you could a) save them up so you have them there in case you don’t win the case at FOS or b) pay them off some other debt such as a credit card so that you are making good use of the money to improve your situation.
Casey says
Hi Shamri,
My jar paid me on fri (3 / 4 days after email)
Joe B says
good morning
I have had a very strange email from Total home loans after making a complaint about Payday loan with THL
The email says we have a copy of your bank statements which were used to underwrite your payday loans. It would be of great concern if these prove different to the statements provided at the time.
Has anyone else had a response like this? is it normal practice?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They could be saying that you provided some bank statements at the time you applied for the loan (did you?) and if these turn out to not be accurate (ie if you doctored them) then this would be of concern (I presume they are thinking fraud.) Which it obviously would be – but I am guessing you didn’t doctor your bank statements!
Or they could be trying rather badly to say that if parts of your loan application weren’t accurate that would be of concern. In which case read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
SB says
Hi Sara,
Mr Lender rejected my complaint. I had 4 loans with them over 13 months. They paid my loan into my basic bank account and repayments were taken out of my current account. For the last loan, my salary was £900 less than the previous loans taken out.
At the time of taking out the loans, my credit report was littered with defaults, DMP and showed active payday loans but Mr Lender claim that my credit score was into the mid 500s! Has anyone else had this?
Interest paid over 4 years is about £1800,I have referred my case to FOS today.
Given my poor credit rating, I would have thought that Mr lender should have and could have done more checks like check bank statements, where it was clear that I was in mental-debt crisis with a heavy reliance on PDLs and gambling.
Do you think I stand any chance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the 4 loans – what were the gaps between these loans, the time from repaying one to taking out the next? did the loan amounts increase? “For the last loan, my salary was £900 less than the previous loans taken out.” is that what you put on your application?
Tw says
Yes I have had exactly the same response today .I have responded saying exactly what you have said as my relative was in the same positions with defaults,DMP etc . Awaiting a response .
Eric says
Good news!
After several months of my complaint being with the FOS, the adjudicator has finally looked into my complaint with Uncle Buck and ruled in my favour.
‘Refund all interest and charges that Mr **** paid on the loans from loan three to loan six;
Pay interest of 8% simple a year on all refunds from the date of payment to the date of settlement;
Remove any negative information about loans three to six from Mr **** credit file.’
Looking at roughly £700 worth of interest from these loans, Uncle Buck have until the 6th December to reply. How often do they disagree with the outcome from the adjudicators?
Thanks
jack drage says
Hi,
I have made complaints to most of the companies I have used, so far 1 has paid out, another has written off debt! But I have just received an email from my jar asking for payslips, banks statements & any additional info! The loans were from 2013-2015 and as such I don’t have payslips from before 2017! I also was using a different bank at the time, what I the best thing to do in this situation? Thanks jack!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell MyJar you will supply the Ombudsman with any information they require but you would like Myjar to consider your complaint as it stands.
Forget about payslips – no one keeps those and the Ombudsman never asks for them.
But you will need bank statements for the Ombudsman, so this is a good time to set about getting them from the closed account. Get them to cover all your payday lending period with all your lenders, and an extra 3 months before your first loan. then you know you will have enough.
jack drage says
Thank you, should I contact the bank that I held the account with, and ask for them to send me the bank statements
Thanks
Jack
Lianne says
Hi
Now had two cases picked up, FOS awaiting info from Sunny and Amigo now.
The letter for Sunny said if I had any more info to send it in. I sent all my bank statements and credit file along with all correspondence together with my separate claims.
Do I just call FOS to tell them that. Will they use my info for all three complaints?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes they will use your bank statements & credit record for all your complaints – if the bank statements cover the whole period they need. Reply to FOS that you have already sent your bank statements and credit record.
Lianne says
Thank you!
Will give them a call on Monday.
Gillian says
Hi Sara
I am now at the stage of complaining to the FOS. Out of 14 complaints I only had one offer from Lending Stream, and that was only to refund a small amount of interest – £54- on the smallest loan of 3. Apart from a couple of PDLs with Wonga and Quickqud I had a small number of loans with loads of lenders at the same time so hoping that the FOS will see the bigger picture. Over a period of 3 years I must have paid about £14,000 in interest.
Ironically my income was higher then than it is now, but I’m managing my finances better now after a long struggle with debt. I hope my relatively high income at the time won’t count against me? The PDL repayments took a big chunk of that though.
Most of loans were with Wonga so not much I can do there but to wait. Also QuickQuid.
Do you have a template of what to say to FOS? I did a dummy run online and I’m guessing the explanations are given in the ‘please tell us what your complaint is about’ ?
Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can just use your complaint to the lender. But you may also be able to “improve” that by:
– adding some more details or a general overview of your borrowing from that particular lender – see the “And they matter to the Ombudsman” section in this article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refund-complaint-detail/
– adding some point if there is anything the lender said in their reply to you that you think was wrong or misleading eg “The lender said there was a gap of 6 months between loans 2 and 3 showing I was not dependent on the loans. But they actually declined 2 applications from me in this time, showing I was still in difficulty”
Karen says
Hi Sara
I had a few payday loan one of them is with the FOS for around 12 weeks now and not been allocated to some one yet for them to look at it should i just wait or is there anything else I can do it been along time and not even been allocated
Thank You
Karen
Mike says
Hi
Unfortunately that isn’t particularly a long time.
It does seem it, I know but they can and do take a lot longer than that.
You do have to prepare yourself for a long wait from start to conclusion.
Mike
Davy says
I submitted my claims to 4 companies on 27/12/17. Forwarded FOS on 27/02/18. Got my first outcome 10 days ago when adjudicator awarded me over £1600 for my claim against PDUK. They paid up within a week. I have written off any hope of a result with Wonga but still have my two biggest claims against Lending Stream and Quick Quid still to come. There are no quick fixes, its a long hard slog but worth the wait when you get a favourable result!!
Tim ber says
As above been waited around 8 months before getting my first claim allocated, which was upheld but due to moneybox 24/7 not replying/ignoring it it’s now been moved on to a ombudsman. I reckon that will go over a year wait before it’s picked up by the ombudsman 6 months for my other 5 claims with the ombudsman still no allocation as of yet. As said above sit on your hands it’s Gunna be a long ride…. also ringing them every 2 days will not speed up your case trust me I tried. Good luck with your claims.
John says
I’ve accepted a compensation offer from PiggyBank. Any idea how long they take to pay out?
Mark says
3-5 working days for mine
Jack says
Sent an email out to mr lender! Over a space of 12 months aug 13 – aug 14 I had 8 loans, slowly building up in amount borrowed! I complained to them, and they emailed back today saying the original email (the template) contradicts itself and that they have had many emails from this site! Over the 12 months I borrowed £2600 paying £672 and admin fees on top! I have sent the second email back and explanation that I was clearly getting into a worse situation! So fingers crossed
Kristym86 says
I still have an outstanding amount with mr lender of £695 and they paid me back the interest so I just have a balance left to pay of £195.
Some people may think it’s not much but I wasn’t counting on getting anything so I’m pleased
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mr Lender are one of the better lenders to complain to because they actually read what you say if you go back to them and suggest their offer should be larger because of X and Y. So if you aren’t sure whether an offer from them is good enough, come back and ask before accepting it or rejecting it and going to FOS because it may be possible to improve it.
But they sometimes reject very good cases so they don’t always get it right!
Jack says
Hopefully i will hear back soon, at this point, And the second email will hopefully work! ☺️
Kristym86 says
Has anyone had anything back from sunny, QuickQuid, lending stream, txt loan or now called myjar, and moneyshop on or before the 8 week deadline? X
tom price says
Hi Kirsty
my complaint were made in march – way before it got really busy for these companies – however I found QQ, sunny and txtloan (myjar) all settled in full within the 8 weeks. LS on the otherhand they are something completely different – a absolute nightmare and I’m still fighting with them6 months later
Kristym86 says
Thanks Tom. I’m hoping that my jar come back to me with an upheld as this was probably the lender I rolled over the most! 😬
Stephen Deane says
Been chasing LS who say debt had been sold to Mckenzie’ hall which it had but LS got 1st couple of loans paid in full from me?
Question can I still go after MH as well as LS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, your complaint about ALL the loans, including any sold, goes to LS. They were the ones that made the irresponsible decision to lend and they are the ones that should refund you. If they have said they won’t give a refund, send the whole case to the Ombudsman.
Have you repaid the debts with MH?
kristym86 says
Hi, has anyone heard from sunny, qq, txt loan/my jar, ls or money shop on or before their initial 8 week complaint? And if so how did you get on?
Sarah, bit of an update for you. As you know I was in an IVA when I took out my payday loans. So I wasn’t sure if I was going to get anything.
These are the responses so far to my initial 8 week complaint.; only been 4 weeks
I’ve heard back from H&T, no refund.
Mr Lender, gave me back £500 worth of interest.
Trustedquid gave me back £757.
I’m not greeedy and I am happy with that. I do feel H&T should’ve offered something but they haven’t. However none of them have mentioned my IVA. Very strange!!
Anyway hopefully I should hear next few weeks.
cheryl says
well done on getting results after four weeks.
mine are four weeks too: qq, money shop, ls, myjar, speedy – no response.
uncle buck provided statements.
wageday declined sent to fo
provident declined, will send to fo
Kristym86 says
So in the last few days, I have now heard back from sunny. They have rejected my complaint unless I can come back to them with anything further. They also included my account summary. Not sure how they feel that taking out 3 loans in the space of 11 days isn’t deemed irresponsible! So I am waiting for them to come back to me.
I also have had a response from QQ giving me a refund of just over £800. I have accepted as you know my situation regarding the IVA however, they weren’t willing to look at loans backdating to 2011 and 2012. Is this right?
Only 7 more lenders to go 😬🙇🏼♀️
AK says
Hi Sara, I remember you mentioned before that payday loans’ providers didn’t show on the credit report in the past. Do you know when did they started to report to credit agencies? Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some payday lenders have always reported to credit reference agencies, so far as I know they all do since about 2015.
The CRA most of them report to is Call Credit (now called TransUnion) – that is why a Noddle report is the best to check them, not ClearScore or Experian.
AK says
Business responded to my adjudicator telling they haven’t seen any payday loans on my credit file. The adjudicator is about to change his decision in their favour. He now sent a letter to a credit agency to check if that was the case. I just wonder if there is any document confirming that payday loans were reported in 2014-2015 and that business is lying.
Lee says
Have successfully claimed back £2136 from sunny I have accepted there offer but does anyone know how long they take to pay out?
Rachel says
Well done! How long did it take for them to answer your complaint? Mines has been with them for 6 weeks. I had 147 loans in 20 months with them. Borrowed 21000 and paid back 24000. I hoping from the stupid amount of loans i had with them, they will just admit they were wrong and give me an offer
Lee says
8 weeks on the dot, littraly had to offer today. I had various loans over the years not half as much as that but yeah happy with the offer and glad to be finally out of the ruck of a mess it left me in.
Colin says
Hi Rachel,
I’m in a similar position as you with Uncle Buck. Had a massive amount of loans with them rolled month after month after month. Emailed saying couldn’t they see from the amount of times I borrowed they were irresponsible etc. Wonder in week 8 if they will offer refund or say no.
Rachel says
Hi colin, its awful isnt it. I dont know why they let this happen. At the time i thought it was only my fault but now see that they have just taken advantage. I put my compaint in 6 weeks ago and everytime i ask for update, they just reply “its been investigated” ill let u know how i get on. Fingercrossed for u with uncle buck
Colin says
I am trying to find out if you go to the FOS and they uphold your request do they automatically contact the lender and tell them to pay? Does the lender legally then have to pay or can they still say no?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A final decision from an ombudsman is legally binding.
Mia says
Hi
I’ve recently had 4 decisions in my favour from an adjudicator.
QQ – they have agreed with the findings. Anyone know how long they take to pay after this? Any way that I can speed this up?
Wda, sunny, 247 moneybox have all ignored the adjudicator! Deadline now passsed! I’ve emailed them too but nothing no response! Is this normal? Will they all end up having to wait for the ombudsman?
Thanks
Laura says
QQ took roughly 3 weeks to pay me..
Babs says
So this week I’ve accepted offers from both Piggybank & Swift Sterling which I’m over the moon about. Sunny have rejected me buts it’s going to the ombudsman as I think I have a strong case.
The Money Shop deadline is today, received an email saying they will be ready in another 3-4 weeks! Anyone else had this? What do you recommend?
J says
From experience, The Money Shop take ages. I had the same email at 8 weeks and waited a further 6 weeks for a response which asked me for more information. I submitted the information (bank statements that covered over two years of rolled over loans), and within three days they emailed back rejecting my complaint. They blatantly hadn’t looked through the further evidence they’d requested.
I sent it to the FOS where it took approximately 3 months to be picked up, and just had it upheld by an adjudicator. The Money Shop responded within the deadline agreeing with the adjudicator’s decision. Just waiting on pay out this week (£1450, very happy!).
I would send your complaint to the FOS so it’s already sat in a queue waiting to be picked up for when they do eventually get back to you, as they are past the 8 week deadline already. They are very slow at responding and may well just reject your complaint even if it’s a good one.
Josh says
Money Shop offered me £1500, 8 out of 25 loans.
I rejected.
Been waiting for adjudicator since MAY =(
Jon says
Hi Sara, the moneyshop, paydayuk & payday express are all the same company if I’m correct? I recently received a zip file through email from moneyshop, (soa request), detailing all my previous 7 loans with payday uk and payday express. This gave a breakdown of principle sums and interest paid. The next day I received a message through resolver saying
***My Decision:
Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback to The Money Shop, having reviewed your concerns I can confirm that I am unable to uphold your complaint on the basis that The Money Shop has never deposited any funds to you.***
Any thoughts? I have emailed them pointing out the obvious contradiction
Thanks, Jon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Reply asking them to treat this as a complaint against PDUK and PD EXpress and point out they have already supplied you with the loan details for them so they were aware you were complaining about them.
Matt says
Hi Sara
Mr lender has offered to refund my last instalment of £195 and to wipe off the existing balance of £145.
I’ve paid £1350 of a £750 loan.
Shall I reject it and claim the full interest back, as this is well short.
Many thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is this the only loan you had from them?
Matt says
2nd but when I took it out I had 4 other ongoing payday loans, a very poor credit score whilst being on a debt management plan with 7 defaults.
First one was for £200, just a month before.
Maybe I should just accept their offer..?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Without the first loan this isn’t a bad offer – it’s hard to win one loan cases especially when they are instalment loans.
But the fact the first loan was so much smaller and you then borrowed soon afterwards should have made Mr Lender stop and look at your situation more closely and then seen what sounds like a very poor credit record – anyone with 4 other payday loans running and what looks like a DMP is very likely to struggle.
I suggest you go back to Mr Lender and say all this. Say you don’t think the refund of £195 is adequate as you have already paid £600 in interest (1350-750) and say you will be happy to compromise and accept if they increase that to 2 instalments.
Mr Lender do listen at this point, they won’t always improve their offer but they do often enough for this to be worth a try.
Emily says
Hi Sara,
I currently have a complaint with the ombudsman for PTP/QQ, the adjudicator has upheld my complaint for all 5 loans, however unsurprisingly the business has asked for it to go to the ombudsman, I’m aware this could take a long time to resolve considering current circumstances.
However, i have an outstanding balance with them (approx £1.7k), the refund would clear this. I had set up a repayment plan with them in April of £40 a month which they were happy to do. Once I submitted the claim they stopped taking payments and refuse to communicate with me, and will not let me continue to repay until the complaint is closed.
Since the complaint they are reporting each month that i am missing payments, its now up to 6 months worth. I know this should be wiped eventually, but in the short term it is preventing me from moving my current debt to 0% credit cards (current interest free periods due to finish in dec and march). This will cost me a significant amount in interest until its sorted.
Do you think there is anything I can do about this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has QQ offered to refund any loans or rejected them all?
Emily says
They haven’t offered to refund any. My adjudicator stated that they have requested the complaint to go to the ombudsman for a final decision.
‘they believe they carried out checks which were approved by the regulator at the time of borrowing, and that based on those checks your loans were suitable.’
They were all after 2015.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then there is probably nothing you can do to speed this up. Is the rest of your credit record perfect apart from this problem?
Emily says
Ah well, I thought as much!
Yes, somehow despite the number payday loans I had over the last few years I’ve managed to avoid missed payments and defaults.
Stephen Fisher says
Hi, I submitted a complaint with MyJar, (4 Loans from 2014) they immediately came back to me with a final response and declined the complaint without requesting any documentation.
I have now sent this to the Ombudsman, together with the bank statements I have so far (still waiting on loads from lloyds.) Has this happened to anyone else? Will the Ombudsman let me know if the documentation I have submitted is insufficient?
Also Just wanted to know what sort of response people have had from Peachy?
Has anyone had a good offer from them without going to the Ombudsman, Will be 8 weeks next week so fingers crossed!
TIA Steve
StevieC says
I had two loans with myjar which were rejected immediately. The last one had a balance attached. I decided to refer this to the ombudsman and to my relief the adjudicator has agreed with myself and awarded both loans to be unaffordable. Balanced reduced and credit markings removed.
Jamie says
Hello, i had my final respone from MyJar today (10 weeks after initial complaint)
They have partially upheld my complaint which works out at £2352 with the 8% interest. Happy Days.
However, they told me they would only process the payment after i drop my case with the FOS.
Is this normal?
Thankyou for this website Sara
tom p says
take the money mate, it is normal
Jamie says
Yeah ive took it mate. Rang the FOS and retracted my complaint with them.. i paid £2500ish in interest so as far as i can see its a good offer. 33 loans, 25 upheld and they were the bigger ones. Result.
Had a goodwill offer from Quid.co.uk of £206 from only 1 loan. Didnt expect that.
QQ, Peachy, MoneyShop and WDA all sent to FOS…. All over 6 years though.
Nick says
Hello ang cograts for the good work
In 2016-2017 i had 9 loans with Quickquid paying a total interest of £2400 approx
In 12/2017 i took another loan (of £1300) and i lost my job in next coupe of weeks.
I informed QQ that i was in financial hardship and my remained balance was put in a payment plan.
I paid all these months with difficulty and a couple of delays and restructures of the payment plan.
Now the remained balance is at £650 with a installment of £100 approx
I am thinking to ask QQ to pay an amount of £200-£250 and write off the rest £400-£450
I know that it’s not a big amount, but it’s improtant for me at this stage.
Do you think they will accept it as a GOGW? Should i be more strict in my email, threating with formal procedures for interest claims and FOS?
Thanks in advance
Nick
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think 10 loans in 2 years is a lot and the last loan was BIG – I suggest putting in an affordability complaint and asking for a refund of the interest you paid on the earlier loans.
Nick says
Thanks for the quick response.
What about the current balance-payment plan?
Should i freeze payments and ask for a write off?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t ask for a partial write off and make an affordability complaint – you have to decide which to go for.
Can you afford the £100 instalments without borrowing more?
Nick says
In fact i can afford the £100 installments, however i consider it as fair, to have a write off of some hundrends of pounds as a GOGW, as i was a very good customer these years,
If i have good chances for the write off, i would prefer this, if chances are low, then i would prefer to follow the affordability complaint path.
In the affordability complaint scenario, what amount would you estimate as refund and what are the chances for it?
I know that there can be no accurate figures, for such cases, but some estimations would help, as it ill determine my next step
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can ask for a write off and then revert to an affordability complaint if they do not agree. I would guess you might get between £600 and £1800 back from an affordability complaint, sorry it’s really not possible to be more accurate.
Colin says
Hello,
Does anyone know when you raise a complaint to the FOS do they send anything at all back to confirm an aknowledgement of the complaint?
I complained about 2 weeks ago and apart from the reference number I don’t have anything. Can you log in and see an update as to where it is? Do they normally reply acknowledging your complaint?
Cheers,
Col
Becky says
Hi Sara,
So 24/7 moneybox had until yesterday to reply to the ajudicators decision, i emailed the ajudicator yesterday and today to see if there was any developments but she has not replied. I know its only been a day but is this nofmal? Would i be best ringing her?. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
She is probably still waiting… I suggest leaving it until Monday. I know how frustrating this is….
Becky says
Ok will do, thanks
Gary says
Hi Becky
How did you get on? 247 came back the Tuesday after the Friday deadline of 23rd Nov for me and agreed but didn’t make an offer. I’m now waiting for 247 to come to me directly now so fingers crossed this can now pick up pace
Becky says
Hi Gary
I havn’t heard anything, tried to ring the ajudicator today but got a message saying she is on holiday until tomorrow, so going to ring again then. Fingers crossef for us both. I also e mailed 247 and the fca to tell them how dissatisfied i am, dont know if that will help or hinder my complaint!
Steph says
Hi Sara
I raised a complaint with Payday Express in June 2018 (loans I took out each month from May2012-dember2013) the final response letter asked for bank statements which I then escalated to the ombudsman same month, I received the latest letter from OB in September advising a delay In handling my complaint.
The final response letter has a 6 months response time and runs out mid December should I just send my statements they requested or await the ombudsmans update? I’m concerned over the time it is taking to come to a conclusion. I recieved a pay out from PDUK which I believe are a sister company I was also lending from at same time so unsure why paydayexpress asked for statements?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask PD Express if they still want to see the bank statements. There isn’t much point in wondering why PDUK paid out but PD Express asked for statements.
Griff says
Evening ,
The provisional decision period is over and quick quid responded to it , I am now waiting on the final decision to be sent out.
Has anyone recently had a similar circumstance recenty and can give some insight in what to expect ? and also kow the time it takes for the ombudsman to send a final decision after the provisional
Thanks
Griff
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Griff, was this a provisional decision from an Ombudsman or is this still at the adjudicator level?
Dana says
Hi Sara,
MyJar responded to my complaint within 3 days, they said with this being my first loan there were there no signs of unaffordability so they won’t be refunding the interest, even though I sent an email last month saying I was struggling to make payment with the high interest.
They have said they’ve frozen the interest and will be taking a lower amount from me unless I pitch a suggested amount to them, they also mentioned “not defaulting” me after this complaint, as if they could have done? This was quite concerning to read, are they allowed to do that after complaining?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is hard to win one loan cases unless the loan was very large? If it was, take the case to the Ombudsman.
Freezing interest, accepting lower monthly payments and not defaulting you is the fair thing to do if they will not refund (or in this case deduct the interest). So MyJar are behaving well here. And indeed most lenders do, I can’t remember anyone complaining here about a problem in getting an agreement set up after a complaint was rejected.
What they *could* have done isn’t really relevant. Perhaps it would help to think of an extreme and exceptionally rare case. What if someone could “obviously” afford the repayments – there has been the odd case here where people were going on foreign holidays and saving every month for a house deposit… would you expect a lender to offer them lower repayments and not add a default to their credit record? No.
Sarah says
Hi,
After QQ rejection my complaint I sent this to the Ombudsman, I snet in my request at the end of soetember and haven’t heard from them so I replied again asking for an update and they have said ‘ The business has told us that some of your loans were taken out more than six years before you first raised your complaint to them. This means that we will have to look into whether the business is correct in raising this first, before we can consider if all your loans were lent irresponsibly.’
My original loans were taken out over 6 years ago, should I reply and let them know this. Does this mean that my claim won’t go through as it’s been too long?
Will they at least look at the ones after 6 years?
Thanks for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Does this mean that my claim won’t go through as it’s been too long?” No it means FOS has to think about whether it can look at the older loans. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/ and esp[ecially the secion on “FOS will ask people how and when they found out they could complain”.
“Will they at least look at the ones after 6 years?” It is likely they will decide they can look at the older loans. If they decide No, then they will look at the under 6 year loans.
If most of your loans were less than 6 years old when you sent the complaint to FOS, you could decide to tell FOS you don’t want a refund on the few older loans. That will speed things up.
Kate says
Got my final response from Lendinf stream last night, 1 day before the final response. I had 45 loans between 2011-2018. They have denied every single one based on what I said on application form… is this worth taking to the Ombudsman?
Our Findings
Between 7th December 2011 and 17th May 2018, you borrowed fourty five loans from Lending Stream with Loan IDs (445730, 488535, 1030845, 1073785, 2250888, 2254778, 2267175, 2271274, 2323900, 2336217, 2359875, 2361318, 2366355, 2392752, 2431633, 2444922, 2461251, 2521913, 2560825, 2575816, 2583334, 2718741, 2726135, 2730468, 2752884, 2800722, 2830643, 2851157, 2888379, 2903679, 2912280, 2961862, 2976408, 3004902, 3008790, 3033735, 5069388, 5141617, 5146283, 5186200, 5260017, 5324288, 5360217, 5369248 and 5420037). All loans were successfully closed. In-fact one or more loans were pre-closed before the original loan term. Below, we highlight the affordability checks conducted on each loans which was offered to you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes! That sounds like a very strong case.
Nicola says
Hiya Sara. I have just received a letter from grant Thornton it’s reads I write to to advice you that a joint administrators statement of proposals was approved on the 9th of November by decision procedure what does that mean
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is about the Wonga administration – the administrators proposals (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-administrator-proposals/) have now been agreed.
StacyT says
Hi,
I sent off my complaints against QQ and Wonga … 13 months ago now and are still waiting to be looked at by an adjudicaor well not Wonga anymore, its been that long Wonga went into administration during this period so have potentially lost out on this one. What are your thoughts and advice please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga complaints are no longer handled by FOS, see Wonga – latest news for details.
For QQ, were any of your loans over 6 years old?
StacyT says
Hi, yes there are loans over 6years … this is the latest response I’ve had, i sent my complaint over to them in October 2017 and it is still only at this stage
Thank you for your email. Your case is currently waiting to be referred to an adjudicator for further review. Due to the number of cases that this Service has received and continue to receive, it may be a few more months until it is with an adjudicator. We apologise for the delay and thank you for your patience in this matter. The adjudicator will contact you as soon as they have reviewed the case.
I note that you took out 12 loans with the business. The business has stated that the first 8 are out of time for this Service to review as they were taken out more than 6 years ago. We are currently in discussion with the business to see if we can review all 12 loans you took out with it. We may be able to review your case quicker if you decide for this Service to only review Loans 9 to 12. If you wish for us to do this, please let us know. The business has also proposed the following:
– Refund all interest and fees associated with loans 11 and 12
– Refund the interest fees associated with Mrs Robinson’s final 3 top up on loan 4559714 from 02/06/2012-12/06/2012
– Apply 8% simple interest per annum to the payments; *HM Revenue & Customs requires CashEuroNet UK, LLC to withhold tax from the 8% interest added
Refund Offer: £514.31
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The older loans are the reason for the extreme delay. With 8 out of 12 loans being over 6 years old, you would be giving up a lot if you decided to exclude them. Hopefully the recent FOS decisions on older loans (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/fos-time-limits-payday-loan-refunds/) will make QQ get on with facing up to this!
Jen says
Hi has anyone heard anything from the cheque centre administrators recently, last I heard was July, told dividend would be sent toward the end of the year, tia
Stephen says
I had many loans with cheque centre, did not think I could make a complaint via adminstrators. Can I ask how you do this.? And who to email.
Jen says
Hi think Sara has an address here it’s to frp advisory administrators, if you google it, get in quick tho they are winding the claims up just now I think
Jen says
Hi found a phone number in my e.mails, they will send out the paperwork to claim it’s 03300555455 , they expect it to be around 5% of total claim paid, pls do this soon so you get something back, gd luck
Stephen says
Thank you…..have just given them a call….have been given an email address and they will send out a claims form. I now need to try and obtain bank statements as evidence. Thanks again
James Harvey says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your time.
I had a final response letter through from Sunny this week. In a nutshell they said they did all the expected checks when lending to me and they cannot do anything for me.
I borrowed one loan in Nov 2013 for £300. Amount repaid £331.25. Remaining balance £47.02.
At the time had taken out several other loans in total 5 with other lenders. I was heavily in my bank overdraft. Several defaults on my file. Low credit score. Gambling problem.
Can I take this up with the FO? Or again being a one loan case chances are it’ll get rejected?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t there is much chance of winning that case at FOS.
MM says
Agreed a settlement of £1200 with 247MoneyBox and they also agreed to remove all the loans from my credit file (which as I’m now thankfully in a better financial position was more important than the settlement). I had paid nearly £2500 in interest in loans since 2017 with them, but I’m satisfied with £1200. Also agreed a settlement £502 settlement with PiggyBank and removal of a couple of loans from my credit file, decent outcome. Waiting on a few others to come back with responses including: SwiftSterling, MoneyBoat, UncleBuck and Sunny.
James Harvey says
Thanks Sara.
Quick question, Is there any way of removing my default from my credit file. Will they be able to remove it on a gesture of goodwill? Worth trying?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In theory they can, but I would be very surprised if they agree to.
African Queen says
Quick Update
I have now received my payment from Lending Stream. I complained to the FOS in May and received my payout, £2600, yesterday. Lending Stream have also removed the default from my credit file. They paid out after 3 weeks from the FOS ruling.
MyJar on the other hand have not been great. Complained to the FOS in May. They ruled in my favour and asked MyJar to respond by the 5th of November. They missed the deadline and asked for an extension till the 27th of November. Neither myselfor the FOS have heard from them despite numerous emails.
I have now been told by the FOS that my case is now awaiting an Ombudsman. This of course means more waiting as the yare very busy.
What surprises me is why these lenders think they can get away with missing deadlines from the FOS. If we did that at work, we will be out of a job!
I take solace in the fact that this is money that I never knew I would get back but it is still frustrating.
I will post an update when I eventually hear from MyJar.
We have to remain patient. It will be worth it in the end x
Mia says
Hi all
Wanted firstly say thank you to this site! Life changing!
I started the process in April 2018. Got good pay outs from PDUk and mr lender, the rest went to the fos. In the last couple of weeks I’ve had complaints upheld against
247moneybox
Sunny
Quickquid
All have agreed with adjudicator decision and today have had £4000 transferred from 247, £1700 from quickquid and awaiting on £1400 from sunny. Wage day has unfortunately not agreed so waiting for ombudsman.
In total I’ve had over £12000 back so far that I never thought I would.
I was pretty persistent especially with 247moneybox and emailed near enough everyday but I’ve got there
Good luck to everyone else really hope you all have success!!
cheryl says
great to hear these success stories! thanks for sharing..
Gary says
Hi Mia
This is awesome news I had mine upheld with an adjudicator for 247 their deadline was 23rd but heard nothing.
How on earth did you get them to reply to adjudicator?
Cheers
Gary
Tim ber says
I had no response from 24/7 now awaiting to be assigned am ombudsman. There dead line was 18th Oct moved it onto the ombudsman 19th Nov. Think they are very poor at responding.
Mia says
They are so bad st responding! I literally emailed them daily. Then when they didn’t respond by the adjudicator date I emailed them, and the fca to explain my dissatisfaction. 24 hours later money was in my account! I would say keep persevering
Good luck
K says
So the ombudsmen has agreed that satsuma should not of lent me loads 4-8 And has given satsuma until the 6th to respond. Does anyone have any experience with time scales of satsuma responding? And if so pay out time scales? Thanks
Kareen says
Hi sarah
I had received emails from the money shop yesterday ref payday express & payday uk? I don’t realise they were different company’s? Also my jar QQ to say that
We are contacting you to provide you with a progress update on a recent complaint you made to us. Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts, we are not yet in a position to give you a final resolution.
This is after submitting my irresponsible lending claims on the 02/11/18
Is this a good sign?
I’ve had no response yet from quid market,lending stream
Thanks Kareen
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is just an automated acknowledgement at 4 weeks. Not good or bad, no one has looked at your case.
Eric says
Hello
Adjudicator agreed with me against Unclebuck and asked them to refund loan 3-6.
Uncle Buck has rejected the complaint and gave more information (not sure what they have as the adjudicator said that the credit report they sent him shows that I have had over 110 loans in the last 18 months and that the ombudsman will agree with his outcome)
How often do they change their kind and agree with adjudicator? If not, how long does it take to go from adjudicator to ombudsman.
I just want these all sorted and done now.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t see enough of these comments to be able to give an estimate of how often UB change their mind. It seems to be about 10-14 weeks for an ombudsman at the moment on average.