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?
will says
Hi, anyone have any idea how long it is taking for cases to be assigned to adjudicators at the ombudsman? I’ve had cases there since August last year. One of them PDUK – are arguing that I can’t complain because the loans were issues more than 6 years ago so I know that is a reason for the delay, but the others there is no reason other than waiting to be assigned to an adjudicator.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s 5-6 months typically at the moment
karen wilson says
More like 12 months mines been in since may last year still nothing!””
JD says
Do you have over 6 year loans in your complaint?
karen wilson says
Only one over 6 years but all others under quickquid 6+ payday express peachy safety net lending stream 247 moneybox all under 6 years only had one result from wageday advance very quick 5 weeks and paid out
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well ignoring the QQ 6+ year case which will be sloooow, I suggest you phone up the Ombudsman and ask why this is taking so long – since May is VERY unusual.
C says
Evening Will.
My last three have just been picked up.
QQ submitted March 2018 – picked up jan ‘19
The money shop submitted may 1st 2018 and picked up dec ‘18
THL submitted may 1st 18 and picked up January ‘19.
So take out silly season with Christmas, I’d say 6 months is about right.
Note QQ was none over 6years and before 2015 though 👍.
All the best
C
Emma says
Can anyone help. I have tried filling complaint to Lending Stream since Dec 2018 all emails have bounced back. Even when I tried on their website same thing. I have tried several times and went through Resolver and still all bouncing back. I took advice and got in touch with FOS but had email today stating that they can’t help. What am I to do now as this is starting to make me ill due to stress this is causing as I can’t get anywhere but others have:(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you tried completing the complaint form on their website? Are there some details you can’t complete?
Mark says
Emma,
As the chances are your complaint will end up with the FOS anyway, just send a recorded letter to the registered address on their website…lendingstream.co.uk – contact us – address is at bottom RHS of screen.
Take a screen shot or print out to prove way you sent it to that address and keep the recorded delivery receipts.
Then in 8 weeks when the likelihood is you won’t have received a response/resolution, you can forward your complaint to the FOS with all the aforementioned evidence and they will take your complaint up on your behalf.
I know it’s easy to say, but please don’t worry as this is just a process or ‘dance’, you just have to go through the steps one at a time over about 6-12 months to hopefully get your win.
STICK IN THERE and good luck!
Mark
Si Johnson says
My emails to them bounced back too…I ended up using the contact us form on their website…not even an acknowledgement though…I’m sending the body of the email as a letter recorded delivery
Elaine says
Hi Sara
I have had a reply from the FOS saying they have requested information from Sunny concerning my complaint.
They have requested bank statements around the time of taking loans with Sunny and my credit file I have sent them the final response already from Sunny .
Do you have a timescale on how long will it be before they deal with my case once they have the information xx
Thanks in advance
ClaireR says
I requested an update on my 5 cases from the FOS just over a week ago.
Just had an update saying that it is taking 3-6 months, and as 2 of mine were submitted in August 2018
they are hopeful I will hear something soon on these ones.
Fingers crossed everybody.
Hang in there.
Elaine says
Hi Claire
Thank you for the information- I hope you get your cases finalised ASAP xx
Mark says
ClaireR,
Thanks for that information.
I sent mine off to the FOS in November and have just requested an update on all (9) of the cases. Wish I’d seen your post first! :-)
Eve W says
HI ,
Can anyone advise how long FOS takes with cases with PAYDAY UK on over 6 years old loans ? I sent mine in nearly 4 months ago, end of SEP 2018 . Should I sit tight much longer you reckon ? Thanks
GM says
I sent mine more than two months ago and when I called the FOS, they said that the over 6 year old loans were with a jurisdiction team to decide if they can be looked at. I was asked to call after 4 weeks for the outcome. this isn’t the adjudicator level yet, just jurisdiction.
Eve W says
Hi GM ,
Would you please send us update once you spoke to FOS after the 4 weeks . I am wondering what the update will be . It looks like we must wait for final outcome for months .
Many Thansk
GM says
Sure, will do
tom says
ive been watiing since may 2018…
Grant says
Does anyone know what happens if Lending stream goes over the 28 days to repay? This is due early next week. Both the adjudicator and I tried to push them along and put several trust pilot reviews on but they still haven’t paid! Seem like they are back to there old ways!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry to hear that :(
Keep us informed!
Si Lad says
If a payday loan debt is sold to a debt collection agency what happens here?? Will they demand full payment for balance outstanding or can you pay it back bit by bit. Really worried about what’s gunna happen?? Can anyone advise??
Nicki says
Most companies will allow you to set up a payment plan, some will give you a reduced balance if you can pay immediately. Just don’t ignore them and speak to them they are normally helpful
Si Lad says
Nicki. Thanks. Lets hope so. As I’m expecting the letter sometime soon.
Iain123 says
Hi. Thought I’d share some information on my complaint against The Money Shop. Started my complaint in September, some back and forth, they then made an offer this month. I refused as I want the interest from over six years. The day they made an offer I started my complaint to the FOS as I’m not hopeful they’ll refund the 6+ years interest. Today they sent me this……….
Thank you for your email received 14/01/2019. We apologise for the delay in responding to you.
In response to your request that we reconsider our position outlined in the Final Response Letter, and regarding the reason about why you are complaining only now, we need to ask you to write a detailed answer to this question with all specifics you may have.
– What triggered you to make your claim now?
– Was there something specific as to the reason for the complaint now?
– How and when you were aware about you can make a complaint?
– Are there any other points you would like to share with?
Please elaborate the details in support of your complaint and send these to uk-general.complaintsteam@themoneyshop.co.uk in order for us to be able to review this. Once received you will be contacted in 2-3 weeks with an updated Response.
I’ll be honest in my response. If anyone can help with phrasing, thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just also say how and when you found out that a lender had a duty to lend responsibly and check if you could afford to repay the loans. You may have heard about payday loan refunds with the TV coverage after Wonga went into administration this year, seen a Facebook advert from a claims company, been told about this page by a friend/relative /work colleague; or a friend told you about irresponsible lending complaints.
Also say if you have had debt advice, been in a debt management plan or an IVA and your debt adviser never mentioned affordability complaints – point out that if an expert didn’t tell you about them, how could you know!
Mark says
Iain,
You’re right, just be honest.
However, as other ppl on here have recently reported problems with PDL’s claiming the “3 year rule” is invalid due to all the media coverage since 2008, meaning it’s ‘unreasonable’ to claim that you (and everyone else) in the UK wasn’t fully aware of the ‘irresponsible lending’ regulations, since then, I would also be very inclined to add something like:
“I think it’s clearly reasonable to suggest that I wasn’t aware of the ‘irresponsible lending’ issues until recently and I can easily prove this.
From 1/1/18 to 30/6/18 the FOS received 1393 complaints regarding The Money Shop (Instant Cash Loans Ltd). In that same period 44% of complaints that TMS rejected, were upheld by the FOS. I believe it’s reasonable to assume that some of those upheld complaints also related to ‘irresponsible lending’. As such, if the employers in your own underwriting department and complaints department weren’t aware of the ‘irresponsible lending’ rules last year, despite their experience and your company training, how on earth could a member of the public have known?”
That MIGHT stop them coming back with their now stock dismissal.
Hope that helps. Good luck.
Jon says
Hi all, I have complained to many companies and had varying success, one that did suprisen me was Myjar, I only took one loan with them for £200, after 8 weeks they wrote to say they needed an extra 10 days, I didn’t forward to the FOS as it was only the one loan and for a relatively small amount so didn’t think it had much hope, however they got back to me slightly after the 10 days and with the response that if they had of performed better checks they wouldn’t have lent to me (I provided bank statements and proof of other loans with other companies etc from the very start) and they refunded me £207.99….they said it would take 10-15 working days but it only actually took 3! So just a reminder to people that no matter how little a chance you think you’ve got submit that claim anyway, every penny helps!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Everyone waiting for a Wageday Advance response to their complaint – see my new article about WDA delays: https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-complaints/
Lucy says
Thank you for the update. They wrote to me on 14 January to say that I should receive my final response by the end of January. Fingers crossed!
JW says
Hi, I sent a the initial template with a request of details on all of my loans and a complaint of unfair lending. All of the loan companies replied within the 8 week period however the company I used .multiple times and rolled over a number of loans with, MoneyShop and Payday UK, have neither sent a list of my loans or answered the complaint. It has now been 9 weeks. Should I just go straight to the ombudsmen even though I do not have a of my loan details? Thanks for any help! J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you phone them up and ask why you haven’t had a response. Are any of your loans over 6 years old? If they are, you will be asked why you didn’t complain years ago so be ready to explain where and when you found out about these complaints.
JW says
Thank you….I just rang them and was told “the only thing I can say is we have a back log so give us one more week” although he was surprised that I had heard nothing.
Thanks
J
Iain123 says
At 8 weeks those companies wrote and said please wait another 8 weeks. They both came through on time.
JW says
They have not responded to either the original e-mail sent on the 23rd of November or a follow up email reminding them that 8 weeks had past last Saturday, the 19th of Jan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you need to phone up and insist that someone confirms they do have the complaint logged on their system. Ask to speak to a manager if necessary.
Phil says
Hi,
Although I’m fairly sure I know the answer to this, i.e. pay the money. I thought I would throw it out there to see if I have missed anything.
I had a number of escalating PDL’s from minicredit from 2010 to 2012, until I was unable to pay the last one (£450 loan).
With fees/interest this increased to approx £1,350 and sold on to the Opos/Kapama Limited. Since then I’ve repaid about £900 before I found this website last year and put in a claim. Fast forward to now and speaking to FO they have told me they can’t go forward with the claim as Minicredit are liquidated, and none of the charges were incurred by Opos.
Effective position being that I can’t make a claim and I will still need to repay the money owed, and I have no other options except for trying to get the liquidator to look into this… which is highly unlikely as there are no funds for them to do so.
My question being, is/or was anyone else in this position and have I missed any other option?
April says
Hi Phil,
I’ve had a similar issue with an old debt from Minicredit.
My original loan was for £200, escalated to £1900 and then Opos took over the debt. After about a year they reduced this by half (I was paying about £30 per month towards the debt in a plan) but I still had over £600 to pay back. Last year I made a complaint to Opos, that I had already paid back over double the original loan amount. They said there was nothing they can do as Minicredit were the original creditor.
If you know of another option let me know too! I’m currently paying off a small amount each month for this, but I hate doing so! This debt is from 2013 so I’m not sure whether it can be written off because it’s been 6 years?
Sorry I’m not much help, but this one debt has been the biggest pain in the butt!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“This debt is from 2013 so I’m not sure whether it can be written off because it’s been 6 years?” sorry no – that is called statute barred debt but it only applies if you have made no payments in the last 6 years.
phil says
Thanks for the replies, I’m sorry that you appear to be in the same boat as me April, mine is from 2012 and i had been making payments monthly to it until last year when I made the complaint. They will be re-starting next month!
They did offer to write of a third when I made the complaint however that was on a strict time limit offer, however as I pressed on the FO case that has been removed, which in hindsight was a mistake, but not the end of the world.
Vera says
Send it to the ombudsman, I had the same thing with mini credit/ opos, you won’t get your money back but the payments will stop. Give it a try.
StevieC says
Hi,
I am looking for some advice?
I received a decision from the adjudicator on the 2nd of January partially ruling in my favour for a revolving credit line with drafty. Since then I have not heard anything as the deadline was 16th January and the adjudicator has not replied to my numerous emails. In the meantime I have been getting numerous texts and emails from Drafty about the balance I owe them. With the ruling this would wipe the balance plus leave a refund of around £200. Am I right to guess they have rejected the adjudicators decision?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think with Drafty, who are owned by lending Stream, it’s quite possible that the right hand (collections) has no idea what the left hand (complaints team) is doing. And that the complaints team hasn’t got round to looking at it.
I suggest you leave them a bad review on Trust Pilot https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/drafty.co.uk as LS can sometimes be kicked into action this way. Say that the adjudicator at the ombudsman has upheld your case and your balance should be wiped, but Drafty have not confirmed this and you are being hassled by their Collections department which is unfair when they are the ones that have not replied to the Ombudsman.
James says
Hi Sara,
I started my complaints with several companies in November 2017 and now have received refunds from all of them. I just wanted to say your site has been an absolute godsend, so thank you. Wouldn’t have been possible without it. Ive received over £6000 back from Sunny, payday express, 247 moneybox and Mr lender.
To anyone contemplating complaining. Seriously do it immediately. Its been so easy with the templates here and the effort to get 6k back has been minimal really. In my case, I settled with sunny immediately as they offered a refund on 5 out of 6 along with the 8%. 247 moneybox, PDE and Mr lender all flat out refused any culpability so I sent to the ombudsman and they found in my favour for all of them ( in fact I received full refunds for a total of 21 loans out of 23). Dont let their final response letters discourage you. They are so strongly worded it’s unreal, frankly I’d go as far as to say that they flat out lie – they know full well they are going to lose and try to waive outstanding loans to reduce the hit to them. Seriously, refer to the Financial Ombudsman.
To anybody who is worried about historic gambling transactions: dont. I’d be surprised if your statements were a worst read than mine and actually in respect of my loans it worked in my favour, as the adjudicator appeared to use the transactions as expenditure (even though I wasn’t meeting any of my bills at the time).
Stephen says
Hi Sarah and lovely people.
After starting to get a little worried that I wasn’t going to get a penny back from any lenders, the first ray of sunshine has emerged. PDUK who I had 12 loans with have finally responded after 18 weeks offering to repay 2 loans at a total of £1800 and want bank statements in regard of another 3 loans. Feeling galvanised I have counter offered that I will end my FOS complaint should they find in my favour on the additional 3 loans and combine the redress with the original loans upheld.
Is this a good course of action? I feel that the ombudsman will surely find in my favour now, and possibly on more than the 5 I’ve listed? It feels like a game of poker now, just waiting to call there bluff.
Lending Stream Who I had more loans with have already said no to everything, asshats. Hope the FOS go to work on them!
J says
Thanks for this wonderful website – I only wish I had discovered it years ago.
So here is my situation – I had multiple loans with with Quickquid, PaydayUK, Payday Express, Wonga, 1Monthloan, Poundstillpayday, Cash Genie, EPDL, TXTLoan, Safeloans, Lending stream and a few others. The loans were taken out between 2009 and 2012 and most had many rollovers. I was robbing Peter to pay Paul. To think of the stress and worry I experienced back then is truly scary.
I ended up entering a DMP in 2012 to pay off debts of nearly £25k – 2/3rds of which was to a high street bank – loan and overdraft. I now have less than £10k still to pay off – most to the high street bank, but im still paying off payday loans as part of the DMP.
My question is – can i request refunds for loans so old – at least for the companies still in business?
Appreciate the help and advice.
J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can. The complaints are likely to be very slow, but set off and don’t be impatient. Expect the lenders to refuse and send your complaints to FOS at 8 weeks. It will help if you are able to get your old bank statements from the borrowing period, but may be possible without as its so old.
Even if you only get some back, it will all help your DMP! In fact if you get any refunds (as opposed to write offs) you may be able to use them to get a full and final settlement of DMP debts so a £500 refund could potentially repay £2k of debt.
Wonga, see this article https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-has-stopped-issuing-loans/, don’t use the standard template.
EPDL, Cash Genie and possibly Safeloans may be difficult or impossible – talk to the Ombudsman,
PoundsTillPayday see https://debtcamel.co.uk/swift-sterling-pounds-till-payday/ and all the comments below there.
All the others use the template above
B says
Morning all.
What’s everyones experience with satsuma? I want to put a complaint in but know it will be a tough one to win with the FOS as theres 3 years between issues. Basically, i defaulted on a loan with them in 2014 and eventually entered into a repayment plan with them. Last year, i applied for £1000 and within 5 mins it was approved and in my account. I can see by my file that they ran a credit check but they didnt ask for any statements despite my history with them. I wasn’t going to bother with this, but next week i’ll be settling my loan 6 months early (due to a refund elsewhere) but still paying the 84% of the interest that i would have paid if i went full term on the loan! It’s angered me so much, just the case fee from FOS will be satisfaction at their greed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
After years since you finished the repayment plan, Satsuma should not have declined a new application immediately. But as it was for such a large amount of money I think they should have considered it carefully. I suggest you follow the approach in https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ for this complaint, asking for all the personal information they had about you, including call recordings. This isn’t normally needed for a payday loan complaint where you had borrowed many times, but it works better for large single loans.
It will help in your complaint if you can list all the borrowing that was on your credit record at the time of the application. Enclose a copy of your Noddle report as evidence.
Then when it goes to FOS (as it probably will have to) look for any discrepancies between your application and what Satsumas found out in their credit reference checks. eg did you have other borrowings which you didn’t mention – this should have been another red flag for them.
Kate says
Hi Sara not sure if this is the right section to put it in but needed a little advice if possible. Received court form from Lantern limited regarding a £100 debt from cash genie the thing is I received redress from Cash genie through an affordablity complaint and the cash genie account was closed. Do I reply to the court form and dispute the debt? Email them or ignore it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you get a Letter Before Action/Claim about this debt before the court form?
Are you sure the Lantern debt relates to one that was included in your Cash Genie refund?
If you ignore this Claim Form you will get a CCJ in about 45 days time. You have to defend this case, do not just email Lantern. National Debtline can help – 0808 808 4000. And you could also post on the Legal Beagles forum: https://legalbeagles.info/forums/forum/legal-forums/court-claims-and-issues
Kate says
Yes I received a few letters beforehand, I assume that because in the email regarding the redress it states that ‘your cash genie account is now closed in full’ . I have all the emails saved so surely that can’t chase me for this money can they?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It was a mistake to ignore the letters before the court claim – it’s much easier to sort these things out before court action is started.
I suppose it is possible that this debt had already been sold to Lantern before your complaint?
But Lantern (previously known as MMF) may have got this wrong. I am not saying this debt wasn’t included in your refund, just you are going to have to make sure that it was. You need to try to find whatever you had from CG listing what your loans were.
And then you can ask Lantern to withdraw the court case but you are also going to have to defend it just in case they won’t co-operate (which is quite likely).
Did you know you had an outstanding balance when your Cash genie account was settled?
Matt says
Hi
Has anyone successfully made a claim against drafty?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, they are a small brand so not much mentioned but a few people have got good results from the ombudsman. They are a sister company of Lending Stream so expect things to be dragged out – send the complaint to FOS at 8 weeks.
StevieC says
Hi Matt,
I have had an adjudicator rule in my favour. Although it seems Drafty are using lending stream tactics and ignoring this. They are aware of the ruling as they stated in an e-mail to me . I have not heard back from the adjudicator as the deadline for a reply from drafty was 2 weeks ago.
Matt says
Thanks Steve
I will start a claim!
Elaine says
Hi am just checking if anyone knows how long does it take for Paydayuk to refund into your bank account.
I sent back my acceptance and bank details on 23/1/19 to them by email.
I just so I know when to chase them as it didn’t say in the form how long it takes
Thanks in advance
Claire says
I’ve had three separate payments from them and they each took 7/8 working days
Elaine says
Hi Claire
Thank you for the information.
Elaine xx
Davy says
Took just over a week to land in my bank account after I sent them the details
Elaine says
Hi Davy
Thank you for your reply.
I will chase it after 10 days if I don’t receive the refund.
Elaine xx
Mark says
Sara,
Some advice pls…..
I had 7 loans with PDUK (Instant Cash Loans Ltd) 2012-2016. They upheld my complaint on all 7 loans and refunded me.
I had 2 loans with The Money Shop (also ICLL), after those PDUK loans in 2016.
Amount Start date Paid off
£600 20/06/16 27/06/16
£1500 29/06/16 Still outstanding (paying with S.Change DMP)
TMS rejected my complaint.
The FOS has just rejected my complaint on the basis that the checks they did were proportionate for 2 loans and even if they had done more checks the loans would still have been affordable.
I’m confused because:
a) They did no income verification at all. The income figure supplied on the first TMS loan was £3200, then 9 days later it was £3800. No questions asked.
b) If they had done more checks they would have seen that my income was actually £1700 (as per the bank stats provided to FOS) – Doesn’t this mean as per FCA reg’s if they had checked, they would have declined due to misleading info being supplied?
c) FOS say they can’t take into consideration my PDUK loans/payment history or the fact that PDUK already admitted their loans shouldn’t have been granted, because it is a separate company. However, they both trade under the ICLL banner and use the same FCA reg no (681750).
I’ve been told I have 14 days to appeal but they will only accept if I supply new information. Surely all of the aforementioned should be known to the FOS, so I have no idea what to do??? :-(
This is from an adjudicator.
I’m happy to appeal, but just can’t think that the basis of my appeal is “new information”, just reminding them of what I believe they’ve overlooked/forgotten/got wrong!?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this for the adjudicator to reconsider? Does it contain the usual words about your right to have an ombudsman look at it?
I don’t think TMS decisions usually take account of PDUK/PDE borrowing. When you applied to TMS, was this just another lender you tried? Or had you had any communications from PDUK suggesting TMS may give you a loan?
I suggest you reply restating your case about these two loans, ignoring the PDUK angle. Ignore the reference to new information. Don’t say lots of “as I have already told you” just restate the whole case.
Basically two days after you had repaid the first loan (was that early?) you (1) applied for more than twice as much, (2) this was a very significant proportion of your stated income and (3) your income had apparently increased a lot in the previous two weeks. All three of these factors should have meant that TMS considered your application in detail eg asking for proof of income. They didn’t so this was irresponsible lending. Say you would like the case to go to an ombudsman if the adjudicator does not reconsider.
Mark says
Yes, it’s for the adjudicator to reconsider. It says at the end that I have the option to refer it to an ombudsman to make a final decision.
It was just another lender I tried, no cross selling from PDUK.
Ok thanks that’s brilliant, I will do that now.
Still find it amazing that a company can set up multiple lending trading names all under one FCA reg no. and not be treated as the same company. This feels like a way of circumventing regulations somehow.
Thanks again Sara #GuardianAngel
Josh says
Hi all
How long typically does it take for an adjudicator take to come to a decision?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That depends on how complex and long your case is. Sorry. Normally 1-3 weeks I guess, some quicker, some longer.
Josh says
Thanks Sara
Took 9 months to be assigned an adjudicator, just wondered if it takes months to make a decision. I can wait either way, just nice to know it won’t be that long now.
JD says
Was there any particular reason it took 9 months to be assigned an adjudicator?
Josh says
Not sure tbh. But from what I gather reading through here, the moneyshop drag their heels as much as possible once you complain to FOS.
Sophie says
I’ve still heard nothing from PDUK. I’ve had no response to my original data request or subsequent emails so I’ve not had chance to submit a full complaint and the 8 week period expires tomorrow. Not sure what to do when/if I hear back from them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send your complaint to the ombudsman if you don’t get a reply tomorrow. Include in this that you have not yet been sent a list of your loans that you requested, that at the moment you are unsure what period your borrowing covers and you will be able to supply more details about your circumstances at the time of the borrowing when you have this information.
Jessica says
Hello,
Mr Lender have taken a payment from my account – though I have no outstanding loans with them. My partner however does have a loan and the payment taken out of my account matches his instalment. The card saved on his account is his own card and my bank account is not connected to his account at all. I live at the same address and previously had a loan with Mr Lender but how on earth could this happen? I have asked Mr Lender about this – should I make a formal complaint?
Thanks,
Jess
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you should complain unless they agree immediately to refund you the money. I also suggest you cancel the CPA with your bank so they can no longer do anything like this in future!
Was the money in your partner’s bank account and they failed to take it from there? If yes, then he needs to pay it if he can afford to do so. If he can’t then get him to read the article above and put in affordability complaint and ask for a payment arrangement.
You should consider if you also could get a refund of some of the interest you have paid on your previous loans.
Jess says
Thanks Sara.
Apparently a payment was made using my card on a previous loan of his about 7 months ago – so they have that on record. Though on his account information, with Mr Lender, they have his card details as you would expect. Does this change things? Surely they cant keep a third party card details as information etc.
I have complained to Mr Lender about the unauthorised payment and asked for some form of compensation (the payment being taken meant that two direct debits did not get paid)
I think I will prompt my partner to make an affordability complaint – I think he has had 4 loans – paid over long periods of time over the last 18 months – almost every month he has made a payment to them.
Thanks,
Jess
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did they try to take the payment from his account and it failed?
Jess says
No, they claim that the account on file is my account. Despite showing them a print out of his “my account” section on Mr Lender with his card details on it (the account they normally use)
He had enough on his balance for the payment to come out of his account too
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so they have definitely made some administration or IT error. Point out that all his previous payments have been coming from his account.
They shouldn’t just switch from collecting from his usual account to a different one without letting him know. This is a simpler and so stronger point than you saying they shouldn’t have kept your details on his account.
Steve says
Hi Sara, is there any update on QuickQuid looking at complaints over 6 years old? My complaint is with FOS but has been with them since February 2018. My total claim is £1,484 and only £274 of this was over 6 years old at the time of the complaint. I am thinking that i may be better dropping the >6 years claim and just pursuing the rest. What do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it’s a shame you didn’t drop the older loans a long while ago. You can say you don’t want a refund on them but would like the patter of lending to be taken into account. You know that normally you don’t get all your loans refunded, not the first few – this way you may get most or all of the under 6 year loans refunded and you may not have lost anything at all by dropping the older loans.
Steve says
Good point Sara, it’s obvious when you put it like that! Great advice, I will contact FOS and drop the older loans.
Drew says
I have recently sent a complaint to QQ and it includes some loans over 6 years old (but majority are within 6 years). Do you think I should contact QQ just now to tell them I dont want to claim back on the >6 year loans, before they come back with the final response?
If any of my claims is over 6 years will they automatically reject the full claim? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you may as well wait and see what they come back with. QQ are being generally difficult at the moment over a whole range of situations – there is no guarantee that you offering to drop the older loans will produce anything like a reasonable offer on the within 6 year loans. Wait until you see what their reply is. So far as I know they do not automatically reject a whole claim just because some loans are over 6 years old.
Drew says
Thanks Sara. I will let you know how I get on. I have claims with about a dozen PDL companys.
So far Ferratum have written off my balance of over £600 as a “goidwill gesture” and NextCredit refunded me £150 for two previous loans (full interest + 8%).
Your site is excellent for helping people claim back money they are rightfully owed!
Emma says
Hi, I referred by complaint to the FOB last year and they came back with a descion just over two weeks ago saying that all 4 loans should not of been given and gave QQ/pounds to pockets until 25th to respond. I emails the lady dealing with the case on 25th and she came back today to say that they had received extra info from QQ and they were assessing it and would let me know. Is this normal? How much longer do you think it would be?
Robin says
Wonder if anyone can help me – I am trying to lodge a complaint against Mini Credit. I see from the list of emails provided on this site that they’ve gone bust, however my loan was eventually sold to Kapama/Opos (which I paid off in full over a year ago) – so as advised I wrote to them instead.
My main reason for complaining is that they levied all sorts of additional charges on to the total loan amount – so what started out as a £120 debt ended up being £883, including £485 of ‘attempt charges’. Kapama have written back saying that as they were not the original creditor they cannot be held accountable for any irresponsible lending and are essentially dismissing my enquiry. Is that the case? And could I still have a case against them for the additional charges? Any help much appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry there is nothing you can do.
Katie says
Just an update to my case I last commented about in March 2018!
“I have received my final response from Satsuma
Loan 1 £600, Interest £479
Loan 2 £600 Interest £419
Loan 3 £700 Interest £692
Loan 4 £800 Interest £731
Loan 5 £2,000 Interest £1984 (current loan)
They are repaying interest of loans 2-4 a total of £2119 and applying it to the current loan
Which is fine but they say I still owe £1200 on this loan!”
Sent to the ombudsman for the last loan, got picked up beginning January, FOS agreed last loan unaffordable and Satsuma had until 23rd to agree. They then gave them another week as they had not replied. Finally today have agreed with FOS, last loan paid off and £800 will be paid back to me!
Long wait but good result in the end!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Excellent result but a very long wait – a number of Satsuma cases were held up for a long while mid last year, not clear why, yours may have been one of them.
Jacob says
Hey all, Just wanted to let you know that I submitted my complaint against QQ to the FOS in August 2017. The majority of the loans were over 6+ years and this was passed on to the juristriction team straight away. I have had the same responses from the FOS as others on here are reporting (basically that they are still looking in to this). So that is basically 18 months that I have been waiting. At what stage does there have to be movement one way or the other? Surely it can’t continue with this stale mate? Is it a case where the FOS are currently hesitant in enforcing their decisions incase QQ take this to the courts?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Is it a case where the FOS are currently hesitant in enforcing their decisions in case QQ take this to the courts?” no , it is rather the other way around. FOS have made the decision in a few cases, but it is QQ that are hesitating, neither going to court to object or agreeing and starting to resolve the other cases on hold such as yours. No this can’t carry on.
Joseph says
Hi Sara, had quite a nasty response to my complaint from CASH4UNOW, what do you think? She said the template I have used (your one) is “vexatious” – and that there is ‘no commonality’ between the template and my actual complaint. She also says their company had a less than 1% chance of it being upheld at FOS so I do so with caution (word for word). She suggests not using your template as it’s often factually incorrect. Is she right? Do you templates not work anymore? What should I do!! She’s suggested as a gesture of goodwill she will take interest off and I pay pricncpial amount. She’s gone through my credit in detail and basically said I could afford it and my conplaint is fake because I didn’t write it myself.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are often quite unpleasant to deal with. You can safely ignore most of that…
But how many loans did you have from them? Can you say something about these loans?
Joseph says
I only had 1 loan with them – but took out 5 at around the same time. I’m genuinely a little worried with there response due to her abruptness. Should I take to FOS?
Joseph says
“If you choose to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service they may request you provide them with bank statements or other proof of your outgoings at the time. I think it would be difficult for you to evidence you were unable to afford these loans and our offer will be revoked.”
Comical
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have seen lenders make such a confusing or aggressive reply to a customer that the customer doesn’t realise they are actually being offered a good deal…
If you only had one loan from them, how much did you borrow? And have you made any payments to it? Ignore the unpleasantness and focus on the facts.
Joseph says
I borrowed £500 in November and havnt made any payment to them, imagine it’s probably at like £800 now.. Do you think i should accept the offer?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you haven’t made any payments , getting the interest removed so you only repay the balance is a good offer. You won’t get it reduced further by going to FOS.
But do you need an affordable payment arrangement? How much can you afford to repay per month without struggling? because you could go back and say you will accept their offer to remove the interest if they agree that interest will remain frozen and you can repay it at £50 a month( or whatever).
Neil says
If you only had the one loan with them then it sounds like a good offer. Taking off the interest so you only pay back what you borrowed. If you don’t mind me asking, what we’re you expecting from them if you had paid nothing to them at all?
Also the templates work as long as you change the details to make it correct to your loan details and circumstances while getting loans from them
Neil
Mar says
hi all,im just after a little bit of help. i have a current loan with uncle buck i think the beginning amount was £500, i have been really stupid and couldnt afford to pay it, i made an affordability complaint which wasnt upheld. i then have just left it and i now owe them £1000 as the debt has continued to double. i have emailed them today after getting an emailing them last week telling them i am struggling financially and need to set up a payment plan, they have came back to me and said as it is in the late stages of arrears i will need to ring them and make a payment before they will even discuss a payment plan. i am so stressed i really dont have anything to give them right now, i responded advising them i suffer really bad anxiety and cant ring and also stated the most i could give right now is £10 . do you have any advice? i feel like they have no compassion
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The good news is that the debt won’t go up any more whatever you do – a payday lender is not allowed to add more in interest and charges than you originally borrowed. So don’t let them pressure you into paying more than you can afford.
When did you complain to UB? Did you take your case to the ombudsman?
mar says
it was afew month ago now but i never took it to the ombudsmen.i had about 10 payday loans at the same time and have some success thanks to your site to have some of those written off or reduced.
If i set up apayment plan can i still take the case to the ombudsmen?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can still go to the Ombudsman if you have a payment plan in place. But as I said, don’t be pushed into paying more than you can afford – if that is onoy £5 a month, that is all you should offer.
You have 6 months from UB’s decision to go to FOS, so check if you are still within that time. If it looks close, get the FOS complaint in now, don’t hesitate and risk going over the 6 month limit.
Josh says
I had my decision from adjudicator today – 8 out of 9 loans to have interested refunded and 8% interest. In their final response, Money Shop only upheld 4 out of 9 in their final response so I’m pretty happy with that decision.
Is Money Shop likely to drag this out and disagree or make a counter offer? They have until 6th Feb to agree/disagree.
What’s the usual time frame for what happens after this stage? I suppose it depends on what they come back with?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
TMS normally accept adjudicator decisions – fingers crossed they do for yours!
StevieC says
I have had an adjudicator decision on my loans with wizzcash, the decision was to refund my interest on largest loan taken. I have just found out that wizzcash have decided to decline the adjudicators findings and proceed to the ombudsman. Very annoying.
Emma says
So today I received an email from Lending Stream stating they had received my complaint from FOS. Convenient that they have acknowledged them but the umpteen emails I sent to them since start of December all bounced back. Funny that,anyway they said they are amidst in reviewing this matter. Need to wait to see what happens next. Anyone had bother with any outcomes with this company? As what I know so far they are notoriously bad. I can kind of predict I may have a fight on my hands.
Grant says
Accepted at adjudicator level for loans 9-30. Acceptance sent on 4th jan. still not paid despite promises they would. Emailed them yesterday to chase they have given an incorrect acceptance date so waiting to see if any money comes in tomorrow or will have to go back to adjudicator.
cyrilv says
Three times now I’ve asked PDUK/PDE for a list of my loans – and three times now I’ve received a rejection slip in reply with a bouncing donotmail return address and a “we need more information” request despite having sent them bank details and the personal details they required. Pig sick of their lazy, slack attitude. I really could do with a working email address for them (the one you have listed is no good). There is a Moneyshop 0800 number to call but i really hate using the phone, and anyway I’ve had no dealings at all with their Moneyshop arm. Anyway, seeing as PDUK/PDE haven’t had the common courtesy even to send a list of my loans, do I give them a stinking review on trustpilot and then go straight to FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Frustrating. They won’t care about a poor Trust Pilot review as they aren’t lending any more. Unless it has been 8 weeks, you cannot go to FOS.
Sorry but it sounds as though they are having difficulty identifying you. In this situation the best way forward is to pick up the phone and try to resolve the issue. Do you have bank statements showing the loans? Talk to them on the phone and offer to send these.
cyrilv says
Yes, I’ve got full bank statements, plus my Noddle report. Tried to send everything three times now and each time they send me back the same reply. For what it’s worth, the 8 weeks will be up early next week.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, I really suggest you speak to them on the phone. They are having problems identifying you – these need to be resolved.
cyrilv says
Will do on Friday, hopefully they can get it ironed out asap and we can move forward.
Meanwhile in happier news, just heard from Myjar at the end of the 8 weeks; full refund of interest and charges + 8% on all 5 of 5 loans from them. They were not big loans, sure, but it’s a 3-figure sum and looks about as fair and honest as I’ll find, so I’ll grab it. Now why can’t all the lenders be like that? 2 down, 6 to go!
Rob says
They did the same to me (so I checked my online moneyshop account and my address was correct). I handed them all my addresses since 2008 so there was no excuse.
I complained one august 2018 and they only just sent a response stating they’d investigate and I’d have a response within 4 weeks.
I’d sent this onto the FOS in November so I updated them about it as well. Forwarded on the emails etc Moneyshop (and PDUK and Payday Express sent) so they had all information.
Iain123 says
customerrelations@themoneyshop.co.uk
01903768769
Deborah says
Hi i’m hoping that i can reclaim my bank charges too. but very worried that if the fos ask for bnk s/ments they won’t uphold my complaints as i spent a lot of money. I had mental health problems in the past(result ofchild abuse,)2015 i went intoa pyschiatric ward&got better, returned to work, doing really well, no debts £4000 savings,bank account upgraded as i was handling it well, excellent credit rating, no missed pments,I,was going to buy a house in 17. June 17 i was attacked (victim of a gang-rape)men/health problems resurfaced,didn’t dare leave the house so, everytime i went out i got taxi, to work,everywhere! savings went, suicide attempts, self-harming,spending online. Dec17 until Nov18 i got16 PDLs, got 6defaults, behind on rent,council tax, gas(on payment plans). with all the defaults, late payments and pplans on my c/file i have no chance of ever getting a mortgage (i’m 40 in two months). As my spending was high will my complaints be upheld or will they just say it was overspending and not irresponsible lending. i have Psychiatrist lettters to say i have a Boderline Personality (emotionally unstable type) generalise anxiety disorder, complex ptsd and depression. Even if i don’t get much refund, if any, i really want my credit report sorting out so that the rest of my life isn’t totally destoryed by this attack. What a mess! thanks in advance for any help anyone can give
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a very sad story. The good news is that FOS are not judgmental about these sorts of situations. You won’t get personally criticised or be told it was your fault for overspending.
The less good news is that your health problems won’t mean it’s going to be easy to win all the cases. A lender won’t be told by FOS that a loan was irresponsible unless the lender should have realised this before they gave you the loan. For your first few payday loan applications it is possible that the lender had no way of knowing about your situation.
But as you continued to apply, they should have seen your credit record showing more and more recent problems and stopped lending. So this is worth doing!
Deborah Linacre says
Hiya Sara,
I hope you are well. Thanks for your reply and advice :-) I thought that would be the case and think that that is fair really. I just had a look through credit report and think that if the lender had checked my file it was obvious something was going on. I went from £0 debt and £4900 in savings in June 2017 then by January 2018 had no savings, lots of missed payments and £17000 of loans (I can’t believe I have done this, so shocked, talk about head in the sand) we live and learn. Anyway, I’m hoping that apart from the first few loans whereby the lender wasn’t irresponsible as like you say they weren’t to know, that the latter ones I can claim on. Fingers crossed.
Thanks again :-)
C says
Hi Deborah.
Such a sad story and sorry to read about the things you went through.
I was diagnosed with PTSD last year and the psychotherapy uncovered a lot from my childhood, so I fully empathise.
I’m so pleased for you however that you’ve found this site as the support here from everyone is incredible, like an “in it together” feeling. And Sara has made this so easy for us.
Please keep us updated and you’ll be surprised of how many of us had that head in the sand feeling.
All the best and hope your results work out for you 👍
C
Mark says
I got reply from FOS about my complaint to Safeloans and they say they have objected to them looking at all the loans because some where more than six years old.I sent my initial complaint to Safeloans in Nove 2017 and got a reply of a £500 goodwill on Jan 3rd 2018..I had 5 of my 27 loans with them from September 2011 until Dec 2011..Just wondering is it 6 years from the date which they replied Jan 3rd 2018.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For FOS it is 6 years from the date your complaint was sent to FOS. With so few loans being over 6 years old, you may want to tell FOS you are happy not to get a refund on the older loans but you would like them taken into account when considering refunds on the loans under 6 years.
Steve says
Hi, I had an adjudicator appointed first week in December for a complaint with money shop after waiting since April last year my complaint relates to 50+ loans with some over 7+ years. I have been phoning adjudicator every 2 weeks and getting same answer around he has not been able to do anything on my case yet as he has been getting large volume of cases also indicating due to the amount of loans and work involved in my case others are getting pushed in front of mine. I am getting worried about the state of the money shops finances. I would not feel so frustrated if I had not have had the adjudicator appointed. I was wandering if this is a new direction from FOS due the negative press they are getting around case backlogs. Are they putting the cases that require greater time and work on hold to try and push through the simple cases to improve figures. I don’t want to be critical towards the adjudicator as I know that they are very busy and am also mindful of bearing he will have with final redress I will receive.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but a normal time is 1-3 weeks. A 50 loan case will usually take longer, especially with loans over 6 years. And this has also been over the holiday period. I don’t think FOS is deliberately prioritising the shorter cases.
So far as I know the Money Shop is still doing OK.
Davy says
Sara,
I have about £130 left in a payment agreement with Lending Stream. Got notification from adjudicator on 07/01/19 that I had won my complaint for 52 of the 56 loans I had from them. They had until 28/01/19 to respond but as per usual with LS there has been no response. I have contacted adjudicator today to see if he can give an update. I am expecting it to get dragged out as long as they can. Given that I have won this case is it advisable to stop paying my agreement and let them take it off my (anticipated) pay out. Really dont want to give them anymore in the knowledge that they are going to drag this out and that they owe me money!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That depends on whether you mind much about getting a few cross phone calls and texts from them. There isn’t much they can do if you do stop except complain.
Have you tried leaving a very poor review about them on Trust Pilot? https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/lendingstream.co.uk That sometimes kicks them into action.
Davy says
Thanks for the advice Sara. I have emailed them to advise them that I have cancelled the Standing Order so will await a response. If they want to phone, email, text or threaten me with allsorts my attitude is, come ahead….lol
I also said if they dont adhere to the adjudicators findings within 7 days a very nasty Trust Pilot review would be actioned!
Davy says
Well, well well I wont celebrate till the money is in my hand but the threat of the Trust Pilot review plus me cancelling my DD appears to have kicked LS into life. Got an email this morning saying they agreed with adjudicators findings and offering me £5200 refund!!! They didnt need to ask twice though I am not counting my chickens until it lands in my account!! Thanks Sara!!
StevieC says
Hi,
Looking for some advice, on the 2nd of January I received an adjudicator decision on my affordability complaint with Drafty. They had until he 16th to reply although I have not heard anything from the adjudicator since. I know Drafty have received the adjudication as they said in a e-mail to myself although they did not indicate their response to this and have continued collection procedures. I have tried to contact the adjudicator in numerous e-mails and phone calls although I have not received a response. I also left a trust pilot review on Drafty although complete silence has been the reply from the company and FOS. What should i do next?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There isn’t anything you can do. In a week or so the adjudicator will give up and put your complaint into a queue for an ombudsman decision.
Mark says
Success….
Just got the adjudicators final decision on the following:
Sunny (ECIL)
1) £400 11/07/15
2) £150 28/08/15
3) £200 03/09/15
4) £400 11/09/15
5) £400 13/09/15
6) £400 22/10/15
7) £400 24/10/15
8) £400 17/01/16
Complaint sent to Sunny 18/06/18. Rejected. Sent to FOS 28/07/18.
FOS ruled that loans 1-3 were fine (only about £20 interest/fees paid). Loans 4-8 were irresponsible, so they must refund and remove from my credit record. Also, as Sunny told FOS directly that they would refund loan 1 (i’m guessing in some attempt at ‘haggling’ during the FOS investigation), the FOS have removed loan 1 from the investigation and accepted Sunnys offer to refund/remove on my behalf.
My issue was being a gambling addict….DO NOT WORRY about having to show bank statements, the FOS will ask if they can use the gambling transactions in their investigation, but IMO it HELPED my case:
“If you’d done better checks prior to lending loans 4-8 to Mr X, such as confirming his income and expenditure using bank statements you would have seen that he had more money going out than coming in. In addition to this, his bank statements show a number of transactions to
online betting sites which were nearly equal to his monthly income.”
Now just the wait for Sunny to accept/appeal the adjudicators decision, but I can wait…..
3 lenders down, 4 to go…..
Rob says
So I formally complained about irresponsible lending direct to Safetynet credit back in August and they didn’t respond at all. Gave them 8 weeks before sending to the FOS.
They didn’t respond to the FOS so I left a negative review on Trustpilot at the weekend. Boom, less than 24 hours later and miraculously they’ve no responded by saying they’ll investigate and I should expect a response within 8 weeks. They also said they’d engage with the FOS. Spoke with FOS Monday and forwarded all emails along.
Interesting how they move when they’re being publically criticised.
They’ve also issued default notices etc following this. Is it worth responding saying this is in dispute and nothing will progress until this is resolved?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Right, another lender that responds to trust Piot – noted!
The default notices will get sorted if/when you win your complaint. Don’t get sidetracked into focussing on them.
Rob says
Great, that was my thought anyway. I figured they’ve done it purely because they’re being challenged
Iain123 says
Sara
I’d like to recommend a documentary on Netflix called ‘Dirty Money: Payday’.
Some of the details will be familiar to many of us and may help in motivation to continue fighting.
Colin Nicholson says
Hi Sarah, after discovering your website i used your website to send a letter of complaint to Payday uk as they were the last ones i used(4 years ago) and used extensions and fell into the trap, i had a serious gambling Addiction for years. About 6 weeks they emailed me over a copy of my transactions with my surprised along with tranactions over 10 years old From the Money shop, again i used there cheque payday services along time ago and got into some bother and kept extending. It has been 8 weeks up on the 27th December but i waited an extra few days before i contacted them due to christmas, i emailed them and then they replied a week later saying they are still investigating and could take upto another 2-3 weeks so i contacted them last week and this time by phone and they said the average response is 110days so for me to contact them every couple of weeks. That day i received an email from the money shop saying they are finding it hard identifying me and my account(even though they sent me my transactions?), saying to provide dob, names addresses, postcode and to resumit my complaint. the Ref was different from any other email i have received from them so i believe it could be a mistake but if not how can they send this letter after sending me my transactions?
Its been 13 weeks now should i hold on and just phone them every couple of weeks?
Has there been much issues with The money shop in getting refunds?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“That day I received an email from the money shop saying they are finding it hard identifying me and my account(even though they sent me my transactions?),” oh dear, another low point from the Money Shop.
PDUK do sometimes give reasonable offers, especially for loans under 6 years. But no-one with Money Shop loans over 6 years seems to be getting reasonable offers at all.
Are they treating this as a combined complaint or two separate ones?
Colin Nicholson says
I just found it strange that i got that email even though they sent me the transactions. Maybe it was a mistake as the Reference numbers didn’t match.
I am not sure how they are treating this to be honest, the guy on the phone just advised to phone up every couple of weeks for an update.
Jamie says
Morning guys.
My complaint for Dot to Dot Loans is over the 8 week point and still no final reply. So i emailed them and got a reply back from the person who is handling my complaint and he’s on annual leave and not back till the 4th of Febuary
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh dear. They are a very small lender. I suggest you email again on the 4th and say if you don’t get a response by the end of the week you are sending the complaint to FOS.
Jamie says
Hi Sara.
They said they will send it by post is this normal or can I ask to be sent by email?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Most lenders prefer email – you can ask…
Jacob says
Sorry, sending again: I took out a loan with Micro Credit years ago, it went to Kapama and now its with Opos, still with an outstanding balance (which is most probably interest). Who do i need to contact if i were to complain about unreasonable lending?
Tom p says
So started my complaints 12 months ago, had great results from QQ/P2P / WONGA / SafetyNet/ Sunny/Myjar/ Mr lender
the others i sent to the FOS – so wageday advanced – adjudicator found in my favour in Oct but no response so sent to ombudsman
Payday Express – Had a response from adjudicator yesterday – found in my favour for 6 of the 7 loans- Do they normally accept the adjudicators findings? or will this be another long drag out?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
PDE often does accept adjudicator decisions. Hope they do for yours.
J says
Hi everyone – I have a quick question.
When responding to a payday lender i.e Step two – full complaint asking for a refund. I have included my approximate income and expenditure based on my initial DMP budget statement, but should I include details of other debt repayments? At the time I had multiple payday loans and was using one to pay another etc – in other words the debt repayments would have far exceeded my income alone. The trouble is I cant be precise as i dont have bank statements from this period and the repayments would have differed from month to month.
Thoughts much appreciated
Iain123 says
Yes. The pattern of borrowing would indicate the chaos you were in. If they’d run proper checks they wouldn’t have loaned to you. They failed in their duty and need to refund your interest
j says
Thanks Iain – appreciate the advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is the time – during the 8 week wait for a response from the lender – to be getting your old bank statements so you are ready to go to the Ombudsman if you don’t get a reasonable offer from the lender.
Jessica Woods says
Hi Sara,
I messaged you a little bit earlier in the week about Mr Lender and taking money out of my account and not my partners.
Mr Lender have said that as a previous payment was made on that card it had CPA on it (despite it being in my name only) and that perhaps for some reason they don’t have CPA on my partners card. They are now looking into this over the next 8 weeks. So I am not sure where this will leave me!
Thanks,
Jess
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well first I hope you have cancelled the CPA to them with your bank?
But as Mr Lender had been taking all the previous payments from your husband’s account, they have clearly made an admin error here and should corrct it.
Karen says
Thank you Sara for the templaint letter for refund for unaffordable loans
I got a descion from the FOS saying my 5 out 7 loans the interest and 8% interest to be payed by money shop they have till the 8th Feb to get back to FOS with there descion dose this drag on or go in my faver
I all so have one loan with H&T waiting to be picked up by a adjudicator from the FOS since June of last year is this normal
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Money Shop mostly accepts adjudicator decisions but drags some of them out.
Your 1 loan from H&T. Was it very large? 1 loan complaints aren’t often won, so is there some specific reason why you think this one should be?
B says
Hey Sara
I complained to 247 Moneybox back in August last year, and eventually reached an agreement with them that i would settle for £400 less interest than i paid if they refunded the other interest immediately and removed all credit entries. They refunded the money within 3 days but 6 months later the credit entries remain on file. I have been back and forth with them for months! After a few months they then asked me dispute the entries, low and behold – Noddle came back saying as they couldnt get a response from the lender they were unable to remove them. The last email i sent to 247 was in the first week of jan, and rather than fob me off even more, this time they simply didnt reply
Complained to FOS on monday saying i wanted them removed and compensation for the hassle – on Wednesday the FOS emailed me asking me to confirm when my first loan was etc. and oddly enough today i have had an email from 247 suddenly asking when the last time i checked my report was and how they are doing everything they can to sort it out. I can only assume the FOS have been in touch with them already? (In which case horray for a 4 day turnaround!) Does the FOS often make the business pay compensation for things like this? and also, can they force them to remove the entries since the business already agreed to do so in writing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s a pretty usual story, so I can’t say if FOS “often” makes a firm pay compensation in a case like this. But it’s well worth asking! What a hassle!
B says
I know it’s been soooo frusrating.
what about the other point around the FOS being able to force them to remove them? i was a little confused as to why they asked me when my first loan was, as my lending with them is neither here nor there – The business made a refund, already agreed to remove all loans an i’ve sent the FOS our email chains back and forth over the last few months. Now i’m suddenly worried that the FOS will say “you should only remove loans 4-15 or something like that – due them querying when my first loan was.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
First contact from FOS is usually just asking for more information, this may be a routine request from someone who hasn’t carefully thought whether they need to know it.
Your complaint is that 247 have not done what they said they would and what you agreed to. I wouldn’t have thought FOS would want to investigate the rights or wrongs of your original complaint.
If FOS tell them they have to do something, they will.
Rob says
Hello Sara
I’ve just had a decision back from the adjudicator and she found in my favour for loans 5-7 but not 1-4. In her reasoning she believes that the checks performed by Satsuma were sound and until they’d built a relationship up they wouldn’t have known about gambling.
She believes that the defaults on my credit file were from a year before I started loans with them and therefore she doesn’t believe it’s of concern to Satsuma. She also says they added additional safeguarding and so wouldn’t have had concern for my ability to pay.
For loans 5-7 she believes the checks didn’t go far enough and that they failed to determine I was reliant on the finance. I do have a significant amount of gambling transactions as wel.
My question is should I challenge 1-4 as surely continuous loans are a sign of reliance and after 2 it should’ve been obvious.
Secondly defaults are a warning sign hence why you have to go to these companies in the first place. Combine that with the number of other loans it would’ve been easy to see that I was reliant on this finance right at the start?
Satsuma didn’t provide the credit check they said they’d done so she actually used my equifax report I had submitted.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large were loans 1,2,3 and 4?
Rob says
Loan 1: £400 (22-12-16 until 20-7-17)
Loan 2: £200 (26-8-17 until 20-12-17)
Loan 3: £300 (21-10-17 until 22-12-17)
Loan 4: £150 (28-12-17 until 20-3-18)
Loan 5: £350 (23-2-18 until 20-3-18)
Loan 6: £550 (22-3-18 until 19-7-18)
Loan 7: £1500 (25-8-18 until present)
As you can see, several loans ran at the same time. Bear in mind that I had several loans with Mr Lender running during this period and defaults for Safetynet credit, Lending Stream, 24/7moneybox and Moneyshop as well as an Amigo loan. My wage was £2k a month but was also paying out at least £1k inndonestic costs plus around £1k-£2k gambling (all evident on bank statements).
I appreciate that loans 1 and 2 may not be included but surely 3 and 4 must given they’d been taken out whilst I had another loan with Satsuma or immediately after I’d just paid the previous ones off?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“She believes that the defaults on my credit file were from a year before I started loans with them” is this correct?
And have you looked at your CallCredit (Noddle) report? more payday lending shows there than on Equifax.
It’s not a very easy pattern of loans. Loan 2 was a full month after loans1 had ended and was half the size. Loan 4 wasn’t concurrent with the previous ones and was for a much smaller amount.
Rob says
Apologies, she has accepted that a default was registered to my account in March 2016 but believes sufficient time had passed that Satsuma wouldn’t need to worry.
If someone had £1400 defaulted 9 months earlier is that not a sign?
Appreciate loan 4 isn’t concurrent with 2 and 3 but does run concurrently (for a month) with loan 5.
I can check my other credit files and send through reports as needed but they do tend to show the same thing. I’m happy she’s found in favour of 5-7 but I’d surely have thought that if someone was taking another loan when they had one they’d have to take a better look, especially since it’s a day after my payday (Max 3 days after).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
9 months is marginal.
“Appreciate loan 4 isn’t concurrent with 2 and 3 but does run concurrently (for a month) with loan 5.”
That would be why loan 5 was found to be unaffordable… But it doesn’t help the decision for loan 4, which is also the smallest.
Drew says
Hi. Question about The Money Shop / PDE / PDUK (Instant Cash Loans). I have had loads of loans with each of the three lenders over many years, and recently emailed all three separately asking for my loan history. TMS came back to me saying that they have no record of my loans, and the other two never got back to me. (used the email addresses on the Debt Camel PDL list).
I called TMS on 0800 280 2548, and the lady said they could only see loans for PDE – and I was to send a new email request asking for a breakdown of my loan with the ‘brands’ – sending it to customerrelations@themoneyshop.co.uk
I then got three emails from each of the brands, saying they will investigate. Today I got an email back from TMS again saying they cant find my details.
I took out loads of loans, month after month, at a store in Glasgow – that has since closed. It was probably between between 2011-2014/15.
Should Instant Cash Loans be able to see all these loans? – or would it be Dollar before a certain time? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Arguing about what ICL “should” be able to see doesn’t really move your case forward. Do you have the bank statements showing the cheques repaying these TMS loans?
Drew says
I have ordered copies of my old bank account statements, so should have them shortly.
Mike says
Hi Sara,
Possible stupid question here, I have three separate loans with Satsuma running taking three payments off me at the moment – yes at the time last year I was desperate but I’m pretty adamant that my credit score would have shown not to lend, if I remember rightly they rejected me first time then a month or so later funded my loan and the other two additionally thereafter in such a short period of time 2 or 3 months apart. I’m still processing 3 payments a month but it’s making a huge impact on my finances which I admit and can see was completely stupid. Is it worth putting in an unaffordable complaint?
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds definitely worth a complaint.
It would be interesting to know why they rejected your first application… I suggest you use the template letter on https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ as they may work better with a small number of loans and running concurrently. It starts off by asking Satsuma to send you a copy of all your personal infomration, which may show why the first loan was declined.
Mike says
Thanks Sara – will post back with any feedback. Much appreciated
John moss says
Finally after 9 months I’ve got my complaint against PDUK picked up by an adjudicator 🙏🏾 5 loans all less than 6 years old each loan being rolled over 5 times before next one taken out day after being paid off starting off with £300 upto £700 here’s hoping they decide in my favour 🙏🏾🙏🏾
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds a very good case!
John says
I really hope so 🙏🏾🙏🏾 It doesn’t take too long to make a decision
Karen says
Hello Sara
Just need abit of advice I put in a unafordbality door step loan with provdent and they said they sent me a response letter to take it to the FOS but I reseved it to late from Provdent so I could not send it to the FOS could I put another complaint in for unaffordable door step loans with Provdent I have had over £2000 of them
Thank You
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, sorry You have 6 months from getting a Final Response from a lender, you can only go to FOS after that if you have had a very good reason eg you were very ill. And a lender will just reject a second complaint.