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?
Erica says
Would anyone mind telling me how the interest/refunds are calculated?
I have just added up all of The Money Shop Loans I took out (using pre-dated cheques) and the total is £7257.56
The loan history with all the columns is quite confusing but from what I can make out I had:
67 x £100 (£15 interest per cheque)
6 x £50 (£7.50 interest per cheque)
1 x £80 (£11.80 interest)
1 x £75 (£10.50 interest)
1 x £70 (£9.80 interest)
1 x £32.56 (£4.56 interest)
Total Interest £1071.66
Does that sound about right for the amount that I borrowed or is there anything that needs to be added/subtracted from this?
Thanks
Iain123 says
Some of it will be affordable lending, like the first few loans. When you start repeat borrowing and just paying the monthly interest that’s classed as unaffordable. That’s what you’ll get back plus 8% compounded per year.
Erica says
Thank you.
So it would be the unaffordable loans that I will hopefully get the interest on plus the 8% compounded? Sorry if this is a stupid question but what is the 8% compounded based on – interest only I am assuming?
Iain123 says
Yes, the interest you paid. I paid TMS £14-£18 per cheque (it increased over the years). So each cheque is a loan. If they’d done proper checks they’d have seen I was in financial trouble and they wouldn’t have loaned to me. Therefore all those loans were unaffordable. Does it say ‘rollover’ in the columns? That’s what I paid each month to keep the madness going.
My loans went back to 2010 so the 8% accumulated to approx 60% extra.
Took about 5 months from start to finish to get the money.
Mark says
I believe the interest is ‘simple’ not ‘compounded’. The following explains (in simple terms, so is not correct to the penny).
Simple Interest
£200 owed to you from 2016
You would receive:
£200 owed
+£16 (8% interest on £200 for 2016)
+£16 (8% interest on £200 for 2017)
+£16 (8% interest on £200 for 2018)
Total refund £248
Compounded Interest
£200 owed to you from 2016
You would receive:
£200 owed
+£16 (8% interest on £200 for 2016)
+£17.28 (8% interest on £216 for 2017)
+£18.66 (8% interest on £233.28 for 2018)
Total refund £251.94
Hope that helps someone…..
Elaine says
Hi I have had a email from FOS to say they are waiting for Sunny to send information to them . Is this a good sign to say once they receive it they will look at it? Or is it just a courtesy email .
How long do you think it will be once they have the information.
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s routine – they need your details – which they have – and the case file from the lender. At the moment cases are normally being picked up about 5-6 months are you sent them in.
Elaine says
Hi Sara
Thank you x
I did send my complaint in begin of January 2019
I will update when I receive any more information.
Good luck everyone
Stu pattison says
Good Morning All,
My apologies if I come across as being a bit stupid here, but I’m looking for some advice.
I emailed The Money Shop and I have received all of my loan details (I’m shocked as to how much there actually is) what do I do with this now?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Mark says
Read ‘Step Two’ at the top of this page…………
tom price says
Update on the whole process
I started the process of trying to claim for irresponsible lending over a year ago following the templates from this site and had excellent results
so I claimed against the Following companies – QQ/P2P, Wonga, Mr Lender, My Jar, Safetynet Credit, Sunny from these I have managed to claim just shy of £18k back without going to the FOS
The ones I sent to the FOS – PDUK/PDExp , Wageday advance, Amigo and the wonderful Lendingstream
So far the adjudicator has found in my favour for Wageday Advance (back in October – still nothing back)
Payday Exp – Found in favour refund of £1500
Payday Uk – Found in my favour – awaiting response
Amigo – still waiting for adjudicator
that leads me onto Lendingstream – Most definitely the worst company to deal with – Rude/Aggressive and just in basic denial of the responsibilities. Awaiting for adjudicator
My point for the above – is what ever happens and whatever the companies say pursue everyone of them and do not accept the first offer.
Sloth QQ says
Hi. I made a complaint to QQ around November 17. I have paid around 3600 in interest over 5 years with various loans. It was referred to the FOS about 4 weeks later, and I’m still waiting to hear back from them. I rang a couple months ago and was told they would contact me once they decide what is happening regarding loads over 6 years. I have since read people are getting their files seen to, but I have not heard anything? Should I expect any further contact soon?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is starting to be some movement but not much so far. FOS are hoping that QQ will review a lot of the cases on hold – if they do that would really speed things up.
kirsty buss says
Hi all,
Does anyone know how long it takes to get a response from the financial ombudsman, i sent my letter off in July, I chased them in October and they said its waiting an adjudicator. This seems like a very long time.
I’m awaiting a complaint against sunny
I chased the financial ombudsman again the other week but they have ignored my email.
Sissy says
I’m in the same situation, I sent in theee complaints re. Sunny, QuickQuid and Lending Stream in July/August this year. I’ve followed up by email a month ago but it’s gone unanswered.
Jason says
Wouldn’t say it’s a long time I have been waiting longer. they are snowed under and it’s a free service. Essentially it takes what it takes, no point stressing is my advice
David says
Hi Sara
Firstly thanks for the time and effort youve put into providing help to so many people via this site.
My situation concerns loans with QQ. I’ve had approx 20 loans on and off going back to 2012. Started off small but quickly became bigger and a spiral has ensued , involving other lenders too. Made a complaint regarding irresponsible lending to which ive had swift response and had whats termed as a final response letter upholding 4 claims but rejecting others.The upheld claims were those loans that followed in quick succession in 2014 hiwever they have quoted
Repayment accounted for too much of monthly dispisable income rsther than dependecy as their reason for upholding those complaints but other more recent claims have been rejected despite what i would see as a continually worsening finacial position and credit score. Ive been offered just over £1200 of what would amount to over £8,000 of interest on all loans. Im unsure whether to accept the offer which would come in very useful right now or ask them to reconsider or go to the ombudsman, which it seems may take several months to conclude. They are quoting that the checks that they are required to make when assessing loan affordabilty were expected to be proportionate but not exhaustive and that the timing of borrowing ie before or after when FCA regulations were implemented was a factor. Any advice as to whether to pursue further would be welcome
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ignore this argument about unaffordable vs dependent – it’s a pretty meaningless distinction and the Ombudsman never pays any attention to this.
QQ at the moment are rejecting all refunds on all loans from 2015 onwards. The Ombudsman says they should look at each individual case and look more closely when someone keeps borrowing. QQ seem to be arguing its ok to make the same check on each loan. I am expecting FOS to win this argument!
The fact that QQ changed its checks after FCA regulation isn’t really to the point. It’s like saying you passed your driving test in 2015 so you can’t be done for speeding in 2016 or 2017…
It sounds as though you have a very good case to send to FOS. But QQ will not reconsider it if you go back and try to argue with them.
Chris says
Hi there. Has anybody had any experience of the Ombudsman not upholding your complaint? I had 32 loans with sunny over 2 years, did all the above and they refunded about £100 when I had borrowed 1000s. The FOS agreed with Sunny as I had managed to pay off each loan. Was gutted by this. I thought 32 loans in a 2 year period would send alarm bells ringing
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this an adjudicator decision?
Nicki says
Hi Chris I had an adjudicator decision that agreed with the lender. Very similar situation I borrowed every month almost immediately after repaying. I wrote back to the adjudicator stating that I thought they hadn’t looked at my claim close enough and that surely the fact I was borrowing so regularly would be and indicator that the lender should have completed further checks. Two day later same adjudicator came back with revised decision that all from my 4 loan should be refunded as it indicated I was having problems. The initial response seemed lazy and almost a fobing me off. I suppose they are only human after all. But definitely worth questioning as it worked for me.
Chris says
Thanks Nicki. I think it was an adjudicator. This was a year ago though, so probably can’t do anything about it now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No you can’t – way too late. You should have asked for this to go to an ombudsman at the time – people can and do get surprising adjudicator decisions overturned at the Ombudsman level.
Julie says
Hello all,
Has anybody used a claims company to help with their payday loans refund claims? I am currently in this process which i started back in August. I have had one loan company come back with an offer which i have said i will accept…bit of a tight month. The claim company have contacted them to confirm i will accept. Any idea how long it takes for my share of the refund to make it to my bank account? I am aware of the claim company’s percentage fee. For those that have been with one, were there any other fees/insurances that had to be paid on top? The claim company are about to take the other lenders to the FOS. Again, for anybody else that has used a similar service, how long did it take to get your share of the refund from claim companies once FOS have ruled in your favour. Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How long it takes depends on the lender, not whether you have gone through a claims company or not. there shouldn’t be other charges you aren’t aware of, but that will depend on the claims company.
Complaints with FOS take from 5-7 months for simple cases to a lot longer if you hit a complex area. Using a claims company tends to slow this down a bit as they keep having to go back to you to get the answers to any questions.
Louise says
Hello
I’d like to say thank you for the website, info and comments it’s made things very clear and made me feel confident taking complaints up without involving a 3rd party.
I do have a question….based on comments I’ve read LS seem to be very slow, complicate things and generally make life hard work…they’ve come back to me within 2wks of my complaint with a final response email stating they agree that 9/14 loans were unaffordable and the total refund including statutory 8% and minus the 20% hmrc withold amounts to approx £1300.
I’m pretty happy with this offer and they will remove negative credit marks however I’m a little dubious because of the previous comments, it seems a very quick reaction from a company renowned for dragging their heels – are they just trying to hush me and make it go away?
Should I negotiate for full refund, take to ombudsman or accept?
Should also note that although they have included some of the larger loans in the decision the majority of the ‘accepted unaffordable’ seem to be the smaller ones
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is good that they have come back with a quick offer, but to leave out the larger loans makes me wonder whether they are just trying to buy you off cheaply…
It’s your decision as to whether what you have been offered seems “fair”. But it’s always good to look at the figures first, as you can’t change your mind later!
So what would FOS be likely to say is a fair refund. 14 loans is a lot, but here I think it’s worth you listing them out, 1 line at a time if you have all the info. For each loan say amount borrowed, date borrowed, date repaid (or outstanding), interest paid, included in the offered refund yes or No
eg
Loan 4, £120, borrowed 8/1/14, repaid 28/1/14, interest £67, refund Yes
Lons 5, £200, borrowed 01/02/14, repaid 28/2/14, interest £110, refund No
Katherine says
Hi
Thank-you for all your help I have received the following response from 1month loans & am wondering if i should accept or ask for them to include 8% interest? for a relatively small amount I am wondering if it is worth it.
Bearing in mind the above, I am unable to uphold your complaint, as we believe that the aforementioned checks were proportionate and responsible. Initial assessment of your application accounted for some of the adverse information held at the credit reference agencies and as a consequence you were offered a small amount of credit relative to your stated income. As a gesture of goodwill, we will repay the difference between what you borrowed (£450) and what you repaid (£635) which is £185 and will refund this to your chosen bank account. Please can I ask that you provide me with your account number and sort code so I can arrange for the refund to be processed. Once we are in receipt of these details, we will process any due payment in 5 business days
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this the only loan you had from them? How long ago was it?
Katherine says
Hi
It was in 2011 & I had 1 loan with them.
Thank-you again for all your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Than the 8% interest would be another £95-105. They haven’t added this on probably because they are calling this a goodwill offer not a refund. You could ask them to add it? But if they say No and you send the case to FOS, it will take a long while, possibly a very long while if Sunny object, and you may have to supply bank statements. Also there is a small chance Sunny May withdraw their offer and you may get nothing.
Katherine says
Thank-you again I will think about
Nats says
Hi,
Has anyone had a Quid Market complaint st FOS? Mines with adjudicator now but they aren’t responding to any of her info requests. So the battle continues! Anyone’s experiences would be appreciated.
chris says
Hi again – Chris from loans ;)
so i complained to the FOS about 6/7 companies and repeat loans affordability complaints. they have accepted my complains and are investigating.
so quick questions for each company i have had 4 -6 loans all with in the space of 1 loan every 4-6 weeks, not for one loan was i asked for bank statements so should i analyse my bank for each loan or the last loan of each roll over?
it is a lot of work but if it will help my case i will do it.
i know the fact that i kept rolling over the loans and i was borrowing on top of payday loans is in fact proof of it was unaffordble.
should i analyse two months of bank before each loan? and send that over to FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Chris, You don’t normally need to do this detailed analysis for each payday lender. Make sure you have sent FOS your bank statements from 3 months before the first loan and your current credit record.
You have to do this work for guarantor loans and single large bad credit loans as (a) you don’t have the repeat borrowing element to help you and (b) you have normally only borrowed once or twice so it is a manageable amount of work. To do this for 30+ payday loans would be an enormous amount of work!
What I would say is be prepared to do extra work if you find your adjudicator doesn’t seem to “get” your case against lender X.
Adam says
Hi, just a quick question, I’ve been looking at my credit report on noodle and all of my payday loans are coming up with Arrangement to pay which is fine and they are reporting this arrangement and showing that I’m paying the arrangement.
All of them except Satsuma, I have 2 loans with satsuma both in arrangements and one comes up with arrangement to pay and the other one is coming up that it’s 3 months in arrears and nothing about an arrangement to pay?
Is this normal?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you made affordability complaints?
Adam says
Yes, complaint was made with Satsuma and this is when I went into the arrangement with them, they rejected the complaint and it’s currently been with FOS from around October 2018
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then I suggest you don’t worry about what your credit record shows as it’s hopefully just temporary until you win your complainst and all the negative marks are removed!
Rob says
Hello,
Just wondering if anyone has any experience complaining about MyKredit? I made a complaint in May last year as i had 8 loans with them and on top of all the other payday lenders i had i felt some of them shouldnt have been given to me. They responded the next day after the complaint was made rejecting it completely so i forwarded to the ombudsman. Its been with them ever since and when i ask for an update with the ombudsman everytime they say it is waiting to be picked up as it is classed as slightly different to a normal payday loan complaint.
Im just hoping someone has had a positive experience?
Thanks
Rob
Paul says
Hello,
I contact payday UK who are saying the email address to contact in regards to complains is now customerrelations@themoneyshop.co.uk
thanks
Mr D says
FCA website reporting that Curo Transatlantic (Wageday Advance) have gone into administration. Assume this means the FCA rejected their proposal to cap aggregate redress payments. Interesting to see how this affects FOS claims. Mine is being escalated to an Ombudsman now after Curo rejected adjudicator opinion that FOS can review loans over 6 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes – my thoughts are here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/
Mr D says
Thanks. Not encouraging re my claim but used to waiting now! Good news I suspect for complaints about other lenders (myself included) that the FCA has seemingly closed off the avenue that Curo attempted to go down.
Adam says
Hi,
I’ve had several payday loan complaints gone through to the FOS whilst this is in fruition ive set up repayment plans with all the lenders, i recently went to pay myjar but have noticed my account have been frozen for the time been. Does anybody know if this mean the FOS have picked up my case as ive not heard anything from them still, complaints were sent off late december 2018.
Mr S says
I’ve had a complaint upheld by the adjudicator at the FOS against payday uk a few weeks ago. They had until today to respond but they have yet to do so, the adjucator has sent a reminder to them.
Is this normal, anything else I can do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s pretty normal. Payday UK may well respond in a week or two. If they don’t it will have to go in a queue to be looked at again by an Ombudsman.
Mr s says
Thank you, frustrating but I shall continue to wait. If it needs to get looked at by an ombudsman will that be another few months?
Should I be concerned that the money shop and the other companies in the group may be heading towards administration like Wonga and WDA?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The brands have all stopped lending but the Money Shop is still very much in business offering travel money, pawn broking and cheque cashing.
Paul says
I have had recent success of £440 off piggybank and £1338 off MoneyShop I have claims with the financial ombudsman against lending stream and sunny and Ferratum. I had 68 loans with LS all between £100 and £500 at a time got me in a lot of debt how likely will the ombudsman agree this is irresponsible lending
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a very strong complaint against Lending Stream!
James says
so after wageday advance have gone under, with refunds in general am I better taking an offer rather than waiting months for FOs and then the firm go bust and get nothing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
People with Wageday Advance complaints may not “get nothing” – we won’t know how big a percentage of the refund they might originally have got they will get paid in the end.
What is happening in the payday loan market is that the weakest players are going under. But every firm that goes under leaves an opportunity for others to get a larger market share AND (because they have more people applying to them) to be more fussy about who they lend to, so the market for the firms that is left is becoming increasingly profitable and less likely to go bust.
Also FOS is making concerted efforts to speed up complaint handling and to get the lenders to make better offers directly. I expect to see that paying off this year.
So I think you have to look at any offer on a case by base basis. If it’s reasonable but not brilliant, is it worth the delay in going to FOS?
Casey says
Hi there Sara I still haven’t heard re Sunny since adjudicator has upheld on 54 out of 58 loans despite leaving a review on trust pilot like you suggested.
With WDA going into Administration I wondered if you have heard if Sunny are heading the same way ?
Jon says
Is there any movement on the 6 years issue? I’ve been contacted by another lender through the final response to say they were considering those over 6 years based on my rationale for not claiming before. But quickquid and others are still discarding them without even a look… I’m worried about going to the ombudsman as I think there’s a high chance some of the smaller lenders with which i have loans over 6 years will go bust like WDA….
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am hearing some generally positive noises about over 6 year loan cases starting to move…
Which lenders are you worried about?
Brian says
Hi Sara.
Over the course of the last 2 years I have taken out the following:
24/7 Moneybox – 20 consecutive months of £600-£800 – All paid back on time.
Ferratum – 6 consecutive (3 or 4) month loans of £1000 – All paid back on time.
Piggybank – 1 loan of £600 – Paid back on time.
My Jar – 1 (12 month installment loan) of £1500 – All paid back on time.
Wageday Advance – 6 consecutive (2 or 3) month loans of £400-£600 – All paid back on time.
Moneyshop – 2 consecutive loans of £800 – All paid back on time.
Lending Stream – 4 Loans between £200-£660 – All paid back on time.
Unclebuck – 2 consecutive 6 month loans of £500 – All paid back on time.
Safteynet Credit – Borrowed £500 and they have increased to £1000 – Always paid interest on time.
The interest on these account to the region of £10,000. I have had the majority of these in tandem with one another, often using one to facilitate the other. I am pleased to say I only hold accounts with 3 of these now, soon to be 2 and by May it will be 0, so it’s not all doom and gloom.
Never lied about my salary on an application which is £2400 per month, however, I always undershot my rent as being only £500 when actually it’s about £900. The point is, I rotated and often had £3/£4K in a month needing to be paid. I have not fallen behind on any or been unable to pay, however, does this constitute irresponsible lending.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes those are all worth starting a complaint about. The ones with the larger number of loans are obviously stronger. And Safetynet credit, as they could see your bank statements.
Lending Stream may not be a strong complaint if there were large gaps between the loans? Even there if the loans always increased you may have a good argument that the last one should not have been made.
For Myjar – a single very large loan – you could look at following the alternative procedure on https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/.
Wageday Advance has just today gone into administration, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/. Put in a complaint but keep it very short – expect this one to take a very long while and you will not be able to send it to FOS.
Under declaring your rent makes the complaints harder, but that is a LOT of borrowing and the lenders should have seen it all on your credit record. I suggest you attach a copy of your current noddle report with each complaint.
MikeM says
Hi Sara,
A few months ago before discovering your website, I looked into a company to do this for me. I don’t think I signed any contract, but they are now telling me if I don’t want to proceed I owe them £500 in legal fees?! Do you have any advice for me regarding this matter
Regards,
Mike
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know if they actually did anything? Have you made some complaints yourself?
You could say that you don’t recall signing anything to give them authority to make a complaint on your behalf?
from April you will be able to take complaints about Claims Companies to the ombudsman
MikeM says
That’s good news about the ombudsman. I’m not 100% whether I signed anything, but I don’t recall doing so, I remember enquiring about them and that’s all.
They have never posted me anything, and all emails they just say ‘dear client’ which leads me to believe they do not know my address. They keep asking me to choose COURT or FOS, which I never chose either and have warned me if I choose neither I owe them £500 in legal fees.
I’ve personally used your templates to successfully get money back from SafetyNet (Thanks), but I don’t think I signed anything, as mentioned they have never called me by my full name, so maybe they are trying to trick me into something? They don’t even mention who I’m trying to claim against.
I’ve got absolutely no emails sent from me to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It does sound as though they may be trying it on… But unless you remember whether you agreed to something – it may have been “digital” on a web page, not a physical signature on paper – it’s hard to know what to do. If you complain to them now, you are telling them your name & details, which you seem to think they don’t know.
Jon says
Hey, I sent 5 complaints to the FOS mid December and one was picked up by an adjudicator a week and a half ago, it was against piggybank, 4 loans with a gap between the 2nd and 3rd, I was expecting them to uphold loan 4 which was for more money than the rest and that’s exactly what happened, they sent piggybank a letter today and has asked them to reply by 12th March, has anyone dealt with piggybank before? Are they likely to accept and if so how long did it take to get your money from them, are they one of the companies that drag it out or are they relatively good? Thanks Sara for guiding me through this all!
Lorraine says
Hi John,
I sent a complaint in 19 January with them – I had 9 loans, they upheld 4-9, I replied rejecting the offer and said that i would send to FOS, 1 hour later they agreed to upheld all 9 loans, This was last Wednesday, My money was in my account today….so i had no problems – very quick service TBH….waiting for others tho, that’s another story!
Good luck :-)
Chris says
Hi, I have complaints in against Lending Stream, WDA, Mr Lender, Uncle Buck, 247 Moneybox and Peachy.
All the complaints have been with them for approximately one month. Has anyone had any luck claiming against the above? All the loans were taken out over the last three years constantly reborrowed as soon as one was paid off to make it through the month.
I have had 52 loans with Lending Stream over a three year period.
Should I expect any of the above to make offers or will I most likely have to go to the FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of success against those lenders. If they make an offer and you aren’t sure how good it is, come back and ask because it may be worth trying to negotiate with some of the lenders before sending a case to FOS.
WDA has just gone into adminstration, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/. This means you are unlikely to get the full value of any refund paid out and will not be able to send the complaint to FOS. Just sit back and hope something will emerge in the end.
Chris says
Sara, many thanks. If it wasn’t for your website I wouldn’t have know where to start.
Will the lenders most likely take the full 8 weeks to reply? Or could I expect a reply sooner?
I called Lending Stream this morning but was fobbed off and told they have until 5/4 to respond
Sara (Debt Camel) says
most take the full 8 weeks. Try not to check your emails more than once a day!
Joseph says
I’m actually starting to get a little worried about my FOS conplaints! Sara, are anymore of them looking like they are going to go under?
Iain123 says
No way of knowing. Wonga, just before they went down, were saying, ‘all good, business is booming rosy future’.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No Wonga weren’t…. they had had an emergency capital raising a month before they went into administration. And Wageday Advance’s parent company Curo had said in their October results that they were very concerned about the level of refunds. So these things don’t always come out of the blue. The firm most exposed to the over 6 year decision is likely to be QuickQuid and their current finances look very robust.
Iain123 says
Sorry. Read some comments from Wonga about healthy finances.
Guess there’s nothing we can do but wait. Mentally I’ve wrote it off as KPMG and others will eat up any spare cash. Anythings a bonus.
Phil says
Hi Sara,
I have a total of 98 pay day loans detailed on my credit report, broken down like this:
Sunny – 26 (3 year period)
Wonga – 10 (2 year period, plus more perhaps beyond 6 years)
Quick quid – 11 (plus more beyond 6 years)
Onstride – 1 active
Satsuma – 4 (1 active)
Piggy Bank – 2
My jar – 2
Swift Sterling – 1
Uncle Buck – 9
Lending Stream – 16
Mr Lender -8
Wage day advance – 4
247 moneybox – 4
Safety net credit – £660
Amigo – 2 (£5000, then topped to £10000, fully paid).
Questions:
Should I include credit report with each complaint to show the loan cycle? Or should I wait for their replies?
Wage day advance – no contact from them to try and resolve issues before default despite my emails, any way I can resolve this as feel it’s unfair?Wonga and quick quid – is there a way to see info beyond 6 year history?
Thank you for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga – 10 (2 year period, plus more perhaps beyond 6 years)
Wage day advance – 4
Both these firms are now in administration. Don’t bother sending the normal template on this page, instead read https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-has-stopped-issuing-loans/ and https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/ and send the very simple email those pages recommend. Don’t bother with asking Wonga how many loans you had over 6 years old, just the simple email will do.
Sunny – 26 (3 year period)
Quick quid – 11 (plus more beyond 6 years)
Uncle Buck – 9
Lending Stream – 16
Mr Lender -8
247 moneybox – 4
Satsuma – 4 (1 active)
Safety net credit – £660
Use the standard letters on this page for all of these. Good idea to include a copy of your credit record. You can never rely on your credit record being accurate, so I suggest you go through the step One first which asks for a list of your loans.
Piggy Bank – 2
My jar – 2
Swift Sterling – 1
Onstride – 1 active
If these were small loans then it will hard to win thee cases. If the loans were very large, then use the template letters on this other page: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/
Amigo – 2 (£5000, then topped to £10000, fully paid) – use the different template letters on this page for guarantor loans: https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/
Phil says
Thank you for that! Really appreciate the help, and really a great website, helping me to see the light at the end of the tunnel👍
Phil says
Update:
Sunny – data protection team will send details of all loans but can take up to 30 days
Wage Day advance – nothing they can do as with administrators- really annoying this one as they registered a default despite not replying to me and helping to sort stuff.
Pay day express – acknowledged complaint but no mention of sending the info so reminded them of my request of loan info
Swift sterling – sent detail of loan through straight away – only one loan though £400.
Piggy bank – sent details straight away and acknowledged complaint. two loans one£400 04/17 finished 06/17 plus deferral. Second £1000 11/17 – is this too big a gap? Although I will argue that had to take another payday loan to pay first loan and could see cycle if checked my record. £1039 interest.
Amigo – SAR 30 days
Lending stream – automated send info in 30 days
Sunny, Satsuma, 247 moneybox, uncle buck, myjar, mr lender all automated replies
Uncle Buck and WDA are the problem ones for me as both registered defaults, too quickly and despite me having set up payment plans to clear, really disappointed that they did that. Especially as I never missed a payment before. Hoping I can get a result from those two!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Piggy bank – sent details straight away and acknowledged complaint. two loans one£400 04/17 finished 06/17 plus deferral. Second £1000 11/17 – is this too big a gap? ”
Well it’s obviously not as strong as some of your other cases but it’s well worth pursuing. You deferred the first loan, showing you may have some problems, Then your second loan was more than twice as big as the first loan = at that point you can argue that they should have looked much more carefully at your credit record and see all the other payday loans and that your situation was getting worse.
Phil says
Update:
Lending stream have sent all loan details – 13 loans from august 2016. Never have I had a period in that time that I didn’t have a loan with them, often more than 1 active loan. Total Interest paid to them = £4611.60, scary I know! Have sent off step 2 email.
247 moneybox have sent all loan info – 5 loans from 28/10/18 Total borrowed = £585, total paid = £651.96. Have sent step 2 email. Interestingly they’ve already asked what I’d deem to be a full and final settlement to my complaint.
Satsuma have sent loan details but now realised it comes under larger loan so have asked for all info they have for me under SAR, same with Piggy bank as it was a £1000 loan.
Safety net credit have sent all details, so have sent off step 2 although I have an outstanding balance. Do you have any tips on how to clear an outstanding balance? Should I calculate what the balance would be minus interest owed and offer to make a payment on that?
I have a live onstride loan but will combine that complaint with QQ so will be a similar approach there too.
Other lenders I’m still waiting on them to send me the details around my loans so as I can send step 2 off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“247 moneybox have sent all loan info – 5 loans from 28/10/18 Total borrowed = £585, total paid = £651.96” do you owe an outstanding balance? If not you may as well be realistic and propose a suitably small refund as you have only paid £67 of interest across 5 loans.
SNC respond pretty promptly and often reduce or clear an outstanding balance, so I suggest you wait until either they respond or they ask you to make a payment arrangement. I hope you have cancelled the CPA to them with your bank?
Phil says
No no outstanding balance. Yes I’m happy for that, but regardless of if it’s a small amount it will be my first result v the 15 lenders so will be a victory in itself!
Thankfully only onstride, satsuma and SNC I have balances with (bar WDA issue) so hopefully get these sorted.
Yes I’ve cancelled SNC CPA, I will still make the minimum payments though so as to not adversely affect my file. Hopefully I can get the balance chalked off.
Amongst all this the absolute mission is to get completely out of the pay day loan trap, a massive lesson learnt that’s for sure.
Thanks again for your help, will continue to update as progress is made.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well i suggest you tell Moneybox 247 that you will be happy with a refund of £30 or so. You are VERY unlikely to win this case at FOS!
Phil says
Thanks for that Sara, will do.
I’ve today had a reply from onstride, requesting the following information:
Bank statements (at the point I took the loan out with them)
Payslips (at the point I took the loan out with them)
Any additional information relating to my financial circumstances (at the point I took the loan out with them).
What is the date of the first loan?
How long did it take for me to realise that Onstride might have been responsible for any financial difficulty I may have faced?
This is in relation to an active loan that I have of £1500. Given that it is a larger loan, I will send the above information and detail it in accordance with your recommended larger loan letters.
Am I able to include QQ loans with the above? Given they are the same company? This will help my claim if I can as I have multiple loans with QQ including repayment plans and rollovers etc. Although I will include details of other loans and debts anyway to further support my argument.
Is there anything else I should consider/ include or perhaps not send?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It seems odd that Onstride are asking you what the date of the first loan was… How long ago was this?
You don’t need to send payslips if your income is showing on your bank statements.
Phil says
I’ve not long had the loan with them – December.
Only thing it’s making me question is whether or not I’ve had a pounds to pocket one.
I don’t believe I have, and I can’t find any record on my credit report but could this be why?
Should I stop and ask them for all records of my loan first before sending them the info? Just to make sure the two marry up?
I didn’t do step 1 as I thought it was just the one loan, but could be worth a shot!
Am I able to include QQ in the complaint or do I need to complain separately? I’ve just read where you’d described that they get looked at together with the FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Should I stop and ask them for all records of my loan first before sending them the info?” oh do both – send them the info and ask them for a statement of account. you don’t have to do these things sequentially.
As they asked “How long did it take for me to realise that Onstride might have been responsible for any financial difficulty I may have faced?” it sounds as though you have just been sent a template they send everyone.
QQ and PTP often seem to make joint responses. On stride is pretty small so I don’t know whether they handle that separately.
Kerry says
Hi there
Can I just firstly say that reading through this website tonight has made me a lot more at ease with these loan sharks! I would not know where to start if I hadn’t come across your site.
Brief back ground is the following loans:
Sunny – probably in the realms of 20 loans since mid 2017 ranging from £100-£600 each time. All paid back up until the beginning of the year where I had to ask for a repayment plan – this was filled out today and after my affordability assessment it was agreed that I could afford £10 across 3 loans!
Lending stream – maybe 8-10 loans in the last 18 months again ranging from £100-£500. All repaid but like I mentioned above I have had to set up repayment plans so I’ve agreed £50 on this a month.
Quickquid – 3-5 loans ranging up to £600 with one of the final payments being over £600 which I could never afford! I asked them last month to set up a payment plan they ignored this and went ahead and took a final payment of £692 which I disputed and had refunded. I filled in an affordability form and sent it at the end of January and still haven’t heard anything back.
Myjar – 2-3 loans the biggest being £1500 again I had to agree a payment plan this month of £30
Any advice would be much appreciated!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They all look like very good affordability complaints – it sounds as though you have enough details about your borrowing to skip step 1 and go straight to step 2.
Kerry says
Hi Sara
I sent the first template letter off to Quick Quid & Lending Stream. Both have come back and the second stage has been sent. QQ have asked for bank statements & payslips I have gone back and said payslips are irrelevant as the ombudsman don’t ask for them and if they need statements I’ll send them straight off to the ombudsman is this ok?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes that’s fine. You can send the statements if you want to QQ but I haven’t seen any sign that they look at them. I guess the only small advantage of sending them is that QQ know Yiu have them ready to go to FOS… if you don’t have them to hand, now is the time to be getting them for when you do need them!
John says
Hi anyone got email address for PDUK going to try emailing n see if they feel like responding to adjudicators decision 🙄 also anyone have email address for payday express or money shop they have replied asking why it’s taken so long for me to complain but can’t reply to their email? 🤷♂️
Paul says
I called them yesetday and was told to email customerrelations@themoneyshop.co.uk
Iain123 says
uk-general.complaintsteam@themoneyshop.co.uk
Use this as well as the customer relations email
Josh says
I haven’t seen this email. I’m waiting for them to pay up, I will try this one.
I’ve seen some comments saying they leave a bad review somewhere to speed up, is it worth doing that?
Iain123 says
I spoke to them about this. They said paperwork goes to their Treasury department end of week and we get our money Monday or Tuesday. My last lump sum went in bank 3pm Monday.
Iain123 says
PDUK/PDEX/TMS Have been the easiest lenders I’ve dealt with. Apart from being slow, they have always got back to me and dealt with me fairly. From late September it took 16 weeks for a Final Response, looking for more information, ‘unable to determine’ in their words. When I replied they responded within ten days and money in bank another ten days after that.
As well as those emails addresses use 01903 768769 when calling them. They are very helpful, will confirm details and explain they are busy. I found being polite and patient with them helped. Prepare to hold the line for 30-45 minutes. Looking back emailing was enough, I just got worried by the delay and wanted peace of mind. Supplying any personal difficulties you had over the phone is not recommended, best to have an email trail for future FOS complaints.
I didn’t get everything I wanted because of a lack of paperwork so I’m taking some loans to the FOS.
Every other loan company I complained to fobbed me off with excuses. Straight to the FOS!
Deb says
Hi, just had a final offer from Safetynet Credit, offering full interest refund of £417.59 plus 8% interest of £60.91 and removal of any adverse credit on my credit file. I don’t think I have any adverse credit from them as it was paid paid back on time and in full. Is there anything else I should be requesting? This is the first payday loan I have requested a refund from, the others were more complicated and I am still working on them, although I do have another one in for Quick Quid. Any idea how long the money from Safetynet credit will take to hit my account if I accept it?
Alan G says
Hi,
I’m just wondering if anyone’s FOS complaints seem to be taking longer than normal, I submitted most of my complaints in May 2018, so far only one has been picked up adjudicator, the other three are still waiting an adjudicators and I’ve been told that one complaint has gone to a multiple loan team. The other has gone to a different team as there was one redress payment made several years ago and they need to decide how to proceed. The other just hasn’t been picked up. As it’s 8 months I’m beginning to lose faith in what the FoS are doing, what is the average time other people are finding for these complaints to be picked up?
I appreciate there has been a surge in complaints over the last year so I expected it to take slightly longer but speaking with the FoS this afternoon and they don’t seem to have an idea on when these will be picked up.
thanks,
Alan
tom says
Alan
I sent mine just before you – april 2018 – and 2 have just been picked up and found in my favour. Unfortunately as they said they are very busy and they will start to pick them up soon.
Bear in mind we do not pay for the FOS – for the person complaining its free. It certainly would not be a job i would like to do especially when people say its taking too long to get the result that would like
Becca says
I sent all of mine to the FOS in May 2018 as well, and they have only just started to trickle through. Two have been found in my favour (Sunny and PayDay UK, both of which have gone to the Ombudsman as neither replied to the findings). Quick Quick is still with the Ombudsman. Lending Stream was rejected by the adjudicator so have asked for it to be reviewed by the Ombudsman. Lending Stream is still with an adjudicator, and Avant and Everyday Loans are waiting to be allocated to an adjudicator. Obviously Wonga is no longer an option. Slowly but surely getting there! It’s been a long process, but hopefully will be worth it in the end!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Re Sunny, it is worth leaving them a bad review on Trust Pilot saying they haven’t replied to the adjudicator decision and this is very poor complaint handling. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/sunny.co.uk?languages=en&stars=4
Becca says
I’ll do that now – thanks Sara
Kirsty says
Hi,
I’ve received the following from SNC:
‘We propose that we redress all the interest that you have paid (£172.87), plus statutory
8% interest (£3.32).
We will also remove any interest that has accrued on your outstanding balance (£44.36) and then
deduct the interest you have paid plus the statutory 8% interest from your principal outstanding
balance (£343.79).
This will leave a principal outstanding balance of £167.60 which remains payable.’
Does this seem fair? I borrowed 19 small amounts from them over the course of a year, all repaid apart from the last larger loan of £360 which is on a payment plant now. Just want to check before I accept.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds fair unless you think any of the figures are wrong. £172 is a small amount of interest unless the 19 loans were very small?
You may also want to ask for any negative marks to removed from your credit record.
David Watkins says
Hi,
I went through Payday loan hell back in 2005, is there a time limit on claiming back money due to irresponsible lending. Thank you.
Regards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, sorry but you won’t be able to claim further back than April 2007.
Iain123 says
The Money Shop told me they won’t look at loans before 2007 as that’s when they joined the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Declan says
Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has recently had a refund from the Ombudsman lately and could give me a rough timescale? I sent my complaint to the FOS in July 2018, received an adjudicator decision a few months later however Quickquid rejected this in December 2018. My complaint was then passed to an ombudsman and currently waiting on a response. It’s been around 11 weeks.
I have no complaints older than 6 years and all before 2015.
Thanks
tom says
ive been waiting for an ombudsman decision since September….
Laura says
All the Quickquid cases are on hold as they try to resolve it with the company direct. I’ve been waiting on ombudsman since end of July/Aug for them while they negotiate and there is a backlog , so tbh I’d say you are I’m for a wait
C says
I’m the same, awaiting ombudsman decision, none over 6 years and all before 2015.
Sent from adjudicator to ombudsman in mid January.
Deb says
lease take this email as acknowledgement of your complaint. I will be handling your complaint.
The issue you have raised will be investigated and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible but no later than 8 weeks from the date of your complaint as per the time frames set out in our complaints procedure (which I have included below).
You have borrowed a total of £100.00 from us, and repaid a total of £40.00. This means that the principal amount lent (ie minus any charges) has not been repaid. Please find below summary of all your loans.
You have an outstanding balance of £223.04.
Please confirm what you see as a full and final settlement to your complaint.
If you have any new information which we would not have had access to at the time of your application, we are happy to consider this as part of our investigation.
Kind regards,
Abel
********************************************
Borrowing summary for App 992294
Loan
Advance date: 12/12/2012
Principal: £100.00
Repay Date: Not repaid
Repaid Amount: £40.00
Outstanding amount: £223.04
Total amount borrowed across all loans: £100.00
Total amount repaid across all loans: £40.00
Outstanding balance: £223.04
I am not sure if it is worth pursuing this, I cannot find any bank statements relating to this time, and am not even sure which bank I was with.
Any advice much appreciated. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you think their figures are wrong – so you had more loans / paid more than £40 to this – then you are never going to get a refund. You could reply to “Please confirm what you see as a full and final settlement to your complaint.” that you would be happy if they write off the balance owing.
If you don’t do this, it may be sold to a debt collector who will pursue you for it.
Mar says
Hi everyone, has anyone had any dealings with moriaty law on behalf of uncle buck? I took at a loan last July for £500 and I’ve never paid it it’s now with that law firm and the debt has doubled. Would they negotiate a lower price if I offered to pay it in one go( family helping I don’t have the money) thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this the first loan you had from UB? Do you think they should have realised that you couldn’t afford it?
What is the rest of your financial situation – do you have other problem debts as well? Do you have non problem debts you are repaying? Are you in work?
Mar says
It was the second one I made an affordability complaint and they rejected it. At the time I had about 10 other loans 3 maxed out cards and a massive overdraft to. I’m in the early stages of sorting my debt out and luckily ha e a supportive family. My parent insist on paying the debt as they have sent a letter threatening court but I didn’t know if they would negotiate a lower price with me if I called them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They may well do – say the money is from your parents and they are only offering it if a Full & final settlement letter is accepted, otherwise you will have to take your affordability complaint to the Ombudsman (I think you must still be within the 6 months time to do this?)
Lance says
Hi Sara,
Firstly thank you so much for this website, its really good!
I complained to FOC in January 2018, and my complaint was upheld by adjudicator and subsequently an offer received in December 2018 by Quick Quid however for only some of loans so I rejected the offer and its now gone to the ombudsman but i still haven’t heard anything back, do you know how long it takes when it goes to the ombudsman? I know they are very busy but its been 13 months since my complaint went in.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The loans that QQ rejects the adjudicator decision on, could you see why? Wow they all after 2015 and they have offered a refund on earlier ones?
Lance says
Loans were from 2014 onwards
They made me an offer to pay for the flex credit agreement & 8% but missed off loans 6 to 11 which the adjudicator said should be paid and there was no reason on the letter, just a “This offer isn’t in line with our guidelines” so i rejected and its gone to the ombudsman.
Thinking i should have accepted the offer because i’m worried its going to take months and they may go into administration.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So I guess loans 6 to 11 were in 2015 or after?
There is NO sign that QQ are going into administration. Unlike Wageday Advance, QQs American parent has VERY healthy finances and has barely mentioned payday loan refunds as being a problem. QQ is now the largest payday lender in the UK and it expects to make a lot of money from this. If Wageday Advance had been allowed to set up a Sceme of Arrangement by the FCA, then I think QQ May well have wanted one too, which would have been bad news for refunds. But it doesn’t look as though there is any danger of QQ going into administration.
Ian says
Hi all, hopefully some good news.
I submitted my complaint to FOS in August against MyJar for my 6 year+ loans. Phoned up yesturday to get an update on the progress and a note has been left on the file saying that MyJar have now consented to looking at loans over 6 years old. However, as always there is nothing from Quikquid.
Essentially the ball is now rolling with Myjar and I was told that ALL complaints against them will now progress as business as usual.
My only worry now is hoping this goes through before they go under aswell!
Steven Baker says
Hi, I’ve had loans from wagedayadvance for years, it’s been what’s considered unaffordable for probably the same period, given their current situation is there any advice on my best course of action? Tracking down when it started etc might be a long process itself
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As they are now in administration, you don’t have to go through the process described in the article above, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/ and send a simple email as described there. You may not get much back, but at least it’s easy to do!
John says
So been back in touch with adjudicator and found out PDUK still haven’t had the decency to respond to her by the deadline of 24th feb, she’s tried calling them had no response so sent another email saying she expects a response by 4th March 🙄her unlikely I know
tom p says
John – i was in same situation and was due to hear back by the 15th march – they came back a week late and agreed with the adjudicator. I have another claim which i am due to hear back from them today but will expect it within another 10 days or so.
John says
Hi Tom how long did they take to payout once they had replied to adjudicator?
Mark says
Has anyone had success with satsuma?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes lots of people have. Did you borrow from them a lot or are you one of the people with a single very large loan?
Phil says
Further update – WDA loan not purchased by Shelby and instead sits with CTL. Not sure what this means exactly, just hope I can find a resolution.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, WDA have not sold any “bad debts” to Shelby. Send the simple email saying the loans were unaffordable to WDA
Phil says
Re Onstride and Satsuma – my only two ‘live’ loans now.
Satsuma = £450 borrowed in jan 2019 £181.35 x 4 = £725.40.
Onstride = £1500 borrowed Jan 2019 £221.95 x 13 = £2885.42
History: Satsuma = 4 loans
1 x active (details above)
1 end sept 2018 = £2191 (start 31/03/17)
1 end feb 2018 = £528 (start 02/08/17)
1 end july 2017 = £1350 (start 20/12/16)
Onstride – only the one loan that is now active. (however numerous quick quid loans from sister company including deferrals/ roll overs etc)
How should I approach them in terms of the active loans, I would like to come up with an affordable arrangement where I can clear the balances quickly and be completely out of my pay day loan cycle. At the same token, If I am entitled to a refund of sorts I’d want this.
I have requested information of loans (although I have it on credit file), and have sent copies of my credit report detailing the total issue I was in. Should I sit tight and wait or should I make a proposal to clear the outstanding balances and maybe calculate it myself? I see that you describe that sometimes it’s easier to write off loans rather than obtain refunds.
Thanks again for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Should I sit tight and wait” does that mean you can afford the repayments at the moment?
Tom says
Hi Sara,
Just a thanks for running such a great service and providing valuable advice. Just in the process of finalizing the last of my claims and have received far more money back than I first thought possible.
Complained in September to 9 payday loan companies, all loans over 6 years old and had varying success:
WDA – Paid £824 in November
247 Moneybox – Pair £583 in December
Wonga – Administration and awaiting update
Just yesterday had some good news from Money Shop – got to say they have seemed very reasonable with their requests and offers etc to date.
Money Shop – agreed to pay £1300 on 15/21 loans
Payday Express – agreed to pay £1060 on 2/3 loans
Payday UK – offered £700 and further information to review additional loans
got some smaller ones that were refused from other companies that i’m deciding if its worth going to FOS for a maximum payout of £150-200 etc.
Jamie says
Hello, after doing some chasing via email trying to get my final response, I had an email from Money Shop saying that they had already issued my Final Response letter in January. However, I have looked through all my email folders and it’s nowhere to be seen?! I rang them and they told me to send them the reference number (which I did) so they could look into it and re-issue my FRL. That was 2 weeks ago and still nothing. Very frustrating. Any advice? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone them again and say the complaint is going to FOS if they don’t send you the FRL in a week.
Iain123 says
The Money Shop / Instant Cash Loans emails sometimes go to junk/spam.
C says
Thanks for this,
I’ve been waiting for mine aswell, just checked my spam folder and there it is.
Thanks Iain
Jamie says
Yes, it was in my Spam Folder. Thank you! In my final response letter it said ‘as all my loans were over 6 years ago they need me to tell them why it has taken me until this time to complain before they can consider these loans’
Is this normal? They didn’t reject my complaint, simply said they need to know why it’s taken so long.
I’ve emailed them explaining my reasons and given one week to reply, so do you think they will now consider them? Are Money Shop a reasonable firm? Or should I just send straight to FOS.
Was about 50 loans (the cheque ones) nearly all rolled over and lots of interest paid.
Thankyou
Iain123 says
Similar to mine. I had 100+, some over six years. The 8% is compounded so you’re looking at £5-10k.
They are easy to deal with. ‘Unable to determine’ just means the ball is back in your court. They usually respond 10-14 days.
It’s worth taking the time to scroll through past comment here. Post a new comment if you need help.
My biggest problem was getting old bank statements. Branch staff said 6 years. I got onto bank head office who supplied an extra three years. This was crucial. So don’t give up, keep plugging away.
Kristym86 says
Hi ya Sara, me again lol
So…moneyshop have given me a response regarding my complaint. As you know payday uk and express both asked for statements and credit reports in which I supplied.
Payday uk have offered me a refund of £1046 but express are not upholding my complaint! I am so confused they loans were both taken out at the same sort of time.
I called the customer relation team today and after 35 mins on hold was basically told that it’s down to the individual handlers and that it doesn’t matter that one was upheld and one isn’t. So frustrating.
On another matter..sunny never upheld my complaint and I feel I have a strong case to go forward with the FOS. Can you tell me what I need to supply or say etc and is there a best plan of action?
Thanks
Kristy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So Send PD Express and Sunny to FOS. The article above says how to do this. Your complaint can just be a version of the step 2 letter you sent the lender. Or you can go into detail, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refund-complaint-detail/ for some ideas.
Sarah says
Hi, over the last few years I’ve had numerous payday loans with Sunny, Myjar and Wonga. I thought I’d get the ball rolling so sent an initial email to Sunny asking for a list of my loans. They responded to say they were investigating and would give a decision in 8 weeks; they did not provide the information I asked for or give me any opportunity to provide more detail. Until today, when they responded rejecting my complaint and attached a list of loans at the bottom. From these I can see that I was taking out another loan or rolling one over every few days for several months. I was taking out a loan from one company to make repayments on the other, etc. My question is, is it worth taking it on to the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you had to keep rolling over or repaying then getting a new loan soon afterwards, then that sounds like a case worth taking to the Ombudsman.
Robert says
Hi, over the last year I’ve taken out numerous loans from various different companies. I’m finally deciding to take this into my own hands and have lodged complaints against a few that I have settled fully, but my worry is with those that I still have to pay off. My worry is that by sending in a complaint, these companies may try to collect payments anyway.
This is especially the case with safety net credit, who have direct access to my bank account from the sign up. I will not be able to clear my full balance in one month and still have enough to get by.
I still have a week and a half until I’m payed, and what money I have left this month has to go to other payments and general living costs.
I believe I have a strong case for the complaints, I’ve had atleast 2 payday loans out every month since June of last year and I continued to re borrow with increasing prices or roll over payments just to make it through the month.
So my question is this, do I have to worry about loan companies trying to reclaim money I owe them if I lodge a complaint against them while still having an active loan?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you do – you should cancel the CPA payment with your bank to prevent this, it’s important to get yourself in a safe position where you don’t have to borrow any more.
Safetynet Credit has a bad habit of saying it will freeze taking payments for a month, then taking the money at the end of the month without telling you even if your complaint has not been resolved. On the plus side, they are sometimes a very easy complaint to win just because they can see your bank statements, so cancel the CPA today, don’t try to struggle through.
SUSAN HUTCHINSON says
Keep going with complaining to Safetynet as we had a significant sum written off from then, along with a few others including 247Moneybox.
Jamie says
I was expecting an outcome from my WDA complaint any day now – I’d been pushed back multiple times but was told end of Feb looked likely.
Is this now likely to rumble on longer/not be resolved at all? Or would you expect them to still resolve it as they were?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
WDA went into administration this week, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wageday-advance-wda-administration-sale-morses-club/ for more details. That page will be kept updated so check there for updates as this page is no longer relevant.
Chris says
Hi, just had a reply from Cashfloat rejecting my complaint.
I had three loans with them, £500/£600 & £650 all repaid over four month period. As soon as the first one was paid off I reborrowed.
I had numerous other payday loans at the time.
However, they claim my debt reduced during the period I borrowed from them according to a credit file they reviewed, certainly not mine!
Should I go to FOS or has anyone had any luck with cashfloat
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think they are factually wrong, go back and ask them what credit record they were looking at – then you can prove this and ask them to review their decision.
Paula says
Hi heard from my adjudicator today after 3 months my claim with QQ had been upheld and now they have ssy QQ have another 8 weeks to accept..this is first if seen 8 weeks after adjudicator agreement is it the norm.
X
Rob says
No it’s normally 2 weeks (at least everyone of my claims they’ve given companies 2 weeks to accept etc). 8 weeks seems very generous towards the company
Lorraine says
Hi.
You say in the article ‘do not bother if you are in an IVA’
My question is, what if the reason you’re in an IVA is because of pay day lending charges/interest and most of the debt that is being paid off is from these companies?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can try if you want. But you need to know that all the refunds will go into your IVA until the point where all the IVA debts have been repaid in full and all the IVA fees (several thousand) paid. At that point your IVA will have completed. It will remain on your credit record for 6 years from the start of the IVA even once it has been paid in full.
How long ago did your IVA start? Which firm is it?
Lorraine says
Hi Sara.
Thanks for your reply.
I’ve just had my annual review and starting my third year of the IVA with Creditfix. Even if I was successful and any refunds were paid it wouldn’t shorten the IVA term or lower my monthly payments I assume?
Chris says
Cashfloat use callcredit for your credit file. Cashfloat allege my debts reduced over my borrowing period with other lenders. I went through my bank statements last night and my debts were the same, if not, worse.
My first loan was £500 over four months, day I paid the loan, I took out another for £600 over four months. Then upon completion of this loan I then took out £650 over four months. I then attempted to took out a further loan but this time they requested bank statements and declined due to unaffordability. My challenge to them was that none of the loans were affordable.
Is it worth sending them copy bank statements showing all my outgoings to payday lenders and what I was borrowing? Or should I just escalate to the FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you checked what your Noddle report shows – does that show lower borrowing or higher from the time of your first loan to the time of the third?
If it shows higher, that is what your main point should be to Cashfloat:
They could see you borrowing again immediately you repaid a loan and you were borrowing more.
They could also see from your credit record that your situation was getting worse and they were wrong to say in their reply to you that your borrowing had dropped.
These are your strongest point because it is easier to argue that they KNEW they should not have carried on lending than it is to argue that they should have made extra checks right from the first loan.
You can include your bank statements as well, but make your strongest points clearly.
Ben says
Hi,
On the 24th Feb I emailed SafetyNet Credit with the template you provided. I had an account with them open for about 1-2 years. They emailed back two days later with an offer of £1790 which is the interest plus a % on top of that too. They sent this offer without me sending a second email too.
Thank you for this website. I’m waiting on a few more companies to email me back
C says
Morning Sara.
Just listened to you on Moneybox on radio 4.
Amigo loans got a little panicked by you 💪
I’d like to see others on there being questioned. That would be good listening.
Great job. Well done
Sara (Debt Camel) says
thanks!
Iain123 says
Sara
Payday lenders withhold 20% tax on the interest added to our refunds.
The government allows a PSA (personal savings allowance) of £1000 a year, a tax on savings interest.
Am I correct in thinking I could claim this £1000 from the Inland Revenue on form R40 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-claim-for-repayment-of-tax-deducted-from-savings-and-investments-r40
?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Right idea & right form but wrong amount. The £1000 is the tax free allowance, so the amount you can reclaim is 20% of that ie £200. (Unless you are on a low income in which case you may be able to get more back. Or higher rate tax in which case you may owe the taxman money.)
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Sarah says
Hi I’m in a similar situation to Phil, with many of the same lenders. I borrowed 26k alone from just Sunny over a 3/4yr period. Things got that bad I even turned to gambling to try and rob Peter to pay Paul which only made my situation worse. All in all I have about 18 creditors now on reduced payment terms. I did complain to sunny about an unffordabke loan and they write the bakance off which was £1000+. Should I write to these lenders asking them to refund interest, and should I mention the predicament and gambling in my letter or just keep it factual about the loan itself and irresponsible lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a very poor offer from Sunny – but if you accepted it there is nothing now you can do.
Yes you should put in affordability complaints to all* the lenders. Gambling isn’t going to make them more likely to refund interest, just stick to the standard template letters above. It sounds as though you have all your loan details so you can go straight to step two.
I suggest you also include a copy of your noddle report with each complaint. And that you say you would like to carry on with the payments arrangement in place while the complaint is being settled – assuming the payments are now affordable for you?
* Wonga and Wageday Advance are a now a bit different – to you owe any money to them?
Neil says
Does anyone have any idea how long Uncle Buck take to issue refunds . I have just received an offer which i am going to accept . Two out of three loans . To be honest i didn’t hold out much hope as the number of loans were small , but i sent them my bank statements with the complaint and they seen the light.
Sara, thanks so much for this site . It inspired me to try , without it I don’t think I would have.
Do they take long to issue the refund?
J says
Hi Neil
For me they recently paid on their offer within 10 days of acceptance without any issues so hopefully you will get the same too. They ask for account details and then refund directly to that account. Good Luck.
J
Kirsty says
I sent my letter of complaint to sunny July last year! They rejected my complaint so I sent to the FO
I emailed them in October and they said my case is awaiting an adjudicator. It’s March and I’ve heard nothing?! Is this normal?
I’m 20 weeks pregnant today and don’t really want the stress when they finally get round to emailing me asking me for details etc
Shall I chase the FO again?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, sorry, 6 months is now pretty normal :(
have you already sent your credit report and bank statements in? If so, there may not be much if anything else you need to provide when it is being looked at.
Casey says
Hi Kirsty mines was a Sunny complaint and took ten months to be picked up and adjudicator found in my favour in January