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?
Tim says
Hi All
I’ve been reading with intrigue over the last few months and thought I would post my progress. Like all I started with one payday loan and by the end I had used/was using over 10.
Lending Stream- 14 loans in 20 months. They did not uphold my complaint. FOS complaint raised 4 weeks ago, still waiting to be allocated.
Mr Lender- Wrote off the remaining balance of one loan which was fair.
Uncle Buck- did not uphold my complaint despite in their reply stating they allowed me a reduced settlement on my second to last loan… then reloaned on the same day!- This is waiting to be allocated with the FOS. I didn’t use these much but they were horrible to deal with when I fell behind so im escalating out of principle.
Quick Quid- 24 loans in 24 months. They acknowledged my complaint and that was the last I ever heard from them. Escalated to the FOS last week.
Pounds to pockets- Still yet to even have an acknowledgement of my complaint raised 4 weeks ago. I only complained as I didnt think i had paid much interest then found out it was over £1000.
Payday UK- 4 loans, 30 deferrals in 30 months- 8 weeks was up yesterday and have not had any communication so I have escalated to the FOS today.
WageDay Advance- 7 loans, 24 deferrals in 24 months- 8 weeks was up yesterday and they asked for another week. I have said no since i reminded them of the timescales at 4, 6 and 7 weeks so im not prepared to wait another noe for a rejection. Again raised with the FOS today.
Moneyshop- complaint made 5 weeks ago, not much borrowed so I will wait and see what they say.
Im looking, all in all, at about £14k if they all get upheld. Im treating anything as a bonus but I would like to nail them to the wall and get it all back as they made my life hell for 2 and a half years in 2010-2013. Sadly my biggest one is Swift Sterling who I can do nothing about from what I am aware.
Its mad in less than 3 years I paid around 20k in interest. If that isnt unaffordable on what I would call an average wage then I dont know what is.
Anyway good luck to everyone on here, i’ll post an update once I start getting any sort of progress.
Cheers
Tim
Kieran says
Hi everyone, it’s fantastic to see so many people getting their hard earned money back from these companies.
I am currently in the process of 3 complaints 2 of which have passed the 8 week mark and 1 still waiting for a reply.
My main lender was wonga whom I had 37 loans within 3 years! They have asked for an additional 6 weeks of which I am not happy so have sent my complaint to the FOS.
My second complaint was with pounds to pocket and although I had 1 instalment loan which was for £1000 and I paid approx £1000 in interest they have stated that they performed credit checks and other affordability checks, and say that they deemed the loan to be affordable even though I had to change the loan from a 6 month loan to a 10 month to a 12 month as I couldn’t afford the payments in addition my wages would vary month to month due to working in a commission based retail store at the time. At the time I took out this loan with pounds to pocket I had a previous 35 loans with wonga, surely this should have shown on my credit file if pounds to pocket did adequate checks? Is it worth taking my complaint now to FOS with pounds to pocket?
Finally I am waiting for sunny to respond to my complaint and they have until 1st June for a response!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kieran, re the P2P loan this is very marginal. The FOS is not likely to say it shouldn’t have been given just because you had a lot or prior payday loans. If there were a lot of defaults, that would be different. The best offer that is at all likely is that you would get part of your interest refunded, say after you went back and rescheduled the loan but it is possible you wouldn’t get anything. So if you do take the case to the FOS, don’t start with high expectations.
Jamie says
Just had a reply from Lending Stream with regards to a loan I took out in 2013, stating they carried out affordability checks and they felt the lent responsibly, (28 payday loans in 2013 from multiple lenders) (61 from 2009-2014). I have asked for the Final Response as instructed by FOS.
Edited reply below; anyone else had this?
Affordability Checks:
You were employed full-time during the loan application.
Your monthly income was £**** for the loan application
Your Experian score of *** was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable
[edited]
We believe Lending Stream has behaved responsibly in approving your loan and dealing with it fairly.
melly says
I had exactly the same and after a few emails it has since been offered to write off my balances to end the matter,they wouldn’t budge re any kind of settlement before i took it further so in the end i just accepted their offer to wipe my balances and have done with it
Jamie says
Hi Melly, Glad I am not the only one, I do question what evidence they have to back up their claims, as I do not re-call filling out an expenditure form. I settled my Loan, by borrowing from other lenders every month, I just want the information deleted from my credit report and a refund of interest that I paid, will wait and see what happens as I have asked them to send me their final response.
I had 1 Loan from Lending Stream, which was used to pay off a loan with QQ and Wonga at the time, the loan was over a 5 month period with fixed payment amounts every month. (28 Payloans in 2013 with QQ, PDUK, WONGA and LS)
Danielle says
Hi everyone,
Just a quick question regarding the expenditure form. Mr Lender state that when I took out the loans I put that on my £1200 monthly wage, I only used £200 and had £1000 free? I honestly cant remember filling this in to be honest. My complaint against them is currently with the FO. I’m just wondering if it matters what I put on the expenditure form? Surely if I only spent £200 per month and had £1000 free I wouldn’t be applying for a loan in the first place? And I’m sorry but who could pay rent, bills etc with just £200?
I’m just worried if this will go against me? Like I said I dont remember filling this in or if I did with any other Payday Lenders… My 8 weeks are up with Wonga and QuickQuid on the 1st June and I cant remember if or what I put on their forms? I had a lot more loans with these 2, loads of top ups, rollovers, late fees and eventually defaulting.
Basically will this go against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Danielle,
a lot of people don’t remember filling out these details. In some cases there may have been a default that people just didn’t notice so didn’t change. If you spoke over the phone, who knows what the person taking the call put down? Especially if they didn’t send you an email confirming it, or it was in such small print you didn’t read it. Some people remember a form but weren’t sure what to put down about their partner’s income, expenses and debts. And some people were under such mental stress that they have no idea now what they put down.
In the end, if you put something sensible on a form and the lender still gave a loan, then this is good ammunition to say the original loan was unaffordable. If what you put down isn’t sensible, then the lender should still have realised after you kept borrowing that you were in trouble – hence the most common award from the Ombudsman is to refund all interest after the 3rd or 4th loan.
Edit – here is a later article about this sort of situation: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/
Jane says
Been offered a refund from Mr Lender of £33.00! Plus removal of loans from my credit file.
No balance outstanding, paid around £4500 total interest over 2 years with them, 6 loans not including rollovers and instalment loans. I think the statement they sent me is incorrect and they word it so that you are paying back so much ‘capital’ and only a small amount of ‘interest’ but actually the interest is high. Confused.
Obviously a stupid offer but glad my complaint actually got a response. Worth replying again to them to negotiate or straight to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you only had 6 short loans spread over 2 years that is not an easy case. But if you had rolloevers and installement loans as well, I suggest £33 is not a serious offer.
JulesU says
It would seem QQ are just making up when complaints were lodged now. After sending FIVE unanswered emails chasing, I called today as I should have had my final response yesterday. They told me it isn’t due until a week today. I told the lady on the phone I am looking at the complaint email on my screen now and it was 8 weeks ago. She simply wouldn’t accept it and told me I emailed a week later. I log EVERY email to and from the lenders so know it is absolute rubbish.
Should I wait the week (knowing they’ll just ask for more time), or just got straight to FO?! Any advice welcome!
Bob says
That’s exactly the same as me
So last night I lodged my complaint with the ombudsman as not seen anyone offered more than £350 on here without the FO’s help. Not even 1 person that I’ve seen. It really isn’t worth waiting for slow quid. If it had been wonga then I’d have waited but not with these guys who don’t even appear to have proper offices or staff in the UK!
Stuart G says
I got home today to a letter from Wage Day Advance, exactly on the 8 weeks – they’ve upheld my complaint and awarded me a £2020 refund. £700 of that is clearing the amount owed to MMF and the other £1300 being put into my account within 48 hours. That includes 8% interest. Must say WDA have been excellent throughout the complaint process
CFO Lending turned down my complaint – I had loans with them at the same time as Wage Day Advance, should I use the fact that WDA have upheld my complaint when I reply to CFO?
Other claims: I’ve had Mr Lender, Lendingstream and 24/7 Moneybox all write off the overdue amounts. I’m waiting for MyJar, PDUK, Payday Express, Pounds Till Payday to get back to me.
Stuart G says
Quick update – after I asked CFO Lending to reassess their decision, they have come back to me today with an offer to remove all defaults from my credit file and redress £452 into my account which I have accepted. Keep going everyone!!
Peter says
My PDUK complaint has been with an adjudicator for 4 weeks. I forwarded it to them as PDUK had not issued a final response in 12 week.
Has anybody had success against PDUK through an adjudicator? And if so, how long did it take?
Tony says
Hi both
I passed my complaint to FOS on 4th April and was passed to an adjudicator two weeks later for payday uk and payday express, she also had two other cases of mine. She has upheld all my loans from the 6 year cut off, as did the other adjudicator with Wonga. Am awaiting the reply from the first 4 and Wonga has been passed to ombudsman as adjudicator felt they were messing around
Kate says
I had a positive reply today from adjudicator stating all loans were unaffordable and they should have seen the other two PDL on my credit file and they aided the spiral of debt. He has also said how disappointed he is with them for not replying to me and to him in stated time and advised £150 compensation also to cover with all interest, charges and 8% .. They have until 3rd June to respond ..
Matt S says
Hi all
Just a couple questions for those who have had responses from Wonga and Payday Express / Payday UK.
The additional 4 weeks that Wonga requested was up on Monday and I have had no contact from them at all since. No final response and no request for a further extension. I have emailed them a few times this week but have had no reply. Is this normal of them, I know they are busy with complaints at the moment but up to the original 8 weeks they were fairly good at keeping in contact and keeping me up to date with the progress of my complaint. I have seen people saying they are getting a response around week 14 but for those who had did they contact you again around week 12 asking again for more time?
Also my Payday Express / Payday UK complaints 8 weeks is up today. From reading comments I’m not expecting a final response today but will they usually get in contact to ask for more time or can I expect to just not hear anything from them at all?
Robert says
Hi Matt,
I’m in the exact same position with you regarding Wonga. My additional 4 weeks were up on Monday but have heard absolutely nothing from them despite sending two emails chasing them up. I get the impression that with their recent financial difficulties they are starting to play hard ball with customers. From what I’ve read on here people were getting some reasonable offers a couple of months ago but they are using delay tactics now. Would be interested to hear if you do get a response considering we must have complained on the same day. I think it’s pretty poor that they can’t come up with a response after 12 weeks but I guess they are inundated…
Lea says
I accepted a refund direct from pduk last Friday with no FOS involvement. 15 weeks after complaining.
Sam says
Sent an email for an update from QQ and they replied saying they hadn’t looked into my complaint as I hadn’t replied to their questionnaire. I sent a very strong worded response as I replied the same day they emailed me and I attached a copy of it showing proof. I’m so annoyed do told them I will be reporting this to the ombudsman as soon as the 8 weeks are up and I expect extra compensation for the poor customer service.
Aga says
keep it up Sam , I think QQ is the worse here reg customer service ; I will myself place complaint for the harassment as I received 200 e mails from 1 month loan asking to take their loan .
good luck
Sam says
I gave them a call too as they annoyed me so much and miraculously my email had appeared! They reckon I will get a response before the 31st when my 8 weeks are up, not fussed either way as I know I’m going to have to take it to the FO anyway but even more reason to be compensated I think as they seem to be a joke when dealing with complaints!
Kez says
Hi Sara,
Update for you just received an offer from uncle buck for over £5k!!! That was their first offer and it was more than i expected!!!
I also received a final offer from CFO (Capital Finance One) they have upped their offer from £360 ish to £546. I think I will forward this to the ombudsman as I was expecting a figure closer to £1k.
I will keep you updated on CFO, but thank you Sara for the information you provide I would have been none the wiser!
Kez
Paul M says
Hi all, is there any point asking for refunds on loans i only took once or twice? My main dispute is that i took 2 loans once for £100 and they have piled over 300 worth of charges on yet i explained financial difficulty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you make a complaint, be clear that you are asking for refunds of the interest and any fees charged from the point you told them you were in difficulty and go into detail about why you consider they handled your case poorly, see https://blog.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/payday-loans-what-to-expect-from-your-lender-if-you-re-struggling-to-repay.
Paul says
Hello all
Very similar situation here. Had over 40 loans from Quickquid totaling 12k. I always repaid them as i knew it would mean i could borrow more. I complained and Quickquid have offered £250. Should i still go to the Ombudsman and do i need to reject this offer if i do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes go to the Ombudsman – £250 is actually one of QQ’s better offers! See https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ for details
Ian says
My first post here but thought I would give an update see where everyone else is with same lenders:
Txtloan/Myjar: Complained on 11th March / Offered £1956.03 on 18th March less outstanding balance of £500 plus removal from credit reference agencies. Accepted and paid same day. Total interest paid over all loans was £1888 so not too bad.
Fancyapayday/THL: Complained on 31st March / Offered £300 on 1st April plus remaoval of all entries from Credit Ref Agencies. Accepted an paid next day. Total interest paid was £684.03 but was more happy to have the defaults removed from my credit file.
Uncle Buck: Complained on 10th March / Final Response on 4th May rejecting my claim but ignoring my first 8 loans. Referred to FOS on 11th May. Total Interest paid £2,919.88
1 Month Loan/Elevate: Complained on 1st April / Still awaiting Final Response.Total Interest Paid: £729.50
247MoneyBox: Complained on 4th April / Still awaiting Final Response. Total Interest Paid: £969.77
WageDayAdvance: Complained on 14th March / Asked for extension to 10th June on 3rd May / Referred to FOS on 11th May as 8 weeks expired. Total Interest Paid: £2023.16
Lending Stream: Complained on 1st April / Final Response on 11th April rejecting my complaint but offering to reduce outstanding balance to £375 but refused to remove from credit ref agencies. I rejected this and referred to FOS on 3rd May. Difficult this one as once interest deducted I do still owe them £205.20. Would have paid it if they had agreed to remove from credit file.
Payday Express/PDUK: Complained on 4th April / Awaiting Final Respone. Total Interest Paid: £1583.46
Wonga: Complained on 30th March / Awaiting Final Response. Total Interest Paid: £4,439.36. Automatically had £975 balance written off a couple of years ago so £3,464.36 remaining.
EPDL/Ecashwindow: Complained on 11th March / Final Response on 5th May rejecting complaint. Referred to FOS on 11th March. Total Interest Paid: £2,410
Minicredit/OPOS/Kapama: Interesting one this as they deny all liability for all but last Minicredit loan which is still outstanding. They have no proof of Assignment, no copy of original default and I was never notified of assignment. After much arguing I submitted a formal complaint on 19th April. Total interest Paid: £186.01 (reduced by outstanding balance) all I really wanted onthis one was it removing from my credit file as I have a default for £562 for a £80.50 loan.
Can anyone explain the procedure from FOS complaint as I have received very little from them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When you complain to the FOS, the typical procedure is that they inform the lender and wait a couple of weeks for the lender to acknowledge. Your case is assigned to an adjudicator when the lender replies or after a couple of weeks. (If you are already working with an adjudicator you like you can ask them if they would take on any new complaints – sometimes they will.)
Then the adjudicator asks if you want to add anything to your complaint – sometimes they would like to see copies of your credit report, sometimes bank statements. If the lender isn’t communicating at all, they will proceed using your bank statements. (If you don’t have your old bank statements, tell them and I think they can get them if you know your old account number and sort code.)
The adjudicator then looks at what you have said and what the lender has said, tells you what they are going to propose – you can go back and explain more if you think they have missed something. Then they tell the lender. Again the lender can suggest why they think a different decision should be made, but often they just agree or reject. At some point the adjudicator decides they are making they decision.
If either you or the lender reject this (or the lender doesn’t say anything), it then goes into a queue for an Ombudsman to look at. So far we haven’t seen an Ombudsman award less than the Adjudicator has.
Mr D says
Hi all,
After 16 weeks waiting for Wonga to look at my case they have rejected it and said they have done nothing wrong.
Is this common as most people seem to be winning?
Mr D
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have a long list of people with good sounding Wonga cases with the FO at the moment as they were rejected. I don’t know how they are making their decisions to accept / reject!
how many loans did you have over what period?
Mr D says
To make matters worse Wonga have also kindly sent my rejection email to my previous employers email address that I told them not to use as I don’t work there anymore!
So now getting Linkedin messages from old employer saying we got this and thought it looked important!
So much for data protection!
catpal says
Hi
I have a complaint against QQ that is now with the FOS.
QQ rejected my complaint but offered £350 as a gesture of goodwill which I rejected.
The complaint was sent to the FOS on 31st March, Heard 2 weeks ago that it has been assigned, then had a couple of emails asking for more information like; credit report, bank statements, payslips. Is this normal for them to need so much more information?
Got a feeling they are going to reject it….
mark77 says
Hi, I receiver final response from QQ today after 12 wks. Offer 350 pounds. I had 69 loans – paid around 8 thousand in interest. In their response they claim I only had 22 loans, which is a nice try as 69 loans in my loans history????!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Catpal, My guess if if QQ offered £350 this is quite a lot of loans? All the info being asked for is sensible (well except payslips – because your bank statement should show your pay). Either the adjudicator wants to be thorough or he has dealt with a case before where he needed all that so is asking for it up front.
Tray says
After 13 weeks and 1 day wonga have upheld my complaint. They said that 14 out of 17 loans were not affordable giving me a refund of £3,800 !!!!!!!!!, does anyone know how long it will take for payment to go through ??? They have asked if I accept the offer they will need confirmation screen shot of my bank account as they don’t hold my details any longer ?? Is this correct
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Great! The payment will arrive, try not to let checking for it dominate your life !
It’s normal to ask for confirmation of your bank details in some form.
Maria says
After 13 weeks and 4 days payday uk have responded saying they do not uphold my claim.
It’s really disappointing to get a rejection and in the past (regarding different complaints) I have left it at that. Last month I had a complaint with a car dealership and at first they rejected it so for the first time in my life I contacted the FOS. One letter from them to the car dealership and my complaint was upheld with interest and extra money for my inconvenience. It just makes me wonder how many people just accept the lenders refusal without going to the FOS. I guess that’s what they’re banking on when they make repeated refusals.
I don’t know if I have a valid claim with payday uk or not but I’m not willing to accept their flawed judgement without challenging their decision – I have already forwarded to the FOS as no matter what they say, my life was in tatters for over a year due to payday loans – and I’m still paying payday uk through a dmp now.
Still waiting for any correspondence from wonga – been 13 weeks and 4 days with no request for extra time.
Good luck everyone and thanks again for this fab website, even if I get nothing back its good to know I wasn’t the only one who was fooled by these cowboys!
S.D says
Great day today.
Over £5000 from Wonga hit my account.
Started my complaint beginning of Jan
Ombudsman after 8 weeks and assigned an adjudicator 2 weeks after that.
Another 2 weeks later Adjudicator decision in my favour regards full refund on all but the first 3 loans + 8%
After 3 weeks Wonga never responded to adjudicator so it was passed onto an ombudsman
1 week later I received an offer from Wonga offering about £3000 (I refused)
2 weeks later the ombudsman upheld my complaint and agreed with the adjudicator.
1 week after that the cash was in my account and my credit file is being cleared of all information on the loans.
Very happy.
Thanks to Sara and all who update on this forum.
Advice
Be prepared for a long stressful process and be patient.
fay says
Well done! Today the adjudicator has upheld my complaint for my Wonga too. I wish I had escalated at week 8 as I might be further on than I am now! Instead I gave them 12 weeks. I urge anyone to go straight to the FO at week 8 and not give them or anyone else any longer.
So a quick question, does the FO give them 3 weeks to respond as a set timeline before it is escalated again? Also, is the 8% on the total refund or 8% for every year since the complaint – mine is from 2013?
Tony says
I think it all depends on the adjudicator, the one dealing with Wonga gave them a week and they asked for three weeks so she has passed it to the ombudsman. The other adjudicator has given my other four cases two weeks to reply.
As for the 8%, it is for each year.
S.D says
It’s 8% per year for interest paid on each loan.
And I agree definately go to the FO after 8 weeks, as it takes a long time through the ombudsman process mainly because the lender drags their heals.
My adjudicator allowed them 3 weeks but they didn’t even respond in time so after the adjudicator escalated it to the ombudsman for a final decision. He agreed exactly with the adjudicator for the same reasons.
One week after final decision to have the refund in my bank.
Wonga were actually pretty gracious about it after they were told what to do
Aga says
My final response from Wonga < I was expecting 700 I got 50 .. 14 weeks waiting ..
Our Understanding of Your Complaint
You have suggested in your complaint that the Wonga loans were unaffordable.
Our response
[edited out all standard stuff no details relevant to this particular case]
When you did fall into financial difficulty we assisted you by freezing interest and setting you up on an affordable repayment plan.
You may also recall that your most recent loan that did fall into arrears formed part of our forbearance programme and as a result the balance was written off.
Having looked in detail at your complaint and the information we had access to when we made our lending decisions, we have not found any indication that your loans were unaffordable. On that basis, we are unable to uphold your complaint.
However, I would like to apologise for the delay in resolving your complaint and as a gesture of goodwill I would like to offer you £50.00.
Tony says
Aga
I bet you were very grateful for the goodwill offer!!!! Absolute idiots and hopefully they will get their comeuppance. My complaint with them is now at ombudsman level, they asked the adjudicator for three further weeks after she agreed with me that all loans from January 2010 were unaffordable. She responded by passing it to the ombudsman the next day after speaking to me
Louise says
Hi. For anyone who has received a final response from WDA, did you get any other confirmation of complaint if u sent via email other than the standard email straight back? I was due a final response weds, haven’t had anything yet. Not had chance to phone yet
Stuart G says
Hi Louise. I received notification of the complaint in the post, a day after I lodged the complaint. I then got another letter after 4 weeks saying the investigation was ongoing. On the day of 8 weeks, I got an offer of just over £2000, again by post. I then confirmed acceptance via email. Have to say they were spot on.
Louise says
Just got home to a letter! They’ve rejected my complaint as they didn’t have to do credit checks, but used their own system. Another off to the fo!
Rachel says
Success from WDA, i have come home to a letter today – the 8 weeks was due this coming sunday so wasnt expecting till next week. They have written a thorough letter with their findings which i am happy with and offered a refund of £2700 interest + 8% from loan 4. I am so happy and extremely thankful for Sara and this website as i would not have known about this and it was just by chance i came across the website. This refund means i can pay off credit cards which i had missed payments on due to the PDL and start getting my credit back on track. The other 3 will be off to the FOS. Thank you again Rachel
alan says
cheque centre have told me they only go back 5 years. does anyone have experience of this.
or should they be 6 years. as this would make a difference to me…
cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The time limit for statute barring in Scotland is 5 years, it is six in England. But I don’t think that is relevant to the FOS whose time limits do not appear to be linked to the geographical location of the business or of the customer. i suggest you carry on with your complaint and take it to the Ombudsman if CC reject it on any grounds, including being over 5 years.
kim says
I was borrowing constantly from Wonga from 2013 up untill January this 2016, whilst in this cycle I applied for a flex credit loan with QuickQuid that was £300 but repaid £1100.
I sent a complaint off to them but they stated it wasn’t an average payday loan therefor the didn’t agree with my complaint and will not uphold this.
has anybody else has any success with taking out a flex credit loan with quick quid?
John C says
My flexi credit loan is still with the FOS after they upheld the decision on my payday loans. QQ didn’t actual give the adjudicator any info on this account which is a bit cheeky of them, and she then though it was something I could dip into and had much smaller repayments than a payday loan. I’ve asked her to go back to QQ and shes agreed to open as a new complaint.
My argument is that the interest was still at PDL rates, it was constantly up to the max of £1350 and therefore I was paying over £400 in interest each month. This ran in conjunction with a pounds to pocket loan she said was affordable. I didn’t argue the P2P loan as I earn a good salary, but have said that if my QQ payday loans were unaffordable, then this account was too. The flexi account and PDL through QQ was pretty much the same thing in my opinion, only you didn’t have to pay all the capital each month, so more like a rollover as the capital amount was always still owed.
Was your rejection from QQ or the FOS?
Kim says
My rejection was from QQ luckily I didn’t get a final response so I sent to the FO and then QQ replied on week 11 saying they wouldn’t uphold my complaint.
I suppose I didn’t waste anytime. But still I was in a heavy pay day cycle with wonga hence why I had to borrow from quick quid.
Gillian says
Success from quid.co.uk! Well nearly…..!!
Offered £1443 in which we have agreed, got an email saying funds would be in bank no later than the end of business today. … just checked and …. NO PAYMENT. All bank details have been confirmed. Hopefully a phone call to them will sort this out easily.
Lou says
All of my pdl complaints are now concluded and a big thank you to Sara from me.
Lending Stream refunded one loan plus interest and wrote off my outstanding balance. All within the 8 weeks.
PDUK refunded 1700 after 10 weeks. No FOS involvement.
Wonga took a long time and adjudicator involvement – 15 weeks in total and a refund of 500
Quick Quid by far the worst – took 5 months and went all the way to the ombudsman who upheld and I received 2200.
Stick with it – patience and perseverance are the key to all of this
Thanks again Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Excellent.
Your first post here was in February saying “Quick quid have messed me about for weeks and and sent incorrect information then on the day the 8 weeks was up I received a pretty generic email saying all checks done etc etc. Not having much luck with any of them I’m afraid to say, despite being trapped for several years with these exploitative firms. Not happy” – you’ve come a long way since then!
If you are understandably fed up with the way QQ handled your complaint, you might consider telling their regulator, the FCA, how poorly they have done this. This won’t help you at all, but it’s a quick email to write and you won’t be asked to supply any evidence so no subsequent hassle – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/
Stacey says
Hi everyone, looking for a bit of advice; we firstly conplained to wonga 1st week of February this year, they have been fobbing us off saying a response will be with you by the end of the day every time we have rung up; so yesterday we had a final response offering £2700 that is Intrest back on 12 out of 23 loans that they felt were in affordable-how do they work out what is and what isn’t affordable surely if they say 12 isn’t affordable what about the other 11? I don’t think we should accept but my partner is thinking we should, we trying to go for a mortgage and this is just holding us back so we need to get it sorted, it is with FOS he thinks that if we decline they might offer is less or nothing?
Help please,Stacey x
S.D says
I was offered over £3000 by Wonga after my adjudicator had escalated to the ombudsman as they didn’t respond on time, the adjudicator gave me the chance to accept but I declined.
A week later the ombudsman ruled in my favour and I got £2000 more.
Worked for me but I had the knowledge that the adjudicator had already recommended the higher payout on all but 3 loans. It was a wee risk but glad I rejected, I very nearly crumbled
Jessica says
Hey
I have a number of complaints in at the moment, has only been 6 weeks so far so I know I have a way to go, I was very lucky with MyJar they refunded me for all Loans after 3rd after 3 weeks!
My biggest is with wonga then quick quid.
I have a query though I took out the yearly loans with pounds to pocket, £850 Loan but re loaned 3 times I am still paying the last one from 2014 my question is can I complain about these as the payments were spread over a year?
This is my worst one as in they put a default on my credit file in 2014 and I would so love to get rid of this if possible. Has anyone had any luck with them?
sarah says
well yesterday i received my offer from quick quid. wipe £297 from my account and thats me finished with them, plus £150 refund. i am pleased and accepted this. this was 8 weeks 3 days into complaint
an hour later i was offered £2648.42 from wonga, i could achieve almost 4k if i carried on but to be honest, i am not a greedy person and i am thrilled with this amount. i look at it this way, 13 weeks ago by chance i found out i could make a complaint, its cost me an email i will use this money wisely. and the fact that all this pdl business is behind me and the future is bright. this was 13 weeks into complaint
i also received £1200+ from sunny (this was 7 weeks 6 days into complaint) so i really am a very happy girl. thanks to sara and everyone who has supported me i am so very grateful x x
Lynnette says
Strange on had a letter back from wagedayadvance after only 4 weeks in saying they apologise for not having a resolution for me yet but would like another 4 weeks and would hopefully have a response for me by then.
Stuart G says
Hi Lynnette, I had the same from WDA and got a final response letter after 8 weeks offering over £2000 in redress. They were excellent throughout so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Katy says
Hi Sara
I wonder if you can offer some advice please? I had payday loans with the Cheque Centre/Loan Store. I had one loan in 2008′ and the rest in the period from 2010 – 2012.
When I requested a Statement of Account I received the following reply:
“As requested I have noted below details of the one loan you had with the Cheque Centre in 2008. You entered into a credit agreement governed under Scots Law, the period under which any claim can be made is in fact five years. The relevant Scottish provisions are set out in the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act 1973. Therefore we can only consider the loan history from 5 years prior to the date of any claim. This loan is out with this time period and would therefore not be considered. I have also provided details of the loans obtained from The Loan Store which is no longer trading. However, as we are part of the same group of companies Cheque Centre will respond on their behalf.”
I have spent most of then afternoon going through bank statements which showed I had a number of loans from the Cheque Centre/Loan Store in the period from 2010 – 2012 – the majority bring loans that I rolled over. However, the Statement of Account which CC sent only showed the loans I had in 2011 – even then some were missing off the list which they sent.
What would be your advice on the best way to proceed with my compensation claim with them as I feel they are being dishonest in not giving me the complete list?
Many thanks for any help you can offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you just had one loan in 2008 then nothing until 2010, there would be very unlikely to be any refund for this loan.
The Ombudsman at the moment is not treating loans over 6 years in a consistent way. But I think the Cheque Centre is simply wrong to impose a 5 year time limit – the Scottish Statute of Limitations is not relevant to the Ombudsman’s proceedings so far as I am aware.
For the others, I suggest you put in a complaint noting that you have been sent details of some loans in 2011, but you do not believe these are correct and you have not been given details of your loans in 2010. Say that you wish to ask for a refund for all the 2010 loans onwards.
And you might want to spend some time putting all the receipts from and payments to the Cheque Centre into a spread sheet to show the Ombudsman if / when it gets that far.
Lex Prime says
Just a bit of personal experience with Wonga.
I had around 50 loans amounting to just under 9k in 4 years.
Wonga took 12 weeks to offer a little over £200. The very same day, I took it to the FO. I did this over the phone. They said it could take up to 12 weeks just to get a statement of account from them. Within a week I had a call from my representative saying they have it and will look into to. They determined that I should have been offered a refund of interest plus 8% on top on over 75% of my loans and not the TWO that Wonga were offering to pay me for. That recommendation got sent to Wonga on Thursday and they have been given 2 weeks to respond. In total this has taken 3 weeks so I’m not complaining. Will keep you updated
Sarah-Jane robinson says
At the end of March I submitted a complaint to Cheque Centres after obtaining minimal Information off them regarding my lending history. They responded stating that I would be updated every 28 days until the complaint was resolved. Withing 8 weeks they had found in my favour and made a sizeable offer in full and final settlement. I was more than happy the the offer and also the speed in which they dealt with my case. The refund was issued and with me within just a few days.
Alice says
My partner had success with wonga on Wednesday, they offered just over £1400 and he accepted and by Friday it credited his account, he was in week 13. For some reason they wouldnt refund on a loan that was for £550 but did refund on one for £500 and a few other higher ones, I did question their thought process, but they were adamant they would not change their mind! I think the foc would have also asked the same question, but he didn’t want too wait so accepted, and he’s super chuffed!
Graham says
Hi there,
I am very new to this so apologise if I am going over old ground, there are a lot of comments and although I have been trying to read through as many as possible I’m sure I haven’t got through them all.
Wednesday of last week I received a letter through the post from Payday UK titled ‘AUTOMATIC REFUND – YOU DO NOT NEED TO DO ANYTHING’, further reading showed that they are going to refund me £1738.33. This came completely out of the blue, and is a godsend due to my wife and I having a young baby.
I then wondered if I may be due further compensation from other borrowers, baring in mind I have been caught in the payday loans trap for several years now. This all started when we got married and I took out some initial payday loans to cover myself following the cost of everything. This has now spiralled continuously out of control.
At this month currently I am paying back on a monthly basis to Uncle Buck, Cash4uNOw, 247Moneybox, CashAsap, WagedayAdvance, MrLender, Peachy, Amigo Loans, lending Stream – all totalling a monthly payment of £3270. I am of course rolling over most of these on a monthly basis as my current wage does not even come close to paying for these and paying them off.
Over the last 3 years I have had multiple loans with CashGenie, Piggybank, Quickquid, Poundstopocket, Sunny, PDUK (already covered off), 100Pounds, 118money, Wonga.
Looking at it like this it is embarrassing and pretty horrible to look at.
I have borrowed quite large amounts of money from friends and family to cover payments, and for current loans I have no real light at the end of the tunnel for paying these off. They keep offering me new loans although I have many many missed payments on my credit file (no defaults as yet fingers crossed), I have also missed paymetns on council tax, credit cards, and other accounts due to having to try and cover these debts.
I have so many questions but I thought I would start with just writing down my situation and whether you think I have a case for applying to the various companies past and present to get some sort of refund.
Even if I have been able to cover the payments one way or another and have never moved to the default stage on these loans, do you think I still have a case? When I say default I mean 4+ payments in a row. I have however set up payment arrangements on many of these loans present and past.
The PaydayUK windfall was really useful for this month baring in mind my wife has recently finished all maternity pay and I now have to cover all household bills on top of these payments a month.
I have seen some great wins for other people and if I could recoup even just a small amount of the money I have spent on these things over the year it would be a great help. Also, It would be very useful If I could get some of these removed from my credit file as at present my credit rating is tumbling to next to nothing.
I look forward to hearing from you and apologies for such a long message!
Graham
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Graham, it sounds as though your loans are unaffordable! So definitely put in requests for refunds to all lenders. But you also need to stop borrowing… I suggest your first action should be to contact StepChange and ask them about a debt management plan. If you get refunds (and I hope you do!) then you can use these to start clearing these debts but you don’t know how much you will get or how long it will take.
Use the refund from payday UK to pay your rent, council tax, bills and feed yourselves. Don’t use it to repay a few payday loans so you can keep borrowing … When in a hole stop digging!
Louise says
Echo what Sara says. I was in a mess and even with rolling over, I had no money left. I contacted pay plan and between us we set up an affordable amount to start repaying. then start looking at putting in complaints. Good luck
dominika says
thanks for phone number :) Just got back from phone with them finally my final response is on its way :) Created my complain back in 2 december been on phone with them for past 2 month now they told me they posted final response month ago which i have never received… but good thing is that i will get emailed version today :) Sooo happy days had 4 loans with them totaling 850 paid back in total 2465 so on a top interest 1600 :) my loans wasnt big ones just one but i made around 6 to 17 rollovers on each of them :/ so cant wait to read what they gonna respond :)
Soph says
Quick update regarding Quick Quid:
I had 26 loans between July 2010 and February 2012. Defaulted on the February 2012 one and admittedly buried much head in the sand and ignored it. Then I was issued with another 3 loans from them in July, August and September 2013. The third ended up in default also. I worked out I have paid £1400 in interest and charges and am owe them £700 principal balance.
Their response to my complaint was to discharge the first default and remove from my credit file and offer a goodwill payment of £250. However, the second default wouldn’t be removed.
I declined and went to the Ombudsman, however a week later I received an email from the debt collection agency dealing with the most recent default saying they were writing off this debt and marking it as settled.
My adjudicator has given QQ a deadline of today to send their file to her otherwise she will issue findings based on what I have provided. So far they haven’t responded to any of her requests.
Hopefully this will be resolved soon, my initial complaint was sent to them on the 20th January.
My main concern is having the default removed and a reasonable amount refunded. That said, I don’t plan to be greedy or difficult at the same time.
Louise says
Quick quid again…..they’ve given adjudicator an offer….£274! Told him no and he agreed with me. think this is going to be a very long drawn out process!! Ive estimated that my interest should be at least 1700. Agghhh
LAM says
I logged an affordability complaint with 247 on Thursday. They replied with this today. What’s your thoughts?
[edited]
I note from your account with us that over the course of our relationship with you have still not repaid us the total amount that has been advanced to your account. Do be aware that, in our experience, it is likely that any third party mediators you may refer your account to may ask you to repay the difference in order that you have at least repaid the total amount that we have funded to your account.
You have borrowed a total of £2678 from us. You have repaid a total of £2494.27.
That means that, if you disregard any interest or charges that were agreed as part of your contract, you still would need to return funds to us.
We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by accepting £183.73 as settlement of your balance. Once settled, we are happy to remove all reporting to the credit reference agencies.
melly says
I got exactly the same reply but my last line said
“We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by writing off your balance and removing any defaults registered”
Which i just accepted without taking it anyfurther just to end the matter really,so i would maybe email back and suggest they do the same? They can only refuse in which case time for the FO
LAM says
They still want me to pay them £184, however. They’re not writing off anything only deleting it from my credit file. I think I’ll try to negotiate writing off the balance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming you think their figures are probably correct. It’s worth a try to see if they will write the whole thing off. It’s true the FO would normally expect you to repay the amount borrowed and they are effectively giving you a full refund of all interest paid on earlier loans.
Ian says
I got the same response but as my figures were Borrowed: £3,510 and repaid £4,479.80 I was not willing to just have the entries deleted and the debt written off. Personally I would accept this if in your position. I wish some of the ones I had in similar situation had responded accordingly. Just make sure the figures are right though!
Kelly says
Hi just wanted to say thank you as I read this page and decided to write a complaint to wonga had an email today and they have upheld my complaint and all charges and interest refunded a total of £1600 pound which will come in handy as I’m learning to drive so happy and over the moon. I complained on the 17th of Feb.
Tim G says
More success with my payday lenders. After negotiating an outcome with Response Funding (Fancy a payday), they have given me nearly £400 in compensation for total borrowing, with the interest, of nearly £1000.
One Month loan have just offered to split the difference between what I borrowed and the interest which amounts to £495 refund.
While I feel I may have got some more through the FO, the protracted time it would have taken and no guarantee of success, I have taken the money offered.
The only ones sticking to their guns at present are Lending Stream, The Money Shop & CFO lending. Looks like the FO for those guys.
Keep plugging away to all who are still in the process.
Lorna says
I have just gotten my statement from payday uk and payday express statements. I don’t know how to read them. I have a variety of transactions all on one day and I don’t know how to calculate it?
Example. 23.11.2012
Interest repayment … (135.00)
Principle repayment … (9.96)
Interest deferral … 132.51
Principle deferral …. 530.04
Principle deferral … (530.04)
Obviously this is in the middle of the term… when I was borrower ing to repay the precious. … and sometimes not even doing that… paying a deferral fee just to.roll it over. This literally shows on the statements ad every single month. From 2012 to 2014.
How to u calculate this ??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you ignore the labels and go through and treat everything negative as a repayment and everything positive as a borrowing and then take the overall difference between these then that SHOULD be the total of interest and charges you have paid.
BUT try to check against your bank accounts to see if they seem correct. AND this won’t work well for a loan that you haven’t repaid.
Jimmy says
Hi all.
Just an update with WDA. They’ve emailed today stating they have not been able to come to a final response after 8 weeks and will now prioritise my complaint getting a response back by 13/6/2016. I had 8 loans with them in succession and defaulted on the last. It appears most have either been accepted or rejected by WDA after the 8 weeks. I will pass to the FO as I don’t feel like they should need an extra 3 weeks.
Satsuma loans – alongside my affordability complaint, i complained about their customer service. How many times I emailed and called to request a statement, conflicting information i was given etc. I received a letter from them upholding my customer service complaint, stating that they fell below their standards and offered me £25 as a goodwill gesture. They would send a cheque within 10 working days. This was about 15 working days ago!!!! Laughable service!
Tray says
I had my complaint upheld by Wonga last Friday after 13 weeks and 1 day, I’m now just waiting for funds to transfer which takes 3-5 days. I would definitely give them a ring as they were able to tell me when my complaint was in the final stage of the investigation and that I should hear within 48 hrs and I did.
They were really helpful with me
Christine says
I have some news-it is a bit complicated – I complained to the FO about Quick Quid, the adjudicator thought that I should accept their offer of taking the debt back from a debt collection agency and offered a reduced amount to pay, no compensation was recommended. I decided to take my complaint to the ombudsman and I am waiting to hear of the decision.
Meanwhile a debt collection agency called Motormile Finance had been making my life a misery. The claimed that I had borrowed £600 when in fact I borrowed £300. I pointed their mistake out to them and they advised me to go to the police! I had worrying letters from them saying that their ‘field agents’ would come round to my house to ‘assess my living conditions and financial situation. What did they propose to do? check my house over? demand to look at my bank statements? meanwhile they still insisted that I had borrowed £600, not £300.
I complained to the FO and emailed Motormile money to advise them.
They responded immediately, -still insisting that I owed. £600. I told them that I would pursue the complaint with the FO and emailed one of the CEO’s. They first offered to write the debt off, I asked for confirmation that they would not return the debt to Quick Quid/sell it on. I also asked for compensation. Result- the debt is written off and I have written conformation that they will not return the debt to Quick Quid or sell it on AND £100 compensation!
Aga says
Lending stream; success ; Interest I paid = outstanding I owed
2We write in reference to your correspondence.
Please note that considering the financial adversities that you are going through, we offer to close the loan 2647489 with no further payments and waive the outstanding amount of £674.48.
We have revised the offer keeping in view your circumstances that you are facing currently.
Darren says
I had a total of 44 loans from QQ from 2008 until 2014…..think it was 10 loans that rolled over etc
Made a complaint and adjudicator upheld my complaint, but QQ not looking at loans older than 6 years.
I estimated total of 3500 in interest etc over all loans.
Today QQ have offered 1406 in settlement.
Thinking I should accept
Aga says
Hi Darren , no first negociate , WDA offered 400 , I paid 1000 in interest and finally the settlement was 700 , I don’t know your situation but I think 1400 is not enough if you paid 3500 plus you have FOS in your favour , good luck
craig says
Wonga’s 8 weeks are up next week. Are most people getting 4 week extension requests from them still?
Cheers, Craig
Chris says
Wonga made me an offer last week, 6 weeks after they asked for a 4 week extension. I had 22 loans from 2011 – 2014 and paid just over £7000 in interest, they made me an offer of £5400 which I thought was acceptable as the first few loans were technically affordable in relation to my income. They did say in the final resolution that my payment record was excellent up until the final loan, which I defaulted on – as by that time I had 7 payday loans that were all being rolled over every month and just decided I had to stop the cycle.
This loan was written off by wonga a couple of years ago, so I’m not sure if it was the default that ultimately worked in my favour when they came to their decision.
Matt says
QQ’s approach seems to be completely along the lines of “for every 1 person we fob off with the low offer after 8 weeks, we can afford X number of people taking it all the way to the ombudsman”.
I’ve dealt with a few companies so far and most have dealt with the complaint very well – particularly Elevate Credit (1 Month Loan).
QQ on the other hand don’t appear to be taking any notice that they may have done something wrong and are treating the complaints purely as a business exercise in trying to minimise their costs.
Good luck to everyone in their complaints and make sure you do everything you can to get what’s fair
JulesU says
I’m looking to get 3-4k back from the QQ vultures. Their reply today was offering to settle/close account if I pay them £500…couldn’t make it up! Haha
Kevin says
The 8 weeks have now passed with Wonga today and they have advised it will be another 6 weeks before they can make a final decision! Am I better to wait the 6 weeks or go straight to the ombudsman? I was willing to wait 3 weeks but 6 seems too much to me.
Also, lending stream have came back to me and denied any wrongdoing whatsoever….has anyone had a simular reply from them? And then had success from the FO?
Nicole says
I received a email from wonga today too, saying they will deal with my complaint too in the next 6 weeks! I get they are swamped , but seriously another six weeks!!! Arrgggghhh!!!
Lee says
Wonga took a full 16 weeks to give me a final response, I got an offer yesterday which is very good but I was expecting a little bit more I have emailed and asked them to review it, I did complain to ombudsmen on 20th april but they only looked into it last week and I have not heard anything from them I might just accept Wonga offer in next couple of days as it is good but probably about £1000 short of what was expecting but as I borrowed a lot the sum I been offered is quite large
Annon says
I had a offer of £225 from them as they said they were only prepared to pay out on one loan,then they messaged back after i queried it and they then offered to pay out on 2 and offered me £444.99,i again asked why only two after they said one.got a final responce today off them saying they would only pay out on two loans and that amount totalled £444.99.after the 8 weeks i just put all complaints into the fo and if i get offers in the mean time then great,if not the fo are already on the case.
Kay says
Hi
I thought I would provide an update of the outcomes of my complaints, all of which I submitted between 6th-8th Feb 16.
Lending Stream – I had 3 loans with these and one was still outstanding. They replied within 3 days and offered to reduce my outstanding loan so I only paid back what I borrowed and not the interest. I accepted this due to only having a few loans with them and previous 2 I paid back early, I got more than I expected from these. As a result I have now paid this off so nothing outstanding. (saved £550)
247MoneyBox – I had 1 loan outstanding for £323 and have had 4 loans in total from them. They responded within 4 days and they cleared my outstanding £323 which was more than then total interest I had paid them for all of my loans.
Pixieloans – Didn’t uphold my complaint, however only had 1 loan with them so wasn’t expecting anything, I was just trying my luck!
UncleBuck – Didn’t uphold my complaint, again only 1 loan with them but an amount still outstanding, I am on a repayment plan for this.
WageDay Advance – responded after 13 weeks and not upholding my complaint, I have taken this to FO.
Wonga – responded after 14 weeks not upholding my complaint, I have taken this to FO.
Sunny – My biggest success. They responded on the last day of week 8 and refunded all interest across all loans with 8% interest so I got just under £1,400!
I’m so glad I stumbled across this site (can’t even remember what I searched for now) but didn’t think I could get anything back. It is definitely worth the emails etc as I have now cleared most of my payday loan debts and have learnt my lesson! So keep at it guys! I can’t thank Sara enough x
Matt S says
Below is an update on my complaints and how they are progressing : Originally posted this on 19th April, updated with latest information.
Vivus – By far the best, 2 weeks after making my complaint they had offered to refund all interest on all 6 loans I had with them, plus 8% statutory. Money was in my account within 2 days.
247 Moneybox – Again, very impressed. Only had 2 loans with them and overall had paid back less than they’d loaned me. However within 3 weeks of making the complaint they agreed to write off my outstanding balance and remove my default.
Mr Lender – Had 2 loans with them, and they agreed to reduce my outstanding balance by £300 which again I was happy with. Full response within 4 weeks.
Lending Stream – Again only 2 loans with them, but also agreed to write off outstanding balance and remove default from credit report. Full response in around 4-5 weeks.
Uncle Buck – Had a number of loans with them and they agreed that the last 2 were unreasonable. Refund of all interest plus 8% on these loans which cleared the outstanding balance and left me with a small refund which was transferred after 3-4 days.
Ferratum – Probably most disappointed with them so far. They were lending to me while I was in debt management (easily noticeable on credit report – also not something I’m proud of but was desperate at the time), defaults and late payments galore plus very low credit score. 6 loans over 9 months including 3 times reloaning on same day as repaying. However they feel they loaned responsibly. Complaint now been with FO for 9 weeks, been allocated to an adjudicator who has been supplied with all requested information from both me and Ferratum. Just awaiting a decision now. Hope to get it soon!!
Quick Quid & Pounds to Pocket – Both denied my complaint but offered to reduce my outstanding balance. Complaint been with FO for around a month, still awaiting allocation.
Quid – Responded on last day of 8 weeks, didn’t uphold complaint but as a gesture of goodwill refunded difference between what I borrowed and what I paid (£607.23). Money in my account within 2 days. Impressed!!
Wage Day Advance – 5 loans with 6 rollovers over 12 months. Refused my complaint, was a little surprised by this. Felt they lent responsibly and that the loans were affordable. Complaint been with FO for a couple of weeks now awaiting allocation.
PDUK / Payday Express – 8 Weeks were up Mid May after them taking 6 weeks to supply statement of account. Pretty much consistent monthly lending / rolling over for over a year with both. Including 1 loan rolled over 11 consecutive months. Responded on last day of 8 weeks advising that they hadn’t completed their investigation. No request for extension. Complaints due to go in to the FO.
The Loan Store – 2 loans and 2 rollovers over 4 months while in debt management. Refused complaint, felt they acted responsibly and loans were affordable, again complaint due to go to the FO.
Wonga – 8 weeks plus extra 4 weeks been and gone and still no further updates, in week 14 now. Seemed earlier on that they were responding to people within the extra 4 weeks but now seem to be taking much longer. Will give them 1 more week and then complain to the FO.
Minicredit – Complaint in with Kapama / Opos regarding extortionate fees. Only 1 loan with them of £100 but £340 of fees added after advising them I was struggling financially and entering debt management. 8 weeks up this Friday.
Swift Sterling – Complaint in with Maltese FSA. This is the big one for me and feeling more positive about this now than I ever did before. Pauline at the MFSA has requested information from Northway and they have 1 more week to respond to her.
Looking back, not proud of how much of a mess I got myself in to. But hopefully a few more payouts will help clear some debts and get me back on track. Since this original post I have made a spreadsheet using statements and emails that were sent to me. All these loans other than Swift Sterling, Ferratum and the Loan Store were taken out between March 2012 and May 2013. In this time I took a total of 45 loans and 54 deferrals, aswell as installment loans (17 monthly payments to 3 different companies). Some months was borrowing or rolling over from up to 8 different lenders. Scary looking back at it.
Daniel says
My story – here goes!
After receiving a refund completely out of the blue following the general review by Instant Cash Loans Limited (PDUK / Payday Express) I decided to look into the loans I had taken out over the years & found this website via google. I saw people were enjoying success so began my journey on 16 Feb. I had already fought my way out of the cycle but was in bad way between 2010 and 2014. Before I took my first loan out with Wonga I had a good credit score, a settled life and good health. All of those were tested during that 4 year period.
I complained direct to the business’ & clearly stated my personal circumstances & set out my case using different headings & bullet points to ensure it was correctly and quickly assessed. The business’ all took longer than 8 weeks so I went straight to The Ombudsman at week 8 and this is when things finally moved – and moved very quickly. The FO commented that because I had stated my case so clearly it expedited proceedings as they needed no further information.
Results:
WDA: 1 loan. Refused as no repeat lending. Decision received week 11
Wonga: 19 out of 28 adjudged to be un-affordable, nearly 9k refund in total (including interest). Wonga have agreed and will payout IDC. Decision received week 12
PDUK / Payday Express: 7 loans: still with Ombudsman.
QQ: 8 loans: still with ombudsman.
Be patient but give as much info as you can.
Finally, thanks to Sara and this site; its been an amazing empowering experience and an great result at the end of it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A 9k payout from Wonga is spectacular – but I think your comment that this has been “an amazing empowering experience” will be shared by many people. Clearing off two unpaid balances and getting a few hundred back can make a huge difference to some’s life!
Good luck for your other claims!
Bob says
I’m really not happy today but it was kinda expected as quickquid declined my complaint and didn’t offer anything as they say in only had 2 loans and there was 140ish days between them. But my complaint was only about the 1st loan which was a flexiloan which I had for over 18 months which I kept withdrawing from etc…. kept withdrawing upto the max limit on the day payments were made to them etc… also I was self employed and they increased my limit from 400 to 1200 during this loan. There were some small gaps where I paid it off and then re borrowed a few weeks later as I did this to save interest at the time
Basically their response today focused on that I had 2 loans and was a gap of between 140ish days between them and that I paid on time
Total interest paid was about 4,000
Not sure how I’m going to do with the fo but kinda knew it would fail at this point but surprised I wasn’t offered 150 etc … so feel a bit like I’m not gonna get anywhere at the mo
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest being very clear in your FO complaint that you are only complaining about the first loan and that they should have been able to see from the patter of your drawdowns that you were using it more frequently so their response should have been to limit or stop the facility, instead of increasing your borrowing limit.
tim says
Hi
Would just like an opinion if possible.
So today was my first big success, wage day advance offered to pay me all interest after the third loan totalling 2400 :-) however they say the last loan was sold to motor mile finance for 1070 and there is still a balance of 1058 left so they will be deducting this from my payment.
Now the loan was only 550 and I have made 390 in payments surely I should only have 160 deducted from my settlement amount? If not then they will have kept all the interest on the last loan and I will have effectively paid 1438 on it- 888 interest.
I’m not sure whether to accept the offer and be done with it but I don’t see why I should pay motor mile and wage day advance keep the interest?
Many thanks
Tim
Sara (Debt Camel) says
880 is well worth arguing about!
I suggest you get back to them and say that you are happy with their offer to refund interest but you think you should not have to pay any interest on the last loan, which was 550 and you have already paid 390.
tim says
Thanks Sara. I have done this just now. To compound the offer, I found a statement from mmf as of 3 months ago and a statement from wage day advance as of 4 weeks ago both stating the outstanding is 760! I’ve pointed this out also. Bit cheeky adding 300 that does not exist.
Paul says
Hi all,
Quick update on my PDUK complaint. Not sure if you remember but mine was the case where the adjudicator was useless and basically said that even though she agreed the loans were unaffordable, it wasn’t PDUK’s fault!! Therefore the adjudicator ruled in PDUK’s favour. I didn’t agree and asked for it to go on to the ombudsman, yesterday I received the ombudsman’s provisional findings, this is what they said –
my provisional decision
My provisional decision is that I’m minded to require MEM Consumer Finance Limited (PDUK) to refund the interest and charges it has applied to the loans Mr O took out together with interest at 8% per annum simple from the date the interest and charges were applied to the date of settlement. In addition, I’m minded to require MEM Consumer Finance Limited to remove all the loans from Mr O’s credit file. Finally I’m minded to require MEM Consumer Finance Limited to write off any outstanding balance Mr O owes.
Just goes to show don’t take the adjudicators decision, if you’re not happy ask for it to go to the ombudsman and hopefully they will find in your favour.
Thanks to everyone on here for all your help and guidance especially Sara.
Graham says
HI Guys,
I contacted 100Pounds with the template letter but had the below response. I had a number of loans with them, they weren’t affordable due to borrowing elsewhere, and I rolled over a number of these loans many times.
Has anyone got any sort of reply I can go back to them with? I paid about £500 mark I believe, so its not a big one at all…
Thank you for your e-mail.
We looked through your application and we do not find any fault in how we handled the situation when you applied for a loan with us. As soon as you contacted us on 11th May 2015 and asked for the repayment plan you have been provided with our full support in order to help you with your financial situation and loan repayment on the suitable terms to you.
Best regards,
Customer service team
Many thanks
Graham
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could reply you have paid them £500 in interest – in the interest of getting this speedily resolved you would be happy to accept £350 (?or however much you think would be reasonable?) as a refund, otherwise could they confirm that they will not be making you an offer and you will take the case to the Financial Ombudsman.
Paul M says
Just had a response from WDA in under 7 days. They have stated i borrowrd £970 which is wrong and have repaid £764 which is also wrong and they are saying there is a shortfall of £216 i need to pay. I have asked for a statement of loans provided yet on my credit report they have issued a default for £813?? They have agreed to write off the default but does this seem as though they are accepting fault?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The amount on the credit record would include interest and charges.
In cases like this, it’s really useful if you can “reconstruct” the loans & repayments from your own bank statements so you know how much you have borrowed and repaid.
Robert says
Just thought I’d update on my Wonga complaint. They issued a final response yesterday after 13 weeks and one day offering a refund of the interest and 8% of 7 out of 13 loans. These were the big ones with the most top ups and rollovers. Total amount was just one £2700 so I’m a very happy bunny! This didn’t include any reduction of the amount they wiped off in 2014 – which they highlighted in their response. I think the key to getting a refund with them is the fact that I rolled over and topped up so many times.
Donation made to citizens advice Southwark!
CMA says
Hi all, just wanted to give an update of where I am with my complaints against Wonga and QuickQuid.
Various loans with both during 2011-2014. I still have an outstanding balance on a FlexCredit account with QQ, now on a stepchange debt management plan.
Emailed Wonga on 24th March, acknowledgement on 30th March saying they’ll look into it. Nothing since, and their 8 weeks is up tomorrow (if im going by 8 weeks from their acknowledgement)
Emailed Quickquid on 31st March, had acknowledgement on 7th April requesting usual info, bank statements etc.
Final response from QQ on 20th May which is just under the 8 weeks. Goodwill offer to reduce my outstanding balance from £1191 to £774 and remove from credit file, which i thought was actually quite good compared to other peoples intial offers from QQ! Obviously refused it though and gone to FO. Submitted claim with FO 24th May and had acknowledgement today saying theyll be in touch in the next 2 weeks….
ross says
Firstly thanks very much for this site these pay day loans have done me in
My question is wonga have got back to me within 5 weeks, I had 79 loans with them over 5 years. I worked out my interest to 5200 plus interest
They have got back to me with offer of just short of 3200 including interest and admitted they should of done more
They have paid on 26 of 79 loans. No idea how selected but said all other ones they did necessary checks on and deemed them responsible
What is my next step if go to ombudsman or should I accept? There is nearly 3K difference. My worry is I will end up with nothing if I go to them
Tony says
Ross
I very much doubt you will end up with less. They offered me £818 but adjudicator has suggested they pay me all loans in the six year period, which is likely to be nearly 4K. Your choice though and good luck
Vera says
Hi Ross Wonga offered me 2.3k, on 16 loans, I declined their offer and took it to the fos, they ruled in my favour and I received 6.2k for 48 loans today. You will likely get more if you take it to the fos, don’t let these people get away with your hard earned cash they didn’t care about us when we were struggling take it to the fos it will be well worth it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not the worst offer I have heard of so I am not surprised you are thinking about it, but nearly 3k difference is a lot, think how long it would take to earn that amount… Of course you may not get a “full refund” from the Ombudsman but from the sheer number of loans it sounds as though you have a good case.
I don’t think there is any danger that you would get nothing if you go to the Ombudsman. It sounds as though Wonga have admitted they were wrong so I think the Ombudsman would think it is unreasonable for them to retract that offer. The worst that is likely to happen is the Ombudsman says they think Wonga’s offer is fair.
S.D says
Same thing happened with me, Wonga offered just over £3000 for some loans via the ombudsman but after an adjudicator found in my favour for around 10 more I declined Wonga’s offer
Two weeks after the adjudicator passed it to the ombudsman I had a decision.
Exactly 1 week after that I had £5500.
Patience and go the distance