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?
D says
Would anyone be able to tell me if they had used zippa loans before?
I think I maybe had 7 or 8 loans with them all for £250 with the usual one paid off then another borrowed.
I believe they may have withdrawn there online service and possibly moved to a door to door lender such as provident.
I’m.going to email them regards my borrowing history but I’m unsure as to whether or not they still have the same email address etc.
Thanks for any help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you are the first person to mention them here. They obviously aren’t still lending, you could talk to the Financial Ombudsman if you don’t get a reply to your email of complaint.
D says
Think they were based in Belfast and belshill (near glasgow)
Don’t think they were a huge company.
Hopefully hear back
Holly says
Morning all ,
I have escalated my case with a few payday loan companies but peachy sent me this after I escalated the case via resolver:
We are writing in response to your e-mail to our CEO on 15/05/2019.
We are sorry to hear that you’ve been dissatisfied with our service.
Please rest assured that we are looking into your complaint and will provide you with the results of our assessment and our decision on it in no longer than 8 weeks from when the complaint was raised.
Our final response to your complaint will be sent by 19/06/2019 the latest but please do not hesitate to contact us should there be anything else we could help you with in the meantime.
So they plan to get back to my by 19/06/2019 but on my resolver case with them it’s saying I should escalate the case to FOS in 20 days ..
so should I give peachy a chance and wait untill the 19/06/2019 or escalate the case in 20 days like resolver says ?
Thanks
Big dee says
Hi guys
2 things, I’ve just logged my last complaint of all lenders to 1 month loan, just wondered what experience everyone has had with them dealing with complaints.
Secondly on my bank statement in 2010 2011 transaction monthly that says “w/loan processing” but I can’t find out who it was
Any ideas? Cheers
Will says
I logged a 1 month loan complaint via sunny complaints. They took the full 8 weeks but I did receive a payout. Whole process took around 12 weeks.
Tom says
Hi Sara,
I had a complaint with Mr Lender, which they didn’t uphold but reduced my balance from £400 to £60, this wasn’t showing on my credit profile as the default was register in 26th April 2013 so has since dropped off. However they have since added this back on as an “arrangement to pay”. With no recorded default or anything. Is this right? And what does this mean for the future?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They should not have done that. Once there is a default, the debt should never reappear. Put in a new complaint to Mr Lender, ask for it to be removed from your credit record and ask for compensation (?£50?). Say the complaint will go to the Financial Ombudsman if they do not do this,
Tom says
Thanks Sara. I’ve just been having an argument with them, they asked me to accept a full and final settlement. And I responded asking for the dates which they gave me a “default should have been recorded on 26/04/203” on that basis I accepted the full and final settlement knowing that even if they wanted to add something to my credit file it would only exist for a week. However now they are saying that “they don’t issue defaults” and can’t do anything. They have mentioned that once I pay, “as a gesture of goodwill” they will remove any adverse information but I don’t want a loan to be showing as settled even if not adversely for another 6 years. As I don’t want to get questioned by mortgage advisors etc. Not sure what I can do, the added complication is I was pressured into accepting their offer as above but since lantern have responded saying this is statute barred and have written it off, but in the meantime mr lender have recalled the debt. I’m actually much worse off right now for having complained.
Lu says
Hello,
I have had a complaint ongoing with Quick quid for around 18 months… it went to an adjudicator who agrees that loans 2-5 should be refunded to me with interest etc… Quickquid finally came back last week and disagree, so now the adjudicator has to see if this has changed his opinion ?
Then will go to the ombudsman..! it seems to be taking so long, in your opinion how likely am I to get this money back ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
normally the Ombudsman upholds the adjudicator decision.
If you are fed up about QQ dragging everything out for so long, read my comment here https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-9/#comment-297776 and think about telling the FCA how you feel. It won’t help your case directly.
April says
Morning all,
I’m just going through my credit report – would Satsuma come under Provident?
Also, if an account shows more than once can I dispute this with the loan company? Aswell as them not updating payments I have been making?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Satsuma is owned by Provident. If you borrowed a lot of times from them, use the standard payday loan complaint letters in the article above. If you only had one or two loans and they were large, use the other procedure over here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/.
“Also, if an account shows more than once can I dispute this with the loan company? Aswell as them not updating payments I have been making?” are you talking about credit records? Can you give more details please.
April says
Thanks Sara
There are a few of the same loans showing on my credit report twice. They say default and no payments have been made since originally taking the loan, even though these are being paid off through Payplan (for 6 months) And the original amount outstanding isn’t being reduced
Sara (Debt Camel) says
could they have been sold to a debt collector?
April says
1 out of the 4 accounts that are showing twice was sold to a debt collector, however this was returned to the original loan company
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lantern have said in writing that the debt is statute barred? what date was the debt taken out?
Tom says
Yeah and they were willing to write it off. But in the meantime I’d had accepted Mr Lenders proposal to reduce the balance. That’s kinda my fault. But the decision I took was based solely on the default date been in April 2013. I’m not bothered about paying between 0-£60. It’s more the credit file bit. That even if they don’t have any adverse information regarding any missed payments or whatever, my understanding is whilst this doesn’t show in the short term loans category, it does show as Mr Lender. I really don’t want this to be a problem or questioned when it comes to mortgage time at some point in the next 12 months when my profile is “squeeky clean”. Thanks Sara.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry I missed your reply. Tell Mr Lender that the SCOR rules http://www.scoronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/High%20Level%20Prinicples%20Document%20Version%202%20final.pdf say a default has to be added when a loan is from 3-6 months in arrears and as someone that reports to CRAs they have to follow those rules – they can’t say “the don’t issue defualts”. Ask for them to add a default date of April 13 or you will send your complaint to the financial Ombudsman and ask for compensation for the hassle.
Mama says
Hi sunny have until today to reply to fos are they usually on time please
Casey says
Hi Mama
With my case against sunny they missed the fos deadline and ignored the follow up emails from the adjudicator for over a month .. in the end it was escalated to the ombudsman and after a month of being in the queue sunny contacted the adjudicator to offer on loans 37 to 58, though in their original offer to me there were loans from 1 to 58 included. Needless to say the adjudicator rejected their offer as it makes no sense and it is still in the queue with ththe ombudsman and that was 3 months ago
Hopefully your case will be different
John says
Hi Sara
May I ask I currently have a loan with quick Quid which has defaulted however they sent it the completely wrong address which they have admitted to?
Any suggestions??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what did QQ send to the wrong address?
is this the first loan you had from them?
Joseph says
Hi John, I had a similar complaint like this. I argued with FOS as they had wrong address for me. Adjudicator upheld my complaint because under some sort of rule you have to be given proper notice of this default but as I wasn’t then it wasn’t fair. Double check the proper rules though, this only applied to me as I never received mine as they never sent it in the first place
Bubba says
Why is that QQ seem to get away with delaying this for so long.
I have been waiting since October after adjudicator upheld complaint but QQ argue against Post March 15 Loans.
Was then told that this had been resolved and my complaint was now just waiting in queue for Ombudsman only to be told by another adjudicator yesterday that no they are still discussing post March 15 Loans??
I have already complained to the FCA but we are all held to deadlines of 6 months to submit to the Ombudsman and when a decision is upheld we need to respond by certain dates but it doesn’t appear that the loan companies are held to this same standard? Certainly QQ are not.
Confusing mixed messages being sent by the Ombudsman staff.
Unfortunately I think the Ombudsman is drowning in these claims and prioritising small easy to settle claims.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There are c 10,000 QQ cases at the ombudsman. FOS is not prioritising the small easy cases, it is trying to find the approach which will settle large numbers of cases.
RL says
Hi I’ve send a complaint to Sunny which has partially been upheld,
They have responded with:
We accept that it may have been prudent for us to review your financial circumstances before granting any further credit as well as review how you were using our product(s) around the time that you had been charged interest for 12 months. According to our records, this was at the time of your 20th loans.
To put things right, we propose to do the following:
· Calculate the interest paid by you on your draws/loans from your 20th loan onwards £758.22;
· Pay interest of 8% (simple) on the above refund amount from the dates of payment to the dates of settlement, which comes to £80.86;
· The total refund is the sum of the above amounts £839.08;
· The outstanding balance of £486.09 will be written off, meaning you no longer have any liability to us;
· Amend your credit file to reflect the above
I had min 2 and some times 3 loans every month from 08/01/2017 – 20/03/2019
Is it worth writing back to them to suggest re looking at my complaint? I paid £1106.80 interest on loans 1 – 19.
Sara do you think this is a good offer?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you could get quite a lot more back by going to FOS!
samantha says
Hi RL, my experience..
I had 1-29 loans, a few open at a time, paying then repaying all roughly 200, some 450 some 100
I had a balance left of £500 and they wrote it off for me, I never accepted to I went to FOS
it really has been a long slog as it was with FOS for well over a year. adjudicator agreed with Sunny, so I left it to carry one. final adjudicator upheld 6-29 loans and have requested my bank details to send me £2200
I would go further! goodluck
Sarah says
my jar have advised they cannot send me my list of loans from 2008 -2010 but then said they will look into my complaint with the info they have, i responded that i can send them bank statements as proof of the loans, but if they have nothing on there system, including the credit checks then how can they investigate. i have told them i can send them the statements or send to FOS. their response was that they will investigate and because i am refusing to provide these then will come back with an answer?? even though i offered to send them. Do you think they will come back with a rejection and i send bank statements to FOS or just send straight to FOS? the 8 weeks is up 04.06.2019?
** PS they said they cannot send as their record only go back 5-6 years then wiped off their system
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send them copies of the statements and say the case goes to FOS in a week if they haven’t made a satisfactory offer.
Liam says
Hi Sara I have had a final response from Mr Lender and they have said:
“For the reasons given within our investigation, we do not believe that we have acted irresponsibly and the loans issued were fair and affordable based on the information you provided at the time and the checks that were carried out.
However, as we can appreciate your current financial situation, as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to recall your account with Lantern and wipe your outstanding balance to zero, therefore closing your account in full.”
They have offered to wipe my balance of £763.68, but should I reply and say I would also like any negative markers removed from my credit report too otherwise I’ll refer to FOS or would I be pushing my luck asking that?
Thank you for all your help on this page!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well first is this actually a good offer? Ignoring the last defaulted loan, how much interest did you pay on earlier loans?
And the last loan, what did you borrow (ignore interest added) ? how much did you repay to Mr L (if anything) and how much have you paid lantern(if anything)?
Liam says
My first loan was on 23/9/13 for £250 and I repaid £437.50 interest plus the initial capital and £38 admin fees. I finished repaying the loan on 30/1/14 and took out another loan on the same day for £600 which I repaid £107.70 capital, £540 interest and £24 admin fees before it was sold on to Lantern. I can’t remember what I repaid to Lantern as I was in a DMP for a short while before I stopped paying that too. My bank statements around that time would also show I was borrowing from other companies so should I just refer to the FOS to try and claim the interest I paid?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, with only 2 loans wiping that balance is an OK offer. You might get a bit more from going to FOS, but it’s unusual to get the first loan refunded and you have only paid about £60 more on the second loan than you borrowed. But they should definitely remove the negative markers from your credit record – your second loan was so much larger and taken the same day…
Bran says
I have my first reply today from Ferratum, and it is a ‘Final Complaint resolution’
‘You had loans with Ferratum during 2016-2017. If you had loans or arrears with other Companies who did not share/subscribe to the same agency as us then these debts would have been invisible to us.
All of your previous loans were repaid on time, which suggests they were affordable and we were not alerted to any financial difficulties.
You currently have one outstanding loan. This was paid out on * and was due to be repaid in full over 5 months. The outstanding balance is £1156
I have reviewed the loans and cannot agree that Ferratum lent irresponsibly. However, as a gesture of goodwill and in full and final resolution to the complaint we can agree to waive all interest on the open loan and accept the outstanding capital, minus any payments already made. This means we will waive £750.00 and accept £406 to close the loan. One this amount has been received we will inform the credit reference agencies that the loan has been settled. As CRS are handling your account please continue to make you DMP payments to them.
Looking at my records, I had 3 loans with this company. The amounts were £500, £600, and finally £750.
I am not actually sure what to do here. Also, if I were to accept would by DMP debt to this company simply be reduced by the £750 offered?
Diddy says
I too am waiting an email from Ferratum. I had a total of 13 loans from them from 2014 till now (currently still outstanding £435). They sent an email showing only 4 loans, sent them an email back to say I have statements going back to 2014 and they sent an updated list showing loans from 2015 to now….so still missing some?? Not sure what system they have but it’s clearly not working properly! At least 10 of the loans were taken out every month (paid off and then reload straight away) so will be interesting to see if I get the same response…..
Chris says
I just got my response from them offering £400 gesture of goodwill after having 13 loans, back to back paying over £1700 interest.
Seems they’re just sending some bad offers out today.
Liam says
I also received an offer today, they didn’t agree with my complaint but “as a gesture of goodwill” they’ve offered to take off the interest I paid on previous loans from my current balance, reducing it from £937 to £183. I replied and told them if they clear my account and remove negative markers from my credit report I’ll withdraw my complaint otherwise I’ll go to FOS with my bank statements which will show that they were unaffordable. Let’s see what they say to that.
Debbie says
Hi Sara wonder if u can help I complained to loans at home I had 5 loans in total 10/09/09 £200 11/02/10 £750 18/03/10 £200 02/09/10 £750 07/04/11 £750 i defaulted and have only just paid them of but they say cos they are over 6years they won’t look at them that’s there final decision shall I go ombudsman do you think? I don’t have bank statements only from 2010 onwards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Had you had late/missed payments to the loans before the last one?
Debbie says
Hi Sara yes but I have no records for this I also paid them early to top up to get the other loans and they are saying due to it being over 6 years they don’t have records of it. And I don’t too.
Holly says
Hello ,
If I’ve got complaints in process with payday lenders via resolver and have had replies they are looking into it etc , shall I continue making payments to them or cancel them ? I don’t want it to escalate to the point of it going to debt collectors im a bit worried about that
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you should not carry on with the normal payments if this means you will have to borrow more money. The point of these complaints is to get you out of the cycle of repaying then borrowing again.
I suggest you cancel the CPAs to the lenders and tell them you would like an affordable payment arrangement – an amount that you can manage each month and not have to take out more high cost credit or get behind with bills. if you have more than a couple of lenders it could be a lot simpler if you talk to StepChange about setting up a debt management plan, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
Affordability complaints can take a VERY long while to go through. You need to get yourself in a safe position. Otherwise you may feel you have to accept a poor offer from a lender, when you could get a LOT more by going to the ombudsman.
turtle00 says
I have made a few complaints to lenders I still have loans with. I was already on a repayment plan with them but have been able to reduce the monthly payments even further now that I have affordability complaint in with them. This has given me some more breathing space financially.
I just emailed them saying as I’ve made an affordability complaint, can I reduce my monthly repayments. This worked with Moneyboat and MyJar automatically reduced my monthly plan and pushed back the next due payment to August without me asking.
Hope this helps.
turtle00 says
Following onto this…. lending stream (who I also have a payment plan with) also agreed to reduce the monthly amount based on having an affordability complaint in with them.
Julie Harris says
Hi,
I have sent a number of letters to various payday loans and within 2 weeks had a satisfactory payout from safety net credit which I was over the moon about. Other lenders are not so quick and two have declined my claim.
However Provident (satsuma) have asked me to complete mental health forms with a health professional after stating that i mentioned my mental capacity in my original complaint. I did not at all, I used a template from Resolver which does not declare mental incapacity.
Any guidance would be appreciated on how to move this forward.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply to them saying they appear to have mixed up your complain with someone else, and can they look at it again.
D says
Sara
I can’t find the comment I made regarding my complaint against 118 so posting this fresh one.
Whilst I have my complaint in against them regarding the top up loan they allocated me should they now freeze interest and payments until it is resolved? Or should I still be charged as I would each month on my monthly agreement.
As it stands at the moment I can manage the current outgoing but I’ve never had a complaint in with regards an outstanding loan.
Thanks
Joseph says
I used to think this, they don’t technically have to freeze interests/payments. You’re obliged until the complaint has been resolved to continue making contractual payments, as you agreed. When the complaint has been resolved, then this will change (if found in your favour). I know how you feel, I feel they shouldn’t do it this way. Some companies might stop interest and ‘freeze’ the account, but you do get the odd one who wont. Which company is this with?
Chris says
Received a final response from Ferratum stating they do not feel they lent to me irresponsibly (despite 13 back to back loans, taken the day the last was paid back, increasing in amounts, totalling £1700 interest).
They offered me £400, and once countered £450; however the sheer fact they did not send me my list of loans, were happy to offer more money “to bring it to a speedy resolution” suggests they shouldn’t have lent me the money. Will be escalating the complaint.
I’d encourage negotiating final offers though, 1 email, and 30 minutes got me £50 extra!
Chris
Liam says
Hi Sara I have had a final response from Ferratum. They said “on the details available at the time we were happy to lend. In order to bring this matter to a speedy conclusion, we have reviewed the complaint and in full and final settlement we would like to offer to credit the interest paid on the closed loans – £427.84 to the capital of the current loan. This in addition to the payments already made to this loan means we will reduce the balance to £197.24 from £941.01. This means all the loans have been interest free”
I replied and asked if they would waive the current balance and remove negative markers from my credit report but they declined this, saying “We are unable to waive the balance of the current loan as this would mean you have failed to repay even the nett amount of the monies you have had.”
If I take this to FOS, will I likely have the same outcome whereby the interest will be returned to me which would reduce my current balance to what Ferratum have already stated?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you think any of their figures are wrong, then what they have suggested is normally the maximum you will get from FOS.
The last loan – what did you borrow (ignore the interest added)? how much have you paid to this 9ignore whether this was repaying capital or interestest)?
Joseph says
Sounds like a good offer Liam, although I would want to double check so try to get list of your loans. If you’re not bothered about them being on your credit file, I would personally accept. If you are (like I was) bothered about your credit file, then if they’ve refused to do this, you’ll need to talk it to the ombudsman. Like sara said, best outcome with FOS is similar to this outcome but including removal of credit information.
Ady says
Hi sara,
Ive got a complaint in with sunny loans. I had my 1st loan on 29-12-13 and my last on 2/8/2018. In total i had 89 loans, borrowed £16,945.34 and repaid £3470.29 in interest. Any ideas what the likely outcome will be ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry, I don’t make those sort of guesses – but Sunny at the moment are not making good offers it seems. Come back with what they say if you aren’t sure it is good enough!
Calum says
One i have just realised is that i had loans from the Cheque Centre who i believe have now been bought out by Quick Loans? I ask about irresponsible lending back in 2017 and i recieved an email from them saying it would take 8 weeks to look into it but heard nothing. I then realised they went into administration so didnt bother following up. Is it still worth doing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Only the brand name was bought. They went into administration in 2017 and the deadline to submit any complaints was a long while ago so nothing can be done now.
Neil says
Hi All,
My 51 loan case against Lending Stream has been with an adjudicator for 4 weeks now ( in the FOS queue since October 2018) . I just called him for an update and he told me that he has nearly finished his assessment but is waiting for a response form an Ombudsman regarding something or other ( he wouldn’t tell me what) , but has almost finished his assessment and will be in touch sometime next week to let me know the outcome.
I asked him , that seeing he is so close to completing his assessment , whether he could give me any indication of which way his assessment will go and he apologised but said no he can’t . If he is that close to completing his assessment then surely by now he must know which way the outcome is likely to be.
Ah the agonising wait !!!
Is he fobbing me off and no where near completing his assessment or is he just not allowed to tel me at this stage?
Neil says
Hi All,
Also the adjudicator on my Lending Stream case hasn’t asked me anything about my final circumstances. How can he reach a decision without discussing this with me?.
Mind you, my adjudicator on my case against Ferratum didn’t ask me any questions either. I can only assume that its so clear from my bank statements and the number of loans then they don’t really need to as they have seen enough. 3O or so loans with Ferratum got £3,600 after turning down a £500 goodwill gesture.. Hang in there!
Tim says
Hi Neil,
I had a 25 loan case against Lending stream and the adjudicator found in my favour for loans 5-25. Lending stream agreed and paid after 28 days. Good luck
Mr PDL says
Hi All,
Has anyone had any experience with Moneyboat? They have not upheld my complaint but have been quite spiky in their response. Specifically
“It is worth noting that it would be considered an offence to have obtained funds by deception. If after this response you
are suggesting that the information you provided did not accurately reflect your circumstances at the time of the sale,
then I need to advise you that we reserve the right to pass details of your application on to CIFAS the fraud prevention
agency (note that as a result, this information would be utilised by other financial providers for their consideration in
future dealings with you).”
I told the truth about my income but not my outgoings. I vastly understated my rent and credit commitments as I was desperate for money as a gambling addict. The gap in my income and expenditure would have showed a disposable income of £1k+
Any thoughts from others on whether I should progress to FOS or back away?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Several lenders take this aggressive attitude. I have yet to hear of anyone who has a problem in practice if they send the case to FOS. Of course you could be the first, but shall we say it’s unlikely?
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. There are many good reasons why the expenses you put down may not have been accurate.
ReLa says
Just wanted to thank Debtcamel for the advice and also all the commenters!!
I’ve received over £5000 from 4 lenders. Took some time but well worth the effort
Laura says
Wow, that’s great news! Well done for hanging in there!
I am new here and only now considering making complaints to previous lenders many many loans later. It’s good to hear of your success. I’m interested to know how you managed this;
Did you have to take it to FOC, and how long did it take to get these complaints upheld?
Joseph says
Take to FOS Mr PDL, Moneyboat used same tactic with me and they soon stopped when my complaint was upheld for more than obvious reasons they should’ve acknowldged in the first place. This is just there to scare you
A says
Hi Sara/anyone else that can help,
Sunny rejected my adjudicator decisions (to refund loans 6 onwards), instead offering 18 onwards. Without looking at dates I suspect they basing this on their 12 month rule they seem to be applying to complaints.
I’m inclined to have this passed to ombudsman in the hope they will agree with the adjudicators initial decision but I am concerned about a) timescale – is it likely to take another 10months? B) is there any chance that I will end up with a worse offer?
Thanks I’m advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the timescale is likely to be quicker than that!
Theoretically the Ombudsman can decide anything. But in practice it is usually the same as or close to the adjudicator offer. So it could say be 4 onwards or 8 onwards. I would be VERY surprised if the Ombudsman agrees with Sunny.
Liam says
I’ve had my first positive outcome! Mr Lender initially offered to take my account back from Lantern and close it but I countered and asked if they would also remove all negative markers from my credit file and they have agreed :-) I have 13 more companies I’m waiting to hear back from but this feels like a really good start. Thank you for your help Sara, without this page I would never have known this could be done.
Jacqui says
Wow
The Lending Stream have just emailed me with a redress figure…That was quick only submitted the complaint 2nd May . One down 5 to good…
Jacqui says
I think its good – I had 5 loans with them and they’ve offered redress on 3 of the loans … just a quick question as I’ve got a number of claims will I be able to claim the tax back?
Thanks
Jacqui
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds good – unless they picked the 3 smallest loans… (sorry, Lending Stream don’t always play fair with complaints, so it’s worth checking.)
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/. It’s best to wait until you have all the rest of your claims settled.
Tim says
Hi,
I Thought all of my complaints were done but heard back from the ombudsman today regarding Satsuma. They found in my favour for 4 loans (interest totalling £1200). Does anyone know if Satsuma generally agree with adjudicator and how long they take to pay out?
Thanks
Scott says
Hi Tim,
Satsuma can sometimes be a bit hit or miss. Some they seem to accept, others not.
What was your situation? How many Loans, amounts and borrowing frequency?
Scott
Tim says
Hi Scott,
Was 6 loans over the space of about about 2 years (there were a couple running at the same time). Started off as £150 over 3 months, then took £500 and £600 on the same day both over 12 months , then 2 further £500 after I had paid the last 2 .. at the time I had a problem with gambling so was misusing pay day loans which was my own fault- anyway, the adjudicator ruled in my favour for all apart from the first loan (which I’m massively happy about) just wondering if like some other companies they agree with the Adjudicator so it doesn’t have to go to an ombudsman and as far as I’m aware they don’t appear on the publication from FOS if they agree with adjudicator (I may be wrong about this)
Hobbit says
Anyone had any luck with Drafty.
I’ve been waiting 13 months for Ombudsman to get back to me. Drafty continue to get more and more heavy handed, getting tired of waiting. Same answer from the FOS whenever I ask for updates.
I literally detest Drafty at this stage.
Joseph says
13 months, jheez! That’s a long time. Maybe ask to speak to a manager arbor FOS?
Hobbit says
Hey, yeah I know. Ages!
I think Drafty being an alternative sort of payday loan they are struggling to get someone to take it on. Very frustrating and being a Lending Stream company it means they have terrible customer service and lie constantly.
StevieC says
Hey Hobbit,
I had an absolutely terrible experience with Drafty. The adjudicator upheld my complaint and cleared off the outstanding balance which was about right for the interest I had paid. It took them 3 months to actually close my account despite being chased by the adjudicator and myself. They then sent debt collection emails and texts over and over again despite myself complaining these were unjust etc as there was no outstanding balance. In the end my account was closed and any loan details removed from my credit file. Furthermore I opened a formal complaint about there poor handling of my case. I have offered £75 compensation for this poor service. Took months and over 100 emails to sort tho.
Lisa says
Could I ask please what a lender should check on loan applications? I’m in a mess and considering complaining. Just a bit nervous about putting complaints through as I fudged my outgoings a bit not much to be honest but they weren’t spot on and I was in a panic (no excuse). I am on a DMP and have been for 3 years and I took out these additional loans recently (stupid I know). I had many defaults linked to my DMP still on my credit report so it wasn’t that good should the lenders have picked up on this? I have a few payday loans and two high interest loans. I’ve contacted Stepchange for further help, cancelled CPA’s and contacted the the companies. I deferred loans several times for one company paying a fee and paid off and retook out loans straight away from others. I’m sorting it out slowly but don’t know if it warrants complaining?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have made the best start by telling StepChange and cancelling the CPAs. That will end the trap of making a loan repayment and being so short you have to borrow again.
Do you mind saying how large the debts in your DMP are? And how much your new debts not yet in your DMP add up to?
Making affordability complaints is absolutely worth it – even if you only get your balances with one or two reduced, that is going to be an improvement. USe the letters on this page for the payday loans and also read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ which has helpful ideas for complaints about the two high interest loans.
Don’t worry about expenses not being totally accurate – hardly anyone’s are, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ for reassurance.
There is no set list of things a lender has to check. It depends how large the loans are, what your income is, how often you have borrowed from them, whether the amount of the loans from them was going up, how bad your recent credit record is, whether your credit record was getting worse, with more debt and more recent payday loans each time you borrowed from them etc.
Also did you have payday loans from 3 years ago in your DMP? Complain to them too!
Dena says
I have just received a reply from Sunny Loans: Not sure where to go from here, any suggestions.
Your complaint
Our understanding of the complaint is that you believe we have breached our regulatory responsibilities. You have requested that we pay you redress by refunding all interest and charges you paid in connection with the credit we provided to you, together with 8% statutory interest.
We have considered your complaint, together with our own records and regret to inform you that we are not able to uphold your complaint.
We understand that this may come as a disappointment to you, however, we hope that the reasons set out in our final response below will help you to understand how we reached our decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have from Sunny? Could you give a brief summary of them?
Dena says
I had the loan in September 2014 for £500.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you only had one loan, these cases can be hard to win at the ombudsman.
Lisa says
Hi. When I initially went on my DMP my debts totalled around £18K I’ve got this down to £11K now. The new debts to go on total around £3K, however there’s a lot of interest on some of the recent debts as they’re short term instalment loans over 3-5 months where the interest is front loaded the actual amounts borrowed was much smaller, although there was a couple of payday loans which I kept deferring/re-borrowing from. In answer to your question yes some of my initial creditors were payday loans. I accrued the old ones due to a relationship break down where I struggled. I am ashamed I made the same mistake again to be honest but I work and determined to sort it out. Could I also ask, would complaining to these companies muddy the waters when Stepchange approach them to be added to my DMP? I just wondered if I put complaints in against them it might make them more awkward to negotiate with.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then definitely send in complaints about the old payday loans. Even if they have been largely paid off in your DMP.
Putting in complaints will not make the lenders more difficult to add to your DMP. T
Bran says
Sara, I will quote a bit I put above regarding Ferratum’s final offer;
I have reviewed the loans and cannot agree that Ferratum lent irresponsibly. However, as a gesture of goodwill and in full and final resolution to the complaint we can agree to waive all interest on the open loan and accept the outstanding capital, minus any payments already made. This means we will waive £750.00 and accept £406 to close the loan. One this amount has been received we will inform the credit reference agencies that the loan has been settled. As CRS are handling your account please continue to make you DMP payments to them.
Looking at my records, I had 3 loans with this company. The amounts were £500, £600, and finally £750.
They have refused to increase the offer and have confirmed the the reduction would come off my outstanding balance. The question is what to do?
Joseph says
How much interest have you paid on all the loans? You might want to ask them for this through a SAR request, then you can weigh up if it’s fair or not. If you feel this should be more, you could forward to FOS. But seeing as though you’ve only had 3 loans, it’s unlikely you would get this (although there is still a possibility you might). Good luck!
Bran says
On the two settled loans the interest was just over £680.00 The 3rd loan which is now with my DMP, I am not so sure albeit Ferratum are saying that their offer makes this loan totally interest free and will obviously make my DMP £750.00 better off in terms of total debt.
My big argument was the fact they gave me these loans at all. I had numerous other loans on the go at the same time and were using different companies to pay off older loans. It was a cycle that only stopped when I was about to re-apply for a wonga loan minutes after paying off the previous one. Something clicked in my head causing me to try and sort things out. Condescending remarks such as I have benefited from their loans doesn’t help me.
This is the first offer I have received from my numerous complaints which makes the decision harder. I am inclined to accept as I am not sure that the FOS could award me much more if my complaint was upheld but then part of me wants to fight it further out of principle that the company dont think they have done anything wrong, and this offer is a gesture… I honestly dont know.
Joseph says
Hi Bran. I personally think this is roughly an OK offer. FOS wouldn’t usually agree to uphold first 1-2 loans, so if we forget the first loan and look at 2nd and 3rd a £750 redress (albeit you won’t see any of it) removed from the 3rd loan sounds like a good offer to me (personally) but again it’s hard to say without knowing the 3rd loan interest. But I guess if they’re removing 2 & 3rd loan interest then that doesn’t really matter. Only additional benefit you could gain from FOS is that these 3 loans are removed from credit file, it depends on how much you value you. Best regards.
Lena says
Hi Sara,
I have a complaint in with QQ who gave me access to my data. However, I can see contracts for 42 loans but then the State of Account showed only 25. They also only gave me temporary access to the data for 30 days and because they have shared contracts that are essentially web pages I can’t save them permanently. I’m now concerned that if I challenge why there are only 25 loans listed on the statement they can remove some of the contracts leaving me no evidence. I have been in a DMP so had to close my bank account but have requested copies of statements but they will only go back as far as 2013. Do you have any advice on how to tackle this?
Thank you.
Lena
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“because they have shared contracts that are essentially web pages I can’t save them permanently.” can you download them? or take screen shots?
the 25 or 42 loans – is it possible you had 25 loans comeof which were rolled over?
Joseph says
Hi Lena, I thought the same as you. It’s loans you’ve rolled over. Annoying/confusing they show up like this but yeah, it’s rolled over ones. Good luck!
Declan says
Hi,
I received my ‘provisional decision’ in the post today from the FOS. This is the Ombudsman decision as QQ didn’t agree with the adjudicator. They’ve asked both myself and QQ if there is anything else we would like to add, if nothing else is added by 31/05 then this will be the final decision.
I was just wondering if anyone else has had this scenario and had QQ come back with information to change the Ombudsman’s decision? What is the process in this case?
Thanks!
DAB says
I had pretty much the same scenario QQ rejected adjudicators decision and I waited a few months for the ombudsman, but once I received the final decision in my favour from the ombudsmen, signed the letter to say I accepted, QQ emailed me within a few days asking for bank details and paid me out straight away.
Neil says
Hi All,
Does anyone know how solvent Lending Stream are?.
My case is with the adjudicator and he has promised me his assessment this week.
With Lending Streams reputation for dragging things out I am just concerned about them going into administration before I can get any redress that I am owed.
JD says
I have to say that I’m also wondering this, they do drag out decisions a lot in my experience. Also with the FOS, but when eventually a refund is decided could it possibly get put on hold if they go into administration? They’re a part of Gain Credit LLC, an American company so I don’t know how that works, they have a few businesses under that name. I’ve had a look online for their accounts history and the last one I could find was submitted in 2017 stating that their net worth was almost minus £7m. Also not sure how reliable this number is or any information online is. Should this be a red flag for any of us?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They have been dragging things out for several years. this isn’t a change in what they do, which would be worrying, they have just always been difficult right from the start. I don’t know of any particular reason to worry about them going under.
Ross says
Hi Sara, thanks for the great blog, it has been very useful. I had many payday loans (multiple with each lender) across 3 years totalling tens of thousands of £s with 6 different lenders. I have since repaid all of the loans. The main reason for my financial mess was a gambling addiction, and I would rack up a lot of loans, sometimes get lucky and be able to pay some back, other times have to be bailed out from a family member to repay. I paid 5 figures in interest across all loans. I am now clear of debt and looking to reclaim the interest paid on these loans, and also have them removed from my credit file as I want to apply for a mortgage in the next year. My credit report is very good other than having all of the loans on file.
(comment too long, rest to follow)
Ross says
In my letters to each company I didn’t mention the gambling addiction, I stated that had the lenders properly considered my credit file and checked how many other loans I had / credit card debts etc. they would not have lent me the money. I have had a high salary throughout this but at times the repayments were totalling nearly my full salary. It is also worth mentioning I was repaying a high amount per month to a family member which I never included in any estimations they asked for, and I always gave a much lower account of my actual outgoings when asked. I also added some extra info to a couple of lenders whom I felt treated me unfairly when I missed a repayment, but for the most part I didn’t miss many payments and I was probably a dream client to them as I paid on time and kept coming back.
During my claims I declined to send any of the lenders bank statements, payslips or an extract of my credit file as I thought this would not be necessary given what I’ve read.
(comment too long, rest to follow)
Ross says
I’ve just had my first proper response, from MrLender, who have said they are rejecting my claim due to the following (summarised) reasons:
1. They have considered the number of loans I had and the information I / credit agency provided was satisfactory of their terms.
2. They can confirm I was in full time employment and “the highest repayment on any loan was proportionate to any repayment based on your income and/or disposable income at the time of lending.”
3. They can confirm the checks they carried out were sufficient for my loans.
4. I only repaid 20% interest and so did not break the 100% cap. The reason the interest was so low here was because once I took out so many loans everytime (this happened multiple times) I would either repay them when I won money, or have so much financial pressure I couldn’t sleep at night and would end up borrowing money from a family member to repay (who i then repaid separately). Note that I still paid thousands in interest to each lender, including MrLender.
(comment too long, rest to follow)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from Mr Lender? How large were they? Over how long a period? How much interest did you pay to Mr L?
Ross says
They were mostly £1500(the max they lend) and around 10 in 2.5 years, repaying around £4000 interest£. I repaid the majority of them early. I don’t have exact figures to hand right now but can post them later if it helps.
Johnvan says
Ross
This is very similar to the reply which I received from Mr Lender.
I have responded and set out reasons why I think their decision is wrong. I was often making repayments to them of over £1000 a month and at the same time had multiple loans with other lenders. They have asked for my bank statements for the period that I was borrowing from them and are now re-assessing my complaint. I am hopeful that they will make an offer.
On a positive note Mr Lender are the only company who have corresponded. All others just send an acknowledgement and a reminder that they are entitled to 8 weeks to investigate. If bank statements are requested they can only assist your affordability complaint if they show other borrowing and repayments.
Turtle00 says
I also had this same response from Mr Lender (along with a £50 Tesco voucher offer). I replied (with advice from Sara) outlining why I believe they’re wrong and what redress I think the FOS may advise for my claim. I supplied the relevant bank statements and am currently waiting a final response from them.
I paid approx £4k in interest over 9 loans which were often one after the other and increasing loan amounts. I also had several other loans from other lenders at the same time of taking these loans out. I requested redress of loans 3-8 + 8% or a final response which I can take to the ombudsman.
In 3 weeks the 8 weeks will be up for my complaint. Will keep everyone posted.
Iain123 says
Don’t hold back on the gambling. My bank statements were full of gambling transactions. No responsible lender would lend to someone like that. I’ve also been full and frank with the FOS about my personal struggles.
louise says
Hi does anyone know how long Quick Quid take to send confirmation of settlement payment and pay out.Not even give bank details yet!!
SJ says
Hi Sara, thank you very much for the expertise and guidance kindly given on your website, I’m very grateful, and would ask your opinion on my current claim situation.
I wrote to Cash Converters (CC) for the facts about my loans. The statement they provided (29/04/19) illustrated that from 2012 to 2015 I took out 8 Personal Loans (total repaid £10,528.60) and 37(!) Cash Advances (total repaid £12,739). Traumatising figures to look back upon, but back then I was desperate.
The first query regarding their response (16/05/19) to my complaint is as follows:
1) They state that all of the Cash Advances were taken out with P & J Smith Ltd, that this company dissolved in May 2018 and CC recommend that I take up the matter with them. Is this a deflection tactic that you have seen previously? Any thoughts on how I should proceed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you talk to the financial Ombudsman about this, sorry.
John says
Hi I complained to Opos about payday loans I had with minicredit and got the following response, is this right?
For the avoidance of doubt, neither Opos Limited or Kapama Limited are the company with whom you entered into this loan agreement. That company was Microcredit T/A Mini Credit, who have since entered administration and no longer trade in the UK.
Neither Opos or Kapama offered you a credit facility, did not undertake any consideration of your loan application, did not offer you any loan facility and so have not lent irresponsibly. Furthermore, neither Opos nor Kapama has applied any interest or charges to the loan/s issued to you by Mini Credit.
If you have a valid complaint about the actions or inactions of Opos or our client, Kapama, then we will duly assist you in reaching a conclusion to that complaint. However, as it stands, I cannot consider investigating a complaint which is made against the third-party company, Micro Credit T/A Mini Credit, where the complaint centres around a lending decision in which neither we or our client, Kapama, were involved.
Liam says
Hi Sara I have had a final response from Cashfloat which they have not upheld my complaint, however, I only sent them the step one template asking for my list of loans. Should I reply and ask for these again then proceed with step two to try for a different outcome or should I just send straight to FOS?
Joseph says
I would submit to FOS to not waste any more time as you have final response letter and then reply to them. Either way if they reject your complaint again a few weeks down the line at least you’ve not wasted any time, if they do reconsider you can always withdraw FOS complaint. Good luck!
Sue says
Thanks to this site I received good news from Sunny today. They responded in 7 weeks with a partially upheld.
I have borrowed about 3000 over 3 years including 600 outstanding and in default.
They have offered £2000 and write off the outstanding including remove from my credit file. I’m delighted. It’s over so hang in there.
I did borrow without a break for 18 months so I did think I had a strong case.
Good luck everyone
Peter says
Hi Sara, just looking for some advice please. I made a complaint to Ferratum and have received my final decision today. I took out 48 loans in the space of a 4 1/2 year period. I paid them almost £3600 in interest. The loans were pretty much every month for the full period. Here’s the main gist of the reply today:
All of your previous loans were repaid on time, which suggests they were affordable and we were not alerted to any financial difficulties. When you applied for our premier Plus Loan product we were able to approve this. This loan is only available to our very best customers who we are confident can afford the monthly instalments. All charges are detailed in the terms and conditions of the loan provided and agreed to at the time of application. The interest paid is in line with current industry regulations. I have attached a statement of loans as requested.
I have reviewed the loans and cannot agree that Ferratum lent irresponsibly. Interest is the cost of borrowing money and Ferratum have not acted unfairly in charging this. You had the benefit of the loans. However, as a gesture of goodwill and in full and final resolution to the complaint we refund £500.00 to yourself.
Do you think I should send this to the financial ombudsman? Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Our very best customers” – those sound like the ones that they have made the most profit from…
That sounds like a pretty poor offer to me. If you paid 3600 in interest you may be able to get a LOT more than 500 refunded plus 8% per annum interest.
Phil says
Complaints raised against 12 lenders…
6 I’ve managed to resolve before going to FOS:
247 moneybox – partially upheld from loan 4 onwards and deleted record of every loan from my credit report
Mr lender – partial upheld 2 loans out of 7 – deleted these from my report. Could have got more from FOS but I used the money to help clear outstanding debt so it’s ok.
Piggy bank: upheld 2nd of 2 loans and deleted both loans from credit report.
Safety net credit: delete all loans and refund all interest
Sunny: partial uphold from loan 13 of 28, £1727.60 refund. AND agreed to delete all record of all loans which is ace! I can use the money to become debt free and in deleting its clearing my report. Could have got more from FOS but this gets me debt free and a clearer credit report.
Swift sterling: refund all interest and delete from my report.
Lending stream, myjar, quick quid/ onstride, satsuma, uncle buck and amigo all with FOS now.
Massive thank you Sara for all of your help!
JA says
Congrats Phil on your successful complaints.
Quick question if you don’t mind with 247 and Safety net.
How long did they take to reply with a final complaint response?
Thanks
Phil says
Thank you, long slog but it’s a huge thanks to Sara and this website, without that help I wouldn’t have had a clue.
Most importantly it’s helped me to break out of a cycle of debt and continual payday loans. When the Sunny refund comes through I will be completely debt free for the first time in years, and with a cleaner credit report. The benefit to my mental mindset is phenomenal!
Safetynetcredit I had an outstanding balance and they replied in 3 weeks.
247moneybox replied in 7 weeks. Both were very fair and some of the best lenders to help. Both agreed to delete all loans from my credit report as it was really important to me so worth asking for that.
247 moneybox partially upheld and agreed to refund from loan 4.
Hope that helps!
L says
Would you minvtelling me how long it took for these loans to be deleted from your credit report?
Thanks.
KK says
Hello.
I was wondering if you can help me.
I put complain emails in to 6 pay day lenders as i had 18 loans between April 2017 and December 2018. Sunny were the main culprits, I had 9 loan with them over 5 months and 3 of them were issued within a 12 day period. Sunny have responded to say that they will not uphold my complaint and they wont reconsider so I have decided to go to the FOS.
My question is, do i need to put one complaint in against all 6 companies together or should i put individual complaints regarding each company that I lent from?
TIA
Johnvan says
Individual claims against each company
KK says
Ok thanks, I have sent the Sunny one off to the FOS.
I have read that even with the FOS coming down on my side, I am unlikely to receive a refund from Sunny.
Do you have any experience of them at all?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Don’t know where you read that – if the Ombudsman says some loans should be refunded, you will get that refund, Sunny are paying out, an Ombudsman’s decision is legally binding so they have to. There is no particular reason to think Sunny are likely to go bust like Wonga.
KK says
Ah thats reassuring.
Im not clued up on how these things work, i think i read somewhere on a forum that Sunny were still not paying them even though the FOS had upheld the complaint.
I shall just wait for the FOS to contact me now.
Thanks
Lee sharratt says
Hello. Silly question. Can u complain about irresponsible lending, if you have an current loan with them, but had a few loans in the past?
Joseph says
Yes, if you get any redress it will be taken of the current balance you owe them
Peter says
Thank you Sara, I will write to Ferrretum tomorrow and decline the offer.
Do you know if the Ombudsman are incredibly busy at the moment? Only asking, as I sent them a complaint on 24 April about MyKredit. This is almost a month ago, and I havent had a reply yet (apart from the standard “we have received your email”. Should I call them to check on that one, or just assume they will get back to me when they have had chance to investigate?
Thanks again
Nicki says
Hi peter they are incredibly busy. You will probably here from them asking for more information such as bank statements but settle in for a long wait for an actual investigation I believe the average used to be a six month wait but all of mine have been with FOS since July 2018 and I speak to them monthly and there is no reason for the delay other than how many complaints they have to deal with
Craig Morton says
Hi all, I have just received a than I response letter from Ferratum,
With exception to the final loan which remains outstanding, your loans were repaid on time or earlier than the due date. We were not alerted to any financial difficulties. Your final loan was approved for £400.00 on the 8.9.2017 and was due to be repaid over four monthly instalments. To date we have received payments totalling £367.27 and payments are continuing through your debt management plan. The current balance is £431.32.
I have reviewed your loans and cannot agree that Ferratum lent to you irresponsibly. Interest is the cost of borrowing money and Ferratum have not acted unfairly in charging this. You had the benefit of the loans. However, as a goodwill gesture and in full and final response to your complaint, we will offer to waive the balance of your outstanding loan. No further payments will be due, and we will also offer a refund of £50.00 paid directly to you. If you wish to accept our offer please confirm your sort code and account number for the refund to be issued.
I had asked for information on all my loans and they didn’t get back to me and this is what I’ve received.
I don’t feel this is a suitable offer at all.
Thinking if it’s worth going back to them or straight to the Financial Ombudsmen?
Thanks in advance guys
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming that you had a lot of loans…
I suggest you reply that you have asked for a list of your loans and they have not provided it – they will be aware that in writing off the last debt only £33 of that was capital, the rest was interest – so their refund actually amounts to only £33 + £50 which is massively less then the interest you repaid – you have not taken account of the repeat borrowing which should have alerted you to the unaffordability of the loans. Add that you want a list of your loans and unless they provide you with an increased offer within a week you will be sending the complaint to FOS.
Craig says
I think it was only 3 or 4 from them, but would have been at time.with a few from others.
Paperwork is my issue if I want to take it further, it was an old bank account which I no longer have so can’t get statements. Is that an issue?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless the loans are very old, you should be able to get bank statements from a closed account. this is a good time to do this as it feels as though this complaint will be going to FOS.
Claire says
Hi Sara, I sent the template email to Mr lender and reviewed this response..
Thank you for your recent email.
We are writing to ask for confirmation and clarity on the reason for sending this as the detail within the email is confusing.
While the start of the email suggests you are making a complaint there is vague information regarding the reason for your complaint just that you feel they were unaffordable, which is followed by a request for a list of loan(s), dates they were taken and the charges and interest you paid.
We are unsure how you are suggesting these loan(s) were unaffordable if you are unaware of the number of loan(s) you have had with Mr Lender and the value of interest and/or charges paid. We have seen the same email from other customers and have found it to be a template generated off the forum website debtcamel-co-uk/payday-loan-refunds/.
Whilst you are within your right to seek third party advice and make a complaint, with the above in mind, we require further information in order to conduct a full and thorough investigation into any concerns you may have relating to the loan(s) you held with Mr Lender.
We have attached detail of your loans with Mr Lender as requested, if you feel you would like to make a complaint regarding these loans please provide further detail indicating why you feel they were unaffordable
———————-
Do you have any advise before I respond.
I had 3 loans, taken out with only a week between them. The 3rd I’m still paying via a payment plan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, then go back and say you think they should have refused the third loan because of the short gaps. Also point out if your credit record had got worse – more borrowing? Recent problems? More payday loans? Fro m the time of your first application to the time of the third one. Enclose your bank statements for the two months before and the two months after the third loan application.
Holly says
Do Mr lender let you set up a payment plan ?
Ross says
I’m not sure on this as I don’t have an outstanding balance.
I’m going to submit my bank statements for all of the loans today. Is it worth highlighting transactions to other lenders etc?
Holly says
Hi all ,
I have had a safety net credit account since January, and the payments are getting on top of me now , I have numerous loans as well as this one at the time I applied as well , shall I put in a complaint and set up a payment plan with them ?
I have since set up plans with the others
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Put in an affordability complaint – if their debt was affordable you would not be struggling! Also cancel the CPA so they can’t take any more money. Then offer to repay the balance at a rate you know you can afford without having to borrow again and ask them to freeze interest.
Holly says
Don’t worry I have put forward affordability complaints with both mr lender and safety net credit now going to tackle them
D says
Safety net were an absolute joy to deal with to be honest. If more companies were as easy to deal with it would be so much better
Holly says
Thats really reassuring thank you
Lisa says
Just following on from this Sara can I ask please before I put in my complaint, since contacting my creditors one of them has immediately emailed back notifying me that they have passed my debt to a debt collectors to deal with my DMP. I know this may have been inevitable but my account is on hold for 30 days and and to my knowledge I didn’t receive an official default notice just a late payment email. Is this right? There were also special medical circumstances that they were aware of which I can’t really go into. It just seems harsh as id only missed one payment and I would have preferred Stepchange to deal with the company direct as I have given them the name of this company
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They dont have to issue a default notice before sending a debt to a debt collector.
Honestly it is easier to deal with debt collectors normally than payday lenders… Just tell StepCahnge that the debt has been passed to a debt collector.