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?
Kathy says
Has anyone had any luck recently with Satsuma?
I submitted an affordability complaint 8 weeks ago. I’ve heard nothing from them apart from an initial acknowledgement email. This morning I received an email saying that they need another two weeks. I think they are taking the mickey so I’m going straight to the FOS. Very frustrating, as I feel like they have essentially wasted 8 weeks of my time with no intention of ever investigating my complaint.
Sara, it would be interesting to know whether you think I have a case? I took a loan out for £100, which I paid back. I then panicked and re-loaned the next day for £900. At the time I had 5 other outstanding loans with other creditors (including one for 2k and one for 3.5k) as well as credit cards and a 4K overdraft. Basically, I was in a really bad way debt wise.
The second loan for £900 has now been paid back thankfully, but I want to ask for a refund on the interest. Do you think this is a good case?
Kathy says
Just a quick update on this:
I put a negative review on Trust Pilot this morning and hey presto, I got a final response to my complaint after a couple of hours.
They didn’t uphold my complaint, which is unsurprising as they don’t seem to uphold anyones complaint from what I can gather, but I’m just glad I now have a final written response that I can send on to the FOS.
Don’t underestimate the power of Trust Pilot :-)
Brian says
Just a quick question red trust pilot, how do they know it’s you, is it the email address that matches to your compliant as I guess you don’t put any sensitive information in there?
Thanks
Kathy says
You have to register with a trust pilot account before you can leave feedback. You have to use your email address to register, so I assume the Company can see that and that is what links my feedback with my complaint.
But no, I don’t include any sensitive information (I didn’t even use my real name for the purposes of leaving the feedback).
Glen says
Hi All,
I submitted a Step1 Email on 1st May and then Step 2 on the 7th May to My Jar.
Today 29th May, they said my complaint is not upheld due to “In light of the above, it is our view that we are unable to uphold your complaint based on the application information, income and expenditure, which you provided and the subsequent checks we conducted each time you applied. We did not re-finance your loan, you had to repay your loan in full, before being able to re-apply and we do not, as a business, allow rollovers.”
My loans were as follows:
Loan 1 – £1650 borrowed on 22/05/2017, Paid on 30/11/2017
Loan 2 – £1000 borrowed on 10/12/2017, Paid on 01/05/2018
Loan 3 – £2000 borrowed on 09/05/2018, Paid on 02/04/2019
Loan 4 – £1575 borrowed on 02/04/2019, Outstanding.
They say they review credit but if they had they would have seen I already had several other loans running concurrently. 2 of which (247 Money Box, and Safetynetcredit) too most of my salary and I was reliant on them re-financing every month in order to survive. Also, indeed they dont do rollovers as per their statement, but the last 3 of my loans were pretty much taken one after the other.
I just wondered if you think it is worth going to the FOS with for an ajudication as its only 4 loans in total. The interest on them was VERY high though, nearly £3000 across the 4 loans.
any information gladly received.
Glen
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it would be worth going to FOS with just 1 of those loans as they are so large!
Send your case to FOS and at the same time send Myjar a Subject Access Request to dsar@myjar.com asking for a copy of all your personal information including but not limited to all credit searches or other verification checks they made. If they send you lots of stuff but no record of the credit record checks, tell them again you want these or you will be reporting them to the ICO and also asking FOS for additional compensation as they are obstructing your complaint.
Brian says
Hi Sara.
I’ve just had an adjudicator find in my favour for loans 4-19 of my complaint, with about £4K in interest due back to me.
This is with Ferratum.
Do you know if Ferratum generally agree with the adjudicator or make silly offers, or send mostly to Ombudsman?
Any help on this appreciated.
For those still fighting the battle (and are unsure if you’ll be successful) – they offered me £500 to go away and now it’s cost them £4K + interest. I was willing to settle for about £1.5K and they refused, so it’s really on them.
Diddy says
This is encouraging, thank you. I also am awaiting a response from Ferratum so will bear this in mind when I get their reply.
Congratulations 👏🏻👏🏻
Brian says
Thanks mate.
Stick with it. Be firm and be persistent – I’ve now been successful with:
Piggybank – 1 loan (£191.26)
Saftey Net Credit – 6 month revolving. (Write off balance £888 and refund of £198.87)
24/7 Moneybox – £2,626.79
Ferratum – (Going to be about £3.65K)
MyJar – Balance write off of £658.21 and refund of £836.17
Baring in mind MyJar and Ferratum rejected me out of hand – MyJar I managed to get before FOS. 24/7 Moneybox were the best (for me). Piggybank also good.
Now just have Lending Stream, Uncle Buck and Moneyboat.
Lending Stream – offer £0 on a load of loans – ‘we hope you are satisfied with our finest resolution’
Don’t give up. I’ve had nearly £10K back now. Stick with it.
GM says
How long did MyJar took to pay out once they agreed to pay?
Brian says
They rejected me and it took some arguing, but once agreed – less than 24 hours. I assume I’m a special case though as I emailed the CEO and was written to by somebody very senior to resolve it + I got paid £200 compensation.
I’d say for MyJar – contacting customer service is pointless as they are awful – like the worst I’ve ever dealt with.
Contact the CEO (Google his email – I won’t give it out here) and leave daily negative trust pilots.
Worked for me.
JA says
Hello Brian, If you don’t mind me asking. How long did it take for 247 moneybox to reply if a final resolution and how long did they take to pay out?
Regards
Brian says
Eh – again, I was persistent. I called every 2 days and asked to speak to managers etc. I also emailed them every day I didn’t call asking for an update….
I think it took about 5 weeks to receive an offer (a good offer) – and then around 3 days for payment to be made to me.
Hope this helps
Diddy says
Been reading back old comments and posts and I see some have put negative feedback on trustpilot. Do lenders actually care what you rate them on such sites? I m sure I won’t receive all my responses to lenders by this Friday (deadline) so was thinking of adding a negative comment to see if it would hurry them up a bit (or would it just p*ss them off even more)?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t do that – it isn’t going to make them give you a better offer at this stage or hurry them up.
Where Trust Pilot can be great at helping is if the lender ignores an adjudicator decision at the Ombudsman or turns one down – there a bad trust pilot review can sometimes get your case picked up and dealt with within hours.
Only some lenders care – if they have a bad TP rating, then your bad review won’t even be noticed.
Iain123 says
Be patient. I started the ball rolling last September, had a few payout and settling in for FOS dealings into 2020. I have no alternative.
Post about the status of each complaint so newcomers learn.
Ross says
Morning Sara,
Just a quick question please, if I may? I visited Halifax, to ask for old bank statements for the period I took out loans with the companies I have complained to. I switched, from Halifax, to HSBC in September 2018. The thing is, Halifax state that my last transaction took place with them in June 2018 and, when they search their system, it only goes up to June 2018. This is, technically, impossible as I was still paying bills right up until the day before the switch. I am concerned that this may affect my complaint, with the FOS, as they won’t be able to assess my complaint with the full information. What are your thoughts please?
Iain123 says
I found bank branch staff helpful up to a limit. I wrote to Santander Head Office politely asking for older statements, a few weeks later they supplied an extra few years worth of statements.
I suggest a polite letter to Halifax Head Office. What have you got to lose?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you get the statements up tp June 18 and then enquire about July & August pointing out that you had the account until September. This is all very recent and i would expect it to be resolved.
Ross says
Thanks Sara,
I’ve just scanned all of the statements up until June 2018 (all 107 pages) ready to send to the FOS. I’ve just found it really odd that Halifax claim they have no information for the July & August period? I’ll liaise with the FOS and, as you say, it’s early days and plenty of time to resolve.
Andrew Lammas says
Feeling a bit deflated had a adjudicator agree for refund gave Pduk til yesterday to respond been on to FOS and no response they said they will probably give them grace as they are probably inundated I think these companies need a kick up the arse and the FOS should be more firm with them probably have to wait another 6months for ombudsman not happy
Iain123 says
Not always. PDUK are the best one I dealt with. I hope they agree with your adjudicator and you get a payout in June.
Andrew says
Originally Ian they was they agreed with 3 loans and paid Me and rejected other four so took the 4 loans to FOS having made sure they gave me written Conformation that by taking the pay out on 3 I wasn’t waiving the other four when it went to FOS they argued I had been paid in full and final settlement fought it and adjudicator agreed then he made his decision on other four and now wait or go to ombudsman
Iain123 says
You taking Peach and M Lender to the FOS?
Diddy says
Yes, think I have a good case (hopefully). Only thing that concerns me is that Peachy said that if I escalate it and take it further, they will withdraw their offer. My only concern is that if FSO do not uphold, then I loose all round. Suppose it’s a chance I’m willing to take……
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The chance of FOS not upholding any loans from what you have said is about zero. The chance of you getting less than Peachy have offered you is there but it’s small.
Diddy says
Thanks, makes me feel better and more confident in my case. In the middle of completing it now 😀
Brian says
Sara – do Ferratum normally agree with adjudicator?
I looked on Ombudsman decisions and couldn’t see to many of there cases, (leading me to believe they do).
Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
they aren’t a very big lender so not many people comment on them. Can you come back and say what happens in your case?
Brian says
Yeah I’ll let you know what happens. They have received it today and have been informed it’s been placed in a queue to be responded too.
Thanks
Moons says
Hi,
I know a lot of cases with Lending Stream have now started being processed by adjudicators and some people have posted that the adjudicator has upheld their complaints. I was wondering if anyone has had any positive/negative answers from lending Stream and if so how long they took to respond , the two weeks or longer?
Thanks
D says
I’m still sitting waiting on word that an adjudicator has picked this up however some people who have had answers were around 3 weeks earlier in making their complaints. I’m now hoping that I’ll be hearing soon. I submitted late November 2018. Think some people have said that they made theirs early November 2018 so I’m hoping I’m not far away now.
Brian says
I called LS today as they have until Monday to reply to the adjusicators decision.
The complaints team said it was with their finance department and they’ll let me know :(no time scale).
I said I’ll call back Monday either way to check.
Hopefully it’s good news.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they don’t accept by the deadline given, leave them a bad review on Trust Pilot for their poor complaint handling. https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/lendingstream.co.uk
mark says
From what date are loans over the six year deadline..I received the first reply from SSL on 03/01/2018 and up until now its yet to assigned to a adjudicator,are they from the date I sent my first complaint or when they replied
Sara (Debt Camel) says
From the date you sent the case to FOS.
Laura says
Thanks everyone for the updates especially on Lending Stream. I submitted my complaint to FOS on 10 July 2018 but haven’t had a response yet – I’ve just emailed to ask what’s happening.
Brian says
I sent mine to FOS 29th May 3018 and got an adjudicator decision 18th May 19. You should hear something in the coming weeks. As what people have said they seem to be looking at Lending Stream now.
If you look in the Ombudsman website, or google Ombudsman decision you can select Lending Stream, select the last couple of years and you can see all the complaints that got upheld. It’s like the FOS tackle hem in batches.
OT says
Hello!
I am looking into starting the process of making complaints to payday lenders about multiple loans I took with various lenders which amounted to thousands and thousands of pounds.
I have read on this site the process I need to go through and believe I should not have been given the loans as they were unaffordable to me. The lenders did not check my income (in many cases this was out of date from previous loans I had taken or incorrect) and they should have been able to see on my credit file that I was taking large loans from multiple lenders at once and often immediately taking out other loans after they were paid off, or very soon after.
I have paid off the loans thanks to help from family but I would love to be able to complain and get some kind of refund so I can pay my family back!
Aside from my having multiple loans, I was suffering from mental health problems at the time. I have read that mental health can be taken into account when filing a complaint but how realistic is this as a reason for a complaint being upheld and how much information do I have to give?
Any advice would be brilliant, both with regards to mental health and making a complaint in general!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Menatl health doesn’t often help yopu with an affordability complaint as it is rare that the lender KNEW you had mental health problems so they couldn’t be expected to refuse a loan because of it.
It does mean you should be treated with extra consideration if you can’t repay a loan, but luckily you aren’t in that situation.
General advice – start the complaints off, be methodical (have a page for each lender where you keep a record of when you sent the complaint, when they replied etc) and try not to be impatient. You probably won’t egt many responses before 8 weeks.
Diddy says
Update:
Peachy – rejected now going to FSO
MrLender – rejected now going to FSO
MyJar – just received, rejected., didn’t even offer to clear off the outstanding loan 😢. Not even going to try to reply, going to FSO
Should hear this week from Ferratum, Cashasap, PDUK, 247, Satsuma, Lending Stream (!!), SLL and EL. Not feeling hopeful here either. WDA and Wonga can’t do anything about…..
Feeling deflated as it’s not going as well as I hoped but am Determined to get out of this nightmare, one way or other……..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many do you owe money to?
Diddy says
Peachy, MrLender, MyJar, ferratum, cashasap and 247, bad I know 😢
WDA owed too but was been written off with a redress of over £8k but not holding my breath on getting much……
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It looks as though you may have a few going to FOS. I think you should consider talking to StepChange about setting up a DMP for all your outstanding debt. This wont harm you affordability complaints at all – if you get balances reduced it will speed up the DMP, if you get refunds, you can use them to pay off debts on the DMP.
But it will take a lot of stress out of all the waiting for decisions. Of the lender you havn’t heard from, you rarely get a good offer from Sunny or EL, and PDUK may make a good offer but will take a lot more weeks to do this.
Diddy says
I did consider this but decidied to make an arrangement plan with them all which I can manage.
I’m not excepting much, if anything from the others. My worst ones are cashasap and 247. It’s funny that today I got an email from 247 saying they had my loan application (??) and i have a complaint with them? I haven’t applied for any credit since January so was confused to say the least…
Iain123 says
Chin up! Early 2020 you’ll be loaded £££.
Diddy says
Haha I hope so, will be debt free for the first time in years for sure 😀
Mark says
Hi Sara, I used the template from your awesome website to make a complaint to QQ about unaffordable loans (I had a lot!). They have just sent their final response letter and I am hoping you could give me your thoughts. They have offered to refund £5000 interest paid plus 8% totalling £7300. This was 5 loans out of 25 I had. What I would like your thoughts on is, is it worth accepting or would it be better to send to FOS? I have tried to paste the loan details below to show you the dates of them, when they were paid, amounts etc. Thanks a lot!
Mark says
Details for previous post:
loan funding date principal amt interest and fees paid repayment contractual final payoff date actual final payoff date extensions Decision
1 12/04/2008 150 71.25 390 02/01/2009 1/30/2009 0 No
2 02/04/2009 350 391.25 590 3/27/2009 6/26/2009 3 Upheld
3 07/02/2009 300 142.5 540 8/28/2009 8/28/2009 0 No
4 09/07/2009 400 180 640 10/30/2009 10/30/2009 0 No
5 01/11/2010 700 797.5 940 2/26/2010 6/25/2010 4 Upheld
6 6/30/2010 1200 1020 1440 8/27/2010 10/29/2010 2 No
7 11/08/2010 600 379 840 12/31/2010 2/25/2011 2 No
8 03/08/2011 1000 518.5 1370 4/28/2011 6/24/2011 2 No
9 8/21/2011 1000 680 1340 9/30/2011 11/25/2011 2 No
10 11/30/2011 1500 355.18 2010 1/27/2012 01/10/2012 0 No
11 4/22/2012 400 56 456 5/25/2012 5/25/2012 0 No
12 06/02/2012 1100 1159.53 1540 7/27/2012 12/28/2012 5 Upheld
13 01/02/2013 1500 1596.94 2400 3/28/2013 10/25/2013 6 Upheld
14 10/29/2013 1500 1102 2100 12/27/2013 5/30/2014 2 Upheld
15 08/10/2014 850 156.5 995 8/29/2014 09/01/2014 0 No
16 9/14/2014 450 126 576 11/01/2014 10/31/2014 0 No
17 11/15/2014 550 1034.5 724 12/24/2014 02/10/2015 0 No
18 2/21/2015 250 12 318 3/27/2015 2/27/2015 0 No
19 3/14/2015 750 21.6 1160 5/29/2015 3/18/2015 0 No
20 3/21/2015 1000 456.8 1776 6/26/2015 05/06/2015 0 No
21 5/24/2015 450 1084.96 796 8/28/2015 09/11/2015 0 No
22 05/07/2016 1500 36 2496 7/29/2016 05/10/2016 0 No
23 7/13/2016 450 213.3 663 9/30/2016 9/30/2016 0 No
24 10/05/2017 950 609.15 1721 9/28/2018 4/30/2018 0 No
25 5/15/2017 2000 745.81 2883.57 5/29/2020 TBD 0 No
Claire says
I also had an offer from QQ for 5 out of 22 loans.
Seemed a bit random as I had loans either sides of the dates and they gave no reason for choosing those particular 5.
I took it to FOS who determined interest on all loans should be refunded (excluding 1-4 which I dropped as over 6 years). QQ stood firm on their original offer so now it’s awaiting an Ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you added up the interest you paid on the loans they haven’t upheld, ignoring the last loan which has not been repaid?
Mark says
Yes. The interest on the loans that were not uphold is around 7k
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What did they say about the last loan? Are they offering to write it off, or to deduct how much from the £7300 to pay it?
Mark says
They just say this:
To accept our offer, please reply to us at this email address with your confirmation within 28 days of this letter and we will arrange for the monies to be credited against your outstanding balance.
The outstanding balance is roughly £800 I think.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they aren’t offering to write off or remove any interest from the last loan:(
The way I read that table of loans, the balance is probably 2883-745= 2138, not £800. Do you think the last line is wrong?
So your options here are:
1) to accept their offer
2) to ask for clarification of the what the outstanding balance is
3) to go back and say you will accept the refund IF they agree to write off the last loan as well. QQ basically don’t negotiate, but this is a large case and if you would be happy with that as a result it’s worth a try.
4) take the case to FOS where you may well get 7-9k more.
There are only two downsides of taking the case to FOS – the delay and the chance of QQ going under .
Sorry I have no idea what the delay may be. The previous very long delays for loans over 6 years shouldn’t be happening any more and I hope all QQ cases will start to move a lot faster. It is possible QQ may decide to make offers to settle a lot of cases at FOS. But who knows. Lots of chat over here https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ about QQ cases.
QQ have a large American parent, There has been nothing in the US results to suggest that they are very concerned about the level of refunds being paid. So there is no evidence suggesting that they are going to go under. But you are being offered a large amount of money so it’s not an easy decision.
Iain123 says
If you don’t need the money and want to wait a few months you’ll get almost all the interest.
Small risk you’ll nothing if they go into administration like Wonga.
Up to you.
Johnvan says
I stumbled upon this site by accident. I don’t know how but it is the best thing that I have ever done.
I have not yet had any success in my complaints to payday lenders but I want to say an ENORMOUS thank you to Sara Williams.
This lady gives up her time and effort to help all of us with no reward. We may be lucky and get payouts but without her advice we would be ignorant and stumbling around in the dark. I was a coward. Terrified of the payday lenders who called and sent threatening letters but because of Sara I have found the courage to question them. Thank you Sara
Iain123 says
Amen! People hounded to suicide by debt and millions suffering from harassment by payday lenders.
Holly says
Couldn’t agree more I as well have found the courage to do something about the rut that I was in thanks to Sara and others on here . The blog has become an evening routine of reading for me lol
The most important thing I have learnt from this site is you aren’t alone and something can be done about it
Charlotte Foster says
Hello.
Just a quick question. Do you always have to supply bank statements when making a direct claim to the payday loan company?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No. Some lenders such as QuickQuid ask for all your statements – I don’t think they actually read them! Others such as payday UK will sometimes ask for specific statements to determine whether to refund certain loans – in this case you are only going to get a refunhd on those loans directly if you do supply them.
If the case goes to the Ombudsman people are usually asked for bank statements. If these can’t be produced, FOS will consider complaints without them. but they make it easier to win cases, especially with smaller numbers of loans.
Iain123 says
It helps. Contact bank head office if you need older statements.
Johnvan says
Sara
Would you have an address where I could contact the CEO of Quick Quid?
I have submitted an affordability complaint to the FOS but have no expectations of getting redress from them but in this case monetary compensation is secondary. I need to vent my anger at their business model to someone at a high level. This is the worst company that I have had to deal with in my adult life, and I am approaching 60.
In June 2016 when I was in Intensive care after a heart attack and a prolonged period out of work one of their employees managed to coerce/ threaten me into borrowing money to make loan repayments. With the benefit of hindsight I realise that I was foolish. This was my 17th Loan and for £1300.This person probably won an employee of the month award. I made 3 payments of £128 and 5 days after the 3rd payment I received a notice of default demanding £2200. I was later threatened with County Court action and in writing I asked that they pursue this. They stopped all correspondence but this remains a default on my credit record. It is a long unresolved story
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you saying that they defaulted a loan you were repaying? Any idea why?
Johnvan says
That’s correct. One part of Quick Quid appears to have been unaware that I had an arrangement with another part to make payments. When I raised this in writing by e mail correspondence ceased temporarily and then resumed with demands and Court action threats. And when I asked them in writing to take it to the county court the same e mail silence.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ah, well it is actually ok for them to add a default if you have a payment arrangement – it depends how much in arrears you were.
You have an affordability complaint in, so hopefully that will resolve all this and clear your credit record.
Iain123 says
QQs parent company is ‘FIrst Cash’, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Securities and Exchange Commission regulates companies and here is their complaint form.
https://www.sec.gov/oiea/Complaint.html
Go for it.
This all started in the USA. See the Netflix show ‘Payday’ for how it started and how the regulators got them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
QQ’s parent company in the USA is Enova, not First Cash.
The link you have given is for investors to make a complaint about a US firm. Johnvan has a consumer complaint about a UK-authorised firm, not an investor complaint. FOS is the correct place for these complaints.
Jon Doe says
Hi Sara,
Need a bit of guidance please. Had 2 loans with Cash4uNow.
18/01/18 250 repaid 490 on 13/7/18 after several missed payments.
On 14/7/18- second loan of 500 , applied for 650 but they only authorised 500.
I also had 1 default within 12 months on my file and about 4 other payday loans.
I have an outstanding balance of 598 on current loan. Have paid 400 since the second loan was issued. Their first final offer stated they are willing to reduce balance to 250, i recountered this and asked for negative info to be removed and to just pay remaining principle amount of 100. They have come back stating they can only revise their final offer to 190 as remaining balance and remove the 2 loans from credit file.
Do you think this is a full and fair settlement?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think your offer was a fair one. I do not think they should have agreed to a larger loan the day after you repaid the first one when you had missed payments on the first one.
I hope FOS would also take that line, but I can’t guarantee it.
It’s up to you if you think it’s worth taking their offer on the grounds it’s all over and settled, or want to go to FOS for the settlement you offered.
Jon Doe says
Great thanks Sara as always. I will think it about for while before deciding next steps:)
Joseph says
Hi Jon, I dealt with cash4unow a while ago, they claim they have a fantastic process and all claims made against them loose at FOS. I accepted a similar offer anyway as it was as good as yours, they seem keen for people not to take it to FOS so offer actual good offers. Good luck!
John says
Anyone got the link to claim my tax back from a redress
Iain123 says
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-claim-for-repayment-of-tax-deducted-from-savings-and-investments-r40
kath says
I’m really confused now and hope that someone can help me.
In my provisional decision it states that as ‘ QQ has made an offer, as a gesture of goodwill. I don’t intend to uphold Miss X complaint about the lending. I therefore intend to leave it up to MIss B to decide whether or not to accept QQ’s offer’
[I’ve no recollection of ever being offer this and no documentation about it]
I have now had the Ombudsman final decision which does not uphold my complaint. Am I still entitled to this goodwill offer?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you ask yuour adjudicator what this offer was as you were never told about it. I’m not sure why you didn’t query this earlier.
Kath says
In the report it says half the interest of the last loan and then the 8%
I’m just trying to find out if the final decision cancels this out or whether I can pursue this.
I had a mental break down last month and only just getting myself back on track to deal with if all.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry to hear about your health problems, can you talk to your adjudicator about this?
Steve says
I’m curious – how is everyone keeping tally of their complaints etc.? Do you have spreadsheets on the go or just emails in folders? I’m trying to find the best way to keep track on everything and wondered how you’ve all done?
GM says
Hi Steve.
Personally, I’ve made a spreadsheet with a tab for each lender where I have each loan history, formulas and calculations.
I work in accounts, so excel spreadsheets are part of my job and makes my life easier with everything finance related.
Iain123 says
I use Google Keep
DK says
I’ve got a table on a spreadsheet. Down the left is two rows for each lender, and along the top is every single month from my very first pay day loan up to present. I’ve then put every loan I had from every company in the month that I borrowed so I can see each month how much I borrowed and from how many different lenders. Top row for each lender shows borrowed amount, bext row down shows how much I paid back on each loan. Then the end column shows total borrowed and paid for each lender. Down the bottom of that row shows how much I borrowed in total since June 2012 (£30k+) and how much I’ve paid back (£40k+). Frightening but shows everything I’ve ever borrowed in one simple table!
Glen says
Hi Steve,
I have a spreadsheet with a row for each creditor, what I owe, the monthly payment, payment arrangmenet value (if applicable) and then a status section with a dated update for every email, correspondance etc, so that if I need to rever to an email I have sent or they have sent me I can find it in my “loans” email folder
G
Ade says
Hi all ! Has anyone heard anything back from 247moneybox and sunny? What were the timescales? Im on 7 weeks and 4 days with sunny now. They seem to be dragging there feet. Cheers
Brian says
I complained to Sunny last year. They took the full 8 weeks but came back with an offer for 1 of my many loans. I accepted this. In hindsight I should have sent to the FOS which I wasn’t aware of. Even with uncle buck their final response was they should have made more checks but we’re happy they’d done what they should have, they paid nothing. Again, I didn’t realise really about the FOS and didn’t go any further and now outside the 6 month window.
Diddy says
I complained to 247 on 5 april. they acknowledged and sent the list of loans on 17 may with an acknowledgement. their 8 weeks is up tomorrow…….
DK says
Sunny waited the full 8 weeks with me. Offered me a refund on loan 1 which would be used to clear £300 that was left and would pay me the other £300+. Declined and sent to FOS. Sunny still used the offer amount to clear my account which I queried and they said even though I declined, they can still action the offer if they feel it’s in the customers best interest. FOS came back yesterday saying they feel loans 2-30 were also unaffordable so have written to sunny asking them to repay all interest and charges and add on 8% simple. Loans 1-30 total £2230 without any interest. Hoping they accept. Keep fighting. You have nothing to lose from sending to FOS if they don’t uphold your complaint. Sure it’s waiting but if Sunny accept, I could be in for in excess of £2500 as opposed to the £600+ they offered. Been almost a year but could be very worth it x
Glen says
Step 1 to 247 on the 1st of May. They replied pretty quickly asking what I would see as a fair end to this complaint. Now in the 7 weeks investigation period they told me it would take. I had 37 loans with them equating to £29000 and £6000 intrest so I too am waiting for their response.
Sunny are terrible. Slow with the statements I requested, as they kept saying I could get them from my account page but these only went back to 2018 and I have been with them since 2014. I kept asking for them. 4 times in as many weeks. Today they finally say they have updated my account to hold all my statements so I had to get them myself and compile them one by one. Which for 30 loans took a long time. Sent my Step2 refund request today
ME says
Hi Sara,
I have been following this thread for a while and having read the comments about irresponsible lending, recently (6 weeks ago) decided to submit a complaint to SafetyNet Credit. I have been borrowing from them since Nov 2016 where my credit limit was £400 initially and over the two years had increased to £770. Due struggling financially and a number of outstanding debts with payday lenders that were often being re-borrowed from I would usually repay the amounts owed and then re-borrow again within the following few days, or simply pay the minimum payments for many of the months.
I have received my final response today and they have upheld my complaint. Whilst they state they plan to deal with redress in the same way the Financial Ombudsman would advise to, having read the figure they have provided in relation to the interest I have paid in the 2.5 years of borrowing I am confused how they have calculated this. They state that in that time I have paid £431.35 in internet however, having access to the statement of my account online for the tome I have had the account I struggle to see how they have calculated the figure, particularly when there are times I have paid approximately £180, £205, £85, £130, £136, £99 and so on in interest when repayments have been taken.
ME says
(Had to submit comment in two parts as too long-part 2 below)
I have contacted SafetyNet Credit’s complaints department to query this but are currently busy so I am awaiting a call back, but I wondered if there is something that I may not be taking into account? I say this as SafetyNet is a revolving credit line as opposed to other payday lenders so am not sure if they work interest out differently.
Kind regards,
ME
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can get a rough estimate of the interest you have paid by adding up all the borrowing over the years and also all the repayments you have made. Interest is the difference between these two totals.
LK says
Hi, I’ve contacted 8 payday loans companies. Wageday UK cleared my remaining debt. Payday UK/moneyshop have given me redress and cleared my credit file. I’m just waiting on the rest as I’ve still 2 weeks left of the 8 weeks allowed. I’ve today received an email from lending stream with the following..
We are sorry to hear about current situation and are willing to help.
We would request you to help us with the copy of supporting medical documents in a non-editable format along with the General Practitioner details such as name and contact number. We would also request you to help us with a letter physically signed by you authorising Lending Stream to contact the medical center in order to confirm few general details regarding your diagnosis.
Please note that we are in the midst of reviewing your complaint about the affordability of certain loans taken out with Lending Stream and would get back to you shortly with our findings.
I don’t want them to contact my GP as I feel thats really personal. I’ve had 4 surgeries during the times of the loans and its understandable they need proof. Can I just send letters proofing my surgeries and conditions without allowing them to contact my doctor?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you what you choose to send them. You could give them the letters and say you will provide any extra information to the Ombudsman.
I can’t guess whether giving LS permission to talk to your GP will make them much more likely to uphold your complaint.
L says
Hi
Can anyone tell me how long the money shop take to reply roughly? Today is week 8 since I comolained to them about about loans I previously had with ladder loans.
They sent an email at 4 weeks asking for a further 4 weeks.
Also just to mention it’s worth haggling with cash ASAP. I and 8 loans with them I total mot for very large amounts. They offered to refund 5 of the 8, however they picked the 5 with the lowest interest due rather than 5 in chronological order etc they offered £54. The total interest on all 8 was around £350. A few emails later and I have now settled with them for £202, and all negative markers removed.
GM says
Very, very slow… at 14 weeks, they still didn’t send their final response, so I’ve sent it to the FOS.
When they found out te complaint was with the FOS. They ignored it and let the FOS deal with it. Complaint sent to PDUK at the beginning of sep ‘18, sent to FOS at the end of nov ‘18… still waiting!
Mr PDL says
I had loans with Moneyshop, Payday Express and PaydayUK which are all part of the same group. Can I submit just one complaint to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
” Moneyshop, Payday Express and PaydayUK ” did you receive a single reply to these complaints or separate ones?
Mr PDL says
Separate ones. I just wondered as they are part of the same group if the FOS would review as one entity. Is there any weight in saying that they should have cross referenced their loan books?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they sent separate ones, I suggest you send separate complaints to FOS. You can cross-reference the other complaints.
Sometimes they combine these. I have no idea if this is random or it depends on the dates of the loans and how the various companies operated at different times.
L says
Had a feeling they would be slow, will get in touch with them tomorrow and if no joy will send to FOS save wasting any time.
Wesley says
I’ve had average 3 2000 loans every month fighting one with another. I cant get credit even a bad credit score card but have a half good job. It ruined me for about 5 years and have a current claim from wonga and quickquid. Any rough guess what I could be due back
Thanks for any help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga – you will only get back a small percentage of the compensation calculated because they are in administration. I assume you have put in a Claim using the administrators form.
QuickQuid – you need to know how much interest you have paid them to have any idea. If you have asked them for a list of your loans, that should show this.
If you used any other lenders, start of complaints against them too!
Brian says
Does anyone know how long it takes to go from an adjudicator to an ombudsman?
Lending Stream have until Monday to respond to the adjudicators recommendations – I’m not holding my breath and presume they’ll decline or not reply.
Been just over a year from when I first contacted the FOS and 18 since o started with LS.
Neil says
Hi Brian,
Adjudicator has given LS until next Wenesday the 5th to reply to his assessment. I called the FOS yesterday for an update and they told LS had acknowledged receipt of the adjudicators assessment. That’s something as a least they can’t say they haven’t received it.
I’ll post on here as soon as I know something.
Brian says
I just phones the FOS and LS have also confirmed on my case they received the adjudicators letter. the Lady from the FOS said that LS confirmed they will reply by 3rd June – she said this means it’ll be the 3rd June. I was told they normally e-mail the main FOS inbox so can take a couple more days for FOS to pick it up.
She seemed optimistic that they accept (generally) but obviously can never say for sure – or at least an agreement can be made.
Worst case it has to go to Ombudsman level – again the wait isn’t quite known but 4 months is a sensible answer.
Angela says
I complained to MyJar and just had their final response. Not upholding my complaint due to the loans being over 6 years old and there was no reason why I couldn’t have complained sooner despite me saying in my letter I only found out I could complain in December 2018??? That was their final response. Do I go to Financial Ombudsman with this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have with them?
GM says
I had exactly the same with MyJar ahere the loans were from 2011 up to 2014. Sent complaint in Sep ’18 and got rejection in 6 weeks. Sent to FOS at the end of Oct ’18 and Adjudicator upheld most loans including the ones over 6 years, on 22/05. MyJar agreed and i got paid yesterday!
Don’t waste any time, take it to the FOS.
Brian says
That’s amazing, really quick response from MYjar. Was it a strong case?
Shows it’s worth fighting.
Hoping Lending stream agree with my case also.
GM says
Yes, 32 loans, upheld from 5 to 30 and £2.2k refund after tax. The quick response was because I emailed the FOS and MyJar via Resolver with my acceptance and luckly the lady from MyJar asked me to send the bank statement cover, as proof of bank details, before friday 10am as its their deadline for their weekly payments.
Diddy says
update as today is 8 week deadline:
247 – partially upheld but not on the outstanding loan. hadn’t applied interest so sent an email (after working out the redress) and the difference is around £150 (in my favour). hopefully they will accept.
Satsuma – said they need more time (another 14 days). replied back stating that i was disappointed but would prepare my case nonetheless to FSO.
MrLender – gave them a final chance to confirm they credit checked and to reverse their decision. they, very politely told me i lied on my application but did not confirm they credit checked, just their own checks? i had sent them a list of outstanding loans at the time of each loan so off to FSO i go.
Peachy – sent to FSO
MyJar – sent to FSO
The Money Shop, Ferratum and CashASAP have still to reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think the credit check a lender made is important for your FOS case, you can ask the lender for a copy of all your personal information including any credit record checks they performed. lenders often have a special email address to send these queries to – look for Privacy, often in the footer of their website.
I don’t think this is worth doing in all cases – you can get a mountain of stuff back, way too much to be able to sort out. And giving the lenders more admin work will just slow down their general complaint processing. But if you only had a few loans it can be useful.
Don’t delay sending cases to FOS ofr this, you can always ask FOS to add more details to your case later on.
Diddy says
Thanks Sara for this information, I’ll bear it in mind.
I hadn’t realised I could add more details to my FOS case at a later stage, again thanks, good to know.
Diddy says
Oh should have added, got through decision from Lending Stream (heard nothing in 8 weeks, not even an acknowledgement) – rejected. Wasn’t surprised by the decision (judging by what others have said about them on here) , only had 4 loans between 2016 and 2018 (£500, £720, £770 and £920) so now taking to FOS.
Mr PDL says
Hi all,
What are people’s experiences of the time frame between a FOS mass complaint consultant responding to a complaint requesting more info and then it being picked up by an adjudicator?
Thanks
Mr PDL
Simon says
8 weeks nearly up for me and no final response from any of these companies Lending Stream, Payday UK, Pounds to Pocket, My Jar, Piggy bank, 247moneybox, Payday Express.
Will a bad feedback on trustpilot make any difference?
Holly says
Me to , all I’ve had is generic emails asking for two more weeks
GM says
For the companies that are not lending anymore, leaving a negative review on trustpilot will have no impact whatsoever as they are not pursuing customers anymore. for the others that are trading, it might work
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No. There is nothing you can do at this stage to speed things up. The lenders are dealing with large volumes of complaints and have a process to go through. Trust Pilot can be a very useful weapon later on, but at this point I don’t think it is.
Simon says
Thanks Sara
I have received an email this morning from P2P with a final response, the only problem is it is not my name or my case. Happy days.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask for compensation for a data protection breach.
Adele says
Hi Sara,
Im in the process of complaining to payday loans companies. Mr Lender has got back to me stating that the credit score came back at 588 and was affordable. I onky had 2 small loans with them around £250 and paid around £150 interest. I was borrowing from many companies at the time so i cant understand why my credit was 588. I was also in a dmp but i lied about that. Im now in a much better position. They have not upheld my complaint and only offered £25 in tesco vouchers and to have the loan wiped off my credit file. Should I accept this or go to ombudsman? If so how do i go to ombudsmen as this is the first of the many loans companies to come back with an offer? Also, could i ask if likely loans is a company we can complain against for same reasons as payday lenders? Many thanks Adele
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go to FOS but realistically you are not likely to win a FOS complaint about two small loans.
Have you downloaded a copy of your Noddle report? If not you need to do this NOW before any lender starts deleting loans, as you may need this for some FOS complaint.
Likely Loans – yes you can complaint, but as you probably only had one or two loans from them and they were probably large, read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ and follow the rather different approach and template over there.
Anita says
Sara,
I am looking for an advice. I have got a positive result with pday express some time ago, got a refund and very happy. I have just realised that Pday express is still as a creditor on my payplan account with a balance of £130. Shall I still pay this or remove the credit or from PayPlan.
I appreciate your help. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you go back and look at your PDE decision – what did it say about the last defaulted loan?
Anita says
The only relevant phrase in every final response from them is ‘If any negative information has been reported on your credit file such as late payment statuses or a default I will amend this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did it give a list of the loans that were being refunded? If so, was the last loan one of them? Was there any reference anywhere to a loan still being outstanding?
Anita says
They refunded charges for all loans apart from the very first one which in their opinion was affordable. There is no reference to any outstanding balance.
Is it worth to call them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is very odd. Your options are to take the easy way – which may work – and tell payplan that the account has been settled and so they stop paying it. Or to ask PDE if it’s OK to tell payplan that.
MelD says
Hey Sara, the financial ombudsman have replied to my complaint with EL, they are asking for information I don’t have, i.e. Bank statements at the time for the loan and my credit file, going back 5 years so I don’t have this information, will this matter ? They said they will start looking into when they have this information?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should be able to get bank statements going back 5 years, even from closed accounts. These do matter for affordability complaints and they are even more important where you only had a small number of loans from a lender as the “repeat lending” argument will not help you.
You can’t get an old credit report but all FOS want to see is your current Noddle report – they have just changed their name to Credit Karma and you can get it here: https://www.creditkarma.co.uk/
Iain123 says
You might be able to get old bank statements. I got them through a written request to bank head office. What have you got to lose?
MelD says
Yeh you are right called the bank and they are sending them out to me. Can only ask and it worked! Thanks for reply :)
Anita says
Thank you very much for your time and for advice.
Jacqui says
Hi Sara
Just received this response from My Jar
“We are contacting you to provide you with a progress update on a recent complaint you made to us. Unfortunately, and despite our best efforts, we are not yet in a position to give you a final resolution”
Does that sound promising?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not good news or bad news, it means no one has looked at it.
Paul says
Hi,
Just for information purposes, good news, the FOS sent a letter to Lending Stream on 16th April advising that they should not have borrowed the last 4 of my loans. LS did responded agreeing with the FOS decision. Having spoken to the FOS claim handler he was confident they would agree with his decision advising they very rarely disagree with there decisions.
I am not sure how long payment will take now I have confirmed acceptance but will update further upon receipt. Has anyone else accepted an offer for LS, just wondering what the time scale for payment is with them?
Neil says
Hi Paul,
I am waiting on LS to reply to adjudicators decision and the adjudicator has given them until the 5th June to respond. So I cannot answer your question about payment timescales.
Have LS only just agreed with your adjudicator, because that would be around six weeks from your adjudicator writing to them?
Thanks
Paul says
Hi,
Yes it was agreed yesterday but LS had requested an extension of time to look into it. Also the FOS handler advised me that emails take a couple of days to go into the system they use.
Joseph says
Hi Paul, from LS accepting adjudicators decision to money in my account was 11 days!
Brian says
Have you had any reply yet? I phoned the after noon of the second day after, due Monday called Wednesday to find out.
Just waiting in the paperwork from the FOS now so I can sign and get payment back.
From what Joesph says below 11 days is good. So payment must be within a week of the paperwork getting back to Lending Stream
Holly says
Hi all , do247 money box usually set up payment plans ??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Every lender will set up a payment plan if asked except for a few that will not take any payment if you have sent an affordability complaint.
El says
So had my first offer from ferratum. They have said that they do not think they lender irresponsibly and offered as a ‘good Will gesture’ a refund on £135. I didn’t think that was bad considering I only had one Loan with them for £400 and interest paid was £398 – this was my only loan that ended up being passed to a debt collection agency. It’s been fully paid for a while now. What do you guys think to the offer?
Joseph says
Sounds like a decent off. 1 loan wins at FOS are less likley as previous comments will show. Ask them to remove negative intrest and/or add 8% intrest on top?
L says
They tend to allow you to ask for a little more, suggest you’ll settle for £200 and they’ll come back with a better offer normally
Ljc says
Feeling a little disheartened today as yesterday I received 3 letters from the fos about 3 complaints I have with them :TMS, PDUK and QQ which have been at the fos since June and July 2018 and haven’t been picked up by an ajudicator yet .All loans are from 2010+ . They are stating they are still trying to decide if they are able to look into it and it’s likely I won’t hear from them for a few more months !
ClaireR says
I had a letter on Friday too, complaint against QQ P2P. Said same thing. First submitted in August 2018. Just got to hang in there I guess.
Stuart says
Hi,
Had letter off FOS with regards to Lending Stream ans Satsuma. FOS has agreed that interest from loans 3-15, 19-26 & 30-39 should be repaid from Lending stream plus 8%. Total I terest is roughly £3000
Satsuma has been upheld with 2 out of the 5 loans upheld for £1750 & £2000 +8%. I still owe £1800 from the seco d loan (hope I get a couple hundred quid from this after clearing it)
LS have until 6th June and Satsuma have until 11th June. Anybody had issues with these accepting the FOS decisions?
Laura says
Hi,
My complaint to QQ has been to the adjudicator where 36 loans were upheld and she wrote to QQ with her findings. QQ rejected this so its now being passed to an ombusman. How long does this stage normally take please and I’ve read in most cases the agree with the adjudicator. Is this true?
matt says
Hi Laura
Mine was upheld by adjudicator, QQ rejected in December 2018, I am still waiting for an Ombudsman to look at it so strap yourself in for a long wait :-(
Brian says
Once the lender (lending stream) have replied to the adjudicator, will I also be copied in that email, or direct to the FOS? I know they’ll probably reply tomorrow.
Is it likely they’ll ask for more time or either make an offer, accept or fill out reject?
Brian says
Just spoke to Lending Stream – the lady spoke with someone who said they will issue their response by the end of today – don’t know if i should be holding my breath though…
Moons says
Thanks for the updates. I’ve been told they will respond by End if day on the 6th and like you I’m not hopeful. Good luck.
Neil says
Thanks for the updates . LS have until the 5th to reply to my adjudicator.
This is so distracting . Ive not been able to concentrate other things like work ,etc since the adjudicator upheld my complaint.
LS have a lot to answer for !
Craig says
Hi,
Do you think I will have any chance with the following loans, I have sent request for refunds to all the below just want to know my chances of actually receiving something back,
Safety net credit 30/11/18 £760 over £800 outstanding
Lending stream- 3/5/18 £200 closed account
Wageday advance- 3/8/18 £270, £89outstanding
My jar 28/8/18 – £350, £321.50 outstanding these have replied dismissing my claim should I go to fos?
Wageday advance- £200, £200 still outstanding
Ferratum 3/9/18-£200 now closed
Lending stream 12/9/18 £100, £98.69 still outstanding
Lending stream 14/9/18 £100, £97.26 outstanding
Lending stream 25/9/18 £200, £199.29 outstanding
Ferratum 25/9/18 £200, closed
Lending stream 2/10/18 £150, £137.08 outstanding
Lending stream 12/10/18 £90, £98.08 outstanding
Ferratum 25/10/18 £300, £583.20 outstanding
Before the cycle started I already maxed out x2 credit cards with £300 limit on each, I had a credit union loan outstanding for £1500, outstanding debt with studio catalogue of £200 and a doorstep lending loan that had been running concurrently for 12 years with around £1000 outstanding, so was already in financial difficulty before the pay day loans I am now in a dmp so managing better and paying all creditors a small amount monthly.
turtle00 says
UPDATE. 6 weeks after my complaint to CASH ASAP they have come back to me initially offering £395.00 redress but I was able to get it up to £630.00 with another email highlighting a few salient points. Payment was made the same day as they advised and they have agreed to remove the redressed loans from my credit report. This is not much less than I thought I would get through the FOS so I accepted it as I have larger claims elsewhere.
Process was quite smooth but I would advise that if you telephone CASH ASAP the line is premium and the calls cost several pounds. This is sneaky as i wasnt advised this anywhere.
MyJar: Rejected claim and didn’t reply to my comments to their initial “final response”. Sent to FOS today.
Payday UK/Payday Express: 14 loans all together. They seem to be trying to dealing with these claims separately in order to get down the potential redress amount as often i would have a loan from 1 then the next loan from the other. They have requested bank statements but I feel this one will have to go to the FOS.
Carol says
Hello
I have a question. Can Safetynet Credit still collect the payment automatically if I changed the bank card?
Ross says
Hi Carol,
I can’t remember what I did, as it was so long ago, but if you actually amend your bank login details (such as password) then they can’t claim any funds, as the details they have on their system won’t match and the payment request would/should fail. However, you can always cancel the CPA with your bank and they HAVE to honour this request. If you’re struggling to pay, then cancel the CPA and put in an affordability complaint (if you haven’t already). Hope this helps?
Glen says
Ordering a new debit card (say you lost or damaged it) should do it. Long card number, expiry and security date will no longer match whats on their system
Holly says
Hi all
Mr lender have agreed to set up a payment plan with me but only a small amount for three months it then goes up double is this ok or shall I say no ??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what stage is your complaint at?
Holly says
An acknowledged email from them so far
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well just agree to this payment arrangement. When you get a final response from them (and as it’s Mr Lender it can be well worth negotiating to improve any offer) then see what balance if any is left at the end. If they don’t make a good offer and the case has to go to FOS, you need to agree that the repayments will be at an affordable level, but there is no point in worrying about that now.
Holly says
Ok thank you !
Jono says
Can someone help me here please!
I’ve submitted numerous payday loan complaints to the ombudsman, a recent loan from July 2016 got upheld and one form June 2016 got declined. Obviously I was furious with this so I sent an email to the adjudicator asking how he came to this decision and why were their processes so inconsistent when they were two similar loans taken out at the same time.
His response was:
“Peachy.co.uk on the other hand did not conduct a credit search before issuing your loan. They, like other short-term lending businesses, did not have an obligation to complete a credit check. The level of checks they completed at the time far enough”
I did not know that payday loans did NOT have to do a credit check. I’m going to be sending this to the ombudsman anyway but can anyone validate the information he’s sent me?
Thanks all!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lenders only have to make proportionate checks. The regulator does not say they have to check credit records. FOS says the checks should be more thorough the larger the loan, the lower your income, the longer term the loan and the more loans you had previously had from them.
If you only had one loan from peachy, how large was it?
Simon says
Hello,
If an adjudicator decision agreeing in my favour gets declined by the lender. Does anyone know how long it takes to get a decision from the ombudsmen level? Also do they tend to agree with the adjudicator offer.
Simon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In most cases the ombudsman agrees with the adjduicator. In a few the Ombudsman changes the number of loans to be refunded. So if the adjudicator said refund loans 5-11, the Ombudsman may say “refund loans 3-11” or “loans 6-11 except for loan 10 which was very small”.
It is unusual to get a very different result from the Ombudsman unless there were a small number of loans.
Andy says
Hi,
I know this isn’t WDA but not sure where to post this.
I’ve made a complaint to 24/7 Moneybox.
They have asked what would I see as a Full and Final Settlement?
Below is my loan history with them (Very bad I know! :-( )
Total amount borrowed across all loans (28 in total): £10973.00
Total amount repaid across all loans: £14028.26
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a lot of borrowing. Were there any large gaps between paying off one loan and taking the next?
Do you still owe them any money? If yes, for the last defaulted loan, what did you borrow and have you paid anything towards it? (Ignore interest completely).
What years were these 247 loans?
Angela says
I had 5 loans over 6 years ago with myjar. I used the template about irresponsible lending as I was having to get further loans from them and other payday loan companies to pay my bills. I sent them copies of my bank statements showing the different loans I got with them and other lenders. Their final response was to reject my complaint as it’s over 6 years ago and saying there was no reason why I couldn’t have complained sooner despite me saying I only realised I could complain this year. I think I’ve just been sent their generic response as it mentions me talking about rollover loans in my complaint but I’ve never mentioned these as the loans were paid off in full ready for me to borrow again. I’ll take this to the ombudsman and let them decide
Shelly says
Has anyone else had any difficulty with Uncle Buck? They rejected my claim with them back in May 18. I went to FOS in July 18 and an Adjudicator has just upheld my complaint. He gave UB until the 27th to respond, they have ignored this. When i rang the FOS for an update they said they would chase but they didn’t really seem fussed. Is it common practice for the loan company to ignore the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I was going to suggest you leave them a bad trust pilot review – but I see you already have!
Shelly says
I read a few comments on here and hoped it would Get a response.
Is it common for them to just ignore the FOS?
L says
Uncle Buck flat out rejected my complaint, their email hadn’t even referenced any of the points made in my complaint (I’d been in a repayment plan on loan two but they lent 4 more loans) – emailed and suggested she reads my complaint to which she asked for a further say, a day later all interest paid on subsequent loans after repayment plan loan plus 8%!
This has happened more than once, their responses are so generic from these companies that it’s shocking!
johnvan says
I have had a final response from Mr Lender to my complaint in respect of 10 loans
12/03/2013 £300 – repaid 19/03/13
03/06/2013 £300 – repaid 26/06/13
01/07/2013 £400 – repaid 10/12/13
12/12/2013 £800 – repaid 31/03/14
31/03/2014 £800 – repaid 28/041/4
28/04/2014 £1000 – repaid 29/07/14
29/07/2014 £1000 – repaid 30/01/15
30/01/2015 £1000 – repaid 27/03/15
27/03/2015 £1000 – repaid 29/05/15
29/05/2015 £1000 – repaid 30/09/15
From an initial offer of a £50 Amazon or Tesco Voucher they have increased their offer to £1219 in respect of loans 7&8.
They believe that loans 1-6 and 9-10 were affordable although during this period of borrowing I had taken another 101 payday loans from other lenders.
Between June 2013 and May 2015 I was in a cycle of borrow, repay and immediately re-borrow. I made loan repayments of up to £1040 every month between June 2013 and September 2015. Interest totalled £5400. Disregarding loans 1-3 the interest was £4500 and although I would negotiate I do not think their offer is fair. I am minder to escalate this to the FOS as I feel I have a solid case but any advice would be appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t imagine the reasoning that makes them say 7 & 8 were unaffordable but 9 & 10 weren’t.
I suggest you give this one more try. Say you will accept a refund on loans 4-10 as a settlement now (or 5-10? up to you what you are prepared to compromise on), or you will be sending the case to FOS where you will expect to get that as a refund plus 35% extra for statutory interest.
Johnvan says
Sara
That was exactly my thinking. I believe I would have a good chance of having loans 4 – 10 refunded but would accept 5-10 as a compromise.
Thanks
John
Johnvan says
Sara
I went back to Mr Lender and they immediately accepted loans 9 and 10 to be unaffordable.
I spoke to them today and agreed to a refund of loans 7 – 10 and received £2300 within an hour.
I may have received more if I had negotiated harder for loan 6 or went to the FOS but I am happy with this settlement. I would never have known that I was entitled to pursue these claims and this windfall has been a bonus. My credit card now has a zero balance.
Thank you for your advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done!
GM says
Just spoke with FOS about my QQ and PDUK complaints (sent to FOS on 05/11/18 and 29/11/18 respectively) and they said that an agreement was reached with QQ where the FOS will look into all loans over 6 years, so things should move a bit quicker as they don’t have to look on a case by case at jurisdiction level anymore. This is what was slowing down the whole process, as well as the sher volume of complaints. However, In cases where the FOS thinks that the costumer should have been aware, then they’ll decide accordingly.
With regards to PDUK, the FOS said that this company is also proving to be equally difficult and therefore loans over 6 years are waiting to be analyzed at the jurisdiction level.
The FOS also said that it could be months until my cases get picked up by an adjudicator
Big d says
Don’t hold your breath, my qq loan has been with the FOS 2 years as of March this year, got a letter from my adjudicator advising they had upheld a loan over 6 years and qq had TIL the 9th of April to respond which they did saying they wouldn’t look at older loans over 6 years lol. Nothing seems to be happening at all
GM says
not holding my breath as the shee volume is wnough to hold back the complaints, but according to the FOS, this agreement with QQ was reached in May, so it was after the letter you received.
Ade says
Put a complaint in with sunny on 8/4/19. 8 weeks is today. So just rang for a update. They told Me they have until the 19th. They are working from their acknowledgement date, spoke to a manager and they said ill have my final response today. Lets see if it arrives
A a Ron says
SUMMARY
Based on my findings and the information above, I can uphold the complaint regarding irresponsible lending and am able to offer some redress in this matter. If you accept in full and final settlement of the complaint, I can refund the interest and charges on loans 3-14. This totals £1857.58 + 8% statutory interest = £285.68. This provides a grand total redress of £2143.26.
This is the response piggy bank came back to me with today literally the last day of the 8 weeks they had to deal with it. Thanks to this amazing site and Sara. Safety net credit got back after two weeks writing off what I owed them (1289.64).
24/7 money box wrote off £80 loan I had with them and didn’t pay anything towards it.
Piggy bank made it seem like they were not going to uphold in the email but have upheld in my favour.
Sunny is now over 8 week
Bamboo over 8 weeks
Amigo over 8 weeks
Uk credit over 8 weeks
Lending stream over 8 weeks
My jar over 8 weeks
118118 money – 8 weeks
Money boat and cash float are over 8 weeks now too.
Worrying how many people are in the same situation. It’s clear that the loaning system is broken and they need to safeguard customers more.
Stick to Sara’s guidelines and templates, it may take a few month but it’s well worth it finally some light at the end of that tunnel. Thank you Sara!