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?
Soph says
Hi, just to let everyone know my adjudicator never had any response from Quick Quid on my complaint so made her decision based on the information I had given. Her findings were that they ought to have realised I was in financial difficulty from loan 10 onwards and should now refund interest and charges plus the 8% on loans 10 to 26 as well as remove all of those loans and the outstanding defaults from my credit file.
She has given them until 3rd June to provide their answer to this recommendation. My understanding is if they continue not to respond it will have to go to an Ombudsman.
LAM says
Hi,
Can anyone offer any advice regarding Safety Net Credit/Indigo Michael?
I complained to them just a few days ago and they have sent me their final response already, not upholding my complaint.
They say they could see a stable income (they had access to my bank account whilst I used their credit line) and that they were happy with the affordability checks they carried out (they claimed they completed these on an ongoing basis). They also said my credit scoring was satisfactory and nothing on my file suggested I shouldn’t be extended credit, and I was not over indebted with other credit.
My argument is;
1) I had several Defaults and one CCJ at the time of my application (and after)
2) I had loans monthly with WDA and 247 which they should have noticed since they accessed my bank account (or even my credit file)
3) I used their credit facility every month since I was extended it
4) I accepted every credit limit increase and so increased the amount I borrowed each month
Has anyone had success with them or would I be wasting my time complaining to the FOS? I have an outstanding balance at present which they have said they’re happy to come to and arrangement regarding. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The argument that they could see your bank statement so they should have been aware of your problems and other payday loans sounds a good one.
You haven’t actually been offered anything, so why not take it to the FOS? Go in with the attitude that you aren’t expecting anything much and you may end up pleasantly surprised. Safetynet credit isn’t one of the biggest lenders so there haven’t been many comments about them – here is a recent success https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-19/#comment-194617
Aga says
Hi Sara and everyone ,
that’s my final response from Payday UK , after 12 weeks ……..
[guff]
My Assessment:
[guff]
Following our final checks being completed the loan sum of £300.00 was deposited to your chosen bank account on 14 December 2010. This left you with a repayment of £375.00 (£300.00 loan principal, £75.00 contractual interest) due on 26 January 2011. You opted to defer the repayment of this loan on two occasions by paying the contractual interest and a partial repayment. The loan was then settled on 30 March 2011 with a payment of £262.50.
You obtained two further loans from PaydayUK; a £450.00 loan on 6 April 2011, and a £320.00 loan on 1 March 2012. You elected to defer repayment of these loans a total of sixteen times. We attempted to take payment on 29 August 2012 to settle your final loan, however, were unsuccessful and therefore, your loan defaulted. On 5 October 2012, you asked us to aid you in repaying your outstanding balance. This was agreed and, from 5 October 2012 to 28 November 2012, we received six loans [? I think this should read payments] totalling £255.86. As no default interest or charges were applied, this payment was sufficient to settle your loan in full. No further borrowing has been agreed with you.
[guff]
Given that you have provided information upon each application which has been confirmed as being accurate it is apparent that at no point prior to your loan defaulting had you informed PaydayUK that you were in financial difficulty.
[guff]
I can conclude that I am unable to uphold your complaint on this occasion and appreciate this is not the response you were hoping for.
———————————————————–
any advice welcome
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have chopped out the boring bits they send to everyone.
So you borrowed once (£300) and deferred that loan twice, suggesting you were having problems repaying it. Then you borrowed again (£450) a week later – I think that should have suggested that you were becoming dependent on payday loans and that second loan should not have been granted.
That seems like a reasonable case to take to the Ombudsman to me.
Claire says
I got about the same response from Payday UK, my complaint is with an adjudicator at the FO so we’ll see how that goes!
Hannah says
My complaints were for Wonga and Quick quid.
1. Wonga never responded within the 8 weeks apart from an initial email acknowledging receipt of complaint so I went straight to FO. After another 4 weeks I received a decent final response. The total interest I had paid was £2505. They offered me £2225 plus interest and £100 compensation for the delay. Total: £2,673.29. So I am getting more than I actually paid and this was the first and final offer. Good result! Will be in my account within 5 days.
2. Quick quid made me an offer of £250 then an email straight after saying disregard the previous email we are offering £150! Declined offer and again after 8 weeks referred to ombudsman. This is still pending.
My advice is stick to the timescales and deadlines, even if the companies ask for an extension the FCA dictates that a complainant should receive a full and final response within 8 weeks. It nudges the companies to respond quicker, they use these extensions etc to deter the complainants and they hope you won’t pursue your claim. Be patient and follow the timescales ?
Jess says
I got a reply off sunny today. They are repaying me all interest and charges plus 8% and wiping my outstanding debt of over a thousand pounds and removing it all from my credit file … RESULT
I obviously replied with my bank details straight away so they could process the refund.
NOW I HAVE A PROBLEM
The figures as far as I can see aren’t right!
Sunny say:
I borrowed: £ 4603.51
I paid: £5312.78
Refund due: £709.27 & 8% £104.03
But when I have looked properly into my account:
I borrowed: £3950
I paid: £5289.58
This includes the loan amounts I borrowed paid some to but still have an amount outstanding
So shouldn’t refund be: £1339.58 & 8% £107.10
Or am I missing something somewhere?
What should I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it’s OK to come back the same day or the next day and say, hang on you said you were doing X but that isn’t what the figures say.
Can you redo your figures dividing them into the loans that that you repaid in full (amount borrowed and amount repaid) and the loans you defaulted on (amount borrowed, amount repaid, amount outstanding). I’m not saying your figures aren’t right, but it’s confusing to mix up repaid loans with ones where there is a balance outstanding.
G says
Has anyone had any luck with lenders who you have only had 1-4 loans with.. My main lender is Wonga ( 22 loans in 24 months adding upto £4500 in interest ) but after Wonga stopped lending to me and needing more loans I took out more with other companies, my credit record would have been all but destroyed with late payments and defaults etc but 2 years on I was still being offered loans by the likes of next credit, satsuma, mr lender and my jar. Each of these I only gave the one loan with. There’s others I have 3-6 loans with and Wonga and wage day advance even more. My question is would I still have a case against the small quantity of loans because they were some of the last I had taken and my credit record should have shown they were unaffordable or will it just be seen as one loan and no pattern for unaffordablity ?
Kieran says
Hi,
I have been in a similar situation! After wonga changed their lending criteria in 2014 I was told I could not take any more loans from them. As a result I had to then use pounds2pocket of which I took an instalment loan that was initially for 6 months and I kept rolling over. I proceeded recently to make a complaint to p2p but they have declined my complaint and said that I did not contact them stating I was experiencing financial difficulty. It will be very unlikely that the FO will uphold the complaint in our favour as it was not repeated lender however if you feel insufficient affordability checks were made at the time of application then you can battle for this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1 loan cases are very hard to win. but if your credit record was very bad and the loan amount was high in relation to your income it may be worth pursuing.
3-6 loan cases are much better complaints, especially if there was a very short gap between repaying one loan and taking another. You may well only get refund from the 3rd or 4th loan onwards – though if you rolled or paid the first loan late you could argue for a refund from the second loan.
L says
so I received my statement of account from Mr Lender – in fairness I got it emailed within two hours of requesting it.
I got 1 loan for £350 on 2/11/10 and paid a total of £1,050 in interest and didn’t settle the loan until 20/10/11 – it does say affordability check and credit check yes – but surely that I kept deferring it shows I couldn’t afford it? Any advice?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s hard to win a complaint with only one loan, but you could argue that after the first few deferrals they should have asked if you were having problems and offered a repayment plan. Worth a try?
Ivy says
Hi all,
Update of my last complaint to wonga.
They asked for additional 6 weeks from the 26th April and I got a response today at week 12 and 3 day.
They upheld my complaint and are refunding 14 out of 29 loans I had with them… From 2011-2014.
I accepted as the refund amount was still larger than what I requested from them for all 29 of my loans?! (Don’t know how but it is)
I sent an email to accept so will just wait for the payment to come back to my account.
I didn’t chase them up at all since my initial complaint email, so if you are patient then I would say give wonga the extra time as it’s less hassle…
Good luck guys
Matt S says
Still waiting for a response from Wonga, will be 6 weeks on Monday since they requested an additional 4 weeks and have heard nothing at all from them since. Sent a few emails over the past 2 weeks without any response. Does anyone know, when they do give a final response is it usually by post or email?
I did want to wait and not take the complaint to the FOS as had heard previously that they were one of the better ones for responding within the additional weeks requested, however if on Monday I’ve still had no response after 14 weeks in total and 2 weeks over the extra 4 weeks they requested then I don’t think i’ll have any choice.
I appreciate that their complaints department will be busy but really bad customer service to not even acknowledge my emails or update me after the additional time they had requested had passed.
Ashley Jowitt says
Hi All, be careful when complaining to Cash Genie. After 8 weeks of hearing nothing and forwarding case to FO I have now received a letter saying my Debt has been Sold to Motor mile Finance and I owe them money from 2013. Very strange as I don’t owe them any money and the deft is supposedly from 2013. The letter is Signed by the Liquidators and makes reference to the fact that Cash Genie has no links to my account anymore and to not reply to them. Absolutely Shocking!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like an error – you should tell Motormile Finance that you deny owing Cash Genie any money. I also suggest telling the FO what has happened.
Lilly says
Hiya,
Had today what I am calling a big success. I placed my complaint with Mr Lender 2 days ago.
They replied today, with a big long with email saying how they weren’t in the wrong etc etc, and then at the very end, said as a good will gesture, we will write off your current outstanding loan, of £1000. (I was still due to make 11 monthly payments on this loan, as it was one of their new 12 month loans and it would of added up to £1800 including interest on all payments). So i am classing this as a £1800 success as that is what I would have had to pay back in total and I am thrilled. :) I had only 13 loans in total from them over a 2 year period, adding up to about £1200 in interest paid, not including this current loan, which would have taken me up to £2000 in interest paid, so getting £1800 of payments wrote off, I think is a great outcome, hope I am right! Haha.
Ross says
wonga rang me yesterday they said the reason they were only paying on 27 of my 70 was because of the stricter guidelines for lending that came in in 2015 all loans before they said would pay but the rest after 2015 they felt were fine as they followed the stricter lending criteria, they total ignored the fact i was stuck in a circle and had to carry on using pretty much every month
they offered on 27 showed the amounts and then said interest had been added but it hasnt
anyway its now been sent off to ombundsman, wonga did say however that there offer stands for 6 months so im in no danger of getting nothing
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is an odd argument. I take the view that once a lender has decided that they shouldn’t have given then unless there is a very big time gap, they shouldn’t have been giving any after that point either. There are two sorts of information a lender can have – info from outside such as credit ratings and what the borrowers says and info from their own experience of lending to this particular person. If you were caught in a trap and they should have seen this, it doesn’t matter what outside checks look like!
But that is of course just me saying what I think.
harjinder says
Hi Ive just came across this website and i really think it can help me as ive had so many payday loans on a monthly basis it got so bad there was a time i had forgotten who i had the loans with.
ive just got 2 questions before i log my complaint, if my complaint is upheld can i request the data be removed from my credit file.
Second is that i paid a few loans off early by getting other payday loans and even a long term loan over 5 years to pay of 2 payday loans totalling £1500 because it was paid of early will tey not think i was financially ok and not in difficulity.
Thanks
CRL says
Hi All,
Firstly thanks so much for the information on this website, looks as though people are taking the complaints forward and achieving a lot of positive outcomes.
So I decided to have a look at a payday loan reclaim. I complained to Wonga on 31/03/2016. The 56 day response window was up on the 26th May. I have proactively chased a response from the either a final response or extension of my complaint window. After speaking to 5 individuals, and getting nowhere. I rang the again yesterday. After I reeled off the times/ dates/ lengths of calls and names I recieved a response via email within 30 minutes. Requesting a further 6 weeks.
I have referred my case to FOS at the same time as the complaint to Wonga and had confirmation it’s with an adjudicator. I have also pulled my bank statements and reconstructed my borrowing pattern with Wonga. 114 loans over a 6 year period. Put on a spreadsheet with dates, amounts, account paid in to etc. Almost cried at the total figure borrowed and paid back. Not my proudest achievement. I have absolutely no idea how I have managed all this time. The amount is in excess of £25k. I’m hoping I get some resolution to this. I’ll keep you updated.
Miles says
Is it worth pursuing The Money shop.
Had personal cheques cashed by them for 4 years. You gave them cheque for £100, they gave you £75 cash then charged you £16 per cheque everytime you “rolled it over”
4 years at £16 x 2/3 cheques is an awful lot of money.
What do you think?
Suzi says
Hi Miles
Yes i to done the same with The Money Shop asked for my money back they said no, took them to the FOS who upheld my case
Just waiting for Money Shop to calculated refund, Hope this helps you
Bj says
Just added up I’ve borrowed 38k over 49 pay day loans just from quick quid. Often paying in full but borrowing full amount same day. Have sent them the claim letter. Does anyone have similar experience? Do they always refuse first claim or have they been known to settle?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Bj, that’s a lot but we’ve seen other people with many years of repeat borrowing from Quick Quid. It is likely that they will make you a very low offer, perhaps only 10% of what the Ombudsman will award, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ for some examples. So it’s best to assume your case will have to go to the ombudsman. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Rachel says
Hi bj in a similar situation 69 loans over a number of years paying back in full and re lending same day gone the 8 weeks had no reply sent of to the ombudsman so waiting to hear when it will get assigned, good luck
Nat says
I started off using wonga last year which was on a monthly basis until I realised how bad my lending had gotten this year. I now have loans with 6 other companies, wonga I rolled over and am in a payment plan with same with wagedayadvance. I complained to all companies and got a reply from quid market stating that they were not at fault and since I only had 1 loan from them that the loan was not unaffordable at all. As they had carried out correct checks etc. Surely seeing 6 other loans on my credit would of been enough to see how bad my lending history was :(. My credit is in such a mess and I’m so disappointed in myself.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s very hard to win a complaint about a single loan, some exceptions being if you rolled it several times, or you defaulted and they treated you unfairly when you said you were in difficulty, or your credit records had defaults and CCJs on it.
GD says
Since 2010 I have taken a total of 171 payday loans between wonga, quick quid, mini credit, lending stream and sunny. I have borrowed a total of £96000 over this period. It started with a wonga loan in 2010 that I could not afford the repayment and then i had to retake loans or borrow more from the same company on the same day. I clearly could not afford the repayments but they kept offering me it now leaving me in a financial mess. I had help from family to clear mini credit, sunny and lending stream however I currently still have a open loan with quick quid and wonga. Tonight I have written a letter to these companies with your template above so hope I get somewhere with this as my credit is in a mess and struggling with financial payments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s depressing how quickly thing can spiral out of control, I hope you get good results from these complaints.
Do you have a lot of outstanding debts? One thing that could help is if you contact StepChange http://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPdebtmanagementplan.aspx and ask for a debt management plan. Then if/when you get any refunds, you can use the money to pay off debts.
Katie says
Hi there
I found this site by accident a couple of weeks ago and I’ve found it to be a great help, I fired off 19 emails and so far I’ve heard from mini credit (OPOS) they’d bumped a £220 loan up to £1750 and they’ve reduced it to £181, 247 money box and lending stream wrote off the loans immediately and Mr Lender reduced a £600 debt to £71
I still have thousands in interest with other companies but I just wanted to ask if it’s normal for companies to be asking for my bank statements from years ago, will the claim go no further if I can’t get copies of old statements ?
thanks in advance Katie
Miles says
Uncle Bucks have offered my through the Adjudicator £2500 saying that’s the total interest and 8% added after the 2nd rollover.
However, my bank statements show £4500 in interest after the 2nd rollover, thats without the 8% added.
I am rejecting their offer but how does it work now then?
How does the Adjudicator work out what’s to be paid if the company are saying that’s their figures.
Just don’t get this bit of it all.
Why doesn’t the adjudicator just say, yes, I agree, please pay the £4500 plus 8%
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume the adjudicator has your bank statements, you have pointed out the discrepancy and supplied a list / spreadsheet showing the payments in and out of your bank account. If any of these are missing, I suggest supplying them – make it easy for your adjudicator to reach the right decision quickly.
Miles says
OK, think I got it now.
Uncle Bucks were saying they will refund all interest +8% on the rollovers after first 2.
This only applies to the rollover not the actual loans because they changed procedures in 2012 to stop people rolling over. So instead you had new loans everytime, every 3 months I would have a new loan rather than “rollover”.
So their not upholding that part of my complaint which covers about £3000 in interest payments.
Was I right to reject?
Danielle says
The 8 weeks with QuickQuid and Wonga were up yesterday. No response from either (shock) Already sent my complaint to the FO.
Does anyone think its worth mentioning to the FO the appalling customer service from both Wonga and QuickQuid? By just completely blanking us? I sent several emails asking for updates and also politely reminding them the 8 weeks were up on the 30th and have received nothing back at all? Pure ignorance.
Also can anyone shed any light on why QuickQuid are offering stupidly low offers? Why not just offer a fair amount, case closed, no FO involvement and no FO fee? I dont get it?
Danielle says
Email from Wonga asking for a further 6 weeks. Haha no thanks.
Btw I’ve said it before but if anyone is having trouble getting a response from these sharks, message them on social media, Facebook or Twitter. I used Twitter to contact Wonga after several failed email attempts and got a response within half an hour.
Danielle says
Sorry for the multiple posts but after messaging QuickQuid on Facebook they have sent my a final response.
I am currently in default with them of £400 from 2013, at the time I pleaded with them to set up a repayment plan of £25 per month (I had just been made redundant and was getting £70 per week in jobseekers allowance) they refused this.
In the final response they sent this…
“Having taken all your comments into consideration, we would like to make you an offer that we believe is fair to address the loans that you feel were irresponsibly given to you. In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer discharge your debt with us in the amount of £585.40 (This would be calculated exactly on acceptance of our offer). This loan will also be deleted from your credit file. To accept our offer, please reply to this email address with your confirmation and we will arrange for the account to be discharged. I am hopeful that this matter will then be satisfactorily resolved.”
£585.40??? When I log in my account its £400.
I am not accepting this offer I paid over £1000 interest, constant rollovers, top ups every month, late payments, late fees and the fact they refused a repayment plan should make a good case.
Matty says
I had my final response from quick quid a while ago and still gathering data for FOS…..However…
I just received a final response with someone else’s details…how bad is that? Disgusting. Absolute joke of a company.
Suzi says
Hi Sara Debt Camel
The FOS have given The Money Shop until 24 June to pay me up ! what i want to know is who calculates the pay out ?
The FOS have given a provisional upheld decision, which i have accepted , so is it just a case on The Money Shop submitting the final pay out figure to FOS ?
Also these were roll over cheque pay day loans . do i get paid out for the fees i paid as well as the roll over fees e.g £17.99 i got back £82.01 plus £17.99 each time i rolled over & over ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Money Shop calculates it, but if you think their calculation is incorrect you should inform them and the Ombudsman.
My view is that the “fee” you are first charged on one of these cheque payday loans is the interest for the first month and should be included in the refund. If it isn’t, you should challenge that too.
G says
This page has been such a great help, but was wondering if anyone has been receiving a lot more spam emails since emailing and complaining to these companies ?
Kevin says
[edited – a lot more people also replied agreeing that they had.]
I’m getting loads of spam emails and I think I know which company is responsible. Quickquid. I used a hotmail address for this complaint and I’m getting loads of spam. Whereas I used a yahoo address for the other 5 complaints to PDUK, PDEX, Lending stream, Myjar and Wonga and I’m getting no spam in that address!
Bryan says
last year payday uk failed to uphold complaint, I didn’t escalate to fos (stupidly) because, although I was struggling, and borrowing from several payday loans, I never missed a payment, and thought fos would side with payday lender. I did however rollover loan for 11 months straight, and they allowed me to borrow on same day as paying off old loans. Up to 900 at a time. My question is, I think I have a good case. The fos can’t progress complaint, as payday uk won’t allow them, as it’s outwith 6 months of final response from them.
Do I have any other options? Or is it a case of too late?
they did say I could go to the FOS, it’s at the bottom of letter. I should have paid more attention, but once I read they were not upholding complaint, I kind of just gave up. Stupidly. Anywhere I can go from here? Go back to payday uk CEO? or will I get the same response? I’m still in a financial mess due to there repeated lending. I fear I’ve missed my chance though.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Legally you have nowhere to go. Sometimes a very persistent person can get results by finding senior people’s email addresses and / or using social media works, but neither their Facebook or Twitter account seems to be regularly updated.
Sam says
Update on my complaints since my 8 weeks was up yesterday for all complaints:
Lending Stream- within 3 weeks responded stating they didn’t uphold my complaint but as a gesture of goodwill would write off my outstanding balance. I only paid around £550 in interest over 3 spread out loans so writing off £370 I felt was a fair offer so I accepted. I found calling them to be easier as they tended to send a response the same day via email after chasing them up on the phone.
Wonga – responded 1 day before the 8 weeks was up, even after they they had sent me an email requesting 6 more weeks a few days earlier?! They offered £1407 plus interest I was hoping for about £1900 plus interest. I called and explained another 10 loans I felt were unaffordable but they have reiterated this is their final response. I’m deliberating on taking it as the money would come in handy now and not guaranteed to get more and probably a substantial wait.
Payday Express & Payday UK – sent an email on the last day of the 8 weeks apologising as they are yet to come to a decision, escalated it to the FO as don’t see the point in waiting just to be refused.
Pounds to pocket – replied yesterday on the 8 week deadline ( I had already escalated to FO an hour earlier as it came at 9pm) they stated that they had done nothing wrong and as a gesture of goodwill – ” In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer a partial settlement of your loan and then we would set up a payment arrangement for the remaining balance. (Current balance due in the amount of £461.87 and will be calculated exactly upon acceptance of this offer.)” considering I have already paid more than the original loan back this is laughable! I replied I am taking it to the ombudsman as any company who deems it affordable to loan me £850 through quick quid and £1050 through pounds to pocket in the same month surely is in the wrong!
Quick quid – these are the ones who I am really gunning for at the moment. They have been so rude in any communication with them. Have promised to call me back twice and nothing. On top of this they issued me a statement of account with 3 substantial loans missing from it which I’m pretty sure the ombudsman won’t appreciate just like I don’t. Plus no response within the 8 week period.
I will keep you updated on my progress, but feel confident I will get something from all of them via the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for the update.
The Wonga decision is difficult as it’s not stupidly low – I know one other person who is thinking hard about a similar “OK but should really have been a bit better” offer. FWIW I don’t think a case with the ombudsman would take many months – the really slow ones are those where the lender doesn’t respond but Wonga are pretty good at that. You say another 10 loans were unaffordable – was that all of your other loans? If it was then you may not get a “full refund” from the FO. But if you had more so you are already trying to be fair about your case when you say another 10 should be included, then that feels rather different.
Sam says
They have admitted to 16 out of 46 loans, I was trying to be fair when I said 10 to them. Excluding the first few and any small ones I think about 30-36 possibly could be deemed unaffordable. They are stating since some were paid off early before the due date then they were affordable however my argument is that I then reloaned again within that month either the same or subsequent days so clearly it wasn’t affordable I was just moving my money around.
I’ve just sent the case off to the ombudsman after a discussion with my other half we’ve decided that waiting a bit longer for what could be a sizeable bit more money is worth it.
DS says
I would refer PDUK’S to the FOS. I did, it took 5 months to settle all in all (they milk the full 56 days rule as well) but I got there. They offered me £258 at first in the basis I don’t disclose this to anyone else (basically don’t snitch on us) – so I did exactly that. They can cram it. Got £779 after FOS agreed in my favour.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s interesting, I wonder how many people have accepted PDUK offers but not reported them because of a non disclosure clause?
If you felt cross about PDUK’s complaints process, think about reporting your concern to their regulator, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-refund-payday-uk-express-money-shop/
Doris says
So originally 247 money box offered to clear all interest from outstanding loan, after this was repaid they offered a one of payment off £100 an I refused, I asked if this was there final response they replied no, since then after sending countless emails an calls nothing!!!! There customer service is just simply shit!!!!! There eight weeks are up but I’m torn what to do next??? Continue to email and call or go to f/o!!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go to the FO. 247 Moneybox may come back to you in a week or two but get yourself in the FO queue just in case they don’t. And tell 247 Money box what you have done – sometimes that makes a lender take a decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
IF anyone has had a lot of spam emails / texts / cold calls after putting in a payday loan complaint
AND
you only complained about one lender (or the email address you are getting the spam at you only used for one lender)
please could you Reply to this giving the name of the lender.
PLEASE DON’T REPLY To THIS if you can’t clearly identify which lender was responsible, even if you are cross at getting so much spam.
graham says
QuickQuid is the payday lender.
Char says
I have had loads of spam emails, text messages and calls after putting in my complaint to cheque centre. It is the only complaint I have put in so I know it’s down to them.
Danielle says
QuickQuid.
Jason says
Quick quid
James says
Me and my partner both sent off separate emails to paydayuk yesterday to their dollar email and have woken up with hundreds of spam emails. I sent an email to amigo and dollar but my partner only sent an email to dollar so I suspect their the culprit.
Kevin says
I mentioned earlier that my hotmail address is getting lots…only used for my Quickquid claim….whereas my yahoo account has none (used for PDEX, PDUK, LS, Wonga and Myjar)
S.D says
Quick Quid
I woke up to 53 junk email
victoria says
Quick Quid
Louise ackers says
Money shop/dollar as I only put in complaints with them and received a ridiculous amount of junk email. The Money shop are now ignoring emails. As the eight weeks have passed my complaints are now with the financial ombudsman, who inform me that this is the usual practice with them. So don’t give the money shop extra time they will just ignore your emails after eight weeks.
Danielle says
Hi everyone
QuickQuid sent a final offer saying they will wipe off my £585.40 balance I apparently have with them (When i log in QuickQuid it says £400) Anyways my last loan with them was £750 in 2013… However after checking my bank statements after that I have paid back a total of £751.. So in theory I have paid back what I owe them yes? My account with them has been froze on £400 since 2013. I have paid nothing since they refused me a repayment plan when i lost my job.
Also regarding the spam I woke up today to 165 spam emails with the majority offering payday loans/credit cards. I got my final response yesterday from QuickQuid…Strange.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Danielle, if you had loans before that were repaid, that is another one of QQ’s poor offers. It’s unlikely to be worth discussing it with them so I suggest you go to the ombudsman.
g says
Received my second offer.. First being extremely poor from quod market.. Wagedayadvance originally wiped off £1300 of my debt a year or so back and today offered £889 full interest and 8% from loan 5 onward. Not to happy about the loan 5 onward part though, my question is how is the 8% calculated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 8% is 8% interest for each year since you made a payment to them. So if you paid £1000 in 2011 there would be about 5 years interest added. If your payments went on between 2012 and 2014, then there would be 4 years on the earlier ones and only 2 years on the later ones. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/ for details.
“from loan 5 onwards” doesn’t sound a bad offer, especially if you already had a balance wiped off.
LR says
accepted Wongas offer today of just under £8,000 anyone else had any luck with Wonga, been quoted 5 working days to receive the money, has anyone got theirs any quicker?
(The timescale was : First complained 4th Feb went to ombudsmen after about 13 weeks after nothing from wonga then 3 weeks later they made offer. Presented offer to adjudicator and they said it was fair.)
Gaynor says
Emails from Quick Quid every 3 days asking for payment. When I asked them to stop any collection activity whilst the debt was being disputed they refused, with a snotty email telling me so. Very rude company!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could email them and remind them of CONC 7.14.1 which says “A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the
recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds.”
But an email every 3 days seems quite low level. I would be inclined to just keep them all and forward then to the FOS when your complaint gets to that stage (as most QQ complaints do)
Mike says
Just to keep you guys posted, Ferratum responded today writing off my balance and informing credit ref agency that the debt is settled, Myjar doing the same and even offered me £100 compensation I accepted that as my debt with both was only £650, made the complaint 4 weeks ago to both, only the others to go don’t think they will be as forthcoming as they will no doubt wait until the 8 weeks are up
Tony says
Update from my claims
Wonga- passed to ombudsman 17/5/16 after adjudicator agreed with me.
The other 4 cases being dealt with by the same adjudicator who said all my loans within 6 year period were unaffordable.
Uncle buck- disagreed with adjudicator so she explained her reasons and they still disagreed. She spoke to an ombudsman who agreed with her so she has now passed for an ombudsman to decide on.
Payday uk and payday express didn’t respond to adjudicator so has now been passed to an ombudsman today
QQ did reply and have asked for an extra week to make a decision and this has been agreed to.
Long process in some cases but certainly worth persevering with.
Katie says
Hi all
I’m desperately after advice, I had pay day cheques with H&T from 2007 to 2012, totalling £2900 in interest, they’ve just rang offering me £1250 as they only go back 6 years
Has anyone else taken a case to the ombudsman and won the extra three years ?
Thanks Katie
Katie says
Hi Sara
H&T rang me a day later and asked my to hold off going to the Ombudsman until this week, they came back to me this morning and doubled the offer so I’ve accepted it, they were lovely to deal with too
Thank you for this site x
John says
Evening, I sent my complaint to pounds to pocket 8 weeks ago today. I have had no response what so ever.
What can I do? I did send them a reminder email last Friday.
Chris says
I have been in the same position with pounds to pocket. I rang and spoke to a customer service rep. Who was about as helpful as a chocolate fire guard. I now keep a full contact record for the companies I have complaints in with. Name, purpose of call, length, date and time. I always find companies respond a little better, if you can read off all the contact you have had with them. Plus its more information when pursuing your complaint. The best thing to do now is lodge your complaint with FOS, but give Pounds to Pocket warning that you are doing this, as they are outside the response window. I would ensure you make FOS aware you haven’t received a request for an extension or final response, from them. Good luck with it.
Kelly says
Hello all,
I received a formal response from My Jar this week. They refused my complaint/claim as they said I had an average of 16 days between borrowing each loan and they think this is reasonable and affordable!! They also said I repaid early so they felt it was reasonable (however I repaid early so I could borrow again) I am shocked by their response.
I only borrowed 3 loans from them and my main issue is the final loan I had for £800 has escalated to double the price in charges -£1600.
I’ve referred the matter to the ombudsman. I am hoping I can get the unreasonable charges removed so it can be paid off sooner. I’ve definitely learnt my lesson and won’t be borrowing from a payday lender again!
I hope it goes in my favour. fingers crossed.
catjopal says
I’ve just heard back from the ombudsmen service, they have agreed with me that the loans were unaffordable in all but 2 cases.
She has sent a letter to QQ recommending to payback all interest and fees relating to these loans plus 8% simple interest and says they have a week to respond if they are not satisfied with this.
Does anyone know if QQ typically take it to the Ombudsman or just accept the adjudicators findings? And if so what is the next step? Will QQ write to me to tell me how much they are going to reimburse me and when? How long does it typically take for me to receive the funds from the letter I received today?
Thanks everyone!
Kelly says
So I have just called Wonga to get an update on my complaint. The lady I spoke with advised the usual that they need a further 6 weeks. I have told them that I am now off to the FOS. What sort of timescales have people been looking at to get a response either directly from Wonga or through the FOS?
Cheers :-)
Ivy says
Hi wonga asked for an extra 6 weeks from me by email so I left it with them. The emailed with final response at week 12+3 days. Which I accepted as the upheld my complaint and refunded + 8% and offered to write off my loans from credit report.
Mike says
Wow great news 2 days on the run refund yesterday and balance (448) written off plus today safety net credit wrote off the whole balance owing, starting to get somewhere finally. still no reply from sunny yet though fingers crossed its soon as they all seem to be replying at the moment
Only the 2 main ones left but don’t hold much hope of a return as they are QQ and payday uk
G says
Got my first real offer today, I had an outstanding debt with wagedayadvance of £1800 they wrote me a year ago randomly saying they would write the interest off leaving £500 because of their mistake in lending etc, I didn’t think more into it at the time until I seen this page. Went through the complaint procedure and they have offered to refund full interest and 8% after the 5th loan I took, wiping out my debt and refunding me £900 I declined their offer as the first 5 loan should be included which would add an extra £400 to my offer
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is common for the Ombudsman to decide that the lender could only have known that the loans were unaffordable after the first few loans. Were any of the first 4 loans rolled? What was the gap in days between the first 4 loans? Were they increasing in value?
G says
It had always increased in value until the max allowed to loan at 700, the days between where never more than 5/6 days. I had loans with Wonga and payday uk at the time really paid them off once I could borrow again from the other lender
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well hopefully you will get from the third or fourth loan refunded from the ombudsman – I just didn’t want you to get your hopes up that it will be “full”. That’s possible but not that likely. Good luck!
Matty says
I’ve asked quick quid on several occasions for my statements of account. What they have sent me compared to what my bank statements show makes it look like someone there has made the whole thing up. I’ve also received 2 final responses (same template) meant for other people which has all their details on. I’ve reported them to the FCA as it’s about time they learn what an incompetent company they are. Sending all my stuff off to FOS just hope they can get some sense out of them.
G says
Just had my response from sunny, were actually ok to deal with. They upheld my complaint This is what they offer….
In line with my decision, and to return you to the position you would be in had you not been granted a loan, I would like to offer the following:
• You borrowed £959.59 and to date have repaid £782.24, so at this point we do not consider any refund due.
• The record of your loan will be removed from your credit file, we will update
, Experian, and CallCredit.
• The outstanding balance of £653.94 will be written off, and the account closed down, meaning you therefore have no further liability to us. Please cancel any regular payments set up in respect of this debt, either directly or through a debt management company.
Me being me chanced it and requested compensation etc for the stress and emotional damage all this has caused.. Still wait for a reply
Kirsty says
Success today from Wonga on the last day of the additional 6 weeks they requested. They are refunding full interest from loan 3 plus 8% and removing all from credit file. Thanks so much for this site Sara. I’ll now be debt and overdraft free!
Details of my case: I had 12 loans, I borrowed for 9 months continuously then a 3 month gap and then 3 more loans (no more as they then refused to approve me) My total refund is £3500 on the 9 they are refunding me.
Just payday uk and payday express outstanding now and CFO lending.
G says
I know I shouldn’t but I’m starting look optimistic on mine now, I had a similar situation, 22 loans continuously for 2 years until I was left with a debt of £1400 at the end, the wiped off £1000 a year or so ago and that was me cleared. Now I seen this page, sent of my complaint and hoping to receive the full interest ( £4500 ) I paid plus the 8% so I’m hoping for a good amount
Kevin says
Go onto the FOS site and you can see the result of every case. You can search for whatever lender you are complaining about. I trawled through these and they are very interesting, gives you something to compare your case against. I’m very confident about mine after reading some of these!
Miles says
Can I ask another question re: gambling on bank statements.
Has anyone ever been rejected because of this. I had previous asked if anyone had succeeded and I can see they did after Sara’s link?
I ask because my adjudicator seems to be stalling after seeing my bank statements!
Billy says
Yes, I told them about it. I was very open. They didn’t judge. At the end of the day, it’s an illness. It doesn’t detract from the fact that the lenders lend irresponsibly
catjopal says
I’ve had an adjudicator decision in my favour against QQ yesterday. They say QQ have a week to accept/decline.
It appears QQ are escalating most adjudicator decisions to the Ombudsman though at the moment.
Has anyone else experienced this recently?
Not sure what the next stage is.
Kate says
Yep mine has been with the ombudsman since end April :(
QQ came back with an offer of £237 before it had been £150 .. I have no idea where they got this random figure from but I rejected it straight away.
My adjudicator advised I should have an answer from the ombudsman by next week at the latest (this was Wednesday)I tried contacting my adj today and she is on annual leave .. So another weekend with no answer.
Yours may be accepted By QQ you never know, my adj saw mortgage court summons and has also dealt with one other case for me .. Good luck X
Edited: Kate received just over 2k on 21 June
Mark says
QQ have wrote off my debt of £2000 without going to FOS or me giving them my I/E etc I was surprised. Uhave accepted as long as they update CRA and remove any default. I was in an IVA at the time and had evidence of them ignoring my pleas for help with repayments. Has anyone had WDA refused anyone? They declined my complaint and demand to write off the £400 I owe.
G says
They offered me a refund on loans after my fifth, worked out at £1200 minus £500 I owed them, I declined and I’m looking to get from atleast loan three onwards
SB says
Received a final response from Wonga today. After the initial 8 weeks they asked for a further 6 weeks, the 6 weeks was due to end on 08/06 so was happy to receive a little early.
The have agreed to refund on one loan out of 5 (several roll overs in between) . The loan they have agreed to was a principal sum of £470. Offer is £450 ish including the interest. They have said that tax is payable so that has been reflected in this sum.
All my previous loans with them were below £100 but did involve frequent top ups of the odd £50 so they have argued that they were affordable.
I’m still mulling this over, I’m tempted to accept as my main aim is improving my credit report.
So far I’ve had settlements from wageday adv, mr lender and a small success with lending stream and QQ , all without going to the FOS.
Hang in there!
Nina says
Could you advise please?
I recently got a refund from Wonga as part of their 2014 redress scheme for my final loan with them.
I queried the default on my credit file with this loan and why it had not been removed. The last paragraph in their message stated that if any errors were made that my credit file would be updated.
Today they came back and stated they were not removing the default from my credit file. Should I now go to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Which reason did they give for the refund?
Did you have other non refunded loans with them?
Nina says
Hi Sara
Two reasons given. Miscalculation of my balance on this loan and secondly they did not send me their annual statement of balances. This was the only loan to be part of the redress scheme. Subsequently I put a complaint in re unaffordability and they refunded me interest fees etc on loan immediately prior to loan affected by redress scheme. Thanks, Nina
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those are technical problems with the way they handled the loan but they don’t mean that the loan should not have been given as it was unaffordable… hence I guess their decision not to delete the loan from your credit record.
However as they have agreed the previous loan was unaffordable, it would normally follow that so is this loan as well. So you could argue that this loan too was unaffordable even though that wasn’t the reason you were given the refund.
I suggest going back to them and setting out this argument. Say you would rather not have to go to the FOS but you will if you have to.
Kat says
Yey! I complained to wonga in January, took them the full 8 weeks plus another 4. Passed to FoS, which they didn’t reply to in time so the adjudicator passed to the ombudsman 2 weeks ago. Whilst waiting for this, wonga have got back to the adjudicator today to offer me £1, 035.74. Which I have accepted as this is more than I expected. Hey have said it will take 5-10 days to go into my bank account. I did have my last loan written off but they have paid all charges and interest plus 8% simple on the rest! Keep at it folks!
Lee says
Hi all, been reading all your comments as I’m currently with the FO with a complaint against wonga.
I put my complaint in on the 19th Feb and had a final response from wonga on the 1st June! They needed an extra 6 weeks on top of the 8 weeks I had already given them.
I believe I had 21 loans over a 24 month period with total interest to be around 2-2.5k Mark. I still don’t know the true interest as I have requested this information which they still have given me.
There final offer was £500.63 with the 8% interest included.
I’ve gone to the FO as I believe I could be entitled to more. Just wondering what other people thoughts are on this as I’m wondering if I could be entitled to more.
Wonga admitted to allowing me to have loans which were not affordable but only on the first 5 I had, what are the other 26??? The first 5 would have been smaller as it started off borrowing 150, I went up to 500-600 towards the end I believe. Crazy!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it sounds a very odd offer and it’s sensible to take it to the FO
Matt P says
Hi everyone. I’ve sent refund requests to Wonga, Sunny, Lending Stream, QuickQuid and PDUK/Express. I’m in week 6 atm with them – I will definitely share more info when I get to week 8, although Lending Stream got back to me within a week and have closed two loans and reduced a third from £1500 to £430, which I though was fair and accepted. Incidentally, I’m currently on a DMP with Stepchange so hopefully this will help my cases.
One other question – hopefully someone can help – I wrote to the FOS for details of the administrator for toothfairy/CIM Tech/Web Loan Processing (all the same company). They sent me the details and I have now emailed them with my complaint. Is the administrator bound by the 8 week timescale? Are they able to payout on behalf of the closed company, would it be rather futile to escalate this beyond the 8 weeks to the FOS? Has anyone had any success claiming back from this company’s administrators? I had 20 loans over 26 months with them.
Thanks y’all,
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A company isn’t “bound” by the 8 week timecale – it is just that after 8 week you have the right to go to the FOS if the company hasn’t replied.
I am not an Insolvency Practitioner but FWIW I think an administrator could pay out but I would be surprised if they did in a situation like this. If it is agreed that you should get a refund, either by the administrator (unlikely) or the ombudsman, then I think you would join the ranks of unsecured creditors of the company. If as a result you don’t get your refund, you may have a claim on the Financial Services compensation Scheme. This all probably sounds hopeless, but as you have a potentially large claim, I suggest taking it step by step and accepting that this isn’t likely to be easy or speedy.
Good luck with your other claims!
Matt P says
Bit of an update re: my attempt to claim back from a company in administration…. Web Loan Processing/CIM Tech/Toothfairy. Whilst my initial complaint is still with the administrators, I thought I’d look a couple of steps down the line and see what might lie ahead. As Sara mentioned, the FCA run the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to payout customers when financial companies stop trading. I emailed the FSCS about my complaint and got the following reply:
“The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) is a fund of last resort and was set up to investigate claims against financial firms which were authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but which are now no longer trading and cannot honour claims against them. This is not a protected business by the FCA which unfortunately means we are unable to help you.”
Oh dear….they were never protected! I just hope the administrators payout as if they don’t, I’ve got nowhere else to go!
Jack says
Just found an old e-mail from PayDayUK, with the following line:
“As a valued customer of PaydayUK you are still approved for a further Pay Day Loan of £520.00 without a single check needed.”
“…without a single check needed.”
Surely, that is a statement which clearly shows their irresponsible lending practices!
The more I look into things and the practice of these companies, the worse it seems to me.
Miles says
One of my lenders wrote saying there is NO requirement to carry out credit checks, yet I though I had read under the CCD Consumer Credit Directive, that they ARE supposed to carry out credit checks.
Surely It’s not enough to say “you said you could afford it” therefore it’s affordable?
Just been on the FCA’s site and they basically bottle the question saying it’s up to the firm whether they do a credit check and what is “affordable”
So how are we winning “affordability cases” when they don’t have to comply to the “affordablility” concept, well at least not with the FCA? Are the FO rules different?
What’s the legal guidance for this Sara?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Consumer Credit Directive is an EU harmonisation document. This FCA summary https://www.fca.org.uk/static/fca/documents/consumer-credit-directive.pdf says it: “Obliges member states to ensure that creditors assess the consumer’s creditworthiness before the conclusion of the credit agreement and before any significant increase in credit.”
In the UK that is implemented mainly through the CONC 5 & 6 sections of the FCA’s handbook and the Consumer Credit Act 1974. NB Credit worthiness is not the same as saying firms have to check credit records.
So:
CONC 5.2.1 3) A creditworthiness assessment must be based on sufficient information obtained from:
(a) the customer, where appropriate; and
(b) a credit reference agency, where necessary.
i.e. it isn’t always necessary to check credit records. See:
CONC 5.2.3 The extent and scope of the creditworthiness assessment or the assessment required by CONC 5.2.2R (1), in a given case, should be dependent upon and proportionate to factors which may include one or more of the following:
(1) the type of credit;
(2) the amount of the credit;
[(3) and a lot of other stuff as well]
In other words the FCA would expect a mortgage lender to put more time and effort in checking an application for a £200,000 25 year mortgage than a £200 one month payday loan.
You ask how we are winning these cases based on this. The cases that are being won are those where a case can be made that the lender should have realised from the information available to the lender that the loan was not affordable. If the lender did a credit reference check and found big problems, they should have taken that into account. But if they didn’t do a credit reference check or there were no problems on the credit reference file, the lender should still have realised from their own records if some one is borrowing repeatedly, the amount is getting bigger, the gaps between the loans are small, habitual rolling loans, even making late repayments etc etc.
There is no conflict between the FCA rules, the FOS affordability guidelines and the way they are being interpreted for these cases.
Shaun says
Hi, I’ve been reading through the articles on here with interest.
My payday lending got to the point in 2014 that I couldn’t handle it any more, have had loans with wonga, pounds to pocket, ladder loans, sunny, quick quid and probably some others too. Anyway I ended up getting a dmp with step change.
I noticed today on my credit report that the balances with some of the remaining lenders are higher than they were when I took out the loan and am really worried that it’s going to put my debt free date back even further. I’ve kept up my dmp payments on time and never reduced the amount.
I noticed that two of the balances haven’t changed at all since early last year too and defaults have not been registered (not sure if this is good or bad!)
I’ve always accepted that my financial situation was my fault and complaining hadn’t crossed my mind. But seeing my credit report worried me so much that I’m up at 330am and prompted me to start googling and finding your site (I’ve emailed step change too)
What do you think o should do? Is it worth contacting all the payday lenders I’ve used? I don’t have any old bank statements, and while I know my situation snowballed but no idea on the specifics!
Sorry for the long question!
Shaun
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talking to StepChange is a good idea as they should know your up to date balance and whether interest is frozen. If it isn’t, you could write to the lenders and ask them to freeze interest (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/creditor-wont-freeze-interest/) – if you have any debts in your DMP where interest is being added that aren’t payday loans, you should definitely try that.
BUT for the payday loan debts, I wouldn’t bother with this as I think you should be putting in affordability complaints using the template letter in this article. Add onto the letter a paragraph saying you have been in a DMP with StepChange since dd/mm/yy. And for any that are still adding interest, include a sentence saying that you also want to complain that they haven’t frozen interest on your outstanding balance.
Don’t worry about not having old bank statements – if a lender asks for them (Quick Quid and Pounds to Pocket usually do) just say you don’t have them. If your complaint goes to the Ombudsman, they may ask for them but they may be able to help you get them.
I suggest ignoring your credit record for a while whilst the complaints are going through – these is going to take several months as some of your lenders tend to drag things out. If an affordability complaint is upheld, the debts should be deleted from your credit record. At the end you can then see what remains and whether you think any of the default dates are wrong or missing.
Shaun says
Hi Sara,
Thank you so much for the advice, is it possible that these payday lenders will try to force me back on to standard terms or start reinforcing debt collection activity based on me complaining? I’m a little concerned that complaining might set them off again as all has been quiet for the last year or so (I thought the DMP was doing it’s thing)! As if that’s the case I might be better off complaining to the ones that have already been cleared?
Is it worth me contacting them first for details of any borrowings I had from them, or should this form part of the complaint? I read that the information doesn’t appear to be forthcoming.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They shouldn’t – as soon as you complain an account is in dispute and the firm shouldn’t adopt more aggressive debt recovery practices.
If you can login to your quick quid account, you can usually see your complete loan history there. For the others, if you know enough to say that you borrowed repeatedly from them between yyyy and 2014, then you could put in a complaint based on that and as part of it ask them to send you a statement of Account.
You don’t have to do this all at once – of the lenders you mention, Wonga and Sunny are probably the easiest to deal with – that doesn’t mean they pay out easily, but they don’t seem to aim to be as obstructive as other lender.
Daniel says
Hi, I like a lot of you have had loans with 10 different pay day loan companies mainly from 2012-2015, there is still 4 being paid off, I complained to them all 6 weeks again.
So far My Jar which I had 21 loans with offered me in total £800, this was for a refund on 9 of the 21 loans, looking back now maybe I was to quick to accept. I have accepted the offer from my jar and received my refund for 9 of 21 loans about 2 weeks ago, am I able to still complain about the 11 not refunded or does the fact I accepted there offer mean it’s closed and it final? Also am I able to now complain to my jar and ask from compensation because of the stress and hardship it cause me and my family for the last 4 years and the position it has left me in?
Peachy have refused because they say I told them I earned £2500 a month when it was actually about £2250. They said based on what I told them I could afford to pay it back each money, even though I borrowed 7 times with them each time almost straight after I paid the last one off up until when I got the the 7th time I was in such a bad way I was unable to borrow from anyone else so have to call them and go on a payment plan. Also my credit score at this time like it is now was awful. Does the fact the info on my application and the info on my complaint about my earnings to peachy was different mean I should accept their decision or should I take it to the FOS?
I only had one small loan with THL and they offered to wipe the interest as a gesture of good will.
I am still waiting for final answers from everyone else which include quick quid, pounds to pocket, payday uk, express, Uncle Buck, swift stealing, and lending stream. I haven’t seen anything on here about swift stealing, I did read something about them not being a uk company, how does this affect my complaint?
With quick quid and pounds to pocket basically being the same company should they not have realise I had maybe £1200 loan with one of them and another £1200 with the other? And I was paying one by borrowing from the other in a very quick spaces of time?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry this got missed yesterday. I have edited it as it was rather long!
MyJar – I don’t think you can do anything here. The offer would have been a final one on your complaint and you shoiuld have raised any points about stress and hardship at the time. Sorry.
Peachy – well £2500 just sounds as though you used a round figure to me, most people can’t clearly remember what they put down for income and expenses. The FO has to decide when the lender could have known you were in difficulty. If you borrowed 7 times in quick succession, this would normally be on the 3rd or 4th loan – a slightly high income figure may have meant the lender was OK to lend at the beginning, but repeated borrowing shows you were in trouble.
Swift Stealing – what a great typo (or was it deliberate???) There is a separate post on Swift Sterling : https://debtcamel.co.uk/swift-sterling-pounds-till-payday/
Those QQ / P2P loans are huge – if it gets to the FO (which it probably will as they rarely make a good offer, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/) put in a joint complaint so the same adjudicator sees both of them.
Mark says
Every case is different so I thought I would provide an update on my situation. I learnt of possible payday refunds through debt camel and have been obsessed ever since, I put all my complaints in 9th May, so the lenders have until July 4th, Independence Day to get back to me. Over the last 8 years I have really struggled with payday lenders. I had used around 15 companies and at times had 10 payday loans coming out of my bank in a month. It is a horrible place to be. Fortunately for me with help I am free of this trap.
I have had had a few responses, lending stream came back immediately with an offer of £500 which I have accepted , maybe foolishly but I needed the money.
I also had £220 back from TMS not related to me complaint but because they immediately recognised a mistake and sent it to me, they are still investigating my complaint.
I am anticipating the others will come back on deadline day and delay at that point i will go to the ombudsman. My main targets are payday uk, quick quid, TMS, pounds till payday, payday express, txt loan (my jar), and 24 7 money box. I have a different story with each of them:
– 24 7 I used my work credit card as i was so intimidated and lost my job,
– QQ have charged me over £4000 interest with consistent rollovers,
– dollar financial own TMS, payday express and payday uk, surely they shouldn’t have loaned to me all at the same time?!
– txt loan were very threatening yet very happy to chase me to reloan,
– toothfairy finance were particularly nasty but have since gone under.
I will remain determined on this as they have truly affected my life with no regard to my well being. I was a heavy gambler and i am worried how this will affect my claim but I am convinced regardless of this I was a victim of irresponsible lending. I would encourage everyone to remain resolute and be as persistent as these lenders were. Not sure how my claims will end up, but I won’t give up until i have final responses from the lenders and the ombudsman. My main worries are my loans were affordable in relation to my wage in some cases and my gambling, but even still i should not have been allowed to be in the position i was in, with multiple loans, having to reloan or rollover to stay afloat, and actively encouraged to do so, and to have felt so threatened for so many years. Interesting to know your thoughts only case.
Bob says
All you can do is wait it out, as you’ve said yourself everyone’s situation is different. I’m surprised you were able to use a work credit card to pay a lender off for many reasons, I take it this caused you to loose your job, Did your work make you pay it back or did they do a charge back on their card for misuse which might mean the debt is still outstanding? With the others just wait it out and see what happens but don’t take low offers for quick money as many claims can be worth more but only you know what you paid in interest etc…
Good luck with it all you will get somewhere with this and try not to dwell on it as really it’s all unexpected money you will be getting back
Peter says
Finally got my final responses from wonga and quickquid today.
Wonga have upheld and are refunding just shy of 3k. They had lent money to me after i was on payment arrangement. They took £1400 a week before. Most in 100 pound instalments but took it on same day and then still lent to me. I had a lot of weight to my case. How long do wonga usually take to process the refunds?
Quickquid said no so i have sent it to the FOS. Payday uk also hasnt responded at all and their time is up next week
Lilly says
Congratulations. I am on the 6 week mark currently. I think I am in the same boat. I had 18 loans with Wonga from 2012 – 2015, and each loan involved at least 3 top up’s on each through the month they leant to me, and in those 3 years, they gave me 5 repayment arrangements due to financial problems, and each time they would lend to me again right after, some times on the same day that the last arrangement payment was made, so your story gives me hope that hopefully mine will have some success to it also. Thanks for replying :)
John m says
Finally got a response from pounds to pocket 5 days after the 8 weeks deadline. They aren’t saying the loans were given to me wrongly but they are willing to pay me a refund of £150. I declined and its with the FOS so fingers crossed.
I am probably thinking that the FOS will take pounds to pockets side. But they have said that they feel am due a refund as I felt like I was miss sold the loans. Hopefully this goes for me. My email I received is below. Any comment would on what you all think would be great. Do I make the FOS aware of this email?
[standard stuff]
Your complaint states that Pounds To Pocket did not adequately assess your credit or ability to repay. You recorded your disposable income at £650.00 per month which was factored into our lending decision. Given your stated income, we assessed that you were able to afford your loans.
[standard stuff]
Our records further indicate that we assisted you with payment arrangements in which you agreed were affordable. It is one of Pounds To Pockets goals to offer assistance to customers who may be experiencing financial difficulty which is why we offer several loan repayment assistance programs.
[standard stuff]
Having taken all your comments into consideration, we would like to make you an offer that we believe is fair to address the loans that you feel were irresponsibly given to you. In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer you a refund in the amount of £150.00 for the interest on the loans you feel were irresponsible for us to lend. To accept our offer, please reply to this email address with your confirmation of your sort code and account number so we may arrange for the funds to be deposited into your account. I am hopeful that this matter will then be satisfactorily resolved.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have removed the stuff they send everyone. You haven’t said much about your complaint (How many loans over what period?) but if P2P have offered £150 you may well be able to get a LOT more from the Ombudsman, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/. Don’t assume the FO will agree with the lender!
marek77 says
Good morning, update from me:
– Wonga – upheld my complaint on the last day of the 14th week; I accepted 2400 pounds; they are refunding only biggish interest from loans taken before 2014 and most of the interest from loans taken in and after 2014;
– QuickQuid – was offered 350 pounds, rejected, sent to FO;
Lorna B says
Mr Lender Success
So I emailed Mr Lender last week about my old loan – I got one loan for £350 and rolled it over 12 times before paying it – I had accrued £1050 in interest and a £15 Admin Fee – I put a request in for a statement of account – I received this within 24 hrs giving me an overview of the account – I emailed back saying could I have a breakdown – I wanted to see how many times I had rolled it over and the cost per month. Also received this within a short timeframe – I then wrote a letter and emailed off my complaint – i gave approximates as i couldn’t remember my details at the time. A girl called Amy came back (WITHIN TWO HRS). She said that at the time they had performed affordability checks and felt nothing due but as a goodwill gesture were prepared to offer £262.50. i emailed back to say i would accept and my refund is being processed and i should have within 3 to 5 days. Seriously – i could not fault the service i received. this has all been processed within about a week of requesting my Statement of Account.
Now – Still waiting on my Letters from PayDay UK/Payday Express re my refund i received and my Statement of Account from Wonga.
Dave says
Hi everyone, this is a short summary of where I am so far.
Wonga. 31 loans over 2 years, coming up to 8 weeks. No reply yet and will be taking to FO.
QQ. 1 pay day loan, with roll overs. 220 interest paid on a 400 loan. Flex credit account; 12 advances around 900 in interest paid. With the FO.
Uncle buck. 4 loans, consecutive months, they denied any wrong doing. With the FO.
MyJar. 3 loans, consecutive months, offered a reduction off £80 from current outstanding balance. Declined, with the FO.
Lending stream, 8 loans in 8 months, offered £55 as that’s all I have outstanding, declined, with the FO.
Peachy. 5 loans in 5 months, denied wrong doing. Adjudicator upheld, they disagreed – with the Ombudsman.
PaydayUK/Payday Express, PDEX sent statements, PDUK did not. Complained 8 weeks ago yesterday, no reply. Sent to the FO as a joint complaint as both these companies are under the same umbrella.
The 7 complaints were all prior to taking single loans with the following companies; Piggy Bank, Mr Lender, Money Boat, SafetyNC and Satsuma. As I was already in payment arrangements with very poor credit etc. Would it be worth taking these complaints for single loans to the FO? They have all sent a final response saying they are not upholding my complaint.
Any advice appreciated here!
Thanks
Dave
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Single loan complaints aren’t very likely to succeed unless:
– they were so large in relation to your salary even a payday lender should have stopped to think
– they were rolled a lot; or
-your credit report was appalling with defaults / CCJs , not just late payments.
Why not just ignore them for 3 months until you see how the rest go? You have 6 months to go to the FOS so leave it until you have more information?