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?
Donna says
Hello,
I have made a complaint to a couple of payday loan companies. I have only heard back from piggyback. I had six loans from them overall of varying amounts and repayments over a one year, one month period. Out of the six they have only upheld the complaint against one of the loans, saying that it was missold as they feel the proper affordability checks were not made. The reason they have given for declining against the others is that there was a gap between loans and a credit check showed that although the amount of credit I said I was paying was higher than I had stated it was still affordable along with the living costs I had put down. The irony being that they said I was now saying that my wage was lower than on my application and that that was fraud and they could report me, but they chose to disregard the fact I had lied about my credit commitments. They also said that a couple of loans were lower than previous loans and I paid back all loans on time so that proved I wasn’t in financial difficulty. I have been offered all of the interest plus costs for one loan, a total of £114.08. What I would like to know is if it’s worth taking them to the ombudsman or should I accept the offer as I am unlikely to get better? The loans ranged in value from £150 to £500 but with varying repayments due to length of loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Could you say for each of the 6 loans:
Amount borrowed, date borrowed, interest paid, date repaid
Do you still owe a balance on the last one?
Donna says
Hi,
They were
09/05/2015 £345 paid back £397.44
05/06/2015 £450 paid back in 3 installments total £659.63
21/12/2015 £240 paid back £268.80
17/01/2016 £150 paid back £160.80
01/02/2016 £500 paid back £592
03/06/2016 £450.00 paid back 547.20.
I paid them all back and on time. But I was up to my overdraft limit of £1700. I had other payday loans at times and two high interest credit cards throughout this period. A number of direct debits were bouncing as well. They said they are not required to check your payslip or bank statement.
Neil says
Hi, I had 11 loans with Mr Lender. I emailed them on 3/4/19 to complain about irresponsible lending. They emailed me back 10/4/19 asking for clarity about my email and that I’d used a template.. Its now way past 8 weeks so i phoned up and was told my first email isn’t considered a complaint as I’d asked for loan agreements showing interest paid. But it clearly stated Complaint In my first email. Id borrowed £3000 over 11 loans with interest of £1800. They offered me interest from my first loan of £74 and that’s all.. I rejected this so they said they will email me a final response by the end of the week.. Any Advice please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you are right, they should have treated your first email as the start of a complaint.
Were there any big gaps between repaying one loan and taking out the next? What about the loan amounts, did they tend to get larger?
Dean B says
They didn’t treat my first email as a complaint; keep going my friend
Simon says
So a month after sending me a letter saying they are still looking in to my case Payday Express are now saying to me I haven’t raised a complaint. Pretty sick of all these companies to be honest.
Joseph says
That is frustrating, but keep focused! In the end you will win!!! Send an email and then you have proof
PAYDAY HELL says
Just had a refund from PAYDAYUK for around 30 loans, all over 6 years old. Around £7k
There are another 10-15 which were the first ones I took out with them which they have asked for copy bank statements. This will reveal a massive gambling problem. Is this likely to stop them offering me a further refund? What do I need to say?
Iain123 says
Be honest, tell them about the gambling. No responsible lender should be lending to someone with a gambling problem, your statements will prove that and go in your favour. You’ll get all that interest back, too. I think Sara has a dedicated page on gambling and payday loans.
Ja says
Hello,
247moneybox haven’t responded in the 8 weeks allowed, Do I go straight to FOC or try call them?
Has anyone had this problem with them before?
Regards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Always worth a call.
Ja says
They’ve now sent me my response stating that they are not upholding 1-4 & 17-24 but they are upholding 5-16.
They’ve showed me credit reports on the 17-24 showing I have no defaults but I had defaults on my report which I’ve shown them with noddle during the loan application.
I’ve gone back with a counter offer asking them to include 17-24.
How long usually are they allowed for a counter offer to reply?
Regards
Ja says
Further to my comment.
I emailed them and within one hour they have added the rest of the loans.
They do love trying it don’t they haha.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done!
Aj says
Hi I’ve just heard back from piggy bank who have agreed to uphold my complaint. Any idea how long it will take to get my payment?
Dan says
I received PB refund in bank 8 days after sending details
Dan p says
Mr leder offered me a £50 Amazon voucher for good will. Is it worth accepting or should I send bank statements etc? Loans total was £2500?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s worth going back to Mr Lender and suggesting what you would accept. Can you say how many loans, how large loans were and what the gaps were between the loans?
Dan p says
Thank you. 13.1.18 £200 _ £194.58 interest
12.2.17 £200 _ £73.60 interest
11.8.16 £800 _ 591.76 interest
8.3.16 £400 _ 216 interest
8.11.15 £400 _ 216 interest
24.4.15 £500 _ 453.34 interest
Apologies reverse order lol
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You haven’t said what the gaps between the loans were.
The loan you are most likely to get refunded is loan 4 – a large loan and twice as big as the previous two. Mr lender should really have stopped and thought about whether your situation was getting worse at that point. Would you be happy if that one is refunded and not the others?
Dan p says
Apologies don’t have that information to hand. Yes absolutely a refund for loan 4 only would be great. Thanks again
Dan p says
Have came back to me with an offer of £408.30 a refund of the third and sixth loan very tempting but will try a haggle.
David says
Hi I had 28 loans with ferratum over 2 and a half years. Back to back loans totalling 8300 with interest paid of £2200. I sent an email 10days ago starting complaint and had final decision today offering a £500 Goodwill gesture but feel they acted responsibly and this is their final offer. I am looking for advice! Is it worth asking for more or going to FOS?. Does anyone have any experiences with Ferratum
Brian says
I do.
I got offered £500 goodwill. Took to FOS – they were compliant with FOS. They offered slightly less than what adjudicator offered but near enough. Got paid out same day of acceptance – £3.4K – so don’t accept the offer. Likewise, Ferratum seem to get picked up quickly, mine got picked up in May and got my refund last week. Submitted to FOS end of March, so about 2.5 month turn around. Could have just been lucky I guess – but that’s my experience.
sarah says
Hi is anyone else waiting for the Ombudsman to come back to them about pounds to pocket? my claim has been with them for nearly 2 years and they keep saying that a lot of the cases against cash euro net are being shelved because the company does not agree with the conduct of the ombudsman. They cannot provide any more updates. The adjudicator agreed with my claim but the company rejected it so it got referred to an Ombudsman i know they’re busy but this has been going on and on. I get the impression Cash Euro net are waiting to be taken to court because one of the guys that emailed me back said they are treating some claims organisationally now (whatever that means)
Holly says
Hi all ,
I have received an email from Ferratum saying they have waived my outstanding balance but they don’t believe they lended irresponsibility and no compensation will be paid basically and they will remove any negative feedback from my credit file . I am unhappy with that side of things how do I go about this please? Thank you
Joseph says
Send to FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you say more about how many loans you had, how large they were and this last loan – what did you borrow and what have you paid to it so far?
Holly says
This was my reply
Although I do think you should be refunding loans 23.03.18-18.03.18 atleast , they were only taken out a few days apart and for a higher amount than the first loan twice after the first loan. I can provide a copy of my Noddle report to evidence that I had outstanding payday loans and my position did get significantly worse .
The fact I paid early and ontime is irrelevant as I had to keep on borrowing again soon afterwards as you can see. So this was not a sign the loans were affordable.
I would like to settle this outside of FOS as it is such a long process for us all .
Thanks again
Holly thank
I took three loans £150 then two £300 5 days after and was charge almost double the interest
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A sensible offer from you – let us know what they say!
Holly says
These are the loans they have on file
£150 23/02/18 intr £25.20
£300 23/03/2018 “ 62.49
£300 18/04/18. “” £72
£350 06/07/18. “” £117.84
£500 01/10/18
And they are offering £50 as well as waive the balance of £600 I had no idea there were more as they removed those from my account . Off to FOS I guess
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When you wrote, “I took three loans £150 then two £300” I read that as meaning you had loans of 150, 150, 150, 300, 300.
the £500 loan – have you made any payments to it? Was the £350 loan a 3 month loan do you know?
Holly says
A long with this email
Good morning,
Thank you for your email. As previously advised Ferratum will only approve a loan after conducting up to date credit checks, along with our own internal credit policy checks. Based on the information received back a lending decision is made. If you had loans or arrears with other Companies who did not share/subscribe to the same agency as us then these debts would have been invisible to us. We acted on the information provided and the facts available to us. In doing so, we provided our service in good faith.
Please see below your loan history. As you can see we waived all interest and charges on your final loan and used interest previously paid towards the outstanding capital. We waived a total of £638.56 to close this loan.
El says
Hi all
So my 8 weeks is up on the 15th June. So far not had any responses from QQ, sunny or satsuma aside from the usual confirmation of receipt of your email. None of them have provided a break down of the loans I had in order for me to have sent them the second email. Any advice? Is it worth emailing them again reminding them the 8 weeks is up on 15th and politely pointing out if I don’t have a resolution by then I will pass to FOS?? Problem is I can’t pass to FOS without a break down of all my loans! Impossible to work it out myself from bank statements as I have had so many loans!
Mike_p says
Can’t you login to your accounts to see them? With my Sunny account I can go to “your details” and it shows me all my transactions. Also you should be able to get the details from your credit report.
El says
No it doesn’t show up for some reason which I have emailed them about countless times but got nowhere!
Chris says
If you have asked for the data they hold on you and they have not supplied it, they are in breach of the GDPR. I would email them and say that you will report the breach to the Information Commissioner – details on the IC website on how to do this – if they do not supply you with the information you have requested within 7 days. I’ve used this tactic twice with dawdlers and it’s worked instantly.
El says
Thank you will try this if I don’t get a response soon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They will send a list of loans with their final decision. if they don’t ask for it then. You won’t speed things up by asking for it now or reminding them the 8 weeks is up soon.
El says
Thank you, shall I just pass to FOS after 8 weeks is up?? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would ask the lender first why they haven’t responded.
Mike_p says
Thanks for all the advice, im in the process of making complaints to various payday lenders. I had a great result with Ferratum – my existing £700 loan written off plus a direct payment of £250. I didn’t have much luck with Uncle Buck – they rejected the complaint and sounded quite uspet in their reponse calling it frivolous and vexatious. I guess there’s not much point taking that to the Ombudsman as it was only a single loan.
I had about 17 back to back and overlapping loans with Lending Stream and they rejected the complaint initially. I’ve just been assigned an adjudicator so I’m hoping they will uphold some of them. Do you have any idea how long it might take from being assigned an adjudicator to getting a decision?
Joseph says
I got called vexatious by CASH4UNOW and the ombudsman ruled in my favour for only 1 loan. He also made a comment about the word they used stating it was unprofessional and a personal attack
Mike_p says
I might take it up with the FOS then. I think they are trying to put me off escalating it – they said that if I did they might ask to see my bank statements to check for any discrepancies. I don’t think the FOS could supply them could they, despite what they are trying to imply.
DK says
Playing the waiting game now. Sunny have until 12th June and CashEuroNet (Pounds to Pocket and QuickQuid) have until 18th June to respond to FOS findings. FOS upheld on all but my first loan with Sunny which Sunny already upheld on so looking like if they agree it’ll be all loans (approx. £2k). They upheld on all but two loans and a few top ups with Pounds to Pocket and QuickQuid (approx. £1k). Got everything crossed that both accept. Have a gut feeling neither will respond to the FOS though. Anyone had any joy with either company responding to FOS findings? Or am I in for the long haul? Waited a year at this point so waiting longer isn’t going to hurt I guess!
Brian says
Hi all,
The FOS sent my acceptance back to Lending Stream this morning, 0920 – LS are saying they have not had it yet – is this normal? LS said they would have had it by now if it was sent.
GM says
Same happened to me. When I sent the acceptance to the FOS, about my MyJar claim, they still hadn’t received after two days, so they used my email as proof. because the FOS emailis a generic one, it takes some time to be filtered through and distributed to the right people.
tom p says
if it was an email – it can take 24 hours to go and allocated against your case. it will turn up – if they say they have not received it by tomorrow (24hours) get the ombudsman to resend and ask them to request a read receipt – there is no arguing then
Neil says
Hi Tom,
Have you made a claim against Lending Stream before?. If so, do you remember how long was it from your acceptance to actually receiving your refund.
Gail says
has anyone emailed the CEO off satsuma loans and actually received any sort off reply please? Thank you.
Mike_p says
I complained via a form on their website and a few weeks later I got an email from provident financial acknowledging the complaint. About 6 weeks later I got an email with a final decision (rejection unfortunately)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This email the CEO tactic doesn’t often work unless there is something pretty unusual about the case.
Steve says
I’ve had a response from the adjudicator not upholding my complaint against Lending Stream – I had three loans with them, two overlapped. Multiple late payments already (8 different lenders with 3+ month late payments) on my credit file by the time loan two was accepted. What intrigues me is the following paragraph from the adjudicator:
“I have no evidence from Lending Stream to say what exactly they saw when conducting credit searches on you, nor can I definitively say that they even carried out such checks. What I can say however is that they didn’t need to conduct a credit search check at any point during their lending relationship with you due to the amounts borrowed, and how many loans were granted. And if they had seen all of the information contained within your credit file, I don’t believe there was enough negative information on there for the business not to lend as a short term lending provider.”
If they don’t need to conduct a credit search, how can they know if I can afford the loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FCA rules do not set out in detail what checks a lender has to make. And they have to be “proportionate”. So FOS often sets out that a lender has to make more detailed checks the larger the loan is, the lower income you have, the lender ne’er the term of the loans and the more often you have previously borrowed.
So the adjudicator appears to be saying that for these three loans the adjudicator doesn’t consider that LS should have made a credit check.
It is quite common for refunds to start from loan 4 or 5 for this sort of reason.
If you disagree, and think in your case there was some factor LS were aware of which should have made them look more closely then reply marking this case and ask for this decision to go to an Ombudsman to be looked at again.
M M says
Anyone with any experience as to how long it takes FOS to work through a Quickquid complaint once it reaches ombudsman level? I got an email today saying it’s been passed to ombudsman.
Brian says
Well, Lending Stream have today finally accepted my acceptance from the FOS.
They agreed with the FOS 03/06 which the FOS received 06/06 (they have a lot of e-mails). They sent to the acceptance from LS yesterday and LS got my acceptance today – so I guess now it’s the long 28 day wait!
Going in the right direction though.
ClaireR says
Good news Brian. Waiting on them responding to my adjudicator now. Fingers crossed for next stage.
Dan says
Hi,
When complaining to FOS online, what sort of and how much detail do I need to provide under the following headings?
Tell us about your complaint – what happened?
How have you been affected – financially or otherwise?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This looks at the general problem: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refund-complaint-detail/
You can put most of it under “tell us about your complaint”.
Under “How have you been affected – financially or otherwise?” you can say how having to pay the interest ion all your loans meant you had to borrow from other lenders or get behind with bills.
Ross says
Does anyone know if the FOS have changed how they acknowledge complaints please? The reason I ask is that, when I have raised complaints with them before, they have sent an acknowledgment through the post. Since sending 2 complaints, over a month ago, I have received nothing except emails. Also, on one of the acknowledgments, a ‘mass claims consultant’ advised me that the business had until 15th May to send a final response, but I attached the final response to the complaint. They went on to say that if I wished to raise a complaint, then to contact them, but these were complaints raised? I fully appreciate that the FOS are snowed under, with these kind of complaints, and that’s why I am going to leave them to it (as they have advised that it may be a number of months before I hear back from them).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would reply to the one saying to contact them if you wish to raise a complaint as it sounds as though you complaint may have got sorted into the incorrect pile of “complaints received too early as no final response issued”
Ross says
Thanks Sara,
I did already do what you suggested, but to no avail. They seem to be non-responsive to any emails I send. I am just afraid that these complaints will go past the 6 month limit and then the businesses will object to the complaint being looked at. I am trying my best to keep an eye, but time goes so fast! I think I’ll give it until the end of the month and then try to call them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No FOS can’t do that – you have your emails as proof you have been trying to talk to them about this. You could pick up the phone if you aren’t getting any response to your emails.
Mike_p says
In my case I got email acknowledgments of the complaints after about 2-3 weeks. 9-10 weeks later I got contacted by the adjudicator assigned to my complaints, in one case an email and in the other she phoned me up to explain the process with a follow up email. When I queried the initial complaints it took them 2-3 weeks to come back to me, but when I emailed the adjudicators directly they responded in an hour or two.
sheena says
Hi thankyou for such great info everyone,
Im making my complaints Pay day express keep saying they cannot find my details?!
I have sent it twice now all the info they ask and keep getting same “rejection” letter
Any advice ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have any bank statements that show these loans?
Diddy says
Update on MyJar. First response from them was to reject my complaint. So sent them an email explaining the situation and asked them to reconsider. Heard nothing from them for 10 days so sent an email to the CEO. Got an email last night from, I assume, the man in charge of complaints to say that they have both reviewed my case and I will be getting a new final response next week. I would like to think it’s better offer than a rejection but am not holding my breath.
Will keep you posted…..fingers crossed.
Ross says
Hope you manage to get a positive outcome Diddy. When they sent me my final response, I tried to compromise with them. All I asked was that they waived the interest on my current (and final) loan to close it, and the account. They declined this, so it’s now sat at the FOS. I am hopeful of a positive outcome, due to the repeat lending and dependency (sometimes borrowing on the very same day I had paid off the loan).
Diddy says
Thanks Ross, have the same problem. Repeat lending and borrrowing the same/next day. They flat out rejected everything, including the current outstanding balance (at least you got the offer to waive interest. I didn’t). Only had 7 loans but they were increasing in size each time and paid back nearly £3k in interest. Thought I was being reasonable in asking for a lot less than this and clearing the final loan but they said no. Will see what their “new” final offer is….I suspect it will be going to FSO.
Ross says
They actually declined my request to waive the interest Diddy, hence the reason why it’s gone to FOS. I can see it costing them a lot more, with the FOS fee on top, when they could’ve settled more amicably (and, potentially, cheaply). Keep us updated on how you get on please?
Andrew says
Finally got letter from adj Pduk agreed and refunding 1500 in total so sent letter back by email do business then take over or do FOS oversee the refund I would have thought they would have asked for bank details when I got letter from FOS?
Noah says
Hi,
I have an adjudicator decision that quick quid lended to me irresponsibly for loans 3-9 I had sign them. I have just heard that QQ have rejected this complaint so now it will go to an ombudsman. I was wondering what the likelihood this will be upheld and timescale for this please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The timescale is unpredictable. Some are going through quite fast. In most cases the ombudsman upholds the adjudicator decisions although sometimes the number of loans to be refunded is changed. But it will depend on why QQ rejected your case.
Daron says
The same with me quick quid allways do this
Holly says
Yes it was a 3 month loan from what I can see the last loan which was the bigger one I set up a payment plan plan . I paid off the rest
Ally says
Hi,
I obviously want to take a few to ombudsman, I have filled out their complaint form online for my lending stream one.. went to attach the files but they had a size limit, I sent complaint without this info informing of my complaint.. will they come back to me for the information to support my complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you attached some information? the key thing to send is the detail of your complain and the final response from the lender. Other things such as bank statements can wait.
JM says
Hello
With 247 they have sent the final response but now are not replying to any emails after I’ve accepted.
I’ve called them with no joy.
How long should I wait or shall I just go straight to FOC
Diddy says
They are a nightmare, not replying to emails or calls…I have the same problem with them. I sent it direct to FSO and told them so, still haven’t replied and that was 10 days ago! Their customer service is a joke!
Mike_p says
I had that problem with Sunny. I replied to accept but heard nothing back. I chased a few times and eventually the email started getting bounced back saying the email address of the person that made the offer was no longer in use. In the end I sent an email to every address for them I could find asking them if they could let me know before I referred my complaint to the FOS that friday. The refund got paid into my account that day.
AT says
Same as me i accepted last monday. Heard nothing since.
Simon says
Hi all
The FOS have picked up my case and are asking for a copy of my final response letter from P2P, the reply was emailed to me on my debthacker page and I can’t send it on as an email or copy and paste? Any ideas?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ask Debt Hacker? they must have come across this before!
Tomas says
Hello guys. I had a lot of payday loans in past 1,5 years. I was in a big circle and paid one with another one and so on and end up with asking my family for help because could not pay anymore. (I had aswell some gambling issues to be honest)
With my family help i paid off 6 of 7 payday loans and now im sending them my complaints. But i still have last one in satsuma. Actually there are 3 loans from them on my name.I took them month by month.I have 880£,860£,474£ still to pay until july. I was even late with payments so asked them for waiting and so on and told them that i can pay it off end of july but they declined to wait and told me its gonna cost me 2580£ then.
What i should do? Pay it out and then send a complain or send it now? Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send your complaint now and ask for an affordable payment arrangement for the balance.
Tomas says
Thank you for so quick response. I dont want to ask them for new afforadble plan because we made deal with family that we gonna pay it out how quickly is possible and then i will pay it to my family. But we can pay 2000£ per month and end of july its gonna cost me 2580 so i need to pay it 2 times and its gonna cost me even more then. So i was thinking if i make a complaint they can delete somethig from it and i will be able to pay it out but probably they not gonna make a decision by then right? So it looks the best way to pay it out and then complain? In total i paid on interest around 1500+ and the last 2 loans was clearly unaffordable and they suppose to see it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Put the complaint in now. There is nothing to gain by waiting. You don’t have to ask for a payment arrangement if you don’t want.
I don’t understand why you think you are going to be charged more if you offer to pay £2000 a month. Get the complaint in AND say the settlement money is coming from your family who can only afford this amount.
Tomas says
Alright. Thank you so much ,its an amazing website. I already sent a complaint to 247moneybox,ferratum and fernovo and gonna send another to peachy,cashfloat and satsuma. I will let you know guys how it went with them maybe i will help somebody
MelD says
Hi Sara,
Quick question I want to make a claim to wonga, had many pay day loans with them and ended paying them off with a debt consolidation company, do I send my claim to them via the portal online ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-claims-portal/
Stuart says
I have had an adjudicator rule in my favour for loans 2-4 with regards to my complaint with cash4unow. I am assuming by previous comments that they will dispute this and I shall have to take to ombudsman level. I have been in a DMP but due to receiving a redress from payday UK I have paid all my debts off other than a smallish payment to be made to Cash4unow to be debt free. Should I pay this remainder or withhold payment?
Holly says
Hey,
Does anyone know what the chances of Sunny agreeing with the adjudicator are? Or does it usually have to go to the ombudsman? Thanks :)
Ashley Hutchinson says
Hi,
They have agreed with mine last week! £1400
Holly says
Thanks Ashley :) would you mind sharing how they came to that figure? How long did it take them to get back to the adjudicator? X
Katie says
I am struggling with everything to do with my case lending stream keep giving me dates in which they say they will give there response to fos. A week later they say they are still looking into it. The fos just keep saying they are looking into it no updates. Its been going on since March 2018 that’s when I put my complaint in. I don’t really know what else to do cause nothing seems to be happening and I don’t want the fos to get fed up with keeping on at them
Mike_p says
Does anyone have any experience with Swift Sterling and how long the final decision might take? Do they drag it out for the whole 8 weeks or is it likely to be earlier?
I had four running pretty much back to back from 2017 onwards.
Bran says
They took around 6 weeks to reply to me.
Made a reasonable offer to remove all interest on the outstanding balance. It was only two relatively small loans as well, so I accepted the offer.
Louise says
Hi Sara I’m after some advice please, 247 money box have rejected my claim I had 4 loans with them first 1 was taken 14/11/2011 for £80 total repaid on 30/11/2011 £102.08.
2nd loan taken on 02/12/2011 for £80 total repaid on 30/12/2011 £113.43.
3rd loan taken 30/12/2011 for £155 total repaid on 31/01/2012 £219.44.
4th loan taken on 01/02/2012 for £200 total repaid on 01/07/2013 £604.72.
Total borrowed £515, total repaid £1039.67.
They have said in the reply that “The measures we used to ensure we lent responsibly included:
– Comprehensive credit, ID and employment checks to assess affordability
– Affordable and variable loan amounts based on disposable income
– Charging you interest on a daily basis, as opposed to monthly, so that if you do repay early you can save money
As part of each application we asked you if there was any further information that you might wish to bring to our attention at this time that you think may cause us to conclude it is inappropriate to enter into an agreement with you. You did not, at any stage, provide us with any information which would lead us to believe the loan would be unaffordable.
We do not consent to loans 1 to 4 being looked in to as they are all over 6 years old.
They have not provided me with any details other than the loan dates and figures do I go back and ask for these or send straight to fos and would for loom at this case if it is over 6 year old?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could try negotiating. You could go back and say something like “You are aware that FOS thinks it can look at loans that are more than 6 years old if the borrower only because aware in the last three years they could make an affordability complaint. I only found out [in March 209] when [say how you found out]. In the interests of a speedy settlement, I am prepared to accept a refund of the interest I paid on the 4th loan only.”
Mark says
Hi Guys,
I am in the process of getting some money back from several payday loan lender and have been successful with two so far (I have 6 in total)
Pounds to pocket believe it or not where the easiest to deal with sent them an email they replied within the 8 week deadline with an offer (I accepted as it was roughly what I thought it would be anyway).
Peachy is the same as above.
Satsuma have asked for another 2 weeks so they can look into it
Mr Lender has refused to refund me anything (6 loans with them) – just sent my case to FOS just waiting for reply.
MoneyBoat – Same as Mr Lender
Now the biggest one is Lending Stream – First off I have had to email from my personal email account as they would not accepted emails through the resolver website which I have used with all the others!). I had 20 loans with them over a 2 year period totalling loans of £2250 in total, The email that they sent me was a long list of all my loans giving all the details and also the reasoning behind their decision on each loan (think war and peace size email it was that big…!) Anyway I have given my details to the FOS and awaiting their reply, . I. Not sure how much I will get back from them but having 20 loans I would imagine quite a bit?
Has anybody had recent dealings with Lending Stream? if so what was the outcome and payout times?
Mike_p says
I have a complaint open with the FOS for 15 loans I had with Lending Stream. I submitted the complaint in mid January and they sent me a war and peace rejection like yours at the end of March. I referred it to the FOS almost immediately and I’ve just heard from an adjudicator who is looking into it. Like you I’m hoping that they will find in my favour for most of the loans – I had them back to back for a long period, at one point having 6 open at once. During that time they also sent me at least one email inviting me to apply for a further loan.
Reen says
Hi Mike did the adjudicator say if they had received anything from LS? Just asking because I sent mine to the FOS mid April and sent other documents mid May and have only had acknowledgements so far. Did the adjudicator say how long it will be until the next step? Thanks
Mark says
Hi Mike,
Many thanks for your reply appreciate that.I did exactly that, as soon as I got a rejection from LS I forwarded to FOS they have said they will get back in 5 days to speak to me (also the same with Mr Lender), I supplied email and phone number so not sure what their preferred method is? I can provide them bank statements and my credit file and all loans details from LS, is that all they require? Not gone this far before as so far the other loans I have settled with at the end of the 8 weeks (apart from satsuma who have asked for another 2 weeks). I had the same 5 to 6 loans at once and some months i took out 4 loans….! frightening really that that let me do that.
Mike_p says
When I submitted my complaints I think there was an option for preferred contact option. I have several complaints open and have just had emails from adjudicator, while another one phoned me.
With Lending Stream I submitted their final response with the complaint in which they detailed all my loans. About three weeks later I got an email acknowledgment from a Mass Claims Consultant at the FOS giving me a list of things to supply if I hadn’t already – bank statement, credit file, loan numbers etc. I replied with everything I hadn’t sent them already and when the adjudicator contacted me they said they had all they needed to investigate the complaint.
I felt a bit apprehensive about someone going over my financial details but they made me feel very at ease. You get the personal email address and phone number of your adjudicator and you deal directly with them.
Mark says
Hi Mike,
Thanks again. Yes I was a bit worried about them having all my details, but if that is what they want then I shall give it to them anything to speed up the process of course. I am just waiting for them to get back to me to find out more about my issues with LS, I know patience is the key hear as I know these can take months to sort out.
As i said previously I would not have bothered at all if I had not found out about this and other sites, so glad I have though
£1300 back so far from 2 companies and 4 more to go…..happy days I hope
So good to speak to people that are in the same boat as I thought I was the only stupid one to get involved in these loans but looking at forums over the internet there are hundreds if not thousands of people…! Time to get our money back guys and gals…
I will keep this post up to date with any information I receive as I have found it really helpful on here, and if my information helps someone else that just makes it more worthwhile to do
AJ says
Hi all , so after the first step I got a letter from sunny. Thank you for contacting us regarding your Sunny account. If your complaint has been made via a third party claims management company, or firm of solicitors, we have also copied them into this email.
As part of your complaint, if you would like information about your account and loan(s) with us, you can obtain copies of your loan agreements, loan statements and summary of borrowing by logging in to your Sunny account online.
We will investigate your complaint, and will contact you following this to provide you with our final response. This will be within the eight week period afforded to us by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If you are considering using a third party, such as a Claims Management Company (CMC) or law firm, to pursue your complaint on your behalf, you should be aware that most of these firms will charge a fee which will reduce the amount of any redress that you may be due.
By making your complaint directly, it will be reviewed by us and/or the Financial Ombudsman Service using the same process and we will investigate your complaint fully, whether or not any third party or Claims Management Company is involved. You will also receive 100% of any redress you may be due.
So the question is .. Should I go for a step 2 ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you. Sunny tend to just use a very fixed decision making that probably won’t pay much attention to another email you send! But I do think writing it means that you have thought about your case and so are in a better position to judge whether Sunny make you a good offer or not. And it gives you a good basis to send the complaint to FOS, which is where many Sunny complaints seem to be heading at the moment as they often make poor offers.
Alex says
I have just accepted my offer from The Money Shop.
How long do they usually take to pay out once they have received the signed acceptance form?
Thanks
Elaine says
Mine took approx 10 days
eddy says
With Money shop group did anybody have any problems as i just keep getting a reply that they cannot locate my account even though i have provided bank statements and credit file showing all the loans with them, or is this just a delayin tactic?
Also if anybody has an email address for money shop that they can share n
Angela says
I have borrowed from SNC for a long time now. It started off with a £500 line of credit and was then upped to £1000. Before long I had borrowed £1000 and then had to pay it back the next month plus interest. I then had to borrow it again to pay bills etc plus borrow from other companies. I’m currently on a repayment plan with them paying £100 a month until it is cleared. Have I got grounds to put in an irresponsible lending complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. SNC could see your bank statement. They should have seen you could not afford to repay their credit.
Angela says
Do I need to send them copies of bank statements in my letter of complaint like I have done with other companies as they already have access to them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No – they already have them.
Elaine says
Hi my complaint has just been assigned to an adjudicator-just checking how long it takes for an adjudicator to make a decision
Holly says
Hi all , I have received this back from Ferratum
I waived all interest from the final loan and used the £140.79 towards the outstanding capital. We loaned you £500.00 and received payments totalling £359.21 towards the loan. We waived a total balance of £638.56, this was made up of £497.77 interest waived and £140.79 from previous interest paid.
£150 23/02/18 intr £25.20
£300 23/03/2018 “ interest 62.49
£300 18/04/18. Interest “”
£350 06/07/18. “Interest £76
£500 01/10/18 interest £117.84!
I have tried do negotiate this they have offered me £50!
Is this worth taking to FOS . I have been in conversation with this lady all day and she’s beating around the bush
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is why I asked what payments you have made to the last loan. FOS will always say that you have to repay what you borrowed.
From what Ferratum have said, you have not paid ANY interest yet on the last loan, you have paid less than the amount you have borrowed. Forget all their confusing figures about waiving interest. If the last loan is the only one to be refunded, you would still owe 500-359=£141.
As they are offering to wipe the last loan, they are taking a refund from a couple of earlier loan to wipe the £141, and also offering £50.
This is a good offer, you are VERY unlikely to get better from FOS. It is a shame Ferratum have wrapped this up in so many figures that it seems so unclear.
Holly says
Well that sounds much clearer thank you Sara
L says
Can anyone advise in their experience with piggy bank, just wondering how long they took to send a final response? Looking at other comments on here it would seem they often make decent offers?
Aj says
Hi, mine took 7 weeks just awaiting the money to come through now
Sarah says
Just a query, PDUK have sent me their “decision” but it is just a statement stating why i didn’t complain sooner, but i already provided this information when i put the initial complaint that i was not aware until wage day advance emailed me stating i am entitled to redress.
Do i go back again and state the above that i was not aware or go straight to FOS?
Please read this part carefully as I will explain how I understand your complaint. This is important in how I have reached my decision:
Your complaint was received on 23/04/2019 via email.
You believe that the loans were lent irresponsibly.
You claim that due to our payday loans you had to go for a debt management plan.
You took out the loans from us between 05/05/2009 to 26/10/2012.
My Decision:
We handle complaints following rules set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
One rule is that a customer must complain within 6 years of the problem. Another rule is that if more than 6 have passed, you must
complain within 3 years of knowing you could complain about the problem.
I can see that all of the loans that you are complaining about are more than 6 years old. So for me to consider these loans, I need you to tell me why you didn’t complain about these loans until now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply saying you already answered the question in your complaint, so you are not sure why they have asked again, but you did not complain earlier because you didn’t know that PDUK should have checked whether the loan was affordable for you until you received an email from the Wageday Advance administrators.
People are getting some good results by letting PDUK have a lot more weeks. If you go to FOS now, PDUK will stop looking at your complaint.
Sarah says
Thank you, i will do. After i had my list of loans, i only requested the interest of 3 out of 8 + 8% its only a small amount, interest on the 3 is £95 each and to remove it from my noodle report, it is down as settled but as the final loan went through a debt plan it is a negative.
Does this sound fair
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds fair BUT I think the PDUK complaints handlers work on some very fixed rules and they will just apply those, rather than think about what you have offered.
GM says
I got the same response from PDUK despite me stating the reason as to why i didnt complain earlier. in the and, after 14 weeks, i got fed up and sent the case to the FOS. Its been with them for 8 months now and they told me that that PDUK is refusing to look at old loans, so the FOS is looking if they can look at the loans or not. wish I hadn’t gone through the FOS, but I don;t know what offer PDUK would make either
Brian says
I have had an e-mail confirming my refund from Lending Stream – however I can see what my interest refund is and the 8% interest on my interest which gives me my total refund of £xxxx.xx – however it then says “as part of HMRC regulation, we are required to withhold 20% on the portion of the refund deemed to be statutory interest on interest”
Does this mean the 8%, and if it is does it mean if I was due £xxx.xx (8% on top of my refund) that 8% will now be 20% less?
Hope it make sense!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes. If the 8% extra came to £400, they would send £20%, ie £80, to HMRC and only pay your the interest being refunded plus £320.
BUT if you are a basic rate tax payer you can claim up to £200 of the tax deducted back in a tax year from HMRC, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/. That is 3200 in total per year, not £200 for each refund.
Neil says
Hi Brian,
I had an e-mail confirming that they have initiated my refund . They didn’t provide any figures in the e-mail.
Did you get an e-mail saying they have initiated refund which didn’t mention any figures. In other words in this your second e-mail from them re the refund or have you only received the one e-mail from them so far?
Thanks
Brian says
Hi Neil,
Yes, I had some information from the FOS saying what I was getting and an e-mail from LS saying that it had been initiated and would be 28 days from the day I accepted (11th June).
Not had anything else through. Hopefully from reading other posts it comes through relatively quickly, as I just want it done and finished with now.
Colette says
Hi there
I have had success with my LS complaint and confirmed to me on the 3rd June that the payment has been initiated… not had it yet but they confirmed I will have it by 1st July
C
Brian says
Hi Collette – have you had anything through yet – 21days for you!
Thanks
Bran says
An update of some of my ongoing complaints after a flurry of offers have been received close to the 8 week mark.
SwiftSterling- Offered to remove all interest paid from the 2 loans with them reducing the outstanding balance owed
– OFFER ACCEPTED
Drafty- Complaint not upheld, disagree with my argument.
– REFERRED TO FOS
24/7Moneybox- Complaint partially upheld. Offer to remove outstanding balance and remove adverse credit data
– OFFER ACCEPTED
SafetyNetCredit- Replied to me on the 8 week deadline date. Upheld my complaint. Outstanding balance written off in full. All paid interest (plus 8%) paid back to me plus adverse credit data removed. Refund of over £2200.00
– OFFER ACCEPTED
PayDayUk- Complaint not upheld
– REFERRED TO FOS
Satsuma- Complaint not upheld. Only 1 loan, was for £1000 so unsure what to do here.
Still awaiting MyJar, Sunny, Cash4uNow, Speedy Cash plue others. Only a few days left for all of them to reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That Satsuma loan was LARGE – one loan cases are often hard to win, but where the loan was large the lender should have made better checks on the first loan. I suggest you send it to FOS for them to consider and at the same time (not delaying the FOS complaint – you can always add to it later) ask Satsuma for a copy of all your personal information including any credit reference checks they made by emailing them at informationrequests@provident.co.uk.
You don’t want to do this for a lender you used a lot or you will get a mountain of paper, almost all useless. But for 1 loan it can provide good evidence that their check was inadequate or that they ignored what their check showed.
Mike_p says
Thanks for posting your updates. I was starting to think I was quite unusual in having so many payday loans, but hearing from other people in the same position has helped me do something about it. The Money Saving Expert forums have threads on the subject but seem to be full of people criticising everyone in trouble for “being so stupid” etc
I’ve had a couple of successes so far which has stopped my downward spiral and I’m feeling a lot better. I have a few more in progress which will hopefully mean I can put some aside for a rainy day and add it it rather than take from it each month.
JA says
Hi Bran.
Congrats on your success.
With 247moneybox, How long did they take to refund/reply to your accept email? I’ve accepted but they haven’t replied to me so I’ve had to send it to FOS.
Regards
Bran says
It took them 3 days after my replying to acknowledge that the matter had been finalised. With this I got an email confirming the balance of the account had been removed and closed.
Not sure if it was easier due to the fact they weren’t physically giving me a refund?
JA says
Okay , Thanks for your info.
Just going to have to be patient with them.
Regards
Julie Ann Sage says
Hello Bran.
May I ask what the outstanding balance was on safety net credit that was written off?
Regards
petra beecham says
Hi Brian
Can you keep us up to date on Drafty as I too had £2300 with them :-)
Many Thanks
Petra
D says
Sara
I sent my first email to me lender on April 23rd with the subject header “affordibilty complaint”
Thus outlined me wanting details of all loans is taken with them etc, will that be the date that the 8 weeks start from or will that be after they gave me the list of loans? If it’s from.first contact then they have around 5 days by my calculations to respond
Neil says
Yes. Its the date of your first email stating complaint. They tied to say my first email wasnt a complaint and they went over the 8 weeks.. So I got advice and went back to them and told them I’m going to the ombudsman. 2 days later they have offered to pay me £980.
D says
Thanks Neil
I’ll keep that in mind for my next move should Tuesday pass without response
Ann ramage says
Holy how long did Ferratum take to get Back to you .
Was it the 8 weeks or sooner
Thanks
Mike_p says
With me it was about 10 weeks. I’d heard nothing so I used there online chat to chase them and they said I’d get a reply that day. About an hour later I got an I offer that I accepted, and another hour later I had an email so say my loan was closed and £250 in my bank account.
Ann says
Hi mike p
Who was that with you got refund Ferratum. Thanks
Mike_p says
Yes it was Ferratum, I had a couple of one month loans with them about 18 months ago and then a rolling credit one for about a year. I’m very glad to see the back of it.
Ann ramage says
Mike p
I hope you got something good back I’ve had 7 loans from November.so fingers crossed I get something back one loan is still outstanding .
Thanks mike
Diddy says
Hi, is anyone else getting the “run around” from Satsuma? Their deadline was 31 May which they replied they needed another 14 days which meant tomorrow for a decision. Received an email today saying they need another 14 days……That would mean a month after the initial deadline, has anyone else had this?
Feel I will keep getting emails and getting nowhere. Will send it to FSO tonight…..feel like they are robbing me off although they are probably snowed under with complaints.
KK says
I am having issues with them too.
When i complained to them, they asked for some details in order to locate my account. I sent it, they responded and then 3 weeks later they asked for the same information because they couldn’t locate my file. I responded, then they sent me the same email again yesterday asking for the information again.
I think it is just a stalling tactic. I am just waiting for the 8 weeks to be up before i send the complaint to the FOS.
Kathy says
This is exactly what happened to me. On the last day of 8 week period, they asked for another two weeks. I left them a negative review on Trust Pilot and hey presto – within a couple of hours I got the final written response to my complaint. They didn’t uphold but I wasn’t remotely surprised, I’m not even convinced they investigated my complaint. They sent me what looks like a template letter with no reference to my specific complaint other than my name. It’s gone off to the FOS and they have advised that these type of complaints are taking between 6 and 12 months for an adjudicator to be assigned. Frustrating but I am hoping it will be worth it in the long run.
Mike_p says
I made a FOS complaint against Satsuma at the beginning of March and I got an email from an adjudicator assigned to my case at the end of May. Maybe they haev slowed down since.
Angela says
If my calculations are correct I’ve paid £5441.53 on interest alone to SNC!! Surely that can’t be correct??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long have you been borrowing from them? Do you owe a current balance?
Angela says
Since March 2015. I’m currently on a repayment plan so the interest has been frozen
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s a long time so that interest figure could be correct.
Angela says
My statement history just shows continuous borrowing pretty much since March 2015. Pages and pages of it. Let’s hope they uphold my complaint
Bigd says
Has anyone had any experiences with elevate credit recently? And payday express?
Claire says
My adjudicator at the FOS wrote to Payday Express on 17th May 19 she gave them till 31st May to respond but still nothing
Mike_p says
I recently had a refund from Sunny/Elevate which took them just under 8 weeks to offer. I had 5 loans of progressively increasing size and they offered me a refund of interest on the 5th which I accepted. I might have got the 4th refunded if I’d gone to the FOS but the refund was enough to clear a lending stream loan and overall reduced my monthly commitments by a few hundred pounds.
Phil says
7 loans with Lending Stream. £2k interest paid. 2 payment plans and consecutive loans sometimes even taken out the same day I paid off the previous loan. Just replied to my complaint on the last day of the 8 week period saying they do not uphold my complaint and no redress. Very frustrating and another form to fill out for the FOS.
Nick says
Any one with recent dealings with elevate/1ml? Had 20 loans over 2 years waiting on a response in a week.
Pay day express I had 8 loans, they dismissed 2 made an offer on the 3 smallest and have now asked for bank statements from 2 separate months in 2010 to see how I would measure against the current criteria for a new loan. Is this right? I assumed they asses the complaint against the information or lack of when they originally lent?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At the moment Elevate is often making very poor offers.
PDE may not have asked for enough information in 2010, but if they had asked for your statements and the statements showed you could afford the loan, you won’t usually win an affordability complaint.
Nick says
I see what you mean Sara, I’ve sent them the statements which show my bills etc and also I was borrowing from pay day uk and 4 other lenders at the same time.
I had 5 loans apparently with 1ml and rolled over 29 times lol. See what they come back with
The 3 loans being looked at by pdex now have bank statements so see what they come back with. My original complaint earlier in the year the paid out on 2 denied any wrong doing on 2 more and wanted more info for these 3
Trevor says
Does anyone have any recent experience on how long Lending Stream take to pay out after I have accepted their offer through FOS. they received my acceptance 3 days ago.
I see someone people have had it within a couple of weeks and not the full 28 days.
Thanks
Neil says
Hi, I’ve just had a final response from Mr Lender. 11 loans with £1800 in interest paid. They’ve offered a refund of £980..
0
jw says
How many loans does this include? Alot of lenders don’t usually include some of the first ones.
Neil says
5 of the 11 loans
D says
If you can wait then go to the FOS but if not I’d look at accepting or going back to them with an offer that’s acceptable to you.
That’s just my opinion though
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you think that is a good offer? Mr Lender will sometimes listen to a reasoned argument about why they should include another loan or two.
D says
Out of interest, how long did they take to.get back to you? I think mine is 8 weeks on Tuesday so i should be hearing back soon
Neil says
Hi ,
Does any one have any experience of payout time scales from Lending stream . They have sent me an e-mail to say they have initiated my refund and the wording of the e-mail says process the refund “in 28 days”. Even the letter from the FOS says will refund “after 28 days”. Shouldn’t they both read “within 28 days”?
Does anyone know if you get another e-mail once the refund has been paid?
I am so anxious about all this . They could go into administration any minute .
Thanks
tom p says
youy worry way too much…………. relax you will get it within the 28 days. They wont go bust just because of your refund Neil
Neil says
Hi Tom,
Ok thanks
Have you had experience with Lending Stream? If so did you get your refund by the agreed date?
I know that wont go bust just because of my refund but its all the other complaints that are going in that worry me.
Thanks
tom p says
Hi Neil
I originally started my journey with all these complaints over 1 year ago. So far i ahve claimed over 31k back. Lendingstream were by far the worst of all the companies dragging there feet and just being a pain in the ass
i did get a refund out of them it was paid on day 21 out of the 28. i found the more i rang them and bugged them the more they dragged there feet. sit back relax and the time will fly by
Neil says
Thanks Tom
Mark says
Hi Tom,
I’ve got to agree with you on the being patient part, Peachy and Mr lender paid out after the just before the original 8 weeks were up so that was good. Lending stream is a different kettle of fish (18 loans in total £2000 ish worth of loans over 2 years) so I do expect something back. I only put my case to FOS 4 days ago to follow this up. On speaking to FOS though yesterday they said that it takes about 2 to 3 weeks to come back to you about your complaint, they used to say on there emails 5 days but have since changed this due to the amount of claims coming in. I fully understand how busy they are appreciate their work (they are doing it for me for free).
Any money is a bonus and I am prepared to wait as I was not originally going to bother claiming back anything at all. I expect Lending stream to stall at every stage but hey ho I will wait and get some payback from the thieving you know whats.
Stephen says
First battle won. Adjudicator has upheld 11 out of 16 loans with Lending Stream. Interest repaid + 8% and removal of them from my credit file. Don’t have exact figures of what’s due though. Adjudicator has given them until 28th to reply accepting the decision. What’s people’s experience with the response? do LS tend to go to ombudsman or settle at adjudicator level?
Pounds2pocket 2 large loans currently allocated to an ombudsman
15+ loans with PDUK still awaiting allocation. This will be a massive payout if/when I win.
All complaints submitted to FOS early Jan, starting to see the war drawing to a close!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
at the moment LS seems to be accepting a lot of adjudicator decisions.
DD says
To echo what sara says, I’ve just had confirmation that Lending Stream have agreed with the adjudicators recommendation for loans 5-21 of my complaint and will refund all interest and charges associated working out to just under 2.5k. Money to spend on my new baby arrival
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Congrats on refund & on new baby!
si says
I am currently in talks with a lender about my pay day affordability complaint , in 2017 they entered a judgement against me for loan number 12 which I paid in installments and cleared does anyone know if its possible to get this removed by them from my credit file within the complaint resolution?
I am now pretty much debt free and have been for a couple of years however as this will remain until 2021 on my records any advice appreciated if anyone has had this situation , for me its about getting the interest off but also getting this off my credit file as its the only issue on there
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So was the CCJ in the name of Uncle Buck or First Recoveries? This makes a difference to what you would have to do.
si says
The debt was tripled by Uncle Buck by their charges for emails £20 a week, it was sent to 1st Stop recoveries who they assigned the whole debt to them in Aug 15 a judgement was entered in default in Oct 15 by 1st Stop recoveries who added costs and interest and it was paid in full from my wages by June 16.
I did not receive the notification of claim just the Judgement for Claimant in default.
1st stop recoveries who the debt was assigned to is the name on the judgement. My loans to uncle buck were cleared apart from loan 11 which was for £375 with 150 interest and charges were added to it by Uncle buck bringing it to £709.00 then £160 added by 1st stop which was all paid off in installments
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so re-writing what I said before now I know UB was not the claimant:
Your claim against UB should be for a refund of all interest and charges you paid on these loans, including the ones paid to the debt collector. If there was still a balance owed to the debt collector, UB would have to arrange for this to be repaid but that is not the case here as you have settled the CCJ. So you should get the full amount of the refund. You should also ask for an extra £255 to cover the cost of an application to set aside the CCJ, see below.
It is not possible for the claimant to delete a CCJ, it has to be done by the court. I haven’t come across this happening after a CCJ has been satisfied, but I will find out about this. Assuming it is possible to set aside a CCJ after it has been satisfied…
You need to tell Uncle Buck that as part of the redress you want them to write you a clear letter saying that they accept that the last loan was unaffordable for you and that they should not have given you this loan and they are refunding you all the interest and charges on the loan. You will need this letter to help you set aside the CCJ.
When you get the settlement from UB, you should tell 1st Stop you are planning to apply to set aside the CCJ, showing them the letter from UB and explain UB have given you a refund so you are not asking 1st Stop to refund you any money. Unless they then volunteer to do this (which I suspect is unlikely) you can make the application to the court on an N244 form, attaching the letter from UB as evidence. You can talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about exactly how to apply for a set aside, see https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/howtosetasideacountycourtjudgment/settingasideaccj.aspx
FOS won’t always consider a complaint where there is a CCJ, but you had a default judgment (you didn’t defend the case) so FOS may well do. So if you can’t reach an agreement with UB, then you can go to FOS.
kirsty pote says
Sorry if this has been asked before, had 2 out of 7 complaints picked up by an adjudicator one in late march and the other beginning of may, how long does it usually take to get the adjudicators decision
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It depends on the case, it can be just a week. It may be complicated or the adjudicator may be waiting for information from the lender or there may be some reason why it is not progressed fast.
I suggest you go back to the adjudicator for the March case and ask if there is any more infomration you can provide to help them – a polite nudge.
AJ says
Hi Sarah, I’ve had a response from lending stream declining my case. I had 10 loans with them one after another and paid over 1k in interest and the last Loan I fell into arrears with but all clear now but a couple of them I paid off early as it was my payday but then the borrowed again. Because some were settled early they’ve said that meant they were affordable? Also that the information I gave meant it was affordable and the 3rd Party credit checks said it was affordable on all 10. My argument is I was in a lot of debt at this time with other things including other pay day companies why didn’t this flag up, surely paying off and re applying should of been a red flag? Should I just give up or send to FOS? Thank you
Dean S says
Lending stream said the same thing to me so I referred it to the FOS and they have upheld loans 6-18 an looking in to loans 1-5 now I have sent the info the investigator asked for.
I appear to have been in a similar situation to you. The investigator concluded that I was relying on borrowing to get by so it was irresponsible of them to continue lending.
Mike_p says
I’m in a similar situation – I had 15 loans with Lending Stream and they rejected my claims on all of them so I’ve now taken it up with the FOS.
You can read the Ombudsman decisions here, from what I’ve read it seems like there is a good chance they will uphold complaints when there are 15 loans:
https://www.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/
Chris says
I had 54 loans over 3 years with LS and they rejected my complaint. I have sent to FOS.
LS do not negotiate and will not change their mind
Simon says
Hi Sara
I have had a final response from P2P not upholding my claim. I have gone through my bank statements and found that I had 5 loans with them in the period looked at not the 2 they have sent me details on. Also I have paid back more than they are saying. My question is that I have sent my case to the FOS is it worth me going back to P2P with my findings or leave it to the FOS?