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?
NJG says
Not sure if would help you Chris but I found that the details you input have to match what they had for you when you had the loans EXACTLY not what you are now? I tried 5 times with PEX before I hit the exact name – Nicola not Nicki – and the address was actually changed twice after the last loan so took a few goes getting that right as well? Just thought I’d throw it in in case any help
karen wilson says
Hi just had payday express give me my offer said 28 days how quick are they to pay out?
chris says
quick questions is anybody in waiting for the ombudsman to make a decisions for qq & p2p? or had a decision.
an adjudicator ruled in my favor on 6/10 loans and asked them to repay £600 obviously they rejected it.
i had my original decisions on the 22.03.19 which was over 3 months ago, how much longer do you think before its picked by the ombudsman?
Annie says
It depends when you loans were taken out, mine are from 2012-2017 (within the 6 years when complaint logged) and QQ/P2P rejected the adjudicators decision on loans taken post 2015. I have been waiting to be allocated and ombudsman since July last year, so I’d buckle in for a long wait! They offered to pay 1.5k on only 3 loans rather than the recommended 12 a difference of approx 3.5k so I’m playing the waiting game for around 5k. Good luck.
D says
Are you always made aware when an adjudicator has picked up your case?
Or can you just reiceve their decision without knowing they’ve picked your case up?
GM says
in previous cases, i received the decision without knowing it had been picked up
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But if you “get a decision” without having been told, that decision won’t be final, you can go back and explain to the adjudicator why you think more loans should be included.
SK says
Hi, is it worth chasing Sunny for 3 instalment loans =£1600. They have not upheld my complaint, is it worth going to FOS??
THANKS
SK says
Has anybody had payment from LS prior to the 28 day point? Waiting on £1800 which I settled through the FOS. the last day for them is 22 July, chances of getting that before then??
Neil says
Hi All,
I have just today received my Lending Stream refund a week before the end of the 28 Day period.
7.4 K yippeee the milky bars are on me .
Thanks so much Sara. You are an inspiration
PHump says
Hi all – I had an email from the Adjudicator to say that he has sided with me for 10 of 16 loans with QQ – they have until the 27th (today) to provide more information to change the adjudicators mind – what usually happens at this stage? are they likely to present more info that would change the adjudicators mind? and if they don’t provide any more info does that automatically mean this process is over and I should get some money back from them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They may accept the decision – in which case you get paid. Or reject it or ignore it, in which case it has to be looked at by an ombudsman, unclear how long that will take – in almost all cases the ombudsman takes the same decision.. Or they offer a refind on a smaller number of loans – if it isn’t much short you could choose to accept that, but don’t worry that if you reject it you may get even less from the ombudsman as that doesn’t seem to happen.
Carl says
QQ rejected the Adjudicator decision on my one, so now in queue for ombudsman.
Sara says
My 2 weeks where up on the 15th May and the adjudicator yesterday said they are still waiting for a response from QQ so the 2 week window means nothing
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s normal for FOS to allow firms extra time, QQ are getting large volumes of decisions, pushing them all to an Ombudsman decision is more likely to delay refunds than speed them up.
Debbie says
Hi Sara got a reply from lending stream pls advise if I am correct in saying they should refund interest paid on loan 7 thanks Debbie amount borrowed loan 7 £1000 paid back £1400
Although for the reasons given we deem our offer to be fair and reasonable, we would prefer to resolve your complaint amicably and in a timely manner. Therefore, we would be willing to partially uphold your complaint on loan five and seven as we felt further checks could have been conducted to ensure you were not reliant on short term loans. As you have an outstanding balance on loan seven for the amount of £508.00, we would be able to wipe this balance using the interest paid on loan five (£586.16) and refund you the difference of £78.16. Furthermore, we would also be willing to refund you a total amount of £439.47, for all of the interest paid towards your final loan therefore the total refund would amount to £517.63
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds confusing. This last loan, ignore the interest, how much did you borrow? How much if anything have you paid to LS to this loan – or to a debt collector for this loan.
Debbie says
Sorry apologises it’s mr lender and no I made all payments then went on a payment plan
Just wanted to thank you for all your help I replied back to them and they adjusted it I’m am now being refunded £1,025.63 I really can’t thank you enough Sara for all your help and info
Georgina says
Hi,
Tried to negotiate with MyJar after a poor offer on there final response. I wanted them to include a few other loans and add the 8% interest to the refund amount. They replied saying they will not change what they have offered and if I’m still unhappy take it to the FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, well it was worth a go. Off to FOS!
Paula says
I borrowed well over 10k over a few years with Pounds to Pocket and they have offered me £150. Should I reject this and send my complaint on to FOS? Is it easy enough to do? Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£150 sounds like a very poor offer. It’s easy to send your case to FOS as the article above says.
brendan says
Hi sara
I got email FOS i had 5 loans from MYJAR FOS said 1 to 3 loans are ok but 4 to 5 loans 5 shouldn’t have been lent to me. MYJAR have got to 9 july. How much money do you get back and what happen next?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much interest did you pay on loans 4 & 5? How long ago was this?
brendan says
HI 4 loan 10/03/2018 £1100 interest was £581 loan 5 15/06/2018 is still outstanding. £2000 interest was £600
Simon says
Hi Sara
Myjar have come back on my final response quoting they did all checks correctly and owe me nothing.
At the end of 2017 I had loans of £250, £700,£1075 & £1100 with interest just over £1000, no breaks in the loans and next loans were borrowed on the same day as clearing previous loan.
At the time I had 3 to 4 other loans as well as a gambling problem, should I go back to them with this explanation or send it to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that’s worth taking to FOS. All taken the same day, all larger than the previous one should have made Myjar look more closely.
Jules says
Hi,
I have recently made a complaint to Mr Lender. They have asked for my new telephone number so they can call me to discuss my complaint. Is this normal? I feel a little bit uneasy about having a telephone conversation with them about it. If this is a normal practice, any ideas what they are wanting to get from me that was not in my written complaint?
Also, i have a claims company acting on some other payday lenders for me. I know that the lenders have been referred to FOS. Am i able to contact FOS myself for an update or will the FOS only converse with the claim company i have instructed to act for me?
Many thanks for your time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can always end a phone call, if you are worried, or not clear, or don’t want to be bounced into anything, ask them to put their points or questions in writing and you will reply.
How many loans did you have from them? It may be a good idea to think about what a fair offer would be first.
I think yiu can talk to FOS about cases sent through a Claims Company
Jules says
Hi Sara.
From 2012-2016, i had 11 loans just from them. They amounted to a total of £4320. All paid back in full. Thank you for your advice. I will let them have my new number and arrange a time for them to call me. A good idea to ask them to put their questions in writing.
Johnvan says
On the last day of the 8 week period that they are entitled to I have just received a response from Safety Net Credit. They have found my claim to be valid and will repay all interest paid plus 8% statutory interest.
This is more than £4000 and to me is a massive windfall. Thanks to this site I will have received over £7000 and repaid all debts, credit cards and am having a holiday. Thank you Sara.
debbie says
hi can i have advise pls MyJar have refused any responsibility here are loan details.
loan 1 = £350 30.08.16 till 25.02.17
loan 2 £475.00 17.03.17 till 27.09.17
loan 3 £1300 12.10.17 tilll 27.04.18
loan 4 £200 14.05.18 till 24.08.18
loan 5 £900 27.10.18 till 24.04.19
all these was paid on time but credit file showed many applications to themself and other companys and had other payday loans at same time. are MyJar known to listen if i go back to them with bank details and my credit file or should i send to fos right away advise pls many many thanks.
A A Ron says
I sent myjar bank statements two weeks ago showing I was gambling a lot at the time of when I took 6 different loans out with them one after the other. Pretty similar to you. Two days ago they have responded not holding any responsibility or upholding the complaint however to put things right they will refund all interest and 8% so getting it all back in 15 business days they said. Mainly due to them noticing I was gambling at the time of the loans being taken out.
Send them the relevant bank details and they may change their response but send it off to FOS in meantime.
Elaine says
Hi
Just read your post and like you, My Jar did not uphold my complaint. I have sent email attaching bank statements showing I was heavily overdrawn, had several other loans and also gambling. They replied saying they will review their decision, here’s hoping!
Glad they decided to refund you .
Jim Smith says
Hi Sarah,
Just a summary of my complaints logged:
3 loans with piggybank over 4 months 300,1000,1500. Complaint upheld by piggybank and full interest plus 8 % refund. Removed from credit file.
3 loans with satusuma over 3 months 300, 800, 500. Rejected by satsuma.
Sunny: 44 loans taken out over 20 months. Loans ran almost continuously for this period and often had 3 loans running concurrently. Loans varied from 100 to the max. This complaint was rejected by sunny.
The most important outcome for me in these complaints if to have them removed from my credit report.
I am soon to apply for a mortgage and i know that theoretically you can still obtain one with payday loans on the record, however, it is my understanding that the mortgage underwriters will look dimly on so many payday loans even if they are 2 plus years ago which most of them are.
My question is what is the best course of action to have these loans removed from my file? If i simply went back to the aforementioned companies and stated that i will close the matter if they remove all records do you think they would accept and remove these from my credit file?
If i refer to FOS and they uphold my complaints it is my inderstanding that they might not even instruct to have these removed from the credit file plus i dont want to wait a long time to have this matter resolved.
I am in a healthy financial position now so whilst a refund is good it is not my priority.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you want to know if Satsuma and Sunny will respond to an offer not to go to FOS if they delete the loans from your credit record?
Neither should. It would be against the SCOR Credit reporting principles all lenders who report to credit reference agencies are supposed to adhere to.
I would be surprised if either does. Satsuma are likely to think you may not win a FOS complaint at all. That’s if they even think about your offer. They seem very slow and disorganised.
Sunny appear to have a very rigid approach to considering cases at the moment. Not sure if they ever deviate from it to consider random offers coming through.
Some firms delete any loans that FOS say they should refund. I think this is likely to be your best shot for getting them deleted but it won’t be quick.
Mike says
7 weeks waiting for quick quid so far and recieved this:
I refer to previous communications and the purpose of this email is to assure you that the investigation of your complaint is still ongoing. I would like to thank you for your patience and confirm we will contact you as soon as possible, and at latest within eight weeks of the date we received your complaint.
If you need to contact us in the meantime, please do not hesitate to do so on the details below.
Yours sincerely
anyone know what happens If they dont give me final answer within 8 weeks …do I just go to the onbudsman?
Iain123 says
They’re busy so responses are taking longer.
You’ll need a Final Response for the FOS, so it’s up to you if you want to wait for a FR or just go to the FOS now and follow up with the FR when it comes, if it’s bad news.
Paul says
Hi Sara,
Firstly i want to say thank you for all the advice you offer on this site. I’ve had a couple of great outcomes so far by directly communicating with lenders. Though with my final two have gone through the FOS. They emailed me the other day to say they have disagreed with LS and Satsuma’s decisions, and gave them until 18th June to respond. Well obviously that has now passed, and i’ve Heard nothing.
What should happen next? What’s my next steps? I’ve not usually got this far.
Many thanks again
Paul
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you ask FOS in another week what is happening. If the lenders ignore an adjuidcator decision, is has to go to an ombudsman which can take another few months.
Tomas says
Hello. So i sent complaint to Fernovo 16.5. and today received the decision. I took 2 loans from them ,first 300£ for 3 months which i paid out with montly payments and when i payed it out i directly took another 300£ because at that time i was in big problems already. I paid on interest 250£.
Their answer was that i took ONLY two loans and both of them i paid out without “problems” and when they gave me a loan they checked creditscore and my salary was enough for it also. I dont know if i should send it to ombudsman,because the interest was 250£ So dont know how much i could win back and if i have some chance to win it
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s hard to win a two loan case unless your credit record was bad or the loans were very large.
Lisa G says
Hi Sara,
I’ve finally received a response from the FOS to my complaint against MyJar. I’m after some advise. Should I accept their finding or appeal it? I’m a bit lost and what would I say anyway? I had 3 loans;
12/06/15, 3 instalments, £300 loan, £146 monthly
27/02/19, 3 instalments, £425 loan, £222 monthly
07/04/19, 12 instalments, £3600 loan, £530 monthly. Has an outstanding balance.
Here’s what they said condensed;
“I don’t think MYJAR irresponsibly provided loans to you. Sorry to hear you were struggling financially, that repaying these loans may have been difficult. Given your loan amounts, what was apparent about your circumstances at the time and your history with the lender, I don’t think it would’ve been proportionate to ask you for the amount of information needed to show the lending was unsustainable.
There wasn’t anything in the information you provided or information MYJAR should’ve been aware of, which meant it would’ve been proportionate to start verifying what you were saying.
You mention you were in a DMP when applying for loan 2, and had only recently completed this plan when applying for loan 3. From credit search results and internal scoring systems, I cannot see anything there that would indicate you were in a DMP, so this is not something MYJAR should have been aware of. The number of loans, amounts for or the time meant your loan history alone didn’t show you might’ve been experiencing underlying financial difficulty.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes definitely go to FOS. If you were in a DMP, how could you afford £220 mounds a month for loan 2? And that last loan was huge, they should have looked very carefully at your situation before approving it, including (in my opinion) looking at your bank statements.
Paul says
I had a letter last week from FOS telling me that they hadn’t picked up my claim against PDUK yet and it was likely to be months before they do. Fast forward a week and it’s been assigned to an adjudicator.
The adjudicator explained that as some of the loans are over 6 years old, the claim against them will be split into 2 claims.
With the news last week about The money shop/PDUK etc potentially going under, I’m praying they hold out until my case is concluded!
GM says
I got the same letter too last week about PDUK and QQ and the case was sent to the FOS in November 2018. When was your sent? All my loans were over 6 years old.
Kelly Webb says
All my PDUK loans were over 6 years and I had the same letter a few weeks back. Then had a call yesterday from the adjudicator to say it’s been picked up and they are starting their investigation. I referred my case to FOS in August 2018.
Aaron says
Today is the 8 week deadline for companies to provide a Final Decision.
247Moneybox have sent what looks like an automatic email to remind me to pay my balance in 28 days of they’ll file a Default
Is that classed as a “Final Decision”?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no. A final deciaon will uphold or reject your complaint – or say they havne’t managed to resolve it yet and would like another few weeks but you now have the right to go to the ombudsman.
Aaron says
Update:
They’ve just offered to write off my remaining balance, and remove all negative info from my file :)
Thanks Sara!!
C says
Hello Sara,
I’ve complained to safety net credit three days ago but I haven’t even received an acknowledgement email to say they’ve received it? Is this normal with them?
Angela says
I complained on the Thursday and got my acknowledgement the following Monday
C says
Safetynet are doing my head in I submitted my complaint and they replied back asking me to fill in my personal details which I did! They replied back to me today saying
‘Unfortunately we are unable to verify your identity and satisfy the Data Protection Act. Please call xxxxxx or contact us via live chat’
How is that even possible ? I have an account with them, the complaint is from the email I have an account with but yet can’t verify me. How is contacting live chat going to solve my complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know, but talking to them is the best way to sort this out.
Carla says
Hi,
I recently was successful with my affordability complaint with sunny I had 27 loans with them. Today I have sent the same complaints off to myjar and lending stream. These loans were taken out after the initial sunny loans and were at a time of money struggles. I only had one loan with each of these lenders, Myjar – £150 and Lending Stream £500. What are the odds of success with these loans? I’m not sure as there is only one from each company but all the same gripes apply from my successful complaint with sunny that paid me out very quickly id like to add.
Thanks Carla
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You will only win a one loan payday loan refund case if it is very large unless there is something unusual about it. £150 not worth bothering with. £500 may be if your income was pretty low.
Turtle00 says
Submitted my Mr Lender complaint to the FOS last month. Adjudicator came back to me this week (much earlier than expected) recommending the company redress loans 2-9 + 8% simple interest. This works out approx £4k + the simple interest.
The initial offer from Mr Lender was a £50 Tesco voucher, then £800 then a final offer £1100.
Hopefully Mr Lender agree to the decision and the case can be closed.
Thanks for the help Sara.
AJ says
Beth check your account now. They might be a surprise there for you. I just got paid by MoneyShop at 4pm. Enjoy
Beth McLeish says
Money has just hit my account, woo hoo!! 14 days from acceptance
Alex says
Got mine too!
Tan says
My Jar came back to to me with an offer this week, nearly £1650, pretty much amounts to the interest on all my loans I took out. it includes the 8%. But tax deducted. I will send response soon. Thank you so much Sara!!
I have about 9 other lenders, who should get back to me next week hopefully. Spoke to Payday Uk who seem to have progressed my Money shop one more quickly than the Payday UK claim. But customer service rep I spoke with said on the phone, they were questioning why I didn’t contact before, as some of my loans were taken between 2009 – 2012 too, and took my story, I explained, I didn’t know I could complain under unaffordability. and was only only prompted when Wage Day and Wonga emailed me and I did the research. I hope they have completed the investigation and not just taken 8 weeks to ask me the question just now but I am hoping to hear something next week.
M M says
So just before my QQ /Casheuronet claim goes from adjudicator to ombundsmdan, QQ have made an offer to pay out on one loan instead of the recommended 10 loans by the adjudicator.
Is that par the course for them? I take it if I reject this offer, it will then go to ombudsman where the chances are the ombudsman will agree with the adjudicator and eventually QQ will have to legally pay out on the recommended ten loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Is that par the course for them? ” you aren’t the first person this has happened to, but I wouldn’t say it is what normally happens.
“I take it if I reject this offer, it will then go to ombudsman where the chances are the ombudsman will agree with the adjudicator and eventually QQ will have to legally pay out on the recommended ten loans.” probably. Sometimes the ombudsman tinkers with the number of loans, saying you should be refunded 8 or 12 say. But a simple agreement with the adjudicator is the most common outcome. A very different decision is very rare.
gaz says
I made a complaint to QuickQuid Feb 2018 about loans I took out between 2011 – 2016. They refused my claim so I went to the FOS in March 2018. I finally heard back today that they think the first 5 loans I had were ok but they agree that further loans 6-26 should not have been given. So they have given QQ until July 12th to either agree with their decision or disagree. I will update here after the 12th with the outcome.
Iain123 says
QQ almost always appeal to an Ombudsman. It’ll be next year before they settle.
Tan says
I got final response from Sunny today, within the 8 weeks. I had 41 loans with Sunny but they would only look my complaint from 18th loan onwards, “taking into account all loans/draws you were charged interest for more than 24 months;”
However we note that you did fall behind in your repayments at some stage by more than 7 days (albeit if you re-borrowed after that you must have never fallen behind by more than 45 days otherwise you would have been permanently restricted from any future borrowing) and it may have been prudent for us to contact you at the point at which you had held a HCSTC balance for 18 months. According to our records, this was at the time of your 18th loan/draw.”
The offer wasn’t bad:
To put things right, we propose to do the following:
· Calculate the interest paid by you from your 18th loan/draw onwards (£3973.53);
· Pay interest of 8% (simple) on the above refund amount from the dates of payment to the dates of settlement, which comes to £808.29;
· Amend your credit file by removing all loans from your 18th loan/draw onwards
But surely they need to look at the loans 5th one onwards as per recent FOS guidelines? As they need to do further checks, when customer goes back repeatedly? Is this reasonable to ask? So called them, stated my reasoning and they said I have to go to FOS.
Also I feel like the number of loans I had with other lenders at the same time hasn’t been considered as they never asked for these through my bank statements. I mentioned this too but got told to go to FOS.
Can someone/ Sara please advise.
Phil says
I was in a similar position with you regarding sunny… They agreed to pay from 13th loan onwards when FOS would have probably agreed from 4th, difference in value had I have gone to FOS was £1000, however when I weighed it up, I used the 3600 from Sunny to clear the rest of my outstanding loans etc. For me, the opportunity to get towards my goal of being debt free was too good to pass up, and if I’d have waited I would have had to continue to pay interest etc whilst waiting. It’s your option, they didn’t negotiate financially at all though, However what they did do for me was delete every record of every loan from my report, meaning it cleaned my report up properly. Worth asking for that if you do decide to agree.
Hope this helps :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s a pretty poor offer – you aren’t being unreasonable.
But you need to know how poor to decide what to do. Ignore the 8% extra interest and just compare the interest you paid… they are refunding loans 18-41 which is £3973 interest paid. Add up the interest you paid from loan 5 to loan 17 – how much does that come to?
Andrew says
Sunny finally agreed with adjudicator 2 weeks after final deadline. Does anyone know how sunny are for paying out, does anyone know how long sunny take to pay out do they take the full 4 weeks? Also do they make contact with you or do they contact me any advise appreciated. Thanks
Tan says
Sara,
The interest for loan 5-17 come to about £1300. All loans taken out in 2014/ 2015. With 8%, looking at about £1800 – £1900 to come back to me potentially if FOS instruct Sunny to do so. So that’s quite a bit of money. I didn’t see it like this, thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they are offering you about 3/4 of what you might get by going to FOS (3900 now vs a max of 5200, but FOS may of course decide the refund should start from loan 4 or loan 9…)
It’s not a bad offer, they obviously aren’t excluding the largest loans, and it would get it settled quickly with no stress. It’s quite a personal decision whether you are happy with it or want to push for more. It’s not unreasonable to want the most you can get but there is nothing wrong with taking an offer you think is good enough.
Sandra says
I had these loans with Piggybank is it worth complaining as it’s not many. The total interest is over £800 (includes £15 late fees) first loans were payday loans which i deferred sevetal times each and the larger ones were monthly loans. I reborrowed on the sameday i paid off the previous loan everytime.
30/09/17 borrowed £100 repaid in full after deferrals on 30/11/17
30/11/17 borrowed £150 repaid in full after deferrals on 28/2/18
28/2/18 borrowed £150 repaid in full after deferrals on 29/5/18
29/5/18 borrowed £150 repaid in full after deferrals on 31/8/18
31/8/18 borrowed £290 repaid in full monthly payments on 31/10/18
31/10/18 borrowed £300 repaid in full monthly payments on 28/2/19
28/2/19 borrowed £250 repaid in full monthly payments 30/04/19
30/04/19 borrowed £250 repaid in full by monthly payments on 28/6/19
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You borrowed continuously, not even a days gap, for over 20 months. Definitely worth a complaint!
SIMON127 says
Just an update on Lending Stream…accepted an offer on 10th June got the usual payment in 28 days acknowledgement. Payment received yesterday, nice little surprise when checking my account! 😁
Brian says
I can finally shut the Lending Stream claim.
First complained Dec 17 – rejected within 2 weeks.
Sent to FOS 2 days before 6 month cut off 29 May 18 (hadn’t really realised what could be done)
Heard nothing up until 22 May 19 when Adjudicator sent an e-mail saying they upheld my claim, didn’t realise it had even been looked at then.
LS replied on the very last day 3rd June
My acceptance received by them 11 June
28 day window for payment given – payment received 28th June 19!
This site has been great, not only Sara’s input but also everyone else – Thanks to you all
ClaireR says
LS had until 21st June to adjudicators decision to uphold my claim.
I chased adjudicator up twice last week with no response, then tried phoning but his voicemail said he is off sick until Monday. Then had email from the short term lending email address to tell me LS have yet to reply and they will chase it up.
I’m really hoping I hear next week and get their agreement and refund process started.
It’s agonising being so close to being able to pay my 118 and few other small loans off.
Good to hear the last few days that LS are making faster payments though.
Thanks all
Emma says
Hi,
I sent off a complaint to P2P on 18/4/19 and I haven’t heard a thing at all. Is this normal?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it isn’t. I suggest you phone them up and check they have your complaint.
Paula says
I wrote to complain to the Money Shop (was Payday Express I used) on 7 May and they only just emailed last Friday to state they couldn’t find my account. They have until tomorrow for the 8 weeks so I emailed back to say after that I would be submitting my complaint to FOS.
I just submitted complaints for My Jar and Mr Lender who both rejected my initial complaints.
MattH says
I’ve just had a reply from Quickquid asking for additional information about my complaint. Do i need to send my pay slips and bank statements to them? I have all the loans information and a income/expenditure from the right time due to a DMP i had to take out which i can send. What else should i say or send. I asking for the interest payments back due to irresponsible lending. This is also from loans over 6 years old if that makes a difference?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ where I suggest how you may answer QQ.
Mike says
Hi just wanting a little advice. I have been going through the process of claiming back a refund as it had loads of Pd loans with sunny. They have just offered me 9.5k and I have accepted that was Friday last week. So now do I just sit back and wait the 30 day process time and recieve it. Or does somebody have to acknowledge they have seen my acceptance and will someone be in touch?
Thanks
Ashley says
I also had an email back from sunny on 5/6/19 saying they would partially uphold my complaint and I then emailed them confirming I would accept this decision,i have since emailed back asking when the refund would be deposited and was just informed on or before the 5/7 no refund as of yet
Turtle says
Hi Sara,
Im waiting on £2k payment from Instant Cash Loans/The Money Shop (payday express/payday uk) but am worried reading this;
https://www.ft.com/content/50139102-941b-11e9-b7ea-60e35ef678d2
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, it’s worrying. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-refunds/. But at the moment complaints with the lenders and FOS are continuing and they are still paying out.
Claire says
I’m also waiting on 2k from Payday Express I emailed today saying I’d not heard from them since I told my adjudicator at FOS I was accepting the offer. I couple of hours later I got an email back asking for my bank details. Fingers crossed it won’t be long
Ross says
Absolutely amazing result today, with reference to my MYJAR complaint. When I originally complained, they only partially upheld loans 9-12, saying that loans 1-8 and 13-18 were lent responsibly. They offered a reduction of just over £400, on my remaining balance on my final loan. I asked them to compromise, and remove the interest from the final loan, and a modest refund of around £130. They rejected this. I complained to the FOs, and the adjudicator decided that he felt loans 5-18 should never have been granted and recommended a refund of all interest & charges, plus 8% simple interest. He also said that all negative information/loan history, from loans 5-18, should be wiped from my credit record. Today, they have come back to say that they accept his decision. Instead of a modest refund, as originally requested in the compromise offer, they will now be refunding 10 times that amount (over £1370) along with the final loan now cleared and all of the entries, as recommended by the adjudicator. I’m rather glad now that they rejected my compromise, as I would have done myself out of just over £1200! Next stop is Likely Loans! I’m feeling very empowered today!
Liam Pritchard says
Hi just wondering if anyone had received a redress from PDUK (money shop) and how long do they usually take to pay? I replied to their final response on the 18th June via email to confirm I would accept their offer and included my bank details but I haven’t heard anything since then.
PF says
Hi Liam,
I’m in the same position as you – I accepted on the 18th and am just waiting for payment. I called them on Thurs 27th to ensure everything was in progress and they assured me it would be paid within 28 days. Other posts have said that payments are made on Fridays so fingers crossed. Good luck.
Claire says
Hi
I accepted an offer from them through FOS on 21st June. They contacted me yesterday for bank details fingers crossed it won’t be long. They said they have up to 28 days
Chris says
Hi Sara,
Was wondering if you can clarify something for me, I made an original complaint to MYJAR on the 3/5/19. They responded after around 5 weeks stating they only keep 5 years worth of records and therefore I have only had 1 loan with them and they are not upholding the compliant. Since then I have retrieved bank statement showing I had around 20 loans and paid a total of around £3.5K in interest. I sent these off to MYJAR 2 weeks ago.
Do the 8 weeks start again from when they said they were not up holding the complaint? or do I go from the original complaint email which means their 8 weeks will be up tomorrow and I can send to the FOS.
Any advice appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the 8 weeks starts from your original complaint date. However I think it’s worth phoning them tomorrow and asking when you will receive a final response – if it’s only a week yiu may decide to wait for it.
karen wilson says
Finally had an email from lending stream confirming a refund 12 months plus saying couldn’t find my loan I managed ok!!! How quick are they at paying out? Same with payday express confirmed last Monday still waiting for money!!
AH says
Hi,
Lending stream accepted the adjudicators offer a week ago, I still have not had any communication from lending stream.
I hope I’m wrong but I think it will take longer than 28 days.
But congratulations on the refund!!!!
David W says
Hi
I’m looking for some advice. I have taken 13 loans with Myjar over the last couple of years and at least 3 or 4 of them I applied for were applied for with my old address that I could not change on their website. Does this show that they did not perform their checks properly in regards to affordability as I would have thought that checking my address would be the 1st thing they would check. Is it worth me mentioning this in my complaint letter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
13 loans from Myjar is a lot – you have a good case even without this point. You had tried to change your address, so did you also update other expenses such as rent when you moved? It’s up to you if you want to mention it, there is a case for just keeping things simple and only going into detail if necessary at the ombudsman.
Ruth says
I sent my complaints to about 8 lenders and on Friday it will be 8 weeks. So far I have only had one final decision. Am I likely to receive lots of responses on the last day? And what do I do if they don’t respond?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
who are the other 7 lenders? And have they all acknowledged the complaint in some way?
Ruth says
Hi Sara,
Piggybank, Satsuma, Quick quid, Drafty, Peachy, and 118. They all acknowledged my complaints. Sunny is the only one I have heard back from which was not upheld.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
send the Sunny complaint straight to FOS – Sunny aren’t considering refunds if you borrowed for less than a year – this is not a way FOS decides complaints! FOS is likely to see your continuous borrowing and think Sunny should have noticed you were in trouble well before the 15th loan!
None of those lenders are in the “do give good offers after a few more weeks” category. So send them all to FOS if you don’t get a reply by end Monday – it’s worth giving them the weekend :) Do come back here if you aren’t sure an offer is good enough, or if a case is worth taking to FOS.
Sandra says
Just noticed that Piggybank have a note on their website that they are not taking new loan applications at this time. Only submitted my complaint yesterday fingers crossed.
David says
Hi all.
I have received an adjudicator decision in regards to Sunny, refund of loans 5 to 35.
I was just wondering what sunny are like regarding this. Is there a good chance this will go to an ombudsman?
Many thanks
Zoe says
I am 4 days over their two week response period. I have read on here it seems they take about 4 weeks so I’m just waiting it out. I’ll let you know what happens with mine as soon as I hear anything.
Ross says
I’ve just had a browse at the Piggybank website and it says that they’re not processing any loan applications at the moment, due to upgrading their systems and normal service will resume shortly. Hopefully, this will put peoples minds at rest who have a complaint in against them?
Nicki says
Hi,
Apologies but a 2 part question…
Lending Stream have finally agreed a refund with the adjudicator. How long do they have to pay me and will I probably need to chase this?
I’m in my 8th week of a complaint to 118, do many people have success with a 1large loan complaint with them?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
LS – 28 day. You may need to chase, have you been asked to supply bank details?
118 – some people get a complaint settled directly, lots more get a good result from going to the Ombudsman. Most of these are 1 loan only – you can win these complaints because the loan is large. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ which is the best place to ask more questions about them,
David W says
Thanks for replying Sarah. They still have my old address and I have an ongoing loan with them. Is it worth trying to verbally update my address now? I updated my expenses and outgoings at the time because the system allowed me to do so.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would add a sentence to say that your new address is xxxxx to the complaint.
David says
Hi Sara I sent off my complaint to Myjar and got the usual standard reply to say it could be 8 weeks and when I logged into my account my collection schedule had been removed and in its place my outstanding balance and a date 2/10/19 that’s 3 months from my date of complaint. Also it had CAA.SHARED.INSTALMENT.STATUS I’m pretty worried about this as it sounds like I have to pay this off in 3 months it’s over 2k. I’ve asked what this is but they haven’t got back to me. Has anyone else come across this? Thanks
Katie says
It’s lending stream its been with an adjudicator since last year and had an email may 22nd to say it would now be put in a queue for ombudsman as they don’t agree but today have also received another email to say it’s still in queue.
It’s been in queue since 10th June so I’ve been told . Anyone had theirs go to ombudsman level and how long did you have to wait for it to be complete?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It was running at about 2-4 months, but it seems to have speeded up a bit recently.
Mike says
Hi Sara,
I have had an offer from sunny to which I have accepted but not heard anything from them since the offer which was Friday last week. Do I just sit and wait the 30 day period to see it go into my account. Or will someone let me know they have seen my acceptance and will they let me know when it’s going to be transferred to my account?
Thanks
Michelle says
Hi Mike,
I accepted an offer from Sunny 7th June they told me up to 30 days!! so hopefully will see something in my account by Friday this week (fingers crossed) did they give you a timescale of when to receive the payment ?
Dan says
Hi,
I accepted an offer from Sunny on 4 June so 30 days is up this Thursday 4 July. Had no acknowledgement to email accepting or chase up email to confirm they received my bank details ok. I will let you know if/when I receive redress.
Michelle says
Hi.
I accepted offer from Sunday week Monday… my adjudicator took my new bank details as they have changed since using Sunny.
I haven’t heard from Sunny yet either… im just waiting for my 4 weeks to be up and if nothing getting back to my adjudicator, who told me to get back to him if they dont refund ….
For me i just see it as a waiting game.. as i know from responses only from Sunny they take it litterly to the time scale .. so expecting the same…
Michelle
Paula says
£8k borrowed from Lending Stream (when I had a lot of other loans) £238 offered to refund. Another one off to FOS.
Jo says
Hi Sara
Just wanted your view on an offer I’ve had from Lending Stream. Between May 2011 and June 2012, I borrowed eight loans from Lending Stream, as follows:
– 150 GBP on 9th May 2011
– 115 GBP on 12th May 2011
– 115 GBP on 13th May 2011
– 200 GBP on 12th October 2011
– 575 GBP on 12th December 2011
– 215 GBP on 17th February 2012
– 445 GBP on 11th May 2012
– 165 GBP on 16th June 2012
Lending Stream have said that loans 2 and 3 may have potentially been unaffordable due to the timing and have offered me a refund on the interest of them. Do you think it’s worth taking this to the FOS or not?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is convenient they are refunding two of the smallest loans…
What were the gaps between the loans – the time from repaying loan 3 to taking loan 4, repaying loan 4 to taking loan 5 etc?
Were there any late payments?
Jo says
No late payments, but gaps were a couple of weeks at most between paying one back to taking the next
Andy says
Hi,
I have a complaint with MyJar /Txt Loan, they have asked for Bank Statements and Pay Slips.
Do i need to send this information to them?
Thanks
Robert Bateman says
I’m sure Sara said in one of her posts that they do not require this and to tell them so…
I could be wrong about that though.
E says
Has anyone received a refund from Myjar after a adjudicator upholding the complaint?
If so what was the time scale? And did you have to keep chasing it? I’m expecting 3.3k
M says
Very quick. They were in touch within days and money was within my account within days. If not received just give the Myjar complaints team a nudge, they were very helpful indeed.
Emma says
Thanks for your reply Sara. I have chased up P2P/OnStride and they are saying that because I sent the complaint from another email (not the one they had registered) the complaint wasn’t received. So sent it again today. Whilst researching today, I found a loan from PayDayUK which I have submitted a complaint with also, might as well chance it! Also waiting to hear from Black Horse Finance and Capital One.