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:
- 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, Everyday lonas, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, 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.
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;
- some 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 instalment 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 free and 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 2018, 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 2024 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
- if you dont have the credit agreements, 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 FOS 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?
EJ says
Hi wondering if anyone can provide any advice re payday uk.
I contacted them last week via email to explain I could not make my monthly repayments and sent my income and ex form with a proposal attached. They have not yet replied. I also sent a complaint in, (mostly referring to the last loan I took for £1300 where I was told I would need to sign a new loan agreement prior to
Funds being released however didn’t get sent one so didn’t sign and the money was deposited and also after going through my bank statement for 2 days which showed 5 different payments coming in and out from other payday loan companies along with being in a £1200 overdraft, going over this on occasions and almost £1000 gambling in 30 day period) for loans I had with them previously and the affordability of the loans along with checks completed. I received an acknowledgement to my complaint on Monday.
I have recently entered a DMP so bank details have changed. I tried to log in a few days ago to update my bank details however it was not doing anything, no error message or anything. I thought maybe technical issue so left it. I have tried again this evening but again the same thing. I clicked the forgot password button just incase and entered my email and DOB as instructed but it is stating that my account is not recognised? Has anyone else had this experience after putting in a complaint?
I was able to log in fine before hand and concerned I can now not access the account. I have received no correspondence from them other than stating they are looking into my complaint and another email to state they have forwarded my income and ex to the relevant team and are sorry they haven’t replied. I have only had 4 loans with them and the last one was a while ago however still has significant amount to pay. I just wondered if anyone else had any similar experiences of not being recognised when trying to access account. Thanks
Rachel says
Hi ej yes this happened to me I have a current loan outstanding but since putting in my complaint I can no longer log into my account and they appear to have put repayments on hold they have not taken any more payments, my complaint is now waiting to be assigned with the fos good luck
Shaun says
Hi Sara,
Firstly I just wanted to thank you for your advice, I left a comment here a couple of weeks ago when I was trying to decide if I should complain, I sent the statement request first to all my lenders but in the meantime did my own research and sent the complaint as well.
Anyway, I’ve started getting responses to my original request for information, and one in particular is a little troubling!
PDUK responded with their standard, “send us a pound via the slowest method of payment possible in order to get your statement” but worryingly the email is forwarded and at the bottom in the chain, contains someone else’s information, the request for a statement taken from this site, but with another person’s name, dob, contact number, email addresses and home address!
Obviously this is worrying as having worked in financial services in the past I know how important someone’s sensitive personal information is to protect, I appreciate they must be very busy and human error can occur but they should really be more careful!
I just wondered what you would recommend as a response, firstly I want them to be aware of their DPA breach as if it had been forwarded to someone less honest they could be subject to identity theft, I’m also worried that they could have done the same with my information!
I was originally going to respond with the information on your page about them requesting payment until I saw the other person’s details.
Thanks,
Shaun
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply to their request for £1 by snail transfer in one email. Then send a separate one with DATA BREACH COMPLAINT as the title and explain what has happened and ask for compensation for this – other readers have received £150 for this from different payday lenders.
You could also email “the other person” and let them know what has happened and that they too may be able to ask for compensation.
Claire83 says
I took out several payday loans between the beginning of 2014 and June 2015, all paid back in full and on time. At the time I believed as long as I paid on time this wouldn’t affect my credit rating, but now I’ve come to research applying for a mortgage I’ve read that many lenders will refuse a mortgage if the applicant has any payday loans on their credit record regardless of having a good credit score.
Whilst it would be a bonus to get some of the money back, my main aim would be to get them removed from my credit report- what are the chances of this happening? There are 23 settled balances on there with three different companies.
Also could going through this process be of any further detriment to my credit rating?
Many thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have now been clean of payday loans (ha! that makes it sound like drug addiction!) for a year. Anecdotally after this time most mortgage lenders won’t mind about these, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-mortgage/. When you apply however I do suggest that you should go through a broker, not direct to a high street lender.
However 23 payday loans are a lot and they are still quite recent so I understand that you may prefer to try to get them removed. If you put in an affordability complaint using the template letters here, any loans which are determined to be unaffordable will be deleted from your credit record. This may not be all, but if it isn’t it tends to be the later loans, so this may be good.
Don’t say you just want your credit record corrected, put in a standard complaint. Any money back will be a help to your house buying costs anyway!
Making a complaint can’t harm your credit record in any way.
EJ says
Hi,
Just wanted to update on my QQ complaint. I received a response today (1 week after their final response was due).
They have said I had 10 loans in the space of 3.5 years and a flex account which is not a pay day loan (many of the loans had up to 3 top ups a month on them which has not been included in the loan total with top ups it was 23) They have said that there has been gaps in between my loans and also the amounts fluctuate and they would expect to see a consistent increase if I was in difficulty. In addition to this they have added I had two late payments however these were over a year apart (I have noticed one of the late payments was applied in January after I had advised of financial difficulty and I was assured no charges would be applied). They have also said I have borrowed £12,550 and paid £2191.37 in interest (I repaid a lot of loans early by borrowing from elsewhere to try and reduce interest and credit report reflects this) however from the statements they have sent me, it shows that I have paid £850 in interest….
I did point out that one repayment alone was for £1600 and from the details provided to them about my outgoings it was clear I would not be able to repay this. In addition, I had periods of borrowing consistently, in 2015 every month from January through to end of June (total of 12 loans including top ups) and then again in December and January this year when I eventually defaulted. The amounts do increase every month with the exception of one month. They have also said they assisted me by freezing charges/interest on my current loan. To conclude, they have rejected my complaint.
I know that QQ are one of the more difficult lenders to deal with however just wanted some advice on if I have a case to take to the FO?
Many thanks in advance.
Thanks
Mark says
Ok then,update time.
My adjudicator emailed me earlier this morning with an update and his findings.
The first loan was fine but all loans afterwards should have been a sign that not all was well as payday loans are for short term borrowing and once the loans were paid off they were being taken again within a few days effectively becoming roll over of sorts,and QQ should have recognised I was becoming reliant on them.
Also the flex account should never have been allowed to be set up with such a high limit as I was also becoming reliant on it.
His conclusion is that all charges and interest from October 2010 on the flex account and loans should be refunded with statutory 8% added on,as well as all records of payday loans and flex account removed from my file.
QQ have disagreed with his findings therefore it now goes to an Ombudsman for his final decision (mildly disappointing) but the final paragraph does state that in all likely hood the ombudsman will agree with the adjudicator’s findings.
Hopefully now this part won’t take long-I havent got any figures yet though.
Fergie42 says
Hi
Could I ask for some advice please.
Wage Day Advance have agreed to repay me £1079 and uphold my complaint.
I still had a balance with them which is with MMF and they said they will write off this amount against the balance still owing.
Are they able to do this?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, using a refund to write off an outstanding balance is a fair thing to do. How big was the balance outstanding? Was the defaulted loan included in the ones that are being refunded?
Fergie42 says
Yes they used the last loan in the refund and overall it leaves me with a £148 balance to pay.
They only considered the refund from the 4th loan onwards.
Thanks
Andrea says
Just an update.
I had a real tough time with the MyJar adjudicator who was essentially demanding the impossible. When I finally cracked and said politely I can do no more, I’ve given you all I’ve got despite the timeframes being ridiculous especially given the fact I’m in the middle of my uni exams, surprise surprise- not upheld.
She did say I could take it to an Ombudsman but they ‘wouldn’t find any different’ she has reiterated their original offer of write off and recommended I accept. I don’t really want to but I’m not going to get anywhere else so I’m going to have to.
Unfortunately the same adjudicator has got hold of my Sunny complaint (grrrr) but they’ve already written the loan off and removed it from my credit file- this is a matter of distress compensation after what they did to me.
PDUK and Express also with an adjudicator- a different one who seems a bit less tough than the other one. I think PDUK is the only one I have a chance with- I only owe them £90 and the loan was rolled repeatedly from 2011 to 2014 when I finally stopped paying- it took up 5 pages of my credit file! I’ve also had to send proof of the date of my cancer op along with the email that was sent from my hospital bed- I’m hoping that says to the adjudicator something was very wrong.
My hopes are most on this one, Money Shop complaint has just gone in as well but unfortunately I still have about £400 outstanding on both Express and Money Shop however I’ve paid about £1500 interest so hopefully may still get something.
Not getting my hopes up too much- I’ve made four complaints so far and only managed refunds totalling a pathetic £123!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Andrea, I’m sorry you have been having such a tough time, but I don’t think there is any point in taking the MyJar complaint to the Ombudsman, you are effectively getting a full refund, it’s just being used to pay off the outstanding balance.
You could ask the PDUK adjudicator if they could also pick up the Money Shop case? It might be less wearing on you not having to deal with one less person.
tim says
Little update. So I had the adjudicator give her assessment on 3 complaints today. Before continuing must add she has been really fantastic to deal with, fair and understand. So…
Quick quid. Ruled all interest to be paid for loan 2 onwards, interest of 8% and all to be removed from my credit file.
uncle buck. Both loans to have interest returned and removed.
lending stream. Loan 3 onwards all interest to be refunded along with being removed from my credit file. Brilliant result though I fully expect it to take a little while to be paid out.
Just waiting on payday UK and pounds to pockets to be allocated and assessed which I’m hoping should be two of the clearest cases.
So I’m well pleased with the results.
Thomas says
My adjudicator has written to WDA recommending that they refund me all interest and charges incurred on my 4th to 9th (i.e. last) loan, minus any outstanding amount owed.
She’s based her decision on the fact that WDA haven’t replied to her request for information, which is surprising as I’ve seen some really good reports on here about WDA’s complaint-handling. Maybe they’re really busy.
Does anyone know how long WDA are currently taking to refund after the adjudicator’s decision? Many thanks.
Lilly says
Hiya,
I just wondered, has anyone had much success with 247MoneyBox at all? I dont see their name mentioned that often, would be interested to hear anyones outcome if they have had one :) Thank you.
Louise says
They didn’t uphold my complaint and were quite rude throughout. It has been with the adjudicator for a few weeks and they have been awkward to say the least. Adjudicator upheld my complaint, but 24/7 mb wouldn’t agree and then ignored him! It has now been referred to ombudsman just waiting for them now X
Gordon says
Same here, they originally offered to remove my outstanding balance. I disagreed and wanted a refund of the interest and charges. Adjudicator agreed and they disagreed with him. Recently went to Ombudsman and waiting for his decision.
247 Moneybox are really badly run, i was given a complaint handler who for some reason was always busy and never called back, there general staff have no customer service skills and kept me on hold for 45mins.
I hope everyone sticks with it and gets a refund and then they may change there attitude towards the FO and maybe start refunding others without trying to fight it.
Grant says
Hi,
Half way through my claim with sunny. Borrowed about £7000 over the last 10 months, as well as around £4000 from wonga. Usual story, I borrowed off one to pay the other so I could borrow more to get through that month.
Got a response from sunny just shy of the 8 week mark point blank refusing.
Complained to the FO now, sent them the statement of accounts. I also sent them an excel sheet showing what I borrowed and when for both sunny and wonga so it should be nice and clear how I was borrowing off one paying another and borrowing again, as well as showing exactly what I had to pay at each payday. Given them a breakdown of my total outgoings for each month showing I only had 300 spare a month yet u was allowed to borrow 700 from wonga and 950 from sunny.
Not quite sure how sunny could say they lender responsibly.
Anyway, I’ll let you all know how I get on. I’m just about to do the complain to wonga, they took a very long time to respond with the statement of account.
Thanks for all your guidance and thanks to the website and its creator!
Emily says
Hi Grant,
I had borrowed just under £4K from Sunny. Admittedly they did take up to the full 8 weeks allowed but agreed to refund me £1062 (all the interest paid) plus 8% statutory interest, they wiped my outstanding balance of £1,000 and removed all evidence off my credit file. Strange how they won’t uphold yours?! Good luck!!
rich says
txt loan have just come back after 7 weeks, £2050 refund. Woo hooooo!!!!
In my bank within an hour of receiving the final response too!
john says
Hi Sara and all,
I have just received an email from wonga 1 week earlier than the 8 weeks. They have offered me £10,124 refund. Thank you so much for all your help. It feel great to finally be able to move on from all of this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m so please that being referred to the “legal team” didn’t turn out to be a problem – I think it must have been because the payout was so large.
Hannah says
“Our records indicate that the you held 41 loans with Quick Quid over 6 & 1/2 years. You received a total principle amount of £12,425.00.
For this amount you were charged a total of £3,565.95 in interest. During the life of your loans, you received credits/waivers totaling £654.46 lowering the interest paid in total to £2,911.49 for all loans. Also, for the entirety of all loans you’ve paid a total of £24.00 in late fees due to two payments not made on time.
However, Quick Quid does acknowledge that during the lending period your roll over/ loan amount increased. We pride ourselves on looking after our customers by attempting to resolve any issues in a straightforward, efficient and amicable manner.
Having taken all your comments on board and without prejudice, In full andfinal settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer a refund of 350.00 for the interest on the loans you feel were irresponsible.”
Can anyone tell me how long it took them from logging complaint with F.O?
Thanks you
Pete says
Got quite a same reply, however I had 28 loans with them and they only mentioned 8 (I guess it had to be a typo) and offered £250. They think we will say YES give us the money,. But we should not, we should go to FOS and ask them how much we should really get….
“You held a total of 8 payday loans. We have acknowledged that, during your lending history your roll over history increased. You had a large gap between your 2nd and 3rd loan, 99 days. However most of your loans were funded within 5 days of the previous loan. Having taken all your comments into consideration, we would like to make you an offer that we believe is fair to address the loans that you feel were irresponsibly given to you.
In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer a payment of £250”
and they forget to mention that I had loan with Pounds to Pocket at the same time which is QQ as well… SO I will write to FOS to take the case from now on
graham says
Bit of good news folks, my adjudicator has told me she has written to PDUK and asked them to repay me all interest and charges plus 8% interest from loan 13 to 27. My loans from 2008 to 2010 can not be considered. She is also dealing with my QQ complaint, she has stated I borrowed £7000 in total on all loans including from 2008, PDUK have ignored her as I thought they would and they have until July 1st to dispute her findings. So its still a waiting game, however my adjudicator seems very fast once I had sent her all requested documents ( Bank Statements from 2010 till 2014, credit report, final responses ). I would be happy with a £2,000 payout if I do get some redress. Thanks for all the support and help fromposters on DC and remember Stick with It.
Emilia says
I have got a final response from Cheque Centre. They going to refund me all interests and charges. Does anybody knows how long do I need to wait for a cheque to be send?
Craig says
I sent my acceptance of refund offer to Cheque Centre on Tuesday and the Cheque arrived today (Saturday). Straight to the bank Monday morning :-)
Jimmy says
Hi all,
I just wanted to give an update on my complaints as they are all approaching their 8 week timeframe.
WDA: Agreed loan 6-9 were unaffordable. Refund of £878.32 and removal of entries on credit file. 11 weeks in total.
Mr Lender: agreed Loan 3 or 3 was unaffordable. Refund of £220, paid within hour. 2 weeks in total.
247 Moneybox: wiped off remaining balance even when i owed more than i had paid over 4 loans. 2 weeks. (although i’ve since received letters from a debt collector for this balance??? and nothing removed from credit file despite it being changed to “satisfied”. Any help?)
QQ: refused on 8 week deadline. had 2 loans with them but regularly repaid the interest to rollover. Still have outstanding balance with them. Sent to FOS on 15/6/2016.
Peachy: Refused after 2-3 weeks. Had 3 loans but 2nd loan rolled over 3 times. then repaid in full and took out another loan. defaulted on loan 3 and entered a repayment plan and repaid over a year. Assigned to an adjudicator 5 weeks after complaining to the FOS.
Lending Stream: refused after 3 weeks. They offered a £152 reduction on my outstanding loan. Complained to FOS on 18/5/2016.Assigned adjudicator the following week. It’s now been over 4 weeks since I have heard anything and passed on all details. Any advice?
Wonga, Cash Genie, Uncle Buck, Satsuma, Sunny/1Month Loan, and PDUK are due to respond by the 22/6. Fingers crossed.
Pete says
Hi,
I put in a complaint to Wonga last November about irresponsible lending. I had roughly 24 loans and 10 roll overs from early 2009 to late 2012. After about 10 weeks they made me an offer on 9 loans (including some rollovers) of around £4400 plus 8% interest.
I accepted this as it was my first complaint and I really needed the money at the time.
However, I never actually had a full list of all the loans and how much interest I paid in total. I did ask them a couple of weeks after accepting the offer why others weren’t included but they referred me to the FOS and said they had made their final response.
Having recently tracked down on an old laptop a copy of a credit report from 2013, I realise that they have not refunded some of the larger loans which I had every month during 2011/2012, paying back one day and taking a new loan or roll over the same or following day.
As I have accepted their ‘full and final’ offer is it now impossible to take it to the FOS to complain about the other loans not included in the offer?
Many thanks!
Pete
Daniel says
Hi Pete,
I had the same with my jar, they offered me £800 on 9 out of 21 loans so I accepted because I needed the money. About a week later I looked at it in more detail and realised the offer was no where near good enough, even though I had excepted there final offer I went back to them saying I wasn’t happy and gave them my reasons and told them I only accepted there off because I was backed in to a corner and needed the money straight away. They called my bluff when I sent the first e mail to them asking for the other 12 loans to be looked at and said no as I had accepted there final offer already. I replied one more time explaining I would be taking it to the ombudsman but wanted to give them one last chance to put it right before I did and gave me reason why, they replied and offered me I think it was anyone 5 loans refunded. It is def worth a go going back to them and giving detailed reasons and if no like putting a complaint in.
Claire says
Just had my complaint with Payday UK upheld by the adjudicator, they have until 27 June to respond. (I had about 4 loans from 2011 and all were deferred for numerous months. The adjudicator has upheld my complaint but payday UK came back with a tiny counter offer which I am not accepting!)
Payday Express are just not replying to the adjudicator at all so that’s going to the ombudsman for final decision.
graham says
Hi Claire, same here PDUK have not contacted my adjudicator at all, this is what I expected from these Predators. They have until July1st to defend the decision. They make you wait even if they are deemed in the wrong so to speak, and then God knows how long it takes for PDUK to give you your funds but I will Stick with It. Might get a nice late season holiday with my redress, it takes its toll on your wellbeing and I think every one who gets redress should have at least a week away on holiday to relax and forget this awful process.
Louise says
Paydayuk not responded to my adjudicator either. They had until yesterday and then she was going to contact them to say she is upholding my complaint. Haven’t heard anything so I presume they haven’t responded
Thomas says
When an adjudicator advises a lender to refund all interest and charges incurred over the last few loans, minus any outstanding balance, how does it work if that outstanding balance includes interest and charges itself?
My lender (WDA) has been advised to refund me the interest and charges on loans 4-9 minus any outstanding balance. I didn’t pay anything towards that last 9th loan and incurred interest and charges – it was a £400 loan but the balance now stands at £763.
So my question is, when WDA take off the outstanding balance from my refund, will they take off £400 or £763?
Not sure if I’ve explained that well enough, but hopefully you get my drift! Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds a fair result:) The interest and charges should be deleted from your last loan, taking it back to £400 in your case. So the refund from the earlier loans will be deducted from £400. This article has a worked example: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-write-off/
Sam says
Oh my gosh I never knew this existed my family have survived over the last 3 or 4 years on payday loan after payday loan with sunny p2p wonga lending stream Mr lender peachy at one point I had 6 payday loans on the go with various lenders sometimes paying 800 a month most of these are paid off however I do believe that I got stuck in the payday loan trap if they had truly checked my credit file they would never have lent to me I have 7 cards maxed out and 2 catalogues maxed out at the time my credit is reflected by a low score of 230 I have taken controll more and only owe 2 payday loans at the moment but I’m off work next week and I’m totally going to do this I’m guessing in the region over the time frame I’ve had over 50 pay day loans between these companies often using one to pay the other I learnt the hard way it isn’t a means to an end but after reading everyone’s post I know I’m not the only one that has been caught thanks in advance for any help or advice that you provide and good luck everyone x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sam, a couple of things to think about.
If you still have some payday loans this needs to stop – when in a hole stop digging! I suggest you phone StepChange and talk to them about your debt options. This isn’t instead of asking for refunds, it’s in addition to them.
Second for the complaints, the most important thing is how often you borrowed from each lender rather than your overall position and credit rating. The more often you borrowed from the same lender, the sooner they should have realised you were in trouble and stopped lending!
Kim says
Hi just and update I sent 3 complaints wonga, sunny and lending stream. I had a reply from lending stream the next day advising that they had completed all relevant affordability checks and my credit rating was a ridiculously high score. I was going to give up with them as they were the most recent however I replied advising that I completely disagreed and that my score was not what they stated it was and they should never have given the loans to me I had a total of 4 loans. They responded back again the next day advising that they have done the relevant checks but as a ‘responsible lender’ they were willing to write off my loans and update on my credit file. I accepted this as this is the one I didn’t expect anything from as it was the most recent and I was currently in a payment plan with them. So I’m happy I saved myself £400. I received emailed after advising all payments made.
Wonga and Sunny were from a few years ago and when I went through my bank statements I was so shocked at what they borrowed me and what I paid back. I would young and naive back then in a really low wage and I was borrowing numerous amounts. So hopefully I will here back from sunny and wonga soon. If anyone has any stories from personal experiences with them that would be so helpful as this is my first time doing this ! Thank you so much, this site is fab!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for that interesting story about Lending Stream. Lots of people have mentioned the absurd credit score they quote, but it’s good to hear an account of them changing their mind when challenged.
Good luck with your next two!
Steve says
Wonga have upheld my complaint and offered to pay me £2344.
john says
so after 13 weeks and 3 days Wonga get back to me with a final response, out of 32 small loans I’m being refunded what I paid on 26 of the loans plus interest totalling £1231.14p but more importantly ALL entries are being moved from my credit file. success . thankyou sara
Jackie says
How long do QQ usually take to refund money into your bank account? They have offered me £1400, I have accepted. They received my bank details last week.
(Background: I had 5 loans over a period of 14 months. QQ rejected my claim so I went to the FOS, it has taken since February to get it sorted. Loans ranged from £400 – £900.)
TIA
Jackie says
Got my refund today, 4 days after giving them my bank details.
Tom says
Hello.
Would appreciate any advice with regards to a complaint i have made to peachy.
A few days ago i emailed a complaint due to the affordability of my loans. I took out 11 loans over the period november 14 to 6/3/16. Most of them around £100 with most linking month after month. I also took out other loans from pay day lenders to cover these payments which i mentioned in my original complaint.
They have emailed back saying they have not accepted my complaint as i am accountable for giving them correct information. They have also said that as a ‘good will gesture’ they will write off £62.36 of my £91.23 balance that i am currently paying through a debt plan.
Is it worth taking my complaint to the financial ombudsman or should i just accept the partial write off?
Thanks for any advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So I’m guessing at £3-400 in interest paid? This would be a useful figure for you to add up so you can decide what to do.
If my guess is right, you could realistically hope to get c £200 refund, ie a complete write off plus £100 back.
You could go back to Peachy and say “I would like to settle this without going to the Ombudsman but I feel your offer hasn’t taken into account the number and frequency of the loans I had. I will be happy to settle if you write off my balance completely [and refund £?]”
They are more likely to accept if you just say complete write off.
Sam says
Had my final response from payday uk today 10 weeks 6 days after submitting it. They did not uphold my complaint stating that it was my decision to take out the loans. I took the first loan and deferred that. I then had 8 further loans that were deferred 14 times this went on continuously for just over 2 years. They reckon this is responsible lending the worst part is I was doing the exact same thing with payday express at the same time and if I cleared them both it would have left me with £30 in wages!! Thankfully I have already sent it to the FO at 8 weeks when they hadn’t replied.
Thought i had a pretty clear cut case so not sure how they could reject it.
Claire says
I got the same reply and took it to the FO who found in my favour!
Danny says
So Paydayuk have agreed with everything the adjudicator has said and have signed my agreement for all but the 1st 7 loans to be returned plus basic 8 per cent interest,
My views of payday uk have been pretty good they responded when they said they would and was honest in saying there just really behind, but I found chasing them to respond to your adductor is a good idea and mention this whole process is stressful enough at least they can respond for it to be looked at independently.
Good luck everyone it does take time but F/O in my view tend to think anymore than the 1st 3-6 loans were unaffordable
Wonga £4000 loans 8-39 very helpful always honest about being behind went to the F/O settled money next day
WDA £800 settled loans 5 – 9 ,8 weeks money same day
Payday uk £3000 settled loans 7 – 28
my journey has now ended and if it was not for this site would never have started I cant put this bad time in my life behind me and have to say it was the worse thing I ever done all because I needed that loan I could not get from the bank, an that was it trapped!!
catjopal says
I received a response today from my adjudicator with regard to my complaint against QQ. The adjudicator upheld my complaint on all but 2 loans and QQ agreed with the adjudicators decision on all but 1 loan. I have received and accepted QQ’s offer of just over £3000
Timescale so far: It took 2 weeks for adjudicator to reach decision and then a further 2 weeks for QQ to respond. Not received refund yet but it’s only a week ago that I accepted their offer.
It’s worth noting, my adjudicator was very professional throughout and stressed the point that she may not find in my favour. I had thought that this meant that she would be against me from the very beginning but this wasn’t the case at all. She asked for so much information that I got really frustrated. But I think she was just being thorough and fair to both parties involved. So anyone that feels they have a difficult adjudicator, don’t despair, mine came out well in the end!!!
Nigel says
How has anyone done regarding safeloans? 60 plus loans with rollovers with them.
86 with qq
76 with wonga.
Just the tip of the ice berg.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
SLL Capital is now a debt collector but they list Safeloans as one of their previous brand names on the FCA register (https://register.fca.org.uk/ShPo_FirmDetailsPage?id=001b000000kghy7AAA) so you should be able to complain to them at customercomplaints@sllcapital.co.uk.
Nigel says
Safeloans or SLL capital as it is now have responded really quick. Came back with an offer of £400 pounds stating that they can get hold off old records from CRM data. I have told them that I wont accept that offer as they are basing it on a small window and the need to at least double the offer.
Nigel says
A Follow up to Safeloans claim from yesterday. I asked Safeloans to double the offer from £400 to £800. They have accepted this and will make the payment with 24 hours.
I am happy with this and a company who have closed out the compliant from start to finish within 72 hours. Seem to be reasonable to deal with.
Natalie says
Right got my QQ complaint ready to post to the fos today and emailed
Quid market
Payday uk
Mr lender
Myjar
Queue centre
And lending stream
Just going throught bank statements had just Choked me up how I used to live like this? ;( really hope I can be as half as successful as you all your stories are really inspiring me to go all the way with this I won’t give up.
John says
Wonga have replied after week 13 with their final response which was a refund of interest on one of the 20 loans I held with them. I had already started dealings with the FOS so will continue with this.
I was surprised to see the monthly income they held for me almost £1000 more than it actually was, has anyone else had a similar experience?
Thanks
Dale says
I had 37 loans with Wonga between 2010 and 2015 totalling over £7,000 and first sent them a letter In March this year. They replied and said they would look into it and after 8 weeks replied saying the were too busy and required another 6 weeks. This is now into the 6th week and still not heard anything. Am I on wasting my time pursuing this any further do you think.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga may or may not come back with an offer, but don’t wait any longer, put your complaint into the Ombudsman right away! See https://debtcamel.co.uk/asking-wonga-refund/
Matt S says
Hi all
just looking for some advice, received a final response from Payday UK today after 13 weeks. Had 3 loans with them, first one was for £100 (paid after 1 month £129). Second was for £250 (borrowed 6 days after repaying first loan and then rolled over 11 times, paying a total of £653.93). Third loan was then taken a month after paying back second loan for £230. This was rolled over once before I entered into debt management (total repaid £147.06).
They have denied my complaint but offered as a gesture of goodwill to reduce my outstanding balance from £231.66 to £122.57.
In their final response they state that
“Following completion of our final checks the loan sum of £100.00 was deposited to your chosen bank account on 7 March 2012. This left you with a repayment of £129.00 (£100.00 loan principal, £29.00 contractual interest) due on 27 March 2012. In line with the Continuous Payment Authority (CPA) you had consented to under the terms and conditions of your loan agreement your payment of £129.00 was received and the loan settled.
Following this you received one further loan deposit, choosing to defer your loan on 11 occasions. This lending was provided to you at your request.
Your final loan taken out on 30 April 2013 was £298.88 (£230.00 loan principal, £68.88 contractual interest) with a final payment after one deferral due on 20 June 2013. Unfortunately your final repayment was not received and your account became overdue for payment. On 14 June 2013 you notified us of the fact that you had entered into financial difficulty and had passed your account to debt management company. A payment plan was subsequently agreed and a series of payments has been made since 6 August 2013 totalling £78.18. The current outstanding balance is £231.66.”
They seem to have gone into great detail regarding the first and third loans but appear to have completely washed over the second loan with just 2 small sentences relating to it.
I don’t feel this is a fair offer, but just wondered what anyone else’s opinion was? Thanks!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think this is a fair offer. It is likely the minimum the Ombudsman would say is that the third loan should not have been made and the balance should be reduced to £230 less payments of £147 = £83. But the argument to the Ombudsman should have been that after you had rolled the 2nd loan 3 or 4 times, PaydayUk should have realised you were in trouble, stopped rolling the loan and offered you a payment plan.
Sam says
I am having a bit of a nightmare with my complaints.
Wonga, quick quid and Sunny with Financial Ombudsman who are reviewing the information provided.
Quick Quid have referred my outstanding balance to ARC Europe debt collection despite requests to put my account on hold whilst my complaint is ongoing. Where do i stand with this?
Sunny have also issued two missed payments on my credit report which looks awful as despite my payday loan mess i never missed a payment.
I have requested for these to be taken off until an outcome is reached from the FO.
Frustrating to say the least.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you able to make payments to QQ and Sunny? If you are, it’s best to carry on with these, not stop because of the dispute.
If you aren’t, then you should email QQ and ARC Europe and remind them of the FCA rules: CONC 7.14.1 says “A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds.”
Sam says
Sunny have suspended payments whilst its ongoing its just the issue with the credit report that bugs me with them.
I have sent Quick Quid various emails outlining the above but they just ignore and keep on sending payment letters/ calls/texts etc & now referral to ARC who act the same.
I am paying Quick Quid small amounts but they have added on almost £1000 in additional interest.
When I originally sent my complaint I also sent QQ an income & expenditure statement and explained my reasons for being unable to clear my 950 loan in one month. All correspondence relating to me not paying the balance is ignored and the interest keeps mounting. I have made my adjudicator aware today also.
Is there anything else I can do ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This won’t help your case, but you could email the FCA, QQ’s regulator, saying that QQ are continuing to chase you for this debt despite you having complained about it and asked them to suspend any collection activity whilst the dispute is resolved. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ for how to do this. Make it clear that you aren’t expecting the FCA to intervene, but you thought they would like to know about the behaviour of one of their authorised firms.
Nigel says
I have now ben through the spread sheet from QQ. I dont really know if they have included all the loans, but does seem to be conclusive! 471 lines on a spread sheet! But I make it £10,810 I have paid back in interest payments over the 8 years while it all spiralled out of control.
So you can see if they come back to me with a derisory offer as they have to some I will be straight on to the FOS. I have to honest and fair and I would welcome 50% of that total if it was forthcoming.
John C says
Nigel, I wouldn’t normally tell anyone that they will definitely get something back, as it all depends on personal circumstances etc, however between March 2008 and October 2012 I paid £8,534 in interest to QQ. From August 2013 to June 2015 I paid a further £6,708 in interest through their flexi account. In total that was over £15k!! QQ offered me £750 refund which I took to the FOS. A couple of months later I got a refund of around £7k through an adjudicator for all loans between June 2010 and October 2012. June 2010 was when the amount I borrowed doubled, after I had rolled over 5 times in the previous 5 months. QQ didn’t even address the flexi loan so that has been picked up with a separate case number. With that many loans on record I would expect to see an adjudicator grant that QQ were irresponsible. Just bare in mind that you’re unlikely to get anything from loans older than 6 years. There are people challenging this, but i’m not seeing any positive results. Good luck
Lilly says
A long but interesting MyJar update.
After seeing a lady a few weeks ago say that they accepted MyJar’s final offer, but after contemplating thought she could have really done better, she said she re-emailed them and went over the facts, explained why she was unhappy and proposed an increase on the final offer even though it had already been settled, she said that they gave her another £350. I was in the same boat and thought I would try this.
On my first complaints email and final dealings with them, I had 42 loans with them in a 21 month period averaging 2 per month, they offered to refund interest on 12 loans that they deemed they should have done further checks on and in the end i received £296.11+ interest. I accepted this foolishly on the 6th May. After going over all the details and being a bit more wise, I emailed them again 3 days ago, stating I was unhappy now I had gone over it all, couldn’t understand how they only think they should have done further checks on 12, this meant they thought 30 loans in a 21 month period was still fine and so on and so forth.
I received an email this morning –
Having reviewed the information available to us further and taking into account your cooperation and forthcoming over the progression of this dispute, we are prepared to amend our proposal. We would refund to you the interest and charges from 32 loans, 12 of which have already been refunded to you. The interest and charges from the additional four loans amount in £533.21. As before, we would apply 8% annual interest to this balance, raising the refundable amount to £646.91.
I am over the moon that I at least tried, because I do think i accepted their first offer far too quickly. I am not suggesting anyone who has had a final offer from them go and try their luck and take advantage of a good company, but anyone who really thinks they accepted far too quickly and took on a really low offer when they think their case deserved more, it is at least worth a go :)
Natalie says
Hi, I came across this site and I am in process of complaining to various lenders. I went on maternity leave in August 2012 until May 2013 and during this time did not update my new lower income with many of the lenders as I knew this would effect my chances of being given a loan (foolish I know but I was already in a downward spiral by this point and desperate). My Jar have just sent me this response..
[general stuff removed]
At the time you took your first loan with us, we undertook a number of checks which included searching on public databases, fraud checks and our own credit scoring. In addition, we relied upon the information that you provided concerning your income, which on your application you stated was £ 1,600 per month against which you did not note down any housing costs. Also, according the details you provided, you did not have any dependents and were single.
Based on this information and the results of the checks we made we had no reason to believe that you were in financial difficulty and we believed that a loan of £100 provided for 15 days would be affordable for you.
You have had 3 loans from us and all except the current one all have been paid back early. During the time you were using our services, you never mentioned any financial nor other problem that would have made it difficult for you to repay your loans. You only made us aware of your situation on 12/03/2013 when you contacted us via email and advised that due to drop on your maternity pay you were unable to pay the loan on time.
As soon as we learned about your situation we immediately stopped the interest and placed the loan on hold for 30 days in order to give you time to agree on an affordable repayment plan. In our email reply we also provided information about free debt agencies such as National Debt Line and StepChange.
However, as there was no further contact made by you regarding the debt, then eventually we had no other choice but to pass your loan to a debt collection agency due to non-payment on 19/04/2013. At that point our debt collection partner took over the handling of debt.
[general stuff]
However, considering the circumstances and the age of your loan, we would like to come up with a mutually acceptable solution; hence, we are willing to close the loan with repayment of the principal amount that was borrowed. Your outstanding balance therefore is £200.00 and this can be paid back as a single instalment or via an affordable repayment plan.
On the balance of the information you have provided, we believe that this offer is fair and reflects the full circumstances of your case.
——————————————————————
What would you advise my next step is? Should I drop it as I was in wrong about my pay or should I send it to ombudsman? I know its not for a large sum of money but even having these debts cleared would give me peace of mind.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman is generally taking the line that payday lenders should have know that someone was in trouble if they borrowed / rolled repeatedly, whatever the info the customer gave on their income and expenditure – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/
Grant says
Just put in my complaint to Wonga, let’s see how long this takes as they took weeeeeeeeks to even send my statement of accounts. Then it took me about an hour to collate all the individual pdfs into an excel sheet calendar that contains my Sunny loans and my paydays. But happy the email is with them now and I even sent them the statement of accounts from Sunny, I’m hoping they will actually spend some time and look into the pattern of borrowing, paying of the other etc and what I did every month come pay day. I mean they shouldn’t actually have to look that far as I was borrowing off them every month for a good couple of years. It really went over the top the last 12 months though when they loaned me £4,000 while seeing Sunny loan my £11,000 and me taking out another credit card at Christmas time 2015 and last month getting an extra £500 on another card. And yet I can still borrow £700 off of them on top of the £1000 I currently have outstanding with Sunny. Luckily that £500 increase on the credit card has saved me this month, I know its bad to accept the increase but it was the lesser of two evils. An extra £50 a month interest on the credit card or borrow from Wonga and pay them back £700-£900 next month on top of the money I owe Sunny.
KC says
With help from this site I managed to get just short of £900 from wonga and £551 from CFO lending both within the 8 week initial complaint window. Also have a few complaints with the FO for QQ, Lending Stream, WDA, MyJar and The Money Shop so hopeful for an extremely large payout very soon!
Soph says
Hi all
I complained to Quick Quid on the 21st January. I had 26 loans with them in total, 22 on my first account before defaulting on the 23rd loan of £600 in February 2012. I then applied in June 2013 as I was still struggling and was given a further 2 loans and defaulted on the 3rd.
Their initial offer to me in their final response was to write off the £600 default and remove from my credit file and offer £250 as a goodwill gesture. They were not willing to remove the last default or officially refund any interest as the payment was only a “gesture”.
After much back and forth with the FOS I was made the offer of a refund on interest and charges from April 2011 onwards and removal of all those loans from my credit report. The £600 was to be deducted from my refund and statutory interest to be added.
I accepted this offer on Friday and received just over £200 in my account this evening. Although I would have had slightly more cash in my account had I accepted their first offer, this does mean my credit report is in better shape which is more worthwhile to me going forward than £30.
Thank you Sara for your help. I have an outstanding complaint with the FOS for Wonga which my adjudicator has recommended they refund interest and charges on my second last loan for. (The last was written off last year when the legislation changed)
Thank you again. Good luck to all, and a sincere well done to Sara for helping so many and having the patience of a saint. I have often seen comments which ask questions where the answer is very clearly detailed in her article and yet she always takes the time to respond with a helpful suggestion.
Kate says
I received my refund from QQ today after filing my complaint in January and after having every ridiculous offer and delaying tactic thrown at me .. Just over £2k in my bank 10 days after the ombudsman ruled in my favor.
Thank you Sara
James says
Just thought I would give you an update on my complaints as I havent been able to log onto the forum whilst being abroad.
3 compaints:
Payday Express = refund just over 1k Dealt with by adjudicator
QuikQuid = refund just over 8k went throught FOS, and like I said before the intitial adjudicator decision was for less than what the ombudsman decided was approriate, so they messed themselves up there as I was happy with the 5k the adjudicator said they should pay. Also just received another email offering another £200 as full and final settlement, strange?? Sent that to the adjudicator to look at as I don’t want problems arising after already being paid out. Would be an extra bonus though.
UncleBuck = Still going back and forth, they are questioning my financial info I filled in on form, yet over 4 years I was never asked to update this, then when I updated my address I updated my financials but they claim it never happened. If all goes well, should be around 5k, with the ombudsman now.
Thanks again for all your help and the time and effort you have put into the website, despite having never fallen into the trap of defaulting on the loans, I managed to pay them all off just before I saw this site, after 6 years of repayment and being stuck in the trap which badly affected my life. Now having the refunds coming in has been like winning the lottery. Thanks again for all your help.
James
Kez says
Hi Sara,
I received a final response from PDUK today:
Thank you for your communication received on 11 April 2016, regarding your complaint against PaydayUK.
Your Complaint:
You have raised concerns over the lending provided to you and believe that the loans were not affordable. You state that it should have been obvious from your borrowing pattern that you were in financial difficulty and that the loans made to you caused you to enter a spiral of debt, forcing you to borrow from other lenders.
My Assessment:
As a new PaydayUK customer you completed an application for credit on 14 July 2011. You confirmed your personal details, including your net monthly income. You were presented with the required pre-contractual documents comprising a Standard European Consumer Credit Information (SECCI) document. An external credit and identity check was carried out via the Credit Reference Agency (CRA) Experian and you electronically signed your new loan agreement consenting to our terms and conditions and Privacy Policy. Given the information provided your application was accepted pending our internal and external final checks.
On completion of our final checks the loan sum of £130.00 was deposited to your chosen bank account on 14 July 2011. This left you with a repayment of £162.50 (£130.00 loan principal, £32.50 contractual interest) due on 29 July 2011.. In line with your loan agreement, you utilised your right to defer your loan on three occasions which meant that your outstanding balance was due on 30 September 2011. In line with the Continuous Payment Authority (CPA) you had consented to under the terms and conditions of your loan agreement you paid the total balance of £162.50 and the loan was settled.
Following this you received two further loan deposits. Your final loan of £510.00 left you with a repayment of £637.50 (£510 loan principal, £127.50 contractual interest) and was due on 29 February 2012. After a series of interim payments you arrived at a discount settlement with Payday UK on 5 November 2012 and your loan was written off, closing your account with PaydayUK. For your information, this will show as partially settled on any credit file information you access for a period of six months from the date of settlement.
Having gone through the statement of account PDUK provided, I only see 2 loans deposited though they mention a further 2 between my first and last but provide no details. The interim payments they refer to were PDUK abusing the CPA and withdrawing money in small amounts over 2 days. Finally they say that I arrived at a discount settlement with them in Nov 2012 but my statement shows payments finished in October and the full amount of £637 was paid. I wary that there was a gap between lending but the 3 deferrals from the first loan i feel was warning enough. I also had several loans with Pay day express at the same time – i have yet to receive a response from them. Do you think its worth taking this to the Ombudsman? The information they provided and the layout of the SOA is so confusing I can hardly make sense of it myself!.
Regards,
Kez
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you have a Payday Express case going as well, I suggest you reply saying you did not make a partial settlement on the last loan, your statement shows you repaid it in full in October, you think they should have realised from the deferrals on the previous loan and the much larger loan size that the last loan was unaffordable so you will be taking this to the Ombudsman unless they refund you the interest of £127 on the last loan.
Kieran says
Hi guys,
I have finally heard back from Wonga with their final response after 14 weeks. I have been offered refunds on 10 out of 21 loans but I can’t see how they have decided which to refund and which to not. They also stated that when I informed them I was having financial difficulties for a particular loan that they had made an “affordable” repayment arrangement plan and therefore will not refund interest on that loan. It seems that Wonga have taken a different approach to their investigation and have tried to pick out loans that were affordable even though I had in total 21 loans with 16 top ups and numerous roll overs in he space of 3 years.
I am going to speak to the adjudicator assigned to my case today and see what she thinks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga’s offer do seem to have got rather random recently! How much are they offering compared to how much interest you paid?
Kieran says
Hi Sara,
They have offered £1300 interest out of the £2000 paid. I know it’s an ok offer but I’m sure that my other loans were unaffordable also so I’m in a bit of a pickle at the moment. I understand if there is a small amount of interest charged that Wonga could argue these were affordable but I have two that were very large amounts which if they would refund I would accept their offer.
I spoke to Wonga last night and offered them to reconsider the other loans before I proceed to FOS but they said their decision is final and I’ll have to go through the long process of FOS. That led me to think they are deploying scare tactics hoping I’ll accept a lower amount than the FOS might offer?
John says
Hi,
Has anyone had a reply back from any lenders stating they are not in agreement with their complaint because of wrong information provided – ie expenditure details.
To cut a long story short I provided lower expenditure figures to a lender in anticipation they would grant me a loan (I was desperate at the time). This worked and subsequently I was provided a loan even though it may not have been the best solution at the time.
The lender has issued its final response stating that they would not be upholding my complaint due to the difference in information provided. My argument is they should have checked my information against my credit report or requested further details as part of their affordability checks, something which was clearly not done. I have had numerous loans with this company so was hoping for a little something back.
Anyway my case is with the ombudsman now who have asked to see my bank statements from 2014 – what will they be looking for on the statements please?
Miles says
My Adjudicator scrutinised every detail of my bank statements.
It was quite obvious I had left off a lot of debts on my application form, and I had lots of gambling (and I mean lots) on there.
He still upheld my complaint so it should be OK.
You will have to say you were desperate at the time and were obviously in massive debt.
Good luck
Zoey says
Hi all
An adjudicator upheld my complaint with MyJar and today they agreed a refund of interest on loans 4 to 8. i had 8 loans in total. This is £204.
Alan smith says
Hi I have my case with pduk currently with the fo only just been signed an adjudicator week or so ago who is trying to get my bank statements have sent my credit report to her and in the mean time pduk have issued there final response and offered £1337 but reading their letter states this is from my last loan I took out in 2012 ( according to them after they signed the customer charter) I rolled over 16 times and they said it should have only been 3 times max so rule in my favour for that but my loans in 2010-2012 where all similar I rolled the first 5 times and they increased my limit and the next loans rolled over 16 times but they say this was OK by there standards as my credit checks and expenditure where fine so the question is do I just take there offer even though this does not have the 8% added either or do I risk losing it all by keeping my current complaint with the fo?
I added all the Intrest I have paid and comes to £4000+ and with Intrest be £5000+ any advise be appreciated oh and there final response letter states I only have 14 days to decide
Thanks Alan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think you are likely to lose this offer. The adjudicator may (worst case) turn round and say only the last loan was unaffordable. But it’s hard to see how that could decide last loan was ok when lender has admitted it wasn’t. And it sounds to me as though you are likely to get more!
Jack says
Starting to feel a bit disheartened – several of my complaints (WDA, Cash4UNow, Cash Converters (offered 300£ refund, was expecting 1300£, Bonga, 1st Stop) have rejected my complaint. Feel like it’s a growing trend in which there is just a set template that they use to deny any wrong doing or irresponsible lending. When it comes to putting a complain across to the FoS, is it quite common that the same adjudicator would be looking at all of them so they would be able to understand the bigger picture?
Some good news though which provides solace in the effort that we are going through – SpeedyCash refunded me £500 for 4 loans and the money was in the account the same day. I guess this just gives a bit of motivation to keep going on trucking!
Aga says
Hi Jack , Cash Converters are quite bad , they did the same to me offered 197 out of 2000 interest it’s with FOS right now ,
Jack says
Thanks Aga for your reply. I often feel that the way these emails are written are rather aggressive and make me quite sad how they are approaching a genuine customer complaint. The amount of panic, suffering that my financial situations had on my personal well being has been suppressed since I got out of this mess and feel that I’m ripping plasters off old wounds…
E says
Hi Jack,
Please don’t be sad! You’re right; the correspondence from these companies can be really formal and disenheartening, and it can all feel a bit intimidating. I just think of it as one big admin procedure and try not to take it too personally. As you can see from your SpeedyCash result, the ‘dance’ may well be worth it in the long term, but if nothing else it shows that you have taken control and that is very different to how things normally are when finances are dire. Certainly in my case! Anyway, just to let you know you’re not alone, and feel positive that you have stood up for yourself (although I’m a big cheque would be a better comfort haha!) Good luck!
Graham says
I first posted on this site mid may and thought it would be useful to update you as to my successes so far.
Sara, I just wanted to say thank you I would not have even considered this process if it wasn’t for you and this site.
PDUK – Refund on all loan interest + 8% – Totalling £1790
MyJar – Only a few small loans but refund of all interest + 8% – Totalling £128
Piggybank – Upheld complaint within a week – Refund of all loan interest + 8% – Totalling £1091.58
Wageday Advance – Currently in discussions, waiting for their response which is promised this week.
247 Moneybox – Response within 2 days, Wrote off current loan totalling £950, which is more than all interest + 8% of previous loans taken.
Sunny – Final response expected in July
Lendingstream – Requested I send a SAR payment, I informed them that this is not possible, called up and currently waiting for their offer.
I have a few more that I need to chase up but so far I am very pleased with the results. The entries in question have also been removed from my credit file and I really feel that I am now moving in the right direction.
danielle says
Some good news :) Wonga have finally upheld my complaint on week 11 (Directly, tho I did send to the FOS on week 8)
I had 6 loans with them (Interest was around £700) they have refunded me on 4. They also wiped off £200 a few years ago on my last loan.
£529.87 interest and fees
£50 Compensation
£177.63 8% Interest
-£35.53 tax
I cant thank Sara and everyone on here enough.
tim says
Hi Alan,
I had the same thing today. Offered me 800 against £3700 im claiming.
They say they checked my credit report with experian and call credit and i was commercially viable. I have replied to them with copies of my credit reports attached saying had they done this they would have seen 2 recent defaults, 3 accounts in arrears and two other pay day lenders at the time of the first loan and it only worsened. Ive said I dont think that they should have lent to me at all but i will be happy if all interest is repaid from after the 3rd rollover (should have seen a dependency/inability to repay) and all removed from the credit file and if they do not see this as fair i will let the FOS decide. Ive had 3 out of 3 upheld so far and this is by far the most clear cut.
They allowed me to roll the first loan over 12 times, paying £1360 against a £400 loan. I literally just think they were milking people for all they could get.
Will update when/if i get a reply.
cheers
Tim
CRL says
Update on my Wonga complaint. FOS sent a letter saying that I’d here from an adjudicator within the next 12 weeks yesterday. Received an email this morning offering me £5869. Wonga has contacted FOS and consider all but 5 of my loans unaffordable, all of these are to be removed from my credit file as well. I can now put the payday loan trap well and truly behind me.
Thanks to Sara for the content without which I wouldn’t have this result. Happy is an understatement.
Matt says
Hi all,
I’ve hit a bit of a dead end with Minicredit and just wanted to make sure what I’ve been told is correct.
I borrowed roughly 40 loans over a 3 year period, the last of which was purchased as a debt by Opos Ltd. I made my complaint to Opos as Minicredit have ceased trading and they only considered the very last loan i.e. the one they purchased, and would not consider a complaint for the others.
I have been told by an ajudicator at the FO that firstly, as Minicredit have ceased trading and are not part of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, there is basically nothing they can do to look into the complaint or take it any further. Secondly I was told that the complaint with regard to the final loan can also not be considered as it must be brought against the original issuer of the loan i.e. Minicredit.
Bit disappointed to say the least as I was charged nearly 4k in interest and charges by Minicredit so just wanted to make sure that what I’ve been told is correct? Thanks in advance for any help.
Ian says
I had the same issue. Opos/Kapama were insisting I paid the outstanding balance despite the fact it was the last of 20+ unaffordable loans and £1000’s paid in interest. I am going after Opos/Kapama to at least get my credit file cleared. I requested proof they had been assigned the loan prior to the end Dec 2014 as the FCA gave that as a deadline for all Minicredit loans to be assigned or they must be written off and all CRA entries removed. I have also requested proof of postage of the notification of assignment under the Law of Property Act 1925. They weren’t able to provide anything within 8 weeks so it’s with the FOS now. As they haven’t responded I have now asked for them to compensate for the additional stress and time.
Mike says
Hi Sara just a quick update as you asked me a couple of weeks ago about my complaint to sunny well they replied today to uphold my complaint and offered £1050 plus £230 interest and charges, great result thanks to this site just waiting on QQ and two others they have 1 week left to respond, plus I reckon they must be getting fed up of me emailing them every other day. Thanks Sara for your help
Peter says
News:
So I had filed complaints against QQ (and PoundstoPocket), LendingStream, PaydayUK and Wonga
So far I got a response from Lendingstream in which they told me that they dont think they have done anything wrong, everything was fine, so they wont do anything. (We believe Lending Stream has behaved responsibly in approving your loans and dealing with them fairly.). I sent them back an email that they hadnt ask for Bank Statement so they had no idea how deep I was in debts… Today they sent me an email in which they said the same however as a final response:
“While we confirm that the affordability checks were performed with due consideration while approving your loans, we could note that there was some procedural error while approving the loans […] and […]. Hence, we would like to offer a refund of £1030.00 (some of the interest paid towards these loans, as the approval of these loans may have made your circumstances difficult).”
I took the offer, it was exactly the amount I was waiting for as an offer. And at the same time I asked them to remove every entry from every Credit File of mine….
QuickQuid:
They are such a funny people… Althought they agreed that they might have been given me loan irresponsibly, they have offered £250 which must be some kind of joke
“You held a total of 8 payday loans. We have acknowledged that, during your lending history your roll over history increased. You had a large gap between your 2nd and 3rd loan, 99 days. However most of your loans were funded within 5 days of the previous loan. Having taken all your comments into consideration, we would like to make you an offer that we believe is fair to address the loans that you feel were irresponsibly given to you.
In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer a payment of £250.”
They say I had 8 loan with them, however it was 28… every extension created a new loan… and those loans have more and more interests to be paid. As an example: You take out a loan of £1000 which needs to be paid back at the end of the month with £300 interest… so £1300… but you can extend a loan 3 times.. which means you only have to pay £300… and then next month another £300 if you extend it… and another £300 and then £1300… which means with 3 extension you paid £2200 instead of £1300…. So the £250 is a joke. I will talk to the FOS about it.,..
PaydayUK has time till end of Jun to give me a response. Got 2 emails from them that they are still investigating my case
Wonga: Sent me a couple of emails saying “Your complaint is still being considered” and they have sent the SOA as well, however 8 weeks was up yesterday, so they have to send a final response shortly… (however they already removed every info from my credit file)
I think Wonga and QQ definitely have to refund me, since I paid back their loans from each others loan… means: I paid back QQ loan by using Wonga loan and other way around…
Will update you once I got other responses. Lendingstream was interesting since first they did not want to give me anything then for a simple reply saying that they were not check my bank statement etc they offered me a nice refund.
Daniel says
Hi Peter,
I had a reply from lending stream today, in total I had 15 loans over about a year and a half, they pretty much said the same thing, that they had done nothing wrong but as a good will will remove interest on outstanding loans (so about £400 wipped off for me)
I like your self do not feel this is fair or correct, can I ask how many loans did you have with them? And what did you actually say to them to get them to change there mind?
Cheers
Peter says
Hi Daniel,
Im happy to share these infos. I had these loans with them
How much Opened Closed
£300.00 Aug. 23, 2013 Oct. 31, 2013, 9:45 a.m.
£790.00 April 14, 2013 Oct. 4, 2013, 11:52 a.m.
£295.00 Oct. 23, 2012 April 27, 2016, 11:45 a.m.
£200.00 Nov. 22, 2013 May 30, 2014, 2:24 p.m.
£300.00 Nov. 10, 2013 May 30, 2014, 2:25 p.m.
£330.00 Sept. 4, 2013 Oct. 31, 2013, 9:44 a.m.
£150.00 Nov. 16, 2013 April 30, 2014, 12:09 a.m.
£140.00 Nov. 27, 2013 May 30, 2014, 2:23 p.m.
And what I have written to them:
Sorry, but I cant accept the answer you have given to me, since you have never checked my bank statement and my credit score was below fair, actually it was the worst it could be. YOu should not have given me any loans. ANd that I have been able to pay the loans back in time, doesnt mean I was really able to do that without any problems. I had to take out other loans not to get in defaulted status. So my claim is still alive, you should pay back all the interest and charges because you had given me unaffordable loans.
Reaction to your points:
“During the applications, you were full-time employed.” – Doesnt mean anything
“The data shared in the applications indicated that your monthly income was £xxxxxx for each loan, which well-exceeded your monthly expenditure” – No, it did not, that is the whole point, you could have known that if you would have checked my credit file and my bank statement, which you did not
“Experian score was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable.” – how was it factored? It was the lowest it could have been….
We have not approved you for a loan each time your application did not meet our lending criteria. – You did
“We confirm that your loans have been approved in accordance with your repayment capacity and only the amount you were eligible for” – Nope that is not true see above
So please consider it again and reply within 1 week or I will go to the FO with this case which will definitely upheld I am sure about that
I am not saying this is the best you can write them, but it worked for me :)
Louise says
So I commented so should share my story. Complaint to lending stream., qq and Wonga.
Lending stream were my first and accepted they should of looked my at my profile and refunded 460.
Qq offered the low 150 offer that a lot have had but also offered to wipe the 400 I am paying through a dmp. So I accepted.
Took Wonga to fos. They upheld my complaint and Wonga agreed. Due 859. Called them today after just over a week of accepting to be told the refund will be processed when they have verified info with the fos. I’m confused as the adjudicator told me she would no longer be involved as we’d reached a resolution. Anyone have any experience of this.
Lilly says
A little update… I have had two final responses today.
WDA. Upheld my complaint, refunded me £530, I had paid £650 in interest in total, so consider it a good settlement. They took 8 weeks to do the day to get back to me.
247MoneyBox. Also 8 weeks to do the day, offered me £200 as a good will gesture taking no responsibility, I went back to them saying not good enough, they reoffered £550, i again said not good enough, they then went to £750 which I have accepted. In total paid £ 1250 in interest to them, so I am happy with the result.
So far out of 10 complaints, I have had a final response from Mr Lender, WDA, 247Moneybox, Sunny and MY JAR all upholding my complaint and have had refunds totally a little over £5,000. I am still waiting to hear back from WONGA, QQ, PDUK, P2P and Uncle Buck :)
Sam says
Hi all,
So after receiving a letter from payday uk 2 weeks ago stating that I would be receiving a refund of interest paid for some of the loans I took out within the last two years, I decided to research why this was.
I stumbled across this website and I am extremely hopeful now to help me begin the steps to a financial recovery.
I have in the past had Roughly 13 PDL companies I have identified from past emails.
Cash float,ferratum, MrLender,PaydayExpress, PaydayUK, peachy, Piggybank, quick quid, quidmarket, sunny,wonga, lendingstream, cash genie, wizzcash who may be ferratum.
I will be writing to each of them for a SOA. Although for some of them I still have access to their website, but some don’t detail the interest and original amount differences.
Would my request be something along the lines of:
To (company name) ,
I am writing to request from yourselves a statement of account regarding all details of loans I have taken from you in the past. I understand it is within my rights to do so and that you are as a company required to provide me this without asking for a fee.
I would kindly ask that you email me this to me
Many thanks
Etc etc
Would I then wait for a response from them and then respond by stating I am considering a claim for unaffordable loan, or do I write that in the same email asking for the SOA?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sam, that’s a long list of payday lenders – good luck! So far as I know Wizzcash have no connection with Ferratum.
I would suggest not bothering with a separate step asking for a SoA if you have a good idea about how many loans you had, it just adds delay. Instead just pout in your complaint and in that ask for a list of the loans. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/
Nick says
Hi Sara,
I have taken out payday loans in the past and currently have some active loans as well. In regards to my currently active loans, given that I have several loans open at one given time I dont think responsible lending was performed. What should I do in regards to the currently active loans, so I stop paying and make a complaint? Also can I also make a complaint about a longer term loan I had taken out or does this only work for payday loans?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can repay these loans without further borrowing, you should. If you can’t, then the best thing is to contact StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPdebtmanagementplan.aspx.
[edited] Here is a whole article about this, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
You can complain about a longer term loan, but it’s harder as you have to prove you couldn’t afford the monthly repayment. I suggest starting with payday loans and then thinking about other types of debt when you have a good feel for how affordability complaints work.
Nigel says
More good news today. Piggybank agreed to £463 refund on unaffordable lending. So far for me its 5 results in 3 positive (Wonga Safeloans Piggybank) 1 gone to ombudsman (Peachy) 1 highly unlikely (albemarle bond) 16 yes that’s right 16 still to go.
James says
Hi everyone I only came a cross this site on Sunday I was looking around the net for help with QQ.
So I called QQ Monday to explain that my current loan of £300 taken out on 4th of this month(just 2 days after paying my last one) was going to be impossible to pay back any amount for at least this month due to unforeseen money problems and all I was offered in the way of help was to roll it over so about another £50 in interest. I said that it will just put me in deeper debt so I was told to email complaints which I did straight after using your amazing template btw.
But here’s my problem when I look at my loan history online it shows only 10 loans 9 of which are from last 12 months roughly and the 10th loan is from 2013 I called them 3 times now this week saying a manager will be sending the rest via email but never do. All I know is that the loans from 2013 till beginning of 2015 were a different type of loan (flexible or flex not sure now) and all loans taken all had the same loan id for that time period. Should I keep on calling them or wait till I get a reply to my complaint email? I’ve asked for all interest back and existing amount to be written off. No way I should of been aloud any credit in 2013 I owed 2 loans companies and 2 credit card all 4 were and still are with collection agencies. No one else would lend me money at the time including Wonga and sunny.
Also all loans taken (about 20-30) were all paid on time so normally what I was doing was getting a loan around the middle of the month and paying it back in full at the end of the month normally 28th then repeating this every month so the interest wasn’t to high each month roughly £20 instead of say borrow £150-£200 and pay interest first month then another whole month of interest plus original amount. But the amount borrowed was going up every few months till I got to £300 and just can’t see a way out after a couple of other financial set backs this month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have put in your complaint, I suggest sitting back and waiting until they reply. At which point you can explain again that they haven’t included your 2013-15 borrowing. And explain again to the Ombudsman, because that’s where QQ complaints usually end up. Good luck!