Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing?
You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
The comments below this article have thousands of stories of the refunds people have got using these letters. It is a great place to ask questions!
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
Was a loan affordable just because you repaid it?
No! If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
Payday loans are meant to solve a short-term problem. If you kept repaying one then getting another loan soon after, the lender should have stopped lending to you.
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or borrowing again soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate this. Just ask for a refund from the lender and see what you are offered. This is simple and it works well.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen tens of thousands of payday loan affordability complaints.
A typical decision by the Ombudsman is that the payday lender should refund all the interest you paid interest after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times you could get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
You can complain to lenders that are still in business, even if they are no longer lending. These include:
Lending Stream, Cash Converters, CashASAP, Drafty, Dot Dot, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves, Kabayan, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, MyKredit, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, The Money Platform, WageMe, Wizzcash,
See this email list for payday lenders for a longer list and all the contact details to use.
If the lender has gone into administration, including CashForUNow, Piggybank, Ferratum, Oakam, Safetynet Credit, Tappily:
- make a claim to the administrators – there is normally a simple form for you to complete, see the lender’s website for details – but there will be a time limit for doing this.
- you may not get much cash back but this is very easy to do. A balance may be reduced or cleared even if there is no cash to distribute. And if you win the complaint any negative marks on your credit record will be removed.
It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up years ago, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- 118 Money, Likely Loans, Bamboo, car finance, bank loans and other long-term loans.
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you later have to go to the Ombudsman.
If you still owe money to the lender, read Will an affordability claim hurt my credit record, and other questions. These looks at your options for stopping paying, the effect on your credit record etc.
If the rest of your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time to go through at the Ombudsman. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you complain to the original lender. But also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Start your complaint & get loan details
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. [Add more details eg how often you borrowed or rolled loans if you know them, how the amount borrowed generally went up etc]
[Include/change this if your credit record would have shown big problems:] My credit reports would have shown all my other debts and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[delete this sentence if you know what all your loans were.] I know the difficulties your loans have caused me but I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added, and what I repaid. This will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
[delete this sentence if none of your loans were sold.]If a loan was later sold to a debt collector, please inform me of the date of sale and the name of the debt collector.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. You don’t need to list the loans – the lenders knows them.
Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- if you weren’t treated fairly while you were borrowing or when you could not make a payment, add a bit about this.
You can attach bank statements if you like, This is a good idea as these show how unaffordable the loans were for you. If you have gambling showing, this helps your complaint, it doesn’t harm it.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. I
it’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large, read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a very difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed once or twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win an affordability complaint than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
They may send the list of loans first and later respond to your complaint. So don’t be surprised if you get sent info on the loans but nothing about your request for a refund.
When you get your loan information, you can send in more details about your complaint if you want. You don’t have to do this, your complaint has already begun and the lender has to reply.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. Make a note in your diary for 8 weeks time and chase the lender up if you don’t get a reply.
Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Send your bank statements or other information?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want. But you should download a copy of your credit record asap as the Ombudsman will ask for it. Don’t put this off, the sooner you get a report downloaded, the further back it goes which is good.
Don’t send payslips – they won’t help an affordability complaint and the ombudsman never asks for them.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Again this is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years even if the account has been closed.
Lender says No or makes a poor offer
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints, despite being rejected by the lender.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had large amounts refunded after a complete rejection!
Just ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications and you didn’t give accurate facts – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- you repaid some loans early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- your borrowing didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked more closely;
- your loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Don’t worry that you will lose a small offer by going to the Ombudsman – this doesn’t happen.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think the lender should have realised a lot of the other loans were unaffordable;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound convenient … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well;
- if getting defaults or late payments removed from your credit record is important to you, are you happy with what the lender is proposing to do? Don’t assume your credit record will be cleared if the lender didn’t mention this.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the Ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an installment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay too long – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. When you aren’t sure, send the complaint to FOS. This is easy to do – let FOS make the decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender.
Don’t wait until all your lenders have replied before sending the first one to the Ombudsman!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and takes you through your complaint step by step.
You can just copy what you said in your complaint to the lender. You can add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you.
If some of your loans were over 6 years ago, tell the Ombudsman when and how you found out about these complaints. For example:
“I knew the loans were causing me difficulty in 2016, but I thought this was my fault for being bad with money. I didn’t find out that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable until June 2022 when my brother told me about these claims/I saw an advert from a claims company on Facebook/I read an article about these claims” – change this so it is right for your case!
Things to attach:
- the reply you have had from the lender.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed – if you don’t have them, start the process of getting them now, don’t wait until FOS asks for them.
- a copy of your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- a copy of the credit agreements for the loans if you have them. If you don’t, don’t worry, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
You will normally be contacted within a couple of weeks and asked for a copy of your credit record and your bank statements if you haven’t sent these. If you have sent these on one complaint, then when you complain about a different lender they will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
More help
You can ask a question in the comments below – you may get a reply from someone who has been in your exact situation.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. It’s easy to do this yourself and you can ask questions below and get replies from other readers who have done this.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
Andy says
I’m waiting for a response from 247 money box the 8 weeks is up tomoz would I get the response today or Monday do you think thanks
sam says
mine was a day late, they are so slow at everything. took over 8 week for a reply, I have emailed back saying review it and nothing again since that 3 weeks ago.
Steve says
Hi Andy
I got my response and off Moneybox 2 days after the 8 week deadline with a decent offer which I accepted money was in my bank with in a week.
Steve
Andy says
Thanks for the replies guys , I’ve heard mixed reviews some say good some say bad but I don’t mind waiting a couple days if I got a good offer rather than going Fos and congrats steve
Andy
Lena says
I have an outstanding loan with Safetynet Credit who have responded upholding my complaint (quickly) with an offer to refund ALL interest + statutory interest which seemed decent until I looked at the figures against my bank statements. I assumed that if I borrowed (example) £1000 and over time repaid them £1500 (including interest) that meant I paid £500 in interest. However their offer is below what I expected and they say my assumption isn’t correct:-
“The figures provided to you are correct. Please be aware that the figures that you have provided us are the total amount of repayments you have made and not interest repaid. With each repayment, the amount taken is divided into principal and interest and applied towards your balance proportionality.”
I borrowed £4126.00 in total across 18 months and repaid £6409.07 so what am I supposed to think the £2283.-7 difference is if it’s not interest? They are only offering my £780 as an interest refund and so this feels like a scam but the way they have laid out the figures is confusing and it’s a html so I can’t check their figures. I don’t want to risk anything by sending it tot he Ombudsman if I’m completely wrong.
Lena says
They also haven’t listed some of the repayments that I made which add up to a few hundred pounds.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are they offering £780 plus wiping the outstanding balance? How large is this balance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and how much do the missing payments add up to?
Lena says
Hi Sara,
Firstly, thank you so much for helping. Here are the figures on my statement then below what they are proposing.
SNC offer:
Outstanding balance: £1162.40
Offer to redress all interest: £737.33
Offer to redress stat interest @ 8%: £475.98
HMRC deduction of 20%: £9.60
Removal of interest accrued on outstanding balance: £195.67
TOTAL REMAINING TO BE PAID £195.67 (it doesn’t quite add up but it will do)
However, if you compare that to my bank statements where I borrowed £4126.00 and repaid £6409 back over the course of borrowing, I worked out I would be entitled to interest of the difference (£2283.00). They have upheld my complaint so figured if I went to the FoS it would be a simple case of bad maths.
Stu says
I emailed MYKREDIT yesterday regarding the ombudsman decision and they have come back today asking for bank details and told me the redress is being worked on.
Gerry says
I’m also waiting for a refund from MK ,so far nothing I emailed them to confirm details and they advised they would notify me ,they accepted my offer on 26/09 nothing so far
Stu says
Hello Gerry and thanks for letting me know. They received the ombudsman decision on the 7/10/19 so probably in for a long wait. Ombudsman gave them 4-8 weeks to settle.
Kerry says
Hi, I need to send my bank statements to the fos but there are a lot of pages. They said I can take photos from my phone and send them that way. Is there a way I can take photos of every page and email it as one document?
Mike_p says
Can you not just download each one as pdf from your online banking, or failing that print from your online banking and print to pdf.
KellyE says
I had the same issue, i combined all my statements as a pdf but it was still to large. My first complaint I attempted a .zip file but that was to big for the email, I used a secure online folder, it allowed me to provide access to specific persons (email) or organisation, and send the link to FOS that only they can access to download my statements. You can try https://wetransfer.com/ to add your documents and send the link to FOS.
Terry Nicholls says
Photos will be a lot of data, you will reach your attachment limit quite quickly, can you scan them.
M M says
You could try something like this https://combinepdf.com
But I fear the final combined pdf could be too big to send. But give it a bash
Kerry says
Thank you I will look into these. I can’t use online banking as my loans go back to 2011 when I had a different bank account so I have had to request copy statements and they would not email them to me for data protection reasons.
Mike_p says
You can do it in Windows quite easily – select all the photos, right click and select print, and then choose print to pdf from the printer list. In Windows 10 there is a print to pdf driver already installed, in other versions you can download and install cutepdf.
Also if you are logged into OneDrive on windows 10 you can right click a folder to share it with someone. It lets you set a password and then gives you a link you can send them to look at it.
Elle says
Hi all
This is a new one to me
My adjudicator has actually asked me if I am happy for her to mention gambling in her assessment?
‘You’ve provided us with bank statements where I can see transactions to a bookmakers, William Hill. Please can you confirm whether you mind me referencing gambling within my assessment?’
What do you guys think I should say? I have initially said my preference is not but if she feels it is important I am happy to be directed by her on it. Now I am thinking I don’t want her to as it might affect judgement of sunny!
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t heard of an adjudicator asking this before. Either it is relevant – and so should be mentioned – or it isn’t and shouldn’t be.
Did you have a gambling problem or is she talking about the odd £10 a couple of times a month?
ELle says
I had a gambling problem but if she is giving me the option I am wondering if better to not mention it? I am worried as sunny offered me 37th loan to 42 as they said I had fallen behind by 7 days at that point so shouldn’t have leant to me after falling behind but they did from 37-42 interest was £2400 I rejected as thought poor offer. Now worried if FOS mention gambling sunny will retract their original offer to me and I’ll come out with nothing!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you had a gambling problem it is very relevant. If sunny had asked to see your bank statements after the first few loans, they would have seen it and should have stopped lending. I suggest you tell the adjudicator that it’s fine to mention gambling – it makes your case stronger not weaker. And I will be astonished if you don’t get a better offer from FOS than Sunny very poor one.
Elle says
Oh Sara thank you so much I never even thought about it like that! I just thought sunny would say that my loans wouldn’t have been unaffordable had I not been gambling and that it was my choice to gamble and I got myself in the mess.
Thank you so much
Matt says
I recently had a complaint upheld by the adjudicator where he asked the same question. I gave him permission to mention my gambling and this was included in his decision letter. It was relevant as I was gambling heavily at the time of the loans in question. I had only taken 3 loans in total with this particular lender and the adjudicator upheld my complaint in respect loans 2 & 3. Now just waiting for the lender to respond (so far 5 weeks over the deadline for response given by the adjudicator). If it was a genuine problem at the time and would’ve been obvious had the lender carried out more thorough checks then I would suggest you let this be mentioned. Best of luck
Ali says
Hi Elle
It’s very relevant and my adjudicator mentioned it, Sunny rejected it and it went to an ombudsman and they to used it as a reason for the loans not to be given. I had thousands of gambling transactions and the ombudsman said basically had they looked they would have seen it. Piggy bank actually agreed without the FOS involvement and said their guidelines cover mental health and had they looked they would have never lent to me because of this guideline as a gambling addiction is under mental health. A gambling addiction is not a choice it’s an illness x I hope your on the right path now, it’s not easy, GA and Gamstop were and are my saviours x
Mr PDL says
They asked me the same question for one of complaints, in which they upheld loans 2-7 out of two loans. Unfortunately the lender didnt agree so now with the ombudsman
John M says
Hi Elle,
They asked me too and I got much much more from Pay Day Express than what they offered so all good to mention it
Chris says
Hi Ellie I would mention it. I also have a gambling problem. It makes you a vulnerable consumer so lenders should factor that in as one of their risk factors and decide lending accordingly.
Emma says
Hi All.
I accepted an offer from myjar on Thursday for £969 (no FOS) just from my complaint so pretty pleased. They said 10-15 days for pay out. Has anyone had experience of payout from them? It would be good to have it earlier that’s all!
Many thanks and again to the amazing Sara and this website!
Emma
C says
I left them a bad review on trust pilot and got paid out within the hour. They are allowed 28 days to pay out and we’re making me wait.
Mike_p says
They emailed me on a Thursday saying it would be by the end of the week and I had it in my account that afternoon. They do seem to be quite responsive to emails with real people who know your case answering them, unlike Lending Stream for example who ignore everything you ever say to them.
Sarah V says
Hi Emma,
I was the same. No FOS and accepted MyJars offer. I received the payout on day 11. I was a little bit concerned as had no acknowledgement after sending my acceptance & they deleted my online account, but on this occasion had no need to worry.
Good luck.
John M says
Hi All,
I have now finished all my pay day loan cases which started in January 2018 so here we go as follows. Everything was over 6 year time frame at time of complaining
QQ – Rejected went to FOS. Finally got paid £3300 yesterday
Wonga – Went to FOS then they went bust. Administrators said I was due £4500 but I expexct I’ll get £200
PDUK – Agreed refund of £1800
Pay Day Express – Offered me £150. Went to FOS and got £1750
Cash Genie – Should have got £650 but went bust and I got £17.86
MyJar – Got £1300
247 Moneybox – Got £1100
WageDay Advance – Got £1500
EPDL – £1800
I had a massive gambling problem but been going to GA for 6 years now. With the redress we kitted out a house my wife and I bought and could afford to make sure my wife has had the whole year off work to be with our baby boy.
Thank you Sara for everything. Made a donation to the local CAB already. I will still be around if anyone wants advice but, apart from Wonga, I am done! It’s been a long time but my best advice is keep going. It’s worthwhile in the end I promise you as you can see from the figures above.
N says
Thanks John. Very pleased it’s all worked out for you. Do you have PDUK email address you used please? Thanks,
JA says
Finally on day 30 paid by lending stream at 10pm
Dale says
Lending stream paid out last night! I’m in utter shock!! Day 30. Stick it out guys finally I can relax.
Holly says
Finally !!!
Adam says
Do sunny payout on a weekend?
Ts says
I doubt it. How come? Are you on 28 days? I’m currently day 9. Few people only had to wait a day, some 28..
Adam says
im on day 14 now, but dont know whether sunny count weekends, since elevate contact numbers dont work on a day like today…
Ts says
I doubt they’ll pay but its still 28 days from acceptance, including weekends.
Elaine Jones says
One of my complaints is with Swift Sterling, the adjudicator has not upheld my complaint as said they were not required to obtain my credit file and bank statements which would have shown I was heavily overdrawn and had 4 other pay day loans. The same adjudicator did however uphold my complaint with a different lender, Moneyboat, reason being that they had seen my credit report so knew how bad my credit was. Although Moneyboat deny irresponsible lending and is now in the queue for an ombudsman.
i have disagreed with the adjudicator’s decision regarding Swift Sterling and asked for a second opinion of the ombudsman. Wondered if anyone else had not agreed with the adjudicator’s decision and waited for ombudsman’s decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have from SS? how large were they?
Elaine Jones says
I had 3 loans with them – they were small £200, £250 and £300
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Any gaps between them?
Elaine Jones says
Loan 1 – 18/11/2016
Loan 2 – 13/3/2017
Loan 3 – 10/7/2017
A says
Hi all,
It’s been a while since I’ve posted as there’s been a bit of a lull on my active cases but does anyone have a positive experience to share about Satsuma?
They’re taking forever to get back to FOS who found in my favour. By far the worst I’ve experienced (have had successes with Sunny, LS and Myjar) and I’m getting a bit hacked off at it now. They’re about 6 weeks behind.
Thanks,
A
L says
Satsuma are 6 weeks over the 2 weeks they were given to respond to my adjudacator too. Shes chasing them and ive been in touch with them but nothing as yet.
Lisa G says
Satsuma are nearly 11 weeks over the 2 weeks the adjudicator gave them to respond for me. The FOS have chased them but nothing yet.
Jack Dann says
They are only a week over with mine, but it’s concerning that they are allowed to just leave it and not reply. Any options on other action that can be taken?
Lisa G says
I don’t think so, unless it goes into an Ombudsman queue.
I’m told by the FOS that Provident / Satsuma are snowed under and don’t have enough staff so the FOS are allowing them extra time. I’ve been told by the FOS that they will respond, but it’ll take extra time.
A says
It’s very frustrating but I suppose we just need to have faith in what FOS are saying. My adjudicator has been excellent even sending me updates to let me know he has no updates lol, hopefully we get some traction soon. Best of luck!
A
Andy says
Do they reply before the 8 weeks or are they just late with the Fos ? They’ve got this week to make an offer or decline , also how many loans did you have with them for them to reject ? I’ve had 14 consecutive loans over a 3 year period just wanted to see my chances of getting an offer thanks
Lisa G says
I made my initial complaint to them in July 2018. It took them about 4 weeks to reject it in August. Sent to FOS in Oct 2018.
It was picked up by an adjudicator in early July 2019. They had until July 30th 2019 to respond. I’m still waiting now. I had 9 loans in about 8 months (something like that number, off the top of my head).
Andy says
Sounds like a nightmare , hopefully I just get a decent offer , and hopefully yours gets resolved soon , thanks for the info best of luck.
NA says
Does anyone have any experience in dealings with Uncle Buck? I’ve just received a response rejecting my claim.
3 loans; £400, £300, £500 (totalling £720.40 interest!) – All overlapping. They’ve said they carried out the right checks etc.
1 thing I noticed was in their response they said;
“Our complaint “uphold” rate with the Financial Ombudsman is currently one of the lowest in the HCSTC sector”
I’ve sent it to FOS anyway
Sara (Debt Camel) says
by “overlapping” do you mean you had more than one loan at the same time?
NA says
Sorry not overlapping but one straight after the other, 6 day gap then a 7 day gap
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, well three loan cases are marginal, but there is a case for saying UB should have looked more closely at the third loan as it was larger and a pattern was clearly forming of repeat borrowing. You may not win the case at FOS but if you want to give it a go it may be worth a try.
Mike_p says
I’m not sure you’ll have much success with the FOS, it tends to be at loan 4/5 that they start saying that the lender should have looked more carefull. I had 16 loans with Lending Stream and the adjudicator said that they shouldn’t have lent from loan 6 onwards.
It seems to be Uncle Buck’s standard resposne to reject the complaint and paste in a line to try and put you off taking it further. With me they said if I went to the FOS they would be asking to see my bank statements and asking me to explain any discrepancies. I would probably have left it normally as I didn’t have many loans but that line made me escalate it to the FOS.
NA says
Thanks Mike. Did you get any success from FOS or still waiting? Understand about the loans 4/5 onwards but UncleBuck was just the tip of the iceberg and had 7 other lenders at the time but we’ll see
Mike_p says
I didn’t have any success with Uncle Buck, but the FOS ruled in my favour with other lenders and I got about £2200 back overall, plus £500 written off by Swift Sterling without going to the FOS.
Andy says
Had my final response from 247 money box a day before 8 weeks I’d lent 10,089 and repaid 11,600 . Low interest because paid early taking out other loans ect … They offered me £1587 which I have accepted they didn’t tell me how long this would take though ! Nice result another one off the list
Dan says
Hi there,
Have been reading these the last few weeks and found very useful so thank you for that. Finally (probably a bit late) got around to complaining about all of the payday loans I had over the years, which is shamefully A LOT. I had financial issues not helped by a gambling issue. Not sure if anyone is interested but have put the details below of my situation with the loans.
I complained to all on 21st September and the only one who has come back to me with a decision so far is MrLender – who rejected the claim, it was only one loan but the interest was more than double the loan amount. I sent that one off to the FOS as a test run per se. Pretty much received the same response as others on here from them but will see how that goes.
Pretty much all of these loans were rollovers – so i’m hoping that can be considered if the FOS needs any convincing they were irresponsible. One thing i’m worried about is that my bank a/c at the time is closed now, they closed it as I had an unpaid overdraft and was living abroad, so if the FOS require statements not sure how that’s going to go.
I also have PDUK/Payday Express and Wonga loans (wonga have given an amount but know I won’t get that, waiting on PDUK/Payday Express and missed the deadline for Wageday Advance but emailed the KPMG email address anyway – don’t expect to get anything on those).
Thoughts and suggestions welcome.
Cheers,
D
Dan says
Uncle Buck – 21 loans over 24 month period, 10k loans, 3.5k interest charged
Wageme – 29 loans over 30 month period, 14k loans, 3k interest charged
Quidmarket – 24 loans over 5 years, lots of instalment loans, 11k loans, 2.6k interest charged
Swift Sterling – 4 loans over 12 month period, 2.6k loans, 2.4k interest
Lendingstream – 11 loans over 24 month period, 2.4k loans, 2.4k interest
Moneyboat – 11 loans over 36 month period, 7.2k loans, 2.3k interest
Cashfloat – 12 loans over 24 month period, 6k loans, 2k interest
QuikQuid – 7 loans over 7 month period, 3.4k loans, 1.8k interest
THL Direct – 10 loans over 12 month period, 2.5k loans, 1k interest
Mr Lender – 1 loan, 300 in value, 650 interest.
Piggy Bank – 9 loans over 11 months, 3k loans, 440 interest (seems good compared to the others).
Peachy – 2 loans, small value, not hugely fussed on how this one goes.
Andy says
Reminds me of me haha I also had about 13 different lenders and a gambling addiction best of luck mate
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“One thing i’m worried about is that my bank a/c at the time is closed now, they closed it as I had an unpaid overdraft and was living abroad, so if the FOS require statements not sure how that’s going to go.” Start seeing if you can get those statements NOW. Don’t wait until you are asked by FOS.
Your Mr Lender case – one loans cases are VERY hard to win unless they are huge. As a “test run” this isn’t going to prove anything at all.
Swift Sterling – were these loans before or after the end on 2015?
Dan says
Thanks Sara, will see if I can track them down.
Sure – understood with Mr Lender. I meant test run as in seeing how the whole process goes contacting the FOS. Seems fairly easy to be fair. Given this is just one loan I’m not overly confident but will see how it goes.
Swift Sterling – they were after, 2016-2017.
Thanks a lot.
Dan says
Had the below from Response Funding, I assume that pursuing any further would be worthless?
Thank you for getting in touch
This is to inform you that as a direct result of the deteriorating UK market conditions, Response Funding Ltd ceased lending as of January 2019.
In August 2019 Response Funding Ltd applied to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to cancel its permission to be regulated, and this will be finalised in due course.
As of October 2019 Response Funding Ltd has been dissolved and the company records closed.
Yours sincerely,
Aidan Maclaughlin
Customer Services
Response Funding
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t sound good but if you had a lot of loans with them, talk to the ombudsman.
Jack says
What options are there for those fed up with waiting for Satsuma to respond to the FOS?
Luke says
I submitted a claim against Sunny to the ombudsman in July and I heard nothing until the 3rd October I received a letter through the post which was a copy of what the adjudicator has sent to sunny. It says he thinks they should refund everything from the 4th loan onwards. I think this is fair, he gave sunny until the 17th October to respond. Has anyone had any experience with Sunny? They originally rejected my claim so do you reckon they will also be stubborn and reject the adjudicators decision? Or are they known to usually just agree with adjudicator?
Dean says
I am having dealings with sunny at the moment. The adjudicator came back and said loans 6-47 unfair lending. I accepted; sunny rejected but offered me loans 25-47 which i then rejected. Been waiting for final decision since 16th july and no reply or decsion. One thing i will say is that sunny missed my adjudicator by 3 weeks but when i had looked into, they replied on time but took 3 weeks to get to adjudicator, it was not sunny being late. Hope this helps.
Dean says
They also rejected my original complaint. Sorry forgot that details.
Laura says
Hello, random question. My claim
Against QuickQuid was successful in April
And have had my refund. I’m usually a 20% taxpayer but I’m off on statutory maternity pay. I’m
Confused about the tax and refund part. Do I need to pay the tax man that? Is there anything I need to do? Thanks as always. Absolute angel Sara!
JOHN DICKINSON says
Hi there – complained to Uncle Buck and got this –
“Thank you for your recent email.
Please be advised the evidence you have submitted is from 2011 we no longer would hold any information for the account as we do not hold information in excess of 6 years old.
Regards
Customer Relations Department”
Any suggestions of what to reply?
John
Daron says
Ask for date r subject action request and also have you got old credit report
JOHN DICKINSON says
Thank you – Is that a Data R subject request?
JA says
You’d want to ask them for a subject access request.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you have bank statements showing these loans?
JOHN DICKINSON says
Hi Sarah – Yes I probably could get these.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you cAn get those, you. An take the case to the Ombudsman. Sending a SAR to UB is more hit and miss – if the data has been deleted a SAR won’t find it.
sam says
Hey
I thought I had a straightforward case with lending stream but they rejected it after 8 weeks
I had 40 loans over a 2 year period paying over £3k in intrest.
It went to FOS a month ago.
Any idea how long this case will take or how long it will till I will get any reply from FOS?
Mike_p says
Rejections are common – I had 16 loans with 6 running at the same time at one point but they rejected the complaint outright after 8 weeks. In my case it was about 2 months for an adjudicator to be assgined, a month for them to make their decision, a month for Lending Stream to respond to the decison (despite the adjudicator giving them 2 weeks), and then just under a month for Lending Stream to pay out.
Lending Stream are an awful company and delay and frustrate everything as much as they can. They also recently had some “technical problems” in paying out refunds, although very oddly this didn’t affect paying out loans or taking repayments! Their Trust Pilot page is full of stories like that. Hold in there though as a lot of people have reported winning cases at the FOS and are being refunded..
DP says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for this site. You have really done a service in informing us :)
My question is in regarding MyJar. They made me an offer and I though they were being fair so accepted (no funds transferred). Then I realised that they hadn’t disclosed any of the txtloans I had had with them previously. Felt a bit dishonest since it would have changed my claim completely.
I’ve told them that I do not accept their offer now in light of recently learned information. I was acting in good faith and they, in my mind, had been dishonest not to disclose this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you have done the right thing to challenge them over this.
Adam says
Anybody have any idea what time around the day sunny seem to pay redress? When dealing with LS it was around half 6/7, are most of them like this?
Mary says
Hi, I was looking for some peoples experiences with 247moneybox? I sent my complaint yesterday and have received an email today asking what I would see as a full and final settlement. They have also provided list of my loans with them totalling 15.
E says
Hi, I think that’s an automated response as I received the same email when I complained 4 weeks ago – I replied stating all interest from loans 4 onwards (as first 3 loans were really small and the interest was minute) plus the 8% on top – I haven’t heard anything since then. But then again they do have another 4 weeks to reply so not worrying too much about it.
Andy says
I said I wanted interest on all my loans + 8% and got a email a day before the 8 weeks was up and they refunded all my interest and I don’t think it was quite 8% but there was a bit extra.
N says
Hi sorry another question if QQ have given me my refund…. shall I get another credit report to see if they have removed the info off of report? If they haven’t can I go back to request it or not. I did ask for it to be removed on original email but just realised now they did not mention it in their offer. Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They would normally remove any negative infomration – was there any? or are you asking for loans that were paid on time to be deleted?
Stacy says
Hi,had my reply from satsuma today,they said I told them on 24th I was not sending medical evidence,which is untrue, they have ruled I was able to afford loans,so ruled against me ,I’ve got the email where they state I had 2 weeks to send documents back from doctor for metal health, I’ve message them to inform them of this,very unfair.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Stacy, I suggest you send your complaint to FOS right away. Satsuma hardly ever make a good offer and don’t negotiate, so trying to argue with them is just stressful.
in your complaint you should first say how the loans were unaffordable and then say how badly Satsuma has handled your complaint, although you have told them you have mental health problems, they have tried to use this to get you to withdraw your complaint by asking for infomration they don’t need and which you have told them you can’t get. say how upsetting and stressful this has been.
Then when your FOS complaint is in, phone them up and ask if it can be looked at stright away because of your mental health problems.
Stacy says
Hi sara
Thank you, 1 hand doesnt no what the other is doing,they haven’t even sent me my SAR, they are horrible company, making me ill, how do I send complaint to Ombudsman please, as I’m really overwhelmed by all this at themin,my health is spiraling out of control
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the FOS online form is the easiest way – It’s here: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/how-to-complain.
That asks you all the things FOS needs to know such as is this a joint complaint, is anyone else complaining on your behalf, how yould you like to be contacted…. Attach the reply from Satsuma.
Stacy says
Great tyvm
Hopefully I get the SAR from them
VI says
Hello,
I would like to ask how long approx could take to ombudsman to provide final view?
Adjudicator provided his view but Mr lender disagreed and offered less then I disagreed with and jus wondering how long would take ombudsman to issue final view.
Robert says
Hi All,
Relating to a Sunny complaint, Just wondering if anyone has an idea of current timescales between rejecting an offer and having an ombudsman referred? Anyone had their case seen by an ombudsman recently? Sunny rejected my adjudicators assessment so it looks like i’m in for the long haul!
Elaine says
Hi Robert
I am in the same position.
I am still waiting for an ombudsman to review my complaint .
It’s been 6 weeks since the adjudicator informed me it was being forwarded to an ombudsman.
I checked last week still waiting to be assigned to an ombudsman.
I will update on here when I have a decision.
Good luck – hope everyone has positive results soon x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you given them a bad review on Trust Pilot? https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/sunny.co.uk
Elaine says
Hi Sara
Thank you for your help . Your website has been a god send.
I have just put a review on trust pilot.
Hope to hear something soon.
Emily says
Hi, I now have a years worth of bank statements in a paper format. Is there any easy way to send all these to the financial ombudsman service? Only way I could think of, was to take photos of each page and convert to a PDF document, but then don’t know if it would be too big? Thanks, Emily
Iain123 says
Take it to the library and scan it for free, may take time as they don’t usually have decent scanners. Alternatively, go to a copier shop or Internet cafe, they’ll scan it all in seconds for about 50p per page. Have it sent to your email address and/or put it on a memory stick.
Roly says
Not entirely surprising, but partners complaint about Satsuma has now been sent to the ombudsman as they hadn’t responded to the adjudicators findings. Fingers crossed it won’t be there too long, but won’t be holding our breath! Also had word this week that my Provident doorstep complaint is being held up by them not submitting data requested by the FOS. Am hunkering in for a long wait!!
Marty says
Has anybody had any joy at with Uncle Buck I am now 34 months into my complaint, they object all the way and am still with a FOS adjudicator it is absolutely disgusting something can drag on this long with no end in sight.
Felicity Manduca says
Hello Marty – I got money back from Uncle Buck – initially they declined my affordability complaint, but when I replied saying I disagreed and that I would go to the FOS (also mentioned they were in breach of GDPR as they claimed not to have my records, when though my account was still open in 2014), got a quick response back saying I had been sent the initial email in error and that someone was looking at my case. I then got a phone call with an offer – on the last loan before I had entered a DMP – which I had rolled over 4 times – I also asked them to add the 8% statutory interest, which they did – and I accepted – an amount just over £200 – which was better than hassling for any more as I sensed I wouldn’t get anywhere. They said they would pay within 7 working days once I signed the Settlement form, but I had to chase for payment on day 8 – they apologised and arranged payment to my bank that day.
Marty says
Hi Felicity thanks for responding I am glad to read you got some success.
My case is so bad its bordering comedy gold. They once rejected my complaint when contacted by the FOS had the audacity to say my complaint was frivolous and vexatious…..this despite dealing with me and sending a statement of my account and rejecting my complaint.
They object every step of the way and I’ve dealt with loads of places however this is by far the worst I’m now waiting more time for jurisdiction issues which FOS say can take several more months this is 34 months now
Felicity says
I’m so sorry to hear you’ve had such a bad experience Marty and it sounds as though this has gone on for far too long. If it’s for a substantial amount, my advice would be to stick with it and continue to pester UB, and also speak to the FOS adjudicator about your options given this is still unresolved. At the end of the day though, you have to ask yourself, is it worth all the time/effort this is taking and can you say for certain that you will be awarded a decent amount of money when it has been resolved? I wish you luck either way, fingers firmly crossed for you.
darren says
hello all,
Just wondering… with the people who have had lending stream pay outs:
What time did you get the email to say money on the way? did the money then go 10pm that night?
I’m on day 27 final day tomorrow :-)
Jack says
Hi Darren,
I’m on day 32 and Lending Stream are not giving any time-frames on when they will pay out, so I wouldn’t get your hopes up just yet. Sorry to disappoint you.
Mike_p says
I got the money on day at about 11 in the morning, I got the email to say it had been sent about 10 minutes after I saw the money arrive. They seem to have slowed down recently and started going over the 28 days they are allowed.
Jack says
Day 32 with Lending Stream after being promised the money last week. Now after speaking with them, they are not giving any time-scales, something appears to be seriously wrong. The Ombudsman has called them and didn’t really get good information from them, so have raised it internally and will give me a call back with what they think the next steps should be tomorrow.
Dale says
I got paid on Friday at 10pm which was day 30 for me. I feel your pain, it was hugely frustrating for me too. You will get it this week I’m sure but they are starting to slow right up on payments which is not a good sign, the same happened with WDA and I lost out on £2633 as they went bust during my 28 days, I’ll now probably only get around £100 of that.
Paul says
Were Trusted Quid formerly called Trusted Cash Ltd ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, TQ was a brand name of Trusted Cash Ltd
Paul says
I just found a load of loans I had from them
Colin says
Hi Paul,
They have ceased trading but they have a parent company very much still in business. I complained to the directors but the emails bounced back so I just complained to FOS.
Paul says
If anyone has complaints against Trusted Quid / Trusted Cash. Here is the administration company in charge
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07112031/insolvency
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Carter+Backer+Winter+Llp
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you need to contact the administrators and ask how to put in a claim as an unsecured creditor
Darren says
Day 28 is tomorrow for me with lending stream so Friday would be the same as you Dale day 30. Fingers crossed haven’t seen any talks of them struggling and they are still currently offering loans.
Holly says
Hi Darren mine went in on the 27th day yes at 10 o clock in the morning and had an email as well on the 27th day
Jack says
Lending Stream paid out on day 32 at approximately 5pm. £1900 for me, finally. Was a hard graft!
Unfortunately now down to just Satsuma, left it too late for Wonga, PDE, WDE who all went into Administration.
Darren says
My ombudsman lady phoned them today and I’ve been promised Friday payment which will be day 30 for me
Happy for you gald you’ve been paid
Elaine says
Hi Sara
Trust pilot have sent an email saying sunny are asking for my details.
Do I need to ?
They did not agree with adjudicator at FOS so now waiting for an ombudsman to look at it .
Will it help my complaint if I send my details to them via trust pilot name address fos complaint number .
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it can’t harm your case and it will hopefully make them look at it.
Sarah says
Hi, I sent a letter to safety net on 28th August, they have today replied with:
Having investigated your claim fully it is our view that your complaint is valid.
In circumstances where the Financial Ombudsman Service finds in favour of the complainant they normally propose that a full redress of interest plus an 8% statutory interest repayment is made to the customer, with the principal outstanding balance being deducted from this amount.
Therefore, we propose that we redress all the interest that you have paid (£xx) plus statutory 8% interest (£xx). In line with HMRC guidelines we will deduct 20% (£xx) from your statutory interest.
We will also remove any interest that has accrued on your outstanding balance (£xx) and then deduct the interest you have paid plus the statutory 8% interest from your principal outstanding balance (£xx).
This will leave an amount payable directly to you of £5.51. Any adverse markers in relation to this SafetyNet Credit account will also be removed from your credit file.
This proposal reflects what is expected of lenders by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in situations such as this one.
If this solution is agreeable, please reply to complaints@safetynetmail.co.uk with your consent to this offer and the bank details for the account into which you would like the monies deposited. If no correspondence is received, no further action will be taken and the full outstanding balance of £xx will remain payable.
Chris says
Had two emails from the FOS regarding two separate complaints. Both say they are too busy to pick the complaint up at the moment. I rang this afternoon and to add to the delay, they are implementing a new computer system (according to the operator I spoke to).
Holly says
Hi all just thought I’d let you know satsuma have missed 3 deadlines from the adjudicator next step the ombudsman I think 🤷🏻♀️ I am aware they are snowed under
KS says
I am currently waiting for Satsuma to respond to the FOS. This has been going on for months and the FOS seem happy to just wait for Satsuma to send the information, which – lets face it – they are not going to be in a hurry to do. I keep asking the FOS as to whether they have set a deadline for Satsuma to respond and they just keep ignoring my question.
I appreciate that Satsuma might be snowed under but the cynical side of me says that they are deliberately delaying moving the claim along because it is not in their interest to do so. Personally I think the FOS should be a bit stricter in enforcing these deadlines otherwise this can just go on indefinitely!
Holly says
Could be , who knows !! Good luck
Darren says
Day 28 with lending stream and money has just landed 2802.82
Terry Nicholls says
Day 28 for me also, not so lucky though, and I got a refusal from swift sterling (malta) to, still onwards and upwards, would not of had any if it had not been for Sara, and this site.
Diddy says
Can I ask how long did it take for you to hear from Swift in Malta? Sent mine off 4 months ago had an acknowledgement but heard nothing since…not holding out much hope anyway.
Terry nicholls says
About 10 days, I sent it to the wrong email address first, the address you need is actually complaints@northwayfinacial.com. Not enquires
Chris says
Hi all
I complained to Northway on 11th Oct and they responded on 15th Oct.
My complaint was after the 2 years allowed from date of last transaction as well.
They responded explaining all this as well as the fact that they are in Malta and fall outside of our current jurisdiction, therefore have rejected my complaint but have offered to remove the £565 that i owe as im ‘having financial difficulty’ but only as an offer of good will and not an admission of irresponsible lending.
Im assuming that i should take this offer as i cant escalate further? I have till 22nd to respond to them.
Thanks
Chris
Helen Thompson says
Hi Darren I was day 29 today and have had various excuses including system error, I wrote a complaint to the FCA and copied in Lending Stream the money hit my account with a few hours of sending the email.
Emma says
Hi All,
I am currently waiting for QuickQuid and Lending Stream to give their final response (I am almost at the 8 week mark) Lending Stream replied a few weeks ago saying they are still looking into my complaint but I have heard absolutely nothing from QuickQuid at all. Anyone have any experience with them? Find it quite rude that they haven’t even acknowledged my complaint to be honest, and I had quite a few huge loans with them.
Jacky Stainton says
Hi, I started my complaint on the 15th Sept, so far I’ve had a reply from QQ asking for payslips, bank statements etc and loan details etc from LS. I presume I wont hear from either til much closer to the 8 week limit. Good luck to you.
Ts says
Just had £2250 refund from sunny today on day 14 of waiting. Not too bad, but the whole process has been terrible.
Have had £2500 from lending stream, £2300 from swift sterling. I rejected a £500 payment yesterday from Ferratum and have gone to the FOS, I am looking for closer to £3000, I rejected £3000 from SNC also, looking for something closer to £6500 and I have a complaint that has been assigned to an adjudicator against MyJar. Slowly but surely it is all coming together, I started this process back in June and have been quite lucky with waiting times considering some of the stories here. This comment section has been extremely useful listening to other peoples stories!
Michelle says
Hi Ts good news on your claims so far. Did sunny agree to a figure in the first 8 weeks? Or did you go to the fos?
Iain123 says
Was the 2225 from Sunny what they owed you? Did you go to the Ombudsman after the Adjudicator? Can you break down the Sunny later stages? Thanks.
Jordan says
Hi there, how have you gone about getting these refunds? Can you put me in the right direction on how to start
Paula says
I heard back from my adjudicator on Uncle Buck who have recommended they refund interest on loans 3 to 7 + 8% which equates to around £980. This is more than I thought I would have got, but I did have a very high number of loans at the time. In people’s experience, are Uncle Buck likely to accept? The adjudicator has given them until 31 October to respond. Thanks!
My loans are all from 2015 onwards.
Joseph says
Uncle buck were somewhat unwilling to play ball but after ombudsman told them what to do they did pay out fairly quickly, I think 2-3 days if I remember correctly.
This was from the proper ombudsman. I remember the adjudicator originally didn’t uphold it so I thought may as why escalate to ombudsman why not, and then was shocked but happy ombudsman decided to uphold
Mr PDL says
I had an adjudicator rule in my favour and gave a deadline for UB to respond by mid September They did (I’m not sure with what) and the conversation is still dragging on – suspect it is to do with loans over 6yrs. Good luck!
si says
in my experience they are disputing the adjudicator decision although its only 2 loans out from what they originally offered me direct which is ludicrous really as the last loan was the highest with charges and interest takes it to double the amount , although logically they have lost that going to the ombudsman so makes no sense , they are probably going to hold off for full decision as when I rang them myself the lady said ‘oh we will go back and forward with the adjudicator and it could take months’
Great!
Stu says
I received a letter from the ombudsman today regarding my complaint against Cash4uNow and the ombudsman has agreed with the adjudicator and said they should not have provided 3 of the 4 loans given to me. Now a waiting game to see how long they take to arrange payment.
Chris says
Hi Sara (or anyone who can help)
I have been receiving emails from Lanturn after money that i had borrowed off Oakham. As Oakham have gone bust im not sure what i should do? I had multiple loans with them but didnt pay the last one.
Can i still put in a complaint with Oakham or is that pointless? Laturn are saying i owe them £206.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks
Chris
Sar says
Hi Chris
Oakham haven’t gone bust they are still lending they offered me a loan 2 months ago! I would put in a complaint to them soon as. Hope this helps
Ashley wigham says
I asked them for a loan and they sent me a sausage roll in the post
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So it seems Oakam went into Administration and have since exited it with a Company Voluntary Arrangement. They are still FCA authorised and still trading.
I suggest you put in an complaint to Oakam asap and inform lantern that you are disputing the debt with Oakam.
Chris says
Thank you very much, i will put in a complaint right away.
Again thanks
Kirst says
Hello,
Looking for a little advice.
Does anyone have an experience with CASH4UNOW. I have an outstanding balance with them and a complaint where I am due a response today. However the are refusing to set me up an a payment plan, I have requested they put a block on my account until my complaint is resolved, is this the correct thing to do?
Also waiting for a response from cashasap, how likely are they to respond?
Thanks for all you help
☺️
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If a lender won’t let you set up a payment plan, you should cancel the CPA to them with your bank. Don’t ask the lender not to take money, prevent them from taking it.
Kirst says
Thanks Sara, So I have done this and it did prevent them taking the funds, however I don’t want this to affect my credit score and incur additional charges more than necessary. They for whatever reason don’t want to set me up repaying but I can’t afford to pay the amount they want.
If I don’t receive a response to my complaint today should I just send it straight to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A payment arrangement will also affect your credit score. There really isn’t a way around the fact that if you can’t afford to pay, then that affects your credit record, but of course if you win your complaint all negative marks will be removed.
What you mustn’t do is borrow elsewhere in order to be able to make an unaffordable payments. Do that and you never get out of the payday loan debt trap.
How many loans did you have from them?
What is the rest of your finances like? Do you have other debts you are struggling with?
If you haven’t had a response at 8 weeks, I would phone them up and ask why not? If they promise it in a day or so, it’s worth waiting. Asking for longer and I would send the complaint to FOS.
NA says
Hi All,
Still following this with great interest and keep the stories coming in for sure! Update on my stuff;
SafetyNet Credit – By far the best company i’ve dealt with, both with borrowing & claiming. Written off ~£580 and i cleared the account the following month. They also agreed to remove all credit file entries from them
Welendus – Raised directly but rejected, as it was only £200 in interest i decided not to pursue
Lending Stream – Raised with them directly & rejected. Sent to FOS 3 weeks ago, no response from them yet
UncleBuck – Raised with them directly & rejected. Sent to FOS 1 week ago, no response yet
Ferratum – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
P2P/On Stride – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
Satsuma – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
MyJar – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
QQ – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
Swift Sterling – Raised directly 6 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
PiggyBank – Raised directly 5 weeks ago, acknowledged but no decision
Chris says
Hi
I put in a conplaint to Myjar and their 1st response was that they couldnt find my account and asked for more details. I checked some old emails and clarified my Name, address, email and DOB, which were all the same as in my 1st email to them. The only detail i couldnt find that they asked for was the phone number i had when i registered. Anyway they have replied today saying:
We conclude that we have been unable to locate an account for you on our systems; therefore, we have been unableto investigate the matter raised.
They have said that this is their final response.
The only reason i can think that they cant find my account is that it was originally with Txtloan. This is because they changed name to Myjar, but even that seems a weak excuse as i continued my loans with Myjar after the name change.
Shuld i escalate to Ombudsmen or something else?
Any help appreciated
Thanks
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have proof of the loans and what you paid on your bank statements?
Chris says
Ill have to look into that but theres no reason i shouldn’t. As long as you can get statements that old from your bank then theyll be on it.
Do you think they are being genuine or hoping i dont pursue?
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hard to tell.
I suggest you escalate to FOS – Myjar aren’t going to change their mind until FOS starts asking questions.
Matt says
Since 2013 I’ve taken out 24 loans with lending stream and they’ve offered me 234 on one of the loans I’ve gone down fos route as I’ve paid more then 16k back to them for around 8k of borrowing, the cycle is terrible as u all know fingers crossed how long does it take to get a response from them once u sign the forms?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Matt,
Can I ask if you still have payday loans outstanding? Are you still paying them?
Chris says
Ok brilliant!!
Ill do that, see what happens next.
Thanks a lot, id just like to say that this site has been great for me.
I was literally on the verge of using a claims company but changed my mimd after seeing this site.
Now have got double figure complaints going on at the moment all raised myself!
So thanks again and hopefully will get some desperately needed money back at some point😁🤞🏼
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it’s pretty safe to say you would not get more back by going through a claims company. And by now they would probably have told you to give up on the Txtloan complaint…
Chris says
I agree, i really hope more people wise up and do it themselves! The claims companies are worse than the companies theyre claiming against, just money grabbing to money grabbing!
Anyway keep up the good work and thanks again.
Chris
Mike_p says
It’s ridiculous what the claims companies charge for what is really just an email forwarding service.
Roly says
Utterly gobsmacked… Lending Stream payout paid into bank tonight, only day 23 after accepting offer via adjudicator. Couldn’t have come at a better time as funds have been tight and just over £2200 means I can get everything up to date! Thanks Sara…. still a number to go, but things are slowly moving in the right direction.
Jess says
I’m on day 22 and still waiting. I’ve give up harassing them. Hoping I get mine soon!
Cheryl says
Hi.
I had a complaint to Sunny refused by them for a £750 loan. One of the reasons given was that I only had one loan from them . Is this a fair decision. Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s hard to win a one loan case, unless it’s large – or large in relation to your income. £750 could be large for someone on a low income or benefits.
Cheryl says
Thankyou Sara. Fantastic help on this site.
Elle says
Got an email from my adjudicator over 4 weeks ago now saying she had all the info she needed now to look at my sunny complaint. But still nothing. She did email me last week asking if I minded her mentioning gambling in her assessment. I replied with an hour but have heard absolutely nothing since. I thought I would have got her decision this week for sure but nothing!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask her next week what is happening.
Elle says
Yea I will, I have just emailed her asking what is happening with my quick quid complaint as she got allocated that at the same time (sent me confirmation email that she was the adjudicator for both on same day). So that was over 4 weeks ago and no update at all. My guess being that sunny were clearly much quicker at providing the info requested and quick quid have still not responded to adjudicator. I share everyone’s frustration on here that it is not right that these companies are not given deadlines! Yet prior to going to FOS they have an 8 week one. If anything FOS should be stricter not more relaxed!!
Simon says
My adjudicator took months to come to a decision for Sunny as they were taking ages (im guessing on purpose) to provide her with any information. She picked up my case in June and I only got her decision last week. I am hoping they agree as no doubt it will be into 2020 for an ombudsman decision!
Ele says
I have asked for an update today and adjudicator has said they have asked for further information from sunny (5 weeks ago adjudicator said they had everything they needed) anybody have any idea what further info they could have asked for? Thanks
Christopher says
Hi I’m currently waiting on a final response from sunny just wandering as I have heard you give them 8 week if nothing by then do I go to fos?
Turtle says
If they haven’t replied in the 8 weeks send it straight to the FOS. Even if they have contacted you to say they need extra time.
40fantastic says
Is it worth making a claim about current lending processes with Lending Stream? I always use them (I know I shouldn’t) as they never refuse; however, after issues with their system today where they said my payment had been declined I ended up paying twice and I’m now screwed for the month.
They have a link to your bank; however, my account isn’t a pretty picture and they still lend?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It definitely is. If you have borrowed a lot from them without large gaps between the loans, you could get a refund of the interest you have paid on the later loans. people have had thousands back from LS…
BUT you should also complain and insist they return your additional payment immediately.
40Fantastic says
My concern is that I still have active loans with them, will they try and take all the monies owed and leave me in an even worse situation?
Mike_p says
You have a loan contract with them so there is no reason they should try and take it all. The loans carried on as normal when I complained, I had to escalate it to the FOS but I got a refund of £1400 in the end.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They can’t try to take the whole amount owed, just because you have complained.
If you can’t afford the monthly repayments, cancel the CPA to them with your bank and offer them a lower amount that you can afford. One that won’t leave you so short of money that you have to borrow again.
this may feel worrying, but it’s the only way to get out of the payday loan trap.
Dazza says
Hi all
I’m seeking some help on this. I have had numerous payday loans in the past and at one time, I had 5 payday loans on the go cover payments one after the other.
How do I go about this as I can’t remember much about them like account details egg. Is there a letter template I can use to send off to them?
Cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Use the letter template in the article above. That lodges your complaint and asks for a list of your loans if you don’t have them. The lender has 8 weeks to reply before you can go to the Ombudsman.
Which lenders did you use?
Maz says
Hi,
What do i do about a loan from Different Money? This is on my credit file also. I read on a page on here that they had disappeared?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is the loan on your credit record from different money or a debt collector? Showing as defaulted? Money still owing?
Did you have other loans before that?
Dan says
Hey there,
Had an offer from Uncle Buck, I had 12 loans with them (as well as 9 rollovers). They have offered to refund loans 3-5 for around £1600, however said that due to them confirming over the phone with me my expenditure for loans 7-11 that they would not be refunding those. The first loan I had was rolled over 4 times….which I would have thought would have been a red flag in itself. I could do with the cash quickly but total interest paid on all loans was nearly £3600, thoughts on my chances of any better from FOS and any idea on their timescales?
Also am I able to negotiate an offer? Anyone have any experience of negotiating another loan or two on top of an original offer? I was thinking loans 2 and 6.
Thanks a lot.
Daniel
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much interest did you pay on loans 2 and loan 6? Which were the other loans you rolled over? Were there any big gaps between repaying one loan and taking out the next?
Dan says
Hi Sara, full list below thanks a lot. Their offer contains incorrect figures so asked them to review the statement I received previously. (sorry if it pastes more than once it’s a bit temperamental).
I’ve actually looked back at a statement and they have missed my first loan completely from their findings and some of the interest charges are different – i will ask them to double check everything. Anyway to answer….What they claim to be loan 2 (with 3 rollovers) was £600ish in interest and charges and loan 6 was £85 interest and charges.
Product DateTaken AmountTotal Received Int& Charges Notes
Payday 07/08/2013 £250.00 £337.38 £87.38 Repaid
Payday 27/08/2013 £350.00 £139.83 £137.33 Rolled over
Payday 27/09/2013 £332.50 £149.46 £116.21 Rolled over
Payday 25/10/2013 £299.25 £133.84 £104.59 Rolled over
Payday 27/11/2013 £270.00 £121.37 £94.37 Rolled over
Payday 20/12/2013 £243.00 £327.93 £84.93 Repaid
Payday 03/03/2014 £650.00 £269.68 £237.18 Rolled over
Payday 27/03/2014 £617.50 £450.82 £225.82 Rolled over
Payday 25/04/2014 £392.50 £529.68 £137.18 Repaid
Payday 27/05/2014 £600.00 £219.70 £219.70 Rolled over
Payday 27/06/2014 £600.00 £851.00 £238.50 Repaid
Payday 01/08/2014 £700.00 £944.65 £259.65 Repaid
Payday 27/08/2014 £700.00 £254.65 £254.65 Rolled over
Payday 26/09/2014 £700.00 £944.65 £244.65 Repaid
Payday 27/10/2014 £250.00 £337.38 £102.38 Repaid
Payday 28/11/2014 £450.00 £607.28 £172.28 Repaid
Payday 22/12/2014 £400.00 £539.80 £154.80 Repaid
Payday 29/01/2015 £400.00 £496.00 £96.00 Repaid
Payday 28/02/2015 £400.00 £492.80 £92.80 Repaid
Payday 27/03/2015 £550.00 £690.80 £140.80 Repaid
Instal 06/07/2015 £850.00 £1,206.32 £356.32 Repaid
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So that’s a lot of borrowing with no gaps – a couple of months befor the last installemnt loan but that was much the biggest.
In that situation I think you are likely to get the later loans refunded if you go to FOS, even though they spoke to you on the phone about your expenses. Your expenses may not have been accurate and they didn’t ask for evidence (eg bank statements) I guess? And it certainly looks as though you had become dependent on borrowing from them.
I haven’t heard of anyone sucessfully negotiating with UB.
Your options are to
– accept what has been offered
– try to resolve what look like errors and get the offer upped
– send it to FOS.
UB try to drag out cases at FOS so it may take a while. But some new FOS cases are going through quicker. Sorry, not much help!
Dan says
very helpful thanks a lot :)
Si says
Uncle buck won’t comply with FO adjudication from all I have heard my adjudicator said that they just waste time and give generic responses so it goes to full decision mine was passed Friday be in it for the long haul
Lew says
Anyone know what’s happening with avant credit? They haven’t been offering loans for a while and I’m due a decision soon from adjudicator as it’s been almost 8 months in line. Worried their going to go bust and quite confident with the evidence I’ve put forward I’ll get something
Andy says
Anyone had much luck with satsuma loans ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of people are getting cases upheld by an adjudicator at the Ombudsman but Satsuma is being very slow to agree and pay out. They will eventually – this is a huge firm, it owns Provident the doorstep lender, Vanquis the credit card and Moneybard the car finance lender. It’s not likely to be in financial trouble! So just sit it out.
Andy says
I’m not at that stage anyway but thanks for the info they’ve got till the 28th to before the 8 weeks are up I was wondering what sort of offers they make or is everyone going to the ombudsman thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Oh you probably won’t get a reply, they will ask for more time. Send it straight to the Ombudsman if this happens.
ME says
Hi Andy,
I’m in the same position. 8 week deadline for final response is 28th however, I believe they are trying to work to 29th as that falls in line with their first acknowledgement of my complaint.
Was going to put up a question about Satsuma but it seems Sara has answered it in answering yours. I am hoping they make me an offer as I still have two loans open with them but the longer it has gone on with silence I am more inclined to believe they will either reject or fail to respond in time, so best get myself prepared for the FOS. Joy!
Good luck with your complaint and let us know how you get on.
ME
DF says
Hi Sara
I’ve just been contacted by The Money Shop who were also Payday UK saying that I could have been missold their loans in the past and been invited to claim.
My issue is that I was in an iva which has been completed for 18 months now. If I go ahead and claim will any money need to go into my completed iva. I know I signed to say any ppi would be given up but all that was sorted and squared away before the iva completed but would this be treated in the same way? The payday loans were not part of my IVA.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know. It will depend exactly what you signed about PPI. Also whether the Money Shop bothers to check. If you had an IVA. And if your IVA firm wants the hassle of dealing with what may bea smallish amount of money.