Have you had problems with payday loans? 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 here. This works if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
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.
A loan is not affordable just because you haven’t missed a payment – if paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
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. Payday loans are meant for short-term problems.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or your credit record showing increasing debts.
How much compensation can you get?
A typical payday loan decision by the Ombudsman is that the lender should refund all the interest you paid after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times, you can get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
Lenders include:
CashASAP, Drafty, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves (now in administration), Kabayan, Lending Stream, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, TickTock, The Money Platform, WageMe.
See this list for payday lenders for a longer list and their email addresses to use.
You can make claims to lenders who have recently stopped lending. It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up more than a few years ago.
For larger loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- 118 Money, Everyday Loans/Evlo, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, Bamboo, Updraft, Lendable, bank loans and other long-term loans.
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
If 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. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
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 have to go to the Ombudsman.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA or the Direct Debit to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
Start your complaint
It’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list. If your loan was sold to a debt collector, you complain to the original lender.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
I am making an affordability complaint about the loans you gave me. You should never have given me these 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 and the rest of my credit record that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend.
My credit reports would have shown all my other debts [include this if it applies: 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.
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.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. 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.”
- “I had a gambling problem and your loans made this worse”.
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 (say £800 or more), 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 difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win affordability complaints than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Sometimes a lender will offer you a small goodwill amount to give up eg £50 or £100 so if you only had one loan and it wasn’t large, that would be a bit of help.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
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.
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. Don’t bother to send payslips.
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 rejects the complaint or makes a poor offer
If the lender says No or offers you a small amount, 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.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. Ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- some loans were paid early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- loan size 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 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.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think you should have more refunded;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound helpful … but it may be very poor if you should get a cash refund as well.
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 – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. If you aren’t sure, send the case and let them make an independent decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender. There is no limit to the number of FOS complaints you can make.
Send the rejections as they come through – don’t wait until all your lenders have replied!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and asks for the information to set up your case.
Attach:
- the lender’s reply.
- 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.
- your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the credit agreements, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
Your case will wait for the lender to send FOS their case file and then be picked up by an investigator/adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
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 have been bankrupt unless your borrowing was all after your bankruptcy – 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 you are in a DRO now, a refund of more than £2,000 may mean your DRO is cancelled! But many payday loan refunds are less than that.
More help
Ask a question in the comments below.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. FOS says individuals making a complaint have a better success rate than claims firms.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
Iain123 says
PAID OUT BY SUNNY, AT LAST!!!
Here’s the breakdown…
Sept 2018. Used the template here to complain about my borrowing from 2013.
Oct 2018. Sunny rejected my complaint.
Oct 2018. Complained to FOS enclosing bank statements and final response from Sunny.
7th Oct 2019. Chased FOS for update.
8th Oct 2019. FOS Adjudicator response finding for me against Sunny. (obviously not a coincidence, I shouldn’t have let my complaint sit with the FOS for one year without pressing them).
11th Nov 2019. Sunny responded through my Adjudicator offering from loan 7-50. I rejected this as I despise these payday loan bastards and want every penny, on principle – accepting they may go into administration. Also learned there had been some back and forth between my Adjudicator and Sunny around settlement.
13th Nov 2019. Sunny increased offer, from loan 2, around 20% extra. I accepted. Adjudicator gave them 4 weeks to settle.
29th Nov 2019. Money in bank. Nothing to sign or request for bank details. All over.
Carol says
Is it the interest you get back plus 8% ? Many thanks
Scott says
Hi Carol,
Yes it’s the interest you have paid plus 8% simple interest per year on that.
For example if you had paid £100 in November 17, you would get £100 plus £8 for each year since you paid it – so £100 plus £8 plus £8 = £116
Scott
Michael84 says
Hi,
I have a default on my credit file for £1001 from payday express dated 20th June 2014. It’s preventing me from getting a mortgage.
At the time I was rolling the loans in order to make it to the next month and 100% didn’t meet affordability criteria.
I understand they now gone bust so repayment on interest is out of the window, but is there a way of removing the default from my credit file?
Thanks
Michael
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You will need to send in a Claim in. If the loans are decided to be unaffordable the default will be removed. this may take a while… It will drop off anyway by next June.
Paul Wakeman says
Need some advice please. Have just got home and have received a letter from Loans At Home with regards to my complaint. They are asking for my bank statements from Nov 17-Mar 19 so they can get a better understanding of my financial situation! With my original complaint I sent a copy of my Credit File which shows numerous PDLs, Judgment Debts and Defaults! FOS already have my statements for the period mentioned due to other complaints. These statements show numerous payments to creditors at the time including Lending Stream, 247 MoneyBox, PiggyBank, Amigo, BrightHouse as well as others. My question here is should I send them or just go back to them and tell them my financial situation is pretty obvious just from looking at my Credit File! Thanks.
Lisa G says
Personally I’d say if you have them, send them. They might give you a sensible offer of redress without having to queue for the FOS, which for some of mine submitted in Oct 2018 are still waiting to be / have only just been looked at.
But that’s just my personal opinion.
Litahash says
Hi, I have started a complaint to Lending Stream. They have sent through my loan details for the last 2 years, they have not stated whether they uphold my complaint or not – what do I say to them now? Thanks
Scott says
Hi Litahash,
What did you say to them in your original letter and when did you write to them? If it was the first template letter above, send second letter.
They have 8 weeks to give a final decision to your complaint. Go through your list of loans and calculate what you have paid in interest so you know whether any offer is reasonable or not.
Previous comments suggest that you will more or likely end up having to take your complaint to the FOS. Do this as soon as you either have a final response or 8 weeks have passed since you first complained.
Good luck
Scott
Emma says
Hi Sara.
Have 247 moneybox gone into administration? Was just about to send them a complaint email!
Thanks,
Emma
Scott says
Hi Emma,
They went into administration on 29/11
The administrators should still accept complaints and if they agree the loans were unaffordable then you will become an unsecured creditor.
Any refund will be a small percentage of what you could have got.
Scott
Nick says
Hi Sara
I have just received my decision from Sunny (3 days before 8 week deadline). They have rejected my complaint, but ‘as a gesture of goodwill’ have agreed to write off the remaining balance of approx £570 on my account. (I have had 49 loans from them & apparently repaid a total of £14K since 2014 (scary figure!).
As I have had a decision in pretty much the same circumstances upheld by MyJar, and also have had redress agreed by the Administrators of Wonga & Wage Day Advance, I am still sure that I have a justifiable complaint, & now intend to send my case to the FOS.
What I’m wondering is, as they have stated that they are going to write off the remaining balance, and they do NOT state that this is conditional upon me not taking my claim any further (they have not asked me to reply or accept their ‘offer’ or sign a settlement document), should wait until I can see that they’ve written off the balance, or should I send it to the FOS straight away?
I’ve also noticed on here a few people have contacted the MD of Sunny/Elevate Credit before sending to the FOS, and have had the original rejection overturned. Is this worth doing or do you think that it may result in the small balance NOT being waived as agreed?
Iain123 says
‘Goodwill’. Ha! How much of the £14K was interest? If it was a couple of thousand then £570 isn’t worth it. If they go into administration they’ll wipe the 570 anyway. May as well go to the Financial Ombudsman with your complaint, you have nothing to lose.
Shaun says
Hi all, anyone know what percentage Wonga will pay out? I’m owed about £2,000 but wondering if I’ll get 5%, 10% or what?
Scott says
Hi Shaun,
There is no word as yet regarding percentage.
For the latest comments and news regarding Wonga, see Sara’s other page
https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-has-stopped-issuing-loans/
Scott
Mark says
Mobile Money
I have just received a reply from them regarding the complaint I sent them just under 8 weeks ago. I had 20 loans from them over 10-11 years 2008-2019, and paid something in the region of 17k interest and fees.
They have replied saying anything over 6 years they wont take into consideration, and they have offered me £2900.
No breakdown of the offer, simply saying they will look at loans 11-20, no sign of 8 % interest etc.
Where £2900 is lovely this close to xmas etc, I am favouring the Ombudsman.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds unlikely that is all the interest on 6 years of loans… do you know how much interest you paid on loans 11-20?
david says
Hi,
Does anyone have any experience of getting a refund from Safetynet Credit?
I sent a complaint in Sept 2018, they rejected it so sent it to FOS. After over a years wait the adjudicator has got back to me finding 100% in my favour. Took out over 60 loans/lines of credit with them over 18 months.
Adjudicator has given them til 12th Dec to make an offer otherwise it will go to ombudsman.
Has anyone had a similar outcome? Did SNC agree to findings? Did you find they made a reasonable offer?
Thanks
kim hunter says
Hi The FOS agreed mine 100% in my favour with Safety Net a few months back and they paid it in full with 8% interest within a week, I rang them up after I had signed the agreed amount declaration and they told me what the payment date would be. My husbands has now been with the FOS for 11 months and still waiting to be looked at. good Luck.
Jo says
Hi David,
I’ve literally just had a direct response from Safetynet Credit after I complained to them on 19th November. My current outstanding balance is over £1200. They agreed that the lending was unaffordable and have redressed my interest on what I have paid, plus statutory interest (only about £12), and also removed the interest from the remaining balance. This has left me with a balance of around £580 – less than half what I thought I was going to have to pay back. They’ve also agreed to an affordable repayment plan. Such a huge weight having this lifted and no longer panicking how I’m going to keep up with the repayments.
If your adjudicator has upheld the complaint, I would aim for a redress on the interest you’ve paid plus the 8% statutory. Good luck!
Calum says
Dear all,
I would like to share a few of my current successes. To Sara and the team all i can say is what a wonderful tool and website and i know i wont be the first but Thank you 😁.
I am now Payday Loan free! This time last year i had 10 Payday Loans running at the same time alot of which were in payment arrangements. At once i had Ferratum, Lending Stream, Piggybank, Uncle Buck, Cashasap, Moneyboat, Sunny, Satsuma, Mr Lender and SNC all with varying borrowing amounts.
With the exception of Uncle Buck and Lending Stream i have managed to have all removed from my credit file and any outstanding loan amounts completed wiped off my records.
Uncle Buck and Lending Stream from my experience i find have been very rude and very unwilling to help. Lending Stream took an unauthorised payment from my account which i am still currently chasing!! Very slow and unapologetic.
To anybody out there who is at the end of their tether or is looking to throw in the towel, DONT! Keep at it, keep emails and phonecalls coming but one thing i would say is be polite and any evidence(i used my redundancy letter) as a tool to helping me on the way out of Payday hell.
Good luck to everybody still waiting responses they will come 😁😁
Paula says
Today is my 2 week deadline for Lending Stream response to the adjudicator. Worked out I should get between £7K and £8K which would be a lovely way to start the new year! Not holding my breath I will hear back today though.
Emma says
Congrats on your redress x I finally heard back from FOS who have allocated me a new adjudicator who has given lending stream another 2 weeks which will be over 6 weeks in total despite lending stream telling me yesterday I’d have an answer today.
Emma says
I’m on my fourth week waiting for LS to respond to adjudicator despite chasing adjudicator and lending stream.
Paula says
Unsurprisingly no response. I have emailed my adjudicator. Is it worth putting a bad review on Trust Pilot?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it is!
alyss says
im still awaiting a response from cash asap about the FOS decision they had until the 27th Nov and heard nothing what do i do? cash asap not answering phones or emails?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Leave them a bad review on Trust Pilot: https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/cashasap.co.uk
That sometimes kicks a firm into action!
H says
Have to say best company I’ve dealt with so far is safety net credit. Put my initial complaint in on the 22/11 and they have upheld my complaint and have asked for details to refund interest.
Still awaiting avant getting back to me with figures of my redress after accepting my complaint a fortnight ago. Emailed today to ask when the figures would be available she said oh I’m sorry your account has been passed onto another team, when I asked if she could then give me the details of the other team she said there are no details available. So frustrating!!
I’ve also had a success with 247 money box who upheld 2 of my loans which didn’t quite cover my outstanding balance but they offered to clear my outstanding balance which I accepted thankfully. The morning they went into administration my balance had been cleared.
Many thanks sara
Gemma says
Hi,
Thank you Sara for this website.
I have to agree with H and say SNC has by far been the best.
After putting my complaint in 3 weeks ago they have came back upholding my complaint and says they I shall receive my refund within 1 week.
I had rolling loans them around 7 months, had a balance of £800 and with the £933 I have paid in interest, they are closing of the loan and sending me the difference.
No hassle.
Uncle buck seem to be the difficult ones and came back with a straight no pretty much. They said I must of lied about my outgoings and that it is fraud. Assuming a scare tactic.
I’ve read people don’t include payday loans as monthly outgoings and also people do omit their expenditure as clearly need the money.
Anyway still got complaints going through with my jar, lending stream and mr lender.
Good luck everyone!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes UB say this to most people, it is as you say just a scare tactic.
Dan says
So i had a complaint rejected by 247moneybox 2 weeks ago. I told them wasnt happy and said would send to FOS. Now i saw that they went into administration a few days ago but they have just mailed to ask for bank statements so they can have another look at the complaint- why would they do this if theyre in administration? Iss theerree a chance illl gett refund iff they’re asking
Scott says
Hi Dan,
They may just be going through the motions until the Administrators decide how the complaints will be dealt with going forward.
Sorry but there is absolutely no chance that you will receive a refund in full. If any of your loans are considered unaffordable, you will become an unsecured creditor and receive a small proportion of any refund due.
Scott
Jackson Rice says
Could I have your opinions… I successfully claimed with Wonga and Amigo loans and have a claim going through the financial ombudsman for Elevate (Payday loans/express)
Elevate initially refused my claim saying I could afford the loans but on the basis these other two have agreed to wrongful selling do you think I will be successful with them too?
With regards to all these claims has anybody got a view or evidence that the loans will be removed from our credit files?
Tracy says
Hi Elevate/sunny refused mine I went to the FO and they upheld all bar 2, only 3 of which they said were unaffordable? So those 3 were removed from my credit file. I’d always go as far as you can with complaints. Sara’s website has helped so much, I can’t thank her enough
Jackson says
Thank for the reply – so how many loans did you have in total with Elevate? And how long did the FO take to respond and then eventually have the loans removed from your file?
I’m in a much better place financially now and looking to get a mortgage to the cleaner my file the better.
Thanks again
Tracy says
SNAP! I had 9 with Sunny, the FO did take a long time, took Sunny about six weeks to refuse I sent it to FO in July 18, it went to an adjudicator in May this year. She was great though and Sunny came back to her with a lower offer. She phoned me and said don’t accept it, stood her ground and I got 3.2K back from them. Their loans were always over six months to a year so much more interest. Interestingly they didn’t initially remove anything from my credit file, I raised complaints with ClearScore and credit karma (Noddle). took about 6 weeks, ClearScore said sunny didn’t communicate with them so they removed ALL 9 from that credit report. Credit Karma said sunny did communicate and provided evidence of the FO decision and only removed the 3 latest loans. Either way it left me in a better place. Keep going and good luck
H says
Here we go with lending stream. Wish me luck. I have been successful so far and all loans taken out pre lending stream so they really shouldn’t be able to say no!!
Paula says
Got an email from Lending Stream saying they have responded to FOS but cannot process payment until I accept through FOS. Assuming this means they agreed with the adjudicator? Might be it was later this evening therefore I would hear tomorrow?
Shaun says
Top tip: when a payday lender asks you to confirm your bank details by filling in a form do so and also send a bank statement confirming the details with it. I’ve had lenders say they couldn’t confirm my bank details from the form even though my handwriting is extremely clear.
Chris says
Can anyone help? Got an email from Satsuma this morning saying they are upholding 1 loan and paying redress of £201 but have not upheld my other 14 loans. They said I will receive a cheque within 7 days and if I disagree with their decision contact the FOS. Do I receive redress for the 1 loan even if I escalate the other 14 to the FOS?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like it!
Darren says
Not to go against the advice you already had, but I had this happen with Satsuma, then when I went to the ombudsman with the other loans, they advised that as I cashed the cheque, that is me accepting their decision in full, if I wasn’t happy, then I shouldn’t have cashed the cheque.
It went to an actual ombudsman as well who agreed with that decision, so I wouldn’t cash it.
I completely understand where the ombudsman came from with it, I couldn’t really argue.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so go back to Satsuma and ask if it’s OK to cash the cheque even though you will be sending the complaint to FOS.
Chris says
Think I will just sit the cheque in a drawer when it arrives as I paid about 5k total in interest on the other 14 loans. I’ve already lost out on thousands with companies going into administration. Don’t want to be losing more!
Paul Wakeman says
You couldn’t make it up! This morning I’ve received an email from a company called Lantern chasing payment of £288 that I owe to Lending Stream!! First I’ve heard of Lantern so have told them to go back to their incompetent client as Lending Stream actually refunded me (following an FOS decision) on 03rd October a lot more than £288!!
Paula says
Got my confirmation email from FOS with a refund of £6,888. Have sent an acceptance to both them and reconfirmed to Lending Stream. What a nice Christmas present :)
alyss says
it seems that these lenders just want to ignore the situations?
once i put my bad review onto cashasap another excellent review was posted a few hours later.
still awaiting word from cashasap and uncle buck and cash4unow is dragging there heels. awaiting my satsuma to be allocated to someone still after submitting this in April 2019.
knowing my luck these lot will be the next to go into administration as wage day advance owed me £284 and im going to get 4.8 pence to the pound not even £50 back.
Andy says
I would chase the satsuma one up as I sent it too the ombudsman last month and they have already picked it up I’m guessing as they got back to me asking for final response
Laura says
Hello, I’m having trouble with casheuronet supplying my the information on the tax on interest so i can claim
It back. I got my refund in April but everytime I email
It’s a reply from some sort of credit record removal department saying it will be actioned. But given I’m. 8 months down the line I doubt it, should I contact the ombudsman who made final decision?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you could do, but I doubt there is anything the Ombudsman can do. Is it a lot of money?
Laura says
Hi Sara
£418 was the tax. As I’m on maternity leave it’s the only financial year I am under threshold
Adam says
Finally had a response from the adjudicator agreeing in my favour against SNC saying they should have never given me the credit facility in the first place.
What are SNC like to deal with at this stage?
kim hunter says
Once I had this response from the adjudicator Safety Net agreed with the decision I had to sign an agreement from from FOS by email and once received by SNC I rsng them to see when paymen would be made (They said its usually on a Fridau I think) I had just missed that weeks payments so I got it within 7 days.
Alyss says
I’ve just put in a compaint to SNC as I paid over 20 loans back. I had at the time a debt plan payments going out plus about 6 other payday loan repayments each month plus 2 credit cards and debt collectors I’m hoping they will accept my complaint.
Calum says
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/money/10471346/payday-lender-247moneybox-bust-compensation/amp/
Just seen this 247Moneybox going bust? For anybody interested i have copied the link
Andy says
I’ve seen I’m very lucky I got my refund last month but not so lucky for others :( don’t know how they get away with it
John says
Thanks for all the information, it’s site has really helped me.
Today I received a final response for safetynet credit. I borrowed pretty much the maximum amount from them every month for 26 months running, and in that time they increased my limit to £1000. When I initially borrowed from them I had over £40k in unsecured debt from numerous credit cards and short term lenders. They obviously had access to my bank account aswell.
My calculations make the claim amount I should be getting approximately £3150. They have offered to clear my outstanding balance of £1150, pay me £1000 to settle. So I make it that they are £1000 short of the total amount I should receive.
They have said that they are partially upholding my claim, but have not given any details. With all things considered I believe that my claim should be upheld in full.
I’ve responded to say that I’m willing to negotiate as I feel the amount is short of what is fair.
Has anyone had any success negotiating a better offer? And had offers made which are short of what they should be getting? Also, any success stories of refering to the FOS?
I’m pretty confident that my claim will be upheld by the FOS, and guess I’ll have no choice but to go down that route should they not make an improved offer. I just don’t understand under what grounds they can possible only partial agree to uphold my complaint.
ME says
Hi John,
They initially only offered me a partial refund but I disputed this and got them to look more closely at the evidence they had and further evidence. They came back to me and offered the full refund of all interest and the 8%. I think for me, and reading others’ cases, they are one of the better lenders to negotiate with.
Good luck!
ME
Scott says
Hi John,
I would just refer the complaint to the FOS.
£40,000 of debt is a huge amount and you may have a good salary, your original limit may have been small and therefore the monthly payment considered affordable but increases to the limit not affordable.
Everybody’s circumstances are different, so any comments may not be relevant to your situation or be reflective as to how SNC are viewing things or how the FOS will look at it.
If you are 100% confident that you will receive a full reimbursement then the FOS is your best route.
Scott
ME says
Hi,
Has anyone had any recent success with Mr Lender? I complained to them in Nov last year and they rejected the complaint. I escalated this to the FOS where an adjudicator picked it up in June this year and rejected it in August. I requested it be escalated again to an Ombudsman but received an email last month from another adjudicator who stated she was a part of a team reviewing cases that are waiting for an Ombudsman decision to see if they could deal with the case in the interim. She reviewed the complaint and all of my evidence and has now found in my favour however, Mr Lender have until Friday to respond.
I wanted to know whether anyone has been in this position with a Mr Lender complaint, do they usually agree with adjudicators and, if they do agree, how long they usually take to pay out?
Thanks in advance.
ME
SN says
I had a relative success with Mr Lender, they agreed as a gesture without admission of fault to write off all outstanding loans owed and remove all adverse information from my creditfile. Took a bit of too & fro but it was done in a few weeks from initial email. Didnt get anything back as redress but happy enough with the outcome.
Calum says
Hi ME,
I found Mr Lender probably the best lender out of the lot. On par with SafetyNetCredit. They realised the situation very quickly didnt have to provide evidence. They cleared my outstanding balance within a week and removed all adverse credit plus removing all loans present and past from my file. Couldnt fault them. I found to just keep emailing as politely as you can. Hope you have more luck going forward 😊
Bob says
Good morning,
247moneybox confirmed with me that my redress payment would be paid within 7 days on the 28/11/2019. Have I now lost out on that with the company going into administration?.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is very likely that you have lost out, that you are now an unsecured creditor of the firm, that you will have a Claim for the amount you should have received and you will eventually be paid a small percentage of it.
mark says
Morning.
Just under 9k of interest on loans 11-20
I was offered £2900 as an initial offer. I rejected and have now received a final offer of £3600 including the 8% interest.
I am going to reject is my thought. Any advice please ?
mark says
Had another email off these . They really don’t want it going to the ombudsman. It’s being passed to senior management now and they’ll come back to me within a week.
Interest paid on loans they’ll admit to being wrong is £5800 and the 8% interest takes it to £7400.
They’ve offered me £2900 and then £3600 which I rejected both. See what comes back next week.
There’s more that are over 6 years old stretching back to 10 years that they won’t look at.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s really hard to see how they can not pay you the interest plus 8% on the loan they admit to have been wrong!
mark says
Exactly. I think they must think I’m desperate for the money and will take any offer that comes! I am of course!!! But,,, see what happens next week
RonRon says
Hi Sara (debt camel)
i need some help please.
i am sending all my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman and want to know what else i need to send along with my complaint to speed up the process? e.g things they will required after picking up my complaint.
i have my credit report ready.
many thanks
Scott says
Hi RonRon,
You need to send:-
Final response letter from the lender, bank statements from 3 months before you started to borrow from the lender and for the duration of your borrowing, your credit report and any additional info that supports your complaint.
Scott
RonRon says
Thank you Scott
will do just that.
Satsuma only uphold my second loan out of ten and paid £61 plus interest
i paid over £4000 of interest across all of them.
Sunny rejected £2500 of interest paid on all loans
Drafty- no reply and its been 3 months
john says
Has anyone had any dealings with Cash Float?
Francesca says
Hello lovely people
So, UncleBuck rejected my original claim pretty much instantly (2 loans, approx £500 in interest.) I asked them to reconsider, they have and have now offered £75 as a good will gesture.
Surely they wouldn’t offer anything if they didn’t think they were at fault? I am tempted to take it however as I did feel this was the least likely of all my claims to be redressed.
All thoughts welcome
Thanks so much
Scott says
Hi Francesca,
You don’t usually get the first couple of loans unless they were really large or your credit report was really really bad.
The goodwill gesture is probably just a way to save themselves the £550 FOS fee. Even if they are confident that they didn’t loan irresponsibly, giving someone £75 is still cheaper for them.
What were the value of your loans, gap between them and your finances like at the time?
Unless your case is really strong, I’d take the offer rather than getting nothing at all from the FOS.
Scott
Francesca says
Hi Scott
Thank you for your reply
The loans were back to back, I took the second one out the same day I paid the first one back. £300, then £500.
My credit score was Very Poor. 163/999
I had two other high interest loans that I’d taken out between those two loans (MyJar and Likely Loans) with a balance of around £2000 at the time.
I was earning a good salary, but a large portion was being spent on debt repayment on old defaulted loans.
I made all payments on time so I’m not concerned about it being removed from my file as I don’t believe it’s had a negative impact necessarily.
With this in mind would you take the offer?
Thanks so much
Fran
Francesca says
UPDATE.
I countered Uncle Buck’s goodwill gesture and asked for £225 (half of what they’d be charged by FOS and approx the interest paid on my second loan)
They came back and said they’d give me £150.
I’m happy with that outcome. This was after their ‘Final response’ so don’t be afraid to push them. Especially if it’s a small amount you’re owed and you don’t want to wait for FOS
:)
Crisdy says
I have been waiting months for my complaint against safety net credit to be allocated to an adjudicator ?
My other complaints were upheld but wonga and quick quid went bust !
Hope safety net don’t go bust ?
alyss says
who can really tell, the FOS back log is slowly clearing so the more complaint upheld the more payouts ect ect. im still awaiting for cashasap to get back to the FOS about their decision and its been now over 3 weeks with no word from them so i have a feeling they may be next.
Donna says
I’ve been notified today that an adjudicator has picked up my claim against Safety Net, I submitted it to the FOS on the 18/12/18 if that helps with time scale.
Colin Brown says
Hi Sarah,
I hope you are well, I have not posted for a while.
I currently have 2 cases waiting to be picked up with the FOS service.
1) Lending Stream, only had 2 loans but hadn’t even paid back the first loan whilst taking out another loan with them. Bank statements show entire outgoings were made up of rent/other payday loans (4) and the rest gambling transactions, not a penny left out my wages.
2) Likely Loans, exactly the same as above but a much higher loan.
How strong do you think these cases are?
Kind regards,
Col.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One and two loan cases can be won if the loans are large. But there isn’t much point in me guessing about this, if you feel the loans were unaffordable then have the Ombudsman take a look at your complaint. The Ombudsman will be considering whether the loans were unaffordable and if the lender should have made more checks..
Steffy says
Hi!
Just wanted to share my experience with a number of lenders so far, I appreciate although I put myself in this position there is hope! And I wouldn’t have found this was possible until I one night when I was unable to sleep worrying and accidentally stumbled across this website. in total I have received been offered £4498 worth of refunds since my journey started on 16/10/19.
4 accepted:
Piggy bank – sent complaint 21/10/19 response 29/11/19 – no balance, redress payable within next 2 weeks of £992.01
MyJar – sent complaint 27/10/19 response 04/12/19 – no balance remaining, redress payable within 3 weeks of £978
SafetyNet – sent complaint 16/10/19 response 20/11/2019 – balance remaining minus interest £598 paying £60 per month, balance removed and redress paid in 3 days of £1268.48
H&T – sent complaint 21/10/19 response 22/11/19 – balance remaining minus interest £387.14 removed and redress paid on the same day following acceptance form of £1258.94
The 4 as listed above have alone given me an extra £160 per month which is amazing.
1 rejected:
Drafty – gone to FOS
10 more to go!
I have found this experience so far very enlightening and I can’t believe how much interest I’ve paid over the years, definitely an eye opener!
Will keep you posted for the remaining 10 :)
Andy says
Hi , I sent complaints to Fos and bank statements , they have asked for my final response , does this mean they are looking at my claim as it was over 3 weeks ago and heard nothing else thanks
Scott says
Hi Andy,
They will just be getting your complaint set up just now, usually they need all the information and documents before it gets assigned to an Adjudicator.
Scott
Ray says
Sorry, wasn’t able to find my original post, so couldn’t add this post to it.
I received a reply from Uncle Buck asking me to supply them a copy of my credit report, showing defaults immediately before my last loan with them, which I sent them.
However, I got this response from them….As you can see the attachment is unreadable for myself, I believe this could be a security element to protect your information. I can only suggest providing loan agreements for any other loan and any confirmation of defaults etc unless you are able to provide this credit information in a different format.
I don’t have the loan agreements, so how can I move this forward or have I just hit a brick wall? Being a finance company, I thought they would have been able to see my credit file, themcelves.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The report you sent them, was it a PDF? who from?
Ray says
It’s from Credit Karma and will have to convert to pdf to send in that format
Scott says
Hi Ray,
Advise UB that they should have seen the default when they checked your application and ask them to deal with your complaint on the information that they have to hand.
You shouldn’t need to be jumping through hoops to get them to deal with your complaint.
If your complaint has been with UB for 8 weeks, send it to the FOS, if the 8 weeks are not up yet advise UB that you will be going to FOS at 8 week stage.
Scott
S says
Hi Sara,
I’ve currently got a complaint with the FOS regarding irresponsible / unaffordable lending by Cash Plus (Credit Card). Cash Plus did not uphold my complaint so I escalated it to the FOS but despite this I’m being pestered by Lowell Solicitors to make repayments or enter in to mediation.
Any advice please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have told Lowell that you are disputing the debt and there is a complaint at the Ombudsman?
What is this “mediation” they are suggesting?
Also have you been sent a Letter before Action – may have some other title but it will have included some attachments including a one headed “Reply Form”, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/
S says
Thanks for getting back so quickly. Yes Lowell are aware but it’s been to a court hearing and they are asking if I will enter in to mediation to agree a repayment plan?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were Lowell aware there was a complaint when they started the court case?
did you receive that letter before Action / Claim before they started the court case, if so, what did you put on the Reply Form?
S says
Hi Sara,
I told them that I disputed the claim as there was currently an ongoing unaffordable / irresponsible lending complaint. The court appears to think that because Cash Plus did not uphold the complaint that it’s back with the court to resolve; however its now escalated to the FOS? They are saying if I don’t agree to mediation then it will go back to the court for them to resolve? As I’m now unemployed I’m just wondering what the best action is? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 – it is possible to get a court case “stayed” in some situations.
Shaun says
Morning all.
Swift Sterling have agreed to repaid the interest for 9 out of 17 loans, which is £789.28. Do you think this is a good offer to accept?
Shaun
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That depends on the loans they are not including. If they are paying out on loans 8-17, have a look at loans 5, 6 and 7. Are amy of them very large? Wrer there any “gaps” beetween repaying one loan and taking the next one?
John says
hi any one have a link to claim back tax on a redress please
Scott says
Hi John,
Info here for claiming tax back
https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Scott
Robert Orley says
Morning All,
Anyone know how long Lending Stream Usually take to payout a redress claim as I accepted their offer and they said within 28 days?. I only worry as I’ve just lost out on a 247monbeybox which was supposed to be paid today but lost out due to them going into administration.
Many Thanks, Bob
Mike_p says
Anywhere from 14 days to 32 days judging from what people have said on here. Mine was on day 26. Make sure you send them your bank details straightaway to avoid them trying to delay it by saying they don’t have them.
S says
Hi Sara I lost my job recently after being employed since leaving school many years ago. Thanks to your site I’ve been successful in obtaining redress amount from numerous PDLs. Now I’m unemployed and receiving Job Seekers Allowance am I able to claim the tax back on the amounts PREVIOUSLY received or just on the amounts received since becoming unemployed. I’m sure it’s going to be the latter but worth an ask?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can claim tax back for the tax year the payments were received.
Did you get payments in the last tax year – April18 – Mar19? Were you a basic rate tax payer in that year?
Joseph says
Hi S, sorry to hear about your redundancy – I too was made redundant on 31/10/19. There is a form you fill in with the HMRC to claim to tax back, you just need to know how much you’re trying to claim back (which each lender should have told you how much tax they’re withholding). Also, try a website called Turn2us, they’re a charity that you can search for grants and bursary which help people financially, for example, who’ve just been made redundant. I applied a few weeks ago and they helped me with a £500 none repayable grant. Good luck!
Jo says
I’m asking for a refund from Quick Quid
And they are now asking for
· What is the date of your first loan?
· How long did it take you to realise that QuickQuid might have been responsible for any financial difficulty you faced?
Bank statements (at the point/s you took out your loan/s with us)
· Payslips (at the point/s you took out your loan/s with us)
Do i need to send them
Thanks
JA says
Quickquid have gone bust? Are you sure it’s not a automatic response.
Elle says
The latest from sunny…after accepting their offer on 25/11 and numerous emails that they have ignored since then, I finally got a response from them today saying they have no record of the adjudicator accepting their offer!!! Wonderful! So now they will delay paying out even further as instead of already being nearly two weeks into the 30 day period they will likely now say the 30 days starts from when the adjudicator gets back to them!
On another note, I have emailed my adjudicator (a different one to the sunny one) several times over the last month about my satsuma complaint and I have had no response from them has anyone ever had this?
Alyss says
I have to be fair.
On one of my cases the adjudicator was non responsive to emails and never picked up the phone when it did ring but most the time was on voicemail. I ended up ringing the fos and they chased the adjudicator up for me and they responded within a couple of days
Scott says
Hi Elle,
The payout period starts when the lender has received confirmation of your acceptance from the FOS.
Did you advise your Adjudicator verbally or did you sign an acceptance form?
Scott
Elle says
Adjudicator sent me an email saying she had confirmed with sunny and asked them to contact me directly about the refund. She then closed down the complaint and sent me a feedback form.
Iain123 says
She shouldn’t close down the complaint, may have another issue with the lender that needs handling.
Fortunately all my experiences with Adjudicators have been positive and professional, had about six of them and can’t complain. (email correspondence works better).
Lisa says
Hi
I have a complaint with FOS and have just received an email from the adjudicator sating that she has picked up the case. How long does it usually take to get the initial decision? Its not a complicated case and involves 9 loans, I provided bank statements and everything i had received from Mr Lender at the time of the complaint.
Paula says
Just confirmed with Lending Stream that they received my acceptance from the FOS on 3 December and confirmed my bank details. Now need to wait until 31 December and hope they don’t go bust before then!
Kris says
Is there a complaints email for a company called trusted quid. I cant even find their website anymore. Thanks
Scott says
Hi Kris,
This is another company that you won’t be able to get a refund from.
They have stopped trading and/or may be in administration.
Scott
Kris says
I have a complaint about 6 weeks into the 8 week deadline with 247 money box. How will them going into administration affect my claim.
Scott says
Hi Kris,
The administrators will still review customer complaints.
If any of your loans are deemed unaffordable then you will become an unsecured creditor.
You will then receive a percentage of what you should have received.
Scott
Richard white says
Hi sara,u asked me too put on my response from sunny after kicking off with the managment,here it is,after being rejected off complaints i e mailed mallinder and grice,they handed me over to paul baldry who withing a week and half has offered me £325 and scrubbed my debt with lowells(£900) as a gesture of “goodwill” i borrowed 3k and paid 3325(he said he will give me the difference back) what do you make of that?? Do u think thats fair? Im gonna take it because they will prob be out of business by the time it goes to ombudsman
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the figures are right and you have borrowed 3000 and repaid 3250 then you are bing offered a “full refund” of the interest you paid. A good result!
Mal says
Any heard what is happening over PiggyBank, not accepting applications at the moment. Looking at the banners they have put on their site during the week and speaking DJs they said that it’s an application IT code issue where they are not getting the credit details back from their agency. Seems the problems started on Wednesday morning and there was an internal release done by TransUnion the night before so it could be true but no one was in their offices in Friday and their phone system said they were closed on Friday morning, still makes sense if they can’t process applications no point in having staff in, except IT staff to resolve the issue. Fingers cross there web application comes back soon and it’s not a sign of another lending escaping their refunds.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t heard anything. A problem offering new loans shouldn’t stop staff being in the office to help current customers. They were stopped from lending in the summer by the FCA but then they came back again.
Me says
What are avant like at banking your redress?? Do they generally take the 30 days stated??
C says
Mine was paid within the 30 days probably about 2 weeks into it
Jc says
Satsuma the worst of them all had refunds from sunny. LS quick quid they were okay but SATSUMA are a farce 16months I waited for my refund and they sent the cheque to my old address no contact with them at all I had to push the FOS to get my redress got the cheque Friday anyone with a claim with this joke company be prepared to wait
Dan says
Hi
This is a great website and I have sent my complaints to all the loan companies I borrowed from, I have one question if you can answer please, I took 8 loans out from 8 different loan companies within a four week framework, my credit report was bad even before I took them out with a ongoing default on my credit report from QuickQuid, do you think I have any chance of winning these claims even though it’s one loan from each company but 8 in a month framework. I also had a gambling addiction
P.s my credit file also showed many multiple loans from Wonga, QuickQuid and wage day from a year earlier. I have received emails that I was given unaffordable loans from these companies but they in administration so won’t get a lot.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s possible to win a one loan compliant but not likely. Not unless the loans were very large.
Do you still owe money to any of these?
Dan says
Yes I do, I still owe money to 6 of them
150219 – £500 lending stream – £750 left to pay
040319 – £500 savvy – £776 left to pay
080319 – £300 my jar – £140 left
100319 – £300 quidmarket – paid
150319 – £300 loans 2 go – £1000 left
170319 – £200 mr lender – paid (sold to debt company)
210319 – £250 safety net – £300 left
230319 – £100 247 moneybox – paid
I know it’s each loan is not very large
I did have £500 loans from QuickQuid from 260118 that I defaulted on and was still paying for when i took them loans out and am still paying for now
Holly says
Satsuma are the worst I’ll second that I’m still waiting for them to reply it has now gone to the ombudsman for final decision