Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing?
You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
The comments below this article have thousands of stories of the refunds people have got using these letters. It is a great place to ask questions!
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
Was a loan affordable just because you repaid it?
No! If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
Payday loans are meant to solve a short-term problem. If you kept repaying one then getting another loan soon after, the lender should have stopped lending to you.
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or borrowing again soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate this. Just ask for a refund from the lender and see what you are offered. This is simple and it works well.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen tens of thousands of payday loan affordability complaints.
A typical decision by the Ombudsman is that the payday lender should refund all the interest you paid interest after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times you could get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
You can complain to lenders that are still in business, even if they are no longer lending. These include:
Lending Stream, Cash Converters, CashASAP, Drafty, Dot Dot, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves, Kabayan, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, MyKredit, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, The Money Platform, WageMe, Wizzcash,
See this email list for payday lenders for a longer list and all the contact details to use.
If the lender has gone into administration, including CashForUNow, Piggybank, Ferratum, Oakam:
- make a claim to the administrators – there is normally a simple form for you to complete, see the lender’s website for details – but there will be a time limit for doing this.
- you may not get much cash back but this is very easy to do. A balance may be reduced or cleared even if there is no cash to distribute. And if you win the complaint any negative marks on your credit record will be removed.
It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up years ago, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- 118 Money, Everyday lonas, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, Bamboo, car finance, bank loans and other long-term loans.
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you later have to go to the Ombudsman.
If you still owe money to the lender, read Will an affordability claim hurt my credit record, and other questions. These looks at your options for stopping paying, the effect on your credit record etc.
If the rest of your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time to go through at the Ombudsman. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you complain to the original lender. But also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Start your complaint & get loan details
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. [Add more details eg how often you borrowed or rolled loans if you know them, how the amount borrowed generally went up etc]
[Include/change this if your credit record would have shown big problems:] My credit reports would have shown all my other debts and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[delete this sentence if you know what all your loans were.] I know the difficulties your loans have caused me but I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added, and what I repaid. This will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
[delete this sentence if none of your loans were sold.]If a loan was later sold to a debt collector, please inform me of the date of sale and the name of the debt collector.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. You don’t need to list the loans – the lenders knows them.
Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- if you weren’t treated fairly while you were borrowing or when you could not make a payment, add a bit about this.
You can attach bank statements if you like, This is a good idea as these show how unaffordable the loans were for you. If you have gambling showing, this helps your complaint, it doesn’t harm it.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. I
it’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large, read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a very difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed once or twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win an affordability complaint than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
They may send the list of loans first and later respond to your complaint. So don’t be surprised if you get sent info on the loans but nothing about your request for a refund.
When you get your loan information, you can send in more details about your complaint if you want. You don’t have to do this, your complaint has already begun and the lender has to reply.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. Make a note in your diary for 8 weeks time and chase the lender up if you don’t get a reply.
Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Send your bank statements or other information?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want. But you should download a copy of your credit record asap as the Ombudsman will ask for it. Don’t put this off, the sooner you get a report downloaded, the further back it goes which is good.
Don’t send payslips.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Again this is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years even if the account has been closed.
Lender says No or makes a poor offer
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints, despite being rejected by the lender.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had large amounts refunded after a complete rejection!
Just ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications and you didn’t give accurate facts – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- you repaid some loans early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- your borrowing didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked more closely;
- some loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Don’t worry that you will lose a small offer by going to the Ombudsman – this doesn’t happen.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think the lender should have realised a lot of the other loans were unaffordable;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound convenient … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well;
- if getting defaults or late payments removed from your credit record is important to you, are you happy with what the lender is proposing to do? Don’t assume your credit record will be cleared if the lender didn’t mention this.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the Ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an instalment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay too long – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. When you aren’t sure, send the complaint to FOS. This is free and easy to do – let FOS make the decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender.
Don’t wait until all your lenders have replied before sending the first one to the Ombudsman!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and takes you through your complaint step by step.
You can just copy what you said in your complaint to the lender. You can add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you.
If some of your loans were over 6 years ago, tell the Ombudsman when and how you found out about these complaints. For example:
“I knew the loans were causing me difficulty in 2018, but I thought this was my fault for being bad with money. I didn’t find out that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable until June 2024 when my brother told me about these claims/I saw an advert from a claims company on Facebook/I read an article about these claims” – change this so it is right for your case!
Things to attach:
- the reply you have had from the lender.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed – if you don’t have them, start the process of getting them now, don’t wait until FOS asks for them.
- a copy of your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- if you dont have the credit agreements, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
You will normally be contacted within a couple of weeks and asked for a copy of your credit record and your bank statements if you haven’t sent these. If you have sent these on one complaint, then when you complain about a different lender FOS will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
More help
You can ask a question in the comments below – you may get a reply from someone who has been in your exact situation.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. It’s easy to do this yourself and you can ask questions below and get replies from other readers who have done this.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
Nick says
Hi Sara,
I’m in the process of writing out my complaints letter to all the lenders I’ve used/using. I haven’t carried out step one because I can still log into my accounts and see my loan history. However, after looking at quick quid online, it shows that I’ve had 7 loans with them, I thought this was a bit short so I checked my online banking and could see several other loans. The reason why it only shows 7 is because I had 7 payday loans and also took out flexi loans ( the flexi loans must not be showing).
Question is, am I better of going through my statement, record this on a spreadsheet or take screenshots of my bank statements/credit report and then send this of to them with my complaint? Or is it not advisable to send bank statements/credit report?
Also Does it matter that the reason I’m in debt was because of an gambling issue? Is that something that would go against me?
Btw, you seem to be helping many other and myself included… Even though I haven’t complaint yet I feel better knowing me that something can be done.
Thanks Sara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t need to send bank statements or screen shots with your complaint. You can just say something like “I took out flexi loans and payday loans from you between 2012 and 2015″. If you can add more detail such as ” “I had 9 loans between March 13 and June 14, 2 of these were rolled twice. I was having to borrow within a few days of repaying each loan as I didn’t have enough money to survive the next month.” then that’s good. But in practice I don’t think the lenders pay a great deal of attention to what you write in the complaint – especially QQ who it is 99% likely will reject your complaint or offer you a laughably small amount of money – so it’s not worth spending ages adding on more and more detail. You don’t need to list the loans or say how much interest you paid – the lender already knows this!
It is however good to go through your statements and create a spreadsheet for your own records so you can add up the interest you paid – if you don’t do this you have no way of telling if a lender’s offer of refund £850 is good, OKish or very poor. It may also help if your complaint goes to the Ombudsman (which with QQ is very likely). Basically the Ombudsman will read a detailed complaint, the lenders don’t.
Cases with a lot of gambling showing on the bank statements are being won at the Ombudsman.
In these cases I definitely wouldn’t send the payday lender bank statements – it’s fine to talk to the Ombudsman about gambling but no reason to waste your time arguing with a payday lender about it.
Jimmy says
Hi all, a quick update from me. My complaints have all been coming to their 8 week deadline.
QQ: Rejected outright. had 2 loans and a line of credit. paid over £1500 in interest. Sent to FOS. No adjudicator assigned as yet.
Peachy. Rejected outright. With Adjudicator who requested statements and credit report. Had 3 loans, but defaulted on last which was repaid in a repayment plan.
Lending stream. Rejected by lender. sent to FOS. Rejected by adjudicator. Had 3 loans and one still outstanding.
Wonga. Typical Wonga. 8 weeks, on last day requested 6 more weeks. Referred to FOS 2 days ago.
Uncle Buck. Rejected claim. I had 9 loans of which 7 loans included one or more roll overs. They requested bank statements which I wasn’t able to provide. They then rejected claiming that as requested higher amounts than I was actually lent (e.g. I’d ask for £600, they’d reject but offer me £350). This means their loans were affordable. Not sure what your thoughts on this are Sara? – referred to FOS 3 days ago.
Some good news though:
247Moneybox. Wrote off outstanding balance.
Mr Lender – repaid interest on loan 3 of 3 – £220. Repaid within hour.
1Month Loan/Sunny – my 3rd largest – refunded all interest on all loans to ‘put me back to a position as if i’d never taken them out’ – Had 22 loans. Repaid £2229.29. Money in account next day.
WageDay Advance – agreed on 5 of 9 loans I had. Repaid £880. In account next day.
Ferratum. – interest wiped off loan, leaving just my borrowing amount of my only loan to repay of £250. Accepted and repaid using rebate from above.
The 8 weeks are up for PDUK on Tuesday 28th. These are my biggest by far. What’s everyone’s response’s like with these?
Interestingly, I thought i’d write to my previous bank, Lloyds, to complain about charges applied to my account from 2002-2014. I said I was in financial difficulty and took out many payday loans and would like a refund on charges that were applied to my account. They have said they did not do enough for me when my account was in collections and should have offered a repayment plan and support. They refund charges and offer compensation equalling just over £1200.
Keep going everyone. There are good things waiting to happen!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Uncle Buck. Rejected claim. I had 9 loans of which 7 loans included one or more roll overs. They requested bank statements which I wasn’t able to provide. They then rejected claiming that as requested higher amounts than I was actually lent (e.g. I’d ask for £600, they’d reject but offer me £350). This means their loans were affordable. ”
I have seen UB argue this line before. It doesn’t seem a very good one to me. It does show that they considered your application, but the question is did they reach the right decision?
If your previous borrowing showed you were becoming dependent on the loans, they should have not loaned any amount.
Also if you were trying to borrow more money than they thought you could afford, shouldn’t this have been a huge red flag to them?
I think this sounds like a case to take to the Ombudsman.
Andrew says
Hi Sarah
I had 5 loans with a PDL in a 3 month period, increasing my credit from 200 to 900 in this short amount of time. do you think I have a case here? Secondly, because the balance now is with a debt collector, should I request they pay them the balance in full? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like a case worth pursuing. Ignore the fact the balance is with a debt collector, put in a normal affordability complaint to Mr Lender asking for a refund on interest paid and for the balance to be written off. In practice the balance may not be written off in full even if the complaint is upheld, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-write-off/, but ask for the lot in your complaint!
Have you put in complaints to QQ and Wonga which you previously mentioned? Any other lenders?
Nick says
Hi Sara,
I currently have some active short term loans ( Behind on 3 and to date with the 4th) and had some existing and active payday loans which I’m behind on. From you process above I know I can complain about the old payday loans I had taken, however what about my current active loans? I do feel that irresponsible lending was the case with these loans, my credit file/score and bank statement would show that I was a serial borrower and I’m now struggling to make payments again because they’re large payments and I have 6 active loans + a credit card. If I would like to file a complaint for my active loans, could you advise how I should approach this? Especially with the large loan I have with everyday lending because I’m current up to date but struggling.
Should I inform them I’m struggling with my current active loan and then complain? I’ve also had loans with them in the past that would like to complain about.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I said before that you need to talk to StepChange but I wasn’t clear on the precise order. Here is my suggestion:
1) call Stepchange and ask them to set up a DMP including the current outstanding loans
2) call the current lenders and tell them you can’t afford the repayments and StepChange will be getting in touch with them about a DMP
3) cancel any CPAs the current lenders have with your bank
4) have a nice cup of tea and do something calm and soothing like listening the the politicians talk about Brexit
5) start sending off payday loan complaints to all the lenders, past and current
Duane says
What’s worth remembering when it comes to payday lending, the very early years it was all new and unregulated and it wasn’t until 2013 did we see tighter regulations coming into force.
One of points I made perfectly clear to QQ was their aggressive advertising and marketing structure. For example their preferred status awards which rewarded customers (small discount) for reaching loan milestones. If this isn’t seen as rewarding consistent loaning I don’t know what is.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t worry too much about the dates payday loan regulation changed and the details of this. The OFT has always had “affordability” provisions, see this document from 2010 http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20140402142426/http:/www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/general/oft1107.pdf.
Your point about QQ’s marketing structure is well made. IMO if they were offering lower rates if you reached “milestones” without including prominent risk warnings this is inappropriate.
Duane says
They had bronze, silver and plantium awards ( still have emails confirming this) for customers taking out loans / rollovers.
Very irresponsible and interesting to note they have rightly not offered this programme since 2013.
Gaynor says
I put in a unaffordable complaint to 24/7 Money Box on the 30th April this year. Had a reply on the 10th May Final Response denying any wrong doing but as a goodwill gesture agreed to write of the balance standing at £230 and removing any defaults registered which I accepted.
This Friday 24th June I received another Final Response from them saying they did no wrong but are not writing off balance but would remove any defaults.
What’s going on here then? Can only assume as the responses are from 2 different people there has been a mix up and the left hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.
Emailed them Friday and have sent them a copy of the 1st Final Response. Now waiting for a reply.
As part of the Final Response this paragraph I find particularly rude ………
”We are aware that there are many forums and templates letters on the Internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. We have seen some legitimate claims upheld in the press such as with the lender Cash Genie. However, to compare our actions with their reported behavior is inappropriate.”
Why do they assume I have used a template letter and even if I had what business is it of theirs!
Grant says
Hi all.just too let you all knwo I’ve had a couple of settled offers this week. Today i had a final response from wonga offering me just over £6.5k on the last day of the extra 6 weeks, it was without the fo.
i had a response from lending stream offering me £500 which ive also accepted. As far as Monday’s go today has been a good one.
Keep on fighting people because why not,we have nothing to lose.good luck people.
Gaynor says
Just had a final response from Uncle Buck containing the following statement
While assessing you application we can confirm that we completed a credit check through the credit reporting agency Call Credit. We asked them to verify your monthly salary and they confirmed that the figure you provided of £900.00 was correct.
My question is do Call Credit know my monthly salary then? Had no idea that this was so.
My second query is one that I posted on Saturday concerning the fact that I had 2 final responses to the same complaint. The first response on the 10th May agreeing to write off the balance which I accepted and the 2nd final response 24th June agreeing to remove defaults but not writing off the balance. I emailed them on Friday for an explanation but as of yet have had no reply. These are 2 Final Responses to the same complaint.
Has this happened to anyone else? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are right – credit reference agencies do not know what your salary is.
I can’t remember anyone else reporting “two final responses”.
Jim says
2 good results so far. Lendingstream wrote off my small debt ok as only had 3 from them. And just had nearly 300 back off Sunny.
Peachy rude but only 1 from them so didn’t expect anything
Still waiting on PDUK my big one.
Thanks Sarah and all fellow borrowers for sharing their news
Nina D says
Quickquid really starting to annoy me. I submitted my complaint at end of Feb 16. Got the obligatory £150 offer. Sent it off to the Ombudsman. The adjudicator ruled in my favour ruling that two of my loans should not have happened. Quickquid argued that only one was unaffordable. Adjudicator checked it again and stood by original decision. Now QQ say they are still not agreeing and have produced some other type of document which they want the adjudicator to send to the Ombudsman. I am really starting to get annoyed with QQ as they are just stalling constantly instead of just agreeing with adjudicators ruling.
Any thoughts, should I let it go to Ombudsman for final ruling?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know what this other document is? have you seen a copy? If QQ want this to go to the Ombudsman, it will have to. So far we haven’t seen a case where the ombudsman has over-ruled an adjudicator decision and decided in favour of the lender.
NB I’m not saying adjudicator decisions in favour of the customer never get over-turned, just that I haven’t seen it happen on a payday loan affordability case which I would consider a reasonable one.
fusionx212 says
I’m wavering a little, I could use the cash £2470 Wonga offered me right about now but the principle and stubbornness in me is not allowing me to weaken at the moment, getting pretty frustrated with the toothlessness of the ombudsman, although good and sympathetic to me it feels like they are happy to just wait around with out really proactively chasing wonga & move my complaints forward.
Wonga picked 8 loans out of 25 for me to offer compensation on even though I rolled over or took another loan out immediately after paying back with them.
frustration setting in.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I know it’s a tough one. If you feel it’s a fair offer, even though you can probably get more by waiting, then why not take the money?
But if you don’t feel it’s right, then will you later feel cross if you take what’s offered because you don’t want to wait any longer?
Amy Taylor says
So this morning I received a few emails.
PDUK- after contesting the £1 fee and reporting them to the FCA they are now in the process of getting my statement to me.
Lending stream are reviewing my complaint after I refused to pay the £10 fee. Their email stated they would be in contact within 2 days.
CFO stuck to their word and emailed statement within 72 hours. In their email they stated that I had also overpaid by £65 on the final payment (not sure how that’s possible but I’m not gonna argue with them) and to confirm my account number and sort code to arrange a refund. In their words “As per the attached statement of account under agreement number 412365 you have made an over payment of £65.48 which has yet to be refunded”
Just to point out this was from February 2013. I would never have known or got this if I hadn’t contacted them.
Do I get the refund now or include it as part of my complaint?
Also do it make you case stronger if you borrowed as soon as you had repaid each month for a period of time as surely this shows your struggling?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you probably should get the CFO overpayment refund now, but I suggest putting in a normal affordability complaint and adding on the sentence. “In addition to this affordability complaint I was told on dd/mm/yyy that I have paid to much on the last loan and you will be refunding be £65 for that. This doesn’t change the rest of my complaint.”
Borrowing again from the same lender very soon after repaying the previous loan is a clear sign you were having trouble. If you could add a sentence such as “You will see the gaps between my 6 loans were 11 days, 5 days,1 day, same day, 2 days – this is a pattern of dependence you should have noticed and stopped lending to me.” that would be good. Rolling / deferring loans is also a sign of problems.
Lesley Page says
Just had a reply from Capital One Finance, admitting that I was treated unfairly but all they are offering to do is wipe the £100 that I owe them, however they caused me to have over a hundred in bank charges when they took money every 2 minutes on consecutive days, FOS I think
Natalie Parr says
Just received this in reply to the second template letter. ??? What should I reply back ?
[I have removed the general stuff from their email – Sara]
Prior to completing your application for credit, the CFO Lending website made it clear that this was a no credit check short term loan. At the time of your application (2011) CFO Lending was regulated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and was not required to complete a credit check.
Your application for credit for the amount of £150.00 with interest of £58.50 was approved. You agreed to pay the total amount of £208.50 back in full on the 28th July 2011.
The business received a second successful application for credit from you on the 28th July 2011 for the amount of £200.00. Your agreed to pay the amount of £278.00 back in full on the 31st August 2011. On this date at your request we collected the minimum of your interest payment and your loan was deferred. By making your minimum interest payment your outstanding balance was not reduced but you covered the cost of borrowing for a further month. Your loan was then due for repayment on the 30th September 2011.
On the 30th September 2011 the business collected full amount of funds owed
The business received a third successful application for credit from you on the 4th October 2011, your application for credit for the amount of £250.00 with interest of £97.50 was approved. You agreed to pay the total amount of £347.50 back in full on the 28th October 2011.
On the 13th October 2011 the business received a refinance application from the amount of £100.00. Your refinance amount was added to your previous loan amount and interest was calculated on the total. You agreed to pay the amount of £622.03 back in full on the 28th October 2011.
On your due date at your request the business collected the minimum of your interest payment and your loan was deferred. By making the minimum of your interest payment your outstanding balance was not reduced but you covered the cost borrowing for a further month. Your loan was then due for repayment on the 30th November 2011.
On the 30th November 2011 the business failed to receive payment as agreed and your account fell into default and incurred added interest and charges as per your contract. With all the added interest and charges applied to your account your outstanding balance was brought to £1073.53. To date we have received payments totalling £777.40.
As advised in our initial email as part of our Redress Scheme you have received a write down on your account for the amount of £296.13 and your account with the business.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could reply they should have seen from the increasing amounts, short gaps and deferrals that you were in financial trouble and stopped not lent on 4th October, only 4 days after you repaid your second loan which you had had to defer.
If you think that would be fair, ask for a refund of all fees and charges that you have paid on the 3rd loan – I make that £424 (774 paid less 350 borrowed). The amount hey have written off is just charges so it is irrelevant (assuming I am reading the letter correctly.)
Luke says
Hi, just came across this site, glad I did really as lot of very useful info here, my situation is fairly recent, I took a loan out with My Jar was just £100 paid £120odd on next payday, borrowed it again few weeks on again paid back on time, then I was offered a loan over 6 months for £1100 I took out this loan, then got a £250 loan of lending steam paid back early the £1100 my jar loan then borrows £1300 back few weeks later which I still have £1000 outstanding despise paying over £500 off in the mean time I’ve also paid off the first £250 lending steam loan but have took out another 2 £250 ones, in a mess really I’ve never missed any of the payments as trying not to have a negative impact on credit file, but the my jar loan for £1300 is £400 a month that’s more that half my monthly income it’s crippling pay it is there anything I could do as I feel I shouldn’t of been offered that much as I can’t afford £400 a month, I know I shouldn’t of excepted it at the end of the day but when your in a mess you just borrow from one to pay another as I also have credit cards and Catologs that I pay, it’s just too much, any advice? If I never had these other loads I would mange my other debts ok but there are causing me Ye problems, how would I start the compliant and is there any point in me trying?
Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Luke, the first thing is you need to get your current situation under control so that you don’t have to borrow any more money each month to repay other loans.
[edited] I’ve now written a whole article about this, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
Andrea says
I finally have some success! PDUK have offered me £359 less the £90 I owe them because I shouldn’t have been allowed to rollover the last loan eight consecutive times. It is with the FOS at the moment but I think I’m going to accept. I know PDUK are slippery so and so’s and I’m not physically or mentally well enough to have it dragged out through the FOS at the moment. £269 is almost three weeks benefit money and could make my life a lot more comfortable. I still have Sunny and Payday Express and the Money Shop- all of which were fairly hefty- left to fight. I paid about six hundred and something to PDUK in interest, the loans were never huge, usually around £100 but I don’t think it’s an unfair offer.
catjopal says
Hi
I’ve accepted QQ’s offer and sent my bank details via the ombudsman over a week ago but heard nothing.
Then missed a withheld call yesterday from QQ; they left a message asking me to call back.
When I phoned, an American Lady answered the phone saying she was from the Final Resolution Team. I explained that I’d missed a call and she looked for my details and then said that it was because they needed my bank details. So I gave them to her and she then abruptly said that’s all she needed.
When I mentioned it to my husband that evening he queried why she’d needed them as the ombudsman had already sent them. So I phoned back tonight and asked what the purpose was. I got a really rude American Lady again who said it was to do with my complaint refund, so I asked when the refund was expected and she replied “I have no further information for you, we will email you when we have. Thank you for choosing QQ” and then went quiet.
So rude!
I’ve no idea what to do with this… when am I likely to get an email or a refund for that matter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
QQ’s customer contact team are often American but they don’t seem to have the usual US “service with a smile, you have a good day” approach :(
I suggest forgetting about this for a week and then asking again if the the money hasn’t turned up.
Nick says
Hi all, just got off the phone to the Fos and got some useful information and thought to share. When writing your complaint to the payday loan company there are two thing you can possibly complain about.
1- should you have been loaned money given your current circumstances? For example, did you have several other loans that were in arrears?
2- was the loan you received affordable? For example, did you borrow 1000 and only make 1200/1300 a month?.
Given the information I have received, I’m going to update my complaints I’ve made recently with additional information. With some I don’t think it’s a case of if the loan was affordable, I don’t think I should of been given the loan with my borrowing history which make my complaint completely different.
Good luck all with your complaints!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Nick,
I would say the two important questions were slightly different – and importantly you have to be able to make out a case that the answer is YES to both of them:
1) was your loan unaffordable, ie could you only repay it on time if you borrowed more money?
2) should the lender have known the loan was unaffordable? This could have been because your credit record was bad (if they checked it), because you were borrowing a lot in relation to your salary, because you were borrowing repeatedly or rolling loans, because the amounts you were borrowing were going up. Any of these points should have made your lender stop lending.
dan shepherdson says
Hiya there, I recently started re claim procedures with Wonga and lending stream, Wonga have agreed to re pay me £208 however lending stream have sent me this rather odd e mail, and I have no idea what to do next? Is it a rejection letter, or have they looked at my case at all.
Dear Mr. Shepherdson,
This is in reference to your email dated 24th June’16.
Please be informed that you had borrowed six loans from Lending Stream, which were closed successfully.
[general stuff]
Therefore, in order for us to provide you with the affordability information, we would request you to send us a written letter addressed to Lending Stream with a £10.00 cheque (in favor of Lending Stream LLC) as per the SAR (Subject Access Request) requirements under the Data Protection Act 1998. As the information requested by you comes under the purview of SAR.
[general stuff]
Kevin says
They did this with me, just a delaying tactic. If you have a list of your loans then you are requesting no Info. I replied along the lines, “I’m not requesting any infornation as I already have a list of all loans”. But if you do not know all your loans then yes you might have to pay a small fee
dan shepherdson says
I have a list of all the loans I took out with lending stream as its availiable when logging into my account, will contact them and let them know I am taking the matter further involving both the FSA, and the FOS see how I go from there
Gemma says
Hi my complaint about wonga started in Feb 2016 now seems to between the adjudicator and the ombudsman. The adjudicator asked wonga to reply back by 13/6/16 they didn’t. His recommendations were that wonga that should refund any interest and charges I paid from 11 July 2011 onwards. With 8% simple interest to these amounts. They should also remove these loans from my credit file. The adjudicator moved my file on to the ombudsman on the 15/06/16. My question is how long should this stage take? Thanks in advance.
Mark says
My complaint with QQ was upheld by my adjudicator,but QQ disputed it so its now in the hands of the Ombudsman.My adjudicator reckons 4-8 weeks for me for a final decision
Gemma says
an update:
The financial ombudsman made their decision in my favour on 29/07/16. Which I accepted. I have still contacted Wonga to chase them. As I don’t trust them! I had a letter 01/08/16 after speaking to the financial ombudsman saying that if the business has not contacted you within the next few weeks or if you have problems with the settlement please let us know. Wonga are treating this as a new deadline of 3 weeks! Started this in Feb!!!!!
fusionx212 says
So I remembered sunny were 8 weeks up this week, so I emailed them via resolver stating they are approaching the 8 week allowed limit, my sunny loans were from late 2015-2016 which means they are still offering un-affordable loans to people.
they advised they did all the checks they were required too but looking at the information I provided they are upholding my complaint, (mainly because going to the FOS costs them £550 if they lose.) but i got all loans and full interest + 8% returned. £540 quid
was really wavering today about wonga etc but this cheered me up no end,
total charges reclaimed so far,
peachy £450 – all loans removed
sunny £540 – all loans from 2015-2016 removed – which is what I want the most
santander, Default removed from credit file, £250 compesation
Barclays £400 bank charges back – Turnt my overdraft into a 0% loan with them as well.
total = £1640 – placed into savings for now.
pending
Wonga £4097 – phoned my adjudicator explained i was upset with how long this has dragged on for but she gave me a good indication she agree’s with my assessment and will let me know by Friday this week.
myjar £400 – denied wrong doing but loans took out along side sunny. – FOS asked to look at this for me.
quick quid £200 – offered to remove from credit file, even though i already had it removed from the debt collector, i wanted interest and fees back – With FOS
Very Littlewoods – about £1000 in fee’s whilst i was dealing with debt issues for the above. 8 Weeks approaching
total = £5697
if all payout as i expect them to
£7337
this would clear 5k loan I had to take out to finally break the cycle of pdl’s i am bout £400 better off a month this way
overdraft – £3500 – £70 a month repayment.
I can then clear off my credit card – £700 which is upto date no late payments etc. £50-100 a month repayment as trying to clear it.
total debt = £9.3k – £7337
debt left = £1863 which I can clear off by dedicating some of my current outgoings on i.e – £200 a month for about a 9 months.
I have improved my credit score of 0 back upto 600, although means nothing but I got offered a hsbc credit card the other day for the first time, I did not take it out but I really want to keep positive, I have dedicated hours if not days to sort my finances out and I feel a million times better for it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All your hard work is paying off, even if it is days it’s a pretty good hourly pay rate :)
Obviously the money is the really tangible thing, but I think people also feel a lot better psychologically because they know they have taken control, have a clear view of what went wrong in the past and also see that so many other people were also trapped by payday loans.
If the adjudicator agres with you surely it’s waiting to get a better payout from Wonga!
Richard says
Another result yesterday £2700 from 1 month loan would not uphold my complaint but offered interest back not the 8%. I have to except some blame taking out all these loans but once your sucked in thats it your stuck. Well over £7000 pounds back so far from 3 companys, wonga still to come and 4 others with the FO
Nigel says
Ok here is an update of progress.
If it had not been for Payday UK/Express sending me a letter stating that on review I had paid to much interest the were sending me a refund on previous loans of £512 then I would not have got involved in all this.
So I send a complaint to Wonga and QQ to start with and then the rest last week. here is what I have so far back from them.
Wonga was upheld £3500 paid into my account with five weeks of complaint
Safeloans or SSL Upheld £800 next day from complaint
PiggyBank Upheld £463 Three days from Complaint
Mr Lender Upheld £1229 Five days from Complaint
Peachey Refused with FOS now
Offer from lending stream, asked them to reconsider still waiting on revised offer
Offer from Moneybox 24/7 Asked then to reconsider only today.
Still waiting on Monkey Dosh, Uncle Buck, WDA, NextCredit, CFO, EPDL, MyJar and returned to PDUK and Express for more info as I now believe the settlement was inconclusive. Also the Moneyshop.
Deadends with MiniCredit, albemarlebond Cashgenie, Toothfairy, Speedydosh Punds Till payday, Swift Sterling, Mistercheque.
But to put it into context. I had 86 loans with QQ! It should be interesting the expected battle I will have with them in the next few days.
So Goods results so far, I do use a very strong and hard line approach in my complaint emails and it seems to be paying off.
Wish you all well and continue the battle.
Eve says
This is an interesting post and thread.
I got myself into a bad spiral in 2012 – 2013 and ended up with 10k worth of debt.
I had roughly 14 creditors, and I am still paying these of through a dmp.
Wonda recently give me a ‘redress’ and cleared by debt and refunded me £5 and CFO recently wiped £542 worth of debt without me complaining etc.
After reading these Im thinking I may have grounds to complain, although im a bit nervous and not sure what to say to them?
My loans started small but then interest and rollovers became a big problem and that’s how the total debt built up.
Can anyone advise am I able to address this whilst still paying loans off or should they be cleared first?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can complain whilst you are still repaying these. The DMP in itself shows that your final situation was unsustainable.
Assuming your recent loans including the outstanding one are found to be unaffordable, the process is that any interest or charges on the last loan are deducted from the current balance – sometimes this clears it completely, sometimes there is some remaining – the effect is that you are always asked to repay the amount you borrrowed. For the previous loans that were repaid in full, the interest and charges are added up for the unaffordable loans and this refund is first use to pay off any remaining balance.
This may sound confusing, but it makes more sense if you look at some examples, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-write-off/
You may be wondering if you should stop making payments whilst the complaints are going through. It’s best not to, to just leave the DMP running.
Matt says
Hi, just wondered if anyone has any experience of complaining against SafetyNet? My complaint went in to them on the 17th June and they have said I should have a reply by 15th July. They’ve put collection of my outstanding balance on hold but are still adding interest to this daily, for anyone who’s had a complaint with them how good are they at actually responding? Will the 4 weeks turn into 8 weeks or longer?
Thanks
Anjmcj says
They were brilliant with me had a reply in 7days totally cleared my outstanding amount which was over 1k
James says
I sent my questionnaire back to QQ late last night it took me ages to find all my statements and then went through them all to find all my loans.I made a note of them all after having no luck being sent a full loan history. I had 24 loans not including my existing one for £300 I borrowed £3600 and repaid £4125.66 if all calculations are correct (it was late gone 1am) so interest was £525.66. I borrowed every month except a few months in the middle but was still paying them installments at this time for a loan then it started it again the next month.
So would an amount offered from QQ for a few hundred be a good offer? Just so I know if they do offer me something. Or could I expect my existing £300 loan to be written off and receive a small refund of charges.
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you only paid £525 interest a few hundred back would be an OK offer. With a balance outstanding it’s more likely they will just offer to clear the balance and any refund will be really small.
Kevin says
Complained to the FO about Quickquid on 31st May and had been waiting on an adjudicator, out of the blue the FO called to say Quickquid were offering £650 re a few unaffordable Loans (my claim was for about £850)….so might accept on the basis that they remove ALL loans from my credit file….are they likely to agree to this anyone know?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£650 if total interest was £850 sounds like a reasonable offer!
re getting the loans removed – you want any removed that were paid late or defaulted or were in the last year. older loans that were repaid on time don’t do your credit record much harm. QQ is unlikely to agree to remove loans that they aren’t refunding.
Jen says
Waited 14 weeks for Wonga to process my claim and today they’ve rejected it and advised they followed eligibility criteria/credit checks etc
Feels like I wasted those extra 5 weeks waiting for them
fusionx212 says
chin up it’s a game of patience, log it to the FOS, tell them how you feel.
Jamie says
Hi all, Update Time;
LS -complaint not upheld by FOS. (1 loan)
PAYDAYUK – complaint not upheld, now with FOS (9 loans in 2013)
QQ – complaint not upheld, now with FOS (28 loans 2011 – 2013)
Wonga – asked for another 6 weeks, now with FOS. (15 loans 2013)
Quite happy to wait, my adjudicator will be taking all my complaints, very nice person to talk to, and didn’t judge me at all with all the borrowing I had with PDL.
I will write another update once I have some news.
Lilly says
I wondered if anyone has had success with QQ please when complaint is at the FOS stage where the loans included Flex Credit accounts with them please?
catjopal says
Hi
I accepted an offer through the adjudicator at the FOS last week against quick quid. Just over £3000. Due to be paid soon.
It included flex credit which accounted for nearly £2000 of the refund.
Good luck!
Lilly says
Oh thats great news thank you. I had 6 large pay day loans with them, but then followed by 2 years of Flex Credit account lending and have heard not great things when it comes to the Flex Credit accounts results, so thats great :) Thank you.
Mark says
I had a flex credit account too,my adjudicator has said I should be refunded all charges and interest on this as well as the loans I had with QQ
Dave says
I have submitted a complaint to the FOS for PaydayUK and Payday Express as part of the same complaint. The reason for this is that Payday express gave me my statements but payday UK refused to send this information.
Any thoughts on this? Is it worth contacting the ombudsman and explaining the situation?
Thanks
Matt Bevan says
This is interesting as it happened the other way around with me. PAYDAYUK posted mine no problem yet PAYDAY EXPRESS messed around asking for payment. I had to get quite forceful but pointed out as their sister company sent without payment I could expect them to do the same. It worked
James says
Hello all,
I wonder if someone could help me with my complaint to Quickquid. I made this complaint a few months ago using the standard template you’ll see knocking around on the internet. I’ve had a total of 11 loans with Quickquid since 2013 and requested the refund of all interest and charges on these loans, as well as having them deleted from my credit record.
Quickquid replied asking for the usual information (bank statements, payslips etc), however I never got round to replying to this email at the time due to going through a particularly busy time in my personal life (exams, work etc). I received a ‘final response’ about a month after their initial request, offering to write off the one outstanding loan I have left with them and remove it from my credit file. The balance on the loan is about £200.
My question is, should I accept this? I’m not concerned about having to wait for the ombudsman to sort this out as I’m not in any massive dire straights financially anymore. My concern is that if I complain the ombudsman and he does not uphold my complaint, QQ’s original offer will be rescinded and will no longer be available. I did a rough calculation and estimated the total interest and charges across all 11 loans to be around £1000.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Bob says
No as far as I understand that offer will still stand if it goes to the ombudsman, if anything the fact that they have offered anything is proof that they admit their error so if anything the offer can only get better as worst case the ombudsman will say they gave you a good offer so to take it.
don’t give in to them, take it to the Financial Ombudsman Now !!
Fergie42 says
Hi
I’ve had a decision from the FOS but wanted some advice please as to whether to escalate to the Ombudsman.The lender is CFO.
I asked to be considered 17 consecutively from April 13. The adjudicator has said that the first 5 were affordable.
I asked that the debt be written off that I still owe but the adjudicator has said that this must come off the interest payment for the 12 loans before the 8% is added on.
I also said that I wanted compensation for the hard time this lender gave me. I e-mailed them a letter in March 14 saying I couldn’t afford the loans and they could only contact me by e-mail. They continued to ring my phone and work numbers constantly and I supplied e-mail trails asking them to stop ringing me at work. The lender told the adjudicator that this never happened and she ruled in their favour.
The lender still has to come back to agree with her decision (they have until 11th July) and so do I but I do feel a little aggrieved about my dismissal of unfair treatment and the capital being deducted.
Thanks :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but taking the refunds off the outstanding balance is what almost always happens. there is no point in taking this part of your complaint to the Ombudsman.
re the calls to your work. Have you asked the Adjudicator why she is accepting CFO’s word that these didn’t happen, when you have supplied the emails from you to CFO complaining about them?
Gordon says
An update.
Basically, the adjudicator did not uphold any of my complaint with QQ.
I have appealed to the adjudicator and they have requested all bank statements between 2012-2016, which luckily I had all prepared in spreadsheets.
Now awaiting them to look over these and get back to me.
PDUK
No update or movement at all, but will chase today
Bob says
keep us upto date on this as doesn’t seem right to me, the flex credit wasn’t just a loan that could be split into 10 payments, it was the fact you could keep withdrawing funds from it upto your limit each month, for example 900 limit, 250 interest, payment taken about 350 meaning you now had an extra £100 available to withdraw straight away – so you were never actually paying off the loan (they wanted it like this!!) and each time you withdrew additional funds there were no checks on your income etc…..
I’m of course going by my own experience with this loan and that I’m still waiting for the FO to speak to me about it
Ive even just found an email with this message from them –
Need more cash? Log in to your QuickQuid FlexCredit® account at QuickQuid.co.uk to access your available credit limit.
As you repay what you borrowed, your available credit will increase automatically up to your approved credit limit!
if that isn’t irresponsible lending then I don’t know what is !!!
Jack says
Quick update guys:
PDUK final response came in today (few days before 8 week deadline) and did not uphold my complaint.
In their response, they stated a wholly inaccurate picture of my borrowing, saying that I had 6 deposits and deferred once, when in fact I had over 22 instances of borrowing, deferrals and of course interest payments. I have made this clear to the FOS and forwarded it them for investigation.
It saddens me that these companies are not acting with integrity and trying to (seemingly) mislead the Ombudsman with their final responses.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well said! When you get to the end of this process, I suggest you tell PDUK’s regulator, the FCA, what you think of how PDUK handled your complaint. It won’t do you any good, but it’s quick and easy and may in the end mean they are forced to improve their complaints handling, see the last bit in this article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/
Mark says
Payday express came back to me a few days before deadline to offer £450. They quoted the customer charter to me of 2012 that states a payday lender should not let you rollover more than 3 times, this is what the refund is based on. They claim all my other 15 loans were affordable, however my first loan all be it before the charter was rolled over 5 times and i defaulted and was reloaded some 14 times more, despite numerous other loans with other companies and defaults them and also lots of loans with the DFG group all at the same time. Payday express state number of loans issued has nothing to do with affordability, however to me it clearly shows a cycle of unaffordable debt. Given that i paid roughly £2500 in interest i have rejected their offer and will go to the FO
Matt S says
That’s interesting, I had a loan with Payday UK that I rolled over 11 times but they denied my complaint and claimed they lent responsibly. Would depend on what date the charter came in I suppose as my loan and rollovers were from April 2012 to March 2013.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think this “Customer Charter” is a red herring. It has nothing to do with how the OFT, the FCA and the Ombudsman regard affordability.
G says
Looking for some advice, had my complaint against next credit not upheld by the adjudicator today on the grounds that it was only one loan, they did a credit search ( with a different company that didn’t show all my previous loans with other lenders ) and that my income and expenditure form should I could afford it. Desperately I exaggerated my income on the form and not sure if I have much hope if I take to the ombudsman
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s always difficult to win a single loan case and if you exaggerated your income that will make it even harder. Probably not worth carrying on with this one.
Jamie says
Hi Sara,
Firstly just a quick thank you for all your help and this website! It’s been fantastic.
Wong have responded with an offer (week 9) I’ve already passed this over to the FO and I’m waiting for an adjudicator to be assigned to my case. Just looking for a bit of advice really, as they have only offered a refund of £800 on 4 out of the 11 loans. Will the adjudicator just agree with this or challenge other loans as well?
Thanks
Jay
Sara (Debt Camel) says
We have had several people here get inadequate offers from Wonga whilst a complaint is already with an Adjudicator or waiting for one. Sometimes the offers seem to be for completely random loans! If you go back a few comments you will see Tony saying yesterday “Wonga have today given me a figure following the decision of ombudsman that they must repay all the loans taken out from January 2010. Wonga had originally offered to pay my £818 for three random loans. I am happy to say they have confirmed that £4800 will be paid into my account within 3-5 working days. ”
The Adjudicators don’t usually just accept a creditor’s offer. They will tell you if they think it’s reasonable or not. If you don’t agree, explain to them why you don’t think it’s reasonable.
Erika says
So, some updates for my cases.
Speedy cash, agreed to my and my husband complaint. Returned last loans fees (for my husband 1200, for me 700) . Fully agree with them, decision was made after 6 weeks, money in account after 2 days.
Money shop, for me and for husband ask for more time after 8 weeks, both go to FOS
Oakam. Oakam decided my loans was fair. I send it to FOS. Today adjudicator made decision, what Oakam right. I don’t agree, as Oakam state my income was 1550, but my income was just maternity allowance 540 per month and child benefit 52. so total 600. Another 1000 pound I think was add from my husband from his Work and child tax credit (but money goes not to my bank account, but to his bank account, so I don’t understand how was calculated income) I don’t agree with adjudicator and write him about situation with income. Now wait. Really don’t let Oakam left as nice and fluffy company!!!! O maybe I not so right?
Mark says
Anyone have any dealings with Cash Converters Store Loans?
So long ago 2010 / 2011 I can barley remember but my frequency of payments seems very odd. These were all in store loans roughly between £300 and £600 a time
5th Aug 2010: £125
6th Aug 2010: £125
9th Aug 2010: £125
6th Sep 2010: £125
7th Sep 2010: £125
7th Sep 2010: £125
30th Sep 2010: £125
1st Oct 2010: £250
4th Oct 2010: £125
5th Oct 2010: £125
8th Nov 2010: £375
8th Nov 2010: £125
6th Dec 2010: £250
7th Dec 2010: £125
8th Dec 2010: £125
6th Jan 2011: £125
6th Jan (x2) 2011: £125
7th Jan 2011: £125
11th Jan 2011: £125
12th Jan 2011: £125
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Several people have Cash Converter cases with the FO at the moment. That was a lot of borrowing in a short space of time – definitely complain.
aga has just replied today (look below) with a success, getting £2517 offer from cash converts – originally they had offered £197 which she rejected and took it to the Ombudsman.
Luke says
QQ have today offered my £350 over 32 loans and have said they can only see 10 that have been unaffordable even though 30 out of the 32 rolled over i have now took this to FOS.
Wonga are still dragging there heals a bit its been 8 weeks and i’ve had a email asking for another 6 weeks to make there decision just looking for some advice weather to go straight to the FOS or just wait till i get a decicion
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t see any downside in going to the FO now. Wonga won’t stop looking at your case, you may get an offer before an adjudicator picks up up.
Nicola says
Today I am a happy bunny. After waiting the full 14 weeks, Wonga have emailed me and have upheld my complaint and offered to refund just over £1500, which was slightly more than I was expecting! They have also agreed to remove the loans from my credit file, which they state may take up to 30 days. I have just started dealing with the ombudsman regarding my complaint to quick quid, and the fact that Wonga have admitted irresponsible lending, gives me a bit of hope that the adjudicator will also agree that this was the case with QQ.
Tony says
Update from me.
Wonga have today given me a figure following the decision of ombudsman that they must repay all the loans taken out from January 2010. Wonga had originally offered to pay my £818 for three random loans. I am happy to say they have confirmed that £4800 will be paid into my account within 3-5 working days. Am so pleased and grateful again for this site.
Only 3 more to go now, UB, payday uk and payday express. All have been upheld by the adjudicator but have been waiting to be transferred to the ombudsman since 1 June. Am not worried as adjudicator has said she wants all 3 to go to the same ombudsman to make it easier. Am hopeful of another few grand which would be amazing but have been paid or had monies written off about £10k already including wonga.
Jamie says
Hi Sara and all,
QQ have said they will re-call and write off the last loan but they feel they lent responsibly,
and done all the checks etc. I have not accepted this as I did ask for refund of interest and all loans to be deleted from my credit file.
I have now passed to FOS, but wanted your opinion and others, if I have a strong enough case
for irresponsible, unaffordable and un-sustainable lending.
The gaps between lending, I was using another PDL company, sometimes at the same time.Any advice would be great.
30 JUNE 2011 – £250 – PAID 29 JULY 2011
11 AUG 2011 – £800 – PAID 30 SEP 2011
09 OCT 2011 – £400 – PAID 31 OCT 2011
26 DEC 2011 – £150 – PAID 31 JAN 2011
27 DEC 2011 – £1200 – PAID 29 FEB 2012
29 FEB 2012 – £1200 – PAID 30 MAR 2012
31 MAR 2012 – £700 – PAID 30 APR 2012
11 MAY 2012 – £450 – PAID 23 MAY 2012
23 MAY 2012 – £525 – PAID 31 MAY 2012
08 AUG 2012 – £450 – PAID 22 AUG 2012
22 AUG 2012 – £525 – PAID 31 AUG 2012
11 SEP 2012 – £650 – PAID 31 OCT 2012
11 JAN 2013 – £400 – PAID 04 FEB 2013
04 FEB 2013 – £750 – PAID 28 MAR 2013 (ROLLED TWICE)
28 MAR 2013 – £750 – PAID 30 ARP 2013
30 ARP 2013 – £675 – PAID 31 MAY 2013 (LATE PAYING BACK)
31 MAY 2013 – £607.50 – PAID 28 JUNE 2013 (LATE PAYING BACK)
26 SEP 2013 – £850 – PAID 29 NOV 2013 (LATE PAYING BACK)
29 NOV 2013 – £850 – PAID 31 JAN (LATE PAYMENT, DEFAULTED)
Income was about £2200, outgoings with rent, bills and other debts was around £2080. Had multiple late payments on my credit file and a default. All my credit cards were maxed out and my overdraft was a joke over £5k and I was never out of it.
main objective is to get the default removed, as I was late paying £850 back then they gave me £850 again which I defaulted on, so anything on top is a bonus for me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well the gaps are a nuisance, as it makes it harder to show the lender (who was it?) knew you were in trouble. But some of those loans are VERY big. Definitely a case worth taking to the Ombudsman.
Duane says
Asked this before but never heard anything back, has anyone been successful with provident as they are being a right pain with me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Refund from provident direct – no. Several cases with the FO at the moment.
Morag salter says
Both provident and Greenwoods are now with FOS. They rejected both claims saying they were affordable , I think it’s there policy to do an in house credit check (if you paid your loans on time you can get another one!),
It was the agent that done the assessment.. He’s got no financial experience.
They should have looked at income coming in, wage slips, council tax bills etc!,I was paying one loan then getting issued for another one on the same day. Affordable haha!!!
Good luck
Duane says
I remember a time on my 3rd straight after loan my usual rep was on holiday but she would ask her manager to come see me. He denied me any further credit as he was concerned about the frequency and increasing amounts. But then I received a call from my agent when she got back saying they would help as it was basically her decision. This proves they have the final say on the “”yes”” which is WRONG. It effectively means these sub contractors / franchises are just out to make a decent living by and bend rules which may (but more likely) not have been set my their individual branches or head office in Bradford.
Billy says
Hi,
Can someone who has dealt with adjudicators help please – my case has been referred to an adjudicator as we speak. They have a copy of all the details including all correspondance and my credit report which is very bad!
They have requested copies of my bank statements from 2014 to present. Do they really need every bank statement? Also my statements show some big deposits last year from my wifes account for an extension we had done. This was my partners money and nothing to do with me as such. Will the ombudsman look down on my case if i dont provide them with these. Plus their is load and i mean loads of gambling which most of my payday loans went on. It was an addiction.
Can someone advise? should i still provide them with statements. The adjudicator has said If she doesnt have them by next week she will have to proceed with what she has ie my credit report.
Tony says
Billy
I had many credits going in as well from family and friends to help me and I just explained these and adjudicator was great. As for the gambling, there are many people on here who have had similar issues and it has not influenced the decision. The issue is were the loans affordable to you and were you in a position to pay them back
Tim says
Hi All
Has anyone had any joy lately with settlements being paid based on the adjudicators decision rather than going to an ombudsman?
Ive got a few that the adjudicator has sent her findings on, they should have replied by now but have done nothing. Ive sent a cheeky email asking for an update and they’ve said they will only speak to the FOS…… then speak to them!
Anyway looks like its gonna be dragged out for a couple more months going to an Ombudsman which is frustrating. Like many of you here, Im firstly finding this process stressful and secondly could do with the money being in my account sooner than later.
Many Thanks
Tim
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes they are happening. There tends to be more chat on here about the ones that go to the Ombudsman because the process goes on longer and people are rightly cross about it … so whereas a simple “adjudicator decides” may just result in couple of comments, there can be four or five times as many if it is taken to Ombudsman level. I think that probably gives a misleading impression of the how many are agreed at the Adjudicator stage.
Nicola says
Advice please!! So….today I come home from work to find a letter from the ombudsman regarding my QQ complaint. After initially being offered the standard £150 directly from QQ, they have made another offer to settle the case. The offer is as follows:
Refund on my 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th loan, totalling £2304.88
Adding 8% interest to the loan
Removing the loans from my credit file.
Whilst I’m absolutely thrilled that they have increased their offer, after checking my loan history with them, it appears that they are not including loan 7. Loan 6 was taken out in October 2012, and I must’ve rolled it over then done a payment arrangement as I didn’t finish paying it until October 2013. I then took out loan 7 three days after later. I initially borrowed £750, but then topped up several times up to £1900. This loan ended up in a payment arrangement which I started in August 2014, and didn’t finish paying until Jan 2016. I’ve worked out that in total I repaid them £4275, which totalled £2375 in interest. I’m unsure why the final loan would not have been included in their offer, and don’t know what to do. The amount they have offered is fantastic, but part of me questions if they should also be including loan 7, or if I’m just being ‘greedy’. If I ask the adjudicator to ask them to consider looking into this, will I lose out on their original offer??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you go back to the Adjudicator and ask why the last large loan was not included in the offer? Having made this offer to the Adjudicator, they can’t decide to withdraw it – and no you are not the one here who is being greedy….
Second thought – are you sure the last loan was a normal payday loan or was it a flex account loan?
H says
Hello all, originally complained to Payday UK 2nd January this year. No response went to FOS after several weeks of PDUK no answering anything from adjudicator as decision was made on my bank statements alone. PDUK finally answered Saying they need more time. This happened several times then a telepohne call from adjudicator today saying they agree with adjudicators decision! Not thag bothered about the refund but does anybody know how long it takes them to update credit file?
Thank you so much once again Sara you are an absolute saint!
Suzi says
*******************************UPDATE********************************************************
TMS has just paid me £1286.50 via FOS UPHELD MY CASE
also remove entries from my credit file – the award included £75 for delay & trouble
1st complaint to TMS November 1st 2015
So DO NOT GIVE UP ***********KEEP ON FIGHT FOR WHATS YOURS I DID **************
Nick says
Spoke to someone in TMS complaints department yesterday and was told they have received an exceptional large amount of complaints regarding their past lending and they’re bringing in help to tackle these complaints.
They can only look at complaints within 6 years ago from date and are only looking at February’s complaint now – 5 months behind so definitely won’t see an 8 week turn around.
Also this stuff about paying a pound for your transactions history is rubbish, they can do it there and then but that’s an attempt to deter you from logging a complaint or to give them more time dealing with there large amount of complaints. I walked in and got my transaction history in store, took 2 mins!
Me Thom says
Has anyone else just not heard anything from Wonga after their email acknowledging the complaint and saying it would be 8 weeks?
It’s been 11 weeks now, have gone to to the FOS however they sent a letter saying they won’t do anything more until contact them again?
Not sure what to do now?
Thanks
Kevin says
I got the exact same letter from the FO regarding my Wonga complaint. Basically, they are giving Wonga more time to issue their final response before placing you in the Q for an adjudicator. I called the FO and told them I was not happy as Wonga already had 11 weeks to respond….so they processed my complaint and fast-tracked me to an adjudicator
Kevin says
Quick update on my complaints;
Myjar: Adjudicator upheld my complaint, they have 2 weeks to respond.
Quickquid: Made me an offer slightly below what my claim was, while it was awaiting an adjudicator. Accepted, as long it was in my bank same day. It was….and for some reason they gave me slightly more money!
Wonga: With an adjudicator
Lending Steam and PDUK: Awaiting adjudicator
PDEX: 8 weeks nearly up and no response from them
Provident/Greenwood: Complaint just made
Aga says
with response to Mark – I was offered 197 from Cash converters ; sent claim to FOS on th 25th of May and this is the response:
“Thanks for your email.Cash Converters have been in touch to make you an offer to resolve your complaint. Their offer is as follows-
– A full refund of interest and charges you’ve paid, including 8% interest, which totals £2517.09
– Removal of the information from your credit file”
so don’t give up Mark- I sent complaint in February ; they responded with £197 offer . I did not accept and went to FOS
this is thanks to Sara and this website , cant say how much I appreciate your help !!!
Lynnette says
Got an excellent reply from adjudicator on Thursday and only giving them til Tuesday to reply to her fingers crossed. Reply was :
—————————————————–
I won’t be looking at the first loan issued in March 2010 as it has been more than six years from the date the loan was taken out; and it has been three years since Miss F would’ve been aware that she had cause to complain.
I can see that Miss F was given £150.00 (loan ending 8863) on 9 August 2010. I can see it took her 5 months to repay, despite having an income of £760 and no expenditure. This loan was repaid on 14 January 2011.
I think in January 2011 it was clear that Miss F was struggling to make repayments, because despite having such a large disposable income it still took her five months to repay this loan. Then on the same day, she was lent a significantly higher amount of £350.00 (loan ending 4184).
Looking at Miss F circumstances nothing significant had changed in between the two loans (8863 and 4184) – her income and expenditure was the same. So I think it would’ve been reasonable for Quick Quid to ask further questions around why it took her so long to pay £150 before continuing to lend her significantly higher amounts. And I can’t see that they’ve done this and so I don’t think that these loans were lent responsibly.
Also, on all the loans taken out after this, I can see a clear sequential lending pattern- Miss F was paying back loans and immediately borrowing. And it was clear that Miss Forbes was becoming dependent on the loans she was taking out with Quick Quid.
So to resolve this complaint I would suggest:
· refunding all the interest and charges on loans: 1844184, 2581758, 3557844, 4089501, 4395425, 5054376, 6229688 and 7669672;
· 8% interest per year from the from the date of payment until settlement;
· Remove all adverse information related to these loans from her credit file.
I do think this is a fair outcome in the circumstances, for the reasons I’ve explained. If you decide that you don’t accept my view, then an ombudsman here can look at everything again and make a final decision. Please let me know what you think by 6 July 2016.
—————————————————————-
Lilly says
Hi There,
I wondered if anyone had, or had heard of, getting any success with Pounds to Pocket at all please? I know they aren’t a typical pay day lender, but still kind of come under that bracket, and had seen that a few people had placed some complaints with them. Thank you.
Rachel says
Hi lilly I did get an offer from them but only covered my last loan which was a decent amount approx £1000 but I had 7 all together so I declined it is now with the fos awaiting allocation I am hoping they will put the quickquid and pounds together as they ran at the same time good luck
Katie says
Hi I have 7 pay day loans. I tried to get in contact with sunny with regards to paying interest back, as I kept increasing loans, and they did not take me seriously and now they won’t reply. I am now refusing to pay until they look into my query.
Quickquid took 3 weeks just to acknowledge my complaint, then asked for bank statements and for payslips and all of my outgoings I have pointed out that they have all this info from when I took out the loan. Looking at an article in the telegraph they are only on a temporary licence here, with not enough staff to run the UK side properly. The people I speak to on the phone don’t understand what I’m saying. Help!!! I’m massively in debt and I paid quickquid off, I was scared of collections action. But as soon as I paid off on time, (never missed a payment) they wouldn’t lend to me again but won’t affect they are in the wrong how do I proceed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you spoken to Sunny? They are usually one of the better lenders at handling complaints. Of course they don’t always give you the refund you want, but they don’t usually ignore you. Do you currently have a repayment plan for a defaulted balance to them?
Reply to Quick Quid by email saying you don’t have your bank statements and you want them to proceed to consider your complaint on the information that they have.
Duane says
Spent all day yesterday going through my internet banking and was horrified by what I found. As well as payday uk, payday express, Wageday advance going at the same time ( not quite as big amounts which I havnt listed) and my other long term debt, these are the big 4 that I’m focusing on.
QQ – 27 loans / rollovers over a period from Apr 09 to Aug 13
2550 loan amount / 5245 total paid back / 2695 interest
Wonga – 26 loans / top ups over a period from Jul 10 – Apr 12
5200 loan amounts / 6950 total paid back / 1750 interest
PTPD – 15 loans over a period from May 09 – May 11
2000 loan amounts / 5300 total paid back / interest 3300
Provident / 6 loans over a period of Aug 2008 – March 2012
2100 loan amounts / 4500 ( best guess) / 2400 interest
Any thoughts lovely people?
I think I have strong claims but would be interested in hearing people’s views. I believe it shows clear dependency on these vile loans and reckless lending by these worst offenders.
Thanks
mark says
Hi Duane, I am in a similar position myself. I would say you have a strong case from what you have said, particularly if you had no gaps from loan to loan or loan to rollover. You may struggle with anything in 2009 as it is harder to get anything over 6 years looked at, I think PTPD is particularly difficult anyway. Each case is different though but thats my opinion. As a lot of people on here are saying I would expect at least a three month wait if not 5 – 6 months from initial complain to ombudsman, best advice is not to mess around at 8 weeks and get your complaints in!
Thomas says
I complained to Pounds to Pocket on March 12th, they sent their final response 11 weeks later on May 31st, refusing to uphold my complaint. I immediately complained to the Financial Ombudsman and my case was assigned to an adjudicator on June 7th.
Although the adjudicator has requested further information from Pounds to Pocket, that information hasn’t been forthcoming. Indeed, my adjudicator called them again earlier this week to chase it up, but the only person able to provide the information ‘wasn’t available’.
To be honest, I don’t hold out much hope as I only had one loan with them and paid all my monthly instalments on time. I borrowed £500 and paid back a total of £924 – £424 was interest.
My complaint is based on the fact that I took out 4 payday loans with other companies in the two months prior to the Pounds to Pocket loan, and these would have shown on my credit report so that should have raised alarm bells. I’d also defaulted on 4 credit card debts that same month, although I appreciate that my credit report might not have been updated yet to reflect this information.
I’ll keep you posted with any updates. Wish me luck!
Thomas says
Update: as I expected, my complaint wan’t upheld by my adjudicator for the reasons I mentioned. She said that not all lenders use the same credit reference agencies, and even if they did, it can sometimes take a month or two for reports to be updated, so my recent defaults and other loans may not have shown. Coupled with the fact I only took out one loan, always paid on time, never rolled over and my repayments were small in proportion to my incoming wage, she felt that Pounds to Pocket hadn’t really done anything wrong.
I respect her decision. Sometimes you have to accept that it won’t always go the way you want it to. I’ve decided not to escalate my complaint to the Ombudsman in this instance.
fusionx212 says
F.Y.I, wonga have decided to remove all my loans from my experian credit file, I did request this as part of my complaint. but I rejected their original offer, I phoned wonga up to challenge this with them to be told i am to speak to the FOS and escalate my complaint. I said no… FCO guidelines state only a lender can change credit information of a report and I want to know why they have removed them with out notifying me or settling my complaint. I have raised this with my adjudicator, whilst I do want the loans gone from my credit file I get a feeling wonga are trying to cover their tracks. luckily I sent my adjudicator a report with the loans listed as well as that I listed them in my accounts.
word of advice for new people looking to complaint get a copy of your file, I dunno if they have done this just to me or it’s their new practice of delaying.
Erika says
Hello, just 2 days ago my husband received offer of 270. He agree :) Offer was made, when after 8 weeks Money shop ask for more time, case was send to adjudicator and two weeks later we get letter from MS with offer