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?
JOJO says
Hi all. Not commented for a while but been reading daily all the comments. Well I am on the road to becoming debt free thank god. Got quite a few complaint with the FOS but yesterday I heard from my adjudicator dealing with the SNC complaint. I started with SNC my finances were ok so the initial line of credit being given wasnt an issue. Then my finances took a turn for the worse in 2017. Adjudicator agreed case upheld from May 2017 to my last draw October 2018. Ordered them to do the usual refund interest, delete from credit file etc……SNC have until early Feb to respond. How are they reacting to adjudicator decisions at the moment? Thanks all and keep pushing. …..me not had any kind of credit or loan for over 12 months now….broke the cycle and it’s never felt better 😊
HLTCO says
HeyI have open complaints with Satsuma, Peachy, MrLender, Moneyboat, MyJar, OnStride and Cash4unow. In addition, I’ve had an offer of settlement from SafetyNetCredit for £2,800 and they have written off my balance (£1,100) and will remove reporting from my credit file. They confirmed the money will be in my account by 24 January 2020. Uncle Buck gave me a refund of c. £400, a £300 goodwill gesture from Ferratum, a £30 goodwill from CashAsap and an acceptance from 247Moneybox to clear my outstanding balance before they went into administration luckily. Peachy and Satsuma rejected my complaint on the basis that I said I had the income to pay it – both have me an initial £100 loan and I then topped it up by £600 and £1000 respectively (I was in gambling difficulties). I have escalated these to the FOS as I don’t agree with their responses.
Just wanted to share the experience I have had with lenders so far in this process and to say a big thanks to Sara and others on here for sharing their experiences.
a says
just want to say thank you sara so much and all of you that have shared your experiences.
i can confirm, SNC have come back to me this afternoon and agreed my claim and will be paying me £1297 !!! cant believe it i had no defaults or late payments with them however they are taking the accounts off my file, also this refund is after they have taken 125 off for my remaining balance. so happy will put this towards my other debts and try and settle them now, so close to being debt free thanks to this site.
mark says
Hello, I have just made my complaint to myjar. I used these years ago so many times. I also used them when they was named txtloan. Will my complaint still be okay even if they changed names? Also what are peoples success rates with them?
Kerry says
I put a complaint in on September last year for my loans over 6 years old when they were called TXT loan. They got back to me saying they didn’t uphold my complaint as they could not find my account. I sent it to the FOS along with bank statements to prove I had taken 14 loans between £100-£200. I left them a bad review as they took a while to get back so not sure if that helped but they came back offering to uphold my complaint and refund interest + 8% on all 14 loans which I was very suprised about.
Abi says
Hi :)
I am in a payment arrangement with 118 money, I believe They shouldn’t have given me this loan due too all my defaults and I was trapped in the payday loan cycle, if I send them this template will if affect my payment arrangement? I dearnt send it incase they try to make things hard for me as I’m putting a complaint in
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No it won’t affect your payments arrangement.
The best template for 118 money is over here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/, it’s better than the payday loan one where you only had one or two large loans from a lender.
Do you also have payday loans that you still owe? Other problems debts?
James says
Hi all
Good news after an adjudicator only suggested lending stream should pay out on 3 out of 8 loans the ombudsmen has told them to pay out on 6! they were mostly small but given they dated back to 2013/2014 it’s worth £1000 which is nice,
I’m now gambling free for 9 months, paid off all my payday loan debt last December haven’t borrowed from a payday loan in just over a year!
Now gotta clear credit cards & overdraft which this will help with!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I love it when this happens. Serves Lending Stream right for not accepting the adjudicator’s decision!
A good start to the new decade for you. Well done on kicking the gambling habit.
john says
Has anyone had any experience with cash float/western circles?
A says
I put in a complaint they got back to me within 10 days rejecting my complaint only had one loan with them that is in default so it was worth a shot
Kieran says
Hi. I had only one loan with them. They give me 500 pound which I couldn’t pay back. They then had a default on my account and now I have a CCJ on my account. In total they charged me 1100. Which is a lot for 500 pound loan. I put in a complaint but they refused so I am going to the FOS.
Carol says
Good Afternoon All, I’m back.
Keep going everyone, I’ve manged to get rid of a lot of my debts so I hope you all do so.
I’m just wondering if I’ve had a claim reject (Barclaycard and Capital One credit cards can I try again. Thanks All,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go to FOS if the rejections were less than 6 months ago. But if you send a new complaint in, the lenders are likely to refuse to consider it if they have already responded.
Carol says
Thank you Sara, Looks like I’ll have to keep paying these two then (over 6 months) thank you. I just want to say thank you for your invaluable help previously, I’ve manged to get from 12 debts down to 4 from not giving up.
I hope all your other clients/friends keep going. If I can do it, they can. It’s not easy but one less debt is fantastic.
Keep going all. x
Wendy says
Hi
I’m in a dmp with step change and was wondering if I can still try and claim irresponsible lean ding from my creditors or is it best to wait till my dmp has ended ?thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Claim now! It won’t hurt your DMP and any refunds will either speed a DMP up by reducing your balances or give you a cash refund you can use to settle debts in your DMP.
This is a good time for you to claim, not a difficult one.
Lynne says
I got an email from someone called United kash saying I owed £750. I told them I’d never heard of them and they said it was regarding a loan with different money. That name to me is very vague and It’s that long ago I can barely remember taking a loan so I told them this. They then replied with a message included from 2017 where I’d responded to their email. I said this is 3 years ago – how come you’re suddenly asking about this now! Next thing is I get a text message threatening me someone will visit my home address etc etc. Anyone know anything about these people or indeed how I should handle it? It seems strange they’ve popped up out of the blue after all these years……
Joseph says
Look at one of the pages where you can ask them to “prove it” – called a prove it letter. Basically on the lines of they’re the ones that need to prove you owe the debt and if they can’t I wouldn’t worry about it. Good luck !
ELEE says
Hi
Ive just come accross this amazing website, (Thanks Sara) I have e mailed 15 companies using the template. Do some companies investigate and pay out or do you generally need the FOS involved? Thankyou
Mike_p says
It depends on the lender as he number of loans. With Lending Steam the standard response is to reject so you have to get the FOS involved, Their response seems to be auto generated.
I’ve had offers from Cashsasp and Mr Lender without getting the FOS involved, I only had 4 or 5 relatively small loans with them though so they probably figured it was cheaper to make an offer than pay the £500+ fee they would have had if I took to to the FOS.
Satsuma seem to be the worst and don’t even reply within the 8 weeks they are allowed.
Ethan says
Has anyone heard anything from 247 Moneybox since they went into administration?
I submitted a complaint a month before the administration was announced – told them what I’d accept as a settlement and answered their questions. It has now gone silent and their response is 2 weeks over the 8 week deadline.
I have tried chasing them on the same email (according to the website complaints should still be filed via their usual customer service email address) but had no luck…
Steffy says
I’m in the same boat! 4 weeks over the deadline now, but I believe it will take a while to hear back now :(
JA says
Unclebuck update – Had 2 out of 2 loans upheld via adjudicator but unclebuck didn’t agree and I’ve been waiting for an ombudsman since november.
I decided to contact unclebuck again directly and they have decided as a gesture of goodwill to refund loan 2.
Kat says
Hi,
I put in a complaint to Mr Lender. They have replied by letter with a list of my loans suggesting that the reason for my sending the email was confusing, that how can I be unaware of whether the loans were unaffordable if I did not know the loans that I had taken out (I requested a list as per the template) and that they have seen the same email from a number of customers with the template taken from this website. I can obviously tell them exactly why these were unaffordable with proof but please advise how I respond the comments regarding this website? Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell them they have your complaint and that it is going to the Ombudsman after 8 weeks if they have not made you a reasonable offer.
mark says
Update on my myjar/txtloan complaint.
They have emailed me back today with a ‘summary’ of the loans I have taken with them but they have only put the 3 loans I had taken with them last year and not the other 37 loans between the years of 2011-2014. I still have proof of these loans as I have still all the emails regarding every one of them.
What shall I do now?
mark says
They have just emailed me back saying they delete all records that are 5 years or more.
This doesnt seem right at all, how do I go about getting refunded for these loans now???
Any Help would be much appreciated
Kerry says
Send your complaint to the fos. Send them copies of bank statements showing the loans going into your bank/being repaid. You can also send them the emails you hold if you choose but the bank statements will be sufficient. You could always try sending these direct to Myjar to prove you have taken the loans but from my experience, they will not look at upholding loans older than 5 years unless you’ve gone through the fos.
mark says
I have sent 1 to them as an example. Waiting on a reply. looks like I’ll be going to the fos. These 37 loans was thousands of pounds of interest so I know they’re not going to want to pay me
Lynne says
Well this is a pain in the backside. So because I’ve been successful with my wonga claim (without doing very little), I figured I’d go down the route of sending the template email to other lenders which I had used raising a complaint and seeking repayments from them. Thing is the ones who have replied have come back asking for bank statements, loan references, amounts etc etc! I don’t have any of this info as it is so long ago. Is anyone else being asked for the same stuff?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who are the lenders and how long ago were the loans?
You do have to try to help them find your case if you have moved, changed email address etc. But the template ask them to send you details of the loans.
Danny says
Day 14/28 and £4,200 has just been put into my account by Sunny for loans 15-49, fantastic start to the new year!
Timeline below:
Complained 31st May 2019.
Had final response on 18th July, offered me loans 37-49, sent straight to FOS.
Adjudicator picked it up on 6th November.
Adjudicator asks Sunny to refund me loans 8-49 on 10th December.
Sunny counter offer on 6th Jan 2020 for loans 15-49, I accept and money in today.
Decided it wasn’t worth the risk waiting months with an Ombudsman for an extra £400.
sam says
Hey people
I am counting down the days for my payment from Lending stream!
Most people wait 28 days for their payment and some even longer than that.
But has anyone been paid before the 28 days from them??
Just thought id ask around.
Livia says
Hi Sam I am on day 18 and still nothing, I don’t think I will get it before the 28 days are up
H.Burnett says
I was paid after 4 days
Mr F says
Update from me:
Had a response from my jar stating they are not upholding my complaint, I wasn’t sure when exactly my loan was with them, but they included this on todays email. I didn’t originally send them the statements, but as it happens had my statements through from my closed bank account Saturday that I had requested for my UK Credit complaint and it’s the same period. I’ve replied to my Jar with the statements explaining that I’ve just received them and asking them to review again before I take it to ombudsman the loan was 400 and I paid back 480 and the odd. Surely it would be cheaper for them to just uphold and pay than let it go to the ombudsman (I think I read somewhere they get fined £500 for every complaint that goes to ombudsman)
The status of my other complaints
•my guarantor loans with amigo and UKC currently being investigated
•myjar -see main comment
•sunny – didn’t up uphold but as gwg cleared balance of 4 outstanding loans totalling 800
•mr lender didn’t uphold but as gwg cleared balance of 254
•PiggyBank – upheld leaving 400 left of 800 balance
• SNC – upheld cleared balance of 1200 and refunded 230
•Wonga/QQ/Poundstopocket/WDA/Paydayuk-claims in with admin/schemes
debt of 2600 cleared so far, loan claims are strong so when upheld will provide a refund enough to clear remaining debts with change, this site has been amazing
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you only had one loan and it was “only” 480 then this will be hard to win.
a lender won’t agree to refund just because it is less than the FOS fee.
Mel says
Hi.
Has anyone received a refund from Uncle Buck regarding loans older than six years old?
I raised my irresponsible Lending complaint with UB in February 2018. (It was forwarded to the FOS in April 2018). My other irresponsible lending complaints have been settled a while ago. (These loans were from the same period as my Uncle Buck loans).
Uncle Buck is refusing the FOS to look into this complaint as the loans are older than six years old. I find this very strange. Especially, after the QQ saga….
Mel
a says
Hi Mel,
Im in the same boat.
it took UB months to give up the info they asked for and just being a general pain in the ass about everything at every turn.
im still awaiting response from adjudicator which they have said i will get by the end of next week however my case was assigned back in September…
Mel says
Yes, Uncle Buck is being very difficult. It has nearly been two years now…
Good luck with your complaint. Hopefully we will receive some good news soon!
M.
David Mallory says
Hi Sara.
I had a loan with Drafty.
Now in a payment plan. I complained to them in jan last year and I didn’t complain to the FOS. I thought I had but havnt.
Am I I unable to pass that on to them now as over 6months old
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, sorry, you have left it too late.
Joseph says
Hi Sara, I’ve noticed a few times people state that payday loan companies won’t uphold a complaint purely because it’s less than the FOS fee. But surely, and realistically, it’s viable as a business to settle any complaint that’s less that £550 (FOS fee). Even if we were to say it was a 100% failure of a complaint, even if they submit this it’s still going to cost them £550 – So why not (if it was my money) just get rid of these 1/2 loan complaints by upholding them? I understand the reason behind not upholding every complaint in fear of this fee but surely it’s not working and just looks easier to settle it. Just after your opinion here
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But a lot of people won’t take a rejected complaint to FOS, especially if it’s a weak one, or they may mean to but forget. So if only half go to FOS and only half of them win, that is still better than the lender paying out on all weak cases.
Mike_p says
They also wouldn’t want to open the floodgates paying back interest to everyone that had ever had a loan with them.
Lee sharratt says
Evening. I have had a lot of refunds. With a lot of companies. Is it worth trying to claim the tax back I have paid? Or leave it
Luke says
You can’t claim all of it back. The personal savings allowance means that you are allowed £1000 of interest tax free. If you haven’t received any savings interest this year then you can claim back the 20% of £1000 (£200). If you have received savings interest then the amount you claim back will be lower
a says
Hi Sara,
i had my response back from peachy yesterday, they did not uphold my complaint as i only had 2 loans with them.
The first loan of £190.00 was taken on 19/07/2019 and the repayment was due in six installments of
£24.14 – £63.98 by 31/12/2019. The loan was topped up by £60.00 and repaid by 27/09/2019.
The second loan of £700.00 was taken on 27/09/2019 and the repayment was due in nine installments of
£144.28 – £166.68 by 30/06/2020. However, during this loan we were contacted by a debt management
company who informed us of your struggles with repaying and as such, we set up a repayment plan
directly with them. The loan is currently outstanding.
the reason for not upholding my complaint is When assessing this complaint we have taken into consideration your positive repayment history and that you had
not gone overdue with your first loan nor had you rolled that loan over. In addition we have taken into account the
fact that you only had 2 loans with us. Considering that this was just the start of your borrowing relationship with
us, we believe it was reasonable for us to rely on the information you had provided and approve your applications
do i take this to the fos or just leave it? i was in 19,000 worth of debt to 9 payday loan companies 1 amigo loan at 13k and 4 credit cards all these were default at the time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it is worth taking to FOS because the second loan was so much larger and taken out the day the first loan was repaid.
mark says
Another update on myjar complaint.
they said they dont have records of my 37 loans between 2011-2014 anymore as they delete all records older than 5 years… Hmmmmmm..
So I then stated that I could send them all emails and credit agreements relating to all of these loans. They have refused my offer to send these and just ask for bank statements…
2 things.
1. This bank account is now closed so wouldnt know how to get these statements?
2. I used to have a really bad gambling problem and this would show up on the statements anyway and was wondering if this would anyway effect this.
Any help/advice much appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Gambling on bank statements helps your case!
Have you sent them a list of all the loans? 1 line per lone – date taken, amount, total paid, date settled.
mark says
This is what I will do. Thank you
I just spoke to the bank I had the closed account with and they informed me that I cant access bank statements from closed accounts that are more than 5 years old anyway. So the only proof I have is these emails and credit agreements which they dont want to see…
I have just emailed myjar back saying this but will go through all my old emails and list every loan I have and get it over to them.
Seems like they’re making it hard work for me but this isnt going to go away for them, they owe me alot of money so I’m not surprised to be honest.
Kerry says
Who is the bank you used to bank with?
mark says
Barclays, they said it’s their regulated rules.
Kerry says
I spoke to a couple of people at Barclays who told me the same, then I actually got through to somebody who was helpful! They can’t send the statements but they can send a list of all transactions (as good as a statement) The gentleman on the phone explained they needed this to have access to transactions for accounts older than 6 years during period people were making ppi claims going back over 6 years. I spoke to somebody on the phone who got them printed for me and I received them a few days later. Failing this, If you type in “Barclays personal data request” into google. There is a link on their website where you apply for them to send all this info out to you.
mar says
Hi, does anyone know how I can get a copy of my credit report for 2018? I have a case currently with the ombudsmen and they are requesting a copy but im not sure how I can obtain a copy of this from 2018? any help appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just send a copy of your current Credit Karma report. It shows info going back 6 years, so it is fine for 2018.
Lynne says
So ever since my Wonga refund is due and I also sent the template email to other lenders to seek refunds I’m mysteriously getting random texts and emails about ME owing THEM money! I’ve not heard from any of these companies in years yet now they crawl out the woodwork? Bit suspicious that. One of them is Payday Express saying I owe £500, but aren’t they one of the ones that’s gone bust? And who is TMLS??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
TMLS is a debt collector.
Have you put in a complaint to Payday UK or the money Shop? Payday UK, Payday Express and the money Shop are all part of the same group who have set up Scheme of Administration so they may well be contacting customers about debts and whether they want to make Claim. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-two-million-customers-will-be-informed/ about how to put in a claim against these lenders – if you owe a balance it’s important that you do!
Eve says
On positive note. FOS has picked up Mr Lenders and Lending Stream cases within 2 weeks of submitting. Less then 24 hours later, adjudicator for Mr Lender came back with his findings.
chris says
Same here, complained about Sunny and within a week they’ve picked up the case today. Have to wait till the 2/2/2020 for them to collect information. Annoying it has to get to this stage Myjar already sent my refund before sunny bothered to decline my complaint at the end of the 8 weeks.
Donna says
Hi all
I had my complaint with Sunny rejected (seems to be the case a lot with these guys!) and so I forwarded to FO. I had a response fairly quickly asking me what date I received my response from Elevate. Also received a response yesterday asking for me to send on bank statements covering the lending period and a copy of my Credit Report. They gave me until 3rd Feb to send but I have sent it to them today. Does this mean that my case has been picked up by an Adjudicator now, or am I still ‘in a queue’ so to speak?
JA says
This is usually when they’re getting all the info ready for an adjudicator to look at it once one is assigned.
Donna says
Thank you.
As it happens I’ve just had another email from my adjudicator who has picked up my case! Really quick response time!
Amy says
Hi Sara , today is my 8 week mark with amigo, I’ve had absolutely nothing from them , how long would you recommend before going to the FOS please?
Thanks again x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would phone them up – unless they say you will get it this week, I would send it to FOS now.
Glen says
This thread and website has been an eye opener for me, I fired off the template to all the bad loan companies I could think of I’d borrowed from and now tonnes of emails are coming in.
I started Sunday and already Piggybank have sent me a redress figure of £590 , by Wongas crash I’m not expecting much even though my redress was £8800 with them.Ive no idea how bad shape piggy bank are in , is it the same small % expected off them I.e 2-5% ?
I honestly think anything is a bonus for just asking , I’m grateful to have red these threads and done something about it in truth, I’ve around 8-10 claims in.
Ciaran says
Hi,
I have just won an adjudicators decision with MyJar for 2 loans and they agreed. The Adj mailed today to say he sent MyJar my bank details. Has anyone had any experiences with my jar and when do i expect to recieve the money. Do they usually pay within the 28 day?
Thanks
C
George says
Has anyone had any personal experience of refunds from Very and Drafty?
I have applied both with the templates of the Payday loan template, I just am not sure if this is suitable also?
Hoping that both will also be able to claim back as unaffordable also due to giving me credit and money. Thank you!
Elaine Jones says
Hi,
Today was day 21 of waiting for my Lending Stream refund and I just rang up to see if it might be any earlier, although the adviser just say she couldn’t guarantee and to wait for 10pm on day 28. As soon as I put the phone down to her, I received an email from Lending Stream saying refund has been paid and checked bank account and £899 was sitting in my account! So I would advise anyone waiting from them, to give them a ring as it might speed things up.
Amy says
Hi Sara,
I’ve had a reply from amigo stating they need another 4 weeks , as of today was my 8 week deadline , shall I still go to the fos or wait the 4 weeks? Thanks again x
Nicky says
I had the same I gave them the extra four weeks and they upheld my complaint just before the 4 weeks were up
Crissy says
I’m still in a queue waiting for an adjudicator for my SNC complaint , since February 2019 ? Anybody else been waiting so long ? Paid over £4000 in interest I stupidly borrowed for many months ?
Donna says
I waited a year and 2 days for a decision, but safetynet agreed with the adjudicator and I got the money within 28 of the decision which included Christmas.
Steve says
Hi has anyone had a decision upheld by the FOS for Ferratum, just had my response from the FOS upholding loans 4-19 they have two weeks to reply they where awkward when I dealt with them initially so I am guessing it will end up in the ombudsman.
Thanks
Steve
Lynne says
So I sent the template email to other payday lenders. Some have come back and asked for proof of bank statements, loan reference, loan amount etc, which I simply don’t have as it’s so long ago. Myjar have come back and attached my list of loans and interest paid, but my question is what do I do next? And presumably if I don’t have the info the others are asking for then I can’t continue with the complaints in each case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So Myjar – they have your complaint, they have sent you a list of the loans (which you asked for as part of your complaint) but have they responded to your complaint, accepting or rejecting it? It may well be that sending you the list of loans was the first step, then they will later respond to your complaint.
Who are the other lenders? how much did you borrow from each of them and how long ago was it?
Has the lender said they can’t find your loan records? or are they asking for bank statements so they can consider your complaint – those are two very different situations.
You can win cases at the ombudsman where its so long ago you don’t have statements, but there does need to be a list of the loans from somewhere.
a says
Hi guys just a quick question.
does SNC pay in 7 days or within 7 days? and do they do all their refund payments on a Friday?
HLTCO says
Just got paid my refund at around midday on the 7th day! Happy days though a huge amount of £2,800 and this will go some way to dealing with other debts!
Gemma says
Thank you Sara and everyone for your advice. SNC have upheld my complaint after only 6 weeks. Nice repayment of £591. And written off the £209 I owe so happy days x
a says
just fired off a email to cash converters because i was looking for my 118 loan repayments and noticed i paid cash converters a fair few times. i forgot i had the cash converters loans and to be fair how many i had out as this was all back in 2015. anyone had experience with Cash converters?? as i would like a little advice on what i should expect.
Jim says
I have been in contact with 1st Stop regarding numerous loans I had with them between 2011 – 2012
I have received a response:
I have conducted some further searches using the information that you have provided.
1st Stop Group Ltd underwrote some historic payday loans under 1st Stop Home Loans Ltd. It appears that the last loans underwritten were around 31st December 2013.
Any payday loans taken out on agreements issued by the following companies are not connected to the current 1st Stop Group Ltd:
1st Stop Recoveries Ltd 03 Jul 2014 – 07 May 2016
1st Stop Unsecured Loans Ltd 15 November 2013 – 03 July 2014
1st Stop Payday Loans Ltd 08 March 2011 – 15 November 2013
1st Stop Funding Ltd 29 April 2005 – 08 March 2011
The above business are previous trading names for Clear Recoveries Ltd, who are no longer trading.
We do not have any documentation relation to the historic 1st Stop Payday Loans as they were held on the LapsIT system, which we no longer have. These agreements will also be over 6 years, so outside of our data retention policy.
_————————————————————————————-
Any idea how I should pursue this?
Thanks,
J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask the Ombudsman if there is anything you can do.
Sarah says
Hi Sara
Really need some advice as to what to do next.
I got a reply from my adjudicator today stating that Sunny had agreed with his decision to refund loans two-seven, six of my seven loans; however Sunny are claiming that I didn’t repay more than I borrowed and therefore no refund is due. I’m totally confused by this, as my list of loans that they upheld on was as follows;
Loan2 borrowed £500 repaid £935
Loan3 borrowed £250 repaid £451
Loan 4 borrowed £200 repaid £242
Loan 5 borrowed £50 repaid £55
Loan 6 borrowed £200 repaid £361
Loan 7 borrowed £100 repaid £196
I don’t understand how they can claim I didn’t repay more than I borrowed when the figures they initially provided clearly show that I have. Any advice on what to do next please? I don’t understand how they have reach this conclusion.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to your adjudicator and point out these figures.
A says
Jim, I had the same reply !! Yet I’m still paying for the loan though a debt collectors agency as they passed my balance on 4 weeks after I submitted my complaint.
I emailed them back with the proof but had no response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi A – if you are still paying for the loan, I suggest ask the debt collector to produce the Consumer Credit Act agreement for the debt. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-cca-agreement-for-debt/ for how to do this. This is usually easy to produce for payday loan so i don’t often suggest it, but if a firm says it doesn’t have any documentation… how will it be able to priduce the CCA agreement? If they can’t the debt is unenforceable in court and you can simply stop paying.
a says
Hi Sara,
i did send a email requesting this info and then 1st stop sent me a email saying that they have found my account and now will re investigate this and get back to me im guessing now thats a further 8 weeks??
Nick says
Does anyone know how long the FOS is taking to deal with complaints at the moment. I put in a complaint about Avant credit at the end of November, & one against Lending Stream last week. I’ve had emails today on both of these, saying it could take up to 4 months for them to be looked at. I’m a bit surprised as shortly before Christmas I had seen people on here with Lending Stream complaints that had been dealt with within a few weeks/couple of months. Have the FOS suddenly become very busy.? Do you think that the fact that I already had a complaint in (Avant) has delayed my Lending Stream one as they will look at them both together (or doesn’t that happen)? Finally, my bank statements during the loan period show lots of large-ish credits into my bank account, suggesting that I had a larger income than I actually did. This was because I was juggling money around various accounts including my son’s Student maintenance payments and loans from my mother. Ultimately I had to repay these via more borrowing from payday lenders , which exacerbated my debt problems and eventually both those sources of ‘income’ (my Mum & son) dried up, at which point I got into mortgage & council tax arrears & ended up with a Debt Management plan. Will the FOS question how at one stage I appeared to have access to plenty of money, although really I was just robbing Peter to pay Paul?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you think that the fact that I already had a complaint in (Avant) has delayed my Lending Stream one as they will look at them both together (or doesn’t that happen)?
That doesn’t happen.
The backlog for Avant seems large.
LS just feels random at the moment – I know that’s very annoying for you.
FOS is usually pretty good at understanding robbing Peterbank statements. But if you think they are very complicated this waiting period would be a good time for you to write a few notes on each month that will clarify what is happening.
Mr PDL says
Hi All,
Just wanted to share my experience with Avant so far. I read this yesterday but didn’t get chance to respond, and then an adjudicator picked it up today! So here’s my timelines
– Submitted complaint in March
– Avant responded at the 8 week point to reject my complaint
– I responded that if they had looked at my previous months statements properly they would have seen all the other payday loans and gambling transactions (it was horrific)
– Avant rejected
– Submitted to FOS in May
– Adjudicator picked up today
So I am afraid there is quite a long wait on this one….and I am sure even longer if it goes to the Ombudsman.
Good luck all and I hope you get treated fairly.
Mr PDL
Dean says
Does anyone know if pixie loans are still trading as can’t seem to find them to put in a complaint against them. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, went under years ago.
R says
Hi all has anyone any recent LS updates about how long they are taking to reply to adjudicators decision please? they were given until last week but my adjudicator has not received a reply yet, typical LS dragging things out. Any updates much appreciated! Was in my favour too so hope they dont make me wait too long. Thank you.
Dean says
Hi R, they replied to mine very quickly, after 12 days in fact and accepted his findings.
R says
Thanks Dean, LS probably being awkward with mine then!
JGR says
Update on my complaint that was rejected by Sunny so I sent to the FOS, I chased up a couple of weeks ago to check on status as it has been several months and received the following.
“I’m afraid we can’t say how long it’ll take for your complaint to be allocated to an adjudicator. Unfortunately, due to the volume of complaints we’re receiving, it may be a while before this happens.”
Got a bad feeling that I will miss out again like WONGA and QQ waiting for decision .
mdunlopgt2 says
My FOS complaint against Sunny has just been allocated to an adjudicator, after 5.5 months, so I hope you don’t have to wait to much longer
C says
I’ve had 2 refunds where the companies have paid 20% of the 8% interest to the tax office. Myjar paid £52.31 and Avant credit paid £392.97. Am I eligible to claim this back? I don’t know what the criteria is? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, probably some of it, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Antony says
Hi Sarah, I have a complaint with QuickQuid, I had loans with them, pounds to pocket and onstride, do I have to put in individual complaints against all 3 as they are owned by the same company? I know they are in administration
Michelle says
Hello Sarah
I put a complaint in with quick quid on the 5th November. I also had loans with pounds to pocket and payday uk which I’m under the imoression are the same company?
It’s just I’ve had a couple of emails saying they need more time to fully assess.
The last email advised I was within my rights to take to the ombudsmen if I’m unhappy with the time its taking them.
Just wondering what to do for the best? Is it worth taking it there now (given I only have 6 months to do this) or given they’re hitting administration is it pointless?
I’m awaiting on wonga this week alike to many others. Then have my details registered with the money shop group which I’m aware is in administration too. Then I currently have taken lending stream to the finiancial ombudsmen based on reading your articles…they only agreed to 2 of 16 loans which made no sense to me.
Many thanks
Debtfreein2020 says
Does anyone have experience of dealing with Auden for unaffordable lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are the first person to mention them – they are a tiny lender.
H says
So lending stream have until monday to respond to my complaint. I have had an acknowledgement email only from them. I see going through the posts that they are usually rejected with a generic response, but has anyone had a complaint upheld without going to FOS?? Curious??
sam says
i had loads all over lapping, fos agreed with me but LS didn’t even look at it i don’t think!
not much chance
Steve says
Hi Sarah
Do you know of anyone had a decision upheld by the FOS for Ferratum and the timescales involved I know they are a smaller provider, just had my response from the FOS upholding loans 4-19 they have two weeks to reply they where awkward when I dealt with them initially so I am guessing it will end up in the ombudsman.
Thanks
Steve
John says
I’ve been awaiting an ombudsman decision with my claim against Sunny since an adjudicator upheld against loans 4-19.
Sunny have come to me with an offer of loans 9-19. This would result in a refund of around £1250 instead of around £1850 so quite a significant difference.
I made a counter-offer of loans 6-19 (along with what I think was a well worded letter arguing that ombudsmans nearly always agree with the adjudicator in full, that the interest is increasing every day etc.) which they rejected, but with “rumours” of the ombudsman wait now being up to 18 months, it’s very tempting to accept.
Is there any data from which we could determine current approx wait times? £1250 is more valuable to me now than £1800 would be in a year’s time. But if it’s likely I’ll only be waiting another 2-3 months then I can afford to wait. Decisions decisions!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is no hard data. What has happened in the past is not terribly relevant as FOS has lost hige backlogs of cases when QuickQuid went bust. Personally I don’t think an 18 month wait is likely but that’s just a feeling, not fact. And there is also the possibility that Sunny may go under. I am not aware that is about to happen but it is another possibility.
Mr PDL says
As someone who has missed out of any reasonable refund with multiple lenders I would use the old adage of ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’ !
Only you know what your financial circumstances are and what you are looking to get from the process, but I know what I’d do!
Jenny says
Hi – looking for some advice specific to Mr Lender.
I sent a complaint 2 weeks ago, using the email template, and received a letter from them through the post yesterday. This asks for more information:
‘vague information regarding the difficulties you experienced and the reason as to why you felt your loan(s) were unaffordable’
‘if you still wish to pursue this complaint, please complete the form enclosed’
The form asks:
Which loans do you believe were unaffordable?
Please could you elaborate on the difficulties that were caused as a result of these loans?
Please could you confirm the reason as to why you believe these loans to be unaffordable?
What would you deem to be a suitable outcome to your complaint?
I’ve checked my bank statements from the time just before the first loan and the 4 months or so between the two loans, and if Mr Lender had asked for these at the time they would have clearly seen a fair number of PayDay loan transactions (with a number of companies) plus quite a lot of gambling transactions, which should have been a huge red flag.
Should I fill in their form and send it back with hard copies of my bank statements, or simply send another email explicitly answering the questions from the form and attaching digital copies of the statements?
Could someone advise if it’s worth spending the time getting into details with Mr Lender, or will they just decide what they decide?
SN says
I found them relatively easy to deal although yes, they receive emails but reply by post! They rejected my complaint initially but I asked them to reconsider and they agreed in goodwill to write off remaining balances and remove adverse information.
Given I only had relatively small loans with them, I took this as a win.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jenny, you just had 2 loans from MrL with 4 months in between paying off the first to taking the second? Can I ask how large the loans were? Do you still owe money on the last one?
Jenny says
Hi Sara – yes, there were just two loans from Mr Lender (I didn’t use them as much as other lenders such as Wonga, QQ, sunny etc).
The first loan was for £300 in January 2015, paid off at the end of April 2015. The second loan was taken out about 3 weeks after that (so 4 months between taking the loans, but only 19 days between paying the first off and receiving the funds for the second – which was for £500 and paid off in September 2019.
Over the 2 loans I paid £528.20 in interest. Not sure if I’d have a chance of getting this back, with only 2 loans from them and both paid back on time (although my bank statements around that time don’t paint a happy picture), and I know these will drop off my credit reports in about 18 months anyway – but I’d ideally like them removed sooner if possible, and of course any small amount of redress would be welcome too.