Did your payday loans cost so much when you repaid one you had to keep on borrowing?
You can get a refund of the interest you paid on unaffordable loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template letters here. The letters work if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
The comments below this article have thousands of stories of the refunds people have got using these letters. It is a great place to ask questions!
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
Was a loan affordable just because you repaid it?
No! If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
Payday loans are meant to solve a short-term problem. If you kept repaying one then getting another loan soon after, the lender should have stopped lending to you.
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or borrowing again soon after repayment.
How much compensation can you get?
You don’t have to calculate this. Just ask for a refund from the lender and see what you are offered. This is simple and it works well.
The Financial Ombudsman has seen tens of thousands of payday loan affordability complaints.
A typical decision by the Ombudsman is that the payday lender should refund all the interest you paid interest after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times you could get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
You can complain to lenders that are still in business, even if they are no longer lending. These include:
Lending Stream, Cash Converters, CashASAP, Drafty, Dot Dot, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves, Kabayan, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, MyKredit, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, The Money Platform, WageMe, Wizzcash,
See this email list for payday lenders for a longer list and all the contact details to use.
If the lender has gone into administration, including CashForUNow, Piggybank, Ferratum, Oakam, Safetynet Credit, Tappily:
- make a claim to the administrators – there is normally a simple form for you to complete, see the lender’s website for details – but there will be a time limit for doing this.
- you may not get much cash back but this is very easy to do. A balance may be reduced or cleared even if there is no cash to distribute. And if you win the complaint any negative marks on your credit record will be removed.
It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up years ago, see this list.
For longer-term loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- 118 Money, Likely Loans, Bamboo, car finance, bank loans and other long-term loans.
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you later have to go to the Ombudsman.
If you still owe money to the lender, read Will an affordability claim hurt my credit record, and other questions. These looks at your options for stopping paying, the effect on your credit record etc.
If the rest of your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time to go through at the Ombudsman. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
If your loan was sold to a debt collector you complain to the original lender. But also tell the debt collector that you are disputing the debt. It is a good idea to carry on making payments to the debt collector if they are affordable.
Start your complaint & get loan details
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. [Add more details eg how often you borrowed or rolled loans if you know them, how the amount borrowed generally went up etc]
[Include/change this if your credit record would have shown big problems:] My credit reports would have shown all my other debts and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
[delete this sentence if you know what all your loans were.] I know the difficulties your loans have caused me but I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added, and what I repaid. This will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
[delete this sentence if none of your loans were sold.]If a loan was later sold to a debt collector, please inform me of the date of sale and the name of the debt collector.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. You don’t need to list the loans – the lenders knows them.
Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- if you weren’t treated fairly while you were borrowing or when you could not make a payment, add a bit about this.
You can attach bank statements if you like, This is a good idea as these show how unaffordable the loans were for you. If you have gambling showing, this helps your complaint, it doesn’t harm it.
I don’t know if many lenders actually read what you send them. I
it’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large, read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a very difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed once or twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win an affordability complaint than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
They may send the list of loans first and later respond to your complaint. So don’t be surprised if you get sent info on the loans but nothing about your request for a refund.
When you get your loan information, you can send in more details about your complaint if you want. You don’t have to do this, your complaint has already begun and the lender has to reply.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks from when you send the email, not when they acknowledge it. Make a note in your diary for 8 weeks time and chase the lender up if you don’t get a reply.
Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Send your bank statements or other information?
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want. But you should download a copy of your credit record asap as the Ombudsman will ask for it. Don’t put this off, the sooner you get a report downloaded, the further back it goes which is good.
Don’t send payslips – they won’t help an affordability complaint and the ombudsman never asks for them.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them.
Again this is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years even if the account has been closed.
Lender says No or makes a poor offer
If the lender rejects your complaint or offers you a small amount, don’t be depressed. You may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints, despite being rejected by the lender.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. People have had large amounts refunded after a complete rejection!
Just ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications and you didn’t give accurate facts – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- you repaid some loans early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- your borrowing didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked more closely;
- your loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Don’t worry that you will lose a small offer by going to the Ombudsman – this doesn’t happen.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think the lender should have realised a lot of the other loans were unaffordable;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound convenient … but it may be very poor if you should get a refund as well;
- if getting defaults or late payments removed from your credit record is important to you, are you happy with what the lender is proposing to do? Don’t assume your credit record will be cleared if the lender didn’t mention this.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the Ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an installment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay too long – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. When you aren’t sure, send the complaint to FOS. This is easy to do – let FOS make the decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender.
Don’t wait until all your lenders have replied before sending the first one to the Ombudsman!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and takes you through your complaint step by step.
You can just copy what you said in your complaint to the lender. You can add more details, for example, if you disagree with what the lender replied to you.
If some of your loans were over 6 years ago, tell the Ombudsman when and how you found out about these complaints. For example:
“I knew the loans were causing me difficulty in 2016, but I thought this was my fault for being bad with money. I didn’t find out that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable until June 2022 when my brother told me about these claims/I saw an advert from a claims company on Facebook/I read an article about these claims” – change this so it is right for your case!
Things to attach:
- the reply you have had from the lender.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed – if you don’t have them, start the process of getting them now, don’t wait until FOS asks for them.
- a copy of your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- a copy of the credit agreements for the loans if you have them. If you don’t, don’t worry, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
You will normally be contacted within a couple of weeks and asked for a copy of your credit record and your bank statements if you haven’t sent these. If you have sent these on one complaint, then when you complain about a different lender they will use the ones they already have.
After this initial contact, your case will wait for the lender to send FOS your case file and then wait to be picked up by an adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
If you are still making payments to the lender, tell the lender you want to reduce these to an affordable amount. This will make waiting for an Ombudsman decision much less stressful for you.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you are bankrupt now or have been bankrupt in the past – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you. If your IVA has finished the refund may still be sent to your old IVA firm.
- if you are in a DRO now, getting a refund may mean your DRO is cancelled!
More help
You can ask a question in the comments below – you may get a reply from someone who has been in your exact situation.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. It’s easy to do this yourself and you can ask questions below and get replies from other readers who have done this.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
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.
Ian says
Hello,
I’ve had some good news regarding Uncle Buck, they agreed to refund me 4 out of the 6 loans I had with them, coming to a total of £471. I’d calculated around £600, for all the loans, but was happy to accept.
I emailed them initially on the 9th Jan, so a 15 day turnaround! Apparently mine was straightforward so it was easier to process.
hopefully other people will have a similar response from them. I have to say the person I spoke to at uncle buck was really nice and helpful.
Sara – thank you so much for this site, I never would’ve seen this money again if it wasn’t for you!
cheers
Ian
Ann says
Hi all a wee bit advice please how long is ombudsman taking to pick up Complaint’s after company disagrees with the adjudicator.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
which lender is it?
Ann says
Hi thanks for your reply it’s loans to go the phone to say I would get redress then changed their mind
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My guess is a few months.
good luck, hope you win ASAP, horrible loans…
Ann says
Thank you adjudicator has asked for call recording x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good!
Dean says
Day 23 out of 28 waiting for redress payment from LS after they agreed with adjucator decision, called them twice to speed things up but no joy.
Anyone on here lucky enough to to get payment before day 28?
sam says
I am a week in, think itll be the 28 days as told unfortunatly :(
what did they say when you called? (just wait 28 days?)
Dean says
Hi Sam, they told me they were allowed 28 days by FOS to make payment and I would definitely get mine by the 28th day and that they can’t give me a guaranteed date which wasn’t very helpful really
Lynn says
I am on 20 from 28 countdown like you I called to see if any change of coming sooner but they told me its scheduled for 3rd Feb
Chris says
Hi. They paid me on day 15, randomly without me chasing (was a Friday too and apparently they often pay on Fridays?) anyway I was shocked!!! Hold on. Looks like there’s not much logic to it
Beth says
HI Chris, any particular time that they pay? Just wondered, thanks
Chris says
Not sure. They paid me at 18:41 !
Beth says
Did they send you an email as well Chris? I spoke to them yesterday (currently on day 11) and they said would be by 11th February, I asked if they pay any sooner (left the conversation quite light!) and they just repeated would be by 11th February :-(
Dean says
Wow, that is so quick Chris, well done.
Dean says
Fingers crossed they don’t go bust before they pay out! I will let you know if/when I get payment.
Lynn says
Just read the other post where they got paid on a Friday so just checked my bank and nothing today. Do you know if they will be sending notification to advise that payment has been made
Mike_p says
I got an email confirming payment about 10 minutes after I saw the refund in my back. While I was waiting for it I tried phoning them to see if they could tell me when it was and I just got a “computer says no” response. They seem to keep the people that actually deal with things tucked away somewhere and instruct the call centre people to act dumb and fob you off
Lynn says
Thanks for the reply. Will keep watching and post update if and when received. Its over 7.5k and could do with it before they go into administration like so many others have
Lynn says
Let’s just hope that they have set aside a few million pounds to refund customers
Livia says
I am on day 22 and still nothing too ,I called so many times and asked why some people get paid quickly and others have to wait 28 days and all they keep saying is depend on the volume of refunds the have on the day(doesn’t make sense at all),
Livia says
Hi Dean, did you get your refund yet? Mine is due Friday it feels like forever now
Lynn says
Any payout from lending stream yet Dean is today your 28th day?
Dean says
Hi guys, great news, finally got my payment tonight at 2230, woop woop. It was day 27 out of 28!
I called them today and was pretty scathing about how long it took them to pay out, and a few hours later the money was in my account. I am Absolutely chuffed tbh, really happy as o got over 5K back.
Good luck to you guys with yours and a massive thank you Sara for this portal and all your help, it has been a godsent and is much appreciated. I will definitely be making a donation to my local CAB to show my appreciation for all your support.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A small donation would be lovely, Thanks Dean!
Livia says
That’s great dean! I am supposed to get it Friday , I will call tomorrow again
sam says
Hi Livia
any payment yet this being your 27th day?
does everyone get an email from LS when theyve paid?
Livia says
Hey Sam,day 27 not payment yet. I just called them and was told it should be in my account tonight or tomorrow morning. He said is all processed and they will release funds later on today. I will let you know
Dan says
Good news- Myjar have partly upheld my complaint directly. I had 4 loans 200 150 500 500 with no gaps and they have upheld 2 – 4. So wrote off open loan and some money back due in 10 to 15 working days
Dan says
Forgot to mention that their final response was in 13 days!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sounds like a very good result for you.
Alison says
Yeah good news for me as well from My Jar , they are upholding my complaint for 25 loans out of 29 , only took them 14 days from my initial complaint 😊
Lee sharratt says
Evening. 7 loans over a 4 month period in 2019 with sunny. Do I have good grounds to complain? All paid off
Sara (Debt Camel) says
7 loans in 4 months is worth a complaint. How strong it is may depend on how larger the loans were, but I think sunny should have been checking your credit record after the first few lonas.
Lee sharratt says
Thank you. I shall complain
Mr F says
Quick update
After responding to my jars decline of my complaint and providing the bank details (I had luckily got hold of for my other complaint) they have decided to uphold my complaint and refund the 80.60 interest,
Curious thing is that they have not mentioned the 8% which is only like 19.10 so not bothered but they sent me an attachment and asked me to fill in my bank details but the attachment is an excel doc with my line interest and refund payment calculations inc 8% and giving total payout possible of 99.70, I’ve responded with my details and mentioned this figure just awaiting payment if it’s 80 or 99 I’m happy either way.
To be fair to myjar they’ve been one of the easiest to deal with
Ggggenegenie says
Hello. I received an email from the adjudacator at the FOS regarding my case against Lending Stream and wondered if anyone could help decipher it for me please? I’m especially confused as to what they apply interest on, etc. Any help appreciated; judgement is below.
“A) You should add together the total of the repayments made by Mr xxx towards interest, fees and charges on all upheld loans without an outstanding balance.
B) You should calculate 8% simple interest* on the individual payments made which were considered as part of “A”, calculated from the date Mr xxx originally made the payments, to the date the complaint is settled.
C) You should remove all interest, fees and charges from the balance on any upheld outstanding loans, and treat any repayments made by Mr xxx as though they had been repayments of the principal on all outstanding loans. If this results in Mr xxx having made overpayments then you should refund these overpayments with 8% simple interest* calculated on the overpayments, from the date the overpayments would have arisen
…
E) The overall pattern of Mr xxx’s borrowing for loans 6 to 11 means any information recorded about them is adverse, so you should remove these loans entirely from Mr xxx’s credit file. You do not have to remove loans 10 and 11 from Mr xxx’s credit file until these have been repaid, but you should still remove any adverse information recorded about these loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So a lot of loans are being refunded. There are 2 outstanding loans and these should have all interest removed so you only repay what you borrowed. The refunds on the loans that have been paid will be used to settle the outstanding loans (after the interest has been removed) and the excess will be refunded to you. LS will calculate an extr 8% interest on top of the money being refunded to you. A loan that you repaid in 2016 would have about 3 lots of 8% added, so about 24%, more recent loans less.
Ggggenegenie says
Thanks Sara. I’m struggling to understand and you’ve helped a great deal. LS have until the 7th Feb to respond and I’m not expecting a quick solution, based on what I’ve read here before!
Do I get the loans refunded then? Or what I have paid?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You get a refund of the interest you paid on the loans.
Holly says
Hi Sara,
Thank you so much for creating this website, it really is amazing!
I wondered if you could help me please?
I have sent all the affordability complaints but still have a few left to send, do you know if it is still worth sending them to MoneyBox247 and Wageday Advance?
My Wageday Advance loan has been sold to Shelby Finance, although it was well in arrears before they took the account over – if I was to send a complaint could you please advise where to send this to?
Thank you so much!
Holly x
Sarah says
Hi Holly,
I had so many loans one after another with WageDay Advance between 2015 and 2017. I am kicking myself that I never complained as they have now gone in to administration. I worked out that I’d borrowed over 7 grand😩😩😩 Now I’m entitled to a redress claim but because of the amount of money the administrators have left, I believe I’ll only get about a hundred pounds 😳 it’s sickening!!
Jeremy says
Hi All,
Following the initial rejection from both LendingStream and QuickQuid I failed to follow up within the allotted 3 month period. Believing I had completely missed the opportunity I have failed to follow up now for 1 year.
I am looking for advise on how I can pursue getting any potential compensation from these companies.
I appreciate any/all advise on this matter.
Thanks,
Jez
Mike_p says
You have 6 months from the date of the final response to complain to the FOS financial ombudsman service. As you didn’t there is nothing more you can do unfortunately.
E says
Hello,
Has anybody dealt with satsuma/provident? My adjudicator gave them till the 24th to reply. I haven’t heard anything yet, do satsuma normally agree with the adjudicator?
Thanks
Helen says
I have a complaint with Provident at the FOS too. My adjudicator said they are having “problems” sending back information at present. He asked them for my case file back on Dec 10th 2019 and they still havent sent it to him. Hes set another deadline of next week but asked me to be patient as he cant move forward until Provident have sent him their info. Makes me so angry!!
a says
Can anyone advise me, i got this response and ofcorse i gave the fos permission but why can they uphold my complaint sooner if they use my gambling history?
I can confirm that I have spoken to the financial ombudsman service.
The adjudicator who is reviewing your uncle buck complaint has requested permission to use your gambling history in his assessment.
He has stressed that this will allow him to uphold your complaint sooner.
Can you please advise if this is okay?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not sure who told you this, but the more info an adjudicator has about your situation, the easier it is to see the complaete picture. FOS isn’t judgmental about gambling.
Raj says
Amigo loans up for sale live on bbc business news
Abi says
What does this mean for our complaints??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Nothing directly. They are a large company whose main shareholder has decided isn’t make enough profit so he wants out.
In the long term it may make it hard for them to borrow money cheaply, so they may have to restrict the loans they offer and do better affordability checks so their default rate falls. All good, but it doesn’t affect you.
Anyone who has an Amigo or other guarantor loan – a LOT of affordability complaints are currently being won against these lenders. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/ for details
a says
Hi Guys so finally adjudicator came back today with regards to my uncle buck complaint: I’ve thought about all of these issues in the individual circumstances of this case, and I think
loans 3 to 7 shouldn’t have been lent to Miss ****. I’d like to explain why.
I think by loan 3, proportionate checks would most likely have shown Miss **** was having
problems managing her money. I think you’d have become aware that Miss ****** was
spending over half her monthly income using online betting sites. I found this from reviewing
the bank statements for November 2014 to January 2015 that Miss **** had provided this
service. In these circumstances, I think you ought to have realised it was unlikely Miss ****
would’ve been able to sustainably repay this loan – and any subsequent loans
do uncle buck normally reject adjudicators decisions???
Sarah Perring says
Good afternoon
I have just been assigned an adjudicator who has r mailed me today as lending stream have not upheld any of my loans just wondering how long the process takes as haven’t used the ombudsman before
Mike_p says
It took about 4 weeks for the adjudicator to make a decision in my case. After that it took lending stream 4 weeks to accept it despite being two weeks by the adjudicator, and then just under 4 weeks to pay out.
It’s frustrating as Lending Steam are deliberately difficult, lots of people have been getting refunds in the end.
sam says
Hi Mike
im waiting for my payment, still 2 weeks away.
did you get paid out on the 28th day?
Mike_p says
It was just before, I don’t remember exactly but it was something like day 26
Rob says
Hi, so adjudicator said lending stream should refund loans 6-37, and they have until 29th (Wednesday) to agree/reply…. do they usually leave it til the last day to reply to adjudicator?
Mike_p says
In my case the adjudicator gave them 2 weeks but it took them 4
Rob says
Ah crikey – won’t get my hopes up for a decision by Wednesday then!
Dan says
What date did you send it to FOS and how long it take you to be assigned an adjudicater?
Rob says
I sent it to FOS on 23/11, it was picked up by adjudicator on 12/12.
Dan says
Thanks for answering,
I sent my complaint on the 07/01/20
Got picked up yesterday by an adjudicator 28/01/20
How long it take the adjudicator to make there final response?
a says
anyone know time frames for uncle buck???
adjudicator emailed today upholding my complaint and uncle buck to refund loans 3-7 with all the usual bits. has anyone ever had a good experience with UB or do they normally always reject?? complaint claim is about £1100
Shelly says
Hello,
Firstly I wanted to say a massive thank you to Sara for this amazing site. What you are doing to help and support people through this process is amazing!
Following on from my Wonga email advising I was due a percentage of what I paid in interest I stumbled across this site and started the ball rolling with claims against Sunny, Lending Stream, Everyday Loans and Bamboo. I also received emails from the Money Shop administrators and, over the weekend, a letter from the administrators of welcome finance, out the blue.
I have received my first offer today. This is from Sunny. They have offered a refund of interest on loans 24-49.
Having read through the comments, I know I could/should take to FOS as they should probably be paying out more. That said with so many companies going under now, would you now suggest to gratefully accept what you are offered, just in case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s a tough decision. I think you know the pros and cons. I don’t have any good information on Sunny.
Nick says
Shelly, like you Sunny made me an offer which I accepted…. I know that I could have taken it further to the FOS & possibly got more, but it was a reasonable amount of money (£1800 plus remaining balance written off) & I needed the money to pay off other debts. I felt that the Ombudsman would probably take months (I have 2 other complaints with them and they have said it could be 4 months until they even start looking at them) so I decided it was better to accept Sunny’s offer & get something now rather than take a gamble and wait.
Shelly says
Thank you both for your responses.
I think I’m going to accept I do have one further question though…
On studying the spreadsheet of loans that Sunny sent me, there were 17 over a 12 month period that were from 2013 and were seperately listed as ‘Line of Credit’. There are no loan amounts just a total of around £4.5k paid over £2.5k taken out… I have no recollection of what this is and they have only offered me a refund FROM loan 24 where it became the normal kind of pay day loan we all know and hate!!
Does anyone have any experience of Sunny pre 2014?
Val says
Hi anyone dealt with Moneybox or money boat please
Standard replies received no upholds to complaint redress I didn’t rollover plus quite a threatening part about if I lied when applying it’s fraud
Just wondered if I go to FOS as still
Owe them an if I don’t pay adding charges
Sara (Debt Camel) says
did you only have 1 loan from each lender?
Mariah says
Hi All
Just had my complaint not upheld by the adjudicator reason being “during the early stages of a lending relationship the business does not have to check the customer’s circumstances and hence leading to verification in regards to the information provided by the consumer”. At the time the loan taken out I was unemployed but stated on my application that I was employed. If they had asked for bank statements, paysllips they would have realised the loan would be unaffordable. Is it worth taking my complaint further and wait for the final decision by the ombudsman? as i dont agree with the adjudicator. thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the loan?
Kev says
Hi
If a payday loan goes into administration does the debt still stay on your credit file
Sara (Debt Camel) says
as a general guide, yes probably UNLESS you make a claim to the administrators and that loan is decided to have been unaffordable – then it will be deleted from your credit record.
Neil says
Hi Sara, I’ve been consistently borrowing from Sunny and paying it back each month since July 2016… not ideal obviously but I was made redundant in 2016 and the company went into liquidation and did not pay my final 2 months wages, so I’ve been in their clutches for nearly 4 years. Is it worth trying to appeal to them for an interest refund? Thanks a million, Neil
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a VERY good complaint. If you still have a loan from them, stop paying it or ask for a low payment arrangement that means you won’t Be left short so you need to borrow again.
Stacey says
I have an on going loan with safety net credit not in a situation at the moment to be paying back, is they anything I can do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Stacey,
although Safetynet Credit are a standard payday lender, use the template letter in the article above to make a complaint to them about unaffordable lending. many people are winning these complaints againts them as SNC should have seen from your bank account that you were in trouble!
Also cancel the CPA to them with your bank so they can’t take money and leave you short. Don’t rely on them being nice and doing this, or on winning your complain very fast. Better safe than sorry!
Fiona says
Hi I have had a number of payday loans and I have been paying them for 3 years with step change and still have 2 years left I had loans of my jar , me lender . Sunny and more what can I do to see if I am owed refund
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The article above has a template letter to use. This won’t affect your StepChange DMP, but if you win your debts will be reduced.
Harry says
My complaint with sunny went all the way to final ombudsman decision, they upheld my complaint to refund loans 6-9 and 12-18. I received the ombudsman decision on 22/01/2020, I then forwarded my ombudsman decision On the 26th to;
ncrump@elevatecredit.co.uk
rmallinder@elevatecredit.co.uk
customerrelations@elevatecredit.co.uk
Pbaldry@elevatecredit.co.uk
And just a small note saying I am yet to hear from sunny in regards to my redress and would like to know how long this would take and received and email from me paul Baldry saying time confirm bank details and I will be paid and within 15 mins of sending that I had £1563 in my bank
Ciaran says
This is great Harry, how long did you wait for an ombudsman decisio?
Harry says
It went to final decision in December but in an email it did say my ombudsman was ill so took longer than expected was about 5/6 weeks
mdunlopgt2 says
Harry,
thanks for putting those emails in, I’ll note hem for the inevitable escalation of my own complaint as it goers through
Mark
M says
Hi
On your final decision did they say to wait 4-8 weeks to hear from Sunny.?
I’ve just got my final decision from an Ombudsman and just wondering what I should do next to hurry them up.
Thank you
james smith says
Good morning Sara, just some advice please, i’ve submitted a claim to myjar for 9 loans over 4 years with a total interest of about 3800 which they are kindly looking into, the claim was submitted about two weeks ago.
i’ve also had 3 other claims for wonga, quickquid, and lending stream, both the latter paid out before they went under which was lucky, i did like a fool go through a claims company with these but myjar i used Resolver.
Now what i’m wondering is if my three claims that all went to the FO were won and i still have those winning reply emails for the FO should i fwd them to myjar with the hopes of them paying out early without involving the FO? would save them paying the 8% interest thing, i’d be happy with 3000, with the interest i would say it would round up to about 4200, or should i keep that in my arsenal in case they decide to be awkward? any advice please.
Nick says
I wouldn’t worry too much about MyJar James. They were one of the easiest companies to deal with, they upheld my complaint within the 8 week timescale and removed all the interest from my loan, which I accepted. I still have a small balance of around £300 which they agreed I can pay over next 12 months.
james smith says
That’s great news Nick thku for the information, fingers crossed this can get addressed before the decide to throw in the towel
Sara (Debt Camel) says
thanks for moving over here :)
I would be surprised in Myjar bother to read any stuff you send them about your other complaints. These companies have a pretty automated complaint handling process. Also don’t offer to settle for less at the moment, wait and see what their response is.
james smith says
Ah ok Sara, will just wait and see what happens, thank you so much for all you’re doing for people with these worries, you have certainly helped them with stress, great job x
Michelle says
Yes my jar were quickest and easiest to deal with so wait and see what they come back with. Mine resolved in 3 weeks
Jordan says
Hi Sara,
i was hoping you could help. I had several loans from Sunny which proved to be unaffordable during 2018-2019. they sold the claims to a company called ‘Lantern’ and i am currently paying £35 per month to clear my debts. Is there any way i can stop paying this or is there a template letter i can send to ask them to stop?
thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to send an affordabilty complaint to Sunny – use the template in the article above.
daniel jepson says
I am also wondering what happens when sunny sells its debt onto lantern as I had this happen also just last week, would I still have to pay lantern or would that be written off as that is originally sunnys debt,
regards daniel
Christian says
Sara can we make a complaint about myjar’s unfair lending? How would we go about this?
Thank you for all your great work by the way, you and all the guys at debtcamel!
Reply
Michelle says
Yes I found them the easiest and quickest to deal with. I emailed my complaint to their online form on the website resolved in 3 weeks. I did have all info to hand though bank statements credit reports etc good luck
Robert L says
Hi Sara
A little over 7 months ago I attempted to make a claim against Mr Lender. I used a website called resolver and I received a bit of a generic email back saying that they couldn’t locate my account based off the temporary email created by the site. I did include the email linked to the Mr Lender account in the original complaint, as well as other info that could have easily helped locate my account.
I really shouldn’t have left it at that, but unfortunately I did. Can I now make a fresh complaint that I can push forward with, or have I lost my opportunity?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can try, on the grounds that they file to consider your complaint. Do this asap. And not through resolver.
Suzanne says
Hi , I’ve got a loan with onstride and it’s got another 2 years to go, do I keep paying as normal?
Alex says
Hi Sarah I had a lot of loans with Sunny and did complain but they were not upheld. For Personal reasons I’ve missed the deadline in sending my complain to the FOS as 6 months and 2 weeks has passed after receiving Sunny’s final email. Is there anything else l can do? Thank you.
JA says
I think the FOS accept cases over the 6 month period for valid reasons. Give them a call
Lee sharratt says
Swift sterling. Any news on them? I know they are in administration now
Leigh says
Hello,
Thanks for this site its such a great help.
I have requested refund from a few payday loan company’s and My Jar came back and agreed to pay some interested which is great news. In my emails I explained I was in a bad place health wise which formed my bad decision making at the time.
They have asked for letters from the NHS proving my condition or have attached something called a DMHEF which I would have to take to my doctor to fill out and sign.
I’m happy to prove my health was not great, however it does feel slightly intrusive? Is this something I need to provide in order for them to continue with the refund – the email is not to clear, and would appreciate your opinion.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have from Myjar? were they large loans? was this a while ago or do you still owe them money?
Leigh says
Hello, nine loans in total averaging £300. They are only taking my last 6 loans into consideration and offering me £201. My last loan was 13-10-19 and I owe them nothing. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
did you really only pay £201 interest on the last 6 loans? that seems very low.
can you copy out exactly what they said about offering you this refund?
Leigh says
Yes, I typically paid them back quickly and then got another straight away. The interest works out. It’s very very very long and contains some private info, not sure if could private message it maybe? Thanks
Mary says
Hi Sara I’ve done templates for a number of payday loan companies for misold irresponsible lending anyway one has came back in particular peachy asking me for bank statements pay slips etc although they have these all on record when I took out loans Im not sure if I should resend them as they can clearly see by my account the continuous lending and the income that was proven with bank statements I had to upload before taking a loan. Seems that they are giving me a run around by asking for information they already have. Am I obliged to give them this or will I wait until an ombudsman gets involved and then forward details to them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for moving over :)
Are you saying you sent Peachy bank statements when you took the loans?
Payslips are pointless if you have bank statements as they show your income
Mary says
Yes the asked for them before accepting loans. I just feel they are giving me the cold shoulder and trying to palm me off. They have record of all of this I’m just unsure if I should resend the documents they are asking for even though they have all on my account or wait to see if ombudsmen gets involved
Deanna says
Hi there, after reading this site for numerous reasons over the last few months, I’ve decided to try to claim some redress from Sunny for irresponsible lending. Between January 2015 and May 2018 they gave me a total of 54 loans totalling £10400. My monthly income was around £750. Do you think I stand a chance of getting anything back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I hope so! Sounds like an excellent case to me. get it started!
Gemma says
Would just like to say how impressed I was with safety net credit I sent them an affordability claim on Saturday as I had defaulted with them last year I received an acknowledgement on Monday and today an email that they have upheld my complaint and wiped my default and will be getting a small refund!
Tanya says
Do you mean that they turned it around in four days?! That’s incredible. I submitted mine on the 15th, hopefully won’t have long to wait!
Gemma says
Yes in four days I was shocked too hope they come back you asap
Nats Daley says
Hello
Has anyone had any refunds with peachy loans..
Had 4 with them in 2011.
Thanks
KellyE says
Hi Nats Daley….yes.
I found Peachy very accommodating, I had a few more loans than you. They were prompt and courteous to me. I hope you have the same experience.
Gemma says
So my 8 weeks is up today with provident. Rang for an update and it’s only just been looked at so no decision as yet. Lady on phone asked why I have made the complaint. Explained that the CM that came to do the loan application falsified information used payslips for an old job and knew my income was changing due to maternity leave. To be told I have a legal
Obligation to sign the paperwork to confirm the truth if it!! I told her that provident also had a legal obligation to ensure I could fully afford the loans first which the CM clearly didn’t do. Now my question is do I wait to see what they say or do I go straight to the FOS? Thanks x
Johnny says
I complained to mrlender through the resolver website but they refused to deal with the complaint as it was from a 3rd party.
I would like to email them rather than write to them. Has anyone had any success from mrlender through email?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes lots of people have.
Mike_p says
I have. They were quite happy to accept the complaint by email but for some strange reason they insist on sending the final response by post, even though they asked me to confirm the address I wanted the response sent to by email, and were happy for me to accept their offer by email! Very odd, when I asked why they couldn’t give a reason and just said it was company policy.
Sandra says
Hi Sara I have sent a few of my lenders emails over the last few days I had all acknowledgement from them all but today my Jar have sent an email reply asking for copy’s of my bank statements and wage slips,none of the others have asked for these,I was just wondering if this is what My Jar do,Aldo there will be a lot of gambling transactions on my back statement would this go against me?
Thanks for a great site
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The ombudsman doesn’t see gambling as a problem. they don’t find against you saying you just should have stopped. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/
So I would send the statements.
Mike_p says
You can see the decisions the ombudsman had made here. They put the onus of responsibility on the lender and tend to say that the lender hasn’t checked things properly when gambling or inaccurate information has been put on application forms.
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/data-insight/ombudsman-decisions
Lilly says
Hi Sandra, I was embarrassed by my bank statements and the gambling transactions that took up pages but I submitted them to Lending Stream, Quick Quid and lots of others. I was successful in all the cases and have reclaimed £10K+ so don’t hesitate start submitting your claims now. Good Luck 😁. I am left wondering now if loan companies are guilty of irresponsible lending why are credit card companies allowed to get away with it, I was offered higher and higher limits on all of that and it all went on gambling.
Mike_p says
You can complain about credit cards too, there is a page here about it.
Lilly says
There wasn’t a link Mike, has this been deleted or did you experience problems loading it? Thanks for replying
Kelly says
Hi
i have just logged on to my satsuma to check my active loans they don’t seem to be appearing.
I’m not sure if the sites down but everything else seems to be working ok.
Is anyone having the same issues ?
Thanks
Joe says
I have just sent complaints to Sunny, Satsuma, Lending Stream, Mr Lender, My Jar, Quick Quid (including Pounds to Pocket) due to irresponsible lending.
I have also begun a complaint against Buddy Loans, for another section I am aware so won’t go into it here. The issue I face is that my previous bank account is now part of my DMP, due to an overdraft – so I cannot seem to get access to my previous bank statements on online banking and it appears the lenders will ask for these as proof in their responses to my complaints. What should I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask your bank to send you copies or allow you access online.
Sarah says
Hi Sara, thank you for the site. It’s been wonderful, could you possibly help me! I’m currently complaining to peachy about Payday loans and they have asked me to provide bank statements and pay slips. I do not have these and don’t know what to say to the complaints team? Just simply I have no access to this information? Thank you
Lilly says
Hi, I also applied to Peachy, amongst others. I replied to them all saying that I would not be providing them with the information and that I would make these available to the FSO if they requested it. I then asked them to provide their final response based on the information they had. That sped up the process as I used the next couple of weeks to get in touch with the bank to ask for the historical statements which I did send off to the FSO. All my claims were successful and I wish you the best of luck in your claims. PS Peaxhy were one of the easier companies to get money back from.
Rebecca says
Hi Lilly, how long was your peachy turnaround?
Ggggenegenie says
Hello again Sara, sorry to both you.
I put in a complaint to MyJar, as I had had a stack of loans in the past from TxtLoan (who they own?)
My response, back in October, was a cut/paste job as follows:
Thank you for taking the time to contact us, and please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your email.
We have provided our response to an irresponsible lending complaint on 13/09/2019.
As advised in our final response, we keep data up to five years to meet our legal obligations under applicable UK data protection rules and the General Data Protection Regulation, and in accordance with applicable anti-money laundering legislation.
Therefore, the records for accounts which were created five or more years ago, may already have been deleted. In that case, the loan(s) should no longer appear on your credit file either.
However, if you have bank statements from the time of the borrowing which contain information about the loans we may have provided to you, please forward this information to us at complaints@myjar.com and we will re-open your complaint and re-investigate.
I’ve since received all of my bank statements (on paper…) and found said stack of loans. My questions are though:
1. Did they just fob me off? My loans do date back beyond five years, but they should have had this info right?
2. Am I right in thinking that, now I have found the information, I can go back to them to reassess?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Whether they fobbed you off or not, you now have the info and can go back to them with it.can you make a list of the loans from your bank statements?
Ggggenegenie says
Yes I can. It will take me a while (900 pages of statements to go through!) but I can do it.
Thanks as always.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it’s worth doing. Then they have no excuse! And if it has to go to the ombudsman you have a clear case that’s easy to see,
Akram says
Just wanted to say thank you so much Sara for this site. Like many others here I had a problem with gambling and used payday loans to manage my finances. Needless to say my credit rating went down the drain. Since Feb 2019 I stopped gambling with the help of my fiance and plan to keep it that way. I’ve put some claims using the template and have had receipt of email from most of them. Fingers crossed with them as the money would help to clear my overdraft and some other lingering debts.
Georgina says
Hi, I’m trying to claim back from lending stream but have been told my loans are too old. I started borrowing in October 2013. Upon logging into my account they have deleted all loan history. Can I still make a claim?
AJ says
Hi Sara
I had no idea about any of this until I was contacted by the administrators for Wonga, WDA and Money Shop.
Since browsing your site in the last two days I have found out I could also make claims to Lending Stream, Swift Sterling and Mr Lender for loans taken out in 2013/2014; which is when all of these date back to. However all my transaction history with them has been deleted from my account even though my accounts are still active. Everything was paid off either directly or via debt collection agencies by 2015. Can I still claim to LS, Mr Lender and Swift despite the fact my loans were taken out over 6 years ago and they have no record of me borrowing?
there are people out there in a lot more trouble including my sister who; as a result of finding you; I have been able to send templates to etc so she can begin to try and claim something back. She has less than 3000 worth of debt – not enough for IVAs etc but every month is crippled paying off lenders or the debt collection companies her debts have been sold to. So thank you for what you do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you get your old bank statements or emails to show what old loans you had?
If your sister is “crippled by debt” tell her to talk to StepChange and get a DMP set up. That is a good option for many people when these complaints are going through because they can be slow and a DMP gets you into a safe place. See https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx
Steve says
Hi Sarah
I am after some advice a FOS adjudicator upheld my case for Ferratum I had a chain of 19 loans they recommended they repay loans 4-19 the interest for these loans is £908.94 the 8% would be £72.72 my borrowing ran from 22/09/2017 until 07/06/2019 do you get just one lot of 8% on for each year of your borrowing?
Ferratum have offered an amount of £760.22 with 8% I have gone back to the FOS my options are accept that or wait months for an ombudsman to pick it off. They have been awkward and difficult from the start I am going to leave a bad review on trust pilot can I go back and try to negotiate with them?
Thanks
Steve
Steve says
Hi Sarah
I have worked out there offer it equates to them upholding 10-19 so it makes a difference of £220 from what the FOS recommend do you have email address for a director or someone high up in the company?
Thanks
Steve
R81 says
Hi sara Advice please.
I am currently on a iva due to a relationship breakdown and being left with all of them. I had to take out payday loans in order to keep up with house Bill’s and child care. I had provident,myjar,and sunny loans. Can I claim for them even being on a iva?
DanWer says
I have had a number of loans from safetynet credit. From June 2016 every month with increasing credit limits each month which ended up taking a huge chunk of my wages and then reborriwing each month. I sold my car in October 2017 and paid it off and closed the account.
I then went on Maternity leave and had to re-open the account in March 2018 and sadly fell into the same cycle. I have now managed to pay it off and close it.
I have used the templates and complained but just wondering how likely it is I will receive any kind of refund?
S. W. says
Hi Sara,
I previously sent complaints to LS and a few others. They were rejected (unsurprisingly) and I thought nothing more of it (I.e. I didn’t take the complaints to the FOS) as I didn’t want to dredge up my “past misdemeanors”.
However, now, with the current Wonga/QQ debacle, I feel that I should really make a stand against these awful companies.
If I’ve already complained and been rejected, can I make a new complaint? Or is that it, done and dusted?
Many thanks is for your help.
S
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your complaint is less than 6 months ago you can still go to the Ombudsman. If it is more, you are too late. And you can’t just make a new complaint.
Clare says
If I… declared my outgoings slightly wrongly to get a payday loan from Lending Stream (i.e. minimum, etc) will they still uphold a complaint if I’ve been consistently borrowing over months?
Mike_p says
Lending Stream usually reject everything outright no matter how strong the case is. If you take it to the FOS though then any inaccuracies won’t count against your – they place the onus of resposibility on the lender to check things properly. In my case they said the pattern of lending alone should have been enough to indicate to Lending Stream that they shouldn’t have lent to me, and I got a £1400 refund on 10 loans out of the 16 I had.
Tomrlh says
Opinions welcome, in regards to the email we all received that our claims were upheld would you think it’s plausible that it can or could be used as evidence in claiming from other lenders. It’s clearly showing that you should not have been given a loan in the first place
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks for moving over here from the hectic Wonga page :)
I don’t think lenders will be that interested. They may be more impressed with a copy of your credit record report – have you saved a copy of your credit Karma report now, before the Wonga loans get deleted? And with your bank statement. try to get your old bank statements, don’t wait to be asked as it can take some time.
Tomrlh says
I’ve had loans out with satsuma also at the time but they do not report to the credit reference agencies
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you checked your credit reports from all three credit reference agencies? See https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/
Crissy says
Hi everybody
I have been waiting for nearly 12 months for my complaint against safety net credit to be picked up by an adjudicator. I had an e mail yesterday to say my complaint had been reviewed and the adjudicator agrees I should not have been allowed to borrow the money. I have paid over £4000 in interest over 4 years ! I was in a right mess ! I hope safety net credit reply promptly and agree with the adjudicator ! So glad I found this website 12 months ago and it’s nice to know I’m not on my own with getting stuck in the payday loan cycle !
Karl says
I’m going to send an email to sunny but I cant see a way to save my credit karma report?
Mike_p says
You need to choose print from the browser and then select print to pdf in the list of printers. That will produce a pdf you can send. It’s a bit confusing as you would think that printing would print the current view with all the menus and tabs etc, but it actually produces the pdf in a completely different format.
Sara says
I have just read on this site that people have put affordability complaints to Safety net credit, and I used to have loads of loans with them I also read that safety net don’t seem to take as long as Amigo do.
Has anyone else had experience with safety net?
Thanks :)
A says
They were brilliant. 1 day over 6 weeks upheld my complaint got a pay out 7 days later for 1294 and my 125 balance wiped off.
Julia says
Safety Net got back to me within a week, and sent me my refund 1 week later
Sara says
Wow! That is quick!
Do you know what the success rate is with them?
They definiteoy didn’t do a check on my because it was my partner at the time who made the account and used my bank details (he didn’t have one), but he used all of his employment details as I was unemployed!
E says
I had 2 accounts with them and they upheld both. Came back within 4 weeks however hadn’t taken the second account into consideration so they actually took 9 weeks but paid out within 7 days. Send your complaint in – what’s the worst that can happen? X
Sarah says
Hi all,
I’m waiting to hear if My Jar will uphold my payday loans claim. They replied to the initial template email within 2 days with a PDF file detailing all of my loans and the daily interest paid, and I obtained everything they asked for and they replied more or less straight away saying they’ll get back to me within 4-8 weeks.
I just wanted to ask- the total interest paid was about £800 and that was over 3 loans. At the time, I had a StepChange DMP which I still have and the loans were unaffordable. I was borrowing from WDA as well to pay the My Jar loans if that makes sense? Is my complaint a plausible one? I mean I haven’t had loads and loads of loans from them but paid loads of interest as one was over about 10 months. Thanks :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s always hard to guess about 3 loan cases.
Michelle says
I’ve just had 3 loans out of 4 refunded resolved in 3 weeks they were very good actually. I had to ask for the statutory 8% interest to be added which they replied and added on. Now just waiting for the refund to arrive. Good luck
Sarah says
Hi Michelle,
That’s really positive, thank you. I’ll keep my fingers crossed:-)