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?
Chris says
Has anyone got any experience with complaints against quidmarket (stagemount ltd).
I have looked at ombudsman decisions and only
47 cases went to ombudsman compared to other major
Lenders where there are several hundred for each of them. Wondered if this perhaps indicates they uphold and settle most complaints ?
I also can find very little about their way of dealing with complaints online whereas most other lenders you hear about lots of cases and people’s experience with offers/rejection and what their general practice is.
Anyone who can post their experience is much appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are a small lender! What stage is your complaint at?
Jordan says
Hi Chris,
I won a case against them after going to the FO. Quidmarket fight against you every step of the way so at the first opportunity go to the FO because I doubt Quidmarket will uphold your complaint.
Dan says
Yes – they objected every step of way for me too. Adjudicator upheld all 3 loans and Quidmarket rejected. It has been in queue for Ombudsman decision since Jan 10th.
Jordan – when did you ask for Ombudsman decision and how long did they take to pick it up?
Dan
Jordan says
Dan – My case was resolved about 2 years ago but from my complaint submission to Quidmarket to the Ombudsman final decision took about 12 months.
Darren says
Hi there, Is any guidance of how to appeal an adjudicator decision? An angle at how to go at it from?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You just have to point out what you think is wrong with it and highlight any points you think the adjudicator missed.
Carole says
Hi Sara,
Can you please have a look at this that I received from a payday lender today –
Should I accept this? When not upheld however will reduce balance. I only sent bank statements yesterday.
Our final decision
Based on our findings we have decided that we do not uphold your complaint.
Although we do not uphold your complaint as a Company, we do want the best outcome for you. We are prepared to make some adjustments to the amount you owe. This letter will explain what we propose and why.
What this decision means for you
This means that we can offer you a balance adjustment.
Balance Adjustment Details
Current Balance £1047.83
Balance after Adjustment £659.73
Please confirm if you wish to accept our offer by responding to ………
SUMMARY/Explanation of why we are making this offer
Loans one to three were in the early stages of the lending relationship with us. Your loans were repaid on time or earlier than the due date. We were not alerted to any affordability issues. The final loan remains outstanding with a balance of £1047.83.
We have waived the interest and charges and used the interest paid on loans four to eleven (£45.77) to further reduce the balance. The capital remaining is £659.73.
This is in full and final settlement of the complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hi Carole,
” the interest paid on loans four to eleven (£45.77) “
is that right? It is a very low amount of interest to have paid on 8 loans?
carole says
Hi Sara,
It is very little amount of interest but she gave me a table with the 8 loans and interest and it is all between £5-£10 interest each time. I replied to her email asking if the balance would stay at £600 odd now and no more interest and she replied instantly, i also then asked if she had considered my bank statements in her decision before making her decision and no reply for that one as of yet.
What i don’t understand is she said didn’t uphold complaint, however has done what she has done and reduced balance stopping interest now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you sure the table is right? Who is the lender?
Is there a reason why the interest was so low? did you repay all the loans after only a day or two?
Carole says
I borrowed and paid back quickly within a month but there table says I borrowed £800 paid £1600 back within the month which is strange as I wouldn’t of been able to pay that in a months wages for sure.
The lender is Ferratum
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and that would have been £800 interest…
I think you need to look at the numbers. It doesn’t shound right at all that you paid so little interest on 8 loans. Can you pick a loan and look back at your bank statement and see how much you actually paid? Say that £800 loan?
carole says
I have requested summary’s of all loan documents from them so i can see what i paid. I will also go back on bank statements now too and see if it matches their table.
Why are they offering this when saying DON’T uphold complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are hoping you will settle and not go to the Ombudsman.
Sometimes that are offering a good offer, a lender isn’t always trying to get away with something here. But I think you need to check those numbers to be sure.
carole says
Hi Sara, they have replied this now after me asking if they can clarify if my bank statements were used in the complaint
“Your complaint is partially upheld, this is why we have taken the decision to use some of the interest paid on your previous loans towards the open loan.
What part was Partial – was it either affordable to me or not surely?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Partial means they agree some of your loans were unaffordable but not all. That bit is OK.
What sounds wrong is the interest they say you paid on loans 4-11. Can you go back and ask them to check as you think you paid more than they are showing.
Karl says
Hi,
I’ve had my claim upheld at FOS against Myjar has anyone had this and do they usually accept or is there a chance they will reject and I have to take it further?
Thanks
R says
Hi Karl,
Generally, MYJAR accept adjudicator decisions. They partly upheld mine, when I complained, but I took it to FOS and they advised that I should be refunded a lot more than what MYJAR offered, in their own response. They accepted the adjudicator decision and paid out soon after.
Karl says
Thanks for the reply! That’s good news, Fingers crossed it’s sorted pretty soon
H says
I just had a really crappy threatening final response from money boat , it was a £400 loan when I had 4/5 payday loans as well . Is it worth taking to ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Only one loan from MB?
H says
Yes only one from them for £400 x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not likely you would win a 1 loan loan case unless the loan was large.
Steph says
I have just had a decision from myjar not agreeing with my complaint. They say that they complted the appropriate checks however at the time of each loan I had 2 large guarantor loans and was in and out of debt management plans over the years! I have complaints in with FOS for the guarantor loans and awaiting a response! Do I send myjar complaining to FOS too?
Many thanks,
Steph
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have from Myjar? how large were they?
Steph says
I had 4 loans in total 2 in 2017 one for £250 one for £500 one in 2018 for £550 one in 2019 for £800. The last one has half outstanding at the moment and I did repay the others in full along with interest. I am Just awaiting response from FOS for my 2 guarantor loans at the moment, the myjar loans were only taken to cover priority Bill’s due to paying the guarantor loans.
Thanks,
Steph
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what were the gaps between these loans? The time from repaying loan 1 to taking loans 2? Between 2 and 3? And between 3 and 4?
Steph says
First loan settled 12-07-2017 2nd loan taken 07-12-17 (settled 28-11-18) 3rd loan taken 17-12-18 (settled 27-06-19) 4th taken 06-09-2019 this is not yet settled.
Thanks
Steph
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I think that is worth sending to the Ombudsman. there was a gap between alons 1 and 2, But nowt between the next loans, they were all going up every time – a warning signal – and the l;ast one was large.
Steph says
Thanks Sara, shall I just forward my original complaint along with Myjar’s response?
Thanks
Steph
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could make the specific point that your loans sizes increased every time and the last loans is large.
Matt says
Hi all
I’m just looking to see if anyone has had any dealings with My Finance Club?
I was caught up in a payday trap and I made a claim for irresponsible lending in early March.
I sent the initial email off on the 04/03/2020 and I have heard nothing from them since I received acknowledgement of it on the same day.
The deadline for the 8 weeks is on Wednesday and I am feeling a little nervous that they won’t get back to me at all, should I start preparing to contact the Ombudsman now? Or wait until Wednesday night/Thursday morning?
Dan says
I complained and they rejected it the next day. Sadly yesterday the adjudicator rejected it too, which i cannot understand as i had 4 loans and all my other cases with even just 2 or 3 loans have been at least upheld in part.
My loans were one after the other and were 100 300 250 400.
I have asked the adjudicator to reconsider and made my points again that i shouldn’t have been lent to.
Sara the adjudicator said MFC did proportionate checks based on our lending relationship but i feel 4 back to back loans of quite large amounts warranted further checks which i told adjudicator.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those aren’t really large loans, but I agree that the last one at least should have been considered for a refund.
Matt says
Thank you for your comments!
Did you sent the initial email through the ‘contact is’ section on the website? Because I sent it through that and on the same day I received an email advising my complaint has been forwarded to the ‘compliance team’ and they’ll get back in touch in due course.
Also, I took out 8 loans since February 2019, all ranging from £300-£400.
Should I be looking at the fact that it’s taken the whole 8 weeks as positive news, or does it not matter?
I won my case just recently with SNC and they are refunding me all the interest of nearly £500.
All these pins were taken out at the same time I though :/
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Should I be looking at the fact that it’s taken the whole 8 weeks as positive news”
No. it means they haven’t looked at it.
Keeley says
Hi I’ve just had my affordability claim upheld from Peachy and they have offered me £1500 and written off the £549 I still owed!
I’m just not sure I will see any of this as they have gone into administration?
Why would they still be sending out their final response?
If by some miracle I do see all or some of this money how long does it take them to pay out?
Thanks and advice is much appreciated
Carole says
Sara,
I just received an final response from MYJAR who didn’t uphold a complaint of not been affordable. I sent bank statements to them and had one loan of £275 which I’ve paid back £295 already and £156 left to pay. The bank statements show 15 pay day lenders and 4 loans and gambling I was paying a month and they say not upholding. Surely it’s clear with all those on my statements. I even gave them 4 months prior so they could see constant lending. Should I send this to FOS ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you are very unlikely to win this complaint. The rules don’t say a lender has to look closely at a loan if it is small and they haven’t lent to you before.
Carole says
Thank you Sara, I will just leave this one then. Thanks for your information so helpful. If wasn’t for this site I wouldn’t realise I could put things right in my life.
Do you have information on Satsuma, lendable, drafty and Mr Lender as they all seem to not communicate into 7th week? Do they usually decline all or are they good at looking at the bigger picture and admitting to wrong doing.
Jo says
Hi, I’ve been following this advice thank you. I received a refund of all my interest plus the 8% from Safety Net Credit which I was really pleased about. However, I approached Lending Stream in the same way and they came back to say for all my loans that they concluded that they carried out proper and proportionate affordable checks and declined my claim. I then contacted the Financial Ombudsman and have received a response to say, ‘I’ve not seen enough to say it was unfair for you to provide loans 1 – 7, but loans 8 and 9 should not have been lent’ to me. I feel a bit unsatisfied that this goes against some of the findings on here (e.g. refunds from 3-4 loan) and wonder why only loan 8 and 9 were identified as unfairly lent to me, whereas I was in exactly the same position throughout the whole lending period, already on a DMP and obviously borrowing more and topping up these loans constantly. It was an horrendous time. Do I have any recourse to go back to the FO or is this a final case closed? Hopefully you can advise me. Many thanks in advance, Jo
Sara (Debt Camel) says
were there any gaps in your borrowing from Lending Stream – the time taken from repaying one loan to taking out the next? How large were the LS loans in order, can you list what you borrowed?
Jo says
Thank you for your reply, the following were the loans in question, as you can see the latter ones were running concurrently, as they were increasing my credit limit and allowing me to top up the loans :-/
Date Taken Date Repaid Loan Amount
1 17.03.18 31.03.18 £100
2 18.04.18 27.04.18 £200
3 03.06.18 04.07.18 £570
4 14.08.18 18.08.18 £300
5 27.08.18 19.12.18 £50
6 04.09.18 19.12.18 £300
7 08.09.18 28.11.18 £100
8 14.09.18 10.01.19 £100
9 04.10.18 21.01.19 £370
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your FOS decision is from an adjudicator I suggest you ask for that to be looked at by an Ombudsman.
Jo says
Yes it is an adjudicator, thank you Sara I will do that. Many thanks for your advice, Jo
Melissa says
I wonder if anyone can help?
I have an outstanding amount with peachy which they put on hold whilst investigating my complaint.
They recently responded saying my complaint isn’t dealt with in the 8 weeks but will be shortly and I don’t have to resume payments whilst this is outstanding.
I have now received an email stating about them going into administration and is aimed at creditors?
Keeley says
Ive had the exact same thing, but today received a final response and am owed £1500 and they have written off what I owed. But as they have gone into administration I’m not sure how much I will receive if anything
Sonya says
Hi guys, I have just logged on to my Sunny account as I am sending off my paperwork to the OFS. However, I have just noticed they have closed my remaining two loans and I now owe nothing. I haven’t received any correspondence to that effect….
JP says
Hi all,
Update on my fernovo claim:
Sent in complaint on: 06/04/2020
Received a formal response on: 17/04/2020 not upholding my complaint and offered me £120 as a refund. I had 8 loans and repaid c£700 interest. I then sent them a strongly worded email asking them to revisit the offer and provided my rationale.
Response: 29/04/2020 they have now accepted to refund interest on my last 4 loans. Payment expected in 3 working days (3rd May)
Take you soo much Sara for this website/forum… forever changing lives.
JP
carole says
Hi Sara,
Not sure how to start a new comments, sorry. Just thought i should let you know that i put a affordability complaint into Safetynet 4 weeks ago and didn’t get a reply so i chased them up 2 days ago – they apologised and said hadn’t come through to relevant department but would work on it straight away, this morning i received a final response of upheld and received £680 back which will be given to me in 2 days time. They were super quick doing that in 2 days considering they had 8 weeks. Very friendly department to deal with also.
Karl says
Hi what is the form called you fill in to claim tax back off loan refunds please?
Laura says
Hi, I finally received the email from lending stream with their final response stating that according to my information I gave at the time of my loans that they deemed them as affordable. I had 17 loans in the space of 12 months. I never gave them the correct amount of outgoings and they certainly never checked as at the same time I had a lot of other pay day loans and other expenses. Do you think I have a chance with taking this further as I kind of lied about my finances or will I get in trouble for not being honest when applying for the loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
17 loans in a year is a lot! I think you should definitely ask the ombudsman to look at this complaint.
Payday loans are meant to be short term solutions to temporary problems. After you have had a few – well before 17 – LS should have stopped and thought about whether you were becoming dependent on them and looked more closely at whether they were affordable bu verifying your expenses eg using bank statements.
No one has got in trouble because their application was inaccurate – and it’s very common!
Laura says
Thank you I’m going to go ahead and contact them I only have my credit report screen shot and no longer have any bank statements. Should I attempt to get my bank statements first or just go ahead with the complaint so its started
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send the complaint to FOS now, you can add your bank statements to it later.
A full credit report is better than a screen shot – you can download TransUnion statutory credit report https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou
Mike_p says
I had a similar number and a rejection from Lending Stream, but the FOS said they should refund interest on loan 6 onwards and I got £1400 back from them. The FOS said the pattern of lending alone should have been enough for Lending Stream to see see that they shouldn’t have lent to me, and they made no reference at all to the figures I had put in.
Lending Stream let me have 6 loans at once, I don’t see how anyone could ever argue that that is responsible.
Laura says
Thank you Mike for your response. How long did it take for the whole process from first contact with the fos
Mike_p says
It took about about 5 months in total from initially contacting the FOS until I got the money in my account. It took about two months to be assigned an adjudicator, a month for the adjudicator to make a decision, a month for Lending Stream to accept the decision (despite being given two weeks). and then another month for Lending Stream to actually pay me.
Jessica says
Hi.
I put a claim in against satsuma via resolver tool on 31st March 2020. They still haven’t replied so I chased it up and received a reply today to say they aim to get a response within 28 days? Is that allowed I’ve been waiting over 4 weeks already.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A lender has 8 weeks to reply to a complaint.
Jessica says
I’ve had an email today to say they are accepting my whole claim and removed all the loans I still have outstanding I’m chuffed didn’t think they would do it straight away! Thank you
Julie Coleman says
Hi Sara – Firstly I would like to thank you for setting up this site – it really is an excellent site to visit. With reference to claiming tax back on refunds, I wondered if you could tell me if I have to wait for the tax year to finish? I received my refund from Provident on Monday (27th), but obviously the new tax year started on April 6th? I have claimed tax back before on another refund but that was in a previous tax year so wasn’t an issue. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/#Do_I_have_to_wait_for_the_end_of_the_tax_year, but you have to be able to estimate your income for the rest of the tax year.
Andy says
Could I ask for information on your provident success ? Did it go to fos If so did they accept adjudicator decision or go all the way too ombudsman ? Mine is currently with adjudicator and it seemed a very long time since anything has happens with it I had 15 loans over 3 years thankyou
MP says
Hi Sara, thanks for all you have done with this website, so far I have had several complaints upheld and the loans (Piggy Bank, SNC) reduced by the amount of interest paid +8% and am about to get my first actual cash refund from Avant. I don’t know if you can help me with this query, Avant are refunding me the interest paid to them plus 8% but they sold the debt to ACI and I have paid them almost £1000 over the time the debt has been with them.
ACI are happy to refund what I have paid them as at the time the debt was sold it would in fact have been £0 however they do not think that it is their responsibility to pay me the 8% flat rate interest. Avant are stating that any money I paid to ACI after they sold the debt is nothing to do with them. I am wondering, if I report this to the FOS, which company would be liable and do I in fact have a claim for 8% interest on what was paid to the debt company that the debt was sold to or not?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has the debt been settled with the debt collector?
JA says
For anyone waiting on an Ombudsman decision! Moneyboat (Evergreen) didn’t both replying to my adjudicator in sept 2019 so I had to send it for ombudsman review. The ombudsman upheld my complaint today, 7 months or so roughly for anyone wondering how long its taking to get an ombudsman atm.
Aqua/Likely loans to go!
Thanks for all the help sara.
MP says
The Debt collector has been advised by Avant that the amount owing when it was sold to them was actually £0 so yes, they know now that everything I paid them was an overpayment.
Thanks,
Marie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so the debt collector is proposing to return all of what you paid them? how much was this and how long ago?
A Lady says
I just wanted to say THANK YOU – I was in a bad situation in 2017 and 2018 leading to spiralling debt, various high-interest ‘payday’ loans and the almost breakdown of my relationship (and the definite breakdown of my mental health).
I used the templates you provided and was able to pull together what loans I had out at any one time, how much I was paying each month and dates/amounts of each loan taken out. I have now had my first response back from one of these lenders and they have upheld my complaint! I am being refunded 8% interest plus they have written off both my outstanding loans. I am hopeful for that the other lenders will uphold my complaints but will see what happens over the coming weeks…
I honestly had no idea that I was able to claim a refund on interest and even have the debts written off – when I read the advice on here I cried. I wish I had known of this website sooner! I also wish luck to everyone else going through similar – keep going.
MP says
It’s £979 and I’ve been paying them since around 2017 when the debt was sold to them. Prior to this I was paying Avant directly. I’m just not sure how it stands as the amount I paid them would have been entirely interest as the principal had already been paid by what I had paid Avant already.
Thanks!
Marie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and how much are Avant refunding you?
MP says
Avant are refunding me separately around £1400 overpaid to them before the loan was sold, which includes the 8% interest, but they’ve said this is totally separate to what I paid ACI.
Thanks,
Marie P.
Timka says
I complained to Ombudsman on 11/03/2020 about Sunny and today it was picked up by an adjudicator. I am feeling positive.
I submitted two other complaints on the same day (118118 money and likely) and those have not been picked up.
Tom says
Firstly, I have found this site very useful and had positive cases with 6 lenders so far without using a costly claims service. This page is incredibly helpful. Now I have began to understand the irresponsible lending in the form of payday lenders. Now a quick question is there a similar scheme in place for credit cards/store cards? Or is there no basis for a claim?
When I was at my worse, and my debt was continuing to spiral there was not a lack of offers for credit cards, in fact the promotions came flooding in, clearly targeting the vulnerable and making the situation worse for many. Interested to know? Any advice appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/. These complaints are a bit harder to win, but if your limit was obviously too high at the start or it was increased when you were in difficulty, give it a go!
Rob says
Hi Sara, I have read most of these comments and advice.. and it is excellent.. I sent a lot of complaints out and received a few settlements.. I had a lot of debts and ended up on a DMP but i was still borrowing (still on the DMA but nearly finished) my finances have been ok for 6 months now as I have finally got it under control but I was in trouble and having loans here there and everywhere just to get through the month..
A few have rejected my complaints.. MyJar (2 loans) Sunny (4 loans) Lending stream (21 loans) and a few more so I want to take these to the Financial Ombudsman now. My question is that with most of these loans I was desperate so I exaggerated the truth on expenditure and loans outstanding on the application. plus I was on or about to go on a DMA.. How do I stand by making a claim through the FOS? I want these companies to understand that they did no checks or were just irresponsible with there lending.. I also currently have a loan with Likely Loans (2nd one now) and Vanquis credit card that they kept increasing the limit (3k) and a safety net account that i used regularly.. should I complain to these?.. Maybe that’s enough for now.. As I said I have been Ok for over 6 months now.. I am in a very different place after 10 years of hell.. Thanks for reading..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Safetynet credit – these are often some of the easiest complaints to win as SNC can see your bank account. Use the template letter on this page. You say you are in a very different position, but are you still having to borrow from them each month?
Also use the template letter here for Lending Stream – 21 loans is a lot, LS, should have realised ages ago that you were in difficulty and looked more closely at your situation. Sunny for 4 loans is more marginal. Myjar for 2 loans you won’t normally win unless the loans are very large – were they?
Likely Loans – people can win 2 loan cases here as they are big, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ for a slightly differernt letter.
Vanquis your complaint is that they increased your credit limit, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/
Shaz says
Hi, I was wondering if anyones heard anything about CashEuroNet (Quick Quid, Pounds to pocket and Onstride financial). I’d submitted my claim to the FOS before they went into administration in October 2019. The FOS got in touch to let me know my claim would be sent to the Joint Administrators who are working on the administration situation. I’ve just checked the link the FOS gave me for the company and they are Grant Thornton. The last update was in January and I don’t fully understand the legal jargon involved. Has anyone heard anything since?
I’m worried since they’ve not acknowledged they have my claim or anything. I’ve worked out I’m owed over £900!
The update from Grant Thornton indicates “very likely to be significantly smaller than the upheld claim amount”. This worries me greatly. The website also says theres going to be an Online Claims Portal but I can’t find one and don’t know if I’m supposed to use it or just sit and wait.
Responses are appreciated. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a special page for this: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-casheuronet-administration/. the portal for complaints isn’t live yet. Until it is, it won’t be clear if your claim has gone in automatically or if you have to enter it.
You are likely to get a small amount back I am afraid.
frogman says
Hi Sara, Please what’s your take on the below with Sunny and do you know if their recent offers are good or even upholding at all. I am now in my 8th week with them. My unaffordability complaint is focused on the 2016 ones.
Loan Date Loan Amount Paid Interest
1 13-Apr-15 300 322 22
2 10-Sep-15 500 586 86
3 25-Nov-15 500 512 12
4 09-Dec-15 500 508 8
5 16-Dec-15 500 528 28
6 24-Jan-16 500 620 120
7 20-Mar-16 500 881 381
8 12-Jun-16 50 51 1
9 22-Jun-16 50 52 2
10 08-Jul-16 500 516 16
11 26-Jul-16 500 923 423
12 04-Oct-16 50 59 9
13 27-Nov-16 150 151 1
14 04-Dec-16 500 515 15
15 24-Dec-16 500 726 226
16 06-Oct-18 50 78 28
17 06-Oct-18 450 198 -252
Total 6100 7226 1126
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Their offers are usually pretty poor, you may need to send this to the Ombudsman.
Zoe says
I’ve sent a claim to FOS but have since been sent an off can I accept the offer I was given, it’s not been assigned to anyone yet. At FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can – tell FOS what the offer is and says you are happy to accept.
chris says
Hi I know that others have posted a list of successes so I wanted to do the same. I hope this is useful and will give some encouragment.
Quickquid – adjudicator ruling in my favour but did not pay out before administration. May get a few hundred pounds eventually.
Moneyshop – no ruling from the FOS but have claim lodged with administrators. Again, may get a few hundred pounds.
Wageday Advance – no ruling from the FOS but will receive £115 approx from administration
Wonga – no ruling from the FOS but received £219 from administration
Provident – ruling from adjudicator which was accepted – received £3216 and debt wiped off DMP
CarCashpoint – ruling from adjudicator which was accepted – received £218 and remaining debt wiped off. Logbook will be returned.
Morses Club – no ruling from adjudicator but accepted offer of £330 and remaining debt wiped off DMP
Loans2Go – ruling from adjudicator which was accepted and received £1062 and remaining debt wiped off DMP
END of part 1
chris says
Part 2
Only have one more complaint – against JD Williams – to go – has been with FOS for about a year now. DMP reduced by about £10,000 and cash in hand – about £5000. For me, reducing the total in the DMP was as important as getting money in my hand. You have to keep on top of managing this number of complaints but a little investment in time is worth it. I can see a much bigger light at the end of a debt tunnel which goes back 15 years. So please keep going, folks. Use the great advice on this forum to help – and keep up us all posted! Cheers.
Annie says
Hi Sara, I won a irresponsible lending case with quick quid a while back before they went bust and they have never taken the loans off of my credit report. Is there anything I can now do for these to be removed or any idea who I would contact now.
Thanks Annie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did they say they would remove the loans?
Annie says
Hi, it was specified in the FOS finding that I would be refunded interest and negative markers removed from my credit file. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and you had the refund?
Luke says
For those dealing with Sunny I can confirm that emailing P Baldry the CEO works wonders. I was waiting for them to respond to final ombudsman decision and was told it could be 4-8 weeks but I emailed Mr Baldry and received a reply the following day asking for bank details then I was paid instantly!
Stephen Prince says
Do you possibly have a direct email contact for him you would be prepared to share with me please?
Many thanks
Chris says
What did you put in your email if you don’t mind me asking? The deadline for them to respond to my adjudicator passed on the 27th of April. My case is now being passed to the Ombudsman so im expecting a long wait!
Catherine Fish says
The Ombudsman today have said they up hold my complaint so now I’ll be waiting for them to pay out, if you have the contact details that would be great to give them a nudge to pay out a bit quicker
Maria says
Hi Sara,
I put in a claim with My Jar in June 2019 which was not upheld. I put in another claim in April 2020 and they have come back to say that as l have already made one complaint they will not investigate this again. I still have a loan with them which was £750 taken in January 2018 for which l am paying a reduced fee of £25.00. Below is the table. Do you think it worth trying to send it to the Ombudsman.
Loan ID Date Issued Date Closed Loan Amount Total Paid
2200318 2017-02-18 2017-02-23 £175.00 £180.68
2204047 2017-02-27 2017-07-20 £350.00 £404.60
2403560 2018-01-07 2018-01-10 £425.00 £434.56
2406234 2018-01-11 2018-01-17 £200.00 £207.50
2409446 2018-01-18 £750.00 £164.00
I also had several loans with Quickquid and complained over a year ago and raised this with the Ombudsman but have not had any response. I have sent several emails.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Myjar, no it’s not worth sending to the Ombudsman. The problem isn’t if you would win the complaint, it’s that the ombudsman will not consider it because you should have gone to the ombudsman within 6 months of Myjar rejecting your first complaint.
Emma says
MyJar have agreed to refund me in the first instance which surprised me! From loan one onwards.
LendingStream rejected but the adjudicator disagreed. In total I am due back almost £10,000 now and am still waiting on a few others.
Thanks so much to Sara for this site. At first, I thought that maybe I had some kind of moral obligation not to do this as it was my decision to borrow. However, after seeing many of these lenders go into administration with “claims” receiving back so little, and with so many FOS decisions highlighting their bad practices, I can now see that it is important to do this.
Jess says
Hi Emma,
How long did MyJar take to get back to you about your claim?
Thanks!
Ray says
I currently owe about 1280 and 383 to satsuma, they have admitted fault in lending me two loans at the same time. The only thing that is confusing me is that they have written off the debt and will update my credit file. Does this mean that they will remove all information and defaults to do with the company for the wrongful lending? Also what does this mean?
redress – 693.19
notional interest 8% – 295.14
Income tax – 59.02
Redress retained – £424 – Is this for outstanding balance?
Cheque Amount – £505.31
Many thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that means they will remove the defaults and mark the records as settled. Not that they will delete the records.
reading between the lines, I think they have done is reduce each of the balances to what you would owe if all the interest is removed.
For one of them you have paid so far 639 more than you borrowed – that is the “redress” amount.
For the other one you still owe £424, so that is the redress retained.
That all sounds correct (ASSUMING THEIR NUMBERS ARE RIGHT), they just haven’t explained in a very helpful way.
Arithmetically:
redress + notional interest – tax deducted = redress retained + cheque amount.
summer says
Hi Sara
I borrowed from both amigo and satsuma in June 2019. I have only had one loan for each but they are unaffordable to me. I cannot afford the £400 intotal that I should be paying. I complained to amigo they said my income I stated was a certain point at the time. However I realised I out my weekly wages but only get paid 38 weeks of the year so it wasn’t entirely accurate. They never asked to see bank statement for wage slips though do I still stand a chance ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is one of the many problems that can happen with people putting in their income & expenditure details quickly and the lender not verifying them. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ for other reasons applications may have been inaccurate.
How large were the Amigo and satsuma loans? What was your credit record like at the time you applied?
carole says
Hi Sara, Lending stream did not uphold my 30 loans in a row a couple of days ago. I sent lending stream to FOS through resolver account and I received an email last night at 10.50pm from ombudsman giving a reference number and asking me to reply and agree for them to look into it etc. Do you know if this is legit, I assume it’s an automated thing coming through that time of night. I checked out the email it came from and was this ppi@financial-ombudsman.org.uk. When I replied yes I agree I then got an automated email again saying may be a few weeks but will be in touch.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the “@finacial-ombudsman.org.uk” is the correct ending for FOS email addresses so this isn’t any sort of scam. BUT the PPI bit looks wrong.
It’s hard to tell if this is a mistake by Resolver or it’s been allocated to the wrong stream at the Financial Ombudsman. You can reply again to that email address saying this is NOT a PPI complaint, it is amount unaffordable high cost credit lending.
Carole says
Thanks Sara. I’m going to contact them Monday to double check!
Paul says
LS did the same to me but I referred it using the online form to the FOS I didn’t get that kind of email just and automated one saying they had received it and there is a delay due to volumes of complaints etc
Carole says
Thank you Paul. It may be different then going through resolver account to submit to FOS. I think I’ll give them a call Monday and check as I’ve got a reference number now. Did you get a reference number beginning with PNX?
Thank you
Karl says
I done mine through resolver and I got a ref number like that!
Carole says
Great thanks Karl and did you get an automated email like that too where you have to reply stating yes/no happy for them to take complaint etc and reply to them with answer?
Karl says
Hi Carole,
Yes I got the same one of my cases was picked up within a couple of weeks and a decision made, others haven’t been picked up yet!
Carole says
Hi Karl,
Thanks for that, must be correct then. So getting that automated email does that mean it’s been picked up/allocated when they send you that? I sent 2 at the same time but only got one email and doesn’t state which one it is 🙈. Wow so yours was done within a couple of weeks….payday loan I assume yes?
Cazza says
After Lending Stream totally messing up my redress and having debt collectors call because they didn’t close my accounts, I finally got an email, the accounts are close, no apology or nothing. They have to be the worse company to deal with.
JC says
How long did it take for Lending Stream to reply to the FOS please? Lending Stream are currently two weeks over the agreed response date set out by the FOS.
Thanks!
Dan says
I am in the same boat as you, I received my redress but didn’t close my outstanding loan and now they sent it to a debt collection agency.
Can’t get in contact with them
How did you?
Julie M says
Dan, for your redress to be paid, did Lending Stream ask you to complete a signed settlement form? I have had help from FOS and in the last email FOS had from LS about the offer such form was mentioned, but no attachment or link. Thank you
summer says
Hi Sara
My amigo loan is £5000 over 4 years
Satsuma £800 over a year
My credit wasn’t great no defaults but late payments. I would have had my mortgage on my credit report for £670
Credit cards – £4500
Car finance £16000 @ £300 per month
a £500 loan with drafty
Shock direct account with a £500 balance.
Dave L says
I have escalated my Satsuma Loans complaint to the ombudsman, I’m debating whether to escalate the money platform complaint to the ombudsman though, as they have been helpful , maybe I’m being too soft . In the space of six months I had five short term loans with them at £500, £250, £500, £500, £1000
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how have they been helpful?
Carole says
Did you get a response from satsuma before the 8 weeks? I’m still waiting on them giving final response and when I called them up they said it hadn’t even been assigned to anyone yet and call again In a couple of weeks. Terrible service from them. I sent to FOS at 8 weeks because their communication wasn’t good to let me know they were busy etc or hadn’t been looked into. No communication!
Dave L says
Hi Carole I had no response at all from Satsuma not even an acknowledgement of my complaint. I followed it up with two further emails and still nothing.
Dave
Carole says
Hi Dave,
Well I actually did get an acknowledgement but after that nothing so I called them at 8 weeks as wanted to see if they were nearly finished and they said nobody had been assigned it yet. That was enough for me so I sent it to FOS that day.
How many weeks are you now without response?
Dave L says
Ten weeks I’ve not even had an acknowledgement from them
Dave L says
Well I realise having put that in print now it sounds a bit silly, they haven’t been a nuisance like other firms and have frozen interest but I guess actually I should escalate the complaint. They never asked for I and E just salary and how much rent or mortgage was a month, and that was the application
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so this is included in your DMP now?
you haven’t said much about your situation, so the question is were the repayments affordable? If they weren’t, and you had to borrow again, make an affordability complaint. I haven’t yet seen a FOS decision on a P2P lender.
Dave L says
Yes it’s included in my DMP, the repayments for a £1000 over three months were approximately £1500. The repayments definitely weren’t affordable I was in a cycle of borrowing from April til I stopped paying in full upon entering my dmp. I shall escalate to the ombudsman and see what they say.
Alex F says
Hi Sara,
Another positive reply – this time from Satsuma (upheld my complaint and are sending a cheque for £165)
Frustratingly, all the smaller loans I have had are being upheld, Safety net credit issued me with £115 refund and HSBC with some overdraft small refunds. As soon as I put in a bigger claim to MYJAR and MR LENDER for £500+ in interest, the final responses are negative.
I just hope to FOS and / or ajudicators side with me based on my claims being upheld from other companies, all loans were at the same time struggling to pay back the interest! It’s also comforting knowing that the Satsuma and SNC I had was just ONE loan each. I hold some good hope for the bigger redress claims.
Carole says
Hi Alex, can I ask how long Satsuma took please as they haven’t replied to me and I’m on week 9 so I sent to FOS at week 8 simply because they didn’t communicate to any of my emails with updates.
Alex F says
Took about 10 weeks.
chris says
Being cycnical, I think this is because an FOS investigation triggers a £500 fee for the lender. So, refunds which add up to less end up costing them less in the long run.
Lewis says
Hi Alex,
Don’t give up on MyJar. They rejected my claim first time( I only had 1 loan with them). I replied with further information (Copies of my credit report) to support my claims and they have come back today accepting my claim. They said they can’t remove from credit file but will refund me plus interest and remove any negative marks.
Alex F says
£500 fee?? Payable by whom? If MYJAR owe me £500 in interest does that mean I get nothing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Payable by the lender to FOS whether you win the case or not.
JC says
Hi all,
Made a complaint about Lending Stream to the Ombudsman, they agreed to look at it and made a result in my favour to the tune of around £1k, Lending Stream was given to the 20th April to respond and the Ombudsman and myself have heard nothing from them. I understand that they’ll be heavily busy and not as many people working there, but is there any timeframe they should be working to, or is anyone expecting any responses from Lending Stream with which I can work with or expect a response?
Any replies will be appreciated,
Thanks
shaun says
Hi JC,
I’ve had my complaint upheld by the FOS adjudicator for my lending stream complaint and he gave them 2 weeks to respond to his decision. Today is week 6 and I’ve herd nothing so it looks like there busy with the COVID -19 situation or there using it to drag it along. Good luck with your case 👍
JC says
Thankyou Shaun,
Good luck with yours too. If I hear anything from them, I’ll let you know. If you could do the same it would be appreciated, would just give us a rough estimate on how long others could be waiting!
Thanks!
JB says
Hi,
I am in a very similar position, LS had until the 22nd April to respond but I also haven’t heard anything. I emailed the adjudicator and they said that LS have a huge backlog, so have given them a further few more weeks to reply.
Will let you know if I hear anything!
JC says
Hi JB, that would be great if you could, thankyou! I shall do the same!
Thanks,
JC
Kerry Smith says
I had several doorstop loans with shopacheck. Morses are saying they can’t find the paper work or account as its over 6 years ago. I have nothing either. They have rejected complaint.
What should I do ? Is that the end of things.
frogman says
Hi Sara, I need your advice please. Sunny have just come back to me on the below and have decided to partially uphold. Below is a summary of what they said.
We therefore agree to partially uphold your complaint in relation to Loan 16 – Loan 17. To put things right, we propose to do the following:
As you have not repaid more than you borrowed there is no refund due;
As there is an outstanding balance of £518.40 we agree to write off this amount so you have further liability to us;
Amend your credit file by [removing all loans from Loan 16 onwards.
Please let us know if you wish to accept this offer in full and final settlement of your complaint.
Loan No Date Loan Amount Paid Interest Status
1 13-Apr-15 300.00 321.60 21.60 Settled
2 10-Sep-15 500.00 586.14 86.14 Settled
3 25-Nov-15 500.00 512.00 12.00 Settled
4 09-Dec-15 500.00 508.00 8.00 Settled
5 16-Dec-15 500.00 528.00 28.00 Settled
6 24-Jan-16 500.00 620.00 120.00 Settled
7 20-Mar-16 500.00 881.00 381.00 Settled
8 12-Jun-16 50.00 50.80 0.80 Settled
9 22-Jun-16 50.00 52.40 2.40 Settled
10 08-Jul-16 500.00 516.00 16.00 Settled
11 26-Jul-16 500.00 922.97 422.97 Settled
12 04-Oct-16 50.00 59.20 9.20 Settled
13 27-Nov-16 150.00 151.20 1.20 Settled
14 04-Dec-16 500.00 514.59 14.59 Settled
15 24-Dec-16 500.00 726.11 226.11 Settled
16 06-Oct-18 50.00 77.66 27.66 Settled
17 06-Oct-18 450.00 198.00 -252.00 Not settled
Total 6100.00 7225.67 1125.67
frogman says
Is it really worth going to FOS?, with balance wipe off and credit file adjustment proposal. Below is how they came to the conclusion
However, based on our review of your repayment record and the overall pattern of your borrowing, we consider that it would have been prudent for us to have contacted you before we granted Loan 16 to discuss your financial circumstances and determine whether continuing to lend to you was sustainable.
JP says
Hi Frogman,
Please can you share your timeline on when you sent the complaint in to getting your response.
Sent mine in to Sunny on 4th April and they have until 1st June to give me a response. Just wondering if they tend to reply before then.
Thanks,
JP
frogman says
Hi JP,
I first complained on the 12th of March and received an acknowledgement email on the 18th of March. On the 20th of April, I sent them a reminder email that we were approaching the 8-week mark to which they reassured me they would complete the investigation within the timeframe. I got the partial uphold email today. It’s worth mentioning that I sent them a spreadsheet containing all the loans, interest etc as above so maybe this sped up the process, I don’t know.
Michael says
Hi. I have had similar experiences with Provident and Mr Lender. I can understand that their staff maybe working from home but I feel that they are using the current situation to drag out any responses and payments.
Mick
Julia says
So I’ve got no income at the moment – am receiving universal credit. £400 to amigo ( currently with FOS) and owe £200 per month to satsuma ( currently with FOS). Which is more than half my universal credit payment.
Its well over 4-5 months since I made the original complaint on both.
Satsuma are now chasing me ( they didn’t last month and I thought it was because the complaint was with FOS). However according to the FOS they haven’t provided the FOS with any information or acknowledgement. But today satsuma are back chasing me.
I don’t know what to do.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
your lack of income, is this coronavirus related?
are these your only two debts? Are you making payments to others?
what is your guarantor’s financial position?
Julia says
I am self employed and have been at home with my daughter since the schools closed which is why I’ve got the universal credit.
The 2 debts are not the only debts but they are by far the highest.
Gaurantor is very strong financially , furloughed on 80% but involving him will cause no end of stress and pain for me and my child.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you asked Amigo for a payment break then?
Marc says
Hello,
Can someone please provide a template letter to send to Safetynet?? I believe they charged me an absolute fortune over a period of time in which I have received refunds from Wonga, Peachy and have even had the defaults removed from my file.
Also – anyone had experience with Safetynet and the likeliness of a refund?
Thanks
Marc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Use the standard letter in the article above. Lots of people have had success against Safetynet credit – they can see your bank statements so they should have seen you were in difficulty! If you still owe them a balance do cancel the CPA to them at your bank if you cant afford to make the next payment without borrowing again.
Ben says
Hi Marc, I used the template letter from here. They original offered me £600, clear my outstanding amount of £1200ish and clear record on my credit file. I wrote back and declined. They came back with a final offer the same as just mentioned however with £1000 back to me. Extra £400. I accepted that and the money landed in my account within a week. Whole process from start to finish…6 weeks.
Johnny says
Hi Marc
I have had refunds from all of the payday lenders and the best one to deal with was with safetynetcredit, all in all it toke about 4-5 weeks. Got around £5,000 back, it was around 15 monhhs ago…
Lewis says
I complained to SNC Monday and got my full and final settlement today. Fair offer. Wrote-Off outstanding balance. Removal from Credit FIle. Certainly the best company I have dealt with thus far. Accepted. FOS could take months and months especially during this pandemic so rather it be resolved!
Leanne says
Did they take off tax for you?
John says
Hi,
I complained to Lending Stream regarding 50+ Loans I had taken out with them between March 2013 and Sept 2018. Total amount is approx. 18k. They responded to my complaint and offered £2k. Seen some negative reports on Lending Stream paying out. Would you advise pursuing with Ombudsman and once they have asked Lending Stream to pay, are they legally tied into this?
Your help and advice is appreciated.
J Mclaren says
Hi. I had over 60 loans with LS. Their initial response accepted no liability. Following FOS involvement, they are to pay compensation from the 4th loan onward. It can be a timely matter, but so worth the outcome. An ombudsman decision is legally binding. I am now awaiting payment from LS, and i am expecting it later rather than sooner. Go for it.
Helen says
Hi Sara. I had 6 loans from Fernovo over 14 months. Not huge loans, £200-450 ish. Fernovo have written to me today and said not upholding but as gesture of “Goodwill” will give me £80 and ALL 6 loans removed from my credit file.
If i sent to Ombudsman, i would possibly get loans 3-6 interest reimbursed (bit of a guess) which ive calculated to be around £300.
So, im thinking £80 and all loans removed is probably worth taking? I would lose £200 ish but i think i can live with that. Thoughts?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do any of the loans have late payments or defaults on your credit record?
Dan says
It is worth calling and negotiating with them. I had 4 loans with interest of £180. They offered £30 goodwill and erase all loans. I said i would get more at FOS and they asked if we could work out arrangement so negotiated £100 refund and all loans erased. Worth a call as they were very keen to settle without FOS
Helen says
Fab, thank you!! I actually emailed today and asked them to meet me half way at £150 and all loans gone. Will call tomorrow though and directly talk to somebody.
Helen says
Nope. All paid in full and on time. What do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then removing them from your credit record will not help your credit score at all. If they are in the last year then removing them will make it easier to get a mortgage soon. but otehrwise it’s not nuch help to you at all.
£80 v £300 – you could go back and say you would be happy to settle on say £150 or £200? I don’t know if they will negotiate?
Helen says
For everybody else reading, they did negotiate to £140 and all 6 loans removed so I’m really happy. They responded to my affordability complaint in 2 weeks and so all in all, its taken 2.5 weeks from start to finish with Fernovo. Money due in my account tomorrow. An easy experience compared to other lenders I’ve dealt with.
Satuma were the worst in my experience but after they didn’t reply to my adjudicators decision for two months, nor to my emails, i left them a bad trust pilot review and three days later, i received my £600 cheque and redress letter.
Not proud to say that ive complained to 10 lenders however, thanks to this site, I’ve had 10 outcomes in my favour, £2400 back, balances cleared and a lot of loans removed from my credit file. My final complaint outstanding is Uncle Buck.
I no longer have any pay day loans. A big thank you Sara, couldn’t be more grateful.
Mal says
Lost for words about how Sunny are currently handling complaint cases that have been raised to an adjudicator. Sunny received the view of the adjudicator three weeks ago who was assigned to my case and still Sunny will not confirm when they will review and respond to the adjudicator. Email from Sunny yesterday said they experiencing delays due to COVID-19.. but still no timeline. The FOS confirmed today that they will raise my case with the ombudsman and I’ve just written my third review on Trustpilot to highlight the stress they are causing.. next job is to forward dialog to the FCA so it can be noted within their supervisory work. All Sunny needed to do was review and response within the 2 weeks allocated but they choose to delay and make this even more stressful for customers.
Victoria Moseley says
I’m in the same boat, they had until the 14th April to respond to the adjudicator and I’ve heard absolutely nothing from them.
Mal says
The next stage should happen automatically but I would phone your adjudicator and ask them to raise it to an Ombudsman due to lack of communication. I phoned on Friday and I had an email today from the FOS. I sent an email to their Operations Manager and cc the FCA. The FCA responded but nothing from the Operations Manager at Sunny.
deborah says
Hi Sara,
I have just had a response from Peachy to my unafforability complaint and SAR request which they rejected. They have said that I am unable to take the complaint to the FO as they are in administration, is this correct? They sold the debt onto Pearch Capital who tried to take to court but I defended the claim as I had an unaffordability complaint pending. This has now been stayed and the court has said it could go to the small claims court if I wanted it to but have also rejected this as the complaint has not been dealt with.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am unable to take the complaint to the FO as they are in administration, is this correct?
That is correct.
how many loans did you have from Peachy and how large?
the court has said it could go to the small claims court if I wanted it to but have also rejected this as the complaint has not been dealt with.
I am not clear what has happened here – the case is till currently stayed?
Debbie says
It was just 2 loans with peachy the first for £250 and the second for £550. I took the first loan on the 4/12/18 then took the second on the 7/12/18 to pay the first loan and give me £250. The debt company started county court proceedings in Feb 2020 and I defended the claim saying that I had brought an unaffordability complaint against Peachy and was still waiting for them to reply. I had confirmation that the court had received my defence on the 12th March 2020 and have now received a notice of proposed allocation to the small claims track which I have returned saying I don’t feel this is suitable as I have only just had a rejection from Peachy and was going to submit a claim to the FO. I guess what I really want to know is what, if anything can I do? I put my unaffordability complaint into Peachy before they went into administration but because they replied once they were in administration and as expected rejected my claim is that it do I have no other course of action?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
With only two loans it’s unlikely you would have won an affordability complaint at FOS. And now going to FOS is not an option.
You could talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about whether you could defend this case. It may be worth trying to do this even if you don’t expect to succeed if prolonging the court case will give you time to save up the money to repay the CCJ within 30 days of the judgment as that means it will drop off your credit record.
PS I assume you eventually got your Amigo case settled?
Debbie says
I did indeed get the Amigo loan sorted, they paid me back all of the interest, charges and the additional interest so got back over £7500. Have also managed to sort out almost everything else so things are much better thanks. Couldn’t have done it without this website, I have told so many people who have been in difficulties about it. I know it was only 2 loans and not very big ones but does the fact that I have all these other debts on my credit record not show that they were unaffordable? Was thinking of asking the debt collection company if they will accept repayment of the original loan in a full & final what do you think, is it worth a try?
Holly says
Hi guys , on credit karma it shows a number of closed accounts of payday loans . Some affordability complaints I have won some just closed as they have been paid . Does this show as a negative and should they have been removed ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Normally only negative marks eg late payments, defaults are removed.
George says
Hi Sara
Following from my affordability complaints to several payday firms I have 2 final response from my jar and moneyboat which won’t upheld would it be better to wait for all of firms to reply back before i send it to FOs. Do I need to send them one but one or all in the same complaint email Because they’re response is that I could afford all my payments but the truth is that I had 7 payday loans at the same time at one stage.
And with uncle buck i still have 180 outstanding which I have delayed till June my question is if they haven’t acknowledged my affordability complaint should I still pay it since they are on administration?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send them one by one to FOS, they are all separate complaints and there is no reason to wait for the replies from all of them.
How many loans did you have from each lender? It is very hard to win a one or 2 loan case unless the loans were large.
George says
Well they all add up to few thousands in a period of 2/3 years. Any thoughts on the uncle Buck situation!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That isn’t relevant – how many loans did you have from each lender, including UB?
George says
Three with uncle buck and the others are starting from 4 to 20 with Ferratum.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large were the Uncle Buck loans? And were there any gaps between them?
4+ loan cases are definitely worth pursuing.
Do you owe money to all/many of these at the moment?
George says
No gaps with UB
100,200,400 started from March 2019 the last payment is for 185 which I haven’t paid yet I got them to freeze it till June, can I get away with not paying this at all or is it premature thinking since they haven’t even acknowledged my affordability complaint.
All of the ones which I have complained about are paid off however I have another 5 which I haven’t complained about lack of confidence and I’m still paying for
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the UB case is potentially winnable – only three loans but doubling in size with no gaps.
I suggest you wait until June. Then if they haven’t responded to your complaint, tell them that you won’t be paying the balance as you have an affordability complaint in and you have the right of set-off between your complaint and the balance you owe.
For the others I suggest you put in complaints now! It is actually easier to get a settlement when you still owe some money – when you have paid off the loan the lender has to hand over hard cash.
Marie I says
My complaint was made to sunny less than 2 weeks ago, they came back today saying they are not upholding my complaint, despite having a copy of my bank statements and debt management plan. Apparently the 12500 debts and 11000 I was guarantor for were completely affordable despite me being a full time student and single mum at the time. Needless to say I have complained to FOS and sent them copies of my bank statements and dmp. I’ve emailed sunny to inform them that I have raised a complaint with FOS, what is the likelihood of them now relooking at my complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is no chance Sunny will relook at your complaint.
Marie I says
I’ve just had an email from FOS, requesting more information. I was not expecting to get any kind of response this quickly
Fingers crossed it doesn’t take too long to resolve now.
Rebecca says
Hi Sarah, thanks for all the help on this site. I have put quite a few affordability complaints with some success and others I’ve escalated to FOS. Firstly TFS agreed within 6 weeks that my loan was unavoidable and repaid my all the interest 2 weeks later. Sunny offered to repay on loans 55 to 62, I replied and said I would compromise and accept on loans 30 to 62 which they have agreed today, so that’s a total of £5500 coming back to me from those two companies alone. I had no success with , lending stream, amigo or either due to no replies or dismissals of my complaint but these are now with FOS who have contacted all companies for more information. This site has been a life saver
Lewis says
Hi Rebecca. How long did it take for a response 2nd time around with Sunny? I rejected 2 weeks ago Tuesday and asked for them to compromise and reconsider but waiting for an update. I assume it’ll be another 4-6 weeks? Thanks, Lewis.
Rebecca says
Hello
I got a reply in just over a week, I did chase them up after 5 days and I copied in the following people, this might have made them reply quicker so worth a shot:
sgrice@elevatecredit.co.uk rmallinder@elevatecredit.co.uk
pbaldry@elevatecredit.co.uk
Good luck!!
Lewis Critcher says
Hi Rebecca. Thanks for highlighting these emails above. I CC’d in and received a response with 5 days. A revised Full and Final settlement which I have duly accepted and waiting for payment within 14 days! Many thanks!
frogman says
Hello All,
Is anyone here currently dealing with Lending Stream please? Whats’s the success and rate and timeframe for investigating a complaint? I have just put the below in, complaining about irresponsible lending.
Loan No Date Loan Amount Paid Interest Status
1 02-Nov-16 400.00 486.40 86.40 Settled
2 06-Dec-16 1000.00 1012.86 12.86 Settled
3 10-Aug-17 900.00 914.40 14.40 Settled
4 08-Jan-18 1500.00 1923.20 423.20 Settled
5 15-Feb-18 1500.00 1520.18 20.18 Settled
6 06-Mar-18 1500.00 1524.00 24.00 Settled
7 08-Mar-18 1500.00 1963.17 463.17 Not Settled
8 03-May-18 150.00 114.74 -35.26 Not Settled
Total 8450.00 9458.95 1008.95
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the first three are probably irrelevant – low interest paid and long gaps between 2 & 3 and 3 & 4.
But from loan 4 they are all large, large enough that LS should have looked closely and seen all your other borrowing. My guess is this may have to go to the Ombudsman.
LS are slow at the moment. They are apparently asking for an extra 8 weeks after the normal 8 because of coronavirus. Up to you if you want to allow more time before sending the case to FOS. LS lost 80% of its cases at the Ombudsman in the last half of 2019 so you may decide there is no point in waiting an extra 8 weeks for a poor offer/rejection that will have to go to FOS anyway.
Frogman says
Thanks very much Sara, Yes, the acknowledgment email I got says due to coronavirus, they would need an additional 8 weeks. I will go to FOS after the first 8 weeks.
Carole says
I put a complaint in to LS as I had 30 loans one after the other plus gambling on my account plus 15 other payday loans plus 4 guarantor loans and they rejected my complaint saying all was affordable. They took 9 weeks to do it and no communication from them at all. All 30 loans were not upheld.
Georgina says
Hi, what email address did you use for lending stream? The one I used seems to come back as unrecognised. I can’t work out if I’m typing it wrong or if it’s a really old one
Lola says
So grateful I found this site! Complained to myjar about 5 loans I took out from 2015-2016 and they have just come back to uphold 4 of them with a refund of 1600.00.
It started debt issue which 5 years later is being resolved. Unfortunately I got in the situation of borrowing to pay back and couldn’t get out of it. My family luckily helped once they became aware and I am now paying them back.
I will be trying this with 2 other lenders that came after myjar and clearly didn’t do their checks!