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?
George says
The missing loans add up to 3350 which is not included in their list No gaps from may2014.To September 2014 I’m waiting for them to dig out.
the ones they listed is 47 loans and they disguarded the first seven loans adding to 2060 no gaps.
Interest works out about 600 this is just an estimate.
All I have is paid monthly amounts to work from hence the estimated amount.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so if you are being offered £1300 and the loans not being refunded had interest of £600 then this isn’t a bad offer as people very rarely get all of those refunded.
If you want to try to try to get the maximum refund you probably have to send this to FOS.
Ferratum will sometimes negotiate, so you could go back and say you think they should have included some more loans and say what amount you would be prepared to accept as a speedy settlement, otherwise you will go to FOS.
ciara says
received this reply from Satsuma/provident ( more than 2 weeks over deadline)
We are sorry that we have been unable to resolve your complaint at this time.
We can assure you that this matter is still under investigation and is receiving our urgent attention. We expect to be able to provide you with a full response in due course.
If we require any further information or you feel you have any supporting information to help resolve your complaint we will contact you or please contact us using the details below.
We would like to apologise for the delay and appreciate your ongoing patience.
should I just refer the to ombudsmen? I had 2 loans with them both for £300 – but the complaint I am making is that they allowed me to take out 2 loans at the same time before repaying original loan!?
thanks :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have the loans been repaid?
Ciara says
Hi Sara
I had a reply from my complaint from savvy I only had one loan with them but for £800 but – before approving they questioned about the other payday loans on my credit file (10 others) but still proceeded to lend to me. I know normally when it’s just one loan it wouldn’t be upheld but I thought as it was for a higher amount I could refer to ombudsmen?
Thanks
Ciara
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it’s worth asking FOS to look at that.
Chris says
So after Sunny failed to respond to my adjudicator decision deadline I sent an email to the FCA to let them know how poor Elevate credit (sunny) are handling cases and included my adjudicator Paul Baldry the complaint manager from sunny. I got a response back from Mr Baldry apologising for the delay and he stated that they have now responded to my adjudicator. However I pressed my adjudicator for an update but they say they haven’t received anything as of yet and my case is still waitinf to be authorised to got to the Ombudsman. I’d love to know what is going on!
Shaun says
Hi Chris I am in the excact same position.
I cc’d a few people at elevate left bad reviews on Trustpilot and then got a response saying they wanted to bring matter to a close and they have responded. Sure enough not the case… have you had any updates?
Luucy says
Hi Sara
Firstly thankyou for this fantastic site ! It’s been amazing for so many of us .
I just wanted to get your opinion on Sunny , theyve made me an offer , not in line with what the adjudicator recommended, about only 50% of the refund.
If I dont agree , and it goes back to the FOS , is it a lengthy wait do you know to sort out , are the chances relatively high in getting more back ?
I know it’s my decision, just wanted to see what’s been happening recently in your experience.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have asked a couple of people who have recently had a Sunny ombudsman decision what their timescale was:
Here is one person’s reply:
The adjudicator partially upheld my complaint refunding loans 4 and 5 ( out of 5 loans ) and sunny rejected.
9th Jan was the date it go allocated to an adjudicator.
16th march was the day that they were getting my case ready for the ombudsman.
13th may was when I got my final decision off the ombudsman.
Ombudsman upheld adjudicator decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
And another person has said this was their Sunny timeline:
I had a total of 26 loans ranging from 2014. The first loan was a long running loan for £4000.
The adjudicator advised Sunny to refund loan one from its 14th payment and all of loans 2-26.
Sunny’s offer to the adjudicator was for loans 11-26 only.
The ombudsman agreed exactly with the adjudicator and it was a matter of days-less than one week, for the ombudsman decision.
FOS notified Sunny of the ombudsman decision on 15/05/2020.
Now awaiting contact from Sunny as to the amount.
(I will add that that seems suprisingly quick to me! There may have been something unusual about the case.)
Gav says
Hi guys,
Looking for some advice. I had a complaint with my jar which was partly upheld. I have accepted the offer which was almost 2 weeks ago. I have just received an email stating my account has been settled. How long did pay out take after receiving the account settlement email ?
ME says
Great result today!
After submitting my complaint to Satsuma in early September 2019 and them initially rejecting it, I escalated it to the FOS in late October 2019. The FOS adjudicator made a decision to uphold my complaint in relation to loans 2-4 out 4 loans on 30/04/2020, giving Satsuma until 14/05/2020 to respond, which they failed to do. After a number of emails from me and a 1 star review they have today responded to say they agree with the FOS’ s decision and have emailed them today to inform them.
Was honestly expecting this to drag on to Ombudsman level given others’ experiences that I have read so I’m happy with this. Just waiting for the breakdown of what I should expect to receive!
Only two more complaints left with CashFloat and Sunny but still have a long way to go with those.
ME
George says
Hi Sara
I’ve had a guarantor loan for a 1000 paid off over 12 months with George Banco and currently paying off another loan of 2000 over24 months still to pay 1375 half way through this one.
I’m about to put in affordability complaint and wanted to ask if these loans need SAR request since they are not large amounts?!
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A SAR gives you other information apart from the loan details eg recordings of any phone calls (may not be relevant for your case) and the Income & Expenditure that GB drew up when deciding to hive you the loans. If the I&E is far from reality it can help your case.
If GB make you a good offer then the SAR isn’t needed. But a lot if people like to have it in case they do need it. It’s up to you.
Bethany says
Has anyone heard about payday express I got an email months ago o say them and money shop gone bust and they will get back with the amount. Anyone no how much we gonna get back
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-two-million-customers-will-be-informed/ for the laatest news on Payday express. I don’t expect you will hear anything for a few months (but that is a guess).
JB says
Hello does anyone know the current waiting times for the FOS. Almost 3 months ago i sent 2 cases to them after claims not being upheld. With 118 and Satsuma.
Thankyou
Andy says
I have been waiting 8 months since rejection
ME says
Hi JB,
My Satsuma case was with them from late October 2019 and was only picked up by an adjudicator in April 2020 so 6 months for that one. I have not dealt with 118. I think when I last looked on the FOS website they were saying approximately 5 months for Payday/Short term loan complaints.
ME
Katherine says
Hi everyone,
I submitted an irresponsible lending claim to Sunny last year. They (predictably) rejected it, so I took it to the FCA. The adjudicator found in my favor and said that Sunny should refund me on 26 loans ( I was in such a dark time when I needed them). Sunny offered to only refund 9 loans. I’ve said to the adjudicator, that this is less than half so I don’t accept the offer. And it’s now going to the Ombudsman, is it possible that I could end up with the Ombudsman finding entirely in Sunny’s favor (in other words end up with nothing)? Thanks in advance :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In theory yes. In practice it doesn’t happen!
Sometimes the ombudsman makes a slightly different decision – perhaps to refund you on 21 loans or 26 loans. But most often it is the same. Here is my response yesterday to someone asking about how long Ombudsman decisions took for Sunny https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-193/#comment-366519 – in both of those recent cases the ombudsman upheld the adjudicator decision exactly.
Rebecca says
Hello, I was wondering if you can assist me, my husband has made a complaint against MyJar but as we only have a joint bank account they will not accept our bank statements. He has sent over a pdf report from Credit Karma but won’t accept this as they say it’s a screenshot not a report. Is there anywhere else I can generate a credit report from where it shows his liabilities?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t imagine why they will not accept joint account bank statements.
He can download a Statutory Credit report from TransUnion that he can then forward to myjar: https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/
Rebecca says
Thanks Sarah, seems very odd and doesn’t give me much hope, the below is what they replied to him:
Here at MYJAR we take security measures very seriously, we cannot accept any of the screenshots you have provided as they do not contain security confirmation that they are associated with yourself, this is why we request a credit file. This is the same reason that we do not accept joint bank account statements as we cannot be sure which transactions are your own.
Please note that you are not obliged to provide any additional documentation in support of your complaint, however if you choose not to, we will consider the information MYJAR has on file from the time of your loan applications.
We note that in your response you feel we should already have a copy of your full Credit Report from the time when you originally applied for your MYJAR loans. Unfortunately, this is not the case. MYJAR do not hold a full copy of your Credit Report. At the time you made your loan applications we requested specific data variables from TransUnion (our Credit Referencing provider), not a full view report you may be presented with when logging into Credit Scoring Portals.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Myjar can look at his current credit record. They are just being difficult in asking you to provide it. But it’s simple to do that so not worth arguing with them about this.
Neil says
Hi Sara
I just checked my credit report for first time and see I have a few negative marks (Arranged Payment) on my credit report from payday loans from 2017. The lenders in question is payday express and wageday advance. I know that these companies have since gone into administration. Is it still possible to make an affordability complaint to them? I am not really interested in a refund but more interested in having the negative marks or the whole loan removed from my credit file, but know it only possible with an affordability complaint. I took out several loans with them in short space of time at a time when I was heavily gambling and relied on them to see me through the month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The dates to make affordability complaints to both firms have now passed.
Becky says
Hi Sara, can I have some advice please. I put in an affordability claim against Mr Buck which when you FOS however as they are now in administration the FOS will not look into the claim. Uncle Buck put a CCJ on my credit file whilst all this was going on as I refused to pay any more as I felt I had overpaid already. The terms of the CCJ are to pay £50 a month which I have been paying but do you know what will happen if I stop paying it? Just worried I will be paying way over the odds & wont see any of it back now. TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Uncle Buck took you to court for a CCJ while you had a complaint in progress?
Becky says
It was through Uncle Buck i believe. Yes I did, advising that I felt I had already overpaid & that I had a complaint being looked at by FOS but a CCJ was granted & I was instructed to pay £50 a month. I did ask the FOS at the time who advised to pay it whilst complaint was being investigated but since then they have gone into Administration.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh. Can you double check the Claimant was Uncle Buck? It is VERY unusual for lender to take anyone to court, apart from Amigo and even they do not start court proceedings when a complaint is at FOS.
It is a shame you did not apply to the court to get the case stayed until FOS had reached a decision.
Becky says
Hi Sara, thanks for your response. Sorry I got it wrong, it was through Moorcroft so Is a debt collector. Should I continue to pay it then?
Tom says
Hi Sara, just a quick question. In any of the SAR requests that I have had back, I do not seem to be able to see a record of all my applications to the company, whether successful or unsuccessful – is this something that should be in there? I ask because I wonder whether this would be pertinent to my case – I can remember (but don’t have documented evidence!) that Lending Stream (as an example) must have declined as many (if not more) of my applications than they approved. Arguably my financial situation was largely unchanged between when applications were declined and when they were approved so I was wondering whether this is something that should be weaved into the narrative of the complaint. If not, I won’t bother trying to get a proper log of all my applications – if it could be useful, I will.
Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think a record of those declines should be included.
For example if there was a 5 month break in your borrowing from LS then LS may argue that the second set of borrowing is distinct from the first. But if it was known that you had applied for another loan in the middle of that “break” it looks more like a period of continuous problems that LS were aware of…
I suggest you go back to LS and ask for a record of the number of time and dates when you were declined loans.
James says
Afternoon all and thank you for this website and all the help, you do a great job Sara!
I submitted three irresponsible lending claims on 27th May 2020 to Sunny, Lending Stream and 118 118 Money for loans between 2015 – 2019. All loans have been repaid except one outstanding to 118 118 Money.
Summary of borrowing:
Sunny: 25 loans, £5,800 borrowed, interest TBC. £0 outstanding
118 118 Money: 4 loans, £11,679.22 borrowed, £10,516.22 interest. Circa £3,800 outstanding.
Lending Stream: 24 loans, £5,090 borrowed, £3,756.91 interest. £0 outstanding
Stu says
Hiya
Could anybody advise how long a complaint against Loans2go has taken at the FOS. I have had an adjudicator look at my case and that took 13months and I have now been waiting 4months for an ombudsman to look at it. Is 17+ months normal waiting times?
Kat says
Hi Sara,
I have just downloaded and sent off my TransUnion report to the adjudicator regarding Sunny. Even though I have loads of red marks on every other lender, Sunny looks pretty squeaky clean. Will they be able to tell I was practically borrowing from Peter to pay Paul as they say, as now I’m a bit worried. I borrowed practically every month, some up to 4 times, altogether I borrowed £4597.97. Not sure what the interest amount would be as I sometimes borrowed to pay off a previous amount etc, so a bit messy. It’s just when I started this out, I was hoping to actually get a refund from a lender and hoped Sunny would be my main one. Thank you so much so far though, Peachy and Very have since wiped my big previous balances! :)
Many thanks.
Kat
Luke says
Just writing to say thank you for this, I’m finally out of debt for the first time since in a decade.
I started with Wonga, before moving onto Payday UK, MyJar and Sunny. By the time I found this site Wonga had already collapsed and the MoneyShop was on the brink of administration, but I went ahead and complainted to MyJar and Sunny. Both denied my affordability complaint and I escalated to the FOS.
My adjudicator for MyJar upheld my complaint for the majority of the loans, MyJar accepted the adjudicators finding and I was £1,200 better off.
My adjuticator for Sunny/Elevate upheld my complaint but Sunny disagreed. They offered me a refund of £300~ on a total interest balance of £1,700. I denied the offer and escalated to an Ombudsman. 8 weeks later, still before an Ombudsman had been assigned to my case, Sunny made a second offer of £1,360 – a refund of the interest without the 8% statuatory increase. After weighing my options I took it, it was a reasonable compromise.
I recieved a pittance from the Wonga administration, somewhere in the region of £30, and I’m still waiting on the MoneyShop refund.
Long story short I’m around £2,600 better off thanks to this website, my credit has greatly improved and I’ve finally got some financial security. To anyone struggling, hang in there, and don’t delay – get your claims in now!
Tom says
Hi Sara,
Could I have your view on this? I put in a complaint to Loans2Go on the basis of irresponsible lending. I had a loan with them of £750. I then consolidated with Everyday Loans who paid off the outstanding Loans2Go balance directly (so Loans2Go know where the money came from). 5 days later I took out another Loans2Go loan of £750 so I think my case is a robust one. In my complaint, I offered to settle for a write off of the alleged outstanding balance and removal of the default they have registered on my credit file.
They have responded to my complaint, rejecting it fully, but saying: “we have decided as a gesture of good will to write off all the remaining interest…your loan will be closed. We will also update your credit file accordingly.”
Do you think that will include removing the default? I’ve gone back to them to ask but wondered what your view was. If not, it’ll have to be one for the ombudsman I fear.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know from that wording.
Tom says
Just on this, they’ve also spelled out the affordability analysis that they conducted on the second loan of £750 (which was taken out seven days after another loan company paid off the first loan). After adding a 10% buffer, their analysis shows that income of X minus expenditure of Y would leave me with £170.01 and therefore their analysis shows that the loan was affordable as my repayments were £169.92. That would leave me with 9p per month… I’d say that shows the loan wasn’t affordable, wouldn’t you?!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well that isn’t really the question any more, is it? You have said you don’t want a refund, I’m not sure why but that is what you told L2G. They have offered to clear your balance which is what you wanted but you also want your credit record cleared – so are they offering that? You need to ask them.
ME says
Hi,
Does anyone know the process for Satsuma paying out refunds? Do they pay directly to your bank account or do they send a cheque? Also, do they have the 28 days to process policy like some other lenders?
Thanks in advance.
ME
Pee says
Phone them and ask. They are still working as I spoke with them the other day.
R says
In my own experience, they pay by cheque. Bonkers, I know but I think they just like to make it as difficult as possible.
ME says
Thanks for the information, R.
ME
Sarah says
Good morning Sara
I am just wondering if you can advise me on who I can email to expedite my case file to be sent over to FOS
They’ve been waiting a while during COVID 19 for Sunny and Providant to get back to them .Both haven’t upheld my complaints so I’m in line waiting for files and then to be assessed by adjudicator
I just thought if you could help with contacts at all please
Many thanks
Sarah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have sent your complaint to FOS who has asked the lenders for their case files? How long ago was this?
Are you still making any payments to either lender?
Sarah says
No payments as all loans closed sent them to FOS 8 weeks ago x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That isn’t very long. I suggest waiting another month before asking FOS if they have been sent the case files.
Nick MB says
I’ve got complaints with Sunny and Satsuma at FoS.
Sunny has been with FoS since mid January, and are waiting on Ombudsman to review, as Sunny didn’t bother replying to the adjudicator.
Satsuma complaint has been with FoS since the end of February, and they still haven’t sent the case file to Adjudicator.
I would set realistic expectations of about 6 months, based on how slow these companies are.
Amy says
Hi Sara :)
I’ve mentioned before about my installment loan case which adj. had not ruled in my favour, but that I’d been wondering still what info they had from my credit check and whether they’d queried with me about an apparent discrepancy in information I’d provided about my outgoings.
Unfortunately I’d received the feedback for this case in Jan which was a difficult time due to bereavement issues and for a number of reasons since its only recently that I’ve gone back to him to explain these outstanding queries. Obviously appreciate that the long delay is my fault and he has kindly replied but just to say that the case was closed in Feb so he can’t take it further. Did confirm that view was based on the info he’d been given by me and them which included a copy of the credit searches they completed.
Nothing mentioned about the expenditure checks so guess was just wondering whether there is still any route in trying to seek the information from lender via a SAR, and are there circumstances where a complaint can be re submitted?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m sorry but you can’t start a new complaint. If you do, it will be rejected.
Sonya says
Hello. So my journey with Sunny so far. Made complaint to them. I had 49 loans with them. They didn’t uphold my complaint however they wrote off the o/s debt I had with them in the sum of £674.82 as a gesture of goodwill. I disagreed with that, sent it to the FOS. They suggested that loans. 1 to 8 and loans 37 to 40 were affordable. But loans 9 to 36 and loans 41 to 49 shouldn’t have been lent . Sunny then came back with another offer of £368.08. saying they uphold from loan 21 until 36 and uphold loans 41-49… now wondering what I should do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the adjudicator says that 9-20 should not have been lent. Do you know how much interest you paid on those?
Sonya says
I have calculated that I paid £548.32in interest from 9-20
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you have to decide whether to accept this higher offer or have your case go to an Ombudsman.
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-193/#comment-366519 for a couple of recent examples of how long Sunny Ombudsman decisions are taking.
The advantage of accepting is that you get the money now. If you ask for an ombudsman decision you could get more than twice as much if you £548 number is correct. But it will take longer and there is some risk that sunny may go into administration in which case you would probably get less than Sunny’s current offer… I don’t have a reason to think they are just about to go under but it is a possibility.
Marie says
So I’ve heard from FOS that my complaint against sunny has now been allocated to an adjudicator and they have received all information required to begin investigating….how long does this usually take?
Sonya says
They were quite quick with mine. About two weeks I think!
Rebecca says
Hi Sara,
Hope you are well?
Has anyone commented about the below query before?
I had a complaint rejected by lending stream, I owe on 4 loans which is being paid back through CRS. Tonight I received 4 emails directly from lending stream thanking me for my payment saying my balance was zero on all loans. I haven’t made a payment. The email also showed all 11 loans I had with them including the correct loan references and zero balance. I’ve tried to get on my online account but I keep getting an error message that the account doesn’t exist, I’ve even reset my password. The complaint is with FOS but I haven’t heard anything from them yet. Thanks in advance.
Neil says
Hi, after KPMG informed me of my refund of £59 from overpayment of £950 I’ve now been informed that they paid into my old bank account despite me giving new bank details last year. They now say up to 2 months to re-issue the £59, dont they understand people have next to nothing & that’s why they took out these loans & being out of work during this covid situation that £59 actually means almost a weeks benefits, what a joke, a double kick in the guts with the paltry offer & a 2 month wait because they didnt deal with the information they requested I.e to give them new bank details
Zoe says
After my adjudicator partially upheld my Satsuma loan last May last year, finally in January this year Satsuma agreed with them.
My loan was for £800 over twelve months (this was the third loan with them the other two were not upheld). I had paid 3 payments of £132. The loan was taken out in 2018.
They have agreed to refund the interest of £793.60. But are refusing to add 8% interest on saying this should only be added if I had my instalments were over the original borrowing amount of £793.60.
Is this correct I have not come across this with any other company.
They are also refusing to set up a payment scheme for the remaining amount by email they have said I have to call. I have asked them on a number of occasions to contact me by email only but they continued to call and text me when they were chasing me for payment whilst the complaint was ongoing. This was even raised by my adjudicator when they sent their findings to them. Satsuma have never provided an explanation for this or an apology and are still continuing to insist on me calling. I’m not sure where I stand here?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 8% sounds normal – As you haven’t paid more than you borrowed you haven’t actually paid any interest so far. Your balance should have been reduced to 800 minus what you had paid.
You can Continue to insist on communicating email but as Satsuma now have to accept an affordable offer and not add more interest, is it worth trying a phone call as this may be simpler and quicker? Hoe much do you want to offer? Do you have other problem debts and have youR finances been affected by Coronavirus?
Zoe says
Thanks to you and your site I have been debt free for sometime apart from this last amount of £400. I do not have any issues arranging a payment plan. I just have anxieties speaking to people and have always found them very unpleasant to deal with. Also wanted to check if their comments around the 8% were correct before I agreed to anything with them.
J S says
It’s been a good couple of weeks. Between my wife and I, we have got just over £7.5k back from H&T – naturally they waiting until the 28 day to pay out, but worth the wait.
Just waiting to here back from Ombudsman about Amigo loans and if all goes well could get back the same amount again from them.
This site has been a great help.
Thank you.
Mel says
Do you know how long SafetyNet Credit take to pay out? I accepted an offer settlement but have not heard anything since and am slightly worried now.
Nick MB says
They seem to make payments on a Friday.
Chris says
Hi,
Put a complaint into Sunny, had 50 loans in total. They have partly upheld complaint and offered interest back on loan 34 onwards for £2.8k. I know ombudsman would probably uphold for far more from my own research, perhaps loan 10/11 onwards which would result in about £6k refund, however, in all honesty £2.8k today is worth more to me than £6k in 12-18 months (which is own estimate of ombudsman decision timescale from
Personal experience, plus of course the risk of them
Going bust in the meantime). My question is does anyone know if Sunny negotiate or is their final response truly final, and it’s a case now if accept it or go to ombudsman ?
Rebecca says
Hello, I negotiated with them, worth trying say from loan 20 as a compromise? They accepted my requested after a week and I was refunded within 6 days of them accepting. If you don’t ask you will never know! Good luck
J S says
I’m with OP on this..I would worry they went bust and end up with 5p or something in the £, however no harm in negotiating in the short term.
Good luck!
Luucy says
If Sunny have made an offer , less than the adjudicator suggests and I want to try and negotiate , do I go straight to Sunny with what I will settle at ?
Thanks all !
Ali says
I submitted a complaint to FOS after Sunny completely refuted my complaint about 66 loans on 05/03/2020 and the adjudicator made a decision on 23/04/2020. Sunny responded with a counter offer today (03/06/2020) so the timeline may not be as long as you think, even in the current climate. If you then have to escalate your complaint to an Ombudsman then it will likely be a fair while, however you might find that Sunny increase the offer they’ve already made to you
JB says
Good morning Sara,
I had an outstanding debt with lending stream 2 years back, they passed it onto a company. Who then also passed it onto another company called ‘ACI or assett collections investigations’ who bombard me with emails and texts even though ive told them i am dealing with it with lending stream as i am taking it to the FOS. they wanted evidence of this which i provided but they did not accept.
Out of the blue they sent an email saying they are now reporting the debt (£400) to the relevant bodies as a default , can they do this? Or is it another one of there many scare tactics these leaches use
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes they can report a default. but if you win the FOS case any negative make will be removed for the loans that are decided to be unaffordable.
Vicky says
Does anyone have a timescale of when the Sunny loans were removed from their credit file after a successful claim?
This is actually proving more stressful than receiving the refund as I need to submit a Mortgage application approx end of June. Is there anyway of expediting the removal from the credit reference agencies? Many thanks.
Sonya says
I m really struggling to work out interest paid on my sunny loans. I have looked at the figures given to me by the OFS and calculated the total paid over 49 loans was £2337.75. The FOS said that they should not have loaned me loans 9-36 and 41-49. Sunny then came back and said they would partially uphold my claim with loans 21-36 and 41-49. I calculate this to be £913.76 however Sunny say that they will give me £368.80.
Refund:
£239.24
Interest less 20%
Tax deduction
Interest Due:
£161.05
£128.84
£32.21
Total Borrowed:
£11,850.00
Total refund
Total Repaid:
£12,089.24
£368.08
Am I being thick? I can’t work out what is a good offer if I can’t work these numbers out?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know what the numbers are – it may be the way you have copied them in, the original may make more sense if things are in columns with headings?
But Sunny wrote off a balance didn’t they? So it may be what you are calculating is what they are now offering plus the balance written off?
Sonya says
Sorry I did copy them in – is this better?
Refund – £239.34
Interest due – £161.05
Interest less 20% £128.84
Tax Deduction £32.21
Total borrowed – £11,850
Total Repaid – £12,089.24
Total refund £368.08
They wrote off £674.82
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so these are the key numbers in that lot – all the others are derived from them:
Total borrowed – £11,850
Total Repaid – £12,089.24
do you think they are correct for the loans they say they are repaying?
Sonya says
It doesn’t match up at all with the interest I calculated from the statements. I also ran through the figures the ombudsman gave me too
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can go back and ask them to explain it? My guess is that it has something to do with the write off. But really you should be given more figures showing that if it is the reason.
ell says
so adjudicator ruled loans 5 – 55 from sunny shouldnt of been lent to me and they should in his opinion 8 per cent of total interest due. Sunny failed to respond 3 weeks over alloted date so it has gone to ombudsman, if ombudsman agrres with adjudicator will he come up with an award figure they must pay?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, an Ombudsman-level decision is legally binding, they can’t ignore it or appeal it further.
Neil says
Sent an email for a refund to safetynet credit on Sunday, got an email back Monday to say they will try and deal with my complaint within four weeks instead of the usual eight. Had an email this morning saying they will refund all interest and 8%! The quickest one by far and a really good result!
Lisa G says
Hi Sara, I’m wondering, out of interest, if you’ve heard anything regarding QuickQuid and The Money Shop administrators? Or know how far along in the process they are? I’ve not heard anything about it for a long time.
Holly says
Hi guys got this from fernavo bit confused about the wording . Are they saying they have taken the interest and applied it to my last loan to reduce the balance ?
We confirm that we have credited your account with all interest on loan 5 plus the £25.60 interest on loan 4. Your outstanding balance on loan 5 is now: £274.40 = £300.00 – 25.60.
Dale says
Has anyone ever used [a claims management company]? I signed up to use them via a twitter link and their fees were not made clear at all, I won a 3k case where I did a lot of the background work (statement gathering etc) and then once I won my case they charged me 1k for their services. Just thinking is there a way you can ever challenge them to claim this back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if they are now FCA regulated (have a look at their website) then you can put in a complaint. But it may be tough to win.
Dale says
How would I go about complaining? Do I go direct to them first or to the financial ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
complaint to claims firm first then they have 8 weeks to reply before you can send it to the Ombudsman.
Angela says
Hi everyone june 2020 just had big refund from Amigo loans amigo refused saying that it was over 6 years went to finical ombudsmen in jan they upheld complaint just been paid out dont give up finical ombudsmen will help good luck everyone
Sara (Debt Camel) says
great! Lots of people are reporting winning their Amigo complaints in the last couple of weeks! See https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/ and the comments below there!
A says
Good evening Sara and all,
Wonderful site and helps so many people like myself.
Likely Loans did not upheld my affordability complaint so sent away to FOS in Oct 19 it was picked up in Jan 20 and then told needs to go to another person in high cost leading March 20, so just a waiting game again in the pile to be looked at, lucky that this is all now payed off and behind me now…
First loan of £2000 April 2017 @£213 a month for 6 months (Starting balance £2’555) then topped up with another £3500, November 2017@£244 a month for 10 months (Starting balance £8’790) and stupidly topped up again £700 September 2018 @£277 a month for 16 months (Starting balance £8’151) and payed one off payment of £3080 in February 2020 to close the account and so pleased…. I have tried to work out if I was to win my case with the FOS the redress, I come to around £4000, if anyone could help would be much appreciated. Thank you and everyone keep going..
kenny says
Hi Sara,
Loan history:
Closed:
15/09/2019 (Amount: £220)
02/11/2019 (Amount: £440)
18/11/2019 (Amount: £500)
07/12/2019 (Amount: £50)
22/12/2019 (Amount: £280)
06/02/2020 (Amount: £150)
09/02/2020 (Amount: £100)
10/02/2020 (Amount: £100)
11/02/2020 (Amount: £200)
13/02/2020 (Amount: £50)
Open:
02/03/2020 (Amount: £200)
07/03/2020 (Amount: £250)
08/03/2020 (Amount: £200)
I have been unable to pay the current loans and feel like they have been irresponsibly lending to me do you think I should file a complaint and what should I say?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a lot of borrowing, particularly over March. I think you should send the lender a compkausing the template in the above article.
But This can take time and getting the interest removed on the last loans may not get rid of the remaining balance. So you also need to ask Lending Stream now to be able to repay more slowly at an affordable rate. which could be as low as £1 month if that’s all you can manage at the moment. Ask them to stop adding interest and charges. This will harm your credit record but there is no real alternative – if you don’t have enough money you can’t pay them. If you win the affordability complaint, negative marks on your credit record for loans that are being refunded will be removed.
If you have other debts as well that you can’t afford to pay in full, it may be less stressful for you to set up a debt management plan with StepChange, see https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx
Lindsay says
So, at Easter I received an unnafordability claim refund from Lending Stream. They were supposed to be paying CRS the outstanding amount on my loan as part of the calculation. Today I have just had a message from CRS for part of the amount they, LS, were supposed to be paying off! I have the final offer letter that outlines what LS were going to pay off. Do i just forward this letter, or chase LS again! Don’t need this right now! Thanks guys 😘
Sara (Debt Camel) says
was your offer from LS or vis the Ombudsman?
Lindsay says
It was via LS.🤨🤨🤨
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So send the final offer letter from LS to CRS and send LS a complaint saying you want this sorted now or you will be sending it to the Ombudsman and asking for compensation.
Lindsay says
Thank you Sara! I have just forwarded it to CRS and will now attempt LS! Wish me luck!
Felicity says
Hi
Has anyone had anything from 24/7 Moneybox recently? I have emailed them as advised on their website (I’m aware they are in administration), a total of 5 times now. I’m hoping I’ve not missed a claims portal or equivalent. I had quite a lot of loans with them.
Thank you :)
Steffy says
Hi!
I have literally been emailing them once a month since October when I filled my complaint, and they said yesterday:
“Thanks for your email. Can confirm your complaint has been logged and will be looked at by the administrators. They are currently building a redress scheme and all customers will be contacted in due course.”
So I think for now just have to wait to be contacted :)
Ian says
Hello Sara,
Ive just received about 6 emails from The Money Shop explaining that they have gone into voluntary Liquidation as of 30/03/2020. I did have a loan with them but its all paid off, however it did go into default. As this company has now gone into liquidation does that mean that the account should be removed from my credit file or will it still stay there? If they are not trading anymore then surely they cannot report?
Any help on this would be great
Thanks
Ian
Sara (Debt Camel) says
did you put in a Claim using their Claims portal?
ian says
Yes I did all that, I imagine the likelihood of being accepted will be slim as it was only one loan. Im just wondering whether its worth opening a dispute against them via the credit ref agencies because they have gone into liquidation
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Them being in administration is not relevant, they can still report. If you complain to the CRAs now, they will just refer it to the administrators who will ignore it and nothing will happen. If you wait 18 months and then put in a complaint to the CRAs, I don’t know what would happen then.
Ian says
Generally if they ignore it then it will be supressed, which I would be happy with that
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that wasn’t what people found when they complained about a Wonga loan in a similar situation. But give it a go if you want – I would be interested to know the answer.
Neil says
Hi Sara
I was wondering if i can still put in an Affordability complaint for wageday advance and payday express. I understand the deadline for refunds has passed so not sure what to do. I currently have no outstanding debt with anyone and previous debts all paid back 3 years ago. I took out well over 8 loans from each of the 2 mentioned payday lenders in 2017 in addition to others. I am not too concerned about the refund I am more concerned about having my late payments and Arrange to pay markers removed from my credit report. Do you think it is worth sending an affordability complaint mentioning I do not want refund but to have my negative markers removed or records of the loans removed as is such the case when affordability complaints are won.
I am just afraid if i send in a complaint and do not mention that I have no intention of getting refund but to have just negative markers removed should my complaint be upheld, they will just turn around and say deadline has passed and we cannot accept anymore refund complaints.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No you can’t now send in a complaint about either of those two lenders. The deadlines have passed.
You can’t just ask for your case to be assessed and just get the negative credit records removed. The administrators have stopped accepting claims and will not be doing any more work on them, it doesn’t matter that you don’t want money, the administrators need to minimise the work they do or there will be nothing left to pay claims.
Jess says
Hi,
Does sunny usually reply after the 8 weeks or sooner? It will be 6 weeks tomorrow. All the others got back to me within 4/5 weeks satsuma, fernovo, moneyboat!
Thanks!
Sonya says
Thank you for your email. My colleague just informed me that you’d received an offer from Sunny which you are questioning.
Sunny has agreed to refund loans 21 to 36 and loans 41 to 49.
I attached a loan table with my assessment (I’ve attached the loan table at the end of this email). You’ll see that I set out a column for the principal you borrowed and another stating how much you repaid on each loan (including interest).
I’ve done a quick calculation that shows on loans 21 to 39 you repaid £576.37 in interest (Total Repaid (incl. interest) minus Principal Borrowed).
On loans 41 to 49, I can see you had a deficit of £337.13 – in comparison to the principal – as you had an outstanding balance on loans 48 and 49. As the loans have been upheld, any payments you made would be treated as payments towards the principal on your account. Therefore, as the total principal on loans 41 to 49 was £4,250, the deficit of £337.13 would be treated as a deficit in principal. Basically, this means you would still owe a principal amount of £337.13.
As you paid £576.37 of interest on loans 21 to 36, the outstanding principal will first need to be offset before you receive your refund. Therefore this would leave you with a refund of £239.24 (not including 8% interest).
Please let me know by 11 June 2020 if this makes sense and whether you’re willing to accept Sunny’s offer.
Ashleigh says
Hi All,
I have several paydayloans to tackle but I’m currently working on my complaint with MyJAR.
Having sent them an affordability complaint email, they have responded to say that they are unable to locate my account details as they are over 7 years old and that I will need to send them official bank statements (I have requested this from my bank as they’re quire old).
I was given multiple loans over a 3 year period from 2010-2013. Would I still be entitled to a refund even though this dates back so far?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can get a refund for loans over 6 years old. But having your bank statements will be a big help.
PS get going with all your complaints, don’t try to do these one at a time!
Ashleigh says
Thanks Sara.
There have been a few emails since, where MyJar have requested, loan deposit and loan repayment email confirmations in order to investigate further.
I feel they are making it difficult for me but I will update you once I receive a final response.
I have already sent emails to Mr Lender, Oakam, Lending stream, v5 loans.
No response from mr lender or lending stream in over 8 weeks. V5 and Oakam and both rejected my claim. I’m concerned that my case cannot be escalated to FOS as they were both 1 loan but over a period of a year or so but I was already inundated with debt at this time so it wasn’t suitable to lend me in the first place. Do you think I should still escalate to FOS?
Donna says
Are you still able to register a complaint to Piggy bank?
Lee sharratt says
Morning. So . Swift sterling. U all got ur claims In on there website?
Cazza says
So after having relatively good success I am going to make a complaint to Satsuma, I have left them to last as I get the impression they will be hard to deal with but I’m going to give it a go. Has anyone had a luck with them?
Alan says
Good evening.
I have an ongoing complaint with Sunny. My complaint was initially refused by Sunny but I went to the Ombudsman service and the adjudicator agreed with my side of the complaint and gave sunny until May 15th to respond but unsurprisingly there was no reply. I have not heard anything from Sunny or the ombudsman service since. Not sure what the next best step is?
Luucy says
The adjudicator gave Sunny until the 29th April to respond to them , I never heard anything back from the ombudsman until the 27th May advising me of Sunnys “business offer”.
So my advice would be just to wait it out .
Rachel says
I submitted a complaint with sunny mis selling me loans – a grand total of 29 loans. It was in 2019 and they Fobbed me off. I didn’t realise I only had 6 months to send it to ombudsman as I did it through resolver and thought that it had been sent on there. I’m trying to log a new complaint with them or ask them to reconsider but they just keep bouncing me back. Is there anything I can do now or is this a lost case? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may have a complaint against Resolver?
Rachel says
Turns out original complaint was made by me by email in jan 2019. I logged one in July 2019 through resolver to give them a second opportunity to respond – thought I was being reasonable but realise now should have gone straight to the ombudsman. They dragged out thier response to September 2019 so it was past the 6 month mark. Tried to complain again a few days ago, they refuse to investigate. Feel so helpless because I know I would have a case.
They gave me 29 loans. Could I take to small claims court? I took over 5k out in loans alone – god knows what the interest would be.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“They dragged out their response to September 2019 so it was past the 6 month mark. ”
That isn’t your problem. From the point they gave you a response, you had 6 months to go to the Ombudsman., but that ended in March.
You can ask FOS if they will look at it now, but they may well say no.
You can’t keep starting new complaints with the lender.
I have honestly not seen someone win a court case for unaffordable payday lending. There is a very good reason why debt adviser suggest people go to FOS not to court. You would need to take advice on whether you have a court case, this isn’t a equation of just putting in a money claim online.
Ana says
Hi all
I currently have one complain going on with Sunny and I’m about to put my second one in.
First complain relates to 3 loans that I took back in 2016 and I had to go through a DMP to get stuff sorted then (Sunny + other companies). Whilst the other companies we’re fully paid off, there was 3 outstanding payments (one outstanding payment per loan) with Sunny which i Only discovered in January this year on my credit report. I have paid the outstanding balances and I have made a complaint to Sunny that they haven’t treated me fairly about this as they have never notified me about those missed payments. Also, they should have defaulted me after 8 missed payments. I have requested a satisfactory response and if needed i will ask for a subject to access based on GDPR, which I’m sure it will prove my point. I have asked them to remove the loans from my credit report, as it created a lot of damaged.
Today I will also send a complaint about irresponsible lending. I had about 9 loans with them:
18/05/2016 – £150 loan – £27.60
23/05/2016 – £50 loan – £8.08
10/06/2016 – £250 loan – £80.44
15/06/2016 – £300 loan – £95.64
21/06/2016 – £100 loan – £7.38
16/07/2016 – £150 loan – £24
13/08/2016 – £150 loan – £50.40
15/08/2016 – £200 loan – £64
20/08/2016 – £400 loan – £112
these are the loans and the interest charged, which is absolutely madness!
what are your thoughts on these complaints?
RD says
Hi Sara.
I requested the DSAR and made an affordability complaint to PEACHY. They rejected my complaint on the grounds that I said my expenditure was low and my wages would easily cover the monthly payments.
In the DSAR there was no credit record copy. When I queried this, they said..
It may be sufficient to only ask for your employment status and your income and expenditure information and we would be allowed to rely on your statements only. In some cases, however, we might decide that a credit check should also be completed. And in more serious cases, we might ask for additional evidence of your circumstances.
In your case, we conducted a full account check before your loan with us. The information reviewed did not suggest that you are experiencing financial difficulties or might not be able to afford the loan repayment. As you had only one loan with us, we could not have been expected to know about your dependency on the loan as no consecutive lending pattern had emerged.
At the time of issuing the loan, my credit report would have shown….
My credit report would have shown that I had outstanding balances totalling £34090.
Loan 1 – £6,065.00 with payments in arrears.
Credit card 1 – £216.00 with payments in arrears.
Credit Card 2 – £529.00 with payments in arrears.
Loan 2 – £5206.00 with payment in arrears.
Loan 3 – £6015.00 with payments in arrears.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large was the one Peachy loan?
RD says
It was for £800 and it was my only loan with them, not paid anything towards it.
Surely they should have looked at my credit report first?
Also if a customer misses payments, they can get taken to court. However if a company goes into administration, you have to accept their final response even if it’s not the right decision and you can’t go to FOS. How is that fair?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For a £800 loan you can say that they should have looked at your credit record.
I suggest you say you want to make a Claim to the Administrators as you don’t consider their decision is right.
You could also offer to settle the loan for £800 if that is affordable? They may accept that as a settlement offer even if they don’t say they agree with your complaint.
How is that fair?
well it’s the law. It’s not the administrators wanting this or FOS not wanting it, it is just the way things are.
And as a matter of practicality, there needs to be a simple, fast way to determine affordability complaints in an administration, otherwise so much will be spend ton complaint handling that there will be no money at all for refunds.
RD says
Hi Sara, do you have a template for a claim to administrators?
Peachy have given me the email address cashongo@smithandwilliamson.com
Peachy replied but saying they did do a credit check and they saw my defaults and missed payments, but it did not raise any concern to them. They haven’t included my credit report in the DSAR.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No template.
You need to argue that regardless of Peachey’s decision, it is likely you would have won an ombudsman case.
Read this https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/businesses/complaints-deal/consumer-credit/unaffordable-lending and make out the argument that
“- the lower a customer’s income (reflecting that it could be more difficult to make any loan repayments to a given loan amount from a lower level of income);
– the higher the amount due to be repaid (reflecting that it could be more difficult to meet a higher amount from a particular level of income)”
mean that Peachey should have looked closely at your application for a £800 loan even though it was your first one.
Here are some FOS decisions against Peachey for a small number of loans. read them and if any of them seem close to your situation, give a link to it. Don’t stretch this far – if the administrator is going to read a decision and think it sounds nothing like your situation, you would have done better not to mention it…
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/271921/DRN6008055.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/269395/DRN9514680.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/266867/DRN1330762.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/262820/DRN0503505.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/149094/DRN5897446.pdf
rd says
Hi sara, I sent this to the administrators today….
I have had a complaint for irresponsible lending rejected by Peachy complaints department. I would like to make a claim to the administrators as I do not consider their decision to be right.
I argue that regardless of Peachy’s decision, it is likely that I would have won an ombudsman case.
“- the lower a customer’s income (reflecting that it could be more difficult to make any loan repayments to a given loan amount from a lower level of income);
– the higher the amount due to be repaid (reflecting that it could be more difficult to meet a higher amount from a particular level of income)”
At the time of the loan was issued, my credit record showed the following:
Loan 1 – £6,065.00 with payments in arrears.
Credit card 1 – £216.00 with payments in arrears.
Credit Card 2 – £529.00 with payments in arrears.
Loan 2 – £5206.00 with payment in arrears.
Loan 3 – £6015.00 with payments in arrears.
Peachy stated in their final response that a credit search was carried out and the above information did not raise any concern to them. The credit report is missing from the request DSAR and there is no evidence that a credit search was carried out at all.
Below is a FOS decision against Peachy. This FOS case is the same scenario as my complaint.
What are the chance that the administrators would even consider reversing Peachy’s rejection?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t make an estimate of your chances. Good luck!
James says
I also got a similar reply last week from Peachy. What worried me the most was that they stated that as they are now in administration the FOS are unlikely to look into the complaint and that unless I had any further evidence to provide then the issue is closed. Seems they both are judge and jury now on their affordability complaints,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it is correct that complaints about a firm in administration cannot be sent to FOS.
How many loans did you have from them and do you still owe a balance?
James says
Not many, lees than 5 and all paid off. I was just chancing my arm really as I hadn’t heard anything about a claims portal
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well then you may get a refund on the last one, or may not. Ask Peachy how you put a Claim in.
James says
I did and they rejected it, they stated that unless I had any further evidence to provide then the issue is closed. That is why I made the point that it seems they both are judge and jury now on their affordability complaints.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is correct. You have no practical route forward – the option of suing the administrators is very unattractive for small sums of money.
Lee sharratt says
Hello. I’m no good a jargon. What does this mean. MMP Financial Limited – In Administration
Recovery and Reorganisation
Grant Thornton UK LLP 4 Hardman Square Spinningfields Manchester
M3 3EB
T +44 (0)161 953 6900 F +44 (0)161 953 6317
I refer to my appointment as Joint Administrator of the above-named company on 9 December 2019 and the end of a decision procedure on 21 May 2020, whereby the below resolutions were approved by the general body of creditors;
1. That no creditors committee be formed
2. The basis of the Joint Administrators remuneration be fixed to £190,000 during the Administration
3. The subsequently appointed Liquidators remuneration be fixed to £40,000 during the Liquidation (the Joint Liquidators reserve the right to seek an increase in their remuneration should additional or unforeseen matters come to light)
Should you have queries in respect of the above, please contact Alex J Roberts on 0161 214 6303.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s nothing interesting – the administration will proceed.
Lee sharratt says
Oh ok. Thanks anyway
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and thanks for posting it. Even though it isn’t unusual it does means things are proceeding!