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?
Lily says
I’ve now received my statements of account from Wonga attached to an email stating:
“As a responsible lender, we must make sure every single application we receive is individually assessed. We look at your repayment history and a wide range of industry data. A decision is then made based on a combination of factors.
All applications we receive are assessed at the time of application.”
So after summarising the information which they provided, I’ve submitted my complaint to them based on the 29 loans I’ve taken out starting at £200 in 2008 then increasing on almost a monthly basis to a max of £1,000 when I took the last one in 2011, I defaulted on 11 of them, rolled over 2 (for 2 months each) and top up the original loan amount on 3 of them!! Doesn’t seem too responsible on their part and like most on here I wish I’d never got involved with them, it’s disgusting to see how much I gave them by burying my head in the sand!!
Lara hills says
Will quick quid actually payout? My husband has had over 30 loans with them despite previously having an IVA and a really bad credit score, and the majority of these loans got rolled over! After being sent the automated emails they sent does anyone actually get anywhere with them?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Lara, Yes! This article https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-ombudsman/ is one person’s story with QQ in detail. he received the same standard rejection! Also some of the other commenters on that article have as well.
Jane says
Hi,
I got a loan out with Wonga, and month after month kept having to repay one and get another to live and it spiralled. Last year Wonga wrote off what I owed them. Could I go back and claim on previous loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jane, that sounds like a classic case where your loans were “unaffordable” so definitely complain to Wonga and go to the Financial Ombudsman if Wonga refuse.
Paul says
Yeah. That’s what happened to me. They wrote off my debt of over £1,200. I then complained to them about the loans being unaffordable and they refunded me £1,400 just before Christmas. It only took 1 email and I didn’t even know all the loans I had with them
Margo says
Hi…like most of you here i am in a big mess..taking loan after loan after loan…can’t do it any more. I got so much streanght from you that i will start dealing with them straight away. Now I have 2loans (wonga and PDUK) and i know i cant affored to pay from my wages..rent in arrears..bills same..need to pay fine for council tax..just dont know what to do any more…
Did anyone was dealing with speedycash??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Margo, I hope you will get some money back from payday lenders, but you can’t rely on that and it could take a while, so can I suggest you go to your local Citizens Advice urgently? Rent and council tax are priority debts which need to sorted asap, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/start/priority-debts/. Also call Wonga and PDUK to say you have priority debts and are taking debt advice and cant pay them ANYTHING until you have.
Margo says
Quick update…wrote to wonga and PDUK and speedycash.
Wonga sent me details like 3days after..so did step two with them. Also after talking to them they will be just taking 1£ from account until my situation is clear..soo happy with that.
PDUK no respond from them for step one…I spoke with them that my letter it’s been put as complain and they have 8weeks to anwser..but I didn’t put complain yet.so I got my payments from my bank account and will do the formal complain today. Other wise they will have around 18weeks for answering me.Rubbish! And until case is with them no money will go from my bank account.
Need to do the same thing with speedycash. No answer from them. But have details soon need to try ASAP.
Thank you guys!!! Big stone dropped from my heart. Can sleep all night without thinking how will I do everything.Thank You
Christine says
I k now how you feel. Are you still paying the payday loans? See what Sara from debtcamel says but if they are still taking money from you then I would be tempted to ring the bank and ask them to stop the continuous payment authority on your debit card. That stops the payday companies taking any more money and frees up your money for priority debts such as rent etc.
I would then follow the instructions on here to complain to the payday lenders. Good luck and try not to worry-have you thought about contacting Shelter regarding your rent arrears?
Good luck
Margo says
For the past half year don’t have life…everyday thinking what to do…where to go…taking loan to pay the other and then live with some small change..and with kids is not easy…i know i put myself in that position..and all around didn’t help me by saing NO…we can see you are in trouble…they are just happy to leand money.i am on the case…and i will be Victorious!!!!
grace says
My first response received today from Ecash Window loan written off and removed from credit file so happy that this is proving positive. I had paid over £500 in interest for a small loan! I am hoping to hear from others soon. thank you debt camel
Paul says
I received the usual response from QuickQuid and went back to them saying I was not happy with their response and it didn’t answer my compliant. I recieved an email from them this morning saying they were investigating my compliant and would respond to me in the next 8 weeks. However, this afternoon I got another email from them telling me they had passed my remaining debt with them over to a debt collection agency. Can they do this while I have a complaint with them regarding the loan?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Paul, I suggest you email QuickQuid and say you are concerned that they have passed this debt to a debt collector when you are disputing the debt and awaiting their answer to your complaint. say that if they do not recall the debt from the debt collector you will be going to the Financial Ombudsman immediately as you feel you are not being treated fairly.
Adami says
I received a reply from PAYDAYUK saying they not been able to resolve my complaint and I can exercise my right and take the issue to FO. The whole thing is a big fat joke, they should have not left it to the last minute they should have said it right after the first week of my complaint .Companies like these who use method to exploit the rules should be made to pay out more when claim are resolve by the FO. probably make it more an incentive to resolve it before the 8 weeks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Adami, that is indeed a truly pathetic response. I suggest you complain about this to the Fin.Omb!
Menai says
I got the same reply last week, even though it was with fo to begin with. Exactly the same they told you. Payday express has asked for more time until feb, my first complaint goes back to aug and didnt get a reply until the fo wrote to them.
Darren bird says
Any one been in the ombudsman and had the case turned down ? Or lost
Just asking
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Darren, I’ve just had a look back as so far as i can see only one person has reported being turned down by the ombudsman – Paul on 8/12/16 said Wage Day had refused to write off his balance of £190, which he thought was odd as he had had balances written off / refunds from various other lenders.
Daniel says
I have complained to QQ,Lending Stream,PDUK,Money Shop, Wonga, WDA and payday express they have all said they carried out proper affordability checks and given me final responses now saying they will not be giving me a refund or removal from my CR. I have sent my cases to the FO however I’m worried that all the responses have been the same that they will also be denied by the ombudsman. I was taking PDL after PDL defaulted on quite a few towards the end I have been PDL free for almost 4 years however it works out I have paid about 20k in interest over the years. I also had a CCJ on my file at the time all these loans were taken out. Do you think I will get anything back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t say you definitely will but it sounds well worth complaining to the Ombudsman! Good luck!
Wayne says
Hello ,After your initial complaint to the Payday companies, they should have been able to prove that they was acting responsibley when lending you the money, If you haven’t been given this information from your complaint then I’m guessing they haven’t got it . Its important to get as much information as you can when going to Financial Ombudsman , Credit reports hide nothing, Bank accounts , have a budget sheet done, plus check through any emails you may have theres is loads of information within them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Evidence is great! Having said that people here have got refunds when they haven’t even known how many loans they had, so no-one should be put off complaining if they haven’t kept loads of emails, or they had no idea what their credit rating was like.
Peter says
Hi All, I just received an email today from quid.co.uk with about 1.5 weeks to spare in the 8 week timeframe. They have advised that they did indeed carry out the necessary checks and were proportionate and responsible. And thus unable to uphold the complaint. They did however offere a good will gesture of a refund of the interest paid on the loan which was equal to £834. Will this mean they will also remove it from my credit file? In my opinion it seems they would not need to as they believe the loan ammount was adequate to my needs and affordiability.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Peter, if they haven’t said they will delete the record, they probably won’t. You could ask them to however. Or you could ask them and say you intend to go to the Ombudsman if they refuse.
John says
Just had another full and final response through. This time from Wageday Advance. Was expecting to have to approve the Ombudsman with this one but they have agreed to refund all interest and charges, they have cleared my outstanding balance with them and have also agreed to repay interest at 8% simple from the date the loans were granted. This one took the full 8 weeks. Thanks again Sara and Debt Camel members for your advice!! Just waiting out Wonga, Payday UK, and Payday Express decisions now.
Mark says
I’ve had an email from fo today with attached forms to fill in so I take it this is my chance to put as much info into my complaint as possible?
I don’t have any old emails or financial info from years gone by so I will need to just guess a lot of it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Mark, yes, in a complaint such as this, the ombudsman will be looking for things that support your claim that the loan(s) were unaffordable. Some people keep more records than others, the Ombudsman will be used to this. If you think you are really guessing, you could put a note by the figure to say this.
Alan says
I have emailed Wonga the step one letter a week ago but keep receiving a response that the details I provided don’t match their records and to provide my name, address and date of birth. I have sent them all this information 3 times now. My last 2 responses includes an account number I found on previous emails. I copied in a picture of an email they sent me too with my account number and email address clearly displayed. I have located previous loan agreements received from Wonga but wanted other information such as number of reloans and if they performed credit checks etc. Shall I go straight to step 2 with just the loan agreements I have found? Or shall I go straight to the ombudsman as they aren’t dealing with my request for info?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest phoning up their customer service and trying to resolve the matching problem. Because this has to be sorted at some point!
Shanae says
Sara thank you for helping me, I am so grateful. I stumbled across this website back in October and though let me try and see how this turns out. I like most people was stuck in a bad situation reloaning when I couldn’t afford it from several lenders. This morning Wonga made me an offer of £6700 and removal of all loans from my credit file. They admitted that they could have done more to help me. It took 9 weeks in total and 2 emails as directed here on this website. Keep going everyone!
Sam Thornton says
Ahhh the PayDay UK & PayDay Express saga…
Basically I wrote to PDUK & PDExpress (not realising they were the same company) with the step one email just asking for my accounts with them and I have so far received two letters: one titled RE: Your complaint against PayDayUK
Hold up…. I haven’t actually submitted a complaint yet, I just simply asked for my statement of account with them.
The second letter…We are writing to advise you that we need more time to complete our investigations and to provide you with a full response to your complaint
…there it is again….COMPLAINT…I haven’t complained YET!?
Im going to go ahead and assume that PDUK are just running an automated system that sends this junk out and on the 4th February (which is the date they have provided to contact me again) I will receive a letter advising they either need more time….although im not really sure what they would need more time for as I’ve not asked them to look into my account, merely just provide me with dates etc.
Can anyone advise what to do here? I have a direct phone number for them, is it worth calling them, or do I sit tight and wait for the 4th February to come round?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people have almost no info on the loans they took out – they really need to get the statement of account from the lender. If you really need that list of loans, then I would phone them up – if you do this, keep a note of who you speak to and the date, in case you need to refer to this later, eg in a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Other have loads of info and are just hoping to pick up a few extra points they could put in a complaint. If you think you have enough details to do the second step reasonably, you could do that now as it’s probably not worth waiting 8 weeks to not be given anything useful!
menai says
i got the same reply and date, ive forward it to the ombudsman to sort out
Sam says
Hi Menai,
What did you actually send them in the first instance, was it just a request for information?
james n says
I did the same. I requested information on all loans, how much I took out, when I took it out, if I rolled over or if I defaulted on any loans. I sent the same request to payday UK and payday express. I received the same generic letter stating they would look into my complaint. After 8 weeks they requested more time. So I filled in the FO complaints form against both companies.
menai says
i sent letters out to both last august requesting informtion but got no reply, sent numerous emails so in October/Nov sent a complaint in to the ombudsman. received a letter from them in december saying they have received my complaint and will get back to me in 8 weeks, received another letter last week one from payayuk saying they cannot give me a final decision but have not received any information from them, they sugested to pass on to the ombudsman but was with them already! express has asked for more time until 4th feb, bet i’ll get the same letter as i did from pduk, i think they’re giving us the run around and sending the letters to avoid sorting it.
dominika says
try use live chat in their website its helps a lot ;) Ive tried use that when i needed my statements and got them on next day ;)
Lily says
Positive news….I’d had 4 loans from txt loan (MyJar) all for £100 each, charged £10 interest per loan. The first 3 paid off on time and the subsequent loan taken out a couple of months later…..then juggling repayments became too much and I never repaid the final one….it’s been shown as in default on my credit record.
I sent in my complaint last week to them and as promised they’ve responded within 5 working days….I only asked for the outstanding balance to be written off and removed from my credit file and they’ve agreed it was unaffordable and will do as I’ve requested! I couldn’t be happier!! Now..Hopefully the more significant ones will also agree! Thanks Sara and keep going everyone!!
Ally says
Hi, just came across this site tonight. I’ve had several payday loans over the years and I’m in default to most. I can still log into some of my accounts, and could see on quick quid all my loans from 2012 to when I defaulted in 2014. It’s a total of 51 loans, makes me sick thinking about it, total that was borrowed paid back etc over this time was £33975!! Should I write to them or log into my account and email a complaint from the contacts page? Thanks in advance for any help.
Ps, I had several other companies paying back to at the same time that I’ve still to calculate
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hi Ally, 51 loans over 3 years… sounds like unaffordable lending to me! If you have a list of these loans, I suggest you skip the “step 1” in this article, as QQ always send back a generic letter that doesn’t help at all. Go straight to Step 2. Email the complaint to hem from their complaints page.
Best of luck with this and with the other lenders!
Christine says
I have had a letter from PDUK asking me to give then until the 27th January for details of the loans that I had, I am not hopeful though . I looked through my online bank statement and the loans are listed under MEM and PaydayUK- so I would advise anyone doing this to double check both these entries on their bank statements to make sure that you don’t miss anything.
I have a question if I write the 2 nd letter now do I have do give them 8 weeks from now or is it 8 weeks from my first letter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have the details of all your loans, you may as well write the letter of complaint now. It’s 8 weeks from the point you complain – which is really the 2nd letter unless the lender replies to the first rejecting your “complaint”.
Eric says
I’ve had 2 letters from the Money shop saying they will be taking the 8 weeks, after the 8 weeks was up I got another one saying ‘just other 2 weeks’ but it’s now passed the 2 weeks. Should I give them longer or just go to the FO now, it’s been over 10 weeks now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go to the Ombudsman! And add to your complaint the way they seem to have delayed handling your complaint!
Soki says
I had payday loans with quickquid and Paydayuk I defaulted on both about 3-4 years ago, I never paid the debt and used to get letters from debt collectors but that has since stopped. At the time I sought help from these lenders but was told I had to make the minimum payment before a repayment plan could be set up, which I couldn’t afford. They even took money from account without my permission . My question is could I still ask for a refund for charges and interest and deletion of the default from my credit file? Will they even acknowledge me or refer me to who ever has the debt now? I still have a few old emails from them of the loan agreements and letters about my debt. Am I opening a can of worms???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Soki,
Also how good do you feel your “unaffordable” case is? If you have read this article and think it’s a good one, then the “worst” that is likely to happen is that your existing balances are written off.
It sounds from what you have said that you may have two grounds for complaint – first that the loans were unaffordable and second that the two lenders didn’t handle your case properly when you told them you were in financial difficulties.
Jasmine says
Hi There, I’ve been following this thread for a long time and it has given me so much hope! I took out one payday loan in 2011 that spiralled into many from all different companies, doorstep loans and guarantor loans, before i knew it i was 18k in debt thankfully although i walked away with a handful of defaults and one ccj i eventually managed to get them all paid off. I have since got married and we have a 6 month baby which is all amazing :-) unfortunately we live in a tiny house and although we managed to keep our mortgage we cant get another one to move into a house big enough for us. I have used the fantastic advice on this site to complain, and they are about coming up to the 8 weeks.
The only one i havent done is 1st stop loans, the one I have the ccj with. I paid the ccj within 6 months of it being issued even though it was so hard I took this loan out at the height of my loan problems so it was 100% unaffordable. Has anyone got any advice on getting a ccj payday loan removed? or any experience with 1st stop payday loans? Good luck to all for a debt free 2016! xx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jasmine, I think you are the first person here to mention a CCJ – this doesn’t mean they would be a problem so much as they aren’t that common for payday lending. If (and it’s a big IF obviously) the Financial Ombudsman told a lender to delete a CCJ, then this could be done.
I can’t see any reason not to put in a complaint to 1st Stop. The worst that can happen is that it is rejected and you have wasted a couple of hours writing it! Let us know how you get on!
Wayne says
Update 1st Week
My Jar They have taken interest off current loan approximately £300 emailed them back asking for interest to be reimbursed for other loans, waiting for reply.
Wonga Just received confirmation of complaint will get back to me
Lending Stream Had to Email them twice, went through complaints section on their website, and received a detailed email back showing application details of when I applied for the loan, it doesn’t make sense so I’ve emailed them back to explain what information I’ve got. Waiting for a Final Response
Pounds to Pocket Received a generic email EXACTLY same as I received from QQ I added this to my complaint and Waiting for Final Response.
QuickQuid Received a generic email EXACTLY same as I received from Pounds to Pocket I added this to my complaint and Waiting for Final Response.
So after 1st week £300 better off :-D, will be sending out emails today chasing complaints.
John says
Hi all. Just thought I would give a quick update regarding my claims.
To date I gave received full and final settlements from Cheque Centre, Wageday Advance and Wonga. I have accepted these offers without the involvement of the FO.
With regards to the rest, 24/7 Moneybox and Lending Stream have both agreed to clear my outstanding balances with them but have not agreed to compensate me with an interest for unaffordable loans – I have sent complaint to Ombudsman for these. Also complaining to FO about QuickQuid, as I don’t believe they even looked at my complaint and just send a generic response. Payday UK and Payday Express are still looking at my complaints but are within the 8 weeks period.
In my opinion, Lending Stream and QuickQuid have been the worst to deal with. Anything from the rest, I am seeing as a bonus but will keep plugging.
John says
Hi Wayne,
This is the response I got:
While reviewing your accounts, we note that your loans were approved based on the following facts:
During all the applications, you were full-time employed.
The data shared in the applications indicated that your monthly income was above £X which well-exceeded your monthly expenditure. This in turn gave a disposable income of more than £X each month.
Your Experian credit score at the time of applications was above 500 – which is considered a good score.
We have not approved you for a loan each time your application did not meet our lending criteria.
Despite having multiple loans at a time, we confirm that all your loans have been approved in accordance with your repayment capacity.
We also find it worth mentioning that most of the loans have been closed early or as per the the original repayment schedule. Good standing of your existing accounts was also a considerable factor in approval of further loans.
Considering the overall data, we had no reason to believe that approval of your loans could cause you any sort of financial distress.
Wayne says
Hello yes thanks for that , Its nearly the same as the Email I received . I think it will end up going to the Financial Ombudsman with regards Lendingstream so I want to ensure my complaint is written ok and get as much info as I can , fortunately my credit report shows a different picture from what they are saying ..
fay says
Hi there
This website has really inspired me, so today I have written to all the payday loan companies I have taken out loans with over the past few years. I am currently with Step Change and some of the loans are being paid through them, so have been trying to sort out my debt. However reading these comments, I am really hoping that something may come of the emails I have sent off today, which could potentially wipe out my DMP! So thank you, thank you for this site!
I have one question that I am hoping someone can help with? If I am fortunate enough to receive a refund/interest returned, what happens if I now have a different bank account? When I started my DMP, I closed my account and stopped my card and started afresh. Has anyone else who has been successful been in this situation and what did they need to do? Many thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Fay, the change of account shouldn’t prove a problem. You will either be sent a cheque or be asked what account you would like a refund paid into. Best of luck!
Kat says
Hi all. I have just emailed 9 different companies after seeing a post on beat the bailiffs and the banks on Facebook…. So, here’s day one.. Will keep you posted.. Wish me luck!!
Kat says
Just had a reply from Mr lender who have declined, saying looking at my expenditure and credit score at the time and the fact I paid off a previous loan they decided to offer a loan. I have forwarded my email and their response to FOS now.. Not sure if this was the right thing to do but I have done it now. No responses other than the generic ones from the other lenders…
Kat says
Ok latest update.. I have just received An email from Mr Lender to say they will not give a refund as I still have the an outstanding balance to pay off, however in light of my complaint they have written off my debt for £408.51! Result! All i did was reply to their final offer to state I was now going to FOS, but thanked them for their time. Within 45 minutes my debt was written off!
That’s the first off my list!! :)
Gary says
Hi,
Just thought I’d share the latest update with mine.
Quickquid/P2P – they were deathly silent but the complaints (being looked at separately rather than combined?) are now with “their final resolution team” after I had escalated to the FO and told them so. They have promised a response within 3 days.
Payday – still with the FO, have sent them through a spreadsheet showing all payday loans taken and repaid over the years of difficulty.
Still awaiting FO to advise re Uncle Buck and WagedayAdvance.
Already had a total of 3k refunded from Wonga/Sunny & Lending Stream:
– Wonga took exactly the full 8 weeks from date of complaint (Complained on the 30th October received an offer on 23rd Dec). I did accept but this but in hindsight, perhaps should have escalated further as they only said 3 of my loans were unaffordable. Received just short of £700.
– LS was a strange one – also complained on the 30th October. They rejected originally and I escalated to the FO. LS then came back with an offer of just over £1k on 3rd December that I accepted.
Keep at it guys.
Sophie says
Hi there, I’ve been reading all of your comments and am now feeling hopeful that this could all be over soon.
I took out a £100 QQ loan in 2010 to help my mother with household expenses as she wasn’t able to work at that time after an accident. (I wasn’t asked to use them or to help at all, I was 19 and naively saw a way to get a little money to give her to ease the stress)
From that initial loan I fell into the familiar cycle of repaying and borrowing every month for 2 years. The £100 loan became a £600 one which I then couldn’t repay and defaulted on. In that time I had also borrowed from Wonga, 24/7 Moneybox, Wage Day Advance, Myjar, Lending Stream, Tooth Fairy Finance and Payday UK. I’m still trying to add up the not-so-grand total but already it’s terrifying how quickly this one gesture spiralled.
Like I said I was naive, and although I have got myself to a healthier place financially now I still feel tense and anxious when it comes to money. I can remember times when having money in my account would mean that one of the above would try to take a repayment and leave me with pennies. This happened to me once while out with a friend and I found myself frantically on my phone applying for a top up loan in a supermarket queue. Trying to get some money into my bank account to pay for the food on the belt before it came to putting my card in while keeping my screen angled away from my friend.
I’ll keep you updated on how I get on. I sent emails out last night and have already had an email response from Myjar with a summary of my account and stating they feel they performed the checks necessary. I did only have two loans with them, however this was in 2012 when I had already been borrowing from several other lenders.
Thanks for sharing all your comments, it’s really made me think there may be some hope of recovering my credit rating!
Lesley Page says
Piggy bank have replied with……a letter telling me how deep in debt I am to them and how to pay it ha, step 3 then. Pounds to pocket have refused and uncle buck sent a reply saying I told them my income was double what it was and that I told them I get 444 in benefits, there is no way I would have told them either of those things, so what next with them !!!
Chelsea says
This site has been a beacon of hope for me – like others, I too have taken out several pay day loans and was using one to pay off another. Borrowing from friends and family to repay these loans. Luckily I came across this site earlier this week and have since written to all my payday loans asking for their affordability checks. Today I got my first response from Wonga (see below). They have not acknowledged my complain or mention it anywhere in the email below. I plan to email them back asking them to suspend payment while they look into my complaint and to also give me information on their complaint handling procedures and timescales.
Has anybody received similar emails? any suggestion would be greatly welcome
WONGA Reply
“”Your outstanding balance of xxx remains unpaid.
We must remind you again how serious this situation is, as failure to act today could mean:
We’ll inform one or more of the major credit reference agencies of your default. This will be recorded on your credit history and may affect your ability to get credit in the future.
We may need to take steps to recover the outstanding balance such as passing your account to debt collection agency.
If you’re having difficulties repaying your loan, please get in touch with our collections team on xxxx to find a solution. You can also login to the ‘my account’ area of our site and set up a repayment arrangement or call us on xxx
If you are able to pay all or some of your outstanding balance, you can login to ‘my account’ and choose ‘Repay’. Alternatively, you can call our automated payment line on xxxx””””
Adami says
Anyone can advise:-what sort of evidence do the FO asked for? How do the FO work out unaffordability ? the fact that you ignored to pay your debts and spend your income on other things does that make the loan unaffordable to you? just curious
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FO has asked some people for bank statements. If you were spending your income on things such as rent, bills, petrol, food, clothes etc then that is normal. I suspect if you were flying off for weekend breaks in different European cities once a month, the Ombudsman wouldn’t think that was reasonable!
Kat says
Just to make you aware, there are companies starting to ring around for this… You don’t need to use them … They will take a considerable amount from you!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well said Kat!
Soph says
Hi, following my comment yesterday I’ve had the below response from MYJAR:
Thank you for contacting us about your concerns, we are sorry to hear that you are dissatisfied with any aspect of our service.
Your complaint is currently being investigated and we will get back to you within the next 5 business days, although we always aim to resolve any issues as quickly as possible.
Has anyone had dealings with them? I’m hoping this is a good sign!
Lily says
Hi Soph,
I had the same from MyJar and true to their word they responded on the 5th day!! I hadn’t asked them to refund anything as my interest was tiny but did have a default on my credit file for an outstanding balance of £245 as I was unable to repay my final loan of £100. I asked for this to be written off and removed from my credit file and they agreed to do it, they quoted 7 days to have it reflected on my credit report but it was gone the next day!! If only they were all so efficient!! Good luck!!
Fay says
Hi everyone
Quick update, I sent out emails to all the payday lenders that I have used in the past late on Tuesday evening. This lunchtime, I had a call from Lending Stream and within 10 mins I have had my account closed and the balance of £579.00 wiped off my Step Change balance! I really hope I have the same success with the others and be closer to a debt free life!
this website has truly inspired me – let’s hope it inspires others too!
Wayne says
Hello Just had refund of interest + 8% from MYJAR around £700, I’m very happy with this especially as I borrowed the money after suposingly stricter lending policies had been put in place. MYJAR have been good to comunicate with , sent 2 emails and it was sorted .. 5 more Lenders to sort out , I will use the MYJAR emails and offer of interest to help my case with other complaints if they end up going to Financial Ombudsman…
Emma says
Hi all, its great to hear your having success with reclaiming unaffordable pay day loans. I’m about to get the ball rolling with Payday UK, Quick Quid, The Money Shop & Payday Express.
Wonga wrote off my loan in October 2014 due to it being unaffordable. Should I ask for interest and charges for the other 8 loans I had taken out with Wonga and settled? I had financial issues at the time and you can clearly see from my credit history that I’d got into an unmanageable spiral of borrowing from different companies to pay off other payday loans, this was back in 2012.
My intention is to get a mortgage at some point but my credit history is in tatters with payday loans constantly defaulting on my account. I have sent an email to get the information regarding the accounts, account numbers, dates etc as I have none of the information available and have not heard from these companies for about a year now but I’d like to push for the fact they shouldn’t have lent to me in the first place due to unaffordability because obviously Wonga were clearly in the wrong, so what about the other payday loans in the same time frame? I have most definitely learnt my lesson from borrowing from these crooks and look forward to having a healthier credit history in the future. Good luck to everyone!
Hayley says
Hi i was wondering if someone can help me, I’m in the process of claiming back from payday loans i had between 2010/2013. I was just wondering if i can claim ones I’ve had in 2015 that are currently outstanding? I’m a entering a Debt Management Plan to help with these outstanding loans. I’m surprised they even lent to me int he first place as my credit score was awful with many defaults, do i have a case with them? I was repaying until i had an unexpected pregnancy and my wages decreased, but as I had to roll over loans i didn’t tell them about my decreasing wages as i was scared they wouldn’t let me increase or roll over the loan. As then i wouldn’t be able to pay bills. I was nearly evicted from my property etc this is why i have chose to enter the debt management plan. Can someone help me and let me no if i can write to the companies i took loans with in 2015? Thank you.
Wayne says
Hello yes I have successfully claimed back interest + 8% and my loans was taken out in August 2015 & im also on a DMP
Don’t worry about not giving correct info, its upto them to do sufficient affordability checks ..
Soph says
Had a call from Wonga this morning advising that my email has been escalated appropriately and I should expect to hear back within 12 days. Fingers crossed this is a good sign, I see from the comments previously that they have been able to offer refunds without a complaint to the Ombudsman so hoping that’s the case for me!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Soph, yes Wonga have a pretty good record of actually reading complaints and paying out. Though I do know one case, which sounded to me one of the worst (or should that be best?) I have ever heard, where they said No and it is currently with the Ombudsman.
UPDATEe – Wonga now (mid February) seem to be very random and quite a bit slower. And that case i mentioned – the Ombudsman made them pay out over £4,000 :)
mj says
Are pay day loan companies obliged to accept you are struggling and allow you to pay them up each month? I owe wonga over £400 and sunny around £140 and they are both due next month and I don’t have the means to pay them.
Wayne says
Hello Firstly dont worry , What you need todo is cancel Continuously payment authority with your bank for the 2, this stops them taking money from your account, Email Wonga and Sunny and short explanation just to say you in financial difficulties . They will allow you 30 days to sort out and should freeze further interest ask them to , you have an option to offer them a affordable payment plan , work out incomings and outgoings and whatever you have left even if its only a £1 offer it them .. there are some free debt help sites what do it all for you they are excellent. Now this will effect your credit report , however if they have issued you with unaffordable loans you can ask to remove any interest owing , also once loans paid up ask to have them removed from your credit report .. hope this helps ..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good advice from Wayne to cancel any CPA with your bank. The “30 days” is to give you time to come up with a payment plan, eg talking to a debt adviser, drawing up an income & expenditure statement (which also takes account of your other debts) and making them an offer.
You don’t have to talk to a debt adviser. If these are your only two debts you may be happy to talk to them direct. But if you have other debts as well, I suggest talking to StepChange or National Debtline about what your options are.
If you have had other payday loans before then also think of trying to get a payday loan refund as this article suggests. Putting in a “not affordable” complaint could lead to them writing off your current debts.
Matty says
Hi All,
Since 2010 I’ve been involved with up to 13 payday lenders and found myself in over 20k debt due to gambling issues. I rolled over all the loans and robbed Peter to pay Paul for years. I’ve just sent an email to all of them.
Wonga
Quickquid
Pounds to Pocket
Mr Lender
Sunny
Wageday Advance
Moneybox 247
Myjar
Payday Express and UK
Had some automated responses etc. I never could have afforded to pay these back and my credit file has always been in tatters since I took out the first one. Absolutely no idea what must have paid back over the years in comparison to the principal amounts borrowed. I plan on waiting for offers and then I’ll check bank statements going back and check how much I paid each company to what they lent me. Is this a good way of doing it? Also when you get to the FOS stage do you need to do each company individually? Would make sense just for companies to start paying out as they get billed £550 for every complaint FOS consider I think.
This page is amazing and I hope once people see the ludicrous amounts of money they have borrowed and paid back everyone learns their lesson. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a good plan to me. Each lender is a separate complaint to the Ombudsman. I hope you have been able to tackle the gambling demon! It has ruined as many lives as payday lenders.
Wayne says
Just a quick note: After several Emails £1600 interest refund from my-jar, great news :-) I had received several offers but held out , didn’t need to complain to Financial Ombudsman .. :-D
Soph says
That’s great Wayne! When you say you received several offers but held out, was that from Myjar you got these offers? Did you just reply asking for more until they agreed on your final amount? Hoping to hear back from them any day now!
Soph says
Got my email back from Myjar this morning and £215.71 is being refunded into my bank account today! Hoping this is the first of many :)
Wayne says
Just an update, I’m finding PDL are offering token payments as goodwill gestures and trying to avoid responsibility with regards to accepting blame . I got a intial offer of £300 , I declined this and said I will take my complaint to Financial Ombudsman, I got a final response email from them for £700 token payment for some of my loans , I accepted the £700 but I raised a further complaint for the outstanding interest on other loans with them. I have received a email and now have all my interest paid back +8% £1600 however they still havnt admitted responsibility and doing it out of goodness of there hearts lol .. Moving on I have emailed them back and now I want the records moving from credit report , Even though ive got my money back , I intend to get the records removed off my file .. I do have good evidence for my complaint but they haven’t asked for any , also my loans where taken out back end of 2015 , after new laws inplace so my case demonstrates the PDl are still not complying !!! Hope it reads ok , haven’t got my glasses lol
Mp says
Hi guys,
Update on my loans, just been refunded £1350 from sunny, took the full 8 weeks. Wonga due response by Thursday and QQ with FO. I will keep you guys informed !
Thank you to everyone here for your help.
Sophie says
Hi guys,
Thought i would give you an update on my cases so far……
Wonga – this had taken up to 11 weeks to sort out and still not sorted. After the 8th week i took the complaint to the FO. Today i received a final response from Wonga offering me half of what the FO originally proposed. I have tried to call the person who is dealing with the case but not in the office today. I thought about taking their offer but I’m hoping that the FO will come back in my favour!
Quick quid- still with the FO
Ladder loans- still with the FO
Safety net – still have two weeks left before a final response is issued.
Just a little warning to everyone it isn’t always as quick so keep in mind that you may have to wait a little longer but be patient. :)
Kate says
Hi
I’ve recently applied to Wonga and QQ as loans I took out 3-4 years ago were rolled over continuously .. They had taken part or all of my wages before I could pay any bills .. It resulted in us getting a court summons for our mortgage (hangs head in shame) we both work hard and foolishly got trapped! How long did it take to hear from them from start to finish ? Thanks In advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kate, make sure the mortgage arrears are mentioned in your complaint to them and to the Ombudsman! It’s easy with hindsight to see you were foolish to get trapped, but not so easy at the time – there is no reason to be ashamed.
Fay says
Hi everyone
I have now received all my statements from Wonga and interest alone racks up to over £2,500 over a period of 7 months! A couple of questions: How long has anyone else had to wait for a response from them once they had received their statements and also what type of refund did you get? Looking at the statements, I quickly increased amounts I borrowed, paid them off in full and on the same day took out the same amount or more, so started the cycle all over again!
Many thanks in advance
Shanae says
Hi Fay,
I was the same as you paying loans back in full and taking them out again on the same day. Once I received the statements i wrote the 2nd step complaint and they replied me within a couple of weeks that they were taking it seriously and investigating. I waited 8wks no reply. I sent it of to the FOS but before they acknowledged my complaint wonga made me an offer in week 10 and admitted there failings in detail, out of the 30 loans I took they upheld 25 of them.
They refunded the interest on the 25 and the statutory 8% which is backdated to the date each loan was taken out. They removed all of the loans from my credit file also.
It takes a while but is definitely well worth the wait. I went into this not very hopeful at all as I felt so ashamed of the way I handled my finances back them but they admitted that they should have done more to help me. I was given the refund within a week. So keep calm and carry on.
Scott says
I’m 21 years old and have took out my first payday loan through quick quid at 18. It started as £200 but 14 loans later and I’m now up £850 and still haven’t been able to pay it off. I’ve also had loans with 16 loans through sunny and 7 with peachy. Peachy is now paid off and sunny is still outstanding. I sorted out all my loan history etc and wrote my complaint letters to each company and got the usual replies off sunny and peachy to say they’ll investigate and reply within 8wks. Quick quid however replied straight away saying they didn’t agree that my loans were unaffordable and all relevant credit checks etc were taking out for each loan and their final decision is to deny my requests of a refund and cancelled loan. What should I do now regards quick quid whilst I wait for the other 2 to investigate?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Scott, QuickQuid seem to reject everyone, you should reply to them saying you are not happy with their rejection, the loans you were given were unaffordable and you want the complaint passed to their Final Resolution Team. The 8 week wait starts now!
Lesley Page says
Piggy bank are saying i dont have a case even though i have proof that i payed back one day and three days later i took out another loan, Pounds to Pocket also say the same , i had 3 loans with them and paid back twice what the loan was, Uncle buck , the same, i dont seem to be getting anywhere, i havent heard from 6 of them, looking through my statements is shocking, i had 15 loans running over 2 years , well i will keep trying , i have had one final response so will take that to the ombudsman, any advice on how i go about would help, thanks all.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Lesley, I think the two things to emphasise to the Ombudsman is that a repeat borrowing within a very short period shows clear financial problems and that lender A should have been able to see from your credit record that you were also borrowing from B, C and D around the same time.
Wayne says
Hello Received a Email from MR LENDER, it was around 2 A4 pages long and contain mainly information taken from OFT guidance for creditors 4.12 Creditors may employ the use of a variety of types and sources of information to assess affordability’ (OFT irresponsible lending guidance March 2010). etc, eventually after rejecting my complaint.
MR LENDER (I feel embarrassed writing lenders name down Mr Lender got to be dodgy lol) Anyway after investigation they have informed me of my income and basic facts on my credit report, that’s basically it, Income is right however no expenditure with regards available disposable income mentioned. I have downloaded my Credit Report and it’s significantly different from what they saying.
I could go straight to Financial Ombudsman, however I have chosen to email them regarding their investigation to disagree with their findings also I have also included a copy of my credit file, given them opportunity to refund interest and remove credit records or send Final Response letter, I’m in no rush so can wait before submitting a complaint to Financial Ombudsman if needed .
Anyone else had dealings with them,? also for anyone in a similar situation basically don’t be put off with rejection emails, fight back you have nothing at all to lose.
Kat says
Hi! I had the basic letter from MR lender, emailed them to thank them for their response, however i would now be passing to the FO. 45 minutes later I had an email to write off my debt.. Try that first! Good luck
Jamie says
After seeing this site I thought I would have a go at Quick Quid as they had been told to pay back many people. But I was not on their “list” even though I still have debt with them and took out numerous loans over the years. I know I have a strong case so I started with my complaint back in November I never got acknowledgment of my email, I sent another and still no reply. So I contacted the FO who sent them a letter on the 2nd of December. All of a sudden my complaint was recognised and I was informed that it would be 8 weeks!
Now over the last 2 weeks I have had several collection messages. I contacted them explained the complaint of which no one has looked at and was told collection would not stop even though there is a complaint and as it has been 12 weeks since my first complaint, 10 weeks since my second and almost 8 weeks since the FO complaint they will flag my case and I should hear something by Tuesday.
Its now Wednesday 8 weeks since the complaint from FO and I have heard nothing. However I have checked my credit file using clear score and it does not show Quick Quid could it be that they have ammended my credit file and I will be hearing something soon? or should I just pass this to the FO?
Generally very poor way to handle complaints.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jamie, if there was a prize going for the worst way to handle complaints, Quick Quid would be strong contenders! I suggest going to the FO now , and including in your complaint the very poor way QQ have dealt with your complaint to them.
Nat says
I’ve had numerous loans from My Jar(Text Loan) from 2011 until then end of 2015. I’ve almost cleared my debts. In total I reckon I’ve taken 30+ loans over the years and many occasions I couldn’t afford to pay and was charged interest, but once was paid I was able to take out another loan. My loans ranged from £100 to £300 each time. I’ve requested a full statement from My Jar, so any information what I do after this would be a great help. I’ve paid a substantial amount in interest and charges over the time I’ve borrowed.
Soph says
Hi Nat! I got a refund from MYJAR today of £215 (I only had 2 loans with them but dozens with other lenders at the same time).
They worked very quickly, I requested a statement of account on the 20th January and received it on the 21st by email. I then sent back the complaint as per step 2 and was advised they were investigating and would be in touch within 5 business days. Today I received an email advising that although they didn’t agree with my complaint they did accept that more thorough checks should have been carried out and so they refunded the interest and charges +8% annual interest on the second loan.
If they could all be so helpful, that would be a dream! Good luck and keep us updated!
Soph says
Here was the response from them:
(I think the key is to stress to them that they shouldn’t have been so readily giving you more loans after you’d been late in repaying and were clearly finding it unaffordable)
Thank you for your e-mail, dated 21 January 2016.
Please note that the borrowing decision was made based on all the details that were available to us at that time. At no point during or applying with us, nor before any loans were requested were we informed of your financial difficulties.
We believe the checks that we made to be proportionate to the amount of credit that we provided to you, in full compliance with the Irresponsible Lending Guide (published by the Office of Fair Trading, the predecessor of FCA) section 4 regarding assessment of affordability.
I also can not agree that requesting a new loan 11 days after the previous one was repaid should be considered as a telling sign of financial difficulties. However, I do believe we should have noticed you repaid your first loan five days late, and conducted a more thorough regarding your financial situation prior to offering the second loan to you.
As such, to put things right, we are prepared to refund to you all interest and late fees that you repaid on your second, last loan with us. With 8% annual interest added, this amounts to £215.71.
Should you accept our offer, please provide your proposed banking details to us so that we could process the payment without delay. In case you would like to avoid any possible delays arising from e-mail queues, you are also welcome to call us on 020 3006 2000 and provide the abovementioned details over the phone.
Please let us know as to whether you accept our proposed resolution.
Nat says
Thanks guys for the info, I’ve had a email today stating that they will contact me within 5 days so fingers crossed its a good result. Just in 2014 I had taken 30 loans and I started using them 2011. Will keep all updated
Wayne says
Hi Nat MYJAR are good at replying, You might not get what you want 1st time round, its taken me 3 emails to get what I wanted , 3 different offers lol .. I’m still waiting for a reply to have entries taken off my credit report ..best of luck
AD says
myjar sent me an email today saying they’d refund £1080! i only wrote to them last week. theyre so quick to sort it which is great. How long before you saw the refund in your account?
thanks
Danny says
Hello again, Update on PDL refunds:
Quickquid, Wonga, Lending Stream, WDA, PDUK all with the Ombudsman
Cheque Centre, Quid.co.uk , Moneyshop – Just started
This website has been fantastic and I thank you all for your feedback and input on this matter that is affecting more than 40% of UK adults between 18-35 there is only a handful of us on here lets reach out to the rest that maybe losing sleep and getting ill from anxiety because of Payday Loan lenders.
Soph says
Hi all, I called lending stream to chase a response to my email today and they have advised that they won’t be able to provide any information regarding the loans I had with them as they have sold the account to a third party. I protested that I am entitled to the info however they have insisted they won’t be discussing it any further with me and I must contact the third party. Has anyone had this before?
John says
Hi Soph, when I was compiling my complaint I never had to request the loan information as I was able to see my full loan history online. I’m not sure if you have the same access if you go onto their website and reset password if you have forgotten it. 2 of my loans had actually been sold to a debt collection agency, but this never had any effect on my complaint. I still think though that you are entitled to the information if you performed a Data Access Request, and I could be wrong, but I think the original creditor has to provide the info.
Wayne says
Mr Lender, Just had a Email from them explaining they are squeaky clean regards issuing loans even though I have I have informed them of several discrepancies. I was actually surprised TBH, anyway I emailed them back and said I was escalating complaint to the FOS , and asked for my account details etc. They have been quick at replying to all Emails, they have sent Loan agreement and checking through it I can clearly see a mistake. It states I borrowed £300 for 28 days total repayment £390, however it should have said £300 for 60 days total repayment £480 the agreement was clearly wrong from the start, also they cant provide me with any expenditure figures for my application I find this strange, I know they telephone to confirm employment etc, can’t remember about expenditure.
Anyway my point is !!! check any paperwork you have, any emails etc.
Joe says
Just a quick one, I’ve been reading this the last few days and it’s great how many success stories there have been. I started mine in November with Sunny and Wonga both refunding, Payday Uk and Payday express issuing the same response of not being able to deal in the allotted time period, Quickquid and Pounds2pocket issuing their standard same response then their £150 offers, piggy bank doesn’t allow you to complain as their complaint department sends an automated response and Lending Stream fraudulating my credit scores. Wageday Advance are the worst I have to say by a mile. Has anyone dealt with safetynet credit?
Sam says
Hello,
can I still send an email to payday loans that I failed to repay (did not make any payments at all). Obviously, I cannot ask for any refunds, as I did not made any payments, however, can I ask them to remove my debt as well as clear my credit file?
The situation is that I took a loan twice from one lender, and repaid them both. However, when I borrowed the third time, I struggled to repay it, so I took another loan from a different lender, in order to repay the first, which I did, but ended up not paying anything back to the second lender.
Sam
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The claim to the first lender can be made but is “thin” unless your credit record was very bad or you were borrowing a lot in relation to your income. If your credit record was very bad, say you had recent defaults on your credit record or something like that, it can be argued that the lender should have realised from the start that they shouldn’t lend to you. Or if you were borrowing £400 and your income was only £1200.
The second lender should have been able to see from your credit record that you had three recent payday loans. If there were other problems on your credit record, it can be argued that they shouldn’t have lent. This is also a thin claim unless your credit record was bad. You can make a complaint saying they should have been able to tell from your credit record that you were in difficulties and shouldn’t have lent. You could ask them to remove the interest from the balance owed and ask for a monthly arrangement to pay the rest. I think it’s unlikely they would remove the loan from your credit record.
Kat says
Hi, I dealt with safety net and their response was that because they can see the bank payments in and out, thy believe they lent correctly. Which, is what I thought anyway but thought I’d try. I haven’t taken any further as I kind of agree with it. Any thoughts?
Joe says
That kinda goes two ways because given that they have full access to your bank accounts shouldn’t they know of your other lending going out too, especially when there’s their payday loans being paid?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Joe, I don’t think that’s what safety net mean – there is no way they could see what was happening on Kat’s bank account. My guess is that they mean because Kat was borrowing money from them and repaying it, then they were lending correctly.
That may sound right, but it isn’t. A loan can be unaffordable even if it was repaid in full and on time because this repayment would have left the borrower too short to be able to meet their next months bills and expenses,,, so they had to borrow again. In this case the loan was NOT affordable.
Rob says
Safety Net work differently Sara. They have your online banking details and can see all the comings and goings on your account. They make their decision based on this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, that’s a new one on me. In that case they obviously can see a lot about the borrower’s situation. That may not be the complete picture of course. And as Joe says, it means they can also see payments you are making to other payday lenders which would be a sign that they shouldn’t lend to you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kat,
you know what your situation was like and what it felt like. If you can see with hindsight that the payday loans were making your situation worse and that you had no hope of being able to simply repay one and stop borrowing, then you have a good case to go to the Ombudsman. Safetynet’s rejection doesn’t change this.
Fay says
Hi everyone
Thought I would give a quick update. So, started the process last Tuesday and so far, 4 payday lenders have agreed to wipe off my balance with them off my Step Change DMP. Not sure if I had held out that I would have received more, but to be honest all I want to do is reduce my debt on the DMP. So far the ones that have wiped off my balances are:
Lending Stream
My Jar
THL
Mr Lender
Quick Quid and Pounds to Pocket given exactly the same response as everyone else. Giving them one more chance to investigate properly! All of the others have acknowledged my emails and I am now waiting to hear from them. The one that has really angered me is Mini Credit. This was passed onto OPOS a while back where I have been making token payments. I called them today where they informed me that the original loan I took out was £250, I have paid £270 but had another £350 to pay off!! Really? all they kept doing was stating terms and conditions and that I still had to pay all this interest!! I immediately called the FO (who were amazing by the way) and have decided to take up the complaint on my behalf immediately. how can they possibly think this is fair? Funnily enough, I will not be making any more payments!! Sorry rant over!
Hopefully more positive updated to come…..
Claire says
Did you contact lending stream through their complaints website as I’ve done it twice with no response?
Fay says
Hi Claire
I sent an email directly to them and they were the first to contact me. They called me within 48 hours of receiving it. They spoke to they manager, called me back within 5 min and agreed to wipe my balance straightaway!
Good luck
chris says
Hi, quick update, Wonga have upheld my complaint and offered me £1132 :) does anyone know how long it would take them to pay into my bank account, the email says 3 to 5 working days but I read other have taken 3 weeks………
Also big thanks to people on this website…….:)
fay says
Hi Chris
How long did it take for Wonga to respond to you? they were quick at responding to sending statements, but now I have sent them a spreadsheet that shows much I had taken out with, them, the rollovers and increase in amounts over a short period of time etc. they have gone quiet. I did call them and they said it is in progress? I am really hopefully of a positive outcome as the interest alone was over £2k!!
Many thanks
chris says
Hi Fay, from what I have seen on here plus my experience they will take the full 8 weeks to investigate, in fact in some cases (including mine) they may ask for an extra 2 weeks to resolve, in total mine has taken 11 weeks and I am still waiting for payment to go into my account, just stick with it and if not resolved in 8 weeks phone them every day, I did and they put mine down as high priority and it was resolved the same day :)
Danny says
Just wondering if anyone can advise on how long the FO usually takes to sort a complaint out and how many people they have helped on here? I know they say upto 12 weeks but I haven’t heard much for a while.
TIA
Sophie says
HI Danny,
My experience so far with the FO is varied. I have 3 cases with them at the moment. Wonga – I phoned through and they were on the case straight away, just waiting for them to respond back, this has taken approx. 4 weeks. 2nd one is Quick Quid, this was emailed through back at the beginning of January and they have only just started looking at it. 3rd one is Ladder Loans this was put in on the 20th Jan and I have only just received a response from the FO to say they are now looking into it and the letter states 12 weeks.
It really does vary, each case is so different.
My Wonga complaint I cannot fault the FO, they have kept me posted every step of the way.
I have found that its best to put it to the back of your mind, not to think about it everyday as it will drive you crazy :)
Good Luck with your results :)
Christine says
I have sent my complaint about PayDay UK to the Fo. I sent plenty of evidence, I found multiple emails offering and then conforming deferrals.
I am still waiting for a reply from QuickQuid, they have in fact emailed me today saying that they intend to reply by 05/02/2016.
My history with them was hort but at the time I was also borrowing from PayDay Uk, I had deferals from QuickQuid and finally my account was sold to a debt collector called Motormile Finance who claimed that I had borrowed £600 when the amount was £300. Motormile Finance threatened me with doorstep visits to assess my living conditions and financial situation. I have forwarded these to QQ as they have a responsibility to ensure any third parties have the correct information. I don’t see how Motormile Finance have the authority to assess my living conditions.
Mark says
Hi,
I had a letter from the cheque centre with an offer well below the amount i worked out from my bank statements. There is lots of points to this that i am really unsure on:
1. They say up until Nov 2012 the manually underwrite loans so not valid!
2. They are offering to refund the interest from Oct 2013 ( April 2012 and every month after)
3. They missed some loans off the statement that i asked for (Lady said it was human error!)
4. I was offered 25% of the amount due and argued, they have now withdrawn the offer and told me to go the the FOS.
Any Ideas people ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Mark, I suggest you go to the FOS! Including making the point about loans missed off the statement you were sent.
Mark says
I sent the complaint to Fos last night. Should I have accepted the offer that they have now withdrawn? I will be really disappointed if I end up with nothing
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No one can say what you should have done. My thoughts:
1) they weren’t offering you £30 to go away, they must have thought you had some sort of case or they wouldn’t have offered anything. So in that case what is the chance of the Ombudsman saying you don’t have a case?
2) it sounds as though you had a lot of loans from them. This in itself is evidence that you were struggling and the later loans were unaffordable!
3) I’m guessing but the lenders would like so see posts where people say the offer was withdrawn as it may put pressure on the next person to accept a low offer.
4) if you were offered a quarter of the interest and charges paid on loans over a long period this sounds low to me. Don’t forget the Ombudsman usually adds 8% interest on as well!
We will all be keeping our fingers crossed for a good result from the Ombudsman. Let us know how it goes!
Mark says
Hi Sarah,
I will keep you updated.
One of the reasons they say im not entitled to the refund of all the loans is because i didnt borrow the full amount in one go. I would pay the loan off on payday for £1300 then borrow say £500 immediately then top up throughout the month to the maximum £1000.
I hope all goes well and my initial instinct is that the ombudsman will not have the full picture – but i suppose lending for 23 months in a row is clearly unfordable. I have a feeling that because it is a large amount to refund they fight harder.
Apart from this lender (Which is the biggest one) i have had success with:
My Jar – Just over £1000
Lending Stream – £161
Money Shop – chased a few times and sticking with 8 weeks time frame
Satsuma – Not chased i as i still have an outstanding balance
Cash asap – Declined and said i had enough disposable income (Still have an outstanding balance)
Wonga – Chased and advised 8 weeks
247 money box – Not chased as outstanding balance
Peachy – Declined as enough disposable income.
Wage day advance – Letter received saying 8 weeks
Still a long way to go and i think alot of people are doing this now – Maybe they are prolonging the replies hoping for a way out of paying.
Wish me Luck!!!