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?
Lee sharratt says
Hello.so. Had a case with the fo. With regard to loans to go. They offered nearly 3k. Should be nearer 7k. Had 4 loans . Tut tut. Sent back to the fo
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sorry I’m not clear what happened. Has FOS made a decision? or did L2G just make an offer out of the blue?
Lee sharratt says
The fo. Lent 2100. Under 7k in interest. Loans to go offered me 2888.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so has FOS only upheld some of the loans? Which?
or did FOS uphold them all and L2G have done the calculations wrong?
Lee sharratt says
Sorry. They have upheald them all. And loans to go have tried to fob me off
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ah! Quite right to go back to FOS then.
Sara says
Hello everyone.
Writing in regards Satsuma Loan,
I made complaint on 02/09/2020 and got reply today which is 6 weeks time.
They upheld my complaint and agreed to remove 597.60 remaining balance and agreed to refund me interest paid of 315.12 via sending cheque in 14 days time. i am very happy with the result as i was not expecting that and just did because was hoping not to pay back the remaining balance due to coronavirus crisis.
My question is to anyone who has had the same outcome, did u receive the cheque and how long did it take to receive it?
Thanks
keith adams says
Quick question.
Do you know of anyone who has rang Provident once you have a complaint agent assigned. There is a number listed with the person handling my compaint. Does this help speed up the process
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Provident questions are best asked on this other page: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/
Kat says
Hi,
I recently received an email saying I’m due redress from The Money Shop, which is great. Appreciate that will receive far less. This got me thinking…. for a few years I was in a horrible spiral of cashing cheques from 2 local stores. Every month I would have to travel miles to go to the shop to pay interest to extend the cheques. Not paying any principle back. It was literally years and they did nothing to help me apart from reminding me to pay the interest each month. Looking back, it was seriously unaffordable and caused me alot of mental health issues. Is it possible to claim back anything for payloads issued via cheque? Its probably been over 6 years in total. I think it would be difficult to get all of the paperwork- because it didn’t go through my bank, they’d give me cash for a cheque they’d hold on to. And I’d have to pay cash to extend every month. But I did have to sign for. The company I used is still trading. Whilst a long shot, seems unfair they’re still doing well financially from profiting by treating people unfairly. Any advice / experience welcomed. Thanks
Kat says
Its called Cash & Cheque Express. I used 2 of their stores at the same time. Thanks
Iain123 says
Yes, absolutely you can claim. Go ahead and get the ball rolling tomorrow.
Kat says
Thank you. Any tips for how to do it for cheques ? In the same way as other payday loans. I dont have any of the paperwork so assume step one is ask them for paperwork? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just send off the standard template. That asks for details of your all your loans as a part of making the complaint.
Sally says
Hi Sara ,
Just got this email from mr lender , not sure what this means .i would be grateful if you could explain and tell me what to reply .
We are writing to you in relation to your complaint raised on the 12th September 2020.
Lending practices have evolved over the years, this means that on occasion, a review of previous loans is appropriate to ensure that customers were treated fairly and that we have fulfilled our duty of care as a responsible lender.
We have therefore reviewed all loans taken out between the 1st April 2014 to the 1st March 2020 to ensure the loans were affordable, that we took into account all relevant information at the time, and that our customers received the right outcome.
The below loans are included in the review of historic loan affordability.
Loan Reference Date Loan Issued
MLXXXXXX 26/04/2014
MLXXXXXXX 12/05/2014
MLXXXXXXXX 10/08/2014
Please can you confirm if you would like to proceed with your affordability complaint or you if you would like us to review your loans as part of the review of historic loan affordability?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Interesting, I had heard Mr Lender were doing some review.
Were these the only loans you had with them, or were there others before April 2014?
Sally says
Hi Sara ,
Just had 3 loans with them , all in 2014
Loan 1-£600 interest £ 540
Loan 2-£1000 interest £982
Loan 3£1000 interest £850
All loans have Ben repaid on time
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well I can’t see any reason for you to withdraw your complaint. They can hardly offer you less to your complaint than this “historic review” would. And the advantage of keeping your complaint going is that you can then send it to the Ombudsman if Mr lender don’t make you a reasonable offer.
In your case a reasonable offer would probably be a refund on the two £1000 loans. If you went to the Ombudsman you could possibly get the first loan refunded too, but this could take a very long while and at the end you may not. So you may think that the last two is a good compromise for a speedy settlement?
If you do, you could put this in your reply. Unlike most lenders Mr Lender is open to negotiation. so if you want to do this you could say something like:
“Thanks for your email. I am prepared to settle now for a refund on the last two of my loans, plus statutory interest. If that is acceptable, it will resolve my complaint without me needing to go to the Ombudsman. I don’t care if this comes as refund through the Historical Review or in response to my complaint, but if you are not prepared to settle on this basis, I will be taking my complaint to FOS so I do not want you to treat my complaint as closed.”
If you don’t want to offer a settlement now, I suggest you just reply:
” Thank you for your emil. I would prefer to receive a response to my complaint as i will be sending it to the ombudsman if it is not acceptable.”
Lucy says
Hi Sara
Just to update you, I put a complaint into one jar regarding a single loan, they didn’t agree so I referred it to the FOS! My adjustor has raised additional points and they have upheld my complaint with all interest repaid plus 8% and removal off credit rating. This is due to taking out other loans at the time and signs of gambling on my bank statements. Thanks so much for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the loan?
Lucy says
£500 in total
Ness says
Hi has anyone had any l uk with lending stream.
I had 21 loans with them over about 3 year period.
Previously rejected by them last year so this year try agai.
I’ve sent them compliant using template you provided Sara. Had the generic email saying 16 weeks wait, was Early August.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you were rejected before, they are probably going to tell you they already replied to this complaintlast year and will not be looking at it again.
Carl says
They are a terrible company to deal with. I complained in March-got rejected – went to FOS and adjudicator upheld 30 loans out of 32 and they were told to make offer. They ignored adjudicator For long time then agreed to uphold but didn’t pay so it went to ombudsman who last month agreed to uphold 31 loans and when I accepted this made it legally binding and LS were told to pay me etc. I have chased and chased LS and no reply with offer etc. They didn’t reply to ombudsman or adjudicator final decision either and I don’t know what to do now. They are chasing for payment at the end of this month too when they are due me money back. Any ideas what I can do next Sara as ombudsman said I couldn’t go any further with them and only court next stage.
Thanks
Pete says
Carl.
I doubt very much that they won’t pay you at all. They have to pay. I do not know of one case where eventually they did not pay out.
31 loans redress sounds like it gunna be a big payout for yuou. They probably getting it all together for u.
Phone managing director up and ask him when you getting paid out as you being messed around. The phone number on internet if you google it.
Carl says
Hi Pete,
Thanks very much for this info I will google the number for managing director tomorrow. They are just fobbing me off constantly saying they will escalate it and bla bla. Just nonsense. The refund is only around £500 as I still have a balance of 700 but still a lot of money to me. Thank you for your info. I’ll update if I get anywhere.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you aren’t getting a refund, just having your balance reduced? Do you have an arrangement in place to pay it?
Ness says
Thank you for this info and the heads up that LS are difficult. I will now prepare to send my claim to the FOS.
Carl says
Yes I will receive a refund of £500 I think it totals too and my current balance is £700 so the total redress will clear the loans still active. They were told to recalculate and pay me but they are not responding to ombudsman now either. Each time I contact live chat they say they will escalate etc and I’ve emailed several times with no reply. They are hounding me to make payment at the end of this month to the loans that are still active, to which I am saying no to because they owe me money.
Pete says
Ness.
Saying they are terrible company to deal with is actually a big understatrment.
Really really bad. Shocking, awful, rude, dismissive as you’ll see.
Escalate to FO as soon as you can. Really you should. Good luck.
Emma says
Hi Ness,
Would you be so kind into telling me the email address you sent to for Lending Stream. I have “submitted” the online “complaint form” and not heard anything from them
Kind Regards
Emma
PM says
Remarkably, I have received my cheque from Provident (Satsuma) today! £1500 balance written off and a £6k refund having had loans 6-13 upheld by FOS. Took 2 months for Provident to respond initially, then a further 7 months for an FOS response. FOS emailed Satsuma on 10th October with their findings, I emailed Provident on 11th, and I had a breakdown of figures on Monday 12th. Existing balance was written off on Tuesday 13th and cheque received in the post today. Since the FOS decision and my email, Provident have been exceptional.
For those waiting on cheques, I was told that they are posted weekly, on a Thursday. Good luck to those still waiting on decisions.
Mike_p says
Good news, but why on earth are they still using cheques in 2020?
Emma says
Hi PM-did Satsuma/Provident agree with Adjudicator upholding your complaint from FOS.Or did it have to be passed to an Ombudsman to look at your case and make a legally binding ,final decision?
Just had time lapse of Satsuma to get back to my adjudicator-if it’s like my complaint last year from Mr Lender-I’m in for another 6 months waiting -I reckon
Regards
Emma
PM says
Hi Emma, Provident agreed with the adjudicator findings within 1 working day. I emailed the Provident CEO asking for it to be looked at and they obliged immediately. If your personal circumstances are suffering, I’d suggest doing the same as it was all settled very quickly. Good luck.
Emma says
Sorry to be a pain.
Did you email ceo,one working day after their deadline-asking if they agreed with the FOS adjudicators findings?
As at present,I do not know if they have responded back to the FOS. The deadline for them to contact FOS was 13/10/20
Regards (again)
Emma
PM says
No. The FOS sent their first response to Satsuma on Saturday and I emailed the CEO on Sunday. By Monday, it was all upheld and my redress amount was confirmed. Outstanding loan was removed by Tuesday, and cheque received by end of the week.
Emma says
PM-Many Many thanks for your advice-re emailing the ceo of Provident/Satsuma.I received a letter yesterday updating what they are doing to my complaint ,and today I have got my redress in the form of a cheque.
Life is all about “paying it forward” -so anyone reading this please email ceo of Provident/Satsuma, and explain your personal circumstance-all done in under a week(after FOS sending them the proposal)
Maria says
Hi can I please have the email of the Provident CEO as satsuma complaints have not upheld my complaint I had 3 loans I sent them my debt and mental health form and prescription summary
Alan says
I emailed this guy who’s high up within lending stream (I emailed him 10 consecutive emails every day for 2 weeks) and then coincidently they kid out out there and then. Lol
mailto:chris.deboer@global-analytics.com
Leonie says
You are a beautiful person! I have been having difficulties getting my redress claim and have been going through the entire same process as everyone else in this forum. I will be emailing this man too
Leonie says
Not usually how I conduct myself but our friend Alan above has provided a lifeline, I sent the email at 1am in the morning and lo and behold next morning email received with the link to initiate refund and payment just been received :)
The email to the CEO works especially as I had been calling everyday and getting no where.
Thank you to Sara, you provide an amazing service, I’ve been able to claim 5 figures back from all the lenders and my credit history is the best it’s ever been! Now I can afford to buy a house as this will help towards the deposit and my credit history is now brilliant and will remain that way. Thank you soo much and best of luck to everyone
Emma says
That’s fantastic news👍 As you are probably the most recent person on here to receive a claim from LS-could you please update a rough timeline on your complaint please?
Kind Regards
Emma
GRAHAM JESSUP says
Just had a email off moneybox 247 there portal has gone live and all claims mut be in by the 31st december same wont get full amount
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Thanks!
Liam says
What did it say? I had one about the portal couple of months ago and agreed to a claim amount but nothing yesterday or of late.
Maggie smith says
So lets think about this… whos now dealing with all these terrible pay day lenders who’ve dropped of the face of the earth and gone bust? WELL WELL WELL, I found out that the pay day lenders myjar are handling their complaints AND FOS complaints(!) for other loan sharks. IN FACT the exact same management team are handling the customer service remotely during COVID for Tieta… their CEO Caroline Walton and management team are the EXACT same as myjar. You only need to look at linkedin to know what I’m talking about, just search the two company names! How they’re are making money for pay day lenders still is beyond me after none of mine gave me my money back. GOOD LUCK getting you’re money back
Sara (Debt Camel) says
who are you saying Tieta and handling complaints for?
Emma says
Hi Maggie,
That’s such a shame with your complaints-did you go to the FOS, after each company not upholding?
I have done on two occasions1st Mr Lender-FOS upheld and redress paid out, and secondly Satsuma/Provident-which is still in process. Never give up.
Regards
Emma
Andy says
Hello,
I have a question about credit scores and balances Why is that Credit Karma and also Experian are so behind with balance updates.
For example i had Satsuma and Safety.Net accounts closed and balance cleared months ago (in July), yet they still show up in my credit balance and my current borrowing.
Also some Sunny loans i repaid and closed last year(!) are still showing as active balance.
Another example, 118 Money is showing as £800 balance in my Credit Karma account when in reality i have only £200 left to repay.
Why none of these are getting updated and my current borrowing amount is showing as more than double than what i actually have?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Because lenders aren’t updating them correctly. It’s not the credit reference agencies fault. Credit reports are littered with errors.
Kyle H says
Hi,
Does anyone have any experiences with negotiating an offer with cashasap?
I had 6 loans with them, 4 in 2016 of which the last one went into debt management and was cleared late 2017. Then another 2 this year. Looking back i was shocked they approved me for anymore loans after previously being in debt management with one of their loans. I dont know why i even did it, i logged into my account to see if it showed the older statements and it had a ‘click here to apply for a new loan’ and i stupidly did it.
I put in a complaint, mostly aimed at the 2 loans this year as thought it was irresponsible of them to reloan to someone who had previously defaulted on a loan with them.
They have come back to my complaint claiming they did no wrong, even with the last 2 loans as they mention there was 844 days from the loan in debt management being cleared and the further applications so they felt it wasn’t unreasonable of them to reloan.
They have offered as a gesture of goodwill to refund £99 (interest on 2 of the older loans) and remove the loan that went to debt management from my report. The loans from this year are paid off and only had about £50-£60 of interest in total. Would i be worth going back saying that i’d accept £150 plus the last 3 loans removed from my reports?
Grace B says
Hi Sara,
I have a question about complaining on the basis that the loans were repaid within the 14 day cooling off period.
I have had a few loans with companies such as Lending Stream who already rejected my claim as I only had 3 loans with them, and with Ferratum and Moneybox – similar situation.
My only problem is having the loans removed from my credit file. Lending Stream already rejected my redress claim however I went back to ask them to remove the loans based on the fact that all loans were taken and repaid within 10 days and I was not aware that I could simply withdraw from the credit agreement then thus not have the mark at all.
Do you have any experience with this – how likely are to say yes?
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No experience, sorry.
Do you have the emails from the lenders at the time you got the loans? Have you seen if they mentioned you had the right to cancel the loans?
Moneybox are in administration and I doubt they will spend much time on looking at anything unusual.
How old are these loans – because it doesn’t sound as though you defaulted on any of them.
Grace B says
No, however under the Consumer Act every loan has a 14 day cooling off period which I found out recently and actually have withdrawn from an agreement which is very easy and you have a 30 day period to return the loan with the 1 month interest and then it is completely removed from your credit file as it was cancelled essentially.
I only found this out this year so these loans are from August last year when I was not aware and all I did is just repay them but with the interest.
I will let you know once Lending Stream reply back to me on this. I really hope they remove it as all my other loans have been written as Unsecured Loan on my file but Lending Stream appear as Advance against income.
Thanks
Andrew says
See the following link from check my file. They can still report loans on your file that are withdrawn from, they just have to be recorded accurately.
https://www.checkmyfile.com/articles/your-rights-when-cancelling-a-new-credit-agreement.htm.htm
wes says
I was just wondering, the FOS have come back to me regarding my satsuma complaint, and have requested a bit more information from me to help with there investigation. They’ve requested i send them my credit report. Does anyone know the best places to get a copy of this going back the last few years?
Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All you can do is send them your current one. I suggest you get a TransUnion statutory credit report – it is simpler to download so you can send it on: https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou
James says
I have raised a complaint with lending stream, I have had 19 loans since February despite being in an Iva, they are continuing to add default charges and daily interest but have said my complaint will take 16 weeks to respond, how should I proceed? I have cancelled any repayment instructions with my bank
Sara (Debt Camel) says
19 loans since February this year? Are you repaying them quickly? How large are the loans?
James says
Yes some were paid off quickly, I currently now have 4 active loans which I have no defaulted on
The Loan amounts vary from a few hundred up to £500, I currently have outstanding loans value of £962
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are you aware that you may have breached the terms of your IVA? And that your IVA firm may see this on your bank statements at your annual review? And any refund may be sent to your IVA firm, not to you?
Why are you having to borrow in an IVA, have you talked to your IVA firm about your problems?
James says
I have discussed this with them at my annual review, I don’t know what else I can do other than to pay the loans off
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So what did your IVA firm say ?
Helen says
Hi, I have just today sent off an affordability complaint to Drafty. They have recently decreased my credit line and then added a note onto my credit file that I was over my limit. I had just brought it under the limit they reduced it to last time. I have paid approx £800 in interest so far and still have an outstanding balance of £700 (£20 under credit line maximum). I am not hopeful that I will receive any offer from them, but thought it was worth a try. What is the process with a credit line company rather than a fixed loan? Have I done the right thing by sending an email to them asking them to refund the interest, statutory interest and remove info from credit file?
Will wait to see what happens with the claim outcomes for ICL and QuickQuid which are already lodged and pending.
James says
Hi Sara,
Received this from FOC –
your bank statements covering the period from three months before your loan(s) until one month after the date you took it/them
a copy of your credit file
the date you took out the loan(s) and the amount of each loan you’re complaining about
your customer reference number with Provident Personal Credit Limited, if you have it
it would also be helpful if you could send us any correspondence you’ve had with Provident Personal Credit Limited about your loans.
The bank statements I am hoping I can get but I was maybe using a old bank, can i request this from a close account? The loan dates and reference numbers should be fine as will the correspondence from Satsuma. What i wanted to check was the credit file, is this the most recent file or a credit file from that time? Who is the best company to use to download a full file?
james says
I found the bank statements which is good but it is the credit files i need to find. How i can find the older credit files
Wes says
I went on Experian. I believe you can get one free credit report, sent to you by mail or email. Go on line,
Experian.com enter a few details then (if by email) they send you a pass code in the post (2-5 working days) which then let’s you open your file on your email. That’s how I’ve gone about mine, just waiting for the passcode myself.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The best report to send is normally the TransUnion Statutory credit report, see https://www.transunionstatreport.co.uk/CreditReport/AboutYou.
Most payday lenders report to TransUnion, so that report often has more details about your past credit problems than Experian or Equifax.
James says
Thanks guys, I actually thought they wanted a credit report from back when I took loan. Heads frazzled haha
NESS says
I raised a complaint last year it got rejected very quickly by them. I tried again this August have been waiting for response, I called today and it was escalated it to complaints. I got an email saying they stand by the previous outcome not to uphold my complaint.
I have now sent to FOS, I know it will be a long process but hopefully may go in my favour.
I had 25 loans from2015 – 2019
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was there a reason you didn’t go to FOS last year? Because FOS are very likely now to say that you are out of time so they can’t look at your complaint.
NESS says
When I got rejected last year I accepted it did Not know I could challenge it until I found your website Sara. I can only try with FOS, I let you know if successful or not.
Thankyou
Emma says
Hi Ness, I did the same last year.But the complaint was not treated as a “complaint “-as I emailed them several times asking if this was their “final response”,I finally got an email from customer services stating ,“the email we sent you on date is the best solution”
Since having successfull complaints being upheld from other past creditors-I thought I would give it a go again.Asking them to explain why it wasn’t treated as a complaint fully and also refund on interest paid-I will let you know how I get on. Had email response acknowledging my complaint-16 weeks perhaps
Regards
Emma
NESS says
Yes please be interesting to see their response
Wes says
I wrote on here a couple of weeks back in regards to ‘CASH4UNOW’. I received an email saying my loan was paid off(which I had done in 2018) and then it went on to say I was actually in credit and due a refund of £80?!
I’ve rang them up sent bank details and was told to expect payment by Friday (23/10/2020) how have they worked out i was due a refund? Something just doesn’t seem right even though it’s worked in a positive way for me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it sounds like there was a mistake in processing your loan at the time. Have you asked them?
Mo says
Hey Sara. Not sure if others have posted about this, but just wanted to let you and everyone know I got an email from 247Moneybox today regarding a claims portal (had no idea!). Looks like another one thats gone under and now doing redresses. All claims have to be accepted by Dec 31 2020, so looks like another wait.
graeme says
Hi Sara / All
I have used this page in the past and found it great,
I have a question, years before pay day loans , id say around 2008 -2011 i took a lot of pre signed cheque loans ( where you got 85 pounds for a 100 pound cheque) at places like H and T and the money shop etc.
With H and T still being in business is there a way to claim against this ? For irresponsible lending? at the time i had 9 100 cheques rolling over and i earned around 1200 a month, this doesnt seem right?
Graeme
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can use the normal template letter above for cheque-based lending. As the loans are so long ago, there may be little evidence of them, but you can try.
keith says
Just had a response from Safety net. Fully upholding my Complaint.
This took only 13 days from making the complaint too.
This feels super rewarding Thank you for the help
Now just provident.
Emma says
Hi Keith
That’s encouraging-Safetnet was last on my list to complain to.I have an existing Tappily account,has paid over £1400 in interest since 2018-also on varies occasions it says I can borrow -even if it’s over my credit limit!! Needless to say,I have texts and emails support this evidence. I’ve sent a complaint in-not sure if I should also mention about this as well-as obviously trying to tempt me into borrowing over limit. Since sending complaint one -my amount to borrow is now “zero”!
Charlie B says
Hey guys,
Been a while since posting here… finally got a redress from Satsuma loans of £470 paid by cheque which was lovely. There is one company called MotorKitty who are a logbook lender who havent responded to any emails in nearly a year timeframe.. is there anyway of going about this even to just get a response? As im sure they are just ignoring.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you sent this to FOS?
Have you tried phoning them?
Charlie says
Hi Sara,
I have used a different contact address, the previously used one was customercare@motorkitty.co.uk the one i have now used is customerservice@motorkitty.co.uk.
Ill await their response. When would be suited to contact FOS regarding the matter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can send to FOS 8 weeks after sending your complaint. But seriously, why not phone them and ask why you havent had a reply?
T says
I got the below from Swift Sterling just now. I’ve read the FAQs and I am still a little confused. It us saying that they will not accept any further payments themselves but they aren’t saying they won’t sell the debt on are they??
Dear Customer,
The Joint Liquidators of MMP Financial Limited are writing to advise you that, as part of plans to wind down the Liquidation, all debt collection activities will cease from 6 November 2020. Accordingly, the Joint Liquidators ask that, in an effort to avoid any erroneous payments being received, all customers cancel any ongoing payment arrangements from this date. In the event you are unable to repay your loan by 6 November 2020, we will be unable to issue any further statutory notices to you and your credit file will continue to reflect your outstanding loan as being in default. Any amounts received after 6 November 2020 will not be processed and customers may incur delays in receiving any refunds for amounts paid in error after this date.
Emma says
Hi T,
Send them an email ,asking your question?
So ,you can prepare the outcome in your mind.👍
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not clear what they are going to do.
The Wonga administrators were unable to sell the loan book. The Sunny administrators have sold the loans.
Have you put in a claim to the administrators?
Mar says
Hi,
Im in a similar position and got the same email. i have two outstanding loans with them which have defaulted, i haven’t actually paid anything towards them for nearly a year and have not been chased but they are on my credit file still. if they dont sell on the loans would i not need to pay these back?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is what happened with Wonga. But it may not happen with other lenders. I don’t have any info on how likely it is.
Peter Keppie says
Sara, have you ever heard of ‘Azzurro Associates’?? They have just lodged a default on my credit file for £4.5k, I have never heard of them, and I haven’t taken out any credit for 3 years! There is no payment history showing, and they just appear out of nowhere with a default from October 2020! I’m absolutely fuming!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are a debt collector. People have reported 118 loans being sold to them.
You need to phone them up and ask what the debt is if you have no idea.
Peter Keppie says
Yes I have discovered it is 118. Why has it been lodged as if it is a new, fresh default? I have never seen that before when accounts have been sold to debt collectors! Now it will be on my file for 6 years when the default from the original loan was 3 years ago. Surely that can’t be right.
I would phone them but they don’t have a phone number on their website or on google! Obviously don’t want to be contacted! Seems disgraceful to me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you looked at all three credit reference agencies? If you can see the 118 loan on there, does that have a default date?
Do you agree you owed this money to 118?
Do you think the 118 loan was “affordable” – at the time you took the loan out, should 118 have realised the repayments would not be affordable for you?
Peter Keppie says
it was a role over loan – basically I had borrowed 2 grand I think and then midway through they lent me another 4 grand. I had already paid more than the principal owed before it defaulted. I have already appealed its affordability and they have another 10 days to respond – but in light of that going on my file now I can’t say I’m too hopeful of a positive outcome!
I will check the other agencies and come back to you.
on a separate note, do you know how long the credit agencies take to remove negative entries? Some companies notified them 6 weeks ago but I can still see them on my credit file.
thanks as always for all your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But at this point I suggest just waiting until 118 reply. After all, if they uphold your complaint the default will have to go, so there isn’t much point in starting an argument now about what the date should be.
Peter Keppie says
Hi, did I see something about the email address for the CEO of Satsuma/Provident? Can someone please let me have it? thanks
Emma says
I certainly can give you it- malcolm.lemay@providentfinancial.com,I also cc onlinecustomercare@satsuma-loans.co.uk
However,I hasten to add-I emailed the above after the FOS was awaiting a reply on their recommendations on upholding the complaint.
Best of luck
Emma
Diana says
Hi,I am looking to see if its possible to send letter to Capital One,as in the past this was only one option to get credit card to pay bills, but they were charging alot of money to.I did manadge to pay back in full and close the credit card, but is it possible to get refund on percentage what I payed back then,using your letter.
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The cases that have been won are usually where the lender increased the credit limit. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/ if this happened to you.
Peter Keppie says
Hi Sara,
Do you know how likely Lending Stream are to negotiate on a FInal Response? I had 4 loans with them which if all upheld would net me a redress off over 2 grand. They have offered me £600.
£600 isn’t the worst offer ever, but it is still leaving £1400 that I reckon I would get if it went to Ombudsman, I can’t really turn down 600 in my hand now though while I wait what could be 2 years for the outcome of the Ombudsman, during which time they could go bust and I get nothing.
Dilemma!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t heard of anyone trying recently. If you want To, be realistic and ask for one more loan – a negotiation is a compromise.
Emma says
Hi Peter,
How long did it take to get a Final Response from Lending Stream please? I’m still awaiting.Just had one email stating could take up to 16 weeks to look into.
Kind Regards
Emma
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would send it straight to the Ombudsman. LS often don’t make good offers, so why wait?
Emma says
Thanks Sara,I will wait the eight weeks until I go to the FOS
Regards
Emma
Mike_p says
They were terrible with me, ignoring my adjudicator and taking longer than the two weeks she gave them to reply, so don’t wait a day longer than the 8 weeks.
Emma says
Mike_p
Hi!Did get the outcome you wanted?
Kind Regards
Emma
Mike_p says
Yes I did in the end. The adjudicator said they shouldn’t have lent from loan 5 onwards out of 16 loans and I got a refund of £1400. The adjudicator said the pattern of lending alone should have been enough to indicate that they shouldn’t have lent further.
Lending Stream gave me a final response at about 9 weeks which looked like an automated rejection. It then took about 2 months to be assigned an adjudicator and another month for her to make a decision. Lending stream took four weeks to respond to the decision despite the adjudicator giving them two weeks and they ignored her when she asked for updates. Their response was to accept the decision and then they dragged out payment to day 26 out of the 28 they were allowed.
Be patient. Lending Stream will ignore you if you ask for updates, or say its being handled by a different department and fob you off by saying they have no way to contact them, but a lot riding f people have got refunds in the end.
Faye says
Just had redress offer from 23 loans from 247money box loans total was £13000 redress due 0.00
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds surprising.
Faye says
When I was working a lot of months were five week months but they are saying it has to be continuous month to month
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I deleted the very long list of loan details.
I have little doubt that you would have had least some of those loans upheld at FOS. If there is a way for you to appeal, you should. Although it may well be that you would only get a small % of the redress amount back at the end anyway.
Faye says
Thank you , I have a balance outstanding from 247 moneybox from 2013 they are now asking for it to be paid but have heard nothing for last seven years and nothing on credit file
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case it may well be statute barred. I suggest you talk to National Debtline 0808 808 4000 about this.
joanna says
i need some advice about ferratum(and making claims to other companies in general) i took out 11 loans between 30/5/18 and the last one 11/4/19 (which i defaulted on and still has 352 left to pay)i pay instalments with a debt collector . I took out the next loan on the same day or day after i paid off the previous, the last 5 got bigger in value each time. I also had multiple loans with the following.
peachy:-multiple loans last one in default pay monthly but they are now in administration
Mr lender:-4 loans last one in default paying instalments
lending stream:-4 loans all paid off
quidie:-5 loans last one again in default paying monthly
118118:-1 loan 1200 (2887.44 total)750 left to pay now with debt collector paying monthly
satsuma:-loan 1000 (1996 total)again defaulted paying monthly with debt collector
onstride:-1 loan paid off
oakham:-1 loan 350 defaulted no payment plan set up yet
rolling credit with safety net, they’d take all but 50 out of my account when money went in to my bank forcing me to borrow more from them.
I’ve also had multiple loans with sunny, uncle buck and 247moneybox but these are but now.
i was just taking out loan after loan to make repayments then getting more loans to live but companies just kept giving them, lending stream even emailed to say i could have another loan on top of one i already had.
any help or advice would be greatly appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you say what your total debts add up to at the moment, all of them, including things like overdrafts?
Any lender where you had 3 or more loans is worth complaining to unless there were very big gaps between the loans.
Cases where you had 1 or 2 loans are worth complaining about if the loans were large. eg 118 and Satsuma. Possibly Onstride?
Use the normal payday loan template to complain about Safetynet Credit.
Joanna says
My total debt at the moment, everything including is just over £5,200.
I put a claim in against the big ones this morning 118, satsuma and Ferratum(cos there was so many)
I’m looking in to other ones at the moment thanks for the advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, well see if you can get that down. If you can’t it would be a good idea to get some debt advice on your options.
Mike_p says
I had good results from Ferratum and SafetyNet credit without having to go to the FOS.
Is your SafetyNet Credit account still active? They let me freeze my account and clear it by paying £50 a month. I just sent them an email saying I needed a payment plan, and they replied the same day saying they had frozen my account and when I logged in I could set up the plan as I needed. Once the complaint had gone through they applied the refund to my account and I set up another payment plan to clear what was left.
Emma says
Mike_p
Thankyou soo much for this,I emailed them today(whilst they are looking into my complaint) with regards to repayment planGot an email back from them within 32 minutes!All sorted, and very easy to do -Thankyou .I was wondering what sort of percentage of interest paid by yourself was refunded to your account in the form of a redress? I know everyone complaint and details are not identical-but I may be able to guesstimate what sort of redress I may get back.
Regards
Emma
Holly says
Morning guys ,
I just wanted to let everyone know I have won a case with money boat for only a £400 loan , I wasn’t going to go through with it with FOS as it’s a smaller loan but as my existing debt was so bad and they have been so awful to me I decided to take a chance the adjudicator accepted my complaint
Joanna says
Hi Mike
My safety net is still active 480 limit but my balance is 645 although they let me have a payment holiday due to covid, but I will definitely ask them for a payment plan when that ends, see what they say.
If u don’t mind telling how many did u have with Ferratum??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
don’t ask Safeteynet Credit for a payment holiday TELL then you need one. And cancel your CPA to them with your bank so they can’t take the money and leave you short.
Mike_p says
It’s really bad how they empty your account. I’d transfer some money from another account to cover an upcoming bill and they’d almost immediately take everything apart from £50. As Sara says I cancelled my CPA so they couldn’t take any more and made all the repayments via standing order.
I had about 6 loans with Ferratum, one of which was a revolving line of credit I had for about a year (they called it credit limit or something like that). I could have probably got more than they offered by going to the FOS, but I decided to take what they offered to get me into better shape short term and then I held out and involved the FOS for some of the other ones.
RS says
I just wanted to give people some hope who are waiting on FOS decisions with Provident. Provident completely dismissed my affordability complaint so I sent it to the FOS who advised that loans 5-13 should be upheld. They were required to respond by 9th October which they ignored. I emailed the CEO and the complaints email address last week and today I have received a letter in the post agreeing to this (I am not sure if this helped in speeding up their response). A cheque will be sent to me in the next 14 days. I now just have one more case to be resolved which is with 118 and that has just had an adjudicator assigned. I cannot thank Sara for this website enough.
Emma says
Hi RS, Yes Ivdid exactly the same-recieved letter Wednesday last week saying complaint was upheld,the following day I received the cheque, popped it into my current account ,and should be cleared by end of tomorrow.
I couldn’t agree more-Sara is such a help to us all
Kind Regards
Emma
Tom says
Hi RS,
Thanks for sharing your experience and good luck with your claims.I am still waiting for Provident to respond to the FOS decision.They had until 19th of October.Do you mind sharing the contents of your message to CEO ? Thanks
RS says
Hi Tom. My email to the CEO was very polite and kept to the facts, i.e. they did not uphold my complaint, it was sent to the FOS who had advised which loans should be upheld and the date they should have replied by. I asked if he could ensure their complaints department responded as requested. Who knows if this helped but it has resulted in them responding and accepting the FOS decision. I now just need to receive the cheque!. I’ll post an update when I receive it to give people an indication on timescales.
Tom says
Perfect! Thanks a lot RS and good luck !
Paul says
Hi can you contact me plse to see if I can claim a refund from previous loans
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you read the article above these comments? That explains what an affordability complaint is and how to make one if you think you have been given unaffordable payday loans. There is an easy template letter you can use.
Peter Keppie says
Has anyone accepted a redress offer with lending stream recently? I just have and it says 3-5 working days until you get the money.
Is this timeframe accurate or does the money come sooner/later?
Sara any ideas? Thanks
Emma says
Hi Peter Keppie,
Would you be so kind in giving a rough timeline of your complaint with LS?
Did you get 100% of interest paid on upheld loans back in redress?
Thanks in advance
Emma
Peter says
7th Sep made complaint for 4 loans, 20th October they upheld only the 4th loan and offered to pay the interest and st interest on that. It worked out as £600, the interest on all 4 loans was about 2 grand. If I had appealed I’m sure I would have had at least one more loan refunded, but sadly I couldn’t afford to wait it out so though bird in the hand and accepted the £600 offer today. I’ll let you know when I receive the money
James says
I accepted a redress offer from Lending Stream on the 1st of October. Received the kit I to confirm my details last week, when it said paid within 3-5 days I contacted their online chat for clarity. They informed me that this was 3-5 day response should be ignored and it would take up to 28 days from the date they received my acceptance. They gave me the date of the 29th (today) for it to be paid by. I am keeping my fingers crossed
Lee Martin says
Am i right, that simple interest of 8% is added per year?? Example interest on loan was £500, so 8% added is £40, but say was 10 years ago would that simple amount interest be £400 (the £40 × 10 years? Hope it makes sense
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes!
Peter says
Hi Sara, I have made several succcessful complaints which has meant that the loans in question have started to be deleted from my credit file. My default with safetynet credit and also the account for their debt collectors both came off my file, but my score didn’t go up at all – in fact it went down (albeit not because of anything to do with SNC).
When will the score go up? I feel like it’s not going to happen because there is now no trace of those accounts on my latest credit file so surely it should have already happened?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did the deleted debts have missed payments or defaults?
Peter Keppie says
both missed payments and defaults
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much your score improve depends on how bad the rest of your credit record it. If you have a dozen defaults, getting rid of a few may make no noticeable difference.
Why is your score dropping apart from these payday loan?
Peter says
well it was because that ‘Azzurro Associates’ default I told you about got added on out of nowhere, but hopefully that will be removed too if I win my case against 118
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many other debts still remain with defaults, missed payments, payment arrangements etc?
Peter says
On my Equifax I have 6 with defaults inc the Azzurro, but 3 of them have been successfully appealed and should be coming off. I have a CCJ that was registered by Moneyboat and the FOS have prioritised my case so I hope that will come off too
Terry says
Hi Sara,
Apologies in advance for the amount of detail here. I received an email from 247 Moneybox regarding the online claims portal being open. When I logged in it states im not due any redress (however little it may have been).
These are the loans they provided me in the past. Loans 2-5 were definitely during the height of my debt problems and what I’d consider to be irresponsible lending, given how short the time was between each and the increasing amounts.
Loan 1
Advance date: 15/08/2011
Principal: £80.00
Repay Date: 18/08/2011
Repaid Amount: £89.78
Loan 2
Advance date: 19/03/2013
Principal: £125.00
Repay Date: 30/04/2013
Repaid Amount: £219.82
Loan 3
Advance date: 03/05/2013
Principal: £150.00
Repay Date: 30/05/2013
Repaid Amount: £200.40
Loan 4
Advance date: 01/06/2013
Principal: £225.00
Repay Date: 28/06/2013
Repaid Amount: £300.60
Loan 5
Advance date: 28/06/2013
Principal: £300.00
Repay Date: 19/08/2014
Repaid Amount: £524.56
Can I appeal their decision even though they’re now in administration?
Thanks,
Terry
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can. But they may simply say they have applied the rules they have drawn up correctly.
Your first loan is irrelevant – very small with a very long gap until the next one.
Terry says
OK cheers, I’ll see what they say. Yeah I wouldn’t even mention the first – just loans 2-5.
Thanks again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I wouldn’t expect you would get more than the loan refunded if you had gone to FOS.
David says
Hi Sara.
I have a complaint with the ombudsman at the moment for Lending Stream and lending. I had originally sent them a complaint, their reply stated they would close accounts down and ask for only the principal amount. They didn’t do this, and I now have been sent from the ombudsman the next reply which was the final reply stating the same – but it went to an old work email I lost access too at the time.
Am I now unable to continue with it?
I had sent a complaint to them over summer and they never got back to me to tell me this, they still didn’t close those accounts and added interest and sold them onto a debt collector
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you phoned the Ombudsman up and asked?
David says
I’m just making a reply via their email to them to see what they say
David says
Hi Sara,
The adjudicator has said they can’t take it further as an original complaint I’d made had a final reply and I was unaware that it was a final reply or that there was a limit. He states he could look again if I have further information as the delay is a year or so now. Or I can escalate to the ombudsman. Is it worth a punt?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know why you didn’t chase this up before – did you expect LS were doing what they said they would? I am not clear what your options are now, but if LS haven’t done what they said they would this does seem worth pursuing.
Kat says
Hi, help please!!
I have made an affordability complaint to Cash & Cheque express for payday loans via cheques. This was over 6 years ago. I have sent them a complaint per your templates and they have rejected my complaint plus also declined to give me any of the information.
My final response from the lender is;
*****
As mentioned in my initial response, the Financial Ombudsman Service is clear that complaints must be made within 6 years from the time of the event being complained about. The reason you have given, as to why you haven’t raised your complaint sooner, does not change that you are firmly outside of the 6-year timeframe.
Further, due to the length of time, we no longer hold all the information you are asking for. In line with HMRC guidance, we are required to keep records for 6 years.
Please accept this email as my final response on the matter.
****
I dont have all of the details and they won’t provide it to me. Shall I just refer this to the Ombudsman without the details?
Shall I go back to the lender before referring to the Ombudsman? Thank you!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have any details of the lending?
Kat says
Hi Sara,
No not really. I have an idea just from my memory but don’t have details of the specifics. Is there anything I can do? Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can send the case to the Ombudsman whoc usually does look at over 6 year cases, but if you have no evidence about the lending this may not get anywhere.
Kat says
Thanks Sara. I will send onto Ombudsman and see what happens. Will also have a look through old paperwork / bank statements to see if I can find more evidence. Thanks again
Jack says
Hi, has anyone on here put a claim in against safetynet credit? I had over x10 loans with these starting from 2016 through to 2018.
Bit of a weird one because they have access read only to peoples bank accounts? Surely having seen my gambling habit they should of stopt lending to me but also stopt increasing my credit limit.
Sara where do I stand on this I sent a complaint 4 weeks ago they never acknowledged but I chased them today and they stated they will give there final response before 01/12/20. Have you seen many cases against these?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loads of cases against them! They are on very weak ground as they can people’s bank account.
In your case if they can see a gambling habit and still increased your credit limit I suggest you have a very good case. Use the standard Payday loan refund template in the article above.
Any other bad credit lenders you have used?
Jack says
No they are the last, just for your information
I first got a credit limit on19/6/2016 of £200
By 08/01/18 I had a limit of £1000 and I was having to take loans out the whole time I was with them.
What are they like for settling has I haven’t seen many of cases on here for them so not sure if I should open up a case with FOB now so saves the hassle?
Thank your for all your help Sara you have really helped me out massively.
Cheers
Jack
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have to complain to the lender first and give them 8 weeks, You can’t go straight to the Ombudsman.
Siobhan says
Jack
Safetynet do tend to refund. They like to take as long as they but both me and my partner had refunds.
BN says
Using advice from this site i complained to multiple companies in the last year. I missed the boat with Wonga and ended up with £40.. then sunny as i was waiting on ombudsman. But finally some success with Safety Net Credit / Indigo Michael Ltd.
Made an initial affordability complaint in january. They responded thatthey didnt believe it was unaffordable or irresponsible lending in their final response.
I escalated to FoS, but as it was a complicated loan system i was told it would be a wait. However i heard off them a week ago with the letter they had sent to SNC with the reasons they never should have leant to me, never mind trebling my credit limit. 2 days later they replied with an offer of all interest and charges and the 8% interest totalling £1500+
Ive accepted and provided bank details.they now have 28 days to deposit :)
Thanks so much for help and guidance on here Sarah :) much appreciated
C says
I got my final response off Moneyboat this morning less than 24 hours after me submitting my complaint. They didn’t uphold my complaint as they said the onus was on me to tell the truth when applying for the loan not on them! I’ve sent it to the FOS. I only had 1 loan from them for £500 but my credit report at the time showed defaults, payment arrangements with other payday lenders and the level of debt I was in at the time. Soon after taking out the loan I had to enter into a payment arrangement with them as well.
Dan says
I got a bike on finance and after 2 month of having the bike I lost my job, contacted moneybarn to explain my situation and I wouldn’t be able to afford payments I could of took the bike back to the dealer and paid off the remaining 500 pound that would of cleared the debt and stopped all this from escalating. They refused for me to do this, in the end I was left to self terminate my agreement, they collected the bike and sent it to auction. I originally paid £7400 with a 400 deposit. They sold the bike for 6900 and are still trying to charge me 6900 in interest on top.This is the response, Findings
As part of my investigation into your complaint, I have reviewed your agreement in its entirety and noted a complaint was previously raised on 18 November 2019, regarding your dissatisfaction with the VT process. Furthermore, having reviewed my colleague’s findings and in the absence of any new evidence from yourself. I must respectfully advise that our position regarding this matter remains the same and as such I attach a copy of our previous correspondence dated 27 December 2019.
With respect to the APR applied to the total balance outstanding, I must reiterate the process regarding VT, is governed under section 99 and 100 of the Consumer Credit Act, and it is calculated at half the total amount of the agreement, plus any arrears and charges issued in line with the contracts Terms and Conditions, which is not negotiable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about this. They can advise on what has happened and what your options are.
Marie says
Hi Sara
I currently have a complaint with uncle buck, the complaint did go to the FOS and was upheld by the adjudicator, but uncle buck disagreed with the decision and went into administration before an ombudsman could give a final decision.
At the moment uncle buck’s administrators are reviewing the complaint, but uncle buck customer services calls me once a month asking me what’s happening with the complaint and it’s causing me a great deal of anxiety! I don’t understand why they keep pestering me and are not liaising with the administrators!
When I do email the administrators, they say they’re waiting for more information from the FOS, but the FOS they’ve given them all of the information and I’ve also sent them all email correspondence as an audit trail as well.
Can you please advise me on what to do? I don’t know what else I can do, it just feels like departments aren’t communicating with each-other!
Kind regards
Marie
I have £450 outstanding with uncle buck, the adjudicator said I should be refunded £2000 in interest, but am I likely to see any of that once the administrators have paid everything out?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No idea! Just keep telling UB to talk to the administrators.
I would hope your £450 debt is written off, but you may not get back much of a refund.
Karen H says
Hi,
After many weeks I have finally had my redress payment from Lending Stream, nearly £3000! I can’t quite believe it as I was convinced they would never pay out.
Thanks Sara for all the valuable info on this site. Just need Satsuma to pay up now as they have agreed with FOS findings but they’re dragging their feet at paying up!
Emma Radford says
Hi Karen H
,
May I suggest you doing a courteous email to FOS.Complaints@provident.co.uk,explain your personal circumstances and ask them to escalate your redress-got my cheque within 5 days of doing this
Hope this helps for Satsuma/Provident…..
Your LS complaint-did they uphold your complaint originally, or did you have to go to FOS after them not upholding ?
Just after a rough guideline, as put in complaint with LS on 20/10/20
Kind Regards
Emma
Karen H says
Hi Emma
Thank you for Satsuma email address. My Adjudicator hasn’t had much luck. I’ll do that thanks.
My complaint against Lending Stream was thrown out by them & so I went through FOS. Lending stream made their offer via FOS on 24 August & as you know they’ve paid out this week. Been a long haul!
Lisa Hodgson says
Hi Karen
I am also due just over £3000 from lending stream. I have accepted their offer. How long did they take to pay out?
Thanks Lisa
Karen H says
Hi Lisa
They agreed with FOS to pay me on 24 Aug & just had payment yesterday. My Adjudicator had contacted them a few times on my behalf to try & hurry them along & I have contacted them via their online chat a few times. Don’t give up hope, just keep on their backs!
C says
An odd question Sara but may become reality.
When a PD lender agrees to pay back some of the loans, and an agreement is made and signed and paid as full and final (without FOS involvement). If they then come back at a later stage to review those loans again, to then pay out on them, Again, as they believe they were unaffordable. Would that lender be seen as dishonest in their first agreement and therefore reopen it for another complaint. It would suggest that they put something on paper to look like an agreement but the detail was wrong and misleading.
Would be curious to what FOS would possibly make of it.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t really say anything sensible about that sort of hypothetical situation.
C says
Fair enough.
Will see how it goes then when I do.
Cheers
B says
Hi All,
Really frustrated for myself to read that so many of you have had complaints upheld with Satsuma lately. I had 92 payday loans on my file when i took my first loan in 2014, which i then defaulted on. In 2018 i was then able to borrow another £1,000 with no questions asked followed by 5 other loans. Initially complained and on their response they showed my income to be nearly 4x the amount and admitted my outgoings were calculated as vastly higher than their system calculated them to be from my credit file. I asked them to re-look at the complaint with my correct income and they came back saying they were not changing their minds. With such a strong case I’m really frustrated that it seems to be complete pot luck with what they do and don’t uphold! its gone to the FOS now
JP says
Hi all,
Wondering if anyone has any idea on adjudicator to Ombudsman timelines?
The adjudicator said Moneyboat had irresponsibly lent me all loans. Moneyboat will not agree with this so it’s having to go to Ombudsman now. They said they can’t give me a timeline, so was wondering if anyone has any experience on roughly how much longer this takes?
Thank you
Jack Murphy says
Morning Sara,
So safety net credit emailed after 4 weeks of complaining and they have upheld my case
So since coming across this site I have managed to receive back almost 5k in redress also remove any negative marks on my credit file.
Just amigo to go and I will have a complete claim list. 2016-2018 was a dark part of my life which now I am on top of things this is just an added bonus.
I cant thank you enough for your time and effort to reply to everyone of my posts.
Holly says
Hey guys , I have just had my complaint rejected by money boat which the adjudicator agreed in my favour – so off to the ombudsman we go
Mrs H says
If it helps, they did the same to me, and today the ombudsman upheld my complaint…. Initial complaint with FOS, June 2020.
RS says
I am currently waiting for a cheque from Provident following a successful FOS decision. Has anyone received a cheque from them in the past 2 weeks. My 14 days that they advise to wait expires tomorrow and I am still waiting. I have called them this morning who have advised they have sent the request for the cheque to be raised but cannot confirm if it has been sent out. They have said to call back tomorrow if I have still not received it. Is this normal?.
J S says
I got one through last week. I thought they are given 4 weeks by the ombudsman to payout?
Anyway, I got my cheque through exactly 3 weeks after the decision.
J S says
Also,you should get a letter through summarising the complaint, and the cheque will follow the letter a day or 2 later.
RS says
Thank you. I received the letter 2 weeks ago agreeing with the adjudicator. In the letter it says a cheque will be sent in the next 14 days. I’m still waiting!
Mk says
Hi Rs, have you got your cheque yet.
The FOC upheld 4-9 of my loans and Satsuma agreed to this.
I just want to get an idea of a time line?
Thank you! x
Wes says
I need to pick someone’s brain, has Juo loans/wagedayadvance been all done and dusted in terms of payouts etc.
I had a wageday advanced loan and I’m pretty certain I had a pointless redress.
With Juo I only had one loan for a large amount, which then got sold to Shelby finance and is now with lantern. Is this worth disputing with latern about it being unaffordable. Obviously I know if Juo is completely gone then there’s literally nothing I can do. But with it being Shelby who first took it off juo’s hands. It’s all complicated.
Wes says
I know Juo was in administration by the way, just more the fact is there anyone I could email or contact in regards to sorting something out with my sold loan via Shelby/lantern.
CM says
I have had my complaint rejected by provident which doesn’t me too much my main issue is I have an outstanding loan from 2013 which is currently marked as delinquent, am I able to ask them to add a default date in return for full payment? Or what action can I take to to be able to get them to add a default rather than leaving in delinquent?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from them before that one? Is this Provident home credit or Satsuma?
Have you made any payments to this loan since 2013? Has it been sold to a debt collector?
Cm says
I had 4 before that with this one been a top up loan on an existing one. It is with provident home credit? No it has not been sold on and no payments have been made since late 2013
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the last loan? And how much do you still owe?
CM says
The last loan was for £399.08 with interest of 327.06 on top. I currently owe £226 on that one. At the same time there was another loan of 300 and interest if £267 that was paid off in 2016. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, I suggest you go back to them and say you think the last two loans would be upheld if you went to the Ombudsman but you are happy to compromise with the outstanding balance – which is probably statute barred – being written off and a default date added in early 2014. Otherwise you will be sending the complaint to the Ombudsman.
Copy the email to Neil.Iveson@provident.co.uk and phone him if you don’t get a reply within a week: 07747 363505
CM says
Thank you I will do this today.
Shannon says
Hi I have had a ‘final decision’ from lending stream today. I don’t really understand it. They are ‘partially agreeing’ to my complaint. I have had 10 loans with them and they are agreeing that loans 8-10 were unaffordable? They have said this … We have worked out a net refund on these loans of £105.54 (£97.6 for Interest paid, £0.0 for Fees paid, £9.92 for 8% annual interest calculated for upheld loans, minus £1.98 for 20% mandatory tax withholding in line with HMRC regulations.)
We can see that there is an outstanding balance of £578.16. When we subtract that from the amount, we’re offering to pay you, there’s an amount which you will need to pay us of £472.62. This doesn’t include any balances that are currently being held by debt collection agencies.
Can somebody help what I should do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A refund on loans 8-10 does not sound like a good offer unless those loans were much larger or there was a big gap in the earlier lending.
do you also have any LS loans with debt collectors?
The balance owed of £578 – is this just for the last loan? Can you say how much you borrowed and how much, if anything, you have paid to this?
Shannon says
Altogether 1730 I have borrowed and when I’ve logged on I have four open loans & 6 closes which I have paid off so I have paid £880 , I am with step change & they didn’t accept the last amount step change offered?
I have logged onto my account and it’s showing that I’d have to pay £472 to pay off the loans owed? It’s so confusing.
What do you suggest I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That does sound confusing. But if you have 4 open loans, then if they are only upholding 8,9,10 then they aren’t upholding one of the last loans.
I suggest this isn’t good and you just send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman,.
J S says
My complaint about amigo has been with ombudsman for quite a while now. The adjudicator told me on 23/10 that he now has everything he needs to carry out his review.
Realistically how long should it take him to make a decision? (I don’t think its a very complex case)
I don’t want to annoy his anymore, but just want it all done and dusted either way.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would wait another week then go back and ask if he needs any more information.
Joanna says
I put in my claims against a few lenders on 24th Oct I’ve heard back from Ferratum who have said loans 5-11 were unaffordable so they offered to close my open account and give me a refund, I may have got more going further but the defaulted loan was doing too much damage to my credit file, just wanted it done, so thank you Zara for your advise.
Joanna says
I have heard back from lending stream I had 4 loans with them all taken out straight away after each other they say the last loan was unaffordable and they will give me a partial refund, but I’m not sure what to do, they showed me all my loans with them the 4th one I’m down as having a higher income than the first 3 it’s also the smallest loan out of the 4
Loan 1-250 loan 2-300 loan 3-250 loan 4-150
Should I just cut my losses??or take it to fos??I’ve seen so many people struggle with ls it almost makes me suspicious they came back so quickly.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those loans aren’t particularly large. You might get the third one included if you sent it to FOS but it is quite possible you wouldn’t.
Joanna says
I think I’ll just cut my losses I don’t have any open loans so I’ll get the whole refund.thank you
Alex says
Hi Sara,
With Swift Sterling stopping payment collection today. I am not clear what happens if I don’t pay my outstanding debt today.
I still have an outstanding balance, what will happen to the loan?
– MMP will be unable to receive any payments after 6 November 2020 as it will be commencing the wind down of its operations
– Following the 6 November 2020, no further statutory notices will be sent to you and your credit file will be updated in due course to reflect that no further payments are due to the account
How would you understand what happens? Do i still need to pay?
Best,
Alex
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it is no longer possible for you to pay after today.
I am not clear what “your credit file will be updated in due course to reflect that no further payments are due to the account” means unless they are wiping your balance, which sounds unlikely.
Have you already missed payments to this debt?
Did you have other loans from them before this one? Have you sent in an affordability complaint?
Steve says
Hi Sara
Do you have a contact email address for someone high up at drafty it’s my last payday loan the only that went to the ombudsman agreed refund but really dragging their feet paying it out. Once I get it paid out I will draft a reply on here this site was an amazing find of all my complaints only 1 never got upheld and only wage went bust before I was paid out. I am now totally debt free, saving every month again and my credit score is above average again I can’t thank you enough.
Cheers
Steve
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was this a decision from an adjudicator or an Ombudsman? Drafty accepted it when?