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?
Lynne says
Has anyone had any payments from peachy yet? They told me back in December what my redress would be but heard nothing since.
Dave R says
Nope. Heard in January what the redress value was and they stated it was like to be 1p or 2p in the pound… They said they would be in touch with the exact figure and a rough idea of payment dates, but heard nothing…
Lynne says
Thanks Dave. They told me my amount in December but said I was likely to get around 2%. This is their latest email
Thank you for your email.
Unfortunately we are not able to provide the exact amount or date for the payment at this moment.
When a compensation is classed as an “unsecured claim” the exact amount of any payment made to you will depend on the amount of money realised in the administration. The level of payment will be set by the funds which remain available after asset realisations are complete and the administrators have determined the value of your payment.
We will provide you with further updates as soon as the exact level of payment has been determined and payment date set.
In the meantime, please be so kind to confirm your up to date bank account number and sort code.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should there be anything else we could help you with.
Lynne says
So I just got this text.
Urgent-United Kash-Lynne your payment is significantly delinquent. We can honor a previous repayment plan with a six-month review involving monthly payments of 10.00 to repay your outstanding loan debt and improve your finances. The balance on your account is 1,103.44. If this is unaffordable for you please let us know how much you can reasonably afford to repay each pay period. Call 01473372210 or email customerservice@unitedkash.com payment plans are available.
This debt is a loan from 2014 from someone called Different Money. The amount borrowed at the time was £500 now they’re saying I owe £1,103. How can they still chase this after all this time with no contact until now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Talk to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 about whether this debt may be statute barred and what your options are.
Lynne says
I will but how do they even track you down Sara? I’ve moved house since then and also have a different email address and phone number yet here they are hounding me!
Karen says
Hi Sara
Do you know when money shop are paying out on claims I put in a claim i had 1 email saying send details over that’s over a year ago had no up dates yet
Thank you
Karen
Hugo says
Karen money shop are in admin you should of been communicated to yourself via email from their administrators. Your likely to get 4p on a pound. I have. 2280 claim in with them I’ll prob get about 50 lmfao
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The best place to see what is happening is the comments beneath this other article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-two-million-customers-will-be-informed/
Delyth Jones says
Hi sara,
Has anyone has dealings with assets collections and investigations Ltd? 1st stop/oplo sold them my loan a few months ago. I putvam affordability complaint in which was rejected by oplo. I gave therefore sent it to the fos.
Today I have received the following email:
We take this opportunity to thank you for making us aware of your current circumstances. Your account has been reviewed by our in-house Specialist Support Team and we would like to inform you that the full, outstanding balance will be written off with immediate effect.
ACI would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best in the future and hope this gesture of goodwill helps ease your current situation.
My account still shows as active with the £16000 outstanding debt. Is this likely to be a hoax/error? Ive had no contact from the fos or assets about my case so im a little confused
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what email address did this come from?
do you mean £16,000 balance? or was that a type for £1,600?
Delyth says
Its my account number followed by @assetcollections.uk
No, not a typo. The remaining balance on the loan is just under 16,000.
I’ve checked my online account today and whereas yesterday it said ‘direct debit due 16/3/21’ that has now disappeared showing only the balance. So im assuming it has been written off. Fingers crossed!
I have emailed them to see if the debt has gone back to oplo, no reply yet.
If its gone completely who needs to take the negative impact on my credit report off?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
well let’s see if the balance really is gone first…
Delyth says
So…..I’ve just rang the collection agency. They’ve confirmed that my £15500 debt has been written off and my credit file will be adjusted in 30-60 days.
They couldn’t say if it was due to my complaint to the ombudsman, just that they had reviewed it and it wasnt an appropriate loan in their opinion.
I’m amazed! And almost debt free.
Thank you so much for your help, support and advice. Youve literally changed my life.
James says
Anybody had their UncleBuck redress yet?
Stevie says
They replied to my Email on Monday to say this week……
Dave R says
Hi chaps, is this redress you are expecting or a refunded overpayment?
Their email said this for me: “Unfortunately, whilst we have added your unsecured claim to the list of creditors within the Administration, regrettably due to the lack of funds in the Administration, there is no prospect of a dividend being paid to unsecured creditors. This means that notwithstanding your entitlement to Redress no payment towards your unsecured claim will be made.”
Jp says
Hi guys,
I had an email from uncle buck administrators (Tuesday 9th March) saying:
We are beginning to make bulk payments for the cash refunds this week, you may therefore expect to receive your refund some time during the week.
Please keep an eye on your bank account.
Ruth says
Anyone received the redress yet?
Timbouk says
Has anyone got a working contact number for uncle buck? It looks like I might be die a redress but haven’t received any emails? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you been making payments to them since the administration started? So far as I know, these are the only group of people that will be getting a refund.
have you made a claim?
Timbouk says
Hi
I had a loan off them and I paid it normal from March to September 2020.
Nope as I didn’t know anything about it until I read this thread. Can’t seem to find a working contact number to get them
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I am afraid it is now too late to submit a claim and you won’t be getting a refund.
Timbouk says
Just for a matter of interest did they email out anything to customers? Haven’t seen anything until I started reading this thread!
Jane Y says
Hi Sara
I have recently paid all the debts on my debt plan. The only one I have outstanding is Peachy. I have tried to call then but their phone lines are no longer taking incoming calls and I cant a access the account on the website. The outstanding amount is about £90. My question is do I still need to pay this when they are in administration?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you tried emailing them at info@peachy.co.uk?
A loan with a balance still owing does not change because the lender goes into administration. At some point the administrators will either sell all the loans to a debt collector or stop collecting payments on the remaining ones – I am not sure the peachy adminsitration has yet reached that point.
Carl says
Does anybody have experience of making a claim against Satsuma (Provident)? 8 weeks was up at beginning of this month, replied saying unable to resolve at this time, and also were unable to advise of a likely timeframe.
Dave R says
Yes they are horrendous to deal with. Likely take longer than 8 weeks to then not uphold your offer.
After 8 weeks you’re able to go to the FOS regardless so I would do that and save some time. FOS wait will be long so get yourself in the queue ASAP
I waited an extra two weeks and decided to not go straight to FOS but they rejected my complaint. Submitted to FOS in Jan 21 and waiting for a case handler still.
Liza says
Carl, I submitted my complaint in February 2020. They have dragged their feet all the way. They initially decline so forwarded to the FOS in January 2021 FOS informed we they had just received Providents paperwork and could work on my claim. Found in my favour February still awaiting my payment. They have been possibly the worst company I’ve claimed from.
Chris says
I’m in the same boat just waiting on payment.they say up to 4 weeks
Tom says
Hi Carl,
My advice would be to go straight to the FOS, although even then, it won’t be quick.
I made them a generous offer as part of my complaint to them, hoping for a swift resolution. They rejected my complaint (and the offer) out of hand. It went to the FOS and they upheld my complaint which meant that Satsuma owed me, rather than the other way around!
They were slow, late and annoying at each stage. Once it was picked up by the FOS I had to keep really on Satsuma’s case to get them to do anything so I wouldn’t bother waiting around for them, if I were you!
Chris says
More than likely you will be put under the new refund scheme for provident as they are only accepting very little fos complaints now.
Liam says
Anyone able to shed any light on 247 Moneybox? They’ve emailed me last year with a claim amount (I’m aware I get a fraction of this) but they did admit that one of the loans they’ve acknowledged was part of my redress, was the only one they gave me a default for. Therefore I’m waiting for this to be resolved so it comes off my credit report.
Dave R says
They should be removing data for
Successful claims from reports between April – June, according to their comms. Reach out to Equifax and Transunion and raise disputes. They will both likely not hear back from
24/7 and then suppress the data so it can’t be seen. Equifax have done this for me and I’m waiting on Transunion still.
james says
Anyone had any experiance with refunds for cashasap or Ferratum? Are they ok to deal with? Thanks
Michael says
I put in a claim against Ferratum 4 weeks ago, up to now I’ve just the stock acknowledgement of claim. They said they hope to deal with it in less than 8 weeks but COVID blah blah blah.
Sit tight I guess.
Others submitted at the same time have already paid me out
Dave R says
Ferratum were actually pretty decent to deal with. They took the full 8 weeks but were easy to deal with once they came back to me. Had 5 loans with them over the years and they partially upheld my claim for two of the loans. I felt it wasn’t a strong offer. The logic they used to justify it being only two loans actually meant that they should have upheld 3. Argued this, asked for redress across three loans and all three to be removed from my record. They accepted this within 24 hours and I had the payment within 48 hours. Lady was pleasant an quick. Nice change to be honest!
Paul H says
Hi James,
Ferratum took just over 3 weeks to look at my complaint and make a redress offer. A couple of friends also who had loans with them and it took them just under 4 weeks also. They partially upheld all our complaints but the offers was quite low. Anyway we all went back to them with a compromise which they then agreed to or made a counter offer. How it looked to us was they are a business who are trying to save as much money as they can so they make an offer in the hope that the person will be happy to get anything and will just accept. However through this site I knew there was others that the FOS would side on my side with, even I think Ferratum knew that so I went back with a compromise covering all these and they ended up then offering me £600 more. It was a bit like haggling with them but they was very approachable, replied quick to my compromise and the refund was in my bank account once agreed within 24 hours. Good luck
Chantal says
I put in a claim and they got back in 5 weeks, offered me redress on 2 of 9 loans. Like the commenter below by their own logic I think I should have been offered redress on 5 of 9 so I’ve escalated it to the FOS. Waiting to hear from them
James Stevens says
Has anyone heard more about PiggyBank loans? They went into administration December 2019, I got offered a redress March 2020 but have heard literally nothing since
Timbouk says
I was just about to the ask the same. I have about £300 due so know I will be lucky to get a tenner but a payout is still a payout. Haven’t heard anything for months.
Matt says
Hi Sara,
After some advise with with The Money Platform. I took out 2 loans with them in 2017. I was only 22 at the time and had several other loans with different companies. I had a gambling habit and was desperate for money.
I have recently complained to the companies for irresponsible lending and seem to be getting no where with lending steam. They have today threatened if I report it to the ombusman the police will get Involved for fraud and me potentially lying on my application. What do you advise? Thanks Matthew
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Money Platform – how large were these two loans?
Lending Stream – how many loans and how large?
Jon says
I have read & seen ombudsmans reviews where complainants have lied on their application due to gambling and other issues and the ombudsman found in the complainants favour … no police force is going to investigate any small loan application for the reason you mentioned. Go to the ombudsman, ignore what lending stream say , however if it concerns you , go to your local police station , explain what happened and im pretty sure they’re not going to care.
Nesta says
Hi Matt, please don’t be put off by the threats of police by them.
This is really poor on their part. If you had multiple loans going simultaneously there is a good chance you can win.
I was ashamed to show my gambling transactions but in the end revealed everything when my case reached the ombudsman and it did not count against me. The lender had a responsibility to make sure your loan was affordable when they lent to you. If you had multiple loans of similar type it should have triggered red flags.
The reality is too many pay day lenders have in the past been really irresponsible in their lending and trapped many people in
Anthony Williams says
I was recently awarded £3K from Lending Stream and they’ll be removing all defaults on my credit file. Thank god i found this forum to help with the process!!
Lucie says
This is SUCH a helpful site, what great, detailed advice. I was also wondering if anyone has had any luck complaining to 118118 Money?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, lots! See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ for this sort if large lian where there is a slightly different template to use and lots of comments about 118
Lucie says
Thank you!
I unfortunately realised last night that I have received their final written response in December 2019 and I didn’t send this to the ombudsman then. I found this site in January 2021 and sent a complaint to 118 in February 2021 knowing that I had complained to them in the past, but adding further information to my complaint. And they responded to say that as they had already investigated this the matter was closed. I didn’t really realise at the time of the reply in December 2019 that this was their final response and that I only had the 6 months to do anything about it. (I realise that’s quite ridiculous to say as it states it in the last paragraph but I saw that they knocked me back and thought that was it) it’s only since finding this site that I thought I might have a chance but its now over a year from their final response so is there nothing I can do now? I assume the ombudsman won’t help as it’s so long after the time period and 118 have refused to look into this again. I’m absolutely gutted I didn’t do more when I could have!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry there is nothing more you can do. The Ombudsman will only look at “late” claims if you have an excellent reason such as serious illness. Or if the lender didn’t tell you there was a 6 month timelimit to take a claim to FOS.
JR says
Hi,
This may be a silly question, but back in 2017 I arranged a temporary period of paying reduced payments for 3 months with 118 due to unforeseen financial issues. After the 3 months I went back to repaying the normal monthly repayments, but when checking my TransUnion Statutory report for the first tine last week, I noticed 118 had logged a default for this!! Is this normal practice? I requested the short-term lower payments and they agreed, so in my mind that surely wouldn’t constitute a default?
I emailed them asking about this and they basically just send me a PDF of a default notice that I’m pretty sure I never received.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how low were the reduced payments?
Nesta says
Hi, I’m just wondering what others experience has been like with CashForUNow? Are they normally fair or difficult work?
I am approaching the 7 week window with them and i had 3 loans with them back to back.
If it passes week 8 I will refer to the FOS immediately.
Lynne says
Hi they were absolutely brilliant with me – the best company to deal with. They confirmed I’d only had one loan with them many years ago and they paid it all back to me – with interest! They dealt with it swiftly too.
Tom says
Hi Nesta,
They were really good with me and by far and away the most reasonable. I did a deal with them which seemed to me to be fair and pragmatic – and they immediately accepted it and did what they needed to do. I tried that with other lenders and none of them accepted and indeed most of them forced me not only to go to the FOS but to ultimately wait for an Ombudsman decision.
There was a couple of issues whereby their debt collectors, BW Legal, kept chasing me after everything had been settled but each time I got in touch with them they were very apologetic.
Hopefully you’ll hear back before the 8 week window, and they’ll be sensible!
Lynne says
Hi Sara how reliable are these websites advertising to write off debts? I’m desperately trying to get a job back with the Police and although my credit score has improved since then because I’ve settled some debts I’d really like some of them gone for good!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
By and large they are scams. They can’t do anything that you can’t do, and they charge you for it. There isn’t a short cut normally to improving your credit score, apart from affordability complaints which you know about and which only take you so far.
Dave L says
Lynne just a response to that I am a police officer and not particularly good with money. Was completely honest and open about my DMP caused by PTSD and depression. Just recently passed my revetting and was thanked for my honesty. Might be worth giving the vetting department for the force you want to join a ring
Lynne says
Thanks Dave the issue I had was the Force I was with. I didn’t declare I’d gotten into difficulties (after having previously passed vetting) so I had a very squirm-inducing interview with them, whilst they were scrutinising my credit report etc. I just couldn’t go through all that again. I’ve currently got another application going through elsewhere and I’ve declared everything now with explanations for all, so fingers crossed.
David L says
You’re welcome Lynne, I wish you all the best with your application, I’m sure will all be fine
Let me know how you get on , I’m now a non home office force based at a port , the one closest to the channel. Kent Police do vetting for other non home office forces, hopefully its as easy for you
Dave
JR says
The original payments were £102 per month, but we agreed on £25.45 for those few months.
These payments were successively made then I resumed original payments of £102 immediately afterwards. I also made an additional payment the following month in order to catch up on the downfall during the reduced payment months
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so the rules about adding a default say you have to be 3-6 months in arrears. Youi can complain and say as you were making payments, after three months you were not 3 months in arrears so they should remove the default.
BUT think twice before you do this. This default means the whole;e record will drop off your credit file in 2023. If you get the defaults removed and they substitute a payment arrangement for those months, that stays on your credit record for 6 years after the debt is settled – so much longer than 2023.
An option which you could think about is to make an affordability complaint saying the debt was not affordable from the beginning. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ and think if this applies to you. If you win that complaint all negative info has to be removed from your record and you get a refund of interest.
JR says
Ah ok, I never would have thought of that actually.. hmm.. that puts me in a pickle. Especially now that I’m about to meet with a mortgage advisor next week about buying my first property. Hence why I checked my transunion report recently.
I understand that affordability complaints can take a good while to accept or reject, so I’ll have to think carefully about my next actions.
Brilliant advice as usual Sara, thank you! I’ll keep you posted with developments!
JR says
An option which you could think about is to make an affordability complaint saying the debt was not affordable from the beginning. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/ and think if this applies to you. If you win that complaint all negative info has to be removed from your record and you get a refund of interest.
Hi Sara (again),
Is there a possibility that I could lodge a complaint and ask for the credit file information to be ‘hidden’ while the complaint is being assessed? I need this default gone and my mortgage advisor is planning on applying for a mortgage in principle on Thursday :( not sure if it’s possible and to get this done that quick.
Thanks again for your advice!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is there a possibility that I could lodge a complaint and ask for the credit file information to be ‘hidden’ while the complaint is being assessed?
No. You can add a Notice of Correction saying you are disputing the debt but the CRA is not going to hide the data.
Paul Francis says
Hi All,
Just to share my experience of Lending Strean with you. I had 36 loans with them with up to 4 running at the same time during my payday loan cycle, luckily I found this site and complained. The complaint was rejected so i forwarded it to the ombudsman 17th November and today I received a phone call from an adjudicator. They recomend that loans 4 onwards should be refunded and from loans 9 they be removed from my credit file.
I seny my bank statements which with literred with gambling transactions and other loans and explained how I would lose money and was then leant more. Please dont be put off by the scare tactics used to make you ashamed of the gambling transactions.
I just have to hope they agree with the adjudicators finding now!
Paul
Lynne says
Sara have you heard any complaints about Clearpay? I don’t currently owe them anything however I have just noticed that my credit limit has jumped from £150 to £700 in a very short space of time. I think it’s a good way to buy things interest free as and when, but the payment times are every two weeks instead of monthly, like for example with Klarna.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Affordability complaints here? No.
But the problems with all these new Buy Now Pay Later schemes are just starting to emerge – they aren’t currently FCA regulated but the FCA is going change that.
Daniel says
Hi ,
My question is can you still make affordability complaints to my jar with them gone into administration? Iv had 2 huge loans for them the last few years
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can, but the administrators say any refund will be “minimal”.
Do you still owe them money? Are you making payments?
Daniel says
Yes I sill owe over £900
Do I send it to the myjar complaints department?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes send them a complaint.
Are the repayments affordable?
Daniel says
No they are not they are ridiculous expensive and iv had to borrow money of family members to cover living costs
I have 3 credit cards , a catalog, 2 loans and a payday loan all maxed out and I earn minimum wage so all my wage + go on bills and debts
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can I suggest you talk to StepChange about your options, see https://www.stepchange.org/how-we-help/debt-management-plan.aspx? You need to get yourself into a safe place while complaints go through, not be borrowing from family to survive.
the loans – who from? what interest rates?
the payday loan – is this the Myjar or another one?
DA says
Hey. Just looking for advice. I had a safety net credit account. I fell in to difficult with it after they increased my credit limit. The account was paid in full in April 2020 and closed. It was shortly shown as closed on my credit report.
I put in a complaint in about four weeks ago for irresponsible lending .I’ve yet to have a response. However today on my credit report they account has been added to my report and gain and they have reported as if this is still active. I’m a little confused. Has anybody had this before?
Amanda McCullough says
yes they done this to me. i asked them and they said its to investigate the complaint i put in
DA says
If so did they close it once a final response was issued?
Surely that’s unnessisary and effects my credit report? I find it very strange. Do we know if this is common practice?
Amanda McCullough says
“Thank you for contacting SafetyNet. Your account was reopened due to you requesting a affordability complaint to be raised. If you have any further questions, please call us on 0800 180 8400. Our lines are open from 8am-7pm Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturdays. Kind regards, SafetyNet Team”
that was there response. i am waiting on final response. emailed there now tho as dont want it impacting on credit report since trying to fix it.. didnt even think about it till u said
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is weird. Why should making an affordability complain cause your account to be reopened at a credit reference agency?
Let’s hope you get a good offer from them or this goes into your complaint to the Ombudsman!
Paul H says
Yes I mentioned this on here about 4 weeks ago because same happened to me with Safety net. My account was closed with them 2017, put a complaint in then shortly after had notification from Credit Karma & when looked it said the Safetynet credit account had been re-opened. It’s approaching 6 weeks without a response now from them and I was forever in payment plans with them once the limit went over £1000, only Mr Lender took longer, rest was always under 4 weeks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Its pretty normal to have to wait 8 weeks.
SafetyNet Credit are often prepared to negotiate to improve an offer if it isn’t good, so come back here if you get one and you aren’t sure.
Amanda McCullough says
so in response to me querying since they opened my account will it affect my credit score..
“Thank you for contacting SafetyNet. We are not financial advisors unfortunately so we are unable to let you know how it may affect your credit file. If you have any further questions, please call us on 0800 180 8400. Our lines are open from 8am-7pm Monday to Friday. Kind regards, SafetyNet Team”
I said none of my other lenders opened a closed account to investigate this. and that i will await their final response before going to obudsman and i will be telling obudsman about the opening of the account to see if this is correct procedure.
Dave L says
Anyone had any dealings with creditspring. They rejected my complaint today and just said they are closing the matter as they reject it , no mention of a final response letter or a full sar as requested. Also no mention that I can report the matter to the financial ombudsman . Seems a little bit strange or unprofessional to me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you are the first person to mention them. Was this an affordability complaint?
Dave L says
Yes it’s an affordability complaint , they basically just said they have closed it because they can’t see a reason for the complaint . Also they don’t consider the monthly membership fee for the finance to be a charge or interest . Had one loan with them but had previously been with them before . They don’t seem very professional at all in their response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask them to look again or you will be sending it to the Ombudsman.
Dave l says
Unfortunately I have just seen your reply, I’ve sent it to the ombudsman already, it will be interesting to see what they make of it
Chris says
I had a complaint with satsuma but they refused my complaint so went to fos and a year later they have agreed with adjudicators decision of refunding me from loan 4 onwards plus 8%.
Loan 1.£700
Loan 2.£700
Loan 3.£200
Loan 4.£1400
Loan 5.£100
Loan 6.£700
Loan 7.£800
Loan 8.£1300
Loan 9.£600.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have they just agreed to this or was it a while ago?
Chris says
They’ve just agreed to this a few days ago
Chris says
They said as a good will gesture without going threw all this rigmaroles that’s going on with satsuma at the moment.my adjudicator said to give them a month then if nothing has happened then get in touch with them
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that is good news!
Sara lou says
Hi Sara
Has anyone had any dealings with piggy bank
Thanks
Sara lou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
they are in administration – have you made a complaint?
Mike says
I put a complaint in to them and they came back pretty quickly to me to say they were upholding all but obviously I’ll only get a fraction back due to them being in administration
Hugo Rogers says
I used this sites letters to put a complaint in to Safety Net credit. I used their revolving credit line for around 2 years. it took me a month and a half and got around £350 as my loan had already been paid.
Lynne says
Has anyone had any luck complaining to Oakham? I think they’re one of the few who are still in business.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are quite localised, not often mentioned.
Paul says
They were actually very good with me Lynne – I only took out 2 loans with them and was refunded the whole interest and loans removed from my file within 2 weeks no questions asked.
Chris says
I’ve currently got a complaint in against them. They rejected my affordability complaint outright. Adjudicator found in my favour on loan 2 of 2 and has given them until the 24th March to reply. I sent them an email yesterday to ask for an update and Oakham said they will respond with an offer in 3-5 days
Jo says
Hi lynne I only had one loan with them for £450 and I still had a balance when I complained, they got back to me within 8 weeks (approx 5)and upheld my complaint they took off interest and took defaults of my record and now I pay a small monthly amount to clear debt. compared to some companies I’ve dealt with they were quite good, by far quidie(fernovo)and peachy were the worst
Marg says
Hi there,
Thank you for this site.
I had never put in an affordability complaint despite the fact that I was spending about half my monthly salary to service payday loans. I was contacted as part of the MoneyShop debacle and expect to get a payment soon-ish. I was also contacted by Sunny and mostly recently Provident / Satsuma.
On the back of that I found your site and ran the Transunion report, at which point I discovered that over a 4 year period (2015 – 2018) I had 47 loans with Lending Stream (I think I was in denial about my problems). The interest is over £10k and simple maths says that I paid them about 20% of my monthly income for 4 years.
Anyway I have put in a claim (last night), and will let you know how my journey goes, tbh if I got an offer of £6-7k+ I would accept it – I need a new roof and that would cover it.
Fingers crossed and thanks again
Mike says
I had 26 off LS in total and they were very forthcoming to be fair. Expect to wait about 4 weeks but they came straight back with 3k for loans 6-26 (they generally don’t bother with the first handful) for me and I had the money within about three days of confirming. New car incoming that I had been promising myself for years but never been able to save up for because of constantly paying these (and all the other debts I racked up!)
Lynne says
Update from the money shop. These loans were years ago and I’ve changed email address , home address and bank details since then. So are they saying if my details font match I don’t get paid?!!
We’re sorry to hear you’re having issues with the portal. Please make sure you’re using the email address you originally registered with and delete any cookies from your internet browser before resetting your password.
If you continue to have problems, please confirm if you are happy to accept your decision or whether you wish to appeal your outcome? If you are happy to accept and have received an upheld outcome, please provide me with the following bank details to enter in the portal:
Card Holder Full Name:
Account Number:
Sort Code:
Your bank details will be held on file until we are able to make your refund, and will be destroyed safely once completed. For more information, please view our Privacy Policy on our website. You can also change your bank details at any point by getting back in touch.
Where ICL do not hold bank account details for you or the bank account details are incorrect, this may mean we are unable to pay you.
Lynne says
The thing is I don’t know what the decision or outcome was as I never got the email or letter! I’ve gone back to them with my bank details…..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These comments are better on the Money Shop page: https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-two-million-customers-will-be-informed/
Ggggenegenie says
This is interesting as I’m have long similar. I’m using my old details, yet they say they’re not recognised (despite also saying I am due some redress). They now want a bank statement as proof, yet they haven’t confirmed if a very old loan has been scrubbed from my fikenornid they’ll send their dogs chasing. What should I do?
Lynne says
Is there any news on when Peachy are paying out? My claim was worth £468 so not expecting much….
Dave R says
Chased them on 10th March and they replied to say they have no idea when claims will be paid yet but that it will between 1p-2p in the pound…
Lynne says
Has anyone heard from 24/7 moneybox? I put a claim in ages ago and didnt hear a word from them.
Dave R says
Did you see your claim outcome/value in the online portal? I saw mine and I’m sure it said successful and had an amount down there but it then disappeared from the portal and I’ve had no email confirmation. I chased them and they said that payments for successful claims will be made in Q2 of this year.
Lynne says
No I didnt see anything like that Dave. And when I log in now there’s nothing there. I didn’t even get any acknowledgement when I went through Resolver. Along with lending stream these are the only two who haven’t responded in any way.
Lynne says
In fact I just logged in and whenI go into ‘my borrowing’ there’s error messages like some kind of IT coding transcript nonsense. You’d think you’d at least be able to see your history of loans.
Pete says
So basically in June.
Lynne says
Everything takes so long. Yet when they wanted us to pay them they wouldnt tolerate any delays 🙄
Pete says
Your not wrong there.
Lynne says
Sara if a company says they investigated an unaffordability complaint previously and it was found to be not upheld is that the end of the matter? Myjar said they’d replied to me already in February 2020 so that was the end of it, but I noticed on the response I got from them via Resolver it says to contact Harrison’s (the administrators) so I have done. Cashfloat said the same thing also, basically that the matter was closed as it had already been investigated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If a company has gone into administration, a lot of the administrators will allow you to resumbmit a claim. But Myjaris going to end up paying out a very small amount anyway.
Cashfloat is not in administration. But they don’t have to look again at the same complaint, or if you submit a new one that is essentially the same. Why did you not send it to the ombudsman at the time?
Adam says
Hi Sara, back again for some advice.
I am going to be looking into getting a mortgage within the next year. My credit report is already starting to look healthier from paying back credit cards and loans being closed etc. I currently have a complaint with the FOS about Loans2go but I’ve already got your advice on that from the Loans2go thread.
In November I took out 3 payday loans, already had one opened with Satsuma (£800) and a previous one with Satsuma for £300 which had finished just after I took out the £800. Took one out with Loans2go (£900) Cashfloat (£1000) and Fernovo (£350), as previously mentioned in other comments I’ve made on here I had a big gambling problem which has now thankfully stopped. I have paid back Satsuma, Cashfloat and Fernovo in full, missed some payments to Satsuma at points and went into payment plan for couple months when COVID hit and in a repayment plan with Loans2go.
My question basically is what are my chances if I made complaints to these lenders to simply get these removed off my credit record or am I safer going for the full refunds? Just want the best chance I can get when going for my mortgage next year.
Sorry for long post and thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Satsuma is either going into a Scheme or into administration, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/provident-satsuma-scheme/. It is unlikely they will pay any attention to a complaint from you whatever it says. You can put in a claim in the Scheme but even if it is upheld, you may well not have your credit record cleared within a year. You had three loans from Satsuma? How large and which ones did you miss payments on?
Loans2Go – your complaint is underway. This will actually not be flagged on your credit record as a payday loan, but the payment plan will be a problem for a mortgage unless your complaint is upheld and the credit record cleared.
Cashfloat you have a chance of winning a complaint with a single loan because it is large. Fernovo it is very unlikely. I suggest you make full affordability complaints using the template above which asks for your credit record to be corrected.
Before the pandemic the rule of thumb was “no payday loans within a year of a mortgage application.” Now it is 2 years…
Adam says
That’s an interesting read, thanks for pointing that out, had heard nothing about the scheme.
I had 2 loans with Satsuma, one for £300 and the second for £800, I missed payments on the £800 loan. I had previous loans with Satsuma before which were sent to FOS and upheld.
With Loans2go the best I can hope for is for my complaint to be upheld with FOS and pay off the balance that is left if I haven’t reached that before the complaint is finished.
I will send affordability complaints to Cashfloat and Fernovo, both is worth a try and I have nothing to lose.
Thanks for your help, hopefully can get all this sorted to be in with any chance of a mortgage.
Amanda McCullough says
just a query i done a check my credit report with check my file.. it didnt report i had an account with satsuma last year. is this normal not to show on all 3 reports? ibelieve that it checks experian equifax and transunion. not one report of it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
it’s not normal – it could be some error. Sometimes these then get corrected.
Amanda McCullough says
thanks il keep an eye on it.. very strange. hate for it to be added a year after it paids off tho
Lynne says
Peachy just Emailed to say they’ve still no idea of a timeframe for payouts or even amounts. Don’t hold breath then!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the latest administrators report said between 1p and 2p in the pound.
Lynne says
I just remembered another lender from many years ago by the name of Red Wallet I think? I presume they’re not around anymore?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A brand name of Uncle Buck, so in administration and it’s too late to make a claim.
Hugz15 says
If I ask for the credit file to remove a payday loan from account due to upcoming mortgage application, can that affect application as the lender may do a search to locate the loan? A mortgage advise advised against doing this for that reason as loan was 4 years ago and settled. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you are applying for a mortgage you MUST check your credit records.
Any search by a lender should be soft, so won’t show to other lenders. But one payday loan settled 4 years ago with no payment problems shouldn’t be a problems anyone for a mortgage application if you are going through a broker.
Hugz15 says
Ok thanks loan is Elevate (sunny) thought might try asking them to remove loan although know they are in administration. Their customer service dept is still open…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Their customer service department isn’t doing ANYTHING about credit records,
“We have transferred the control of maintaining any remaining records to the credit rating agencies, as we will not be maintaining these records going forward. Any further queries regarding entries on customers’ credit files in relation to ECIL loans should be raised with the relevant agency directly”
So in this case you can contact the CRAs directly and ask them to “suppress” any record which you consider is wrong, pointing out Sunny customer services will not reply to you eg because the amount wasn’t right or the dates were wrong or whatever… see https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/ for more about this.
Lynne says
Ok thanks. Is there a time limit on these claims Sara? What I mean is how far back can you go to put in an unaffordability complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
April 2007
Amanda says
just wondering how long it takes to hwar from ombudsman? i submitted 2 claims 2 weeks ago and have heard nothing. do they contact for more info or to say its been picked up by someone?
Angela says
Hi Amanda don’t expect to hear anything soon been waiting for ombudsman since July 2019 blame covid for everything it’s disgusting how the fos let these companies treat people Angela
Amanda says
thanks for responding.. thats crazy how long uve been waiting
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s pretty unusual Angela. Who is the lender?
Angela says
Provident is the lender paid th up in full never missed a payment put in a unaffordability claim with provide they rejected it Evan though l had debt management plan with stepchange on going still paid provident proper weekly payment so sent it to ombudsman in July 2019 then
covid obudsman acknowledge that they received it nothing since
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh, bad news – FOS is pausing work on provident complaints, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/provident-satsuma-scheme/
Ernestkola says
GOOD MORNING SARA .PLS QUICK QUESTION I TOOK A pay day loan with my finances club… just one loan of £300 in January and the repayment is £372 for a month in March but can’t repay the loan.. at the moment .. l wrote to them explaining my situation..but they still keep add interest to loan ..which is about £420 . .. they said need my bank statement and payslips.. but l offer them to £372 in 2 instlement..but they said loan. After l explain my situation not good at the moment.. what do you think l should do pls.
I have many debit- credits card-4 -overdraft2 – 3 loans and PayPal credit .etc.. some on payment holidays .. l have 3 pay day loan but only one payment left to pay it off on them(2 ) only this one am struggling with .. what type of letter can l write to them … l want to pay it off 2 time … without no more interest..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you talk to StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/ about a debt management plan. All your debts can go into this, interest should stop, one affordable payment to StepChange.
This doesn’t stop you making affordability complaints, it just gets you into a safe space so you don’t have to takeout more payday loans.
These payment holidays are making your debts larger. StepChange can talk you though your options.
Ernestkola says
Thanks so much for your help. Hope(stepchange) will not affect my credit score or affect my mortgage.. and also am trying to buy another house soon. If l go on management plan?
Can l make affordable complaint to financial club ..about the £300 loan? I don’t want them to put more interest for me to pay them twice. What do you think pls?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are VERY VERY unlikely to win an affordability complaint about a single 300 payday loan.
You have no chance of getting a mortgage with that lot of debt. Also you can’t get a mortgage if you have used payday loans in the last two years. And having had recent payment holidays is also a problem for a mortgage.
A mortgage in the near future is just a fantasy. Don’t let dreams about this stop you getting the help you need now.
The only way out of your debt hole and to be able to stop using payday loans is a DMP. Yes it may affect your credit record, but that is already pretty poor isn’t it? A DMP gives you a chance of actually clearing the debt and resetting your finances so you can stop borrowing. Credit records improve over time but only if you have been able to stop borrowing.
Lynne says
I concur. I tried to make some unaffordable claims and their response was that I’d borrowed x amount (usually something like £100-300), and that I’d paid it back so their attitude was kinda ‘so what’s the problem’! I get it though.
Hugo says
No don’t apply for any credit. Please pay credit off then you might be able to buy a house in like six years
Adam says
Hi Sara,
Made my complaints to my lenders. Fernovo came back in 1 day that complaint not upheld which fully expected because was 1 small loan but as a gesture of goodwill they have said they will erase the loan from credit file. 1 down which is a good start. Just wanted to post an update that it’s going in right direction.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Make sure you have saved copies of your current credit record before loans start being deleted. If a case has to go to the ombudsman, they will want to see your full credit record, not a sanitised one.
Adam says
I will do that now Sara, thank you very much!
TOM says
hi, need some advice, I took out out some loans late last year with cash4unow, 3x£250 loans within 2 months. I put in an affordability claim last month, received a reply from them today offering me £60 refund and the 3 loans removed from my credit file. The total interest I paid on all 3 loans was just under £200 so £60 not a great offer.
In the final response email it says the following “If you are now claiming that you provided us with inaccurate information in order to be funded, this is something we take very seriously and I am inclined to investigate further.”
my question is, if I admit to them I applied with inaccurate information regarding my income and monthly expenditure then what’s the worst they can do to me? can they prosecute me for fraud or have a fraud marker added to my credit file? obviously wouldn’t be worth me chasing the additional £130 refund if this is the case.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can they prosecute me for fraud or have a fraud marker added to my credit file?
yes but this never happens! In 5 years of seeing these complaints, no lender has ever followed through on these threats.
But with 3 small loans, the most you would be likely to get from the Ombudsman is a refund of the interest on the last one. It is VERY rare to get a refund of interest on all your loans in this situation. How much interest did you pay on the last loan?
TOM says
£100.55 was the interest paid on the last loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you could go back to them and say you would be prepared to accept that as a compromise offer to save the delay and cost of going to the Ombudsman?
But if they say No, then their offer isn’t that bad. You may get nothing if you go to FOS.
Peter says
Hi Sara,
I had a loan with 118118 which I fell behind on and then got a payment plan put in place however they still issued a default. I have put a challenge against this due to unaffordability as i had numerous other loans out at the same time. The question is though, 118118 then sold this loan on to lowell, who then also registered a default against me. Therefore I have 2 defaults for the same loan on my credit file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This “2 defaults” always happens when a loan is sold. only 1 counts for your credit score.
If you win the complaint against 118, they will have to make sure the Lowell debt is resolved and that default too is deleted.
Dave Smith says
Had an email from the Administrators of Active Securities Limited t/a 247 Moneybox asking for payslips and 3 banks statements. Do we know much P in the pound they are looking at paying out?
Lynne says
Let us know if you hear anything Dave because for me 24/7 and Lending Stream are the only ones who haven’t acknowledged my claim in any way.
Dave Smith says
Will do Lynne. To be honest it came out of the blue today, I got some redress back a few years ago but was contacted by the administrators last year and forgot all about it. Can imagine will only get like 3p in the pound like the rest of them.
Lynne says
I just got got this response from 24/7
Thanks for your email. I can see that you have accepted the redress assessment on your account. There is nothing further for you to do. The Joint Administrators will be in touch in due course. This will be sometime during the 2nd quarter of 2021.
The thing is I can’t see the redress amount on my account and nor do I recall accepting it! I’ve asked them to tell me what it was.
Paul H says
Hi Lynne,
I commented on this before (see below) but 247 said exactly the same to me as you in a reply to my email and like you I hadn’t seen anything or accepted anything so I did exactly what you have done and asked for the amount which they replied back to me a couple of days later with. It was well under what I felt it should have been (£1187) and I did ask for proof of them sending it to me or me accepting which they couldn’t provide so I just left it because as we know if anything is left it’s always just a few pence in the £ and in her reply (Anouska who I dealt with) she wrote ‘You will only actually get a % of this. This is because it is expected that the total value of all accepted claims received will significantly exceed the money available to be shared out’.
Chris says
Glad that they seem to be finally getting a move on but it seems a bit ridiculous of them to be asking you for that kind of stuff Dave. I’m waiting to hear from 247 Moneybox too. I can understand them perhaps wanting to check to make sure our account details are still correct so we get the redress but I can’t understand why they would need payslips and bank statements.
That sounds to me like a bit of a stall on their part. We shouldn’t have to prove anything to them now, this is redress owed to us, we’re not asking them for any more loans, we won’t be paying it back, and yet it sounds like they are trying to use the same procedures they used to use before lending someone any money. That was fine back then but it’s not necessary now.
Paul H says
Hi Dave, I hadn’t heard anything but had read that they emailed people with redress offers from September so I sent an email to them over a month ago. 247 was by far my worse and I had over 40 loans with them over 5 years. Anyway after a few back and forth emails they said my redress amount was just under £1200 and they had no proof of it ever being sent to me or even a breakdown of it. It should have been more like £3000 and that’s not counting 10 of the loans but I knew if I challenged it then they would want pay slips, bank statements etc that covered that period so knowing these dividends are usually about 3p I just didn’t bother challenging it for the extra £50 or so. They did say in the email they would be in touch with everyone again in the 2nd quarter of this year (April to June). I wish you luck anyway.
Dave Smith says
Thanks guys. I have no idea why they requested bank statements and a payslip when others have just been told they will be contacted at a later date. They asked for 3 bank statements from the time of the loans when I could have provided 3 years worth to cover the time I had loans from then. Anyway I’m not expecting anything so anything is a bonus. Good luck to you all
Lynne says
So uncle buck originally said I did not qualify for redress and now I just got this. So they’re saying qualify but I’m not getting paid us that right? As long as they’re removing them from my credit file that’s the most important.
Having assessed your complaint based on the Redress Methodology, I can confirm that your complaint has been upheld and you qualify for Redress. This has resulted in you being entitled to an unsecured claim in the Administration proceedings of £84.32.
Unfortunately, whilst we have added your unsecured claim to the list of creditors within the Administration, regrettably due to the lack of funds in the Administration, there is no prospect of a dividend being paid to unsecured creditors. This means that notwithstanding your entitlement to Redress no payment towards your unsecured claim will be made. More detailed information on the reasons for this can be found in the Customer Redress Scheme and FAQs, which can be found by clicking on the link above.
We can confirm that as you are entitled to Redress, it is acknowledged that your loan xxxx with Uncle Buck were unaffordable and should not have been made to you. We will therefore be informing the CRA’s to remove any record of the loan xxxxx you had with Uncle Buck.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. There is no money.
Lynne says
Typical. I still owed them something from 2017and it was passed to TM legal services. Where do I stand on that if they’re removing it from my credit file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you repaid TM?
Lynne says
No. I made a complaint to them regarding harassment (constant emails and texts). They admitted they handled it badly and they also acknowledged that I’d offered a repayment plan and ‘we accept that we could have been more sensitive in our approach. For those reasons, as a gesture of our goodwill, we are reducing the balance owed by you by £10.00’. It’s absolutely laughable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so you can go back to them now with the email from the UB administrators and say the loan was unaffordable and you would like them to remove the default and also remove the interest. This is likely to prove a struggle and you should expect this to have to go to the Ombudsman
BUT I repeat my suggestion that you should talk to StepChange.
Lynne says
Sara in regards to the uncle buck message I wrote above. Can loans be wiped from credit files even when there’s a balance owing? I’ve informed TML of the situation. Be interesting to see how long it takes for them to get back to me, given how many emails they previously sent hounding me.
hugo says
Lynne hi, Loans cannot be wiped from the credit file even when there is a balance owing. It will be deleted after 6 years. However if the debt was sold, it will be set on the credit file until its paid off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sometimes loans are deleted even with a balance owing.
Lynne says
Thanks. Ferratum and 24/7 offered to clear the balance if I made a small payment to close the account. I did this and they removed them my credit file.
Ernestkola says
GOOD afternoon Sara ..just last question pls.. l went to financial club day loan. Again asking them if they can agree for me to pay £372 in 2 instlement but they are not agree to it ..by tell the interest will be add to it every day. I told them am in financial difficulty at the moment.. and they told me to provide my bank statement..which l did and they reviewed it and told me l have some betting in my statement and because that they will not accept my complaint. PLS SARA What do you think l can do pls? Did l have any chance? They don’t want to stop the interest . Can l take them to fos? I told them should not have give me the loan if they do proper check on me or my
gambling. What letter do you think l can write to them.l just want to pay their money in 2 instlement with out no more interest adding to it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I repeat my previous advice. Much your best course of action is to talk to StepChange about a DMP.
I do not think you will win an affordability complaint about this at FOS.
You cannot make a creditor freeze interest. You can complain to FOS because they won’t but this may take a long while – you first have to send the lender a complaint and they have 8 weeks to resolve that before it goes to FOS then months before it is looked at.
Archie says
Question please, i got into a bit of financial difficulty Sep 2019, with a ccj. I took out a payday loan at the time. Things didn’t improve and i ended up over the last 18 months since then taking out payday loans with 5 companies, staggering them to pay each one back.
Fast forward now and i have all 5 at the same time, with payments of £650 a month, but spare income of only £350. I contacted stepchange who advised offering them pro rata payments.
These have all been accepted but do i have a case for unaffordable lending? Two of the companies i have had 5 loans with over that time, ever increasing in value and months to pay.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you do!
This isn’t an alternative to a StepChange DMP, it is in addition to it. The DMP gets you into a safe space while your complaints go through. If you win any of them then your DMP is going to speed up a lot.
Make sure you put all your debts into the DMP. Your overdraft, that catalogue… this is your chance to get a clean start.
Angela says
YES make sure you. Claim back from them you deserve some peace of mind after the stress that they have put you through good luck
Sally says
Hi Sara ,
Had 2 upheld decisions today from FOS adjucator,
1- I had 6 loans with lending stream , fo upheld last 3 of them .
2- 3 loans with mrlender, fo upheld last one .
Do you know if any/both of these companies accept the adjucator decisions .
2 more to go , 118118money currently with adjucator and carcashpoint with senior ombudsman
Thanks so much for all the valuable inputs on this site , I’m only left to pay last £600 Out of almost £17,000 six months ago .
Lynne says
Are people finding that lenders are taking the full 8 weeks before they hear anything? I had no response at all from Lending stream since I sent in the affordability complaint 5 weeks ago and they just emailed me now to say they’re still looking into it.?
Dave R says
In my experience is varies hugely from lender to lender and the speed that consumers experience varies a lot as well. Lending Stream replied to me to partially uphold my offer within two weeks.
I’d mostly say lenders have taken 5-8 weeks for me with a few – LS, MoneyBoat, Mr Lender – that have been quicker at 1-4 weeks.
Lynne says
Did you find lending steam ok Dave? I think I only had a couple of loans with them of about £700 each. I’m not expecting a positive outcome tbh.
Dave R says
They were one of the first to respond to me and I saw that they partially upheld my complaint for 1 out of 3 loans and the £500 redress and bit their hands off. In hindsight, i should have properly looked through their offer and the details of my case and countered for a better offer. As I think I could have got a slightly better offer. Once i accepted the payment was with me within 24 hours.
Only other issue I had with them was to do with the loan they cleaned up on the credit record. They agreed to remove all negative info for loan 3 from reports. They took of the missed payment marks but the settlement date said June 2020 when original end of loan term was September 2018. So it still looked like a very late settlement or a very long term loan. Argued that this needed to changed over the phone and in MANY back and forth emails and they eventually relented and agreed to change it.
I’d say keep at them and don’t fall for them parroting statements about accurate reporting etc if it’s not fair. They will always reply to your emails but you might have to keep spelling things out in different ways.
Paul H says
Hi Lynne, out of all the lenders I wrote to I was dreading Lending Stream the most due to what I had read on here and due to my loans with them dating back to 2011 and 2012. It turned out that they was one of the better ones and replied to my complaint within 2 weeks with an offer and although they only agreed to refund interest on half of them (6 out of the 13) and after them turning down a compromise on 2 more being added (rather than wait for the FOS for what may have only been an extra £130) I decided to accept the offer and the money was in my bank account within 30 minutes.
Mr Lender took the full 8 weeks, however the majority answered within 4 weeks (Ferratum etc). Still some ongoing that I thought would have been quick to answer and haven’t. Barclaycard sent me a letter to say after a review they shouldn’t have raised my limit so I wrote a complaint into them and besides acknowledging it they are now on week 7. Halifax who gave me a huge overdraft by mistake for which still in a plan with have gone the 8 weeks (do get updates from them blaming Covid for not responding & be in touch by end of April now) and Safety net credit who is now well into week 7, I asked for an update on week 5 but never got any response. Anyway I wish you luck.
Danny says
I sent mine to the ombudsman regarding Lending Stream as many on here have said they’re not the greatest to deal with and that was about 3/4 weeks ago. Anyone have a rough idea when I’ll get a response ?
James says
I just had a final response from ombusman and they are upholding there decision, 3rd loan was unfordable but first 2 were, I don’t understand as Amigo and others have agreed they were unaffordable.
So they are reducing balance and taking off the 2 defaults they gave but what was surprising the ombusman said they do not need to perform credit checks unless it is more than 2 loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large were the first two loans?
James says
First was £500 second was £750, I don’t understand how ombudsman can say they did the right checks and they don’t have to do credit checks on initial loans?
It is what it is I guess.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They only have to make checks if it would be proportionate to do so. 500 would normally be no, unless your income was very low. 750 is more marginal.
You can win one loan cases if the loans are larger.
hugo says
Hi Sara,
I have a few claims in the biggest so far is potentially Pay Day UK. I have a question also, regarding pounds till payday. I know this is a maltese pay day loan company under the name of Northway Financial. I have emailed them, with the base letter, but have recieved no response. Can i take this to the Ombudsman, or as its foreign i guess our rules regarding unfair lending do not apply in Malta? I also have not had a response from Lending Stream, although i only complained End of Feb. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Pay Day UK – did you put in a claim to the ICL Scheme for this?
You can’t take complaints about the Malta-based lender to FOS. And the deadline for making complaints in Malta passed a couple of years ago.
hugo says
Hi Sara
Yes i have done so with ICL, and my claim is fort £2280!!!! prob get 80 of it. I was right with the maltese.!
Mr PDL says
I’m in a similar situation. Missed out on Payday Express + Payday UK, Uncle Buck, Moneybox and Pounds to Pocket. All very frustrating so in all cases I’ve ticked a box and settle for what I get.
Well apart from Uncle Buck. Any ideas what is happening with them? They were my second biggest claim opportunity after Payday UK :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
UB likely payout is zero.
Mr PDL says
Thank you Sara, helpful as always. That is my worry with these things that when lenders go into administration everyone loses. Surely something is better than nothing
Anyway, thank you for doing a fantastic job supporting all of us, you are a real credit to society (no pun intended)
nats Daley says
Finally £1082 potential redress not expecting much back but still can go on the gas card
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Who is the lender?
Sean says
As said in the article, the comlaint decisions will be made by Amigo. We all know what that means. Amigo will reject a good majority of it. They wont have the same standards of handling them FOS would have. in the slight changes of your complaint being accepted by Amigo (very slight chance in my opinion), you will get almost nothing in years.
so I have made my mind up; voting against the scheme. I advise everyone to do the same. We sit and and watch them going bust!
helen says
Hi has anyone had any sucess from loans at home or morses as both are dragging there heals
Sara (Debt Camel) says
best asked on the doorstep lending page: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/
Angela says
Hi Helen yes had refunds back from loans at home were very good did not have to go to ombudsman l just kept ringing them and the settled Moses was a little harder took my complaint to ombudsman and got paid out just keep on at them it’s money they took from us with double interest good luck don’t give up
Lynne says
Just got a letter (in the post!) from Provident about registering for scheme of arrangement in regard to Satsuma loans. Has anyone else had one? It mentions ‘consumers will be able to vote on the scheme in July 2021. We would expect to start making payments in the first half of 2022.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
see https://debtcamel.co.uk/provident-satsuma-scheme/ and all further comments on that page please.
Angela says
Yeah l got letter from provident today and l am voting against the scheme l would rather see them go into liquidation than get away with ripping people off l have already emailed Mel Steel asking for everyone to be heard regarding not paying customers back high interest rates on unaffordability claims vote a gainst the the scheme we are only going to get pennies back if they push it through it will hurt them more if they go bust
Andrew P says
Hi Sarah. Email today ICL to say complaint upheld on all 17 loans. Total redress £7120 ( 4% of ). Last loan defaulted (£1078 total ) then passed to bw legal. Have been in contact with Prac today as account been on hold until this outcome. Spoke to them today and said debt sold on to bw so this outcome irrelevant and I still owe them (bw) the money. It is showing as a default on my credit score which I want rid of. What do you think? I offered 10% but PRAC came back saying bw would accept £270 to mark it partially satisfied. Should I have/expect to pay anything or is it reasonable to ask for this to be written off? This site has been a massive help for me for the last couple of years so sincere thanks for that
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you sit on this for a few days? I need to do some research to find out the right answer. it’s complicated. I will probably do a short article on it.
Andrew P says
Of course. I’ve not agreed to anything as yet. Thanks again
frogman says
Hello All,
Please I need some help with 247moneybox, I know they are in administration.
I currently owe £530.38 which is showing on my credit file. I want to settle the loan so that they can take it off.
I am due a refund of £430 through the claims portal from previous loans (They said the loan with outstanding balance was not accepted as part of the claim). When I emailed them for a settlement figure, they said they are willing to accept £250 to close the account and report to credit reference agencies. Should they not be deducting the refund from the amount I owe which should leave me with £100.38 to pay them. I really need it off my credit file. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This debt is defaulted?
Frogman says
Yes, it shows default on their website.
It shows ‘No data’ on Creditkarma and ‘Arrangement to pay’ on Equifax.
They went into administration shortly after I started struggling with the repayment and was in the middle of arranging a payment plan with them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you know this default is not going to be deleted? And your credit score won’t improve if it is paid?
Have you asked the administrators why they are no applying set off?
Frogman says
They said the account will be settled with them if I paid the £250 and they will report to credit agencies that the account is settled. It is currently not in default with any of the agencies, only on their website. No data on Creditkarma and Arrangement to pay on Equifax. It’s not showing at all on Experian.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
well its up to you if you want to pay that or ask the administrators about set off. You will later be able to get any negative marks removed anyway, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/
frogman says
Thank you Sara, Below is the message I have just received from them. Is it worth paying the outstanding on Loan 9 at all? How am I able to get loan 9 removed on credit file if it has not been accepted? I am a little confused. Also, how is it possible that the are not able to offset refund? they refund 1% or something and expect me to repay the outstanding in full?
Thanks for your email. The redress payment due to be made to you cannot be used to reduce your outstanding balance.
As previously advised, redress is due to you on loans 4-7. Your most recent loan i.e. loan 9 has not been accepted for redress and therefore has an outstanding balance. To reiterate, the redress payment and the outstanding balance on your account are two separate figures. The redress payment cannot be used to repay your balance.
Kind regards,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are they actually proposing to pay a refund at all?
why did they not uphold loan 9, did you appeal this decision?
frogman says
Hi Sara,
I got an email back in September saying this:
Online Claims Portal is now live
The Joint Administrators have completed the Online Claims Portal and invite you to login and view the outcome of the redress assessment. If you wish to appeal the Joint Administrators’ decision you can do so from within the portal.
If any payment is due to you, please be aware the payment you receive will be significantly smaller than your accepted claim amount. Payments will be made once all claims have been received and assessed. All claims must be accepted by 31 December 2020.
I have absolutely no idea why they are upholding 4-7 and not 9. I did not even know which ones were accepted and which ones weren’t until the customer service agent mentioned it. Their response is very generic and what I can observe is that they are trying to withhold information. I have not made an appeal because I did not receive any other communication from them apart from then above. All I am trying to achieve is to get them to remove adverse entries on credit file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is a shame you didn’t appeal it, you will be out of time now.
frogman says
Hi Sara,
Just following up on the above, So I emailed them yesterday proposing £160 as opposed to the £250 they initially asked for. They have accepted this. One concern I have though is that will adverse entries on credit file be removed for loan 9? otherwise, there is no point me paying this sum.
Experian – Nothing Showing
Credit Karma – No Data (since 2018) but showing account is open and outstanding balance of £530.38
Equifax – ARP (arrangent to pay)
I extracted the below in one of our correspondence.
Thanks for your email. All loans that have been accepted as part of your redress claim value will be removed from your credit file. In your case, this will be loans 4-7. This will take place sometime during the 2nd quarter of 2021 i.e. when redress pay-outs are made.
Do note that your most recent loan (loan 9) has not been accepted for redress. There is still an outstanding balance of £530.38 on your account. Please confirm whether you wish to set up a payment plan to repay your outstanding balance. Alternatively I can provide you with a settlement offer if you wish to repay your loan in a one-off payment.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As they haven’t said they will do this, my guess is they won’t. Although they may take the easy route and delete all the debts.
So you can argue with them about it now.
Or you can sit back and in 6-12 months or so when the administration has progressed and the administrators aren’t talking to the CRAs any more, you can ask the CRA to suppress this record. You can’t do this now, or they will just ask 127 who will reply the entry is correct. You have to wait until the administration has gone quiet.
frogman says
Hi Sara,
Just wanted to quickly give an update on this. so I decided to pay 247moneybox the agreed £160 to close that loan showing on my credit file (they one that is outstanding and they didn’t accept as part of the redress) and asked them to please remove it as a goodwill gesture. I wonder if they would.
I have made a lot of progress with my mortgage broker and this payday entry is likely to cause me problems. Only God know when the administration process is going to end to ask CRA’s to supress entry.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can ask. I will be surprised if it is accepted as administrators normally try to do as little as possible to minimise their costs.
Lynne says
Hi can you tell me how they let you know what refund you are due please? They said to me yesterday that I’d accepted the redress amount on my account but 1) I don’t recall accepting it and 2) there’s no figure on there when I go to their website. In fact when I log in and go to ‘my loan history’ there’s just error messages, like you get when there’s some sort of IT blip. I’ve asked them to clarify but I’m just wondering how others heard about theirs.
frogman says
Hi Lynne,
I got an email late last year, I was able to see the redress amount and accept it, but that it was. The figures have since gone away and I can’t access them. I get the same error message as you when I log in
JR1981 says
Hi, I have a question a few years ago, I received a refund from cash converters but without the 8% interest. Back in November I requested they pay the 8% interested however they did give it to me, I’ve tried to claim the tax back in it as it was around £93 however HMRC have never received this. I contacted Cash Convertors again and they said I should of paid it although looking through they have taken it from the payment? Is there anything I can do?
Refund £2125.03
Minus HMRC payment £92.36
Total should receive £2033.67
Minus customer did received £1178.87
Amount left to pay to customer £853.16
From my understanding they have taken the money to pay HMRC? Is that correct?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
thats what it looks like to me…
JR1981 says
That’s what I said, I had the case on resolver so I copied and pasted her response from November. What happens if they haven’t paid it? I was claiming it back as my personal allowance.
Will they be in trouble for not paying it
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did your case go to FOS or was it settled direct with the lender?
JR1981 says
Settled direct with the lender
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then say if they don’t resolve it within the next week you will be sending your original complaint to the ombudsman as they have not given you the settlement they promised.
JR1981 says
Thank you again for your help Sara.
Sorry so if the decide to pay it now can I claim it straight back from HMRC or do I tell them to pay me as it’s my personal allowance?
Kind regards,
Jodie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they say they have now paid HMRC, you claim it off HMRC. If they pay you, you have the money and don’t need to claim.
JR1981 says
Thank you Sarah,
They are sending me the payment.
Kind regards
Jodie
Lynne says
I just got a notification from Experian that Cabot financial removed my account from my credit file. While this is good news I noticed that it says the account was open in 2012, so would it have appeared to other lenders anyway as I thought they were only on there for 6 years?