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?
Adam says
Hi
I’ve submitted a claim against Mr lender and loans to go.
Having continual back and forth emails,which are clearly delaying tactics on there part.
I’ve been very clear in what I’ve requested and have asked for all loans to be investigated.
I’ve now had this back from mr lender, and I don’t know all the details regarding loans taken out.
Can any advise on what they put in response to these questions;
Which loans do you believe were unaffordable?
Please could you elaborate on the difficulties that were caused as a result of these loans?
Please could you confirm the reason as to why you believe these loans to be unaffordable?
What would you deem to be a suitable outcome to your complaint?
Additionally loans to go are lying about the number of loans I’ve had,they say I’ve had 7 when I know I had a 2 year spell of having them every month with them.What can I do if they say they don’t have the data and no record of the loans?
quite a stressful experience battling these companies,they certainly put up a fight when it comes to providing compensation.
Any advise is very welcomed
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mr Lender – I can suggest what to think about saying but there are no “wrong” answers here, so just put into your own words what actually happened to you.
I suggest you say you feel all the loans were unaffordable, you were in a spiral of high cost debt as Mr Lender can see from your credit record and the Mr Lender loans made this worse. Repaying one of the Mr Lender loans left you so short you had to borrow again from mr Lender or from another lender.
That covers the first three questions.
Do you know how much interest you paid on the Mr Lender loans? How long ago were they?
How long ago were the L2G loans? Were these logbook loans?
Rose says
With L2G, you should be able to get hold of your bank statements from the last six years online with most banks: if it wasn’t more than six years ago, can you go back and piece it all together and send it to them, to show you had more loans?
If you’ve only had two loans in the last six years, they may not have the information from before that – a lot of lenders keep info only for six years, apparently (I had this issue when making a DSAR with txtloan – I did, though, have lots of the emails they had sent me, which could be another option for you to use to show them you had a lot more borrowing than what they have on record).
Dave R says
Hi all,
Anybody that’s waiting for news on Peachy, have just had an email stating that redress will be paid by the end of August 2021. Expect it will be next to nothing, as they estimate the fund total is £400k-£500k.
I think I’m in for about £12 but that will get me a couple of pints and a lucky dip on the Euro Millions so that will do ha.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
thanks for the info.
Mike says
According to the previous email my £288 will equate to about £5.90
Danielle says
How did you find out what amount your claim is? I csnt seem to find it.
Jen says
Safety net credit have until 8th July to get their final response to me, are they usually this close to the dead line 😳
Rose says
Then went to 8 weeks exactly with me last year… I’ll be totally honest, and say that, unlike most people I’ve seen posting here, they’ve been absolute pains from start to finish with me though.
Jen says
Thank you 😊 see what happens
Jen says
I received the response today and they upheld my complaint my loans weren’t huge but did cause me problems, I’ve accepted the offer and sent bank details like requested 😁 just wait to see when they pay now ☺️
Rose says
Brilliant news, Jen- thanks for the update: I queried on here about how long they take to pay, following receiving your details – someone else said it had taken eight days, and I had to contact them yesterday about something else, and they said mine would be paid tomorrow, which would be seven days. Hopefully, this time next week, you’ll have yours :-)
Debbie says
What is the email address for safety net as the one I’m using keeps bouncing back
Rose says
complaints@safetynetmail.co.uk is what I have been using.
Debbie says
Thank you it’s worked this time
Rose says
Good luck, Debbie!
Hayley Bradley says
Hi Sara, I put a complaint in using your template to LS. They have replied with a very very low offer…. I am unsure how to answer their response. What are my next steps please?
Thanks
Hayley
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how many loans did you have? Were there any “big gaps” – time when you had repaid one loan before you took another one out?
What have LS offered?
Hayley Bradley says
Hi Sara –
I had the following:
March 2019; £200.00, August 2019; £200.00, October 2019; £600.00; December 2019; £800.00, March 2020; £800.00.
They have offered me £65.00
Sara (Debt Camel) says
were these 3 month loans?
what was the £65 for – which loan?
Hayley Bradley says
Hi, this is their response.
Our decision
For loans 1 to 4, the money that you had available after your expenses were subtracted was more than the amount needed to pay us each month and
would still have left you with some money to spend on other things. This means that these loans were affordable.
Although loan 5 were affordable, we have thought about the number of loans and the time that passed between each loan being opened. We can see that
it might not have been a good idea for us to make these loans.
So, we are partially agreeing to your complaint
To put things right, we’d like to take the following steps
Page 2 of 3
• We’ll refund the interest and fees you have paid us for loan 5
• We’ll pay an extra 8% simple interest on this amount
• We’ll withhold 20% of this additional 8% interest amount because Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) tell us we must do this
• We’ll check this refund amount (after HMRC withholding) against any outstanding balances you have with us
• We’ll give you a certificate of the tax we have withheld for use in any discussions with HMRC if required
• We’ll remove any adverse marks we have left on your credit file at the CRA for loan 5
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so the last loan, did you settle it very early? How much did you pay to settle it?
Hayley Bradley says
Sorry, these are the loans i took and the last one is still outstanding
During our relationship, you have taken 5 loans from us
Loan Number Loan account number Amount borrowed Date the loan was made
1 5967694 £150.00 2019-03-20
2 6188945 £200.00 2019-08-14
3 6286654 £600.00 2019-10-16
4 6351602 £560.00 2019-12-06
5 6462480 £270.00 2020-03-02
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so they are offering to wipe the balance on the last loan and offering you £85 in cash? Or reducing the balance by £85?
How much have you paid to this last loan? What is the balance at the moment?
Hayley Bradley says
HI
They are offering to reduce the balance.
The total loan amount was £270.00. I made two payment of £89.49, they run a pay cycle of 6 months so there are 4 outstanding. There is an outstanding balance of £245.32 which will be reduced to £175. 41
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If those numbers are right, then it seems an odd offer. They should remove the interest from the last loan, so you only have to repay the £270 you borrowed. You have already paid 2 lots of £89 – I think they are working it out as though you have only paid 1 lot? Are you sure you have paid two?
WHat was the rest of your finacial situation like while you took these loans, did you get more into debt elsewhere?
Because if you go to the Ombudsman, there is a change that loans 3 and 4 may be refunded as well. Loan 3 is a small change but loan 4 is a better change especially if your credit record will have showed that you were getting into more dificulty when you applied for loan 4.
Russell says
Hi Sara, need some advise. I recently cleared a myjar loan which has been in arrears for just under a year. I cleared it as I didn’t want any updates on my credit report or it getting defaulted (only had 1 loan and not confident it will be upheld). But I may have been hasty as they don’t seem to be updating credit reports (was only showing on clear score report, but no updates for about a year). I had logged an affordability complaint but I’ve been told I need to raise it with the administrators which I’ll might do. My question is the amount I cleared was pretty much all interest and because the payment was made after joint administrators were appointed (paid last month) would I get all the interest refunded or would it just be a small percentage? If it’s the latter then it’s probably not worth the hassle with the time it will take for a payout and chasing it up and although my claim is valid, it’s only 1 loan for £600 which I understand is difficult to get upheld anyway. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the administrators are clearing credit records.
They are expected to only pay out only a low percentage, but as you have made the settlement payment during the administration, if they determine that you have a valid claim, the interest paid should be refunded in full.
Send a complain to myjar@harrisons.uk.com with CLAIM as the subject. Good luck
Lynda says
I have received my SAR from lending stream today, , do I need to do anything or just wait to hear again ?
Thanks , Lynda
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to do anything.
If Lending Stream make you a good offer, no need to do more. If you aren’t sure if the offer us good, come back here.
John Garrett says
Lending stream are taking their time with my complaint its been about 6 weeks since my invitation complaint and all that has been done is they have sent my loan history. They said they will need the full 8 weeks for a full response.
Is this just me but others seemed to have quick success
Zoe says
No this is me also I am on to 5 weeks with no response too apart from my history.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
lenders are allowed 8 weeks to reply, this isn’t anything to worry about.
Mike_p says
Most of the lenders I’ve complained to have dragged things out right up to the 8 weeks they are allowed. They are just making things as difficult as possible to try and put you off taking it to the FOS when they say no. Just be patient and push things to the next stage when necessary – Lending Stream delayed wherever they could for me but I eventually got £2200 back from them.
Debbie says
I heard back in 3 weeks was very pleased with the offer too.
Jo says
Hi Sarah, just wondering… I have an old defaulted payday loan debt that is with a debt collector and is so old that it has been removed from my credit file(8 years I think). If I do a settlement to close this, am I right this will in no way show on my credit file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, it will not reappear.
Pete says
A few months ago i got an email from MrLender saying they were reviewing accounts to see if they had borrowed irresponsibly/unaffordable borrowing. Has anyone had correspondence from MrLender to offer redress??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/mr-lender-review-affordability/
How many loans did you have from them? Were any before 2014?
Pete says
About 10 loans in total. Plus numerous roll overs. As this company did them. I had loans with them from approx 2010 onwards. Approx.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I suggest you just send them a complaint. So far as I know they were only considering refunds on the post 2014 loans… but FOS will go back before then.
emma says
Morning Sara. i received the below emai from moneyboat today . What do they mean by
Should it transpire that information provided by you at the time of application was false or misleading, we may register this attempt to gain redress falsely as a first party fraud with fraud prevention agencies. To learn more about fraud and understand your rights please visit cifas.org.uk. Any fraud marker may affect your ability to obtain credit with banks and other lenders in the future.
i re am writing in response to the complaint you raised. Please accept this email as an acknowledgement of your complaint
In the event of an affordability/irresponsible lending complaint, could you please provide us with copies of your bank statements applicable at the time of your applications, so that we may carry out a full and comprehensive review of your complaint
Should it transpire that information provided by you at the time of application was false or misleading, we may register this attempt to gain redress falsely as a first party fraud with fraud prevention agencies. To learn more about fraud and understand your rights please visit cifas.org.uk. Any fraud marker may affect your ability to obtain credit with banks and other lenders in the future.
We will write to you in due course, once we have completed our investigation; please find our complaints procedure outlined below, which advises you of the manner your complaint will be handled:
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They say this to everyone – they seem to be trying to scare people into dropping complaints. So far no one who has ignored this and sent their complaint to the Ombudsman has had a problem.
Emma says
Thank you . Should i send over the statements ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send them bank statements? yes – they will show that the loans were unaffordable.
HB says
Hi,
Just wondering if anybody has had any luck from SafetyNetCredit & Drafty? I took out SNC back in March 2017 and paid minimum amount (before reborrowing) every month until Feb 21 (Had numerous gambling transactions and also was in a DMP) Which i paid off before SNC allowed me to use funds again. Ive had £600 Drafty since Aug 18’ and done the same in terms of pay minimum amount then reborrow effectivley using all of my credit all of the time.
Rose says
SNC offered to write off what I had outstanding at the time (just over 700 + the interest) and give me £1000; I counter-offered repayment of the interest from 2 years where I was confident that the adjudicator would go my way, without 8% interest, and they raised their offer to £2000, but that was it, so I went to FOS (I was pretty certain they’d support 2016 and 2017, less certain about 2015 and 2017-19, as it wasn’t so straightforward). Lucky for me they did – FOS upheld my complaint in its entirety, including the argument that they never should have let me borrow anything: it did take a while – but FOS said as they could see my account every month, they absolutely could see that I had multiple short term loans concurrently, never mind what my credit record showed.
SNC have been sloooooow throughout, though.
Victoria says
Hi Rose Safety Net Credit have offered to use my interest refund to pay off my balance of 450. Leaving me with 118 redress which I think is pretty low. I have paid over 550 in interest and paid back over 4k over the last year and not defaulted. Do you have any advice on what I can say to them that may get an increase in redress offer? Many thanks
Rose says
Hi, Victoria, I know that Sara’s responded also to you – if you’ve paid back over £4000, I assume that is the total capital you’ve borrowed, is that right? On which the interest has been £550? If so, as Sara says, it’s the interest, you’ve paid back, plus any statutory interest (which won’t be due in your case, as it’s within the last year) which forms the redress. In my case, I was borrowing over £1000 every month (so paying around £300 every month in interest), which may be which it looks like they made me a high offer at the outset. There is no element of compensation involved – it’s just putting you back in the position you would have been had you not got involved with them (or, in some cases, a little better, but that’s because statutory interest is 8% p.a. which is a lot higher than the base rate)
If this amount is the interest you’ve paid back, less the capital outstanding, it is likely to be the correct amount of redress: if, though, they haven’t accounted for interest included in the balance of what you currently owe, it’s worth raising this. (In my case, I owed £1036, but the actual capital still owing was £700 ish – the rest was interest that they had front-loaded.) I realise it’s disappointing, but redress is literally repaying the interest paid, nothing added for the harms caused etc.
Victoria says
Hi Rose,
Many thanks for taking the time to reply. It’s confusing, I just thought I’d paid more interest than that but I was only borrowing 350 – 400 per month and as I used to have 2 jobs it got paid back quicker, resulting in less interest. Oh well I’m happy I have the balance reduced to 0 and a small amount of redress.
Good luck for the future and thanks again :-)
Lauren says
Hello,
Can someone help me please, I raised a complaint with Drafty and they refused and I know I had a good case so sent this to the FOS, What is the deadline with the FOS? As today is the 8 week deadline with Drafty and they did at the point of refusing ask if I had any further information to support my claim which fortunately I did so sent this over?
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have 6 months from a lender’s Final Decision to send to FOS. I think you should assume the FD was the one you have already had.
Lauren says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for this, how long should I wait before getting back in touch with the FOS? My deadline was to send them everything was today which I sent nearly 2/3 weeks ago and I’ve still heard nothing?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh sorry, you were asking when you are likely to hear from FOS? It will be some time yet before Drafty have sent FOS their case file. I would not expect to hear anything for a couple of months, at least.
Samantha Burgess says
Hi Sara,
I submitted a claim yesterday to safeloans, via the SLL email on the loans page, however they are saying I need to make the claim with the loan company who are no longer trading, what’s my next step please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you say that Safeloans was a previous brand name of SLL and if they do not consider your affordability complaint you will be sending the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
I don’t know what FOS will decide but this is worth a try.
Adam says
Hi Sara,
Just received a response from FOS saying they haven’t upheld my complaint against Cashfloat. This was for 1 loan for an amount of £1000.
“
I’m sorry to hear that you were struggling financially and that repaying the loan may have been difficult. But given your loan amount, what was apparent about your circumstances at the time and your history with the lender, I don’t think it would’ve been proportionate to ask you for the amount of information needed to show the lending was unsustainable.”
“ Finally, I don’t think that the loan you took, the amount the loan was for or the period of time you were borrowing meant your loan history, on its own, should’ve shown Cashfloat you might’ve been experiencing underlying financial difficulty.”
They said if I don’t accept what they’ve said I can reply by 29th July and they can try resolve it and if not an ombudsman can look at it.
At the time I had loans with Satsuma, Loans2go, Fernovo. I also had missed payments with Satsuma and was heavily gambling which could be seen on the bank statements I sent to FOS. Is there anything I can say to them? The loan was repaid on time with no late payments. Sorry for the long message!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you also complained about Satsuma, Loans2go, Fernovo?
This depends mainly on what your credit record showed – recent missed payments or a lot of bad credit loans suggest Cashfloat should have enquired more closely.
Adam says
Complained to Satsuma but there scheme had started so didn’t accept complaint. Complained about Loans2go and went to FOS but then settled with Loans2go directly and didn’t complain about Fernovo as was a smaller loan than the rest.
I will send them a reply tomorrow and see what they come back with. Thank you!
John Garrett says
Finally heard back from lending stream with a very generous offer of £6.5k. Delighted with the result
Hj says
Hi thought I’d update as not sure if anyone else has with this email I got off SLL capital today
Why are we writing to you?
As you will know Elevate Credit International Limited, which used the brand name Sunny.
Sunny entered administration on 29 June 2020 and Joint Administrators were appointed.
Before it entered into administration we (SLL) bought your loan account(s) from Sunny, which means that you owe your outstanding balance and make your loan repayments to us.
In line with their understanding of recent Financial Ombudsman Service decisions and bearing in mind the Financial Conduct Authority’s rules, the Joint Administrators identified that certain customers may be entitled to redress because of Sunny’s approach to assessing affordability. This included former customers of Sunny whose loans we acquired.
What are we doing to fix it?
At SLL we are committed to treating our customers fairly. On the basis of these findings, we have decided that the right thing to do for all our customers whose loans we acquired from Sunny and whose account is still active is to adjust the loan balance.
So the total of what I owed has gone from 380 to 86£
Good news I suppose I have also asked if they will be removing from my credit file as per the agreement with sunny loans!
Darren Poulton says
Just to let people know, I made a complaint to lending stream using the template on here 4 weeks ago, yesterday I was offered £2500 redress and will be paid within a week, anyone who has had lending stream well worth a go
Mr P says
Is there a list of lenders available that are currently lending? As most are now in administration. ??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
are you trying to borrow money?
Mr P says
Was wanting the list so I can see if any of the lenders I have borrowed from are still going and borrowing as it is possible I have claims that I can make against them. If I know they are still borrowing. There’s that many I hand borrowed from.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so see the list in the Emails for payday lenders page – https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/
It is well worth complaining to administrators where possible to try to get your credit record cleaned up.
Ramger3306 says
Had an offer from lending stream to settle had 9 loans many rolling over and within weeks of each other.
They have only upheld 1 loan
I have asked them to Review there silly offer as it’s clear most where rolled over and unaffordable I also had about 12 other payday loans at the same time as there’s which means effectively non where affordable!
Is there final offer final or do you think they will counter offer?
I’d advised I will go to ombudsman if they don’t improve the offer as I have proof of all the other loans I had at the time.
Thanks for the help 😇
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so 9 loans.
When you say “roll overs” do you mean you specifically rolled a loan over, so loan 2 (say) was rolled over 2 times before you repaid it and then the next loan was loan 3? or do you mean loan 3 was taken very soon after or on the same day as loan 2?
how large were the loans, can you list them in order eg 200,200,300,250,450,150,600 ….
where there any gaps of more than a month between repaying 1 loan and taking out the next?
Ranger3306 says
Hi Sara
More info
Amount borrowed Date the loan was made
1 1690157 £100.00 2013-08-21
2 1702016 £100.00 2013-08-31
3 1705060 £90.00 2013-09-02
4 1749747 £285.00 2013-10-03
5 1945288 £100.00 2014-03-22
6 1973571 £260.00 2014-04-17
7 1995336 £250.00 2014-05-04
8 3586283 £400.00 2017-08-07
9 3690878 £500.00 2017-10-0
Our decision
For loans 1 to 6 and 8 to 9, the money that you had available after your expenses were subtracted was more than the amount needed to pay us each month and would still have left you with some money to spend on other things. This means that these loans were affordable.
For loan 7 the money that you had available after your expenses were subtracted was less than the amount needed to pay us comfortably each month. This means that this loan were possibly not affordable.
So, we are partially agreeing to your complaint
They have only upheld loan 7 and offered about £120
…….Thanks for your help 🙏
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so the problem is the big gap between loan 7 and loan 8.
Did you repay all the loans before loan 8 on time?
Even if you did, you can argue that by loan 6, you had already had 5 loans and that one should not have been accepted. And loan 9 should not have been accepted as it was again larger than any previous ones and it does not look as though loan 8 had helped you.
SO if you repaid all loans before loan 8 on time, I suggest you contact them and say you will settle if they include loan 6 and 9.
If you had any payments problems before loan 8, I suggest you ask for 6,7,8 and 9 to be refunded.
Tell them the complaint goes to FOS if they do not replay within a week accepting this offer.
I don’t know how likely this is to work.
Ranger3306 says
Hi Sara
Thanks for your advice I did email them back Friday and told them them I was rejecting the offer
I had about 12 other loans at the time also which they should have been able to see
Igave them 7 days to reply before passing it to the ombudsman they have gone silent hopefully I will hear back soon.
If not to the ombudsman’s it goes
Thanks for you advice on the loans also I will pass that onto them also
Thanks again 🙏
Ranger3306 says
An update there response
I will continue to push before passing on to fos
This email is in regards to your recent correspondence (complaint ref. no.: 2020070110001535).
We understand that you believe that proper affordability checks were not conducted at the time of approving the loans, however we would like to mention that Lending Stream never intend to misrepresent or follow misleading practices towards our customers whenever they require our assistance. Considering we have already provided you with the finest resolution available to us for the complaint raised, our final response remains the same.
Please be informed that the decision communicated to you is based on facts available to us regarding your claim. However, if you would like to share any new or additional information (bank statement, credit file, etc.) regarding your complaint or your circumstances, please reply to this email with relevant details.
Once we have the additional information from you, we will reassess the complaint and let you know in case the final response can be revised. Without any further information from you, please consider the final response provided to you on 16th July 2021 as our full and final decision regarding your complaint.
Regards,
Lending Stream Complaints Department
Rose says
LS were really bullish with me: but if you have further info you haven’t shared with them, then it might be worth doing. That said – once LS had given me their final response, they didn’t budge an inch, until FOS adjudicated that the first 3 loans were OK, but not the other 37… They seem to have been getting more realistic this year (I contacted them last March – finally resolved this April) in the offers they are making to people, so if you have evidence that you think might change their mind, you’ve nothing to lose by sending it, especially as anyway you’ll need to get it together for the FOS. Good luck!
Ranger3306 says
Hi Rose
They said it’s their final response but add they may revise it if they have further evidence the problem is many have already given me redress and removed negative marks from my credit file.
Getting additional evidence will mean me having to subject access request about 13 companies time consuming but will be required for the fos anyway.
They should be aware that the loans re- lending and rolling over and increasing amounts can be seen and they should have addressed this anyway.
I will keep pushing until Friday
Thanks 🙏
Will keep everyone updated….
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you not take a copy of your credit record before you started this process?
Ranger3306 says
Hi Sara
Bit of an update I managed to get all my bank statements from years ago off Barclays app shocked that during the time of taking all the loans I had multiple sometimes up to 9 other payday loans at the same time some even taken the same day as lending stream.
I have screenshotted all the statements and sent them over and informed them that they have 0 defence for affordability of any of the loans now they have the facts.
I also said this is solid proof for the ombudsman bit would rather settle with them as less time consuming.
They replied next day saying they will examine the new evidence and get back to me
In regards to my credit file most old loans I already had redress for had been wiped off but there was some residual data showing I had large loans at the same time as there’s which I also sent them
Fingers crossed they now uphold all with this solid evidence
🤞
CB says
Hi thanks thanks for the help. I complained to LS 5 weeks ago. They came back on Friday with a offer which I accepted. Money was in my account this morning.
Tom says
Hi CB,
I also accepted an offer from LS on Friday but not had payment as yet. May I ask whether you had it paid to the account they already had on file for you or whether you, like me, had to provide proof of your new account details for it to be paid to? I feel like this may take a bit longer as more of a manual process.
Thanks
CB says
Paid into account they had on file
Tom says
Thanks CB.
I emailed LS to ask if they can give any indication of when I can expect the refund and they just reiterated that it will be processed within 28 days, per the regulatory requirements. Has anyone else had to provide LS with new bank details and can shed any light on roughly how long it took for this to be processed?
Thanks
Jen says
Hi, mine took a couple of days from accepting and sending bank details 🤓 I’m just waiting to hear from Cash4UNow 5weeks in tomorrow so hopefully not much longer 🤩
Rose says
Jen, do you mind me asking how you got on with Cash4UNow? I only had four loans with them, so I am not sure if it’s worth making a complaint or not (not from the perspective of whether there were affordability issues – there were – but I know it won’t be worth it to go to the FOS if necessary, from a time/money perspective, because there were only four, and they’re unlikely to uphold the first and maybe also the second, despite all the other issues with poor credit record and concurrent borrowing etc) – so I was just wondering if you’ve found them reasonable etc
Jen says
Hi Rose, I only had 2 loans but the interest alone was practically the same as the amount borrowed and I also missed monthly payments that they charged me for, definitely worth it ☺️ It’s 5 weeks since complaint so fingers crossed I hear soon I will updated you 😃
Rose says
Hi, Tom,
I had to give them my details – from memory, payment was made in a few days (definitely less than a week): I also had the email that I’d receive it in 28 days, but it was much quicker than that.
Tom says
Thanks guys, just checked my account again and it’s in there now so wasn’t very long at all! :)
Victoria says
Good morning All,
Just wondering if anyone could advise.
I had ongoing loans of over 4k with Safetynet Credit. I always paid them back each month and then unfortunately had to borrow money again the next month. I ending up borrowing over 4k and paid it back until I got made redundant and was offered a payment holiday. I owe them 516 Inc interest still and I have submitted an affordability complaint. The deadline date was today so as I hadn’t heard anything back from them I called them this morning. They have just sent me an email saying my complaint has been upheld and my redress should be 450 but they will use this to pay my balance and the amount of redress to me will be £118. I am quite disappointed as I have paid them in full every month for a year and had to continue borrowing with them to the tune of 4k. I am going to respond today but I was just wondering if anyone could advise me on what to say? Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have paid £550 in interest over a year – are you sure that number is correct as it sounds low on that level of borrowing?
How much of the current balance is interest?
Victoria says
Hi Sara yes the calculations they have sent me are quite confusing. I’m not sure what to do. Here are their calculations:
TOTAL AMOUNT BORROWED 4128.81
INTEREST ADDED 591.01
AMOUNTS WRITTEN OFF 0.00
INTEREST TO BE WRITTEN OFF 66.07
OUTSTANDING BALANCE INTEREST 450.00
TOTAL AMOUNT REPAID 4203.76
AMOUNT APPLIED TO FUNDS BORROWED 3678.81
INTEREST PAID 524.95
STAT 8% 54.91
HMRC 10.98
AMOUNT WRITTEN OFF 450.00
REDRESS TO ME 118.88
obviously I’m pleased about the amount written off but I was in a cycle of debt due to borrowing each month and just thought that 118.00, if it is compensatory, is a very low offer. I even had to open a new bank account as when I was made redundant I was on hardly any income and knew I had to make my redundancy money last. They then agreed to a payment holiday before I made the affordability complaint. I’m just wondering if I should ask them to increase the amount offered or if it is futile. Many thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
very opaque.
Can you go back through your bank statements and add up all the withdrawals you made? And add up all the payments they have taken?
Victoria says
Hi Sara
I have all the records from the dashboard and the interest looks about right. I just thought I’d be given a bit more compensation due to the fact I never defaulted and had to keep borrowing each month to survive, in total over 4k. So 118 just seems a very random and low amount of compensation, if that’s what it is. Thanks again for the help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok well you aren’t being given “compensation” just a refund of the interest you have paid.
It is depressing how little you get given the stress it probably caused you, but hopefully you won’t fall into this sort of nasty debt trap again.
If you think it looks right then I suggest you take the £118 and use it to clear some other arrears on bills or debts.
Victoria says
Yes it is very disappointing. I just saw some people on here who had been offered larger amounts who had gone back to them and asked them to reconsider the redress. I thought a goodwill or compensation payment was part of the redress. I was hoping someone could advise if they have successfully done this. Many thanks.
Jon says
Does any one know the approx current waiting time for a complaint to the FOS to be assigned to a case handler?
I raised mine on the 17th June and not heard anything since.
I raised a complaint with LS on the below loans and they have only upheld loans number 2, 8, 9 & 10
1 – £150.00 – 2010-07-07
2 – £100.00 – 2010-07-08
3 – £315.00 – 2010-08-23
4 – £95.00 – 2010-10-08
5 – £315.00 – 2011-02-11
6 – £135.00 – 2011-04-06
7 – £105.00 – 2011-07-01
8 – £165.00 – 2011-08-08
9 – £85.00 – 2011-09-05
10 – £315.00 – 2011-10-05
HJOP says
Approaching the 8 week mark after complaining to both Drafty & Safety Net Credit. I rang drafty yesterday who advised they reached the final decision on 24/06 but due to a “technical problem” they have been unable to send it to me via email. Kept me on hold 40 minutes to then finally say we will pass this onto our complaints team and we’ll get this resent out. SNC also advised that despite there being a couple of days left before the 8 weeks that they were still investigating and that i will hear on the final day of the time scale.
Mike_p says
It’s funny how these technical problems never stop them being able to take money from your account!
James says
Finally had a response from Safety net, they have agreed my complaint, cancelled my outstanding balance and offered just over £6k which I have accepted, money should be in account by Friday, they did take the full 8 weeks but well chuffed with the outcome.
Victoria says
That’s brilliant news, well done. Can I ask if you paid 6k in interest with them? Also was the balance you owed a lot? I’m in the process of completing an affordability complaint but I’m not happy with their offer. I’m sure I paid more in interest. I’d be really grateful for any input. Many thanks
Victoria
James says
To be fair there calculation of interest was roughly the same as I worked out then they added the 8% interest minus the amount for HMRC, and my outstanding balance minus interest was £590, so figures seemed fair. and the money will be very handy as car is needing replacing . AJ mine was £600 credit limit had used for 5 and half years. finances now are much better, but at the time of taking out had multiple payday loans. So was not sure how would go, just got a couple more awaiting resolution but they are in administration so payout will be lousy .
AJ says
Hi James, hope you dont mind me asking as i am roughly 6 days away from my 8 weeks time scale with SNC. What was your situation with them just so I can see if they may upheld my claim, roughly £600 credit limit maxed out since 2017 through 2 DMP’s and multiple gambling transactions
bob says
I have been waiting for safetynetcredit for about 7ish weeks also, seems like they just take the full 8 weeks intentionally
Victoria says
Hi Bob, my 8 weeks with snc was up today but I phoned them this morning and they emailed me within the hour, like you say it looks like they are just taking the 8 weeks intentionally.
Ranger3306 says
I had a snotty email from safety net saying they have 8 weeks to reply so sent them one back 🤣
Dear Sir/Madam
I still haven’t had a response from yourselves the other companies I am dealing with where quick to address issues and iv already received redress of many.
Many people are dealing with complaints with yourselves and your getting a very bad name as everyone says you abusing the fact you have 8 weeks to deal with a complaint with the vast majority saying you are giving decisions exactly at the 8 week mark.
This I believe is abusing the fact you have 8 weeks and intentionally waiting until the last possible day which is disgusting. This fact is being closely monitored.
I look foreword to hearing from you
Kind regards
Hopefully this might shift them 🤣🤣🤞
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Honestly it is better to sit back and not stress about this. There is nothing you can do to speed this up.
Victoria says
🤣🤣🤣 Brilliant. Hope you get sorted out soon.
BBH says
Hi Sara, im due a response from SNC in the next week, ive just revisited my email to them of my complaint and half of the email has been cut off so they only saw that i was making an affordabilty claim and that it caused me to borrow more, also shows what i want them to do ie. refund but has cut out the fact i had gambling problem which they should have seen and also been in dmp’s during my time with them in addition to a large number of other loans etc & have maxed my credit limit for almost 4 years. will they just base their decision on my “the loan was unaffordable part” or is there certain things they will check in addition ie, gambling transactions as it uses open banking etc. worried i might not get as much i was hoping for
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am not convinced they read what people send them anyway – I suspect they just treat everything as an affordability complaint.
As you point out, they could see your gambling from your bank statement.
If they make you an offer and you aren’t sure if it is enough, come back here to talk about it?
Jared says
Hi, does anyone know how long after accepting an offer with drafty do they process the refund?
Thanks!
Noor says
Hi Sara
I’ve made complaint to PiggyBank my original loan I took out £400 in 2013and paid back £244.44 now the balance they are asking pay back £1006.99 after sending unaffordable complaint email they have replied me offering reduced settlement £175.56
Could I still reject their offer? and is there a template letter I can use to reply
Response from PiggyBank –
The redress will be used to reduce the current balance of £1182.55, leaving a remaining £175.56 left to repay within a comfortable repayment arrangement.
Please confirm that you are happy to accept the redress offered in full and final settlement of your complaint and I will adjust your balance accordingly. I will also ensure that the loans are removed from your credit file.
Your account has been placed on hold for 28 days allowing you time to review our response. This account hold will expire on 18 August 2021. If we do not hear back from you the account may fall into arrears and interest could be backdated so please ensure you contact us within 28 days.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
when did you last make a payment to this debt? does it still show on your credit record?
was this the only loan you had from Piggybank?
Mr P says
Noor. You took this loan in 2013. 8 years ago.?? And you still have an outstanding balance. How long did it take for your unaffordable complaint to go through??
This doesn’t sound right. As I assume while your complaint went through everything was frozen??
Balance can’t be what they’re saying
Joey says
Hi, just looking for a better understanding of potential refund from SNC, paid just over £1500 in interest since 2017. If my complaint is upheld am I likely to receive that amount back?
Rose says
Hi, Joey, In my case, FOS said that SNC should never have lent to me in the first place, based on my credit record, and when they did, as they had access to my bank account, they should have seen that I was not using their service for what it was designed for, as I was immediately maxing out my account immediately after repayment, and had multiple other short-term loans on the go. On that basis, they said SNC should refund everything.
I don’t know how often it’s the case that they agree that lending should never have happened in the first place- with payday loans, it’s not usual – but I would use the total amount of interest (plus statutory simple interest) as your starting point. If they offered you £1300-1400 (obviously, depending on how much interest you were paying in one month) plus interest, it might not be worth holding out for the whole total from FOS, given the delay that would lead to etc but if they base it around £1000, maybe come back and ask? I don’t know what the norm is with them, but from recent posts, people have been satisfied with their FR from SNC.
It also depends on your personal circs on how much you are prepared to flex with them, I suppose – and your attitude to/appetite for risk (better to accept a lower offer to have it settled now vs take to FOS and wait, and risk potential for liquidation in the meantime etc): but when you have an offer, come back and ask on here, maybe?
Joey says
Hi just wondered if anybody had been made to wait the full 8 weeks by SNC then to be told the complaint has not been upheld? Or do they only string the 8 weeks out to the last day if it has been upheld
Rose says
This was what they did with me *but* I made a complaint last spring, and it seems that they are being more amenable to resolution this year, so you might not have the same experience.
Christina Wynne says
I’m wondering the same. I am coming up to 7 weeks wait. I also have been blocked from logging into the dashboard.
Simon Ashford says
Same here, been waiting over 7 weeks now, SNC and JD Williams are the only ones left I havent heard back from yet. JD have not even acknowledged my original complaint.
H says
Hi Sara, not sure what do to about MyJar, my complaint was not upheld despite me truly believing it should have been and cant escalate to FOS as they are now in administration. Not really fussed about refund but would like the multiple back to back loans removed from credit file, will this happen automatically now they are in administration or what else can i do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may be able to appeal their decision? Have you asked?
I don’t know what the administrators are doing about Credit Reference Agency records. it is possible they may eventually delete them all.
And if you wait another 6-12 months by which time the administration is much further advanced, the administrators will no longer reply to queries from the CRAs… at that point you can ask the CRAs to “suppress” any records that remain, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/
Leonard says
Hi,I’m a first time poster, but have found the forum very helpful and informative, and using the templates I have managed to receive redress from ferrutum and moneyboat. And today recieved an offer from safetynetcredit,which I accepted. And if it helps anyone here,today was 8 weeks on the dot that snc confirmed they had recieved my complaint. So it does seem that that are taking the full time allowed
HB says
Hi Leonard, if you dont mind me asking what was the offer they made? All interest ever paid?
Holly D says
Hi Sara,
I have mislaid the original statement from the Joint Administrators of Wonga detailing the amount of redress I would have been due (c£4000) and the amount that I actually received (£174.80). The original e-mail has been deleted. Is there any way in which I can get a copy of the original statement, or is it too late?
Sorry to trouble you with this, I would have liked a copy for my records.
Thanks for all the sound advice and assistance you have provided to me and to so many others.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga has now been liquidated and I don’t think there is anywhere you could get this information.
Dave R says
Must admit, I’m surprised that more of the lenders haven’t gone into administration with the pandemic and the avalanche of complaints from customers. Do you think we may see more go under later this year? Obviously want people to be able to get as much as possible back from these crooks – but stopping them from being able to lend again in the first place is not a bad silver lining.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The more lenders go under, the more business the remaining lenders pick up. It’s like musical chairs, if you can just hang on for long enough, you may do very well.
Pete says
Can anyone tell me what’s going on with Moneybox247.??
They originally stated April 2021 payout?? 🤥🤥🤥
SK says
On their website in the last administrators’ update this is the last line: “Further updates will be available in our next report to creditors, which will be posted to our website by 29 June 2021.” I think they made a mistake and it should read “by 29 June 2022.” 🤥
Pete says
Thanks SK. They were quick to take my payments each month tho. But not so quick now. It beggars belief.
H says
Finally had final response from SNC after 7 weeks and 6 days upholding my complaint with refund of all interest + 8% – HMRC so just over £2000.00. Very happy after also having £200 balance cleared and £550.00 refunded from Very last week. Now waiting for 118 Card & 118 Loan in addition to Savvy. Its crazy as this time last month I was extremely down about my finances and now Im very comfortable with my situation. Thanks on behalf of everybody in here Sarah!
H says
Also had CASH4UNOW refund of £100!
Rose says
How did you find Cash4UNow to deal with? I only had four loans with them altogether, so I am weighing up whether it’s worth taking the time to put in a complaint (had three defaults in the six months before they first lent to me, multiple late payments showing, and at least six other short term loans at each time, so I am aware there’s a possibility a couple of loans will be upheld, but weighing that against the distress I feel when making a complaint – it’s like reliving it all over again :-() or whether just to be glad they’ll drop of my credit record in the next year, and leave it at that.
H says
I only had 2 loans from them but they agreed if they’d have seen my credit file they would have not lent in the first place. refunded interest and charges and removed all records from credit report, well worth doing and only took c4 weeks to respond.
Mike_p says
I only had one loan with them and they gave me a £25 payment as a gesture of goodwill so it’s worth a try. What do you find distressing? It only takes a few minutes to type out a complaint and you can just delete the reply if they say no (I just copied and pasted one of my other complaints and changed the details)
Lee says
Just dealt with cash for you. Offered me £50 goodwill gesture on 2 loans. Total interest paid was £260. I counter offered and said meet me halfway at £140 and they accepted in less than 24 hours via email.
Danny says
Hello
How long did it take for safety net to get the money to you?
I sent them bank details on Saturday morning.
Thanks
H says
Hi, i think they pay out every Friday 👍🏼
Tall Paul says
Hello Sara,
SafetyNet Credit have missed their deadline to give me their final response to my claim for irresponsible lending. Is there anything I can do to follow this up?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone them up ask ask them.
H says
I went on live chat and told them deadline was up, email came through later that day.
Tom says
hi, I sent an affordability complaint to safetynetcredit 8 weeks ago today and haven’t heard anything back yet, is it 8 weeks from the day I sent them the message or 8 weeks from when they confirm receipt of the message?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
from the day you sent it. Tall Paul (above) has reported this today too.
H says
I went on live chat and told them their time was up and it came through later that day :)
Tom says
thanks for the reply, currently on live chat and the person is claiming they still have 2 more weeks to give me their decision even though I sent them the message on the 2nd of June which is def 8 weeks ago today, what a farce, hes speaking to his supervisor now
H says
The most annoying thing of all is that they will have the decision, whether it is 2 weeks away or not, they just take until the very last day to reply just for the sake of it
Tom says
yeh agree, its very annoying, they shouldn’t be allowed 8 weeks really, ridiculous length of time, could understand maybe 5 weeks. They’re now saying my complaint was registered on the 3rd of June which is 8 weeks 2mrow, I think they’re lying tbh as message was clearly received on the 2nd of June but hopefully they send me their decision 2mrow
H says
Good luck with decision Tom 👍🏼
Grant Cooper says
thanks, silly me, didnt see his comment directly above lol
Tom says
safetynetcredit the biggest bunch of cowboys ever, filed my affordability complaint on the 2nd of June, spoke to someone on live chat yesterday, they initially said my complaint was registered until the 21st of June so they still had a few weeks left, I proved him wrong on this by showing him the date I sent the complaint in, he then spoke to his supervisor who said my complaint was registered on the 3rd June (8 weeks ago today), today comes and still no email from them, so I go onto their live chat again, this time the guy says they actually sent me the outcome email on the 27th (2 days ago) which is clearly a lie or they’ve sent it to the wrong person, if they had actually sent an email on the 27th why didn’t the guy or his supervisor tell me this yesterday on live chat lol, I’ve then asked the guy to send me the email again just now and he comes back with an offer of a refund and asking me if I want to accept it there and then without reading the email response, really weird
Sara (Debt Camel) says
urghhh – so what was the offer?
Tom says
they offered me a refund of £450 and removal of the missed payment markers on my credit file, I have an outstanding balance with them of £411 so I’m assuming he meant they will clear my balance and send the £39 to my bank. I told him I will need to wait until I’ve read the email before accepting anything, he said he will get it sent to me again, that was about 40mins ago and still no email been received thus far
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you know how much interest you have paid to them?
Tom says
im not entirely sure, trying to find this information out right now, they still haven’t sent me this email either almost 3 hours later
Tom says
just spoke to someone on live chat again for the 3rd time today asking where this email is and apparently they’ve all gone home for the day, unbelievable
Tom says
they finally sent me this email, the offer is they will wipe my outstanding, send me £450 refund on top of this + remove all entries from credit history, the numbers are as follows, can you tell me if this looks fair
Total amount borrowed – £3483.21
Interest added – £778.89
Total repaid – (£3850.97)
Amount written off – £0.00
Outstanding balance – £411.13
Interest (to be written off) – £103.02
Outstanding balance minus interest – £308.11
Total amount repaid – £3850.97
Amount applied to funds borrowed – £3175.10
Interest repaid – £675.87
8% interest added – £103.32
HMRC 20% deduction – (£20.66)
Redress due – £758.52
New outstanding balance after redress applied – £0.00
Amount written off from your balance – £308.11
Redress to be sent to you – £450.41
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you think any of the numbers are wrong (the most important ones are Total amount borrowed – £3483.21 and Total amount repaid – £3850.97 which you should be able to verify from your bank statements) then that looks fair.
Harvey says
Accepted safetynetcredit offer on Monday told it would be in my bank by today but not there as of yet, how have other people found their refund timescales?
Tom says
this doesnt surprise me at all after the palava I went through asking them to send me their complaint email response, I imagine you might get it at the very last min today before close of business. Ive just accepted their offer, can you let me know when you finally get it so I know what to expect, cheers
Rose says
Safetynet seem to take 7-8 days, based on my experience and that of others I’ve asked about: but in these cases, it was just “processing payment” rather than actually telling us when to expect it. I have found them receptive (but, in my case, it was following FOS adjudication, so this may be way) to questions and helping resolve problems, though, so you might have joy with them on email to the complaints address if you want to know where your redress is/when you might receive it.
Victoria says
Hi All, just thought I’d let anyone waiting for a refund from Safetynet Credit know that although I was informed that the refund would be with me on the 30th July (today) I have not received anything. I called the complaints department and was informed that it ‘could’ take up until 7pm tonight for it to be in my account. I informed them that I was not told this when I was given the date of the refund. They just kept repeating the same thing that it was up to their close of business. So hopefully I will receive the money soon. Just some information for anyone in the same predicament.
Dave says
Exactly the same scenario as yourself, will be interesting to see what 7pm brings otherwise we will be ringing them again tomorrow!
H says
I am in the same scenario, im guessing they will do a payment run to all those who have accepted this week at the same time at some point today. (dont be suprised if this is at 6:59pm)!!
Dave says
Just gone in at 17:08.
Victoria McAleer says
Mine has just arrived in my account. Never heard of a company doing this before but I suppose that’s the type of company we’re dealing with.
H says
Just got mine 17:46
Tall Paul says
SafetyNet are simply ridiculous… I am trying to phone them regarding a claim but the support centre is closed, even though the website says otherwise. The livechat is completely useless with some guy named Zunair, being completely useless. If anyone is even thinking about loaning from this company, then please think again…. detest SafetyNet with a passion
Claire says
I started a claim with Lending Stream on the 8th June I received the loan details two weeks later. This Thursday with only 5 days to go I received a final response with a great offer . I have responded via the link and I have not amended bank details as they are correct does anyone know how long I should expect to wait before the payment is my account
Lee says
Hi. Has anyone recently complained to ‘Cash ASAP’. As not heard anything back. Do they reply in the 8 weeks and do / did they make offers?
Would love to know how others got on with is company and how successful they were?
Regards
Ranger3306 says
Hi Lee
They where the only company that didn’t pay redress and admit unaffordable lending to me!
They where very aggressive and rude (when they did reply)
They actually threatened to take me to court for fraud as I didn’t tell them I had numerous other loans!
Even thought the emphasis is on them to do proper affordability checks under fsa rules!!
My guess the way there acting like they don’t give a damm they will be next to fold!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They often say this to people. There are a few lenders that behave like this. But if you send your complaint to the Ombudsman, no one has had any problems, they seem to be just bluffing to get you to give up.
They have been doing this for years – it’s not a sign that they are about to fold.
Chris says
The 247Moneybox administrators are really taking the micky now. We should have heard something from them by the end of June, that was the date mentioned, yet, nothing from them in July and here we are in August and there is still nothing, not even one email to let us know what is going on or confirm our bank details which they should have done by this time. If there is some kind of a delay, it’s fine but they could at the very least send an email to let us know where things are at, even ICL did that much at least.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a new progress report filed at Companies House: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05671281/filing-history.
It looks as though the manual review process of appeals from people about the numbers of loans upheld has taken longer than expected. That latest repor says they hoped to complete by mid July. After that they hope to sell the remaining loans book.
The eventual payout is expected to be small.
PJH says
Chris. They originally stated April. Which is even more of a joke. They just spanning it out for the maximum time possible cos the authorities are too soft to do deal with it. All those people affected like you and I will just have to wait No choice in matter. It beggars belief.
David says
Good morning
I was hoping to possibly get your guidance as to whether a friend of mine has reasonable grounds for a complaint please? I believe they used lending stream.
The loans she has taken out are as follows.
4/08/19 £600, paid on 24/8/2019 £700
24/08/19- £600, paid on 25/1/2020 £1176
08/09/19- £120, paid on 25/1/2020- £212
27/09/19-£60, paid 25/1/2020- £107
1/11/2019, £90, paid 02/03/2020- £158
26/11/2019, £130, paid 05/04- £240
28/12/2019, £150, paid 05/04- £252
30/01/2020, £150, paid 30/01/2020- £150
01/02/2020, £150 paid 05/04- £219
02/02/2020- £280, paid 05/04- £317
04/02/2020- £190, paid 05/04- £273
She made extra payments on some of the above in order to try and mitigate interest. However, this led to more borrowing. Her credit file is very poor.
She has advised that they asked for access to bank accounts during some of the applications, however that was just for the account she was paid too. If they read through the Statements, they would have seen that the full amount received was transferred to a different account each month (I believe the account the payday loan was paid to), so her balance was always zero.
Kind regards.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a lot of borrowing. If they don’t make a her a reasonable offer, i suggest she sends the complaint to the ombudsman.
I haven’t seen any Ombudsman decisions on cases where LS used Open Banking to check a loan was “affordable”. This has only been done more recently and any cases haven’t yet gone through.
But if they only looked at the bank account her salary went into, then that is obviously a good check that on what she earned. But in her case it would have said nothing about whether a loan was affordable or not. So I don’t think this would be a good excuse for LS to reject her complaint.
David says
Many thanks for your reply. I will ask her to complain to LS and then to the Insurance Ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Complaints should go to the Finacial Ombudsman
Tall Paul says
Well, just to follow-up, I just made a complaint to the financial ombudsman because I was unhappy with my delayed and much chased after final response from SafetyNet…. Redress amount is zero but they agree to irresponsible lending.
What a horrible little company they are.
Tia Thomas says
Good Morning
Has anyone ever made a claim to H and T Pawnbrokers regarding a payday loan and if so how long did they take with the whole process.
Thank you
John says
Hi, I have an affordability complaint with drafty. They have until the 12 of august for the 8 weeks response. They are clearly leaving it until the last possible moment. Is this a good sign for winning your complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It isn’t a good or bad sign. It probably just means they respond to all complaints at the last moment.
John says
Ok thank you. I feel I have a strong case as they upped my credit line 4 times over the years when the account was clearly poorly managed and all the while credit rating was poor so fingers crossed.
Ruth says
Hi
I’ve just had an email from the FOS regarding my complaint with 118 Money – they recommend that any money i received from loans should be added up and if I paid more than I received this should be refunded along with 8% simple interest – I paid £2355 more than I received in loans – does this mean this is the amount of redress that will be due?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I paid £2355 more than I received in loans
when you say “I paid” is that the total of the cash payments you made to them? Or does it take account of the settlement amounts paid from any top up loans you had?
When you say “More than I received” are you adding up the total value of the loans? or the cash amounts you received?
Ruth says
Hi
£2355 is the amount I have paid back over the amount of the loans which has also been paid back. I had 2 loans straight after one another with no top ups. I still have a balance of £328 to pay. ‘More than I received’ is the amount of cash I received for the loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, the numbers are much easier to work out if there is no top up loan. From what you have said, it looks as though your balance should be cleared and you should get £2355 refunded.
Also any negative marks should be removed from your credit record – if there are any.
Ruth says
Hi
Is the overall total or would 8% be added on top? Each loan was over 24 months and were straight after each other
John says
hi, wondering if anyone knows or has heard anything regarding MyJar, I put in an affordability complaint way back in Feb and haven’t heard anything back directly from MyJar or Harrisons (the administrators) since about April which didnt say anything specific about my complaint.
Hayley says
Hi
I used the template to complain to safety net. They agreed that they irresponsibly lent during a good few years. The total amount I repaid was £12,134.11.
They are willing to repay me back £2,009. Is it worth going to the financial ombudsman with their decision. This seems ridiculous to me. Any advice is welcome.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you add up how much you borrowed?
IJ says
Hi everyone,
Looking for some advice please.
Sent a template to Mr Lender who acknowledged my complaint and asked me to confirm my account details on the same day which I did.
Heard nothing from them and then sent my 8 week email yesterday. The replied stating they had sent me a letter which I had not received asking me to confirm the below information:
In order for us to investigate your complaint thoroughly, we politely ask if you could please provide your answers to the below questions;
Which loans do you believe were unaffordable?
Please could you elaborate on the difficulties that were caused as a result of these loans?
Please could you confirm the reason as to why you believe these loans to be unaffordable?
What would you deem to be a suitable outcome to your complaint?
Once we have received this information we will be able to proceed accordingly.
This is not what they said in their original email.
How do I proceed further? Do I supply them with information?
Thanks
IJ
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should reply that you didn’t respond to their letter because you never received it – but even if you had ignored it, they should still have considered your complaint and responded within 8 weeks.
Do you know how many loans you had from them?
Geoff says
I have received an offer from Cashasap for repayment of interest on some of the loans that I had, totalling £320.59. They are the starred ones in this list
Loan Reference 804970 764205 685946 *661366 *653654 *455581 *372902 *353092 336207 *321825 305784 *293764
Status Early Early Early Early Settled Settled Settled Settled Settled Settled Settled Early
Application Date 20.07.20 20.04.17 19.11.26 19.09.29 19.09.10 18.07.03 18.01.24 17.12.18 17.11.20 17.10.30 17.10.01 17.09.09
Repaid date 20.09.15 20.06.25 20.01.16 19.10.22 19.09.13 18.07.13 18.02.15 18.01.15 17.12.15 17.11.15 17.10.15 17.09.15
Amount borrowed 500 450 450 450 250 400 400 375 350 325 325 300
Interest paid 220.74 207.13 140.63 73.89 5.96 31.78 69.92 83.42 69.52 41.32 36.15 14.3
I don’t have any bank statements & so on so wanted to know if it’s worth me taking it to the FOS
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is hard to see what is going on there as all the formatting has been removed and some of the dates don’t make much sense.
But these were loans from 2017 to 2020? They are listed in reverse date order, so the most recent first?
And they are refunding some loans where the interest rates were low?
Geoff says
hi Sarah, thank you for responding.
There were 12 loans from 09/2017 to 07/2020 (dates are in Yr/mt/day format above. They are only repaying the interest where the loans were close together.
“We looked at your borrowing pattern and the size of the repayments that you needed to make. While you never borrowed from us straight after repaying a previous loan, the refunded loans are those that were taken within a reasonably short proximity of each other as well as requiring higher amounts to repay each month, which sometimes exceeded £450. The remaining loans were taken much further apart from each other and required smaller monthly payments to repay as the repayment schedule was spread over 3 months and would have had a more manageable impact on your expenditure with most payments being slightly above £200.”
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you list the loans in order and work out the number of days between them, I think that loans 2,3,4,5,6,7,10, and 13 were taken less than a month after the previous loan was repaid. And loans 11 was taken a few days over a month later.
And with one exception (loan 9) all the loan amounts were the same or higher each time, suggesting an increasing problem with borrowing.
You will easily be able to get bank statements going back to 2017, even if you closed the account.
The question is whether you can get them to up their offer so you can have a good compromise and not need to go to FOS.
If you would be happy with an extra £207, you could go back and say you thinkg FOS would also refund loans 11 and 13, and may refund loans 11,12 and 13. But in the interest of a speedy settlement you will be happy to compromise if they just also include loan 13 (the most recent one) in the refund list.
Geoff says
Thanks Sarah for the advice. I’ll give it a try
Geoff says
HI Sarah – that worked a treat and they have agreed to the increased amount as you suggested, so a complete result.
Many thanks for your time and advice