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?
IJ says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your reply.
Over the years, I must have had 5-10 loans roughly.
I kept telling them via email to read the email thread which they repeatedly ignored and I advised them I would take them to the FO. I told them I never received any mail but they still want me to answer the above questions and then they will proceed. Even though this was their response to my initial complaint:
Dear Ian
Thank you for your email.
In order to verify data protection and to ensure we are speaking to the account holder we will require you to confirm two pieces of information from the personal detail’s list and one piece of information from the account details list.
We require confirmation of the above to allow us to comfortably provide this information to you as our final responses can disclose highly personal and granular account information.
Please bear in mind that if you have moved address since you last spoke to us then it would be helpful if you could provide both the address we hold on file, so that we can verify data protection, and your new address so we can ensure any correspondence sent does not go to the wrong place.
We will not take any further action until we hear back from you with the information requested above. Please be advised we have not logged your correspondence as a complaint as we are unable to do so until we have verified that we are dealing with the account holder.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK then I suggest you reply that you had a lot of other payday loans which they should have seen from your credit record, which shows the problems you had and how the Mr Lender loans were unaffordable. Say you have asked them for a list of the loans you have from them and how much interest you paid on each and when they send you this you will be able to confirm what you think an acceptable solution would be.
Add that your complaint goes to FOS in a week if they have not made you a satisfactory offer by that point.
IJ says
Hi Sara,
I replied as you advised:
I can confirm the address is correct however this does not answer why you haven’t considered my complaint and responded within the 8 weeks.
Over the years, I have had a lot of other payday loans which you would have seen from my credit record, which shows the problems I had and how my Mr Lender loans were unaffordable. I have had to take an IVA because of these loans.
I would like a list of all the loans I had from you including how much interest I paid on each of them. From this, I will be able to confirm what I think is an acceptable solution
If you fail to make a satisfactory offer by 1pm on August 12th 2021, I will take the complaint to the FOS.
IJ says
This morning I had this reply:
Please accept this response as acknowledgement of your complaint.
Please can you provide us with the following information
The date you became aware you had cause for complaint about your loans.
How you became aware you had cause for complaint about your loans.
We will require this information before we begin our investigations into your account as we need to determine if you have complained about each loan within the time limits outlined in DISP.
We will send our final response to your complaint no later than eight weeks from today’s date.
Please make sure that we have the most recent and up to date postal address for you on file as we will only hold the address on file that you provided at the time of your loans with us.
For more information, please click on the link below which will direct you to our internal Complaints Policy.
Mr Lender Complaints Policy
In the meantime, if you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us by replying to this email
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that sounds like an auto response, I don’t think anyone read what you write. Send it to FOS if it gets to August 12.
Frank says
Hi Sara,
Do you know if there are updated contact details for MyJAR to make a complaint or affordability claim? (Although I suspect I may have missed the boat for this). I have emailed the MyJAR contact email a couple of times over the last month and have not had any response. Can I press ahead with asking the CRAs to suppress loan information in this scenario? Or will I be unsuccessful if the Company is still going through the administration process?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
claims should be sent to myjar@harrisons.uk.com – was that who you emailed?
Frank says
I tried the usual MyJAR help email address as it said on the website to use that.
Thank you very much – will forward on to the address you have provided.
Many thanks
Luke says
If you wonder what happens with 247 moneybox redress:
Assets
Cash at Bank 6,341,630
Book Debts 73,785
Loan book collections 7,322,483
Loan book sale Unknown
Corporation Tax refund Unknown
Other realisations 38,763
13,776,661
Less:
Administrators realisation fee (30% fixed fee on realisations) (4,042,998)
Trading costs (including IT) (1,875,000)
Legal Costs (250,000)
Other costs (350,000)
Irrecoverable VAT (1,200,000)
Administrators fees – manual redress challenge population (4,500,000)
(12,217,998)
Surplus / (deficit) available for unsecured creditors 1,558,663
If I understand it correctly there is 1.5m left from 13m after mostly after admin costs.
It is all done for customers…
SK says
I asked for an update and had the following response from Harrisons:
“Please note that any potential dividend remains uncertain at this time, but it is likely to be very modest. Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide customers with a more accurate estimated dividend, as the quantum is not only dependent on the outstanding legal advice we are awaiting, but also the final level of agreed claims and final level of realisations (which are yet to be completed).”
I wonder what sort of legal advice they are awaiting…
Rose says
Received an email rejecting my CashEuroNet claim today – honestly, I am not surprised: I only had one loan, and had only paid £132 in interest before I defaulted on it. But if others are waiting for news from the administrators, this may now be on the way (it’s 11 months since I made a claim). Iirc, Pounds to Pocket was the name of the lender. I don’t think it’s worth my time appealing it, though I would argue, with three defaults on my record from the previous six months, and eleven other short-term loans at the time, they oughtn’t to have lent to me – because, whilst I could put the evidence for this together, and write back to them, it strikes me that there’s easier ways to earn 45p!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
lots of chat about emails just received on the QQ administration page, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-casheuronet-administration/. That is the best place to leave commentsa and ask questions.
But lots of people have been winning appeals on QQ administration decisions. If you have the bank statements why not? It’s not the 34p you may get back, it’s getting the default removed from your credit record.
Lee says
Hi.
Just heard back from Cash ASAP 1 day before 8 weeks was up. Had 16 loans with them over a 17 month period
I calculated around £712 interest was paid in full. About 10 of the loans were settled early paid with gambling wins or other payday loans, credit cards.
Cash Asap got back to me with very odd initial offer of £345. They said they were looking at what was settled early and gaps between loan chains. They then picked 10 random loans to pay, ignoring loan 15 and 16 the ones I paid most interest on, they stated this was because there was 91 days between these loans being taken out. Despite it still being 16 loans in 17 month period overall.
Went back to them counter offered. Stated that I was willing to drop loan 1-4 and not request the additional 8% if they settled amicably with now for £532.84 ( to pay back the total interest on loans 5-16).
They then come back to me with an offer of £445. Saying they would pay me a further 50% on loan 15 and 16.
I have gone back to them and said I want at least £500 to settle or I am going to the FOS out of principle. Why 50% on loan 15 and 16? I also paid loan 16 late as I contacted them in Feb to make them aware I was struggling to pay this loan, but they still took a further £110 off me in payments. Meaning I had paid £123.50 interest on this loan.
Am awaiting their response. Cash. Asap definitely the worst payday loan company to deal with.
Lee says
Cash Asap just got back to me accepted the 2nd counter offer so am now getting £500 flat refund and removal of negative information from my account.
Worth haggling before going to the FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good result!
Christopher says
Anyone had any complaints upheld from quidmarket
Nats says
The Administrators of Piggy Bank seem to be taking forever. I’m sure covid hasn’t helped matters but has anyone heard any news from them recently? Is there a date they’re aiming for or anything yet? Thanks in advance
Mel says
Hi, I have a complaint in with them as well and I have heard nothing from them yet either
Ranger3306 says
Ok so I need some help :/
Lending stream initially offered me redress for just one of my 9 loans totalling £250 of £123.83
After disputing there offer and providing old bank statements they then upheld 7 of my 9 loans and offered just £361.31 redress for loans totalling £1885 something is seriously wrong here I think they have either made a mistake or are trying to pull a fast one
Number Loan account number 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 2017-10-08
Can anyone work out what should be paid?
Thanks again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you can’t work out anything from that – you need to know how much you paid to each loan.
John says
So drafty have failed to issue a final response on the 56th day? What does this mean now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you had a confirmation they received the complaint?
John says
Yes. They have stated on numerous occasions that final response will be on the 56th day. they stated 12/8/21
I was also told on the phone at 5pm this evening I will still get it today but they finished at 6 and no response
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone them up tomorrow then. So it will be a day or so late. Annoying but not something to worry about.
John says
Won my case with drafty. the original credit line was not accepted but I went after due to the spending habit using the credit line I should not have been given the 4 increases since 2017. Cleared my credit references and offered all interest plus 8% since 2017. It cleared my outstanding balance of £900 and given me a £481 refund. thank you 😊
Zoe says
Hi Sara,
I think the offer from SafetyNet is a bit off, what do you think? Any advice please before I go back to them? Really appreciate your help!
Borrowed: £5,255.25
Interest paid: £701.50
8% interest: £30.23
Amount written off from your balance:
£560.00
Redress to be sent to you:
£165.69
In line with HMRC guidelines, the HMRC figure shown above has been deducted from original 8%
Thank you!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume you think the Borrowed figure is correct.
And that your balance is £560.
Have you added up the amount you have paid them so far?
Zoe says
Thanks for your reply Sara. The contents are too large for me to copy over. The balance is £560.
The amount borrowed is correct. Interest paid £701.50
Offering to wipe £560 balance and pay me a redress of £165.69.
I may be wrong but I feel like the 8% is wrong.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the interest paid is correct?
The 8% is calculated from the point they owed you money. If there were gaps of over a month where you weren’t borrowing from them, then there should probably be more 8% interest on the refunds owed before that point. But if you were pretty much continuously in debt, then you will have only gone into “credit ” with them fairly recently. I can’t guess what the right amount is but it may be correct.
Dani says
Hi everyone
I posted here a couple of months ago about 247 Moneybox and how I was struggling to communicate with them. I am still to hear anything tangible from them and am fed up with them now. Does anybody know what the chances are of getting the accounts surpressed from my credit files if I go to the credit agencies directly? Not sure if anybody has done this and had any success of if I should wait it out a little longer.
Thank you.
Dani
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My inclination would be to wait.
Dave R says
I raised them as disputes with the credit reference agencies and when 247 got back to them, they actually instructed the CRA to delete the information…
Pete says
Great news. Just got a nice £1800 paid into my TSB account after complaining to them about unfair interest charges on my overdraft. Was refunded every penny I have paid to them since opening my account. So basically my overdraft was free. Not charged for. It just shows that if you don’t ask. You don’t get. Never in a million years did I think I would win this complaint but did. That £1800 really will help me out.
Suzzy says
That’s great news.I was dragging my feet making a claim with Oakam. I will get on to it this week as you never know what may come put of it.
Jen says
Oakam were quite good and pleasant to deal with. I heard back just before the 8 weeks was up with one of the loans out of 3 upheld (which was the biggest one), even though they were statute barred, all interest going to be refunded plus the statutory 8%. Says it will take up to 14 days for refund, day 4 now so hopefully come soon.
Chris says
Hi Pete,
Was wondering how long TSB took to respond to your complaint, I complained about unreasonable fees and overdraft fees about 3 weeks ago and no response as yet.
Thanks
Chris
Tom says
Hi Sara,
I know I am very late to the party, but is there anything I can do about getting Wonga loans removed from my credit record (short of waiting six years)?
I had a series of loans with them and on the basis of my recent experiences with other lenders would have almost certainly had affordability complaints upheld.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes – read https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/
Chris says
I have received a reply from Cash Euro Net upholding my complaint from QQ with redress amounts stated (I know that it will be a fraction paid out)
The debt was passed to Lantern a while ago and I paid it off last year. Does anyone know what should happen to the claim? Or do I just lose that money I paid them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think QQ will have taken into account what you paid when calculating the redress. But you will, as you say, on;y get a tiny % back.
Kurt says
Was wondering if anyone has made a complaint against the money platform??
Mike_p says
I did last year. They tried to make me feel guilty in their response by saying it wouldn’t be fair on their lenders to refund the interest. I took it to the FOS and they said that loan 5 out of 5 loans should be refunded. I’d cancelled that loan just after taking it out so their was no interest to refund.
Kurt says
Yeah they said to me they would take me to court for fraud if I went any further, sounds like a threat of them not wanting to pay out. Thank you though for your comment I will pursue via the fos.
Mike_p says
A few lenders say that but it seems to be a bluff as I can’t remember anyone ever having a problem with it. I’m not sure how it works work is they pursued it as surely it would be you fraudulently giving them money as interest.
Dave L says
Yes I have they were awkward throughout . Initially mentioned fraud upon submission of my complaint . Adjudicator found in my favour for three out of five loans. They rejected this and it went to ombudsman, ombudsman just upheld the last and biggest loan
Kurt Porter says
Haha yeah same thing to me. Thanks I’ll do the same.
Colin Brown says
Dear All,
What is going on with the financial ombudsman?
I have recently submitted several cases where I have proved and sent evidence to them that a loan was unaffordable beyond doubt, had terrible credit etc and I am getting cases back where they are not upheld. All that I am getting is that they did checks etc. Some saying that I had a salary of ££ and for that reason they took appropriate checks.
I’m saying to them just because of your income it doesn’t mean you could afford the loan. They are not even looking at bank statements and outgoings.
Marbles even admitted they didn’t do checks and offered £750 and investigator came back and said my salary was £35,000 all checks were due be despite I can prove it was not affordable.
I get the feeling they have new people in not understanding claims.
1 case was upheld because I had gambling transactions and it was deemed they should have seen this and not have lent to you.
2nd case said if I didn’t gamble I could afford the repayments.
What’s going on?
Cheers col
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have several claims for one or two loans and the loans were not very large, you had a decent salary and your problems were the result of gambling, you may not win many of these cases.
PH says
What you mean what’s going on? They’re making decisions on whether or not people have been given unaffordable loans and stuff. By sounds of it your just trying to get your money back you lost gambling. That not what Ombudsman is for. You could afford your loans but chose to gamble. Others got caught in downward spiral. Needed one loan to pay off another.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Actually the Ombudsman takes the view that gambling is an addiction. And if a lender should have been aware of it if they had made approproiate checks, then the loan should not have been given and is refunded.
Ruth says
Hi
118 Money have agreed with the FOS decision to redress both my loans – I’ve just received a text to say my loan is now paid off and in checking online I can see that the balance has been wiped – how long does it normally take to receive the actual redress?
Jon says
Hi Ruth,
How long did the FOS process take in the end please?
I raised a complaint with them in 17/06 and not heard anything since accept the for the generic email they send thanking you for submitting form.
Russ says
Hi Sara, I need some advise. I have about 20 pay day loans on my credit file over 3 years. I have submitted affordability claims and apart from lending stream who I had 11 of them with, the others are not for more than 2 loans with a lender, all around the £500 mark. Lending stream upheld half of the loans and they will be removed from my credit file, the others have rejected my claim but agreed to remove them from my credit file. Mr Lender, cash4unow and cashfloat. None of them have missed payments so is it worth having all of them removed or only some? I don’t want to remove them and my score goes down as I would lost credit history, so not sure what to do. What would you suggest I should consider doing, in general is it just better to not have short term loans on your file? I have a couple of credit cards which are well managed for the past few years so would still have some credit history. Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loans that have been repaid on time do not harm your credit score, indeed they may help it a bit.
Payday loans have an extra flag attached to them – some lenders – especially mortgage lenders – see that as big danger sign. but most mortgage lenders don’t usually care about payday loans that are over 3 years old.
Sorry there isn’t a simple black and white answer. Unless you are planning to get a mortgage in the next 3 years, you may decide you don’t care.
Harley says
Hi Sarah, Why do some of my previous payday loans that I have won irresponsible lending cases against, still show on my credit report on moneysupermarker but not my clear score one, where they have been removed, most over 6 months ago
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Moneysupermarket reports on TransUnion records. Clear Score reports on Equifax. It sounds as though the lenders have removed them from Eqifax but not TransUnion.
Who were the lenders?
Ruth says
Hi
If I previously had loans with Shopacheck is it still possible to put a complaint in?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes but sometimes Morses don’t seem to have the details.
Laura says
I’ve just received a final outcome on Friday from using the template from this forum from Morses Club – getting 8% interest on numerous loans refunded and the outstanding accounts I have with them written off which are currently with a debt collector. It’s took about 2-3 months but I got there in the end.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
good result!
Emma says
Has anybody had any payment from the peachy admins yet? Or any updates on how things are going with them…
Also what are people’s experiences with claiming back from cash converters I have just put in an affordability complaint with them.
Thanks in advance
Michael Butt says
The latest update was that the deadline to submit any claims as a creditor was 29th July and they intend to issue notice of dividend within 2 months I.e 29th September
Emma says
Ok thankyou for the reply
Subox says
I has an email saying end of august but as we all know that means nothing
jon says
I raised a complaint with the FOS on the 16/07 after rejecting Lending Stream offer.
I have not heard anything back since….is this normal, over 2 months and counting to be assigned to a case handler? Anyone shed any light on the current waiting times or anyone gone through the FOS who can share experience please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you had any confirmation from FOS that your complaint has been logged? Did you use their online form?
Jon Taylor says
Hi Sara,
I used the online form and received an email moments after submission that read:
Thank you for submitting your complaint form to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
In light of the government’s guidance around the Covid-19 outbreak, we’re having to work differently. It is likely that it’ll take us a number of weeks to respond to let you know your complaint has been received and allocated to a case handler – but we’re working hard to get back to you as quickly as we can. If you’re facing financial hardship, ill health or need to speak to someone urgently – please get in touch
Rose says
Hi, Jon,
I raised one about LS last November, and it got to the adjudicator in April of this year: more recently, though, with another lender, I raised it in June and it was picked up last week (so about two months) – so it’s either completely arbitrary, or they are getting through the backlog faster now. Hopefully you’ll hear soon.
Jon says
Thank you Rose!
Hopefully should hear back in a couple of weeks as mine is just over two months now!
Tom says
Hi Jon,
I hope you do hear back in a couple of weeks… but I would temper your expectations. I have only just started having case handlers assigned from complaints lodged 8/9 months ago… so be prepared to wait!
All the best
Jon says
Hi Ton,
Good lord haha that is a horrendous response time!
Be lucky to get anything back in 2021 by the sounds of it!!
Best of luck with your complaints!
adam says
Apologise if this has been raised a million times before, but I received this response when making a complaint against Money boat
” 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 CIFAS the fraud prevention agency. Any fraud marker may affect your ability to obtain credit with banks and other lenders in the future”
I realise this is mainly scare mongering to put you off ( it works) but are they allowed to do this? makes me not want to send my statements to them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is always a problem here about whether you want to start complaining about the complaints process – some lenders don’t provide email addresses, others routinely reject any cases about credit over 6 years old, some lenders always make these threats…
It is usually just simpler to focus on the heart of your complaint.
You don’t have to send your statements to them, you can just wait and send them to FOS. But are you more likel;y to get your complaint resolved more quickly if you do send the statements to MB? Hard to say.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have a had a big gambling problem, then you may be interested in this comment posted on the guarantor loan page https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/comment-page-68/#comment-441431.
The lender agreed they should not have given the loan and removed interest – the standard redress.
Liam took the case to the Ombudsman arguing that he had no way of repaying the balance remaining and produced medical evidence about his mental health and addicition to gambling.. FOS decided the lender should clear the balance.
Tom says
wondering if anyone’s heard anything regarding myjar/harrisons? Ive chased them up a few times in recent months but keep getting the same template reply just saying they dont know when they will get round to giving me the verdict on my affordability complaint
Neil Sillery says
If the other companies are any indication, it will be another 12 months at least. Gotta run up those fees for the administrators.
Kirsty says
Hi Sara,
My case is with FOS and the adjudicator has recommended that the loan was unfair lending and I should get any interest +8%. I had paid off so much of the loan originally before defaulting and it was sold to a third party (Lowell). I’ve since paid a settlement figure to close account as I was wanting to apply for mortgage- is the lender likely to take into account the money I spent settling the case even though it was third party?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, all the money you paid should be refunded. You should also have the default removed from your credit record by the lender and by the debt collector.
Peter says
I just had some success getting back £1800 in unfair overdraft interest from my TSB account. It was just a chancer thing.
So I then tried the same approach for my LLOYDS account that I swapped to TSB years ago.
Lo and behold. Just got £5000 approx back. I was in my overdraft for years and years and years. So basically having just got redress the overdraft was free for about 20 years.
Try it folks. It’s up to you.
Chris says
Hi Peter,
How long did it take with TSB as I have raised a similar complaint a few weeks back. Haven’t heard anything from them.
Cheers
Peter says
It was one week shy of their mandatory 8 weeks to investigate. I phoned them up to ask for update and later that day money was in my account showing as faster payment. Good luck.
Mel says
Hi, I have a similar complaint with HSBC! Sorry for stupid question but on what grounds did they uphold your claim and from when ?
I am just preempting them not upholding my claim, but I had loan, CC and OD that I couldn’t afford
Vicki says
How did you reach out to Lloyd’s? I have had crazy fees for unplanned overdraft payments and would like to try as at the time I was payday loan and credit card etc?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/. If you have been in your overdraft continuously for years (years not months) that is also a good reason to complain.
Nicola says
Hi Sarah
I had many payday loans with safety net credit and have a debt with them. That has been taken over by Lantern. Can I use the refund template and do I send it to lantern or safety net credit?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You send it to Safetynet credit as they made the poor decision to keep in lending to you.
What is the rest of your financial situation like now? How much do you owe Lantern and how long did you borrow from SNC?
CF says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for mentioning not to use Claim Management Companies – they just cost a lot and do not do anything beyond what your your free templates do.
Mike_p says
I used one for my first payday loan complaint before I’d come across this site, and have done all subsequent i=ones mysef. They are nothing but an email forwarding service, the only effect they had on my complaint was to slow down the correspondence between myself and the lender and I had to pay a large fee for the privelidge. It’s annoying to think I wasted momey on their fee but on the other hand if I hadn’t seen their advert it might mever have occured to me that I could complain.
CF says
I think you’ve made a great point that they raised a lot of awareness around payday loan complaints. It’s a shame they charge expensive fees for something you can do yourself. Now we have sites like Resolver.co.uk that are super helpful AND free. Good luck with your complaints!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Of course payday loan firms (and CF is a payday lender, I just removed the name!) could be helpful and include links to Debt Camel or Resolver on their websites.
And they could remove misleading stuff about taking payday loans helping your credit score, while not mentioning that they cause huge problems for future mortgage applications.
CF says
In most cases, complaining directly with the lender is the easiest thing to do, but now resolver has taken the place of misleading claim management companies which is amazing progress. As for the impact on mortgage applications.. I wouldn’t know, I’ve never applied for a mortgage before and I’ve never heard of payday loans impacting mortgage eligibility….
Sara (Debt Camel) says
see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-mortgage/
Paula says
Hello
Just wondered if anyone has had any success with making a claim against Quidmarket? I sent a claim 9 weeks ago which they acknowledged straight away and said they would respond within the 8 weeks but now on sending email chasing this up to the same email address getting no response
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you phone them up and ask.
Margaret says
I raised an affordability complaint with TFS loans in March. They quickly told me as it was over 6 years they could not look at it. I complained to Ombudsman and after disagree with the investigator it had been sent to Ombudsman. The loan finished in June 2015. Yesterday I got an update on my credit report to say TFS had removed account from my file. I thought that would have been done long before this or is it because a complaint has been raised?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The loan would normally drop off 6 years after any default date, or 6 years after the settlement date if there was no default date.
Debbie says
Hi can anyone tell me how long it took to receive payment into their bank once agreed on refund from safety net
Rose says
Once they’d asked me for my bank details, it took about eight days (including the weekend).
claire says
How long did they take to look at your complaint currently on just over 6 weeks
Debbie says
8 weeks and then 2 days for payment
Debbie says
It took 8 weeks exactly
Ruth says
Hi
If Morses say they can’t find any record of my account with Shopacheck is there anything else I can do or is that the end of it? I have no record myself as I moved house in 2019 and got rid of a lot of stuff as my last loan from Shopacheck was 2013
Laura says
Hi,
I don’t have the answer (sorry) but I am currently locked in a similar battle with Morse over a dot dot loans account. I used resolver to initiate the complaint and I’ve been hearing from Morse telling me they have no details (the last loan was three years ago). I’ve managed to locate a copy of my loan agreement in my emails so I have sent this back to them today.
Is it worth checking any old emails to see if you can locate any information that can help you?
Jack says
Hi Sarah,
I went through a bit of a rough time and have quite a few defaults on my Credit File. I’m going through them all now and asking for CCA’s and filing irresponsible lending complaints where I think there was irresponsible lending.
One particular default that I am unsure what to do with is Payday UK. The debt was bought by PRAC but under Equifax it shows the default reporting until December 2024 and under Transunion it shows the debt still being under PaydayUK and the default reporting until Dec2022.
I’ve just seen Payday UK are in a scheme of arrangement and they are not taking any future complaints. However, how do you rectify issues with your Credit File if the company is administration and not taking any future complaints?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you make a claim to the Scheme? Was this your only loan from Payday uk?
it sounds as though the default date on Equifax and transUnion are not the same – do you know what these are?
James says
Hi Sara,
If I take out a payday loan but cancel it before the 14 day period does it stay on my credit report?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suppose you could argue it shouldn’t. It isn’t something I have come across.
Mike says
Has anyone had any update regarding 247moneybox?
Chris says
Hi Mike. I’ve not heard even a whisper from them since the original contact last year to give me my auto-generated redress figure, which I presume everyone else who was deemed eligible for compensation got as well. They haven’t even updated their https://harrisons.uk.com/247-moneybox/ website with any fresh info.
It’s saying the same thing and giving the same dates that are, in fact, now out of date, eg “further updates will be available in our next credit report which will be posted to our website will be posted by the 29th June”….blah blah blah.
We’re quite obviously well into September now and this has not been updated and their latest credit report was in fact published back on the 5th of July.
They really do seem to be giving us the run around here. 247moneybox is the only outstanding creditor redress I have left that has not yet been paid up.
I thought ICL were bad but even they finally paid up a few months ago and at least they made SOME contact in between, not much, however, their very occasional email updates were appreciated. But 247moneybox have beaten their “let’s keep them waiting as long as we can and not bother contacting them” record by a mile and I applied to both of them around the same time. Thanks.
Luke says
Hi,
Don’t even count on it. I got message back not long time ago with link and login details to Harrisons (Administrators) website and there is a document with costs etc.
There was ~ 13.7m from assets and so on, and “so far” costs related to administration 12.2m. What and wild wild west…
John says
I cant search for Lending Stream on the Ombudsman website. How can I lodge a complaint against lending Stream if they dont appear in the search box?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Try Gain Credit, their company name.
Mike_p says
If you use their complaint form you can type anything into the name box:
https://help.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/help
Christopher taylor says
My case Is against Morses club/ shpoacheck for 6 loans taken out with them, at present it is with the ombudsman and the ombudsman have replied saying they have all the information regarding these 6 loans but state I had taken out 11 loans and are asking me for information regarding these other loans which I do not have. Morses / shopacheck are saying they they do not have the information on these other loans So I wonder where the ombudsman have got the basic information relating to these other loans from ,I wonder if anyone else out there has found themselves in this position.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are they earlier than the 6 you have records for?
Christopher taylor says
I presume they are .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I suggest you go back and say that you don’t have any details on these loans, you assume they are earlier, but you would like the length of your borrowing taken into account when assessing which loans should be refunded.
This may mean that you don’t get a refund for the earlier loans but you get a refund for more of the 6 you do have the details for.
Dean says
Just received email from Peachy, the dividend is £4.6585 p
Payments to creditors are expected to be made on or before 30 September 2021.
ryan says
Hello
Two questions if anyone knows;
Firstly piggybank (DJS limited) have advised they have requested the loans to be removed from my creditfile but they are experiencing a delay in doing this. They have advised to contact request transunion to remove them myself. Has anyone had Experience in doing this and if so what did they do and choose for the reason?
Secondly with the payday loan refunds there is tax charge of 20% I saw people previously mention they got this refunded? Can anyone advise me on this aswell.
Thanks
Ryan
Tom says
Hi Ryan
I had the same thing with TransUnion and DJS because when I selected the reason it didn’t let me go further…
I emailed them instead at consumer@transunion.co.uk – it worked.
ryan says
Amazing, thanks Tom. did you just forward piggybank’s email?
Ryan
Xubo says
Just had an email with the figure of my peachy refund, £10, it’s so unfair when you think how much money these companies have had from us
Holly D says
Hi Xubo,
Here we go again!! Claim against Peachy £259.58, amount actually received £12.09.
Over this whole sorry mess with other PDL companies, redress amounts agreed by administrators totalled £8,300, total actually received £320.
This is so unfair, people due redress from failed PPI providers received the full amount of redress.
Is there nothing we can do ?
John says
Hi everyone,
I had made a claim against peachy in 2019, they agreed to refund me £1,248.43, from which £973.64. is used to clear my debt with them, leaving a total refundable amount of £274.79. But this July i received and email from Peachy that they have appointed ACI Limited to manage my debt. Now today i received a calculation from Administrators, that i will receive a dividend from my £274.79 refund which is £12.80. The Question is – Whats is happening with the Debt of £973.64 which they sold to ACI limited? By initial agreement, that should be cleared Right?
Appreciate your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes that sounds right. Ask the administrators to confirm this is happening.
Are you currently making any payments to this? If so, stop!
LH says
I had this question too! Thank you. I’ll stop the payments also
Hannah Martin says
Hey – I had a debt with ACI for Uncle Buck. Then UB agreed that it was unaffordable lending and wrote off the debt. I contact ACI who were actually really helpfel and very prompt and they did a check and the removed the debt completely from my file and their system. Contact ACI as my delaings with them was very good – specialistsupport@assetcollections.co.uk – That is their email incase you dont have it. Good Luck!
Nats says
Has anyone had an update from the administrators of Piggy Bank?
E says
Would be interested to know this also!!! As I have not either.
VG says
Hi Sara,
MyJar and 247Moneybox are both in administration MyJar since December 2020 and 247 since November 2019. They have not responded to my emails about an update on my claim in months.
I just want them removed from my file as it is about 10 of them. Do you know if they are still responding to CRAs – Is it too early to contact the CRAs to remove them, or should I wait longer?
Andy says
I have the same issue with 247. I just need the 7 loans supressed from my file so I can go and apply for a mortgage as everything else is in order. I was going to wait another month or so and then bite the bullet and dispute them with the CRA’s, but if anyone has already had any joy doing this it would be great to know.
VG says
Hi Andy,
They have just sent me an update from the administrator’s update in May and it currently says this:
Unfortunately, the Joint Administrators are unable to request the removal of loan information from Redress customers’ credit records until the Redress exercise has been completed (this has been extended to end of November 2021 now).
They say “It may be prudent to contact your credit reference agency (“CRA”), as it is our understanding that some CRAs are deleting loan data once a company has entered into Administration. I would note that this is at the absolute discretion of the CRA and not within the control of the Joint Administrators”.
I suggest regardless of the outcome of the claim we wait until December to go to the CRAs if hopefully the redress process is completed by then.
Andy says
Hi VG
That’s great – thanks a lot for the update, I will definitely keep this in mind anf will approach the CRA’s at the end of the year.
Thank you
Liz says
I had myjar defaults on both my Equifax & Transunion credit files. I raised disputes through both CRA’s and within a week both came back to me and said MyJar agreed to remove the records from my file. They then disappeared from my credit file. I’d advise you try the same.
CO says
Hi Sara
A huge thank you for your help in me being able to claim back. 3k from Ferratum, 1k Lending Stream and a huge 18k from SafetyNet.
Hope everybody gets back what’s theirs.
Best regards
Chris
DC says
Good result from Lending Stream today on unaffordable loans taken out in 2019. They have agreed to refund £623, which was at the top end of my expectations. From complaint to settlement figure it took 2 weeks. Money was in my bank account immediately. Thanks as ever to Sara.
Bonnie says
Hi DC, I had similar and they said they would delete ‘adverse marks from my credit report’, did they say the same for you? Did they delete the loans entirely or what did the loan then look like on your credit report?
Rose says
Hi, Bonnie,
I had the same – they took them completely off my credit record (so there’s zero sign of them) and also removed the defaults associated with them, and the address information (so where it shows up that a lender has supplied your address details to a CRA) It took about eight weeks until it was updated at all CRAs.
Amy says
Sara,
My partner had numerous payday loans between 2018-2020, including from Sunny and Uncle Buck.
We know that he will not be able to claim money from those that have gone into administration, but is there a way to have them cleared from his credit report without having first making a claim? This is our priority as they have affected our ability to remortage.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sunny, yes probably, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/.
I don’t think UB is that far along in the process yet.
What about the other lenders? Have you made claims against them?
Amy says
Thank you for responding so quickly.
I’m going to help him make a claim to Lending Steam and to Provident, he had a couple of loans (at the same time as numerous successive loans from Sunny and Uncle Buck) but the latter was c.£2500 and he was clearly in a cycle of bad lending/arrears/financial difficulty. We haven’t actioned anything yet as only started to research – thank you for the invaluable advice on this site!
CHRISTOS says
Hi Sara, I want to make a complaint to Money Boat. I have a second loan out with them of £1,500. I paid the first one of £600 in full missing one payment and then covering it a week later.
I have not been able to pay any of the second one at all. I phoned them and said my circumstances have changed and if i could pay back the £1,500 in instalments without the interest and charges which amount to over £1,200.
They said they cant write off any interest, they weren’t very helpful,
If they had checked properly they would have seen i had other payday loans and normal personal loans as well as gambling transactions. Also would have seen my overdraft was to the full each month aprox £2k a couple of days after getting paid,
Do you think i should put an affordability complaint to them.
Thanks Chris
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think they should have checked carefully if you could afford a loan of £1500 if you had other payday loans on your credit record. And the facts that you had missed a payment on the earlier loan AND were now looking to borrow much more should have been a warning signal.
So yes, I think an affordability complaint is justified. MB always give a very aggressive reply, threatening to report everyone for fraud, but no-one has had a problem in practice when they send a case to te Ombudsman.
BUT what is the rest of your financial situation like? A large overdraft? What do your other debts add up to? Have you had help to stop gambling?
CHRISTOS says
Hi Sara, thanks for your reply.
Yes so overdraft is £2.2k each month mainly maxed after a few days.
Yes had 3 or 4 other payday loans each one between £300 and £600 at the same time as the MB loan.
A £3k loan from Bamboo which is in arrears plus a credit card and personal loan amounting to £10k.
I have set deposit limits on the gambling companies but no outside help.
I have had money back from Safety Net and Lending stream in the last few months.
So you think i should complain to MB.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes I think you should – that is a lot of bad credit borrowing which MB should have seen. Send the complaint to the Ombudsman if MB reject it.
Christos says
Thank you fot your advice Sara
Steve says
Hi
I had a lot of payday loans when I lost my job and although most have gone bust if I complain would the bad marks be removed from my credit file and how do I go about complaining if they have gone under
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you say who the lenders are? And also were these debts sold to a debt collector or not?
Steve says
Yes they were sold then my dad bailed me out , the debt collectors it was sold to were moorcroft debt recovery and arrow/cap quest and some others .They were sunny, lending stream, savy, mr lender and some others I can’t remember?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lending Stream, Savvy and Mr Lender are still going. You can make complaints to them if you borrowed several times from them or the loans were very large. Read the article above – the complaint goes to the original lender but if it is upheld, the lender will have to take into account the payments made to the debt collector. And as a bonus any defaults would have to be deleted from your credit records.
Sunny is in administration and it is now too late to make a complaint.
Lucy says
Hi Sara,
I have recieved a response from SafetyNet Credit for my irresponsible lending cmplaint, they state that as I opened the account with them in 2013, it is now time barred and they will not investigate and said that the FOS woudn’t either. I have borrowed money from them regulary up until recently so this has baffled me, what should I do please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did they raise the limit they would lend to you over the years?
Lucy says
Hi Sara,
Yes they did raise it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so you have two options.
You could send this to the Ombudsman straight away. FOS will usually look at these “older” complaints if you explain that you have only recently found out the lender should have checked for affordablity and until now you did not realise you had a cause for complaint.
Or you could go back to SNC and give them another push. Here you have to offer them a bit of a compromise – if you want the maximum amount you should go straight to FOS now. You could say “I understand that FOS will look at complaints where the customer has only found out they could complain in the last 3 years. So I expect if I go to FOS I may get a refund going back to 2013. Espcially as you increased my credit limit several times within the last 6 years. But in the interest of a speedy settlement, I am prepared to accept a refund of all the interest I paid from August 2015.”
I put August 2015 as that is about 6 years from when you complained. You can change this to any other date you feel would be fair.
If you try to compromise, do say your case goes to FOS within a week if they do not accept this offer. Don’t let this drag on.
Lucy says
Thanks Sara, I have sent a response to SNC asking for the compromise and said I will send to FOS if I dont hear within a weeks time.
I’m just wondering though as I don’t understand this one.. how if they were lending me money regulary whilst seeing my bank details which clearly stated I was in a DMP and using other PDL’s, how can they say this was timebound as its on-going irresponsible lending?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a FOS rule which says FOS only looks at what has happened int he last 6 years. But it also says OR if you have complained within 3 years of finding you had a cause to complain. And in any case FOS would probably treat all credit limit increases as “a new lending decision” by SNC.
So basically SNC are just trying it on but telling you that this is too old. And a LOT of these cases are won at FOS because, as you say, they could see your bank statements!
Lucy says
I see, thank you for that explanation.
Hopefully they will respond, if not I will go to FOS and am thankfully armed with evey piece of evidence to put forward.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
if you don’t have the details of how much you borrowed and when they increased your credit limit, you can also send them a Subject Access request asking for that information. But I would do that at the same time as sending to FOS, don’t delay the FOS complaint waiting for it.
Lucy says
Hi Sara,
So I’ve had a further reply from SNC as follows:
‘Unfortunately, time barring rule refers to the date of the incident being complained about ? in this case, the initial lend, as you have alleged irresponsible lending.
That date was over six years ago and as such, is indeed time barred’.
They’ve completely overlooked what I wrote in my letter and the fact that they increased my credit limit several times.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send it straight to the Ombudsman.
Tell the Ombudsman you do not believe it is time-barred as you have only found out in the last year [or whenever] that SNC should have made checks to see that you could repay the loan without having to borow agin. That until this you thought it was your fault for being bad with money, you didn’t realise the lender had done anything wrong so you were unaware you had cause to complain, so you have made a complaint with the three years period of becoming away you had reason to complain.
Add that in any case SNC have increased your credit limit within the last 6 years and you don’t understand why they said the only date that mattered was when the account was opened.
Lucy says
Thanks Sara I will do, I don’t know who there oversees complaints such as this, they should read the complaint properly before replying.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You are assuming they were trying to be fair and just didn’t read it properly… but they may just be hoping that you will give up if they say your complaint is time barred…
CHRISTOS MARTAKIS says
Hi Sara,
Money boat have come back and requested bank statements for he loan period. They also add they will report fraud if they find that the info was misleading.
Should I send them the bank statements, or should I say that I will only send these to the ombudsman if the case goes to them?
Thanks for your advice.
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are more likely to uphold your complaint if you send statements. But the choice is yours.
They tell everyone they will report fraud – so far no-one has has a problem if they send the case to the ombudsman.
Mike_p says
The FOS seems to be quite forbearing when it comes to borrowers understating their credit commitments. In this case for example the ombudsman says that moneyboat was at fault for not checking what the borrower had stated. There is no mention of fraud here at all
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/313976/DRN-2768338.pdf
ceebee says
Just wanted to share some good news and maybe provide some hope for those still dealing with Lending Stream. I made a complaint last week over 32 loans I had with them over 4 years. I’ve today – only 8 days later – received an offer! They’ve partially upheld my complaint and are refunding interest, fees, and the 8%, on loans 5-32, to the tune of £9,000. A much better result than I had been expecting! Keep at them everybody!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
great result and especially as it was so quick.
Phil says
Hi, I would love some advice on an offer of compensation from Lending Stream.
I have taken out 7 loans this year. I paid back the final one at the end of September.
Date taken out/ Loan Amount/ Interest paid.
“14/01/2021 £400.00 80.24
24/04/21 £650.00 348.1
16/05/2021 £150.00 14.4
18/05/2021 £230.00 57.73
09/06/21 £480.00 252.86
22/06/2021 £150.00 1.2
11/07/21 £430.00 238.41
In total I paid £992 in interest. They have come back and said only the final 2 loans were unaffordable, convinient as 1 of these was the smallest interest rate by a mile. so their offer was £241 I believe they should inlucde the bottom 3 in there which would bump it up to around £492.
The email has this line in it “This is our final response to your complaint. Please consider the settlement offer provided here as full & final.”
Does this mean they will not negotiate, so my only other option is to go to the ombudsman? Do you think the offer is fair or should I fight it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what were the “gaps” between the loans – the time taken from repaying loan 1 to borrowing loan 2, repaying loan 2 to taking loan 3 etc
Phil says
Wow thanks for the super fast reply.
For around 3 months I had 3 loans going at a time, when 1 finished within say 20 days I would be taking out another one. I took two loans out in May and June alone. But for some reason (becuase it would cost them more money) They have chosen not to include the first one in the complaint. My concern is if I go to the obudsman is it possible that I could end up with nothing? or Because SL have offered the £241 this cant be taken back now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It would be VERY unusual for FOS to decide a lender should pay you less than they have offered. Normally they don’t even look at the loans where a refund ahs been offered, just thos where you and the lender are in disput.
But here I suggest you ignore their line about being a final settlement and go back and say loan 5 should never have been offered as it was quite clear at that point you were reliant on their loans, so you will accept a refund of 5,6 and 7, or you will be sending the case to FOS. Say the case goes to FOS in a week if they do not accept this compromise.
Phil says
This is fantastic advice. Thank you so so much. I’ll update the thread when I have a response either way.
Costa says
Hi Sara,
Money boat did not uphold my complaint on the basis the second and bigger loan was only taken only a couple of months ago and that there is still an amount outstanding.
I said I would be willing to pay the capital element in 3 or 4 instalments but they do not entertain this and want the full balance of over £1,300 interest alone.
Should I just send the case to the ombudsman?
Also how do i do this? is it via email and do i also send the response I’ve had along with my original complaint?
Thanks for your advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds as though the second loan was large so definitely send this to FOS. Rejecting a complaint because the loan is recent is not reasonable.
The article above explains how to send the case to FOS, using their online form is easier than email.