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?
Aaron says
Hi, I’ve had a lot of loans over the passed 5 years, some of which are 247 money box and swift sterling I have logged into and can’t find any area of how to claim to the administrators ? Uncle buck web page has closed and just red it’s too late to claim back from them, and my jar re not getting back to me regarding my log in details, can I still send them an affordability letter ? Thanks, Aaron
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is too late to claim to 247, swift sterling, uncle buck.
Have you emailed myjar? at what address?
Aaron says
No I was just going to start with those as the article said I could still contact them if in administration, I will email my jar and the rest of the lenders I used this evening. I made a claim with provident this morning regarding satsuma loans, and this afternoon satsuma sent me a letter in the post regarding the closure of my account even though there is money still owed, can I still get a refund if they are doing that ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have just updated the article, I do this every few months.
re Satsuma and your Provident claim – yes you may still be able to get a refund if the one calculated is bigger than the amount they have written off. The Provident page https://debtcamel.co.uk/provident-scheme-claim-refund/ mis the best one to chck for what is happeinging in the Scheme.
Aaron says
Thanks Sara, when sending the template to the lenders, should I include details like my address phone number etc for them to be able to send me my loan information ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Has this changed from when you took the loans?
Aaron says
Yes my email address has changed, should I include my new details and address etc, and give my old email also for them to check their records ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, they may have 2 accounts for you but you want all the loans considered together
Yasmin says
Hi Sarah,
I had 3 loans with fernovo £200 24/06/2021- 30/09/2021 (repaid early)
£300 06/09//2021 – 24/09/2021 (repaid early)
£350 29/09/2021 – 17/12/2021-
They said they will remove their loans from my credit file and reduce my final payment on loan 3 by £30. I accepted because the offer of 3 loans being removed was enough. Do you think this was the right move or would i have got more from fos?
I have also filed a complaint with myfinanceclub, for £400 loan 11/04/2021 paid 6 days late but agreed with them on 25/05/2021. and £170 loan taken in november, paid 1 day early. At the time of my first loan, i had about 3 other loans and 3 credit cards close to their limit. At the time of the last loan I had 6 loans (6th loan was paid off just days after) and 4 credit cards close to limit. i have complained as they should really have checked my credit file to see how much debt i had. They have replied saying they will not offer refund of interest or remove the entries from my credit file and have asked me to notify them if i will take this to FOS. Would you say its worth pursuing this or a waste of time?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Fernovo – 3 not large loans, hard to tell at FOS – if you had pushed them you may have been able to get more than £30 off the last payment.
Make sure you have saved a copy of your credit record showing these Fernovo loans – you may need it later for other claims.
my finance club – when was this loan repaid?
Yasmin says
Thanks for the fast reply! Oh no, I thought final decision means they cant change it- it’s either accept or take it to Fos. Silly me!
The my finance club second loan was taken 11th November and paid back 26th November. My finance club only offers loans for up to 40 days so was a rather short term one and paid back 1 day early
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you will struggle with this one. There was such a large gap between the first loan and the second and the second was so much smaller.
When you have borrowed smallish amounts from different lenders you aren’t going to get a great deal back from these payday loan complaints. I think you need to take action that will actually get your finances onto a safe footing – and from what you have said that could well be a debt management plan where interest is frozen eg on credit cards and overdrafts. I suggest you phone StepChange 0800 138 1111.
You could also look at making complaints against any credit cards that increased your limit too high if you were already onlt making minimum payments. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/ but almost all these complaints have to go to the Ombudsman so they will not help you quickly. get yourself into a safe place with a DMP and yoyu can then pursue these complaints.
Yasmin says
Thanks for that! I was thinking of speaking to a debt help organisation. Does freezing interest on my credit cards etc affect my credit score?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes it does. But so does taking out payday loans and having maxed out credit cards! You need to clear your debts and then your score will rebuild. And that means interest has to be stopped.
Mike_p says
I’m on a debt managment plan at the moemnt and it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I put it off for ages thinking things would improve but of course they just kept getting worse, I’m now 4 months into it and have already paid off 10% of my total balance. I have defaults because of the debt management plan but these will drop offmy credit report eventually, and I’ve won one complaint already which will backdate one of the defaults to 2018 so that one will drop off in just over two years.
Peggy says
Has anyone heard from my jar it’s so quiet about it
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Nothing to say…
Is this for your son? Does he owe them money at the moment?
They are expecting to pay out 2p or less in the pound. unless he currently is paying them, I suggest he just forgets about this for a while. next administrators report is in February.
vicki says
Another one for MyJar,
I made an affordability claim in June, on 21st I received a response with the following:
Once we have completed the review and you are to be awarded redress, we will write to you. Your interest in redress has been registered.
You have a current loan with the Company, any redress that you may be entitled to could be treated in the following manner:
it may be that you will receive a refund of all or part of the interest and charges that you have paid after the appointment of Administrators.
It may be that any redress due will reduce the amount you have to pay in order to settle the amount owed to Myjar Limited.
It may be that you will be an unsecured creditor of the Administration.
Also that Experian confirm they will remove Myjar records
I followed up in November and got a response on the 24th stating that there is no further update at the moment.
On 15 December i received an email about the outstanding amount with MyJar (£113) from Lantern
Today I receive an email to say:
Please be aware that Lantern has purchased this account from Cash On Go Payday Loans, and have passed the account to BPO to collect the full outstanding balance and request that all payments be made directly to BPO.
Where does this leave me? Should I pay the amount? Should I explain I have an affordability claim in?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Cash on Go isn’t Myjar, it traded as Peachy.
Vicki says
Hi Sarah
My mistake – it is a Peachy loan, BUT, I had my claim accepted in January.
They said:
Based on the review of your claim, we have accepted your claim.
Ordinarily, the interest paid on the unaffordable loans would be returned to the claimant as compensation.
However, as you have not paid any interest on the loan(s) you have had, you are not eligible for a redress payment.
Based on the above, you are not considered an unsecured creditor but in resolution of your claim, any adverse information about these loans will be removed from your credit file in due course.
So would I still need to pay BPO??
The amount doesn’t add up either, BPO say I owe £113. In the claim letter Peachy said I borrowed £160 and paid £138.56 back.
Any thoughts as to what I should do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you go back to the administrators and ask why they did not remove the interest from the loan before they sold it.
Hannah says
Hey Sara, I have a current complaint being looked into by FOS for Credit Star – They have now sent me a default , can i stop this until the complaint has been dealt with?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume you haven’t been making payments?
Hannah says
No – The amount is £164 but i am waiting for FOS to confirm if this was unaffordable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then it’s correct that missed payments then a default are recorded, but these will be removed if you win your FOS claim.
Hannah says
Okay, but what if i don’t win then i have a default. What do you adivse?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were the repayments affordable? What is the rest of your financial situation like?
Hannah says
When i took out the loan i was in a sever financial state, i had taken out soo many payday loans in the short period and no i could not afford to pay it back.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case you didn’t really have an option except to not pay, did you?
Have you made complaints against a lot of lenders? It is much harder to win 5 cases against lenders where you borrowed twice, comapred to two lenders where you borrowed 5 times.
What about non payday loans debt – do you have other loans? credit cards/ overdrafts?
Bob says
filed affordability complaints with the ombudsman about 2 loans way back in March and pleased to say I finally received the verdict. They have ruled in my favour for both loans from 118 118 money and likely loans. The ombudsman say I should be refunded all the interest and charges I paid on these loans, been a long 9 months but finally have got there and im delighted they’re upholding my complaint.
Bob says
im still due a balance of about £600ish to myjar, filed affordability complaint way back in Feb and heard nothing since august, I emailed harrisons a few times and they kept replying with the same template below, anyone heard anything else?
“Following my previous email, there is no further update. The company is in Administration.
At present the quantum and timing of any potential redress is unclear. The Administrators are presently reviewing claims made in the loan portfolio in accordance with recognised industry guidance to establish the potential sums due to claimants. There is unlikely to be any further update to what we have previously emailed for some time.
Further updates will be posted on websites of the Company and the Joint Administrators. “
Emily says
Hello i have had a final response from cash ASAP, they have offered a £75 refund for a good will gesture, should I accept this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans and how large did you have from them? Do you sull owe a balance?
Solent says
Hi Sara
I have a history of taking out loans over an 8 year period. Multiple maybe 50 or more small amounts between 100-500. After checking my credit file for the first time in years, I have a couple defaults for small amounts I’m going to challenge from pdl. I’m not fussed about refunds I just want them removed from file.
The ones I’m worried about are the most recent ones early this and last year when I took out 5-10 pdl, Some back to back loans.
Do you think defaults and back to back loans are enough to argue affordability complaint?
I also have some incorrect information on my file which is my brothers, this includes defaults on two accounts but I haven’t corrected it as only just seen it.
Could I use this in my favour to say that shouldn’t of lent to someone with errors on there file? How do they know it wasn’t an error unless they did more checks?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to look at each lender separately. How much did you borrow from them? How ofer? were there back to back or with small gaps? Did any lender give you loans after you had defaulted on loan to them?
I don’t think you can argue that errors on your credit record were a reason a lender should not have lent – no lender could be expected to know that.
Solent says
Thank you for the reply Sara,
I’m not sure in what detail they look at your credit file as it stands on my file there’s 4 defaults on the account 3 not mine. Would they have looked on my file and each incident and seen the names. Either way with 4 defaults surely that would ring alarm bells?
Reading through the posts and articles you mention that tackling a single loan from a company is hard but what if your lending shows back to back loans and small gaps from a range of lenders. The reason for the loans was due a gambling issue, fortunately i no longer gamble!
‘If paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!’
for me my lending history fits this statement.
I had 23 in 19/20 loans in one year, ranging from 700-200. 6 from one individual company.
back to back and short gaps. plus a history of similar behaviour in previous years.
I had a defaulted loan from QQ in 2018 time, would this be beneficial when raising a complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Would they have looked on my file and each incident and seen the names.
lenders only get a summary of your record, I don’t know what they can see.
Either way with 4 defaults surely that would ring alarm bells?
the point is that a lender is not obliged to check your credit record in any detail. if the loan is small and not part of a long sequence.
but what if your lending shows back to back loans and small gaps from a range of lenders.
Unless the lender has to check your credit record, they may not even see this.
6 from one individual company.
Then a clear complaint to that company.
Which other lenders did you use 3 or more times?
I had a defaulted loan from QQ in 2018 time, would this be beneficial when raising a complaint?
That depends on the date of your payday loan. In 2018 – yes it’s very relevant – if the lender had to check your record.
In 2020 then the default is getting older…
Solent says
Thanks for the response Sara,
on the website is saying that they carry out a credit check, either hard or soft I would imagine. Hard would show previous loans, soft would show loads of searches. In a logical lenders mind would say check the file, what’s going on here.
I didn’t have more than 3 from another company in that period, I would try each company completing applications until one accepted me.
I did have 3 more loans pre this period with QQ and sunny so will look at trying to suppress them.
I will post my findings later in the year when I have gone through the complaint process
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is too early to suppress the QQ loans. Perhaps 6 months.
Solent says
I will wait 6 months as you mentioned in a comment on another article.
Can you contact CRAs for sunny, or are the admins still taking complaints?
Also for anyone with a safety net credit line account, my mark on file was suppressed by themselves without a complaint.
Whether this was due to them lending to me whilst I had gambling transactions prior and whilst using their service, I’m unsure but guess it would be the case.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can now get sunny loans suppressed.
SNC – send them a complaint and ask for a refund! they should not have lent to you if there was significant gambling showing on your statements.
Solent says
for anyone with a fernovo loan on their credit file or who was borrowing from them repeatedly or had gambling transactions.
I used them 4-5 times back to back and short period loans. They didn’t add any loans to my credit file. So I would say that they knew that they were lending to people who had vulnerability, affordability issues.
Jonty says
Hello Sara,
Thank you for the incredibly useful write-up on this. It’s something that has plagued me for a long time and found this very useful.
I’ve started to compile this over the Christmas break and as have that seen you’re still actively engaging on this I’ve a couple of questions relating to my own case..
I had 15x loans with LS between early 2017 and late 2018. Some months with multiple loans – Are these realistically too far back to proceed?
As noted on your article, I have managed to login and obtain the Loan ID’s, as well as TU and Experian reports where they are all present – Is there any other supporting evidence I should look to obtain before filing this and risk online details disappearing as suggested?
I only realised when logging on to the LS website / checking reports that one of these still has an outstanding balance of < £50 – Will this have a detrimental effect on the complaint and is it best to settle this before, or should I leave this as it is and wait for them to address it?
Hope you are enjoying the festive period!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
2017-18 is no problem at all. 15 loans sounds like a good case.
I think you have everything you need, just send a complaint. LS often make ok offers, but if you aren’t sure, come back and check here – you can’t change your mind after accepting an offer.
Make sure you have downloaded Experian and TransUnion reports. And if it has to go to the Ombudsman, at that point get a copy of your bank statements from 3 months before the first loan to 3 months after the last loan – you don’t need these now but will at FOS so get them organised as soon as a FOS complaint goes in.
Jonty says
Hello again Sara,
Thank you for your reply to my initial question – I have since received a response from the LS team in relation to the above complaint stating it is their “Final Response Letter” despite being only their first response to my initial complaint. As you said above, I’m not too sure what to make of the reply and feel that given the quick succession of loans 3/4/5 (£780 borrowed between 16/07/17 – 12/08/17) that these should also be considered. If you could please advise me on the following to see if it sounds right to you, as well as the best steps to next take it would be very much appreciated!
Many thanks in advance.
Jonty says
“We have completed our investigation and have attached the Final Response Letter with this email.
This email contains the settlement offer made to you. If you agree with this offer, then please click on the weblink provided in the
attached letter so we can complete the settlement steps at the earliest.”
During our relationship, you have taken 15 loans from us:
Loan Number / Amount borrowed / Date the loan was made
1 – £100.00 – 2017-01-28
2 – £150.00 – 2017-03-25
3 – £200.00 – 2017-07-16
4 – £450.00 – 2017-08-02
5 – £130.00 – 2017-08-12
6 – £150.00 – 2017-10-08
7 – £150.00 – 2017-12-16
8 – £200.00 – 2018-01-16
9 – £200.00 – 2018-02-14
10 – £250.00 – 2018-04-13
11 – £200.00 – 2018-04-16
12 – £100.00 – 2018-04-21
13 – £140.00 – 2018-05-18
14 – £130.00 – 2018-07-05
15 – £120.00 – 2018-08-20
Jonty says
Our decision
For loans 1 to 5:
After subtracting your expenses, you had more money than the amount you needed to repay us each month. You would still have money left over to spend on other things. This means that these loans were affordable.
For loans 6 to 15:
Although these loans were 6 to 15 affordable, we have thought about the number of loans and the time between each loan being taken out. 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. We will:
• refund the interest and fees you have paid us for loans 6 to 15
[….]
Here’s how we’ve worked out your refund:
Overpaid amount = £ 0.00
Fees paid = £ 38.33
Interest paid = £ 1118.63
8% interest = £321.76
20% mandatory tax withholding = – £64.35
Refund amount: £ 1414.37
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It looks a pretty reasonable offer to me. It is possible FOS might include loans 4 &5, but they may well not. Loan 3 is very unlikely.
It’s up to you if you want to send it to FOS and hope to get one or two more loans included.
Ross says
Has anybody received the second (smaller) second redress payment, from ICL? I believe it was due to be paid at some point, in December, but I haven’t received anything. Bearing in mind today is the 29th, I wonder what is going on? They have my bank details, as that’s how the first payment was made (I believe they’re not paying people, second time around, who they paid by cheque without bank details, this time around?).
sarahperring says
Whose ICL please
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Brand names: The Money Shop, Payday UK and Payday Express.
Sarah Perring says
Thank you I didn’t know we were expecting a second payment
Would be good to have one though!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
see https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-scheme-second-small-refund/ – it will be much smaller.
Ryan says
Hi Sara,
I’d like to start by echoing everyone else’s thanks at such a well written and helpful write up on this. It’s great to see the comment section still active and helpful also.
I’ve just sent a complaint to lending stream on their online form but wanted to see if anyone had advice on wether they think I’ll be successful or not.
Over 18 months I took out around 11 loans from lending stream ranging from the smallest of £50 up to the largest of £400. I’ll be honest it got to a point I was taking out loans to pay off others and have a little leftover. Hence the majority of them overlap.
I’m still struggling with other loans but I’m not sure if I can complain about those, I’m hoping that this complaint may help me pay some towards my others.
Ryan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So what are your other loans? You can win a 1 loan complaint if it is large…
And other types of debt, Credit cards? Overdrafts?
Ryan says
Hi Sara thanks for the fast reply. Do you think I have a chance with my complaint to LS then?
I also have loans with companies such as Loans 2 Go & Likely Loans both loans over £1000.
I have credit card debt and do use my overdraft a lot. I have an overdraft of £600, unfortunately I tend to use this every month to live off. I use pretty much all of it as the month goes on and then my wages pay it off at the end of the month and then the cycle continues.
At the moment I’m focusing on complaining to LS as my loans are all paid off with them (tbh I used other loans to pay them off, but I’m not currently dealing with LS so think it may be easier to complain to them).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
11 overlapping loans in 18 months – yes! It does depend on the size of the loans and what your credit record showed, but unless they were very small, then LS should have stopped and asked why you had to keep borrowing and looked much more closely at whether the loans are affordable.
Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain I call them – more expensive than payday loans. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/worst-loan-in-britain/ for how to complain about this.
Likely Loans – use the template over here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-large-high-cost-loans/
It isn’t easier to wait until a loan is cleared – often you will find a lender iis happier to write off a balance than give you a cash refund… so complain now about these.
Can you afford the current minimum payments? If not then I strongly suggest you get a debt management plan (phone StepChange on 0800 138 1111 on Tuesday when they reopen). This will get you into a safe place where you can send your complaints to the ombudsman if you are made a poor offer. If you don’t, then you may feel you have to accept a bad offer from LS (say) just to get you through the next month… The DMP can end early if you win a lot of complaints.
Credit cards – have any of the cards increased your credit limit while you were only making minimum payments and your credit record showed payday loans?
Ryan says
Hi Sara,
Thanks again for the reply.
I’ve just had a look into my LS account and the loans were as follows. During this time I already had a bank loan, credit card debt and was using my overdraft every month, pretty much to the limit before i was paid.
Loan 1: 06/10/19 £150 Completed: 01/03/2020.
Loan 2: 24/11/19 £50 Completed: 20/12/2019.
Loan 3: 19/01/20 £70 Completed: 07/03/2020.
Loan 4: 01/03/20 £150 Completed: 07/03/2020.
Loan 5: 07/03/20 £300 Completed 04/08/2020.
Loan 6: 14/03/20 £50 Completed 04/08/20
Loan 7: 04/08/20 £300 Completed 04/12/20
Loan 8: 23/08/20 £100 Completed 04/12/20
Loan 9: 11/09/20 £380 Completed 12/12/20
Loan 10: 04/12/20 £370 Completed 12/12/20
Loan 11: 14/05/21 £250 Completed 01/07/21
Those were all the loans i took out with them, only ended as I took out the Loans 2 go and Likely loans to pay off lending stream and have a little money leftover.
Do these loans look like id be able to have a strong complaint? Like I said, i was already in debt when I took out these loans.
In regards to my Likely Loans complaint, I only took out the loan in August 2021 as a top up loan to a previous loan from them, so the current loan is for £2455.03 over 18 months. I’ve paid 4 months and still owe, £2942.66. Can i still complain even though i only took the loan out 4 months ago? Am I likely to get anything at all from this? As this loan alone is £210 a month.
Thanks
Ryan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, they started small but the last three weren’t. I would say you should get a refund from those.
You are overthinking this. Send the LS , L2G and Likely loans complaints in now!
Aaron says
Hi Sara, just had an offer from lending stream, I had 4 loans off them equalling £1000 within 3/4 months, they have offered me a settlement of £166.47, does that sound reasonable ? Also will they remove the record from my credit file or should I ask them to also do that?
Thankyou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you say how large the loans were in order… and how much interest you paid on each.
I assume the last loan has been cleared?
Are there any missed payments or defaults on the credit records for these loans?
Aaron says
First one was £480 and interest was £287.31
Second was £150 and interest £126.96
Third was £120 and interest £110.17
And third was £250 and interest £240.80
But they are saying only loan 4 they will refund as the other 3 where affordable for me even though loans 2 and 3 where taken out 3 weeks apart ? Yes there where some missed payments and defaults on some
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds like a poor offer
You missed some payments to LS for these loans – was this towards the end, or was there any occasion when they gave you another loan after you had missed a payment to them?
And third was £250 and interest £240.80
I asume that is your fourth loan. Did you settle this early? I am wondering why they are offering to refund £166 on this loan if you actually paid more interest on it.
Aaron says
Yes missed payments where after the 4th loan taken out, which I then had to get a DMP with step change, which is still ongoing which they have offered to clear £103 which is still owed and the rest they have said they will pay me. The other loans where all taken out close together over a 3 month period but they are saying the first three where affordable and aren’t taking those any further run regards to paying any of it back, should I take it further to the financial ombudsman?
Paul says
I have put in a complaint against MoneyBoat and had quite a threatening reply about fraud. Would I actually be in a bit of trouble here?
“I 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 that to everyone! And no-one has reported any trouble at all if they ignore this and send their case to the Ombudsman, even they didn’t think their application may have been accurate.
Sabrina says
Yeah they said that to me as well but nothing transpired from it. They replied with a final response for both me and my mum within about 2 weeks.
Rose says
Hi, Sara,
Please could you advise? I sent a final offer from Mr Lender (PDL Finance to the FOS back in September) – there was lots of toing and froing as they refused to let them consider the complaint (the loans went from 2014-2020) and it was referred, I think, to an actual Ombudsman for a decision on whether they could consider it. They eventually agreed that the FPS could look at all the loans, and yesterday, Mr L have come back with their original offer. The Ombudsman says I must accept, or tell them why I don’t agree.
I had ten loans in total, and the final one was issued with no ‘phone call to confirm, when I had four defaults showing on my credit record (three from Lending Stream, one Safety Net Credit) from the six month period prior. They’ve offered to refund the three smallest loans – 4-6.
Am I OK to go back and say that I don’t agree, and explain (again) why this is? Or does this mean I risk ending up with nothing? (The offer, with interest, but not including HMRC’s slice of that interest, is about equal to the sum I paid in interest in 2019-2020, on the final loan)
Thanks for any advice or suggestions (I am also aware that the longer it drags on, the more likelihood that Mr Lender will also go west…)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you list the size of the loans in date order, so 150, 200, 120,250 etc
were there any large gaps between the loans? the last loan, what was the gap from the time the 9th one was paid?
I have no particular reason think Mr Lender are going to go west, go under or in any other direction… of course it’s possible, but the firms that have got through to this point may be going to survive.
HAve you made complaints to LS and SNC?
Rose says
Sorry – I just realised I didn’t include the interest (I don’t know if that matters)
1. 500 borrowed, £612.50 interest + £31 admin fees
2. 700 borrowed, £630 interest, + £60 late fees + £31 admin fees
3. 750 borrowed, £632 interest
4. 600 borrowed, £440.80 interest
5. 150 borrowed, £44.40 interest
6. 200 borrowed, £71.76 interest
7. 450 borrowed, £253.05 interest
8. 100 borrowed, £169.95 interest
9. 250 borrowed, £75.23 interest plus ?1 additional payment of interest, but amount uncertain (£101.82 capital outstanding at point of statement)
10. 1050 borrowed, £992.08 plus late payment interest £90.93
Rose says
Hi, Sara,
Thank you so much: yes, I have been successful with complaints to LS (from loan 3) and SNC (everything) via the FOS, thanks to your brilliant advice and support. There’s gaps, yes, between 6 and 7, though not 7 and 8, 8 and 9, and also 9 and 10 – but, in those interims, more late payments and defaults had been added with the CRAs by other payday lenders: though I realise this might not mean anything. I’ve added the info showing on my credit record also about concurrent payday loans (but not catalogues or credit card balances and defaults etc) just in case it’s relevant. They originally offered 4 and 5, and added 6 following the FOS intervention. (Sorry – it wasn’t the smallest loans: I misremembered)
I’ll add the loan details in a subsequent post.
Rose says
1. 14/4/14-26/7/14 £500 (3 other active payday loans and 1 default from July 2011, 3 from July 2013, and 2 from August 2013)
2. 27/7/14-10/11/14 £700 (3 other active payday loans and existing defaults)
3. 6/3/15-31/7/15 £750 (3 other active payday loans and existing defaults)
4. 28/9/15-29/1/16 £600 (4 other active payday loans and existing defaults)
5. 16//2/16- 24/3/16 £150 (4 other active payday loans and existing defaults)
6. 12/4/16-28/6/16 £200 (3 other active payday loans, and existing defaults)
7. 8/9/17-28/12/17 £450 (5 other active payday loans, + existing defaults + 1 new late payment from Dec 2016 and default Aug 2017)
8.10/1/18-28/2/18 £500 (5 active payday loans with other lenders + existing late payments and defaults)
9. 11/12/18 – ? £250 (1 other payday loan + existing late payments and defaults, plus 7 late payments from previous three months)
10. 14/3/19-2/4/20 £1050 (existing late payments and defaults plus 1 from Ferratum Nov 2018 and 6 others in Dec 18)
I did have some late payments – 2 on loan 2, one on loan 9, and one on loan 10 (which wasn’t really late as such, but I needed to change the payment date) As I say, I appreciate none of this might matter, and this might be a very good offer – but MrL have been spectacularly obstructive to deal with throughout this, so I wanted to double check with you before responding. Thanks so much again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well the last one was huge. I suggest you tell FOS you think that should have been included in the refund because of the number of payday loans you had recently taken out the your growing amount of debt.
Rose says
Thank you SO much – that advice is really appreciated. I’ll update every one on what happens. Thank you again for all the help and support from your brilliant site.
DC says
Hi Sara, I have a response back from Dot Dot loans (Shelby Finance) stating that they think their checks were correct and I could afford to make the payments (have provided evidence of other payday loans and gambling transactions before and after the loan was taken out). I had counter offered to settle the last remaining payment in full if they would agree to waive any negative marks on my credit file which would also save them the £500 case fee with the FOS. They have declined the offer so my question is, am I entitled to stop the final payment and request equitable set off whilst waiting for the FOS to pick up the case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
can you say how many loans you have had and how large?
DC says
Just the one, but had a couple of others around the same time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless it was very large this is hard to win
Kal says
Hello Sara,
– I am waiting for the redress from Piggy Bank. I don’t suppose you know how long until they have an update? It’s been months.
– Also I raised a claim with My Jar months ago, keep being told that no update from the administrators.
Is it just a waiting game with these?
Thanks,
Kal
Sara (Debt Camel) says
there is nothing you can do to speed this up. You are likely to only get small amounts back from both anyway.
C says
Hi Sara,
last year after following your advice and using the template, I had a loan refunded and negative credit history removed from my file. It was with amigo, they initially rejected my request but the ombudsman review the decision and ruled in my favour. The ombudsman ruled that the initial loan was unaffordable to me, and the following 2 top ups were definitely unaffordable.
I got a loan out from 118118Money in between loans 2 & 3, which I have appealed as being unaffordable. They rejected my claim, so I sent it to a FOS adjudicator who agrees with their findings. I am really confused as to why they would, as if the previous ombudsman agreed I couldn’t afford amigo loans 1, 2 or 3, why would the new adjudicator not find a loan in between loans 2 & 3 unaffordable?
I have appealed his decision, and made them aware of the impact this is having on my mental health, and they have told me I will have a few months to wait.
Any input or advice would, as always, be greatly appreciated.
Regards,
C.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the 118 loan? Why did the adjudicator say it was affordable?
C says
Hi Sara,
It was for £3000.
The adjudicator said:
“I’ve thought about all of these issues in the individual circumstances of your case, and I don’t think 118 118 Money irresponsibly provided your loan to you” and then went on to say what I’d stated my monthly income was, and what my monthly outgoings to other debts were.
In my previous appeal with Amigo, the FOS said that Amigo hadn’t checked my claimed income was accurate, as it was less than stated. This latest adjudicator also says that my outgoings were only £490 a month, when they were actually closers to £850 per month.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have asked for this to go to an Ombudsman?
“This latest adjudicator also says that my outgoings were only £490 a month, when they were actually closers to £850 per month.”
Is the adjudicator saying you only put down £490 a month expenses on the application? Or that the adjudicator has looked at your bank ststements and they reckon your outgoings were £490?
C says
Yes I’ve asked for this to be passed to an ombudsman.
The adjudicator is saying they looked at my bank statements and say I was only paying £490 towards my debts.
It honestly feels like they haven’t looked thoroughly.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then go through those bank statements and highlight the debt repayments then send them a list with the total. It’s important to explain what is wrong with an adjudicator decison. don’t wait to be asked, send this in now.
Tim says
Did the piggy bank redress ever happen?
Thanks
Mike says
Not yet. I’ve just skim read a report from December 2021 and it tells us absolutely nothing at all. Wouldn’t be surprised if there’s another 12 months wait yet.
Faye says
Has anyone heard from 247 moneybox, when I logon it says TBD no actual figures has anyone had figures
Ross says
Nothing at all and, funnily enough, I decided to take a look yesterday and still all showing as TBD. I reckon it could be a while yet.
Faye says
I had a look on Harrison’s website and it says they hope to pay redress in the new year… don’t think it specified which new year🤪
Julie says
Just had the below back from Safetynet
Total amount borrowed: £60,516.64
Interest added: £4,601.75
Total repaid: (£63,795.06)
Amount written off: £0.00
Outstanding balance: £1,319.35
Interest (to be written off): £319.70
Outstanding balance minus interest: £999.65
Total amount repaid: £63,795.06
Amount applied to funds borrowed: £59,516.99
Interest repaid: £4,278.07
Statutory 8% interest: £1,249.57
HMRC 20% deduction: (£249.91)
Redress due: £5,277.73
New outstanding balance after redress applied: £0.00
Amount written off from your balance: £999.65
Redress to be sent to you: £4,278.0
Im shocked at how much i had actually relied on them back in the day. Thank you Sara.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wow. Over how long a period was that?
if you are a basic rate tax payer, you can claim up to £200 of the tex deducted in a year from this sort of refund back from HMRC – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
julie says
Thank you, I’ll look at the tax refund.
This was over 4 years. so quite a lot, I was shocked at how much it was.
Heidi says
Hi I’m so glad I found this thread. I have been looking at my credit file and have on Experian only an open account with my jar showing last paid feb 2019 outstanding balance £249 nothing recorded after feb 2019. I really need this off my file. I know they are in administration am I still in time to do an affordability complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can still make a complaint so far as I know. The email address for the administrators is on the page of email addresses https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/.
But if you just want the loan removed from your credit record, see this comment here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/comment-page-1/#comment-462318. That suggests that you can ask Experian to “suppress” the loan as that article explains.
Emily56 says
I had taken out a £300 loan over 18 months to pay back £1110 with loans to go. I had made an irresponsible lending complaint due to being in £600 overdraft and arearrs on my file. They have offered a £300 reduction so I have £500 left to pay. Should I accept this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That would mean you pay £500 in interest. You could suggest that is unreasonable as you would only have had to pay £300 in interest if you had taken a payday loan – so say you would be prepared to compromise and they will offer you a £500 reduction reducing your balance to £200? point out the ombudsman may well uphold your case, in which you would have nothing to pay.
Lee sharratt says
Hello. Was in a payday cycle recently. One company two loans over 3 months and another company 3 over 7 months. Do U think I have a claim? I had these plus more
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how large were the loans?
Lee sharratt says
250. 480 and 300 600 700
Sara (Debt Camel) says
what is the rest of your current financial situation like?
Lee sharratt says
There paid off now. But had about 4 or 5 over a six month period
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No other debts at all?
Unless there is a lot of other debt around, then the two loan case looks very unlikely and the three loan one , well the last loan may be decided to be unaffordable or not.
Why do you need to keep taking payday loans? you have been making claims for several years now…
Lee sharratt says
Because I’m stupid and incredibly silly with gambling. Fingers crossed I have turned a corner. Agsin 🙁
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you want to stop taking out payday loans?
If you do, you can sign up to Cifas protection, see https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr. This is for people who have had identity theft problem – so you have to say that you have. It adds an extra step in applying for credit – when an application is made, the lender will see the cifas flag and will contact you by post to check that it was you applying for the credit – if you say yes, the loan goes ahead.
This adds a couple of days to the process so hopefully long enough for you to decide this payday loan is a bad idea and say you have changed your mind.
it cost £25 for 2 years which is annoying but cheap for the harm it can hopefully prevent.
Ross says
Hi Lee,
Can I kindly suggest that you consider joining Gamstop? I had a serious online gambling problem, which got me in to trouble with all kinds of credit, such as payday loans, night cost loans etc… I signed up, 3 years ago, for a 5 year period and have never looked back. All companies will close your accounts and you won’t be able to join any for the time period chosen: I chose 5 years, and can’t opt to join any sites until 2024, at the earliest (should I want to). It really changed my life so just suggesting it might be a good move for you?
Ross says
Just to advise that those waiting on the 2nd payment, from Instant Cash Loans, I have just received an email confirming this payment will be made on Friday 14th January. Check your spam boxes peeps!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
and see the main Money Shop page for other people’s comments: https://debtcamel.co.uk/money-shop-to-close-two-million-customers-will-be-informed/
sam says
Hello
Had an email from instant cash loans saying about closing and my redress
It says 0.652 for every £1
Is this correct – Potential Redress Amount – £2161.15
Additional cash payment – £14.09 (which i will be paid)
They did pay me £93 prior i beleive.
T says
I had something the same today. Nice surprise!
Faye says
I have just had a email from Icl saying payment will be made in 18th jan😁
Mel says
I don’t get the calculations – We can confirm that we will pay you a further 0.652p for every £1 of cash redress.
I was due £2686 and only getting £17 back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that calculation is correct. You are being paid 0.650 in the £, a hundred times smaller than 65p in the £
Jeff says
Hi the FOS keep on asking when specifically i realised the lending was irresponsible- i dont really remember, is this a common question, if so what are they getting at? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your loans must have been more than 6 years ago.
FOS can look at cases where the problem happened less than 6 years ago.
Or where someone has only become aware of the problem in the last three years.
So suppose you were borrowing from 2013-2016. You may have realised quite early on in the borrowing that it was causing you problems and you had to keep getting more loans. But at that point you probably thought that was your fault for not being good with money and that you should never have taken the first loan (or something like that). You didn’t know then that the lender should have checked the loans were affordable for you and you had no idea that you could make a complaint about irresponsible lending. You may have talked to a debt adviser in 2016 which helped you, but the debt adviser never mentioned irresponsible lending.
But recently you have found out about these complaints. That is what FOS wants to know about. It doesn’t need the exact date and time – just say what happened. perhaps a friend told you they had got a refund in June last year. Perhaps you saw a Facebook ad for a claims company and did some googling to investigate. perhaps you saw an article about Amigo refunds and wondered if it also applied to other types of loans etc etc.
There are no wrong answers here – just tell FOS that while you were bowworing you didn’t know the lender should have made affordability checks and so although the loans were causing you trouble, you didn’t realise you had a reason then to complain about irresponsible lending. Then say when you found out about these complaints and point out that this was in the last three years.
gillian says
i just told the FOS that i only became aware i could claim for irresponsible lending when i came across debt camel while looking for a way out of my debt problems i had a lot of payday loans some going back over the 6 year mark i never missed a payment but had to pay then borrow again the same month and every single one was upheld by the FOS thanks to Sara i manged to get over 20thousand pound back(i started claiming in 2018 and since have not used a payday or loan company since good luck with your claims Sara once again thank you you are a godsend
to many people
Mr w says
Morning Sara i have a payday loan with uncle buck ive complained to them but because there in administration the fos wont touch thrm and the administraters rejected my complaint this is the last payday loan left on my file i won the other 4 what can I do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you still owe money or are you mainly concerned with getting the loan off your credit record?
Mr w says
Hi sara yes still owe nearly £700
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you asked if there is an appeal process? Offered to supply bank statements?
if this was the only loan from them then it’s pretty unlikely you would have won the case at FOS.
Can you afford the repayments – what are the rest of your finances like?
Hugh says
Hey all, I just wanted to share that I recently got all of my interest refunded for my PDL’s with Mr Lender. They’ve dragged their heals for months, but I finally received the money last week. Advice to anyone on here is to take up your issues with any payday lender with the FOS. Make a complaint, it doesn’t take too long and you won’t regret it, although the process can take a while if the lender refers to an ombudsman.
Rose says
Hi, Hugh,
The FOS are considering my case against them right now. They did come back and added one more loan to their original offer, but I declined and explained why – they’ve now emailed me again, asking for the reasons, outside of the Ombudsman process: did they do that to you, by any chance? (It didn’t happen to me with LS or SNC, so I’m just wondering)
Rose says
Hi, Sara,
You helped me earlier in the week with responding to a revised offer received through the FOS from PDL/Mr Lender: I would be really grateful for your insights on an email I’ve received from them, saying that the FOS have told them I rejected the offer (they added one further loan, to refund interest on loans 4-6, out of 10 in total) and asking if I could explain why. FOS has given them until the 19th to supply all the information they have (they forwarded the original email to me, which is how I know)
Should I respond to them? I’m not sure if they are checking whether there’s a compromise to be had, or trying to get advance notice so they can argue against what I’ve said – I am trying not to be suspicious, but they’ve particularly put me through the wringer, initially being very obstructive about providing details of loans (in fact, I still don’t have one date because of this – it took well over a year to resolve) , and then arguing that FOS shouldn’t consider any loans at all (the last was paid off in 2020), then sending it to an Ombudsman to contest the decision that they could, and I am not sure what the implications are of their request.
Thanks for any advice on this – it’s really appreciated: I’ve had success with LS and SNC, but neither contacted me directly in this way during the process, so I am not sure how standard it is.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Would you be happy if they just included the last large loan?
If you would, you could reply saying that as a compromise you would be happy to accept 4-6 and 10, but otherwise you will let FOS look at your case. I don’t see any reason why you should go into any detail.
If you don’t want a compromise, just say you would prefer FOS to consider your case.
Rose says
Hi, Sara,
Mr Lender never responded, but the adjudicator said he would ignore 4-6, since they’d already offered these, and included 10: he did include some comments in his letter about how they should have seen there were issues with 1 and 2, but did not include these. Mr L left it until the last minute, then demanded to know where the credit reports I had included were from, and to see them (I had sent them to Mr L when I made my complaint) and it then took over a month to find out that they did not accept the adjudicator’s response, and that it should go to the Ombudsman: I realise it’s pointless trying to second guess things here, but this does seem a bit unreasonable, especially since my credit report shows that, at the time of the second last loan (9) I was already in arrears on seven short-term loans, and they lent the final loan, (10) which the adjudicator has ruled should be included, the day after I had paid off 9, and when these had turned to defaults. Is it likely the Ombudsman will side with them, or with the adjudicator, or who can really say?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
in 90% of cases the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator.
Cazza says
Hi
I am after some advise re my old Onstride Loan, I was successful in my affordability claim and my balance was re-adjusted and I had confirmation that this would be actioned and any negative markers on my credit file would be removed; however, the loan was sold to Lantern and the Default has now been moved to them. I raised a query with trans union and they have come back saying they won’t remove it, Lantern don’t seem to understand what I’m asking for and when I ring Onstride they inform me it will eventually be resolved?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I had confirmation that this would be actioned and any negative markers on my credit file would be removed
Do you have this in writing?
Cazza says
I have yes
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Then I suggest you put in a complaint in writing to Lantern – email is fine, attaching what the administrators told you. tell Lantern to remove the default. Send it to the Financial Ombudsman if they refuse.
Cazza says
Fab, they have been looking into it for months but I will take to the Ombudsman if necessary. Thank you
Marie says
Hi I have had over 15 loans from fund ourselves one after another in the space of 8 months I’m struggling financially as I have 8 more payday loans to deal with and I end up in a viscious circle can I make an affordability complaint to fund ourselves or are they not a payday lender?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can make a complaint to them.
BUT these complaints take time to go through and at the moment you have to get out of this cycle of high cost borrowing. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. This is not an alternative to making affordability complaints, it is in addition to them.
Kelly says
Hi Sara,
I have came across a loan that I had with Vivus. I think it was sold to CRS.
Could you tell me if it is to late to raise an affordability complaint?
Cheers,
Kelly
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it’s too late
James sadler says
Hello, I’m currently in a debt management plan with step change I had numerous payday loans and high interest loans, some I’m still paying off, my question is, can I put a complaint and ask for a refund if I’m in a debt management plan? Will this effect the plan at all?
Thanks in advance
James
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can. This is a great thing to do as refunds may reduce or clear the debts in your DMP. And if you get a cash refund, then you can use this to make full and final settlement offers to other debts in your DMP.
Jade says
Hi,
I recently took out a payday loan for £600 for six months with moneyboat, having managed to meet four of the six payments I fell into even worse financial difficulty as I’m on maternity leave and my husband has been ill therefore his pay has been dramatically affected. However when I took out the loan I was in a huge financial mess as all of my loans and credit cards were either in arrears or defaulted on my credit file and started to miss the payments from May last year which they would’ve seen when I applied for the loan. I have a horrendous gambling addiction which I am seeking help for which is still affecting me today due to the losses that I have faced and the financial position I’ve left myself in now. I’ve been trying to get a copy of my loan agreement which they are not sending me in the correct file as I believe after reading a lot of the reviews that they will default your account if you miss one payment I have tried to contact them last month when I had to pay a reduced payment and they have put down on my credit report that I’m in arrears however they said it was an arrangement to pay and the final payment this month there is no way I’m going to be able to afford it. Do I have grounds for an affordability complaint against the company for initially allowing me to have this loan when they could see that I was in £28,000 worth of debt already and as I’ve said above have lots of missed payments and defaults on my report?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can make an affordabilty complaint – one loan of £600 is a bit marginal, the Ombudsman may or may not uphold it if MB reject it, but it’s worth a try…
BUT you have much bigger problems than this. Are you buying or renting? How many of your debts are you making the normal payments to?
With prices (including energy bills, food and petrol) all going up, if you are hardly managing now, this is set to get worse in the next few months…
PS MB always respond to any affordabilty complaint with an aggressive message about fraud… no-one who has ignored this has had any problems with it if they take their case to the ombudsman.
Jade says
Hi Sara, i’m in the process of setting up a debt management plan with step change that helping me control my finances better as currently renting and none of my priority bills are in any sort of arrears it’s just how I’ve been living off credit so they have help me get sorted.
I have heard about money boat been quite aggressive and that’s what frightens me. So if they were to threatened me claiming I committed fraud do I just ignore that and for Forward to the ombudsman if they decline?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am very glad you are getting help with this. Do you mind saying what the monthly payment to the DMP may be?
So far as I know, no-one who has ignored MB’s threats has later had any problems with this. Horrible lender.
Faye says
I am sorry to hear of your gambling addiction it is the devil himself, there is a charity especially for women called Gordon Moody they do gambling retreats and very successfully, can I just ask is your husband await of your addiction or is it hid along with the debt, I would suggest if it is hid and he doesn’t know let him know that is half the battle, contact your doctor for some help too, gambling will never cease until you face up to it and admit to your family there is a problem, I wish you the best
Yas says
Hi Sara,
I am looking to send a few of my cases to fos and noticed in anothet post you said that fos will ask for bank statments. I had a bad gambling habit (i have now stopped) and this will show on the bank statments. Will that be an issue?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Having gambling showing on your bank statements supports your complaint that the credit was not affordable. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-refunds-loans-cards-overdrafts/ which looks at this in more detail.
Aaron h says
Hello, I sent my complaints off on 22/12/21 I just received an email from ferratum saying they went into liquidation on 31/12/21and it’s unlikely I’ll get any thing back, am I entitled to then as I submitted mine before they went into liquidation?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you still owe them a balance?
Aaron says
Yes, it was taking over by ‘credit resource’ and still says I owe a balance which I am still paying the company who took over that loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok so you owe money to a debt purchaser, not Ferratum?
Aaron says
Yes I believe so, it shows on my DMP as credit resource and the ferratum account number
Sara (Debt Camel) says
in that case you may get very little back – the fact you made your complaint before they went under doesn’t make a difference.
Yas says
Hi all,
Just wanted to say it is sometimes worth pushing the lenders for a better resolution even after their final response. I only had 2 loans with Quidmarket £300 paid early after only 16 days and £600 paid 2 months early. They didnt uphold my complaint but said they will remove the loans from my file as a goodwill gesture. I called them today and discussed the decision and the lady went through eveything and ultimately said she agrees with her colleagues decision and theres nothing else they will offer. She said I can take some time to think about the decision. I rang back 2 hours later as I wanted to know if their offer becomes invalid if I go to fos (I dont think fos would uphold so didnt want to go to them and get nothing) she then told me even if I go to fos their goodwill gesture will remain. She said they really wouldnt want it to go to fos. I told her how my other complaints offered me money off my final payments even when they didnt uphold my complaint (cash4unow and fernovo) so she then agreed to pay me 100 gbp. So always worth discussing and pushing them more
Heidi says
Hi About 6 years ago I took a payday loan with text loans which i couldn’t afford but was too scared not to pay so that then escalated in me taking another loan every month for the next 5 years or so until I went into DMP and stopped the madness. Through this time text loan changed to MyJar who are now in administration. Today I have raised an Affordability complaint from your template and sent it to Myjar Harrisons email. I just wanted to check I’m no too late on this? I didn’t even know it was an option until I recently decided it was time to really sort out my credit file and not just put up with what was on it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so far as I know you can still make a claim.
But don’t expect to get much back, it is expected to be a very low payout.
Heidi says
Thanks Sarah to be honest I’d be happy with writing off what I owe and remove it from my credit file, that would help.
Thank you.
Neil says
Has anyone heard any rumblings from MyJar this year? Feels like a long time since any announcements or commitments have been made. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The latest administrators report has recently been filed at Companies House. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08518406/filing-history
2.6 Redress customers entitled to cash refunds will be contacted shortly by the Joint Administrators to update their bank details.
2.7 Due to the potential volume of customers eligible to receive redress and the value of these claims , any distribution to customers is likely to be exceptionally small, and not available for a number of months and certainly not until such time as all realisations have been completed.
Neil Sillery says
Thank you, I’ve mis-timed every claim I’ve made! 🙄
Claire says
Have we got any updates from 24 7 Money Box? Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There was a new update this month : https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/05671281/filing-history
They are trying to sell the remaining loan book and no indication of payout amount or timing until that happens.
Neil Sillery says
No more now, Ferratum we’re the last, my case was with the FOS, but they messaged to say due to them going into administration my case won’t be taken further. Very bad timing with all of them 🙄 That being said, thank you for the help and advice you’ve freely given me and many others.
B says
Hi Sara
Was just reading up on the administrators report on the quick quid / Pounds2pocket progress. It states in their latest report that payments must be made to us by March.
Based on the use of the word ‘by’ does that mean they have to communicate to us and pay our redress before March or do you think it will include the month of March? I know it’s hard to say but i thought the use of that word is quite significant.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think it includes March. And from previous Wonga experiebnce, they may also mean that they have started to pay, not that they will have paid everyone or that everyone will have been paid…
Marta says
Hi. Did anyone heard anything from 247 moneybox yet? In last update they said they will pay redress at the beginning of this year at the latest if I understood it right. I might be wrong so if anyone know anything could you share please? Thank you 🙂
Siobhan says
Hi Sara,
Is there any update on 247moneybox yet?
Chris says
That’s what I’m waiting for too. It’s got to be soon, we’re in February now.
D P says
Hello, not sure if you have any advice here. In June 2021 I submitted an affordability/inappropriate lending complaint to SafetyNet Credit, with who I had a balance of £1,336. They upheld the complaint on July 30, and the redress left me with a balance of £37, which they said they were writing off so I owed nothing, my account was closed, and they would remove all mention of themselves from my credit file within 6-8 weeks. Last month I started to get emails from them demanding that I pay the balance and set up a payment plan. The balance is still showing as outstanding on my credit file. I have made a complaint to them today, saying they have failed to remove the debt from my credit file and are now chasing me for payment again, and I have sent them the letter they sent to me. What can I expect them to do from this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds a lot like someone at SNC failed to carry through with what was agreed. I would expect them to resolve this pretty quickly. If they don’t tell them you will be sending this to the ombudsman and asking for compensation for the hassle.
D P says
Thank you, I hope so
D P says
I have put in a formal complaint with SNC as they have actually defaulted the account and for the past four months it has been marked with a D on my credit file. They say it will take up to eight weeks to investigate my complaint but in the meantime the erroneous default is still sitting there.
Graham says
Hi, I had an un affordability complaint upheld regarding over ten payday loans with PiggyBank upheld by them in Feb 2021.
Understand any refund/redress will be minimal but wondered if anyone knew of any updates about this?
Thanks
Mr c says
Im in the same boat as you. No news for Nearly 2 years
Matt says
The most recent report from the administrators (available if you login) suggests that the administration has been extended to December 2022, so probably not going to be any time soon.
graham says
Oof! Haha, think you might be right. Thanks for the info
Solent33 says
Received a redress from safteycredit net, for a 500 pound loan over a few months, due to gambling transactions and had a single loan from QM they agreed to remove loan from file as a gesture of good will, after sending affordability complaint in, was a very nice for them to do that! I still feel that these companies not including information about how these loans affect your future borrowing ability is seriously misleading! Still some replies to come back, will update as I get them through!
Max says
Hello,
Could I claim against On Stride and My Jar or is it too late?
Also I have 2 defaults from Aqua and Marbles credit cards which continued to increase my credit limit during already a very tricky time financially ( at the time i had around 10 lenders and a massive overdraft ). Can I go with affordability claim to them, getting rid of those 2 defaults would get my life back on track massively. Thank you for all of your advise on here
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Onstride – too late. If you have a default, you will be able to ask for the record to be suppressed from your credit record in 6 months or so, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/correct-credit-records-lender-administration/ but it is too soon to do this at the moment.
Myar – in administration, I think you can still send a claim to the administrators, email is in the linked page in the article above.
Aqua and Marbles, yes you can make a complaint for increasing your credit limit: see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/.
You want to ask for a FULL refund from the point they increased it (to just for the amount they increased it) as at that point they should have seen you were in difficulty and offered forbearance. They are both New Day card so make a single complaint for both cards.
Max says
Thank you so much Sara!! i am struggling to find an email address for New Day complaints dept. Has anyone emailed them before? I can only find customer service phone number, which I’ll try my luck with in the morning. Thanks again :)
Jordan says
Do payday loan companies get charged when we take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman whether you win or lose the case?
I read somewhere the loan company were charged £500 by the FO but I do t know if that is true or not.
Thanks
Jordan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, it’s £750.
yas says
Hi Sarah, just had a final response back from savvy regarding 2 loans (£500 and £700). They have not upheld the first loan but have partially up held the 700 one. They have removed all interest so i just need to pay a small amount to cover the capital i actually borrowed- this i am extremely pleased with. However they have said they will remove negative info from credit file with regards to loan 2. However every other lender ive been in contact with (Fernovo, cash4unow, quidmarket, mr lender) have all agreed to remove whole loans from my file. Is it worth ringing savvy and asking them to remove the last loan if not both? I dont understand why they would not remove the loan in full!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the Ombudsman says to remove negative marks, except in case where there has been a very large number of loans from the same lender.
Some lenders just take a shortcut and remove the whole record, but they don’t have to.
julie says
Good morning Sara,
Do you know what’s happening with the MYjar complaints?
I have had an email this morning saying my loan has been passed to ACI-UK by Perch Capital to take over my debt.
Notice of Assignment
With effect from 4th February 2022, MYJAR has assigned all its respective rights, title and interest in respect of your MYJAR loan(s) to Perch Capital (company registration number 11207867). Perch Capital has appointed ACI-UK Limited (“ACI”) to manage collection of the outstanding loan balance on their behalf.
Do you know if this means my complaint wasn’t upheld?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know, you need to ask the administrators.
bob says
ive just received an email also from ACI about myjar selling my debt to perch captital. Bit of a joke, I put in an affordability complaint a year ago and they never gave a response, now all of a sudden the debts been sold. Should I now put in complaint with the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you cannot take a complaint about an administration to the Ombudsman.
you need to ask Myjar what has happened to your claim.
faye says
Hi Sara
Lantern have bought the book so customers with outstanding debt will be contacted by lantern…I think I’ve got that right
They are now putting 247 into liquidation so they say a payment will be March.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you have a link for this?
Faye says
https://harrisons.uk.com/247-moneybox/
Hopefully this works
Sara (Debt Camel) says
thanks. I had no idea that liquidation would be a much faster process.
sam says
i just want know know how much mine will be 😗
SK says
Interesting… I know every case is different but could this move have been made by the Administrators in other cases like Wonga, QuickQuid etc. to speed up process? Or even going for liquidation in the first place instead of administration…?
Dave L says
Ok today I’m annoyed with Harrison’s acting on behalf of MyJar despite an affordable lending complaint being outstanding and knowing my mental health issues. They have sold it to Perch but have provided me no update on my affordable lending complaint which has gone from My Jar to FOS to Harrison’s in relation to my older My Jar loans but found in favour for my latest two loans one of which has been sold . Any ideas or suggestions
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you had 4 loans. Who upheld the complaint on the most recent ones?
Dave L says
My Jar upheld the complaint on the keystone two loans but there were an earlier 7 they disagreed on
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok and the previous 5 were all settled so it is the last 1 or two that have been sold?
Have you asked myjar why the loans have been sold before your complaint about the first 5 has been considered?
Dave L says
Yes I’ve sent them and Harrison’s an email so awaiting a reply
Dave L says
To Whom it may concern
Further to my previous emails this loan was the subject of an earlier affordability complaint which was upheld in my favour. Along with the previous loan. I made complaints about seven earlier loans which I had with my jar but were rejected and sent to FOS before you went into administration before these were passed back to the administrators.
These affordability complaints are still outstanding and I would have the right of set off if found in my favour against the loan which has been assigned to Perch. You are also well aware of my mental health issues with depression and PTSD .
In light of this please consider this a formal complaint which I am fully prepared to escalate to your regulator. If Perch update my credit file with negative information then bearing in mind the previous finding in my favour. I will make a complaint to the FOS.
Please in addition advise what happening with my affordability complaint which I have been chasing since December 2020
Yours sincerely
Dave L says
I’m starting to think the administrators are idiots. They’ve sold the debt on and as a result of my complaint stated “ Hi,
Unfortunately, there is no further update at the moment. The redress is ongoing but is moving towards the final stages and should be concluded in the near future.”
Are they really that incompetent , they’ve just undermined any redress of set off by selling off the debt
Dave L says
So the update is they have admitted the loan shouldn’t have been sold and it has been bought back by them due to the right of set off . I asked for compensation of £30 due to the stress caused as a goodwill gesture but they have refused this. So do I have any recourse regarding complaining about the administration in this case ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No practical recourse, no.