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?
Db says
Quick update for anyone dealing with peachy, when they gave their final response in June they said I had lied on my application form about my income and they could report me. As such they rejected my complaint. This tactic was clearly to try and scare me which to be honest it almost did. I took the complaint to the ombudsman and the adjudicator up held my complaint for all but one Lona which was the first one I took, I had 6 in total. They disagreed with the adjudicator so it went to an ombudsman who ruled in my favour and yesterday I got my refund of £1200. My bank statements were filled with gambling transaction as well but this did not matter one bit.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done for standing firm! Peachy often seem to say this, as you say it seems like a scare tactic. You don’t need it now, but I’ve written this article https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ that may help others.
Joanna says
Hi everyone, I’m just letting you know about two of my payday loan situations so that you can bear them in mind if I give an update. Its quite a weird one.
Two of the payday lending companies who I had regular borrowing from are Quick Quid and Pounds to Pocket who are of the same company. I was struggling and was continuously borrowing from both of them, so much so, that their collections department knew me very well and always accommodated me with new loans once I had paid off my debt to them.
A lot of the borrowing from them was for general housekeeping and childcare, my ex husband was not contributing to child maintenance so I had mentioned this to both lenders so they clearly knew. He was in the process of getting married and emigrating to the US, I had also shared this with the collections dept. It so happened, by some strange coincidence that some of the members of staff in the collections dept at QQ and Pounds to Pocket knew my ex husband as well as his new wife very well! They were not very happy with the situation that I was in but they continued to borrow to me.
I have now written to them regarding the loans and the connection that we have, but I am now, just like many in the queue waiting for them to respond.
Will this situation that regarding my ex husband affect my payday loan refund request? I know two of the names of the collections team and they know me very well.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t imagine why the non payment of child maintenance by your ex and the fact he knows some QQ members of staff will make any difference to your complaint. What matters is whether the loans they gave were affordable for you.
CS says
Hi Sara, I wonder if you had any information on how long Lending Stream are typically taking to pay out refunds following a FOS final decision, and if they usually take the full 30 days? Thanks
brad says
5 weekes for me with no fos. wrote off 900 debt and paid me 167
Dan says
Got my out come last Wednesday from the ombudsman. Today they e mailed saying my refund of £4500 with be with me soon and just confirm my account number. Hopefully here soon
Wendy says
I had a reply from payday express saying they were willing to up hold 2 of my loans,which to be fair I was happy with,I sent the form back to say I would accept,just wondered how long it normally takes them to put money in my account?
brad says
updtae wage day advance offered me £700 accepted after 3 weeks no FOS.
Uncle buck offered me £130 no fos.
lending stream sent them £10 they wiped my 900 debt and paid me £160.
QQ and PDUK and pday express with the FOS Now.
Uncle buck been 7 weeks no response apart from receipt of complaint.
good luck all
matt says
Hi Sara,
Sorry to keep bothering you. I have just received my reply from lending stream for my complaint,
I took out 3 loans with them between 28/10/11 & 11/13/2013, 1 of them I am still currently paying of under my DMP, details of my loans are below
Loan 1 –
Borrowed £325 on 28/11/2011
Paid back – £715 on time on 28/3/2012
Loan 2 –
Borrowed £325 on 25/04/2012
Paid back £914.40 on 22/10/2012, getting 6 defaults/missed payments
Loan 3 –
Borrwed £405 on 11/03/2013
Paid back so far £622.16
Remaining balance – £573.84
Obviouslly I was borrowing from multiple lenders at the same time and in between loans,
They said the usual about having a high score on experian and that they done all the necessary checks, then they said this;
Resolution:
Considering your circumstances are difficult at present, we are ready to close your outstanding loan (Ref No. 1446561) with no further payments.
Should you wish to accept the aforementioned offer, please send us a confirmation so that we can proceed further.
I know ive paid back over £1000 in interests and fees and from my second loan I had 6 defaults so they would of known I was struggling, would you say this is a fair offer?
Im worried that if I go to the FOS, and my claim doesn’t get upheld, they will then withdraw the offer and I will still be stuck with a remaining balance of £573.84, my initial thoughts was its unfair, but I wanted to get a second opinion with someone whos far more experience than I am.
mant thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you realise, you aren’t going to get any of the interest on the first loan refunded. Because the first loan was repaid on time and there was a few months gap there was no reason for LS to refuse the second loan when you applied.
In contracts I think it’s clear the third loan should not have been given – you had obviously had major problems repaying the second and this was just a few months later and for more money. If this is the only loan deemed unaffordable, then a fair result would be to wipe the remaining balance and refund you £217, meaning that you have just repaid the principle, not interest on this loan.
If you go to the FOS, I can’t imagine that the balance on this last loan will not be wiped out. The worst the FOS would be likely to say is that you should accept LS’s offer.
So the question is what went wrong with the second loan and should you have been charged less interest on this when it became obvious you were in trouble. What was the original end date on this loan? When did you first miss a payment to it? Did you tell them you were struggling and they offered to roll / extend the loan?
matt says
hello,
sorry i have just looked at my paperwork and realised i got the date wrong for my start date wrong for my second loan, i finished paying off the first loan on time on 28/03/2012,
the second loan was taken out on 27/03/2012 (so 1 day before my first loan was paid back, im assuming i used the second loan to pay off the rest of the first) and was suppose to be paid back on the 25/09/2012 (actually finished paying back on the 22/10/2012) and i got the first default/missed payment on 26/05/2012, i paid my first 2 repayments on time but was late/missed the rest of them.
i cant remember if i made them aware of my financial difficulties at the same
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is quite a big difference. You still aren’t likely to get a refund for the first loan, but it makes the second loan look more questionable from the start.
What would your credit report have looked liked in March 2012? LS have a habit of quoting “scores” which seem simply unbelievable.
As they have made you a not totally silly offer, I think it’s worth trying to negotiate. What do you think think would be a fair out come?
Matt S says
Hi all,
Quick question. In a situation where an Ombudsman has made a final decision and a company have to calculate redress that is due. Should they be informing you of their calculations so you can agree or disagree? Or are their calculations final?
Reason I’m asking is that Ombudmsan agreed with adjudicator in my Payday UK case on 29th September. I contacted Payday UK to advise them of my bank details and ask what happens next. They advised me they had 4 weeks to respond and would let me know when they had calculated the redress. I’ve had no further contact with them but noticed over the weekend that a payment had gone into my bank from Instant Cash Loans on Friday. Its a little lower than what I had calculated myself but not far off.
Just wondering if this is has happened to anyone else before?
Jon says
Hi Matt,
Probably different for everyone, but my timeline was as follows : –
4/8/16 – They received confirmation i had accepted the Ombudsman’s decision
26/8/16 – Received settlement calculation figures
30/8/16 – Money was deposited into my bank
Nat says
So today I got an offer from payday uk!!!! To refund me the last 4 loans and remove the defaults off my account. I have accepted because it wasn’t the money for me it was getting my credit score back so I can apply for a mortgage
So that is all my companies won successfully no fos needed.
Wage day advance
Quick quid
Payday uk
Cash converters
Cheque centre
And no defaults now on my account thank you Sara and everyone else for your advice. I started these claims in Aug so not to bad. Don’t give up x
Gareth says
Hi everyone need some advice regarding a decision I just received from adjudicator about my provident complaint,they believe that the business haven’t done anything wrong in regards to the loans I were given, obviously I don’t agree with the outcome but I’m not sure what to do now my last loan was for £2500 which I paid 5300 back so this is quite a big one for me.
I don’t want to lose this one but the reply today has knocked the wind out of me.
Aga says
Hi Gareth,
you need to ask adjudicator to review again , do letter explain your points etc, if still adjudicator says no, ask to forward to Ombudsman
good luck
Gareth says
Thanks aga for reply I’m trying to get a convincing reply together but don’t know what to say, she believes that the loan was affordable given my income and expenditure but my argument is about suitability rather than affordability. I I’d already had trouble with one loan so don’t believe the last loan was suitable for me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you need to rephrase complaint in terms of affordability. A lender doesn’t have a duty to check a loan in “suitable” for you. But if you had problems with a previous loan from Provi they should have thought hard about giving you another one.
I agree, BUT if you have an adjudicator who doesn’t seem to “get” your case, you need to reword it in terms that matter most in regulatory terms. So don’t say the high interest rate was unfair, argue that you could not afford the repayments without further borrowing. Don’t say the loan was “unsuitable”, point out (1) that the lender knew you were struggling because of your missed payments on the previous loan which you hadn’t repaid (2) that you had been in debt to Provi for [years and months] and they should have been able to see you were dependent on this borrowing and that you could not repay it.
So there are two prongs to your argument.
First that the loan was unaffordable. This means you couldn’t pay the amount you were supposed to without more borrowing or hardship that month. The usual way to prove this is by looking at your bank statements in detail.
Second the Provident knew this because of the length of time you had been borrowing from them and the problems you had with the earlier loan.
It is worth going back to the adjudicator now and arguing this. If they say they have already made a final decision, ask for your comments to be passed to the Ombudsman.
Suzy says
Sara ( debt camel ) recieved this today I don’t understand what this means from ombudsman flexi credit loan ombudsman says . Reconstruct Miss x loan to take account of the capital that she has borrowed and the loan for those periods where the reconstructed loan had a credit balance quick quid should add simple interest 8 0per cent per annum should an outstanding balance remain on the loan after removal of all interest and xhargea it is reasonable that Qq may deduct these arrears from the compensation from her payday loans please can you help me understand this
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So far as I can tell without seeing the letter, I think that is what I would call a “full refund” of interest on the flexi loan.
The business about “reconstructing the loan”, mean that QQ have to look at all the amounts you borrowed, the interest they added and the payments you made and take away the interest. Sometimes this may mean that your account will be “in credit”. For example if month 1 you borrowed 500, month two they added 70 interest and your repaid 570, then reborrowed £600 a few days later, for a few days your account would have been £70 in credit as QQ are having to delete the interest. They then have to pay 8% interest on these credit balances.
Jason says
Joy from quick quid never thought I say them words lol ! They have finally accepted adjudicators decision ! How long do they normally take to pay out ?? Any help Sara or guys ? Many thanks only £400 but I’m happy !!!
graham says
They have 28 days to pay out or else!!! QQ failed to pay me £1000 in the 28 days, it took over 5 weeks. The good news was QQ had to pay me an extra £500 in compensation, so do not contact them, if they go over the 28 days you will be compensated. Stick with It.
Jack says
I got an initial offer from Wonga (around £550) when my 8 weeks was up. I refused and went to the FOS.
They’re now talking to my adjudicator. Does anyone have any experience of them offering a higher amount at this stage – i.e. pre adjudicator decision? And by how much did it increase?
Thanks.
Suzy says
Mine went from £350 to £2200 when it was with the adjudicator. I refused this.
It’s just been provisionally upheld by the adjudicator. It’s now with ombudsman. Hoping for all my interest plus 8 per cent. I borrowed £4000 altogether over years payed £8000 back
good luck with yours how much did you borrow
Jack says
Oh nice! With Wonga I borrowed about £8,500! I’ve asked them to take off the pre-2009 loans just to speed things up a bit. Will have to see what my adjudicator says!!
Suzy says
That should be a really good refund
Jack says
My adjudicator has written to Wonga advising that they repay interest on all loans plus 8%, which hopefully will be good.
Just annoyed my first adjudicator didn’t do this – she only asked QQ and PDUK to refund certain ‘high’ loans, so I suppose it is luck of the draw with adjudicators as I certainly couldn’t afford any of the loans I took out. Oh well…
Dan says
Hi Sara / anyone reading,
I came across this website after starting to wonder about having some of my payday loans wiped off my credit file (I am looking to get a mortgage soonish, payday loans are apparently mortgage lender kryptonite). I had no idea it would be possible to ask for compensation for these kind of loans, let alone be able to get them off my credit history.
I suppose I have always buried my head in the sand over how much of a mess I got myself into with Payday loans. I decided to have a look at the frequency of my loans and see if any of them did fall into the pattern of repeat lending, I have always avoided going through old bank statements as it made for unpleasant reading. long story short; after trawling back from around October 2010 it seems I have paid out roughly £45,000 to a collection of five short term lenders, about £9000 of that being interest. I can’t be certain yet as I had another savings/checking account that I closed a couple of years ago which I’m waiting for statements from.
I simply can not believe how big of a number it is. It could potentially rise to £50,000+ when I get a hold of the other statements from my old bank account as I can only currently go off money that was paid into my current account from that one, but I was using other loans to pay off loans with that account too. This doesn’t even include any credit cards I had at the time, and I certainly wasn’t short of credit cards to try and keep up the balancing act either. I was and to some extent still am in shock at how much money I’ve blown on these loans.
Anyway, I have managed to get myself out of this mess and am in a reasonably good situation right now. I have emailed sunny with my complaint as I have access to exactly what I took out when with them. All my other lenders have wiped the history on my online accounts so I’ve emailed them asking for a summary of loans taken out etc. QQ have actually already replied same day with their statements of account but I need to wait for my old bank statements to verify everything.
Thanks to your website I have a pretty good idea of what I should be doing and expecting and I can not thank you enough for this Sara.
I do have a question though, as you and some other commentors do appear to have a good knowledge of these things. What happens if these companies get wrapped up / go bust? Obviously it would be a good thing as less people will end up in the mess I did, and I know it can put you in a dark place. However, from someone making a claims point of view, where would that leave me? I find it hard to believe these companies can go on paying the kind of sums out I’m seeing in the comments and still be viable.
Zara says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your advice for Sunny’s offer which they paid yesterday. My complaint with QQ was rejected by them so I took it forward to fos. I am in the process in speaking to my adjudicator and have provided bank statements & a breakdown of what I borrowed from QQ. Is it a standard request for the adjudicator to request Savings bank statements ?
I had also submitted my Mr Lender complaint to fos. Mr Lender offered to write off the current balance but also gave me a deadline which has passed I provided fos with a copy of their final offer and response. However the same adjudicator is currently handling both complaints.
I hope they go in my favour but there were a lot of questions of money transfers from my personal a/c. These amounts which I borrowed from friends. There were alot of gambling transactions on the statements too. Do these kind of transactions affect ones complaint with the adjudicator?
My adjudicator did ask me what these transactions were and I did tell her.
Has anyone been asked for their savings as well as their current a/c statements?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it is normal to be asked for bank statements. Savings accounts also makes sense. People are always worried about having gambling showing on their statements, but in practice the adjudicators normally just accept this is what happened. If you borrowed repeatedly from the same lender, the lender should have been able to tell the loans were unaffordable for you and it doesn’t matter that the money was being spent on gambling.
Ruairi says
Hi. I had multiple loans with QQ from 2009 until 2013. The first loan was for 200 and they gradually increased as time went on with the largest loans being for 700. I had a total of around 18 loans with them but as nearly every loan was rolled over it showed up as 40 different loan numbers on quickquicks website before they deleted the loan history. As i was only making £1100 per month back then I did think it was odd that a company would lend me 700 to be paid back in a month. Like many people on here I was borrowing again straight after I had paid off the loan. So back in March I started my complaint against them. And Quickquid being the masters of customer support didn’t acknowledge my complaint so it was raised to the FOS.
After finally getting my case picked up by an adjudicator he advised QQ that I should be refunded charges and interest on 6 of the loans to which QQ obviously disagreed with. So on it went to the ombudsman. I was expecting a delay until around Christmas time before heard anything back as I imagined there was a large backlog of complaints. Much to my delight I got an email this morning from my adjudicator to say that the Ombudsman dealing with my case has upheld my adjudicators decision and furthermore has advised that I should be refunded on another 3 of the loans on top of what my adjudicator suggested.
Finally seeing a bit of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Hopefully get the whole thing red up before Christmas now as I am fully expecting quickquid to drag their heels even more
Nigel says
WDA agreed fully with my Adjudicator yesterday. Money in my account today. I didn’t think they would be able to argue any of the points!
the refund is £965. A very welcome amount.
The three big ones left should all be coming to an end soon all are in various stages of the FOS. QuickQuid had until today to respond to a full refund on all loans and flexcredit from 2010 onwards. Moneybox 247 follows next week and Payday.Express the week after. QQ is substantial and could be many thousands.
I also have EPDL and Toothfairy in the System with the FOS.
The running total of refunds for me is now well over £14,000. I am sure that I would have had far more if every loan complaint had gone to the FOS. The Two so far with my Adjudicators decisions, Peachy and WDA have been 100% upheld and agreed with by the two companies.
I still have CashASAP and Moneyshop in the mix yet.
Dani says
HI Sara,
Just a quick question. Wonga have been in touch today and have asked for a further 8 weeks. They so far have had 6 weeks. Should I just take it to FOS now?
Quick update:
Sunny- wiped dept of £154 and took of credit report. Paid £131 interest so happy with that
QQ- rejected claim so took into FOS and now with adjudicator. Had to scan statements from 2009- 2013 :S Very long process but all sent to adjudicator and he seems quite helpful.
Cheers
Dani
Emma says
I had an email from Wonga after 8 weeks asking for more time. I replied saying that I was taking to ombudsmen as the 8 weeks had now passed. The next day I had final response from Wonga with an offer of £988. Not sure if my email had any bearing but worth a shot…..
Daniel says
To Sara and who ever made this website!
I have been in serious debt problems for years due to my crazy younger self, I got myself out of debt and on good ground around 3 years ago. But thanks to this website I have just been awarded 10.000 pound from Wonga refund which is going to completely change my life! I just wanna say and big thank you you don’t know what it means to me things are gonna change for me now with my future plans and couldn’t of done it without this sites help. Amazing wish I could something to repay you!
Mega!
Live forever
Love
Dan x
Ross says
Well, what can I say? I sent a complaint email to QuickQuid at 1120 this morning and they have responded just FIVE HOURS later rejecting my complaint!?! They have made no indication that they have investigated this complaint at all and merely said that the account is closed and I owe no monies. I already know this, as it’s a few years back since I had the loans. I am not giving up and have just sent the complaint to the FOS. I’ll be interested to see where this goes as QuickQuid’s arrogance seems to know no boundaries. Not happy at all :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
look on the bright side – you haven’t had to wait 8 weeks for a rejection!
Ross says
You’ve got me there! Not very good though is it? I’m firmly believing that they just want me to go away nicely and not bother them again. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the FOS contacting them and stumping up their fee.
alastair says
Hi Ross,
I got the same blank reply from them, but had 11 loans with them. Went to FOS and got all my interest paid and %8 for 3 years! Stick with it it’s worth writing a few emails and if you have used a few lenders, once you do this with one lender it gets easier. Good luck
Zara says
I submitted my Sunny complaint on the 14th of Aug, & received a reply on the 5th of Oct where they made an offer and accepted the offer. The money was in my a/c in 2 working days although they said it would take 5 working days.
Adam says
Hi Sara, was just looking for your opinion on my situation before I go any further.
I have had countless payday loans over the past 5 years over and over again with a bunch of different company’s, this is all due to a gambling problem I have struggled with. This is quite embarrassing for myself to openly admit and I struggle to talk about it, and am sure my previous bank statements would show the extent of how bad it got. I am not looking for advice for gambling, that is something I have seeked and I am working on. But my financial situation is left in ruins, any extra money would help me get back on track. I am only a student, and cant remember not being out of my overdraft, due to the nature of the reasons for the loans mostly being gambling, or having no money due to gambling would it be worth perusing refunds with the loan company’s?
Thanks in advance
Adam
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can still get payday refunds if there has been a lot of gambling showing on your bank statements.
BUT if you haven’t kicked the habit, any money you get back is probably just going to be used to increase the bookies profits again. It might be better to wait until you have been “clean” for a good few months first? Just a thought…
Adam says
Thanks for the speedy reply and advice, I am aware of how important it is to address the problem in the first place and it is something I have been doing. I appreciate the concern however. But in regards to this, just wanted to know what approach I would take, would I just take a completely honest approach and advise due to the addiction and the availability of the payday loans I really wasn’t in a position where these were affordable for me?
laura says
Hi adam , I had large amounts of gambling on my bank statements when I complained , I explained to the companies I was in a loop , borrowing month after month from more than a few companies to “balance my funds” , I explained the lending was UNSUITABLE , IRRESPONSBLE and UNAFFORDABLE – during these times + if the companies checked me out properly or even asked for bank statements they would never have lent to me at all , I have received full refunds from SUNNY , Speedycash and my jar , Ive got 5 more companies currently with FSO. hope this helps
Lilly says
I just received a refund today of £2409 from QuickQuid from my adjudicator, and my statements were covered in gambling, so do not worry.
Kay says
Hi, was just looking for some advice. I’ve been in contact with Mr Lender who I had one loan with in 2013, at which point I had around £15k in other debts. They’ve come back saying that my credit score at the time was satisfactory and that all checks were carried out responsibly but that as a gesture of goodwill they will recall my outstanding balance of £424 from MMF and reduce it to the original amount of £183. It was not rolled and nothing has been paid. Do you think I should accept this offer or progress to the Ombudsman? Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kay, you should accept as that is the maximum you would get from going to the Ombudsman. You are expected to repay what you borrowed.
Matt S says
Hi all,
just wondering what are peoples experiences of how long Wageday Advance take to respond after an Ombudsmans decision. Ombudsman has agreed with my Adjudicator. So now got to wait for them to calculate the redress and then pay it back to me. Are they as slow at this as PDUK and Payday Express?
Thanks
Matt
Jason says
Wageday advance offered a mid offer dead on 8 weeks which I took ! Should of been £1000 but they offered £550 I crumbled haha ! Pduk play hardball just stick with it and try not to depend on money ! I’m waiting on refund from qq now and I check my bank every hour haha good luck !
adam says
sara,
on the myjar statement I am looking at now for all of my previous 23 loans it says total borrowed £3,775 + normal interest £ 1,070.94 total £4,228.34 then on the right of the spreadsheet it says £35 late fee plus £453.34 interest this figure is where I kept paying the loans off sometimes quicker and having to borrow again using other money. so would it be the figure of £453.34p I would have to claim for not the normal interest figure of £1,070.94 because this bigger figure is showing if i paid them all back at the end of there term on the loan but because I paid some off earlier i guess its the smaller figure I need to claim for ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s quite a big difference? You weren’t paying them off a few days early, more like weeks?
But you don’t have to “claim” any specific amount. Just say you would like a refund of all interest and charges.
Matty says
Huge thank you Wonga got back to me after waiting over 11weeks for a resolution with a refund of £4992, so happy thanks for all the great tips
Wendy says
Great news today my adjudicator has upheld 6 out of my 7 loans from QQ just waiting to see there response,I was just wondering if they would enclude all the Intrest for the roll overs I had for these loans as well? great web site thanks for your help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, if a loan is considered unaffordable, the roll-overs will be as well.
This was the complaint where you had a goodwill offer of £400? Sounds like you are going to get a LOT more back now!
Sam says
So I discovered this site back in June had multiple payday lenders. Sunny was the first to settle paid all interest and the 8%. Wonga partially agreed so I settled with them as I also was included in the write off scheme.
Peachy and lending stream refused so they went off to the ombudsman. My adjudicator agreed with some of my peachy loans and they agreed with her and was paid within 5 days of the decision.
However I’m confused as my separate adjudicator disagreed and sided with lending stream I had ten loans with them at one point I had extensions as I couldn’t afford the payments and at another point I had four on the go with them at one time these were at the same time as peachy and mr lender who is currently also on the way to fos so how do they make two different decisions based on the same situation,bank statements and such when my loans with lending stream were much higher and longer and regular than peachy?
I have requested it goes to an ombudsman but looking at previous scenarios on here the ombudsman backs the adjudicator surly the same would apply? I simply don’t get it a little nervous about this one.
Still p2p, payday uk and mr lender, myjar and wda to go. It’s so mentally tiring trying to keep up.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Taking the Lending Stream case to the Ombudsman sounds like the right thing to do. We have has people here win a complaint at the ombudsman level where the adjudicator said all loans were affordable. The Ombudsman doesn’t simply back the adjudicator.
It’s a good idea at this point to look again at what you told the LS adjudicator about the complaint and think if you could write a better explanation now to go to the Ombudsman. If your original one was very short (here is the complaint I sent to LS and they refused it” then think about adding more details. If your complaint was long, could you come up with a good summary of the most important points? Some ideas in here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refund-complaint-detail/.
Also have a look at what the other adjudicator wrote about your Peachy complaint. It isn’t directly relevant to your LS complaint, but if the loans were at about the same time, you may be able to borrow some of the language the adjudicator used to go into your explanation to the Ombudsman.
Also go through what your LS adjudicator said. Is any of it just wrong? Sometimes an adjudicator will have misunderstood the number of loans you had or the fact that you had several at one point.
Did LS say you had a good credit score when actually it would have been poor? Look at your credit records, what would have showed then you were borrowing from LS, would there have been missed payments? defaults? CCJs? If this is the case, add a paragraph to the Ombudsman saying that you dispute LS’s suggestion that your credit rating was OK to lend – this is wrong because of X, Y and Z.
Sam says
I sent the same complaint to the lenders word for word even wonga drew don’t argue so it’s quite bizarre really I explained that I was a single parent had 3 dependents and at one point four loans on the go with one company I even had to forward an email to the adjudicator said ls said I had paid them all back on time or early which is untrue to a degree because the pattern shows I was paying them back I time and borrowing them straight I even sent copies of emails that had been sent between me and ls begging for more time to pay as I couldn’t afford the loans and they still lent to me after that.
I have staggered the complaints as it does make the whole situation easier to deal with I will go and write a paragraph borrowing some of peachy adjudicators wording to see if this helps I know that between wonga peachy and sunny I have received just over £3000 back and it’s all thanks to this site and everyone of you guys especially Sara so in going to write the paragraph and keep the faith
Ross says
I just have to share this one with you. As a result of my complaint to Mr Lender, they wiped all of the interest on the loan, applied interest paid on a previous loan, and the payment already made, which brought the amount down from £1730 to £408. When I logged in to make the first payment (I agreed 2 instalments of £204 each) they offered me a ‘super saver’ option to wipe the debt for £326.00. Fortunately, I was in a position to do this and the loan was confirmed as closed. Not wanting to leave anything to chance I decided to log in to my Mr Lender account and I was astonished at what I found! Not only was the loan cleared but they proudly announced that my credit limit had been increased from £1000 to £1500. After my experiences, I will not be touching payday loan companies with a barge pole, but doesn’t this smack of irresponsibility on a massive scale? What if, after all this, I was weak willed and applied (and was approved) for the £1500, thus getting me back in to the mess all over again.
Personally, I believe the account should be marked with a ‘no further borrowing allowed’ marker or something similar. It’s a wonder how these businesses actually survive, based on the incompetence I’ve seen, and am still seeing, on a catastrophic scale!
Lilly says
Hiya,
My adjudicator sent over my acceptance of an offer made by Quick Quid on Thursday 13th October.
Timescale so far:
My adjudicator contacted QQ on 28th September advising him of his choice. QQ got back in touch on 4th October disagreeing, and upping their offer from the original £150 to £400. I declined the offer and my adjudicator advised QQ of this the same day. QQ then got back in touch on Thursday 13th October, upping their offer to £2400. This was still £800 less than what my adjudicator advised originally, but he said they had come back with a valid point, so advised me to accept their offer. So all in all, it has been just over 2 weeks. :)
Thank you.
aga says
Hi , has anybody got pay out from PdUk after Ombudsman’s final decision ? regards
Sarah says
I did – £2900 for 7 loans and i still owed £519 on one so that was removed from the final sum. They took about 1 week to pay from providing my acceptance of offer and my bank details.
Sarah
Lynnette says
Hi I returned my acceptance form last week and pduk emailed for my bank details on Friday which I quickly replied with asking also when I could expect payment and had no reply since fingers crossed hear something this week. Hope you hear soon too
Duane says
Someone please help me. Opos are stalking me at the moment chasing me for an original debt from mini credit that was 120 now increased to 330!!!
I’ve said I’m not doing anything until I’ve heard back from mini credit ref a complaint I made to them in June and they have said tough as minicredit no longer exist so the complaint is void!!!!
Help please
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you taken the minicredit complaint to the Ombudsman as it has been over 8 weeks? Have you asked Opos to supply your Consumer Credit Act information, sample letter in here https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/getting-information/credit-agreement-advice.aspx#quicklink2 ?
Andrew says
Good Morning
I am unable to provide you with a breakdown of the balance as Opos Limited are no longer managing this account.
The account was closed and returned to Mini Credit in November 2014 and as such we no longer have access to any account related information.
Therefore, I cannot consider your complaint. Your complaint is a matter for the original lender to consider.
I appreciate this is not the outcome you had hoped for, however I hope I have been able to explain clearly why this is the case.
Kind Regards
Just received the above in relation to mini credit / opos – what are my next steps please? They won’t even consider my complaint.
I had a £100 loan which rose to £431.25!!
Emma says
I am the same Andrew. I haven’t even had an acknowledgement of my complaint though after over 9 weeks. My £100 has over £400 left to pay and already paid about £240 back. Its loan sharking!
Robyn says
Hi Everyone, I just wanted to update on my progress since my complaint.
I complained in July to Quick Quid and received my response 8 weeks exactly after, stating they didn’t agree with my complaint however wanted to offer the ‘goodwill’ gesture of £250. I declined and went to the ombudsman on 6th Sep. I then got a fairly quick response back saying it had been assigned to an adjudicator and she had sent some questions to the business. We then exchanged a couple of emails back and forth, asking for various things including credit file, bank statements, details of expenditure etc. I then today received an email from her stating she had sent her recommendations to Quick quid which are my loans from 5-16 were unaffordable and that they should refund me including 8% and remove from credit file.
They have until the end of October to get back with their response so fingers crossed they agree!
michelle says
Reading this topic with great interest as in 2012 I got myself into a great deal of trouble with pdl and was forever rolling the loans over and refinancing as soon as I paid one off in order to pay others off and live, so I thought I would contact my lenders to say that due to the amount of times I refinanced and rolled over the payments it should have been realised that I was not using these as they were meant for “short term”.
I contacted them all on 14.10.16 and today 17.10.16 I have had my first response from Mr Lender offering my 849.00 back. Couldn’t believe how quick, I don’t think Ill be that luck again with my other companies, but fingers crossed.
L McPherson says
Hi I have submitted several complaints to various Payday Loan companies using this website, first reply from My Jar partially upholding my complaint, loan outstanding of £348.80 written off and credit file updated and payment of £275.50 for charges on previous loans. The basis of my complaint was that they authorised a re-loan to me in most cases on the same day I paid off the previous loan which I stated was irresponsible lending. I have accepted this offer as it totals over £600 and the outstanding default will be removed from my credit file. They replied in 21 days from when i sent in the complaint.
Thank you :)
Peter says
Did anybody get back money for installment loans? I had 9 loans at sunny in a space of 10 months, 2 times 3 loans at the same time?
Sam says
I had 8 loans with just sunny. I made a complaint to sunny they are probably one of the better companies to deal with refunded all interest and 8% without going to the fos all done in 4-5 weeks all by email
brad says
started all my complaints on 23/8/16
heres my story so far in order of come back to me.
mr lender – 2 days – £230 offered- accepted
wage day advance – 3 weeks- £737 offered – accepted
pay day uk -7 weeks declined gone to FOS
Pay day express – 7 weeksdeclined gone to fos
quick quid – 7 weeks declined gone to fos
money shop online – declined gone top fos
uncle buck – £547 accepted today
awaiting on pounds to pocket, pounds till payday, money shop instore – 8 weeks up 2moro.
all my big ones are with the fos so im happy
Ben says
I have had offers from Mr lender & WDA as both parties have now accepted the adjudicator’s findings. We have sent the acceptance letters back to the respective lenders. Can anyone tell me how long it would take the lender to pay out the settlement figures? Do they send a cheque or direct into your account?
Thanks, Ben
brad says
WDA was a week for me,straight to my account I found wda advance really easy.
u got uncle buck?
Rachel says
Wda was easiest for me I think it took 2 days after confirming bank details
Mitch says
QQ – With FOS (£250 offer on their final resolution rejected)
Wonga – With FOS – Had an email from Wonga today offering £900 ruling 4 out of 41 loans unaffordable, offer rejected and back with the FOS
Rachel says
Update QQ – Finally got an offer from the ombusdman for QQ which i accepted. Started the claim in March so will be about 8 months by the time they refund. This will make a big difference to my current situation i will be able to clear all debts that i owe and start repairing my credit report. The P2P and Payday uk claims are ongoing, keep sticking with it everybody good luck.
Suzy says
My ombudsman gave me a provisional decision agreeing they should refund all but 2 loans from quick quid they have 14 days to respond tommorow is day 8 did this happen to you x
Rachel says
I didn’t get any provisional offer was with ombudsman for 7 weeks, QQ originally offered £400 final offer £6000 So worth waiting for good luck
Jason says
I got paid dead on 7 days Rachel at 4pm from accepting good luck with ur claim !
Zara says
Hi Sara,
An update from My Jar. I borrowed £3700 between March 2014 & April 2015. I submitted my complaint to My Jar on 24/08/16. They never replied so I decided to write to them on 14/10/16:
Further to my complaint dated 24/08/16, I am writing to enquire why I have not received any response from you to my e-mail dated 24/08/16?
If I do not hear from you, then I shall be forwarding my complaint which I made to you, to the Financial Ombudsman.
On 17/10/16 they replied:
We are contacting you to provide you with a progress update on the complaint you made with us. We have carefully checked our records, but, unfortunately, we have not received your e-mail. We will contact you by 19 October 2016 with the outcome of your complaint.
Thus, as a resolution to your complaint, we offer a refund of the interest you have paid on the 12 loans you requested during this period totalling, £1,034.80. We will also remove the redressed loan from you credit file.
Is it worth accepting this offer?
The interest I paid was 1134.80.
Adding the 8% stat interest I was expecting about a total refund of 1430.80.
Should I propose a higher amount to My Jar regarding their offer or do I send it to FOS?
Please advise and thank you in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you – do you think this is a fair offer? Many people are happy to take the certainty of an almost full interest refund now, And think this is a reasonable exchange, they get the money now and not have to go through the lengthy Ombudsman process. Obviously if you were being offered £400, then you would have a lot more to gain by carrying on. But in your case if the Ombudsman decided the loans were only unaffordable after the first couple, you may be no better off after statutory interest is added.
Claire C says
Hi All
So I have a few complaints with the FOS. One of those being Quick Quid, who after flat rejecting my complaint with them, have made an offer through the FOS without having received the Adjudicators decision as yet. I have rejected their offer, on the basis that it isn’t even 50% of the total I could potentially receive.
My question is, has anyone else been in this position and received a counter offer ahead of the Adjudicator’s decision? Or will QQ now wait it out until the Adjudicator submits their findings?
It’s very tempting to accept, but I know that I could potentially receive much more. I also believe that QQ are trying their luck, as it’s quite ridiculous that they have made an offer now when they flat out refused initially!!!
Any help is much appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes QQ do this sometimes. nanasusan was originally offered £350, then £1700 then £2000, now it’s gone to the Ombudsman who has said all interest after the first two loans which should be over £4000.
I suggest you should tell the adjudicator that you have been offered this and then explain why you think it is inadequate and want to continue with your complaint – the length of time you were borrowing, the short gaps between the loans, the way the loans went up, that sort of thing.
Emma says
Hi, I was wondering if anybody had any dealings with Sunny and Cash ASAP? I emailed them 6 weeks ago and chased last week and still haven’t received anything from them. Do they normally get back to you within the 8 week time frame?
My biggest complaint is with Wonga with over 40 consecutive monthly loans but know they take their time and will ask for longer than the 8 weeks
Thanks in advance
Mark77 says
Hi,
just been paid by QQ; their first offer 350 pounds – rejected, then to FOS – they offered 2900 pounds after ombudsman got involved – I rejected, they upped the offer 3970 pounds – I rejected again and asked ombudsman yo proceed with final decision which resulted in 6070 pounds in my account yesterday;
started process in Feb 2016;
thank you Sara!
Rachel says
That’s great news I have a similar result just waiting for Payment, how long till they paid you from decision? Also do they contact you first or did it just appear? Thanks
Lilly says
I accepted Quick Quids offer on Thursday last week, I had the money in my account last night :)
Mark77 says
Hi, I waited 11 days from accepting ombudsman’s decision to get payment. They requested (QQ) via adjudicator to confirm bank details and then after a week I received a number of e-mails from QQ saying that the payments just been processed and money should be in the account within an hour – which happened.
Ruth says
Hi all,
I’ve had a response from Peachy ( cash on go) I only had one loan with them but extended it twice and then couldn’t pay it back so is currently with my DMP and has been since 2012!! There is still an outstanding balance of around £68.
I’ve had a final response from them saying they have done anything wrong and in there eyes did the correct checks!
They have agreed to write off my balance as a gesture of goodwill and I’m not sure whether it’s worth proceeding to the FOS
I borrowed £100 rolled that loan twice and then it went onto my DMP
So far I’ve paid £222.70 back with the remaining balance being £68 this is what they said they will right off if I accept the offer.
As it was just the one loan I took, regardless of rolling/deferring twice I don’t think they would have known about all my other payday loans unless they checked my credit file.
On the basis that it’s just one loan I’m inclined to accept the offer and have the balance removed.
Sam says
Peachy rejected my complaint I only had four loans however the adjudicator said as I had rolled the 2nd loan they should have done better checks and they had to refund loan 3 and 4 and interest good luck
Sam says
So I’m probably opening a can of worms here but my philosophy is if you don’t ask you don’t get I have have a bit of payday loan success so I have emailed little woods today to complain regards the affordability of their products including there buy now pay later and the enormous credit limits they give you. Mmine at one point was £8000. I had about 14 increases in 3 years. no holding out much hope however they never did a check with me to see if my income or circumstances had changed in over 5 years
if I get anything it will be a bonus as it will come directly off my dmp so will hopefully start reducing the years I have to pay that also started sending complaints to credit cards as I was only ever to pay the minimums for years again the affordability and being a responsible lender having 6 credit cards a large overdraft 3 catalogues and several payday loan companies how was I ever given credit by anyone in the last 3 years I will never know but anything that comes from it will go straight to my dmp
Mr lender has come back and reduced my balance so I now only owe them 385 instead of 1600.
Nigel says
HI
I am also doing this with Littlewoods, I have a week left for them to respond. They have told me I will get a final decision then. My credit limit was 9200. They just kept putting it up, but at the time I was getting more in debt! So the logic suggests they did no real checks, logic suggests that the limit should have been reduced. I will let you know what happens on this one.
Claire says
I’m also doing the same with Littlewoods and Very (both Shop Direct) who also continued to increase their lending to me without, I feel any checks. Let’s all hope for positive outcomes.
Jason says
Sara quick question my payday uk claim has been separated into two claims ! Instant cash loans is with adjudicator who has gone in my favour because he has been ignored and they have 14 days to answer ! And other part has stalled as they refunded me during my lending claiming they were self checking customers credit score whether they could pay the loans ! I can’t see why it has stalled I loaned every month and reloaded day I paid for two years ! It’s been stalled for two months waiting on a ruling from outside fos ? Have u heard of any similar cases ?
Thanks in advance !
And quick quid still not paid haha
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have heard a couple of people say this but it’s not common. It seems to be happening with loans where the lender says they have already paid redress so no further complaint should be allowed. I am puzzled that you say it waiting for “ruling from outside the fos” do you know any more about this?
Jason says
I do I forgot who is making the ruling I will ring my adjudicator tommorow ! It’s neutral party like ombudsman I will find out it’s annoying as I loaned consecutively and pduk only refunded one loan ! And why has it split into two companies I loaned of pduk !! And I have a balance who do I pay balance too !! I will let u know tommorrow sorry was ages ago I spoke to my adjudicator ! And I’m 3 companies down thank you for help ! I have recovered £2000 so far !
Andy says
Fantastic website. I’ve just used the template to send a complaint off to Sunny.
I have had 17 loans with Sunny from November 2015 through to now.
I understand the first couple may be seen as affordable, but it’s a pretty steady stream following on from eachother. If I list them all below, if somebody could give me an idea of an educated guess on what to expect it would be much appreciated.
Total of all loans is £7950. Total interest paid is £1104.62, not including three loans that I have running currently.
They are pay monthly instalments. I have been constantly either taking one out to pay off another or taking out 2 or 3 concurrently to keep going, so I’d say it should have been clear to them that my situation hasn’t been improving.
24/11 700
9/12 250
13/4 150
16/4 400
22/4 350
4/5 1150
6/5 400
10/5 600
13/5 500
30/5 200
12/7 300
15/7 600
20/7 600
26/7 300
350 current
400 current
700 current.
Thanks in advance if you can take the time to give me an idea of what to expect.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a list of the amounts borrowed? The first thing you need to do is work out how much interest you have paid. It’s not possible to tell much from the amounts borrowed.
Some of the amounts borrowed are obviously very large, but what matters is whether the repayment amounts (were these installment loans?) were affordable in relation to your income and expenses.
You can get refunds for installment loans, but you need to be clear that you are arguing that (a) the monthly repayments are unaffordable, not the total amount borrowed and (b) this should have been obvious to Sunny from the number of loans you were allowed to take out.
Ross says
Bit of a strange one here… I’m still waiting for a final response from WDA but I’ve just logged in to my account to find nothing showing at all. I had 3 payments of £226.00 left to pay. The original loan was for £750.00 and I had already made 3 repayments of £226.00 (total £678.00). I advised, in the complaint email, that I would be suspending all payments, until the complaint is investigated and asked that all interest and charges are suspended for the duration of the complaint process. I’ve had no phone calls or emails asking me for the missed payment last Friday and I’m just curious to know if they have wiped the interest on the loan and written off the remainder of what was owed from the original loan amount (which I calculate to be £72.00). However, I have also asked for a refund of interest +8% for all other loans I took with them and I’m wondering if this is what’s holding them up from issuing a final response and satisfy my curiosity in just what’s going on? Intriguing.
John C says
Don’t read too much into it Ross. WDA will suspend collecting payments while you have a complaint in place. The same happened to myself without warning. I asked why they hadn’t taken a payment and why the amount showed the original amount (although it was wrong as i’d made a payment) and they said they wouldn’t actively peruse any money from me while I had a complaint in place. If you are successful they will remove anything outstanding from any refund. They should come back to you exactly on week 8
Ross says
Thanks John, I appreciate your help.
Is it standard procedure that a company suspends payments whilst they investigate? I have both Satsuma Loans and The Money Shop harassing me because of one missed payment to each. I replied to an email from Satsuma, explaining that I have a complaint currently being investigated, but this appears to have fallen on deaf ears! The Money Shop forwarded my original email to their customer relations department on 10/10/16, promising a proper acknowledgment to the complaint within 5 days. I’ve just realised. today, when perusing through all of my complaint data for all of my loans that I’ve had NO such acknowledgment back from them, so I’ve emailed them direct. We’ll see if they can be bothered to have the courtesy to do what they said they would.
John C says
Not sure to be honest, all I know is that’s the way WDA looked at my complaint back in March. Sorry I can’t help with the others
Money Shop, PDUK etc seem to be a law unto themselves!
Jaqueline says
Hi I complained to Wonga about my repeated loans with them in 2011-12 – my last loan was written off in 2014 under the criteria and affordability rules – I don’t know until July this year you could claim back interest on unaffordable loans – they said they wouldn’t look at my case due to timescales and that I should have known it was unaffordable .
I sent to ombudsman and it’s now gone to a Senior ombudsman to decide whether to look into it or not ?
I’m confused as I didn’t know until recently you could ask for this and some of my loans are still within 6 years
I took out repeated loans monthly/ weekly for 18 months – I dare not get a loan as I thought I won’t be able to pay bills and I didn’t say to wonga I was struggling as I was scared !
When did wonga start their “8000” point check?
Has the ombudsman started to dismiss claims now outside of the 6 year / 3 year ruling???
I see others getting their money back and I’m not sure what’s different about my case?
Any advice???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jaqueline – some cases where the lender has already paid some compensation or written off a balance appear to be stayed at the moment whilst they are looked at. If I had to guess, I would say that the FOS is trying to find a good way to decide these cases – balancing the fact that it wouldn’t be fair for someone to get twice as much compensation for something, but what if the lender was originally only giving some compensation and now more could be due to a broader affordability complaint being raised?
It sounds as though you are in this situation. I don’t think there is anything you can do to speed this up, you just have to wait.
Jaqueline says
Hi Sara sorry perhaps my first post was confusing – My last loan was removed due to their criteria rules being looked at back in 2014 and giving unaffordable loans to people – I only found out and was able to complain in July that if my last loan was unaffordable why we’re not the rest ? Their reply was that it’s been longer than 6 years so we won’t look into it.
This ruling with the ombudsman appears to have only recently been looked at
The FOS have now explained to me ) is that because they are getting a number of people coming to them because Wonga or any other payday loan won’t look at anything over 6 years (over half of my loans are less than 6 years old) and I believed I fell in the category of “it’s less than 3 years since I became aware of a problem that could be challenged that doesn’t it make all my loans unaffordable” I’ve been put on hold – they say they hope for a decision very soon
I did say I’ve seen over many sites others being paid out in the same sort of if instance as myself they said they are aware and it doesnt make any sense what the companies are doing and this is being addressed too
Sadly I don’t hold out much hope – just wished I wasn’t so ill then and could have challenged them sooner
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, I didn’t realise the issue was because a lot of your loans are more than 6 years old. These cases are on hold at the moment. There isn’t anything you can do to speed this up I am afraid.
Tim C says
Hi there!
I just have a query, among all my other payday loans, I took one loan out from Mr. Lender for £235 on the 25th of March 2011, which I had to pay monthly for around 8 months, paying an interest and admin fee of £390.
I have complained to them and my main defence was I had already taken out several loans before going to Mr. Lender. Now they don’t feel that they were irresponsibly lending but have offered me £125 stating:
“However after taking into consideration what you have stated in your complaint, we would like to offer you as a gesture of goodwill a refund of £125.00. This refund has been calculated by retrospectively applying the three rollover limit Mr Lender introduced to our customers in January 2014, meaning customers cannot rollover any more than three times with one loan. This refund will also mean upon acceptance of this offer even though your loan was taken out before this cap was introduced, you do not exceed the 100% rate cap which was introduced in January 2015 by the Financial Conduct Authority on high cost short term credit. This meant that customers would never repay more than 100% of the amount borrowed in fees and interest.”
Now I am happy to accept this £125, but taking into consideration how much interest they had charged me, do you think that I would be able to be refunded more if I do go to the Financial Ombudsman?
Thank you!
Rob says
I have just had a complaint turned down as the Adjudicator seems to think that the company done nothing wrong.
I had stated that I had an income of around £180 net per week plus state benefits (one for people on low income) and the adjudicator says that the company can’t be expected to know about benefits.
I had also said that I paid nothing towards living costs and the adjudicator also said that it was fair for the company to believe me.
The adjudicator then said I was in an arguably better position having got the loan. Although I ended up with debts totalling £14000 as I had to take out payday loans to meet monthly payments.
Amigo said in its final response that it compares given figures with national averages and would investigate irregularities. Who gets to live for nothing? The adjudicator didn’t even approach Amigo to ask for any details other than to listen to the pre payout call.
It is now going to an Ombudsman, is this likely just to be going through the motions as statiscally the Ombudsman tends to agree with the adjudicator.
Thanks
Rob
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman usually agrees with an adjudicator as most adjudicator decisions are sensible, not because they just go through the motions. But if you think yours isn’t then it’s definitely right to take it to the Ombudsman. We have seen people here wina case with the Ombudsman after being rejected by an adjudicator. You need to be clear why the loan was not affordable for you – have you produced bank statements to show this? And also why Amigo should have realised this. Have you giver the FO a copy of your credit record?
Have you also put in complaints about your payday loans?
Rob says
Hi Sara,
I provided bank statements etc showing my financial situation etc.
I may have slightly inflated my income but I did say I was receiving working tax credit.
Amigo and the adjudicator say I had £700 per mth disposable income. I questioned that if this was the case why would I have needed £50 payday loans and why would I have defaulted on a £300 credit card balance.
The adjudicator is also aware of my payday loan complaints.
Regards
Rob
Linda says
Mr Lender I only had one loan with them for £300 I paid back £122 and there is still a debt outstanding with Motormile finance balance is shown as …. Wait for it £798 still to repay. I have received details from them of the loan, on which they stated they have completed a credit check prior to issuing the loan. My credit has been very poor for many years, as it’s only one loan and it’s been sold to a DCA is it worth submitting a complaint ?
Louise says
Good news! Just before it got was sent to the ombudsman.. Quick quid has agreed with my adjudicator and have agreed to refund 5 loans giving me a refund of £2995.
The initial offer in April was £250 so very as long winded as it is just stick with it… Its worth it!
Anyone else been refunded by them? Was it cheque or bank transfer?
Anyone know how long it took?
Mark says
Hi Louise
Well Done! QQ took about 2 weeks to pay out to me. The transfered the money via bank transfer. Best to confirm your bank details as soon as you can with them as they may use this as another delay tactic.
Mark
David McCarrick says
Hi all,
Came across the site 2 days ago and I have had my first offer from Mr Lender.
October 2015 I took out a loan of £150 and repaid that on time over two months and paid on the 24th December. The same day I applied for and was accepted for £300. Now they don’t believe that they have lent irresponsibly but my argument would be that applying on the same day as paying off my previous loan (and borrowing double) must have rang some alarm bells.
Amazingly, the balance at the moment is £462 and they have offered to reduce the amount owed to £162. Is this fair or would you reject it?
I have also received my statement of account from Cash Converters today which shows that I have £2435.37 owing on a loan of £1500 I took out in January. I will be preparing my letter for them tomorrow. The woman on the phone actually encouraged me to borrow more than what I had asked for so I feel I have good grounds there.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t sound as though you are likely to get any refund for the first loan. For the second,if you borrowed £300, how much have you paid to it so far? If it is £138, then the offer you have is removing all the interest from the second loan and you wouldn’t do any better by going to the Ombudsman.
For the Cash Converters loan, that is so recent that they should still have the tapes of the call :)
Lesley says
Received my emails confirming payments from qq and p2p and then paid an hour later, 9 days after accepting, but I also received 2 emails from p2p saying I owe them money and that they’re going to apply defaults to my account even tho I owe them nothing and there owing me, I’ve sent them to my adjudicator but I’m not happy with that at all, anyone else had this happen x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t heard of this cock up happening to anyone else, I hope it gets sorted soon!
Jamie says
SUCCESS with Wonga….
Started my complaint 4th May.
Wonga asked for another 6 weeks (after the oringnal 8) I sent it to the FOS 29th June.
Wonga then sent final response not upholding my complaint
Allocated Adjudicator 1st August
Complaint upheld by Adujdicaotr 11th August
5th September Wonga made an offer, I declined, it was then assigned to an Ombudsman.
Ombudsman upheld 29th September, and today I have been Paid over £1700. The loans are also being deleted from my credit report.
PAYDAY UK – nightmare so far, waiting for a final decision from Ombudsman
QQ – still waiting Ombudsman final decision. Thank you Sara and everyone on here. Keep at it
Neil says
Great result – well done! I don’t understand why these companies don’t just make fair offers to begin with – it costs them money when a case is referred to an Ombudsman; if I were them I’d be looking at the decisions that have gone against them and adjusting my policy accordingly. Oh well – you stuck with it and got a great win, and that’s what matters!
Matt says
So ive totalled all my payday loans across 7 providers and from a period of march 2010 to Sept 2013 i had borrowed and repaid just over £57,500.
In September i started the statement of request etc and currently have received just over £2,000 back from 2 providers (no fo involved). My biggest two are with payday uk and wonga which are currently being reviewed. My worry is that because i am a high earner this will go against me with the adjudicator. Each month i was repaying between £1,500 up to £2,900 per month back to payday loan companies. This was about 60-90% of my take home pay so i had to borrow again.
Has anyone else ben able to reclaim regardless of your take home pay
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes people with good incomes have won affordability complaints – what matters is if your bank statements show you couldn’t afford to repay the loans without borrowing more.
Sarah says
Hi. I have just started this process. So far Mr lender have been very quick – originally offered me £500 (repaid over £5600 to the), which I refused and have emailed them back asking for more reasonable figure. Uncle Buck have just replied asking for a copy of my credit file and my bank statements. Do I have to send my credit file? Surely they have access to it anyway? If I have to send it, where is the best place to get one please?!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to send UB anything unless you want to. You can just reply saying that you want them to consider the complaint on the basis of what you have ready told them and what they already now as that should make it clear the loans were unaffordable.
Of course the FO may ask for bank statements and your credit report, but people are happy sending them the info.
Whether UB can already see your credit record is an interesting question. Of course they can if you have an outstanding balance, but if you haven’t… I will find out the answer to this but don’t let this delay your reply.
Info on getting a credit record is here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/. Most people send a Noddle report as that is free.
Sarah says
Thanks for your help. I have had acknowledgements from other companies, but mr lender have been by far the quickest. They’ve offered to write off existing loan (£190 capital, £503 interest!) and pay me £1000. I’ve sent copy of free credit file to uncle buck, but I’m not sending bank statements just yet – I’ll wait for their reply.
Mark says
Hi Matt
I was earning roughly £3,000 net so each of my loans looked affordable on the surface, however as my loans together were a big proportion of my wage, and I also was gambling heavily, the adjudicator (all 4 of them) have each ruled in my favour. It was the combination of showing I had a cycle of loans with the company, many other loans with other companies, marks on my credit file, gambling and living expenses that proved the loans were unaffordable for me.
Mark says
I now have 5 more positive adjudicator verdicts on TMS, Payday Express, PDUK, Toothfairy and 24 / 7, however with the exception of Toothfairy who are being managed by a liquidator as we know, all of the above are not responding at all.
PDUK is the only one of which that includes loans that are past 2010 so that’s on hold.
I am now waiting on ombudsman final decision on them all which has taken a few weeks already.
The wait continues…..
Suzy says
Hi mark I always follow your posts still waiting on quick quid ombudsman gave them 2 weeks to add anything before he reaches decision which he has said should go same way as his provisional decision 2 weeks up Monday hoping it’s not much longer started 1st may ?
Mark says
Hi Suzy, does that mean you are a fan :)
Keep up with it, you have positive feedback so far, I know it is really hard waiting for an update but before May we didn’t even know it was possible to do this!
wendy says
after waiting 2 months for my adjudicatior to pick up my LS complaint, i was thinking to take there offer of just under £500 then yesturday got a call and email from my adjudicator about my case (he asked me a few questions) i really didn’t think he would up hold any of my complaint BUT i recived n email about 9.30 am this morning saying hes upholding 27 out of 28 loans,totally happy,does anyone know whats Lending Stream are like at this stage?Many thanks
Ruth says
Hi Sara,
So today i had a response from Lending Stream. I took out a total of 4 loans with them, repaid 3 but defaulted on the 4th which went to my DMP.
Previously they had requested I send £10 in order for them to send me details of my close accounts ( jog on) I just put complaint in anyway.
Now the response… they have agreed to write off remaining balance which is £487.34 and no further action. The original amount I borrowed was £200 and i have paid back just on the last loan £476.95.
According to LS when they carried out the original credit search my experian credit report gave a score of 717!!! This i find highly unlikely as I was declared bankrupt some 3 years before and this would of still been very evident on my credit report.
Now, whilst a zero balance would be great ! I cant help wondering whether this is a quick get out for them and if I reject the offer and go to ghe FOS I will get alot more..??
What are your thoughts on catalogues. I took out one with Littlewoods,very and isme ( all come under the same company shop direct) who gave me a credit limit of anything from £250-£1000 whilst these limits have never increased, I wonder what checks they make before deciding to offer credit. Because believe me my credit file was s**t and wascwondering whether to go down the route of irresponsible lending?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The LS offer doesn’t sound good as you have already repaid more than the amount borrowed on the 4th loan. LS often seem to quote implausibly high credit ratings. With bankruptcy on your record it may have been ok to lend to you once – after all payday loans are aimed at people in financial difficulty – but they should have surely stopped and wondered if these loans were affordable when you kept borrowing.
Ruth says
Do you reckon then in that case that I reject the offer and go tk the FOS.? I also want my balance written off so will the FOS ask them to do that as well?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the FOS decide the last loan is unaffordable, you should get a refund of £276 and the balance written off. If the FOS decides the earlier loans were unaffordable the refund will be larger.
You could just go to the FOS, or you could reply saying their credit score is clearly wrong as bankruptcy was showing on your credit file and unless they write off the balance AND refund £x you will be going to the FOS. Up to you what £x is. Perhaps £276 plus whatever interest you paid on the 3rd loan?
Dani says
I am delighted to inform everyone we have received emails from Wonga this evening. They have upheld our complaints without going to the FOS and are going to be transferring £7800 to us! Cant believe it, this will go to pay off more than half of our debts so we only owe £6000. It has been a long journey since we started our DMP in Sept 2013 owing £55,000 :S but with everybody’s help on here we should be paid off in the early new year. So happy!!
QQ- still with adjudicator and he is compiling all the evidence and trawling through our statements so we shall see what happens there!
All I can say is persevere as it is definitely worth it!! I know we could potentially get a little more but with the interest we paid, we think it is a good offer. Next step bank account fees and catalogues, wish us luck lol
Thanks Sara for all your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s great news for you!
If you have been in a DMP for 3 years, it’s possible you could use this windfall to make full and final settlements on even more of your debt, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-options/less-common/full-final/.
Emma says
I was just wondering what people’s experiences with Sunny were. I sent my compliant off over 6 weeks ago and not heard anything back yet.
Jamie says
Hi, myself and others have revived final responses at the full 8 week , or in my case a few days before, I revived a full refund plus interest 3.6k ! Was paid after 3 days , It was most welcome and one of the fairest direct from the lender !