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?
Ann says
HI guys
JUst wondering if anyone is in a smiliar situation.
I complained to Lending Stream and they refused to uphold my complaint. I referred to FOS.
THe adjudicator agreed but Lending Stream did not agree with her so the case is being passed to an ombudsman.
SHe has sent me a copy of Lending Streama response and they have pointed out in their response that they feel I was not truthful when declaring my expenditure and advised that they may refer this to the relevant authorities. Who are the authorities they are referring to and what would be the outcome of this do you think?
I’m now wondering if I should just withdraw this complaint. What do you guys think?
Is it likely the ombudsman would disagree with the adjudicator anyway.
IM finding this complaint quite stressful and just ready to throw in the towel
THanks in advance for any hwlp
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have no idea who ‘the relevant authorities’ are that they could ‘refer you to’! I think they are just trying to get you scared so you drop the case!
I suggest you read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ and see if any of that sounds true for you – if it does, then I suggest you reply saying your expenses may not have been accurate but it’s unfair to say you weren’t truthful, you didn’t understand what had to be included/you didn’t have a good grasp of what your expenses were as you were in a mess/ you were struggling with mental health issues etc. And that the lender should have been able to tell from your repeat borrowing that there was something wrong and that the loans couldn’t be affordable.
Sam says
I also has that threat from peachy when they rejected my complaint still went off to the fos and they awarded to me 50% of the loans that I had as there had been a pattern in borrowing.
Also was reading the case files from last month on the ombudsman website makes for interesting reading also gives you good clues in what points to make when communicating with either the adjudicator or ombudsman I didn’t realise that they were there for the public to read names have been excluded thankfully! I wouldn’t feel too worried if what you put on you incoming a and outgoing a didn’t tally up to your credit file shouldn’t that have flagged to them to do further checks?
Also given the fact that people are reduced to high interest payday loans that should show the signs of desperation people have reached and how much financial trouble they are already in to do relevant checks I would have thought. Don’t let the scare tactics get to you I mean who are they gonna report you too the money police? Ghostbusters? I think not lol x
Mark says
Success!!
QQ – Refund recieved £2300 – They made an offer after going to FOS
PDUK – Offer Made £1400 – The made an offer after going to FOS
Wonga – Still awaiting FOS decision.
Anybod know how long PDUK take to pay out??
Thanks for all the help
Mark
David says
Thankyou so much – followed your step by step guide, using your template to write to wonga- after 8 weeks e mailed to say going to FO and have just received over £2000 . Amazing thankyou so much
David says
I’m only 5 days in and had a few offers so far. Happy with Mr Lender and 247 MB.
Mr Lender – Agreed to reduce my balance so it removes all of the interest on that.
247 Moneybox – Agreed to clear the balance.
Wageme – Completely declined the argument and say that all checks had been carried out correctly. Disputed and asked to come to an arrangement before FOS.
PDUK – Acknowledged the complaint.
Sunny – Acknowledged the complaint.
Uncle Buck – Asked for credit report and bank statements. Refused and asked to consider complaint on information given.
Cash Converters – Acknowledged the complaint.
Wageday Advance – Acknowledged the complaint.
Safety Net Credit – Acknowledged the complaint.
Satsuma – Acknowledged the complaint.
Andrew says
Very similar to me started about 8 days ago.
Mr lender reduced balance removing interest, but potentially persueing to write it off.
247 wrote balance and cleared off credit file
QQ 8 weeks response
PDUK 8 weeks response
Payday express 8 weeks response
Safe loans SSL 8 weeks response
CFO 8 weeks response
Had no response back from
Wonga
Wagedayadvance
Myjar
Sunny
Took mini credit to ombudsman
Trying to find anyone from UK LENDERS ALLIANCE.
jane says
I paid my daughter’s £35 debt with wonga in 2013. Feb 2014 I found that they had taken 700 out of my account. My bank were useless and I changed my account numbers to stop any more going out. I didn’t realise how paying off one debt for my daughter could lead to them going after me! Can I now go after them to get my money back?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should try!
This isn’t a standard affordability complaint, so don’t just use the template letter in the article above. Your complaint is a) that you never authorised these payments, you were just paying off one loan not the next one(s) she took! And (b) they never checked you could afford £700, this caused you to go overdrawn, have direct debit be unpaid incurring charges, or any other problems you had.
It would also be good if your daughter puts in a more standard affordability complaint at the same time. For the loans you repaid and for any others from Wonga and other lenders.
You may also have a complaint against your bank for failing to reverse the ZcOA charges that were incorrectly taken. But I would start by complaining to Wonga. You will need your bank statement but the Ombudsman can get those if you don’t still have them.
Tom says
A refund of £680 from Mr Lender, and the removal of two loans from my credit file all confirmed within 3 days – I’m impressed by the speed of their complaints department.
Liam says
Hi Sara,
I’m just after a bit of advice please. My complaint against QQ is with the FOS. The adjudicator had advised they should repay all loans after the 2nd including the flex credit account which came further down the line. Today I had a second offer from them for most loans but not the Flex credit which I refused and asks for a final decision from an FO as it’s approx £3k difference.
The adjudicator has just called to say that he’s noticed I received a bonus from work the month before taking out the flex loan which now makes this look affordable. This was one month out of 12 where my income was higher than my lending but the adjudicator has advised me to take the offer.
If I proceed to final decision, is qq’s last offer taken into account or is the case looked at independently? Does it sound right to you that a one off spike in income would make the loans look affordable regardless of the previous borrowing and what my income would be during the repayment period?
I don’t want to lose my offer, but I genuinely feel that the loans and flex credit account were unaffordable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t heard of an Ombudsman saying you should get less than a lender has already offered – I don’t think that would seem fair.
It doesn’t sound right that a 1 month spike should have a large effect.
Lynnette says
Update on my progress
Ombudsman final decision PDUK refund all loans with 8% interest and removal of all adverse information from my credit file, just waiting payment should be by end of this month.
PDExpress replied with new information after preliminary ombudsman decision, adjudicator says final response by end of this week.
QQ on hold due to 6+3 ruling she is unsure when i will get decision but has said it will take longer but could possibly end in a better result in my favour.
Cant wait to see the end of this.
Keep going people this can only help us all in the long run even though it is a long drawn out process at times, i’ve been at it since start of April.
Lynnette says
Hi Matt, they had until 13th to reply and I only phoned yesterday for an update and my
Adjuicator said they expect a final decision this week, so not sure if that helps you at all?
Matthew says
Since starting the process at the beginning of September I’ve had a bit of a mixed bag. FaSt response from LS who wrote off some small amount of debt, but I only had a couple there and accepted.
Outright rejection from WDA, 247MB, Quid. Going to send to FOS.
Rejected by PDUK and Payday express: both tried to charge for statement of accounts so I went through the time consuming process of reading all old Bank statements online.
These two have been passed to FOS, awaiting adjudicator allocation.
Qq sent the usual questionnaire, now in the eighth week. (This was my first pd lender and one of my biggest accounts starting in 2010).
Asked Wonga for SOA; was told on phone up to 12 days. It arrived last week. Thankfully I’d already been through my statements and filed complaint based on my available data. This one is complicated though as they had sold the debt I eventually settled so am not sure exactly what I repaid.
CFO is in its final week as is CFUN, who I found aggressive and intimidating when I had arrears a couple of years ago, and thankfully still have doorstep collection threat email from them.
Finally a positive; Quidmarket have been the easiest to deal with. They sent a postal acknowledgement of my complaint with their policy and Ombudsman info within a week of sending complaint. After 6 weeks they sent final response offering (I think) reasonable compensation on the last 8 out of 12 loans including interest this came to £917. I phoned to confirm acceptance and the money was in my account within 2 hours!
If only they were all so simple!
Sarah says
Well just an update of where I am since starting my complaints in June 2016:
PAYDAY UK – rejected my complaint originally – FOS ruled in my favour – £2900 – default & credit history removed
WONGA – offered £819 for 1 loans – accepted, CCJ and credit history removed
Mr Lender – offered £79, default removal and settled outstanding balance – accepted, credit file not updated but chased this yesterday
Cash Genie – offered £719 rejected this and requested £1222 (charges & interest from their statement breakdown) – waiting response
Mini Credit – still being reviewed – 4 weeks to go
Payday Express – requested 2 more weeks – agreed to this in the hope they are reasonable with an offer
Quid Market – still being reviewed – 4 weeks to go
ShopDirect (Very & Littlewoods) – emailed CEO about the increases to my credit amount and requested to have defaults removed from file – this is still with the executive communications team
Think Finance – still being reviewed – 4 weeks to go
Toothfairy – emailed FOS to forward my complaint as no email address – still being reviewed – 4 weeks to go
WageDayAdvanced – Rejected my original complaint – sent to FOS on Monday
QuickQuid – original complaint rejected – sent to FOS – pre 2010 loans being looked at separately – 6 loans from 2010 onwards – adjudicator has recommended full refund of interest and charges – QQ rejected this and only agreed to refund loans 4 and 5 – rejected their offer so adjudicator going back to them.
Its taking a while but I’m getting their slowly – QQ seem to be really dragging their heels but the rest have responded quickly. Mr Lender especially was all completed within a week.
Thanks
Sarah
Ross says
My success so far. Mr Lender has been the best and, pardon the pun, credit where it’s due, they were extremely quick and the £1730 debt was settled amicably for £326.00 and is now gone. Ferratum UK refunded interest on 4 loans to clear remaining balance and waived the remainder and marked as settled.
And now the not so good.
Quick Quid rejected my complaint within 5 hours of receiving my email. Email sent at 1220 and one received back at 1720 with no indication of any investigation being performed or anything related. This is now with the FOS.
Satsuma Loans also rejected my complaint and went down the familiar route of saying that because I’d made all of my previous payments on time, then there was no need for them not to grant me further credit. They failed to take in to account a repeat borrowing cycle and the fact that the amounts borrowed/requested increased each time. This has gone to the FOS too.
I’ve, today. received a rather snooty reply from Lending Stream advising pretty much the same as Satsuma Loans did, with affordability and the fact that the loans were paid off blah, blah, blah. However, interestingly, they didn’t indicate in their ‘response’ that this was a ‘final response’ and they didn’t give me any information on my rights to forward the complaint to the FOS if I was still dissatisfied with their response. I have replied back, asking them to clarify. Let’s just hope the spelling and grammar in their response is better than the previous one!
Still waiting to hear back from Wonga, WDA, Money Boat, PDUK, PayDay Express, Uncle Buck, Sunny, The Money Shop, although all of these have confirmed receipt of the complaints and are investigating. 247Moneybox haven’t had the common courtesy to reply to 3 different emails, so that can just go to the FOS if and when the 8 weeks passes.
It’s probably going to mean being in for the long haul, but I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Keep fighting on people!
Noel says
Thanks very much to this website & Sarah for revitalising my finances and making me see I should get over my embarrassment about my PD Loans and see that it was not solely my fault as customer (which some of the lurkers on MSE delight in doing to PDL customers) & do something.
My big fish to fry are QQ, Wonga, LS and PDUK, all acting with varying degrees of tardiness, but the unexpected boosts, which give me the means to sit it out more patiently than I would have done, have been the quick responses and reasonable settlements arising from my lesser borrowings with WDA, MyJar and H&T – not life changing but massive confidence boosts when compare it with the mess I was in 12-24 months ago
Jamie says
Hi All,
Some good news today regarding my Quick Quid complaint, Ombudsman have agreed with the adjudicator’s decision and ruled the all loans taken after 2013 were in fact un-affordable. Just wondering how long Quick Quid usually take to pay out? The Ombudsman has given them 4 weeks, will they drag their feet or pay up before this date?
Thanks
Rachel says
QQ paid today after accepting last week,( I have already cleared credit cards and now look forward to a debt free rest of the year. I still have ongoing claims with p2p and payday uk. Thanks to Sara and everyone who has been very supportive it was only by chance I came across this site and very glad I did. (Started QQ claim in March)
susan says
hi,just had a refund offer from mr lender so took it.they wasnt goin to give me one because they said they had checkt my credit file and their was no other credit showing and my credit file was fair.i email them back and told them i had 7 payday loans pryer in 2010, they gave me a loan 2011 and that it should have been on my credit file.i told them i checkt my bank statement. just got to wait on wonga,mini credit,wageday advance.cfo
Mr S says
Hi can someone please help me. I have received an offer from Wonga
For a loan I took out for £1000 I paid back £1433. However for this loan Wonga is offering me £84.84 as a refund.
This is just an example of one of the loans I took out with Wonga. Sorry if this sounds dumb but I assumed I was claiming back the £433 I paid as interest and fees.
Total they offered me was £2300 on all loans which is ok but when calculating total interest and fees they owed me, it is over £5000 I expected.
Should I accept or try FO
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Mr S, this sounds odd. Wonga often only offer to refund some loans and not others, but if they say they will refund a loan, that usually means all the interest and charges you have paid on it.
Can you go back to them and say you don’t understand what is being offered, ask them to explain this using your £1000 loan as an example? That may explain what is happening.
If it doesn’t, then it sounds as though it is worth going to the FO with this one.
Ashmo says
Hi all, thanks for all the info you guys are adding. I have an issue with Wonga, I had multiple loans over 3 years adding to tens of thousands. I complained to them back in 2015 and they sent a final response however I did not take this up with the FOS until recently and have now been told I’m out of time and FOS cannot investigate. Has anyone issued Court proceedings against any payday loan companies? What other action can I now take?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Apart from legal action it’s not clear what else you can do. You may be interested in Jack’s question here https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ – his situation is very different though as he was just hoping court would be faster than the FOS – not sensible.
If you want to sue Wonga, I strongly suggest taking legal advice.
Jane says
Another good result this week from Wonga, they are refunding me £3710.85 which is all interest on 10 loans after 2010. It was direct from Wonga – to say I was surprised was an understatement! I only sent them a very undetailed template letter I got from here. Anyone know how long they take to pay out on a settlement?
Neil says
Wow – that’s amazing! They seem to have no real rhyme or reason behind their decisions – and if you didn’t have to wait an extra x number of weeks, so much the better. Just trying to gauge for myself how some of my complaints with different lenders might go, I suspect a good few FOS complaints will be needed!
michelle says
After 2 days Mr Lender came back saying they did nothing wrong but offered to pay me back interest on 2 loans of 840.00
Lending Stream after 5 days have just come back saying that my credit score was high (might have been but my credit was up to 100% which is why I went to PD as I could no longer get finance from a main stream lender) so they did nothing wrong but there was a procedural error and offered to pay back 320.00. I had 6 loans with them, taken out straight after each other. Should I accept or would it be worthwhile taking this to the FOS.
QQ, Wonga,Speedycash, PDUK,H&T, 1 month loan, have all acknowledged my complaint so just waiting the 8 weeks.
Jamie says
I have just received and accepted a final decision from the FOS with complaints from Slow Quid ( known as Quick Quid) and Wonga ! I’m so happy to say the least it has taken 35 weeks to this point, can any give me details about what happens next ! With my acceptance I did ask, but the reply only stated they would informed I had accepted the decision ??
Sam says
After a week I have just had a reply from Lending Stream saying that as they checked my credit score on experian and deemed it acceptable (very poor, multiple defaults, over limits of 3 credit cards and 3 other payday loans) and I was in full time employment they can’t offer any redress. They have however offered to scrap the remaining 700 outstanding interest on my current loans. I have taken out 24 loans in 20 months and in the last 12 months alone made payments of well over 5000.
Should I just accept the offer they have made which leaves me with only a small amount to repay or is there a chance I could be entitled to more?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lending Stream often quote bizarrely high credit scores. The fact you were in full time employment is irrelevant to whether the loans were unaffordable.
It sounds as though you have borrowed a lot so this offer may not be good.
Do you know how much interest you have paid on the loans that were repaid? The loans that are still outstanding – what did you borrow, how much have you paid so far to them and what is the current balance?
Sam says
From looking through my bank statements (lending stream wanted me to pay for a SAR to give any details) I have paid back £9218.93 on loans issued at £4550. This is not including my current outstanding loans of £790 – paid £555 so far and outstanding balance is £768.35 and £320 – repaid £440.27 so far with outstanding balance of £155
Thanks for your help. It’s greatly appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Based on those figures the offer is pretty poor! The maximum you could get from the Ombudsman would be over 5k refund including 8% interest and the current balances written off. Even if the first few loans are considered affordable, you would be looking at 3 or 4k refund and the balances written off.
Sam says
Just heard back from them again after I said I wasn’t accepting their original offer. They say that they feel they acted correctly but as some of the loans could have put me in financial difficulties they are offering to pay back £666 intrest paid on them. Using that to clear the balance on the one outstanding loan I will get a refund of £426 on the £10000 I have paid.
Matt S says
Has anyone ever had a company make a redress calculation after an Ombudsman decision and it be full of errors and wildly different to what you calculated yourself? If so what happens next?
Ombudsman ruled against Wageday Advance that they should refund all interest from 3rd rollover of my 4th loan onwards. I calculated what I expected based on the Statement of Account that they sent me back in May. Final 2 rollovers on 4th loan were £73.75 each with a further £42.08 interest when I paid the loan (it was paid early after the final rollover so their was an interest deduction). 5th and final loan was for £150 and up until March this year (according to their statement) had £59.07 paid against it (via DMP) and since then has had a further 6 small payments made (roughly £15)
I calculated that adding it all up (including the 8%) and subtracting the outstanding balance I’d be due roughly £150-£160.
They advised me of their calculations this afternoon. According to them the last 2 rollovers on my 4th loans were both £42.08 each and no mention of the final interest payment, and that I’d paid a total of £50.24 on the final loan (even though their statement shows almost £10 more than this having been paid back in March). Their calculations are that after 8% interest is added on and the outstanding balance subtracted i’ll receive a refund of £9.50.
I’ve gone back to them telling them I don’t agree with their calculations and advising why. But what happens if they don’t budge? Has anyone been in this situation before?
Thanks
Matt
Ross says
An update on mine, my wonga one has been with ombudsman for 5 weeks the delay is over one of the loans wonga wrote off when they did that refund a few years back when they were told they were in the wrong
Anyway apparantly meetings are taking place in the ombudsman building in how they deal with these, whether they are included in complaint or omitted
Adjudicator has today agreed quickquid lent irresponsibly on 25 of 30 loans and have to 9th to respond
Krista says
Hello all!
Just a quick update re: QQ- finally had the ombudsman final decision which upheld the majority of my loans. Accepted it 2 weeks ago, and today have had a refund of interest and charges to the amount of £8,111.00. It’s been a long process after originally sending my letter of complaint at the end of January- but so worth it for the life changing amounts that are being refunded. Total success- many thanks to this site for all the advice.
Details: the ombudsman issued a provisional decision and gave them 2 weeks to respond- of course they took the full 2 weeks and they again disagreed and made a couple of extra points- then 3 weeks after that I got the final decision so around 5 weeks- but it was with the ombudsman for at least 4 weeks prior to that so I would say approx 9 weeks from being passed from adjudicator stage. Worth the wait though! Good luck :)
I paid around about 7200 in interest so got about an extra 1000 in 8% interest over 4 years ish (my maths isn’t very good).
Andrea says
Hi all
Haven’t been on here for a while! I had an email from the adjudicator on my Payday Express account this afternoon. They disagreed with his decision but have offered me a refund of £1590 less the remaining balance of £323 leaving £1267. I was more than happy to accept- I have dyscalculia so I wasn’t able to add up how much I should have had but that certainly sounded good to me.
There’s just one left now- Money Shop. Adjudicator has ruled in my favour on that one- just waiting for them to respond.
So my successes have been-
Lending Stream- refund of £72, loans written off (loans very small)
Sunny- £50 compensation (not happy with this but Ombudsman ruled that was acceptable) balance written off (just under £500) loan removed from credit file. Dispute ongoing as it seems Sunny haven’t bothered to tell Motormile and they think I still owe it!
Payday UK- refund of £359 minus the 90 still outstanding and eight deferrals removed from credit file.
Wage Day Advance and Speedy Cash- complaint declined and they ignored medical and financial evidence stating I couldn’t pay and put me on an unreasonable payment plan. However with help from the wonderful Sara on here I got an apology from them and both loans written off in full.
Payday Express- see above. My loan limit was half my monthly wage and when I emailed them to say I was off work long term and in hospital having an operation for cancer they still didn’t do anything to help.
Money Shop- been an utter nightmare. I’ve been loaning from them since about 2007 but they’ve only provided statements for one loan. However the adjudicator ruled they had loaned unfairly.
Emma says
Evening everyone,
Had a defaulted debt on my credit report with active securities aka 247 Moneybox for £647. Sent them a lovely email using the template on this website and they came back with a settlement offer of £29.26.
Have now paid this and the account is now classed as settled and at £0.00 on my credit report.
Currently emailing 3 other defaulted payday loans and requesting interest back from 5 others. will keep you all posted.
Thanks Debt Camel ;-)
Linda says
Little bit of advice please I sent an email to Wonga requesting a statement of loans, I gave them my details ie full name, address, date of birth and my email address at the time I had the loans. I have received 2 emails from them this morning one advising they have sent the statements an the other one with details of the loans. Only problem with this is the details of the loans they have sent me are for my late mother whose account was closed with them when I sent them her death certificate, they have addressed the email to my mother and the loan details are for loans she has took out. My mother at one point did use the same email address as me so i think they have just looked at that and sent the information rather than the details I gave on the email ? this must be a breach of information in some way ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should reply explaining what has happened and asking for your loans. And you will need to keep a close eye on future communications in case they make the same error in future.
Linda says
I will do that, bit shocked to be honest because I received an email from them confirming that they had the death certificate and had closed the account. Thank you
Kelly says
Hi All,
Finally success with the Provident.
I had 7 loans in total and they have to refund on 5 of them. My rep gave me further borrowing when I was paying less back than the weekly amount due and she did this a few times. If she had done a proper check she would have seen that I could not afford to lend from them.
The Ombudsman has agreed with the adjudicators findings and I have accepted their offer. Has anyone had any experience on how quick they clear outstanding balances/make payment?
Thanks
Dan says
Quick query regarding Wonga, seeing if anyone has had this.
Had 28 loans in 2 years until it became too much and the last loan ended up in dmp but all the others were paid off (by taking more loans). Had the usual email 2 years ago saying they lended to me in error and wiped the remaining balance off the last loan (had paid half back already) and said they would take it off my credit history. (All normal). I just put in my complaint last week with them and thought I’d get prepared and get bank statements and credit file ready in case I need to refer to fos.
When checking my credit file Wonga had removed all of the loans from my credit file, all 28 loans.
My question being is this what others have experienced, or could I use this as evidence that they themselves believed all loans were unaffordable hence wiping all loans from my file instead of just the last one they wiped the remaining balance from?
The email states: We are working with the relevant credit reference agencies to remove records relating to this loan from your credit report.
Any advice would be happily received, thanks guys
Another Dan says
I’ve had exactly the same happen to me. The ombudsman ruled in my favour and I accepted, however the loans were removed from my credit file a few weeks before that which is quite odd, the ombudsman ruled that all adverse information be removed from my credit history from the third loan on-wards and a refund of all interest from the third loan on-wards and 8% simple interest as way of compensation. So you’re not alone. Interestingly enough they haven’t paid me the refund they’ve been ordered to pay, but have removed all adverse records from the CRAs, including loans before when the ombudsman ordered to remove.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of people have reported this. There seems to be some suggestion that Wonga are changing which credit reference agency they use – if so they aren’t doing this all at once.
It doesn’t seem to be related to having your complaint upheld – after only a week it is unlikely anyone has actually looked at it!
Dan says
Hi
Starting to get worried about my Wonga complaint. They have wiped all loans from my credit file back in 2014 (automatically as part of the FCA crackdown).
EDIT Just before Christmas Daniel was offered £3.4k inclusive of interest – as he had paid about 3600 in interest he thought that was fair and accepted.
Mark says
Just a quick ‘update’ on mine as I know a lot of questions around timescales.
I have 5 remaining complaints that are now at ombudsman stage (having been upheld by the adjudicator).
The longest time I have been at ombudsman stage with these loans is 4 weeks (and counting)
Original complaints were May.
Companies are Money Shop, Payday Uk, Payday Express (all three are DFG companies) and PDUK (which includes the hold up on loans over 6 years) and 24 / 7 Moneybox who are not communicating at all.
The wait doesn’t really get easier but trying to remember this is all a bonus as I never knew this was possible earlier this year.
In terms of settled loans (that didn’t go to ombudsman) have had Quick Quid 4k, Wonga 3k, Lending Stream 3k, Cash Converters £700, Mr Lender £400 plus write off so not bad at all, just the other are really dragging now!
Steve says
Hi all,
Has anyone had experience of having to enforce an Ombudsman’s Final Decision? My case against TxtLoan (MyJar) reached a Final Decision over 4 weeks ago and since then Txtloan have failed to respond to any chasing from the adjudicator to provide the settlement offer.
Still waiting to hear back from adjudicator regarding the next steps, but any idea on timescales for escalating through the court route as the information on the FOS website for enforcing an ombudsman’s decision isn’t that great!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One person here has received extra money for the dealay at this point. Why not ask your adjudicator for this?
You could also email their CEO – ellis.sher@myjar.com. This is not usually a good way to speed up complaint handling as it will be simply passed down to the complaint department. But a polite letter explaining that MyJar are ignoring a legally binding decision and you will be starting court action if you are not paid soon may catch his attention.
And why not tell their regulator, the FCA, what you think of MyJar’s complaints handling. See the last part of https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/.
Come back here if this hasn’t been resolved in a couple of weeks and I’ll get some info together on completing an N322A form and the court procedure.
Steve says
I emailed the CEO this afternoon and within 25mins, my adjudicator had received a phone call from the Complaints Team claiming they had not received the settlement form, despite it being sent electronically and by post! Within 2hours, I had received a sincere apology along with the funds transferred into my account!
Sean says
I have recieved this from The Money Shop, is this true? If not, how would I word it so they provide me with what I need to make my request.
With regards to your previous loans, these currently has no sums due or payable. Therefore, we have no current obligation to send documents under Section 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 as per the Subsection (3) which states that the requirement under Subsection (1) does not apply to – (a) an agreement under which no sum is, or will or may become payable to the debtor….”
Daniel says
They’ve doctored that. The actual subsection states:
(3)Subsection (1) does not apply to— .
(a)an agreement under which no sum is, or will or may become, payable by the debtor, or .
(b)a request made less than one month after a previous request under that subsection relating to the same agreement was complied with.
Note that section (3)(a) states “payable BY the debtor” Not “TO” the debtor. That section states that if no payment is ever due or required of you, subsection 1 does not apply. If you made repayments or your credit agreement stated that you need to make a payment, then they MUST provide to you the information you’ve requested.
If they do not and you complain to the financial ombudsman or go to a small claims court you will be at an advantage because they haven’t complied with the Consumer Credit Act
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Daniel – you are quite right that “to the debtor” should read “by the debtor”. But that is, I think, a typo and not relevant to the point the lender is making.
What they are claiming here is that the Consumer Credit Act doesn’t oblige the lender to supply a statement of account for a loan which has been settled, so no current or future payments are due. I’m not going to give my view on this – I’m not a lawyer so my personal opinion isn’t worth having here. I doubt the FOS would think it is their job to give a legal opinion.
I think the more useful point to make to the FOS is to point out the FCA’s DISP rules (https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/DISP/1/3.html) which say that a firm must enable a complaint to be made free of charge. To my mind that includes providing the customer with details of their previous loans.
But to come back to Sean’s situation. The Money Shop are being incredibly difficult – they even tried to refuse one reader who paid £10 for a Subject Access Request – the ICO told them they couldn’t do that so they backed down, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ico-money-shop/. This https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/ looks at what your options are – my preference is for (1), proceeding without the details if you think you can.
K says
Just thought I’d give you a quick update with all of mine incase it helps anyone.
Started the process beginning 3rd May – had loans with 4 companies – Payday Express, Payday UK, Quickquid & my biggy who was Wonga.
Payday Express responded within 8 weeks with a fair offer which I accepted & settled.
Payday UK & Quickquid also responded within 8 weeks not upholding my complaint at all so I took them both to FOS.
Wonga took 14 weeks to reach a response and offered to refund 13 loans out of 39 which I didn’t feel was a fair offer so also took to FOS.
FOS took around 3 weeks to pick up my complaint and that was at the beginning of September – asked for 4 years bank statements & credit report. My adjudicator has been really helpful & attentive so I wouldn’t be nervous about contacting them (as I initially was!) …. he had the case for about 4 weeks before anything started to move. First was Quickquid partially upholding his findings – and offering me a fair amount so I accepted and they paid the money into my account within 10 days.
FOS has ruled in my favour for both Payday UK & Wonga and has sent them his findings on October 14th allowing them 2 weeks to respond… and that’s where I’m up to. Hoping to get some very good news this week.
It has been a very long process, but stick with it! It’s worth it!! If you have any Q’s, let me know.
Mark says
Hi K, thanks for the update, it helps me while I wait for mine!
When you say the FOS has upheld your complaints, is that the adjudicator or the ombudsman who has upheld?
Only ask as PDUK and PDEX in my case have both had to go to the ombudsman due to the businesses not replying
K says
I settled with PDEX without FOS involvement. PDUK is at adjudicator stage … They responded to my adjudicator with a ‘business file’ so I’m hoping they respond to his findings.
Rob says
Success with Payday UK!
My case went in my favour from the adjudicator. Payday UK didn’t respond so it went to an Ombudsman. That was at the end of July. Since then it has been stuck in the queue while the decision on loans over 6 years was pending. 3 months later Payday UK have finally responded to the original adjudicator decision and agreed with him.
My adjudicator said it was up to me whether I accept this or wait for the Ombudsman decision. The offer was £1,865 after deductions, and seen as I didn’t know when the Ombudsman 6 year decision was coming I accepted. They have asked for my bank details and will pay it in this week.
My complaint first went in to Payday UK on the 28th January so this has been a long slog but worth it in the end. Nice payment just before Christmas :-)
Stick with it people!
vic89 says
hi there, my quick quid loan has been with the ombudsman since July now ive had an email from the adjudicator saying theres a hold on complaints and I wont receive a reply for a while from the ombudsman has anyone else had this? Also does anyone know who would be dealing with a walk in store called The Cash Store?? I used to go in every month and they used to lend you half your wage slip without checking any outgoing or ingoings etc!! I have tried a company who bought out their debts but because mine was already paid off months prior to them taking over they don’t have my details! Someone must be responsible for this company, even the FO couldn’t get any information on them.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are any if your QQ loans over 6 years old?
Cash Store – went into administration in Auguest 2014. There is unlikely to be any money left for refunds. The company that bought the outstanding loan book wouldn’t have any liability for older loans. Sorry there is probably nowhere you can go with this one :(
vic89 says
I think maybe the first 2 are just over 6 years by literally a month or so could this be a reason why? Do you know why there is a hold Sara? Really grateful for this website ive had a result with about 10 companies now all paid out had a couple written off and my credit report updated and wiped virtually clean! Ive had approx. £7k-£8k back over the year since I first saw this in February. So thank you your a star x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is a hold on loans over 6 years whilst the FO decides if it should be looking at these. You could ask the adjudicator if this is the reason?
Shoosh says
Hello,
Can someone please help me – i have referred 4 loans back to ombudsman (at the start of October) because i wasn’t satisfied with the replies from companies (Payday UK, Payday Express, Quick Quid, Lending). I have letters from FO to say they are investigating further and requested information from the PD companies,
How long does it take for this to be assigned to an adjudicator (I’ve been told they are in a queue) and for then for responses. FO said it can take up to 90 days (!). I wondered if anyone else could maybe give me a bit of context on their own experiences.
I was offered the following before i referred them back;
Quick Quid – £200
Lending Stream – £60
Payday UK £70
Payday express – £0 (funny since i had the most loans from these guys).
Wonga were actually great and settled without me having to referred back and gave £4,500. Although given the amount of loans i had could ave been more i felt this was satisfactory and they were very quick in their response.
Basically just looking to get an understanding on time lines if anyone could perhaps help?
Many Thanks
K says
Does anyone have any experience of Wonga after the adjudicator has sent their finding over? Have they generally responded within the given 2 weeks?
G says
For me wonga ignored all communication from the adjudicator. It was forwarded on to an ombudsman 5 weeks ago, no update from them since then. I imagine they are quite busy!
K says
Thanks G, Wonga replied to adjudicators initial request for info and they sent over my file. Adjudicator ruled in my favour on most loans and has given them until 4th Nov to respond. I’m hoping since they responded in the first instance, that they’ll do the same again! Getting a little impatient now
G says
Hello again K,
My previous message was incorrect, it has been 4 weeks to the day today since the adjudicator passed the case to the ombudsman.
Weirdly enough I got a provisional decision from the Ombudsman (via the Adjudicator) today! It’s great to see this progressing. It turns out Wonga did respond to the Adjudicator’s request for information but it wasn’t until after my file had already gone to the Ombudsman.
K says
Recieved an offer from Wonga yday & have decided to accept. Glad this is potentially the end now! Just awaiting payment now …..
3 down, 1 to go
Louise says
Agreed a settlement with Qq on 19th October… How long do I wait till I chase it?
Did someone said they have to pay u compensation if they delay paying?
vic89 says
I just rang them and basically said its a joke why they cant do it pretty much straight away they expect you to pay straight away when you owe them but when your the one owed money they can give it when they want I also stated you can issue me out a loan within 15 minutes so whats the delay on repaying me MY money back…. funnily enough was in my account 20 mins later….. x
Mark says
Final ombudsman decision on money shop all charges from Feb 2011 onwards +8% anyone got an idea how long they take to pay out I won’t feel right until I have the cash from them they have been the worst to deal with.
Timelines so far: 5 weeks to the ombudsman then a provisional decision another 2 weeks to see if the business reply they did not then 2 more weeks until final decision.
aga says
Hi Mark I accepted Ombudsman decision on the 10th of October and until now The money shop hasn’t contacted me , they never sent any statements either , I think they have 4 weeks to calculate and pay out , regards
pauline says
I wonder if anyone can help me with some advice. I got out a payday loan with PayDay UK a year ago in Oct 2015. I couldn’t afford the repayments so wrote to them asking for a repayment plan to be set up. The email seem to of got ignored. I called a couple of times and each time i called i got the same response asking me to fill out an income and expenditure form but they never sent this to me. I called again but still got nothing in the post/email from them to fill out. I got a few automated emails off them with my outstanding balance but that was about it. I found Debt Camel in February and used the template to contact them asking for a statement of my account (and i also cancelled my CPA as advised on here). They responding to me asking for £10 to obtain the statement of account. I replied asking them to consider writing off my debt or again, accepting token payments each month. I explained my financial situation to them. Again, no response. I then wrote to them again stressing my concerns and that this is now really concerning for me as they have not responded. They replied again asking me to fill in the income and expenditure form and apologies for asking for a £10 payment for a statement as it is in fact only £1. They said they will set up a repayment arrangement for me and also said they understand my situation and that they do accept that they could have done better and to accept their sincere apologies. This was back in May. Since then i have sent off the income and expenditure form and have heard absolutely nothing from them since May. I must admit, i’ve not contacted them again and have hoped that they would just vanish which i’m sure you’ll agree was a bit stupid of me. So, where do i go from here with them? Do I write to them asking them to write it off or just forward everything to the FO? Any advice will be very helpful! thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As they seem to pretty much be ignoring you, I suggest you pass everything to the FO.
Mark says
Just had an email from my adjudicator and the ombudsman has upheld, final decision against The Money Shop.
They have given TMS a month to contact me and settle the complaint
I don’t know what interest I paid to TMS as they never supplied my account breakdown and my loans were in cash, however I do know I paid them £13,600 in 4 years so expecting to have a decent sum
In answer to a few questions above, the wait for ombudsman from adjudicator in this case was 7 weeks.
L Gorman says
Hi Mark
My ombudsman is about a week away from ruling on my complaint with TMS – so I have been told by the adjudicator.
The adjudicator ruled in my favour but TMS did not accept and so it has been with the ombudsman now for 7 weeks.
Could you please post when you get the money from TMS as I would admit to paranoia about them paying this and so it would be uesful to see if they wait the full month before paying you. There handling of this up to now with me has been very questionable. A lot of delaying tactics.
Thanks
L Gorman
pauline says
I contacted Wonga in February asking for statements of my account and asking for my account to be written off. I am on a DMP with them and paying a small amount each month to them. They since emailed me the statements of someone else’s account which contained all their confidential information rather than mine and also declined my request to write off the account and instead said they will accept a payment of 1 pound a month! It will take around 40 years to pay off – i probably won’t even be alive then!! Should I now take this to the FO or email back an email of complaint about the incorrect statements and that i will live long enough to pay off the debt 1 pound a month?! I know i’ve left it quite some time since Feb to sort out, but hopefully this shouldn’t go against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should email them about the incorrect statements and ask for compensation for a breach of data protection. If you know the email of the address of the person whose details they sent to you, you could also email them and tell them what has happened so they can also complain!
Wonga – check the date on that reply – if it was a Final Response it should have told you you had 6 months to take the complaint to the ombudsman. I am afraid you may be beyond the 6 month point :(
Andrew says
Just a quick one…. I had loan(s) with Wage Day Advance to which a balance of around £800 is still left unpaid and got sold/sent to MMF debt collection agency.
I had looked on my Noddle credit report and can’t see it on there as a defaulted balance.
– Will Noddle contain everything or should I pay for one of the others to check?
– Shall i just leave it as that if it isn’t on my report or will there be marks from it going to MMF?
Ideally I want it writing off as interest on other loans from them would clear it? But if it isn’t on any of my reports and I am not being harassed for it should I worry???
Just some advice on what to do because I asked for statement then sent letter of complaint but they said I need to take it up with MMF even though the loans were obviously with WDA.
Thanks in Advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Noddle wont show everything – you also need to check your credit records with Experian and Equifax, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/ for how to do this.
But MMF may just be being very slow and it may pop up in a few months or years :( Edit _ see more recent article on MMF: https://debtcamel.co.uk/mmf-debt-write-off/
If so far you have just asked for a statement of account or for the last loan to be written off, I suggest you put in an affordability complaint to WDA about all the loans, including the last one, and take it to the Ombudsman if they reject it or tell you talk to MMF.
Jamie says
Can any one give me a time scale ??
Accepted decision with Ombudmans on 26 October with QQ and Wonga ! So far heard nothing at all back except confirmation from Fos that I have accepted !
Can any one tell me when QQ or Wonga may be in touch ?
Thanks in advance !
Rachel says
Have you confirmed bank details? I gave these to fos who passed to Qq they paid in 1 week but they are given 28 days to pay out
Jamie says
Hi , thanks for getting back ! I was asked by wonga today via Fos for bank details ! Originally offered £32, they are going to refund me £1600 :) so just waiting on QQ now ! I’m happy to wait 28 days :) started 19th of Feb ! So the end is near
Debbie says
Has anyone had any experience with cash converters I had 11 loans with them they are saying that they do not agree with my complaint but are offering me £250 as a good will gesture thanks
aga says
Hi Debbie , I had loans with them , oryginally they admitted that only 1 loan was not affordable and offered £197 back ( I had 12 loans in total ) I referred my case to FOS and via adjudicator I got £2,517, good luck
Ross says
Hi all,
Moneybox 247 have just contacted me to advise that they do NOT agree with my complaint and say they strongly believe they can substantiate all decisions made to lend and have shown a list of funding dates, spread out over a year. Some were month after month, even though they do not agree with my description of a ‘cycle of debt’ which I have described the loans as, as this was not just to do with MB247, but all lenders at the time. However, they have offered a goodwill gesture of £75 to resolve the complaint. If I sent it to the FOS, and they upheld it, I believe it would be more than this, but they’re asking me if I provided inaccurate information on my applications, as I never declared the other loans. I’m thinking this is the technicality they will use to combat any FOS complaint. Anybody have an opinion on this please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Many people find MoneyBox 247 difficult and slow. See Ian’s comment here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-26/#comment-205898 (that link should work now but may not after a few days), ti sounds as though he has the same type of experience with them as you have so far and has now won his complaint with the Ombudsman.
You may be interested in https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. TThere are many reasons why “inaccurate” information may have been provided unintentionally. For example people often didn’t realise they should declare other payday loans thinking these were just short term, and not a long term commitment. The Ombudsman usually seems to take the view that after you had been borrowing consistently for a period, the lender should have realised something may not be correct on your application.
Rich says
I have had some success with them albeit a small refund- but what I was most concerned with was the removal from all three main credit companies of the loan. A small success. Still waiting out on other but had success with Mr Lender (active securities) who have removed bed all reference to the loans on my credit file and ended that as a resolution. Fingers crossed for the others.
Matt says
Hi All,
I’ve had my final response from Wonga after the 6th week and they have offered me £2,488 in compensation for 6 loans I had taken out. I’ve calculated that I’m actually due around £5,800 if they included ALL my 17 loans that I had with them, for some reason they only took into account 1 loan from 2011 instead of all of them. Secondly I already have the Financial Ombudsman looking into another payday lender and they have concerns that my bank statements don’t show any outgoings of rent, council tax…..I explained that i paid everything in cash to my partners as my credit history I couldn’t get a rental agreement, my bank statements show the cash being withdrawn.
My question is, should I accept wongas offer or send it to the FO, knowing that my outgoings is a weak case?, in the meantime I’ve replied to wonga asking for the reasoning as to why they have only refunded 6 loans, instead of the full 17.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not sure that the FO will think your outgoings are a weak case. What you have described isn’t that unusual. Of course it’s possible you spent the hundreds of pounds you withdrew in cash on champagne and lottery tickets whilst conveniently living somewhere rent and council tax free … but it’s not very likely, is it! The Ombudsman usually reaches a sensible decision on this sort of matter.
If you are very worried, then you could just sit on the Wonga offer – or keep going back to them and asking them for more details – whilst you see how your current FO case goes.
Dan says
Hi all
Has anybody had any dealings with Lending Stream? Just had a response and it feels quite threatening, saying I lied about my income and to confirm if i did, as if to say they will take action. Tbf I put 1600 and it varied between 1400-1600 so on the complaint I put 1500.
They also deduce that 18 lones in 16 months is fine. And they also reckon I had disposable income of 850 a month. I would have told them my rent was 670 so even with 1600 income and rent taken off they think I would live off 70 a month for all other bills. Not taking into account other pdl payments totalled £1500 a month.
To give them credit they said my credit score was 510, although I would say that’s a very poor score along with 4 defaults and a CCJ.
I have to admit the threatening tone of the response has brought back a lot of anxiety and hard feelings I felt 3 years ago and almost feel I can’t bring myself to reply. Is this just the kind of tone they use with everyone else I wonder.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am afraid quite a few payday lenders seem to be doing their best to put people off taking complaints to the Ombudsman, even when it is clear that they have a good case. And with a bad credit record and borrowing 18 times in 16 months this sounds like a good case to me!
I think you will find this article helpful: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
If this is their Final Response, then you don’t need to reply to them, you can just take the case to the Financial Ombudsman.
If it isn’t their Final Response, I suggest you reply saying that your income was a bit variable, you don’t remember being asked in detail about your expenses, you have no idea where they got the £850 a month disposable income from and ask them to confirm if this is their Final Response. (I am assuming from what you write that all that is accurate.)
Lola says
Thank you so much for this blog! I complained to Wonga 6 weeks ago and have today received an email stating I will be refunded around £2100!
I have accepted as it wasn’t far off my estimate.
Thanks again, you are amazing!xx
kenny says
i just got my pay out after chasing them as i had waited a week.
i got another £50 as i kicked up a stink about the delay.
the team leader i spoke to said they had thousands of refunds in their system at present and they are really struggling to process them in time. their target is 3-5 working days
Lola says
Hiya Kenny, thanks for replying!
I rang them and they said that they had no record of my response to their offer but now it’s been passed on and I should hear this afternoon how long it will take til the money is with me.
I said it makes me laugh how they issue loans in 15 minutes and take the money so quickly off you but they take all this time to transfer your money back!
kenny says
hi lola
they said the very same thing to me, i was 3 working days after i made a complaint. the £0 went in within 2 days
like you say they can get the loans out straight away, that does make me chuckle
hopefully you’ll have it by now
Noel says
Where I’ve had offers outside the FOS process (3 so far, Textloan, WDA, H&T) I’ve accepted the offer but have stated my acceptance was conditional on receiving the funds within 1 week otherwise I reserve the right to rescind my offer – not sure what legal right it has, if any, but all 3 paid within 2 days
ID says
Some news finally through on my case with Wonga. Ombudsman ruled in my favour and actually said they should repay the interest from loan 4 onwards which Wonga have now agreed with. I would have been happy with loan 7 / 8 onwards which the adjudicator also recommended but they wouldn’t change their stance. Prior to adjudicator & ombudmans involvment Wonga offered £1900, I refused due to them picking and choosing loans and asked for loans 7 onwards but they disagreed and sent all the way to ombudsman.
So far,
Mr Lender – £1000 (ombudsman decision)
My Jar – £700 (no FOS involvement)
Wonga – £4400 (ombudsman decision)
Quickquid – adjudicator ruled in my favour, been waiting for ombudsman since early August. Biggest claim
PayDayUK – adjudicator ruled in my favour, been waiting for ombudsman since early August. Will be similar to Wonga
Swift Sterling – With MFSA, hopefully know more next week. Will be similar to Wonga if they rule in my favour.
Everyone please keep going, all mine have been ongoing since the end of January, its a long wait but worth it.
Anyone just starting this process then make sure you put a good case together so an adjudicator understands your situation clearly, spreadsheet all the loans, interest, and payments, explain your points and reasons for why the loans have been unaffordable and just keep repeating it.
Good luck.
And thank you Sara, I will make a donation to CAB later this week.
luke says
Its brilliant to see mostly success stories on here. But for those who have had successive rolled over loans on here for several years, has anybody failed to get anything back via the ombudsman? Also, how long does it usually take once ombudsman has the case? They’ve had my bank statements and credit file for about 4 weeks but Wonga and Sunny taking time responding…
luke says
FOS have come back to me with good news about Wonga. They’ve confirmed refund of interest after 4th loan plus 8%, credit file wipe BUT deductions from refund for any outstanding balances. Im fine with some deductions but surely that was irresponsibly borrowed too?! Therefore I’ve asked if balance amount can be reduced or interest removed to account for this. Doubt it’ll work, we’ll see..
James says
So frustrated !!
Did the 8 week thing, only offer I got was from 24/7 who said despite not doing anything wrong they were willing to clear balance of £400 and wipe defaults off my file.
Wonga were the first and longest lender I used and also the last to respond. said they didn’t uphold my complaint blah blah blah.
I’ve contacted my bank to get statement prepared for a wonga ombudsman complaint and they are saying they don’t have any record of my current account ! ( I changed accounts with same bank four years ago )
THIS means I have no proof and can’t workout exactly how many loans I had with wonga and what I paid back !
Any advice ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Take your complaint about Wonga (and any other lenders you feel you have a good case against) to the Ombudsman now, this gets you in the queue.
I suggest complaining to your bank and giving details of when you opened a new account. Also search through your own records and see if you can find the account number for the old one. And ask Wonga to send you a list of your loans.
AW says
I have to thank the author of this blog, as I happened upon this by chance, and decided to fire off some emails…
I complained to Wonga at the beginning of September. Having not received statements of account from them at my initial request, I complained anyway based on what I could see on my credit file. After about 6-7 weeks, they came back with statements detailing all my loans. They totaled around £30,000 over 4 years, across 45 loans. This was a monthly thing for me for a very long time. Total interest and charges totaled £6,172.
They came back with a final response accepting they were wrong to lend me 34 of these 45 loans, and made an offer of £5,500 – plus the 8% interest for a total of about £7,500. I cannot believe it. I nearly took their arm off to accept this offer.
I submitted complaints to Quick Quid and Pounds to Pocket (accepted a £200 settlement from them despite paying £2,500 in interest alone, as I felt I didnt have much of a chance here) and forwarded QQ to FOS after an offer of just £230 on £2,000 of interest going back 5-6 years. I am hopeful this will go in my favor.
Does anyone know how long it takes Wonga to make a payment when you accept their offer? I am assuming they wouldnt bother delaying as this was their suggested figure rather than one forced on them by FOS?
Dan says
This website has been very good to me with the info it provides,
I have had successful responses from myjar, peachy and Mr lender all agreeing to wipe the balance.
Although I did not receive any money back I’m happy to have their debts wiped.
Peachy loans were amazing complained yester evening , full response today wiping the debt.
Currently waiting on a final response from wonga, quid quid, had to send Wageday advance and lending stream to the financial ombudsman. Does anyone have any advice with these companies?
Dan
Jamie says
Sit back and wait ! They will take all the time they can !
Lb says
Yes!! Just had a call from quick quid. The funds will be transferred into my account today!! Started complaint in June, upheld by adjudicator multiple offers from quick quid I declined this..the latest was for 5800. Went to ombudsman who ruled in my favour! Glad of the good result!
Rob says
False start with my refund.
Payday UK received my acceptance last Thursday. A week on I hadn’t received it so spoke to them today. They are working 4 weeks from the date of the acceptance. They have to do them in order so there is a queue apparently. I asked “Do you have a limit on how many payments you can make a day then if there is a queue?”. The girl said they hadn’t and couldn’t see my side that 4 weeks is ridiculous. They are so flippin awkward, even after the complaint is settled!
Lynnette says
I finally received my refund yesterday from pduk, this was after the 4 weeks that I had signed and returned it to them. What I did was emailed them the day after the four weeks they got back to me a day later apologising saying it would be dealt with as a priority, by end of that night money was in my bank. Just under £2.5K from them.
Matt S says
I must have been quite lucky, I got my final decision from the Ombudsman against Payday UK on Thursday 29th September. I accepted that day and then emailed Payday UK the next day asking what happens next. They responded on Monday 3rd October advising that they had received the Ombudsmans decision but had 4 weeks to process the redress. I forwarded them my bank details anyway just to get ahead of the game and that Friday (7th October) the money was in my account.
Neil says
An update on my situation…6 weeks after contacting Wonga, they have responded and offered compensation to the tune of around £400 (for two random loans issued in 2014, which oddly enough are not on my credit report anyway!).
I have borrowed about £6k from them in the course of the 11 month period in question, so off to the FOS I go.
Still waiting for one other reply, but the other company still have 12 days left out of their 8 weeks.
Zara says
Hi Neil,
I have recently complained against wonga …how strange is this, my wonga entries on my credit file have been deleted. I only realised as I have retained an older copy for other complaints. The entries appear on the older copy. QQ have done the same on my credit report
Dan says
Anyone who works out there borrowings from Lending Stream by looking on the online account please be wary and double check they correspond with your bank statements!
Only checked my first loan out of 18 so far and so far online said I borrowed £115 but it was actually only £100 deposited. Also said I repaid £227.13 and my statement shows £273.13 so my online account shows £112.13 interest but I work that out to be £173.13.
Jack says
Dan – At the time they charged £5 for each transfer to your account and added it to the amount to be repaid. That why there is a £5 difference each time.
Hope that helps – I just got my rejection letter from Lending Stream today so have written back to ask if its a final response as their letter does not say either way.
Good Luck!
Jack
Dan says
Hi Jack
The numbers still seem a little off but I’ll keep that in consideration.
Know what you mean about the response, had exactly the same thing, and the response just blamed me for imputing the wrong information and it felt like a final response but nowhere did it say it was the final response, so fired them back an email asking if they could confirm that it was indeed their final response so the matter could be escalated to fos sooner rather than later.
Good Luck Also!
Ross says
Hi Dan,
I’ve just sent it to the FOS anyway and they’ve taken it. Even though it’s not stating it’s a final response, they can tell the FOS otherwise in my opinion if they need to.
Jack says
Hi – I have submitted as well.
My letter basically says “NO” to everything I said to them and gives no indication that they intend to do anything else with this case. So in a way its “final” without saying “final response” on it. Like you say they can say it’s not of they want to and issue another letter.
It suits me to get the Lending Stream one in first to the ombudsman. Its for the smallest amount of my loans so if for any reason they won the case with the ombudsman I would know to settle the others if given a chance to do so rather than send them to the ombudsman as well. But if the ombudsman agreed with me I would be confident in sending the larger ones that direction as well and be more sure that its OK to reject a small offer on the others .
Neil says
I submitted my FOS complaint online yesterday evening (so I could do it with all the paperwork in front of me and – more importantly – not have to do it whilst at work!. However, I haven’t had any sort of acknowledgement of my complaint. Is this usual, or do you think my submission didn’t go through properly? At the end, I downloaded a form with everything I’d filled in, got a temporary reference number and a ‘Done’ screen…it just seems odd that I haven’t had anything else through. Anyone else who submitted a FOS complaint online, I’d love to hear from you as to how it panned out?
Ross says
Hi Neil,
You will receive a written acknowledgment through the post, giving you your reference number for your complaint. They will also ask you to send relevant information so that they can begin the investigation in to your complaint such as banks statements for the period of the loans, your credit report etc… Hope this helps?
Neil says
Ah thanks for your reply – that helps a lot. I was waiting for an email! I spent quite a while painting the picture as it were, trying to be as detailed as possible about my situation at the time I was taking these loans – was worried all that was lost!
I uploaded copies of my credit reports already, best get downloading my bank statements!
Michelle says
Hi
I have only just started my e mails to companies in the last week but after looking on here I decided it was definately worth a go, When I have received some statements and also gone through the last 5 years of bank statements I have to say I felt ashamed of how many loans I have had and also it has been good as it has made me question did I really need to borrow that money but I feel like so many on here once in the payday loan spiral things have gone from bad to worse.
So far
Peachy have come back quickly with statement of account have offered to clear outstanding balance but no other refund. This is Full and final and approx £1000 short of total charges so sent to FOS
Different money also quick to respond with statement and now awaiting update them from them
Mr Lender also quick to provide statement information and now awaiting response to complaint
Wonga no response so I went through bank statements as knew I have had loads of loans and tops ups from them. Information now submitted and waiting for a response
Wageday advance wanted £10 for statement so back to bank statements and complaint now in and waiting update
247moneybox came back with statement info after they had sent me an initial e mail pre empting my complaint e mail to them. Now awaiting response
Cashgenie e mail sent but no response
Minicredit e mail sent to Opos but no response
Satsuma email sent today and response to say they will reply in next 5 days
I will keep all updated but shamefully when I have put info I have together 117 loans and £22318.75 in total charges over last 5 years. Fingers crossed I can get some of this money back as would make a huge difference to my life. Good luck to everyone on here as I am sure none of intended to get into the positions we have and its awful when these companies have been the only ones we could turn to
Michelle says
Ok so update on complaints
Peachy still waiting to hear from FOS
Different money no update since their acknowledgement e mail
Mr Lender no update since their acknowledgement e mail
Wonga responded to say they would investigate gave me a case number and waiting to hear back
Wageday advance no update since their acknowledgement e mail
247moneybox came back asking if I was a liar and gave me one application saying they were ok to keep lending me money as I met their criteria. Fired back an e mail stating FCA CONC rules and can I have a final outcome. Bit mad as only couple of hundred pounds with them which is less than the FOS fee they will have to pay
Cashgenie _ Responded saying they will come back in approx 3 weeks and treat this as affordibilty complaint
Minicredit – No response
Satsuma – Email received to say they will try to respond in 5 days
Sunny now added to the list as had nearly 40 loans with them and £4k of charges plus
Moneyboat also added as approx £1500 of interest with them
So all in all now found just over 160 loans and £28k of interest charges (Hangs head in shame)
How has everyone else found these companies in terms of response times
Gary says
After contacting Wonga 6 weeks ago just received another update –
Unfortunately, our investigation is taking longer than expected, and we can’t yet offer you a resolution to your complaint.
We appreciate your patience and apologise for any inconvenience that this delay may cause.
We try to resolve complaints as soon as possible and we will issue you with a final response no later than 8 weeks after you first contacted us. If we cannot respond in this time, we will contact you to explain the delay and outline when you can expect to receive a response. If you are unhappy with the progress of your complaint at that stage, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Anybody else had this response if so whats was the final outcome
Thanks in Advance
kenny says
hi Gary
this is very common, after 8 weeks go to the fos, i got an offer from wonga after 11 weeks
david says
Thank you for the advice on here, I’ve just received a refund of interest paid on a Mr Lender loan.
I also have a SafetyNet Credit facility, so I wondered if I can go along a similar route regarding making a complaint to them? It’s not been several loans, rather one long ‘overdraft’ if you like, with them increasing the limit initially, then decreasing it and they are now taking reduced payments as they are aware of my difficulties.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can make an affordability complaint against Safety Net Credit. The “affordability” rules are the same for them as for payday lenders. Quite a few people here have had balances written off by them but if you borrowed from them for a long period it’s worth asking for a refund as well.
I think they could see your bank statements? If they could, then make the point in your complaint that they should have been able to see that your were ina financial mess, with other borrowing from x,y and z and that you would not be able to repay the money to them without further borrowing.
William says
Hi, I have some questions if anyone can help please. A few years ago Wonga cleared my debt and gave a 50 pound refund. I remember signing for it. Does this mean I can’t claim.
Anyone had any success with mini credit? I have heard nothing back from them.
I had mulitiple loans with mr lender from 2010, I rolled over multiple times. I then could afford to pay the balance, they allowed me to pay a one off reduced payment. They did not allow me to borrow again until I tried last year. I have now been in the cycle of borrowing from them over three months and then borrowing again. I also have loans with uncle buck and lending stream currently. When is the best time to try and claim, now or after I have paid them?
Can anyone give any advice on their dealings with mr lender?
Thanks alot
Michelle says
Hi William, I have loan outstanding with Mr Lender and they still provided me with statement straight away, I’ve still put in complaint asking for £7000+ interest plus statutory 8% to be refunded, at end of complaint I just added I would be happy with refund to clear debt owed then remaining balance to be refunded to me. Now waiting to hear back from them.
Good luck
Dani says
I had £1000 written off a few years ago and just received a refund of £4100 so definitely worth a try.
Cheers
Dani