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?
Hayley says
Ive recieved an email back from My Jar, all i emailed them was asking for account information. They however just sent this reply back..how should i continue this
Thank you for contacting us.
Please find your MYJAR account summary as a PDF file attached to this email. It has the information regarding the dates and the amounts of each loan.
We have never allowed rollovers or top ups. An existing loan has to be always paid before a new advance can be requested.
At the time you took your first loan with us on 18/04/2012, we undertook a number of checks which included searching on public databases, fraud checks and our own credit scoring. In addition, we relied upon the information that you provided concerning your income from “Lister house dental centre”, which you stated was £1,000 per month against which you had £300 of housing costs per month.
Our own credit score checks were performed before each requested loan.
Under the regulations that were in force at that time you took the first loan with us, lenders were required to make checks that were proportionate to the credit being granted.
If you have any other queries, please do not hesitate to call us or reply to this email.
kev says
They sent me the same. Just reply again asking them to look into your complaint. Statements not required as if they reject your claim then the f.o.s will ask for this information off them if it gets that far. I got refused at first,complained again asking them to look into my complaint again stating certain errors they had missed. Then i got a “gesture of goodwill” refund of only £25 but also the £374 still owing cancelled. Which i was happy with. Keep going as if there in the wrong they will either refund part or if it goes to the f.o.s its costs them more. Good luck.
graham says
Hi all, a poster on another forum has just posted, £300 in B/Ac from Lending Stream, 2 x e-mails and 2 x phone calls RESULT!!!!!!!!! Stick with It.
Steven J says
To update:
I posted a while ago and have had the following success:
Uncle Buck refunded me almost 3000 pounds, it was all the interest I paid on loans and then the 8% interest on top of those since I’d settled. They refused to acknowledge any blame, but made the offer as a gesture. They were easy to deal with and the investigation did seem thorough. Sent me a cheque that arrived within 2 days. It took about 4 weeks in total to resolve start to finish. All by email.
Payday U.K have taken the full 40 days and requested more time, but could not give me a timescale for response so I forwarded all the documentation to the ombudsmen. They seemed uninterested in making any offer.
Elevate Credit on behalf of Quid.co.uk have made an offer of almost 600 pounds via bank account transer. This is all the interest I paid on loans, but no interest on top since I settled, they have also refused to uphold the complaint and made the offer as a gesture. I have taken the offer though as by my reckoning I wouldn’t be due much more even if it went to the Ombudsmen. Took the full 40 days and then replied when chased on by phone the same day/41st day. All done by email with a couple of phone calls right at the end.
WagedayAdvance – took the full 40 days. I chased them on day 40 and they have told me an offer has been issued via second class post, and I should receive it in the next day or two. I have no idea what the offer will be yet, but I’ll update when I have it. I suspect it wouldn’t be for the full amount requested, but we’ll see. All by email, with one phone call on the 40th day. Letter was already marked to be posted at that point.
I decided to sort my claims in stages. I started with these 4 companies, and I’m now moving on to Lending Stream, CFO Lending, The Loan Store and Trusted Quid.
So far 3/4 was a great result for me. I am hopeful the FO would uphold my complaint against Payday U.K but I suspect I’ll be waiting a while. I’d anticipate the next 4 not being so easy, as I went for the companies I thought had better customer service when I initially applied.
This site has been excellent for me. I’ve been clear of any financial issues for some years now, but I know at the time I felt I was being taken advantage of as I had no where else to turn, so to get the money back now allows me to feel more comfortable about my past mistakes and put them behind me.
It amazes me how it appears they all refuse to accept the complaint, but the money offered speaks volumes.
Shanae says
Update. Redress from wagedayadvance of £4500, they admitted that half of the loans I had with them were unaffordable. They said as the other half were over 6 years ago they were statue barred and could not investigate them (I don’t believe this though) I asked them to remove loans from my credit file and was told that they were never required to report these loans at this time so there isn’t anything on my credit report anyway. All it took was 2 emails and a reminder email on the day of the 8 weeks and an offer was made the following day. I did remind them in the complaint letter that I did tell them about financial difficulties and they agreed that this was a sign of problems and they agreed they should have done more. Thanks to Sara and everyone else for help & advice. Remember everyone Kepp calm and carry on!
Matty says
Brilliant well done! I’ll look forward to their reply now. They’ll very rarely reply before the 8 weeks is up because they want to keep hold of your money that little bit longer. I’ve worked out I paid roughly 3k interest to WDA. Did they just repay you the interest or principal amounts you borrowed aswell?
Shanae says
They paid back the interest of the loans and statutory interest of 8% dating back to when each loan was taken until now.
Mark Waldron says
Update: Sunny have just emailed to say they didn’t look at the affordability of my loans correctly and refunded all the interest, written off my outstanding balance and wipe it all off of my credit file. Wonga on the other hand, couldn’t resolve my complaint in the 8 weeks so will be passing this on to FO to deal with
Matty says
Hi Mark, Good stuff re Sunny! Assuming Wonga might have a backlog of these read a few saying they took 10 weeks. I’d ring them and give them till the end of the week maybe.
How long did Sunny take to reply the full 8 weeks?
MW says
Sunny took 7 weeks so took their time but a result!
kev says
Wonga do have a back log. Mine took 13 weeks from start of complaint. Just over £4,000 offered which i’m happy to except. And had my complaint with lendingstream upheld by the f.os. too, just waiting for lendingstream response. payday uk are a nightmare to get any information from, so i had to f.o.s them. Waiting for replys from other lenders, and already had settlements with four of those within the 8 weeks. Good luck everyone and if it doesnt feel right,dont except. They try to get away with giving as little back as possible. Dont let them.
James says
Hi
I am a little confused as to what people are being refunded. Is it;
1. The difference between the amount borrowed and amount repaid + 8% interest.
2. Interest on the amount borrowed
3. Refund of amounts borrowed
4. Monetary compensation in respect of poor lending practices.
Sorry I am not understanding the terminology.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi James,
I think a lot of people are asking about this sort of thing, so I’ll try to make it clearer. There are basically three cases:
A) if you have an outstanding balance, either with the lender or passed onto a debt collector, then this is often written off in full.
B) if you told the lender you were in difficulty and the lender then didn’t handle your situation well, then you may be able to get compensation for this. Not very many people here have been mentioning this sort of complaint.
C) for loans that were repaid, the standard refund appears to be what you have described in (1) – the difference between what you borrowed and what you repaid (which is effectively the interest and charges added to your account) plus 8% interest.
NB In theory you could have all three situations – have a balance remaining and have had lots of repaid loans and have been poorly treated when you told the lender you were in trouble.
Leanne says
Hi, Could someone advise me please? I had submitted email requests to wonga, pay day uk, pay day express and quick quid asking for details of all loans etc as per the ‘1st letter’ template here on debt camel.
I sent the initial request for info on 23rd January 2016, I received an acknowledgment from pduk & payday express (same company) on the 25th Jan stating my enquiries have been passed to the relevant department, I haven’t heard anything further so I sent an email chasing this on 30th Jan, and I’ve still not heard anything else.
Quick quid I sent the information request on 23rd Jan, I received an email from them also on 23rd Jan saying a representative will be in touch with me within 24 hours, as yet I’ve heard nothing so I emailed them again chasing it on 30th Jan – still nothing.
Wonga – original information requested 23rd Jan, no acknowledgment or response, emailed again on 30th Jan still no acknowledgment or response.
My question is. How do I proceed without this information? How long should I give them all to provide it? I honestly don’t think I would be able to pull the information together myself from old bank statements etc because I’ve probably had 100+ loans across all 4 companies.
Please help! Can the FOS still investigate my complaint without all the facts and figures? If the companies don’t provide them to me?
Sophie says
Hi Leanne,
Yes they can as the FO will ask the companies to provide them with all information and they have to comply with it. I have 3 cases with the FO at the moment and only 1 has asked me to provide bank statements and credit report which you can get from Noddle for free. ( The FO have advised that it wasn’t a necessity)
Good Luck with it,
Leanne says
What worries me is I haven’t yet made my initial complaint so the ‘8 week timer’ hasn’t officially started or has it? All I have requested this far is the information on all the loans, rollovers etc so as such I have not yet made the complaint.
Wayne says
Hi, Ok send them all a Email stating that they have issued you with unaffordable loans or whatever your complaint is ,and also include in your email that you want copies of your credit agreement etc, in the meantime check through all emails etc , get as much info as you can , sometimes you wont need it but it helps if you have it to hand .. Its all a easy process can take several months but sometimes a few days depending who the lender is. Dont be put off by any negative emails, rejections etc, its normal ..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Leanne, you have a decision to make for each lender.
You could go straight to a Step 2 complaint. You don’t actually have to know everything about the loans. You could just say “I had to take out more than a hundred payday loans over recent years and many of them were from you. I have asked you to provide me with a list of them, but you haven’t supplied this.” If they refuse, then take your complaint to the Ombudsman as they will definitely have to give them a complete list! If they offer you £120 and you think that isn’t right, say that you want a complete list of the loans before you decide whether to accept what sounds like a very small offer.
This approach has the advantage of being very little work for you and of starting the 8 week period going.
The other option is to persevere asking them for a list of loans and / or try to get your bank statements back etc as Wayne suggests. This is the “thorough” approach, but it could be a lot of work for you and it will take longer.
Kat says
Quick one.. I emailed pixie loans quite late last night. They have just emailed to say they are offering £83 ( all my charges and interest back) I only took one loan out! Result!! Fastest so far :) keep it up!
Sam says
Hello all, I found this website by chance but am so glad I did. I didn’t know about reclaiming for payday loans until, to their credit, Payday UK sent me a cheque for interest I’d paid, the balance is long gone & I made no attempt to claim anything, they just said it was a gesture, it was only a small amount so I felt this was quite decent of them.
This got me thinking, if they act in such a decent way, perhaps I should try from other payday lenders I’ve used whilst on hard times. When I added it all up, I’m so ashamed, over four years ONE company made eleven thousands pounds out of me! needless to say, spurred on by this site, I’m attempting compensation. Their eight weeks is up 28th February, I am complaining about interest which is extortionate but, what do you do when you’re desperate?! The other thing I’m complaining about is their complete lack of confidentiality with my financial affairs, at them time, I lived with other people & I didn’t want them to know I was using a payday loan, bit difficult to conceal when they print the name on the front of the envelope! this infuriates me, any company I’ve ever dealt with treats financial matters with the utmost confidentiality, I do not see why this company thinks this doesn’t apply to them.
I have read, and I am not at all surprised, they are rather belligerent when it comes to this process & so, have got the Financial Ombudsman in the loop too & have informed said company of the same.
Jamie says
After sitting wondering and not sleeping at nights stressing about how I will pay my 3 up and coming pay day loans, reading this has given me hope that something may be done about them. I have spent the past hour emailing all the ones I can think of that I have taken out in recent years and ones that I currently have outstanding, thanx!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jamie,
well done for starting this! However if you have three payday loans due that you can’t repay, then you also need to phone them up and say you are in difficulty. If you can afford £5 a month or £20 a month or whatever, offer them this and ask them to freeze interest and charges.
It may be that your current balances will be written off after your complaints, but at the moment you don’t know this, so you really want to stop your current position getting worse.
chris says
Hi, has anyone had a refund from Wonga and do you know how longit takes to receive payment, they have offered me £1132 and I received an email last Wed (27th) to say it would be in my account in 3-5 business days, hadnt arrived today so I phoned them, they said it was sent today and will be a further 3-5 business days, I rang again an hour later and have now been told payment was sent yesterday morning but they have no reference which seems a bit strange, has anyone else had this……
Graham says
Well Done Chris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wonga seem to be the quickest lender responding and paying out compensation, wish PDUK would get their act together. It is so frustrating for people although this tactic of delay may put people off taking their complaints further . Keep us updated RE: payment from Wonga please.
Christine says
Well I have had a late night reply from Quick Quid- not what I was expecting. Here it is.. ( Part of it)
The FCA allows a scope with a 6 year radius. Our records indicate you have held one loan of £300.00 within this time frame in which no payments were made. Quick Quid will be happy to recall the loan from the 3rd party collection agency and offer a partial settlement based on how much is currently outstanding (pending there is still a balance). We are also willing to remove the default of this loan from your credit file as a gesture of good will should you agree to this offer.
So they have ignored the loans from 2009 and the threats from their DCA saying they would visit my home and assess my living and financial conditions and also saying I had actually borrowed £600-it was £300.
They are offering to take the loan back and give me a discount on the amount that I still owe?
fay says
Hi Christine
How long did it take QuickQuid to properly come back to you? They are really unhelpful on the phone and have said it will take the full 8 weeks..? :(
thanks, Fay
Christine says
yes, they are unhelpful. The 8 weeks is up tomorrow. I got my final response last night. I have declined their offer of taking the debt back and asked them to write off the loan that I still owe and repay interest on the loans that I have already paid off.
Sam says
Have decided to try & get something out of Lending Stream as well, much smaller amounts but they added huge interest to an outstanding amount for almost a year without contacting me at all!
I’ve just tried to access the PDF information for each of my loans on Lending Stream & it says they’re ‘password protected’ how can they do that? don’t I have a right to that information?
I settled it with a debt collector in the end but was not at all happy, they’ve apologised but that’s not good enough, I’ve just threatened them with the FO, now I guess I wait…
Hayley says
Its your date of birth. I just had same issue
Cliff says
Glad ive found this site, brilliant help ? I phoned wonga last night to see if they can send me my loan history and they said it could take up to 12 days to come to me, anybody actually had it taken this long? or does it usually come quicker.
also got a few companies were i had a lot of loans 15 + over 5 years and a few companies which i only had 1 loan with, should i be complaining about these ones too?
Graham says
Hi Cliff, 12 days sounds like a delaying tactic, usually you get your account statements within 24 hrs. I encourage you to complain about all companies you have had loans with.Stick with It.
Leanne C says
I am new here but have had a good read.
I have complained to Wonga, QQ, Pounds2pocket, Lending Stream and SwiftSterling about 2 weeks ago.
So far Lending Stream have offered to reduce my outstanding balance by 20% which equates to about £150, I have rejected this as they have not fully addressed my complaint.
I got standard responses from QQ and P2P but asked them for a full and final response so I can take my complaint to FOS, they said they will look at my complaints again.
Fingers crossed!!
Soph says
Hi all, finally got my statement of account from Wonga after emailing on the 20th January.
They issued what they class as a total of 5 loans. However, the first began at £60 on the 14th November then jumped to £150 on the 30th November 3 days after repaying the first. I then topped up that loan with £60 on the 8th December, another £50 also on the 8th, £70 on the 9th and another £50 on the 11th. The reason for the top ups was as soon as the funds went into my account another lender was consistently trying my debit card for varying amounts to collect payments.
I repaid the 2nd loan at the end of December and took out another on the same day for £250. Repaid that at the end of January then took out another the same day for the maximum amount they’d allow (£602). I then told them anout my problems and managed to repay £280 of this before they wrote it off almost exactly a year ago. (3 years after taking the loans)
The 5th loan I applied for using a different email address in 2013 as I was still struggling, and they issued £100 in August. I never managed to repay that loan and they also wrote this off last year. I’m hoping I have a case here as surely a) they should have seen at the time of the first loan I was already borrowing from QQ and others and b) I told them I had difficulties in 2012 and was in default with them when they issued another loan under a new email address? I appreciate I decided to make that application but surely checks would have picked that up if they’d been carried out?
Joe says
Hello all, thanks to the advice on this site I have sent out an email to all 3 of the PayPal lenders I got into trouble with a few years back. QuickQuid were quick to reply with a email to say they carried out all checks (the first Fob off email), after replying I received emails back from Sunny and Quickquid saying they would reply within the 8 weeks. Still waiting to hear from Wonga. I just wanted to know if I had much of a case in their eyes as at the time my disposable income was quite high compared to the repayments, saying this I still managed to get in a mess borrowing from up to all 3 lenders at a time and in the end I had to come to some kind of arrangement to repay with one or two of them. And this did go on for around a year. Loans were often extended or taken out on the same day the previous was paid off. Just didn’t know if they won’t take me seriously as my income was quite high. I’m still in debt today from this so any money I got back would only go towards paying that off!
I also have bank statements I haven’t included in my emails sent to these companies showing large payments going out to multiple payday loan companies on the same day, also the same loan companies funding to my bank 2 or 3 days later. Should I have included these or does it not matter as long as I send them to the FO if I don’t have any luck? There are also a few gambling company’s on there as I had a problem at the time, I don’t know if this makes a difference if they are there?
Thanks in advance guys and keep up the good work, this page is brilliant!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Joe, “affordability” depends not on having a low income but on the level of your other commitments. Taking out a new loan very soon after one was repaid is a classic sign of financial problems the lender could have spotted. On the other hand the gambling complicates things, as it may appear that you should have had plenty of disposable income. I don’t think me (or anyone else) making a guess as to how good your case is is going to be of much use to you – let’s see what the lenders say and what the Ombudsman does if the lenders reject your complaints.
Wayne says
Result :-D from MYJAR .. after me rejecting 3 offers I finally got a email from them ” We have carefully considered your circumstances, and have agreed to your proposed amendment to our previous settlement offer. Details regarding the previous loans have been removed from Callcredit and will be removed from Equifax within a few business days. ” so thats £1600 interest plus credit file cleared Happy Days.
I had taken the loans out August last year so quite recently, so it indicates to me PDL are still not doing sufficient checks ..
Naomi says
Wow guys you are all giving me hope! My issue isn’t that I want a refund (though is would nice!) mine is that I want them all taking off my credit file and it’s having an adverse effect on my credit score. My husband has been declined for a mortgage because of his association with me (it’s not even a joint mortgage!) And I feel sick about it. I do have a default on there so I know that’s no doubt the reason but I still want all these removed because my husband doesn’t know I got them and I know he’ll want to look at my credit report. I’m in a real mess. Oh and I’m pregnant which isn’t helping matters!! I read that payday loans help improve your credit score, clearly not true at all!.
So anyway, has anyone had any succesfully removed (mine are from Wonga and PDUK)
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Naomi, if the lender (or the Ombudsman) decides the loans were “unaffordable” then it is usual for them to be removed from your credit record. This has happened with several loans from Wonga, most PDUK cases are still going through them or with the Ombudsman.
However even if these are removed, it is unlikely to be rapid, so you may have to explain to your husband about them… And unless the payday loans are in the last couple of years, the cause of your mortgage refusal is more likely to be the default.
dominika says
hi all . got one final response from wagedayadvance basically i got outstanding balance with them as i couldn’t repay last loan of £530 ( include charges ) they admit that last loan which Ive paid back in full wasn’t affordable so they offered me redress of £352 but not redress to flow in my bank account but to be taken of my outstanding balance. I was just wondering if they admit that my last loan which ive paid in full wasn’t affordable so how come my last loan which was £200 more was affordable ? i had 7 loans with them in 3 year period and every of my loans i rollover 6 times :D :D
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Dominika, if you rolled them all that much then that sounds like a clear case of non-affordability!
Kath says
Great news on my first complaint, refund of £1,600 from Sunny, who took exactly 5 weeks to deal with my claim and are processing my refund today. I can’t thank Sara and posters enough as they gave me the motivation I needed to get out of a nightmare spiral of debt. I am today free at last from payday loans. Complaints in progress with Wonga, Lending Stream and Quickquid/Pounds to Pocket which if successful will help me pay off a longer term loan. I suspect these will take longer and possibly lead to FO involvement.
I earn reasonable money, what started as a £50 debt to tide me over until payday spiralled to the point that I was borrowing over £1000 a month. It’s been a nightmare but finally I slept well last night.
Please, keep going everyone – it is worth it.
jay says
Hi Kath. What did you say to sunny in order to get a refund? I currently have a number of loans with the company and wish to claim some money back. Thanks Jay
Kath says
I used the template letter on the debt camel site and just adjusted it slightly to meet my circumstances. All credit to Sunny, they replied the day I sent an email promising to investigate and came back with the refund much quicker than I’d expected.
Pawel says
Just a quick update on my cases. Ombudsman has rejected my complaint against mrlender for just under £700 and still investigate against peachy, wonga, myjar, themoneyshop, wagedayadvance, cheque centre, sunny and quickquid. I found them very helpfull and they make me feel that they really care about peoples problems with lenders. Will post an udpate once I’ll get all responds from FO.
Wayne says
Hi What was the reason it got rejected ? I’ve currently got a complaint with FOS regarding MR LENDER
Pawel says
I got rejected because I’ve only had 3 loans with them and those loans were not taken one after another but with at least one month gap. Two small loans by £150 each and one for £800. All loans paid off on time and lender proved that they have done all credit checks prior to lending me money. I have stated that I had other loans when I took money out of them but FO said that only last loan could be concern as unaffordable but because I paid back in few instalments and my debt was decreasing at the time they could not uphold my complaint.
Joe says
Hi Everyone,
Currently waiting to hear back from the lenders I have used. I was earning a good wage when I took out these loans and on the figures I gave they probably would have been affordable. I still managed to get trapped in the payday cycle for around 2 &1/2 years. Using up to 3 different lenders, sometimes more than one at a time. One company I used for a full year and the longest period I had without a loan was 3 days( at the same time as using others on and off ).
I didnt know that because they should have been affordable on the information I gave them, that they would be covered. Or should they have noticed the fact that I clearly wasn’t coping? I didn’t miss any payments, although one company did agree to stop the interest and repay the principle amount towards the end.
Any help/advice greatly appreciated :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Joe, repeated borrowings from the same lender suggests you were having problems and the lender should have noticed. Nothing is guaranteed, but it’s certainly worth a complaint and going to the Ombudsman if it is rejected.
Graham says
Hi Joe, Same here, I paid in full on all my loans but I had to use another PDL sometimes to pay one loan off. Then your in the cycle, approx 4 years of moving money about trying to do the right thing and not default. The PDL new exactly what was going on. this is how they made so much money in a short space of time. The regulator spotted what was happening in 2014, before this PDL were charging whatever they liked in interest and charges. So Stick with It.
Stacey says
Hi guys just made my first step at complaining to lending stream and wageday advance how long will it take to get a response from these does anybody know? Also has anybody had any trouble with these 2 companies? Do they tend to beat around the bush or they happy to take the blaim?
Wohoo! Weight lifted x
Sophie says
Hi Stacey,
I have hadn’t any issues with Wageday Advanced and Lending stream. These two seem to be the easiest, both acknowledged with a couple of days. Lending Stream sorted within a week, if I remember rightly but Wageday took the whole 8 weeks. Both received positive results, from what I remember they basically said they could have done more. I had outstanding balances with both and they agreed to wipe theamounts off and ammend my credit file. To be fair I didn’t expect anything, I was so pleased with that result that I accepted the offer. Maybe I could have got more but wanted to get as much of debt down as possible.
I have other cases on going at the moment which are with the FO and 1 in particular is now in its 12th week and now the adjudicator has passed this over to the ombudsman.
Each case is different, try not to expect anything and be patient with it. Good Luck!
lou says
Quick quid have messed me about for weeks and and sent incorrect information then on the day the 8 weeks was up I received a pretty generic email saying all checks done etc etc. Not having much luck with any of them I’m afraid to say, despite being trapped for several years with these exploitative firms. Not happy
Celina says
Hi, I have just received this following my initial email to Quick Quid on 4th Feb.
Thank you for contacting QuickQuid. The contents of your email were duly noted. We apologise if there was any delay in responding to your complaint.
Your query raised several questions on what loan affordability is based on and what statutory checks are processed before assessing credit approval. Please be advised of the following information in relation to your query:
-We processed a credit check, the search id ************ confirms one of the affordability checks that were ran.
[edited]
From experience would you say this is a generic rejection? Not sure where to go from here? Thanks,
Celina
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is QQ’s standard reply. You should reply to them saying you are not happy with their rejection, the loans you were given were unaffordable and you want the complaint passed to their Final Resolution Team. The 8 week wait starts now!
[edited as it is now clear that this is what needs to happen with these QQ instant rejections]
Celina says
Thanks, I’ll let you know how I get on.
I used them 31 times within 20 months, sometimes upto 3 times a month in order to pay other pdl, vicious circle :-(
Has anyone been successful in having default notices removed following this course of action ? This is my main motivation to be honest rather than £. Looking at my loan history on the QQ website the accounts in ‘default’ are dated 25/01/2013 and 27/02/2013 yet the default on my credit rating is dated 24/02/2013? seems a little odd to me.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
31 times in 20 months – I would say there is a very good chance many of the were “unaffordable”. It is normal for the lenders to delete unaffordable loans from your credit file, not just the default notices.
Tony says
I rang quick quid after the initial response and they said to send a second letter, no doubt to get another rejection lol.
Kate says
Hi Tony .. If they give you another rejection go to the FO to be honest I’m hoping they get the final rejection to me ASAP so I can take it to FO ., I added further points on my second response included that by the time my last loan was authorised they must have been able to see arrears on my mortgage !
Tony says
Hi Kate
Very similar to me, I actually had a suspended order against my property so am quite hopeful. Totally agree this site is excellent and has made me realise it is just not me in this situation. Have written to several companies and I am amazed by the amount of charges I have paid
Kate says
When I finally had the nerve to print and read my credit report it was horrific but I’m now “on it” to get it sorted .. Mine was 3 years ago and the year I got stuck in the trap was one of the worse I have lived through .. Thankfully I got out of the cycle then but it wasn’t without a great deal of stress and sacrifice and thankfully family that could help :(
Graham says
Hi All, I explained in a earlier post that you must give the PDL 8 weeks at least to respond to your claim, this is the process the FOS want us to follow. So be patient and Stick with It.
Sam says
I did it wrong, I hadn’t found this website then, I just know from previous disagreements with financial institutions, the most prompt way is to approach the FO. They didn’t seem to mind & were happy to intervene on my behalf, if anything, I think it made the lender take me more seriously, just food for thought :)
Kate says
They couldn’t be any nicer .. They reassured me to carry on with it and at the next stage that it would be dealt with fairly .
To be honest I thought QQ had given me their final decision but after reading again it was their generic email about credit checks etc etc… My mistake.. They’ve got their 8 weeks now (slightly delayed however as they keep sent first response to my OLD email even though I’d stated new one and emailed from that ) .
Sam says
I’ve found them brilliant to deal with, my case officer is really nice, he cannot do enough, I’m pleasantly surprised & very impressed! :)
Graham says
Just read a poster from another forum has been paid £400 from Uncle Buck, Uncle Buck say they did nothing wrong but paid as a gesture of goodwill. Well its encouraging news so Stick with It.
bethanie says
Hi after reading this i have just emailed wonga using the template on this site so fingers crossed! I haven’t taken out a payday loan with them for quite a few months now and did manage to repay all of my payday loans however some where quite late and i got many extra charges added. I worked out from my bank statement that i was taking out a wonga loan almost every month and sometimes multiple times a month for 2 years. At one point i even borrowed more than my monthly income in one loan. I just wondered if the fact that i managed to get them all paid (despite them being very late) would effect the response that they give me ? Thanks for any help, this forum is great, i loved reading all the other responses and well done to all of you that have managed to get a result!
Graham says
Hi Bethani, It does not matter if you paid in full, the issue is if you found the loans unaffordable and had to keep taking out further loans to repay your initial loan. People have been compensated even when they paid all loans in full on time. So good luck with your claims.
Claire says
Does anyone know if you still have an outstanding balance with the company, can they still give you the interest back on the loans you had from them? I checked today and I am still due to pay them £69 but have had 12 loans with lending stream over a 12 month period.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely claim! Borrowing once a month on average for a year suggests the loans weren’t affordable.
Rachel says
I too have now contacted payday companies after years of struggling and being threatened! just wondered, can i still ask for a refund/debt to be cleared if it is a CCJ and payment is still ongoing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Rachel, yes you can. If you are just offered a refund, then you could use that to pay off the CCJ. If the lender (or the Ombudsman) decides the debt that result in the CCJ was unaffordable, then you could ask for the CCJ to be removed – how this could be done can be sorted out later, for now they don’t matter, just see how your complaints go.
Rachel says
Thank you so much! I’ve not acknowledged the actual damage done to my credit score until recently. This site is amazing as it is reassuring to know others are going through similar situations. If I can at least get my credit report adjusted ill be very happy and if I’m offered a refund to help clear some outstanding debts due to payday loans then that’s even better! I’m so glad I stumbled across this site and it gave me the confidence to sit this afternoon and email all the payday companies I have used in the past to see if I can some where!
Thanks again :-)
Sophie says
HI Guys,
Has anyone had any dealings with SafetyNet (Clear account) as yet? I remember someone writing about them but cant remember what the outcome was?
Thanks :)
Joe says
They seem to be a nightmare to deal with, I had a first response saying that they do credit checks and 3 months algorithms or something of that nature. They then give you an option at the bottom to forward this onto a full complaint. Which I did given that before I started lending with them I still had payment arrangements with other lenders. I then sent them over a snapshot of my bank account and given they have access to this they should know what goes in and out. Would say if you’ve had payday lending with other lenders at the same time these guys should be the easiest to get refunded as they have all your income and expenditure. I have fortunately just stopped lending after getting repayments from wonga and sunny. Lending stream seem to be playing a game of brinkmanship, originally offering me a refund for interest for 3 loans, got an offer on Friday for 6. I had 19 in just over 2 years with them so guessing I will get another offer. They are still corresponding despite being out of their 8 week Window. My safetynet complaint is only 2 weeks in as I did this one last as it was the last lender I was reliant upon for lending. The best thing about doing this is not only will it break the cycle but it’ll mean that these lenders will never lend to you again so even if you want to lend you can’t!
Sophie says
Hi Joe,
These are my last lender to deal with. I stopped borrowing well over a year ago now, came across this website towards the end of last year, I have had some positive news so far. I have 3 cases with the FO so far, the rest I have managed to sort out myself. SafetyNet is the last one to deal with, I had sent my complaint in and I have just received my final response 4 weeks later, the same response I received at the beginning. I am now taking this to the FO, but just wanted to know if anyone else has dealt with them regards to complaints?.
An Absolute awful company to deal with and I am ashamed to have even got myself involved with them. These were, what seemed at the time the last resort in order to survive. I am shocked at the amount of interest/charges I had paid within a few months, and taking repayments out of my account, sometimes half of what I earned in a month, making me take more and more out with them, just to cover household bills. The last straw for me was when they left me with nothing, I closed my current account down, entered a DMP and started a fresh.
Finger crossed, I will keep everyone posted :)
Joe says
If you don’t mind me asking what other companies have you dealt with because I have ended up taking 8 out my 11 thus far to the Financial Ombudsman, I was in the same position as yourself repaying over half of my salary but I STILL had lending with lending stream and paying off payment arrangements. I feel the same as yourself, ashamed I got into this position in the first place but the relief of now this being my first month in 5 years that I haven’t had a payday loan to repay is amazing.
Sophie says
Hi Joe,
I had loans with….
Quick Quid – now with the FO, still an outstanding balance, but I currently pay these through my DMP
Wonga – now with the FO, no outstanding balance but claiming back charges etc.
Wageday Advanced – successful but took the full 8 weeks
Ladder Loans – now with the FO, still an outstanding balance, but I currently pay these through my DMP
Lending Stream – Successful only took a couple of weeks
Cash Genie – Successful only took a week
MyJar – Successful – only took a week
Mr Lender – Successful only a couple of weeks
SafetyNet – Just started the process now going to the FO
I borrowed continuously for about 4 years, 2014 was when I decided enough was enough and I couldn’t carry one the way I did. So took the first step of closing account down, cancelling everything and entering a DMP – which I only have about 5 months left now. As some of the lenders above where on there but have had balances reduced to £0. It was only by chance that I stumbled across this website that I thought I would give it ago, I am so pleased I did, as my DMP would still be looking another year!
Rachel says
So after sitting and emailing all the payday companies I had dealt with yesterday I’ve already had a couple of responses….
Cash genie – a manager is going to contact me on thurs for a refund and to clear the loan from my credit report.
1st Stop Loans – are investigating and can take up to 8 weeks.
Cheque Centre – will investigate and contact ASAP.
Still awaiting responses from;
Wageday Advance
Lending stream
Capital Finance One
247 Moneybox
Motormile Finance
Quick Quid
At least things look slightly more positive……
Alan says
I’m wondering if anyone can help me. I lodged a complaint to Satsuma Loans on 06/01 and received an email saying that they will get back to me within 5 days which they have not yet done. I realise that I have to allow them a total of 8 weeks before I forward my complaint to the ombudsman. Today I have received a letter from Moorcroft Debt Recovery Ltd asking for me to contact them In regards to clearing the debt as it has now been passed to them. Can anyone tell me if satsuma are allowed to do this seeing as I have an active complaint with satsuma?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It certainly isn’t “good practice”! I suggest you phone them up, ask why they haven’t replied within 5 days which they said they would and ask them to suspend any collection activity of your account until your complaint has been considered.
Rob says
WageDayAdvance asked me for the £10 fee for a subject access request to confirm my statements.
Not paying them a penny more, so I just sent the stage 2 letter. That’s Wonga, PDUK and WageDayAdvance all sent. Just SafetyNet to do this week.
Strange situation with SafetyNet. The account is in my Wife’s name only. They have no contract with me but the account operates on our joint current account. They were making their credit limit decisions based on both of our wages instead of just my Wife’s. Either way it was unaffordable, but it was it was completely unaffordable if they would have just gone off my Wife’s income.
cliff says
Just had my final answer back from peachy loans. on my application i put down that i worked full time and earned around £700 per month on my complaint email i said i worked part time and earned between £300 to £700 depending on hours available in work, thats the truth now they saying they cant uphold my complaint due to me giving different information on my application and saying they might send my info to fraud agency, what should i do? bit stuck tbh?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well £700 a month isn’t a lot of money. My guess is that the loans you were given would have been unaffordable even if you got £700 a month every month.
Did the lender check your income on each new loan or roll-over? If not, they should have, because you may have been earning 700 for the first one but then your hours were cut…
Mp says
Hi guys,
Just a quick update to let everyone no what’s going on:
Sunny- Paid out £1350 inc interest and removal from credit file. This process took 8 weeks, easy to deal with and kept you updated.
Wonga- In progress, went past 8 weeks but they are talking and asked for an extension of 4 weeks due to high volumes. They are now on week 10 of 12 and have been in touch to keep me updated.
Quick Quick- referred to FO, who have been back today and informed me that they agree with my claim. I now have to wait for them to respond within 10 days. QQ are by far the worst, no acknowledgement at all! FO took around 3 weeks, very friendly and did not judge. They answered all questions I have sent within an hour. They do ask for detail such as bank statements and credit file.
Lending stream- sent stage 2 last week no response, will give them a nudge tomorrow.
Good luck guys and keep going, hopefully we can beat them!
Kay says
I read this post last week and submitted emails on Friday night to Lending Stream, Pixie Loans, Wonga and Sunny.
Today (only a few days later) Lending Stream emailed me back advising they carried out Experian credit checks etc and I met the criteria for a loan etc…. however they will support me further and will arrange an alternative repayment plan with me if i like. I currently already am on a repayment plan paying £50 a month towards 2 loans I have with them. They are offering to deduct all interest from the current balance on both loans so that I actually only repay what I borrowed and nothing more. This means my balances have reduced by around £550 all together and what I would have been paying back until late 2017 I will now have the loans paid off in 4 months time! I am so glad I emailed them – I didn’t think they would offer me anything!
Just need to hope I get something back from Wonga and Sunny next… I have cleared the balances with them and they were always on time, but I must have paid lots of interest over the last year and a half.
hayley says
So after complaining to MYJAR who i have had 32 loans with they have accepted that 28 of these were unaffordable and have agreed to refund me the amount of £975.04. In addition, 8% of annual interest increasing the total refundable amount to £1,125.18. I have accepted this offer. I only complained on Thursday last week so this company dealt with it really quick. Still had no reply from wonga, payday express, paydayuk and lending stream.
Robert says
Hi everyone,
My story echoes many of the people contributing to this forum. Started off with a small loan of a £100 and a year later I found myself with loans with 12 PDL and in the typical ‘spiral of debt.’ All in all I’ve paid thousands in interest.
After reading people’s experience on here I decided to go ahead and try my luck. Annoyingly it appears that toothfairy finance (the name makes me cringe to this day), mini credit and early payday loans are all defunct now and there’s no chance of getting anything back…
But so far I’ve emailed 7 lenders with a request for details of my loans etc.
Responses so far:
Lending stream responded withing 2 days with details of loans. I took out four with them for around a total of 600 and ended up paying them all back plus 700 quid in interest. All of the loans were rolled over. I’ve sent them a complaint and received the standard ‘response in two days’ email.
QQ have surprisingly replied within 2 days as well. Turns out I had 17 loans with them and rolled them over a total of 35 times. Borrowed a total of 5000 and paid 4000 in interest. Sent them a complaint Email and am awaiting a response.
As for the rest: Wonga, Mr Lender, Wageday Advance, Payday Express and UK have sent me the generic response so will chase them up if I haven’t heard anything in a few days.
One question I’d like someone to possible answer – the biggest thing in my favour is that with the likes of Wonga I started with a small loan and ended up topping it up and rolling it over until it was over £1000. My income was a grand a month at the time! It’s a similar story with most of them – constantly rolling over/extending. Is this generally enough to demonstrate that the loans were unaffordable?
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, constantly rolling and the loans going up in size is the classic symptom of unaffordable loans. Good luck!
hayley says
I want to claim for Mr Lender but they have passed my account to SLL Capital who I’m paying through a debt management plan. Do i email Mr Lender or SLL?TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your complaint goes to Mr Lender as you are saying they shouldn’t have given you the loans.
Hayley says
Thank you, I emailed Mr Lender and they disagreed with me but out of a goodwill gesture reduced my payment to SLL by £500.
Vic says
Hiya.
Has anybody else ever claimed off cash generator or cash converters as these are franchised based?
I had quite a few cheque based payday loans with them years ago?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’ve added email addresses for these two to the Contacts page https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/
I would mention the name of the store you used in the complaint. It is the Head Office that would have had the regulatory authorisation, not the individual franchises.
Amanda says
Hi Wonder if anyone can help. I have had my email back from 247Moneybox which states the following:
– You have been advanced a total of 3 loans.
– there was a total of 1 rollover.
– The overall amount we have put into your account is £565.
– The overall amount you have repaid is £671.72.
– The current amount outstanding to be paid is £241.79.
What should I be looking to reclaim? Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Amanda, the total interest and charges added is then 671+241-565=£347
But you don’t have to specify an amount to reclaim. I suggest asking for a refund of the interest and charges you have paid plus writing off the balance outstanding and see what they offer. You may feel that just writing off the balance would be fair and a good result for you?
Sam says
My first success! I sent one email to Wonga saying I was struggling to pay back the o/s balance, a small amount but still been dragging on, they’ve cleared it off & corrected my credit file. I’m happy with that, it was never a large loan.
hmc says
Hi
Thank you for al the comments. This has spurred me on. I emailed 5 companies last week. Then realised I’d had a loan with Mr Lender (200 in 2014, all paid).
Emailed them last night and had a positive response offering me £94.50 today as a goodwill gesture.
Happy with that as I’d forgotten about it.
All others awaiting final responses after the generic reply.
Feeling hopeful!!
Paul says
Emailed Mr Lender yesterday. Received reply today and refunding £662 by faster payment. Does anyone know how long wage day advance take to reply?
Robert says
I just received a response from QQ stating that they were denying my complaint and sent me what seemed like a standard response – even though it contained a reference to a credit check. Is the next step to go to the FO?
Quoted text:Thank you for contacting QuickQuid. The contents of your email were duly noted. We apologise if there was any delay in responding to your complaint.
Your query raised several questions on what loan affordability is based on and what statutory checks are processed before assessing credit approval. [edited]
If you have any queries, our Final Resolution Team is here to help.
Thanks in advance!
Chris says
That’s a standard reply I got after using the second letter on this website. Then I copied in my letter to ombudsman as to why I felt I was entitled to a refund nor qq will then have 8 weeks to look into it and make a decision. I am due a final response in two weeks so hopefully will get the right answers.
Danny says
Hi Everyone,
Great reading these positive stories. My complaints are all with the FO and are ongoing I am just wondering has anyone actually had any joy from PDUK at all? They keep fobbing me and as far as I can tell the FO off as well?
I have one more this has anyone had any loans from Herbert Brown/Speedloan? I understand that speedloan have liquidated so does anyone know where to get info and complain to?
As I type I have just received an email from the FO and they have ruled in my favour against WONGA all interest + 8% interest and correction of credit file.
1 down many more to go!
Danny
Sara (Debt Camel) says
PD UK – one person reported getting a rejection but a “goodwill” offer from them. Everyone else is just grumbling about the lack of any response. They can’t fob the FO off if they want to stay in business long!
Herbert Brown – email address here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/ and use that address for Speedloan too – all part of the same empire.
Wonga refund – great! How much did you get?
grace says
To date I have received a goodwill gesture of £200 from lending stream and cashgenieuk has written off debt and taken off my credit file, still waiting upon Wonga, quick quid, minicredit/OPUS (the loan was passed to a company called OPUS who added £1000 interest so I am claiming through them) still waiting , payday uk and pounds to pocket! fingers crossed
Claire says
Hi,
How long did it take from lending stream to get back to you with an offer?
grace says
A couple of weeks, I had the generic email saying we don’t think we have been in the wrong regarding affordability but as a good will gesture £200!!! the loans are paid off so I am going to take it and run lol, the payment is being processed and should take 4-5 days, I did put in a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman as well so ….
Christine says
PDUK are awful, I wrote to them in November 2015 for a statement of all loans, they sent a letter asking me to give them until 27th January – I did but I have heard nothing at all. I then wrote a formal complaint, complete with bank statements and copies of emails as proof of multiple rollover loans. They did n’t even acknowledge this. I then referred the complaint to the FO but although I have been waiting since November for my statement , I did n’t formally complain until January and I now have to allow them 8 weeks from Janury, Grrh
Katie says
Has anyone been in touch with mini credit? Says online they no longer operate however you can still apply for a loan and when I emailed them for a decision they replied but arnt replying to my debt email? Thanks
lisa says
Mine got sent to opus.They called today saying their sister company is kapama and they are taking complaint.Send to complaints@oposlimited.com
I now owe £1816 for £100 loan hope this helps
Adami says
After my PAYDAYUK complaint was not resolved after the 8 weeks and they want more time to investigate, I lodged my complaint with the FO, they asked for 3 month banks statement which I provided along with an income and expenditure done for a monthly basis, the FO have decided not to hold my case with PAYDAY UK saying my income was sufficient and all expenses occurred after the income was received was wilful neglecting debts therefore cannot take the case any forward, seem really bizarre I thought they were on my side. Any advise shall I still proceed any chances of success ? I advise not to send your bank statement to the FO they will look at the expenditure after the income is received and bbuild a picture. :-(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Adami,
The Ombusdaman isn’t on anyone’s side, they look at the facts of the case. And for most people making these complaints, the facts show that the payday loans were unaffordable.
I think you were always expecting this sort of rejection… In one of your first comments you said you were worried because you had given lenders false information about how low your expenses were. Later you asked “the fact that you ignored to pay your debts and spend your income on other things does that make the loan unaffordable to you?” … It seems the FO does think you ignored your debts when you could have paid them :(
Of course people should send in their bank statements if asked – for most people that will prove how good a case they have!
Lee says
I have had 30 loans with wonga interest paid is over £7k, mr lender 20 x loans interest over £5k, quid around 10-12 loans interest £1.5k, lending stream 1 loan rolled over 4 times interest £300, payday express got letter with total loans this morning before work not time to check but think I’ve paid easy £2k plus have money outstanding, also various other loans paydayuk, wagedayadvance, piggy bank, so total interest is around £15k in total so gutted I wasted so much money but hoping for a good figure back have contacted the bigger ones if I get good results I might just let the smaller ones be
I was really in a financial mess but hopefully if complaints are up held I will be able to start rebuilding and improve credit and one day get a mortgage!!!!
KELLY says
Hi. Really pleased to read that people are getting success over the payday loan companies. I only ever had loans with ‘toothfairy’, and would pay back within the 28 days, and within a day…or even the same day I would get another loan out with them. I havent had a payday loan for nearly 2 years as on a self managed DMP, and have just found out that Toothfairy do not exist anymore. Does anybody know if they go by a different company name now? Or did I pick the payday company that now no longer exist, and I can’t try for a refund (typical of me) Thanks in advance for any advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kelly, (EDITED)
Toothfairy is in administration – the email address on the FCA register doesn’t work. Lou has contacted the Ombudsman about her complaint and the Ombudsman is going to forward the complaint to the Administrator.
Celina says
First success today.
I emailed Mr Lender yesterday regarding one loan I had in 2012 which was paid in full.
They have sent a full and final response today (less than 24hrs). Although they haven’t admitted liability they have offered me a payment of £114.
Sam says
Just had a ‘final response’ from Lending Stream, I initially contacted them 3rd of January. They’re denying everything about my claim, it’s also quite an unpleasant email. I’m going to think about whether to escalate if to the FO.
grace says
Escalate it! I did and received £200 goodwill gesture after a couple of weeks. I know it doesn’t seem a lot but its something.
Emma says
Thank you everyone for all your comments…. This has given me the confidence and motivation to email all 10 (yes I said 10) PDL companies!!
so far an acknowledgemnt email from MYJAR Mr Lender and lending stream stating they are looking into my complaint. I have had the standard response from QQ so have replied advising that i am going to contact the FO. will keep you all posted
{edited] Only had 1 loan with Mr Lender they have replied they are clearing the balance and removing from credit file.. Not bad 1 day later!
Rich says
I’ve had a lot of success with this as follows.
Wonga £3300
Vivus £480
Mr Lender £180
Piggybank £90
Different Money £130
Satsuma £150
Uncle Buck £70
Currently waiting on QQ, Lending Stream, PDUK and a few other, but just email any you’ve had loans with and once they decline just send to the Ombudsman and let them decide.
Had so many old loans removed from my file that after not been able to get mainstream credit for ages just took out a car loan with HSBC at 3.3%
:D
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done – were those offers all from the lenders or were any from the Ombudsman?
Richard says
Wonga, Different Money and Satsuma where all decided by the adjudicator for the Ombudsman. The others were all offers that the Ombudsman advised me t take.
Lending Stream paid £390 I believe without the FO being involved and PDUK have pushed this for a final Ombudsman decision after messing about and ignoring letters from FO and I
Just finally won my case against QQ, they really drag their feet, so should be another couple of £K from them and then I’m all done! :)
Shaun says
Hi Sara! Great site.
Mr Lender has agreed to write off my debt (£600), so far so good. However, i asked them to remove all traces off my credit record, which they replied (see below).
HERE:
Just to clarify that we would not look to completely remove your Mr Lender accounts from your credit file, however we can remove any missed payments or defaults.
AND HERE:
Please advise if you would like us to proceed with this amendment and write off your outstanding balance as a full and final settlement to your complaint.
Do you think this is reasonable of them, or should i ask them one more time to remove ALL traces on my credit record/s, or i’ll go straight to the FO?
Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Shaun,
if you are about to apply for a mortgage AND these payday loans are recent (last 2 years?), then you want them gone completely. Otherwise, what they are offering to do is pretty good – it’s only really mortgage lenders that care about payday loans that were repaid on time.
Shaun says
Thanks again Sara.
Only put my complaints to 6 PDLs this Monday and already got Mr Lender to wipe £600 clear and credit record tidied up. Also Peachy knocking a debt of £375 down to £144, which i declined, as i want the lot cleared and credit record cleaned up, so watch this space.
So not a bad 3 days of work so far. Lets see how the rest respond.
Shaun says
Update….
Peachy has now withdrawn their offer to reduce my debt from £375 to £144, because i declined their offer and asked them to clear the full amount. I will now pass this over to the FO. Not sure if i’ll get the FO to uphold in my favour? Has anyone been in the same situation? If the FO uphold my complaint would they at least order Peachy to reinstate their offer, or am i on a loser? Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Shaun, I have heard that Peachy did that to someone else reporting it on MoneySavingExpert. Think it was a couple of weeks ago so no result as yet from the referral to the Ombudsman.
I think if your complaint was weak, Peachy would have said No. So definitely go to the Ombudsman.
Edited: Shaun later came back and said the FO had upheld his complaint.
Joe says
Lending stream have come back 3 months later (the complaint is now with the FOS) and offered to refund 6 loans interest plus 8%. I had 20 loans with them in just over 2 years so have refused this. Initially they refused, then 3 loans worth for £130 and then £567, then £614. However, the interest I paid them was over £2000. So I have refused their offer. Don’t accept first responses off lenders, stick with it. As someone else pointed out earlier, it’s very unlikely the ombudsman service would tell them to pay you less, if they’ve offered you anything it’s to resolve the complaint and make you go away, don’t let them off easily! If they’re offering you anything then its likely they think you have a case. They’re counting on you still being in financial difficulty so by offering reduced compensation as a ‘matter of goodwill’ they hope you take it and run.