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?
Lb says
Good afternoon,
Here is an update from my cases. I started the process in June of this year. It is a long process but you could be rewarded greatly!
Mr Lender – Originally offered to wipe my balance of £452.20. I emailed back asking to give me £250 plus wipe the balance. They agreed and this complaint was resolved within 1 week. (By far the easiest lender to deal with)
Provident – complaint not upheld by adjudicator, and the Ombudsman agreed – so no refund received.
Lending Stream – Offered £969, declined this and escalated to the FOS. The adjudicator upheld this complaint. Lending Stream did not agree so this case is currently with the Ombudsman (it has been with them since September – but as one of the loans was outside the 6 years the Ombudsman has not been able to look at it until now, hoping to have a decision within the next couple of weeks.)
QuickQuid – Originally offered me £150. Adjudicator upheld complaint, quickquid kept increasing the offers up to 6000. I declined and the case went to the Ombudsman who ruled in my favour and had £8518.65 deposited plus a default removed. Its a shame that I didnt wait a little longer as I had many loans from 2008-10 (about another 3000 in interest) but I cannot create a further claim since this one has closed.
Payday UK – This case is ongoing. It is now with a second adjudicator and they are writing for them to consider all loans, including those of pre 2010. This one is going to be a very long process.
Payday Express – They never provided a final response from my initial complaint. I escalated the case at 8 weeks. I eventually accepted an offer at Adjudicator level in November. I was paid last week £6737.55
CFO Lending – Initally offered me £40. I escalated the case and this eventually went to the Ombudsman too. They partially upheld my complaint and I received £744.39
Wage Day Advance – They rejected my complaint and disagreed with the adjudicator. This also went to the Ombudsman and they had to pay £166.30
Wonga – I have only recently complained to this company so still awaiting a response.
As you can see, I have had alot of large refunds amounting to over £16000. These amount are life changing. And the 2 I am waiting for at the moment could amount to another £15000-18000.
Be patient everyone.
Hannah says
£3,670 has just hit my bank account refund from quickquid thanks to the ombudsman after their goodwill offer of £350
My 54 loans with them removed from my credit file time to rebuild my life with a bright 2017 just around the corner :D
ID says
Refund from Quickquid of over £7,000. Goodwill gesture was £250 when this all started.
Without the help of Sara and reading everyone’s experiences this would not have been possible. Thank you.
Andrea says
Hi all
Email earlier today from the adjudicator dealing with my Money Shop loans. They have offered me £1100 minus the £394 I owe them leaving a refund of £706. I have accepted this as to me that sounds fair. I was loaning with them for a long time and they made my life an utter misery. This was the final loan for me- here’s a list of all my outcomes.
Lending Stream- 3 loans written off and £71.99 refund- loans quite small.
MyJar- loan written off.
Wage Day Advance- loans written off in full. FOS did not uphold complaint, WDA began chasing for payment and ignored medical and financial evidence. After help from the wonderful Sara loan wrote off in full along with Speedy Cash loan as part of the same company.
Sunny- loan written off in full (£503) and removed from credit file. £50 compensation. Sunny was my joint highest loan limit with just under half of my monthly take home pay.
PaydayUK- Refund of all interest on final loan after too many deferrals. This totalled £379, with the balance of £90 removed from this so I got £269. I might add this loan was deferred so many times it covered 8 pages of my credit file!
Payday Express- the other highest loan limit. Last two loans removed from credit file. Refund of interest from the final nine deferrals of my fourth loan and all interest from loan 5. Totalling £1590 minus outstanding balance of £323- refund paid of £1266.
Still outstanding- Money Shop- refund of interest on final loan and £500 in respect of previous loans. Total £1100 minus £394 owed- payment of £706 to be made.
MiniCredit- supplied OPOS with medical documents and they’re deciding what to do with it. Have requested write off due to medical conditions. Last I heard no attempt to collect will be made.
Total refund- £2362.99. Not as huge a sum as some people- but my income wasn’t massive and my loan limits were relatively low.
It seems to have taken a terribly long time, my first complaints were sent back in February but all the hard work and persistence does pay off!!
Just a massive thank you to be said to Sara. You are truly an angel and I am so very very grateful to you.
Best of luck to everyone still battling on!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m glad this is now at an end – and a good one – for you.
I’ll just comment on “Not as huge a sum as some people”. Everyone posting here will have known weeks and months when £100 in cash is the difference between feeling desperate and feeling in control of your life. Every refund can make a big difference going forward.
I hope you have a peaceful Christmas.
MR says
Sara – I just wanted to thank you for the truly exceptional and devoted advice and attention that you offer – totally free of charge – on this site. Reading all of the many successful results that people have managed to achieve is truly staggering (many, if not most, of which people wouldn’t not even have bothered following-up on in the first place without your advice and continued support, together the reports by so many others of the successes they have achieved as a result).
Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
Maggie says
Hi everyone,
Firstly, I just wanted to say a big thanks to Sara (and all of you) for the help and advice. So far I have received almost £8.5k in settlements, including £6,021 from Wonga!
There is now only one lender on my list awaiting a complaint – 118 118 Money. I still owe them a significant amount to which I’m paying via a DMP, but as their product is slightly different to other lenders I’m a little unsure as how to approach the complaint. Does anyone have any advice or success stories to share?
Many thanks.
T says
Just thought I’d share a couple of success stories that may help others..
Peachy – they were super quick to respond with a final response and were very confident, they argued that of the 7 loans I had with them none were rolled over and often paid off early. I then had the idea of checking the loan dates against defaults on my credit report. I contacted Peachy and asked for loan details, they responded very quickly with loan statements and again included a confident message about how they thought my complaint had no basis. When I checked the loan dates against the default dates I found that their first loan to me was exactly 7 days after a large default had been applied to my credit report and the reason I was often paying off early was because I was in a cycle of lenders and again this was something they should have picked up. All of a sudden they are reviewing the complaint again!
Lending Stream – rejected my complaint quickly however refused to include the paragraph allowing me to go to the ombudsman, emailed them daily asking them to add this paragraph in and they simply ignored me. I decided to then raise a new complaint about their treatment of me and suddenly got an offer of £295 which I accepted as they were one of the smaller ones I was stuck in a cycle with.
Dan says
Hope everyone has had a great Christmas.
Just an update, finally received my response from Wonga today. Paid around £3.6k in interest and they have offered £3.4k inclusive of interest which I think is pretty decent so will be accepting.
This was at week 10 with no FOS involvement. Brings my total up to £4.3k and still have three waiting for an adjudicator at FOS.
Thanks again to Sara and everyone’s invaluable advice and success stories that have kept me positive about all of this.
Katie says
Hi all
I wanted some advice re Uncle Buck and what to do (if anything). Did the complaint and received the following (plus a CCJ):
———————edited————————————
We consider it important to highlight that there is a distinct difference between unaffordability and financial difficulty, although we appreciate why you wouldn’t realise this. The former means the loan was not affordable at application, whilst the latter means the loan becomes unaffordable as a result of a change in circumstance, giving rise to financial difficulty.
———————edited————————————
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Katie, I’ve edited out most of the very long reply. When you say you have received a CCJ, do you mean the debt collector has taken you to court?
Were UB right that you only took one loan from them? And that you never supplied them with income & expenditure information after you lost your job?
Katie says
Hi
It was one loan. I tried several times to do an I&E, however they said it had to be done online but then refused to unlock my account. I have a high number of emails going back and forth with me trying to provide I&E, but they would not accept it via email, and I didn’t want to call them. This then ended up with a legal company who issued a CCJ. I’m now paying £50 per month which is still unaffordable. Wish I had found your pages sooner, as I probably would’ve done this sooner. :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
With only one loan then this isn’t an affordability complaint. As UB say, the loan probably was affordable when you took it out, but you then got into difficulty. You may have had good reason to complain about the way they treated you when you told them you were in difficulty, but now there is a CCJ, it is too late to pursue this angle :( If you are struggling to afford 350 a month, I suggest you talk to national Debtline 0808 808 4000 about whether you could get this amount reduced.
Stefan says
Hi Sara,
I try to be short with my story. I started with payday loans in 2012 with wonga and I had more than 60 loans until 2016 when I couldn’t repay anything. When I couldn’t pay them, I started with other payday loans, so I had at one time almost 10 in the same month. I rolled them over almost one year, meantime I took more and more loans to pay back another. So I took a credit card Barclaycard plus loans at Avant Credit and Sunny. At one point I couldn’t pay anything to them and I made a payment plan with all of them made by me not by any debt management company. Still very hard to pay that small amount because I have a lot of companies to pay. Some of them have threatened me they go to court. Should I be worried about it?
Barclaycard sold my credit to Asset Link. Didn’t contacted them yet. Are they allowed to add interest or fees for the money that I owe to them? Should I contact them?
What is the best to do in my situation? Reclaim interest and fee for unaffordable but meantime to stay on payment plan with them? Or to make them an offer for full and final payment when I have some money and to start with small loans? Should I reclaim for all companies including Avant and sunny or to stick only with payday loans? For example myjar borrowed me 3 times in a row without any breathing space but when I wanted more they stopped giving me money. Are this kind of loans considered affordable?
Any advice how to deal with them or anything that can help me in this situation would help me so much.
Regards
Stefan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Stefan, first you have to make sure your current situation is stable. You can’t ignore creditors or they may take you to court. I suggest you talk to StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPDebtmanagementplan.aspx about all your debts – it may be you are paying too much too some of them. It may be you can only afford token payments to them all at the moment (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/token-payment-debt/).
Then I suggest starting afordability complaints against all the payday lenders. You could start with the ones you borrowed most often from, and see how they go. Getting a refund could mean that you can make settlement offers on other debts.
If your credit record was already very bad at the point Barclaycard gave you an account, you may also be able to ask them for a refund, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/.
Stefan says
Thanks a lot for reply Sara. I pay to them between £5 and £10 each. Maybe I pay more to some of them or less to another but this how I agreed with them. Only 2 companies sold my debt. Barclaycard an payday uk. Maybe it is a good idea to contact stepchange and talk to them.
I sent already email to wonga to sent my statement of borrowings with them. There should be more than 60 in 3 years. How long should I wait for their reply? Is it a better idea to call them and request my statement? Making this complaint won’t have a bad impact to my situation because I still own almost £900 to them?
How can I know my credit score for last 5 years? I have noodle only for one month and clearscore for 3 month and I can’t see the history of my credit score.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest putting in your complaint to Wonga now – say you think you have borrowed more than 60 times in three years and that you have asked them to send full details of your borrowing.
You can’t see the history of your credit score, but you should be able to see all the borrowing that would have been showing three years ago when Wonga started lending to you. You are looking for missed payments, defaults etc before a lender gave you another loan.
Sarah says
Hi Everyone
I’ve had my QQ at the FOS since June. Initially QQ didn’t offer any payment, the first adjudicator found in my favour for all loans less than 6 years old. Separate adjudicator looking at over 6 years found in my favour, QQ offered £2500 at this point when everything is over £7000. QQ then disagreed with the adjudicator so it has to go to ombudsman but the adjudicator has said this will then have to be looked at a whole and if ombudsman agrees it will go to another adjudicator.
Has anyone else had such a long wait and fuss with QQ at the FOS?
Matt says
Hi Sarah,
In short – yes. My QQ complaint has been with FOS since May. An adjudicator found in my favour in September for loans less than 6 years and after that I was asked a few questions in October by another adjudicator as to why I only recently realised I could make a complaint. FOS wrote to QQ at start of December saying they thought they could now look at loans ovre 6 years old and QQ have disagreed and been given until January 7th to provide any more info before it goes to an ombudsman.
I’m not entirely sure of the process but I fear a similar situation to yourself – firstly the queue for an ombudsman for a decision on loans over 6 years, that’s likely to have a decision around March time I imagine. Then the process will have to begin again for the loans less than 6 years old. Like I say though I’m not entirely sure of the process so maybe things will be sorted more quickly. I certainly hope so. From the original £250 goodwill offer QQ have offered £2,200 then £3,700. All loans would result in something around £8,000 though so I’m just going to have to wait. Good luck with yours!
adam says
Hello everyone
I started my complaint in march I had two with quickquid and lending stream still have a few just at the beginning both my complaints with quickquid and lending stream have been upheld by the ombudsman I am happy to say patience has prevailed I paid over 5400 pounds in interest to quickquid and ombudsman upheld every single loan adjudicator upheld all but one.
Quickquid disagreed surprise and ombudsman upheld everything. Quickquid are a nightmare prolonging everything at every opportunity. Lending stream did the same disagreed with adjudicator she said from loans 5 to 11 should be refunded and the ombudsman agreed both forms have been signed now just waiting payment,
to anyone who has started a complaint please don’t take their first offer
Matt P says
Hi everyone. I’m coming to the end of the complaints process now. Back in April I put in complaints to WONGA, QQUID, SUNNY, LENDING STREAM, PDUK and TOOTHFAIRY.
LENDING STREAM: replied within 3 weeks wiped out my balance of £600. This was about the amount paid in interest.
TOOTHFAIRY: This company is in administration. When the assets are all sold I am due a share of the capital, although I am told by the FOS this will not be much due to the limited assets the company has.
WONGA: after 12 weeks they asserted they had lent responsibly. Took the case to FOS in June. In October it was picked up, I sent in bank statements and always replied to my adjudicator within 24 hours. Adjudicator agreed they had lent irresponsibly and suggested they refund me £4400; I had paid £4800 in interest including first ever loans. I accepted, they didn’t. Went to Ombudsman who after two weeks agreed with the adjudicator. Wonga sent me a letter a week later and I was paid a couple of days after that – just in time for Christmas!
QQUID, SUNNY, PDUK: adjudicator has agreed that these too were unaffordable and is currently calculating what the recompense should be. Hopefully a fab start to 2017!
It’s a long process guys, 8 months so far, but stick with it! Thanks Sara – you’ve helped to balance my books. Still in a DMP but chipping away at it nicely!
W Cafu says
Afternoon all,
I was in a mess with Payday loans a few years back so entered a Scottish Trust Deed.
That was finished/completed 2/3 years ago. Looking at some of the amounts people have claimed back I was wondering if I should do this, or would any reclaim have to go back into that pot even though it was completed a while ago? I wouldn’t normally bother but I was borrowing certainly over a thousand pounds a month for ages so would be due a small fortune back…!
Any advice appreciated.
Morag says
Hi
I was in a trust deed but away back in 2005/2008 . I have successfully claimed back with my ppi on all loans that included in my trust deed.
Only after the trust deed was successfully paid off.
You can call the receivers of the trust deed and get their advice
Good luck
W Cafu says
Great. As long as I wasn’t getting a solid “no chance” then I was going to have a punt. I also had a loan with Amigo around the same time as all the payday ones, this one wasn’t allowed to be part of my Trust Deed (as they would have just chased my guarantor), so I’ll try with them as well.
alan says
Hi There
Started the process of refunds from payday lenders over 2 weeks ago with 8 lenders and Lending Stream have offered £275 already but having 16 loans with them I feel this is very low amount as the intersest paid to them is way way higher…any advice would be helpful
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Alan
Martin who was originally offered £100 has now got over £2000 by going to the Ombudsman! If you know the details, it’s well worth adding up what interest you have paid.
alan says
I can see previuos successs stories and yes I have all the statemants for all the pay day lenders.
Surely if you have loans running at the same time from 8/9 lenders then that proves there are no thorough checks done on your affordabilty.
Each month I was clearing the loans in full and borrowing again to clear with another lender. The interset was killing me financially and this went on for 2 years mountin to thousands of pounds in charges….waiting on replies to my complaint and will update here
PD says
Hi Sara
My complaint is with ombudsman they asked payday express to refund most loan as provisional decision but pduk is also part of mem consumer with payday express can I ask them to look at this at same time as both companies landed me money at the same time.
MR says
I specifically raised this precise question with the FOS – PDUK (Mem Consumer Finance), PD Express (and also The Money Shop) are all businesses of Instant Cash Loans Limited. Their advice was, as the businesses lend the loans separately, a separate complaint should be made against each separately. They added that, whilst Instant Cash Loans is the parent company, it will still have to issue a response to complaints against the different businesses separately.
When looking at making any complaint, I recommend preparing a schedule that lists (as much as you can provide) every payday loan you have with each of your separate payday lenders (keeping each separate under each lender’s name). Then you can simply add the schedule to every separate complaint, then there is a clear record of the extent of all of your other payday loans with other lenders. Doesn’t avoid you having to make separate individual complaints, but gives added weight to your case.
Ross says
I made separate complaints to TMS, PDUK and PDEX as I could see no reason why I couldn’t make separate complaints. All three were ‘investigated’ and, not surprisingly, they’re all with the FOS. PDEX offered £350 as a goodwill gesture, which I rejected. PDUK and TMS rejected my complaint outright. PDUK complaint has been upheld by the adjudicator and just awaiting their response. I’m 99.9% certain they’ll disagree with the adjudicator and it’ll have to go to the ombudsman. Typical stalling from Instant Cash Loans. Still waiting for PDEX and TMS adjudicator decisions.
PD says
Just wanted to say thank you Sara for your advice quickquid offered me 682 pound which I rejected case went all the way to ombudsman got just over 12k back from quick quid ?
Eddie says
Hi All
Upon reading all comments and this very helpful website I wanted to share my experience with pay day loans and what am I doing to make things right.
Over the last 5 years I have borrowed 198 times from Wonga, Myjar, MrLender and Swift Sterling. I was naive and wasteful spending more money than I earned and was quickly dependant on pay day loans and living in a non stop borrowing cycle to cover one loan to other for nearly 4 years. I have suffered mentally and financially, I broke up with my long term partner as well as contemplated running away from all this to a foreign country.
I now have a solid job and have not been taking loans for 6 months however I have a personal loan I took at the beginning of this year with a guarantor to pay off all pay day debts as well as a £4000 overdraft on my bank account which is fully exhausted each month. I was inspired by all your stories and examples on how to tackle this nonsense lending that companies provided to me for many years and here is where I am at:
Firstly I looked at all bank account transactions since 2010 to 2016 to see how much I have borrowed from companies above and how much money have been taken out from my account by them. The sum nearly made me faint. I was allowed to borrow a combined sum of £42,000 and paid back nearly £53,000 making total interest payments over 5 years top £11,000. And that’s only 198 payday loans excluding overdraft with my bank. All within 5 years. My average salary from 2010 to 2015 was £1,200/month after tax. I still can’t quite believe how and why I was able to borrow that much. My action now is following:
I have contacted Ombudsman to chase Wonga for nearly £4,000 refund of all interest paid based on irresponsible lending. Wonga refused to uphold my complaint. At the moment I have filed a complaint letter and awaiting Ombundsman reply.
I have filed a complaint and refund request of £5000 interest for all loans from Myjar. They have acknowledged my complaint and are dealing with it and will come back to me. They still have 6 weeks before I can pass it on to Ombudsman.
I have filed a complaint against Swift Sterling chasing £2,500 interest refund on all loans issued to me. They have not responded yet.
I hav filed a complaint and refund request of £2000 interest payments I made to MrLender. They have acknowledged my complaint and dealing with it. They still have 6 weeks to respond before I can escalate this to Ombundsman.
I will keep you all posted on how I progress. I would like to say to all people who read this and are thinking if they should look into their past or current struggle with payday loans – don’t think. Act now. I am hoping that monies I paid to those greedy loan companies will be returned to me and I can put it towards my life goals and get my finances back on track by paying off all bank related debts that I have.
Hoping for a good start of 2017
Eddie
Michellew says
I am so confused!!!
Received an email from payday express saying they cannot find my details on 12 December but they have now said they sent an email on 9 December not agreeing with my claim.
So Money Shop, PDUK and Payday Express have all said they do not believe they did anything wrong so I have now sent them through to the FOS. How long does it take before the cases start to be investigated.
I had 10 complaints 5 have upheld and 5 have gone to the FOS
Thank you and have a great new year.
Ross says
Hi Michelle,
Money Shop, PDUK & PDEX are all part of the same group, Instant Cash Loans. They appear to be renowned for being as awkward as possible. All 3 rejected my individual complaints as well. The adjudicator has upheld my PDUK complaint, but I fully expect them to reject the adjudicators decision and it having to go to an ombudsman who. more than likely, will agree with the adjudicators findings. My complaints for all 3 went in to the FOS at the beginning of November. The PDUK complaint was upheld just before Christmas, so I don’t expect to hear much before mid-January (they have been given until 11th January to respond). I think the PDEX and Money Shop complaints will be dealt with by mid-January as well, but I expect the same run around as I am expecting with the PDUK complaint. Good luck and stick at it!
Claire says
I’m just starting this process, keeping fingers crossed.
Question though. I had 2 loans with Mr Lender, one for £300 and the other for £400. The £300 was paid in full, meaning I had to then get the 2nd one.
They have offered me today, because I haven’t paid the £400, this balance is now £700! They have offered to bring this back down to £400 and I pay that. They have said that they leant it to me on the understanding that I could afford (clearly I couldn’t or else it would have been paid).
Is this good or bad? Do I take the offer or not?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so what they have offered is to delete the interest from the second loan. This is what the Ombudsman would usually say if the second loan is considered unaffordable.
You could get “more” if the Ombudsman felt the first loan should never have been made as it was unaffordable – in that case you would also get a refund of the interest you paid on the first loan – do you know how much that was? This refund would be used to reduce the balance of £400 on the second loan.
But this is a pretty reasonable offer. Can you afford to make any repayments? They should also agree to accept an affordable monthly amount to pay off the £400 balance.
Claire says
Hi. Thanks for that. My initial loan was £300 and I paid £383 (round abouts). They are saying that because I paid this off in full this is suggestive to say that it was afforded. But of course they don’t see the other outgoings etc and if it was affordable then I wouldn’t have had to take out the new one!
But to write off £300 and so means I’m only paying back what I actually borrowed, to me, seems reasonable. I’d rather pay that back and have it resolved than something hanging over my head like it is!
Pamela says
Hi Sara
Just an update from my complaint with The Money Shop. I received a 4 page letter which is far too long winded to post. They are refusing to take responsibility for extending loans prior to November 2012 as they say the OFT did not issue guidance on the number of extensions until March 2013. They have also refused to look at anything before 6 years.
My lending from The Money Shop spanned from 2007 until 2014, with the most continuous period of borrowing from 2009 until 2014. A balance of £750 per month (in the form of cheques) was rolled on each month and sometimes cheques were taken from my bank account to be renewed directly after. My estimations without having the statements are that interest is around £6000 or perhaps more.
This is the response from them.
In November 2012 the Consumer Finance Association issued a Customer Charter in which it was recommended the number of extensions be limited to three and The Money Shop agreed to this.
Although some of your loans were extended on more than three occasions between 2010 and 2012, as this occurred prior to November 2012 the above guidance cannot be applied.
However I note that 3 of your loans were extended on more than three occasions after November 2012. Due to this I am willing to offer a refund of interest paid on these extensions, in the amount of £115.47.
I am now putting together my information for the Financial Ombudsman. They have refused to give me statements so firstly I am going to try and get these from the branch. I have seen previously you can ask for a Customer Transaction History report. Failing that I am going to ask for a Subject Access Request.
I would appreciate your thoughts on this response. Have you heard of any cases where the Money Shop have offered anything at this stage. From most of the posts I have read they reject all initial complaints. I had a very quick settlement from Albemarle Bond (under Speedloan) of just over £1300, 2 weeks after my initial complaint letter. I have also received a rejection to my complaint from The Cheque Centre which I will be submitting to FO also.
Many thanks for all your hard work once again Sara and have a Happy New Year.
Pamela
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would ignore the stuff about the CFA’s Customer Charter – the CFA is just a trade body for payday lenders, what they say has no regulatory authority. Not rolling over a loan more than 3 times is obviously a good idea, but many people will have had “regular” borrowing from the Money Shop which was unaffordable even if it didn’t involve rolling one loan more than three times.
Claire says
I put in a complaint to lending stream back in October. They offered to clear all of my outstanding loans (approximately £750) but I refused and complaint is with an adjudicator at the financial ombudsman. I also cancelled the continuous payment authority with LS at this time.
Well imagine my horror today that LS have taken approximately five debits (payments and interest) from my bank account today!
How can they do this? I’ve emailed LS and my adjudicator to query this? Not happy at all.
Ross says
Hi Claire,
What a nightmare? The thing is, you MUST also contact your bank and ask them to take away the authority for the company/companies to take debits from your account. In the event they still do, then the bank has to refund you as it’s their error. When I put my complaints in, I rang my bank and they blocked all of the PDL’s I had from taking payments, and it worked. Call your bank now and ask them to do this before LS, or any others, try to take any payments.
Andrew says
I have a question about Safety Net Credit,
They’ve wrote back to me saying they’re not a PayDay Loan company, which when I think about it I suppose they’re not. They’ve basically told me to take a run and jump.
They also stated they’ve done the proper credit checks etc and that my average income for the period I was borrowing was in excess of £1900 per month. Which is completely false, never earned that much a month without doing near 40 hours overtime in the month.
I’ve referred it to the FOS.
Just looking clarification on what happens, am I still ok to refer it to FOS because they aren’t a Payday Loan Company?
Ross says
Hi Andrew,
I believe they still come under the same rules, whether they think they’re a payday loan company or not. I made a complaint to them and had £1390 written off as a ‘goodwill gesture’. I made them aware that I had been borrowing from them on a repeat cycle for nearly a year and they permitted this to happen, even though their own website states that their product should only be used as a short term borrowing solution. I also made them aware that, unlike other lenders, they had the privilege of being able to view my bank account transactions and they would’ve been able to see that multiple payday loan transactions were going through my account, both in and out. Although they gave me the same spiel as they did you, they must’ve realised that the FOS would more than likely rip them to shreds for disregarding all of this information. I started with a credit limit of £150 and, over time, they increased this to an eye watering £1000, which I used every month. With the interest, this was about 60% of my monthly income, so I had to re-borrow to keep my head above water. What they wrote off was roughly what I paid in interest, give or take a few pounds. I may have got slightly more if the ombudsman ruled in my favour, with the 8% interest, but this would’ve been a very nominal amount, so I was happy for them to just write it off and put the whole situation to bed. They also stated that I was able to go to the FOS, in their final response, which means they are, technically, a payday lender of sorts. Good luck!
Andrew says
Yeah Sara they can see your bank account and what’s going in so you could be right in saying they thought other payday loans were income.
Brilliant Ross, they let me borrow up to £550 every month off the top of my head.
It’s sent to the FOS anyway so all I can do now is sit and wait.
Thanks both of you.
laura says
I got a refund of £4k with safety credit net so this is defo a tactic to get you to give up. do not
Dan says
Hello all,
Embarrassing question from me here.
I’m currently seeking refunds from payday lenders from around 5 years ago. Whilst it is a slow progress I have real hope of success, so thank you to this site and everyone on it for their help.
However, currently due to a gambling addiction I have re-entered the payday loan cycle, and borrowed in the region of 8, 000 from payday lenders, credit cards, and likely loans within the space of 4 weeks.
I’ve now gone into a DMP. However, considering that there is around 10 loans in total, does anyone think I’ll have a case to complain on these ones?
Oh, and you’ll be pleased to know that my addiction to gambling is under control with the help of councelling.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If any of these recent loans were large in relation to your salary it is worth complaining about them Also the later loans in the month as they should have been able to see you had already borrowed a lot recently, so why were you borrowing more and could you afford it? You do need to be realistic that these complaints are likely to be harder to win as there is no pattern of repeat borrowing, but still worth a go, just don’t assume you will win.
Joanna says
I haven’t lodged a complaint yet with The Money Shop, but after reading other people’s difficulties with them I decided to go into my local branch and ask for my account history statement instead of having to pay for it. They said that they couldn’t do it and I would have to go into the branch that I originally set up my account with. Today, I went into my original branch and the cashier kindly gave me my complete account history dating back to 2009. This also included loans from other branches. I didn’t have to pay for it, but I think that I was quite lucky!
nattalie says
Hi Sara
just an update to let you know where I am at right now. I have sat down and worked out most of my figures for all of the companies am claiming against: Wonga, Sunny, My Jar and Lending stream for their overdraft/loan called Drafty.
So far Wonga have been very polite and answered straight away and they have until till Jan 12th which would be 8 weeks.
Lending stream have Ignored every single message I have sent them.
My jar have sent me a final response of a decline so this has now gone to FOS.
Sunny again been very polite and also have till Jan 12th.
I have OS balance with both Myjar and Sunny who have both held the until such time an outcome is reached so I have a few questions if you would be kind enough to answer. Now I have had a rejection from Myjar should I still explain am unable to pay the balance and leave it outstanding until FOS has ruled? I can’t really afford to pay it without cutting corners on other bills.
Secondly do I raise each case individually with the FOS as each of the 4 rejects? I have already refereed the Myjar to FOS. I just wasn’t sure if i simply add them to the one complaint.
And lastly I have been using the service Resolver which is a Martin Lewis website I wondered if you were familiar with it? as far as lending stream go, I have literally had no response from them in almost 8 weeks. And I have a balance outstanding with them also.
early days for me I guess but am going to stick at it,
thanks again
nattalie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Don’t pay the MyJar balance if it means getting into debt elsewhere. You can offer a lower monthly payment that you can afford, give them an income & expenditure statement showing you can’t pay more and ask them to freeze interest. But I would be inclined to wait until Jan 12 for this, so you can do the same with Sunny and know what you are making offers to.
Yes raise each case individually. But for your later ones, add a sentence saying you have already put in a complaint about xxxxx on dd/mm/yy. With any luck they will all be picked up by the same adjudicator, which makes things simpler for you.
Resolver is a good complaints service. It’s a shame they don’t have any buttons set up for Affordability or Irresponsible Lending – that would make it easier to use for these sorts of complaints.
Matthew says
Hi Sara Great forum
I have just seen this account about payday loans , I had an account whilst studying at university and rolled loans over for 3 , however this was between 2007 -2009 ended up close to £5000 over drawn on current account and sold on to debt management company final paid this off but probably should have not been given the loan . I spoke to the money shop over the phone and said they don’t have records , just wondering if you had any advice . Thank you
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people have managed this by going to the branch they opened their account with, but if that’s back at uni it may not be convenient! Your other alternative is to pay £10 for a Subject Access Request, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ico-money-shop/. There is a chance that they really don’t have the details, but so far this hasn’t happened to anyone I am aware of.
PS I deleted your surname!
Matt says
Hi Sara
Hope your well
Just a quick update took the day off and traveled across to where I studied and went to the money shop they had the statments and were able to give them to me . However also had loans with herbert brown but they said they had no records going to put a sar in for them now . Went in to barclays and rbs and tried to get statments from august 2008 onwards but told me they don’t keep them have you heard of people getting bank statments from this date.
Thank you again for your time and thanks for removing my surname.
sarah l says
Herbert brown when into administration in 2014 and are now owned by speedloan finance limited so mayby they don’t have records from before then???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the new owner only bought the brand, not the previous business. In which case you would be wasting your money putting in a SAR as they do not have any old records. I suggest talking to the Ombudsman and asking them about this.
Matt says
Hi Sara hope your well
Just had some bad news about my loans spoke to the moneyshop and were told that because they were cheque till payday they can not uphold my complaint , just work out payed over £1800 in fees and roll over to stop them banking them would not like to think about bank charges on top this the right information or compensation should I speak the FOS about this and do you know about these loans.
Thanks
Matt
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This sounds like nonsense from the Money Shop. Their standard method of lending was to give you cash, less their interest in return for a cheque from you to be cashed on your payday. This, like all other type of consumer credit, is subject to the same “affordability” rules. Lots of people here have had successful claims against them – for example Andrea on 23rd December wrote “Email earlier today from the adjudicator dealing with my Money Shop loans. They have offered me £1100 minus the £394 I owe them leaving a refund of £706.” and Aga on 5th December write “They refunded £3311 total including 8% and unpaid cheques ; this is from extending cheques , I was paying £15,99 then £16.99 then £17.99 per each cheque extended.”
The hardest part is to get a list of the loans – but you have already done that! I suggest sending your complaint to the FOS.
Dean says
Hello,
Firstly can i just say how helpful i have found this site,excellent work.
Up until a couple of months ago i had no idea that these claims were even possible,it was only through a company advert on Facebook that i decided to look into it further.
I have had numerous amounts of loans with different companies in the past dating back as far as 2009.
These include
Wonga
Quickquid
PDUK
PDExpress
themoneyshop
Loans2go (personal loan)
lending stream
quidmarket
vivus
amigo loans (guarantor loan)
There are probably others but difficult to remember.
I have emailed nearly all complaints departments asking for full account history as none of these apart from safetynet seem to be available online.
I have been in debt for the past 6/7 years and have a ccj which is linked to an old overdraft with lloyds bank,which came about from wonga taking different amounts out of my bank account on different dates than expected,effectively helping themselves. When i told the bank at the time i was told there was nothing they could do. I have put my case forward to wonga for the 5 loans i had with them in the space of 10 months, all were unaffordable. They have today replied effectivley saying that nothing they have done was irresponsible, i have asked for full account history before sending complaint to FOS.
I have continually used safety net credit for the past year,despite other loans and debts on my account i was given a £300 limit which then increased after 3 months to £530. I paid in full every month with interest despite the repayment adding to nearly 60% of my whole income for the month.
I also have a loan with amigo loans which i class as a priority debt due to the nature of having a guarantor an wouldnt want it to affect them
Short on cash last year i turned to Loans2go, they accepted me for a £1000 loan despite my affordability checks showing very little leftover and an active ccj and debt problems showing on my report.
Due to these spiralling out of control i have been in contact with stepchange an they have advised setting up a DMP however i am a little reluctant to pay back money to certain lenders until i understand the situation a bit better an whats available.
Any advice on any of the above companies that hasnt already been mentioned would be appreciated.
(apologies for essay, and the poor grammar)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
My advice is to set up the DMP with StepChange. It will take the pressure off your current situation and you can’t lose by doing this. It also shows to the lenders that you really are in trouble!
If you win a complaint against a lender you have a debt to in the DMP, the interest will be removed from the last defaulted loan and any refunds from earlier loans with that lender will be used to reduce the balance owed. So if you repay £10 a month for 4 months whilst your complaint is going through, your balance will be either be £40 lower OR you will get a refund of £40 more.
If you don’t win a complaint, well you have to repay this debt so getting it into a DMP and making affordable payments is the best option.
Make sure your Wonga complaint has full details of the times they took payments that caused you big problems with your bank account.
Quickquid, PDUK, PDExpress and themoneyshop are all likely to be very slow and you should probably expect these complaints will have to go to the ombudsman.
Not many people have commented on Vivus or Quidmarket but a few have got good offers from the lender without needing to go to the Ombudsman.
Lending Stream can be good about writing off balances but not about refunds – if you have borrowed from them a lot, make sure a write off offer is good before accepting it. Also they quote bizarrely high credit scores – ignore anything they say about that!
Loans2Go seem worth challenging – although this is an installment loan, it still sounds from your description that they should have seen from your credit record that it was unaffordable. Here you are asking them to remove interest from the loan.
kelly says
Well Happy New Year to you all!
I received the phone call I’ve been waiting for today… Wonga and Payday UK have agreed with the adjudicators decision and I will be getting 1.2k from each lender. I’ve already had £500 written off of an old Kapama debt and £1000 for a student overdraft (unrelated to unfair charges/interest). I am awaiting a response from QQ, Payday Express and MyJar.
Thank you everyone for your comments and posts, I started this process in April when I found this website and I was a bit apprehensive yet inspired by the possibility of claiming back especially as this would help me clean up my credit file and get debt free! In December 2015 I was told that I should go bankrupt and thanks to this website, I am getting my debts cleared and money back without any bankruptcy. So if you’re thinking of claiming… please do it!! You have nothing to lose.
Angela says
Hi I got an offer today from wonga I gave them my bank details today I can’t wait so happy got £1444
Emma says
Hi All after a bit of advice and I know it’ll have been asked a million times before so apologies :)
I have today accepted an offer from Wonga via the ombudsman of just over £3,000 after wonga rejected my complaint!
Will the contact me with regards to my bank details as they have changed?
And how long has it taken for people to get their money in their bank after the complaint has been settled via the ombudsman?
Ross says
Hi Emma,
Wonga will send you an acceptance form, which will also include a section asking for your bank details. However, this may come via the FOS. I’m not sure which way it will come for you though, as I managed to resolve mine without going to the FOS. I would advise that, after returning the form(s), you chase up afterwards, as they didn’t realise they’d received my forms, which slowed the process down. However, after they confirmed they had my forms on the Monday, they paid out on Wednesday of the same week, so they don’t unnecessarily ‘go slow’ and are quite efficient. Well done on your case!
Tom says
What I shock I’ve had today.. My final response from Speedy Cash is due shortly so I thought I’d get my FOS complaints prepared. I asked them for my statement of loans which I got today, I expected that they would only come to about £600 interest but to my shock it comes to £2200! I was settling loans and then taking out higher loans the same day, no wonder I ended up in such a mess! I’m hoping that they look at my loan statement and see that it was totally irresponsible. I’d recommend to everyone get your loan statements even if you think it’s a small amount, could turn out to be much larger!
Tom says
They’ve just offered me £1900, I’ve accepted. Delighted!
Tracy says
Hi Sara
Thank you so much for your help and advice over the past few weeks, quick update
Myjar – written off
Lending Stream – written off
payday uk – surprisingly written off and goodwill gesture of £850 which I was happy to take as had a lot of problems with them in the past
Wageday advance – agreed with me written off balance and paid back interest of £1058
Quidmarket – written off
Wonga – not due a reply until 7th Feb which will be the 8 week, I have had a reply from them to say they are investigating it
Payday express – same as Wonga
Quickquid – received response saying doesn’t agree with me – I have escalated this to the FSA to complain
Katy says
Hi all. I have put in conplaints against the following lenders; quick quid, uncle buck, wage day advance, 247 money box, piggybank loans, avant credit, 118118 money loans and 2 guarantor loan companies ; amigo and glo. These have been going on for a while now but have had the following results;
247 moneybox agreed to write off £250 balance and remove defaults from credit file
Wage day advance agreed to write off balance of £255 and remove all loans from credit file.
This is a great result so far but will see what the others hold. It will be interesting what comes of the guarantor loans, of which both companies have acknowledged my complaint and are dealing with them now. Fingers crossed!!
Sue says
Hi just had email from ombudsman money shop have offered me all interest back on loans I had from them I have accepted as it’s a very fair offer given bank details
alba says
Any one had any luck receiving refunds from capital finance one CFO lending?
I have written a few letter of complaint got £1850 back from wage day advance within 2 weeks. Lending Stream reduced my balance by £500
It has been 4 weeks since I have sent emails to:
Wonga
Payday Express
Payday uk
Mr Lender
My Jar
Money Shop
Cheque Centre
I will post my progress
Ben says
Hi,
I sent my formal complaint to CFO 3days ago, they replied they will get back to me in 8 weeks. I sent a cheeky email saying I would accept £300.00 now to save time. My offer has been accepted and I will have the money in my bank in 7 days! Thank you so much for this site!! :)
Neil says
My Wonga complaint, having been upheld in full by the Adjudicator, has been agreed with Wonga. Payment into my account has been promised within 28 days, and all loans are due to be wiped from my credit record. Complete success, which I certainly wouldn’t have had without this site, the inspiration from people posting, and of course Sara’s invaluable advice. So that’s around £1600 for 16 loans. What a fantastic start to 2017 – and I hope everyone else has success too! For anyone wondering, the whole process started early September with a formal complaint to the lender and has been officially resolved today. The Adjudicator’s decision was made on 6th December, so I don’t think that’s bad going considering the festive break may have slowed things down a little.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Nice one! out of curiosity, did Wonga originally make you an offer?
Neil says
Hi Sara – yes, they made me an offer for two loans. I complained about loans from 2014 onwards (final loan April 2016) and had 4 loans in 2016, 8 loans in 2015 and 4 loans in 2014. They initially offered me £430 for two loans in 2014 which I (obviously) rejected. I was pleased that they didn’t involve the Ombudsman and accepted the Adjudicator’s decision to be honest – but I get the impression that they sent their business file over promptly, and aside from a minor delay getting 2014 statements to my Adjudicator, I was very happy on how this was wrapped up.
B brown says
Has anyone had any success with the new short term/instalment loans they offer now instead of payday loans? I have a large number of these and believe they are unaffordable.
Ross says
Hi B Brown,
Yes, I had success against Satsuma Loans for a 12 month instalment loan. I had a number of loans with them, sometimes with 2 running in parallel at the same time. The adjudicator ruled that the final (and largest) loan should never have been granted. He recommended that all of the interest and charges be cancelled on this loan and anything above the loan amount itself be repaid. I had a refund of just under £300 and the rest of the interest on the loan wiped. Surprisingly, Satsuma accepted the adjudicators decision after they declined my complaint (I wholly expected it to have to go to an ombudsman for a decision). I believe whether they’re a one month loan, or a multi month loan, the same affordability rules apply, something I am sure Sara will confirm?
Good luck!
Daniel Field says
Hi Sara, Quickquid have responded with everything and told me they’ll be in touch within 8 weeks. I currently have an outstanding balance and they have been constantly ringing me to get payment I’ve explained I have complained about irresponsible lending and asked for any collections to stop during this process, they continued to ring me daily upto 3 times, I said if this didn’t stop I’d be forced to complain of harassment.
They have now emailed me a deadline to pay saying theyll sell the debt on to a debt collector or place into hands of a collector by 31st of Jan 2017.
Can they do this? I’ve asked for collections to stop. Whilst the investigation takes place as it’s clear from my lending they’ve been irresponsible.
Over 10k in 5 years and I’ve defaulted twice paying back on payments plans. 23 different loans. And they continue to lend. Paid nearly 4k in interest and charges on top of the 10k!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t matter if the debt is sold to a debt collector, they won’t be harder to deal with than QQ and it won’t affect your complaint.
You haven’t mentioned if you could afford to pay them something or if you have other debts… depending on this your options include:
1) shrug and carry on as you are.
2) put in a new written complaint about the way you have been treated so far. This would be a strong complaint if you have already given them an I&E.
3) supply them with an I&E and offer an affordable monthly repayment that means you won’t have to borrow more each month, from them or anyone else. This won’t harm your case or the redress you get offered – it will generally increase the refund you get as there will be less of a balance to write off.
4) if you have other unmanageable debt, talk to StepChange about a DMP https://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/DMPDebtmanagementplan.aspx (they can also talk about your other options if a DMP isn’t right for you.)
Of course there could be a lot of variations on the above. For example if you have some priority debts (https://debtcamel.co.uk/start/priority-debts/) it may be a good idea to not pay QQ more than A token £1 a month whilst you clear the priorities.
Daniel says
Ive explained to them I cannot currently afford to pay. I tried to set up a payment plan which they refused as I had one set up but could no longer afford. They then on two occasions took money from my bank after I told them I couldn’t afford the repayments. I had to ring my bank and block an access that Quickquid have to take money as they was taking rent money.
I don’t want to negotiate with them after how they’ve treated me over all this. I’m more than convinced should I got to Ombudsman over this I’d win my irresponsible lending case and have my currently balance wiped.
Emma says
Congratulations Neil. Thought I’d share my success with wonga too on your thread. Hope you don’t mind.
I complained in September and they rejected it with no offer. I had 48 loans with them including top ups.
Once my adjudicator contacted them for more info they looked into again and offered just under £3,200. Amazing really after nothing.
I signed the forms yesterday and refund will be within 28 days with loans taken off credit file. So a very good outcome. Hopefully the refund will be fairly quick.
Thanks to this site and Sara as I didn’t know this was possible. Good luck eberyone.
Sue says
Any one had money shop refund accepted offer yesterday sent bank details to ombudsman and also to money shop thanks sue
kim says
hi
I have accepted the ombudsman’s final decision that quick quid should pay me all interest plus 8% on my flex accoun
does anybody know how long they usually take to pay out?
thanks
Jay says
***Pounds to Pocket Update***
Complained April 2016
Adjudicator today agreed loans were unaffordable, £1,872 including 8% interest & all loans to be removed from credit file. Confirmed bank details and have had a notification that the money will be in my account within the hour.
Great website thanks guys.
Liam says
QUICKQUID UPDATE
Hi all, I have just accepted the ombudsmans final decision regarding my Quickquid complaint which I started on 6th April ’16. Long drawn out process but worth it in the end.
After the 8 weeks I escalated the complaint to the FOS as Qq didn’t respond and then claimed they hadn’t received my complaint, as I was able to provide evidence to the contrary, the claim moved on. It was picked up by an adjudicator who upheld the the complaint mid August for all loans from 3rd onwards and the flex account. Qq argued and offered £1200 which I turned down, after another few weeks waiting the offer went up to £2100, again it was rejected around October time and I was told it would go to final decision.
At the end of November the adjudicator rang to say he had reconsidered QQ’s argument and now agreed with them, the £2100 was more than fair and I should accept as there was a 277 day gap between the last loan and flex account.
On Christmas Eve I received the FO’s final decision upholding the whole complaint as in the gap between borrowing I had borrowed excessively from P2P.
Beyond delighted and now expect north of £5k back (or 2 years off my DMP)
Moral of the story is don’t give up or be disheartened when things don’t seem to go your way. Also, instead of getting frustrated by the length of time it takes, just think of the extra interest being added to the final payout!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well persevered! I don’t know how long you have been in a DMP, but you may be able to use the money to make F&F settlements on some of the debts, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-options/less-common/full-final/
You asked before about bad credit cards raising your credit limit … you might be interested in this recent article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/
Liam says
Hi Sara,
Firstly, thank you for this site. I actually found it in probably my darkest hour when I was searching for a PDL that would still lend to me. Like many others, there was an underlying gambling issue which needed tackling but I’ve taken measures to control this.
I have already contacted the lenders to offer around 50% of the outstanding balances as a F&F payment. If this is accepted and my last two PDL complaints go my way, I will be debt free by the end of the year. (From £28k and drowning 18months ago) – again, it wouldn’t have been possible without this site.
I’ve also complained to Aqua. My limit was raised from £250-£1900 without me requesting in the space of 8months, I only ever paid the minimum. I even have letters dated 3 days apart, one saying I’d only made min payments for 6 months and the other raising my credit limit!
Thank you again. I’ll be making a small donation to my local CAB.
Craig says
Hi
I raised two complaints with Wonga and Sunny on the 2nd December, both have acknowledged receiving my complaint but since then I have heard nothing, just a standard email from wonga to say it’s taking longer than expected to look into my complaint.
I have an outstanding balance with Sunny of £484 which they have frozen the interest on whilst they look into it.
Should I be chasing either of them up? Or just wait till I get closer to my 8 weeks. I’m expecting a large refund from Wonga and a smaller one from Sunny, think I’ve got pretty strong cases.
Many Thanks
Ross says
Hi Craig,
With my complaints, both Wonga and Sunny took near on the full 8 weeks to investigate. I would take this as a positive, as they at least investigate your complaint thoroughly, unlike other companies I have complained to (namely QuickQuid, who dismissed my complaint after 5 hours, with no indication of any investigation whatsoever!). Allow them the time to investigate and if they haven’t managed to offer a final response by the permitted 8 weeks, then take it to the FOS. Both of my complaints were upheld, albeit 1 partially. I had good payouts from both and was extremely satisfied with the end result. Still a few to go though.
Craig says
Great thanks Ross.
I’ve calculated my interest already from them both so know what will be a reasonable offer or not. I paid just over £7000 interest with Wonga over a 5 year period. Borrowing every month continually for a 34 month stretch at one point. Probably two most alarming example during that period were me paying a loan off for £1300 at 6am on payday morning, to then re borrow £1200 at 9am the same day. And the other me requesting top up amounts of £100, £150, £250 all within a 45 minute period and being accepted. Clear signs of irresponsible lending.
I’ve had many other loans with peachy, lending stream, pounds to pocket etc. However only used on average 2/3times all were instalment loans and were generally paid in full before the agreed term (this way either me winning money gambling or my parents bailing me out and paying them off in full) think these will be harder to fight and may not be worth it for the couple hundred in interest. If I can receive what I feel I should from Wonga/Sunny circa £9000 that’ll put me in a great position financially and probably tackle the smaller ones when they will be added bonuses
Michelle says
Hi Craig
I read lots of feedback with people saying Sunny take 7 weeks and sure enough at week 7 they made me an offer. I went back and asked them to take the interest off my outstanding loans and pay me the difference which they then agreed to so debt free from sunny and money paid into my account on the same day
Wonga I have seen some people have success so thought I had a good case as nearly 50 loans with over half taken out same day or within 7 days of paying them back plus various top ups in there. Wonga took close to 8 weeks and that flat out rejected my complaint so sent to FOS who have given them 2 weeks to put their case in then adjudicator will review
Good luck ?
Greg says
Had a my first reply from quickquid today, they have rejected my complaint saying I could have afforded the loans at the time and my credit score was good (Can’t ever remember it being good) but they did offer me a good will gesture of £400. Should I reject it and just take the complaint to the FO now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£400 is more than they offer a lot of people so you may well have an excellent case! Do you have a list of your loans and have you worked out how much interest you paid? Yes you can take this to the FO now they have rejected your complaint.
Greg says
Thanks for the reply Sara, between looking at old emails and my noodle credit report I have got a rough estimate of how much I was expecting and it was probably 5x the amount they offered me. Whats the process with the FO? Do I just explain my case to them and attach any relevant files?
Also do I need to let quickquid know that I have rejected their offer and I am now passing it on to the FO?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a typical poor QQ offer.
You don’t have to tell QQ, but why not be polite and reply, saying their offer is adequate given the amount if interest you paid over such a long time so you are sending the complaint to FOS.
Tom says
just some info for anyone thinking about complaining about Minicredit (those loans that weren’t transferred).
I heard from the FOS today, they spoke to the administrator of the business who said it was exceptionally unlikely that any funds would be left from the unwinding of the business to make any redress payments.
Not worth submitting a complaint
Marie says
Hi Sara
Just wanted to say thank you so much, after 6 months of Wonga digging their heels in, they accepted my ombudsman decision and £1900 in interest has been paid back to me.
Your website is a true God send, if I hadn’t stumbled upon this I’d be in a far worse mess!
Thank you again so much
Marie
Tom N says
Hi I took out various loans with The Money Shop, I rolled over the loans sometimes and took out another one as soon as I settled the previous loan, on my second loan I wasn’t even asked for proof of income, I struggled to pay the loan and they sent it to a debt collector. I have just discovered you can claim compensation and claim interest back etc due to irresponsible lending, the problem is the debt is around 10 years old and the original shop I took it out with is closed and The Money Shop is now registered under a different name I contacted the debt collector (lowell) who the debt is with and they contacted The Money Shop on my behalf for a financial statement, could someone please tell me with the debt being so old and The Money Shop now under a different name is it worth trying to claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you still owe a balance on the last debt? How much? Do you have any idea how much interest you had paid on your previous debts? And can you be a bit more specific about the times of these debts.
Tom says
Money Shop are a b**ch to get statements from, I sent a subject access request to them today as they were doing everything possible to avoid giving me the information. The only reason I can think of for them not wanting me to have the information is that they know there is a good reason for me to complaint.
I sent them the SAR via mail today and also emailed them this:
As you continue to be obstructive and refuse to provide me with statements or a transaction list I have today sent a Subject Access Request via recorded delivery. I have also enclosed some evidence of this in this email.
Your company has previously tried to say to others that statements/transaction lists of account do not form personal information and so are not included in a SAR, the ICO ruled against you and confirmed that statements/transactions do indeed form part of personal information. Therefore if there is any further attempt to obstruct me obtaining this information which is my legal right then I will report you to the ICO and also FCA.
Also can I point out that my complaint is not “time barred” as I have only recently become aware that your actions on responsible and affordable lending were considered irresponsible and that I could complain about these actions, therefore I am complaining within 3 years of becoming aware I have cause to complain.
I expect to receive the requested information within the required timescales without any further attempts to obstruct me from receiving it.
Matt says
Hi Tom , I agree the money shop is hard work , there head office doesn’t know what it is doing , got told as well they had no statements showing ,however got the statements from two different branches , I don’t know if this will help you or not but I had two accounts for cheques at two different branches with the money shop was able to get a print out of the statements , but didn’t realise until I looked at the statement they had not provide all the loans from the second shop . So when you do get the information make sure it all adds up .
Tom says
That’s very helpful, thank you! Were yours more than 6 years old?
Matt says
Yeah Tom , I had my loans with them from July 2007 -to April 2009 . So they have statements that go back that far so don’t let them tell you the don’t as I have just got hold of mine this last week . In the same situation as well that they did not do any checks after the first loan and raised my limit to £750 , after the first loan cleared .
Tom says
Did you get your statements through a SAR? I worked out I paid moneyshop £150 a month for 10 years all on continually rolling over a £750 loan, scary amount
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a scary amount of money. I think you know enough about your borrowing to get your affordability complaint in now, rather than waiting for the SAR. That will come along before it’s time to go to the Ombudsman.
Matt says
No, after seeing forums on this website gave the money shop a call to see what information they held on me and told me that nothing was on the system but my name and address and no statements were showing , as I had my first loans when I was at Uni took a day off and travel over on the off chance that the shop would have them and the guy in shop just printed they off no problem , the second shop were I held my account after uni , didn’t want to give them but went in later and someone else was working and gave me it straight away . £150 a month is a lot over that timescale. Only thing i suggest is you try going to a branch near you and asking for the statements of the loans you had. Hope you get hold of them.
Tom says
Sara I’ve already got the complaint in, did about 7 weeks ago to the FOS but it’s gone quiet, the guy said he didn’t know if it could be looked into and it had gone to a payday specialist to decide if they could look into it. I’ve chased the FOS since and no reply, my most recent chase email was yesterday.
As for the SAR I’m doing it out of principle now, I think it’s disgraceful that they are behaving this way and I’m not prepared to just roll over and accept I can’t have it.
Tom N says
Hi Sarah
Yes I still have a balance with them but it has now been bought off lowell debt collector and ive no idea how much interest I have paid although it is frozen now I think there is alot of interest on the loans though. I took out the loans in 2008 I can remember using cheques to cover the loan in case I didn’t pay, they cashed the cheques in and llyods bank paid them even though I had no authorised overdraft and they either charged me twice or sent the remaining debt to lowell I can’t remember. Both are now at lowell the llyods balance is £451.41 and The Money Shop is £341.91 I think I only took a loan out for £300 as well I think its unfair llyods paying them when I didn’t have an overdraft so im totally lost on what to do if its worthwhile proceeding in claiming etc. Also I had a debt written off by wonga but no interest or compensation would it be worthwhile looking into that as well
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Money Shop – Lowells have already asked for a Statement of Account for this. Wait until you get that. You could also ask them to produce a CCA agreement for the debts, template letter here: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/getting-information/credit-agreement-advice.aspx.
Lloyds – read http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges and see if you think you would be able to claim anything there.
Wonga – how large a debt was written off? How many times had you borrowed from them before? You may be able to claim for previous loans, but the amount you would get would be reduced because you had the write off.
(PS I have changed your name to Tom N as there is another Tom already posting about old borrowing from the Money shop and it gets confusing!)
Sue says
Hi anyone had offer from money shop? had my offer Thursday accepted with bank details how long before payment in my account thanks sue
craig says
Payday Express – complaint submitted in April, rejected in August, Adjudicator at FOS upheld my complaint asking for interest and charges on all loans to be refunded. Payday Express disagreed so went to ombudsman who disagreed with adjudicator’s decision stating “provisionally” that I should only be refunded interest and charges on 2 out of the 6 loans :-(…..awaiting Payday express response
Bit disappointed but should get something back
Craig
Ross says
2 more results in today. The first one, with Payday UK, who had until the 11th of January to respond. They like to cut it fine, don’t they? They have partially agreed with the adjudicator, which is a miracle really, as I expected this one to drag on and on and on. Strangely, they have agreed to refund the interest and deferral charges on the large loans, but not the smaller ones. Whereas the total should be around £1100, they have offered £898.50, which I have decided to accept. The adjudicator has stated that even though he recommended that the interest should be refunded on the smaller ones, that the ombudsman may see these as being affordable as they were so small. Also, it’s now a guaranteed 3 month wait before it will be picked up by an ombudsman. If it was a massive difference in amount, then I would leave it for the ombudsman tk decide, but I feel it’s a fair offer, all things considered.
My adjudicator has found in my favour against Wageday Advance. They have until 23/01/17 to respond. Does anybody have any experience of complaints with Wageday Advance? Are they likely to agree with the adjudicator or let it run it’s course? Their 6 page (yes, SIX!) rejection letter was condescending, to say the least, so I am not confident of an easy win on this one?
Claire says
WDA refused adjudicator’s decision so it went to the ombudsman and is still there (since beginning of November)
Ross says
Thanks Claire. I suppose on the positive side, the longer it takes, the more interest they will have to pay. There’s not many cases where the ombudsman differs from the adjudicators decision I believe?
Nesta says
Thank you Paul, i am in the process of claiming now from a few hopefully i can get satisfactory responses otherwise this is my next option.
I have used both Sunny and Mr Lender the most and when they offered it i used to the roll back when that failed and i struggled to make ends meet i would pay back all the balance on payday and then reloan for the maximum. All this will show on my account it became a never ending loop sadly. Stupidity on my part but i wish someone just said to me NO that is enough we are no longer lending to you.
Ross says
You’re welcome, but not sure who Paul is? Hehe :) Repeat borrowing shows a dependence on payday loans and that can be a good thing when it gets to the ombudsman stage. Short term lending should mean SHORT term lending, not continuously borrowing in a cycle, but we’ve all been there and done that, so don’t feel stupid. Put all your energy in to making the wrongs right. So far, I’ve had success with Wonga, Lending Stream, Mr Lender, Uncle Buck, Safety Net Credit (the whole balance wiped with them, just under £1400) Sunny and Payday UK. Still waiting on Payday Express, Pounds2Pocket, Quick Quid, The Money Shop and Wageday Advance (the Wageday advance complaint was upheld by the adjudicator today, so still need to wait for their response). Sara has been an absolute godsend in setting up this website and is helping change many peoples lives for the better. Once this is all over, I will never go anywhere near a payday loan ever again! Good luck Nesta!
Nesta says
Sorry i meant Ross, reading so many names i’ve completely lost it lol
How were the likes of Sunny, Mr Lender and Lending Stream to deal with? As that trio is the ones i have majority of my loans with with Mr Lender i have paid in excess of £4500 in interest alone, Sunny is closer to £2800 and same for Lending stream.
Ross says
Mr Lender were very good. A balance owed of £1700 was reduced to £400, as they applied interest paid on prior loans to the current loan to reduced it down. I agreed to repay 2 x £200 payments, but they offered a further reduction of £74 if I repaid in just one payment, so it was just £326 and, luckily, I was in a position to repay this and clear the loan.
Sunny took 7 weeks to investigate, but were very polite and gave regular updates. I had a loan with Quid.co.uk, which they took over and moved me on to their Sunny product. They didn’t uphold the Quid complaint, but refunded all interest paid (over £1000) as a gesture of goodwill. They upheld my Sunny complaint and refunded all interest and charges on that one, saying that the product wasn’t suited to me and, in total, I received just under £1900 from them.
Lending Stream were more difficult but then, out of the blue, they offered to refund the interest but not with the 8% the ombudsman may have awarded. I decided to take it, as the 8% interest would have been minimal. Don’t be afraid to complain, let the complaint(s) take their course and go to the ombudsman if they reject you. Good luck!
zoe says
Hi, i complained about Wonga, Pay day UK and Pay Day express in May last year. All were refused by the lenders and are with the FOS. but I have received an offer from Wonga for just under £2000 and they have agreed to remove 5 of the loans from my credit file. However i had a number of loans with Wonga, they have said because i paid some of these early i could afford them but i repaid in order to borrow more and avoid DD bouncing. I also have another 20 settled loans showing on my current credit file, even though they were all cleared. So whilst the money would be great i really would like all of the markers removed as want to move on financially and improve my credit record, so is it worth declining the offer or do i risk losing out!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are offering a refund on 5 – how many loans did you have? Do you know how much interest you paid on all the loans to Wonga? How did they pick the 5 loans, does there seem a reasoned argument or is it just random?
I agree with you that repaying early does not mean they were affordable!
How long has the case been with the FOS? What stage is it at?
zoe says
I had 37 loans with Wonga from 2009-13. I don’t know hum much interest i paid but the loans averaged £180, according to them.
Wonga say the offer is for the loans where i paid 40% of my salary.
The complaint has been with the FOS since September. The letter said the case has just been allocated but that Wonga had decided to make an offer so no investigation has taken place.
I also don’t understand why credit file shows settled when were all paid and this is why i am reluctant to accept the offer
Liam says
Just a little update on Quickquid payout times.
Adjudicator informed them of the ombudsmans final decision on Friday afternoon. I sent a polite email around 11am today to complaint@quickquid.co.uk and had a reply from resolution@quickquid.co.uk.
Refund of £5.5k was in bank an hour ago.
Ross says
Just had a VERY curt reply from Payday UK, with reference to my refund. They, basically, say that I will get it when I get it. They’re, obviously, snowed under as they say there’s a ‘strict’ queue for refunds and I’m in it (somewhere). They were never delayed in taking repayments though. Funny that…..
Lynnette says
Hi I had the same response from paydayuk, but all I did was email them on the 29th day and just gave them a gentle reminder that the 28 days that the ombudsman requested it to be paid in had now passed. They requested details from me for payment and money was in my account the next day
Lewis says
hi, been reading this the last few weeks been helping a lot
thought I would let people know how mine are going
Mr lender settled with me for £360 plus removal of default
247- told me response on febuary 16th, exactly 8 weeks
payday uk – waiting for response
payday express – waiting for response
Peachy- rejected my complaint gone to ombudsman
MY jar- told me that they didn’t need to do a credit check when I applied in 2012 as it wasn’t required under regulations back then. so will be taking to the ombudsman
also have a complaint being looked into with Littlewoods- vanquish – Halifax
you guys have been amazing help with all this!!
Nicole says
Hi I have just today looked into contacting stepchange, as I really am struggling with my payday loan debts, do I have to continue to make payments to my creditors while this is getting set up? And do I still need to make payments if have sent in a complaint?? Thanks nicole
Andy says
Hi Nicole,
I’m a few weeks ahead of you, so if Sara can pass my email address on to you id be happy with that, there are lots of little questions along the way and from my experience it would be incredibly
Helpful to have someone there for the questions you don’t feel are important enough for the website.
Stepchange have set mine up within a week, and it will beginn1st Feb, so they’ve said make some sort of payment this month if possible, before the plan starts in Feb. I need to contact the loan companies to cancel the various payment arrangements that I had. Stepchange are great on the phone, very helpful and don’t delve into your personal circumstances, they just trust your budget and only ask for proof of income.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Top tip if you are starting a DMP, if StepChange said you should change bank accounts, don’t think this is a hassle and hope to not do it, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/new-basic-bank-account/
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s best to make payment to the payday lenders whilst a complaint is ongoing if possible. Making reduced payments shows the lender you really are in financial trouble but you are doing your best. Hopefully you will get a refund – this will bhe bigger because you have paid some of the debt off. If you don’t get a refund, well at least you have been chipping away at the debt.
Joanna says
I put in a complaint against Wonga in September. I took out 6 loans from them between 2010-2011.
My adjudicator wrote to them and said that loans 1 and 6 were affordable, but loans 2, 3 ,4 &5 were not. I clearly believe that the adjudicator’s decision was fair and just, especially since at the time, she could see from my bank statements that I was struggling to raise my son and was using the loans for shopping and nappies etc.
Wonga have come back and said that they’re only offering to refund on 2 loans. I am so angry with them!
I have asked my adjudicator to go back to them and see what they say about refunding on the 4 unaffordable loans because I actually think that they’ve got a bit of a cheek.
Ross says
Well, it’s the early hours of the morning and I can’t sleep. So, I’ve decided to go through the statement of account, I received from my adjudicator today, for my Payday Express complaint. I’ve gone through it, with a fine tooth comb, and am staggered to find that between 2010-2014, I paid the staggering amount of interest and charges which total over £4,200. The statement of account runs for seven, yes SEVEN, pages and makes really grim reading. I think if my adjudicator doesn’t have fun with this one, then the ombudsman definitely will. I certainly will not be accepting any paltry offer on this one and I’ll be sending it all of the way to the ombudsman if Payday Express decide to start playing silly buggers which, based on the amount involved here, I’m sure they will.
aga says
Hi Ross , it’s a long process i thought i was just about to finish with Payday express bUT they came up with sth else , oryginallu they offered via adjudicator 800 , i had loans between April 2011- 2015 so randomly they chosen for the refund August 2012-december 2013 – i didn’t agree so adjudicator had to go through the statements , she agreed that it was ok for Payday Express to extend for more then a year ( ?where with Payday Uk -same month s and time of the loans same adjudicator agreed i had financial problems and ombudsman confirmed that ) but adjudicator added on another 2015 loan as not affordable , leaving loans 2013-2014 as affordable without refund – i didn’t agree as i explained her decision was inconsistent as she already investigated my other claim and she already admitted i was in financial difficulty etc – and my case was transferred to different adjudicator who sent me an e mail yesterday informing that my claim is on hold as Payday express came up with information that their loans are Flexi Credit loans so that story hasn’t finished yet , they are very confused in FOS as well
so good luck to you and keep updating
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This “flexi loan” isn’t something Payday Express has just invented. There are flexi loan cases from various lenders being transferred to this new team.
Ross says
In all honesty, flexi loans were never part of the loans I took out. They were described just as payday loans on a monthly basis. Nothing more, nothing less. Will be interested to see what they come up with?
Ross says
Hi Sara,
Great news! My adjudicator has today upheld my complaint against Payday Express. He confirmed that none of my loans were ‘Flexi’ loan products and has upheld them all with the exception of the first couple and a couple more after the short break in lending which you pointed out. Definitely looking at a sizeable 4 figure sum here!
Glen L says
Hi everyone,
After reading this article and other associated ones I have decided to pursue my former lenders.
My main ones are: wonga, quickquid, payday uk and express and also WageDayAdvance.
So far, I’ve had nothing back off wonga (I first complained on 13/12/16 and requested my account statement) They’re yet to send me this.
For quickquid I complained on 03/01/17 and requested statement of my account, they sent me this today and I have borrowed £1550 and paid back £2558 with a current outstanding balance of £627 that I had forgotten about until digging in to this, this debt is 3 years old. In my reply to them I suggested they offer me £1250, clear my current balance and remove all defaults from my credit file. They’re yet to respond.
Payday uk and express have refused to send me my statement of account and have until 01/02/2017 to give me their final response. From these two companies I borrowed a total of £3959 but I am struggling to find the amount I have paid back unfortunately. I expect this one to go to ombudsman judging by previous comments!
WageDayAdvance I complained on 03/01/17 and requested statement of my account. They have assured me this is on its way? However looking trough old bank statements, I have borrowed a total of £2550 and repaid a staggering £4070.45, much of this amount is made up of rollovers. Any one dealt with WageDayAdvance? Please can anyone offer advice on how your refund went/is going? They seem to be cooperative at the minute.
Antony says
Hi I complained to wageday advance and they rejected my complaint. I then passed this to the fos and my adjudicator had ruled that all of my loans after the first three were unaffordable and that all interest should be repaid to myself. To get to this point WDA have used maximum time to respond. They used the 8 weeks from the original complaint and now they will probably use the two weeks they have to respond to the adjudicators decision. I am expecting them to reject the adjudicators decision to prolong the period until they have to pay. I’m expecting around £3000 back. Hope you get yours back too.
Claire says
WDA rejected my adjudicator’s decision within approximately 4 days, then it went to the Ombudsman back in November who found provisionally in my favour (yeah!!) on Tuesday. The reason for provisional outcome is that the Ombudsman is suggesting that they refund me more than the adjudicator initially recommended. Now back in WDA’s court to await their response – they have been given two weeks to respond. The end is eventually in sight.
Ross says
I was always of the opinion that the adjudicator is the one who recommends what the company should do, to put things right, but that the ombudsman decision is binding and they HAVE to abide by their decision?
Claire says
Yes that’s right but the Ombudsman has said ‘Based on what I’ve seen so far I’m minded to uphold more aspects of her complaint than our adjudicator recommended. So in fairness to the parties I’m issuing this provisional decision. I’ll look at any more comments and evidence that I get by 24 January 2017. But unless the information changes my mind, my final decision is likely to be along the following lines.’ I’m just praying that WDA do not miraculously come up with some information which changes the mind of the Ombudsman.
Nigel says
I have noticed a big slow down on the decisions waiting to be assigned to an Ombudsman. I have got 5 currently queued. I expect to have a further 3 this week in that Que. The oldest is my 2nd Payday express one, Instant Cash Loans Limited (trading as Payday Express) this has been waiting since 25th October. Not To be confused with Instant Cash Loans Limited (trading as Payday Express). Both Payday express but under different ownership. I also have a Toothfairy one that is with an Ombudsman for a similar amount of time, but that is waiting on how much money is available from an administrator before they can calculate a payment. So back to my original point, the waits are increasing, but I am told that extra staff are being taken on to deal with the influx of complaints, but unfortunately not extra Ombudsman so these waits will probably extend not decrease in the coming weeks and months.
One other point I have noted. The newer instalment type loans seem to be a lot harder to win on affordability. I have had quite a battle with Cashfloat in particular over these loans and with an adjudicator. But I enjoy the challenge!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You had to repay less each month with an installment loan, so yes, it is harder to prove an affordability complaint. Unless the amount loaned was very large of course!
Nattalie says
Update on my cases.
Wonga have been very responsive but still have yet to send me statement of account. So I know how much they lent me between dec 2011 and sept 2014 they loaned me £14,160 so no idea how much interest. Most months 2 or more loans. Today is the 8week date for resolution.
Myjar loaned me £2360 total over 4 loans in 6 months. They outright rejected and this is with the FOS now.
Sunny I was borrowing from them along side Myjar loaned me £4160 with interest total repaid £5128 they responded yesterday admitting they should never have allowed me to lend and have agreed to remove all searches from my credit file. Write off my outstanding balance of £810 , I have checked and is already gone. And to refund me the interest plus 8%. Great result. Am delighted.
And finally Drafty by lending stream replied and offered a reduction of 15% off my outstanding balance which is £1000 I don’t want any interest back with this one am just trying to work with them to clear /write off the outstanding balance.
I do hope wonga send me a statement soon. If I can make progress with the wonga complaint this could seriously change my entire life.
Thanks for all of your advice.
This forum has saved my life.
alan says
Just had a reply from WDA who say they are not upholding my complaint and quote
“I have reviewed the loans provided and do not think that Wage Day Advance could reasonably have been aware that you were trapped in any cycle of lending”
The cycle of lending involved them – I had seven loans over 3yrs of which I deffered one for 8mths.
Total borrowed £1125 and interest £944.05
Passed to the FOS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This may not be a simple case. To win an affordability complaint you have to be able to show the loans were unaffordable AND that the lender should have realised that. If there were long gaps between your borrowing from WDA, the latter bit may prove tricky. I’m not saying don’t go tot he FOS – 8 deferrals should have been a warning! – I’m just saying it’s probably best to keep your expectations low on this one.
alan says
The loans started at £100 rising to the one I differed 8 times of £325 and when I eventually paid it off 8 days later I took another loan with them of which I differed for 4mths. This was the time that I had numerous other payday loans ongoing and realized I needed help and entered a DMP of which is now complete and all loans cleared down but I feel the lenders have let me down and my circumstances could of been helped rather than dug deeper
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Oh well that looks like a clear case that the last loan should never have been offered! Also if the loans were increasing in size each time, even if there were large gaps, it suggests that your position was getting worse – a point worth making to your adjudicator.
Matt says
Hi Just an update , The Money Shop has just come back with an offer of £125 to clear a balance I had in 2009 . They said that due to completing a lending questionnaire in 2007 and I was in full time employment and earning in excess of £10000 , and living at home , none of it true but are saying it was affordable lending . Finally had the permission to take it to the FOS . Anyone else been sent a letter like this by the Money shop
Aga says
Hi Matt, apologies for late reply, I just read your message today – so my story with TMS is
– on the 01/03/16 I made a complaint , they refused statements; I was waiting for the final response never got it ;
on the 8/05/16 I sent online claim to FOS ;
on 10/05/16 I made complaint to FCA regarding TMS
on the 19/05 |Dollar Finance responded that they were not ready with the final decision , that they were experiencing delays
on the 15/07 adjudicator contacted me
25/08 they made an offer of 400 pounds via adjudicator
I declined- adjudicator upheld only from April 2011 ( I was upset lost 400 hundred as my interest from October 2010- April 2011 was 400 pounds; but adjudicator found in my favour other cheque loans, the MS did not respond to adjudicator so she sent it to Ombudsman and Ombudsman agreed with adjudicator and TMS finally paid after 36 days from Ombudsman decision date – late as they have 28 days to pay but FOS was sending me e mails that TMS is experiencing delays.
so on the 22of November 3311.39 finally reached my account.
and this is all from cheques ; the cheques are classified as payday loan as we had to extend them end of the month; how much credit line did u have? I had 500 so I was extended 5 cheques of 100 every moth total 126 times , plus all charges , returned cheques charges , and 8 % statutory ; I also had loan with instalments however when the adjudicator asked for statements TMS withheld the info about that loan( that’s important to have statements , I didn’t know that until the adjudicator sent me statements after I noticed the figure they paid on my account is much lower then I expected, so I complained and my adjudicator explained that FOS did not investigate the instalment loan as TMS did not provide this info so |I complained again regarding withholding information, so so far I have still 2 complaints active reg TMS as the adjudicator opened up new case to investigate instalment loan plus I made a claim for compensation – for making complaining process longer and harder by not providing statements etc; hope this helps
do not give up they offered me 400 and ended paying over 3k
good luck , if you have more questions I am happy to answer