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?
Matt B says
Hi All,
An update on my wonga refund/process
Requested Statement of Accounts in September then lodged a complaint, after 8 weeks they offered me £2,400 on 6 loans during 2012 (I had 22 loans in total). This was a very considerable amount of money so I thought about it for a couple of days but then decided to send it off to the FO for review as I felt that they should also included loans from 2010/2011.
The FO put the complaint on hold whilst they looked into loans over the 6+ and to my surprise, yesterday Wonga emailed my adjudicator saying that they have re-reviewed my case and would now like to offer £5,982 for all loans from December 2010 + 8% Interest + remove from my credit file (which they already had done 3 years ago). So I’ve accepted and they have 4 weeks to pay out.
So some advice, even if the first offer is quite substantial, think it over for a couple of days. I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing and if you don’t need the money straight away then go in for the long haul and send off to the FO.
So far, (thanks to this website), I’ve managed to reclaim over £9,000 and still have 3 more to go.
Sally says
I have just rejected the first offer from Wonga for £1062 based on 3 /37 loans taken with them, 27 are over 6 years. My case os now going to FOS. Maybe Wonga will come back with a counter offer …..? I paid over £6000 in interest alone over 5 years. Will wait it out!
Shell says
Hi Sara,
Sunny have got back to me today, asking for a medical note or a prescription with regards to my depression which I’m on sertreline for. I said in the complaint letter that I suffer from depression/anxiety.
Should I get a letter from my doctor?
Is this necessary?
Thx!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could ask your doctor for a letter, or the reception may be able to simply print out a list of your medication. Most lenders have seperate procedures for handling customers who may be vulnerable, eg because of mental health issues. You don’t have to supply this information, but why not?
Michelle says
Hi Mark
Can I ask did Wageday offer you a payment immediately or did it go to FOS and if so did they accept adjudicator offer or did they push it to ombudsman.
I have been told verbally today that FOS adjudicator ruled in my favour after Wageday completed rejected my complaint so curious to see how they will play it
Thanks
Mark says
Hi Michelle
WDA accepted the adjudicator verdict in my case.
That being said, I only had 3 loans with them and it was interest and charges on 3rd loan that was returned, so it was relatively small at £300. Worth having though!
Tom says
Argh!!
Moneyshop doing everything possible to avoid giving me transactions. I sent them a SAR and this is their response:
Thank you for your email.
I confirm your Data Subject Access Request has been logged and you will receive the requested information within the 40 day timescale. Please be aware that a Data Subject Access Request only entitles you to a copy of all data, electronic or otherwise, still retained by The Money Shop which identifies you as an individual.
DLB says
Tom, i did the same with Money Shop and at the end of the 40 days they wrote to me saying they did not have to provide this information for *waffle* reasons. I then complained to ICO, who wrote to them telling them they HAD to provide the requested info. Money shop are stringing out complaints for as long as possible in the hope you will give up. Don’t. I eventually got the info, submitted to FOS, who found in my favour. MS are refusing to cooperate but FOS said this may be down to huge volume of complaints they are dealing with. Be prepared for a long, long battle (mine has been almost a year). largely due to MS delaying at any point they could. Still not received any refund but things are looking good…
Tom says
DLB am so glad to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!
I’ve never met a company as obstructive. They don’t seem to realise who they are dealing with tho… I don’t care how long it takes I will get the info I want!
How far back did your loans go?
Ally says
Update
I have 11 claims, 1 has upheld my complaint, H and T £850 before Christmas. All the others have told me they did nothing wrong.
I have 6 with adjudicators and 4 awaiting Final responses.
This week 2 different adjudicators have found in my favor, one for 5 of 7 loans and the other for all 6 loans. (Mr Lender and MYJAR)
Wonga at long last sent me statements(requested 20th October) even though I put a claim in without them on 5th December turns out I had 7 loans in 2011 biggest one £1432 smallest £168 I only earned £1,200! 2012 7 loans largest £ 1450 smallest £280. 2013 5 loans smallest £800 largest £1450. 2015 6 loans largest £650 smallest £250. 2016 3 loans largest £750 smallest £160. They have till the 30th January to get back to me but keep emailing me updates on how far behind they are.
Here’s hoping 2017 is my year, debt free.
Lb says
Just received a provisional response from the Ombudsman with regards to lending Stream. My adjudicator had upheld 11 out of the 18 loans (the others were bigger loans and I was slightly disappointed) however the ombudsman has now upheld 17 of the loans including a 2009 loan! I am absolutely thrilled and I am looking at receiving around 7000 providing nothing changes. I will mention that this was 4 years of continuous borrowing at times having 5 loans running at one time!
This case has been with the ombudsman since September but was paused whilst looking at loans over 6 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good progress – well excellent actually, but let’s not count 6+ year old chickens until they are hatched…
Nim says
Hi Sara, (debt camel)
I had response from Adjudicator today on loans for Payday express. Basically, PDEX offered nothing. Adjudicator thinks 2 loans from May 15 were affordable – but I argued he did not consider that I was having to borrow from other lenders at the same time and heavily in debt with bad scores etc. Also there was a gap from 2013 – 2015 but in between I was borrowing from others so constantly in borrowing mode to pay others. So even though I borrowed from 2012 to 2013 then a break – but still borrowing form others, then re borrowed from PDEX in 2015 / 16, he did not think anything was wrong?? I do not believe enough check were made throughout.
So I have asked it to be looked at by more senior Ombudsman – I hope this will make a difference.
Nim
Nesta says
Amount Start Date End date
£200 20/12/2013 15/04/2015
£500 15/04/2014 15/05/2014
£700 15/05/2014 15/08/2014
£1,000 15/08/2014 03/11/2014
£1,000 03/11/2014 19/01/2015
£1,000 19/01/2015 17/04/2015
£1,000 17/04/2015 15/07/2015
£1,000 15/07/2015 15/09/2015
£1,000 15/09/2017 15/02/2016
£500 15/02/2016 15/04/2016
£1,000 15/04/2016 13/01/2017
The above is my history with Mr Lender, what do you guys think? I had at the time a CCJ, multiple defaults on my account along with late payments. A credit score of very poor also.
Amount Start date End date
£300 18/07/2014 21/04/2015
£150 25/02/2015 06/05/2015
£50 14/03/2015 21/04/2015
£250 21/04/2015 30/04/2015
£50 06/05/2015 16/05/2015
£150 16/05/2015 04/08/2015
£50 21/06/2015 11/07/2015
£50 11/07/2015 30/07/2015
£200 30/07/2015 28/08/2015
£150 06/08/2015 28/08/2015
£350 28/08/2015 15/01/2016
£100 24/09/2015 15/12/2015
£100 13/11/2015 14/02/2016
£100 16/12/2015 15/03/2016
£100 23/01/2016 25/04/2016
£100 01/03/2016 18/03/2016
£250 28/03/2016 15/06/2015
£100 15/04/2016 09/05/2016
£150 15/05/2016 15/07/2016
£50 05/06/2016 06/06/2016
£150 08/06/2016 19/07/2016
£150 15/06/2016 21/07/2016
£350 22/07/2016 26/07/2016
£350 30/07/2016 02/08/2016
£350 04/08/2016 09/08/2016
£50 18/0/2015 13/11/2015
The above is my history with Sunny. What do you guys think regarding my chances of claiming for irresponsible lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Obnvuioyusly this is without any knowledge of what your income or exeopnses were, but:
Mr Lender – looks like a strong case – continuous lending, no gaps
Sunny – lower amounts but a lot of applications – lender should probably have wondered why and stopped…
Have you added up the interest you paid for these two lenders?
Nesta says
Thanks Sara, my income was £800 a month from 01/12/2013 until 28/02/2014 and it increased to £1680 a month from 01/03/2014 – now
At this point i was fresh with a CCJ no older that 12 months, multiple defaults (9 i think) and several missed payments too.
Eddie says
Definitely a case with Mr Lender
I am currently in talks with them to resolve my complaint of £4000 borrowing and £1700 interest paid. I borrowed that over 10 loans within a year and during the same period I borrowed 46 times with other payday lenders. I was submerged in payday lending back then and now thanks to this website I’m in process of claiming all interest back. Mr Lender was quick to come back after my complaint and first, offered me £460 as a goodwill, I rejected, then upon providing them with my bank statements they offered me £990 which I also rejected, now if they don’t improve I will go to FOS as I am convinced I have a strong case here. All this was within 2 weeks so they are not wasting time. You should complain to them for sure.
E
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Also see Nick’s recent comment. He had a £500 offer from MrL which more than doubled as soon as he went to the FOS …. add up the interest you have paid fro MrL and Sunny so you can tell how good/bad any offer you are given is.
Nick says
Hi E
I’ve sent them a revised email this morning, I’d like 1400 if they disagree I will leave it with the FOS ad it’s already submitted to them, if they agree I will cancel the complaint I had almost 5200 in capital so slightly more than you, the 1400 is for arguments sake half the interest I paid back, I’m happy with that figure, maybe have an idea of what you would like and go from there, I think being realistic helps about the figure helps with the negotiations, they are not let’s face it going to any back 99% of interest!!
Sara anything we need to make sure we do if we decide to accept there offer…get it in email etc….is it binding on them this offer if they make one?
Nick
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would just say that you will withdraw the complaint from the FOS when you get paid…
aga says
Hi guys , it might be silly question but are there really 2 Payday Express lenders on the market ? is Payday Express – dollar finance same as Payday Express Bromley ?
Ross says
Hi Aga,
Both are the same company.
Aga says
Hi Ross one more questions , I just read your info regarding Payday Express, may I ask when were your loans taken ? before Dollar finance took over or before? just asking as my adjudicator also stated that my loans taken in 2011 were flexi loans
regards
Ross says
Hi Aga,
My loans were taken between 2010-2014. From the statement of account, my adjudicator established that none of my loans were ‘Flexi’ loans because of the deferrals showing and the structure of the loans taken out. Sara has looked at my statement of account and is of the same opinion. Does your adjudicator have your statement of account and, if so, are they decifering it correctly?
Tom says
Argh!!
Any advice Sara? At the end of my tether with Money shop.
Moneyshop doing everything possible to avoid giving me transactions. I sent them a SAR and this is their response:
Thank you for your email.
I confirm your Data Subject Access Request has been logged and you will receive the requested information within the 40 day timescale. Please be aware that a Data Subject Access Request only entitles you to a copy of all data, electronic or otherwise, still retained by The Money Shop which identifies you as an individual.
Aga says
Hi Tom,
what I did -I went to local branch, they gave some history but not all, then I requested statements from my adjudicator – the MS sent it on adjudicators request. Once you send the claim to FOS and adjudicator contacts you inform them have no statements and if they could provide once received from TMS
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One of the problems with dealing with a lender who has a well deserved reputation for being very difficult is that you tend to be suspicious whatever they do… in this case the 40 day as is regrettably the legal time set for a SAR, if they no longer have the data then they can’t produce it and you will only get your personal data. I should just shrug and sit back and wait.
Nick says
After so.e quick thoughts, I made 7 Complaints including one to Mr lender whare the only ones to give me a reply, anyway they replied that my loans were affordable and I had no case, but will offer me £500 refund on the two loans that I rolled over, I sent this to FOS and didn’t reply to MrLender, when they got complaint from FOS they contacted me nick to ask if I wanted to accept the offer.
I emailed back asking for £1500, I borrowed £5000 and had approx 2500 interest, so yesterday they revised there offer to £1191 even though according to them all the loans were still affordable, I think I’m going to go back to them and say I’d like £1400 one extra loan added on basically, what do you all think, I’m not greedy, I just want to put my financial affairs straight.
This will help, I’m in no hurry for any money, but as they are being very cooperative I feel it’s only fair to play nice, I genuinely believe the FOS would award more, but its not what I want just to sort myaffairs.
What’s others experience with Mr lender?
N
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well offering £500 and then more than doubling that as soon as you go to the Ombudsman doesn’t count as “being cooperative ” to me, more trying to get away as little as possible and hoping some customers will be so desperate or unsure of their rights to fall for it…
But as you are in the middle of negotiations now, it’s a good idea to have thought about what you think will be an acceptable offer. This doesn’t have to be the max you could possibly get, you did borrow from them, if you feel £x is suitable compensation then go for it.
Nick says
I see your point Sara, I didn’t explain myself too well, they are the only ones that have come back with anything more than we are investigating, it’s only due to you and your site that I have the little knowledge to go fight my corner, take a giant bow.
I knew there first offer was to get rid of me, that’s fine luckily you have empowered me.
Thanks Sara
Nick
Ross says
Hi Nick,
To be fair, I found Mr Lender to be very good. I’d just recently taken another £1000 loan out with them, straight after repaying the original one. At that point, I’d decided to get my affairs in order and stopped all of my payday loan payments and submitted complaints to them all, after referring to this wonderful website, and have had some pretty amazing successes so far. Mr Lender were due to collect a total of £1700 for the £1000 loan. They deducted all of the interest from previous loans I held, to bring this down to £400. I agreed to pay 2 x £200 payments to clear this, but they then offered to bring this down by a further £74 to £326, if I could pay in one instalment. I wasn’t pressured in to this, but I was in a lucky position to be able to do this. This was all done in a matter of days, without the need to involve the FOS. They were definitely the better of a bad bunch!
Jo says
Hello Nick,
I had loans with about 8 payday loenders and Mrlender.com was by far the most pleasant to deal with.
I only had 3 loans over 2 years and they offered to refund some interest from my last loan which I accepted, there response was very detailed and I agreed with their points.
All in all, from complaining to them to getting the money back was about 6 days.
Good luck with your complaint and hope you get a good outcome
JoRig
Andrew says
So that’s the ball well and truly rolling with me.
11 Complaints sent to the Ombudsman so far with Wonga and Payday express the only 2 left to respond. They now have less than 2 weeks before their 8 weeks are up.
As previously stated by a few on here Mr Lender were helpful and I accepted an offer from them which wiped clear my balance with them and a little refund on top.
As I am not in desperate need for the money anymore (thankfully) I’m going to push all the rest to the very end and hopefully get good results.
Had a credit card too a few years ago with a £4,500 limit on it which I maxed out and don’t think I should’ve ever had that credit limit while earning about £1,200 a month, so that’s next on my list of complaints.
Glad I stumbled across this website and thanks to Sara and the guys for the help with any queries I’ve ever had.
Tom says
Accepted refund from Sunny today of £900 (more than I thought), they won’t refund to bank account only to debit card, anyone else had this? How long did it take?
Regards
Michelle says
Hi Tom
I have sunny my bank details and money was in my account on the same day. I was direct with them and stated that as loans took 15 mins they could pay me the same day but in all fairness they were best complaint to deal with
Claire says
Why is it that some adjudicator’s find in our favour (the consumer) and others don’t? I’ve had many payday loans during the same period (embarrassingly) and have started complaints about all of them. Some adjudicators agree that I should not have been given the loans and others basically say it is fine. Very puzzling.
Ross says
Luckily, I haven’t experienced this (yet!?!). All of my loans are sort of intertwined, so they were, basically, all taken out to pay each other off (Robbing Peter to Pay Paul comes to mind). So far, 4 of my complaints have been upheld, with another 5 to go. Whilst I’m confident that the others should go the same way, I’m not counting my chickens before they’re hatched. I’ve been lucky to have been assigned the same adjudicator for all of my cases so far. Whether this is a fluke, or it’s just easier to keep the same adjudicator assigned to the same complainant, I don’t know. Seems to be working for me though?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not a question of nice consumer vs nasty payday lender.
It depends on the details of each case. Yes you may have been in financial difficulty through out the period, but lower loans or larger gaps between the loans may mean that an adjudicator doesn’t think a lender could tell that you had problems.
If you think that an adjudicator is incorrectly rejecting your complaint, or only allowing for a very few loans, then first of all try to explain why and then take the case to the Ombudsman.
Jim says
Hi Sara, after getting myself into a large payday loan cycle I came across this site (brilliant site!). I decided to put in affordability complaints to the following lenders on 29/11/2016:
Wonga, Quickquid, Mr. Lender, Pounds to Pocket, Payday Uk, Uncle Buck, Sunny, Satsuma Loans.
I had a response from Mr. Lender the next day, although they stated that they did nothing wrong, they offered to clear my remaining balance of £1,041 and close my account. I accepted this offer and this success left me hopeful for the response from other lenders.
How wrong could I have been! The following companies all sent the final response and refused to uphold my complaint stating that I can contact the ombudsman if I wish to take it further:
Quickquid- £985.50 interest paid 27-02-2014 until 15-04-2015 continuous monthly loan or rollovers
Pounds to pocket – £1,183.68 interest paid 22-03-2014 until 24-12-2014 monthly payment
Paydayuk- £1,681.69 interest paid 06-08-2012 until present outstanding balance £1889.60 continuous loans
Satsuma loans – £648.02 interest paid 12-04-2014 until 16/05/2015 3 loans weekly payments continuously
I feel like I need to go to the financial ombudsman because some months I was juggling 6 payday loans as well as my bills and other credit commitments. Has anybody had a case with any of the above companies that was refused but upheld by the ombudsman? Also, is there a link that helps put your complaint across to the ombudsman?
I am still waiting for a final response from Wonga (the biggest lender over £5k in interest), Sunny and Uncle Buck. Although I am not to hopeful of any positive outcomes now.
Thanks for taking the time to read.
Jim
Ross says
Don’t be disheartened by any rejections Jim. It’s natural that most companies will reject you, as agreeing with you will cost THEM money. Satsuma Loans declined my complaint but the adjudicator had the remainder of my loan wiped and a refund for some others. Payday uk offered nothing and rejected my complaint. The adjudicator recommended they refund £1100 and they offered £900, which I took. My case against Payday Express has just been upheld by the adjudicator and he has recommended most loans be refunded, which should be between £4-£5 thousand pounds. They declined my complaint and offered £380 as a goodwill gesture.
Keep fighting and keep patient. You’ll get there in the end! Good luck!
Michelle says
Keep smiling Jim
I have loads now with FOS due to poor offers or complete rejection. Although this site is fantastic you have to accept every ones offer is different and I genuinely believe it could just be down the staff member who works for the payday lender. Sunny generally come back to most people in week 7 with a reasonable offer and that’s the most consistent I have seen. I had 247moneybox pay me 270 with only a small battle but lots of others have gone to FOS adjudicator and ombudsman but then it could be that FOS charge the payday lender £550 so they were better off paying me.
I have seen people with 15 loans get a payment of Wonga yet I had 50 consecutive loans with them and they told me to go away with no offer at all ?
FOS adjudicator ruled in my favour on my peachy complaint but stupid peachy wanted it to go to an ombudsman which as it turns I have found further evidence of debt in form of proof of ccj that was only on my file for few months then set aside but peachy lent to me during this time and adjudicator didn’t include that loan so here’s to hoping ombudsman gives me a little more for karma ?
I’m sure you will get something but many companies try to make it tough so you give up.
Keep us updated when you get that good news that will come soon I’m sure
Matt says
Success at last. What an anxious 8 months it’s been. Today I finally got closure on my biggest case – Quick Quid. The ombudsman upheld my case on the 6th January and I received a refund of £4000 to my account at 5pm this evening. (This was from loan 4 onwards). I have to admit Quick Quid were great at refunding so quickly as it only took them 6 days from receiving the ombudsman email. What I would say is they aren’t very good at communicating over the phone and providing a clear answer on where they are with the refund, it kind of comes as a surprise via email. I received 11 emails along with 11 refund transactions. Either way, a good result.
My Lending Stream case has also being upheld by the Ombudsman and they have 28 days to calculate an offer and compensate. So far, no response but I have followed up with a polite email to see if we can expedite it.
My final case is with Payday UK – This is now being passed to an Ombudsman and I am hoping this will be a success. Payday UK did make a small offer, however I will push this one until the end, given the time I’ve waited already.
Overall myadjudicator has been amazing in keeping me up to date with changes and responses. I can’t praise him enough.
Consistency and patience is key with these complaints. Do not accept low offers, this is what they want you to do. Do not be put off by their templated emails, they want you to feel fear. Do not give up due to time scales, they will try any delay tactic possible.
In the end you will realise it was all worth it and you can enjoy a little moment of happiness. It a great feeling.
Thanks to Sara and everyone for their ongoing support, guidance and tips. They all help. I’ll let everyone know shortly about the outcomes for my other cases.
Emily says
Hi I have a question regarding ladder loans whom have ceased trading, I had a 15 month loan with them for £1000 which I paid back £2228.55 via direct debit. I have loads of other payday loans which I am now sitting going through as I was affected by redundancy during the period of taking out my loans. My question regarding direct debits, can this be claimed back via the DD under the DD guarantee ? Thanks
T says
Emily no it can’t be claimed back under that method as it needs to be a specific reason, redundancy or irresponsible lending does not count. It’s things such as wrong amount, wrong date, no advance notice… When you request a refund under the scheme they also check with the company that it was a valid claim so if for example you claim it was wrong amount and get an immediate refund from the bank the bank can later take it back off you if the company proves there was no error. I wouldn’t go down this route if I were you, the scheme is there to protect people against payment errors not to resolve complaints, if they didn’t make an error with the DD (which it sounds like they didn’t) then you have no claim for a DD indemnity. Sticking with the complaints route will be best because then any refund can’t be taken back off you at a later date.
susan says
hi,
i know that is is bit unrelated but has anyone heard off a company called slater brooks, as they took money out my account in 2014 and i have no idea who they are
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Listed on the FCA register as a brand name of Monkey Dosh. Try complaints@monkeydosh.com
Lucy M says
I thought I’d update everyone on my progress.
I made a complaint to Wonga who I had taken out around 35 loans with. They were quick to respond and provide information and initially offered £1,343.19 in respect of three loans. I rejected this offer in November and took it to the Financial Ombudsman.
I was living with my (now ex) partner at the time of taking out the loans, who was responsible for paying household bills. I would either transfer money to my second bank account (now closed) to take out cash or transfer money to my partner. As I was not paying bills direct, my adjudicator initially stated that my monthly “essential spending” was not particularly high and at present she would need to rule in Wonga’s favour.
I went into the bank and was able to obtained statements from my closed account. I also explained that all transfers to my partner’s account was for rent and bills and should be included in my monthly expenditure. I also offered a statement from my ex partner confirming the same. The adjudicator was happy with the account statements and accepted the money was transferred and utilised for bills. They did not require my ex’s bank account statements or a written statement confirming the money was used for bills.
They proceeded on this basis and Wonga made a second offer of £2,874.49 which I have now happily accepted.
I have one outstanding complaint with QuickQuid. Unlike Wonga, QuickQuid have failed to respond to any correspondence or provide me with my Subject Access Request information despite paying £10 for this. I am chasing them and hope to receive this eventually! I referred the complaint at the end of November but am yet to be assigned an adjudicator. It’s a long process but again, hopefully worth it in the end!
Ross says
Hi Lucy,
Well done on the Wonga complaint. I also had a good pay out from them too. Are some of your Quick Quid loans more than 6 years old? Approximately 10-12 of mine are and I am (along with lots of others) awaiting the decision from the FOS if they can investigate these, or not. My adjudicator gave me the option of disregarding these, so the complaint could progress, but he made me aware that, if my complaint is upheld, then this could be a fair bit of money, so he was, basically, advising me to be patient for the sake of my wallet. Mine has been with the FOS since November too, and it’s causing quite a backlog. On a happier note, my adjudicator has said that a decision on this is almost imminent, so not much longer to wait (hopefully) until the wheels can start to turn again :)
Liz says
I had 6 loans with Mr Lender from January 2015 – December 2016. I have had a response from Mr Lender who said they did not agree with my unaffordability claims but as a gesture of good will they would be willing to refund 50% of the interest, between my second and third loan with them, as there was only a couple of days between paying one off and re-loaning. They offered £196.70.
I then emailed them back with a copy of my credit file which showed the other Payday loans I had at the time they lent to me. They have now revised their goodwill offer to £393.40 for all of interest paid between the second and third loan.
I am wondering if I should accept this offer or make a complaint to the Ombudsman? I paid £1057.67 in interest over the six loans I had with them and was using one lender to pay another. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t look like a great offer. It may depend how big the gaps were between the loans? But the Ombudsmna may well decide the later loans were unaffordable as you were borrowing so often in a year.
You could tell them what you think an acceptable offer would be, or you will be going to the FO? What would you feel is fair?
Neil says
Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone had a complain with Sunny rejected by them, and subsequently upheld at the FOS level (either by an Adjudicator or Ombudsman) ?
The reason I’m asking is that I was surprised to be told to clear off by Sunny, when I thought I had a pretty good argument for the loans being affordable (11 over a 12-month period, rising in value to £1000 by the end, at which time my parents bailed me out).
I’m not really after any advice on the viability of my complaint – I’m just interested in hearing if anyone has also been rejected on their initial complaint from Sunny only to have an award in their favour at the FOS stage. I’m asking as they seem to be one of the better lenders in as much as I think very few cases against them ever make it as far as the Ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have seen a few people report decisions against cases against Sunny. Most recent I can remember is MattP who wrote “QQUID, SUNNY, PDUK: adjudicator has agreed that these too were unaffordable and is currently calculating what the recompense should be. ” on 29th december.
But they aren’t one of the biggest lenders and they do sem to deal with more cases directly then most lenders. 11 loans in a 12 month period, rising to such a large amlout sounds like a good case to me. I suggest not worrying about other people’s experiences and going to staright to the FO.
Neil says
Thanks Sarah – indeed, that’s exactly what I have done – submitted my complaint to the FOS. Going back through my credit file I can see I was taking months to repay them, using other payday lenders at the same time, and ended up with missed payments on my credit file whilst still using Sunny loans :(
Wiggles says
Hi Neil,
For me Sunny just gave me a straight refund totally after investigating and it was also BEFORE the 8 weeks they had to look over stuff, but as Sara says, go to the FOS
nattalie says
Same for me. I have four complaints wonga, sunny, lending stream and Myjar.
Sunny replied two days ago just before the 8 week deadline. Write off my outstanding balance of £810 and removed searches from my credit file and refund of just over £1000.
They have been amazing. Very helpful and considerate.
Myjar immediately rejected and this is with the FOS. Lending stream offered to reduce my balance by 15% of which my balance is £1000 and wonga still investigating.
Tom says
Small scale victory against peachy today.
The flatly refused my complaint 4 weeks ago. They were one of my smaller lenders and I expected 400 absolute maximum.
I went the ombudsman as they wouldn’t budge, the ombudsman contacted them for info this week and I sent them a cheeky email offering to settle for 300 and they said yea!
I went through my statements so I know I wasn’t going to get more than 400 max Inc interest so 300 without all the dragging it out was a good deal to me
Michelle says
Hi Tom
It costs the lender £550 FOS fee immediately and that’s even if the FOS say they did nothing wrong so they also probably viewed it as a win as you saved them £250
Tom says
That’s exactly how I put it to peachy to persuade them.
Nesta says
Does that fee increases if they are found of wrongdoing, do you know if that is the case?
Hope the ones who took advantage of vulenrable people get a high fine too. That way it will discourage future careless lending.
Ross says
The fee stays the same, regardless of whether the complaint is upheld, or not. The £550 fee doesn’t always encourage companies to refund though, even if means they pay more than what is actually being asked for? One company, who would’ve only had to pay me £75 to settle, wouldn’t. I gave them one last opportunity go settle and they gave in, in the end, but the fee doesn’t always make them do that. Some can be quite stubborn in the hope that you’ll just give up and walk away!
Morag says
I have taken every single lender to the FOS, whether it is big or small. The smallest was with the cheque centre which I was awarded .
Only one cheque in 2011 . Total £44.35.
They refused , what’s the point, as they had to pay £550.00 !!!!
Morag
ST says
Hello Sara ?
I came across this site last Saturday 7th January following which I lodged a complaint with Mr Lender. I had 16 loan during 2014/15 and a current loan with a 1,400 outstanding balance. I have a DMP making payments to the latter and other loan companies. Mr Lender responded within three days and offered to wipe my £1,400. I am a reasonable person and accept some responsibility for the mess I’m in. Considering I paid approx 2200 interest on my loans I thought their offer was reasonable and I’ve accepted same. I want to say a big thank you to you and your site. I have lodged three other complaints with various other lenders. I’ll keep you posted. Keep the faith folks…. Thanks again Sara and good luck ?
amy says
Anyone having trouble with Payday UK/Express?
I have asked for a statement on account which they refused to give me. Followed the steps on here which they then took upon themselves to say i had sent in a complaint. They have now replied and said i have no valid claim. I also had 7 claims that are older than 6 years which they did not look into or provide details of. i do now however have info on some of the claims ive had with them that are within the last 6 years.
Should i out an actual claim into them now so it shows im not just going to give up??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they have rejected your “complaint”, I suggest you don’t waste your time and go straight to the Financial Ombudsman, who will also be able to look at the loans over 6 years old.
sarah l says
Wonga have been the worst to deal with for me so far, all other lenders have given me my final response within the eight week time frame and wonga are currently on 10 weeks! Ive called them five times and they keep saying the final response has been completed but they need another department to look over it before they send it to me to ensure everything is correct!!
Ive actually put in another complaint over how they have dealt with this one as constantly telling me twenty four hours but two week later and still waiting!! Its already woth the FOS so ill just have to wait.
Lonelyhappy says
Hello Sara! I have payday loans to Mr. Lender. They didn’t treat me fairly. They rang my workplace a nursing home, even at night. They did sold my debt to moorcroft and pay moorcroft. Now I received another letter from another DCA. What I need to do now. Thank you. I need your advice, I am unable to work for nearly 3 yrs now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Two things to do:
– first talk to StepChange about your curent debt situation. Not just the Mr LEnder loan with a debt collector but your other debts as well. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
– then have a think about a complaint to Mr Lender. The loans you were given mey well have been “unaffordable” – you couldn’t repay them the next month unless you borrowed again. If so, that is irresponsible lending and you may be able to get a refund of interest you have paid. In this complaint you can also add in a paragraph about how unfair you feel it was if they phoned you at night about your debts.
Tom N says
Hi sara
I emailed mr lender about my loan, I complained it was unaffordable because I had other debts outstanding with other payday lenders plus two debts with a debt collector and a CCJ, they rejected my claim as they helped me set up a new repayment plan from my first payment and they had been helpful they offered to wipe off the interest as a gesture of good will so I would only be paying back the rest of the loan £76 whats your opinion on that please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you only had one loan from them, what they have suggested is what the Financial Ombudsman would propose. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-write-off/.
Ross says
After reviewing my complaints, which are yet to be investigated/resolved, I decided to check on information I have for each complaint. Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, I have noted that Quick Quid have failed to respond to a request for my statement of account, for all loans, which I sent (originally) on 24/10/2016. They really have been the worse company to deal with and when I say ‘deal with’ that means they don’t deal with you. When I sent my original complaint, I had a response 5 hours (yes, HOURS!) later, telling me that I owed no money and that was it. No concern, no investigation, no explanations, no nothing. Pounds 2 Pocket (part of the same cowboy firm) didn’t respond at all, even to the original complaint. When I forwarded this to the FOS, they asked me to forward the original emails I sent to P2P (thank god I file everything I send/receive). Within an hour of sending the email(s) I sent to P2P, I get the very same response I had to the Quick Quid complaint.
I am hoping that when, eventually, my complaint is assigned to an adjudicator, that these points are picked up. Every company, so far, who have investigated my complaints (upheld or not) have sent a detailed letter, explaining their investigations and final conclusions. As disappointing as a rejection is, it’s appreciated that the company tries to at least explain why they’ve rejected you. It appears this is something the complaints departments of Quick Quid and P2P seem to feel is not an obligation. I’m down to my last 4 complaints now. Wageday Advance and Payday Express both rejected my complaint, but the adjudicator has upheld both. I am just waiting for their response. This just then leaves Quick Quid and P2P. Because I lent with Quick Quid for many years, and most loans were paid in, and paid back, from a now closed Natwest account, it’s difficult for me to know just how much they all were. However, the FOS have all of my statements and I have been told they can establish all of what was advanced, so that’s at least some comfort. Just by looking at some of the loans I had, when I transferred to Halifax, is eye watering, so I dread to think how much I did actually advance?!?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think “disappointing but not surprising” sums that up neatly :(
It’s with the FOS so there’s nothing more that HAS to be done. You could email them again and say you still haven’t received the list of your loans and payments that you have asked for.
If you are very fed up you could also tell their regulator, the FCA, what you think of their complaints handling, see the end of https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/. But you may want to wait until the end of your complaint for that.
Marie says
Hi Sara
I know this is a ridiculous question, but I’m quite desperate at the moment.
I’ve had pay day loan/catalogue/credit card issues for 5 years now, and have recently been successful with a wonga pay out that has gone some way to paying off some of my debt.
For about a year I’ve stupidly tried to win money to pay off my debt by betting, and have lost a lot of money.
Again I know this is stupid, but has there ever been cases of betting sites paying out refunds to people who have gambled large amount of money?
The reason I ask is because of an email I got from Betfair telling me how well I’ve done in the past month on my bets and encouraging me to bet more, when their systems will show I’ve lost over £2000 in a year.
Do you think I have a case at all? I am clutching at straws I know, and I need to stop betting altogether. The debt I’m in just depresses me so much, but that I’ve been trying to find quick fixes to a complicated problem.
Any advice would be most welcome
Thanks
Marie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It isn’t an area I have had anything to do with. Instinct says that probably your only chance of winning a case against them would be if you had told them you wanted to close your account and that you had a gambling problem and that you didn’t want them to open another one for you … but they then did.
If you really want to stop betting online, install Gambloc http://www.gamblock.com/index.html on every PC, mobile and tablet you use. It works. If you are going to bookies shops, then you need to self exclude.
Another step you can take is to sign up for CIFAS https://www.cifas.org.uk/pr_for_individuals. It is meant to stop identity theft by making anyone you apply for credit to add in an extra step of contacting you by letter for you to confirm that you did apply for the credit – the extra days this adds in is often enough for you to change your mind and decide not to take the credit. It doesn’t harm your credit record.
Marie says
Thanks Sara, I didn’t know about th block. I will install that, as I can’t go on doing it.
Sorry to be a pain, but another question I had is regarding my current bank account.
I have unplanned overdraft charges every month, usually around £60 a month as I always run out of money near the end of the month.
I was refunded a years worth of charges in 2015 after my complaint, and was refunded a months charges around 6 months ago.
I just want to ask if I have a case to be refunded all of my charges, which would be from around 2013.
I know they usually say they can only refund once in a year, so I’m wondering whether I’d need to wait another 6 months before asking?
When I was refunded the years worth of charges in 2015, they did note that I had gambling charges on my account. Although this didn’t stop them refunding me, they did frown upon it, which I guess they have a right to.
Thanks
Marie
Ross says
Hi Marie,
You may want to consider contacting Gamcare too http://www.gamcare.org.uk. They have a free helpline, where you can discuss your gambling with them and they are very understanding, not opinionated and will help wherever they can. I know cases have been brought against gambling companies where they have refunded, but this was down to where the company allowed someone to open a duplicate account(s), but most companies have now strengthened this significantly. Another case involved a large national chain, whereby a lady spent £100’s of thousands of pounds (some from not so legitimate sources) and the company was found not to have complied with its own policies, as the lady in question was spending this in the 1 location. I would definitely self exclude from all sites (I did when I felt I was on a slippery slope) but I think Sara’s suggestion is even better (gamblock) and also CIFAS to prevent instant borrowing. I hope you manage to overcome your problem, I understand how hard it is, but by talking to someone, you will feel a lot better.
Marie says
Thank you so much Ross for your lovely response. I will contact Gamcare for some advice.
Thank you again
Nesta says
Just checked my emails and Uncle Buck want a copy of my bank statements and credit report. I am happy to send my credit report but i am uncomfortable sending my bank statement to them because i feel embarrassed about stuff on there. If the FOS need it i am happy for them to see it but do i need to send this to Uncle Buck?
Also i have requested a copy of my credit report from Experian is there an instant way to get a copy as that might take a few days yet it seems.
Ross says
Hi Nesta,
Firstly, you don’t have to send you bank statements to Uncle Buck if you don’t want to. The fact that they’re asking for them now is a little like ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted’. If they were that interested in your bank statements, they should’ve considered looking at these before they lent to you. The FOS will ask for your banks statements, but you can trust them and they are non-judgemental on whatever they find on your statements.
Secondly, if you sign up for Noddle, then you can print a PDF of your credit report instantly, and it’s free! All you need to register is your details, including addresses for past x amount of years. If you’ve lived at the same address long term, then it’s even easier! Good luck!
Nesta says
Thank you Ross, i will do that now. Appreciate your help again mate, i will hopefully see some progress this week. Mr Lender seem to be quick to respond so i should likely hear something back from them this week.
Ross says
You’re more than welcome! Mr Lender surprised me as, for some strange feeling, I assumed they would be hard to negotiate with. I couldn’t have been more wrong! I’m sure you’ve read already what they did for me, so I won’t bore everyone by typing it again. I’m waiting to hear back from Payday Express and WageDay Advance, this week (hopefully) as my adjudicator upheld both complaints and they have until the end of the week to respond. I have a feeling I will need to go to the ombudsman stage with Payday Express though, as it’s for a sizeable amount and I don’t think they’re going to roll over and pay out OR they may disagree with the adjudicator on some point and offer a reduced amount, which I won’t be taking. Keep us updated on how you get on?
Michelle says
Hi Nedra
Uncle buck asked me for the same and I told them they should have asked when I borrowed the money not now. They said they will investigate without and I have heard nothing so this week is 8 week deadline and off to FOS I will go as I think they are another that holds out until the last day then sends a go away response.
Mr lender were good on keeping me updated and did make a partial offer however I showed them that their investigation was wrong with evidence they had sent me and they didn’t change outcome so that’s with an adjudicator
Good luck ?
Nesta says
Thanks Michelle, what sort of offer did Mr Lender make in proportion to the interest you had paid?
I have a feeling they will want me to just go away as i’ve paid them over £3000 in interest.
Lending Stream have been the worst for me fabricating i had an experian rating of over over 700 when i applied for loans.
Michelle says
Hi Nesta
They offered me around half back but as I could see they hadn’t investigated properly and they wouldn’t look at it again I sent it to FOS, in all fairness this and Wonga are my biggest complaints though with total interest of £17000 if I got full refund from both and that’s without the 8%.
Both are with FOS at the moment so just keeping fingers crossed.
At least FOS shouldn’t offer me any less than mr lender have so just that awful waiting game of waiting for adjudicator then hoping company agree and it doesn’t go to ombudsman as I understand that’s a further 3-4 month wait
Emsy says
My adjudicator has proposed refunding all my later loans very pleased as qq didn’t offer anything. Let’s see if they accept now
Pduk claim at 8 weeks next eeek not heard anything. Can I ask my current adjudicator to do that as well?
Matt B says
Hi Emsy,
I asked my current adjudicator to look into all my complaints (6 in total) as and when I logged them, thankfully she agreed and it made it alot easier/quicker as the adjudicator could cross reference all my bank statements/credit files and I had answered any questions already which helped her build up a better picture of my whole back ground.
No harm in asking, depends on the workload they have I guess.
Matt
Scott says
I complained to Wonga in September about 60 loans, interest totalling about £900. I had gambling problems and loads of other debt, they disagreed with my complaint at 8 weeks and didnt offer anything. I took it to ombudsman immediately. they agreed with me and suggested Wonga refund all interest for the last 55 loans which was £850 roughly. they had 2 weeks to respond. they responded at the end of 2 weeks which was thursday past saying they will refund me £835. i accepted this. they had the money in my account the next day. 4 months it has taken, thanks for your help Sara and my adjudicator was amazing. Good luck everyone else.
Matt B says
Hi Sarah, all.
My adjudicator found in my favor and asked P2P to refund all interest and charges + 8%. At first P2P offered a goodwill of £100 but the total refund is £2,900ish, obviously P2P have rejected the adjudicators findings so it looks like its going to the ombudsmen.
My question is…does the 8% interest keep accruing until a settlement has been found?, or does the 8% interest end once the adjudicator has completed there initial report?
Thanks
Claire says
Nope, it keeps increasing. Good luck.
Lisa says
After reading all the comments I decided to email satsuma loans as I have had around 16 loans with them with in a 2 years
I had my reply to they have written off my.loan and issued me a cheque for just over 223. The reason of the money clear.my loan, so happy days so far, still awaiting a few more.back pay day uk, refused point blank
Lesley Page says
Can I ask for some advice against Uncle Buck, I am taking them to the FOS, however they still ca several times a day, and despite me telling them that my mother died last Thursday and asking them not to call and emailing them with the same request , they are still calling several times a day, I lost it with one of them on Friday but the calls are relentless, any advice please x
Ross says
Hi Lesley,
I am so very sorry to hear about your mum, please accept my sincere condolences. It sounds to me like Uncle Buck are guilty of harassment. The FCA have set guidelines on what they deem as acceptable when attempting to contact customers of financial institutions and this is not acceptable. Have you kept a list of all of the calls, along with times & dates? As far as I am aware, I would contact the FCA and also the FOS, to lodge an additional complaint, as it appears you have complained already and they’re choosing to ignore you. They really should be ashamed of such inhumane action!
Lesley Page says
Thank you Ross,
All I had back from them after I emailed them was a letter of their complaints procedure, I will certainly tell the FOS.
Lesley
Gordon says
Hi All,
Does anyone actually know what is happening with Money Shop complaints?
I have asked the ombudsman who is dealing with my complaint only to be told there is no further update.
My Loans are not older than 6 years old and they are not flexi loans.
Adjudicator upheld and there now seems to be something holding up the final decision.
Any info on this would be helpful.
Also another point with regards to Moneybox 247.. I had a refund upheld from the Ombudsman in August last year. Part of the refund was to pay the outstanding balance and i was given the remained. My credit file was to be cleared on this decision too. I checked my credit file last month and they are still showing as defaulted, plus i receive emails chasing me for the outstanding balance!
I have emailed 247 Moneybox with no reply. I had to buy a car last month and because of this default i was given a higher interest rate.
Anyone have any advise on this matter?
John says
I would ring 247moneybox up and explain what has happened. I am still waiting on my refund from them did yours take long after the ombudsman made his final decision?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When was your Moneyshop complaint put in the queue for the Ombudsman? When was it picked up? Do you have a complete list of your loans?
L Gorman says
Hi Sara
My Moneyshop complaint was passed to the Ombudsman on Sep 22 (after the adjudicator ruled in my favour but it was rejected by TMS)
When I ask what is happening I get told the same – nothing happening at the moment. It seems very strange and not like all other loans that have been handled.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
do you have a complete list of your loans? Are any of them over 6 years old? Have you seen the rejection by TMS, if not can you ask your adjudicator if you can have a copy?
Gordon says
John, after the ombudsman decision i emailed 247 with my bank details to make sure they was correct and then called the next day to chase payment – it was done within a day or two if i remember rightly, but it definitely wasn’t much longer.
They will not let me speak to anyone and always say Ive passed a message on for a call back and he will contact you – He never does!
My money shop complaint was passed to an Ombudsman on 17/06/16 and has been with them ever since, the same ombudsman has upheld several of my cases but will not give any info on this one for some reason.
I asked if it was for loans over 6 years and was advised no.
Originally Money emailed me a list of loans within 6 years and that is what my complaint was about – Although when i was at Uni i did use the cheque cashing service which was about 15 years ago. This wasnt part of my complaint.
I have asked for the rejection from the ombudsman and will let you know if i receive it.
lauren says
Hi everyone
I had loans with the provident over 6 years ago while on benefits I can remember getting a top up on my loan and defaulting a few times as well I must have paid around 700-800 interest plus when I took out the loan I took it out at my mums address so they wouldn’t collect from my address and all I showed for proof of address at my mums was a bank card, can anyone please tell me if its worth complaining, or don’t because I lied about my address
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t see the address matters – you repaid the loans, you weren’t trying to get a loan and then not pay it.
You will need to try to get a statement of account from Provident. They may be difficult about this, especially as it is over 6 years old.
Morag says
Hi
I paid £10 and got loan agreements as far back as 2007! with payment history
Nim says
Hi Lauren,
I was in the same boat – initially Provident only produced account of statement going back as far as 2011 for me, so looked like only 2 loans, but I knew I had more and something was not adding up. Then by looking at my credit file, I had entries going back to 2010 – 6 years ago, that’s as far as it shows – so more loans found!! So I assumed I started my loans back in July 2010. So I rang up and asked for the statements of account going back to 2010. They denied having this and said they cannot produce.
However, here comes the crunch……..when they replied with Final letter, they attached copies of ALL the credit agreements I had with them, and ‘lo & behold’ to my surprise I had loans from 2006!! I could not believe it for a moment, but when I checked and thought about it – it seems correct – just shows you how time flies when you are in debt over a long period. All this has now been sent to the FOS – and I reminded them that I understated when I first took out the loans and they are looking into it as they have asked me for my bank statements going back as far as 2006 – so hopefully fingers crossed I should get a fair sum – one of my biggest claims that nearly went unknown!!
So, yes for you to pursue your claim, after all £700 – 800 ( or maybe more to your surprise), plus all that 8% interest on top, is a nice tidy sum I am sure that will be useful?!!
Best of luck, and will keep updates on here – so stick with it however long it takes!
Best
Nim
lauren says
Hi nim
Thanks alot,
So did the provident not offer you any kind of payment after you requested your interest back? All the details of my loans are on my credit file including the ridiculous amount of defaults, took screenshots as evidence. I can’t believe they could give out loans without providing proof of income or address but just with showing your bank card as any kind of identification, madness!!
lauren says
Thanks sara
If they don’t give me one I can request a SAR is that correct? How long are a company required to keep your details on there system before they can wipe them off? I don’t know if theres a required timescale by law?. I seen a comment on another page regarding the money shop were they told a guy they dont have the information regarding his loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can request a SAR which will cost you £10. Companies aren’t legally obliged to keep record for more than 6 years – most do but it can’t be guaranteed provident will have your details.
The money shop – if you are referring to the comment I think, that wasn’t actually what they said. It was quite a carefully worded letter which many have been designed to suggest they didn’t have infomrtion, but it didn’t actually say that they didn’t…
lauren says
Ok thanks sara
So if the FOS was to investigate a loan over six years would the company in question not just wipe there records when they FOS contacted them, to prevent paying out interest and charges?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A firm that selectively decided to wipe a customers records because they had a complaint would be likely to get into trouble with its regulator for not treating customer’s fairly.
And in many cases it wouldn’t gain the firm much as the loaning and repaying can often be reconstructed from someone’e emails and bank statements.
Aga says
UNAUTHORISED CREDIT APLICATION ENTRIES
KH
s@ferratum.co.uk>
Hi Sara this is the reply from Ferratum ,
” Reply
|
Thu 05/01, 14:29
Good Afternoon
As previously advised we are unable to remove the search from your credit file, you can however contact the credit reference agency directly if you dispute the entry. They will then contact us directly.
If you remain dissatisfied with it, you may contact the Financial Ombudsman Service. You need to do this within six months of the date of this email.
The address is –
Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR
Kind regards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can contact the credit reference agency, but they are just going to ask Ferratum … So if you want to carry on with this, you need to put in a complaint to the FOS… and you know how to do that :) The point to emphaises is that you haven’t made a single credit application since mmm/yyyy when you started putting in affordabiulity complaints to the lenders.
It’s up to you if you think this is worth it. Credit searches aren’t a mjor damage to your credit record and onlt for 6 months or so. So you could decide you CBA to do do this. But if you didn’t apply to them for a loan they are in the wrong!
Aga says
many thanks Sara , I haven’t applied for any loan since February 2016 so I just send it to FOS and see what happens
Paul says
Hi all,
I first found this site a few days ago and have fired off the statement of account email to all payday loan providers I’ve used. Had an immediate reply from most of them with the information I requested, including one from 247MoneyBox offering to clear my outstanding balance (around £250), which I accepted.
So far, I’ve only gone further with Lending Stream, who I had 5 loans from over a period of about 15 months. I’ve got a reply, which from reading above seems to be their standard reply, stating my credit score was over 716, which is definitely not true. Should I go back to them with this point, or go straight to the Ombudsman? If I go to the Ombudsman, do I need to tell Lending Stream I am doing so?
Also, I’ve seen mentioned on various other sites, that mental health should be taken into account by these companies when dealing with loans. Does anyone know anymore about this? Obviously they would have no access to your health records, so is it something that should be mentioned? I’ve suffered from mental health problems over the past 6 years, but they’ve been far worse over the past 6 months, with some of the reasoning for that being the stress and anxiety caused by my debts building up from having loans with these companies!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know how much interest you paid to Lending Stream? If you want to go back to them, you need figures eg to say “I paid you £640 in interest for these loans, I am happy to settle this case now for £400” or whatever. If you go to the Ombudsman you don’t NEED to tell LS, but you may as well drop them a polite email saying that their suggested credit score is absurd, you have put in a complaint to the ombudsman but you are prepared to withdraw it if they make you a reasonable offer.
A lender has to take into account your mental health if they are aware of the issue. If you have a blalance remaining, then they should tak into account any mental health problems you have when deciding whether to freeze interest, sell the debt to a debt collector, take you to court etc. But if you don’t have an outstanding balance so you complaint is about previous unaffordable lending, then you menatl health is olny really relevant if you told them at the time. So for example if you needed to roll a loan and you told them you off work with mental health problems… then they probably shouldn’t have lent you any more money afterwards!
Your current debt and mental health problems. Can I encourage you to go to StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/ and talk through all your options? It may well be that a debt management paln can “stabilise” your current situation relieving a lot of the pressure and stress. You can then pursue any affordability complaints at your leisure. these can take many many months to resolve. What you don’t want is to get an offer of a £400 refund and feel you have to accpet because it will sore out this months immediate problems, when by taking the case to the ombudsman you could have ended up with £3000 ina few months time.
Paul McCullagh says
Hi Sara, thanks for your reply. I’ll have a look at StepChange and see what they say. If i’m going to contact other lenders, do I need to have had more than one loan with them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can win a “one loan” case but it’s unusual. If you have rolled / extended it a lot of times is the only common way these succeed. But if your credit record was very bad when you applied and the loan was for a significant of money, you may think it’s worth trying. The amount you could get refunded for a a single loan isn’t usually going to be much, so ask yourself if it’s worth it. If in doubt, go for the larger ones first then have a think about the minnows.
Jack says
I have just discovered this site and feel , for the first time in years a weight could potentially be lifted from my shoulders. have current loans with LS and Trusted Quid how should I approach them , both are repeat matters and increased valued ( again ) ?
All guidance appreciated !
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your current loans with LS and Trusted Quid – if you can repay these this month without borrowing any more, from them or from anywhere else, then do this and then put in complaints. But if you can’t, then your first step has to be to get your current situation under control – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/ for how to do this. You can then put in complaints, knowing that it doesn’t matter of they take months and months to resolve, you can manage till thebn without borrowing.
Jack says
thanks , it all makes sense but it looks like it will be a long road with the Northway / Malta involvement !
my other question having now looked back relates to any ones experience of moneyboy247, have had multiple loans with them over the last x years too how responsive or obstructive are they or is it a case of send in a letter and see how they respond?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A long road indeed. That is why a DMP through StepChange may well be a good option for you now, as that link suggests.
Moneybox 247 are on the more difficult end of the spectrum, but don’t let that put you off! For a small lender there are plenty of decisions against them by the Ombudsman.
Rob says
Hi Debtcamel,
I have two payday loans from 2011 that are defaulted.
PDL 1 – Moneybox – Opened Fevb 2011 \ Default May 2011 – No payments ever made
PDL 2 – MyJar – Opened May 2011 \ Default Sept 2011 0 No payments made
Looking to get a mortgage this year but don’t want to be sending these boys £1k out my mortgage fund and for them still to sit on my account.
I’m pretty sure i couldn’t afford them at the time but they haven’t chased for some time (maybe as I’ve moved) I’d like to try and rid this off my file but don’t want to wake a sleeping giant.
What would you suggest
George says
They will both be removed by September this year due to 6 years on file I would let them run their course !
Sara (Debt Camel) says
First. those debts will drop off your credit record whatever you do now – ignore them, settle them partially or pay them in full. The only way these can come back to harm you now is if the lender takes you to court for a CCJ. You may be convinced the debts are statute barred, but having a CCJ case running will screw up a mortgage application!
Second you stand little or no chance of gettin a mortgage with unpaid defaults on your credit record.
Your options would seem to be
1) to pay them in full. That prevents a CCJ but means you will have to wait until they have dropped off before getting a mortgage
2) to settle them partially. yhat would prevent a CCJ. Same as above, except it has cost you a bit less.
3) to ignore them and hope they drop off with no court action. In general not many payday loans end up in court, so this is a better chance than with most other debts. If you do get contacted by the debt collector in the next 6 months you can settle the debt in full.
4) to put in payday laon complaints as per the article above. This is waking up a sleeping payday lender as you put it – if it fails, you will need to repay the debt. But if it succeeds the debt will be deleted from your credit records and you may even get a refund.
If this was a year ago, (4) would look like the best option. As it is, it depends how desperate you are to move soon and whether waiting until the end of the year to move would be good enough?
jason P says
quick quid have asked for bank statements and pay slips to assist them with my complaint. should I disclose these?
Dom says
When they requested them from me I said something along the lines of “given the time that has passed it is unrealistic to expect me to source all the bank statements and wage slips covering the period”. I also said In addition that if quickquid had carried out affordability and verification checks for the loan applications then they should have these details on record for each loan. In all likelihood QQ will make a very small offer which you will likely want to turn down, once you go the adjudicator they will ask for bank statements so it is a good idea to try and get them together. I was reluctant to share mine, due to being a recovered gambling addict they were a lot of gambling transactions however I sill got a favourable ruling my adjudicator.
Craig says
First response back today which has taken just under 7 weeks from Sunny, and a rejection!
Slightly surprised that they didn’t make me some sort of offer based on some of the comments on here and how sunny seem to be relevatively good at dealing with complaints.
I borrowed £3950 over 11 loans during the period of June 15 – July 16 and also have a further two outstanding loans with them which were taken out in August 16. Paid £5230 back to them.
Admittedly, many of the loans didn’t run their full term due to me borrowing money from other payday lenders and also family/friends to pay these off.
I was allocated a complaints handler at the start of the process and have had a final response from somebody totally different so I have questioned that. However if that response is unsatisfactory then I will be going to the ombudsman.
Neil says
Craig – I had the same thing from Sunny; their response seemed fairly generic and didn’t address any of the specifics of my complaint. If I were in your shoes, having received a full and final written response, I would not waste time (as I did, stupidly) in referring the case to the FOS.
Craig says
What did you do next Neil? Are you with the ombudsman currently?
I’ve responded to them to ask why it hasn’t been the same complaint handler, and how they have possibly come to this outcome and if it’s final response as if not I will be going to ombudsman.
My outstanding balance is around £480 with them, and if they had offered me that would have been inclined to accept (also would save them the ombudsman fee), my case isn’t overly strong I don’t think as all bar 1 loan was paid early, and never defaulted etc. This is the last oustanding payday loan I have. The quicker I’m rid I will finally have some form of closure.
Wonga is definitely my strongest case, we hit 7 weeks tomorrow and I’m ready to go the ombudsman if their response is unsatisfactory.
I am then going to tackle credit cards and also NatWest who I feel I could have a strong case with. Although recently I’ve had 3 complaints with them and don’t want to seem like a serial complainer haha.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Paying payday loans “early” is not something that makes your case weaker, whatever some payday lenders may like to suggest. If you had to borrow more later in the month, all it shows is that you were trying to keep your interest costs as low as possible, not that the loans were affordable.
And not having any defaults with the lender isn’t a probelm either. Obviously if you did have defaults and they later carried on lending that’s bad! But many of the largest payouts we have seen here have come from cases where there were no defaults at all, just a consistent pattern of borrowing every month from the same lender.
Craig says
Didn’t know either of those, thanks for both of those bits of information Sara.
My loans are currently frozen with them, so is the interest. Should this continue if I go to the ombudsman?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would expect that to continue.
Neil says
Craig – yes, my Sunny complaint is awaiting allocation to an Adjudicator. For what it’s worth, I repaid ALL my Sunny loans early, with funds from other payday lenders and ultimately, from my parents. If that doesn’t scream unaffordable, I don’t know what does. I’m surprised that Sunny didn’t pick this up in their checks when lending – they come across as being very thorough.
If I were you, personally, I wouldn’t entertain a discussion about who handled the complaint at what stage – I would just ship it off to the FOS.
Craig says
The reasons why mine were paid off early are exactly the same. Do you have any outstanding loans with them?
They have responded now and said it’s final response, so I will send this to the ombudsman in the morning
Neil says
Craig – no outstanding loans at all, with any payday lenders. I don’t think it affects your complaint as such – except part of any financial award you might receive from the FOS (if your complaint is upheld), could be offset against the outstanding balance you owe the lender you complained about. Reading some past decisions, that does seem to be the norm, although as Sara has pointed out to me, no two cases are the same.
Tom says
Interesting how uncle buck can pay a loan out in no time but a refund is 28 days!
martin says
just a little update on my case with QQ
adujucator has found in my favour on all loans other than the first one (seems to be case on all others as well) QQ has come back with another offer on loans 4 and 5 (took out 5 large loans with them) total of £850 some are add on to loans but the thing is that loan 2 and 3 were £900 and £750 the biggest 2 loans so have refused offer on to ombudsman to me if they gave good offers in long run would save them money
with LS they offered me £325 in first place after going to FO now have to pay £2100.
i say to anyone be carefull of offers if too small
George says
Hi again Sara am doing ok so far. 24/7 moneybox and Lending Stream have agreed with my complaints so far. QQ offered to recall my debt from debt collector and reduce it by £200 to £1000 and agree a payment plan. I’m going to reject this and send to FOS. But do I complain about QQ or the debt collector? The default is in debt collectors name and they still own the debt as I haven’t agreed to QQ final decision? I had mortgage arrears defaulted on as well as 4 ccjs and 4 other defaults to payday lenders and terrible credit rating of 294 at the time. Any help would be much appreciated
Thanks ! :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your affordability complaints relates to the original lending decision so it goes to QQ. You should inform the debt collector that your QQ complaint is being sent to the FOS and ask them to put a hold on any enforcement action as the debt is currently in dispute.
Andrea says
How was moneybox 247 to deal with, did you get a good result?
George says
Actually surprised with Moneybox they responded within a week with an offer. I only had two small loans so I accepted. For me QucikQuid and Payday UK have been the worst. They were actually easy to deal with and didn’t mess about at all. I wish the rest were as easy!
alan says
Good afternoon
Just has a final response from Lending Stream of which I have passed on to the FOS.
The response states that I had 16 loans with them, of which I am still waiting on the history of, but out of those they admit that 4 loans were of concern and could have caused me financial difficulty and have offered me the interest back of £275.
Not having the exact amount yet I can say that this is a lot less than I paid them over the 16 loans and the repeat lending and increased borrowing is in my eyes irresponsible lending so as I said it’s been dealt with by the FOS and I will post any updates
martin says
Lending Stream made me offer of around £325 after going to ombudsman was awarded £2100 so i say carry on forward with it
alan says
Thanks
Passed to the FOS and thanks for your feedback
CA says
Happy days. Ombudsman has made final decision on my complaint as WDA have nothing further to add. It went to The Ombudsman queue in November. They are to refund me 18 loans. Any idea from once WDA receive the final response letter, they will take to process the refund?
laura says
ooooh ok , mine got sent to an ombudsman 29th September and ive still not been assigned an ombudsman , trying to find out how much longer it could be
Lea says
Hi Laura
Just to give you a rough idea my complaint went into the ‘queue’ for an ombudsman on 28th September and I just received my final response through the post on Friday last week (13th).
Amy says
Quick Quid – HELP NEEDED!!!
I emailed first template on here for statement of account, which I receive from them. However I didn’t really understand it.
From the statements they sent me and put a complaint into them for 11 loans. That complaint was sent on Saturday. I have now received a load more emails from them of statement on account. They look like the same ones. I have noticed on one of them they are saying I owe £121 from 2013, this is news to me as they have never contacted me for ‘late payment’ or a ‘missed payment’.
Can anyone give me a bit of an idea what I need to do next of of anyone else has had a similar experience with QQ and can offer some advice please.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If they aren’t chasing you for it, I suggest you just ignore it until your complaint as resolved.
Andrew says
Just a quick question.
I sent a request for my statement of account to Wonga on 25/11/16 but they never provided them, so on 30/11/16 I used your template and put in a complaint.
They have now responded today with 14 PDF’s of my loans with them. Each loan getting bigger and with top ups so I’m hopeful of a good payout from them.
But my question here is, because I have complained on 30/11/16 and they have only responded with a statement now, not a final response to my complaint, would I refer it to the ombudsman now or wait til next week and give them the 8 weeks to respond to my complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
8 weeks from the time you put in your complaint is simplest. Honestly it’s not worth the hassle and stress of trying to gain a few days by trying to stretch the rules somewhow.
Christopher Morgan says
Hi everyone, I made a claim against Wonga and they agreed they had issued me loans I could not afford. They offered me £2900 as a settlement, I’ve been away travelling in China and have only returned to the UK in December. My email account is Google and that’s banned in China so I missed the offer of settlement on the 1st September. They then emailed me at the end of October telling me if I didn’t reply in 5 working days they would withdraw the offer and close the case. On my return I emailed them my case but to this date have had no reply, dispite numerous emails, all ignored. Today I’ve submitted my case to the Finacial Ombudsman, what do you feel my chances of a successful outcome? It makes me feel sick that they might get away with paying back what’s owed!
Thanks in advance
Chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have done the right thing by putting in a complaint to the FOS. I would be surprised if Wonga don’t now re-offer you this settlement. If they don’t, well you must have a good case so the Ombudsman is likely to find in your favour. So far we haven;t seen a case where a firm offered an amount and the Ombudsman ended up offering less… Let us know what happens!
Nesta says
Mr Lender have responded yesterday out of all my loans of which there are 11 they have said they will refund me on the last one not because it was wrong on their part but because they want to do it as a gesture of good will. The total for this is just over £900 i am going to counter this offer and ask them for £1600. Which i will settle for otherwise i will refer this to the FOS.
What are your views please? I would say my financial situation isn’t great so i need the money. Interest paid in total exceeds £3500 do you think a counter offer will work? I wish my position would allow me to drag this on but i am in financial mess sadly due to having these loans in the first place.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should consider signing up for a debt temporary debt management plan, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. That shoudl stabilise your finacial situation and let you take an extra few months if necessary. If you paid £ in interest, you could be looking at alot more than £2000, possibly more than £3000 as a refund. It is a shame to let a lender get away with a poor offer because yiou have a temporary problem.
Nesta says
Thanks Sara, i will mull things over this evening, i really appreciate the help you give people on here. Your website and commitment to help people is a rare but beautiful trait in this day and age. I wish you all the very best and thank you for all the help and advice you provide everyone.
Without this site i would have never known let alone be in a position to recoup some of the money i paid back.
Katie says
I discovered this page by accident on New Year’s Day and I’ve been following with interest. I have spent the last 6 or so years constantly borrowing with pay day loans with a total of 15 lenders. Many many rolled over loans and luckily now I have paid them all off bar one lender. At the time I was on a DMP and had a very poor credit score. I have begun sending out emails requesting statements of borrowing. P2P came back so
far and I realised that I have paid £5000 in interest and that wasn’t even my biggest lender. It makes me feel sick. My question is, is it okay to respond to lenders via email or is it better to write letters ? Thank you in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Email is much better – it is instant, it can’t get lost in the post, it is free, you have a date stamp on it if you later need to show the Financial Ombudsman that you put in in a complaint on a particular date etc. Email addresses for payday lensers complaints are here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/
Mat says
Hi all,
Just wondering if anybody has any experience of escalating to FOS after more than 6 months from receiving a final response? I have docs to prove that I was incapacitated through illness for 10 weeks of the period (towards the end) and that I was taking heavy medication following that which affected cognitive skills. Not escalating was as a direct consequence of my illness and I have an email proving that I had intended to escalate previous do my illness.
I’m not hugely confident but glad to hear any advice/similar experiences.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to do this asap, don’t delay. The FOS says “Under the rules, we have the discretion to look at complaints that fall outside these time limits in “exceptional circumstances”. An example of this might be if the consumer was incapacitated during the period when they could have complained.” Let me know how you get on.
Mat says
Hi Sara,
I did so immediately after I discovered that I hadn’t (mental health issues/medication confusion) and explained and provided proof etc.
This was about a week ago. I’ve not heard anything yet, not even a confirmation of receipt so might follow up with a quick e-mail tomorrow to check they received everything.
Will keep you updated of progress :)
Marie L says
Hi Sara
I am planning on asking my bank to refund me for bank charges I’ve had this year and all of 2013.
However, as they refunded me some bank charges in 2015 and wiped off a months charges a few months ago, I’m worried they might turn and around and refuse.
Their usual policy when I’ve rung up to wipe a months charges is that they only do that once in 12 months.
Just wondered it you have any advice?
Thanks so much
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you want more than a goodwill offer if a month, I suggest you should put your complaint in writing, saying that you feel they have been irresponsible allowing you to have such a large overdraft limit. If they have increased your limit, you should say this as they should have checked affordability at the time. And as your bank, they would have been able to see what was on your bank statement, so how large your income was, if that showed borrowing from payday lenders, unpaid Direct Debits, or anything else that indicated you were in financial trouble, you can argue it was not responsible to increase your limit. In this sort if case, ask for a refund of interest and charges from the point they increased your limit to an amount that was too much.
But also you need to change banks! If your credit limit us poor, get one of the new basic bank accounts (no charges! Ever!) with a bank you don’t owe any money to, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/new-basic-bank-account/. Switch to using that completely, just regard your old overdraft as a debt and set up a standing order to pay a chunk off it each month.
Marie L says
Thanks very much Sara, I will have a look
Wiggles says
Another update on My Lending Stream case, they have sent another offer via the FoS adjudicator stating that they did in fact offer me 8 loans when they should not have including the very first one they have increased the offer amount from 141.90 to 339.30 + the 8% (I have paid over 4k interest) and this time offered to wipe my credit history of the loans but still not good enough when none of the loans should have been issued.
So I have passed it back to the adjudicator and going to wait to see what happens, I do wish they had been more like Sunny and just said Yes we did mess up and you can have it all back.
The story continues …
tracy says
hi Sara i just wanted to come back and let you know that on 3rd jan i sent off my complaint to oakam regarding 4 loans they have today replied saying …………………Upon this review, we do note that our usual affordability checks were carried out appropriately for the loan taken on 8 May 2013. However, for the loans taken on 9 October 2013, 25 February 2014 and 3 September 2014 our usual affordability checks were carried out but were not processed within Oakam’s acceptable standards. As such, we will be upholding your complaint for the loans taken on 9 October 2013, 25 February 2014 and 3 September 2014…………….
they have offered all interest and charges and 8% interest so again thank you very much for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good to see a doorstep lender handling an affordability complaint well!
susan marko says
hi,
need some help, i have debt with saftey net credit, and i rejected there final notice letter, Safety net credit offered to remove my interested and charges from when they increased my limit to £1000 in 2016, i refused this as it stats in the there agreement, which i re read yesterday that any increase or decrease in amount they offer you to borrow, they would always inform you off this in writing, and every time they increased my limit, not once did they write to me to let me know about this.
I have gone to the FO, i have offered to start paying them x amount off money each month like a payment plan, and they have now turned round and said, can you please confirm that you have rejected our final notice letter and are now wanting to set up a payment plan for the full balance remaining. what should i reply to this, as am hoping FO will agree in my favour
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, so you need to put in your complaint to the FOS. It is a good idea to set up a payment plan for the outstanding amount, don’t offer to pay an amount unless you can afford it without borrowing any more. If you win your complaint, having started paying means that you will owe less or get a larger refund.
Tell the lender you are in dispute with them about the balance and you are taking your complaint to the Finanical Ombudsman, but you are happy to set up a payment arrangement whilst this is being considered.
Ross says
So, after asking Quickquid for a statement of account, on 24/10/16, and hearing nothing, I sent another request for statements on Monday. Low and behold, last night my hotmail was flooded with emails, all statements of account from Quickquid. This is a positive, as even my adjudicator said he couldn’t see them all from my case file and only screen shots of certain loans and he was going to have to try and decifer my loans from my bank statements. I’m sure that, when the time comes, these will be a great help to the FOS. I’ll forward these to my adjudicator today :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I do recommend that you to try to decipher all these emails and turn them into a simple list of your loans. For each loan you ideally want to record – the date you took it out and the amount – whether there were any more top ups – the total amount you repaud to this loan – the total charges and interest you paid (this is just the difference between what you borrowed and what you repaid) – the date the loan was repaid.
So for a loan that was rolled 7 times, this all collapses down to one line – borrowed 12 Feb 13 – £300 – repaid £620 – interest & charges £320 – repaid 15 Oct 13.
Putting this in a spreadsheet is ideal, as you can then add up the columns, but if you dont have a spereadsheet, just a line for each loan on a wrod document.
Then when you have that, look and see if it looks right. Is there anything missing? The more lengthy a case the more it is imporant to have a simple summary and be very clear how much interest you paid.