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?
Robert says
Just got an email off cash Genorators saying they have looked into it and I owe them 650 pounds which is a lie! I’ve paid them off ages ago, is this something a company do to throw you off?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell them you dispute this and ask for a complete statement of account so you can see how this alleged debt has occurred.
LB says
Hi I’ve sent my complaint to the ombudsman and given them all my bank statements/ credit report / emails complaining to wonga. How long does this process take?
Thanks
Michelle says
Hi LB
I sent my complaint to FOS on 21/12/16 after receiving final outcome from Wonga. FOS already had full notes, banks stats etc from me. Wonga were slow to reply with their case file as they are very busy / overloaded with complaints.
FOS adjudicator made decision yesterday on my case so now waiting game again for 2 weeks to see if Wonga respond
Miriam says
Hi all
any experience with Wage day, Ferratum, Uncle Buck ? Do they take 8 weeks to get back? It’s almost 4 weeks and I haven’t heard from them apart from complaint acknowledgment.
I got back from My Jar:
“Having reviewed the matter, we can confirm that we did perform all the required checks. We believe that we have been providing our service responsibly and based on the information that was available for us at that time we did not have any reason to believe that our product was not suitable for you. Therefore we are unable to provide the requested refund. ” So I filed to PO.
Thanks
Thanks
Ross says
Hi Miriam,
WageDay Advance sent me a 7 page response, basically telling me to bog off. I forwarded to the FOS and they upheld in my favour. To WDA’s credit, they paid really quickly once advised by the FOS and accepted the adjudicator’s decision.
Ferratum were excellent and sorted my complaint within 48 hours. They used interest repaid on all previous loans to wipe the existing one. What was left, they wrote off as a goodwill gesture.
Uncle Buck, begrudgingly, agreed to refund interest on all loans, but not before telling me off for playing the lottery.
As these complaints are now rising, the response times, unfortunately, will rise too. Give them the 8 weeks and then send to the FOS. Good luck!
Miriam says
How long did it take to get decision from FO ?
max says
Hi all,
has anyone had any luck with Cash Asap? have sent a complaint over 9 weeks ago and not heard a single thing back, no email no phone call. i have called them today asking for a reply by the end of the day or i will be forwarding the complaint to the Ombudsman
Toby Benjamin says
Just finally got a reply from Wonga after waiting over 8 weeks, they said they need another 8 weeks… Already gone to ombudsman, I assume from reading this thread it is most likely to be sorted by the FO now?
Thanks,
All the best all,
Toby.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga will continue to investigate and thye may well get back to you with an offer before the FO starts looking into the case. Whether the offer will be good or not remains to be seen!
John Charles says
My QQ complaint time line so far-
I complained to QQ 10th October 16. 14 loans costing around £4K in interest over four years, often rolled over or borrowed soon after repayment. Rejection email after exactly four weeks from QQ. Sent complaint to FOS adjudicator that day. Goodwill offer from QQ mid December of £300 + £250 outstanding write off. I rejected.
Adjudicator investigated and found in my favour at the end of Jan of all loans and said to refund all charges fees + 8% and gave QQ two weeks to respond. They have failed to respond yesterday so it now automatically goes to the ombudsman. :(
Jack says
Have reach an initial settlement with my first lender ( Mr Lender) and credit to them for speed and fairness in resolving my complaint.
Gaps I have are –
Northway – I know its a different thread but fear this one could be a long road as no reply at all to two emails
247 MBox – have resent email to contact address and received auto response but nothing more eg FOS rights is this usual for this lender ?
Trusted Quid- again silent of FOS rights so same question on this lender?
Aaron says
Mr Lender are being very firm with me and claiming the loans were affordable, can i ask you if you experienced the same from them and any tips you may give me?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Someone else may have found a lender “easy” because of the nature of their borrowing. For example many lenders are quicker to write of an exisiting balanace that has been defaulted but slow to offer any cash refunds. You have to asses how good your own case is – there is unlikely to me some magic “tip” that will get the lender to change their mind. So how many loans did you have from MrL over what time frame? Were any of them rolled?
Michelle says
Good Evening to everyone
The FOS have informed me that my 2 biggest claims with PDL (Mr Lender) and Wonga have both been reviewed and on both cases the adjudicators have upheld the claims in full which potentially could be £7500 and £9500 plus the 8% coming my way.
I am trying not to get too excited at this point as I have a case waiting for the Ombudsman since December and I know these cases could go this way.
Has anyone had any dealings with these companies where the adjudicator has made a decision and then they have agreed or have they pushed all of the way.
Also have Moneyboat in same situation so any dealing on same basis would be great to hear.
Fingers, Legs, Eyes and everything is crossed to hope they all agree with the adjudicator
Thanks
Liam says
Hi Michelle,
Mr Lender were the only ones who have accepted the adjudicators decision. Hopefully you’ll have the same success.
Michelle says
Ok so my updates so far as last update was end of Jan
Peachy – Adjudicator partially ruled in my favour, Peachy decided ombudsman so waiting to be allocated. Im good with this as found further evidence of CCJ that was set aside so not on credit file now however Peachy lent me money when I had this – STILL WAITING OMBUDSMAN
Different money – These guys have closed so took smaller offer just before xmas as wasnt sure how it would work if I went t the FOS so something was better than potentially nothing
Mr Lender – Decent with response times – Made me an offer but approx £4k short of if I was given full refund plus found alot of things in their investigation that were not true and I can provide evidence to show this so waiting FOS adjudicator – ADJUDICATOR UPHELD IN FULL SO ORIGINAL OFFER WAS £2K TO ME AND NOW THINK THIS WILL BE £6-7K WAITING TO SEE IF THIS IS ACCEPTED OR PUSHED TO OMBUDSMAN
Wonga – Biggest complaint with 49 loans and just got a flat out go away (Amazed) With FOS adjudicator but there is a wait on wonga at the moment – PAPERWORK FINALLY SENT TO FOS BY WONGA LAST WEEK ADJUDICATOR UPHELD ALL LOANS SO £9500 PLUS 8% SO POSSIBLY £12K IF THEY DONT PUSH TO OMBUDSMAN
Wageday advance – Rejected outright went to FOS adjudicator. Partially upheld and WDA agreed so just waiting money – MONEY RECEIVED
247moneybox – Difficult company to deal with but they did refund full interest (Just under £300) before xmas
Cashgenie – Standard e mail I can have my money back when they get their money so no idea when this will be
Minicredit – Closed complaint as ceased trading and no where to go
Satsuma – Surprised as most people say they ae awful however put to FOS as no answer in 8 weeks. 3 weeks later they sent me letter saying loan cleared and cheque for remaining refund in full plus 8% so £90 back and loan cleared
Sunny – Great to deal with Came back at week 7 giving partial offer that was close enough so accepted and paid me same day
Moneyboat – Rejected my complaint so with FOS adjudicator – FOS ADJUDICATOR UPHELD IN FULL SO WAITING TO SEE MONEYBOAT NEXT MOVE
Uncle buck – Funny took 8 weeks to the day then letter said partially upholding my complaint – That was an error – Rejected my complaint so with FOS adjudicator – ADJUDICATOR SAID HOPEFULLY HE WILL REVIEW IN NEXT WEEK
Ferratum – Good response time, easy to deal with. Full refund which meant I had to pay £250 to clear what would have been £550 through normal installments. small amount of loans so pleased with this
Next credit – Rejected my complaint so with FOS adjudicator – ADJUDICATOR SAID HOPEFULLY HE WILL REVIEW THIS WEEK
Payday UK – Rejected my complaint so with FOS adjudicator – SPLIT INTO 2 COMPLAINTS BUT ADJUDICATOR SAYS HOPEFULLY THIS WEEK. PAYDAY UK CALL ME EVERYDAY AND AND HAVE SAID THEY WILL DEFAULT ME FOR £400 SO IF I GET MONEY FROM OTHERS I WILL PAY THIS TO STOP DEFAULT IN CASE FOS DO NOT UPHOLD AS ONLY 3 LOANS IN TOTAL
H&T loans – Waiting on information from them – STILL WAITING
Thank you so much Sara – I have told a few friends in same situation about this and they are putting in complaints – So excited that I can now see a little light at end of tunnel with the big complaints
Andrew says
Hi
Received an email from my adjudicator yesterday regarding the cheque centre.
The first company I ever used for payday loans. She has found in my favour for 34 loans 23 top ups and 1 roll over. So that’s all loans from the company. It would be nice if the company accepted the decision but I’m guessing they won’t.
Has anybody any experience with the cheque centre??
And like everyone else thanks to this website it’s a godsend.
Robert says
Yea I have, I had about 40 loans off them every week and roll overs they got back to me saying I still owed the 650 pounds but I’d 100% paid them all off sneaky !! I don’t think there would be proof is paid them tho as it was sometimes paid off with cash
Andrew says
Very sneaky.
Good luck with your complaint. It would look to me having so many loans they don’t have a leg to stand on.
Susanne says
Hi,
Yes I also have a claim against cheque centre from 2009-2013, approx 40-50 loans, they have refused my claim so last week I sent everything to FOS, just awaiting appointment of adjudicator now. Can you tell me how long this process has taken you so far?
Andrew says
I sent my original complaint in to cheque centre on 11th November. Received a few letters saying they were looking into the case I believe it took about 6 weeks for them to dismiss my claim.
Sent to FOS then first of December was asked for bank statements (screen shots sent) and credit report. Case was picked up by an administrator on31st Jan. Rang me on 10th Feb to ask questions about my bank statements. Was in phone for about 40 mins the lady was very through and made me think she’s gonna find agains me but I was wrong saying every loan was unaffordable when she sent me her decision on the 13th Feb.
So far it’s been 4 month. Guess it’s down to cheque centre now if there gonna play ball.
Hope that helps
Andrew says
Hi all.
I’ve also sent a complaint off to amigo loans as had guarantor loans with them for maybe 5 years. Not had a reply yet but was only 5 weeks ago.
Anyone had any luck claiming against them ???
If not will keep you updated.
Andrew says
Sorry to be a pain again.
Anyone complained successfully to morses club??
My assessor has also started my complaint with morses club. They originally tried to pass the buck to welcome finance (shoppacheck) as they supplied the first 2 loans out of about 42. So ombudsman service waited another 8 weeks to get the final reply from welcome. Then my assessor contacted my asking who I believe my complaint is with. I said morses club so she’s contacting them. Shame it wasn’t done 8 weeks ago !!
Kerry says
Hi I sent a complaint to Amigo in Dec 16 had a reply mid Jan which was a no from them they said they had done nothing wrong so just this week sent this to the financial ombudsman. My complaint was that I think they should of asked for proof of income and outgoings from myself when my loan was topped up as only 7 months previously I had got into difficulty paying them. Good luck with your complaint.
Andrew says
God luck to you aswell. I’m expecting them to dismiss my complaint aswell
Nick says
Hi
Has anyone had loans refunded where the company DID look at your statements before lending but still lent to you,I’ve put in a complaint to loans2go and when I took out the logbook loans they asked to see my statements and the guy commented how he was an ex bank manager and I should pay off my PDL!
Just wondered if anyone had similar experience.
On another note, wonga just made an offer for £1360 before they have even sent the paperwork over to the adjudicator so I’m feeling pretty positive that I will get a little more back if not all from Wonga via the adjudicator.
N
michellew says
Just heard back from FOS. Wonga originally sent me a go away letter in November but has now reconsidered when the FOS asked for their business file, so even without the FOS having to investigate they changed their minds and are now willing to offer me £1395.00, plus the removal of the information from my credit files. I am going to accept this as I originally only thought I would get back £600.00.
It would save these business’s so much money if they investigated thoroughly in the first instance.
Neil says
Hi Michelle
Are you able to calculate how much interest you paid in total? It’s tough to tell whether or not it’s a good offer otherwise – and the last thing you’d want to do is accept for this sum, only to discover you could have potentially been awarded a lot more!
Well done on the win though :)
Dave says
Just got a response from wonga at just before 12 weeks after being told it could be another 8. It totals 500 pound plus interest which works out about right given that I had a balance removed as part of their redress. Thanks to this site it’s been very useful –
Andrew says
Hi,
just got an offer from Wonga for an amount I feel is acceptable.
Must be 11 weeks or thereabouts.
Their 8 weeks was up on 24/01/17 and I forwarded it to the ombudsman.
They’ve came back today with their offer.
Lengthy but worth the wait.
Anyone know how long it takes them to pay from the time of accepting the offer?
Thanks
Dan says
Hi guys,
Thought I’d give a little update for anyone who’s interested in timescales etc. Today my adjudicator has found in my favour on both of my Pounds 2 Pocket loans, which I was surprised about being instalment loans although I knew they were unaffordable to me, so pretty happy with that, although I fully expect P2P to reject the findings and be in for a few months wait.
I first complained to P2P around 16th Oct, and they rejected around the 30th November, to which I put it straight in to fos. First heard from adjudicator around 5th Jan saying they had been allocated my complaint and would be in touch in due course, and heard back today, so from filing complaint to adjudicator decision around 11 weeks.
I have to say the adjudicator has been brilliant and really approachable, -and her decision sent to P2P is very detailed and includes all the information I raised in my complaint. I’m fully prepared for them to reject the decision but we can live in hope :)
Bob says
Good news on the PtP result! I’m still waiting for a decision on mine.
On a different line, does anyone know how long it takes Uncle Buck to pay out their refunds? I know the FOS gives them 28 days, and I know payday uk take that to the wire, but wonga, mr lender and sunny were all pretty good so I’m hoping Uncle Buck will be quicker too.
Thanks
Bob
Ross says
Hi Bob,
In my own personal experience, Uncle Buck refunded within about 3 days, so you shouldn’t wait long. Don’t get me started on Payday UK!
Ross says
Hi Dan,
P2P rejected my adjudicators findings, but offered to pay 50% of what he recommended. I rejected this and said I would only accept the full amount, as recommended by the adjudicator, or it would go to an ombudsman. Surprisingly, P2P made contact later that day to agree to pay the full amount and it was in my account that same evening. Don’t accept any lower offers, as tempting as the money may be, and hold out for the amount your adjudicator recommends or send it to the ombudsman. Good luck!
Dan says
Thanks Ross.
Luckily I’m not in a position where I need the money so will happily wait and stick with what the adjudicator has said.
And as if by magic, a few hours later she has come back to me on my QQ loans and is asking them to refund interest on all of them. I was quite surprised as I only had 5 (inc 4 top ups) and the first few were quite low. Once again not expecting them to agree, but feeling like this journey is now going somewhere.
michellew says
Hi
Wonder if this is a good chance for claiming. I took my first loan with PDUK in 2010, deferred it for 6 months and then took a second loan out the same day the first loan was paid off, I did this for 4 loans until in 2012 I admitted that I was in financial difficulties – managed to pay this loan off and went into a DMP.
So I actually had 4 loans with them but each loan was re-financed the same day the previous loan was paid off and deferred up to 6 months.
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sounds like a good case!
Lb says
I have received the ombudsman’s final response and they are upholding my complaint! I have accepted this and hope lending Stream payout quickly! This is a large sum in the region of 7500. I am so happy.
Claire says
I’m hoping that I’m going to be in this situation also pretty soon so will be interested to know how soon Lending Stream refund you as they’ve pretty poor throughout the whole handling of my complaint.
Simon says
Mine too. Such a joke. I noticed they were quick to take my monthly payments tho.
I’m fully expecting to wait 28 days as well.
The attitude of their staff on the phone is shocking. They work in a role where customer service skills is crucial to getting resolution on complaints. But they have no customer service skills.
Their attitude is costing Lending Stream money. Their manager should try listening in to one of their phone conversations. Judge for theirselves.
Ally says
Hi Guys
Don’t know if I’m just unlucky but nearly all my claims have gone to adjudicator who up upheld and on the majority told the business’s to refund all interest in full plus 8%. Only one has agreed at this point 6 have taken to the ombudsman. My adjudicator has even put in the letter that unless they can come up with compelling new evidence the ombudsman will be agreeing the decision.
On the findings my adjudicator has put in March till September 2011 I was paying £2,400+ a month in payday loan interest and my borrowing was increasing 45% month on month! I always believed I was bright now I wonder.
My worst one so far has been Mr Lender they offered me £760 sent to adjudicator they made a new offer £200 guess I was paying the FOS fee then disagreed decision of adjudicator of £1400 +8% so it’s in the queue.
On a plus point whilst digging out bank statements, ccj papers etc I came across an account I forgot I had with ppi claimed on 29th December £9k in my bank within 3 weeks!!!
Thanks Sara £19, 243 till I’m debt free!! And it’s looking hopeful
Simon says
Who didn’t go to ombudsman and paid out??
Ally says
Hi Simon,
H and T settled on complaint letter
Myjar settled on adjudicator findings
Mr Lender, payday uk, payday express WDA, QQ, Money Shop,. All in queue for Onbudsman.
Wonga with adjudicator.
It’s going to be a while yet.
Simon says
Ally,
Sunny paid me out straight away as did PaydayUK surprisingly.
I have noticed that the companies that allow top ups or more than one loan at a time are the ones who are being forced to pay out. The companies that just give out loans one at a time like Pounds to Pocket are being allowed to get away with ripping off the customer.
I’m still waiting on a massive payout from Lending Stream and payout off Wonga.
Good luck with your claims.
On what you have put. Seems you have a good claim there. If one has admitted fault then they’re all at fault.
Zoe says
Hi Simon
A few Q’s re your dealings with Sunny if that’s ok?
Was your correspondence with them all via email?
Was their refund offer after your 1st complaint to them?
Did they also agree to remove details from your credit file?
Many thanks
Simon says
Zoe,
I had to ring Sunny and ask for an update in the initial 8 week information gathering period.
They said they had sent an acceptance letter to the company representing me.
This was never located. So I asked for another copy of it to be sent out to me personally.
Once I got it I forwarded it to my people and they got the cash in the next couple of days.
All current loans written off. All previous loans interest repaid to me plus 8% and negative comments on credit report removed.
Are they dragging their feet with you???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is one of the big problems with using a Claims Company – not only do they charge you a lot of money for something you can do yourself but they are often incompetant and slow :)
Simon says
Thanks Sara for your tip.
On seeing how easy it was to be successful in these claims is the exact reason I did all other claims on my own.
??
No incompetent claims companies. More money for me.
tracey says
So I have 6 payday loans and an ultimate debt of nearly £8000 if I pay all interest. My lenders are: wonga, Mr lender, payday UK, satsuma, wage day advance and moneybox. This has been the usual payday loan nightmare starting with wonga. I have used quick quid and I am currently waiting their response to my complaint. I was about to enter a dmp when I realised that maybe my current debts could be written off by claiming. Has anyone had this experience? I might add that this month I’d need to pay out £1900 and I only earn £1550 a month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may well have good complaints, but a DMP at this point is a good move. It could take many months to get to get to final decisions and you don’t want to feel you have to accept a poor offer because you have to get through this month. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
tracey jones says
To be honest Sara, I’d be happy just to get out of the hole. If each company write their current loans off I’d be over the moon, but I realise this process can take months so I guess I better still deal with it. If the defaults are just on the pdls then maybe they could be removed later and save what’s left of my credit score….
Michelle says
Hi Tracey
I have had loans with all of these companies my updates are further up the page.
Outstanding loans were with Mr lender, satsuma, payday U.K. and wage day advance and all of those lends put my account on hold under fca breathing space whilst they and FOS investigated. Payday uk have been applying a little pressure recently though
tracey jones says
When you say held under breathing space, does this mean accounts are frozen whilst investigated? I think I will cancel all cpa and then contact each company and attempt to set up my own dmps. Qq eventually stopped allowing me but it was too late, will I still have a decent claim there? Mr lender and payday UK are my biggest ones, with wonga shortly after them. It all started with wanting to work (could only get a job miles away) but I took the job and didn’t realise just how much the travelling would cost me. An extra £400 to fix my car and now 3 years later I’m sitting with 8k of debt. What a horrible cycle….
Michelle says
So much for the fingers crossed with Wonga, adjudicator e mailed full uphold outcome Tuesday and they responded yesterday to say they didn’t agree so into the ever growing ombudsman line.
Already have a case waiting for ombudsman since December so now have to hope they agree with adjudicator ?
Aaron says
Hi all,
I have had 2 final responses, one particularly lengthy from Mr Lender and the other a insulting and condescending reply from 247moneybox.
Mr Lender say:
Outcome of your complaint:
It is for the reasons given within our investigation, we do not believe we have acted irresponsibly and the loan issued was fair and should have been affordable based on the information provided and the checks that were carried out.
However, after receiving communication from MMF in regards to your complaint, they have confirmed your outstanding balance has been repaid in full. Please note you have repaid MMF a total amount of £178.35 as they discounted your balance by £44.59. To summarise the total amount you have repaid to us and MMF combined is £286.27. We would like to highlight that from the £100.00 borrowed you have repaid MR Lender a total amount of £107.92.
Furthermore, as soon as we were made aware you were working with your DMA, as a responsible lender we showed forbearance by freezing the interest applied however your account was passed to MMF due to no further payments after the 10th October 2012. It is for these reasons given within our investigation we will not be upholding your complaint.
We understand that this may not be the outcome you were seeking, however we hope that our explanation has helped you understand how and why we have reached this full and final decision.
247moneybox say:
Dear Aaron,
Hope that you are well. Please find below a copy of our complaints procedure. If you remain dissatisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Separately, you may also refer the complaint to our trade association (BCCA), this does not stop you taking your complaint to FOS.
I am concerned you may be confusing us with another lender.
We haven’t received a request for your list of loans. You state you have had many loans throughout 2012 with us, however you have only borrowed once from us in 2012. We settled your account at a discounted balance in 2014.
We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to remove all reporting to the credit reference agencies.
We are aware that there are many forums and templated letters available on the internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. We have seen some legitimate claims upheld in the press such as with the lender Cash Genie. However, to compare our actions with their reported behaviour is inappropriate.
We are confident that the required assessments were carried out prior to the advance of all loans. We are able to substantiate fully the information on which lending decisions were based.
Our relationship was based on responsible lending in addition to responsible borrowing. We provided you with all the facts about our product and the charges and costs involved. We treated you as a rational individual able to make a credible decision as to whether to borrow or not. For our part of the relationship we acted on the information available to us at the time and the prevailing regulations and guidance at the time.
In fairness to 247moneybox I think I may of initial confused my first email with the one sent to a different company however would still like to know the best route to proceed from here. Should I go straight to the Financial Ombudsman?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mr Lender – did you only have one loan from them?
Moneybox 247 – that is their normal condescending style – we aren’t cash genie, we treated you as a rational individual – just ignore this part of their reply. Did you only have one loan from them?
steve says
Hi Sara dose it matter if you only had one loan from a payday loan company to be irresponsible lended too?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is MUCH harder to win a complaint if there is only one loan. Some important exceptions
– if the loan was rolled a lot of times, not just a couple
– if the lender carried on adding interest after you told them you were in fiancial difficulty.
To win a compliant you have to be able to show the loan was unaffordable AND that the lender should have realised that before giving you the loan. If there are a series of loans, that is the simple way to show that the lender shouldn’t have carried on lending.
It can be argued the lender should have known if you had a very poor recent credit record – but if the loan was a few years ago the lender didn’t have to credit check you at all. It can be argued if the loan was very high in relation to your income, but for a typical small payday loan this won’t work.
If you look at the Ombudsman statistics you will see the percentage upheld is about 60% for payday loan complaints. If you read the comments here it is MUCH higher. That’s because this website doesn’t tell people to take every payday loan they have ever had to the Ombudsman. You are wasting your time and clogging up the system for everyone else if you do.
So if you have borrowed from a lot of lenders, my advice is to start with complaints against the ones you borrowed from the most. After you see how these go, you will have a better feel for the cases where you only borrowed once or twice and will be able to tell if it’s worth pursuing these.
After all, not only are you much less likely to win, but the amount you could get back will be a lot smaller compared to your larger cases.
Aaron says
I believe to have had more than one loan with both companies. I’ve checked my credit report and think this is due to the defaults and rolling of the loans so it’s quite possible there was only one each which mounted up with missed payments/defaults and rolling through months
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, have a look at your bank statements and emails and see if you can work out what happened when. If a lender rolled a loan AFTER you had missed a payment, this is good cause for complaint.
The Mr Lender loan you probably couldn’t have rolled more than twice looking at the interest you paid.
Do you have any mroe details on the 247 loan? They say they gave you a discounted settlement – do you remember how much? If you don’t, you could ask for a statement of account for this loan as you want to consider their offer.
Katie says
Quick question when sending initial complaint emails to pay day lenders do you have to state income ? The reason I’m asking was my income was quite variable and although it was quite good in some cases it is difficult to be precise. What I am certain of though is I had a very poor credit score, DMP and ccjs. At one point I was borrowing from in excess of 10 pay day lenders at a time. Should I describe all that but not specify income in the emails. Obviously I know when it gets to the FOS I will have to provide bank statements which will show all of the info in detail. I don’t want to accidentally misrepresent my affordability in the emails if you see what I mean?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you say, it’s important not to misrepresent your case. The template letter is just meant as a starting point, you should delete bits which don’t seem relevant, or which seem too simplistic for your situation. And add in other bits. In your case, CCJs and a DMP should have been a red flag for the lenders that you may be in trouble.
One thing with a vary variable income is that you may have accidentally put you income in as too high if you were expecting to get more hours / more income from self employment than you actually did. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ as background for this sort of situation.
Katie says
Thanks Sara
Very helpful info. I sent my first emails a month ago and now I’m going for my second batch of payday lenders. I shall adapt the template accordingly – my main point being that I had so many lenders that I didn’t have a choice but to keep borrowing and had to be bailed out by family members just to keep afloat. I have proof of my DMP, defaults and very poor credit score so I will present that argument against affordability. Thank you so much.
Ross says
Hi all,
I’ve noticed a small trickle of people now having success with loans being investigated which are more than 6 years old. I complained to Quick Quid in October 2016, and they rejected my complaint after 5 hours, with no apparent investigation and no goodwill offer (not that I would have accepted it anyway). The adjudicator contacted me in November 2016, to advise that Quick Quid had objected to the FOS investigating loans older than 6 years old, and that my case has been put on hold. This has now been sat in limbo since then. Has anybody had any ‘movement’ on loans older than 6 years old, specifically with Quick Quid or Pounds 2 Pocket? My Payday Express complaint is queued for the ombudsman and, if upheld (which I’m confident it will be, if they agree with the adjudicator), then it will just leave me with the Quick Quid complaint, before I can put all of this sorry mess to bed. Thank heavens for Sara creating this wonderful site, I never thought it possible to achieve what I have achieved!
Kat says
Hi, I have had a reply from Quick Quick jejecting my complaint on various points, but the main one being most of my loans were in 2010 and they will not look at these. I only had 3 in 2011 that they have looked at and rejected as the pattern of borrowing doesn’t match my complaint only taking these loans into account.
This company were a nightmare and used to call me at work for payment, they made my life hell and although I managed to pay all my loans off and am in a good place now this is one of the main companies I hoped I could get a refund from. Is it worth going to the FO for loans of more than 6 years or have they still not decided whether these will be looked at?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FO is looking at older loans. It is long-winded at the moment as there has to be an extra check to find out when you found out you could complain, and then the lnder gets a chance to object to this. But we haven’t heard anything to suggest that older loans are now being ruled out so yes, it’s worth going to the FO now.
Sarah says
QQ rejected my complaint in June and it’s been with the FOS since then, I was sent to the specialist team because of the older loans and they stated that the FOS could look into these. Obviously QQ refused so it’s been sat waiting to be reviewed by an Ombudsman since November. My adjudicator updated me to say that the FOS are trying to work with QQ to try and resolve the issue instead of the ombudsman having to look at each case with older loans. I’m starting to lose hope because it’s been that long and QQ just seem to be allowed to manipulate the system causing more and more back log. They never presented a valid reason objecting to the older loans being looked at, it was simply “she should have known we had made a mistake and should’ve complained sooner”.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s tedious but there is no reason “to lose hope”. The FOS has taken an unusual step in saying it will look at the older loans and it’s important that the lenders are given a chance to object, frustrating as it seems. You are quite right that the lenders don’t seem able to come up with a good argument – that is the point that is most important here.
Susan says
The adjudicator looked at 10 of my loans which were older than 6 years and ruled in my favour. This took around 4 months. However payday express only offered to pay back interest on 4 loans taken out 2010 onwards so this is with the ombudsman now
Ross says
Thanks Sarah. The adjudicator said he couldn’t proceed any further, with the case, and that (as you say) it had gone to a specialist team. Since then, I have been advised that it’s with the FOS legal team. I had the option of disregarding the loans more than 6 years old, but the adjudicator strongly recommended I didn’t do this, owing to the (potential) sums involved if the case was upheld. I think he’s confident it will be, but we’ll see what the outcome is as, and when, it happens. Quick Quid have really been the worst company ever. My initial response said ‘You owe no monies’ and that was it. No investigation, no findings, no nothing. I have, since, made the adjudicator aware that I only realised I could complain, last year, after stumbling across this website. He made notes of this, on my case file, so I was rather hoping that this could’ve been put forward as a valid argument. As much as the FOS does a wonderful job, and I truly mean that, I do think it lacks the clout to be able to hold these companies to account when they don’t do what they should be doing, as in responding to adjudicator decisions and treating complaints seriously, and with respect. I know that the FCA is the regulator, but there doesn’t appear to be a ‘hand in glove’ relationship between the FCA and the FOS, as I believe their should be, and adjudicators at the FOS have clearly ‘rolled their eyes’ when I have told them that I have lodged feedback with the FCA on how certain companies have handled (or mishandled) complaints really badly. One even told me that she doubted it would make much difference, even though she appreciated me taking the time to contact them. I won’t lose hope, or give up, as I can see a potentially very good result here. It’s just a case of sit and wait, as annoying as it may be.
MattB says
Hi Sara,
If you have accepted a full and final settlement offer and the refund has been paid but then you notice that they (i.e Wonga) have miscalculated there offer, is there anything we can do?, or could I go back to them asking for a breakdown of the settlement figure that was agreed?
This was settled back on 10th January 2017
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Can you explain what was miscalculated?
MattB says
Hi Sara,
I miscalculated the 8% interest per annum and had 38% interest pa in my value which caused me to faint…..once corrected i was 20p out of wongas settlement figure so all good
Ross says
I vote that we make it 38% interest. Let’s call it a stress and inconvenience payment? :)
MattB says
Haha….wondering if i should claim the 20p (bad joke)
clive says
Hi,
I had 3 loans with Mr Lender in 2012/2013. The amounts were £200, £450 and £500, increasing in value each time and each taken out the day after the previous one was paid off. The first rolled over 3 times, the second 5 times and the final loan rolled over twice and then entered a payment plan. I have paid over £3100 in interest and charges for £1150 of borrowing. I also borrowed from other lenders at the same time. Would I have a good case to claim some interest back or is just 3 loans an insufficient number to claim against.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that sounds like a good case that they should not have given the second loan – after you had rolled the first one three times and you were then immediately asking to borrow a lot more.
clive says
Thanks for the info. I put in a complaint to Mr Lender on Friday 17/02, had a response back today 21/02 not agreeing with my complaint but offering £450 as a goodwill gesture. Two working days is pretty impressive based on other peoples experiences on here. Anyway, I reckon if i took it to the FOS I might get double that amount, but i have considered the fact I have a honeymoon in May and could do with the money before then – So i have accepted their offer. Just 6 more companies to go !!
This website is doing a great job. :)
Katie says
Hi everyone. This is such a good website Sara thank you. I have had a very productive morning and been through my bank statements with a fine tooth comb. Just over a month ago I sent my first few emails to QQ P2P Wonga The Money Shop and Speedloan. The only response I have had so far is from Wonga saying that they are still considering my complaint but it’s likely to be more than 8 weeks. So today I’ve also emailed Moneyboat, Sunny, Peachy, Piggy Bank, WDA, Mr Lender, Uncle Buck, Myjar and Satsuma. I feel it’s been a very productive use of my day. Even though I am mortified to see that I’ve borrowed over £60,000 over the last 5 years in all. Even I don’t get any interest refunded at least I tried and I can put this horrible experience behind me. I know all circumstances are different but anyone else had success from any of the above and what were response times like. Thank you everyone and fingers crossed for you all!
Joanna says
Over the Christmas, I managed to get a statement of my account from the Money Shop (Instant Cash Loans) by going into the original branch that I began my borrowing from. I sent them the statement of account and my complaint letter at the end of December. They contacted me two weeks ago to say that they are running behind with their response to customers but will be in touch as soon as they can. I received a response from them yesterday afternoon to say that they agree with my complaint and that they are willing to refund me the interest which was just over £400. I called them up to say that I am willing to accept if they add the statutory interest, they agreed and sent me a revised agreement form to sign. They have just deposited £601 into my account.
Thank you Sara for your help, I’m very grateful for this.
T says
Sara I’ve had an interesting response from FOS regarding 6yr+ complaints:
“Following our conversation last week, there has been a development with some of these cases.
Whilst these businesses had initially raised similar objections on a number of our cases, following the discussions we’ve been having with them, they’ve now asked for some time to reconsider their approach going forward.
This means I won’t be able to give you an answer on your cases just yet. But do rest assured that I will be back in contact with you in a few weeks’ time to let you know the outcome of this issue and how we’re going to need to deal with your complaints going forward.”
Any idea what is making them reconsider?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They’ve realised they aren’t going to win? Just hoping…
T says
My thought was that they don’t want it settled in court, if it went to court there would be lots of publicity which would make even more people realise they were victims of poor lending
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may be right! Even if they won a judicial review, the extra publicity could lose them more than they will save by agreeing that the FOS can look at the older loans.
Ross says
Hi T,
Thanks for posting this. I’m one of those currently caught up in the 6+ years loans issue and this is of particular interest to me. Could I ask who you are waiting for, with reference to the 6+ year issue please? Mine is just with Quick Quid. Payday Express was another, but only 2 small loans were outside this rule and the adjudicator advised that I should just disregard these, as it was doubtful these would be upheld anyway, as these were the 2 initial loans I took out with Payday Express. This case went forward, was upheld by the adjudicator and (unsurprisingly) Payday Express ignored the adjudicator, so it’s now in the ombudsman queue.
T says
Payday express, the money shop and PDUK
What’s your thoughts on their possible change of heart Ross?
Ross says
I agree with Sara’s points, about the fact that a VERY public judicial review would, potentially, alert many people to the fact that they’re able to do what we’re currently doing. One of my colleagues was actually unaware she could do this and, since I told her, complained to all of her lenders and has had some good results. It’s the old ‘open a can of worms’ cliché, that I think they realise they’re going to cause. Hopefully, it may be agreed, industry wide, that this is the best course of action to take, and it may make the likes of Quick Quid do the same, although I shall not be holding my breath?!
tracey jones says
Payday UK have replied to me requesting my summary of borrowings saying basically I need to post£1 to them to get it? Does this not seem like a delay tactic? The summary I have only contains the last 12 months with 7 loans and £536 in interest (not including my current loan), but I know I have used them for 2-3years now. Should I go ahead and get the full summary or send the letter stating I know there’s more. Also how do people go about getting all of their bank statements from years ago?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This article looks at the problem of them charging £1: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/.
Bank statements – you can get them, even from closed bank accounts.
Ross says
Hi Tracey,
If you experience problems retrieving bank statements, the FOS may be able to help, if the complaint goes to them. My adjudicator managed to gain all mine from 2009 onwards. However, as the FOS becomes more and more swamped with these kind of complaints, I’m not sure if they’re still able to do this, as I’ve read comments, from other people, saying that the FOS can’t help with retrieving old bank statements. I’m not sure if this is the FOS, as a whole, or just down to individual adjudicators? I would like to think they all work to the same standard, so I assume they may just be becoming too busy to do this now and expect the consumer to do this. Luckily, my statements have been used for all of my complaints and I’ve had the same adjudicator for most of mine and he’s had them all on file. Good luck!
Phillip Vinnicombe says
Hey Sara.
Had my first final response letter from wageday advance. They have offered me £189 from my last two loans (had 7 in total) plus £66.40 from the 8 % so total of £255.40. They included my statement of loans which the interest added up to £563.85 from all 7 loans. Do you think this is a fair deal? It also states in the letter that the statutory 8% interest is subject to income tax and must be declared to hmrc. Is this true as I’ve heard no one mention it from what I’ve been reading on here?
Still waiting on final responses from wonga, payday UK, 247 moneybox, safetynet credit, Advant credit, 118 money.
Thanks.
Phillip
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman will often only award a refund from the 3rd or 4th loan. You could suggest you would accept for the last 4 say? Or take the whole complaint to the FOS if you feel that would be fairer.
Yes the 8% is taxable. but it counts as savings interest so the first £1000 of the *% interest will be tax free. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/ for more about this.
Jim says
Hi all,
I sent a complaint to Wonga on 27th November 2016.
This is on 36 loans from 2011-2014 with interest paid at around £7k.
I waited until the 8 week period and got another email saying they are experiencing high volume and will send a final response within an additional 6 weeks.
I called them on Friday to see if there has been any update as I have had all final responses from other companies, I was shocked when they told me it would take an additional 6-8 weeks for a decision.
22 weeks to send a response sounds ridiculous so I will submit to the financial ombudsman.
Has anyone complained after 27th November 2016 and got a response yet?
Michelle says
I put mine to FOS at 8 weeks and I got a rejection of complaint at same time, Wonga then took 5 weeks to get file to adjudicator
Adjudicator upheld completely in my favour on all loans this week and 1 day later Wonga disagreed and asked it to go to ombudsman so another 3-4 month wait now ?
Joeyr says
I have had an account with Safetynetcredit since August 2014. They have increased my credit limit a few times from £300 to £840.
Recently it has got to the stage where i am borrowing it straight back on payday which ends up a few hundred pounds in interest.
So on the 20th of January i put a complaint in asking for a refund of all interest.
I got a reply yesterday saying that initially the borrowing was alright but after they increased my limit to £840 in July 2015 there was some merit in my complaint , so they said they would refund all the interest from that date which is £3630 which i have accepted.
Over the moon is an understatement , i expected them to offer to wipe my current balance or have to go to the ombudsman.
Zoe says
I only just found this forum, so had no idea i could claim back the interest from my payday loan trap i fell into.
I’m just worried as my other half has no idea i had taken any out (we have separate accounts), so was wondering if all your dealings with them were via email, as i’d be concerned getting post at our home from them.
I got caught with an unexpected bill for my car, so took a payday loan out with QQ, which ended up getting rolled over & and subsequently i had to take more out, just to cover my outgoing bills after making each loan repayment. I had a default for £1,600 at the time of taking these loans, my 2 x credit cards were maxed out & Experian showed my rating as ‘Very Poor’. I was surprised to have been accepted in the first instance. I have copies of my credit file that show how poor it was at the time of taking the first loan out. I then took several out with Sunny.
TBH, i’m not bothered about getting any money back, i’d much rather have all records of the unaffordable payday loans removed from my credit file.
After 6 years, i’m finally in good credit standing. Experian is ‘Good’ (only 30 points away from excellent). The default is no longer on my file &my credit cards are paid off & i’m up to date on all the payday loan repayments & now haven’t taken any out for 6 mths. But I know I wont get accepted for a mortgage with the recent payday loans on there.
I never defaulted on my payday loans or was late in repaying them, so in a distorted way, they made an improvement to my credit file, as show i paid them all on time, however, due to the number taken out & the short repayment period to close each one, it’s decreased my score as the average age of my accounts is low (12 months) where my bank accounts & credit cards are all 8+ years old, so would have been far higher if i hadn’t taken these out. I wasn’t aware that by rolling over the loans, they would show as new accounts each time i did this :-/
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it sopunds as though you should get some money back as well – it is the classic sign of unaffordable lending that you had to borrow more so you could repay bills. It will all come in useful if you are hoping to buy!
With QQ this isn’t likely to be speedy. But I think all the communication will be by email. And if/when it goes to the Ombudsman, you can select Email there as your preferred means of communication.
Michelle says
Has anyone had experience with mr lender and money boat after FOS adjudicator has upheld.
Did they agree or push to ombudsman?
Ally says
Hi Michelle
They offered me £760 pre FOS then reduced to £210 when with adjudicator!! Adjudicator found £1,400 plus 8% surprise surprise gone to Onbudsman.
I emailed before FOS saying I’d accept £1k they said NO.
Just glad I wasn’t desperate for the money
Good luck
Ally
Joanna says
Hi Sara,
I thought that installment loans such as the ones from Wageday advance were the same as payday loans. How do they differ? I’m just wandering because my adjudicator has said that they’re not the same.
Neil says
Joanna – my understanding is that, when dealing with instalment loans, you have to prove that the monthly payments were unaffordable as opposed to the whole amount. So borrowing £1000 and having to pay that plus interest back after, say, 28 days, is a whole lot different to paying back that £1000 over, say, 10 months.
Joanna says
Thanks Neil!
Neil says
No worries – affordability rules etc still apply, as do the rules about proportionate checks. A loan being of the instalment variety does in no way mean it couldn’t be considered as unaffordable – I have a complaint with the FOS in about unaffordable instalment loans :)
sarah l says
I have won both of my claims for installment loans, one for pounds to pocket and the other was ladder loans. Good luck!!!
steve says
Hi there, could I ask, if the adjudicator, favors the payday loan company is that it really?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, it really is an impartial service! Not every complaint gets upheld, but it’s rare for a good complaint to be rejected.
steve says
hi sara thanks for your response what I mean is once the adjudicator has made their decision is that it? I have to accept their decision?
Ross says
Hi Steve,
You don’t have to accept the adjudicator’s decision, you can still ask an ombudsman to decide on it and their decision will be legally binding on both the business and you. However, the ombudsman, in most cases, will agree with what the adjudicator has found in his/her findings, so if an adjudicator rejects your complaint, don’t be over confident that the ombudsman would think any differently?
T says
90% of the time the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator.
I had a decision changed by the ombudsman once, I did this by listing all the adjudicators key points then underneath each key point I responded with how I felt they were wrong and the evidence to support it.
If you truly believe that the adjudicator is wrong then go for it, mistakes can be made and that’s the benefit of this two stage process.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry, I misunderstood your question!
You can ask for the case to go to an Ombudsman. In most cases the Ombudsman upholds the Adjudicator’s decision – but that is because in most cases the Adjudicator was right!
We have seen some cases where the adjudicator rejected a complaint completely and the Ombudsman upheld it. We have seen rather more cases where the Adjudicator awarded a refund for some loans and the ombudsman increased this to cover more loans. There have even been some cases where the borrower accepted the adjudicator’s decision but the lender rejected it when the ombudsman awarded a larger refund!
But I’m not sure this helps you decide? Could you summarise your case – how many loans over what period? what did the adjudicator say? Then it may be possible to say something more useful.
steve says
thanks Sara, I had case with Myjar, they were probably the 7th or 8th payday loan to have lent to me in a month period, loans prior totaled £2000 and myjar loan yes was £100 but my wages of 1700 a month would not be enough to cover the preivous payday loans from other lendes, also my 2 credit cards were in arrears prior to this loan as well, but adjuticator said
I think the checks they did went far enough in deciding whether you were in a position to
take on the loan and meet the agreed repayment. Your stated income and housing costs
meant there was £1,100 in disposable income available. I think some consideration
would’ve be taken for the fact you’d probably have some other outgoings, but I still think it
meant that you appeared to be in a position where you’d be able to meet the repayment of
£117. Had your stated income been around £800 for example, I’d probably expect them to
know a bit more about your other outgoings. But as it was, I think the income was sufficient
enough for them to be satisfied with the information they had about you.
You mentioned your gambling as well as the fact that if they’d done better checks, they’d
have seen the extent of your credit file. However I don’t think MYJAR needed to carry out
more checks or ask more questions around your circumstances because of the size of the
loan repayment, your stated income, and the fact this was your first loan with them.
I no its not a lot to most poeple id just like removed from my credit file, i was debt in my gambling addiction and this was my smallest loan but still added to my fuel
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Realistically I don’t think this is worth taking further. One loan cases are always hard, and as this is a small one it’s reasonable to say that the lender couldn’t have suspected it would be unaffordable. And if the lender didn’t do anything wrong there is no reason to remove it from your credit file. Sorry.
Den says
Like everyone else I gathered all information then sent duplicate letters to all my previous lenders, Mr Lender replied back saying that I had only 1 payday loan and that they acted in a responsible maner when I informed them of my hardship, by freezing the interest.
The letter they sent showed how the company were transparent showing a breakdown of the interest and all correspondence.
So I decided to except their decision but seeing that the loan was paid in full I requested for he loan to be removed from my credit file as a good will gesture, and surprisingly they agreed.
Kelly says
Qq have offered me a settlement today shocked face!!! I have accepted as near enough what adjudicator found in my favour.. bank details have been sent to her, how long til they payout usually?
Thanks Sara for this site, 1 complaint settled and 3 with ombudsman, and so far £1500 that I never thought I would see again
Lucy says
Hi how long did they take to make an offer? My adjudicator had given the until the 22nd but still not heard anything, thanks
Kelly says
Adjudicator found in my favour 1st Feb on all loans, gave them until 14th Feb to respond. No response then she gave them until 23rd when it was being passed to ombudsman, they responded today with offer.
sophie says
Curious on the lender statements i’ve received there is often a transfer fee, do I include this in my calculations (as we are arguing the loan should have never have been given) or is it just purely interest? Thanks
Laura says
interest and fees are both included – company needs to put it right as if you didn’t have the loan at all so you only paid the actual loan amount back – no extra costs – hope that makes sence
Sophie Skeldon says
It does :) – thank you
tracy says
Having had great success with your help claiming back interest from both cash converters and oakham i wonder if i could get some more advice.
over the years i have had many doorstep loans from a local company that have recently been bought by the morses group. Firstly can i try to get some of that interest back? and secondly who would i apply to for the information of how many loans etc. thank you for reading
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest applying to Morses first and seeing what they say.
Kat says
Can anyone tell me what kind of bank statements the FO will accept? When I download them from online they save into an Excel CSV file, is this acceptable to them or do they want the original statement as in I would have to get a duplicate from the bank?
Thanks in advance
Ross says
Hi Kat,
You need to send them in a PDF format. In order to do this, use the print option, when viewing your bank statements, and then select PDF and then save. If you don’t have a PDF function on your pc, then download one for free. Just ‘Google’ Tiny PDF, that’s the one I use. It’s easy to use and. more importantly, it’s free! Then send them as attachments, via email.
Tom says
Help!
I am in a bit of a tricky spot here… QQ initally offered me £400. I rejected it (thanks to this site) and now the FOS has contacted me to say they are offering £2750.
Issue I have is that I REALLY need the money but I think I probably paid QQ around 3 times that in interest so could potentially get lots more.
Should I accept, reject or make a counter offer?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it’s a big improvement on their first offer. But how desperate are you that it’s not worth waiting a few more months to get a full resolution? This isn’t the only claim you have going. It would be better to get into a proper DMP to stabilise your finances and then let the FO process take its course.
Tom says
Is it possible to make counter offers to them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can – I don’t recall QQ agreeing to one but you can try!
Tom says
Thanks Sara,
I’ve just calculated that I paid them around £6000 in interest and there would be approx £1900 more in statutory interest so I need to wait it out, they are offering around 25% of what they could potentially be told to pay
John says
Unfortunately it’s not that simple!
Your situation is the same as mine. QQ offered me £150 first then once they the FOS asked them for their file to investigate they offered £2000. My claim is for approx £6K and I would settle it for £4.5K as I too need the money.
I asked my adjudicator to make the counter offer. He said he was not allowed. So I called QQ to make the counter offer. They said that because the case was with the ombudsman they were unable to take any offer from me. They would only take it through the ombudsman.
So while there doesn’t seem to be a rule against making a counter offer per se there seems to be no way of doing it with QQ.
Please let me know if you find a way though as another month has passed since I hit this blockage i will probably sit it out now as am closer to the end of the process …… I hope!!!
LB says
Thank you so much for this article! I have a question or two:
I’ve only just started getting my mental wellbeing together (seeing a therapist and such) and have been in a payday loan and gambling cycle for a while now. I’ve had around 30 payday loans in 2016 alone (I know…) These loans have been from various companies and increased in size over the year, sometimes I’d take a loan out the 1st of a month, pay back the 4th and take a bigger one out on the 8th…
My question is can I argue for some form of compensation on the grounds that I was developing a clear addiction to payday loans (one that I’ve only just been able to break thanks to the help of others!)
I do wish I had been rejected all those time, the amount of money I’ve wasted is heartbreaking.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you complaint needs to focus on the amount of lending that your credit record was showing. Lenders are under an obligation to consider whather a loan is affordable and to act responsibly. The number of times you were borrowing suggests you had become dependent on the loans, that you couldn’t manage fiancially without them so they were unaffordable for you. If your income made it look as though the loans were affordable, then the number of times you were borrowing should have suggested to the lender that they weren’t seeing the full picture.
This language – responsible lending and affordable/unaffordable loans – is in line with what the regulators talk about. This may be a better way to phrase your complaint than “becoming addicted to payday loans”.
You don’t say how many companies you borrowed from. I suggest starting with complaints to the ones you have borrowed from the most – firstly because these tend to be the easier ones to win as the lender could see from your own records how often you were borrowing and if the amounts went up. Secondly the amount you could get back is also larger from these lenders, so it’s more worthwhile.
Have you stopped gambling? If you haven’t, then I suggest not making any reclaims until you have – otherwise you are just going to gamble away any money you get back.
Have you stopped borrowing? If you haven’t, this needs to happen now. These complaints can take a long while to get a refund, you can’t rely on this happening quickly – or indeed at all. Get yourself stable first, then you can sit back and not feel forced to take a poor offer from a lender as you are desperate for the cash.
LB says
Hi Sara thanks for the swift reply! I’ve stopped gambling and loans and have been great since the new year, the companies I borrowed from were wonga, quick quid, satsuma, peachy, lending stream and peachy, the biggest lender being wonga by far. I’ll go for wonga first as you say, this website is fantastic!
Andrew says
Hi all,
My complaints have today been picked up by the FOS, after I raised it with them 3 weeks ago which from reading on here is pretty good.
They have asked for the usual bank statements and credit report, I have sent over the bank statements by excel which they was happy about but with the credit report, I’m not sure as to what part of the credit report they require? Does any one know what specific info they want?
I have emailed back with this question but had no reply im sure they’ll reply soon but I’m just eager to get things moving and get everything together as soon as. Any help would be appreciated.
I’ve today signed up to noddle if anyone can relate to that credit report website.
Thanks
Andrew
Nick says
Hi
You need to go onto noddle online and there is a part with a full history on it and download that and send to them it basically shows all your transactions as settled or defaulted or whatever for pretty much all credit you have or had, you need to do it on a computer though and then send them that, although interestingly on mine a. Lot of the PDL don’t show up on it at all, I’ve no idea why almost like I never existed with them and they are from 2013 onwards!
Nick
Andrew says
Thank for the info Nick, probably explains why I haven’t been able to do it, being trying to do it in my phone!
Thanks again
Kg says
Just so you know different companies report to different credit reference agencies. Sometimes its worth combining with other credit reference agencies to build a complete picture.
Michelle says
Hi Andrew
All credit reference agency’s offer a once a month free service
Experian- you can do free service on Experian or 30 day trial on credit expert
Equifax – free service with clear score
Call credit – this one is noddle
Good luck
Neil says
Money Saving Expert Credit Club has started offering your Experian report for free – in case like me, you’ve already used your 30-day free trial and don’t want to pay for membership or the £2 statutory report.
Eddie says
Hi all
An update on my complaints
Just want to inform all of those wondering – be prepared to wait and be patient.
I filed complaints to these companies between 30th December 2016 to first week of Jan 2017 and here is how far I am:
Myjar – my biggest complaint, £4K interest paid, they offered £750 goodwill end of January, I rejected, taken by adjudicator this week.
Wonga – £3k interest plus £900 outstanding, they offered £800 and waive the outstanding loan on 16th February, I rejected, submitted to FOS now and received a confirmation. (They were so cheeky to offer a refund on 30 loans totalling £1100 interest – all small loans ignoring the big ones)
MrLender – £1.7k interest paid, was very quick to communicate with me, started with £400 offer, later £980 and finally 2 weeks ago offered £1250 which I accepted purely because they were always communicating with me and it was a fair offer.
Lendingsteam – £470 interest paid, rejected my complaint on 20th January, filed to FOS, now waiting for adjudicator.
Swiftsterling – £2.7k interest paid, ignored me for 2 weeks, filed to MFSA (different thread), confirmed and investigating now.
At the moment I can just sit and wait as all complaints are filed with FOS
I am glad I was able to do this because of this website, I have a lot more peace on my mind now and I am convinced that I will get rewarded with some good money once it is all over, just have to be patient and wait.
Michelle says
Hi Eddie
Don’t worry Wonga are cheeky, they completely rejected my complaint as they felt they had done nothing wrong. 50 loans with 30+ borrowed on same day or within 7 days of paying back previous. Complaint went to FOS in December which adjudicator upheld my complaint in full last week, next day Wonga rejected adjudicator decision so now in ombudsman que
Good luck on your other complaints
Mark says
Hi Eddie, I first complained in May 2016 and am still waiting on three of mine!
Eddie says
Thanks guys
I’m prepared for the wait. I hope you get it sorted soon Mark
Maggie says
Hi. Has anybody had any result with safeloans?
T says
It’s dissolved so highly unlikely you’ll get anywhere with that
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One person reported being offere £400, he went back and asked for £800 and they agreed. Complain to customercomplaints@sllcapital.co.uk – safeloans are listed on the FCA register as a previous brand name of theirs.
Maggie says
Thankyou, i’ve emailed sll capital already so hoping they’ll deal with it. I understand they’re chasing payments for safeloans so see no reason why they can’t also be responsible for the unaffordable lending complaints.
T says
I’m hoping honesty pays off…
I had a response from the adjudicator regarding my H&T loans. Said that further checks should have been done because in the 6 months before the first loan I had taken 25 credit accounts and the 5 months between the first and second loan I took another 6.
He said my bank statements would have shown no disposable income and a reliance on borrowing.
Then I noticed that he thought that they were one month loans with a high pay back, I’ve had to point out that they were installment loans. The adjudicator said it was H&T that provided them with the dodgy info.
Adjudicator is now looking at it again, keep your fingers crossed for me that it’s still the same outcome.
ricky dewitt says
hi all
quick quid have come back with an offer of £680 which was all the charges and 8%, however I owe them sill £600 so they said they would use £600 to wipe of the remaining balance and all the loans from my credit and refund me the £80.
Is this good do you think? Shouldn’t they refund me all of the money and then I pay back what I owe them in a payment plan? Or is this something they have to do?
T says
Sounds reasonable and yes they can use the money to pay off what you owe them. Seems too reasonable for QQ…
ricky dewitt says
OK i thought so, i’ve had this case open for ages now since July 2016 so if it mans wiping it from my credit and refunding what’s left over is fine.
T says
Have they specifically said they will wipe it from credit file? If not get it in writing.
ricky dewitt says
Yes I have it all in writing, this case has dragged quite badly to be honest, but Sarah really helped me and I appreciate all of her help.
One step closer to getting debt free now!
Thanks all on the website, good luck with your cases, keep fighting, it’s worth it!!
Andy says
I got this email today off Mr Lender, any suggestions or help on what I should do?
Dear Mr Todd,
Thank you for your replies.
You have had two loans from Mr Lender and borrowed in total £1,250.00. We have offered to remove all interest and charges from your outstanding loan so only the capital borrowed was to be repaid. Your outstanding loan the capital amount borrowed was £750.00 and have paid in total £350.00, therefore you still have to repay £400.00.
On your first loan you repaid £525.00 in interest and a £7.00 rollover fee totalling £532.00. As you still owe £400.00 that leaves a difference of £132.00 which we have offered to refund you. Bearing in mind you have had the full benefit of the loans, our offer means that you have not paid any interest or charges on either loan and only repaid what you have borrowed.
There is no further offer as business we can offer you, the Financial Ombudsman Service will not ask a business to repay a customer any of the original capital. As a lender, the maximum we can offer to resolve your complaint is to refund or discount any interest and charges applied to the account. In your case we have offered a refund and a discount as you have an outstanding balance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you think some of their figures are wrong, that is a full refund of interest and charges. They haven’t added 8% statutory interest, but most people would think this is a good offer and happily take it.
Kelly says
Another shock this morning after QQ settlement yesterday, lending stream have accepted adjudicator findings and are settling all interest £1015 plus the 8% and removing adverse reports on the cra’s! That’s two complaints now settled prior to escalation to the ombudsman. Bank details sent over so will be interesting to see how quickly or not they pay out!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s great. A lot of complaints are settled at the adjudicator level – I think somtimes people get a misleading impression from the comments here because people whose cases go to the Ombudsman level end up posting a lot more, so it may seem that most people’s cases go to the Ombudsman, which isn’t the case.
T says
Unfortunately I’ve accepted much less from QQ than I could have got. Offered £2750 via adjudicator which I decided yesterday I was going to say no to but I was asked to provide 6 years of statements on multiple accounts, many of which are now closed and I’ve got no details for them. It would have taken to long and I may not have been able to get what they adjudicator needed so I’ve reluctantly accepted the offer. Still it’s a lot higher than the £400 they initially offered.
Nigel says
Hi all. Not updated for a while.
Just had the 2nd part of my refund from Payday Express – Instant Cash Loans Limited (trading as Payday Express) of £943 I had the original part for £3,950 Express Finance (Bromley) Limited just before Christmas. Running total is around £34,500 in refunds since last July.
Everything else is still queued up with Ombudsman (6). But still waiting on Moneybox 24/7 and FOS 6+3 ruling and when I am going to hear some more news to take this further as its all gone rather quite. Also our old friends from The Money shop who are taking for ever to respond to requests from my Adjudicator. But It will eventually happen. Also nothing yet to report on Pounds to Payday and the Maltese FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Could you give some details about how you found out the Payday Express complaint needed to be split into two please?
Nigel says
HI Sara
Well I didn’t know this at the time of the complaint that they would be split. I did know that Payday Express had changed its ownership around two years ago approx I think? But I was my adjudicator who came back to me with the compliant split into two separate ones, even though it was a seamless transfer from one company to the other. I would imagine anyone in the same situation as me would get a similar response from an adjudicator. Hope that makes sense. It must be purely down to the way Payday Express look at complaints.
Ross says
Hi Nigel,
This is of particular interest to me, as I submitted a complaint to PDEX, which my adjudicator upheld. My loans were between 2012-2014 and I believe ICL took over them between these dates, as some loans were from Express Finance, Bromley and others just from Payday Express. However, my adjudicator made no reference to the complaint being split. Then again, they never bothered to respond to him, twice, so who knows what’ll happen if and when the ombudsman upholds the complaint?!?
Rich says
I have just started this process. All my lenders now have my complaint.
Can I ask if I still owe companies some money will any money offered be used to clear the balance?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes – any refunds are “set off” against balances. BUT the interest is removed from the balances first – so if your last loan balooned into something huge with the added interest, it will first be shrunk back to the amount borrowed, then refunds from any previous loans will be used to repay it.
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-write-off/ for a worked example with a small number of loans.
Carol says
I know, I know. I have probably asked before but my brain is not as good as it was so sorry. Is it a bit pointless if you have only had 1 loan from a pay day lender to try and get something back?
You know when Wonga told people that they were closing peoples accounts down can you still claim from them?
And finally – sorry. Anybody had any luck with Provident.
Thank you.
Connie says
It’s worth it for one loan, I’ve had refunds from 3 companies where I only took one loan, those were resolved by the email alone.
Ross says
Hi Carol,
Connie is right, you have a good chance of receiving a refund on just the one loan. I took out 1 instalment loan, with Pounds 2 Pocket, and the adjudicator upheld my complaint, even though Pounds 2 Pocket rejected it. As I had lots of other loans, and credit commitments, at the time of taking out the loan, he didn’t believe the checks, which Pounds 2 Pocket carried out, weren’t proportionate for the size of the loan.
I successfully claimed from Wonga, even though they wrote off a previous loan, as part of their redress programme, when they wrote off in excess of £200 million in loans. Interestingly, they made no reference to this whatsoever when they settled my complaint, so you’ve nothing to lose!
As for Provident, I have never taken doorstep loans with them, but I did take loans with their Satsuma Loans arm. They rejected my complaint, but my adjudicator upheld it and they accepted his findings, to my surprise, and paid out rather swiftly (compared to others, anyway).
Good luck!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think I would say there is a “good” chance for just one loan. It depends how large it was and the rest of your situation. It is easier to win multi-loan complaints as the lender could see from their own records that you were becoming dependent on the loans.
Satsuma are just another payday lender. People have had affordability complaints about provident doorstep lending upheld, but expect this to have to go to the Ombudsman.
P says
Hello Sara
An update following the 6-8 week refund from CFO Lending. This was accepted without FOS.
The 6-8 weeks was due Feb 7th. I received and email the day before saying they couldn’t process refunds and would update me 20th Feb. I sent complaint to FOS at this point.
On Feb 20th they emailed to say they still cant process refunds and hope to give me an update by mid March.
So the complaint is waiting on adjudicator, I have emailed an adjudicator who recently upheld 2 complaints for me, so hopefully she can look at this. Doesn’t seem much else I can do.
CFO claim they are not bound by any time scale other than what is reasonable. The complaint was handled well up to this point, but it seems without the FOS involved they can pay when the want.
steve says
i think CFO are going through some reddress process, and have no updates until they have finished phase 1 which i think is end of march
Marie says
Hi Guys, I only discovered this page yesterday and was so pleased to hear that you can try to claim some of these back. I sadly signed up for quite a few of these over years , borrowing from Peter to pay Paul.
Can I ask a couple of questions :
Will they ask to look at your bank statements around the time of borrowing, to see what your outgoings were, and where to? Ie, could they argue it that you had some disposable cash each month, so were not in financial difficulty?
Every month I paid mine off, I then just reloaned.
some of these will be quite a few years old – should they all count, no matter the age?
Many thanks, and well done to those that have been successful.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If it goes to the ombudsman it is likley you will be asked for bank statements. My guess is your statements will show that if you hadn’t borrowed again from the payday lender, you wouldn’t have been able to afford your everyday expenses and bills, or you would have got deeper into debt elsewhere eg on your overdraft.
It is pretty rare for the ombudsman to say some one could afford the loans if they were borrowing for many years as the loans amounts generally tended to go up.
If some of the loans are over 6 years old, it is likely your case may take longer, but they are all being looked at.
Charlie says
Hi DC. I have had long standing problems with borrowing fron payday loan companies and pay monthly loans such as Wonga, My Jar, Pounds 2 Pockets, Mr Lender and Wage Day Advance to such an extent that i am now in that much of a trap due to having to get a loan to pay a loan or get a loan straight back to make up for the short fall of paying back a loan or installment from my wages.
I have now had to put myself into a DMP with Step Change just to try and give me some breathing space but i have found that i am still struggling to pay the creditors that have refused the DMP payments. I even went against all advice and have continued to apply for futher payday loans to pay for some short falls due to paying uncooperative creditors and once again leaving me to struggle until next pay day. I have taken out loans dating back as far as probably 2003 to the present day. Is there a justified case? Any advice?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to stop paying any of your creditors more than the StepChange offered amount – you are just encouraging them to carry on adding interest by trying to pay them!
It sounds as though you have borrowed a lot for a long while – this should be a series of good complaints. But you have to stop borrowing now! Talk to StepChange and get your later borrowing included in your DMP. Hopefully you will get some refund which will let you start clearing the debts, but this could take many months.
tracey jones says
Mr lender replied to my complaint withing 2hours. I calculated my interest over the two years at around £400 with my current loan added only £80 so far but would have been £1000 once fully paid off. They offered to wipe the remaining balance of just over £700 off. I accepted without a doubt. Only 6 more to go. Pleased with the outcome of this one.
Jake says
Hello
This website is amazing and we change lots of people’s lives your are a saint
I have received this response from pounds to pocket
I acknowledge receipt of your complaint and I am sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction. We take complaints seriously and confirm that we will be conducting a thorough investigation into your concerns.
Please refer to our Complaints Handling Process which is located at the bottom of our ‘Contact Us’ section of our website (https://www.poundstopocket.co.uk/contact-us.html). We appreciate you taking the time to read this as it explains how we will deal with your complaint and when you can expect to hear from us.
To help us with our investigation please can you provide us with any additional information which you would like us to consider in evaluating your irresponsible lending complaint. Such items could include:
• Bank statements from the time you held loans with us
• Pay Slips from the time you held loans with us
• Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances at the time you held loans with us
If you need to contact us in the meantime, please do not hesitate to do so on the contact details below.
I don’t particularly wants to give them this information mainly because don’t think they need it. I have seen a response before when they aren’t for this something about asking them to consider the complaint on the information they have ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jake, I’ve just answered a very similar question from Kearney, Pounds To Pocket are owned by the same company as QQ.
clair says
Hi Sara,
Just wanting some advise i put a complaint into My Jar i only had 2loans with them which i know is an hard case to win but i still owe money on one and was hoping i may be able to get some of this cleared and thought i cant be any worse off by doing this.
I borrowed £100 which i repaid late and on the same day 4hrs later got another loan of £100 with them which i still owe money on. At this point my wage was around £900 and i was paying about £700 with other lenders i then still had my general living costs which was about £380 at the time, i was in a mess just trying to get loans from where ever i could to get me through the month.
I sent my complaint to My Jar explaining all this and this is there reply:-
We have investigated the circumstances surrounding the complaint that you raised with us on 13/02/2017 and hope that this response resolves the issue to your satisfaction.
We take all complaints very seriously. Thank you for taking the time to share your concerns and please rest assured that this information will be used to try and prevent similar issues arising in the future.
Complaint
Your complaint relates to irresponsible lending.
Decision
It is our view that despite our obvious empathy, we are unable to find that we did anything wrong.
At the time you took your first loan with us on 05/11/2012, we undertook a number of checks which included searching on public databases, fraud checks and our own credit scoring. Under the regulations that were in force at that time you requested your loan with us, lenders were required to make checks that were proportionate to the credit being granted. We can confirm that all required checks were performed. Additionally, we used the information gathered from your application. In your application form, you stated that you were in full-time employment with poundstretcher, earning £1000 net per month. You also stated that you were single and had no housing costs or dependants.
This led us to believe that a loan of £100 for 15 days with the repayment amount of £117 is affordable for you.
Your second £100 loan was requested on 29/11/2012 and still remains outstanding.
We believe that we have been providing our service responsibly and based on the information that was available for us at that time we did not have any reason to believe that our product was not suitable for you nor did we receive any contact from you to advise about any trouble you may have had when paying back your loans. Therefore we are unable to provide the requested refund.
We would also like to note that we have been more than willing to discuss setting up an affordable repayment arrangement for you, or discuss a settlement offer you feel would be manageable but we can only help if contact is made.
We hope the reasoning set out in this letter resolves the complaint to your satisfaction. However, if you remain dissatisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
I dont agree with this i know it was only a small loan but when you have so many other repayments it feels a very big loan and even though i dont have dependents i still had commitments to pay for e.g roof over my head food travel to work etc, and when i struggled to repay the first loan this should of been an indication that i couldnt afford another loan and then for it only to be 4hrs after repaying the loan shows that i must of been in some difficulty?
Do you think i would get anywhere taking it to the FOS as i havent got anything to loose and if there is a chance i could get some of this debt written off it would be a bonus?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How late did you pay the first loan? What is the balance owing now?
Clair says
Thanks for getting back to me the first loan was supposed to be paid in 15days I was 10days over that and then got another loan straight away which I still owe £240 on?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case I think it is worth carrying on with TD conplaint. In their reply to you Myjar didn’t mention this. Even though the amounts were small, repaying that late and reborrowing suggests you were in trouble. You could reply to Myjar saying this and say if they. Won’t tie the interest off the balance owing you will go to the Ombudsman.
Clair says
Thank you, they make you start to think that you don’t have anything against them.
I have requested for my statements of accounts with the other lenders and I just wanted to know how long would you wait for them to send them because it’s been 2week and I’ve also sent a further email after a week asking for them to send me an email to say they have received this and if they could give a timescale but still not heard anything.
Just wanting to know so I can put my complaint in?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well obviously it’s not a very strong case, but it is worth taking forward, just keep your expectations low.
I suggest you send the other lenders a rather vague complaint, fir example “I borrowed several times / a lot from you in 2011 and 2012. Those loans were unaffordable. I will be able to give more details after I get the list of the loans I have asked for.” Plus any other bits form the stage two complaint letter in the article above that seem relevant.
Can you try to get a list of your loans by looking at your emails, your bank statements and your credit record?
steve says
very similar to me , good luck
Clair says
Yes I have all my bank statements from then so I can look back it’s just hard working it all out as some companies used different names and then to figure out the interest etc.. but I shall give it a go.
Thank you
Joanna says
My Wonga case went in the queue for an Ombudsman at the beginning of January. However, an Ombudsman looked at the case last week and has seen things in my favour. I just wanted to share this with you because I know that some people are waiting for nearly 4 months for an Ombudsman.
Michelle says
Hi Joanna
I’ve had one waiting ombudsman since dec and still not assigned ?
My adjudicator upheld my complaint in full last week and the next day Wonga rejected to ombudsman, with your complaint what did your adjudicator say and did the ombudsman rule any differently
Thanks
Joanna says
Hi Michelle,
My adjudicator said that out of the 6 Wonga loans, only the first was affordable. They did not do sufficient checks on my bank statements. The Ombudsman agreed and said the same, they went into more detail about the lack of affordability.
I’m very grateful that this case has taken 5 weeks to be assigned to an Ombudsman
Kealey says
Hi just a quick question I emailed qq asking for a statement of account they have got back to me asking me to provide bank statements from the time I had the loans, pay slips which I no longer have and any other relevant information from the time I took out the loans, but didn’t send me a statement of my account should I send them the information they have asked for? Sorry if it seems like a stupid question I have no idea what I’m doing ??
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not a stupid question! QQ have treated your request for a statement of account as an affordability complaint so they are asking you for more details. If you want to be charitable you could think that they would like these so they can look at your complaint in detail. However as they hardly ever make anyone a reasonable offer, most people here think they are doing this just to try to put people off from continuing with their case :(
If your complaint goes to the Ombudsman (and most QQs will because they don’t make good offers) you will probably be asked for your bank statements and credit record at that point, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t have them now or if you do but don’t want to give them to a payday lender.
You could reply something along the lines of “I have asked you for details of my loans. When I have those I will be able to supply more information about why the loans you gave me were unaffordable. I will supply bank statements and my credit record to the Ombudsman if necessary.”
Andrew says
If anyone has accepted any offers from lenders my advice would be to get on the phone to them after you’ve accepted.
I accepted an offer from Wonga last Thursday and didn’t get any acknowledgement that they received my acceptance or any indication as to how long it would be.
Rang them yesterday and got a confirmation email yesterday stating the funds would be in my account in 3-5 days.
Have a felling it would’ve just sat there for a while if I hadn’t rang.