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?
Shell says
Hi Sara
Has Different money been sold to United Kash?
Thanks.
Michelle says
Hi Shell and Sara
I had an outstanding loan with different money and they wrote to customers last year to say debt would be sold on as they were closing, their website shows that they were not accepting new business.
I put my complaint in at end of October had some communication then all went quiet, finally got response back in December offering 1 of the loans from 6 I had taken to be refunded.
On the basis they were closing and united Kash took a reduced offer to clear loan I took the money as I didn’t want this to go to the FOS and then not be able to get hold of anyone.
I’m unsure if they have any staff left now as I saw an article saying one of the senior managers had taken a job with car finance 247
The e mail contact I had was eleanorross@differentmoney.co.uk
Mike says
Hi,
I believe affordability rules apply to all loans not just payday ones.
I have a loan with Everyday loans which takes all my surplus income to pay. After expenses & other loans I have £310 left yet everday have allowed me a loan of £300 per month. They didnt do any income assessment as I was already a good customer always paying on time. But now I feel totally stressed knowing I have to pay my entire surplus to them. I was previously paying £230 and that was a nightmare also.
I thought there where general rules like 50% of surplus income or 50% of salary or something.
Do you think I have a case against them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The affordability rules do apply to all lenders. I don’t there are any general rules of that sort.
Did they not ask for proof on income?
I think this sounds like a reasonable complaint.
Wendy says
Hi just to say that I received an email from cash genie to say that they have received the lump sum they have been waiting for. They said that the longest waiting will get their refund first and so on. Ive been waiting since september so heres hoping I will get cheque soon lol. Did anybody else receive this email from beth? Thanks. Wendy
susan marko says
just recieved this for :
am emailing to let you know that RSM have informed me that the funds that Cash Genie were waiting for have now been received.
This means that RSM will be able to start processing the payments in batches. The payments will be processed in time order, with those that have been waiting the longest being dealt with first. There will be two payment runs in March and then RSM will run monthly payment runs until the backlog is resolved. Please be patient as there is a high volume of payments to process and the statutory interest payments will need to be calculated. RSM will send your payment as soon as they are able to do so.
As soon as I am told which payment run your cheque will be part of, I will be in touch to advise you of the timings, but until then, I will not be able to give you more specific information.
Marie says
PDUK have responded with the below. Yet I haven’t lodged a complaint yet, I have literally asked for a statement. when I call the number on the email it just rings and no one answers. Is this their way of delaying things?
I have gone back to say that I haven’t made a complaint, and that I would like a copy of my statement!
has anyone else experienced similar?
“Re: Your Complaint against PaydayUK.
Thank you for your communication, we are sorry that you feel you have cause for complaint and appreciate you making us aware of this issue. We assure you that your complaint will be investigated by Customer Relations and enclose a copy of PaydayUK’s Customer Complaints Handling Procedure for your information.
A reply will be sent to you in writing once we have completed our review and this letter is called a ‘Final Response’. Whilst we try to respond within four weeks of receiving your complaint, if this is not possible we will let you know. The Financial Conduct Authority gives us a maximum of eight weeks to respond to any complaint. The ‘Final Response’ letter will inform you of the following:
You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within six months of the date of the ‘Final Response’ letter.
If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.
A leaflet from the Financial Ombudsman Service will be enclosed for your information with your ‘Final Response’ letter. You can visit their website at http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk which gives guidance on how to refer your complaint for their review.
Should you wish to contact PaydayUK with any further information or queries regarding this issue, please either telephone or email us using the details below. Our telephone opening hours are from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s probably a good idea to put in an outline of your complaint and say you will supply more details when they sent you the statement of account. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/
Charlotte Clark says
Hi I emailed payday UK for statements they said as I owe no money they are not obligated to send them so I made my complaint without it. They’ve just replied 5 weeks later saying I had 7 loans between 2008 and 2009 as its out of the 6 year limit they can’t do anything about it and the FO will probably not act as it’s over 6 years. I’m still waiting in regards to payday express which they’ve done as a separate complaint
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FO will look at loans over 6 years old, I suggest you send your complaint to them.
Matt S says
Has anyone tried and had any luck complaining about overdraft interest and charges from your bank?
Back in 2012-2014 I had a bad gambling problem which led to me getting into the payday loan cycle and eventually entering debt management in June 2013 with around £6000+ of payday loan debts. In April 2014 I logged into my online banking (Nationwide) and in my offers there was a link to apply for an overdraft. I put in £1000 not expecting to get accepted and surprisingly they gave me it. Over the next 2 months this was increased to £4000. Having checked my statements from the time over the 2 month period when my overdraft got increased to £4000 I spent £3929 on gambling. My statements at the time are around 6-7 pages long pretty much all gambling transactions.
Over the past 34 months I have been unable to reduce my overdraft any and having added everything up I’ve paid around £1750 in interest with £900 of charges.
Is it reasonable to suggest that originally giving me the overdraft was irresponsible and unaffordable due to my gambling issues (which I know they could see as they brought it up with me recently) and the fact I had a shockingly bad credit report with defaults and also had been in debt management for around 9 months when they gave me the overdraft?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not sure I think a bank should routinely scrutinise its clients spending patterns and decline credit if there is any gambling, but a bank should have carried out an affordability assessment before giving you the overdraft initially and then each time it increased it. As a credit check would have shown arrangements to pay and defaults, the original decision to lend was probably irresponsible, and certainly the later increases were. If a bank is unsure, of course it could look at your expenditure and then the gambling would have showed where the problem was and also the monthly payment to your DMP firm.
I would say this is a good case and you should take it to the Ombudsman if Nationwide reject it.
Lucy says
Hi i have made a complaint to lloyds regarding overdrafts. They let me max one out to £1500 even though i had credit card, loan with them, mortgage and lots of caralogues. They then let me open another account at the same time with them and up an overdraft from £100 to £1000 within one month. I never have any income left to pay any off either overdraft each month so i have to pay interest each month and have done for about 5 years. Had a letter of aknowledgement within 2 weeks but not heard anything else yet
Charlotte Clark says
A few yeas ago I made a claim to Lloyds and Barclay’s regarding fees and I got the fees taken off my debt with Lloyds. Barclay’s gave me a £75 cheque as goodwill.
Nesta says
Evening, i’ve had a response today from Sunny and sadly it wasn’t the response i had hoped for. They have flat out rejected my complaint, despite me having used them for 2 and a half years flat out i either topped up loans in the early months since that stopped i paid one loan off on payday and immeadiately on the same day reloaned again. My case maybe looks weak to them because my salary is 1670 but i was only ever repaying a maximum of £350 a month to them.
I am going to take this to the FOS because if the loan was affordable why am i still in the cycle. Why am i re-loaning again once the payment has been made for the last loan.
I heard positive things about Sunny but i’m very disappointed with how they have treated my claim.
Neil says
Nesta – my experience was similar to yours. Don’t let their rejection put you off! I was in a similar position to you, and just took it to the FOS. Held up a bit as my adjudicator is now on a 2-week holiday but I’m confident of a decision soon.
I think Sunny probably look at the data available to them and make their affordability decision on that basis. As the Ombudsman Decision website shows, they don’t always get this right ;-)
Dave says
Appreciate all the comments on here. Thank you for the support. Complaint updates ————-
QQ – Initial complaint sent on 22nd January 2017. All statements of borrowing sent within 3 weeks. Half were sent, but I had to chase up the rest and that took another 10 days but at least I have got them. Interest is currently standing at £11,500 over 6 years. Nothing heard now for nearly 2 weeks with 3 weeks until able to pass to FO. Almost all loans from Mar11 to April 14 were continuous with all ending and starting on EXACTLY the same date.
Lending Stream – Initial complaint sent on 22nd January 2017. Acknowledged complaint quickly and offered £140 goodwill payment for two of my smallest loans. This was rejected. Have all statements from their website and loans were continuous from Mar11 to June13. Interest is £2,500.
Sunny – Initial complaint sent on 1st February 2017. Acknowledged within two weeks. I sent additional information to support my complaint two weeks ago, but heard nothing since. Interest about £2000 from continuous loans from Sep14-Dec16.
Wonga – Not a dicky bird since initial complaint on 22nd January 2017. Had e mail yesterday about being busy and another 8 weeks to review the complaint. No statements sent either. Suspect interest could be close to £8000 but that’s a guess.
Got my credit report form Noddle to find out lots of the details I needed. Need Wonga to provide statements. They actually issued a default on one of my loans back at the start of 2014. This is wrong as I have the proof on my bank statements that I paid it off but have always been too scared to check my CR. This mistake could actually work in my favour maybe as they issued another loan immediately in terms of loan history and QQ and Sunny issued loans for years after and must have ignored this Wonga default. I know I didn’t default as I have never ever missed a payment on any of my loans. It’s their mistake, but I would think looks bad as they appear to loan back to me within days of the default being applied to my account – as well as the other companies. I’m not telling them about this yet and I am keeping it to myself. It’s their error.
Clair says
Hi,
I have just received two letters one from payday uk and one from payday express saying they have given my overdue loan over to another company one £250 and one £350 left to pay.
I emailed them 2weeks ago asking for my statements of accounts I know that I borrowed over £1000 and paid even more than this back with each company.
Should I contact this new company and explain that I am putting in a complaint, I don’t have the money to pay these straight off so should I set up a repayment plan? Not really sure where I stand now with this?
Also payday uk and express (I know they run under the same name) haven’t sent me my statements through yet I am still awaiting there response from this.
Any advise would be appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Write to payday UK & Express giving an outline of your complaint and say you will send further details when they have supplied the statement of your account. As you have loans outstanding with them, you will get the Statement at some point.
Yes tell the debt collector that the account is in dispute, it’s probably a good idea to set up a repayment plan – this won’t harm your complaint.
Maureen says
Hi, Below is the first and final response from cash genie and they’ve rolled over very easily!
I have looked into your complaint (the supporting data is attached) and I can see that you are due £140 in interest payments and charges, as despite Cash Genie staff completing manual affordability checks, we understand that the system affordability assessment’s that were in place at this time did not run for the account in question. As a result of this system error, an offer to refund any additional interest and charges that were applied to the following loan is being made:
Loan ID: xxxxxxxxx – interest paid £113
Charges paid £27
Loan date: 10/09/2012
The refund is to be offered as full and final settlement. However, you will also be entitled to statutory interest from the date of your loan, which will be calculated by RSM and added to the amount of £140 when payment is made.
This will mean that you will have repaid the capital only and your account is now closed in full.
RSM will post a cheque payment. However, ‘as you are aware, Cash Genie was placed into liquidation on 5 January 2016. As you are owed funds from the Company you are classed as an unsecured creditor and the Joint Liquidators will seek to make full payment to you in due course. Dividends (payment runs) have been on hold for the last few months and are resuming in March, with those that have been waiting the longest being dealt with first. RSM will run monthly payment runs from this point, until the backlog is resolved. Please be patient as there is a high volume of payments to process and the statutory interest payments for these will need to be calculated. RSM will send your payment as soon as they are able to do so. In the meantime, your debt will continue to accrue statutory interest at 8% per annum.
As soon as I am in a position to provide you with a further update about the timing of your payment, I will let you know.
Please can you confirm your acceptance and the full address of where you would like the cheque to be sent?
Trading name of Ariste Holding Ltd in liquidation
linda says
That’s good news they are starting to post the cheque’s again I am due £480 plus the 8% and accepted my offer on 29/10/2016, so hopefully will get payment in March.
Katie says
Got my first offer back today from Mr Lender. They didn’t accept that they had lent irresponsibly but offered me £295 as a goodwill gesture. I accepted as it was the full interest in my second loan. It is my smallest claim as I only took out two loans from them. I was impressed at their speedy response as I only sent my complaint email a couple of days ago. The money was in my account 2 hours later too ! One PDL down only 15 to go ! Most of my complaint emails were sent in January and I’ve heard nothing apart from acknowledgement emails. Fingers crossed for more refunds.
Nigel says
Since I first complained to the Money Shop (May 2016) It has been a hell of a journey. I eventually got offered £243 at the begining of December. I refused and took that one to the FOS. Its taken up until today for my adjudicator to get a statement of my account from them. Plus a new offer £573 now! Well it just so happens that I have paid over £4,500 in Interest in the period May 2010 – November 2013. So you can imagine that I have of course turned down the offer and have asked my adjudicator to now review everything. Its been a long one this and one of my first complaints back in May last year, but at last due to the nature of paying cash and debits for extensions I can at last see how much the robbed me for!
nattalie says
Hey
I don’t understand some of the timescales
I had a complaint with Drafty AKA lending stream
Sunny, my jar and wonga. Wonga is the biggest. I complained early November and all of them went to FOS apart from sunny who settled immediately in a very good way.
LS and adjudicator have rejected because was only one loan. However they agree to reduce the OS balance by 15% and my jar adjudicator found in my favor they have paid out. So only wonga left which is all most £10.000 so only one I really cared about. Wonga offered £1450 that o rejected. It’s now with adjudicator so fingers crossed
michellew says
Money shop rejected my claim and I have now passed this to FOS who have asked if I wanted the loans older than 6 years looking at, which I agreed. However, just received a statement of my loans from MS who have sent it in from November 10 – I put my claim in October 16 (so this will within the 6 years) and they have said that as I do not owe them anything on the previous loans they don’t have to send me the information.
On checking the statements from November 2010 to 2012 – I paid a staggering 1895.00 in roll over fees, and as I started using MS in 2006 if FOS can look at this far back and agree it should add up to quite a bit.
I put in 10 claims – 6 paid without going to FOS
1 went to FOS but made an offer before being looked at
3 still waiting – these are from the same company, PDUK, Money Express and Money Shop
Michelle
Jim Friery says
Hi folks
Well i received my statement of account back from Wonga and QQ.
I also checked my bank statements over last 6 years and discovered that with QQ
Loans total £3250
Repayments total £4782.51
With WongaLoans total £1301
Repayments total £1748.24
During myn checks of statement also discovered that i was in debt management programme st time. This would have been known had they bothered with credit checks.
I have sent this info to both lenders.
Allison says
Hi, just an update on pduk, I had an email saying that they needed another 4 weeks to investigate further. I actually rang them and they were quite helpful, They said they would waiver the £1 fee to get me my statement s! !! So worth ringing if anyone having the same response. Hope this helps anyone else dealing with pduk
Lucy says
My adjudicator agreed the loans were unaffordble and they had until yesterday to respond. I asked if there were any updates and the adjudicator says the company have asked for more information? What does that mean? What other information would they need? Worried the adjudicator will now change his mind? Thanks
Ross says
Hi Lucy,
Which company has your adjudicator found in your favour against? I can’t really see what information they could ask for, from the adjudicator, as it’s normally the other way around i.e. the adjudicator needs the info from the company and not so much the other way around. Is the adjudicator able to tell you what ‘further information’ they require and how it may affect your case?
Lucy says
Hi i asked him if i needed to send him any more information and he said no not at this stage? Its with QQ
Lucy says
This is what he put
Thank you for your email.
In regards to your Quick Quid complaint, we are still awaiting a response from the business as they have requested further information. Once there is an update for you , I will be in contact.
Ross says
Maybe QQ want some more details on how he reached his conclusion(s)? I wouldn’t worry too much, it’s up to QQ to provide HIM with information to contest why they think his decision is not correct. It’s also, possibly, a stalling tactic. I’ve had a QQ complaint on hold, since November 2016, as they are objecting to the FOS looking at loans more than 6 years old. I can forfeit the loans which are more than 6 years old, if I want my complaint to be investigated now, but my adjudicator advised against this, as it’s a tidy sum if and when the FOS rule the can look at these loans. It’s just a waiting game now….
Pete L says
Hi would love some advice if possible. I’ve read through this page and it’s been a real eye opener. I’ll start off by being very honest. I had a huge gambling problem in my past, hence why I’m here now writing to you good people. I just checked my bank statements and seen I borrowed nearly £5000 from wonga alone from end of December (24th) 2012 to 17th March 2014. Quite a few of these loans were made either the same day as paying back the previous one or a day or few after. Surely they must of known there was a problem there? I also borrowed from two other payday loan companies. 1 of which was to pay back wonga at some point and the other was quick quid which was only 3 loans but escalated from borrowing £150 on 16th Dec, paid back £44 two weeks later then was allowed to borrow an extra £300 couple of weeks later (8th jan) whilst still owing. Then somehow paid back £484 the following day (have a feeling family helped me out) then regrettably they let me have £650 loan just 7 days later. Which I paid back £793.80 just 8 days after borrowing. Sickening to look back on.
Sorry for the essay I just wanted to know if you feel I should contact them? I worked full-time but was on barely over minimum wage at the time. Just had my second daughter not long before all this started. What a mess! Thanks in advance for any advice you could give. Pete
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like a very good claim against Wonga. And reasonable claim againt QQ that they should not have given you the last loan. The one loan from another lender – probably not worth pursuing unless you rolled it a lot?
Pete L says
Problem is the one with the other lender (pounds to pocket) is still on my debt management to this day. Maybe not worth going for that one then. Thanks for the reply.
Ross says
Hi Pete,
How much was the loan for with Pounds 2 Pocket? I had one for £1000, and they rejected my claim. However, my adjudicator upheld my complaint, as he took in to consideration all of the other borrowing I had at the same time as taking out the P2P loan. They settled after the adjudicators decision, surprisingly, but not before they tried to haggle with the amount they should’ve refunded (I got the full amount, eventually).
Pete L says
Thanks for the replies, its not as much as the others but. still feel shouldnt of got them, credit was obviously terrible. I just looked at my old bank statements. I originally borrowed £400 from P2P on 21/10/13 to pay off a wonga loan. Paid back £22.94 a fortnight later then it went to £28.68 a fortnight for the next 6 fortnights (so £195.02) til i then paid it off at £337.77 so on that loan paid back £532.79 altogether. then 3 weeks later got another £400. Paid three lots of £33.79 before my DMP started. Not sure what remaining balance is now p2p sold the loan on and i dont get updates from stepchange. Only 2 other things on my DMP which is a vodafone contract that got flogged on again and the worst one is BarclayCard who for someone who had awful credit and all them other loans they gave me a Credit card with £1000 limit which i obviously blew. Not sure how they worked out i was accepting of that kind of limit.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so this wasn’t just one loan, it was a couple. If you ask StepChange, they can say how much you have since repaid.
The Barclaycard – how dreadful was your credit record when they gave you this limit? See https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/ as to whether you may be able to get a refund because this was unaffordable.
simon says
Hi Everyone,
Please could I have some advise, I have heard back from Speedy Cash and they have advised:
Loan 1 17/11/2011 – £200 deferred twice paying £50 each time, then defaulted and incurred £12.50 charge, then made six payments of £10 towards the account, the loan has a current balance of £202.50 owed.
Loan 2 04/04/2012 – £250 (taken out whist still having debt from loan 1) Deferred 5 times paying £62.50 each time, the defaulted and charged £12.50, then made 2 payments of £75 to the account, this loan has current balance of £175 owed.
They have upheld my complaint as should not have been given loan 2 so have offered £429.23 redress made of £312.50 charges/interest and £116.73 of 8% interest for loan 2 only, they have proposed the following to resolve it.
Waive any interest from loan two so that only the principle balance of £250 is payable.
Deduct the payments made to date on loan two (£150) which leave a balance of £100.
Use the above redress to write off the balance which leaves a remaining redress of £329.23
Use the above redress to write off the balance of loan 1 (£202.50)
Provide the remaining £126.73 to your nominated bank account.
Dose the sound right has my head is now spinning with all the numbers and dates got a bit lost?
Thank you.
Ross says
This seems fair to me, especially as It was only for 2 loans? Sara would agree in saying that trying to win cases for 1-2 loans is hard (my adjudicator made me aware that in all my cases, the first couple of loans would be disregarded, as they class these loans as a ‘getting to know you’ exercise and the company wouldn’t necessarily know you that well, at this point, especially if the loans are for small amounts). In effect, both loans will be cleared and you’ll have £126 in your back pocket, so I (personally) would snatch their hands off!
simon says
Hi Ross,
Thank you, I was thinking the same but wanted a fresh set of eyes to check. Will go ahead and agree it.
Thank you to every one for there assistance and especially Sara for this amazing website!
Ally says
Hi All
Wonga update and advice please.
I have received an offer off Wonga for £2900 this includes 8% and is for 8 of the 28 loans, they have picked out the loans that were over £1,000 and offered on those. I was looking about £6,200 for 24 loans I knocked off first loans in each section of borrowing.
My claim started on 22nd October and I waited till 9th December for my statements, which is when I put in my affordability claim. they were due to come back to me on 31st Jan and asked for more time. However, I had already sent this to FOS and my adjudicator told me last week they had asked the business for more information and they have till next week to get back to them.
If I wait to find out my adjudicators decision and they find less than the offer will they let me know before Wonga so I can accept this offer?
Are Wonga good at accepting Adjudicators findings? Or do they push to Ombudsman?
Do Wonga negotiate? Quick Quid refused to negotiate.
Thanks
Ally
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the adjudicator thinks Wonga’s offer is more than they would have said, they will say that the Wonga offer appears fair and recommend you accept it. We haven’t seen a case where an adjudicator has said LESS than a lender has offered.
Wonga do accept a reasonable number of adjudicator’s findings. I can’t remember anyone saying they have negotiated an offer upwards with them.
Joanna says
Just to recap on my Wonga situation. I took out 6 loans with them between 2010 and 2011. My adjudicator said that the interest on loans 2-6 should be refunded. Wonga came back with a settlement figure of £1000, I rejected because it should actually be around £1600. It went to an Ombudsman in the first week of January 2017, it was swiftly looked at last week and the Ombudsman agreed with the adjudicator. Yesterday, I received an email from a member of the Wonga FOS team to confirm that they would deposit the money into my account within 28 days. I gave them a call and they put me through to the same person that my adjudicator was speaking with and she made sure that the sum of £1600 was deposited into my account this afternoon!
I know that some cases are taking a very long while and the wait can be quite frustrating, but what I picked up from this woman’s voice in the Wonga FOS team was that in her tone she appeared happy that she was refunding the money back to people. Even though it’s a job for them, I sense that they feel that the high interest rates are wrong too!
Thanks again Sara, your immense help is good Karma for you X
Dave says
I have quickquid defaults on callcredit, but not on the others. It depends who they have reported it to.
Claire says
Hi Sarah,
I am currently trying to clear my credit report up and am going through pay day loans that I had during 2010 and 2012 during this time I got into financial difficulties and ended up having to enter into a DMP, I defaulted on some of the pay day loans. I had a loan with money box 247 and borrowed £205 there is £15 left outstanding. I decided to make a complaint that due my circumstances at the time I feel that they should have not provided me with an unaffordable loan. I asked for a refund of the interest and fees. They have offered to write off the balance of £15 and state that I am not entitled to a refund as no interest or fees were added to the account over the principal amount, however fees and interest are clearly shown on the statement of account. The default is due to drop off next year. Should I accept their offer to write off the outstanding balance or pursue my complaint if I have grounds? Any advice would be appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Where a lender has made a clear factual error, I suggest going bank to them and pointing it out. Say how much the interest and fees added up to. Also be clear what you would be prepared to settle for e.g. “In the interest of a quick resolution I am prepared to accept a refund of £x and having the defaulted loan deleted from my credit file.”
Daniel says
Hi,
If someone could give me some advice it would be much appreciated.
I have put in a complaint to QQ, they originally offered me £600 and a balance of £430 cleared. I rejected this and sent it to the FOS. The adjudicator has since contacted me with an offer of £1083 again with my remaining balance cleared. I intended to reject this but having looked at my old statements I’m concerned how they look.
My partner helped me financially on many occasions. So in some months I had well over 3 times my actually basic earnings going into my bank. You can see pretty clearly I was in financial trouble getting paid £867 most months with bills of Ls, QQ, Wonga and Littlewoods easily taking £600+ before rent of £300-450.
My worry is will the adjudicator look at the transfers between me and my partner and say I had enough to cover the cost. Or will he see I was paying over have my income on payday lenders and catalogues.
I don’t want to turn down the £1083 and then adjudicator favour with QQ.
Also QQ have said I had a flexi loan when I had to set up a financial hardship payment plan, has anyone experience this before as adjudicator has informed me I can’t claim a flexi loan back.
I have borrowed over 10k with interest of £3000 and defaulted twice with QQ in 5 years.
Any advice would be great I have a deadline of 7th of March 2017 to reply to adjudicator.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If your bank account is complicated, it needs to be explained in detail to your adjudicator. An approach some people in similar circumstances have found useful is to pick a couple of months at random in the middle of your borrowing, not the best/worst, and look at them in detail – what your payments to lenders were, essential bills, transfers from partner, new borrowing. Presumably without the new borrowing you would have ended up much deeper in the red that month, so the previous borrowing was not affordable. Also look at how you and your partner split the bills – was some if the money from partner to pay the rent say? Or did you pay the rent and they paid the council tax and electric?
Your partner isn’t expected to pay your debts. Although the explaining can be complicated most adjudicators are fine when they see what is really happening. The figures you quote sound like this should be straightforward. Also borrowing over a long period tells its own story.
The flexi loan claim sounds odd but you CAN claim back interest from a flexi loan, be persistent and tell the adjudicator it wasn’t affordable. Also if the “flexi loan” is a repayment arrangement for a loan that was unaffordable, then that loan should not have been given – this is the point to emphasise. If you then told the lender you couldn’t repay it, they should have frozen interest not continued to add more.
You clearly have a strong case – you have been offered what is for QQ an unusually large amount. Don’t forget that 8% interest on these old loans adds up, so you are still being offered less than half of what you may get.
The QQ offer is now the lowest you will get. We have never seen a case where an adjudicator decided on less than the lender offered.
Laura says
I had payments from my mum and friends in my account , my adjudicator asked me to explain what these payments were for , this actually helped my claims as proved I was also relying on others to help meet the payments and make ends meet
Mark says
Waiting on three cases now having started in May 2016.
Payday UK – I am part of a big batch of cases that have been sent ‘in bulk’ back to payday UK to consider for post 6 years. My adjudicator cant tell me anymore than he is pretty sure I am in this batch of cases. Quite frustrating but not his fault.
24 / 7 – Ombudsman ruled in my favour but issued a provisional final decision because he didn’t agree with adjudicator on one loan out of 15, otherwise it would have been a final decision. 24 7 given to the 9 March to provide more info or it will be final decision.
Toothfairy – I have been added to the creditors list and waiting payout however the % I will get from the liquidators is not decided (ie they are deciding on what % of my final decision I should get as they wont payout in full) and I have been advised of a long wait.
Been trying to get these out of my mind recently as the wait is hard after 10 months
Zoe says
I emailed QQ on Sunday 19th Feb 17, asking for statements of the accounts i have had. They have just emailed me received a s/sheet detailing this info with a standard response. On 27 loans between 09/08- 08/14 i repaid interest of £2331! Despite me only asking for a statement they advise they are going to investigate my complaint (which I havent actually sent them yet!). However, as they treated my initial email as a complaint, I guess the 8 week clock starts ticking from then?
I will happily provide statements (when i get them that far back) to the Ombudsman, but dont feel happy to provide them to QQ. Will this be an issue?
“Thank you for contacting QuickQuid to request a statement of account. Please find the requested information attached to this correspondence. I acknowledge receipt of your complaint and I am sorry to learn of your dissatisfaction. [complaint handling info]
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 ”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is now QQ’s standard response. Yes the 8 weeks clock has started ticking. It would be good to write a detailed complaint as you now have the loan details and send that to them – you could start by saying “Here is some additonal information about the complaint I sent you on dd/mm/yy”. You don’t have to provide bank statements or payslips or a copy of your credit record. You can if you like but some people prefer not to give this personal information to a payday lender, though they are happy to give them to the Financial Ombudsman (the FO will typically ask for bank statements and your current credit record).
QQ may reject your complaint about loans older than 6 years old because of their age – but the Ombudsman is now looking at older loans.
Matthew says
Just had a reply from Payday UK with a final statement denying I’m owed anything.
The reasons they have gave me are that I met their lending criteria before I took any loan out, that I filled out expenditure forms, and that I did not tell them I was experencing financial difficulties until after my loan was due to be repaid.
This is even though they also state in the same letter than I took one roll, and rolled it over, followed by a further 4, which 3 of got rolled over.
I am going to still push ahead with the Ombudsman, however I feel sapped of all confidence I had while awaiting their response.
Ross says
Hi Matthew,
Payday UK rejected my complaint, the same as you. However, I forwarded it to the FOS and my adjudicator upheld my complaint. I expected it to require an ombudsman to have the final say, but Payday UK (surprisingly) agreed to pay out on the adjudicators recommendations. Please don’t feel disheartened, it’s a game they love to play. They’re hoping you’ll just give up and walk away, please don’t!
kevin says
Just had word back from 2 of my 12 payday loans. Lightning loans paid off the 450 i had left on the balance plus gave me a 100 goodwill and sorted the default so good result from them and the guy was very easy to deal with. They denied any wrong doing as they all do but still got a good result.
24/7 moneybox have wrote off my 350 loan and sorted my default to paid in full.
Quick quid , cheque centre , myjar , have replied saying they did no wrong , so off to the ombudman with them.
Wonga still replying weekly saying they are struggling with time because they are so busy. They have 1 week left of the 8 so looks like that will be off to the ombudsman too.
Cash 4 you now have not replied at all thats getting close to the 8 week mark now as well.
JORDAN says
247 Money box said they are doing that for me as well but 10 days later my balance is still outstanding. How long did they take to clear your balance?
Maggie says
Hi just to say if you have a complaint with safeloans now sll capital email to Complaints address on their website. Had loans including over 6 Years old and in less than 2 weeks got £1000 in redress paid into my Account the same day! Maybe not as much as FOS would have offered but considering the timescale, and only 1 email i put this to bed satisfactorily for me.
Mr Lender paid 50% of charges and interest again after 1 email and over 6 Years old. Should be in my Account within 5 days so another one done. 4 to go but good result so far thanks to this site xx
Zoe says
Hello Sara
Asking for some advice – after having an original final response from Lending Stream saying they would not uphold my complaint, I pursued this asking them to reconsider. LS then sent a further response and I then accepted an offer from Lending Stream, perhaps naively. I had 13 loans with them in total and they agreed to refund charges on 4 of them ( according to LS because they were taken out in quick succession) but I am now in receipt of bank statement showing borrowing and repayments. I borrowed a total of £1390 from from March 2012 to Dec 2012. I repaid 3151.98 in total, equating to £1761.98 in interest. LS refunded me £399.75. Would I be able to go back afterLS’s final response and accepting this refund, and would I be allowed to refer this to the FO, or again because I accepted this refund is this now not possible?
Thanks so much for this site btw and your advice would be gratefully received
Zoe
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think you can go back to LS or to the FO I am afraid, you have accepted their offer in settlement of your complaint :(
Unless LS said something that was very misleading – if they had said the wrong number of loans say.
Neil says
Hiya Sarah.
I complained to Pounds till Payday about some payday loans I had with them around 2011/12.
I didn’t hear nothing,because apparently they are not covered by the FOS here,as they were based in Malta at the time.
I couldn’t afford to pay some of these loans,and I have had a letter from Motormile finance via some law firm that I owe £282.
They have offered me a 50% discount to pay it,but should I pay it?
Vic
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Neil,
blast from the past – haven’t heard from you for 6 months!
re Pounds Till Payday, read https://debtcamel.co.uk/swift-sterling-pounds-till-payday/. the reclaim process is totally different.
Joanne says
I put in two complaints to Pounds to pocket and their sister company Quick quid at the end of September. I had several loans from both of them. The same person from their customer service department sent me an emailing asking me to send bank statements and wage slips. I sent them everything. They rejected my complaint in November. My adjudicator has now upheld both complaints, but on the day of the deadline for their response before it goes to an Ombudsman, they said that I never sent them bank statements. Fortunately, I kept the sent emails, but my adjudicator said that I have no need to send them onto him because P2P and QQ are stalling by asking for this again. Has anyone had any success with them?
Lucy says
Hi i have a complaint with the adjudicator for QQ and he agreed with me. On the last day they had to respond they have asked for more information from him but he hasnt said what that information is? I Wonder if its bank statements too? Maybe just stalling
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am glad you have proof they are lying. (Why mince words?)
But your adjudicator is quite correct – you weren’t obliged to send them this information. Lots of people have had good results against QQ and P2P. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/ which I have updated this morning with a lot of recent examples.
Ross says
Hi Joanne,
I had complaints with both Quick Quid and Pounds 2 Pocket. Pounds 2 Pocket rejected my complaint, but my adjudicator upheld it. Pounds 2 Pocket offered to refund 50% of what the adjudicator recommended. I rejected this, and advised my adjudicator that I would only accept the full amount, which he had recommended when investigating my case. Surprisingly, Pounds 2 Pocket came back to him, later in the day, to advise they would pay the full amount. The money was in my account later that night.
My Quick Quid complaint is currently on hold. Some of my loans are more than 6 years old and the FOS are deliberating over whether they can investigate these, or not. My adjudicator has recommended that I wait, as the amount from these loans could be considerate. I could sign away my right to have these loans investigated and just stick to the ones which are within the 6 year time limit, but it seems a no brainer. I’m sure Quick Quid would be delighted if I did, so I won’t be giving them that satisfaction. Good luck!
Joanne says
Hi Ross and Sara
Thank you for letting me know. I’m a bit paranoid about both companies and was weary about making a complaint. I started borrowing from them because I wasn’t getting child maintenance payments to support my children. When I fell behind, I was in contact with the collections department, a collections department staff member that is based in the US disclosed to me that the reason why I wasn’t getting maintenance payments was they knew my ex husband. He was using his money to fly out to the US because his fiancee (now wife) was out there and lived in the same state as their office. Naturally I was shocked by this news. The collections department then became very lenient with me and allowed me to borrow regularly. They even called me when I stopped borrowing to check that I was okay!
Adam says
I took various payday loans out a few years ago and got into some difficulty paying them and so left them so to speak, I was taking multiple out and rolling them over borrowing more just to get by etc….
Anyway one company payday UK increased the original £200 to £946.52 and have eventually given up chasing me, and have now sold the debt to PRAC, who want me to agree a repayment plan with BWLegal ……..
The BW Legal letter basically saying pay us we an offer a 10% discount and you pay us £851.87. If you settle you balance it will be marked as “settled on your credit file……
So I have two questions please?
1. On Noddle it says PayDay UK is satisfied and my balance is nothing?
2. Referring to point one, I can not find any information about this purchased debt on my file, so what should I write to BW Legal?? Also is emailing okay instead of writing a letter??
Any advice welcome, thank you in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your first question, this is what normally happens when a creditor sells a debt to a debt collector. It doesn’t mean that your debt has been written off.
Emailing is fine, but before you decide what to do, did you have more loans with Payday Uk before the one you didn’t pay?
Do you have other problems debts? Are you able to settle this debt if necessary?
Adam says
I had about 3 loans with Payday UK before that one, and I do have a number of other payday loans outstanding, MyJar (I borrowed off them and repaid them constantly until I couldn’t afford to pay them back (about 32 times)), quickquid, wonga (though that was written off), peachy, and a few others.
I am not a position to settle that debt in full, however if they took away the £700+ interest I would. Do you think the firm that brought this would??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, then I suggest you consider putting in Affordability Complaints to all pay day lenders you used more than a couple of times, so including PDUK, see the above article for details.
If you decide to to do this for PDUK, you should then inform PRAC and BW Legal that you dispute the account and ask them to hold any enforcement action until your complaint either Payday UK has been resolved. So far we haven’t seen any debt collector that has tried to start court action whilst a complaint is in progress. It would be against their regulators rules.
Mike says
Has anyone got a case that is still waiting with the ombudsman with PaydayUK? The adjudicator found in my favour as they didn’t respond but when it was passed to the ombudsman I was told it wouldn’t progress until a decision on looking at cases that have already been partly redressed has been made by the FCA? This has been waiting since October. Would be good to know if anyone has any info on this.
Ross says
Hi Mike,
I don’t have a case with Payday UK, but I do have one pending for Payday Express. When you say ‘partly redressed’ would you mind saying how much you were originally refunded? I received a partial refund from Payday Express, which was (apparently) down to an error on their part and was only for £42. The figure I’m looking at from Payday Express is in the £1,000’s. The adjudicator upheld my complaint and they chose to ignore both of his deadlines (probably because they know they’re in the wrong, and are just keen to drag it out). I’m hoping this £42 doesn’t impact on my complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would be very surprised if this £42 affects your complaint. It is a complicating factor because the FOS wants to find a general way to handles these cases. this doesn’t mean it will be a big problem for you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There isn’t anything anyone knows about this. It is affecting quite a few complaints.
gillian says
can anyone help please i had 41 loans with lending stream over the last 6 years as well as 30 loans with quick quid loans with wageday advance sunny mr lender payday uk poundstill payday all at the same time i have asked quickquid and lending stream to look into repaying intrest but both have wrote back saying the loans were affordable at the time i also had a tsb loan in default a tsb credit card in default and freemans catalouge all passed to debt collecters due you think it will be worth going to the fca the intrest i paid on lending stream amounts to over 4000 pound and quick quid is near the 7000 pound in intrest ty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s a lot of borrowing – I suggest sending both Lending Stream and QuickQuid complaints to the Financial Ombudsman.
Nesta says
I’ve had a response from Lending Stream, they have agreed to write off my two existing loans totals to just under 370 but i’ve paid way more in interest. Should i counter the offer or refer to FOS?
I have paid over £2000 in interest alone
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well £370 to £2000+ is a big gap. But it will only take a couple of days if you want to tell them an amount you would be prepared to accept.
Simon says
Hi Sara,
After making my complaint in December, I have recently received an offer from Wonga (to which I have not replied). They state that their offer is subject to tax. However, my previous settlements from Mr Lender and WDA mentioned nothing of this. Would you suggest questioning this further? Also, my complaints of PDUK and PDEx are with FOS who have decided not to uphold them as my bank statements and incomings / outgoings don’t demonstrate that the loans were unaffordable. I explained that I was struggling with a gambling addiction and there were multiple loans taken out on the same day, numerous times. My statements show this. Is there anything else I can do on this matter?
I’m assuming that the adjudicator for my Wonga complaint will come to the same conclusion as it is the same person.
Thanks so much for your help and advice previously and now.
Simon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 8% statutory interest paid is subject to tax, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/. If your settlements with Mr Lender and WDA didn’t include extra 8% interest, there would have been no need for them to mention it.
If you think thing the PDUK and PDEX decision is unfair, I suggest you ask for it to go to the Ombudsman. People have had a poor decision changed by doing this – at this point you have little to lose.
Is the Wonga offer a good one? If it isn’t, then you should probably let the adjudicator take a look at this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Simon’s adjudicator decision wasn’t final. he gave the adjudicator more information and the adjducaor has now found in his favour. Let’s see if PDUK and PDEX accept.
gillian says
sorry to keep asking but i followed your link to ombudsman they asked to download emails i had from both companys i have these in my emails but do not know how to send them on will it make a differnce in my claim or will they be able to get the information they need from the companys ty
Laura says
with my e-mail I literally just “forwarded” them to my adjudicator , I think they do make a difference and its evidence your providing to back your case
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can’t work out how to send them with your complaint, you will later be able to forward them to the adjudicator when one is assigned.
gillian says
i have had a email from a adjudicater and have foward the emails i recieved from quickquid i have just signed up to noodels credit and checked my credit report it clearly shows the 3 defaults starting in 2012 for more than 7000 pound and a lot of accounts for payday lenders going on for 5 years but they all show as paid on time will this help my case or go agaisnt it because i always paid my payday loans on time but all my other accounts credit cards etc have late payments i only paid payday on time so i could borrow again just to get through month to month i have paid about 20000 pound in intrest to payday loans in the last 5 to 6 years ty
Jon says
Hi, first I would like to thank you for this incredibly informative and useful article.
I have just sent my complaints to 3 lenders who I have been borrowing from every month for the last 18 months. My question is, as I have outstanding balances on all 3 with payments due tomorrow do I need to make these payments while my complaint is open?
I did add in my letter that I have asked to suspend all collection activities but wanted to check I would not weaken my position if I did not pay? Thanks.
Ross says
Hi Jon,
Not repaying, on the due date, will not necessarily weaken your position. If you’re in a position where you can’t afford to pay, then this may actually help by proving the loans were unaffordable, from the start. However, please be aware that this could reflect on your credit record, if the companies decide to place late payment markers on it. If you win your case, with the lender direct or through the FOS, you can ask (or they can be directed) to remove all negative information from your credit file. If you’re able to pay, as normal, then I think you should, as you could receive this back anyway, if your complaint is upheld and all of the interest and charges are removed from the loan(s). Hope this helps and good luck!
Jon says
Hi Ross,
Thanks for your reply and sound advice.
I did suspect it would be best to pay but I am keen to break this cycle. My repayments tomorrow would be £600 and there is no doubt this is the root cause of the problem and what keeps me in this spiral. Like you have said, I’m fairly sure this is the definition of unaffordable and it can’t hurt for this to happen.
Given the current state of my credit file and the stigma that using payday loans has, I doubt I could hurt my credit file much at this point.
I am hopeful that there will be a positive outcome from the complaints I have submitted but given the lengthy timescales on the lenders replies I am anxious about the level of chasing and threatening they may do in the mean time.
Guess I’ll find out tomorrow. Thanks again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, you should break this spiral by not paying if you can’t get through the month without borrowing again.
Lucy says
I have just declined QQ offer via adjudicator of £822 when ive worked out i could get £2500 back. So just joined the ombudsman Queue! How many months am i looking at on average? 4? And has anyone had them come back with w better offer at this stage? Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Several people have reported QQ coming back with higher offers after this point, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/.
Alan says
After 13 weeks Wonga have replied and rejected my complaint and stated that I could go to the FOS which I did 13 weeks ago when I first complained to them.
In the reply they state I took 14 loans from Jan 2013-Dec 2013 so was wondering how successful people have been going to the FOS with Wonga and if this sounds like a reason to carry on the conplaint as alot of interest was paid in the 12mths
Sara (Debt Camel) says
More than a loan a month for a year is a good case – quite right to carry on with this!
Nicole says
Has anybody had any luck with trusted quid or square today,”? I’ve only had one loan with each but feel I should never have been accepted due to a very very very very poor credit score! Is it worth submitting a complaint?
steve says
trusted quid i sent emails didnt get any response had more luck ringing them i asked for loan to be removed from credit file, which they said they had done, but no evidence on my credit file as of yet
Joanna says
I’ve just had a settlement from TQ. They disputed but then tried to make an offer, I declined and they liaised with my adjudicator and paid the agreed amount very quickly.
If they’re causing delays, it could be because they’re now getting a lot of complaint letters. The final note that I got from them was an apology.
Ross says
I’ve asked the FOS for an update on my Quick Quid complaint, which is currently on hold, owing to the 6+ year old loan issue. Unfortunately, this is nowhere near being resolved and I am told that we’re all in for a bit of a wait on this one. The adjudicator said that the FOS are still in talks with Quick Quid, to try to come to an amicable agreement, but things aren’t moving along very fast. I do have the option of disregarding the loans which are more than 6+ years old, and let the FOS just investigate ones within the past 6 years, but I’m not going to give in. I just hope that, after holding out, they don’t decide they can investigate the older loans, or it will have been a long wait for nothing. Still, we shall see?
I have also asked what the current wait is for an ombudsman (this is namely for my Payday Express complaint, which Payday Express have chosen to ignore my adjudicators findings/recommendations). I believed the current wait to be around 3 months, but my adjudicator has made me aware that whilst it may be 3 months, it could be longer. He states this is because of an ever increasing amount of complaints having to go to an ombudsman for a final decision.
Sorry to not be giving ‘positive’ news, but I thought it best to let you know what the current state of play is, in case some of you think it’s going to be quick. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be :(
rachel says
thanks Ross, at least you know when you could chase them if you haven’t heard, i am about 5 weeks wait for an ombudsman with pduk so still a long wait for me and presume they will argue the case anyway. Just realised its almost a year since i first complained to the company i just hope its wont be a huge waste of time.
Ross says
My adjudicator said he could see little reason why the ombudsman wouldn’t agree with his findings, unless Payday Express can pull something major out of the bag. The fact that they ignored both deadlines given is a clear indication that they don’t have anything else to offer. Payday UK, surprisingly, paid up on the recommendation of my adjudicator. However, this was for a far smaller amount than what the Payday Express refund will be, as long as the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator. I think it’s because of the size of this potential refund they’re choosing to ignore it. I’m sure my patience will pay off, in the end,
Rachel says
Hi Ross are they the same company? I did get a reasonable offer from them but the older loans would add on a huge difference so think it’s worth waiting surely the fos would advise not waiting if they didn’t think you has a case?
Ross says
Hi Rachel,
Yes, Payday UK, Payday Express & The Money Shop are all part of the same company, which is Instant Cash Loans Limited. They turned down all of my complaints, so had to go to the FOS with them all. The Payday UK complaint was upheld, by my adjudicator, and they paid up on his recommendations. My Payday Express complaint was also upheld, by the adjudicator, but he gave them 2 deadlines, which they ignored and have chosen to ignore my email(s) too. Even if they said they didn’t agree with the adjudicators findings & recommendations, it would be a start. So, just waiting for an ombudsman now. Both Quick Quid and Payday Express should be substantial 4 figure sums (the Quick Quid one could even be 5 figures!).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FOS won’t advise you what to do. It basically comes down to the number of loans you had (or the number of months you had loans for if they were rolled a lot.) If you only had a few before the 6 year point, you may decide it’s not worth bothering with them. Have you added up how much interest you paid on the older loans? And on the more recent ones? Of course the 8% interest added comes to even more on the older loans.
Nas says
Hi, this is probably quite an obvious question but I just want to be clear before I go ahead with anything
I took an initial payday loan with WagedayAdvance on September 2015 after which I took back to back loans every month for a whole year up until September 2016 at which point they decided that they will extend my loan repayment time to 5 monthly instalments to supposedly ‘help’ me. I paid off the loan last month and have not borrowed again. I have also taken back to back monthly loans with 247Moneybox from July 2016 for 6 months up until last month and haven’t borrowed again. I have statements with all dates and amounts borrowed. Is this a valid case to take up with the FO or do the loans need to have been rolling over for a longer period of time? If so, should I contact the FO first or should I just draft my complaint email and get it sent off?
I’ve paid a hefty amount of interest of this course of time and want to get something back!
Thank you!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They sound like good cases. You may only get interest refunded after the first few months, so obviously that would be more with WDA then with 247 Moneybox. But both are worth pursuing from what you have said.
Connie says
I heard from the adjudicator regarding my complaint with myjar, and they’ve rejected it.
It was for one loan so it’s not the end of the world. The real ones are lending stream (7 loans, just short of £1k on interest alone), Wonga and Sunny.
Wonga randomly finally sent my statement of account, after I’d dug through my credit file to find all the loans, 15 with them! Sunny gave me a credit limit which I was always at the high end of every payday.
I’m debt free as of friday (One last DMP payment) and I cannot wait.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Debt Free” one of the best phrases in the english language – well done!
Connie says
Isn’t it just! It’s early thanks to the advice on this website! Would have been May otherwise.
Laura says
Hi Everyone
Just thought i’d share an update.
I began my complaints with QQ and Wonga at the end of January.
Yesterday I chased both up as I had asked for a statement of account from both but hadn’t received anything. I received the following from Wonga this morning:
Unfortunately, our investigation is taking longer than expected, and we can’t yet offer you a resolution to your complaint.
We appreciate your patience and apologise for any inconvenience that this delay may cause.
We do our best to resolve complaints in the order that we receive them. We are currently experiencing high volumes of complaints and so if we cannot respond within 8 weeks, we will contact you to explain the delay and outline when you can expect to receive a response. If you are unhappy with the progress of your complaint at that stage, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Kind regards,
Customer Care
They are clearly setting me up to know that I will not be getting a response within 8 weeks – but at least i’d like my statement of account. Looks like in another 4weeks time i’ll be joining the long queue at the FCA!
Aaron jackson says
I only just received my statement of account on the 50th day. Today it is the 51st day out of 56 and I’ve still heard nothing
Marie says
Hi Sara, I’ve contacted PDUK and asked for statements. Just had message back saying that they’ve made the decision to sell my debt to BW legal and going forward to speak to them.
A. I wasn’t aware I’ve got an outstanding debt, haven’t had any correspondence from PDUK.
B. Sounds like if I have they’ve only just passed this onto them because of my email.
Am I still entitled to try and claim from PDUk? Have you experienced similar who have been successful?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply saying you dispute you had a balance outstanding and ask them to provide a Statement of Account. Also write as a good a version of the stage two complaint letter as you can without the loan details and send that to them. And when you here from BW legal, reply saying you are disputing the account with PDUK.
How many loans do you think you had with them?
Marie says
Thank you Sara. I definitely reloaded with them quite a lot over a couple of years for sure. I contacted BW who say I have an outstanding loan with them for 350 (strange I’ve never been contacted about this and they said it’s from 2015). But agreed that it’s up to PDUK to provide me with any previous statements so I’ll get back onto them.
Thanks again for your help, this site is amazing.
Head in hands says
Hi, first time poster here. Just started on what will probably be a long journey to hopefully becoming debt free.
I’ve written to 5 payday lenders asking for statements of borrowing etc. I have been through my bank statements and the interest paid over 5 years is almost £15k (head in hands moment and feel quite sick!)
Reading through previous posts it is nice to see people don’t judge on here so hopefully someone can help?
Story so far….
QQ no reply yet
LS asking for £10 for SAR – replied with details from here saying i don’t have to pay for statement etc
Wonga acknowledged & awaiting reply
PDUK – acknowledged & awaiting reply
PDEXP acknowledged & awaiting reply
My question is how do I calculate the 8% interest? I have done a basic excel sheet showing date, loan amount and repayments but haven’t a clue on how to calculate interest.
Finally a huge thank you for this site!
Phillip says
Hello Sara and everyone.
Had my final response today from wonga. I’ve had 19 loans in total from them from November 2007 until January 2014. They never gave me a statement of account which I asked for. They responding saying they will only look at loans from Jan 2011 in which they have offered me a total of £1210.63 from several loans from then. Wonga said they won’t look at loans that are six years old or more and said the financial ombudsman won’t either. So five or so years of loans they have just forgot about. Saying that it is a good offer, especially from wonga first time, but do I push them for more, take them to ombudsman or accept their offer? Would like to see what people think.
Thanks.
Phillip
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman will look at loans that over 6 years old. Therer cases will take loinger but it’s wrong of Wonga to suggest the FO will disregard them.
Have they offered a refund on all the loans wiothin 6 years?
If you haven’t had a statement of account, I think you should ask for one – say you want it to be able to consider whether to accept their offer or not.
Phillip says
Hey Sara.
Well that’s what they said I have it in their email.
I know they will that’s why I’m questioning it. They have refunded seven loans ( 3 from 2012 and 4 from 2011) . Not sure why they have picked out these as I still had loans uptil 2014 in which they have bypast.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It doesn’t sound like a good offer then. People don’t normally get any joy by trying to negotiate with Wonga – I suggest you send it to the ombudsman. But do tell wonga you still want your Statement of Account.
Katie says
Got a rejection from Satsuma today. I still have a current 2 loans with them so very disappointing. I have another 15 complaints at the moment. 6 weeks since I sent my original complaints on 6 of them and 3 weeks since I sent the other 10. So far apart from Mr Lender who offered me a goodwill gesture of £295 I’ve heard nothing. So I wait for all the others to comeback before I go to the FOS? How long generally does it take for an adjudacater to look at your case ? Many thanks, feeling very dispondent.
Ross says
Hi Katie,
Don’t feel despondent! Unfortunately, it’s part of the process that you will get rejected by some of the companies you complain too. If it helps, Satsuma rejected my complaint but it was then upheld by the adjudicator and they agreed with his findings and settled my complaint rather promptly. You need to give the lenders, you’ve complained about, 8 weeks to send a final response letter. If they haven’t sent a final response, or sent you a final response you’re not happy with in that time, you can then forward it to the FOS for them to investigate. As for timings, it’s hard to say? As these complaints are now gathering pace, the more complaints means (potentially) longer waiting times. In the meantime, it would help if you could gather all of your bank statements for the period(s) you took out your loans and download a copy of your credit report (you can get it free with Noddle). The FOS adjudicator(s) will need this information, so the sooner you have it to hand, the sooner you can send it and the sooner they can crack on with your case(s).
Good luck!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good advice from Ross.
You don’t need to wait until all the others comeback. Each lender goes into the FOS as a seperate case. The advantage of getting a complaint inot the FO “early” is when it is picked up by an adjudicator, you can ask if they will also take on some of your other cases, so this can sometimes speed up the other ones by a few weeks.
Joanna says
This is what’s happened to me, I have one adjudicator who is looking at 4 of my complaints. The other advantage of having one adjudicator looking at more than one of your cases is that they’re able to build a picture of what was happening for you with your statements and work swiftly
tracey jones says
Hi folks another update.
QQ- not heard anything since they asked for more details.
Wonga- nothing since conformation email
Paydayuk- nothing since conformation email
Moneybox-agreed to an affordable amount with no added interest.
Mr lender- settled within 2hours of complaint. Agreed to write of remaining debt which was only £100 short of entire interest paid.
The other thing I did was email my bank, Tsb, for overdraft fees. Lady was super nice and refunded £150 to my account, and gave me a number for help within the bank. I honestly expected nothing from them so this was a little bonus. More a gesture of goodwill I imagine, but helping me to that ultimate goal: debt free. I’ve had a look at my accounts and with Mr lender cleared I’m actually not looking too bad atm. If I can get one more company to settle in the next two months I could be near a finishing line!
Dave says
How did you find 247 moneybox to deal with, and how quick were they at responding? I ask because apart from a standard cut and paste acknowledgement of sorts, Ive not heard a thing despite the 8 week period almost coming to an end now
tracey jones says
As I am still in a loan I haven’t complained yet. I simply can’t afford the full paymentso they agreed to let me pay the balance over a few months with no added interest. That’s all I meant. I don’t know if it’s worth complaining to them till this loan is done. I haven’t had many from them to be fair.
CE says
I have a loan with moneybox 247 currently, but have had previous 7 loans with them. Emailed them Sunday and had the standard email ba back. Currently owe 370.00 will keep you updated.
Danny says
They are quite good, I had a few with them and one outstanding of 200 n odd they wiped the outstanding balance and gave me some refund, at the time it was a fair result and so took the offer, this was all done and dusted within a week. If they offer you something and you think it’s too low don’t be afraid to counter offer them as I did.
Shell says
Hi Sara/all,
My adjudicator has found in favour with regards to my Wageday Advance loans.
Do Wageday Advance normally agree or does it normally go to the Ombudsman?
Thanks.
Laura says
HI Shell , with my case they Disagreed and has been in the queue for an ombudsman since 26th October , not been assigned to anyone yet
Ross says
Hi Shell,
When my adjudicator upheld my Wage Day Advance complaint, they agreed with his findings and settled promptly. However, all cases are unique, so if some have been agreed at adjudicator stage, or some have to go to an ombudsman, is irrelevant to your case really, as it all comes down to your own individual case and it’s own merits. Good luck!
Katie says
Peachy came back today with a rejection but offered to remove all entries on my credit file as a good will gesture. They also stated that I was asked if I was on a DMP which I don’t remember being asked but I was on a DMP. They said that I had falsely given information. I might have done as I was desperate at the time. Is this a threat ? Can I be charged with this ? Help !
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There are plenty of good reasons why people may not have given completely accurate information, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. This isn’t something to worry about.
How many loans did you have from Peachy? can you summarise your case?
Katie says
7 installments loans in total. All paid back on time. Approx £4000 paid. I did have very low credit rating DMP and several other PDLs at the same time.
Thanks
Michelle says
Hi Katie
Peachy did the same with me, FOS partially upheld which was better than peachy had offered me and then peachy rejected so I’ve been in ombudsman que since December
Georgina says
Afternoon,
I had several payday loans with Uncle Buck and Mr Lender at the same time several times over. Do i just e mail this for my first point of contact I am currently paying them off through stepchange does this make a diffrence?
“I am making a complaint to you about irresponsible lending. To help me explain the details, I would like a list of my loans, showing when they were taken out and how much was repaid when. Please note that I am asking for a Statement of my Account with you, not making a Subject Access Request. ” with my details do I need to include anything else at this point
Many thanks in adavance to anybody that may be able to advise me
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds fine.
By the way, I have deleted your surname as you probably don’t want that showing on the internet!
Ginny says
Thank you Sarah. I’ve had an e mail back from Uncle Buck with my statement of account and I put the letter in as advised on here and they replied to say they will respond to my complaint within 3 working days.
Mr Lender has said 5 working days for my statement of account.
Wage day UK nothing.
Peaches replied saying they had done nothing wrong.
Thanks for this website it’s been so so helpful very grateful to you all xx
Ce says
Hi all
Just had a response from payday uk, requested a statement of account, they now want 1.00 statoury fee to do this. They also stated that they are under no obligation to send a statement of account for any previous loans that have been paid in full as these no longer have any sums due or payable. Please refer to section 77 of the consumer credit act as per subsection (3) of section 77 which states that the requirement etc etc can this be right and have I got to pay a 1.00, please advise what to right back. Thanks
Ce says
Have just received my statement of account from mr lender ( only sent Sunday 27th Feb), have now requested a refund.
Have reported payday uk to FCA for making things difficult (used template letter from here) and have also emailed payday uk back with the template saying that a statement of account is free etc.
No response yet from Wonga, vivus7 qq, wageday advance, satsuma is being awkward so again sent them template about being free, 247 money box have sent a generic email acknowledging my complaint.
Will keep you updated.
Allison says
Hi, I actually rang them and they waived the £1 as a gesture of goodwill . You could try ringing them. I had the statement by the end of the week. Worth a try
Lucy says
Somebody asked if anyone has put in an offer to a lender themselves well I rejected an offer from QQ on Monday and asked my adjudicator to send them a counter offer. He said he cannot do this so i had to reject. After this I actually contacted QQ myself and spoke to the lady dealing with my case via email and they have said although they cant deal with my directly they are willing to compromise and will let my adjudicator contact them with a counter offer from me. They may reject but wonder if they might up their last offer? Im surprised to hear anything from them at all! So now my adjudicator has put my counter iffer forward
John says
Hi Lucy,
I had the same situation.
My claim is for £6K. QQ offered £2K. I counter offered with £4K. However QQ said they could not take a counter offer from me and the adjudicator said he could not make it on my behalf. So stalemate. That was a few weeks ago now. As it’s just coming up to 3 months since I submitted my complaint to the FOS I am now going to wait as I believe I will get close to the £6K based on my other complaints.
It’s a shame as I could do with the money but having waited this long I may as well hold out now and see if I can get the lot.
Good Luck!
John
John says
Update
Adjudicator recommended Lending Stream pay me £1400. I claimed for £1700. Delighted with that result. Lending Stream were not. I emailed them and said I would settle for £1K. They did not reply. So into the ombudsman queue go I and hoping the ombudsman upholds the decision and I get the money in a few months time!
Keep going everyone – but be prepared to wait. My other complaints are now 3 months with the FOS and still no adjudicator decisions ……. will sit it out as the others are for a combined total of £12K and am optimistic I will get most of that eventually ……
John
Susan says
Hi John
I had loans with payday express going back to 2009 and after 5 months the adjudicator ruled in my favour that ALL loans to be upheld. P.Exp ignored 2 deadlines then 2 weeks ago offered interest on loans only within 6 years. I refused and was told it would go to ombudsman. I prepared myself for a lengthy wait but got a letter today from ombudsman upholding my adjudicators decision. Now to wait for P.Exp to pay.
Ross says
Hi Susan, could you offer any indication on what kind of timescales you had to wait after PDEX ignored your adjudicators decision please? PDEX ignored my adjudicators deadlines of 25/01/17 and 08/02/17. I’m expecting a lengthy wait for an ombudsman, but am hopeful of a slightly quicker outcome, if your case is anything to go by? Well done on your victory!
Susan says
Thanks ?. Adjudicator gave P.Exp 1st deadline of 8th December then a 2nd deadline of 22nd December. They failed to respond and it went to ombudsman. Then P.Exp made the offer out the blue last week of January which I refused. So 2 months timescale. I started the long process in May 2016 and it was with the adjudicator from July to December. Hope you hear positive news soon.
Andrew says
So the adjudicator found in my favour on all 4 loans from Payday UK.
They have sent their findings to Payday U.K. Today and have given them two weeks.
What are Payday UK like at agreeing with the Adjudicators findings?
I’ve seen comments saying they are a pain when it comes to actually paying out so I’m in no rush on this one at all. Tried a few calculations myself to work out how much I’m going to get, god knows if I’m near right but it’s a good bit of money.
Thanks
Ross says
Hi Andrew,
They’re a pain in the proverbial, to be precise. Rejected me, then disagreed with the adjudicator. They then made an offer, which I declined and they then agreed to pay what the ombudsman recommended. The only thing they didn’t offer was the 8% statutory interest which, for the amount involved, was negligible. If, and when, they choose to refund you, prepare for a long wait. They’re allowed a maximum of 28 days to refund and they will, typically, use the majority of this time to drag the refund process out. The same applies to Payday Express too (same parent company).
Andrew says
Cheers Ross.
Knew I read that they were a pain when issuing refunds but wasn’t sure what they were like with accepting the findings.
Ah well, I’ll sit this one out and accept nothing less than I’m entitled to.
Dave says
Had a final response from Lending Stream today. Had 25 loans consecutively between 2011 and 2013. Offered £282.97 + 8% interest as a refund for 2 loans. Forwarded to FO now. Interest paid is approximately £2200. I hate the way the emails are so condescending.
What I wanted to ask was if the FO say that I have no case, do I at least get the £282.97 as a refund or if I reject it does that mean I’ll end up with £0 for my efforts?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
We have never heard of a case where a lender has made an offer and you have ended up with less by going to the FOS. The worst case is that you are advised by the FOS that the lener’s offer seems fair to them.
FWIW for 25 loans and £2200 interest that sounds like a VERY poor offer to me.
Lb says
Have finally had an email from lending Stream following the ombudsman’s final response. Have received a detailed spreadsheet of all payments and the 8%calculation…..for a lovely sum of £7506.05. Just waiting for it to go into my account.
Claire says
Did lending stream provide the spreadsheet of the payment? The ombudsman has just found in my favour (yeah). Would be interested to hear how long they take to pay out?
Lb says
Yes they did. The ombudsman decision was on the 16th Feb. I have chased them alot. And I don’t know how long the payment will take to go into my account.
Louise says
Thank you all for the advice given on this website. I have a few ongoing claims but I’ve struck a problem. A large portion of my loans are over 6 years old and the FOS have requested my bank statements but the bank can’t provide them to me as the account was closed over 6 years ago. I’ve called and been into the branch to try and get them. I have some loans after this from my new account which I have provided the statements for.
Has anyone else had this issue? I’ve given the FOS the account details in the hope that they might have more luck in getting copies of the statements but what happens if the bank tells them they can’t get them? Would they still investigate my claim without them or would that be a reason they can’t investigate? Kicking myself for not saving copies from online banking before I closed the account all those years ago.
Ross says
Hi Louise,
Try not to fret too much. I closed my Natwest account in 2012 (been with Halifax since then) and some of my loans were from 2009, but I gave the FOS my account number & sort code, and they managed to obtain them. Speak to your adjudicator about this, when you’re assigned one, for the loan(s) in question. Good luck!
sw says
I had a problem with this recently having already had some statements requested for another complaint. For my Quickquid complaint, the ajudicator got my statements with my sort code and account number, that was a complaint last year. This year I have had this response from another ajudicator with regards to a Payday Express complaint:
Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be able to obtain this on your behalf, as we wouldn’t have the authority to access them.
I questioned this with him as some statements had already been obtained for another complaint and he said they were no longer requesting them.
So it seems there has been a change as far as the ajudicators being able to get statements.
Lb says
Hi mustard,
I made the complaint in June. Adjudicator upheld it early September. The company disagreed. Then the complaint was put on hold as 2 loans were over 6 years old. The ombudsman started looking at it in December. I received the provisional response in January and then the final in Feb.
Joanna says
Hi Sara
I’m just thinking about my loan complaints regarding Quick quid and Pounds to pocket. As I’ve said before, they did not deal with my account nor me in a professional way. Is it worth me going to the FCA and will they do anything about it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You do seem to have been treated particularly poorly :(
Going to the FCA won’t help your complaint at all, it just provides info to the regulator that a lender isn’t complying with the regulations. So it may help other people if the FCA tells them to improve their complaints handling.
I suggest waiting until your complaints are settled so you can provide the full story to the FCA.