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?
Debbie says
Pleased to be able to post my first success from Mr Lender.
as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to contact MMF requesting them to wipe your outstanding balance of £307.90 to £0.00.
Upon acceptance of this offer you would have had the benefit of your second loan without paying the full capital amount borrowed either any interest or charges.
The loan was for £250 and I have so far paid back £204 so have £46 written off and the interest and charges cleared is good news :)
Rich says
My complaint against CFO has just been upheld by the Ombusman. Also my complanit against Wonga has been picked up by an Ombudsman. After that just QuickQuid and maybe Payday Uk.
Wonga, QQ and Payday Uk is with the over 6 years aswell.
Dave says
Had all statements sent today from Wonga just after week 6 since the initial complaint. They have about 10 days before I can submit to the FO. Interest stands at £9500 for 42 near continuous loans. I had several loans at the back end of 2010, but can I dismiss claiming for those so that I don’t unnecessarily slow down the process with them being over 6 years ago? I would wish to claim from jan 2011 onwards. Do I have to claim for all?
Also, I have a Lending stream complaint with the FO at the moment. Once it is submitted, please could someone advise how long approximately is the wait for an adjudicator?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FOS normally seems to be happy with people only claimning for loans within the 6 years.
Dave says
Thanks Sara. When it gets to putting claims in to the FO can I complain about loans going back to Jan 11 which would have been 6 years ago from the date i put the complaint in? Or if it gets submitted to the FO in march, do I just complaint about loans going back to March 2011?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the starting date of your complaint seems to be being taken as the 6 year point.
Kat says
My Lending stream complaint was picked up by an adjudicator at around 4 weeks, I have had about 10 phone calls from my case worker in past 2 days asking questions and he said I should get a decision soon as he is nearly done investigating and it has taken him 2 days.
Thanks
Lee Page says
Do wonga have to take into consideration of the interest I’ve paid from 2009 I have all my statements from all loans I’ve had with wonga on email and works out a lot of money on interest, what would my next step be to succeed in my claim for a refund ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should ask for a refund of all the interest. Loans more than 6 years old will be considered by the Ombudsman (ignore Wonga if they say they won’t) but these will be slower… if there were only a few 6+ loans some people choose to tell the FO to ignore them, but it sounds as though there are a lot for you so it’s probably sensible to expect your case isn’t going to be quick.
Sarah says
I have just accepted paydayuk offer of £1056 this is week 7 since complaint so not bad I worked it out to be around the £1200 mark so not a bad offer at all does anyone know how long they take to transfer?
I’ve also had a £200 offer from quick quid at the 7 week mark that one should be more like £3000 so am going to take that further.
Just waiting on wonga which is my biggest by far! Great site sarah thanks for all the info I had written this all off years ago as a bad time in my life.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like a good offer from PaydayUK Good luck with QQ & Wonga!
Lisa says
Morning everyone, I have had loads of payday loans out over the last few years, I have complainted to them all, this is one reply from piggybank, is it worth going to the ombudsmen with this reply…
Thanks for your replys in advance
SUMMARY
Based on my findings and the information above, I can uphold your complaint regarding irresponsible lending and will be able to offer redress in this matter. Although PiggyBank carried out the correct checks, PiggyBank should have recognised you were dependent on payday loans at this time so I will offer the following redress which I have highlighted above in green. You did not pay any interest on your 4th and 5th loan and have not yet paid any interest on your existing loan so what I will do, is remove all of the interest incurred on your current loan and this will allow you to only repay what you borrowed. This means that I will set your current balance to £236.37 to reflect this.
If you accept this as full and final settlement please contact us and we will make the necessary arrangements.
I trust that the above has addressed your complaint.
gillian says
i have just got my bank statements there are 51 envelopes i have complaints for lending stream and quickquid will i have to send them twice or can i put a note in asking them to be passed from one adjudicator to the other just worried it going to cost a fortune to post twice ty
Neil says
Gillian – no, you don’t have to send them twice. In my experience, I was able to provide the case number of a previous complaint and request that the documentation obtained be used in a current complaint.
If you’re able to scan and email them, that might be a cheaper option for you – it’s what I did :)
Dave says
Had quite an aggressive Final Response from QQ today after week 7 of my complaint. Offered a goodwill gesture of £400. The account statements show interest of over £10,000 for 5 years in total. I was a bit put off by the following section:
“DEPENDENCY
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. Yet if you were dependent on taking out one loan to repay the other then you would have taken out numerous loans, for equal or increasing loan amounts, and with very little time between paying off one loan and taking out the other. When I reviewed your loan history I see that excluding loans which you repaid early, you never had more than four consecutive loans (< 15 days between loans) where the loan amount increased over the prior loan amount.
Your repayment history shows that you made repayments before the contractual due date. In 1 instances, you made early repayments which is evidence of a strong financial history.
In addition, the principal amounts borrowed fluctuated throughout your lending history. If there was dependency we would expect to see constantly increasing amounts in order to cover the prior loan interest and principal. There were several instances where the loan amount you applied for actually decreased from the previous loan which shows that you were not relying on one loan to repay the previous loan.
In fact, there were large gaps in your borrowing history. There were 207 days between your 8th and 9th loans, further demonstrating that you were not simply taking out one loan to repay the next one.
HARDSHIP
Finally, in your complaint you state that at some point during your loan history with us you underwent severe financial detriment. However, at no point did you notify us of any financial detriment or financial hardship. Had you alerted us to your difficult financial situation, we would have put you in “hardship” status, as is our process. We then would have frozen additional fees and interest while we worked with you to find an affordable repayment option."
The break between loans was when I was in such dire straits that they then didn't loan to me after a continuous and non stop period of 3 and a half years of rollovers and new loans on the same date was paid. 3 and a half years! The cycle started again from loan 9 once they leant to me again but my finances were no better.
Should I persue this or are they correct in what they are saying please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have actually been sent a standard template letter, they just fill in the numbers, hence the odd mixture of singular and plurals here “In 1 instances, you made early repayments which is evidence of a strong financial history.”
Of course there is nothing wrong with repaying early, it doesn’t mean you were suddenly rich. It usually means you got paid a bit early, perphas you payday would have been Sunday so you were paid on Friday. or you were paid a week early in December, or perhaps a relative helped you out with some money.
They have got a lot of weasel wording to make your case seem bad. eg
“you never had more than four consecutive loans (< 15 days between loans) where the loan amount increased over the prior loan amount."... turn that round and put it in the positive - on 4 occaisions they did lend you a larger amount very soon after you repaid a loan. And there were probably a lot more times when they re-lent you the same amount, but they don't want to mention those because they help your case. The "15 days" is just a number invented by them. If you reborrowed within the next month it shows you were in trouble. £400 is large as QQ goodwill offers go - that means you have an excellent case! Most people get 5-15 times as much by taking their case to the Ombudsman, so I suggest you do.
James says
Hi Dave/Sara,
I received the exact same letter at the weekend with regards my complaint which also put me off a wee bit!
They offered me £16.40 also as a good will gesture….where they got this figure from I don’t know. I politely refused and informed them I was going to FOS.
They also mentioned the <15 days between loans to which I replied that I was lending from other PDL companies between these Quick Quid loans to pay them back.
Got in touch with FOS on Monday so I'll see where it goes from there.
Good luck with your case Dave.
Cheers
James
Dave says
Thanks Sara and James. You too. I have submitted to the FO so this is where it all starts. I’m up for the challenge.
Nim says
HI,
Just a quick update on Provident home credit – FOS has now received response from provident that they agree to look at loans over 6 years (initially rejected) – but only from April 2007due to complex regulations etc. That’s ok with me as I only had one loan prior to this. So have 11 loans to look at now. Now waiting to be allocated to adjudicator. (initial complaint put in Nov 16 ) – hopefully will be well worth the wait – around 8-9k interest paid.
Best Nim
Ross says
That’s great news Nim. I just wish that the other companies would buck their ideas up and agree to this. Complaints are frustrating enough, without companies frustrating them even more. Best of luck on the complaint.
Morag says
Hi
Just had my response from provident and Greenwoods from my adjucticator.
Firstly he says that payday lending is completely different from doorstep lending as the weekly amounts are a lot smaller i.e., £8.00. £10.00 etc.
My loans went back to 2007! which he took into consideration, but because they were for only small amounts he said they were affordable.
Also my bank statement showed , at that time, no returned fees, no overdraft etc.
It all started in 2013/14 when I started heavy gambling g that my credit file changed , bank statements showing that I was always in overdraft, payday lending and then defaults in my credit file.
So out of 47 loans, he awarded around 16,
But , as I say, better than nothing. All because of Sara.
These last loans were probably had the most interest.
Hope this makes sense to everyone.
Morag?
Nim says
Hi Morag, just out of interest, how big were your loans on average and how much interest have you paid in all?
Best Nim
Morag says
Varied from 200 to £1000. One day I took 2 loans one for £1000 and one £1500,,.
Interest would be roughly the same as yours, I got none!! Said they were all affordable, it’s because I didn’t have anything bad on my credit report , or in overdraft in 2007 to 2010/11.
I will now take it to an ombudsman, what’s another 3 months. I thought I would have got at least the one in 2010 for the £2500 , 3 months before I had taken another £1000,
The interest for that one was just under £2500 ,
Any info I will share, no problem, was your credit ok when the older loans taken out???
Nim says
Hi Morag,
Doesn’t sound hopeful if you paid a lot of interest, even though they were weekly payment – but can add up monthly amongst other lending / debt etc.
My credit was terrible, was in debt by about 40-50k and had 11/12 creditors end of 2005/06 – so my credit would have been bad with defaults etc. I was unemployed at one point for 18m or so……so all depends how they gonna look at it??!!
I started taking loans from 2006 – 2011 – so all falls within 6 years, so if they did proper checks would have seen all this on the file.
I hope it works out – and yes best to fight it out and take to Ombudsman – although if they look at weekly payments as they look small and affordable – they could go against the appeal? I hope not, but so stick it out and fight back!! – at least we are winning the other battle with PDL’s. I am hopeful for this one with Provident as Provident have agreed to look at all loans from 2007 now after rejecting initial complaint and have agreed with the adjudicator’s comment. Awaiting to be assigned to another adjudicator to assess the complaint now – still a waiting game – and it all depends if you have a good adjudicator too who can see your circumstance at the time.
I also noticed that on some of the agreements – they have actually signed my name? so it’s must have been that they gave me the money – cash – and then done the paper work -so proves that they did not check when rolled over to more loans!!!
Best Nim
Good luck
Nim says
Hi Morag, so they awarded 16 loans? how much interest was that for?
Hopefully u will get more from the ombudsman from the rest of the loans!
NIm
Morag says
Mum,
Do you have bank statements as far back as 2007? As they look to see what your financial situation was like. My interest may be around £8/9k with provident although I still owe them roughly £3k.
I was hoping for Greenwoods as this was roughly about the same. Better something!!!!
We r awaiting a response from provident to see if they r happy, as you know, probably off to ombudsman.
U look like you have a good case!!!!!
Any luck with your store or bank complaints
Morag
Nim says
Hi Morag,
yes, I have all the bank statements.
But like I say, my financial situation was very bad, and with the recession in 2008, even worse off.
let hope we get something back! I am hopeful.
Let us know how u get on.
Best Nim
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is now a seperate article on doorstep lending (Provident, Greenwoods, Morses etc) complaints: https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/
kevin says
Hi All
I have just had a reply back from a company that goes by the the name of piggybank. I only had one loan with them but thought i would try through resolver to complain about it as i had 6 other loans at the same time i was struggling with and a default for 8500 on my account. The problem i have is that if they looked through my account details they would have saw all these transactions from all these different loans i had . I just had a final response from them telling me that i was a irresponsible borrower saying i knew i was in a position where i knew i couldnt pay this back. All i was asking for was to have the default removed. They said they would wipe the 22 pound i owed but could not remove the default as we” did not uphold your complaint”. Quite insulted by this.
Miriam says
Hi Kevin
I got the same so I don’t know if there will be any victory to fill complaint with FO.
T says
So the news I was dreading.
FOS has told me they aren’t prepared to look at my 6 year+ complaints because I’m employed by a bank. They are saying I should have known to complain earlier.
I explained its a totally different industry and I didn’t even think they were regulated but not interested. Feel really let down because I genuinely only realised I had cause for complaint after finding debt Camel :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am very sorry to hear that.
simon says
Hi Everyone,
I have just received my Final response from PaydayUK saying they will not look into the complaint as all the loans are over 6 years old and although I have the right to go to the ombudsman they have to ask paydayuk for permission to look into it which they will not give them the right to look into them? Is that right? What should I do now?
Thank you.
Simon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FOS is looking at loans over 6 years old. You should send this case to the FO and in your complaint explaint when and ho wyou found out what an affordability complaint was – for example you saw a link in Facebook or MoneySaving Expert, or a friend told you about Debt CaAmel, whatever. It doesn’t matter how this happened, it’s just important that you explain you only recently knew you could claim.
Cases with loans over 6 years will be slow. If you only has a couple of loans it may not be worth bothering. But if you borrowed a lot, send in your complaint and settle back and wait.
simon says
Hi Sara,
Thats great thank you, I had 20 loans they say but they are refusing to send me the statement unless I pay for it, will probally be the same for express and loan shop.
I will start the process to the FOS and wait.
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Realistically these olders cases are not going to be easy. If you don’t think it’s worth paying £1 to simplify the whole thing a bit, I’m not sure it is worth pursuing? I know it’s annoying, but it would make things more straightforward.
simon says
Hi Sara,
No problem, I dont mind paying the £1 for each but they want it by cheque or postal order. I dont have a cheque book but could do a postal order. Will try to get my bank statements from then first as I still have that account.
Matt S says
Hi all,
Just wondering if anyone else has had this issue? Had loans in the past with Quid (part of Elevate). Put in my complaint early last year and although they didn’t uphold it they offered as a gesture of goodwill to refund the difference between what I’d borrowed and what I paid which I accepted and outstanding balance I had was settled and the account closed in June last year.
Looking at my noddle report I’ve just noticed that they settled it as satisfied in June 2016 but also put a default on it at the same time. This had been receiving payments for 3 years without any default being added so doesn’t seem right that they default it on the same month that its settled.
Has this happened to anyone else?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should ask them to backdate the default by three years to the point where you actually defaulted. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/
Mark says
After starting in May last year, PDUK paid £7,500 into my bank account this afternoon
Happy is not the word
Lisa says
Hi all…
118 moneys final response was a big fat NO… which I was expecting…
I forwarded the response on the ombudsmen on wed and had a lovely lady call me today and she is investigating my complaint, shock how quick as I have submitted other complaints a month ago, this one is further on… finger crossed…..no sure how long it takes now, she has requested 118 side and paperwork is that all done by email?
Matt says
Hi lisa
Hope you don’t mind asking I have had my complaint in with them for 7 weeks how long did they take to get back to you ?
Thanks
Matt
Lisa says
Hi matt I got my reply on the 8th the 8 weeks were up on the 13th…
I submitted it to the ombudsmen on the 8th and I got a call to day and the women is.investigating it, quick progress as I have submitted to piggy bank, George banco, wageday, my 8 weeks are up for uncle buck on the 13…
I wish you luck with 118, please let me know how you get on….
Eddie says
I think this is probably because 118 is an instalment loan not a payday loan therefore FOS are able to investigate faster. Specific adjudicators are assigned to specific cases and of course payday loans are the most complained about after ppi..
Lisa says
Ok thank you for your reply, the lady has asked 118 for paperwork about the loan, I have sent her everything she asked for… roughly how long do you think it will be before she makes a decision? Is it along process
Eddie says
My complaint with Lending Stream (which is also an instalment loan) was investigated in 2 weeks and adjudicator reached a decision on week 3. Now it has gone to Ombudsman as I did no agree with the outcome.
Lisa says
Thanks for the reply….. did lending steam agree with the decision?… what was the outcome with the adjudicator if you dont mind me asking
Lisa
Eddie says
I had 4 loans with them in 2013 within one month at the same time when borrowing heavily from other lenders. My claim was based on the fact that all loans were within 4 weeks which is within one pay period, I repaid first three within 3 weeks but in total I borrowed £750 and paid extra £476 in all interest. Adjudicator said lending Stream was ok to issue me loans and didn’t see anything wrong. I was quite surprised with this result so naturally asked this to be forwarded to Ombudsman. Adjudicator said if I disagree with this then I can take it to Ombudsman so I did. Fingers crossed.
Lisa says
With me. I had many payday loans, satsuma have wiped balance and refunded with 8 weeks…. when I took the 118 loan out I have several payday loan , a george banco loan , my credit score was and still is terrible, I eventually went in to a dmp December which has been a blessing and took some.of the stress off for now…. finger crossed for us all…. this site is such a fantastic site…
Ginny says
I’ve had an offer back from Mr Lender they said they do not believe they acted irresponsibly however will offer a goodwill gesture. These were installment loans once I’d paid it off I reapplied every time they started in June 2013 with £150 which I paid then has another for £150 in December then another one which was for £300 in the April then £400 in July then £700 I’m December the total intrest I paid was £1563. On the application they have my rent down as £100 per month!!!! All my out goings they have as £335 per month that includes all my bills ……..my rent alone was £550. They are saying that my loans were affordable based on the information I gave them . I never sent any wage slips to them as they never asked. Should I accept there offer of £325 to pay my outstanding balance and a refund of £253 as well. I’m not sure as this was an instalment payday loan if this is a decent offer from them.
Once again thanks to everyone on here for taking the time to help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These sound like quite low monthly repayments which will make it harder to win a case with the FO. But a lender should really have queried a £100 a month rent – unlikely to be right unless you were living at home and paying your parents. And the fact your loans went up every time makes this a reasonable case.
Mr Lender quite often seem to consider offers, so you could suggest what you would be prepared to accept – say a write off plus £600 or £700? or whatever feels fair to you?
Ginny says
Thank you. Yes this was the only installment loan I had out of my 9 payday companies. Shall I include the error that was made on my rent when I make a counter offer?
Joanne says
I’m a little bit in suspense and not sure what to think. My complaints against P2P and QQ were both upheld by my adjudicator. Both companies disagree with the adjudicator’s view. It has now gone past their deadline. Since my case is a bit unique because there was a catalogue of errors from both companies, it feels like a game of Poker. I have called my adjudicator and he seems to be waiting on the companies to respond, he doesn’t want to swiftly put the complaint in the Ombudsman queue.
CE says
Just received this from moneybox247.. Have not sent statement of account, have had 7 loans from them… Do i go to the second stage now as not willing to accept or ask for my statement again?
Hope that you are well. Please find below a copy of our complaints procedure. If you remain dissatisfied, you may refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Separately, you may also refer the complaint to our trade association (BCCA), this does not stop you taking your complaint to FOS.
Happy to provide information requested (though do be aware that all of this information was provided upon the advance of any loan as the loan agreement was sent to you via email – do check your junk or spam for this and also check any other email address’ you may have provided us with.)
We are happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by writing off your current overdue balance of £396.60.
We are aware that there are many forums and templated letters available on the internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. To compare our actions with the reported behaviour of other lenders is inappropriate.
We are confident that the required assessments were carried out prior to the advance of all loans. We are able to substantiate fully the information on which lending decisions were based.
Our relationship was based on responsible lending in addition to responsible borrowing. We provided you with all the facts about our product and the charges and costs involved. We treated you as a rational individual able to make a credible decision as to whether to borrow or not. For our part of the relationship we acted on the information available to us at the time and the prevailing regulations and guidance at the time.
I am your personal account manager and would be happy to discuss any of the above with you via email.
Kind regards,
Fiona
Warning: Late repayment can cause you serious money problems. For help, go to moneyadviceservice.org.uk
247Moneybox
20-22 Wenlock Road
London
N1 7GU
David says
I have had a similar copy & paste job response from 247 moneybox, no statement of account (and deleted from online too) despite asking several times.
As you dont want to accept their offer, I’d email back again with your complaint and start the clock ticking on the 8 weeks.
I heard nothing else from them since that initial email , no statement of account, and my 8 week period has just come to an end, so off to the FOS I go ….and I will make sure I let them know how un cooperative and unresponsive to complaints they are.
Ce says
I have just checked online too and exactly the same, my account is deleted. Luckily I took a photo previous stating i had 7 loans. Unfortunately online didnt show dates of loans or individual amounts, but at least I know its 7 loans.
Nigel says
Don’t give up. I got one in the end, took a few months though, Send them a very stern letter telling them that the response in totally inadequate. Tell them they have two weeks to respond or you will go straight to the FOS. Don’t forget they will be charged for you doing this a set fee and they will want to avoid it. I am battling a 6+3 ruling on loans back to 2008.
WJ says
I had the same with them they didn’t send a statement but I kept on at them eventually I got a list of all my loans with them but that was in with their final response as I just told them I had various loans within so many years they then only offering a goodwill gesture of £75.00 and to remove defaults, I have taken this further and it went to adjudicator who told them to refund all interest and charges since loan 3 and I had 10 in total they did not respond in time so now its with an ombudsman so waiting response from them
Sarah says
I accepted an offer of £1054 from payday this was at 7 weeks from complaint it was a good offer it has been paid into my account today only 2 days from me accepting. Very surprised as I expected it to take a lot longer very happy with this result. Wonga want another 8 weeks and quick quid offered me £200 when it should be £3000
Louis says
Hellooo
So I am still awaiting a response for a case which involved 11 payday loans from Lendingstream but before these there have been plenty of previous loans that were paid off.
The OB took my credit report files and bank statements stretching over the timespan of my loans (but my credit file was 38 pages long with payday loans from LS, Wonga, Sunny and plenty more from circa 2013), but the original complaint to the OB was regarding the 11 loans from LS.
LS gave a final response some 2 months ago which read: ~£140 refund, waiver existing loans except x and y which accumulate to around £160. (Pointless offer because i’d be down £20 really, but they did offer the payment-by-month option which I considered by making £10 monthly instalments but then thought no.)
So, after being in constant contact with my OB, I had sent off my creditfiles and Bank statements and this was at the end of Feb (around 28/02) and still have not heard anything back since.
What do you think is going on?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you wait a week than ask if there is any more information they need. It has been less than two weeks so far…
Louis says
Hi Sara, long time no speak!
Yeah I was going to wait until Tuesday (that makes it 2 weeks and I’ll just drop the OB a little email to check up and see if there’s anything further they require.
What do you think could be happening at the moment? (38 pages of credit reports: 1/5 rating Experian, 199 Credit score Noddle…) possibly going over them and could that work in my favour?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
[edited] I am not surprised or disappointed you haven’t yet heard so far. It’s not quite two weeks. I doubt the time so far means there is any problem with your case. Nor does it mean your case is good. No news is no news, it’s not good or bad.
You have had 18 loans from LS over 11 months with a rubbish credit rating. That sounds like a reasonable case to me.
Sarah says
They’re are really busy at the moment … plus the FOS are trying to come to some arrangement for the older loans with lenders.
Carly says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for all the work you do to produce this website. It such a solid resource.
After reading about PDL refunds here a few months ago, I submitted a complaint to Mr Lender. They refunded me for the loans however in my complaint I forgot to ask them to remove the loans from my credit file. Do you think I can contact them now to say that as they agreed they were unaffordable and refunded me that they should also remove them from my credit file?
Thanks in advance.
Carly
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know whether they will agree but it’s worth asking.
Ce says
I had a refund and forgot to ask about my credit file, emailed them today and they said they would be willing to remove all adverse information from my file. Wish all lenders were as helpful as mr lender.
Carlyjm says
Hi,
I have just sent off an email to ‘Sunny’ PDL company about claiming on my loans, however I have just realised I forgot to ask for the refund of interest plus 8% !! What an idiot! I’ve basically just written a letter of complaint using the template on here. Will that be enough? Can’t believe I have done this.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No need to panic – you have made a complaint, it doesn’t matter that you haven’t been precise about what redress you would like. Wait till they come back to you and if they don’t offer you a decent refund, reply saying what you think they should do.
PM says
Just got this from RSM re Cash Genie refunds, have they changed the goal posts again – thought it was all sorted and that payments were being made from this month? Beginning to lose faith in this tbh
“Thank you for your enquiry on the RSM website. I can confirm that we will be making payments to Cash Genie customers as soon as possible. At the moment I cannot confirm an exact date but we will advise you by email in advance of sending you a cheque in the post.”
simon says
Hi Everyone,
Please could somebody help, I have heard back from Wageday Advance claiming the loans over 6 years are statue barred? And they did not need to carry out credit checks for any loans? There reply is:
You have had seven loans with Wage Day Advance.
Please find attached your statement of account which identifies your approved loans, interest accrued, deferrals, default charges and repayments.
Please note that loans 1-5 are statute barred as they are over six years old, therefore will not be part of our investigation.
My question is what do they mean by Statue Barred and is it true they didnt need to do credit checks? I thought they had to for any credit applications, my loans were between 2008 and 2011?
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Statute Barred is a legal term referring to the Statute of Limitations and when a creditor can take enforcement action. It is not the right term for them to be using here!
What they mean to say (I guess!) is that the Ombudsman will not look at loans over 6 years old … but this is not correct! The Ombudsman will look at older loans.
It is correct that they didn’t have to do credit checks – but they still should have taken account of the information they knew about you, such as the number of times you had borrowed from them.
How many loans did you have from them? Were these ever rolled/deferred? What were the gaps between repaying one loan and borrowing again?
simon says
Hi Sara,
Thank you, not heard of that term before.
Shocked to find out they didnt have to do credit checks though. The first loan I had I paid back in full and didnt borrow again for a couple of months but then I deferred each one a few times and when paid back would loan again with them either straight away or with in a week. I had seven loans overall and deferred them 13 times in total. One I went in to a payment plan with them and when that was paid off got a new loan with them a month later?
They have offered the following:
Whilst I do believe that Wage Day Advance did conduct adequate affordability checks during the initial application process; I concede that we could have undertaken additional checks prior to granting the sixth and subsequent loans rather than accepting your confirmation on each occasion that the loans and deferrals were affordable.
In light of the above, it is my view that the complaint should be partially upheld and we will now agree to refund all interest and charges you have incurred since 12th July 2011, when the sixth loan was granted which totals £156.25. We shall also agree to include 8% statutory interest which totals £67.61 bringing the total redress amount to £223.86. As you have an outstanding balance with us totalling £597.81 the redress will reduce your balance owing to £373.95.
Please note that this offer is in full and final settlement of your complaint. If you wish to accept this offer please respond to this email with your acceptance.
Please accept my sincere apologies on behalf of Wage Day Advance if the loans granted worsened your financial circumstances in any way.
Regards
Simon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know how much interest you paid overall?
The last loan that you defaulted on – how much did you borrow? Have you made any payments to it?
simon says
Hi Sara
Overall on all loans I have paid £888.95 on the last loan I borrow £250 and have paid back £57.19.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so lets take that last loan. If you went to the Ombudsman and the Ombudsman uphedl the complaint (which soyunds likely), then the Ombudsman would say that the interest should be removed from the last loan, so that would then be reduced to 250-57= 193. They don’t seem to have taken this into account in their offer.
They have offered “we will now agree to refund all interest and charges you have incurred since 12th July 2011, when the sixth loan was granted which totals £156.25. We shall also agree to include 8% statutory interest which totals £67.61 bringing the total redress amount to £223.86.” So the £156 is the interest on the sixth loan and any deferrals – is that right?
simon says
Hi Sara,
Sorry got the information wrong, Having looked further at the statement they sent me the last loan shows Initial Interest of £62.50, deferral Interest of £62.50 both in 10/2011 then a Default Charge of £12 and Daily interest and charges of £109.20 in 12/2011 which totals £246.20, I have paid back £119.69 made up of £62.50 deferral charge and 7 x £8.17 payment plan payments. I also have £456.25 apparently outstanding from the other loans which they are calling default charges and charge backs but not sure what they are and have never been chased for them and they are showing on all of the loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the last loan you borrowed £250 and have repaid £119. It doesn’t matter “what” you were repaying – if the last loan is treated as unaffordable, the Ombudsman would only say you had to repay the remaining amount you borrowed, so 250-119 = 131.
I suggest ignoring the other £456 of charges – the Ombudsman would probably say these should be deleted.
So they have offered redress of £223, which after paying off 131 would mean you got paid £92. Does that seem like a fair settlement to you? If it does, I suggest reply to WDA saying this, and how you calculated it, also that you want any defaults removed from your credit record. Point out if they don’t accept you will be going to the Ombudsman with all the loans including your older loans.
If you don’t think this is adequate then send the lot to the Ombudsman now!
simon says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for the help, I think I will send to the ombudsman as I have paid a lot more than the £223 in interest over the years. Incidentally they have just rung me chasing payment for the other loans. First call from them on it since I had the loans and on my work number!
Thank you for the advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are they chasing you for payments for any loans which are over 6 years old? Because those are statute barred :) See https://debtcamel.co.uk/statute-barred-debt/.
simon says
Hi Sara,
Yes they said they were ringing as I owed them money and it was over 1300 something days overdue, according to the statement they sent me there were charge backs and defaults added to the old loans in 2015 but this is the first I have heard of it. I told them I would not make any payments as I have a complaint in with them that I am sending to the ombudsman and they said they would put the accounts on hold until the Ombudsman’s decision.
susan says
hi,
well the ombudsman agreed with me about peachy, so now just waiting on peachy getting in contact with me regarding my payment, fingers crossed they don’t take to long
Bob says
Hi
I’ve been waiting for an Uncle Buck refund as agreed with the adjudicator for over 3 weeks now…. does anyone have experience of how long it takes them to pay out? I’ve contacted the adjudicator and they’ve just said they have the standard 4 weeks to make payment.
I thinking that they’re not likely to pay out if they’re taking this long to process it, and I’m going to have to go back and fight again. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Bob
Si says
You’ll get paid out on the last day possible. Usually 4 weeks like the adjudicator says. Uncle Buck?? More like Uncle Ripoff.
You’ll get your money but have to be patient.
Bob says
Thanks. I’ll give it til the 4 week deadline then get onto the adjudicator again ?.
Bob
Si says
Keep with it pal. You’ve won. They’re paying you out. They have to stick to the deadline given.
It’s frustrating. But that’s the way they roll unfortunately.
Good luck.
Craig says
Hi.
Had 2 loans with Mr. Lender and have recently complained to them about being mis sold etc. They have got back to me today with an offer of half of the interest paid (90 quid) from the second loan and to remove stuff like searches and unafordable loans etc from my credit file. Didnt expect them to get back so quickly. dont know wether to accept or get their final response so i can go to ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you only had two loans, not rolled, then this may by an OK offer. Do you think it’s fair?
Ginny says
Does anyone have any experience with negotiating with Mr Lender they have made a “goodwill offer ” which is valid until April the 5th if I try to negotiate can they take there original offer back.
Any tips on negotiating with Mr Lender and will they take it off my credit history?
Thanks in Advance
Michelle says
Hi Ginny
Mr lender were quick to provide statement of loans and I have seen lots of people say they have accepted an early offer as it was good.
My own case they made me a low offer so I took to FOS and now mr lender has increased offer by £4K but I did have a lot of loans with them.
People always say if you go to FOS you will not get a lower offer so I guess it depends how good you feel your offer is against interest paid I.e if you paid £1000 interest and they offered you £800 you might take it as saves waiting 2+ months for FOS if you paid £6000 interest and got offered £1500 then worth taking to FOS
Good luck
Aaron jackson says
I thought the current wonga times were 11-12 weeks but it’s looking as if it’s more and more at the 14-15-16 week now for a reply.
Anyone care to share when you first complained and when you eventually heard back?
I’m half way through my 10th week. Been with ombudsman straight after week 8 who has already been in touch regarding my complaint. I’m hanging in there :)
I also had quickquid decline my complaint regarding only 2 loans I took out 7 year ago! I paid £100 interest back then. I then sent it to FOS And they have emailed me out the blue to make a £50 offer which I accepted! Didn’t think I’d get a single penny for this one given that it was only 2 loans 7 years ago!
Payday UK was also sent to FOS. Adjudicator rang me to say he’s sending it straight to an Ombudsman but it’s going to take atleast 3 months!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
a QQ offer that sounds reasonable – how unusual!
Steve says
A few years back when wonga were in the news about refunding customers due to new affordability checks, I received an amount from them. This won’t affect me making a complaint against them now will it? Just added up I’ve had 28 loans from them and paid 3300 in interest. I can’t remember what amount I got but think it was about 200
Ross says
I wouldn’t have thought this would affect your claim? At the very worse, they may choose to deduct the £200 from any offer they make you. However, I complained to them and they made me an offer, which I accepted. One of my loans was written off, a couple of years ago as part of the programme they agreed with the FCA, and no mention was made of this in the offer letter whatsoever, so I doubt they would even deduct or consider the £200 as part of any offer?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some of these cases where there has been a previous refund are now awaiting a decision. I can’t see why a small refund who really affect your case – perhaps it could be seen as an advance payment? The FOS usually seems to come to a sensible decision in this sort of situation so I hope this will soon be resolved. In the meanwhile, just start off your complaint!
Ce says
Just a quick update, emailed qq satsuma loans 247 moneybox vivis wageday advance payday uk. Wonga and mr lender all on 26th feb.
Mr lender i have accepted there good will gesture (only 2 loans and not much interest) and they agreed to remove from credit file
Qq statement sent over just waiting on them now
Payday uk refused to do statement unless i pay 1.00 and done 2 more searches
Wageday advance just a acknowlement email
Wonga received statement
247 offered to clear my out standing debt but i have declined no statement yet
Satsuma sent over statement just waiting now
Vivus statement sent today
Will keep you all updated.
Amyrue says
Hi Sara
I just wanted to say thank you for your Web page. I accidentally stumbled upon it and found your very helpful advice on claiming back interest on pay day loans. I was stuck in a terrible cycle of payday loan usage for over 7 years with rollover after rollover from multiple loan companies. I never thought I would see that money again. Anyway- I decided to follow your templates and wrote to all 10 lenders and asked for a statement of account. Some have been very unhelpful (Payday UK and Payday Express) and not provided a statement at all – just a long letter absolving themselves from any responsibility. Others have provided statements and nothing else. Wageday Advance however made me an offer of £3,800 although making it clear it was a good will gesture. I have accepted this and it has been paid into my account today (without ceremony). I am surprised, perplexed and grateful for this. I will now pursue the rest with the Financial Ombudsman- but Thank You for all you do here – it is so very appreciated.
Kelly says
I received a reply from Safetynet regarding a complaint I submitted a few weeks ago. Basically they have declined my complaint saying it was affordable. In their letter they have stated that I had “in excess of £1500 per month disposable income”, my credit check showed no recent defaults and the 90 days of transactions showed no issues of concern. My issue with this is that 1. I do not bring in £1500 per month to begin with. My average monthly income is around £1300 of which £600 is rent and £130 council tax. I also have a car loan of £175 per month coming out also. That’s before food and travel etc. 2. I had 2 other payday loans running at the same time. Safetynet increased my limit each month till I had a limit of £500 so with the interest I was getting myself in quite a mess.
Not sure how to go forward with this so any help would be appreciated.
Susan says
Make complaint to FO as if you read there terms and conditions as it says they would write to you if they increase or decrease your limit
Susan
Ross says
Hi Kelly,
You need to take this one to the FOS. I had an account with SNC and they increased my limit, over time, to £1000 and, by the time they finished investigated my complaint, it was a whopping £1370, with interest. I told SNC that they were the only PDL that had the advantage of seeing what was coming in, and out, of my bank account, as they can with everybody they lend to. I made them aware they should’ve noticed that I had numerous payday loans coming in and out, as well as my usual outgoings. In the end, they offered to write off the whole balance as a ‘gesture of goodwill’. Whilst I found the fact that they were willing to ‘write off’ such an amount as amusing, I took their offer. Explain all of these points to the FOS and I don’t think you’ll go far wrong. Good luck ?
Kelly says
Thanks for that Ross. I will definitely do that.
Laura says
Hello everyone
I’ve just had my final response from Quickquid:
[edited out standard stuff]
Looking at your record, I see that your credit model score was never under the minimum approval threshold for any of the loans for which you were approved. For instance, on 14/12/2015 you had a credit model score of 0.3424 when the minimum approval score was -0.35. Your credit model score is substantially higher the minimum approval score which shows that our affordability assessments properly ran per our internal policy.
[edited]It was noted your monthly income was stated as £1750 per month. I compared your income to the average monthly repayment for each loan you took with us. From this I can see that the income you made during each loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan and thus I cannot agree with you that your loans were unaffordable.
DEPENDENCY
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. Yet if you were dependent on taking out one loan to repay the other then you would have taken out numerous loans, for equal or increasing loan amounts, and with very little time between paying off one loan and taking out the other. When I reviewed your loan history I see that excluding loans which you repaid early, you never had more than four consecutive loans (< 15 days between loans) [edited] In your complaint you state that you underwent severe financial detriment. I reviewed your file and determined that you did in fact inform us of your difficulty. In line with our internal procedure, once you informed us of your circumstances, we attempted to assist you with an affordable repayment plan. However, it appears from my review that you applied and were approved for a loan after expressing such financial detriment. We take seriously our responsibility to treat customers fairly and to that point we uphold your complaint as it relates to hardship but do not uphold your complaint as it relates to affordability and dependency. As such, we are offering you a total refund of £17.92 which equates to the interest paid on loan 11082007. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ What do i do from here? Surely having 4 consecutive loads is showing I am dependent on them, and I was also using Wonga at this time. The offer of a refund on my last loan is a bit of a kick in the teeth as the full interest I have paid is almost £1200 and I'm still paying off the credit cards almost to the same amount that i racked up whilst using QQ... Do i have a strong case for Obmudsman? Any help greatly appreciate - am still waiting for any kind of reply from Wonga...
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds as though you had a lot of borrowing. I suggest you ignore this very small offer and let the Ombudsman look at the case.
Ross says
I think we’ve seen some ridiculous offers from QQ on here, but £17.92 has to be an all new record, wouldn’t you agree Sara? Still, it’s £17.92 more than I was offered, after 5 hours in between complaining, getting a final response and being told to, basically, bog off! Mine’s queued with the ombudsman and also, currently, stuck in the 6+year old loans issue. It’s just a case of waiting for me. I’m hopeful my patience will be rewarded though. Good luck!
tracey says
This is the exact response I got… Yet the offered me £100 I’ve attempted to negotiate but I believe this will go to ombudsman. Funny, same reply same day…
Sarah says
I have had this exact same response word for word I knew my borrowing was continues so I emailed back asking for my loan history which they have emailed back it was 5 pages which showed loan after loan after loan I added up all interested and it’s just under £5000 they offered me £200!
Maureen says
Hi Sara, This is my response from My Jar which took 5 weeks…..should I accept or do you think the FOS would uphold them all? I’m torn as it seems a good offer, although it was nearly 2k I paid in interest overall. Any advice would be appreciated as this is my first response from one of my big lenders.
Relevant facts
You took out 41 separate loans with us. Please note that due to the technical limitations at the time, some of the loans provided in early 2011 for £200 were issued in two transactions.
Kindly note that we delete any record older than 6 years as rules laid down by the ICO (Information Commissionaires Office) advises that firms must not hold on to data that it does not need, due to the risk associated with this we have set a retention period of six years. As such, we do not hold data about the first 12 loans which were requested and repaid more than six years ago from the date we received your complaint. Your last 29 loans from us were taken out between 12 February 2011 and 3 September 2012. All of these loans were scheduled to be repaid in less than 30 days in one instalment.
We cross-referenced and validated the data we received from the above sources along with the application data provided by you. You stated you were in a full-time employment with xxx, earning £2,000 net per month, against which you listed payments of £500 per month towards housing. You also stated that you were single and had no dependents living with you.
Our conclusion:
We have carefully reviewed all of the relevant information. Having done so, we can confirm that we have conducted appropriate affordability checks before approving each of your loan applications in line with the OFT ILG regulation at that time. We made our borrowing decisions based on all the information available to us, and trusted the details that you provided to us each time you requested a new loan to be true and accurate.
However, we have also taken into consideration your borrowing history.
Decision
In light of the above, it is our view that your complaint should be partially upheld. To put things right, we are prepared to refund you the charges and interest you paid on your last 15 loans in the amount of £713.00.
Kindly let us know as to whether you accept our proposed resolution. Should you agree, please provide your preferred banking details to us so that we could process the refund of £713.00 without delay. This offer is made in full and final settlement of your complaint and acceptance by you will indicate your agreement to this condition.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
First the loans over 6 years old. Do you have a record of these?
For the younger loans, they are offering a refund on 15 out of 29 loans. And they haven’t offered to add 8% statutory interest. You may well get a much larger award by taking this case to the Ombudsman as you borrowed a lot over quite a short period.
Maureen says
Hi Sara, yes I have the dates the payments went into my account on the older ones as I managed to get a statement from my bank to show pay ins back to 2008! I think they should have at least offered the 29 loans going back 6 years. In all my complaints which are still within the first 8 week period and most still awaiting a response, I worried because my income was between 2k and 3k for some of that period but I was paying most of that in interest and some capital repayments that I immediately had to borrow again. So I went into this process not holding my breath at being successful but I did continuously borrow for 4 years until I went to my sister and asked for help and she gave me enough to pay them all off then I paid her back (without interest).
I’ve found this site most useful and to be honest if I hadn’t come across it I wouldn’t have known that what these lenders did wasn’t right so thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send it to the Ombudsman and say that you have the details of the loans that over 6 years old, so you would them considered too.
Martynas says
Hello,
Yesterday i made complain to Lending Streem, Wonga, Money shop, Feratum, and Vivus for unaffordable borrowing.
So in the evening i got respond from lending streem and they saying that my Experian score was 700-760 and my wage was quite high so that’s why the was borrowing for me. but as o good will they agreed to take interest for my outstanding loans which is something like 200 pounds would be, plus they will accepting lower payments.
But firstly i never had such experian score (highest was 340) and all my wage was going to cover loans, so after that i was need to borrow again. So just for them i paid around 1200 just interest.
So i replay for them that this offer is not even close to generous. so what should i do now whait for the respond from them or contact the FO.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Many people have been quoted clearly wrong – and always too high! – credit scores by Lending Stream.
Ask them if it is their Final Response – if it is, send the complaint to the FO.
Sophie says
Just wondered if anyone knew of Wonga still make offers on accounts where they wrote off a loan (as agreed by fsa) ? Have read that the cases like this with the ombudsman are on hold … Just curious if I’m likely to get an offer from wonga before I send to to fos or will I be in it for the long haul X
Katie says
Really ? Oh no I hadn’t heard this. My 8 weeks are up tomorrow. They did write off my final loan for approx £600 as I had gone into a repayment plan with them. Prior to this though I had continually borrowed for a period of 3 years – 75 loans totalling £30000 so I’m hoping for a good result.
What’s your story like with them ?
Sophie says
Yeah been reading that lots if the cases like ours are on hold with ombudsman … So kinda hoping for an offer before that stage but not sure if they make them. They wrote off my final loan too £800, still have 4K of interest to claim back tho :-/! I sent my complaint about 5 weeks ago so not heard … Hope the wait is not too long! Hopefully you’ll hear soon let me know how you get on :)
Michelle says
Hi Katie
If 8 weeks is up push to FOS as that’s a long process and they can always make you an offer during this. I had nearly 50 loans from then and they rejected my complaint but FOS upheld in full
Good luck
Louisa says
We have a case that the adjudicator upheld back in November and wonga didn’t respond. We were then told it was going to the ombudsman for a final decision. Then we were told that the whole complaint was now on hold until the fca inform the fos how to proceed with customers who have had a redress. I am a bit confused as the complaint was about 26 loans and only the last one had been assessed for redress. I spoke to the adjudicator today and was informed that the hold was still in place
David says
Has anyone gone back to their lender after putting in a complaint to the FOS? Mine went in early Dec about Quick Quid, but not heard a thing since the initial acknowledgemt – no adjudicator, letter, email or anything. Have rung up the FOS but no joy.
Am wondering if its possible to go back to Quick Quid and start again, or alternatively is there a procedure to actually complain about the FOS does anyone know…?!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What did the FOS say when you called? There is no point in going back to QQ.
John says
I submitted my complaint to the FOS about QQ on 3rd December. It was acknowledged and given a case reference number a couple of weeks later.
An adjudicator contacted me at the end of January to say he had picked it up. I gave him all the statements and information he asked me for. He said he hoped to finish it that week.
I called him 3 weeks later and he said he had a lot of cases on but he expected to finish mine in the next couple of weeks. That was nearly 3 weeks ago. I haven’t heard from him since.
Its now coming up to 15 weeks since I submitted to FOS. I also feel like complaining to FOS but as I expect it to make no difference I haven’t and am sitting it out. Financially I need the money and don’t want to be forced into accepting the low offer QQ have made but of this drags on for ever I might have to.
I share your frustration.
John
Chris says
Both my complaints about P2P and QQ went tot he FOS mid november, I recieved letters and case number but both companies dismissed the outcome my adjudicator had come to so these have been passed onto the ombudsman. I have emailed him most weeks to find out what stage these where at without much joy, until last week I recieved an email back from him saying they had finally been passed to an ombudsman and I should here something within the next couple of weeks. Altogether my complaints to all four companies have been ongoing since april 2016.
My advice is to sit back and wait if you want the best outcome financially and never rely on the money you may receive because anything is surely something a year ago you wasn’t expecting to have.
John says
Hi Chris,
I am doing my best to follow that advice.
However my situation is different to yours. You submitted your complaint about two weeks ahead of me and it appear you got a decision from an adjudicator a long time ago. I still haven’t even got that far.
I fully expect QQ to reject the adjudicators decision and have to queue for an ombudsman for probably 3 months. That I can understand. I also understand and accept they have an increased workload and so a backlog now exists
It’s the 7 weeks and counting from when the adjudicator said he expected to have his decision but still hasn’t got back in touch that is disappointing me. Altogether nearly 15 weeks with the ombudsman service and no adjudicator decision.
Good Luck with the ombudsman
John
David says
They said they could see my complaint on the system but had no information about it (?) .
To put in a complaint over three months ago and not hear anything is not really very good, and I need to at least know whats happening: their own website says most complaints are resolved within that timeframe, so its not unreasonable to expect at least some communication regarding my case in that time.
I dont want to go back to QuickQuid (as that seems a bit pointless), and since the FOS havent replied to my email asking for an update, what am I left to do? I have thought about submitting the entire complaint with all the documentation again from scratch… but duplicating it will surely not help their workload.
So I’m going to have to go down the complaints route if only to get some sort of reply from them.
Nick says
I can only speak from my own experience but if the FOS are waiting g on the “business file” there is not a lot they can do, they need this from the lender to able to investigate, I didn’t read all your comments do you have loans over 6 yes old as well, that will make a huge difference I believe.
N
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do NOT put in a new complaint, that will just confuse things. Ring them up and ask when an adjudicator will pick up the case.
David says
Thank you for your thoughts. I appreciate from others how busy the FOS are, but I have decided to go down their complaints route because I have heard nothing from them in more than 3 months. Apparently I should’ve been told who is/will be dealing with my case (I haven’t). And lots of other peoples frustrations seem to be when they are at least in the system and have had some dialogue or communication with an adjudicator.
Lucy says
Has anyone had any luck with safety-net credit?
Ross says
Hi Lucy,
I had my balance written off with SNC (over £1370). I made them aware that they were the only lender who had the privilege of seeing what was coming in, and going out, of my bank account and that they should’ve seen payments being made to and from other PDL’s. Even though I had other PDL’s (Which they could see) they continued to increase my credit limit from an initial £150, right up to £1000. I became dependant on this and, after repaying on payday, I was literally borrowing the balance all over again. It was mildly amusing that they accepted no responsibility, and disagreed with my complaint, but agreed to write off the balance as a ‘gesture of goodwill’. If I believed I wasn’t in the wrong, I wouldn’t, technically, give someone nearly £1400 anyway, but that was their choice and I took it.
Lucy says
Thanks Ross,
At the mo i owe £798 but as you know it increases daily, I am in the same boat, i get paid weekly and my full wage gets taken out to repay the debt then i have to re borrow what is available to me :( I have just had this as a response from them :
Thank you for your recent contact.
We are sorry to learn that you have been dissatisfied with a part of our service and will be conducting a thorough investigation into your complaint.
You should expect a final response within a time period of 4 weeks from today. In some cases this period can be extended to 8 weeks, for example if it takes a little longer than anticipated to gather all the required information. In such circumstances where an extension is necessary, you will be informed via e-mail.
If you require the automatic repayments on your account to be blocked please advise us of this in your response. However, please be aware that you are currently still liable for the outstanding balance, therefore it may be in your best interest to make at least the minimum payments on your account until the complaint is resolved to avoid any negative reporting on your credit file.
If you remain unhappy with our final response, you have the option to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, so long as you do this within six months of the date of our final response. Within the final response we will enclose a leaflet providing contact details and information about their service as well as how you can complain.
They have just emailed this as well:
Dear Ms Gregory,
Thank you for your response.
We are writing to confirm that the automatic repayments have been stopped and the interest has been frozen for the duration of the complaint investigation.
If you have any further questions or queries please feel free to contact us on 0800 180 8400 Monday to Friday between 8am – 7pm and Saturdays 9am – 5pm.
Kind regards,
I will be happy if they wipe the balance, did you get any money back from them?
Thanks again x
Ross says
I didn’t receive any money back from them, but I calculated that wiping the balance exceeded the amount of interest I had paid over the 11 month duration which I held the account with them. I am pleased they have frozen the account for you, and the interest, as tis will go some way to helping you escape the constant borrowing and re-borrowing. They did the same for me and I was surprised they offered to write off such a large balance, without accepting any responsibility of wrongdoing. Did you have other PDL at the same time as you had your SNC account? This was an important factor with my complaint and I think they realised that this wouldn’t have sat well with the FOS, hence the result. Good luck :)
Neil says
So lending stream Initially fobbed me off then I was offered around 500. They have now increased there offer to 1115 so what do I do? I’ve had a total of 18 loans with them and they are only willing to refund from loans 11-18 so shall I accept there offer or reject? Thanks in advance.
Ross says
Would you be of the opinion that the fact they keep increasing their offer is a veiled admission of guilt? If you feel you have a strong case, the difference between what they’ve offered (and what you’ve paid) is considerable and are able to hang on for a better result, I would definitely consider taking it to the ombudsman. They can keep making counter offers, whilst you wait, and if (in the meantime) they reach a figure that sits more comfortably with what you expected, then there’s nothing to stop you from accepting this and informing the FOS that the case has been settled, prior to them concluding their investigation. I think the ball is most definitely in your court?
Andrew says
What’s WageDayAdvance like at accepting the adjudicators decision?
Ross says
Hi Andrew,
Although all cases are different, and after initially rejecting my complaint, they accepted my adjudicators decision and paid out rather quickly. Is it a large amount you’re looking at? Mine was relatively modest, hence the reason why they may have chucked the towel in on mine?
Andrew says
Cheers Ross.
No it’s not a big amount, have a balance of about £200.00 and I’d say it’ll clear most of that, so they won’t actually be giving me any money.
Hopefully this means they’ll have it sorted pretty quickly.
Thanks again.
Pear says
They offered me £575 including the 8% interest which I declined as I feel it should be more like £1175 +8% interest but they said that was the final offer so I sent to FSO today. Bit worried about the waiting times but don’t feel I should take any less so need to wait to here from adjudicator.
Miriam says
Hi all
can is win a case even if I had only 1 loan from PDExpress and few more from others? I still owe them money, but capital was repaid.They rejected my complaint so I wonder if I should file it to FO.
Thanks
details : I borrowed £600 for 12 month, instalments £95 and I still owe them about £450. My income was £1,300 net, but I had another PDLs.
I paid 7 instalments, last month was my first missed payment, now I have DMP so I paid this month around £29.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so this was a very recent loan. PD Express will definitely have checked your credit record before giving you it. So it’s worth complaining if your credit record would have shown recent defaults, missed payments and/or a lot of debt outstanding.
Michelle says
Hi Miriam
You can never tell as it depends on your financial situation at the time, I had 1 loan from payday uk in 2012 and then 2 in 2016, Payday uk told me to go away but FOS split the loans as under different owners and upheld my one loan, payday uk ignored adjudicator but today they have agreed to pay before it went to an ombudsman
Only £190 refund but I’m still pleased
Good luck
Dave says
Reply from PDUk today with a small offer for 10 consecutive loans in 2013-2014. All of which started and ended on the same dates. I’ve read that this company are awful to deal with and the fact they have refused point blank to send any statements would confirm this. Do you think it’s worth the battle or should I just accept the £164.41? I’m prepared for the wait with the other but was anxious about the poor record of those company.
“I can conclude that I am unable to uphold your complaint on this occasion, and appreciate this is not the response you were hoping for. Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback to PaydayUK
However, PaydayUK voluntarily signed the ‘Customer Charter’ in November 2012 which contained guidance that a customer should not be allowed to rollover or defer their loan on more than three consecutive occasions. It has become apparent that in this instance, PaydayUK has not followed the guidance that was issued concerning the third loan, which has meant that additional interest was paid of £164.41. Although the ‘Customer Charter’ was only guidance it is evident that that loan was deferred on one additional occasion at this time. As such I am upholding the complaint regarding this matter with regard to any deferrals completed outside of the Customer Charter. This offer represents the deferral interest paid regarding the loan deposit. If you wish to accept this decision please complete and return the enclosed settlement form.”
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know how much interest you paid? If they arerefunding £164 on just one, then there could be a lot! Plus 25-30% extra for the 8% interest.
If you are prepared for the wait then it may not be that stressful… The company isn’t dreadful to deal with in the sense of being threatening – they are just slow and unhelpful.
In case you are wondering, the fact that they have decided one loan breached their charter doesn’t mean that this is what the Ombudsman would decide. 10 back to back loans sounds like a very good case to me.
Ross says
Hi Dave,
I had the exact same with Payday Express, the sister company to PDUK. They sent the exact same letter, rejecting my complaint, but offering £346.41 for loans that were ‘rolled over’ against the so called charter they’d signed up to. I chose not to accept their offer and sent it to the FOS. The adjudicator ruled that most of my loans should not have been granted and upheld my complaint. They chose to ignore 2 deadlines that had set them to respond, and this is now in the queue for an ombudsman. If the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator, which I am pretty confident they will, then I am looking at a figure of around £4-£5k. I suggest you wait it out and send off your complaint. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. At the very worst, the FOS may just tell PDUK to pay what they’ve already offered, but you won’t come off any worse! Good luck!
Wes says
Hi,
Been following this website for a few weeks now, and must say it’s been brilliant.
I took out loans with Wonga as far back as 2008. I sent them an initial complaint.
Mr Lender were great, I accepted £194 within a week of complaining. I even went back to them and asked for removal of default and it was gone within days! #smallvictories
Thanks in advance
Wazza says
Good morning,
I stumbled across this website little over 2 week ago, and related to so much of the cases etc, and I too was trapped in the payday cycle for several years, didn’t think any of this would apply to me as all my loans where paid on time. I did a little research and got copies of all my credit files, and was gobsmacked at the amounts of payday loans I had in a relatively short period. I am ashamed to say I have also worked out my finances at the time of application of my very first PDL (wonga £245) my existing high street borrowing/council tax etc household bills actually exceeded my monthly income, yet I was still granted the loan, cut a long story short, in the aim of making payments/financial balancing and disillusion of an improved credit file, In total I had 88 PDL loans in under 4 years. As below:-
62 with wonga (Nov 2012-oct 2015)
22 with sunny (Sep 2014 – April 2016)
4 with other PDL’s
What is worrying is the fact that at the time of application with sunny my financial situation was in a poorer state and I had already had a total of 36 payday loans yet they still welcomed me with open arms for borrowing up to £1000
In summary whilst I accept if I knew I had a problem I should have informed lenders etc, but in all honesty I didn’t feel I did, everything was getting paid, I was constantly getting emails for being a great customer by paying on time and welcoming me back immediately for further loans, they became a way of life, an ever present tool for managing cash flow, Not actually clearing debt but clearing extortionate interest.
That in mind I feel let down, these company are supposedly responsible lenders they have a duty of care to conduct valid assessments,recognise problems,they are supposedly experts and any evidence of multiple payday loans in quick succession should at the very least prompt a more in depth analysis but in reality, each lender was fighting over themselves to ‘pick at the bones’
I have fortunately been clear of payday loans for almost 12 months, And have registered complaints with all lenders. Sorry this is a bit long winded, but hopefully someone may relate to this and do the same.
Thanks everyone and good luck!!!
Ross says
Hi Wazza,
62 Wonga loans in less than 3 years is a scary amount! It looks to me like you have a very good cause to complain as this shows you were definitely dependant on these loans, especially taking out what seems like multiple loans in 1 month. I had the exact same issues, whereby I was robbing Peter to pay Paul and borrowing from one to pay the other and the back to the original one. Luckily, I managed to break the cycle, with the help of this fabulous website, and it’s resources. I’m down to the last couple of complaints now and should be done with payday loans once these complaints have been investigated/resolved. Sara really does deserve all of our grateful thanks for all of the time and effort she has put in to creating this. Without it, I doubt many of us would’ve ever realised just what we could’ve done!?!
Wazza says
Hi Ross, Thanks for taking the time to respond, and you are absolutely right. Seeing the volumes of posts and responses Sara has done a great job.. thanks Sara! Before this I had firmly put the whole experience in the past as an extremely expensive lesson. But Thanks to this forum, I feel I can get some kind of retribution for in my opinion PDL companies consistently taking advantage of my situation. Keep plugging away mate, and good luck
Ally says
Good news this morning adjudicator found in my favour on most loans with Wonga over £5k so have to wait now to see if they agree.
They had offered £2900 so it was worth waiting for the adjudicator, I must say my adjudicator is really good very prompt and polite, not found 100% in my favour but fair on the assessments.
Nigel says
Some News on Different money. They are in administration now. The FOS have told me that the liquidators wont be accepting any Final Decisions from the FOS and wont accept being added to any creditors list and the only way to challenge this would be to take it to court after a final decision by an Ombudsman has been made. They have also stated that there is no money at all. All a bit gloom and doom, not one of my big ones but one that will slip away now.
Sarah says
Hi Sara,
So far I’ve been knocked back for a refund of interest and charges by My Jar and The Money shop. My jar is currently with the FS and I will be forwarding on the MS one today as they have only just responded. Is this normal to get knocked back the first time?
I had around 8 loans for My jar starting off at a £100 then increasing each time Upto £700. I had several loans at the same time would borrow from one to pay the other and so on. It’s currently with the FO and they’ve given my jar two weeks to respond so fingers crossed.
Thanks
Sarah
Ross says
Hi Sarah,
Some companies are renowned for rejecting cases, even good ones. They hope that you may just choose to give up and that will be the end of it, saving them lots of money in the process. If you feel you have a good case, then make sure you send it to the FOS, detailing why you think you have a good case. Just to give you an idea of how mine progressed;
Satsuma Loans – rejected by company, upheld by FOS and Satsuma agreed with adjudicator findings
Payday UK – rejected by company, upheld by FOS and Payday UK (eventually) agreed with adjudicator findings
Wageday Advance – rejected by company, upheld by FOS and Wageday Advance agreed with adjudicator findings
Pounds to Pocket – rejected by company, upheld by FOS and Pounds to Pocket (eventually, after attempting to haggle) agreed with adjudicator findings
This is just a few of mine. As you can see, it’s not all plain sailing and you do have to invest a lot of time in to fighting your corner. They won’t, mostly, give in at the first hurdle as this will cost THEM money. If companies do make you an offer, make sure it’s a good one, before accepting. Good luck!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
8 loans increasing is a good case.
Sarah says
Thanks Sara, this website is so helpful! My credit report would have shown that I had lots of loans running at the same time.
I currently also have a loan with SNC of £480 but with interest I currently owe £549.12, which will continue to go up until I get paid. They can see my outgoings and my account shows I’m in financial difficulty, can you put claims in on outstanding loans or is it just ones that have come to an end?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can defintely claim for outstanding loans. Ask SNC to reduce the amount they are taking each month to £x which is affordable for you as part of your complaint.
Ask them to suspend taking any money until your complaint is resolved if you can’t afford to pay anything.
Tony says
Good afternoon Sara,
A bit off topic I’ve been going through my bank statements as the fos has requested them and shocked by the amount of fees and unplanned overdraft fees sometimes up to £200-+ a month I know there was a ruling regarding getting a refund of charges is it still worth putting Iin a compliant
Ross says
Hi Tony,
I put in a claim with Natwest, a few years back, and they refunded all of my charges, as a gesture of goodwill. However, this was prior to the Supreme Court ruling on whether these charges were unlawful as part of the UTCCR regulations. Once the case was set to go to the Supreme court, many banks put all of their complaints on hold. As you’re probably aware, the decision went in the favour of the BBA and the banks so, as such, banks stopped refunding. You could attempt a complaint to see if they offer you any kind of refund, but I am doubtful if the FOS would be inclined to get involved, if they rejected your complaint, based on the ruling made by the Supreme Court. Hope this helps a little?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So Ross has said what the standard situation is . You may still be abel to get a refund if you can show hardship, MSE is good for these claims: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges.
the other thing you could consider is an affordability compalint if they increased your overdraft a LOT after it should have been clear you were already in trouble… see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/. That’s about credit cards, but increasing yoru overdraft is similar to that situation.
Laura says
Hi
I complained to Lloyd’s as I had a £3754 overdraft and £1554 overdraft. They have written half of the £3754 overdraft off (paid lots of bank charges) so I just need to pay £2000 and they have cleared the £1554 overdraft and refunded £196 back to me. They have also given me £400 compensation for distress this has caused me. I have to say they were quick to respond – within two weeks of my complaint.
I have also had mrlender cancel my outstanding balance of £664 (only ever had three loans with them). This was within a week of complaint.
Wage day advance have offered a full refund plus plus 8%interest, this amounts to £1154. I am pleased with this as I only had 5 loans with them. The response was within 4 weeks and I received it via letter.
Lending stream have offered £224 refund on two loans but there is a third with a DC so I have gone back and said would they be willing to write this off plus a refund.
I am still waiting for final responses on 8 lenders, I am well on the road to becoming debt free now as my biggest complaints are CFO, myjar and wonga which are yet to respond.
Good luck everyone! And thank you for this site it is certainly changing my life.
Laura
andy says
My claim with Payday UK has been with the ombudsman for 1 year due to some loans being in 2008 My adjudicator has bank statements ect ect . My loan in 2008 was rolled over 6 times I had 6 further loans in 2013 which increased each month for 7 months until I defaulted on the last one £800 My adjudicator has detail’s of my wages for each month I took the loans out Today Payday uk have contacted the adjudicator and stated the my application says that I had put that I earned £2500 per month When my bank statements say I earned £1200 And the adjudicator has now told me that she thinks the loans were affordable ? Don’t know what to do anymore
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you think you would have put 2500 down? If you don’t, I suggest you reply saying that you never said this and ask them to produce the paperwork showing that you did.
I suggest you reply to the adjudicator saying that the loans were not affordable. Pick a month in the middle of your 2013 borrowing and go through the bank statement in details showing what the situation would have been if you hadn’t taken out another loan – probably you couldn’t have paid your essential bills etc?
andy says
I may have done Sara if I did it would of been out of pure desperation to get a loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Fair enough – it’s just if you KNOW you didn’t, it’s worth challenging.
The lender should still have been able to see from your repeat borrowing that you were in trouble, whatever you said on the application.
Katie says
Absolutely gobsmacked received a final response from The Money Shop today – 7 weeks after my complaint for £3277. I am surprised as I was complaining about 3 installment loans from 2012-13 but they have also addressed cheques back to 2007 which I wasn’t going to bother with as was more than 6 years ago and I know there is a long wait on that. I have accepted as interest on loans was approx £1500. I know I could hold out for more but I decided it was a good offer.
I have 6 other PDLs currently with the FOS Wonga, Pounds to Pocket, Lending Stream, Peachy, Satsuma and Wage Day Advance. I accepted £300 from Mr Lender and am awaiting final responses from Quick Quid, Speedloan, Moneyboat, Sunny, Piggy Bank, Uncle Buck and Myjar.
Keep up the good work everyone.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They offered you £3277 when the interest you paid was £1500? Or was this the other way round?
Katie says
Hi Sara they offered my £3277 when the interest was £1500. But they also included cheques that went back to 2007 too which I had decided I was not going to push for as there had been a big gap between borrowing and as I no longer had bank statements going back that far and didn’t keep cheque stubs it would be hard for me to work out how much exactly I had borrowed in addition to the extra time with the FOS due to being more than 6 ago I decided not to chase. Obviously I probably paid a whole lot of interest back in 2007 which is why they offered me what appears to be such a good offer but I’ve weighed it up and decided to accept.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I expect they realise the interest is a lot more … but that doesn’t really matter if you think this is a fair result then it is! Well done!
John says
HELP!!!!!!
Hello all,
I viewed this site end of last year and got the ball rolling with wonga and lending stream.
Long story short- I had 4 accounts with LS, I proactively said I can’t pay this month, can I split it up over 3/4 months, they agreed, I made the payments.
They defaulted 4no. Accounts meaning I doubt I’ll get a good mortgage rate, they have stated loan 1 was a procedural error, offered me charges back and to remove the default. After a call today they will remove the second default as a gesture of good will but not the 3rd or 4th. Any advice on getting this over the line and all 4 removed before their final response on Monday?
Wonga are dealing with my complaint circa £3,000 + interest, I have a feeling I’ll be going to the ombudsman as everyone else has had to do….or is there any good news stories from wonga straight of the bat?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They shouldn’t have added a default to your credit record until you were 3-6 months in arrears, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/debt-default-date/. But there is no point in arguiong about this now – wait until your complaint is resolved, as if all the loans are determined to be unaffordable the loans will be dleted from your credit record.
You have no chance of getting a mortgage when you have payday loans showing in the last 12 months, even if they weren’t defaulted.
Sally says
Wonga wrote to me without me even contacting them a couple of years ago, telling me that I would not have qualified for their requirements under the new system, and they were writing off a £1000 loan.
Ally says
Just thought I would let you know, you are not only changing our lives but those of others. One of my best friends lost her baby aged 7 months, heartbreaking in itself but she has not been able to afford a headstone. Today after my adjudicators decision I have thanks to you paid for Ryan’s head stone. On my cc (shout at me if you want) but I will pay off in full once it comes through.
You are changing so many people’s lives Thank You x x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh Ally, what a lovely thing to do.
Sam says
This site has been so helpful in introducing me to something I didn’t know I could do!
I’ve decided to start with Cheque Centre as thats where my lending began and after having 103 loans with them between 2008 and 2013 which I blatantly could not afford to repay. I complained on 7th Feb and received my reply today to say they are rejecting my complaint. I have sent my form off to the Ombudsman tonight.
Does anybody have any experience claiming against Cheque Centre, as it’s not one that I see mentioned here as much as others.
Maureen says
Hi Sam, I’m probably at the same stage as you with cheque centre. Same year span for me too so lots over 6 years. I got my final response the other day from them, also rejecting. I’m just about to send mine off to the FOS too. Good luck!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There are quite a few Cheque Centre cases currently with the FO for loans over 6 years old. These are slow so you don’t tend to see much mentioned about them.
From what I have seen they quite often accept adjicator decisions – here is one from November, not including loans over 6 years:
“Hello, success with Cheque Centre!!!!!! Adjudicator found all loans irresponsible and ordered all interest on the 18 loans totalling just over 3k and then 8% stat. Complaint went in to Cheque Centre in July then on to Fos September. Cheque Centre have came back to her to say they accept her findings”
and one from September:
“Cheque centre paid out within a week of adjudicator findings , no ombudsman, they didn’t contest it”
Akan says
After complaning to My Jar and then passed to the FOS the adjudicator has found in my favour of the complaint saying they should refund interest on loans 4 to 33 amounting to £2000+. Has anyone been in similar circumstances and what was the outcome
tomeline : I started my complaint on the 16th Dec 2016 and the adjudicator took the complaint about 5wks ago
Laura says
with mine as the company didn’t repeat credit checks after the 1st loan or check if my income or outgoings had changed I was given all interest back , the company agreed at adjudicator stage
Craig says
Success!!!
Sara I cannot thank you enough for this website.
I complained to Wonga back in December, whilst awaiting their response I went through old emails, bank statements and got an idea of how much interest I had paid.
Scarily enough I had paid around £7000 in interest.
8 weeks passed and asked for a 6 week extension, due to personal circumstances I decided just to wait and see if they came up with a reasonable offer, and if required I would then go to the ombudsman.
Yesterday I received a response from wonga who accepted they had continued to irresponsibly lend to me. They accepted 56 out of 63 loans were affected, (4 of the others I have already received refunds for back when they changed lending criteria)
All loans are to be removed from my credit file, and they have agreed to pay £6600 plus £2100 in interest. £8700 total!!!
This has changed my life, I can now pay my remaining credit card debts off that have interest, and a final loan. Meaning I can have all my past behind me, look forward and start saving for a mortgage.
I’m completely overjoyed, Sara once again thank you. Also to the rest of the contributions to this article, you gave me hope with some of your stories and made me realise I wasn’t alone in this cycle of loans from immoral companies.
Finally to anybody thinking of giving up DO NOT! They put is in this mess and they can now pay for it!
This is just the start for me, I have a couple of other companies to now tackle, (Sunny & Lending Stream) and then I’m going to tackle NatWest (I had 4 loans with them ranging from £2000-£3500) all taken out within 10 months of each other, and this was whilst I had several payday loans each month coming out my account.
I’m off for a beer and to cut credit cards up!
Laura says
Hi Craig
a) wow! I can only imagine how amazing you must feel :)
b) without wishing to be too nosy..
was the Wonga refund a refund of interest? I had 5 loans with Wonga in 2012 and 10 in 2013. So 15 in total, borrowing £7203.
I’ve put in the claim but haven’t asked for them to provide a statement of account, so based on what I found in bank statements I paid back (£7956) so I think I paid £753 in interest.
When the lending criteria ruling changes I got the following emails from Wonga.
Oct 2014 confirmation I had been affected by the affordability changes, and that they would clear any outstanding balance
Nov 2014 confirmation that any outstanding balance had been wiped
Dec 2014 credit history wiped
I called them at the time because I had in fact paid off all outstanding balances in April 2014, so my balance was already £0. I said I had thought it unfair that they’d admitted to misconduct but I was being penalised because I had already paid. The person I spoke to said they weren’t giving refunds just removing outstanding debt for affected customers.
I didn’t progress it at the time but put in a complaint after finding this website a few weeks ago.
I’m wondering whether in light of the specific confirmation that I was affected, I would be entitled to a refund of the loans as well as the interest in this case, was your refund interest only?
Thanks for your help, and enjoy every penny of your reclaim
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Obviously I can’t say what the Ombudsman would decide. But I am not aware of ANYONE making these affordability complaints being given a refund of the loan itself, only the interest and any extra chanrges. I think to get a refund of the loan itself you would have to show both that you were in a highly vulnerable condition and that the lender knew about this before they gave you the loan.
Chris says
Just after some advice on what to do next.
I have but complaints into all four of the lenders I used over a 2/3 year period and so far been successful with Wonga and sunny, both P2P and QQ have ended up going through an adjudicator (who agreed with me) and now onto an ombudsman as the companies did not agree with the outcome.
I recieved my final response from the ombudsman yesterday who has up held my complaint against P2P but not the QQ one. I disagree with both of these as the P2P which he has upheld has only been after march 2014, when I first took out a £900 loan with them in the January and then topped it up every month until it was paid off in full June 2014. The QQ complaint he has not upheld and asked for more information and for me to pay the £101 outstanding balance which has been on since june 2014.
My argument is that the only reason I was able to pay off these loans and my other ones with wonga and sunny is because I had to borrow around £4k from family so now this looks good because they was paid off early but I still think all the loans I had should be refunded.
Does anyone have any advice on what to do next?
thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this a final decision from the Ombudsman? You said “The QQ complaint he has not upheld and asked for more information” – asking for more information sounds like it might not be final?
Chris says
With the P2P case it is the final decision and its gone in my favour that loans after march should be paid back which is only two top ups in total which will amount to around £250, I think that’s unfair because it was the initial loan of £900 which had the most interest on and was paid off in full the 6 months later.
My QQ is at a provisional decision and has asked for more evidence to which I have sent an email asking to consider my reasons and how it affected me having to ask to borrow money to pay these off. My personal opinion is that if you are onto your third and fourth company then all loans should be considered for refunded interest as I don’t see how they was affordable at the start.
Dave says
Hi Chris, may I ask how many loans you had with QQ and what sort of interest was involved? What do you think is the reason for it not being upheld? I’ve been reading with interest. Well done on you success so far. I hope I can get some at some point going forward.
Chris says
hi Dave, im not sure on interest from top of my head but I only had one initial loan and then two top ups. I used P2P and QQ towards the end of my problems so didnt borrow that much compared to Wonga and Sunny.
Who knows why they upheld them and then went against my adjudicator but by the sounds of it im not the only one they do this too, hopefully nearly then end for all of them but it has taken a year.
Steve says
Hi all, when receiving your offer what should you look for? Can you expect a refund in your original loan amount? Or just interest plus 8%? I’ve had a couple of offers to clear interest but not sure if should/could pursue more? Also, if you have a balance with someone under £500 and say you are going to go to FOS, are they likely to clear this balance as it would cost them more going to FOS? Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You will not get a refund of any of your orginal loan amount. Maximum is interest plus and charges added plus 8%.
A firm is unlikely to clear a balance just because you threaten to go to the FOS. they would soon be out of business if they did that! There is no point in you telling them this would be cheaper than you going to the FOS, they know that. Just concetrate on how good your case is.
Emma says
Hi Sara
I have been in contact with lending stream about 23 loans they have given me in the past. I asked them to refund me the interest paid and also to remove the loans from my credit file. This is the reply…
[edited – standard stuff deleted]
Your Experian score was 683 or above. This was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable
At the time of each application, you were employed full time
Your monthly income at the time of applications was £1800.00 or above
We could observe a sufficient disposable income, which denoted that repayments towards the loans could have been made without any financial difficulties
[standard stuff removed]
Upon reviewing your accounts, we found that when you informed us about your circumstances in April’14, we helped you accordingly by changing the due dates.
Resolution:
While we confirm that the affordability checks were performed with due consideration while approving your loans, we could note that there was some procedural error while approving the loan xxxx. Hence, we offer to refund some part of the interest and fee paid on this loan (Amounting £176.00).
————————————————————————
What should I do? Should I accept this. I really was hoping they could remove some of the loans from my file.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They have offered to refund 1 out of 23 loans. That sounds like a pretty poor offer to me. You may well be able to get back a LOT more by taking the case to the Ombudsman. And if the Ombudsman agrees, the unaffordable loans may be deleted from your file.
Does the 650 experian score sound high to you? If it does (and many people say LS quoted them a completely wrong number) tell the Ombudsman this.
Did they carry on lending after April 14 when you said you were in difficulty? Another thing to highlight if they did.
Emma says
Hi Sara
650 Experian score is a “poor” score. Looking at my Experian from 2016 (can’t see from previous years) my score has been below 550.. so maybe they giving me a false score.
Yes I did continue to take out loans after April 2014, the last one being taken out Feb 2016.
So I will now refuse their offer and take it to the financial ombudsman and hopefully get a better response from them. Thank you for the advice!
Chris says
From peoples experiences how long do wonga take to settle from the initial contact date. Iv had 47 loans since 2011 and today raised the complaint with them. Just wondering what the timescale for these complaints to be concluded is.
Craig says
Hi Chris
I had 64 loans with wonga going back to 2011 also, i raised my complaint on 1st December. After 8 weeks they asked for a 6 week extension. They made me an offer yesterday for pretty much the amount I was expecting.
Because I knew the ombudsman had a long wait I was inclined to give wonga those extra 6 weeks to see if they came up with a reasonable offer which they have!