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?
Jamie says
Hi all. My update. All final responses in so just in process of doing letters to fo. However lending stream are communicating very well. So far they have wiped one balance clean -£708 and my other balance reduced to £305 from £1018. Have just emailed them to thank them for the generous offer but still you quote my credit score was over 500 when I have proof it wasn’t. Have suggested they wipe off other loan and clean my credit listing. Quite happy not to push for interest with them if they do this as will be a big weight off my shoulders. Also when I emailed uncle bucks I wasn’t happy with final response and was going to fo they emailed me to call them to discuss – I might do that tomorrow. In any case 7 letters to get off to the fo. Time consuming but worth it!!!!!!
Kat says
I had my loan with Mr lender settled by them and in under 24 hours! And charges and interest back from pixie loans the same without the FO. Hope this helps? I think a lot of people just opt for the FO but they won’t take it in until a final response has been given from the original company
Robert says
Update: I’ve received a reply from Mr Lender (they’ve actually been very prompt as I only requested details of the loan I had with them on monday) saying that they are not upholding my complaint but are offering me a goodwill gesture of £120. The total interest I paid was £525. Is it worth a follow up email requesting an improved offer? I’d settle for £300 and it would save going to the FO. Anyone had any experience negotiating with them?
Robert says
Mr lender update – after rejecting their initial offer of 120 and asking for 360 they have agreed! Whilst not accepting liability I might add. Not a bad result considering I paid 525 on interest and haven’t had to go to the ombudsman. This has all happened withing four days.
Soph says
Hi all. Received an update from 247 Moneybox as per below:
Thanks for your email. Please find a copy of our complaints procedure below. We are aware that there are many forums and templated letters available on the internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. We have seen some legitimate claims upheld in the press such as with the lender Cash Genie. However, to compare our actions with their reported behaviour is inappropriate.
[more general stuff]
We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by settling your balance for £80 and removing any defaults which may have been registered.
Seems to me that they are getting fed up of this?
cliff says
offer of £469 off my jar, happy with that
sent them my bank details, how long my jar usually take to payout?
Chris Taylor says
I have just received a call from the ombudsman to say they are upholding my complaint against mr lender for 2 settled loans in 2014 for 300 and 700 quid respectively. They said they will put forward a proposal for a refund of interest. Does that mean I will get all the interest back I paid on each monthly payment
Josparoonie says
Hi all
I have had a standard reply from lending Stream? I was thinking of being nice and giving them one last chance lol! I will see how it goes…….!
Have had success from Mr lender – One day after sending an email, £250 goodwill gesture – so Positive feedback for them.
QQ – Usual response saying No! Have replied and told them not happy so will go to FO
Wageday Advance – Thanks for your complaint we will look into it and have 8 weeks to do so
PDUK – As above
CFO Lending – email to do today!
Payday Express – email to do today!
Looking back through my bank statements I am actually pretty annoyed at myself for getting in such a mess with all these!! I dont even want to look at and work out how much I lent and then how much I paid back!!!!
Thanks
Chris says
I have just received a call from ombudsman and an email.
What the ombudsman have said is they have have emailed pdl who act on behalf of Mr lender and have proposed that a full refund is given of interest and charges for two loans I had with them for 300 and 700 quid respectively. I just wanted to know if that meant interest on every repayment, as if this is the case it’s quite substantial.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Chris,
Assuming these loans were repaid in full, if you add up all the amounts you repaid on these two loans, then deduct 300 + 700, that is the total interest and charges you paid. The FO is suggesting that this be refunded. Probably also plus 8% statutory interest. Do let us know what the final total is!
Kate says
Hi we’ve just had our response from Mr Lender (only emailed them 2 days ago) they are not upholding the complaint for 1 loan (we did have ones with other PDL) but are willing to remove from credit file .. Is it worth going to FOS with just 1 loan with them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kate, with just 1 loan, ask yourself how bad your credit file was before the application? And how large the loan was in relation to your income?
At one extreme, say you have had several recent defaults added to your file and the loan was £250 when your income was £800/month. At the other extreme your credit record was fine except for a couple of late payments a few years before and the loan was £150 and your income was £1,500/month.
The first one probably should have been obvious that it was unaffordable to the lender. The second one – well it may have been unaffordable in practice for you, but the lender probably couldn’t see that … The Ombudsman thinks “did the lender make an OK decision at the time?”
The reason you are more likely to win a case with multiple loans is because the lender can then see that your finances aren’t good and are often getting worse. You can win with just one loan but it has to have been a very clear case.
Tony says
I took 3 loans out with lending stream, not mug monies involved. After 3 days, they initially offered me £15 plus writing off the £75 remaining sum off.
I rang them and refused. They said they would come back within 48 hours and they did – offering £160 plus writing off the £75. Have accepted ad thought it was a fair figure from a company I had little dealing with
Graham says
I agree Sara, This is one reason why I am not pushing QQ and PDUK. They will eventually realise the longer the delaying tactics the more this issue will be at the top of forums such as DC and MSE. Plus as I keep saying if you are successful you get more interest at 8% return and the damage will be done to PDL such as QQ and PDUK. Other PDL are helping people with their complaints so by doing so they gain a reputation as fair to lend from. There are more and more people reading these forums now , the writing is on the wall for the non compliers ie: QQ and PDUK.
Soph says
I agree! The proof is in the response I got from 247 Moneybox today saying they are aware of forums encouraging people to “exploit their credit commitments under the wholly subjective affordability argument”… they’re not happy the game is up!
They offered to remove the charges and interest from the loan and accept repayment of only the amount borrowed. I only had one £80 loan with them which I never managed to repay and it then became a £400 balance with their charges. I’ve emailed them back and offered to pay the £80 and have the default removed as it should never have been loaned, as I sort of agree that I borrowed that and it would be fair to repay what I took if that makes sense?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The “affordability” argument can seem subjective. However most cases are actually quite clear if you look at them with a neutral eye – based on the loan application, this person’s credit file and what the lender has previously lent them, was it reasonable to think they could repay this payday loan next month or is the person clearly in major financial difficulties and will need to borrow again? That seems to be the test that the Ombudsman is applying at the moment and it appears pretty reasonable to me!
Rachel says
I got the exact same email from them today, followed by a ‘but as a goodwill gesture…..’ I have an outstanding balance of £488 but they’ve offered to drop it to £50………
Steve says
That’s understandable.
I have had 27 loans over 3 years mounting to £2469 worth of interest and they have offered a gesture of £300 and to clear my credit file.
All of the loans were for various reasons, clearing one to clear overs, gambling, spiralling interest etc. I have gone back and said that I don’t think the offer of £300 is fair and reasonable, just waiting on a response.
lisa says
Info for anyone who had loan with minicredit: apparantly kapama took all o/s loans over and minicredit no longer trade in uk they wouldn’t give anymore info.I had 2 with mini both 100 ,1 paid back £173 back other paid nothing off my balance with opos is £1816 they said today they will half this if I want I told them no so they are calling back tmoz to see if I have changed my mind and what else they can offer.
They don’t deal with any repaid loans. Hope this helps others with o/s balances.
Gordon M says
Hi. I have had some good news. The Financial Ombudsman contacted me regarding Wonga and have agreed with me that half the loans I was given as far as they are concerned were unaffordable and they have send this back to them. I am hoping to get a refund of the interest and chargespaid to Wonga on half the loans I had. I am still waiting to here about Quick quid & Payday UK. I hope people don’t give up once the payday lenders reject refund claims. The Financial Ombudsman is there to help.
Sophie says
Hi Gordon,
Just be prepared to wait for another 3-4 weeks, the same thing happened to me. The FO found it in my favour, that was on the 15th Jan, sent it back to Wonga to agree or disagree, after a week the FO chased them up and Wonga told them they needed another 3 weeks to look at it!!! This has now been escalated to the Ombudsman to look at, should have a response within the next 2 weeks.
I also have 3 other complaints with them. 2 I should hear back next week and the other one is waiting to be allocated.
I agree with you though, stick with people!!
Dave says
If Bank statements show that some of the funds used went towards gambling, will that go against me on my claim?
MP says
I also had a gambling history and this did not effect my claim, hopefully the same outcome for you.
Dave says
Thank you MP. Very stressful situation for me at the moment. Family have just found out about my situation. If I have to send the statements to the FO, will any questions be asked about why some of the money being used went towards gambling or will they just not say anything at all?
What is the main reason for the FO requesting your statement? Is it to verify that the funds went into your account or is there any other reason? Thanks
MP says
Hi Dave,
FO used my statements to see if I was not spending £100s pounds a week on…. Well rubbish such as holidays every week. My statements had nights out, one holiday a year and the odd bits for clothes ect… I found as long as your not taking the Micky then you will be fine.
MP
Dave says
Thanks MP. I would say I was spending £30 per week on gambling, definitely no more than £150 per month (that might be excessive to some) and that will show up on my statements. I have taken out loans totalling thousand of pounds.
Cheers
MP says
Hi Dave,
Mine was around £20-£30 per week too, so hopefully the same outcome!
Lee H says
Dave
I too used to gamble a lot while I had these loans, around the same figure as you but not much more, end of the day I would gamble more to try and pay off debts and got in to a bad spiral.
the lenders kept lending to me month after month and in bigger sums, it should have been clear to them I was in some kind of financial hardship, I had 20 loans mr lender, 30 with Wonga, over 10 with quid and pay day express each, clearly was in debt and borrowing pattern should have flagged to lender.
one loan I rolled over 8 times at £125 interest on a £450 loan so ended up paying back about £1,500 this was only my second loan with Mr Lender, I then managed to get another 18 despite emailing them on my second loan after 3 months asking if they could help with a payment plan but I got no reply so kept rolling over until I paid it off then I just borrowed more as I had more debts build up.
was a stressful time and I wish you all the best in your claim against them
still awaiting an answer for mine.
fay says
Dave
a year ago today I came clean to my partner about my money issues and gambling as I could not take the lies anymore and was close to ending it all. I can honestly say the past year has been the best and the worst year of my life. My relationship with my husband is stronger than ever, there is nothing he doesn’t know about my finances and I know I will NEVER go back to that life again. you will get through it. Have you tried GA for the gambling? It helped me to start with and now my husband has access to my bank account so he can see and question anything he wants. I no longer go to GA but really did help at first.
Thanks to this site, I have already successfully wiped 5 payday loans from my DMP, although I still have a way to go!
Loads and loads of luck – you will get through it – take care x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well clearly it won’t help.
If your credit record was very bad when you took a payday loan out, or if you took many loans from the same lender, it can still be argued the lender should have been able to tell that you were in financial problems and should not have given you the loan. But if you only took a few loans from a lender and your income seemed enough to support them (and indeed would have been if it wasn’t for the gambling) then the Ombudsman is likely to decide the lender made a fair decision in lending to you.
Matt S says
I receiver a response from Lending Stream this afternoon. I had 2 loans with them around 2012-2013 (the second one is currently being paid through a debt management plan). They advised that when I took out these loans my credit score was 813 and 764. I can’t see how this is possible as over the past 5-6 years I’ve never seen my credit score go above 600. And from having looked online it would seem that 813 is quite a good score and if this was the case I’d not have had to resort to high interest loans in the first place. Is there any way they could have got this wrong?
MP says
Hi Matt,
I had the same email today from lending stream, my credit score was apparently 740-770 ??? Cant remember it ever been that 400 max! I have ask them to send me a copy… 100% sure they can’t as I keep track of my score on a regular basis. I will keep you updated on what they say pal.
MP
Matt S says
Thanks MP
I have also gone back to them querying the credit scores they gave. Will also keep you updated if and when they reply.
Shaun says
Don’t worry i got the same today, although they state my credit score ranged from 587-708. They also offered to half the debts on 3 loans which i have paid off, (well, the initial loans), paying all the interest and charges at the moment. Anyhow, my response sent shortly after is- all debts dissolved, credit record cleaned up and all interest/charges refunded to me. I gave them until the 19th to get back, or it goes to the FO.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
LS may pay Experian to calculate a credit score, but that calculation is done on the lender’s own rules, so there is no reason why it has to be the same as Experian’s.
HOWEVER if Lending Stream are saying you had a good score or a satisfactory score when you know there were defaults etc on your file, then this can’t be right – you should take the case to the Ombudsman.
Vic says
Hiya Matt.
Lending Stream sent me a similar email saying my credit score was 619 and 613 and this was deemed adequate.
However whenever I look at my credit score on noddle it is 449.
I think they are trying not too payout,so I have complained to them again,threatening them with the FOS.
See how I get on.
Vic
fay says
Hi
another success today! liquid Advance sold on and Capital Resolve who are acting on their behalf have been amazing I must say. I had an initial £360 loan, rolled over twice and then went on a DMP. My current balance with my DMP was a whopping £1,445!! They first said they would reduce down to the original loan, but once I explained I had rolled over and also had several other loans, they have now wiped my balance clean – woohoo!
That’s 5 down and sadly a good few more to go. Also spoke with the Money Shop today, and they explained that they are really behind and are currently looking at complaints from November last year! They are part of the same group and Payday UK and Payday Express and apparently they also have a backlog.
Good luck everyone…
Danny says
Update.
Had a final response from PDUK today offering me the interest back on my last loan £108.67 and removal from credit file it’s only taken them 16 weeks I have however respectfully declined their offer. The complaint is already with the FO and I have had success with Wonga so will leave it in their hands, I have however given them the option to remove 5 of my loans and pay the interest back and I will withdraw my complaint.
Stay positive and be patient they are startin to give.
Danny
Tony says
Danny
Can I ask what success you had with Wonga? I had about 30 loans with them between 208 and 2011, many of them rollovers
Danny says
Hi Tony,
Yes FO ruled in my favour for all loans after a certain date as they deemed them very unaffordable. All interest +8% plus removal from credit file. They have till the 23rd to reply to the adjudicator. Hope this helps and gives some hope.
Danny
Patricia M. says
Hi all,
Mostly thanks to the advice on this site (thank you so much Sara!), I have put in claims against both Wonga and QuickQuid for numerous consecutive loans from about 2009 to 2013. Wonga offered me about £4000 +8% interest, which I accepted, but QuickQuid instead offered me £300 for ‘time spent and inconvenience’ and so I have put in a complaint to the FOS.
I received an email from the FOS on Wednesday to say they had asked QuickQuid to provide all the information regarding my complaint, but the email also said that I ‘should hear from an adjudicator within 12 weeks to discuss my complaint’.
Has anyone had any recent experience of how long this really might take? I see that some people had an adjudicator’s decision within 2 weeks, but was that 2 weeks from when they heard back from the payday loan company or the start of the complaint process?
Thanks all.
Tony says
Patricia M, may I ask if wonga agreed to pay all or most of your charges? I have over 4 grand in charges to them over a period in excess of 3 years. Quick quid seem awful, am waiting for a response from them but not holding out much hope.
Many thanks
Patricia M. says
Hi Tony,
Their offer was for about two-thirds of the loans, mostly the larger ones.
Interestingly, when I asked why they were defined as ones they ‘could have helped more on’ the woman who sent me the offer said it was because the repayment for the other ones were for less than 30% of my stated monthly income and were therefore deemed affordable. Also there was more than 2 weeks in between the loans. They said they will remove the refunded loans from my credit record.
To be honest, I was very pleased with the offer as I really didn’t want to have to go through complaining to the FOS, but as QuickQuid made such a poor offer, for a lending period that was the same as the Wonga one, I felt I had to officially complain!
P
Tony says
Hi Patricia
Thank you first for your comments, much appreciated. My problem is I have a good wage, but my outgoings are big as well, so the 30% thing may well be an issue. I have to say I would be chuffed with two thirds of the charges plus interest from them, I never expected a penny and still don’t tbh. I have about ten complaints ongoing, amazing how I am saying this after holding it in for so long, but Wonga, quick quid and uncle buck are my main ones and know it is almost £11k charges I have paid. I hope things are improving for you now by the way, it is so easy just to get into more and more debt but I thought it was just me
Patricia M. says
Hi Tony,
Looking at another of your posts I see you had about 30 loans with Wonga, about the same as me. I had a pretty good wage too, but big outgoings, partly due to an ex leaving me to pay off a few loans I stupidly took out for them.
In their offer they initially had a long reply basically saying they did all the necessary checks, but then in the ‘Outcome’ section said there was more they could have done to help me and then made the offer.
I actually made all the payments on time, so it shows that even if you didn’t get into arrears you can still get a refund.
I know how stressful all of this can be so I wish you all the best in your claims, it was a huge relief to get a reasonable offer off them – I think they’re much better than QuickQuid and do seem to be making at least some decent offers before it goes to the FOS. In case it makes you feel better, I think the interest I paid to QuickQuid alone was about £8000!!!
P.
Paul says
Hi all, I took out dozens (!) of loans with Wonga alone over an 18 month period. The majority of this borrowing was due to a gambling problem. Sometimes I requested additional funds within minutes of the original phone and continued to be approved, in spite of defaulting on credit cards / overdrafts previously which must have been on my credit history.
My question is should I mention my gambling in the context of the borrowing when I write to my lenders? I’m unsure whether it’s likely to affect my case (positively or negatively) – what would you guys advise?
Thanks, Paul
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Paul, I would suggest making your complaint to Wonga quite simple – “you should have been able to see from the
number, frequency and increasing size that I had major financial problems. And my credit record would have shown defaults from XXXX and yyyy credit cards”.
If the case goes to the Financial Ombudsman, they often ask for bank statements. We have had one person here who has had a complaint upheld by the Ombudsman despite regular gambling. The Ombudsman is less looking to judge what you have done, more trying to decide if Wonga should have known there was a problem.
Sarah says
Hi all, i have just found out that my partner has defaults with wonga, QQ and sunny. He broke down to me last year re sunny & QQ which i paid on my credit card for him to get rid of them. The letters he had were from debt collectors but the defaults were registered before debt collectors so despite planning to get a mortgage this year we are now unable to because of this! All three were rolled over and he was using each one to pay off another until he couldnt do it anymore. Have emailed all three to mainly try and complain re unafforable but mainly to get the defaults removed so we can apply for a mortgage later in the year – what are the chances of this? QQ have responded straight away saying they have done everything correctly as follows: Our records indicate your loan went an extensive amount of time with out payment. Which caused the account to be transferred to a third party collection agency. Your debt was repaid with ARC for less than the balance due, settlement. Hence the reporting of the default as well as the settlement being reported.
[from here on it is the standard QQ reply]
Is this a standard reply? i have now complained via the FO – sorry for long post!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sarah,
first well done for being supportive to your partner over this, a huge shock for you I am sure.
If the FO decides loans were unaffordable, the lender has to delete them from the credit record so complaining about unaffordability is a good way to try to clean up his credit file.
The reply from QQ – that is the standard reply after the first couple of sentences. Did it say at the end something about their Final Resolution Team? If it did, you should reply to QQ that you want your complaint referred to them. Otherwise in a few weeks they FO will ask them and they will say they havent yet looked at your complaint in detail and want another 8 weeks to do so :(
Sarah says
The email was already from the final resolution team – i had nothing in-between! I responded as i didnt understand whether him settling at a lower amount was not helpful to his default situation and they said the following:
In response to your email, our records indicate loan # 8816394 defaulted prior to the loan being passed to ARC. The contractual agreement was not honoured and a notice of default was sent via the post in November of 2014. The account was later passed to ARC due to non-payment. Quick Quid is required to report accurately to credit reference agencies. As this is an accurate account of the loan, your request to have the default removed has been denied.
Also can i say, he didn’t ever recieve the default notice from November 2014!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, so it’s with the Ombudsman. You might like to read the latest comment on this post about QQ – it’s shows it’s worth being persistent: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-ombudsman/.
It’s worth telling the Ombudsman that he never received the default notice, but it’s a very minor point.
Sarah says
Hi Sara, ok to Quickquid have come back saying that they will remove the loan from my partners credit file to satisfy my complaint. He appears to have borrowed £750 which then rose to £1210 with interest and charges, he only repaid £800 back and they accepted this as full and final settlement. Should i accept their offer seeing as they probably will use this as a reason to not pay any charges and interest? Thanks!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sarah, he may as well accept the offer to delete the debt. He only actually paid £50 in interest & charges, so it doesn’t seem worth pursuing this… unless you think their figures are wrong of course…
Matt S says
I’ve had the below response from Mr Lender.
“Thank you for your email dated the 12/09/2016 informing us of your concerns. We are sorry to learn that you have been dissatisfied with the service we have provided and you have therefore felt it necessary to make a complaint.
We have now completed our investigation regarding the points you have raised.
On this occasion we will not be upholding your complaint. However, as we can appreciate your situation, we would like to reduce your outstanding balance to £68.69 as a gesture of goodwill to resolve your complaint. This means a deduction of £300.00 will be applied to your account and in total you will only be repaying the original capital amount borrowed with no interest.”
I have only had 2 loans with them, does this seem reasonably fair with regards to the second loan? It was originally a £500 loan, rolled over once at £150 before entering into a debt management plan. From the £500 original debt plus interest I currently have £368.69 left to pay through the DMP. So they are basically deducting the £150 interest plus the £150 that was paid on the rollover. I’m kind of happy enough with this but don’t know if its worth pushing them for more and to try and get this removed from my credit report also?
As for the first loan, it was for £400. Rolled over twice at £120 a time and then paid off when I took a £3000 loan out through my work to try and help me clear some of my payday loan debt (I was then paying this back at £300 a month for the next 10 months).
Mr Lender state in their email
“You were able to reloan with Mr Lender as you had shown evidence of settling loans previously in a satisfactory manner, based on our risk assessment we made a responsible lending decision and funded the amount requested as you had showed from previous dealings your ability to pay.
During your agreements with Mr Lender, we can confirm you opted to use our rollover service on two occasions. We do not believe a customer using the rollover option suggests financial difficulty. You were made aware of the rollover before and after a payment was debited via SMS and email, we also advised capital payments to reduce your outstanding balance. At the time of your loan, the Office if Fair Trading (OFT) still regulated consumer credit lending and there was no two rollover limit in place, this was implemented on the 1st July 2014 following the new regulatory authority regime of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).”
However on the first loan they had no evidence of me settling previous loans with them as it was the first loan I’d had with them, and if they’d checked my credit report they would have seen that I had around 7-8 other payday loans ongoing at the time. Is it worth me pushing to get the money back on the reloans?
Thanks for any advise.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For the second loan what they are doing seems a reasonable offer. You might be able to get a bit more by going to the Ombudsman but it would not be much. If you are in a DMP at the moment then getting this loan removed from your credit records is unlikely to make any significant difference.
For the first loan, it probably depends on how bad your credit record was when you applied – did you already have several defaults? Are you sure your credit record showed 7-8 outstanding payday loans – not all lenders used to report these a few years ago?
You are in a more difficult position having borrowed just a few times from a lot of lenders. the Ombudsman doesn’t expect a lender to have been a mind-reader – it often is reasonable to give the first loan, and its only when a pattern develops that the lender OUGHT to have spotted it.
dominika says
Hi :) in morning got call from wonga after 11 weeks of my complain offering me £50 as a goodwill gesture but in deny of my complain. After “lovely” conversation with their representative who couldnt answer my questions and back his statements he still said that me with wage of £1100 4 years ago could still afford 4 of my last loans which with interest ive paid back was – £770 every month. eaving me with £380 per month to pay for rent food council tax and living expenses. When i nicely declined his offer and said that will go to FO he went a bit angry that we all people seem to think that they will roll it in favor. I better dont get nothing then let them go so easily lol
MP says
Hi Guys,
Hope you are all well. Update for you:
SUNNY: paid £1350(interest/charges/removal of credit file) took full 8 weeks.
Quick Quid: offered to pay me £4000(interest/charges/removal of credit file) today , I have accepted. This went through FO and took about 12-14 weeks from start to finish.
Lending steam: initial rejection, I have emailed back asking a few question and that I disagreed. Will keep you updated.
Wonga: still waiting, currently on week 11 of possible 12. They asked for more time which I have accepted due to them talking to me.
Thanks for all your help guys and girls, special mention to Sara (debt camel).
MP
Stacey says
Hi guys, j have an email back from lending stream saying my credit score was around 750? Can I prove this is wrong what do I do now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
hi Stacey, I assume you think such a good credit score is unlikely? See https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/ for how to check.
This won’t prove what your credit score was on a particular date in the past, but if your record shows missed payments or defaults before that date, it is a good sign that your credit score wasn’t good! Several people here have said in the last few days that Lending Stream’s stated credit scores for them are very wrong!
Matty says
Got the same thing today….791 and 802, replied basically telling them they must have me mistaken with someone else and that I find the fact they generated those numbers pretty disturbing. Also requested a copy of their report which they must still have to tell me I had that score? Now asked for their final response. Another £550 fee they’ll be charged by FOS when I only had two loans, could have got rid of me for £250. Brainless these companies. Keep wondering if these companies/FOS are keeping on tabs on this and other forums.
Graham says
Hi All, I have received information from MYJAR, My contact there says, contact Henrik Volmar who aims to clear up complaints within 2 weeks.
Matty says
My contact was Veljo Lasn. I wouldn’t expect anything more than automated responses. Did reply within 5 days then once I rejected they sent me their final response after another 5, rejected again but with an offer to reduce my balance. I consecutively borrowed every month for over a year, only £100 a time but I also owed all the others way more than my income. They then upped my limit to £300 then £500 with no further checks and believe they were all affordable. Will now be going to FOS. The tactics they are using to make people go away are seriously getting on my wick but will stick by it because they’re all parasites, would do anything to put them all out of business.
Hayley says
I delt with henrik volmer. He agreed with my complaint offered me 1120 and paid it that same week. Once i accepted i gave him two days then called him and hw transfered money straight away
Hannah says
What a wonderful site and I can see how much support has been given to people with payday loan worries. In my case, it was my husband who borrowed from these companies when he lost his job in last year. It was only in January when everything had broken down with us that he revealed the problems – he borrowed from everyone we know, started gambling in desperation and lied about his income to get the payday loans. I am baffled how he got those loans and passed the credit checks but we have written to the companies and those that have responded have said your income was verified – I guess the regular income that was coming in was these loans and money friends and family had lent us. So the companies are saying we have acted in line with the information you have given us. Even the FCA told us that these companies will reply heavily on what you tell them so I am pretty sure as he lied we will not get any compensation or redress.
One company however did say that they acted correctly in giving the loan and when my husband applied for yet another loan this was declined as their underwriting team decided there was negative affordability. However, he still managed to borrow a further 10k from other companies, I am assuming he made up the income and expenditure figures to get the loans.
It is clear that people turn to these companies in desperation and more often than not then become trapped in a vicious cycle. In my case, I dont have any chances of wining but I wish everyone freedom from these vulture companies – they prey on the needy and desperate and should not be allowed to exist. I have lost so much last year and now that the trust in our relationship is gone, I am hoping our relationship wont be yet another victim.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Hannah, what a pity he didn’t pluck up courage to tell you the whole situation before it became impossible…
Obviously it’s not good to lie on loan applications. However if his credit record would have shown defaults and late payments, and if he rolled payday loans or repaid and then borrowed more, this should have rung big warning bells with the lenders and they should have stopped lending. Borrowing 10k more suggests that the other companies were not being properly careful in their lending. He may well have a good “affordability” complaint that the Ombudsman will uphold.
Joe says
An update for those who seem to have fabricated their income or if they have gambling problems. I have been reading through the decisions and the FOS upheld a complaint where the expenditure was unusually low on the affordability and they spent 2/3 of their income on gambling. It’s the lenders responsibility it seems to do the appropriate checks and to ascertain whether the information they are getting from the client is correct and feasible. Hope this helps to allay some fears. Also other things to note is that repetitive lending seems to be upheld every time as they lender ought to have noted by account conduct and credit file history that the lending was unaffordable ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ (from one of the judgements). Hope this helps a few.
Hannah says
I have written to all companies and awaiting responses. It is shocking to see that those companies that have responded said that their systems/checks verified that we were getting a regular income. My husband had no job, no income – the money that was coming in was being borrowed from friends and family and vastly low in comparison to what my husband claimed his wages were. How did he pass the checks???
Two complaints are with Ombudsman at the moment – not sure how they will deal with the lying about having a job and income and the gambling but there is no way these companies can say their checks are sound. My story is living proof that you can make any figures up and still borrow money from these companies.
With one of these companies, he said he had a job and he was going to use the money to pay off all his other loans – he was given a loan of £4k, which went in gambling ofcourse but what a joke!!
There is a pattern of weekly loan applications and yet he was given money. I keep asking myself HOW and WHY these days a lot …
Dazzle says
Does anyone know how long it will take these lenders to pay out? I have had the ombudsman rule in my favour for 4 cases with PDUK, PD Express, Pounds to Pocket and Quick Quid. There response date is up tomorrow. Is that when they will pay out? Or will I have to wait longer? I have roughly calculated that the interest due back is around 7k without 8% interest.
Dazzle says
Hi Sara
So I heard back from the adjudicated and pounds to pocket just offered to write off my existing debt and QQ to repay 4 of my 8 loans. I have rejected both offers. Does anyone know how long now this will take to resolve? They still don’t have an answer from the other 2 as yet.
Dazzle says
2 of my cases have now gone to final decision by the ombudsman. I really just want this to end now
Dazzle says
Just to update and give people inspiration to carry on here is what has happened with my cases:
Quick Quid 5.2k payout through ombudsman
Pounds to pocket 2.4k payout through Ombudsman
PDUK 2.8k Payout through Ombudsman
PDExpress 3.5k payout through Ombudsman
Wonga 3.4k payout agreed between us. Also 1.5k debt write off last year
Sunny 1.2k pay out agreed batten us
Mr Lender £115 agreed between us
I still have outstanding complaints with 3 lenders. Keep going guys explain your case to the FO if you have to. Give them all the info they require. Good luck
Robert says
Update from Lending Stream. They have rejected my complaint, quoting the same high credit score figures that others have been given. I certainly have never had a credit rating of 743! I responded asking them for proof, but also asking that they provide proof that they hadn’t seen my previous borrowing history. They suggest that they don’t have access to information such as other times a customer has borrowed. My claims rest on the fact that I borrowed thousands with 13 lenders and that this would indicate that I shouldnt have been lent to after the first couple!
Looks like it’s the Ombudsman for this one…
Joe says
In one of the judgements the ombudsman actually states they have no idea where lending stream got their credit scores from
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A lender can only see the number of times you have borrowed from other lenders if each payday loan has been reported to a CRA as a separate debt. This didn’t always happen a few years ago. And a lender can’t see the names of other lenders you have borrowed from. I’m saying this not to excuse LS’s lending but just for info.
For most people here, an affordability complaint can be backed up by several bits of “evidence” that the lender should have considered:
1) your borrowing history from that lender. Repeated borrowing suggests unaffordability regardless of what the other indicators are saying.
2) your credit history. A payday lender isnt expected to only lend to someone with a great credit score but a bad score is a warning signal and a very bad one should have resulted in a loan application being declined
3) your outstanding debts to other creditors as shown on your credit record
4) the amount you want to borrow in relation to your income.
So which of these are relevant for your claim? Make all the points that you can in your complaint to the Ombudsman, don’t reply on just one however you good you think it is!
Paul says
Hi
I called wonga this afternoon and they are emailing me over details of money I am due back. I have to check it over and if agree then to print sign and post back, they will then forward a cheque to me.
Claire says
Just had a call from lending stream. I have taken out loans with them totalling £2250 and paid back £1892 in interest on top of that. They are saying that only 1 loan in unaffordable and are offering me £100 and to write off my remaining balance of £69. Told them I’m not happy with that as I am currently under a debt management plac to pay back the loans I took out with them and 4 other lenders. Told them I am happy to have my balance written off and £500 back. They are going to speak to their manager and call me back tomorrow.
Graham says
Hi Claire, Looks like they are testing the water with you, I would always start my negotiations with the highest amount as it is easier to negotiate down rather than up. They will probably accept your request as £500 from £1892 with 8% interest is a good result for the PDL. If however you are happy with this amount then you Win! anyway.
grace says
So today was a good day!
I chased up Wonga ( my original complaint was Nov 27th) and was offered £4,900.
Also £200 appeared in my account from lending stream (original complaint about 4 weeks ago)
Keep chasing people!
I had multiple loans with Wonga got into a right state financially and entered a dmp I am 3 years in so this will go a long way paying off other loans I owe!
Rachel says
Just an update……
Lending stream have offered to reduce my balance from £757 to £245 (removed interest and charges) although I still can’t afford to pay this amount. 247 moneybox have offered to reduce my balance from £193 to £50 but won’t remove from credit file……
Money shop cane back to say I was just outside the 6 years so can’t claim……
Still waiting to hear from several others, some with outstanding balances and some paid off.
Cash genie have sent a statement of my account which doesn’t show odd payments they had taken over several days and.
I requested a statement of account from cheque centre but they point blank refused said the information couldn’t be released until I out it in writing and paid £25……..
Still waiting from a couple of others but did get generic responses from them all to say they would give a final response with 8 weeks!
nic says
HI, im very new to all this so im not sure as to what I should be doing.
I have read through the comments about people being successful in getting refunds, debt written off, taken off their credit file etc. Im looking for help to try do the same thing. Im looking for someone to help me start this off, point me in the right direction as to where to start, what to write etc. Over the past 3 years I have taken out a lot of payday loans from Mr Lender, Sunny, Wage Day Advance, 118 Money, Avant Credit, 247 Money and many more. I cannot afford to pay my outstanding debts with these payday loan lenders, at first I tried to set up payment arrangements but could not keep these payment arrangements, I have received debt collection letters.
This is starting to have major effects on my mental health, I do not want to go to work, socialise etc would rather stay in my bed. Its having a huge effect on my relationship as my partner does not know and we have a 9 year old girl who I feel im also pushing away.
Please if someone can help me and tell me where I should start I would be very greatful.
grace says
Hi Nic
your situation sounds very similar to mine in 2012! payday loans paying back over £1000 per month and rolling over, getting more loans, I contacted step change and they really did change my life they contacted all companies and you pay a monthly payment to them no charges of what you can afford. I was £12,000 in debt due these companies and I have 1 year left on my debt management plan. When I contacted them I was so ill with stress I cried through the whole process but once I got it sorted I felt so much better. My partner also doesn’t know the state I was in financially!!! Give them a call today don’t put it off anymore and hopefully you may get some refunds from theses companies. Good Luck xx
nic says
By contacting step change did ur partner not find out? We have a mortgage together therefore have always been so scared to contact such companies as u didn’t want any joint debt taken into account? How long does the dmp go in for? What exactly does step change do for u?
I just don’t know where to start?
I cry all the time and feel its never going to end!
Thank u so much for ur response xx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi nic, your partner probably already realises something is very wrong. I know it’s really hard, but telling him is probably the best thing you can do… You can also show him this page and ask if he can help you make the claims?
StepChange are a charity that specialises in debt management. They specialise in operating debt management plans. Mortgages can’t be included in a DMP as they are a secured loan. They will encourage you to talk to you partner, but they will also help you look at your situation and your options – you don’t have to set up a DMP with them if you decide its not right for you, but I think a friendly voice on the phone may help you. They aren’t judgmental about why people have debts.
Sam says
Hi Nic, I sympathise completely, getting into debt is so easy but getting out is almost impossible sometimes… to echo what Sara said, Step Change are amazing!! they are so kind, decent & understanding, their plan worked for me & I was debt free in two years, let them help, all the best xx
nic says
Thank u. I just don’t know where to start it what to do. I really do not want my partner to find any of this out as he has found out about some of my difficulties and we are already going through a very bad patch. This would just finish it.
I feel like a total let down and its totally affecting my day to day living! Xx
MP says
Hi Nic,
Just to give you some reassurance, I think everyone on this board has ether been in or has nearly been in a debt management plan. If you follow all the instructions given on here along with posters findings as your not alone you will be fine. There is a template letter on here, just fill in the gaps.
Everybody here will support you along the way so don’t worry, this is no quick fix but as everyone says on here “Just stick with it”. Once you start this process positivity will take over and help you through it all, read past posts to get used to terms and pick tips up along the way ! It really is a very easy process just seem hard to start with, trust me it’s worth the time you will give! I have had over £5000 back so far! My credit rating has risen by 250 points so far!, If you require anything just ask and I’m sure someone will no the answer.
Best of luck and smile ?
MP
grace says
Your mortgage can not be put down as a debt and no they did advise me to tell my partner but to be honest that would be the end! they contact me by email, no letters, phone calls etc and I have 1 year left I have paid nearly £8k back by working an enormous amount of hours but I got myself into this mess so I get myself out!!! Just have a chat with them there is no pressure but at least you will be able to sleep xx
sophie says
Hi Nic,
Contact Step Change, they will help you with everything! Going on a DMP was the best thing I ever did with my debts. They were helpful, friendly and did not judge as to why you are in debt, everything is private and confidential too. They went through, how much I owed, how much I earned and what I paid out on a monthly basis, priority bills, general living. From this they will work out your disposable income and then this is spread over your creditors. It may only be a small amount each month but you wont have to worry about finding other cash each month just to pay each lender. They will write to your creditors and deal with everything for you. You wont have to have any more contact with them. If they do get in contact, just tell them that your DMP will be in touch.
Honestly its the best thing you can do, I was on my DMP for a year before I came across this website and I have managed to bring it down by half and now I only have about 8 months.
Get the DMP sorted first,, at least then you will be able to sleep at night and then look at contacting the PDL about refunds etc. One step at a time but you will get there!!! :)
dominika says
hi all . Its seems my wonga drama will never end lol After receiving rejection email of my complain i couldnt believe that numbers on there are mine . so did my own maths regarding numbers ( from statements ) what they send to me and it turned out they send me not my amounts and repayments… When i called them in begining they refused to believe me then we did calculations together you should hear their surprise when it turned out i am right. They apologized and asked give them few days still ive send correct amounts to FO.
p.s The lesson i learn always double check their final responses before accepting anything ;)
Danny says
Update,
2 Down about 7 more to go. FO have just found in my favour against lending stream apart from the first loan. So removal of all 13 others +8% interest on all interest applied and the same adjudicator is looking at WDA and PDUK and QQ atm. Don’t give up hope I didn’t think I had a chance as they were all years ago.
My advice send your credit report to the FO with your complaints these PDL companies can’t squirm out of it then.
Wonga FO ruled in favour
Lending Stream same.
QQ awaiting FO
WDA awaiting FO
PDUK awaiting FO
Quid awaiting reply
Money’s hop awaiting reply
Cheque centre awaiting reply
Cash Converter awaiting reply
Keep going and don’t give up.
Danny
nic says
I don’t suppose any one has a draft letter they sent to their creditors? I have tried to pull one together using the template on this site which is very helpful but again I’m so unsure and so panicky when it comes to all this sort of stuff. Just seeing a copy if someone else’s letter would put my mind at ease slightly.
Many thanks guys xxx
MP says
Hi Nic,
See below:
Dear Sir/Madam,
I would like to submit a formal complaint.
As you can see from my account I have had six loans from quick quid between xxxxx and xxxxxx. My lending from yourself has got more often and larger over time. Quick quids loans have forced me into a debt spiral, with your loan repayments taking up to 70% of my wages away from me. Due to them amount of lending it would cause me to borrow again from yourself and other payday lenders just to cover the basics to live the following month.
For the duration or the loans my average income was around £1600 per month.
My living expenses varied but were roughly: rent £250. Utilities and other bills £35. Clothes £50. Food, toiletries £150. Other debt repayments £800+. Total £1285 per month.
This shows that there was no way I could afford even one of the smaller loans I took of £240.When I repaid them, I had to borrow more to cope with next month bills. By the end the interest repayments had mounted so I was often having to borrow more than £1200 a month (which is a substantial amount, which I can not afford) . You should have realised from the pattern of increasing loan amounts that my debt problems were getting worse. Payment Plans where taken out on several occasions just to keep up with payments and late fee started to occur, as the finical juggle between yourselves and other lenders continued.
You should have been able to tell this from my salary and my credit reports which showed you the other borrowing I had. And from the fact I was having to borrow more money and more frequently. So you should never have given me these unaffordable loans.
I would like to ask you to refund me all the interest and extra charges you added on. I understand the Financial Ombudsman suggests that statutory interest is added to this sort of refund.
Thank you for you time.
Kind Regards,
MP
This letter won my case.
Nic says
I have now typed up a letter im going to send to My Jar, Mr Lender, Wage Day Advance and 118 Money. I now just need to look for the email addresses for each lender to send the letter to. Lets hope I have some success like others on this site. Well Done to everyone who has had a winning fight with their Lenders.
I will try sending the letters first and if I have no success then I will contact Step Change who will hopefully be able to then help me.
I guess I cannot contact Step change while I have sent these letters?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Nic – there is a list of lenders’ email addresses here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/
You can go to StepChange straightaway. They won’t refuse to talk to you because you are making these complaints to the lenders. I think you should do this – it can take a while to get replies to your complaints and it may help your stress levels to know that StepChange are helping you deal with the outstanding balances.
Going to StepChange also makes the point to the lenders that you can’t repay your existing balances, so it may even help your complaints a bit!
Sharon says
Been some amazing results here…..well done. Hope to have some luck myself.
Just having a look through my old e-mails for an estimate of what I paid out – seems I had loans with 13 different companies and already had debt of around £35K excluding mortgage on a salary of around £27K. I have a copy of my credit report from May 2013 with a credit score of 367 and still they kept lending right up to November 2012 (Lending Stream and Payday Express) until I went on a DMP in Jan 2013. Lets see if I get offered anything back. Have written to Pounds to Pocket as that is the one I had one loan with over a year. I’ll do the rest over the next couple of days. I have all the usuals to write to.
Strangely I had a letter from a DCA today stating that I was due a refund on an account I overpaid – rang them and I’m due £193 on an old visa card with Citi – hope that’s a good sign!
Louise says
Hi please could you advise me, I have had this response from lending stream. There is no way my credit score would of been so high due to the many loans I had applied for. Also is the resolution reasonable or do I need to fight for complete balance clearance and adjustment to my credit files?? Do I ring them, email them or contact FO??
Experian score was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable. While accessing the application, the score was confirmed to be between 768 to 919 for each loan.
We show our inability to refund any amount, however, considering your financial situation and by way of moving towards the resolution, we offer to waive the complete outstanding balance of £246.19 and close the loan agreement XXXXXXXX. Also, reduce the outstanding balance of £456.75 to £93.94 on loan agreement XXXXXXXXX
Should you agree to the offer made please send your consent to facilitate the necessary changes.
While we hope the above information helps addressing your concerns, please let us know should you require further assistance; you may either email us at complaints@lendingstream.co.uk or call on 0203 564 7034 from Monday to Friday; 8:00 AM till 8:00 PM (Call charges apply).
Adam says
I first looked at this website 2 days ago and started contacting PDL companies. Peachy gave me 17 loans in 15 months and that’s now with the ombudsman. I had one loan with mr lender in 2012 that ended up in a DMP and didn’t think I’d get a refund. I’ve just accepted £153.53 off mr lender and asked if they can be removed from my credit report. Still waiting for replies from other companies but the ball is rolling!
pauline says
I have a question regarding a payday loan complaint. I have already started the process by sending a letter to one of my payday loans (quick quid) about unaffordability. However, I have 2 loans with Wonga and Sunny that were also unaffordable, but, I have gone into a Debt Management Plan with Step Change and these are now being paid through that. How do I go about complaining for these 2 loans. Is it a different process? Its clear that they are unaffordable as I had to enter into a DMP!
I also have another payday loan with PayDay UK which I am now completely unable to payback. This isn’t part of my DMP (and not sure if I’m allowed to add it on or not). I’ve stopped my CPA and have spoken to them about 4 times now saying I can’t pay it back and they’ve not bothered doing anything about it yet. They keep saying they will send a expenditure form but never do! How do I also go about complaining for this one?
Any advice or a template to write to them would be great. Payday loans are the worst. They absolutely killed me! Never again!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Pauline, the process for loans where you still owe some money is exactly the same. In practice the lender will often reply by offering to clear the outstanding balance or part of it – sometimes that is a good offer, sometimes it isn’t good enough if you had many loans before which you repaid… But you start the process in the same way, by complaining to the lender.
re the Payday Uk loan – put in a complaint about this too – and part of the complaint is that they have handled your account poorly when you told them you were in difficulty! I also think you should ask StepChange if you can add this debt to your DMP.
Sam says
Good afternoon, I have another success, I’ve had a refund from Lending Stream, I sent them an email after their ‘final response’ questioning their ethics where other lenders had felt obligated to give refunds.
I really sent it to make myself feel better but lo & behold, I received an email yesterday saying they were issuing a refund on the loans they have now deemed ‘unaffordable’ ~ I haven’t really done the maths as all I was expecting was a gesture. That said I’m very pleased with what they’ve now put in my bank account this morning.
This has taken about six/seven weeks, thank-you for all the help!
Tony says
I have had another what I regard as a success this morning following on from lending stream.
Took out a few small loans with myjar and the interest was only £221 in total. They have offered to clear the outstanding balance on my account of £198 and clear the loans from my credit file.
My three big ones are Wonga, QQ and UB. Uncle buck have sent me an e-mail asking for bank statements and credit record at the time, have batted it back to them to say if they had done proper checks they will have noted my financial predicament.
Keeping a spreadsheet of it all and feeling more hopeful now, even the two so far have saved me £400. The charges for the 3 main ones are in excess of £10k, all the loans have been cleared on them.
One company whose details I have not been able to get are open door loans. I know from my DMP that I owe them £219, but have no idea what for etc and need to write to them, Any info would be much appreciated. Am very hopeful will be out of this DMP soon and in response to Nic, step change seem great. I have been with a company that charge and made a very wrong move there.
Leanne C says
Amazing news… Lending Stream have just agreed to write off my outstanding loan of £695!! Woo hoo!
sophie says
Hi Guys,
A little bit of good news… The FO have just called me to let me know that Wonga have agreed with their decision and I am now about to receive £650 back from them. 1 down 3 more to go :)
Just out of interest how long has people waited for their payments?
grace says
Hi all just to let you know received payment in bank today from Wonga, so that was about 11 days
Rob says
Response from Safety Net. Saying they assessed the income to a stable £1,200 per month and they pride theirselves on their affordability calculation model. So why did they set a lending limit of £980 then!?
What a ridiculous statement to make. They now say we can escalate to formal complaint which we have done. On what planet is a £980 loan plus interest affordable to a person they have assessed to earn £1,200 a month? I think they may have hung themselves sending us that comment in writing…
Steve says
Hi Rob
That’s interesting,
I have one with them and they keep upping the lending limit every month or so, but don’t know on what basis.
Keep us in the loop on how you get on and good luck
Rob says
Safety Net were operating on our joint account, but their agreement was with my Wife only. They should have been calculating off her income alone.
It was unaffordable with both of us taken in to account, but my Wife on her own absolutely could not afford the loans they granted. I’ll let you know how it progresses.
fay says
Morning everyone
Another success today! Quidmarket, have responded back within under 5 weeks and have agreed to refund back my interest plus the 8% totalling just under £500.00! I must say, their response was thorough and they have been really nice to deal with over the phone. So within 5 weeks I have so far, had 6 balances written off from my Stepchange DMP and now received interest back from one that I had paid back.
Mortified that I ever got myself into this situation in the first place, but feels great that I am making a positive difference to my debt – the future is most definitely looking brighter!
Thank you so much again for this site – I would never have thought this was possible if I hadn’t stumbled across Debt Camel..
Good luck everyone with yours and will keep you updated with hopefully more successes.
Pauline says
Well done Fay!
I am also with StepChange and have started looking into writing off some of my debts. Did you write to each of your creditors separately and did you inform Stepchange first? How did you go about asking for them to write the debt off? I’m a bit stumped on what to say in my emails to them!
fay says
Hi Pauline
Thank you.
I did call Stepchange before I contacted anyone as I wanted to make sure it was not going jeopardise the plan. They said is fine to go ahead and contact them but to continue paying them until a resolution had happened. I then used the template here to form part of my email to each of the creditors but gave them my Stepchange client reference and explained that their debt was with them and politely asked them to write off my remaining balance. In each of the emails I sent I also gave them what the current balance was and how much I had paid them to date. So I gave them as much information as possible straight away. I didn’t need to ask them to provide information back to me as I already had through emails and Stepchange account.
The other thing that I did was a spreadsheet detailing all the loans and when I took the loan(s) out. It soon becomes very apparent where there are overlaps. I have already used this to send to one of the companies when they asked for bank statements and credit reports. I politely declined but sent this instead, as it clearly demonstrated that when they gave me their loan I had already had several on the go and historic ones too! blanked out the other names of the loans though!
Good luck – it is definitely worth spending the time to pull together and send the emails off.
John says
On Monday the ombudsman sent an email to quick quid stating that they should pay back all apr and late fee payments. Does anyone know the timescale quick quid have to respond back to the ombudsman or do I need to contact quick quid myself again. Any help would be appreciated thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
HI John, I am assuming this is at the “adjudicator” stage. If it is, then the next step is for QQ to either
– do their calculations and come back with an offer of an amount, then you will be asked if you accept it
or
– disagree and say they want it to go to the Ombudsman.
You don’t have to do any chasing of QQ from here. If you haven’t heard anything by the end of this week, I suggest contacting your case worker at the FOS.
Lou says
Hello, has anyone had any success with next credit and ferratum?
Fay says
Hi
I have had the interest removed from my dmp with ferratum which better than nothing I suppose!
Good luck
Soph says
Hi, I got an email back from Next Credit over the weekend saying that they didn’t perform any credit check as they make decisions to lend based in the income and expenditure given on the application. They detailed what I had put on the form and admittedly I had downplayed my expenditure including credit payments. I’m not sure how this will affect me but I have responded stating I will proceed to complain to the Financial Ombudsman should this be their final response on the matter. I did also mention that as they will be charged £550 for this investigation it may be preferable for them to write off the £213 I owe them to resolve this…
S.D says
I have started claims with
wonga- borrowed £12,500 interest £4500 22 loans lots of charges for late payments and roll overs
QQ- borrowed £7200 interest £3110 11 loans
Payday express borrowed £2300 interest £700 6 loans
wageday advance borrowed £2190 interest not yet known 7 loans
mr Lender borrowed £1600 interest £916 4 loans several roll overs
Cash Genie borrowed £400 interest £292 2 loans
52 loans in total over 30 month period
7 weeks into each complaint no final decisions
other than MR lender this is now with financial ombudsman after their very quick final decision not to uphold
MP says
Hi Guys,
Hope you are all well. Update for you:
SUNNY: paid £1350(interest/charges/removal of credit file) took full 8 weeks.
Quick Quid: offered to pay me £4000(interest/charges/removal of credit file) today , I have accepted. This went through FO and took about 12-14 weeks from start to finish. the FO took around 3 weeks, they are very friendly and informative.
Lending steam: initial rejection, I have emailed back asking a few question and that I disagreed. Will keep you updated.
Wonga: **Now offered £1320 (interest/charges/removal of credit file) took 12 weeks in total.** very happy with this one as I had £900-£1000 written of last year.
Just one big one left and that’s me done.
Thanks for all your help guys and girls, special mention to Sara (debt camel).
MP
grace says
Fantastic result MP! I am also feeling positive about the outcomes still quite a few to come back but £5,200 this week!! x
ad says
Not offering this as advice as every case is different, but i called lending stream after a couple of weeks of them acknowledging my complaint..
the said they’d call with a resolution in 24-48hrs. they did, offering to wipe my debt (£1000). i declined as i had paid over £3000 in interest to them so was hoping for a refund on top. they called back the next day now acknowledging 5 loans were paid up then i borrowed immediately, offering to wipe debt AND pay £480. i declined again, hoping to get up to a £1000 refund. if not im happy to go to FO as it is clear lendingstream are admitting wrong doing. awaiting final email from them…
Graham says
Yes thats the way ad, NEVER accept the first offer, the PDL will be testing the water, so to speak. Stick with It.
Ad says
They sure are.
I don’t want to sound greedy in my previous post..
But when they offered me the £480, they claimed their findings showed 5 loans where I borrowed immediately after payment.
I asked them which ones and they couldn’t tell me (15 loans all overlapping and/or borrowed once fully paid).
I didn’t think they had seen 5 loans – I think they know it’s more so they tried to get me to agree.. If they offer a bigger amount I’ll probably take that as its a lot of debt wiped plus the necessary refund.
Keep going guys!
Danny says
Update. Wageday advance have now been ordered by the FO to repay interest +8% and removal of all but the first loan from my file.
So that’s Wonga,Lending Stream and WDA that have now been upheld in my favour. I have PDUK, Quickquid, Money Shop, Quid and Cheque centre to go.
Stay positive guys.
S.D says
What’s your thoughts on being upfront on gambling contributing to a poor financial situation on an irresponsible lending claim.
My bank account was a mess with gambling outgoings, all through my payday lending.
Gambling aside I still believe it was irresponsible lending, but unsure whether to raise it from the off
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi S.D.
Obviously gambling and payday lendin were linked – a loan enabled you to carry on gambling then the next round of losses meant you had to borrow again. Without the loans the gambling would have had to stop much sooner.
However it’s important in a claim for responsible lending to focus clearly on what the lender knew that meant he should have declined your loans. The Ombudsman doesn’t expect a lender to be a mind reader. If your income appearEd likely to be high enough to support the loan, and indeed it would have been if it wasn’t for gambling, why should the lender decline? There are two very good possible answers here:
1) your credit record wmay have shown big problems: recent defaults or missed payments . These should have been a warning sign to the lender.
2) your history of borrowing from that lender. Even if you repaid every loan on time, if your borrowing was frequent and may have been getting larger, then this should have shown the lender you were having financial problems and they should have stopped lending.
If one or both of these applied to you, then that is what your complaint should focus on.
S.D says
Great advice . I’ll leave the gambling issue out of it until I need to.
I was borrowing increased amounts, 3-4 lenders per month, and borrowing the same day as settling my loans , or within days.
On some occasions I was topping up every day until I reached an allowance set by the lender, which was nearly half my take home pay, and 4 – 5 times more than what would be left after bills
S.D says
Lending stream have contacted me today saying they will wipe one loan of approximately £400 and reduce one to less than capital balance also remove negative defaults from my credit file, I’ve accepted and happy, especially regarding default removal
Anna says
Hi
Thanks to this website I have been given the courage to write to all my payday lenders. As is the case with others, many of the loans were unaffordable and I believe that there was a real failure in checking the affordability of the loans. My finances were in a mess before I had to enter a DMP
I was borrowing repeatedly from 2008 to 2012. Most were with Payday UK whom would actively encourage rolling the loan over by phoning you before the due date. Irresponsible is putting it mildly.
There were others including LS. They acknowledged my complaint last week, however interestingly, this morning I received a letter which in no way referred to my complaint but said that as a ‘special offer’ and for a limited time only they would reduce the balance. My complaint consisted of other elements and the special offer was, I believe a way to withdraw a valid complaint and hopefully because they know I have a good case.
I also had a complaint with another lender and a day later, I received a statement of account which showed my balance as nil. There was no explanation and no reference to my complaint. I replied saying that I expected a full response. This was another bid to get me to go away.
I have also had lenders whom intimidated and threatened and flouted every rule under the sun. The texts and emails have been retained and I am seeking compensation for the way in which they treated and indeed frightened me.
I was forced to change mobile and was signed off work for stress. I had a new baby so it was hard.
This, to me is unacceptable and I am sure others have been in the same boat. I have told the lenders in question that I will complain with the evidence to the FO if necessary.
CFO and UB are two lenders that appear to make it up as they go along.
I am resolute since finding this site!
James says
Hi
Anyone that has any positive results from Wonga/Sunny; how did they contact you? Did they call, was it by email or both?
grace says
I had an email this week offering £4,981.30!!! but the money has not appeared yet!!
interest and fees £3,747.39
8% interest net £1,170.91
total settlement £4,918.30
tax 8% interest gross £1,463.64, basic rate tax deduction £292.73
MP says
Hi James,
Won against sunny and wonga, sunny paid out the same day as I won the claim and wonga can take up to 10 working days (2 weeks). Sunny contact by email and wonga by phone and email.
Hope that helps pal.
MP
Stuart says
Hi all
Been reading this site for a while – very helpful posts.
If anyone has been dealing with CFO Lending (or Capital Finance One as they were), I had some success against them recently.
Had a lot of rollovers with them back in 2010/11 during dark days, and eventually defaulted.
Sent off the standard letter, got a quick acknowledgement, and then a rejection of my complaint.
However, I sent a strongly reasoned and argued case back saying I still thought they were irresponsible, mentioned their continued email marketing of their “resolve” product, and got an offer of £500 and a balance write off. Money was in my account within 4 days.
Must say I was pleasantly surprised at the speed of their response and payout, well within the 8-week period allowed.
Still waiting for QQ, PDUK & PDEx to reply, they all have just 2 weeks left before FOS action.
I expect PDUK to be the main refunder here, 34 rollovers in 3 years with at least £100 in interest each time. Other 2 are relatively minor.
Christine says
I too had several rollovers with PDUK. I still have nt had a statement from then. I have referred PDUK and Quick Quid to the FO.
Has anyone had any success with PDUK and/or Quick Quid from the FO?
Danny says
Hello yes I have just had a PDUK upheld with the FO and just waiting for my QQ complaint to be investigated by them. They have also been keeping the FO waiting for info so that can only be in all our favour as from what I gather from my adjudicator they are not happy about it!
Good luck.
Vicki says
I’ve had:
– £500 from MYJAR
– nearly £1000 back from wonga (they recieved my complaint 22 October and made offer 2nd December)
– and now a reply from payday UK for £246.
Waiting for final response from quickquid and Pounds to pocket. PTP emailed straight away saying it would be looked into and final response within 8 weeks, the 8th week is 1st of march, I chased them last week and they then emailed saying they would send a final response by the end of this week, I phoned yesterday and the lady said she would chase up, I don’t think they will play ball though as it would be a lot to refund. I think it will gave to go to the ombudsman after reading comments on here, not many have had much luck with them two
Sarah says
Hi all, i wrote on here recently. I am currently fighting my partners case for three payday loan accounts with Wonga, QQ and Sunny. Quickquid have been the most responsive so far, rejecting my complaint initially. When i asked for the account activity, i was offered for the default to be removed from my partners credit report. He owed £1210, paid £800 and they settled the account for him on that basis. It was so easy i thought, no i am making no decisions until i look at the activity. Well i have received it, and the interest he was charged in the 12 months he had 6 loans with them was over £2k! I have written back to them and said thanks for the offer but i am going to proceed with our original complaint. His credit report would have shown a bank account and credit card account both with late payments on and also after the first 2 loans, he had a default registered on his account with one of these, and a second default registered after 4 of these loans had been granted. Do i stand a chance of them offering a repayment of the £2k interest less the £400 they wrote off? I am fuming with these companies!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sarah, we have seen people who had had loans written off by Wonga go on and get refunds for interest and charges on previous loans. You are quite right to look at how much interest he paid – that gives you a good measure of what a reasonable offer may be.