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?
Louise Burns says
Hi,
I stumbled across your website by accident & oh my goodness – thank you for this!
I emailed all of the Payday lenders I have previously used (Payday UK, QQ, P2P, Lending Stream, Wonga & Sunny) asking for statements of my accounts on Monday. I’ve had few responses but those I have had have emailed a generic reply saying that they will investigate & come back to me within 8 weeks. Does this mean I have to wait 8 weeks before I get the accounts & then a further 8 weeks once I actually file the complaint? Or is this now the beginning of the process?
Thanks in advance.
L x
Marie says
This was the beginning of the 8 weeks for me. I only asked for the statements and they took that as the complaint. I heard from most within 5-6 weeks, still waiting on Wonga – 8 weeks next week. Good luck with your claim
Connie says
Hi all, Lending Stream agreed with my adjudicator’s findings but they’ve still yet to contact me to arrange my refund. From experience, what method of contact did people get from them? I’ve had a few “No caller ID” calls but they’re usually “accident” claims so I don’t answer them.
Andrew says
Hi.
Update on the cheque centre. Complained in October. Got a no. Went to ombudsman. After asking for an extra week to look in to things agreed with adjudicator and are refunding £6006. Yay
Debbie says
Hi all I have an update on one of my claims. Just had a response from the FO adjudicator with regards to MyJar, they have upheld my complaint for my last loan, I only ever had 3 all taken last year from October to December. They have told MyJar to waive the interest on this last loan, buy it back from their debt collection partner, remove the default and come to a payment arrangement for the actual debt. I know I’m not getting any actual money back but the debt was only taken out in December 2016 and it means I can stop worrying about an ever increasing debt that I wouldn’t stand a chance of paying off. Lets just hope they agree they have until April 24th. All thanks this site and Sara
Charlie says
Hi DC
I’m placing a complaint with Everyday Loans today’s. Just wanted to know if i can still make a complaint even though the 3 loans were in joint names with my now ex wife?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think your ex may need to complain as well. And her income etc will be taken into account in assessing affordability. And she would get half the refund.
Lb says
Good evening all! I have had amazing success with payday loan reclaims. I will share my whole story once all of my cases have been resolved. However..today I received my largest refund from payday UK. These are loans from 2008 to 2013. I have received £12,743.33!!!! Keep going everyone. Just to say they initially offered me £1,845! I started this complaint in june 16.
Rachel says
That’s amazing well done, how long did it take with deciding about your older loans? I am waiting in the jurisdiction que.
Lb says
Initially the adjudicator ruled in my favour for all loans in last 6 years in October, whilst waiting on an outcome (pduk never responded). I think it was early January when pduk agreed that all loans can be looked into. Again they did not respond and my case was put in a queue for an Ombudsman…however last week they got in contact with my adjudicator and agreed with them.
Andy says
Hi
Just wondered if anyone had any complaints ongoing with Sunny? I sent them my complaint at the beginning of March and the 8 week period will expire at the end of April. I had a standard responde from them stating they had recieved my complaint but nothing since then. I also have 2 further complaints on-going with Lending Stream (with Ombudsman) and Wonga both of whom have sent me updates at least if not a decision as yet.
Many Thanks!
Katie says
Hi Andy
I sent my complaint into Sunny on 17th February and got my final response last week ( week 7 ).
They offered £1400. Hope that helps.
Nick says
I have 10 logged complaints with the fos. I had multiple loans at once and rolled over etc etc.
The adjudicator has ruled that i could afford my pounds to pocket loans and also my uncle buck ones which i had 6, as i shared bills with my husband and had a healthy ( on paper) income despite being reliant in2011/12 on payday loans.
Is it likely that all my loans will be deemed affordable ? I had 19 loans with wonga, and 10 with qq each time paying back 1850 with qq. Several companies like my jar and lending stream settled without the fos. My pde and pduk ones older than 6 years. Has anyone had any success with this ? Am i right to be worried all my loans will look affordable despite me having 6/7 loans with different companies at the same time ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t say if there any gaps between the PTP and UB loans? If you think it is clear that your PTP and UB loans were unaffordable, ask for the case to go to the ombudsman. It sometimes helps to pick a month in the middle of the borrowing – not the “best” or “Worst” but an average month, and go through that bank statement line by line. You are aiming to show that after your repaid UB (say) if you hadn’t borrowed more money you couldn’t have got through the month – so the UB loan was unaffordable.
It is much harder to win complaint if you were borrowing small sums from a lot of lenders rather than large sums from one or two lenders. It sounds as though your QQ loans were large? The more loans you had from a lender, the more likely the later ones are to be considered unaffordable. And you had a lot from Wonga.
PDE and PDUK – you are in luck that they do seem to be paying out on some older loans at the moment.
Nick says
Pretty much borrowed from 10 companies solidly for 2 years over and over to get me through the month despite earning a decent wage … Trapped in the spiral
I pretty much borrowed the max off each company i could…. Usually 500 a month off all the usual companies and 1350 off quickquid every time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi guys, I am interested if anyone knows of any payday lenders who have been offering incentives to take out further loans or refer a friend schemes now or int he last year or two. I know QQ used to offer one.
Nim says
Hi Sara (debt camel),
Funny you mention this as I received a letter in the post couple days ago re ‘Everyday Loans’, if this is of any interest?
I had a loan from them last year and put in a complaint for affordability soon after as I felt they did not do adequate checks and also advised me that if I paid off any current PDL I would be able to get more money, and if I had no default / CCJ on my file would be better for me.
However, in their recent letter ‘they mention ‘now you’ve been a customer of ours for 55 months ( incorrect as it’s only about 5-6 months), and are offering top up loans available up to £15,000! – again they are enticing me with loans and with incorrect information – do you think I should send a copy to FOS as they re already looking into the complaint? for harassment as I have already put in a complaint?
And at the bottom of the letter –
P.S – we have a ‘Recommend-a-friend scheme! Recommend Everyday Loans to a friend or family member and you could ‘Enjoy a night away o us! Take a look at the enclosed leaflet for more details ( not enclosed).
Hope this is of interest?
Best Nim
Jordan says
Oakam have a refer a friend scheme going.
Joanna says
Hi Sara, I may have mentioned to you previously that once Trusted Quid settled the complaint via my adjudicator and sent me my refund, they sent me an email stating that now that my account is clear I can borrow more money at a better rate.
Dave says
HI Lee, In exactly the same situation as you having accepted an offer on Weds. Not heard anything and no funds transferred yet either.
Emma says
Hi,
I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the following companies:
MyJar
PDUK
SafetyNet
Sunny
I had loans with them, In the case of Sunny usually 4 at the given moment, MyJar and PDUK were both loans around the £1500 region, SafetyNet I was continually borrowing back to back for about a year. All these companies have come back to me and said their lending was fair and have offered nothing. SafetyNet did offer to wipe about £100 off my current outstanding amount of around £500.
Mr Lender have wiped my account (about £300 outstanding), Ferratum offered a payment of around £100 (around the interest paid), 247 Moneybox have wiped my account of around £400.
I had up loans with up to 7 companies at a time for around 12 months and became stuck in the cycle, usually to the extent by the time i had paid my rent I barely had enough to cover these loan repayments. I feel a bit confused about the differing reactions from the different companies though so would love to hear from other people. I have referred the above to the FOS.
Andy says
I currently have complaints with sunny and wonga and have not received a response from either other than acknowledgements. However I do have an ongoing complaint with lending stream that is now with the FOS.
I’m the first instance I complained directly to LS with all of the facts and my particular scenario including the fact that I had several loans with several companies at the same time. Their first response was to say they acted fairly – at which point I referred it to the FOS. Approx 10 days later they offered me £650 – at this point I made an official complaint with the FOS as lending stream said it was their final response. This is currently now awaiting the decision of the adjudicator at the FOS
I guess my point is that they will always say in the first instance that they haven’t done anything wrong In the hope that you won’t take it further. Just persist with it and forward your complaints to the FOS and let them take it on. By the sounds of it you have a genuine case for irresponsible lending and therefore the ombudsman should hopefully rule in your favour. Don’t let the loan companies make you believe that their response is the only response.
Hope this helps!
Emma says
Thanks for your advice-When you have forwarded complaints to the ombudsman have you informed the payday company that you have done this?
Andy says
No – you don’t need to as the FOS will contact them with your complaint anyway.
I stated in my original letter of complaint direct to the company that if I did not receive a satasfactoty response within 8 weeks then I would pursue it through the FOS. As such, they were aware of my intentions from the beginning.
In the first instance the FOS contacted the company stating I had a complaint and that until they came back with a final response they couldn’t take it on as an actual complaint. Then I had an offer from LS for £650 (baring I mind they said originally that they acted fairly and offered £0.00). This was their final response at which point I called the FOS and they guy I spoke to said that they would then take it on as a complaint and a adjudicator would contact me. This happened within 2-4 days and I sent them the requested info ( bank statements, credit report and a list of the loans with date and amounts). I am currently waiting to hear back from the FOS now and I sent the information approx 10 days ago.
The companies themselves will most likely always say they acted fairly in their first response in the hope that you will not pursue it. The fact they came back with an offer albeit a small one, in my eye shows that they know they are guilty of being irresponsible in their lending especially as they said they did in the first response!
It’s a case of going through the motions but do not be discouraged that these companies have come back and offered nothing at this point. Stick with it.
Maureen says
Has anyone else noticed a sudden increase in emails of offers of loans since starting the process of complaining to these lenders? My payday loan journey ended in 2013, these emails had stopped, however they have now started again and with companies I have never heard of! I know it’s due to these complaints as I only ever used this email address during my time dealing with payday lenders and had to use that one for the complaints as its the one they had registered for me. I am very annoyed that they think it’s ok to pass on my details to other loan companies!
Tony says
Yeah I’ve had loads the last few days
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have ever used wonga, even if you haven’t complained to them, this could be an early sign that your email address has been stolen, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/wonga-customers-details-stolen/.
Maureen says
Never thought of that Sara…..thanks. I literally have just noticed a lot this last week or so. I did use Wonga and just received my final response earlier today….a big fat NO as they are all over 6 years. Let’s see what the FOS thinks.
Sy says
So here it is people. Are Lending Stream going to pay me on day 28 out of 28 which is tomorrow?????
Ten months of them messing me about is about to come to a finish I hope.
Such a joke company. I hope payday loan refunds goes bigger than he PPI scandal and Lending Stream go bust after the way they have treated me.
Just don’t want to pay you your money.
And such rude telephone manners. They all need retraining.
Sy says
Answer is NO. They did not.
Off to the regulator we go.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
*deep sigh* I must write an article on how to enforce an Ombudsman’s decision through the courts.
However in the meanwhile I suggest you email their CEO at chris.deboer@global-analytics.com and copy it to their head of compliance stuart@global-analytics.com pointing out that they are ignoring a final decision from the Ombudsman – give your reference number and attach a copy – and that you can go to court to enforce this which will mean additional costs for them to pay.
Definitely worth reporting the entire way they have handled your complaint to their regulator, the FCA. See the bit at the bottom of this article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sy tells me he has at last been paid today :)
Andy says
Just though I would add this as a case in point.
I have a complaint with wonga currently and they have replied saying that they will probably not be able to repond within the 8 weeks required due to high volumes of complaints. This has now gone to the FOS.
I was curious about how they deal with this situation, and because of the high levels of complaint what they have done to resolve this. so I decided to try something. I logged into my account and applied for an instalment loan (£150 over 3 months – but could have borrowed up to £750). My application was accepted without question – without changing any of my financial details such as income and outgoings. This is now at least 6 mo the out of date. I should add at this point that I did not complete the final stage and sign the agreement to have the funds deposited or complete the application.
The point I am trying to make is that despite the fact I have an ongoing complaint about irrespnsable lending with them and still have some outstandIng balances with other companies they were still willing to offer me more money. It just shows that this is irresponsible lending and they have not put appropriate checks in place to show this.
More than that – to me it shows that they take advantage of people of may be in a vunrable position financially. Doesn’t get any more clear cut to me that these companies have taken advantage of people and have acted irresponsibly.
Joel says
I have just sent off 17 complaints to various lenders since 2013.
Yes I have a gambling problem but this is something else i will sort out.
I shall take them to the ombudsman if they do not reply in 8 weeks.
Hopefully it turns out ok.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you still have a gambling problem you need to be tackling this now. Or any refunds are just going to fuel another few months donations to the betting companies and not leave you any better off. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling/.
Do you have current payday loans? If you do, you also need help with those, as you can’t borrow any more now you have put th set complaints in. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
Sophie says
Hi,
Thanks you for this website, I only came across it yesterday! I worked out since 2012, I have had about x number of payday loans with around 10 payday companies, borrowering approximately 10,000!! I currently have 3 at the moment, to which I have logged complaints with, is it worth me changing bank accounts as I don’t want them to take the money this month and leave me short, I have asked that they put my account on hold whilst the complaint is being investigated but I doubt that will happen! Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sophie,
You need to cancel the Direct debit or CPA (Continuous Payment Authority) wth your bank to stop them doing this. Just changing bank accounts doesn’t help as they will still take their money and leave you overdrawn. (Of course there could be other good reasons to change bank accounts, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/new-basic-bank-account/ !)
If stopping these payday loans is enough to resolve your immediate fiancial problems, that’s fine. But if you are still going to be short every month because of other debts, this is a good time to look at a debt management plan, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. It can take a long time for payday loan complaints to be resolved. You don’t want to accept a low offer from a lender because you need the money right now, when waiting longer and going to the Ombudsman could get you a lot more.
Jimmy says
Hi,
I have been following this website and am now at the final stages with a Payday UK loan. The adjudicator voted in my favour and suggested PdUK to refund charges + interest on all loans and remove entry’s on my credit file. PDUK have disagreed and said only loans 3-7 were unaffordable and will refund charges + interest on these. Should I accept or go to the ombudsman for final decision? Balance outstanding on the loan is £631 and the refund would be £777.
details: total of 7 loans.
Total interest for loans 1-3 = £377.5
Total interest for loans 4-7 = £580
For loan 7 I borrowed a total of £580 and repaid £93.75.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK this is what should happen with PaydayUK’s offer…
They are offering to refund the 580 on loans 3-6 plus 8% interest which they make £198. (The tax the adjudicator mentions is a fifth of this. I suggest you ignore this at the moment as it’s not relevant to your decision.) = £778.
They should then remove the interest from your last loan – this reduces it to 580 – 94 = £486. And take 486 from the refund, so you should actually get 778 – 486 = £292 refund in cash and your balance wiped out.
If you would be happy with that as a result, it’s worth double checking the treatment of the last loan with your adjudicator.
if you take the case to the ombudsman you could back some or all of the interest on loans 1-3. Were all these loans taken out one after another? Were they increasing in size? Were any of them rolled or were there any missed / late payments? Was there a particular reason why your adjdicator said you should get a full refund because not getting a refund on the fist 2 or 3 loans is quite common.
Jimmy says
Thanks for clarifying that Sara.
I think I will probably accept that offer as wiping the balance and cleaning my credit file was the main reasons for complaining. The extra money is a bonus to me.
The loans increased from 380 to 580 after the 1st one was repaid. No late payments until the default but I was pretty much repaying a loan then immediately taking out another. I was already in dire financial straits wheni began borrowing with them.
Thank you for your support and keep up the good work :)
John says
I have been very stupid I have waited almost a year for my QQ complaint I sent an email last week to my adjudicator and QQ to say I would accept a offer of £2500 as I am in serious financial difficulty. My adjudicator then informed me it would be with a ombudsman very soon and maybe I should wait so I agreed. However since I emailed QQ saying o would accept the adjudicator is saying there is nothing he can do as I have accepted the final offer If I had just waited a week or too I could of been receiving double.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sorry to hear that. This is of course the reason firms like QQ are dragging things out for as long as possible :(
Emma says
Hi Sara
I complained to lending stream some time ago about taking out 23 loans in total, they offered me a refund of £190 ish due to “procedural error”… so I complained to FOS. They have emailed me again Saying that they are responding to the complaint made to FOS, and that they believe my loans were sensiblely approved, and they are now offering £995 due to 5 more “prodecdual errors”.
Do you think this is a reasonable offer? I can’t understand how it jumped from one to 5 of these errors!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless the 5 loans they are offering to refund on are a lot larger than the others, this sounds like a pretty poor offer! I think they may just be playing games, hoping you will think that you could do with £995 and will give up.
If you want you could counter offer with what you are prepared to accept. Do you know how much interest you paid on all the loans?
Emma says
I’m not sure how much interest I have paid, when I log in to the account to look, the documents are password protected so I can’t see them!
They have wrote that this is their final response in the email.
Do I have to reconnect the ombudsman to take it further? I assume it went to the adjudicator . however I only heard from lending stream and not FOS, is that normally what happens?
Emma
Pear says
Hi Emma, your password is normally your date of birth. DDMMYYYY
Emma says
Hi guys, thanks for that! Managed to access everything.
23 loans total, £3970 total money borrowed, £3191 total interest paid.. omg! Seeing that figure scares me.
What do you think?
Alex says
Hi
Lending stream approved 3 out of the 4 loans i had with them and have offered a refund on charges plus interest but its not about the money for me, the one i am most bothered about is the other loan which got passed onto a Mckenzie hall as it is marked as a default on my report.
LS have said to contact them about it? Is that right and how will i get it removed with them?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did LS add a default before it was sold? You could ask LS to settle the debt with MH and ask for the default to be removed and say you will go to the Finanical Ombudsman if they don’t fo this.
Alex says
Hi Sara
They did yes, however i settled this with MH already as it was back in 2014. LS havent accepted that is was unaffordable at all, just to ring MH and only provided an assement on the other 3.
D2017 says
Hi I apologise if this has already been asked I have received an offer from wonga today saying they would like to offer £801.93 but then underneath there’s a table that says total interest and fees £801.93, 8% interest net £263.77, total settlement £1065.70, tax £0, 8% interest gross £329.71 and basic rate tax deduction £65.95, if I accept this offer what figure am I accepting… Sorry to sound stupid :-) and how long do they normally take to payout.
Thank you for all your help, this site and all of you are amazing.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not stupid, we have had dozens of people ask this question – I am sure wonga think they are being helpful but many people find it confusing!
They are offering you £1065. This is made up of a refund of interest/charges you paid of £801 plus 8% interest added £329 and they have taken off £65 for basic rate tax on the 8% added amount.
If this is the only refund you get in this tax year you can probably claim the £65 tax taken off back from HMRC, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/.
Are you happy this is a good offer from Wonga?
D2017 says
Thank you for your quick response, yeah I think this is a good offer, my last loan was written off and they’ve only missed the first 2 loans which were taken and repaid quickly to increase my chances of a higher offer for there loans. I’m currently in a dmp paying off many other companies. I’ve so far had qq refund and clear balance, Mr lender clear balance and myjar refund and clear balance, p2p and lending stream are with fos and even after taking Toothfairy finance straight to financial ombudsman service and got told no so I went to the company collecting (capital Resolve) and they offered to write off the debt :-D, just waiting for response from many other companies including barclays bank and barclaycard, I can’t thank you enough for this site and your continuous help. I’ve been paying my dmp for 4 years now and not due to end until 2021 but thanks to your help that timescale is getting closer so thank you
tracey says
When did you put your complaint in to wonga? My 8 weeks was up yesterday and I’ve only had initial and 4 week acknowledgement. They haven’t even produced my statement of accounts since.
D2017 says
I put my complaint in 8/2/2017 and at the 8 weeks mark they emailed me asking for a further 8 weeks so I responded and told them I was passing my complaint to financial ombudsman service and the fos wrote to me last week asking for bank statements, etc to which I was planning on sending today but now just got to contact fos and let them know I’ve accepted their offer, so 9 weeks 6 days from start just waiting funds to be refunded now. Good luck with your complaint, I’d suggest going straight to the financial ombudsman service, it seems to get them moving.
Gordon says
Hi Sara/all,
have received ombudsman’s decision on PDUK and payday Express both been found to have lent irresponsibly, they have to refund all my interest and charges and add the 8% interest.
Both companies have stated they had no lent irresponsibly in all loans and offered me refunds in payday uk 3 7 9 11, payday express almost identical. they both offered me in the region of £500 after the adjudicator’s decided in my favour. I have to receive refunds on a total of 13 loans with payday uk and 11 with payday express.
I have sent both companies an email this morning reminding them I had changed the details they have on record because of my financial hardship at the time.
please please please the Payday companies will do anything to save money they will offer you as little as they can because they are aware that people who use their service are most of the times in deep financial difficulties, be patient and wait take it to the FOS, what they offer you is admittance they have give you loans irresponsibly, that is the minimum you will receive as it states above.
think how you will feel in a few months time if you accept a paltry offer through desperation or lack of determination if you accept as I have been offered £500 and it could have been £1500.
I will keep the site up to date on the timescales on monies going into my bank and also how I do with the other companies.
I feel I owe it to this site as thanks to this site I am receiving compensation and I have taken the advice patience is best.
Emma says
Hi Gordon,
When did you first complain to both Payday Express & UK.
I received a big fat NO from both companies last week even though I borrowed for 5 years and most months just paid the interest!
I’ve sent both to the FOS and just wondered what you experience and timescales were like.
Also some of my loans were over the 6 year mark and I guess this will delay things somewhat.
Many Thanks
Emma
Gordon says
Hi Emma,
I complained in December got a no originally.
went to Ombudsman last week.
Nesta says
Some great news Sunny have agreed with the adjudicator to refund me. I have signed the settlement form and sent my back details.
What are Sunny like when it comes to refunding will I be made to wait?
Andrew says
Hi Nesta,
Sorry I don’t have the answer but I also am in the same situation apart from I haven’t been offered any of the 8% interest as i was gambling heavily and it’s seen as non-esential spending!!! I’m pretty happy though, so accepted! Be good to find out how long it takes to receive?
Nesta says
Hi Andy, when did you hear from your adjudicator and when did you send the signed settlement form back?
I will keep everyone up to date regarding time scales as i can’t see too much info regarding Sunny refunds.
My claim was submitted originally in early January, Sunny responded in week 7 i believe denying any wrongdoing. I then referred this to the FOS in March. My adjudicator asked for additional information including a credit report along with bank statements. These were provided and out of 32 loans only the first 3 were deemed affordable. So i am getting a refund for interest on 29 loans.
Just remember guys even if the lender rejects pursue with the FOS it might take a while but you will get there. Bank statements make a big difference and with my adjudicator able to see my financial mess it no doubt helped in making the decision in my favour.
Andrew says
Nesta,
Yesterday at approx 16:00 I sent my signed settlement form back.
Andy
San says
Guys,
I need some advice, my cheque centre claim for over 59 rollover loans is in final stages with my adjudicator, she called me today to let me know that I’ll have her decision by Thursday, however she has asked for loads of info surrounding my bank statements and spending habits, which I have provided. I was wondering: if her decision goes in my favour, what’s the next step, does she approach cheque centre? How long does she give them to respond? What’s the likelihood of them accepting her findings I.e what percentage of cases are successful at this point and how many go to Ombusdman stage? Also what’s the waiting time like just now on an ombusdman decision after adjudicator referral? Thanks in advance!
Andrew says
My claim with cheque centre was sorted last Friday. After asking for an extra week they agreed with the adjudicator, who asked them to arrange payment with me. I emailed to today and they said they will send a cheque out and will let me know when this has happened … hopefully soon.
San says
Andrew,
Did the adjudicator analyse your bank statements? I’m on a fairly good salary and although I had rollover loans/topups for years, I’m afraid she will see other spending (shops etc) and deny the claim… was yours quite a sizeable amount?
San says
Also Andrew, how long was it between your adjudicator decided to approve your claim and the cheque centre responded? Sorry for all the questions but this has been ongoing for months now and I’m nervous now the end is near
Andrew says
Hi yep checked all my bank statements. Originally adjudicator said all loans should be refunded but after contact with the cheque centre loan 3 onwards to be refunded
I got my descision last Friday. Cheque centre yesterday confirmed they would post a cheque and email me when it’s in the post for just over £6000.
Email this afternoon saying they have no cheques left so send a copy of a bank statement with my address and funds should be here tomorrow yay.
I’ve no bank statement boo lol
Sara (Debt Camel) says
lol indeed – “Email this afternoon saying they have no cheques left” it never ceases to amaze me the excuses they come up with.
They will probably take a screen shot of your bank account – suggest that.
Andrew says
Hi
Sent screen shots and this min they have replied.
It’s apparently too late to arrange payment for tomorrow but should be in my account Friday morning. Guess I can wait 2 more days ??
dan says
Hello Everybody! I would like to add, what an awesome site this is, great work all contributors!
Just a query really, I complained to Wonga on Thursday 13th April with regards to my history of loans that I deem “unaffordable” over the past few years. So far I have received the response from Wonga on Monday 17th April below:
Dear Mr #######,
Thank you for contacting us. We were disappointed to learn that you are not happy with our service.
We take customer concerns very seriously and we will do our best to investigate this for you as quickly as we can.
We are referring the matter to our team of customer support specialists and they will contact you to offer a resolution or an update regarding their progress. A copy of our complaints policy is attached for your information.
Your case reference number is #########. Please quote this number if you need to contact us regarding this matter.
We will do our best to issue you with a full final response as soon as possible and will keep you updated on our progress.
If you have any questions in the meantime, please contact us by telephone on the number below or by sending an email to customercomplaints@wonga.com.
Kind regards,
________________________________________
I know this is early, but my question is, if I choose to or they reject my complaint and I disagree when should you report a case or forward your complaint to the ombudsman? Are you supposed to do it when you send your complaint to the payday company straight away and save time? or do I wait for them to make their decision? or wait for the 8 weeks to pass? I’m going to complain to other payday lenders which I deem “unaffordable” also this week so would just like to know the best angle to approach this.
_______________________________________
Thanks guys, any info would be fantastic!!
Dan.
Gordon says
Hi Dan,
after the 8 week period is complete, even if Wonga ask for an extension I would still send to FOS after the 8 weeks.
this way you set the wheels in motion
Phil says
So I’ve had a big fat no from what I believe to be QuickQuid. The email starts off with both account numbers for QuickQuid and PoundstoPocket but the email itself only really discusses QuickQuid. It only states the original loan that I applied for and does not mention any further loans that I had received. I have just sent a follow up email to them to request further information as I don’t believe they have looked at all of the evidence and to clarify if this is inclusive of the PoundstoPocket loans or not.
Also they mention that as I didn’t have increasing loans from them within a time frame of <15 days this does not constitute repeat borrowing. I looked through the account statement that they have sent me (I did receive two different statements) it shows that I topped up five times in less than 10 days… how this is me not being reliant on their loans I don't know.
Has anyone had anything similar?
Gordon says
Hi Phil,
yes I had almost the same response, I have taken this as the final response from both companies and taken the complaint to FOS.
It now seems standard that they send the same response if you complain about both companies maybe they just cant be bothered sending out two letters or emails.
do not expect anything in a hurry from them,
Joel says
I got this from mr lender today:
We have reviewed your account and can see that you have taken out five loans with Mr Lender between October 2013 and March 2017. The interest applied to each of your loans was in line with the regulations at the time they were approved. Furthermore, all interest and charges were disclosed at the point of application and available on your Consumer Credit Agreements which you would have signed, agreed to and were emailed to you for your reference. Your first loan was a pay day loan where you had the option to use our rollover service, you opted to make two interest only payments before settling your loan in full making all payments on time, indicating your ability to pay and that you were not struggling financially.
At Mr Lender we only charge interest on the outstanding capital which means that as the loan period progressed, your payments were reducing with a depreciating balance. You have stated in your complaint that Mr Lender should have realised from you borrowing straight away that you were having issues, however only two out of your five loans were sequential which gave us no cause for concern when re-lending to you. Your fifth loan (ML63387281) which is currently outstanding was taken out on the 3 rd March 2017; during the application process you stated that you needed the additional funds of £650.00 to pay for car repairs. You also stated upon application that you had no other financial commitments. This as well as the manual assessments that were conducted as part of our application process would not have indicated that you were struggling financially.
The result of our investigation: It is for the reasons given within our investigation, that we do not believe we have acted irresponsibly and the loans issued were fair and should have been affordable based on the information you provided at the time and the checks that were carried out. However after taking into consideration what you have stated in your complaint, as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to support you with settling your outstanding loan by reducing your balance of £889.20 down to £650.00. This balance can also be paid over an affordable repayment plan to you.
This is ridiculous. What shall I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask if that is their final response because if it is you will be sending the complaint to the Zfinancial Ombudsman.
Dave says
Had a confirmation email from Wonga early Monday morning after accepting an offer of over £4000 without any intervention from the FO. They stated that the funds would be sent with 3-5 working days. Are they good to their word for this? Feel slightly unnerved that it’s too good to be true!
(Full timeline: Complained End of January. They requested a further 8 weeks and I rightly or wrongly accepted this and did not put in to the FO. Came back at Week 12 with £4500 last Wednesday. I accepted this and got a confirmation yesterday that ti would be paid in 3-5 days.)
Simon says
I got mine after 3 days
Steph says
Dave, I also got mine within 3 working days. They seem pretty quick once you accept, from my experience and what I’ve read on here.
Good luck!
Andy says
Hi Wonga have just sent me an offer which I have accepted as its the amount that I worked out which was owed to me.
Does anyone know how long they take to make a payment?
Lee Page says
Hi Andy
I got a email yesterday saying that my funds will be in my account in 3-5 working days still nothing yet but maybe 2mora funds will be debited into my account just a waiting game,
Katie says
Help ! Two weeks ago Wonga offered me approx £3000 which including the 8% was approx 50% of the interest I paid. It is now in the FOS queue and has been for approx 6 weeks. Has anyone been offered similar to me and then received much more with the FOS ? My resolve is weakening and I’m tempted to accept the offer ( I don’t need the money desperately ) but it could be months and months before an adudicator rules on it and they may decide that the offer is good. Any advice gratefully received.
Nesta says
If you don’t need the money desperately and the lender has already offers £3000 i would say it is worth holding out as you will very likely receive a better offer via the FOS.
Michelle says
I would hold on, Wonga rejected my complaint but FOS awarded me over £11k.
Another lender offered me £2k before xmas and I needed the money however I held on and the offer went up to £6k with FOS
If you invested your £3k offer now you would never get double your money by waiting 2-6 months but that’s what you could get by holding on
Good luck
Wiggles says
It all boils down to can you wait, myself for my Wonga case I would like to wait but at the moment I kinda need the money so I’m going to take the offer from Wonga, the other cases I have out with the FoS for Lending Stream and QQ and will let them go as far as needed but as I said it all comes down to if you can wait or not.
Laura says
please help I’m confused, on my complaint with uncle buck , they say I owe them £647 ( original loan was £400 and raised a complaint shortly after taking the loan and before first payment) – this has gone to an ombudsman ,adjudicator rules that all loans except first 3 should have the interest refunded + the 8% , does this mean it will be taken off the £647 ? or the £400 principle if it is ruled this loan was unaffordable ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your last loan should have the interest removed, so reduced to the £400 you borrowed. The refunds from earlier loans will then be used to reduce / repay this.
Lucy says
Good afternoon,
Has anyone had any success with Satsuma?
I had four loans one after the other, two running at the same time 1st was for £200 (£86 interest) 2nd was for £300 (£215.95 interest) Both these loans were paid back in full with a few missed payments, 3rd was for £600 (£594.18 Interest) then the final one was for £500. (£494.89 Interest)
The 3rd loan i missed payments on but they still offered me a 2nd loan which i took, so i was paying £50 odd quid a week back, which i couldn’t keep up with and defaulted on both of the agreements.
I have had the final response letter to which they have basically said the first two loans were fine they were not lent irresponsibly but the 3rd and 4th loans they have just wiped the outstanding balances off. Didn’t actually admit to irresponsible lending in the final response though.
I have just rung them up to say i do not agree with the final response letter and she basically said i need to send it to the FOS as there is nothing they can do now. I logged in to my account on their website and my outstanding balances had been wiped although i haven’t agreed with the final response letter ( is this normal practice? )
I have just sent it off to the FOS now so just a waiting game!
Thanks in advance :)
Joanna says
Pounds to Pocket have contacted my adjudicator once again to make a second offer to me. The first one was for £842 and I rejected it because that was for just one loan, this second most recent offer is for just over £1500 (2 loans). I have rejected this offer too. My adjudicator knew that I would reject, but it’s his duty to inform me anyhow. He actually upheld my complaint with Pounds to Pocket on all of my loans, even though my complaint is still in the Ombudsman queue, I will continue to wait patiently.
Sophie says
Hi, so Mr lender came back to me really quickly! I only complained on the 17th! However they said…
[edited to remove general stuff]
you have had six loans with Mr Lender which were approved between October 2013 and April 2017.
only three of your loans did the amounts increase.
From reviewing the results of your credit checks from CallCredit. The results of your credit check showed you had a credit score that ranged from 550 to 564 and there was no evidence of CCJs, IVAs or Bankruptcy on your credit file.
Your first two loans were ‘Short Term Loans’ meaning they were to be repaid in full on your next payday. However we offered the option to extend your loan and pay the interest with an additional option to pay towards the capital borrowed as an alternative to repaying your loan in one full payment. You opted to use this service only on one occasion. We feel rolling over cannot solely be considered as a sign of financial difficulty. Your remaining loans are instalments loans paying both capital and interest on each instalment.
You recently applied for a loan on the 7th April for £1,000.00 to be repaid over 12 monthly instalments and the contractual amount due to be repaid is £1,857.65. At the time of this application we asked you further affordability questions as part of our Responsible Lending Policy for example ‘Are you in financial difficulty’ and ‘Are you reliant on short term credit or any other form of credit?’
You replied ‘No’ and advised the reason for taking out this loan and previous loans was due to having continuous car troubles and paying towards holidays as your disposable income did not cover these expenses.
The result of our investigation:
It is for the reasons given within our investigation, we do not believe that we have acted irresponsibly and the loans issued were fair and should have been affordable based on the information you provided at the time and the checks that were carried out.
However after taking into consideration the full extent of your situation from your complaint, we would like to assist you further. As a gesture of goodwill we will be willing to discount all interest applicable on your current outstanding loan meaning you would on be required to repay the capital amount borrowed of £1,000.00.
Furthermore we apply a further discount of £225.17 which is interest repaid on loans 3 to 5 and therefore the total to repay will be £774.83.
Upon acceptance of this offer you will have borrowed £2,480.00 and only repaid £375.00 in interest across all your loans which is less than 16% of the capital borrowed.
Although we have conducted a full and thorough investigation, we are happy to investigate any further points you wish to raise or if you have any supporting evidence that you wish us to consider. ”
Sorry that’s its really long, but what do I do?!?!?
Glen says
To be fair, I think they’ve been extremely reasonable there. I highly doubt the FOS would disagree with what they have offered you. The loans you have taken span a large amount of time. I think it’s a really good offer and would ease money worries with the interest wipednoff the current loan, a discount applied and a repayment plan in place. If I were in your shoes I would accept. But that’s just me, a lot of people on this site will say differently as many people are unwilling to accept any responsibility themselves and want 100% interest back off all the companies. This is extremely unlikely to happen, which is why I think their breakdown and their offer is really good and I would personally be happy to accept it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Let’s check the basics first.
– they say you had 6 loans. The first two were 1 month payday loans , you rolled one of these once. the next 4 were installment loans – all correct?
– they say you paid £225 in interest on loans 3-5 – is that correct?
– they imply you paid £375 in interest on loans 1 and 2 – is that correct?
– you borrowed £1000 for the last loan and haven’t yet paid them anything?
If all that is right, then their offer to remove the interest from the last loan and refund interest for loans 3-5 seems pretty fair to me.
What do you think?
Sophie says
Thanks for getting back to me and advice :)
here is a list of my borrowings with them…
Oct 13- 300
May 14- 550
June 16- 130
September 16- 250
Jan 17- 250
April 17- 1000
– the first point is correct.
in regards to points 2 and 3, i am not sure of the interest i have paid and also the last point is correct.
i have worked out, they have offered to refund me £1082 from the total of 2480, that i initial ally borrowed from them.
Thanks again for the advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could ask Mr L to supply you a list of the loans with the interest paid on each if you want, but on the figures you have given the interest amounts they quote don’t sound wrong, so I probably wouldn’t worry about this.
There were big gaps between the first 3 loans and so I doubt you would get any more if you went to the Ombudsman. It seems like a good offer that will hopefully help your current financial situation. If you have a lot of other debts you should probably be taking some debt advice.
Sophie says
I have asked for a statement but am going to settle as it is a massive help :). I can’t thank you enough for all your help and advice, I feel that after years of struggling and worrying, there is a way out!
Tom says
Another victory against Payday Express this time at Ombudsman step – who paid out in a week :)
Summary so far:
Wonga = £5000
PDEX = £4200
Sunny = £400
Mr Lender = £685
Two complaints to go:
Quick Quid = £6500+ (passed to ombudsman from Adjudicator on February 22nd)
PDUK = £2500+ (passed to ombudsman from Adjudicator on February 23rd)
I’ll be completely debt free by the end of this month – something I never thought I would be able to achieve for years :) Genuinely life changing
Thank you Sara.
Jon says
Good evening folks,
Some great news today, Wonga have offered to settle my claim for the sum of £4,187.25. I am going to accept this as it is within £200.00 of my calculations. This money will make me debt free at the stroke of a pen.
Some dates for those still in the process:
Feb 14th, made complaint
Feb 16th, complaint acknowledged
Mar 12th, email noting investigation ongoing
Mar 16th, Statement of account received by email
Apr 9th, 8 week email saying 8 more weeks are required
Apr 10th, complaint escalated to FOS
Apr 18th, Contact from FOS requesting email correspondence of initial complaint and Wonga acknowledging complaint
Apr 19th, Settlement offer.
I really hope this information helps some people out and shows some light at the end of a tunnel.
A massive thank you to Sara for the wonderful work you do, and for other board members sharing advice and support.
Keep up the good work!
Jon.
Chris R says
Hi all,
I have just discovered that possibly I might be eligible for a whole load of refunds from Wonga (9 or 10) and two from QuickQuid. I had a number of payday loans in 2013-14, every month taking around £700-£800 (sometimes £500 one day, £200 the next) etc or so and paying back straight on payday then taking another out on payday to continue the horrible cycle. This continued for about a year, showing that 90% of my salary would go into repaying these horrible things.
Do you think I would be eligible for claiming back refunds? Sadly a lot was due to a gambling addiction, would this work against me if I mention it? They will be able to see everything from me trying to obtain credit cards etc to fund this horrible addiction too.
Thanks for any help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a lot of borrowing from wonga – definitely complain there.
You say “two refunds” from QQ – does this mean you only had two loans? Were either of them rolled? Or very large?
Lots of people have won cases with gambling showing on their bank statements – most people choose not to discuss this with a payday lender – they should have been able to tell from your repeat borrowing that you were in trouble, the cause of the trouble doesn’t really matter, it was still irresponsible to continue to lend. But when it goes to the Ombudsman (and QQ in particular usually only make very poor offers, so expect this one to have to go to the Ombudsman) then it’s fine to mention gambling and it doesn’t usually harm your case.
Steve p says
I have a made a complaint to 118 money,were are now 19 days into the 8 week period of “investigation” do collections on the loan carry on as normal during this period,is account activity to stop until the complaint is resolved?
Sophie says
I think it depends on the company. MR lender did with me but I asked them to stop any payments, until the complaint had been resolved. I’m sure they would if you asked them and maybe asked to pay for a reduced amount until the compliant is finished, worth a shot! :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A firm shouldn’t take any enforcement activity such as taking you to court whilst a complaint is ongoing. Some payday lenders will stop taking any money even if they aren’t asked – I doubt 118 money will. If you can’t afford to make the regular payments without borrowing more (this includes running up your overdraft, increasing your credit card balances and not paying important bills) then you need to ask them for a payment plan and provide an income and expenditure statement to support the amount you are offering. If you have a lot of debts, you are probably better to set up a debt management plan covering them all, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
I would be surprised if you 118 money complaint is resolved quickly – you should expect this one to go to the Ombudsman. So plan on that basis.
Neil says
Well, a small success to report with Sunny.
My adjudicator has decided that, out of 12 loans, the first four were fine, the next four shouldn’t weren’t checked by the lender but were still affordable, and the last four were unaffordable.
It’s not exactly the result I was hoping for, I’ll admit; the interest on all the loans was £2000 and the refund I stand to get will just be a shade under £300 with the 8% simple interest.
But considering it’s £300 I wouldn’t have otherwise had, I consider this a victory. Now I need to wait and see if Sunny agree, before planning my next complaint.
Thanks again to everyone here for their advice and comments, and of course of Sara for this wonderful website – without which, I’d be none the wiser.
Andrew says
Hi,
My Adjudicator found in my favour on most of my loans with QuickQuid and sent off their decision.
QuickQuid had until 13/04/17 to respond but my Adjudicator is off until Monday so I’m in no real rush to chase it up until they return.
Thing is, I just got the following email from QuickQuid
‘Thank you for contacting Quick Quid. It is our highest priority to resolve any client issues as soon as possible. In response to your email, If a settlement has been agreed and accepted via the Financial Ombudsman Service this will be processed by the team within the agreed turnaround time of 28 days, although it is not expected to take this long.
To speed up the process please could you confirm if the following bank details we hold are still correct and I will pass this information along to the team who will be processing your refund.’
As my Adjudicator is off I obviously haven’t been contacted by her, but does this mean QuickQuid have accepted her findings and are going to payout?
Rochi says
Hello Sara, I have had 10+ payday loans in the past 6 years and In the middle of a complaint with all of them Including Quick Quid, Payday express/uk, Mr Lender, My jar, Piggy Bank, safety net , Satsuma & Wonga. I’m at the second stage with My jar I’ve received the account summary from them and took out 3 loans with them Month after month so do I have a good case with them as they have said this
—————————————————–
[edited]
It is our view that despite our obvious empathy, we are unable to find we did anything wrong. We are unable to provide a refund as we did not encounter sufficient proof for your claim.
At the time you took out your first loan with us on 29 February 2016, we undertook a number of checks which included searching on public databases, fraud checks, our own credit scoring and we performed a credit check with a credit reference agency called Callcredit. We relied upon the information you provided concerning your budget, which we hope is true and accurate when the application was set up. You stated you were working part-time with an income of £1,200.00 per month against which you marked down £300.00 as your housing costs. In addition, you stated you have two dependants and your marital status was single. Furthermore, you were paying £50.00 per month towards other credit repayments and £450.00 for other monthly expenses.
Based on this it did not indicate any circumstances preventing us in providing you an advance of £100.00 for a month.
—————————————————
At the time I was not working yet but was hoping to get the job so did exaggerate my income only to get the loans, I also had 2 other payday loans at the same time.
They offered only to remove from my credit file which I turned down as I don’t think month after month they should have given me them without checking my income properly.
What do I do now please.?
Thank you for your help x
Rochi says
Sorry I also wanted to mention that I did have a serious gambling addiction at the time which was the main reason for all these payday loans and I feel really ashamed and embarrassed now having got myself in the situation. I have got help and I’ve been gamble free for a while now but just want to fix my credit rating and pay off all debts. Will this effect my cases with the payday lenders as some were made aware I was struggling as I was on payment plans for a couple. Safety net would have seen this through my bank also but they have said they did lend responsibly and haven’t replied to last email.
Thanks so much x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Three loans in three months isn’t exactly “month after month”. And especially as you don’t seem to have told them your correct income at the start this is not going to be an easy case.
What would have been showing on your Call Credit report in January? Any other debts apart from the payday loans?
Rochi says
Hi Sara, I had 3 loans with them yes its not much is it, Should I just leave the My jar one then? I did have loans with Piggybank and I think Satsuma and The Money shop at the same time, My credit file may have shown that I was on a DMP in the past but not sure if that had been cleared coz its been 6 years or not and may have shown that I had other payday loans and that Maybe I missed payments with other lenders. I meant that I was lending month after month from several lenders paying one off then starting a new one.
Thanks s much for your help I really appreciate it. x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you concentrate on the lenders you borrowed the most often from. Also get hold of a copy of your credit record – Noddle is free – so that you have something to go on, not just guesses.
It is possible to win a 3 loan case, but where the amounts were small and you didn’t give your correct income, it’s not likely. You may find this useful reading: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
Jake Armitage says
Hi All,
Words cannot describe how happy I am at seeing your successful claims against these “loan Sharks” I am so pleased I have found this website.
I was wondering if someone can advise me if they think I have a claim.
In 2011 I hit rock bottom ( well the lowest I have ever been) I was 21 year old and in huge amounts of debt due to borrowing money from Payday Loan companies. I had dealings with, Peachy, TxtLoan, Payday Express, Wonga, Quick Quid, Wage Day Advance, Cash Genie, CFO Lending, Mini Credit and 247 Moneybox. I had loans with numerous lenders at the same time, rolling loans, missing payments and taking out multiple loans. I defaulted on them all and it has made the last six years extremely difficult. Thanks fully all my defaults come off my credit rating this year. I have only ever been able to get high interest credit cards and car finance etc. Luckily for me I progressed at work even thought at times I felt suicidal and 6 years later I am married with the savings in place for a mortgage once my rating has improved that little bit more. I entered into a debt management programme and paid off all the loans within around two years. Some were paid as settlements to debt recovery agency as all my loans eventually were sent to debt recovery. Admittedly I took the loans out but under no circumstance should my credit file of allowed this and I was certainly in no position to pay these back.
Any thoughts or advice would be greatly received. I hope everyone claims as much back as possible and the situation they were put in hasn’t done too much lasting damage. Onwards and upwards from here guys!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done on getting out of what must have been a really bad place.
Of the lenders you mention, it’s unlikely to be worth claiming against Cash Genie, CFO Lending or Mini Credit as they have gone bust. the rest are still in business.
It sounds as though all of your loans will be more than 6 years old – this shouldn’t stop you making complaints but it means they will be harder and take longer to resolve. none of them are likely to be accepted by the lender, they will all have to go to the ombudsman. Settle in for a long wait.
Sophie says
Anyone else out a complaint into Wonga mid Feb? I put in a complaint on 15.02 but it wasn’t acknowledged until 23.02…… I haven’t heard aching since and it’s been 9 weeks since I emailed and 8 weeks today since they acknowledged? Nothing not even to say they need more time.
Sophie says
Spoke too soon…, Wonga just emailed me on the last day of the 8 weeks :) after acknowledgement. Calculated I was owed around 4K and have been offered 3695. More than happy with that :)! Thank you so much for this site I would have never known and finally out of my mess now :)
Steve p says
I put my complaint into WONGA on 3rd Feb this year,they initially asked for more time,and today believe it or not I got the final response flatly refusing to uphold, BETWEEN 2014 and 2017 I had 33 loans and paid I estimate just over £2000 in interest,no late payments or defaults,but as per with Payday loans I was borrowing from one to pay another,was paying one loan off and taking another sometimes on the same day, I also took the Maximum amount I was allowed on the 3 month flex loan more than once, so with a refusal It will be off to the ombudsmen,incidentally I have been bombarded with messages offering more loans from every lender I have complained to SUNNY,WONGA and QUICK QUID, also WONGA have been pestering me to fill in a customer satisfaction survey……..after they compromised my account details in the data breach!!!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
For anyone worried about whether a lender will simply ignore the FO’s decision, here is my new article: https://debtcamel.co.uk/enforce-financial-ombudsman-decision/.
SJ says
I have a strange one here, I made a complaint against MYJAR, who got back to me and stated they were in the right and I have no case (standard response)
I took it to the FOS, and havent heard anything for weeks until yesterday:
An adjudicator contacted me and said that although she has not looked into my case at all, seen any evidence etc, MYJAR have contacted her by offering me all interest and charges but not the 8% statutory interest and not the compensation regarding the fact they tried to take money from my account despite declaring financial hardship, and also putting me on payment plans I never agreed to, basically ignoring my emails and doing what they wanted.
The adjudicator then suggested that if I did not want to accept the offer, she would have to begin looking at my claim, but cautioned me that MYJAR may have actually offered me more than she would recommend once she has seen the evidence?
So even though MYJAR have officially accepted that they were wrong, the FOS can still decide to offer me less?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think there is a rule which says the FOS can’t offer less … but we have seen a lot of cases here and it doesn’t seem to happen! I think your adjudicator just gave you a standard warning and I wouldn’t worry about it.
C says
Anyone had any success with moneybox 247 and if so how long did you wait? My 8 weeks is up on 23rd april, have had no statement of account, cant log on to see borrowing as they have put errors up in place. Was offered to wipe my balance in march but declined this as had loads of loans but not heard anything at all since. Would they reply on a Sunday? Or tomorrow?
David says
I had the same: no statement (despite asking several times), error messages online and no response within 8 weeks. My suggestion would be to forward onto the Ombudsman as soon as the 8 weeks are up, and inform them of the lack of response from 247 moneybox.
Tim says
I had dealings with them, didn’t hear from them until the final day when they said they did nothing wrong, the interest on the loans I had with them totalled around 900. I ended up in an email exchange with one of the people there who I advised I would send this to the ombudsman and explained the reasons why I thought my case was strong, they came back to me and asked me what I see as a fair resolution to the case. I said that if they agreed to refund me £500 then I would not send to ombudsman and consider resolved, money in bank the same afternoon – although it was a “goodwill gesture” rather than them being In the wrong – good luck :)
JR says
Hi everyone, I have took out numerous payday loans over a three year period 2013-2016 roughly. One was with MrLender that was £300 initially but I rolled it over numerous times and ended up paying back £570 in interest but then I just stoped paying as it was the only way to get out of this cycle from month to month. Some where only for £100 which I took out 3 times but ended up not paying :(. The list of company’s I used was Wonga, QQ, MrLender, MyJar, WDA, Sunny and minicredit. The largest one I took was from Wonga with the final one being wrote off. Would it be worth contacting them? I must say I was battling a gambling addiction at this time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest complaining first to any lenders you used a lot and seeing how those cases go.
With Wonga, it will depend on how much interest you had paid on the earlier loans… if that was a lot more than the amount that was written off, it’s worth complaining as you may get a refund, but this will be less because you have already had a chunk of it with the write off.
Tom says
Came across this site a week ago, like many of you i fell into a bad habit of taking out payday loans which quickly spiralled out of control. But they kept lending and lending… i have contacted several companies this week including Wonga (not had statement but believe this was my biggest) Lending Stream (28 loans with approx. £5’500 interest), Payday UK (again not sure on figures yet but had alot!) Sunny (over 20 loans).
I have had a few replies saying they will look into them etc. But one company that replied very quickly was Avant Credit UK, they gave me a £5000 loan during all of above ongoing loans… they have said they looked at details i gave at the time etc and my bank statement they requested dates 27th march 2015 showed my income (this is where i feel they may have slipped up) i dug out this bank statement and it does show my income yes…. but it also shows £400 going in from wonga, £450 from another payday loan, £600 goimg out to payday uk, as well as 7 direct debit reversal fees due to missed payments! Also considering my wage at the time was around £1600, the statement shows total incoming £6095 and total outgoing £6020 for the month!
Anyway i asked if this was their final response and they said yes. So i have forwarded it all over to ombudsman. Do you think this sounds like a good case?
Iv not seen anyone mention any dealings with Avant Credit on here?
Regards,
Tom
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Let us know how you get on, sounds like an interesting case.
Adam says
So I have had a good result, I feel.
I had 32 loans with My Jar from 2012 to 2013, and had £500 (+interest) outstanding, which in the spiral of debt could not afford to pay off. I sent of the email to complain in March and got a reply two weeks ago saying they would not give me a refund, only take any interest off my last loan and reduce it £500 .
I sent them an email back saying I was going to the Ombudsman, and that I had taken an awful lot of loans in the year and the interest was nearly ~£1.7K so yesterday I was very happy to receive the following;
We are sorry to hear that you are dissatisifed with our decision. Having reviewed your complaint again, we can see that the frequency of your borrowing increased in March 2012 and we could have done more to asses why this was. In light of the above, to bring the matter to a close, we are willing to refund you all the interest and charges paid on 25 loans, in the total amount of £1390.66. As your last loan remains outstanding to this date, we will reduce its balance to the principal sum you borrowed, £500. This balance will be credited from the proposed refund which would bring the total refundable amount to £890.66. The outstanding loan would also be closed.
I agreed to this and the refund was paid in this morning and credit reference agencies have been notified this has been settled. I am sure I could have battled on to the Ombudsman, but for me this was a great result, and fair play to My Jar.
Emma says
Hi All/Sara,
So Payday Express & Payday UK came back to say that they don’t agree that they lent unfairly (even though I rolled over and increased loans for nearly 4 years with both!!!!
I have sent these both to the fos BUT half of the loans are over 6 years old.
Can I ask if anyone has any experience claiming back older loans from this company or in general? Also the time it took them to get allocated to a adjudicator that deals with these types?
Just interested to see if I should hold out or if I should ignore the older loans.
Thanks All!
Emma
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Payday UK and Express have both paid out on over 6 year claims :) this has only recently happened.
People have had very prolonged timescales for these older claims. It is possible that where a lender has started paying out they may now go much quicker! So other people’s experience may not be a useful guide for you… as the older loans sound like a substantial part of your case, I would suggest claiming for them all.
sw says
I has success with both, PDUK and PDEX. PDUK was all over 6 years, PDEX a couple over 6 years, some within 6 years. Both cases I had given up on. No statement of accounts sent as I owed them nothing. Left with adjudicator from July 2016. Only heard in March that they had agreed to pay up. PDUK, all interest and 8% on all loans, PDEX, all interest and 8% on loans from loan 3. I was pleased as thought these two would not come to anything. Both settled and paid to me now.
sw says
In my opinion, hold out if you can, it was a pleasant surprise for me as I wasn’t expecting anything. Nearly £5,200 back in total.
Maureen says
That’s very interesting! My PDUK is all over 6 years too…2008-2010. How did you go on with bank statements for that period? I’ve been unable to get anything over 7 years from the bank and worry that may hinder a positive outcome.
Rachel says
My bank statements were all online have they asked for them yet? Definitely worth waiting just don’t expect a quick resolve I got an offer on more recent loans but declined and has been in jurisdiction que since January, after the jurisdiction team looks into it it will then go back to ombudsman
Maureen says
Thanks Rachel. Unfortunately my account was closed a few years back. They asked for them within a week of me putting the complaint in. I’ve just explained that I physically can’t get any more out of the bank as they say they now don’t have them. Yes I’m in no rush with these complaints so I’ll fight to the bitter end….I’m expecting to wait until the end of the year or beginning of next year!
sw says
I managed to get my bank statements back to beginning of 2009. Had to ring up though and it went to head office, waited a few weeks for them. They came in the post. Natwest. Think each bank is different though. They did say it was possible up to 10 years I think.
Maureen says
Think it depends on who you speak to because I’m with NatWest too! I need at least 9 years but the Be point blank refused to give over 7 and I’ve rang 3 times to head office and gone into two different branches. It took me long enough to get the 7 years out of them …maybe it’s because my account has been closed since 2013
sw says
The adjudicator did say he would assess without bank statements if I could not get them.
Simon says
Evening all,
I have a query regarding 247 money box.
My case was raised May 2016, stalling replies from them and then no response, passed to FOS 8 weeks later, upheld Nov 2016 by the adjudicator. My adjudicator left the business in Jan and when I requested an update from the FOS this week was told “we are still trying to work with the business to come around to our way of thinking”. Thanking me for my patience e.t.c
From what the previous adj told me, 247 hadn’t kept to the deadlines and weren’t responding. As it’s now nearly 5 months since being upheld and no clear end in sight I have this evening emailed mhannay@activesecurities.com with the details asking for an update.
I got the email on here. Thanks to Sarah. Fingers crossed it will have a positive effect although I felt bad for jumping in instead of leaving it to the FOS. :-/
I paid £2800 in interest on 26 loans over a 5 year period with 247.
I hear there is at least 3 months waiting once it goes from adj to actual ombudsman and so I couldn’t see why if upheld in Jan why it wasn’t joining the Que? They haven’t requested any further info from me, just seems like it’s delay tactics.
I am very grateful to this site though, I’ve mentioned before I had wonga settle £10,600 after being upheld (7 months after raising) which was double what I paid in interest on 71 loans over 6 years.
WDA settled £2900 (4 months – before getting to adj) 22 loans over 6 years
Lending stream offered half £785 6 weeks in and if I had sent to FOS could have gotten as much as £2000 incl 8% but I really needed the funds so I settled.
Payday uk has been upheld and passed to the omb in Feb for up to £1000 plus interest for 9 loans over 2 years multi roll overs, still not assigned
Payday exp rejected complaint and since being upheld in nov hasn’t moved at all as they aren’t responding. £2600 plus interest on 22 loans over 5 years. Should I give a gentle nudge to their CEO like I did to 247 this evening?
Good luck to everyone, keep at it and have faith in all of the successful claims and encouraging advice you gain on here. If you can hold out and see it through to the FOS without accepting a low offer then I’d say it’s worth it.
On the FOS website tonight I counted over 450 members of the ombudsman, there are many more adjudicators which gives me faith that even at over 30,000 cases of payday loan complaints per 1/4, a 6 month resolution date seems achievable (3 month to assign an adj and make decision, 3 months to assign a omb. Not taking into account payout of settlement timescales) and the initial 2 months the lenders get to begin with at the start.
I just wonder if everyone else is experiencing similar or worse timescales
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not a fan of emailing CEOs except in really unusual circumstances. I know everyone wants their case handled rapidly and a lot of the delays are unacceptable but if lots if people FO this the emails will simply get forwarded to the complaints department which means this route is then unavailable gor the genuine cases of urgent need.
Re your Moneybox 247 case, I suggest you phone the Ombudsman and ask to speak to a team leader as you aren’t happy happy with the delay.
Simon says
Hi Sarah,
I agree with you and I’m thinking I should have just let the FOS do their job but I was getting frustrated. I wouldn’t have emailed only the case was upheld 5 months ago and 247 still haven’t agreed or rejected. A team leader was the one who gave me the update telling me they were still working with 247 to get a response, so I had escalated it within the FOS first.
Simon says
Had an email back this afternoon from 247 complaints team advising they had infact sent all of the required information back to the FOS within the deadlines set. I have called the FOS this evening and the gentleman I spoke to was only able to let me know the delay was something to do with the 6 year ruling. I think that since my adj left the company my complaint has lost its momentum. Just my opinion of course and I realise they are snowed under. I have asked 247 if they will consider a settlement whilst waiting for the FOS case to progress. They have asked what I have in mind.
lb says
Hello, last week I received my refund from Payday UK. It was a very large amount and the 8% interest alone totalled £4380.37, this was then taxed and had £876.07 deducted. I am confused with whether I can reclaim any of this back? I am a full-time worker with a fairly good salary, I had a look at your article to do with this, but I am still not really understanding. I hope someone can help.
I am borderline for higher rate tax, a certain amount will be the 40 percent threshold. I may have a couple more claims to go too.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The interest part of the refund is taxable as though it is savings. If this interest is added to your pay, it sounds as though you will be in the higher rate tax bracket for some of it. I suggest waiting until much further into the tax year – possibly at the end – so you have all the reclaims finished and you know what your pay will be for the year. If you get a small pay rise during the year this could mean all the interest would be at higher rate tax.
Some of these will have had tax deducted at basic rate, some may not. You will have tax to pay for the ones where no tax was deducted and some extra tax to pay on the ones where basic rate tax was deducted. But you will be able to get this tax reduced by £200 because the first £500 of interest for a higher rate tax payer isn’t taxed.
If your Payday UK refund was your only one and you are a higher rate tax payer, this would work out as follows:
– £876.07 tax has already been deducted, this is at basic rate.
– you should be paying hugher rate on this, so this would be an extra £876 in tax.
– but you get £200 off this
– so you will owe £676 tax.
For future refunds, you will already have used up the £200 band. So if tax was deducted at basic rate, assume you still owe the same ab=nmount again in extra tax. And if no tax was deducted, you will owe 40% of the “8% added interest” part.
It might be a good idea to put this tax owed money into separate savings account for the end of the year.
It’s the downside (and a pretty minor one really) of getting a £12,000 + refund from Payday UK!
Wes says
Can anyone help …
Wonga have finally got back me and said they won’t look at 23 loans over the 6 year mark. But have offered me the following for 1 loan (as far as I can make out)
Just confused of what there offering me?
interest and fees £218.69
8% interest net £75.48
total settlement £294.17
tax
8% interest gross £94.35
basic rate tax deduction £18
Is it the total settlement figure??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Wes, yes, the amount you would get would be £294.
If you take the case to the Financial Ombudsman, the FO may well look at your loans over 6 years old. This is likely to be a slow process but 23 loans sounds like a lot to have disregarded.
Katrina says
I have a complaint with Wageday Advance that is with the FO.
I actually phoned up about it this morning and got told they are chasing Wageday advance up on information. Been with the FO since Feb so not as long as you but I sent all documentation in straight away.
I am starting to think that some of the delays are coming from the adjudicators though, I just dont think they are chasing info up or being very proactive. I am not totally blaming them for this as I know they are busy but I have made 2 phone calls now to chase different complaints and they have had updates that have not been passed onto me and I wonder how long that would take if I didnt chase. I think you need to be on their case, even though I dont like doing this as they are swamped I think its the only way to make sure your case is progressing as fast as it can.
Bob says
Thanks. I’ve spoken to them this morning and they’re waiting for a ‘legal wording’ for their reply. They are unable to give me a timescale, but did say that it’s looking like it’ll go on my favour, so I’ll just have to sit tight!
San says
Great news guys,
I received my decision from adjudicator today, she has upheld the complaints on 60+ loans and topups from Cheque Centre and informing them they should pay me back all interest and 8% on top. Anyone any idea how long cheque centre usually take to respond?? Sara I cannot thankyou enough for all your advice, this page has kept me positive over last 3 months, you will never know the difference you are making to people’s lives. I still have another 5 PDL complaints but this has made my year. Thanks again
(I had loans dating from 2009-2013 interest totalling over £6k, I initiated my complaint in January but was told by adjudicator that I would be in for a very long wait as some loans were over 6 yrs, so I decided to pursue the loans from 2011 onwards only, these totalled £4K… I’m looking for a quick resolution to all 6 PDL complaints so this is a result for me… my adjudicator: Isan has taken 3 weeks to look and decide on my case and I am overjoyed at her decision.)
Jenna says
Hi All
Just thought I would give a little info for everyone going through this at the moment.
I sent two complaints of one to Wonga and one to Paydayuk both sent around 12 weeks ago.
Paydayuk came back pretty quickly declining the complaint straight away and also saying I still have an outstanding balance from 2011 which was written of through Mackenzie Hall however they are now chasing me for this amount. I didn’t agree with this outcome and sent it of to the FOc who has asked for bank statements and credit file. Tontained and sent of both and the adjudicator has said she will let me know her findings next week. Not holding out much hope for this one as the loans weren’t a great amount and if they do give an offer it will more then likely just pay of the amount owed.
I was much more successful with wonga. Week 8 they sent an email stating they needed more time it was at this point I sent the info of to he foc again. In week 12 wonga emailed me direct with an offer of £2550 this was without the foc getting involved. Offer was enailed Thursday I accepted Friday and the money was in my bank Tuesday after 5pm this was over the Easter weekend too so very prompt.
I would say to anyone making a claim just be patient it can be frustrating not hearing anything back but I think wonga have been pretty good. The offer they came back with was for 8 out of 11 loans I could have declined but the money I have got has just paid for a holiday for me and my better half so I can’t complain!
Many thanks to Sara for this website as I wouldn’t have known anything about this and it has helped so many people.
Good luck guys!
JS says
I had 3 loans with ‘MyJar’ of only £100 each time with the last one not being paid back at all and still owing £216 to them, the first 2 loans being paid late. I emailed them on the 19/4/17 and made the formal complaint after receiving my transaction history on 20/4/17. Today I received an email from them telling me that they will pay me back all interest but as I still have an open loan they will deduct it from that. As a goodwill gesture they reduced the outstanding loan to £0 and I am now in the process of removing the loan from my credit file. All of this done within 2 days. So it is worth checking out even the smallest of loans.
I have some larger loans going in to the thousands with Wonga, WDA and MrLender. Still waiting to hear from Wonga and WDA after asking for the loan history but today after hearing back from MrLender I submitted my complaint and asked for a refund, that is now in the 8 week process.
Thank you for your help with this, Sara.
David says
Hello everyone
Before I begin hats off to the whole community brilliant website
As many others I was trapped in a cycle I have already accepted a reasonable offer from quickquid emailed wonga Thursday and in the middle of a claim with pounds to pocket has anyone had a claim with pounds to pocket can’t seem to find any information
D2017 says
Hi I sent off a complaint to pounds to Pocket, only had 2 loans with them 1 still outstanding and involved in my dmp, but had loans with 11 other companies one being their sister site quick quid but after 8 weeks I got told no so referred to fos and heard back today saying they will write off my remaining balance to close the account and refund me just over £200.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A reasonable offer from Quick Quid, that is interesting, could you say some more about this because they hardly ever make good offers!
Pounds to pocket are another brand from the firm that owns QQ. This would probably have been an instalment loan? It is possible to win these cases so pay no attention if they reply this wasn’t a payday loan but an instalment loan so it was affordable. You need to show you couldn’t afford the monthly repayments.
Evelyn Glass says
So glad I found this site , I lost a big part of my life through pay day loans. I took my first one out with cheque centre and then ablemarle and bbond also had speedloan but think they were called something else then. and continued till 2007 when i got some money and cleared them but fell into bad habits again 2009 and had loans with quick quid, payday advance, the money shop, ramsdens, wage day advance, txt loan, harvey and thomson, pay day express, mr cheque and i think others.think i had loans with quick quid before 2009 too. I was working ++++++hours to pay them all off and hardly remember my 40s because of this. Who can i claim back from? Finally seen the light and wrote to them and worked out a plan to repay but only after rolling over with most of these companies for many many years and have almost cleared everything now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Very little hope with anything 2007 or before.
2009 and after, worth claiming from anyone you borrowed a lot from. Expect these claims to be go to the Ombudsman because the loans are over 6 years old and for this to be pretty slow.
jane fitzpatrick says
Reply received from Wonga at week 8 with an offer for last 3 loans only and stating the following :
You have suggested that we acted negligently when providing loans, however, the UK courts will not generally consider a claim of negligence if the event happened more than 6 years ago. The dispute resolution rules set by the Financial Conduct Authority also state that complaints cannot be considered by the Financial Ombudsman Service if the complaint is made about something that happened more than 6 years ago, or if later, more than 3 years from when the customer should have realised there was a problem.
Given the above, we do not consider it appropriate to investigate your complaint about the loans sold more than six years ago. Furthermore, as this complaint relates to loans being unaffordable, we think it should have been clear that the loans sold more than six years ago were unaffordable by the time these loan accounts were closed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Jane, how many loans did you have from Wonga? How many of these are older than 6 years?
Jane says
Hi Sarah
15 plus 6 top ups in 15 months, 11 are over 6 years old. last 6 were for £1000 repaying over £1300 from my salary of £1500 (last one balance written off as part of Wonga exercise).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
15 loans in 15 months, ending up very large sounds a very good case to take to the Ombudsman, who is looking at loans over 6 years old.
Wonga wrote “we think it should have been clear that the loans sold more than six years ago were unaffordable by the time these loan accounts were closed”. I expect you did realise at the time that you were in a mess and the Wonga loans weren’t helping you. But hardly anyone would have known back then that a regulator would call these loans “unaffordable” – after all you did pay them except for the last one – or that Wonga should not have given you the loans.
If you take these loans to the FOS you will probably be asked why you didn’t complain earlier – just say why, including when you found out recently what an affordability complaint was. There are no wrong answers here, it doesn’t matter if you saw a link on Facebook or a relative sent you details or colleague at work was talking about it. The Ombudsman just wants to know what happened to you.
Rosie says
Hello,
I’ve complained to Wonga almost 8 weeks ago and I just recieved an email to say they are experiencing a high volume of complaints and will respond within another 8 weeks. I’m not sure whether to wait or got to the FOS. I don’t mind waiting but unless I get a decent offer Ill be going to the FOS anyway. Has anyone else chosen to wqit and did they get a decent response/offer?
Also – thanks for all the information on this site! It has been really helpful. Im in a good financial position now but I want to buy my first house next year and the defaults on my account fron past payday loan problem are still haunting me on my credit report!
Jess says
I had the same email from Wonga but them got an offer 8 days later without going to the FOS.
Joanna says
Hi Rosie
Waiting doesn’t mean that they’ll be kind enough to uphold your complaint. The same happened to me.
You can send the complaint to the FOS now. Wonga may come back to you, but at least your complaint is in the queue to be investigated