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?
richard says
from late 2010 to around 2014 i ended up in a endless circle of payday loans often borrowing from more than one in a month, I would attempt to get myself out of this hell and cancel bank accounts and open new ones but again get sucked back in and end up going to new lenders or when a lender decided they wouldn’t rollover a loan often leaving me with no money for that month move onto a new lender. luckily I got out of this cycle but not without cost a lot of these loans are now being payed back via step change some with balance as high as £500 for a initial loan of £80 due to default fees. a few (quickquid,paydayexpress) went to ccj and are now being payed back that way. I am now back on my feet I would like to know if i can attempt to claim back against these companies and in case of ones that have CCJs is it possible to have these refunded and removed form credit file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can complain you were given unaffordable loans.
But it is very unlikely you can complain for any loans where there has been a CCJ. The Financial Ombudsman will usually take the view that these have already been decided by the court. But if you get money back from the earlier loans from the lender where you eventually got a CCJ, you can use this to pay off any CCJs which will help.
richard says
Uncle buck where a particularly nasty company to deal with and one that insisted on using email as there chosen method of communication they even accused me of fraud claiming that when I took a loan out I did so with the intention of defaulting on it despite me having paid off 4 previous loans in full they also refused to take payments off the debt via step change and continued to load charges onto it, it eventualy got passed to a debt collection company that obtained a ccj against me within the first few months of obtaining debt (asset collections ltd) i tried defending case but failed but was ordered to pay back at £25 a month I went on holiday in the august and missed a payment by one working day (they wont allow me to set up direct debit and insist on me paying it back by card every month ) i then received a attachment of earnings order later that month detailing I had broken agreement I argued case again court ruled in favour of asset collection and I was ordered to pay £66 a month back and pay costs, again asset collections are making it increasingly difficult for me to actualy pay this money back often claiming card payement system isnt working and asking me to ring back ect ect could I actualy complain about this
Michael w says
I have just started my complaint with sunny ive had 38 loans from 2014 to currently still having 3 running . i have borrowed over 10k but im not sure how much interest i have paid . does this sound like a case i could win and if so what ball park figure would you sugguest accepting ? Also i had to borrow money from 118 money amigo and avant credit total of 8k. Would this help if i told that as part off my complaint ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
38 loans sounds like a very good case. But you need to work out how much interest you have paid – it’s not possible to guess well from the amount borrowed – you could be way out. Have you asked for a Statement of Account? Come back here if they make an offer – don’t just accept them offering to write off the three current loans without checking!
Have you looked at your credit record and seen what that shows? That could help your complaint.
Also have you considered if all the other loans were affordable of if you should be complaining about them too?
How are you going to manage the 3 current payday loans? Can you afford to repay these without borrowing more? If not, look at a temporary debt management plan, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. Otherwise you may be forced to accept a lot less than you could get…
Steve p says
Has there been many cases against AVENT CREDIT and 118? 118 is a rotten company as far as I am concerned,on a 12 months loan all your payments are paying off the interest,your balance doesn’t actually start getting paid until they have every penny of their interest.
Lisa says
Hi, I have one in against 118, they are terrible, not very understanding at all, mine is being looked at now, I dont know how it will go as I only had one loan with them for 2k.. but when i took the loan out I had a big one with george banco, satsuma, wda, I was already in 12k worth of debt, the george banco one was topped up…. I have them all on a dmp which has eased the stressed, satsuma refunded and wiped balance with in 8 weeks, just waiting for george banco, 118, wda, piggy bank. Keep me upto date with 118, if you dont mind
Lewis says
Hi, can anyone help?
I have tried to cancel my CPA’s / direct debits but my Bank have said they cannot cancel some of them as they down as ‘one off payments’ not CPA’s. Surely if I tell them the name of the Company they won’t pay money to them in the future?
Or am I doing this wrong?
Thanks in advance!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest putting it in writing to the bank (email or their online messaging system will be fine) “I have asked you to cancel any CPAs and DDs to xxxxx and yyyyy. You say there aren’t any which surprised me. This is to confirm that I don’t want any further payments made.”
You also need to email the lenders telling them this. In practice it is now rare for problems in this area, the horrors of payday lenders emptying people’s account and them needing to change accounts to escape have been stamped out by the FCA. But cock ups can happen so better safe than sorry!
Nesta says
Can anyone advise if i can complain to the FOS if the lender has not done what they initially agreed to do?
247moneybox have not removed my loans from my file it has now been over 3 months since they agreed.
Can i take this to the FOS?
Neil says
Nesta – I don’t have any advice for you, but I’ll watch any replies you might get, with interest. I’m facing a similar issue myself, and I did go back to my Adjudicator; ultimately the problem in my case seems to be with Callcredit.
My suggestion would be to contact your Adjudicator and let them know about this.
Andrew says
Hello
During 2010-2013 took out various payday loans. With the biggest ones being wonga/qq/wage day advance/lending stream
I completely spiralled out of control. I was deferring payments as I couldn’t physically afford to pay back all the loans from my pay, and I was taking other loans out to pay them back. I have fully settled all accounts but have defaulted on a few.
Does this sound like I have a clear case for claiming?
I have emailed the companies 2 days ago asking for statement of accounts
And now I’m playing the waiting game.
Could anyone shed some light? Or any tips on how to proceed?
Kind regards
Michelle says
Hi Andrew
My personal advice from dealing with Wonga was to go through all my bank statements for that period and then submit complaint as they took 6 weeks to send me statements. I had a rejection from another lender so was already getting my bank statements for the FOS and decided at this point to raise complaints with FOS for all my cases to give me time to get the bank stats and credit files in.
FOS wrote to lenders to remind them they had 8 weeks to come back to me and I think that helped nudge 1 or 2 along but all of my other complaints including wonga went through the FOS process. Compared to some people I feel the FOS have been quick with me but then they had all of my bank statements, credit reports from experian and call credit when they got to the point of the lender rejection or 8 weeks
roch says
Hi all, just wanted to ask a few questions about Wonga, so I’ve gone through all bank statements and found that took out 29 loans inc top ups from march 2012-2014 totalling £4496 I wanted to ask how you work out the interest, I thought it was like £3000 does this sound right? I’ve sent over my complaint Last week as I could not afford these and they had even wrote the last one off as they agreed I should have never been given them. I am now waiting for my statement but they say they are very busy and to wait 8 weeks so I will wait. Do I have a good case even though they wrote some of the last loan of £560? I’ve been reading also that they give compensation for the data breach should I ask for that too? Any help will be great thanks x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
29 loans is a good case. Writing off some of a loan of £560 may have reduced what you will get but it’s not large enough to change the fact that you have a good case.
it isn’t possible to guess what you paid in interest from the amount you borrowed. You could look at your bank statements to see how much you paid to each loan? The interest is then the difference between what you borrowed (£200 say) and what your repaid (£280 say).
tracey says
Wonga and payday UK have both rejected my claim, so they’ve both been sent to next level. Wonga stated they didn’t know I was in financial difficulty. Despite I had twice said I could afford my repayment, one request they even ignored. Will that go in my favour? Thing is I’ve now put three to the adjudicator level the first way back beginning of March, and I’ve heard nothing. This feels like it will be a long long wait.
Michelle says
Tracey
It can be a long wait but also worth it, Wonga rejected my 49 loan complaint as according to them it was fine that was last year, went to FOS adjudicator upheld wonga still rejected and then went to Ombudsman who upheld fully again in my favour then 3 days later Wonga paid the money. Painful wait but the £11,800 payout made it worthwhile
Good luck
D2017 says
Hi I had an offer from wonga on 18/4/17 I accepted this and got an email saying it was being processed and would take 3-5 days this was on Friday 21St, through past experience does anyone know when this would clear in my bank. Many thanks
jenna whitmore says
Check tomorrow but after 5pm i had the email on good friday and it was in my bank the following tuesday after 5.
Sophie says
How long did it take you to get an acknowledgment. I accepted last Thursday not had one yet? Thanks
D2017 says
I first complained 8/2/17 they acknowledged 8/2/17, at 8 weeks 5/4/17 they asked for further 8 weeks so I referred to fos, on 18/4/17 they offered me a final response to which I accepted on 18/4/17 I also rang to make sure they had received and was told to wait 24/48 hrs, on 21/4/17 I rang as I didn’t hear anything and they tried to tell me they didn’t receive proof of my account details I told them to checked again and the lady found it and said she’d add it to her list for that day, 10 mins later I received the processing email stating 3-5 days. Hope this helps.
Roch says
Another Company Safety net had access to my bank and could see all the gambling transactions and other payday loans and other debts, direct debit reversals etc and they continued to lend sometimes topping up 3 times in one day. I was also on a repayment plan of £5 a week. Do you think its worth making a complaint with them?
Susan says
Yes do it cause I was the same and they have wiped my debt off it and also got 2k back from them.
Nas says
Just a quick question, has anyone actually been successful in receiving a pay out from WageDayAdvance? Appear to be extremely stubborn so just wondering if any ones actually had any luck with them?
Thank you!
Michelle says
Hi Nas
Think they took around 2 weeks with me. They told me to basically go away when I complained but then they agreed with the adjudicator – Hope you have some luck with them soon
Over_The_Top says
Once the adjudicator got in touch I got mine in around a week. I called them to confirm my bank details.
Maureen says
I got an offer of £5300.00, 3 weeks after I put my complaint in to them. Accepted next day as it was all the interest plus 8% including loans over 6 years! Was in my bank within 3 days too. One of the biggest claims and the easiest claim by far!
Michelle says
Has anyone had a case with Mr Lender that has gone to Ombudsman, I rejected the offer from Mr Lender last year as it wasnt great, Mr Lender upped offer at adjudicator stage but not enough so went to Ombudsman who agreed with adjudicator on refund of all loans.
Mr Lender e mailed me last week asking for bank details then told me it would take them a few days to calculate 8% now I have been told that isnt true and they have senior people who want to review the Ombudsman decision.
I have told them this makes no sense as its a final decision and that when they made me an offer on their terms I was promised a refund in 3-5 days. It now seems because its an ombudsman decision they are taking longer – Their response is well we do have 28 days
SamT says
I have successfully battled QQ and the ombudsman has ruled in my favour for 19 loans spanning 4 years – many roll overs. This was the final decision – started in Aug 2016 and adjudicator backed my claim in early Nov and was in Ombudsman queue for nearly 6 months.
Andrew says
Anyone received their QuickQuid refund recently?
They sent their offer to the Adjudicator last week and I sent my acceptance back to the adjudicator and they sent it to QuickQuid today.
I know they have 28 days but in people’s experience how long does it usually take?
Tomeline so far: I sent my complaint to the ombudsman at the start of January.
I got assigned an Adjudicator after about a month then nothing was happening and all of a sudden I got another adjudicator around the middle of March. couldnt have been happier as this particular adjudicator had a few of my complaints and she was brilliant.
They offered me £100 at the time of my complaint as goodwill, then when I sent the complaint to the FOS I got a phone call from them saying QuickQuid had upped their offer to £450.00 without any prompt from them.
I rejected and my adjudicator came to their decision a few weeks later around the end of March/Start of April.
There was a bit of a delay as the Adjudicator was off on leave for a few weeks and QuickQuid had responded on 13/04/17 but she was only back to work today.
Steph says
Hi Andrew,
When did you submit your acceptance to the FOS? How long did it take for an adjudicator to be assigned? How reasonable was QQ’s offer compared to what you’ve paid in interest?
Just wondering as I submitted my QQ acceptance to the FOS some time ago but nothing so far.
Thanks
Over_The_Top says
I always rang mine to confirm bank details were still the same. I always got to speak to a supervisor which probably speeds things up.
Andrew says
Disregard my previous query regarding QuickQuid and timescales regarding the refund.
Just got an email saying the funds should be in my account within the hour.
Brilliant.
San says
Andrew, I’m sorry to be a pest, I think it was you that had success from cheque centre, can I ask was it the adjudicators decision they agreed with or ombusdman and how long did it take for them to respond to your adjudicators initial upholding your complaint letter???
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It was a different Andrew – we have had three posting here in the last month :) That one wrote “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.”
San says
Thanks Sara,
I had my letter from my adjudicator on Friday to say that she has sent letter to cheque centre, she has upheld all my complaints and has advised they refund all interest and the 8%, I’m just really concerned that they dismiss this and go to ombusdman as I’ve heard it’s a 5mth+ wait for ombusdman decisions. Total refund should be over £7K, I don’t hear a lot about cheque centre on here and was interested to know their history of accepting adjudicator findings or taking it all the way to ombusdman
Marie says
I have today had a final response from Wonga, and out of 16 loans have offered me a refund of the very first loan I took @ £296.53 plus interest and removal from my credit file. I have now passed this to the Ombudsman.
Surely if you are offering that on the first loan you are accepting you are wrong, so if you accept that on the first loan, then surely the rest would be the same?
Anyway, all main claims now with FOS, and just a waiting game now. Fingers crossed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like one of Wonga’s random responses. good luck with the Ombudsman!
dan says
Hi guys I think I have made a mistake with the complaints procedure, I just want some advice and possible some reassurance if possible.
So after reading this fantastic site, I realised that a lot of these stories sound like me from a the past 3 years so I decided to spend the night writing out the complaint to send to each lenders complaints department. The reason I believe I made a mistake is that, I just sent the complaint straight away, telling them I believe I was irresponsibly lent to etc… without asking for an initial account statement first. Will this make a big difference? I now wont know if the offers are way too low or if they dismiss my cases theyre just trying to avoid refunding me.
Regards,
Neil
Ro65 says
Neil
I did something similar. However whilst I didn’t ask for a statement of account I did go through my bank statements for the last 8 years which was a very laborious task! However it was worth it in the end.
By doing this I knew if the offers made after 8 weeks were reasonable or not. I’d suggest you do the same if you can. All my 3 lenders made no offer and after sending to the ombudsman I’ve now had back £10700 from 2 of them with 1 still to reach a decision.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask for statements of account at any time at all. Some lenders supply these easily. Some don’t.
It is good if you can also go through your bank statements as sometimes doing this turns up loans that are missing from the lenders statements! It may feel like a hassle, but once you have done it, you are going to be super organised for going to the Ombudsman with some or all of your complaints. Very empowering, many people have found it.
cookie says
Hi Neil, I did the same as you but purposely didn’t request any statements and preferred to go through statements rather than rely on the lender to provide the information, which as Sara has said there’s the risk of some loans being missing from the statements. I’m glad I did this now as when PayDay agreed with adjudicator although I was pleased with this and obviously accepted the decision, I didn’t agree with their interest calculation. They calculated £2.3k but my statements showed I’d paid a lot more in interest. They re-calculated after I’d brought this to their attention and I accepted just over £4k. Had I relied on their statement it’s possible I would have accepted the £2.3k and would never have known. Adjudicator didn’t calculate the interest, just recommended to refund all loans. Not sure if they all do it like this or whether some actually calculate but worth checking your own records either way
Joel says
HI Sara,
Guess this one is going to the ombudsman from PEACHY. £51!!
—————————————————–
[edited to remove useless verbiage and standard stuff]
You have had 6 loans from us between 18/01/2014 and 17/02/2016. The amounts varied. You have extended your #6 loan once, #5 loan twice and #1 and #2 loan three times.
No overdue charges have been added to your account and your payment history with us did not indicate any financial difficulties.
As creditors, we employ the use of a variety of types and sources of information to assess affordability:
· information about income [varied between £1200.00 and £1378.00]
· information about expenses [varied between £350.00 and £850.00]
· a credit score
· a credit report from a credit reference agency
· information obtained from the borrower, whether on an application form or separately.
Based on the information you provided us you should have had more than enough disposable income to cover your monthly repayments. You were single, living with your parents and therefore did not have any [utility expenses or mortgage repayments].
In case the provided information was incorrect, then you would be responsible for providing us with false information, therefore making it impossible for us to ensure your affordability in any other way.
We are not able to uphold your complaint as we are confident we carried out sufficient checks. However, as a gesture of good will, we are willing to refund £51.75 (last extension fee covered) and remove all entries made to your credit file, to resolve the complaint in an early stage.
In case you remain dissatisfied with our offer, you are welcome to come back to us and we will be happy to have a second look at your complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Gosh, 1,500 words. I think you are supposed to feel awe-struck.
My first thought was to wonder whether the person replying was Chinese, as they tend to use 3 adjectives/adverbs on all possible occasions. (“competently, diligently and impartially”, “a sound, proper and appropriate assessment”, “understanding, forbearance and due consideration”).
My summmary would go – “You rolled your first two loans three times each. Peachy should probably have stopped lending to you at that point.”
I don’t know if the info you gave them on your expenses was accurate, you might like to read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. But if I was a lender I might wonder why someone’s expenses would seem to vary between £350 and £850 a month…
It’s interesting that they are inviting you to come back to them and they will have a second look. You could reply saying that you will settle for £x or you will be sending the complaint to the ombudsman. Have you added up the interest and charges you have paid?
Joel says
Thanks Sara, Thats exactly what I replied with.
I said you should have stopped lending to me when I rolled over on my 2nd loan 3 times.
It mentions final response so I asked them again, if not going to ombudsman on this one.
I haven’t added the interest yet.
Joel says
Please advised on this one too, I am not paying £10 for this information.
This is in reference to your email dated 19th April 2017, requesting the information that Lending Stream holds for you. We apologize for the delayed response.
We have reviewed your accounts and would like to share our findings. You borrowed twenty five loans from Lending Stream which have been closed successfully.
We see that you are requesting to investigate your concern regarding the affordability analysis and credit checks conducted when the loans were approved. We would like to inform you that such nature of query falls under the purview of Subject Access Request (SAR).
Therefore, in order for us to provide you with the information, we would request you to send us a written letter addressed to Lending Stream with a £10.00 cheque (in favor of Lending Stream LLC) as per the Subject Access Request (SAR) requirements under the Data Protection Act 1998.
To ensure that you understand and agree to the terms and conditions of your loans, please refer to the agreements which were initially sent to your registered email address at the time of borrowing. We would request you to refer to our emails for all the information shared by Lending Stream with regards to your loan accounts.
Upon receipt of the request, we will be able to share the information within 40 calendar days. As a regulated organization under the FCA, we make sure that we treat our customers fairly and provide the appropriate resolution.
We look forward to hear from you soon and hope that you would give us an opportunity to help us serve you better.
Please send the written request with a cover letter to the below mentioned address:
Louise says
I’ve had the following response from Lending Stream. How should I proceed? Any advice would be gratefully received.
———————
[edited]
You borrowed ten loans from Lending Stream and all the loan accounts were closed successfully.
While reviewing your accounts, we note that your loans were approved based on the following facts:
* Empolyment: At the time of each application, you were employed full time.
* Income: The data shared in the applications indicated that your monthly income was £1330.00. The disposable income on all your loan account was ample to complete the monthly repayments towards your loans easily.
* Experian Scores: Experian score was ranging between 575-710; it was also factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable.
* Application(s) Declined: We have not approved you for a loan each time your application did not meet our lending criteria.
* Financial Circumstances: We were informed about your financial hardship and the required assistance was offered.
We believe that Lending Stream has behaved responsibly in approving your loans and has dealt with them fairly.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
10 loans is a lot. Unless there were big gaps between the loans, this is definitely worth passing to the Financial Ombudsman for them to look at.
lots of people say they have no idea where the Experian score quoted came from. You should highlight to the Ombudsman the problems (CCJs, defaults, arrears) that would have been showing on your report when you first borrowed and whether these got worse as you continued to borrow. Also mention if the loan amount generally increased.
“We were informed about your financial hardship and the required assistance was offered.” unless this was the last loan, LS should then have looked really hard when you tried to borrow again after having said you had problems.
Joel says
Hi Sara,
Shall i pay this £10 to view my statement of accounts???!!
It is 25 loans, gosh i didn’t know I borrowed that many times!
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“We see that you are requesting to investigate your concern regarding the affordability analysis and credit checks conducted when the loans were approved. We would like to inform you that such nature of query falls under the purview of Subject Access Request (SAR).”
They are asking you for £10 to look into your affordability complaint… this could be politely described as a cheek… I suggest you reply saying you are not making a subject access request, you want them to review your complaint based on the information they already have and they you will be sending the complaint to the ombudsman at the 8 week point if they haven’t replied. Add that you would like them to send you the Statement of your Account – they normally send this in a file with the password of your birthday,
ZT says
Hello All
Little update from me with some good new for once…
I had my complaint upheld today by Sunny without FOS involvement, so due a refund of £just over 2.5K in interest and my outstanding balance of £475 removed. So happy i could cry, they have already cleared my balance but not sure when they will pay funds… will let you know.
247 Money Box – their eight weeks was up on the 20th April to issue a final response. Despite getting a really oddly worded email from them on the 17th April, they have not issued a final response. I have sent emails chasing and no answer to any of them, and tried ringing, complete radio silence so I have now submitted to the FOS this evening.
I also still have 3 cases with FOS under review following receiving final responses not upholding my complaint:
Payday Uk – the adjudicator fully upheld on all loans , Payday Uk didn’t agree, so this is now in queue for an Ombudsman
Payday Express – still awaiting to be allocated an adjudicator.
The Money Shop – has been allocated an adjudicator but no outcome yet.
Thanks so much again for this site , and all the advice available, it has made what seemed like a daunting process so much easier, and of course Sara being a star!
ZT
Steph says
Some advice please….
I submitted a complaint to QuickQuid at the beginning of January, they rejected it but offered me £350 goodwill gesture payment, which I rejected and submitted to the FOS.
At the end of Jan I entered in to a repayment arrangement with QQ for my remaining balance. A couple of weeks after submitting the complaint to the FOS, I received a number of emails from QQ stating that my repayment arrangement had been cancelled. I immediately contacted them and they redirected me to the FOS and said this was standard procedure when going through a complaint and they were putting my account on hold pending the outcome of my complaint. The FOS knew nothing about this so directed me back to QQ. I requested from QQ, in writing, confirmation that I would accrue no additional charges and no debt collection action. QQ confirmed that was correct and everything was on hold.
Today I’ve logged on to my QQ account to see that my account is now showing as being in default. I’m gutted. Despite being in debt for a number of years, I’ve managed to avoid getting any defaults of CCJ’s. What do I do??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Annoying, but probably just a temporary problem. If QQ offered you £350 you probably have a pretty good case. That makes it likely that your last loan will be considered to be unaffordable and the default will be removed.
Dave says
Hi, just to post a quick update about my claim against QQ. Back in December QQ made me a goodwill gesture of £200 but denied any wrong doing. I rejected the offer and forwarded my claim to the Ombudsman, who requested Bank Statements and Credit Reports. QQ have since come back with an early settlement offer of £1200 (today) for loan number 11 of 17, apparently all other loans were legit. Needless to say i have rejected this offer. Hopefully this will work in my favour.
I have also taken a claim against Wonga to the ombudsman, they denied any wrong doing despite 18 loans over a 25 month period.
Maggie says
Well got a no from WDA, Payday Express, Payday UK and Wonga all cos my loans are over 6 years old. Off to FOS then. Wonga also sent a separate email asking me to complete and survey so they could improve their service!!!!! I don’t think so Wonga.
Neil says
Sunny have agreed with my Adjudicator’s decision and the modest (compared to some refunds here!) refund should be with me by the end of May. It’s taken 8 months to get here, and unfortunately removing the loans from my file didn’t form part of the decision – but it’s a win, and I haven’t really had to put in masses of effort personally to get to this position.
Two down, two to go ;-) Next up : Uncle Buck and Pounds to Pocket!
Nesta says
Neil, have you spoken to Sunny to see when they plan to refund you or have they just said you’ll have it by the end of May
Neil says
Nope – I figure they give me what they agreed in the 28-day timescale or I will go back to my Adjudicator and ask for additional compensation ;-) It sounds from your latest post they are being particularly vexatious and difficult, I am not expecting to see any kind of refund before the deadline.
Mind you, the way I see it, I’ve won; I’m not going to let this consume any more head space. if I don’t get the money I will, as I said, just escalate it and make a further complaint.
Nesta says
Not sure if you are desperate for the money but i have chased them up and today the refund has finally landed in my account.
The lady i spoke to over the phone yesterday was brilliant she called me this morning to confirm that the compliance team would be issuing my refund and it would be with me before the end of the week.
Sunny made me go around in circles, even my adjudicator wasn’t happy with their compliance team but finally have the result i wanted.
Sunny compliance team is the complete opposite of their customer service team who were extremely helpful.
Neil says
Nesta – thanks for the heads-up. I will give them a week and if I haven’t heard anything, I’ll give them a call. Sounds like they need a fair bit of prompting ;-)
Really pleased it all got sorted for you in the end (minus the £100 problem) and it gives me hope that I’ll see this money in the bank sooner rather than later!
Dave Boote says
Hi,
Has anybody had a case with Lending Stream that hasnt actually gone through to the Ombudsman? My adjudicator gave them an extra week at the end of the initial timescale to respond and I am awaiting an answer with the deadline being tomorrow.
The adjudicator ruled that they should repay all my interest across all my loans, so I am obviously hoping for them to agree and to put all this behind me. After reading a number of comments above I doubt this will happen.
What are people’s experiences with the Ombudsman, have the ever altered an adjudicators decision without any extra information?
Thanks
DB
Lb says
Hello, yes mine went all the way to Ombudsman level. The Ombudsman ruled in favour of more loans than my adjudicator and I received just over £7500 back this included 2 loans that were over 6 years old.
Ben says
I sent QuickQuid a small email complaining about unaffordability on 16/03/17. It was asking for statements which they gave, I didn’t get round to it. But got an email back from them today with a final response. Basically they made no mistake but can offer £400, this was suprising but I continued looking at all the loan details and the interest for all my loans since May 14 was over £2.5k so I think I will decline their offer, can I now take this to the Financial Ombudsman?
Steph says
Definitely decline their offer. I had a “goodwill gesture” of £350 which I declined and took to the FOS. Adjudicator called me today to say she hasn’t started reviewing my file yet BUT QQ have increased their offer to £2,100 without any investigation from FOS…. I’ve also declined that as I’ve paid more than £6,000 in interest over the last 6 years….. so you should definitely pursue.
Ben says
Considering I didn’t really put in a complaint before they made their offer of £400 I sent a reply with the full complaint, and also one to Wonga. I suppose I need to get the complaint sent to FOS for QQ
Sharon says
Just an update folks… complaints sent on 28th Feb to:
Lending stream
Wonga
Sunny
Piggy bank
WDA
Satsuma
My jar
All but Wonga have come back within the 8 weeks.
Sunny, satsuma, WDA, My Jar all rejected outright so all have to FOS.
Lending stream came back with a procedural error on one loan so offer of refund for £90 plus as a gesture of good will a clearance of current balance, amounting to £300. I rejected as I had paid over £3400 in interest. They then can back and admitted that a few loans taken close together may have caused financial hardship so upped their offer to £500. Again I rejected and forwarded to FOS, seems bizarre practice to have “looked again” and made a further offer.
Sharon says
Sorry forgot to add only Piggy bank upheld my complaint in full and agree to refund all interest plus 8%, without the need for the FOS.
Claire says
Well I’ve received my final response from moneyboat this evening- just the usual response but what was concerning in the response was that they said I can remember you made a complaint with a previous Lender where I used to work so why have you borrowed again. Surely this is breaching consumer confidentiality
ZT says
Hi Claire,
I don’t know too much about these matters but guidance under the data protection act states “If you think your data has been misused or that the organisation holding it hasn’t kept it secure, you should contact them and tell them. If you’re unhappy with their response or if you need any advice you should contact the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)” , there is more guidance available about data protection on the gov website.
Hope this helps
ZT
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could have complained about a lot of things to a previous lender, but unless it was an affordability complaint it is hard to see what relevance that has.
John says
QQ Update
QQ refused adjudicator decision that gave me 99% of what I asked for – QQ offered a settlement of £3K – I don’t know the exact amount in ££ terms of the adjudicator decision but its well over £5K.
Ombudsman queue now ……..
John
JORDAN says
Hi
I received my final response from Wonga this morning and it’s pretty much exactly what I calculated. I have one question regarding this if any could help me out please?
Wonga state: We would like to offer £4365.66 which is an amount equal to the interest and fees on the following loans:
Total interest and fees: £4365.66
8% interest gross: £ 1489.52
Total settlement: £5855.18
Tax
8% interest gross £1861.90
Basic tax rate deduction: £372.38
I’m confused by the tax part of it. Will I receive £4365.66?
Thank you to Sara and everyone who has helped me out. I’m more chuffed than you could ever believe.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No. You will get : Total settlement: £5855.18
pretty chuffing !
Nesta says
I have had success with Sunny, this was for over 30 loans. The first 4 were found to be affordable which i accept but all the others i have had the interest refunded. My complaint was submitted in January to Suuny. At week 7 they declined and when i asked them to reconsider i was told there is nothing more they can do as they feel they have lent responsibly.
I then took this to the FOS, sent them all the details they required including credit report, bank statements and a list of my living costs.
My adjudicator rules only the first 4 loans were affordable and recommended Sunny pay me back the interest plus 8%. Sunny agreed and today refunded me. Slightly annoying they lowered the amount by £100 as i had taken another loan post my complaint for that value but still more than satisfied with the outcome.
Don’t give up if you get rejected at the start guys and it most definitely aids your cause sending the bank statements to the adjudicator as it paints a clearer picture for them i believe.
Thanks to all on the site who have helped especially Sara for giving everyone this platform to be able to ask questions and seek help.
So far i have had success with Mr Lender and Sunny. Uncle Buck and 247moneybox are next followed by safety net credit.
Thanks
Nes
Andrew says
Hi Nesta,
Did they contact you? If so was it private number, as I’ve had a missed call from private number?
I’ve still not heard anything, so I can’t be that far behind you as we was pretty much same day I believe.
Thanks,
Andrew
Nesta says
When my adjudicator phoned me to say she’d sent off the declaration form which i signed accepting the outcome.
I phoned Sunny up 2 days after mate, so it”s been going on since then. If i was you i would ring them up and you are more likely to get a quicker resolution. Their customer services team is great it’s compliance who are annoying.
I got a call off them via a normal number it wasn’t withheld.
Roch says
I had this email today from My Jar (How Cheeky)
Thank you for contacting us.
We note your intent to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and are looking forward to receiving correspondence from them.
Please contact us in case you have any further queries or concerns in the meantime.
Another few weeks wait I think then straight to FO.
They believe they have done nothing wrong but how can they miss the fact that I had loans with Piggybank, Safety net, 247 money box, and Satsuma although I only had 3 loans with them from £100- 300 I still think they should not have given me them am I right to complain?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
is this the first email you have from them?
roch says
No Sara it’s the 4th and I only said I would be taking to the ombudsman when they gave their final response and that’s what they came back with.
The third said they did act responsibly in running all required checks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the third was your final response, you can go straight away, you don’t need to wait for the 8 week point.
Chris says
So my ombudsman has rejected my complaint after the adjudicator had upheld it. All 4 loans were under 6 years. Is that it now or does anyone recommend something else which can be done?
I only had 3 or 4 loans with these as this was the last company I used out of 4 pay day loan companies I had loans from. But the only reason I paid this company and the others off was because I had to borrow the money from family, if not they would of been more but the ombudsman doesn’t seem to see it like that.
Ross says
That’s very odd Chris, as the ombudsman (in the majority of cases) agrees with the adjudicator’s decision. I think, sadly, you’re at the end of the line now, as another ombudsman can’t overrule another ombudsman.
Chris says
Yes I think your right, the even more annoying thing is that im now having to pay them the £100 which was owed still and have a default on my credit file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is pretty rare. It only seems to happen where there have been a very small number of loans. At least I can’t remember a case with a large number.
Tommy says
I only had 4 loans with Wonga I repaid 3 and the last one I am paying £10 a month to a debt collection agency, the last one also has a default registered on is it worth submitting a complaint ? I am a student and was not working, relying on student finance. When I took the first loan out I was 18 and naive, when I paid the loan off I applied and got another one except the last one where there was a gap before I applied. I was also approved for 2 catalogue accounts each with a 400 limit and 2 credit cards with 200 and 250 pound limits.
Nesta says
Tommy, definitely worth complaining mate a default has a lot of negative implications and it wouldn’t be the first time Wonga have carried out inadequate checks.
Were the Wonga loans taken out in a short space? As that will make your complaint stronger
Tommy says
Thank you for your reply, the , loans were 23/10/15 repaid 20/11/15, 20/11/15 repaid 30/11/15, 30/11/15 repaid 31/12/15 and the last one was taken out on 17/3/16 and I am still paying that one off. The interest isn’t a massive amount but the default as you say is damaging.
Maggie says
HI
has anybody heard from Cash Genie this month about a cheque run in May? I’m due a refund that was agreed on 4th March and hoping I may be on the next run but haven’t had any email from Beth.
Pear says
I had a refund agreed in April, praying I get paid before they run out of money. If you could please let me know if you hear anything as I will likely be the month after.
Maggie says
Hi. Just got an email from cash genie! RSM sending cheese 30/05/17!!! Nearly there lol. Should be about £1500 so delighted thanks to this site xxx
Debbi says
Mine was agreed on the 14th April, they said they would email when the cheque was sent out – sounds like they do a monthly run
Colin says
Hi,
I am in the very early stages of complaining about Payday UK. I took out an initial loan and repaid this on time I full. I took out another and was advised I could roll over this loan meaning I could repay it and take out another and all I would pay is the interest to do this. At the end I did this around 20 times. No affordability checks, welfare checks, enquiries to see if I was having difficulties. Eventually I had to approach them to inform them I was struggling to pay. I was put on a payment plan and the debt was settled over 12 months. They have today offered me £450. Should I reject? I reckon I paid anything between 2-3K in interest but they are very persuasive in their reasoning for denying any wrongdoing. I can add that I did request details of all my loans but this was rejected by the firm therefore making it more difficult to make a case for an appropriate amount of compensation.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why don’t you copy out their “persuasive reasoning” … it sounds like a good case to me!
Adam says
Well thank you Sara, so not only did I get an offer from My Jar last week, which I accepted and has been paid straight away. I have just had an email back from Wonga offering me ~£1500 (including the 8%). The only email I sent them was one asking for a list of my loans a little over 8 weeks ago, they skipped sending me those and made me the offer. I am going to accept it as it was more than the figure I had in mind. Does anyone know how long Wonga take to pay out?
But once again thank you for all the help and advice from this site (that includes comments from people). Couldn’t have done it without you guys!!
ZT says
Hi All Another little update from me….
Sunny paid out today after upholding my complaint just over 2.5k plus they cleared outstanding loan balance and will remove some entries from credit file . They sent their final response bang on the eight weeks and it only took 2 days from me accepting and providing my bank details to receiving the funds today. A great result without FOS involvement, and all thanks to this site and Sara!
I have now referred 247 moneybox to the FOS, as they are refusing to respond to my numerous emails requesting their final response which is well over a week overdue . I did get an email saying the following : ” Dear xxx , Thanks for your email. We are confident that the required assessments were carried out prior to the advance of all loans. We are able to substantiate fully the information on which lending decisions were based.We are, however, happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve today by issuing a goodwill payment of £550.00, and removing all negative reporting from your credit report. Kind regards, Fiona”
I have sent them an email asking them if this was indeed a final response and could 247 MB provide me with the evidence that they can “substantiate” fully all 41 loans I took with them….The above is the shortest ever response from a PD lender i have received – it contained no details of the investigation, no mention if the email was a final offer, no attachments about complaints procedures. I have still referred to FOS anyway.
I still have 3 cases still with FOS ( Moneyshop/ Payday Express and Payday UK) – No update since my last update, so will keep you posted
I have also had a final response from Wonga which I have challenged them that the financials are incorrect and have I asked them to amend – basically they said that the last loan I look with them I only repaid £193 and that they wrote the rest of loan off…. but I have statements that prove I made two repayments from my bank and then the rest of the payments were made to them by step change on a DMP, 13 payments in total of which I have the statements from Debt change, totalling over £650). They have asked for 48hrs to review but this is likely to also be going to FOS for a) not upholding the complaint and b) for inaccuracies in personnel financial data.
Mr Lender – these were very quick in replying less than 2 weeks , they agreed to write off over just over a 1K balance but didn’t admit to doing anything wrong, it was deemed a “good will” gesture. I considered taken to the FOS but my total interest paid was 1.6k as this was one of my smaller claims so I accepted this an acceptable offer.
Hope everyone is getting on all right with theirs, keep going and good luck
ZT
Lewis says
Update for you guys;
Does anyone know how long it takes Wonga to even acknowledge a complaint? I had 39 loans with these in just over 3 year so this is the case I’m most looking forward to hearing.
Also, I had 7 loans with Satsuma in a year, and they chose to write off my two current loans with amounts of £676 and £888 still to be paid.
Peachy agreed to write off my current loan amount of £134 as a good will gesture. Reasonable as I only had two loans with them.
MyJar basically told me to sod off but not going to complain further as I only had 3 loans in 2 year with these.
Piggy Bank are still ongoing, I’ve had 8 loans in a year with these so don’t know what to expect.
Sarah says
Hi could I still claim if the bank account they paid the loans into is now closed as I couldn’t pay the overdraft on that either.
Any input about this would be appreciated
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can still claim. If it goes to the Financial Ombudsman you may be asked to get the old,bank statements but this is usually possible.
Kevin says
Hi all, just a heads up to make sure you get your full statement from all company’s as I’ve been robbed senseless off of one and almost from another.
Wonga sent me the wrong statement saying i only had 2 loans when i knew i had at least 8 sorted now off to FOS. The other was lightning loans whome i ended up paying almost 3000 for a 1000 loan and paid all off during my DPP, but contacted them early and after them telling me I owed them 400 , accepted like a fool.wasnt until i got statement through that i realised i had paid a fortune in interest but was too late,
So beware these people and wait until you have full visibility before making any decisions they will tell you anything and that’s including the big boys . Hope this helps before it’s too late.
Joel says
This is what I got from H&T, I have an outstanding loan with them which is my 3rd one, worth asking if it is their final response?
I literally borrowed again after I paid off the loan.
I understand your complaint refers to Personal Loans issued by us, which you claim were
unaffordable.
It seems you have had two online personal loans with ourselves. The first was taken out on 24th
August 2016 for £300, I can confirm we assessed your affordability with the information you
provided. Your income was declared as £1320 per month and expenditure £630 per month, your call
report showed you had settled loans and your creditors had reported you were up to date with
payments, we also completed a job check confirming you were employed. Your loan was paid off on
time and you settled this loan on 28th February 2017.
Your second loan with us was taken out on 28th February 2017 for £300, assessment of affordability
was same criteria as above and you declared your income as £1378 per month and expenditure £675
per month. Your call report again confirmed no negative indicators.
In view of the above I feel we have assessed both applications responsibly and made the correct
decisions in view of the information you declared together with your credit report.
In our opinion, we believe we carried out appropriate affordability checks in line with regulatory
expectations.
Conclusion
Based on the above findings we do not uphold your complaint.
You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge –
but you must do so within six months of the date of this letter.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they have ignored your current loan taken out immediately after your repaid the second no one? Definitely worth going back. How large was it?
Is there anything wrong in what they wrote, apart from the missing loan? What would your credit record have showed, a lot of other debt commitments?
Joel says
Yes they have ignored my current £500 loan which i borrow straight after settling the previous.
Yes my credit report would show other payday loans i have so they are negative indicators.. which H&T say i haven’t got any on my file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So three loans in a row and the last one increased … that is a good reason why they should have declined the last loan.
A payday loan by itself isn’t a negative indicator, but using them over a long period is. Also what matters is the debt repayments that are showing on your credit record as this impacts how affordable the loan being considered will be.
PJ says
Hi everyone,
Thanks for this brilliant site – I’m really encouraged that I’m not completely alone in having felt like I’m totally drowning in PD Loans over the last few years.
I’m in the very early stages of this process having sent off complaints to my lenders. I’ve had a reply from Mr Lender saying that they wouldn’t uphold my complaint and passed to the FOS. They’ve asked me to reply and confirm that it’s a final letter and what my referral rights are.which I’ve done. Today I’ve had a reply from Mr Lender saying that they will investigate any new information I have and otherwise that’s all. Is this enough to go back to the FOS with? I’m a bit stuck as to what I’m supposed to do next?
Thanks
Leah says
I have had 2 offers from 247 moneybox I had to chase and chase and chase to get any these answers.
Both state they have done all the necessary checks, the first offer was to write off £490 off that I owe. The 2nd offer was £200 goodwill.
I have gone back requesting my statement of account repeatedly since 23.02.2017 but nothing.
I know I lent 20 times in 19 months which I keep stressing to them is the irresponsible part. I am now chasing confirmation that this is the final response and to chase my statement of account. I have emailed bcca to advise they are not sticking to the charter providing regular updates, even when I advised them I was in financial difficulties they ignored what I said on numerous occasions and I finally spoke to them on the phone. The same day after the call they offered me a re-loan and contacted me via email to request full payment at at discounted rate.
The 8 weeks are up so will be sending this to the ombudsman.
lending stream I just accepted £583 although I paid £1700 interest, my position was not as bad when I took these out.
I am still waiting for uncle buck to pay out my £1300 accepted 13.04.2017 28days they advised.
JS says
Hi Sara, I’ve had a response from Mr.Lender. I have a £525 loan outstanding with them. Initially I took out a £300 loan and rolled over 5 consecutive months until I finally just stopped paying.
There response is to clear the remaining balance and give me back the £43 difference I paid in interest.
Eddie says
Dear Sara
I have a question –
My case with MyJar is with adjudicator for 4 weeks now and at the moment they are negotiating with the business if loans over 6 years can be looked at. However this morning I suddenly received a reminder text from MyJar to make sure I have funds available to make my next payment tomorrow towards the outstanding loan. Can they do that? They know I have taken it to FOS and it’s been 3 months since I complained to them and my account was frozen ever since.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you contact Myjar and say your loan has been on hold for 3 months so why are they contacting you? It may well be an error.
J* says
After plucking up the courage to challenge my payday loan lenders I’ve only had Wonga reply and offer me a really low refund from a loan I took 4 years ago (around £150). Lending Stream who allowed me 4 at the same time (that I’m currently still repaying) whilst also having a Satsuma and Payday UK (so 6 loans currently across 3 lenders) haven’t bothered to reply. All in all over the last 7 years I’m guessing there’ll be a good 50 loans all showing on my Noodle credit file as being taken out one after another towards the end of the month.
If I accept the £150 offer with Wonga does this mean I can no longer refer all the loans I took out with this company to the Financial Ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga will be making this low offer in full settlement of your affordability complaint. If you accept this, you won’t be able to take the other loans they aren’t refunding to the ombudsman. How many loans did you have from Wonga?
Your current loans, can you afford the repayments without borrowing again? If you can’t, think about setting up a temporary DMP, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. If you don’t do this, you may feel you have to accept low offers just to keep afloat, and later regret the fact you could have got a lot more by going to the Ombudsman.
J* says
Hi Sara,
Thank you that’s what I was wondering. I was so tempted to accept Wonga’s offer but wasn’t sure if it would wipe out the prospect of the Financial Ombudsman looking at all the others.
There have been so many over the years, as a self employed single parent they were often what I relied on month to month. But once I fell into the trap it has been so hard to escape. If I had little or no earnings from self employment I had no way of paying them back yet other lenders still lent to me. I was borrowing from one to pay another.
I have to say Wonga have been the only one to reply. They said they did write off one of my very early ones and removed it from my credit file on the grounds it was unaffordable yet they continued to lend to me even though my situation hadn’t changed.
Lending Stream have been by far the worst at encouraging a cycle of debt and they’ve ignored me completely.
Many of my loans were repaid in full and on time but only because I borrowed from another lender to do so.
Kevin farrell says
Hi there. I have had approx 50 back to back loans with wonga ranging from weekly to monthly and about 15 with piggy bank. On the 15 piggy bank I used the deferred payment. Paying intreset and putting back payment date the maximum of 2 times each loan. I’ve just about got out of this now and ready to make a complaint. The problem is I wish to apply for a mortgage. Maybe I’ll get it maybe I won’t. The question I have is that since these both have basically had me in continuous loans without any longer than a day between paying back and re borrowing (16months) can i request they remove all my loans from my credit file. Is it realistic that they will remove them if I am succesfull in my claim. And should I ask them to do it in my first complaint. Any help grateful appreciated
Steph says
yes if you ask them as part of your complaint all loans which they or the FO if you take it further, find to be unaffordable will be removed from your credit file :)
James says
Evening all… can I ask when you put a complaint in who pays for it to be looked at and how much is it…. also if it goes all the way to the ombudsmen is there more fees…
Ro65 says
James – There are no fees. Not that you need to worry about anyway. So if you feel you have a need to complain feel free to go ahead and do so without the worry of you being charged any fees.
James says
Thank you for your reply that puts my mind at rest. Who covers the fees?
I am just trying to understand the process..
I will be submitting my complaints this evening. Has anyone had any luck with amigo loans, 118 118, piggy bank, wda, george banco.
Thanks in advance
Ross says
Hi James,
For every complaint you send to the FOS, the company you complain about has to pay the bill for it. The current rate is £550 per complaint. It’s not cheap, but it’s not for you to worry about. Good luck!
Katie says
Hi Ross. Is that payable by the companies at adjudicator level or ombudsman level ? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is a flat fee. The Ombudsman has recently considered whether to change this to a lower fee for cases settled earlier but decided not to.
Stuart says
Hi everyone,
Firstly I thought I would thank the people that run this website and everyone that contributes to it, because it has been invaluable over the last 8 weeks. So for me, I was very young when I got in to debt. I’m not sure what triggered it, but fair to say when I turned 18 I was gambling and had credit cards, which then turned to loans and eventually Payday Loans. By 19 I was well and truly struggling. Fast forward 10 years after many years of depression and struggles, by pure chance back in February, a sponsored post appeared on Facebook talking about Payday Loan refunds and about new regulation that had recently been brought in. I left my details with a company that claimed to be able to work on claims for you but then came across this site which obviously teaches you how to go through the process yourself.
My two biggest lenders, Quickquid and Wonga, have come back to me in the past couple of days offering £1,000 and £2,200 respectively. I’ve had PaydayUK and Uncle Buck dismiss my complaints, and Lending Stream offer £100. Based on the Subject Access Requests from Quickquid and Wonga, the interest and fees on loans I took out that go back to 2011 total around £12,000. And that doesn’t include older accounts I held with the two. And yesterday I submitted all the companies to the Financial Ombudsman. So while it’s great to see an initial £3,200 offered, I’m hopeful that the FOS will find many more loans deemed unaffordable, given the utter state I’d been in. I’m hopeful they will be able to go beyond the last 6 years, But we’ll see.
So now the waiting game begins and I’ve just got see what comes back. I never, ever thought I would be able to entertain even the possibility that I could claim back from these companies. I was trapped at 19 years old and its fair to say that these companies effectively ruined my 20s. I remember I used to have to pay off my payday loans on payday and borrow again for all my other outgoings.
To anyone who has been in similar position, go for it, because you have nothing to lose. and to all – thank you for sharing your advice and your stories. I will never allow myself to struggle like that again or feel trapped, my biggest mistake was keeping it all bottled up and not asking for help.
Once I start hearing back on progress I will come back and update you all.
Thanks
Stuart
Kev says
Help please I’m not very good at this. I have went through my accounts and have added up all the thousands I’ve borrowed and subtracting all I’ve paid back leaving a difference off 2000. So the interest I have paid and it comes to to approx 2000. So if I’m adding the 8% interest is it as simple as adding £160 to my total. I know I won’t get a refund on all loans but does that mean I’m claiming for £2160. Sorry for asking what 99% of people will think is obvious is just like to be certain in case I get an offer i don’t want to be ripped off. I’m not the most academic person
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have been adding up the loans for one lender?
You don’t need to specify an amount in your complaint, just ask for a refund of the interest.
The 8% added is 8% per year. If you get an offer, why not come back here and ask what people think? It’s your decision, but it’s nice to hear what other people who are further along in the process think.
Joel says
If a lender keeps on upping their offer of the refund, surely they are admitting they are in the wrong.
Peachy and Mr Lender have both came back with 3/4 offers and got rejected but each time they were increasing their offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much are they now offering? How much have you paid in interest to them?
Joel says
Peachy are offering to refund the interest from 3rd loan out of 6 which amounts to just over £500 and wipe any credit files, this is their 4th offer. I rejected this as I counter offered them to refund both my rollovers from my 2nd loan including the above.
Mr lender offered to refund 50% of my 3rd loan out of 5, which amounts to £424. Total interest I’ve paid was over £1200.
I rejected this and requested all of 3rd loan interest to be refunded.. so roughly £850 back and current balance wiped.
richard says
do I escalate this further, my budget I sent them and my credit file would have shown another 5 loans with other lenders during that period that I took the loan with pixie.
———————-
After reviewing the loan you have had with us we can see that a suitable affordability assessment was completed using a third party called “Call Credit” and the information obtained from your income and expenditure form. The Call Credit check consisted of a credit check and current debt level check. We can you have only had one loan from us, we do not believe this would have trapped you in a debt cycle.
In conclusion as the affordability assessment completed was in proportion with the loan amount of £100 we believe the loan was affordable and we are unable to uphold your complaint or refund any interest you have paid.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
With one loan for a low amount you are highly unlikely to win this complaint. The only exception would be if it was rolled a lot of times.
Confused lasy says
Hi, any advice. I have received all the statements for my accounts from various lenders with no difficulty. P2P sent me the statements and also asked me to send all my bank statements and payslips for the duration of my loans held with them so they can investigate my complaint. Is this normal practice and should I send them or just write the compliant letter asking for the interest etc etc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes this is normal for P2P – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-loan-refunds/. As you haven’t yet sent a full complaint I suggest you do and add on a sentence saying you don’t have your bank statements or payslips to hand and you would like them to consider your complaint on the basis of what they already know.
If thus goes to the Ombudsman (and don’t be fobbed off with ne of P2Ps very low offers) then the FO will often ask for bank statements. But not payslips – after all your pay shows on your bank statements!
Confused lasy says
Hi Sarah, Thanks for this. I will be sending in my full complaint letters to a total of 6 different lenders which i used all around the same 18 month period (robbing peter to pay paul). Luckily i am now out of this cycle but the impact of this is long lasting due to late payments and affecting my credit report.
Confused lasy says
I have now also received an offer from Mr Lender for 50% of the interest paid on my last loan. I am going to refuse this but have to say i am impressed with how quick they have dealt with this. 4 days from asking for the statements to getting an offer from them.
Wendy Rayne says
Hi everyone.
Could I ask if anyone has ever dealt with Creations? My partner has a loan with them for £7,500 but the interest upped it to past £11,000. Is this interest way over the top? and would it be worth asking for this to be looked at?
Thank you
Wendy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t complain because the interest is high, well not unless you were misled into believing it would be lower. It is perfectly legal to charge a lot of interest.
Your partner could make an affordability complaint if he can show (a) that he couldn’t afford the monthly repayments without further borrowing AND (b) the lender should have known this before it gave the loan.
Wendy Rayne says
Hi Sara.
Thank you for replying, the loan was taken out and it was/is affordable, I just wasn’t 100% sure about the interest.
Thank you
Wendy
Ally says
Hi All,
Just settled with Wonga, was looking at £6k + total interest inc 8%, first offer £2900. Adjudicator found in my favour for £6,300. second offer just in of £4550 which I have accepted as my other cases have waited 3 months for an Ombudsman. Wonga have already emailed to say funds will be in in 3-5 working days pitty its a BH 80)
Had an update on The Money Shop they are refusing to look at loans from 2008-2010 which is 99 loans in total so i’m in a queue for specialist adjudicator.
Sara question has anyone tried to claim against Pawned items?
Thank you so much for this site, I am one step closer to being debt free and having a life again.
Ally
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You aren’t likely to get anywhere with pawned items. The FCA’s CONC 5.2 “Creditworthiness assessment: before agreement” doesn’t apply to them.
Steph says
Hi how long did the Adjudicator process take for them to come to a decision from when you first sent the financial ombudsman your complaint/? Currently waiting a response from the FO. Thank you in advance
Ally says
Hi Steph
I have been lucky as I have an excellent adjudicator who has picked up all bat one of my PDL complaints wonga was one of my last ones so the adjudicator knew my situation inside out by then so from me putting in the complaint to adjudicator decision was a matter of weeks.
Thanks
Ally
Steph says
Hi firstly I can’t thank you enough for this website the help and support you have given here is just amazing and without you i never would have knew this was possible. In 2011 I found myself in the vicious debt cycle with wonga, I took the most amount of loans between April 2011 and October 2013, I took out a loan with them almost every single month and sometimes these loans were taking all of my wages when i got paid resulting in me constantly having to borrow more and more to pay all of my bills and living costs. I took out 48 loans during this timeframe including top ups. On the couple of months were I didn’t borrow from them i was borrowing from other lenders to meet my living costs. I still am today after all these years feeling the consequences of these loans and still am struggling to manage. I stupidly went back to borrowing from Wonga again in November 2016 and have a current 3 month flexi loan with them. I complained to them on the 25/02/17 for irresponsible lending. The eight week mark was up last weekend and they emailed asking for a further eight weeks, so I referred my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. I requested a statement of accounts with them but they still have not sent me them, I have tried to work out the total amount of loans through my bank statements, however wanted a statement from them to check I have worked the interest out correctly.
The following day after sending to the FO, Wonga sent me a final response to my complaint. They have offered to refund 10 loans between April 2011 and October 2013 and seem to have selected these randomly not even considering the other loans and top ups even though during this time i borrowed almost every month. The financial ombudsman service emailed me asking for my final response letter so they can look into this for me. The offer is fairly reasonable but I do think i paid approximately £1000 more than what they are offering me in interest. They offered to deduct my current loan from this payment as well. I want to take the money and run but think i’d regret it later, so am going to wait for the FO to get back to me. Despite telling them I am currently struggling to pay the flexi loan and wouldn’t be able to pay it back this month without having to borrow more to pay my priority bills and requesting that they freeze interest and taking payments until the complaint is resolved so I can end this vicious cycle once and for-all, and cancelling the CPA with my bank, they have still taken this out of my account today. Hence why i am tempted to take the offer and run. I despise this company and what they do targeting vulnerable people and think you are amazing for helping people find a way out from this horrible mess.
I would like to know how long do people usually wait once you’ve referred your complaint to the financial ombudsman to get a decision? and do you think its worth me waiting it out longer? I have contacted my bank who are looking into this because i told them to cancel the CPA, will the bank refund this payment because they shouldn’t have allowed it? If they don’t i don’t know how i’m going to pay all of my priority bills this month
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The bank should refund your payment if you cancelled the CPA. You should tell the Ombudsman straight away that Wonga have done this and ask if your complaint can be handled speedily.
If you think you paid a £1000 more that is a lot of money and there will be the 8% interest to be added on top. Wonga often seem to make these random offers – no-one can work out how they selected those particular loans.
steph says
Thank you so much for your response I’m going to contact the FO again now. Silly question but how is the 8% interest worked out isit just 8% of the total amount of interest or does it depend on how long ago you borrowed the amounts?
thanks Steph
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is 8% on the interest payments and charges that are being refunded, and it’s 8% per year. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/ for details and a very rough way to guess how much it might be.
David says
Sent off to wonga – generic complaint reply. Payday uk- admitted they should not have rolled my loan over 11 times, offered £244 should I accept?. Mr lender- sent me a list of my loans and said because one is with a dca I have to contact them. Wageday who offered to clear balance(£150) which I accepted. QQ, who have yet to respond.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Payday Uk – was it just 1 loan? how much did you pay in interest?
Mr Lender – reply that you are complaining that MrL gave you unaffordable loans and if that is their final reply you will be going to the Ombudsman.
David says
Paydayuk loan was £500. They did not include a list of my loans in the reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well a £500 loan rolled 11 times must have been a lot more than £244 interest. What do you think would be a fair settlement – £750 – £1000?
Katie says
Recently started on my quest to obtain various refunds from the companies I’ve borrowed from over the years. So far so good and see to be getting responses from most of my emails. But would like some advise on my most recent response from Opos limited. I originally took the loan out from minicredit, but emailed opos on the advice of this website. I’m not 100% sure how much of a loan I took, but would imagine it was in the £400 range. I’ve found various correspondence in my emails from opos demanding a final balance in excess of £1600. I’ve then asked for a settlement figure and it was agreed I’d pay around £1200 back. This was in 2013.
However when I’ve emailed them this week to ask for the interest back, I’ve received the following response
‘I could only find one account with the details you have provided and it was for a Mini Credit account that Opos Limited were outsourced to collect from on the 3/5/13. Please note that in 2014 Kapama Limited purchased some but not all Mini Credit accounts and your was not one of them. Therefore the information you seek must be raised with the original loan provider and we cannot assist you in any way further.’
Is there anything I can do with this one?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As there isn’t an amount outstanding, there is probably nothing you can do.
Opos/Kapama will only settle complaints about debts they bought, not a debt they previously acted as a debt collector for.
They are saying this loan wasn’t one they bought Unless you have any email correspondence that suggests they did buy it, you can’t complain to them about this loan and Minicredit don’t exist anymore.
Katie says
Thanks Sara, that’s what I thought, but thought I’d just double check ?
Lewis says
Any advice guys?
I’ve sent a complaint in to Wonga exactly 2 weeks ago and they haven’t even sent me an acknowledgement email to say they have recieved my complaint.
Thanks
Steph says
Hi Lewis I had a complaint in with Wonga from 25/02/17 and have only just got a final response from them this week. They emailed me just on the eight week mark saying they were very busy and needed another eight weeks, I sent in my complaint to the FOS and the following day I got my final response letter. Good luck
Katie says
Hi Steph when you first submit to the FOS after a couple of days your cases get picked up by a kind of initial team who ask for extra info e.g. Final response letters. Then a few weeks later you get contacted by an adjudicator who introduces themselves. It doesn’t always go in order though as I submitted cases for Peachy, Satsuma, P2P, QQ, Lending Stream and Wonga at the beginning of March. Then I submitted cases for Myjar and Wage Day Advance and Uncle Buck at the end of March. Last week an adjudicator emailed me to say she was picking up my WDA complaint. After I sent her over bank statements and credit files and spoke to her on the phone, then the next day she then called me to say she was picking up my Lending Stream case too. So as you can see both of those cases were submitted at different times (4 weeks apart). I’ve not heard anything about the other 7 cases yet apart from intial acknowledgement from the FOS but I am eager for the Wonga case to be picked up as it’s a large amount of interest which Wonga only offered 50% of the interest on what seemed to be a random selection of loans. Good luck with your ones.
J* says
It took 10 weeks for my final latter to come through from Wonga and they only upheld my complaint on one loan from 4 years ago on the grounds it was unaffordable. Sunny also replied to say they agree theirs was unaffordable and offered to refund the interest on the loan plus 8%. Lending Stream never replied once in 10 weeks. Payday UK and The Money Shop said they acted fairly. Satsuma and the rest on my list also ignored me. So next week they’ll all be going to the Financial Ombudsman.
Steph says
Hi Katie, Thank you for responding I’m in a similar situation with Wonga a large amount of interest and they only offered about 50% of the it back in my case too and was also a random selection of loans. Have you been waiting since beginning of March for your Wonga one to be picked up from the Adjudicator then? that is quite a long time :(. Good luck for yours too
bowj says
Has anyone ever had a refund direct from Pounds to Pockets ???, I’ve been though quite a few posts on here and can’t see anyone who’s had a refund with this company
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Directly? No, they are a sister company of QQ and also either turn people down or make a low “goodwill” offer. Expect your claim to go to the FOS.
Ross says
I had a refund from them but, as Sara has said, I had to go to the FOS first as they turned down my complaint within hours. Good luck!