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?
Ross says
I’m seeing some movement, albeit very slow, with my on hold Quick Quid complaint. It’s been on hold since October 2016. Out of the blue, last week, I received an email from an adjudicator, asking for bank statements and expenditure for the time(s) I took out the loans. I advised they already had my bank statements, from previously investigated complaints, and I gave a rough idea of expenditure (as this was from 2009). Today, I received a further email, advising they have my bank statements from 2010, but could I provide the statements from 2009? I closed this account many years ago, so they have said they will have to rely on the information they already hold. The first email, last week, indicated that they were still not in a position to say whether they could look in to the loans more than 6 years old. However, the email today seems to give the impression that they can, but it doesn’t explicitly state this. I have asked if they can confirm if they have decided they CAN now look at these older loans. Just awaiting a further response now.
Loza says
Hello everyone
Sorry reposting here as i see this post is more active
Basically from nov 2011 till 2014 pretty much same time i had borrowed 70 times from wonga totaling £19500 and iv calculated the interest and it came to £5500 maybe bit more.
Sometimes i had to pay wonga back 1200 a month on like 10 occasions even tho my salary was 1400 tops … do u think i got a good case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like an excellent case!
Charlie says
So i had a little chuckle to myself when i recieved a ‘futher update on our previous email’ from Lending Stream.
I had already been offered the lowly sum of £255 refund for an error that was made on of the 16 loans (which i didn’t take). Anyway within about 20 minutes of submitting my complaint to the FOS i recieved an the ‘futher to our previous blah blah blah’ email. They had increased their refund offer from £255 to £510 still denying any wrong doing apart the same procedural error on loan 12. They also offered to close loan 15 and 16 with the outstanding payments. Im now feeling more confident that i will see a decent increase from the FOS if they can double their own offer within 24hrs of the first
I also spoke to a guy from the FOS today to see what stages my other complaints were at and just thought id let everyone know that there is now in excess of 8000 people with complaints filed against payday loan companies so we’re obviously putting massive amounts of pressure on the loan companies
Maureen says
Wow…8000!!! It also says a lot about the profits these companies made from us that they can pay our claims and still be in business! I know a few smaller ones have gone out of business but the big boys still have plenty of money! I think between 2008-2012 they were probably the most profitable businesses out there.
Emma says
Hi All,
Just wanted to give a quick update on the compliants I have.
1st Stop – Final decision received quickly not accepting complaint, sent to FOS who found in my favour for loans 2-3. 1st Stop didn’t agree so in the ombudsman queue.
Payday Express – Final decision received around 6 weeks rejecting complaint. Some loans over 6 years so in jurisdiction queue :(
Payday UK – Final decision received around 6 weeks rejecting complaint. Some loans over 6 years so in jurisdiction queue :(
Wageday Advance – Accepted claim in part (excluded loans over 6 years) offer was £3.5k which I accepted. Money was in my bank the same day. Have to say was very impressed by this company.
Uncle Buck – Final decision received on last day accepting claim and offer was £600. Have accepted and awaiting payment within 28 days.
247 Moneybox – Didn’t receive a response within 8 weeks. Sent to FOS awaiting allocation.
Poundstillpayday – No response, escalating to Arbiter as company based in Malta (Northway Financial)
Hope this helps
Emma
Nigel says
Bit of an update. Three Ombudsman decisions for me today.
100pounds upheld on 7 loans out of 11 but those 7 have 41 rollovers! 2010-2013. So it is a good result.
Cashfloat upheld in part on three out of 7 loans from 2015/16.
Early Pay day lender (EPDL) now part of Ecashwindow, upheld on all loans (10) plus 20 Rollovers. 2010-2014. This one is provisional at the moment but don’t see it changing and is infact better than the original Adjudicators decision who upheld 9 out of 10.
Another very good day.
simon says
Hi Nigel,
Can I ask how you got to the above result from EPDL? I have attempted to contact them via email and phone but cant get any answers from them.
Thank you
Simon
Nigel says
customercare@ecashwindow.com is the contact email. If they don’t that respond on that then try this one jo.rutter@ecashwindow.com
EPDL was taken over by ecashwindow in 2015 I believe?
Gary says
So haveing recieved a final responce from pounds to pocket and them offering £100 goodwill gesture it went to FO in march last night i recieved a phone call from them saying the FO had been in touch and they had increased the offer to £750 i accepted and this morning it had been paid into account !!! Wow speedy service .
Also have accepted wongas offer of £5500 so to you all just bide your time and a special thanks to sara and this site without it wouldnt have even known i could claim many thanks.
Darren says
Just thought I would leave a little update on a few companies I have dealt with…
Wonga – sent off complaint email and just received a final response, funnily enough today is the 8 week deadline. Said there was no wrong doing as I only had one loan out with them, my bank statement has 10 loans from them – so off to the ombudsman.
Peachy – only had one loan with peachy but they refunded all interest paid and the 8%
SafetyNet – refunded all interest and 8% a few weeks after original complaint. Tip for anyone – they say there payment run only happens on a Thursday but if you challenge this it can be paid on the same day.
QuickQuid & Poundstopocket – complaints sent off and getting sent to the ombudsman today as received no final response.
247 Moneybox – agreed to write off a balance of £512 which infact was paid through debt collection. 10 loans with this company and heard nothing back to conclude the complaint – off to ombudsman.
Payday Express – complained and within a week got told they had done nothing wrong and got sent to ombudsman. Sent off statements and credit file last week after letter came through.
Els says
Hi, were you still using safety net credit when you put the complaint in? I’ve been trapped using them for the last year and can’t stop or I’ll miss payments on everything else but it’s at breaking point now so feel i have no choice. Could you share how you found out how much interest you paid them, what the reason for complaint was and timeframe please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Cancel their CPA and (if you think it’s a good idea) change the password to access your online account. After that they are just another payday lender you owe some money to… put in a complaint!
Wes says
Hey,
Could anyone help me with this, I’ve just checked my Noddle credit report and found that these folk have run an administration review search …
Instant Cash Loans Limited (Cr, Sr, Ct, Sa, Ar)
Instant Cash Loans Dna (Cr Api)
1) who are they? noddle don’t seem to give me any more info
2) will an administration review affect my score …
Thanks in advance
Wes
simon says
Hi Wes,
Instant Cash Loans is PaydayUK, Payday Express and The Money Shop, this is what they said to me when I queered an Administration review with them:
In response to your concerns about the administration review that you state was performed on ##/##/####, PaydayUK may make periodic searches at Credit Reference Agencies and Fraud Protection Agencies in order to refresh our records and manage your account in accordance with Section 4.3 of Privacy Policy which you agreed to upon the opening of your account.
I have also attached a guide that is available on our website under Section 4.10 of our Privacy Policy which explains how PaydayUK use your personal information.
Please note that an administration review is only visible to you and not to any potential creditors. As such, this does not affect any application you may make for credit.
As this search has been completed in line with the management of your account we are unable to remove or amend this information.
Hope that helps you.
Simon
Wes says
Cheers Simon,
I do have a complaint in with them, although was a bit surprised to see that this morning. I had a feeling it might have been them but it made no reference to them on my report.
Thanks for clearing that up for me …
Wes
Simon says
Hi Wes,
No problem, word of advice though double check further back ( about a year ) I found a couple more actually credit application checks from them and I have applied with them for over 4 years. I have quered these with them and waiting for a response.
Regards
Simon
Adam Stephenson says
Hi, got into a bit of a pickle with payday loans a few years back, thnakful to say they are all paid off now. I came across this site and decided to complain to all the lenders i borrowed off and there were alot let me tell you. I have had a few rejections, which i have now sent to the ombudsman.
Saftey net credit came back to me within 4 weeks saying they upheld my complaint and refunded me all my interest around £1200 including statutory interest. I couldn’t quite believe, so thankyou so much to this site, and they paid out within 3 days.
I have just had a response from quickquid offering me £1273.66, but they are only considering one loan as they deemed it was apparent i was dependant on their loans. However i had alot of other loans that they deemed affordable as they claimed i earnt £6971 per month, which is massively wrong as it was actually around £1300/£1400 per month i earnt. So i have sent a complaint into the ombudsman about them as well, especially after reading through peoples comments about offers form quick quid not being very good. So with my offer being quite large i must have a good case i’m thinking, and also you said that you’ve never seen a case where the ombudsman has offered less, so i’m thinking even if they don’t uphold my complaint i will still be able to accept the offer of £1273.66.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£6971 a month – I think there was some mix-up and they have taken your monthly wage as weekly! This may have been your error, but it is something they should have stopped and queried it with you so it won’t harm your claim – not many people earning that much use payday loans month after month.
Dave says
Hi,
What are peoples thoughts on the below?
I had 23 loans with Lending Stream, with an interest total of over £8k, all of these loans were spread over the last 6 years. (bad I know but I was in a spiral and LS massively capitalised on this). With all my bank statements and with LS’s information they have passed over, the adjudicator ruled that all loan interest should be refunded and 8% interest paid per year.
LS came back with an offer of just over £2k, I said I would only accept a minimum of £7750. LS have rejected and now asked to go to Ombudsman.
What are people’s understanding with this? I am told the waiting time is 6-8 months, is the Ombudsman likely to uphold the decision, has anyone known them change the adjudicators decision without extra info? With the interest, and if my calculations are correct the refund is likely to stretch above £10k, it baffles me as to why they have not accepted my offer of a resolutions?
Finally, has anyone actually received an Ombudsman decision in less that 6-8 months at the moment.
Thanks in advance.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A fairly common change by an Ombudsman is to say that the first few loans were OK as the lender couldn’t have realised they were unaffordable. But that would seem unlikely to reduce what you get to below what you have offered.
But the lenders know that some people are desperate. It only takes a one in five to crack at this point and accept £2k for LS’s tactics to pay off for them :(
There are reports of more Ombudsmen being recruited. It’s hard to tell when this will start affecting the timescales.
Dave says
Thanks Sara,
I had loans before the last 6 years also which were classed as my first few? After that I had 23 loans totalling over the £8k.
Have you heard any feedback in relation to the timescales of the Ombudsman?
Thanks for all your help here.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In that case, it is much more likely that the Ombudsman will uphold the adjudicator’s decision in full.
It’s my feeling that recently more of the smaller cases are now being settled at the adjudicator stage, or soon after when cases are in the Ombudsman queue. That should reduce the size of the queue. But I don’t have any stats to back that up.
Caz says
Hi
I have received a final offer from Wonga for loans from 2011 for £3276 which is reasonable however they are refusing to look at loans from 2010 as over 6 years old. The interest and charges for those loans total approx an additional £2500. I am hoping to put this money towards a house deposit by sept/oct this year. What is the likelihood of me getting an offer to include the loans over six years from the ombudsman and does anyone know the likely timescale if I go through the ombudsman? Should I just accept the current offer? Any advice appreciated :)
Emma says
Hi Caz,
I have the same problem with both Payday UK & Express at the moment and I have been told the the queue for the jurisdiction team is long and that the likelihood of having a result by the end of the year is slim. They have to rule if they believe it is acceptable to include the loans over 6 years (which could take up to or over 6 months) then it needs to go to the adjudicator and then if they still do not accept into the ombudsman queue. I think I have seen on here others waiting over a year for a result.
Not what you wanted to hear i’m sure so if you need the money I would personally not hold out.
Emma
Caz says
Hi emma
Thank you very much for your reply. I’ve decided to take the offer as to be honest I didn’t even know I could get anything back at all until a few weeks ago and even when I put my complaint in I was 100% sure they would reject it. The money they have offered will make such a boost to my house deposit so I am happy.
Massive thank you to Sara for the amazing work she is doing with this site it sounds like she has helped to make a real difference to so many people’s lives.
Good luck to all of you with your claims against these horrid companies :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the Ombudsman is hoping that after a few cases have been sorted Wonga will give in and agree to consider the older loans in other cases as well. So things could start moving a lot faster. But even so September still seems unlikely.
It all depends how firm your timetable is. And whether you need Wonga’s current offer to make it – if you don’t you can just sit it out.
Steven says
I currently have 3 complaints waiting to be assigned an adjudicator
Sunny: 27 loans interest paid £3550
Quick Quid: 8 loans interest paid £1020
Wonga: 33 Loans interest paid £2220
These loans were over a 3 year period and given to me when I was nearly maxed out on an overdraft of £1300 and paying off Loans to Santander, partners credit union,118 money and AVENT credit, also a credit card with Vanquis which kept increasing the limit from a starting amount of £400 to where it currently stands at £2500, you can imagine the amount of jockying money I had to do in order not to default on any of them, my complaints have been with ombudsmen for a while now and I haven’t really heard anything,I haven’t yet in had a final response from 118 money,I am really eager to push forward with that one and make some progress as the amount of interest I am pay g absolutely scandalous, I refinanced 1 loan of £1000 on 2 occasions,I borrowed an additional £750 12months into a 18mth repayment period,and then and additional £900 8 months into the 2 year repayment plan from the previous,I am.wondering if anyone has had success against 118?
Roch says
I have just had my Final response from Safety net credit and would really like some advice and to know if anyone else had had this response from them. (I’ve cut out some of it as it was too lengthy but left the important bits) feel free to edit Sara.
We are writing in response to your complaint of 10th April 2017. The basis of your complaint is that we should not have lent to you as you clearly could not afford to repay.
We note that your complaint is in a standard format which we recognise as having been copied from one of the websites that provides templates for consumers. SafetyNet Credit’s affordability assessments are the most extensive and highest quality in the short term lending sector. As was made clear to you during the application process, before a customer is approved a credit limit with us they are required to provide us with secure read only access to their banking transactions. We ask for 90 days transaction data before we conduct our affordability assessment. That assessment identifies both income and committed expenditure so that we can come up with a highly accurate picture of an applicant’s ability to repay any credit we offer. These checks showed that, at the time of application, you had a disposable income in excess of £550. This gave us no reason to believe that you initial credit limit of £300 or your increased limit of £320 would be unaffordable.
When we booked you as a customer we did a full credit check. Your report showed that you had a good credit file, you had no CCJ’s and had not defaulted on any accounts in the 4 years before you applied. It also showed that you had low overall debt of just £353 and had settled nearly all of your short term loan accounts. There was not any information to suggest that we should not accept you as a customer.
Your bank transactions do show the use of other payday lenders but these are factored into our affordability check and we will only lend where we are satisfied that a customer has sufficient disposable income to be able to afford to repay without difficulty. In your case, your disposable income was sufficient to manage a £320 credit limit.
In light of the above, we feel that no form of redress is warranted.
If you have any further questions or queries regarding this then please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.
As this is now our full and final response to your official complaint if you remain unsatisfied you have the right to refer this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Firstly why aren’t they mentioning the numerous Gambling transactions, how can they say that my disposable income was sufficient when nearly all of it went on gambling and payday loans and they would have seen this. I was not in the right frame of mind, I would win on the slots one week then loose it all. My income was all over the place. My payday loans amount got more and more as every month for 3 years I took a new one out. I borrowed from them for 1 year total borrowed is low at just under £1000 but I would rely on it and even went into a payment plan with them. Should I send them to FO and Is it worth it?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s common for lenders to only mention the facts that fit what they want to say and ignore the others.
It’s worth a check that they got those facts rights: No defaults on your credit record in the 4 years before you borrowed from them? a “low overall debt of just £353”?
You mention a payment plan – was this at the of your borrowing from them?
Roch says
I did have a payment plan with them yes which they didn’t mention and would borrow sometimes 4 times in one day from them for gambling this isn’t normal, why would they not question it and keep on lending when they could see everything. I went over my limit with them many times and their no mention of this either and on my credit file they could have seen that with wonga I missed payments by 4 months or arrears with bills.
dan says
Goof morning Roch, just to let you know, I complained to SafetyNetCredit too, and I received pretty much the EXACT same response….sent it to the FO and received a letter from the FO yesterday asking for details like bank statements, credit reports etc..will keep you updated
Dan
Roch says
Good morning Dan, yes well done! and have I have also sent them to the FO yesterday along with all my bank statements, my credit report and all the emails they sent so fingers crossed I get a response from them soon and hope you do. I will keep you posted too x
Gareth says
Sorry to tell you this but my complaint against safety net/Indigo Michael has been with Fo since September/October last year recently asked for an update and got this reply “Thanks for your email asking for an update.
The loan you borrowed from Indigo Michael was a flexible credit account and not a standard pay day loan. We’re reviewing these type of accounts in more detail. So because of this there’ll likely be bit more of a wait before the ombudsman issues a decision on your case. I’m sorry its taking a little longer than expected, but we want to make sure that we give you a fair answer” that was beginning of April
alan says
Today my adjudicator got in touch to say before he looks into the detail of my complaint with QuickQuid that the business has passed the business file along with an offer for £2800. QiuckQuid point blank refused me any refund but yet such a jump but my predicament is that I paid them well over £5000 in interest over 11 loans and the offer they have gave me is based on 4 of those loans . Has anyone got experiences like this and how did QQ respond
C says
Hi alan, how long was your case with the aujudicator for this offer? I am exactly the same over 5000 paid in interest but not a penny offered in final response.
alan says
Adjudicator has had complaint for about 10days and not looked over the data yet but this offer is on the table and QQ have picked the 4 biggest loans to refund
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were there any big gaps between your 11 loans? Were any rolled?
alan says
From June 2011 till Dec 2013 the maximum gap I had between renewing or topping up and the occasional roll over was not greater than 3 weeks. I continually borrowed from them over the 2.5yrs with a limit of £1250 and topped up near the end to the max limit before I enterd a DMP
Maureen says
Hi Alan, must be the quick quid day…I also had a call from the adjudicator. Same story, Quickquid passed the file with an offer for last two loans as they could see a pattern of dependency….offer was £1306 after they deducted £720 that is outstanding to them. Refused to consider first 9 loans as all over 6 years. I paid well over £5000 interest over a continuous period of just over 2 years so I told him I was refusing the offer and to pass to the jurisdiction team. I’m in no rush and as far as I can see if they admit dependency on the last 2 then the pattern was the same for the first 9 loans! Has anyone actually been successful with Quickquid via ombudsman for loans over 6 years?
Katie says
I had my complaint with Satsuma not upheld by my adjudicator today. Although I have a few lenders ( 6 of them pay after original complaint without the need for the FOS. I currently have 10 complaints with the FOS ( 3 have been allocated an adjudicator). I now worries that the rest will be rejected and am wondering now whether to accept the £3000 offered by Wonga ( £6500 interest ) and Lending Stream £750 ( £3500 interest ) as I don’t want these rejected. Any advice please. Also I will call my adjudicator tomorrow to clarify something as the expenses he has referenced from my bank statements don’t appear to take into account day to day living expenses such as food petrol childcare etc. He has based my living expenses on what I told Satsuma which was only a rough estimate as I was in desperate need for the loans. He has noted that I was spending £2300 a month in repayments each month to pay day lenders. Any advice on that too ? Thanks everyone
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should get back to your adjudicator with details of your expenses and ask him to reconsider. If he doesn’t, ask for the case to go to an Ombudsman.
Both the LS and Wonga offers sound poor, but the worst that is likely to happen is that the adjudicator will say you should accept them – you are not going to lose these offers by continuing.
Richard says
Received the following from moneybox 24/7 after simply requesting a statement of account. Loans taken out during a period of having close to 8 other loans in that period with other companies. Shall I proceed with a full complaint or go ombudsman?
———————————————————-
You have borrowed a total of £230.00 from us. You have repaid a total of £130.27.
This means that you have not even repaid the principal amount lent to you (ie minus any charges). If you ask a third party mediator to look into this, they are likely to ask you to repay what you have borrowed (the principal amount). In this case that would mean they would tell you to repay £99.73to us.
Where you hear comments about refunds, this often relates to payments of interest and charges over and above the principal amount we have advanced to your account. As you have not paid any, there is nothing to refund.
We are happy as a gesture of goodwill to resolve by accepting £99.73 as final settlement of your balance.
We are aware that there are many forums and templated letters available on the internet to exploit any previous credit commitments under the wholly subjective banner of affordability. To compare our actions with the reported behaviour of other lenders is inappropriate.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have from them? Do you think their figures – £230 borrowed, £130 repaid are correct?
Caz says
Sara – is there any kind of organisation people can make a donation to in lieu of or to help fund this service you are providing?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes – your local Citizens Advice! Each CAB is a separate charity, many of them really struggling with their funding being cut by the local council.
Caz says
I will happily donate £500 of my settlement to them and I also work in the legal sector (newly qualified) and I will offer my services – if they could be useful I’m unsure. Thank you again for what you are doing here it is invaluable x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Apart from your local CAB, also try local Law Centre if you are a solicitor, or the Bar Pro Bono unit. And ask your firm if they have a pro bono policy.
Caz says
I have had a settlement I never though I would purely because of the wonderful work Sara has done here FOR FREE. As such I will be donating £500 of my settlement to my local citizens advice bureau so that others can benefit from advice like Sara’s. It would be nice if everyone who has a result on here as a result of Sara’s amazing (and free!) advice could do the same – donate what you can afford be it £10 or £100 – without these people none of us would know what we are entitled to or how to go about getting it…..
Let’s stick together against these horrid companies and help others get their lives back xx
JS says
Here here!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I usually suggest £10… people’s priorities should be to clear their current debts and have a good size emergency fund so they never need to use high cost borrowing again!
Roch says
I would be more than happy to do this too Caz. X
Phillip says
Has speed e loans gone into administration? Just found old loans with them.
Kerry says
I have the same question I had about 7 with them but can’t seem to find were to complain to. That and tower capital.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tower Capital were closed by the then regulator in 2013.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, three years ago.
Sam says
Hi,
I’ve got complaints with Pounds to Pocket, Wonga and Lending Stream. Having contacted all 3 and received my statement of accounts, I’ve received my final response from Pounds to Pocket who flat out refused to accept my claim, and Wonga who came back with an offer on 5 out of 27 loans (all loans were within the last 6 years) of £1182 (the amount for all loans should be £3356 including fees and interest). I have referred both to the FOS and received a letter this week from them asking for bank statements and a copy of my credit file from the 2012-2014 period of which I’ve emailed bank statements. (How do I get my credit report from 2012-2014?)
Having spoken to them, they have received my complaint but today I got this from Wonga as I hadn’t responded to their full and final offer:
‘We responded to your complaint with an email which outlined our findings and included our final response. In this email we asked you to confirm if you accept our resolution of your complaint. We’re not aware of a reply from you and so we have now closed your complaint. If you still wish to discuss your complaint, we’ll be happy to help.’
I’ve emailed back to say that I have referred it to the FOS and emailed them a copy of it. FOS said on the phone that they’d emailed Wonga last Tuesday for details but hadn’t had a response. Does this mean that Wonga will retract the offer? Do you think that I should just be patient and let the FOS deal with contacting them from now on?
As for Lending Stream…that’s another story entirely! I had 2 loans with them, one went to CRS which I paid in full a year ago. Since contacting LS for my account information I’ve now been told that there’s a £100 outstanding balance which nobody has ever contacted me about. I was assured by both that I was paying the final figure and my account was closed! Checking on noddle it’s been showing in default for a year which explains why my credit rating isn’t improving. I’ve emailed them offering all of my paperwork / emails / bank evidence and asked them to close the account and get it removed from my credit file but do you think I should refer this on to the FOS too? I haven’t had a final response from LS yet…just hounded with customer satisfaction surveys via email since I spoke to them…
Any advice gratefully received.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t get an old credit record, just send a copy of your current one. That now won’t be showing any defaults or CCJs prior to May 2011. If you were borrowing in 2012 it is what happened in the couple of years before that is most important, so if you have any evidence of any CCJs or defaults in 2010/2011 that have dropped off, you could also send that but it’s not a problem if you haven’t.
Wonga – I doubt they will retract it but even if they do, this sounds like a very good case and the adjudicator will note that Wonga had offered that. I don’t think there is any point in you contacting Wonga, unless they come back to you with a larger offer.
Lending Stream – wait until the final response before sending it to the FOS. And enjoy filling in their customer surveys :)
bowj says
Hi can I ask when you put your complaint in to Pounds to Pockets ?? ( just to give me an idea of where mine is in the queue) Mine has been in since 7th April thanks
Christopher says
Hello, i am wondering if i can come out worse if reffering to the FO in terms of offer of compensation?
Many Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you mean worse than the lender has offered? That doesn’t seem to happen.
Is this Wonga? Have they sent you that list of loans? If you think you have been offered a fair amount, that’s fine, but without knowing how many loans you had, it’s hard to be sure.
Christopher Smilth says
Well it was their final offer, so I refferrd it on to the FO. I do think the offer is reasonable and don’t want to be seen as greedy that’s why I had second doubts about referring it. I just thought it would be best inorser to get all information.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you gone back to them and said their offer sounds as though it could be reasonable but you want the full list of loans so you can be sure?
Christopher says
I did not, however i have since contacted Wonga to send the full list of loans. If they get back in touch quicker than the FO/adjudicator… then i may indeed accept if it is in line with the offer.
Thanks
John says
HI All,
Well past the four week window now to pay up following the ombudsman’s final decision and still nothing from Lending Stream.
How do they get away with this? Any suggestions on how I get them to pay?
Thanks,
John
John says
The Ombudsman has written to Lending Stream today to ask them why they have not paid out. When the adjudicator wrote to Lending Stream in January giving them 14 days to respond to her initial findings they did not respond. Be interesting to see if they reply this time.
Thankfully the Ombudsman’s final decision is legally binding and enforceable in the courts. Hopefully it wont get that far.
Laura Hayman says
Hi everyone
Just a little update – you may or may not remember me and my offer of £17.10 refund from Qq!
My adjudicator recommended a refund of 4 of my loans to Qq which I agreed with and went to QQ for a refund. On their final day to reply they only wanted to refund 2 of the loans with little rhyme or reason why – going back to one reason in their original response to me that I was not dependent on the loans.
I have asked me adjudicator to go back to them and ask them to reconsider. I want to avoid the ombudsman if at all possible as my only current debts are £1250 on credit cards and I have worked out my credit rating and overall financials situation will be better if I clear this asap which I plan to do with any refund i get. I know I could get the full amount if I got to ombudsman but that could take 6months plus and I plan to be debt free on 6 months. Fingers crossed QQ will want to avoid the ombudsman too and will agree with my adjudicator.
My wonga complain put in at the same time has been a bit slower – adjudicator only received the file this week and is hoping to make her decision by the end of the week!
Slow and steady progress but progress none the less!
Andrew says
Hi all,
Yesterday was a good day, sunny paid out refund and cleared outstanding loans. Also received adjudicators assessment of Wonga, upheld 52 out of 61 loans which equates to somewhere around the 10k mark. I had an offer from wonga prior to the assessment of around a 2.5k which I declined. My question is has anyone ever had any experience of receiving an initial offer but declining and then the company agreeing to the adjudicators findings without going to the ombudsman?
Thanks Andy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, that is common. But that is a large payout, so Wonga may be inclined to take yours all the way :(
Tom says
Hello everyone, just a quick update for you and some relatively positive news for all those looking to start complaints:
PayDayUK – Complaint sent on 18/4/17
Received an offer of £750 yesterday although i calculated it should be a bit more and they didn’t include any interest in offer. So i have emailed back to ask if they can add the interest. If they don’t i may send this one over to FO.
WONGA – Complaint sent on 11/4/17
Received Final offer this morning of £4’200 which is not far off what i calculated. So i have accepted this.
Lending Stream/Sunny – Still awaiting reply (only 4 weeks in)
AvantCredit – Will Ombudsman
From what iv read on here most people have been waiting max time from both PayDayUK and Wonga so maybe they have taken on more staff to deal with complaints etc, as both made offers within 4 weeks!
Thank You Sara (Debt Camel) for all of your great work, and good luck everyone!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Speedy and good offers, sounds great!
Obviously it depends on how short the Payday Uk offer is. If it is close to the interest you paid, then a lot of people would feel that is fair and accept it, not send it to the FOS because no 8% interest was added. It’s quite a personal decision, what seems right to you. The FOS occasionally doesn’t add the 8% and often they don’t award a refund for the first few loans.
Chris says
Hi Tom,
sounds like good news, can i ask how you calculated the wonga interest? have you had a statement from them?
i recently put a complaint in but i have had to go by what my credit report says, so not sure how much interest would have been. I have had over £6000 worth of loans with Wonga
Thanks
Tom says
Hi Chris,
Wonga didnt send me statement of account, but i managed to get my last 6 years bank statments and went through them highlighting deposits and payments then subtracting the the total deposits from total payments… took a while but gave me piece of mind that i knew exactly what i had paid.
Regards,
Tom
Mathew says
Hey
I Made a complaint to Wonga on the 28th march and yesterday got my final response back from them. They have offered me £1,265.81 plus £342.03 interest added so £1607.84 total. I was wondering if anyone can give me any advise if i should send a complaint off to the ombudsman or accept this off them. They agreed to refund me on 7 out of 50 loans i have had from them since 2011 and paid a total of £4893.60 in interest in that time. I an account of £750 cleared when they did the redress thing to everyone a few years ago but that account was about 3-4 months in arrears at the time so i was kind of lucky then. The 7 loans they have agreed to refund me on are the 7 biggest ones all about £700-£800 but for more then a year before that i was getting new loans every month so why have they picked them 7 i don’t understand. If anyone can give me some advice it would greatly appreciated.
Michaella says
Hiya just wondered if anyone could help me, I put in a complaint with Wonga, I had a different loan out with Wonga every month from 2013 to 2015, I asked them to send me over a detailed email of all my loans and the interest I paid along with any missed payment fees, which they haven’t sent me that out but they have sent me a offer of £517, I’m not to sure where to go from here if I should accept the offer or not?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Reply saying that in order to consider their offer you need to see a Statement of your Account with them.
That sounds a pretty low offer for that much borrowing, so if they don’t send you the list of loans, send the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.
Hannah says
Hi
Some success since starting with my complaints initially asking for statement of accounts on 2/4/17 then proceeding with full complaints when I heard nothing back.
Mr Lender – 267 refund 5 loans spaced out over 4 years so based on this I accepted
Peachy – 118 refund removal of all entries on credit file one of my smallest claims so accepted as they wouldn’t budge and didn’t think worth it going further
Wonga – offer received yesterday 851 plus 8% interest 223 so 1075 in total on 6 out of 10 loans
My jar – offer received yesterday 1400 minus current balance of roughly 300 which they reduced balance from 727 so total of 1100 which I deemed to be a fair offer
Awaiting response from uncle buck, quid.co.uk, lending stream and need to put my complaint into quick quid after receiving my statement of account. Cash genie refused any further redress they did send me 170. Pounds when initially going through their redress program didn’t think worth arguing as was one of my smallest complaints.
Vicky says
Hi this is the email I received from mr lender I have paid around £1500 in interest but does this sound like a good offer as they will wipe my current loan
———————————————————.
All your loans held with Mr Lender where installment loans. meaning the 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.This would have included the circumstances of which you could incur any additional charges and at what cost, which you did not.
During your loan agreements with Mr Lender you did not make us aware of any financial difficulty and you were able to settle your loans on time without requiring any assistance. This indicated to Mr Lender you were not in any financial difficulty and gave us no cause for concern when re-lending to you.
We wish to resolve your complaint amicably, therefore as well as writing off your balance of £243.21 we would also like to offer to refund you the interest paid from your fourth and fifth loan totaling to £296.01 as a further gesture of goodwill.
We have a duty to report and provide all information of our customers to the credit reference agencies, reflecting the status and the method of payments accurately. Your first four loans were settled on time therefore should not impact your credit file negatively. We feel complete removal of the loans from your credit file is not a true reflection to others on your financial history. However as a further gesture of goodwill we would be willing to remove any adverse information from your credit file which may show from your fifth loan, meaning each loan will reflect the status of settled in full and should not effect you negatively.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans did you have with them and do you know what interest you paid on each loan?
the last loan, how much did you borrow? Have you made any payments?
Vicky says
I had 6 loans with them the interest was around £300 for each loan and the last loan I borrowed £400 and have made 3 payments I have 2 payments left to make
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you paid c £300 interest on the first 5 loans and defaulted on the 6th? what were the 3 payments you made to the 6th?
Vicky says
Yeah roughly around £300 each on each off the loans, off the 3 payments I’ve made I’ve paid £404.80 I’ve already emailed them and said I’ve paid the loan off without making the other payments but that’s what they came back with
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I’ve already emailed them and said I’ve paid the loan off without making the other payments” not sure what this means?
If you have paid 404 to the last loan that you borrowed 400 for, then the Ombudsman would say the interest should be removed and so the balance is cleared.
They are offering “the interest paid from your fourth and fifth loan totaling to £296.01” – but you think you paid that much interest on each loan?
Vicky says
The last time I emailed them I said To them I borrowed £400 but the 3 payments I’ve paid add up to £404.80 so the loan is already really paid off & yeah I’m sure the interest on each loan is roughly £300
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“The last time I emailed them I said To them I borrowed £400 but the 3 payments I’ve paid add up to £404.80 so the loan is already really paid off” – ah I see, yes, spot on.
[edited]
If you would be happy with c £600 refund you could go back to them and point out that you have paid £x in interest (get the amount exact) on those two loans not £296.
If you want the interest back on the third loan as well, say this. Mr Lender do sometimes listen to these arguments.
Vicky says
Installment
Number Date Total Amount
(Interest and Capital)
1 04/09/2015 £255.33 (Capital £83.33 + Interest £172.00)
2 02/10/2015 £176.66 (Capital £83.33 + Interest £93.33)
3 30/10/2015 £158.00 (Capital £83.33 + Interest £74.67)
4 27/11/2015 £139.33 (Capital £83.33 + Interest £56.00)
5 24/12/2015 £119.33 (Capital £83.33 + Interest £36.00)
6 21/01/2016 £102.02 (Capital £83.35 + Interest £18.67)
This is one of my loans shows the interest on there
dan says
Just received this from Wonga this afternoon;
Unfortunately, our investigation is taking longer than expected, and we can’t yet offer you a resolution to your complaint.
We appreciate your patience and apologise for any inconvenience that this delay may cause.
We do our best to resolve complaints in the order that we receive them. We are currently experiencing high volumes of complaints and so if we cannot respond within 8 weeks, we will contact you to explain the delay and outline when you can expect to receive a response. If you are unhappy with the progress of your complaint at that stage, you can refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Kind regards,
Customer Care.
Its been 4 weeks today, is it worth waiting til the 8 week mark or should I just get this sent to the FOS?
Steph says
The ombudsman won’t look at it until it reaches the 8 week mark. Wait until then, if no response by 8 weeks, send straight to ombudsman.
Wonga issued my response by about week 12, by which time it had been in the adjudicator queue for about 4 weeks.
Tom says
Hi Dan,
I had this email then received an offer less than a week later.
As stated above you cant forward to Ombudsman till week 8 anyway.
Tom
Dave says
HELP!!!!
An adjudicator has rejected my claim against QQ for 13 loans between 2011 and 2017. Interest charges totaled £11,000 and between 2011 and 2014 EVERY loan after the first started and ended on the SAME day for three years. I provided all of my personal bank statements, but I was unaware that an adjudicator had even been allocated to my case. The first I heard from her was the decision she made today. I do have statements from a joint account that have my outgoings such as mortgage, bills, food etc. I am really surprised that I wasn’t asked for these before as I did not have an opportunity to provide them. A decision was made without any conversation or communication.
“Please see attached to this email, my assessment of this case. You will see that I didn’t have enough information regarding your circumstances.
If you would like me to assess this case again. Please could you provide more information regarding your expenses at the time of sale.
For example, did you pay for the following and how much in 2011,2012,2013,2014,2015 and 2016. Please could you provide details as to where I can find this information on the statements, or please provide any other evidence such as bills statements or receipts.”
Please could some one help me with what the below comments form the adjudicator mean please? Do I have a case if I can provide my additional expenditure?
I think the checks the business did on loan 1 went far enough. I say this because
considering the loan amount against your income and the information that the business
held regarding your circumstances, I think that this was enough for them to approve the
loan.
However, I don’t think the checks on loans 2 to 5 went far enough. I say this because I can
see that by loan 2 your borrowing increased significantly. However I haven’t seen enough
to suggest that the business knew your income or expenses. By loan 6 I can see
information which shows that the business knew your income. By loan 8 there was
information regarding your expenses. However, the information the business holds isn’t
consistent and so based on the loan amounts and the frequency of borrowing. I think that it
is reasonable to have expected the business to have seen both your income and expenses
to ensure that you had enough disposable income to make the repayments.
By the 8 loan onwards it seems that you are probably using the loans as a form of long
term borrowing instead of short term borrowing, which the loans are intended for.
I therefore think it is reasonable for the business to have done a full review which includes
monthly income, expenses, information regarding other short-term lending. This
information could have been seen by reviewing your bank statements.
As a result, I checked some of the information that we have on file regarding your
circumstances. Based on the information that we have on file I can see that you did have
other financial commitments and did make payments to other lending companies. However
I don’t have enough information to suggest that the loans were unaffordable.
So based on the information available the loans are not upheld.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send the joint bank account statements with an accompanying note saying what expenses they contain (mortgage etc). It sounds as though the adjudicator isn’t impressed with what she has seen from QQ so if you can show the loans weren’t affordable your complaint is likely to be upheld from some point.
If you think this all looks complicated, other people have found it helps to pick a month at random in the middle – not the “best” or “worst” month and work through all your bank statements for that month showing the income, expenses debt repayments and borrowing. The aim being to show that without the borrowing again you could not have repaid the QQ debt and still paid all your other expenses.
Dave says
Thanks sara. It was my interpretation that she wasn’t impressed with QQ either. In your opinion, which bits do you think are in my favour?
Dave says
I’m really shocked that none of this was upheld at all as I thought it was a very good case and at the time all my money was going on outgoings and PDLs.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This isn’t her decision, she is asking you for more information! If you haven’t shown her half of your expenses, it’s not surprising she can’t tell if the loans are affordable or not.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Dave supplied the extra information and on the 23rd May his adjudicator ruled that all loans after the first were unaffordable :)
tracey says
Adjudicator has contacted me and taken all 4 of my complaints together. He said he now has everything he needs from both me and the companies. Any ideas on timescales for a decision? There’s only really 3 years of bank statements. And I went to the trouble of outlining on a spreadsheet for him each loan and how much was paid and when. I hope it helps him, he seems a nice guy.
Vicky says
Hi I have put a complaint in to lending stream I have asked them to put my current loan payment on hold until my complaint is dealt with (I have 4 loans with them) my payment is due today should I pay or should I email and say I won’t be making a payment today or should I pay a little off each loan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you paying this manually or is it coming out by CPA from your bank account – if the latter probably can’t stop todays…
If you can’t afford to make the payments without borrowing more from someone else, you should offer a reduced payment that you can afford.
Vicky says
3 of the loan payments have came out already by cpa and one of them is left to pay, I have already emailed them twice last week to set up a payment plan but haven’t had anything back apart from the confirmation email saying they will get back to me in 2 working days
Shellbell says
Hi guys.
My adjudicator has ruled all lending stream loans should be refunded. And this has been put forward to the business today. Has anyone had any experience of lending stream from this point? Do they usually refuse?
Thanks.
gillian says
hi sorry to keep asking but i supplied bank statements and a adjudicator as emailed me asking what 5 payments that state chequing on a statement dated Feb 2014 were for I asked at my bank and they say they were all direct debits all paid on the same day the day my wage was paid into my bank but they do not know who to and they never appear again on six year statements i believe since they were paid on my pay day they were payments to a payday lender the bank said it could be they changed the name of how they ask for payment ie now that continuous payment way I have emailed this to the adjudicator and put in a list of all the lenders I can remember using at that time do you think this will be ok as I can honestly say I can not recall all my payments
he also asked for proof how I paid my mortgage since I paid with payment book due to being in arrears I only have a statement for the period 2012 to 2013 due to the mortgage being paid off at the beginning of 2015 this shows payments and arrear chargers for the year so I have sent that should this be ok or will he refuse to look at my case due to the fact I have no proof for the full 6 years ty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you looked at the Jan 14 and March 14 bank statements to try to work out who the mystery DDs were to?
Your mortgage, don’t these payments show as coming out of your bank account?
gillian says
ty for your reply sara i paid my mortgage with a paying in book due to being in arrears and this was better than getting direct debit returns and getting charged each time and there is nothing as for the chequing i just looked at statements for that period i think looking at it it looks like it could have been mr lender because i have noticed it does appear for 6 months then after that mr lender appears it looks like instead of just taking one payment they took 5 or 6 lower amounts to total full monthly payments if this makes sense ty
gillian says
i just noticed for my next loan with mister lender they have taken 2 or 3 payments a month instead of just one payment yet i just had one loan with them at any time so i think this must be it i will ring adjudicater when he back next week to tell him
Anna says
I first submitted my Payday UK complaint in January 2016. This was for loans taken out between 2008 and 2012. The complaint has been on hold since August last year due to the six year issue. Today I received a letter from the FO upholding the complaint with a refund of all interest plus 8% for all loans. It was definitely worth waiting for as this will be a sizeable refund.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Great news – that was a long wait!
sally says
Well done Anna, great news indeed! I am in the exact same position , although no letter from the FO yet… I recently had contact from them requesting more bank statements. Unfortunately I have not been able to get hold of them from 2007 -2010. Did you give yours to the FO? I am hoping that this does not cause a problem with my claim. I have submitted payslips, credit info and an explanation. I really hope to hear from them soon. Your post has given me hope. I borrowed from WONGA and PDUK and paid back in the region of 12K between the two. If the FO uphold my complaint I hope to be refunded a good amount of that back! Hope your money comes through quickly for you.
Hannah says
Hi Sara
Do you think it is worth submitting a compliant to 247 money box on the basis I have only had 5 loans the last one remains outstanding each time the amount going up and sometimes borrowing the same day as the previous loan paid off. My my jar loan has now been wiped off and a refund received my current wageday advance loan I am still awaiting a response still. I have only had one loan with satsuma and that remains outstanding so I don’t think it’s worth putting one in for one loan would you agree? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely! Even if you only get the interest removed from the last one it’s worth it. And you may well get the interest reoved and the interest refunded on loans 3 & 4.
Also with the Satusma loan – again if they only remove the interest it’s worth it.
Hannah J says
Hi Hannah, did you follow the templates above with myjar, interested to know as I have 36 rolling loans with them going back 3 years!
Hannah says
Hi yes I followed the templates first asking for statement of account, which they were quick to send out then proceeded with the full complaint think got back to me roughly 2 weeks later with my offer and wiped my current loan. Good luck
Hannah says
Thanks Hannah. I’ve just had a response within 24hrs which totals 60 loans over 6 years with a shocking amount of over 4.5k interest all paid! Stage 2 here I come
Emma says
Hi all , I have submitted a complaint to wonga, I have had loans with them since June 2011 the last been 2015 in all I think there is 41 loans .
My only concern is they was never big loans ranging from £50 – £300 .
I have looked thought my bank statements and I would have a loan one day then the next day . I saw one period where I had 3 small loans in a matter of a couple of weeks , obviously paying one off with the loan to retake a bigger loan .
I have even seen where I have struggled to pay the loans back and have been put in payment plans . Then when the plan is finished been able to take out another loan.
Just wondering if they was small loans would it still be worth it .
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds worth it. The amount of interest you paid may not have been huge with the small loans, but they caused you grief at the time, so why not try to get some of it back?
Kevin says
Good result v check centre today , adjudicator says they must pay interest for all loans from 2012-2013 which is everything I borrowed, blaming poor checks via bank statements which the loans should not have been approved. They have until the 22nd to come back with more evidence if not could be up to 5000. I have already rejected a quick 1800 in the bank today offer, no chance as they rejected my claim outright at the beginning. Im just doing what everyone else is doing at the moment even though I could do with the cash. Stick with it everyone it’s your own money at the end of the day.
Liz says
Success for me with Cheque Centre as well. They had initially rejected my complaint and didn’t offer me anything.
Sent to FOS in February and they found in my favour for all loans from 2011-2013. They refused to look at earlier loans.
The Cheque Centre then refused the adjudicator’s findings and asked for clarification on some points.
Yesterday they came back to accept the adjudicators findings so I calculated interest paid at about £3300 and they have to add the statutory interest at 8% and remove from my credit file.
Delighted with this result. Hope they pay out quickly!?!
Maureen says
Well done! Think it’s quite difficult for cheque centre to argue their case as you had to provide bank statements every 3 months which would clearly show other borrowing. After they refused my claim in their final response, I actually pointed out to them that even if I had no other borrowing, with the outgoings declared, I could not pay back the principal and interest as it was more than I had left of my salary….they again refused to accept it! Mine is with the FOS and I reckon it’s around £5000 interest. I’m prepared for a long wait as mine go back to 2009.
Hannah J says
Does anyone know if you can claim from txtloan who were taken over by myjar? I can trace loans back 6 years (continuous rolling over) and then when taken over by myjar borrowing continued. It seems that txtloan was dissolved in March 2017 so would a claim against myjar for continuous and previous loans including txtloan ones apply?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, it’s just an old trading name of Myjar.
Paul Smith says
Do most cases have to be referred to the financial ombudsmen? Or do companies ever offer settlement after your first letter of complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of them are settled straight away. One that is settled with the lender results in perhaps one comment and a couple of brief references in other comments, but one that goes to the Ombudsman can result in 5 or 10 comments… so it may look as though most go to the FOS.
Roch says
Evening all,
Just had a response from Wonga which took only 4 weeks anyway they gave me a statement of my account showing a total of 25 loans over 2 years total £4811 they wrote off £200 from last loan of £400 as they said they should have never lent to me as I could not afford to repay or meet the criteria back in August 2014.
Dear Miss ……….
Thank you for your email regarding your account.
We have now sent you details of your loans with WDFC UK Ltd.
As a responsible lender, we must make sure every single application we receive is individually assessed. We look at your repayment history and a wide range of industry data. A decision is then made based on a combination of factors.
All applications we receive are assessed at the time of application.
If this is not the information you were looking for, please contact us on 0207 138 8330. We’re here to help from 7am to 10pm, every day.
Kind regards,
Customer Care
0207 138 8330
Wonga.com
I’m confused does this sound like their final response if so can I now send them to the FO?
Many thanks
Louise says
I’ve had the exact same email today. Would love some advice also.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am guessing you have just sent the Step One letter? This isn’t strictly a complaint, although many payday lenders treat it as one. Now you have the details of your borrowing, out in a proper Stage Two complaint.
Roch says
Evening all, just today I asked for a refund as the first email was for a statement of account and to complain about irresponsible lending. I will wait to see what they come back with.
I’ve just found 10+ emails from wonga which may help my case numerous unsuccessful attempts to take payment, wonga collections which shows that my account was in serious arrears and in a payment plan. I also came across this email
Dear Miss …….
We emailed you last month to let you know you were affected by the affordability issues resulting from changes to our lending criteria.
We are pleased to confirm that your balance has been reduced to remove all interest and fees on your loan.
You will also be due a refund if you have already paid back your loan in full or if the interest and fees we are returning are more than what you owe. Most refunds have already been made, but if you have not received yours yet it will be made by the end of November. Please check your bank account to ensure you receive it.
If you are in a repayment arrangement
Your agreement will continue, with your balance reduced by the removal of interest and fees. In our previous email we explained that the adjustment would be made to your final payments. However, the deduction will be made from your next payment or payments to reduce the total amount you pay us. If you wish to change your existing repayment arrangement, please call us on the numbers below.
If you have not repaid your loan and are not in a repayment arrangement
We can set up a repayment arrangement over at least 4 months to make paying off the outstanding loan easier. Call us on the numbers below.
Credit Reference Agencies
We are working with credit reference agencies to remove records relating to your loan from your credit profile. We are nearing completion on this and we will email you again to confirm when this has been done.
If you would like to speak to someone from our customer care team, please call us free on 0800 042 0210 or if you are calling from a mobile on 0333 003 0830.
Best wishes,
Customer Care Team
wonga.com
If you are in a position of Bankruptcy, you have entered into an Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) or your debt is being managed through a Debt Management Company, please note it is your responsibility to inform the person managing your debt of these changes.
All they did is reduce my last loan and did not remove anything from my file as all 25 loans are still on noddle with all the arrears etc…
Neil says
Can anyone let me know how long it takes for lending stream and payday uk to process your refund after you have accepted their offers and sent back confirmation to your adjudicator?
Many thanks in advance.
simon says
it took me 4 weeks for my lending stream. 4 days for paydayuk
LJF says
I’ve submitted complaint off to Sunny, Money shop and Wonga over the last couple of weeks. Does anyone know how quickly they are likely to comeback also, my money shop loans were done in store does this matter? I’ve added onto my complaint about CPA because it caused me so many issues at the time with unplanned overdraft fees. Am I likely to have any success with Sunny as I had 6 loans with them in 2015 however my credit history would have clearly shown i had oustanding defaults with other payday lenders. Paid three loans back then they let me take three at one time.
martin says
anyone know if wage day advance are quick to pay out after judgement from ombudsman mine settled last tueday
Maureen says
I settled with them directly and they paid out within a few days
Emma says
I settled directly with them too and the money was in my bank the same day. I’ve found them the easiest the deal with.
Emma
Matt says
Hi Emma & Maureen
How long did WDA take to email you with an outcome following your complaint please?
Thanks
Matt
Maureen says
Hi Matt, it was only around 5 weeks from date of complaint….pretty quick compared to others!
Hannah says
Hi Matt
I am waiting for a response from WDA I put original email asking for statement of account on 26th April they acknowledged complaint with an automated response then on 8th May I still hadn’t received my statement of account so sent my full complaint then I got an email on 10th May with my statement of account so I am awaiting their response. I have an outstanding loan with them and tried to log onto my account but I can’t even log on so not sure what they are doing. Keep me updated with your progress.
Ross says
WDA freeze any accounts that they have complaints about for the duration of the complaint. You won’t be able to log in to your account, but you can call them if you require any information you may need if you can’t log in. As soon as my complaint was rejected, they unfroze the account and it showed the same amount owing, even though no payments had been made for 3 months. They don’t add any late payment or interest while the account is frozen. Thankfully, the FOS upheld my complaint and my last loan was cleared, with the amount the FOS asked them to pay, with a moderate refund on top. They accepted my adjudicators findings without the need for it to go to an ombudsman. Hope this helps?
JS says
How long from complaint to payout with WDA, does anybody know?
Thanks
Laura says
im looking to find this out too , I accepted ombudsman decision on the 15th May , but have a wedding 26th may so hoping it gets paid before then!
Keith says
WDA paid out on the same day as adj decision for me.
Steph says
Hi I am currently waiting to be allocated an adjudicator with Wonga complaint. I have received a final response from Wonga a few weeks ago but they are refusing to send me a statement of my accounts with them because I currently have an amount outstanding with them. From my bank statements i think i paid atleast £1000 more in interest than what they have offered. I’ve been looking through my bank statements for the time and am a bit worried because during the time, I was living with my sister and I was transferring money to her for bills etc rather than them all coming out of my account, she was only working part-time at the time so she paid towards the rent which came out of her account but i paid for everything else. So because not all of the bills came directly from my account i’m worried they may not rule in my favour. I’m thinking of going through each statement and writing explanations regarding this, do you think that could help? and if the adjudicator does not rule in my favour can I still accept Wonga’s original offer? I’m just worried that if I wait and adjudicator does not decide in my favour then they wont give me anything?
Paul Smith says
Evening all,
After finding your incredible site, I yesterday submitted formal letters of complaint to the following companies……..
Payday uk
Payday Express (through the same compliant as payday uk as owned by the same company)
Wage day advance
Quickquid
Pounds to pocket
Wonga
Lending stream
Mr. Lender
1st stop loans (these were particularly hard to deal with at the time)
Myjar/txtloan
Genuinely hoping I can at the very least get everything removed from my credit report and put the worst two/three years of my life to bed once and for all.
My only regret is that minicredit have ceased trading because I would have loved to have given those cowboys some of the grief back that they gave me.
Any support you can all give me through this process will be very much appreciated.
Kerry says
Best of luck. it was a horrible situation to be in stuck in the payday loan spiral but going on this site I realised I certainly wasn’t alone and have done really well so far and awaiting a few more with the ombudsman.
Steph says
Good luck Paul! This really is a great site and offers a huge amount of support to people like us who have been stuck in a debt spiral for quite some time.
Hope you get some great results.
Keiron says
Hello everybody,
I am wondering if an interest refund is available on high interest personal loans?
I have a couple of loans, one from Avant Credit and one for OnStride Financial.
Has anyone had any luck with these two? I have sent my first email to Wonga and QQ yesterday for loans that were over about a 3 year period and between alot of them I have had to set up payment plans to repay so I hope I will have a good case there.
Look forward to hearing from you all.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The affordability rules are the same for all types of credit. It’s usually easier to win payday loan cases not because of the high interest specifically but because of the repeat nature of the borrowing. To win a case you have to show the loan was unaffordable AND the lender should have known this. With payday loans by the time it gets to the third or fourth month, the lender should have been asking you more questions about why you were still borrowing. With a single loan that isn’t relevant.
It’s worth complaining about a single loan if the monthly repayments were obviously very large for your income or your recent credit record was dreadful (not just some missed payments and defaults or having payday loans showing) or if there was another reason the lender should have realised you couldn’t afford it.
Stefan says
Hi Sara,
Do I have any chance if I complain for irresponsible lending WDA or 24/7Moneybox with only 3 loans each? But in that time I had more than 10 payday loans in the same time from other companies. Or the best is to make them an offer for a F&F settlement figure with the money that I borrowed from them? What is the best idea?
Thanks
Stefan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Worth complaining – even if they just remove the interest from the last loan, that’s still an improvement.
Emma says
Hi just a quick question, what are satsuma loans like for complaining too. HAs anyone dealt with them?
Lisa says
I complained to satsuma and they were ok with me, just before the 8 weeks were up I received a letter with a cheque , they wiped my outstanding balance and removed.from.my credit file… I was quite impressed …
Emma says
Thanks for the reply I’ve had 6 loans with them from august 15 to now , I just wondered if it was worth it or not , and what there response is. I’m still paying 2 now . Might give it a shot as when I took out my first loan with them I was paying out to wonga and peachy.
Lisa says
Go far it…. you have nothing to lose… when I complained I had a balance of about 600 , the loan was unaffordable to me… and they settled with me… fingers crossed for you
Katie says
Hi Emma. I had 5 loans with Satsuma. In fact two are still current. I wrote to them in February. I received a reply quite quickly I think after about 2 weeks but they rejected my claim. I send to the FOS and my adjudicator has not upheld my complaint ?. But I currently have another 10 complaints in with adjudicators at the moment and I received offers back from another 6 lenders without having to forward to the FOS. It was one of my smaller loans so I’m going to let that one go. My advice is to put in a complaint, you never know. Good luck.
Steph says
They did the same with me. Wiped my balance and sent me a cheque. Theor final response was quite confusing though. It detailed 5 different loan references, but I thought I only had 2 with them. So I need to properly study and ensure they’ve reviewed all of them.
Lewis says
Hi I realise this has probably been asked before however;
The Ombudsman has asked for my bank statements, however these will show lots of gambling during the period of my loans.
Thankfully this has stopped now.
I’m guessing this will be detrimental to my case? :(
Lewis
Roch says
I was thinking the same thing Lewis as my statements also show this but having read the previous comments it can sometimes work in your favour.
Lewis says
I’m ashamed to admit it but I had hundreds a week. I feel it’s totally pointless to carry on my complaint and send him the bank statements.
Roch says
Give it a go you have nothing to lose, I am in the same boat and I’ve sent many lenders to the FO.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not pointless at all – almost all the people with big gambling problems haven’t had any problems at all with the FOS.
If you only had a few loans from a lender, it makes your case harder, but regular borrowing it just isn’t a problem for.
Lewis says
I had 7 loans with MyJar over a 18 month period, should I carry on with the complaint?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It depends on the details… if they were all 1 month loans and none of them were rolled and there was usually a month or two gap between each loan and the amounts didn’t increase, this could be a difficult case.
But if some of the loans were instalment loans or rolled, then you would have had open borrowing for more than 7 months out of 18 so a much better case to show you were dependent and the lender should have known.
And you may have found they were closer together at the end and got larger. So borrowed 100, repaid, gap of 3 months, repeated three times then borrowed 200, 259, 350, 500 over the last 6 months then that is an excellent case for a refund for the last 4 loans.
Danielle says
Hi, my complaint went to the ombudsman. I rejected quickquids first offer of paying back interest on 8 out of 10 loans, only. The ombudsmans desision was to pay back all of the interest on all 10 loans plus 8 percent, and remove all the loans from my credit file. Quickquid have now sent a second offer after i rejected the first one, which equals the ombudsmans decision… firstly should i accept their offer, as it does infact equal the ombudsmans decision. Secondly why would they make a second offer, basically agreeing with the ombudsman? If i reject it i assume the offer cant really get any better, can it? My balance with QQ was at one point £2200, from a final loan of £1600, the balance now stands at £524 assuming i accept QQ’s second offer.
dan says
Hello guys,
Anyone had any dealings with “MyKredit”? was allowed to take consecutive loans out with this company despite being heavily in arrears with other payday loans and considering whether it is worth lodging a complaint in with these, never seen them mentioned on this site so was just looking for opinions/advice.
Cheers!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The rules are the same for all lenders – put in a complaint!
Nigel says
So another Ombudsman decision today, this one against Monkey dosh that has been upheld on more loans than the original adjudicator decision.
George says
Were you waiting long on an Ombudsman decision? I’m in a similar situation and hoping for a few more loans to be added by the Ombudsman.
Nigel says
Hi George, if you actually mean a decision against Monkey Dosh then no. It was 10 days from when it was picked up by an Ombudsman to me getting this decision. However it has taken 5 months to be picked up from Adjudicator decision to sit in a que for Ombudsman to look at and issue a decision. It does look like 4-5 months seems to be the std wait. I had 5 picked up at the same time. 4 have now had a final decision.
Eric Chappell says
Hi I was in an IVA when my loans were taken out. Hence I had no disposable income and loans rolled over and over for years. A couple of questions.
1) I am not longer in an IVA (completed over 20 months ago), however, is it worth trying to reclaim or would any monies go back into the closed IVA
2) From an initial enquiry, quickquid said they have reviewed my case and the loans were not unaffordable (depsite rolling over in increasing value for 24 26 months).
Any advice?
Thanks, Eric
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think any refund could be claimed by your IVA firm, this is not the same as PPI as it was not an existing asset at the start of your IVA.
It is possible you broke the terms of your IVA by taking these loans out, but as you repaid them and the IVA has completed it isn’t clear to me that this is relevant now. QQ check credit records so they would have known this when you applied.
If QQ have given you a final response, you can now send it to the FOS.
debbie says
Could someone please advise me on the following.
I was wondering if I could put in a claim for a FLM loan or as they have re-branded is it not possible
I had a loan with FLM taken in Aug 2011 for £500. In Nov 2011 I took another loan for £1935 with amigo. At this time I was borrowing constantly and had 11 loans with other payday lenders from the March to November, in addition I had a vanquis credit card that was up to the limit of £3k and an overdraft in excess of £400 plus a very account.
Thanks for any responses
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest complaining to Amigo about the FLM loan and the Amigo loan as a single complaint.
debbie says
Hi Sara,
I’m afraid the story doesn’t stop here. In April 2013 I took a top up with amigo which brought my loan to £5000. They cleared what I still owed on the existing loan which was £1342 leaving me with £3658. I told them I was paying off other loans but this balance could not have begun to clear what I owed. I had by then taken several more payday loans, my vanquis account alone was over £3500 and my very account had gone into a payment arrangement of £10 per month. I’m worried that they will cancel my current arrangement (I pay £60 pr month) and take me to court or try to get a charge over the house. I don’t own the house my husband does but he’s my guarantor and the reason I went into a payment arrangement was because he lost his job.
I really don’t know what to do, they refuse to stop interest being added to the account and when I sent them an I & E insisted I pay them more than I do to my husbands Barclay card debt which is actually more . When I went into the arrangement I owed £3836 now I owe £5315.
Any advice would be appreciated
thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you and your husband need some help, with this Amigo loan and the rest of your situation. I suggest grouping to your local Citizens Advice.
oo says
Hi Debbie
I am kind of in the same boat had a loan with FLM in 06 and then had a loan with Amigo in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 all top ups while I have a max on my vanquish £1000 and a CCJ (from 2017) plus other debts but no payday loans.
Put in a complaint of irresponsible lending beginning of May. Haven’t yet heard back.
Would be great if you keep us updated if that’s ok.
OO
OO
debbie says
I put my complaint in to Amigo in Feb and have received a reply back in April to say they haven’t done anything wrong. I was worried about passing to the FO as they have threatened court action, attachment of earnings and other things but think I’m going to bite the bullet and it off. I am in a payment arrangement and am maintaining this so if they do try for any court action this hopefully will go in my favour. Will keep you posted.
Hannah says
Hi Sara
I submitted request to quick quid on 2nd April asking for my statement of account. They sent it through on 6th April and acknowledged my complaint even though I hadn’t submitted my full compliant. I had trouble opening the document and eventually got on today it I worked out I borrowed roughly 3300 and paid 2127 interest from what I can gather, I have still yet to submit my full complaint as I wanted to go through it properly and have been sending others out too. Today I have received a final response based on my email asking for statement of account and stating grounds of irresponsible lending. What do I do now because I didn’t actually get to submit my full complaint. Do I refer straight to FOS. I don’t have access to bank statements etc. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is a lot of interest. QQ almost never make a reasonable offer so it’s not worth taking more time to go back to them with a detailed complaint, they have sent you a final resolution so you can go straight to the FOS.
So use the loan details you now have to summarise your complaint. More details here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refund-complaint-detail/
Matt says
Hi Sara and DC
Just looking for some advice the adjudicator in my case against sunny has agreed that my two loans were unaffordable and has ask sunny to remove the interest . However it still leaves a balance of £2500 minus £167 paid . The adjudicator has said that sunny will put a plan in place to pay of the rest. However I am currently out of work after leaving due to health issues and stress . Is it worth putting this back to adjudicator to ask sunny to write off some of the loan any advice would be appreciated. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, that is very unlikely to work.
How are your other payday loan complaints going? How large are your outstanding debts? Are you buying or renting?
Matt says
Hi Sara
Thanks for getting back to me , yeah didn’t think that would work, just annoyed as my adjudicator told sunny that they should have not given me the second and third loan , as they were unaffordable,is there anything I can go back with that might help me remove some of the balance ?
just moved back in with parents as can’t afford the rent .
I have been turned down by the adjudicator for my other payday loans from satsuma, pduk , My Jar , wageday advance . All because I only had 2 or 3 loans. , disappointed but got given the reasons they declined my complaint and found it hard to put another case across.
My main case with the money shop is on hold as the cheques are over six years so waiting to hear back.
Carley says
Hi,
I’ve had several loans over the years with qq payday uk and wonga, all of which defaulted and went to debt collectors. Wonga did write one of them off and I’m currently dealing with the other 2, is it worth me even trying to get any refunds?There were quite a few loans. I had them rolled every month for about 3-4 years.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They sound like good complaints!
Jmaine says
Hi all im currently in the process of complaing to 11 payday loan companies. So far payday uk and payday express have dismissed my complaints and have been referred to the Financial ombudsman. I had three loans in quick succession with lending stream who have offered to wipe out my outstanfing balances (however it amounts to less then the interest paid) so i have emailed back with a counter offer to included a refund of interest on the 3rd loan. Hopefully i get somewhere. Thsnks for all the posts they have been really helpful
Paul Smith says
I have received a first reply to my complaint with Myjar. They are denying any wrongdoing and claim that as I was able to repay my first three loans on time and also met their credit criteria at the time they have done nothing wrong.
Is this quite a standard reply from them?
I referred it straight away to the FOS.
Roch says
Yep exactly the same reply I got Paul and yes I sent straight to FO after they sent their final Response email. Send it to the FO and see what they think Good luck!
Hannah says
I’d be interested to hear how you get on Paul. Did you just take the 3 loans in total? Or did rollovers/new loans continue after that? I submitted a complaint yesterday for a total of 70 loans over 5 years to myjar! The first 4 loans were late being paid and a further 22 loans throughout the whole period were also late with added fees and interest
Nigel says
So for the third time in a week I have a final decision back from an Ombudsman upholding my complaint for more loans than the adjudicator did. This time it is against Credio. So it just goes to show that Ombudsman certainly do look through loans and re-asses and for the thrd time in a week It has been in my favour.
On a side note Sara, I noted you don’t have the Credio (Cashbridge) email address for complaints in your list. info@credio.co.uk seems to be the only way of contacting them. So not sure if you want to add them to your contact page.
I am now coming to an end with the complaints. I have the Pounds till payday going on as a separate issue in Malta. I have one last big battle with Moneybox 247 and the 6+3 ruling just on 6 years the interest is £4600 I have won the battle to get another 2 years looked at from 2008. I don’t know the interest i paid from then, so its an add on to the aforementioned amount. Its being looked at by an adjudicator now, but i am 100% sure this will be ignored by 247 and it will go on for a final decision from an ombudsman so may be another 5-6 months. Plus I have started the battle with Littlewoods and have an adjudicator looking at this for me currently.
I stated this in May last year. I currently have had over £35,000 back in refunds. The first batch were all from me complaining, although I should have gone to the FOS in hindsight and The figure above would have probably been around £50,000, much better results once I went to the FOS.
30 plus companies I have used. Only one company I did not complain to and that was Whizzcash for one loan and was the very last company I ever used in March last year.
Keep the battle going.
Steph says
Hi Nigel, great success story.
Hope you don’t mind me asking… what’s your complaint to Littlewoods regarding? I have one currently with Very (Shop direct so same as Littlewoods).
Thanks
Nigel says
Hi Steph.
Littlewoods over the years increased my Credit limit to at one point a ridiculous amount of £9000. My argument/complaint was that once I had used all this credit and I was in debt up to my eyeballs with 20 plus Payday loans a month as well as you can see by my original post, there was no was I could afford minimum payments of £600 a month! It was impossible. I would not have been able to afford it with out the payday loans! At no point did they stop me spending this credit, even though alarm bells should have been ringing when I was buying a mobile phone every month to sell for survival! It was irresponsible of me but they should have credit checked me, they did not, they should have asked what my earnings were, they did not. In fact these companies just let you spend and spend as long as you make the payments back on time, they will just increase your limit. It bears no relation to your earnings or your credit state. They did not accept my complaint and did not uphold it. So I have go to the FOS with it. I am sort of hopeful on this, its a hard battle to win, but affordability rules apply in every case. I have a great adjudicator who I have worked with for a year now and he has been a real asset and knows my situation inside and out. So fingers crossed. I did settle the owed balance but it took a big chunk of my £13,000 QQ refund to do it. I want that back and that is the basis of my claim.
Steph says
Hi Nigel,
Thanks for your reply. I’ve had exactly the same experience with Shop Direct (via Very). My credit limit is now £7,200 (originally started at £300). Numerous times throughout my credit agreement with them, I’ve been over my limit. Also purchasing iPods, iPhones, anything I could sell for a decent amount of money to support PDL debts.
Fingers crossed for you. Let me know how you get on.