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?
Matt S says
Hi all,
Just looking for opinion on my complaint regarding my overdraft with Nationwide. Quick rundown, was in a bad place with gambling and multiple debts (was in debt management) when they approved me and then allowed me to increase up to £4000 in less than 2 months.
Currently with adjudicator who has asked them for more detailed information. My worry is that they used Experian to credit check me at the time. My noddle report shows around 3-4 defaults around 9 months prior to being accepted for the overdraft, aswell as notices of being in debt management. However Experian shows no defaults, but does show 2 notices of being in debt management 9 months prior to the overdraft.
Do you think the fact they used Experian and the defaults aren’t listed on there will work against me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it’s hard to justify increasing your credit limit when your credit record shows you recently entered debt management, isn’t it? Sorry, there haven’t been enough of these cases for it to be possible to say how the FOS will view it though.
C says
Hi matt i have a complaint in against nationwide for my overdraft. The aujudicator declined so now in the ombudsman queue. Like you my account was full of gambling, they even allowed me a credit card for 12,000 and a 5000 loan all without doing proper checks. Why dont you send in your noodle report to show the defaults?
Matt S says
Sara,
At the time I had been with Nationwide for 10 years and they had always denied me any form of credit (loans/ overdrafts / credit cards) until they accepted me for the overdraft when I was probably in the worst position with regards to credit score and finances that I had ever been.
C
The Noddle report was sent with the original complaint, so the adjudicator does have this. Just wondered if it would make a difference that Nationwide used Experian for credit checks and the defaults were not on this.
To be honest Nationwides response to my complaint was that I met their criteria and that my credit report showed no adverse information, when clearly notices of being in debt management must be classed as adverse information.
Will just have to see what the adjucators decision is, they have given Nationwide until 15th June to provide more detailed information.
chris nichol says
hi ive just gone through the claims process with WDA for 20+ loans these were taken out every month from 2010 to 2012 they are looking into my compliant, but are asking me now why i only made the claim now and why i only found out i could make the claim on the 12/03/2017 this is the date i read about thses sort of claims should i just say this to them ?? thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, just tell them how and when you found out – whether someone sent you a link, you saw it on Facebook or whatever. There are no “wrong answer” here, it’s just saying what happened.
Louise says
Hi Sara and all. I was just looking for a bit of advice. I had loans with wonga and my jar from 2013-2014. I’ve complained about irresponsible lending and am awaiting replies. However after going through my bank accounts hardly any of my outgoings are on there. For example my broadband bill is showing as coming out of my Account but that is it really. All other expenses like groceries and phone top ups were paid in cash so on paper it looks like I have no outgoings so therefore could afford these loans.
I’m worried that if I have to refer my complaints to the ombudsman the adjudicator will say I could afford them because of so little outgoings. I also had a bad gambling problem back then and a lot of these transactions are on my statements as well as cash paid into my account which I loaned from family. Will this all look bad or will the ombudsman realise that not all of my expenses came out as direct debits
Sorry this is a bit long but I just wanted an opinion. I don’t want to accept a small offer or get nothing because of this
tracey says
I’ve had 4 complaints go to adjudicator who has so far completely rejected two of them for this reason…. Although I had more than broadband. I had several payday loans, phone bill, broadband and credit card. I agreed my point that my account clearly states I have a £2000 overdraft which was going into an unplanned every month alongside numerous debits bouncing. It’s also linked to a £1500 credit card. I offered to send all bank statements from cc but couldn’t get bank statements from a joint account I had closed. The adjudicator has been useless tbh. He refused to help getting those other bank statements, he refused to accept that they were unaffordable, he refused to take receipts for cash rent and yet told me they didn’t do enough checks…. I wasn’t getting anywhere with him and he wouldn’t speak to me over the phone. So I asked him just to raise it to ombudsman. I know it’s not really what you want to hear. But I thought I’d share my experience. I’m not at the end yet, so it’s hard to say, I kind of feel it’s always at least worth trying….
Steffan Findlay says
Hi all,
Thanks for all the posts and comments above – they’ve really helped me get into gear and start to claim back on my payday loans having been through (and still am to some extent) a rough patch with them!
I went through a spell of using payday lenders but quickly began to spiral out of control and began relying on credit cards, overdrafts, and further payday loans. I didn’t chain them as such (sometimes I did) but I would mostly rely on these to live by and would often have several at the one time which most of my wages would be spent on the repayments each month. I got to the point where I had pretty much maxed most things out and had payday loans from Sunny, P2P, and Satsuma all at the one time that literally took every penny of my wages (enough was enough!!). I managed to get help from family and opened up to my girlfriend about everything and she offered to consolidate them all for me by taking out a traditional low interest bank loan allowing me to drastically reduce my repayments and pay off my horrible debt. I’ll of course now be writing to the 3 companies above about my debt, but I’m wondering what happens with regards to the loan my girlfriend has taken out and the effects these payday loans had on my credit cards and overdrafts in terms of interest I’m now still paying? Obviously it was my own fault for getting into this mess but I’m still now paying a consolidated loan as a result of these payday loans, is there a way to try and claim for this too as I would never have needed this loan if I didn’t get into the spiral in the first place.
Thanks for any replies and keep up the excellent work guys!
Steffan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I got to the point where I had pretty much maxed most things out and had payday loans from Sunny, P2P, and Satsuma all at the one time that literally took every penny of my wages (enough was enough!!)” sound like good claims – get going with them!
“I’m wondering what happens with regards to the loan my girlfriend has taken out” well if you get some money back you could give it to her to help with the loan costs.
“the effects these payday loans had on my credit cards and overdrafts in terms of interest I’m now still paying” that is the reason that 8% interest is added to any refund you get from the Ombudsman, because you may have incurred some borrowing costs.
The chances of you walking away after the complaints with a nice credit record and not having lost anything financially are small. But these complaints offer a way of getting some redress, so go for it and don’t worry about what you may get back may not be enough to cover all the damage you incurred. It’s a lot better than nothing!
Steffan Findlay says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for such a quick reply! You are 100% correct, any redress I get is being used to get rid of my current, but stable, debts I am paying back to my girlfriend every month.
I have used 118 money a couple of times to help repay my payday loans – does 118 count as a payday lender? Should I be contacting them similar to above or at least getting the information about how their loans paid off my payday ones ready incase required?
Thanks again for this!
Terry says
When trying to prove that the payday loans I took out over the last 6 years or so were clearly unaffordable and irresponsible lending on their behalf, if expected I get rejection replies or low settlement figures I would then go to the Financial Ombudsmen and present them my case. My question is that I used a lot of payday loans and different lenders at the same time to fund a gambling habit, this will presumably show up on bank statements, which I think the Ombudsmen will want to look at. How will this be viewed?
Even without gambling I’m pretty sure I should never have been accepted for all these loans at the same time anyway. I used to get £1000 limit with Wonga and QQ, £700 with Mr Lender and around £500 with WDA, and these were at the same time whilst being on a monthly wage of £1500. I just don’t want to go to the bother of starting a claim if they say its my fault because I was sometimes using money to gamble with. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Terry says
Sorry just add to my previous comment. Most of these loans were taken out as far back as 6 years ago and I stopped borrowing from payday lenders until the last few months. I have now again got loans out with Wonga, WDA, Mr Lender, My Jar, and Lending Stream. I cant afford to pay them back at the minute and I have a £20 a month payment plan in place with each of them. Can I start this process whilst currently owing them money? It is Wonga who I have the best chance to get money back from as checking back my credit file and emails I have taken about 100 different loans with them over the years and as I said earlier a good chunk of them was with the maximum loan of £1000 at the time, I would then normally pay them back about £1350 from memory. I used to rollover my loans with them or take out other payday loans to pay them back, when I paid back the loan I would just log in to see if my account was updated and I was then able to apply for another loan and the vicious cycle would start again.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can claim when you are in debt management, no problems with that. The Wonga claim is clearly excellent, get that going first then go to the next lender you borrowed from a lot – you don’t have to do them all at once.
People often win cases with a lot of gambling showing – the Ombudsman doesn’t say you shouldn’t have wasted your money like that. Go back through the comments until you get to 30 May – David posted then that he had just got over £19,000 from QuickQuid, he had had a gambling problem.
BUT have you stopped gambling? If not you need to do this first, or getting large refund will just fuel a happy month for the bookies… see https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling/ and get help if you need it.
Terry says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your response:-)
I am working backshift today but I will get the claim started tonight! Any tips on how I should claim using the template letter that hasn’t already been discussed on this page? I haven’t had a look at the letter yet but is it easy enough to fill out?
How have Wonga been generally in handling customer refunds? Does it normally end up going to the financial ombudsmen? What is usually the timeframe from me sending in my letter to them responding, and potentially giving a settlement figure, im assuming this can vary from customer to customer but just an average timeframe if you know would be helpful?
Also in response to your other comment, I have pretty much stopped gambling altogether these days however a couple of months ago I was in a bookies and used my card for the transaction which would show in any statements. But you have said they won’t necessarily look at that in a bad way anyway so that is good to know.
Sorry for all the questions, I look forward to your response!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have a look at the letter and come back with any questions!
Wonga are erratic – sometimes people get a good offer, sometimes a rather random one on just a few loans and sometimes no offer at all even if there is a good case. You are unlikely to get an offer in much under 8 weeks.
Samantha says
Hello,
Has anyone had any luck with SUNNY? I have had a total of 25 loans, from mid 2015 till present, totalling about a grand every month.Inbetween that time i paid them all off, asking for my account to be closed (they couldnt aparently) got in trouble then borrowed all over again. I have sent all this in an email to them. Just wondering if you think i have a chance or if anyones had any luck.
Thanks
NM says
Yes and for historic 1 month loans was well they didn’t accept wrong doing but as a goodwill gesture upheld one loan partially and and refunded all of the interest I had paid across the loans plus 8% and wrote of the outstanding balance as well.
Claire C says
Is anyone able to help please? I’ve had a response from the single lender I used to my stage 2 letter. As I read it … they are asking for ALL bank statements over a 5 year period? I had 70 odd loans over 60 odd months. Pretty much every month for nearly 5 years. Some months there were 2 or 3 loans. Am i reading it right that they are asking for every single bank statement during this period. Is this normal practice?? Also I have 2 bank accounts, so would I need to send both?? Their response is below:
Dear ………..
As you have claimed irresponsible lending and/or financial difficulties we require further information from you in order to resolve your complaint in a fair and timely manner. We would like to request copies of your bank statements from the period your loans were taken out.
The following information must be clearly visible on the bank statement:
– Bank name and logo
– Account holder’s name
– Account number and sort code
– A full list of transactions including your income and a running balance
– Photos or scans of the pages must show the entire page, including the edges, please do not crop the document
If you use online banking, you should be able to download the statement as a.XPS or .PDF file. Your bank should be able to help if you are unsure of how to download the information.
If you has a printed bank statement, you may scan or photograph it. Please ensure that you use a high-quality photo setting on your camera / phone.
Please send the files as attachments in a reply to this email. Acceptable file formats are .PDF, .JPG, PNG or .XPS.
We understand that it may take you some time to obtain the documentation but we would like to resolve your complaint within 4 weeks from the date we received it and definitely within 8 weeks which is the regulatory time frame.
We can assure you, that the information you provide will only be used to process your complaint.
If we have not had a response from you by the end of 5 business days we will complete our investigation with the documentation we have in our system
Thank you in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good heavens – which lender is this?
many people do not want to give their person bank statements to a payday lender. If you don’t want to do this, I suggest you reply saying that you want them to consider your complaint on the basis of what they already know, and in particular the large number of loans you had from them. Add that you will send your bank statements to the Ombudsman if they are requested at that stage.
Claire C says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for your reply. Its MyJar. I am totally daunted by the prospect of having to provide in excess of 120 bank statements! It really was pretty much every month for 60 months – and I’d have to send for both my current and other account as money was paid in to one and then repayments out of the other for the most part.
Is it acceptable to say i’d rather not provide on that basis, and as you say to base it on the information they already had? Sending that many statements is totally going to confuse the matter but i’m also worried that not sending them will affect the outcome?
Thanks so much for your help.
Chris says
So I have had some replays from some lenders and not very positive
Wonga: have turned down my claim. I sent it to the FO last week but haven’t heard anything
Loans at Home: turned down my claim. I am due to send this to FO any day now
Lending Stream: they are willing to cancel the interest on the 4 loans I currently have with them but no refund
Can’t help but feel a bit dispondent if I’m honest and not sure whether to keep pushing on
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Don’t feel despondent and give up – that’s what they want you to do! Loads of people here have had good refunds when they haven’t been offered anything by a lender.
Lending Stream – how many loans did you have before the last 4?
Chris says
Hello
I have had 8 loans before these ones
I will keep going. Like you said that’s what they want
Darren says
Hi. I have had an email back from quickquid saying they are not upholding my complaint but have offered £150 compensation.
This is confusing if they don’t think I’m entitled then why offer that?
What do you think I should do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are hoping this small offer of cash combined with an assertion your loans were affordable will put you off going to the Ombudsman. Most people who get a low offer from QQ then get 5 or 10 times as much (in one case over 30 times as much!) by taking their case to the Ombudsman so I suggest you do that.
Rude Buai says
Hello,
I took out several loans with Peachy over a 1 year period. 8 loans in total averaging 300 a month.
I wrote to them about the affordability complaint.
They rejected the claim and said this: Having reviewed the information available to us, we are satisfied we did do affordability checks. However, to ensure we reach an amicable agreement, as gesture of goodwill we are willing to refund £190.00 of interest paid on your loans (3,6,7 ,8) and delete any entries made on your credit file, including the defaulted notice.
Am I being short changed? Or should I accept?
Please help. :}
NM says
Yes Peachy will hold out but I had similar amount of loans with them and went to the FoS took a few months but they ruled in my favour and eventually got £1000 back from them
Emma says
Hi,
I have had an offer from Wonga of £190. In total my fees + interest adds up to around £700-£750, so I thought that this was too low. They offered me the fees based on 2 of my loans, both of which were under £100. I had a loan of £500 not long after those, so I feel they are trying to get away with the lowest possible offer.
I have made a complaint with FO, as after a quick chat with an advisor there they believe I was not in a position to be lending at all… I know I am at risk of losing the offer of £190 but it was just too low for me.
They have said it can now take 12 weeks.. Has anyone gone through this process before?
Thanks
Mustard says
Me.started in April 2016 with first complaint but this one was QQ . They offered £150 I said no, adjudicator agreed with my complaint they offered £500+, I said hell no. Ombudsman just awarded me what I asked for which was loans 3-8 and all rollovers , take them all off my credit record, compensation, and 8% interest. For me wonga were better to deal with than QQ. They normally offer higher once it goes to adjudicator. ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
In practice we have not seen anyone who has been given less than their offer by a lender.
Sally says
Hello I’m new to this, I’ve been borrowing payday loans since 2011 to 2016/17 I have had 20 loans from payday uk and 17 on wageday advance and quite a few on wonga got my self in such a pickle. It all just spiralled out of control. Can u get a refund on instalment loans??? as I’ve also borrowed from lending stream. I have stopped borrowing now but it has left me financially ruined, my credit score with both Experian and equifax was at very poor due to the amount of defaults on my account from other loans and credit agreements. I had to leave my job and go back to studying and tried to pay off my payday loans using my student bursary which made things so much worse, I contacted the lenders during this time, on one occasion I borrowed £400 in 2015 from payday uk to pay my bills but couldn’t pay it back till march 2017. This has left my credit score worse than before. I have done step 2 of trying to claim a refund, when through all my bank statements and wrote down everything. I’m just wondering is there any point if they were instalment loans??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely. The affordability rules apply to all consumer lending, not just the simple 1 month payday loans. If you couldn’t make the monthly repayments to an instalment loan without borrowing more then it was unaffordable.
Steve says
I made an irresponsible lending complaint to 118 money on the 1st April this year. I received their final response last week, in the response they listed a lot of the outstanding payday debt I had on the three occasions I applied and was approved for loans with them, they told me how much my actual income was compared to what I had put on the application form, and still they approved the loan applications. They obviously didn’t uphold my complaint, but surely approving me for three loans of over £1000 a time was irresponsible when they could clearly see how much in debt I was with Payday lenders?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you told them the loans were to repay your payday loan debts? But I wouldn’t pay much attention to their rejection, if you think the loans were unaffordable – you couldn’t repay them each month without borrowing more – then send the complaint to the Ombudsman?
Steve says
I have sent it to the ombudsmen,and I’m currently awaiting and ajudicators decision on a complaint for 27 loans with Sunny,34 loans with WONGA and 8 loans with QQ all taken between 2014 and January 2017,with all these repayments and new loans showing on my Bank statements I am very hopeful of positive outcome, 118 would actually bombard me with messages saying I could borrow more money even with the amount of payday loans and credit card debt I had at the time,also I have asked for loan repayment allocation from 118 and they have blanked my emails completely,obviously I already know that all your payments go towards paying 99% interest first before a single penny goes off balance of the sum you actually borrowed,I really hope something can be done to stop 118 preying of People,it’s an absolutey shameful company.
Thanks for taking the time to reply Sara.
Andrew says
Adjudicator got back to me today. The money shop have agreed with her and offered to pay back all interest on all loans plus 8%. Very shocked was expecting it to go to ombudsman level
Matt says
Hi Andrew
Well done I ve been waiting a while to get anywhere with them
Can I ask were you loans with the money shop over 6 years ? And how long was it with the adjudicator before they came back to you
Thanks
Matt
Andrew says
Hi Matt.
I first complained to the money shop on 07th October then to the ombudsman service 11th December. My case was picked up a few months back but the adjudicator left so back in the queue. My adjudicator wrote to the money shop on 12th may.
None of the loans were over 6 years.
Andy.
Emma says
Hi
I am currently in dispute with quick quid and they have sent me a statement of my account . I have a outstanding balance with them and just realised they are charging me £4.80 a day in default charges !!! Is there anyway I can get them stopped ??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you asked them to freeze interest and charges and offered a monthly payment you can afford?
The charges will stop at some point because the regulator has put a cap on the total amount on interest and charges that can be added.
Sophie says
Hi Sara, I can’t thank you enough for this site. I have updates and some questions….
So I started complaining in middle of april:
Sunny: cleared loan if 400 and removed from file waiting to hear if they will issue small refund,
Mr lender: reduced loan from 1800 to 600 and cleared from credit file.
247: paid 70 instead of 100 back, waiting for reply to see if they are removing from credit
paydayuk, payday express, uncle buck, wage day advance, saftry net and peachy are all with adjudicator with some communication
Wonga: they say they don’t have any details for me but this was going back 6-8 years ago, so not too fussed.
I complained to provident and had no reply or acknolwedgement so complaint to fos yesterday, today I got home to find a cheque for £479 and removed from my file!! This for one loan, with intrest and 8% back. They have upheld a loan for one loan but not the rest and said this was their final response. Can i still go to the ombudsmen to look at other complaints and cash the cheque or will going to them void the cheque as i still have loans outstanding and have been borrowing since 2011 in short periods,often clearing one loan with another.
Thank you so much for you help… this has already made a massive difference to my finances.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you want to go to the Financial Ombudsman with the Provident complaint, I suggest not cashing the cheque as this is likely to be seen as accepting their settlement offer for all your loans. Sneaky? You may think that…
kelly says
All of mine have been settled at adjudicator stage, however after an offer of £192 and then £900 from payday uk which I declined (more like 2.5k) it is now in the ombudsman que.. since Feb? How long are people waiting for ombudsman to be allocated/decision?
Also lending steam agreed to remove all loans from cra in Feb but they are all still showing? How long does that take to update and should I chase them on this? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If there are any defaults you want those removed. If you have any loans in the last year, you want those removed. Older payday loans that you repaid on time help your credit score so there is no reason to bother about them.
ALSO if you are going to have loans deleted whilst you still have a complaint with the FOS, make sure you have saved a copy of your credit record showing the loans, in case the Ombudsman wants to see it.
Zoe says
My complaint re Sunny (Elevate credit) went to the FOS on 04/04/17. I received an acknowledgement advising that it could take up to 8 mths before an Adjudicator can start on the case, however i received an email on 30/05 from an Adjudicator introducing herself, requesting copy bank statements and financial info from me, requested this by 06/06/17, otherwise she may have to investigate my complaint without being able to take this information. into account. All info has been sent, hopefully it wont take the original estimated 8 mths..
David says
Hi Sara
I wondered if you could help?
I put a complaint through to the FOS regarding loans I had with Payday UK. I had 10 loans in total. The adjudicator found in my favour that Loans 1-8 were unaffordable which I was happy with. Payday UK came back and said that they disagree and will only payout on loans 5-8. I’m inclined to ask the obbudsman to review this but can you tell me does that mean you could lose the chance of getting any money back if the ombudsman comes to a different decision to the adjudicator? On the adjudicators letter to Payday UK it says something along the lines of it’s unlikely the ombudsmans decision will be different to mine so are Payday UK just trying their luck? I’m just confused as to what to do. I don’t want to not get any money.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That line in the adjudicator’s letter is standard, it doesn’t mean you have an especially wonderful case (although of course you may!)
How much interest did you pay on loans 1-4? What were the “gaps” between repaying a loan and taking out a new one for the first 5 loans?
In theory, the Ombudsman can make any decision. But with an offer on the table from a lender, we have never seen a case where the Ombudsman has awarded less – the worst that is likely to happen is it takes quite a few months and the Ombudsman says you should accept the lender’s offer.
Ombudsmen often tinker with the number of loans awarded. The O could award a refund after the first, second or third loans. Or for loans 3-10! Is there a good reason why the last two were excluded by the adjudicator?
MH says
Hi Sara,
Had a reply from Wonga this morning saying they will refund £1,159.56 adding interest with a total settlement of £1,471.09 (with 8%).
This is for 6 loans (dates below) out of 24 loans I had with them.
18/01/2014
15/11/2013
02/05/2013
07/02/2013
21/07/2012
18/05/2012
I calculated £2,772.81 for all of the loan interest (which includes the 8%).
Would you advise sending to the FOS? I’m sure I had read somewhere that you had stated that the FOS has never come back with a lower offer?
They also added this bit in:
Is this standardised?
You may be aware of the announcement from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regarding changes to short term lending. The changes mean that we had to place a price cap on the cost of our loans and be more responsible when testing whether customers can afford the loan they want to take out. We can see from your account that you had loan applications after the changes to our lending criteria were applied in November 2014. All your loan applications after this date met our new affordability criteria and so we are satisfied that we lent you responsibly.
Many Thanks
MH.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it doesn’t seem a good offer, does it? They may have picked some of the largest loans, but it’s only about half what a full refund would be. We haven’t seen a case where Wonga made one of the offers and the FO decided on less – and 24 loans sounds like a very good case.
That bit you queried: Yes that is standard. But plenty of people have had refunds after their new “more responsible” criteria were introduced. Although they are better than the old criteria they obviously aren’t that good!
D says
Afternoon everyone!
My QQ case so far;
Put my complaint in to QQ at the end of March regarding the 23 loans I had with them. They replied around 6 weeks later with an offer on 2 loans for £200 which I rejected.
I then sent my complaint to the FO mid May & it was picked up by an adjudicator a week later. Today Quickquid have made an offer of £2000 on 6 loans out of 23 (looking at the loans from I make this about £1200 interest & the remainder being 8% simple tax!). My adjudicator hasn’t even having looked at my case, he only requested my business file from Quick Quid!
The 6 loans they’ve offered to refund were in a sequence of paying back & borrowing on the same day, but there were so many in the 23 loans that were the same scenario as that. I’ve decided to decline the offer & my adjudicator is going to assess my case from now.
I’ve read a few posts of people worried about gambling transactions on their bank statements – my bank statements were filled with them until I knocked it on the head about 18 months ago. Listening to my adjudicator, this only works in your favour, as if the PDL had done the relevant checks (ie. checked your bank statements) they’d have seen this & not lent to you!
Sally says
Hi D
I was just wondering what sort of stuff do they look at on your bank statements? Do they look at all transactions? What sort of evidence do the Adjudicator ask for?
D says
Hi Sally
They basically do a full financial review of your situation at the time of lending. They look at your income less your essential expenditure (rent, utilities etc) & also any sign of ‘loss of control’ or addiction (gambling etc). Basically anything that would’ve been apparent if the lender had checked your statement meaning they wouldn’t have lent to you.
My adjudicator requested all bank statements from the time of lending (6 years worth!) & my credit report (I sent both Experian & Noddle).
That’s all they pretty much ask for but I sent them other stuff to hammer home how much I was dependent on short term lending. (I.e. Spreadsheets etc)
Sally says
Thanks D, I’ve sent stage 2 letter to the lenders I just feel anxious about it all. I lived on my over draft and I was a student. I’ve been using payday loans since 2011-2016/17. Hoping to hear back from the lenders soon.
D says
No worries Sally :)
I’ve been really anxious about it too but my adjudicator at the FO is absolutely spot on & put all my fears at rest!
clive says
I had a complaint with the adjudicator concerning Lending Stream. The adjudicator came down in my favour, but LS disputed one of the loans and made a counter offer. I accepted this offer (as I was reluctant to wait 6 months for an ombudsman!!) and the adjudicator passed on my acceptance form and bank details to LS. That was 2 week ago and I have not heard a bean from them. Does anyone know how long LS take to refund?
PJ says
Hello all,
Just thought I’d give you an update. I put in 8 complaints to different lenders and have had varying responses;
PaydayUK came back within 6 weeks with an offer which I accepted
Payday Express turned me down and I’ve sent to FOS
Mr Lender made an offer to write off existing balance which I accepted
Wonga made a ridiculously low offer given this was one of my most substantial numbers and I’ve replied saying I’m escalating to FOS
Lending Stream made an offer today. I’m just deciding whether to accept or not. This was after making no offer at all to which I replied and said I would escalate. They’ve offered refunds on 16 out of 50 loans and these are the closest together in terms of time. It isn’t a huge amount of the loans but at the higher end? They’ve stated that it is their final response. Can you still negotiate after this or do you escalate straight to FOS following that?
Thanks to all on here. I’m feeling so much better since I’ve started this process and it really feels like I can close this chapter of my adult life!
Darren says
Hi. I have escalated one of my offers to FOS.
I did it online an haven’t received any emails from them yet? Does anyone know if they send a confirmation email or not?
MH says
I’m in the same boat darren and would like to know the same! Cheers MH
Jo says
Hi guys. mine got declined on 23rd may, sent to ombudsmen same day and heard nothing til a call on Tuesday 6th june saying they’re happy to look at my complaint and are asking the pdl company for my case file – I’ll be assigned an adjudicator within 14 days. So I didn’t receive an email, just a call 2 weeks after I submitted it to them. Hope this helps x
Mustard says
Can anyone help I’ve just received my final decision from ombudsman and they agreed 6 of my 8 loans are to be refunded,but in the letter they have stated “6 loans from sept to Jan” but the 6 loans were from sept to April- I only had 4 from sept to January. What do I do? Also will QQ have to refund on the rollovers in between as it says “all loans”. Bit disappointed in the ombudsman, it seems it’s incorrect?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Refunding a loan automatically includes refunding the times it was rolled over.
I suggest you contact your adjudicator tomorrow and get the 6 loans clarified. It would be unusual for loans to be refunded up to January and not the ones from Jan-April but it’s good to get this absolutely clear.
Mustard says
yes the last 2 loans were the biggest. QQ said I had 8 loans, but there were 12 including rollovers. Adjudicator recommended loans 3-8 be refunded but QQ rejected it, ombudsman agrees but the dates don’t add up. I’ll be very disappointed if they aren’t refunding the loans from January, they were a lot of money. Will the adjudicator deal with it now? It went on to the ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Normally you carry on communicating through your adjudicator. But you can try to contact the Ombudsman direct tomorrow.
Mustard says
Thanks Sara. I found out that the ombudsman hasn’t referenced the last 2 loans because QQ had already made the offer on those two and they are bound by that amount for the last 2. Should get around £1600 back, after them offering £150 ???
Kieran says
Sara,
I’ve just had a respond from one of the lenders, could you advise me where I need to go from here & how you think i should responded to them.
Baring in mind they are yet to provide me with a statement of my account, which I will be requesting again.
What the best way to go with providing a credit file? Where do i locate this?
Thanks in advance.
“To assist with my investigation, please could you provide me with the following information:
– A copy of your credit file;
– A copy of your bank statements for the account details we hold on file, for the period during which you applied for the loans and re-paid them.
If you could provide the outstanding information to me no later than 14 days from the date of this email, I would be most grateful.
“
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At a guess, Uncle Buck?
Whoever it is, many people don’t want to hand over personal info to a payday lender… if you don’t, just reply saying you would like them to consider your complaint on the basis of what they already know, and that you will be happy to send the Financial Ombudsman any information they request.
Tom c says
Has anyone had a case with paydayuk that have actually paid out quickly?
Ross says
Hi Tom,
Payday UK only paid me out after 23 out of a possible 28 days. However, they have improved since. My Payday Express compensation was paid out after 5 days. They are both part of the same company, Instant Cash Loans Limited, and they were notorious for dragging refund payments out. However, it seems that they’ve either had a kick up the arse from the regulator OR someone higher up the chain has said they must do better. Either way, it appears they are getting better at paying out quicker. Hope this helps?
Tom c says
Thats great news i’ve heard horror stories from them. Qickquid were the fastest i’ve had so far paying me out within a few hours of accepting their offer.
Rachel says
The last few people who hav had payouts have been on the 3 rd week after acceptance usually same day payment as the confirmation email I am on week 2 counting down to next week
Joel says
I have been offered 1700+ including 8% by Womga
They have missed out 1 loan which is fair I guess.
Again,
Has anyone had a refund from them and how long did it take after giving your bank details to them?
suzanne says
Hi can you help on the letter i have received from quick quid, i am sure i have posted this on here but cannot see a response.
We thank you for your complaint regarding the above account. We take complaints very seriously and have investigated the matter fully. However, our investigation indicates that the matter you are complaining of occurred outside the complaint handling time limits.
[edited]
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. The Ombudsman’s normal rule is that a complaint has to be made within 6 years. However, with these payday loan complaint, they decided late last year that they could look at older complaints if the person complaining was not aware earlier that they could make this sort of complaint. Of course, you probably realised back in 2008 that this borrowing was creating a huge problem for you – but that doesn’t mean you had any idea that the lender had done anything wrong in giving you the loans.
So when you send this to the FOS, include a bit which says when and how you became aware of what an affordability complaint was – whether someone at work told you about them, your brother sent you a link, you saw them discussed on Facebook or MoneySavingExpert – there is no right or wrong answer, just whatever happened in your case.
Some lenders have accepted the FOS’s decision and are paying out for the older loans. Others, including QQ, are still disputing this. Your complaint with the FOS is probably going to be very slow, but just get going on it and try to chill out about very long delays :)
Warren says
Hi everyone
I have asked for my repayments to QQ and Wonga to stop as I couldn’t afford them. they still took their payment! ? from me even though they are looking into my complaint and probably will do the same at the end of this month too. Is there anything I can do to stop this? Any advice would be very grateful so annoyed PLEASE HELP
MH says
HI Warren,
Did they agree that the payments would be on hold while your claim is under investigation? Then still took the funds? if that’s the case I would phone them up and ask for the money to be put back into your bank account.
For future payments – contact your bank and get them to cancel the CPA (Continuous payment authority) so no further funds leave your account.
MH
Warren says
Hi MH
Thank you for your reply They didn’t even reply to my email to be honest I just don’t want this to happen again at the end of the month just don’t know what to do really now send another email perhaps or ring them up and ask them to put payments on hold?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell you bank to cancel the CPAs
Warren says
Should I speak to them first or just cancel the payments first I don’t want to be charged extra for not paying them. And what’s the chances of them putting the repayments on hold to the complaint is looked into? I heard they don’t like putting repayments on hold bit scared to ring as I don’t want the grief they will give me ? sorry about all the questions just really worried about it because I have bad health what would be the best way to approach this? Thanks for replying
MH says
dont be concerned about any grief it would cause, if you are in financial difficulties they have a duty as a “responsible lender” (oh the irony) to treat you fairly.
I would phone them to them that you have requested no payments to be taken and that they have therefore you are going to cancel the CPA . I would personally request that they reimburse you with the monies they have taken if they agreed they wouldnt take further payments .
Each case is individual to the persons circumstances, you wont know until you give them a ring :-)
Lee says
Hope someone can help, ive had quite a lot of sunny loans, where I had 3 at a time with them, I’ve had to keep juggling each one, borrowing of sunny, until last month it wasn’t possible. I phoned them and asked to pay a smaller about each month, which they agreed to. I’m just wondering am I still able to get a refund? Or by them trying to help am I unavle to do so?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes you can still complain. The fact you have had to ask for an arrangement proves that the last loan was unaffordable!
Lee says
Also another question, 6 weeks ago, I had to get another loan from piggy bank, to pay some of the sunny loan payment and to survive last month. This was before I got sunny to lower the payments. I’ve paid one payment of the 5 of piggybank, but can’t see me being able to carry on paying. Any advice on what to do? Piggybank shouldn’t have really lent me, should they?
Kevin says
Get a payment plan in place with piggy bank as soon as you can, I had a loan with them a few years ago , then I couldn’t pay, the charges they put on were astronomical and they pestered me almost every day, and that was me getting stepchange involved.Im waiting on adjudicator anytime now with my claim against them.Terrible company to deal with.
Hayley Glynn says
Hi
Could you help I have had 10 loans from payday UK and have sent the initial email and received this response . Please can you advise if I still send the 2nd email as they are trying to pass the buck for the last loan that wasn’t paid in full due to non affordability. I took out other loans to pay these ones as they were harassing me with calls up to 20 times a day. Thanks in advance
Many thanks for your recent contact.
The business has made the decision that when accounts reach a certain stage within the Collections journey; they may be sold to a third party company for collection. Going forward, your account will be owned by PRAC Financial Limited and will be managed by BW Legal.
We would advise that you contact BW Legal in regards to your account.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply that you would like them to consider your affordability complaint about all 10 of the loans you had with them, otherwise you will be sending it to the Financial Ombudsman.
You should also let PRAC/BW know in writing (email is good ) that you are disputing the loan with the Payday Uk and ask them to hold off any enforcement action until the complaint is resolved.
Katie says
Hi all. Adjudicator has upheld my complaint on all my Wonga loans (30 in total 70 top ups ). Does any one know if they usually agree at adjudicator level ? They originally offered me refunds on 5 of the loans. Thanks
lorr says
For anyone thinking complaining about 1 or 2 loans is a waste of time, complain…QQ refused any redress on 2 Loans so it went to the ombudsman, I got an email from my adjudicator yesterday stating that they were upholding my Complaint. ? just waiting to see what QQ say. 1 down and 3 to go. This was the lesser of my loans. Thanks Sara
Kris says
Hi guys got this today;
Please take this email as acknowledgement of your complaint. We will now investigate the issues you have raised within the timescales as set out in our complaints procedure below.
Happy to provide information requested (though do be aware that all of this information was provided upon the advance of any loan as the loan agreement was sent to you via email – do check your junk or spam for this and also check any other email address’ you may have provided us with.)
You have borrowed a total of £1,535.00 from us. You have repaid a total of £1,430.23.
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 £104.77 to 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 £104.77 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.
We are confident that the required assessments were carried out prior to the advance of all loans. We are able to substantiate fully the information on which lending decisions were based.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume you think their figures are correct. If you do, then it is correct that the Ombudsman would normally expect you to repay what you borrowed. However the Ombudsman would also expect the lender to add 8% interest onto the refund of money from the previous loans, and this may well be enough to mean that the outstanding balance would be repaid in full. You could suggest this as a way forward?
Els says
Hi, after sending the 2nd stage complaint to wagedayadvance i received a letter rejecting my claim today, bit of a strange letter though as they have stated that they did not use CRA for the 1st 9 loans i had (i had 10 in total) , where they would of seen multiple defaults if they did, they also stated that during my “loan number 7 they noticed id borrowed several times in a row, indicating that i could be struggling in a cycle of lending where you have to borrow one loan after another. We wanted to offer you a breath of fresh air and stop any potential cycle of lending. To do this we offered to remove interest on loan 7 and restructure repayments”. I didnt take them up on this as i was afraid they wouldn’t lend to me again and id miss payments to other commitments if they didn’t. After loan 7 they still accepted me for another 3 loans each loan going up and taken out the day the last loan was paid. Do you think this is worth escalating to the fos?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t seen this sort of case go the FOS. I think it’s well worth taking – you can point out that they knew you were in trouble – hence their offer on loan 7 – but they still continued to lend you more for another 3 loans!
Of course they can argue that they made the offer and you turned it down, but you can point to the amount of pressure you were under and that you weren’t able to make good decisions at that time.
Matt says
Something which may interest a few people – I posted recently saying I had an ombudsman final decision which included a loan which resulted in a CCJ. The decision included removing all negative entries from my credit file.
I was not expecting it but I’ve logged into my credit report today (a week or so after receiving the refund associated with the above) and the CCJ is no longer on my file! Surprised but very happy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What an unexpected success.
Kamila says
Hi Matt
QQ has also put a CCJ on my credit record(£1,200) I sent a first email to them 3 monts ago asking for a statement of accounts but I haven’t heard from them yet. I had maybe 20 loans with back in 2010-11. Do you think I should now complaint directly to the FOS? I would be happy with any outcome of my complaint resulting in removing a CCJ from my file. Thank you Kamila
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you haven’t had a reply after 3 months, phone them up and ask why not? And take the case to the FOS if necessary. re the CCJ, Matt is the first person who has had this happen and I am surprised – you probably shouldn’t assume this will happen for you.
Lou says
Hi Sara,
I am a bit nervous about this one, as it is with Lending Stream and is only one loan (£570 + £684 interest – £1254 total – mental!). I have currently got a case with QQ and Wonga with the FOS, which are likely to succeed in refunds. LStream however ended up on a debt plan that I am still currently on (I couldn’t recover from the payday mayhem) and I only owe £280 to LStream now. I was wondering whether there is a good argument to get this cleared? I feel the fact that I am on debt plan means the payment(s) were and are unaffordable and along with this LS continuing to collect from me is an act of pure greed considering we have paid £400 in interest. Not sure if I have a leg to stand on with this one as I recall at the time the requested a copy of my payslip, which means they could argue they were ‘lending (e’hem) responsibly’. More than a little frustrated with this one!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, why not complain? the fact they asked for a payslip doesn’t mean the loan was affordable – they would have needed bank statements to be sure of that.
Lou says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for vote of confidence, just feels like they have you over the barrel when you still paying them off. Frightened to rock the boat as such. I also feel just have the one loan from them means I don’t really have a chance, but worth a shot.
Thanks.
Lou
Holly says
Hi,
Looking for some advise, currently received a letter back from cheque centre to say the loan I had outstanding has been written off. Which I great but nothing in regards to the compensation of the other roll over loans I had going over 5 years and the interest was nearly £6000! Do you think they will pay this back due to them accepting it was irresponsible lending to the last one I didn’t pay?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Take this case to the Ombudsman – they are just trying it on! You may not get all the interest back, but we have seen some very large payouts awarded against the Cheque Centre for lending over a prolonged period.
Karen says
Hi Sara
I have just spoken with one of the staff ay the FOS. I was enquiring about my complaints with wonga and payday express. I have loans that are six years or more ad well ad loans within 6 years.
The lady at the FOS informed that they cannot proceed with my complaints as the pdl are refusing to refund loans older 6 years. She also said that she cannot give a timescale because again it depends on the pdls. She did say that it would speed up the process if I choose to just look at the loans within the six years. But the majority of loans were taken over 6 years. What do you think I should do. Any help would be appreciated
Ross says
Hi Karen,
I have a complaint on hold with QQ and the majority of my loans are older than 6 years, albeit just about. My adjudicator recommended that I hold on, as the amount for the loans older than 6 years is considerable. I think he was trying to say that if I caved in and went with the ones within the 6 years, I may be looking at losing a considerable amount. With the pattern of loans I had with QQ, along with other PDL’s at the same time, I think he may be of the opinion that my case would be upheld, once investigated. I think Sara would agree with me when I say that you never expected to have the opportunity to reclaim, so you are probably best waiting on the FOS final decision. The last I heard, the FOS are trying to come to a widespread agreement on these types of complaints (+6 years), so hang in there. You’ve nothing to lose and everything to, potentially, gain!
Samantha says
Hello,
Has anyone had any luck with SUNNY? I have had a total of 25 loans, from mid 2015 till present, totalling about a grand every month.Inbetween that time i paid them all off, asking for my account to be closed (they couldnt aparently) got in trouble then borrowed all over again. I have sent all this in an email to them. Just wondering if you think i have a chance or if anyones had any luck.
Thanks
MH says
Hi Samantha,
I currently have a complaint in with Sunny, it’ll be 8 weeks on Wednesday and ive not had an offer as yet. Ive recently phoned them for a update however they just give you the standard “weve got 8 weeks to reply” to which i said if i dont here anything by weds next week i’ll be sending it to the FOS (i did the same with Wonga last week and miraculously they gave me an offer the next day, which i rejected anyway and sent to FOS).
I had 22 loans with Sunny, usually 3 at a time over 2 year period so i think i have a good case with that one.
Sounds good to me! Just sit tight and await a response would be my advice!
MH
Dan says
I complained to Sunny – 20ish loans (£6k borrowed/£5.5k interest) over a 2 year period.
The rejected my complaint so it’s now been sent to FOS. Claimed my credit score was good (it’s not – not even close to being good) and that they’d performed all the required checks.
They did take the full 8 weeks to issue a final decision.
sam says
so MH, how have you got on? did they reply?
thanks you 2, I am just sat waiting patiently
MH says
Hi Samantha,
Sunny replied on the very last day of the 8 weeks with a rejection and no offer; sent it straight to the FOS with bank statements (just for info it may be worth getting them ready if you can just in case) they want from 3 months prior top you taking the loan out until 1 month after your last payment to them!
Have you heard anything at all?
lorr says
Adjudicator has upheld my complaint with QQ, how long do they take to respond? Thx
Karen says
Hi Sara
I have just spoken with one of the staff ay the FOS. I was enquiring about my complaints with wonga and payday express. I have loans that are six years or more ad well ad loans within 6 years.
The lady at the FOS informed that they cannot proceed with my complaints as the pdl are refusing to refund loans older 6 years. She also said that she cannot give a timescale because again it depends on the pdls. She did say that it would speed up the process if I choose to just look at the loans within the six years. But the majority of loans were taken over 6 years. What do you think I should do. Any help would be appreciated
Rachel says
Payday Express are part of Payday UK I believe and they are paying older loans. I’ve just had an offer for loans going back to 2007. This did However take a very long time- over a year to get to this point. If it’s many loans I would stick it out and ask for the Ombudsman to look at it, you may be in the jurisdiction queue for a while.
chris says
Hello people
Ive been in the same situation as you. all email after email and waiting about for responses. I started the the process off at end of april 2017 to 7 payday lenders 3 are allready with the adjudicator due to poor offers for settlement, I had 17 loans with WDA and they have been really quick through the process of sending SOA and investigating my complaint and keeping me infomed regular, i arrived home today to find a letter admitting they had not taken correct checks on loans 6 to 17 and offered me £4000 less a couple of pence for full and final settlement all the 11 loans they paid me my interest back was inittial loan amounts between 300 and 400 pound so ithis offer seems very fair to me and i am going to accept it also these loans was dated back to 2010 so they was out of the 6 year window so dont believe the likes of payday uk and others that say you are not entitled to claim that far back. sorry for the long comment but keep going and get back what money you can
debbie says
Advice need please.
I put in a complaint against Myjar for 3 loans which they rejected and it went to an adjudicator. Having looked into the complaint this is what the findings were (edited version)
You’ve told us that you conducted different checks including a credit check, each time ***** applied for a loan. For loans one and two **** provided you with her incomings and regular outgoings which is what we would expect you to check. Although she appeared to be left with enough disposable income to meet the instalment repayments she told you that she had no credit repayments, but seeing as you carried out credit checks each time I think you would have see that she had an outstanding credit card balance. I think you should have taken this into consideration. For loan three the checks did not go far enough because she took out a loan straight after repaying loan two and her borrowing had increased significantly. So I think you were wrong to give loan three, to put things right you need to:
Waive any interest so that only the capital is paid back.
Set up a suitable repayment plan
Remove any negative information about loan three from her credit file.
When I saw the findings I was a little disappointed that only loan 3 was upheld but thinking positively was happy to agree to a repayment plan and to have the entry removed from my credit file. However Myjar are now saying this:
We can confirm that we are willing to accept the settlement payment through a repayment arrangement ******* deems affordable. As to the credit file entry, we are unable to remove the whole loan entry, as due to reciprocity agreement between us and the credit reference agencies, we are obliged to provide credit reference agencies with accurate information regarding all of our customers’ accounts. We also believe that all creditors need visibility of true account behaviours, removing them would only put the client at greater risk. Nevertheless, as we have previously agreed, upon receiving the settlement payment, we are willing to remove negative information regarding the third loan from ****** credit file.
I told them that I can only make token payments without having to revert to borrowing again and that I didn’t agree that keeping the entry on my file until it has been settled was what I agreed to. My understanding was that had they not lent the loan it would not be on my file therefore agreeing it was un-affordable they should remove any reference to it, this is their response:
Please note that we have fully agreed to follow the Financial Ombudsman Service’s instructions on how to put things right. The Financial Ombudsman Service has not requested us to remove the entire entry from your credit file, but to remove any negative information about loan three from your credit file. In line with the adjudication, upon receiving the settlement payment, we will remove any late payment or arrangement to pay markers about loan three and mark this loan as “Settled” on your credit file. If you have any questions about the decision made by the Financial Ombudsman Service, please contact them directly to discuss the matter.
Currently, we have set up a repayment arrangement with reduced payments towards your outstanding discounted balance of £2,400. We have set it up with reduced payments for the first 5 months and would kindly ask you to contact us before the 6th month to review your financial circumstances again. We will always do what we can to help you. Please note that unless we hear from you, we will be expecting a transfer for the full remaining balance on the 6th month.
I really don’t think that they are following the adjudicators instruction in anything other than removing the charges and interest. I’m really worried that if I accept what they are saying not only will I have this on my credit file for the next 6 years but after 5 months they will start to chase for a bigger payment and possible add charges/interest again and even pass it a DCA . Any suggestions as to what I should do?
Thanks for all the help
Debbie
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£2400 balance? How large was your last loan?
And have you accepted MyJar’s offer, or is this case not yet closed at the FOS?
debbie says
The last loan was for £2400 they have taken off the interest and charges but this is the capital. I said I would agree to adjudicators findings on the understanding that the loan was not showing on my credit file, but now Myjar are saying it will show until its paid off, surely this is not removing negative information just the opposite in fact.
debbie says
Hi Sara,
I really would appreciate your thoughts as to what I should do. I have got it wrong and Myjar don’t have to remove the loan from my credit file? Also do you think they are likely to continue with the payment plan or could they start adding charges and interest again if they pass it on?
Thanks for your input
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I said I would agree to adjudicators findings on the understanding that the loan was not showing on my credit file, but now Myjar are saying it will show until its paid off, surely this is not removing negative information just the opposite in fact.”
Have you actually accepted this offer and are now saying they aren’t keeping to the agreement? Or are you still in discussions about whether to accept it?
debbie says
Hi Sara, It is still with the adjudicator, however I did say I would agree to their findings but it was my understanding that the removal of any negative information would actually mean the loan was removed from my credit file, as if it is still showing then it has a negative impact. I’m just really confused as to the interpretation of the adjudicators findings have I got it wrong or have Myjar?
gillian says
hi i have just got a letter from my adjudicator saying he has written to quickquid informing them they should not have lent me loans 3 to 12 on my claim and should pay back all interest and 8 percent. This is after quickquid at first refused me anything them offered just under 900 pounds for two loans i refused that offer. Just added up the interest it comes to 4800 for loans 3 to 12 I know they might refuse to agree but i am happy to let it go to the ombudsman level if need be as my adjudicator stated not once did they ask to see bank statements and on all the loans i reborrowed on the same day as paying off for over 5 years this should have raised concern
I just want to thank this site and say if anyone in the same position just let your adjudicator know everything they will look at all the details for you just be patient and hang in there my claim was started in Dec 2016 and they are busy but they will get to you. Ty again
Roch says
Hi all,
Need some help and advice ASAP, its Satsuma loans they had their 8 weeks so I referred complaint over to the FO about 2 weeks ago for unaffordable, irresponsible lending and received a letter today from FO stating they received my complaint and requesting the usual bank statements etc… I also have received a letter today from satsuma with a cheque for £96.07 ???
This is not enough why do they think it is. I took 4 instalment loans £100, £120 £100, £200 from 2015-2016 was gambling every penny I had at the time and had many other payday loans too. They say they have upheld my complaint but just on the £120 loan and the £200 taken 15 july 2016 and 3 feb 2017 and nothing for the others. I’m so confused they say my disposable declared income was £3314 (which is not true I’ve never had that much in my life)
On the 5th page of the letter it says I can refer the complaint to the FO which I have already done. What do I do with the cheque send back??
Any advice would be great. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you worked out how much interest you paid on each of your loans, if you have, can you list this please.
Roch says
Hi Sara, I’m trying to work this out but can only see my last two loans on the account as the others were 2 years ago so have to go through bank statements
But it says this online borrowed
26/08/2016
£100- 26 weeks cost of borrowing £91.62
28/12/2016
£200 – 6 months cost of borrowing £179.20
The previous 2 were 29/12/2015 £100
12/07/2016 £120
I’m trying to work out interest by looking through statements but I was paying £7.37 a week on one and £11.01 on another
so think the interest was around £100+
So do not think that was a good offer considering I had loans with 247 money box. safety net, piggy bank and my jar at the same time as the last two loans in 2016 also on one loan it shows 3 missed or late payments on the borrowing summary and they still gave me the last £200 loan 28/12/16 knowing I missed payments with them before.
And I took no loans in 2017 so they got that wrong too.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not disputing this is a bad offer, but you need the detailed numbers to be sure. £92 sounds like a very low amount of interest to have paid on a £120 and £200 loan. Was there a balance owing on the last loan which they have wiped out?
If you can’t work out the numbers from your bank statements, I suggest you go back to Satsuma and say that you want to consider whether to accept their offer, but to do this you need your Statement of Account for each of the five loans. Say that if they don’t send it, you will be passing the case to the Ombudsman to work out.
Mandy says
My adjudicator upheld my complaint against Uncle Buck – they did not respond to first deadline – second deadline passed on Friday 9/6 still nothing. Has anyone had any experience with them? It will go to an ombudsman for a final decision now which I was really hoping I could avoid as that will take months. Any feedback from anyone about this company? Thanks.
Chris says
I had a complaint in with uncle buck, they didn’t respond to the adjudicator and after the ombudsman decision they waited till the last day of the 30 days allowed to make the payment – I’m afraid you are in for a wait but good luck!
Laura says
they disagreed with my adjudicator , even though in there final response to me from the company explained ” we should have done more checks before lending” , my adjudicator sent this over for ombudsman decision on 24th November , I am still yet to be assigned an ombudsman 28 weeks and counting – (6 months 19 days!!) – you are definitely in for the long haul with this one
Lizzi says
Hi all I have rejection from wonga when I requested a statement of my loans. So I filled out the form online for the financial ombudsman the other week but I just wondered how do they get it touch with you as I don’t appear to of heard anything back from them. As anyone been through this stage x
Jampanda says
I got a rejection from wonga despite having taken out over 50 loans. I replied and mentioned that I want my statements stating all my loan amounts and interest paid and that I’ll go be going to the FOS…. It then took them 6 weeks to send me the statements and I sent about 8 requests. They seem to drag the SOA requests out for ages.
Lorr says
Hi just looking for a little bit of info please. I have a complaint at adjudicator level re PDUK. They have offered £3000 for loans from jan to april 2013, that was before the adjudicator made a decision, i declined this as i started to take out loans in Jan 2011 every month right up to June 2013. I turned this done. Are they duty bound to stick to the offer from 2013 along with anything else the adjudicator decides? Thx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
We haven’t seen any case where someone ended up with LESS than the lender offered – you don’t need to worry about this.
Stuart Fletcher says
Hi everyone,
Thought I would post an update on my complaints.
So I first logged all my complaints on 24th February and last week I had all but one of the judgements from the adjudicator:
Uncle Buck – ruled in their favour (6 loans about £350 in interest, fees and statutory interest)
Wonga – ruled in my favour (loans from 2011 to 2016 around (£5000 in interest, fees and statutory interest)
Quickquid – ruled in my favour (loans from 2014 to 2016 around (£3300 in interest, fees and statutory interest)
PaydayUK – ruled in my favour (loans from 2014 to 2016 around (£1075 in interest, fees and statutory interest)
Lending Stream – awaiting data from the business
So in total I’m looking at receiving back around £9300 from these companies. They have until 21st June to respond to the adjudicators rulings. Hopefully all being well I expect to receive the funds at the end of July.
To anyone in any doubt about embarking on the complaints process – go for it! You have nothing to lose. Thanks to Sara and this website and all of your contributions.
Good luck!
Stuart
Bilbo says
Just wanted to drop you a line of thanks – I took out several Wonga loans over a few years and thanks to this site Ive received £4k refunded I had to go to Ombusman but really pleased
Just starting a claim with Northway now for Pounds till payday aswell
Thanks!
Jamie says
Hey,
I wish I had found something like this much earlier… don’t make the same mistake as me and except the small ‘gesture of goodwill’ payments!!
Through a desire to get as much revenge as possible from these vultures, I made new complaints but the FOS won’t investigate them due to accepting a previous offer to settle me complaint. I now wish I could get back in touch with the company, say I now reject your old settlement offer and will refund previous payments to you… is there any hope for me? Can you actually do this? lol
But I have three new complaints in from old lenders (they never offered anything previously), and all of these will be escalated to the FOS!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Can you actually do this?” No. Don’t waste your time trying.
“But I have three new complaints in from old lenders (they never offered anything previously), and all of these will be escalated to the FOS!” I hope you are either within the 6 month timescale to take your complaint to the FOS or your previous complaint was different. Otherwise the FOS may not accept these cases.
Gareth says
Hi I’ve had an offer today from wonga but I’m not sure if to accept and what the offer means maybe I’m been stupid
The offer is
total interest and fees
£1,632.96
8% interest net
£554.08
total settlement
£2,187.04
tax
8% interest gross
£692.60
basic rate tax deduction
£138.52
Does that mean the offer is the total settlement minus the tax and interest gross if anyone could help id be grateful …. I think I’m probably due around 3500 so I don’t see this as a bad first offer if it’s the total settlement amount … any help is appreciated thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you accept this you will get £2,187. That is the total interest and fees they are refunding PLUS 8% interest net of tax. The tax fields at the bottom are just explaining the tax calculation in more detail.
(By the way, if this is your only refund in this tax year and you are a basic rate tax payer, you should be able to reclaim the basic rate tax deduction back from HMRC. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/ for how to do this.)
When you said you calculated 3500, was that just the interest you paid or did it also include the 8% added on?
Steve says
What’s the rought amount of waiting time for a decision from an adjudicator?
Katie says
Hi Steve
I submitted my complaints at the end of March. My adjudicators are now sending me their findings on most of my complaints over the last couple of weeks though there are some still outstanding.
Katie says
Anyone know how long the current queue is for the Obudsman at the moment ? WDA didn’t respond to my adjudicators findings in the two weeks so has been put in the queue. Also what’s the likelihood of Wonga accepting my Adjudicator’s decision on my Wonga loans ? He completely upheld my complaint ( 30 loans inc 70 top ups ) approx £6K. Wonga originally offered me £3K back in April. Anyone help with this ? Many thanks x
D says
Ive been waiting since decemeber so its over 6 months at the minute.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi D, that’s unusually long. Are any of your loans over 6 years old?
Katie says
Hi D thanks for your response. Sara none of mine are over 6 years so do you think it might be quicker ? Also in your experience do Wonga normally accept adjudicators findings ? Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Over 6 year cases are much slower! Wonga sometimes accept adjudicator’s decisions.
Mustard says
I was handed from adjudicator to ombudsman at end of November, and just got ombudsmans decision last week. Got my money now though. ? X
Kerry says
Any one have a clue what’s going on with quick quid? I’ve had my complaint with my adjudicator since end of October last year. And still no further due to some of my loans being older than the 6 years. Just feel I’m getting nowhere with it.
Ross says
Hi Kerry,
I’m the exact same as you, since October last year too. It’s just a waiting game I’m afraid. QQ are, apparently, being very stubborn, hence the delay/wait. It’s very frustrating ?
Jamie says
Hi. Ive had my first response offering a refund from Mr Lender. The total interest paid over around 12 to 18 month period was roughly £1,500 give or take a few pounds. They have offered me the full interest refund on the 4th and last loan which is roughly £540 as a ‘gesture of goodwill’.
Should i decline? If so, how is best to word the reply?
Many thanks
Dan says
Hi Jamie.
I had, pretty much, the same sort of first offer from Mr Lender (think my first offer was 500quid to wipe my balance) . I rejected that and their next offer (wipe balance and a goodwill gesture of less that £100 which was the interest on a fee payments) too. They came back with an offer of wiping the balance and I got £800 refund which I accepted. You’ll probably find that the worst thing that will happen is they’ll stand their ground – even when I pushed my luck on their last offer, they still came back with the same offer.
Like any of these refunds, it’s important that you get what is fair (given we’re all partly to blame for these situations).
Good luck!
Shane says
I’ve just been made an offer by lending stream and want to reject it. How did you word your rejection email to them to make them offer more?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Shane, there is no magic wording. Just say why you think their current offer is inadequate. (“I took 6 loans from you with very short gaps between them and mostly increasing in size. An offer to refund just the final loan is inadequate – you should have realised I had become dependent on these loans before that and stopped lending. I will be taking this to the Financial Ombudsman if you don’t make a more reasonable offer.”) If you want you can be more specific (“I took 6 loans from you with very short gaps between them and mostly increasing in size. An offer to refund just the final loan is inadequate – unless you offer me a refund for loans 3-6 and agree to delete the default marker on loan 6 I will be taking this to the Financial Ombudsman.”)
Those examples are obviously made up – make sure they are accurate for your case!
Miss B says
Hi Dan,
Can I ask how long you waiting between your you first offer and second offer/
Dan says
Hi.
It was only a few days – first offer was 7/4/17. Rejected that and a second offer came on 12/4/17. Rejected that offer also.
Their final offer came back the next day which I accepted and refund was in my account within 2 days.
I think much of this is who you get dealing with the cases, how quick you respond to them, how reasonable you are and how polite you are to them (which I’m sure we all are).
Good luck!
Dan
John Bell says
Hi,
I just want to say thank you and your amazing website. I have used this site over the 6 months and I have been been refunded £12k for both PPI and payday loans that I have taken out in the past 6 years. Your website is clear and well written and I have found it invaluable. I am now debt free and the happiest I have been in years.
Many thanks
John
Nigel says
I am nearly in a position to receive a response from my adjudicator in regard of my Active securities complaint. (247 Moneybox)
Its the longest one going as it was originally raised in September 2016. The big delay was the 6+3 years ruling they they refused. Then that decision had to be made by an ombudsman. They said it could be looked at to include pre 2010 loans. So has anybody had any experience with this from 247 Moneybox on this type of particular 6+3 complaint? Or maybe any experience good or bad with the company?