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?
dave says
Emailed wonga last wednesday , confirming that I accepted their offer. Yesterday morning, I received an email from them to say as they had not heard from me the compliant was now closed. Spoke to them on the phone and they say they are having technical faults with a number of email addresses – resolved the issue with a staff member over phone but for anyone else trying to contact them they have advised me to use customercare@wonga.com, rather than complaints email.
On a side note, QQ 8 week deadline passed yesterday without any response……….am starting to fill online FOS details right now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
that’s worrying, thanks for letting us know
Rosie says
After Quick Quid rejected my initial complaint I went to FOS and they have offered £1,443.64. This is probably about half of the total interest I paid on all my loans but I have accepted and happy with that! t
They were between 2012-2015 so not as old. It has been with FOS for approx 2 months
I have complaints in to FOS for P2P, Wonga and Very too. Feeling very happy about the progress, I didn’t think I’d get much!
gillian says
the adjudicater agreed quickquid should refund me 6200 pound in intrest paid including 8percent intrest quickquid disagreed now it in going to ombudsman the thing is i would be willing to accept 50 percent of this offer would it be worth me telling my adjudicater to inform quickquid of this or would this go agaisnt me with the ombudsman i do think i take some blame for borrowing over and over ty
JOHN DICKINSON says
Hi Sarah,
I have just had a reply from Safe loans (13 loans over 2 years). They have basically said that the info and my credit score at the time was sufficient for them to give me the loans and they havee rejected my claim for the £700+ of intrest.
“In light of that guidance, SLL conducted its business on the basis that its customers also had a responsibility to ensure that the borrowing was appropriate for their circumstances, and to be open and honest in disclosing material information.
If you are now claiming that your loans were not affordable to you for the time in question, then your applications at the time of making loan requests must have been substantively inaccurate or untrue at the time they were provided. We certainly had no reason to suspect that this was the case”
I know you have a section on here about the pay day loan companies when they claimed you lied to them – but do you have a template letter (or a few lines) that I can send back to them?
Much appreciated
John
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh I wouldn’t bother to try to argue with them – just send your complaint to the Ombudsman.
Katie says
Pounds to Pocket have made me an offer of £3700 which I have accepted. Anyone know how long they take to pay into account. Also will they provide me with a breakdown so I can claim back tax ?
Many thanks
X
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They will provide you with a breakdown showing how much of the refund is the 8% interest and how much tax they have deducted.
Marty says
Just checked and I had 56 loans with wonga since 2011. I cant believe it myself but 56 is huge. I know I was paying back 1 loan with wage and needing another to survive the month. I should have a good case here as this is excessive isnt it?
Katie says
Yes definitely! I had around that amount. Just got a refund this week for £6500. Go for it, you’ve got nothing to lose. Mine was settled at adjudicator level. I originally sent my complaint mid January. They first offered me £3000 in April and I rejected and forwarded to the FOS. Good luck
Stefan says
Hi Marty,
You have a very strong case, very similar to mine. The adjudicator ruled in my favor and wonga should return all my fees all my loans.
Belle says
Just been offered an amount by Mr Lender that Im going to take. Last week they only offered £200 I said not good enough now its more than double. No reply yet from Payday U.K.
So pleased I saw this site mentioned on the Hot Deals site – amazing resource ?
Pete says
My response from Wonga, maybe of interest to some:
Further to recent correspondence received from the Financial Ombudsman Services with reference: *****, we are writing to confirm that we have investigated your complaint and our findings are set out in more detail below. Please accept our sincere apologies for the delay in responding to your complaint.
[edited out standard stuff they send everyone about their wonderful checks before giving loans]
In your recent complaint you suggested that you were experiencing financial difficulties and we should not have lent to you. As such we have considered your position at the time and have found evidence that you:
• fell into arrears with your loans
• continued to borrow over an extended period of time,
• advised us you were in financial difficulty,
• borrowed high loan amounts when compared to your stated income.
You have suggested that we acted negligently when providing loans, however, the UK courts will not generally consider a claim of negligence if the event happened more than 6 years ago. The dispute resolution rules set by the Financial Conduct Authority also state that complaints cannot be considered by the Financial Ombudsman Service if the complaint is made about something that happened more than 6 years ago, or if later, more than 3 years from when the customer should have realised there was a problem.
Given the above, we do not consider it appropriate to investigate your complaint about the loans sold more than six years ago. Furthermore, as this complaint relates to loans being unaffordable, we think it should have been clear that the loans sold more than six years ago were unaffordable by the time these loan accounts were closed.
However, having reviewed your complaint, we accept that the loans in the table below may not have been affordable given your circumstances.
Outcome
Based on the above, there may have been more that we could have done to assist you and so we have decided to uphold your complaint.
Additionally, we will also request for the redressed loans to be removed from your credit record. This may take up to 30 working days to be updated fully on your credit file.
We would like to offer £843.35 which is an amount equal to the interest and fees on the following loans:
23/10/2013 £198.13
24/08/2013 £151.81
28/07/2013 £167.09
27/06/2013 £186.32
19/01/2013 £140.00
Interest of 8% simple per year has been added to the total redress for each loan.
[deleted stuff on accepting offer or sending it to the Ombudsman]
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they are refunding 5 loans within the 6 year period. Were there other loans in the 6 years that they are not refunding? How many loans did you have that were over 6 years?
Me says
Just a query for those that have been through the FOS service already – I have 2 Complaints in with them currently, re QQ & Sunny. Both are with the same Adjudicator. I have been advised on the 19th June this year that: “This is the email confirming that I have requested the information from the business. They have 14 days to come back to us…” Obviously the 14 days is now up, so I guess it is just a waiting game to hear from the Adjudicator. Out of interest, what timescales have others on here experienced?
Danny Pittuck says
So I sent the below email to Payday UK
To whom it may concern
I am making a complaint to you about irresponsible lending. To help me explain the details, I would like a list of my loans, showing when they were taken out and how much was repaid when. Please note that I am asking for a Statement of my Account with you, not making a Subject Access Request.
Regards
They have since sent the below back and are refusing to provide me with any details of my previous accounts.
Many thanks for your recent contact.
This account currently has no sums due or payable. Therefore, we have no current obligation to provide a statement of account under Section 77 of the Consumer Credit Act as per Subsection (3) of Section 77 which states that the requirement under “Subsection (1) does not apply to – (a) an agreement under which no sum is, or will or may become payable by the debtor.”
Kind regards
Danny Pittuck says
Sara
What advice would you suggest I send back to them. Are they aloud to decline to send me details of previous loans that I have had with them.
Regards
Danny
lucy says
They never sent me my statements either, i eventually requested them from my adjudicator which she sent them to me.
I have had a reply from PDUK offering £250 but this is not in line with what my Adjudicator reccomended so i have rejected it and they have until the 10th July to respond.
I will also find out about the AMIGO loans i have sent to the F/O today, she wants to discuss it over the phone not just send me the letter like my other one did. I have a feeling it wont be upheld but i will have to wait and see.
From my experience you will be waiting a long time for any refund off PDUK. i originally complained in the first week of march.
Good luck!!
Paul Smith says
Hi Lucy,
What was the the result of your phone conversation with your adjudicator regarding Amigo loans?
lucy says
Hi Paul,
The Adjudicator did not uphold my complaint, she said because they never had to use my guarantor for a payment even if my payments were sometimes two weeks late and paid bit by bit they did not lend irresponsibly.
I didn’t really expect much as i have read that not a lot of cases have been won against Amigo. I am quite gutted though, after all the stress i was under to make the payments so my guarantor didn’t have to pay it.
Oh well i tried!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The fact you didn’t need to use the guarantor is not strictly relevant. The loan may still have been unaffordable for you… the question is whether Amigo should have known this at the start of the loan. If you think they should, then I suggest you ask for the case to go to the Ombudsman level.
lucy says
The adjudicator listened to our calls when i applied for the loan and said that i could clearly afford the repayments, im quite confused really as she has had my mums bank statements and mine and it shows i struggled to pay the repayments back and that my mum wouldn’t of been able to afford the loan.
She has closed my file now as she said an ombudsman is highly unlikely to disagree with her. so i just accepted her findings
:(
Anna says
Hi Sara, I’ve made a complaint to pounds to pocket and they request the following:
,,To help us with our investigation please can you provide us with any additional information which you would like us to consider in evaluating your irresponsible lending complaint. Such items could include:
• Bank statements from the time you held loans with us
• Pay Slips from the time you held loans with us
• Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances at the time you held loans with us”
Is this normal to give them my bank statements and pay slips? Requesting all of this, isn’t it a proof that they didn’t do any search when they have given the loan?
Dan says
Hi, I think the general consensus on this is to tell them that you want them to consider your complaint with the information that they have and you will be happy to provide the more information to the ombudsman if they require it.
I sent my bank statements and payslips to pounds to pocket and it made no difference they still rejected my complaint. Adjudicator ruled both loans were unaffordable and they disagreed. Went all the way to the ombudsman who agreed with the adjudicator. Once the final Ombudsman decision was made they were very quick to pay out. Hope this helps
Dan
Andy says
Hi,
So am I right in thinking that if I had a CCJ and was still given Pay Day loans I have a fair chance at getting some money back??
Thanks
A
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A recent CCJ is a good flag that you were in difficulty that a lender should have noticed – definitely helps a complaint.
A says
Thanks,
Will let you know what I get back.
A
A says
Hi,
So far had £3500 back fro 2 lenders, and still awaiting final responses from 3 excellent advice on this forum, my Credit file is also being wiped clean which is an added bonus from what I’ve had back so far.
Stick with it guys :-)
A
Miss B says
Hi Everyone
Got a final response from Paydayuk today so say they are unable to uphold my complaint. I have sent straight to the Ombudsman. Is this standard for Paydayuk or do they normally give an offer first?
lucy says
I had to take mine to the F/O it is still on going, the first offer through the adjudicator they didn’t agree with fully so i have rejected that and am waiting on a 2nd offer.
You might in for a long wait.
Good Luck
suzanne says
Have they said how long you will be likely to wait, our first offer isnt what we thought, we were expecting 4,600 and have been offered 4,072 but I cant be bothered with the wait and hassle so im accepting that offer.
Sal says
Dear Sara,
could you please help? I would like to ask you for some advice.
“Mr Lender” are offering me £399.00 as a settlement offer. is it a reasonable offer? Thanks
Table below explains the SOA.
date borrowed paid interest admin fees late fees total paid balance outstanding
1 26/09/2011 £350.00 £350.00 £105.00 £17.00 £0.00 £0.00 £472.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
2 26/10/2011 £400.00 £400.00 £120.00 £17.00 £0.00 £0.00 £537.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
3 25/11/2011 £450.00 £450.00 £135.00 £17.00 £0.00 £0.00 £602.00 £0.00 £0.00 £0.00
4 23/11/2011 £500.00 £394.00 £300.00 £7.00 £0.00 £70.00 £771.00 £0.00 £0.00 DCA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
so the last loan was sold to a debt collector? What happened to that?
Sal says
Dear Sara,
this explains it
Cheers
Loan 1 – your borrowed £350.00 and paid £105.00 in interest.You settled this loan on time on your contractual settlement date, paying no more than the total amount repayable stated in the attached.
Loan 2 – you borrowed £400.00 and paid £120.00 in interest. You settled this loan on time on your contractual settlement date, paying no more than the total amount repayable stated in the attached.
Loan 3 – you borrowed £450.00 and paid £135.00 in interest. You settled this loan on time on your contractual settlement date, paying no more than the total amount repayable stated in the attached.
Loan 4 – you borrowed £500.00, have paid £264.00 in interest and have an outstanding balance of £76.00 with third party debt collection agency MMF. You were due to pay £150.00 in interest on this loan however due to rolling over once you have paid more and also incurred interest and charges due to missed and late payments, meaning you have paid more.
Over all you have borrowed £1,700 and paid £624.00 in interest across all six loans. We have offered to wipe your balance with MMF and refund you on ALL interest paid during your last loan even though you signed and agreed to paying £150.00 in interest. This is due to you informing us of your circumstances and missing payments which could indicate signs of financially difficulty.
You first three loans were settled on time without requiring any help or support indicating to Mr Lender your ability to pay.
Upon acceptance of our most recent revised offer you would have borrowed £1,700 and repaid £360.00 in interest. This is just 21% in interest on the capital amount you have borrowed which is significantly below the 100% interest rate cap introduced the the FCA in January 2015 after your loans were take out.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They are offering to refund £399 AND wipe your current balance with MMF – is that correct? If that is right, some of the figures aren’t adding up.
They have described this as “refunding the interest on the last loan” – but you have only paid ££264 in interest on that. I think they are actually offering to refund the interest paid on the last two loans, which does indeed add up to £399, but they just haven’t described it that well.
£399 plus wiping your loan seems like a pretty reasonable offer to me. You could possibly get more by going to the Financial Ombudsman, but refunding all after the first two loans is a pretty common offer so you may well not.
If you feel it’s fair (and this is very subjective, it doesn’t really matter what I think) then in view of the number confusion I suggest you reply:
“I am a bit confused by your figures, but I feel an offer of a refund of £399 and also wiping my current balance with MMF is fair and I would like to accept that.”
Suzanne says
Just had an offer through the ombudsman from Wonga I just have to sign and send the form back
Lorr says
Really pleased the adjudicator has upheld my complaint with QQ, it was only for 1 loan but getting £420 back. QQ have agreed. Anyone know how long they take to refund please? Just got 29 with PDUK, a dozen with Wonga and loans with the cheque Centre to go, im feeling hopeful, thank you so much Sara, life is looking good ?
Sharon says
Hi Sarah
Are you seeing any particular pattern with Wonga agreeing with adjudicator decisions? So far the adjudicator has upheld Sunny and Lending stream both of which have had to go on to Ombudsman as the business didn’t agree. The adjudicator has just upheld my Wonga complaint and I’m wondering if they are more likely to agree?
Thanks
Sharon
suzanne says
Sharon I have just had Wonga make a lower offer than the ombudsman recommended but have accepted as im sick of waiting. I was expecting £4,600 and was offer £4,072
Katie says
I was offered £3000 initially to my original complaint letter at 10 weeks but I forwarded to the FOS who found in my favour all but my first loan. Wonga replied after 8 days and accepted adjudicator’s findings which was then £6500. Hope that helps.
Money was in my account 3 days later.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
From what I have seen there is no particular pattern. they don’t routinely reject cases. But they do reject some cases which are excellent and it’s really hard to see why.
Dave says
Looking through the comments and with my own current experience I wonder how much “investigating” the companies actually do when you complain.
Wonga rejected my complaint for 37 loans over a two and a half year period. If that doesn’t show dependnacy then what does!
Then Sunny who I had loans with over the same period but was slightly different due to their instalment options, they agreed one loan was miss sold. THat loan was a year ago so how the loans after that couldn’t be deemed as Miss sold too I don’t know!
It’s like they just picked a random loan so they could make a small offer!!
Anyway, they’re both waitimg for an adjudicator now. Wonga response was final but sunnys wasn’t so I replied asking the question of why only that one loan was unaffordable. Will see what they come back with.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you are right. I see a lot of these replies and they mostly have a template they just fill in a few bits into.
Lisa says
So i have had a reply from Mr Lender regarding my complaint, seems reasonable enough. Would you agree?
——————————-
We have reviewed your account and can see that you have taken out one loan with Mr Lender.
Due to non payment and very little communication your account was passed on to debt collection agency Motormile Finance (MMF).
We can confirm that you have paid Mr Lender just £30.00 towards your one loan with us.
The results of your credit check showed you had a credit score of 548. You also had no accounts registered as defaulting within 12 months prior to your application date.
[edited – employment details]
The checks we conducted were proportionate to the amount of capital borrowed and the results of these checks were deemed sufficient. The loan issued was under 20% of your monthly income and therefore affordable as per the information provided and confirmed by you.
It is for the reasons given within our investigation, that we do not believe we have acted irresponsibly and the loan issued was fair and should be affordable based on the information you provided at the time and the checks that were carried out.
However we can confirm that we have contacted MMF in regards to your outstanding loan, who have confirmed you still have an outstanding balance of £191.56 and you have repaid them £158.44.
As a gesture of goodwill we are able to request for MMF to reduce your outstanding balance down to £11.56, meaning you will only repay the capital remaining left that you borrowed and no interest on your loan.
As a further gesture of goodwill we will also be able to remove any adverse information from your credit file, if you inform us once your loan has been settled.
[edited]
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you disagree with any of their figures, that is a full refund. Good result.
Anthony says
Hello I received the following from wonga regarding my complaint of 27 loans, they haven’t upheld my complaint and their response has left me a little glum. I would pay one off and have to borrow again the following month. I would borrow between 400-500 each time.
———————————————–
[standard stuff they tell everyone edited out]
In your recent complaint you suggested that you were experiencing financial difficulties and we should not have lent to you. As such we have considered your position at the time and have found no evidence that you:
• took out a further loan immediately after repayment,
• borrowed high loan amounts when compared to your stated income.
We are not aware of any other factors that indicated unaffordability.
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.
Having looked in detail at your complaint and the information we had access to when we made our lending decisions, we have not found any indication that your loans were unaffordable. On that basis, we are unable to uphold your complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well ignore most of that – they send it to everyone. It sounds like a very good case – send it to the Ombudsman!
Dave says
Pretty much word for word the same as my response. Even though the loans WERE month after month and DID increase in amount.
Think it’s pretty standard response without them really looking at it! Have seen comments where people have been asked for bank statements and still got the same.
Let the FOS look at it! good luck!
Chris says
I have had so many payday loans and still have them. Credit score bad but earn good money but obciously cant get what i need to get out of a major hole. Can i go straight to the ombudsmen? Cos id have about 10 companies to complain too. MYJAR, QUICKQUID, WONGA, LENDINGSTREAM, PAYDAYUK, MR LENDER, SATSUMA, WAGE DAY ADVANCE, PIGGYBANK, SAFETYNET, MONEYSUPERMARKET and UNCLEBUCL plus other here and there. See my issue….they hve rinced me off thousands over last couple of years and my hole has not improved. Please advise
Sara (Debt Camel) says
As you are still borrowing, you need to escape from this trap first, then pursue the complaints and try to get money back. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/ which explains how. As part of that you cancel CPAs to all the lenders so they can’t take any more money from your bank accounts. It’s really important you stabilise your finances so you don’t need to borrow every month because these complaints can take a long to to get resolved – if you are still borrowing you may decide you have to accept a poor offer as you are desperate for the cash.
No you can’t go straight to the Ombudsman, you have to allow each lender 8 weeks to try to resolve your complaint.
Good luck with your complaints. About your list of lenders, MoneySupermarket is a broker, not a lender, so your complaint will be to the actual,lender, not the broker.
Eddie says
Update on Lendingstream refunds.
I finally have Ombudsman decision refund on day 28 after final letter. I called them myslef and chased it up and the person on the phone said there has been “a glitch” however I don’t think it’s true. Anyone waiting for LS refunds I suggest call few times over 28 day limit to remind them it is there.
Timeline for LS complaint:
I submitted this to FOS in March
Adjudicator then decided in LS favour within 3 weeks
Ombudsman picked it up in May
Final decision letter was on 8th June
So far my summary in 2017:
£1.7k from MrLender
£2.5k from Lloyds bank overdraft
£775 from Northway Financial (swift Sterling)
£38 from Sunny
£342 from Lending Stream
Remaining cases investigating since February:
MyJar and Wonga – both delayed due to 6 year rule issue. These are also potentially biggest ones with more than 140 loans between them
Thank you Sara for this website and help
Roch says
Hi Eddie, congratulations on all your refunds so far, can I ask how did lloyds go about your complaint as I’m currently in the process of waiting the 8 weeks etc. My complaint is about irresponsible lending basically they let me increase my overdraft from £60 – £2550 even though most was used for gambling anyway I logged in last week to see a credit of £629 which I think is the refund, I’ve been waiting weeks for their final response letter and just called today (4th time in 2 weeks) and they have said it’s been resent yesterday. What did you do and do you think that what they have done is sufficient or should I take them to the ombudsman once I get the final response letter. Thanks in advance x
Eddie says
Hi Roch
I first complained to Lloyds about the increase from £300-3000 limit within 6 months period when I was borrowing heavily from payday lenders. They came back denying any wrongdoing. I then submitted it to FOS and adjudicator ruled that the bank should have seen I was in a lot of trouble with payday lenders. I was also gambling from time to time but adjudicator said that the bank should not really be responsible for how overdraft is spent but on what terms and when they issue it to you (in my case they should have seen my borrowing history). Within 4 weeks from FOS I was contacted with a resolution and Lloyds accepted to refund all interest and charges from the day of increase. Money was in my account within 3 days. Good luck with your case!
Louise says
Hi Sara how do I go about getting the tax refunded?
Andrew says
Sorry for jumping on your post Louise, but have a question about tax being refunded.
I applied to the HMRC for it to be refunded but they replied saying I paid the correct amount of tax for the year and that was that.
It was for 16/17 tax year. I applied using the online form. It was around £70.00.Not a massive amount but just curious as to why they refused it.
Any suggestions Sara?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I can’t imagine why it was refused UNLESS you had a massive amount of other savings interest in that tax year, so you had already used your £1000 tax free element.
I suggest you ask them and I would be interested in the answer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Ryan Moore says
Good morning.
I have been informed i have an outstanding balance from Kapama Limited who bought the debt from a company called MiniCredit. I have been informed that MiniCredit no longer trade as requested by the FCA a few years back. I dont agree with the amount and have no record of my loans. Could you please advise how i can get hold of my statement of accounts from MiniCredit and how do i complain for unreasonable lending (if i can).
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to tell Kapama that you dispute the debt, ask them for a statement of account and put in an affordability complaint to them. Kapama won’t have any information about loans that were not sold to them so you can’t complain to them about those. Often the best that can be achieved in this sort of situation is to have all the interest removed from your balance outstanding, so you only have to repay what was originally borrowed (less, of course, any payments that you have already made).
You are unlikely to be able to get any redress from Minicredit – if you want to be sure, talk to the Financial Ombudsman about this.
Neil Massey says
Hi,
I have seen a few posts on here regarding overdrafts. I joined Halifax bank in 2014 with a £100 overdraft, each week i got paid i was spending my money on gambling which made me live in my overdraft and taking out payday loans to cover the costs, i have been occurring extra fees since then and occasionally even went into a unplanned overdraft. I have continued to gamble to present and have never been out my overdraft since. In late 2014, they allowed me to increase my overdraft to £750.00, which is where i have been ever since.
Is there anything i can complain about?
How would i go about complaining if i can?
Any help would be massively appreciated.
Neil
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can complain. If you look at today’s comments here, Eddie has talked about getting a refund from Lloyds which also involved payday loans and gambling.
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/. A lot of the points in that article are also relevant to overdrafts because they involve increasing a credit limit without making checks.
BUT it is harder to win these complaints so don’t get your hope up. Your overdraft doesn’t sound that large – Eddie’s was much bigger.
In addition to making a complaint, I think you should seriously consider getting a new bank account with no overdraft, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/overdraft/
Neil Massey says
Hi Sara,
Yeah i have read your link. Well i suppose it is worth a try whats the worst that can happen?
Love you site by the way. An update on mr Mr Lender claim, all be it a small one. Interest over 6 loans was £314.00
26/06/2017 – I sent the first email off.
26/06/2017 – Email back from Mr Lender same day stating 8 weeks for complaint.
27/06/2017 – Response from Mr Lender offering a goodwill gesture of £108.10 (Interest of my last loan)
27/06/2017 – I responded and advised i was not happy with their offer and would be contacting the Financial Ombudsman.
30/06/2017 – Response back from Mr Lender offering a further gesture of £198.98 (My 2 loans with most interest)
30/06/2017 – I responded again saying that i would like them to re-consider another offer.
03/06/2017 – Response back saying that they deem £198.98 to be fair.
04/07/2017 – Telephone conversation with Mr Lender stating i would like them to consider interest of another loan (£38.40)
05/07/2017 – Response from Mr Lender offering £237.38 as a final offer.
05/07/2017 – I accepted the offer and provided bank details.
06/07/2017 – £237.38 in my bank account :)
Harry Arnold says
I had two loans with Mr Lender they have refunded the interest.
My partner has had lending stream, peachy, and payday uk write off the loans that are in dmp remove the defaults from his crefit file and loan entries. payday uk has also refunded £200 because of customer charter, intrestingly all of them say they dont uphold the complaint but as a gesture of good will blah blah.
Sarah I have a question regarding money shop, in the store they asked me to write post dated cheques each of them being £100 x 5 and 1 for £50, each month for over 3 years they rolled them over. 1) they also did the exact same thing for my partner from the same joint account from the same cheque book which I found out they should not have done 2) at the time I wrote the cheque i was 2 years into an IVA and I told them that and they sad it didnt matter because they didnt credit check people my job was my credit was what the guy behind the counter said. Do I have a cause to complain to moneyshop?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The cheque based lending is exactly the same as payday loans – use the template letters above to complain to the Money Shop. Separate complaints from you and your partner.
BUT I want to check your IVA has finished? If not any refund goes to your IVA firm, not to you. Also it seems likely that you broke the terms of your IVA…
ian says
Hi, I discovered this page a week ago and sent out initial requests for SOA to various lender (Mr Lender, Sunny, Wage day Advance, quick quid, lending stream and Ferratum) . I have had SOA from Mr Lender, quick quid and wage day advance so far and replies from the others. I sent a sample letter to the 3 who provided SOA and the very next day Mr Lender offered £347.58. I had 6 loans with them and paid just over £1,000 in interest. I have accepted as it’s better than nothing and stops waiting for ombudsman allocation etc. Seems hassle free for pinging off 2 emails. Wage day advance and sunny are my biggest lenders in terms of loans and amount borrowed so be interesting to see what happens. Many thanks for this site…
Shellbell says
What’s peoples experiences with ferratum?
Do most complaints go to FOS?
Thanks.
Ross says
Hi Shellbell,
Ferratum were the first company to respond to my complaints and it was all done and dusted in 48 hours. They took all of the interest paid, from the 4 loans I paid with them prior, and used this to reduce my existing loan, which still had about 90% of the balance payable on it. They then wrote off the remainder as a gesture of goodwill. The lady who dealt with me, via email, was very kind, polite and understanding. She wasn’t , at any point, rude or condescending. Other PDL company complaints departments could certainly learn a lot from them on how to deal with complaints more sympathetically and correctly.
C says
Aujudicator has upeld my complaint to quick quid and suggested refunds from 3-8 and also all my flexi loan interest, date to reply was 23rd june but they didnt reply until last week saying they didnt agree and asked a load of questions, aujudicator has gone back, answered the random questions and explained it is still the same decision, they have until 11th lily to respond to this. Has anyone had quick quid agree after this and how long if they agree are the timescales for payment, this is my biggest payday loan refunds
Steve W says
Hi C. Adjudicator ruled in my favour for all but first 2 loans with QuickQuid. He told them to refund everything from loan 3-13 and my flexcredit account. They had until yesterday to agree and finally came back to him today to say they disagreed but would refund on certain loans as a new offer. I reckoned I’d paid about £2k in interest and then 8% on top. They’ve come back and offered about £1800 which I’ve decided to take as going to an Ombudsman could be another 6 months or so. So they may come back with some sort of offer rather than agree with the adjudicator
Steph says
I’ve seen a few people posting about Sunny recently and whether or not they agree with the adjudicator findings, so, logged my Sunny complaint with the FOS mid March, it was allocated to an adjudicator on Friday 23rd June
My adjudicator messaged me and Sunny on Monday 26th of June with her findings. Loans 1-5 deemed affordable, loans 6 – 11 deemed unaffordable and therefore a refund of all associated interest required.
Received an email today from my adjudicator confirming that Sunny have accepted this and asking for my agreement of a £1,001 refund. My calculations were a refund of £1,200 so I’m comfortable that the interest from the first 5 loans is low enough not to pursue at ombudsman level.
Looks like Sunny may be reasonable in some circumstances!
Good luck everyone. This website has literally changed my life. Thanks to Sara, I’ve so far received £16,000 in refunds for pay day loans and unaffordability complaints against a catalogue. In just 6 months I’ve gone from drowning in debt, and feeling very depressed, to almost debt free. It’s the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to start enjoying my life. Thank you
Neil says
Hi Steph,
Congratulations on your refunds!
In regards to your catalogue, how did you go about perusing a refund from them. Ive viewed the page on this webiste for this sort of thing but if you could give me a bit more information about it, it would be appreciated.
I have an account with Littlewoods, ive been charged late fees around 10 times and hae had a peyment plan with them, but they still increased my credit limit to £2400.
Thanks,
Neil
Steph says
Hi Neil,
Thank you! It’s been quite a success so far.
I followed the exact template on this website and then sent to the FOS at the 8 week point. If I’m honest, I get the impression these claims are a hit hit and miss and then main reason they refunded me is because they’d taken so long to respond and is involved the FOS.
I’ve subsequently raised a complaint against littlewoods, who I also had an account with and who also increased my credit limit.
I’d suggest getting your credit report from noddle as this will show you when the credit limit increases occurred.
Let me know if you need to know anything else – and good luck!
Steph
Roch says
Quick update my adjudicater has not upheld my complaint with My Jar as he says they did the proper checks and says it’s unlikely that the ombudsman will either. Oh well let’s hope it’s not the same for the other 6 complaints ?
Shellbell says
My adjudicator dismissed one of mine and I sent to the ombudsmen and she partially upheld it.
Don’t be dis heartened x
ross says
Hi there,
i was sequestrated back in 2005 and this was finished by 2008. I then took out some payday loans from 2009 onwards.
As these loans were after my sequestration can i make a claim and receive the refund without it going to the receiver?
Thanks,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. that won’t be a problem, any refunds should come to you. 2009 is over 6 years ago so these complaints may slow to resolve – get going asap, send to the Ombudsman if the lender says the loans are too old and try not to get impatient!
Darren says
Hi all,
Just thought I would add some info regarding the adjudicator stage. That’s 3 of my complaints (Express Finance, 247 Moneybox, CashEuroNet) all with an adjudicator.
Still waiting on my biggest one Wonga being assigned.
I have given the adjudicators all info they have needed and some back ground into my lifestyle at the time I had the loans (gambling). Feel that the more honest you are with them the more understanding they are when they are looking at your bank statements.
Today I have had a response with express finance complaint, upholding loans 2 through to ten, loans 1-9 were taken month after month or rolled over before setting a payment plan up to clear (circa 2012). Loan 10 was taken a year and a half later (2014) and was still upheld. Due around £1.5k back. This is my smallest claim so fingers crossed the others go the same way!!
I started my complaints at the end of March and now seem to be getting somewhere. It’s a long process but stick in everyone!!
Lisa says
Just received my 2nd response to one of my claims from MyJar (removed all the extra filler):
Decision
It is our view that your complaint should be partially upheld and we will now agree to close your outstanding loan without any further repayment and refund £174.11 to you. We sincerely regret any inconvenience caused.
All in all, we believe that MYJAR has acted responsibly in running all required checks prior to your application. However, having reviewed your account in light of your complaint, we admit we could have assessed your financial situation in further detail before issuing the loans to you. With this in mind, we would like to offer to close your outstanding loan (ID: 776329) and refund £174.11 to you. This is the exact amount of interest and charges that you have paid for both of your loans. We are unable to remove the entries from your credit file as we are now obliged to share accurate information with the credit reference agencies. Even so, we will be able to mark your loan as ’Settled’ as of the he date that it is closed.
Just to mention I have £82.39 outstanding on the last loan so all in all i think its a great outcome.
They have also asked for bank details to pay the refund.
Another pleasing outcome thanks to information from this site.
michellew says
Hi
Just received a letter from FOS saying that PDUK have now agreed to settle my claim with the loans over 6 years. They have said that they will not look at the first loan nor the 3 deferrals after that. Got my statement of account from them but its so confusing. Any how, anything is better than nothing and this will be such a help as I am expecting my first grandchild and can now help with things.
Thanks for the help on here.
Katie says
Quick update re Pounds to Pocket and Quick Quid. Last Friday Pounds to Pocket made an offer via adjudicator in response to her findings. £3700 went into my account last night and Quick Quid made an offer today in response to adjudicator’s findings of £4300. So pleased. Uncle Buck and Wage Day Advance in Obudsman’s queue now and just waiting now on Lending Stream and SNCredit.
So that’s £23,000 pounds back this year. Thanks so much everyone and especially Sara. I really didn’t think I would receive anything back as I always paid everything back in full and on time but it did get me deeper and deeper into a pay day loan cycle that lasted 5-6 years. So if you are at the start of your journey don’t be disheartened x
Stefan says
Still waiting for Wonga reply, but meantime Safety Net Credit and Vivus have written off my balance that I had with them. Really good news.
Thank you Sara for this great website.
Samantha says
I’ve taken 13 loans from QQ I have emailed them a complaint using the template on your website (very useful)
They replied in 5 days with the following detail… (short email)
“To help us with our investigation please can you provide us with any additional information which you would like us to consider in evaluating your irresponsible lending complaint. Such items could include:
• Bank statements from the time you held loans with us
• Pay Slips from the time you held loans with us
• Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances at the time you held loans with us”
I have all the information they require but I feel slightly reluctant to send it as I wouldn’t want they to try and use it against me, what do you recommend?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you don’t want to send this information (and someone recently had really sensitive, personal information totally ignored by QQ) I suggest you reply saying you would like them to look at your complaint on the basis of what they already know as your repeat borrowing should have suggested to them that you were in difficulty. Add you will supply the Financial Ombudsman with any details the FOS wants.
Pete says
Hi,
I had numerous loans with a company called Cashier between 2009 – 2012. The company was bought out by DFGUK (The Money Shop etc.) in 2013. The company is still registered etc but no longer has any shops.
My question is can i complain to the new owners (DFGUK) regarding irresponsible lending? Im really not sure if i can even do this given the loans were before they had ownership.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Putting in a complaint is going to be the easiest way to resolve this.
Steph says
2 more adjudicator decisions received today:
Quick quid – initially rejected my complaint with a £350 goodwill gesture. Sent to FOS. Once it was allocated to adjudicator QQ increased their offer to £2,100. Email received today that’s deemed loans 1, 5 and 7 affordable. 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8-11 unaffordable. Total refund of all interest plus 8% has been suggested to QQ by the adjudicator (works out approx £5,500) …. let’s see if they accept.
Lending Stream – initially rejected my complaint. Set to FOS. Only one instalment loan on this one which adjudicator has deemed unaffordable. Around £250 due back.
Fingers crossed they accept. Stay strong people, and keep persisting with these companies, it’s worth the wait!!
Paul Smith says
Evening all,
As my 8 week period since my initial complaints went in are up today I thought I’d update as to where I’m at. Mixed success so far, but I am confident that at the end of this process I’ll have a better looking crefpdir record and a better bank balance. So well worth the effort. Thanks again Sarah for this site!
Payday UK – refused to send me statement of account and rejected my complaint, currently waiting for an adjudicator.
Payday Express – refused to send me statement of account and rejected my complaint, currently waiting for an adjudicator.
Mr Lender – Refunded me £54.24 and removed a default from my account
Wage day advance – Offered £665 plus interest out of over £3000 paid. I’ve rejected this offer and referred to FOS. Currently awaiting an adjudicator.
Quickquid – Refused to send a statement of account and rejected my complaint, currently awaiting an adjudicator.
Pounds to pocket – Refused to send a statement of account and rejected my complaint, currently awaiting an adjudicator
Myjar – Rejected my complaint, adjudicator is currently reviewing this complaint.
Wonga – offered me £12.95 out of £850 interest paid. I’ve rejected this offer and referred to FOS. Currently awaiting an adjudicator.
Lending Stream – Offered me £37.95 which I would have taken, but they refused to remove the default from my credit file. Referred to FOS, currently awaiting an adjudicator.
1st stop loans – Haven’t had the decency to reply to my complaint. I will give them till Monday before referring them to the FOS.
1monthloan – This complaint was made two weeks after my others. No reply so far.
Jane says
I only had 7 loans with Wonga they outright refused my complaint, got an email from adjudicator stating that he thought all loans were unaffordable and have asked them refund interest and charges on all loans plus 8% minus the amount they wrote off. They have until 21/7 to reply hopefully they will accept :)
Chantelle Ashbolt-joseph says
Good morning, I was offered a refund on 27/6/17 by quickquid, I accepted the offer the same day, they didn’t reply to my acceptance and I have heard nothing from them since the offer.
How long should I give them? And if I don’t hear from them what should I do?
Thanks
Nick says
I would just give them a call tomorrow and just ask the question. When I asked in a nice way they told me it could be 28days but will probably be sooner and the money was in my account the next day
Thomas G says
Hi I have had my complaint with my adjudicator and she said that wonga should not of borrowed me 102 of the 106 loans I had with them. And she wrote to them with a time limit of the 27th of July to respond. They didn’t reply so she has given them another week before she submits her case to the ombudsman. Do you know how long roughly the ombudsman will have the complaint for and once agreed on an amount how long it will take wonga to pay me.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
102 out if 106 loans – wow! Do you know how much the interest adds up to? How old were these loans? It’s good to know roughly what the adjudicator’s award is in case Wonga comes back with an offer that sounds like a lot but isnt compared to the full award.
You said Wonga had unti July 27 – dud you mean June 27?
John Smith says
Hi,
Sunny came back to me two weeks ago to say that they will give me £67 as a goodwill gesture because I defaulted one of he loans and remove all entries from my credit file. They came back to me yesterday to say they haven’t had a response from me, I have passed this onto the financial ombudsman as I believe I am owned £900, should I tell them I have done this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, tell them you have sent the case to the Ombudsman.
Katie says
Has anyone made any irresponsible lending claims to Avant and Bamboo personal loans ? Just wondering as when I was authorised loans of £5000 from each of these companies I had multiple pay day loans ( these have all been upheld by the FOS since and have received refunds back ). As Avant had access to my bank account they would see I was making huge payments every month to pay day loans. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think these loans were unaffordable and that your credit records and (in the case of Avant) bank statements would have shown this, it is worth making a complaint. If you told the lender that the loan was to repay/consolidate payday loans then this is an acceptable reason for lending, but the loan still has to be affordable if you had used it to consolidate the payday loans – does that make sense?
Katie says
Yes thanks Sara. I’ll be paying them off this month with the proceeds of my payday refunds so I’ve got nothing to lose. Bamboo for example I took out the loan at the beginning of January I asked for a settlement figure which is £5300. I’ve paid £250 for 6 months but haven’t paid any of the capital off. So £1500 in interest alone on a £5000 loan over 6 months.
Chloe says
Hi have found your website really helpful! I have literally just today started the process by sending off an email asking for my loan statement details. I’ve had at least one (some more than one) loan with:
Wonga, quickquid, moneyshop, wageday advance, payday uk, payday express, speedy cash, minicredit, Zebit, mr lender, 247 moneybox, sunny, peachy, wizzcash and a barclaycard credit card and a littlewoods account. Majority of the time I was in most of this debt I had all of these outstanding at the same time. It wasn’t just paying one off and getting another one I just got into such a deep hole that I ended up owing to all of these at the same time! Some of these were rolled over and some I was just not able to pay so I was borrowing more to try and sort my money out and it obviously just became worse! All the time interest and charges were occurring. I’m still paying some of these off now unfortunately.
I was just wondering if you think I would have any chance in getting anything back? Also my credit rating as I’m looking to get a mortgage in the near future! Sorry for the essay! Quite a lot to explain thanks Chloe
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s a lot of lenders… the “best” cases are the ones you borrowed from the most. But it’s worth complaining even about single loans if your credit record was very poor when you applied if they were taken out in the last few years, when the lender should have been running credit checks. And also about any loans where there is a balance outstanding, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/.
If your credit record is now very bad, the chance if you getting it up to good with theses complaints isn’t large, because with such a lot of lenders you may not win them all. But it’s worth a try – what other option do you have!
Chloe says
Yeah most of them were taken out once I already had a couple that were being rolled over or I just wasn’t able to pay! One of those bury your head in the sand situation! Money shop I’ve had at least 4 from, 2 within 4 days of each other.
My credit rating is horrendous, it is getting better but at the time it was literally rock bottom!
Exactly that was my thought it’s always worth a try! How does it work in terms of credit cards and catalogues?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Credit cards & catalogues: see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-catalogue-credit-card/, these are MUCH harder to win than payday loan cases. I suggest you start with the payday loan cases to get a good feel for how these cases go first.
Lucy says
Just and update regarding my complaint against PDUK, the 1st offer throigh the adjudicator was £260. I worked out it should be at least £400. Rejected that and they rejected the 2nd offer. Now on the way to the ombudsmen. In what cases has the ombudsmen told pduk to refund all loans not just interest?
Thanks
Dan says
Hi Sara,
Got my offer from sunny on the 8 week deadline. I only had 2 loans with them and they offered to refund £500 from the one big loan and not the other one. I found this offer reasonable so I said I would accept if they remove the 2 defaults off my credit file (1 default for each loan). That was 11 days ago now and no reply? Tried ringing but it always says the one who is dealing with my case is in a meeting. Anyone else had this problem? And Sara do you think they would be willing to accept to remove all negative information for me to go away?
Mole says
Help please. Got this response today from Wonga after 7 weeks.
We would like to offer £851.03 which is an amount equal to the interest and fees on the following loans:
30563191 31/10/2011 £302.72
28229482 30/09/2011 £312.72
25883497 31/08/2011 £235.59
total interest and fees £851
8% interest net £314.08
total settlement £1,165.11
One part said they could see the loans over 6 years were unaffordable but they didn’t consider loans over that amout of time. Will the FOS
Here is my loans list.
Loan £1,091 Interest £651.57 Date26/06/2013
Loam £999 Interest £297.22 Date30/11/2011
Loan £1,010 Interest £296.22 Date 31/10/2011
Loan £875.00 Interest £219.09 Date 30/09/2011
Loan £400.00 Interest £107.70 Date 31/08/2011
Loan £300.00 Interest £81.36 Date 29/07/2011
Loan £660.00 Interest £187.40 Date 30/06/2011
Loan £400.00 Interest £48.77 Date 01/06/2011
Loan £130.00 Interest £28.07 Date 28/04/2011
Loan £560.00 Interest £217.52 Date 31/01/2011
Loan £648.00 Interest £383.81 Date 23/12/2010
Loan £651.00 Interest £129.50 Date 29/10/2010
Loan £526.00 Interest £125.81 Date 30/09/2010
Loan £493.00 Interest £45.00 Date 31/08/2010
Loan £200.00 Interest £14.19 Date 30/07/2010
What would you do? Any advice please?
Cheers
ohrlys says
Hi Sara
Thanks for all your valuable advise here. I got some amazing refunds from Mr Lender, Cash Genie, and awaiting for whooping £ 1000 from Wonga. I returned my settlement for to Wonga on July 5, as of this time I have not receive any messages or returns from them. I emailed them again saying that I have submitted the settlement form but as of now they seems to be ignoring any messages. Does anyone here has the same problems with wonga? How long do they transfer refunds to your account? Its worrying that it takes them that long to process refunds..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Phone them up – there are reports they have been having problems with their email system.
Rob says
Hello I’ve had a loan back in September 2012 with Mr lender the loan amount was £200 I have on my bank statements that on or around the 22nd of each month there were payments taken of £60 for 4 months and £67 for the last, I had a letter today From a debt collection agency saying that I owe £350 and that they are going to take me to court I phoned them and told them that I’ve made payments on this and it’s paid off and they replied that they have no records of me ever making a payment on it, what should I do
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you have any other loans with mr Lender around this time? How clear is the letter from the debt collector which loan is referred to?
michellew says
Hi
I had various accounts with cash checking places, would cash up to 750.00 per month and roll them over for 3 months and then take them out again, the companies I had were Money Shop, H & T, Ramsdens and Herbert Brown.
I have claimed and received a refund from H & T, Money Shop are in a queue to see if they will look at loans over 6 years old (PDUK have just agreed to look at these loans, so fingers crossed) but I have never seen anybody claim back from Ramsdens and Herbert Brown, could you please let me know if I can do this.
Thank you
Michelle
James says
Hi Michelle
I was wondering how you got on with H&t I have just made a complaint about a payday loan and a rip off loan over 12 months.
Many thanks
Michellew says
I had no problem with h snd t took about 5 weeks. Its money shop im waiting for as i used it from 2009 to 2013
Rich says
After starting my complaints against Wonga, paydayUk, payday express, unclebuck, moneybox247 in October I have had my final settlement from payday express this morning. Only payday express and payday Uk went through to adjudication and one to FOS all ruling in my favour. This has been the most stress relieving experience of my life and puts an end to what a mess I was in at the end of 2013. On total I have had refunds just short of 5k which is more than I ever expected. My biggest piece of advice is to be patient and chase when you know they are playing the game at the Ombudsman stage. I will never forget having a conversation with payday express and telling them that I would have been happy with credit references to be removed as a settlement – with them refusing it has cost them many to object and over 600 pounds in refund to me by the end of this week. It pays to wait and be patient and don’t necessarily accept the first offer. I did with wonga as I thought it was fair. Good luck to everyone in this process and who are starting it’s easy just have the right power work a good argument and you will be fine. Legislation needs to come now from government to help everyone who might not be aware of this as I’m sure there are many out there in the same trap. Thanks to this website and the clear advice for all the help in getting these results.
franco says
has anyone had any luck with cheque centre? I contacted them asking for a loan history months ago and they never got back to me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes some large refunds last year from them, mostly via the ombudsman. Did your request for a loan history say you were making an affordability complaint?
Lorr says
I got a reply within 7 weeks, they upheld my complaint and refunded in full, money was in my account 4 days later.
David Reay says
Hi all
I’ve put a complaint in against wonga. I have had 15 loans from them. I’ve given them 8 weeks which end to day. Still heard nothing from them so going to ombudsmen. Lending stream is already with ombudsmen which I had 10 loans with them they refused outright.
Quick quid and pounds to pocket which I have had 13 loans with have two weeks left till there 8 weeks are up.
They did send email asking for bank statements the 30 minutes later another email saying disregard first email. Which I thought was strange. Has anybody else had to wait full eight weeks and had no reply from lenders thanks
Great site
Joe says
Good afternoon,
I have a number of complaints which are currently with the FOS relating to loans from 2011-2016. My question is regarding an Amigo Loan which I have not lodged a complaint with as I note there are slim chances. On thinking about this though I wondered what others might think of the chances of having my complaint upheld (I’m firmly aware that you do not have a crystal ball, I just wanted a more informed opinion than my own).
I took my Amigo Loan out amidst owing many other payday loans, Amigo were made aware that this was the case as I was looking to consolidate the loans. My complaint revolves around the phone call I had regarding affordability. My initial figures they say made a loan unaffordable for me. They then asked me a number of times to revise my budget, shaving money from different factors such as travel, food, clothing etc. until a figure was reached where their systems deemed the loan affordable. This is point #1. Secondly, when I entered a StepChange repayment scheme, they suggested they would chase my guarantor up for payment unless I continued payments I had said indicated were unaffordable. I do wonder whether point 2 is standard practice for them and therefore not part of any complaint I have.
As mentioned, I’m simply wondering if it’s worth pursuing a complaint against them from people smarter than I. Many thanks, keep fighting the good fight Sara!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How much was shaved off? And did you agree that your expenditure was actually lower or that it could be reduced? I think it’s probably worth a go because of this point.
But your point two is standard. That is what a guarantor is there for. Would the guarantor loan have been affordable for the guarantor do you think?
Joe says
The loan was definitely unaffordable for the guarantor as he threatened to beat me up if I stopped paying (in a brotherly, loving fashion of course.) The conversation was around 3 years ago so I can’t remember the exact figures but I recall being asked to lower my budget by around £50-100 for a number of items. I recall the phone operator saying things along the lines of “That’s not low enough, is there anything else where you could lower your expenditure, say fuel?” I would have agreed to any budget if it meant getting the money at the time and I presume I’d have had to sign something to ‘ok’ the budget? If I were to complain, is it this that would essentially form the crux of my complaint or simply the fact that my figures showed initially that my budget made the loan unaffordable? Any advice is gratefully recieved.
Gareth says
Hi everyone just looking for a bit of advice regarding sunny I’ve taken out 16 loans since dec16 I’ve borrowed 2350 and to date I’ve repaid 2630 and I still have 664 outstanding to pay by arrangement is it worth putting a complaint in as I was paying back and reborrowing the same day on more 6 loans at one point in Feb I made 7 payments in 1 day and reborrowed same day should they have realised that day I was in trouble and refused further credit?
ross says
I had 40+ loans from the same company over 4 years. Total interest £4000+. Ongoings way larger than what i had coming in, plus i was gambling, no excuse on my part… Also took out £2k plus loan from same company at end to try and clear my feet. Ended up with CCJ and various defaults against me various other doorstep lenders that i also plan to claim against. Also missed some payments from the last loan.
So hoping for a fair bit back…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely worth complaining!
Nick says
Had my adjudicator on to me today… they asked me some in depth questions about pay day express and the jurisdiction as 12 of my 19 loans are over 6 years..she said she should have some news for me this week. I have already had a refund off the ombudsman for pounds to pocket. Wonga, uncle buck with adjudicators. Qq, early pay and payday UK still waiting for a word from the FOS.
Has any one had any success with loans over 6 years? From 2009- 212 I was pretty much borrowing off 8+ companies every month
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes some people with loans from the PD Express group have had payouts for loans over 6 years.
Nick says
I have had 19 loans pretty much back to back from pde..as well as all the other companies i was lending from.
I had 11 large loans ( 1200) each time.from qq, 24 loans pduk, about the same from epdl, 6 uncle buck and around 10 wonga
My jar, lending stream paid out at first complaint .
Tom c says
How long did you have to wait for an ombudsman for the pounds to pocket case?
Nick says
Adjudicator said it was affordable in march, went to Ombudsman same time, they said it was unaffordable, they paid out last week… About 3 months all in all.
Paid out within 4 days too.
warren says
Hi everyone just had this as a final responce from lenderstream. What does this mean
Resolution :
Having said above, we believe that Lending Stream has behaved responsibly in approving these loans and has dealt fairly. Hence, we would not be able to refund any interest and charges.
We also find it worth mentioning that Lending Stream never retreat in extending their support and ensures that we provide appropriate help, whenever required. Hence, we would like to extend our support and are ready to accept only the remaining principal balance (Amount borrowed – Amount paid) on your loan agreement numbers 3292851, 3298804, and 3314866, thereby, waiving the entire interest and charges incurred on the accounts.
Hence, we are ready to close the aforementioned loans without any further payments.
We consider this as our final response to this matter.
You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge –
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Warren, do you know how many loans you had from Lending Stream? Are there three loans that have not yet been repaid? They are offering to wipe the balance on those loans but not refund anything.
That could be a good offer, but it could be pretty poor. Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/ about this sort of situation.
If you don’t have full details of loans, tell them you can’t consider their offer until they send you a list.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Tor, thanks for your comment. It’s an interesting argument, but a bit off topic for this page so I won’t publish it.
Going forward, additional details might be helpful. What was affordable for you changed over time. At the same time did the lender’s view on affordability change? Can you describe this (how? credit records won’t give the full picture, what else?) for just one or two loans. Chose one where you were surprised to be given a larger loan knowing what you had previously told them.
In a complicated situation, specific details about just one loan can be effective in painting a picture that can then be generalised. This is more useful to someone looking into your case than citing legal precedents. You know what happened was wrong. So will the person looking at your case – they just need to understand what happened and how, they don’t need it to be cross referenced to FCA CONC rules.
Sonia says
Thank you Sara! I have now got an email back from one lender. I don’t believe they checked my details out beforehand as I’ve always had bad credit so not sure how to reply back to them-
Dear Sonia
Thank your email we can confirm that you have had one loan with Mr Lender, which was passed to a third party debt collection agency due to non payment.
We can confirm that all checks were carried out in line with the company’s responsible lending policy. All of the assessments conducted by Mr Lender were completed in accordance with regulatory requirements and guidance at the time of your loans.
We are not currently conducting a redress to customers however, in order for us to investigate your account further, could you please provide us with more details as to why you have been dissatisfied with the service you have received from Mr Lender.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I don’t believe they checked my details out beforehand as I’ve always had bad credit” that is half of what you say – can you be specific about what was wrong with your credit record “you should have seen recent defaults/CCJ/several debts in arrangements to pay”? The other half is saying they didn’t enquire properly about whether you could afford this debt. Have a look at the template letter in step 2 above and change it so it’s clear you only had one loan from them (remove the bits about amounts going up etc.)
These cases aren’t as easy the ones where you have borrowed a lot from the same lender. Winning in these cases consists of the lender agreeing to remove the interest from the outstanding debt. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/ and make sure you tell the debt collector about the complaint.