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?
Mark says
Hi,
I am about ready to put a claim Wongas way for irresponsible lending, I believe I’ve got a very good case but I do currently have a PDL with them, it’s due for repayment on the 4th of August.
Should I pay that off and then submit the claim or should I just send it anyway?, I’ve been using them regularly for the past 7-8 years sometimes re borrowing the same day or a few days later, not once have they questioned the fact my credit score is shot or that for the entire time I’ve had a DMP with most of my other lenders.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you pay them on August 4th, can you get through the next month without borrowing? If you can’t, then you should stop the last payment, tell your bank to cancel the CPA.
Mark says
Thanks Sara,
If I get the bank to cancel the CPA I expect il get bombarded with Emails,texts,letters etc which isn’t a problem but how do I respond, should I just ignore them or shall I state that I filed a complaint regarding irresponsible lending on the date I sent the email and have cancelled the CPA pending the outcome.
Thanks
Mark
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Basically, yes. But it’s a good idea to offer to pay an amount you can afford without causing you problems for the rest of the month.
Tom says
Quid Quick have supplied me with my history of loans and have requested the following information. Pay Slips from the time i held loans. Bank statements from the time I held loans and any other financial information I can provide.
Should I provide any of this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can if you want, but many people don’t see why they should provide this to a lender who doesn’t seem to make good offers… so you may prefer to tell them to consider the case on the basis of what they already know and you will supply any further information to the Ombudsman if necessary.
Gavin says
Hi, I’ve had an adjudicator decide I should be paid for loans from WDA and LS, However they both disagree with the adjudicator and the complaints have gone to ombudsman. Is it likely I will get some sort of offer off them in the meantime? And how long before an ombudsman decision is likely.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
An offer is possible. They aren’t firms that routinely do this with most cases. Waiting times for the Ombudsman vary a lot, some recent cases seem to have been a couple of months, but three or four is more common. (Assuming none of your loans are over 6 years old.)
Vijay says
I had two cases clearly decided in my favour by Adjudicators (Quick Quid and PayDay Express) but decisions were rejected by QQ and PDExpress on 23 May 2017. These cases passed to the Ombudsman. Yesterday I gave the Ombudsman a call to see where things are and he said that the QQ complaint went into the Ombudsman queue on 17 July (?) and the PayDay Express one was already in the queue. He said that right now they are overwhelmed by Payday loan cases so expect to wait “several months at least” (November or December). Disappointed in QQ and PayDay Express: remorseless and dishonest.
anon37 says
I have asked for a account statement from Wonga, how long does it take for it to be sent in most peoples cases?
Chris says
They wont always send you it!
Keep an eye on the 8 week mark, and if you dont hear anything, send it on to the FO
anon37 says
thats disappointing, its been a week since i logged the the complaint, i have a reference number but nothing else.
Vicki Martin says
I got a reference number from Wonga a few weeks ago when I sent my complaint in and asked for a Statement. I received a statement from them on Monday, so a few weeks later. Still waiting for a final response on my complaint. They have a few weeks left to respond.
Lee says
For wonga compliant
I requested all my bank statements from my Bank for past 6 years.
Then I went through all 6 years worth of statements to present. Thankfully all my Payday lending with Wonga started from July 2012 so covered all my lending.
I wrote down and put on a spreadsheet the following
Date (One column)
Loan Amount Borrowed (One Column)
Total Paid Back (One Column)
note down all your findings. All transactions clearly will state Wonga in transaction column unlike some others so easier to see.
Then double check once completed.
Then use the Auto calc on each column to total up the amounts at bottom of spreadsheet
I had borrowed 121 loans / top ups in 31 months and borrowed total of just over 29k.
Provide this in your wonga review. and calculate interest from difference borrowed to total paid back.
Request wonga pay this back plus 8%.
You can then submit this as supporting information if you have to refer to the FOS after 8 weeks.
Lucia says
Finally! A success! FOS emailed me yesterday about my complaint with PDUK. I had 27 loans with them, some over 6 years old. I complained in March. They never issued a SOA but the adjudicator has emailed to say PDUK have offered to refund all interest on loans 2 onwards plus 8%. This is without going to an ombudsman and is their first offer. SO chuffed. I have no idea how much it will be but as its for 26 loans, it will be a fair whack. I have asked them to send me their full details of their calculations too.
Thanks Sara so much for this website. Now I have Wonga and Quickquid to contend with…. out of interest how long do PDUK usually take to pay?
Gemma says
I’m in exactly the same situation, had the email today re PDUK which was with FOS compliance team. Really chuffed although have responded that is reliant on their figures being in the same ballpark as mine! Just waiting on wonga, QQ and 24/7 that are all with compliance due to being over 6 years old – thanks Sara and everyone on here!!
Lucia says
Same with me! My 247 has actually been referred because they disagreed with the adjudicator. But QQ and Wonga both over 6 years so in for the long haul. Good luck.
Maggie says
Hi Gemma
Have you had the figures from PDUK yet? I’ve been advised from the FOS that there is an offer but don’t know what the amount is, and was told PDUK could take 28 days to even tell me that! I’ve told the FOS i’m waiting to hear from PDUK before i accept anything.
Maggie says
Hi Lucia
Have you received the breakdown from PDUK yet? I had a similar email from FOS advising me they could take 28 days to come back to me with the figures?
Regards Maggie
sam says
I would like to update you all, and again thanks for this page.
I submitted complaints on the 8th June to a few companys. some of which I knew I borrowed from but couldn’t remember how many loans.
payday uk came back straight away, with a response I was ok with, only had 2 small loans, both affordable but thought I would try
Satsuma still haven’t come back to me, now 7 weeks
wageday advance came back within 4 weeks, I had loans for 2 years, every month with these and they still said it was ok and that they were seeking the final 100 from me, sent straight to ombudsman, awaiting an adjudicator
and finally sunny have come back to me today, these were the ones I have used for 3 years, having 3 loans open at all times, I still had a balance of £600, they have agreed some loans were unaffordable, and have refunded interest on these and the 8% with equates £570, and will write the last £30 off so I owe them nothing and will update my credit file.
I am happy with that outcome as I now owe them nothing, aaaaaah relax. but.. I cant help think more of them were actually unaffordable, Sara, can I still send to the ombudsman? or can they get annoyed and retract what they have said? I paid overall around 2500 in interest
again though, thanks sooooo much to this page. everyone- be patient! it will work out :)
anon37 says
how many loans in total with sunny? £570 of £2500 including the 8% seems like 20-25% of the total interest overall.
sam says
oh god, ALOT. they didn’t send me a statement of account though… When I first emailed I went through and listed them all, to which took me that long I even put ”you get the jist” there were that many. I have replied asking if that’s the final offer as it didn’t state final…..atleast for now I owe nothing. they only deemed 4 loans unaffordable, so its the interest on them refunded
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you already accepted their offer?
sam says
i haven’t. but there wasn’t an option to accept, it was just, we will write off the existing money, we will wipe off credit file, if your not happy contact the FOS. I have replied saying thankyou- but is there anything else you can do and review?.. then gave the list of reasons
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you don’t want to accept you need to get back to them ASAP and say that you have thanked them for their offer but you have decided not to accept it and are sending the case to the FOS today. Refunding 4 out of “a lot” doesn’t sound reasonable.
Paul says
some payday loan companies are asking for a copy of my credit file. how do i send as i only have access to my noddle account ?
Lee says
Refuse to send credit file to payday providers
. They could use this information to say credit checks were done at time which were not. Email back to tell them that as part of your compliant relates to the fact you don’t believe proper credit checks were conducted at time of inital lendinf you are not providing this information now to them. However state you submit this to the FOS if unable to satisfactory settle your compliant within the 8 week timeframe. Also state you should know my credit report details of proper affordability checks were conducted at the time of lending.
This applies to credit reports and bank statements. Only provide these to financial ombudsmen service.
Cmum says
Just as a guide to timelines for people complaining to wonga.
Complained in mid May directly and after 2 weeks they said no. Sent to FOS immediately. Picked up by adjudicator mid June. Just received reply from adjudicator to say all loans were unaffordable and have requested wonga refund interest on them all (loans 1-11 taken over 9 months) plus the 8% and remove all traces from credit file. Wonga have until 10th Aug to agree/disagree.
I’d been so deflated when wonga were quick to say no and would never have had the gall to send to FOS had it not have been for this thread. Thankfully the adjudicator completely agreed with me. In total the interest should be around 1500 plus the 8%.
Just a note – I had a gambling issue at the time and the adjudicator included it as part of my monthly expenditure without disclosing that it was gambling. They advised wonga that they didn’t go far enough into looking at whether it was affordable (they’d only asked my income and done a basic credit check). In particularly loans 3-11 as they were doubling each consecutive month so even though 1 & 2 were unaffordable from the get go they should certainly have been looking into my reliance by then.
Fingers crossed they agree with the adjudicator!
Louise says
Hi, just to let you know Wonga did take six weeks to come back to my adjudicator with an offer. I understand they are slow in responding due to volume of claims. Everyone seems to have different experiences, but just wanted to say so your not dissapointed if you don’t hear by the two week mark. :) you will hear its just a frustrating wait. Good luck!
MH says
Hi Sara,
My Adjudicator has just replied after looking into my bank statements and is assessing an affordability complaint. He asked:
“I’m currently looking into your complaint against Sunny loans and I can see on your statements that on top of your salary, there are also some large payments coming in from xxxxxxxxx. Was this another salary or refund? If you could let me know it’d be very helpful, thanks.”
I have replied and told him that this was an additional adhoc part time job, with a zero hour contract.
I feel that he is going to come back and say these loans were affordable due to this additional income. I have already made him aware of the multiple online gambling transactions I had and the repetitive lending by Sunny which i feel he should be focusing on more?
Any ideas comments welcome.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well the loans do have to be unaffordable to get a refund. Let’s take an extreme example – on person tried to get a refund after borrowing from the same lender every month for a year. During that time she was living with her parents and saving a couple of hundred a month into an account for a deposit for a mortgage. the adjudicator decides the loans were affordable.
Can you pick a month in the middle of your borrowing when there was a large extra payment coming in and work through your bank statement for that month. You will have repaid Sunny, then borrowed again. What would have happened if you hadn’t borrowed again? Would you have been unable to pay important bills, or would you have had DDs, STOs rejected?
clive says
Yay….just .had an adjudicators decision not to uphold a complaint overturned by the Ombudsman. Just goes to show (it may not happen often) but sometimes it worth going the whole distance and not necessarily accepting what your adjudicator says. :)
details: I had 7 consecutive instalment loans with Uncle Buck. Not for large amounts £200 up to £350. The adjudicator said that although Uncle Buck didn’t make sufficient affordability checks that even if they had done so she thought the loans would still have been affordable and therefore didn’t uphold the complaint.
I disputed this and it went to the ombudsman who has now decided 2 of the 7 loans were in fact unaffordable. A small amount (about £200 ) to be refunded but still a result.
Timeline: The adjudicators decision was made on 9th May 2017 and the ombudsman decision on 27th July, so about 11 weeks in total.
Neil says
Wonga haven’t replied by the date given by the adjudicator so it’s gone to the Ombudsman, Quick Quid offered a refund on last loan only before it’s been looked at by the FOS but won’t consider previous 6 loans that are over the 6 years. Offer is £1000 (including 8%) however total interest on all loans is £2400. Looks like a long wait to see if Quick Quid will reconsider the 6 year rule on the loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It may not be that long a wait – at some point there will be a resolution to this QQ v Ombudsman standoff.
Louise says
Wonga replied to me adjudicator after six weeks whilst I was in the que for the ombudsman. They made me an offer that I have accepted, good luck!
Sal says
Hi Sara,
your advice please.
Cash converters offered me a settlement yesterday BUT did not include the 8% statuary interest element.
I asked them about the 8% since this loans dated back to 2012 may!
They have replied and said that the 8% is recommended and not statuary. The letter I received is the FINAL offer!
what to do if you were in my shoes?
thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It looked like an excellent offer because they were refunding all the interest you paid AND writing off large outstanding loans.
Tom says
Quick update on one of my accounts to help people with timescales. (This one is with MrLender).
Monday 17th July – requested statement of accounts
Saturday 22nd July – received SoA
Sunday 23rd July – sent irresponsibile lending email
Thursday 27th July – email with MrLender’s response offering me the interest and charges back on 1/2 debts (£350 in total, the first loan was a lot smaller so I didn’t think for the sake of £40 it was worth escalating to FOS.)
Bank account details sent and they said the funds should be with me in 3-5 days. As simple as that! Very impressed.
Terry says
just thought I would give you an update. My 70 Wonga loans from between 2012 to present I paid interest and fees totalling £7300.
Wonga have contacted me 6 weeks after my initial complaint offering £5,694.27. Plus 8% interest is £7200.
They have only refunded my loans from Feb 2012-Nov 2014 when the FCA made them tighten up on their lending rules. Now I did still borrow another 25 times after 2014 however the most I was able to borrow from them with the new rules was only £400 as opposed to the £1000 i used to be able to borrow and a lot of the time my loans after 2014 were for only between £170-£400, the total interest i paid on these loans was £1032 so i thought this was a very fair offer considering. What are your thoughts on this, do you think i made the correct decision in accepting their offer or do you think i should’ve held out and went to the ombudsmen for the other £1032 plus the 8% annual interest that i would’ve also got? They have now processed my refund email that i sent back to them and i got an email from them tonight saying the money will be in my bank in 3-5 days!
QuickQuid have less than 2 weeks to get back to me so i will let you know how i get on with them. They actually contacted me within a few days of my complaint asking for wage slips and bank statements, i didn’t reply as i don’t think i need to provide/help them with that, i will give them to the ombudsmen if it goes that far.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I have edited and put together your really long comments.
As you are being offered a refund which is equivalent to almost all the interest you paid and about 85% of the maximum you could have got, it looks like a good offer to me. But that’s a personal opinion, what matters is if it seems fair to you.
Yes you may have been able to get more by going to the Ombudsman – plenty of people have had a refund for post 2014 Wonga loans – but as your loan amounts were a lot lower it is possible the Ombudsman would have thought these were affordable so it’s not guaranteed.
Terry says
Yes sorry I can waffle on a bit lol. I am very happy with the offer and I tend to agree with you in that after 2014 the 25 loans I had only averaged out at around £300 I am sure the Ombudsmen would have seen the majority of these as ‘affordable’ anyway. Actually can’t believe that Wonga have refunded me with almost all the interest and the compensatory 8% interest too. I took your advice and only focused on one or two of my main payday lenders to begin with which were obviously Wonga and QuickQuid but I have had loans out at the same time with Mr Lender, Lending Stream and WDA albeit nowhere near the amounts I had with Wonga (70) or QQ(30). QQ now have less than 2 weeks to get back to me so hopefully more good news ahead! I will then set about claiming refunds with the other lenders I named above.
Lee says
Terry I think this was a good offer to accept. My Wonga one still got 1 week till 8 week deadline is up.
Had 121 loans between July 2012 to Jan 2015. Borrowed just over 29k in the 31 months. This gives me hope I’m going to get a decent offer without need to go to FOS.
Will keep you all posted in a weeks time. I did phone them 2 days ago for update they said it’s in final stages of giving me an offer the guy sounded very positive but said he couldn’t disclose the amount to me until it was officially finalised their end but to expect it before the 8 week deadline as Wonga apparently answering complaints currently in 8 weeks following recent earlier delays stated by others 4 or 5 weeks back.
michellew says
Hi
Does anybody know how long it takes for PDUK to pay. I sent my acceptance form back 3 weeks ago. I know they have 28 days in which to pay but I was hoping for it earlier (lol)
Thank you
David says
I got mine within 5 days without contacting them at all. They got InTouch with me. But payday express which was agreed at the same time is at 17days… Very odd complaints team considering they deal with both company’s.
Jacob says
Hi all
I’ve sent two complaints in to PDUK and QQ about 4 weeks ago. The majority of my loans were 7/8 years ago. Looking at the latest comments it looks like PDUK are now starting to pay out on loans over 6 years old but QQ are still playing hard ball. I’m fully expecting to have to take the QQ to the FOS but I am more hopeful PDUK will uphold my complaint. I’ve just had that standard email at the 4 week point saying that they are still dealing with it and will get back to me by week 8. From experience does anyone know if this is a good sign and that I have a good chance of the complaint being upheld as I’ve seen a lot of rejections are quick?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think anyone has reported getting an offer from PDUK for loans over 6 years old without going to the Ombudsman – but their policy may be changing so you could be the first!
Jacob says
Thanks for the reply Sara. I was looking at Katrina’s comment from 25 July 11:47am. Reading it again it did go off to the adjudicator but PDUK came back with an offer including interest from loans over 6 years old. If this is the case I’m not sure how they can come back and say they aren’t looking at loans from over 6years ago after agreeing to pay out on some. Suppose it’s a case of waiting to see what they say and going to the adjudicator then.
Tom says
It’s because they’ll give you a settlement fee which is less than you’d probably get if you escalated it to FOS. It seems sometimes they try and “pay you off” earlier. If you read some comments, people were offered £200-£300 and they took it to FOS and were awarded 10x that.
Don’t be put off by small amounts of cash like that, I realise £300 is a lot of money, but sometimes patience can give you 10x that.
Hope you get what you deserve.
Michael says
I received this today regarding my 8 complaints with various companies ( 8 of these emails but with the lender names on)
your complaint about Lending Stream Llc
Thank you for your recent contact about payday lending enclosing a copy of our complaint form.
I understand you have already contacted the business about your complaint.
what happens now
If the business do not need any more information, they should send you a letter giving you their final response. They have eight weeks to do this from the date they received your complaint.
what to do next
If you feel the business have not put things right, get in touch with us. Equally, if you have not heard from them after eight weeks and you want us to look at your complaint, let us know.
————————————————————————-
Does this mean they are aware of my case but are waiting for the company to offer, or they have picked up my case? (I complained to the FOS 2 weeks ago)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The FOS will not look at a complaint until the lender has responded to it. The FOS will not do anything until you get back to them saying you are rejecting a Final Response from a lender or that the lender has not replied within 8 weeks.
Sarah says
Hi,
Just wondered if anyone has any experience with My Jar?
The financial ombudsman have recently agreed with my initial complaint to refund all interest and charges plus 8% and remove all history from my credit file.
This has been sent to My Jar, but they’ve yet to respond, any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Sarah
Jampanda says
Hi Sarah
They responded quite quickly (2/3 days)
Vijay says
Hi Sarah,
MYJAR also responded to me quite quickly, and offered me a refund w/8% and adverse marks removed from my credit file. They also paid me quickly. From initial complaint to settlement (without Ombudsman even getting involved)…1 month. Good luck.
Luke Wilson says
I have just had a reply off lending stream regarding my pay day loans.
I emailed then a letter with help from your website regard 2 past loans and one on going loan that I am still paying off. They have basically snubbed my email and have to get in touch with them regarding re payments.
What is the best thing to do now? Do I reply back to them or should I go to the ombudsmen? Any help would be great.
Borrowed in December 2016, March 2017 and may 2017 but I am still paying the 3rd one back. The other two have been closed.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am guessing these were all three month loans? So borrow in December, end in March, then very quickly take the next loan out?
How large were each of these loans?
Luke says
£200
£160
£100
The loans are took out were pretty much as soon as I paid one off I was having to take another one out.
But it was the interest that made things worse for me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
was that 100 then 160 then 200? or the other way around? Those are pretty small loans the monthly repayments would have been low. Whether they were unaffordable depends on what your income and other expenses were.
Mark says
Hi,
I’ve started the process of gathering my information to tackle Wonga & Quick quid, I have a PDL with both at the moment which I have cancelled the direct debits and CPA for so they don’t leave me struggling next month, I’ll deal with them about a repayment plan when they contact me wanting their money, in the mean time I am trying to see exactly how many loans I’ve had over the years through both lenders but my visible online statements only go back to July 2010 (NATWEST), the bank confirmed this when I asked them, is the only way to find out by asking Wonga and QQ to send me a statement of all my previous loans?, or shall I just put in a claim for what I can see?.
I am not 100% sure when I started using Wonga or QQ so it could be that there aren’t any prior to what I can already see on my own bank statements.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Put in a claim for all your borrowing with an unspecified start date and include in this a request for them to send a statement of all your previous loans.
Have you asked NatWest how you can get older statements? If there were payday loans from W and QQ showing on the oldest statement you can see, it seems a bit of coincidence that that would be the first month you borrowed from them…
Mark says
Hi Sara,
Natwest seemed to think even they couldn’t get statements over 7 years old which I find hard to believe , I’ll do what you’ve advised and not mention any dates or a total of what I can see and just see what they come back with instead when I ask for a refund of interest and charges on all my borrowing.
Many thanks
Wendy says
Had an email from ombusman today regarding my LS complaint (it’s been in the queue since the Nov 16) I just wondered how they work out the 8% interest ?thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Wendy, so your Ombudsman complaint has been picked up at long last! Has the Ombudsman actually reached a decision? I think this was a big one for you?
This article https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/ looks at 8%s in detail.
Wendy says
Thanks sara,yeah I was getting a bit worried not hearing anything lol especially as I started this with LS last July so it’s taken a year so far.but getting there now
Ombudsman isn’t a final decision yet they have said loans 5-28 they think LS should pay back but they have give LS till 29 Aug in case they want to add anything more
Thanks so much for your help totally fantastic site xx
Dan says
Hi Sara and the group.
So, got a phone call from the adjudicator today to run through a couple of points with my Sunny complaint and he’s issued his response to them today and established that loans 6 through 15 were unaffordable which is great news (it’s should be about £3. 5k).
Do you know if Sunny usually agree with adjudicator decisions? He’s said that the ombudsman is unlikely to disagree with his findings so, unless they have an ace up their sleeve, looks like that’s my minimum refund (right?).
Also, I told the adjudicator about my other complaints and he’s going to pick these up too – is there any evidence to suggest that they’ll use their experience with this case to decide on other complaints? They were all around the same time.
Keep up the good work!
Bill says
They agreed with the adjudicator for me about a week ago and made an offer was on the last day they gave them though. No sign of payout yet though.
Dave says
Hi,
Update from my lending stream complaint. The ombudsman has upheld the findings of FOS and agreed that all my interest should be returned along with 8% simple. Can anyone tell me their experiences of LS in these situations? Do they stick to the 4 week timescale that is set by FOS or do you have to keep pestering them?
Thanks for all your advice on here.
Shem says
Hi Sara and group
I’ve just started the process of seeking refunds from various lenders, starting with wonga with whom I’ve had 42 loans and additional 57 top ups, interest and fees total apx £3800 ish. Stuck in that common cycle of not having enough to live on and pay other priority bills most of the loans and top ups were refinanced the same day as paying off the previous loans and the longest gap was 24 days in 3 years from sept 2011 to sept 2014. I’m not expecting a response from them anytime soon as only sent my step 2 email this week but do you think it has a chance? My credit file was a mess at the time and I was in rent, council tax and gas & electric arrears, man of the payments took up between 50% – 75% was of my income, I was always shocked when I was approved but desperate so didn’t argue but surely they could see how reliant on them I was without a break in lending every month for 3 years…. do you think it’s worth pursuing with FOS or private no win no fee company if they reject my claim?
Thanks so much
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like an excellent case, definitely go to the FOS if Wonga reject or only offer a low refund.
You don’t need to use a claims company, you know your case and you can do a BETTER job of explaining it to the Ombudsman than an intermediary can. An intermediary will either keep asking you about every point (in which case you may as well talk to the Ombudsman direct, having them in the middle just wastes time) or they will just give standard answers to the Ombudsman which may not be the right ones. If an adjudicator misunderstands something in your case, you can usually see pretty quickly what they have missed because you are the expert in what actually happened to you.
Claims firms are expensive leeches. The payday loan refunds are not simple tick box exercises like PPI, they require not legal expertise but a full knowledge of your situation over many years.
She says
Many thanks Sara , will keep you posted on any progress. I’ve provided them with quite a lot of information about my situation and that 3 years of consecutive lending must have flagged some concerns about affordability and dependency to try and encourage a reasonable direct offer but will deffo take your advice if they don’t respond or it’s not good news
Ty
Kim says
Lending Stream have not offered me a penny after having 11 loans with them , just sent to FOS, has anyone had any joy from them ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of decisions against Lending Stream by the FOS, see Dave’s comment a couple before yours.
Sally says
Hi Sara
Just need some advice I got a reply from Wda saying that there is no law saying they have to do a credit check before lending money, is that true? They have offered me £1,500 with the 8%. I have paid in intrest and deferral fees £2.300.
I took out 16 loans and there only refunding me on 6 loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That isn’t a dreadful offer but it’s not good. You could go back and say what you would be prepared to accept – what do you think would be fair, £2,000? Or all your interest and fees without the 8%? This is very much a personal decision – you may feel you want a full refund plus 8%. You may decide you just want to send the case to the Ombudsman for them to make a decision on.
Sally says
I have made a counter offer of £1900 as I feel this would be good enough however if this is declined I think I will send it off to the FOS. I’m not sure if u can make an offer on there final response?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can do whatever you want – whether they will be likely to agree depends on their policy & their thoughts about your case. In this situation the worst that can happen is you waste a few days until they tell you you have had their final offer. I tend to think it’s worth a try where they have’t given a stupidly low offer.
Sally says
Thanks Sara for your advice. This is the best offer I’ve had so far. Had an offer from wonga which was £137 as gesture of good will, but claimed no wrong doings. Sent that to the FOS and payday U.K. Didn’t uphold my complaint at all, so sent to FOS. Fingers crossed it’s good news.
Vicki says
I keep reading everyone’s comments on here and people seem to be having some success with their claims. I’m sadly not. This is my current update of where my complaints are at:
WageDay Advance, AvantCredit, Uncle Buck, Vivus & 1st Stop had all denied any wrong doing, and I have sent them all to the FOS. Only one so far (AvantCredit) has been picked up so far by the FOS.
I am still waiting for final discussions from Wonga, QuickQuid & Sunny. A few weeks left for them to come back to me.
Feeling a little disheartened!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is all early days for you – many people don’t get any success direct from a lender. How many loans did you have from each lender?
Andy says
Hope it turns out for the best for you, could you let me know how get on with advant because I still have a balance with them with unaffordable payment to make ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So what are you doing about this unaffordable payment? Don’t make it and borrow somewhere else… if you can’t afford it, cancel the CPA/DD and tell the lender you want a payment arrangement. How other people are getting on doesn’t make any difference to what you need to do now :)
Andy says
I have phone avant and told them that struggle to make payments twice and as a courtesy they have moved the payment to end of agreement twice , and next option is to try for a payment plan on lower payments , but they are reluctant to do this at the moment :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to take control here – if you can’t afford it, cancel the CPA and tell them you want a payment plan with an affordable payment. Tell, not ask. And if the loan is unaffordable, put in an affordability complaint.
Andy says
Thanks Sara, I owe them £900 and am living with parents so don’t want debt collectors coming to their house, so in past ended up getting pdl to compensate the month, I have slowly got it down to 4 lenders defaults on two and extension on one , complaints r in motion with wonga , sunny , safetynet and bamboo loan , so working more hours to now to help reduce interest on them , thanks for the advice , cpa cancelled with safety as was taking full and borriwing all back
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You won’t get debt collectors coming just because you are in a payment arrangement! Sorry but you do need to handle this one just like safetynet credit.
Vicki says
Hi Sara.
Wageday advance I have had 7 loans over a two year period. Most were rolled over on a monthly basis or I borrowed again within days of paying off.
Uncle Buck I have about 10 with them.
Vivus I had 4 with them.
Avantcredit I have 3 with them and they were rolled over with some late/missed payments.
1st Stop I have 4 with them and again some late payments.
Sunny I have had 10 with them from what I can work out on my bank statements as not received a statement.
Quick quid I have had 20 with them again not received a statement so this is what I’ve worked out off my bank statement.
Wonga I’ve had 10 which were rolled over and borrowed again within days.
On most occasions I have 2 or 3 lending me money in the same period so I could pay off a previous loan and lay my monthly bills.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
All sound like well worth taking to the Ombudsman! Settle in, you could still be dealing with a few of these months from now, but it will be worth it in the end!
Kelly.s says
Hi, it’s great to hear so many people getting refunded. I am wondering if it is worth me putting complaints in with a few payday lenders I have borrowed from. I have borrowed £5100 from sunny over the last 2 years. I have always paid the loans back early, but have sometimes used other lenders to borrow from to repay the amounts. From my salary and outgoings it shows the loans were not affordable at all and I was living in minus. What I’m wondering is that as I repayed a lot of loans early the interest wouldn’t have amounted to much. Is it even worth making a complaint? I’m not sure added up it would come to much. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If it’s recent, can you look at your bank statements and tell how much interest you paid? It’s pretty hard for anyone else to guess.
Are you still borrowing?
Kelly.s says
I have borrowed every month from sunny for the last 2 years, I currently owe £100 which again I will repay early from my own money once I am payed. I was given a little amount of inheritance which I used to pay off the other loans, and get out of the big loan spiral I was in. I am thinking that if the loans were classed as inaffordable and are taken off my credit report (even if the interest doesn’t amount to much) then it would still be worth going for it, as at the moment my credit score is in dire straights.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can repay and not borrow again, that’s good.
Unless you have defaulted on these loans to Sunny, they will be helping your credit record…
What are the problems showing on your credit record?
Kelly.s says
My credit score was excellent but due to unforeseen circumstances and other things I started to take these loans out. It’s the amount of loans on my credit file even though paid off, and credit searches which has now made me go into the poor category. Myself and my husband want to get a mortgage in the next 2 years so all of the payday loans I have heard will stop me from being able to get one
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The effect of credit searches goes after a year.
The number of loans will not affect your credit rating unless there were missed payments or defaults. If you get loans that were problem free deleted, your credit score is likely to drop.
Most mortgage lenders don’t care about payday loans if they are more than a year ago if they were repaid on time, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-mortgage/ and the comments below that article.
Credit cards – how much of your credit limit are you using? Ditto overdraft – have you had unauthorised overdrafts?
I’m not saying don’t make an affordability complaint – but unless there were late payments or defaults with the Sunny loans, winning a complaint isn’t going to help you in your quest for a mortgage.
Shellbell says
Sara and anyone who can advise?
Ombudsmen partially upheld Satsuma complaint also known as Provident finance. 28 days has now passed since settlement and no sign of any cheque!
Is this usual for satsuma (provident)??
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you phoned them up? Tell your adjudicator.
Shannon says
I believe that Pacific Network SE is Lending Stream. The deposit is made under that name but repayment should show to Lending Stream.
Paul says
anyone know who or what these are ?, they appear on my bank statements, all with payments of 59.85
M Portal
ML Portal
P Portal
Scott says
Hi Paul,
They appear to be some dodgy loan company, Google “ML portal on bank statement” and you will see some comments regarding it.
They appear to take multiples of £19.95 according to the comments.
Unfortunately it seems that people are having problems getting their money back.
Checked some more. Did you sign up to Credit Portal Ltd for credit score? They charge £19.95 for their service and you need to supply bank details.
You can call them on 02035985198 and try and request your money back. I would also contact your bank’s fraud department and get them to try and assist you in getting your money back and to ensure all cpa’s are cancelled.
Scott
Paul says
Hi
I wrote to PayDay UK and I used ‘stage one template’ asking for my statements as I honestly can’t remember how many loans I had over the time I did. All were repaid and I have none outstanding and haven’t used them for years now. They have responded:
“Dear Mr Cornforth
Thank you for your email.
With regard to your request this account currently has no sums due or payable. Therefore, we have no current obligation to send documents 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….”.
They have said in my first email that they will look into my complaint but I have said I need statements to help me with my complaint and they have refused. What do you advise I respond with, are they within their right to withhold my statements?
Thanks
Tom says
They replied with the same to me. Take a look at https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/
They sent a message to me after I replied to their email with my intention to file a complaint. They said they’d forwarded my complaint to their customer service department and said they’d be in touch within 5 days. This was 3 days ago, I’m still awaiting their response.
Hayley says
Payday did this with me and refused to send me a statement of accounts, send original email on 6th June and then another email two weeks ago stating I will not be paying for a statement and they they are being deliberately obstructive of my complaint. I had a final response on Friday stating this: following on from your complaint on 8th June you also complained that we didn’t send you a statement of accounts. I’m sorry you weee unhappy about this we didn’t provide a statement because you don’t have an open account and our process only kicks in if there is an open account.
They listed all of my loans in the final response and upheld all 11 loans and have offered me all of the interest and charges along with 8% interest. I would advise sending in a complaint regarding being obstructive so they can consider this when assessing your case
Paul says
i was going through my bank statements. I found the first payday loan I had ( wonga ) was dated october 2010, is it possible to claim that back as the payment was in 2011 ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 6 years starts from the date you make your complaint, so that would probably be outside it. The Ombudsman is looking at older claims but so far Wonga isn’t paying out on them. I suggest complaining about all your loans and make a decision later about whether to drop the older ones.
Jamie says
Hi all.
I have 5 open loans and on a repayment plan with
Cash4unow – £330.54 in total doing payments of £82.68
Nextcredit – £167.52 in total doing payments of £56.38
247 Moneybox – £94.24 in total doing payments of £47.12
Trusted Quid – £80.96 in total doing payments of £40.58
In total it’s £758.06 and every pay day I’m losing £269.06.
Can anyone advise me please.
Tom says
Hi Jamie,
Are all of these repayment plans with each individual company? If so, you may benefit from one consolidated repayment plan. I suggest going to StepChange who will be able to take over all of your debts and you pay one lump sum per month until the balances are cleared.
Speak to them and they’ll be able to advise further. Once it’s set up, you’ll probably have a full month without having to pay anything from your wage, which is breathing space. You should then consider putting in complaints to the companies if they have lent money to you irresponsibly. In some cases, they’ll refund money, in others, particularly with open balances, they’ll clear the balance for you or reduce it.
Hope this helps.
Jamie says
Hi Tom.
Yes they are individual companies. I’ll contact Stepchange tomorrow. Also could I put a complaint in even though the loans are still open? Or does it have to be when the loans are closed?
Tom says
StepChange are really friendly. When doing their online finance check make sure you are truthful with your debts, and they’ll take over all contact with the companies. They’ll suggest how much is affordable for you and you can agree to it or ask for reduced payments.
I have two open complaints with companies I still owe money to – the fact is if they’ve lent irresponsibly then they are at fault and shouldn’t have lent the money in the first place.
Jamie says
Is my debts including credit cards aswell?
Tom says
If you include all of your debts, including credit cards, you can focus on one payment per month and at the end of the agreed time you’ll be completely debt free and owe nothing out.
Hayley says
Has anyone had a complaint upheld. By payday U.K. If so how long did it take to receive the refund? They asked me to post my acceptance but I signed it and emailed it back on Friday but did t receive an acknowledgement
sally says
Mine took three weeks Hayley. I received an email and then the money was deposited that afternoon.
Hayley says
Thank you sally, can you tell me if you send your acceptance by post like they have asked me to do or replied in an email with bank details?
Michellew says
I too am waiting for a pduk payment. I signed my acceptance from fos on 7 july and still not heard anythinh.
suzy says
Hi Sara
**************************RE APPEARING QUICK QUID ON CREDIT FILE (CALL CREDIT/NOODLE )
Just check my Noodle credit file and could not be it QQ have re entered on it again this time calling it overdue !
This went to the FOS and part of the ruling was to remove all entries well they did for a year but suddenly its back
Anyone else had this ??
The FOS ruled all interest to be removed, leaving principal sum , plus entries to be removed
How shall i deal with QQ ?? i really thought i sorted this , i still have all the FOS E mails etc
Sara (Debt Camel) says
oh Suzy what a PITA… well you can phone them up or put in an email complaint. I hope this will be sorted very quickly.
Gareth says
Just contact the CRA inform them of the situation and they will suppress the info until they investigate so provide them the FOS decisions and rulings and they themselves will sort your file as QQ won’t have a leg to stand on to challenge it.
Neil says
Funny – I had a Wonga loan re-appear on my credit file (Equifax / Clearscore) after a FOS ruling that they were all removed (and that happened back in February). I have complained to them again, but I wonder if this is coincidence that you are also having a similar issue?
I’ve also had trouble with Pounds Till Payday (about whom I never complained) who have made an entry on my Experian file that I owe them £200 from 2015 (I do not and have documentary evidence to prove it). That’s a complete bind to try and get sorted, they are asking me for details on the loan I just don’t have and can’t obtain.
Anyway, good luck with getting this off your Noddle report!!
D says
Hi Suzy,
My complaint is in a queue to be reviewed by an ombudsman at the moment, but about 3 weeks ago I had 2 random entries reappear on my credit file from QuickQuid saying two loans from 2016 were overdue. I phoned them to complain about it & also told my adjudicator – it took around 7-10 days for them to finally delete the inaccurate entries.
Give them a call & they will eventually remove them.
D
Debbie says
Hi,
I have just submitted requests for information using template letter one. I have had a reply from express finance saying they are not a lender and would not have lent me a loan. Should I proceed straight to step 2?
I had approximately 12 loans spread over 6 or 7 companies, so not huge amounts. I was in a dmp with stepchange, or consumer credit counselling service as it was then, when I took them out. I defaulted on my payments to them and eventually set up another dmp with payplan which I have been paying for 5 years. I am still paying off. I took these loans out in mid 2012 and am still paying 8 of them, the estimated amount remaining is £3500. Most of the loans were for amounts between £150 and £500.
When I took them out I was a single mother with 3 children, working part time and with no financial help from my ex husband. Most of the loans were taken out over the phone and I don’t recall having to provide my incomings and outgoings.
Is it worth proceeding? Even getting the outstanding loans cleared would be a massive help.
Thanks in advance
John says
Hello Sarah,
Just an update on my Wonga (31 x loans 2012-2014) & QQ (25 x loans 2012-2016) claims and for some advice at this stage please?
Both claims submitted to FOS in January ’17, adjudicator got in touch in April ’17.
Adjudicators decision was to uphold my claim on Wonga (loans 4-31) & QQ (loans 5-25) with all loans to be removed from my credit file also.
Wonga had until 4th July to come back with a reply, QQ had until 28th June to come back with a reply but both misses these deadlines by over 3 weeks!
QQ have disagreed and come back on Fri 28th July with an offer of £1,365.55 on only the first 5 x loans and Wonga have also disagreed but may still get an offer.
I have decided to go to Ombudsman with both claims, my adjudicator who I must say has been friendly, efficient and excellent to deal with has said they will look at this again and take all info into consideration.
Due you think I’ve made the correct decision? I’ve read all the other advice/comments on here and it seems that if the ‘business’ has made an initial offer it usually is pretty poor and better to go ahead with the adjudicators decision.
I’m also led to believe the Ombudsman very rarely if ever disagrees with the Adjudicators decision, hoping I’m right.
Thanks again for all the valuable advice and info :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
QQ – they often make poor offers and this sounds like one of them Take the case of FourMenHadADream who commented a couple of days ago that he was getting just under £3000 back from QQ after the Ombudsman found in his favour. QQ had offered £60, £400, £660 and then £1800!
Wonga havent offered anything so definitely right there.
Have you added up the interest you paid on the loans the adjudicator said to refund? I think that is a good move so you have got a good benchmark to compare any offer against.
It’s very rare for an Ombudsman to reach a very different decision, but sometimes they “tinker”, changing refund from loan 5 to refund from loan 3 or 7 or something. Annoying if you get a bit less, pleasing if you get a bit more. They are equally likely!
John says
Thanks for the reply Sara.
By my calculations I think the total would be approx £3200 + 8% interest. They have only offered a refund on 5 out of the 25 loans so I’ll take my chances with the Ombudsman and hopefully he will agree with as near as possible what my Adjudicator decided.
All loans were 2012 onwards so any idea of approx wait times for Ombudsman decision at the moment Sara?
Thanks :-)
Pear says
Hi John, QQ originally made me a goodwill gesture which I declined, before the adjudicator even looked at complaint the offered to refund interest only on final loan which I declined. The adjudicator recommended they refund all interest from loan 2 onwards and QQ came back and offered just the final loan plus 8% which I declined just over a week ago and told my adjudicator that I would only be willing to drop the 2ND loan. Today my adjudicator emailed to say QQ had agreed with him and would refund from loan 2 including the 8%. Hope this helps.
John says
Hi Pear,
Thank you for sharing your info, great result for you and you didn’t even have to go through the wait for the Ombudsman decision.
I was originally offered a good will gesture of £18 by QQ.
Hopefully will have a similar outcome to yourself.
Cheers :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
somewhere in the 2-4 month region is common at the moment.
Lee says
Quick update.
Just had my 3rd final response of 10 from Sunny this morning. First one that upheld my complaint in full and calculated my total interest about £1 more than I calculated plus gave me the 8% statutory interest I requested with no hassle. Also will remove all loans from credit history. They deemed based on gambling addiction I stressed in my compliant the reason for tge refund although this wasn’t given at time of lending.
So happy first full refund with the 8%. Already had over 1 grand refunded back to me from 3 of my smaller loans providers.
So far
Compromise offers with Peachy and Mr Lender (roughly 75% of refund requested with no 8% given)
Sunny – Full refund and 8% within 7 weeks of inital compliant.
Lending Stream & Payday Express referred to FOS as providers rejected my compliant in full no offers made.
Wonga, 247 Moneybox, Uncle Buck, Piggybank and a few others within 8 weeks atm. Wonga the biggest loan provider for me by far only has 8 days till 8 week deadline is up. Apparently at final stage of confirming final response / offer as phone them to check last week.
ajjnn says
Hi There, I have received final offers from Wonga & Quick Quid, I have emailed them back to accept, do you know how long it takes for them to refund the money back to bank account?
Also, for the loans they have agreed to refund the interest on are these automatically removed from your credit file?
Best Regards
Lee says
Was you final offer from Wonga for all loans (100% of what you asked for) including 8%.
Just wondering as my Wonga final response is due any day now.
Or have you gone back asking for more.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They aren’t automatically removed by most lenders – you need to go back to them if this is important to you.
ajjnn says
Thanks Sara, do you know how long they usually take to refund the money?, I emailed to accept Wonga offer 6 days ago & still not heard anything back from them
Best Regards,
Tom23 says
I have 3 questions:
1) I just received an offer from Peachy to write off my current loan (worth £350 )and remove their loans (4 in total) from my credit file. They are refusing to refund interest on old loans as they maintain i could afford it (i lied because of the spiral i was in) and that because they only lent to me 4 times they are not responsible for my problems.. To give some background of all the 8 companies I have written and complained to Peachy are probably the ones used least with the smallest amount of total debt. However, they are part of the problem and if they had checked my credit file properly they’d have seen a default, a long history of borrowing around the payday loan market and other borrowing. Should i accept this offer and concentrate on the big boys in my problem, wonga and paydayuk, or should I hold out to get my interest back?
2) I have just been hit with the paydayuk ‘we don’t have to provide a record of your lending unless you send us £1 by post’ email. What is the best way forward with this?
3) i have had guarantor loans from Amigo and George Banco, because I have had nice friends, but really and truly I couldn’t afford those payments either. has anyone had any luck getting interest back from these guys?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1) your current loan – how much did you borrow? how much have you repaid if anything? Your previous three loans, how much interest did you pay? what were the gaps between repaying each loan and taking out the next?
2) see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-wont-send-loan-details/
3) some luck but its harder, especially if you only took 1 loan from each.
Tom23 says
1) Sorry, it was 3 loans, all within the last 6 months. I borrowed a total of £750 and paid a total of £410 in interest as first two loans were paid back early. Outstanding balance on existing loan is £353. As i said this is the very tip of the iceberg and this money was lent to me when i was already in deep trouble.
2) thanks, i have followed your advice.
3) only one loan with amigo, but george banco was topped up twice.
Lee says
Payday UK tried to be funny with me. clearly respond saying you have all the information you require to investigate my compliant. Only provide credit reports and bank statements to FOS if required once 8 week deadline up.
Paul says
i’m now just waiting for account summaries from 4 lenders, so I can calculate how much I’ve paid in interest & fines.
The summaries I already have add up to around £20k, calculating via excel.
It’s a shame I can’t claim back from toothfairy & minicredit, it would add up to £25k+
Lee says
I’ve just settled with Peachy 2 weeks ago and was my first 1 of 10 to deal with in full. I accepted quite a low offer about 40% of what I had requested with no 8%. Learnt from that one a lot to hold out a bit and dont jump the gun despite any temptation.
Recommend you counter offer to try and settle beforehand but only go down to 80% of the 100% you are requesting and state in counter offer you feel this is a fair compromise as you still will of made some money out of me overall from my lending whereas I’ll request the full 100% plus 8% statutory interest if you leave me with no alternative but to go to the fos. Also state in response you are confident you have a strong case and FOS will agree with you if you do not agree with counter offer as a fair and amicable option to settle this matter now at this early stage.
Neil says
Wonga didn’t reply by Adjudicators deadline date of so was passed to Ombudsman, email received today before it has been looked at by Ombudsman offering all interest and charges on all 7 loans minus amount written off by them previously, offer just over £1000., all entries to be removed from credit file.
Happy to accept that.
Jampanda says
How long did the adjudicator give Wonga? I had read here that some people had been paid out quicker if they had offered a lesser refund in exchange for a quicker payout.
For example adjudicator had said that £1400 was to be refunded but let Wonga know that the borrower would accept £1000 if they paid within a week.
Neil says
He gave them 2 weeks and then referred it to the ombudsman and they made the offer within a week of it going to the ombudsman. This is the first offer they have made to me which is a refund on all loans I had.
The Hitman says
Sanity check:
I have received my statement from Wonga, and I’ve work out the following:
Principal Amount: £10401
Fees: £161
Interest: £2187.68
Amount paid: £11229.21
The last loan I took out was for £1088, but only paid £55 before the loan got written off in Oct 2014. I’m getting slightly confused shall I still appeal the £2187.68 + £161 + 8%? Or minus the balance that was wrote off?
Thank you.
The Hitman says
Anyone help please?
I think I’m correct taking the interest, then adding the fees, minus the written off amount plus 8%?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
When you say “appeal” have they made you an offer? Or do you mean ask for a refund of £x? You don’t need to specify an amount, just ask for all interest and charges…
But you are likely to find any refund is reduced by the write off you had.
Ross says
Hi Hitman,
When Wonga refunded me, they made no reference to the loan they wrote off of mine. I think this is because it should never have been granted in the first place, which they had to concede, hence the write off. I would exclude the written off loan from any calculations, such as deducting it from any amounts.
Sonia says
Hi I got this today from Provident-You believe we did not complete the necessary checks to assess your suitability for the loans issued however having reviewed this I can see an agreement was completed for each loan. These have been signed to confirm you had reviewed the terms and were happy to proceed with your applications. You provided your own income and outgoing information as part of the application process, these details were captured on a paper-based Customer Detail Form (CDF) which also included a signed declaration by you stating the information you supplied was accurate. We also used monthly refreshed and up to date Credit Bureau data to assess existing applications from January 2010, and this was then adopted for new applications from November 2013.
When you enquired about further credit, your Agent was responsible for reviewing repayments made to previous agreements and these did not indicate you were experiencing difficulties meeting repayments prior to completing each application. There were a total of two missed payments and two partial payments prior to your last loan been issued and this is on both Greenwoods and Provident loans combined.
I can inform you Provident customers will generally have limited access to credit due to them having either a poor or a thin credit file. They are deemed to be a higher lending risk because of this. Customers’ low credit scores mean they are less likely to be able to borrow from mainstream lenders.
—————————————————————
I had 4 loans from them and became ill and had to reduce my hours at work i am also registered disabled! They were irresponsible.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Sonia, I suggest you ask if that is their final decision and if it is, send the case to the Financial Ombudsman. Have you read https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/? That has a lot of points which are especially relevant to Provident loans and the comments below there are a better place for asking more questions / seeing how other people are getting on than this page which is mainly for payday loans.
Dave says
Little while since I’ve posted. Having a battle with QQ. Adjudicator upheld my complaint for 12 out of 13 loans. the value of interest due to many, many roll overs is about £11k. QQ deny and irresponsible lending at all and no offer has been made. Looks like it will go to an Ombudsman. Does QQ point blank refusing to discuss compensation mean that my claim is weak and could an Ombudsman reject what the adjudicator says? I’m a bit nervous over this as the figure is so large and QQ won’t cooperate. Other complaints were settled much more easily. Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Does QQ point blank refusing to discuss compensation mean that my claim is weak” no, it means your claim is large! No doubt they will pop up with an offer of something like 3 or 4k and hope you will feel so worried/desperate that you will take it they have saved themselves a large amount of money.
It sounds as though you were borrowing large amounts for month after month for years – that is a very strong claim.
“could an Ombudsman reject what the adjudicator says?” yes, but it’s very rare for the decision to be very different. Sometimes an ombudsman will “tinker”, in your case that could mean award a refund on all loans or on 10 loans say (I just made that number up without knowing anything about your case).
It’s normal to feel nervous, but this isn’t your first complaint and you know it’s a good one… so just sit back and wait for either a VERY good offer from QQ (well over £10k as they should be adding 8% interest) or an Ombudsman’s decision. Every month means the 8% added interest will be going up by about £70 on a claim that size.
Dave says
Adjudicator was in touch regarding my Wonga complaint on Friday. She just wanted to clarify what some of the payments in and out of my account were. i was expecting it to be around another week before i heard back but got her decision back just now.
she has said that wonga should pay back interest on loans 5 to 39. that’s better than I thought and is around £2.5k!!
Wonga have until 7th August to reply. How likely are they agree to this? Do they normally force cases to go to the ombudsman?
Neil says
They didn’t reply to my adjudicator by the deadline and he referred it to the ombudsman but within a week of that they made an offer of full refund plus 8% on all my 7 loans. Hopefully you will hear from them quickly.
Louise says
Neil,
How quickly did they payout after your adjudicator had confirmed you accepted their offer? I accepted their offer after waiting six weeks for them to reply to my adjudicator, just waiting for them to pay out now! Thanks
Paul says
after seeing the devastating effect on finances due to payday loan companies. They should either, a) change their ways on lending, or b) be closed down permanently, which would be even better
Shellbell says
Who has had dealings with satsuma?
They are a nightmare 28 days passed and no money from them. This was upheld by the ombudsmen last month!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Try emailing peter.crook@providentfinancial.com (he’s the CEO) and asking… point out the ombudsman’s award is legally binding.
Vicki Martin says
Just a bit of an update for anyone who has put a claim in with 1st Stop Recoveries. They declined my claim, and I sent to the FOS. They have now picked this up, but have sent me the following response:
“We would like to look into your case but I would like to make you aware of the current situation of Clear Companies (Trading as 1st Stop recoveries Ltd)
1st Stop recoveries have informed us the business is due to close due to a recent winding up order. This means we may not be able to resolve your complaint before the winding up order is confirmed.
Please let us know if you would like us to go ahead with investigating your complaint so I can pass this onto the correct team to speed up your complaint.
If you would like to go ahead, please send us any further paperwork/references you may have received from Clear companies”
Nigel says
Apparently Moneybox 247 have just about stopped responding to the FOS They are not responding to phone calls or emails.
Has anyone any information or experiences with then through the FOS by Adjudicator or Ombudsman ?
Are you waiting and getting frustrated?
C says
Hi, moneybox 247 did not respond to my aujudictor either, he even gave an extra 2 weeks to them but still nothing. I am in ombudsman queue now, they have been an absolute nightmare to deal with even with me requesting statements etc. Good luck xx
Nigel says
Hi yes, i have been dealing with them since May 2016 and with loans over 6 years.
I have information that a specialist contact team will try and communicate with them. It seems they have just stated to completely ignore the FOS in recent months on anything.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Um semaphore? Pigeons? Ask GCHQ to help? The Samaritans? The mind boggles….
david says
247 Moneybox didnt respond to my adjudicator either, and am awaiting an ombudsman. Surely they will need to issue refunds if the ombudsman says so? I would imagine they’d be in breach of some sort of license to operate if they dont.
Charlotte says
I’ve been waiting for a response from 247MONEYBOX too. I got response saying they were aware of templates online etc and agreed to remove and adverse information from my credit report which I responded and said was not enough. They then came back and asked what my expenditure was when I took out the loans and I told them to look at their records. No response since! Today is the 8 weeks so I will be forwarding to the FOS, however, seeing as they are ignoring them also, I don’t hold out much hope! I had 17 loans with these guys over 12months so was hoping for a decent refund too :-(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is a firm which is still lending. The complaint may be slow but you should get there in the end!
Nav G says
Hi All,
Firstly I must say this thread has been really useful and I have begun the process of requesting Statement of Accounts using the template given in step 1 of this article.
Lending Stream replied with the following;
“We see that you are requesting to investigate your concern regarding the affordability analysis and credit checks conducted when the loans were approved. We would like to inform you that such nature of query falls under the purview of Subject Access Request (SAR).
Therefore, in order for us to provide you with the information, we would request you to send us a written letter addressed to Lending Stream with a £10.00 cheque (in favor of Lending Stream LLC) as per the Subject Access Request (SAR) requirements under the Data Protection Act 1998.”
Is this something I need to do or is there another way in which to compel them to provide this information? I have tried to log in online and they have no previous loan history.
Any advice would be very helpful.
Kind Regards,
Nav
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply saying you are not making a Subject Access Request, all you would like is a list of your loans. Then add a rather vague version of the step 2 full complaint. At the end say you will be happy to provide more details when they give you your loan details.
Maggie says
Hi all, had an offer via FOS (didn’t even know it had been picked up by an adjudicator as loans over 6 years) from MEM consumer finance. Only had 2 loans and offering to pay interest on 2nd loan which seems fair. Initially rejected my complaint completely so happy about an offer although I haven’t had the amount confirmed. Will wait and see how much it is but has anyone else had a complaint upheld and been refunded interest and charges from these? If so, how long does the process take. ps. Many thanks to you Sarah for all the help and advice you provide as this will be the 2nd favourable outcome due to this site.
JOHN DICKINSON says
Hi Sarah,
Got this from Wonga this Morning. Am I able to reply as I had loans longer than 6 years ago?
“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”
JOHN DICKINSON says
They have offered me £3818 + Intrest when the total of all the loans was over 7K
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can take this to the Ombudsman. Wonga is still arguing with the FO about this and not paying out, but some other lender have accepted this. My guess is that Wonga will at some time, but don’t expect this complaint to be quick.
rhys says
hi how long did they they take in getting back to you?
Helen says
After sending off my “irresponsible lending” emails on Thursday last week to my ten different lenders I have today received my first offer. This one was from Peachy who I only had one loan with. They sent me a very lengthy email about why they’ve done nothing wrong but ended it by offering to refund half the interest and to remove the entry from my credit file.
The actual refund is very small but I am mainly doing this to get all entries removed from my credit file so I am very happy with this.
Now I just need to wait for the remaining 9…
Matt S says
Has anyone made a claim against MyKredit? How are they to deal with?
I had an £800 credit limit which was always up to the limit with them for around 6 months, repaying £115 for every £100 borrowed every 20 days and then immediately reborrowing again.
Danny says
Hi I made a complaint to MYKREDIT, they didn’t upheld the complaint, I passed this the FOS for irresponsible lending and also the unprofessional abusive threatening emails, the FOS upheld the complain and told MYKREDIT to refund me all interest, remove faults from file and 8% interest, MYKREDIT have declined this and made a different offer which I now rejected, this has now been passed to a higher OMBUDSMEN
MH says
Apologies for asking as I’m sure I’ve seen it but can’t find it; how do you calculate the 8% interest?
Adjudicator has partially upheld my Sunny loans from loan 5 and 7 upto the 22nd, I just hope Sunny agree and it’s settled there and then.
Anyone else have Sunny agree with adjudicator??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Interest calcs: https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/
Charlotte says
Sunny upheld my complaint straight away! I had 5 loans with them and never made a payments – they wrote off all 5 Loans’s totalling £2,600! I think they are quite good to deal with so good luck :-)
Liz says
Hi Sara,
I have an outstanding balance of £953 with Wage Day Advance. I had a total of 20 loans and over the course of 5 years I deferred each loan I had numerous times. Their initial offer to me was to refund interest and charges for two loans and reduce my balance by £690. I refused this and sent to the FOS.
I have now had a final response from my Adjudicator saying he agreed that loans 3 and 4 were unaffordable, he added another random loan (7) and then the final one with the outstanding balance. The refund would amount to £1050 of which they would keep £865 to pay off the outstanding balance.
During this time period I had between 4 and 7 payday lenders at any one time and my other complaints with Wonga, PDE, Sunny etc. have all gone in my favour for all loans with different Adjudicators. Should I ask for an Ombudsman to look at this?
Any advice would be gratefully received!
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What were the reasons the adjudicator gave for finding those particular loans unaffordable but not the others?
Liz says
Loans 3 and 4 were for a higher amount than previously taken and a clear pattern of borrowing was starting to form.
Gap of 11 months before Loan 5.
Loan 7 – the pattern of borrowing was beginning again and I had to defer the loan. Also at that time there were over £2000 of payday loan payments coming out of my account.
Loans 8-19 – there were some gaps of time and they were for smaller amounts. The Adjudicator acknowledges for each loan that the checks were not proportionate but that they were affordable?!?
Loan 20 – a clear pattern of borrowing again hence it was unaffordable.
I’m a bit confused by his response and to be honest he doesn’t go into as much detail as previous Adjudicators have.
Any advice gratefully received!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So 8-19 are the crucial loans. If you feel they were unaffordable take the case to the ombudsman. Pick 4 or 5 of these and go through your bank account for the next month showing that when you repaid it you couldn’t get through the next month without borrowing.
Cases with few gaps and increasing amounts are simpler, with complex cases you have to argue in detail.
HM says
Hello all, I have a query….
So I’ve went after these people too and asked for accounts etc. However one company are saying there’s no evidence of any loans or rollovers taking place yet they sent a statement saying £900 is owed. I obviously stated that there must be previous transactions or a balance of £900 wouldn’t exist!
They have done more digging and said they can’t find any information regarding any loans yet are willing to write off the £900 balance. But if there is no information how can they say I owe £900?
FYI I do owe this. These loans were ‘cheque cashing’ loans. I had £750 from 3 shops each. On an income of £600 a month. Rolled over multiple times. I don’t suppose the FOS would look too fondly at a company who can’t prove a debt yet say it exists? So I would have no info to send to the FOS….could I send it anyway and the FOS would make them find it?
Cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So how many times do you think you rolled over from this company?
HM says
Over the period on 12 months minimum.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well wiping £900 isn’t a great offer then. You can send it to the FOS but you may struggle if you don’t have any evidence. but the lender may find some… You could ask for a Subject Access request but there is no guarantee that it will produce the missing info but you may think it’s worth trying.