Have you had problems with payday loans? 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 here. This works if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
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.
A loan is not affordable just because you haven’t missed a payment – if paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
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. Payday loans are meant for short-term problems.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or your credit record showing increasing debts.
How much compensation can you get?
A typical payday loan decision by the Ombudsman is that the lender should refund all the interest you paid after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times, you can get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
Lenders include:
CashASAP, Drafty, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves (now in administration), Kabayan, Lending Stream, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, TickTock, The Money Platform, WageMe.
See this list for payday lenders for a longer list and their email addresses to use.
You can make claims to lenders who have recently stopped lending. It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up more than a few years ago.
For larger loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- 118 Money, Everyday Loans/Evlo, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, Bamboo, Updraft, Lendable, bank loans and other long-term loans.
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
If 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. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
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 have to go to the Ombudsman.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA or the Direct Debit to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
Start your complaint
It’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list. If your loan was sold to a debt collector, you complain to the original lender.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
I am making an affordability complaint about the loans you gave me. You should never have given me these 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 and the rest of my credit record that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend.
My credit reports would have shown all my other debts [include this if it applies: 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.
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.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. 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.”
- “I had a gambling problem and your loans made this worse”.
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 (say £800 or more), 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 difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win affordability complaints than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Sometimes a lender will offer you a small goodwill amount to give up eg £50 or £100 so if you only had one loan and it wasn’t large, that would be a bit of help.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
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.
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. Don’t bother to send payslips.
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 rejects the complaint or makes a poor offer
If the lender says No or offers you a small amount, 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.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. Ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- some loans were paid early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- loan size 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 closely;
- some 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.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think you should have more refunded;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound helpful … but it may be very poor if you should get a cash refund as well.
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 instalment 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 – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. If you aren’t sure, send the case and let them make an independent decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender. There is no limit to the number of FOS complaints you can make.
Send the rejections as they come through – don’t wait until all your lenders have replied!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and asks for the information to set up your case.
Attach:
- the lender’s reply.
- 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.
- your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the credit agreements, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
Your case will wait for the lender to send FOS their case file and then be picked up by an investigator/adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
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 have been bankrupt unless your borrowing was all after your bankruptcy – 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 you are in a DRO now, a refund of more than £2,000 may mean your DRO is cancelled! But many payday loan refunds are less than that.
More help
Ask a question in the comments below.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. FOS says individuals making a complaint have a better success rate than claims firms.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
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
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 D says
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”
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.
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
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??
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 :-)
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
Well wiping £900 probably isn’t a good 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.
Ian says
Hi Sara,
I have sat down and been through every loan that I’ve ever had with them and the totals are frankly embarrassing. Over the course of 3 years I have borrowed £6,000 and will have repaid £10,968 so £4,968 interest… :-( as it stands I have had 32 loans from them and 27 are fully settled with 5 outstanding. I have never missed a payment and nothing is currently in arrears.
I emailed my complaint today and have had a pretty generic response stating that their affordability checks were adequate however they did make this offer at the bottom of the email;
With the above being said, we would like to inform you that Lending Stream never retreat in extending their support and ensures that we provide appropriate help, whenever required. Hence, we offer to set up an affordable payment arrangement on your outstanding loans, thereby freezing further interest.
Please send us the confirmation for the aforementioned offer, so that the required changes can be made at the earliest.
I’m not sure how to respond – I’ve budgeted for the upcoming payments and can make them when they are due but feel that the offer is a bit short. Are they offering to remove the interest on the outstanding balance? I don’t want to respond and then accept a severely lacklustre offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Are they offering to remove the interest on the outstanding balance?” No! They aren’t offering any refund or reduction at all, just saying you can make a payment arrangement.
i suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman.
Chloe says
Hi I was wondering if anybody could help me out with zebit and minicredit.
I contacted zebit and they came back saying they are not the same company and they have forwarded the information on however I had not heard anything back. Does anybody know how to get in contact with them?
Minicredit I’ve heard have now gone? It was passed on to kapama and opos I’m not 100% sure which one it is with now as I contacted both with no response, I’ve had a nightmare with them to be honest I was paying Stepchange and they were refusing my payments (I wasn’t aware) so they added over £200 charges. I tried to dispute this but it went round in circles!
Would appreciate any help on these 2 companies thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If a creditor or debt collector has refused payments from Stepchange and added interest or charges, it’s worth complaining about this, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/creditor-wont-freeze-interest/
The Hitman says
Received my statement from quickquid from 2008. TBH I didn’t use them as much as I thought, and noticed there’s still £512 outstanding. Interest is only £312. Should I keep quite with this one? And with it being 9 years old what happens with the debt, and would this be wrote off now?
Thank you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There doesn’t seem much point in pursuing this one. If you get a refund it will just be used to offset the remaining debt.
The remaining balance should be statute barred (see https://debtcamel.co.uk/statute-barred-debt/) which means they shouldn’t try to take you to court an if they do you can defend it. But the debt isnt written off and they will be entitled to offset any refund against it.
Jamie says
Hi guys. Just got a offer from Qq and I accepted £750 and I only paid £800 all the loans so not a bad offer.
Any idea how long the money takes to go into your bank account
Damion says
How can I find out what payday loans I’ve had as that were around 8-10 yrs ago won’t show on bank statements nothing on credit file I have a few I’m paying debt collector for but thsts only a few I’ve had loads
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Getting your old bank statements is a good route.
Lisa says
I have received a reply from Wonga today saying they they are not going to uphold my complaint as all their checks were accurate and also that my loan was written off, I have no idea if i had more than one loan with them and am not sure whether to just leave it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask them for a statement of account.
Kenny Glover says
Thank you Sara for this superb website.
I started the ball rolling months ago and have had a complaint upheld by the adjudicator and PDUK have agreed to the decision the adjudicator came to an so I am in the process of receiving a refund on the interest on a number of the loans I took.
I am just wondering if anyone knows how long this last stage takes though, I haven’t had any emails in a week or so since returning my claim form….
Saffi says
Does anyone know anything about MEM Consumer Finance? I have just looked them up on CreditSafe and it appears the company was disolved? I had 8 loans from them between 2013 and 2014 but no idea who to approach?
Ian says
Hi Saffi,
From when I was investigating my own PayDay lending I found MEM Consumer Finance also go the titles of Month End Money and PayDayUK.
Either of these ring a bell?
Lewis B says
pay day uk made an offer whilst i was waiting for ruling on 6+ years, completely out of the blue offered refund and interest on all loans except loan 1, as i became dependent on payday borrowing.
payday express rejected, now in que for ombudsman, even though payday uk have made an offer for me being dependent?
4 weeks to pay from acceptance, which will be the 4th august so hopefully will have money by friday!
247 money box are being dreadful, they have told me my ajudicator hasnt sent them any emails what so ever, yet my ajudicator has told them to refund all charges and interest on all loans that i have had with them.
hopefully get some decisions soon!
thanks for this brilliant site sara!!
MH says
Hi,
Has anyone recently had SUNNY agree at adjudicator level?
If so any rough timescale as to how long they take to respond and how long they take to payout?
Much appreciated if anyone has any success stories.
Thanks
MH
D says
Thank you Sara for this site
Finally QQ have paid out after a 7 month journey,
I submitted a refund request back in February with 5 different PDL companies Mr Lender, Payday UK & Sunny agreed and paid out after a few weeks QQ & pounds to pocket went to the financial ombudsman. My adjudicator agreed with my QQ complaint but the company offered me £1000 as a settlement, I turned this & a second offer of £1500 down, I was due to go on holiday and thought the money would come in handy. When I called my adjudicator to let her know I’ve changed my mind, she said hold out for 1 more week, I’m glad that she’s a better poker player than me because they made a third offer close too the full amount, I accepted and the money was in my bank 2 days later.
Saffi says
I have sent out almost 20 emails and have so far heard from Mr Lender, 2 small loans and got £105 back, Peachy 1 loan for £100 and got £48 back so quite happy with these 2. Obviously still to hear from the big ones, Wonga 50 loans, Safety Net Credit 40, QQ 12 plus quite a few others between 1 and 5 loans. Thanks to tis site otherwise I wouldn’t have known what to do!
Ross says
A rather interesting email, from my adjudicator (who has just returned from holiday), regarding my QQ complaint. This has been sat with the jurisdiction team since October 2016. He has said they have made an offer of £990 to settle my complaint, against interest paid of £1883. This is quite fair, considering they didn’t even make any kind of offer, even derisory, on my initial complaint. The adjudicator has said the ball is now in my court and pointed out 2 things for me to consider. A) he has said that there’s no guarantee that the pre 6 year loans can be looked at and that this was still a bone of contention and B) a lot of my loans were for small amounts (£50-£20″) and he states that these could be classed as affordable. I have asked him to make a counter offer to QQ of £1200 to settle in full and I can finally put this whole sorry situation to bed (this is the very last of my complaints). I’ll keep you updated on what happens.
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?
——————————————————-
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.
acee says
Really need some help here I’m on a DMP, however ive also sent letters about irresponsible lending back this is what Lending Stream have come back with:
We would like to share our findings, you borrowed 16 loans from Lending Stream, out of which one loan is outstanding.
Affordability Check:
•Your Experian score was ranging between 564 – 768; which factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable
•At the time of applications, You were full-time employed
•Your monthly income at the time of applications was ranging from £1070.00 – £1800.00
•We could observe a sufficient disposable income, which denoted that repayments towards the loans can be made without any financial difficulties
Resolution:
In lieu of the overall situation, we confirm that the affordability checks were performed with due consideration while approving your loans.
With the above being said, we are ready to extend our support in clearing the debt and offer to waive all the interest and charges (£403.08) incurred on the outstanding loan (3448245) and are ready to accept the remaining principal balance (Borrowed amount – Paid amount). The remaining balance on the loan would be £630.00.
We find it worth mentioning that the stated settlement amount (£630.00) can be paid in a full one time payment or in an affordable payment arrangement.
——————-
Firstly my income was always only £1070 never been on £1800 in my life, Experian score hasn’t been above 564 for a number of years. If everything was above board why would the offer to clear £403.08 from the outstanding loan? Should I hold out and try to get the interest from all previous loans too?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Doesn’t sound a good offer, not close – send it to the Ombudsman!
Steve p says
I currently have a complaint against 118 money waiting to be picked up by an adjudicator, I borrowed £1000 in Feb 2015 then refinanced that in April 2016 £750 and then refinanced that loan in December the same year,the interest on the loans is 99.9 percent,that’s basically the same as a payday lender but over a longer term,after I took the 900 loan in December I owed them £3400,I have now paid over £1000 of it off,but I’m hoping the FOS find in my favour and I manage to get some of the outslanding balance written off,I have looked into paying off the loan with money I received from a payday refund,but with 118 you basically spend the 1st year paying all the interest and the second year paying down the balance,it’s absolute robbery,I hope they get their collar felt by the government sooner or later,what they do is shameless.
Lisa says
I had a complaint with 118 the ombudsmen upheld, I took 2000 and with interest doubled. Any way from they 3500 o had to repay… I now owe 1400… so I got interest back which I see a little light
Becky says
Hi,
I have had several pay day loans but starting to reach it being over 6 years ago. Am I still able to go for this as I have read on the comments a 6 year rule?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Put in a claim asap! You can claim for loans over 6 years but it’s quicker if they are under.
Terry says
Hi Sara,
After my acceptance offer of just under £7000 from Wonga last week I have had an offer from QQ tonight.
They have offered me just under £3800 but from what I can see there is no 8% simple interest been added unlike Wonga, do they have to offer this or is it up to them?
They haven’t paid me out on the first 3 loans I had with them, interest on these came to just under £1000 and the first 2 loan amounts were relatively low, first 2 were for £400 and the 3rd was for £800. But the interest on the other 5 came to £4600. Giving if they don’t need to add the 8% interest do you think this is a fair offer?
Also does anyone know how quick QQ pay out? I accepted Wonga’s offer last thursday and it was in my bank by Monday teatime, I hope QQ are just as quick.
J f says
Hi sarah,
Following seeing ur site i made a complaint to 9 payday lenders
Quick quid offered £200 then £1000 when i went to the FOS i rejected this an asked the adjudicator to investigate.
Pay day uk offered £0 then £550 for 3 out of 6 loans following Adjudicator findings
Sunny offered me £2500 for 8 of 11 loans
Wonga offered me £4500 for 18 of 25 loans
Pay day express offered me £0 and the adjudicator has said to pay me back for 8 of 8 loans
Satsuma offered me £0 and then £1300 following the adjudicators decision for 1 of 3 loans
Swift sterling im having trouble with as non uk
Quid market in process of referring
Pounds to pocket in process of referring
Toothfairy have gone bust so no luck there
But honestly this site is the best thing ive come across in many years. Thanks so much in 4 months ive got back ober £9k so far
Charlotte says
Has anyone ever dealt with Western Circle/CashFloat? I only had 3 loans with them but I conplained as I had 8 other payday loans at the time totalling £10,000 with late payments/defaults! So I feel they were unaffordable. They also reported to credit agencies that I owed them £4,800 and £1,800 when the loans were only for £350! When I asked to set up a payment plan they refused to send me an expenditure form or set up a payment plan! They said they were a short term Lender and would not accept a payment plan!
They did not uphold my complaint but the FOS have emailed me saying they have partially upheld my complaint, I’m just waiting for the full information of their decision.
Has anyone had the FOS uphold your complaint with Western Circle/Cash Float and if so, how long did it take for them to pay the refund?
Charlotte says
Hi Sara
I’ve started my compliant with uncle buck and they have asked for copies of all my bank statements during my loan periods and also a credit report. Am I ok to provide this to them? Thank you for your help and advice.
Kind regards
Charlotte
Paul says
Just had an email back from UB after I stated I would NOT be sending them bank statements and copy of credit report :-
‘Thank you for your recent email.
If you would prefer not to provide this information, we will continue our investigation using the evidence we have available.
You will receive our final response in due course, and no later than eight weeks from the date we received your complaint.’
I’m sure you can expect the same response from them.
Good luck with your case :-)
Paul says
Hi everyone.
So glad I came across this site. I would never have even thought of trying to claim compensation from these loan companies. Since 2012, I have had in excess of 50 payday loans. Most of which became unaffordable and I was borrowing from one lender to pay back the other. Sane story for a lot of others, I’m guessing.
Anyway, I discovered this site, literally 4 days ago and on the same day sent off emails to all the companies I had had loans from asking for statements and compensation. To my absolute surprise, many of them replied within two days. ‘Peachy’, even emailed me today with an offer of compensation (£251.83). Mulling over wether to take it or not or pursue further.
But what I’m trying to say is, it’s worth doing! I NEVER thought I’d even get a response, let alone an offer of compensation within a few days. So hats off to ‘Peachy’ for their very quick response. Now to see if the other loan companies follow suit.
Thank you for this website. Because of this, I may get some much needed funds back :-)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good start, check that Peachy offer over though, lots of people have accepted a first offer happily and then realised how much more that could get back. If you don’t know what interest you paid Peachy, say you are thinking of accepting but you need your statement of account before you make a decision.
Ross says
Well, that’s me at the very end of my journey. I have just agreed to settle with QQ to close the complaint and I am satisfied.
To those of you just starting out, don’t feel daunted or deflated if a company dismisses your complaint, and stick with it. Throughout all of my complaints (and I had a fair few) the help from this site, and the FOS, has been invaluable. For those of you who fear that gambling transactions will go against you, please don’t. The FOS aren’t judgemental in any way and, in a strange kind of way, this can actually help with your case. I would like to offer a massive thank you to Sara who is a truly wonderful lady and has helped turn countless lives around, including my own.
Even though my journey is at an end, I will continue to drop by the site and offer help where I can.
Paul says
£2500 quid back from quickquid, eventhough my excel calculations from my bank statements should have been £1661
simon says
Hi Sara,
Please could I ask your advise, I have had a complaint in with the FOS for MonkeyDosh and the adjudicator has ruled in there favour. She is saying that my total wages were £1027 per month and the loan was for £150 repaying £187.50 which I had to roll over 3 times and have not paid the final amount which now has charges etc on it up to £227. She is saying my total outgoings were £759 a month and so I had £332 spare to pay it but she has not taking in to account all the other payday loans I had at the time which I was rolling over/defaulting on.
I have explained this to her but she is saying although the checks MD did were not proportionate if they had done the right checks she dose not believe they would not have lent to me any way? I have asked her to send it to the ombudsman any way which she has but has said it wont change anything!
Do you think this is fair or right? My bank statements that she has shows the other loans at the time as well as gambling transaction and over limit / returned item fees. Im worried as she is also looking into other complaints for me around the same time, other adjudicators are looking at other complaints for the same time and have ruled in my favour. Can I ask one of the other adjudicators to look at her complaints?
Thanks Simon.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1) one loan cases are hard to win. Often it is decided the lender couldn’t have realised see you were in trouble until later loans.
2) yes your other debt payments should be taken into account. It will depend what would have showed on your credit record when you took the loan out. You need to write a detailed explanation of this and ask it to be sent to the Ombudsman.
3) adjudicators always warn the Ombudsman is likely to reach the same conclusion, it doesn’t mean your case is very poor.
Anna says
Hi
I am in the process of claiming back from the moneyshop the complaint was issued in Feb and I received thier final response this morning.
The only problem is thier response says I have only ever had only 1 loan in 2016 but in fact I had many loans over a six year period 2007 -2013 which they have not acknowledged.
I am now being asked for ref nos per loan as well as bank statements
I can provide bank statements but they don’t say “the money shop ” as it was cheque loans so only the cheque numbers are listed.
Given I used other cheque loan companies I can’t pin point exactly which is relevant.
Any advice in what I should do next??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Are you sure what address and what email address you would have used when applying for the loans? If you are, you could send them a SAR.
Other options – have you tried going into the branch you used and asking them for a list of your loans? Have you looked at your old emails? You could ask your bank for any suggestions abut who the cheques would have been paid to?
Linda says
Hi – One of my complaints was upheld by My Jar. They refunded all interest which wrote off the remaining balance with a small refund. However they have stated that they won’t remove any adverse credit information from my file, even though the complaint was upheld. Is this correct? As the complaint was upheld (deciding in my favour) aren’t they obliged to do this? They state in my request ‘deleting our information regarding you would risk causing other lenders or financial institutions to incorrectly assess your financial circumstances’. Not quite sure how to respond to be honest.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They aren’t obliged to. The Ombudsman usually awards this but not always. it is a pity you didn’t get this agreed before you accepted their offer.
Louise says
Hi,
Once i accept an offer from Wonga through my adjudicator will I get correspondents from Wonga of how long it will take or will I just get my refund? I gave my bank details to adjudicator so they have them. Thanks
neil says
Hi I accepted and gave my bank details to Adjudicator, I received an email from Wonga’s FOS team the next day and the money was in my account the following day so really quick. Hope yours is the same.
Jamie says
Hi all.
Waiting for my refund from Quick Quid to go into my bank account but I’ve just found out that the 8% statuary is’t included in the offer?
Lucia says
Hi All, I had a refund from Lending Stream for my complaint and they agreed to remove defaults from my credit files. They have not done as agreed after 3 months and I have been emailing daily with no response. I’ve just found the email address for their compliance director on the FCA website – so here it is stuart@global-analytics.com for anyone else who has issues with them!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Was the refund via the Ombudsman or direct?
Lucia says
Direct – I have an email from them agreeing to remove the Debt Management status but they haven’t done so.
rhys says
hi could anybody help me?
i sent several e-mails weeks ago.
mr lender replied rapid 303 pounds refunded.
pay day uk 717 pounds refunded
pay day express rejected (althought i have now found out it was a different company with a similar name who have now gone bust)
wizz cash – rejected
wonga – heard nothing back – over 6 weeks (apart from 4 week letter)
wage day advance – heard nothing back – over 6 weeks (apart from 4 week letter)
The Hitman says
Hi all,
I’ve received my statement of account from Payday express, and it works out £556.20 I’m owed. They are requesting bank account statement from April & May 2008 and credit report from that period. Is this common practice?
Thank you
Ross says
Hi Hitman,
You’re not obliged to send these if you don’t want to. Why they would want to see them now is a bit like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted! Just ask them to consider your complaint with the information they already hold. However, you will need to send bank statements and your credit report to the FOS, if it progresses to that stage, which (knowing Payday Express) it probably will! Good luck!
Tom says
Some lenders request this information but people don’t like handing it over.
I replied telling them to proceed with the complaint with the information that was provided and that I’d be more than happy to send the information to the FOS if requested
Tom says
I’m not sure if this has been placed anywhere but a quick note to everyone who has submitted complaints – make sure you check your Junk/Spam folders on your accounts, two lenders’ emails went there for me rather than my inbox.
DB says
Accepted an offer from wonga and filled out the form and sent it back on weds. Just had an email to say they are processing the payment.
Does anyone know how long this takes before it hits my account.
Thanks
acee says
Sent emails a week ago to 9 lenders 4 have replied still waiting for Wonga, Myjar, Sunny, Cashasap and 247moneybox to reply to my statement of account request.
Lending Stream – made an offer of around £400 I’m hoping for atleast £1000.
Safteynet, PDUK are considering my complaint. WDA sent my statement of account waiting for their reply now.
Should I give the 5 that haven’t replied to my statement of account request a gentle nudge or just wait 4 weeks then go to the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The ones that haven’t replied – you can nudge if you want, but I suggest sending a rather vague step 2 full complaint and saying that this is addotional info for your complaint dated (date of step 1 letter) and add you still haven’t been sent the details of you loans.
Paul says
just had am email from wonga with their final response. it’s left blank
Sara (Debt Camel) says
LOL call them and ask what they meant to say.
Ben says
Hiya, I have had an offer from wonga, not compared it to all of my loans as of yet but Im struggling to make sense of it…my settlement offer is £722.60 and then it outlines the interest of 8% compensation that I asked for but it looks to me like this is all wiped off in tax? Basically sounds like there was no point in asking for the 8% ? I’m not sure if I’m reading this wrong or not and will help me to form my decision as to whether to accept or not? If anyone can help that would be great. Iv included the interest section from wonga below
Interest of 8% simple per year has been added to the total redress for each loan from the date the loan was taken out until the date of calculation. Please see the outline below.
total interest and fees
£722.60
8% interest net
£199.63
total settlement
£922.23
tax
8% interest gross
£249.54
basic rate tax deduction
£49.91
Compensatory interest is subject to income tax at the basic rate under UK tax legislation and, therefore, tax will be deducted at the basic rate of 20% from any payments made to you. If you do not pay tax, you may be able to reclaim some or all of this tax reduction from HM Revenue and Customs.
Dan says
The deduction for HMRC tax purposes is 20% of the simple interest (so, in your case, £49).
After tax is taken off, you’re still getting interest on the refunded payments of £199.63
It’s definitely worth asking for the 8% on the refunds.
You may be able to claim the taxed amount (£49) back depending on what savings you have
Lisa says
So i had a reply from Opos today regarding my Minicredit loan also included was a copy of my credit aggreement. They basically go through all the points why they have done no wrong and how they didnt have anything to do with the loan and how minicredit dealt with me fairly, then at the end offer me a reduction of £700 on my balance which is currently around £1150 which would leave £450 outstanding. I have paid around £300 since starting my DMP and the original loan was only for £100 would you send this to FOS and hope for a better offer?
I also had a reply from Payday Express saying that they were not at fault, i had 3 loans with them the first is over 6 years old the second was defferred each month for around 6 months and the 3rd was deferred 4 times yet they said i never informed them of difficulties and they saw nothing wrong with my situation lol. will be sending to FOS.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest replying to OPOS saying you have repaid £300 after borrowing £100 and unless they wipe the balance you will be going to the Ombudsman.
Nav G says
Hi Guys,
So having thoroughly gone through all the posts and messages I sent off all my emails and have had a response back from Mr Lender.
I had a total of 5 loans with them and total interest was around £700. They have replied with a lengthy letter stating they did no wrong but have offered £150 as a goodwill gesture along with removing any adverse credit marks on my file.
I have countered with an offer and I wondered if anyone had any experience of negotiating with Mr Lender. Will they negotiate, how long do they take, any previous cases, etc.
Any tips would be really helpful.
Nav
Dan says
I didn’t accept (and there’d been many others on here that didn’t) their first offer – I actually refused their first 3 offers and settled on clearing my balance and more than £800 in the bank.
Refuse it and back it up with your argument as to why – the worst that can happen is they stick with their original offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Mr Lender often responds well to a sensible argument, be firm and decide what you think is reasonable (interest on loans 3-5?)
Steve says
I have sent out SO A e.mails to 9 lenders.i have received e.mails with statements same day from safety net. wage day advance uncle buck and lending stream. 2nd e.mail sent and to those now and all have responded acknowledging they are looking into complaint. I received an email from wonga asking for more info to locate my account. no acknowledgement from 247 money box. will keep you updated with further responses
Ben says
Thanks Dan,
for this I did Realise this after I posted but glad to get confirmation. Wonga said this was a final response but on working out I believe that they could still refund £400+more as they only gave me the larger loans as a refund. So is it worth me replying direct to ask about this or going straight to ombudsman? Im worried about time scales and losing the current offer if I do? The ones they haven’t included I was taking roughly £200 loans out and paying them back and taking them out again with in 2 weeks of paying it (in some cases the very same day) – does this sound worth of taking it to the ombudsman?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How many loans have they offered a refund for? How many did you take in total? Are the ones they didn’t refund on the early loans?
Ben says
16 loans in total, they have offered to refund 4 of the larger ones however I feel the smaller ones should be taken in to consideration too as I was paying loans off and borrowing straight away each month to try and manage. They offered to refund the 3rd loan I took out so surely they are admitting they shouldn’t of loaned the ones after that but then have skipped some of them out only opting to refund the ones of larger interest. If that makes sense.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It does depend on how much smaller they were – the ombudsman may think £75 was affordable but £400 wasn’t. But these cases where Wonga has picked out just a few loans often get much better offers by going to the Ombudsman.
Laura says
hi all , what is uncle buck like for paying people , my 28days is up on the 16th of august , do they normally leave it to last minute to pay ? as im aware its a bacs payment so will take another 3/4working days to hit my bank account
DB says
I accepted an offer on Wednesday where my bank details were given to Wonga. I’ve just been told it’s 24-48 hours for processing then a further 3-5 days for it to hit my account. Fingers crossed it goes in at some point today as I’ve phoned them up just there and said they have made payment already this morning.
Hayley says
Just an update complaints made on 8th June 2017 to payday U.K., payday express, Wonga, QQ, the Money Shop.
So far payday uk upheld all my loan complaints and offered 5 days before the 8 weeks
Payday Express contacted me on exactly 8 week deadline asking for more time. This has been sent to FOS to avoid delay
The Money Shop sent acknowledgement and that they were still investigating on 5th and 12th July but have not heard from them since. Have emailed twice asking for an update but been ignored so sent to FOS
Wonga only upheld one loan out of 11 so this was sent to FOS
QUICK QUID UPHELD 3 loans out of 7 and stated they will not be adding the 8% statutory interest on top so have declined this offer and sent to FOS.
sent Wonga FOS complaint last Thursday and was called Friday from my adjudicator introducing himself and stating he has started the enquiries
already.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s very quick for your Wonga complaint to be picked up! Thanks for the detailed update – people do like to see what is happening to other cases!
Hayley says
Just a note as I know the question has been asked a few times on this thread.
Quick Quid stated they would not givr any statutory interest in their offer so would advise people to check their offers carefully before accepting as could be losing out on quite a bit
Sally says
Hi Sara
A couple of question, I’ve recently had a refund from Wda, will this affect my complaint against LS? I’ve put in a complaint to them regarding unaffordable loans however I have 4 outstanding and not considered the intrest I have paid already on them and replied saying that if I didn’t pay the outstanding amount they would send my file to a debt collector? Is that correct? I don’t want my credit file to be affected. Am I wrong in thinking you can’t put an unaffordable lending complaint in whilst still owing on loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Getting a refund from one payday lender doesn’t directly impact your other complaints – but it does encourage you that you are on the right lines!
Tell LS you are disputing the affordabilty of the debt and ask them for an affordable payment arrangement. Offer what you can afford to pay without having to borrow any more. This will impact your credit record, but if you win the case then the negative marks get removed… and having 4 loans open at once sounds like a promising case! LS is difficult to deal with and should expect this to have to go to the ombudsman and take months to resolve.
You absolutely can put in an affordability complaint when you still owe money. loads of people have won this sort of complaint, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/ for how they are treated.
Shellbell says
Anyone had any experiences with satumsa? Provident?
Ross says
Hi Shellbell,
I made a complaint to Satsuma, which they rejected with a very lengthy 7 page ‘War & Peace’ style response. It was sent to the FOS, and the adjudicator ruled in my favour. Surprisingly, they accepted the adjudicator’s decision. However, they like to drag out the refund process, so be prepared for any refund to progress at a snails pace. They do NOT send refunds to your bank account, via faster payments, like most PDL companies and they will send it to you via cheque. So after waiting for it to be delivered in the post, you then have to wait up to 5 days for it to clear in to your bank account. I just find it rather bemusing, as if you borrow from them, they’ll pop the money straight in to your bank account. The minute they have to refund, it’s a whole different story.
Paul says
Makes me laugh. They can pay out a loan ‘in 15 minutes’, but a refund will take 15 weeks!
Nav G says
Hi Sara,
Mr Lender have come back with removing all adverse marks as well refund of loans 3-5.
They seem eager to resolve and I’m happy to accept it.
I will send a message tonight to give a full update on all the emails I’ve sent and updates accordingly.
I must say this page is amazing as I’ve got a result within a few days and feels like there may be light at the end of this debt tunnel.
Out of the following I’ve emailed who are likely to be the toughest?
Lending Stream
Safety New Credit
Wageday Advance
Payday Express
Peachy
Wonga
Thanks
Dan says
Good result there Nav! Well done!
The first refund I had (Mr Lender, funnily enough – they were by far the easiest and quickest to deal with) felt like it was an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders and, like you say, it shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Personally, that small victory made me even more determined to get results from all the others (so far, £1800 from MrL, £300 balance wiped off by MyJar and just got adjudicator decision on Sunny which should be about 4k – others to follow hopefully!).
Keep at it and follow all complaints through – it’s painless, easy and (for me anyway) a route to being debt free.
Lee says
Finally heard back from Wonga today. They have upheld my compliant on 121 loans / top ups and given me 8% statutory interest on the loans.
However they appear to calculated from my 3rd loan onwards and not sure if missed a couple out as they worked out due it’s 22 loans (with top ups included in these loans).
I worked out I had paid £2559.97 total interest before requesting additional 8% applied.
However there offer is based on £2019.95 total interest + further 8% applied.
Making a total offer of £2486.10.
Whereas I calculated total offer around £3045
Should I go back to them to try and remain £540 quid + 8%?
Really could do with some advice on how to proceed with this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loans 1 and 2 – were these loans rolled or topped up? How much interest did you pay on each of them, including any top ups & rolls?
Your “121 loans including top ups” – how many loans was this not counting top ups?
Paul says
A quick update – I emailed Peachy with a complaint on Wednesday, they responded the following day with an offer of compensation. I decided to accept and they just emailed me now with the following :-
‘Thank you for contacting us!
We are glad to hear that you have accepted our offer and we will now consider your complaint as closed.
We can confirm that we have made you a refund of £251.85 today, 04/08/2017, and the funds should reach you within 3 working days maximum.
Can’t believe they acted so quickly and have refunded me within 3 days of my complaint. I was happy with this refund as this was near the total of all interest I paid.
I also have 9 other creditors who I’ve written to and can only hope they will be as efficient and prompt to act, as Peachy have been. I doubt it though.
Lee says
Loans 1 & 2 had top ups on. Going to phone them to clarify the things you mentioned sara as worked mine all out from bank statements and see if will up offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could say you are thinking of accepting but you would like a statement of account so you can be sure.
Lee says
Sara.
Just got of phone to Wonga.
They basically said I had a 47 loans then another person I spoke to said 52 loans in total. 22 of which deemed in unaffordable in the final response.
They said my 121 transactions in total would of included top ups on these loans as calculated everything through bank statements.
I therefore asked for all statements of accounts as 30 more loans seem excessive but apparently these are smaller and were deemed affordable.
Just confused as know from bank statements what I calculated was correct. But £540 interest on another 30 loans doesn’t seem right at all. When 22 loans apparently I paid £2019 interest on.
Anyway equested all statements of accounts from them so can compare.
I was considering accepting offer as really would clear 3 of my 5 credit card debts now. But Im now concerned I massively have underestimated how much total interest I originally calculated.
Sara do you think this is the best way forward?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think £540 interest on 30 loans sounds very low so you are right to get a proper statement and check it that way.
Is it possible you might have made a Wonga repayment on a credit card, not from your bank?