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?
Lucy says
Hello,
I have been looking through my bank statements and i am ashamed to see how much i have wasted on gambling over the past 4/5 years.
Has anyone ever spoken to the company about having a problem and it should of been spotted? Or do they just say well its your choice so its all on you?
Just wondering really if anyone has had any positive outcomes?
Thanks
D says
Hi Lucy, I was the same for all my refunds im due, follow the procedure Sara has outlined and you hopefully get most of the interest you paid back. Has worked for me, in total im looking 5-6k back
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Payday loans and gambling often go together :(
With these cases, you should probably expect the lender to refuse a refund, but if you send it to the ombudsman, these cases are being won! The Ombudsman is not judgmental about gambling. I collected together a few cases as examples so you can see how they are handled: https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/
S says
Hi,
Hoping for some guidance.
I wrote to Wonga to ask for my account history, which they provided, however I’ve been busy and had. It got round to finalising my letter to them as was also waiting on other info as I know I doubled up in some months and paid one off with another.
Anyway long story short they haven’t given me a chance to send them my reasons for the complaint and have closed it and said they do not think they were irresponsible in my lending.
What should I do now? Try send them my letter to reconsider or call the ombudsman and outline everything?
In addition Payday UK have come back to say they fee they were irresponsible for some of my loans 5 at start and 2 at the end, however not 3 in the middle, which I find odd.
They have offered a settlement, which I think is fair, although difficult to work out as I can’t get the figures to match what they are offering from the account summary they have sent me.
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga – when did you ask for the list of your loans?
Payday UK – were the three in the middle smaller? or did you roll the other loans but not the middle three? how far out do you think their figures are for the loans they have offered to refund?
S says
HI Sara,
Wonga – I asked for my statement of account on 22/07, they replied with the info on 15/08, then sent me an email on 07/09 saying they would not uphold my complaint. Yet all they had from me was the 1st template letter asking for account info, not sure what to do here?
PDUK – the three in the middle were for differing amounts, 1st was £200 in November ’10, 2nd £750 in December ’10 (which I deferred and paid off in March ’18), 3rd was £250 in May ’18
For these in these ones, they are saying they are unable to determine the outcome, as they are unable to prove affordability and have asked for all my bank statements etc. I think the amount for these 3 is around £675 in original interest charges,
I can post my statement of account if it would help?
For the ones they will uphold, they have said that they will repay me £2.3k + £1.2k (8% interest) – £240 (20% Tax on 8% Interest) = £3.3k to be repaid to me.
If these amounts/calcs are correct, then I may take the offer and forget the £675 for the middle three loans – given the time and effort it will take to get the bank statements and then potentially have to deal with the ombudsman.
Advice/guidance greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga – well it’s a shame you didn’t send them a full complaint after they sent you the list of your loans, but Wonga were quite right to press ahead as they only had 8 weeks from 22/07 to reply. What you need to do now is write up the details of your complaint and send it on to the Financial Ombudsman.
PDUK – getting 2.3k out of about 3k isn’t a bad offer. Do check the numbers, but if they are right, it’s your call if you think it’s a fair overall settlement.
Brad says
Hi Sara, when I listed my expenditure on the letters I mentioned that I was incurring £1,000 – £2,000 per month on work travel expenses which impacted my cash flow as I wasn’t receiving it back for several weeks. Would you include this or leave it out?
My disposable income looked high because I was gambling.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
i probably wouldn’t mention it to a lender, it’s just a complication, doesn’t change your real financial position. But if you have cases that go to the Ombudsman, it’s worth explaining these items on your bank statements. Otherwise the adjudicator may think you are taking a lot of holidays!
Brad says
Hi Sara, I have mentioned the travel expenses already on some letters. It wasn’t really true I was just covering up my gambling as the disposable income would have looked high. Do you think this will affect my case negatively or will it not make much difference if it goes to the FOS anyway?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think the FOS looks at the facts of your case – were the loans unaffordable, should the lender have realised this or started to ask more questions when you kept borrowing. Just keep things simple and accurate from now on.
Roch says
Hi all, Has anyone had problems with Quick Quid regarding not listing all loans & interest and giving silly offers?
I am a bit annoyed with my adjudicator about this as well. I sent my original complaint in 11 april 17 and they were very quick to send SOA and deny all wrong doing so I sent to FO. The adjudicator picked it up 11th august 17 but before she looked at my case they offered to refund 2 loans for £62 which I declined.
When she finally looked at my case she ruled they should refund all interest and 8% which they declined so I sent it to an ombudsman but while still waiting for one today they have offered me £162 which they say is all loans plus the 8%.
I did not believe that was good enough as I knew I had paid more so sat here going through all statements so not only are their missing loans but they have told my adjudicator that was all the interest I paid on 8 loans but I had 9 smallish loans total £775 and total repaid is £1248.50 so interest I actually paid is £473.40 not including the 8% anyway I called my adjudicator who said she has not even looked at my statements???? Why not how can she be trying to convince me its a good offer when she hasn’t looked at them. She said she will now as she has just gone with what QQ have said and the statement of acc they sent me which does not list the repayments up to 2013.
Has anyone had this problem ( its so frustrating)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Frustrating indeed, but this sounds quite close to being resolved, so keep at it! It isn’t actually unreasonable for an adjudicator to assume that a lender is telling the truth – but it’s a good job you have checked and disputed this. the 8% interest will probably add another 25-40% depending on the timing of the loans.
Dave says
Had exactly the same thing with MEM (Payday UK) and my Adjudicator not checking their records properly.
Took weeks of back and forth to get the right amount, which I’m still awaiting payment for (3 weeks in).
Tom W says
Wonga have just come back to me, and I am fairly stunned that they have refused to uphold my complaint on any loans. I had 23 with them between 04/2012 and 12/2014 and a few more afterwards. Obviously there was a lot of rolling over involved and the amounts increased, as well as other loans being held concurrently as that period went on. They have basically cited my high level of disposable income (had alcohol and gambling issues) and ‘good credit rating’ (i had a history of late/missed payments, including with them, a default on the file etc etc). I am just worried that because I was a relatively high earner and spread my debt around other PD lenders, short-term lenders and guarantor loans then the ombudsman is going to take a similar view. is there anyone out there with a similar set of circumstances who can give me some confidence? I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga often reject good cases. In the first 6 months of this year the ombudsman has been agreeing with 77% of complaints against Wonga.
If you had a highish income and gambling, I am not surprised that it will have to go to the Ombudsman. The ombudsman isn’t judgmental about gambling, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/ for some example cases.
It sounds as though you borrowed a lot from Wonga. This sounds a clear case to send to the Ombudsman.
Tom W says
Thanks Sara, that makes me feel a lot better. My 8 weeks is up next Wednesday, and I complained to about 8 lenders on the same day. So I am going to wait and complain to ombudsman about all at once, and draw up a spreadsheet which lists loans/repayments by month for the last 5 and half years. Hopefully this will help the ombudsman get a clearer picture about my borrowing!
Dave says
Lending Stream is the first of my complaints to now be progressed from Adjudicator to Ombudsman.
Does anyone know how long these tend to take?
Pear says
My lending stream took about 2 months from when adjudicator passed it to ombudsman to getting a letter in the post saying the ombudsman upheld the adjudicator findings. There was no contact in between. Hope this helps.
Bev says
Well my first battle has been won. Settled through adjudicator on Friday with QQ and got payment through today. I emailed them asking for statement of interest and payment was paid within the hour. Now waiting on Wonga and Payday UK. Thanks Sara and good luck everyone x
Steve says
I have on week 7 received a final response from my jar and ferratum. My jar have refunded 400 which is 2 thirds of the intrest I have paid and taken it off the balance of my current loan. Ferratum offered a refund of 200 and had already waived 192 from my last loan with them. I only had 4 loans in total. they are refunding using faster payment once they have received my acceptance. I’m feeling both offers are good offers as with both combined it is 3/4 off the intrest been refunded. I am accepting the offers as this saves jamming the ques with the ombudsmen for little more. I’m still waiting for wonga as this is my main loan user
Bakey says
Hi,
Great site, I’m just starting the process of claiming and have emailed Wonga, The Money Shop and Cash Converters. Had responses from CC, who actually sent me paper copies of my loans via Signed For delivery the very next day (hope their efficiency and how amenable they appeared bodes well and lasts!) and TMS, who asked me to confirm my details the next day. Nothing from Wonga yet but it’s very early days and I gather from other responses that the whole process will be a slog with them!
Anyway, just wanted to ask: I voluntarily made myself bankrupt in 2007 and had early discharge a year later. None of my payday loans were before 2011 and were therefore not in the bankruptcy etc. Should I throw into any correspondence with lenders that my bankruptcy would have shown on my credit files and so is yet another reason they should not have lent to me as they did?
Thanks in advance for responses.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could mention it but it isn’t that strong a point. Obviously you would have been in a mess when you went into bankruptcy, but 3 years after discharge you could well have been fine.
Ash1988 says
I received an offer from wonga…quite substantial £2900…however they have only used 15 loans to work this sum out. I have been back on my bank statements as far as possible and I counted 52… Nearly all of them rolled over. There will be more but it won’t let me go back any earlier than 2011…
I asked for a breakdown of previous loans but they haven’t sent them :(
They have agreed that they should of realised and they can see my loans had to be rolled over…
Due to me not being able to find out the total sum of my loans I have forwarded to the FOS… 15 out of 52 doesn’t seem right to me? Have I done the right thing? I’m worried I’ll end up with nothing lol x thanks x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you can divide your loans into three groups. The 15 they have offered to refund, the 37 they haven’t offered a refund on and an unknown number of earlier loans.
That sounds like a very strong case to me. I know it must feel risky “turning down” such a large amount of money, but we haven’t seen anyone who has ended up with less by going to the Ombudsman…
because you have loans over 6 years, your case may be very slow. But see how it goes. these older loans may be sorted out soon (I hope!) and you can always say to drop them if the wait seems too long when an adjudicator picks up your case.
Michelle says
Accepted a settlement offer with Wonga directly 2 days ago., they advised it can take 14 days to receive the refund.
Anybody received this any quicker??
Could do with the cash at the min!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga aim to pay out in 14 working days or less. At the moment most seem to take towards the full 14 days.
Andy1971 says
Hi All
I have asked for a statement from the Cheque Centre. To be fair they provided it within 5 working days although it was inaccurate in places as for some loans they showed they had charged no interest but it is clear from the amount that I repaid that I did incur interest for every loan. I took out consecutive loans for 17 months during a period when I had received numerous default notices from my credit card provider (I have asked them for statements to evidence that and they have agreed to provide the last 24 months free of charge). For most of my 17 loans I took out a new loans within a week of settling the old one. During this same period I took out two long term loans with providers that charge high APR’s (811 811 Money – name reversed !!) at 99.9% APR and another provider at 49.9% APR.
My concern is that the letter back from the Cheque Centre states they went into administration on 31 August 2017. Should I continue to pursue my complaint with them and if so in the circumstances should I seek an early settlement (something may be better than nothing down the line if they have no funds to settle a Financial Ombudsman’s decision? Many thanks?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes pursue it, what do you have to lose apart from a few hours? Whether to take a low offer may be a hard question but you can’t really think about it until you gave some figures.
The ‘interest’ in this cheque based lending is the difference between the money you were given and the cheque you repaid it with.
Darren says
Just thought I would give you an update on how my 247 moneybox complaint is going on.
Adjudicator sent a letter on 12/09 in favour of a few loans with interest totalling the £1.5k mark.
247 Moneybox then emailed me to say they have responded to the adjudicator yesterday, 13/09, so to check I asked the adjudicator for confirmation.
Adjudicator this morning has come back saying 247 have supplied more evidence for 3 out of the 4 loans in my favour but will take the full 2 weeks they have to supply the evidence for the 4th loan.
Funny thing is the 4th loan in my favour is the smallest out of them all!!!
Lucia says
24/7 are the worst I’ve dealt with! They leave it til the last minute to supply the info and only after a decision has been made. My adjudicator found in favour on 2 out of 4 loans in June. 24/7 then gave the business file so it all had to be reviewed again. Same decision made. 24/7 would not pay out so off the Ombudsman! Had to then wait until the 1st Sept for the SAME decision and now am fighting with 24/7 to pay me. And its all for just £250 approx.
Darren says
what would happen if they just refused to pay even though the adjudicator and the ombudsman agreed in your favour?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can take them to court & then send the bailiffs in … but it isn’t going to be necessary…. see https://debtcamel.co.uk/enforce-financial-ombudsman-decision/
Karen says
Just had an email from wonga, they have accepted my complaint and have offered me £6517.80 and I can say that I am more than happy with that amount, I worked it out roughly that it was around £8500, I only work part time and this is almost a years wages for me,,but I didn’t even know that I could claim my interest back until around 2 months ago, so I am shall we say a pretty happy bunny today, the money will certainly help us out of a spot and I can finally buy a new fridge freezer and cooker :)
I would like to say a very big thank you as this is a brilliant website,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well done! As your income is so low, you should be able to claim back all the tax Wonga are deducting. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/ that talks about getting £200 back but as you aren’t a basic tax payer you should get the lot :)
Karen says
I only work part time and dont pay tax on that :) so thats an extra bonus if I can claim the tax back.. I am still in shock.. they are paying the interest back from 35 of the 48 loans I had, the other 13 were only just over 6 years old, they are also removing all the loans from my credit file.. I feel like a big weight has has been lifted today.. thank you so much for your brilliant site :)
Lucy says
Good Morning,
Had an E Mail this morning from FO saying they have received my Acceptance form and now it is between me and the business (PDUK) and that they will contact me regarding the refund.
Anyone that has had a refund from PDUK did they contact you first? or did they just pay it into your bank?
Just unsure if i should ring them?
Thanks in advance
Darren says
Hi,
PDUK take the full 28 days to refund you. Even phoning up wont make it any quicker. They will ask you for your bank details then when they process it they will email you a breakdown of the payment. Once you get this email it can then take another 3-5 days to hit your account.
Saffi says
Bit disappointed in the response from my Adjudicator in respect of Piggy Bank, they have turned down my claim on the basis that all the checks Piggy Bank did were correct so they did nothing wrong. I had 4 loans from £100 to £350 and they were all smack bang in the middle of taking others out. The adjudicator says she won’t look at my bank statements or credit score as Piggy Bank were not in the wrong in lending to me. My credit report is littered with Pay Day loans.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What were the gaps between the Piggybank loans, from repaying one to taking the next one out?
Saffi says
1st one repaid following month £100 borrowed
2nd June 2015 repaid November 2015 borrowed £350
3rd April 2016 repaid June 2016 borrowed £250
4th July 2016 repaid November 2016 borrowed £350
Brad says
Had a response from Mr Lender. I currently owe them £1,116. They have offered to reduce it to the capital amount of £700 so I save £416. I had two other loans with them in 2016 where I paid total interest of £460 so in effect they are refunding half of the total interest. I think I’m happy with that so will probably accept?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you made any payments to the current loan?
They actually aren’t offering any refund for the earlier loans, just removing the interest from th defaulted one.
Brad says
Yes correct Sara. I may counter thinking about it to try and get a bit more. I had a loan in May which i paid interest of £366 on and I had about 7/8 other pay day loans active when I took that out
Nick says
Qq have offered me £1300 after offsetting my existing loan and not agreeing to adjudicator that they should repay 3 loans. They have said they will repay one only. Should I hold out or take the cash ??
I had 12 loans, 9 are out of jurisdiction..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well on average cases are taking from 2-4 months at the Ombudsman level. That isn’t long to wait for what could be a lot more money? But that’s easy for me to say…
Jacqueline says
Qq refused giving me money back and I went thru the ombudsman. Got email yesterday with an offer. I woukd go thru the ombudsman if u r owed much more
GMA says
I have just received an update from the Adjudicator regarding the Money Shop and he has found in my favour. This goes back to 2007 so am pleasantly surprised. He has given them tell the 28th Sept to respond but has requested they pay back all interest, charges plus the 8% and remove from credit files. Will let you know final outcome
Ads says
I had the same against Wonga. Found that 12 out of 13 were unaffordable. My deadline 21st September.
Lucia says
Beware 24/7 Moneybox. I have just noticed (annoyingly after agreeing to my refund amount via an Ombudsman) that the figures they provided to the FOS were wrong! Stupidly I didn’t think to check my bank statement (which is a little frustrating as I thought the FOS may have noticed). BUT, they disclosed the original interest and charges that were applied to the loan at outset. Due to me paying late, I actually paid back default fees and additional interest. SO they quoted £179. But what I am actually owed is £416.49!!!! I’m furious. I’ve gone back to the FOS – they cant reopen but are speaking to them.
Darren says
during my original 8 weeks I managed to get a statement of account from them which shows everything – loan amount, interest, fees and then what was originally paid back. That sucks they have done that :( just shows you what kind of company they are pulling tricks like that
Lucia says
They never actually sent me a statement of account. I had to ask the FOS to send me the breakdown they’d been sent breakdown. However, I will back track here – 24/7 have just confirmed that the will refund the higher amount (what I have actually paid) so fingers crossed it’ll arrive soon.
amanda says
Hi I stumbled across this site yesterday and thought I would look into some of my loans as I am struggling a little at the moment. So far I have sent three emails off to 247 money box, sunny and Mr lender.
Mr lender have already replied saying that they did not find any fault and that my credit rating was 579 and that there was no evidence I had late payments or defaults with any other provider. I check my credit rating on noddle and that shows that at the time of getting the loan my credit rating was around 400. Even though Mr lender think they have done nothing wrong as a ‘goodwill gesture’ they are willing to reduce my current loan down to the capital amount to £375 which is a discount of £304. Considering yesterday I was not even aware I had a chance at saving any money I am thinking of taking this what do you think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Amanda,
have you had other loans from Mr Lender? Any idea how many? Also this loan with Mr Lender – how much did you borrow and have you made any payments to it?
Do you currently owe money to 247 money box and Sunny? If you do, have you cancelled the CPA with your bank so they can’t take any money from your account? These complaints can take a while to sort out – Mr Lender is unusual in handling them quickly – so you need to be sure you aren’t going to have to borrow any more money.
Acee says
Had a final response from Wonga ‘Having looked in detail at your complaint and the information we had access to when we made our lending decisions, we have not found any indication that your loans were unaffordable. On that basis, we are unable to uphold your complaint’
Anyone else had this response and had complaint upheld by adjudicator? Had loans dating back to 2011 including being on a DMP to pay back wonga loan amongst others in 2012 and they still lent to me in 2015.
Ads says
Similar response from wonga although they agreed 2 of the 13 loans were unaffordable. Still took it to FOS and adjudicator ruled that 12 of the 13 loans were unaffordable after I provided 5 years worth of bank statements, 5 years of saving accounts statements, copy of my credit file and a list of the loans from wonga. My deadline is currently 21st September for wonga to accept the adjudicators decision or reject it.
Acee says
Thanks Ads coincidentally I’ve spent all afternoon printing the last 5 year bank statements at work for the Ombudsman then the email from Wonga came I must have a 6th sense. See what the Ombudsman says got to plan that i get zero refunds and anything is a bonus.
Ads says
Wonga actually ‘closed’ my complaint one day after their final response. That didn’t sit well with the adjudicator
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At the moment the Ombudsman is upholding 77% of complaints about Woonga… in many of these Wonga rejected the complaint and didn’t offer any refund even though there were a lot of loans.
Amanda says
I have stopped all the CPAs but do still owe money on all. With Mr lender I have had 2 loans both £500 paid first and then they gave me second quite quickly even tho I had entered into a payment plan. I am currently in a payment plan for the second and have a total of £679 including interest. They say I could afford it on paper but they should have conducted more checks being as I had struggled to pay the first long therefore they are happy to reduce to capital amount
Sara (Debt Camel) says
With only two loans from Mr L, that is probably a reasonable offer if you have paid £125 or less to the second loan.
Bakey says
Hi,
I sent Wonga the first template, simply asking for info on the loans I took out with them and received a response saying they were sorry I had cause to complain and had filed an official complaint on my behalf. However, I’ve not got the info on the loans to be sure a) if I have a case (how many/when and if I paid them back on time etc) and, b) without that info, I would have no clue if any offer was made, it is reasonable. I assume Wonga will give me a breakdown when they respond to the complaint and if so, are they accurate and honest with that info usually?
Thanks for your assistance!
Acee says
Bakey I had the same with Wonga they never did send statement of account and after 7 weeks rejected my complaint. It’s now with the Ombudsman and I have also mentioned that they failed to send my statement of account as requested. I have put in my complaint to the Ombudsman only estimated figures from bank statements but actual loans will be higher as some were top ups.
mathew says
I got an offer back yesterday from Wonga in response to my adjudictors decsion. The offer was £3548 which i am happy with. They didnt go with the adjuditors decsion and refunded all but but 5 of my loans but thats only about an extra £350 so i have accepted the offer i dont fancy another few months waiting for an odbudsman seeing how this complaint was first started in March.
Just some info for anyone else who has a complaint with the FOS agaisnt Wonga. Final descion recived from adjudictor on the 4th August. Wonga’s response descion to that recieived yesterday so over a month for them to respond to the FOS. My adjudicator told me he has had two other cases with Wonga responding to him in a similar timeframe.
I have just read a worring post that Wonga are taking 28 working days to pay out could anyone tell me if this is true or not and if there is anyway to cut this down that they know of its already been 7 months i dont fancy another :(
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It will be 14 working days, not 28.
Linda says
So far I’ve had successes with Mr Jar, Ferratum, Peachy and Mr lender with a couple of others with the FO. However I received an offer from QuickQuid the other day which to be honest was pretty fair. The email said to reply if I accepted so I did asking them to confirm receipt of the email as I had to change some bank details for the refund to be processed, however since then nothing. I know a refund takes time to process but I’ve had no confirmation back that I replied. I’ve called and can’t get through to their complaints number and the customer service agent who picked up on their main phone number said they aren’t taking calls. Anyone else experienced this as my 8 week deadline has passed and I’ve emailed them 3 times also with no reply to those either so in limbo really
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman, saying QQ are refusing to respond to you any more. Then send QQ an email saying what you have done…
Linda says
Thanks Sarah will do, really frustrating as I am prepared to accept the offer but it feels like they’re stalling a bit by not acknowledging my emails or calls. Appreciate your advice.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I find Hanlon’s Law a useful guide here – “Never ascribe to malice what can adequately be explained by incompetence”. They don’t actually gain anything by stalling. Sending in a FOS complaint should make them wake up!
drew says
Hi Sara, I just got this from Wageday Advance, I have to repIy before 2pm today, any advice what is best to say, or should I just be truthful, I seen adverts on tv and in newspapers??
am the Complaint Officer that will now being reviewing your complaint for affordability of the loans you had with Wage Day Advance.
You mention in your complaint that you only just found out you could make this type of complaint.
May I ask how you found out that you could make a claim for affordability of your loans?
Please can you get back to me with this information by 2.00pm today 15/09/2017.
Once I have this information I can then proceed with my investigation and get a final response out to you.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to reply, you could ignore it – they can’t refuse to investigate a complaint if you don’t answer irrelevant questions. Or you say it’s none of their business, please respond to your complaint. But it seems simpler – and just as quick – to tell the truth! You saw an advert for some claims firm presumably, then googled to find out what it was about and found this page.
Alison says
Hi there.
Just received my answer from Wonga after 7weeks. They aren’t paying me a penny despite me claiming on grounds of repeated borrowing.
I had 21 loans and 13 of them were consecutive and lots of them I used the “top up” option.
I also told them it caused stress and further borrowing on credit cards as I had to keep cash in the bank to pay them back.
I’m going to take it to the ombudsman as I have nothing to lose!
Anyone else in the same boat or had a better result when the ombudsman was used?
Thanks.
Mickser says
Hello
I had a complaint against QuickQuid, they rejected my affordability claim but upheld my Dependency claim and said the following
” I can see that a pattern of dependency emerged with loan 10130548 and such pattern continued after the period you took out the above referenced loan.
We take seriously our responsibility to treat customers fairly and to that point we uphold your complaint as it relates to dependency. As such, we are offering you a total refund of £308.19 which equates to the interest paid on loans 10130548, 10299486, 10409170, 10553168, 10672688, 10946896, 11069633.”
The total of the 7 loans were (principal) is £1350 and the interest i paid on the amounted to £308.19 which is what they are offering back, anybody any ideas whether i should accept this and does anybody with past experience think this is a reasonable offer?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The key thing is the overall size of your complaint. How many loans did you have overall? And how long ago were these loans?
The 7 loans they are refunding – were any of them rolled?
Mickser says
Hello
I had about 14 loans altogether.. some 2015 and most 2016. as far as i remember i didnt roll any over but the loans were fairly close together. Maybe this is a decent outcome for me?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s not bad… but a good refund would probably be all after the third loan plus 8% interest. If your loans were all about the same size, that could come to about £600? It’s your choice if you think this is a fair settlement.
Also whether you want to ask for the loans to be deleted from your credit record – if they were all repaid on time there isn’t much point in this unless you are likely to have a mortgage application soon.
John says
So, sent my complaint letter to Lending Stream, Wonga and Sunny. Lending Stream have agreed to remove all interest and agreed a payment schedule. Wonga did not agree so it has been sent to the FO. Sunny also didnt agree and the complaint has been sent to the FO. However, received an email from Sunny yesterday giving me a 70% discounted pay off. I owe over £700 and they have said if I pay £240 by the 14th Oct they will write the debt off. This sounded brilliant but could that mean they are scared and the FO could do more? Ive had 23 loans from them over 14 months so there definately is a case.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you had 23 loans over 14 months you may well be able to get a large refund – do you know how much interest you paid on the first 22 loans? How much did you borrow for the 23rd loan and have you made any repayments?
John says
Its hard to work it out but the value of the 23 loans works out at £5250. Ive paid Sunny £5728.23. The last 3 loans were taken out within 3 days of each other (£500 03/03, £200 06/03, £150 08/03) and I have not payment against any of these. So Sunny are has received interest of £478.23 from me. Including the £240 they have offered me, total interest of £718.23
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So trying to separate the existing three loans, because that makes it simpler…
You have paid 5728 to Sunny overall and haven’t paid anything to the last three loans so it was all to the first 20.
I’m not sure if your 5250 borrowed figure is just for the first 20 loans? Or does it include the 850 borrowed for the recent three loans?
John says
Yes, the 5250 includes the 850
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so for the first 20 loans you borrowed 4400 (5250 – 850). And you repaid 5728 so you paid interest of £1328.
They are offering to reduce the amount outstanding to 850 – 240 = £610 reduction.
That isn’t dreadful but it’s not very good. I think you should at least be getting the current balance written off and you may well get a small refund in addition if you go to the Ombudsman. You could contact them and suggest what you would be happy to settle for?
Jacqueline says
I accepted yesterday thru ombudsman and was wondering how long it would take to get the refund, do you think I should contact quick quid direct?
Hayley says
I rang 0800 016 3114 on Monday and they said to Forward your email from the Ombudsman stating they will contact QQ to accept the offer and confirm your bank details to resolution@quickquid.co.uk also add you would like confirmation when the bacs request has been auctioned. I did this on Monday and I received an email the next saying money will be in my account within 2 hours
Michellew says
Just received the ombudsman level decision regarding my payday express complaint. Only had two loans but the first was rolled over many times
They have said that pdx should pay back interest on both loans and remove the loans from credit check
Acee says
Myjar rejected my complaint today saying loans were affordable due to my low living costs. However they didn’t take into account that my credit commitments were over 100% of my monthly salary so they couldn’t have done the credit checks they claim. And every loan that was paid back I took a new loan out within 2 or 3 days. They lent me £100 in Jan 16 then by April it was £1000 then by September it was £2400 as well as loans each month inbetween shocked they have rejected this complaint straight to the Ombudsman today.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It might be worth going back to Myjar about this – they do listen to a reasoned argument more than most lenders… but definitely, one for the Ombudsman unless they make you a reasonable offer!
Acee says
Thanks Sara. Is it acceptable to take screen shots of bank statements for the Ombudsman or will they need a full copy? I’ve ordered 2017 and 2016 bank statements form Halifax but they still haven’t arrived and they cost £5 a time.
T says
Acee, they rejected my complaint outright at first, I went back to them and said I was going to escalate it to the FOS because I felt like, although loans were small, I still borrowed several times soon after so they should’ve realised. I do have an outstanding loan with them and they came back after I replied to their findings and said they were willing to cut the amount owed on the final loan, so I saved a bit of money there. They are very reasonable, as Sara says.
Acee says
T thanks for that. I still owe them £1300 which I’m paying back through a DMP hoping they will wipe a large chunk off I’m going to the Ombudsman first but I’ll also send Myjar an email can’t do any harm.
T says
Absolutely. Just keep paying your DMP. If the FOS decide in your favour it just means you’ll get more back anyway! If you can comfortably afford your DMP and you carry on and it takes say three months, you may get a nice bit of money back just before Christmas!
Acee says
That’s the aim T my final DMP payment is due for 1st December 2018 I’m hoping at the very worst to get that brought forward to November 2018 so I can have the first debt free xmas in about 10 years but if I can get enough refunds to bring that forward to September 2018 it would be fantastic. Email sent to Myjar and complaint to Ombudsman done so now time to chill have a nice weekend.
Acee says
Just had a look on Myjar account and my remaining balance is around £500 less than it should be so it looks like they have wiped £500 from my debts will have to clarify this with them unsure if it’s anything to do with this complaint.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you can ask the FOS but usually they want the full thing. If you can see them on screen you can often download them, that would do. Talk to Halifax about the cost, some people have got a “bulk offer” when they gave said what they want and that it’s for a FOS claim against a payday lender.
Acee says
Thanks Sara I’ve just realised I can print them but will have to wait until I go back to work a week on Monday. Was trying to download them in PDF but wouldn’t let me.
Sharon says
I downloaded mine from Halifax in excel format month by month. This made it really easy when my adjudicator asked me to analyse my monthly spend for him in specific months. I colour coded food, petrol, mortgage etc and gave him the monthly totals and he could see each itemised spend. He then made his decision in around 3 hours. Hope this helps.
lee says
hello just in need of a bit of advice
i recently put a claim in to 3 companies Wonga, sunny, mr lender the only thing i did was send them the email using step 1 of your template letter all 3 have since sent me emails stating they are very sorry i was not happy with their services bla bla, they have all replied that they will look into my claim with in 8 weeks, however i have not put the claim in i have only asked for a statement of accounts, isnt this a little premature on their part?? emails sent on 7th sept
i have started gathering the evidence for the claim i have 19 loans from sunny from 2014 to 2017 interest claculated at 1127
6 loans with mr lender 2015 to 2017 totaling 2000
i am trying to gather information from wonga however the statement of accounts only goes as far back as 12 months in my account online they havnt sent me the full account which i have had since 2012 i have to sift through 5 years of statements (not looking forward to that) to get a rough estimate as to what the total is from them .
all in all i dont know what to do now do i put step 2 into action or have they already done this for me.
any advice would be great thank you….
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The step 1 template says you are making an affordability complaint – that’s so the 8 weeks starts at that point. I think it’s good to write the step 2 email and send it to add to your complaint dated 7/7/177… that makes it easier to go to the Ombudsman if you have that ready. But you could wait for Wonga to email your list of loans if you want – it usually does turn up after a few weeks.
Helen says
I’m feeling a bit deflated, the rejections are coming in thick and fast now. I’ve so far been rejected by Ferratum, PayDayUK, Lending Stream, WageDay Advance, Cashfloat and Wonga. They are all saying the loans were affordable based on the information about income and expenditure I had given them.
The problem is I massively underestimated my outgoings, especially the other debts, when I filled it all out. Not on purpose, I was probably in denial about how much debt I was in! Most of them are only for a couple of loans to so they say they were definitely affordable. But at any one time I had at least 8 loans with different providers.
I lent £13,500 in total in just over a year! Paying over £5k in interest! But because it was not all with the same lender they’re considered affordable? They all also claim to have credit checked me, but all three major credit agencies show all other payday loans + 5 defaults, so they would’ve known!
In the end I had to take a debt consolidation loan with a credit union to repay all outstanding loans (£3,900 to 9 different companies). But because I had then repaid early this is more proof it was affordable?
I will send them to FOS, but do you think I have a case seeing as they say it’s my fault for giving them outgoings lower than my actual ones?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These aren’t going to be easy complaints to win – it is much easier if you had 15 loans from 2 or 3 providers than 9 or 10. And it’s harder if you gave inaccurate information on your application. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
BUT it sounds as though your credit record would have shown a lot of recent problems (I assume the defaults were recent? anything over a couple of years wouldn’t count and in the previous 6 months is better) and recent payday loans. On that basis it may be worth sending them to the FOA. You will need to make out a very clear case for each: “When I applied on dd/mm/yy, the lender would have seen ….” list the exact details from your credit record. Any loans taken in the last week or so may not have shown up.
It’s up to you if you want to do this for all your lenders or not bother with any you think are too weak.
Simon says
Hi Sara and all,
Got some good news today about my Wageme complaint today, the adjudicator upheld my complaint for loans 2-5 of 5 after the company rejected it. I was in an IVA at the time they lent to me and claimed they checked my credit report but the adjudicator pointed out that if they did they would have seen the IVA and wouldn’t have lent to me.
They have agreed to refund all interest and charges totalling £248, its not much but the big thing was they gave me a CCJ for the last loan and I had paid the initial amount of the loan off it so have agreed to cancel the interest and remove the CCJ from my report!! as well as all other negative defaults etc.
Time line is helps:
Initial complaint – 9th may
Final response from company – 13th June
Sent to FOS – 13th June
FOS response – 5th September
Company Agreed – 15th September
Thank you Sara for all your help, fingers crossed for the rest.
Simon
John says
I have emailed all my lenders. Some have provided me with statements but all emailed back confirming they had received my complaint. However, all of them have also now told me that they have not had time to respond because the investigation takes a long time and that they now will not respond within 8 weeks, telling me I now can go to the FO.
Linda says
I had this with Payday UK sent to me on the 8 week deadline stating they hadnt investigated properly as yet and needed more time pointing me in the direction of the FO. They also didnt send me a statement of account even though I asked several times. They said in their email the loan was over 6 years old (which I am confident it isnt from memory and said because I didn’t complain within 3 years of taking the loan the FO probably wouldn’t consider investigating anyway (or words to that effect) I was gobsmacked as it was so unprofessional but looked very generic like they churned it out to everyone. Needless to say I emailed back stating a few home truths about what the FO would and wouldn’t consider investigating and promptly referred it. It was clear by the tone of their email they had no intention of investigating any time soon and they had their 8 weeks. If they have had 8 weeks personally I wouldnt give them any more time
John says
Wonga just offered me £3500!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!!
Craig says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your help, sent complaints off last Friday and so far this week have had all complaints acknowledged (9 lenders) and the following settled:-
MrLender have wrote off remaining balance – £800 borrowed over 2 loans – £916.26 paid back – £416.01 wrote off
247MoneyBox have wrote off remaining balance – £2405 borrowed over 8 loans – £2486 paid back – £506 wrote off
Could have challenged for all interest & 8% back but I feel have to accept some responsibility also and I’m happy with these quick wins so far so reduce length of my DMP, my target is for the rest of the lenders to follow suit, but I won’t hold my breath with Lending Stream, WageDayAdvance, CashFloat, MyJar, MoneyBoat & SafetyNet left. But all in all looking at a much better position than 4 weeks ago thanks to your help. I will keep you updated with the others.
Nick says
Early pay day loan have offered me £5,870… For 18 loans. I am made up. I rejected qq offer for one loan ..£1300. adjudicator upheld 3 for 1350 each.. I’m seeing what they come back with.
Waiting on final.responses from wonga, pde and pduk
Kate says
Well 8 week was up for wonga yesterday so I got them on live chat (as they take ages to reply through email) and the lady said they had emailed the final response on the 8th ( I hadn’t received it) she then resent it but only half of the email came through, anyway they are refunding me £1660 :)
Big thanks to Debtcamel
Wendy Rayne says
I’ve had my complaint against Payday UK rejected, even though I had been borrowing from multiple lenders. I’ve now had to enter into a DMP. Well done to everyone that’s successful ?
T says
Send it to the FOS, Wendy. :)
Debbie says
247 moneybox
Just want to start by saying this website is fantastic! Was so glad I stumbled across it!
Anyway, just wondering if anyone has had any dealings with 247 Moneybox.
I unfortunately have been a repeated borrower for some time (approx 2 years) and following the advice of this fab website I requested my complete loan history.
I had a response within a week saying they were sorry I felt this was etc, and as a ‘good will’ gesture were will No to clear my existing loan £273 due for payment on the 29th September.
I politely responded saying that’s very kind but I still await my history of loans.
Heard nothing for over a week. I’ve logged into my account today to see that they have marked my current loan as default and only the pay your outstanding balance page available!
Are they allowed to do this?
I have obviously complained but I’m now worried about my credit rating (already poor without this rubbish added)
Is it just a scare tactic?
I appreciate your comments on this…. I’m not going to lie…. I’m panicking a little =O
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you actually missed a payment?
Debbie says
Hi Sara,
No, I only took the loan out on the 1st sept, then found your site a couple of days later and sent requests for loan histories from all my previous lenders
Mr lender, 247mb, wonga, QQ, myjar, lending stream (have 5 active loans), sunny (1 active loan).
In reply to my request for a summary they offered to clear my existing loan, which I thought was a little quick off the block tbh …. which is why I requested again for my history. I’m going to have to search my bank statements I think, as I’m pretty sure I’ve had over 20 loans from this company alone!!
I was just shocked that they would act so rash and default before payment was even due!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well in the medium term this would seem unlikely to be a problem. if you had 20 loans fro 247 Moneybox then you are pretty likely to get a decision from the Ombudsman that a lot of them, including the last one, was unaffordable so you should get a refund and the loans removed from your credit record.
But they certainly have jumped the gun – whether it is through incompetence or whether they are trying to put pressure on you to settle it hard to say…
I suggest you put in a new complaint about their unreasonable behaviour in adding a default before any payment had been missed and ask for it to be removed. If they refuse, send it to the Ombudsman and ask for some compensation!
Debbie says
Hi Sara,
This may be of interest to all:
Went on NODDLE (free credit score) as you’ve suggested in other posts and found all my loans from all the companies I’ve borrowed from. In the FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS heading you can see closed accounts!
Admittedly mine only goes as far back as 2012 and it doesn’t always show how much you paid back, but for those that are struggling to get info off the lenders it gives you the date opened, so should help when looking at bank statements!
I found out I had 18 loans with 247mb so with the info from noddle and cross checking with my statements I was able to put my full complaint in and tell them how much I’ve borrowed and how much interest I paid!
Honestly this website is a God Send!!
Shem says
Hi Debbie,
this happened to me with mb247 where I noticed the default on my online account I sent the following to them:
My online account now seems to reflect a default despite the fact I’ve not missed a payment but you have offered to clear my balance as a gesture of good will, Please note I can only accept thiis offer to resolve the complaint if the account is not reflected as a default on my credit file as part of my original complaint as default would not be an acceptable resolution I’m afraid.
They replied with:
Due to the nature of your complaint, I froze your balance and held your account to ensure no funds were collected until this was resolved. It reflects as outstanding on our system, however won’t be reported the credit reference agencies as such.
Happy as a further gesture of goodwill to remove any negative marks in addition to writing off the balance.
Hope this helps?
Shem
Debbie says
Thanks Shem!
Has certainly relieved the panic! ?
Claire says
Hi,
First time on this site and I’m really hoping it can help me.
I have been using payday loans for the past few months and have now realised that this is going to stop me from getting a remortgage.
I was never aware of this. I have also had some health as well asfinancial difficulties this year and wonder if there is anyway I can have these accounts removed from my credit file.
A total of 6 loans from Sunny (showing as elevate credit) and 1 from Mr Lender.
All loans were repaid on time but this has left me in a cycle each month of going back for more.
Any help is appreciated.
TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you have an affordability complaint upheld, the loans may be deleted from your credit record. But sometimes only problems (defaults, late payments) are removed, leaving the loans themselves there.
If you couldn’t afford to repay the Sunny loans without borrowing again it sounds as though they were unaffordable. A one loan complaint is harder to win but some people have managed it.
Mrs W says
I have had complaints upheld in my favour by the adjudicator with Sunny, Satsuma, Uncle Buck and Mr Lender. They have been given two weeks to respond. Has anyone had any experience with any of these companies if they normally agree and pay quickly?
Linda says
I received a refund from Mr Lender and that was really quick but I didn’t have to escalate to the FO, From what I’ve read on here though they are a fair company to deal with.
ccfcnath says
So I had a letter sent from safetynetcredit 2 weeks after sending my complaint email. They have stated that I have paid 1290.37 in interest charges since 2015. My outstanding balance according to them is 334.73. They are offering me to write off any interest on my outstanding amount, and write off my outstanding balance and give me a refund of 1036.76. Do you think this amount is worth taking?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming you think those figures sound correct.
They haven’t added 8% interest, but it is a “full refund” and they have offered it very quickly. I would say that is a good offer, but do you think it’s fair?
If you have had any defaults or missed payments from them on your credit record you should ask them to remove those.
ccfcnath says
I think it is a good offer after doing my figures. Just wanted to check with you for reassurance. I have sent the complaint to 8 companies so this is a good start.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
YEs, it’s very nice to get one sorted quickly – gives you confidence in the process!
Mikie says
Just thought that I’d update you on my own complaint – and a thanks fro this brill site. I have complained against QQ, P2P, WDA, PDE, Unclebuck, and the largest complaint against wonga. I had 31 loans from them within the 6 year limit (I deliberately didn’t claim for those over 6 years old) with interest alone over 9k! They responded after SOA etc today after 6 weeks, totally rejecting my complaint, clearly cut and pasted, going right into how my loans were over 6 years old (I didn’t claim for them) how I didn’t repeat borrow (I rolled over within 3 days or reborrowed, and often even on the same day!) and that my credit score was good (it was awful!), and also that I filled in fully expenditure and wage forms (I don’t believe that they even started that until 2014! I really can’t remember as I was desperate) I also had multiple payday loans all out at the same time on my credit file and fully explained that in the complaint. I have raised a case with the ombudsman online straight away. I haven’t attached my files yet as I was on my iPad – when do you get the opportunity to add them later? Does the ombudsman site send you a confirmation email? Thanks
Acee says
Mikie the Ombudsman called me about a week later missed the call but they sent a letter asking for more info Bank statements 3 months before and 1 month after I took the loans out and also for the account or ref number for the loan. There was an email address on the letter which I replied to with my customer ref number which I’m assuming is the only email contact as nobody has emailed me direct.
Mikie says
Thanks, I called the ombudsman after a week and he got me an email address straight away, so I’ve added soa and bank statements etc.
I’ve 4 cases with the ombudsman/adjudication now- qq (total rejection despite me borrowing over £15k before interest!) wonga (31 loans over 8k in interest alone) ladder loans- no soa ( not responded in time) payday express (same)
Shem says
A quick update from me!
Quick Quid – success in the 5th week since complaining – worked out I was owed £4500 inc interest on over 50 loans dating back to late 2011 I had a lengthy final response on Friday denying any wrong doing re affordability which made no sense as they were stipulating my current salary rather than what I earnt at the time of the borrowing which was a good 1200 pcm less! but went on to acknowledge the borrowing DID suggest a dependency which they should of stopped and therefore upheld my complaint from the 3rd loan onwards offering £3905 and balance of £360 waivered on top. I’m happy with that but noticed there was no mention of interest, so I have queried that but to be honest will accept either way rather than go to the FOS as its so close to my calculation even without the interest!
Moneybox 247 -accepted early offer to waiver balance as only £10 difference to total interest across the 4 loans I had anyway
Wonga – in 7th week with no reply other than original acknowledgment
My Jar – in 5th week awaiting a reply but have acknowledged
piggy bank – in week 2 but advised will try and resolve within 4 weeks – advised account and collection activity on hold in meantime
wage day advance – week 2 – no reply or acknowledgment as yet
i’m so pleased with the QQ result – can’t thank Sara and this site enough
Shem x
Mark says
That’s great news, I’m now on my 5th week since sending a complaint to QQ based on similar loan amounts and dates to you, I also have an outstanding balance of £350 with them, hopefully I will hear similar from them.
All I’ve heard from Wonga is two emails stating they may need more than the 8 weeks so il probably have to send that one to FOS.
Regards
Mark
Hayley says
I sent my offer through to FOS as there was no mention of interest but the FOS said it was a good offer so I accepted when I got confirmation of the bank refund they added the interest on the day it was paid out so got an extra £275 on top – the 20% interest so you should get more
Bakey says
How do you work out how much you borrowed, if the lender hasn’t furnished you with the details, if it was a cash loan instore? I’ve had lots of those with The Money Shop and some via Cash Converters (along with actual loans from the latter which went into the bank). Of course I’ve asked them to give me the details and hope they will. I will have repayments via my bank statements but not what the actual loan amounts were and when.
Nicki says
They point blank refused to send mine. They said because it was 3 years ago the store didn’t have all the details anymore apparently. So I just sent all my bank statements to FOS and a guide of what repayments (rollovers and the cheques) I believed and told them it was an estimate only…. if I hear anything I will let you know
Bakey says
So cheeky and probably not true that the store no longer had your details. I would struggle to even guess the dates, to know what bank statements to even order. I’m hoping The Money Shop come through with the details really!
Good luck with the FO!
Stacey Reddick says
Morning Guys … So Quickquid have finally got back to me after 7 weeks and 4 days! What should i do now?
We are in receipt of your complaint dated 24/07/2017 where you allege that QuickQuid irresponsibly lent to you. Specifically, you mention:
• The loans were unaffordable
• You were dependent on short term lending
I’ve investigated your complaint and would like to bring your attention to the following points:
AFFORDABILITY
In your complaint you allege that QuickQuid did not perform a credit check or affordability assessment. We have reviewed your file and can confirm that, in line with our internal process, at the time of each application, we conducted our standard credit assessment, which included pulling your credit report. As part of our assessment, we analyse your current financial commitments, insolvency records, delinquency records, County Court judgements, credit enquiries and other credit accounts currently open.
Lenders are required to make an assessment that is proportionate to the type and amount of the loan as well as the associated costs and risk to the borrower. It would not be proportionate for a lender which provides small loans, which are unsecured and which do not require a guarantor, to conduct the same assessment as a bank which provides high loan amounts which are secured by your home or vehicle. Your loans were unsecured. We did not provide a guarantor loan where you would have needed to have had someone else share the responsibility of repayment.
At the time you first applied for a loan with us, the regulator was the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT published guidance on irresponsible lending which stated that as a general principle, the checks done may well be less for a small sum or short-term loan. The OFT also explicitly stated that it would “normally consider it appropriate for a relatively high level of scrutiny to be undertaken in the case of secured credit”; however, the OFT made no such statement for unsecured credit such as the credit we provided you.
Your credit report is not the only thing we analyse when we make a lending decision. We also look at the information you provide us in your application, as well as your loan history with us when we decide to approve or decline your loan application.
It is in our mutual interest to have a well-designed affordability model. As a responsible lender, we provide customers such as yourself with access to credit and take upon ourselves the risk of default. While we will not reject a customer simply because there is a late payment on a credit file, we will critically assess the details of your credit file to provide you with a reasonable and affordable loan.
The investigation of your complaint also considered all relevant information contained in your application. It was noted your monthly income was stated as £1600 per month. I compared your income to your total monthly repayment for each loan you took with us. From this I can see that the income you made during each payday loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan and thus I cannot agree with you that your loans were unaffordable.
This information is all input into our internal credit model which is run to obtain your credit model score. If your credit model score does not meet the minimum approval threshold score then we will decline your loan application.
Looking at your record, I see that your credit model score was never under the minimum approval threshold for any of the loans for which you were approved. For instance, on 04/03/2016 you had a credit model score of 0.4126 on your QuickQuid loan # 10453065 when the minimum approval score was -0.35. Your credit model score is substantially higher the minimum approval score which shows that our affordability assessments properly ran per our internal policy.
DEPENDENCY
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. Yet if you were dependent on taking out one loan to repay the other then you would have taken out numerous loans, for equal or increasing loan amounts, and with very little time between paying off one loan and taking out the other. When I reviewed your loan history I see that you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.
Your repayment history shows that you made repayments before the contractual due date. In 1 instances, you made early repayments which is evidence of a strong financial history.
In addition, the principal amounts borrowed fluctuated throughout your lending history. If there was dependency we would expect to see constantly increasing amounts in order to cover the prior loan interest and principal. There were several instances where the loan amount you applied for actually decreased from the previous loan which shows that you were not relying on one loan to repay the previous loan.
In fact, there were large gaps in your borrowing history. There were 348 days between your 1st and 2nd loans, further demonstrating that you were not simply taking out one loan to repay the next one.
Therefore it is for the above reasons we cannot agree that QuickQuid irresponsibly lent to you.
As this is our Final Response regarding your concerns to the above referenced account, if you are not happy with this outcome I need to ensure that you are aware of the ultimate availability of the Financial Ombudsman Service. You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge but you must do so within six months of the date of this letter. If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There is so much “wrong” with that QQ email that it’s hard to know where to begin. If you want the short version, ignore it, it’s not worth going back to them and discussing it, send the case straight to the Ombudsman. Over 77% of QQ complaints are being won at the Ombudsman including a lot where QQ rejected the entire complaint.
———————————-
Some things that are “wrong” with this reply:
– “In your complaint you allege that QuickQuid did not perform a credit check or affordability assessment. ” Actually you didn’t. You have just been sent a standard template they have filled in a few figures into.
– it is poor practice for QQ’s reply to witter on about guarantor and secured loans which are irrelevant to your complaint. It is also poor practice to quote QQ’s internal credit check on you, these are meaningless figures to you and you can’t tell if they have been correctly calculated or not.
– “Your credit model score is substantially higher the minimum approval score which shows that our affordability assessments properly ran per our internal policy.” you can ignore this. 77% of QQ cases at the Ombudsman are being won. QQ’s internal policy obviously wasn’t very good at all!
– “I can see that the income you made during each payday loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan and thus I cannot agree with you that your loans were unaffordable.” Gosh, so the loan repayments weren’t more than your entire salary! This says NOTHING about whether the loans were affordable for you. For that QQ has to know something about your expenses. QQ probably never asked you about them at all…
– QQ have entirely ignored the point you made in your complaint giving details of your expenses.
– QQ have ignored the point you made about defaulting with them and later being allowed to reborrow.
– “When I reviewed your loan history I see that you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.” So on one occasion, you had 4 consecutive loans with less than 14 days between them. And you may have had several other times when you had 3 consecutive loans with less than 14 days between them. They have found the most negative thing they can say rather than giving a full picture.
Also this “14 days” is a metric QQ has invented. I have never seen the Ombudsman use it all. What matters is if you could get through the next month without borrowing again – borrowing after 18 days (say) means that you couldn’t and the loan was unaffordable.
-“Your repayment history shows that you made repayments before the contractual due date. In 1 instances, you made early repayments which is evidence of a strong financial history.” The poor English here shows this is just a template letter. There is no reason why loans are affordable if you repaid them early. Again they have deliberately chosen the most negative way to frame your case – it would be factually accurate to say that in 18 instances you did not make early repayment!
– “In addition, the principal amounts borrowed fluctuated throughout your lending history. If there was dependency we would expect to see constantly increasing amounts in order to cover the prior loan interest and principal. ” This is simply wrong. You may have been dependent on the loans if you took out fluctuating amounts or if the amounts were all the same.
– “There were several instances where the loan amount you applied for actually decreased from the previous loan which shows that you were not relying on one loan to repay the previous loan.” Again they have chosen the most negative way to frame this. It is likely that “In most instances you borrowed the same amount or more” would have been an alternative description of your case.
– “There were 348 days between your 1st and 2nd loans, further demonstrating that you were not simply taking out one loan to repay the next one.” it is very likely you wouldn’t get a refund on the first loan. However it has no bearing on the other 18 loans… my guess is there weren’t any other large gaps or QQ would have mentioned them!
Dan says
Seriously I would love to have seen a live exchange between Sara and QQ reviewing that response! QQ – destroyed!! Sara you are awesome!
Helen says
I’ve had pretty much the exact same response from them and think this stands out:
“For instance, on 07/02/2014 you had a credit model score of 0.1476 on your Pounds to Pocket loan # 8401330 when the minimum approval score was -0.1. Your credit model score is substantially higher the minimum approval score which shows that our affordability assessments properly ran per our internal policy.”
I obviously don’t know how their credit score works but 0.14 does not sound substantially higher than -0.1 to me!
They’re also saying I’ve had 2 loans with them when In fact I had 3.
And they’re saying they’ve checked my previous lending history with them but forget to mention I was several months behind with my payments on my first loan with them (when they had a foreign call centre phone my office number chasing payment).
Shem says
Hi Stacey
I had a very similar response from QQ with the exception of one loan which they acknowledged was 80% of my income – however they also added a final line to their response acknowledging dependency rather than an affordability issue and subsequently upheld my complaint based on that – did you borrow repetitively over the period in question as you could try citing that to them?
Shem says
Hi all
Wonga have now got back to me in a strange very lengthy email denying any wrong doing and explaining everything they did right but then adding a line on saying they do think thought bat they could of done more and are upholding my complaint! however the offer is £1600 based on a seemingly random selection of loans from the lending period – I have paid over £3100 in interest and £550 in fees before the 8% is applied – they have also said they would have to deduct £290 my existing loan balance which is with a debt collector and the 20% tax which would leave apx £1000 refund
I know they don’t like to haggle but I have replied asking for an explanation for each loan they have omitted from the redress before either accept the offer or send to FOS
Shem
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it’s up to you, but if you have paid 3650 in interest and fees (on which the 8% interest would probably be over 700) then unless the offer improves significantly, send it to the FOS!
Dave says
Wonga update
So accepted their offer at adjudicator level on 26th August.
Had no email confirmation from Wonga at all and in that time I have emailed 3 times and called 4 times. Each time I spoke to them they said to email for a response I would get confirmation soon.
Spoke to someone on Saturday who advised to call back today as complaints team don’t work weekends. Then today I spoke to a very helpful lady who went off and found the person working my case. She has informed me that my case worker will process payment TODAY and I will get the money in 3-5 days. I will also apparently get confirmation of this today too.
Lets see!!!
So for anyone waiting for their payouts from Wonga my advice would be, bug them constantly until you actually get someone helpful.
Lauren says
I’m awaiting mine was told it may take 14 working days from the 4th september. Everytime I’ve phoned for an update I’ve got nothing. Gonna phone them this morning me thinks and ask to speak to the complaints department :)
Dave says
Do!! and explain too that its causing you financial difficulty the longer it goes on. read on here that someone else had said that and got somewhere with them.
I have just got my confirmation email now!! :)
Good luck Lauren
Andy says
Hi all, I have just received a reply from wonga , Willing to uphold my complaint, with an offer of
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
£349.68
8% interest net
£116.89
total settlement
£466.57
tax
8% interest gross
£146.11
basic rate tax deduction
£29.22
Which equates to one loan , although I had serval loans , they bought the debt back when redress happened, and wrote off £600ish that I owed , now the problem I have is as I have sent my bank statements regarding other pdl, I am unsure whether this is a good offer , due to not being able to add all other interest paid , so unsure wat to do with this can remember lending over £1500 over the period , any ideas wether should accept as this is first success others all denied wrongdoing cheers andy
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you ask Wonga for a list of your loans, as otherwise you can’t decide whether to accept their offer.
chris jones says
I took out 25 microloans between Feb 15 to June 17. Each increased month on month and became unaffordable. I was borrowing one to pay another. I have subsequently complained as I believe the lending to have been irresponsible. They replied and offered me £500 of the £1207.56 interest I paid as a gesture of goodwill.
Is this reasonable ?
chris
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am assuming you don’t owe them any money at the moment?
It’s not a dreadful offer, but you may well be able to get more by going to the Ombudsman. What do you think would be a fair amount? You could go back and say you would be happy to settle for £900 or whatever you think is reasonable?
Nick says
Payday express has made me an offer of 2400!! How long do they take to pay out ?.
Nick says
Awesome! How much did you borrow and how long ago? Im 6 weeks into my 8 week comolaint time. I borrowed 5 times and rolled over 37 times
Nick says
6 loans ..totalling 1300 after paying off existing loan
.
George says
Just like to echo all the thanks to this website and Sara, had no idea I could claim on these loans until I stumbled here!
Just for others information thought I’d share my journey so far.
Complained to Wonga, Quickquid and Sunny on June 23rd and received rejections from all of them within the 8 weeks. Sent all three complaints to FOS on the 27th July and were assigned to the same adjudicator around the 5th August. Adjudicator called me today to advise me that she is upholding 32 of the 57 loans taken with Wonga and is still investigating the other two complaints. I had gambling issues (like many on here!) so chuffed that she has agreed with me that the majority of the loans should not have been issued to me.
It’s a difficult one as I understand I shouldn’t have been applying at the time, so feel guilty for my irresponsibility, however I guess Lenders have a responsibility too, which I think they have failed on. Will try to keep this post updated in case anyone is in a similar, but earlier, position.
Lou says
Hi all,
Has anyone had any luck with 247 moneybox or cashfloat? I haven’t heard anything from cashfloat at all but 247 moneybox sent me an acknowledgment of the complaint on the 27.7.17 even though I sent the complaint on the 7.7.17. Shall I go straight to FOS now or give them a little longer? There is still a balance on the cashfloat account but I don’t owe anything to 247 moneybox. Any advice would be appreciated.
AK says
Loans’ statement cashfloat sent me one week after my initial email. And I received an automatic respond from them on the same day I sent a complaint. They told me that they are sorry and it will take 8 weeks to investigate bla bla Maybe yours is in the spam folder?
Linda says
247 Moneybox sent an acknowledgement to my complaint around week 2 like you but then stopped replying to my emails and never sent through a statement of account (after looking luckily I still had the figures myself). They eventually made an offer to waive the balance around week 6 but it was way less than the interest I’d paid as I’d had quite a few loans. Its now with the FO although I had to wait 8 weeks to refer even though they sent a response because they said it wasn’t their ‘final one’ don’t know why because they didn’t make me another one after that. Just playing for time I think. Good luck and i world refer after 8 weeks if you’re not happy
Freddie says
Hi, I have used this site to great effect in the last 4 months and a huge weight hs been lifted off my shoulders, I can’t thank you enough Sara.
I do still have two complaints at the FOS, submitted three weeks back and are against Wonga and Lending Stream. I even managed to get a refund from swift sterling by pestering them, although it was only a fraction on my actual interest.
Sara, I am now looking to take on Savvy, 118118, 1st stop, avant and ladder loans who all lent me a lot at the back end of my payday loan usage and it all overlapped. Would this work the same way you think Sara?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The affordability rules are the same for all lenders. You have to show that the monthly repayment for a loan was unaffordable and that the lender should have known this from the start, from your application and your credit record.
With only one loan, these complaints lack the “repeat borrowing” element that helped payday loan affordability complaints. However they will usually have been much larger loans and the lenders would have done credit checks – so they should have noticed all your other borrowing…
Of the lenders you mention, most refunds have been obtained from 118 Money. But this is very much case by case, The ‘overlapping’ loans means that you may have more luck against the last ones you took out, but if you feel they are unaffordable, go for all of them!
gillian says
hi i am just wondering how long it takes for ombudsman my adjudicater upheld my complaint agaisnt quick quid giving them to the 21st of june to reply they did rejected his findings so he passed it to the ombudsman how long does it take no loans were over six years i started my complaint in feb 2017 i also had one for lending stream but for some reason it had not even been passed to a adjudicater yet when i rang them they stated some off the loans were over 6 years so it was on hold even though i had a email back in feb where i told them to ignore the ones over 6 years 4 over 6 years 41 in the six year time so just look at the 41 loans hopefully that one may get looked at now and be upheld ty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ombudsman level cases are typically being picked up at 2-3 months at the moment. A few do seem to get stuck for no clear reason.
Sez says
Hi I received my final decision from the ombudsman today, my complaint was upheld!!! Yay! I had lots of payday loans from wonga, and I’m due back over £1k in interest and charges from them! I’ve got until the 16th October to agree with the decision, which I will.