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?
Lou says
Anybody have any experience with Sunny – do they take the full 28 days to pay out one you have returned the signed agreement accepting their offer.
Kevin says
I’m in the same boat, they messaged on Wednesday to say they agreed my loan was unaffordable and would be returning the full interest plus 8%, I sent them my details and confirmation of acceptance and heard nothing. I chased today and they’ll process it by Tuesday at the latest. Might be worth chasing them up.
Lou says
Couldn’t believe it mine arrived in my account today.
Kevin says
How long did that take from response to deposit?
Ella says
Hi
I came across this site a couple of weeks ago and made my claims to Provident (Doorstep), Wonga, PDE and Express Finance. I have had a reply from Provident saying they are looking into my case, all fine. However I have had a couple of emails from Wonga, the first saying they were passing my details onto customer complaints. The second – a minute later – saying that Wonga does not have any records of us ever being customers of theirs and that we have never been approved by Wonga for any sort of lending. This was even though I supplied them with statement information, personal details etc. Is this the norm? I am not quite sure what I should do. I have responded to the second email saying that the email they have sent is complete rubbish as they have all the necessary details to check all the loans. Everything paid up, we don’t owe them anything and the loans were from 2011 to 2014. I have told them because of their response I will pass everything I have straight to the financial ombudsman. Any help would be appreciated as at the moment I think I may have just wasted my time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wonga – could you have used a different email address? Do you have a bank statement showing a payment from or to them? The best thing is usually to phone them up to try to resolve this.
Ella says
Done everything. Statements the lot. I am pretty unimpressed at their behaviour and have told them they have all information. I have told them if i receive another email denying i was a customer i will just send everything to fo.
Ella says
Well the tale gets better. They have all the correct details. I tried to ring them on the number that there email asked me to and the lady refused to speak to me saying they don’t have any records for us and then put me through to another number which just rang. I didn’t want to sit on hold for a long time as I think she may have just been ignoring the call. I am not sure what my next step should be. I haven’t read on here anybody that has been denied acknowledgement if you know what I mean. I can’t send them anymore information than what I already have. I don’t think they have even read through the statements, letters or personal details as it would have been impossible for them to have read them and emailed in less than a minute. If they did, I need to learn how to speed read lol.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
” they don’t have any records for us ” are you putting in complaints for yourself and your partner?
Ella says
We put the claim in for both of us. What I have now done is separated them both and put them in under one letter for each name rather than one letter with both of our names. We did one letter but all of our statements because we have a joint account so it make sense to us – I think they are stalling – it will be six years in January for the first one so I think they playing for time so they won’t have to bother looking at it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Its unlikely they are stalling for time on this – one loan more or less makes no difference to them – but if they won’t talk to you about it then send the case to the Ombudsman.
david says
Hi all,
think I know the answer to this already; in 2008 I took out some borrowing from QQ, PDUK etc and have since sorted complaints out. however in sheer stupidity despite knowing what I now know, I ended up borrowing around £1k from various lenders a couple of months back due to getting in a bit of bother with credit AGAIN. I kept on top of payments for 2 months, making all payments on time and in full but at the end of November i’d gotten to a point where i’d taken on too much – in most cases just to feed payments to the other lenders.
I have a pretty shoddy credit report at the time of these applications, and I WAS honest when applying, giving them details of how much I was paying back in loans etc but I was not refused by any of these lenders (I did have other applications to other lenders refused). I ended up borrowing from Peachy, Ferratum, Mr Lender, 24/7MoneyBox, Piggybank (3 separate loans) and Uncle Buck. Since then, I’ve told them all I’ve taken on too much (I had genuinely hoped to keep on top of the borrowing) and in turn have been referred to stepchange.
only Mr Lender sought additional information from me by way of bank statements and payslips during the application stage, everyone else borrowed to me straight off the application online.
I am within my rights to query this lending, or should I just put it down to “i should have learned my lesson from the first time round”?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it’s a shame you did do this, taking even one payday loan when you can’t afford other borrowing rarely works well.
But the onus is on a payday lender to make sure you can afford the loan, not on you. Of your application was honest and your credit record showed your problems then it’s worth complaining now.
Gail says
Does anybody know how quickly 247Moneybox.com payout. They have made me a very strange offer that doesn’t seem to relate to any figures I calculate but I am happy with it. Can’t get in touch with them by phone and 4 days of accepting their offer ( with no details of what I am to do next ) they are not responding to emails
Shannon says
Have three cases with the FOS. They were picked up by an adjudicator on 31/10/17. Called today for an update to be told has now been allocated to a new adjudicator as of this week as original adjudicator is new in that department and not coping with the work load.
New adjudicator confirmed as they are so busy he has not even looked at my cases and will be couple more months before he will be able to give any findings.
So from end of August when logged with FOS to now literally nothing has been done with my cases and I am back to square one. Quite frustrating really, especially as I had to call to find this out. Got told they are training more adjudicators to handle these complaints but if they can’t cope, like my first adjudicator, then not really helpful to the client.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You aren’t back to square one, because you and the lender have supplied all the information, but it’s still very disappointing – and thankfully unusual.
Claire says
If I put in an unnafordable lending claim against onstride (the gave me 7.5k when I was already up to my eyeballs) and I still have an outstanding balance of 6k a year and a half later….. do i keep making payments until the complaint is resolved or can I ask them to put a hold on payments?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can’t afford the repayments, you need to cancel your CPA to them and offer an amount you can afford. This won’t harm your complaint – indeed it shows you are in financial difficulty. It also won’t reduce the amount you get back if you win your case – in a large on loan case, the compensation is to remove the interest from the outstanding balance so you only repay the amount you borrowed, so amounts you pay now are reducing the amount you will have to pay later,
L says
Your complaint:
Please read this part carefully as I will explain how I understand your complaint. This is important in how I have reached my decision:
You have raised concerns over the lending provided to you by Ladder Loans, as you believe that the loan was irresponsibly lent to you.
My Decision:
Your complaint is about the loan that you had with us. This loan is more than six years old, and is too old for me to look into.
During my investigation I have found that a debt management company Money Steps Financial was helping you in December 2013. I think you should have known at this point that you could complain to us, and that you should have complained within three years of this time. Because you didn’t, I cannot look into any of your loan with us.
I thought i would let you all have a chuckle at this. I have gone to the Ombudsman and would like to think i have a good case, especially with the fact i took the loan out in July 2013 and actually went into a DMP for 1 month in Jan 2014
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you also reply to them that the loan was taken out in 2013, so less than 5 years old?
Ryan Graham says
Hi,
Anyone know how long Wonga and lending steam take to payout after accepting an offer?
Thanks again for all the help. Upto 5k of refunds and still waiting on 3 more. Debt free 2018. ????
Lou says
It took Wonga 8 days with my claim
Kevin says
So further to my previous posts, sunny are in the process of sorting my refund out and should have it to me by Tuesday at the latest but a week ago I was told to expect £400+ from paydayuk if I filled in a form and posted it back to them. Which I did, I have since heard nothing and have emailed twice asking for an eta to no reply. Am I being impatient? What kind of timeline should I allow? Given that it’s Christmas next week that money could come in very useful.
Thanks.
Dan says
Anyone know how long FO close down over festive season? I have eight complaints with them – was hoping. Like most I would think – to have heard updates by Christmas.
Trying to be disciplined by not calling and therefore adding to workload so trying to convince myself I won’t hear anything until Jan at earliest!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know if they close for more than the bank holidays, but it’s inevitable that some adjudicators and Ombudsmen will have taken time off over the Christmas-New Year period. And responses from lenders may also be slower.
As you say, phoning up just adds to their workload.
YourName says
Christmas 2017 opening hours:
Saturday 23 December (office closed)
Monday 25 December (bank holiday – office closed)
Tuesday 26 December (bank holiday – office closed)
Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 December (office open – helplines close at 5pm)
Friday 29 and Saturday 30 December (office closed)
Monday 1 January (bank holiday – office closed)
Tuesday 2 January (office open as usual)
Dave says
Just had my email from Lending Stream with my settlement figure, 3 weeks after the Ombudsman’s decision.
Confirmed bank details, let’s see how long it takes them to pay out.
Head in Hands says
Hi Dave, I got mine through yesterday afternoon. I rang them and they told me payment in 7-10 days. Let’s see, the Ombudsman final date would be next Thursday but not holding my breathe! Just over £5k ???? – started my complaint with them end Jan
Dave says
Nice outcome from that one!
I was only upheld on loans 5-10, not on the first 5, which was a disappointment.
I argued the case at Adjudicator level, but didn’t get anywhere.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Dave, Let us know if it’s not paid in the next week!
Eva says
So thats my Lending Stream final response off to Ombudsman. No way they admit anything wrong. And to top it off they denied i was ever on repayment plan with them and still borrowed me after over and over. Well my bank statements and Payplan letter proves I was on repayment so next time they hear about me will be from the Ombudsman!
Davy says
I am in the early process of a claim against LS. I am contesting loans from 2015 to present, but have another 6 weeks or so before I can forward to Ombudsman. If Ombudsman asks for bank statements will it be from 2015 to present or do you forward just a few months? I have screen printed all my loans from them. Just interested to know
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman will want to see all your bank statements from a couple of months before the borrowing until the borrowing ended.
Davy says
Thanks Sara!
Ella says
Thanks Sara for your time, I wasn’t sure that I could send the information at this point, but they are just refusing any communication with us. I don’t know, I have worked out all the interest and the extra 8% with all the companies we used and the absolute total is approximately 7500, so not as high an amount as some – maybe they think I will go away.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£7500 is a lot of money!
If you can’t get Wonga to talk to you, then definitely go to the Ombudsman. Your bank statements are evidence that you did have loans. Having a case started at the Ombudsman will hopefully mean that Wonga investigates properly and finds your two missing accounts!
Jodie says
Does anyone know how quickly LS pay out after accepting an offer? I accepted an offer of £130 5 days for loans dated back to 2013 :)
Steve says
Hi pretty new to this great site, im in the process of contacting all PDL companies. However, I have been issued a CCJ from Moriarty Law on behalf of MotorMile Finance who bought it off Vivus which I took out in 2012.. I have sent a CCA and CPR asking for proof of loan, however as its reached the court stage do I hold off trying to get the interest refunded as then I am acknowledging that I had the debt. Its a tricky one at the moment. I have seen someone mention they got the CCJ discontinued by threatening ML with going to FO. Any help would be great.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you got a Claim Form? Or has there already been a CCJ? Have you been sent a Letter Before Claim/Action, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/, if so did you reply to it?
If the loan was in 2012, it can’t possibly be statute barred so there is no problem about acknowledging the debt.
Steve says
Hi sara, no its the claim form from northampton i have received, i have acknowledged it and said i will defend in full and sent cca to mmile and cpr to moriarty. Obviously i am hoping they dont send the agreements but if they do i think my next step is to ask mmile to hold court proceeding as im going to ask for refund of interest on the loan. I think thats about right?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Were you sent a Letter before Action?
I suggest you put in a complaint right away and inform MMF and ML that you are disputing the debt and ask them to confirm in writing that they will not proceed with court action until the dispute is resolved.
And you need to enter a defence within the set time. You don’t have time to wait for the CCA agreement to arrive (or not). I suggest you talk to National Debtline urgently about defending this case.
Steve says
Not sure if I was sent a letter before action probably was to be fair they usually do. In previous cases I have sent CCA and CPR but the companies never replied in the timelines therefore I got the court to throw the cases out but if i complain on an account that to the courts im going to dispute that I even own thats where its a grey area. (I dont think im making myself clear haha) I will put a complaint in and see how it evolves. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well next time, unless you enjoy fighting these court cases, don’t ignore any Letter before Action/Claim that looks like one of the new ones in use since the start of September – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/ – as they allow you to ask for CCA etc before a claim is issued.
The only problem about acknowledging the debt is with a statute barred defence which isn’t relevant here. If they can’t find the CCA its not enforceable. You aren’t asking for the CCA because you deny you ever borrowed the money (I assume?).
So you need to ask for the CCA and put in a complaint at the same time and ask for ML/MMF to put a hold on the court case at the same time.
Steve says
Haha nah i defo dont enjoy it. I must have stupidly dismissed it and thought nothing of it. Well i am asking for the CCA to prove i owe it, they say its from a vivus loan from 5 years ago, its probably true as i had 100s of Payday loans. Ok i will put a complaint in for and ask them to hold proceedings.
Thanks for your help.
Steve says
I have received a email from ML staring they are requesting info that could take 14/28 days. My account has now been put on hold.
By account im presuming they dont main Court Claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest replying asking them to confirm that they are prepared to put the court case on hold until your complaint has been resolved.
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
Hi I have a question about the 8 wks before you can go to the Ombudsman. Is it 8 working weeks or 8 calender wks? Also each time they make a low offer which is refused does it restart the clock on the 8 wks?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is 8 calendar weeks. It starts at the time you made your complaint, nothing the lender can do extends this time.
Kerry Smith says
Hi
The Money Shop say this
Instant Cash Loans, (The Money Shop), joined the Financial Ombudsman Service credit jurisdiction on 6 April 2007. This therefore meant that any loans provided before 6 April 2007 will not be considered as part our review. In the case of your complaint, I would only be reviewing your loan activity after 6 April 2007.
I had loans of loans before this date. Can they just ignore those please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Loans before 2007 won’t be considered. Sorry but the Ombudsman isn’t able to consider loans before that date. This applies to all lenders, it’s a regulatory thing, not when the Money Shop happened to sign up to something.
Ryan cottam says
How long does it take for the FOS to get back to you still had nothing back after 10 days
Monica says
I complaint to wonga ,I had with them 13 loans and they came back to me after the 8 week saying that the loans where afordables at the time ,I include on the complaint that they where taking repeated multiple small payments at for my account leaving my account emty after payday leaving me withot money so have to get another loan right after paying . I should go with the ombusmand ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like a good case to me – send it to the Ombudsman to look at. Good luck!
Dave says
Here’s an interesting one Sara… I think I’m in the right but wouldn’t mind clarification.
A certain lender which has just had a decision issued to them by the Ombudsman, sent me their calculation last week (you know which lender!), and say it’ll be paid within 10 days of then.
BUT… I thought the 8% statutory was still being accrued until the date of settlement.
Now, we’re only talking a couple of quid, if that, but the lender is adamant that their sending of the settlement stops interest from being accrued further.
Doesn’t seem right to me!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
TBH I can’t see this is worth bothering about. Being told the figure in advance allows you to check it looks right.
YourName says
The calculation should be up until the settlement is paid, they often leave a little leeway in their calculation to take account of this
Pastpayday says
Not sure whether my old thread is still here but Re Moriarty and Vivus loans – i did update on here.
I got the same Norhtampton CCJ claim and i put in a complaint to Vivus – who pinged and email to say Motormile dealing with it. Contacted with complaint and received final response to say nothing doing. Said will take them to FOS but before i do, to send me the credit agreement. All the while asking them to keep the case on hold for CCJ.
Copied in Moriarty with all emails.
A few weeks later (and probably due to the fact they could not produce credit agreement) Moriarty Law wrote to me to say they have stopped the claim and nothing is outstanding.
I didnt bother with the official Credit agreement request but just a quick note to say ‘before i go ahead with the FOS complaint, can you provide a copy of the credit agreement please’…hope it works out for you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your old thread is back on November 27th if you want to hunt back for it.
That is good news. Personally I would have put in a formal CCA request, including paying £1, but what you did worked, so great! Make sure you check your credit record and see if that needs updating to have a balance of zero. And keep this correspondence with ML and MMF. Just in case…
Jonny says
Hi. I have received a reply from QQ offering me a refund of just £16, when my calculations work out the refund of interest charges to be £500-£600. Is it worth going to the financial ombudsmen for this?
If i speak to the ombudsmen, do i mention all 5 claims or do them each seperately?
I have also had replies from wage day advance and payday express saying they need another 4 weeks to consider although it is only 4 weeks since my first complaint.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You may not get a full refund, but the possibility of getting a few hundred pounds for sending some emails seems good to me!
You should complain about each lender separately. So you don’t have to wait until you have a final decision from WDA or PDE before getting going with this QQ complaint. In the later complaints add that you have already complained about QQ on 19 December etc.
Gary says
Nice end to the year just been notified of decision on a PPI claim on top of my payday loans takes me to £8300 in ten weeks total – Happy days debt free 2018 ????????????????????
Pete says
Hi Sara,
Hoping you can help. I emailed Wonga 2 weeks ago as per the above instructions and waited for them to send me details of my loans. Exactly 2 weeks later they have sent them. I have seen a lot of comments about loans 6 years older + are not looked at. Some of the loans I am wanting to complain about will be 6 years old as of next year. If I put the complaint in before then will they still be looked at, or because the time an Ombudsman looks at it, it will be older than 6 years, will they just not look into them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your complaint has already started when you asked for the list of your loans. Get it to the Ombudsman dead on 8 weeks from that point.
The Ombudsman will look at loans over 6 years, it’s just that Wonga are arguing about this. If you only have a few loans over 6 years and most are under, it’s usually not worth bothering about the older loans – but cross that bridge at the end of January when the 8 weeks is up, you don’t have to think about it now.
Jax says
Is anyone able to share their timeline for WDA complaint please? Many Thanks
Jen says
My time line with them was 31/5/17 asked 4 statement of account. Received 6/6/17. I e.mailed again on 7/6/17 as amounts did not match my bank statements. Reply 15/6/17 saying they had added £15 to each loan as a faster payment fee. Complaint sent 16/6/17. E.mail 26/6/17 asking how I found out I could complain, I replied saying conversation with colleague regarding debt. No further contact until letter in post on 21/7/17. Full refund and interest. Admitting no credit checks were carried out. Called on 21/7/17 to confirm bank details and e.mailed to say I had confirmed bank details. Refund in bank 24/7/17. Hope this helps ???? (Confirmation e.mails from them throughout also)
Gary says
Exactly 8 weeks before the response Jax
Jax says
Thanks I’ve received my final response letter today after 6 weeks. They have said they consider my loans to be statue barred as over 6 years old but haven’t asked me when I realised I could complain. Another one to the FOS.
Jen says
Gd luck my lending finished with them in March 2011 and I complained in May 17, (just over the 6 year mark) they admitted that no credit checks were done then. I have another 5 with FOS just now, still waiting on the 8 wk mark for 2 pdl and provident, it’s a long wait with FOS but hopefully worth it in the end.
Helen says
Out of the 10 complaints I put in in July this year, 4 are still unresolved.
– Sunny. Sent to FOS 29/09. Picked up by adjudicator on 04/12 so waiting to hear what he decides.
– Lending Stream. Sent to FOS 30/08. Not yet been picked up by adjudicator.
– Pounds to Pocket. Sent to FOS 21/09. Not upheld by adjudicator and sent to Ombudsman 01/12.
– Wonga. Sent to FOS 12/09. Partially upheld by adjudicator. Wonga never replied so sent to Ombudsman 05/12.
On a more positive note, so far this year I have received £3620 back from PPI, packaged bank accounts and payday complaints. :-)
Link says
I have received an adjudicator’s judgement in regards to my Wonga claim. She has sided with me on all but one loan (26 Loans & 23 Top Up Loans) which only had a value of £7.20 in interest. That would leave me with a claim totalling over £2,000 before adding 8% interest. I’ve still got a balance of just under £500, so can expect that to be taken off.
She’s given Wonga until 3rd January to respond. Do you think it’s likely they will accept her decision and if so, how long do they usually take to get back to adjudicators?
Kate says
Hi, how long was it till the adjudicator told you their findings please? Mine is still waiting for responses from QQ and Wonga and it’s been 6.5 weeks since they picked up both cases. Thanks.
Link says
I got an email from the adjudicator on 8th November advising me the case had been allocated to her and I received the email with the letter for Wonga informing them of her decision yesterday.
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
Need advise re Mr lender who have sent me a very confusing Statement of account. Total interest paid on 4 loans is £1256.26. Loan 1 24/6/2011 – 30/4/2012, loan 2 15/5/2012 – 31/5/2013, loan 3 01/10/2014 – 30/12/2014, loan 4 02/1/2015 – 27/2/2015.
1st three loans used their rollover service.
4th loan was instalment loan
2nd loan I paid interest only and then split balance over 3 months as I couldn’t afford to pay in one go
Same on 3rd loan
4th loan settled early due to bonus from work
Response 1 – sighting credit checks were conducted and credit worthy. Offered £262 refund
Response 2 – stated I used their rollover service and again re credit worthy. Increased offer to £494.40
Response 3 – again on credit worthy and stating the info I gave them showed I had enough income. Increased to £675.40
I had loans from other payday lenders in 2011 which I defaulted on (they have just agreed irresponsible lending), I also had loans during 2013 and 2014.
Is this a valid case to keep pursuing?
the statement of account is very confusing.
Loan 1 interest £307.50
Loan 2 interest £555.40
Loan 3 interest £270
Loan 4 interest £123.36
Steve says
They’re only making an offer as they know they’re in the wrong and you have a good case. My experience has been similar, an initial offer with 2 increases since. I went back with a counter offer for almost the full amount. They said they will ‘get back within the 8 weeks’ and have now taken 6 of the 8 (even though Mr. Lender are usually one of the quicker and they were at first). I fear I will have to pursue it with FOS but I doubt I’ll get back less than the offer and I don’t need the refund urgently, so happy to wait. I had a repayment plan for my first loan, yet they sent me an email upon repayment offering me a new loan and gave me 8 subsequent loans.
Steve says
They don’t usually add it on, but they did when I asked. I sent:
“Many thanks for your email and offer of a refund to close my complaint. Keeping in mind what a pleasure you have been to deal with, I would be willing to accept the offer made, were you to add the recommended 8% simple interest to the refund outlined in your email this morning. This is my final offer in relation to this complaint. Should you not agree to it, I will be sending this to the FOS once the 8 weeks has elapsed.
I’m sure you will agree this is very fair and reasonable considering the financial hardship that resulted from Mr. Lender’s irresponsible lending to me. ”
Had a reply within an hour accepting this and money in my account by the end of the day.
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
Thank you. Greatly worded response! I have tweeked it a little and messaged them. No doubt they have closed now for Christmas so will hopefully get a response when they return. Thanks again
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
Mr lender replied and are refusing to add the 8% as they are saying they are not upholding my complaint but offering a good will gesture of £960! Any thoughts?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it’s up to you. If you don’t think that is a fair offer, send the case to the Ombudsman.
Kyle Milne says
Hey so Iv had mixed success with this but the big one I was holding out for was Wonga
Which Iv heard back from today (nearly 8 weeks)
They offered to clear existing loan (800£) and compensate with 240£ to my bank for loans from 2011/2012
My concern is they have just disregarded all loans from 2013-2017 where my finances were at the worst state
I called and asked why and they said they changed their policies and during the 2013-2017 loans it is felt that we’re affordable due to new procedures
Am I being pawned off here or is this legitimate ? I could use the money but They have disregarded over 40 loans here
Sara (Debt Camel) says
40 loans ignored is a lot! Just because Wonga changed their lending policies doesn’t mean they got these loans right. It sounds to me as though you are likely to get a LOT larger refund by sending the case to the Ombudsman.
david says
any update on the over 6 years dispute between the FOS and QQ?
Maureen says
I’m interested in this too….between QQ and Wonga, it’s the last two still to be dealt with by the FOS. I don’t want to sacrifice the loans over 6 years as there are 3 years worth!
david says
Indeed.
My complaint has been with the FOS since March 2017 and as it stands has not progressed at all. Seems I’m in a long queue!
Maureen says
I sent mine in April and not heard a peep apart from it’s in the jurisdiction queue awaiting QQ saying they can look at it!…..in for the long haul, you are right!
Julia Roberts says
Hi Please help me as I tend to have little confidence and often the replies make me feel so rubbish I just cave in. I had 6 loans through Mr Lender between May 2013 and May 2015 and also took other loans out with other lenders as found myself in a horrible state of affairs. Loan history: 25.5.13: £300, 29.11.13: £400, 31.4.14:£500, 8.8.14: £689, 20.12.14: 770. 15.5.15: 1000 this is till ongoing and I was in a DMP with installments and they have written back saying everything was affordable they did nothing wrong blah blah but are willing to right off the outstanding balance which is 489 (have already paid (950) off the last loan and they will take tio adverse stuff off my credit file. My question is do I settle at this or ask for more and how much more is fair
many thanks Ju
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Ju, it’s not a bad start, but you may well be able to get a bit of a refund from them as well. Mr Lender do actually read and think about what you say if you go back with an alternative suggestion so let’s see what that could be.
What they are doing with the last loan is just removing the interest, as you have almost repaid the whole amount you borrowed. This is what the Ombudsman would say do with that loan, so that’s a tick.
But they aren’t refunding you any money from the previous loans. My guess is some of the previous loans you had were three month loans? Or were one month loans that were rolled over?
Do you know what interest you paid on each of loans 1,2,3,4 and 5? It doesn’t matter if you don’t, but if you do you can put in actual numbers.
Kate says
Hi, just wanted to put in my two pennies worth (or hopefully a lot more!) I am still waiting to hear back from 5 other lenders but Mr Lender were brill – I paid about £1000 over many loans and they originally offered £300, I kept up the email contact restating what I wanted and why, I stated how many other loans I had at the start and throughout (not all amount on all dates just a general overview) my history with them. They offered £450 then £830 which I accepted. The whole process from initial complaint to getting the money in my account was 5 weeks and 1 day.
Gary says
Mr Lender are excellent way above all other lenders ????????
Julia Roberts says
Hi Sara thankyou so much yes I do they have been transparent to be fair to them and have replied in a very timely manner. The ineterest is documented as.
1: £595 2: 480 3: £575 4: £450 5: £532 6: £376
what are your thoughts as I an a little lost as how to word it
many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
At this point you have to make an alternative offer.
“Thanks for your offer to write off the remaining loan and remove the default from my credit record. But I think you should have been able to tell from the way I kept borrowing more money each time that I was getting into more difficulty and you should have stopped lending earlier. I would be happy to settle this complain quickly if you will also refund me the interest I paid on loans 4 and 5, so £988.”
Or if you want to ask for a bit more, include the loan 3 as well, which would be a total of £1563.
DO you know when you repaid each loan? If the gaps between the loans (time from when you repaid loan 1 to taking out loan 2, time from repaying loan 2 to taking out loan 3 etc) are small then definitely go for the larger figure.
Steve says
In addition to Sara’s very valid points, I would always go with the higher figure. They can only haggle you down, but will never haggle up.
Rich says
So glad I’ve stumbled across this site. I borrowed extensively and repeatedly for years from PayDayUk and, unfortunately, PoundsTillPayday. I’ll have to see what I can do about PoundsTillPayday, but I asked for a full list of my loans from PDUK…. over £4k from over 50 loans. All repeated all slightly increasing each time. To my surprise, PDUK have been really prompt in responding and providing information. I only started this process a couple of days ago. I’m going to ask for the full refund of interest with the statutory 8%. On the latter part, is this 8% added per year (compounded?) or just on the £4k total? I understand I’m unlikely to get all of what I’m asking for but I’m hoping I can get close. It absolutely smashed my credit rating, contributed to a default on my credit report and I’m only just now starting to rebuild. This site is a godsend.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The 8% is on the interest that you paid, not the amount that you borrowed. But it is per year. So a loan in 2013 would have 4 years x 8% added.
Rich says
Ah thanks Sara. The £4k was the interest not the amount I borrowed. Thanks for clarifying
Stuart says
Thank you so much for this. The rap on the knuckles for these sharks has been far less reported than the equivalent problems with PPI – perhaps because there is some shame about needing payday loans, or because it only affects poor and desperate people… anyway.
I am very grateful for the advice and form letters, which have netted me a refund from PayDayUK following a complaint I made on the 2nd November (today is 19th December). Their response is detailed and has explained how they have come to their decision, and I am satisfied with it. There’s one loan where they’ve asked for more information in order to make a decision and my bank are making it difficult to get hold of historic bank statements so I’m willing to let that one lie and accept the offer.
They asked me for old bank statements and a credit report – neither of which I provided – so I was surprised and pleased that they looked at the complaint without having received these.
Wonga replied today with a flat “no” so I will be referring them to the Ombudsman. I will let you know how that goes.
Stuart says
My refund from PDUK came through yesterday so again I’d like to express an enormous Thank You to Sara.
I’ve read a few more of the articles on the site since posting my comment above – Wonga have hidden behind their six-year rule so I’m waiting to hear back from the Ombudsman about that.
Lesley says
Hello, hope somebody can help please. Raised a complaint to Quick Quid and Pounds to pocket.
After 4 weeks they have replied with this ( sorry for the long email )….”
“ There were large gaps in your borrowing history. There was 350 days between your 6th and 7th loans, here were large gaps in your borrowing history. There was 350 days between your 6th and 7th loans, further demonstrating that you were not simply taking out one loan to repay the next one.
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.
HARDSHIP
Finally, our records indicate that at no point did you notify us of any financial detriment or financial hardship. Had you alerted us to your difficult financial situation, we would have put you in “hardship” status, as is our process. We then would have frozen additional fees and interest while we worked with you to find an affordable repayment option.
—————————————-
Not sure what to do next … if anything !
Any advice would be much appreciated!
Fantastic site by the way ????????
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is QQ’s standard “fill in the gaps” template, which is why it reads a bit oddly.
It sounds as though you had one large gap in the middle of your borrowing. Obviously a complaint with no gaps is stronger, but lots of people have won cases where there was a large gap.
“When I reviewed your loan history I see that you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.” This is QQ’s weasel words. I could rephrase that as
“On at least one occasion you borrowed for us for 4 months in a row with less than 15 days between the loans” – it means the same thing but QQ deliberately try to make your case sound bad.
It sounds as though you borrowed a lot from them – I suggest you send the case off to the ombudsman. There is no point in trying to get QQ to change their minds – they don’t listen.
Nari says
I’ve had a final response from PDUK and have accepted their offer of £1300. I know it says up to 10 working days for the money to go into my bank. But how long has it taken for other people?
Acee says
I got mine within 5 days
Stuart says
Hi Nari. I hope you’ve had your refund by now. I posted the acceptance letter on the 20th December and got an email from them on the 28th saying that they’d received it (let’s be generous and assume they closed over Christmas!) and I would get my refund within 10 working days. It came through yesterday (5th January) which is five working days after discounting the Christmas and New Year Bank Holidays.
Louise says
Hi Sara
I received 28 loans between 2012-2014 from 3 different lenders. Whilst I was on a very low income, I was also in receipt of student loans. Will the FOS consider that to be income? Because if so, the loans were affordable, as I used them to pay off large balances before needing to borrow from PD loan companies again the month after.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes student loans count as income. BUT the fact you then had to borrow the next month shows that the loans weren’t affordable.
“Affordable” means you can repay and not borrow more because that leave you too short. For most people that is borrowing again the same month, but where your income only arrives 3 times a years, it means having to borrow again to get through to the next student loan/grant.
Definitely worth complaining.
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
Response from QQ…complete refusal to even consider a refund. 4 payday loans and one OEC (I think that means an instalment loan?).
Loan 1 – £300 nov 2013, interest £88.50.
Loan 2 – £300, Feb 2014, interest £88.50, but appear to have discounted 22.13 interest (not sure why),
Loan 3 £150 April 2014, interest £35.40,
loan 4 £150 June 2024, interest £44 25
The big one is the OEC…
July 6th 2014, £300
July 15th 2014 £100
August 10th 2014 £80
Interest…
July 31st 2014 £74.37
Aug 29th 2014 £100.22
Sept 30th 2014 £107.20
Oct 31st 2014 £91.76
Nov 28th 2014 £71.96
Dec 31st 2014 £71.61
Jan 30th 2015 £53.40
Feb 27th 2015 £38.92
During 2014 I had other payday loans and I know I have another QQ account under a different email but I need to ask them which email their refusal and the above loans are based on. I know I had one account where I paid everything off and the other I defaulted on.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, work out which account it is, and find what is happening to the other account, then send the case to the Ombudsman. No point in trying to get QQ to change their mind, they won’t.
Madeline Clelland-Harris says
QQ have refused to look at the other account as they say it’s over the 6yr period
Russ says
Hi Sara,
Most of my complaints are now with FOS although i have not heard back from Lending Stream so still waiting on them.
I have had FRL’s from Payday UK/ Payday Express where i had two accounts. On one account i never paid anything back (£500 loan) and they offered to remove the interest and i would have to pay the principle balance back, but i have sent this to the FOS as i had one other loan with the same group which had been deffered monthly for 13 months and in my opinion they should not have lent to me in the first place.
The first loan i had has resulted in a FRL offering all interest back, plus 8% interest (less 20% tax) and less an outstanding balance. What i’m not sure of is how to work out if that is a good deal or not?!? Is it as simple as adding up the interest paid from the SOA or is there a different wway to work it out?
Anon90 says
Hi anyone complained to vivus? I know they have gone into administration. This is my last loan company to complain. And if so what’s the email address
Gary says
Not much point in complaining to Vivus, i won my case with the adjudicator with no response from Vivus, was passed on to the Ombudsman who also upheld my complaint and again Vivus did not respond. Have waited weeks and weeks for the decision help team at the Ombudsman to contact Vivus / V7 Limited to arrange settlement. They have now come back and advised that there is no lines of open communication with Vivus as they are going to cease trading, although George Taylor is still the register director on Company House with V7 still registered as an active company. As such the Ombudsman has advised that the only step available now is to take the claim of settlement to court which i doubt i will do as it seems a lot of extra work for a refund of circa £450.
Has anyone else had a similar scenario to the above?
Anon90 says
Ah I won’t bother then thanks
Pastpayday says
Folks – ive mentioned about Vivus before on here. Not sure whether it will help you get any compensation but ive had pending CCJs cancelled (via mortormile and Moriarty Law) for vivus accounts.
If you were to use the email address for vivus in the link above, you will get an auto reply stating mortormile and some other company have taken over the issues. Ill copy what i wrote a couple of days ago below –
Pastpayday says
December 18, 2017 at 2:58 pm
Not sure whether my old thread is still here but Re Moriarty and Vivus loans – i did update on here.
I got the same Norhtampton CCJ claim and i put in a complaint to Vivus – who pinged and email to say Motormile dealing with it. Contacted with complaint and received final response to say nothing doing. Said will take them to FOS but before i do, to send me the credit agreement. All the while asking them to keep the case on hold for CCJ.
Copied in Moriarty with all emails.
A few weeks later (and probably due to the fact they could not produce credit agreement) Moriarty Law wrote to me to say they have stopped the claim and nothing is outstanding.
I didnt bother with the official Credit agreement request but just a quick note to say ‘before i go ahead with the FOS complaint, can you provide a copy of the credit agreement please’…hope it works out for you.
amy says
Hi I started the complaint procedure for both my Husband and Myself on various payday Loans last week.
I’m starting to wonder if I’ve made the complaint to early without doing enough research, My letters were based on the debt camel template, I was quite vague in the fact I just put numerous loans between 2011 and 2013 etc. I didn’t put any amounts or anything or any details of our income and expenditure.
I’m now not sure I have put enough detail in regarding the amounts I borrowed etc. An I haven’t asked for entries to be removed from my credit file, which I’m seeing people have.
Is it to late to now ask for full statements from them all or have I just made a complete mess of it all ?
Thanks for any advice, it would be greatly appreciated as I’m not really sure or confident in what I’m doing, P.S I have had acknowledgment emails from all lenders so far.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You haven’t messed things up, a vague complaint is fine. But it does help you to know the details, so if you want, write and ask the lender for a lit of your loans. Creditors normally remove negative information if they offer a refund, so not having said this isn’t a problem
But you could say something like “I sent you a complaint on dd/mm/yy. In addition to that, could you please send me a list of my loans, showing what I borrowed and what I repaid and the dates. This would help me to explain my complaint in more details. Also I would like any negative information removed from my credit record.”
Amy says
Brilliant thank you so much.
I do have most of the emails in respect of all the loans but having a list which will be much easier.
Thank you again for this website and help ☺
Lee says
Hi all.
Some good news finally about my Lending Stream Case. I initially complained about in May with Lending Stream.
After the adjudicator decision at the end of October. The Financial Ombudsman picked it up and sent me their final decision yesterday. They agree loans 6 – 28 should be refunded to me, which I had accepted at the time but Lending Stream wouldn’t accept. So sent my acceptance form back to financial ombudsman decision, which means its now legally binding.
In early July- Following my initial complaint letter submitted in May they offered to refund me just £98 on 28 loans. And said my credit score was much better than it was (they always lie about your score if your just starting a complaint with Lending Stream).
In October following adjudicator decision they didn’t accept but tried to counter offer and pay me only on 6 random loans of the 28 in total. Adjudicator ruled in my favour on loans 6 to 28, including simple interest of 8% on all these refunds and all these loans removed from my credit file.
So looking at a couple of grand from this case now.
Emma says
Hi Sara,
I’ve applied for a refund from Wonga for loans taken out between Jan 2011- Jan 2012… I have had a response with an offer of £628, but they are only acknowledging the loans from Nov 2011- Jan 2012. So there is still 8 other loans they have passed over. It’s been exactly 6 weeks since I first emailed them.
They have also said “Additionally, we will also request for the redressed loans to be removed from your credit record. This may take up to 30 working days to be updated fully on your credit file.”
I’m not sure whether to accept the refund as there was a lot more and they have said the FO will not take on cases older than 6 years? Plus I really just need the loans off my record so I can improve it for my mortgage interest rates.
Thank you so much for all the templates they have been great so far!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So they are only refunding 2 out of 10 loans?
The FO will look at cases over 6 years, but at the moment Wonga is not accepting the FO’s decision on these loans, so there are very long delays whilst Wonga and the FO argue about a couple of test cases.
Your credit record – were there defaults or late payments showing on any of these Wonga loans?
Emma says
Yes only the two loans that were technically within the 6 year period when I first emailed them have been acknowledged for a refund – and I think only those two will be removed from the credit report.
There’s a late repayment on 4 and a default on the last 2. If it is the last two loans that will be removed then will that help my report and score?
Brian B says
Does anyone have an alternative email address for lending stream, I have been trying to get a statement of my account for 3 months now but the keep coming back with a data protection excuse and they can not match up address at time of application. The email address: complaints@ lendingstream.co.uk is now bouncing back to my email address. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Thanks
vickie9 says
I haven’t got a different address but have you got your bank statements as you can work out from those how many loans you had and then give rough dates in your complaint. If you take it into the ombudsman you will need them anyway.
Brian B says
Thanks, I was really looking for them to acknowledge that I had started the complaints process but every time they came back saying they could not supply any more details due to the data protection and so on. I have an email ready to go to them stating I am going to the FOS but it keeps bouncing back :(
Claire says
Hi Brian, I was the same then found something on another page of this website to send them, I had the statements within 24 hours!
Text below:
I would like you to provide a Statement of my Account. The FCA Rules provide that a firm’s procedures must ensure that a complaint may be made free of charge. I require complete details of the loans you gave me and the amounts that I repaid in order to be able to clearly explain my complaint.
In addition, the FCA’s Principles set out that (6) a firm must pay due regard to the interests of its customers and treat them fairly and (7) a firm must pay due regard to the information needs of its clients, and communicate information to them in a way which is clear, fair and not misleading. I consider that you are being obstructive, delaying and not treating me fairly by not supplying me with a Statement of Account.
If you do not supply me with this information, I shall be taking my complaint about payday loan affordability to the Financial Ombudsman and I shall also be writing to the FCA pointing out the difficulties you are putting in the way to prevent me being able to make an effective complaint.
Joanna Kent says
I have written to all pay day loan companies and they all come back the same – loans were affordable, some of them have also asked for bank statements. Feel very disillusioned.
Pastpayday says
Dont be – if youve had their final response, go to the ombudsman as you dont have anything to lose but everything to gain. If you look at the olders posts on here, some have been ruled in the people’s favour even though the sharks have said they were affordable. From my experience, youd have turned to these sharks as a last resort after maxing out credit cards, loans, everything that you could possibly think of. They preyed on people with terrible credit scores. In my case, i was defaulting left right and centre and couldnt see a way out. I thought these sharks would offer respite but it turned out to be even worse.
Good luck!
Steve says
While some lenders are willing to make a fair offer during the 8 weeks, the vast majority of cases are having to go to the FOS, and the success rate is over 70% with these cases at the moment. If you don’t think the repayments were affordable for you, you had to keep borrowing month after month to make ends meet or you kept increasing the amounts you were borrowing, then you have a good case. Just follow the process set out above and let the independent FOS decide whether they were affordable or not.
It takes time but it will be worth it in the end. Keep going…!
shelly says
i have just received my final response from Wonga not upholding my complaint as my first ever loan was in augest 2011 but had other loans in the six year time frame they also said I lied when I applied for a loan I had 24 loans in total over 11 months if that’s not relying on them I don’t what is took 7 weeks for a reply now going to fos good luck everyone else and merry christmas
Wiggles says
ITS ALL DONE!!!!!
lending stream just paid me out on my last PDL complaint so i have now just paid off a unsecured personal loan i have had and apart from my credit card which is fully under control and normal bills I am now debt free :D this is such a good feeling Thanks to Sara for all the hard work here getting the advice for everyone.
Just for the breakdown Lending stream had to pay back all interest and charges from loans 6-36 it came down to the following
Interest & Fee Refund £3120.87
8% Interest £796.57
Tax component £159.31
Net Refundable £3758.13
Now to wait till april and file for a refund on the overpaid tax if there was any
Head in Hands says
Well done Wiggles & Merry Christmas!
I’m just waiting to receive mine, today is day 28 after the Ombudsman final decision after starting my complaint in January and my last PDL refund. As a matter of interest did you receive yours before or after day 28?
Wiggles says
yeah my 28th day would have been boxingday but i pushed them on the phone every day to make sure it was done
Jon says
I was BR in Dec 2006, Dicharged May 07.
Got into a spiral with Payday loans over last few months as spouse hasn’t been working.
Could I still claim ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, your previous bankruptcy isn’t a problem for claims about payday loans taken out afterwards. If you are still borrowing, it’s important to halt that first, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
Mrs W says
Hi Sara
You really are such a wonderful person for starting this site. My life has transformed in the last 6 month. My timeline:
19th June – Emailed complaint to MyJar, Paydayuk, Mr Lender, Wonga, Satsuma, Safetynet, QuickQuid, sunny and unclebuck.
By 1st August MyJar refunded all interest £1950.
All others declined any wrong doing and went to FOS. Some settled in full at Adjudicator, others went on to an Ombusman.
I have now received a total refund £19,275.
For those who are just starting out in this process, hang in there. It’s worth the wait and for me only six months.
Sara, Thank You!
Brad says
Hi Sara, had a result with QQ now.
It was with the ombudsman for about 2 months and then QQ made an offer to the FOS to refund 3 loans out of 17 but it worked out £1,770 out of £2,070 total interest paid so I was happy to accept.
My balance of £935 was written off and the remaining £835 paid into my account today. Good news and thank you again
T says
Hi Sara,
Thank you for everything. You are helping a huge amount of people.
I have a problem with PiggyBank. I took out 2 loans in 2013 and then had a huge gap until 2016/17 where I took out 3 loans. With the last one defaulting. The last loan was taken out was literally the same day after paying off the other and it was £350 higher.
I had another payday loan, 118 loan and multiple credit cards. Which I was struggling to pay.
Because of the gap I don’t know if I should refer this to the FOS. PB have already sent me a smug letter saying it was affordable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Smug” is a perfect description of many of Piggybank’s emails :(
A very large gap means that your two sets of loans may be effectively considered separately, especially as you don’t mention that you were late paying or defaulted on the first ones.
But it sounds to me as though there is a very good case for a refund (or the removal of all interest if you still owe a lot) on the last loan. And possibly the other recent ones depending what your credit record showed about your other borrowing. So Yes, send it to the Ombudsman.
It tends to be the huge, refund everything over years, cases that attract attention here – well that’s natural, but for many people getting a few hundred pounds back is a good result and can make a real difference to their lives. For you just sorting out the last loan can be significant help so go for it!
Andy B says
Today I received £6,314 from quick quid after the Ombudsman agreed with the adjudicator’s decision. This ends my complaints against 4 pay day lenders all of which started in May 2017.
My jar – accepted responsibility and agreed refund of 90% of interest paid = £1454 in June
wda – just a handful of loans with them. Refused responsibility – adjudicator agreed 1 loan unaffordable (luckily the biggest) = £250 in November
wonga – initially partially agreed some loans were unaffordable but only offered 550 refund. To adjudicator decided majority of loans unaffordable = £3,100 in November
quick quid – initial measly offer of 150. To ombudsman offer then increased to 1200. Refused and awaiting adjudicator’s finding – loans 5 onwards unaffordable = £6,314 today.
I am so grateful to Sara and this site as I stumbled upon it and it has made it so more of a bright future it is unreal.
To those awaiting decisions hang in there and see it through. It’s definitely worth it
Merry Xmas
Andy B
vickie9 says
That’s fantastic news, well done.
paul w says
I’ve received a final response from payday express and they say they cannot decide if my loans were unaffordable and would like to see my bank statements any advice
Acee says
Paul I had a complaint with them and they paid out on several loans but said they couldn’t decide on others but if I sent bank statement they would consider them, they then paid out on the loans they couldn’t decide on previously so it worked for me.
Acee says
Hi Sara put a post up last week saying adjudicator agreed with me about the Myjar complaint and now Myjar have agreed to refund me nearly £2000 I owed them £1700 so that’s taken 2 months off my DMP great result for me. Did I read somewhere on here that you can reclaim the tax that you have been deducted?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can reclaim up to £200 if you are a tax payer, https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/. or all of it if you don’t pay tax. If you are a higher rate tax payer you may end up owing more (but that doesn’t affect many payday loan refunds)
Acee says
Great thanks yeah I’m a tax payer. Merry Xmas and thanks for your help
Aida says
Hi, I’m probably being thick but I find payday UK statements hard to understand. Not sure which to calculate there are interest repayment, interest deferral and interest principle. Which one/s are they using? They made me an offer of £1200 (8% included) but I’m pretty sure that’s a low offer. They also said between certain months, they couldn’t decide and needed bank statements. I forwarded statements for those months and they responsible as they were affordable. I assumed they would do that because eventhough they asked for bank statements for a certain duration, they pretty much, at the end of the letter requesting that I accept offer as final.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ah they are a nightmare, aren’t they.
If you only had one loan at a time, first go through the statement dividing it up into loans. One ends when the balance is zero. Another one begins with a principal deposit. Then label them Loan 1, Loan 2 etc.
The amount you borrowed is the Principal Deposit number. Unless you topped a loan up, there will just be one at the start of the loan.
The amount of interest you paid is any lines labelled Interest Repayment – they should show in the Amount column as being in brackets, ie you paid the money.
Sorry but it’s much harder if you had more than one loan at once especially if the last loan wasn’t repaid. But the general approach that you borrowed the Principal Deposit lines and the interest is the Interest Repayment lines is still correct. It’s just difficult to “This happened to loan one, this happened to loans 2.”
Aida says
Thank you Sara. If I accept their offer, can ombudsman still have a look at the ones payday UK couldn’t decide if it was unavailable?
Claire says
Hi when does the 8 weeks start? Is it from my initial request for statements or when I send in a letter of complaint or when they acknowledge the complaint?
Acee says
Yeah it’s from your initial request for statements.
Mary strang says
I got this email today. Not sure how long it will take them to pay out but an delighted with the outcome thanks so much :
Accordingly, to settle your complaint and to provide full redress we propose that we refund all interest paid throughout the time of your first account, and write off all interest on your outstanding balance (£215.19), and repay all the interest that you have paid from the 12th August 2016, plus 8% simple interest per year. You have repaid interest to the amount of £1914.35 as per the previously mentioned. The 8% simple interest a year on interest repayments made equates to £112.99. In line with HMRC guidelines we will deduct 20% (£22.59) of the simple interest and pay it directly to HMRC, meaning that you will not have to declare this redress in your tax returns. FOS standard recommendation to deduct your principal outstanding balance (£940) from this redress. Your principal outstanding balance is monies that you have been in direct receipt of without any interest or charges added. This will clear your outstanding balance and allow us to close your account, discharging your liability with SafetyNet Credit, and leave an amount payable directly to you of £1064.75. Any adverse markers in relation to this SafetyNet Credit account will also be removed from your credit file
Gary says
Good result ????????????????????????
Brian says
Response from wonga today stating they will uphold my complaint but only offering refund on 5 loans from 2014 and nothing from the other 39 over the past 3 years!
Total interest paid is just under £5k and they have offered £850 plus 8% interested and advised final offer.
Should I send this to ombudsman?
Steve says
Absolutely! Nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Gary says
247 moneybox did not uphold my complaint but agreed to wipe my remaining balance of £250 as goodwill, I’ll take that ???????? Merry Xmas ????????
M M says
To anyone who was considering a claim with The Money Shop, I strongly recommend it! I got a final response yesterday from them albeit it took them 15 weeks. They were not able to consider loans before 2007 which is fair enough, but agreed to pay out on all the rest which were all between 2007 and 2010. No fuss, no requesting bank statements, no ombundsman needed and with the 8% interest, I will be receiving just short of £4k after tax! All from one email that took less than 10 minutes to write!
Still need to take QQ to FOS but this payout will not hurt one bit. Thanks Sara!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
nice one! Don’t forget you can claim back £200 of the tax that was deducted – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/