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?
Helen says
I’m sure this question has been asked a million times already but I can’t find the answer at the moment.
I had an email on Friday from Wonga saying they will process my refund within 14 working days. How long do they normally take to pay out? DO they wait until the very last day or are they sometimes quicker?
Keith says
Hi Helen
I received mine on the third working day. I was thinking that they would go the whole 14 days too but they didn’t. They were actually pretty helpful all the way through.
Keith
Clairey says
Keith
After accepting their offer did you get comfirmation outlining how and when you would receive your refund..
I have today accepted an offer, but haven’t had any acknowledgment as yet.
Keith says
Hi Clairey
In my case, they sent the offer e-mail, I responded immediately to accept and provide my BACS details and bank statement (as they had changed since I last took a loan with them). I then phoned the next day to make sure they had my e-mail, at which point the lad told me they have and it would take up to 14 working days to action, process and arrange BACS transfer but as I was on the phone to them already they would sent my e-mail straight to the relevant department. 2/3 working days later I got the money. So it might be worth phoning them to make sure they have your e-mail and asking them to forward it to who needs to process it. Otherwise it may sit in an inbox for a while….. I think that might have been why I got mine so quick!
Clairey says
Thank you for your advise I will give them a call.
After reading some of the stories on here my experience has been very good with Wonga so far.. Every response has been straightforward and on time.
1st letter sent – response with in 2hrs
2nd letter sent – acknowledgment
4 weeks up – letter requesting more time.
8 weeks up (to the day) – Response and Offer if compensation.
I hope this continues for you all.. unfortunately we were sucked into this path for what ever reason. My life is completely different now and I have been able to move on..
Good Luck to everyone who makes a claim against these companies ????
Brendan says
14 days, no. sooner
Lauren says
Lending Stream emailed back within a week of my complaint saying they believed they behaved responsibly in approving my loans. When I asked to stop ongoing payments whilst this goes through the Ombudsman, they refused but said they are ready to set up a payment plan for my outstanding balance. Should I go with this? No reply from Sunny, Wonga, 118 118 Money, QuickQuid or Satsuma as yet. I still have outstanding balances with Wonga, 118 118 Money and QuickQuid, shall I email again asking to set up a payment plan with them/ask to stop payments whilst they investigate my complaints?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well first with Lending Stream, how many loans did you have from them? LS reject a lot of good complaints!
You should cancel the CPAs or DDs with your bank to all the lenders you are complaining to – you are not “asking” them about this, you are telling them that the regular payments are unaffordable. It’s fine to make a payment arrangement, but you need to work out how much you can afford to pay all 4 lenders you still owe money to and don’t pay L:S more just because they have asked first. If you aren’t sure, ask StepChange for their help with this, see https://www.stepchange.org/
Lauren says
I have had 4 loans with Lending Stream. 3 that have been settled (all within a short period) and 1 that is still outstanding. I will go into my bank and ask all CPA’s to be cancelled tomorrow until the complaints are sorted either with the companies or the FO. I’ve also messaged StepChange for some advice. Thank you Sara.
Lauren says
After a lot of issues with QuickQuid, they’ve put my outstanding loan into ‘hardship’ until I either resolve my debt issues or I get a final decision from them or the FO. Lending Stream still being very difficult and haven’t yet heard back from 118 118 Money but all automatic payments from my bank have been stopped. Should I be doing anything else?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Those are the essentials to get yourself safe from these lenders. I hope you can now manage without borrowing any more in the next few months? I think it is still worth having the conversation with StepChange, especially if you have other debts as well.
Lee says
Just got round to complaint to myjar and had this response:-
We are sorry that you have felt it necessary to complain to us. We want to address your concerns as soon as we can and as fairly as we can. To assist us to do this, please provide us with the following information:
• Bank statements (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us)
• Payslips (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us)
• Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances (at the time/s you took out your loan/s with us)
We are asking you for this information to support the claims you have made to us in your complaint. This information will assist in our investigations and allow us to ensure you get the most fair outcome once our investigation is concluded. We are happy to discuss this request with you further, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
Do i have to send payslips and bank statements? What should I reply?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can send them if you want, but you don’t have to. Many people don’t want to send such personal information to a payday lender. If you don’t want to, then reply saying you would like them to consider your complaint as it stands and you will be happy to supply any more information to the Financial Ombudsman.
NB the ombudsman never asks for payslips!
Lee says
Hi, thanks or the reply. They ask for pay slips and bank statements, which I’d rather not give, so I’m not going to. But it asks for any additional information, would it be a good idea to write all the loans I had with other companies? Thank you.
Lou says
Hi
Same old question I know but do SNC contact u prior to giving you a pay out or just put it in the bank? Any info would be appreciated.
Acee says
Lou they contacted me and told me they only make payments on a Friday they paid out within 5 days.
Lou says
Hi Acee,
How did they contact u? Was it 5 days from the ombudsman decision? Sorry for all the questions. Any information would be appreciated.
Acee says
Lou they emailed me the same day the Ombudsman contacted me to tell me they had instructed them to refund me in full on 19th December this what part of their email said.
We are writing to confirm that the discussed refund will be processed by the close of business on the 22nd December 2017, with your outstanding balance adjusted to £0 and your account closed, due to internal procedural timeframes.
So they paid out within 3 days.
Scott says
Hi Lou
I’m not too sure as unfortunately I’m not at that stage. I’m in the process of sending statements and evidence to the FO. When your complaint was upheld at adjudicator level was one of the reasons given for it be upheld was that the SNC facility was unaffordable when the account was opened (as its a running credit agreement). Any help would be appreciated.
Scott
Lou says
Hi Scott,
The adjudicator said they should have realised from my credit file and bank statements that I had more PDL’s and that they didn’t do a proper check of the credit file because the one they used didn’t show my other borrowing. But they had access to read only bank account. So they shouldn’t have given me the facility. Hope this helps and if u need anything else answering just let me know and I will try and help u.
Acee says
Contact SNC for an update on when they will process your payment not sure if it will speed things up but may do.
Scott says
Hi Lou
The key here I think is that they have read only and real time transaction data. I put together an essential expenditure budgeting sheet from when the account was opened and gone through my bank statements and highlighted my other credit commitments and other loans obtained for the 3 months leading to them opening an the credit facility. Then for each of the months I have done a simple calculation of Wages from employer minus Essential Expenditure minus Credit Commitments shown on bank statements going out.
Unbelievably this left me in minus figures for 2 months before SNC opened an account. and £30 left in one month!
For any one reading I think a flaw with SNC Calculating disposable income is that I used to take out loans and repay in Cash. As did I used to pay Rent, Council Tax in cash..
Sara does this sound OK
Thanks
Scott
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I think a flaw with SNC Calculating disposable income is that I used to take out loans and repay in Cash.”
oh SNC manage to lend too much to people that didn’t use cash much – they just don’t seem very good at working out what is affordable.
katie says
I have payday loans with payday uk, wonga, quickquid and lending stream. My last wonga loan was wiped off when they had to pay back loads but can I claim for previous loans I had with them?
Qq I had loans in total of 1555 and the interest was 1473 and I’ve paid back 2155 and still owe 690 do you think I have claim with them? I have emailed them and they are looking into it.
I’ve emailed LS and I’m waiting for a reply I have about 6 loans with them and still haven’t paid them off I never would have been able to pay them off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can complain about earlier Wonga loans. You should think of the earlier write of as being “the first part” of your compensation from them. If it was large and there were few previous loans, you may not get much if anything back now. but if you had a lot of loans before then you could still get back a large amount now. Worth a try!
QQ – well you have repaid more than you borrowed so definitely worth a claim. If they only write off the balance, that’s ok, but you may get a small refund as well.
Same with LS – as you still owe them money it is definitely worth a complaint.
Clairey says
Does anyone know if after I have accepted an offer from Wonga will I receive another email. I wasn’t sure if i should contact them via Phone as I havent recieved anything yet. Or will I just receive a payment and if this is the case how long it will take… I received my offer 8.00am this morning
Kerry says
Hi Clairey
Can I ask when you received your offer from wonga and when you put your complaint in so I have an idea of time scales? Thank you
Clairey says
It has been exactly 8 weeks to the day since I sent in my complaint..
Helen says
I accepted an offer on Wonga on Friday via adjudicator and about an hour later I had an email from Wonga telling me that they will process the payment within the next 14 days.
Nick says
Can anyone help? The adjudicator upheld my older than 6 year loans and agreed they should refund all 20 loans. This was because my adjudicator explained to me if I had mittigating circumstances they could look into them. I did.. back in 2012 my husband was critically poorly in intensive care and I took 22 months off work. So in the payday uk case I could proceed. However in all my other loans .. pdexpress, quick quid, epdl and uncle buck.. none if them gave me the option of explaining any circumstances.. so I just presumed I could not claim back over 6 years.
Can I go back even though I have had partial payments from them.for younger loans ? Or I have I missed my chance ? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well, it’s worth a try! Send the cases to the Ombudsman if the lenders refuse.
James says
I stumbled across this website trying to find another pay day loan company to use, read the above and thought I’d give it a crack. I had pay loans with 3 companies from 2012-2017. I referred my complaint from QQ to the ombudsman and I currently owe £150 to them. My account has been frozen with QQ until the complaint is resolved with sounds promising. I received an offer from The Money Shop today for £786 and I worked it out at £247, my maths must be bad! My final complaint with wage day advance is with the ombudsmans after I declined and offer of £400! I would like to say thank you to everyone involved in this website, it’s been a massive help for me and allowed me to turn my financial situation around!
Shannon says
Finally getting somewhere with the FOS since my complaints were logged in August last year. Have had my adjudicators findings regarding WDA. Anyone had any dealings with these at this stage and know if they tend to reply within the allotted time given by the adjudicator?
Linda says
I had a complaint upheld after referral to the FO and WDA were pretty good responding to my adjudicator throughout. The refund didn’t take long after an agreement was reached either. Just over a week I think. Good luck :)
Zoe says
So this morning I got a reply from wageday adavace I had 22 loans from may 2009 to Nov 2013, they have rejected my claim and said that I could afford it and also I am 6 years and 3 years old with the loans and if I go to the FO he might not consider my complaint. Any advice would help if anyone has had any dealings with wageday and would it be worth sending the complaint off.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
the ombudsman is NOT rejecting these complaints over 6 years old but they are likely to be slow. You have nothing to lose by sending the complaint off, so why not? 22 loans is a lot.
Zoe says
Thanks Sara I will send to the ombudsman it’s the first one I will be sending hopefully it’s going to be straightforward enough to for me to understand.
The replies are coming back today I have just received back from payday express full and final response I had 10loans between 6th may 2008 to 14th April 2011 they have agreed 3 loans were lent irresponsibly 3 were lent responsibly and 4 they are unable determine and they have requested I send bank statements and a credit report My offer was on the 3 loans was £1900.
Also had a reply from payday uk today for the 7 loans from May 2008 to Jan 2011 they have agreed 2 loans were lent irresponsibly and offered a refund for £1500 2 loans were lent responsibly and three loans they can’t determine.
I have been advised by payday UK/express that I can sign the agreement for the loans they upheld and get refund and then the ones they couldn’t make a decision on once I send the bank statements and credit report they will look into as separate cases.
Thanks Sara for all your help.
Brad says
QQ made me a good offer whilst the complaint was with FOS. Adjudication hadn’t been decided but they went from saying they did nothing wrong to offering £1700 out of £2k interest
Kara says
Good to know!
tracey says
Payday UK have finally sent me a refund email. However I think the amount is wrong. The final loan was for £900 I paid to installments to a total of £300 and the debt company got £50 from me. In their break down they are removing £806 from my settlement balance…. Shouldn’t it be £550?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I agree that it should be £550 – that is assuming that they are refunding the last defaulted loan…
tracey says
Yes last loan was also refunded. I’ve sent them an email back. Nice try I’m thinking.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
One thought, some firms do this a confusing way where they count the interest that was added to the last loan as being refunded and then use this bigger refund to pay off the balance including the interest. Let’s see what they come back with.
tracey says
I have done the calculations. From what I can see they owe me £700 plus interest not including the final loan. They deducted £800 from the final balance leaving a refund of £100. So they said £900 refund minus £800. But for the final loan I paid £150,£150, £60, £50 and £50…. So their numbers still don’t make sense. I think they haven’t counted my final loan payments except the two £50 I paid to the debt collection company.
Ben says
Got some good news today,
Firstly my Sunny complaint was upheld in full, they fully agreed with the Adjucater’s decision of a refund (about £240)
And my Wonga complaint has now got a final decision from the Ombudsman, refund of some of the loans interest minus what I owe them, I think after 20% tax thats about £1100
Now I got to see how quickly Sunny & Wonga can process my refunds.
Liam says
Hi Sara,
I hope you are well and had a good new year, i was in touch with you last year on here and complained to all my lenders regarding irresponsible lending. They have all now come back saying they haven’t done anything wrong etc etc and i have reported them all the Ombudsman. Yesterday i received a lot of Acknowledgement Letters from the Ombudsman asking for Correspondence with the business, Bank Statements and my Credit Report.
I am now in the process of getting the required information but i have noticed i have defaults on my Credit Report which should be there but i wasn’t aware of.
My question is should i mention this to the Ombudsman and does me having these Defaults on my file help my cases when i was taking other loans out after the default date?
Many Thanks,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The defaults support your argument that you were in financial difficulty and if they were recent when you took out payday loans, the lenders should have noticed them if they did a credit check.
A default a couple of years before a payday loan wouldn’t be regarded as that serious – payday loans are after all aimed at people who don’t have perfect credit scores – but a default in the 3-6 months before a loan should have been a warning bell.
gillian says
hi sara just a update on my payday uk loans i sent a complaint 9 weeks ago last week they replied that they have not completed the investigation but i could forward it to ombudsman if i wanted thought i would give them a couple more weeks i just recieved a email saying they upheld 7 loans from 2011 to 2014 but not the 6 from 2015 to 2017 all these were 3 to 6 month loans so borrowing constantly the good news is they have offered 2990 pound and 4 pence refund i am willing to except this as i do take some responsibility for borrowing and am very happy with what amounts to about 60 percent refund so thank you again sara that is 6000 from quickquid because they took it to the final stages of ombudsman and 6000 from lending stream they to took to ombudsman still waiting on them to reply to adjudicater i think payday uk have been very fair to deal with ty
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds good. You know enough about these complaints to know that you could go to the Ombudsman for the more recent loans, but if you think the offer is fair – especially as payday UK have been easy to deal with – that is great.
tatty says
Hello All
First of all, happy new year, i’ve posted here before, but i was wondering if someone can help me out , i have a complaint lodged with safety net credit, which was lodged with them towards the end of November 2017, apart from the original email i had acknowledging my complaint, and i phone call i had in december* it has now been 5 weeks since i have done this but i have not heard how the procedure is going, not even by letter.
It did state in the email that i had,”You should expect a final response within a time period of 4 weeks from today. In some cases this period can be extended to 8 weeks, for example if it takes a little longer than anticipated to gather all the required information. In such circumstances where an extension is necessary, you will be informed via e-mail” .
*But as of the time of writing this, the only contact i have had with them is for me to say that i would not be able to pay the last lot of money i owed to them, which was last month.
Will this scupper my chances of the complaint being successful, in regards to me owing them money- or should that not matter?, should i contact them within the next few days to see what stage my complaint is at or wait for the full 8 weeks?
Scott says
Hi Tatty
SNC rejected my complaint at 5pm at exactly week 8. Although this was because I chased. Throughout I chased about 3 times via telephone and the call handlers always said the scripted response i.e at week 3 ‘Wait to Week 4’ , at Week 5 ‘Wait to week 8 but its usually before’ and at week 8 to the day “Should get a response today…but the complaints team are in a different department and we cant phone them’.
The lack of communication through out from SNC frustrated me!
Hope u get the response you are hoping for soon
tatty says
Hello Scott
And thanks for the reply, i have had a few dealings with banks before, but i’ve got to say that safety net are pretty dire so far, but as the weeks tick by i am starting to feel i will not get a decision in my favour.
Just wondering Scott, did you take it further?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
People absolutely should take any rejections or poor offers from SNC to the Ombudsman. Do not assume that SNC are right if they make it sound as though you have a poor case!
Caroline says
I’ve just made a complaint to Lending Stream using your template. I have had 26 loans over the past 3 years – I have also been in a DMP, although thankfully next month will be my final payment on this. While I’ve not defaulted on any of the loans, nearly all of the loans rolled over each month, and in some cases I took out more than 1 at a time to make ends meet. I only have 1 loan outstanding with Lending Stream now, but I’ve read that a few people are having issues with responses from them. I will wait a few weeks and see what response I get from them before taking it to the FO. Wish me luck!
JohnC says
Don’t expect anything quickly with LS. They have been ridiculously slow in responding to me and then the FOS. My complaint went into the FOS end of Sept and still not even been picked up by am adjudicator yet
Caroline says
I have had a response from Lending Stream, was much quicker than I was expecting given some of the comments from people here. Unsurprisingly they have rejected my claim though and said they believe I could afford the repayments. Given the amount of loans taken out each month, and my credit score (due to being in a DMP) I disagree with this. The last payment on the DMP is this month, so I am passing this over to the Ombudsman now.
Davy says
Very similar circumstances to me Caroline. Been in a DMP from 2013 and got the first of 45 loans from LS in 2015. Be prepared for the fantastic credit score (mine was 785) that they saw when checking you. Obviously complete fabrication. From when I started my DMP in 2013 LS were the only company that touched me with a barge pole and I applied to many. I have until the end of February then if we don’t reach an agreement, off. It goes to Ombudsman.
Caroline says
They said my credit score was around 550, and they said “the loans were approved to you as your credit scores reflected that your financial circumstances were in good standing.”
I was in a DMP and taking out frequent pay day loans, how was my financial circumstance in good standing?!?
Tim says
Hoping someone can help. Back in 2016 i had complaints with most of the bigger companies. At the time my mental stability was not good and I stupidly settled for some very low offers as I was still in debt. As my 6 months has lapsed some of them will not allow me to pursue through fos. Am I able to go through small claims or is there an easier route? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I am sorry to hear this. The problem here seems likely to be that you accepted an offer in full and final settlement of your complaint – not that it was over 6 months ago. Because you accepted a low offer you are likely to not be able to win a court case.
There is a small exeception if you think a lender’s reply to you was actually wrong or misleading, not just too low. So if the lender said you had 6 loans whereas actually you had a lot more than that. Or if the lender failed to tell you that you had the right to take your case to the Ombudsman. If something like this happened, I suggest you go to the Ombudsman and say you were misled and that you didn’t take this up earlier because of your mental health – it may help if you can provide some medical evidence of this.
Jon says
I ordered 4 years worth of bank statements over Xmas. The bank were really cagey about providing them.
Anyway they’ve not turned up in the post. So I’m behind with my letters.
My loan payments are in 2 days time. So my plan was to get my continuous payment authorities stopped today and to get the emails sent off to Wonga/Sunny/Lending Stream tonight.
If I’ve not got the exact details of the loans, but a rough idea of borrowing. Am I still able to get the letters off?
My concern is that I need to cancel the CPA, but I wanted to at least have them all in receipt of my complaint first.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Cancel the CPAs immediately, today preferably.
Then put in the complaints with a rough idea of the borrowing.
Then, when you get the bank statements, go back and provide more information if you think it will help.
Davy says
I cancelled my CPA at the bank with Lending Stream last month (was due to have £200 out my account on 01/01/18) Told them I could only afford £50 a month until they made a decision on my case. They agreed without even asking for an income and expenditure outlay, which surely strengthens my case against them. Have now set up a monthly standing order to pay them until I have an outcome!
Daz says
Hi
I had loans with wonga 32 in total from 2012 to 2016, I have got to the ombudsman stage and the adjudicator has upheld my complaint and told wonga to refund all the interest accrued plus 8%. They have by 24th Jan to reply, but reading on here sounds like they will ignore this. What happens now do I just sit back and wait. The adjucator has said that the ombudsman is highly likely to agree with the adjudicators decision I assume to try and prevent any delays.
Marty says
They are ignoring adjudicator decisions at this point. Well they have mine anyway. They had to 12th december to reply to my adjudicator and didnt. It has now been passed to an actual ombudsman and I think I might be back in for a long wait for this decision. I have no idea if they can come back to agree with adjuicator to allow this to be resolved at this point still or it has to go the distance now. Sorry Daz but I was in your position about 8 weeks ago really happy with adjudicator decision and potential resolution before Christmas and now I feel as if I am back to square one. There should be some penalty to companies that dont comply to prevent this from being allowed to happen.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have no idea if they can come back to agree with adjudicator to allow this to be resolved at this point still”
Yes they can, and this happens quite often.
“now I feel as if I am back to square one”
No you aren’t – you know that the adjudicator thought you should get a good refund and that is a promising sign!
Zoe says
Evening Sara, I have a quick question regarding payday express and payday uk with the loans that they couldnt make a decision on ans requesting more information bank statements and credit report, what do you advise? Thanks
Steve says
You don’t have to send anything and can just forward these on to the FOS, especially if you disagree with some of those that they claim were lent responsibly. Having said that, I put mine into FOS queue then sent Payday UK the requested statements and credit report and they upheld the full complaint with £600 refund + £200 interest. Easy enough to phone FOS after that and say that you’ve settled the claim and don’t need to pursue it further.
Acee says
My advice is to do it Zoe, PDUK and Payday Express both initially refunded me over £1000 each and said they would look at some loans again that they couldn’t decide on if I sent bank statements I sent mine and Payday express paid out on the ones they previously couldn’t decide on so there was no need to involve the Ombudsman but PDUK rejected my complaint after sending bank statements so sent that to the Ombudsman and PDUK have agreed to refund me £1800 so you have nothing to lose.
ABB says
Hi all,
Would anyone be able to advise on how long the following companies generally take to supply responses to complaints.
Wonga
Cash ASAP
PDUK
Cash Float
Safety Net Credit
Satsuma
Wage Day Advance
Trusted Quid
Lending Stream
My Jar
Thank you in advance
ABB says
Also Sunny :)
Alison says
Hi there
I complained to Wonga/Provident/Myjar/Sunny in November. Also Mr Lender & Lending Stream. I have not pursued the latter 2 as it appeared I only had 1 off loans.
Wonga left it till 2 days before the 8 week was up to say no, and Provident still keep asking for a further 2 weeks – both have gone to the FO. Sunny were the quickest and gave their response within about 5 weeks. It was a small ‘rollover’ loan which I was not due monies back – but they cleared the balance and updated my credit report. MyJar took the full 8 weeks and again was not a huge amount but a ‘rolling’ loan. Once they wipe my balance im due £109. Its not a great deal but it will be removed from my credit report and help with my credit score. I have to say both Sunny & MyJar have been good throughout the whole complaint process – very easy to deal with.
Good luck with yours. :)
Beaker77 says
Hi sara
I have a question regarding my partners loans with Wonga, she defaulted on her final payment as she had lost her employment. There was £900 outstanding (including interest) on a £750 loan – wonga took a payment of £400 in respect of this loan and then due to default and extra charges applied the final amount owed was £810. She was under a support worker to assist with anxiety and help her get back on track with challenging finances along with overall health issues. Her support worker wrote to Wonga and explained her situation and they agreed to halt any further interest and charges. There are numerous loans from 2012- 2013 (we are waiting for wonga to provide a statement of loans). Eventually wonga wrote to her and said that they wiping off any debt and recording the account as settled this was in November 2014. Is it still possible to pursue an affordability claim now as I don’t believe they fully refund monies owing in respect of the interest paid. From some of the limited information i have, it looks like a minimum of £1250 in interest paid.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I always suggest people think of a previous Wonga write off as being the “first instalment” of a refund they could get now.
If the loan that was written off was for £750 borrowed and she had paid £400 towards it, then the amount actually written off by Wonga (ignoring the interest they added) was only £350.
If she had paid more then £1250 interest on the previous loans (I can’t tell if that figure includes anything for the last loan) then that is a LOT more than the £350 write off so yes, it is well worth making a complaint now.
Beaker77 says
Thanks Sara
I have received the statement from Wonga – I factored out the last loan and the payment towards that and looked at the interest on all of the other loans – this came to £1097, when deducting the payments made on the last loan against the initial amount Wonga refunded £378 as their settlement.
I have a copy of the original email sent from wonga in respect of the clearing balance of the final loan and there is no reference at all to the financial ombudsman in that email.
I am about to put the affordability letter together, have you got any wording I can add to the template you have supplied that suggests their balance clearance was the first installment
Sara (Debt Camel) says
something like “In 2015 you wrote off the remaining balance on my last loan, but I would like a refund for the interest i paid on the previous loans.” You don’t have to give numbers.
Ashleigh says
Hi,
can anyone help finally my adjudicator has said Wonga should refund all but 1 loan ( 8 in total) hes sent them his paperwork how long do they normally take to reply with an offer and also does anyone know there payment timescale?
Thanks
Maureen says
I have finally had an adjudicator decision on my Payday UK claim including loans over 6 years, they have upheld my complaint on loans 9-16, mainly due to old bank statements just having a transaction history and not showing full details of other lenders repayments by name which is disappointing but hey nothing I can do about it if the bank tell me that’s all they can get. Anyway, even those 7 loans which were each rolled over a few times should be around £4K. My questions is, does anyone know if they respond to adjudicators within the 14 days to agree or disagree or do they delay it?
Ben says
Does any one how long Sunny takes to process a refund? They agreed with my adjuacter last thursday, and then amended their offer to include tax on Tuesday of this week, so since then I’ve been trying to contact them to ask how long should I wait but no response to the emails I’ve sent and can’t get through to their complaints team via Elevate Credit, almost seems like they have a single person handling their complaints.
Vicky says
Sunny has just agreed with the adjudicators decision so I have sent my bank details today I haven’t heard anything back did they send you a confirmation email or anything to say they had agreed with your adjudicator, mine said it will take upto 4 weeks for a refund
Benjamin Broad says
I haven’t had much communication with Sunny recently. I was speaking to my Adjucater who said they agreed with him and they will be in contact. The Adjucater took my bank details so Sunny should have all they need for my refund.
Vicky says
I rang sunny on their complaint phone number they said they have received my bank details and the refund should be here within 3-5 working days
Acee says
Another great result already had £1100 redress from PDUK but they later rejected the loans they previously couldn’t decide on so I sent those to the Ombudsman and they have advised PDUK to refund me £1800 and PDUK have agreed to refund me today so I will have had £2900 in total from them. The adjudicator has also partially upheld my Wonga complaint which will be around £1000. In total this site has saved me around £10,000 I still have complaints with Lending Stream 247moneybox and Sunny and instead of my DMP which started in August 2017 ending in January 2019 with a bit of negotiating I could be debt free at the end of this month or at the very latest next month this site is literally a life saver thank you so much.
Claire says
Hi, Just discussing a settlement with Mr LEnder – they have offered to pay loans 4-6 of 6 and i have gone back asking for them to include the 3rd.
Just wanted to clarify as i have seen it mentioned on here – do i have to pay tax on this refund?! surely it is money that belongs to me and i have already paid tax on? Do Mr lender have a right to deduct that?
Also if they are claiming it is a good will gesture and not a refund, can i still ask them to remove the record from my file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If 8% extra interest is added this is taxable, but the refund itself is, as you say, your own money and there is no tax.
Yes you can ask them to remove either the whole record or any defaults/ late payments markers from your credit record. If the loan was more than a year ago and it was repaid on time, it isn’t doing your creditor record any harm.
LS007 says
I remember many moons ago when these legal loan sharks caused a lot of grief. Some of them never even wanted to listen or help when one started to struggle and got caught in the viscous cycle of bad credit. Part of me blames the mainstream credit industry for ignoring the not so perfect credit peeps and of course these people had nowhere to go if they needed credit. Then along came the payday loan companies.
They spotted the gap in the market and pounced.
Fast forward 5 years and one by one I’m now taking them on, with help from websites like this and of course the FOS, and they don’t like it. They hide under the jurisdiction of responsible lenders, some directors even have positions in boardrooms within the regulatory credit industry and organisations. Stick with it people and never give in.
I know it may feel like you’re trying to get blood from a stone but it will be worth it in the end. Just remember the times they wiped your bank account clean or bombarded you with phone calls, letters and the veiled threats
Tom f says
I rang up lending stream two nights in a row to see if they recieved my letter of debt issues for 2 current loans. I told them both times of my money issues. They said no emsil recieved. On third day, I logged on site to check messages, had a new loan offer of 960 (already had 200 and 190) so now have over 1300 with them. I’ve used the money Borrowed to repay 2 months rent arrears in a panic. I’ve messed up!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well it could be a lot worse, you could have gone and spent the 960, at least you have cleared some rent arrears…
Do you have a record on your system of the email you sent them about your problems with the first two loans?
Tom f says
I have the interest history of the page being submitted, and the call logs for the 2 times I rang, each call was around 15 minutes long.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s good. 960 is a huge jump from the previous two loans of 190 and 200 … had you had other loans from LS before this?
Tom f says
No lending before this from them. I didn’t apply as such, I logged in to see it I was getting a responce to my message and it had a banner saying I am able to take out a further 960 in a third loan.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, then this is what I suggest that you do:
1) cancel the CPA with your bank that lets Lending Stream take repayments from your account
2) put in a complaint to Lending Stream saying –
“I had two loans from you for £200 and £190 . I was in bad financial trouble with rent arrears and other bills that I couldn’t pay. I asked you on x for a payment plan – I attach a screen shot of this.
You didn’t contact me. I was so worried I called you up on x and asked about a payment plan and was told you hadn’t had my message. I called again the next day and again you said you hadn’t had my message.
On x I logged into my account hoping you would have sent me a reply but all I saw was a large message offering me a £960 loan. I was so stressed and scared I took this loan and have cleared some rent arrears. But I can’t afford to pay any of the three loans I now have from you.
I want to complain that you should not have ignored my request for a payment plan and you have given me a loan you will have known from my message and phone calls that was unaffordable.
If you never had the request, why didn’t you offer a repayment plan when I twice phoned up about this?
It was irresponsible to offer to lend me any more money when I had told you I was in trouble three times, let alone such a huge amount as £960.
I would like you to:
– remove the interest that you have added onto the last loan;
– set up a repayment plan with me for the three loans that I have and not add any more interest or charges.”
Add in dates, loan numbers, details of your other financial problems etc to that.
3) Have you now cleared all your rent arrears? If you still have rent arrears I suggest you go to your local Citizens Advice as you need urgent help. If all these priority debts are under control and you “only” have other loans, credit cards etc, then I suggest you phone StepChange who can set up a debt management plan for you that will include the Lending Stream loans.
Michelle Farley says
Hi Sara found this website by accident and it’s really great. A couple of questions are loans from myjar/moneyshop/everyday lending in this category even if the original terms of the loans meant repayments were spread over 2/3/6/and 12 months?
I was already in a DMP when some of my loans were granted and prior to that my credit history wasn’t the best. While I do earn a decent wage most of my problems have been through online gambling and Myjar and Everyday saw my bank statements prior to loans being granted. Should I mention the gambling as they should have noticed the pattern.
Would I still be able to claim under irresponsible criteria? With Money Shop I did have missed payments but still was granted loans after repayment. I currently have loans with Money Shop and Myjar after paying of 3 in November.
Am talking to someone re my Gambling but just need to get out from the mess.
Many thanks
Michelle
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What you need to do now, in order, is:
1) cancel the CPAs to the Money Shop and Myjar.
2) ask your DMP firm to include these loans in your DMP.
3) get serious about tackling your gambling. Making payday loan complaints now isn’t going to help you unless you have stopped, it will just give you a fun couple of weeks gambling but leave you with the same debt problem… read https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling/ and put blocking software on your PC and mobile. Also sign up to CIFAS.
4) in a few months come back to the irresponsible lending complaints.
Michelle Farley says
Thank you Sara. I am a bit worried in asking my DMP firm to include as we know I shouldn’t have taken credit out and I don’t want to be penalised. Years ago I was with Stepchange and hadn’t included a store card as partner was paying it but when he stopped and I informed them they refused to work with me any more so I went to PayPlan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
StepChange have agreed to include payday loans in these sorts of situations – it’s well worth asking Payplan about this. Also tell them about your gambling and what you are doing to tackle it.
Michelle Farley says
Sara I have just spoken to my banknand they cant cancel the CPA’s as the first payments havent come out yet. Can I cancel them with the companies concerned
Many thanks
Michelle
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes tell the companies that you can’t afford the repayments, they will leave you in hardship and you need a repayment plan for the loans.
BUT ALSO read https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/banking/stopping-a-future-payment-on-your-debit-or-credit-card/. As that says:
“If the person you speak to says you can’t stop the payments, ask to speak to someone more senior. If they still won’t stop the payments, ask them to put a record of the call on your account so you can refer to it later if you need to. Make sure you keep a note of the date, time and who you spoke to as well, in case you need to make a complaint.”
Vikki says
Hi i had least ten pay day or more plus log book loan ,loans all different companies i have had response from 24/7 saying they will write off debt last loan .payout from pay day express pay day uk said all was done correct So no redress and wonga says the same should i go to ombudsman with all rejected thankyou
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you borrowed more than once from a lender OR you still owe them money, yes I suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman to look at.
And send the logbook loan one as well – they always reject all complaints.
Ben says
Does any one know if a debt has been forwarded to a debt collection company (BW legal) do I need to go to them instead of Payday Express. From reading up on various sites there seems to be differing opinions on who is responsible .i.e the original lender or Debt collection agency. I think the act that was quoted was Section 189 of the Credit Consumer act.
Lisa says
I believe you go to PDE as they are the firm who initiated the borrowing.
Claire says
Hi Sara,
I had a car loan with advantage finance that I have put in a claim against – at the time no one else would even lend me 500 and they gave me £3.5k at very high interest.
Since putting in the complaint they have sent me an email and a txt asking if I wanted to upgrade my car and take a new loan.
I have complained about this and they have offered me £50 compensation… I just wanted to check whether it is safe to accept this or if it would affect my claim in any way?
Thanks, c
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How about replying “I am happy to accept the £50 offered as compensation for your recent inappropriate marketing. I look forward to receiving your reply to my affordability complaint that I sent on dd/mm/yy”
Ron says
Hi,
Has anyone had any luck with 118-118 loans?
Only had one large loan with them but at the time I had 6-7 payday loans. Just seeing if it’s worth putting in a complaint.
Steve says
I had almost exactly the same sort of case. 1k loan of which I’d paid off £1,024 when I put in complaint. Had about 7 payday loans at time. Took the full 8 weeks but 118 agreed that shouldn’t have lent to me and wrote off remaining interest and refunded the £24 I repaid over the initial capital. Definitely go for it and tailor the template slightly.
Mike says
Hi,
Just wanted to express my gratitude for the information and advice on your site. I have just accepted a £3000 settlement from Wonga on what I had calculated as a maximum settlement of £3850. Obviously delighted with that outcome!
I have also referred a complaint to the FO regarding Payday UK after they offered £1200, I calculated it at closer to £3k. Incidentally Payday Uk would appear to think that it is reasonable practise to rollover a loan for 9 months and then process another loan the following month!
All I can say is that I am glad that my health has now improved and I am no longer putting myself in that kind of position to be taken advantage of anymore.
Bakey says
Does anyone know if The Money Shop negotiate? They took 14 weeks to respond to my original complaint but offered me 1/3 of what I have calculated a refund could be – even without the 8% added.
Their response wasn’t a full and final one and they invited my response and so I countered with a breakdown of what I thought was a fair refund amount and why. Just wondering if it is likely they will offer something again? It is already in the FOS queue so I am happy to let that process continue.
Thanks for any help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They didn’t used to, but other brands from the same company (payday Uk and payday express) are now more approachable so it will be interesting to see hoe the Money Shop respond.
Benjamin Broad says
Quick Question,
How quick do Sunny refund?
As Sunny accepted the Adjudicator’s recommendations to settle my complaint on thurs 4th Jan and then i got another email from the adjudicator on Tuesday 9th saying Sunny made a mistake in their offer they didn’t take tax from the refund amount.
So the adjudicator said on Tuesday they will be in touch but since then no emails from them and trying to call is no use
Vicky says
Ring sunny on their complaints phone number, I rang to see if they had received my bank details they said the refund should take 3-5 working days so hopefully receive it soon
Village Idiot says
Hi, here’s my dilemma: I currently owe Wonga £1400, in theory plus interest all the way up to £2800, but I can’t be sure, communication has been that poor. I think interest is frozen. I agreed a very low payment plan a few months ago, made one payment and then stopped, Wonga have never been in touch and when logging in you get to what looks like a dormant or frozen account. It has obviously not gone to a DCA, it’s like they have forgotten me. It does not seem to feature on my credit report either, not even under ‘short term lending’.
Wonga have definitely lent irresponsibly to me, and I have borrowed irresponsibly from them too but I guess that’s not the point. I am confident I would be able to show that they lent to me repeatedly, month after month, while I had mortgage arrears and other issues, whilst I had other payday loans and would borrow just days after repaying a previous loan. A while ago they wrote off one loan I couldn’t pay (because they decided to no longer offer that product, they said) and STILL later started to lend to me again!
The dilemma comes about because of a few things, one is that generally, I was actually a good payer, regularly paid off early (my partner is self employed and gets paid daily) so can I really claim I should have looked like I was someone that it was irresponsible to lend to? Another is that I know that when I answered the questions about income I put down my income and then half our mortgage etc – the other half being paid by my partner – and so will probably have looked like someone with some disposable income, safe to lend to (and yet there should have been those alarm bells for them about mortgage arrears etc! Above all though, there is the worry about poking the hornets nest with it being so quiet from Wonga. There is, though, the prospect of a serious payout, I must have had 30 or so loans over 6 years and often over a £1000 a time, though I did work to keep the interest down each time by repaying bits at every opportunity – very few loans went to the intended term – it will still have really added up.
What do people think?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Just because you aren’t being harrassed at the moment, doesn’t mean that the defaulted loan won’t be sold to a debt collector. People are being taken to court for CCJs for unpaid payday loans…
Mortgage arrears should have been a HUGE red warning flag to Wonga – and to everyone else you have borrowed from. Paying off a loan early doesn’t stop you winning a complaint if as you say “they lent to me repeatedly, month after month, while I had mortgage arrears and other issues, whilst I had other payday loans and would borrow just days after repaying a previous loan.”
I suggest you put in an affordability complaint to Wonga and to every other payday lender you used. And also think about Vanquis, Provident and other lenders as well.
James says
Hi,
Just curious has anyone ever gotten a refund offer straight from wonga, sunny or Myjar without the need of an ombudsman?
Linda says
Hi James I got an offer from MyJar without FO involvement it was only for a small amount though but they upheld my complaint and paid paid the interest really quickly . I also got an offer from Sunny but that again was for a small amount and they called it a ‘goodwill gesture’ from memory, it wasn’t far off the interest etc so I accepted. Wonga were a different matter I had to refer that one but they accepted the adjudicators decision and didn’t mess about too much although they were allowed a bit of extra response time by the FO due to the amount of complaints. Hope this helps
Clairey says
Yes I got a response from Wonga after 8 weeks with an offer of compensation. Very straightforward compared to others on here.. I was really surprised that I didn’t need them take it to the fos like everyone else has seemed to..
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The thing is, you hear a lot more about the ones that go to the Ombudsman because people post about them over a long time – ones that get settled directly are often just one or two comments. Yes, people get good offers from Wonga, Sunny and Myjar directly. They also get poor offers or rejections for good cases.
So cross your fingers and hope some of yours go well, but don’t be disheartened if they don’t.
Russell Ellcome says
Hi,
Has anyone had a reply from FOS regarding Myjar? I have just received a reply stating that Myjar are not covered by the FOS system therefore they cannot help.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this response?
Thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How long ago were the loans?
Shannon says
I logged a complaint with FOS against MyJar and it has been investigated by an adjudicator. My loans were from June 2016 to July 2017. I put the company name when I complained as MyJar limited. So they are definitely covered by them.
Russ says
Less than 6 years ago. It was actually loans through “TxtLoan” who are part of Myjar so i’m really not sure where to go with this one.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you go back to the case worker and say you would like this looked at again. Point out there are Ombudsman decisions for MYJAR trading as Txtloan at a date where Txtloan Ltd was no longer an authorised entity and Myjar settled the complaint. Say the same should apply to Txtloans.
Michelle Farley says
Sara I have started what you suggested earlier. Cancelled CPA’s and had interested frozen so potential amount owed now a lot less, booked a review with my DMP company and contacted GA, closed my online gaming accounts and installed Qustodio on my computer.
Getting paperwork together to eventually claim. 1 question are Everday Loans (everyday lending) one of those companies that fall under this.
Many thanks
Michelle
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds like good progress!
Everyday loans aren’t a payday lender but they provide very expensive loans for bad credit customers. You can make an affordability complaint about them – they are like 118 Money and people have won lots of complaints against them.
Claire says
Oh I was wondering about this as well as they consolidated most of my loans so I was in a better position each month (but a lot worse off long term)….. so is it still worth processing a complaint for them?
That is VERY exciting!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely worth a complaint. You can use the standard letter but adapt it to remove references to ‘payday’, repeat borrowing, spiral of debt etc and make it clear you only had the one loan from them. It’s worth checking your credit record to find details of the recent problems (not ones years before) that would have show that Everyday loans should have noticed.
It’s harder to win a “one loan” complaint but because these loans were much bigger, the lender should have made more careful checks beforehand.
Claire says
I actually had 2 loans with them. They paid all my other loans off directly the first time around.
The second time the only paid a few of them off meaning install had multiple payments to make each month.
They were certainly aware of the other debts and did a sit down appointment to discuss them but as they paid them off I didn’t realise you could still claim against them as on a monthly basis they helped the situation? Long term was trapped though.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They may have saved you money each month, but was the resulting loan affordable? SO with the first one, they cleared your payday loan debts, why did you then need to borrow again?
Perhaps they should have seen that the new loan repayments weren’t affordable before they made that first loan.
In any case, when you approached them for a second loan, they should have realised that the first one had not gone well and wondered why? And why the second time did they not consolidate everything, were they sure you could afford the second loan plus the unconsolidated debts?
Ben says
What are the chances of getting anything from the cheque centre, I believe they are in administration?
After going through my accounts, I have figured I have paid nearly £10,000 to them between 2010-2012.
Thanks.
Gail says
It’s unlikely you will get anywhere near what you should be owed. I am in the same situation and completed a claim form to the administrators who have advised the most I am likely to get is 5 pence in the pound and this will be much later this year. So around £500 for me from a £11,500 claim !!!
Jayne says
Hi,
I had 6 loans with WONGA 2012-2013
10 loans with payday uk 2012-2013
I have written letters to both company’s from the draft letter on here and have had acknowledgment back they are investigated and I will have a reply within 8 weeks.
Do you think I will get a refund ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well worth complaining about! Good luck.
Dan says
Hi Sara, with one-off loans, you often say the lender should’ve completed more checks, when do you think this would kick in, £500, £1000, £2000, £5000? I know it wouldn’t be quite that specific but I agreed a £1000 loan with likely loans and then increased it the same day to £2000, after the first had been approved, they seem to have made no additional checks – case is with an adjudicator but is taking some time as it more ‘complicated’ – winning this could make the difference of us moving from a 2 bed house, with three under five year olds – that would be most welcomed!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No specific amount, sorry. The fundamentals are the same as for all affordability – could you afford the monthly repayments without borrowing more? If no, should the lender have realised that? Things which can matter in these sorts of complaints include:
– recent (preferably in last 6 months, a year at the most) credit problems on your credit record
– any discrepancies between your credit record and your application. If they can see more borrowing on your credit record than you put down as outgoings, they should have looked much more closely (NB I’m not saying you lied, people get figures on applications wrong for all sorts of reasons, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/)
– where you applied for a top up, were you asked why? Did this make sense in terms of the reason you put for the original application?
Scott says
Has anyone ever won a payday loan refund from my jar? I got a response saying they need another 4 weeks to look into, even tho it’s been 4 weeks.
Linda says
Hi MyJar took the full 8 weeks for me which is what they’re allowed but got back to me and I had a small refund.
Justin says
thanks for all the help and advise so far Payday UK & Payday Express have just emailed me back advising with the same letter/response that all loans were lent responsibly and the loans they couldn’t agree on i need to send them bank statements well i can’t do this as my statements online only go back to 2011 and they want infomation from 2010. They have advised that i can send this to the Financial Ombudsman Service to look into any furthe advise please?
Steve says
I had similar letter and sent them bank statements. They found they were all irresponsible and offered refund. I’d suggest putting complaint into FOS now, then it’s in the queue. You’ll need these statements for FOS anyway, so no harm sending them to Payday UK/Express, if you wish, once you have them, and can always withdraw complaint if they do make a satisfactory offer. If there are loans that they have deemed responsibly lent, that you’re not happy with though, then just send it all to FOS and don’t bother with statements to PDUK/Express as they won’t review those loans.
Linda says
Hi I had a complaint with Payday UK and received a similar email. However I refused to send them bank statements and asked them to investigate the complaint using the information they had on file and anything else I had sent to them, I also stated I would make statements available to this FO if requested. I heard nothing back so referred to the FO at the 8 weeks and emailed and told them. They wrote to me again just after I referred it and upheld my complaint no statements submitted. They dont do this in all cases from what Im reading on here so I was lucky but the bank statement bit is a stalling tactic in my opinion. I’ve submitted a few complaints and other companies do it too. Id refer it to the FO now as Steve says so you’re in the queue. Being in the queue for the Ombudsman bides you a bit more time to get your statements ready if the FO request them which they probably will as I had to send them for my other complaaints.
Russ says
Has anyone else had a response from Lending Stream that seems to be a letter stating that the letter is a final response but in fact isn’t?!? I have had 3 mails from them now which gives their outcome to my complaint but no suggestion i can go to FOS etc so i sent the letter in with my FOS complaint and got a message back from FOS stating they have 8 weeks to respond with a FRL.
It seems strange as the letter clearly refuses to accept they lent irresponsibly and offers no further way forward. I have sent them another mail asking for them to confirm if this is a FRL so will wait and see what they say but was keen to hear what others have experienced with this lot.
Davy says
Yeah, they tend to give a bog standard reply of “we don’t consider we mis sold to you and your credit score was in the high 700s” They never tell you if that is their final response. I have emailed them twice and got the same response twice. I am happy to wait the full 8 weeks then send direct to Ombudsman. I will not ask them to look again. On the 1st March I will be forwarding straight to Ombudsman
Julze says
Sent away my acceptance offer for payday uk…
£1275..
Also sent away the requested bank statements for the other loans they couldn’t determine.. received a reply, that they have been passed to my case handler and should hear within 2 weeks..
Fingers and toes crossed.
This website is great. I could never had did it without the great letter templates.
Kara says
Congratulations. Do you mind if I ask if the offer that they made you represents all of the interest paid for the loans in question plus interest?
Thanks.
Julze says
I had 13 principle loans that were almost all rolled over for atleast 2 months.
They found 4 fairly loaned
5 they couldn’t decided without further information. I’ve sent statements back today
And they paid out in 4 loans with 8% intrest.
So my payment is £1275 after tax deductions.
I think the other amount if they pay it will be the same.
Wonga, txt A loan and cheque centre all said no. So I have sent them to the ombudsman.
I sent my acceptance back on Friday so they should have received it today. I will give them 10 working days to pay the £1275 into my account and then I will chase up
Tom f says
A bit of a Surprise post, for quick responses, and rather than refund, had debts written off that were active.
Currently had the following replies
Moneybox247 – 2 loans active, for 347, and 267 – Both written off and deleted from credit file (One was defaulted, other was active) – Replied within 3 days!
TrustedQuid – I had borrowed £300 – Rapid 260, remaining was 240 in my account balance – They replied to advise under the circustamnces they do not accept irresponbile lending, but will write off remain debt and mark credit file as satisfied.
Claire says
Hi Sarah,
I had asked for my statements from everyday lending on the 28th of November, and again the week after….they never replied. I chased today and they have sent them over…. if I submit a letter of complaint now do I count the 8 weeks from today or from the 28th of November?
Thanks, C
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did your request for a statement say you were making an affordabilty complaint? If it did, the 8 weeks starts then. If it didn’t, it starts when you send a complaint.
Claire says
Hi Sarah, me again!
I complained to advantage finance a few weeks ago and received a letter of response yesterday in which the wording is very aggressive, they have accused me of slander and said they think the situation I found myself in was more to do with the three personal loans I took out after theirs than anything else….. they have also thrown up a notice of correction from 8 years ago on my credit report to use against me.
Is this normal? Is it legal for them to know about my finances after application was approved? I think I applied to refinance later on so they may have it from this but can they use that against me. They have also stated that they deal predominantly with people who have been denied elsewhere – surely this means they should be doing more in-depth checks to start with?
I’m actually quite upset by the letter….. it seems completely different to the others.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is for car finance? If so, they won’t have had many of these affordability complaints yet. I should ignore any wild accusations of slander.
There is no need for any reputable lender to be aggressing about complaints. If they are right that their loan was affordable, then you aren’t going to win your case at the Ombudsman and there is no reason to be unpleasant about it.
It seems more likely that either they don’t really know what an affordability complaint is and they are feeling scared, or they do know and they hoping if they are nasty you will give up.
Your application for credit will have authorised them to check your record than and to continue to check it after they gave you the loan.
You are right that because they give finance to people with poor credit they should do appropriate checks to make sure that credit is affordable. I suggest you send the case to the Ombudsman.
You might be interested in this Ombudsman decision against Advantage Finance, where the FOS decided to look at the issue of unaffordable lending even though that wasn’t what the customer had complained about! https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/22518/DRN0207634.pdf
Clairey says
Could someone give me advice on PDUK. I have today recieved a request for bank statements to enable them to make a decision. Is this something I should do or should I advise them that I will forward my complaint to the FOS. I thought I had read somewhere on here that I didn’t need to forward Bank statements at this time.
Steve says
No obligation to and you may choose to tell them that you won’t send them. I did and they found the loans were all irresponsible and offered refund. I’d suggest putting complaint into FOS now, then it’s in the queue. You’ll need these statements for FOS anyway, so no harm sending them to Payday UK/Express, if you wish, once you have them, and can always withdraw complaint if they do make a satisfactory offer. If there are loans that they have deemed responsibly lent, that you’re not happy with though, then just send it all to FOS and don’t bother with statements to PDUK/Express as they won’t review those loans.
Village Idiot says
Sorry Steve, can you clarify: you did send them the info and they found in your favour, or you didn’t send them the info and they found in your favour?
Thanks in advance,
-VI
Steve says
Sorry, I did send my credit report and statements for the loans they couldn’t determine, then they found the loans were irresponsibly lent and offered refund. Obviously, there’s no obligation to send them but I had them ready to send to FOS, so thought it was worth sending them to PDUK. Interestingly, PDUK offered on loans in 2013 which I accepted, yet when I told the same case handler to look at my loans with Payday Express at the same time, they deemed those as responsibly lent. So doesn’t always work but certainly does no harm.
Village Idiot says
If I send mine they will see chaos – of the sort that they should have been able to see anyway from my borrowing pattern with them and credit report, and declined to lend. There’s no doubt though, they could pick them apart and say ‘if you had made more sensible decisions THERE and THERE then you wouldn’t have needed to borrow from us”. I hope, and believe, that that isn’t the point, but that’s my only anxiety about sending them. I’ve no problem about appearing foolish, just don’t want to provide them with ammunition.
Steve says
VI – mine sound very similar. I was worried about lots of gambling transactions showing on my statement but they didn’t come back with any picking apart. They just said in response ‘Having reviewed the information that you provided, I am satisfied that these loans were not affordable given your income and expenditure at the time. I feel that at the time Payday Express should have asked for more information and if they had it would have been clear these loans were not affordable.’
It won’t do your case any harm and may well settle it earlier than having to wait for lengthy FOS procedure.
Sian says
Hi Sara,
I logged affordability complaints with Sunny (1 loan for £2300, and 3 other loans all of which £500-£700 each) & Lending Stream (18 rollover loans, some twice a month totalling around £3400 lent and around the same added on in interest) last week using your templates. I have phoned to ask for payment plans for the one loan still open with lending stream (£320) and they have written off interest & i am paying £40. I did the same with Sunny and they have done the same and i am paying £110. Should i keep paying these payments whilst the claims are being investigated?
I also have put in a claim with 118 118 today as i have a loan with them for £2500, with payments of £245 for 2 years. Whilst having this loan i also have several payday loans and i had a CCJ for a parking fine that i was paying off at the time of getting these loans out. Should i cancel my payment to 118 188? Or ask them to set up a payment plan? Or just struggle to pay it as it’s not technically a payday loan?
Do you think it’s likely i would have a good outcome from the above claims?
Thanks for your help!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Should i keep paying these payments whilst the claims are being investigated?” yes if you can afford them. They don’t harm your case, they just mean that you will get a larger refund in the end.
If you are struggling to pay 118 Money, you should cancel your CPA or DD and ask for a payment arrangement. You may find it easier to go to StepChange, then the 118 loans, the 2 payday loans and all your other borrowing would be included in a DMP and you just make one affordable payment each month – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/.
“Do you think it’s likely i would have a good outcome from the above claims?”
They all sound worth pursuing – the lending Stream is a huge number of loans and the Sunny and 118 money had large monthly repayments.
AF says
I got a refund of £4400 from Wonga????
Laura says
Hello,
Your website has inspired me to come to terms and deal with my debt. I’ve put a complaint in against Wonga having taken out 65 loans in exactly 48months. My question is should I wait to see what they come back with before complaining to other lenders. During this period I also had two bank loans, a car loan and multiple payday loans with pounds to pocket, Sunny and quick quid. I just feel they are going to say I never missed and payments therefore therefore it was affordable but I rolled over, would pay off early with one to get more from another. More or less just the same story as all the others. Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not having missed payments is NOT a reason to reject an affordability complaint. If Wonga don’t make you a VERY good offer (do you know how much interest you paid?) send your complaint straight to the Ombudsman.
Put in the complaints against the other payday lenders immediately- there is no advantage in waiting.
The affordability rules for bank loans and car finance are the same as for payday lenders but these cases are harder to win because there is no “repeat borrowing”. If this other loans are coming up to 6 years old, complain right away, but if they aren’t yet, then you could wait to see how the payday loan complaints go first.
Laura says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for getting back to me. It’s over £15,000 according to my calculations with wonga. I havnt even begun to look at pounds to pocket. I had already complained to Sunny using your letters and I had a offer today of all the interest I paid, 8% and removal from credit history. My question is should I accept this now as will removing it from my history mean wonga and pounds to pocket won’t be able to see they were all running at the same time?
In all honesty I feel my bank loans and car finance were fair as they were very low interest rates and I should have taken them out first instead of turning to these ridiculous payday loans but lessons learnt.
Just want to thank you for the service you provide on here and to others. Your website helped me to come to terms and deal with my financial issues. Thanks a lot.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Nice to get one good offer quickly! What I suggest doing is taking a copy now of your credit record – do this using both Noddle and MSE’s Credit Club (links here https://debtcamel.co.uk/best-way-to-check-credit-score/) and download and then save these files somewhere safe.
You can then accept Sunny’s good offer. Wonga and QQ probably won’t pay much attention to your credit record, but you then have an accurate one ready to show the Ombudsman if any of your cases go that far.
Did you mean you paid 15k of interest to wonga? Or is that the total repayments, including the amount you borrowed?
Laura says
Thanks I followed this advice tonight. I initially went to see a FA as I couldn’t get out this mess. He couldn’t believe the lending and worked out wonga alone, yes is just over 15k in interest paid
HoughtonGuy says
I raised complaints with 15 Payday loan providers, most of whom I had never missed a payment with. My complaint focused on the “debt spiral” that I quickly found myself in, often rolling over loans and borrowing increasing amounts from other providers, despite having a considerably high monthly income. Currently, I have offer from 9 lenders totalling over £17.5K and I have accepted 5 offers. The others are currently with the FOS.
So in short, don’t delay – Get those claims in today!!!
Laura says
Thank you so much for your encouragement. It sounds like very much the same story as me, definitely a debt spiral. wonga being the worst. I’m over £15k in interest just them. I havnt looked at pounds to pocket yet but I think they will be about £10k. I couldn’t believe the figures when I sat down in all honesty. This page literally sorted my life out when I couldn’t sleep one night and I stumbled on it. Let me know how your other claims get on
Ella says
Hi Sara
I want to let you know that I have had a first response from one of our claims. I put the claim in on the 9th December 2017 with all the relevant paperwork to Payday Express. They contacted me within the first few days, then after two weeks and then at four weeks all to say that they were checking into the lending they had made to us. Today I received their final response, I worked out that they owed us, including the 8% interest but not with tax taken off about 1100.00 and the claim went back to November 2011, however they have offered us 1737.00 in respect of ten loans made to us right back to January 2010 which I didn’t have information for, they have taken the tax off already which is great. I am just overwhelmed, all through this website, your responses to our questions and an email. Payday Express were very professional and have said that they found five others that could be an issue and if we could send them more information they will make a decision on them accordingly, however, since we are quite happy with what they have offered we are going to accept. Our youngest son is in university at the moment and has disability needs and this will go a long way to helping him. If anybody thinks its not worth while claiming, think again and do it, I was sceptical, I have never claimed for anything and this is the first one to come through. Many thanks Sara for all your help, very much appreciated. :)
ashleigh says
HI
I WAS hoping someone can help I took money from sunny 36 times over 1.5 years some a lot of times I took money on the same day. the adjudicator agreed with sunny this was responsible lending and never upheld my complaint so today the ombudsman is having a look. can anyone advise if they have had better luck after an ombudsman reviewed the case? or are they likely to agree with adjudicator. bearing in mind I also had another 4 payday lenders going at the same time?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you reply to the adjudicator saying why you thought their decision was wrong? If you did, that will be considered by the Ombudsman. People have had poor adjudicator decisions overturned by the ombudsman – it doesn’t happen that often as most adjudicator decisions are pretty good! Can I just check that you supplied all the information the adjudicator asked for?
ashleigh says
yes I supplied every single bank statement they required. I did appeal stating that they seen my bank statements stating a lot of gambling I had more money going out than coming in. And the fact that near enough every month I borrowed I think would be worrying to any lender?
thanks :)
Nicola Handley says
I have a case with the fos it’s been there for month.i have a Adjudicator for 3 month.he never updates me.does not replay to emails.last email I got was the 5th of December saying they still looking in to my case and it might be sometime b4 they have a update for me.my loans ain’t over 6 years.woundering if it’s mabey better I gave them a phone to see what’s happening
Nicola Handley says
It’s about wonga
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK, I think Wonga are being allowed more time to come back with information because they have so many complaints – I don’t know if that could be the reason here. I suggest emailing your adjudicator and asking if there is any more information you can provide to help them.