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?
Chrissy1234 says
So I have been reading this page for a while, and in December i submitted a complaint to both Wonga and QuickQuid, Wonga have 7 days left to respond, Quick Quid replied yesterday.
Most of my loans were taken between 2010 + 2014, QuickQuid responded advising that they Uphold my complaint in relation to 2 loans taken slightly less than 6 years ago, but the other 14 loans older than 6 years… they will not even look at and offered me £525 for the 2 last loans i had… I have not accepted their offer as I paid almost 4k in interest over the 4 years so forwarded their reply straight to the FOS. Just wondering if anyone knows how long it takes for the FOS to pick up your case and what the process is.
kevin smith says
Hi, I have called fos about my three cases.
My Jar they are passing over to a case manager and should get response within 4 weeks
Wonga and Quick quid. They have said to FOS they object the ones over 6 years. Here some news though. FOS management have had high level meetings for 4 month around the 6 year policy. They may look to increase it, therefore any lenders who you may have that are over 6 years can be sent to FSO they will keep case open until they have come to a decision within the high level talks. Hopefully soon they said.
Chrissy1234 says
Perfect thanks for the info, I just hope they do accept as quick quid have admitted fault on the last 2 loans and all other loans were for the exact same amount or higher… do you know how long after submitting a complaint that the Fos will take to acknowledge they received it?
kevin smith says
They have my myjar one from 3rd feb and its going to be passed over to an adjudicator in next couple of days. They said answer within 3 months but currently much quicker.
kevin smith says
Hi, just wondering what peoples success rate is with the following payday lenders and complaints:
Peachy
Lending stream
My jar( now with obmudsmin)
Jen says
Lending stream are a nitemare, peachy were really fair and fast with me I posted a few days ago but can’t find it, they took 2 weeks from requesting SOA to me accepting and cash in my bank, they will negotiate, got my credit history with them wiped from records, they refused to pay the 8%, but all loans refunded were recent so that was ok with me, I asked for refund the day I accepted it was put in my bank following day. Good luck
kevin smith says
Ah thats great, hope peachy are good to me, only about 200 in interest so hopefully they will just agree as cheaper for them than man hours dealing with the FSO
Just replied to someone there about my outstanding complaints with the FOS, with Wonga and Quickquid. They have said to FOS they object the ones over 6 years. Here some news though. FOS management have had high level meetings for 4 month around the 6 year policy. They may look to increase it, therefore any lenders who you may have that are over 6 years can be sent to FSO they will keep case open until they have come to a decision within the high level talks. Hopefully soon they said.
Jen says
Thanks I’m also waiting on QQ and Wonga both over 6 years and with the FOS, good luck with yours
Paul says
thanks for all of the info on here
To summarise I had 116 Loans over 6 years with 4 lenders. All paid back no roll overs no late payments ( probably why they kept lending to me)
50 with Wonga 20 with Sunny 28 lending stream
18 quick quid
I initially raised my complaint by phone and was pleasantly surprised – all 4 have emailed me back within a couple of days acknowledging the complaint and that they are looking in to it
I have since emailed them all detailing my case and my request for refund etc
Wonga – fair play to them, they sent me a pdf detailing each loan I’ve had (-amount, Interst paid. When opened and when paid off) – this has helped articulate my case greatly
£6400 of interest paid most Loans were opened within 5 days of the last one being closed
Just waiting on their response now – fingers crossed
Have hammered home the escalation to financial ombudsman and newspapers if a satisfactory outcome is not reached to all the lenders
Sunny – same email sent to them although I’m
Waiting on a breakdown of the Loans
Lending stream – have emailed back saying it was responsible based on earnings, credit check etc, have emailed back asking for breakdown and refund of interest as they didn’t acknowledge this in the response to my call
Quick quick – they replied straight away but have asked for bank statements etc
Any suggestions how i deal with Quick quid??
Really hope I have a case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They all sound like good cases! You can send QQ statements if you want, but if you would rather not tell them to consider your complaint as it stands.
Sally says
Hi all!
My journey so far;
Wageday adavance originally complained in June 2017 offers me £1500 accepted money was in my account 1/8/17
Wonga: original complaint 5/6/17 after 8 weeks they offered me £198 I declined sent to Fos adjudicator picked up 16/9/17 upheld my complaint a refund of £1124 was in my account on 16/11/17
Payday uk: original complaint 5/6/17 picked up by same adjudicator complaint upheld a refund of £972 was in my account on 6/10/17
Lending stream: sent in a complaint in July 2017 they didn’t uphold my claim sent off to the ombudsman on 30/9/17. Was picked up by an adjudicator on 5/1/18 my complaint was upheld. Refund of 4-28 loans. Lending stream counter-offered saying they would refund half the loans declined the offer and sent to ombudsman they have till the 20/2/18 to reply, doubt they will.
Lending stream are by far the worst to deal with, was just wondering how long is the que for the ombudsman and has anyone else had dealing with lending stream and it’s ending up going to the ombudsman?
I am so happy I found this website and happy with all the refunds. My advice to anyone going through this is don’t give up!
Kez says
Hi,
I was informed on 22/01 that my Lending Stream complaint had been allocated to an adjudicator. In other people’s experience how long do you think it will be before I get a decision?
kevin smith says
They say 3 month when I called them today. However they said working much quicker than that. I suppose it also depends on how long Lending stream take to get back to them. From comments on here Lending Stream are very slow. I just raised mine with lending stream 2 weeks ago and not a word back
Pamela says
Can someone help me. Does it matter if the loans you took out at the time where flexi 3 month loans with wonga? I had loans every three months does this count I was borrowing as soon as the 3 months where up and it was paid back
Karyn says
I did the same with Uncle Buck, would be interested to see anyone’s response to this
Pamela says
Sara are flexi loans covered by this? Loans that are for 3 months etc?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes they are. There are two sorts of flexi loans, one is just a name for standard loans which are several months long – here the affordability is exactly the same as for a standard payday loan: could you afford the monthly repayment without borrowing again? The monthly repayments are in general lower – but often those loans were larger or you may have had more than one at a time from the same lender.
The genuine flexi lans are where you can borrow up to a certain amount, repay some, reborrow etc. These can sometimes be slower to resolve at the FOS but people have gone very good payouts from them.
allan says
Have a question about Lending stream. I had 18 loans totalling £7450 from 2011 to 2016 often rolling over the loans. They have offered me redress of £1283.99. I asked the FOS for advice but they replied saying they were impartial therefore it was up to me whether to accept. So, am after some advice as I know people have had lots of problems accepting final response offers that it turned out were too low.
Should I try to work out how much interest I paid, if I did is that how much I should get back, if so how do I do that?
My main problem was the unaffordability of the loans, I cannot of been credit checked as I had previously been in an IVA therefore would not have passed any credit checks.
Thanks in advance for any answers.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Working out the interest you paid often makes it much clearer how good or bad the offer is.
allan says
Whats the best way to do that?
I have all my statements, is it best just to go through them all and add how much I paid back then deduct the difference?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes!
Allan says
OK thanks for your help
anonimouse says
I received a response from the Adjudicator about my Lending Stream loans today and I am not sure I am happy.
I had 6 loans from Lending Stream and during this period I was borrowing Monthly from Wonga and Quickquid.
The adjudicator states that they feel LS were right to lend me loans 1, 2 and 3, that they did not follow the correct checks for loan 4 but as the Adjudicator could see no other short term borrowing that I could afford the payments.
However my supplied bank statements show that I was paying on a monthly basis interest of £300 a month to Wonga and repayments of £225 a month to QQ.
The adjudicator did find in my favour for loans 5 and 6.
I have written a detailed reply to the adjudicator pointing out the transactions to Wonga and QQ covering the periods from LS loans 1 to 4.
Also Wonga found that they were negligent to loan to me and refunded me the interest covering from a year before LS loan 1 to after LS loan 4
Do you think the adjudicator will adjust their decision ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If the adjudicator was wrong that you had no other short term borrowing for some of the earlier loans, I hope they will revisit the decision. If they don’t change it, ask for it to be sent to an Ombudsman.
Liam says
Hi Everyone,
Any information would be greatly received regarding Safety Net Credit. I have received this today from the adjudicator.
Thank you for waiting while I’ve been looking into your complaint. As you have seen I have sent my opinion to the business that they shouldn’t have given you the facility.
They have agreed with what I have suggested, that they:
Refund all interest and charges that you paid on the facility;
Pay interest of 8% simple a year on all refunds from the date of payment to the date of settlement ;
Remove any negative information about the facility from your credit file.
*HM Revenue & Customs requires Indigo Michael Limited (trading as SafetyNet Credit) to take off tax from this interest. Indigo Michael Limited (trading as SafetyNet Credit) must give you a certificate showing how much tax it’s taken off if you ask for one. If Indigo Michael Limited (trading as SafetyNet Credit) intends to apply the refund to reduce any outstanding capital balance, it must do so after deducting the tax.
SafetyNet Credit has said that this would leave you with an outstanding balance of £290.47 left to repay. This represents an amount of money that SafetyNet Credit gave to you that hasn’t been repaid. I would expect SafetyNet Credit to work with you to find an affordable way to repay this. .
Liam says
The part which has confused me is that i have logged on to their website and i can see that my balance is actually £257 and not £290.47 like they have said. I am still on a DMP?
If i accept this does this mean it will cancel my plan? and why is this figure higher that what my Account says or could this be a mistake?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should go back and say that your balance is only £257. I would expect your current DMP to carry on.
Liam says
Thank You Sara!
Karyn says
Hi Sara,
I commented earlier but cannot see the comment or your reply now?
It was about Sunny and me accepting the settlement offer of all debts to be cleared by me paying a settlement fee. Is this worth pursuing?
Many thanks for your help!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sorry, somehow your comment had got “unapproved”, but it’s back there now, along with my reply.
Craig says
Mr lender offered goodwill gesture of £150 and to pay off remaining balance of £40! I think I’ll reject it as had 4 loans with over £500 paid in interest. Any tips on what to say back to increase my chances of an improved offer ?
Dan says
I would go back and counter offer an amount you will accept i.e. Thank you for the offer however I don’t find this amount acceptable and so is my intention to forward to my whole case to the FOS for review, If however you were to offer ‘£375’ and all references from my credit file removed m, within the next seven days I will accept this as full and final settlement
Craig says
Thanks for the advise Dan I will certainly do this :-). Cheers Craig
dan says
no worries, hope it helps and let us know how you get on,
best wishes
Ashleigh says
Hi would just like to let anyone else who was in the same boat know originally my adjudicator agreed with sunny there was no wrong doing so I went to ombudsman 3 weeks later the ombudsman agreed with me on every single loan (11 ) this morning she emailed this to sunny and 2 hours later sunny replied with the and offered me my settlement in full £2000! So don’t give up because the adjudicator has disagreed.
If anyone could tell me will sunny remove these loans from my credit file?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Excellent news.
the Ombudsman will normally have told Sunny to remove any negative marks on your credit record.
Ashleigh says
Ok all my loans were repaid on time so does this mean they will remain on my file
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes, you don’t want them removed either, unless they are in the last year and you are just about to apply for a mortgage they don’t do you any harm at all.
Ashleigh says
Ahh, this is my exact reason why I’m hoping to apply for a mortgage and the last loan was repaid march 2017 .as I’d taken out so many pay day loans I thought this might effect me
Ryan says
Hi all,
What I’d like to ask, is should I take action asking for payday loan
refunds for the last 7 years?
I’m 25 years old and a gambling addict, which evil payday loans have
financed. However, like most people in my situation, I became trapped
in the cycle. I only have a £550 active loan, but I’m £30000 in debt
to family/overdrafts, as they helped bail me out.
I would regularly have up to 10 payday loans at one time, with
astronomical amounts of interest, so I would use one to pay off
another. Every month I’ve been taking out various loans totalling
thousands and paying them off early, I’m only on £25k a year so is this cause for a complaint? I
obviously lied about my expenses to get the payday loans, but surely their
credit checks/common sense would show I could not afford these
repayments/it was out of control.
I haven’t bothered emailing/writing to all these companies as I don’t
know whether it’s worth my time. In your experience, will anything
come of it?
Thanks guys
Mr W says
Hey There Ryan.
Sorry to hear about the way it’s turned out, I too did the exact same thing and they just gave me loan after loan – horrible cycle. Regards gambling and using these to fund it to win and pay them off only to do it again and lose it spirals out of control.
Having said that I’ve won a few cases so far and that is with my bank statements being forwarded to the ombudsman service with my gambling transactions in there. So having a few complaints upheld – I would so go for it you have nothing to lose if they say no only something to gain.
Hope you get it started.
Ryan says
Hi Mr W,
Thanks for your reply.
So you’d email all the payday lenders asking for statements of history on their websites, and then ask the bank to send my statements for the last few years? Will the payday loan companies ever send you false info, e.g. Delete some of the loans off there?
Also, I’m not too sure how much interest I ended up paying, have they ever paid out on the loan itself? As I’d always get another loan out to ensure I could pay the initial one before the interest got too high, or borrowed off family (all my debt is now to family and a couple of overdrafts).
I’ve got history with about 15 loan companies, so I could be here a while haha, but as you said, worth a try.
Thanks,
Ryan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Will the payday loan companies ever send you false info, e.g. Delete some of the loans off there?” not deliberately. But if you used different email addresses they may not find all your loans. And a few firms seem to sometimes have systems problems when they changed systems halfway through your borrowing. So when you get the bank statements, you can go through them (that will be a fun evening) and check all the loans there against what the payday lender said.
“Also, I’m not too sure how much interest I ended up paying, have they ever paid out on the loan itself?” No.
gillian says
hi ryan if i was you i would email all the compaines you used and ask for a refund you have nothing to lose if any refuse just forward to fos it is really easy to do and they do not judge just because you have gambling transactions on your bank statements so far thanks to sara i have got back 6500 pound from quickquid and 3500 from payday uk quickquid went to ombudsman but payday uk offered to settle i am still waiting for lending stream adjudicater ruled in my favour for 6000 pound but they disagree so waiting for ombudsman while waiting for your response from your lenders get your bank statements ready this is easy i told my bank what i wanted them for and they only charged me 15 pound for 6 years statements 51 envelopes it them cost me 12 pound to post to fos so for 27 pound and a bit of waiting i am allready 10 thousand pound better of and even better i am now not in any debt thanks again to sara if you have any more questions just come back on here sara is very helpful good luck
dan says
totally pointless if you are still gambling though- it will just be more tokens, yes you want to get complaints in, ideally within 6 years, however your priority has to be the gambling addiction.
I’m currently 316 days gamble free, with over 20 years of addiction behind me.
see a refund repay some debt is very liberating
in 2015 I had an automatic refund from Wonga, about £2k – lasted me about 48 hours.
best wishes with tackling your addiction. I agree payday companies are ‘evil’ but also that is a waste of energy…
Ryan says
Hi Dan,
I completely agree with you. I am in the process of starting counselling for the gambling, and hopefully I won’t lose any money I may get from this.
I just wonder how much better off my gambling addiction would have been without effectively unlimited access to money through these payday loan companies.
At the very least I’d like my credit rating improved as it’s currently very poor and I want to own a home with my girlfriend in the next 5 years… Does this process help credit ratings?
Thanks again for your reply,
Ryan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Honestly it’s better to stop gambling for 6 months and then make these complaints. If you get money back now it will probably give you a fun month lining the bookies pockets.
Ryan says
Hi Gillian,
Thank you for your reply, this forum is really helpful.
So how do you go about asking the 15 payday lenders for refunds, is there a template on here/certain approach I should take?
Congrats on your own payout!
Thanks,
Ryan
Sara (Debt Camel) says
template in the article above these comments!
Ryan says
Just seen, thank you Sara!
Is it usually a 3 or so month process before a decision?
And at the very least, will an outcome of this be an improved credit rating?
Thanks
Ryan says
also, do I mention anything about gambling in my letter to the payday loan companies?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s up to you. In theory it should help a proper consideration of your complaint. But many payday lenders don’t do that anyway. You should expect most of your complaints to have to go to the ombudsman because it probably looked to the lenders as though their loans were affordable – don’t be put off by rejections or poor offers.
Ryan says
Great thanks (for some reason it wouldn’t let me reply to your latest comment), so in terms of my loans, often I’d have loads of smaller loans that individually were probably affordable (each month I’d roll them over though so that’s surely obvious I couldn’t afford them) , will that negate my claim? Or are 5 payday loans totalling £2000 a time just as strong in the claim as 1 payday loan for £2000 a time?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
What matters most is probably how often you borrowed from each lender. But the lenders can see from your credit record what your other borrowing is. There isn’t any point in worrying at the moment about this, just put in the complaints, get your bank statements and wait for the replies.
AK says
I would say it’s most likely 6 month before you get any outcome. I sent my initial complaints on 24th August and only now start to receive some significant results.
Ryan says
Hi,
This information is so useful, thanks again.
I’ve emailed a total of 15 payday lenders asking them for loan history with them, as soon as one of them replies with the info, do I reply immediately with the ‘Step Two’ of asking for a refund, or do I wait until they’ve all replied?
As I assume I’ll have to go through 15 separate cases with the Ombudsman.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Treat each case as separate and progress each one as soon as you can. With any luck a couple may be completely finished before you get replies on other ones!
Stephen says
Hi I’m a newbie to this and have just heard about Paydsy loan refunds. Back in 2011 I had continuous loans from Wonga, payday express and quickquid. I see that the FO with still help with loans over 6 years old which is great.
However my question if anyone could clarify is that I was bankrupt in 2012, out of bankruptcy in 2013 and will be 6 years next month so it will drop off my Credit file; therefore can I obtain refunds from the above compamies or will the proceeds still go to the official reciever from my bankruptcy?
Any advice would be very welcome.
Thanks.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Any refunds for borrowing before you went bankrupt will go to the Official Receiver – don’t bother complaining is my suggestion.
Kevin Smith says
Morning everyone hope you are all well. Quick question, i was a discharged bankrupt before i took the payday loans, this will obviously have shown on my credit file when i applied for payday loans, would the FOS see this as irresponsible from the payday lenders as they would have known i was once bankrupt. I know the Official Receiver will get nothing as i was discharged at the time. I was made bankrupt in November 2009 and discharged 6 months later, took payday loans out from November 2010. So bankruptcy was on credit file until November 2015. Therefore any loan i took out up to November 2015 the credit check would have shown i was once bankrupt.
For those who dont know where i am with my claims:
MY JAR with FOS and just assigned to an adjudicator
Wonga with FOS waiting on decision around 6 year policy, if they can look at over 6 years ago they will look at both previous and ones after the 6 years. Same with Quick Quid
I have current complaint in with Lending Stream, Ferratum and Peachy all of which i am waiting to here back from them. I expect Lending Stream to really take there time.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t think your bankruptcy is a very strong point to make for your later loans – many people are absolutely fine financially after they go bankrupt and have a clean start! Worth pointing out for the 2010 and 2011 loans. Of course if you had more recent problems on your credit record – late payments, defaults – then bankruptcy on top of those would be significant.
kevin Smith says
Got an update from LS
They have basically said my credit score was good, and that affordability checks showed I could afford the loan and on occasions they declined me a loan, they did not see that lending from multiple pay day lenders at the same time to be an issue. It was a very long reply mind, and quicker than I thought.
They also mentioned how I was responsible for sharing accurate data etc
FOS it is then
Ross says
I’ve stopped all my payments towards my current payday loans while my complaints are being investigated. Do I need to restart my payments once the loan companies have got back to me or does the complaint continue if I go to the ombudsman? Thanks
kevin smith says
Hi Sara only defaults I had were on loans with Wonga around 6 years ago. I went into a payment arrangement with them, one year later they lent to me again. Again I was forced into a payment arrangement. This one is still on my credit file actually. I would assume other lendors would have seen the arrangements. Also wonga is with FOS if two payment arrangements in just over 1 year is not irresponsible I don’t know what is.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
yes very good point for your Wonga complaint. But the default Wonga added may have been visible to some of your other lenders so it can help your other complaints too.
Kim says
I started all my complaints in August 2017, the last one is just being dealt with. They were against Wonga, Satsuma, Quick Quid, Payday Express and Sunny. All were upheld and I have paid off my entire DMP which was £4,500 from the refunds alone. Credit score is gradually improving ???? Keep going everyone, it’s worth it! Thank god I stumbled across this site!
Mark says
Hi ,
This is an update from since i started my complains 3 days ago…
Quickquid just responded to my complain . They said my loans were older than 6 years so i do not have a case but i have the right to refer my complain to the FOS.
Should i do it or i don’t have a base to complain?
MR Lender replied saying they will look into my case.
Lending stream replied with an automated message saying they will contact me within 2 business days ….
1st stop , wageday advance ,and payday express didn’t reply .
Regards
Mark
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send the QQ complaint to the Ombudsman and settle back for a long slow process. You have nothing to lose by doing this – some lenders (eg Payday Express) are already paying out for older loans and I am optimistic that QQ will have to too. You can’t wait for news about this because there is a time limit to take your complaint to the ombudsman, so it’s best to put it in now and just don’t worry about it being slow.
Mark says
Thanks for the reply .
When i send my complains to the FOS , they have to be for each lender or it can incorporate several of them ?
Thanks
Mark
Sara (Debt Camel) says
1 complaint for each lender – you get very quick at doing these after the first couple! Sometimes the same adjudicator will pick up several of your cases. And you only have to send the bank statements and credit record once, then they can be used for all your complaints.
Heather Goodwin says
Hiya, I’ve just emailed my complaint after receiving a detailed list of loans I had taken out between 2010 and 2017 with Wonga. I was shocked that I had taken out a huge 56 loans with them which I obviously couldn’t afford due to often requesting a payment plan to pay them off. I was a single parent on just benefits during most of that time so I’m not sure how I stand with that? I’ve added up that my interest payments are around £3k so keeping my fingers crossed I hear back soon.
Anyone have any idea how long this process takes? Or how long Wonga take to deal with these complaints?
Thank you all and good luck to you all.
Heather
Ryan says
”I have had 7 loans from you 13th March 2017.
Your loans trapped me into a debt spiral, with the repayment taking so much of my wages that I had to borrow again to cover my next month expenses.
For this period my income averaged about £xxx a month
You should have realised from the number of times I rolled loans or borrowed again that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend to me. The amount would vary, and I would borrow from up to 10 payday lenders at one time, every month having numerous loans with different payday lenders, of varying amounts. I would regularly take out other loans with other payday lenders to repay you.
This, alongside my gambling addiction (which again was clear with any check), led me to have huge amounts of stress and depression. You funded my gambling addiction, without payday lenders I wouldn’t have been able to gamble to the level I did, and struggled to pay rent/travel/bills and other costs of living. You should have realised this very early on.
My credit reports would have shown my other debt repayments and problems, it has always been in the poor/very poor level.
You should never have given me these unaffordable loans. I would like to ask you to refund the interest and extra charges I paid.
The Financial Ombudsman suggests that statutory interest is added to this sort of refund.”
Ryan says
So Peachy replied with details of my loans (of all the payday lenders, they’re probably at the lower end of borrowing/interest/rolling loans), so I’ve drafted this loan (using the template you have kindly posted on here), would you edit/add anything to this? I didn’t put my specific monthly outgoings, because apart from debt repayments, they were low as I lived with family. Also, do I include the specific interest amounts I paid to them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Looks fine. One minor thing is Did yiu actually roll any loans? If yes, add in how many times. If no, delete that bit.
Ryan says
What does rolling over mean, delaying repayment? I had 7 loans with them over the last year, so I’d keep getting new loans every time I’d paid off the original one. However at the same time I would have several other loans with other companies too, so that was the problem. I assume that will be taken into consideration if it goes to the Ombudsman? I would have thought the payday loan companies can see the other outstanding loans to other companies on their credit check, as well as my poor credit record?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes rolling over is where you just pay the interest one month and the next month pay another lot of interest and repay the loan. These used to be common with sone lenders, loans could be rolled each month for a year. Or more!
But as your loans are recent this in unlikely so just remove the reference to it.
As your loans are recent Peachy would definitely have checked your credit record and should have taken into account your other payday borrowing.
You don’t have to say how much interest you paid, they know that!
Ryan says
Great thanks, I’ll take that off. It’s the cumulative effect of all the different lenders/loans that are the problem, not just one on their own.
So will I need to put in details of my expenditure each month or just leave that bit as my expenditure (apart from debt/un-budgeted-for gambling) was low.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Up to you, but I would probably leave it out.
Dan says
Hi,
I had 9 Loans through Zebit/Lending Stream – 5 were paid off with 4 still outstanding (they were allowed to be taken out within weeks of each other – all ran concurrently) – I have had a response from Lending Stream stating that they will take off interest & charges from the outstanding four loans along with any payments already made (This takes the outstanding debt down from approx £700 to around £100). They do not however take into account the original 5 loans (increasing amounts) nor the 8% interest. I have asked them for this twice however they just appear to copy and paste the same reply back again. Am I likely to get a better response from the ombudsman that the reduction that Lending Stream have offered?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Very possibly! Well worth a try it sounds like.
Allison says
Mr lender have come back and offered me a partial refund on loan 3 of 5 but said no to 1,2 4& 5. Surprisingly 4 I defaulted on and they accept I paid it back but after they struggled to collect and they still issued 5.
Would you go back and negotiate?
It’s so tempting to accept the first offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely try to negotiate. If you give some details we could suggest what to ask for. Could you say for each loan how much borrowed? when you borrowed it? And when you paid it back?
Allison says
Thank you.
Loan 1: £233 in May 2013. Paid £239 in interest repaid 31/10/15
Losn 2 : £583.00 29/11/13. Paid £308.50 in interest. Repaid 03:03/2104
Loan 3. £483.00 31/03/14 paid £520 in interest. Repaid 01/07/14 ( but I repaid a total of £546 on day three ) They are offering £614 back on this one loan.
Loan 4 £583 on 31/07/14. Paid £647 in interest repaid 02/02/15
Loan 5. £750 17/02/15. Paid £713 in interest repaid 01/09/2015
Until I went through my bank statement with a fine tooth comb just now, I’d not realised I paid back three amounts in one day for loan 3. I do wonder if their offer is because they collected so much but didn’t drop the interest.
At the time you bury your head some days and just pray the bank make the payments then live on air. It’s pretty obvious that I’d pay one off then immediately take out another. ( and they weren’t my only lender)
Any advice greatly received.
They did make it clear it was full and final settlement offer and I could go to FOS.
Allison says
I’ve just seen another £650 went out of my bank account to mr lender on 01/08/2014. I can only assume that went to loan 4.
(Weeps)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
There were no large gaps between your loans, you borrowed the next month. And each loans generally increased in size. Your second loans was twice as large as the first one! You needed extra time to pay loan 4 but they still gave you a larger loan 5 2 weeks later! If it has to go to the Ombudsman this is a strong case, but yiu are happy to settle without the 8% extra to get this sorted now.
I think you should reply with these points and ask them to refund all interest from either loan 2 or loan 3, depending on what feels fair to you.
Allison says
Thank you. I’ll try negotiating.
It is tempting £614 now and they know that … but I’m in for the long haul with the others may as well make it all of them.
(QQ, wonga, Lending stream and Pounds 2 Pocket won’t be without a fight.)
Lee f says
Hi so I sent this template to a number of lenders as I’ve borrowed continuously to keep myself above board and to keep repaying other loans I have with other companies, today after 5-6 days I’ve had a reply from lending stream basically saying they think it was justified what they borrowed me 5 loans and I could afford it but want to offer me a payment plan for the 3 existing loans I have open with them.
What should I do?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This sounds like a very poor offer. At the least you want the interest removed from the 3 outstanding loans so you only have to repay what you borrowed, no interest.
I suggest you send this to the Ombudsman to look at.
Lee f says
I’m guessing taking there offer and then referring it is not a good idea?
Should I continue to pay the existing loans?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, their offer will be in final settlement of your complaint so you can’t take what they have offered and send the rest to the Ombudsman.
Unless you can afford the repayments without borrowing any more (unlikely!) you need to cancel the CPA to Lending Stream and tell them what you can afford to pay each month to the 3 loans. Making these payments doesn’t hurt your complaint as it will just mean you get a larger refund.
Natalie Paterson says
hi
just had a final response fromQQ, my loans started in july11 up to 2012 i had 6 loans with them but was borrowing from others at the same time, they said my loans were lent responsibly, but they will not consider loans over 6 years old and there was always more than 15 days between loans, but if they had checked bank would have seen other companys lending me money i had a gambleing addiction and i was only getting paid around £400 monthly and they were giving me loans for 50-70% of my income. they said they would consider 1 loan and offered £12, should i reply telling them i am going to send it to the fos? or just send it.?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
£12, wow. I suggest you send it to the FOS then tell QQ what you have done, sometimes that may prod them into a more sensible offer.
Natalie Paterson says
thanks sara ive sent it off to fos today, fingers x.
Philip Hendry says
I made complaints against a number of payday lenders In Dec 2017 and have had the following replies;
Wonga – acknowledgement at 4 weeks, final response on the last day of the 8th week, refund offer of £1050 which included 8% interest (I had over approx 20 roll over loans in 2012/13)
Sunny – declined any refund at the end of the 8 weeks. Surprised they offered nothing as I had 57 loans over 18 months most taken out when I had an existing balance.
My Jar – final response with reduction of outstanding balance after 3 weeks
Mr Lender – final response with reduction of balance after 4 weeks
Payday UK – declined any refund at 8 weeks
Payday Express – declined any refund at 8 weeks
Cheque Centre – no response due to going out of business late 2017 I’m unsure what to do with this now but i have sent the others, including Wonga’s daft offer on the standard random 3 loans to the ombudsmen as I have nothing to loose, hope this helps. And thank you to everyone who comments here, good luck!
gillian says
just got email off ombudsman it was only passed to him last friday so pretty quick i was thinking another 2 to 3 month wait even though adjudicater ruled in my favour for loans 4 to 42 with lending stream at beginning of october pleased to say he as totally agreed with adjudicater so i just have to sign i agree with him and send it back so thank you again sara thats another 6000 pound refund taking it to 16000 pound off three lenders just to say to anyone if you are in the process of reclaiming it is worth the wait i first started in dec2016 and both quickquid and lending stream offered nothing yet had to repay over 6000 pound each thank you again sara
Paul says
That’s great news Gillian – well done
I have sent emails to all 4 lenders I’ve used ( QQ, Wonga, Lending stream and Sunny)
They’ve all given me account summaries, number of loans, amounts borrowed, interest paid etc which certainly helps articulate the case –
It’s scary and quite sickening ( 106 loans)
Wonga
50
£36,384.00
£42,063.00
£6,430.00
Q/Q
17
£9,150
£14,324
£5,174
L/S
19
£8,590
£13,095
£4,505
Sunny
20
£7,700
£9,438.03
£1,738.03
Total
106
£61,824.00
£78,920.03
£17,847.03
£61k borrowed
£78k Paid back
£17k interest paid
For all 4 loans its month on month borrowing, the minute one was paid , a day or two later a new loan was opened – this went on for years and I’m hoping I have a strimg case against irrespobsible lending
I have current balances with all 4 and as part of my request of interest refund I’ve given them an alternative option to write off all current balances with no impact to credit score and refund of the difference in terms of interest
Just waiting to hear back now – from what I’ve read on here I’m encouraged I might get some money back
Lee Johnson says
Can you provide the emails of mr lender, Wonga quickquid please. I need to start the process of getting my statements for the various loans I had over the years.
Becky says
Hi Lee.
There is a link to the list of email addresses in the body of the article above ????
MRS X says
Just leaving an update here, after waiting 6 months for a response from provident their first response was no. But then after speaking to the ombudsmen they agreed to uphold the complaint and added compensation for the length of time this has taken. I’m now waiting to hear on how they are going to send my refund. From what I’ve read it seems to be very hit and miss with the ombudsman but I think I got lucky and now am getting a refund of about 5600. Good luck to everyone.
Jackie crawford says
I sent an email to payday express 27th Jan. got an email yesterday of them with their final descicion. They said they are not upholding my complaint for my 6 loans between 2008 and 2016 as they were small and weren’t taken straight after each other. That’s funny, I had 10 loans totalling over £5000 between 2012 and 2013. Needless to say I am forwarding to the ombudsman. I have emailed them back to tell them they do have 8 weeks to investigate and that I had more loans in a shorter period and it is going to the ombudsman. Let’s see what happens
Tim says
Hi Sara,
You helped me get payday loan refunds from Wonga and QQ last year, I have now sent complaints away to Likely Loans and 118 Money, how do these companies compare with the likes of Wonga, QQ, Lending Stream etc when trying to get refunds or even getting interest cut from a current outstanding loan? They aren’t payday lenders are they so I’m not sure if they are paying out as regularly as the payday companies?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
People have had refunds or interest removed from an outstanding balance with both 118 and Likely Loans. There are fewer complaints so its hard to say anything about the success rate – these are very individual cases so knowing the success rate may not help you much anyway.
My feeling is that more cases have to go to the Ombudsman – its rare for them to make a good offer directly.
It is harder to win 1 loan cases but the loan could have been much larger than a typical payday loan, so they should have looked more closely at your credit record. if you topped up / took a second loan that should have been a warning signal to them
Tim says
I have used 118 Money twice now (2yrs apart) both for £2000 and Likely loans once for £3600. 118 gave me their loan just a few months into my Likely loan and both gave me their loans whilst I had several payday loans with Wageday, Lending Stream, Wonga etc. Now I wouldnt have declared these to them at the time but they still should’ve seen from my credit file that I was a risk to lend to. 118 Money when lending to me the 2nd time gave me the loan at a fixed apr of 169.9%, I queried this with them just the other day as their website states 39.9%-99.9% but they said instead of refusing me they gave me an apr of 169.9%, I have added this in to my complaint with them too as that was a clear indication by them that they seen me as a risk to lend to surely? Will be interesting to see what they both come back with but I will definitely be sending these complaints to the Ombudsman if I’m not happy with their responses.
Emma says
My likely loan complaint is with an adjudicator at the Ombusman….im really hoping for a positive outcome as they fact they gave me a £3500 loan is just awful considering I also had pay day loans etc. !!
Nicola Handley says
Looks like wonga is going to drag my case out grrr.they had till the 14 to replay to my adjudicator and not.looks like it will be going in ombudsmen que.anyone else had problems with wonga not getting back to the adjudicator about his findings
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes it’s common. But sometimes they do get back and accept in another few weeks.
AK says
Wonga had till 15th and as expected they didn’t meet the deadline. I told my adjudicator that I’m fine with giving them another couple of weeks before sending the case to the ombudsman if necessary.
Nicola Handley says
They are quick to moan at us if we late with payment but they seem to drag this out as long as possibal.hopfully here from the soon.good luck with urs
James says
I raised a complaint with QuickQuid back in December, they rejected my complaint and final response was early January. I raised with the FOS back in mid January and they last contacted me on 1st Feb, i replied on the 2nd Feb but have heard nothing from the adjuicator since. How long does the FOS usually take for a reply. All they asked was, what was the last letter i recieved from QQ and was it a final response. Which it was. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You probably haven’t yet had an adjudicator assigned, the person asking you was just getting your complaint ready to be considered and they will be waiting for QQ to send their case file in. Probably another month or so.
AK says
I was asked the same question in mid November, my case was picked up by an adjudicator in January ( all my cases were pending during Christmas time), the adjudicator sent his view to QQ just two weeks ago. At the moment I’m waiting for the QQ to accept or reject the adjudicator’s findings. While in the queue QQ made me an offer of £9,800, the adjudicator added another £3k, all before simple interest added. Hopefully QQ accepts.
Louise says
Anybody know the next Cash Genie cheque payment run date for the next one please??..
Jen says
Hi I replied 2 another Louise last wk, check back the posts over the last few days, from what I can work out from old posts on here, I went back quite a bit, it’s roughly 10 weeks between Cheque runs, so we should hear something nxt tue or wed, prob an e.mail 1st then Cheque a few days later, hope this helps I’m also waiting
Louise says
Hi you heard anything yet from Cash Genie?
Jen says
I’ve not heard a thing, was hoping for the 12th Feb, then worked it back so thought 20/21st feb but still waiting, have u heard ought yet
Louise says
Hi,no nothing.I emailed them yesterday and they said they would email the liquidators to get a date but still waiting.Hope it’s real soon.
Jen says
Yea me 2, let me know if u hear ought back ta
Louise says
Will do,it seems be taking forever..
Jen says
Hi Louise did u hear anything back from them yet ta Jen
Louise says
Hi,no nothing yet.Will update when I do,hopefully soon..
Jen says
Hi saw a post its 13th March
Louise says
Hi,yes I’ve got an email back today saying the same date 13th March..
Jake says
Hey,
I had one claim that went to the adjudicator they they picked up within a few days.
However i recently sent two more cases to them but havent had an Adjudicator pick them up in 2 weeks now. Is this normal or do they usually reach an adjudicator alot sooner?
Jake
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Having a case picked up by an adjudicator in a few days is unusual.
Andy says
Hi looking to send claim in against Bonga loans who are owned by B.B. CREDIT. They are in administration being wound up. Does anyone know if it is worth purchasing?
vickie9 says
You might find it difficult, I won my case with CFO Lending but when they went into administration I didn’t receive anything back as there wasn’t any money left.
Joe james says
Hi there
I wonder if anyone can help me, I have had my adjudicator come back to me with loads of questions regarding my outgoings and how they don’t show on my statements even though my rent and child maintenance I paid to my ex in cash, silly really, I have gone back to him to say surely if payday express lent to me 10 times I’m one year then surely I was dependant on those loans? I haven’t heard back in a week from sending that query to him…. does this mean I am likely to lose the case as all my outgoings weren’t on my bank statements?
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Your adjudicator needs to understand your finances, just borrowing repeatedly is not by itself enough. For example there have been a couple of cases where someone borrowed for many months even though they were saving each month towards a house deposit… so the FOS decided the loans were affordable.
Paying some expenses in cash is not unusual. If you have any evidence about what you paid ( emails? Tenancy agreement? ) that may help. Also if you are routinely taking out the cash for the rent once a week or once a month this may show on your statements.
gillian says
i explained to my adjudicater that i paid cash with a paying in book for my morgage and have prepaid meters for electric and gas and always paid cash when food shopping they accepted this no problem as she could see that on the day i was paid i was withdrawing the cash if this helps
Nathan says
Just out of curiosity, as after reading all this I think in going to put in a few complaints.
I’ve had probably hundreds of loans over the years from various companies, ranging probably from around 2009 to 2014.
If the complaint goes to fso, do they pay out on last six years while they consider older, or is it a case of wait till they can resolve all in 1 go?
If it’s the latter, it’s putting in 2 complaints to each company an option? One to cover recent and a separate to cover aged?
Thanks.
kevin smith says
They have mine which has some over 6 years, they won’t deal with it until the 6 year issue is either agreed or not by the powers that be. If agreed they will look at all years, if not just the previous 6. Told me hopefully have a decision soon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can only put in 1 complaint, can’t split it the get the under 6 years dealt with sooner.
Nathan says
Ok, thanks very much. I will start putting my complaints together.
This might take a while… lol
Ryan says
Am I unlikely to get a refund if my outgoings are very low (I live at home)? The only reason I borrowed so much from payday loans was because of gambling, which obviously I didn’t mention. Wasn’t sure which way the FO views gambling.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/.
Joe james says
Thanks Sara
You are excellent and working on a Sunday
Thank you
Toni says
Hi sara,
I sent my complaint to provident back in October but just keep receiving a generic email saying their investigations are ongoing. I therefore sent my complaint to the ombudsman and received this reply;
Before we can look into this, we need some more information from you.
Effectively we can only look into complaints against Provident which was taken out after the 1 April 2014, this is because this is the date which they became regulated.
If you had any other loans after that date we could look into that loan for you.
Does this mean I cannot make a claim? I had loans from 2002-2013 totalling over £10,000 and over £8,000 in interest. My first loan was issued when I was just 17, with the agent changing my date of birth to get the application passed!
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks
Toni
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s just wrong. Before that date Provident were regulated by the OFT, not the FCA, but complaints could still go to the Ombudsman. The FOS can’t legally consider complaints pre 2007.
Ian says
Hi Sara, thank you so much for all the information on this site :)
I would like to run my situation by you to see if it would be worth making a complaint.
I have had several loans from payday lenders mainly Quick Quid between 11/06/2015 and 11/01/2018 that is still on going.
This has left me in a spiral of having to roll over the loans every money. With the last quick quid loan i could not afford the final payment and had to go onto a payment plan. After this was completed Quick Quid again offered me another loan but at an even higher amount. Would this class as irresponsible lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds irresponsible to me! And the loans before may also have been unaffordable if the only way you could repay was to borrow more.
If you currently have a loan outstanding, cancel the CPA to QQ and tell them you need a payment plan as well as putting in the complaint.
Ian says
Thank you sara :) il let you know how it goes. Iv had a responce asking for proof of income any loans and bank statements???
Is this normal?
Dave says
Hi Sara
I recently took out some more payday loans through desperation and this month im due back over £1000 more than i earn. How should i tackle this.
Please help thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You put the complaints in a few weeks ago I think? You need to cancel the CPAs to all the lenders and tell them you can’t afford this months repayments.
If the reason you started getting the payday loans was other debts, you also need to tackle them – I suggest you talk to StepChange, https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/debt-management-plan.aspx
Dave says
I cant see any cpas on my online banking.
I have not complained to any if these companies yet
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you need to phone up your bank, CPAs are usually not listed with DDs and SROs.
I replied to your previous comment here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-86/#comment-254247
Stu says
What percentage of complaints are paid out on the adjudicators decision?
Adjudicator has ruled in favor for 2 loans from PDUK, happy with this as only had 10 loans over 7 years.
Still waiting on Adjudicators decision for Wonga…. many loans over 6 years..totaled over £1200 in interest.
Fingers crossed
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No statistics are published and it will anyway vary between lenders.
James Thomson says
Hi Sara,
I am in the process of applying for refunds with Wonga, PDUK, Money Shop, Wizz Cash, Wage Day Advance, Peachy, Mr Lender, and Lending Stream using your template. The loans I had were between 2011 – 2013. I have had a final response from Mr Lender who have declined my refund. Their reasoning is that at the time of my application I stated my income and expenditure and this resulted in a disposable income of £1000. Looking back at this awful time I cant remember for sure, but I was so desperate for a cash advance from a number of lenders I did lie on my application, not about my income but about my outstanding commitments. Have I still got a case even though I did mislead the lenders about my financial position at the time. Thanks In Advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ which looks at this.
Ryan says
Is there a point in me putting in a complaint/going to the FO with a company that ‘only’ loaned to me 3 times in 6 months? Because ultimately my issue is that I often had lots of smaller loans with lots of companies at once, as opposed to one loan with one company. So as an individual case, they don’t look strong, but if I pooled them together, they look much better. The other loans would have shown up on my credit file when any of these lenders did their credit check, and my credit rating has always been poor, so surely I’d have a case even if I only had a few loans…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Why not try it and see with one complaint? Complaints were you borrowed from the same lender consistently are easier, but if the small loans were unaffordable because you had a lot of them, then they are unaffordable!
Ryan says
Great thanks, will do. Fairly easy for when I’m putting in my initial email to the companies when asking for a refund and the loans to be removed off my credit file, but how do I go about this when inevitably it goes to the FO? As usually you send through complaints individually. Would the companies have access to how much I owe at one time to other payday lenders? Thank you for your help!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
FOS complaints have to be by each lender. When were you borrowing?
Ryan says
That’s what I mean though, my complaints (which will inevitably end up at the FOS), will look weak individually and really need to be addressed as one whole issue. Borrowing over last 5 years, but last year or so definitely much more. E.g. Sunny and Lending Stream I had 150 loans with combined in the last 2 years. They’re smaller amounts though, and now annoyingly, I was using other lenders to pay off theirs and vice versa, so the actual interest accrued for each loan/company isn’t that high. My issue is I’ve had to borrow a lot of money from family to pay for things like payday loan repayments too, so I’m heavily in debt to them now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well all you can do is make your complaints. If they are in the last couple of years, then the lenders would definitely have seen your other borrowin on your credit records. 150 loans from 2 lenders is obviously huge, even if they were small.
Ian says
Hi Sara,
Quickquid/Pounds to Pockets are asking for copies of my bank statements to be sent with my complaint. Is this something I need to send or can I complain without sending these?
Thanks.
Steve says
You don’t have to send them, there’s no reason why they can’t assess your complaint without them so they’re probably just trying to drag it out
Steve says
I’m on the 28th day since I accepted the ombudsman decision over my loans with Moneybox247, I’ve had one email from them a few days ago saying that my account was ‘with the payments team who are processing your request’ but then nothing since, and from what I gather they aren’t particularly responsive. If I’ve received nothing by the end of today should I be going back to the ombudsman?
Linda says
HI Steve I received my refund on day 27 from 247 and yes I’d definitely get back to the Ombudsman if you haven’t heard by the end of today. They didn’t send me a breakdown for my refund or email notification (I’ve had to request one from the Ombudsman who are getting in touch with them), it just appeared in my bank. ISo keep checking. Hope it comes through soon for you.
Steve says
Hi,
Do you mind if I ask what kind of refund you got from 247?
I have had 30 loans with them over a 4 year period with interest around £2500. I did complain to them and they give a final response to not offer me anything so sent to FOS 3 weeks ago. Just wanted to get an idea how long FOS take and what they may offer. Thanks
Steve says
They refused my complaint too, but the adjudicator said that they should refund all loans after my second loan. I asked for the ombudsman to review and they changed the decision and said that they should refund the interest on all loans.
It’s not a huge amount as I only had 6 with them but every little helps, based on what you’ve said I’d imagine you’ll get a decent payout.
Steve says
Great news on getting paid out on 6 loans, hopefully they will decide in my favour. Did the FOS ask you for any additional information?
Linda says
Hi I had 12 loans over 12 months and the adjudicator found in my favour for all 12. It wasnt a huge refund as I still had an outstanding balance and I am still to query the amount as I say as they sent no breakdown through. It was £830.
steve D says
Sorry to keep asking questions, how long did it take from sending your compliant to FOS to the adjudicator finding in your favour?
247 did send me a full list of loans I have had and the interest I paid.
I have many other complaints with lenders and have sent three to FOS one of which is 247, just want to get an idea of how long the process takes.
Steve says
Thanks :) I’ll get on to the ombudsman tomorrow if I don’t hear anything
luke says
How long was your complaint in with the Ombudsman with 247 Moneybox? Im waiting two months now, all I know someone has picked it up, but I heard nothing yet.
Paul says
Sara – thanks again for this site
I’ve worded my emails to the lenders advising them if a satisfactory resolution is not reached I will escalating to the FO and will
Be going to the newspapers. – do you think it helps to call out your your rights and almost threaten them to encourage a swift resolution rather than it going to the FO at Cost to them (£650 I think it is?)
I’ve also detailed the loan summaries, in my response, it’s all there in black and white, hoping my bullish approach works
Does anyone have success with the lenders direct or are most resolutions and success as a result of the FO getting involved?
I’ve paid £17,000 in interest which is crazy – will have emails for the FO written up and ready to go if I my requests are rejected or not satisfactory
Good luck to everyone else –
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lenders are getting hundreds of these complaints, most of them won’t pay much attention to what you write apart from the facts of your borrowing. Many people don’t go to the FOS so the lenders will try to get away with poor offers. But many people do get reasonable offers directly, so let’s hope you do!
Sam says
Hi just need a little advice, sent pay day an email regarding statement of accounts and got two reply’s one from payday express and one from pay day uk providing me with loan information, I sent a follow up letter saying I wish to make a complaint I used the same letter with tweaks, that I sent to quickquid and Wonga which I got money back for, then payday express customer support replied saying “Can you please confirm your full name, date of birth and postcode?” And then before I could reply customer relations from
Express have sent an email saying the two loans I had weren’t irrisonaible and that they don’t believe I had to lend off other lenders, I haven’t had a reply from payday UK yet, just wondering do I go to the ombudsman now? As it was only 2 loans but the statement of accounts wasn’t very clear
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you agree you only had two loans from payday express? Could you summarise them?
Sam says
I thought it was more than 2 but I know it wasn’t a lot, the majority were quick quid and Wonga, but I’ve seen people get money back on not a lot of loans, I have pasted part of the statement of account below for you to see
12/03/2012
Principal | Deposit
£240.00
£240.00
12/03/2012
Interest | Deposit
£60.00
£300.00
05/04/2012
Extension Fee | Fee Added
£60.00
£360.00
05/04/2012
Extension Fee | Debit Card – APS
(£60.00)
£300.00
03/05/2012
Extension Fee | Fee Added
£60.00
£360.00
04/05/2012
Extension Fee | Debit Card – Other
(£60.00)
£300.00
31/05/2012
Extension Fee | Fee Added
£60.00
£360.00
03/06/2012
Extension Fee | Debit Card – APS
(£60.00)
£300.00
28/06/2012
Extension Fee | Fee Added
£60.00
£360.00
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok so that is one loan that you rolled at least three times. And there was another loan as well. Definitely send to the Ombudsman.
Sam says
Ok thank you Sara is there a template for that? Also how long is the time frame and success rate of going to the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Step Three in the article above looks at what you have to do. Success, well it depends n the individual complaint but more than 2/3s are won. Time frame varies from a few weeks ( sometimes the lender just changes their when they know you are serious and makes an offer!) to years for complicated cases, but yours sounds straightforward so a few months in most likely.
Jamie Taylor says
I currently have My Jar, payday uk, payday express, lending stream and wage day advance on the go in which I’m doing it through the resolver app to keep track of it and so far not really getting anywhere. Only real human response I’ve had in a week was from lending stream basically telling me to get stuffed. I’ve worked out I’ve had more than 37 loans between them all and amounts between £100 to £700. Also Is it worth chasing 118 money as well as I did go into a debt management plan with them as a creditor on it? It’s frustrating you don’t get a human response after a week with these companies, you would think it would be clear cut with the likes of payday uk and payday express?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Settle back and wait, you may not hear much until the 8 week point.
Yes it’s worth complaining to 118, they usually front load interest, so going into a debt management plan with them doesn’t reduce what you pay, just spreads it out longer. Some good cases have been won against them.
Kelly says
Hi hopefully someone can help?
I’ve Had emails back from a number of companies acknowledging the loans I had but they are requesting additional documentation (bank statements and payslips from years ago when I had the debts) do I have to produce all of this to get a refund on the interest if they are already acknowledging the loans? I have the bank statements but I no longer work for the same company so don’t have payslips going back that far.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to give the payday lenders anything. If the case goes to the Ombudsman, yiu will be asked for bank statements but not payslips.
adele adams says
Sorry first post and its long
Below is part of the response i have just received from Lending Stream
they have been very quick in responding i put in all my complaints on 10th Feb after being advised to look at your wonderful site
Question is what to do next? Shall i reply to ask them if its their final decision or just wait and send all the rejections to FOS I have a lot of lenders i am complaining to (10 payday lenders, provident i have already sent com plaints to. I still have to complain to vanquis and littlewoods and possible a few others) –
PS THANKS SARA FOR ALL YOUR HARD WORK AND ADVICE :) IT IS REALLY APPRECIATED
adele adams says
We have reviewed your accounts and would like to share our findings. You borrowed four loans from Lending Stream and all these loans have been closed successfully (Ref. No. 1278924).
While reviewing your accounts, we note that your loans were approved based on the following facts:
Employment: During the applications, you were full time employed.
Income: The data shared in the applications indicated that your monthly income was £1000.00. The disposable income on your loan accounts were ample to complete the monthly repayments towards your loan easily.
Experian Scores: Experian score was 640 or above. This was factored into our proprietary underwriting and deemed acceptable.
Applications Declined: We have not approved for a loan each time your application did not meet our lending criteria.
The loans were approved only for the amount you were eligible for.
When a customer requests for a credit report from a Credit Reference Agency, he or she may acquire specific information including names of different lenders’ and their respective reporting, however, when a financial institution does a credit search on a customer’s credit report, they are not privy to that exact information. Hence, our decision to lend money does in part rely on the information received from Experian (credit scores).
adele adams says
sorry that is only part of it too long to allow me to post on here x
adele adams says
I had a loan 30/08/12 paid on 11/9/12
new loan 21/9/12 paid 3/10/12
then 4/10/12 default 29/6/13 (apparently outstanding £92 on my records £62as i have been paying £10 a month since and via this letter its closed? – open on my credit file though)
then 2/11/12 end date 31/1/17 (also was in arrangement but paid off now)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you had 4 loans in quick succession. It’s definitely worth sending that to the Ombudsman! Pay no attention to LS’s suggestion that your credit score was 640, it may actually have been much lower than that, they seem to make this number up.
Send it now, don’t wait for other lenders to reply.
adele says
Thank you for the advice – yes that score seems pretty high for me. I have emailed them to ask if its there final descision. Now with your support I will send it on to the Ombudsman. Its pretty scary but you are a GREAT help :)
Steve says
Adjudicator has been so friendly and helpful throughout. Had to come back to me a few times with questions about transactions on my statements and I had a large number of gambling transactions in my banking, but these ended up helping my case as lenders should have asked more questions. Got his response yesterday suggesting Lending Stream should refund 9 of 11 loans after they offered me nothing. Not expecting it any time soon given Lending Stream’s terrible reputation for responding to the adjudicator but should be about £1,400 before interest added. Just another success story for anyone needing that bit of motivation to keep going with the process!
adele says
Great news and great that the adjudicator is friendly as its a scary thing to do. I also have gambling transactions and a bit nervous to move forward. Good luck :)
AK says
I thought the same that LS is terrible replying but they accepted the adjudicator’s decision on time. I asked them for a breakdown as they didn’t include statutory interest in their numbers at first. They did in few days. Then asked them to add faster payment fees they charged in 2011. All done very quickly. Now I’m waiting for the refund itself. Hopefully they changed their habits here as well and pay before allowed 28 days.
AK says
And they actually did. I received the refund in just 2 weeks.
Ryan says
Hi Sara, Lending Stream have asked for a £10 cheque for my loan history, which obviously I’m not going to pay. How do I get around this quickly? I managed to get the amount of loans I’ve had from them, but no info on interest. Shall I just go ahead with Step Two – Asking for a refund, stating the amount of loans I’ve had, and then trying to find out the interest amounts whilst I’m waiting for a reply?
Paul says
Hi Ryan
You can view the interest etc with lending stream online ( transaction history). To get a total view just go onto your online banking and search lending stream, will show you total paid in and total paid out
Do that and just minus the difference of what was paid out v what was paid in to work out the interest paid
Ryan says
Hi Paul,
Thanks for that, unfortunately Santander don’t offer the search by name service though!
I’ve calculated the interest the long way, and I assume once they have to reply to me with a decision on my complaint, it’ll have to include the account history anyway.
Neil says
Great site and taking on 12 different companies for irresponsible lending that got me in all sorts of difficulty.
Uncle Buck have told me they don’t hold any records after 6 years so can’t provide me with a statement of accounts. I have some paperwork from back then, but not all and the final loan went to a collection company which was then subsequently settled. Is this still a case I could take further to the FO?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you will need to be able reconstruct a list of your loans, from your records, bank statements etc
Claire says
Heya bit confused and not sure what to do next…. adjudicator came back today ‘re my pounds to pocket complaint.
They have said the following in the following order:
– they feel P2P were right to lend to me based on the information I provided
– that they feel P2P could have carried out more checks on my 1st loan
– P2P have offered to refund all interest on loan 2
Is it just me or does none of this make sense – if they feel more checks should have been done then how can they say they were right to lend to me. If the issue was with loan 1 why are they refunding loan 2?
So confused!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
were there just two loans? how much interest paid on each?
Claire says
Yes just two loans. 600 interest on the first and 1100 odd on the second. So I have been offered 1300 odd incl the 8% for the second loan.
.I just don’t understand the fact they are refunding the second when they say the issue is with the 1st?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you have two different people’s decisions here. Is the adjudicator saying the first loan should be refunded and not the second? What reasons did the adjudicator give for not saying the second should be refunded?
Claire says
No P2P premptively offered to refund the 2nd loan so they are no longer looking at that one.
The first loan they say that they feel P2P should have done further checks. P2P said they had asked me for my outgoing and did affordability checks but no longer have the files to evidence what they said or what info I gave.
Based on this the adjudicator calculated my monthly outgoings and decided that I would have £400 left each month after rent/living expenses etc. They did this as they expect this is the info I gave P2P. They didn’t include any other loan outgoings in this which at the time were averaging 325 to wonga each month.
They also said P2P sent them my credit report that only showed 2 previous searches – i dont understand this as i had 11 wonga loans in the previous 6 months.
Can I raise this with the adjudicator and ask them to reassess or does it just have to go to ombudsman?
I have previously sent all my wonga statements to further evidence my outgoings so they had this info but haven’t looked at it.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you have a final decision from your adjudicator? If not, you can ask them to look at it again as you feel they haven’t taken your other loan outgoings into consideration.
Claire says
So apparently the adjudicator can only make a decision based on the information they can see?! So as pounds to pocket say they asked for my outgoings but no longer have it on file, there is no evidence I told them about my outgoings with wonga?!
How can I be worse off because p2p failed to keep their files in order?!
I was honest about my wonga loans, I remember as I was surprised they approved me!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
But isn’t the problem here is not that your adjudicator can’t see what you told P2P, it’s that the adjudicator’s calculations are incorrect?
Tony says
Hi,
Just wanted to say, what a great site!
After researching and reading over the last couple if months, I now have cases sat with the Financial Ombudsman for QQ, PDUK, PDEX and ADS for payday loan claims, Vanquis for ROP and I am attempting to tackle the affordability of numerous credit cards.
To give you an idea of the scale of things, I accrued over £50K OF personal, unsecured debt over a period of 4/5 years, and I have spent roughly the same length of time attempting to clear it.
I will keep updates with regards to outcomes (cases sent to the ombudsman Dec last year and additional information supplied 1st Jan), understand it will be a long haul but good things come to those who wait????
Craig says
how are peoples experiences with sunny? i had 4 loans from them in quick succession – 30th Sep £100, 26th Oct £100, 3rd Nov £50 7th Nov £250 aswell as existing loans with 247 & Mr Lender. Shortly after the 4th loan was issued I informed them I couldnt afford the repayments mainly due to a nasty gambling addiction (which is now under control) aswell as other debts.
We agreed a repayment plan of £50 a month with interest frozen.
So didn’t really pay much interest as the repayment plan was in place 6 weeks after my first payment with them. I’m still thinking of complaining on the ground of irresponsible issuing of the loans in quick succession and of course not making the necessary checks which would have saw the other payday loans.
Laura says
Hi Craig,
Sunny I found reasonable. They stettled with me no problem but I had no balances or missed payments so I actually thought they would turn me down. It’s worth Persuing and I wish you well. Thanks again Sara
Craig says
thanks laura, thats handy to know, i will submit complaint see how it goes :-)