Have you had problems with payday loans? You can get a refund of the interest you paid on “unaffordable” loans.
It’s easy to ask for a payday loan refund using the free template here. This works if your payday loans were repaid or you still owe money.
Contents
What are “unaffordable” loans?
The regulator says:
“the borrower should be able to make the required repayments without undue difficulty, whilst continuing to meet other debt repayment obligations and reasonable regular outgoings.”
That means a payday loan is only affordable if you repaid it on time and you could still manage to pay your other bills and debts.
A loan is not affordable just because you haven’t missed a payment – if paying a loan left you so broke you had to borrow again – from the same lender or a different one – it was unaffordable!
If the loan was small and it was the first loan or second loan from a lender, the lender may not have realised the loan was unaffordable for you. But it was irresponsible lending to just carry on giving you more loans. Payday loans are meant for short-term problems.
Many lenders ignore obvious signs of problems such as your loans increasing in size, or your credit record showing increasing debts.
How much compensation can you get?
A typical payday loan decision by the Ombudsman is that the lender should refund all the interest you paid after the third, fourth or fifth loan.
But if your first loan was large, or was rolled over several times, you can get a refund from just one loan.
Which lenders can you get refunds from?
Lenders include:
CashASAP, Drafty, Fast Loan Uk, Fernovo, Fund Ourselves (now in administration), Kabayan, Lending Stream, LoanPig, Mr Lender, Moneyboat, My Finance Club, QuidMarket, Savvy, TickTock, The Money Platform, WageMe.
See this list for payday lenders for a longer list and their email addresses to use.
You can make claims to lenders who have recently stopped lending. It is probably too late to make claims to other lenders who gave up more than a few years ago.
For larger loans there are better template letters to use on other pages:
- 118 Money, Everyday Loans/Evlo, Likely Loans/Finio, Reevo, Bamboo, Updraft, Lendable, bank loans and other long-term loans.
- Loans2Go – the worst loans in Britain!
- doorstep lenders and guarantor lenders,
Do this before, before you send in a complaint
Doing these things now will make your life easier later.
If your finances are difficult, look into a Debt Management Plan (DMP) where you make one affordable payment a month to StepChange. This gets you into a safe financial position as these affordability complaints can take a long time. Winning a complaint then speeds up the DMP.
Get a copy of your TransUnion statutory credit report and keep it. After complaints are started, sometimes loans are deleted and you may want the full report if you have to go to the Ombudsman.
Unless you can afford to make this month’s payment without borrowing again, cancel the CPA or the Direct Debit to the lender at your bank. Otherwise the lender may take the money and you will be in a mess.
Start your complaint
It’s easy to make these complaints – you don’t need to calculate what refund you should get or quote laws.
Find the lender’s email address for complaints from this list. If your loan was sold to a debt collector, you complain to the original lender.
Put “AFFORDABILITY COMPLAINT” as the subject of your email:
I am making an affordability complaint about the loans you gave me. You should never have given me these loans. Paying you each month left me with too little money so I had to keep borrowing to get through the next month.
You should have realised from the number of times I borrowed and the rest of my credit record that my debt problems were getting worse. It was not responsible to continue to lend.
My credit reports would have shown all my other debts [include this if it applies: and problems including late payments/defaults /CCJs/debt management.]
I am asking you to refund the interest and any charges I paid, plus statutory interest, and to delete any negative information from my credit record.
I no longer have all the loan details. Please send me a list, showing for each loan when it was taken out, how much interest and charges you added, and what I repaid. This will enable me to assess any refund you offer me.
Some ways to improve this
Add any other points that help you describe what happened to you. Some examples:
- “I took out another loan with xxxx to pay you.”
- “Sometimes I borrowed to pay the rent and then had to top-up to get money for food.”
- “I had a gambling problem and your loans made this worse”.
Only one loan?
The template refers to multiple loans because that is what normally happens with payday lenders.
When you only had one loan and it was large (say £800 or more), read Refunds from large loans and use the template there.
If you only had one loan and it was small, this is going to be a difficult complaint to win. If you have borrowed twice from 5 leaders, that is much more difficult to win affordability complaints than having 4 or 5 loans from two lenders.
Sometimes a lender will offer you a small goodwill amount to give up eg £50 or £100 so if you only had one loan and it wasn’t large, that would be a bit of help.
Waiting for a reply from the lender
This email starts your affordability complaint.
The lender should reply to your complaint within 8 weeks. Don’t be surprised if you have to wait until the end of the 8 weeks to get response – this is common.
Some lenders ask you to send them a copy of your credit record, payslips or bank statements.
Credit record – the lender can check your credit record themselves if they want.
It is a good idea to send bank statements. But think twice about the cost of copying and postage if there are a lot. Some lenders seem to ignore them if you do send them. Don’t bother to send payslips.
This is a good point to get those bank statements even if you do not want to send them as they will help an Ombudsman claim a lot. You can get them going back at least 6 years, even if the account has been closed.
Lender rejects the complaint or makes a poor offer
If the lender says No or offers you a small amount, you may still have a very good case!
It is easy and free to send your case to the Financial Ombudsman, where many thousands of people have won their payday loan complaints.
Give up?
Some lenders try to make your case sound bad when it isn’t. Ignore any of the following comments, they do not mean you have a weak case:
- they relied on your loan applications – see Lender says I lied for more about this;
- some loans were paid early – this doesn’t prove the loans were affordable, just that you were trying to save interest;
- loan size didn’t go up every time – irrelevant, what matters is that you kept borrowing;
- you had a good enough credit score or they didn’t legally have to check your credit record – if you only had one or two small loans that is true. But if the loans were large or you kept borrowing, they should have looked closely;
- some loans are over 6 years old – the Ombudsman will look at these even if the lender says they won’t!
A good enough case to go to the Ombudsman?
If you don’t know what to do, ask in the comments below this article. Accepting an offer settles your whole complaint – you can’t change your mind later.
Some points to think about:
- if you are offered a refund on only a few loans, don’t accept it if you think you should have more refunded;
- an offer to write off your current balance may sound helpful … but it may be very poor if you should get a cash refund as well.
One or two loan cases are hard to win at the Ombudsman. It’s probably best to give up on one or two loan cases unless:
- the loan was large. Here is one single loan case that was won even though it was an instalment loan and the borrower had a good income. And another single loan case for a loan of £1,000. You can win cases for smaller amounts if the repayment would have been a large amount of your income; or
- you still owe money.
Don’t delay – there is a 6-month time limit after a lender rejects your complaint to send the case to the ombudsman. If you aren’t sure, send the case and let them make an independent decision.
How to send a complaint to FOS
Put in a separate complaint about each lender. There is no limit to the number of FOS complaints you can make.
Send the rejections as they come through – don’t wait until all your lenders have replied!
FOS’s “complain online” option is easy and asks for the information to set up your case.
Attach:
- the lender’s reply.
- bank statements if you have them. Ideally from 3 months before your first loan until the last loan was repaid or you defaulted on it. This strengthens your case, showing how unaffordable the loans were. You can still get bank statements even if your account is closed.
- your TransUnion Statutory credit report
- it doesn’t matter if you don’t have the credit agreements, FOS will get them from the lender.
What happens after you have sent a case to FOS
Your case will wait for the lender to send FOS their case file and then be picked up by an investigator/adjudicator who will make a decision on it.
The Financial Ombudsman has a two-stage process. Most cases are settled by the first “adjudicator” stage but about 10% go to the second “Ombudsman” stage.
A few problem cases
Don’t ask for a refund:
- if you have been bankrupt unless your borrowing was all after your bankruptcy – any refund would go to the Official Receiver.
- if you are in an IVA, as refunds will go to your IVA firm not to you.
- if you are in a DRO now, a refund of more than £2,000 may mean your DRO is cancelled! But many payday loan refunds are less than that.
More help
Ask a question in the comments below.
Don’t use a claims management company. They are expensive and often incompetent. FOS says individuals making a complaint have a better success rate than claims firms.
Card & catalogue affordability complaints
Can you get an overdraft refund?
Could a Debt Relief Order help you?
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
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?
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????
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.
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
Jax says
Hi can anyone tell me how long you have typically waited for your complaint to be picked up by an adjudicator after submitting to the FOS please. I sent mine on 19 December and am still waiting. Thanks
dan says
Very mixed,
Some I submitted a month ahead of you and already have final decision from adjudicator, two others not even allocated as yet
I think a lot depends on which lender it is/ age of your loans
April says
Anyone know how long SNC usually take to process a refund?
I got an offer today of £3700 and I’ve just accepted. Very happy with that!
Michael says
I complained to PayDay Uk on 23/1/18 via email and received an offer of a £2133 refund for the interest of my 5 loans yesterday, thank you so much to the creator of this site – I never would have complained if I hadn’t come across your information! I have complaints logged with Wonga, PayDay Express, Lending Stream and WageDay Advance too so fingers crossed!
Andy says
hi , does anybody know is ombudsman usually agrees with adjucatiors findings , as I have had two complaints in my favour with safety net and bamboo loans , also with a provisional decision from and ombudsman level with another loan, thanks in advance
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes adjudicator decisions are normally upheld. Sometimes they are changed slightly – the adjudicator may have said refund everything from 4th loan and the Ombudsman changes that to refund from the 2nd or 5th loan say.
Well done so far on the Bamboo loan, was that a guarantor loan?
Sarah says
Hi guys, I have received numerous responses from lenders telling me that their investigations are taking longer than expected and they haven’t yet come to a decision. (Still within the 8 weeks) and I wondered if this was a good sign or just them stretching things out? I’ve had a negative result (found they lent responsibly) from lending stream and the money shop (I’ll be sending to adjudicator) but they were quite quick so thought maybe this was an indicator that the others may be more positive? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
These are standard emails, they mean nothing for your case. It’s unlikely anyone has looked at it yet.
Pamela says
Sara I had 8 loans with quickquid in a year they rejected my claim and told me my income was three times what I said it was. I still have a loan that I’m paying off with them and when I log into my details I can see that my correct pay is written on there, the pay form was not changed since loan 1. Are they allowed to make up a random figure as my income? Has anyone else had this problem?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No of course they aren’t allowed to make up a random figure… I suggest you take a screen shit of that urgently as evidence!
Then reply to QQ pointing this out and asking for a refund or you will be taking your case to the Ombudsman and asking for additional compensation for the way they have handled your complaint!
Josb says
Hi Sara,
Just a bit of an update. I had taken several loans with QQ. The last of which was a 10 month flexi loan, that was back in 2014. I made all the payments except the last which has now entered into a CCJ.
The adjudicator has come back to me with the letter they’ve sent to QQ detailing that loans 3,4 and 7 (the flexi loan) were unaffordable.
How likely is it that QQ will reject the offer from the adjudicator? And if they are to remove those loans from my credit file will that mean the CCJ is removed also?
Thank you so much for you information and encouragement to pursue this complaint further.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
QQ accept some offers, not all.
If this has to go to the Ombudsman, you should consider if you want the Ombudsman to look at ALL your loans for a refund. Sometimes The Ombudsman will assume this, but it’s best to be clear, telling your adjudicator “I would have accepted your decision in the interest of getting this resolved speedily, but I think other loans should also be refunded so I would like the Ombudsman to look at them all.” Or “loans 5 and 6 as well” – whatever you think would be fair.
No the CCJ won’t be removed. To do that you would have to apply to the court for a set aside.
Daniel says
I had several loans from Payday Express over a short period of time however as part of their investigation they are requesting bank statements and a copy of my credit report. I understand the bank statements even though I will not be paying the money to get them from a bank I no longer use at this stage. But why would they require a copy of my credit report? None of their loans – the ones paid off or the one now with a debt collector show on my credit report. Is it wise to send them a copy?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They don’t want to see their loans, they want to see what other borrowing you had.
I don’t really know why they ask for this, unless it’s to put people off. They can check your credit record themselves if they want to – you would have authorised this when you applied for a loan.
The debt with a debt collector – I just want to check you have told the debt collector that you are disputing the debt with PDE ?
Andy says
No Sara it was a high interest personal loan, adjudicator has agreed that it was unaffordable, and gave them a month , they immediately replied saying they disagree and sent two page email as to way, so adjudicator has said must go to ombudsman, so as was just 1 loan , was wondering if they are likely to agree with decision, I also had a adjudicator on 5 P2P loan saying they lent responsibly, only for provisional decision by ombudsman saying 3 wer unaffordable, any advise would be great
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Bamboo – adjudicator decisions are usually upheld. Single loan cases can be hard to win but as these loans are often large the lender should do thorough checks.
P2P – so the Ombudsman is proposing to overturn the adjudicator decision? Good! If the Ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator it usually goes straight to a final decision, but if they are changing it it goes through the Provisional stage first so you and the lender can make more points if you want.
Andy says
Hi yes the ombudsman has given P2P and myself chance to respond , they have upheld last 3 loans after adjucator started that they had lent responsibly, I have provided all info that could , Sara do you think I should leave it And hope that they agree , with the provisional decision and is this likely or could it still not be upheld after this, my bamboo complaint was only accepted at adjudicator level so will hope ombudsman also agrees as the adjudicator after losing my reply still agreed that it was irresponsible,
Daniel says
Morning Sara,
This was a debt that had essentially disappeared. I’d had no record of it and it was from around 4/5 years ago, only when requesting my statement of account have they told me that this was sold to a debt collector (BW Legal). Like I say there’s no record of it on my credit report.
They also omitted to put it on their statement of account despite the fact I’d deferred it three times before they sold it on (therefore I’d paid nearly £200 in interest & charges on the loan)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Well you still need to tell BW Legal. It is massively harder to deal with this problem if BW Legal starts Court action, you can tell BW Legal that you dispute the alleged debt as you have no record of it, but say you are currently disputing all your loans from PDE so if this alleged balance exists it will be part of that complaint.
Kevin Smith says
Hi, i have just received a reply from peachy loans, now i never had a lot of loans with them
The first loan of £200 was taken out on 31/01/2014. T
The second loan of £100 was taken out on 09/04/2014.
The third loan of £50 was taken out on 15/04/2014.
The fourth loan of £150 was taken out on 25/04/2014. This loan was scheduled to be repaid over 3 monthly instalments with the scheduled payments never being higher than £87.94.
The fifth and last loan of £50 was taken out on 06/08/2014.
They have stated that my affordability and and the fact 2 loans i repaid early along with my credit score does not require them to uphold my complaint. They offered me drum roll…. 11.40 for the last loan. I have kindly declined and stated that i repaid loans early with other payday loans, also that the other companies who i had loans with have paid out to me. I have counter offered stating that if they pay me all the interest i paid minus the 8% on top i would accept. I have stated that it would save me time and them money.
Anyone had success going down the counter offer route?
thanks
kevin smith says
Hi, so hey got back and offered me 163, which is from my past three loans out of 5. I happy with this as other two I paid off early.
So goes to show you can counter offer them
Great site by the way. Wonder how long will take until they pay out.
Jen says
Kevin remember 2 ask 4 loans to be removed from your credit record, I asked to be paid the day I accepted to close the complaint, the money hit my bank 24 hours later
Sally says
Hi Sara, I need some advice, the adjudicator has rejected my claim against SNC saying that I had a disposable income of over £4000 this is ridiculous, I think they got this as I had a credit into my account from my husband who was acting as gaurantor with an Amigo loan that I took out. There was also a number of gambling transactions on my statements. The adjudicator is also saying my credit limit was £380 with SNC which was true when I first took it out but they increased this limit over the months to about £690. I’m a bit annoyed as I really thought they would go in my favour. What can I say to make them change their minds
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Go back to your adjudicator and say SNC should not assume any credit to your account is “income”. They could see that your regular income was actually xxxxxxxx
Also make the point that SNC increased your credit limit.
If the adjudicator doesn’t change their mind ask for the case to go to an Ombudsman.
sally says
Thank you for your help Sara I’m going to spend a bit of time on the weekend writing a very nice reply saying what you have just advised and also listing all my income and my outgoings. SNC are part of the reason that I am now on DMP and they should not be allowed to get away with their irresponsible lending. Thank you ever so much Sara
Ross Golden says
Looking for some help. I’ve send complaint emails to various payday loan companies and I just heard back off Pounds to Pocket. They have turned down my complaint and refused any sort of refund but they have missed the fact loans were topped up Everytime and many other important details. I’m still due them money and they keep calling me daily about 3 times hounding me to pay them, I think I have a case the ombudsman but should I also pay P2P as I complain to to Ombudsman?
Paul says
Any advice relating to the payment of exciting balances
I have sent letters to my 4 lenders – requesting refund etc and have baked this up with detail of dates amounts interest paid etc
I am due to make payment to them all in the next few days ( quite significant amounts )
Should I pay these or should I contact them and advise I won’t be paying until my complaint has been resolved?
I don’t want this to impact my credit score though by not paying.
I have given them an alternative solution which is the write off of the existing balances £1630
£1200 £1700 and £879 and the difference in interest paid refunded
Really not sure what to do – could I ask them to put a freeze on the account until the complaint is resolved?
I’ve paid £17,000 in interest over 106 loans with the 4 lenders ( sunny QQ Wonga and Lending stream)
LE says
I have received and email saying I now have an adjudicator for my complaint and she asked for bank statements and copy of credit file. I sent her all of that plus statement from QQ + P2P.
2 days before the 8 week point, They offered me £2223.77 and to waive a balance of £516, I have worked out insterest paid and it is more than tripple that figure so I sent it to the ombudsman back in October. Does anyone know how long it will take for this process to be completed it seems to be taking forever?
On the bottom of the email she asks me to send the statements and credit file by the 28th of Feb or I will proceed with the information, does this mean I’m close? I’ve also heard quick quid usually make higher offers whiles your claim is with an adjudicator but this hasn’t happened to me either.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Does anyone know how long it will take for this process to be completed it seems to be taking forever?” so 4 months so far – that is longer than average. You obviously have a large case, that does always mean it’s complicated, sometimes the very large cases are just simply obvious! But sometimes it is complicated just because of the sheer quantity of loans and bank statements, especially if you have flexi loans mixed in with standard payday loans.
I wouldn’t say QQ usually make higher offers, but it does happen.
Matt says
Got my first offer from QQ yesterday, offering £1406 just for loans within the 6 year bracket. I want the loans from 2009 to 2011 also looked into. I have passed this to Ombudsman, hopefully get a good response.
Kaz says
Has anyone had delays with Safety Net Credit not sending through a statement of account?
I requested this on the 14th Feb and still no response. I have had no loan agreements sent to me at all when I initially took out the loans.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Cancel your CPA to them with your bank asap so you are safe. Then send case to the Ombudsman if they haven’t replied in 8 weeks.
Debbie Sturgess says
Has anyone had any luck with cash converters? I had 18 loans in a 14 month period .paying back then getting another one out the following day .they have sent me a list of my loans but saying they have 8 weeks to investigate
Pamela says
Sara wonga give me 37 loans in 36 months. They sent me their final response today saying that the loans were leant correctly and fairly I’m a bit disheartened by this. Have I got a case for the ombudsman?
Davy says
Pamela, I have just got a similar response from them and none of my loans are over 6 years. Get it sent off to Ombudsman. I am not in a rush so will take it all the way no matter the time scale.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Absolutely! That number of loans sounds like a very good case – send it to the Ombudsan to look into!
Wonga makes some very poor decisions – over 2/3 of complaints against them are being won at the Ombudsman.
Davy says
Of the five cases I have opened, Wonga, Quick Quid, Payday Express, Payday UK and Lending Stream, just received the first response and it’s a knock back from Wonga. Off to the Ombudsman it goes. The other 4 have until the 1st March then they will go the same route.
Kaz says
Hi Davy,
How long ago did you send this off to Wonga for a response?
They lent to me when I was only earning £750.00 a month at the time, the last loan it took (with interest and fees) was more than my wage itself. There was only three loans taken but not sure if I should proceed with it.
Davy says
I sent them all away 7 weeks ago. Wonga are the first to give me a final decision and that was today and it was a refusal, so I am sending it off to the Ombudsman. You have nothing to lose but everything to gain by sending it off to Ombudsman.
Matt says
Thanks to the articles on this website and everyone’s comments I have taken steps to reclaiming the interest and fees on my pay day loans. I sent off my emails asking for my account statements Monday lunchtime, I had a total of 11 lenders, some of which I don’t expect to get anything from as I only had 1 or 2 loans with them however I thought it was worth trying.
So far I have heard back from 4, I have had an automated response from both Wage Day Advance and Lending stream acknowledging receipt of my email and that they will respond shortly. I have received an email from Mr Lender saying that they had received my request for a statement and would have it sent to me within 10 working days. Uncle Buck have been the most positive and within 24 hours had sent me a statement and I have now sent them the full complaint email and I am awaiting their response.
My question is what do I do about the companies that haven’t responded at all so far, not even an automated response? Do I resend the email or just sit on it and wait?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Wait a couple of weeks then send in a rather vague Step Two complaint letter.
natasha sheridan says
Hi
I have sent off and asked for statement of my loans to p2p, QQ and wonga on tuesday.
QQ and P2p have gotten back to me and sent me the statement showing I had 14 loans in the space of a year off them, some in the same month totalling £1400 for the two when I stated my wages was only £1200.
I have a balance of roughly £600 on each account that is currently with Step change on a debt management plan.
I am about to send the letter requesting refund (using template off here ) However when they sent me the statements they also requested the following information off me
To help us reach a fair complaint outcome in a timely manner (and where appropriate provide an offer of redress), please provide us with the following information as soon as possible:
• Bank statements (at the point/s you took out your loan/s with us)
• Payslips (at the point/s you took out your loan/s with us)
• Any additional information relating to your financial circumstances (at the point you took out your loan/s with us)
See the information that you requested attached.
I do not have all this information as I have changed banks etc and was in a different job to the one I am in now. Do I need to send them this information or just send the template letter to them with the information of the irresponsible lending?
thanks in advance.
Pamela says
It’s crazy I can’t see how Wonga can say this is ok. I mean I know that they are meant to be a short term solution only so I can’t get how a new loan taken out the day after I paid of the previous loan is responsible especially when it was the next day on 28 of the loans
Davy says
They are chancing their arm. Re another lender, Lending Stream, between 2015-17 I have had 45 loans in 18 months, I was in a DMP for £32,000 in mid 2013 with countless defaults and missed payments but they told me my credit score was 785, which is impossible. They just make up figures
Tom says
I have just complained to Wonga, Pay Day uk, Money Shop, Cash Store, Peachy & Quick Quid…I didn’t even think back then but now i realise how stupid i was and how irresponsible they was.
Brad says
Hi Sara, all
I have settled through the FOS with Wonga, they accepted FOS decision to refund me £1,578 out of £1,900 interest.
I’ve had the email from Wonga confirming settlement and they said it would take up to 14 days to be processed. It’s been 8 days now, do they normally drag this out?
Thanks again Sara
Ryan says
Hi, Lending Stream are asking me for a £10 cheque for account info (obviously won’t be doing that), will that matter when inevitably the case goes to the FO? I won’t have any email of account history to attach to the claim, that’s all. I’ll just have my own calculations from my bank statement. Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No, just say you don’t want a SAR, just a list of the loans. The Ombudsman will get one from them in the end :)
Louise says
Hi can anybody tell me how long does it take for.payment refund from 247 Moneybox to go into account.Thanks.
Linda says
They refunded me 2 days before the 28 day deadline. Hope this helps
Jonnym says
Hi I had issues with payday loans in 2009-2011. I finally entered a DMP then in 2015-2016 started lending with pay day loans again. The loans were mainly across 4 companies all at the same time all being rolled over with total interest over £6k.
First part of lending over 6 years ago and others more recent. What are my chances with these for refunds. My main argument is that whilst on DMP with defaults and missed payments on credit file I was lent to again by 8 individual companies working space of 2 months. These have defaulted me again. I should not have been lent to and if I wasn’t then I wouldn’t have worsened my credit. What are the chances of a credit score correction?
Bee says
If you complain to the ombudsman about these loans being unnafordable (as they clearly were) and they find in your favour, then they will be ordered to remove any negative information from your credit file along with interest refunded. With gambling transactions (as I had a huge problem) the ombudsman found even more grounds for the loans being unaffordable, as they stated my bank statements should have been checked before lending if they were responsibly lending.
Brad says
Anyone know how long Wonga take to pay when they have agreed to settle through FOS please?
allan says
Hi, I am after some advice re lending stream. Between 2011 and 2015 I had 17 loans with them totallilng £7250, the interest I paid was £4861.94. They have offered me £1283.99 in redress. I asked the FOS, they said up to you to accept or they will pursue the case. Question is do I accept, go back to the FOS or contact lending stream asking them to up their offer??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds a very poor offer. LS don’t usually negotiate so unless they have made a factual error – eg missed off some of your loans – its not worth going back to them. So I suggest sending case to the Ombudsman.
natasha sheridan says
Hi,
Just wondering I have an open loan with uncle buck at the moment, Can I claim a refund off them. I have been using them and others for the last 12 months to keep me a float. If I can claim do I stop making payments to them now or carry on making payments and chase for a refund as well.
I am claiming refunds from Quick quid and P2p and wonga for old loans I have had.
Sorry for questions very new to all this and hoping it can help me get out of a terrible cycle ive been in for a few years now.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes you can ask for a refund now, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-refunds-defaulted-loan/. If you can’t afford the repayments without borrowing again, you need to cancel the CPA to Uncle Buck and tell UB you need an affordable repayment plan as part of your complaint.
Jenny says
Hi,
I’ve used the letter above to contact all previous loans and all current ones. Today I’ve had an email from myjar saying the £1300 loan I had from them is now “account closed, no payment needed”. I received the loan on 7/2/18 so have yet to make any repayments. Anyone experienced this?
Tim says
Was your complaint with them for previous loans also, i am assuming you had other loans before the current one that you took out at the start of Feb? Seems strange to me but maybe if the interest you may be due back from them over you previous loans comes to several thousands and this is their way of getting out of refunding you more? Mr Lender tried something a little similar with me just recently in that they wiped my current balance of £640 (i borrowed £1000, and had paid back £988, so the £640 was basically the interest due on the £1000 borrowed) but they didn’t offer me the £800 interest i had paid on my 3 previous loans with them. This was supposedly their final offer unless i could provide them with further information, they said on their final offer that there wasn’t history of ‘advance against income’ on my credit file which is payday loans and off course there was and would’ve been several, so i decided to attach 2 statement of accounts from other payday lenders showing i had loans with them at the same time as getting loans from Mr Lender. They then offered me a £300 cash refund as well as writing of my current balance of £640 which i have accepted as the way i see it the interest i was due to pay on the 4 loans i had with them came to around £1440 and they have pretty much refunded me £940 of this, i could’ve taken this to the Ombudsman but i am more than happy as i got over £10k back from Wonga and QQ last year! Good luck with your complaint with MyJar.
Paul says
Sara, I’m due to make payments tomorrow to all 4 of my lenders
I’ve sent compliant emails to all 4 lenders and have had acknowledgment of the complaints from all 4 lenders (£17,000 interest over 106 loans)
Should I make these payments or should I contact them to advise I’m not paying until the complainant has been reaolved and a statisfactoeh resolution reached??
Don’t want it to impact my credit sore though by not paying?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If making the payments will leave you short so you have to borrow again, cancel the CPAs with your bank today! You have to end the payday loan spiral by not paying, don’t expect the lenders to be nice and not take payments.
You have large complaints – the last loans are VERY likely to be considered unaffordable, in which case any negative marks should be removed from your credit record.
kevin smith says
Hi, can anyone tell me if there is anything I can do with minicredit and micro credit complaints. Are they not both in liquidation. I know cash genie have a specialist team dealing with there’s so have emailed them.
Also anyone know timeframe for peachy paying out.
Thanks
April says
Hi Kevin, my Minicredit loan was sold to Opos/Kapama ltd.
I tried complaining to them as I’ve paid over £800 in interest on just a £200 loan (and there is still a balance of £230 which I’m refusing to pay) they rejected my complaint so it’s been sent to the Ombudsman.
I only asked them to wipe the outstanding balance and take the negative info off my credit file, rather than a refund as they weren’t the ones who originally issued me the loan.
Does that help at all?
Jonnym says
I have now received a response from a loan I had only one of in 2016 which after 2 months entered DMP stating no financial difficulty was aware at the time.
At the time I did have payment plans in place with some companies and lots of defaults on credit file. They also state I filled out form saying what deposible income I had. Problem at the time was this is all a result of gambling so a gambler never has an available disposable income and should they have of seen my bank details or checked better they would not have lent to me. Where do I go from here please?
Jenny says
Interest on previous loans is about £600, interest on this would have taken it to just over £2000.
Vikki says
Hi payday uk upheld my complaint payday express declined is it worth asking them to look at it again or send to ombudsman
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send the Payday Express complaint to the Ombudsman, I suggest.
Adam says
Got this from Satsuma…
“Outcome of our Investigation
Based on the information above, I can confirm the loans were issued responsibly in line with the Satsuma lending policy and therefore I am unable to uphold your complaint. There is a legal requirement for you to declare honestly, your income and outgoings at the time of application.”
They used my ‘disposable income’ as reason for the loans being affordable and dismissed the request. When the truth is, as many of you know in the heat of the situation its very difficult to forecast your ‘other credit agreements’ and I was often 100’s of £’s out. Giving the impression it was affordable. Reality is I had no idea how much shit i was in.
Any way I can still appeal this – or is it a no go?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The appeal process is simple – send the complaint to the Ombudsman! You may also want to read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/.
Shaun says
Hi Sara,
I have put in claims against,lending stream,Sunny,uncle buck,Ferratum,WDA,Safetynet,Satsuma loans,Mr Lender and Trusted quid,
Lending Stream have replied within 10 days rejecting the claim but offering the below,I have 7 closed loans and 3 active loans.
“”Considering your situation, we also find it worth mentioning that Lending Stream never retreat in their support and ensures that we provide appropriate help, whenever required. Hence, we would like to extend our support and are ready to accept only the remaining principle balance (amount borrowed – amount paid) on your loan (Agreement No: **********) amounting £357.69.
Also, we are ready to close the loans (Agreement No : ********* and *********) without any further payments.
We find it worth mentioning that the stated settlement amount (£357.69) can still be paid through the Debt management plan.
Post receipt of your confirmation same will be conveyed to Credit Resource Solution (CRS).””
The 2 loans they are willing to close total £70 left with over £230 paid in interest,why would they reject my claim but then offer the above?? I have replied rejecting there offer and have asked for a final response so i can escalate to the FOS,I would like to note that Lending stream said my credit score was above 725!!!! when i last checked it was 68!!! I must add after reading some horror stories about lending stream they have been quite easy to deal with up to this point
Keep up the good work
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“The 2 loans they are willing to close total £70 left with over £230 paid in interest,why would they reject my claim but then offer the above?” because they are hoping to buy you off very cheaply.
Gail says
Pay day express have agreed with the adjudicator on my case and have provided the adjudicator with the amount of refund there will be. The adjudicator has asked for my bank details which I have provided. Does this mean I will not be dealing with payday express directly and does anyone know how long it will take to receive into my bank?
Simon says
Hi Gail,
I had the same on 08/02/18, I still sent PDE my acceptance form from the ombudsman with my bank details and rang to check they had it, Im still waiting for the payment. They say up to 28 days and is done in date order from you acceptance date but they are running near to the 28 days at the moment.
Yvonne Walker says
I’ve received a statement from Payday Express for most of my loans but they have told me that I will need to get information from BW Legal for the most recent one because they now own the debt. I am currently making a small monthly payment to BW Legal, should I continue these payments and should I still make the complaint to Payday Express for all of the loans including the one now owned by BW Legal?
Thanks
Yvonne
Daniel says
I had a very similar thing with PDE a few days ago, just double check how the last loan ended up with BW Legal. PDE omitted this loan completely from their statement/investigation despite the fact that I had deferred this loan 3 times prior to it being sold on to BW Legal. Therefore there was 3 lots of interest missing from the statement.
Apologies if none of that relates to your situation Yvonne, just thought I’d drop it in there.
Shaun says
Lending stream have also stated i have had 10 loans with them 7 closed and 3 open,when according to my records i have had 12 loans, 9 closed and 3 open so have emailed them asking for clarification on this.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So the firm that is “quite easy to deal with” sent you a misleading letter with a very poor offer … quite right to challenge that now.
TT says
HI,
FOS have agreed with my complaint about LS and offered a refund of over £800. I have sent the acceptance letter back to FOS about a week ago.. called LS and they said no contact from FOS. FOS have said they usually give LS 4 weeks to issue the refund. Surely it doesn’t take this long? Is there anything I can do?
Pamela says
It’s been 8 weeks today since I complained to 247moneybox and myjar neither have responded to my request for a final response. What should I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could send your complaints to the Ombudsman tomorrow. Or you could email 247 Moneybox and Myjar and remind them the 8 weeks is up today and say you will be sending the complaint to the FOS unless they reply with an offer of a refund for you to consider.
Rob D says
i have sent off the template letter to 6 different lenders. i received 2 Formal Demand Pursuants from Lending Stream. they say they have terminated the agreements but i still owe them money.
We refer to the Default Notice which we issued on 4-Feb-2018 in connection with the above Agreement. We note that the period during which you could remedy the
Default has expired on 23-Feb-2018, and that we still have not received the Outstanding Payments in arrears.
In the circumstances, we confirm that we have terminated your Agreement and that the amount you owe us is as follows:
Outstanding Amount in arrears is £484.08
Details of Payments to be debited:-
a. Loan Amount (excess to Outstanding Payments in arrears): £259.04
b. Interest (excess to Outstanding Payments in arrears) : £210.04
Total Outstanding Payments : £484.08
Also, the interest on the Outstanding Loan Amount will continue to accrue until the Total Outstanding Payments are paid. Hence, we request you to kindly pay the Total
Outstanding Payments as soon as possible.
what should i do ?
thanks for any help
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I assume you agree you owe this money. (though with LS its never safe to assume anything!)
You could ignore this and just wait until your complaint is settled – LS can’t legally add more than 100% interest to the debt so its not going to get huge. If they sell the debt to a debt collector, you tell the debt collector immediately that the debt is in dispute with LS. Debt collectors are usually nicer to deal with than LS!
Or you could tell LS you need an affordable payment arrangement and offer an amount you will be able to manage each month without having to borrow more money. This won’t harm your case – if the last loan is decided to be unaffordable, money you pay now will increase the refund.
Amy says
Just wanted to say a big thank you for all the information from your website. I’ve just accepted an offer of £2200 from wonga which more than cover the interest I paid.
I’ve just forwarded my complaint regarding Quickquid to the ombudsmen, the only offered me £31 back for over £3k worth of loans taken over a 2 year period.
I.still owe then £300 which I’ve asked them to put on hold until the ombudsmen has looked at it. However their debt collection company ‘ARC’ are threatening legal action, despite me giving them the reference number from the ombudsman and all the details. They have as good as called me a liar and said that they have received no communication from the ombudsman nor a complaint.
Nightmare company!!!
Jonnym says
Can I ask when did you first complain to Wonga and were you loans over 6 years old or not? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Good that the Wonga complaint is sorted. Re QQ – are ARC collecting on behalf of QQ? Or have they bought the debt?
Andy says
Great news !! Today safety net have agreed with my adjudicator and have to refund all interest which will repay remaining balance and may still leave some over with added 8% , two down four to go , thanks Sara again for this knowledge and site , you deserve a medal ????????
Maria says
Happy to say that QuickQuid have agreed to a full refund of £1,954.82! I had 5 loans between September 2011 and October 2012 and defaulted on the last loan so will hopefully get this removed from my file. I sent my complaint on 5th January, meaning they took 7 weeks to reply, I hadn’t heard anything since I sent them my bank statements etc. so I was shocked to receive the email! Below is a breakdown of my refund;
OFFER BREAKDOWN
– Contractual interest and/or charges £1350.75
– Interest at 8% simple £755.09
– 20% tax withholding on interest £151.02
– Amount to be paid to your account £1954.82
Wonga, Payday UK and Payday Express have 1 more week to reply before I refer my complaints to FOS!
Thank you Sara, this site is a lifesaver!
John M says
Hi Sara,
Thank you so much for your site. I had numerous payday loans from 2009-2013 and didn’t know I could claim. I have received the following offer from Pay Day Express:
Lending period Number of loans
in lending period
Overall Decision Total Redress
02/09/2009 – 24/02/2010 9 Funds lent responsibly N/A
25/02/2010 – 24/11/2010 10 Unable to Determine N/A
24/11/2010 – Present
14 Agreed funds lent irresponsibly
Total Interest £1061.16
8% Statutory Interest £570.95
20% VAT on Statutory Interest £114.14
Total Payable £1517.97
I think I am owed about £2800 so I don’t really know if this is a good offer from them? I mean I expected nothing as over 6 years and wasn’t sure I’d get much so better than I expected but less than I am due so difficult for me to guage.
Quick Quid offered nothing so gone to FOS and Pay Day UK offered £168 when I am due about £1700 so that will go to FOS as well shortly.
Still waiting for 247 Moneybox, Wonga, Wage Day Advance, EPDL, Mr Lender and MyJar
Many thanks in advance for any advice
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have they sent you a statement of account?
They have divided your loans into 3 groups. The oldest 9 they are rejecting. The middle 10 they are asking you to send bank statements for presumably? The most recent 14 they are refunding. The interest on the most recent is £1061 (ignore the extra 8% here). Do you know what the interest is on the first group? And the second group?
Your options are:
– accept offer and forget about the middle group
– accept offer and send them the info for the second group. People have had PDE agree to more loans by doing this. If you want to do this, tell them you are only accepting their offer on the last group on the condition you can still send the middle group to the Ombudsman if you arent happy with their response
– say the offer is inadequate and send the whole lot to the Ombudsman now.
Pamela says
Sara 247moneybox have offered me all my interest back but haven’t added on the 8% Statutory Interest can I ask for this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can ask… if they say No, you have to decide if this is worth going to the Ombudsman over. How many loans and how recent were they?
Pamela says
There were 11 loans in 8 months
Amy says
ARC are collecting on behalf of QQ. Apparently QQ have advised them to carry on with legal proceedings regardless
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you had a Letter Before Action/Claim yet? See the example here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/letter-before-claim-ccj/.
Or a Claim Form from the court? See https://debtcamel.co.uk/court-claim-form/.
If No and No, they are probably just bluffing and you can ignore them until you get one of those.
Although the least stressful option may be to use some of the Wonga refund to pay this off – expecting that you will then just get a larger refund from QQ in the end.
Debbie Sturgess says
Hi sara.I had 18 loans in a 14 month period with cash converters but defaulted on my last one.do u think I stand a chance of getting a refund?I have emailed them and they have sent me the list of loans .many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
18 loans in 14 months sound like good complaint to me! They aren’t one of the larger lenders so they aren’t often mentioned, but here is one case where CC settled directly: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-73/#comment-246491 and one where CC refused but the Ombudsman made them give a refund: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/comment-page-67/#comment-242444. (NB those links may stop working after a few days I am afraid.)
The lst loan – was it repaid in the end? Sold to a debt collector?
Debbie Sturgess says
Thank you for your reply Sara. The last loan was never repaid and I think was sold to a debt collecter.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok, you should inform the debt collector that the loan is in dispute with CC.