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?
Bev says
Is there any update on Wonga 6+ loans please?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
not yet – as soon as there is movement I will report it!
Lou says
Hi all,
Any advice would be appreciated. I had loans with quick quid from August 2013 to October 2014 and pounds to pocket from November 2013 to November 2015. I was juggling debts and the adjudicator said she could only find that the last pounds to pocket loan was unaffordable. But when I added up what I paid out during that time I had no wages left. Is there any chance of the ombudsman agreeing with me or am I wasting my time?
S says
Just a quick note for people who may have had a small number of loans with a payday lender.
I complained to a lender (not one of the big companies) with whom I took out 1 payday loan and ended up paying back nearly doubled what I borrowed in 2012.
Although the lender did not uphold my complaint, they offered me the interest as a goodwill gesture… in the region of £130!
I doubt I would have perused 1 loan with a company with the ombudsman but this shows that if you don’t ask, you certainly won’t get.
Note: I am not willing to name the lender.
Matt says
Has anyone used 1st Stop? Shows as “1st stop home loans” on statement.
The current 1st stop loan company tried to suggest they have nothing to do with this but I can’t find anything that distances them from it.
Strange that nobody else on here seems to have used them or made a claim. Just wanted to know if I am wasting my time.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send it to the Ombudsman.
dan says
Mine was rejected by an adjudicator as it was a previous incarnation of the same company and my complaint was too close to the liquidation date so was advised they would just string it out and then my complaint would be worthless in any case – I think you have to be very exact on which ‘company’ lent you then money
Chris says
I’ve had the same Matt.
I’ve sent to the ombudsman today.
Hope all goes well!
Dine says
Hi
I had loans with p2p, qq, Pduk, pde and mc after coming across your page the other day I decided to ask for a statement of loans from the first 4 named above as I know mini credit went into liquidation, this morning I received statements from qq and p2p , there was still an outstanding debt on p2p but qq are asking for bank statements and payslips, I’ve acquired a few bank statements from 2013 but my concern is a took to online gambling to try and get myself out of debt ( stupid I know) but obviously this are on my bank statements and I’m worried this will have an effect on my claim, anyone else had this problem?
Gail says
Has anyone had a claim to the fca time barred? I have one with Vanquis for rop
Lisa says
Hello,
I have two complaints which have been upheld by the adjudicator. Both 24/7 moneybox and Payday UK have been given two weeks to respond. Has anyone had any recent experience with these companies and can advise if they had responded within the time frame or if the complaint went to ombudsman due to them not responding.
Thanks
Jax says
Hi Lisa, I sent mine to the ombudsman in December but haven’t heard anything yet. I think people on here have had issues with 247 but from what I have read PDUK seem to play ball. Good luck. Hopefully I will hear something soon. Hope you get a good result.
Lisa says
Thanks Jax, hope you don’t have to wait for your ombudsman decision much longer.
Jax says
Thanks Lisa
Linda says
Hi Payday UK we’re fine but 247 didn’t respond to my adjudicator in the timeframe to be honest they didn’t respond at all so I had to go in a queue for an Ombudsman who upheld my complaint too. I got my refund 2 days before the 28 day deadline.
Lisa says
Hi Linda, thanks for responding. I guessed that 24/7 may be difficult as they have been so far. Please can I ask how long you waited for it to be picked up by ombudsman after they didn’t respond.
Thanks
Linda says
Hi pretty quick from memory I have a couple waiting for the Ombudsman and 247 was inside a month about 3 weeks and that included Bank Holidays over Christmas and New Year so not too bad.
Lisa says
Hi Linda,
Oh that was quick then. Thanks for the information. I hope the others you have waiting are just as quick.
Thanks Lisa
Linda says
One has been picked up still waiting on the other one. Good luck to you hope everything is sorted soon :)
Ryan says
Hi, does anyone know which company ‘Transferwise’ is? It’s on my bank statement a few times but I can’t work out which company it is, and Googling it hasn’t helped. Thanks
Patrick says
Hi Sara,
Great website. I have had loans with 7 payday lenders since 2013, I have emailed all of them your 1st template last week.
QuickQuid who I had 29 loans with since 2013 totalling £8,566.80 with interest of £5,721.16 are one of 2 to get back so far.
They have replied with my statement and have asked for my bank statements & payslips.
I have responded without these documents but have used your second template and have input the figures on that.
Will this be enough or will I have to send these documents to them also?
Thank you
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You don’t have to send QQ(or any other lender) bank statements or payslips if you don’t want to. If the case goes to the Ombudsman, you will be asked for your bank statements but not your payslips.
Patrick says
ok, thank you
Jonnym says
Help and guidance required. So I had several loans 2009-2011 I then entered debt management and also had a gambling addiction. In 2015 still on DMP I relapsed taking out loans with about 8 payday lenders all 1 loan each company. I have written to these stating I shouldn’t have been lent to should the correct checks been done would have seen my adverse credit and should they have seen bank staemnents would have seen all the gambling.
The response I have had is similar stating that the blame is on me for not stating about the DMP or the gambling addiction and that loans were taken out incorrectly.
Where do I stand with this. I’m not overly fussed on the small amount of interest on the later loans but he effect it has had on my credit score again.
Jon says
Just to let you know that I have heard from cash genie this morning and it looks like the next cheque run will be on 13th March. Hope this helps some people.
Louise says
Hi Jon,u heard if your included in this cheque run or anything else.Thanks.
Phusita says
Hi sara
Please can you have a look for me
I have been complain to The money shop have have recive the Email from them sounds like they tell my I still owe them money.
I have take the loan with them 2 time
1. Take loan. 3/1/17=£500
Make a payment 13/2/17=£628 finish
2.Take loan .13/2/17=£1000
2.1 Make a payment 13/3/17=378.71
2.2. Make a payment 12/4/17=964.33
2.3. Make a payment 12/4/17=196.54
2.4. Make a payment 12/6/17=239.11
I have make 2 payment in 1 day because I get the money from another loan to pay it back so I don’t have to pay to much interest.
Total I make a payment total £2406.58
This is I have recive from The money shop rejected my complain
What should I do ?
I send to Fob
Best regards
Phusita
Mark says
HI , I got a letter a few days ago from payday U.K. offering me £75 even though I have never had a loan off them and they left hard searches on my account , should I just accept the £75 or could I be entitled to more and I had a £400 loan from wonga about 5 or 6 years ago and I was on Jobseeker’s Allowance and the debt was crippling me every 2 weeks I was just paying off the interest , I think I paid around £2500 back for the £400 loan I had another loan after that and they wiped around £350 because they lent irresponsibley , would I be able to get anything back , I’m just wondering if I am entitled to anything back or not , any advice would be much appreciated, thanks
S says
Hi Mark
Search the past articles on here, there is one about PDUK giving £75 compensation to people all most at random for hard searches on their file.
Mark says
Ok thanks ????
Karyn says
Hi all,
I’ve requested a statement of account from 247 Money Box and rather than forwarding me this information, they written and said that they will investigate my complaint. At this stage I haven’t issued a complaint and responded to say so. Since then no response and no statement of account has been received.
Not sure what to do now.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send them a rather vague step two complaint.
Steve says
Having put in a load of complaints back in September, I’ve now had refunds for most or they are in final stages with FOS. When I sent statements to them, I realised I had loans with quid.co.uk (which is part of Sunny). Had no clue how much or any details but sent in Sara’s template and just had an offer of all interest returned. It’s around £450 so certainly not an insignificant sum for a lender I’d completely forgotten about. I sent the acceptance back today so wondering if anyone has any experience with how quickly Sunny pay out once everything is returned to them to accept an offer?
Han says
I have received my final
Response letter from MY JAR today saying they habe partially upheld my compliant-
Our decision
To put things right for you, we propose to refund the interest and charges you paid on these loans totalling £201.93. As your last loan remains outstanding to this date, we will reduce the balance to the principle sum you borrowed of £300.00, less the refund amount of £201.93 leaving an outstanding balance of £98.07.
We are prepared to write off this outstanding amount of £98.07 meaning that you will have no further financial obligations to MYJAR.
They will also settle this on my credit file.
What’s the best thing for me to do here ?
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So how many loans are they refunding? And how many did you have in all?
Han says
Only had 4 loans. They have emailed me this morning saying i am owed a refund on the outstanding loan of £42.55 and they will mark this as settled on my credit file. I think this is a pretty reasonable offer?
I look forward to hearing back.
Thanks
Hannah
Sara (Debt Camel) says
This is a little confusing but overall it sounds like a very good offer.
Debbie says
How long did u wait for a final response from my jar? did they make you wait the full 8 weeks?
hannah says
8 weeks is up on the 5th March – I emailed them to see if they have any updates and they replied within a few days with my final response letter.
Debbie Sturgess says
That’s good to know thank u .I’m still very early on .only a week sInce I sent complaint. Just wondering how quick they are to respond
Gavin says
Hi looking for some advice .over the last 14 months saftey net credit have let me borrow from them 22 times . Each time that take a payment I have to borrow it back . As I lost a well paid job and am now in employment earning 65% less than I was . Every month I get an email from them saying that they can see my circumstances have changed (as they have access to my bank account)
But there is no change in my credit limit etc ,
They can see that I have had to borrow from other lenders to pay them bk and leave virtually nothing in bank account so I have to borrow it bk straight away
Surely this is irresponsible lending ?
And do any of you think I have a good case ?
Thanks in advance
Gavin
Ryan says
Hi,
100% put a claim in. I was in the same situation with SNC. I had 19 loans with them and got a full payout within 7 weeks. £2570.
And thanks again. For this site. So far I’ve had +9,000 in refunds and still waiting on the 2 largest ones. Sunny and QQ.
Cheers Ryan
Gavin says
Hi Ryan
When you complained to snc did they stop taking money from your account while your complaint was being looked at ?
Also did u have to go to the ombudsman or did they just uphold your complaint ?
Cheers in advance
Gavin
Ryan says
Hi,
Yes payments was stopped whilst the complaint was getting resloved. They uphold my complaint with a full refund plus 8%. 7 weeks in total from complaining to getting the refund.
Cheers
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ryan was lucky. SNC can sometimes be VERY difficult to deal with. You should cancel the CPA to SNC with your bank, so they can’t take any money from your account. If you want to make any payments that you ca afford, do this manually yourself.
Gavin says
Hi Ryan and Sara
Thanks for the great advice
Cheers
Gavin
Tony says
Good morning,
I have a complaint with payday express that has just been picked up by an adjudicator following the submission of bank statements covering the period of lending.
I have now been asked to provide subsequent statements for the 5 years thereafter or the complaint will only be assessed on the information avaliable?
Is this normal?
Are they assessing the affordability at the time by assessing the impact on my finances the following years?
What do you think the impact would be if I didn’t manage to supply these statements?
The loans in question are over 6 years old.
Thanks in advance.
Tony
Chris says
Evening Tony,
I had the same today from PDexpress.
Out of 44 loans, they agreed 27 were irresponsible,
6 they need further info from old bank statements prior to 2011. (I sent 2011 to present)
11 (the first 11) they believe were responsible but will review if I can send statements.
They’ve included all with 8% interest.
They’ve said if I can provide further Statements prior to 2011, they will review the other 17.
I’ve asked My old bank to send these extra statements so I can forward on.
Seems PDE are dealing with these quickly if the info is sent.
Thanks
Chris
Jodee says
Had a letter from the Ombudsman agreeing with the adjudicator in my case against Lending Stream :) Wonga got back to the adjudicator offering to refund on loans 16-22, the adjudicator had advised them to refund on loans 6-22 so off the the Ombudsman it goes, although I’m hoping Wonga come back before then and agree to refund them all.
natasha sheridan says
Hi
just had following email form QQ/P2p (dealing with same person for both,
“This is a courtesy email to inform you that your account is under review. Once a resolve has been reached you will be contacted immediately.
We apologize more information is not available, and, can assure you we are diligently working to resolve your claim.”
Anyone else had this, if so how soon did you get a proper response? (is this promising)
I think I have a good case with these two companies as they are sister companies and I lent off both of them most months around ~£800-£900 a time and advised them I only earnt £1200 So i am hoping they make me a good offer so dont have to go to FOS.
This site is a god send. I will generally be happy with any refund,
My partner has now put in all his claims as well. Just a waiting game now. xx
Jodee says
How long after accepting do Wonga take to pay?
Maria says
I have just gotten an offer from Wonga for 6 out of 12 loans, the total offer is for £1,561.83, including interest and I’m trying to decide whether or not to go to FOS for the other 6.
The first 5 are from over 6 years ago so Wonga are not considering these and these would come to about £239 including interest – has anyone had any refund for loans over 6 years once going to FOS?
The other loan I took a year after the last but only 1 month after finishing a repayment plan, this would come to around £175 including interest.
Just trying to decide if it is worth pursuing with the FOS as I am in no rush for the money, all advice welcome!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you are getting back nearly 80% of the maximum you could get? Well it’s your call, but you may not get the first few loans refunded, so you could be waiting a very long while for not a lot extra.
Maria says
That’s what I was thinking, so it’s probably not worth the hassle! I’ve now gotten £3,600 back from Wonga and QuickQuid…fingers cross for Payday UK and Payday Express…and Vanquis.
But I’m now debt free thanks to you, thank you Sara!
Jonnym says
On my bank statement I have “1 month loan” anyone know what company trades or trades as this please?
S says
Complain to help@sunny.co.uk and make it clear in the email that your complaint refers to 1 month loan.
Jojo says
I’d just like to thank this site so much .I have got refunds back from 24/7 wonga P2P wage day advance .Still waiting on Sunny sent LS provident and QQ to ombudsman.I have no loans now and my finances are the best they have ever been totally on the right road it’s just the best.
I didn’t have a clue about this but my new year resolution was to be on top of my finances and yep it’s all good .
Thanks so much all great advice.
Richard says
Had my first offer yesterday, from Wonga.
They offered on two loans, which came to £110 with the interest added on.
I’d imagine I’ll be escalating this, but I’ve asked them for a breakdown of how many loans I had with them and what the total interest paid was so I can judge the offer in context.
Checking my credit file, I had 12 loans with them, assuming this is accurate, but some of them appear to have been paid back within a couple of days, assuming what Wonga supplied to credit ref agencies was accurate.
It actually makes me pretty angry when I think about how they could even consider that I was responsible to lend to considering this behaviour (it’s so obvious I was gambling….).
S says
PIXIE LOANS IN LIQUIDATION
Hi Sara
Unfortunately the FOS contacted me today regarding my Pixie Loans complaint to advise that they are now in liquidation, with no funds available even if my complaint was upheld.
A quick check online confirms this -they were delisted by IOM FCA in November 17 and entered liquidation on 15th Feb 2018.
J says
Hi,
I would really like some advice about a response I’ve had from Mr Lender.
I complained about two payday loans, one in 2012 and one in 2016. I took the 2012 loan out in order to meet repayments on 7 other payday loans I had at the time. Loan was £233, interest paid on it was £411. The 2016 loan I took out when I was struggling, had missed payments on my credit file and at least one default. Loan was £400, interest paid was £201.20.
Mr Lender have rejected my claim. They state that credit checks conducted at point of 2012 application “indicated that you were a credit worthy customer, permitting you to use our rollover service” and that I settled these loans without requiring any help or support, which indicated my ability to pay.
They also stated that affordability checks at time of 2016 loan show that highest instalment was not more than 31% if disposable income and that my records did not indicate financial difficulty (wrong).
They say they do not believe they acted irresponsibly in lending to me. But I have a current loan with them, so they have said:
“… as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to reduce your outstanding balance to the remaining capital amount borrowed, payable using an affordable payment plan…
Further to this once you have settled in full, we will remove any adverse information from your credit file.”
Does this seem like something I should counter or take to the Ombudsman? It feels like an attempt to pay me off cheaply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The first loan – how often did you roll this?
The second loan – you borrowed £400, how much have you repaid so far? Have you defaulted on this?
J says
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for your reply. I’m not sure how many rollovers – I went from payments on bank statements rather than asking for an SOA. I made 8 monthly payments for this loan in total.
The second one – no I did not default. I repaid this fully in 2016 after 4 months on installments. I took out a loan with them last month, which is the one the refer to in the goodwill gesture.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
8 monthly payments sounds like 7 rollovers…. that a lot. I suggest you go back to Mr Lender and ask for a refund of half the interest you paid on the first loan, to be deducted from the amount you borrowed on the last loan.
J says
Hi Sara,
As some of the info in Mr Lender’s response was incorrect (no defaults on file etc.) I went back with more info on my borrowing at the time, and asked for the same resolution. They have today got back to me, saying:
“We use CallCredit to check files… you had no accounts in default at time of second loan”. This is blatantly wrong. I can see from checkmyfile that the defaults registered 3 months prior to taking out my second loan with Mr Lender were reported on my credit file by… Call Credit.
They also said my file “only showed evidence of two outstanding advances against income to indicate short term borrowing from other lenders” at the time of my first loan, and that this did not lead them to think that I was in financial difficulty. These loans at the time were from Wonga and PDUK, and were for £950 and £330 respectively. At the time, my salary was £1240pcm. I also used the rollover service 5 times for this loan.
They have also said that “it would not be seen as responsible to issue you a refund when you still have an outstanding loan”. Is this true?
They have stuck with their best and final offer of wiping interest off my current loan and spreading remaining amount.
Any advice you have would be gratefully received. I think my next step is to take to FOS, but I wanted to check whether some of the points above really are unfair, or it just seems that way because I’m inexperienced.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You only had 2 loans, years apart. They have offered to remove the interest from the last loan … this would be the “correct” action if the first loan hadn’t been rolled so often.
So there is no point in arguing about the second loan – they have already given in on that one.
“They have also said that “it would not be seen as responsible to issue you a refund when you still have an outstanding loan”. Is this true?” well they won’t give you a cash refund for the first one, but they could use a refund to reduce the amount owing on the last loan. Is that what you asked for?
J says
Hi Sara,
Thanks very much for getting back to me.
I haven’t explained my situation well enough to you. The second loan Mr Lender are talking about is not the last loan I have taken out with them. I have taken two more since then. However they had large gaps between them, were taken as installment rather than payday loans and compared to my salary/credit file, are not solid ground for claiming unaffordability so I have not complained about them. I have complained about my loans from 2012 and 2016 because they really were issued at times when they were unaffordable.
I did say in my most recent response that I would be happy for any refund offered to go towards clearing my outstanding balance – and this is when they declared that issuing this refund would not be responsible.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think you have been clear to Mr Lender then you either have to accept their offer or take the case to the Ombudsman. If you have had a few widely separated loans, some of which you feel are affordable, it may be hard to get the Ombudsman to offer much more than Mr L has.
J says
Hi Sara,
I’ve had some more correspondence with Mr Lender. After making clear to them the state of my credit file/borrowing at the times these loans were taken out, they replied quickly and still refused to up their offer. I replied saying I would refer the case to the FOS, as they were not taking the time to consider extra evidence provided.
They quickly asked for a copy of my credit file. On receiving this, they have changed their offer from wiping interest on my current balance of £395 and me paying remainder, to wiping interest + £395 altogether and closing my account.
The figures are as follows for the two loans I complained about:
£633 borrowed
£634.20 interest paid
£200ish in stat interest due
Total: £834ish
Their offer is to wipe £395 remaining as goodwill (initial balance was £550 in Jan and I have already repaid £304.84), not admit loans were unaffordable, not remove loans from credit file and not pay any stat interest due on unaffordable loans. They have said they are unable to issue a refund due to my “high outstanding balance”.
If possible, I would really like your thoughts on this offer.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So you have paid 634 of interest on the 2 loans you are complaining about. And they are wiping your current balance of 395. And you have other loans that you think were affordable. As I said before, you may not get any better by going to the Ombudsman.
For your other cases, make your life easier by complaining about EVERY loan – don’t pick and you choose. You may think it makes you sound more reasonable but it makes your case more complicated and weaker.
J says
Thanks very much Sara. I asked them to explain their figures and my outstanding balance is actually £245.16, so taking this means that over the first two loans I will have borrowed £650.00 and repaid £372.04 interest if I take this offer.
Given that my current payment plan would mean paying a further £781 from today, I will accept this offer as that will be a big saving.
I have learned my lesson and have complained about all loans taken for the remaining lenders I borrowed from. I did think it would make me seem more reasonable to not include the last two loans here, but as you say this has made it more complex.
Once I’m finished with this whole process and in the black, I would really like to make a donation to this site to help keep the amazing work that you do going. If that won’t be possible however, then do you have a preferred charity I could donate to?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
A small donation to your local Citizens Advice would be great. They are all individual small charities and are having their funding cut by many local councils.
J says
Hi Sara – update on this.
I decided to ask about complaining about all of my loans with Mr Lender. Long story short, they have wiped my outstanding balance of £781.81, given me a refund of £168.84 and confirmed they will remove information regarding all six loans from my credit report. Such a result! I was more bothered about info being removed from credit report than getting all the money back, so I’m really happy.
Thanks very much for all your advice. I have Wonga, QQ, P2P, PDUK, Ocean Finance, Speedloan and Money Shop to go now. Once all is sorted, I will definitely make a donation to my local CAB as you suggested.
Liam says
Good Evening Sara,
I’m wondering if you can offer me some advice. I have received a letter today from my adjudicator agreeing that 3 outstanding loans i have with Satsuama Loans. These are loans 5 to 8 and the Adjudicator has asked that all interest and charges for these loans are refunded, plus interest of 8% per year and remove any negative information on these loans from my credit file.
My question with these loans that still have an outstanding balance, what negative information will be removed. I still have an outstanding balance which shows that they are overdue and show that im in a DMP which i have an arrangement.
It’s showing late payment for each loan and will go into Default, if they remove the negative information on these loans can it still go back to late payment seeing that this is outside of the agreed term?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
No. all late payment, missed payment, default dates and arrangement to pay markers should all be deleted.
Liam says
Thank You Sara, finding your site really is a gem
Pamela says
Wonga gave me 37 loans in 36 months dating from 2015 until today. They have told me that it was responsible lending and dismissed my complaint is it worth sending this on?
S says
100%, get the ball rolling with the FOS asap!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely send to the FO- that sounds like a very good claim, it is a huge amount of borrowing. Pay no attention to Wonga saying they changed their lending criteria in 2015 – they are still giving too many unaffordable loans and losing these cases at the Ombudsman.
Ash says
Question, you have not received the funds after accepting a “Full and final” can you change your mind and escalate to FOS?
Wonga don’t seem to want to reply after I accepted their offer, so I’m considering escalating to FOS due to non-payment.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
how long have you been waiting?
Ash says
Two weeks so far, they just haven’t responded since my agreement.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Send them an email saying you will be sending the case to the Ombudsman if they don’t pay you.
Shannon says
Wonga do say 14 working days from sending the acceptance form back to refund being issued.
Mark says
Do wonga usually get back to you with an offer or have most people had to send it to the fo, thanks
Lisa says
Hi Mark,
Wonga got back to me with a good offer but it was on the last day of the 8 week period.
Good luck
Johanna says
Same here, Wonga made me an offer on the last days of the 8 weeks period, refund was sent on my account few days after i accepted their offer.
katie says
I received a good offer from wonga on friday I sent them acceptance form and bank details and I called them yesterday to make sure they had all this which they said they did. How long will the refund take to go into bank account?
Aaron says
Katie I accepted the offer I got from Wonga on Friday 23rd of February and found out they started processing it on Monday the 26th of February. I found out from this website and others that it can take 14 working days for the refund to be processed, once processed it takes 3-5 days to get to your bank account. I called on Saturday the 3rd of March to get an update and Wonga told me that it was processed on Friday the 2nd of March so it would be in my account between Wednesday the 7th and Friday the 9th of March. So I’m hoping it will be in my account tomorrow but could be up to Friday. Basically from the day they started processing it, it can take 14 working days.
Katie says
Did you receive your refund? I was told mine had been processed on the 7th but could take up to 14 days. I thought once processed it would be 3-5 days. Just waiting now
Carlos says
Is there a template or spreadsheet for calculating the compounded interest on the charges and interest? I seem to recall there being one about 7 years ago when I did a bank charge claim. TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Is this for the 8% extra? That isn’t compound interest, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/interest-payday-loan-refunds/.
AB says
Just wanted to share my good news, I have submitted several claims against providers, SNC came back with a really low offer, I referred this to the FO who has upheld my claim and requested SNC give me a refund of all interest plus 8% and any adverse marks on my credit file be removed. SNC agreed with the FO fairly quickly, so now I just have to wait for SNC to come back to me with further details on when to expect my funds. Thank you so much Sara!
Mark says
Hi how much did you have in total with safety net credit if you don’t mind me asking as I have had over a 18 month period totalling 17.5k. Was looking out for info on SNC with potential refund value, thanks and we’ll done
Lisa says
Hi
2 quick questions:
Does anyone know roughly how long the ombudsman is taking to issue decisions currently?
Does anyone know how long PAyday express are taking to pay out?
Thanks
Andy says
I am nearly 4 months into a affordability claim with the ombudsman against Mobile Money on 5 loans between 2010 & 2014, I discovered that the 2nd loan with them which had defaults was paid off in 2011 yet Mobile Money marked it as being cleared in 2014, they also made a similar mistake on my final loan. I asked them to amend this record and disputed it with Noddle yet Mobile Money told me and Noddle in writing that they could not amend it. Following the ombudsman investigations the credit files have now been updated, do you think I should be compensated for this as the ombudsman wants proof that this has had a negative effect on me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Ombudsman typically wants to know how much you have lost – it isn’t their job to fine companies for errors that haven’t caused you problems. If your credit record had lots of other defaults in 2011, this error by MM may not have harmed you. But if at that point your credit had improved, perhaps you wouldn’t have needed another loan from them?
But I think you should get a small amount for the hassle of MM refusing to correct an incorrect credit record.
How is the affordability part of the complaint going?
Andy says
I am not too sure how my affordability complaint is going, I must be getting on for nearly 100 emails between myself and the ombudsman, I feel confident they are on my side and I am hopeful that it’ll be resolved this week in my favour. There is now some confusion as MM rolled-over 3 of 5 loans and I only initially borrowed £925 in 2010 yet paid back £4,600 by 2013 when it was all cleared most of which was interest and 16 late payment fees of £12 (5 of these were on loan 1). I was in an IVA when i took the 1st loan out so I am querying whether they should ever have lent to me in the first place. I think the ombudsman is looking at all loans even though MM said loans 1 & 2 are over 6 years old. I only discovered this site on 6th April 2017 and sent out 15 emails on that day to all payday loan companies I had previously used, I will let you know the outcome.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
ok – good luck!
Andy says
Sorry I over exaggerated the amount of emails between myself and the FOS, just counted 50 emails (25 each way) not the 100 I stated earlier, I don’t want to put anyone off using the FOS as they seem very fair and helpful.
Andy says
Hi Sara, can I just ask with regards to my 5 loans I had with MM, I have just discovered that the 1st loan I had with them off £925.00 wasn’t paid off in the 6 month term of account so they called me back in after 6 months to sign a new agreement which rolled the balance of £832.50 into a second loan, i wasn’t given any further cash on loan 2 but they add £500.00 interest & £80.00 admin fee, so effectively started the original loan all over again. I had already paid £787.50 to them in interest & fees on loan 1. Is this legal practice to roll an outstanding debt into a new 6 month agreement and add set-up/admin fees of £80.00 and apply further interest at 120% per annum (£499.50). Thanks.
neil says
Hi sara how long normally for a refund once fos upholds claim and sends letter to wonga asking to refund interest and fees plus 8%
thanks
neil.
Nicola Handley says
I am still waiting on my refund.wonga has not got back to fos they had till the 14th of this month but they have not got back to them yet.he did say wonga has a pile up of cases could be a long wait
gillian says
hi i just got a funny email off lending stream it says they would like to inform me that they forgot to mention when i put in my complaint in dec2016 that i had the right to send it to the ombudsman man when they refused a refund this is funny because on the 16th of this month the ombudsman give his final decision saying they had to refund me loans 3 42 so i have just emailed them back and said thanks telling me but if you check you will see the ombudsman as all ready given you 4 weeks to refund me and if you require any information to make the refund please let me know
Sara (Debt Camel) says
haha that’s good – it has been very poor that they haven’t told customers about their right to go to the FOS.
AK says
I also received the same email and told them as well that instead of receiving the referral information for the resolved via FOS complaint I would prefer to receive an agreed refund ASAP
Craig says
Hi Sara,
I got the same email tonight with regards to my referral rights.
I did agree a refund with them directly back in 2016 of £200 – i needed the money and didnt have time to go to the FOS.
It wasnt till after then i found this site and realised i could have went to the FOS and got such a bigger refund.
I had 22 loans with them between 2014-16 £3k in total.
Could i submit a complaint to the FOS on the grounds they did not advise on my referral rights when they submitted their final response?
I still have their final response and indeed they did not advise I could take this complaint to the FOS
Thanks Craig
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think that is well worth a try! After all, what would be the point in telling you now if you couldn’t do anything about it?
Let us know how you get on.
Craig says
Ok thanks I will give it a try!
AK says
To my surprise the email was successful. I received the refund next morning. I can’t thank this site and Sara enough. You changed my life for better.
Maureen says
I’m looking for a little bit of advice…I complained to Lending Stream in Feb 2017, they made an offer of reduction of £67.50 off the outstanding balance of one of the two loans. I didn’t respond as it wasn’t acceptable to me and to be fair, I forgot to send it to the FOS within the 6 months. Anyway, today they have sent me an email saying that they may not have advised me of my referral rights at the time of my complaint and attached a copy. I looked back the original final response and they didn’t mention the fact I could refer it to the FOS if I wasn’t happy….do you think I could now submit it to the FOS on this basis, then though we are outwith the 6 months?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes I think you can – let us know how you get on!
Maureen says
Thanks Sara…nothing ventured, nothing gained! They were an awful company to deal with so I’ll leave it to the FOS this time.
Sara says
Hi, I made a complaint to the FOS about safe loans. The adjudicator found in my favour but safe loans have not agreed with my adjudicators findings and my case is being passed to an ombudsman. Has anyone experienced this? How long did it take for the ombudsman to make their decision? How likely is it that the ombudsman will agree with the adjudicator? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s quite common. Typical time from here is 2-4 months. The Ombudsman usually agrees with adjudicator – how many loans did you have from them?
Sara says
Thanks Sara, from the responses my adjudicator sent them i think they have been quite difficult to deal with. I’m worried even if the ombudsman agrees with the adjudicator they still won’t pay out. I had 10 loans with them in total
Alex says
Hi
I have taken 7 payday loans out with different companies. I can’t afford to pay any of them back and the interest rates are just too high. MyJar, Sunny, Satsuma, Lending Stream, Ferratum etc.
Most have now been passed to a external debt collector. I have set up repayment plans with these. I presume that won’t hinder my ability to claim a refund?
Will it matter that I have just had the one loan with some of these? I wouldn’t have thought so, as Ferratum for example was the last one I took out and I was in a mess then.
I am worried that if I email them and don’t pay anything back, further action will be taken as the balances have been outstanding for over 9 months now, please can you advise, it would be greatly appreciated.
The other query I have is are LIKELY LOANS classed as a payday lender? I took a slightly bigger loan out with them, still at silly interest rates, I wondered whether this is another company I could complain too?
Thanks for your help.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi
“I have set up repayment plans with these.”
that’s not a problem. Your complaint goes to the original lender not the debt collector.
“Will it matter that I have just had the one loan with some of these?”
One loan complaints are harder but always worth making if the lender should have seen you were in a mess before giving the loan.
Skip step 1 – you know what you borrowed and when.
Change the template letter in step 2 to be clear you only had one loan from them AND set out what your other debts were at the time you applied to them, saying they should have seen from this not to lend to you. Mention many missed payments/defaults on your credit record.
The compensation you could get is for the interest to be removed from the balance so you only repay what you borrowed.
“I am worried that if I email them and don’t pay anything back, further action will be taken”
Are the repayments you are now making affordable? If they are, just carry on with them. If they aren’t, ask for them to be reduced to a level you can afford. Tell the debt collector you are complaining to the lender and ask them to hold any enforcement action until complaint is resolved.
Yes you can complain LIKELY LOANS. They aren’t a payday lender but the same affordability rules apply.
Alex says
Thanks Sara for your response. I will do as you advised.
Last couple of queries.
– I presume even if I was still made to pay back the original loan amount (without the interest) I would be within my rights to make a small payment towards this each month on a repayment plan?
– Secondly, how do I explain and set out what my other debts were? Surely they would just say why didn’t you include that figure in the box that asked for your ‘other monthly credit commitments/loan payments’ ?
– It might have been with a couple of loans with a couple of them. Ferrartum who the last one was with surely should have known from my credit record as i’d defaulted on the other six by then. Lending Stream, My Jar etc I think I’ve had a couple with. Wonga is the one that have stopped giving me loans now, but I’ve had up to 5/6 with them in the past, so will complain to them for a past refund as they have given me repeat loans.
Please can you advise on the queries above, your help is really greatly appreciated Sara.
Thanks
Alex
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“even if I was still made to pay back the original loan amount (without the interest) I would be within my rights to make a small payment towards this each month on a repayment plan?”
yes – the repayment plan is because that is all you can afford.
“how do I explain and set out what my other debts were? Surely they would just say why didn’t you include that figure in the box that asked for your ‘other monthly credit commitments/loan payments'”
Just list them. eg “when I applied to you in April 2017, I already had loans outstanding to Wonga, Sunny, recent defaults on my Barclaycard and Capital One card. All these would have been on my credit record.”
You don’t have to “explain” these. There could have been many reasons why your application was inaccurate – you could have been too stressed or depressed to think clearly, you may have thought it meant long-term loans, not a payday loans etc. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ and as that says, a lender should check what you said against your credit record, not just accept what you said.
Alex says
Thanks Sara. I will set out an email as per the template and send them all an email.
I really do appreciate your help, its invaluable, thanks.
Pamela says
I agreed to 247moneyboxs refund. How long does it take to be processed normally?
Warren says
Hi everyone hope your well I just have a quick question that I was hoping so one could help me with. I had a complaint against lendingsteam that went to a final decision which was in my favor got told that lendingsteam have to refund me with in 4 weeks. How long do they usually take to pay out? Thanks in advance
Nicola Handley says
Question for yous.my adjudciator has just wrote to me.wonga are not agreeing with his findings.so it’s being sent to the ombudsmen my question is do the ombudsmen normally agree with the adjudciator and how long do the ombudsmen take to look at complaint
Jodee says
This happened to me last week, two days later Wonga got back in touch with the adjudicator and agreed to refund what they had advised. So it still may not get to the Ombudsman but it seems they usually agree with the adjudicator anyway.
Annie says
Same thing happened with my, they refused the adjudicators decision and came back with a rubbish offer, I declined and then they agreed with the adjudicator. I’m currently awaiting the funds going in my bank
Phil says
Hi
Just asking for a bit advice really – I have just submitted complaints to 4 different lenders – Wonga, Lending Stream, QQ and MyJar. In total, I have complained for affordability over a total of 60 loans and £22,635 which after working it all out is absolutely staggering. The oldest loan was from August 2016 to present day.
The base reason I was in need of the loans was due to a crippling gambling addiction which luckily I am now in control of and am self excluded on pretty much all sites.
I was just wondering, with a case such as mine and given the situation, would it be likely that the lenders make me offers or would they automatically reject due to it being down to gambling and at times my income was quite high? Would the FOS look more favourably into it if all are rejected? I’m going in with zero expectation of getting anything and if I do get anything back then it’s a bonus….
Any insight would be greatly appreciated .
Thanks, Phil
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“I have complained for affordability over a total of 60 loans and £22,635” – that’s a lot of borrowing! Is the £22k the amount you borrowed or the interest you paid?
“would it be likely that the lenders make me offers or would they automatically reject due to it being down to gambling and at times my income was quite high?” – it’s hard to generalise. But if your income looked high to the lender, they may well reject your complaints so they have to go to the FOS.
“Would the FOS look more favourably into it if all are rejected?” the FOS treats each case on its own. It won’t help or hinder your QuickQuid case if Myjar have rejected you. Send each case to the FOS when you get a rejection, you don’t need to wait for replies from them all.
Phil Gardner says
£22k was the total amount of borrowed – I know, it’s a lot – I didn’t realise how much until I worked it all out.
Ok thanks for the advice
Bob says
Do Wonga normally agree with the adjudicators findings? They have 2 weeks to reply.
Nicola Handley says
No they have just got back to my adjudicators (was ment of got back to him the 14 of last month as well) saying they don’t agree.so it’s in the ombudsmen que.so another long wait
Carly says
Hi Sara,
Is it still possible to get refunds when you are going through a Debt Management plan? Not there yet but in the process of setting one up due to having too many payday loans which are taking over my monthly income.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes – in fact if you have a lot of debt, setting up a DMP is a great first step, then when that is underway making complaints. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/ for details.
Mark says
I have emailed the wonga complaint team with the template above in step 2 , do I just wait 8 weeks now for wonga to reply and if they don’t I email it to the ombudsman? Just making sure as I don’t have a clue about any of this really and who is the adjudicator I see people talking about , many thanks
Luke says
I have had 31 loans from lending stream between January 2015 and October 2017 (Not including current open loans). Do you think the sheer amount of loans I have taken out in the space of 2+ years presents a good case for unresponsible lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes. Of course the details of your case matter. But that much borrowing sounds like it’s probably a very good complaint.
Luke says
Thanks Sara.
I’ll follow the guidelines that you’ve detailed regarding claims on interest for unresponsible lending and I’ll come back to leave another comment with the results.
Chris says
Hi all.
Thank you so much for setting this site up and helping me to finally geton top of these loans.
After getting statements back to 2011 and going through line by line I’ve taken out almost £80k worth of loans and paid 132k interest across 10 different companies.
After 4 weeks,
PDexpress have already offered £7800 and 1stop and QuickQuid have sent final responses which I’ve now sent to the ombudsman.
I’m now waiting for the other seven to respond.
I’ve realised that due to back to back loans, amounting to 19k loaned and 13k paid in interest over 4 continuous years, QuickQuid were likely to say no as it’ll be quite a payout.
I’ve got all details of loans, payments, statements etc on filtered spreadsheets (as well as original statements) which I’ve sent to the ombudsman, in the hope to Make their life easier.
Can I ask, how long does it usually take for the adjudicators to pick cases up and go for settlement please.
I’ll keep all posted on progress as it goes.
Thanks again for the site.
Annie says
It took about a week for an adjudicator to pick mine up, but took a total of 8 months for the whole thing to be resolved and I’m currently awaiting the money going into my account
Chris says
Thanks Annie.
Did you send all statements and credit files to the lender when asked for. Seems PDexpress have been quick to respond where as Quick Quid haven’t. Quite hit and miss.
Thanks and best of luck with yours.
PDUK COMPLAINT says
Hi,
PAYDAYUK complaint to FOS.
The FOS have responded as follows: From the information provided, PDUK sent you its final response on 19th May 2015. The subject matter of your complaint was that you didn’t think that Payday UK had correctly assessed the affordability of the 45 loans that you took out with them. And in the complaint form you’ve sent this service, the main comments you’ve made are contesting that PDUK didn’t asses the lending properly before providing you with the loans. As a resolution you want PDUK to refund the interest you paid over four years. I’ve considered this is about the same issues. As PDUK issued its final response letter to you on 19th May 2015 this then gave you until 19th Nov 2015 to refer to this service. you first contacted us about this complaint on 24th Nov 2017 which is unfortunately outside the 6 month time limit. and from your comments it appears you were prompted to do this after reading an article on the Money saving expert website. However as you had already been given the 6 month referral rights by PDUK you have refereed this too late.
Can you provide any advice or what my next steps are? I took out 45 loans and believe I am owed in the region of £6-£7K
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You previously wrote : “i previously complained about this to PAYDAYUK back in 2015, but revisited the complaint in NOV 17 and specifically asked for a refund of interest after seeing things online about refunds which i didn’t ask for in the original complaint i just asked for the loans to be removed from my credit file so i could get a mortgage which they did.”
So the FOS considers that you made an affordability complaint in 2015 and settled it, and that you should have taken it to the Ombudsman at that stage. Is this a reply from an adjudicator? Was there a reason you didn’t ask for a refund in 2015?
PDUK CONPLAINT says
Yes that is correct.
I didn’t realise I could get a refund at the time. At the time all I was interested in was getting it removed from my credit file so I could get a loan.
Yes this is the response of an adjudicator.
They go on to say that unless there are exceptional reasons as to why I didn’t contact them within the first 6months then they are unable to look into the complaint.
My other argument is that PDUK, sent me a response again in 2017 advising me that I had 6 months to go to the FOS which I did on this occasion.
What are my next steps? Do I contest the adjudicators response and reasoning. Does the fact I had so many loans over a 4 year period hold any weight that this is one which they should be looking at regardless.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“Do I contest the adjudicator’s response and reasoning. ” well you can try. But if you used a template for your first complaint, or used the phrases “affordability complaint” you may find it hard to show that you weren’t aware in 2015 you could ask for a refund.
I don’t think the fact PDUK told you last year you could go to the FOS is relevant. Nor is the number of loans relevant.
PDUK CONPLAINT says
Ok thanks for the advice.
If they don’t agree to review what are my other options? Small claims court?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You would need to get legal advice on that one. They have evidence that you accepted their offer which would have been made in final settlement of your complaint. Tricky.
Laura says
Hi Sara,
I’ve had a successful 12 months going through the claim process, and have positive results for all my lending in the UK. I now have a claim in with Northway and am closing in on negotiations with them following a mediation session a couple of weeks ago.
I’ve put 3 further cases in in the UK. 1 for Satsuma, which concerned only 1 loan over a 6 month repayment period. The claim hasn’t been upheld based on it being a single loan. I did wonder if I should escalate to the ombudsman, as while it is a single loan rather than an example of continued consecutive borrowing, I also had many other payday loans at the same time, so my overall borrowing status should have raised flags. Any advice?
The other 2 are for “longer term” arrangements with 118 118 and Avant. They’re both in and awaiting assessment, just wondering if there’s anything different I should expect with those sorts of loans, and whether there are any articles you can point me to?
Sara – this site and your support have made such a difference to me, I can’t thank you enough xx
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large were the monthly repayments on this Satsuma loan?
The 118 and Avent loans, one thing to look out for is if what you put on your application didn’t match what they could see on your credit record – that should have made them look more closely at your application.
Laura says
I borrowed £500 from Satsuma, repayable over 6 months at £158 per month.
In the adjudicator’s response he said that I had declared my financial credit commitments as £200, and that Satsuma had added a buffer of £393 to prevent risk and ensure it was affordable.
I was surprised at this – I don’t remember being consulted on this buffer, and I haven’t heard that it’s common practice for a business to make an assumption like that?
I’ll see if I can get a copy of what I initially declared on the Avant/118 applications. I don’t immediately remember them offering more. I do remember talking to 118 in the application process though. Will share any update on this thread :)
S says
I had 2 loans with 118, 1st one I repaid early so interest associated was around £850, 2nd loan was 2-3 months later and is live today.
I complained to them and tweaked the templates above. They said that they could’ve performed more checks with the 2nd loan and so they cleared the interest on it (£1,300 approx) and I am continuing to pay back the loan amount only. This loan was also removed from my file.
I did reply and tried to put a case together to them to refund the 1st loan, which they refused to do, however I have not pursued this with the FOS as I think I am unlikely to win – I stated that the loan was for debt consolidation when taking it.
What I would be interested to hear is your 118 application – if you can remember it. On both of my applications they offered me a loan with a longer payment period than I requested, therefore increasing the profit they would make. Did this happen with you as well? I just wonder if this is common practice with them…
Sara (Debt Camel) says
“On both of my applications they offered me a loan with a longer payment period than I requested, therefore increasing the profit they would make.”
Other people have mentioned this. Of course it also decreases your payments, so the loan is more affordable.
Ross says
Cant thank this site enough. I came across the site last July and have claimed back over £18,000 so far from the following companies :-
Sunny – £1146.32
Lendingstream – £2795
PaydayUK – £4843
Payday Express – £5207
Safetynet – £946
Avanti Credit – £1839
Myjar/TxtLoan – £1433
I have am awaiting payouts on cases decided by the FOS with the following companies :-
Provident – £9946
Uncle Buck – £468
I am awaiting Ombudsman Decisions with Bamboo and Casheuronet amounting to £9800. I don’t know what I would have done without this site. Having added my borrowing over the years I was astonished with the total. Anyone starting out on the process don’t give up hope . It may not all happen over night but its well worth it in the end. The key is to get organised and stand your ground on what you believe.
Thank you again so much !
Davy says
Brilliant. That should give everyone hope. All of mine getting progressed to Ombudsman. Wonga and Lending Stream gave me outright refusals and I didn’t even get the courtesy of a response from Quick Quid, Payday UK and Payday Express. Off the five of them go!
Phil Gardner says
That’s great news – congrats!
Out of interest did you need to go to the ombudsman for all of those payouts or did they offer you the compensation outright? How long start to end did you receive the funds?
Thanks
Phil
Ross says
The details are as follows :-
Sunny –Direct with lender within 8 weeks
Lendingstream – Via adjudicator the original offer was rejected by them and a counter offer made (5months)
PaydayUK – Direct (3months)
Payday Express – Direct (3months)
Safetynet – Direct within 8 weeks
Avanti Credit – Via adjudicator (4months)
Myjar/TxtLoan – Direct (within a month)
Provident – Via adjudicator (6months) – Awaiting Payment
Uncle Buck – Via adjudicator (6months) – Awaiting payment
Chris says
Good job Ross,
I’ve just started the journey 5 weeks ago with 10 lenders and already have an offer from pday express :-).
Your post gives me hope of some speedy responses.
How did you get on with any credit file adjustments?
Cheers
Jordan says
Hello,
After having a successful settled agreement with ferratum and then being knocked back by wonga and quickquid regarding irresponsible lending..
I took Wonga to a dispute with the FO, they asked for all my bank statements etc, which brought back bad memories of my gambling past etc so didn’t finish the complaint. Although recently I’ve messaged the FO to say I’m in a better state of mind to proceed with my complaint.. which ultimately has resulted in the FO agreeing with me and waiting on wongas reply to the FO…
This has now made me want to fight QuickQuid again now I’m now mentally more ready to have to go through the bank statement questions especially after the outcome of the recent wonga complaint…
Which leads me to the question of, I had a reply from quickquid months ago which they disagreed unfortunately I’ve lost this email, will I have to send in another complaint? Is it allowed to send in another complaint? Or can I go straight to the FO with my case without the email? Or was there a time limit on which I could appeal their decision?
Thank you for any answers
And thank you for such a great website
Two settled – wonga / ferratum
One to go – Quickquid
Craig says
Hi Sara,
Thanks to this site I am nearing my payday loan hell and should be out of debt by the end of the year so thanks. I just need a bit of advice regarding the last 2 loans that went to FOS. Both got assigned to same adjudicator at my request, she came back and ruled in the favour of Cash Float on all 3 loans but then came back and ruled in my favour on loans 3-5 against wagedayadvance, all of which were taken out at the same time as the 3 loans from Cash Float and were the same amounts for both companies and very similar repayments, so how can one companies be affordable and the other not? I have gone back and asked that loan 3 be refunded and defaults removed, hopefully she will agree to look at it after making judgement on wagedayadvance, do you think it’s possible?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I’m not going to say you are right and she is wrong. It depends on the facts of each case. I hope it goes well for you.
Bob says
Are people getting anywhere with Avant? They’ve just completely rejected my complaint. Mentioned something about my wages off my “tac report” was £3800 a month take home? Obviously wasn’t. Is it worth the ombudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Definitely! These sort of bad credit / large loan companies typically reject complaints, hoping people will give up.
Emma says
Hi I’m thinking about complaining about Avant Credit and Likely Loans as I took out two loans with them at £2k each within 4 months of each other at repayment of £144 each loan a month. It was desperation and I was gobsmacked when they accepted my applications as I’m self employed and it’s a relatively new business so the income is minimal, not to mention the credit card debts I have. My income doesn’t leave me anything and my husband effectively pays these loan repayments as I don’t have spare funds to.
I would also be interested in anyone else having joy with these companies.
Thank you.
Emma says
Hi Sara,
Please see above.
I got the amounts wrong. They were £3k each loan.
I have just asked for a copy of my agreement and all payments and interest from Avant as I can’t make this month’s repayment. I have asked them for the interest and 8% etc or if they would like to counter offer and wipe the debt which is a remaining 14 months and remove association from my credit file.
My question is should I keep repayments going until I hear?
My disposable income was less than £100 when and since them giving me the loans.
My next repayment to likely loans is due Wednesday and I was going to do the same with them but don’t want to get into more financial trouble.
Thank you
Emma
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you can’t make this months repayments without borrowing more, you should stop them with your bank and tell Avant and Likely loans that you need an affordable payment arrangement. How are your payday loan complaints going?
Emma says
Thank you Sara.
They’ve just been passed to an adjudicator. She’s asking lots of questions (obviously) as my personal accounts are in a mess and mixed with my business accounting (because I’m so small I didn’t think I needed a business account. Another reason I’m stupid!)
I’m sending through as much information as I can so she can make an informed decision and will keep my fingers crossed. I’ll be sure to let you know.
Many thanks
Emma
Emma says
Hi Sara,
Can I ask, if i fail in my claim against likely loans and Avant will they be able to hold up any charges they’re adding for late and reduced payments from me?
Thanks again
Emma
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Not sure what you mean by “hold up” here. Gave you offered an amount you can afford each month? If you get any payday loan refunds they could let you repay these debts? But in the end any late payment charges, annoying though they would be, are likely to be small compared to the cost of having to borrow again to be able to pay these loans. If you still have other debts you are repaying, you may find it helpful to talk to StepChange?
Emma says
I offered them £50 per month, put it in an email (to all their (Avant)email addresses including their complaints) as I want everything in writing, rather than calling them. I have emailed them my claim regarding unaffordable loan. I’ve not yet heard anything back.
I haven’t started Likely Loans yet.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest dealing with Likely Loans too, asap. Think of it from Avant’s point of view – why should they believe you can’t afford their repayments and not add late charges if you are still repaying other LL ?
Emma says
Yes, I’m just doing it now.
Thank you
Emma
Everyday Lending says
Has anyone ever made a complaint against everyday lending ?
Bob says
I’m just about to. Vile company! Had a £7000 loan over 48 months with them. I’ve made 13 payments of £332 with equals £4316. Asked for a settle figure and it is £6700. So that’s £4000 in interest?
hannah says
Hi Bob – I only had £2000 but this was going back years I will send them a letter. Thanks.
Helen says
I have (on behalf of my son). I agree a vile company.
When he began defaulting on payments he went into their shop and asked for time to pay or any other way to spread payments.
Girl told him a) there was nothing they could do to help except another loan for the payment amount due and b) in a flirty way suggested if he could take out an even bigger loan that they could go to Amsterdam together that weekend.
I wrote saying the loan should never have been granted given the information on his bank statements (tons of loans and DD reversals etc) and no help was given when he (unsurprisingly) got into difficulties.
They have agreed the money was lent irresponsibly, they have removed all interest from the account (loan is still oustanding) which takes balance down to £2800 from around £7000.
They have also sent a cheque for £100 to say for the crappy Amsterdam suggestion. I haven’t cashed the cheque and currently considering sending it to the fos just because I want them to know this crap goes on towards the most vulnerable.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest photographing the cheque as a memento and cashing it!
Have they offered to take lower monthly payments as well?
Annie says
Hi, so my wonga case went to FOS, the adjudicator said they should pay me 30 something of the 42 loans I had with them, wonga came back and said they didn’t agree and would pay me 5 of them, so obviously I rejected the offer and asked for it to be passed to an ombudsman (just over a week ago) then yesterday I received an email saying wonga now agree with the adjudicator and if I accept the offer to let them know and send my bank details for the refund (£1492) I was just wondering how long wonga take to pay out, do they have a time limit? It’s my husband’s birthday soon and I was hoping it will come through ASAP so I can use it to book a weekend getaway for it
Bob says
I’ve just my adjudicator email me saying Wonga have 14 days to reply and refund me 38 loans out of 44. Did Wonga take the full 14 days ?
john says
Hi Sara
I have a complaint in against Wonga, the adjudicator has upheld my claim and sent a letter to Wonga to refund my fees and charges etc. I was just wondering how long does it take to get a reply?
Nicola Handley says
They never got back to mine by the date he gave them.when they replyed they don’t agree with them. so it’s off to the ombudsmen
Becky says
Hi everyone. Looking for some moral support and tips please!
Finances were in a right state 2011-2013 and i’ve Used the template to contact what I thought were all the lenders…however just looked at my bank statements and there’s way more. In honesty I kinda don’t know where to start…anyone got tips for how to plan to tackle this? I also have lots of money coming out to loans direct and mem plus a few more names I don’t recognise- how would I go about finding out which companies they are?
Also (sorry for lots of questions) lending stream have got back to me: they said that I only had one loan (obviously they included rubbish about a made up credit score and affordability checks – I was DROWNING in debt at this point so can emphatically say that is nonsense)
Anyway they sent me a statement saying I had borrowed £100, paid back £103 but the balance was still outstanding (charges and default fees)
In the body of the email they said they are offering to close the loan (because they are so supportive).
Ok, probably this is a decent enough option, but looking through emails which have attachments I can’t open it seems I have applied for more than one loan with them prior to this.
Also, most fishy is I checked my bank statement for the loan they said I had and the amount paid in by them is £85, not £100???
Is it normal for them to get this wrong or am I missing something?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have already made the best start by contacting the lenders you remember. From here, it’s a case of checking who the others may have been from your bank statements. MEM sounds like Month End Money – that would be loans from Payday UK, does that sound familiar?
Landing Stream – have you looked at your bank statement to see if there were other loans? If there were, go back to LS and give the dates of these.
AK says
In 2011 LS deducted from the loan so called fast payment fee, you’ve applied for £100 but received only £85. If you have an offer from them check that they include this charge in their offer, in my case they ‘forgot’ to include the charge on two loans but to be honest quickly corrected it after my request.
Helen says
Hi Becky. I started by getting the bank to send me all the statements for the five year period in question. (119 pages – a lot!).
It is daunting, but I sat there and went through every entry (very depressing) and I highlighted every single payday credit or debit with a yellow highlighter. This is tedious but makes life much easier later on.
(After that I highlighted all the bank charges in orange as I am going to complain about them too).
I then went through each line of highlighted information and typed it into three columns in Excel, for example :
2012.03.01 Wonga 100
2012.03.02 PaydayUK 100
2012.04.01 PaydayUK -120
Note that ‘mem’ on my bank statements was actually PaydayUK.
Once you have the list you can have it in date order, or payday lender order etc.
Personally, I sorted it into Lender order and then put each different lender on it’s own spreadsheet then ordered it by date.
I used this to know who to send the initial letters to. Also to compare against the lists of loans the lenders sent me. Your confidence will grow as you gather more information and you will be confident enough to reject the rubbish offers and refer to fos.
Note that I also photographed every one of the 119 pages so that I could attach them to fos complaints (they will ask for them eventually anyhow).
Hope that helps