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?
Nick says
Hi last year I seen this blog. I successfully had all QuickQuid and Pounds2Pocket removed from credit files and they paid a few hundred pounds compensation.
However after a year battle and being ignored by Wonga I took my complaint to the ombudsman and Wonga gave me a refund of almost all the loans but not the first 3 saying that because I was paying them back in time it looked to them that I can afford their loans. Do I stand a chance complaining again as I m trying to get a mortgage soon?
The loans are from 2012
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Nick, I don’t think you have much chance of getting this changed. I know that payday loans look bad on a mortgage application, but anecdotally they are only a real problem if they are in the last couple of years, so I doubt 3 loans which you repaid in 2012 will matter.
lesley says
Was just going through my sent emails, have just deleted 24500 emails haha, anyway came across alot of emails I sent to wonga qq pde telling them of my financial troubles and asking them to accept x amount into a payment plan, should I keep these emails as proof to show I tried to tell them of my difficulties
Markx says
I would do. I kept emails and a screenshot of online conversation with a QQ agent explaining I was struggling. I did not know I had it.
John C says
Just as an update on my complaint with WDA. I have had loans with them since 2009 through till today. I had numerous roll overs and for one loan did this 10 times, followed by a 6 month payment plan and then reloaned a few days later. I complained to WDA and asked for interest back from loan 11 through to my last loan after my 10 months of roll oves, till end Dec 2015. The last few loans were instalments rather than an actual payday loans.
To help their investigation I sent them a copy of my Noddle credit report, some screen shots from my Experian report showing late payment markers and mentioned my loans with QQ and PTPD at the same time. Thought it would help
The 8 weeks were up yesterday but received an email this morning, upholding my complaint for the payday loans, but not the instalment loans, which to be honest I can see why. However they have refunded on the interest from loan 10 through to my last payday loan. I made it out to be around £4.k but with 8% added they offered just over £7k. I have an outstanding loan of £225 so they paid that off from the refund. I got my email this morning, replied straight away with my bank details that they asked for. The money was in my account today, although in a number of separate payments, most of which were £700. I guess this is the highest amount they lend for a loan so that the most they can pay in a transaction
Many thanks to Sara for setting up this site, and the great advice on here. This money has helped me pay off a loan that was in arrears and catch up with my mortgage which was 2 months behind. For the first time in 6 years I can breathe again
Steph says
Wow 7k? That’s amazing. Well done. And agree, cannot thank Sara enough.
John C says
Thanks Steph. Believe it or not they were actually my smallest lender. PTPD and QQ had over £15k each out of me. That’s not including any 8% stuff. PTPD I think is a dead end, but speaking to the adjudicator at the FOS about my QQ loans, i’m more optimistic. I asked for the loans from 30 to 50 and my flexi account loan to be refunded. Loan 30 was when the amount I borrow doubled from £750 to £1350. I wasn’t even looking at earlier stuff as some of it is over 6 years old and lets face it, I did borrow the money and QQ gave me a service. I totalled that to be around £12k. I had a Pounds to Pocket loan at the same time as my flexi account loan so that should have stood out! I’ve actually had 7 loans with P2P
Spoke to the adjudicator and when she said she didn’t agree with me going back to 2010 my heart sank. She then said she wanted to go back to 2009!! Phew. She also said shed be putting to them that the Pounds to Pocket loans should also have interest refunded. Could be a long slog, but anything is a huge positive now
Sara (Debt Camel) says
7k – well done!
John C says
Thanks Sara! Is there anywhere we can donate to help keep the site up and running?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If anyone would like to make a donation, please give a fiver (OK John, you can make it a tenner!) to your local Citizens Advice – CABs across the country are facing big cuts to their funding or even closure.
John C says
Deal Sara!
Graham says
Has brought a tear to my eye John C, very very well done. Your posts will inspire everybody to Stick with It.
Peter says
Wow! I thought I had a lot of loans till I seen some people on this site. Good luck with the rest of them John, must be a great relief for you!
John C says
If I said between 2008 and today, I borrowed over £100k from 3 different payday lenders. Sobering reading.
John C says
I can also add that I earn a good salary. I mean a really good salary, quite a bit above the national average, so the mess I’m in is a big part my fault, but not helped by any of these lenders. I was paying back over £3k a month to 3 payday lenders with the interest around £900 of that. Despite the high monthly salary I couldn’t afford that, so had to have them staggered to ensure that they all got paid. Pay the PTPD, borrow the next day and pay QQ. Next day borrow again and pay my bills (plus the smaller WDA loan). It got waay out of hand, yet none of these lenders could see this. I was terrified of raising an issue and they stopped lending and I end up £1700 down on one months pay and I wouldn’t be able to pay all my bills
Peter says
I started borrowing in 2010, mainly to fund gambling. Managed to get out of the cycle in 2013 with the help of a DMP, which I should fully pay off by the end of the year. I blame myself for the mess I got myself into but I believe these companies have a lot to answer for by preying on the vulnerable and desperate!
Rachel says
Hi John, your post has given me some hope, i am in a very similar position to you, on a good salary but got stuck in the payday cycle just shows that anyone can get into this position, i cant bear to look at the total amount i have paid over the years but hoping for even half of the interest would put me in a very good position for the future. good luck in the rest of your claims.
Thomas says
Just had a great result from Safetynet Credit – after complaining 4 weeks ago, they’ve agreed to waive my £900 balance, which is a respectable offer considering I’ve paid them £700 interest over the last year.
I didn’t think I’d get anywhere with them as they’re not widely known and I’ve only seen a handful of comments about them. Goes to show that you can get results from even the smaller players on the market.
Big thanks to Sara and the contributors on the site!
fay says
Hi All
Another success this week! Quid (via Elevate – who owns Sunny) refunded me £500 interest and wiped my remaining £520 off my DMP! Although they said they did not uphold my complaint – still very happy with the outcome!! This was literally the last day of the 8th week!
Like a few of us, I am just entering week 12 with Wonga, I called them yesterday (as I have done weekly!) to get an update and although they are sorry for not responding by now they are still hoping to within the week. I must admit I was a little frustrated with the poor man I spoke to, stating that I could not believe it takes this long, given they have all the information they have to hand! I am really hoping for a positive outcome as I paid over £2.5k in interest over time. Also, can you believe it – this week I only received any email from them advertising their new loan offering and asking me if I wanted to apply!!!
Once again, thank you so much Sara for this site. So far I have been able to wipe nearly £5.5k off my DMP just by writing and challenging these companies. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not proud in how I got myself into this situation and I have paid them all back every penny that I initially borrowed, so it just shows how much money/interest they add to make out of their ‘customers’.
Good luck everyone and look forward to hearing other successes
x
Lynnette says
Great reading on this page has given me the push to reclaim against 6 payday lenders (can’t claim from the 7th swift sterling), had responses with the wee from QuickQuid to say they have acknowledged my complaint, so I guess now just the 8 week wait, PD Express have now locked my account so I can’t access it not sure what to do with that one. PDUK acknowledged and Sunny have asked me to send to eleviate for complaint. Awaiting a reply from Wagedayadvance. Interst for these all adds up to around £15000 and that’s without the 8% interest added on. Fingers crossed.
Any ideas anyone what I should do with PaydayExpress as I still have an outstanding due off at the end of the month.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have a loan outstanding with Payday Express and due to be paid in a couple of weeks? If you can afford to pay it without borrowing any more this month or next month, then that it good. If you can’t, then I suggest you talk to StepChange (http://www.stepchange.org/) about your whole financial situation – this won’t harm your payday loan complaints, it’s how to take control of your finances. If you later get refunds then you can use these to clear off debt, but you don’t know when or how much you will get so you cannot relay on these happening.
Lynnette says
Hi Sara yes I should be able to clear it this month if not completely almost and can pay the last little off next month. Quickquid have now sent me 3 questionnaires all the same which I have replied to each with the exact same details. Only issue with QuickQuid is when I received my account statement they say I had 12 loans totalling £6652.85 and £4979.61 paid in interest, but I printed off my loans from my account which total 49 loans at £14,176.65 and interest at £7173.80.
PDExpress 24 loans 43 deferrals over 48 months totalling £10,970 and interest at £3355.56.
PDUK 7 loans, 27 deferrals over 25 months totalling £1840 and interest at £1926.10
Pounds2pocket 1 loan over 12 months totalling £1150 and interest at £1010.30
Sunny 42 loans over 34 months totalling £12,311.10 and interest at £2619.98.
QuickQuid 49 loans over 42 months totalling £14,176.65 and interest at £7173.80.
Anyone any advice as to what outcome I could possibly expect with these? The totals of interest don’t include the 8% simple interest.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
re QQ, I suggest you point this out to them
That was a lot of borrowing. Borrowing small amounts from a lot of lenders makes it a bit harder than borrowing everything from one lender. But with that amount of repeat borrowing, I would hope most of them would be simple cases for the Ombudsman to decide that after loan X, all your loans were unaffordable with a lender.
Sam R says
Hi,
I just wanted to share a bit of good news really! I’ve just had a settlement figure from Wonga for £510 after they considered my complaint (albeit 12 weeks later) on the grounds that I had to set up a repayment plan for the last 3 loans I had with them. They’re offering to refund the total of these three loans plus 8%.
Keep fighting and keep on top, I emailed them the at 7 weeks to say I’ll be considering FO if they don’t respond within 8, then I heard from them at 8 weeks and they asked for 4 more weeks, I said I would allow 1 week and then go to the FO, I didn’t hear from them after the additional week and I did go to the FO, and then heard back with a settlement at 4 weeks from the 8 weeks.
I guess I could fight it further but I’m happy with this and it’s better than a kick in the teeth!
Good luck everyone!
Joanne says
Good afternoon All
After complaining to Quick Quid they have come back to me with the usual we did all the checks at time of applying for loans etc. They have offered to write off the £525 I still have outstanding with them. Considering I took out 7 loans over a year and rolled over quite a few times, do you think this is an acceptable offer? They have advised that this is their final offer, so I need to decide whether or not to take it further with the ombudsman or not.
Thanks
J
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Joanne, have you added up how much interest you paid on all the loans that you paid off? And what was the size on the last loan and how much have you paid towards it?
Joanne says
Hi Sara
In total I borrowed 3100 from them and paid £4309 back (minus the £525 I still owe them) The last loan I took from them was for £800 so have paid back £275. Im just not sure if I should be asking for compensation as well? I was previously in an IVA which ended back in 2009, before I took the loans with them, but this would still have shown up on my credit file…..Thanks. J x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That sounds a bit complicated. Did they ever send you a list of your loans? If not, can I suggest you get back to them and say you can’t make a decision unless they send you a statement of account?
Matt S says
Hi all
Just looking for some advise with regards to Pounds to Pocket.
I only had 2 loans with them, the first was for £1100 to be paid over 12 months and I repaid in full after 2 months after taking out a guarantor loan. The second was for £900 and was taken out at a time when I had around 7-8 payday loans ongoing (either rolling over every month or being paid back and reloaned almost straight away). I made 7 full monthly payments to this before I had to enter into debt management. Including the payments made prior to entering into debt management and the payments made since being in the plan I have paid a total of £1172.50 towards this.
They denied my complaint but offered as a gesture of goodwill to accept a partial settlement of £213.14 (the outstanding balance is still £327.90) and remove the default from my credit report after receipt of payment.
Now I’m not currently in a position to pay £213.14 but I’m also just not sure whether it will be worth my while taking the complaint to the FO? Due to the fact I only had 2 loans with them and the first was actually paid off early I’m not convinced they would rule in my favour.
I did email back to their final response stating that I’d be happy to accept the balance being written off and the default removed but they responded that their final decision on the matter remains.
Any advise? Is it worth me progressing this to the FO?
Matt S says
Wow, Pounds To Pocket have just emailed me someone else’s final response. Including their name, a run down of what loans they had with them, rollovers, payments etc.
Shocked that they could be so lapse, I’d be disgusted if I thought they were sending my information out to the wrong person.
jamie says
Just wondered if any body had any information or results from peachy loans, I sent my complaint today after having 4 loans, each one bigger and rolling them over to, I received a acknowledgment email with in the hour, which I thought was fast, so just wondered if any body has any info on there process
Sophiex says
Yeah I have I borrowed £150 paid it back then borrowed £160 couldn’t pay it back then they charged me £650 as a penalty because I couldn’t afford the £160 as well as paying that and interest so over £800 in that paid it off wrote to them they basically fobbed me off so I’ve took it the Fos and she stated I should get this back so fingers crossed!!
Jason says
Success,
WDA have offered £750 on 8 week deadline, I accepted as bigger fish to fry pduk, mr lender and qq.
Should of been £1250 but need cash and it will tie me over till other offers come in.
Thankyou Sara this site has changed my luck and life I have a end to my financial problems. I owe zero pence to any lenders and every penny is mine. Using money for holiday for me and my son thanks so much I’m thrilled.
Aga says
Hi Jason! what response did You get from WDA? why did they pay only half of your interest ? i also received response today And they offered 430 while my total interest i paid was 1000, i am just thinking if they do that to everyone- pay half of interest?
regards,
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Aga, it sounds as though they have offered 60% of Jason’s interest, whereas yours they have only offered 40%. It doesn’t sound like they are offering 50% to everyone. I am not sure these comparisons are helpful – you have to look at your own situation in deciding whether to accept.
Jason says
They responded on 8 week day and I’m skint got 4 companies going thru so I took 60% as other claims I will let ride to the end they write to u on 8 week date have done so with loads of people on here !! Good luck
Ash says
Hi all..Has anyone tried to claim money back from Cash Genie. Is this a lost cause now they have gone into liquidation. Seem impossible to get any answers from. Any help woukd be appreciated
Anna says
I called the administrator number, spoke to someone and my balance was completely wiped.
Andrea says
I have had a small success with Lending Stream. They have wiped all traces of my loans- there wasn’t much, the balance of one of the loans was just £18- and refunded interest on my last loan, the payment hitting my account today. The refund was for £71.99, it may not sound much but for someone on benefits as I am it will greatly help. They were the smallest of my loans and the interest didn’t add up to much, I’m desperate for cash at the moment so I just accepted. They emailed me late yesterday and I recieved the payment this afternoon which I was very impressed at, but I guess as it was such a small payment that it would be quite speedy.
Also does anyone know if I have to wait for final responses from the other companies before I can go to FOS? I made a document with the dates I can go to FOS and the dates of complaints and I think three of them are very near.
Thanks Sara and everyone on here :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s good to get one sorted – a lot of people here will know all about months when £70 in cash would make the world of difference!
lou says
Has anyone else had their complaint about QQ referred to an ombudsman after QQ disagreed with the adjudicator? My adjudicator found all loans unaffordable but QQ disagreed. It has taken ages already and now I am worried about a huge wait whilst this goes to an ombudsman
Also my complaint about wonga with the fos has taken 10 weeks to date and still no outcome
hannah says
Hi lou
I’ve had my complaint upheld by the adjudicator and QQ have until the 19th to respond. I was hoping that would be the end of it but it seems they are dragging it all out right until the end. Not sure how long it takes once the ombudsman gets involved but hopefully won’t be long and they almost always agree with the adjudicator. Would you mind keeping us updated? Also, do you know if they have provided any additional evidence to support why they don’t agree? Just in case I have to go through this it’s helpful to hear progress from someone a little further down the line in the process.
Good luck, seems like QQ are one of the worst to deal with, probably hoping to put a lot of people off
Ad says
I don’t know if it’s the same for all cases but I had a mr lender case upheld by an adjudicator, which was opposed by mr lender. It went to an Ombudsman on March 18th and they agreed with the adjudicator after 3 weeks and am awaiting the refund which was processed yesterday.
lou says
Hi Hannah
Yes I will.keep you posted
I haven’t seen the extra evidence but the adjudicator reviewed it and maintained the same opinion.
QQ are the very worst of this sorry bunch
Good luck with your case
rachel says
Just realised i can download all my bank statements for the past 10 years, so wont have to look for paperwork, presume most of the claims will end up at the FOS at week 3 so wanted to get all paperwork ready for that. Would a spreadsheet of Payments made to the PDl companies and my wage and rent day be enough information? to show loaning same/next day? or would they want a more detailed record of all my outgoings? thanks for you help, rach.
hannah says
Hi Rachel
FOS asked for my bank statements and I had access to them so I sent them. I highlighted important information and wrote an explanation at the side. Once the adjudicator is assigned to your case they ring to go through it with you, and they will let you know what information you need. In my case it was my noddle report, bank statements for the duration of the loans, and any correspondence between myself and QQ. Don’t worry too much about sending statements, they didn’t query wjat I had spent my money on or suggest I could have made cutbacks. Seems they were just interested in income and borrowing from the lenders and reloaning or rolling over each month
Good luck
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Rachel,
I think the most useful thing you can do now is a setting up a different spreadsheet for each lender, showing the dates, amount borrowed and amount repaid. This isn’t to go to the FOS (though you could offer it if they want – if the lender is being very slow in sending details of your loans they will work from yours!) but it’s so that you have all the information you need to assess any offer you get from the lender, either now or when it is with the FOS.
If you don’t have a balance outstanding, this is pretty simple – just add up all the amount borrowed and the amount repaid and the difference is the interest and charges added. This spreadsheet will also show how soon after repaying one loan you borrow the next one.
If you do have a balance outstanding, then add up all the figures for the previous repaid loans as above. then work out for the outstanding loan how much you borrowed, how much you have repaid so far and what the outstanding amount is.
This sounds easy, but you may find you are going cross-eyed after a while! But just do a few months at a time and you’ll get through it and feel super-organised.
Joe says
Just received this email from wonga…
‘Back in June 2014, we began a programme of significant change to improve our service and ensure we are a responsible financial services provider. Working alongside the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) we carried out an internal review that highlighted a number of shortcomings which we are working hard to put right.
As part of our commitment to putting things right for our customers, we have reviewed your loan agreement(s) and can confirm that a refund of £24.14 is due to you. We have sent payment to your bank account ending. You can expect to receive this refund in the next 21 days. If after 28 days you have not received payment please call us free on 0800 840 0836.’
Presumably this holds no relevance to my complaint which was logged around 5 weeks ago as it makes no reference to it and the amount I would be applying for would be upwards to 4/5 thousand..?
Richard says
Hi there
It’s completely unrelated to your claim. I had to go to FOS with Wonga. They didn’t respond to the adjudicator so the ombudsman got involved. My refund was £780 and got the same email saying I’m due a refund of £14. The lady at the FOS called Wonga who confirmed that the 2 amounts were unrelated.
I then called Wonga on the number from the email. They too my bank details and paid the £14 within 7 days
Dan says
I was paying off loans and thought I’d already had my wonga one wiped back in 2014 I thought I’d try quickquid.
I had an outstanding debt of £500 which I had been paying off to their debt collectors via my DMP. I used the template and got nowhere, carried on and in March I got my final response from QQ saying they reject it, and would clear the rest of my debt off and wipe my credit score. I thought that seemed alright, but what about the near £300 i’d paid the Debt Collectors will I just loose that, despite if i’d done it without paying I’d be £300 better off. I went to the FO who sent it to an adjudicator, she agreed that QQ was irresponsible for loaning the money, however there was some onus on me. They explained that the offer was fair, I asked about the £300 i’d paid, they went back to QQ and asked, I am getting the full debt wiped off, my credit file changed and any money I have paid the debt collectors refunded.
Anything out of their pockets and back in mine is miles better! Just keep pushing and be fair.
I hope this helps.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Dan, thanks for that story, the adjudicators at the FO do seem very willing to listen if you don’t agree with something they have said.
PS if you had a lot of loans with Wonga before the one that was written, off, you may be able to ask for a refund for some of those!
Matt S says
Hi all
Are companies able to remove all traces of a loan from a credit report?
Uncle Buck upheld my complaint against 2 of my loans and agreed to write off my outstanding balance and I also get a small refund. They accepted that these 2 loans were unaffordable. I have 1 of these loans showing on my credit report as late payments etc but they have said they cant remove it from my report. Is this correct?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Companies can remove anything in theory but it is part of the rules of reporting to Credit Reference Agencies that you don’t remove things unless there is an error – so if you offer to repay a debt if the creditor will delete the loan (or the default) then the creditor is quite right to reply No.
However, the Ombudsman’s standard ruling in the case of an unaffordable loan is that it should be deleted entirely from the credit record. Ii suggest you go back to UB and point this out.
Matt S says
Uncle Buck have replied back saying that in their final response they didn’t say that the loans were unaffordable but that it was unreasonable for them to rollover the first loan as many times as they did and then to issue a further loan, and that they would find it unreasonable to remove the entries entirely.
Is it worth me pushing them further on it or should I just accept it and move on?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It sounds to me as though they have made their mind up. You have to decide if this is worth the time, energy and possible small risk of taking this to the Ombudsman. I guess it depends on how bad your credit file is – if it would be poor anyway without the payday loans, then there isn’t much point in arguing, is there?
mcb says
Hi All
Just an update from Sunny which came yesterday (last day of the 8 weeks) which I thought might encourage people:
My understanding of your complaint is that you do not feel sufficient affordability checks were undertaken prior to the opening of your account. Furthermore, you feel that had a full and proper assessment of your financial standing been completed, the application would have been declined. To resolve this you have requested a refund of interest paid and any extra charges added. Please let me know if I have missed any points or misunderstood anything.
To investigate your complaint I have reviewed the account opening procedures in place at the time. Having done so, I am able to inform you that we conducted creditworthiness checks, assessed your ability to afford the repayments which would fall due under the proposed agreements, and we considered how you were managing other debts at that time. Based upon these checks it was considered responsible to advance credit to you. However, having reviewed the information you have provided, there are indicators that the product may not have been suitable for you and with this in mind, I uphold your complaint.
In line with my decision, and to return you to the position you would be in had you not been granted a loan, I would like to offer the following:
• A full refund of all interest and charges paid in respect of your loan, totalling £1477.76 (you borrowed £4104.73 and repaid £5582.49)
• Simple interest at 8%, calculated on the above figure, totalling £216.70
• The record of your loan will be removed from your credit file, we will update Equifax, Experian, and CallCredit.
• The outstanding balance of £1084.82 will be written off, and the account closed down, meaning you therefore have no further liability to us. Please cancel any regular payments set up in respect of this debt, either directly or through a debt management company.
Please can I ask that you provide me with your bank account number and sort code, so I can arrange for the above payments to be processed.
Pete says
Hi, I was wondering if anyone could help. Yesterday I accepted an offer from Quick Quid after I went through the FOS for £1086. I replied to the FOS with my acceptance and was told it’d take up to 4 weeks to receive the money.
Does it really take this long for me to receive it or is this a maximum duration? Just looking to see if anyone’s been in a similar situation as me and if so, how long it took for QQ to pay out?
Thank you!
Joe says
Hi Pete, I would give them a call to ensure they’ve ‘got the correct details for the deposit and also to check the timescale for the deposit’. I have done this with both piggybank and PDUk and had payment within a few days when I’d been told 4 weeks
jamie says
I have Just received an email from sunny upholding my complaint, I am to receive 3k back s redress including interest, I now have only QQ, P2P, and Wonga to reply, But most importantly, once I have received this redress, I will be completely debt free.
And please Sara, if one day people randomly start smiling and hugging you in the streets don’t be surprised :) if I knew you I would certainly would,
Jamie
Gordon says
Success
Quid – Elevate – are refund all interest as a goodwill gesture. This is addition that they did not uphold my complaint. I must add that they were 7wks+6days to come back as their timeup was tomorrow
I have accepted, but was not sure on the 8% rule. Is this FOS only upheld comlaints or should Quid/Elevate include this in their refund?
Just QQ [FOS] + PDUK – to go to FOS, to go now.
Thanks
Peter says
Gordon
I have just had the exact same today from Elevate (1 month loan). They didn’t upheld but as a goodwill gesture they will pay the difference between what I borrowed and what I paid back. I replied with my bank details but not sure how long it will take to go into my bank?
My second success of the week after WDA paid yesterday.
Peter
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Gordon, some lenders add 8%, some don’t. I think some might be distinguishing a “goodwill gesture” where they don’t from “upholding a complaint” where they do.
Cat says
I have had over 30 loans with my jar
I am currently paying back £170 a month for a year on a 1.2k loan this finishes is Nov can i make a claim when i am still paying back a loan as i am finding it hard
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Cat, yes you can make a claim whilst you are still repaying a loan.
But depending on how badly you are struggling, and whether you have other non payday loan debts, it might be sensible for you to think about a Debt Management Plan? You could talk to StepChange about whether this would be sensible for you http://www.stepchange.org/. This isn’t instead of making a complaint about payday loan affordability, it is in addition to it.
It is “easier” to win a claim for a simple payday loan, rather than an installment one, but it is possible to wina complaint about an installment loan. Probably some of your previous 30 loans were standard payday loans? It may be that you can get some money refunded from these (30 loans sounds like a classic indication that you were struggling that MyJar should have noticed!) and that could help you pay off your current loan.
Shaun says
First result in from the FO.
Only 1 loan with Cash on go- Peachy. FO upheld in my favour. FO requesting them to pay charges, interest and importantly for me- a default be removed. They have until 25th April to respond. I knew this complaint was ‘borderline,’ so i’m happy it went my way.
Lou says
Is a reasonable response to this email to ask for two seperate final responses, one for the affordability and one for the most recent complaint of data breach? A have craftily combined two complaints into one final response!
In regard to our review of your complaint for your Quick Quid loans issued from 22/01/2010 through 29/03/2016 we must advise that under DISP 2.8.2(R), a complainant has six years from an event to complain of the event. Upon our initial investigation, we determined that the event you are complaining of (i.e. the funding of a loan) occurred more than six years ago and thus under the law we must respectfully reject your complaint.
For the Quick Quid loans issued 27/04/2010 through 17/09/2010 our findings are as followed:
A thorough review of your account has determined that we followed all our processes and conducted a creditworthiness and affordability assessment on each credit application and extension. The search id {E36C55B0-3D6E-4D94-9F71-9AC085E82D7C} confirms one of the affordability checks that were ran. For specific search ID numbers, please contact Call Credit or Experian as that information would be provided to the consumer. Our records show discounts and fee credits were being applied reducing the amount of interest to be repaid. Therefore, we do not agree with your complaint of irresponsible lending for the reasons stated.
These reports provide information such as other financial commitments, delinquency records, insolvency records, County Court judgments, credit enquiries and any other credit accounts currently open. The scores from these products are input into an internal proprietary credit model. Our model combines these scores with other factors from the application, such as income and employment status, to generate a final determination of a customer’s creditworthiness. This affects whether we approve or decline the customer, and also affects the size of the loan for which they are approved.
In light of your most recent complaint regarding a breach of data, we pride ourselves on looking after our customers by attempting to resolve any issues in a straightforward, efficient and amicable manner. We deeply regret that this has happened and would like to extend our apologies. Having taken all your comments on board and as a gesture of goodwill and without prejudice, we would like to make you an offer that we believe is fair and honest.
In full and final settlement of your complaint, we would like to offer compensation of £200.00 for your time spent on this complaint and any distress and inconvenience caused. Total refund £200.00.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It looks to me as though they have rejected the affordability complaint and offered you £200 for the data breach. You could reply that you are happy to accept £200 in settlement of the date breach issue but you intend to take the affordability complaint to the Ombudsman.
You could add that DISP 2.8.2 provides that a complaint can be considered (a) six years after the event complained of; or (if later)
(b) three years from the date on which the complainant became aware (or ought reasonably to have become aware) that he had cause for complaint so you will also be asking for the earlier loans to be considered under the three year extension.
I don’t know any details about your loans, so I am just assuming here that you think you have a reasonable case to take forward. QQ seem to offer v low goodwill offers quite often that bear no resemblance to the actual complaint.
Lou says
Thanks Sara.
I borrowed from QQ for over a year, the first loan was 300, the maximum was 750, I was also borrowing elsewhere. My whole wages were being swallowed up by loan repayments.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That does sound like a good affordability complaint.
Lou says
I’ve just had a heated phone call with them, it’s one final response, I accept or don’t. I argued I put in to two seperate complaints so didn’t see why I should have one response. Phoning the FOS today!
hannah says
Hi lou
I was going to say be careful about accepting an offer from QQ directly as it looks like they have tried to disguise in that response that it is an offer for both complaints. If in doubt I would always speak to the FO. They seem to be trying a few tactics lately to delay thinks or offer very small amounts hoping you don’t realise the full value of your complaint. I guess they are thinking they can put people off but it’s not costing anything but our time and each case is costing them money. Hope you get a better result when you speak to the FO
annon says
wonga have given me a settlement of £620 over 3 loans back in 2010. they asked for longer, took 12 weeks in total.
no reply from ombudsman yet, regarding QQ 12 weeks wait so far.
no reply from payday uk/express or wagedayloans.
fay says
hi Annon
I am now in my 12 weeks with Wonga (up on Tuesday next week) did they leave it until the last day to communicate with you? Also do they say how long it takes to get your refund back into your account?
Many thanks
Elizabeth says
Fay – last day of the 12 weeks for most. Mine was about 5pm on the evening 12 weeks from when they dated my complaint at. I replied straight away and heard nothing for two days when they emailed to say it had been sent for approval and could take 3-5 working days to receive payment once approved. In my case…offer received Weds, offer accepted weds, acknowledgement of acceptance friday morning, funds cleared in my account monday 7pm
Natalie says
Hi Sara,
So a while back I’d left a comment on this page stating that I’d wrote to all my lenders with the above template and that id also went through a CMC (slapped hand) for one of them. Well low and behold wonga has got back to me even though it’s been referred to the ombudsman for them breaching the 8 week period saying they can’t uphold it I had quite a few loans with them continuously and they are saying I never and that I could afford it do you think I stand a chance with the ombudsman? The cmc are obviously dealing with that on my behalf…..
Now also myjar have emailed me saying that they are only willing to give me interest off one of my loans out of the 12 that I had with them of £17 plus 8% interest taking it to £22 do you think I should decline this and go straight to the ombudsman?
Thanks for reading!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So MyJar isn’t through the CMC?
£17 interest sounds like the MyJar loans were small. Over what period were the 12 loans? How long were the gaps inbetween repaying 1 and taking out the next?
Natalie says
No my jar I did myself after reading this post it was one after the other in the space of a year until it all got too much for me to handle debt wise so paid it off and now they are only offering me £17 interest yes they were only small loans
danny says
this is a strange one Wonga have come back to me with an offer , but my case is with the FO and was upheld because I reported it to both at the same time. then wonga would no longer deal with me so assumed it was just the FO case. but they say the offer is from them for 14 of 30 loans 2k !! but the FO said to me my complaint has been upheld and Wonga should refund all interest and charges they are still waiting for Wonga to reply??? I cant get through to the FO but am so surprised they have emailed me to make an offer
Lou says
Responses so far:
QQ rejected – now with FOS
247moneybox rejected – now with FOS
Next credit – upheld £168 refund/wiped off remaining bal
Ferratum – upheld – wiped out remaining balance
Txt loan (my jar) refund 250
Sunny – refund 500
payday uk – still waiting for final response
Wonga – still waiting
Monkey dosh – still waiting
Lou says
Had a response today from 24moneybox saying they are continuing to look into my complaint….whether this is because I’ve told them I’m going to the FOS after their final response I don’t know.
Had an email from Payday UK too to say that 8 weeks up on Monday so should hear something then about that one.
S.D says
Wage day advance have agreed to refund all interest from the first loan + 8% interest on that.
Approximately £1000,
They took the full 8 weeks and have the final decision on the very last day.
They never really admitted wrongdoing but admittedly they could have done more.
My complaint was based on my poor credit record mainly at the time of borrowing.
I submitted an old credit reports from the time.
A spread sheet of all payday loans (56 in 4 years on monthly pay)
My history with wage day showed late payments from my first loan then almost all others 11 in total.
Truth be told they were very polite and courteous in there final response.
And I was paid into my account within 24 hours quicker than promised.
Steph says
Seems to be a general theme coming through that WDA, Wonga, Lending Stream, THL and Myjar are the more decent lenders when it comes to acknowledging their mistakes and issuing redress and wiping off old loans and info on credit reports. The other bunch ie. Mr Lender, Uncle Buck, CFO, Peachy, Payday express, PDUK, QQ, etc etc all seem to have made their decisions before looking into complaints in that they will knock everyone back! Seems that only the involvement of the FSO makes this lot stump up!
Martin says
I have today received an email from Sunny who said that they reviewed account opening procedures in place at the time, that they conducted creditworthiness checks, they assessed my ability to afford the repayments which would fall under the proposed agreement and that they considered how I was managing other debts at that time. Based upon those checks it was considered responsible to advance credit to me. Therefore they will not uphold my complaint.
I had 3 loans with Sunny, all taken out at the same time as me being in debt to PaydayUK, QuickQuid and Peachy. I am still re-paying these loans to Sunny. I was clearly in debt at the time of requesting loans from Sunny but I am not sure what to do next.
Sam says
Martin,
I have also had the same reply from Sunny today.
I took out 7 loans with them all whilst in debt to Quick Quid, Wonga & two unsatisfied defaults in excess of £2,500 on my credit report.
I have emailed back asking if this is the final response as I will 100% be taking it the FO.
Martin says
Hi Sam,
I have also emailed them back as their email said to let them know if they had missed any points or misunderstood anything.
They had also said that initial assessment of my application accounted for some of the adverse information held at the credit
reference agencies and as a consequence I was offered a small amount of credit related to my stated income.
If I don’t receive a reply then I will be escalating this to the Financial Ombudsman.
Kez says
Afternoon all,
I received a phone call from lending stream today with an offer of £450. I took out 3 loans totalling £585 and paid interest of £730. I was asked whether or not I filled expenditure details when I applied – these loans were in 2010 and I can’t honestly remember them asking for much expenditure information other than rent/mortgage. The advisor also gave me some small talk about the differences in what I see on my credit report to what companies see…I’m not sure why he told me this though I do remember mentioning they mentioned my rating at the time of apply was in the 700’s – impossible lol.
Anyway he was pushing me for a decision and I said I was grateful for the call and was not rejecting the offer but I would like it put in writing and emailed to me so I could review it when I got home.
The offer sounds good to me but I would like more of a breakdown of how they came to that figure – if anyone else had had talks with lending stream like this is be interested to hear how you got on.
Cheers
Kez
graham says
Final Respose from QQ today, standard offer of £350 for distress caused. Off to the FOS at last. Stick with It.
fay says
Hi Claire
Not yet! I spoke with them on Tuesday and they said I should hear by the end of Monday next week, which is the last day of the additional 4 weeks. From other people’s experiences this seems to be what they do?
Have you heard yet?
Claire says
Faye I heard back today & got my complaint upheld week 11 & 1 day! I have been in their case all week…face book messgeged them & called them yesterday too! Given me £1341 back which is pretty much what u was hoping for!!! Fingers crossed u hear back ASAP! Don’t give up xx
sarah J says
well i am now over the 8 weeks with wonga. i rang them yesterday and they said they had sent me an email onn the 7th asking for further 4 weeks but i never recieved such email. sod it i have contacted FOS now . i had 176 loans in total. i lent 23000 and paid back 3500 interest.
just a quick question, this 8% is that 8% of the interest or of the total loan?
i am so sick of stalking my emails lol. Just really hope FOS see this in my favour, i cant see that over 170 loans could be seen as anything other than irresponsible x
i have sent lending stream to FOS already.
waiting on sunny, quid and qq
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is 8% per year on the interest and charges that you paid.
170 loans! It does depend on the individual details though and you may not get a refund for some of the earlier loans – the FO will be looking for the point when Wonga should have realised the loans were unaffordable.
Lou says
Well that’s quick quid and 247moneybox both with the adjudicator at FOS, had confirmation that both complaints set up and they have requested their submissions to be sent directly to them. What sort of timescale have people been experiencing with the FOS?
Gordon says
247 Moneybox are by far the very worst with communication, Never can speak with account manager regarding the complaint – always busy! Mine was sent to FOS early Feb who requested info from them. Suprise, Suprise they havent responded. I originally received an offer to wipe current balance and clear credit history – tried to argue that this wasnt good enough but nothing since.
Im tempted to leave this and not chase anymore as im pretty confident the FOS will uphold this one too, and let the 8% interest stack up.
Worst lender of the lot followed by money shop who have no sense of urgency at all – Spoke with a complaint advisor who said whats your hurry for a reply! Its been 15 weeks and you still haven’t dealt with my complaint! If you was chasing money im sure you would be in a hurry too.
Sorry for the rant but i just don’t see the point in the way these companies are dealing with complaints. It must just be the crooks who run them. They have done wrong so put it right – i really feel like advertising this in the newspapers etc just to hit them where it hurts!
Fred says
Hi guys – I have had success with sunny. it was a revolving credit account and I used it around 5/6 times in 4 months – here is the reply,
In line with my decision, and to return you to the position you would be in had you not been granted a loan, I would like to offer the following:
• A full refund of all interest and charges paid in respect of your loan, totalling £184.81 (you borrowed £465.31 and repaid £650.12)
• Simple interest at 8%, calculated on the above figure, totalling £33.21
• The record of your loan will be removed from your credit file, we will update Equifax, Experian, and CallCredit.
• The outstanding balance of £86.20 will be written off, and the account closed down, meaning you therefore have no further liability to us. Please cancel any regular payments set up in respect of this debt, either directly or through a debt management company.
Anyone know how long it usually takes to get the payment?
Kay says
Hi, I had success with them too, they sent their response on Wednesday and I got my refund today, hope this helps :)
Ivy says
Hi all,
Thanx to this site I had hope in my cases.
My jar replied within 2 weeks to cut my interest charges on a loan I got with them and just pay back the initial loan amount, which cut my payments to half.
Sunny replied in 7weeks and 5 days saying they uphold my complaint and refund my all interest paid plus 8% and wipe my current loan them and remove traces from my credit file. I accepted on the day and received the money the next day. No hassle.
Wonga is still waiting after the emailed me after 4 weeks saying they are still looking into my case and will take up to 8 weeks.
Hope this gives people hope.
Claire says
Success with WONGA it’s was week 11. I had spoken to them on Thursday on the phone & also fb messaged them Monday to give them a nudge and to say I wasn’t happy it was taking so long.
Had me final offer of £1341 interest and charges I paid out:) + £50compensation they made this offer today which Iv accepted, was on week 11 into my complaint. I’m extreamly happy with this offer as it’s pretty much what I expected to get back!! Yay!!!
Lending stream – cleared two Debts full about £600 And reduced £900 – £350 which I’ll now pay off.
Provident & Qq still with fos…thanks so much to all the help from this site! :) xx
Kyle says
Needs some help I wanted to know if I would have a claim I have about taken out a lot of payday loans over the last two years I have about £2000 in pay day loans over 5 different lenders still active some are over a month others over a few months always find myself having to take out another just to get through the month it’s spiralling out of control I have one with qq ,about 4 with lending stream , one with payday uk , wagedayadvance and one with uncle buck all still active must of had about 30 loans all in all also had a few with wonga also if you put in a complaint do the freeze the interest on the loan and freeze the loan or do you have to keep paying and try and claim it back would appreciate any help guys
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Kyle,
you have to separate in your mind dealing with your your current situation (can’t afford to live without taking out payday loans) from whether you have been given unaffordable loans in the past.
If you can’t manage your current loan repayments, I suggest you call StepChange – see this new article [edited] a new article now covers the subject of how to manage if you are still borrowing from payday lenders: https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/. You have to stop borrowing and make arrangements to repay your debts – even if it is only a small amount each month.
Then you can look at making complaints to the payday lenders about unaffordability. You may get some money back which will help to pay off your debts. but this isn’t certain and could take many months. Being in debt management won’t hurt and may help your complaints as it shows (a) you have borrowed too much and (b) you are trying to manage it properly.
Start off with the complaints against the lenders you borrowed from the most, as these are the most likely to succeed.
will says
Guys I’ve just signed up with a CMC today for wonga, pounds to pocket, QQ, Lending stream etc… is it worth it or should I act on my own?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
you can do a better job yourself! – well that’s what I think…
(you must be in the cooling off period when you can cancel…)
Lou says
I started off with a CMC, Leslie Charles(stay well clear of them!!) they were useless. I had one upheld through them. Luckily was only a small one. The rest I had problems with-they weren’t contacting them. Said they wouldn’t deal with feratum and next credit as not payday lenders!! (They are!!) I waited until the 8 weeks up and contacted all who they should have dealt with, to find out that 60% had no correspondence from them at all. Now dealing with them on my own
Lesley says
Just a little update, Uncle Buck are being real A*******s, ring me every day about my debt, its on its way to the Ombudsman.
247 Moneybox are wiping my debt and removing from my credit file, im happy with that, still waiting for the rest of them.
Hope you all have a good day.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have an outstanding balance with UB? Were they chasing you for this before you put in your complaint?
Well done on getting rid of the 247 Moneybox balance – how big was it?
Janet says
I had to issue UB with a ‘Telephone Harassment ‘ Complaint letter in December 2014, I have added this to my complaint. I now have a Court Claim from ‘1st Stop Recoveries’ who UB claim to have assigned my debt to. I have issued complaint to UB copied to 1st Stop ans asked for aqll action to be halted. Luckily I have all the emails regarding the 5 loans I had with UB over 5 months and my bank statements.
Steph says
1st stop recoveries were horrendous with me. They also issued me with court claim. I wasn’t refusing to pay, its just that I couldn’t pay. I owed them £369 and I offered to pay over 4 instalments but they wouldn’t have it and proceeded with court. They harrassed me to death. The court ruled in their favour and i ended up with a ccj on my credit file. The most annoying thing was that the court allowed me to pay over 4 instalments which was my original offer to 1st stop. I ended up paying back over £500 because court costs were added on too. Fortunately i have letters from 2012 that I wrote to them pleading to stop proceedings and also to stop harassment. All of this has gone to the FOS to investigate. I swear to god I hope i see my day with this horrible bunch of people and the ombudsman makes them pay!!
Lesley says
Hiya Sara, UB are still chasing me for an outstanding payment, they ring every day, sometimes 3 times, they have a number in Manchester and one in London, a right pain,
my debt to 247moneybox, was £459, i had 3 loans with them ad paid back 2 of them, the outstanding loan was for £150 the rest is interest but i am happy that they have agreed to clear it and remove the default x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Lesley, they shouldn’t be doing this.
Can I suggest that you send them an email with the title of COMPLAINT ABOUT HARASSMENT saying something like this:
“I am writing to complain about the way I am being harassed by multiple phone calls a day about my outstanding balance with you.
I send you a complaint about the affordability of my loans on dd/mm/yyyy. If this is upheld by the Ombudsman, it is likely that some or all of my current outstanding balance will be cleared. You should therefore be treating this balance as currently being in dispute.
The FCA CONC rulebook says: “CONC 7.14.1R(1) A firm must suspend any steps it takes or its agent takes in the recovery of a debt from a customer where the customer disputes the debt on valid grounds or what may be valid grounds.”
As I may have valid grounds to dispute this debt so you should not currently be pursuing me to repay it. If these phone calls do not stop within three days, I shall be notifying the FCA that you appear to be in breach of this Rule.
And if this case goes to the Ombudsman I shall be adding your telephone harassment on as a separate matter that I will be complaining about.”
Lesley says
thank you , i will be doing this shortly, because i have told them several times that it is going to the Ombudsman and one of the agents aid, well its not going away and we will keep calling, its not harassment because you still owe us money, i think i have a legitimate complaint as one of the loans was taken out just days after paying them back , i will let you know how i get on
Vicki says
I had both my claims to pounds to pocket and quick quid sent to the ombudsman , the ombudsman replied yesterday saying they agree with my complaint and they have written to qq and pounds to pocket asking for refunds of all interest, £300 + £275 for the stress and the 8% interest , its going to be close to £4000 in total, not sure if quickquid and pounds to pocket will agree or they are likely to disagree ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Vicki, sounds like the adjudicator wasn’t very impressed with them so far. logic would suggest that they should want to settle this as soon as possible – fingers crossed they don’t try to drag this out!
fay says
Hi everyone
On Monday I am due to hear from Wonga as this is when they have said they will contact me (the last day of the additional 4 extra weeks) and really hoping for some success. Looking at my statements, I paid and took out new loans on the same day for 8 continuous months and it totalled over £2k of interest. At the same time I already had another 5 payday loans. This is the biggest claim I have put in and worried that I wont succeed at this one. I know I don’t have to wait very long (if they keep to their word!) but wondered if anyone has not had success with them, really nervous this is not going to be successful – really could do with this as it will wipe out a huge chunk of my DMP…
Can you also believe it that I have received another email from them inviting me to apply for a new loan!! I rang them on Friday as I was so upset and they suggested that I logged in to say I wanted to opt out! I explained I would not even know what my account details are – and then to top it all they send me another email asking me to complete a customer satisfaction survey!!!
Good luck everyone
x
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Fay – repaying then borrowing the same day for 8 months sounds a very good case to me – I hope Wonga make a sensible offer on Monday.
Patrick van says
Hi guys – I have made a complaint about how I was treated when I was in financial difficulty from a company called peachy. I told them I could not pay but they said I had no choice unless I had been made unemployed – I was forced to take another loan to pay it.
The adjudicator has it currently – but does anyone know if I have a case?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Patrick, I think you have a case. Peachey should have listened to you when you said you were in difficulty and responded appropriately. It has to treat its customers fairly and apply a blanket “you have to pay unless you have lost your job” is unreasonable. You may also have an affordability complaint, as this article discusses.
Sam says
Hi All,
Had replies from two out of three lenders now
Sunny- rejected the complaint and refused to wipe the balance. I had 7 loans with them interest totaling 1200 and am outstanding balance of 600
QQ- I have a balance of 950 which they have continued to add interest to over the 8 weeks during my complaint therefore the balance has increased to 1400. They have offered to waive 700 and set up a payment plan for the rest. My interest with them totals 2000 over 5 loans.
Wonga – still waiting 8 weeks up tomorrow.
How did everyone proceed going forward with the Financial Ombedsman? What information do they require etc?
I have so far gathered several bank statements which show my wages going in and also all the money from the pay day loans going in. I have also got a copy of my credit report from 2014 when I started taking the loans showing my defaults etc and also a more recent report.
Any other information that I will need to go further ?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you sound very organised! I suggest putting the QQ and Sunny complaints into the Ombudsman now. Wonga will almost certainly ask for 4 more weeks tomorrow…
Donna says
Hello,
Quick update and a bit of advice from anyone who has had dealings with 247 Moneybox.
I sent an email to them the beginning of March asking for SOA, had a reply on the 8th March saying they were happy to provide the info, however this would have been provided at time of taking out the loans (they never actually sent the SOA). They did however state I had an outstanding balance with them, they didn’t state what the balance was but stated as a gesture of good will they were willing to wipe the balance off (all i’d asked for at the point was my SOA). I replied thanking them for their gesture of good will and sent the complaint email based on information from old bank accounts.
Email received from them yesterday stating they had reviewed my complaint and my current balance with them was £1288.50 which I believe was for a £500 loan (I could be wrong). They are willing to wipe this balance as a gesture of good will, not admitting liability and also LOOK at removing the defaults registered on my credit file. They have stated if I am not willing to accept this to tell them where I believe the borrowing became unaffordable.
They still haven’t sent me a copy of my statement of account so I can only work from my bank statements; however I cannot find the last loan I took with them which would account for the outstanding balance (not saying they’re making it up as I’m sure it’s there somewhere). From looking at the figures I can see on my bank account it looks like I have borrowed a total of £2255 between 2011 and 2013 and have paid back £3749.65. From looking at my bank statements the first two loans were taken out in June and July of 2011 which were small loans then nothing until March 2012 when I started taking out regular loans from them paying one off and taking one out on the same day and increasing in value.
Before I make any decision should I ask them for a statement of account so I can work out exactly what I have paid back and ask for the interest back? Has anyone had anything similar with them?
Also I referred Lending Stream to the FOS on the 5th April via their website. I haven’t had any acknowledgment from them yet, how long have people waited before chasing up with the FOS that they have received your complaint.
Many thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should definitely ask them for a Statement of your Account. Looking through your bank statements is a good idea, but it’s very easy to miss things!
Say you can’t give them a decision on their offer until they send you a complete list of the loans you took and the repayments you made as this will enable you to properly asses what they have offered.
re Lending Stream – I think it’s worth checking with the FOS after two weeks.
Louise says
Hello,
I wrote an email to PayDay uk back in February, they sent me an email back within a few days saying they will look into my complaint. I then received another email after 4 weeks saying they hadn’t yet come to a conclusion but would get back to me within the 8 week time frame which would have taken it to the 6/4, I’ve still not had a reply from them so should I send them another email or go straight to the ombudsman??
Thank you
Louise
Graham says
Hi Louise, I have escalated my two complaints against QQ and PDUK after ten weeks of BS. Stick with It.
grace says
I put my original complaints to Payday UK and Payday Express on 28th November 2015. The FO contacted me last week finally saying they are investigating so that will be another 2 weeks and I expect depending on the outcome another 2 weeks after that waiting for an offer!!! 5 months to investigate a complaints is a joke x
I am very patient, it is money I never had so if I do get anything back it is a bonus :) I would of thought though these companies would be used to the amount of complaints by now and hired someone! They did make an offer of £500 but I rejected as I had over 20 loans with them ….. I am in no hurry x
Doris says
Feratum what can I say, were very quick at getting back to me regarding my complaint…. But was not upheld!!!! Grrrr ! Found them quite rude! Anybody had any luck with them? Off to the fo I go!!!!
Thomas says
I had a minor success with Ferratum. I took out a £200 loan with them last year but got into difficulties and couldn’t make any repayments. The balance became £280 with interest and charges. I complained last month and they’ve agreed to take off the £80, and they’re letting me repay the £200 in two monthly instalments of £100 – which I can now afford.
Matt S says
I have a complaint in with the FO regarding Ferratum. Had 6 loans with them over 9 months, including reloaning on same day as repaying. All whilst in a debt management plan with multiple defaults and late payments / payment plans on my credit report. All loans were paid back and have no outstanding balance. However they denied my complaint, claiming that they had acted responsibly by lending to me.
They were very quick in giving a final response (around 3 weeks) and complaint has now been with FO for around 4 weeks so just having to play the waiting game.
Matt S says
Hi all,
I have a question with regards to complaints to the FO. Complained about Ferratum on 22nd March, FO emailed 2 weeks later to advise that they have asked for information from Ferratum and that I should get contacted by an adjudicator within 12 weeks.
Based on peoples dealings with the FO should I expect to have to wait the full 12 weeks or are these things normally resolved sooner? Has anybody had any resolved complaints through the FO regarding Ferratum and if so how long did the process take?
Thanks
EJ says
Hi,
Wondering if anyone can help.
I have had a large amount of payday loans, majority being from Quick Quid. I have complained to them as some of these loans were not affordable based on my income. QQ have responded asking for payslips and bank statements.
I do suffer with Bipolar and in 2015 (when the majority of loans were taken out) I spent a serious amount of money on gambling. This is of course all over my bank statements and is continuous through out the year.
Is it worth continuing with my claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi EJ, we have had several people here reporting that the Ombudsman has upheld their affordability complaint despite there being significant gambling showing on their bank statements. What matters is whether QQ should have been able to tell from your repeated repayments – reloaning that you were in trouble. People with mental health problems and addictions such as gambling often found themselves caught in the payday loan trap – it is worth continuing with your complaint and taking it to the Ombudsman if QQ refuse.
EJ says
Hi Sara,
Thanks very much for the advice. I will send the payslips along with the bank statements.
The loans I took were Oct 12, Oct 13 and then in 2015 I borrowed every month from Feb-July (sometimes significant amounts up to £1000) and then in Dec 15 and again in Jan 16. I have since defaulted on the Jan 16 loan and looking at my income, it is evident that I would not have been able to make the payments they have requested.
I will go back to them and see what they say.
Many Thanks
grace says
So Uncle Buck contacted me today 8 weeks to the day offering me a £50 goodwill gesture now I know I have only had one loan with this company but they opened an account dated march 16 on my credit file which is incorrect after 5 years! I have kindly declined their offer and off to the FO – its more a principal thing rather than the money as they have been so rude with their replies :)
Steph says
Agree Grace, theyr very rude. They lie as well. Told me they don’t keep records beyond 6 years and if i do go to ombudsman they are not obliged to co-operate! Hilarious!
redfraggle says
Has anyone had any luck with Wage Day Advance. I sent them the complaint email 4 weeks ago and nothing. Followed up with a chaser this week and still nothing bar the standard “we have received your email and will be in touch” automated response.
What do I do if they fail to respond to me. Can I refer to the FOS on the basis that they have not responded?
Aga says
yes I did ! you need to wait 8 weeks; at the last day off 8 week I received written letter through the post with offer of 460 out of 1000 interest I sent the response informing that I believe I should be offered more and on Monday morning they sent an offer. Monday evening I received money on my account of 700; good luck to you.
Shanae says
I waited the full 8 weeks before I got a final response and it was worth the wait. However I did receive an acknowledgement email once I complained. Hang in there
Aga says
Hi !
did anyone have a luck with 1 month loan ? I sent them a complaint 2 months ago ( to sunny as I was told they are called sunny now) , just received an e mail thank you we will contact you next day”
Matty says
Raised a complaint with Elevate for both Sunny and 1month. Sunny got rejected and 1month paid out in full. Was 8 weeks total
Elevate control the email addresses so it’s to complain to them. I would ring though and make sure they are dealing with issues for both 1month and Sunny. I got a response re sunny so I replied and said what about 1month I was told it was going to be dealt with at the same time…got a reply within 3 hours saying they hadn’t realise and upheld full amount for 1month but stood firm re sunny. Haven’t pursued it yet as I’ve bigger fish to fry with the rest! Good luck
Matt S says
Below is an update on my complaints and how they are progressing :
Vivus – By far the best, 2 weeks after making my complaint they had offered to refund all interest on all 6 loans I had with them, plus 8% statutory. Money was in my account within 2 days.
247 Moneybox – Again, very impressed. Only had 2 loans with them and overall had paid back less than they’d loaned me. However within 3 weeks of making the complaint they agreed to write off my outstanding balance and remove my default.
Mr Lender – Had 2 loans with them, and they agreed to reduce my outstanding balance by £300 which again I was happy with. Full response within 4 weeks.
Lending Stream – Again only 2 loans with them, but also agreed to write off outstanding balance and remove default from credit report. Full response in around 4-5 weeks.
Uncle Buck – Had a number of loans with them and they agreed that the last 2 were unreasonable. Refund of all interest plus 8% on these loans which cleared the outstanding balance and left me with a small refund which was transferred after 3-4 days.
Ferratum – Probably most disappointed with them so far. They were lending to me while I was in debt management (easily noticeable on credit report – also not something I’m proud of but was desperate at the time), defaults and late payments galore plus very low credit score. 6 loans over 9 months including 3 times reloaning on same day as repaying. However they feel they loaned responsibly. Complaint been with FO for 4 weeks now.
Quick Quid & Pounds to Pocket – Both denied my complaint but offered to reduce my outstanding balance. Refused both so complaints going to FO.
Quid – 8 weeks up tomorrow, mixed feelings as seen some positive and some negative comments. Some people seem to be getting full refunds, others denied completely. Had around 8 loans / rollovers over 9-10 months.
Wage Day Advance – 8 weeks up on 3rd May – 5 loans with 6 rollovers over 12 months. No updates from them for last 4 weeks.
PDUK / Payday Express – 8 Weeks up Mid May after them taking 6 weeks to supply statement of account. Pretty much consistent monthly lending / rolling over for over a year with both. Including 1 loan rolled over 11 consecutive months.
The Loan Store – 2 loans and 2 rollovers over 4 months while in debt management. About 4 weeks since complaint made.
Wonga – 8 weeks up yesterday and asked for 4 further weeks, same as everyone else.
Minicredit – Complaint in with Kapama / Opos regarding extortionate fees. Only 1 loan with them of £100 but £340 of fees added after advising them I was struggling financially and entering debt management.
Looking back, not proud of how much of a mess I got myself in to. But hopefully a few more payouts will help clear some debts and get me back on track.
Mike says
Hi All,
Had a response from both PDUK and PD Express as both 8 weeks are up this Friday. Both emails exactly the same stating they have been unable to complete their investigations and therefore I am within my right to forward to the ombudsman.
Interestingly though they have stated the following:
The ombudsman will not consider your case if the following:
What you are complaining about happened more than six years ago; and
• You are complaining more than three years after you realised (or should have realised) that there was a problem
I’m a little bit confused by the second comment?
Can anyone clarify please
jackster says
I spoke to FOS at length about this. As far as the adviser I spoke to is concerned, no one knew there was anything to complain about until the situation with Wonga. Until then, we thought they could get away with it. He said he would be more than happy to look at my complaints dating back as far as 2007. I wouldn’t worry about it at all, they are just trying to scare you…
Lou says
PaydayUK sent me email this morning. Final response was due yesterday. They have said they havent finished investigating yet. They havent asked for more time, however I am going straight to FOS. Already have a 247moneybox and Quick Quid with them, and have an adjucicator assigned so have emailed him details and he should set up fairly quickly for me.
Next credit refunded me £168 yesterday.
My Data breach claim with QQ…after an argument and an email to them, they have paid me £200 compensation for the data breach and agreed that I have rejected my affordibility final response from them and are waiting to hear from the FOS regarding this.
Talking of QQ, the same person who cc’d another customer in the email they sent me, sent me an email intended for someone else!!!
Matt S says
Quick Quid also sent me an email intended for someone else including full rundown of their complaint, loans they had with them and rollovers etc. I wish I was able to find out who they were so they too could claim compensation for the data breach. It must be a regular occurance with Quick Quid.
Lucy says
I have put complaints in with Wonga, Cash Genie, Wageday Advance and PDUK. 8 weeks has gone with no responses from Wonga, Cash Genie and PDUK so these have now been submitted to FO, who have said they will reply within 2 weeks.
Wageday Advance replied on exactly 8 weeks. I have previously had 13 loans with them, total owed would be circa £2.8K including interest. They have replied offering me £1.5K for the last 7 loans as they say they should have performed further checks on these, but that the first 6 loans were affordable so not refunding costs. They have said that they do not do external credit checks, just internal using the information provided (which I had lied about how much I owed, or even owed at all to other payday lenders as I was desperate).
What would you do? Accept and argue.
I have replied to them saying that they did not check my credit file which was irresponsible lending, if they had checked they would have seen that I already owed Wonga and Cash Genie more money than my disposable income totalled. I also said that they should have seen from the lending pattern (I would repay and then lend the same amount or increased amount the next day) which shows it was unaffordable.
How long should I give them to reply before I take it to the FO? I emailed them on Saturday.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Lucy, you say you were repaying then reloaning the same day – was this right from the start? If it was, then then I would have thought the Ombudsman may decide WDA should have realised what was happening and stopped lending after the first 3 loans. If this feels fair to you, you could consider going back to them and saying you would accept a refund for last 10 loans.
Lucy says
Hi Sarah,
Yes that was the case. I had already emailed on 16th April saying that I wanted refund of all loan charges but have not had a reply. Would you send an email again but saying you would accept for last 10, or wait for a reply first?
Also, how long would you give for a reply before taking it to the FO?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would probably email them again and then give them a week. But go with your gut feel – after 8 weeks you are entitled to go to the Ombudsman immediately.
Lucy says
Hi Sarah
Thank you. They came back to me yesterday offering money on loans 5 to 13 but not 1 to 4. I decided to accept this as reading from your comment taking this to the ombudsman might only get me one extra loan. However, I didn’t agree with the amount. They were offering £1,900 and I was expecting £2,100. After checking it is because my bank statement was showing receipt of £485 each time, and they said that they were loaning me £500 each time, so a difference of £15 each month. I have said that I want the £15 as well as it is further charges, however, they have now come back to me and said that I had the option of BACs for free or faster payment for £15, which they took. I don’t remember this but I know if I was given the two options I would have paid the £15.
Are they correct in not offering the difference of £15 plus interest (total £200 across loans) as they gave me an option?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I don’t know for certain what the ombudsman would decide about this but it’s likely the lender would have incurred extra banking charges in making faster payments.
Matty says
Wonga now in 13th week. I would advise anyone to go straight to FOS after initial 8 weeks. Used to work in a bank this happened with mortgage exit fees we were swamped but you make provisions to enable them to be dealt with and Wonga aren’t doing that they are just delaying. Besides, more chance of a bigger payout through FOS and they charge the company £550 which in my book is 1-0 to the consumer straight away just to make these companies suffer after what they’ve done to a lot of us for years.
Matt S says
I reached 8 weeks with Wonga yesterday and like everybody else was advised they hoped to have a response within a further 4 weeks.
Tempted to go straight to the FOS, only thing putting me off is that the only complaint I have in with them so far they acknowledged after 2 weeks and advised I should have an outcome within 12 weeks. So potentially 14 weeks from complaining to get an outcome through the FO.
Matty says
Do it. Provide the FOS with your original dated email and I was told today if I can prove it’s been 13 weeks will be dealt with urgently. It now seems they aren’t even replying after 12 weeks as today they told me they will ‘try before the end of April’. 4 months for a complaint? They having a laugh?
Mark says
Fo phoned me yesterday to tell me since qq and p2p haven’t had the decency to reply he is upholding my complaint for 2 years worth of my loans, early loans being deemed affordable etc which I’m happy with but doss anybody know the timescale to receiving a refund once qq etc are told to.pay up?
lou says
That depends. If it’s the adjudicator then quick quid may well disagree and then the case is referred to an ombudsman. This is what happened in my case for a complaint that began in November. QQ seem to be in the mode of refuting everything and stretching things out to the last possible date. I’m a couple of weeks into the case being with an ombudsman and haven’t heard anything.