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?
brizzle says
Can any help me with what to respond back as I cant remember my log in for this? any help would be great…
Dear xxx,
We can confirm that your concerns have been logged and a separate acknowledgement email has been sent.
To obtain information on the loans you have held with us, you would simply need to log into your online account on our website and here you will find details of the loans you have held as well as being able to generate statements for the accounts.
If you wish to make a data subject access request (DSAR), you would need to confirm what information it is you are looking to receive and also your home address. From there we can issue a DSAR form to your home address for you to fill in and return back to us in order for us to begin the process.
Regards,
118118 Money Customer Relations Team
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Tell them you can’t remember your login?
brizzle says
Thank you, ive sent my response will update when I receive something.
H says
Hi All, good news- I have had a very reasonable offer from Wonga today.
I was wondering if you’d be able to advise- below is the table, I’m trying to understand how much they’re deducting, is it just the tax or the tax and gross 8%
Total Interest and Fees
£1,746.15
8% interest net
£624.10
Total Settlement
£2,370.25
Tax
8% Interest Gross
£780.12
Basic rate Tax deduction
£156.02
So are they deducting £780 + the £156 or just the £156?
Sorry for being so dumb.
Also Thanks so much to you all and Sara for all of the help and this incredible site.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lots of people are baffled by Wonga’s offers! You will get a refund of £2,370.25.
If this is your only refund in the tax year you will be able to reclaim the tax deducted, see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/
Lou7 says
Hi all. Some advice would be greatly appreciated. I had an email off 118 money regarding my complaint. Basically they said they rely on me saying the loan was affordable and because it was for consolidation that’s why they said yes. It also says something about fraud. What should I do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Did you use the loan for consolidation? You know whether it was affordable – did you have to keep borrowing to repay it?
See https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/ – lots of lenders have said something about fraud and not one of them has ever done anything about it.
Lou7 says
Hi Sara. Yes I used the loan for consolidation. I did borrow from quick quid and pounds to pocket too.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK so if you used the loan for what you said but still couldn’t manage, then their affordability checks can’t have been very good! So worth going to the FOS I would have thought.
Abbi C says
Hi Sarah
Firstly thank you for this amazing website I have been refunded around £6000.
I was wondering if you have some advice about my three remaining complaints. The financial ombudsman have said that because I referred it to them more than 6 months after the lenders final response that they cannot help. I don’t even have a good reason for this I just did my first few and then hadn’t got round to referring.
What are my options? One of the complaints are seriously effecting my credit rating. Would really appreciate any advice! Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you think the replies from the three lenders that you didn’t take to the FOS were misleading in some way (wrong number of loans? didn’t say you could go to the FOS) there is probably nothing you can do to get the FOS to take these cases.
You would need professional help – from a solicitor or a Law Centre – if you wanted to try to take the lenders to court.
embob says
hi any advice i was desperate for money and lied on my income on my application form could i still get a refund from the fos or will they side with lender.had 6 loans in 4 months total £1300
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Read https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-says-lied/. If you borrowed 6 times in 4 months from the same lender, then this sounds like a good case to take to the FOS – they should have realised something was wrong after the first 2 or 3 loans.
tom price says
I Started this process 9 weeks ago – wasn’t really expecting anything out of it but had all to gain and nothing to loose, so far the situation stands like this
QQ/P2P – Complaint upheld – refund within 6 weeks of just over £4.5 k – after offer refund took 3 days
Myjar – Complaint upheld – refund within 7 weeks of £4.1k – refund of money 1 day after offer
Sunny – Complaint upheld – refund with 5 weeks of £800- money back in account after 1 day
Wonga – Complaint upheld – 8 weeks and £1800 – money to be deposited anyday
Wageday advance – complaint not upheld – off to FOS
MRlender- complaint not upheld – off to FOS
Payday uk/Express – unable to determine – off to FOS
Ladder loans – no response – off to FOS
Lendingstream – denied receiving complaint – I rang them and they have until Friday – will be going to FOS
This brings me to Amigo – the worst of the lot- denied any wrong doing – blamed me for the situation – Will be sending to the FOS
Key point – even if you think you will get nothing keep trying – I could of fought the ones that piad out quickly for more money etc. but I was happy to get something as I wasn’t expecting anything – so in conclusion got 10k back and chuffed to bits all thanks to this wonderful site and Sarah’s help :)
EP2003 says
Hi I have had success with Saftey net however Quick quid and payday UK have not unheld my complaint- here is what Quick quid said in a nutshell , any tips ?
AFFORDABILITY & CREDIT WORTHINESS
I have reviewed your file and can confirm that, in line with our internal process, at the time of each application, we conducted our standard credit assessment, which included pulling your credit report. As part of our assessment, we analyse your current financial commitments, insolvency records, delinquency records, County Court judgements, credit enquiries and other credit accounts currently open.
It was noted your monthly income was stated as £2200 per month. I compared your income to your total monthly repayment for each loan you took with us. From this I can see that the income you made during each payday loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan and thus I cannot agree with you that your loans were unaffordable.
DEPENDENCY
You are claiming that you were dependent on loans. When I reviewed your loan history I see that you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.
HARDSHIP
I reviewed your file and noted that on 11/05/2018 you informed us of your financial difficulty. However, your file also shows that we did not issue you another loan after you claimed financial hardship.
CONCLUSION: COMPLAINT NOT UPHELD
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is QQ’s standard “fill in the blanks” rejection letter.
“I can see that the income you made during each payday loan with us was always more than enough to cover the amount you had to repay us for each loan” so they never loaned you more than you were actually earning! That says nothing about whether the loan was affordable, as the Ombudsman will take into account your expenses (minor things like rent and food) and other debt repayments, which QQ have ignored.
“you never had more than four consecutive loans with less than 15 days between loans.” This convoluted English is because they are trying deliberately to make your case sound weak.
If I was to rephrase that as “There was at least one (possibly more) period of 4 months where you borrowed again each month soon after repaying the previous loan” it says the same thing but sounds rather different, doesn’t it?
Also the reference to 15 days has no particular justification. You may have struggled to get through the next month after repaying a QQ loan and had to borrow again after 3 weeks – that still shows you were left in difficulty by the QQ loan repayment.
I suggest you send it straight to the Ombudsman. People have got large amounts back after complete rejections by QQ.
Paul says
Standard rejection letter. I got exactly the same. Sent it off to the Ombudsman, found in my favour and was refunded £6400 three days ago after 2 month wait. Don’t give up!
Danny says
Hi Paul, I currently have a complaint with the Ombudsman for QQ/P2P. How long did it take for your complaint to be picked up by and ombudsman? And when it was pick up, how long did it take for them to make their decision?
Cheers,
Danny
Paul says
Hi Danny,
It took about 6 weeks to be picked up by Ombudsman. Then took about 4 weeks for QQ to respond and then ANOTHER 28 days to refund the amount. But of a wait but worth it in the end.
qq says
9 weeks….that’s fantastic. My QQ & Wonga have been 10 months and still no nearer being sorted out……QQ is still awaiting for the ombudsman even though the adjudicator found in my favour on all my loans (over 3k). The Wonga claim still not picked up by an adjudicator after 10 months. I keep asking the FOS for an update, but i just keep getting a random reply of we have lots of cases to look at. I don’t know what to do next to get these sorted…..it’s very frustrating.
Mike says
Myjar have stated that they gave me a final response in 2016.
I remember they fobbed me off with some excuse and I didn’t take it to FOS
I can’t remember whether it was a final response letter.
Is there anything I can do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ask for a copy of the letter/email and see.
mike says
Myjar & payday express are saying they have already issued me with final response letter, but won’t provide evidence of this.
What do I do now?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You could put in a complaint saying they are behaving unreasonably in not sending a copy of their response. State that you are making a Subject Access request for the information.
mike says
payday uk sent me a letter saying it was a final response. I mean it doesn’t say it is a final response but the wording is like “hey thats our decision” does this count as a final response then. It does mention the ombudsman at the end.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes that is a final decision if they have told you that you can go to the Ombudsman.
Jonnym says
Hi all
I have had a complaint with Wonga first registered Feb this year: I had 14 loans… with a spell of 7 around 2011 (over six years) and a spell of another 7 in 2015. ombudsman contact confirms they can move forward if i drop the first 7 loans. He has said they kind of look at refunding after loans 3-4 in which they would then expect the lender to be doing additional checks… the interest is about the same for each period but of course with interest makes the first 7 worth around £2000 and later ones around £1700.
What’s everyones advise? I could do with the cash to pay other bills however not guaranteed but I was pushing him on the phone as to the likelyhood of when these could be looked at and he just said it could be months as there are queues of people waiting from 2 years and as my claim quite fresh would have to wait my turn in the queue?
Kara says
When I dropped my older than 6yr loans my case was picked up by an adjudicator and the remaining loans upheld within 2weeks. Wonga agreed and I’m now waiting for payment after sending acceptance 10 days ago. It was an easy decision for me, though, as I only lost about 15% of my potential claim and they still took the older loans into account in terms of repeat borrowing, meaning that all of the later loans were upheld.
Good luck.
African Queen says
Hello,
Quick update from me:
Uncle Buck came back after 7 weeks and have upheld my complaint. They have agreed to refund just under £5K which I am happy with. I have returned my acceptance form to them today. They were very easy to deal with and I am very pleased.
SwiftSterling (Northway Financial) on the other hand, totally different story. After over 12 weeks and several emails asking for an update, I eventally got a final response from them today rejecting my claim, which I wasn’t surprised about. I have logged a complaint with the Arbiter in Malta. So far, they have been very responsive and have said I should hear as soon as my case has been assigned. It costs 25 Euros to log a complaint.
I am prepared to go all the way with Northway especially as I paid over £8K in interest to them. I will provide updates as I get them.
Good Luck to everyone and keep fighting. Don’t give up – it’s worth it in the end xx
L7 says
Well done on uncle buck they are disagreeing with adjudicator over £250 for me, be easier to pay the small ones Off in my opinion
Dave says
Any tips of best way to send about 60 pages of bank statements to the FO?
Robert says
Could you not download them as pdf and email them? I did for mine back to 2011
gillian says
dave I had 51 envelopes of bank statement for the fos I just put them all in 2 big envelopes and posted them I did not even open them it cost me 12 pound to post they sent them back all sorted out and stapled in correct order for me I then rang them and they told me they would attach all the details to each claim it was so easy if you do not know how to down load and send them by computer
Diane says
I had 160 pages of statements took pictures of them all put them into 1t a page and tried spending them by e-mail but wouldn’t send, ended up posting them all and they have connected them to all my claims only cost £3 recorded delivery
DK says
Sunny are a riot. I’m so draaaaained.
Replied to their resolution email disagreeing with their findings and said I’d take it to the FO. Also asked if they could unfreeze my account and tell me how to go about restarting payments to start to clear the balance. Got a reply saying they were disappointed and attached FO escalation deets. No mention of account. Replied pointing out my unanswered account question. Got a reply saying “As we mentioned in our resolution email, we have written off the remaining balance for you so there is nothing else you need to pay.” Have now relied telling them that for the avoidance of doubt, I didn’t accept their resolution so should still have a balance outstanding. Gave them overall amounts of the two loans, how much they are each and what my next payment should have been before freezing. Glad I always bloody screenshot stuff!
Anyone know how far back bank statements should go for a DSAR? Paid a tenner for them 2 months ago but it starts at December 2012 (account opened in 2008) and I need June 2012 to November 2012 for Wonga…
Jack says
I have recently made a claim to Wonga regarding 40 loans from 2012 to 2018. Wonga have come back and offered me £3800 in compensation but they have only regarded 12 of those loans from 2012 to 2013. Shall I take the money and run or go to the financial ombudsman and go for the lot?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sounds like you could get a LOT more by going to the Ombudsman.
Jack says
Thanks for the reply. I’ve referred it to the FO so fingers crossed it goes the right way. I’ve worked out I’ve borrowed over 40k in loans over 5 years and 40 loans. How long do these cases usually take to resolve? By the way, Just want to say how good and useful this website is. I’d never be even thinking about a 4K offer let alone turning it down if it wasn’t for this website.
Jack
tom price says
Jack – depends how much you need the cash. I could of fought my claim against them but took the early settlement and treated myself to a long deserve holiday and now debt free….
Jack says
Hi mate I’m not in major need of the cash but I’m saving for a house at the mo and recently got knocked back due to my bad credit rating from all of the mentioned loans I’ve had. So I’ve gone to the FO and hoping for the best. With the 4200 offer they’ve They’ve also mentioned they will delete the 12 loans from my credit rating which is good but will be even better if I can get more or all wiped off. Including more money, let’s hope for the best
Thankful! says
Hi All,
Has anyone had payout from Payday UK recently after a decision by an adjudicator and if so, can you tell me how long it took please? My adjudicator sent my acceptance and bank details to them 3 weeks ago.
Many thanks
John says
About 4 weeks for me.
Marie says
I have in the last 2 month’s topped up a loan with 118 and they lent me another £1150 with one payment left on the £1000 i borrowed last time. Do you think they should have done this with defaults to other lenders, credit cards and mortgage defaults on my credit file? Has anyone else applied to 118 for unaffordable lending?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Quite a few people have had refunds from 118 money. Where you have a loan outstanding, this takes the form of removing interest from the balance. It is often easier to win these cases where you have topped up so this is well worth a try and send it to the ombudsman if it is rejected.
Marie says
Thank you sara, i have also just fired off emails to satsuma and sunny that issed me with loans of £1000 and £500 at the same time as:
My jar
lending stream
2 guarantor loans
118 money
247 moneybox
All running at the same time
Lou says
Hello
Hoping for some advice. A bit of a strange one really. Satsuma loans didn’t reply to me within the 8 weeks but yesterday I received a cheque through the post for £150. I have paid well over £2000 in interest so I don’t think it’s a very good offer? As all the other lenders have replied via email (not had much luck so far). My question is what do I do? Should I send back the cheque? If I don’t will they assume I have accepted the offer? Has anyone else had this? TIA
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s either Satsuma’s cunning plan to settle your complaint very cheaply or they need to move into the 21st century and discover emails and bank transfers… I leave it up to you to guess.
I suggest you phone them up and ask if this cheque is an offer to settle your complaint? If they say yes, say it’s not enough and you will be going to the finanical ombudsman and ask what you should do with the cheque. Don’t cash it unless they say you can as it may be taken as you accepting the offer.
Lou says
Hi Sara
Thank you so much for your reply. The way they have worded the document they have sent with the cheque it looks like it’s their final response. I will email them to tell them I am not happy with this and ask them what I should do with the cheque at least that way I have it in writing.
Link says
Deadline for Lending Stream (Gain Credit LLC) to respond to adjudicator’s findings passed on 1st June. She has now extended it to 8th June. If they don’t respond it will go to Ombudsman. Do Lending Stream have previous for ignoring adjudicators? And if they just ignore it are they open to extra liabilities or penalties?
Matt says
Hi. They did the same with me. I am assuming they go unpunished. For whatever reason they took 6 months to get a final response in and the adjudicator seemed lenient to say the least. It’s now been with ombudsman for 3 months.
Eva says
I was lucky with them they responded to adjudicator on day 14 (The deadline) agreeing with the decision
RC says
Hello All,
After finding out about this website i have been through my Payday loans have worked out that over 3 years ish, i have multiple loans across 12 PDL lenders and amounts to aprox 16k borrowed, 25k paid back, and 9k paid in interest.
I have mapped these out, and i was frequently paying several off, and reapplying a couple of days after payday, rolling over, deferring, defaulting, or dealing with credit agencies.
I am in the process of drafting the lenders, and my question is;
In the draft letting should i show the mapping of all the loans to each lender? or just deal with the lendings of the individual lender and state i was borrowing from others as well?
Should i mention that this caused severe anxiety and depression, leading to therapy and mental health treatment (i can evidence this)?
What is the likeliness of getting defaults removed from my credit file?
Kind Regards
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Some people like to send the overall mapping to everyone. Some prefer to just talk to lender A about lender A’s loans and the general state they were in.
Did you ever tell a lender you were having difficulty repaying and say you had mental health issues? If you did you should emphasise this and include evidence. But if you didn’t, it may not help your complaint much.
It sounds as though you had a LOT of borrowing so it’s likely you will get some refunds – if getting defaults removed is important for you, check this is included before you accept an offer.
Paul says
so glad i found this site. 21k of interest claimed back with more to come. most debts are now paid off with some cash spare
MH says
Hi Sara,
I had an unfortunate outcome against Likley Loans for irresponsible lending not in my favour. However during the time that the investigation was underway i requested that my account payments be put on hold due to me raising a compliant. They agreed to this. They only ‘recommeded’ that payments be maintianed during this time (as obviously if it wasnt successful they balance would be in arrears). Since checking my credit file for the 4 months that it was under invesigations, each month they have sent information to the credit reference agenices notifying them of ‘missed payments’ as you can imagine I was extremely surprised and annoyed about this record on my ctedit file. I contacted LL and they said that it was in their T&C’s – which actually doesnt state anything about referring to credit ref’s – litterally says ‘missed payments may make it harder to obtain credit in the future.’ Anyway they refuse to remove them from my file and it is now with the FOS and I’m hopeful FOS will see sense and get LL to remove them
Have you / or anyone else come accross anything like this in the past and if so what the outcome was??
thanks
MH
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s pretty normal. You didn’t make the contractual payments. If you win the case, the missed payment markers should be deleted.
nick says
Has anyone had any luck with 118118 I.e. response timing and payout?
Paul says
Hi, yeah I have. After complaining about irresponsible lending on a current loan I’ve got with them, they agreed to wipe ALL interest and so I’m just paying back the capital. It took them the full 8 weeks to respond to my complaint.
Nick says
Bit of an update
QQ/P2P complaint not upheld, sent to FOS
MyJar complaint not upheld, currently with FOS
Mr Lender just sent their final response, don’t know what to do with it.
Had one loan with them, but this was at the time I had about 6 going at once. They said my credit file was good at the time (even though I would of been in a DMP) and they lended responsibly.
However they are willing to wipe off £204.80 off my outstanding balance to leave it at £109 and remove any negative effects on credit file as GOW. Don’t know wether to send it to FOS or accept??
Sara (Debt Camel) says
How large was the MrL loan? how much have you repaid?
Nick says
The loan was for £500, but very quickly I crumbled under it all, contacted Stepchange and they added all loans onto my existing DMP.
So Total Capital Paid £200, Interest Paid £190.23, Balance Outsanding £316.17.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok so you have paid c 390 to date – ignore whether this is capital or interest. So there is £110 still to be paid before you have repaid what you borrowed. That is what Mr Lender are proposing, to cut the balance so you just repay 500 in all, what you borrowed, with no inteterest at all. This is a “full refund” for this sort of situation and exactly what the Ombudsman would say. One sorted!
Nick says
Excellent!
So now waiting on Lending Stream, SafteyNetCredit, and a few others, but so glad to come across this site. If it reduces my debt then I’ll be debt free quicker than 2025 as my DMP states! (I hope!)
Mat says
Hi, Looking for a bit of help!
I have two separate appeals with PayDayUK & QuickQuid.
QQ have offered me a settlement but have said it is their final offer and will not reconsider. They have only considered 4 out of 7 loans.
PayDayUK have said they need bank statements & credit report, with out this they will not consider my appeal. I did’nt have to send this to QQ to get a settlement offer.. why do PayDayUK need it?
Should I refer to FO for both appeals?
Thank you for any help you can give me.
Mat
Sara (Debt Camel) says
QQ – are the 4 they have offered to refund the most recent 4? DO you know how much interest you paid on these 4 loans? And on the 3 they aren’t refunding? Are the 3 they aren’t refunding more than 6 years old?
Payday UK – it’s a lender’s decision whether they need bank statements before giving a refund. Ifr you send this one to the FO you will need the bank statements then. It’s your choice, – give PDUK the statements and hope you get a decision in your favour quicker, or send the case to the ombudsman.
leanne says
Hi ALL
I have 3 complaints in with the ombudsman that were sent to them back in January and I last heard from them a month ago after asking for an update to which they sent a generic reply saying they were waiting for it to be assigned to an adjudicator. Does anyone know how long this will take? Should I keep on at them or will they get fed up of my constant emails? I have been reading on here people of getting responses after a couple of week
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I would check in once a month… It would be VERY unusual to get a payday loan refund picked up by an adjudicator in less than 2 months. Anyone saying they have had a response in 2 weeks is probably referring to being asked to send in a credit report or bank statements.
leanne says
Hi Sara,
Thanks for your reply this afternoon I have had 2 updates –
Firstly the first email said they were still waiting to be assigned to an adjudicator
then a few mins ago I had a reply saying that although the adjudicator hadnt had chance to look at my case, they had just received notification from QQ/Pounds to pocket that they were prepared to accept 1 of the loans but not the other three and have offered me £1900, what should I do? Should I let the FO continue to investigate this or accept? will I loose this claim value if I don’t accept now?
I really appreciate your advice :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know how much interest you paid on each month f your 4 loans? And what were the gaps between the loans – the time from repaying loan 1 to taking out loan 2, from loan 2 to 3,and from loan 3 to 4?
leanne says
Hi, I am going to have to look into this more as I defo know I had both a QQ and P2P loan running along side each other, the activity on my accounts when I now log in has vanished so I am going to have to go back and check through my correspondence.
leanne says
Hi Sara
I have just had a quick look through my bank statements and from what I can quickly see there has been at least 14 different deposits from these sister companies into my account ranging from as little as £80 ranging up to £1200 at a time over several months. according to their offer I have only had 4 claims? What would you suggest I do?
If I get the ombudsman to look into this and they agree with their claim do I loose the £1971 they have offered me today?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It is just about possible their “4 loans” is correct if a lot of the deposits were from a flexi loan… but it could be wrong! Also their offer doesn’t sound very good! I suggest you should say to the Ombudsman that you think you have had more loans than that and you want them to carry on and look at the case.
If you don’t have a full statement of account from each of QQ and PTP, I suggest you send them both a subject access request asking for this information . You may not need this, but its good to have the info and it can take some time to arrive so ask now.
QQ/PTP often make not good, low offers and people get a LOT more from the FO. I don’t think we have ever seen a case where anyone gets less! And hopefully your case should be picked up soon.
leanne says
Hi Sara
I spent some time last night going through all of my bank statements and found that I borrowed around £6000 in total with them over a period of 10 months, some repayments were made and then I borrowed again the day or the day after. I have worked out I paid back around £11500, do you think I should go back to FO and ask them to look at the whole claim or accept the one?
Also as they have now agreed one claim will the FO uphold that claim in their findings and anything else be a bonus?
Sorry for all the questions I am seriously trying to sort my current financial position out and want to do everything right :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So if you have repaid over 5k in interest over such a short period, their offer isn’t good. I do think the Ombudsman should look at this one. We haven’t come across a case where someone has got less by going to the FO after one of QQ’s poor offers.
natalie says
Hi Sara
I complained to Payday UK about my loans, and they have deemed one to be unaffordable, but I don’t understand part of their letter- does this mean I will still owe Payday UK the new balance once the redresss has been applied to it, or are they recalling the debt and cancelling it? The redress offered was 313.72.
This is the part of the letter that is unclear.
Your outstanding balance of £1,369.80 was sold to PRAC Financial Limited on 9 December 2016. As part of the settlement of your complaint, we will recall the debt, and deduct your outstanding balance of £1,369.80 from our offer. This leaves a refund of £0.00 to be repaid to you.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I agree that isn’t clear!
Also how many loans did you have with them?
Natalie says
I had a total of six loans with them, they deemed three to be affordable, two they were unable to determine and this one which they upheld. Obviously if the debt is being written off as part of their offer, that would be a good enough offer to me, but I can’t be sure.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The loan that was defaulted and sold – was this the one that PDUK said was unaffordable?
Also were any of the loans rolled/deferred?
natalie says
Yes the loan that was defaulted was the one they deemed unaffordable. The two previous loans to this unaffordable one rolled.
Thanks :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok, so I suggest you ask them to confirm that they are proposing to write off the outstanding loan so you won’t owe them or PRAC any money. If they say no, you will still owe them a balance, say that isn’t acceptable and you will be sending the whole complaint to the FOS.
Katie says
Hi there,
I’m just trying to compile my records and have a couple of newbie questions:
Sunny won’t let me login using my original details and saying I’m unrecognised and Wonga don’t have an obvious place to find previous loans. Should I just send them the subject access request and ask them for records?
My husband and I took out simultaneous but separate loans, should we send a joint letter of complaint or do we need to write separately?
All help very gratefully received!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, ask them both to send a list of your loans. And put in separate complaints.
Paul Jeffery says
Hi I had several loans from 2 payday lenders over the course of a year or so and was constantly repaying one from the other and clearing my credit card debts also. I was signed off work due to mental health problems and eventually diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. This meant I spiralled out of control and couldn’t keep my payments or cover my household bills due to being on SSP and I still owe on one of the loans which I increased so much it’s become near impossible for me to even attempt to pay. I would say I had a good 10 loans over the course of the year and wondered if I would have a strong case for refunds on the interest etc as I was never asked to update my finances or personal circumstances
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I think you should definitely complain to the two lenders and ask for refunds.
John says
Help please… had a response from quid market saying they uphold my loans for 4 and 5 offering me £596 but saying loans 1,2,3 were in line with requirements ??
1st loan was £150 paid £192
2nd loan was £225 paid £303
3rd loan. Was £300 paid 401
4th loan was £375. Paid £501
5th loan was £450 paid £850
All loans taken out same day as paying other one back ????.. should I email back saying I accept your offer for loans 4-5 however I will take action with loans 1-3 with the ombudsman?? Will they accept this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can’t accept an offer on the last 2 and send the first 3 to the Ombudsman – accepting their offer will settle your complaint about all of your loans.
It’s not a bad offer – they are refunding the 2 largest and most recent loans. It’s common for the FOS to say that you should only get a refund after the first 2 one 3 loans, so you may not get any more by sending the case to the FOS.
If they had offered to refund loan3 as well, this would be a good offer. So you could go back to them and say you will accept if they also refund the third loan? Point out you took the loans out the same day you repaid the previous one and the loans were going up in size each time, so by your third application they should have realised you were in trouble. If they say No, you have to decide if it’s worth sending to the FOS.
John says
thanks for the advice Sara, I’ve decided to take the offer from quickquid and I’ve emailed them confirming I will Accept their offer providing they update my credit score record .. believe it or not quick quid we’re quite helpful and quick with their decision just hope they pay out as quick ???? all other complaints to PD lenders entering week 7 I wait in anticipation ????????
tom price says
accepted an offer from Wonga, got an email saying that the money would be paid in 14 days – email received the 28th. are they usually pretty good at paying on time or the usual pain in the ass?
Kara says
I accepted an offer through an adjudicator 2 weeks ago and was told to give Wonga 4 weeks to pay. After 10 days I e-mailed them and then again the following 2 days and it was then paid. No idea if my impatience led to a quicker payout!
Pamela says
Can someone tell me how to get a credit report to send to the adjudicator I was on noodle but I can’t see how to do it?
DK says
Hello! I had the same problem! Mines wouldn’t work on my phone or on the app so did it on a computer. After you’ve logged in you’re taken to the dashboard but, click on the button view your full report and there’s a download full report button top right, just above your report. It took a good few minutes where it just looked like it was doing nothing but eventually gave me a pop up down the bottom of the screen to open or save. Mine was 72 pages long so think I’ll just send it as an attachment on FO form. Good luck!
Anna says
Hi there. Re Wonga… did they contact you by email or letter? I put my complaint in on Monday but realised today they still had my old address. Changed it today so guessing it will be ok!! How long did you all wait for a response?
Also going to complain to paydayUK and quickquid. Anyone had any luck with them?
Thank you
Mr and Mrs C says
Hi Anna, I emailed all of mine off – Wonga replied by email after 2 weeks to acknowledge, 4th week to say it was taking longer than expected, and in the closing hours of the 8th week with their offer.
QQ – made offer within the 8 weeks but it was very low so have referred to FOS
Sarah says
Hi I recently contacted a few companies – unfortunately I had a gambling problem a few years ago which caused me to get a lot of debt. Lots of payday loans – all of which I struggled to pay, this site has been great and after sending an email I got nearly £3000 from sunny and £1150 from wonga and wonga also agreed to remove items from my credit file. Quick quid said they did nothing wrong and I’ve just sent a letter off for the credit card I had! But would it be worth sending a letter to Halifax?
I had a overdraft with them and a loan, managed to pay it off but then got another soon after, my over draft was £3,800 and I went over it every month due to the charges of it, I had it for about 3 years, I also got another loan that I couldn’t pay and that got sent to another company, but i had so many payday loans at the time I really dont think they should have give me what they did. The only thing is where it asked for In come I put something stupid like £20,000 when I only earned around £1,100 as I wanted them to think I could afford to get more money – but surly they should have been able to see that income was wrong? I managed to pay my whole over draft off eventually due to a win and I cancelled it straight away but I must have paid thousands in fees over the years – I don’t know if it’s worth it or not
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Unless you only had one loan from QQ, send that complaint to the Ombudsman! The Ombudsman is agreeing with more than 60% of complaints, and QQ are notorious for turning down good cases. You are much more likely to get a refund from that than from your overdraft.
Steven says
I have checked my credit report today through Noddle and found that I’ve had 73 payday loans since late 2013, majority have been taken out because once I have paid them back through my wages I’ve had to borrow again to cover bills and living costs. I have some currently outstanding and not sure I’ll be able to afford to pay them off and not borrow again. I also have 3 credit cards with balances of £3500, £3400 and £2200, credit limits which have been repeatedly increased and only ever paying off the minimum amounts. What is my best course of action?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You have to stop borrowing. Cancel the CPAs to the lenders and tell. Them you need an arrangement to pay an affordable amount each month over a long period. If you have a lot of lenders it may be much easier to go to StepChange and set up a DMP, this will also include the credit cards. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/help-payday-loan/
Then, when your situation is stabilised, you can make affordability complaints asking for refunds. These may take many months so getting yourself safe is important or you may have to accept too low an offer as you are desperate. It sounds as though you have done very good complaints!
Dab says
Iv had so many pdl in the past few and still have a few open, wonga 106 in 5 years, lending stream 34 in 3 years, myjar 12 in 2 years, plus a few from pduk, satsuma, wda, quick quid and amigo.
Most of these I managed to pay off in full with a few defaults along the way but always borrowed immediately after settling or using one to pay another, my credit score has always been very poor and I must have looked pretty desperate from the amount of searches on there.
My bank statements will show quite a bit of gambling during this time, do you think I have a good case for irresponsible lending even though a lot of them were settled on time or early and with the gambling situation.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Settling on time or early is not a problem – what is important is that you had to borrow again soon afterwards. The lender should have realised you were in trouble from the repeat borrowing.
Gambling not a problem where you kept borrowing, but many complaints where there is gambling will have to go to the Financial Ombudsman, so don’t be depressed if the lenders reject or make a poor offer. See https://debtcamel.co.uk/gambling-payday-loan-refunds/ for examples of how the FO decides.
So complain about all your lenders! You could start with the largest cases and those where you still owe money, then do the rest a bit later?
You need to stop borrowing and tell the lenders you currently owe money to that you need an affordable arrangement to repay your current balance. Cancel the CPAs to the lenders so they can’t help themselves to yiu money and leave you too short.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
PS don’t let Wonga fob you off with a small refund saying they only refund prior to 2014/5 when their lending policy changed. Lots of people are winning these complaints at the Ombudsman.
For Amigo, read https://debtcamel.co.uk/how-to-complain-guarantor-loan/
Paul says
Hi mate,
Thought I’d give you some hope. My situation was identical to yours. Had hundreds of loans, mainly with Lending Stream and QuikQuid to fuel my gambling habit over the years. My bank statements were littered with daily gambling transactions. If anything, it goes in your favour with the adjudicator and or Ombudsman. The Lending companies should have seen a pattern to your constant borrowing.
Anyway, in short, I started my complaints in October and have just received my last refund last week. Ombudsman found in my favour on ALL my complaints against LS & QQ and even mentioned the gambling in his findings when he wrote to the companies. All in all, I’ve now had over £15,000 refunded and it’s changed my life and given me a new start.
Don’t let the gambling put you off complaining. Pursue your complaints. It will be worth the wait, trust me.
Dab says
Thanks for the replies I know it was my own fault but these loans were far too easy to get, I think QQ were the only one that stopped lending to me. Wonga I was paying off and taking out again sometimes within hours, iv asked them for a statement as I haven’t a clue how much interest I have paid as there have been so many loans. I already contacted myjar and they got back wanting statements pay slips etc. Think I will be getting on to the rest of them.
Thanks for the advice.
Eleanor says
I took out loans with Wonga and Wage day advance in 2013, getting into debt with my bank because I couldn’t afford to pay the loans and the bank back, I opened a new bank account to keep track of my finances and my old bank account was closed, would there still be a way of requesting a refund if the bank account I used for the loans does not exist anymore?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can get bank statements from closed accounts.
Link says
Had a response back from Lending Stream via the adjudicator agreeing with the findings. Their findings were to refund me all interest and costs +8% on Loan 3. I only had 3 loans with Lending Stream.
However their response has confused me a bit. First of all I am on a Debt Payment Plan via the Debt Arrangement Scheme in Scotland.
Late last year they passed my outstanding balance onto a company called Credit Resource Solutions. According to my payment plan I still have an outstanding balance on this Loan 3 of £765.93.
This is Lending Stream’s response to the adjudicator, “Considering the points that have been raised in your assessment letter dated 18th May, 2018, we would like to confirm that we agree to refund the interest and charges paid towards the loan 3 with reference number XXXX.
However, we would like to inform you that we are yet to recover the principal balance (borrowed amount – amount paid) towards the aforementioned loan amounting £278.29.
Additionally, we would be able to set up a payment arrangement in order to clear the debt as per the customer’s convenience.
Furthermore, we will remove any adverse information in reference to the above-mentioned loan from XXXXXX’s credit file.”
How can I find further clarification on their response. Can I ask the adjudicator for this? I’ve been told I need to either accept or reject their offer by 21st of June for it to go to Ombudsman.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Three things. Are you happy with only getting a refund for the last loan?
Second, how much did you borrow for the last loan and how much have you repaid direct to LS or to the DAS?
Third who is organising your DAS?
Link says
Hi Sara,
Yeah I’m happy with that judgment.
The principal loan was for £710. So far I have paid £431.71 direct to Lending Stream according to my statement of Account. On the DAS side of things where the creditor is listed as Credit Resource Solutions I have repaid £295.54.
My DAS is administered by the Accountant In Bankruptcy (my plan isn’t any form of bankruptcy at all. It’s just a payment plan) and it was helped to be set up by StepChange Debt Charity.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Ok so you have actually repaid about £726 to the last loan – more than borrowed. In that case what should happen is that the Loan is wiped and you should get a refund of about £16! You need to tell the adjudicator this. LS need to sort the loan out with CRS. StepChange are also going to have to do a variation of your DAS to remove the payments to this loan. So I suggest you also tell StepChange now what is going on.
Link says
I’ve reported this to the adjudicator who has asked for a copy of my statement of account and DPP. They are going to review it and send on the DPP information to Lending Stream. Another debt wiped from my DPP would go a long way in helping. Already had Wonga and Sunny loans removed due to complaints.
Thanks Sara.
Bob says
Hi, QQ have completely ignored the adjudicators findings so it’s been escalated to the ombudsman. Will QQ wait or do they normally come with an offer? I’ve alrea turned down around 5k from them. Adjudicators findings was around 13k.
Also are people winning against AvantCredit? This is also with the adjudicator.
Thanks
DK says
Well after being put on a payment holiday with Wonga while my complaint was being investigated, they’ve now reported a late payment on my credit report. FUMING!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hopefully this will be deleted when the last loan is found to be unaffordable.
DK says
Fingers crossed. I called them on my lunch and asked them to raise another complaint about it because it was completely unfair of them. Complaint raised and should have a response “within 5 days”. Just need to sort out the rejections and low offers now. This weekends plan, submit FO complaints while hubby seeing the Rolling Stones. Living the dream haha!
Claire says
My husband has put in a complaint over lending with Lending Stream they gave him 3 loans within just over a week!! It’s in the process of being looked at and he has asked they freeze charges and interest until it’s resolved either way. They are refusing to do this unless he signs up to a repayment plan. So in essence he will be charged interest and charges on 3 loans for the next 45 days. He has said he is in financial distress, and feels this is a reasonable request. Is this allowed? Sunny have happily frozen everything until that complaint is resolved. Thanks!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Lending Stream do their best to be as difficult as possible at all times…
The easiest thing may well be to organised an affordable repayment plan. This won’ reduce any refund – every pound he pays now will either mean a pound larger refund or or will be a pound of the balance he still owes. But don’t let them say they will only take an unaffordable amount.
Claire says
Thank you, yes they were tough nuts. We’ve asked for a transcript of the call. Sunny were pretty good and froze it all immediately. Would organising a repayment plan worsen (his already bad!!) credit rating? Do they have the right to say what they want as payment or can we tell them what we can actually afford? Thank you
Nigel Walker says
So this is a bit strange. I am waiting for an adjudicator to pick up my case it’s now been over 4 months. In the meantime Sunny had sold my debt to sll capital who have been chasing me for the money. Then today I’ve had a letter from sll saying that it has been handed back to Sunny and I won’t hear from them again. Has anybody else had this happen and know what it might mean? Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Odd, I don’t remember anyone mentioning this.
Sara
DK says
Sunny offered me a settlement amount which would be partly used to clear my outstanding balance of £280ish. I replied declining their offer saying I’d take it to the Ombudsman. Asked ow I go about unfreezing, no reply. Went online, account closed. Emailed them telling them and they said that even tho I’m allowed to take my complaint to the ombudsman, they can still execute part of their resolution if they feel it’s the right thing to do therefore I have nothing else to pay. Replied asking for outright confirmation that clearing what outstanding debt in no way means I’ve accepted their resolution and they confirmed I was free to go to FO. Bit confused but hey, now down to one final outstanding amount with Wonga for £50! Email them and ask for an explanation. You might be surprised!
Nigel Walker says
They did this with me at the end of the 8 weeks and took around £500 off what I owed them but it still leaves a balance if £944. They closed my account at that time and passed to sll capital. Not heard from them since until this letter arrived today. I have emailed Sunny for an explanation. Not sure if it’s a good sign or not?
DK says
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it’s a good sign for you! £944 wiped would be good, but only if it’s not you accepting a bad offer. I explicitly asked for confirmation of that and have saved the email now. Worried they’d pull a fast one. Maybe they deemed their decision unfair in passing to debt collector tho and are taking the debt back and will allow you to chip away at it again. Either way, good luck – hope it’s a good result for you!
Nigel Walker says
No this would be a terrible offer. I paid over £4000 in interest all together. Hoping for a speedy response from them but they took forever to reply to my last email
John says
had response from PDUK as expected saying they have done nothing wrong, so off to the Ombudsman we go , in letter says 3 loans were checked yet when they sent my list of loans I counted 4 with all of them being deferred 5 times on each one b4 next one being taken out same day as the other one was paid off, but borrowing larger amounts each time ????
Sara (Debt Camel) says
If you think their rejection referred to the wrong number of loans, then it’s worth going back to them to point this out. But obviously it sounds like a good case, so off to the FO if they don’t realise they have made an error.
Emma says
Hi
My complaint is currently with the FOS regarding Payday UK. I had to submit everything by the 4th April for them to consider my complaint but we are now in June and Payday UK still haven’t sent them their part! It’s so fraustrating. I understand the FOS are dealing with so many complaints but does Payday UK have a time limit that they must follow as well?
I have another complaint with 247 moneybox, 6 weeks down 2 to go! Has anyone had any dealings with them? I had 11 loans over 11 months with interest just under £1000. Hoping this one will be resolved quicker as I have been fighting with payday uk since end of January.
John M says
Hi Emma
I am at a similar stage with Payday UK with FOS so I guess mine is having a similar problem. Thanks for the advice.
247 Moneybox rejected my complaint with a terrible letter right on 8 weeks. I sent it to FOS and told 247 Moneybox I was doing so. 247 then tried to fob me off with a random offer but I stuck to my guns and they eventually refunded everything including the 8% which was over £1200. I went from nothing to £500 to £700 to over £1200 so do keep persuing with them. I know a friend of mine had a similar situation so don’t be afraid to push but it will take time.
Good luck
Bob says
Received a final response from Payday UK asking me to supply statements in relation to the loans they couldn’t determine of they were responsibility lent or not. I supplied these.
Chased for a response for two weeks and then received an email today saying because I have sent the case to FOS and raised a case they can no longer investigate my claim and it will need to be investigated by FOS. This can’t be correct can it? Assuming it is just them playing for as much time as possible. Anyone else had this?
Louise says
Hi Bob – I had exactly the same with Payday Uk and they wouldn’t look into it for me even though couldn’t determine and I sent the bank statements but was later than they wanted – I sent to FOS and its now been picked up only Monday by an adjudicator.
Bob says
Hi Louise thanks for sharing. If you don’t mind me asking when did you send it in?
Louise says
Hi Bob – I received a reply asking for my statements 20th March – or could not upheld I then sent it to FOS a few days later but I sent the statements in to Payday Uk. However, they never got back to me so I called them and Payday Uk said that they couldn’t read the statements clearly luckily I already had the ball rolling with FOS. Since 23rd March been with FOS and was only picked up on Monday 4th June 2018. They have to wait for the business file and they were not quick Payday Uk had to have two reminders and now the adjudicator wants some more information from them but its now being investigated. Hope that helps?
John says
Hi Sara when sending your complaint to ombudsman do you send everything separate for each PD lender or can you send statements and credit report all in one to cover all complaints??
Thanks in advance
Tom bar says
I’ve just done same I did one{biggest} to start the ball rolling. Then once they had everything they need statements ect they transfer all that I’ve to your other claims. So then I just put them in one a day for a couple of weeks. They have everything they need now just waiting the long wait for an adjudicator….. Put my first in around end of March still not been assigned a adjudicator
Louise says
Hi John,
This may help you? I have contacted my adjudicator and I have had a few emails in relation to a few on the go (complaints with FOS) I have linked them all to the statements and the credit file I originally posted them – I backed it up with an email and stated that my file and bank statements are with my Payday uk loan but they cover the period of loans with xxxxxx and give the reference no of each creditor – they will link them and cross them over that is what they told me and don’t expect me to send them again and again.
Kind regards, Louise.
Chloe says
Hi I had a loan with Zebit which I made a few payments to years ago then they stopped taking payments and never heard anything from. I’m getting back on top of all the unpaid debts I had. However I’ve just seen online that Zebit was closed down in 2014 does anybody know anything about this or how I go about repaying it?
Thank you
Nathan says
Hi Chloe,
From what I can see zebit was owned by the same people that owned lending stream (Gain Credit LLC), and zebit merged into lending stream in 2014.
Before you run off to lending stream you should check your credit file and see if the defaulted loan is present on it. (Noodle is best for this as most payday loans are registered on credit call but it might be worth checking all 3)
You may find that it’s been sold to a debt collector.
If it’s not on there, then arguably you’ve got away with it and have nothing to worry about until someone contacts you or 6 years is up.
If it is on there then I guess lending stream or the debt collector is your next port of call. Hopefully they would be able to ‘help’ you, or at least point you in the right direction.
If they can’t help then you’ve probably got reasonable grounds to go back to the credit reference company and ask for a correction to be made to your record as you have no way of correcting the situation. Hopefully they’d agree to remove the entry.
I had this with a loan from pounds till payday.
I defaulted on a loan years ago. Went back to them a couple of years later to try and sort it out and found that the people they used to get the money from were no longer working with them. Tried to get in contact with the old credit company but no success. Spoke to the credit reference peoples and they removed the entry.
Hope this helps.
Jake says
I receiv d responses from sunny and myjar the day before 8 weeks were up.I’ve received an offer to wipe a debt of £1367 from sunny And to remove from my credit file. 2 loans totalling 2400 from them and i paid 1900 back up to date. It is with a debt collection firm but they said they will chase them up to tell them there is no longer any debt.
Also myjar said they lent responsibly but as a gesture of goodwill will waive my remaining balance of £1110 which is also a huge positive.
I do however have 6/7 with the FOS as nrhenother companies did not uphold my complaint but worst case scenario now is I’m roughly £2500 wiped from my DMP which will mean debt free quicker.
Eva says
Hi all,
an update on Lending Stream. Original complaint rejected by LS but goodwill offer of £540.70 offer on 2 loans (finally enough 2 from my repayment plan which they denied). Sent to FOS 04/01/18. Case picked up by an adjudicator mid May. Her findings sent to LS 24/5/18 (loan 1 and 4 not upheld, loan 2,3,5 to 11 upheld) with deadline 07/05/18. Today got email from adjudicator that LS agree and offered £2794.84. Acceptance form sent back so now let’s see how long it will take to receive the money. Will keep you updated on this.
Eva says
Meant deadline 07/06/18
brizzle says
Could I have some help with what the next step would be please, received this email back after the 1st email sent… This is off mr L
Ref:
Please find attached the information requested regarding your account with Mr Lender.
You have had 5 loans with Mr Lender of which your account is now owned by the Debt Collection Agency, SLL Capital Financial Solutions UK Ltd.
———————————————————————-
They attached the loans 5 I had.
1st was borrowed 300, interest paid 825.
2nd was 600 borrowed, 360 interest paid.
3rd 830 borrowed 686 interest.
4th 760 borrowed 642 interest
5th 1000 borrowed capital 333.32 interest 489 sold to DCA
Kind regards,
Emily
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That’s a lot of interest you paid!
Ok so you can now send them a full complaint asking for a refund for all 5 loans. They want to see your bank statements – you don’t have to send these but they may be more likely to offer a refund if you do. Tell SLL that you are making an affordability complaint to MrLender – if you are currently repaying SLL it’s usually easier to carry on doing this if it is affordable.
If MrL make an aoffer and you don’t know hoe good it is, come back and ask here? They are one of the better lenders for listening if you make a case why their offer should be increased.
brizzle says
I know I was shocked, so do I use step 2 template? I will only send my statement to FOS if the want that information, thanks for your help look forward to your reply.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes, use the step 2 template. If the gaps between the loans were short, also point that out. Was the first loan rolled / differed a lot?
Brizzle says
Yes rolled over a lot, took loan out every time I settled one.
Jimbo says
I complained to FOS 5 months ago regarding an H&T loan after the lender rejected my complaint.
Still no response despite providing everything asked for so I phoned yesterday and was told that they are still reviewing how to handle complaints regarding Pawnbrokers and there is no timescale for a resolution.
Anyone heard anything else regarding this?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I haven’t yet seen a FO decision on affordability of a pawnbroker transaction. Can you come back when you get an answer?
Jimbi says
To clarify, whilst it was from H&T Paenbrokers, it was a standard ‘personal loan’ so not a pawnbroker transaction as such. Will update when I hear anything.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
OK that shouldn’t be a problem. I suggest you go back to the Ombudsman and point this out, because pawned items will be MUCH more difficult.
Louise says
Hi Sara, Can you help? My adjudicator dealing with the Payday UK loan complaint has advised he needs more information from them – they have sent the business file to then back at the end of April – however, I don’t know what additional information he requires. He says he doesn’t need anything else from me he has more bank statements than required and my full credit file – I highlighted the loans at the same time in and out and when its received can review it accurately – this is now 2.5 months on. Surely if they sent the business file they have no more information? Is this Payday Uk who are just playing the game. Also will he have a copy of the charges I paid as loan 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 rolled over so I paif £7.5k in interest and borrowed over 14.5K – Shocking.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
It’s hard to guess – sorry you just have to wait and see. The adjudicator should have details of the loans.
Louise says
Thanks Sara – I will just wait and see. Been told I should have the full investigation completed within 4 weeks from the adjudicator.
I presume they will take into account that the loans were carried over continuously.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Yes they should. If you are uncertain, then why not write out a summary of the loans you got and send it to your adjudicator. Something like:
Loan 1 borrowed £200, paid £180 interest.
Loan 2 (taken out same day loan 1 repaid), borrowed £250, rolled for 4 months, paid £440 interest.
Loan 3 (taken out 2 days after Loan 2 repaid), borrowed £400, rolled for 3 months, paid £700 interest.
Loan 4 (taken out while loan 3 was still being rolled), borrowed £200 etc etc
Louise says
Good idea thank you Sara I will can’t hurt can it
Zoe says
Thanks to this site I’ve received offers from Sunny (£800) & Wonga (£2200). Refused from QQ but going to ombudsman. Thanks so much for your templates & info! :-)
Darren says
Just a message to say thank you… came across this site after seeing some company trying to get Money out of people by helping them claim. After reading all the comments and help I ave decided to send emails to all companies I have had a pay day loan from… kind of made me reflexes on how silly I ave been. 11 different pay day loan companies and with all of them I took many loans out and rolled over each money. Even had to get a payment plan with most of them. Will keep you updated how I get on. Within 10 minutes peachy had already got back to me saying they will full look into my complaint and get back to me within 8 weeks. My biggest ones are Wonga, mr lender uncle buck and leading stream so will let you all know how I get on.
Again thank you and keep up the good work
African Queen says
Good luck, Darren. Words are not enough to thank Sara for her work on this website. I also stumbled on it by pure accident and have had success with Peachy, Uncle Buck, Payday Express and Quick Quid. Be prepared to be patient but it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully we will all be free of these payday loans and live debt free lives. I have learnt so much about myself during this process.
Hoping to read some good news from you soon x
gillian says
hi sara can you help please I have already reclaimed lots of refunds thanks to you for payday loans just wondering I was using shopacheck at the same time my loans for this were sep 2011 jan 2012 may 2012 oct 2012 march 2013 may 2013 oct 2013 nov 2013 april 2014 june 2014 these were 6 or 7 month payments all for 750 pound loans they used to call and collect the payments so will not show on my bank statements but I do know that the fos will accept that I was withdrawing cash as soon as my wage hit the bank because I had to many direct debits refused due to going overdrawn and being charged so paid what I could with cash do they count the same way as payday lenders and who would I send the email to thank you again
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Hi Gillian – see https://debtcamel.co.uk/refund-doorstep-loans/ and complain to Morses as that says.
Derek says
Just got a response from payday u.k. I had at back in 2013 entered a DMP and Payday U.k. are saying I should have been aware I could complain then?? Do I go ahead and send to ombudsman?? I was only aware a couple of months ago, when I found this site. My entering a DMP was trying to alleviate my debt!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You should ignore this response from PDUK and send it to the Ombudsman as soon as possible. The fact that you entered a DMP does NOT mean you were aware you could make an affordability complaint. You could point out to the Ombudsman that your DMP firm – who were presumably experts in debts which you weren’t – didn’t mention anything about you being able to complain about irresponsible lending.
Jax says
Hi finally got an offer from PDUK through adjudicator which I have accepted. Does anyone know how long they take to pay out please?
Louise says
Hi jax- well done. Mine with the adjudicator at the moment for payday uk fingers crossed.
How many loans did you have with them a d how many did they uphold do you mind me asking. My adjudicator has asked the business for more information.
Jax says
Thank you for that. They have stalled every step of the way so expecting to wait for payment. I only had 3 loans with them and the last was upheld. Good luck with yours Louise.
Louise says
Thanks Jax. Mine has been ongoing since I logged my complaint in February – I had 4 loans with them totalling a staggering £14.5K and interest paid £7.5 K unbelievable and made me feel sick when I calculated the – However, they were continuously rolled over, I will be happy if the adjudicator upholds loan 3 and loan 4 – however, they have been slow in everything. I think it must be within 28 days payment from acceptance. Will you get 8% interest on that loan as well – this is the usual I think? Just think the longer they take to settle the more money you will get if that helps.
How long was it for the adjudicator to make a decision once they were investigating Jax do you know?
Well done – I will keep you posted on mine.
Jax says
I submitted my complaint to FOS in December but it wasn’t picked up until March. So it’s taken just over 3 months to get the offer after sending to FOS but 9 months in total from when I complained to PDUK.
Thankful! says
Hi Jax,
Mine took 27 days for the money to hit my bank from the moment my adjudicator sent back my acceptance (paid in a couple of days ago). I haven’t seen anyone that had their money much before that amount of time I’m afraid.
Paul says
Paydayuk rejected my initial complaint in Decemeber – sent to FO.
Paydayuk didnt respond to my adjudicator back in march – my adjudicator upheld my complaint on 6/7 loans.
As she was ignored she passed on to the ombudsman.
May 2018 The ombudsman agreed with adjudicator to refund 6/7 loans, i accepted the ombudsman decision on may 22nd, she gave PDUK 4 weeks to respond to me.
i have had no contact from PDUK and its day 18/28.
What happens next? i have had no refund figures from PDUK
Does the refund just hit my account before day 28 or what happens? surely i have to agree the amount? any advice helpful
Sara (Debt Camel) says
have you given the adjudicator your bank details? Do you know how much interest you paid on those 6 loans? Sounds like a good result!
Paul says
Hi Sara.
Yes good result.. probably looking at a good refund.
The adjudicator had no response from PDUK, then it got sent to the actual ombudsman, she just sent me a form, with a tick box to say i accept the ombudsman decision.
i never provided my bank details to the adjudicator or ombudsman.
I phoned pduk to chase them and all they kept saying was 28 days hadn’t passed, so i asked if i could provide me bank details to them, which they took note.
i don’t know what to expect before day 28
Jojo says
Best site ever I have approx 6,000back in total from Wonga,PDUK.Northway,wage day .moneybox 24/7 . Totally a way to look and get finances back on track .Provident,lending stream and QQ gone FOS so will wait and see.Totally loan free and life is much better .
I can’t say thanks enough and don’t give up anyone.
Darren says
Have you had to go to the ombudsman For that 6000?
Jojo says
No that’s what I have back now still have 3 cases with FOS .They will be a while .
African Queen says
Hello Jojo,
Congratulations in your success. It is such a good feeling, isn’t it and completely life changin for me :)
If you don’t mind me asking, you mention Northway in your list – did you have to go to the Maltese authorities and if so, how long did it take? I currently have a case with them after Northway rejected my complaint after waiting for over 12 weeks for a response. Thank you x
Jojo says
No I didn’t go to Maltese with complaint I had a good offer so accepted .Good luck with your claim .And yes it’s the best feeling ever thanksto this site.
Soph says
Hi I wanted to give you all an update on how I have gotten on. October I cancelled all my CPA’s with the bank and sent my complaints.
24/7 money box – 2 loans. Within 8 weeks balance written off.
Peachy – 10 loans – refund of interest on loans 4-10 within 8 weeks.
Safety net credit – refund of interest within 8 weeks less balance owed.
Uncle buck – 2 loans. Not upheld. Referred to FOS. Initially not upheld but whet back with additional comments and adjudicator has now upheld.
118118. 3 loans. They upheld loans 2&3.
Avant Credit – 2 loans. Rejected within 2 days, sent to FOS Jan, upheld in March, Avant agreed with FOS and refund in the bank within 7 days
Payday UK – 10 loans & 14 deferrals.They offered refunds on 2 loans. Referred to FOS December. Picked up by adjudicator April. Upheld loans 2-10. Payday Uk agreed.
Wageday Advance. 8 loans. Rejected within 8 weeks. Sent to FOS January. Upheld loans 3-8. Now awaiting Ombudsman decision as WDA didn’t agree.
Wonga. 28 loans in 20 months. They offered a refund on 1 loan within 8 weeks. Sent to FOS December. Just picked up by adjudicator who has agreed 23 loans out of 28. Wonga have 2 weeks to respond.
Sunny. 24 loans. Within 8 weeks they strangely upheld loans 1-5 and 20-24. Sent to FOS January. Adjudicator decision was that they should honour the loans already agreed in addition to loans 6-19. Sunny agreed within 2 weeks.
UK Credit & Amigo – rejected within 8 weeks sent to FOS end of May.
Soph says
Also wanted to add (but my post was too long lol) a massive thank you to Sara for this site and everyone who has told their story along the way. My payday loan spiral started in May 2011 and after years of all my wages being taken then reborrowing it all again, endless nights of worry and sleepless nights, my wages are finally my own again and I have entered into a manageable debt management plan.
My advice to anyone in this position is you MUST cancel your CPA’s with the bank and get your complaints in. I honestly thought that I wouldn’t get anywhere but once I started getting responses I felt more and more confident.
I was initially checking my emails every 5 minutes for a response from anyone but now that I am managing my money and not having to borrow every month I feel a lot calmer about the situation and the refunds I have had so far and could soon be getting will be life changing for me and my little family.
The biggest 1’s for me at the minute are the guarantor loans and I will let you all know how I get on with them.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That looks like an excellent set of results! Well done for persevering – the Uncle Buck one shows that adjudicators do change their mind if you go back with a reasoned argument. Good to see some lenders settling directly, including 118 Money.
Many of the also show that large payday lenders can make very poor decisions on complaints ☹️ – the Wonga, PaydayUK and Sunny offers sound absurd and it’s time the lenders stopped trying to fob their customers off with very low offers.
Fingers crossed for your remaining complaints including the 2 guarantor loans.
Jonnym says
Hi.. congratulations on all your results… I have similar with uncle buck which wasn’t upheld with 2 loans… not to pry but what kind of info swing it for the ombudsman to change his mind?
Soph says
Hi Jonnym the adjudicator initially agreed with the business basically saying that they had checked my credit file and thought their checks went far enough etc. I had 2 loans with UB 1 for £400 repaid in full over 3 months and the 2nd for £600 taken 3 months later after repaying the first loan. I first started borrowing payday loans in 2011 and took my first loan with UB in 2017. I went back to the adjudicator stating that by UB’s own admission they could see I was dependant on payday loans and the extent of debt I was in as they had the information from my credit report. I even went as far as listing everything uncle buck would have seen on my credit report including all outstanding balances and what the usual payments towards them were, overdraft, credit cards, default on catalogue, all the payday loans I had taken out in the previous 12 months to borrowing with UB, all the payday loans and long term loans that were open and had balances and what my payments were towards them, I highlighted the number of payday loans I had taken in the previous years and also highlighted the fact that I had taken further loans with other lenders in between loan 1 & loan 2 with UB. I got all this from my credit file and it’s what UB would have seen at the time of my application. I am now waiting for UB to respond to the adjudicator but can imagine this one will be going off to the Ombudsman. If you could put something similar together I would recommend and good luck.
Eric says
Good morning
This website has been a blessing with 5/9 complaints being upheld with the additional 4 going to the FOS.
Today I had a response from quidie acknowledging that I had over 100 loans in the last 2 years but saying there was no sign of financial difficulty as these were all settled. Surely that many loans in a 2 year period is a BIG enough sign of financial difficulty? The only reason these were always paid on time was because I had to borrow from other lenders to pay off other loans.
Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
100 loans in 2 years – sounds like irresponsible lending to me!
David says
Hi there, looking for a bit of advice if possible
I made a complaint to Piggybank about unaffordable loans, was successful in my complaint and they have agreed redress of £307.09. I have an outstanding balance of £334 so I would still owe them £26.91. I am on a repayment plan with them. Am I in my rights to ask for the £307.09 to be paid to me and continue with my repayment plan? Mainly because I am behind on payments with other companies and the £307.09 would help with this and I can just continue with my agreed repayment plan with them?
Thanks in advance :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Sorry I missed the comment earlier. Well you can ask but it’s highly unlikely a lender would agree. There have been cases where the ombudsman has agreed to this but only in exceptional circumstances, eg you may be about to lose your home because of rent arrears.
Natalie says
I’ve just got a list together of all my previous loans and emailed some of them. I have/had a payday loan through Different Money Ltd back in 2015 which i defaulted on and as a result they gave me a CCJ, I have to pay back £30 per month. It’s currently being dealt with by United Kash. Is there any point in me emailing Different Money (I think they have now closed down) or United Kash or because it’s a CCJ will they not be able to do anything?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You can try putting in a complaint to United Kash. Is the £30 a month affordable?