Debt Camel

Answers to questions about debts and credit ratings - in plain English!

Refunds from Payday UK/Express & the Money Shop (old article)

UPDATE

On July 15, it was reported that the Money Shop is to close.
This has been confirmed on July 17, when the Money Shop website was updated with details.

See Money Shop to close – two million customers will be informed for details of how this will affect existing complaints. That is the best place for all discussion from now on and I am closing comments on this page.

If you had loans from Payday UK, Payday Express or The Money Shop that you struggled to repay, perhaps rolling the loans or having to borrow again every month, then you may be able to win an “affordability complaint” and get a refund of the interest you paid.

Read How to ask for a payday loan refund for details about what an affordability complaint is. 

These three brands are no longer lending

These three large payday lenders are brand names of the same company, Instant Cash Loans Ltd, and they all have the same approach to handling affordability complaints.

Refunds apply to the Money Shop’s cheque based lending from their stores in the same way as other payday loans – if you gave them a post-dated cheque for £100 and were given £85 in cash, then the £15 difference is the interest you paid on this loan.

In October 2017, Payday UK and Payday Express stopped lending. In August 2018, the Money Shop also stopped lending. but its other business (pawnbroking, buying gold, travel money) still carried on.

Getting a list of your loans

Many people don’t have a list of the loans they took from a lender, so asking for a Statement of Account is usually a good first step.  In 2019 Payday UK and Payday Express have been sending statements out promptly without a charge.

Now people have a different problem – how to work out what the statement means  – because it looks so complicated!

This is what I suggest you do if you only had one loan at a time:

  • Go through the statement dividing it up into loans. A loan starts with a line labelled Principal Deposit and it ends when the balance is zero. Then another one begins. Draw a line between loans and label them Loan 1, Loan 2 etc.
  • The amount you borrowed is the Principal Deposit number. Unless you topped a loan up, there will just be one at the start of the loan.
  • The amount of interest you paid is the sum of the lines for that loan labelled Interest Repayment. They should show in the Amount column as being in brackets, ie you paid the money.
  • Ignore all the other lines (unless there are any late payment fees.)

It’s harder if you had more than one loan at once or if the last loan wasn’t repaid. But the general approach – that you borrowed the Principal Deposit lines and the interest you paid is the Interest Repayment lines – is still correct. It’s just difficult to be so clear that “This happened to loan one, this happened to loan 2.”

Searching your credit record

It’s fine for a lender to check your credit record when you make a complaint, but these should be recorded as “administration reviews” which don’t harm your credit score.

In 2016 for a few months some people had Payday Uk and the Money Shop incorrectly record a credit application – these searches were deleted in November 2016 and in January 2018 the people affected were automatically sent redress of £75.

How they usually reply to complaints

Asking for longer

You may get an email on the last day of the 8 week period they are supposed to respond to complaints in, saying that they haven’t completed their investigation. At this point you can send your complaint to the Ombudsman if you want – the lender will still carry on looking at your complaint even if you do this, so if they do make you a good offer you can then tell the Ombudsman you have settled the complaint.

These lenders sometimes make reasonable offers, so you may decide to wait a few weeks and hope you don’t have to bother with the ombudsman.

Although they are making some good offers, they also seem to turn down good cases, so deciding to wait is a bit of a lottery.

“We don’t know – please send bank statements”

Quite a few people complaining get a response towards the end of the 8 week period or after another few weeks from one of these lenders saying they aren’t sure if some of the loans were affordable or not and will you please send your bank statements so that they can look again at them.

Sometimes they offer a refund on some loans, reject others and list a few where they aren’t sure. Sometimes they reject most of them but say they will look at a few if you send statements.

I think you should normally send them the statements. Some readers have done this and then had some or all of those extra loans refunded. Others have had the extra loans rejected.

If you want to accept their offer and send the bank statements so they will look at the other ones, sending them onto the Ombudsman if they are rejected, it’s best to check with PaydayUK first that you can do this. They normally agree.

The exception is if they have only asked for details about a couple of loans and rejected a lot more. If you wouldn’t be happy with a refund on just the ones they have asked about you may as well send the case to the Ombudsman right away.

Asking for details if you are complaining about loans that are over 6 years old

If any of the loans you had were taken out more than 6 years ago, you are normally asked:

I can see that some/all of the loans that you are complaining about are more than 6 years old. So for me to consider these loans, I need you to tell me why you didn’t complain about these loans until now.

To answer this, just say very briefly how you found out what an affordability complaint is. Also mention if you have been in a DMP.

For example you could say:

In 2011-12 when I had these loans I knew my finances were in a mess but thought it was my fault for borrowing too much.  I had a DMP in 2014 but my DMP firm never mentioned that lenders should have made any checks on me. I only found out that I could complain about unaffordable lending in 2018 when I saw an article about Wonga in the papers.

But change that so it is accurate for your case. You may have seen a Facebook advert from a claims company, you could have had an email from the Wagedey Advance administrators,  a friend told you about irresponsible lending complaints, or you could have found Debt Camel while looking for information about credit records.

Only reply about some of your loans

If you had loans from Payday Express and you notice some of the older loans aren’t referred to in Payday Express’s response to your complaint, tell PDE this. They may have been on an old system under a different account number – PDE will then look at your complaint again, taking all the loans into account.

At the Ombudsman level

Having taken 12-16 weeks to reply to many complaints, they are also slow at the Ombudsman level.

One reader reported:

I sent my complaint with Money shop to FOS in April this year and they are still waiting at the end of June for TMS to send through their business file despite them being sent a reminder.

Many people have reported their adjudicator having to give two or three two week extensions. They do accept a lot of adjudicator decisions though they also reject some good cases.

My notes show many people getting refunds of a thousand pounds or more from their complaints. One reader received over £9,000 after going to the Ombudsman.  So this may take some time, but it can be well worth it in the end!

Loans over 6 years old

In 2017, Payday UK, Payday Express and the Money Shop started paying out on affordability complaints about loans over 6 years old. They were the first of the big lenders to agree to do this after the Ombudsman said they could look at the older loans in late 2016.

These older cases still take longer than complaints about loans under six years, but they are going through. And the 8% added interest can be very large for these older loans.

In late 2018 and 2019, they seem to have retreated from this position and now frequently won’t make an offer on older loans.

For example if you later had a DMP, PDUK is trying to argue that this means you should have made an affordability complaint then. It’s not a very good argument from them – after all, if you knew you could make an affordability complaint in 2014 (say) when your DMP started, why didn’t you do that then? So these cases are having to go to the Ombudsman.

Last updated July 2019

Comments

  1. Kathryn says

    My experience of PDUK has made me pull my hair out.
    The deemed one loan to be responsibly lent, and the remaining 17 undetermined. It was FINAL response, (after 8 weeks and a day) but they asked for bank statements and credit report. I sent on a credit report, only to be told that they would only look at my “new” complaint if I did not go to FOS!

    Needless to say, its with FOS right now.

  2. Paul says

    Hi,
    Payday express have offered a final settlement on 1 loan of £1217 but are unable to determine 9 loans, they have requested bank statements and credit report so they can re-assess the 9 loans. How long should I give them to re-assess? Before going to the FOS.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I suggest a couple of weeks? If you haven’t heard at the end of then, phone and ask when you will.

      How many loans did you have in total? If you had a lot more than 10, then there is no point in waiting for this, you may as well send the whole case to the Ombudsman now.

  3. Kara says

    I just phoned the FOS for an update on my Payday UK complaint. They approached them for their business file on Mar 3 but haven’t received anything. Apparently the Dollar Group is partyicularly busy so they are giving them a bit longer but I personally think 4months is a very long time. They said they have tried calling them but have been left on hold.

    • John says

      Hi kara,
      I agree with you ,I sent my complaint with Money shop to FOS in April this year and they are still waiting on TMS to send through their business file despite them being sent a reminder.Whenever I phone the FOS for an update , they keep telling me the same thing but surely 3-4 months waiting for a business file, is getting on much.They have all the statements of accounts and correspondence which I sent them so that should be enough for them to begin their investigations even if TMS does not respond.Yes DFG may be busy, but I believe some of these companies are deliberately employing delaying tactics just to frustrate the process.I think the FOS should enforce their deadlines, It should not be open ended amount of time, what if it was the other way round?would they wait for me to send them information indefinately?

      • Sara (Debt Camel) says

        They don’t wait indefinitely. But it is faster in the long run, and wastes less FOS time, if they wait until they have the lender’s case.

        I am sure your complaint is accurate, but there are a lot of claims going in from Claims Companies at the moment that, anecdotally, bear little relation to the truth. In some case the the customer had never used that lender, the complaint states a made up number of loans or no complaint was actually made to the lender even though the Claims Co says it was…

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I too think 4 months is a long while. One thing you could do is send an email to the FCA at consumer.queries@fca.org.uk saying how poor Payday UK’s complaints handling is.

      The FCA won’t investigate this as a complaint, you will get an acknowledgement back, not a request for more details. It won’t speed up your complaint or get you more money. But it’s easy to do, and it may help other people!

  4. Louise says

    Can anyone help how much tax do you pay on the payment from these companies if complaint is upheld? Is it 20%

      • Louise says

        Thanks Sara so if the interest I have paid is £4200 I don’t pay 20% tax on that only on the 8% over the 7 years of this period. Is that right?

        I am trying to work out what I roughly will be expecting. It is complicated to me :)

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          Yes, the refund of the interest s your own money you are getting back, that’s not taxed. But the 8% extra is taxed as savings income.

          • Louise says

            Great thanks Sara I am hoping payday Uk agree with the adjudicator – do they usually or does it go to the Ombudsman in your experience?

            Thank you so much and I will be making a donation to this website you have helped me and others no doubt will agree – cant thank you enough.

          • Sara (Debt Camel) says

            It’s seems random what adjudicator decisions are accepted, not all are rejected.

            Any donations to your local Citizens Advice please! But the best way to say Thanks is to like my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/debtcamel/ and sometimes Like/Share articles I post there.

  5. Andy says

    Final update !!!

    Phoned TMS to check they had received everything from the FOS to allow them to make my payment within 28 days. I made it clear I wasn’t pressing for it to be paid early and didn’t expect them to.

    They confirmed they had everything, it was currently on day 17 and it would be paid by day 28.

    Two days later the money was in my bank (feels like a bit of reverse psychology may have worked a treat!!)

    It has made a huge difference. Thanks Sara for all your advice and support. And for your encouragement along this journey (about 10 months).

    It was a long haul and it was difficult to remain patient at times but definitely well worth it.

    Good luck everyone.

    Andy

  6. Antony says

    I’ve sent 4 complaints to FOS at the beginning of April.. which is now just over 3 months. For people that have escalated to the FOS how long does it take for an adjudicator to look at a case? Seems to be taking forever!

    • Kara says

      My PDUK case has been with them over 4m and is now awaiting to be assigned to an adjudicator following them giving PDUK a very long time to respond. PDUK are busy so they’re extending deadlines. I just put a call in once a week as I’ve found that it sometimes nudges a case forward a bit. My Wonga case was handled quite quickly, especially once I let them exclude loans older than 6yrs.

      • Antony says

        Thank you Kara for letting me know. Seems that I’ll be waiting for a good while longer then. One of them is with Lending Stream who is notoriously difficult to deal with, so lets hope before Christmas! Thanks for letting me know :)

  7. JumpingJack says

    I emailed PDUK a week ago and have not even had an acknowledgment – is this normal?

    • Holly Jane says

      I sent them the step 1 letter on 18th June and got a reply on 2nd July. Their reply just states they are investigating but didn’t ask for further information. They said I will get a final response in 8 weeks.

  8. Joe B says

    Hi can anyone comment, payday express has said they will issue a settlement figure when they issue my refund? Are they not supposed to do this before? The ombudsman ruled in my favour to pay back all interest from September 2011, I calculated £1858 without 8% simple, loans to interest paid, but why are they only issuing with the refund why not before?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      probably because they will pay it as soon as they have calculated it.

      • Louise says

        I had the same with Payday UK – I have not signed any settlement agreement my adjudicator told me I didn’t have to for Payday Uk – perhaps it is as they made the offer in the end for loan 2-4 and she wanted all loans. They emailed me the same day and asked for bank details. In relation to the sum the adjudicator had the figures and advised me I then called Payday Uk and they confirmed them I said “do I get this in writing” he said on the day they make the payment?

        I get the feeling that each case is different and handled differently – why did I not have to sign a settlement. According to my adjudicator she said no you have agreed it with me so all is in order.
        I am hoping it takes less than 28 days – she did say it will be quicker than 28 days.

  9. Louise says

    Hi,can anyone tell me how you calculate what The Money Shop would owe you in refund if agreed.And has anyone had any luck with The Money Shop with the Fos with older loans.Thankyou.

    • John says

      Hi Louise, The Money Shop is paying out on older loans. If I can ask when you took out the Loans? In order to calculate refund , you need to deduct loan repayment amount from the principal amount and that will leave you with the interest.Which is the amount you will be due. Hope this helps

  10. Nicola says

    Just received a confirmation email from Payday uk after signing my settlement form through my adjudicator. They say my refund will take up to 28 days! Has anyone received their refunds any earlier than this? Seems a long time!

    • Andrew says

      I sent my acceptance back they said they never received it (I sent it recorded to had a signature) after toing and froing I emailed it back and they confirmed Within 10 days but that never went to adjudicator that was between me and them

  11. Joe b says

    Good morning
    Does anyone know when payday express settle? I am on 21 of 28…

    Many Thanks
    Joe B

  12. Lee Sharratt says

    Hello payday uk offered my 900 pound, refused to look at my loans before August 2012, should I go to the fo? Borrowed around 2k before 2012

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Yes I think you should, that is a lot of money and Payday UK are paying out on loans over 6 years old so the delay shouldn’t be too bad.

    • Jennifer corry says

      Hi,
      I tried to email them but have heard nothing back. Could you put up the one you used ?
      Thank you

  13. Martina says

    Hello,

    I’ve had 32 loans from PDUK between 2010 and 2014.
    They got back to me with a £761 offer.
    I’m not sure if I should accept this? Doesnt seem much considering the amount of loans.
    If I take it to the FO can he reject the case?
    Can I still accept this offer of £761?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Did PDUK say which loans they are refunding? Do you know how much interest you paid?

    • Amy says

      I had 16 loans between 2015 and 2017 and they have offered me £1789! definitely look further into it before accepting

  14. Anthony says

    Just thought I’d share a comment I’ve had from one of the guys from the ombudsman service. I have 3 complaints in, one with payday uk who are contesting looking at loans over 6 years old as I have had a DMP.

    When talking to the ombudsman service representative on the phone, they seem to think it’s reasonable for the payday loan company to use the DMP as a marker for when I should’ve realised I should complain. I’m not sure I agree. Just wanted to ask if anyone has had a result with the FOS when they’ve had a DMP.

    I also understand they take longer. I’m currently on month 4.. How long does it take on average?

    Any thoughts or comments would be very much welcome.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      “When talking to the ombudsman service representative on the phone, they seem to think it’s reasonable for the payday loan company to use the DMP as a marker for when I should’ve realised I should complain. I’m not sure I agree.”

      And I certainly don’t agree! But this is a common line that Payday UK takes. I suggest you go back to the adjudicator make three points (assuming of course that they all apply in your case):
      – when your DMP started you knew you were in financial trouble, but that doesn’t mean you were aware that the lender had not been responsible when lending to you – you had no idea that the lender had an obligation to check the loans were affordable
      – your DMP firm were presumably debt experts, but they never told you that you could make a complaint about this
      – if you had known you could complain, you would have done this immediately in order to try to speed up your DMP.

  15. John says

    Payday Uk success

    Following on from an earlier comment which I can’t seem to find now so apologies but thanks to the OP.
    I had an outstanding complaint with PDUK and they advised they would need further bank statements to consider some of the loans. This was on 15th June. So far I have sent these statements on email 4 times. Each time, upon chasing, they said they haven’t received them.
    Following on from an earlier post, I left a 1* review on trust pilot outlining this. the following day I received an offer confirming full refund on these loans of £2200. Not always the best way but if you need a result if they aren’t playing ball then an option to consider? Thanks so much for all the help and advice on here

    • JD says

      That was me. Haha, well done. They literally were being so awkward until I went on trustpilot and 1 starred them. Within days had my refund.

    • matt says

      Hi Darren

      Adjudicator found in my favour 28/6/18, Payday UK accepted findings 5/7/18. Paid out 13/7/18/.

      Hope that helps.

  17. Craig says

    I took out many payday loans with TMS between 2002 and 2012. I adapted the very useful letter template here and emailed them. 3 weeks later I have received an email back saying they are looking into it and hope to reply within 4 weeks of the complaint but it may take up to 8 weeks (fair enough). They have also sent a full breakdown of very transaction I have ever had with them with over a week to spare before that deadline. So far so good – I hope their adherence to timescales continues. I’m shocked at how many times I rolled over some of the £100 cheque loans – several were 20-30 times! I think I have a very good case so I look forward to seeing what they offer. Ready to contact ombudsman if necessary!

  18. Lou7 says

    Hi all,
    I need some advice. I had a complaint against payday uk to which my adjudicator agreed with me but it then went to the ombudsman and they agreed with payday uk. They said the loans I had were affordable and the payday loan company had done enough checks but I was borrowing off family as well as payday loans from other companies. The ombudsman contacted me today to see if I had anything else to add before they make their final decision. I don’t know what to say other than if they had checked my credit file carefully enough they would have noticed what a mess I was in. Any advice or info would be really appreciated.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I think this isn’t an easy case to win because the amount you borrowed decreased with each loan (620, 530, 490, 160), so there was nothing from this that would suggest you were getting deeper into trouble.

      But the best way to respond is for you look at your credit report and say exactly what PDUK should have noticed when you applied for loan 1 – list all the monthly credit commitments showing at that point – did they come to more than you had said on your application? If they did, PDUK should have seen this as a warning signal. Also list recent (last 12 months) problems – missed payments of defaults.

      Then do the same for loans 2, 3 and 4.

  19. Steve says

    Just to give you all some comfort, I had loans with Payday UK going back over 6 years. I complained to the FOS and Payday UK have just agreed to refund interest and add 8% interest on all loans after 2007. If you have a complaint, keep with it as it looks like these types of complaints are now being settled.

      • Steve says

        The complaint was with the FOS for 14 months but a lot of that time was spent them agreeing what would be paid. Now that’s done, PaydayUK complaints should be settled quicker. If you have one with an adjudicator give them a ring to remind them

  20. Nat says

    Hi I have complained to payday express. They did not agree with my complaint (last october) so took to the FO. Yesterday adjudicator told me they contacted the company to refund my last loan and add 8% interest. I’m just wondering if anyone has had a refund after adjudicator decision ? Thanks

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      yes Payday Express sometimes accept adjudicator decisions, but sometimes they don’t and it then takes longer for the case to be looked at by the Ombudsman. How many loans did you have from PDE?

  21. Louise says

    Hi everyone,just enquiring has anyone had any luck with The Money Shop refunding on older loans over 6 years old.And how long did it take,and do the fos normally agree they should be refunded.Thanks.

    • LJC says

      I put in a complaint to them , they wouldn’t look at the majority of my loans as they are over 6 years old . They agreed to refund interest on a couple of loans from 2012 . I sent it all to fos last week

  22. Kara says

    I had 11 loans with PDUK from 2007-12 and they were the first payday lender I lent from. In January they offered me a refund on loans 7&8 totalling £1400 and said they’d consider 5 more with statements etc. I went straight to the FOS and it has finally been reviewed. The adjudicator wants them to refund all loans except 9&10 which were after a 3-yr break. I’m happy with this. It should mean a refund of about £3500. I’ll make it clear that if it goes to an ombudsman I would still like them to consider 9&10 (worth £500ish) as I had recently had loans with a lot of other lenders and was still clearly struggling. I was surprised that the adjudicator agreed to uphold the first few loans as I know I was struggling but I wasn’t sure my financial evidence was enough, and it was the very start of my payday borrowing.
    I’m glad i persevered with Smile and eventually got my statements after about 5 requests.

  23. Lynn says

    Hi All
    I have had many loans with Payday Express, they have refunded some of the interest etc on some loans, but are asking for Bank Statements for the others. The loans were take out in 2008 – 2010, I have since closed my bank account and can longer access my statements. I have been into branch with ID and they can only go back 7 years.(its 10 years since the loans were taken out) Can anyone please advise how else i can go about claiming without these statements. ps. Payday Express said they would look into the loans but with bank statements from this time. HELP!!! Thank you

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I suggest sending the bank a Subject Access Request for a copy of all your personal data. Sometimes that may produce more than you expect.

      But at the moment, send PDE your oldest bank statement, say that previous one would have been much the same / had a lower income / whatever and say you are still trying to get hold of older statements which you will send to the ombudsman if necessary.

      The Ombudsman will probably look at the case without bank statements if you can prove with a SAR that they are not available.

  24. Ljc says

    Hi Sara
    I had a loan with the money shop for £600 and rolled it over every month for 5 years paying approx £90 in interest each month ! I wrote to money shop and they would only consider two loans after 2012 as the rest are over 6 years , I declined their offer and have sent to fos but I’m just querying in my head how much I actually paid in interest total , does it mean I paid £5400 in interest on a loan of £600 or £5400 on a loan totalling £36000 ? Sorry to sound a bit dense

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      It doesn’t really matter for the purpose of your complaint – what matters is the total interest you paid, not how much you borrowed.

      But so you can think about it, the answer is that for this period you always owed the Money Shop £600.

  25. jack hines says

    So I have received a final response from both Payday UK and Payday Express, however I have sent them further bank details that I have found which they had requested. This was over 3/4 weeks ago. Was just wondering what the timeframe is now that they have sent a final response.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      I suggest you tell them unless they give you a revised response within a week you will be sending the complaint to the Ombudsman.

    • Nathan says

      I had initial offers from both and a request for further information to decide on a few additional loans.
      Sent the extra bank statements to both and had a second final response within a week for PDE and 2 weeks for PDUK.

      I would give them a call to check the progress of they are taking that long.
      They were pretty friendly and helpful throughout with me. A gentle prod to remind them you are still there is maybe all they need.

      • Lee says

        Can I ask when sending bank statements do they only accept original copies because I have and am waiting for replies from nine lenders covering a 7 year period so to get these bank statements if originals were needed it would cost a fortune for nine copies about 50 plus pages for each and recorded delivery

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          no, copies will do. So there is no need to send recorded delivery.
          Also not all lenders will need all the bank statements. And not all lenders will ask for bank statements.

        • Nathan says

          Hi Lee,

          I sent all mine electronically. Scanned the oldest ones that I received on paper and downloaded the rest.

          Saved loads on postage, and guaranteed they received them. Took a couple of hours to scan them all though…

  26. Holly Jane says

    Hi all.

    Pduk have sent me their final response, 1 loan affordable and 2 loans unable to determine. They have asked for bank statements to help the decision on those 2 loans but the 8 weeks is up on Monday. Should I send the statements or just wait until Monday and go to the fos?
    Thank you.

    • John M says

      Send them your statements. You will get a quicker reply from them than you would from FOS. If you do t like their reply then you can still pass to FOS.

      Good luck

    • Holly Jane says

      Sorry, I’ve just realised that they are unable to determine the first 6 loans, the 7th loan is responsible and the last 3 are unable to be determined. They grouped them into 3 which confused me!

      • Sara (Debt Camel) says

        So send them your statements for the whole period.
        If they had said 7 out of 10 were responsible and they would look at the other 3, I would say don’t bother, go straight to FOS. But as they are prepared to look at 9 out of 10, I think this is worth doing. If you don’t get a decision within 2 weeks of sending them the statements, phone them up and ask when you will.

  27. James says

    I’ve had an offer for 3 loans from payday UK today. They said they’ll consider 7 more with bank statement which I am happy to send because it confirms unaffordability. If I accept the offer so far would I be able to take the remaining 7 to FOS if needed?

  28. Claire says

    How long does it take for Payday Express to payout a refund once you’ve accepted their offer
    Thanks

  29. Neo says

    Hi Sara,

    May I have your advice please. I have received a response letter from PDUK on 02/08 who confirmed that they believe out of my 27 loans, 3 were lent responsibly, 14 unable to determine, and 10 agreed funds lent irresponsibly. They have asked for Bank statements to review the other 14 loans. The last pages states the below,

    My offer of £3,815.99 and the removal of any negative information recorded on your credit file such as
    late payments statuses or defaults, regarding your ten loans that I am upholding and any deferrals of
    these loans, is in full and final settlement of your irresponsible lending complaint reference ******** –
    full details of which are contained in my letter dated 2 August 2018.

    I want to ask if I accept this refund, does it mean my complaint case is completely close as this would mean I’m accepting this as a final settlement? Or does it mean its for the 10 loans only and I can still send in my Bank statements for a review of the other 14 loans which they are unable to determine?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Some people have accepted the offer and sent the bank statements in and sent the other loans off to the Ombudsman later. But I think it’s safest for you to ask PDUK if you can do this. not assume it’s all right.

    • scott mcdonald says

      this is final settlement of the 10, sign and send back that form, then send your statements for the rest and then you get a sepoarate offer, alot quick er too, within a week

  30. victoria says

    Good morning!

    I received a final response from PayDay UK. They have said that out of my 13 loans, they think that the last 5 they should have asked more questions and done more checks. Over all though they have said they cant come to a decision without 3 bank statements, and my credit report. Should I send these or go to the Ombusman? I dont understand how they can send final response letter when they have not got all the information they need, from their own addmitance?

    Thanks for any help you can provide.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      How many loans have they rejected and how many will they look at again if you send bank statements?

      Thsi is a “final response” as they are giving you the right to now take the case to the Ombudsman if you want. Or you could send them more details and they will reconsider.

      Some lenders ask for all bank statements and a credit report right at the beginning. PDUK only ask people for a few bank statements later if they are needed. In many ways the PDUK approach is more friendly to the people complaining.

      • Victoria says

        They have rejected 7 and said they will look at the last 5.

        I now have an added issue that the statements were from an old bank account which i closed in 2011. I have spent 45 minutes on the phone to the bank and they are saying there is no way I can gain access to them now as legally only 5 years they need to keep them :(

        Does this mean I am now at a dead end with my claim? I can provide the credit report though?

        Thank you :)

        • Sara (Debt Camel) says

          So they aren’t actually offering a refund at all at the moment. Then I suggest you send them your credit report, say you are trying to get the bank statements but you will be sending your complaint to the ombudsman if they don’t come back with a reasonable offer on the 5 loans within the next 2 weeks.

          I also suggest you send your old bank a subject access request (SAR), asking for a copy of your bank statements between x and x, the period of all your borrowing from PDUK. Sometimes a SAR produces information that asking directly for statements doesn’t. If you go onto the bank’s website and look for Privacy Policy it should tell you where to send your SAR request to.

          the Ombudsman will look at cases where it is impossible to get bank statements, but you will need it in writing that the bank can’t produce them. And a complaint without bank statements may be harder to win.

  31. Neo says

    Hi Sara, I note alot of cases are being rejected by PDUK, The Money Shop And PDEX when customers have been on a DMP previously and not raising complaint at that time. Do you what the outcomes are roughly after Adjud or FOS looks at them?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      This is only for cases where there are loans over 6 years and there haven’t been a lot of these cases. I am not sure any of them are yet through the Ombudsman stage?

  32. James says

    Hi,

    My payday UK complaint response was due yesterday, they replied on the last day and upheld 3 loans, rejected 1 and unable to determine 7.

    I sent them bank statements this morning for the 7 loans and they upheld 6 of them so refund on 9 out of 11 loans.

    Acceptance form emailed back and they have acknowledged receipt already.

    They have been very pleasant and helpful.

      • Loopymoo says

        Signed ours start of week and still no refund. Sounds strange that their system isn’t to process in order of receiving.

  33. Kara says

    I’ve heard from the FOS that PDUK have agreed to refund interest on 7/9 loans in addition to the 2 that they themselves already offered to refund, and this has happened at adjudicator stage within the 14 day deadline. It’s taken 5 months at the FOS but I’m now getting £4200 instead of the £1400 originally offered 7 weeks after I submitted a complaint.
    I’m glad I persevered with my bank and went into a branch to request statements from 2008 after they had refused to provide them over the phone and online as it has made all the difference. It’s also worth noting that I’m getting a refund of my first loan with PDUK which was also my first of about 70 loans with different lenders, and I really didn’t expect this to be the case – I thought they might suggested from loan number 3 or 4, but again my bank statements did the talking.
    Thanks Sara and everyone for your help.
    Only QQ to go now and that’s likely to be a long one as the loans are older than 6yrs.

    • Kara says

      Update on the above: I accepted the offer and The FOS sent my acceptance to PDUK yesterday. I emailed PDUK today asking if they knew when the money might be on my account, and it was then paid within a couple of hours.

  34. craig says

    Sara
    Just want to say a big thanks. I have got my self into debt using these payday loans, however after reading your reviews I filled in the template and sent it off to PDUK. From an outstanding 2000 loan they are refunding me 1600.
    Thankyou again for the excellent work on this website

  36. Robert says

    Hey guys

    Just an update on my PaydayUK complaint. I had loans between 2009 and 2012 and received my response 2 days before the 8 weeks.

    They have upheld 2 loans and asked for statements on 4 loans, I have the paper statements ready to send so I’m happy to do this. Their offer is £539.70 which if I am being honest is more than I was expecting!

    Going to send my acceptance off today along with the statements!
    Hopefully anyone else waiting for decisions from them will get good news too!

    Thanks again to Sara for the great advice

  37. Miss Jacqui's says

    Hi Sarah
    can you give me an idea of roughly how far wrong the Money shop have gone wrong in their calculations, as they are giving me the right run around as you know they have offered £1143.00 for loans in 2008 and 2013. £272.00 interest for 2008 and £964.00 interest in 2013. Can you give me an indication as they are being a bit difficult with me and now the adjudicator has now given them another few weeks. Thanks in advance

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      Guessing at the right 8% amounts won’t help you…
      You said the Money shop are offering to refund “Interest and charges paid: £795.13£”. That doesn’t match with your figures which show you paid £272.00 interest for 2008 and £964.00 interest in 2013. That is what has to be resolved, the interest and charges being refunded. Once those figures are correct the 8% calculations will be right.

    • Miss Jacqui's says

      Thanks’ Sarah

      I will try the Money Shop again, although they are being really awkward.

  38. Julian Edmonds says

    Hi
    I have received a response letter from PDUK where they have agreed to refund their charges on some of my loans plus the 8% statutory interest over the 5-6 years since, however they are deducting 20% income tax on the statutory interest. Are they allowed to do this? I thought you were now allowed something like £500 interest a year tax free on top of any ISAs etc., and the amount at issue here works out at around £200 a year over the 6 years.
    So shouldn’t they just pay it tax free and let HMRC deal with it?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      That sounds like a large refund ????

      PDUK are doing what HMRC says they should by deducting tax, they don’t know your tax situation so they apply the blanket deduct basic rate tax approach. You can reclaim up to £200 in a tax year (or more if you don’t pay tax at all) see https://debtcamel.co.uk/ppi-payday-refund-get-back-tax/

      But HMRC treats all the 8% interest added as savings income in this tax year, not spread over the 6 years it was calculated over. So it’s only one lot of £200 you can get back.

  39. Miss Jacqui's says

    Success at last just had Money shop confirm a recalculation of my redress which was initially completely wrong, thanks for your help Sarah after eight months I am nearing the finish line with this one only eight more to go.

    Interest and charges paid: £1,595.99

    8% interest: £709.43

    20% tax deduction: £141.89

    Final redress to customer: £2,163.54

  40. Loopymoo says

    PDUK seem to be a nightmare with processing refunds – was told 10 days and still no payment. Called yesterday to be told it had been sent and should receive within 24 hours. Still no money. Called today to be told they are having technical issues and no payments have been processed for 2 days. Anyone else heard this?

      • Anthony says

        I’ve accepted mine yesterday and when I called they said it can take 28 days to process a refund. Hopefully it comes sooner than that!

  41. gill33uk says

    Its been an awfully long time coming, well over a year but the Ombudsman has sent his Final Decision and upheld my complaint against The Money Shop and they have accepted with his findings, this is dating back to Sept 2007 up to Oct 2009, don’t give up!

    • Stu says

      I have a complaint at the FOS against Payday UK for loans dating back to 2007. Multiple loans and multiple deferrals. Still waiting on it being assigned to an adjudicator as Payday UK apparently are objecting to the ombudsman looking into my complaint. Fingers crossed though.

  42. Louise says

    Hi has anyone had any success with The Money Shop with the fos on loans over 6 years old,seem to be taking a long time on it.Thanks

    • gill33uk says

      I have! Loans from 2007 – 2009. They just emailed asking for bank details so the refund can be processed, takes 28 days. This has been on going for over a year and the Ombudsman found in my favour finally. Yippee. Good luck

  43. Anna says

    Hi Sara

    I’ve had a partial refund from payday express, just over £1000 for one loan, and they have asked for my bank statements to look at 3 other ‘undecided’ loans.

    I now have the bank statements to send to them.l, but I’m a bit worried about how they will read them. When I was taking out the loans (2010 – 2012) I had a drug addiction (I was getting treatment at the time, and am now recovered). So, although I had a job and was getting wages paid in, most of my money was taken out in cash from cash machines (apart from bills). On my statements it looks like I am just spending lots. I was always overdrawn, and almost every month show £50 – £200 in bank charges for being over my overdraft.

    When I send the statements, should I explain and tell them about my drug addiction at the time, or will this count against me?

    Thanks

  44. Robert says

    Hi everyone,

    Thought id give you my update on my complaint to PaydayUK.

    They responded to my complaint a couple of days before the 8 weeks was up. I had 8 loans from 2009-2012 but i was rolling them over all through that period where i would just pay interest when i couldnt repay in full. They offered a refund of £539.70 on 2 loans, decided they couldnt make a decision on 4 and rejected 2. They asked for bank statements for the 4 they couldnt decide on and i sent those along with my acceptance sheet for the £539.70 10 days ago.
    Ive just received the £539.70 today into my account and i rang them this afternoon and they said a decision on the 4 loans should be made by Friday.

    All in all not particularly slow so i was quite happy with that.

    Mainly for anyone who might be in two minds about sending bank statements when they ask for them, i would it seems it will be a lot faster that going to the FOS.

    • Stuart says

      I had loans from 2007-2012 and they told me they didn’t have to look at any loans prior to my last 1 due to the six year rule. Complaint has been with the ombudsman since April and still not assigned to an adjudicator as they are arguing over jurisdiction. Multiple rollovers on every loan also.

  45. Lyn johnson says

    Hi can anybody please tell me if mems consumer credit is payday uk? Pduk have offered to settle 7/8 loans but looking on my statements I can only find a couple of credits by pduk and a lot from mems. Total repayments I paid to pduk is 1.5k and no payments to mems. Pduk have offered @£500 including 8% interest. Thank you for your advice

    • C says

      Hi Lyn.
      Yes it is and they do occasionally payout well, I had 23 out of 29 loans repaid with 8% interest (6.5k). So I accepted rather than going to the FOS and waiting for ages. The first and last few probably would have been rejected by the FOS anyway.
      Have you checked your payments match what they’re offering?
      Cheer

  46. gill33uk says

    The Ombudsman found in my favour and I received an email from the Money Shop today asking for my bank details so the refund can be processed. I had 14 loans in total from 2007 to 2009 rolling over nearly all totalling 70 times. When I called with my bank details I never asked how much I will receive but did ask how long it takes and was told up to 28 days, this is fine as it has been on going since June 2017, over a year. The outcome is worth it, stick to it. So glad to be out of this cycle. For each loan (Cheque for £100) I would pay £14 in interest. The Ombudsman calculated that on just one cheque I would have paid £168 and £210 in extension fees on a £100 cheque, it’s cringe worthy but at the time I was desperate. Good Luck

    • Mary says

      Thanks for the info gill33uk. I haven’t had a reply to my complaint from the Moneyshop yet but I’m interested to see you were successful back to 2007. It gives me hope ! My Loans were from 2007 too.

  47. Kelly Webb says

    Received this response from Paydayuk/moneyshop. Should I go straight to Ombudsman or is it worth waiting until the have completed their investigation?

    I refer to your complaint against Payday UK .
    I am sorry for the delay in replying to you and advise that we are not yet in a position to respond to your complaint as our investigation is not complete.
    The Financial Ombudsman Service gives a business eight weeks to respond to a complaint and, as this time has passed, this means: You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge.

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      All the lenders are having difficulty managing to respond within the 8 week timescales at the moment because of the volume of complaints. It’s up to you if you want to wait a few days, but I don’t think it’s sensible to give them a lot more time. The volume of complaints at the Ombudsman is also up a lot, so that will be slow, best to get yourself in the queue as soon as possible?

  48. Charlie says

    Hi,

    Does anyone have an email address to contact Payday Express complaints, I have sent a complaint email to the money shop complaints department and requested a list of all my loans but I have not received an email to confirm they have received my complaint and are looking into it. Any help would be great.

    Thanks

  49. Kevin says

    I’ve just received my statement of account back from Payday UK, about 5 weeks after requesting this). I’m going to work through it as per your instructions (dividing it into loan 1, loan 2 etc. with the Principal Deposit amount and then getting the total interest paid from the Interest Repayment rows).

    I have a lot of rows which state Interest Deferral. Should this also be added to the Interest Repayment rows to get the total amount of interest paid on the loan?

    Probably an obvious answer to this but my heads a bit battered with all the numbers at the moment ha.

    Thanks

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      You are looking for the amounts you actually paid, not all their wretched accounting entries. The payments (interest, charges, principal) should show in the Amount column as being in brackets, ie you paid the money. You can ignore the principal repayment amounts – you only want the interest and charges.

      • Kevin says

        Thanks for the quick response Sara. So looking at the payments in brackets (ignoring the principal), the total interest paid on the below example would have been £205.00 (£72.50+£72.50+£60). Is that correct?

        Principal | Deposit £290.00 £362.50
        Interest | Deposit £72.50 £362.50
        Interest | Deferral (£72.50) £435.00
        Principal | Deferral (£217.50) £435.00
        Interest | Deferral £72.50 £435.00
        Principal | Deferral £290.00 £435.00
        Principal | Repayment (£72.50) £362.50
        Interest | Deferral (£72.50) £422.50
        Principal | Deferral (£167.50) £422.50
        Principal | Deferral £240.00 £422.50
        Interest | Deferral £60.00 £422.50
        Principal | Repayment (£122.50) £300.00
        Interest | Repayment (£60.00) £0.00
        Principal | Repayment (£240.00) £0.00

  50. Rob Gregory says

    I’m being told by PDUK that the company who owned PDUK has now gone bust and they can’t find my account. Granted it was in 2013 but still they should have some record of it surely? I have a reference number too. Any help anyone can give would be great!

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      That sounds unusual. Do you have your bank statements showing the loans and your repayments?

  51. Andy says

    Hi I’ve had payday uk agree with f/o. I rang Monday to payday just to confirm I agree and gave the bank details across the phone. The guy was super helpful and rang the accounts department and said it would take up to 28 days to send the money. What’s people time scale of actually receiving the money

  52. Andy says

    Not yet but will check in the morning. What sort of size pay out was yours? If you don’t mind me asking

  53. Klly says

    Hi,
    I received a final response letter from Payday UK today as follows:

    ‘My decision
    One rule is that a customer must complain within 6 years of the problem. Another rule is that if more
    than 6 have passed, you must complain within 3 years of knowing you could complain about the
    problem.
    I can see that all of the loans that you are complaining about are more than 6 years old. So for me to
    consider these loans, I need you to tell me why you didn’t complain about these loans until now.’

    All my loans are over 6 years (from 2009 – 2012). Should I go back to them as to why I didn’t complain (genuinely didn’t know I could until June this year, which is stated in my original complaint) or go straight to Ombudsman?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      yes go back and say when and how you heard about what irresponsible lending was – did a friend tell you? see an advert on Facebook for a claims company? there are no wrong answers here, just say what happened.

  54. Pat says

    I wonder if you can help my brother has had letters from a BW legal regarding a supposed loan he had with Pay Day express, they are saying that he owes them £820.00, however my brother has never had a loan with them, they have issued court papers back in December 2017 which I had a phone conversation with an arbitrator about and tried to explain that he knows nothing of the money but they insist he owes it, their defense is that he signed an electronic agreement?
    My brother thinks that his ex partner who he was with must have taken out the loan in his name after they had split up but he has no proof. the first we heard of this was back in December last year and now they have written to him again about this saying he has to pay and he must drop his defense that the loan was taken out fraudulently – I am trying to help him and I am at a loss now as to where to go next

  55. David says

    Hi all. Waiting on refunds from PUK and PDEX. Although everything was done through email I was asked to post the form. Sent it 1st class on Friday still to receive any confirmation they’ve recieved it yet even though I’ve been emailing. Anybody had their refund sorted through phone or email

    • Anthony says

      I spoke to them on the phone and I had a refund within 2 days. I’d perhaps try calling them and saying you’ll provide bank details over the phone. Worked for me.

  56. Bill says

    Will somebody back up my memory, I had numerous loans from the money shop, am I right they paid cash at the counter once you provided a wage slip? Think I went there back and fourth every Friday to pay my debt and take it back out once I paid it back in cash!

  57. Cathy Evans says

    I emailed payday express to complain about irresponsible lending in July. A lot of my loans were between 2010 and 2011. They never got back to me with a final response in 8 weeks, so I forwarded onto FOS. They have got back to me today saying they will refund all loans between 2012 and 2013. Just over £1000. If I accept this can I still get the FOS to look at older loans?

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      You can’t “split your case” like this and settle part and take the rest to the Ombudsman unless Payday express agree. You could ask them.

  58. David says

    If anybody is waiting a while for PUK or PDEX to process any redress it definitely pays to chase up.

    Sent my acceptance 1st class post on Friday. Sent an email on Tuesday asking if they have received it yet. Got a response 1st thing Wednesday saying it hadn’t been received yet but once it was recieved it would be processed in 10 working days. Emailed back saying I could really do with the money. Recieved no response but checked my bank and it’s went in.

    • MArk says

      David,

      That’s so weird! I posted mine back Friday and mine went in tonight too…..I didn’t do any chasing though, so maybe they’re just getting quicker at processing refunds. Either way it’s good news for customers.

  59. Adam says

    Hello, i just have a quick question, i have sent my first email to paydayuk,(still waiting on a reply) i have been looking at old bank statments and found i took loans out with paydayexpress as well, these are the same company in some ways they both have the same complaints email address, will they look at both my accounts with them or will they just look at just my paydayuk account? would it be best to send another email but just putting paydayexpress as the heading?

    thanks again.

        • Jen says

          I had the same pduk refunded while pd express is still waiting, both companies over 6 yrs, pduk settled feb 18 at adjudicator level, pd express is at adjudicator level today, both original separate complaints made in may 17

    • Sara (Debt Camel) says

      You would have to ask them that… the Financial Ombudsman looks to see if the loans were affordable for you, so what your income and expenses were and whether you could make the loan repayments and get through the next month without having to borrow again.

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