Some lenders responding to affordability complaints by saying your application wasn't accurate about your income or expenses when you took out the loans. They are doing this to try to put you off taking your case to the Financial Ombudsman. That may save them a lot of money! Let's see why applications may have been inaccurate and whether this is a problem for your complaint. Most of the … [Read more...]
Payday loans
Payday loans - easy to take out - hard to escape from. This page has all Debt Camel's articles about them, the most recent first.
 
If you think you were given a payday loan which was unaffordable - you could only repay it if you borrowed again soon afterwards, read How to ask for a payday loan refund which has step by step instructions and free template letter.
Tens of thousands of people have got a refund of the interest they paid on some of their loans using this approach!
Money Shop – redundancy plans and stores closing
UPDATE - June 15th Money Shop to close – two million customers will be informed On June 21 the Daily Mail reported that : In a letter sent to employees and seen by This is Money, ICL said it plans to close or sell off all of its UK stores following 'poor financial performance' and an 'unprecedented number of customer complaints'. The Money Shop has already shut down or sold … [Read more...]
Recent payday loans make it hard to get a mortgage
Having a recent payday loan on your credit history can make it much harder for you to get a mortgage at a good rate - or even at all! If you have used payday loans, the rule of thumb for a mortgage application is to wait until at least 2 years have passed after your last payday loan was settled. Before coronavirus, the usual advice was to wait one year. But from 2020 many mortgage lenders … [Read more...]
How the Wonga administrators will handle refunds – the Proposals
The Wonga Administrators sent a letter in late October to some of Wonga's creditors with their proposals to handle the administration. These include: background on the events before administration; how to decide the payday loan affordability complaints that have already been sent to Wonga; and how to encourage other customers to submit a complaint. These Proposals were agreed by a … [Read more...]
Dear Payday Lender CEO – should you start a redress program?
On October 15, the FCA sent a Dear CEO letter entitled Affordability of High Cost Short Term (HCST) loans to payday lenders. This letter tells the lenders to review their affordability assessments. There are some very clear points about what the FCA expects a payday lender to do if it is not making good affordability assessments now or hasn't done in the past. "Chains of loans" over an … [Read more...]
2018 – Ombudsman decides it can look at payday loans over 6 years old
The Financial Ombudsman (FOS) has published in September 2018 two Decisions involving payday loans over six years old: Mr H has complained about fifty-four payday loans Lender C lent to him between March 2010 and September 2014. Mrs W’s complaint is about nine short-term loans from Lender D between November 2009 and July 2012. In both cases FOS has decided that its rules do allow it to … [Read more...]
Lessons to be learned from Wonga – 6 policy challenges
It's now a few weeks since Wonga went into administration. This seems like a good point to ask some difficult questions about the lessons from Wonga and what should be done to reduce consumer harm in future. Much of the media coverage has gone as follows: Wonga was the worst - then the FCA fined them and made them write off debts in 2014 and introduced good payday loan regulation in 2015. … [Read more...]
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 … [Read more...]
Lending Stream – poor and slow complaints handling
Lending Stream, a mid-sized payday lender in Britain, is noticeably bad at handling payday loan affordability complaints. This article looks at what often happens in a Lending Stream affordability complaint so you are prepared. By taking your complaint to the Ombudsman you may get a much better award. In the first half of 2018, the Financial Ombudsman was agreeing with the customer in more than … [Read more...]
Dear CEO… how to improve payday loan complaints handling
The FCA wrote a "Dear CEO" letter to all consumer credit firms on September 13th 2017. This said the FCA has reviewed complaints handling at a range of firms and found material non-compliance and other concerning practices. The letter details these problems and ends by saying that the FCA expects firms to: review how your firm identifies, records, and deals with complaints as well as how this … [Read more...]