Contents
Summary of the administration
Curo Transatlantic Limited (Curo) had two brands:
- Wageday Advance (WDA), a mid-sized payday lender; and
- Juo Loans, a small guarantor lender.
Curo entered administration on 26 February 2019 because of the number of payday loan affordability complaints they were receiving. They appointed KPMG as Administrators.
- The Administrators published Proposals for the administration in March.
- Outstanding loans, less any compensation calculated, were sold to Shelby or Lantern.
- The Administrators used a Claims Calculator to decide which WDA customers may be owed compensation for inappropriate lending;
- 256,000 customers owed compensation were sent emails inviting them to submit a pre-completed Claim. The deadline for Claims to be submitted has now passed.
- In September 2019 it was announced that c.100,000 claims were received and that the administrators expect to pay c. 5p in the pound to customers who made a claim.
- On 20 May 2020 the final dividend of 5.68p in the £ was announced and paid to unsecured creditors. The total amount being distributed was £7,232,445.
- Three further payments runs were made to try to resolve problems where payments had bounced back.
- No further payments will be attempted. The administrators have sent the funds they held relating to unsuccessful dividend payments to the Insolvency Services Account, in line with standard insolvency procedure.
- Any customer who did not receive their expected payment can claim it from this account. Email CustomerServices.EAS@Insolvency.gov.uk, and include your name, customer number, address and the name of the Company, being CURO Transatlantic Limited.
Background to the administration
Like other payday lenders, WDA had seen increasing numbers of affordability complaints for several years.
In June 2018 WDA asked KPMG to look at a Scheme of Arrangement (“Plan A”), which would cap its liabilities for historic complaints. At this point, WDA was already struggling with affordability complaints – the cost of refunds, the administrative overhead and the FOS fees.
From June-September affordability complaints increased significantly, with 16,000 being received during the four months.
In October WDA asked KPMG to also look at the alternative of a sale of the business (“Plan B”). CTL’s parent company, the American subprime lender Curo, said:
we do not believe that, given the scale of our U.K. operations, we can sustain claims at this level and may not be able to continue viable U.K. business operations without action by the U.K. business to reduce the risk of claims relating to historic lending.
In the autumn, WDA stopped responding to customer complaints within the allowed 8 weeks. Many customers did not receive a response for 16, 20 or more weeks.
As part of the planning, a Claims Calculator was developed to assess all previous lending. This estimated that the total potential liability for affordability complaints could be as much as £223m.
In January 2019, Curo announced it had asked the FCA to say whether it would object to a Scheme of Arrangement which would cap CTL’s liabilities to pay refunds for unaffordable lending at c £18 million. The Administrators admit that:
redress creditors would … have faced a very significant shortfall against the value of their claims in the Scheme.
It is hard to imagine why the FCA might have thought this was a reasonable offer.
On 19 February, the FCA said it needed further information about the proposed Scheme. At that point, CTL decided it was unlikely to get Plan A approved. It decided to appoint administrators and proceed with Plan B. At this time it stopped offering loans through the Wageday Advance website.
Loan sales to Shelby and Lantern
Immediately on administration – some accounts sold to Shelby
The Administrators announced a sale of much of CTL’s infrastructure to Shelby Finance for c £8.5 million. Shelby currently trade as Dot Dot, a very small payday lender, and are a subsidiary of the doorstep lender, Morses Club. This is known as a “pre pack” sale – it was all planned before the administration started.
50,000 CTL customers, including all Juo customers, have had their loans transferred to Shelby.
The accounts sold to Shelby were considered to be “in good standing” with no arrears. The Administrators say “a small number” of people who were transferred to Shelby may get some compensation for unaffordable lending – those affected will get an email from Shelby about this. But most people transferred to Shelby will not be getting any refunds.
650,000 other CTL accounts remained with CTL. Many of these are accounts that have not been used for some time. Many current and old customers may be owed compensation for inappropriate lending.
Outstanding loans sold to Lantern in May 2019
No payments for outstanding loans were taken by the Administrators. Balances were frozen, with no further interest or charges added. Credit records will be corrected so no late/missed payments will be recorded because of this.
Many people with outstanding balances may have these reduced because of redress, see below.
In May 2019 the loan book – the legal term for all the outstanding loans – was sold to Lantern, a debt collector.
Borrowers whose loans were sold were sent an email explaining this.
Determining complaints and calculating redress
WDA stopped its normal complaints handling when the administration started. It has not paid any refunds after administration, including refunds that were agreed before administration.
Under the Insolvency Act the Financial Ombudsman (FOS) couldn’t carry on with their decision making once a firm goes into administration. All WDA complaints with FOS were returned to the Administrators to settle.
The Claims Calculator
The Administrators put all loans from Wageday Advance, past and present, including those over 6 years old, through the Claims Calculator that has been developed.
The Claims Calculator was intended to give roughly similar results to typical FOS decisions. A loan was determined to be inappropriate by the calculator if it failed any of three sets of criteria:
- affordable – looks at loan size, income and expenditure evidence;
- sustainable – looks at the number of loans, the gaps between loans, roll-overs and how much loan amounts increased;
- responsible lending – looks at what a CRA check showed eg defaults, debt management and numbers of other payday loans.
For inappropriate loans, a redress amount was calculated as a refund of interest and charges, plus 8% statutory interest.
For customers who had already had an offer or a FOS decision, the redress was set at the largest of:
- what the Claims Calculator said;
- any Final Response offer from WDA; and
- the value of redress determined by the Financial Ombudsman.
Customers who still owe a balance
People who had a balance outstanding and who should get redress got an email from the Administrators with the subject Important information about your loan even if they haven’t submitted a complaint.
Here is an example of the key figures:
- Outstanding loan balance at 25 February 2019 per CTL’s records 420
- Less: balance adjustment (165)
- Adjusted loan balance 255.
If your redress is smaller than the balance, you will still owe some money – £255 in the above example.
Where someone has only had one loan, the balance has been reduced to the amount borrowed less what the customer has paid so far. This is what FOS would have decided if the loan was unaffordable.
If the calculated redress is larger than balance the redress cleared the balance and a further email was sent about the remaining redress.
Customers who are owed refunds for unaffordable loans
The Administrators sent emails with the subject Important information about your redress claim. These say:
- what your calculated redress amount is;
- that you are an unsecured creditor with a claim against CTL for this redress amount;
- there was button in the email to submit your claim before the deadline (which has now passed).
Credit records
The Administrators updates customers’ credit files to remove credit records for loans that they decided should be refunded because they are inappropriate.
20 May 2020 – payments made
On 20 May 2020 the Administrators announced all unsecured creditors, including people owed money for unaffordable loans, will get 5.68p in the £.
An email was sent to everyone saying what they would receive and payments started immediately. here is an example of an email:
Where payments bounced back, people were asked to supply updated bank details and further payment runs were made over the next months.
Coronavirus – can’t pay debts & bills
Is your guarantor loan unaffordable?
Is a DRO always better than an IVA?
gordon nilsson says
good point they said every who put in claim should get there money am now looking into contacted the F.O gays as they need to look into this how much interest they are making on the funds!!!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The Financial Ombudsman cannot look at anything that happens in an administration.
And these delays /errors are NOT being done so the administrators get more interest. The sums of money are small and any extra interest would be tiny and easily outweighed by the admin hassle of having to sort out these problem cases.
Chantal Smith says
I had my Wageday advance payment no problem. I am having similar issues with Wonga administrators. I contact them, they ask for a reference number and then ignore the email.
I had an old email account with Wonga that they advised me they would change but I am not sure they ever did and now I don’t know anything 😥
gordon nilsson says
had email from custom services and they still looking into my repayment!!! although had email back last year with a ref number and email in dec 19
iain turner says
I Haven’t received any payments due to this
Carolyn says
Me neither. Have had the email on 30 June to say that payment would be available to my bank account within seven days but nothing so far.
D Anderson says
Hi can imagine they are very busy and as per the email they advised payments will be issued within 2months if sent over change of bank details etc, but has anyone who has emailed them had any responses lately via email? Sent numerous emails and not had any responses getting really worried not that my payment which is just short of £500 won’t be here anytime soon, if at all
Nicki says
Nope And I’ve sent 2 emails. I understand they’re busy but an acknowledgement would be nice. Plenty of email correspondence end of last year where they confirmed they’d received my claim, confirmed change of bank details / email address / address etc so no idea why I didn’t get the email on the 20th or payment.
Kwesie says
Hi Sara, I need your advice on this please. I made an affordability complaint to KMPG July 2019, received a email few weeks later stating:
”We can confirm that your loan was not included in the sales to Shelby or Lantern, and as your loan has been repaid in full, you do not need to make any further repayments to CTL. We will shortly be making a final report to the credit reference agencies that CTL previously contracted with, and as part of this process we report that your loan has been repaid.”
I also filled out my claims forms and sent it over, which I had to send over twice and got an acknowledgment it was received. I’m not so much interested in the redress etc, but Lantern keep sending me letters to asking for payment for the payday loan I had, to which KPMG have confirmed is not included in the sale and no further payments are required.
Do I have the right to send a complaint to FOS, regarding Lantern and their non stop letters bare in mind I have forward the email to Lantern without any reply, Lantern also reports on my credit file and has this removed?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Have you sent Lantern a complaint?
Kwesie says
No I haven’t only forward on the email I received from KPMG so far, not heard back from Lantern since November 2019 but they are still reporting on my credit file.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
then send Lantern a complaint: complaints@lanternuk.com. Say you want the debt removed from your credit record.
Kwesie says
Thank you ill do just that, are there any templates that I can use?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
no, this is a very uncommon event. Just say what has happened, that you do not owe this debt and ask for it to be deleted. Send it to the Financial Ombudsman if they reject or do not reply within 8 weeks.
gordon nilsson says
Ha Sara
you going love this the customers service have said that they donot have any records of me so how is it that they contacted in Aug2019 with customer number when i made claim and in Nve 2019 with a email i shall for this one to you and any help i needed
Kind regards
gordon
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you reply to them attaching the previous emails you received from them.
gordon nilsson says
hi sara yes i have done that see what happens
gordon
Nicki says
Hi Sara,
I don’t know what to do. After reading the comments when everyone got their email / payments, I emailed them asking where my payment / email was. I’d replied to them using an email thread from last year where they confirmed they’d received my claim, my change of bank / address etc so they could see all the details.
I had no reply. I sent another new email 10 days later asking for some kind of acknowledgement – still nothing! It’s been 3 weeks now. We can’t call them and they’re not replying. I don’t really want to bombard them with yet another email but I want to know where my money is! Any advice on what I can do?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
They have said they will attempt a second payment run as soon as possible, definitely before the end of July.
I understand it’s frustrating that you haven’t had a reply. I understand they are working through the emails they have been sent.
Nicki says
Thanks Sara,
I hope so! I guess I’m concerned that with their lack of communication now, if I then somehow get missed off a 2nd payment run too I’ve got no hope of seeing any money and won’t be able to do anything about it.
Will just have to keep everything crossed :-)
Chantal Smith says
Hi, I’ve got the same problem and issue with Wonga. You can’t call anyone and I email them and get no response. I think that we’re just going to have to let it go, unless anyone comes up with any better ideas. I’ve stopped emailing the Wonga Administrators for now.
Paul says
These are worse than the Wonga administrators
Chantal Smith says
In what way? I’m hearing nothing from them the same that you are? And if I do it’s like we can’t find your claim, do you have any reference numbers from Wonga etc.
D Anderson says
Hi I have been the same emails back and forth inc all the payment details etc and the only response I have now has is that they can’t find my claim
Yet I got a emailing confirming payment but the wrong acc
No heard nothing back
Beginning to think I won’t ever actually see this money now
gordon nilsson says
hi D Anderson
am same problem as you back and forward also say that i had no claim to make although they gave me a customer claim number and sent me emails last year and on 20th may told me that will be get some money still waiting
D Anderson says
Hi
So I have had a response today advising they apologise for not updating my bank details last year etc and will make payment within the next 2weeks as oppose to the next 2months due to these mistakes
They have confirmed my dividend payment has bounced back from the old account
Guessing they are waiting to ensure they get all the incorrect payments back also
If not already I would suggest this as I had all this on my last email I sent
Email ref and date when they confined they had changed bank details
Email ref from dividend payment email
Customer number on the dividend email
Name address email address when taking the loan originally
Currant bank details email add and postal address
Hope this helps and hope you all get a response soon
Nicki says
That’s great news! There’s hope I will get a reply soon then – thanks for sharing.
D Anderson says
Fingers crossed Nicki, let me know when you get a response
Nicki says
Finally got a reply yesterday! The usual ‘it didn’t process, send us your correct bank details and we’ll make payment within 2 months’ response. Fingers crossed they do and it’s sooner rather than later!
Lee says
I just received an email (after sending 4 to them over the last few weeks) saying they will resend with in 2 months. I hope its much sooner, that seems like a long time.
stewart says
hi all
had email saying 2nd attempt being made money should be in within 7 days
Nicki says
Fingers crossed 🤞
lee says
just had the same email. Hope its a lot sooner than 7 days fingers crossed
Nicki says
I don’t understand why I’m not getting these emails? I never got one on the 20th conforming how much I’m getting, but they’ve responded to my emails in the last couple of weeks confirming the second attempt?!
D Anderson says
Hi was just about to post I have received my email today saying payment process and should be in my acc in the next 7days fingers crossed least it’s done now, I really thought I wouldn’t end up getting it
gordon nilsson says
am getting in tonch with my mp as the said i donot have claim and now they saying i did not follow process now they saying that they did get email and as i prove that in nov 2019 and three other emails that year they gave me a customer claim number a am now so anger with them it sound like they are keep money to make more money !!!!
Nicki says
Did you fill out the form on the email they sent to submit your claim last year by the deadline?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Also send an email to howard.smith@kpmg.co.uk and ed.boyle@kpmg.co.uk explaining why you have been treated unfairly. Say you will be putting in a complaint to the ICAEW if your Claim is not paid out.
gordon nilsson says
thank you sara
gordon nilsson says
yes i did and the said they never hear of me so how is they gave me a customer cliam number!!!!
Neil says
Is anyone else still waiting on KPMG/ wageday advance to pay there money? I got an email on 30th June saying it had been issued after the first attempt went to an old bank account & usually payments clear into my bank within 2 days but it’s still not appeared by this morning. I note they also said if this payment failed they will not issue the money again & you lose the money so if they make a mistake with my details on this payment I lose the money, great eh? So anyone received the funds this week?
D Anderson says
Hi yes I am the same really worried now about not getting this at all
They have sent me an email 30th saying it’s been paid to the updated account and should be with me in 7days but nothing showing at all and BACs normally take 3days in my bank so worrried now
Lee says
I had the same email on the 30th saying the have now processed a further attempt of my dividend and should receive with in 7 days. I dont see why it should take that long tbh but there you go. I bet they make us wait the whole 7 days. They also said the same thing about not issuing again if this fails. Rest assured if it does fail for any reason i will be all over them
Nicki says
Nope nothing here and I didn’t get the email on the 30th either (nor the one on 20th May telling me how much I’ll get) ?! They did reply to me confirming first payment failed and I confirmed bank details (there was a digit wrong on their record) so they’ve been in contact. Not feeling overly optimistic!
Nicki says
I’ve just emailed them and had a quick reply! I mentioned the email from 30th June that I didn’t receive….
Thank you for your email.
We can confirm we will re-attempt to make your redress payment of £262.35.
As previously advised, we aim to make second payment attempt within 2 months using the bank details you have provided.
No mention of 7 days?! So confused…..
Lee Ling says
Its a all very confusing. I actually got an email on the 26th June saying they aim to pay with in 2 weeks. I then got an email on the 29th June saying 2 months, and then on the 1st July i got the email mentioned above saying with in 7 days. I don’t know what to believe.
stewart hodson says
my payment is showing as pending in my bank account
Lee Ling says
did you get the email earlier this week stating your payment was processed and be with within 7 days?
Lee Ling says
did you get your payment through in the end?
stewart hodson says
yes i did. i am with monzo so might get it today after 4 pm
Lee Ling says
well at least thats a good sign for us all then. I still have nothing showing in my account. I will inform if/when i get it
Lee Ling says
Anyone had anything yet?
Neil says
Nope, no sign of any payment in my accounts, looks like they gonna squeeze every last penny they can in interest before they pay it, if it doesnt get paid I wont be letting it go & hope everyone else in same position fights it too. Out of order treating people like this after being ripped off by payday companies then the accountants treat you just as bad. I gave them new bank details back in july & sept 2019 yet they still tried to pay it to old closed account.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
The administrators DONT MAKE ANY MONEY IN INTEREST from delays in sorting this out. the amounts of money are tiny and the cost of resolving the problems is massive by comparison with any possible interest earned.
Neil says
Maybe they dont but they’re not doing this for free they’ll be well paid for it & it doesn’t take away from fact I’ve given them new bank details numerous times since july last year & they still tried to pay into an old account & if for whatever reason the payment fails the 2nd time they say they wont pay it out again, these things are extremely frustrating when you have nothing
Lee Ling says
Agreed. I also gave new bank details with plenty of notice. Its the lack of communication that bothers me, and when you do hear from them its usually an automated response. 2 months, 2 weeks, 7 days….. different time scale every time I do get a reply. I expect the payment to be in on Monday based on their “with in 7 days” email i got earlier in the week.
D Anderson says
Hi all payment received this morning hope the same for you all
Nicki says
Nope, unfortunately still nothing here :-(
D Anderson says
Oh no 🙈 send the emails to the address that Sara put on fingers crossed
Nicki says
Has everyone else had theirs?
Neil says
Hi, I’ve received my payment, must’ve cleared overnight. Really didnt think it was going to happen but relieved it has. Now just the The Money Shop/ Payday UK to hear about, maybe get something from that this time next year!!!
David m says
Hi all
I got this email at the weekend, but I don’t understand if I’m due anything or not. Can someone plz help as WDA said that they paid it directly to motormile (lantern).
CURRENT OUTSTANDING BALANCE: £240.00
Dear David
This email is important – please read it carefully
You are being offered compensation
Why are we writing to you?
We are writing to you in connection with one of the loan accounts you hold with us. The loan was originally taken out by you with Wage Day Advance Limited (now known as CURO Transatlantic Limited) and your account was legally assigned to Motormile Finance UK Limited (which was our previous name
What does this mean for me?
The total redress due to you is £435.00
Your current CTL outstanding balance is £0.00
Your current total outstanding balance across all your Lantern accounts is £240.00
As your redress entitlement is greater than the value of your outstanding CTL loan balance owed to Lantern, your CTL loan with us has been written-off in full and closed.
Although your CTL loan has been written-off, you do still have other loans under reference number that remain outstanding with us and we would encourage you to contact us if you do not have a payment arrangement in place.
Any help would be great
Cheers Dave
Sara (Debt Camel) says
That is hard to understand.
Did you have a WDA balance that was sold to Lantern (aka Mototmile at that time?). Did you pay off that debt to lantern?
Do you agree lantern have other debts that you owe from different lenders
GRAHAM JESSUP says
I hear money shop are not paying out until April 2021 now i thought I would let everyone know
Adam says
Hi,
According to the administrators a payment was made to an account of mine at the end of May. But some time between the first email and the email confirming payment the last 4 digits of my bank account changed. Seem to be going round in circles as they have said I need to provide proof that the account isn’t mine which is impossible to do.
The money also hasn’t been returned by the bank where the money was sent. So no idea where to go next with this.
turtle says
KPMG issued me a redress of £14 in May despite me spending almost a year trying to argue this amount with them and they completely ignored me until now. 12 months later someone finally contacted me so I pushed for them to look at my case again which they have and now all loans have been agreed as unaffordable. This was an extra redress payment of £40 (would have been £700 more if wageday didn’t go bust) and now all loans are to be wiped from my credit reports instead of just 2.
KPMG had the cheek to deny me a compensation amount as they ignored me over 12 months , i am sure im not the only one they ignored.
Niall says
Hi Sara.
I didn’t realise the payments had been made o this. I never received one despite an email saying I would. Is there anything I can do at this stage?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
well you can ask them but I think it may be too late.
Hugo says
Hi Sarah it appears that my wage day loans are not deleted from my credit file. They have been deleted from equifax and Experian but it’s not deleted from. Credit karma is this a known issue or I don’t know . Thanks
Sara (Debt Camel) says
Do you know when they went from Experian and Equifax?
Steve w says
This is the same (removed from Experian and Equifax but not Transunion) for me any help/advice would be great!
Mark Prentice says
I never received any emails from Wageday & only found this thread yesterday. I am constantly being chased by Lantern. Is there nothing I can do about this now? I don’t even want compensation, just the debt gone. I know I stupidly took the loan but it was a bad point in my life where it was easy to get but ended up rolling payday loans over each month. I know I’m an idiot so please don’t remind me.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
sorry, it’s too late.
If you had payday loans for other lenders, look into reclaims now!
do you have a lot of other problem debt?
Mark Prentice says
Yeah, unfortunately but I am sorting the other stuff. It’s just the Payday loans that have cause me the most problems.
Sara (Debt Camel) says
this debt is just another debt. Albeit with a rather nasty debt collector. IF you have other debts in payment arrangements, putting them all into a debt management plan would get Lantern off your back.
Matt says
I never recieved any correspondence that Payday Uk and WageDay Advance were going into administration, the first i knew about an outstanding balance was via a letter today from Latern.
How best can i deal with this as these loans got mis-sold to me and there is no way to now make a claim?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
I suggest you take debt advice on how to deal with the current balance. There is no way of making claim about these.
Natasha Moran says
Jumping on a very old thread now I know, but is there anyone I can contact regarding old WDA loans still showing on my credit report that were accepted as unaffordable when I made a claim? I’m assuming they should have been removed but there’s at least 4 on my credit report still!
Sara (Debt Camel) says
You need to ask the Credit Reference Agencies – Experian, Equifax, TransUnion – to deal with this.
Suggested wording:
“The Wageday Advance administrators accepted that my loans were unaffordable and should have deleted these records. But [4] of them are still showing. I am asking for these to be deleted, or if you cannot get a reply from the administrators, that the records should be supressed.”
“Supressing” a record means it isn’t shown to other lenders.
Natasha Moran says
That’s great thanks so much will get onto this this weekend!
Chantal says
I was a bit late to this thread but after checking my credit file I can see that my Wageday Advance loans have all been removed from my credit file (surely meaning that they decided mine were some of the unaffordable loans mentioned above), however at no point have I been contacted about any redress? Did they wipe all files or should I still query why I wasn’t contacted?
Sara (Debt Camel) says
So far as I know, they only deleted credit records where they had decided the loans were unaffordable.
You would have been emailed about your right to submit a claim – it is possible this email went into you spam folder.
It is now too late to submit a claim.