payday loan problems - ask the ombudsman

financial_ombudsman_representative

kay159 wrote: »

Ive received a decision in my favour on a payday loan. The instructions are to repay all interest from a set date plus simple interest on the amounts
The company will not send a full statement showing the fees and charges and as such I dont know an exact figure to accept
I just wanted to check if this will include what the company termed @admin fees' for rollovers at £25 each and also the fees and charges added on default which amounted to an additional £400
I repaid under an arrangement and the company took £470 more than they should have over the next 3 years and held onto it for over a year before I asked for a balance and they admitted the error hence I would like to make sure what is offered is accurate
Any requests for statements are ignored yet I forwarded the Ombudsmans decision and received an immediate response by email stating they are now 'gathering evidence to submit'
Any advice would be helpful
Andrea

Hi Andrea

I'm glad to see that a decision has been made for you.

The questions that you're raising should be answered by the adjudicator that's been helping you. They should also be able to get statements or a summary of charges from the business for you. As well as a breakdown of the offer that's been made.

If you're having trouble getting in touch with your adjudicator, then you can send me a direct message on here with your reference number and I'll have a look into it for you and pass on your questions.

Kind regards
Sarah

Financial Ombudsman Representative
0300 123 9 123
[EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk[/EMAIL]

thaiguru76

Hi

I am in need of a little advice. I currently have 3 loans with Lending Stream and 3 loans with Sunny and unfortunately am unable to make the full payments. I have contacted them with regards a repayment plan.

I want to know if I will get into trouble as I unfortunately lied on my applications. I stated that I was self employed earning £1900 per month when in fact I am unemployed. I know I should not have done this but I am/ was an alcoholic and gambling addict. I have now stopped my gambling and am still working on the alcoholism. I am just worried they could take legal action if they find out.

I also read on here that it is irresponsible lending to give me 3 loans at the same time. I have also been constantly paying off and taking out new loans with both of them due to gambling (winning/losing). Should I be looking into this or should I just keep quiet and accept a repayment plan so that they don't realise that I lied on the application.

Sunny have asked me to fill in an income and expenditure form and have froze my account for 30 days (this was 2 weeks ago) and Lending Stream have also sent me an income and expenditure form but they are also asking for Proof of JSA/ Termination of Employment which is what worries me. Lending Stream are still adding interest at this time.

Thanks in advance for your help.

financial_ombudsman_representative

thaiguru76 wrote: »

Hi

I am in need of a little advice. I currently have 3 loans with Lending Stream and 3 loans with Sunny and unfortunately am unable to make the full payments. I have contacted them with regards a repayment plan.

I want to know if I will get into trouble as I unfortunately lied on my applications. I stated that I was self employed earning £1900 per month when in fact I am unemployed. I know I should not have done this but I am/ was an alcoholic and gambling addict. I have now stopped my gambling and am still working on the alcoholism. I am just worried they could take legal action if they find out.

I also read on here that it is irresponsible lending to give me 3 loans at the same time. I have also been constantly paying off and taking out new loans with both of them due to gambling (winning/losing). Should I be looking into this or should I just keep quiet and accept a repayment plan so that they don't realise that I lied on the application.

Sunny have asked me to fill in an income and expenditure form and have froze my account for 30 days (this was 2 weeks ago) and Lending Stream have also sent me an income and expenditure form but they are also asking for Proof of JSA/ Termination of Employment which is what worries me. Lending Stream are still adding interest at this time.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi Thaiguru76

Sorry to hear about the tough time you’ve been having. It’s good to see that you’re trying to take control of things.

There’s nothing to say that taking three loans at once is irresponsible lending. It really depends on your individual circumstances and what you told them you could afford.

Don’t be worried, you’ve done the right thing by getting in touch with Sunny and Lending Stream. It’s unlikely that they’ll take legal action if you’re willing to pay them back what you can afford. They’re probably asking for proof of your JSA to find out how much you can afford to pay each month. We’d hope they’d use this to arrange an affordable repayment plan.

There are some organisations out there who can offer some practical help. Money Advice Service can give you hints and tips as well as advice on what to expect in this type of situation. StepChange could help you set up a repayment plan, which could cover all the lenders you owe money to.

I hope you manage to sort things out. If you’ve got more questions, or want to talk about this more, our contact details are below.

Kind regards
Ross

Financial Ombudsman Representative
0300 123 9 123
[EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk[/EMAIL]

Pete_Star

Hello,

Could I please ask for some advice?

Having gone through all the figures recently, I believe I may have a case against Wonga for allowing me to take out, practically every month (sometimes twice in a month), 17 different loans with a total of about 12 roll overs over 2.5 years (2010 to 2012). This was combined with a lot of other borrowing at the time and I believe that the fact that my borrowing was continuous and increasing month on month should have raised some red flags on their system. I did eventually manage, by working all hours and living off very little, to get out of this cycle and paid the Wonga loan off without any defaults or payment plans.

The perhaps unusual thing though, is that in 2013 I wrote to Wonga to ask them if they would consider removing the loans from my credit record as I was worried that they would prevent me from getting a mortgage in the future. To be fair, they did exactly that, and removed all the loans from the CRAs.

My worry is that if I raise a complaint with them now about these loans, that if they disagree with me about their affordability, they might decide to put the loans back on my credit record ... do you know if this is even possible?! I'm wondering if I should just be thankful that they're not on my record any more!

Thanks so much.

financial_ombudsman_representative

Pete_Star wrote: »

Hello,

Could I please ask for some advice?

Having gone through all the figures recently, I believe I may have a case against Wonga for allowing me to take out, practically every month (sometimes twice in a month), 17 different loans with a total of about 12 roll overs over 2.5 years (2010 to 2012). This was combined with a lot of other borrowing at the time and I believe that the fact that my borrowing was continuous and increasing month on month should have raised some red flags on their system. I did eventually manage, by working all hours and living off very little, to get out of this cycle and paid the Wonga loan off without any defaults or payment plans.

The perhaps unusual thing though, is that in 2013 I wrote to Wonga to ask them if they would consider removing the loans from my credit record as I was worried that they would prevent me from getting a mortgage in the future. To be fair, they did exactly that, and removed all the loans from the CRAs.

My worry is that if I raise a complaint with them now about these loans, that if they disagree with me about their affordability, they might decide to put the loans back on my credit record ... do you know if this is even possible?! I'm wondering if I should just be thankful that they're not on my record any more!

Thanks so much.

Hi Pete_Star

It's good to see that you've managed to get yourself back on track.

It would be unusual for a lender to re-add something on to a credit file once they'd already agreed to remove it. But a credit file should be an accurate reflection of the truth, so it might be appropriate for them to be on there. But that depends on whether you should've had them in the first place.

If you want to make a complaint about the amount of loans you were given, you can get in touch with Wonga directly. If you're unhappy with what they say, we can look into it independently.

If you want to chat about this some more, our contact details are below.

Kind regards
Sarah

Financial Ombudsman Representative
0300 123 9 123
[EMAIL="complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk"]complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk[/EMAIL]

MWAUGH1983

Sadly in my experience the ombudsman are there to ring fence the interests of the company. I had a settlement offer from a payday lender and they only agreed to repay interest on 2 loans which didnt have problems - they ignored the loans which did have problems. Sadly adjudicator wasnt interested in raising this with them. Therefore no settlement should have been entertain by ombudsman if they weren't willing to query it with them.

MWAUGH1983

Pete_Star wrote: »

Hello,

Could I please ask for some advice?

Having gone through all the figures recently, I believe I may have a case against Wonga for allowing me to take out, practically every month (sometimes twice in a month), 17 different loans with a total of about 12 roll overs over 2.5 years (2010 to 2012). This was combined with a lot of other borrowing at the time and I believe that the fact that my borrowing was continuous and increasing month on month should have raised some red flags on their system. I did eventually manage, by working all hours and living off very little, to get out of this cycle and paid the Wonga loan off without any defaults or payment plans.

The perhaps unusual thing though, is that in 2013 I wrote to Wonga to ask them if they would consider removing the loans from my credit record as I was worried that they would prevent me from getting a mortgage in the future. To be fair, they did exactly that, and removed all the loans from the CRAs.

My worry is that if I raise a complaint with them now about these loans, that if they disagree with me about their affordability, they might decide to put the loans back on my credit record ... do you know if this is even possible?! I'm wondering if I should just be thankful that they're not on my record any more!

Thanks so much.

Careful, wonga will more than likely offer settlement but not what you want and the ombudsman will drag their feet.

redpete

Pete_Star wrote: »

The perhaps unusual thing though, is that in 2013 I wrote to Wonga to ask them if they would consider removing the loans from my credit record as I was worried that they would prevent me from getting a mortgage in the future. To be fair, they did exactly that, and removed all the loans from the CRAs.

I'm amazed that they would remove factual records of financial history from someone's credit record. This information is relied on to give a view of someone's credit history so other lenders can make a judgement on their suitability. You are saying that Wonga should have denied you credit due to your previous history yet you are denying other lenders the opportunity to make that same decision.

Pete_Star

redpete wrote: »

I'm amazed that they would remove factual records of financial history from someone's credit record. This information is relied on to give a view of someone's credit history so other lenders can make a judgement on their suitability. You are saying that Wonga should have denied you credit due to your previous history yet you are denying other lenders the opportunity to make that same decision.

I appreciate your point. The background is that I was going through a relationship breakup where I ended up having to pay off debt run up by my ex-partner, which contributed to me getting the Wonga loan in the first place.
I managed to pay everything off after a lot of hard work and in fact I have not applied for any credit since (except for a mobile phone contract, and I'm still renting). My reasoning in asking for the loans to be removed was that even though I had paid them off and not defaulted, it was sounding more and more at the time (and even more so now) that having paid off payday loans on your credit record was not looked at in the same way as other sorts of paid off loans. And as I felt that it wasn't entirely my fault that I had to take them out in the first place, and I certainly was never going to again, I didn't think it should affect a future mortgage application I might make in years to come.
Perhaps my logic is wrong there, I don't know. I realise I was very lucky to have them removed. And I think I won't take it any further with Wonga just in case my luck runs out.
Cheers.

Chepea91

Hi,

My husband has taken payday loans out in the past when we were in severe financial difficulties to help get us through the month but this just lead us into more and more financial hardship, having to borrow more each month. He should never have been accepted in the first place.

We recently complained to this company and they eventually came back with a decision for us on the very last hour of the last day of the 8 weeks and we accepted (still being pretty desperate for money) Then sent the payment 3 days later having to keep ringing everyday to get them to pay the interest and charges back.

Since accepting the offer we have realised that they havent actually paid back all of our interest or charges as we were told but only some of them.

As we accepted the offer where do we stand do we have to just leave it there or can we take it to the ombudsman? We feel really silly and should have checked before accepting but we just really needed the money.

Thanks in advance.