Student loans and pensions

Ruffles1209

Hi everyone,

I have been looking through this thread as I was caught in a similar trap between 2012 and 2013. Thank you for all sharing your stories and experiences.

Horrendously, I had payday loans with 8 different companies at the same time between 2012 and 2013. I!!!8217;m not even all the way through analysing everything, but so far I can see that I have paid £6.5k interest on £8k of loans, with many rollovers and definite borrowing from other companies to meet minimum repayments. I feel like a complete idiot.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had trouble keeping track of company names on their statements to work out loan repayments? I took a loan out from MEM finance, but can!!!8217;t see any repayments to the same name company - I think PDUK might have been the repayments for this one. Similarly, I took a loan out from Ocean Finance, but can!!!8217;t find repayments in the same name. I think this might be 1MonthLoan.

Just wondered if anyone else had the same experience and has some advice or can confirm?

Thanks in advance.

Ruffles1209

Hi,

I would really like some advice about a response I!!!8217;ve had from Mr Lender.

I complained about two payday loans, one in 2012 and one in 2016. I took the 2012 loan out in order to meet repayments on 7 other payday loans I had at the time. Loan was £233, interest paid on it was £411. The 2016 loan I took out when I was struggling, had missed payments on my credit file and at least one default. Loan was £400, interest paid was £201.20.

Mr Lender have rejected my claim. They state that credit checks conducted at point of 2012 application !!!8220;indicated that you were a credit worthy customer, permitting you to use our rollover service!!!8221; and that I settled these loans without requiring any help or support, which indicated my ability to pay.

They also stated that affordability checks at time of 2016 loan show that highest instalment was not more than 31% if disposable income and that my records did not indicate financial difficulty (wrong).

They say they do not believe they acted irresponsibly in lending to me. But I have a current loan with them, so they have said:

!!!8220;... as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to reduce your outstanding balance to the remaining capital amount borrowed, payable using an affordable payment plan...
Further to this once you have settled in full, we will remove any adverse information from your credit file.!!!8221;

Does this seem like something I should counter or take to the Ombudsman? It feels like an attempt to pay me off cheaply.

amghappy

Hi, I've written to my payday lenders and all have provided a SOA. Now I want to put in a formal complaint, has anyone got a template they could possibly share?
Lending Stream have come back requesting that I send a £10 check as it falls under the purview of SAR which I've already disputed with them.
Any help greatfully received.

Ruffles1209

amghappy wrote: »

Hi, I've written to my payday lenders and all have provided a SOA. Now I want to put in a formal complaint, has anyone got a template they could possibly share?
Lending Stream have come back requesting that I send a £10 check as it falls under the purview of SAR which I've already disputed with them.
Any help greatfully received.

Hi amghappy,

I’ve found the Debt Camel website really useful for this - good templates to use for complaints. From everything I have read on there, it is not necessary to send money for your SOA, so well done for disputing this with Lending Stream. Sadly I think it’s a common delaying tactic they use.

carlos1973

Has anyone got a template or spreadsheet for calculating the 8% compounded interest on any claims? I seem to recall one from a few years back when I put in a claim for bank charges.

System

Ruffles1209 wrote: »

Hi,

I would really like some advice about a response I!!!8217;ve had from Mr Lender.

I complained about two payday loans, one in 2012 and one in 2016. I took the 2012 loan out in order to meet repayments on 7 other payday loans I had at the time. Loan was £233, interest paid on it was £411. The 2016 loan I took out when I was struggling, had missed payments on my credit file and at least one default. Loan was £400, interest paid was £201.20.

Mr Lender have rejected my claim. They state that credit checks conducted at point of 2012 application !!!8220;indicated that you were a credit worthy customer, permitting you to use our rollover service!!!8221; and that I settled these loans without requiring any help or support, which indicated my ability to pay.

They also stated that affordability checks at time of 2016 loan show that highest instalment was not more than 31% if disposable income and that my records did not indicate financial difficulty (wrong).

They say they do not believe they acted irresponsibly in lending to me. But I have a current loan with them, so they have said:

!!!8220;... as a gesture of goodwill we would be willing to reduce your outstanding balance to the remaining capital amount borrowed, payable using an affordable payment plan...
Further to this once you have settled in full, we will remove any adverse information from your credit file.!!!8221;

Does this seem like something I should counter or take to the Ombudsman? It feels like an attempt to pay me off cheaply.

To me it sounds like a hard one because it’s harder to prove unaffordability if you have had only a few loans with them. You have two options. Accept their offer or decline and take to the financial ombudsman. As far as I’m aware they don’t take the first few loans into consideration for refunds so might be a good offer depending on how much you owe them? Have you read debt camels advice?

I am in no way an expert but we have just put 3 claims in to pay day companies for my husband. He had 16 loans with quick quid, 10 ish with Wonga and only 2 with Sunny. I think we have a good case with the first two but not sure Sunny will do anything. Good luck!

Ruffles1209

Anniee88 wrote: »

To me it sounds like a hard one because it’s harder to prove unaffordability if you have had only a few loans with them. You have two options. Accept their offer or decline and take to the financial ombudsman. As far as I’m aware they don’t take the first few loans into consideration for refunds so might be a good offer depending on how much you owe them? Have you read debt camels advice?

I am in no way an expert but we have just put 3 claims in to pay day companies for my husband. He had 16 loans with quick quid, 10 ish with Wonga and only 2 with Sunny. I think we have a good case with the first two but not sure Sunny will do anything. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice Anniee88, much appreciated. I have spoken to Debt Camel after looking at all the info on here, and they advised me to go back with a counter offer before taking to the Ombudsman. I rolled over the first loan at least 5 times, which is an indicator that I could not afford it. So fingers crossed!

I also have claims going to Wonga (9), Pounds to Pocket (2), Quick Quid (2) PDUK (2) and 1 Month Loan (2) - all of these were taken around the same time! I have heard Sunny are one of the most difficult to deal with, but definitely keep trying. I have my fingers crossed for you! It’s helpful to hear that other people have experienced this - not the debt/stress/general misery of course; more that I’m not alone in having been caught in this trap. It’s freeing to know that although I definitely made some very stupid financial decisions, there was an element of being taken advantage of by these companies too.

System

Glad you!!!8217;ve got some good advice, hope they take your counter offer!
Let us know how you get on.

Yeah definitely you!!!8217;re not alone, I didn!!!8217;t realise how many people were affected by this until I did some reading and saw the sort of profit these companies make and so many people ok this thread that have fallen into the same trap.

jack_1992

Wow, thats all I can say.

My adjudicator got back to me this morning and QuickQuid have accepted their recommendation and are willing to refund all interest and charges plus the 8% interest coming in at £1550.

Adding together the refunds from Wonga, Sunny and now QuickQuid, it comes to around £4045!! :eek:

My journey with all my payday loans is now done. Stupid move from me as a naive 18 year old yes, however I should never have been given any of these loans.

What a journey, 9 months from originally complaining about these companies.
The money has and will do me wonders in getting a better life, paying down some debts and going towards my wedding.

Keep going for those waiting, you will get there, and I cannot believe the amount I have got back, it is sickening really.

Let me know if anyone has any questions about dealing with the whole process or these companies in particular.

Mat176

Hi

I’m thinking of starting a claim with at least 10 different payday lenders...

Just wanted to know how far back I can claim as have payday loans from 2005 with the money shop? Also up to what year, as had a few in the last year or so?

Many thanks