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More payday refunds – should you get one? In 2014 Wonga refunded and wrote off millions of pounds on loans it should never have given. Last week another payday lender, Sunny, sent a letter to some borrowers saying it was going to refund them. In January 2015 I suggested that many more payday borrowers could get compensation because the loans they were given were “unaffordable”, so I wasn’t surprised at Sunny’s decision. If you had a payday loan from a different lender, or you borrowed from Sunny but haven’t had a refund offer, you should consider complaining and asking for a refund. *** update April 2o16: There are now hundreds of comments on How to ask for a payday loan refund from people who are using the template letters there to ask for refunds of interest and charges on payday loans which they have repaid, from all the major lenders including Wonga, Sunny, Payday UK, MyJar, Uncle Buck, Mr Lender, Lending Stream, Wage Day Advance, Peachey, the Money Shop etc. Many of these complaints are being upheld by the Ombudsman.
Sunny payday loan refunds Sunny say they have made changes to how they “consider and use data in respect of income and expenditure”. In other words, Sunny have been offering loans to some people who simply wouldn’t be able to repay them, because they didn’t have enough spare income each month. This is the “affordability” issue – the reason why Wonga was made to refund millions to its borrowers last year. Sunny are writing off the balances of some customers and refunding interest that has been paid on these loans. Why are they doing this? They say they are a responsible lender… but you could take a more cynical view that Sunny are hoping to carry on in business as a payday lender, so they are trying to correct their previous mistakes because they are worried about what the Financial Conduct Authority, their regulator will say.
Should you get a refund? There are two reasons why you could reasonably ask for a refund from a payday lender: did the lender make proper checks to ensure you would be able to repay the loan? If you were repeatedly rolling over a loan, borrowing a lot in relation to your income or had a poor credit record, these are all warning flags and the lender should have refused a loan as it wasn’t “affordable”; if you contacted the lender to say you were having problems repaying, did they treat you fairly? Did they suggest that you should take debt advice, or did they pressure to borrow more, or pay more than you could afford? If either of these points applies to your loans, you have a good case for asking for a refund. Many people will find that both apply!
Does it matter if the loan was repaid? No. Just because you managed to repay what you borrowed doesn’t make that a good loan. Many people felt the only way to escape from the late charges being added was to take out a new loan from a different lender and repay the first; other people got into arrears with council tax or utility bills to repay a payday loan. In December 2014 there was a Financial Ombudsman ruling in favour of a Wonga customer getting a refund even though his loan had been repaid.
The regulator says you should complain! In March 2015 the FCA, the regulator for payday lenders, published a new report “Payday lenders failing customers in arrears” This concluded that: “The FCA found serious non-compliance and unfair practices in all firms [my bold] that it reviewed, leading to poor outcomes for many customers and in some cases, serious detriment and financial loss.” The FCA is encouraging borrowers who got into financial difficulties but who were not treated fairly by the lender to complain to the lender and then to the Financial Ombusdman. See this article by Linda Woodall, Director of Mortgages and Consumer Lending at the FCA, for details – it has useful checklists of things your payday lender SHOULD and SHOULD NOT have done if you had trouble in repaying your loan.
How to ask for a refund For more details about this, the points you could put in your letters and sample letters you could use as a starting point, see the main payday loan refund article How to ask for a payday loan refund. That is also the best place to ask any questions. More Debt Camel articles:
What if you are refused a payday loan?
Do you qualify for a Debt Relief Order?
Payday loans “my dirty secret”
June 19, 2015 Tagged With: News/Policy, Payday loans
Comments Jon says August 13, 2015 at 12:17 am I complained to sunny after reading this article have been offered a refund and outstanding balance written off
Sara (Debt Camel) says August 13, 2015 at 7:51 am Hi Jon, great! Thanks for posting this – very encouraging for other people.
L says August 15, 2015 at 5:34 am I have just received a cheque for £67.45 from Cash Genie for a payday loan I had over a year ago! Happy happy ?.
Mark says October 12, 2015 at 9:04 am Sunny have started sending letters to borrowers with the subject of default letters clearly visible in the envelope window. They claim it was a mistake but I have two the same. Upon complaining they offer a poxy £75 compensation and then refuse to reply to any more of my correspondence.
Sara (Debt Camel) says October 12, 2015 at 9:25 am Hi Mark, I suspect this probably was a mistake, they have little to gain from this and a lot to lose with a cross regulator. I suggest pocketing the £75. If you have other complaints that they are not replying to (perhaps they gave you an unaffordable loan?) then pursue those though and go to the Financial Ombudsman if they ignore / don’t adequately deal with them.
Maxine says October 27, 2015 at 10:09 am Thanks ive sent 15 emails to various companies i had 6 running at a time and i dont know how managed i didnt realise id gone with so money companies within 2 years i have another 4 to send fingers crossed
christine says November 23, 2015 at 10:24 am Just a quick question I have had a dozen pay day loans from quick quid over a couple of years I have paid these could I still send them a letter?
Sara (Debt Camel) says November 23, 2015 at 10:51 am Hi Christine, definitely! Here is one reader’s story who got a refund from QuickQuid to encouarge you: https://debtcamel.co.uk/quickquid-payday-ombudsman/
Matt Fitzmaurice says February 7, 2016 at 11:27 am Ive had a final response from PDUK rejecting my claim, let me explain what a joke this is. Firstly the say i passed all credit checks ( however 3 months previous to that they rejected me and my credit wasnt getting better! ) I have that email which will be sent to FOS. 1st loan they tell me was for £100 and i deferred it initially and as there letter says, you deferred it a further 2 times before paying in full ( so basically i deferred my 1st loan 3 times ) so i re loaned straight away and they sayi settled 3 loans and ‘elected’ to defer on four occasions. ( completely affordable obviously ;-) ) i have saved emails from them and i have 6 where they emailed me as my payment was late ) my loan offer went from £100 to £300 and a late payment and deferral later they offered me £560 which is remained unpaid. They have said that upon ‘investigation’the final loan provided was not affordable and in light of these astonishing findings that they have so kindly offered to reduce the outstanding balance of £1140 to £344, as thatoffer represents the removal of all interest and charges applied for all loans i had with PDUK altho the decision has upheld only with regard to the final loan as a gesture of goodwill. They have even said i can set up a payment plan ( so kind ) HOWEVER, that default on my credit file was removed on the 24th December as i had an alert, I asked them about this weeks before my final response and was told it was nothing to do with my complaint as it was part of the redress ( ive had no communication from them about this ) Anyway the default has gone so that loan doesnt exist?? but this letter wants me to pay it??!!! Im straight on to FOS with this and i really think that i could get the difference between the £1140 and £344 they mentioned so £796…because ive read alot on here and i really cant see the FOS agreeing with their letter especially with the evidence i have. Eeeeerrmmm well i hope not after all this! What do you think?
Sana says March 31, 2016 at 1:07 am I want to claim a refund from sunny loans as I have three loans open with them and I cannot afford to pay them Back as my work has cut my hours down. I don’t know if Sunny will refund me anything?? Does anyone have their email address to contact them on? Thanks! :)
Sara (Debt Camel) says March 31, 2016 at 7:57 am Hi Skana, template letters are here: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/ and lenders’ email address are here https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-lender-email-addresses/. Please note that these complaints are about affordability of the loans when you took them out. The lender couldn’t guess that you might later have your hours cut. You may well have a good affordability complaint (3 loans open at the same time sounds like a warning signal!) but I just wanted to make sure you realise you need to focus on why the loan shouldn’t have been given. If you have other debts (most people with payday loans do) then I suggest you talk to StepChange https://www.stepchange.org/ about a debt management plan which would also include these payday loans. That would get the interest frozen. You can still make a complaint about affordability, but that can take months to resolve. A DMP with StepChange can make your overall financial situation easier straight away – if you aren’t sure, it’s well worth a call to them to discuss your options..
Gillian says May 4, 2016 at 5:09 pm Hi, I have just received a refund from Payday Express which has just arrived without me doing anything. I have had Sunny loans in the past will the same thing happen in regards to them?
Sara (Debt Camel) says May 4, 2016 at 9:55 pm Hi Gillian, no I think it’s only Wonga and Payday UK/Express sending these out at the moment. This refund will relate to a specific loan / problem. If you borrowed several times or more from them, you may be able to get much more money back… Read this article and see if you think you were given “unaffordable” loans.
Mark says May 7, 2016 at 11:44 am I have complained to wage day advance about a loan which was rolled over 3 times whilst I had 6 more loans going. They sent a reply a few later to say they can’t give a decision yet due to still checking their records. They promise a final response in 4 weeks. Has anyone had any news about them? It was in 2012
Declan says September 8, 2016 at 10:45 am Hi, I have complained to the ombudsman about Sunny Payday loans and they have agreed I should be refunded. They wrote to the company how this should be put right and set a date to reply by. However, almost two weeks has passed from said date and they still have not responded. Any advice on how to proceed? Thanks
Ross says September 22, 2016 at 11:46 pm I think they have an 8 week period in which they have to acknowledge you mate!
Steve p says February 13, 2017 at 5:21 pm I had 21 payday loans from Sunny starting April 2014 and the last was December 2016, the principal amounts added upto £5200, I’m not sure how much interest I paid, I also had loans with Wonga, quick quid and lending stream running concurrently with Sunny loans at various points, I never made a late payment or had any arrears, but was basically taking out more loans to service the ones I had, how likely am I to receive a refund.
Sara (Debt Camel) says February 13, 2017 at 5:44 pm Hi Steve, have you seen the main article about refunds: https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/ ? The sheer numkber of loans from Sunny suggests that they should have considered whether the loans were really affordable for you. For the other lenders, it will depend how often and how much you borrowed, and what they could tell for example from your credit record about your other borrowing.
sarah l says February 14, 2017 at 7:17 pm Does anyone know how long wageday advance normally take to issue refund once they have your bank details??
ricky b says March 26, 2017 at 11:45 am I Have my statement of account. from wageday advance. would this be considered for a refund? 08/04/2010 142334 Loan 150.00 – 150.00 08/04/2010 142334 Initial Interest 37.50 – 187.50 30/04/2010 142334 Payment – -187.50 – 04/05/2010 149856 Loan 230.00 – 230.00 04/05/2010 149856 Initial Interest 57.50 – 287.50 28/05/2010 149856 Deferral Interest 57.50 – 345.00 28/05/2010 149856 Deferral – -57.50 287.50 30/06/2010 149856 Payment – -287.50 – 01/07/2010 170012 Loan 310.00 – 310.00 01/07/2010 170012 Initial Interest 77.50 – 387.50 30/07/2010 170012 Deferral Interest 77.50 – 465.00 30/07/2010 170012 Deferral – -77.50 387.50 31/08/2010 170012 Deferral Interest 77.50 – 465.00 31/08/2010 170012 Deferral – -77.50 387.50 30/09/2010 170012 Payment – -387.50 – 01/10/2010 202635 Loan 390.00 – 390.00 01/10/2010 202635 Initial Interest 97.50 – 487.50 29/10/2010 202635 Payment – -487.50 – 02/11/2010 218800 Loan 400.00 – 400.00 02/11/2010 218800 Initial Interest 100.00 – 500.00 30/11/2010 218800 Deferral Interest 100.00 – 600.00 30/11/2010 218800 Deferral – -100.00 500.00 31/12/2010 218800 Payment – -500.00 – 04/01/2011 250926 Loan 400.00 – 400.00 04/01/2011 250926 Initial Interest 100.00 – 500.00 31/01/2011 250926 Payment – -500.00 – 01/02/2011 268817 Loan 400.00 – 400.00 01/02/2011 268817 Initial Interest 100.00 – 500.00 28/02/2011 268817 Deferral Interest 100.00 – 600.00 28/02/2011 268817 Deferral – -100.00 500.00 31/03/2011 268817 Deferral Interest 100.00 – 600.00 31/03/2011 268817 Deferral – -100.00 500.00 28/04/2011 268817 Deferral Interest 100.00 – 600.00 28/04/2011 268817 Deferral – -100.00 500.00 31/05/2011 268817 Payment – -70.00 430.00 01/06/2011 268817 Payment – -430.00 – 01/06/2011 358452 Loan 400.00 – 400.00 01/06/2011 358452 Initial Interest 100.00 – 500.00 30/06/2011 358452 Deferral Interest 100.00 – 600.00 30/06/2011 358452 Deferral – -100.00 500.00 29/07/2011 358452 Default Charge 12.00 – 512.00 29/07/2011 358452 Daily Interest and Charges 174.37 – 686.37 12/08/2011 358452 Payment – -20.00 666.37 25/08/2011 358452 Payment – -10.00 656.37 07/09/2011 358452 Payment – -10.00 646.37
Sara (Debt Camel) says March 26, 2017 at 9:50 pm It looks like you were either deferring or repaying then borrowing again for this whole period. And the amounts were going up. Yes, that looks like a good claim! Expect WDA to reject it as most of the loans are over 6 years old – but ignore this and send it to the ombudsman who is looking at the older loans.
Leah says April 28, 2017 at 1:17 pm Hi everyone I have been stuck in a cycle of payday loans since about 2008, over the years I have taken well over £20,000 in payday loans, having to borrow to pay them back over and over each month. I have contacted them all asking for a Statement of Account and made them aware that I am complaining about unaffordable loans, I will take it to the Ombudsman after 8 weeks. My query here is I took out many loans with a company called Money in Advance which are no longer trading, what do I do about them? Any advice much appreciated.
Sara (Debt Camel) says April 28, 2017 at 2:58 pm Money in Advance hasn’t traded for several years and the company was dissolved in April 2016. There is unlikely to be anything you can do, but if you had a lot of loans, you could talk to the Financial Ombudsman about this.
Claire says May 23, 2017 at 6:32 pm Hi I have asked for statement of accounts from quick quids and wage day advance and I haven’t heard a thing, I had a check on my wage day advance account and everytime I log in it takes me straight to an information page, Is this normal and how long do you give company’s to contact you back.
Jenny says May 29, 2017 at 1:40 pm Claire, Same happened to my Accounts on WDA and PDUK. After lodging my Complaint with them both 2 weeks ago, i now can’t seem to log in anymore to keep check on those Accounts. I have not missed a payment yet. They are still on my Credit File as of yet, so i’m not sure what is happening there. Jenny
Bee jones says October 31, 2017 at 1:16 pm I made a complaint to MYJAR they dismissed it but the obudsman were contacted and then then offered a refund. I signed the acceptance letter two weeks ago but I’m still waiting for the refund? I also made a complaint to sunny, but it has been over 8 weeks now that I complained, and I haven’t heard back from them even after I sent emails chasing. Shall I go straight to the obudsman?
Sara (Debt Camel) says October 31, 2017 at 1:27 pm Have you phoned Myjar? They are normally pretty fast to respond. Ditto Sunny – I suggest calling them and pointing their 8 weeks is up. You have commented on rather an old article – the best place to comment is https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/ as more people will see it. I am going to turn off comments for this post.
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