I have put forth my complaint to the FoS, not satisfied with their response, will keep you all posted! It's quite a struggle!

Hello all, Cash Converters came back to me (they had said they had posted a letter to my home address even though I had asked to correspond via email) with their response, which I'm a bit perplexed about. I think it's going to be a bit tougher especially because I had a personal loan with them (150% interest mind you) in which I paid about 600£ in interest over the period of how long I had it for and they are not going to refund the interst on this one. Having calculated the interest paid for the personal loan and the payday loan - they have offered me 316£ (341 including interest) even though I took out loans 8 loans. Should I be content with that? They are willing to refund me the interest for the loans given to me in the month's 04,05,06 Payday loans: 11/2012 - 200 12/2012 - 200 02/2013 - 240 03/2013 - 280 04/2013 - 280 05/2013 - 325 06/2013 - 329 07/2013 - 400 I had multiple payday loans with different companies all at the same time, the bank statements say it all... Any advice would be most appreciated!

Just an update on this one - SpeedyCash came back to me and will be paying me £400 (plus 100ish interest) which will be getting transferred today. Bonga loans & 1st Stop are with the FoS right now, will take about 12 weeks to get a final response.

Hey Fkofile, Just wanted to give you an update on all of this (thanks for the links, very useful). I read them and it filled with a bit of self-confidence that I could take on these giants. I have received statements of accounts from Wonga, Cash 4 U Now, Speedy Cash, Cash Converters, Bonga Loans and Early Pay Day loan. All of these I have put complaints. I think the best way, in order not to lose track would be to put it all in a spreadsheet, when did you raise the request for a Statement of Accounts, when did you receive one? When did you complain? How long do they have to respond before escalating. Yet to get one from PDUK, they are asking for 1£ to give me the statements, so I refused and went straight into a Complaint. I have enough evidence from my bank statements if need be and the FoS will be able to access that information. They were taking forever to come back to me. It's quite exhausting though, a lot of time and effort involved but fingers crossed...

Well, Bonga and Dosh Express don't seem to exist anymore - tried calling them and the phones were dead... any advice what I should do with these?

Hi Fkofilee, Thank you for getting back to me. I have been reading a lot of your messages and they continue to be very insightful and useful for me and all of us here! 1) Gambling Involved? Yes - my bank statements are filled with random gambling sites, like Mansion, Casino, William Hill. Some quite large transactions all done consecutively (if you're chasing losses, this is quite painful to review!) 2) Issues with other payday loan companies - yes. From April up to September 2013 I had pay day loans with approximately 13 different pay day loan lenders. I can't really go through all my statements to see what was coming in as I'm unable to track the loans that I took out in the stores as I would just deposit them as cash. But to give an overview of the worst months: This is all what I had to pay back. I am waiting for my statement of accounts to see what was sent to my account. Overall, I have paid 22421 back. I wish I could calculate how much much I borrowed but they are taking forever to get the statement of accounts back! 1st Stop Home Loan: Paid back -2643 Bonga Loans: -2160 Cash4UNow: -450 Cash Converters (both loan and PDL): -5800 Dosh Express - 995 Early PayDay Loan - 675 Micro-Lend: -609 Moneyshop - 1184 Speedycash: -700 UncleBuck: -344 Wageme: -319 Wonga: -1900 Wizzcash: -1220 08 November 2012 - 07 December 2012 -260 Dosh Express -259 PDUK -260 Cash Converters (in shop) -318 1st Stop Home Loan 08 December 2012 - 07 January 2013 -260 Cash Converters -70 1st Stop Home Loan (installment) -260 Dosh Express -90 PD UK (rolled over) 08 January 2013 - 07 February 2013 -180 MoneyShop -75 Dosh Express (rolled over) -80 1st Stop Home Loan (installment) -90 PD UK (rolled over) 08 February 2013 - 07 March 2013 -250 Moneyshop -93 PD UK (rolled over) -75 Dosh Express (rolled over) -312 Cash Converters 07-March 2013 - 07 April 2013 -276 Cash Converters (loan at 150%) -90 Moneyshop (rolled over) -93 PDUK (rolled over) -96 1st Stop Home Loan (installment) -364 Cash Converters -325 Dosh Express 06 April 2013 - 07 May 2013 -119 Wonga -207 Wizzcash -101 Speedy Cash -90 PD UK (rolled over) -89 Wizzcash -100 Moneyshop (rolled over?) -105 Microlend -233 Wonga -276 Cash Converters (loan at 150%) -364 Cash Converters -381 - 1st Stop 08 May - 07 June -140 Wizzcash (instalment?) -87 Microlend -88 Moneyshop (rolled over) -90 PD UK (rolled over) -130 Wizzcash -101 Speedycash -237 1st Sop Home Loan -237 Cash Converters personal loan -333 Cash Converters -422 Cash Converters top of personal loan -40 Early Pay day loan -69 x 2 (Wageme) -154 Wonga -196 Wizzcash 08 June - 05 Jul -101 Speedycash -40 EPDL -240 Bonga loans -30 Cash4unow -33 UncleBuck -39 Micolend -86 Moneyship -90 PDUK -158 Wonga -172 Wizzcash -237 1st Stop Homeloan -333 Cashconverters -427.70 Cash Converters -111.20 Wageme 06-Jul - 15-Jul -286 Wizzcash -596 Wonga 15 Jul - 14 Aug (when I got personal loan from Nationwide) -240 Bonga -100 Rollover somewhere -91 Unclebuck -139 Wageme -185 1st Stop Home -195 Microlend -333 / 520 Cash Converters -366 PDUK -130 C4uNow -317 Wonga -200 EPDL -500 SpeedyCash -1008 Cash Converters -323 Wonga 15 Aug - 13 Sep -240 Bonga -150 PDUK -263 1st Stop Home 13 Sep - 13 Oct -44 WDA -130 C4UNOW -150 UncleBuck -150 PDUK -263 1st Stpo Home -125 EPDL -360 bonda 13 Oct - 14 Nov -270 EPDL -44 / 150 WDA -70 UncleBuck -190 C4UNow -210 PDUK -390 Moneyshop -171 1st Stop Home Loan -240 Bonga 14Nov - 13 Dec -390 PDUK -171 1st Stop Home -360 Bonga 13 Dec - 14 Jan -72 WDA -183 Micro-lend -740 PDUK -171 1st Stop -480 Bonga 3) At the time, my income was 1608 a month but I was never unemployed. I had graduated in 2012 and had started my first job as on a 12 month contract. I remember filling out some affordability criteria when applying, in which i mentioned rent (700), council tax (120) but I was rather vague about it all and I didn't mention other payday loans maybe because I was embarrassed by it? Is this a problem if I were to raise this to the FoS? Best regards, Appleman

Good Afternoon all, Having been a keen reader for many years now, only now do I feel the courage to take on these ghastly payday loan companies which left me in such disarray in late 2012 and early 2013. To provide a bit of context, I got myself in a bit of trouble gambling (which I have not touched since 2014), was on anxiety medication from 2012 to 2014 and often found myself taking out payday loans to make sure I got through and able to pay for my rent, council tax, travel and living costs. I often was scrabbling around, pawning items, going to pawnbrokers and also applying online. I have been following everyone's advise (it's most appreciated) and have reached out to all the Payday loan companies asking them for all my statements during that period of time. Everything has been paid off (I fortunately got approved a personal loan from Nationwide in July 2013) While I am waiting for every payday loan company to respond, I also trawled through all my accounts and estimated the total amount of loans that I took out in a period of a year. Please note that this is just rough figures, a lot of the time I took money out in person, then deposited into my account. 1st Stop Pay Day - £1500 Bonga - £1600 Cash Converters - £3000 Dosh Express - £700 Early Payday Loans - £160 Microlend - £300 Moneyshop - £1000 PDUK - £1000 Wonga - £1400 Wizzcash - £1140 Several of these companies all performed credit checks so should have been able to see my spending/loans but approved me nevertheless. Would you classify this as irresponsible lending? Too many times did I have to roll over or take out another loan simply to pay another one off. When I got my personal loan through, I paid the pending ones back: 90, 139, 185, 195, 333, 366, 366, 520, 317, 200, 500, 1000 (cash converters extortionate personal loan of 568%!!) which amounts to me having 4200 of loans with extortionate rates. At the rates, 1000 of payday loan - 300£ interest? So I was paying £1200 a month in interest alone. I was earning 1600 a month from work... Please advise if I have a case to put forth to either the companies themselves or should I refer this to the Financial Ombudsmen? Furthermore, is there a chance that I can get these removed from my credit file? I was not aware that these types of credit agreements would stay? No one told me that they would, i was ok with the credit search but I'm not too happy about the black mark on these. Many thanks for your help, Appleguy