Reclaim payday loans for free

For example, if you earn £400 a month and you're given a payday loan for more than this, it should be clear to the payday lender that you wouldn't easily be able to pay back the loan – in fact you would probably get into a situation where you needed to borrow more money to try to pay it back. 

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said complaints about payday lenders leapt 130% in 2018/19. Unhappy customers lodged 39,715 claims with the FOS in the 12 months to the end of March 2019, compared with 17,256 the year before.

The total number of payday loan reclaims is likely to be much higher as legitimate claims should be settled by the lender, the first port of call, provided it's not gone bust. You should only go on to the FOS if you haven't reached an agreement with the lender.

The FOS found in favour of more than 21,000 claimants in 2018/19, upholding 53% of cases and criticising the behaviour of those lenders as "unacceptable".

As payouts can be worth £1,000s, it's worth checking if you were mis-sold. 

Wonga customers must apply for compensation via a website set up by Grant Thornton. But sadly you'll only get a few pennies in the pound of any money you're owed, eg, if you were owed £100, you'll be lucky to get more than a fiver back.

You only need to put in your identification details and, provided these match Wonga's records, you'll get a receipt that you've lodged a claim. 

You don't actually have to explain how you were mis-sold. Instead, Grant Thornton will assess if you are owed money by examining your Wonga loan history. Grant Thornton insists it is following guidelines set out by the Financial Ombudsman Service when making its assessment.

If unsuccessful, you can escalate your complaint within Grant Thornton's complaints department but you can't complain to the ombudsman, as payday loan firms that are in administration fall outside its remit. 

There's no confirmed dates for payouts but the latest indications are they're not likely until October 2019 at the earliest - over a year since Wonga went bust. The deadline to make a Wonga claim is 30 September, so next month.

For more details on claiming via Grant Thornton's online form, see how the Wonga claims process will work.

You should get all of the interest, fees and charges back, which will usually dwarf the original loan. You're also due 8% interest on the interest, fees and charges each year, dating back to when you first started paying them. For example, if your refund was £1,000 from one loan exactly four years ago, you'd also have 8% of £1,000 (£80) added for each of the four years, so 4 x £80 = £320. 

As you should first try to get your money back from the payday loan lender via our free tool below, make sure you know what you're due, so you're not short-changed. If your claim is rejected, or you're not satisfied with the final offer from the lender, it's simple to escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) – see below. 

In most cases, you won't be refunded for the loan itself, though in some extreme circumstances, the FOS told us you could get the remainder of the loan written off.