COMPLAINTS about payday loan lenders have soared by a "startling" 130 percent with some lenders' behaviour being slammed as "unacceptable".
The Financial Ombudsman Service says it received nearly 40,000 new complaints about short-term lenders in 2023 Up from 17,000 the previous year.
That's an astonishing 130 percent increase and the fifth largest hike in complaints by financial product.
QuickQuid owner Casheuronet was the most were not impressed with payday lender with 10,409 new cases in 2023 which 63 per cent were upheld towards the customer.
It was followed by WDFC, who owns Wonga, with 6,876 complaints of which a level higher 68 percent were upheld from the firm.
Next up was Lending Stream owner Gain Credit with 5,414 complaints (61 per cent upheld) and Immediate cash Loans, which trades because the Money Shop, with 3,241 complaints (43 percent upheld).
These were accompanied by Curo Transatlantic Limited, which traded as Wage Day Advance and Juo Loans, with 2,797 complaints (49 per cent upheld).
Wonga, Wage Day Advance and Juo Loans have all gone bust recently after can not process hundreds of thousands of compensation claims from borrowers who accused them of irresponsibly lending, leaving vulnerable Brits forking out for sky-high interest rates.
Wonga stopped lending in August 2023 and today administrators say customers now have until midnight on September 30 2023 to apply for a payout.
Meanwhile borrowers of WageDayAdvance and Juo Loans – which went bust this February – have been told that they have until midnight on August 31 to claim.
We spoke to one dad-of-two who had a lb3,750 refund for any lb600 payday loan from Wonga that he couldn't afford.
See the box above for help reclaiming your pay day loan.
Complaints rocket to five-year high
Overall, complaints designed to the Financial Ombudsman Service have rocketed to a five-year high, with more than 388,000 new complaints being made in the year from April 2023 to April 2023.
That's a 14 per cent increase on the previous year.
The product using the largest rise in complaints was instalment loans (360 per cent rise), followed by investment-based crowd-funding (200 per cent rise), small self-administered schemes (181 percent rise), and guarantor loans (130 per cent rise).
We revealed the 2009 week that NatWest is the worst bank in order to fraud customers, based on the Ombudsman's data.
Caroline Wayman, chief ombudsman and chief executive from the Financial Ombudsman Service, says it's not good enough from financial providers.
She said: “Too often we have seen that the interests of shoppers aren't hard-wired into financial services.
"This marks a five-year high in the amount of complaints that customers have brought to us, and also the behaviour we've seen from some businesses is simply not good enough.
“While we all do see examples of businesses responding well to customer concerns, we see many firms that do not. Our message to businesses is that practices must improve. “
But a spokesperson for that Consumer Finance Association – the trade body that is representative of the largest share of short-term lenders – says many of the claims made to the Ombudsman don't have a leg to face on.
They said: “It is essential to create clear this sector has changed massively, and many of these complaints go as far back a number of years.
“These figures show a deeply disappointing increase, driven with a flood from claims management companies and we still see many a complaint that has no foundation."
They add: “We also provide concerns regarding how the Financial Ombudsman Service calculates some of the figures included in its annual review.
"Inaccuracies incorporate a significant proportion of complaints being reported through the FOS as upheld, once the opposite was true. Complaints which are withdrawn are being counted as new complaints, but no account is taken of these in the upheld rate.”