Wonga, WageDayAdvance and Juo set payday loan claims DEADLINES – here's what you need to know

BORROWERS who are owed cash from payday lenders Wonga, WageDayAdvance and Juo Loans have only months left to submit compensation claims.

Emails seen by The Sun have been sent to customers entitled to a payout alerting them that a deadline has been set by administrators for all new claims.

All three firms went bust after struggling to 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 2018 and now administrators say customers now have until midnight on September 30 2019 to apply for a payout.

Borrowers of WageDayAdvance and Juo Loans – which are both owned by the same parent company, Curo Transatlantic Limited (CTL) – have been told that they have until midnight on August 31 to claim.

Customers who've already applied for money from both lenders don't have to do anything as their claim will be unaffected.

The emails have been sent to customers the firm believes may be entitled to a redress in relation to one or more loans taken out in the past.

Following court hearings, both administrators have been given permission to set deadlines in order to share out the remaining funds fairly among claimants.

Wonga administrators hope payments will be made within four months of submitting the claim, with a final possible payout date of January 30 2020.

WageDayAdvance and Juo Loans went into administration in February this year and customers have been told to expect payouts by May 30 2020.

But compensation isn't guaranteed because you'll be added to a list of creditors owed cash from the firms once you've applied.

The email from Wonga warns that successful claimants will receive payments that are "considerably smaller" than they're expecting.

This is because the total sum of the claims is expected to be larger than the remaining pot of cash to be shared out.

The payouts will only continue as long as there's enough money left.

How to claim compensation from payday lenders

IF you think you are owed compensation from a payday lender then here's how to claim according to money blogger DebtCamel:

You'll need to prove that you couldn't afford to take out the loan at the time that you borrowed it. If having the loan meant that you couldn't pay your bills or other debts then you were irresponsibly lent to.

You may also me entitled to compensation if you had any late repayments, or if you took out back to back loans because this shows that you really couldn't afford to take out a new one.

Look back through your emails, bank statements and credit reporter for evidence.

You'll need to write a formal complaint letter to each lender explaining how you were irresponsibly lent to and include the evidence.

You'll need to cite "unaffordable loans" and ask for a refund of the interest and charges you paid, as well as the 8 per cent Ombudsman interest on top.

Make copies of all of the evidence before sending in case anything happens to them.

Also ask for the loan to be removed from your credit record.

You can find a letter template here.

Wait up to eight weeks to hear back from them. If you're not happy with the answer, or they don't get back to you, contact the Financial Ombudsman.

So far, Wonga customers have typically received payouts of between £500 and £1,000 although some could be entitled to more.

It's not clear how much WageDayAdvance claimants have received.

Sara Williams, a debt advisor at charity Citizens Advice who runs the DebtCamel blog, aims to raise awareness about compensation claims because it's "so simple to do".

She said: "For Wonga you just have to give your name and address so it can identify your loans.

"If you have had an email from WageDayAdvance it's even easier, you only have to click on a button to submit a claim which has already been filled in.

"If you had loans from other payday lenders that you could only repay by borrowing again, you can also complain.

"You don't need to know what all your loans were and this also works if you have loans at the moment."

Earlier this year, a group of MPs warned that borrowers had been "left to fend for themselves" and called on the Government to intervene.

The Treasury Committee feared that over 10,000 Wonga customers will miss out on up to £1,000 compensation for mis-sold payday loans.

A spokesperson for Joint Administrators KMPG on behalf of CTL told The Sun: "We expect funds will be available to make payments to customers with a valid redress claim.

"However at this stage we are unable to confirm the amount of any such payments, albeit these will be for only a proportion of redress owed."

Wonga administrator Grant Thornton says that it is in the process of alerting customers to the deadline set in order to meet the firm's redress claims deadline of January 30 2020.

It also directed customers to its free online checker tool to help with the claims process.

More than 50,000 CTL customers, including all Juo borrowers, have been sold to Shelby Finance, which is owned by Morses Club.

Even though these customers have been told to continue making payments as normal, they may also be entitled to claim.

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