Payday Loan Refund Calculator
If you kept going back to the same payday lender — clearing one loan and taking another a few days later — there is a point at which they should have stopped lending to you. Where they did not, the interest and charges on the loans after that point can be refunded. This page estimates what that could be worth.
Estimate your payday loan refund
Payday loan refund calculator
A rough estimate of what a repeat-borrowing complaint could refund, loan by loan.
| Loans likely covered by a complaint | 0 |
| Interest and charges refunded | £0 |
| Ombudsman interest (4.75% simple) | £0 |
| Less basic-rate tax on the interest (20%) | £0 |
| Estimated total | £0 |
A rough estimate only. Payday complaints are decided loan by loan: the early loans are usually found to have been adequately checked and are not refunded, and where the line falls is the thing most often argued over. A real calculation uses the actual interest and charges on each agreement. The estimate above assumes the FCA price cap applied, which it has since 2 January 2015 — interest and fees capped at 0.8% per day and never more than 100% of what you borrowed.
You do not need a claims company. You can complain to the lender free of charge and, if you are not satisfied after eight weeks, escalate free to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Check your loans with RecoupIn this guide
- Why payday claims are decided loan by loan
- Where the line falls
- What a successful payday refund includes
- A worked example
- If your lender has gone bust
- Frequently asked questions
Why payday claims are decided loan by loan
This is the thing that surprises people most. A payday complaint is not one decision about one lender. It is a series of decisions, one per loan.
Taking a single payday loan and repaying it is not evidence of anything. Lenders are entitled to lend, and a one-off loan that was affordable at the time will not be refunded. What changes the picture is the pattern: coming back again and again, borrowing to cover the last loan, never getting clear.
Under CONC 5.2A of the FCA Handbook, a lender must carry out a reasonable and proportionate creditworthiness assessment before lending. What counts as proportionate rises with the risk. By your eighth loan in a year, a light affordability check that might have been acceptable the first time no longer is — the lender has its own record of your borrowing sitting in front of it.
So a complaint usually succeeds from a point in the sequence onwards. The loans before that point are typically found to have been adequately checked, and are not refunded.
Where the line falls
This is the single biggest variable, and it is what most payday complaints actually argue about.
There is no rule that says "from loan five". The Ombudsman looks at the whole picture: how many loans, how close together, whether the amounts were rising, whether you were rolling over or topping up, and what the lender could see about your circumstances at the time.
Some rough markers that tend to move the line earlier:
- Loans taken within days of repaying the last one. A gap of a week or less, repeatedly, is the clearest sign the borrowing was not affordable.
- Amounts climbing over time. Needing more each time suggests the previous loan did not solve the problem.
- Rollovers and top-ups, which are direct evidence you could not repay on the original terms.
- Borrowing from several payday lenders at once, which a credit check should have shown.
- Loans taken while already in arrears elsewhere, or while on benefits with little spare income.
The calculator above asks you to pick the loan number. Move it and watch the figure change — that is not a flaw in the tool, it is an honest reflection of where the argument actually happens.
What a successful payday refund includes
Three things, and one that is not included.
A refund of the interest and charges on the loans found to be unaffordable. You keep the amount you borrowed, because you had the use of it. What comes back is the cost.
Ombudsman interest on top, running from the date you made each repayment to the date of settlement. For complaints referred from 1 January 2026 this tracks Bank of England base rate plus one percentage point, worked out as a weighted average over the period. See interest on your refund explained for which rate applies to you.
Removal of the credit-file entries linked to the unaffordable loans.
Not the principal. You do not get the borrowed money back.
Since 2 January 2015 the FCA price cap has limited what any of this can amount to: interest and fees cannot exceed 0.8% per day, default fees are capped at £15, and the total cost of a loan can never exceed 100% of what you borrowed. So on a £300 loan you can never have paid more than £300 in interest and charges, however long it ran. The calculator applies that cap.
A worked example
Ten loans from the same lender over eighteen months, typically £300 each over about thirty days, taken around five years ago. The complaint succeeds from the seventh loan.
- Interest and charges per loan, at the capped 0.8% a day over 30 days: £72.
- Loans in scope: four (loans seven to ten).
- Refund of interest and charges: £288.
- Ombudsman interest at 4.75% across roughly five years: about £68.
- Less 20% tax on the interest element: −£14.
- Estimated total: around £343.
Move the line back to loan four and the same borrowing produces roughly £600. That is why the loan number matters more than any other answer.
If your lender has gone bust
A great many payday lenders are no longer trading, and this changes everything about what a claim is worth.
Wonga went into administration in 2018, QuickQuid closed in 2019, Peachy in 2020, MyJar in 2020. Provident's doorstep and payday brands went through a Scheme of Arrangement that paid around 4 to 5 pence in the pound and closed to new claims in 2021. The Amigo scheme closed in November 2022.
Where a lender is in administration or a closed scheme, your complaint goes to the administrator rather than the lender, the scheme terms govern what is paid rather than the Ombudsman's approach, and in most cases the window to claim has already shut.
The calculator will not put a cash figure on those, because any figure would be misleading. If your lender is on that list, read what happens when your lender goes bust first to see whether a claim is possible at all.
Frequently asked questions
I have no paperwork and cannot remember how many loans I took. Can I still claim?
Yes. You are not required to produce the agreements — the lender holds them and must locate them from your details. Our free complaint letter says exactly that. If you want the detail first, you can ask the lender for a copy of your lending history.
How far back can I go?
Complaints are generally expected within six years of the lending, or three years from when you reasonably became aware there was a problem, and the Ombudsman can consider older cases in some circumstances. Payday complaints often reach back further than people expect, so it costs nothing to ask.
I repaid every loan on time. Does that count against me?
No, and this is a common misunderstanding. Repaying on time does not show the lending was affordable — many people prioritise the payday loan and fall behind elsewhere, or borrow again immediately to cover it. The question is whether the loan was affordable, not whether it was repaid.
Do I need a claims company?
No. You can complain to the lender yourself free of charge and escalate free to the Financial Ombudsman Service if you are not satisfied after eight weeks. Our free letter tool will write it for you.
Related guides
- Payday and short-term loans
- How redress is calculated
- What happens when your lender goes bust
- Free complaint letter generator
More calculators
Free tools that estimate what a claim could be worth — a starting point, not a valuation.
