Yes, you almost certainly still have to pay your old Sunny loan, even though Sunny the lender no longer exists. When Sunny’s parent company, Elevate Credit International Limited, collapsed into administration in 2020, your loan didn’t disappear with it. It was either sold to a debt purchaser or is still being collected on behalf of the administrators.
If a company you don’t recognise is now chasing you for a Sunny payday loan, this guide explains exactly who owns that debt, whether you’re legally required to pay it, and what to do next.
This includes the one thing most people in this position miss: if you needed a payday loan in the first place, the Sunny debt is rarely the only debt worth looking at.
What Happened To Sunny Loans?
Sunny ceased offering loans on 29 June 2020 when its parent company, Elevate Credit International Limited, was placed in administration by the Financial Conduct Authority.
At the time, Sunny had already used two other trading names, 1 Month Loan and Quid, so if you borrowed under either of those brands, the same rules in this article apply to you.
The administration didn’t cancel anyone’s loans. All existing agreements remained legally valid, interest continued to accrue under the original terms, and customers were told to continue making payments as normal, either to the administrators or to whoever the loan book was later sold to.
Who Owns Your Sunny Debt Now?
Your old Sunny loan is now most likely owned by a third-party debt purchaser, not Elevate Credit or the administrators. As part of the wind-down, KPMG sold blocks of Sunny’s loan book to companies that buy unpaid consumer debt at a fraction of its face value.
SLL Capital is one confirmed buyer of Sunny loans. If SLL Capital is the name chasing you, that’s consistent with what’s publicly known about the sale of Sunny’s loan book. Other companies may also have bought portions of the book, but unless a buyer has been independently confirmed, it’s safest to describe them simply as a third-party debt purchaser rather than guess at a specific name.
Whoever now owns the debt has the same legal right to collect it that Sunny originally had; buying a debt doesn’t create new obligations, but it doesn’t erase the old ones either.
What To Do:
Just because you haven’t heard the name doesn’t mean the collector chasing you is a scam.
- Write to them and ask for the name of the lender that originally lent you the money (Sunny / Elevate Credit International)
- Date on which the debt was sold to the collector.
- A clear breakdown of what makes up the balance (how much of it is interest, how much is the original amount borrowed)
You are entitled to all of this information before you should be expected to make any payments.
Old Sunny Vs New Sunny
These are two completely different companies. This is where a great deal of misconception arises, and it is worth being specific about this. The ‘Sunny’ that lent you money years ago was actually Elevate Credit International Limited, which entered administration and is no longer registered in the United Kingdom as a lender.
The Sunny brand name, which you will see online now, is up-front owned by Upward Finance Limited, which purchased the branding specifically separately from the failed lender. Upward Finance is a broker, not a lender, and acts as a referral link to a panel of other lenders in order to loan new applicants. It does not hold and has not acquired any of the old loan book.
Practically, this means:
- New Sunny (Upward Finance) isn’t related to your old loan and has nothing to say about who purchased it.
- Old Sunny (Elevate Credit International) was the entity your original loan agreement was with but is not trading anymore and not collecting debts directly.
- Your debt sits with whichever third-party purchaser, such as SLL Capital, bought it during the wind-down.
If you contact the support team of the current Sunny website, you’ll probably find that they have no record of you. That is normal; you need to deal with the debt purchaser/collection agency that is actually contacting you, not the current brand.
Do You Still Have To Pay?
If your debt isn’t statute-barred and you haven’t already settled it, then yes, you generally still have to pay it, the sale of the debt to a new owner doesn’t cancel it or make it unenforceable on its own. The debt purchaser has the same right to expect repayment that Sunny/Elevate Credit originally had, and Sunny’s administration doesn’t give you legal grounds to stop paying by itself.
That said, two things can change this picture:
- The debt may be statute-barred (see below), which doesn’t cancel it but can stop it being enforced through the courts.
- You may have grounds for an affordability complaint against the current debt owner if the original lending was unaffordable, this can reduce or clear what you owe, even now.
Can You Still Get Compensation For A Mis-Sold Sunny Loan?
Formal redress via the Elevate Credit International administration has now concluded and was disappointing for most. Approximately 500,000 Sunny customers should never have been granted loans; they were mis-sold and never suitably approved, but only 40,000 submitted a claim within the deadline.
In May 2021, the administrators confirmed a payout of just 3.21p in the pound for every £1 owed a tiny proportion of the redress owed.
If you missed the deadline, that particular channel is now closed. However, this does not mean you have no options available now.
You can still complain about affordability directly to any current owner of your debt.
If your Sunny loan was granted without affordability checks being performed (e.g. if you took out consecutive payday loans, were repaid within a short space of time, or the repayments were objectively unfeasible based on your income etc) and you are no longer a Sunny customer today, you can make a complaint to the current owner of your debt (e.g. SLL Capital), not Sunny or the administrators.
If the complaint is successful, this generally results in charges and interest being removed from the amount you owe, often potentially reducing your balance to the actual amount of the loan you received.
For more detail on how these complaints work and what evidence you need, see our guide to making an Affordability Complaint and our guide on Irresponsible Lending.
Being Chased For Old Sunny Debt? Here’s What Almost Certainly Comes With It
If you took out a Sunny payday loan, you were, by definition, someone a mainstream lender wouldn’t have been interested in, or someone who needed to borrow to top up their funds until the next payday.
That is, as a rule, not a one-off event. As our experience shows, the individual actually chasing down one old payday loan will very frequently have, around the same time, an accumulation of other borrowing (credit cards, other payday/short term loans, catalogue debts, etc.) which has just remained dormant in the background.
Need Help With Debt?
You don’t have to work out who owns your Sunny debt, whether it’s statute-barred, or whether an affordability complaint is worth raising on your own. Speak to Debt Advisory Services to review your full financial situation, including the Sunny debt and anything else that’s built up alongside it. We’ll help you understand your options and find one solution that fits, rather than tackling each debt in isolation.
Final Thought
Sunny stopped lending in June 2020, but not one loan was cancelled; it just changed who received the repayments. Your debt has likely been sold on to a third-party purchaser. It is now separate from the Sunny brand you may have seen advertised today, which, under its current incarnation, is a credit broker and not a lender, by the name of Upward Finance.
Aside from being statute-barred, a debt is generally still owed, and you are still responsible for repayment, although you may still be able to bring a challenge to the balance under an affordability complaint now that the redress scheme has ended. And if a Sunny debt reappears, see if anything else has been left to quietly accumulate.
Key Takeaways
- Sunny (Elevate Credit International Limited) entered administration on 29 June 2020 and ceased to operate as a lender.
- Your old loan was almost certainly sold to a third-party debt purchaser, SLL Capital has been confirmed as a purchaser, but other debt purchasers are almost certainly out there.
- The Sunny brand that you see today is owned by Upward Finance Limited, a credit broker that has no link to your former debt.
- Only 3.21p in the pound has been received by the administration on behalf of an estimated 40,000 of the 500,000 people who were sold loans by Sunny, meaning that the formal redress element of the administration has closed.
- So you can still complain to your present debt owner about affordability, even now.
- Unsecured debts become statute-barred after 6 years (5 in Scotland) with no payment or formal acknowledgment, but the debt still legally exists.
- A Sunny debt rarely exists as a lone debt; a debt adviser can examine it against all the others you owe.
FAQ
Do I have to pay a debt collector chasing me for an old Sunny loan?
In most cases, yes, unless the debt is prescribed or you prevail on an affordability complaint, when you do not pay what you owe. The collector has to be able to provide evidence that they own the debt and a transparent calculation of your balance prior to any payment.
Is the Sunny website I see today the same company that lent me money?
Unless the debt is prescribed or you prevail on an affordability complaint, where then you do not pay what you owe. The collector has to be able to provide evidence that they own the debt and a transparent calculation of your balance prior to any payment.
How do I know if my Sunny debt is statute-barred?
Check the date of your last payment or the last time you acknowledged the debt in writing. If it's been 6 years (5 in Scotland) since either of those with no further contact, it may be statute barred. Get this confirmed by a debt adviser before responding to any collector, as a payment or written acknowledgement can restart the clock.
Should I contact Sunny to ask about my old loan?
No. The current Sunny (Upward Finance) has no record of or connection to old Elevate Credit International loans. You need to deal directly with whoever is actually contacting you about the debt.
