Hi Nancy, I have just written a long reply to your helpful post but have lost it because of computer/internet problems. Haven't got time to re-compose the message now sorry, but yes they have charged 25% for "non-persual" of the debt. If I get time later today or tomorrow, i'll reply more fully. PCB

Ok, dx100. I'll start my own thread in the next couple of days....

Hi nancysmile, I have now sent a post in one of the Welcome Finance threads. I did mean to enclose the link to that thread here, but I forgot to and have now closed the window - sorry! I have chosen a thread where something has been happening in the last month or so and not 3 to 5 years ago! If you or anyone else searches for one of the threads which includes 'PPI claim' too you should be able to find it and it will have a post of today's date! It does include a question about PPI from WF too. Thanks x

Hiya, I have an outstanding account with Welcome Finance, which I thought was 'dormant' because it was being dealt with by a debt management company and then first step finance. It was thought that the agreement was unenforceable, but that does not seem the case now due to a recent law that's been passed in Court. The amount owing is about £3200, but what they have sent is nor a Demand - it just seems an annual statement. I would also like to reclaim missold PPI on it. Is the first thing to do is to send for a DSAR on the Agreement, with a £10 cheque and see what the creditor come up with? Thanks, PCB

I tried searching for the thread "Welcome Finance", but when I clicked on that name it just came up with the FSF posts again... so not sure what to do. But just briefly, I can now afford to pay the debt to them outright, but not sure if I should let them stew a little bit and do some negotiating. Think I'll ring them and ask what is the minimum amount you'll accept if I pay it all in cash now? To be fair, they have frozen interest for about the last four years. Or is it best to write to Welcome (agree it is an ironic name!) and ask for the original agreement via a DSAR? It goes without saying that I shan't use any 'debt management' co or anything like that!!

Just to say thank you for your help diamondgirl and Desperate Daniella during the last couple of years or so, and I'd like to wish you both and nancysmile a wonderful Christmas. In fact, festive seasonal greetings to all on CAG! Hope some more on here become debt-free very soon too! PCB xxxxxx

Hiya nancysmile, diamondgirl, desperate daniella and others, sorry it is such a very long time since I have posted on this thread, or indeed on CAG at all!! I think it might have been that I didn't click on the link of the latest FSF post I did receive, so didn't get future notifications! You'll be pleased to hear that I have now cleared all of my unsecured debts being managed by first step finance. I first went with them in April 2009, when I thought they were a decent debt reduction company back then. I think they promised that I'd be debt-free in 2 or 3 years, but it has taken about 4 and a half years. Latterly I have been paying £170 per month, but no more now as the plan has finished! I started off with a declared debt of about 14.8 K and, altogether, paid just over 8K into the plan. There have been quite substantial fees, on the way, of course, but in the last six months at least I'd been chivvying them and asking them to be much more proacitve about making full and final settlements. Quite a number of debts have been settled at around 50% of the original debt, some less and some slightly more. But when they paid the last three creditors, FSF gave me a refund of £684 from my 'client pot'. This tool place at the beginning of October this year, but this may have been partly because the comapny were going to cease to trade as a debt management co in mid-October! So they did work for me, albeit leaving a trail of "missed payments" from several cereditors on my credit file. But the ones that are settled should update in the next 2 or 3 months. I do realise, though, as several CAGgers have said, that where they make an exorbitant amount of money is when someone cancels before the end of the plan and especially in the early stages. In early August, though, there was a complication: a lady from their legal department warned me that my debt with Welcome Finance was no longer legally unenforceable - previously they said that the Agreement was defective - as there was recently a new court ruling that I couldn't challenge the debt on that basis. I did, however, decide that they shouldn't start making payments to Welcome Finance, and that I would like my account closed after settling the smaller debts. I heard nothing more, but in the last week the debt has come back to haunt me - albeit in the form of a Personal Loan Statement and not a Demand. I think I'll make make any further comments on the Welcome Finance thread now.... Desperate Daniella, well done for gaining Authoritative status/reputation since I was last on the thread - fully deserved!

PS - sorry, I meant Jess

Hi again, Yes, on reflection, I agree with Desperate Daniella. PCB

Hi Jowide and welcome to CAG I think you need to be careful with First Step, but I believe they would be better than remaining with Harrington Brooks or other 'traditional' debt management companies. As you probably know by now (especially as you have read at least some posts on this thread), the rationale of First Step (FSF) is to ask for agreements for all your creditors and if there is no clearly signed agreement or if there are technical discrepancies they can challenge and then point out to the creditor that the debt is "unenforceable". Whether or not this means the creditor cannot still chase you is a bit unclear though. If you have up to 4 or 5 creditors I'm sure you could do the process yourself, with help from others on this site, but if you have half a dozen or more it can be rather a lot to keep track of what is happening with them, and a company like FSF can do a lot of the hard work. Yes, the charges you mention are correct - an 8% upfront fee of your declared initial debt, 15% of whatever is paid in regular payments to creditors and 25% of whatever they save you when they "write off" part of the debt or full & final settlement for part of the amount. I'm sorry to hear about the experiences of Lynne49 and Emma, but my own scenario is not as bad as Lynne has outlined. I have now been with FSF for 3 1/2 years, and have also received a breakdown of fees. My originally declared debt was about £15,000 and I paid £1204.14 as the 8% fee. Set up fee (in those days) was £75 plus another £25 for the extra creditor fee. My non-pursual fee stands at £234.39, so rather less than Lynne's (in her post of 24th May 2012). As at the end of July 2012, I'd paid in £6189 and £5877 have been paid in total fees. However, my total debt reduction has been by £7,740.49 which is less than the fees I have paid. My take on this is that if you (or anyone) is with FSF for the short term, then the amount of fees does outweigh any savings, but if you go with them and remain with them for the long haul, then eventually you do make a saving (though not all that much). With a traditional DM company, don't forget that their management fees are all on top of your original debt - also with DM co's there is never enough in the 'kitty' or 'pot' for them to be able to make full & final settlements. Yes, I do agree that they make their money not only from administration fees but from interest accruing in your money in the 'pot' with them too. But, in my own case, I only have 4 or 5 creditors left out of an original 16 or 17, and recently they have settled a Halifax credit card balance of mine at 50%. I anticipate being debt free well within one year (that is unsecured debts, of course). The decision of where to go has to remain with you, but sequenci and other members of the site team and others who are 'authorative' if you hover your mouse on the green rectangles will give very good advice. PCB

And my fingers are crossed for you too, anney!!

Thank you for both of your posts. I'm still not "out of the woods" as I have a large mortgage, secured loan and still some unsecured debts, but my successful claim has certainly helped!!

dx100, the amount came into my account by BACS from Loans.co.uk.limited so you could say that the broker coughed up!! I have had an acknowledgement from CAG about my donation, who actually thought it was 'generous'

I hope this will not provide encouragement for other CAGgers claim missold PPI, for example, from GE ! Of course, I didn't intend to write a 'negative' and should have said "I hope this will provide encouragement..."!

Yes, you can update the thread title to reflect my win now! You and dx100 (and some occasional advice from others) played a good part in assisting me in my successful claim - without the need for any claims management company!! I hope this will not provide encouragement for other CAGgers claim missold PPI, for example, from GE !

ims/dx/citizenB, would you please let me know if my recent donation made in the last 10 minutes, with a credit card, has come through to the site? Thanks, PCB

Hi Anney, I am very sorry for the long delay in replying to you. I had just returned home from being away that day! I have forgotten what the I-Group forms look like, but there was definitely no separate application form for the PPI - on the main schedule it just said something like £9136 paid to Westing... (or some name like that) Administration Services, and even they may have gone into liquidation now. Yeah, the broker Loans.co.uk appear to be no longer trading, but they are being dealt with by 'administrators'. You can still write to them at Chester Business Park, Wrexham Road, Chester CH4 9FB. I have got a settlement, so have WON!! It has been £14,870 to the nearest pound, including the 8%. Helps my finances a bit now! So do get in there and fight, anney63!! It will pay off if you persist I shall now make a small donation to CAG, which I'm not disclosing on open forum, but the site team will probably have visibility of how much I'm donating. pcb

Thank you for your input, citizenB. Crossing out the confidentiality clause does not quite equate to scribbling away rights to any more claims against the lender, but I shall still so do. Although I agree with dx100 that we should 'believe in free speech', I think I prefer not not to put such a cliche in my actual letter to them, and put instead that I believe in things being 'out in the open'. What do you, or ims21, think? PCB

Ok thanks, dx. I shall include a letter along those lines, and get it all sent off today.

dx and ims, thanks again. I could put a line (or couple of lines) through the clause to indicate I'm not signing the confidentiality bit, but feel happier if I do add a short but sweet letter. I was thinking of something along the following lines: "Thank you for your letter dated 21 June 2012, offering me a full refund of the PPI premium plus the interested paid, and also interest of 8% on the payments made towards the PPI. I am now happy to accept the settlement as indicated on this form. However, I do not believe there is any requirement to sign a confidientially clause, which I knew nothing about prior to your letter, in order to finalise my claim for settlement. Moreover, it is inappropriate as parts of my claim, although not my name, address or account details, or the precise amount, are already in the public domain. I look forward to the remittance of the agreed sum into my bank account. Yours sincerely, etc. etc. " As there is plenty of space under the Confidientiality bit on the reverse side of the form, I may as well write my above comments/letter there rather than on a separate sheet of paper. Also, they can't lose it if it's all on one form. I don't need to say that the 'public domain' is actually an advice forum? Do I need to put that such 'confidientiality' clauses are not recognised by the FOS? I think I should post the settlement form today, as it is some three weeks since their letter to me now. I have already stated the precise amount of the premium itself on CAG. pcb

I agree with both of you. In the morning, I think I'll draft a short letter on this site for dx or you (ims) to agree before finally sending it off...

Thanks to both of you for your reply. It is actually a very pertinent question that ims has just asked: the confidentiality clause is part of the same letter/document offering the 'full and final settlement' of my complaint - it is just on the back of the same sheet, and on the front of that sheet it clearly says Continued overleaf................ The problem is that if I don't sign the confidentiality thing, I wouldn't have signed the whole thing saying I'm accepting the offer - as there is only one signature asked for - unless I purposely sign at the bottom of the first sheet, and not where it asks me to sign, in which case they might not accept it... (I could say that I have mentioned it in outline already without stating the precise amount, my real/actual name and account number etc...) What do you think now?

Ok thanks, ims. I'm sure I can post it tomorrow or even Sat or Monday rather than today...

Sorry, just one very small point: Under the word Confidientiality, I had already erased in black biro the word "we" from "I/we" so I can no longer claim I didn't see it (but I haven't actually signed it or printed my name or date).

Naturally, one *hopes* for added compensation, but realistically I'm unlikely to get it from GE - so, yes, I'm happy with the offer and I think the interested they have calculated is very similar to the one on our FOS spreadsheet that has a calculation tool. Yes, the CAG have certainly helped; I will go with dx and not sign it. I don't think I will need to write a note saying why I'm not signing the clause? They are not allowed to make the offer *conditional* on signing it, I take it?