welcome finance.....a lifetime commitment?!

[dollies01]

Years ago, I stupidly got a car loan from Welcome Finance.........everything was going ok til my husband had a fall out with a roundabout and wrote the car off.

 

We only had third party insurance, so we were stuffed. Anyhow, we rang welcome and they offered us another loan to buy another car and to clear our exsisting loan. I knew we were just getting in deeper, but needs must so we did it.

so now we had

existisng loan paid £1165.90

cash advanced £2000.00

lifecare £ 175.00

other (no idea) £ 668.19

payment protection £ 1261.78

amount of credit £ 5270.87

acceptance fee £ 75.00

total £5345.87

 

36 months @ £244.86

apr 44.10%

 

For the first 11 months we paid religiously every week then our income dropped significantly and I had to ring and ask if they would accept £20 a week rather than £60

They were really nice and said it wasnt a problem. This is how it has been for the last four months.

Suddenly today, they have rung and said that they need us to call into the office so they can undersign the loan to run for a further ten years!

When I said that it sounded like a bloody long time, she said that the debt was due to be sent to another department at the end of next week,. I asked what the other department would do and she said they would insist on it being undersigned

I am totally confused

a bit scared but above all furious, that If they have their way I will have paid back in ten years nearly £10,000 not to mention what I have already paid in the last fifteen months.

If anyone could offer me some advice, I would really appreciate it.

[lesken]

Hi dollies1, we had dealings last year with welcome finance, my husband got car finance thro them about 3 years ago and, the same as you, he had all of these protection things? in place, he got another job where he had a company van and no longer needed the car, so I rang them up to ask if we could do voluntary termination they tried every possible way to get us to keep the car and also said that there was no way we would get credit from anybody else, so we went to their office to talk in person, i asked what all these protection things were for and the guy there admitted that he wasnt sure and that the paperwork that is signed at the time of the loan is misleading, anyway, we asked for a termination figure and when we recieved the figure it included all of the payment protection (for the full 3 yrs) which didnt match the figure on the contract, i then threatened them with solicitors saying that the contract was misleading (would have died if they had said go ahead!!) anyway it seemed to work and we managed to get an amended figure so we cleared it and asked if they could send me a cheque if there was anything over and that now the debt was off our back would be looking into it, 3 weeks later we recieved a cheque for £450 overpayment (what a surprise)! (i also managed to get finance for a car from black horse) I hate the bullyboy tactics they pull but, if your paying something its better than nothing, maybe you could get onto the citizens advice to see if they can freeze the interest until you get back on your feet?? i would also look to see if they are charging you for not paying the agreed amount? but i would definately find out what all these add ons are for, some of them are not worth s**t its cheaper to get an income protection, which pays you the money direct if your out of work or sick, i know i dont offer much help but sometimes its nice to know other people have had dealings with them.. i would get onto citizens advice to see where you stand

[lesken]

been having a look around and there is a thread in "welcome finance any stories?" have a look around there you might get some more help, good luck

[dollies01]

I have just read on a thread that a Judge has declared somebodys debt unenforceable because the insurance policy charges were within the total charge for credit, therefore the amount of credit wasn't accurate.

 

I have re-read my Welcome loan paperwork and its seems the same has happened

I have decided that I am going to pay for another ten weeks and then cancel the direct debit and see what happens. In ten weeks I will have paid back with considerable interest all the monies borrowed and as far as I am concerned that will be that and if Welcome Finance don't like it then I will see them in court!

[lesken]

good luck with it, i hope it all works in your favour, let me know what happens i'm intrigued!

[I_feel_cheated]

@Dollies - can you pm me so I can give you my e-mail address

 

I had a loan with them, and topped it up, now I am thinikng about it I would not be surprised if they have overcharged me, and charged me twice for the insurance.

 

Ok in clearer terms, they paid the first loan off, and then arranged another one which meant I got an extra 1000 pounds, I took out the PPI again, but if they paid it off in full on the first loand, then I feel I have paid it twice.

 

I'm gonna take some action, if we keep in touch I think it would be helpful as we can swap contacts, info etc.

[dollies01]

I have had a letter from Welcome, stating that I am £450 arrears and still owe four and a half grand.

When I reduced my payments, I was told it wasnt a problem, I was not told that it was for a limited period only, or that I would end up with arrears on the account. The only reason that I had to reduce my payments, is because I started getting less tax credits, due to my son no longer being entitled to the disability element.

I am now going to send WELCOME a S.A.R. request.

Firstly because I believe that I have been mis-sold insurances

Secondly because I believe that tax credits shouldn't of been taken into consideration for the repayments, when they can change for all sorts of reasons.

Thirdly because I KNOW without doubt that they have been adding charges to my account, for every failed dd, letter and phone call.

I am not expecting to actually profit from any of this, all I want is for the bill to be reduced to what I actually owe, and a repayment schedule that I can cope with set up.

[dollies01]

Could anyone tell me, if this sounds ok? or maybe somebody very clever could add something legal sounding lol

 

Dear Sir,

Please find enclosed a subject access request letter and fee to cover your costs.

Please also supply details, of all insurances sold to me during my time with you.

Please explain what "other" costs are.

I also request that you contact my local branch and ask them to desist contacting me until I have recieved this information.

Thankyou for your assistance.

Yours faithfully

 

[barracad]

Could anyone tell me, if this sounds ok? or maybe somebody very clever could add something legal sounding lol

 

Dear Sir,

Please find enclosed a subject access request letter and fee to cover your costs.

Please also supply details, of all insurances sold to me during my time with you.

Please explain what "other" costs are.

I also request that you contact my local branch and ask them to desist contacting me until I have recieved this information.

Thankyou for your assistance.

Yours faithfully

 

 

You would need to incorporate your questions as part of your SAR or they are under no obligation to provide the information.

[dollies01]

So, skip the covering note, just send a SAR with the bits added?

[darling]

hiya, i'm another of Welcome Finances clients, and sent my S.A.R. off a couple of weeks ago, so will keep in touch with updates etc

Good Luck

[dollies01]

Had a phone call from Welcome last night, and I asked if loans were subject to insurances being taken out. the reply was no.

My husband swears blind, that he was told, no insurance, no loan.

 

I asked if interest was being added for my reduced payment (like I didnt know!)

the reply was yes

I asked if they did not think that they should of told me this, either by phone or letter

The reply was yes

I asked if charges had been applied to my account, and of course the answer was yes.

I asked if they knew anybody that wasn't certifiably mad, had ever taken out a two grand loan over twelve years

The answer was I dont know.

 

I said that I was sending head office a S.A.R and they asked what that was!

I ended the phone call.

It was tea time, and the sausages had more intelligence

S.A.R. in the post today.

[Treacle's Dad]

I have just got to say that welcome finance must be the most enept company i have ever met. thankfully i have no debt with them now but will be sending off an S.A.R to them to annoy them and get some charges back. anyone had any luck getting money back yet? let me know....Cheers T.D.

[ozzywizard]

Just read this thread with great interest, please keep us informed of how this goes.

I got my own issues with Welcome but I will not go into that on this thread cause dont wanna hijack your posts.

The cheek of these ppl is unreal, once I have finished with my bank im going to go all out for these ppls.

[dollies01]

I've found some more paperwork for my welcome loan,

Call me stoopid (some do)

but is it normal to pay interest on insurance policys?

 

price interest total payable

inc ipt

£1,436.78 £932.38 £2,369.16

 

monthly payments:

credit/cash advance £175.62

acceptance fee £ 3.44

insurance £65.81

total per month £244.86

 

 

I have no doubt that this is probably totally normal and should be expected, but I can definitely say that had I been made fully aware of these facts there is no way on this earth, we would of taken out this loan.

Anyone reading this, that is tempted, be warned!!!!

[dollies01]

I have just received a statement, they are just inside the forty days, but have only given me details of the latest loan, not the settled ones !!!!!!

I have things on the statement that I have no idea about ie:

disbursal of fees

interest posting

ibtr

I am just writing another letter to ask for details of my whole account, rather than just the ones outstanding. There are £155 pounds worth of fees on this loan alone.

[dollies01]

The 2nd lot of statements arrived today.

Still no sign of my insurance details though.

I can't understand why Welcome persistantly take the full forty days to reply to these letters, but it looks suspiciously like they have changed the information on them!

Ie: My name isnt mentioned on the statements, just my husbands, but the first loans were joint ones.

There are also a few instances where they have refunded charges.

Fact still remains that the amount owed is now nearly twice what we borrowed, and interest in building up by the month.

I have no idea what Im doing here btw

I know I can claim back the penalty fees, Id like to claim back the ppi's

Ideally I want to stop the interst being added and a reduced payment plan set up

I don't feel it was right that wf used tax credits as part of our income, as these can change for all sorts of reasons.

[fairclaire]

hi am another victim of welcome.

 

Have sent sar and cca request to them( no answer yet)

 

I suggest you look on this thread welcome finance....any dealings?

 

There are loads of poor unfortunate people and posts on that thread may help you...orat least (like me) let you know it's not just you!

 

Good luck

Claire

[Grapes]

WE are victims as well I think this is a steep learning curve for all of us because Welcome seem to cherry pick the rules and regulations they want to use and ignore the rest! But if we all stick together, we will be able to take them on!

[dollies01]

Finally had a letter from Welcome to say that the sar they sent me contained all the information they held on me.

I can't find details of the car loan, though the paperwork is such a mess it could well be there..........somewhere!

I have a huge list of comments they have made from phone calls, half of which are either rude or inaccurate for instance: payment late because daughter is sick

(2001) ..............I didnt have a daughter in 2001!!!

I have had a phone call this afternoon from RAJ asking that we contact him asap and to tell us that we have been charged £10 for the phone call and if he has to come out it will be another £25

To be honest if he comes out, it will cost him 100x that in dentistry bills, my husband is pretty fed up with them, and I dont rate RAJ's chances lol

Im going to sit and work out what Ive been charged tonight, and send a letter off to reclaim them. Whilst they are trying to wriggle out of that I will read up on how to reclaim ppi costs.

Nothing ventured nothing gained

Worst that can possibly happen is they take us to court, but if they do I will turn up and let the judge know what a bunch of *!*"*" they are.

[maybelline]

Hello fellow Welcome sufferers - I have spent a long time trying to understand the info Welcome sent to me, my thread is 'welcome finance' which I have updated often (perhaps too often!)

 

I started with a car on HP but like the other posters, have never received any paperwork for this agreement, then got it incorporated (probably means new loan) when I got into difficulty, the car was rubbish and I decided I didnt want it when I got home, I had not taken the car way from the dealer as they wanted to clean it? (foolish me) then after I rang them and said I dont think I can afford it after all they went all hostile and turned up at the house with it ranting and raving and said something funny was going on Yeah, them but anyway I took it and the rest, as they say, is history.

 

I have all the info they have sent and I have paid some MIG which I have only just realised is not meant to be paid, I still owe according to them 12K!!?? even though I have been paying forever, now have a default from them which they added while I was okay on payments (??) and lots of crap from them which I will not go all over again. there is some great help on this site, very best wishes, just ask.

[dollies01]

I posted a preliminary to Welcome to reclaim £350 in charges applied to my account, on Tuesday, I have today recieved a reply (quick for them!)

Dear Mrs Bad Lady

I write further to your letter dated 25th January

I have investigated the issues you have raised and can respond as follows.

Fees applied to your account are in line with our standard charges for collecting overdue payments. This is provided for contractually in the terms of the agreement signed, and our standard rate of charges is supplied to customers on taking out their agreement. We do not believe that our charges placed on an overdue debtor are either disproportionate or unreasonable.

I have reviewed our records in relation to your request for the repayment of the charges on your account. We note your reliance on Office of Fair Trading guidance is in relation to credit card, bank overdraft, store card, and mortgage default charges and NOT those of a regulated hire purchase agreement. The guidance involved the OFT insisting some of the credit card companies reduce their charge to £12. Given that we only charged £5 for each letter and telephone call we are obliged to make, we cannot agree that these charges are disproportionationately high.

Our records indicate you were sent a letter on the 31st August 2006 explaining the new charges payable should you breach your agreement which took effect on 15th September 2006. These new charges incorporate a £10 charge if we have to telephone or write to you. Please note these charges are only applicable if we have to initiate contact with you where you have not fulfilled your contractual requirements.

We note your account has fallen into arrears and as such it is not unreasonably for our staff to seek to contact you, where you have not made the contractually due payments. Our records further suggest that on at least 11 occasions you have been charged due to our direct debit payment being returned.

I can confirm we will defend any forthcoming claim vigourously, and will seek to recover any potential legal costs.

Yours Sincerely

Mr couldn'tliestraightinbed

so thats that then

they said no

Best give up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Will I chuff!

Im starting work on my ppi letter this weekend aswell

[maybelline]

this is same as my letter recd, their details were incorrect since they are charging £15 late payment etc charges not £5 as they suggested to me, they owe me approx £500 of same, good luck with your claim, I am right behind you :)

[dollies01]

Hiya Maybelline

How do you reply to this letter? did you/plan to just send a Lba or a variation to point out their stupidity? I just sent the bank template letter and am wondering if that was a mistake.

[maybelline]

hello dollies01, I am still putting my letter together, basically I will send LBA for the penalty charges and thinking of including the MIG on same letter, but here is where I get stuck because I need to know under what terms, regs etc I am disputing the validity of the agreement and fees, I too had acceptance fees, PPI, MIG etc added on each and every time, all with vastly varying interest rates, it is all over the place, and I would like to know what a court would make of it all?

 

Welcome seem to think that they have sent me an executed copy of my agreement but they have only sent a top copy with sigs but no t&c's and nothing for the previous agreements. it is a real mess to unravel sufficiently to be able to challenge but is definately doable!

 

I am not paying at the moment on the grounds that they are in breach i.e. no proper copy and/or I am in dispute over the agreement and charges.

 

hope to have it sorted today. I think as long as I say what the issue I can then sort out the wording for the particulars of claim.

 

P.S. I did use the bank template and added a sentence regarding the insurance and the amounts.