Darling V Welcome Finance **WON**

[darling]

And yet another - Wish me luck peeps:-

[darling]

Statements etc rec today, all the usual payments in and out. No charges listed as such but loads of 'fees'. Have today written and asked for a full breakdown of what these fees are for. Have given them 14 days to reply. Due date 9th Oct.

[darling]

Got the reply back.

Thank you for letter blah blah blah. 'I have reviewed the fees charged to your account. The terms of our agreement do provide for us to pass on the costs of contacting you where the agreement has fallen into arrears. The breakdown of the respective fees are as follows:

£3.02 Credit Card Payment Surcharge Fee of 1.49%

£3.00 Telephone Call Fee

£5.00 " " (increased in 2002)

£20.00 Payment Returned Unpaid Fee

£25.00 Home visit Fee

 

Can anyone tell me if I can claim any of these charges back please. Any other feedback welcome as well guys.

[darling]

Preliminary approach for payment sent off today.

[sues35]

Hi Eunice. I would say you can claim these charges back after all it doesnt cos 5.00 to make a 2 minute phone call, especially when on occasion they get no answer.

 

Good luck

[darling]

Got a reply today from Kieran Scothern, Compliance Officer

 

"thanks for letter dated 3/10. I have investigated the issues you raise and can respond as follows. Fees applied to you 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. They are also advertised within our branch offices. We do not believe that our charges placed on an overdue debtor are either disproportionate or unreasonable.

Such fees represent the costs to our business associated with collecting overdue payments. We do not believe these fees differ significantly from those charged by other companies operating within the Financial Services industry. Under the terms of our contract, you are responsible for any costs we incur in respect of your breach of that contract.

We note your reliance on Office of Far Trading (OFT) 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 charges to £12. Given that we only charge £5 for each letter and telephone call we are obliged to make, we cannot agree that these charges are disproportionately high. We would also point out that your account was simply overdue and not in default and such guidance is therefore inapplicable.

In light of the above I am satisfied that there has not been a breach of OFT guidance in this matter and therefore cannot agree to your request. I can confirm that this is our final position in this matter. However, should you wish to take this matter further, we are prepared to accept service of legal documentation at the address at the head of this letter.

 

Yours sincerely,

[hagenuk]

Darling, try something like this, but do not be drawn into lengthy correspondence with this man, if he needs a penfriend let him find somebody else.

 

Dear Mr Scothern

 

I am in receipt of your letter of 3rd October and note the contents.

 

I am of the opinion the law is clear on liquidated damages and that, irrespective of your belief to the contrary and regardless of any agreement that I may have signed, the payment of excessive damages will be interpreted as a penalty and therefore the charges you imposed will be unenforceable and should I be forced to litigate, judgment granted in my favour.

 

The fact that your fees do not differ significantly from those charged by other companies operating within the Financial Services industry is entirely redundant however I am most interested in your comment regarding my responsibility for those fees. Given your clear and unambiguous statement that these fees represent the costs to your business and that you have incurred them as a result of my breaching our contract I am sure you will be happy to demonstrate this by letting me have a full breakdown of the costs to which you have been put as a result of my breaches in order to reassure me that your penalties really do reflect your costs.

 

Charges are not legally enforceable if they are penalties. Penalty clauses in contracts in English (and Scottish) law for breach of contract are not legal if the penalty exceeds the actual cost of the breach of either party. The law relating to penalties has been established through case law. The cases date back to the nineteenth century and the courts have been consistent in the way that they have ruled on penalty clauses

 

I am mildly amused by your penultimate paragraph and your apparent misunderstanding of contract law and seemingly deliberate attempt to complicate what is a straightforward issue.

 

I will not correspond further with you on this matter and my next communication, should I not receive full payment, will be with your legal department.

 

Yours sincerely,

[darling]

Letter typed as above and sent today. 14 days given to reply or else.

[darling]

Received a phone call yesterday 17th Oct. Hello this is Welcome Finance (and another name I can't remember). Anyway they were enquiring as to whether I would like to top-up my loan with them. I replied no thank you, and if you check your records you will find that I finished my loan with yourselves 18 months ago. Actually I wasn't quite that polite, Oh and kindly don't call me again.

Anyone got any ideas, was this call made because I have sent a claim in, or is it a genuine marketing call?

[darling]

Received a Gesture of goodwill cheque today for £200. I am keeping the cheque and sending a letter to say thanks a lot, send me a bit more and i shall cancel claim. The reason for this is that i know that i should not be claiming for disbursal of fees £150 and Insurance Premium £120. So taking that away from £544.22 i make it that they owe me £74.22.

[darling]

ok I phoned Kieran Scothern at 2.10 pm and asked for another £74.22, said he had to talk to the manager, anyway he called back at 2.30 pm and the cheque is on its way. So I guess that this is now done and dusted.

[hagenuk]

ok I phoned Kieran Scothern at 2.10 pm and asked for another £74.22, said he had to talk to the manager, anyway he called back at 2.30 pm and the cheque is on its way. So I guess that this is now done and dusted.

 

Quote from Mr Scothern from his letter you received on 12/10/06

 

I can confirm that this is our final position in this matter.

 

Men of their word at Welcome Finance then.

[darling]

Yes hag, I think they forgot that bit don't you, goes to show that companies do change their minds.

Anyway thanks for all your support everyone, and a massive thanks to Hagenuk for helping me write such wonderful letters.

Oh and I think I shall be using Hag's letters a lot more in the future.

[carinas]

Edited to say : Its ok i answered my own question!

[breadline]

Weldone Darling

For to long now Welcome have thought their doors were closed firmer than anyone Else's.

 

You have shown they most certainly are not.

 

A good example thread for anyone out there with a problem with Welcome Finance.

 

I think that Mr kieran may wish to have a holiday soon:D

 

BL:)