Valhala Vs Welcome Finance

[valhala]

Well I recently sent a cheque for £10 to get my statements sent to me. I recieved them yesterday. Now I have stupidly taken two loans out with these sharks, my new loan I took out in December 2006 for 3k around £600 was used to pay of the previous loan I had.

I knew they had been heavy on the charges as they charge for every call or letter they send you. Anyway on my statements they have marked them down as only "fees". I guess they do this now so that in court they can say they are not charges but fees. however it is very ambiguous to list things as just "fees" I have about 18 of these £20 fees and two "penalty fees" that are £150 on their own.

 

Something I am also very shocked to see on my statement is every month a "interest posting". Now I am paying £185 back every month but I am also having a fee of around £120 going out as "interest posting".....is this right? at the moment I am paying back £60 a month on my loan with this interest posting

 

 

Anyway I am going to write a letter today and enclose a list of "fees" and ask for them back, not sure how it will go but I will go along the same root as I do with the banks

 

 

Never again will I touch Welcome Finance.

[chancer1]

Have they sent you the statements for the old loan as well? Even if it's paid off, I believe you can still claim the excess fees back - if I am wrong, I'm sure someone will point it out.

 

While you are at it, ask for a copy of your originally signed Consumer Credit Agreement (CCA) for both loans

 

The template is on here, under the templates section. Don't forget the payment of £1.

 

They have been unable to produce mine, which can make the loan unenforceable.

 

Another point, A lot of people also state that WFS MAKE you take out the PPI - this is not allowed and there is also ways of claiming that back.

 

Good luck!!!

[valhala]

Just An Update....

 

 

After I sent my letter asking for my "fees" back to the Compliance Department in their Ruddington address I got a letter back last week from the lady saying "sorry you are unhappy with how your account has been run" and they have contacted my local branch who will be in contact with me, the letter also said I should send all future correspondence to my local branch rather then the compliance department.

 

 

Anyway I got some call yesterday from some dude from my local branch. he informed me that he will be dealing with my account from now on as there has been a change around within the branch(surely not because of complaints???? :grin: ).

 

He also said sorry about me not being happy and that management are looking into my complaint about my charges and will get back to me.

 

Hmmmmm anyway I am not very keen on this getting dealt with over the phone as sometimes you might agree to things that you regret later, or they might say things that they deny later.

 

Well I am going to stick with my schedule and that means a letter before action will be sent out on Monday, I am thinking of sending copies of all my correspondence onto the compliance department just as insurance that its being dealt with .

 

After I have sent my LBA letter I think I will also write a separate letter to them politely asking for them to only deal with this issue via letter and not phone calls.

 

 

At present I am using the same method(letter templates) as I have done for reclaiming charges from the major banks, I am not entirely sure if this is the correct way as I am sure these loan sharks fall under a different set of rules/regulations to the banks??? thus probably meaning letters should have a different content, well anyway I have not seen any other templates and I have not read any threads from people claiming penalty fees from welcome finance so I shall continue on this route.

 

I am also going to fight to make sure my "penalty fees" are sent to me via cheque and not just as a refund onto my account.

 

 

I am really angry with myself for using this company. After I looked through all my data the compliance department sent me and see that fron the £190 I pay each month £120 of that is interest and just £70 is going towards the loan. I took the loan out just before xmas 2006 and at present my outstanding balance that I owe on the loan is actually about £150 more then it was when I took it out....it is disgusting, I really think a lot more welcome customers should start taking action on this company.

 

I have dreaded going to court with my other claims with HSBC and Nationwide but with Welcome Finance I have a strong desire to actually end up in a court room with them.

[chancer1]

Hi Valhala,

 

They are a rip off merchant, I took out a £5000 loan and after paying back £7,500 they still wanted over £8k to settle 5 years early - if I kept the loan for the full term, they would command a total return of £19,500 - yes for £5k - I have since had my outstanding balance wiped and written off.

 

I managed to do this due to their non compliance of a CCA request.

Have you requested a copy of your signed Consumer Credit Agreement - without this, it is very difficult for them to enforce the loan.

 

There is a template on here -and don't forget the £1 fee.

 

Good Luck!!

[valhala]

Hi Valhala,

 

They are a rip off merchant, I took out a £5000 loan and after paying back £7,500 they still wanted over £8k to settle 5 years early - if I kept the loan for the full term, they would command a total return of £19,500 - yes for £5k - I have since had my outstanding balance wiped and written off.

 

I managed to do this due to their non compliance of a CCA request.

Have you requested a copy of your signed Consumer Credit Agreement - without this, it is very difficult for them to enforce the loan.

 

There is a template on here -and don't forget the £1 fee.

 

Good Luck!!

 

 

Hi Chancer,

 

 

yes my signed agreement was of the copies of documents I recieved last week.

[chancer1]

Have you had it checked out, there was a forum on here were people were looking at agreements ensuring that the right t&c's and prescribed terms were correct

[valhala]

Have you had it checked out, there was a forum on here were people were looking at agreements ensuring that the right t&c's and prescribed terms were correct

 

 

 

No I haven`t had it checked out. I suppose I could scan it, who is the best person on here to check it out??

[chancer1]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/33174-consumer-credit-act-agreements.html?highlight=CCA+agreements

 

This is the forum for CCA's.

[valhala]

Got a reply back from my branch manager on Saturday. it basically says "after detailed research we can confirm that all penalty fees are fair and in line with our compliance department, you should have seen in the leaflets supplied when taking out the loan". guess changing from charges to fees is something a lot of organisations are going to be doing. most of my "fees" are for £25 bounced direct debits but also letter and phone calls. the one thing that I just can`t believe is they have charged me almost £70 as a "account clearance charge". basically when I was down to my last few hundred on an old loan I used my current loan to clear it, and they have charged me £70 for the privilege, and on top of that I have a £75 acceptance fee for my current loan.

 

I really don`t know how they get away with it. Anyway I am going to continue with the court route(same as reclaiming from high street banks, wish I could read some success stories from people reclaiming from welcome finance.) I hope I can get back these charges that come to almost £600.

 

 

[chancer1]

Unless they have justified their cost in relation to the charges or fees - whatever you want to call them - they are reclaimable.

 

I was gonna go after fees with WFS, but think the 8K written off, is enough for now.

 

But, Good Luck and keep us posted

[steven4064]

"after detailed research we can confirm that all penalty fees are fair and in line with our compliance department,

Thay actually said that?!

 

Easy job then. Make sure you keep the letter to use in evidence against them.