Welcome Finance - This company needs to be banned.

[eeeezzzyy]

I weep for poor old Welcome...NOT !!!...Is it me or are Welcome getting more and more desperate by the day ???

[banannaman]

Hi all i have been reading through all the post and have found some really good information but i was wondering if any one can offer me some advice. I took out a £2000. loan with WF back in Feb 04 and i was paying £161. p/m for 2 years. I cant remember what insurances i had tho. During the course of the 2 years i missed 5 payments in total. Around the time that i should of finished paying my loan i had a call to advise me that as i had arrears on my account i would need to call into my local office to sign additional paperwork to stop my account being passed over to credtors and i only had a few days to do this. I went into my local branch and signed the paperwork but what i was actually signing for was a top up loan (I didnt know this at the time as im not good at reading things and was in a rush) and it now means i am paying £34.00 p/m for 5 yrs. Is there anything i can do about this as i have misplace both contracts that i signed due to moving house. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

 

Oh on another note have just received a letter from them stating they are putting up their charges from £20 to £25 and any statements we request will be £10. as they will provide an annual one. Think they are trying to get more money!!

[eeeezzzyy]

Oh yes they are trying desperatly to claw anything they can from people, thanks to this site im taking a stand against them this month so thats £197 per month less in Cattles/Welcomes shrinking funds

[Roger_Ahoy]

Hi all

 

I have been informed Today that Welcome Finance has "ceased trading"...

 

It is not a rumour as far as i can see, as the news came first hand from someone i know, who is going through an application with 'em at the moment.

 

R

[pt2537]

is there anything to support this view?

 

how did they come into this info?

[Voda]

This is Cattles website this morning.

 

Nothing mentioned here except the share price.

 

Cattles | Home

[andie_303]

They have stoped lending to new customers - they did this a few weeks back so maybe your friend has confused they have ceased lending to new customers with that they have ceased lending althogether.

 

As I am in the middle of a court case with them with me trying to reclaim £3000 I sincerley hope this is wrong!!!!

[082stewie]

Hi,

 

I have been following Welcome/Cattles very closely for the past few months, I am about to pounce with my claim.

 

They are trading, well shares are being traded on the markets.

They need to raise something like £500mil for roll over debts with the banks. So they have stopped lending out to new customers and MAY service/lend to existing customers only.

 

The staff have been instructed to get money back into the company and get people paying. They could have upto £300mil impairment provision for PPI etc etc. So they need to get money IN as quickly as possible and not lending out.

 

They stopped lending out to new customers recently but cut all lending back by 95% a few weeks ago.

 

Stewie

[Sol]

I've received three letters from Welcome today!

 

First - I had complained that I thought they had included the Acceptance Fee as part of the loan and, therefore, charging me interest on this. I agree with them on this that it wasn't. They also included a statement which I received in my initial complaint AND charged £10 for this, needless to say, they can sing for that.

 

Second - An offer of a 35% reduction if I pay in full within 21 days. The branch are aware I'm a student and can't afford this! Idiots!

 

Third - The charges letter.

[Sol]

I've typed up a short letter to WF. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

I am writing in response to your letter and would like to notify you that I will only respond to head office and not the branch in future.

 

I have notified the branch previously of my financial circumstances and advised that I could only afford to pay £1 per month. This has not changed. Please advise of how I can set this up.

 

Furthermore, I would like to add that I will charge £10 for each letter sent in reply to any queries you may have from today's date.

 

Finally, I would also like to remind you that I am still awaiting a reply to my Subject Access Request and that you have until the 9th March 2009 to respond. After this time I will take my complaint to the Information Commissioner.

 

Yours faithfully

 

xxxxxx

[jamiethemac]

"Furthermore, I would like to add that I will charge £10 for each letter sent in reply to any queries you may have from today's date."

 

Best of luck, but do you have any way of actually enforcing a £10 charge?

[Sol]

Probably not, but why not put it in?

[eeeezzzyy]

Probably not but then again look at the "hidden charges" Welcome [problem] us with.....thats why we dont get statements !!!!...Im doing the same with my SAR this month charging them £25 for every letter i write to them and £10 for every time i have to give up my valuable time to answer the phone to the little loves !!!

[Sol]

Probably not but then again look at the "hidden charges" Welcome [problem] us with.....thats why we dont get statements !!!!...Im doing the same with my SAR this month charging them £25 for every letter i write to them and £10 for every time i have to give up my valuable time to answer the phone to the little loves !!!

 

You're absolutely rightabout them being hidden. The problem with 'capitalisation' is that it includes everything. So I'm not 100% if they've charged me for the statement, which I received last month. Worst company to deal with!

[jamiethemac]

Probably not but then again look at the "hidden charges" Welcome [problem] us with.....thats why we dont get statements !!!!...Im doing the same with my SAR this month charging them £25 for every letter i write to them and £10 for every time i have to give up my valuable time to answer the phone to the little loves !!!

 

The difference is their charges will be in your contracts, so don't expect them to pay anything you try to charge them. It would be funny if some court somewhere ruled that they had to though

[eeeezzzyy]

Blimey you recieved a "statement"....ive been asking since Nov 08...Thats why im finally gonna Subject Access Request em and oh yeah....not pay em till they give me the info i require.....

[eeeezzzyy]

Well i dont want to throw fuel on the bonfire, but the Welcome Car Showroom...yes i know (more like a second hand car lot than showroom) near me has been very empty in the last week and the showroom bit only has roughly 10-15 cars in it normally it has around 40-50 and the outside pound is totally empty !!

[Sol]

The difference is their charges will be in your contracts, so don't expect them to pay anything you try to charge them. It would be funny if some court somewhere ruled that they had to though

 

Not in my contract. They've been charging me £10, when in fact it should be £5.

[andie_303]

I wrote to Welcome last week about the increase in charges saying that as they unilaterally thought it ok to charge £25 to me that I was going to charge them £25 for everytime I have to correspond with them I.E ' Please can I have the SAR I requested 5 months ago!!!!'

 

Funny no response as yet but i'm gonna push it further got nothing to lose (in fact as I seem to be the only person actually paying Welcome at the moment they NEED my custom!!!) and after the 14 days I'm gonna correspond with them over some nonsense and then send them a bill for £25 and see what happens LMAO

 

I have nothing better to do with my time obviously.....I just think all the harrassment this company has dished out time to get some back

[eeeezzzyy]

Too right Andy, i for one have been paying them for two years have never had a statement and have no idea what charges have been levied against me, hence why im SAR..ing em lol, and im gonna chance my arm and tell them to go whistle when they want some money this month, hopefully ill play a small part in this disgusting companies downfall !!

[www.dot.com]

welcome finance must be charging extortionate rates. I cant believe how much he has to pay back. There must be a way around paying all that interest back. Any ideas.

 

 

great site..only just joined

[chrisb333]

Somethings going on!

They didnt phone me last week before my pay date to ask when I was paying. (had done every month previously)

 

Also, when I phoned to make my payment, I went straight through to head office, when usually had to be transferred from local office.

 

Gonna phone local office again later.

I do hope its closed down (kinda sorry about the peoples jobs, but they shouldn't work for scumbags anyway-hey guys, go and find a proper job where you can actually help people)

 

Can other folk phone their own head offices and see?

[082stewie]

I think its the end of Cattles/Welcome, down another 75% today ALREADY!!! Directors have been suspended pending investigation. Seems like they have not applied the impairments correctly (This is PPI and write-offs etc)

 

 

CTT Today's

summaryBid1.25p

Ask1.25p

Low1.01p

Previous close5.2p

Change-3.95p

(-75.96%) Volume12.31M

 

 

 

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - Cattles PLC:

BOARD BELIEVES THAT THERE HAS BEEN A BREAKDOWN IN INTERNAL CONTROLS WHICH HAS

resulted in the group's impairment policies having been applied incorrectly

 

THE BOARD BELIEVES THAT PROFIT BEFORE TAX FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER,

2008 is likely to be substantially lower than its expectations as at 20

February 2009

 

JOHN BLAKE, MANAGING DIRECTOR, PETER MILLER, FINANCE DIRECTOR AND MICK

belcher, Operations director of welcome financial services have been

suspended pending the outcome of an inquiry which is also being conducted by

Deloitte

Edited March 3, 2009 by 082stewie

[Voda]

After yesterday's plunge of the Stock Market, Welcome Finance had little chance.

 

All I hope and pray for is that whoever takes on WF's business is a respectable organisation that is a pleasure to deal with.

[chrisb333]

Update on earlier post.

Phoned local office number and was diverted straight through to the admin centre.

They couldn't get throught to the local branch although she said he was on the phone

Any idea on how I find out if the Wolverhampton branch is actually closed?