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

[dollies01]

Years ago, I stupidly got a car loan from Welcome Finance.........everythin g 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 <shrugs>
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]

Originally Posted by 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

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

[dollies01]

So, skip the covering note, just send a Subject Access Request 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!</