Thread: Another Welcome Finance Issue to get your teeth into!!

Hello all

Following some excellent advice I recieved on this site yesterday, I thought Id post another potential drama, this time with Welcome Finance.

Okay.............. so Ive had several loans with Welcome spanning somewhere around 15 years!! My current loan was a secured loan on my property, that was originally taken out in October 2003 for 14, 488.64 (with PPI that I was told if I didnt take I wouldnt get the loan) and then re-written to £20,000 when I recieved some additional funds in April 2005. When it was re-written, the PPI was dropped but I was hit with a £2,200 Motgage Indemnity Fee and also a £235 Acceptance Fee.

I paid £314 to this loan each month until October 2006 when I sold my property. I asked welcome for a settlement figure based on a balance owed of £23,500.17. After selling the house I had £19,007.97 available which I thought would work out. Welcome said this wasnt enough to clear the loan in full and so took the £19,007.97 and paid it towards my loan leaving me with a balance owed of £4492.20.

They then offered me reduced monthly payments as I was "so far in advance with this loan" and I started paying them £150 a month. Obviously the loan was no longer secured as I no longer owned the house, but I didnt sign any new contract for the remainin balance.

I had fallen into difficult times and stopped paying for a while and now they have frozen the interest on my account. The balance as of February 2010 was £2695.22 but they then charged me £420.84 capitalisation in March - even though interest is frozen??? Ive phoned several times now and nobody can explain this to me - I phoned again today and was told the charge was "an IT issue at our end". He couldnt elaborate on this and when pressed about someone coming back to me, basically said no - you phone us in a week for answers. He also said my account was "£6243.82 in a plus state" as Id paid so much when I sold the house.

Now something doesnt add up to me with this. The interest paid, the mortgage indemnity charge and acceptance fee, the paying £19k but still being left with a hefty balance and the not signing a new now unsecured agreement. I have the full statement from day 1 here and I can post it up if required. A quick Breakdown is as follows:

Loan amount: £20,000 (re-written from a previous secured loan)
mortgage Indemnity Fee: £2,200
Acceptance fee: £235
Total £22,435

Capitalisation to date: £8122.88
Payments to date: £7869.71 plus a lump sum of £19,007.97
Conversion/default charges: £205

Total paid: £26,877.68

Any advice will once again be very much appreciated.

Ok, Firstly DO NOT PANIC.
As you are well aware the company is selling debts. The Account mnagers are targeted on cash collection targets, so will try to get a Full payments off you.
Take issue with the MIF (mortgage indemnity fee) via thier compliance department DO not go through the branch it takes ages.
It should have been waived some time ago.
The interest freeze would have taken place without the branch being aware, they cannot explain it, nobody really can. Ensure the interest added to the account is on the correct dates and balances, request a copy statement to verify this.
Also, due to poor advise to were told to clear the loan at a lower rate of payment which would act to your detriment.
Argue the PPI as it's removal and additional interest added will reduce any balance outstanding.
Make offer to short settle offer 60% and monitor the flow of telephone traffic to yourself.

get copies of everything you signed and quote names in correspondence. It really helps.
I argues them to accept 70% short in settlement out of my redundancy that I received in January.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by exsmoker

Ok, Firstly DO NOT PANIC.
As you are well aware the company is selling debts. The Account mnagers are targeted on cash collection targets, so will try to get a Full payments off you.
Take issue with the MIF (mortgage indemnity fee) via thier compliance department DO not go through the branch it takes ages.
It should have been waived some time ago.
The interest freeze would have taken place without the branch being aware, they cannot explain it, nobody really can. Ensure the interest added to the account is on the correct dates and balances, request a copy statement to verify this.
Also, due to poor advise to were told to clear the loan at a lower rate of payment which would act to your detriment.
Argue the PPI as it's removal and additional interest added will reduce any balance outstanding.
Make offer to short settle offer 60% and monitor the flow of telephone traffic to yourself.

get copies of everything you signed and quote names in correspondence. It really helps.
I argues them to accept 70% short in settlement out of my redundancy that I received in January.

Good luck.

Hi mate and thanks

The PPI was on the previous loan and that was cancelled when the loan was re-written, so I may have a claim for that in a seperate case but not for my current agreement unfortunately.

re the MIF thats what I thought would be the right way to proceed (compliance dept) however Im not sure if I have a case here? Are they well within there right to charge me this?

Many thanks

If they argue re MIF, it was cancelled across all WFS agreements in 2008/2009. It should have been re funded from your agreement and any int applied also.
You need a statement to verify.

Good Luck.

PM sent

Cheers

Originally Posted by exsmoker

If they argue re MIF, it was cancelled across all WFS agreements in 2008/2009. It should have been re funded from your agreement and any int applied also.
You need a statement to verify.

Good Luck.

MAY I ASK WHERE YOU HAVE THIS INFO FROM

MANY THANKS

Something else I should really add.

At the time because I didnt have a deposit when we bought the house, the amount borrowed was made up of a mortgage and a secured loan from Northern Rock. Welcome was a second secured loan on the property, so would that make a difference in terms of the motgage indemnity fee?

The Mif Is A Joke

Its Just A Charge Welcome Put On To Boost Profits, There Is No Insurance Policy In Place

Are We Talking A 100% Mortage

Id need to check mate, but I think (if I remember correctly) it would have been 125% motgage?? Does that make sense? Northern Rock gave us the momey in the form of a mortgage and a secured loan to purchase the property and have a little left over for upgrades.

Later in the mortgage term I got a second secured loan through welcome.

a second secured loan from welcome

was there equity in the house then

Originally Posted by postggj

a second secured loan from welcome

was there equity in the house then

Again I will need to check, but my recollection is that the equity available on the property took me right up to the full value of the house when I got the second loan. So yes, there was equity there hence when I sold it not long after was able to repay the full mortgage and £19k to welcome (but they still left me with £4.5k balance)

I have a full statement from welcome - I will see if I can figure out how to post it up

I cant access photbucket from my works PC, so I hope this works!!

Morning gents

I have now recived my SAR from Welcome Finance in record time, but all they have sent me is a copy of the original credit agreement and a full statement of account from day one to account closure. There are no other details included.

One thing I have noted is that on the credit agreement it does state "this loan is made on the security of a 2nd legal charge" First motgagee is Northern Rock.

Does this affect or influence the mortgage indemnity fee I had to pay?

No. Mif is calculate as a percentage of the loan you took out on the start of the agreement.

Sorry I wasnt very clear there, what I meant was that if I already have a mortgage with Nornther Rock, plus a secured loan with Northern Rock on top of that and then a second secured loan with Welcome Finance, should they have charged me a mortgage indemnity fee?

Also I have now recieved a second recorded delivery letter from Welcome today that contains a mass of information from my SAR, so will wade through it and see what I can find.

Just been reviewing my Subject access request from welcome finance and within that there is a note from an account manager. It was documented on 15/9/09 under the title ACCOUNT REVIEW and something just isnt right with this. It reads:

"Call in from I T, P* I T advised that settlement is so high as this is a rule of 78 agreement, which means that settlement figure is calculated on months remaining and not current balance, asked if therefore get balance payment from cust then email I T to close zero balance account, male advised that that wont be what happensas cust has to pay settlement fig to clear account as is written into contract.
Male also advised that once balance paid then have to keep taking payments from cust and deposit into suspense till enough funds to settle account. S* need to advise cust to either maintain toke payments or pay bvalanceand take chances with us being able to settle account, if cust pays 2K then £10 per month for term."

Some details:
1: The original secured loan was for £20k (and they charged me a mortgage indemnity fee of £2200, even though this was a second secured loan on the property)
2. When I sold the property I had already paid £7869.71 in installments.
3. I sold the property and asked for a settlement figure, but intead they just took a payment from me of £ 19,007.97 (total paid £26,877.68) and put it towards the account balance, leaving me owing according to them £4492.20.
4. Now the property was sold and the loan obviously not secured on it anymore, but I did not receive a new contract or any documentation to say the loan was now unsecured.
Can someone in the know please let me know what they think about this.

Much appreciated
Paul

Guys, anyone, please???

I am being called on my mobile 2-3 times a day every day, evening and weekend by there collections department. I have spoken to a dozen people, 2 managers and have told/threatened them not to phone again but it keeps happening. Even the person I spoke with yesterday admitted something was seriously wrong with my account and that there were many discrepancies.

I just cannot cope with this any longer!!! Ive recently lost my job (have secured a new one now) my mother is ill with cancer, im trying to look after my younger brother who is disabled and Im suppsed to be deploying to Afghanistan in the coming months (Reserve Forces). I can handle all of that, but this constant bombardment with phonecalls if tipping me over the edge, especially when I genuinely believe they have stung me with this loan.

Absolutely any advice on whether I have a case against them (not for the phonecalls but for the loan being invalid/incorrect) would be so much appreciated.