Hi all,

I am hoping someone can offer me some advice please as i am a little confused by all this.

I took out a secured loan in 2006 with Welcome Finance and thereafter got into financial difficulty with the loan going into arrears.

A company called Experito Credite then got in touch to set up a payment plan, which I did paying them £50 a month.

After this, the loan was then transferred over to Lowells who i continued with the same payment of £50 a month.

However, on looking at my recent Lowells statement, it claims a company called Sigma Financial Group are the original creditors.

I have never heard of this company and i cant find any link on the net between them and Welcome Finance.

I obtained a copy of my deeds and Welcome Finance are listed as having a charge but there is no mention of any of these other companies.

I am looking to sell the property and possibly get a reduced settlement.

Having spoken to CAB, they advised me to do a SAR in the first instance, to check for PPI or charges.

Only now i'm unsure who the SAR should go to, Welcome, Lowells or SIGMA?

I haven't dealt with Welcome in over 7 years now so would they even have this information?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Hi and Welcome to CAG

See post #3 of the following thread......all one and the same.

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?480656-Restriction-of-sale-from-now-dissolved-company-(Sigma-SPV1)&highlight=Sigma

Thanks for this, useful read. So I can just go ahead and SAR Lowells, see what they come up with.

Just out of curiosity, why would Lowells not register a charge on my property since they now own the debt?

I'm confused as to how this would work when (and if) i do get a full and final settlement. If i settle with Lowells, how will i deal with getting WF to take their charge off?

Sorry I'm new to this and just trying to get my head round how this charge works!

Its not always necessary to change the charge to their name as it will be linked through their portfolio when they acquired the debt.

Normally changes are only made if they wished to litigate further..then they become the claimant in name.

Andy

Youve been had blind from day one!

Get that sar to welcome running

Have you ever sent whom you pay a cca request too?

Do you still have a copy of the org agreement??

If so read upload and scan it up!!

Thanks for this!

I sent a sar to welcome years ago and still have the mound of paperwork from that but cab had suggested to sar lowells or sigma, which I will do.

I've never done a cca for lowells, should I do this along side the sar? Ie, can I ask for both at once? Or do I do one at a time?

Thanks in advance

I always recommend separate..less chance of saying never received

Can you scan up the welcome sar to one multipage pdf please

Read upload

Thanks Andy, I will do that ASAP, separately.

DX, its a lot of paperwork, would it be easier to scan and email to you?

I can do this tomorrow when I'm back in the office.

Thanks

no up here please

so everyone can help you.

Of course! the more help the better.

I'll do it at the weekend then as I'll have more time to work through and cover any personal information.

Title updated

Do you know if these payments have been going off the balance that welcome have?

I'e on the statements from the sar are those payments made to sigma then experto then lowell showing?

Ive a feeling that these dcas are only collecting for their client..welcome finance?

Hence their names still being on the deeds

To be honest I'm not sure, my SAR from Welcome is from 2011 and I can't remember what my last Lowells statement said.

Would it be worthwhile sending Welcome a fresh SAR request to see what they have on me now?

I've sent the Lowells letters so just a waiting game on that information.

I'm trying to upload the documents I have from Welcome but having some difficulty with the Paint software trying to block out the personal information, i'll keep at it though and hopefully get it done today.

Thanks again

yes send a new sar cant hurt and its free

Hopefully all the information will be attached.

Going through it there doesn't appear to be any word of charges or PPI, in fact the only charge I can see is one for a few hundred at the start.

They have frozen the interest, I'm not sure when though as I have paid back approx. 9K and there is still about 11K left on a 13K loan.

A little background on the situation,

a very young and naïve partner and I who were already in some debt got a Northern Rock 110% mortgage and we managed to purchase a very small 1 bedroom flat.

It need a lot of work done though, hence the loan from Welcome but to be honest we were both in new trainee positions jobwise, earning a pittance (as you will see from the SAR) so a lot of the loan was used for surviving month to month and trying to do what we could to the property.

I'm not entirely sure how Welcome allowed us to get the loan, they've over estimated the house cost and completely disregarded the 110% mortgage and other debt we had. We really couldn't afford it. I guess this is how they work though!

I didn't deal with our finances at that point and we got into more and more financial difficulty with my partner burying his head in the sand, we couldn't stay afloat and then Welcome started harassing us at work and at home, door visits etc.

We ended up separating mainly due to all of this

I managed to get a DMP for all the other debts (all of this has been paid off now for years and our credit files are both clean) and eventually just started paying the DCA £50 a month.

My partner and I got back together and other than this loan have no debt now but we want to sell the flat hence why i'm now realising this is going to cause issues. I had initially assumed we could transfer the charge onto a new property but then started reading that Welcome don't allow this?

My thoughts then were to maybe get a reduced settlement if possible before we put the property for sale.

I imagine if they realised we were selling they'd hold out for the entire lot?

Or is it even possible to get secured loan changed to a personal loan (on the basis there was nothing for it to be secured on?)

Thanks

See if this is any better Dx.

Thanks,

Welcome.pdf

any fixed sum fees so

unpaid dd fee

letter fee

phonecall fee

rejected card fee

default sum int

had to hide your upload

you've left lots of pers info showing like ac numbers

and barcodes QR codes and address codes showing

you need to remove all those too.

I've asked someone to pop in

Thanks dx, are those charges reclaimable then?

With regard to the capitalisation, no I don't recall any mention of the capitalisation but it was some time ago.

Whats the consequences of that then?

I haven't came it across it when I've been reading other threads.

Sorry, I thought i'd got them all

- i'll go and have another look, I was started to go a bit crossed eyed doing it!

Have you been on the land registry to check your deeds? Do this by paying £3 and the for further information you need to fill in oc2 form and pay £7

yes they are reclaimable..or lets put it this way

should not be included in the balance outstanding

[and the int they caused]

if you didn't agree to capitalisation, if that's what ist IS [sadly welcome use that word for interest so might not actually be capitalisation of the arrears,,which bumps the outstanding figure up by extra int every month].]

I ordered a copy of the deeds last week and welcome have registered a charge on the property.

OK, so in the first instance I just need to wait on the sar from lowells and do another one for welcome? Then take it from there.

Thanks folks, the helps really appreciated.

gather everything you can first by whatever method.

the more info the better a picture

that comms log is quite revealing too.

Hey there,

I've had a response from welcome claiming they can't identify me from the account number I gave (it's correct) and my address (I haven't moved since I took the loan). They have a charge on my property so this seems strange to me.

The letter says I should call to discuss but I'm under no illusions and know I shouldn't communicate via phone but can anyone tell me what my written response should be?

No response from lowells yet.

Thanks

send them a copy of the charge

state if this is not you then please remove it ..I give you 14 days..prats!!

Thanks dx, I'll get a letter off ASAP.

What would be my next step if they don't provide a sar or remove the charge within the 14 days? I.e what action am I threatening them with for not providing what I'm asking for?

I doubt it will be that straightforward.....the charge will have been placed at the time of the loan...as this is a secured loan ..thats the T&CS of acceptance of the loan to secure it against your property.

There obviously was a secured loan...you have made payments......just because Welcome cant track it...most probably down to it being assigned.

Andy