yes i surely did: ###################### dear mr XXXXXXXX i have been advised by our complaints dept you have made a statement that you were told when you took out the loan the payment protection was compulsory. (atrocious grammar ) as the loan was taken whilst your agreement was at the cardiff branch and i am obviously unable to comment on what process was followed, i have taken the opportunity to enclose copies of the personal loan agreement form and the customer declaration forms which you signed at the time of the loan which confirms you are aware of the terms and conditions of the agreement and insurances. i have highlighted the appropriate points for perusal. (crappy photocopies of documents I already have following my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) stapled to letter). I would also point out that on 17.03.05 we sent a settlement figure to you which included the breakdown of insurances and the rebates available on settlement. a settlement figure was also produced on 10.8.06 outlining the same information. on both occasions you did not question the insurances. it appears from the information provided on the application form you were eligible for and met the criteria for being recommended the insurances which also included medicare 24 cover. I would confirm our company policy toi cancel insurances is within 30 days of recieving the policy documents which includes a section on your cancellation rights. the agreement was written in decemeber 2003 and so is outside your cancellation rights. i trust my explanation is suitable for your purposes but if you require additional information you may contact me at the above address. yours sincerely janet xxxxxx branch manager ################## so basically, a fob off letter, poorly written, which argues the following points: account has 'changed branch' so the new branch isn't responsible for the conduct of staff at the original branch. I don't need to elaborate on how unbelievably laughable that argument is. that i was aware of the terms and conditions & my right to cancel. B*llocks was I! they kept me in a tiny office room for over an hour while the loan was being agreed, when I said I didn't want the insurance, i was categorically told that no PPI = no loan! I've had 2 settlement figures and I didn't question the insurance at either time..... well, i was so shocked at how big the settlement figures were, i guess i missed that one. and i didn't know what i know now! i was elligible for the insurance..... i don't care if i was or wasn't, i was forced into taking it and at no point during the application process was I shown a quote without PPI! why not? because the salesperson was going to make a wedge of commission on the deal! I hate welcome finance even more now. but to be honest, I wasn't really expecting anything other than a response letter containing the utter crap that this letter contains. I'm drafting a response to this letter - i'm also considering signing up with a compensation specialist for this claim, it's not the money i'm bothered about, it's beating these loan sharks. I'll happily give away 25% for the smug feeling i'll have at the end. by the way, my loan was for 2500, I'm still paying it back (2 payments left), i've already paid back over 5k, and the total cost of the insurance - bundled in up-front - was £812. welcome - stay well away.

"liabilous" that was one of my concerns, thanks for your advice nathal!

I'd appreciate it if people in a similar boat could review this letter and advise accordingly if anyone has had any similar dealings with welcome, regardless of outcome, i'd very much like to hear about it. I have borrowed bits from other PPI refund claim letters floating around. i'm sending this next week - if there are any parts that those in the know feel are a bit inflammatory, i'll take them out. I know individuals shouldn't enter into disputes like this with an angry head, but the way this company operates makes me sick - they are literally nothing more than legitamised loan sharks. I was told exclusively that if i did not agree to the PPI, i wouldn't get the loan. the total amount for the PPI premium over the term was bundled into the loan amount up front, and that was that. anyway - rant over - letter below: xxxxxx Account Number: XXXXXXXX MIS-SELLING of PPI - COMPLAINT Dear Sir or Madam, I took out a loan with your company on December 15th, 2003, At an APR of 32.8%. When I took out the loan, I was not offered any quotations without PPI; I was told that I would not have been given the loan if I did not take PPI. I have since been told that this is not true, and that you are not allowed to make PPI a condition of taking out the loan unless you include the costs of PPI in your quoted loan interest rate, which you did not do. I did call several months after to enquire about cancelling the PPI – in order to lower my monthly repayments and alleviate ongoing financial difficulties – and I was told that this was not possible; again, another incorrect statement. Your loan agreement states this as ‘optional’ – this is a wholly misleading term. I therefore consider that I have been mis-sold this obscenely expensive insurance, which I do not need and which I said at the time that I did not want. I’ve spent some time researching this matter and it appears I’m not the only welcome finance customer in this position. You took advantage of my poor credit rating and desperation, at the time, in order to extract the largest possible profit margins. The stated PPI amount listed on the agreement is £812.68. I have been advised that I should be able to cancel the PPI contract at any time and receive a refund of the premium that I have paid. I would like to do this - And in view of the way I was mis-sold the insurance, I would like to ask for a full refund of the whole premium. I would appreciate a reply to this letter within fourteen days. If you reject this complaint, I would be grateful if you could state whether you provide an internal appeals process. If you do not, please supply me with a final response letter, so that I can take up the matter with the Financial Ombudsman Service. Please do not assume that I will be satisfied with anything other than a full and prompt refund of the entire £812.68. If this does not happen, I will happily escalate my complaint and also contact press agencies with details of this matter. Yours faithfully, XXX XXXXXX

i'm still waiting for conversational details relating to the phone calls i've made & system notes etc. what i really need to know is the date i called (approx 1 mth after taking out the loan) to cancel the PPI - surprise surprise, i was basically told to 'f off' !!!!

welcome finance are utter utter ****. sorry if this statement constitutes defamation or something, but they make me very angry indeed. i took out a loan for 2500 in december 2003, at 34.9% apr, and was treated the same manner as jcasey - made to stew in a small hot office for almost an hour while 'checks' were made. i was also explicitly told that PPI was not optional, and acceptance for the loan was subject to taking the PPI. the costs of the PPI were applied up front, totalled £812 and took the total borrowing amount up to £3312. I was one payment late last year due to a works payroll error, and even though i phoned them in advance to warn of the issue, they still charged me £20 for a letter and £20 for a phone call. and of course, they neglected to let me know that a payment was never taken for that month so they could apply additional penalty interest. my loan was due to be settled next month, but interest and charges mean that three more installments of 140 are due. i'm in the process of recovering the PPI premiums, as others already have. i don't know how successful i'm going to be, but i'm damned if i'm going to let these ***** get away with fleecing me like they have. their response to my SAR request made me laugh, as the first item listed in the covering letter was 'credit agreement shows that insurances taken at interview'... in other words, they know exactly what i'm going in for - i'm obviously not the first person to have a go! to date i have paid over 5000 for a £2500 loan over a 36 month term. shocking. if you are reading this and are in financial difficulty and need a loan - for goodness sake, steer clear of WELCOME FINANCE.

well i have a friend who called them directly before AQ submissal, offering to accept settlement in full, and got his/her money within seven days.....

thunderpuss... handy hint. give SCM a ring - to discuss settlement - before submitting the AQ; you never know

my claim against is being handled by SCM. it's for 1500; we're at the AQ stage, i've got the form in front of me right now with a cheque for the fee... i'm tempted to give SCM a ring (got the number and contact name for the person handling the case) and ask if they want to settle before i submit the AQ, which i'm planning to do tonight. the question is, will such action prejudice my case? or should i just chance it and pick up the phone?

what number did you use? just tried a number i found as a result of a google search, in cockfosters - guy i spoke to had no idea who i should be calling. feeling cheeky today, it's friday and the weather is nice

just got off the blower to the moneyclaim bods (busy? 9 mins in the queue!). once defence is filed the date of the claim reverts back to the original date of first submissal, in this case when i filed and paid on the 22nd of june. the case has been moved to pontypridd county court (just up the road from me), and the AQ was sent for my attention this morning. for your case, how long did it take between submitting the AQ and the offer letter? did you get as far as a getting court date? or was settlement offered soon after you furnished their request for obvious information? lloyds have also taken another 30 quid from my account for charges in june, guess i'll have to lump that one on as well!

check this out: Lloyds Tsb Bank PLC Defence(22/06/2006) they've entered a defence according to the moneyclaim website - can't be long until i get the AQ now wonder why the defence date is 22/06?

note to self: don't mess with thunderpuss! claim was deemed to be served on the 27th of june. tick tock

hi thunderpuss (cool name!) how long from being served according to MCOL did it take for SCM to enter a defence or write to you? my claim was acknowledged on the 26th of june - the clock is ticking and i've not heard anything yet. I understand I can apply for judgement after 28 days, does this not include weekends? their letter to you does look a bit like a stalling tactic, at the end of the day they are working for lloyds, they should have this info handy!

i'm on a managed loan (to cover the charges + out of control overdraft) @ 16.9% apr. took out in april 2004, reduced the payments in august from 140 to 69 - turns out their system couldn't support this change, and even though i've not missed a single payment, HSBC have been telling experian i'm at least 6 payments behind each month - royally shagging my credit rating. if there's something i can do to get a bit back or even get the remaining balance written off, i'm all ears (if you're a lawyer and you think you can do it, i'm obviously willing to pay). only solution to their 'systems error' is to offer me ANOTHER loan over a longer term, this time at 12.9%.

one word - legend. simple as.

ditto.

apologies mate

hi all, confirmation came through the post today: papers have been served, defendant wishes to defend all of the claim solicitors are sechiari, clark and mitchell of brighton. no need to ask what to do next - STICK TO MY GUNS!!!!

Hi peeps something to read over a cuppa! just wondered if anyone floating around in these forums could offer some advice... from a similar experience etc. i recently got a copy of my credit report from experian (viewed online). I've been having a great deal of trouble getting credit in the last 2 years - i simply assumed that i had a bad credit rating and accepted it. It has even resulted in a job offer withdrawal in september 2005. whenever i tried to take out a loan, only 'sub prime' companies would give me the time of day - i ended up having to go to black horse finance for a loan at approx 29% apr. so you'll be surprised to learn that, on viewing my file, i find that the only detrimental data against me is from HSBC for a managed loan account. everything else is straight as, well, a very straight thing. no wonder the sub-prime companies were eager to give me cash....easy money! first thing i do is phone hsbc. shortly after i took out this 'managed loan' (to pay off overdraft, credit card, bank charges etc) i asked for the payments to be reduced, as per the flexibility of the loan product. this request was accepted and actioned straight away in or around mid 2004. alarm bells started to ring. i came up with the theory that maybe their automated general ledger processing system and feed to experian couldn't cope with the revised payments (used to work in IT for a bank), and was sending incorrect data to experian. guess what... i was right! for the past two years HSBC has been telling the uk's major credit information service that i am well behind on my loan payments, despite not ever missing a beat. they phoned me on friday to confirm this. the best bit is the 'solution'; apparently it's a systems issue - which can't be resolved - the only way out is to sign and return new loan papers for the outstanding amount (£3770) albeit at a slightly lower apr (12.1%), taking my loan completion date through to 2013! does anyone have any suggestions as to what can be done? it's my understanding that the information issue constitutes non-compliance with the data protection act 1998... can i take HSBC to court over this? thanks for reading

cheers mate. i included it in the preliminary letter anyway - i figured the threat of a serious complaint might make them offer something sooner rather than later. i do feel royally shafted though, especially over the job offer!

Hi guys, I'm about to send off my first letter to HSBC today - total charges £1669. However, I've recently gotten hold of some interesting information, and I was wondering if I should refer to this info in the prelim letter, to get things moving a little bit quicker. I've often had trouble obtaining credit, and in september 2005 I had a job offer from firstplus withdrawn following credit checks on the basis of information in my credit file. I finally got round to getting my file and it turns out that the only negative information in there is my loan account with HSBC. I've got a 'managed loan' account which gives me the facility to lower / increase the monthly payments at will. I requested a drop in payments in august 2004, which was agreed and signed for. It seems their automated systems can't cope with this amendment, because they've been telling experian that i'm many months behind on this account - despite the fact that I am indeed 100% up to date with all payments. suffice to say, i'm a little bit annoyed about this. I was wondering if I could / should use any of this info in my preliminary letter - does anyone have an opinion? oh, and thanks for reading this stupidly long post

cool. i'm just eager to get the ball rolling further. then HSBC are in my sights next.

indeed - in fact, between lloyds prelim response and the sending of the LBA, there was considerably more than 14 days. i was too busy with other things to get down to sending the LBA promptly.

Hi all, just a quick query - I sent Lloyds my LBA last week, recieved the standard response this morning - a 1 week turnaround. I used an LBA template from this forum (which kicks ass by the way!), allowing 14 days. my question is thus: do I have to wait an additional seven days, or can I get the moneyclaim ball rolling now? the total claim is £1157 at the moment, not including the 8% apr interest, there has been another £30 excess overdraft fee flagged but not yet applied to my account - should I include this in my claim as well? ta in advance - and rest assured this site will be getting a donation when I get my money back

i got exactly the same letter last week. i'd be interested to see yours, no doubt it's identical word for word. i particularly enjoyed the nicely worded threats about withdrawing my cheque book, debit cards and overdraft facility if i continued on this course of action.