Comes too late for Welscum, they closed their lending book ages ago, its their practices to bring in money now that need investigation!

I've no doubt they'r crooks based on a conversation my better half had with them just a few weeks ago re an existing a 0% agreement, which came about cos of a previous complaint about their practices, and it appears now that want to apply interest to the outstanding balance or for her to pay off the balance in full, this is depsite being bang up to date with payments and no arears, she told them to put it in writing if they dare and would happily see them in court, guess what, no such letter has been received to date! I can't believe the stunts these guys & gals pull, and to the vulernable or those scared by the threats, Welscum must get away with a lot of stuff that in short is illegal! They now seem ever more desperate than ever to claw money to be able to close their loan book asap, and in doing so pulling every stunt they can think of to do it! Its about time Welscum were investigated for their current practices let alone previous!

I hear that by the end of June the next round of mass branch closures/redundancies will be underway, and what remains of Welscum is to collect the outstanding loan book asap and using any means they can to do it! Overall it seems it will take another 2-3yrs before Welscum are gone, meanwhile Cattles will live on to nurture its succesful 'Shopacheck' doorstep loan shark arm, the whole lot should have been wiped off the finacial map ages ago

Thanks for the support Ozzy, I thought as much, and it just shows how low Welscum will stoop to claw money in. It has approx 15 months to run, unbeknown to them we could have paid it off in full at the re-sign, but as they were stupid enough to re-sign as a 0% agreement we thought to the hell with it, they can wait for their money! I'm hoping the local office or HO put's what they said on the phone in writing, cos we'll happily take our chances in court, and likley have the balance of the agreement voided at the same time, have never come across such a tosspot outfit of a company in all my 48yrs! I wish some guys who represent the FSA would drop by this forum just to take on board the stunts that Welscum are pulling, cos what they're doing amounts to deception!

This week out of the blue my partner had a call from the local office from supposedly the branch manager, I'll start off by saying my partner has a loan account that was re-signed in Aug 2008 for £825 +£75 acceptance fee on a 0% agreement, this came about beacuase of let's say Welscum's utter incompetence in handling the account which generated a fromal complaint, the re-signed agreement was to run for 36 months @£25 p/m, great so we thought! After 6 months it was noticed Welsum were taking £25.05 p/m instead of £25 dead, and despite many requests to reslove this they have continued to take 5p over and above what they should have been be taking, we put it down to Welscum stupidity and if they were that desp for 5p a month they were Welscum to it! Then out of the blue this week after hearing nothing from them for the best part of 15 months my partner gets a call from the local branch manager, asked if my partner was in a position to settle the account in full, because if she did not they would now start to add interest to the outstanding balance for the remaining period of the loan! You can imagine the expletives on being told what they had said! My partner still has the original yellow copy of the agreement which clearly notes 0% and £25 p/m over 36 months, she has never missed a payment or been late with a payment, and is bang up to date with payments. She also has an original letter from a Senior Manager at Welsum's Nottingham HO dated Aug 2008 who organised the re-sign, the letter clearly states "After looking into your complaint I have found that the best solution to resolve your isues are to re-schedule the account for £900 at 0% intereast to be paid over 36 months." But what I have noticed on the yellow agreement document below where the interest charge box is (which clearly notes 0%), is this: "Rate of interest per annum (variable by giving you 14 days notice in accordance with clause 1(b) overleaf." Clause 1(b) states: "We may from time to time increase or reduce the rate of interest after giving you 14 days written notice. We may give effect to any such increase or reduction by increasing or reducing the length of the duration of agreement or size of the monthly payments or both." Presumably Welscum cannot now do a thing about their 0% agreement, or can they on the basis of giving my partner 14 days notice in writing of Welscum's intent to add interest, or are Welscum as it seems, trying it on to pull a fast one because of their own desperate situation? I tell you, the sooner these clown's go out of business the better!

So much for the end of Welcome being nigh, I thought shareholders were looking to get Welcome into the receivers hands asap? The way I now see it is that Welcome will end up retaining the good accounts in repayment of its debt, and the non payment lot will get shunted onto Lewis, lets hope waiting is the best outcome for everyone, cos right now Welscum seem to be treading water quite well!

Pat123, I suppose there's no harm in making an offer to settle, though they're not oliged to reduce the amount, though often do if your settling in full.

Lewis Group are part of the Cattles Group (as are Welcome) and are Welcome's debt collector, so it appears your account has for some reason been passed for debt collection to Lewis.

Are Welcome any closer to actually being dead and burried i.e. the debt being called in? There was talk of shareholders taking action to force the issue, is there any update on this? Seems there are an awful a lot of customers out there poised for this to come about, though who knows if this will make things worse or better, maybe better the devil you know, that one can ring rings around due to Welcomes incompetence, than the one that takes up the reins?

Think you can only V/T it once you've paid off half of the agreement, otherwise you'll end up with no car and a remaining debt around your neck thereafter. If the car has issues, then maybe a call to your local Trading Standards Office might be a good start point, I wouldn't expect Welcome to rush around to help as they have other things on their mind right now The problem with the majority of cars Welcome sold and most sub-prime car dealers sell, is that in general they have cars that the general motor trade do not want which they buy on the cheap, they are generally very high mileage which can turn out to be a real can of worms. Yes Car Credit were one of the biggest culprits for crap cars, its no wonder they went under but only after heaps of bad publicity! A sub-prime car dealer know's they have a ready and willing buyer as soon as you contact one, where people will just about take on any car just to have one, where else will you get a car on credit if you can't buy via the mainstream route.

Seems Welcome know ever trick in the book to rake in cash, though as each day goes by their days are certainly numbered!

Thanks for the advice, I'm just surprised Welcome have gotten away with it for so long!

I've been sat on the side for quite a while reading with great interest the dealings of Welcome and how they conduct their disgusting business. Welcome really are the slimey toe-rag outfit that everyone is reporting, I'am customer too and have never in my life dealt with such a shoddy incompetent company, they deserve what is coming to them and the sooner the better, I've no sympathy over any job losses cos these jokers have been leading 1000's of people a merry dance for far too long and now the boot is on the other foot! My car loan was due to be clear at the end of Sept this year following a 48 month hpi agreement, unfortunately through a reduction in hours at work I now find myself 3 months behind on payments and them adding default sum interest, though I've been paying half each month to keep the wolf from the door! One of the jokers at the Bistall HO is trying to persuade me to let the account go into 4 months arrears where he says I would then qualify for a a 25% settlement discount on the balance should I want to P/X the car (ie early settlement figure), seems they are seriously strapped for cash and pulling all sorts of strings to get cash into the bank sooner rather than later, even if it means silly discounts, though no doubt its more evidence of Welcome's dodgy dealing but this time to halt its demise! The guy seems very keen for me to do this (uncomfortably so), but I dont like the idea of my credit file showing a further bump on payments if i go ahead. Insurance policies on the agreement arre not a problem as I refused to take any on any of their stich up agreements at the point of signing up. Anyway things are now looking up with work and now back to my normal hours of work, and once again able to afford full payments, I'm seriously looking to swop the car for a newer model if only to get out of Welcome's grip, should I take the Welcome offer, or maybe hang fire for Welcome going belly up? The thing that concerns me is may be better the devil you know than the devil that take's on the WCF car debt book, who might come looking for the 3 months arrears or repo the car if I don't stump up? Cant wait to be shot of this company!