Charged More than I pay

[ColinJWatson]

Hi there,

 

I am looking for some help and advice.

 

I took out a 20k loan with welcome a few years back, and last year we go into some trouble with this loan and also the mortgage. And we got into quite a bit of arrears.

 

I have since cleared my mortgage arrears, but I still have around £1500 of arrears with Welcome.

 

I pay them £372 a month, and have not missed a payment for well over 2 years now, but they tell me that for every 372 I pay, I am charged 390.

 

I am finding it difficult to clear off the arrears. I am trying to make token payments, and I am paying around £10 a month to the arrears, on top of my 372 monthly payments.

 

I do not have PPI on this, and I have explored my options of tying it in with the house, but at the moment, there is not enough equity.

 

I am not trying to get rid of this, I just want to ensure my payments go towards the loan, because if I carry on at this rate, I will have the loan for the rest of my life. I am getting around 6 phones calls a day, and I need to explain the situation to the people each time. They just don't seem to care that I don't actually have the extra cash to pay off the arrears. They then tell me, tjhats ok Mr Watson, just make sure you keep paying the monthly payment, and try to pay off the arrears. On some occasions I have had a phone call 5 minutes after hanging up the phone to an agent.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I have worked hard to get a good credit rating, and its now showing, but at the time all we could get was a Welcome loan

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin

[PGH7447]

send them a SAR and ask for all statements and the agreement, then see what they have been adding etc, then work out any charges plus interest charged from the date of the charge and claim it back, these fools really take the buscuit when it comes to adding stuff to accounts.

[pwg6565]

Data Protection Act 1998

 

Subject access request

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx (or multiple numbers if more than one account)

 

Please supply me with all data that you hold on me. This includes in particular, but is not limited to, the following:-

 

1. The original signed, executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of default and at the time the account was opened.

2. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company, or by any previous creditor

3. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account formerly held with ORIGINAL CREDITOR.

4. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notice that you or the original creditor sent me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

5. Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted (if applicable).

6. Details of any collection charges added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

7. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

8. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

9. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

10. Copies of statements for the entire duration of the credit agreement.

 

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable.

 

Yours faithfully,

[sam614]

send the above to

 

compliance

welcome finance

ruddington fields business park

mere way

ruddington

nottingham

ng11 6nz

 

would also include telephone harrassment letter as well.

these greedy barstools charge you for each call.. the more they make OR claim they have attempted,at £10 a time:mad:

 

stay off the phone to them

[ColinJWatson]

Thanks for this guys. I will get this letter sent tomorrow morning. Sam in regards to the call, I did tell them that I was unwilling to pay them the £10 for the calls. they have advised me that they will not charge me for any of them. The last time (according the them) that they charged me was in February.

 

pwg6565, just a quick question, in #1 on that letter, it says include date of default. I have not actually defaulted, I know is prior to that what it includes, but just incase they send back a standard letter saying I have not defaulted.

 

I will let you know the results of sending my letter

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin

Edited March 27, 2010 by ColinJWatson

[ColinJWatson]

I was looking for my reference, and found out that my loan was actually only 16k that we borrowed, I thought sure it was 20k. Also on the agreement it says our monthly payment is £349.08, and we have been paying £372 for the past few years, so that around £500 I have paid them that I have no idea what they have done with it. I just hope these details that they send have some interesting facts in them

 

Its amazing, a 16k Loan, and i need to pay back 62K

 

Looking back to one of the staements last year, from Dec 08 until Jun 09 I paid 372.05 a month (1 month it was 390.00) £2250.25!!! and My opening balance for that period was £19404.79, and after paying that 2250.25 my closing balance was £19552.65

 

Its crazy. Over 2k of my hard earned money, and I owe them another £150 + what I already paid!

[PGH7447]

welcome to the wierd world of unwelcome finance, this is why their parent company went to the wall and why they are following close behind

[sam614]

I just hope these details that they send have some interesting facts in them

!

 

 

 

guarentee that a tenner for a welcome sar IS the best tenner that you spend:D:D:D:D

[jamesf104]

Colin, I think we all will be very interested in what exactly comes back from WF. Seems you may have been done over very nicely! But plenty of guys on here to help.

[ColinJWatson]

Hi all, got my forms from Welcome, 1 thing that is very interesting is the letter with the outbound calls over the last month

 

The Calls image is the calls that they claim to have made, but I can assure you its alot more than what that says.

 

Also Page 1-4 is the Secured Loan Statement.

 

I have also attached the agreement. Can someone have a look at these and advise me if I am wrong about what I initially thought and everything is in order?

 

Also, something that worries me is, I have been sent 2 addition letters (notme1 & notme2) These letters are for 2 different Me'sThe 1st in Salisbury & the 2nd in Norwich. This is a bit worrying if you ask me, as I now have their address abd account numbers!

 

Any help would be great, still getting countless phone calls, and now letters telling me they are charging me for the calls

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin

Edited April 26, 2010 by ColinJWatson

[ColinJWatson]

Have had to add a 2nd post for other attachements

[beyondhope]

Hi colin you need to post the images with the 'without thumbnails' option or the code they are too small to read at the mo

[sam614]

and defo contact/forward other peoples mail to ICO:mad:data protection means nothing to these muppetts.

 

I had details of 3 other customers included in my sar.and nothing like my name at all.

I photocopied them sent copies to ICO and one to each person explaining that they had been sent to me suggesting they complain as well.

Edited April 20, 2010 by sam614
thick and can not spell

[ColinJWatson]

Hi,

 

Sorry, my webserver is down atm, and I don't have anywhere to upload files. I have put them on 1 of these free things. Didn't realise the thumbnails would make them so small, as I reduced the image size so they weren't huge. I should proably have left as is, and the thumbnails would have made it smaller. There's me trying to be clever

 

heh

 

Anyway, here they are.

 

Thanks Guys

 

Colin

 

Agreement

 

Calls

 

Page 1

 

Page 2

 

Page 3

 

Page 4

Edited April 26, 2010 by ColinJWatson
Taking out the notme Images

[ColinJWatson]

Just a wee nudge on this

[PGH7447]

well the agreement looks sound, but it is a bit hard to see all the info.

 

as for all the charges etc claim them back

 

They obviously calculate interest monthly which is why it is not going down, what does the terms and conditions state

 

I see that you say you took out a £20k loan and that the total charge according to the agreement was over £40K so they added the interest at the start, but if you times £349 by 180 that comes to £63K so I cant see why they are adding interest on a monthly basis as well

[ColinJWatson]

It was actually only a 16k loan I paid £1600 for the broker it looks like also

 

Its mental when you look into all of this stuff at a later date and what they get away with.

 

Below is the images

 

 

 

I have also done the same for the T&C

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin

Edited April 24, 2010 by ColinJWatson
Files were tooo big, adding smaller images :)

[Dibbothe3rd]

erm just a quick point, you left your name in there in those docs and Welcome have been known to view these forums so they will figure out who you are and what your up to and will probably play more dirty tricks if they know you are on this forum.

[ColinJWatson]

Thanks mate, took out the docs above and edited my post. I think I got them all now?

[ColinJWatson]

Hi guys, can anyone spot anything that could help me out? Phone calls have stopped for a few days now at least, but I did block the number from my mobile

[Major Player]

Hi Colin, just jumping in on this thread seems that Welcome are falling short on a couple of areas that should be quickly resolved. The bigger areas of agreement validity etc I will leave to the experts on here but:

 

Did you see a broker or did you get the agreement direct from Welcome, either way were the broker fees pointed out to you?

 

If you went to WFS direct then there should be no broker fee - your complaint is with them, if via a broker then I would say you would have cause for complaint as 10% broker fee is scandalous!

 

Second point, your loan is fixed so the interest should remain the same (Even though again this is stupidly high!) they look like they have amended the interest rate firstly and secondly each month your payments should be paying off capital and interest, it is not now but even at the start you were only reducing the amount owed by £5 a month, at that rate it would take far longer than the term of the loan stated to clear your debt.

 

As you are prepared to make payments I would suggest that you ask for the following as a short term measure whilst you get the agreement assistance on here;

 

(1) Interest on the agreement to be frozen for 12 months so that payments that you make come directly off the amount outstanding.

 

(2) All fees reimbursed - they are not clear (What are the £1.42 for?) and so not in accordance with FSA guidlelines.

 

(3) A reduction in interest rate after the 12 month period to a more suitable rate to reflct market conditions - the rate you are on at the moment cpuld be argued as extortionate - it is certainly an unfair rate given both market conditions and your circumstances.

 

All of these requests should be in writing, sent recorded but not signed and if you want me to draft a letter let me know. The theme should be Treating Customers fairly and their failure to adhere to this which has directly presented an explanation why you have not been treated fairly so far and therefore will never be in a position to improve your life by clearing this loan.

[ColinJWatson]

Hi Major,

 

I forgot all about this thread, until the calls started again from Welscum.

 

yes I saw a Broker, and no the broker fees were not pointed out to me, but I don't know how I would prove this?

 

That sounds like a good start. It would be much appreciated if you could draft a letter for me, as I feel I get too angry when I write these things.

 

Kind Regards

 

Colin

[ColinJWatson]

Hi Major, did you get a chance to look at this again mate. Welcome are harrassing me again from a new number at least 4 times a day

 

Regards

 

Colin

[ColinJWatson]

Just a wee bump on this Thanks

[ColinJWatson]

Hi guys, any chance someone could give me a wee hand with the letter please

 

Regards

 

Colin