Welcome Finance - help please

[MR&MRS D]

Hi,

Hopefully someone can give me some advice as to where to turn to in my ongoing battle with Welcome / Castles / Mckenzie Hall.

In 2003 i took out Car finance with Welcome for a vehicle from their Knowsley branch. I was paying £260 pcm up till 2006 when i lost my job. I then arranged a 3 month period of payments of £140 pcm and stuck by this arrangement. I then went back to £260 pcm in July 2006. Then in Jan 2007 myself and my wife were in an Crash in said vehicle and the cehicle was susequently written off by our insurers. They paid Welcome a balance of £2680 for the loss and we made a claim through our GAP insurance which was bought at the time of taking out the finance. We where told we could be sure that it would all be sorted out. Whether it was us being too naive or Welcome playing dirty tricks over the last 4 years we have had nothing but trouble in trying to get the remaing balance cleared as Welcome say there was no claim? The GAP insurance is through their subsidary company? They admit they recieved payment from our insurers and also admit i had GAP cover but they will not accept there was a claim made. After faxing the copies of the forms sent 7 ( yes 7!!! ) times they say leave it with me, will look into it. NOTHING!!!! At this point in time i have now had a letter from their PPI department saying they have awarded me £2890 in compensation for misselling insurance which they have convieniently deducted from my balance ( which should have been zero anyway! ) and have lowered my outstanding balance to £2385. I now have NUMEROUS calls on a weekly basis from McKenzie Hall chasing a balance of £6850??? to which no paperwork i have refers to? My credit file is showing my balance at £2485 with numerous defaults over the last 2-3 years and it has totally wrecked my credit standing which i had managed to get back on track after some previous negative entries. All i ask of one of the fine people on here is where do i go? Do i threaten court action? Is there a structured way of dealing with this and if so can someone show me or guide me through the process. Also if Welcome is now cattles can i still proceed against Welcome Finance or would all processes against them become obsolete? Thanks for any replies and help anyone can give me.

[rebel11]

Hi mr

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Thread moved to the correct forum.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Unfortunately this is common with Welcome and

their associated companies, when dealing

with them I have resorted to immediately send a

Subject Access Request under The Data Protection ACT

to get all the data Welcome hold on the account.

With this you will be able to see how and why

balances etc., are arrived at.

There is a template in the CAG library a SAR costs £10.00

statutory fee and they have 40 days to comply.

[PGH7447]

also raise a complaint with the OFt on their dodgy practices

[MR&MRS D]

Thanks for the replies! i just cant understand how they can have my credit report saying one figure ( £2485 ) and Welcome asking me for £2385 and then Mc/Hall askin for £6850?? I will take your advice and send one of the SAR and see just what they have apllied to the account and find out just what the hell they are up to. Just a quick observation too, are the branch staff purposefully trained to be arrogant and dismissive of all common sense? When i have taken my documents proving their reciept of claim forms etc, copies of letters sent by them regarding the balance etc and other letters i have regarding the whole process they tell me they cannot divulge the information i require and i must speak to the people at head office?, surely the reason for a local branch is to have people there in front of you face to face to sort these problems out? Thanks for the advice and i will keep you all updated on any progress made!

[PGH7447]

simple answer is they pay peanuts so what do you expect, also must welscum staff are so fed up with cattles et al they probably dont give a monkeys