Welcome Finance - please go away !!'

[Flo77]

Welcome Finance are really starting to annoy me . . .

 

I have a loan with them , due to finish paying in feb 2014.

 

whilst I have had problems in the past with other creditors, hence taking out a loan with these idiots 6 years ago) I am NOT in arrears ,

 

I did make a late payment once due to THEM not updating my bank details and they charged me and kept adding interest ,

I didn't know about this for several months

- that is another story about which I posted previously.

 

my account was brought up to date and later ,as soon as i was made aware, paid the charges to keep them off my back as I was accruing interest on them .

 

This was over a 18 months ago.

 

At the time of doing that they asked me if i would be willing to overpay my loan to get it paid off quicker. i

 

I am aware that Welcome are no longer lending and are trying to get their accounts paid up

but it was better for me to try and pay it off sooner as I'm trying to get debt free.

 

My payments were originally £37.94 a month and I increased to £50 a month.

I have been paying this every month by direct debit for the last 18 months.

 

A couple of months after I set this up they kept bombarding me with calls to home and work and on my mobile leaving messages for me to call back.

I have previously requested they do not call me at work and later wrote to them requesting no telephone contact at all.

 

They were ringing to try and get me to settle in full and even suggested I borrow allbeit on a low rate or interest free credit card, in order to pay it off.

 

After I requested again in writing that they stop calling I kept receiving letters requesting I call them

and also settlement figures in the post supposedly responding to my written request for settlement.

 

I rang my local office and happened to be put through to a line manager as my account manager was away from the office.

He apologised and said I would receive no further contact.

 

After a few months the calls started up again .

They phone every 60 days.

They also change my direct debit each month to coincide with my pay day (last working day of month) I used to pay them on 1st of the month.

 

I got called just over a month ago by the person that had 'taken over my account' she suggested I get an interest free credit card to pay off my loan.

I told her I was not in a position to do this and don't want any further credit.

I told her she was wasting her time calling me each month not to mention calling at work as I am not in a position to pay it off.

They have even suggested a family member pay it for me.

 

She told me my account needed to be 'reviewed' every 60 days.

I don't wish to talk to them at all and want them to leave me alone .

If I had the money available I'd gladly pay it off to be free if them forever.

 

How can I get them off my back they are driving me up the wall !!

 

Advice appreciated !

 

Thank you.

[yourwelcome]

Okay, let me give you some information from a different point of view. ie from a former employee with 18 years experience in the branch network.

 

WFS are trying to collect as much as the loan book as possible in the next 2 years.

Depending on how much they collect, will determine whether

they keep the remaining branches open,

close the branch network and collect from head office,

or sell the remaining loan book and shut the company completely.

 

The more they collect in the next 2 years, the more branches/departments will stay open.

 

As a way to ensure cash is collected now, the board have massively incentivised this area.

In the past the very generous bonus scheme was made up of a number of different criteria,

with cash collected making up around 20% of this bonus.

The rest was made up of many other things such as the amount of bad debt,

number of customers on Direct Debit,

compliance,

book quality and many more.

Now it is almost entirely on how much cash is collected.

 

An Account manager can earn £1,500-£2,500 in bonus per month (on top of 18-30k per year salary) so they focus on what brings in the bonus, and right now that is collecting cash.

 

By asking you to increase your payments or settling the account you will save money, but your account manager will benefit too.

 

The reason you are being contacted every 60 days is that account managers are being threatened by branch/regional managers and directors to do so.

If staff question anything, they will close the branch and move the accounts to another branch who will do as instructed.

 

The direct debit was changed from the 1st to the last day purely so that the first month it was amended a double payment was made

and an increased income for the branch that month.

 

They do it many customers each month to give the income a boost.

Again it helps the customer as the DD is in line with wages, but it is also a massive help to the account manager and WFS.

 

As to the frequency of the calls, it depends on how ethical your account manager is,

and whether they would rather do as the customer instructs or as their manager dictates.

 

I would suggest seeing your local CAB and getting them to write on your behalf to instruct them to contact you in writing only.

If they fail to adhere to this instructions make a note of the time and date of calls and speak to the CAB again.

 

Finally. If you can settle the account sooner, I would recommend you do. If it saves you £100, it's £100 in your pocket and not theirs, and it will stop you having to take the above action.

 

Hope this helps.

[Flo77]

Thanks for your advice.

I'm well aware of why they are calling but it's unacceptable.

It is also not good asking someone to take out further credit to pay off debt

and an interest free credit card is for a limited time only so you could end up worse off.

 

All that said I've now paid them off

- I always told them I would when I was in a position to do so

but told them I would call them when I was able and that they we're wasting their time calling me.

 

For a long time welcome were great , my loan rate was even quite low compared to some.

 

As I said I was overpaying for a long time but as a single parent for a long time in the current climate I didn't have the means to settle

and wasn't able to access low rate credit cards or loans.

 

I had no end of problems with them during the last 18 months countless errors etc,

it's been a very difficult time for my family as well and quite frankly I don't think I should have to put up with it.

They've now closed my local office and the new office phoned me and told me the settlement

- I had the funds so I paid it off.

 

Finally free of them !

 

It's saved me about £150.

[dx100uk]

now get an SAR off to them and reclaim all the PENALTY fees and PPI/ any insurance/life cover /gap/MIF

or anything else attached to any agreement with them.

 

dx