Indemnity Fee, Welcome Finance

[ehstevie]

Hi Folks, looking for a bit advice please.

I took out a secured loan February this year for £7,500 from Welcome Finance (I know, I know), fortunately we were in a position to pay it off recently, so only had the loan for about 8 months.

The loan was for £7,500, value of property at the time was approx £135k, morgage balance at the time was £85k. Now I understand that an indemnity fee is charged when there is a risk to the lender, usually when LTV is 75% or greater. On reviewing my loan agreement, Welcome charged me £770 indemnity fee for a £7500 loan, equity on property at the time was approx £50k. So the loan was approx 15% LTV. Seems to me there was no risk whatsoever, can I claim this back? I have sent a SAR, still awaiting details of redemption and charges etc.

I also noted on my agreement that we purchased Medicare insurance, I never purchase anything like that, but our signatures were in the appropriate places. I suspect we have just signed where the pencil crossed were (as placed by Welcome staff) and as such were deceived into this, although I concede we should have checked it thoroughly. However, we never placed the ticks in the boxes to purchase such insurance, these ticks were definitely placed by Welcome staff, but it's proving it that may be the problem.

Anyway, your comments/views would be appreciated. Thanks.

[ehstevie]

bump, help please.

[Grapes]

Morning

Not sure I can offer much help but we are in much the same position and agree with the insurance situation. We started off asking for nothing and by the time we got to the contract we were covered for everything! We have written asking for explanantions but no reply as yet.

[mcvey123]

Hi there,

 

I am not sure i am in a position to offer a lot of advice regarding an indemnity fee but I have managed to fight these charges that welcome apply.

 

I submitted a subject access request some months ago and received the paperwork on 3 loans that I had with welcome. 2 were settled and one was ongoing.

 

I was basically horrified at the amount of charges for all the insurances etc and the amount that it took to settle, and the amount it cost to set up the loan etc etc - as well as the interest on the repayments and so I counted it all up and almost had a heart attack - as you do!!

 

Horrified, i wrote to their head office and I was never given a breakdown of what these insurances were going to cost and was never informed of the amount that it would cost to set up the loan. i was able to remember this as welcome always quoted the monthly repayment as £xxx.xx which obviously included full amounts of ppi, medicare, home insurance etc whether I wanted it or not! Many of you will feel the same. i also calculated the costs for phone calls and letters and complained about these also. The overall cost was attrocious. I threatened to go to the financial ombudsman, trading standards, the oft and the press.

 

Within 72 hours, the area manager for northern ireland was on the phone offering a sum off the exisiting loan, the insurances removed off the existing loan, and the interest backdated etc. I accepted and was happy enough as I had over £1000 deducted and now the loan is paid off.

 

The big problem I had - according to trading standards - was proving that I was unaware of the costs of the insurances etc, especially since I signed the agreement with it detailed on it. But like many people I didn't read it all and was posted a few leaflets in the post along with a copy - and didn't read them. mainly because I was grateful to get a loan.

 

Welcome play on this and take advantage of people with poorer credit ratings and once you take a loan with them, they make it easier for you to stick with them for life by charging a fortune.

 

 

If you are unhappy with the fees write to them and ask for an written explanation and suggest that this might be investigated by trading standards.

 

good luck

[mrsfoot]

I have had a long running claim with welcome re insurance / indemnity fee and acceptance fee, along with charges. Had an interseting chat with an area manager who told me i was charged acceptance fee's for the 2nd loan (even though i was already a customer and had used the 2nd to pay off the 1st loan) as this was a fee for credit counselling should i have needed it!! Talk about changing the identity of a fee when its suits!

A family friend who worked for these people said crosses and boxes are often added before the customer signs, however they are not always explained and in some cases the sales team will say you cant have a loan unless you have the insurance to go with it. Needless to say i am claiming charges back from them and will be happy to see them in court explaining how the hidden costs for services away from the customer.....maybe they need to read the section of the regs based on good faith, and how the company must deal openly and in good faith with the consumer!

[ehstevie]

Thanks for the feedback, I'm still awaiting my SAR. If we can keep each other updated that would be great.