Welcome Finance

[markl]

Ok, where do I start with this one as it will probably go on for a bit.

 

I am really angry with welcome finance, what they have done to myself and my girlfriend is despicable!!

 

If anyone can be bothered reading on please do so and any advice would be greatly received.

I know other people have had issues with these robotic turds and I decided to start my own post because my case seems a little different.

 

Ok, basically on February 2004 myself and my partner took out a secured loan with welcome finance for £12000 secured on our property to pay off debt etc as we had no other choice and HFC Loans brokered us onto them.

My plan was to pay the loan for 2 years and when I sell my home I could pay the loan off.

The payments were £243 per month and I could afford this until I could settle the loan.

Now everything was going accourding to plan until June 2004 when my partner was made redundant from her job and we could no longer afford the monthly payments, we checked the loan details and found that we did have Payment Protection ”Which we never [edited] asked for!!” and called welcome finance to make a claim, they advised us that we could not claim unless we were claiming jobseekers allowance and they would send us a claim form out which never happened.

 

Bare with me

 

A couple of missed payments later and frantically trying to get money together to meet the monthly payments I agreed to pay half payments each month by debit card until I got back on track and could settle the damn thing as they were not helpful in anyway.

I was tied into a 2 year deal on my mortgage so I would get a penalty if I tried to pay it of at this point so had to wait it out until March 06 to re mortgage and clear this bl**dy loan.

 

The time came and I asked welcome for a Settlement Statement and they sent me one and wanted £17,871.90 at which point I nearly lost it. How [edited] can a £12000 loan over 2 years come to this and I have already paid payments of £4889.28. I asked them why the hell is it this high and they said the 4 payments I missed totaling £900+ had been accruing interest and that’s why is was so high! I looked at my statement for the entire term and the PPI was £2800 and was added at the start of the loan and also something called Disbursal of fees was £1555. So my £12000 loan actually was £16300 [edited]. :mad:

We tried to offer £13500 as settlement but they had us over a barrel with the charge on the house so I had no choice but to settle when we re mortgaged to get rid of it.

I promised myself I would try and do something about it when I had finished claiming my bank charges, and now is the time to get started with this dirty finance company if I can.

 

 

 

So in summary I borrowed £12000 over a two year period and ended up paying them back around £23000 in total . I just need advice as to what angle I should take on trying to claim back the PPI as they never paid the 4 missed payments and surely if they charged my £2800 for it they should have paid the monthly payments and we wouldn’t have got into this mess and we never asked for the PPI either.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated with this one

 

Thanks

 

Mark

[Grapes]

Ahhh welcome (No pun intended) to (edit) world of Welcome Finance

 

Dont feel alone, there are lots of us out there!

Check out thread "Welcome Finance Any Dealings?" in General Debt Section

and then PPI section, lots of Welcome in there!

You will have a good starting point and then we can discuss some ideas!

[markl]

Thanks Grapes for the response.

 

I have spent 2 days reading through everything relating to Welcome Finance and it looks like I am in for the long haul with these idiots.

 

I have decided I am going to devote my full attention to getting my money back from Welcome, but I need a bit of help from you guys!

 

I have got a couple of questions about how to go about starting my claim:

 

Basically, the crux of my complaint is that they have added £2837.26 PPI & other insurances and £1555 for an acceptance fee and mortgage indemnity fee to my loan total.

 

The angle I am thinking of taking is that the PPI was mis-sold to me at the time and I was never made aware that this would be added to the loan. Obviously they will deny that it was mis-sold but they never honoured the PPI when I was made redundant from my job.

 

Do you know if anyone has been successful in claiming back PPI or charges from Welcome?

 

My situation seems to be very similar to sandra05 from welcome finance - any dealings thread.

 

Glad to of joined the Welcome Freedom Fighters!!!

 

[Innocenti]

Welcome Finance seem to be really hit and miss. About 4 years ago my OH took out a loan for about £5000 for a car. We made nearly 2 years worth of payments (a total of £3000) when the car broke and we couldnt afford to fix it. For the next 2 years we have paid nothing and the car has just sat there (we used a car my mum gave us). We have ignored all letters/phone calls from Welcome. OH was self employed and work was very hit and miss, we couldnt afford to pay it.

 

Any how, we got a statement from them and we owe £3000. We offered them £1000 in full and final settlement. They refused and said the wanted £1500, we offered £1250 and they accepted. Infact it is my brother paying it off as he is going to fix the car for himself.

 

After reading some of the other horror storys I realise just how lucky I am to get out of the HP with them and at over half of what we owe!

 

It seems really odd that we got off so lightly and yet they screw others for everything. We have it all in writing though that it is a 3rd party payment, our account will be closed on reciept of the payment, the car will be removed off the HP register and they will consider the account satisfied and mark his credit file as such.

 

Would never deal with them again.

[markl]

Yehh these suckers seem to be taking everyone for a ride, you had a lucky escape. It really annoys me how they think it is appropriate business practice to sell people PPI policy's that are not worth the paper they are written on and treat loans as if they were mortgages and add huge fees plus interest, I'm going to draft my first letter to them when I have worked out what I can potentially claim "Fight" back.

 

Mark

[Innocenti]

Good luck with that Mark, I really hope you get fully compensated for all the stress and hassle they have put you through.

[ladybird17]

Can I just ask you a couple of things?...

Who underwrites the PPI?

 

And I'm a bit confused about the redundancy bit! You originally said your partner was made redundant, bu later you say you were made redundant?

 

Whichever one of you it was, it seems you didn't register as unemployed - is there any particular reason why you didn't do this?

 

On the charges side, I would be looking to reclaim - they are horrendous - are you planning to start claiming?

 

On the PPI you can go for mis-sold- do you have a copy of the original agreement with Welcome?

[Innocenti]

Can I just ask you a couple of things?...

Who underwrites the PPI?

 

And I'm a bit confused about the redundancy bit! You originally said your partner was made redundant, bu later you say you were made redundant?

 

Whichever one of you it was, it seems you didn't register as unemployed - is there any particular reason why you didn't do this?

 

On the charges side, I would be looking to reclaim - they are horrendous - are you planning to start claiming?

 

On the PPI you can go for mis-sold- do you have a copy of the original agreement with Welcome?

 

Ladybird when my OH was made redundant he wasnt allowed to claim anything because I work. If you have a partner who works then you are not allowed to claim. And as such we couldnt claim our PPI either because he wasnt classed as signing on.

[ladybird17]

i wasn't really asking about benefits - I just wondered why he didn't register with job centre, as PPI would have paid out.

[Innocenti]

Well you cant really register at the job centre, you only register when you are signing on. You can go to the job centre and look at jobs but you are not classed as unemployed until you are claiming job seekers allowance. Believe me we tried everything when my OH lost his job. He wasnt entitled to anything as I was working. As he wasnt entitled to JSA he wasnt classed at unemployed, and as he wasnt classed as unemployed he couldnt claim PPI.

[markl]

Can I just ask you a couple of things?...

Who underwrites the PPI?

 

And I'm a bit confused about the redundancy bit! You originally said your partner was made redundant, bu later you say you were made redundant?

 

Whichever one of you it was, it seems you didn't register as unemployed - is there any particular reason why you didn't do this?

 

On the charges side, I would be looking to reclaim - they are horrendous - are you planning to start claiming?

 

On the PPI you can go for mis-sold- do you have a copy of the original agreement with Welcome?

 

Hi LadyBird17

 

Just to clear things up, the loan was taken out by me and my partner secured on our property which we are both joint owners of. To my knowledge the loan was in both our names but welcome informed us it was only in my girlfriends and any correspondence would have to be with her, this was really annoying as I tend to deal with the finances. When I queried this they said that I just agreed to the Legal Charge but the loan was only in my partner’s name.

It was my girlfriend who was made redundant from her job and I was also out of work at the time.

 

We tried to claim jobseekers allowance and I think we did in the end but we were scared of them taking the house off us so I kept paying them in little amounts until we both got jobs again and missed a total of about 4 months payments, I then proceeded to pay £50 a month on top of the monthly payment of £243 to pay the missed payments off.

 

I am 100% going to start a claim to get something back off them as I feel I have been (EDIT)Blind, but I don't really have a clear idea of what I can potentially claim at the moment "any advice"

 

I have an original copy of the credit agreement which includes the PPI (£2837) and Mortgage Indemnity Fee (£1320) and Acceptance Fee (£235). Also they slapped on Homecare (£125) Lifecare (£175) Medicare (£300).

 

The problem is that it has been signed by my girlfriend and a witness’s signature which is my bloody Mums.

I would have never agreed to this if I new they would add it to the £12000 and charge interest on it, so like I said before the loan totaled £16392.26 before we even started to pay it so in 2 years it looks like we only paid them the PPI and these other fees back and then settled for £17871.90.

 

I really hate this company :-x

 

Mark

[ladybird17]

If you haven't done so, have a good read of this Step-By-Step Instructions. You have a number of different issues going on here, but if you follow the procedures on here, you can start to unravel them. Once you have started, there will be loads of people on here who will answer queries you have. If I'm wrong, and you HAVE read the step-by step instructions, where are you starting?

[markl]

If you haven't done so, have a good read of this Step-By-Step Instructions. You have a number of different issues going on here, but if you follow the procedures on here, you can start to unravel them. Once you have started, there will be loads of people on here who will answer queries you have. If I'm wrong, and you HAVE read the step-by step instructions, where are you starting?

 

 

Hi Ladybird

 

I have read the Step by Step instructions and successfully claimed bank charges back from Halifax, Lloyds and Barclays are going to settle soon I hope.

 

The difference I see here is claiming back PPI and also Charges (Not penalty's) that were added to the start of the loan and if I can do this, I guess I need to know what other people are claiming for and see how we can tackle this. Even though this is harsh I think I will need a strong case if I take it to court and am sure if a judge saw this he would rule in my favor

 

It would be nice to know if anyone has been successful in getting something back they have paid to welcome and not them just canceling PPI when the loan is still running.

 

Mark

[ladybird17]

Have you looked in all the PPI threads?

[markl]

Yehh it seems like people are claiming back missold PPI but they have an agreement on which was signed by us, I think I need to be clear on what I can claim before I go ahead with the first letter.

 

Mark

[mcvey123]

Hi Mark.

 

I myself have won many charges back from welcome finance and I think the best was is to tell you how I succeeded.

 

Firstly I made a list (which almost made me sick when I realised how much I had been taken to the fair) of all the charges:

 

1. arrangement fees

2. letter / phone call fees.

3. ppi other fees (were u charged for home insurance and medicare also?)

4. settlement fees (Although this is normally regulated)

5. payments made

6. interest charged

 

etc etc. get your total (which you have already done, but break it down)

 

If you had been charged for ppi and not had a chance to use it, and in actual fact, were not informed that this would be added into the account, this is a big way to push ahead. HOWEVER if you did use the ppi, then you cannot really use this. The same applies if you were charged for medicare and home insurance and other bits that they add on.

 

Then write a letter asking for an explanation for the excessive charges which you are not happy about. (You will get a refund of all the letter fees and phone call fees, missed payment fees without any doubt.) In your letter, explain that you are extremely unhappy with the total amount that you have paid on the loan etc. as you were never informed or given an explanation for them (especially arrangement fees, and unfair charges)

 

Also ask them if they could investigate these fees and reply within 14 days. Print 3 copies of this letter.

 

At the top of the letter, when you are inserting the companies address, put the local office, followed by the compliance office, and thirdly your local trading standards office. Post a copy to the local office and the welcome compliance office and put the trading standards copy in an envelope for 14 days (give them the benefit of the doubt) This way the local office knows you are complaining to their head office and trading standards and will take it seriously. The local office loses a bonus for complaints put through to the compliance office! Head office will know that you have contacted the branch, and trading standards and put the pressure on to them to sort it.

 

When I did this, the area manager called me and asked me how much would it take to sort it! Ha ha, I had the ppi and insurances refunded, the unfair charges refunded and a goodwill gesture of £250. Since my loan was not as big as yours, this was a big gesture from them.

 

When I contacted ts, they said that the insurances were clearly ticked on the agreement with the arrangement fees and so they would have difficulty fighting this for me. So the fact that they refunded SOME was a big bonus

 

 

Good Luck

[markl]

Hi Mark.

 

I myself have won many charges back from welcome finance and I think the best was is to tell you how I succeeded.

 

Firstly I made a list (which almost made me sick when I realised how much I had been taken to the fair) of all the charges:

 

1. arrangement fees

2. letter / phone call fees.

3. ppi other fees (were u charged for home insurance and medicare also?)

4. settlement fees (Although this is normally regulated)

5. payments made

6. interest charged

 

etc etc. get your total (which you have already done, but break it down)

 

If you had been charged for ppi and not had a chance to use it, and in actual fact, were not informed that this would be added into the account, this is a big way to push ahead. HOWEVER if you did use the ppi, then you cannot really use this. The same applies if you were charged for medicare and home insurance and other bits that they add on.

 

Then write a letter asking for an explanation for the excessive charges which you are not happy about. (You will get a refund of all the letter fees and phone call fees, missed payment fees without any doubt.) In your letter, explain that you are extremely unhappy with the total amount that you have paid on the loan etc. as you were never informed or given an explanation for them (especially arrangement fees, and unfair charges)

 

Also ask them if they could investigate these fees and reply within 14 days. Print 3 copies of this letter.

 

At the top of the letter, when you are inserting the companies address, put the local office, followed by the compliance office, and thirdly your local trading standards office. Post a copy to the local office and the welcome compliance office and put the trading standards copy in an envelope for 14 days (give them the benefit of the doubt) This way the local office knows you are complaining to their head office and trading standards and will take it seriously. The local office loses a bonus for complaints put through to the compliance office! Head office will know that you have contacted the branch, and trading standards and put the pressure on to them to sort it.

 

When I did this, the area manager called me and asked me how much would it take to sort it! Ha ha, I had the ppi and insurances refunded, the unfair charges refunded and a goodwill gesture of £250. Since my loan was not as big as yours, this was a big gesture from them.

 

When I contacted ts, they said that the insurances were clearly ticked on the agreement with the arrangement fees and so they would have difficulty fighting this for me. So the fact that they refunded SOME was a big bonus

 

 

Good Luck

 

 

Hi mcvey123

Thanks for the sound advice, after careful consideration and reading other posts on the forum I have decided to claim back only the PPI+ Interest as I see this as missold and they never honored it even when we missed payment’s.

I just need to work out what interest I am able to charge on it, the way I see it is they added £2837 for PPI at the start of the loan, and they have had my money now for 2 years so add 20%APR £3971.80

Not sure if I can go down this root but they charged me this on the loan so why shouldn't I charge them.

Mark

[swordfishclaire]

Hi

 

Can anyone advise me - have spent most of the day reading through all these threads - an amazing site!

I have a loan with Welcome Finance a £1000 was taken out in 1998, however now nearly 10 years later I still owe them £900+!!!!! Ridiculous. I refused to keep paying it at Xmas and have asked for statements, loan agreements etc but they don't answer letters or return calls. I have today had a letter from Lewis Debt Collection who say they now own my account and to liase with them only. So who do I address letters to? Also Id like to reclaim the £3000 of penalty charges etc - have sent all the right letters but the next step is to take it to court who do I take to court? Welcome/Lewis?

 

Thanks so much, it's all such a worry x

[donbracho]

hey there dont woory my friend you will be taking welcome to court,

not the Debt Collection Agency.

have you sent the letters (preliminary and letter before action with schedule of charges attached) to their main office at nottingham by recorded delivery ? if you have proceed with your claim at court.

as for Lewsi debt either send thema letter saying i dispute this debt please prove it by showing my credit agreeemnt (cca letter)

or that this debt is in dispute due to unlawful penalty charges

[swordfishclaire]

Oh thanks so much for the advice. I will do x

[sammyc1974_Derby]

Hi Mark.

 

I myself have won many charges back from welcome finance and I think the best was is to tell you how I succeeded.

 

Firstly I made a list (which almost made me sick when I realised how much I had been taken to the fair) of all the charges:

 

1. arrangement fees

2. letter / phone call fees.

3. ppi other fees (were u charged for home insurance and medicare also?)

4. settlement fees (Although this is normally regulated)

5. payments made

6. interest charged

 

etc etc. get your total (which you have already done, but break it down)

 

If you had been charged for ppi and not had a chance to use it, and in actual fact, were not informed that this would be added into the account, this is a big way to push ahead. HOWEVER if you did use the ppi, then you cannot really use this. The same applies if you were charged for medicare and home insurance and other bits that they add on.

 

Then write a letter asking for an explanation for the excessive charges which you are not happy about. (You will get a refund of all the letter fees and phone call fees, missed payment fees without any doubt.) In your letter, explain that you are extremely unhappy with the total amount that you have paid on the loan etc. as you were never informed or given an explanation for them (especially arrangement fees, and unfair charges)

 

Also ask them if they could investigate these fees and reply within 14 days. Print 3 copies of this letter.

 

At the top of the letter, when you are inserting the companies address, put the local office, followed by the compliance office, and thirdly your local trading standards office. Post a copy to the local office and the welcome compliance office and put the trading standards copy in an envelope for 14 days (give them the benefit of the doubt) This way the local office knows you are complaining to their head office and trading standards and will take it seriously. The local office loses a bonus for complaints put through to the compliance office! Head office will know that you have contacted the branch, and trading standards and put the pressure on to them to sort it.

 

When I did this, the area manager called me and asked me how much would it take to sort it! Ha ha, I had the ppi and insurances refunded, the unfair charges refunded and a goodwill gesture of £250. Since my loan was not as big as yours, this was a big gesture from them.

 

When I contacted ts, they said that the insurances were clearly ticked on the agreement with the arrangement fees and so they would have difficulty fighting this for me. So the fact that they refunded SOME was a big bonus

 

 

Good Luck

 

Hi There,

 

Can we claim back the Finance charges.....

 

Thanks