Welcome Finance - This company needs to be banned.

[welcomestaff]

hiya all

 

i feel like im going to be in the lions den but here goes, i work for welcom e finance in the collections dept and i also feel that welcome treat there customer like ****, they shouldnt but welcome does. i though a few facts might help you all out.

 

currently we are not transferring any account from where they are currently held so if you are in the local management branch ( collections dept ) then that is where you will stay so if they say you will go to a legal dept or litigation then this is a load of crap as welcome is taking no one to court at the moment nor do we repossess houses from people if you are in difficulty.

 

if you cannot pay us then speak with us and hopefully you will have someone one the phone who wants to help you, if not ask them about the treating customers fairly policy which all welcome employees have to abide by. even the director has sent out internal mail advising us of this.

 

if you have a complaint call head office and ask to speak to compliance, they deal with the compliant and collection activity should stop if compliance are dealing.

 

if you are in a position to short settle you account, ask for discount the min is 35% discount on your current balance so you could save yourself some money and get welcome off your back.

 

if you are struggling speak to the cccs or debt management company as once you are with them welcome cannot call you and have to lease with them direct also the interest and charges will be stopped on the account.

 

if you have a car account and not paying but have the car then ask them if you have paid over a 3rd and if so you car cannot be taken if it is you can get all your money back you have paid.

 

Ask your account manager to stop the interest and put pressure on, say you will pay but you want the interest stopping, if you have a descent account manager they will do it for you

 

if you have a secured loan and they are threating repossession then this is a lie as welcome do not repossess houses, fact

 

i hope this helps people, any questions i will be happy to answer.

[welcomestaff]

no they don't want to be known as a lender that repossess houses

[welcomestaff]

i have worked there for 2 years and i have never seen or heard of a house being repossessed by welcome it has always been done by he first charge on the property or another secured debt that have decided to apply for a repossession order

[welcomestaff]

im telling you what i know now, i cannot comment on what has happened in the past and if they have done that then welcome are even more **** than i thought they where

[welcomestaff]

i am not coming on here to defend my job at the end of the day i have a mortgage to pay like most of us on here and i have to do what i have to do. i make sure for the 160 accounts that i deal with and the customers i speak to i treat them with respect and listen to there problems an i don't put pressure on them. i know other employees do not abide by this but i do. in regards to the repossession of houses i have never known welcome to take someones house off them and you early comment indicates that the lady was evicted Christmas eve but did not have a welcome finance account, how can a judge in a court of law grant repossessions of a property to welcome finance when the lady didn't even have an account with welcome, it makes no sense and if there was fraud involved in this then the court would have investigates it before repossession as the police would have got involved as we notify them if there is any potential fraud accounts . i have not come on here to argue with people but to express that im here to help if any one wants it, if not i will keep quite.

 

for anyone who is interested the director today has sent out another internal email advising hat employees need to adhere to treating customer fairly so clearly he realizes there is problem with the way welcome treat there customers. maybe any complaints should be addressed to him direct in future, i will post his name when i am back at work Monday as im unsure of the spelling of the last name, im sure he would be interested to hear what welcome employees are doing to customers.

 

i would like to say thank you to the supportive messages welcoming me on here

[welcomestaff]

when a loan agreement is signed or any paper correspondence is received we send it to a data image processing company so they are scanned and put on the computer, we access these files buy an internet site but sometime loan agreements are not on the system, we are unsure where they go but they are not found. i think the imaging company destroy the documents once they are scanned so if they are not on the system then i don't think they will be found again. i think the problem lies when the branch do not send the documents for scanning which we have to do on a monthly basis, then they are found months down the line and then put in confidential waste and not scanned to the system

[welcomestaff]

in collections for welcome finance, i need to be careful in case welcome are monitoring this website

[welcomestaff]

customers roughly need to have missed 5 payments before we can repossess the car, if the car is protected ( you have paid over a third for the goods ) then you need a court order to repossess, if u have a personal loan or a CST then welcome cannot take a car

[welcomestaff]

normally if people have two accounts with welcome a personal loan and a hp and they are maintain the hp but not the PL then i have heard people say the car is at risk because the accounts are linked which is a load of crap, i know welcome have taken cars when they are protected, i just hope the customer figures it out so they can get there money back. im not sure what welcome elite brokers are

[welcomestaff]

im not sure, i have not worked in lending so not sure why these are added on, i have heard alot of customer say that they needed to have payment protection to get the loan. i think the branches where targeted on how many insurance units where sold when loans where being given but this is not my area so im not 100%. mis selling of the insurance has certainly gone on in welcome, the agreement forms i dont think are clear enough for people to see what they are signing for

[welcomestaff]

the biggest problem with welcome i have found is the targets set out for branches are really high and pressure is put on them to perform. i know this is no excuse for them but this is why insurance was sold so much as the amount loaned to a customer increased because they had insurance on the agreement meaning the branched where closer to hitting there lending target because the balances where higher than if the customers just borrowed money from welcome.

[welcomestaff]

if a customer requested to me not to call them at work then i remove the number but unfortunately other members of staff will keep calling customer as work to get a reaction from the customer who will make sure they return the call to them. this is bullying by welcome. i want to say due to the current credit crunch all branches of welcome have know been turned in to collections units due to the amount of customer in arrears, new lending is done at head office and applications are done on line

[welcomestaff]

i heard that aswell, to be honest all i have heard is about certain membes of staff being suspended for fraud but i heard it was due to them making payments on customers accounts using there own debit card or customers giving card details to make a payment but the payment would be applied to other customers account. these staff where doing this to ensure they earned bonus each month properly the money they where paying out of the own pocket was minimal to the bonus the earned from those payments

[welcomestaff]

there is a lot of pressure on the staff to perform and hit there targets, if you don't you are closely monitored and then put on disciplinary . none of this helps the way they treat the customer because they see it as the customer has to pay for me to hit my target. treating customer's fairly has gone out the window

[welcomestaff]

everyone is worried about there jobs, there certainly will be more redundancy to come , the training i felt was good at welcomes head office, as soon as you start work from a branch it all goes down hill as you learn from the staff that are already there breaking policy and speaking to customers like crap, soon enough if you dont have strong morals and ethics then you become like so many of them who are rude, nasty individuals. i know what it is like to struggle for money and get your self into a mess this is why i think i understand customers because i know the stress it can bring onto you when you have money worries. in regards to sub prime, it makes me laugh people who cannot afford to takeout loans have to pay a higher rate of interest, where is the sense in that. its like the finance company is setting them up to fail.

[welcomestaff]

we used to send accounts for attachment of earnings but most customers could not afford to pay and proved evidence to the court so a judgment amount is set and only that can be collected. in simple terms welcome cannot afford to take people to court at the moment because the return from it is minimal

[welcomestaff]

most welcome employees don't see customer as people unless you are signing for a loan, they see them as money and bonus earners and this is the problem, welcome employees are desperate for there customer to pay and will do anything to make them pay, i dont agree with it and think it is disgusting behavior by these people.

[welcomestaff]

im being honest with you guys, i don't expect you to believe everything that i say as you properly see me as the enemy but just because i work for welcome does not mean i think like these people who are harassing you and tormenting you to try and get you to pay. all i can tell u is what i know, the company has changed so much over the last six months its hard to say what they do and have done as it changes all the time. i know the lewis group is part of cattle's and we used to transfer accounts to them when they where 210 days in arrears but all transferring of accounts has stopped in the company as they want us to build relationships with the customers. no accounts at the moment are going to the lewis group. i just want to try and help some of you if i can

[welcomestaff]

as ive said i don't or haven't worked in lending so im not sure what they say to customers, all i know is HP agreements have to be signed at a branch