Voluntary Terminating Car Finance with: Welcome

nicvanhalen

Can anyone offer me some advice I notified Welcome Car Finace I wanted to terminate my agreement with them as I could no longer afford my car. This was started back in November by telephone contact and I also wrote to them too. The car was taken away by the RAC in December. Today I received a letter from Welcome dated the 18.12.08 stating I owed £2054.00 I contacted them and finally got through to someone who informed me the amount was not for negotiation and I had to pay the full amount. I did declare on the previous phone calls I was not able to pay this amount. I offered to pay £800.00 today as this is all I could afford (parents have offered to loan me this amount) at a push I could try for £900.00 but that its. The answer came back as 'no'. They were not prepared to take this amount at all.
The individual on the end of the phone told me I had to pay the amount of £262.00 (my monthly DD amount) for my account to be passed back to the Welcome Office in Manchester, I asked what happens after I pay the £262.00 what's next? The individual refused to answer the question and I repeatedly asked what options do I have available to me. The answer came back as I have to pay the full amount now!! I cannot afford the full amount of £2054.00 and I am unable to pay the monthly direct debit amount and I informed Welcome that I was handing the car back to them in November. I am aware that I agreed to the Financial T & C's but unfortunately my household (as I'm sure alot of other people's ) have been affected by the current economic status that is an ongoing problem.

Please can anyone offer me some advice as I just don't know where to turn and Welcome Finance are not providing me with any information on what I need to do besides pay the full amount.

Thanks in Advance

Sol00

Welcome are a horrible bunch so it's vitally important that ou keep everything in writing and not speak to them on the phone. Apparently branches have targets to meet by the end of the month, so you may get a lot shortly, but just ignore them and advise them everything must b in writing, to keep you in the right.

Firstly, when did you first get the car and how much did they get for the sale of the car returned?

standupguy

You need to know a full breakdown of the amount they are asking and how this has arisen.

The important issue will be on what basis Welcome have taken the car back.

If it is a HP agreement and you have voluntary terminated the agreement then your outstanding liability will be to half the HP price plus any arrears due at the time of termination.

If it is a loan and you returned the car to enable them to sell and offset then you will still be liable for any amounts outstanding on the loan agreement.

If it was HP and they are treating the return of car as a repossession then you would be responsible for the full outstandings on the agreement.

I wouldn't put it past them to wrongly record the action at the time and if they did then this affects what you owe.

nicvanhalen

Thank you for your replies to my post. The car was bought on a HP agreement and I had it for only 16 months. Welcome have refused to tell me if the car has been sold at auction or not. I voluntarily terminated the agreement and handed the car back to Welcome. Now I have been left with a fee of £2054.00 to pay. Welcome are also demanding my monthly direct debit payment too.

anotherpaul_2

nicvanhalen wrote: »

Thank you for your replies to my post. The car was bought on a HP agreement and I had it for only 16 months. Welcome have refused to tell me if the car has been sold at auction or not. I voluntarily terminated the agreement and handed the car back to Welcome. Now I have been left with a fee of £2054.00 to pay. Welcome are also demanding my monthly direct debit payment too.

Do you know how much was outstanding on the agreement? Original amount less payments but plus interest over the period? And if so, how does it compare to the original value of the agreement?

If the outstanding amount is less than half original value and you aren't in arrears, I don't think you owe them anything. If it's more than half, you owe them any excess over half. If it's weas in arrears when you terminated, you also owe them arrears and charges for the late / missed payments.

I'm not sure they can charge a fee for terminating the agreement. I wouldn't be surprised if they were miscalculating in their favour in the hope that you'll not know better and pay it.

If you terminated the agreement, it's irrelevant what happened to the car or what it's value was.

Krishna_2

If the outstanding amount is less than half original value and you aren't in arrears.