Am i being ripped off from Welcome Finance

andy1985_2

Hi,

I need some help please!

I got a loan from (Not so) Welcome Finance back in 2007. I originally borrowed £1500 but later topped it up to £2500. I have paid back just over £5000 and apparently still have 16 more monthly payments of £215.97 a month.

Can someone please tell me if I am being ripped off?

I have cancelled my direct debit on 22.09.09 and they have contacted me askin why. Have I done the correct thing in cancelling it or am i shootinh myself in the foot??

Help ASAP please.

Thanks,
Andy.

Eager_Elephant

Hi Andy

Anyone who goes with Welcome for a loan is 'ripped off' as their interest rate is so high compared to other financial places but for other people they might feel they got a good deal.

Obviously when you borrowed £1500 you would have had to pay that back with interest, I think typical rate is between 35.9% - 50.9% and although when you topped it up you may have got a slight rebate there would then be extra interest. When you say topped up what you usually do is get a loan for x amount to cover the old loan plus the money you want to borrow.

I think that if you make the other payments it would be about the right amount for a Welcome loan.

The key is to find the credit agreements and to see what you agreed to pay. If the agreement shows x months @ whatever rate and you haven't paid that yet then as soon as you miss a payment you are technically in default.

Remember Welcome add money on each time they ring or write to you (in 2005 it was £15.00 but may have gone up)

EE

Morgan_Ree

I would be very very careful about cancelling your payments to welcome finance
I had loan with them in 2006 and ran into problems paying it back
I was charged £10 for every letter sent and something silly like £18 a phone call
Sometimes I was getting 3 phone calls a day with Welcome claiming it wan't on their system that I'd already been contacted

They are an absolute nightmate to deal with it when you run into difficulty or you question your agreement
Check your Credit agreement as Eager_Elephant has advised

andy1985_2

Thanks for the replies.

I know the interest rate was very high, however, I am 99% certain that I never signed up to repay £8500 from a £2500 loan....

I have since moved address, and don't want welcome to know where i'm living......what is the best way of obtaining a copy of the loan agreement?

Thanks.

Tixy

You can either do a CCA request for just the loan agreement (cost £1)

Or you could do a SAR (subject access request) for copies of everything they have on file for you (cost £10)

The latter might be useful in your case as it might help work out exactly what happened when you topped up your loan (what the balance was at that point, how went to repay the first loan and how much extra cash you received).

CCA request letter 1 in this link http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=24040085&postcount=1

SAR
ver 1 http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=12547639&postcount=12
ver 2 http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11753093&postcount=11

Either way though you'll have to provide an address for them to send it to.

Like the others I wouldn't recommend you cancel the DD until you have established the facts of the case. They could enter a default on your credit file and only need send a default notice to the last address you provided them (regardless of whether you live there).