Help, Welcome Finance secured Loan nightmare.

evilgoat76

Hi All

This is a long one I'm afraid

About 2 years ago we took out a secured loand with the above bunch of crooks. Up untill March this year I have to say I cannot fault them. they were helpful, all was organised quickly and they really did seem to do their best.

In March I lost my job, The day I found out I was to be made redundant I did the big phone around, told everyone that we were about to loose half our income and it may be a while till we recover. With the Exception of Nationwide, everyone was helpful. Welcome informed me that I could skip that payment, and take a payment holiday, so long as I made a partial payment the following month. i'd also be able to skip may and make a full payment in June. Great stuff, not ideal but I can live with it.

Mid April the calls started, my partner was receiving them at work and on her mobile constantly, if she refused to talk, they would call back. I spoke to them, and was promised the calls would stop but I was mistaken, Welcome dont do payment holidays and the advisor couldnt have said this. The calls would stop and we'd pick it up in a months time. (Thaier words) After three weeks of 5-6 calls on each phone every day she was a wreck. her boss was threatening to fire her if the calls didnt stop and Welcome wernt playing ball. They were sent a letter telling them that the calls were unwelcome, that they had no right to use her work number (still dont know how they got it) and that the calls would stop with imediate affect. They continued and a letter arrived stating that they could do what they liked. Her boss happened to answer one call a few days later. I dont know what was said but the calls to work stopped. However the mobile calls did not. The last one she answered the guy informed her that unless she answered the security questions they can call as often as they like. And that he would be sending somone to her place of work or the house to collect the outstanding amount. She called me in tears and then the stress go to her and she was off sick for almost a week, just not wanting to deal with the world in general. They were sent another letter saying that they would not be welcome and that they had no right to enter either preoperty and any implied consent was hereby removed. Agian, a letter saying that they can do what they like. At this point the whole thing was referred to the FOS.

We had during this made several offers of a reduced payment amunt, no record seems to exists of this at their end. I then got a call out of the blue from someone from their Fareham office on a mobile from somewhere outside the office. Suspicious and given the history to this point I declined initally to talk to him. I made clear the fact that they are continually breaking promises and messing it all up and he was sympathetic. After a long chat I said I would make a minimum payment (more than we can afford on paper) if he sent out a letter agreeing to it. I was told that they cannot do freeform letters and I pointed out that I am entitled to request such a letter of agreement and that they MUST provide it. He promised to arrange it under the understanding that I would pay when the letter arrived. And thus it was left.

Needless to say, no letter arrived and the nasty letters and calls start again. Everything is now going to the FOS and I got a call from them a few weeks later asking me if I knew I was sending mail to a disused address. I responded that I was using the address Welcome gave me and was informed that Welcome closed that branch. This is the address that was always on my statements and letters from Welcome up to this point.

Another letter than arrived from Welcome responding to my complaint to the FOS. It alledged I had made no attempt to pay, I had failed to return a statement of means that was requested and I was being evasive and deliberately trying not to pay. Again re-iterating they can contact me how and when they please and I cant do a thing about it. Not one shred of this letter was true as I hadnt been asked for a statement of means. When challenged, surprise surprise, the mobile call wasnt recorded as ever having happened.Another letter went off with a statement of means and all of the above story, going over the complaint, the fact offers have been made, complaining about the mobile call etc etc. Nothing came back.

Three weeks ago My partner started receiving calls again, this time, all 'number withheld' and guess who it was. I phoned the Fareham branch and spoke to someone managing my account. She had no knowledge of any of the above. Again, I said I would make a minimum payment offer (bearing in mind our statement of means gives us -£30 at the end of the month to pay them I offered £40. Again, I informed them I want an agreement to this effect and I will pay. Again, they cant do freeform letters but she will try. I was promised a call back on Monday on the number I gave them.

Lo and behold, I'm still waiting for that letter. The Calls to my partner have started again and they are now charging me £10 to send me a letter telling me they are charging me £10.

I'm at a loss as to where to go now. I'm going to speak to them again this morning but I have a feeling its going to be the same story again and the circle will start over. I'm pretty sure they should not be witholding numbers to call my partners mobile. The FOS investigation is going to take months and the stress of dealing with all of this is making me ill now. I'm just totally at a loss. Is there any legal action I can take to stop this? We have showed willing, we have been trying to give them money which they keep deciding they dont want

evilgoat76

Had a long chat this morning. Scared the Bejesus out of them, but they still wont accept my offer saying it doesnt even cover the interest. 45 minuts of going round in circles. I think that this woman in particular accepts they are in trouble over this and they have mismanaged the whole show but wont back down. When pointed out that our statement of means doesnt even allow us to make the payment I offered and that it would come out of our food/clothing/travel money she seemed to start backing off.

I'm now oficially stuck. Would there be any use in speaking to our Morgage lender about it in the hope they can force Welcomes hand?

evilgoat76

YOu might want to reread that. I'm happy to pay it but loosing £1900 a month income makes that difficult right now. I'm not trying to get out of it, just get them to play by the rules and wait until I can pay them back all of it.

Not really the respones I expected to my first post I have to admint

jonesMUFCforever

Did they not sell you PPI with the loan?

evilgoat76

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Did they not sell you PPI with the loan?

They did and I attempted to claim it. Unfortunately its useless. The protection wouldnt kick in for 3 months, Welcome wanted instant payment and wouldnt wait. They also require I prove that I have signed on. Ok for the first and second month but there is simply no work for me. Iv'e started my own business from nothing so I'm still making nothing but I cant sign on, therefore I cant claim the PPI. When all is said and done I will be going after them for that in due time. Aparently I cant do anything on that front while I owe Welcome money.

Aparently they cany actually do that much about it right now, with the fact that Abbey aparently have to agree to anything they want to do, and Abbey have already said they arent happy with the situation and since yesterday, are now taking an interest in this. Both my Solicitor and Abbey have suggeseted using the CAB to arbitrate seeing as Welcome wont listen to me.

katehesk

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

Did they not sell you PPI with the loan?

I thought PPI was a no go on loans?

And I'm sorry I can't help you with your query.

'you spent the money, pay it back' - what a nice and helpful comment that is! Why say anything at all?

josephine33960

Sorry to hear about your ordeal, unfortunatlely your tale sounds very familiar, my partner has had a similar thing going on with welcome for several years, he missed two payments when he was made redundant which they said was not a problem and a month later the phone calls started. He borrowed £1000 2 years ago to be payed off over 24 months and in Jan this year still owed them £3300! They use some very suspect tactics to try and bully, and scare. I would recommend if possible to stop dealing with them directly and go through a free consumer credit service who will deal with them on your behalf such as national debtline https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk and continue to persue your case with the FOS Don't use companies that asks you to pay for there service as theses companies tend to be just as bad if you have further financial difficulties. Hope you manage to get things sorted out, if you still do continue to deal with them yourself be wary as they will tell you one thing over the phone and then if you ask for it in writing you will either get nothing or a letter telling you something different which they charge you £10 for! Good luck

Matt16v

Mate, you've got to ignore some people on here. This forum is full of good people that are willing to help and offer their knowledge free of charge, but it's also full of people that are bitter with the hand life has dealt them and the only way to vent their bitterness is on an internet forum, probably because they have little or no contact with anyone else in 'real life'.

jonesMUFCforever

Well if the PPI was useless was it not missold?

Dave_Ham

Ok, so this is not my field of excellence but here goes.

Firstly always, always put all communication in writing. If you have to ever go to court on the matter you have a paper trail of your attempts to act reasonably.

Additionally ensure your complaint is lodged at the FOS correctly for harrassment. I am sure they have a fat file there on this company already.

Next you need to research online how to claim your PPI back, it is likely that this was not sold appropriately and can act as a counter claim on them should they pursue you for arrears in court. This is likely to have cost you more than you think as you can claim interest in some situations. As someone said earlier do not pay anyone to do this for you, templates, guidance etc. can easily be found.

The national support agencies are also a good idea, although can sometimes depend who you get in front of.

In my opinion Abbey have a good reputation for dealing with these matters and will often agree very sensible repayment plans if you get in arrears. They just want to see some regular payments to the account..

Good luck...

ps maybe get someone at Mrs's work to say she does not work there anymore. Or she tells them that...

evilgoat76

I have to say, and given my dislike of banks right now this is almost painful to say, that Abbey have been absolutely faultless. I dont think I've even seen a single charge added.

ps maybe get someone at Mrs's work to say she does not work there anymore. Or she tells them that...

Her boss said something to them on the phone, the calls to her place of work stopped instantly. The problem now is the mobile and we had solved that (found an app for her nokia to filter calls) but now the sods are using withheld numbers. I'm pretty sure they arent supposed to do that.

Will see what CAB says but I might persue the PPI route myself having seen the comments on that.