Welcome Finance - HELP ME!!!

AnnoyedGary

Hi,

New to this so hopefully this is the right way to ask for help.........

Basically, I'm having problems with Welcome Finance. I took out a loan with Welcome Finance a few years ago. I had some arrears initially and was assigned an account manager in the local(ish) Dundee office.

The account manager went through a budget with me and I agreed to make payments of £65 per month. I never missed a payment and she called me out of the blue in February of this year, she offered me a deal of me paying £100 per month for the next 9 months and they will write off the last £500 of my loan and that will be it finished.

I have a letter from her in February to prove this agreement.

I made all the payments and my last payment of £100 is due at the end of this month. I thought all was well and good and I called Welcome Finance of 2nd Oct 09 to confirm this, they said yes, one more payment to go.

Anyway...... I was very surprised to get a letter from them this morning, Advising they have Defaulted my contract on 07th Oct and that I NEED to pay the remaining £600 and a further £790 "Default interest" in the next 14 days or they will take me to court, arrest my earnings etc etc.

I called them straight away, asked to speak to a manager and the manager informed me "the local office manager" should never have made that offer and that the default stands.
They have closed the local offices and all accounts have been transferred to Nottingham. He says the letter I have wont be honoured by Welcome Finance.

Thats pretty much as it stands at the moment..... I called the Financial Ombudsmen for advice but was only advised "we can look into it for you but you need to give Welcome Finance 8 weeks to respond".

I tried to call Welcome Finance back but the manager who dealt with it originally now wont answer or return my calls!!! :mad:

HELP!!!

Thanks and sorry this is so long a message

Gary

Rafter

Gary,

If you have an agreement in writing and Welcome have been processing the revised payments of £100 per the agreement they are on very dodgy ground trying to go back on it.

Suggest you try to get an appointment with citizens advice or a local 'legal helpers' charity.

In the meantime send a written complaint to Welcome with a copy of your february letter advising that you are taking legal advice and if they continue to insist that the agreement is not valid you will ask for your complaint to be escalated to the financial ombudsman service.

They are trying it on, hoping you will pay for a few more months!

Good luck

R.

jennihen

They're wrong - you have a written agreement. To coin a phrase "Simples" The local office manager made a deal with you, in writing, if they have an issue with this they have to hold that person to account not you. Stick to your guns. Insist all contact is in writing and out-bull the [EMAIL="w#@$ers"]w#@$ers[/EMAIL] - its in the hands of the FOS. You can't change the terms of an agreement - why should they?

Sol00

As above, it is in writing and they have to honour it.

Welcome Finance will come out with all sorts of rubbish to get money out of you.

You should write a letter to their head office in Nottingham and send it recorded. Give them a few weeks to respond and then report them to the FOS.

AnnoyedGary

Thanks for the replies folks. I guessed I'd have a good case since I had the letter from the Local Account Manager.

I'm no expert though so I'm thankful for the advice. Thanks folks, If anyone has any other advice or suggestions on this though, please feel free to leave your thoughts.

Cheers

Gary

Sol00

Keep us posted.

They have a freepost address which I used many times -

Freepost RLUU - ERRT - XKLR
Welcome Finance
Compliance Services
Mere Way
Ruddington
Nottingham
NG11 6NZ

AnnoyedGary

Cheers for that Sol. Very helpful.

Is it best to just send it to that address or to address it to the Manager or CEO or whatever? Or does anyone know who would deal with this specifically?

Thanks again

Gary

Sol00

No, just send to that address. As long as it's recorded, you have evidence of them receiving it.

AnnoyedGary

Not been on here for ages but I did as Sol suggested and they sent me a letter apologising and honouring the original deal. Sorted.

Thanks for your help folks