HELP with Welcome Finance needed please

londongirl1984

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can help.

I got a car on hp from welcome car finance in May 2007. On the agreement it says, the value of the goods was £6,500.00. I also took out gap insurance at a cost of £300. With the interest on top, this came to £12,431.04. the term was for 48 months with monthly payments of £256.38.

In October 2008 i contacted Welcome because i was having trouble making the repayments due to having to work as a temp. they said that they could refinance my agreement and make my payments lower. after waiting around for ages, and towards the end of the day i was seen by a representative. he produced me with a new agreement, lowering my payment to £116 a month. the term had increased to 120 months (!) and i was told that this was the only way they could refinance me. stupidly, i signed the agreement.

Now, wondering why it seems like i've hardly made any headway with the debt i have the following issues:

1. the credit agreement from May 07 stated the value of the goods was 6500. the value of the goods on the new agreement is 7999.43 - is this the value of the car? if so, how could it have gone up? or is it the value of the credit given to me in may 07 agreement, less payments already made on the account that i had paid up until october 2008? none of this was ever explained to me. i actually thought that the value of the goods stayed the same (because how can the price of a car go up?), and i didnt have a copy of the original with me, neither did they.

2. having looked online for information about gap insurance, i've found out that welcome now call this shortfall insurance. on my new agreement, it says not applicable for shortfall insurance. so it appears i have no gap insurance behind me if i have an accident and will be left with a huge bill. can they do this? again, this wasn't explained to me, especially as i'd already paid the 300 for the gap insurance (it was the first payment i made with the may 07 agreement) and thought that it would automatically be transferred to the new agreement.

3. there are some anomalies on the 2 agreements e.g. on my may 07 agreement, it states the vehicle chassis number (it has the serial number) but no engine number. on the october 08 agreement, it just says '05' for the chassis number, and '50' for the engine number?

4. the last page of the agreement detailing charges and termination rights is missing text. where it tells me how much i'd have to pay to settle early, there is a line which i can just make out (as it's cut off halfway through the letters) saying 'in calculation the amounts shown no account has been taken of any' - and then it stops. likewise for information under my rights under the credit consumer act, there's a sentence, cut off in the same way which reads 'if you would like to know more about your rights under the act' - and then it cuts off. they are at different heights on the page, but yet there is clear text in new sections directly underneath about missed payments and termination rights. as if the document has been photocopied over or something. really difficult to explain, but can i do anything with this?

in an ideal world, i'd like to vt the car, as i still have 8 years of payments to make. it says on the october 08 agreement that if i have paid 6965.27, then i can vt at no extra cost. since i took the car on in may 07, i've paid a total of 6449.78 (17 months at 256.48 and 18 months at 116.09 - the cost of the car!!). if i opted to vt, would they be able to say that i havent paid enough going simply from the october 08 agreement, or would they take into account the payments made under the may 07 agreement as well?

also, in addition, theres an acceptance fee of 195 on BOTH agreements - can they charge this twice? i wasnt even told what it was for.

my OH was with me when i took out both agreements, and when i took out the first agreement he was asking questions about the terms of the agreement, interest etc, but was then told that he couldnt be in the room with me as the agreement as it would be in my name. i was 22 i'm not the best person when it comes to numbers, and i just wanted a car. he wasnt allowed to be with me in the room for the second agreement either.

it's also worth pointing out that the first agreement in may 07 was made through approved car finance in isleworth, and the second was directly with welcome finance somewhere in south london (cant remember exactly where).

any help would be massively appreciated. i'm going to contact them and ask for a full breakdown of everything i've ever paid, my outstanding balance, and also ask for copies of my agreement.

thanks in advance.

Tubbss

Hi

1) £7999.43 would have been the settlement figure on the original agreement at the time of modification - this is the amount re-financed.

2) The GAP was a one off purchase valid for 4 years so will be in effect. However, it is highly unlikeley that it will cover the full value of any claim as it will be based on the original agreement and will not cover any arrears that were on the original agreement at the time of modification.

3) doesnt really matter as it is the payments that have been modified and not the car (in my opinion)

4) yeas you can do something.... ask for a new copy of your agreement!

5) Any payments you made on the original agreement will not be counted in the VT rights on the new agreement so you would have quite a hefty liability to pay if you VT'd the car.

6) Its likely that the 2nd application fee has been refunded (credited against your balance) as these have been known to be added in error. Check your annual statement (usually sent 1 year after the agreement was signed, then at the same time thereafter). If you have lost your statement or if you are not due a statement yet you can request one but they will charge you £10)

Call Welcome Head Office on 0115 9849200 and ask to be put through to the Compliance department to assist with the above.

Hope this helps

londongirl1984

thanks.

i've looked online and it says that asking for a copy of the credit agreement effectively puts the account into dispute - is this true? i dont want to dispute the agreement if i dont have a leg to stand on, where do i stand with this? and what do i do if they dont reply, or send me an exact copy i.e. one with missing text? i know i should have picked this up before now but at the time after sitting around there all day i just wanted to get out of there.

Tubbss

Hi


Simply asking for a copy of the agreement will not put the agreement into dispute. Just give em a call and ask for one!