An unwelcome loan

gemmagilchrist

I'm sorry to hijack your thread, I'm also having problems with unwelcome finance.

I took a loan out with Welcome in Oct 2006 and I'm sure the APR was a whopping 65%?!

It was a £2,000 loan over 24 months at £177 a month. Unfortunately in June 2007 I experienced problems making full repayments and rather foolishly took the account to 'Allclear Finance' who were utterly rubbish, they took a set up fee of £120 to start my file and I never heard from them again, every time I called the office the guy who was dealing with my case was busy or out of the office so I gave up in the end.
I contacted Welcome and explained I'd be able to pay £65 a month, so my payments resummed in September 2007. Apparently the interest was frozen on my account in September 2008 and I vaguely remember paying them £120 a month for a while (I've wrote to my bank asking for a list of payments I've made to them, also wrote to Welcome asking for details of PPI and a statement of payments made, any charges for late/missed payments etc)
I got a call in Nov 09 offering an early settlement fee of £780 which I didn't have (if I had that kind of money I wouldn't borrow from these cowboys!) so the person who called advised I upped my monthly payments to £75 which I did - she said my last payment will be end of August 2010 and would be just short of £70, relief...or so I thought.

I got a 'courtesy call' this morning advising my account has been returned from the collections dept to the regional office, he was asking if there'd been any change in my circumstances, I politely told him I didn't see how that was any of his business as I'm due to make my final payment this month, and whatdyaknow apparently I still owe them in the region of £1,300 :eek: my reponse "WHAAAAT! That cannot POSSIBLY be right!"
and to be honest the guy didn't seem to know what he was talking about, he kept getting dates and years mixed up, he said I stopped making full payments in June 06 - I didn't even take the loan out until October 06! I could tell he was flapping and he said he'd get an account statement out to me in the post today. As mentioned earlier I'd written to Welcome just yesterday asking for a breakdown of my account and I've written to my bank asking for a list of payments I've made to Welcome since taking out the loan.

I'll keep you updated.

fivefingers

call me paranoid but i am sure they make these 'mistakes' deliberately, to shake people up and make them feel relieved they only owe x amount. Same thing happened to me and i have read similar stories many times in the past. Just remember that you wont go to jail of you don't pay, i told them to foxtrot oscar, the 'mistake' was soon rectified.

gemmagilchrist

fivefingers wrote: »

i told them to foxtrot oscar, the 'mistake' was soon rectified.

:rotfl::T

I've done a quick tot up and I think in the worse case scenario I owe them £650 - that's not taking into account the period where I was paying £120 a month because I can't remember how many payments of this amount I made.
I'll know more when I get my bank statement.

gemmagilchrist

I got a letter yesterday advising I'll need to pay £1 to get a copy of my account summary and loan agreement or £10 for a full data protection disclosure.
I shouldn't have expected any less of them really. I'm not sure whether to pay a tenner or just £1 hmmm...

Fergie76

gemmagilchrist wrote: »

I got a letter yesterday advising I'll need to pay £1 to get a copy of my account summary and loan agreement or £10 for a full data protection disclosure.
I shouldn't have expected any less of them really. I'm not sure whether to pay a tenner or just £1 hmmm...

'Forget' to put a stamp on the envelope, that'll cost them more than a pound then.

gemmagilchrist

Fergie76 wrote: »

'Forget' to put a stamp on the envelope, that'll cost them more than a pound then.

Oooh good one!
They'd probably just return my letter though.

I think I should go for the full disclosure, what did everyone else do when claiming back their PPI or had a dispute regarding their balance?

gemmagilchrist

So, I cancelled my direct debit as I believe I have paid in full (because the bloke I spoke to at my local branch never sent out the account summary, I assumed he'd realised there'd been a mistake and that was the end of it) but I got a call this morning from a rather arrogant woman saying I still owe £1,800, that's shot up from £1,300!!!
She said I'll NEVER clear my balance as long as I'm paying £75 because I'm supposed to be paying £177 and the fact that I'm paying £75 isn't legal apparently, to which I replied "well why have I never been told this and why have I been allowed to pay £75 a month?" she said she didn't know why I hadn't been told otherwise. She's also asked for a statement of earnings and a recent bank statement to see if there's been any change in my circumstances, which I told her she would not be getting, they can go to hell.
I've got my bank statements through so I'm going to work out how much I have actually paid them, though from the sounds of things they have not frozen the interest as they previous told me hence the huge balance.
I've got 3 words for you Welscum - Financial Ombudsman Service.
I rue the day I ever took out this loan...

gemmagilchrist

I don't know if anyone is following this but anyway, I got my account statement today and is as follows:

LOAN DISBURSEMENT £2,771.68
FEE DISBURSEMENT £75.00
INSURANCE PREMIUMS £696.66
TOTALS £3,543.34

AD HOC PAYMENTS (:question:) - £10, £10 = £20
TELEPHONE CALLS - £20, £10, £10 = £40
DIRECT DEBIT CANCELLATION FEES - £65, £65, £25 & £20
UNPAID DIRECT DEBIT FEES - £75, £25
Totals £335 in charges


I've calculated all the interest/capitalisation fees which comes to a staggering £2,319.35! :eek::eek::eek:

I've cross matched my bank account statements against their statement and I've paid £3,387.28:
8 x £177.16
18 x £65.00
1 x £50
10 x £75.00

The balance at the top of the statement is £1,820.26.
I'm not really sure what to do next. Are Welcome allowed to charge you for cancelled direct debits? The unpaid DD fees seem absolutely extortionate! All the fees are all different amounts too, it seems they just charge whatever the hell they like.

I'm going to reclaim the PPI, I specifically remember being told I couldn't have the loan unless I signed up for the insurance.

I think I'm going to write to Welcome to complain that I was never advised I was not clearing my balance by paying £65/£75 a month - it seems I've only been paying some of the interest. I don't expect to get any joy so my next stop will be FOS.

Does anyone else have any advice?
Thanks
Gemma

BigIan

Welcome havent done nothing about this account and keep yelling it can take up to a year to sort out. By that time my PPI reclaim will be taken up by covering arrears.

The wait to talk to welcome is now around 75 minutes. I have contacted the ombudsman today to complain and see if they can get my account sorted.

Does anyone know if at some point I should put this account into dispute and just stop paying them as they are withholding my PPI money anyway?

My debt management firm payplan are about as useful as a chocolate fireguard (cop out excuse of having to remain impartial).

Gemma I am following your case with them but am new to what to do myself. I would defiantly reclaim your PPI and see where you stand then with the amount of loan outstanding and your new monthly payment. Mine is meant to be going down over a £100 a month.

Good luck

Ian

gemmagilchrist

Hi Ian

I cancelled my DD after my last payment, got a call from a snotty woman in Scotland advising I still owe £1,820. Got a letter dated 14/9/10 asking me to fill in an income and expenditure form, provide a bank statement and a payslip. None of which I am legally obliged to do, so I've written a 3 page letter of complaint to Welcome regarding how my account has been handled. I don't even expect a reply so I'll give them 8 weeks and go to the FOS.
I included in the letter that I will not deal with them by phone anymore, any future correspondence should be in writting and that I revoke the right for them to do a doorstep visit - though given my local branch is now in Kirkcaldy and I'm in Cumbria I highly doubt they'd do that anyway.

And just to let you know Ian they are not allowed to offset the claim for PPI against your arears so I'd getting writting to them on that one.

Cheers
Gemma