Welcome Finance

Seddys

Hiya, I've come on here because I was a little taken aback/confused today when I got home to find a letter from Welcome Finance saying I was £283.00 in arrears. This being a complete surprise because in the last three years that I've had a loan with them I've never once missed a payment and have the payment come out as a DD on payday.

So, I called them to find out what was going on and was told that the arrears were indeed correct as I'd changed the date of my DDs twice 2 years ago! This in turn put my account in arrears because the original loan repayment date was on the 14th and I'd changed it to be on the 10th, then 25th. This meant because of the date change, there was a gap of a month before the next payment was taken, putting my account in an overdue state. Funny thing is they never once informed me and had no problem changing the DD dates twice and now this is meant to be an extra interest charge put on the total loan amount. Are they allowed to do this?

The guy I spoke to didn't seem to be able to answer why I was never informed, just that I owed the money and I need to pay it. In fact he kept avoiding the question saying that my original payment date was the 14th, as this is what it was set to when my loan started (they never let me pick a date, just chose it themselves) and it stood no matter how many times I changed the DD payment date. This is turn not only increased my loan from 36 to 37 months, but now I've been charged extra for changing a DD date. As far as I was aware the Dec 25th payment date was meant to be the last for my loan, and now they send me a bill for extra. Are they allowed to do this??


A little extra to add... I came across this on another forum. Basically an employee of Welcome wrote this:

"If the account does go into arrears, we make every effort to help with the payments, giving a months grace period, effectively knocking the missing payment to the end of the month. This does not give you a payment holiday and you will have to pay for the back interest-there's no such thing as a free lunch remember."

So from what I can understand, and putting two and two together after my call to welcome, I'm basically being charged interest on arrears for the grace period they gave me for not making my payment on time. Except, I DID pay everything on time, they just agreed to let me change the date of my DD, which I'm totally entitled to, and considered it arrears without informing me. Nice!

lolly0117

Hi there

I have had a similar situation just arise.

I received 2 Notice of Sums in Arrears Letters this morning stating that I am in arrears. One letter is for a loan of £14,000 - I have never taken a loan out for that amount of money in my entire life. I had a loan for £1000 plus interest which was consolidated into my current one of £6000 - of which I have 11 months left. I have not missed any payments although there one occasion where my bank details were changed and I have to send a cheque for the loan payment about 2 years ago.

I'm a bit confused especially as I have just received my PPI Refund. Funnily enough, they did not adjust December's Loan Payment.

Anyone else had this from Welcome? Any advice would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Lolly x