Welcome Finance- Again!!!

Adam_Southward

Hi guys, just signed up to this board to seek a bit of advice on an issue with Welcome Finance. (Oddly enough!) This is a little long winded, so apologies in advance!

Basically, I got a loan with Welcome back in October 2007. I borrowed £1000.00. As stated on my loan agreement paperwork, the loan period was for 36 months, with repayments being £90.88 per month, including PPI- having had a loan in the past that I defaulted on after losing my job I didn't want to take a chance this time. I was fully understanding about the high interest rates, etc.- I had pretty bad credit at the time and really needed money to buy a drum kit (an investment to hopefully make money from gigging with my band), so didn't have much choice as far as getting a loan. I arranged to repay the loan by Direct Debit.

Anyway, by my reckoning, and according to my agreement, my 36 payments should therefore have finished in November last year. However, since that time I have made 2 further payments, thus totalling 38. I emailed Welcome to enquire the reasons for this- I'd changed my address and not got round to informing them, so not received my statement for the year. I basically just wanted to know where I stood- if I needed to pay more I had no problem, as long I knew why.

Some further background info: I missed a payment in January 2008. However, within a week I had been phoned by someone from Welcome and made a payment by debit card. At the same time I arranged to switch my repayment date to the last working day of each month. At the time I was salaried and got paid on the last working day of each month- I figured if I repaid the loan on this date the money would be there and go straight out, so I wouldn't miss any further payments. As a matter of fact- I haven't!!!

Yesterday I received a letter- this was a follow up to one I received a fortnight ago, stating that my 'complaint' would be investigated. It wasn't actually a complaint I sent- to my mind it was just an enquiry. Anyway, this second letter was marked 'Final Response' and basically dismissed my email. However, the letter was full of glaring factual inaccuracies.

First of all, the letter states that according to the Ts & Cs of my agreement, my 36 payments were for £163.23 per month. See above for that one. In the same breath it says that, to date, I have paid £3453.44. By strange coincidence, this is the amount of 38 x £90.88.

It then says, as mentioned above, that I had a payment (on the 30th January 2008) returned unpaid on February 3rd 2008. I apparently then made my contractual payment for February by debit card on 7th February 2008, and two further payments were recieved on 1st March 2008 and 31st March 2008, one of which would have covered my missed payment for February 2008.

The plot thickens further, because the letter then goes on to say that I have made all my other payments AFTER my contractual due dates, and therefore late, thus making them 'missed payments.' This is despite my arrangement to switch my payment date over the phone. There was no explanation given when I did this that it would affect anything on the loan, other than the dates it was repaid on.
Anyway, as a result of all this they're basically saying that as a result of these so called 'missed payments' interest has accumulated.

The letter says that my loan expired on 3rd November 2010, but that I have an outstanding balance of £94.12 to repay. Is this not a contradiction? Or are loan completion and expiry two completely different things?

After all that, I'm basically not sure of my next step or what rights I have. Obviously Welcome are not going to have anything more to do with me, being that their letter was labelled 'Final Response' (despite me just making an enquiry!). They've rightly pointed me towards the financial ombudsman, but do I have grounds to seek legal help here, given that, IMO, I have been mislead or misinformed regarding the product I have 'bought'? I am also unhappy with the letter I received, given the number of errors it contains. I can back up many of the things I wish to argue, as I still have my copy of the original loan agreement.

Over to you guys. Sorry again for length of post! Hope you can help me here!

amersall

Hi there, i would send a complaint in to the fos, explain what you have put here and let them deal with welcome regarding this. I am sure that by moving your payment date, you will have accrued some form of extra interest on this, if i were you i would pay the amount they say you still owe, just so it does not impact on your credit file,and leave to fos to deal with. hope this helps, and hopefully someone who has more knowledge regarding welcome will post their advice as well.

Adam_Southward

Cheers.

Like I said, I'd have had no probs paying more had the reasons been given.

Regarding me switching my payment date- I should have added that the person who phoned me made the suggestion that I do this- at no point did she explain that there might be any consequences for doing so. Had I known of any, I wouldn't have done it- I was basically trying to make sure Welcome got the payments they required, on time, and that I always had the funds to pay them. Sounds like I may have lost out through my own ignorance! (I'll stop short of saying I've been conned, mind. Only just short though...;))

paddyrg

What a mess. "Final Response" is a meaningless term hoping you'll go away.
You could ask them for a month-by-month statement of your account so you can understand why they took 2 extra months payments from you. If they don't, threaten them with court action, and small claims the £180-odd overpaid (£30 fee, added to the claim). But hopefully they will be sensible and provide the statement showing the payments, interest as applied, and running remaining balance for you.