Welcome Finance - Urgent help needed

RickfromHerts

Hi all

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Unfortunately I was a bit of an idiot when I was younger and never saw the value of having an excellent credit rating; this has led to defaults and also a CCJ on behalf of an unpaid loan from Welcome Finance.

Recently I decided to take action (never too late I thought!) and started paying all debts off, with the long-term goal of significantly improving my credit score. Initially I contacted Welcome with a data request so that I could look at exactly what was borrowed, paid and left outstanding etc....Straight away I noticed that there were many irregularities within the agreements sent back to me.

Not only did I now have 2 contracts with them - 1 had been settled for £2,800 and then re-opened for £6,000. But the second contract had been completed by someone other than myself. The handwriting is completely different, the signature is completely different and even the spelling of my surname is incorrect.

I am looking for advice on how to approach this, I have already raised the dispute to Welcome; they seem to have dropped off the face of the earth since doing so. My next step was to contact the Financial Ombudsman (this can take a while so I'm sitting tight). Seem to be quite stuck now and not too sure on whether to pursue on the grounds that the second loan has been forged or to wait etc....? Any advice and previous experience would be greatly appreciated.

Have seen that some people have attempted to "pretend" that signatures have been forged etc... in order to get out of a loan. That is 100% not the case, I take full responsibility for not paying the original loan off and pursued this to correct that; however, if this CCJ has been put through on the grounds of forged documentation.....

davek1

If you are confident that is the case then this is clearly a case of fraud or forgery, and you should report it to the Police. Welcome are renowned for these tactics!

having said that one problem is that you have a CCJ. How mucg is the CCJ for? You must take steps to get the CCJ set aside as you now have evidence available to you that you didn'y have before and therefore would have been unable to introduce that into the case.

You should also contact Welcome and set out your case with them and ask them to put things right. If they don't ( and they probably wont) then you should use the financial ombudsman and complain to them.

Dave

RickfromHerts

Thanks Dave

100% confident this is the case. Even though I was a bit of an idiot back then I would have never considered a second loan anyways! On my credit report is states that the initial loan was settled in 2007 (£2,800) and a new one opened at the same time (£6,900) and this is the same amount the CCJ is in.

So far I have put a CCA request in - this detailed the original agreement (definitely mine). I then had to request the second agreement so sent another CCA request - this was the credit agreement that really worried me! As detailed, false signature, name spelled incorrectly and completely different handwriting to mine.

I have raised this with Welcome Finance, in a letter sent 3 weeks ago now - this has not been responded to. I have also forwarded all information to the Financial Ombudsman. I thought about contacting the police but didn't really know where to start, will this be taken seriously? Have seen many threads where the police are quite dismissive.

Welcome have not chased me for this debt for almost 2 years now - it was me who approached them (trying to get finances in a better shape). I am willing to take this as far as it needs to go, my guess is that as a CCJ is involved that means going to court?

RickfromHerts

Anyone have some advice?

CH27

I would ring the Financial Service Ombudsman for some advice.

rhianna99

Hi, I once had a welcome finance car loan, when we separated my ex took the car and did not maintain payment. I have recently checked my credit file, and it also shows as two different loans, the first one as settled and the second one as defaulted. In my case I believe my ex got in touch with them and offered a reduced payment and then did not stick to these payments either, I think thats why it shows as two different loans, even though it was just one. We did not get a ccj though, and they should drop off my report in august. Welcome finance are terrible to deal with, I tried to do the right thing a few years back and got in touch with them, to try and sort it out, and they wanted £10.000 even though this was the full amount of the original debt and they had the car back. They were supposed to deduct the money they got from reselling the car from the amount we owed, but when questioned, lied and said the car had been scrapped and they did not get any money from it ( I knew it wasnt because I did a car check on the registration, and it showed as still on the road) I then complained to the financial ombudsman, and they backed down and wiped £5000 off the debt, which is now paid off. I hope I never have to deal with a company like this again. I would definately go to the financial ombudsman, they really helped in my situation. Good Luck.