Welcome Finance - Bunch of James Blunts

simax

Guys,

Guidance please. OH had a Welcome Finance loan in April 09 for £8575.00 over 48 months at 25.2% APR. Repayments were something like £285 a month.

Back in April 2010 she gets a call advising her that Welcome have closed their loan book and are looking at getting their loan capital back quicker so they made her an offer. Pay £3,000 of the loan there and then and they'd reduce the interest to 0%.

She didn't have that kind of cash but I did, so paid £3,000 off her loan, and quite rightly the payments reduced to £120.00 at 0%. She also is paying me back at 0% so win win.

Anyway, we get a statement in the post today and the sneaky little sh*ts have started charging her interest again (25.2%) from January, at 65-odd quid a month!!!

Before we ring them and go apesh*t at them, does anyone have any experience of this and have any advice?

Thanks

marcjward

Did you sign a new agreement sataing that the interest rate would now be 0%?
Did they state that the 0% interest offer would be for the life of the loan or for a limited period?
If you have it in writing from Welcome that on receipt of £3000 off the balance the interest FOR THE LIFE OF THE LOAN would be 0% (and NOT just for a limited period) I would say that you have a good case.

Continue to make payments at the 0% level EVERY month (if you miss a payment then you will breach your part of the agreement).
Write to them (include a COPY of the new agreement or any letters you have stating 0% interest).
Explain in the letter that you will continue to pay the loan at the agreed rate but will refuse to pay interest charges.
They will then write back to you to explain their agreement if they disagree.
If the reply doesn't match what you already have in writing take all paperwork to the Citizens Advice and ask them to look into it.
Keep copies of EVERYTHING you send to/recieve from Welcome and if you must phone them at any time, note the time/date of the call, the advisors FULL name, and ask them at the start of the call if it is recorded. If you have the facility to record the call yourself, do so, but make sure you tell the advisor that you are recording the call (if you record the call ask the advisor to agree to having the call recorded and to state the time/date of the call, that way you have an oral agreement from them that the call can be recorded and when the call was made).

Please note that this is how I would deal with this situation. There could be easier or better ways to proceed but from my point of view this is now a case of getting the offer that you agreed to. You also need to cover yourself as they will continue to charge interest if they think they can get away with it. The most important thing is to maintain the repayments at the 0% rate. DON'T be tempted to stop paying them until it's sorted as this will not work and will actually result in a breach of agreement on your part.

Hope this helps,

simax

marcjward wrote: »

Did you sign a new agreement stating that the interest rate would now be 0%? NO
Did they state that the 0% interest offer would be for the life of the loan or for a limited period? YES IN A LETTER
If you have it in writing from Welcome that on receipt of £3000 off the balance the interest FOR THE LIFE OF THE LOAN would be 0% (and NOT just for a limited period) I would say that you have a good case.

Now, gotta find the letter that was sent

I knew it wasn't thrown as I said at the time to keep it in case she's screwed over.

Although I do know the letter that was sent said interest was frozen at 0%APR, however there was no length of time on the letter.....