Welcome Finance mislead me for a month

Bessie123

Thanks to the help of this board I only have one debt left to sort out and have saved myself a small fortune.

The final one I am trying to sort out is Welcome Finance.

I have a balance of £4100, which they have frozen interest on for the last six months. I spoke to them on 3rd July with regards to negotiating a reduced settlement. The person I spoke to suggested I could potentially offer £3000 to settle this, so I offered them £2800 (taking in to account the myriad of other debts I had to pay this was what I could afford).

They told me that it had to be referred via their regional manager to their managing director. I was promised an answer within 48 hours.

I rang them 4 days later to be told that they hadn't had a decision yet, but I shouldn't worry because they were sure it would be accepted.

A few days more, another phone call. This time they told me that it had been rejected. All the other companies I had dealt with had agreed to reduced figures, so I had a bit more free money - I offered them £3200, which I was told really should be accepted and I should just wait another 48 hours. They also to me to put it in writing to them, which I did.

They have basically dragged this on for a whole month, but in the middle of this they pointed out that I had PPI on the loan. I had absolutely no idea that I had - infact I had expressly told the person who sold me the loan that I did not want it.

They then passed me through to the FSCS, who work in their office.. I have since discovered that they are ex-Welcome Finance people.

They have told me that I can claim for mis-selling and that they will send me some forms to complete to claim it back and it will be offset against my loan, bringing it below what I had offered.

So I rang Welcome back and said that I am claiming for the PPI, and that my finances are finely balanced due to paying off all my debts. They agreed that THEY (ie not me and my bank) would cancel my Direct Debit for this month's payment and that I would pay the balance once the PPI had been sorted out.

Then, yesterday, I got a phone call from them saying "why have you cancelled your direct debit? You need to pay us £150 or we will take further action". I pointed out that they cancelled it as agreed, I didn't cancel it. I suggested they read the notes from that phone call.

They did this - the notes said something like "client can't afford to pay this month, might do next month".

I suggested they go and listen to the call and then call me back. They haven't yet.


So, the reasons for this post are threefold:-

1) To rant - they have made my blood boil with rage with how they have mislead me for a month for no good reason at all!
2) Do I have to deal with the Welcome Finance FSCS people for the PPI, or can I go to the proper FSCS? I don't believe a word that comes from the.
3) Where do I stand with regards to them agreeing not to take a payment this month and then demanding that I do pay them?