Welcome finance loan - confused?!

MrsR15

Hello everyone.

Firstly apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place or my question has been answered elsewhere but I'm new to this!!

My partner had a loan over 6 years ago which he defaulted on (he lost him job and just stopped paying). Now he's sorted himself out his debts are all catching up with him. Just before we met 3 years ago Welcome Finance caught up with him and scarred him into paying his debt back. He agreed to £40 a month and about a year upped this to £80 a month. The original loan was for 2k. We've checked his credit file and he has no default etc registered for this and nothing showing he's paying them back, he has no official correspondence with them or statements showing what's left to pay. My questions are as follows:

1. Are the company in the right taking the money with no official payment plan, it feels like we'll be paying this forever!
2. What if he stopped paying, if the default has fell off can they add it again? I know they would try and take him to court but could he chance it and then agree to pay a settlement if they took it that far?
3. If he needs to continue to pay is there something he should do to make this 'official' they keep ringing asking if he can settle and offering a figure but there doesn't seem to be an end on sight.

Basically we are really struggling at present and a few people have told me that if he stopped paying they would probably just leave it as it would be hassle to take us to Court and that they'd give up chasing after a while but I'm worried that as he's been paying for so long that they will add another default. A few friends have said he's effectively throwing the money away as he's pretty much paid what he owed over the years but they still want more money!

Any help would be much appreciated. We are hoping to buy a house at some point so need to make sure we protect his already shaky credit file. I just wanted some advice as to how to do this so there is an end in sight and what we should be asking of them or if there is any point at all? Obviously had it been me I would have asked for proof of what I owed before I agreed to pay and asked for a copy of the agreement but the OH got worried and just agreed to their demands!

d70cw6

have you asked them for a payment plan to pay off the debt in a set timescale?

M0ney

I'm afraid I'm not able to offer any advice on this but my partner had a Welcome finance loan which was in the thousands and in the last week I asked her to call them and find out the outstanding balance they did but were willing to accept half the balance in order to get it paid off. So we are just now waiting for confirmation of this in the post.

MrsR15

He doesn't have that no, they sent him breakdowns of what he owed but he just agreed to an amount and that's the last we heard except from the odd call saying can we settle for a certain amount which we can't.

I've told him to ring them as I don't think it's right he's just paying every month with no statements or correspondence to suggest it's getting any less!

view

M0ney wrote: »

I'm afraid I'm not able to offer any advice on this but my partner had a Welcome finance loan which was in the thousands and in the last week I asked her to call them and find out the outstanding balance they did but were willing to accept half the balance in order to get it paid off. So we are just now waiting for confirmation of this in the post.

just ensure the letter says full and final or Welcome can be paid by debt collection agencies for the rest.

Tixy

They cannot add a new default to his credit file. If the original default was more than 6years ago then it should have dropped off his file by now.

However if he stopped paying they could decide to take court action against him and if successful would mean a CCJ on his file for a further 6years (assuming he couldnt pay in full within 30days of judgement). If he could afford to pay the full balance within 30 days then the judgement wouldn't be recorded on his credit file.

In his situation now I would write to them to ask them for details of the outstanding balance and a statement.

That way he should be able to work out roughly how long it is going to take to pay back at the current repayment rate, plus he will be able to see if they are adding interest/charges to the account still.

MrsR15

Brilliant thanks everyone.

Tixy, the original default has dropped off, we checked his credit file and I was quite surprised as I thought it would be there. I think that's why we've been told by a few people to not pay it, we could afford the final settlement if it went to Court (we couldn't right now but a few months down the line we could) but friends are saying they likely wouldn't bother, I was wondering if it's worth a chance, I know that's probably the wrong attitude but it feels at the moment like we're trying to do the right thing by paying but it's getting us nowhere as we're no where near close the it being finished! He's on the phone now so will be interesting to see what they say.

Thank you