Welcome Finance Woes

bob-k

Ive been a customer of Welcome finance for 12 years having unsecured loans up until around 5 years ago when I took out a secured loan, From memory it was around 22k (I have requested a breakdown of info from welcome so will report back with that)


Paying back currently at £250 a month until this month and last when I had no choice but to miss the payments. Having discussed this with welcome I asked for a breakdown of the remaining payments, to which I was blown away to find out there are 178 monthly payments remaining at that payment amount.


By my calculations I have paid them back approximately £15 000 with another 44 500 remaining.


Im not in a position to up the payments to clear it off faster and pay less interest. Have I any other options other than to just keep making the payments?


I haven't claimed PPI back on this account, im going to research into that now, however from the limited looking around I have done I believe I am past the time limit as with this loan being 5 years old my previous 3 unsecured loans will be at least 6 years old.


Again the information above might not be totally accurate, but its what ive been lead to believe on the phone. Ill report back with more accurate information when I have it.


In the mean time, thanks for reading and any basic advice of what way I should move forward would be appreciated.


Thanks
Bob

Gaz83

bob-k wrote: »

I was blown away to find out there are 178 monthly payments remaining at that payment amount.

Surely when applying for and taking out the loan, you would have been told how many years you were going to be repaying the money for?

bob-k

When I took out the loan, I had not long bought a house, got a new job, needed a car, and in all honesty (and stupidity) didn't really pay all that much attention. My own fault, im well aware of that.

I didn't however think that there was that many months involved, Like I say. im waiting for a full breakdown in the post from welcome.


Thanks for your reply.

Gaz83

bob-k wrote: »

When I took out the loan, I had not long bought a house, got a new job, needed a car, and in all honesty (and stupidity) didn't really pay all that much attention. My own fault, im well aware of that.

I didn't however think that there was that many months involved, Like I say. im waiting for a full breakdown in the post from welcome.


Thanks for your reply.

Sorry to sound blunt, but Welcome Finance specialised in long-term secured loans at a (what I would call) medium- to high-rate APR for customers who had shown that they couldn't be trusted to borrow and repay credit at mainstream lender rates.

Typically their terms were for 15+ years, often 20-25 years. So a period of just under 15 years left, if you've been paying for a shade over 5 years, would tally with a 20-year loan.

Hopefully you get some firmer answers when you get a breakdown sent to you.

manIntheMiddle

Have you got a copy of the Consumer Credit Agreement? If not, ask them for one. On this document will be the total cost for credit. This is the important number.

As for the PPI.. its (from memory) 6 years from cause or 3 years from knowing their is a problem, so your not time barred. Stick in a claim.

As for the debt, you can phone them and ask for a settlement figure if you paid "today - tomorrow - next week" this will mean the loan would have to be recalculated with all the interest from the next 15 years (or what ever the term of the loan is) reduced. You can then re-finance this loan by getting another finance company to offer you a better rate and pay of the welcome loan early and cheaper. Hope this helps..

bob-k

@ Gaz, I agree, and in hindsight I should have struggled on, and just managed, But hindsight is a wonderful thing, and ive had my head buried in the sand with my finances for too long, so I feel I need to start taking action.


I don't have a copy of the agreement at present, but I will ask for it, Ill also look into other finance options.


Thanks for your help