Welcome Finance may be the end of me:

trayn01

Thank anybody in advance for any advice or kind words of encouragement you may have for me :

To start off with My Wife and I took out a Loan from WF in 2007 for £19,000, all was well initially as a monthly payment of £300 PM was taken from my wife’s Bank Account and I supplemented her account with £150 PM to pay my half.

As months rolled away unbeknown to myself she fell into some financial hardship which she didn’t tell me about through embarrassment or some other crazy notion and decided to stop paying the WF Direct Debit. All the while taking my half of the money and also letting the arrears mount up on the WF loan.

Months later I was contacted by WF and the story was laid out, I was away overseas during this time as I am serving in the British Army and still am.

At this point I took the decision to change the bank account that it was taken from to my own and up the payments to £330 in order to drive some of the arrears that had built up down.

Time went by and I continued to pay the DD’s on time and in full before I was again contacted by WF stating that if I were to up the amount again the arrears would noticeably reduce.

I contacted them today as I am on leave and the issues has been at the forefront of my mind for some time and is starting to in my opinion effect my mental wellbeing as I am constantly worried, and quite depressed about the whole issue (may not be the best choice of words as this as it stands has a very good chance of financially ruining my family)

They stated that to date I have paid approx.:

£31,000.00 back to them.

The balance still stands at £13,796.00.

If I continue to pay back the amount that I am doing which is more than the original agreement, I will of payed approx. £60,000.00.

Obviously the best thing for me to do would be to borrow from family or a very low interest bank but I’m afraid my family does not have any such resources and my credit rating thanks to my wife missing payments on the above and numerous other things (some of which I’m still discovering, but I am sorting them out ) means nobody will come within 100ft of me financially.

Declaring myself bankrupt is not an option either as my job states that I would be un able to perform at my level of which I have been doing for 14 years without security clearance, which involves vetting including financially.
I am aware that a rock and a hard place springs to mind and my options seem if any are not ideal or unworkable for the most part.

I suppose I’m just after some advice on whether there is another option available to me, which I am unaware of, or some advice on dealing with Welcome Finance.

Please help.

I will be posting under a different name for obvious reasons stated above but really appreciate it.

DCFC79

You asked for help 2 months ago, did you take on board any of the advice given 2 months ago ? Although reading the thread not a lot of advice was posted.

If you have a mortgage could you maybe move to a smaller property ?

[Deleted User]

Have a hard look at your outgoings and cut them to the bone. Then throw every penny at the debt.

At the sort of APR Welcome charge, every extra pound you can pay off will have a significant benefit.

The DFW board is great at offering support and advice.

andyfromotley

hi ya mate,

the best way to get advice is to fill this in

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

and post it up here, or on the DFW board, people will then be able to advise you properly. There are other options besides bankruptcy or borrowing more, such as a DMP but we need to see the figures really.

Couple of points,

is the wife on board financially? If not she will simply undermine everything you do financially.

Contact your welfare officer. They will be very well versed in dealing with debt problems. I worked at SC vetting for many years and higher for periods. debt doesn't scupper your vetting, secrets do.

Hope this helps.

trayn01

Thanks for advice, so far, yes I posted a few months back and not much came from it apart from get the wife on board which I think I am still managing to do.

As far as re mortgaging to a smaller property, we are bursting at the seems as it is and have no free space so that really isn't an option. I will start throwing my odd's and soda's at the debt though a fiver here and there might not go amiss.

DCFC79

trayn01 wrote: »

Thanks for advice, so far, yes I posted a few months back and not much came from it apart from get the wife on board which I think I am still managing to do.

As far as re mortgaging to a smaller property, we are bursting at the seems as it is and have no free space so that really isn't an option. I will start throwing my odd's and soda's at the debt though a fiver here and there might not go amiss.

Cut back on everything you can as been suggested. Could your wife get a job to help with the repayments ?

CHR15

Many people owe lots more than you but don't have the luxury of a stable income or threat of redundancy looming. It may not seem so but you are in a great postion to deal with this.

If you are not in an Married Quarter, consider moving into one. You will get the room you need for a small monthly payment. that puts your home life at less risk (assuming the equity will support getting shot of the loan).

That seems the quickest way to me but if the thought of starting home ownership from scratch in a few years time doesn't appeal, then just knuckle down and make it a mission to pay more this month than you did last month.
Make sure the misses is properly onboard with it too, she needs to feel the same pain of penny pinching as you do.

PaulW922

Hi Trayn01 - I understand your concern over this, especially the security clearance as I have a similar requirement for my job. Don't forget that DV (if that is what it is) expires after five years needs re-doing at that point. You will need to show that you are addressing the issue and in control.

It strikes me that a company like Welcome (who of course effectively collapsed a few years ago along with Cattles, it's parent) will have pile don the charges. I suggest you ask for a full breakdown of all transactions to your account, as well as anything else you may do. If they have been piling on the fees you may be able to challenge them. This is not like an overdraft where the Supreme Court ruled for the banks.