Newbie needs help/advice.

diamonte

Hi guys

I have been reading these forums on and off for several months and have finally reached the point where I really need to post.

Will give you a bakground run down in a nutshell.

Seperated from my husband just over 2 years ago. Had an HP agreement on car that at the time was up to date (had only been going for 4 months at that time).

When I moved I had no money to pay said HP agreement but my car was necessary for my work. Me being ostrich inclined decided to just do nothing about the fact that the HP company (Welcome finance) were not getting any money. They did not know I had moved (as I did not inform them) so chased my ex husband for the money. He obviously gave them my new address and explained that the marriage had ended and he was not responsible for the debt (agreement was in only my name). Welcome did attempt to contact me at my new address but as I was merely lodging and only was home irregularly (worked shifts and very strange hours) I managed to avoid ever seeing them or having to confront them.

They never actually wrote to me in an official capacity. Just had a compliment slip through the door asking me to contact them and once called round when I was at work and spoke to one of the other tenants and just asked her to ask me to call the office.

I moved from that address about 9 months later to another rented property. Again I was only lodging and so never used that address permanantly. I never heard anything from Welcome but did have a neighbour tell me that "some guy" had knocked her door asking if she knew where I live. Am assuming that it may well have been a debt collector from Welcome but I never received anything from them written or otherwise for the year that I was there.

I moved again at the begining of this year and am now living with my long term partner in a house that is owned and mortgaged in his name. I have, however, got a joint bank account with him but that is as far as any credit related items go for me. I do not own any credit/store cards or have any credit agreements in my name whatsoever.

So the long and the short of it is this - Welcome have not received any payment from me for the last 2 + years for the HP agreement. They quite clearly have no idea where I am living at present. I know I have to pay them the money that I owe them for the car eventually but what I need to know is what do you reckon the possibility is of them allowing me to begin making repayments on the outstanding amount rather than having to come up with a lump sum to clear the debt.

I reckon I owe them in the region of £8,000 plus whatever horrendous charges I have now brought upon the account (don't even want to think of it) and I have no chance of coming up with that sort of money this year. I will, however, be in a pretty strong financial position by March of next year and would be able to come up with it then.

I would like to keep hold of the car and really cannot see the sensibility in handing it back seeing as it would not even begin to cover what is owed and would not reduce my liability anyway.

Right so my question is this - should I just keep quiet for now and see when Welcome catch up with me (hopefully it wont be til after next march in which case I can then pay them a substantial lump sum) or do I contact them now and hope that they allow me to keep the car if I begin a new repayment shedule with the promise of a lump sum in March/April of next year - what do you think the likely chance is of this happening.

I know I was stupid in ignoring this and I cannot begin to tell you how much I regret it but I cannot turn back time so I can only make the best of the situation I am in now.

Any help/advise would be very welcome (excuse the pun)

CLAPTON

I can't give advice about the car but having a joint account with your partner is a bad idea.

If the finance company do catch up with you and default your account then it will almost adversly affect your partner credit record as he will be seen as financially linked to you.

thecornflake

I'm surprised they haven't traced you through the car, unless you haven't changed the address on the V5 or your insurance. Is the finance secured on the car, or just an unsecured loan?

It's a tricky one. The right answer is of course to contact them, explain the situation that you will be able to repayments again now and pay a lump sum off next year, but I'm not sure what they will do.

They may have a rule where they write it off as a bad debt if they can't find someone after a certain amount of time, but I doubt it would as little as 2 years plus I wouldn't recommend ignoring it any more as you could suddenly end up with them catching up with you and trying to get the whole lot plus charges (although you could contest late payment charges in the same way people claim back bank charges).

It may be worth registering and posting on the consumeractiongroup forums because there are people there who know the legal side of how these things work and may know what they would be likely to do, plus there are also people who work at banks and other financial institutions.


Have you got a copy of your credit file to see if there's anything on it for them?

diamonte

I haven't changed the address on the V5 or my insurance - my ex husband still lives at that address.

I honestly would dearly love to contact them straight away - the stress of this has become unbearable lately - no idea why after 2 years of burying my head I suddenly get some kind of guilt complex!! The only thing stopping me doing that is I am really concerned that once I make contact and they then know my address etc they will demand the whole payment from me and not accept monthly payments (and I for one cannot blame them - I have hardly proven myself to be trustworthy). I really cannot come up with the lump sum right now (and I mean "cannot" as opposed to "do not want to") but I can afford the original payments (region of £200 pm) hence I am loathed to be the one to make the first move until I am in the position to offer them a sizeable chunk of the outstanding balance but will go down the contact them right now route if I know that they are pretty likely to accept a monthly payment arrangement.

I will post my message on the consumer action group forum as well and hopefully someone with an inside knowledge of Welcome may well read it.

Many thanks.

lynsayjane

best advice I can give is that if you are genuinely able to pay the original £200 a month begin putting that into a savings account or some other untouchable place. Chances are it will take a couple of months from you initially contacting them for any direct debit to begin and so at least then you can say 'I've got £600 for a start' as a goodwill gesture on your behalf.

get a copy of your credit file from experian to check for any defaults on your name. If you have any then your new partner will be in trouble financially too because of the joint account.

diamonte

Thanks for the advice about my partner and our joint account etc. Not sure if it is actually going to affect us though. Although the property I live in is owned by him it is not his address for financial matters.

The only thing we have that is connected financially is the joint account and that is more because of a business arrangement. We have had the joint account since Feb of this year and he has taken out credit agreements since then.

I am worried about checking my credit file as I do not want Welcome to know my new address yet (unless I can be sure that they would take monthly payments). Would applying for my credit file (I would have to use this address as it is the address my bank card is registered with) alert Welcome to my new address?

wyebird

You could contact them without advising them of a your current address. You can have mail delivered to a local post office for collection in person. It's called post restant or something like that, not sure of the spelling. The PO should advise you more.

thecornflake

diamonte wrote: »

I am worried about checking my credit file as I do not want Welcome to know my new address yet (unless I can be sure that they would take monthly payments). Would applying for my credit file (I would have to use this address as it is the address my bank card is registered with) alert Welcome to my new address?

I could be wrong but I don't think they could search your file without your permission. Anyway, I think they only send them to the address listed on your file, so it would be on there anyway.

EDIT: You could sign up for the free online trial (and get cashback from Quidco at the same time)