Nightmare with Welcome Finance!!

JTL01

I am new to this site and I'm probably posting this in the wrong place, but here goes, I reakky need to borow £10k, I've approached Ocean Finave who have agreed through A

normalouise

petermb wrote: »

This sort of loan with Welcome is easy enough to deal with. You could walk away from this with the money you have paid to date returned to you.

So glad to read all the threads these people are legalised loan sharks in all sense of the words.
Eventually got a subject access request but for wrong account number and address!
Spoke to someone in Customer "Services "who muddied the waters somewhat when they said I had used the "wrong Comp Number" she did then agree that this "was not a solid laon account" I requested this in writing but as yet, guess what no reply I then said that as I considered this loan invalid I would not be making payment this month she seemed shocked at this and promised a call back by the "end of the week"...........still waiting!:eek:

lukespurs

Hey guys first time poster here, too be honest i have only signed up after finding this thread through the magic of google.

So yeah Welcome finance, possibly- no they are the most unprofessional, unhelpful, dodgy company i have ever had the mispleasure of dealing with.

Around 3 years ago as a single man living at home with a nice income i wanted to get a nice car, i had awful credit (mispent youth) so i accepted Welcome as although the interest rate was stupidly high i felt it was a good way of building a nice credit rating.

Fast forward to around 6 months ago and i am now engaged and wanting a mortgage, so after looking into it i discovered i got return the car as i'd paid over half back.

Now the details are kind of hazey so i'll try and be brief. It took me 3 attempts to do this, the local branches who i have found are the main problem simply wouldn't put it through.

In the end i had to basically issue the head office with an ultimatum that i would pay one more month as a good will gesture but after that i would be stopping the direct debit. They accepted this and the car was collected and checked on time.

2 or 3 weeks after the car had been collected i recieve a phone call from my local branch (which despite me telling them i'd left the area 3 or 4 times was still my original one) saying that my direct debit had failed. When i said the car had been returned he claimed no knowledge of this and wait for it - should i make a months payment it will be fine. I told him where to go politely. I then rung head office and luckily for me i was yet again fobbed off to completely the wrong department as the woman i spoke to was clearly fed up with having the buck passed onto her and informed me that the guy from the branch knew full well the car had been returned and in her words was trying his luck. As you can imagine i'm not a happy bunny by now!

So with that done i receive a letter asking for an additional 850 pounds for insurances and damage to the car. Well there was nothing wrong with said car except the usual wear and tear you would expect from a car that 6 years old and i wasn't happy about the insurances as it was way over the top, in my opinion of course. I did try telling them this whilst complaining about the guy trying to steal but they kept saying don't worry.

Anyway it gets to the stage where i receive a phone call from a young man from my new (yay!) local branch. Its starts off very civilised and i explain my position so he proceeds to tell me thats ok i can pay it off in installments and starts quoting me more than the letter! When i tell him this, he keeps saying he is just trying to help. After half an hour of going round in stages i lost my temper and i think i asked him if he was impotent ( i know childish) and he accused me of swearing which of course i wasn't.

I took a deep breath and asked to be put through to his manager, he refuses, so i ask for the number of their regulator, he says try google. By this time im fuming, i didn't swear but i did shout so his response is..and i qoute ' well as your shouting im gonna put a default on your file, bye'. He slams the phone down.

I was raging!!! So having gone through hoops i eventually get through to his area manager, we come to an agreement of a final settlement of 300 quid, thankfully i said put it in writing and we have a deal. Got the email (not the letter mind!) and i paid and was thinking thank christ thats over with.

That was a while ago, last thursday i checked my experian credit report and to my surprise guess whch company are claiming that i defaulted my account by 700 quid? Yep you guessed it Welcome finance.

Despite numerous phone calls to customer service i have had NO luck whatsoever talking to ANYONE who can help in any way. I have digged the email up this weekend and will be trying to speak to this area manager tomorrow, so hopefully i will get it sorted.

Sorry for the mega long rant for a first post but i really want this company brought to justice. I never missed a payment and paid well over the odds for a car i gave back to them, despite this they have given me so much stress and tried stealing from me.

lukespurs

Hey guys just a quick update from my post last night,

I have spent two hours trying to get through to someone this morning, I have been lied to and told tough.

I've complained to the omnudsman now but I'm so upset.

Welcome are telling me that despite me having a letter saying the 300 pound I paid would be for a full settlement my account would still be a default.

Surely they can't do this?!?

gazelle8760

I took my first Car Loan out with them in 2001, which enabled me to get the car I wanted, when through no fault of my own, no one else would give me Car Finance.

I had a brilliant Account Manager at the time, never had any problems, and The Local Branch Manager was excellent too, when I found the monthly payments too high, they let me extend it by an extra 12 months, which in turn was a great help.

I then decided to borrow extra funds, this was the mistake!!

I still had my excellent Account Manager at that time, and was paying by Direct Debit monthly, but found this not to be convenient, as I am paid weekly for the time being, soon to be monthly, so I cancelled the DD and they let me call them monthly to pay the payments with my Debit Card at the end of each month, at that time you could phone straight through to the branch.

This was working well, until I got a new Account Manager! She insisited I gave her my Debit Card details, as she did not trust me to phone up and make the payment myself, The new Branch Manager was nagging her to get them from me apparantly, I told her I wanted the payment to go out on the 29th of each month, this was OK for a while.

I then decided to change cards, as I wanted the payment to go off a different card number, this was again working well, until this card was used fraudulently back in May, and stopped. I had a phone call from my Account Manager at the end of May stating the payment was not successful, so I explained the situation and gave them the new card number, but they charged me some £20 late payment fee, even though the payment was not late, I was not happy.

In the meantime, they still had my old Debit Card details (The card I started to use when I cancelled the DD) and were debiting money from my bank account from Head Office, as well as taking payment off the other card, so I then had to ring up for a refund and they promised me this would not happen again.

Two weeks ago, the same thing happened. The Account Manager called me on July 27th, to say my payment had gone through OK, I told her she had took it two days too early,and demanded it went out on the 29th, this was not noted, despite being told by myself numerous times!! She then told me the last four digits of the card that the payment had gone off, and I was annoyed to find it was my Debit Card, the details of which she promised me had been destroyed!! This monthly payment was taken off three times!! Not only did this cause me to go some £159.11 over my overdraft, but also took my DDs into a negative situation, and they all bounced, plus a cheque I wrote out to pay into another current account, total fees from my bank £100, all through Welcome Finance and their lack of ability to understand simple instructions, they are an utter disgrace.

I told the bank the card had been used fraudulently, and I stopped the card to prevent them doing this again this month, as they cannot be trusted with customers sensitive details.

I hope that now I am building up my Credit and have put my past behind me, and have a good relationship with my bank, they can help me within the next twelve months to borrow off them, and pay these loan sharks off once and for all, loyal custom counts for nothing with them anymore, they make serious errors like this, and all they can do is apologize..........NOT good enough!!

dust_hull

Hi, Ive just been reading the forums about welcome finance. Similar experience myself & I was looking for advice or opinions. Will keep this short & to the point.

In May 2008 I bought a house with my partner & we decided to get a loan to consolidate all of our debts. My main debt was with Welcome Finance! I got a settlement fee of £4500, a bit steep but this was what I expected. I went into the office in person to pay this by cheque. The advisor I had always dealt with advised me to do something slightly different.
She said why dont I just pay £4000 now and then she will get me a settlement on the remaining £500. Seemed a good idea at the time so said okay then. This all went fine and the settlement was just £175 so it saved me £325, always good when you are buying a house & need any spare cash. So, I went back & payed the cheque for £175.
A few weeks passed & we realised they had not taken the money so I contacted them & was told not to worry, the cheque will be somewhere and its all fine. A few more days passed & I called and was again told not to worry.
Anyway, I called a few more times and said, listen, if the cheque is lost, that is fine, I will write you a new one minus the fee it will cost me to cancel the original. Was then told they think they have found it, no probs.
I called & offered to write a new one on 3 occassions but was told repeatedly it wasn't a major issue. In the end, we just forgot about it to be honest.

Then, out of the blue in April this year I recieved a call from Welcome Finance, a lady claiming to be my new account advisor said she was calling about my outstanding debt. Initialy this annoyed me then I softened & said, listen, I will write you a another cheque for the £175. She then informed me I owed £1500+ ! ! !

Shell shocked I explained the situation about my previous attempts. I told her to speak to my orig advisor about this. She said that teh orig advisor had left the company so that was not possible. I was told she would look into it as its possible the cheque could still be somewhere etc...
She contacted me again a week later & said, sorry they have not found it, do I have proof!

I decided to turn up at the office & I got to speak to the new advisor at begining of July after more calls. I went through in detail & gave her copies of my phone bills & names of the people I had spoken to to prove my attempts from 2008 to sort this. She admitted & saw my point that it was unlikely someone would hand over £4000 then try & duck out of paying £175! After an hour & a word with the manager she told me that it would be wavered and I agreed that I would still pay the £175. She said I could pay tehre & then if I liked but I declined saying I wanted it in writing first. She said it would take 6-8 weeks to sort via head office, Again, she admitted they were wrong and apologised & told me to ignore any letters... Phew, all sorted, nice one!

This brings me to now. After hearing nothing I tried on several occasions to speak to my advisor who was always unav or on another call. Eventually, because she answered the phone I got to speak to her. I was shocked to hear her say that as I had no proof for paying the £175 cheque then what could she do? She asked if I had proof of delivery, Nope, I came into the branch myself! I went ballistic. She said the outstanding balance was now £2800, an increase of over a thousand in the 6-8 weeks I waited for her to sort it out! But, she could get me a settlement on the £2800, gee, thanks!

I spoke to the manager who again agreed with what I was saying, he then offered to contact complaints at head office to put forward a short settlement (i think thats what he called it) for the orig £175. This I am told will take 10 days and has no guarantee of been accepted. In the meantime their callcentre are calling my previous address despite them knowing & been told that I have moved house, hence the settlement in the firstplace!

I am livid & stressed, does anybody out there have any suggestions as to what I should do next?

How can £175 turn into £2800 when THEY lost my cheque!

biglady

I am having trouble galore with Welcome finance and am worrying myself to death about it. Am trying to deal with them on my own as I can't afford a solicitor and would advise EVERY person to stay well clear of them at all costs.

Tubbss

Hi BigLady

Easily done as Welcome are collecting out their loan book and have not been lending to anyone for over a year. In 2-3 years they will be gone as any accounts not paid up will have been sold on to other companies!

lolah_2

I am glad I am not the only one who thinks welcome finance are thieves, worse than that actually.

I borrowed £22000 3 yrs ago at 24.4% APR and have been paying about £455 every month. I asked a for a settlement figure last week and I was told the settlement figure was £22000 meaning I had only paid £2000 towards my loan. So what happened to the £15000 I have paid to them in the last 3 years.

I was told they calculate interested on monthly basis on the outstanding balance thereby you pay the bulk of interest in the first years of the loan. meaning I have paid £13000 on interest only.

This was not explained to me when I took out the loan, in other words when I took the secured loan, i took a second mortgage at 24.4% APR.....this is day light robbery.

I don't know how they are still operational. The government need to look into these lenders, they prey on valnurable people in financial difficulties and get them in even more debt.

Has anyone got any advice on how I can deal with this problem?

anthony7336

In 2008 I took out a loan for £800 with Welcome Finance, and was told that the only way they would give me the loan was if I took out PPI, but I didn't want it, but they added anyway.This took the loan to almost £1200.

During the past year I have had problems with the monthly payments due to losing my job and when I asked them to freeze payments they started coming up with all sorts of excuse and the end result was that I did not get any help.I was told that they could reduce my monthly payments by extending the time of the loan. I was out of work and I have contacted the relevant authorities who advised me to give them token payments of £5 a month which I have been doing so far on a card, and have asked for a new one due to losing the other one but i still haven't received one. I even wrote them a letter stating that they look into the issue of the PPI and other charges on my account and was not giving the option in filling out a Income and Expenditure form.

I received a letter this morning from them saying that my account has now been passed to the collections department due to arrears. When I called up I was shocked to find that the interest was not frozen and that now I owe £2048.81 and now it has the £4.000 barrier if it ends up in court. I do not understand how its gone up so dramatically when I have paid almost £1200 within the year.

I feel that I am losing a fighting battle here, and that my debt will never ever be clear. I am desperately looking for work and I am trying my best to come off JSA, so it doesn't help with this letter.

The person who I spoke to today said that I have only made 10 payments totalling £600 but this is not true at all as I requested a statement over a year ago and it still hasn't turned up in the mail they even add unnecessary charges which I asked them to drop but they did not do this.

I'm going out of my head with worry and I really need some advice....