Welcome Finance - help!

gbatey

Hi All, not sure if this is worth posting so don't shout but I'm going to give it a shot....

Before my partner and I met (approx 5 years ago), he bought a car through Welcome Finance; he then split up with his partner at the time and went to live on his own and consequently couldn't afford to keep up the repayments.

He went to the Welcome Finance office to tell them he couldn't afford to keep up the repayments and to ask if they could reduce them in any way and pay it off over a longer term. They refused but offered him a consolidation loan to pay off the arrears he was in but the loan was not big enough to cover the rest of the cost of the car and the arrears therefore he was left with two separate accounts to pay. He ever offered to give the car back to stop the repayments but they managed to persuade him that there was no need and they 'would come to an arrangement' to let him catch up with the arrears. He knew he still couldn't afford it but they kind of had him backed into a corner.

Soon after, he had a car crash in which his car collided with a van therefore the car was written off and he only got 300 pound as it was only insured third party because he couldn't afford to insure any higher!

Things went from bad to worse money-wise for him before he met me and Welcome did not end up getting their repayment each month. He moved places a couple of times and it was two years before they caught up with him and the debt had been passed onto DLC (Direct Legal & Collections) which we still have a lot to pay off.

My question is, can we do anything with regards to Welcome Finance as he feels like there was no way out but to accept what they were 'offering' at the time or is it a lost cause? He believes he had the PPI too which he thought you had to have.

We are no way experienced in this so not sure if there is anything we can do I just feel like we should try if we can.....

jmhgibson123

hi i would try and claim ppi back it wouldnt hurt to try
regards d l c
i have a debt that is passed to them and i have had many phone calls most of them threat that they will send a collector round or put a charge over my house-which a year on they still have not-but be warned when you phone them to make payment arrangements they bully you into paying more than you can afford-for warned is for armed i believe!!!! i have gotten round this by writing to them and telling them the only way i will speak to them is by mail and i have happily stuck to this but they wont go away if you dont pay them something i only pay £13 a month and i owe over £6500 to them so just dont get bullied and good luck

gbatey

Thanks for replying jmh.

My other half keeps on getting phone calls from them and we have already upped the payments from 40.00 for the two 'loans' to 80.00 for each loan to get them paid off quicker. The last phone call he had was last week and they threatened him with a court judgement and money off his wages somehow (I don't understand how it all works!) He told them this is all we can afford but they were so rude to him it was unbelievable!

The PPI was the thing I was thinking of about reclaiming but he has no documents from Welcome Finance due to moving around so would we have to write to them to get some sort of documentation?

Merlot

Is the debt 5 years old, or could it be 6, it could be very important to get the date of the credit agreement? What date is the second loan agreement?

Merlot.x.

gbatey

It would prob be about five years now; does this have an impact on the loans? Also, would Welcome be able to give him a copy of the agreement that they had originally?

jmhgibson123

you legally have a right to a copy of your agreement from welcome so definatly persue it. regards dlc dont let them bully you they told me they would take it out of my wages and put a charge over my house-they have to go to court for these things and i suspect they dont bother so long as you pay something-last time i spoke to them i told them i would no longer speak to any one on the phone due to the bullying tactics and trying to scare me into paying more than i can afford so i only write to them now and im lucky to have a reject list on my phone so when certain numbers ring it rejects them its great
even if you have agreed to payments with them and they are more than you can afford make sure you write and tell them you were bullyed on the phone and make an offer of what you can afford
good luck and dont let them win

LilacPixie

Definatly ask for a copy of the agreement.

I did this on the 4th April this year and it arrived this morning.
The address I used was:

Customer Relationship Centre
Apex Business Park
Building C
Ruddington Lane
Wilford
Nottingham
NG11 7DD

gbatey

Thanks for the address Lilac; are you doing a similar sort of thing to me (if you don't mind me asking?)

LilacPixie

gbatey wrote: »

Thanks for the address Lilac; are you doing a similar sort of thing to me (if you don't mind me asking?)

PPI reclaim on a HP car. Iwas told it was compulsary and the branch manager even put that in writting.I'm now trying to reclaim the whole lot back but couldn't find all of the origianal paperwork only the letter from branch stating ppi was compulsary. Now i have the agreement i can workout what to reclaim

gbatey

Thanks Lilac-have posted a letter off so we shall see wha happens!