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I took out a £2,000 in Nov 06, had difficulty making full payments in July 2007. I stupidly took the account to AllClear Finance (Harrington Brooks) who took £120 off me to start my file and despite numerous attempts to contact them never heard from them again. So I contacted WFS and it was agreed I could pay £65 a month.
I got a call in Nov 09 offering a settlement of £780 which I didn't have so the lady asked me to up my payments to £75 a month and told me my last payment would be at the end of August 2010 - relief! or so I thought...
I got another call at the end of June 2010 advising my account had been returned to the regional office from the collections department and the gentleman I spoke to asked if there'd been any changes to my circumstances to which I politely told him I didn't see how that was relevant as my last payment was due at the end of August. He said I still owe in the region of £1,300 – which has obviously increased to £1,820.26 in the space of 6 weeks.
I asked him to send me a copy of my account statement so I could check, I never received this so assumed he'd realised he'd made a mistake, because quite honestly he didn't seem to know what he was talking about, he said I made my last full payment in June 2006 which is impossible as I didn't take out the loan until 2 November 2006 and he kept getting dates, years and even payments mixed up so I was sure he had made a mistake, So as I didn't receive the statement I took this to mean my last payment was in fact 28 August 2010.
I cancelled the direct debit after this payment was made, I got a call from a rather arrogant woman in Scotland on Monday 13 September asking why I'd cancelled it so I explained and she said I still owe £1,800 and as long as I am paying £75 I will NEVER clear the balance as they would have no option but to re-start the interest on the account. I was told I would have to send a recent pay slip, copy of my bank statement and statement of finances, which quite honestly I am not prepared nor think I am legally obliged to do? If I felt I could pay more than £75 a month I would. So she sent me my account summary which is as follows:
LOAN AMOUNT £2,000
FEE DISBURSEMENT £75.00
INSURANCE PREMIUMS £696.66TOTALS £2,771.68
Loan was originally to be repaid @ £177.16 over 25 months = £4,429
“AD HOC CHARGES” (???) - £10, £10 = £20
TELEPHONE CALLS - £20, £10, £10 = £40
DIRECT DEBIT CANCELLATION FEES - £65, £65, £25, £20, £65 & £25 = £265
UNPAID DIRECT DEBIT FEES - £75, £25 = £100
Totals £425 in charges
INTEREST CAPITALISATION FEES - £2,319.35.
SUMMARY
£2,771.68 Loan, PPI, fees
£2,319.35 Interest
£425 Charges
= £5,516.03
a difference of £1,264.19 compared with the original amount as per loan agreement.
I've cross matched my bank account statements against their statement and I've paid £3,387.28:
8 x £177.16 £1,417.28
18 x £65.00 £1,170
1 x £50 £50
10 x £75.00 £750
The balance on the account was £1,820.26
I'm not really sure what to do next. Are Welcome allowed to charge you for cancelled direct debits? The unpaid DD fees seem absolutely extortionate! All the fees are all different amounts too, it seems they just charge whatever the hell they like. I feel I've been mislead, and in typical Welcome fashion all communication has been done by phone so it's my word against theirs.
I'm going to reclaim the PPI, I specifically remember being told I couldn't have the loan unless I signed up for the insurance. I wrote a letter requesting my original loan aggrement but didn't realise there was a fee of £10 so I got a reply stating they won't issue it until I send a cheque, which I will do.
I'm was thinking of to writing to Welcome to complain that I was never advised I was not clearing my balance by paying £65/£75 a month - it seems I've only been paying some of the interest. I've looked on the FSA website but I couldn't really make sense of it. I don't expect to get any joy so my next stop will be FOS.
I had a letter yesterday dated 14/9/10 about the cancelled direct debit, they've asked me to contact them to make arrangements to pay the balance or make full payment in 7 days.
Account Balance: £1,890.26 which has increased by £70 since Monday, they've obviously charged another £70 for the cancelled direct debit.
I love the paragraph at the bottom:
"Owing to our additional costs in contacting you regarding this matter, we have to advise you that your account has been charged with the sum of £12.00. This charge is payable immediately so please include the amout with your payment."
would I have to wait until they put a default on my credit file before I can check if the loan is unenforceable or can I check now?
I want my PPI back but it's looking likely that they'll offset it against my debt?
I found this on another forum
“got to say this, as an ex-employee, be very careful of this company. not only are their rates extortionate, not only do they press as many "added value" products onto you as they can, not only do the "massage" the application information to get deals approved, not only do they bully their own staff, they will kick you once you are down. they have a policy to "re-write" or "re-start" bad debt. so once your car or house is sold, they will contact you to re-start the finance, with a new contract over up to 120 months! in other words, you are going to be an interest slave to welcome for the rest of your life! eventually, when you have re-started 2 or 3 new contracts and still cannot keep up payments and when you finally realise you are going to end up paying £15,000 on a £1,000 loan, they will call you out of the blue and offer to write off 50% of the debt (which already includes 5 or 6 or more years additional interest) They also charge £20 per call and £50 per visit so add another £1750 for "admin fees". So my advice, just stop paying the welcome loan now! don't wait, they will bleed every penny out of you. There is no such thing as debtor's jail. they cannot do anything to you, just stop paying that extortionate loan. Now!”
I know none of that is probably suprising to you, but there were lots more posts from ex-employees all equally as scary. I'm only just beginning to realise what a bloody mess I'm in.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Any advise you can offer me would be much appreciated.
I got a call in Nov 09 offering a settlement of £780 which I didn't have so the lady asked me to up my payments to £75 a month and told me my last payment would be at the end of August 2010 - relief! or so I thought...
I got another call at the end of June 2010 advising my account had been returned to the regional office from the collections department and the gentleman I spoke to asked if there'd been any changes to my circumstances to which I politely told him I didn't see how that was relevant as my last payment was due at the end of August. He said I still owe in the region of £1,300 – which has obviously increased to £1,820.26 in the space of 6 weeks.
I asked him to send me a copy of my account statement so I could check, I never received this so assumed he'd realised he'd made a mistake, because quite honestly he didn't seem to know what he was talking about, he said I made my last full payment in June 2006 which is impossible as I didn't take out the loan until 2 November 2006 and he kept getting dates, years and even payments mixed up so I was sure he had made a mistake, So as I didn't receive the statement I took this to mean my last payment was in fact 28 August 2010.
I cancelled the direct debit after this payment was made, I got a call from a rather arrogant woman in Scotland on Monday 13 September asking why I'd cancelled it so I explained and she said I still owe £1,800 and as long as I am paying £75 I will NEVER clear the balance as they would have no option but to re-start the interest on the account. I was told I would have to send a recent pay slip, copy of my bank statement and statement of finances, which quite honestly I am not prepared nor think I am legally obliged to do? If I felt I could pay more than £75 a month I would. So she sent me my account summary which is as follows:
LOAN AMOUNT £2,000
FEE DISBURSEMENT £75.00
INSURANCE PREMIUMS £696.66TOTALS £2,771.68
Loan was originally to be repaid @ £177.16 over 25 months = £4,429
“AD HOC CHARGES” (???) - £10, £10 = £20
TELEPHONE CALLS - £20, £10, £10 = £40
DIRECT DEBIT CANCELLATION FEES - £65, £65, £25, £20, £65 & £25 = £265
UNPAID DIRECT DEBIT FEES - £75, £25 = £100
Totals £425 in charges
INTEREST CAPITALISATION FEES - £2,319.35.
SUMMARY
£2,771.68 Loan, PPI, fees
£2,319.35 Interest
£425 Charges
= £5,516.03
a difference of £1,264.19 compared with the original amount as per loan agreement.
I've cross matched my bank account statements against their statement and I've paid £3,387.28:
8 x £177.16 £1,417.28
18 x £65.00 £1,170
1 x £50 £50
10 x £75.00 £750
The balance on the account was £1,820.26
I'm not really sure what to do next. Are Welcome allowed to charge you for cancelled direct debits? The unpaid DD fees seem absolutely extortionate! All the fees are all different amounts too, it seems they just charge whatever the hell they like. I feel I've been mislead, and in typical Welcome fashion all communication has been done by phone so it's my word against theirs.
I'm going to reclaim the PPI, I specifically remember being told I couldn't have the loan unless I signed up for the insurance. I wrote a letter requesting my original loan aggrement but didn't realise there was a fee of £10 so I got a reply stating they won't issue it until I send a cheque, which I will do.
I'm was thinking of to writing to Welcome to complain that I was never advised I was not clearing my balance by paying £65/£75 a month - it seems I've only been paying some of the interest. I've looked on the FSA website but I couldn't really make sense of it. I don't expect to get any joy so my next stop will be FOS.
I had a letter yesterday dated 14/9/10 about the cancelled direct debit, they've asked me to contact them to make arrangements to pay the balance or make full payment in 7 days.
Account Balance: £1,890.26 which has increased by £70 since Monday, they've obviously charged another £70 for the cancelled direct debit.
I love the paragraph at the bottom:
"Owing to our additional costs in contacting you regarding this matter, we have to advise you that your account has been charged with the sum of £12.00. This charge is payable immediately so please include the amout with your payment."
would I have to wait until they put a default on my credit file before I can check if the loan is unenforceable or can I check now?
I want my PPI back but it's looking likely that they'll offset it against my debt?
I found this on another forum
“got to say this, as an ex-employee, be very careful of this company. not only are their rates extortionate, not only do they press as many "added value" products onto you as they can, not only do the "massage" the application information to get deals approved, not only do they bully their own staff, they will kick you once you are down. they have a policy to "re-write" or "re-start" bad debt. so once your car or house is sold, they will contact you to re-start the finance, with a new contract over up to 120 months! in other words, you are going to be an interest slave to welcome for the rest of your life! eventually, when you have re-started 2 or 3 new contracts and still cannot keep up payments and when you finally realise you are going to end up paying £15,000 on a £1,000 loan, they will call you out of the blue and offer to write off 50% of the debt (which already includes 5 or 6 or more years additional interest) They also charge £20 per call and £50 per visit so add another £1750 for "admin fees". So my advice, just stop paying the welcome loan now! don't wait, they will bleed every penny out of you. There is no such thing as debtor's jail. they cannot do anything to you, just stop paying that extortionate loan. Now!”
I know none of that is probably suprising to you, but there were lots more posts from ex-employees all equally as scary. I'm only just beginning to realise what a bloody mess I'm in.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Any advise you can offer me would be much appreciated.
;LOL
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