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Welcome Finance/IND chasing loan that was never had!
Ok, my fiance and I need help and legal advice if there is anyone on here that can help.
In 2007, my fiance had several debts including overdraft and mobile bill after having back surgery which he was struggling to pay off. His mum had a similar issue and went to a government backed company who took control of her debts and paid them off for her on a monthly basis. My fiance decided to do the same and googled it, and the first one that came up was Welcome Finance and he thought it was the same one. He went in and explained the situation, and was told that he could not get a loan as his credit rating was low due to the missed payments etc, he explained he did NOT want a loan at all, just for them to take control of the debts he had and pay them on a monthly basis. He showed them the paperwork pertaining to the debts and they said they could help. They told him that as his bank (Halifax was one of the debtors,) to go and open a new bank account, which he did with Barclays. After signing some forms, he went away thinking that the stress was taken care of and he could focus on getting better. How wrong was he!!
After several months had passed and them taking payments, he started getting threatening calls from his debtors, and he explained to them that his debts were being paid through Welcome Finance (he did this at the beginning but reiterated again) and they said that they had no correspondence from them at all. Rather annoyed, he called Welcome Finance to be told that for the first year, the payments covered their fees and then they would pay the debts. By this point, my fiance was so angry that this was not explained he told them he was cancelling the agreement and the direct debit. Nothing more was heard or said from them. After several months had passed, he started getting harassing phone calls from Welcome saying that he had not paid his PERSONAL LOAN. He said that he never took out a personal loan. The adviser was less than helpful and after several minutes, he asked for the proof of where this supposed loan went to. The adviser failed to give him this information and then he didn't hear from them for a while until he started being pursued by debt recovery agencies. Every time he spoke to someone, he asked for the proof of where the money went and then they would go quiet. In 2014, I signed my fiance up to Equifax as we were planning to get a mortgage and to his total astonishment, there was a CCJ sitting there from Welcome Finance. He was furious and his stress levels hit the roof. We contacted them again to ask why they felt the need to do this and why were we not notified of the upcoming CCJ. He moved in 2014 and was at the same address previously that they had. Nothing was received. Again, we asked for proof of where this money had gone and they said too much time had lapsed and they couldn't tell us. I ordered the SAR file to go through with a fine tooth comb and found many inconsistencies such as a direct debit form for the halifax but no signed direct debit form for Barclays, which they were taking the money from, lots of duplicate copies of forms, but the odd items I will come to shortly. We contacted the financial ombudsman but they were not much help as their hands were tied due to a big court case against welcome which we knew nothing of. He said that Welcome said to them the money could possibly have gone to the Halifax. We ordered the bank statements going back to then and can't find any trace of it. So on to the other odd items in the SAR file. The two forms (the only 2 that contain the wording fixed sum loan and unsecured loan) look as if the form was photocopied over another with his signature, and another one looks like it has been badly copied from his passport, they don't match the other signed forms.
We are now being pursued by IND and have been given two weeks from Friday to get legal advice as we have no where left to turn. We have tried every avenue. We can't afford to pay a solicitor and certainly can't afford to pay for a loan that he never asked for and never had! This has affected him personally, caused the destruction of his previous relationship and put a heavy strain on ours. If there is anyone out there that is willing to help please let me know.
Many thanks
In 2007, my fiance had several debts including overdraft and mobile bill after having back surgery which he was struggling to pay off. His mum had a similar issue and went to a government backed company who took control of her debts and paid them off for her on a monthly basis. My fiance decided to do the same and googled it, and the first one that came up was Welcome Finance and he thought it was the same one. He went in and explained the situation, and was told that he could not get a loan as his credit rating was low due to the missed payments etc, he explained he did NOT want a loan at all, just for them to take control of the debts he had and pay them on a monthly basis. He showed them the paperwork pertaining to the debts and they said they could help. They told him that as his bank (Halifax was one of the debtors,) to go and open a new bank account, which he did with Barclays. After signing some forms, he went away thinking that the stress was taken care of and he could focus on getting better. How wrong was he!!
After several months had passed and them taking payments, he started getting threatening calls from his debtors, and he explained to them that his debts were being paid through Welcome Finance (he did this at the beginning but reiterated again) and they said that they had no correspondence from them at all. Rather annoyed, he called Welcome Finance to be told that for the first year, the payments covered their fees and then they would pay the debts. By this point, my fiance was so angry that this was not explained he told them he was cancelling the agreement and the direct debit. Nothing more was heard or said from them. After several months had passed, he started getting harassing phone calls from Welcome saying that he had not paid his PERSONAL LOAN. He said that he never took out a personal loan. The adviser was less than helpful and after several minutes, he asked for the proof of where this supposed loan went to. The adviser failed to give him this information and then he didn't hear from them for a while until he started being pursued by debt recovery agencies. Every time he spoke to someone, he asked for the proof of where the money went and then they would go quiet. In 2014, I signed my fiance up to Equifax as we were planning to get a mortgage and to his total astonishment, there was a CCJ sitting there from Welcome Finance. He was furious and his stress levels hit the roof. We contacted them again to ask why they felt the need to do this and why were we not notified of the upcoming CCJ. He moved in 2014 and was at the same address previously that they had. Nothing was received. Again, we asked for proof of where this money had gone and they said too much time had lapsed and they couldn't tell us. I ordered the SAR file to go through with a fine tooth comb and found many inconsistencies such as a direct debit form for the halifax but no signed direct debit form for Barclays, which they were taking the money from, lots of duplicate copies of forms, but the odd items I will come to shortly. We contacted the financial ombudsman but they were not much help as their hands were tied due to a big court case against welcome which we knew nothing of. He said that Welcome said to them the money could possibly have gone to the Halifax. We ordered the bank statements going back to then and can't find any trace of it. So on to the other odd items in the SAR file. The two forms (the only 2 that contain the wording fixed sum loan and unsecured loan) look as if the form was photocopied over another with his signature, and another one looks like it has been badly copied from his passport, they don't match the other signed forms.
We are now being pursued by IND and have been given two weeks from Friday to get legal advice as we have no where left to turn. We have tried every avenue. We can't afford to pay a solicitor and certainly can't afford to pay for a loan that he never asked for and never had! This has affected him personally, caused the destruction of his previous relationship and put a heavy strain on ours. If there is anyone out there that is willing to help please let me know.
Many thanks
