Welcome finance loan: resold

[Parallaxview]

Hi there, I have a long standing secured loan taken out with welcome finance in 2003 for approx 4000k to complete home improvement on property at the time. In 2009 I lost my job after welcome finance kept phoning my workplace to speak to me about clearing debt quicker and to discuss agreements etc. The companyI worked for thought it was a distraction to my work and told me to tell them to refrain from contacting me at work, but they persisted and this eventually led to my dismissal. I continued make regular payments at a reduced rate due to being unemployed for 8months. The interest piled up over the next 6 yrs until I was owing 14000k. By now I had worked for a homeless charity and continued to make reduced payments that I could afford on a regular basis. Welcome finance contacted me and said they would freeze the interest in order that I can clear the existing debt. By 2014 I became aware that welcome was in financial difficulties as they closed my local branch and told me to send postal orders to Leicester branch then Coventry then Wolverhampton branches until they too closed. Whilst this was going on I had a chance encounter in a gp surgery with an ex employee of welcome Worcester branch, who stated that the staff forged my signature on subsequent changes to agreements and that this happened to allot of other customers as well as misspelling of insurance on loan. I spoke with financial service authority, who said continue to pay a nominal amount a month until I could legally challenge their bad practice, however since then (2014) I have gone through a relationship breakup , homelessness and acquired a drink problem. I have recently got sober and some how have continued to make regular payments, but have recently got a letter saying the debt has been sold on to coast finance solutions, will I still be able to continue to pay at the rate I have been paying £10 a month postal order, as I am in the process of finding full time employment and getting back on my feet. I have a strong feeling I could challenge the legality of the loan in court based on what I was told about forgery of my signature on agreements. Can someone advice what steps I should take?

[seduraed]

As an ex employee of Welcome I can confirm what you were told. They were known as "presumptive Rewrites" they were used as part of the system to keep the levels of bad debt down and make the company look as though it was worth more.

First of all send them a subject data access reuestto the head office and ask for any details they hold - cost £10 if the account is still held by welcome then also send in a separate envelope a consumer credit act request. This should get a copy of the agreement.

Template letters are on the site. Send payment by poostal order marked "for statutory fee, only".
Then you can work from there .

It is almost certain that you had PPI on the loan as they were routinely included and the commission was huge. If that is the case you should be able to get a refund and that at least will be applied to the outstanding section of the loan .

[jaguarsuk]

subject data access reuestto the head office and ask for any details they hold - cost £10

Template letters are on the site. Send payment by poostal order marked "for statutory fee, only".
Then you can work from there .

The law changed on 25th May 2018 and there is no longer a cost for SAR under the Data Protection Act 2018. The Subject Access Request Letter explians and provides a template.

The CCA Request fee still applies though, so as advised mark you cheque/postal order and make sure you take copies.

[Parallaxview]

Thanks alot for this advice, it's been such a long time since I took out the loan , it will be good to finally get an idea of where I'm at with this, and start to make some sense of it.

[Parallaxview]

As an ex employee of Welcome I can confirm what you were told. They were known as "presumptive Rewrites" they were used as part of the system to keep the levels of bad debt down and make the company look as though it was worth more.

First of all send them a subject data access reuestto the head office and ask for any details they hold - cost £10 if the account is still held by welcome then also send in a separate envelope a consumer credit act request. This should get a copy of the agreement.

Template letters are on the site. Send payment by poostal order marked "for statutory fee, only".
Then you can work from there .

It is almost certain that you had PPI on the loan as they were routinely included and the commission was huge. If that is the case you should be able to get a refund and that at least will be applied to the outstanding section of the loan .

Hi where can I access the two template letters that you mentioned. Is it under a specific header?
thanks

[seduraed]

If you go to the court tab you will see a tab with shortcuts to the letters.

[jaguarsuk]

Hi where can I access the two template letters that you mentioned. Is it under a specific header?
thanks

I've linked them in post #3

[dogtired]

I don't know if you are aware that at long last Welcome are insolvent. We had a letter from an insolvency company that said, if I read it correctly they are just concentrating on who they owe money too a very long list! They will not be pursuing any out standing debts.* Hope I read this right and please check for your self.

[ryanbest]

Hell, this is really really terrible. Man, you immediately need to find a good lawyer and start suing them, so you can probably sue a good amount of money and pay the rest. My brother had a similar situation and one detective with whom he was friends helped him figure it out. I was also thinking about taking a loan on a long-term basis, but considering all the cases, I decided to take this very carefully and therefore I read reviews of all banks at https://foxycredit.com/no/modus-finans-lan. I hope that I will not encounter similar situations.