welcome car finance

[b16dlg]

Hi Hope this is in the right place

My partner has a car loan with welcome and she requested to voluntarily terminate the agreement as she had paid 6700 with a half payment requirement of 6200. she did not take gap or any ppi product.

Payment history was not great but in her opinion anytime she missed a payment she paid a double payment next time to ensure that the account was in order. However welcome at some point stopped the direct debit and it took about 3 months for us to get it reset up again as they kept informing us they had sent out a new mandate but we never received it in the end we went into the nearest welcome office and got the form ourselves.

We have not had any arrears letters up to this point. However when we wrote to ask for voluntary termination we received a letter detailing that thwe account was in arrears by 4 payments. 2 days later we received an acceptance of voluntary termination which clearly showed payments made totalling 6700 and a required payments to hit the halway mark of 6200. The letter also stated that welcome agreed to the VT but we would have to pay the arears which amounted to just over £1000. Welcome then messed about for 2 months even asking us if we really wanted to temrinate and came round to our house charging us for the privilege to ask whjy we hadn't made any payments towards the car and we said they should have picked it up nearly 8 weeks ago.

The car has now been picked up and welcome have sent an outstanding bill 0f £1500 claiming arrears outstanding. Now the 2 months for us waiting on them picking the car up (we have a letter stating they would pick the car up within 14 days of their letter of Vt acceptance) i can deal with as its their fault and they will admit this as they tried it on when i Vt'd my car with them earlier in the year. How ever where do we stand legally with regards to their arrears request especially as they did not flag these up until after we had sent them the VT request? I hope this makes sense just need guidance to what they can and can't do as the agreements are really messing up our credit files right now.

kind regards

damion

[LuggerBugs]

Re: welcome car finance

Just a couple of points spring immediately to mind...

You say they sent a letter showing total payments made of £6,700, whilst £6,200 was the half way point. Therefore there is documentary evidence that you have correctly VT'd. Welcome confirm this by collecting the car as per your request, albeit 2 months late.

I suspect then, that the additional £500 they are chasing is down to this 2 month period.

So it would also appear that the £1000 arrears may have accrued because of their cancelling the D/D. So that will probability boil down to you being able to show that this was down to their incompetence. Letters to show that you tried to get it sorted? Proof that it wasn't you that cancelled the D/D?

I would tend to write a letter of complaint to Compliance detailing precisely why you think they messed up, and so they should write off the alleged arrears. Failing which, you will ask the FOS to adjudicate on the matter. Mention too, that they have failed in their duty to issue you any notice of arrears, or (I assume this to be true) any annual statements of account.

If you need help with a letter, give us a shout. And send it RECORDED to...

Compliance Department
Mere Way
Ruddington Fields Business Park
Ruddington
Nottingham NG11 6NZ


If they get difficult, we'll try other avenues of attack. But important to start off by getting an official complaint in ASAP AND PUTTING THIS INTO DISPUTE NOW. Can't emphasise that enough.

[b16dlg]

Re: welcome car finance

Thank you for your swift response.

Your assumptions as to where the extra 500 pound came from are correct

The problem we have is that the requests to reinstate the direct debit were all made by telephone. However, and not sure if this would stand up in a court of law or if i could get the bank to provide evidence, but if a person cancels a direct debit on their bank account they can go into the bank and just ask for it to be re set up but if a company receiving the direct debit payments cancel then a new direct debit mandate needs to be set up. I found this out recently when i inadvertantly cancelled my car insurance DD bank set it up again the next day no problem.

Another possible saving grace is the fact we actually had to go into the local welcome office to ask for a new mandate form though i'm sure they will deny this.

With regards to the offer of help with a letter this would be greatly apprciated as I understand the wording has to be correct or welcome will try to renege on contact due to an i or t crossed or dotted in the wrong place.

We are ready to fire a letter off as soon as we have received guidance on content and layout.

Again thank you for your offer of help!