Hi guys,

 I wanted to let you all be aware of what total unprofessional t**ts Welcome Finance are. Me and my partner took out a secured loan on the 29th May. The 1st repayment was to be made of the 29th June, 30 days from loan commencement. We received the cheques on Friday 1st June along with a letter stating that our first direct debit payment has failed.

I contacted our bank who advised that there was no direct debit set up for Welcome and that there was plenty of funds in the account even if they had tried to claim the money. I went through to our Account manager who apologied and said that there had been a system error.

I received a call from my mother yesterday to say that my "very abusive" ex (3 years apart) had arrived on her doorstep with a letter from Welcome Finance. It was an exact replica of the one we had received from them. I was totally confused as I hadn't lived with my ex for over 3 years. It then dawned on me that I had an unsecured loan with them 5 years ago.

I got straight on to them this morning and they advised me that they had the correct details for my partner (the address the loan is secured to) however had forgotten to update my contact details so still had me as living at the ex's address!!.

Needless to say I was absolutley furious. Not only were they completely incompetent, they had broken just about every data protection law going. My mother was not impressed to see the person I have spent the passed 18 months trying to get away from (police involvement etc) but she also now knows my financial business!.

I just cant wait to be able to settle this loan (we plan to do this in 6 months.) All we have received is an apology. What would you guys do? Im not sure if we can take it any further, im just sooooo angry!.

Sorry to rant on!

Gem x

Hi Gem,

Similar situation to me (minus the ex and the police involvement etc!)

My other post explains more, but I wrote a few letters to the manager who claimed they had never been received so I sent them collectively to the branch by recorded delivery. I received no reply so I got onto the ombudsman who said they would look into the case of breach of misconduct and harassment.

I didn't owe them thousands, but I would've done if I had paid it back what with their interest rate!

After to-ing and fro-ing I explained to them that I will be taking them to court of 3 counts of harassment and 2 counts of breaching the Data Protection Act. The manager told me: "do what you f**king like, I'll mess up your credit file". Little did he know I was recording the conversation from a work telephone and I was able to e-mail this to Head Office.

He, and 2 others 'resigned' 3 days later and my balance cleared.

To all those who are contemplating going with Welcome Finance.... DON'T. Regardless of what you need the money for and know that they will accept you.... just DON'T.