How to panic a money lender

I came into a bit of money and wanted to pay off some debts with it. So I called Welcome Finance to ask how much I owed and how much would they accept as full and final settlement. It took them two days to come back with two different figures: the amount owed - and that would be paid if I continued with the monthly instalments - and an early settlement figure, which was a full £200 more. It would cost me £200 to pay them 6 months prematurely.

You'd think a provider of "ugly duckling" loans like Welcome Finance would be desperate to get their money back as soon as possible to lend it to someone else. Given the current market situation I'd be surprised if they could raise any capital at all. No-one will commit to risky lending with the credit crunch and all.

There were a couple of interesting things that came out of the exercise: First, Welcome Finance front-load their loans. That is to say, they add the interest at the very beginning of a loan. If you were to pay back on the very same day you take it out you'll have to pay all the interest (which was roughly the same as the principal amount borrowed in my case.) Bear that in mind if you ever need to borrow from them.

Second, there's a great site called saynoto0870.com that gives you the direct, normal land line numbers for numerous companies. Given that most mobiles and land lines give you free minutes for normal land line numbers but not 0870 numbers this is a good way to save money. It also gives you the satisfaction in knowing you aren't paying the company at the other end for being held on hold for 20 minutes (0870 numbers pay the recipient for inward calls.)

So, anyway, the money I was willing to give them up front, now, in their hand, safe, is going to go and sit in an ISA and give me interest instead of them. Go figure.