Hi - I need some advice to help a friend - they have just been through a court hearing regarding illegal repossession of a car under finance - the judgement has not yet been given however from what they say it could go either way

So here is where my friend needs help if the judge rules for the other side and awards them money and costs what would be thier next step - as when I say my friend has literally nothing but the shirt on his back I am not overstating his position - could he appeal on the basis that he has nothing and barely earns enough to live on? If so how would he go about stopping the finance company from hounding him while he does appeal

I would really appreciate any help on this as he is a wreck sweating over the outcome in case he ends up with more debt than what he was arguing that the company were not entitled to

Well I am not sure Maverick will see this here-since they have not been on CAG for 15 months !

ok maybe im not fully functioning this morning but the point of this is what exactly????

:-(is there no one on here who can help us???

I know this post is from some time ago but I would love to know what the final outcome was and if NWJ finally managed to get this off their backs?

it made unbelievable reading but man I salute you for the help you gave

- you went above and beyond the call of duty!!!

you have my deepest admiration

hi

i have a friend who bought a car on finance - the payments were made with no problems

- 6 months after she traded it in for another vehicle financed through the same company

- although the car sales place took the car back and gave her another one

the outstanding finance was just added to the next car so the debt increased with all sorts of credit charges

within a couple of months the car sales company contacted her to talk her into exchanging her car for another "better" car

again the car company took the original car back and sold it but the outstanding finance was again carried over to the third car

the debt now totalling over £16,000!!!

she is was paying for 3 different cars - then her life fell to pieces - she lost her job relationship home etc

she went to the company she bought the car from and asked for help but they refused to help

- she went into default and they hounded her and her mother and hounded her at her new job (which resulted in her losing that job!!)

they intimidated her into signing a voluntary reposession agreement

- the finance company then passed the debt to a collector who hounded her constantly

and have increased her debt by over £1,000 in charges

- i have been trying to help and we have written to the finance company and the collectors

- once we began to dispute the whole situation the finance company took the account back from the collectors

- at the moment we are waiting for an SAR response (which i dont think they will do as the 40 days are nearly up).

but i have a few questions which i cant seem to find answers to

1) when the cars were part exchanged why wasnt money from the resale given back to my friend to pay off outstanding finance?

as this means the car company have had two lots of money for the one vehicle

2) when they forced my friend to give up the vehicle it was taken from her works private car park

- i thought a vehicle could not be repossesed from third party land?

3) when the last car was sold at auction they did not inform her they were doing so

- i thought under the CCA they had to inform her of where and when it was going to auction

4) i thought they had to issue a repossession order at least 15 days before they were going to attempt to take the vehicle

5) i thought it was against the law to sell a vehicle that still has outstanding finance on it?

so how did they manage to do this through all the exchanges of the vehicles involved.

6) although we have said this account is in dispute and asked for an SAR

they are still sending threatening letters from thier litigation dept

- demanding income/expenditure forms are filled in and an offer of repayment made - are they allowed to do this?

i really need to help my friend because this is just sending her over the edge

she is in such a state and i do not exaggerate when i say she is near suicidal

- please please help us on these points

i know i am cutting this fine but i have been very ill and only have the chance to address this now so i will try to be as brief as possible

i took a loan in 2000 - in 2002 i was finding things financially tight i was working 10 hour days and trying to finish a degree after rent and childcare my loan payment was the biggest expense i had so i contacted the bank and asked if they would extend the loan term to reduce payments they flatly refused and said if i didnt take a "managed" loan they would turn the loan i had over to debt collectors when they did the managed loan they put in the credit card balance i had and overdraft (which i was having no trouble in paying) so 10 odd years later i am still paying this loan and worked out that on an original £5,000 loan i had paid back nearly £12,000!!! in with this was the ppi which i was told i had to take or they wouldnt give me a loan - i wrote to hsbc and complained and said that surely i had paid enough but they ignored me and put the outstanding balance with debt collectors - not knowing then what i know now i went to the FOS - the muppet who was supposed to be helping me ignored what i had to say about the loan and there being no terms or conditions sent out so the bank acted illegally when they took my money but he focused on the ppi issue - after over 3 years i get a call saying they are finally going to look at both issues seperately - only to recieve a decision letter offering the £500 back i paid on the ppi plus 8% simple interest (whats the difference from interest and simple interest?) so i rejected the offer as they would not refund over £500 the bank charged in admin fees cos the ppi did not run its full course - i waited again for a decision which i recieved a couple of weeks ago - they are completely ignoring the issue of the bank taking money without giving me terms and conditions and are trying to make out how helpful the bank were to give me the deal they did and also said they would not go into the details of the case because the point of law over the terms is not for them to answer!! they gave me the original offer over the ppi ignoring the £500 taken in admin fees but are allowing the bank to take bank the outstanding loan balance and send me the rest - which after waiting for over 3 years is not worth having!! and above and beyond what the FOS would expect the bank to do when they have taken the money to pay off the loan they will remove all reference off my credit file - like they are doing me a huge favour!! i am so angry that the bank can rip me off like this and the FOS pat them on the back for doing so

but to the reason i need help - i want to know if i can take the bank to court over the fact they took my money without terms (i have an email from the FOS where they admitted the bank told them they had no terms) and get my money back - if i turn down the FOS offer would this affect the court action i am taking? and how would i go about taking hsbc to court do i have to write and inform them before doing so?

i would really really appreciate some advice and pointers in the right direction - as i say i am on a tight deadline to know before i write to the FOS telling them to stuff thier offer and a few other home truths about thier biased service

thank you to anyone who can help

it is one of the worst aspects of getting mixed up with these people is the continuing hassle of phone calls, all i did was without even confirming who i was ask who they were and as soon as they told me who they were i just hung up - it worked as within a few short weeks they all stopped calling!!!

it is disgraceful that in this day and age companies are allowed to perform like this without recourse - i have reported these sharks to office of fair trading but they still seem to be running thier scams. i know first hand how difficult it is in getting credit when your score is low but if it is repayments on credit cards or debts there is things you can do and a really good option is to find your nearest credit union and start saving with them you can save from as little as £2 per week and they also offer loans at really good rates - if anyone wants further advice just post a message and i will do anything i can to help

just to update on the information about these companies - i have managed to talk to someone who actually fields calls at a central call centre for wentworth. wentworth have no actual phone numbers they do not issue them as they do not want the public to be able to harass them for the shoddy practises they have. anyway i managed to find out that after they have passed your details out to all unsundry they then hold your broker fee for a minimum of six months! how many people would pursue these people when they can not be spoken to for six months this is what they count on to keep your money - so although i did not get any numbers i did get the name of the refund manager so that all correspondance sent goes directly to her and that usually when you write and complain strongly enough then they will refund the money before the six months are up so start writing your complaint letters to

jenny sheppard

refunds department

wentworth direct finance

freepost sea 9712

wrotham road

gravesend

kent

DA13 0BR

good luck to anyone needing this information and i hope you get your money back

do not give up contacting wentworth to get your broker fee back!! they count on messing people around so much that they give up and they get to keep the fee - so be persistant and annoying and you should get your fee back

it is nice to know i am not alone!!!!!!!!

totally agree with that melly31 but one better is if they send you a load of forms and leaflet with a prepaid envelope just post all thier junk and send it back in thier envelope - that way they get charged for receiving thier own junk mail back - petty i know but it does give you a small degree of satisfaction

hitchin23 as long as you have signed no agreement or contract then there is not much to worry about. filling in an on line form does not tie you into anything with this company they have to have a signiture before anything is legally binding. i have checked the site where the form is and it is pretty standard for an online form. if you get any correspondance from them do not sign anything irregardless of how they word it just ignore them from now on they may try and keep sending you stuff but dont be fooled by them some of these companies can be very underhanded in how they word - unless you put your signiture on anything there is nothing they can do - hope this helps

i am so glad i googled castle finance before i attempted to even go near them this forum has been an eye opener and the leaflet sent to me has been put through the shredder!