Ah, just re-read the post. If father-in-law has the finance in his name, he has full liability. The only person RFS will pursue is the person who signed the agreement.

If Mrs Charlton hasn't paid enough to terminate the agreement, she hasn't paid enough to make a payment arrangement with RFS. They will only accept a payment arrangement once the customer has paid over a third of the account (the amount needed to terminate the agreement). Arrangement of a payment plan will also be subject to charges. They will demand a payment up front, and then charge for the arrangement being made. When I worked for RFS, we could only do 3 monthly arrangements (ie. split the arrears over three months) but this was charged at £60 and the customer had to maintain their normal monthly payments as well. I do believe this has now changed to six months, but as I no longer work for the b*****ds, I'm not entirely sure.

And Drivers - if under a third of the account has been paid back on a Hire Purchase agreement, they CAN repossess the car. Over a third paid, and they would need a court order to repossess the car.

Renault Finance are part of BOS, for whom I used to work. Charges are applied as follows: Represented DD (even if DD is paid on representation) £25 10 days late = reminder letter £25 25 days late = further reminder letter £25 2 payments down = notice of default, charged at £25 15 days after notice of default - letter of termination of contract charged at £25 Plus, every time they telephone you, they will charge you £10. My advice - is they telephone you and ask for Mrs Jones and you refuse to comply with their security checks, they cannot log that as a complete phone call and therefore cannot charge you for the call.

I used to work for these monsters, and I couldn't agree more, they are awful. I worked in the collections department, and used their predicitve dialling system, and it's cr*p. Basically, you have no idea who you are phoning until the call has been answered at the other end. The number of times I called someone on the predictive dialler, only to be told that someone had spoken to them five minutes previously. It's ridiculous. I always thought the charges were disgustingly high as well (and have been known in the past, if I thought someone was being genuine, I would take their charges off - got me into a lot of trouble with my superiors) but you're not allowed to have a personal opinion. Leaving there was the best thing I ever did. I had to make phone calls at 8.30am on a Sunday - I loathed the place. SUE THEM. Please. Make the b******s pay.