Help, still paying off car finance after 11 years!

[di_jones]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place i wasnt sure where to place it.

 

 

My husband had a car on finance from a guaranteed finance garage on the 4th August 2000, screen price £2699, the loan was taken out with Advantage Finance,

my husband spoke on the phone with finance people while at the garage and they told him the total loan cost was £4241 and the payments would be £112 a month over 3 years,

 

he signed to say they had taken our old car as part ex and given us £200 off the screen price and also signed a HP agreement which also said the monthly payments would be £112,

 

he went back on the 7th August to fetch the car only to find that more expenses had been added to the HP agreement

 

these were Payment Protection, Accident insurance, mechanical breakdown and vehicle recovery,

he claimed that the finance company had said he had to have them added and because of this the monthy repayments had jumped to £178 a month

and total loan cost of £6241, the deal was done and my husband left with the car feeling very duped by this company.

 

 

We struggled from the beginning to pay this amount and we wrote to the finance company and asked for the insurance policys to be cancelled

but they wrote back saying this was not allowed,

 

needless to say we fell behind with the repayments fairly early on in the agreement and the car was repossessed in 2001,

the car was sold for £400 and this was taken off the bill that we owed, as it turned out months later my husband had to give up work due to knee problems

and couldnt drive his lorry any longer

 

he tried to claim on the insurance only to be told his insurance was void as he had seen a gp in past year about problems with the same knee.

 

we continued to pay what we could usually £20 a week then when the 3 years had passed when the loan should have been finished

they started adding monthly interest between £100 and £40 a month,

 

this went on for 4 years untill in 2007 they applied for a CCJ against my husband and £575 in court fees were added to the total

he was ordered to pay £100 a month which we did for a year

 

then in 2008 i had to have a major operation and my husband had to leave his job to look after me and our 4 children as i couldnt manage at home so we stopped the payments,

 

when my husband re started working the finance company issued an attachment of earnings and of course more court costs were added,

 

in 2009 we moved from Devon to Somerset to be closer to family and when my husband had found a new job

the finance company agreed that we could pay £25 a week through my bank card which they have been taking every week since Sept 09,

 

to date we have paid £8158.14 and we still have another £2039.20 to pay at £25 a week, when we have finished we will have paid £10,197.00.

 

 

We just wandered if anyone could help us,

 

is this legal to have to pay all this money back for a car that only cost £2699.00 and we havent owned since 2001

 

it just feels so wrong that after weve spent nearly 13 years paying back £10,197.00 we wont even have anything to show for it.

 

 

We still have all the orginal paper work, the HP agreement, insurance certificates ect.

 

 

Any advice would be greatfull recieved.

 

x

[Gaston Grimsdyke]

Well the starting point is the CCJ, because it's too late for you to argue with whatever you were ordered to pay by that. Deduct what you have paid since the CCJ from that amount, add on the A/E costs that were charged and that's what you owe now. You are not liable to pay any interest on the CCJ amount.

[dx100uk]

unless it says so in the judgement box

 

this situation is disgusting.

 

you have been well and truly done over from day one.

 

i'm sure you should be able to reclaim all the insurances from day one

that should even put money in your pocket too.

can you post up the CCJ if you have and the org agreement please

 

i'll get help onboard then.

 

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets

as a picture file

remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint

but leave all figures and dates.

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

convert the image to pdf format.

or ir you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

NB:you can set where it goes in the post by hitting insert inline.

the hit reply button

dx

[di_jones]

Well the starting point is the CCJ, because it's too late for you to argue with whatever you were ordered to pay by that. Deduct what you have paid since the CCJ from that amount, add on the A/E costs that were charged and that's what you owe now. You are not liable to pay any interest on the CCJ amount.

 

Thankyou for you advice, no interest was added after the CCJ date, the £2451 in interest was added at monthly intervals after the original 3 years had passed and accumilated over 4 years.

 

The full loan figure on 25th Aug 2000 was £6,241.20,

03 Sept 2003 we had managed to get it down to £3,615.27

 

the 3 years had passed and they then started applying monthly interest

 

by 01oct 2007 it was back too £5,076.47.

06 oct 2007 £575 court charges added on for CCJ which we are ordered to pay £100 a month taking the total back to £5,651.47

 

then another interest charge of £40.73 is added on 02 Novemeber 2007 taking the total too £5,592.20.

 

09 Feb 2009 another £65.00 is added for legal fee/court fee costs,

 

The balance has then been reducing ever since and as said above since sept 09

we've been paying £25 a week, well they take it out my bank as they have my card details so now we have a balance oweing of £2,039.20.

 

The A figure is £2,699.00

The E figure is £1,417.00

 

x

[di_jones]

unless it says so in the judgement box

 

this situation is disgusting.

 

you have been well and truly done over from day one.

 

i'm sure you should be able to reclaim all the insurances from day one

that should even put money in your pocket too.

can you post up the CCJ if you have and the org agreement please

 

i'll get help onboard then.

 

scan the required letters/agreements/sheets

as a picture file

remove all pers info inc barcodes etc using paint

but leave all figures and dates.

goto one of the many free online pdf converter websites

convert the image to pdf format.

or ir you have PDF as an installed printer drive use that

open a new msg box here

hit go advanced below the msg box

hit manage attachments below that box

hit the add files button on the top right

hit select files, navigate to your file on your pc

hit upload files

NB:you can set where it goes in the post by hitting insert inline.

the hit reply button

dx

 

Thankyou for offering to help us, i will have a hunt for all the court papers and get back to you.

Thanks again x

[patrickq1]

i aggree with DX its disgusting , can you tell me was it the Finance Company who actually took you to court

or was it a debt collection agancy

have you had a record of all payments made if not you need to SAR the finance company ,

you also need to send a request for all insurance payments to be sent to you forthwith ,their refusal to deduct the insurance payments added to the bill would also bring up the question as to the legality of the debt total they took you to court over , so check the court papers and see if any deductions had been made

ime sure DX can think of a thousand more questions concerning this so hang in their DX will sort you out

patrickq1

[di_jones]

Yes it was the finance company that took my hubby to court, i have searched for the original CCJ that demanded it be paid back at £100 a month and unfortunatly i can not find it, i fear it has been lost with a couple of house moves since it happened, i have the later Attachment of earnings one, i'm not sure if we can get a copy of the CCJ from the court? I dont recall anything being knocked off the bill, we even sent a letter to the court when they asked for the CCJ against my husband explaining the same as we had told you but it didnt make any differance and the CCJ was still made.

 

Advantage sent a letter to my husband a couple of weeks back saying if we paid £1000 they would write off the rest of the debt but obviously we are not in a position to do this so my husband rang them and told them so and asked that they send us a statment of everything we had paid to date which they did, thats how i worked out that we had paid the £8,158.14, we had lost track over the last 11 years of exactly how much we had paid to them and were truely shocked and therefore decided to see if anyone could help us as i cant believe we still have another £2,039.20 left to pay.

 

I have the letter they sent to us dated 1st March 2001 after we wrote to them asking to cancel the insurance their reply said "i Quote" Please be advised that your insurances referred to in your letter are single premium insurances paid to insurers up front at point of sale. Our Legal agreements are not cancellable under the consumer credit act and accordingly we are unable to refund any premium already paid. Whilst you may cancel the cover you would not benefit from a refund of any part of the single premium.

 

Are you suggesting we write and again ask them to refund the cost of the insurance which in total came too £2,373.52?

 

Is their a template somewhere we could use to send this request.

 

Thankyou again for your ongoing support and advice.

 

x

[dx100uk]

ah

post up the discount letter please

 

something smells

 

dx

[dx100uk]

who are advantage?

and who is the finance co.

 

dx

[di_jones]

Advantage is the finance company (Advantage Finance , unit 7, Acorn Business park, Moss Road, Grimsby, DN35 0LW)

 

The discount letter, do you mean the letter offering us to pay the £1000?

 

x

[di_jones]

If you did this is what it said

 

Please be aware that there is still a balance outstanding on your account of £2039.20.

 

As a guesture of goodwill we have reviewed your account and we are willing to offer you a short settlement amount of £1000.00, which we would be willing to accept as a lump sum by Mid September 2011.

 

Please contact me on the number below so that we can work together to resolve this matter.

 

The offer of the reduces settlement is valid for 14 days so it is imperative that you make your intentions known.

 

 

Thats how the letter reads x

[dx100uk]

right there is something wrong then.

 

no-one offers a discount

 

you've been fleeced blind.

 

i can see why you have to pay anything more once the car was taken back

it was HP, when the car went back, the 'hire' part was over

 

endof agreement.

 

i'm really pushed to sitdown and work this out.

 

i'll get someone onboard for you.

 

and you scan up the original agreement [follow my instructions above]

and any subsequent agreements

and the judgement box of the CCJ

and the paperwork to do with the Attachment to earnings please

 

dx

[di_jones]

Thankyou for your help so far, i will scan all the paperwork i have for you tomorrow and follow your instructions to get them on here.

 

Thanks again

x

[Ell-enn]

The first big issue is that you paid £2499 for a car and they sold it for £400????? I wonder who they sold it to? insider dealing no doubt !!

 

The crafty sods intentionally waited and added interest for years before they took you to court. If they'd taken you to court at the time of the repossession they would only have got the amount outstanding on the agreement minus what they got for the car (and you could have questioned why they got so little).

[patrickq1]

if they refused payment of your premium i am of the beleif you are entitled to every penny back ,regardless of an old illness ,their insistance that the insurance was a part of the contract does not hold water any longer , you are entitled to have this payment returned and also considering the insurance was more expensive than the car ?

you need to find out who the insurance company was , make enquiries through them as to how much was paid to them i am thinking this policy was cancelled within weeks of your first defaulting on the payments , the advice they offered that you were not covered for this illness should have been pointed out at the beggining ,you have been sold a policy that they insisted is mandatory in other words this is classed as a mis sold policy you were not given any alternative to search for a better policy , it also sounds like the salesman has had or received a commission from the policy sale , so i expext DX to help you with a letter making a formal demand for the return of the monies owed to you

patrickq1

http://www.advantage-finance.co.uk/corporate/parent.asp

[ims21]

Hi

 

I've dropped in at the request of dx100uk to see of I can help get to the bottom of these figures.

 

I have to say, on the face of it this is scandalous.

 

It would be really useful if you could post up the agreements as requested.

 

You say you have most of the paperwork, does that include statements or a record of what you have paid and when?

 

The other thing I'm confused about is the signing of the agreements. You say that an agreement was signed for £112 per month but then with the added extras it went up to £178 per month. Did hubby sign a new agreement with the increased figures.

 

All of those insurances that they have orced on you can be reclaimed along with the interest they charged you plus extar interest too.

 

It would also be good of you could get in touch with the court to get hold of the missing judgement you mentioned.

 

I'm more than happy to help with the figure work but there will be a bit of work involved for you as well so I hope you're up for it and we can get to the bottom of it.

 

Regards

 

ims

[di_jones]

if they refused payment of your premium i am of the beleif you are entitled to every penny back ,regardless of an old illness ,their insistance that the insurance was a part of the contract does not hold water any longer , you are entitled to have this payment returned and also considering the insurance was more expensive than the car ?

you need to find out who the insurance company was , make enquiries through them as to how much was paid to them i am thinking this policy was cancelled within weeks of your first defaulting on the payments , the advice they offered that you were not covered for this illness should have been pointed out at the beggining ,you have been sold a policy that they insisted is mandatory in other words this is classed as a mis sold policy you were not given any alternative to search for a better policy , it also sounds like the salesman has had or received a commission from the policy sale , so i expext DX to help you with a letter making a formal demand for the return of the monies owed to you

patrickq1

 

Hi, thanks for you help,

 

The insurance's were added as follows

Payment protection insurance £834.54

Mechanical breakdown insurance £350.00

Vehicle Recovery insurance £210.00

Accident assistance program £150.00

Total Credit £1544.54

added finance charge £833.98

Total payable for insurance products £2378.52

 

I have orginal insurance documents that came through the post, the letter heading says Marketing & Managment Services LTD.

 

One is a policy for Guaranteed Auto Protection which says the premium is £142.86+IPT

One is a policy for protected payment plan , says the premium is £802.14+IPT

 

We also have two booklets that my husband signed for on the 4th August 2000 before he went back to collect the car on the 7th, one is a booklet for mechanical breakdown, has Advantage finance on the front, stuck inside the front cover is a blue form that says propsal form, has all the cars details but the policy valid from is blank and it has no date on it anywhere and the dealer code box is empty.

 

The 2nd one is Mechanical breakdown warranty, it has the garage name on it, again a blue form inside the front cover.

 

Thanks again for your continued support.

x

[dx100uk]

please scan them up

 

dx

[di_jones]

Hi

 

I've dropped in at the request of dx100uk to see of I can help get to the bottom of these figures.

 

I have to say, on the face of it this is scandalous.

 

It would be really useful if you could post up the agreements as requested.

 

You say you have most of the paperwork, does that include statements or a record of what you have paid and when?

 

The other thing I'm confused about is the signing of the agreements. You say that an agreement was signed for £112 per month but then with the added extras it went up to £178 per month. Did hubby sign a new agreement with the increased figures.

 

All of those insurances that they have orced on you can be reclaimed along with the interest they charged you plus extar interest too.

 

It would also be good of you could get in touch with the court to get hold of the missing judgement you mentioned.

 

I'm more than happy to help with the figure work but there will be a bit of work involved for you as well so I hope you're up for it and we can get to the bottom of it.

 

Regards

 

ims

 

Hello, thanks for offering your help and support, I am going to scan all the documents i have today when i am at my parents as i dont have a scanner but they do then i will post them here, Yes i have an upto date statment of everything we have paid and when, i will find out the number for the court which handled the CCJ and get hubby to ring them and request a copy of the CCJ as we cant find it anywhere and i have exhusted all possible places it could have been.

 

[edit] (hubby) says he signed the HP agreement on the 4th when he signed all the other paperwork

and their was no insurances added and the monthly paymets were £112 which is what he had agreed on the phone with Advantage

 

but when he went back on the 7th to collect the car and all the paper work that came with it the Sales man

had added all the insurances saying that Advantage had said that he had to have them added on,

 

the sales man hadnt signed or dated the agreement on the 4th but it was signed and dated the 7th

when ... went to collect the car,

 

when you're young you just listen to what others tell you and trust what they say,

 

we knew from the start we were going to struggle to pay the higher amount back

and we did even more so when my husband had to stop work due to ill health for a couple of years,

 

i really wish he had never ever gone and got this car!

 

Thanks for taking the time to help us.

x

[dx100uk]

mobile phone pixs will do!

 

as long as we can see the details we need

 

dx

[di_jones]

Ok will take them with my camera see if it works x

[di_jones]

Hubby rang the court to ask for a copy of the ccj, all the fees were added to our bill in October 2007 but the court said that nothing was registered with them untill November 2007, anyway they are going to be sending us a copy of the ccj out and i will add it asap.

 

Ive taken photographs for you just adding them to the computer to see if you can read them or not if i can see the figures will add them as you requested.

 

Thanks x

[di_jones]

here are all the docs so far in one multi-page PDF

dj stuff all .pdf

[di_jones]

What else would you like to see, i will post the ccj when it arrives.

 

Thanks again for your time x

[ims21]

Hi di

 

I'm just printing the PDFs of the statements and am going to look at the figures this evening. Will post either later tonight or tomorrow afternoon after 1pm

 

Regards

 

ims