barclay partner finance...hire purchase car / personal loan

[james pedder]

Hire Purchase / Fixed-sum loan agreement

 

We are in desperate need of advice on a vehicle purchased from Imperial Car in Southampton on the 09/10/2009.

 

At first we believed we were purchasing a vehicle interest free like the advertisement shown in a national paper.

 

After agreeing on a vehicle a payment of £180 each month the salesman started adding extras like Gap Insurance and gold care products which we agreed too.

 

We were then told the monthly payments would be £232.12 each month.

Whilst signing the contract the salesman kept interrupting us saying after 2 years if you decide the car is not right you can trade it in or simply hand it back and pay no more.

 

A week later the contract and conditions arrived in the post and too my astonishment the total figure we owed was £14,206.20! for a car purchased at £6750!!

 

I contacted Barclays Finance straight away to explain they have made a mistake. Only to be told this is what I have agreed too.

 

Frustrated I then contacted Imperial cars only to be told "you signed the contract" then they put the phone down.

 

I then contacted the director of Imperial cars via letter explaining the situation.

he invited us down to his office.

 

He offered to re-finance the car with an interest rate at 6% and a free service, but the negative equity still had to be added. This still worked out far too much.

 

He then advised us to take the option of waiting till half the term of the agreement has elapsed then simply hand the car back and have nothing to pay.

 

As our options were limited we decided to accept defeat and take that option.

 

Over 2 years later we decided now to write to Barclays requesting a voluntuary termination only to be responded that the car is infact NOT on Hire Purchase but a personal loan and we are free to sell the car to pay towards the settlement figure.

 

However the settlement figure is £5152.44 and we would be lucky to get £3000 for a now 7 year old car leaving us over £2000 short and no car.

 

We have just simply been miss sold and miss advised through this whole situation and do not know what to do from now on.

 

Please can you help?

Edited August 18, 2012 by citizenB
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[citizenB]

Do you have all the paperwork regarding this transaction - terms and conditions, agreement etc ?

[james pedder]

yes still have all paper work.

It seems Barclays are correct that it is a fixed sum loan agreement.

 

But Imperial cars who sold us the vehicle gave us the wrong advice and information and continually STILL giving us wrong advice.

[citizenB]

I have flagged your thread for assistance, I am sure someone will pop in as soon as they can.

[Surfer01]

We had the same thing happen to us with Toyota Finance.

Seems to be a trend nowadays to give a personal loan, but dressing it up as a HP agreement.

 

We had a £3000 shortfall and had to sell the car and our caravan at the time.

Ended up with a default although the debt was paid off two years early and we never missed a payment except that for a few months we had to make lower payments.

[citizenB]

Some advice that might help.

 

You need to tell Barclay's that the financial product was mis-sold, you were under the impression that it was a HP Agreement, not a Loan, given that is what the Sales Person was saying. When you get a final answer and if Barclay's don't play ball, then lodge a Complaint with the FOS. It might also be worth lodging a complaint with Trading Standards, see if others have a similar experience with the dealer.

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/79/79-car-finance.htm

[Surfer01]

Some advice that might help.

 

It is proving that which is difficult!

Normally when you buy a car from a dealer you assume it is a HP document.

 

Our loan document looked exactly like the HP application except that the original was a fax copy and the heading was not quite clear.

 

I sincerely hope the OP has some way of proving the deception.

[jo5ephedward5]

I had this with Black Horse a few years back - took out a personal loan at the dealership so that if my situation changed I could sell the car [they also front loaded the interest so 5k loan was 10k the second i signed it]

 

- tried to part ex it 3 years in and was told it had outstanding finance

- black horse had added it to the HPI register which I felt was an abuse of its purpose given the agreement was a loan

[HPI register was mentioned no where in my T&C]

 

- I have a thread on it somewhere..

.I ended up getting no where as more important things happened...

get a HPI check and I bet your car is on there!