Finance Question

neolxs

I have a weird problem with My finance company.

I purchased a car on Finance over two years ago. Everything was going fine untill I cancelled my payment protection after the first month. However the finance company kept charging me payment protection. Before long I got into written arguments about this with the finance company about when and where i cancelled. I put it to them that owed me about €500 in refund for the payment protection they charged. They disagreed and refused to budge.

I then decided to tell them to go to hell and cancelled my payments to them. As I was paying around €500 per month my arrears soon amounted to €4,000. I stood my ground and told them that unless they refunded my monies I would refuse payment to them. After more arguing they agreed to refund me the monies I disputed, however they now claimed I owed them €4,000 in arrears and a imediate payment should be made in FULL!

Now of course I dont have €4,000 just lying around and told them that they should start my finance again from that date. THey Refused and after a few more letters arguing the case between each other they wrote and cancelled the finance and stated that they would reposses the car.

Fine I said and would fight any payments they felt outstanding in court due to the poor customer service.

But thats where the matter gets a bit confused.

There letter was wrote over a year ago and since I have not heard a thing from my finance company. No payments have been made and I still have possesion of the car.

Now I cant think for one moment they have decided to let me keep the car and gone away, but the fact is that in 1 whole year they have made no further reply to me in regards to the vehicle or anything else.

What do I do?

Continue to drive around in a car for Free?

Can I claim the vehicle as lost property after 1 year and keep it for myself.?

I dont really want to write to them and remind them of the car If I have got away with a freebie! But at the same time the longer I have the car the more devalued it becomes if they do reposess it.

Any Advice would be Greatly appreciated!

Evil Phil

Its a big maybe, but MAYBE they'll pop up in another years time expecting you to pay the owed amount in full plus interest.

Guy:Incognito

With regard the €4,000 payment they were looking for, should you not have been keeping the €500 a month while the issue got resolved instead of spending it? It was a bit presumptious to assuem they would just extend the agreement because you asked them to.

sundula

A year is along time, it might depend on the value of the car. I know someone he used to drink in pub i went to. He bought a brand new skoda fabia estate think it was through GE, any way everything was ok for 2 and a bit years till he started going out with this one from the north. He was more or less moved up there and gave up paying on the car. The usual letters pursued. The car was at this address in Wicklow and eventually they told him it would be repo'ed at his expense. He left it in a farm shed belong to relations and there it stayed for a year. He moved north and that was that. He has since gone to live in Wales and his cousin drives the car. But i guess if he tried to sell it there might be some sort of alarm raised if someone did one of those finance checks

neolxs

Stekelly wrote:

With regard the €4,000 payment they were looking for, should you not have been keeping the €500 a month while the issue got resolved instead of spending it? It was a bit presumptious to assuem they would just extend the agreement because you asked them to.

The reason why I stopped my payments was that the only way I could get them to communicate with me and refund the monies owed was to take action that they would notice.

And Strangely enough as soon as the payments stopped they started to pay me proper notice and resolved the refund. Except they didnt refund the money straight to me they just took it of my arrears and then demanded imediate repayment.

colm_mcm

in fairness it was a bit of a silly way to go about things. you signed a contract. It was a bit naieve not to keep the monthly installments by every month. to ignore the loan for 8 months. and when they asked for the money you ignored it for another year.

Chonker

colm_mcm wrote:

in fairness it was a bit of a silly way to go about things. you signed a contract. It was a bit naieve not to keep the monthly installments by every month. to ignore the loan for 8 months. and when they asked for the money you ignored it for another year.

Agreed, They will also hit you for interest on the unpayed payments to date, There is always the chance they have simply forgotten about you, But I doubt it.

As for arguing poor customer service in court, I suspect you will end up taking out a bigger loan to pay your debts and every one's court fee's.


Start saving and keep praying. Good luck.

Anan1

I'd imagine you can also forget about getting a mortgage or any other type of finance for the next while.

neolxs

But surely having to wait a whole year for a finance company to make the next move?

Surely they should have repossesed the vehicle when they ended my contract. As legally the vehicle is there property they surely have abandoned the vehicle on my property?

milltown

sundula wrote:

A year is along time, it might depend on the value of the car. I know someone he used to drink in pub i went to. He bought a brand new skoda fabia estate think it was through GE, any way everything was ok for 2 and a bit years till he started going out with this one from the north. He was more or less moved up there and gave up paying on the car. The usual letters pursued. The car was at this address in Wicklow and eventually they told him it would be repo'ed at his expense. He left it in a farm shed belong to relations and there it stayed for a year. He moved north and that was that. He has since gone to live in Wales and his cousin drives the car. But i guess if he tried to sell it there might be some sort of alarm raised if someone did one of those finance checks

Plus, he can forget about getting another loan. Unless he tries one of the shysters that advertise on daytime tv.

OP: Your dispute with the finance company was over the payment protection monies that you were overcharged. You never denied that you owed them €500 per month for the car loan. My advice would be to contact them and get this straightened out ASAP. If needs be, get a loan from a bank or something, while you still can. Legally, they have the stronger hand and when they decide to pursue this they will want their pound of flesh. On top of the afforementioned €4k they will look for the intervening year's payments (which we all doubt you had the good sense to put by) and probably even the difference between what they paid for the car and what you gave them + what the car will make at auction.
Do it now! The next you hear from them will probably be that they have passed your account on to a debt collection agency.

sundula

Your best bet might be to try and do one of those finance checks yourself on the car and see what comes back.
I suppose the sensible thing to do is get all your facts right - what you paid, what you have left to pay and what you think they owe you and then contact them by post asking whats the story with the situation you were wating to hear from them and got zippo. Becase at least if you go to court you would have proof that you were'nt forgetting about the situation and you were trying to resolve it.

eamon234

Hi - used to work for a Finance Company - the worst thing you can do with a finance company is not talk to them -very strange they haven't repo'd but believe me they will - and even when they do you will still end up owing them money or end up in court - your best bet is to contact them and try to sort it out - your credit rating will be screwed - you won't get finance on anything for at least 5 years - don't talk to the muppets on the call centre lines - ask to speak with a manager - remember the fault was theirs initially - if you can come to a resolution with them they may even amend your credit profile I've seen it done. The car is their property legally whether they repo it or not.
Your other option is to do what's called a Voluntary Termination. Look at your finance contract there will be a "Halfway" figure once you've paid past this figure you can legally hand back the car without penalty proving it isn't damaged and the mileage isn't too high.
Your only other option would be to refinance through your credit union and buy the car out.

Chonker

eamon234 wrote:

Your only other option would be to refinance through your credit union and buy the car out.

Actually thats a great Idea, Call them and ask for a settlement figure, then go get a loan else where and pay it off. Before it's too late, if its not already.

You do not want them to take action against you.