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Sell your car

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  • 25-06-2010 12:00pm
    #1
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭


    Hi all,

    in 2009, I lost my job. Company didnt want to give me a contract, and fired me just before they would have been legally obliged to do so. They basically constructively dismissed me citing "performance issues"


    Anyway, due to lack of any kind of a livable income I had to go to mabs, who advised me to sell my car. So I did. The words of the person I saw in mabs were "you cannot justify having a car when your on social welfare."

    So now I find my self Less employable, due to lack of mobility and swift carriage. I'm much less independant, much less able to rely on myself and make a practical plan for my day.

    I will be commuting to college again in september, and I think If I had kept the car, the price of the commute would equal the price of running the car, yet I would be less exhausted and have far less hassle over buses.

    I'm just wondering does any one else agree with the opinion that "you cant justify having a car while your on welfare"

    I did and do have some debts that I needed to tackle, but I was advised initially and immediately to sell the car.

    Now I'm lost without it, and all the time energy and money I put into keeping it, and learning to drive is gone.

    Am I to have nothing?


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    #2
    m5ex9oqjawdg2i
    Closed Accounts Posts: 11,221 ✭✭✭✭m5ex9oqjawdg2i


    Are you to have nothing? Why do you think this?

    What car did you own? What size engine? How did you buy the car?

    Mabs are right in a sense. I could afford to have my car when I was unemployed as I didn't have big debts, finance, or a large car, it didn't cost me a lot to run etc etc. If I had a new jeep on finance, then you can see how I couldn't afford this.

    No offense, but it looks like you are trying to find somebody else to blame...

    Mabs are there to help, nothing more.

    Learning to drive is gone? Did that skill and your license leave you when you sold your car? Seriously...


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    #3
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Thanks for you reply,
    I see what your saying. The car wasn't bought on finance. ( or HP same thing? )
    I took out a personal loan to get the car for a job which I needed it for because of early morning starts, As early as 4 and 3.30 am.

    The bank gave me the personal loan on the strength of the contract, which was written on a napkin in pink chalk, and had a few coffee stains on it to boot.

    But seriously, Other than that loan, which was under 10,000 K, I had no other debts other than a 1,600 credit card debt.

    The first thing they should have advised me was not to sell the car, but to cut the credit card up, stop using it, and then they should have consolidated the loan and CC debt which were both with the same bank anyway.

    Instead I sold the car, to clear the CC debt, and am left paying a small sum every week back to the bank for the personal loan, and will probably be doing so for a long time.

    The car was mine outright.

    I didnt buy it new. It was a 1.2 litre engine


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    #4
    MRBEAVER
    Closed Accounts Posts: 206 ✭✭MRBEAVER


    You could get a car that would get you around for about €500. If you think that you can cover the running costs e.g insurance, tax, petrol, maintainence etc. then just get another one. however lots of people manage fine without a car and a bicycle would be a lot cheaper.


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    #5
    Rev Hellfire
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,346 ✭✭✭Rev Hellfire


    sihshbone wrote: »
    I'm just wondering does any one else agree with the opinion that "you cant justify having a car while your on welfare"

    I did and do have some debts that I needed to tackle, but I was advised initially and immediately to sell the car.
    Well since we don't know your financial circumstances, the burden of debt you amassed plus the cost of keeping your car how can we tell you?
    sihshbone wrote: »
    Am I to have nothing?
    That's up to you to decide.


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    #6
    tenchi-fan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭tenchi-fan


    A car is a huge expense. Motor tax, interest on the loan, petrol, insurance, tolls, parking, car wash, new tyres, and of course the repairs and possible fines at just the wrong time.

    Mabs were trying to help you repay your loans to stop you getting into financial difficulty.

    I agree that a car is nice to have - but is an unjustifiable expense for someone on welfare who generally has all day to walk or cycle where ever they want to go.

    A lot of people who lose their jobs keep up their home comforts, first by running up a credit card bill, then by falling behind on loan repayments, then avoiding their landlords and getting their phone disconnected. When they're well into dire straights they turn up at mabs crying "where's our bailout."

    If you get a new job that is not on a bus route you could pick up a 1 litre second hand car for less than a grand.


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    #7
    tenchi-fan
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,339 ✭✭✭tenchi-fan


    Also, there is little difference between an unsecured personal loan you used to buy a car, and a car loan, or even a car you bought with your credit card. It's all money owed to the bank at the end of the day. The only exception really is buying a house given the longer term and the fact that property prices generally rise (they can also fall, but over the long term your house will increase in value by 4% a year, versus your car losing 20% a year!)

    You're saying mabs should have advised you to consolidate your credit card debt into a personal loan. This is nonsense really. The bank would not have approved a loan to someone with no income and already up to their eyeballs in debt. If they did decide to give you a loan, the rate would be comparable or even higher than the rate on your credit card.
    You also must remember that when you spend on your credit card you receive 30-50 days interest free, which would not be an option on a personal loan.
    If mabs advised you to cut up your card, no doubt you would complain that it restricts your freedom to buy concert tickets, shop online, book flights, etc etc.

    Generally speaking, anyone I know who dealt with mabs found it good and helpful experience. You got good advice. You don't have to follow it if you don't want to.


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    #8
    StillWaters
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,799 ✭✭✭StillWaters


    I actually think MABS advice was good. You had over 11,000 debt, which you were struggling to repay, and your only asset was a car. Made sense to liquidate the asset in those circumstances.

    But like MABS, my advice is just that, take it or leave it, decision is yours.


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    #9
    MissFlitworth
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,057 ✭✭✭MissFlitworth


    sihshbone wrote: »
    Hi all,

    I'm just wondering does any one else agree with the opinion that "you cant justify having a car while your on welfare"


    Yep, absolutely. If you live somewhere with public transport links then I can't imagine why you'd keep on the costs of having a car whilst on job seekers, considering tax & insurance could easily wipe out your welfare payments for a couple of months (on top of your loan payments) On top of that there's super expensive petrol, maintenance costs and out-of-the-blue costs for breakdowns etc. I'd have said they were completely right to tell you that you should get rid of the car, having said that though you're a grown up, if you didn't agree and wanted to keep the car it's not like MABs have any powers to make you sell it


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    #10
    Firetrap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,442 ✭✭✭Firetrap


    I don't blame MABS for telling you to sell the car. They are expensive things to keep as anyone who's ever been unemployed will vouch for. Despite what you'll argue, they are actually a luxury. When I was growing up in the 80s, a lot of people in my town didn't have a car and they managed to get by.

    You need to look at this without getting emotive about your car. It's not the job of the person in MABS to worry about how you will get around - they're trying to get your finances into some sort of order so that you can live within your means. You said yourself that you were in debt so of course the MABS adviser would be looking to get that down as low as possible. Besides, what you got was only advice so you could have ignored it if you'd wanted.

    The way you're talking makes it sound like you'll never drive again. Au contraire - look at this as a temporary setback.


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