PCP Balloon Payments

lawred2

Is it normal/regular/expected for a bank to take the final balloon payment without any correspondence?

We were expecting some correspondence regarding options of what to do with the outstanding balance etc.. refinance or what not. We hadn't fully decided ourselves.

This morning; we find that the balloon payment has been collected by DD. It wouldn't be usual for us to have that sitting in our current account! Just happened to be moving money about.

Half of a mind to leave it - it has maybe made the decision for us! Only I'm surprised that there wasn't some prior contact from the lender.

Had you been in touch with the dealer to confirm you weren't handing it back or trading in? If so the balloon would be due without further interaction as per t&c of the initial agreement.

Irishphotodesk

The contract is for the lump sum payment, unless you renegotiate a new contract to supercede it, at least it's now finally your car to own.

Jacovs

Had a PCP with AIB the last 4 years, was due to end in 2 days.
6 months ago they sent me a letter in the mail with the final settlement amount and the date it would be taken from my account. They also included a form with 3 options, asking what option I wanted to go for.

Then at 3 months before the final payment was due they sent the same again by post.

No communication at all seems odd but it should all be in the original contract too.

lawred2

Augeo wrote: »

Had you been in touch with the dealer to confirm you weren't handing it back or trading in? If so the balloon would be due without further interaction as per t&c of the initial agreement.

We had somewhat. Informally maybe. We were looking at a car but hadn't said yes or no on it.

But it had been stated to us at the outset that the finance company would contact us as to whether or not we would be seeking to refinance the balance..

Obviously that didn't happen.

Another case of me taking someone at their word that someone would be in touch. Should have contacted the finance company myself.

For the record I'm not saying we wouldn't have taken this option of paying it off; we might have done this anyway. I'm just surprised that there wasn't some prior notification. A lot of people would get caught out by this after three years. Even if it was always their intention to pay off the balance - they might not have their current account primed for such a direct debit.

lawred2

Jacovs wrote: »

Had a PCP with AIB the last 4 years, was due to end in 2 days.
6 months ago they sent me a letter in the mail with the final settlement amount and the date it would be taken from my account. They also included a form with 3 options, asking what option I wanted to go for.

Then at 3 months before the final payment was due they sent the same again by post.

No communication at all seems odd but it should all be in the original contract too.

This is exactly what I was expecting. We received the sum total of zero correspondence.

Going to ring them this morning anyway. See what happened.

godtabh

lawred2 wrote: »

But it had been stated to us at the outset that the finance company would contact us as to whether or not we would be seeking to refinance the balance..

Obviously that didn't happen.

Another case of me taking someone at their word that someone would be in touch. Should have contacted the finance company myself.

Would you not have followed up before hand. You knew this was coming down the line.

is_that_so

lawred2 wrote: »

Is it normal/regular/expected for a bank to take the final balloon payment without any correspondence?

We were expecting some correspondence regarding options of what to do with the outstanding balance etc.. refinance or what not. We hadn't fully decided ourselves.

This morning; we find that the balloon payment has been collected by DD. It wouldn't be usual for us to have that sitting in our current account! Just happened to be moving money about.

Half of a mind to leave it - it has maybe made the decision for us! Only I'm surprised that there wasn't some prior contact from the lender.

Before the start of the final year I received a summary of future payments up to and including the final payment and I was aware it was a DD. However, with COVID the bank proved to be more flexible and there were a number of letters and calls.

Pacifico

The collection of the DD would have set when you took out the PCP agreement but yes you should have gotten lots of reminders.

I received 3 or 4 letters from VW in the last 6 months of my PCP reminding me. What brand is it?

lawred2

Pacifico wrote: »

The collection of the DD would have set when you took out the PCP agreement but yes you should have gotten lots of reminders.

I received 3 or 4 letters from VW in the last 6 months of my PCP reminding me. What brand is it?

Peugeot... finance was through BOI

lawred2

godtabh wrote: »

Would you not have followed up before hand. You knew this was coming down the line.

I just said that.

lawred2

lawred2 wrote: »

.....................

But it had been stated to us at the outset that the finance company would contact us as to whether or not we would be seeking to refinance the balance..

.........

A simple case of folk not doing anything above the contracted minimum (for whatever reason, we are in strange time) so it all just reverted to the actual agreement

If you don't mind me asking, were you aware the PCP term was actually up? If so accepting they hadn't been in touch what payment did you expect them to take instead of what was due to them as per the PCP contract?

lawred2

Augeo wrote: »

.........

A simple case of folk not doing anything above the contracted minimum (for whatever reason, we are in strange time) so it all just reverted to the actual agreement

If you don't mind me asking, were you aware the PCP term was actually up? If so accepting they hadn't been in touch what payment did you expect them to take instead of what was due to them as per the PCP contract?

I actually thought today was the last regular payment and the next was the scheduled balloon payment so I got caught on the hop a month early..