Help! My friend is locked into something

skintchick

Or, could she get a loan for the 5k or so she still owes, over a longer period? I Know it would mean paying more in the long reun, but sometimes we have to do what's right for the short term and reconsider when our circumstances improve.

Perhaps some could go on a 0% cc?

southernscouser

skintchick wrote:

Or, could she get a loan for the 5k or so she still owes, over a longer period? I Know it would mean paying more in the long reun, but sometimes we have to do what's right for the short term and reconsider when our circumstances improve.

Perhaps some could go on a 0% cc?

Thats not the worst idea in the world. If the person in question can get one!

However I would take the loan over as short a term as possible. It may even cancel itself out.

Say she owes £5,000! And say the car is worth £5,000! Get the loan, pay off the hire purchase. Sell the car, pay off the loan. It will cost you a little bit in penalties (shop around for a loan with low penalties) and maybe 1 or 2 months interest but in the long run would work out better!

skintchick

I was just thinking, how could she sort this out and still have something to show for it, rather than hand the car back. And most of us do need a car of some sort.

And always with the caveat that people can get the credit, of course.

alunp

ivyleaf wrote:

My son had similar problem and, like James says, they told him he could give it up once he had paid at least half the outstanding amount.

Ivy

Do you mean

a) that 18 months into a three year lease you can get out or

b) that with 18 months left they'll let you go if you give them 9 months money

Ta

Al

alunp

southernscouser wrote:

She needs to find out if she can sell the car while still oweing money on it! Normally you can't, but you never know. If she can what she could get for the car would hopefully cancel out the debt. Or like James said, see as she is halfway through the term whether they will take the car back and cancel the agreement.

Perhaps you could say that she has no way off paying this and will be entering into a debt management plan so it would more benificial to them to take the car now!

Is she claiming statutory sick pay. It's not much but it's better than nothing?

interesting idea about selling the car. though what i've heard on leasing is that to own the car you need a "balloon payment" at the end of the lease itself.

stat sick pay isn't being claimed. her illness is one that means she can still currently work but is losing two days a week to hospital appointments. she's freelance so when she misses work she doesn't get paid. three cheers for the "flexible labour market" huh. anyhow, can SSP still be claimed for that?

al

alunp

southernscouser wrote:

Thats not the worst idea in the world. If the person in question can get one!

However I would take the loan over as short a term as possible. It may even cancel itself out.

Say she owes £5,000! And say the car is worth £5,000! Get the loan, pay off the hire purchase. Sell the car, pay off the loan. It will cost you a little bit in penalties (shop around for a loan with low penalties) and maybe 1 or 2 months interest but in the long run would work out better!

I doubt she would get a loan as she has struggled to be accepted for a bank account but its something to look into. The only thing to note though is that this isn't HP its a lease so I think there are some differences and if I understand it right, paying up the lease contract merely pays for the use of the car but its still theirs, whereas once you've paid up on HP the car is yours.

alunp

I've had an idea that I don't think is going to help my friend but may help others in a similar situation so I'm posting it.

I wondered what would happen if she could get someone to take over the lease - a lease swap if you like.

I found a website called https://www.swap-a-lease.co.uk

I know nothing of the company so its by no means a recommendation, but if people can't find a swapper themselves then this may be an option. They do charge 300+VAT as a finders fee which is ok, though the one thing I dont like is the 40 search charge whether they find you someone or not - at least thats my reading of it.

Anyhow, it seems most leasing companies are fine with that. You get rid of your lease, the lease company still get payments, and the person who has took on the lease gets a short term lease deal for less cost, so everyone is a winner it seems.

The only problem is that for some bizzarre reason some lease companies won't allow this. Sadly it seems that my friend's is one of them. Unbelievable. Its like they just want to screw her to the floor whether they get the money or not.

I've advised her to contact CCCS to see what advice they can give which she is doing now.

But for anyone else in this predicament I'd offer two things of advice

1) Insist on some sort of mid term exit clause in any lease agreement or go elsewhere

2) Make sure the company is ok with lease exchanging, cos then this option is a goer too.

Thanks for everybody's advice on this

Al