Blackhorse Repossession Fee Help!

hotsista23

Hi Everyone,

I recently exercised my right to voluntary terminate my car finance agreement with Blackhorse. I sent the letter in october, cancelled my direct debit and sent a cheque as requested for collection of the car. The car was collected in November and i was given a receipt. I received a letter from Blackhorse on saturday stating that as i had missed the October payment my PPI has been suspended blah blah blah! So i rang them and explained the situation and was told to disregard the letter as the car had not yet been sold so the account hadn't been closed. I then received a default letter today stating that i owe them £88.13 for a repossession fee!! I rang them at 6pm and the man on the phone informed me that the voluntary termination dept closes at 5. Could someone tell me why i have to pay a repossession fee when i voluntary terminated the agreement after paying half of the finance??? I have not defaulted on this account as Blackhorse received my letter before the direct debit was due! And they had the cheek to ask me to pay November's direct debit when they have already collected the car. All help would be greatly appreciated!

petermb_2

ok, so you will have paid at least half of the contractual payments to enable you to terminate yes?
You stated that there was PPI on the loan. To ensure that you pay nothing else I would certainly put a shot across their bows regarding ppi and the possibility of making a claim. This may send them away. Mind you I would put a claim in anyway.
You will probably end up with them owing you.

hotsista23

yes i have paid over half of the balance. I am going to ring them today and ask them why they have charged me for repossession. The charge was put on after they had collected the car. I'm really confused about the whole thing!

scotsgirl_3

Is this possibly a vehicle collection charge? Generally when doing a VT you have the option of collection or dropping the vehicle off at the nearest auction site and collection incurs a charge.

jamesd

Yes, ring them. Sounds as though they still haven't sold the car and it's just their automatic debt collection system getting things wrong.

scotsgirl, the collection charge was paid up front.

hotsista23

Nope i paid them £75 up front to collect the car. The cheque has been cashed as it has showed up on my statement. Don't know what the fee is for as no-one will answer my calls.

hotsista23

thanks jamesd i will give them a piece of my mind when some-one finally takes me off hold!

scotsgirl_3

Sorry missed the bit about the cheque. In that case there should be no other fees added (that I can think of) and someone has mucked up - although I have a sneaking suspicion that it is still in some way linked to the collection fee even though you have paid this - espec as the amount they are chasing is £75+VAT and I can't think of anything else that would ever be called a "reposession fee".
When you look at your statement, you said that your payment shows up, but does the charge - i.e. can you see it being added on, and what other transactions since the time of your termination?

Unfortunately most of the adjustments that happen when a VT is done are put on the systems manually and there are really just way too many places where it can be mucked up. I suspect this is what has happened and that whoever has processed it has done things in the wrong order - so your payment and the fee haven't been matched up properly. Or they've added it twice in which case they're a muppet!

Good luck

hotsista23

thanks scotsgirl! Finally got through to someone at lunchtime and yes they had mucked up! They were charging me another collection fee as they had been charged by the auction house. The guy on the phone was very apologetic and basically said the account is now closed and i dont owe another penny! I told him to put it on my account so the next time i receive a letter they will be able to see the result! Thanks everyone for ur advice!

jon25new

I have written to BH to terminate my agreement, sent recorded delivery and they received the letter on the 20/12/08- I have not had any reply from BH even though I asked them to phone me to confirm letter has been received. Could anyone help me regarding my next course of action?

scotsgirl_3

The letter will have been signed for on receipt, but it probably hasn't even been looked at by the terminations team yet - all the mail is signed for centrally. I would give it a bit longer to be honest as chances are it hasn't been dealt with - especially given that it was only received on Saturday and a lot of the admin team will be taking holidays over christmas/new year.