Car REPO V Voluntary Termination - Help needed PLEASE!!

dichmau5

Hi all, im new to posting and Im in a tricky situation and not sure what to do, here it goes....

I have a car purchased on HP in Sept 07, i have paid more than half of the finance, there are arrears on the account (as i have been forced to give up my job because of my divorce proceedings and childcare). I have been paying the car at a reduced monthly sum for a while.

The car has been a complate nightmare and constantly needed work doing to it. It currently does not go as the alternator and starting motor have gone, it also has faults in the fuel injector system and would not pass an MOT (due this month).

I have contacted the finance company and they want me to terminate the contract and sign the car over to them.
They will then sell at auction and i will have to pay the short fall. I owe £1978.
The guy at the finance company was really pushy about me signing it over. I mentioned about repossession and he said that wasnt going to happen as the costs to the company would outweigh any monies from the sale of the car. He kept saying that surely i want the car out the way and he would happily get it recovered and get it sold at auction. He said i shouldnt throw good money after bad to get it fixed and it be best just to hand it back, he said other stuff but made it clear signing it over was what he wanted to do.

So my question is am i better to voluntary terminate or wait for them to reposses?
He has raised my suspicions my basically going on and on about signing it over and im wondering if thats in my best interest?
Would i have costs to pay if they did reposses?

I dont want the car, i cant afford to fix it or really run it at the moment, so i dont want to save it - i just want it gone, but in the cheapest way to me.

Any help would really be appreciated as ive searched and searched the net and found nothing too helpful.

Thanks

motorguy

Can you give us more info please?

Year make model mileage condition mot remaining on car.

From the finance document, deposit paid, total amount payable, repayment amounts, and duration of loan. Also, if its a straight hire purchase deal or if there is a balloon payment?

dichmau5

Yeah sure,
Its a 52 plate Renault Vel Satis. Condition is good apart from the mechanical faults, which is currently the alternator, the starting motor and fuel injector sensors. MOT is due this month (which is wouldnt pass as the emissions are terrible because of fuel injector fault), Tax due august.
It was straight hire purchase.
The car was £6495, origional finance amount was £4700. I had paid a £1795 deposit (part ex).
With all interest and costs total finance was £7189, payable in 24 monthly installments of £224.
I have £1987 left to pay. £1456 of which are arrears.
Thanks for your reply.

Sgt_Shrek

I was a repossession agent for Ford credit.

There are 4 ways out of your agreement:

1) Voluntary Terminate:
Finance companys pain in the side. Available if you have pain at least 50%, Car is in resoanble running order and NO arrears owed on the account. Give car to finance company, contract ends, nothing owed and credit score stays clean.

2) Voluntary Surrender:
Give car to finance company, they sell the car to clear the debt. If car doesn't sell for enough, you owe the shortfall, sometimes if you pay the difference within a short time your credit score will stay good IF you have not defaulted.

3) Repossession:
Finance Company obtains a court order and passes your details onto repossession agent. You have to pay repo, court and any other costs. You also have to pay the shortfall. Credit score will be adversly affected.

4) Declare yourself Bankrupt:
ALL your debts cleared. No more credit but on the good side, you have tax free wages for a while. This option does effect some job.

Finance companies always push for a Voluntary Surrender because they can claim the shortfall off you.

Because of your situation I would strongly recommend the VS to stop you incuring the repossession agents fees, which can be in excess of £500.00. You might be lucky and the finance company may get a good price for it at auction...

Either way it's not good


P.S If you leave it for repo, TAKE EVERYTHING out of the car!

I hope this helps

Kind regards
Jay

goldspanners

for what its worth i doubt this car would fetch any where near the kind of money you still owe on it at an auction with no MOT. these cars as you have found out are riddled with uncureable faults im afraid.

sue0308

not sure I am in the right area, but can you help me, I voluntary terminated my car agreement as going abroad, it was well over the amount they state I could terminate, everything was agreed had a letter from them saying that I have 0.00 to pay, then a couple of months later got a letter saying I was 2 months late in paying for the finance, i contacted them and they replied saying that this was sent in error and said to ignore it and they then resent me an email saying I had 0.00 to pay, anyway.........I have just accessed my credit file and this car finance company who are called British Credit Trust have put a default on my file, I have emailed them wanting it removed and have had no reply, please can someone tell me what to do next......help!!