FGA way behind with payments

thisisso

Very confused about options as I've never bought anything on finance before, so looking for some general advice and tip please.

Dd had a car with FGA three years ago, and I've just found out that she has not made a payment in the last twelve months. She seems to think that she can just hand the car back and this will be the end of it, but I'm pretty sure that this is can't be the case. Would she still not owe the same amount as she does now but be without the car?
Her head seems to be well and truly in the sand and doesn't really seem to have any idea exactly how much she owes. Don't really know which way to go to advise her.
Thank you for listening and any advice you can offer.

ILW

First, give her a good slap.
Second, get her to call the finance company and find out what sort of loan it is.
Third, get an up to date statement.
Forth, ask her what she has done with all the threatening letters they must have been sending.
Fifth, depends upon 2-4.

thisisso

thanks at least this gives me something positive to chuck at her
thank you

ALIBOBSY

There is a point with certain types of car loans, where if you have paid a certain amou8nt you can indeed hand the keys back and walk away. However as I understand it most companies have moved away from these type of agreements, because customers, CAB et al are aware of this clause.
Best bet is as the other poster says get all the details and find out what she owes. It may work out better to sell the car to pay off the loan.

ali x

BTW this reminds me of a bizzarre incident that happened to a neighbour of my mums. As in this case child explains to mum not paid on car for a long time help what do I do. Mum through CAB negotiated with the company and they agreed to take car back plus a relatively small cash amount. Companies reps turned up with recovery vehicle to take car away, managed to !!!! up turning the truck with car on back around and crashed into the lamppost opposite. Car crushed by lamp post, lamppost on floor, total mess. So the loan company ended up writing off the car, let them off the cash-as it was their reps error and the local council pursued for cost of putting lamp post back up.
Bet they wish they had let them deliver the vehicle by driving it up to their depot instead of insisting on their reps collecting.

CHR15

An up to date statement is a priority (apart from the slap of course!)

A whole years worth of missed payments may prove to be pretty costly, they don't simply freeze the interest until the payment resume.
This could be an unpleasant surprise to DD.

She may end up handing the car back and having a not so small fortune to repay too. Or continue paying for many many years to come.

thisisso

thanks guys for the words, makes me feel better just doing something, don't understand how she could have sat on for so long.
I've been and fetched the agreement from her, its a hire-purchase agreement took out in May 2007. She has been paying something over the last twelve months, as she phone the firm and they changed her payment amounts, but shes admitted that's she hasn't paid all of them , so its perhaps not as bad as I first thought :think:
I rang the company to try and get an up-to-date statement so at least I can tell what is fact and fiction, but of course they wouldn't talk to me without her present to answer some security question. So I sit and wait for her to come round and ring them, which will no doubt cost me a fortune in phone calls.
thank you

thisisso

up to date statement, now on its way, hopefully this will show what has been paid and what is still owed (?) either way, dragging her to Citizens Advice as soon as it arrives and take it from there.
thank you for listening and offering your advice, much appreciated.

thisisso

OK finally managed to get an up to date statement on the HP agreement

already paid ..........................£4164.80
amount owes.........................£5617.20
arrears on missed payments....£1539.50 (from August 2009)

the options they gave were
1: give the car back for it to be sold at auction
2: clear the arrears and then resume monthly payments
3: willing to take offers on the monthly amount

thisisso

just wondered what you guys thought .... the company have said that they will accept a one off payment of around £4,000 to clear the debt ... does this seem reasonable?? as i have absolutely no idea what they're expecting

thank you

Xbigman

I assume the amount owed includes the arrears in which case 4k is just about the original amount to be paid, so you save the arrears. If you go this route make sure you get it in writing that this clears the debt.

Don't hand the car back for sale at auction. Your DD will certainly end up owing thousands and no car.
Regards



X

thisisso

thank you for your reply, it does seem that this is probably the best way forward, then at least we would have a car that we could sell on later and probably break even on what we've paid

with dd just wanting to give it back I think as you say she will have a large debt to pay back, I know that her circumstances have changed and that she cannot afford it, but im totally shocked that this just does not seem to bother her:mad:

thanks again for your support and for listening to my moaning

ETA: Yeah forgot to say yes the amount owed (£5617) does include the arrears