Refinance existing car HPI before repossesion..

markhamilton

hi all, new to the site....

ill try and keep my opening bit short and sweet

but i was out of work for 18 months...and struggled to keep on top of my HPI on my car..was paying £500 p/m , cars worth to date £10k and the outstanding finance is about the same

i fell 3 payments behind, and when i found out i was going to be back in work i struck up a deal with ford finance..to clear the outstanding, but because i had to work a month in hand, in the end, they passed it over to debt collectors..."link financial"...and after trying to stike a deal with them, basically they want the full amount or they will reposess the car...not really knowing where to start, ive been in discussion with them for about 6 weeks now and its come to the point where they are making the decision to arrange to collect the vehicle...unless the debt is cleared...

so i was just wondered really where i stand and who i could approach to refinance the debt pretty much...or do anything else if anyone knows what? as i really need to car for work...

obviously my credit file has been abliterated while being out of work, but im not back on top of my debts...and back on top of my mortgage...(thankfully)

i do have positive equity in the house...if anybody was windering incase that effects anything.

many thanks for any help
mark

jonjamie1970

Hi Mark

I am in a similar position although I havent missed any payments, I owe a balloon payment of £10k and the car is worth about the same, the car is a BMW 55 plate.

Questions

1. How much was the original finance amount, anything over £25k is unregulated so need to know
2. How long was the agreement for and how long into it are you, exactly ?

markhamilton

hey thanks for the reply!

the original finance was for £17k....over 2 years, with the option to pay the rest this november 1st...of the top of my head it should have been about £7k..or get a new car, and continue the monthly payments, or spread the £7k over a couple of years to then end the agreement....was fords fantastic no deposit and low APR at the time...(they have just started to do the same deal now!) BUT on the 1st november, ford had a guaranteed final value figure of £5..so i would have only owe'd them £2k if taken it, but would have been car-less..

i took the agreement out on the 1st november 2008..so almost at the end of it now...and you can imagine how frustrated i am getting so close to being able to get out of it...

when i lost my job (anoyingly 4 months into the agreement) i was already beyond the "comfort" period of the agreement so could not end it early without loosing over £5k instantly, which now, seems like a better option!

so spent quite a long time doing tempoary contracts with little money coming in, but was better than nothing...

i presume when you say baloon payment, you mean the same as mine, the end payment of GFVF...?

and the other thing was, when ford told me they were handing it over to link financial, they said it would be the SAME terms as my current agreement, so i thought well that suits me...i can live with a default...and might have been able to structure the debt differently, but link were having none of it, and they said on the phone a few ford customers had said the same...i argued the point but to no avail in the end...

jonjamie1970

Read the small print mark, if you have paid half the value of the finance which you could of then you can voluntary terminate the agreement without penalty.

For example.

I had a BMW 330ci, bought it for £20k all in and then 2 1/2 years into the agreement, handed it back to BMW at no penalty and bought a newer one.

My advice, get the documents out now and read the small print, if it says you can hand it back after half the payments then your OK.

You have paid half of the £17k easily if your agreement is due to end. I dont know however what effect missed payments has on this agreement.

markhamilton

thanks for that info, the thing is, the agreement or actual debt, is now with link financial, and remembering figures off the top of my head (as im away from home at the moment) i think im about £1.5k away from paying off half or more...the £1.5k was what went into arrears (3 payments late) thats when Ford sold the debt to Link financial from what i can gather...i did read through the documents, and it did mention what you said, that if i had paid over half etc....but i think i was just short...which made it even more frustrating!

it was such a mind boggeling amount of paperwork and small print originally, and i was, a bit niave about it all, made a rush decision as my previous car had been written off..and needed a new car for work (at the time) , but the agreement was for 2 years, with the option of a 3rd to pay the remaining off, which would have been £5k roughly...but having fallen £1.5k into arrears, the amount i had paid off was about £8.5k working it out roughly without seeing figures...my last payment to ford would have been 6 months ago now...and its been with link financial for about 2 months now while i have been trying to figure something out...they have been very slow getting back to me with a answer to my "can we arrange a payment plan" then they come back with a no, and say you have 2 weeks to pay up or we drive your car away....

and thats where im at now...sorry to possibly go over old ground there...

CHR15

I'm sure I have read on here fairly recently that once the agreement falls into default, the Contract is broken so VT is no longer an option.

Bit of a kick in the teeth..

markhamilton

CHR15 wrote: »

I'm sure I have read on here fairly recently that once the agreement falls into default, the Contract is broken so VT is no longer an option.

Bit of a kick in the teeth..

thanks for that chris....anoying thing is, Ford stated on the phone TWICE that the terms of the agreement would be the same with the debt recovery firm...which i didnt question (maybe i should have done) because i just thought, ahh, this might work in my favour...

i even had to chance Link financial myself to find out what the score was when they hadnt contacted me for 2 weeks after Ford handed it over....i wish i had left them alone now...

i did even offer to make higher payments, to clear the debt over 8 months etc...but they havent been interested

BUT Link have said, if they sold the car at auction, or i sold it and got a offer within a reasonable amount close to the original outstanding finance, they would accept it and close the case...they said they would be looking for £8k and whats outstanding must be close to £11....

so strange they would not accept a payment plan for the whole amount..

i have even wondered about approaching another debt recovery firm and see if they could help....:eek:

CHR15

I wouldn't trust anything they say without it being in writing.

markhamilton

CHR15 wrote: »

I wouldn't trust anything they say without it being in writing.

That's one thing I wish I had pursed them for now!

This is one lesson I'll definetly be using ad a example to my little boy hen he is old enough!

ilovebanksMCMLXXXI

Hi

Have the debt collectors purchased the debt or are they just chasing it? That is quite important to know in your case.

If they've purchased it then you are unlikely to keep your car as they will want that quickly to reduce their exposure.

If on the otherhand they are just chasing it on behalf of Ford Finance I would suggest calling them back and laying yourself on their mercy!

If you can genuinelly now begin repaying then it's in Ford Finance's interests to help you out.

If you can get together one months' repayment to give them straight away that would hold a lot of weight in your request - there is nothing stopping them from calling the debt collectors and informing them that the matter has been taken back in house - you just need to convince them to do it.

As for refinancing, that would depend obviosuly on your credit rating because getting your hands of £10k in the current climate is not easy.

You could look to part-exhange your car for a new one but unless your current one is worth what you owe you will be dealing in negative equity and that would mean you either need to dip in your pocket to find the shortfall or..............(dare I say this) find a salesman who is really switched on and knows how to 'manipulate' the figures.

Best of luck

markhamilton

just thought i would update you, "ilovebanks" you pretty much hit the nail on the head with what you said, but what i have managed to do, is secure a logbookloan, i know its not ideal, but i have actually managed to get a loan against the car for a smaller value than "link financial" were looking for settlement with the car, so the different in what i have "saved" paying to link, will even out the interest with the logbookloan....i will be looking at settling the finance ASAP though now im back in work, just for the next couple of months i can afford to dump a chunk of money towards the car while my other debts even them selves out..

unfortunatly the logbookloan company were the only ones that would touch me as i was out of work for so long and built up a bad credit ref file during that time....

guess my cloud has half a silver lining!

thanks everyone for there input