funding corporation and acf car finance

jhig712419

Hello there long winded here but in15th april 2010 i signed a credit agreement regulated by the consumer credit act 1974 to purchase a car from acf car credit. The purchase price was £4999 but with interest the total price paid was £9949.

I have been paying this now for 2 years and i have recieved my yearly statement from the Funding corporation to state that my balance now is £5000, however my personal circulmstances have now changed and i no longer require the vehicle.

The vehicle is probally valued at £2000 now and am i am wondering what the best way of dealing with this is.

I have seen on many websites that i can return the vehicle and only pay half of the credit agreement which will in my undertanding mean that if i return the vehicle due to the value of the car and the £4000 i have already paid in i should not be left owing any money.

Some help and assistance here would be appreciated as i dont want to ring the or write to the funding cooperation and get stung but also dont want to pay for something i no longer need due to a change in my personal circulmstance

chanz4

If you have paid 4974.5, which is about £207 a month you should be able to

JoshBee25

That's a possible option, however how much was your paper if your paying just under double back. That seems rather crazy...

jhig712419

hi there yes i have looked at the paperwork and am almost paying double the value of the car back, Typical acf finance i believe

polka_dot_rock_and_roll

Firstly itdepends on what type of contract you have taken out.

My guess isyour agreement number starts 698 – therefore you have a bill of sale contract,this is the worst type of car finance you can get as you are tied into thecontract.

With a billof sale car finance agreement you have no hand back rights, you cannot voluntaryterminate or surrender the car back to the company and walk away as this isn’tpart of your contract.

If this is thecase the finance company own the car, you cannot sell the car this would be illegaland the purchaser can check and see there are outstanding finance on the car.

You canrequest a short settlement figure and as you are settling early you would be entitledto certain interest rebates so would pay less than your current balance, theownership of the car would then be yours as the finance is paid you could thenfreely sell the car.

If youcannot afford to settle the account or keep up the payments then what willeventually happen is they will repossess the car & sell it at auction thevalue the car gets is taken off your current balance and you will still be leftwith the remainder as an outstanding debt which will need to be paid via anagreement with them, possibly monthly. E.g. your balance is £5000 depending onthe condition of the car and the market value it could be sold for £1000 soleaving you with a debt of £4000 and nothing to show for it.

With a billof sale agreement the finance company does not have to apply to the court to repossessa car all they have to do is wait for the account to fall into arrears sent outrelevant letters & time frames and then they can repossess the car.

The timeframes for repossession are not long at all so it actually doesn’t give longfor people to look into their contract or send letters to the company and getresponses so something that can be done during this time is apply to the courtsfor a timing order to prevent the repossession.

I havelearnt the hard way that finance companies pray on people who need things likecars and the contract ties you into things you don’t even realise.