PCP finance agreement equity checker

Jabah

Hi everyone,

Is there a service to check current market value of the car on a PCP finance agreement and compare it to the PCP settlement figure? Thereby working out whether I'm in negative equity or positive equity?

Obviously for the majority of the PCP finance agreement it will be negative, but on my last deal (Audi S3 2010) I found that I was in positive equity almost a year prior to my agreement ending! However I discovered this too late and the amount of remaining equity had reduced significantly - I still upgraded though I would of had a larger deposit if I had traded in 10 months earlier...

Audi had told me that I was part of their "key for key" programme that did this for me, though they never got in touch! Then again I guess it's not in their interest.

I want to sign up for notifications or something that periodically checks the equity on my behalf? Does this exist? Am I the only one who thinks this would be useful?!

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
Jack

k3lvc

Interesting concept but nothings going to tell you what your car will actually sell for - only an estimate of what a similar car might.


Calculating the amount outstanding on PCP is a much easier exercise via spreadsheet

Jabah

That's true - I have such a spreadsheet but it means I have to periodically have to check the value of my car and compare it against my calculated settlement figure. Which is a bit dull! :doh:

Surely an automatic service that compares and estimate (like a webuyanycar valuation) vs. the settlement figure and informs if you've gone into positive equity would be useful? Or already exists?

wgl2014

I would have thought a quick search on Autotrader would do the trick?

System

Jabah wrote: »

Surely an automatic service that compares and estimate (like a webuyanycar valuation) vs. the settlement figure and informs if you've gone into positive equity would be useful? Or already exists?

But how could such a service exist? The price cars sell for varies wildly from region to region as well as on an individual basis as the colour, the options you took and the model it is and its true state, not the one you think it is in, can all alter what it is worth. You mention WBAC valuations, their online quotes are very rarely honoured because of the above.

Jabah

It would purely serve as an indication that the agreement holder may actually be in positive equity and not miss out like I did.

I guess you would have to enter the general condition of the car, your postcode, current mileage and annual mileage when you first set up the comparison for it calculate an approximate value much like WBAC.

k3lvc

Jabah wrote: »

It would purely serve as an indication that the agreement holder may actually be in positive equity and not miss out like I did.

Given you didn't actually sell your car nor even have any offers for it how exactly did you 'miss out' ?

I could similarly 'miss out' from one day to the next due to the mood/negotiating desire of a dealership and I'd never know

Jabah

Car dealerships offer this service so even they realise that your equity may possibly peak before your agreement comes to an end. Therefore it is possible miss out.

However you have to rely on them to tell you and it's clearly not in their interest.

What I'm saying is a service that does this independently to car dealerships.

It is possible to miss out k3lvc

Jabah

Car dealerships offer this service so even they realise that your equity may possibly peak before your agreement comes to an end. Therefore it is possible miss out.

However you have to rely on them to tell you and it's clearly not in their interest.

What I'm saying is a service that does this independently to car dealerships.

It is possible to miss out k3lvc:money:

k3lvc

Jabah wrote: »

Car dealerships offer this service so even they realise that your equity may possibly peak before your agreement comes to an end. Therefore it is possible miss out.

However you have to rely on them to tell you and it's clearly not in their interest.

What I'm saying is a service that does this independently to car dealerships.

It is possible to miss out k3lvc:money:

Car dealerships offer this 'service' as part of their CRM and managing/maintaining their customers and with a whole load of other variables that your outstanding balance/'value' of your car. They'll be considering finance deals, targets, availability of suitable replacement vehicles etc etc and looking at the whole cost/benefit of retaining you as a customer for the next 2-3 years.

Frankly the idea that you can use 1 fixed (outstanding amount) and 1 variable (current 'value') element of this equation to do the same thing is laughable - unless you happen to own something so rare that has a significant peak/trough in value.

Given your argument that you 'missed out' then share the figures/details and let's have a look