The Mental Debt Struggle...

Cherryfudge

I think £350 that you didn't have in exchange for a car that you weren't happy with, is a good deal.

What a shame the benefits lady wasn't well, though there's every chance she will be back in work in a few days. I love that you are willing to keep chipping away at the form, because obviously that will make the job simpler when you do see her, but also it's evidence to you that you have persistence and a very good mind and at the end of the day the amount that can be fitted in is finite and that form will submit to you.

With regard to repaying your Mum, would a very small standing order, going out regularly, help? Yes, it won't show up as soon as large payments (which you could make on top of a regular payment if you wanted) but it's amazing how it does all add up.

It's okay @Cherryfudge I understood your message 😁.

I'm so glad one of us did. 😁

daisy_1571

Fill in any bits softly in pencil so the info is therebut if it needs changed it won't be obvious.

I hear you on the car. Sometimes it's simply more important to get ut done than to keep chasing a possible better price. I suppose you could put £300 to your mum and keep fifty quid for you? Will you get any money back from insurance? And road tax?

beanielou

Good idea to pay your mum a wee amount every month.
Hope your PIP forms are completed soon.

Keedie

I'm so relieved that the car will be gone. My son and I are going to clear it out in the morning and then do a bulk shop in Lidl whilst we can. As the other supermarkets deliver, but Lidl doesn't and that's where most of our food comes from. It's a shame I didn't get on top of the clutter boxes before I had no car as I'm still wading through all of that. But I can always ask my sister to come with me to take some stuff to the dump site when it's ready.

I think I'll set aside £25 a month into a pot for the repayments to my mum so that it keeps accumulating. Of the £350, I'll set aside £50 into my Trek Travel pot in case I need it for an Uber or something. I'll put £150 aside to repay my mum and £150 back into the emergency fund, as Silver's spay and the after treatment was way more expensive than I thought it would be 🤦🏾‍♀️.

I paid for the tax upfront in December 2025, at half price due to the blue badge so I reckon I'll get back around £45 if unused car tax. And my car insurance was paid upfront and runs out in September 2026. They take a £45 fee to cancel your insurance early, so that fee will be zeroed out by the tax refund. I have 162 days left on the policy think I might get back around £230/£250 overall. So once that has all come back in, I can figure out what to do with that money. Some more will go in the pot to my mum and some will go towards the new cooker.

I made myself a table for the PIP descriptors so that I can make a note of each condition against each criteria that they are reviewing. So for example, the impact of the bipolar, chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia and disordered rotator cuff (shoulder) on preparing food and cooking. I figured that it's easier for me to bullet point the impacts for each condition and write it in my own way, and then if needed that can be included with the documents I'm sending back. So I've got less reliance on the benefits support, just in case my meeting isn't able to take place next week.

Keedie

I'm hella confused right now. I cancelled my appointment at we buy any car, and tried to get ahold of the mechanic to arrange an appointment. Didn't hear from him and the we buy chatbot on whatsapp asked if I wanted to rearrange my appointment. So I said yes, just in case the mechanic didn't respond. And they gave me a new valuation of £1,220, whereas last time it was £776. How does that make any sense?

I told the mechanic that they've increased their valuation and he's just ignored my message. So I think I've lost that sale and I don't know what we buy are playing at. My son's dad said he's also interested in the car and so now I feel like everyone knows something that I don't…? 🤔

I need to get rid of this car, and now I'm unsure what I'm supposed to do. The mechanic is ignoring me and we buy are playing games with pricing and my son's dad hasn't called me back. And the MOT ends on Monday. So I've gone from 3 potential sales to nothing and the clock is ticking…🤦🏾‍♀️.

1stTimer

I sold my car in Dec to we buy any car and I actually got exactly what they quoted me online. I liked the fact that I was selling it to an unknown firm so once I handed them the keys it was done.

You are free to go to the appointment and walk/drive away with the car if you disagree with the price and change your mind. I would say go for the appt and see what they offer. Good luck

Makingabobor2

My DD and my DFIL both sold cars with WBAC, just turn up, hand over the keys and any documents and that's it, job done. Both of them got what was quoted online and so much easier and less hassle than privately selling.

daisy_1571

GGood chance its like leaving stuff in an online basket then they send you a voucher code. I've used wbac a couple of times but never actually sold a car to them. For months after I get emails about them still wanting to buy. I haven't opened them, since by that time I've sold elsewhere or decided to keep it, and I suspected it would be a higher price offer but you've just confirmed it to me.

Go along, see what they say, if they try to barter down cos mot, scratches or missing trim or anything keep repeating i told you about that before you sent me the quote. As 1stimer says you can always walk away if yiu don't like their attitude or valuation.

The garage and other chap are probably just busy and they'll get back to you sometime. Meantime keep going with wbac

Dxx

Keedie

Thanks for all your help and advice everyone. My son's dad wanted to collect the car today and pay me on Monday when he gets paid. But after he heard what it sounds like when the engine is running, as I video called him, he said he wasn't interested. So that was 1/3 of potential buyers gone.

I didn't end up going to WBAC in the end, as there was no time to make the appointment after we'd done a massive food shop whilst we still had the car. So 2/3 of the buyers gone. I managed to get it to the mechanic who felt sorry for me and gave me £375 and a crutch to use to get home. As I forgot mine at home, as I was in the car didn't think about getting home as I was rushing. So me and my son were able to take our time to the bus stop, with me using the crutch and at times, him helping me.

I did get quite anxious as the mechanic said he'd pay me around 6pm by bank transfer, but I had to chase him and was getting worried that he'd just stolen the car from me. Especially as I could see that the MOT was completed with no advisories 🥴. He eventually paid me around 8.50pm (after 2 phone calls of which he answered one, and around 3 messages).

But I don't think he took too kindly to my comment that I could see that the MOT was done with no issues but I still hadn't been paid 😬. He said that he had to spend £475 to get the MOT to pass. Which fair enough (if he's telling the truth), I knew it would need work, hence I didn't bother myself and just sold it for cheap. But he is a mechanic and has an MOT test centre he uses around the corner. And I know that he would have charged me much more for the same work for me to get the MOT done myself. When he told me couldn't offer me more than £300 when I got there despite us agreeing £350, he claimed that the rust alone would cost £500 to fix and it wouldn't pass its MOT unless it was sorted. I thought that was very questionable to be honest. Even my son rolled his eyes at that. Because the mechanic said he wouldn't be able to resell it for more than £1,000 once it was all done, so he had to bascically consider all of that as well. So I asked him why does he want it if then? He changed the topic and just went on about how devalued it was from when I brought it in April 2021 🙄.

At that point I was just so over it all, and wanted the car gone so that I could get on with my life…

So anyways, that was a nail biting evening with the lack of payment at the agreed time, and my son had to help me with my anxiety as I was regretting selling the car. Especially as I was so preoccupied with the excitement of being free from owning a vehicle and not having to drive that I forgot to get proof of the sale 🤦🏾‍♀️. I know, a rookie move isn't it? And so I was a bit annoyed with myself about missing the WBAC appointment in case I was scammed. But my son said that the reality is that if they were quoting prices all over the place, they would probably undercut the initial quote. As the second one was to get me to attend an appointment. He may have been right. But who knows? When I looked online at WBAC during my little meltdown/freak out, it was showing the original online quote (which was £775 and not £776 as I don't know where I made up that extra £1😂). So my son might have been onto something there 🤷🏾‍♀️.

I honestly don't know anyone who has sold a car to WBAC and gotten the amount that they were quoted. So you were lucky @1stTimer and so was your family @Makingabobor2. And the online quote didn't ask anything about the condition of the car @daisy_1571 as it was asking about the mileage and car registration. It said the quote was based on having two keys (I can only find one at the moment), and there being no damage to the car. So with the state that the car was in, it would have definitely been reduced from the offer price.

My sister had an electric car that she brought for around £2,400 and they offered her about £1,350 for it I think, and she had had it less than 2 months. She saw the impracticality of having an electric car (although I warned her about charging it when living in a flat, and driving her son to football all over the place) . So she brought another petrol car and needed to sell the Nissan Leaf. She said she couldn't sell it at that price. Then a week later, after being mucked about by trade buyers, she went back to WBAC and they offered her £900 and said that their initial offer had expired! So she had to renegotiate and they brought it up to around £1,100 and so she just gave in as she needed it gone. A few of my friends sold to WBAC and it was always a lower value. The same happened when I sold my car to them in 2018. They took off hundreds for a very minor dent that you had to really eyeball to notice 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Anyways, I also got the insurance cancelled and I'm getting a refund of £242.45 after the deduction for the £45 cancellation fee. And that will come through in 3-5 working days. And the tax should be around £40. So in total, around £650 altogether. I just need to sit down and work out what is going where. Provisionally I'm thinking:

• £300 to my mum, so that will take me up to £600 repaid
• £150 to the emergency fund to top up the money spent on Silver's vet fees
• £150 into sinking funds?
• £57 for me (it might be less if my tax refund calculations are incorrect)

I will definitely keep some for myself as a treat. My son said I should buy some clothes as I wear the same things all the time and some nice trainers. Or go out to eat with my friends. But I think I'll just see what takes my fancy and set the money aside until I know what I want to do with it.

That was a rather eventful day. But at least the car is gone, the refunds are on their way and I now only have the PIP form to think about over the next week, so that I can post it next Saturday morning.

Keedie

With all that whinging about the car, I don't know if I mentioned that I spoke to the estate housing guy that deals with repairs etc on Thursday? He said that I can't use the little cupboard built into the side of the block to store my rollator for health and safety.

So I told him that other people use them as I've seen people storing things in there. I explained that I can't carry the rollator up and down the stairs as I rely on my son. And it usually stays in the boot of the car but I'm giving up driving and selling the car. So I need somewhere to store it if possible, so that I can still get out and about on the days that I need it when my son is not around.

He said in that case he'll look into it with his boss and see what they might be able to do/find in the local area for me. No promises, but I was grateful that he was considering it. So fingers crossed…🤞🏾