Direct Auto Finance - Hounding Me! And Knocked On My Door On A Sunday!

jrussell14

Direct Auto Finance - Hounding Me! And Knocked On My Door On A Sunday!
Can someone please confirm if this allowed and legal.

I brought a car from Yes car credit in 2003 over 48 months repayments. I have had some financial problems, and missed a few payments. The 48 months are up in September. Direct Auto Finance constantly hound me with phone calls anytime of the day or night, this can be up to 10 -12 times a day. I try to reason with them and stated that I am in finance difficulty, but they just don't want to hear this and rudely ignoring what I am telling them. They just threaten me with that the vehicle is now flagged! and that I should not drive it. I have already paid over 10K for a Corsa, which the cash price listed on their agreement is £6238.00, that rest is there PPI etc. which totals £8843.52. The agreement states I should pay £184.24 and £88.44 which is the PPI? Totalling £272.68. Which means the car will cost me £13,289.64, this is mad, considering the car price on the agreement is £6238.00, I am paying £7,015.64 on top! If this was explained correctly by the salesman at YES CAR CREDIT I would NOT have taken this out. I have also looked over my paperwork and it has only been signed by me and NO representative from Direct Auto Financial Services Ltd???????
TODAY DIRECT AUTO FINANCE KNOCKED ON MY DOOR _ today is a sunday and a bank holiday - I would call this harassment! I own more of the car than them - I have numerous letters stating my late payments - which I am aware that I am late, I do not need them to send me a letter stating this and then charge me £15. per letter. Is there anything I can do?

whistleblower@saynotoyes

Try http://www.carcreditcomplaints.co.uk free support and advice for consumers of YCC and other car credit companies.

Good luck.

homer_j_3

Yes there is a lot you can do. I am not sure whether this post is spam or not so if you are not spamming the forum, I would

Write to them asking to conduct all future contact in writing.

Speak to the police about harassment.

In your letter to the company, tell them you are putting the loan into dispute as this will give you some protection.

I am reluctant at this stage to start putting a full response on here incase it is just a spam. 3 posts in 3 years..hmmm.

If you are not spamming and want to find out how you can turn this situation so that you put them on the back foot then I look forward to seeing you respond again confirming this.

We offer free support on here and the advertisement of other forums is against the rules, especially where the username is so obvious as having some involvement.

jrussell14

Hi Thank you for your replies. This is not a spam. (not sure what is meant by spaming)???

I am intrested in what you have to advise me. I look forward to your reply.

Kind Regards

homer_j_3

Firstly, have a read on here
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=930311

Secondly, you need write a letter to them asking to make all future contact in writing and blocking their number through BT.

From what you have said, there is a strong possibility that the loan is voidable, which I have explained in the link above and it could even be unenforceable but without looking at the credit agreement is difficult to say for certain. This company is well known for their unscrupulous practices.

If I am right then it could be you harassing them for money and not the other way around.

I would

Captain_Mainwaring_2

jrussell14 wrote: »

Direct Auto Finance - Hounding Me! And Knocked On My Door On A Sunday!
Can someone please confirm if this allowed and legal.

I brought a car from Yes car credit in 2003 over 48 months repayments. I have had some financial problems, and missed a few payments. The 48 months are up in September. Direct Auto Finance constantly hound me with phone calls anytime of the day or night, this can be up to 10 -12 times a day. I try to reason with them and stated that I am in finance difficulty, but they just don't want to hear this and rudely ignoring what I am telling them. They just threaten me with that the vehicle is now flagged! and that I should not drive it. I have already paid over 10K for a Corsa, which the cash price listed on their agreement is £6238.00, that rest is there PPI etc. which totals £8843.52. The agreement states I should pay £184.24 and £88.44 which is the PPI? Totalling £272.68. Which means the car will cost me £13,289.64, this is mad, considering the car price on the agreement is £6238.00, I am paying £7,015.64 on top! If this was explained correctly by the salesman at YES CAR CREDIT I would NOT have taken this out. I have also looked over my paperwork and it has only been signed by me and NO representative from Direct Auto Financial Services Ltd???????
TODAY DIRECT AUTO FINANCE KNOCKED ON MY DOOR _ today is a sunday and a bank holiday - I would call this harassment! I own more of the car than them - I have numerous letters stating my late payments - which I am aware that I am late, I do not need them to send me a letter stating this and then charge me £15. per letter. Is there anything I can do?

Well you could have worked out what it would have cost you before you bought it.

Alternatively you could have gone to your bank who would have advanced you the money.

If you pay them on time I expect they won't knock on the door.

rosemahairy

I found a post from 2006 by Homer mentioning possibilities of HP agreements being unenforceable/ voidable if there is gap insurance/ ppi added. Does anyone know anymore on this subject. Direct auto finance agreements (yes car credit) are riddled with insurances ppi, gap insurances etc. Anyone any pointers on how to spot if your Hp agreement is voidable??

homer_j_3

The post is a lot more recent than 2006 but you have probably looked at the date I joined this forum.

The post you have read explains what makes a loan voidable. It is normally the non disclosure of commission. So to put this into perspective for you.

Yes Car Credit will set the loan up with Direct Auto Finance. There will be a commission no doubt payable to Yes for introducing this business.

They then add on PPI/GAP ETC. This will be done through another company who specialise in this. There will be commission involved for flogging that too.

If you cannot spot in your agreement that there has been these commissions paid or in any paperwork, then your loan is voidable under the law of agency which states that you have to disclose commission otherwise you are committing a form of bribery.

If the credit agreement is regulated under the consumer credit act 1974, then your agreement has to meet some requirements of the contents of this agreement and if it does not, then it becomes unenforceable.

So your agreement could be one, or both of these. It is pretty simple to spot but very difficult and costly to get the lender to concede as they will just put barriers in your way. If you try and claim over 5k which many claims will, the small claims court rules change I believe so it is always wise to ensure your argument is right.

Ms-Pacman

First of all to Captain Mainwarning not everyone can get a bank loan, I have also gone done a similar path with DAF where we had a car accident and so desparately needed a car. It made sense at the time to get something decent, not flash I must stress. In my case I got a 3 year old vauxhall corsa.

Now for JRussell.
You may be interested that I have been dealing with something similar - see my thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=685133
I also had an unsigned copy of the contract - in fact had two. This is because DAF let you take this on the day, their copy which you would have signed at the time of taking the car would have been singed at a later dat. Unfortunately this means the contract is fine.

However you will probably find huge errors with the actual contract itself, one example is of the deposit paid being deducted from the insurance. This in itself means the interest calculated on the PPI is incorrect and so makes the contract unenforceable. If this went to court, and I can guarantee DAF or DLC WILL NOT take you to court as they now know they have a lot of problems which are slowly being dug out this being one of them.

Another is if you paid PPI, whether you were told you had to or not although wrong is not the strongest arguement. However, if you send a template letter (which I can supply) to a company possibly NIG depending when you took the car out, you are likely to find that DAF paid a miniscule amount to the PPI brokers and charged about a 1600% increase (I'm not kidding on this figure this is what mine is) on this amount which is the amount you paid including the interest. Think a judge would look kindly at DAF on theis??? I think not...

What I suggest you do first is write to NIG asking for the PPI details of what DAF paid, this company is very helpful and have nothing to lose.
When you get that I suggest you then =write to DAF requesting a reasonable amount of what you have paid back. This is where I am and I will update to progress. Unfortunately proving you were forced to take it is very difficult but grossly overcharging for it - well they kind of have shot themselves in the foot here.

In regards to DLC, these guys cannot do anything, REMEMBER they are trying to scare you, DO NOT hand the car back. I found after harassing them all the charges have disappeared of my account!!!!

If you need any help or just a reason to let rip at them please do IM me as I have gone through all this.

I now have their director dealing with this as I only speak to him!!!! He called me a few days ago and it is amazing the difference of their tactics now they learn I am looking to take DAF to court over gross charges of the PPI. He speaks direct to Steve Ploughman who is the director of DAF who also reads these sites.

As someone else has mentioned have a look at the site carcreditcomplaints.co.uk I am also a member there and although I have not neccessary used some options they suggest it does make you realsie that there are hundreds in this situation. Beware of signing any confidential agreements with DAF which the site mentions. Its DAF's way of hiding their dismal mistakes from the general public. If tyou get this I suggest you contact the user 'Whistleblower' on the site who owns the site and can advise.

Ms-Pacman

meant to put signed not singed although it may have been better if DAF have burnt their copy!!! Whoops

homer_j_3

Ms-Pacman wrote: »

Now for JRussell.
You may be interested that I have been dealing with something similar - see my thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=685133
I also had an unsigned copy of the contract - in fact had two. This is because DAF let you take this on the day, their copy which you would have signed at the time of taking the car would have been singed at a later dat. Unfortunately this means the contract is fine.

If the agreement is regulated under the 1974 CCA then the company who lend the money must be able to supply you with an ORIGINAL agreement with ORIGINAL signatures. I am not sure what you mean "they let you sign an agreement so you can take the car away and then they sign it at a later date. That to me does not comply with the CCA 1974. Anyway - anybody looking to take action against any lender would look to do a SARN to see what is there and what is not.

However you will probably find huge errors with the actual contract itself, one example is of the deposit paid being deducted from the insurance. This in itself means the interest calculated on the PPI is incorrect and so makes the contract unenforceable. If this went to court, and I can guarantee DAF or DLC WILL NOT take you to court as they now know they have a lot of problems which are slowly being dug out this being one of them.

Another is if you paid PPI, whether you were told you had to or not although wrong is not the strongest arguement. However, if you send a template letter (which I can supply) to a company possibly NIG depending when you took the car out, you are likely to find that DAF paid a miniscule amount to the PPI brokers and charged about a 1600% increase (I'm not kidding on this figure this is what mine is) on this amount which is the amount you paid including the interest. Think a judge would look kindly at DAF on theis??? I think not...

What I suggest you do first is write to NIG asking for the PPI details of what DAF paid, this company is very helpful and have nothing to lose.
When you get that I suggest you then =write to DAF requesting a reasonable amount of what you have paid back. This is where I am and I will update to progress. Unfortunately proving you were forced to take it is very difficult but grossly overcharging for it - well they kind of have shot themselves in the foot here.

In regards to DLC, these guys cannot do anything, REMEMBER they are trying to scare you, DO NOT hand the car back. I found after harassing them all the charges have disappeared of my account!!!!

If you need any help or just a reason to let rip at them please do IM me as I have gone through all this.

I now have their director dealing with this as I only speak to him!!!! He called me a few days ago and it is amazing the difference of their tactics now they learn I am looking to take DAF to court over gross charges of the PPI. He speaks direct to Steve Ploughman who is the director of DAF who also reads these sites.

As someone else has mentioned have a look at the site carcreditcomplaints.co.uk I am also a member there and although I have not neccessary used some options they suggest it does make you realsie that there are hundreds in this situation. Beware of signing any confidential agreements with DAF which the site mentions. Its DAF's way of hiding their dismal mistakes from the general public. If tyou get this I suggest you contact the user 'Whistleblower' on the site who owns the site and can advise.

So what has been your result so far. If the loan is unenforceable then you should have had all the payments that you have made to them returned with interest. The PPI should have been removed from the equation also.

I am interested in how you get on with this because, I think that you should be admired for this and if you are able to walk away with the car, all your payments returned, no debt or blemish on your credit file then you will have proven what I have said can be done.

The issue arises is if you have to go to court, whether you or anybody else tries it can afford for the chance that you get the argument wrong and end up getting in a worse mess through it.