Car Finance company taking the Mick!!!?

crazy_in_debt

Hi all,

I recently lost my job through the company going bust leaving me with no pay and no redundancy and no warning. I contacted Peugeot finance to let them know and claim on my PPI as I had no money to pay my monthly payment. As I had only just been made redundant they said I had to wait 30 days before making a claim. They suggested I ask for a payment holiday for the time being which I did and then cancelled the DD to be on the safe side.

I had confirmation from customer service that a 2 month payment holiday had been agreed and that was that, until I got a letter from their collections department saying I was in arrears. Long story but seems the customer services dept had agreed to it but just needed me to sign a form they claim they had sent me in the post. They had never mentioned a form previously and if they had insisted on needing it then I would have chased it up, but I hadn't seen a form and they confirmed that I could still have the payment break and they would re-send the paperwork for me to sign and apologised for the mix-up. It took many calls and a lot of hassle to sort and I really didn't need it while searching for a job and trying to beg and borrow from family to survive, but they said it was all sorted and that was that.

Job done, or so I thought. No paperwork turned up again but neither did any more debt letters........I presumed they had sorted the mess out............until just now when I see that they have taken not only this months payment out of my bank account, but also another payment 2 days before!!!:mad:

Now luckilly I have borrowed some money from family to pay this months bills until I get some money from the Official Reciever (cliam in already) so the payments didn't bounce and incur me charges, but now I am short for the rest of the month as they have taken money I didn't expect to have to pay just now and was sat in my account to cover the rest of my DD's.

I will call them in the morning but I am pretty angry with what they have done and just wanted to know a few things first.

I cancelled the DD at my bank so how have they managed to re-instate it without my consent? Is this the bank at fault or Peugeot? And also I intend on complaining strongly but as I didn't incur any bank charges directly from their actions (I will later in the next few days if I can't borrow more) then what can I actually realistically demand from them as some kind of compensation for the stress and hassle? Would they give me the money back as I have the proof they agreed to a payment holiday?

Any help gratefully recieved
Crazy

Rafter

Crazy,

Give your bank a call and invoke the direct debit guarantee stating that they have clearly taken the payment incorectly and that you will be short of funds as a result to meet other payments.

Then call the finance company and tell them what you have done.

Good luck

R.