Furness Finance

MortgageMamma wrote: »

Hello All

Hope someone can help me out alittle here. My partner took some car finance out in May 2008 with furness finance to buy his mother a car. The APR is shocking at 51.7% :eek:

He's since met me and we have a large family and hopefully soon another addition so we need to buy a people carrier. I've just looked over the agreement and it says

"you have no right to cancel the agreement under the consumer credit act 1974, the timeshare act 1992 or the financial services (distance marketing) regulations 2004".

Surely not?! An agreement for 51.7% APR with no cancellation rights? I have a sneaky feeling this is not legal - but its been a while since I've dealt with something like this. There is also a smaller loan on the agreement which I believe may be for gap insurance which my partner did not know he'd been sold.

Please help me unravel this

MM

It's talking about a cooling off period. With some credit agreements (those signed off trade premises, such as in your own home) you get a right of cancellation for a short period after signing. With on-trade credit agremeents (such as those signed at a car dealership) you don't get a cooling off period.

The law was written under the assumption that someone who is actually on the premises of a lender or their agent does not need the protection of a cooling off period because they are presumably there of their own free will, unlike someone who may sign a credit agreement in their own home just to get a pushy salesman out of their house.

There is nothing illegal about this, and you can still settle the loan at any time as is your legal right. Now chill out !

It will all change from June 2010 with the introduction of the European Consumer Credit Directive - ALL credit agreements will have a 14 day right of withdrawal. It remains to be seen how this will affect point of sale finance, and whether consumers will be made to wait for 14 days before they can take possession of their goods.

It doesn't matter where it was signed, that's only relevant if you change your mind in the first couple of weeks. You can settle early at any point by paying it off.