I'll swallow the recovery charge as it's a fair trip from mine to the auction site and it saved a day off work. Strange that they refunded without informing me so will be interesting to see how long it takes to mark the credit file as settled. Just proves that if you're forceful and stick to you're guns they will back down. As I explained to them I didn't have an issue with the finance deal as I was fully aware of what I was signing up too, what did annoy me was after being a prompt paying but also satisfied customer they chose to treat me in this way, so maybe that had bearing on their about turn.

Just an update, checked my bank account this morning to find Advantage have refunded the over payment minus the £80 collection fee so I'll settle for that. It would seem that my insistence of taking it to the financial ombudsman and the mention of a possible criminal offence on their part for claiming money for work that wasn't done had an effect. It would appear that when they charge you for bringing the car back up to spec they don't actually do it and the auction were very helpful in supplying photos to prove it.

The VT has been done using the appropriate letter, the issue now is they are trying to charge me a fee that would bring the car up to a reasonable standard even though they state the work has not taken place and the car has been sold. They also state that the fee is to cover the sale value of the car although as I stated how can they do that when the car is being sold at auction, I have also told them I intend to push this all the way using all agencies available, my wife spoke to the Financial Conduct Authority a couple of days ago and they stated that this could possibly be verging on a criminal offence on the part of Advantage Finance depending on the T's & C's of the agreement which only states reasonable condition. I can easily prove that the particular alloy wheels supplied on these cars are all prone to corrosion and as for a few paint scratches on the rear bumper of an estate car when it's ten years old is in my opinion reasonable, especially when there were far more serious scratches on the drivers door. This is going to be interesting to see if they really want to pursue this. Advantage also state that my account will not be marked as settled on credit reference until this is settled even though this is not the credit agreement, is this correct?

I VT'd my car at the beginning of February and it was collected by the auction company, it failed to sell in the first auction and as far as I know it sold in the second one on the 21st March. Now I made an extra payment after the VT and just let them have £80 for collecting the car as I wanted it out of the way as it was parked on the road, I phoned Advantage to request a refund of the remaining money only to be told there was a charge for bringing the car up to standard, it turned out I owe them £173 for refurb of 4 wheels and painting scratches on the rear bumper. Given that the car was 10 years old I thought this to be unreasonable got the car auction to take some photos for me on the 21st March, guess what no work had been carried out. today Advantage called me chasing up the money I asked them for proof of work in the form of an invoice they said the work doesn't have to be carried out just that is what it would have cost so I owe it. Also they said my account was still open and wouldn't be marked as settled until I paid, I told them this charge is nothing to do with the credit agreement itself so it should be marked as settled. Any help and advice would be appreciated.