finance from the funding corporation help please!

[carakins69]

Hi All,

I am currently stuck in the midst of a dispute with the funding corporation (over a car i purchached back in january) and im not entiely sure how to progress further.

We purchased the car for £2292 (£5792 with £3500 part ex) with an apr of 42.9% (ouch i know but we were desparate). The PPI and warantee came to a total of £1542 on top of that, total amount borrowed of £3834. We signed and agreed to this amount with finance charges of £1169.76, arrangement fee of £225, credit facility fee of £125 and total charge for credit of £1519.76. The total amount payable after all the interest and fees added was £9640.96 over 3 years.

Now i know this is stupidly high and in hindsight we should have just got a bank loan but like i said we were desparate.

Within a few days of purchasing the car we read the smallprint of the PPI and decided to cancel it, all was ok we assumed and our payments went down slightly. However, a few months ago we looked into our finances and began to look into how much each loan would cost to pay off as our circumstances had changed and we had more spare cash than previously. My husband couldn't find the paperwork so contacted the funding corporation who send out a copy of the paperwork to us. While we were waiting for it to arrive we found the original paperwork and thats where the fun begins!

The copy of the paperwork we received has a purchase price of £3287 (£6787 minus £3500 part ex) with an apr of 39.1%, insurance of £547 (since we cancelled PPI) so the total still amounts to £3834. However, since they have increased the initial amunt of credit the finance charges have gone up to £1677 and the total charge for credit has risen to £2027. The total amount payable is still £9640.

We wrote to the funding corporation about this and they agreed that they have made an error with the APR and have offered to honor the lower rate for us but if we did not make contact within 7 days they would change the apr back to 42.9%. My husband has phoned them today about the discrepencies in the figures (spoke to the senior claims officer) and she tried to say that the additional fees we agreed and signed for did not take into account the cost of insurances and therefore this was added to the paperwork by themselves at a later date - we had no notification of this and i feel she was trying to pull the wool over our eyes, especially since they have even changed the amount that the vehicle cost to begin with!. My husband told her that we have been advised to take legal action and apparently she gave him the impression that she was not suprised at all and would not try to resolve the matter without us taking such steps.

Obviously, we are not going to let this matter lie but i have no idea how to progress from here, do i need to go to a solicitor or can i make a claim through the courts myself? If so on what grounds? Im not even sure what i should be asking for or what i can hope to achieve.

Im so sorry that this post is so long, and i thank you whole heartedly in advance for any replies or comments made.

Thanks again
Cara

[Goldlady]

Cara this is all very involved and hopefully someone with experience in car finance will come along. I can't help thinking that you have at the very least got a way of negotiating your way out of this rip-off. If your situation has improved could you get a bank loan for the amount you originally borrowed plus the warranty and whatever interest is due up to now, and offer to pay them this in return for not taking the matter any further? I am sure they have breached 'things' and might be happy to go away rather than face scrutiny for their obvious incompetence. If it was me I would try it.

But I am not an expert by any means and hope you will get better advice - at the very least by replying I will keep your post near the top of the list!!

Best of luck

[carakins69]

Thanks for your reply goldlady, As you can see i really have no idea what i should be doing about this so thank you. I just want to get this mess sorted as soon as possible, im not one for digging my heels in and dragging this matter through the courts, it would be ideal if an arrangement could be made as you suggest but i just didn't know what to be asking for.
And at 35 weeks pregnant its an added stress i could do without!

Cara

[Goldlady]

Cara, you look after that bump of yours!! I have remembered a website that deals with car finance problems it is www.saynotoyes.co.uk (as in 'say no to yes') I have the email addy of one of their people which I can pm you if you want but I think they might be able to help you.

[carakins69]

Wow - what a great website, thank you so much for the link. I have sent them an email and am hopeful that they will be able to help.
Will keep you posted as to how i get on.

Cara