to cut a long story short(ish)...

my wife got a car on finance a few years ago from advantage finance.

the value of the car was £6,000 ... the amount payable back was £12k

my wife at the time was in a well paid job and was able to afford monthly repayments of £260,

a year or so after the original start of the agreement my wife started to suffer from various health conditions which involved having a number of major surgical operations that meant she had to take time off work.

During these times she had to ask for reduced payments, after much persuasion advantage agreed reduced payments for a few months each time.

when my wife went back to work advantage told her that she needed to pay extra each month to reduce the arrears.

She agreed to pay £280 every 4 weeks.

this amount was quite considerable and on top of petrol, car tax, insurance, mot and repairs it became quite expensive running the car.

recently our financial situation has become extremely bad, causing health problems for myself and my wife.

in total my wife has already paid over £8,000+ towards the car,

but we have also noticed that advantage have added an awful lot of charges onto her account each month..

. one constant one is for being behind with payments!!!!

many other ridiculous costs have been added as well.

advantage have also claimed my wife is now over £2,000 in arrears!!!!

my wife explained her situation to advantage who refused to put the account on hold at first but after 3 letters all explaining her situation they finally agreed.

their constant pressure and threats are not helping with our situation,

just adding more stress and adding to our debt problems.

because our situation got that bad we visited a debt advisor due to the amount being paid on the car

our money coming in was far less than what is being paid out.

as the CAB was quite rushed we didn't get much info about the car except that we should ask about payments, charges and other costs they have added.

now the thing is we previously asked in november 2016 for all the info the had and sent the request with the £10 and got the info on a disc.

that was over 8 months ago.

the CAB didn't discuss many options what we could do with the car except give it back to advantage.

my wife was advised to first send a letter requesting all financial transactions,

if they didn't respond within a time frame complain to them,

after that if we still was not happy to then go to FOS.

the thing is we do not want to be to really be paying another £10 for another sar request.

is there a way that we can request all payments, penalty charges and added payment insurance etc from advantage without any cost to ourselves and if so could anyone point me in the direction of a template letter as i am not very good when composing formal letters.

at the moment we are in a no win situation...my wife needs a car for work, if she doesn't have a car she can't get to work

any advice would be greatly received

thank you for your time.

there are numerous thread s here regarding the unlawful fees levied by advantage.

yes you can get them all back plus the interest they have cost you as well

and any stupid 'insurances' or 'warranties' they made you take out.

it might be best if you simply type in

advantage finance

in the search CAG box of the top red toolbar.

ads uk and dazzi threads have the details

in short, they dont want a car, they want money but will threaten to take the car as leverage to get what they want.

work out what the charges and interest add up to, interest applied to charges is unlawful in itself but they rely on your ignorance in this matter to either get more money or to force you to lose the vehicle and then work out what percentage of the original oan has properly been paid off and you may well see that the car is yours and so the CAB advice of surrendering it is incorrect.

if you can post up their statemnts of account we can pick through it and suggest what the real state of play actually is.

You will then have to do a spreadsheet to show advantage they have been caught out and that you now want (something) to be addressed and any markers on your credit files corrected, etc.

i have added a statement of all payments and charges...

altogether here is what my wife has been charged from the statement received.

1 x £60 = £60 (this was for a 'home visit' that never happened!)

29 x £12 = £348

9 x £7.50 = £67.50

1 x £5.00

1 x £1.50 = £1.50

4 x £0.50 = £2.00

£484 Charges

When the original finance was taken out the forms were filled in at the garage but my wife was rushed along because it was late in the day. My wife was told that on top of the actual cost of the car plus interest other 'extras' had to be added and agreed to or the finance would not be accepted. The two extras she was told had to be included was GAP finance protetion (GAP) and mechanical breakdown insurance (MPP).

These 2 extras added cost as follows

GAP:

GAP product price £449.00

Finance interest £314.30

Total payable £763.30

Monthly Payment £15.90

MPP

Mechanical Breakdown Insurance price £699.00

Finance interest £489.30

Total payable £1188.30

Monthly Payment £24.76

Total of 'extras' £1951.60

Just on a side note the amount that was actually for the car is below.

total cost of car was £6278.00

advanced payment - part exchange £200

advanced payment - cash £50

Amount of credit £6028.00 (total amount payable inc. interest £10997.96)

Mail - Fwd_ Account Statement.pdf

Wow had blind!

All those are reclaimable at their int rate!!

i have tried to look up help regarding the reclaiming but as i am a novice i am slightly lost...

Advantage was aware of periods where my wife was off work due to serious operations which meant not as much money was coming into the house and we was getting more and more into debt, yet they put her in a position where she believed she had to may more per month when she returned to work to catch up with lowered payments when sick... this added more to our financial problems and on top of that they add ridiculous charges for being behind on our payments!

would it be possible in simple terms as to what steps need to be taken now to try reclaim the charges (and the extras that my wife was told she had to take out or else finance wouldn't be accepted) if these are also reclaimable.

also do these amounts get taken off the actual amount owed.

thanks again for your time

spreadsheets are here

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?330996-Latest-Spreadsheets-PPI-Claims-and-Charges-Claims-Dec-2011

cisheet for penalty charges:

arrears fee

letter

telephone

home visit

card declined

unpaid cheque/DD

text message

moving payment date

read the instructions tab of the sheet

pop their int rate in cell D15

....................

using the statint sheet

lump GAP/MPP together and reclaim as PPI

so £40.66 everytime you made a full payment.

can you scan up the agreement please

we need more info to calc these

thank you for your time

i have scanned the front of the agreement containing all the figures.

regarding the charges and interest, what would their interest rate be to add in the cisheet ...

it says that they can add interest rate on the arrears at 8% p/a

also regarding the charge for the alleged home visit of £60, i may have missed something somewhere but i couldn't find any mention of that amount in the charges breakdown.

HP AGREEMENT FIGURES.pdf

makes the charges easier then

forget using the cisheet

use the statint sheet

- colls home visit -£60

i'll work the gap etc out later

how to work out PPI or GAP or MECH

PPI/PPI+TotalLoan X 100=%

40.66/260.93 X 100 = 15.6%

so anything YOU paid 15.6% of that payment was GAP/MAC

should be easy to do the stating sheet

ie you appear to have been paying £280 so every time you paid that £43.68 was gap/mac

thanks for the help

just to clarify, this was sheets i filled in before i read your last replies.

for the first 7 payments made payments of £260.93 pm, £40.66 is the amount of charges

all other payments of £280... £43.68 goes in the amount of charges.

On the statint sheet can i simply place all charges after the extras (GAP+MPP) as i have already filled in both. Or would it be better if i did it by date, merging both.

once these sheets are complete do i send them to Advantage to ask for the figures to be removed from my debt, then if they say no do i make a complaint to the company, followed by a complaint to FOS if there is still no joy?

all your help is greatly appreciated

GAP+MPP+CHARGES.pdf

gap/MEC one sheet

penalty charges another

so i change the figures in the gap/mpp sheet to reflect the extra money that was paid after 7 installments

for the first 7 payments £40.66, all other payments of £280 are £43.68?

and simply send both statint sheets to advantage and ask them to remove the figures from the balance they still claim is owed?

anything YOU paid - 15.6% of that payment was GAP/MAC and goes on the sheet at that payments date

you are reclaiming not removing.

just a update and hoping for a little more help.

we have held off on claiming charges and extras that was added to original purchase. this was due to a number of problems we come up against over the last few months that took up most of out time and had to take priority over a number of other things.

we contacted advantage after visiting the CAB, we explained we was in extreme financial hardship but as my wife was still working and needed a car we asked to make reduced payments of £50. Advantage agreed to this and agreed to freeze all charges etc to help reduce the balance.

since then my wife had to leave her job due to problems caused by pressures/stress of work and things happening with health, family etc...

we decided at present we cannot afford to run the car and have therefore decided to VT the agreement, our income has reduced even more than before and at present our only income is ESA on a joint decision.

my wife has written to advantage asking about a VT and this was there response...

Please read the full contents of this email carefully.

 

Further to your recent enquiry regarding the voluntary termination of your above numbered agreement, please find below important information outlining the required arrangements.

 

Upon termination of the above agreement you will need to pay:

 

1. The outstanding arrears on your account (applicable if already paid 50% of the total amount payable) = £2577.23

2. At least one half of the total amount payable as stated on your Hire Purchase Agreement. This sum takes into account payments you have already paid, any deposit you paid at the start of the agreement and any arrears not shown in (1) above = £0

3. Any outstanding collection charges = £479

 

The total you will need to pay under this section is £3056.23

 

If you purchased any insurance products, other than GAP insurance, at the same time as your motor finance and they have not already expired, they will be cancelled upon termination and a pro-rata refund will be applied to your account.

 

In the case of GAP insurance the policy will be cancelled upon the termination of the agreement and a pro-rata refund will be applied, which will mean that no further sums will be payable (other than arrears) in respect of the policy.

 

Any other outstanding sums (e.g. payments for expired policies and/or any overdue installments) will remain payable under the terms of your insurance agreement.

 

In order to settle the insurance element of your agreement and claim any rebate to which you are entitled, you need to pay the amount set out below. This will also ensure that you have no further liability under the insurance element of the contract.

 

The amount required to do this is £638.37

Less Rebate £78.29

 

Total amount payable under this section £560.08

 

 

Condition of Goods

 

The goods must be returned in a condition commensurate with their age and mileage, both mechanically and cosmetically. Should the goods not be in this condition when returned you will be required to pay to us the amount required to return the goods to such condition. This amount will be in addition to any sums detailed above (please refer to the terms and conditions of your Hire Purchase Agreement).

 

Our definition of good repair and condition is that the vehicle must:

 

Require minimal refurbishment to be ready for resale

Have a current MOT certificate or require little or no work for the issue of a new certificate

Be free from mechanical or body damage

Be in its original paintwork, trim and specification (as at the time of purchase)

 

If you are in any doubt as to the condition of the vehicle, you may choose to obtain an independant report from an organisation such as the RAC or AA to confirm the above.

 

The goods must be returned to us within 21 days of this email to complete the Voluntary Termination.

 

In order to obtain details of our nearest agent to you please contact us on 01472 586360.

 

Alternatively, we can arrange for the goods to be collected from your address. An upfront fee of £80.00 will be payable for this.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely,

Advantage Finance Ltd.

just wondering if anyone can help about what we can do about them asking for a fee for collection...

because we couldn't afford the payments and running we had to cancel the road tax and SORN it, it still has MOT.

we are now also going to send off the penalty charges sheet to try and claim them back... also the extras that was added to the cost of the car after being told by the guy selling the car 'if you don't agree to them you won't get the finance to buy the car'

is there a template letter to reclaim the charges that can be used to claim back both types of extras as i am not very good at writing such letters.

thanks to anyone that can help

that's why you should always follow our VT guide

you don't ASK to TELL THEM you are going to VT

they are spoofing you:

.....

Section 99 of the Consumer Credit Act gives the debtor the right to terminate a hire purchase agreement,

simply by giving written notice of termination.

.

The right to terminate applies at any time before the final payment becomes due, unless the creditor has already terminated.

.

contrary to the line taken by many finance companies,

.

the debtor need not have paid half the total amount payable,

.

and nor do they have to pay any arrears,

.

before exercising the right to terminate.

.

Sections 99 and 100 set out the debtor's liability on voluntary termination. The sections are complex,

.

but their main effect can be summarised in brief as follows.

.

.If the sum of payments made and arrears before termination exceeds 50% of the total price,

than the debtor is only liable to pay the arrears.

.

Otherwise, the debtor is liable to pay half the total price, less any payments already made.

.

so the debtor can terminate at any time if he has reached the 50 % mark

.

the debtor can terminate at any time before the 50 % mark but would be liable for payments still to reach the 50 % mark,

.

does not matter if the account is in arrears at the time or request to do a voluntary termination.

.

you need to specifically nail them down that this is a VT and NOT a VS [volutary surrender].

dont get caught out!!

take extensive photos of the car inside and out

and underneath and in the engine compartment ALWAYS.

if they try and charge a repo fee or collection fee they cannot:

173 Contracting-out forbidden.

(1)A term contained in a regulated agreement or linked transaction, or in any other agreement relating to an actual or prospective regulated agreement or linked transaction, is void if, and to the extent that, it is inconsistent with a provision for the protection of the debtor or hirer or his relative or any surety contained in this Act or in any regulation made under this Act.

This term is covered by the above section of the CCA 1974 in that it breaches this:

99 Right to terminate hire-purchase etc. agreements.

(1)At any time before the final payment by the debtor under a regulated hire-purchase or regulated conditional sale agreement falls due, the debtor shall be entitled to terminate the agreement by giving notice to any person entitled or authorised to receive the sums payable under the agreement

In other words nothing can stop you voluntarily terminating.

The only charges you must pay are the ones contained in the legislation and itemised in section 101, the charge mentioned is levied after the agrement is terminated and is void in any case. All it means is that no one will collect the terminated car(their car), well that is ther problem it is no longer yours , your attachment to the car has been terminated.

.

although dependant on the way your agreement is written, they can charge excess mileage

.

this has been accepted at county courticon level, but afaik has not been tested in a higher court

..

..............example letter..ADAPT TO SUIT.............

.

You must vt under s99/100 cca1974. do not sign any of their forms, or agree to pay anything.

.

The car has just to be in reasonable condition for its age.

If you have paid in excess of 50%,

with no arrears there will be nothing to pay.

.

Send them the following letter,

they MUST action your request,

you should endeavour to be present at the vehicle inspection---

.

VOLUNTARY TERMINATION OF AGREEMENT UNDER S99/100 CCA 1974

.

Account No: (xxxxxxx)

.

Dear Sir,

I am writing to notify you that I am exercising my right to terminate the above Agreement

under Section 99 of the consumer credit act1974.

.

You will understand that the aforementioned section permits the debtor to terminate the agreement

at any time before the last payment is due.

.

There is no restriction regarding the exercising this statutory right,

particularly none in respect of any perceived arrears or monies due on termination

.

I understand that I shall be liable to you for the amount calculated under the formula in Section 100

of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

.

**As I have/have not paid more than the amount calculated under the formula in Section 100 the amount due is £XXXX/zero.

.

The above agreement will be terminated 14 days from the date of this notice.

.

Please send me details of how the vehicle can be returned to you.

.

You will be aware that statute prevents you from levying a charge for the recovery of this vehicle;

guidelines also state that if you require me to deliver this vehicle

it must be no more than a short (reasonable distance) from my registered address.

.

Please confirm receipt of this request in writing within 7 days of receipt.

.

-Yours etc...

..

thank you for the reply, the letter has been compiled and sent off regarding the VT

now if possible could someone please help with letter that can be applied for reclaiming penalty charges, and also one for claiming back the mis-sold gap/mpp protection... this was added to the cost of the car as it was stated if my wife did not include the cover she would not get finance for the car.

as of today total penalty charges are £484.00... £554.35 inc 8% interest

gap/mpp totals £1,114.54... £1,300.66 inc 8% interest

i have looked at PPI reclaim letters but these do not seem relevant for claiming the 2 charges i am seeking to get back. could someone please point me in the right direction or help me slightly re-jiggle any available letter templates and then i can add all the personal details later.

any help is greatly appreciated.

you can use the FOS customer questionnaire for the gap/ppi

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/ppi/im-looking-for-your-ppi-forms.html

should be a letter on the ads uk thread or the dizzy threads for charges