Advantage Finance - HP Car failed after 1yrs - still paying - HELP

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Nope scrapped and copy of the certificate was sent to advantage

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Not Happy!!!

Heard nowt about my re-claim of charges letter... BUT today ive recieved a notice of charges as in accordace with blah blah..

31/01/2012 Collections Charge £12

10/02/2012 Collections Charge - Tracing Your New Address and/or Status - £100!!!!!!

Total Charges £112.

[dx100uk]

just stack them up for the second round then..

 

dx

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Hi ya.

I had a call on Thursday from advantage wanting to discuss my account, as I'm still paying £20pcm.

 

Now they want to review my account and I told them that I still having financial difficulties

but also concerns on a couple of factors being the Mechanical Brakdown cover/Gap i was sold

(I do instinctively remember saying I did'nt need breakdown as brother was a mechanic),

the charges on the account and also the amount I have to repay when Advantage gave there permission to scrap the car...

 

They have asked me to put my concerns in writing to them but I honestly dont know where to start,

and as my letter writing skills is not the best I struggle to stick something together regarding how useless and pointless the mech breakdown was (couldn't even claim on it)

 

I have been filling in the spread sheet of the charges (do I put in the ones that they have reimbursed?)

 

The balance stands at £5,484 (arrears of £2344)

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi ads, If you want help I''ll gladly write up a draft for you.

You can PM any personal stuff, or just post up the generalities

here.

 

Brig.

[dx100uk]

yes there is no harm in including the ones they refunded as they would no have included the interest the charges have gathered.

 

when you have a total

 

then add - up whet they have refunded and simply add a sum to remove them from you total.

 

if you want help with the SOC just ask me.

 

dx

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Attached is the most recent statement of account.

 

I have two different rates of APR on the account, one for the Car and the other for the Mech & GAP.

 

I was hoping I could get the Mech & GAP cleared like a ppi claim and that way the £48.57pcm + intrest could be applied to the remaining car value + charges recovered should leave me with a lot less than half the value of the car.

 

I was also told (dont know how truthful it is) that as the HP company said to scrap it, then I could terminate the agreement like the Voluntary termination and not pay anything further as i've paid more than half and also they said to scrap there property.?

 

Whats a SOC?

[dx100uk]

schedule of charges

 

[spreadsheet]

dx

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Schedule of Costs is that the StatIntSheet I complete or the Compound Intrest Calculator or neither I've done the one as attached in an earlier post listing all the charges (but not the repayments of the charges)

[dx100uk]

adds what are you going on about

 

its all explained earlier.

 

post 44

 

in the CI sheet use the highest int rate you find.

 

dx

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Sorry i was confused as you mentioned schedule of costs I thought you might of been referring to a seperate sheet than the stat & ci one.

Thanks

[dx100uk]

no you started to use the schedule of costs

 

its

schedule of charges {SOC]

 

dx

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Hi all.

Just want to double check before this goes off to them.

1) Letter detailing all points. (Thanks Brig)

2) StatIntSheet - Each line "insurance" @ £48.57. Charges £679.98 + Interest £69.49 Total: £749.44

Do I change the rate from 8% to 41.65% due to this being quoted on the agreement?

3) CISheet v101 - Collection call / letter charges. Charges £532.00 + Interest (47.4%) £187.21 Total £719.21

4) Another copy of the Scrapage Certificate

 

thanks

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I've just had an alert come up on my credit report and its Advantage again!!!

Searched on: 20/04/2012

 

 

 

Searched by:ADVANTAGE FINANCE LTD

 

 

 

Application type: UNRECORDED ENQUIRY

 

 

 

thats going to be another £100!!!! on top of the one they did in Feb!

The letter went off to them 30/04/2012

This is really beginning to get to me now.

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[ATTACH=CONFIG]35235[/ATTACH]

 

 

I've received my reply and Im no further forward. (see attached)

 

So the Trace (@£100) was done because somebody told them I was working? My mother actually intercepted the call and I was at a Work Placement - to assist me back to work set by the job centre... Now since when does a check on your reports determine your working???

 

The fee from scrap page - I received £150 - but No invoice or receipt for the vehichle even the scrap page doc submitted does not state any fee!.

 

Am I still screwed?

[dx100uk]

that letter from them is utter crap!!

 

x

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Thought as much - what would the next option be?

[dx100uk]

quite hoestly i'd stick by your guns AND your reclaims.

 

you could rattle them by asking where 'SPECIFICALLY'

 

it states in the OFT guidelines they can charge £100 for a search

 

etc etc

 

take the reply APART bit by bit.

dx

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Havent wrote out anything concrete yet - still comming up with Ideas.....

some i got are:

1) in addition to the asking them where it states that - how about asking them "how does a credit search provide information that I am in employment", and that by their own admission that they spoke about myself and my account to a third party which is an infringement of the Data Protection Act. - Do I put that it was a "back to work placement" due to the length of time I've been unemployed.

2) They include the customer needs form -- do I try to get them to confirm that If I didn't sign the form (do to yes and no questions being asked) then I would not be able to proceed with the agreement or on similar lines? and again it was there own recomendation to take ot the MBI (see highlighted on the form) without notification of other external sources being available?

3) charges can I refer to anything that states about charges (like the banking / loans) that proved them unlawful despite what a companies own guidelines are?

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Are the above any good valid points

I'm a bit rubbish when it comes to letters etc and I don't want to end up stumbling over my own words or shooting myself in the foot in this.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Hi Andi,

Re: The ''unrecorded inquiry''

 

1. I require a full and deifinitive answer to

the following questions.

(a) How does the company justify a fee of £100.00

for making an unrecorded inquiry (trace search) on my

credit files.?

(b) In what way does such an enquiry confirm that

I am in employment.?

© Where in any relevant document is there a provison

for such a charge.?

 

Build on those and add other questions in

the same format.

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Thanks.

Does the second point I mentioned have any validity?

and am I right to challenge there comment of "spoke to a 3rd person" does that have any implications surrounding Data protection (seeing as they took that persons word and have charged me on the basis of this)

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Sorry been struggling with this but I think I got it.

Can somebody please have a read over this before I send and tell me or correct me on the comments I have made, and if I should add any further information.

 

My Reply:

Thank you for your reply received 8th May 2012, the information provided has been noted.

Despite your comments I feel that my complaint has not been taken seriously and therefor would I require a full and definitive answer to the following questions.

 

The “3rd Party”

By your own admission you have stated that you spoke to a 3rd party, whom has not been authorised by myself, regarding my account. And there for extra charge was placed on to my account.

This is not acceptable as this is an infringement of my rights under the Data Protection Act.

 

The ''unrecorded inquiry''

(a) How does the company justify a fee of £100.00 for making an unrecorded inquiry (trace search) on my credit files?

(b) How does the company justify two unrecorded inquiry (trace search) on my credit files in the space of a couple of months, despite communication to and from myself has been at the same postal address since opening of account?

© In what way does such an enquiry confirm that I am in employment?

(d) Where in any relevant document (yours and Office Of Fair Trading Guidelines) is there a provision for such a charge and other charges?

 

Mechanical Breakdown Insurance (MBI) & GAP Insurance

(a) You have provided a “Customer Demands & Needs form” all information was provided by your sales person via a phone call, No documentation was provided for myself to read and understand each of the policies and did not once make it clear the policies were optional or tell me about any cooling off period

(b) Your sales person stated it would be more expensive if I didn't take both insurances, hence “your recommendation” of taking both products.

© Your sales person insisted I took out the policies to qualify for the product or help with my application

 

(d) Your sales person was very pushy when selling the product, it felt that I could not say no despite informing her a number of occasions that I would like to read / have more information sent to me regarding the police so I could make my own mind up. (e) I was made to feel that unless the Customer Demands & Needs form was not signed, I would not have been able to continue with the application.

(f) As the Customer Demands and Needs form shows your sales person to promote further products recommended by yourselves, at no point did the Sales person state or advise that there were any alternative options available, neither does any documentation provided by yourselves advise of any alternatives other than to promote the sale of the polices stated above.

(g) From the Customer Demands & Needs form it was stated at the time of the call that “In the event of unforeseen vehicle breakdown, expensive repairs being necessary, or the total loss of the vehicle, would you be able to comfortably afford the costs that may arise as a result of these events occurring without any additional financial hardship?” was ticked “YES” and therefor renders the sales pitch and sale of both products as inadequate.

(h) The sales person lead me to believe that the MBI would be suitable to cover any failure that the vehicle should occur, despite not being an underwriter for the company, and therefor was not qualified to promote or sell the product without knowledge of the details contained within the policy.

(i) The MBI proved to be inadequate due to the fact that despite “The AA” confirming the problem and issues that occurred (documentation was sent to yourselves), they stated that I would have to take the vehicle to one of their Approved Mechanics at a minimum cost of £300 for diagnostics, yet knowingly that the problem would not be covered by the policy due to vehicle age and cost of repair.

(j) Customer Demands and Needs states, MBI Policy states start date if deferred 12/12/2009, yet payments for policy began previously to this.

(k) MBI apparent cover was for only 36mths, yet agreement and interest has been based on 48mths.

 

Charges on the account

The documentation sent to yourselves contained a list of charges & interest applied to the account.

Following media reports, and an investigation into credit card charges by the Office of Fair Trading, which I have recently been made aware of, I now understand, that the regime of fees which you have been applying/applied to my account in relation to late fees, and collection charges and over limit charges, are unlawful at Common Law, Statute and Consumer regulations, in that they did not/do not, represent a genuine pre-estimate of your actual costs.

I would draw your attention to the terms of the contract which you agreed to at the time that this account was opened. It is an implied term of that contract that you would conduct yourselves lawfully and in a manner which complies with UK law, and in consideration of fair business practices and good faith.

It is my contention that you have failed to operate my account in a manner conducive to the above, and have demonstrated a lack of fiduciary duty.

 

I would like a reply within a reasonable period of time.

Please take note also that I have discontinued payments until you resolve ALL the matters listed above.

Yours Faithfully

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Hi all.

I've had two seperate responses from Advantagae to my letter.

 

Am I now completely screwed on this as Advantage have stated that this is there final response on the matter of the charges, and also it appears I've got to put up with the crap MBI & GAP.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]36164[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]36165[/ATTACH]

[dx100uk]

you were told by the sales man that you would not get the loan without taking all the insuraces.

 

they were not there, how can they claim you were not told that.

 

dx