Direct Auto Finance (Yes Car Credit)

[clairus99]

I was desperate, okay?!

 

Anyway, I'm pretty late in paying their extortionate loan back - for whatever reason, they're getting their money, but very slowly.

 

Apart from the annoyance of the bombardment of telephone calls several times a day (I screen every single call now), I'm getting letters saying that they're charging me £15 per letter.

 

As I'm pursuing the bank charges thing, it got me thinking, is this the same kind of cheek the banks have; charging me £15 for a standard letter in a 2nd class envelope?

[homer_j]

I will let somebody else answer regards to whether you can claim for charges. My initial thought would be yes but I am not sure.

 

However, I thought you may be interested in this website that I believe will help a little hopefully.

 

You may be aware but hopefully you can talk to people who are experiencing the same as yourself. I know that the company might as well wear a striped jumper and a mask..

[clairus99]

Thanks for that, I am looking around that site at the moment.

 

I'm going to look to see if I can get anything back or a reduction in what I owe.

 

If I do, I owe you a drink!

[Bookworm]

And to answer your question, if it doesn't cost them £15 to send a letter, then yes, it's a penalty charge, yes, you should go for it. Yes to it all. (sorry, I had to )

[buzz]

GOOD NEWS FOR YCC CUSTOMERS:

 

If any customers of DAF/ Yes Car Credit feel they were mis-sold PPI insurances, or are being chased for an alleged shortfall after returning their cars, or having them repossessed, please visit the forum at ,we have managed to obtain the help of a legal team, who will fight your case on a no win no fee basis.

 

Buzz.

[lizdesigns]

Through sheer naivety I bought a car through YCC and after paying halfway was told I had to still pay the remainder of the contract in insurances- £1678 after a 300 discount if I paid in full. I complained to YCC with no joy but just last week sent an email to the next person up in the complaints process (it's all in the say no to yes website) and I have received a letter today saying they will accept £600 to settle the account. Why would they do this? Probably as I advised them I knew they made the contract null and void by using my £500 deposit on the insurances and not the car. Will I be accepting the £1000 reduction? No. I will, however, be pushing for the whole amount to be written off and possibly all insurances I've paid to be refunded. My advice is get reading what that site has to say!!

[breadline]

This company hates court and anything legal, if theres a loop hole in your contract that you would like read in a court.

 

If it means them not going to court they would walk away with only the amount they actually paid out for the car.

 

(Welcome Finance springs to mind.)

 

Dont take any! prisoners.

 

BL

[Movingon]

We went to look at cars at YCC once before we really knew anything more about them than they would give you credit even with a bad history. We looked at some cars, we treated to the most appalling display of bad customer service, and finally they took my credit card (with which I did not intend to pay) "for identification purposes". We had NOT YET AGREED TO BUY A CAR. When the guy came back about an hour later (!!!) he had taken a £200 deposit from my card by swiping it in the machine!!! He asked me to sign the slip, I refused (because that card was not intended to be paying for any car) and informed him that unless he processed a refund that I would be calling the police with a view to prosecuting for theft. It was resolved in the end but we left after four and a half hours with no car and no refund for several days. NEVER AGAIN will I go to a company like this.

[deemacperth]

Don't get me started on YCC.

 

Lets just say that I'm glad they no longer exist.

[Seminole]

Don't get me started on YCC.

 

Lets just say that I'm glad they no longer exist.

 

I believe that they have reappeared under a new name but with the same attitude.

[BotB]

we have managed to obtain the help of a legal team, who will fight your case on a no win no fee basis.

 

 

I've had a look at the website of the company concerned. It appears to be a claims handling company rather than a "legal team". Other than a promise of "no win no fee" there's absolutely no information about what charges they make to clients for whom they do recover any money. Typically, claims handling companies charge anywhere between 10% and 50% of any monies recovered, Ouch.

Heaven forbid that the long suffering victims of YCC be shafted again by a claims handling company. The Citizens Advice Bureau provides legal advice (from qualified lawyers) free of charge. Please take the time to have a word with them first before signing up to anything.

[Guest Lueeze]

GOOD NEWS FOR YCC CUSTOMERS:

 

If any customers of DAF/ Yes Car Credit feel they were mis-sold PPI insurances, or are being chased for an alleged shortfall after returning their cars, or having them repossessed, please visit the forum at ,we have managed to obtain the help of a legal team, who will fight your case on a no win no fee basis.

 

Buzz.

 

 

The company giving legal asistance are actually going to take 50% if you win any money back, that seems like alot!

 

:o

[buzz]

To answer your point about YCC reopening under another name.

There is a new company called UCAN car credit. It is actually owned by Carcraft. However, most of the directors are ex-YCC and we have every reason to believe their methods are the same as YCC.

 

The other thing mentioned is about the company who we have teamed up with to recover mis-sold PPI insurances.:

 

Yes they do take on the cases on a no win no fee basis. Their commission is about 40% of any monies recovered.

Most of our members had assumed that they had already said goodbye to this money. ( Please visit and read some of the posts. A couple of members had even been made bankrupt as a result of the mis-selling of PPI)

At least this company will help recover it for them. Better than nothing.

Nobody is being forced to use this company. We always advise the members to consult Citizens Advice in the first instance.

 

Buzz

[Guest Lueeze]

I agree buzz, i visited the site and read some posts.

 

People are entitled to accept this help at 40-50% rate, but I personally think its extortionate unless the amount is huge....

 

£500 owed, deducted after win £250 ish left....i just wonder if its worth the hassle with the solicitor? Surely theres others out there offering cheaper avice?

 

If people are not able to fight it themselves then great get help, but they seem to be preying on people at these rates.

 

Sorry just my opinion

 

Lou x

[BotB]

i just wonder if its worth the hassle with the solicitor?

 

Whoa! Claims handling companies are NOT solicitors. The fact that they may refer to themselves as having a "legal team" doesn't mean they have any legally qualified people working for them. Currently, unlike solicitors, they are not regulated in any way (they will be soon when the Compensation Act comes into force) nor are they answerable to anyone as regards how much they charge or how they deal with complaints.

[buzz]

It is a catch 22 situation really. Yes I agree that 40% is high, but so is the risk.

If our members were to try and recover their money in court without proper legal help, and lost the case, the costs would be astronomical . YCC know that up until now this has stopped most people from going ahead and pursuing it through the courts. Please remember that YCC supplied cars to people with a "dodgy" credit rating.

These people would obviously not have the funds at hand to pay costs.

If they lose the case via the no win no fee company, it will not cost them anything.

 

Admittedly if they win, they will only receive 60% of the sum. It is a toss up which is the lesser of the evils.Nobody is going to end up worse off than they already are.

 

Unfortunately these cases are not as straightforward as the reclaiming of bank charges where the legalities are in black and white and the banks cannot really argue.It is mainly an issue of the technicalities in the contracts with the mis-sold PPI, which would be better left to a professional person. YCC will try everything to avoid repaying this PPI insurance whereas the banks usually give up without a fight,knowing they are in the wrong.

 

Please let me emphasise that in no way do we force our members to contact this company. We just offer it as an option.

It is money that most of our members had given up any hope of getting back.

 

Finally, please let me assure you that I have never referred to this company as solicitors.

 

Buzz.

[BotB]

the costs would be astronomical

 

No they wouldn't - anything under £5000 is a small claim - no costs awarded except court issue fee.

 

 

Finally, please let me assure you that I have never referred to this company as solicitors.

 

No but you did say "legal team" from which at least one other person thought you were referring to solicitors.

 

I'm sorry to be cynical as I know you're trying to help those people who got ripped off by YCC. But claims handlers don't do anything that the average person couldn't do perfectly well themselves, and for that they take almost half what's recovered in fees. It may well be money that the victims thought they'd never get back anyway but bearing in mind the circumstances of most YCC customers meant they were struggling to get credit to start with isn't there some irony somewhere here?

 

What's complicated about a mis-sold PPI policy anyway? Its less complicated than mis-sold endowments where you have to try to work out a calculation of where someone would be in their repayment mortgage if they'd had one instead of taking an interest only endowment.

 

Basically, if you were sold PPI and at the time were excluded from cover by the policy because e.g. you were only employed temporarily or were self-employed, and the policy didn't cover people in those categories, I can't see what's complicated about that. These people would be better off coming over to this site and get some help writing a letter to whoever the Insurance company is - that's all the claims handler will do! And not only is it then "no win no fee", they get to keep all their money. Just a thought!

[buzz]

No they wouldn't - anything under £5000 is a small claim - no costs awarded except court issue fee.

 

 

 

No but you did say "legal team" from which at least one other person thought you were referring to solicitors.

 

I'm sorry to be cynical as I know you're trying to help those people who got ripped off by YCC. But claims handlers don't do anything that the average person couldn't do perfectly well themselves, and for that they take almost half what's recovered in fees. It may well be money that the victims thought they'd never get back anyway but bearing in mind the circumstances of most YCC customers meant they were struggling to get credit to start with isn't there some irony somewhere here?

 

I agree that some people on here would say that the YCC customers were stupid not to realise. Please remember though that at the time it was their only course to buy a car. It was done under extreme hard sell tactics, sometimes as long as six hours!!!.

I defy anyone to judge the sanity of the customers.

There are members on this site who actually signed up for a Vanquis card with an APR of 49 - 64 %.

I would not patronise them for doing this. At the time it is a case of Needs must.

 

Buzz

 

What's complicated about a mis-sold PPI policy anyway? Its less complicated than mis-sold endowments where you have to try to work out a calculation of where someone would be in their repayment mortgage if they'd had one instead of taking an interest only endowment.

 

Basically, if you were sold PPI and at the time were excluded from cover by the policy because e.g. you were only employed temporarily or were self-employed, and the policy didn't cover people in those categories, I can't see what's complicated about that. These people would be better off coming over to this site and get some help writing a letter to whoever the Insurance company is - that's all the claims handler will do! And not only is it then "no win no fee", they get to keep all their money. Just a thought!

 

Bob,

 

Firstly, like you say it was another member who misread "legal team" for "solicitor"

This then becomes their problem.I would have said solicitor if this is what I meant.I was very careful not to use this term, as they are not solicitors.

 

The mis-selling of the PPI is more complicated in YCC cases than just the "employed/Self employed "scenario.

Mostly customers were told they could only have finance if the PPI was taken out. Since January 2005 it became illegal to use this method to deny the finance.

Many customers also had their part exchange allowance, but it was deducted from the PPI and not the car price.

YCC had an option to allow the customer to return the car after 50% of the repayments had been met. However what they failed to mention was that they would pursue for the PPI for the full term. ( ie on a four year repayment, you could return car after two years, but would still be liable for the full four year PPI, even though it was no longer required!)Apparently, they say that the PPI was paid for in advance by them to the PPI company in a lump sum for the four year period!

 

You also say about the people coming on here for help. Well, we do actually make reference to this site on our site. This site helped me get nearly £800 in charges from my bank, so I am eternally grateful to everyone on here.

 

I cant really see your negativity about all of this. Like I keep saying, we only offer this company as an option. We do not say that this is the only option.

At the end of the day, it is all about getting justice for our members. Afterall, if we can bring down the "big boy bullies" a peg or two then it can only be a good thing.

 

Buzz.

[BotB]

I'm not being negative. I just hate to see people mugged for a second time.

 

You know what I would do? As there are many of you in the same boat, why don't you cut out the middleman Claims company who does nothing but pass it on to solicitors but takes a cut of the fee (I actually credited them with too much work when I referred to them writing a letter) and go direct to solicitors yourselves as a group? I'm sure you could negotiate a much better deal.

[Guest Lueeze]

HOLD ON!

 

Im sorry I am not au fait on the "Legal teams" "Solicitors" or "Claims handlers"

 

Im even more surprised that companies who have no Legal regulation are asking such huge amounts of money.

 

I assumed for the service they offered and the cost, that they were proffesionally qualified "legal team" I did not realise that infact when companies promote themselves as a "legal team" they are infact not solicitors....It is very misleading especially to the people they aim their services to, and this is why I made my mistake.

 

Lets hope we can move on fron this now that i havecleared up my reasons for making the mis-judgement...

 

Lou x

[BotB]

Lueeze,

You have nothing to apologise for - most people don't realise that claims handling companies are middlemen even despite the huge publicity over the collapse of Claims Direct and the Accident Group 3 or 4 years ago.

[Guest Lueeze]

I knew about Claims direct and Accident group, but I just thought they had solicitors in the company but only used them when a legal document/court appearance was needed! Obviously NOT!

 

*note to self to read up on this*

[buzz]

Botb and Lueeze,

 

I do appreciate your concerns regarding this.

 

However, I think that with the greatest respect you are both slightly getting the wrong end of the stick.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but isn't the main purpose of this site to get justice for its members from organisations who illegally impose penalties on their customers and hopefully recoup these charges ( I am one of many who have successfully used your invaluable advice).

Usually these are fees added on to accounts, or in the case of banks, taken directly from the accounts without any permission from the customers.

 

The claims company we have featured on our site make it 100% clear what the charges will be before the customer uses them by way of an information pack sent in response to a request.

Like I have said many times, we only give this as one of several options.This was in response to many of our members asking us for a company that may be able to help. We in no way tell our members that this is the only option.

I agree that people could do this by themselves, or use the advice and help from sites such as this. Our feedback tells us that some people dont feel confident to do this.

We allow our members to decide for themselves which course of action they would prefer. It would be patronising of us to suggest otherwise.

Most people for example can decorate, but many choose to employ a decorator.

I am not a plumber but do all my own plumbing, but there are still hundreds of plumbers in yellow pages, for people who wish to use them, etc etc.,

 

Please dont take this post the wrong way. That is not my intention. I know this is a very friendly site. I am merely trying to justify what I have said in my previous posts.

 

Regards

 

Buzz

[paul gregory]

However, I thought you may be interested in this website that I believe will help a little hopefully.

 

 

 

I must add well done to the guys at the above forum. Yes Car Credit customers would be left stranded without the support of that forum!!

[clairus99]

Oh boy, I don't even know where to start with YCC there!!!

 

I know I have these letters for charges and I have a feeling there's a difference of what I think I owe compared to what they think I owe.

 

I think I'm mostly annoyed by the APR, but what can I do, I signed for it!!

 

I'm going to have a think about being mis-sold the PPI - how can you prove a thing like that though? Surely it's my word against theirs - or do I misunderstand?