HELP, car finance 'holidng' deposit being withheld

[MN4538]

Hi Everyone!

 

I hope someone can help.

 

I approached a company in Essex to purchase a car -

they are similar to ACF in that they help people with not so perfect credit, and the car and the finance comes from them.

 

According to them I was approved, and I chose a car online (I have never been on their premises).

 

I spoke to the sales person, who said that they require a £200 holding deposit to remove the car from sale and to show that you are serious about purchasing the vehicle.

I agreed with him over the phone a monthly repayment, but was not given details of the car price or anything else.

I paid the deposit and then he sent a receipt, which stated the following:-

 

"By paying an initial deposit you are committing to the purchase of the above vehicle.

xxxx will immediately commence preparation work on your vehicle for delivery and remove it from sale.

 

The first £200 of your holding deposit is non-transferable and non-refundable unless your application for finance is declined

or the vehicle is not as described.

 

xxxxx also reserve the right to retain the first £200 of your holding deposit if the finance application is declined due to material inaccuracies

in personal information you have provided.

 

Should you not pay for the goods, either by way of a cash payment or a finance facility, by the agreed pick up date,

or you miss two agreed collection dates, then we will assume that you do not want the vehicle and that you have repudiated your contract with us.

 

In this case, we will be entitled to keep the holding deposit you have paid

"

 

However none of this was explained to me at the time of paying the deposit.

 

I then received the pre-contract information, but my application for finance hadn't been approved yet.

 

They were still asking for additional documents.

 

This was the first time I had seen details of the price of the car which was £10k, at least £2k over the going rate for this type of vehicle,

in addition to this, the monthly payment was much higher than what I had agreed with the salesperson,

and the total repayment to the company was stated as £23k!!

 

When I saw this I immediately emailed them and said I no longer wished to go ahead with the application, and could they return my deposit.

 

I am sensible enough to know that having had credit problems in the past, the last thing I wished to do was pay over 200%

what I borrowed on a car that would be worth about half its value currently at the end of the agreement!

 

They ignored my first email, and instead sent another pre-contract information form reducing the monthly repayments

to just £20 more than had been previously agreed.

 

I then emailed again refering them to my last email and saying that I didnt' wsh to go ahead and to cancel my application.

 

I then got a phone call 2 days after from another salesman saying that the one I had been dealing with didn't work there anymore

and that he apologised for the 'mistake' on the pre-contract information.

 

I then told him I wasn't going ahead because the agreement was too expensive,

and I hadn't been made aware of hte APR or anything before hand. He, clearly annoyed asked whether I wanted him to cancel the agreement

 

- I said we didn't have an agreement, I hadn't signed anything,

as far as I was aware we were still going through the application process,

in fact they were still waiting for documents from me.

 

He then said that I wouldn't get back my deposit, and I told him that the terms of the deposit were not explained to me before paying the money,

and that had I known the terms I wouldn't have paid it.

 

He said that they had spent money preparing the car for me so that was why I couldn't get the money back.

 

I asked whether that meant that if someone else wanted to buy the car tomorrow that they wouldn't charge them £200 as the car was already prepared?

 

He put the phone down.

Do I have any rights to my deposit, is there any argument I can give?

 

Can I claim the money back under the visa chargeback scheme?

 

Please help!

 

Thanks!

[ericsbrother]

This is an unfair contract and thus invalid.

You can claim your money back via chargeback, explain to your bank why and indemnify them against any monies that are disputed and they will do it. This has been part of the banking regulations for a good while now but many bank staff dont know that you can do this.

As your payment was done at a distance, even thougth the full purchase wouldnt have been, it is clear that you were not given a level playing field due to the information you need to make the consideration was not there so the company cant really complain that you want your money back. No court would side with the car dealers in this case so go to your bank, arrange the chargeback and write to the company making clear the points you raise here and tell them that no contract had been formed, just an interest.

[MN4538]

This is an unfair contract and thus invalid.

You can claim your money back via chargeback, explain to your bank why and indemnify them against any monies that are disputed and they will do it. This has been part of the banking regulations for a good while now but many bank staff dont know that you can do this.

As your payment was done at a distance,

even thougth the full purchase wouldnt have been, it is clear that you were not given a level playing field due to the information you need to make the consideration was not there so the company cant really complain that you want your money back. No court would side with the car dealers in this case so go to your bank, arrange the chargeback and write to the company making clear the points you raise here and tell them that no contract had been formed, just an interest.

 

Thanks so much, I will get into the bank now