BMW Financial Services - Voluntary Termination/Excess Mileage

[stuckcluckets]

I have just received a letter from BMW claiming I owe them money for excess mileage after a VT. I never signed their ‘“VT Pack” but admittedly was over in mileage. I don’t intend to pay this obviously beacause I now no longer have an agreement with them. I paid 50% and the car was in great condition. Here is what I believe my options are

1. Pay
2. Ignore
3. Write a letter protesting their charge.

I am looking for a bit of advice.

Hi there, I highly reccomend reading back through all of the previous posts in my thread which will hopefully provide you with some more information.

The upshot is that BMW Financial Services have no legal right to charge you for excess mileage in a VT scenario, but that won't stop them trying, as they're attempting to do with yourself. If you ignore it, they will report your credit account to credit reference agencies (CRAs) as still being open with the alleged balance outstanding (despite your recent VT) and will report a missed/late payment entry for every month until such time as you pay them. This is an underhanded attempt on BMW Financial Services' part to try and bully the likes of both you and I into paying what they allege is owed. If you write to them, they will likely at first send you a load of waffle trying to justify their attempts to manipulate the Consumer Credit Act into their favour, before then ignoring any further correspondence from yourself.

I've tried to fight BMW Financial Services in the following ways so far:
- Writing to them
- Financial Ombudsman
- Information Comissioner's Office (ICO)

So far, I've had no joy. There is a contributor to this thread who has recently won a legal case against Mercedes Benz Financial Services for this exact same scenario, and we are waiting on them uploading the court judgement details at the moment.

My only realistic remaining option is to issue court proceedings against BMW Financial Services, as I'm not willing to pay an amount that simply isn't due.

[kreig]

I have just received a letter from BMW claiming I owe them money for excess mileage after a VT. I never signed their ‘“VT Pack” but admittedly was over in mileage. I don’t intend to pay this obviously beacause I now no longer have an agreement with them. I paid 50% and the car was in great condition. Here is what I believe my options are

1. Pay
2. Ignore
3. Write a letter protesting their charge.

I am looking for a bit of advice.

Hi Graham,

I suggest you read through this thread and the others on the forum to hear other stories.

R0b in particular has some excellent posts and templates.

Chances are BMW will insist the payment is owed, the FO will find in their favour, the ICO will do nothing and BMW won't take you to court through fear of losing. As you will see there has been a recent court success which is fantastic, however this was where Mercedes brought the case to court. BMW do not seem to be keen on pursuing this route so if you wished to have your day in court you would have to bring the case against them at your cost & time.

If you don't pay what likely happens is that balance will sit on your account as owed, they will periodically chase you (Via an annual statement) for it but most damaging of all they will leave a late payment marker on your credit report. This took my 980+ score down to around 500. So the course of action you take I suggest you consider the likelihood of you needing to borrow money any time soon / take out a phone contract / get a new credit card or remortgage your house as that may have an impact.

Hope that helps.

[Grahammcm1888]

I have just received a letter from BMW claiming I owe them money for excess mileage after a VT. I never signed their ‘“VT Pack” but admittedly was over in mileage. I don’t intend to pay this obviously beacause I now no longer have an agreement with them. I paid 50% and the car was in great condition. Here is what I believe my options are

1. Pay
2. Ignore
3. Write a letter protesting their charge.

I am looking for a bit of advice.

[RachRad]

Hi all. Thank you! The VT was noted on the credit file but not as defaulted and the credit score was unaffected.

[stuckcluckets]

KurtCrisco - RachRad's case is a good start on the road to getting BMWFS to stop acting outside the law and bullying consumers with illegal and malicious markers on our credit files. I, too, am willing to stand against them and there must be a way of challenging them in court without incurring prohibitive legal expenses. Happy to discuss further.

Indeed it is, and I will absolutely be communicating with them about it following the posting of RachRad's court ruling documentation. For those who're interested such as yourself, we could potentially setup a Slack group or something to discuss things and plan our approach?

Awesome news, great win RachRad. I've just got the late payment markers removed from my file by agreeing on a without prejudice offer with BMW but loved reading about that court success.

Kreig, well done! I'm VERY interested to hear more about what BMW's response was when you made a without prejudice offer. How did you go about making the offer? Are you talking over 50% of the alleged value or less? If you do not wish to disclose publicly then please feel free to private message me.

I can't say at the moment whether or not I intend to follow suit, but the thought of making a without prejudice offer has crossed my mind. Furthermore, despite the fact that your offer was without prejudice, BMW's choice to accept it and accept your terms r.e. your credit file corrections suggests that they are VERY aware of how little evidence there is in support of their attempts to charge for excess mileage in VT situations - essentially, it's a sign that they're clearly aware of the risk they're taking!

[kreig]

Awesome news, great win RachRad. I've just got the late payment markers removed from my file by agreeing on a without prejudice offer with BMW but loved reading about that court success.

[jezza2016]

KurtCrisco - RachRad's case is a good start on the road to getting BMWFS to stop acting outside the law and bullying consumers with illegal and malicious markers on our credit files. I, too, am willing to stand against them and there must be a way of challenging them in court without incurring prohibitive legal expenses. Happy to discuss further.

[stuckcluckets]

Phaeton Yes, I have just received the official judgement from the court in the post so will email the court to ask for a transcript. I assumed I would just be able to get a transcript of the Judge's final judgement rather than the whole thing, but I will ask for both.

I will post the documents up here as soon as i receive them

Many thanks RachRad, really appreciate your input here. Will look forward to seeing the judgement documents!

[RachRad]

Phaeton Yes, I have just received the official judgement from the court in the post so will email the court to ask for a transcript. I assumed I would just be able to get a transcript of the Judge's final judgement rather than the whole thing, but I will ask for both.

I will post the documents up here as soon as i receive them

[Phaeton]

Brilliant news Phaeton, thank you for sharing.

Don't give me any credit, nothing to do with me, just a brave young lady who stared the beast in the eyes & refused to back down. RachRad I presume at some point the case will be available to review, I don't actually know how these things work

[stuckcluckets]

KurtCrisco it might be worth reading http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...larke-pls-help

Brilliant news Phaeton, thank you for sharing. Let's hope this is the start of the tables turning in favour of the consumer, and not these disgraceful lenders.

The example you shared however is of a result following court proceedings that were issued by the lender (in that instance, Mercedes Benz Financial Services), not by the consumer. The problem that I as well as many others still face however, is the fact that BMW Financial Services are refusing to issue court proceedings, and instead using underhand tactics to try and bully us into paying alleged sums (referring to their falsified reports to credit reference agencies). Court successes like the example you shared of course help to prove that lenders should not be attempting to charge consumers excess mileage fees in voluntary termination scenarios, however they also demonstrate exactly why BMW Financial Services are behaving so deceitfully - because they know there is a high risk that they'll lose in court.

It would be very interesting indeed if we're able to obtain the full court transcript and ruling documents from the case that you shared, and share these with BMW Financial Services. I wonder what their response would be? What we really need now though, is a positive ruling example whereby someone has taken BMW Financial Services to court specifically to challenge their abuse of the credit reporting system in the UK. I am without doubt willing to be that person, but I'm unsure of how to go about moving forward, for fear of staggering court costs.

[vipvipvip]

KurtCrisco it might be worth reading http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...larke-pls-help

Thanks Phaeton, this is excellent news.

[Phaeton]

KurtCrisco it might be worth reading http://legalbeagles.info/forums/foru...larke-pls-help

[vipvipvip]

Okay, I’ve been monitoring this for some time and my health hasn’t been the greatest since this all started, but need to do something soon.

To put things in perspective I’ve been having a late payment marker against me for the last 2.5 years thanks to BMW.

I’ve just checked my credit file with Noddle and the following is showing.

• Prior to returning the car, all was green OK indicators.
• The month I returned the card it shows green and VT
• Next three months after show amber 1, 2 and 3 with VT
• Followed by red 4,5 and 6 VT
• All other months now show as red 6 VT

In order for me to not give too much details away as BMW may be on the forum. I will use x,y and z or similar to indicate sums of money.

So my credit file has an opening balance of X
The excess mileage charge (balance on credit file) is Y

My credit file according to noddle shows settled despite late markers being continually filed against me and the balance of Y still being present.

Stick with me, this might take a little moment to read.

I VT the car and receive confirmation of VT

I receive excess mileage invoice with value of Y (please note payment is due within 7 days from date of invoice. So in my mind this is an invoice for an additional charge and not something that has been added to an agreement that has already been terminated as per the VT.

So this is what I find strange, how can they add the balance of an invoice to an agreement that is terminated? Noted above a green VT status on my credit file prior to the late markers being filed as a result of non-payment of the invoice. Did I terminate the agreement or not? It would appear not in BMW’s eyes.

To add further I received some arrears notice later in the first year after VT

---

“Notice of sums in Arrears in relation to Agreement No: xxxxxxx”

Opening balance (including arrears) under your Contract purchase agreement at 00/00/0000 value Y

The part of the Opening balance above in arrears on 00/00/0000 is value Y
The total amount paid in the Notice Period was 0.00

Closing balance (including any arrears) under your Contract Purchase agreement at 00/00/00 is value Y

The part of Closing balance above in arrears on 00/00/0000 is value Y

The points I’m making are these.

1. The credit file had a green VT status for one month and should have been the final status.
2. The opening and closing balance (the milage Y) is not the opening balance on the credit agreement or the credit file, this is X although the balance now sits as Y.

So is it normal for an invoice giving a different opening balance of Y to be making use of a credit file entry that had the opening balance of X

This is clear abuse and in my opinion not correct use of credit reporting. Seriously, is this a true representation of my ability to pay? It’s not and misleads future lenders.

Not sure what direction to take this in, but I’ve let this one sleep for far too long.

I should also add that BMW did mention in a telephone call that even if I cleared the balance for the mileage they would NOT remove the markers and these would be present until 6 years after the balance has cleared. Now this is where my problem sits, these will be here forever as I have no intention of paying.

Will the introduction of GDPR in May give us more of a chance with the ICO?

Thanks to all who has pushed this far.

[Phaeton]

Put quite simply, why are lenders able report bogus information about my former account with them to credit reference agencies (CRAs) without a court ruling, when I can't report information about them in the same way? The fact is, they're doing it because they can, because no one is stopping them. It's almost as if all our rights as consumers have been completely forgotten/ignored.

I feel from the outside this is the issue, they know (currently) they can get away with it, they have the financial backing to do it, for you or somebody else to take them to court is a big deal, it could cost multiple £1000's they can afford that, can you?

This will continue until somebody or group of somebodies has the Kahuna's or ££££'s to be able to take them on.