Moneybarn VT, crooks - advice needed.

[iceDad2807]

I VT with Moneybarn back in August 2023. Everything was actually pretty seamless. I had paid more than half of the agreement by about +£400.

in September I received a final billing letter that stated I still owed £213 as the less half rule had been applied after the car had been sold at auction.

This is surely completely wrong as my liability as I thought only extended to 50% which I had paid more than.

i have emailed every couple of weeks with no response, I called them last month and they had no idea or understanding of the CCA (South African Call centre).

fast forward to today where they have finally responded by saying the debt has been passed to a debt collection agency! There goes my mortgage application!!

what should I do now?

[pt2537]

I VT with Moneybarn back in August 2023. Everything was actually pretty seamless. I had paid more than half of the agreement by about +£400.

in September I received a final billing letter that stated I still owed £213 as the less half rule had been applied after the car had been sold at auction.

This is surely completely wrong as my liability as I thought only extended to 50% which I had paid more than.

i have emailed every couple of weeks with no response, I called them last month and they had no idea or understanding of the CCA (South African Call centre).

fast forward to today where they have finally responded by saying the debt has been passed to a debt collection agency! There goes my mortgage application!!

what should I do now?

S99 and s100 Consumer Credit Act answers this quite straight forward.

Your liability is 50% of the total price of the goods, not a penny more.

If you have paid 50% of the total price of the goods, then you are clear and thats that.

The contract should stipulate the amount you have to pay to meet that threshold.

Now then, if you have paid enough and they report to your credit file that you havent, thats a massive issue for them, you would have a claim for damages under DPA and GDPR.

[iceDad2807]

Thanks for this. Agreement was for £13106, final balance when I voluntarily terminated was about £6200. They applied the less half rule on the final billing letter car sold for £5987 and they stated I owed the amount to bring it to £6200?!

just spoke to DCA who were actually helpful and said they’d raise a complaint with Moneybarn on my behalf.

did say Moneybarn still might mark credit report…

[R0b]

Thanks for this. Agreement was for £13106, final balance when I voluntarily terminated was about £6200. They applied the less half rule on the final billing letter car sold for £5987 and they stated I owed the amount to bring it to £6200?!

This is typical of some creditors who take the stance that if the car sold for less than the guaranteed value of the car which is the balloon payment at the end, then they're entitled to claim the difference from you. Section 100 of the CCA does say that whilst your liability is limited to 50%, that amount can be increased if you have failed to take reasonable care of the car. Some lenders translate that to meaning that the car sold at auction for less value means the car has not been taken care of (though they don't always tell you that).

Regardless, that kind of position is utter rubbish. If Moneybarn wants to raise that as an issue then historical court decisions state that it is up to Moneybarn to prove the damage caused, usually this is by providing evidence of the condition of the car at the time it was handed over to you and the condition of the car now. No lender I'm aware of has any record or supplied evidence to that effect.

If they record a default, then you could bring a claim per PT's post, which I am sure Moneybarn would very quickly fold way before it gets to court. I wrote a guide on Voluntary Termination a few years ago that you might find helpful and gives you a flavour of the kind of positions and road blocks you might come up against from a lender along with some template responses.

A guide to voluntary termination: Your rights - LegalBeagles Forum

[iceDad2807]

All sorted Moneybarn backed down account written off!!