PCP end of contract

[121gigawatts]

Anyone who works or knows about car finance know about what happens after you hand a PCP back? My dad's agreement is up October (5 more payments) they've sent a letter. He does not want to keep the vehicle after this time, so therefore wants to hand it back and not pay the balloon. The letter suggested that he gets in touch with them, which he has tried to but after trying twice and being on hold 30-40 mins each time whilst waiting to speak to someone he has lost his patience. I said I will call them, however I don't know if they will speak to me. Is it a matter of urgency that he lets them know that he will not be keeping the car? He said if he can pay the remaining 5 months now and get rid, he will do but I assume he is stuck with it until October, but I'm not sure why they're urging him to contact them when it's not due until October. I know ultimately he is going to have to sit and wait on hold, but he is an old, impatient man. I just wonder if he can leave it a couple more months or it is important that he lets them know now he is not keeping the vehicle?

No they won't speak to you and yes car finance companies aren't particularly helpful unless there's anything in it for them. I work at a Small family run car dealership. If the company is Volkswagen Financial Services or ALD Leasing he has my utmost sympathy as they are the worst two. So unfortunately he will have to keep persevering and waiting on hold and expect it to take a few attempts. At least he has a few months to sort it out. In the meantime he can check he hasn't gone over the mileage allowance so there are no nasty surprises, and check the vehicle over for damage. If there's any damage he is probably better sourcing the repairs himself rather than being massively penalised when it goes back. Also prudent to check he has the locking wheel nut, all the paperwork and parcel shelf present.

has he also thought about selling it? He doesn't have to hand it back and if he gets more than the balloon payment they will settle the finance and he keeps the difference. He could try WBAC or Motorway, or there are small independents like us always looking for stock.

If he wants to hand it back now he also can do that, and there will be a small rebate on the interest if he has 5 months left, I don't think he would have to pay the full 5 months.

@toomanydicksonthedancefloor1 is the selling it option only for people
in their last few months of the agreement? I’m 12 months in to a 4 year agreement but want rid.

@SquadGoals75no no no absolutely not. You can sell at any time. You would struggle to sell privately as you would have to clear the finance before you sell it and not many people have that amount of cash lying around before they sell the car. But companies like us (don't think I can mention our name but we are small used car independent in South Yorkshire, run by me and DH), Motorway dealers or WBAC will settle the finance when they buy it and give you the difference. At a starting point ring the finance company and ask for your 'settlement figure' in writing. For example if the figure is £10000 and the car sells for £12,000 you walk away with the difference in your bank and the finance cleared by the buyer. The only caveat to that is you may owe more than the car is worth. But you're still not tied in if you can afford to pay the difference to the buyer, then they settle the finance in full. That's called negative equity. By settling early you get a rebate of the interest, legally I think the most they can charge as a penalty for early settlement is 3 months interest so you're still better off overall.

Wow this is brilliant news! I’m going to get a settlement figure in the morning!! Thank you so much.

If I am allowed to post our business name it's awww.anycolourcar.com

anyway I always like to help as the motor industry has a generally well deserved awful reputation, we try to be different and I think our reviews show that. I didn't reply to plug our business I promise ha ha.

as a starting point put the car details in to WBAC and Motorway and then when you have your settlement figure you kind of have an idea where you are. WBAC gives you bargaining power as well when you get prices from anywhere else, although WBAC knock 15% off on average when they see the car for every tiny stone chip, and they have admin fees, but that's kind of their MO, doesn't mean you get a bad price, they just draw you in with a higher price than elsewhere then knock it down when you're physically there and more likely to accept it. Motorway is an auction platform but it's very user friendly. I've personally listed my last car on there as market research, but didn't get anywhere near the price they claimed I would. The only thing to bear in mind is it's all types of dealers bidding on your car, some like us and some are not very scrupulous shall we say and may mess you about. But we have had some customers who have got fantastic prices selling on Motorway.

I had a Mini Cooper S on PCP, we paid the finance off and sold it to we buy any car for £4k more. It's worth looking around what companies like that will give him for the car, as he could make money. I was planning to keep it but my Dad was starting to decline (lots of hospital appointments) and it was far too low for him to get in and out of - so I had to swap for a VW SUV. I had that on business lease through work, again paid in full for the car at the end of the lease and sold on for more money.

Wow @toomanydicksonthedancefloor1 you've been super helpful! Thank you so much. Unfortunately, as it's an EV he is in massive negative equity (around 4k) so selling to a third party is not in the question. I actually did this myself with a previous finance deal and it was well worth it so I did look at this for him a few months back as he's been wanting to get rid of it a while. He has gone over miles as he stupidly only got 6k per year because the salesman told him it wouldn't matter. I did tell him at the time, they're hoping you will buy it at the end that's why it doesn't matter but he didn't really understand I don't feel. He's only 1k over and it's 8 pence per mile so not too bad anyway. So can he still hand back early (and pay the excess mileage obviously) he wants to go back to a petrol.

Also @toomanydicksonthedancefloor1 it's through nissan financial services but I managed to open an account online for him for all his paperwork etc with his email and the company is actually under someone called Mobilize? Never heard of them. I've only ever had finance through PSA in the past.

Ah if he's definitely in negative equity he may as well hand it back then hadn't he? Mobilize is owned by Renault I believe. He should ask if he can hand back early then like you originally asked, and save the 5 months payments? Im so annoyed on his behalf though that some sales person only focussed on their personal commission has told him incorrectly that the mileage doesn't matter. It's absolutely disgraceful. It's for this reason we pay a percentage bonus based on the whole company profit rather than individual sales commissions based on that person's deals. It really does bring out the worst in people. I wouldn't let his experience put him off EVs if he likes them, as they're coming down massively in price, for the first time ever they're actually cheaper overall new than an ICE car. There are some amazing used bargains too and batteries definitely last better than originally thought. We test all our used EVs and last week we tested a 2021 Tesla Model 3 with 134000 miles on it that had retained 94% battery health after doing that mileage!