Car payments are crippling us

[Chattermummy]

18 months ago DH bought a new car on a PCP deal. At time we were both working and although expensive we could easily afford it. He's now not working, SAHD, so payments are now seem huge. Between this, loan, mortgage & cc I feel like I can't get head above water.

My plan is to snowball debts as per MSE and have my excel spreadsheet all ready to go but still the almost £400 monthly car payments are killing us. We can't hand it back yet as not paid half our debt, do we have any options?

I've not had a PCP car deal myself but have you read this? Did you put any deposit on the car?

Thanks cozie, he did pay a deposit but can't remember the amount. I will go through all paperwork tonight. DH is a great dad but hopeless with budgets & money so is burying his head in sand a bit just now.

I don't want to confiscate bank & credit cards but feel I might have to. It's so easy to spend money on cards.

I think you're going to have to resign yourself to losing money on it - it sounds as if you'll almost certainly have to - but there's a question of how much? Best have your paperwork found in the first instance.

Good luck.

Found everything but too tired tonight to do the sums, will get on the case with excel tomorrow

Well done for finding everything anyway. Pieces of paper/relevant emails can be appallingly elusive.

Is he going to go back to work or is he looking? It sounds like being a sahd isn't going to be viable.

Not possible for us both to work just now as got 3 young kids, one who has complex SN so makes sense for one of us to be at home. I earn more so just need to find a way. Spend less and get rid of bloody car would be my first choice, well my first choice was don't get the car in the first place but that's in the past but if can't get rid of car without a huge loss will need to cut our outgoings elsewhere

Maybe get some rest now. The first thing you need to do is find out - as best you can - what your situation really is with regard to eg assets and liabilities. There's not a whole load you're going to achieve right now until you've had a look at the figures.

Could he possibly get some work just in the evenings. Even two nights a week of bar work would be helpful towards paying the car off and getting you back on track.

Check the terms if you've had it half the contract time you're likely to be able to just hand the keys back and walk away.

Have you gone to the dealership and asked to change it for something cheaper, I asked ford about this recently as our circumstances changed and they said it was possible. Worth a try.

Or sell privately and pay off the balance, that was another option we were given.

You can voluntary terminate car contracts, it won't impact on credit score.

Check the t&c on your finance agreement. Or ring them and ask for a vt settlement figure.

Thank you for help. We contacted dealer and they offered to buy car off us. They value car at same amount we owe so at end of month we are going to hand it over. Feel like a huge weight has been lifted. Plan on bussing & walking to work and will look for a smaller cheaper car at end of summer

I'm glad it worked out for you. Good luck on getting a smaller and cheaper car. (And checking the fine print of any deal before you acquire it. )