Am I stuck with this car? Can't afford the monthly payments - what can I do??

[misscathcart]

Just over two years ago my MIL took out a finance deal on on a car for myself and my now exh as we were unable to get the credit ourselves. We could easily afford the repayments of £178 at that time.
Ex and I split up over a year ago now and I kept the car on as I needed it for my job so I continued to make the payments, which I have just about been managing to do.

But now I have the opportunity to take a job that I really want to do, but is quite a bit less money. I don't need the car for this job and, as much as I'd like to keep it, there is no way I could afford to on the new salary.

There is still so much owing on the car that if I sold it I would never make enough to pay it off. How does this work? What on earth can I do? I feel stuck with this car that I really can't afford and don't need.

call the company you got it from. they'll probably "repossess" it if you say you can't keep up repayments

thanks thisisyesterday, do you know whether this will go against my MIL's credit rating? I'm sure it would do since she was the one who took out the agreement?

There is somthing about if you've paid more than a 1/3 or maybe 2/3 which means they have less power to reposess or something. You could sell and use the money to pay off the finance.

I suppose the best thing to do is get on the phone to them. I'm just worried it will go against my mil, she has helped me out so much.

thanks hobgoblin. I'm sure I wouldnt even make half of what I owe if I sold the car now. It needs a bit of work doing to it too.
If only I had guessed all this 2 years ago I would never have got the bloomin thing.

was it a pcp agreement or a loan?
If its a pcp then you can back out of the agreement once you have paid 50% of the finance with no problems on your credit rating (we have just done this ourselves)

If its a loan in mils name then maybe explain the situation, maybe ex can have the car and carry on with payments?

I know that you say mil has been great but as mil took out the agreement (knowingly) then its her problem to deal with and surely she will understand under the circumstances?

Thanks for your replies
What is pcp? It was a credit agreement with the car dealer - same thing?

A pcp is for a new car where you only pay finance on the amount the car is expected to lose over 3 years.

EG our new car was £18600 and was expected to be worth £6600 in 3 years time we put down a £2000 deposit so we had finance for £10000 over 3 years, at the end of the 3 years you can pay the rest of the money, give the car back or get a new one.

I think what you have is basically a loan arranged through the dealer?
Best thing to do is speak to cab and see what they advise because the rules on consumer debt are changing and maybe be able to be written off or reduced?

Another option is to speak to the credit company as you may be able to rearrange terms, in this financial climate they would rather get it back slower than not at all.

Consumers have alot more rights these days and its always a good thing to know what they are x