As with everything financial I seem to have the worst of luck, bought a car on hp finance in early December purely to get the discount offered as had money in the bank, but delayed paying off straight away for various reasons. Is it normal for finance Co not to provide you with a statement when you request a settlement figure or am I just supposed to pay whatever figure they pluck from thin air with no evidence to back it up? Also they only allow either BACS payment or cheque - is this normal not to accept bank transfer, amount is about £10k
Well, presumably you know how much it was, and how much you paid off? So the settlement sum is going to be the balance plus perhaps admin and early repayment fees. So if the settlement sum is within the ballpark you know it's probably okay, and if it's wildly absurd, then you know you need to make further enquiries. How would a statement help?
BACS is bank transfer.
It looks like they are over egging it, hence why I want a statement.
BACS is bank transfer.
Not as simple as that, if you don't beleive me try making a BACS payment from a personal account then.
Not as simple as that, if you don’t beleive me try making a BACS payment from a personal account then.
Do them fairly regular.
Not a BACS payment from a personal account you won't, chaps or faster payment yes but not bacs
Do them fairly regular.
Yep, pay several people monthly by BACS from my bank App.
Both my banks (virgin & nationwide) told me I can't make a BACS payment from a personal account & looking on line, BACS payment appear to be only available to business accounts.
None of the three accounts I have do Bacs. Bacs is not simply online transfer of money. Most personal accounts appear to be faster payments.
Bacs and chap can be done in branch in most cases.
As for
Is it normal for finance Co not to provide you with a statement when you request a settlement figure
It's in their interest that you don't pay it back.
Coupled with it probably looks like they are over egging it due to being front end loaded when you try and settle outside the cooling period
Thanks @trail_rat at least I'm not totally loosing my marbles. Finance Co have got the worst reviews on trust pilot and are being deliberately awkward & now royal mail have lost the cheque that I sent special delivery - me and money just never work out 😞
You must know how much is remaining, do you not at least get an annual statement, or can you review the original paperwork you signed when you took the agreement out and work back from there based on your deposit and how many monthly payments you've made?
Was it a 48 month HP agreement for example?
Sorry but the info you need is there and if you have kept your paperwork as you should have done it shouldn't be hard to work out.
I know how much should be remaining & back of a fag packet maths on the interest they should have charged, but they will only give me a settlement figure (which I think is over egged) with no breakdown of how that is arrived at.
All I'm asking is it normal to not be given a statement of account with the settlement figure?
You can check here to see BACS is not just business accounts.
https://www.starlingbank.com/resources/banking/bank-accounts-explained-sort-code-account-number/
All I’m asking is it normal to not be given a statement of account with the settlement figure?
To answer your specific question, no, whenever I've asked for one I've had it posted to me a few days later. That's Barclays partner finance. Who is yours with?
@drac two quotes from that link suggests you are wrong
Starling customers can receive Bacs payments, but not initiate them.
Examples of a Direct Credit could be refunds, salary payments, pension payments, and so on.
Examples on last one aren't exactly payments non business customers would make are they?
@airvent thanks - creation finance part of bnp Paribas - check out their trust pilot reviews 🤣
Did you use the sort code checker I gave you.
This BACS thing - is it just the finance company using an specific acronym to mean a generic "bank transfer" or are they specifically prohibiting payment using faster payments?
Until faster payments were introduced all standard transfers between accounts were done using BACS and from a customer point of view you just told your bank which sort code and account to send the money to, same as with faster payments.
on the how do I pay page they just provide their bank details
https://www.creation.co.uk/contact-us/most-popular-topics/how-to-make-a-payment
and if I stick that in my banking app I can't verify the payee via faster payments (probably because the account is BNP paribas rather than Creation) but it does allow me to proceed with setting up the payee.
This BACS thing – is it just the finance company using an specific acronym to mean a generic “bank transfer” or are they specifically prohibiting payment using faster payments?
Specifically only allowing BACS payment.
Edit - from their email & further down stating that Bacs can take between 3 to 5 days so def not a normal bank transfer.
Should you wish to pay this amount, as the figure quoted above is in excess of £2,000.00, we may only accept a payment either via BACS or cheque.
@ slackboy I know they accept Bacs it's just as a non business bank customer I cannot send a BACS payment
I think you need to just ignore that and treat their use of the word BACS and just any kind of bank transfer. All they're saying is that above 2 grand you can't pay with cash or debit/credit card.
All I’m asking is it normal to not be given a statement of account with the settlement figure?
I've only ever got a settlement figure, but that's all I've asked for. I get a yearly statement.
Have you asked for a statement specifically?
Have you asked for a statement specifically?
Yes, on a number of occasions over the past few weeks, the latest response just told me how much I was going to save by repaying early, previously they've told me it was with their finance dept but its never been forthcoming.
Is it normal for finance Co not to provide you with a statement when you request a settlement figure or am I just supposed to pay whatever figure they pluck from thin air with no evidence to back it up?
And
now royal mail have lost the cheque that I sent special delivery – me and money just never work out
If you don't know how much you owe, how were you able to send a cheque?
If you don’t know how much you owe, how were you able to send a cheque?
They gave me a settlement figure. I'm just trying to find out how they arrived at that figure.
Personally I'd start escalating it to their complaints department and start threatening to take it to the FOS if they do not respond.
Re the BACS thing. I've always called any bank transfer BACS much as I call why suction based cleaning device a hoover.
Give me 5 mins, I'll ask my brother in law...
I've done this a couple of times (paid off car finance early), just found the contract for the last one and the T&Cs for early repayment state you can pay by BACS/CHAPS or by cheque. I can't remember exactly but pretty sure I had to call and get the bank to do a BACS transfer as it was over £10k. Finance company was Alphera (BMW), I sent the money through Barclays as I couldn't do it from my Starling account (both personal accounts).
Settlement fee - I don't remember exactly but seem to recall they did the same, just gave me a settlement fee and told me how much I'd save by paying off early. Fag packet maths looked OK to me.
Re the BACS thing. I’ve always called any bank transfer BACS much as I call why suction based cleaning device a hoover.
I think very much this, all our business stuff ask for bacs payments but its just an electronic payment, faster/chaps or what ever. If they've given you the sort code/account number just crack on via your personnel account.
In regards settlement, when i've seen settlement offers from finance firms (i'm in the insurance game, receive them relatively often after total loss claims) they just have the total owed, never seen one with calculations. You'll need to press for that but should be able to work out from your contract.
Lenders don't always send a settlement quote in writing, but they have an obligation under Section 97 of the Consumer Credit Act to send one if you specifically ask them to. The written quote should include:
-The total repayable under the agreement (over the full term including future interest and any option to purchase fees)
-Amount of any interest rebate (this is calculated using a prescribed formula)
-The settlement quote (top minus middle)
The settlement quote will typically consist of capital balance + up to 58 days worth interest + any option to purchase fee.
Bank accounts can be very different in terms of what type of payments can be made from them. Some don't allow faster payments, some don't allow BACS payments, some don't allow any payments to be made to a third party bank at all (eg some savings accounts).
Similar restrictions can apply to receiving bank accounts, but if the account can receive one type of bank transfer it will be able to accept them all (Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS).
I wouldn't worry about the settlement figure, the finance industry is incredibly well regulated and no finance co will risk the sort of fines and penalties that they can face to chip their customers a couple of hundred quid.
Try using this calculator, it's as good as any and as long as you're within a few quid, it'll be fine.
https://www.magnitudefinance.com/car-finance-settlement-calculator/
BACS payments are typically only used Business to Business, they were designed to replace cheques, I'm surprised they will only accept BACS, I agree with the above that it's probally out-of-date info and what they mean is "we don't take cash because it's a NIGHTMARE these days and we don't take card payments because it costs us" but check by calling them.
A former RBS Account Manager.
Thanks droplinked & p-Jay, finally got some figures out of them, but took a lot of pushing, used the calculator above & looks like I'm not being mugged completely so will pay up and end the saga. They've also confirmed that they'll accept faster or chaps payment as well which is great, if you've looked at their trust pilot reviews you'll understand why I wanted to follow their instructions to the book. Never had car finance before so lesson learned, thanks all.
