Problems with GE Money Car Finance

Lemlin

Was wondering if I could get some advice regarding this. Basically my wife bought an '03 Citroen through GE Money and a local garage (whom I won't name) in '05. In November '07, she was rear ended and the car had 3k worth of damage. Rather than getting it repaired and taking it back from the garage, she organised to purchase a new car through them and trade in the '03 Citroen.

On the 19th December 2007, she signed a finance agreement with a GE Money rep present in the garage for an '05 Peugeot. The agreement was to be for 5 years. Its now December 2012 so we were expecting the 5 year agreement to end this month or, at the very latest, next month. We contacted GE Money though and were told the agreement didn't begin until April 2008 so the 5 years would be up in April 2013.

However, we were sure my wife had taken ownership of the new vehicle before Xmas. We asked GE Money for a copy of the contract and it has been sent out. My wife has signed the contract form but it is not dated beside her signature.

We contacted GE Money and they have now confirmed that my wife's payments from January to March (totalling nearly €700) went towards the '03 Citroen which had been traded against the '05 Peugeot. They did not go against the Peugeot which they should have. We have proof that my wife had ownership of the Peugeot from December 19 as the insurance company have provided us with a letter showing she changed vehicles on that date. GE Money have also admitted that the garage rang on that date requesting the early settlement figure for the '03 Citroen.

What I'm wondering is where can we go from here? To me, between the garage and GE Money, we made 3 payments against a vehicle which the garage owned and not my wife's new vehicle because the garage and GE Money rep delayed sending through the forms. I also think GE Money are partially to blame as they accepted a finance agreement contract without a date on it, which they should not have done.

However, they seem to be taking very little notice of both my wife and I. We rang last Monday and informed them of the details. They said they would pass them to their fraud and complaints department and someone would be back within 5 days. Yesterday my wife received a letter stating that someone was investigating the incident and would revert within 10 days. I rang the rep listed and she didn't even know anything about the complaint (despite the fact that the generic letter said she was dealing with it). As well as this, the fraud department hadn't been informed and her reply was that they will ring the garage today. Surely they should already have completed this? The GE Money rep present when my wife bought the vehicle has left the company.

I've had dealings with GE Money before and they are a nightmare to deal with. Should I just approach a solicitor? My only worry is that a solicitor's bill will be near the €660 or so that we are trying to recover. My other option is to ring GE Money, tell them we'll clear one more payment via credit card but are not paying the other three as they will need to sort the payment issue out with the garage themselves.

That said, they may effect my wife's credit rating if they look for the direct debit in January and we've cancelled it. I'm also not sure if we can even cancel the direct debit without GE Money's approval. I really don't trust them to do anything competently as the place seems to be full of idiots. Even yesterday, the complaints rep attempted to tell me she was waiting on a copy of our contract for the five days she has had it despite the fact that one of the customer service advisors was able to look at it on his PC last week easily.

coffee_cake

You can cancel the DD through the bank once you tell them there is a dispute. Shouldn't affect credit rating afaik
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=56400544

Gillo

Were the payments for the new car different or for the same amount?
If they were different you should be able to show that you made X number of payments of that amount as per the finance agreement.

I'm a bit confused though, you bought the origional car which you later traded in again against the new car, if you traded it in the value of the first car would have been discounted against the new car. Despite your wife not having the first car she would have been liable for the outstanding balance against the loan or hire purchase agreement, in which case GE may have allowed you defer payments for the new agreement until you had finished paying off the first loan.
What you need to do is check with the garage if the trade-in value was paid to GE to cover to origional outstanding balance or did the trade in discount the price of the new car?