Hi there,

I've just had a nasty shock. I was checking my credit score today and I noticed that my car finance agreement was missing from my credit report.

So I phoned VWFS and their phone representative informed me that my agreement with them was terminated in June 2021 - that's SEVEN MONTHS ago! And all this time I have been happily driving my lovely car, and paying for it regularly too. This is the first time I have received information of this. For the past two years I have faithfully paid VWFS 410 pounds monthly in accordance with my car finance agreement plus 50 pounds monthly for my arrears accrued during the '3-month payment holiday' they gave me in 2020 due to the 'pandemic'.

I last spoke to them in August 2021 when their phone representative confirmed that I was up to date with all of my payments and there were no issues on my account. This was a month AFTER the date they today gave me of June 2021 as the date of termination. They say it was a 'Hostile Termination'. This is a shame as I have paid well over half of the total amount we agreed upon, so I could have Voluntary Terminated had I known.

I have received no phone calls, emails or letters from them at any time informing me of any problems with my account. Nor did I receive any warnings or termination notice. I must admit though, that I have changed my phone number, address and email address and not kept them updated,

I have always acted in good faith and paid the agreed payments. I do not understand why they have been accepting my monthly payments of 410 pounds for an agreement which was terminated 7 months ago. Surely they should have blocked these payments because they knew the agreement was terminated? Where has this money been going? This amounts to 2872.24 pounds which I have unwittingly paid for an agreement which no longer existed. In total I have paid them 3222.24 pounds since June 2021 because I had no knowledge the agreement had been terminated.

At the time of termination I was not behind on my payments. I do not know the reason for termination. Their phone representative today confirmed that my regular payments totalling 460 pounds monthly have been received regularly from 2020 to the present day and are all on their records. Yet they seemed non-plussed, couldn't care less about my account, couldn't give me a reason for termination and said it had been handed to a debt collection company. They said I would have to deal with this debt collection company and get any information from them, VWFS couldn't give me any more information. They said 'Grovenor is dealing with it now'.

I am not willing to deal with third parties or other companies as I have no contract with them and have not agreed to deal with them at any time. If my debt is no longer with VWFS and they have sold it to a debt collection agency then why have they taken 3222.24 pounds of my money? Can I demand a full, immediate refund of 3222.24 pounds paid since they terminated my agreement?

Do I have to deal with this other company? I never signed a contract with them, haven't heard from them (I assume because I am at a new address), have never communicated with them and have no agreement with them.

Please can someone tell me what a hostile termination is and how things work from here? Also what are my rights?

Thanks so much.

Edited by Claire3 on 19/01/2022 at 13:25