PCP ends in November, should I VT before then?
Discussion
Hello all.
First time posting in this sub-forum, and not entirely sure if it should be here or elsewhere.
My question is as per the title, and the following is just background.
Basically, I have a 2016 Skoda Citigo on a 3.5 year PCP, which is due to end in October/November 2016 (not sure of exact end date, the agreement started on the 11th May 2016 when I picked it up), and it's had a particularly rough life, but has only done 27k miles or thereabouts around cities in more than 3 years now.
It's spent the last year or so on the street in a very dodgy housing estate with kids playing on the street that have zero respect for anyone else's personal property who have scratched and dented the car, so loads of tiny scratches and marks all over with a couple of bigger looking dents on the nearside roof edge, above the front passenger door (caused by kids kicking a football into it I think), but I don't see why I couldn't just pull them out with a suitably strong suction type thing. None of the scratches bar one particularly bad patch seem to be down to the surface, and I imagine the vast majority of them will come off with a decent polish. There is also paintwork damage to the driver's door due to one of the neighbour's kids pouring the contents of an ice pack all over the door... There is a small bit of damage to the front bumper that was caused by a low speed shunt into a taxi in March 2018 which I didn't bother repairing under insurance as I suspect it only really needs a bit of primer and then a touch up pen could be used, then it all could be polished and might even look better than new (the paintwork was awful when I got it, swirl marks everywhere and clearly washed with dirty rags before handover but I never contested it as I just wanted to start driving it!)
I started looking into VTing as I've got no real income during the summer as a student (all the loans) and only have £300 odd a month coming in now until september when I start teacher training. I was under the impression that VTing a car meant that it could go back in any kind of state as long it was drivable (since they just go straight to auction), but once I'd enquired after it with Skoda, they told me it'll be inspected according to the BVLRA guidelines meaning I could have to pay out for repairs n all that unless I can sort everything DIY.
Since my PCP is £143 a month, and insurance is kindly covered by my parents as it's like £90 a month extra or something with my car added to their multicar policy, this isn't sustainable since I have bills n other stuff to deal with. My partner gets another £260-odd a month so between us we can just about cover all the bills plus my car finance (rent was paid off for 6 months in advance, so no rent until September too), but I feel like getting rid of my car and getting a cheap £500 snotter I can run into the ground will save me the monthlies in the short term, but of course, this is only worthwhile if I'm not going to have to pay out for all the fines that might result due to the car going back damaged.
If people want pictures of all the bits of damage to help them give me advice, then I'll gladly post a bunch.
I'm a stupid 21 year old with two accidents on my record, the taxi one (still an open claim as he's being a knob and making a load of crap up) and another one from January where the other driver ran into me. The car got repaired by my insurance who are now chasing the other drivers' insurers to recover the costs, so I guess that's an open claim too?
Looking at insurance for any old £500 shed seems to throw up quotes in the region of £2.5k to £3.5k (s
t postcode, student, not a home owner or anything else, and only driver since partner doesn't drive, and two open claims), so I'd need my parents to help me pay for that, although is it probable that the insurance quotes are only coming back as high because I've still got the two open claims, and that if I actually just change the car on my parents policy and leave everything else the same, it wouldn't be as insanely high?
I will pre-emptively say that I'm profoundly deaf and whilst I will try to find a summer job, my disability does often mean I struggle to get anywhere past an interview for any kind of retail job or short term summer job, so I'm trying to plan for the summer as if I WON'T get a job, and then if I do that's just bonus income to make my financial situation better.
I think that's all the background info, advice is geniunely appreciated as my parents are clueless about these kind of things, and my partner's never had finance or anything in their lives, and this is a financial situation that nobody I know can really help with.
Giving up my car isn't really an option, as I am pretty heavily reliant on it, but I suppose I could get by without a car for a few months if I absolutely had to.
First time posting in this sub-forum, and not entirely sure if it should be here or elsewhere.
My question is as per the title, and the following is just background.
Basically, I have a 2016 Skoda Citigo on a 3.5 year PCP, which is due to end in October/November 2016 (not sure of exact end date, the agreement started on the 11th May 2016 when I picked it up), and it's had a particularly rough life, but has only done 27k miles or thereabouts around cities in more than 3 years now.
It's spent the last year or so on the street in a very dodgy housing estate with kids playing on the street that have zero respect for anyone else's personal property who have scratched and dented the car, so loads of tiny scratches and marks all over with a couple of bigger looking dents on the nearside roof edge, above the front passenger door (caused by kids kicking a football into it I think), but I don't see why I couldn't just pull them out with a suitably strong suction type thing. None of the scratches bar one particularly bad patch seem to be down to the surface, and I imagine the vast majority of them will come off with a decent polish. There is also paintwork damage to the driver's door due to one of the neighbour's kids pouring the contents of an ice pack all over the door... There is a small bit of damage to the front bumper that was caused by a low speed shunt into a taxi in March 2018 which I didn't bother repairing under insurance as I suspect it only really needs a bit of primer and then a touch up pen could be used, then it all could be polished and might even look better than new (the paintwork was awful when I got it, swirl marks everywhere and clearly washed with dirty rags before handover but I never contested it as I just wanted to start driving it!)
I started looking into VTing as I've got no real income during the summer as a student (all the loans) and only have £300 odd a month coming in now until september when I start teacher training. I was under the impression that VTing a car meant that it could go back in any kind of state as long it was drivable (since they just go straight to auction), but once I'd enquired after it with Skoda, they told me it'll be inspected according to the BVLRA guidelines meaning I could have to pay out for repairs n all that unless I can sort everything DIY.
Since my PCP is £143 a month, and insurance is kindly covered by my parents as it's like £90 a month extra or something with my car added to their multicar policy, this isn't sustainable since I have bills n other stuff to deal with. My partner gets another £260-odd a month so between us we can just about cover all the bills plus my car finance (rent was paid off for 6 months in advance, so no rent until September too), but I feel like getting rid of my car and getting a cheap £500 snotter I can run into the ground will save me the monthlies in the short term, but of course, this is only worthwhile if I'm not going to have to pay out for all the fines that might result due to the car going back damaged.
If people want pictures of all the bits of damage to help them give me advice, then I'll gladly post a bunch.
I'm a stupid 21 year old with two accidents on my record, the taxi one (still an open claim as he's being a knob and making a load of crap up) and another one from January where the other driver ran into me. The car got repaired by my insurance who are now chasing the other drivers' insurers to recover the costs, so I guess that's an open claim too?
Looking at insurance for any old £500 shed seems to throw up quotes in the region of £2.5k to £3.5k (s
t postcode, student, not a home owner or anything else, and only driver since partner doesn't drive, and two open claims), so I'd need my parents to help me pay for that, although is it probable that the insurance quotes are only coming back as high because I've still got the two open claims, and that if I actually just change the car on my parents policy and leave everything else the same, it wouldn't be as insanely high?I will pre-emptively say that I'm profoundly deaf and whilst I will try to find a summer job, my disability does often mean I struggle to get anywhere past an interview for any kind of retail job or short term summer job, so I'm trying to plan for the summer as if I WON'T get a job, and then if I do that's just bonus income to make my financial situation better.
I think that's all the background info, advice is geniunely appreciated as my parents are clueless about these kind of things, and my partner's never had finance or anything in their lives, and this is a financial situation that nobody I know can really help with.
Giving up my car isn't really an option, as I am pretty heavily reliant on it, but I suppose I could get by without a car for a few months if I absolutely had to.
Simple.
Give the local pre-teen ruffians a small bung to burn that shabby stbox. Everyone's a winner!
From your story it sounds like you'd even be doing the insurance company (who will likely decline your future business) a favour as you'll be saving them from having to pay the mega-claim that sounds as if it's not far round the corner.
Give the local pre-teen ruffians a small bung to burn that shabby s
tbox. Everyone's a winner!From your story it sounds like you'd even be doing the insurance company (who will likely decline your future business) a favour as you'll be saving them from having to pay the mega-claim that sounds as if it's not far round the corner.
Got lost in this post after about the second paragraph.
VT'ing a car doesn't mean you avoid the damage cost, being over mileage etc it would mean you avoid servicing etc.
VT'ing is only beneficial if the financial part of it means you are in negative equity on finance alone, damage costs etc need to be factored into the overall P&L figures.
VT'ing a car doesn't mean you avoid the damage cost, being over mileage etc it would mean you avoid servicing etc.
VT'ing is only beneficial if the financial part of it means you are in negative equity on finance alone, damage costs etc need to be factored into the overall P&L figures.
Whilst you might not see this comment as helpful, I think you are going to learn a valuable lesson in keeping belongings safe and in good condition.
IME when you return a PCP they will inspect it on collection and then inspect it again once it arrives back at the storage facility. Its that second inspection which will pick up even the smallest blemish.
You may want to get it valued by WBAC and then take it down to them to appraise and see what they will knock off and then compare that to your settlement figure. If you have equity I would probably consider that route... (if).
IME when you return a PCP they will inspect it on collection and then inspect it again once it arrives back at the storage facility. Its that second inspection which will pick up even the smallest blemish.
You may want to get it valued by WBAC and then take it down to them to appraise and see what they will knock off and then compare that to your settlement figure. If you have equity I would probably consider that route... (if).
selmahoose said:
Simple.
Give the local pre-teen ruffians a small bung to burn that shabby stbox. Everyone's a winner!
From your story it sounds like you'd even be doing the insurance company (who will likely decline your future business) a favour as you'll be saving them from having to pay the mega-claim that sounds as if it's not far round the corner.
Mostly this although I disagree with the 'sGive the local pre-teen ruffians a small bung to burn that shabby s
tbox. Everyone's a winner!From your story it sounds like you'd even be doing the insurance company (who will likely decline your future business) a favour as you'll be saving them from having to pay the mega-claim that sounds as if it's not far round the corner.
tbox' bit as we're about to add a 60PS Citigo to the family car pool for our teenage dirtbag who will hopefully have a bit more respect for it than you do. Current PCP is 100/month over 4y with a 500 quid deposit - what did you sign up to?Cheers
Thanks for all the responses.
For people saying I don't respect my car and look after it, I'd be interested to hear how you'd propose to stop your car getting damaged when you live on a street which is full of kids who don't give a st about anyone's property, and constantly cause damage to it?
After the rear end accident in January where the other driver drove into me and destroyed my bumper and tailgate, the insurance company got all that repaired and the back was flawless, no damage anywhere, and within two days of the repair there was a new scratch from one of the kids having decided to drag their bike through the gap between my car and the car behind, scratching both of the cars.
How do I prevent that, other than parking my car elsewhere, meaning more inconvenience to me? I'm hardly going to park my car on an entirely different street and possibly cause issues with my insurance just because the kids around here have no respect for anybody's car lol
For real though, it's not a st box. It's just got a bit more cosmetic wear than a typical example, and in fact has lower miles than most cars I see for its age (although most of them were in Liverpool, so hence the rough city life comment).
The car was mostly fine, body work wise until I moved to my current house 9 months ago, just the front bumper damage from the taxi bump and a few very minor scratches.
Anyway, I guess the point of my post was more asking wether it made better financial sense to VT the car now, and save on the monthlies but possibly have to pay out a fair bit for the damage, or whether I should keep the car until PCP's end in November, and then probably pay to get all the damage fixed before handing back in November?
I imagine it usually would work out cheaper to DIY some of the smaller scratches with a bottle of t-cut and a touch up pen, and then pay someone else to sort the bigger bits of damage, than it would to hand the car back as is and pay for all the fines associated with that?
For people saying I don't respect my car and look after it, I'd be interested to hear how you'd propose to stop your car getting damaged when you live on a street which is full of kids who don't give a s
t about anyone's property, and constantly cause damage to it?After the rear end accident in January where the other driver drove into me and destroyed my bumper and tailgate, the insurance company got all that repaired and the back was flawless, no damage anywhere, and within two days of the repair there was a new scratch from one of the kids having decided to drag their bike through the gap between my car and the car behind, scratching both of the cars.
How do I prevent that, other than parking my car elsewhere, meaning more inconvenience to me? I'm hardly going to park my car on an entirely different street and possibly cause issues with my insurance just because the kids around here have no respect for anybody's car lol
For real though, it's not a s
t box. It's just got a bit more cosmetic wear than a typical example, and in fact has lower miles than most cars I see for its age (although most of them were in Liverpool, so hence the rough city life comment).The car was mostly fine, body work wise until I moved to my current house 9 months ago, just the front bumper damage from the taxi bump and a few very minor scratches.
Anyway, I guess the point of my post was more asking wether it made better financial sense to VT the car now, and save on the monthlies but possibly have to pay out a fair bit for the damage, or whether I should keep the car until PCP's end in November, and then probably pay to get all the damage fixed before handing back in November?
I imagine it usually would work out cheaper to DIY some of the smaller scratches with a bottle of t-cut and a touch up pen, and then pay someone else to sort the bigger bits of damage, than it would to hand the car back as is and pay for all the fines associated with that?
numtumfutunch said:
Mostly this although I disagree with the 'stbox' bit as we're about to add a 60PS Citigo to the family car pool for our teenage dirtbag who will hopefully have a bit more respect for it than you do. Current PCP is 100/month over 4y with a 500 quid deposit - what did you sign up to?
Cheers
I was 18 when I got it, not exactly the best financial decision of my life but I've managed... £1k deposit, and £143.18 per month for 42 month agreement, but this was the SE L, and only went with it as the actual car I wanted (colour edition) was only like £100 a month, but would have to be a factory order and they had this car in stock and I could get it within a couple of weeks rather than waiting for 3-4 months.tbox' bit as we're about to add a 60PS Citigo to the family car pool for our teenage dirtbag who will hopefully have a bit more respect for it than you do. Current PCP is 100/month over 4y with a 500 quid deposit - what did you sign up to?Cheers
I will say I have no regrets, the car is great fun to drive and has been unbelievably cheap, the first two services were included in the finance, and the third service and MOT only cost me £175 at a Halfords autocentre. I've not needed to change any of the bulbs, or any tyres, or top up with oil between services, or pay out any extra money over the typical monthly cost + fuel + insurance.
It also served my sister well as her commuting car last year when I was living right next to uni and had no need for it.
Perhaps I should just accept that I'll be fined come hand back time, whether I VT or not.
Someone said about selling the car on and then settling the finance... This is an interesting option, as when I last checked about 2 months ago, my settlement figure was about £5k, and WBAC quoted £5k on their website, so if I take it for appraisal, depending how much they knock off the price, it might actually work out to be the cheapest way of getting out of the finance agreement...
Whenever you had it back you're going to have to pay for the damage to be repaired, whether you sort it or give it to the lease company to sort is your call.
If that cost is the price you wish to pay for having parked where it is convenient for you then that's fine, if you'd rather not have incurred the cost then you should have parked elsewhere and insured it as such.
If that cost is the price you wish to pay for having parked where it is convenient for you then that's fine, if you'd rather not have incurred the cost then you should have parked elsewhere and insured it as such.
TheInsanity1234 said:
I will say I have no regrets, the car is great fun to drive and has been unbelievably cheap, the first two services were included in the finance, and the third service and MOT only cost me £175 at a Halfords autocentre.
I would check your paperwork as it may say that you have to have it serviced at a main agent.As far as the damage goes, it will (probably) be cheaper to let VWFS bill you than get it fixed yourself as their cost should be less than paying for it yourself. You wont know that until you have it back though...
Id get the BCA to quote for the work, i made the assumption they'd be more than getting it sorted myself...
I had repairs done by a "non approved" spray shop, they were pretty reputable but not good when the BCA guy noticed some of the poor work and then said it was cheaper with them in the first place.
I had repairs done by a "non approved" spray shop, they were pretty reputable but not good when the BCA guy noticed some of the poor work and then said it was cheaper with them in the first place.
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