Struggling to pay car finance - what can I do?

I bought a car at the end of 07, while I was still working, on finance for about €12,000. However since then I've become a single mother, and unfortunately, am not in a position to work at the moment. I am struggling to pay the car loan which is about €60 a week from my lone parents.

With the way things are now, If I sell the car now I'd be lucky to get 3 grand for it, and even luckier to get it sold at all, and I'd still owe a few thousand to the finance company.

Is there anything at all I can do? The stress is starting to consume me.

Thanks.

You are too far away to hand the car back under the half way agreement.

The only thing i could think of is could you get a loan from the credit union or the bank for the amount to take you to the half way agreement, the you can give the car back. You'd still have to re-pay the loan but you might be able to stretch this so that you pay back less than the €60 that you do at the moment.

Have you approached the finance company about stretching the loan? Who is the finance with? I got in trouble a few months ago and missed some payments. I've since made these payments up but i reieved a letter from GE Money saying if i needed to extend the term to ring them to organise it.

Try not to get behind, if you do then they can take the car from you. They would then sell it at auction for peanuts and you are left to repay the remaining balance.

Ideally I'd rather not have to give the car back, I live an area that is badly served by public transport, so I rely on it alot.

The finance is with Permanent TSB Finance, I have considered approaching them to extend the loan so the repayments are less, but as it is its already stretched over 5 years (I'm 1 year 7 months in at the mo) so I don't know if they'll consider it, or if that can even be done?

Due to very complicated circumstances i had to contact ptsb about a car finance in my name- ex has the car but won't make any payments so It's left to me. Anyway i found them extremely helpful and very approachable, so i would definitely suggest contacting them and discussing it. I was able to reschedule, although it was only for 3 months, but it halved my payments and gave me a bit of breathing space. I was so impressed with how the dealth with me, i never once felt awkward dealing with them.

I tried to find the letter i got a few months ago from my car finance provider, but i cant find it anywhere.

From what i remember it said they were oblidged under ( what ever it was ) to help and inform people who were struggling at the moment to come to other arrangments to help them out.

They might extend the term back to 5 years, spreading the rest of the payment out that extra 1 year and 7 months. You would need to ask them first if they would do this and how much less it would work out at being.

Not wanting to put you into more debt but the only other solution is to try and get a credit union loan, to help you over the next few months untill things pick up. Some people woiuld argue thats a silly idea but in your situation where you need a car i dont see any other solution. You cant sell the car because it wont cover the finance, if you did that you'd still have to make the repayments untill the difference was made up.

It's a catch 22 situation.

On another note that i saw you had said in another post, you should really think about taking your ex to court for regular maintenance payments. The only downside to this is it will assessed as means for your rent allowance. But they dont assess all the maintenance so this could give you a bit extra each week to help you through.

I can only agree. Getting a loan seems like the only option. Maybe this social lending thing that a friend mentioned once could work out for you.

Talk to the loan issuers. There are people out there that can help you, like MABS - Google them.