BMW Finance Services What a rip off company despite all the billions they make, there are up there to rip off customers big time Hook

Was the Government or BMW holding a gun to your head? Or did I miss something in the report? 

Not a problem with losing the car, in fact I did not lose it I rendered it, this is what BMW calls it. This means that I have asked to come and pick it up they then sued me even though they received more than the car was worth.

You see, the problem is not with losing the car, the problem is having to pay a company like BMW twice what the car is worth and the governement and courts are supporting that. 

If you can not make the payment then you lose the car. Was there anything in the agreement you signed that states if you can't make the payment they will make an exception?

There is no such thing as American English, there is only one English. We gave it to you, you have changed the pronounciation of the "Rs", changed the way some words are written "Centre" to "Center" etc and called it American English, in fact there is only one English.

Maths, I always did well at Maths. You want me to give you the exact dates, exact car models, exact year of contract, I do not have those, I cannot remember exact dates but what I know is that we did

15 years of leasing with BMW, every three years a new car. I worked for the Last company for 7 years, before that I was with different companies but same system, always leasing. the Lease was worked on 60 months but only lasted 36 months then we changed because we were contacted by the dealers and tempted with offers etc.

the last lease started in 2006 and I was made redudant in 2007, I tried to keep up the payment of 688 per month but could not because now I have no income and called them and made some offers but they turm me down so I asked to collect the car. The car waited in my driveaway for more than 6 weeks for collection, I phoned 4 times to collect and one morning out of the Blue I had this really loud knock on the door at 07:00AM that traumautised my young family and when I opened the door, four big gorillas were standing there asking me for the keys. BMW charged me 386+Vat for this service. I hope that it is clear now, I am 45 years old now but my math is still good. Thanks Robert.

We had a Tiguan, wife's car with VW. The same had happened but we were never sued, they never collected the car and we never got to pay more than is worth so it is not the same. VW understood the situation, they agreed to accept half the payments until we get sorted, they called us every six months to see whether the situation had changed and what they could do to help. a year later, my wife got back to work, we carry on paying the finance until we finished and now she bought herself another car. Not all finance companies are the same, BMW is too greedy and they make money going after easier targets, they treat their customers very bad and do not care whether you have being doing business with them for one month, one year or 20 years. To them, YOU ARE A NUMBER, they are there to rip you off, they paid a very expensive lawyer firms and drafted the contracts so as soon you default, you are theirs for the taking.

They still send me a lot of marketing rubbish, I still get free invite to go and test the new cars, they are still trying to sell me their cars. They are now also involved in Debt management, IVAs etc..

It is too late for me but I am trying to warn anyone thinking of dealing with BMW finance, they are money landing sharks so be very careful.

To Coast, sorry there is a Syntax error, what I meant to say is this.

"if they did not provide the service, they should not get paid" This is Fair.

The loan of 32K and the interest of 16K was for a period of 60 Months, this was a service. I.e they were charging, 3200 a month interest per calendar year. The loan lasted 18 months so the interest to be paid is 4800. In total, I should have paid BMW 32000+4800 interest for the 18 months equals 36,800. Overall, I paid 36,000 and they sued me for yet another 24,000, totalling 60,000.

The service of lending me the 32K for 60 months never took place. BMW did not have to wait for their money for 5 years so I should not have to pay them for a service that they never gave me.

The car, BMW sold to me is worth 32,000 from BMW forecourt brand new. Now they are charging me 60,000 for the same car. Is this fair Mr Coast????

"if they do provide the service, they should not get paid"

That is not fair. Your signature and your word have no value.

I didn't realize there was such a language barrier between American English and British English.  I knew there were some differences in the language but thought Math was more universal that it appears to be. 

Based on what you last wrote you re-leased a car every 3 months.  So in the British math it appears that 3 months equals 5 years, otherwise how does one explain what your old company has to do with any of this anymore.  Based on your own math you would have re-leased the car about 20 times in the last 5 years.  Of course that 5 years has now gone to 15 years.  In addition I guess in your English re-leasing a car every 3 months equates to having the car for 18 months of a 60 month lease.

but every three months we leased a new car and they were happy to refund the interest.
- They weren't being nice guy's.  They did that because you got a NEW lease, and they still had you legally bound to a contract.  Once you were no longer able to pay your legal agreement they came after you.  Again, this is the exact same thing that just about every finance company would do.

Obviously you are going to continue to think you were ripped off, and nothing I or anyone else is going to post is going to change that.  So good luck and perhaps you may want to work on your math before you enter into any more legal agreements.

Hi Robert,

I am not slipping through anything. You are getting confused because through the 15 years, it has not just been one, the lease suppose to be for 60 months but every three months we leased a new car and they were happy to refund the interest. When the situation changed they sued me for more than 60 months of interest.

The problem only happened with the last leased car because that is when I was made redundant, the lease was still on going and I phoned them to tell them that my situation had changed and that I could no longer afford the payment and that is when the cup of coffees have stopped and the real face of BMW finance showed up.


Hi MochaG,

Thanks for your contribution, shame noone from the UK was able to contribute.

Why am I obligated to pay the contract price? the contract is an agreement on a service provided. The service is a loan over 60 months and the interest is worked out for the 60 months so surely if they do provide the service, they should not get paid. The interest should only on the period given and that is the 18 months. Overall price, with interest for 60 months was 48K, they sued me for 60K. it happened to me, it could happen to anyone.

Like Ronny said:"Car dealerships and finance companies are well known rip off artists" this is what has to stop, they currently do it because they can and somehow they have to be stopped. I cannot stop them physically so I am letting everyone know what they are dealing with and believe me a lot of money isbeing lost because now people are thinking twice as much before they sign that contract that is not worth the paper it is written on.

You nail it MochaG, you said: "Don't think any car company would let this free money go away easily... Especially luxury car companies...". It is free money because the government is not controlling them, basically they take no responsibility for the contract or whatsoever, when all goes they win, when all goes bad they win too, they take no responsibility or whatsoever for lending people money. They armed themselves with a strong lawyers and they sue their customers, the first chance possible because they have the means and because they can, this is what needs to stop.

They should some responsibility for their action like we all do. They lend the money to someone, there is a contract. a Contract is between two parties so BMW finance should also accept responsibility. They should be allowed to ask or apply for any free money but only what it is owed to them. in my case, the car list price was 32K, they gave me interest for 60 months worth another 16,000. The loan only lasted 18 Months, the total price owened should 38,000 not 60,000 which what they sued me for. This way, it will be fair for the consumer and manfacturer, no free money for anyone, eventhough BMW are known to make $$$$$$ on their cars especially that now the parts are made everywhere in the world.

This is all I am saying....

Thank you very much for your contributions.

The more I read the report, the more I am confused...

You were employed by a company and the company leased BMW for you all the time you were there for over 15 years? Then you left the company in 2006 because the company was sold to someone else? Afterward, you keep going on the car contract with your own company? Then you signed a new lease for a new car 18 months ago (with your own company) but could not afford it anymore, so you returned the car to them? Then they sued you for the interest for 48k?

One thing for them is that even though your payment is over the real price of the car, you are obligated to pay for the whole contract price, not what you think it is over. If they did not accept your offer even though you think the sum of what you paid would exceed the car price, you are not out of their legal loop. That's why they could still sue you for even more. I think you assume that paying an amount of money which is more than what the market value of the car and that would be OK to walk away. Don't think any car company would let this free money go away easily... Especially luxury car companies...

Why do you keep skipping over what is a very simple question....

You still have yet to explain that if you left your job 5(almost 5 1/2) years ago, where you had a 60 Month(5 year) lease.  How was only 18 months of the lease fulfilled when you just turned it in recently?  Why the discrepancy?

To my friend Coast: " I did more than just meet my obligation. My obligation was 32K, I paid 36K but this was not enough, They want 60K for the car now. If this is fair, even the contract and even over the 60 months period the total owed suppose to be 48K. the interest added was for the 60 moths, the loan never went 60 months but rather 18. The service of lending me the money over 60 months was never provided, why should I pay for it? The payment should have been 32K plus 18 months interest, this is the service provided and this is what BMW should have got paid for, anything else is robbery.

Sorry Ronny, I did not mean it in that way. I really do apprerciate your support.my case is burried, BMW used their strong solicitor firm to screw me and I am having to pay 60K for the price of 32K for the BMW 520D. From the advertising, news letters, loan offers, scams and facilities offers are still coming to my house from BMW so I know that BMW is still at it, I am trying to prevent others to indulge in these misleading offers and try to get people to think before they act be careful when signng these contracts. Should I have taken this contract to a solicitor prior to signing it, I would have been advised not to sign it, but the final contract which has all the clauses was not given to me until collection day, also means you are not given the time or the chance to get advice on the contract. BMW are very clever the way they do this so I am trying to stop people making the same mistake. if I was with VW per example, I would have never had this problem. VW work with their customers, they acknowledge the hard times and world economy situation, they give their customer a break, making it easier to meet the repayment and give them time to recover. Repossessing the car is last option, suing the customer is not even discussed so not all car manufacturers are doing the same.

I could not return the car back to the company because company was sold off and did not exist anymore.
what I now realized is that as soon as you get the car out of the showroom, you lose 20% of the value. I could have bought the 520D for less than 8K and this what I advise people to do now. search car sales websites, check autotrader and others, you will be really surprised, you can buy near new car for a fraction of the price and with better finance deal that BMW can ever offer so do not get yourself engaged with BMW finance, you have been warned.

"you are not given the chance to discuss or reject these contracts, you ignb or you walk"

You complained that you are not given the chance to reject the contract but then you admit you could have walked.

You failed to meet your financial obligation but for some reason you think that a long-winded page of babble makes it someone else's fault. I'm not familiar with UK terminology but in the US we call it defaulting on a financial agreement.

If your goal is to keep this from happening to other people...good for you, but that is not how you are coming off.  You are coming off as one who thinks they have a special situation and should not be held responsible for their choices.  However, you can transpose just about any finance company with BMW and the same thing would have happened.  If you fail to fulfill your legal obligation they will come after you.  That really doesn't matter if you are in the UK or the US.

But your situation is not clear, and your last post just made it less clear.

You say that it was your work that arranged it but also want to claim you didn't know what you were doing because they gave you 1000 cups of tea.  So are you saying that if you read the lease agreement you wouldn't have signed it even though it was your work that arranged it?

If this was through your work why didn't you turn it in when you left the job?  Not sure about the exact laws or exactly why you left the position but seems like unless you quit or they went out of business you may have action against them to pay for any penalties of returning the car early.

You also said that you got a 60 month lease, but haven't worked since 12/2006.  However, you also said that you just recently returned the car, but also only had it for 18 months.  For it to be through your ex job, even if you got the car the same month you stopped working.  18 months would have been about 6/2008, where it would have ended normally in 12/2011.  So exactly what is your definition of "recently"?

Perhaps you can clarify as to the exact dates, such as exactly when did you get this lease, and when did you return the car.  Also, if the car you were sued for is the same one that the company arranged for.  Just based on what you have written it seems as if there are quite a few holes.

What I stated was and I quote MYSELF....

"Honestly I do not care to read or understand all the small print in any contract as it is boring and difficult to comprehend"..

That means I find the small print of contracts boring and difficult to comprehend..not in ANY way implying this report was boring or difficult to comprehend. So all I guess I can state next is I should go screw myself for defending you. If this is the case all I can do is say I am sorry and promise to never defend you again. No skin off my back.

NEXT!

I did not lease the car, my company did. Because they were based in the US, the car went under my name since I was the sales director and the office in the UK and European area. There was also an allowance allocated to this so it was well beyond me means, just to clarify.
The reality is that we do not know what is hidden up there, I had no idea that after 20 years of international experience and an engineering Degree and MBA, I would find it difficult to find a job but it is the nature of the beast today, this is what is happening today in the UK. The people out of work are not the lazy, uneducated, unskilled people who do not want to work. A lot of people out of work and loosing their homes and livelihood are like myself which is real shame. All the doors seems to be close and we do not seem to be able to get back to work, or get help from the government on starting new business or anything. I was paying 50% tax when I was working, more than $4,000 a month, now if I went and applied to get some of that money back, I get $100 a week. Believe me Robert, If I knew that this would have happened to me, I would not have been ;easing cars from BMW or nyone else for that matter for the last 18 years. I worked it out now that the money I did spent on leasing I could have bought my house with and I would have been mortgage free. I am not innocent by any means, I made many mistakes but I am writing this to help others not to make the same mistakes I did especially under the current circumstances when country and world economy is under recession.
I bought the car for 32,000, I paid so far 36,000 and BMW Financial services sued me for yet another 24,000. This means that the 32,000 car is now costing me 60,000, this has happened because in my current situation I cannot afford a good solicitor, there is no legal aid available so BMW can do whatever they want. This is what is happening in our country, they have stripped people from Legal aid so you cannot defend yourself unless you have money to do so.
The latest is that BMW financial services with their strong lawyer firm have turned into giving supplying other services, like Debt Management, IVA etc. they would help you as long as you do not have a problem with BMW themselves, a joke isn't it. They are still using their power and the legal firm of strong paid for lawyers by their billions to do whatever they want and mislead people.
I warn everyone, do not get involved with BMW Financial services even if you are desperate. do not get nvolved with their car finance deals or any finance deal from them for that matter. They are getting desperate and now trying to finance anything they can put their hands on because they have reliaze they have the power to sue people and make even more easy money that way. There are charities who can help with debt management for free. get involved with BMW Services and you will be looking for trouble, trouble you cannot afford because you do not have the deep pockets this company has. 

In this report it seems to come down to this.  You leased a luxury car, after about 18 months you could no longer afford it and had to give the car back.  You were then sued because you did not fulfill the legal obligation you made.  Your excuse as to why they shouldn't...because you were given 1000 cups of tea and didn't really know what you were getting yourself into.

My suggestions is that the law has to be changed.
- How about living within your means?

Contract or no contract, there should a law and a system that looks at cases in their individual meritts. we have to make sure that the poor and needy and people under hardship are protected.
- I don't know about Europe, but here in the US people that are leasing BMW's are not really considered "needy" or "under hardship".  So you are probably not going to get much sympathy for your situation.

Ronny didn't say your post was boring. He said the contracts we're all given by dealers are boring.
Unfortunately your contract apparently dictated the pre-determined interest for the life of the loan is guaranteed to them.

Don't know diddly about UK or EU law. I know little enough about USA law.But that sounds extremely weird to me that they would have such a clause. Is it something that got activated by you missing any payments?Do you have any grounds to fight them, with a lawyer, or whatever you call them; barrister? Advocate?

Blimey, BMW over there are certainly a bunch of bloody rotters, huh? Have you engaged legal help? Please update us.

I am sorry that my story was boring for you but I had to give as much information as possible and in order to do that the report had to be long. I also used easy English so that everyone can read it. Your comments are exactly what the finance companies are saying, you signed the contract, your fault, now you owe us 10 times what you originally owed us plus interest plus solicitors fees and the list goes on.

Finance companies are saying that it is our responsibility to make sure that we understand what we read, yet they spend millions in generating these contracts. These contracts are generated by very reputable, expensive law firms and they look at everything. Normal Joe Bloggs would not have a chance against these.

The contract is handed over to you to sign on their premises, it is given to you in pages and with car documents and everything else, you are not given time to prove read it, you are not given a chance to get read by a law firm because if you did, they probably tell you that it is a death trap.

There are some of us who would not understand the contract even if we read it 10 times. Yes, you will know what bottom line is but unless you know the law on contract hire and you are up to date with the latest system, you will really not know what you are signing for exactly. I am not sure whether you watched the last episode of "Rip Off Britain", if you have, you probably have seen the old couple now on the street. They signed contract and got themselves into trouble and lost their home because of it even if they were told that they could live in the house until death. These are the situations that I am talking about and that can be avoided, this old couple should have been protected from the sharks who eventually got them in the street and took their home.

All contracts today will have to be policed and generated by a neutral organization who not only can protect the supplier and consumer interest alike. There should be clear boundaries to what happens next.

Finance companies, loan companies and others should be responsible in giving these loans out rather than just meet a quote. There should be made to take some of the blame if and when things go wrong. Today, once you sign the contract, you are liable, they can take your livelihood, your home, any assets that you may have and this can drive you to the grave which is what has been happening, visit the hospitals and see how many people are there because of stress related diseases but it is costing the finance companies nothing, THE TAX PAYER PICK UP THE BILL. I have spent 10 days in hospital because of Pneumonia so I know what I am talking about. I have seen people with strokes, brain tumors, blood clots in the chest and in the heart, heart diseases, many caused by stress related to a job loss or financial situation of some sort. 

You miss ONE payment and finance company will be on your back, telephone calls at all times, hassle, threats then repossession then debt collection agencies then court for which you will pay the fees, NOTHING CONSUMER CAN DO BECAUSE ZERO PROTECTION AT THE MOMENT. The finance companies lose nothing, they will charge you ten times what you owe them, plus interest plus solicitor and court fees and before you know it, you will find yourself in deep debt, THIS IS WHAT HAS TO STOP.

Signing a contract should not be the end of the world, it should be a very structured event that takes into consideration both parties interest making it very clear what the next step is and giving people room for manoeuvre. No-one want to lose their job when it happens and it has been happening quite a lot lately, it is really bad time for the individual, family, finance, so there should be a system in place to give people some room and give them a chance to get back to work. Government is spending Billions bailing out the banks using tax payer's money so maybe, just maybe they can put something in place to protect the thousands in difficulty.

Finance companies should understand that by giving someone a loan or finance on a car or whatever that there is a risk involved and if things go wrong, there should be liable as well and should be put in a position to compromise and try to help their customer not bury him even deeper in debt using some contract that only a barrister can understand. They have to accept responsibility and try to help their customer and be understanding to peoples needs. I understand that they have to recover their money but it should limits to what they can recover. It should only be money owed but not interest over interest over interest, court fees etc. I am sure that the finance company are more than capable to pay their own court fees if they want to take someone to court, why should the guy who has just been made redundant, who is deep in debt, pay finance company court fees too, why is he made to accept full responsibility.

I really hope that someone would really look at this, it will save the country billions in hospital fees, will secure peoples interest and taking a loan will be just that, not a death sentence.
 

..so it is up to us consumers to know what we are signing. Honestly I do not care to read or understand all the small print in any contract as it is boring and difficult to comprehend but with a major purchase such as a car much less a BMW...did they hide what you were actually financing in the contract.? If they did you may have a case. If they did not sadly for you it was a fail on your part and this is why you are getting sued.

With the last car I purchased I skipped all the "fine print" and looked at the bottom line. The bottom line should be a number amount which I can understand, and then decide upon my own God given free will if I want to pay that much for the vehicle and/or finance charges or, walk out the freaking door and try another dealership and/or finance company.