As a car-finance lender, you hope and trust that your customers will honour their promise to repay the money they have borrowed from you within the timescale agreed. And at the time of borrowing, your customer probably had every intention of doing so. However, in cases of multiple missed payments, building debt and no agreed plan to move forward, it may be necessary to repossess the vehicle against which the loan was secured.

Of course, this is upsetting for the borrower – apart from committing to a mortgage, buying a car is the biggest purchase most people make in their life. The FirstLine Recovery Repossession Team are professional, firm and unfailingly polite, protecting your brand and causing minimum distress to your clients. When we undertake an instruction our collection agents will visit your customer directly rather than sending letters and making phone calls, which are generally unanswered or unproductive. As a lender, if you’re at the point where you’re considering repossession you’ve already made phone calls and sent letters which haven’t resolved the situation.

Once contact is made our agent will attempt to settle the arrears through a digital point-of-sale terminal and arrange a Direct Debit for future payments. If the payment fails and the customer has no other means of making payment, our agent will ask the customer to remove personal belongings and return keys and documents. We then make a full assessment of the condition of the vehicle and ask the customer to sign an Appraisal Agreement. We always aim to come to an agreement with your client and cause minimum distress at a very difficult time, but where the borrower is absolutely refusing to co-operate our fleet includes vehicles capable of keyless total lift recovery.

FirstLine Recovery are available to fulfil asset repossession instructions throughout London, Surrey, Sussex, Essex and Kent. We recover cars, vans, motorbikes, campervans and light commercial vehicles. Our efficient office staff are available to take telephone and Email enquiries daily and will quickly collect the necessary information from you to begin the bailiff recovery process.

Avoiding Repossession

For customers who are worried that their car may be repossessed:

• Speak to your creditor. Your lender would much rather collect the money owed than repossess your vehicle, but if you’ve been avoiding calls and ignoring letters it makes it more difficult for them to understand your situation and plan a way forward.
• Take the time to work out what you can afford and make your creditor an offer. Most lenders will agree a reasonable reduced payment plan rather than have to resort to repossessing assets.
• Try to collect money for a lump sum payment to clear the arrears. Perhaps you have something you can sell or can ask a good friend or relative if they can help.
• If there’s no way you can make payment and your circumstances are not likely to change, your vehicle will probably be repossessed. We recognise this is upsetting, but forward planning can help to accept the change. Think about the journeys you currently make in your vehicle and plan alternatives, such as making more frequent shopping trips so that you’re carrying less, setting off earlier to work or school and for longer journeys check bus routes and train timetables.