If I owe less than my car is worth, like say I owe £4k and the car is £5k worst case does that mean I can get rid of it early and get a lovely cooper S?

Think you have to pay the balance before you can sell otherwise will fail the HPI check?

I may be wrong and making it all up

Quote from: XEntityThink you have to pay the balance before you can sell otherwise will fail the HPI check?

I may be wrong and making it all up

I think your right, i think it shows as outstanding finance on the HPI, thus your not able to sell it, unless the new owner does not HPI it.

The option would be to take out another loan (not secured against the car i.e. credit card(s) depending on limit and obviously charge for cash withdrawal, unless you can pay off load by CC) or borrow some money from someone to get rid of it and pay them back once sold. Obviously only accept cash or something secure!

Sell it, they pay whats left on your balance you get the rest to go towards your new car, thats how it worked when I part xd mine anyway.

As above really. If its a private sale you should really declare that its got finance outstanding on the car, and that usually scares away people, i know I wouldnt want to buy a car with finance outstanding. If you flog it to a garage theyll sort out the finance and what not, but you wont get a good deal.

If u can manage it, the best bet is to get an unsecured loan out, pay off the finance, then flog it privately

There is a facility called "Voluntary Termination" or VT - which is similar to a repossesion, its a function HP agreements where you have paid off more than a third of the initial balance (I believe its a third but it may be slightly different - also it may only be valid until you have paid past another point - I cant remember all the specifics), Im not entirely certain if this affects your credit score or not - conflicting info online and I dont think I ever found out when I worked for a loans company. The idea is you give them back the car and they credit your loan with the amount the car is worth, plus they credit you for any unearned interest on the car (HPs can have front loaded interest) but you would probably be charged selling fees.

Not sure whether you will get a good deal from this or not, they may not give you the best deal - I used to work in a subprime finance company and their loans were very expensive - meaning there was always a bit of loan left over to pay back even after the VT (known as the VT liabilility), presuming yours is a normal prime loan then it may be a bit different. Might be worth investigating if you are going to contact them for a settlement quote in any case.