Car finance companies causing 'misery' for some, advocates say

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A financial mentor hopes the Commerce Commission taking car finance lenders to the high court will send a strong message to the industry.

On Thursday the Commerce Commission announced it would be seeking financial penalties from Go Car Finance and Second Chance Finance for alleged breaches of the responsible lending laws.

David Verry from North Harbour Budgeting Services says financial mentors will be hoping it sends the message that inappropriate lending will be prosecuted.

Verry, who has dealt with several cases involving Go Car Finance, said such companies caused “misery”.

“We’ve seen people impacted in a huge way, choosing to make car payments when you know they should have been making rent payments, they should have been putting food on the table.”

He said there were several other companies out there that they were “also hoping will eventually be prosecuted for doing very similar sorts of things”.

Christians Against Poverty client advocate Sam Mani said despite the responsible lending laws being strengthened in 2021, they were aware of around 40 lenders disregarding the law “to make a quick buck”.

He said that was tipping vulnerable people into financial hardship and distress.

“In the last two-and-half years we’ve successfully disputed more than 100 unaffordable loans, resulting in $850,000 of debt being written off for clients.

“Common breaches of the law we see are lenders fudging the numbers on affordability assessments by overestimating income and underestimating expenses, and overlooking clear signs of hardship such as defaults on other loans.”

He too hoped the Commerce Commission’s action sent a clear message to lenders to behave responsibly.

But Verry said it was not just the vehicle financial lenders at fault.

“We think a lot of the damage has actually been done by the agents of Go Car, being the car yards.”

An agency arrangement between financial lenders and car yards incentivised the agents to prey on borrowers and upsell them beyond their means, he said.

“We’re not sure what can be done about them, but they’re certainly complicit in many of the cases that we’ve been involved in.”