You don't own the car. You owe the money.

If all goes well then there's unlikely to be anything to get upset about. However, if you miss a few payments, then the car gets repossessed by the owner (= the finance company) and they sell it at a trade auction without giving it a wash and a polish and you still owe the difference between what the car sells for and the outstanding balance on the finance agreement.

For a secured debt, you need to put some asset forward as security and you need to own that asset. Like I said, you don't own the car. Maybe, when the finance agreement is completed, the car will then be yours, but it's not yours yet.

If things go wrong with car finance, you end up losing the car and still owing the money for it. It's not fair but it's car finance.

If the about of the debt is incorrect and, if it bothers you, you can ask firstly the finance company and secondly the credit reference organisations to correct the error.

Yes, the debt is unsecured. You do not own the car.

Hi all. I've posted this in the loans forum incorrectly, I'm hoping this is a better place for it

two and a half years ago I took out a 3 year PCP on a Mercedes ML. I can't remember exactly how the deal stacked up in terms of deposit etc, but my monthly payments were fixed at £352 a month for 3 years. I've never had cause to look for credit in the intervening time, but I recently got a credit expert account and looked at my credit report. I was shocked to see that my credit rating was bad, with the reason being that my unsecured lending was too high.

Looking into this further it became apparent that Daimler Chrysler Financial Services (the official name of Mercerdes Benz Finance) had registered the entire value of the vehicle (not just the value of the PCP agreement) as an unsecured debt. Currently this is £27,000.

2 questions therefore....

1. Is it right that the entire value of the vehicle should be registered rather than the value of the PCP agreement

2. Should this be listed as an unsecured debt? The loan is secured against the vehicle- so I can't see how this could be correct.

Any answers much appreciated.

MIke