Sarah* is a mother of two young children. She relies on a vehicle to get to her job as a case manager at a social service agency, and to get her children to school.
In a devastating turn of events, an ex-partner’s actions left her with a terrible credit score and in a huge amount of debt. She lost her much-needed car as a result and was forced to use the one and only lender who agreed to finance another car for her.
When that car was involved in an accident, the same car lender coerced Sarah into a loan for an upgraded car… with repayments of $260 per week, more than four times the repayments of her original car loan. The loan also included charges for four different insurances – none of which Sarah was aware of, and none of which were necessary.
Sarah struggled to make the repayments on top of the other debt repayments and day-to-day expenses. “I’m thinking what can I sell… to be able to get the money?”
Sometimes Sarah would take her children to a relative’s house so they could eat. She would skip meals herself for two or three days on end.
Because of your generosity, CAP was able to investigate Sarah’s loan and found significant issues with the lender’s affordability assessment. She had no idea until one of the CAP team called – and the conversation changed her life:
“I felt like someone had come around to fight for me when I didn’t even know that I needed fighting for. I still – to this day – would’ve been making that payment.”
The lender agreed to write off 85% of the remaining balance, saving Sarah a minimum of $26,830.
“I don’t think [the lender] would’ve offered me that option if I had fought it for myself.”
Sarah worked hard to repay the remaining balance.
“Then I finally got my email to say, “Your car’s paid off.” I cried that day, and I went around the office showing everyone my email. I was like… It’s my first ‘something’ that can go to my kids.”
Now, on weeks between pay cycles, Sarah has money in her bank account. She hopes to take her children on a holiday:
“That wasn’t possible for at least another five years. But now I’m really close to the goalpost.”
And once she’s paid off her remaining debts, she plans to save for a house deposit. Sarah now helps alert her own social service clients to potential loan issues.
“The people that I deal with now benefit from my experiences … because someone spoke up for me. It’s all a big snowball.”
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*Name changed and stock image used to protect client’s identity
