I want to try and explain this as best I can so this may take a while. My credit rating wasn't the best so opted for Money Barn. Unfortunately after 5 months my car was stolen. I then rang Money Barn for a settlement figure. To my surprise the settlement figure was more than the original purchase price of the vehicle. "How can this possibly be the case when I had paid over £2k off the finance" I asked. After a very long time on the phone we got to the bottom of it. Money Barn add 1 month and 28 days worth of interest on to the final price when you ask for a settlement figure. Not only this, the interest figure isn't calculated pro rata like you would expect but at the start of your loan the capital payments made are roughly 25% meaning that the money you pay only 25% of your payment actually comes off the original purchase price, the rest is taken from the interest. This is obviously designed to make it difficult for you to settle early. Example 1st payment of £450. Capital of £108 Interest of £342 This gradually manoeuvres so that midway through the term you are making payments that bring more from the capital than the interest so much so that the final payment only contains roughly £9 worth of interest. Obviously if the interest was worked out over the term of the loan it would be roughly £209 per month. When working out your early settlement they add the 1 month and 28 days worth of interest at their own "special rate" and not an average like you would expect. Having spent substantial time working this out it would take about 8 monthly payments before your early settlement figure would be below your initial purchase price. This practice is disgusting and designed to prey on the desperate. At no point during the sales process is this explained. I have trawled through the contract and this isn't broken down or explained within the lengthy document. I believe I was mis-sold and will be taking this up with the financial ombudsmen. This isn't nothing short of loan sharking and should be banned. It only gets people that are already very vulnerable money wise in a worse situation. I only prey that this doesn't happen to anyone else and they don't have the misfortune of losing their vehicle through no fault of their own.