My advice is to accept it might be different from your expectations and you may feel out of place.

Electric cars are far better for the environment, but Ben from Gloucester’s Nissan Leaf hasn’t been quite as beneficial for his bank balance.

The 39-year-old purchased the EV three years ago, only for it to break down earlier this year after doing 50,000 miles.

Now, he’s stuck with a mechanic bill of over £9,000 – and the manufacturer says it’s out of their hands as the vehicle’s warranty has expired.

So, in this week’s Money Problem, Metro consumer champion, Sarah Davidson, goes digging to try and find a solution.

The problem…

Three years ago I bought a second-hand Nissan Leaf, believing that going electric would save me hundreds of pounds a year on fuel – and I’d be doing my bit for the planet.

I bought it on a personal contract purchase plan with monthly payments of £380, which I have reduced by overpayment to £186 a month. There is now £9,241 owing on the car and the agreement ends in April 2026, at which time there is an optional balloon payment of around £7,500.

I’ve made sure it’s serviced on schedule all the time I have had it, by the main Nissan dealer in Gloucester. In July it began to make a whirring noise and all the dashboard warning lights started flashing. Having taken it to in independent garage, I’ve been told the drive unit has failed and needs to be replaced, which will cost up to £9,000.

The car has done 50,000 miles, which is pretty low, and I’m a careful driver. Still, it’s gone down in value very fast and is currently worth around £6,000.

The situation is a nightmare – I don’t have £9,000 to spend fixing a car worth a lot less than that. I can’t give the car back to the finance company for another eight months and in the meantime I can’t drive anywhere. I have to be able to drive for work.

A friend suggested I contact Nissan customer service to see if they’d make a good will contribution towards fixing it, even though it’s out of warranty. I’m now facing serious financial hardship but they’ve said there’s nothing they can do.

It’s completely unacceptable that Nissan are seemingly happy that their flagship EV has failed after just 50,000 miles. It is 160,000 miles off what the estimated lifespan should be, according to VehicleScore.

Morally, I really feel this shouldn’t be happening but what can I do?

The advice…

You’ve bought a sensible, well-reviewed family car with the expectation that it’ll see you through for a good few years without having to spend a fortune on it.

So it pains me to say it but you don’t have a lot of options. In 99% of cases, car insurance won’t cover mechanical failures like this unless they’re caused in specific ways, such as being involved in a road accident.

You’re on a Personal Contract Purchase finance agreement (PCP), which allows you terminate the finance agreement early and give the car back, though there are conditions. You must have paid off at least half of the amount you borrowed to pay for the car – including the monthly payments and the balloon payment. The car also needs to be in good working order.

For you, Ben, this isn’t going to work. Currently the car’s undriveable and you can’t give it back unless it’s in good repair.

I contacted Nissan on your behalf and put the problem to them.

A Nissan spokesman said: ‘This is a seven-year old car that is out of warranty, has not been taken to a Nissan dealer and we are unclear on its service history. We would encourage the customer to take the car to their nearest authorised Nissan dealership to be checked by Nissan technicians who can advise on any next steps.’

That’s fair, I thought. Until I spoke to Nissan in Gloucester and got a rough quote for a diagnostic.

Firstly, there wasn’t an appointment available for another four weeks.

Secondly, the chap in repairs told me the diagnostic would have to be carried out by an EV specialist at £162 an hour plus VAT, with the tests taking anything between two to four hours.

In order for Nissan to consider contributing to the repair costs Ben, you are personally looking at another bill of around £780 – with zero guarantee that Nissan will give you any money towards getting the car back on the road afterwards.

Thirdly, Nissan Gloucester repairs told me that if the drive unit – the electric motor in the engine – had failed as you’ve been told, it would cost between £4,000 and £9,000 to replace.

Whatever you do, you’re going to be thousands of pounds in debt as a result. It’s not a great look for Nissan’s flagship EV, is it?

In another twist to your tale, Nissan got in touch with you directly after I had spoken to them. You received a letter saying you had been selected for a ‘considerable financial support package to upgrade to a brand new Nissan or approved used model at a significantly reduced price’.

Well, isn’t that convenient. Oh and by the way, you’ve got one week to decide or the offer’s off the table.

You said: ‘This can’t be a coincidence and if I was to take it up it would mean taking on even more debt to finance the new car. After my experience with the Leaf, I’m hardly likely to want another Nissan either.’

Nissan claims it’s an accident of timing, I couldn’t possibly comment. I can say that a seven-day deadline to make such a significant financial purchase decision seems a little hurried.

After months of me going back and forth with Nissan, we’re at a deadlock.

They won’t consider your case without you spending another £800 on a new diagnostic. This leaves you with a few choices:

Talk to your car finance provider ASAP

Explain the situation and what you can afford financially. They should be supportive in finding a way to get you through this.

They may agree to take the car back early without you doing the repair and then continue to pay the outstanding balance back at a lower monthly amount for longer, freeing up money for a second, cheaper car.

Sell the car as it is and accept the financial hit

You may find selling the car yourself nets you slightly more than the finance company will write off your outstanding loan. You could then pay off slightly more of the balance and still negotiate a lower monthly repayment with them over a longer period for the rest of the loan.

There are three ways to sell a car where the cost of repairs is more than the car is worth: for scrap, at auction or through a resale platform. There are various online comparison tools, including Scrap Car Comparison, We Buy Any Car, Cash for Cars and the Car Salvage Group.

Consider credit

I cannot say this emphatically enough. Do not be tempted to pay for the repair on a credit card unless you have an absolutely rock solid repayment plan.

There are some credit cards offering 0% interest on spending over a fixed period, sometimes up to 25 months. If you qualify for one and pay for the repair on it, you could find this the cheapest option.

If you go over the 0% period, though, you’ll start being charged interest at anything up to 40%, which would be a disaster.

Also avoid using your overdraft as almost all banks and building societies charge interest at 40% for this type of borrowing.

Consider refinancing your loan

Currently personal loan rates are between around 6% and 8%.

If you’re eligible, you might want to consider taking a bigger personal loan to pay for the repair and to help cover the cost of buying another car.

Use the equity in your home

If you are a homeowner you could also consider either taking a second mortgage or speaking to your existing mortgage provider to see if you can refinance and take a further advance. This is likely to be the most financially sensible route.

Rates on second charge mortgages can be anywhere between around 6% up to 18% or 20% depending on your credit history and income.

But a further advance on your existing mortgage would probably cost around 4% APR, making this the cheapest option if you need to keep monthly outgoings down.

Get some mortgage advice from an independent broker before you make any decisions.

Accept it and move on

I asked a specialist car trading platform whether it was reasonable for your Leaf to have failed at such a low mileage. They didn’t want to go on record but told me if the car had been carefully maintained, you have been just really unlucky. Most Nissan Leafs go on an awful lot longer than seven years and for many miles more than yours.

Not much of a comfort, I know, but sometimes things just break.

Sarah Davidson is an award-winning financial editor and head of research at WPB.

Got a money worry or dilemma? Email sarah.davidson@metro.co.uk

It’s not as far away as you might think.

‘My head spins trying to work out the smartest move.’

It wasn’t easy but, these change meant that, in just under six years, I was out of debt.

Welcome back to Me and My Money, Metro’s series taking a peek into the nation’s wallets and bank accounts.

This week we meet Ambrina Taylor, a 47-year-old money blogger and mum, who lives in a London rental property with her two children and partner, Paul.

After facing a series of obstacles including more than £20,000 of debt, navigating divorce and walking away from her business, she now makes around £3,000 a month sharing her expertise to her 75,000 folllowers through her Instagram account.

Hi Ambrina, tell us about yourself and your history with money

Growing up, I remember my parents were always stressed about bills. 

I went to the University of Westminster when I was around 18, to study psychology, and then did a second undergraduate degree in physiotherapy at the University of East London, but accumulated mountains of student debt, because I didn’t know how to manage my money.

Most of the time I wasn’t using my loan to live, I’d buy books with it but I also paid for a breast reduction and bought clothes. 

I worked part-time as a waitress in a cafe too, so I had money coming in, I just had more going out.

How did debt continue to build?

I moved in with my ex-husband aged 18 and got my first job as a physiotherapist aged 27. By then I owed £6,000 towards student loan and credit cards. My former partner worked in construction but payment could be irregular.

We managed until we bought our first house in London in 2006. Despite our debt we scraped together a deposit of 10%, but we were spending more than we brought in.

The house was decorated in Laura Ashley and I regularly splurged on days out or used credit cards.

Then I gave birth to my son Jake, now 17, in 2008, and ten months later I had my daughter Olivia, now 16. 

When did you realise things had got out of hand?

Sometimes I’d be out with the children and my card would get declined and it would bring me back to reality.

One day in 2017 I tried to get petrol for the car. I prayed the card would go through but it didn’t and I had to leave my phone with the staff so they knew I’d come back with the £5.

I’d never felt shame and humiliation like it before – and so much guilt because I felt I’d failed my children. Enough was enough.

At home, I sat down and calculated our debt. I had thought it was £10,000, but it was actually £21,000 and we were already making debt repayments of £1,000 a month.

Instead of feeling upset, that gave me a boost, because I realised we’d have much more money around when we’d paid off the debt.

I stayed in debt for so long because I thought everyone else was doing well. But I had to realise, no one was coming to rescue me, I had to do it myself.

How did you tackle paying it all off?

I settled on the ‘snowball’ approach pioneered by Dave Ramsey, involving paying off the debts smallest to largest, moved all the debt to interest-free credit cards and cut out all non-essentials. 

This included new clothes, haircuts, trips out and even activities the children were doing which I felt a huge amount of guilt about. That was the worst part of the journey. There were times when I wondered if I was doing the right thing, but the children got involved and helped out. They’d colour in our debt chart on the fridge and were a part of everything we did.

We cleared the debt in eight months and I earnt extra money through side hustles like completing surveys.

When we cleared it, it was Christmas time 2017 and we took the kids to Bluewater shopping centre and picked names of disadvantaged children off the wishing tree and bought presents for them. It was wonderful to use the money we now had to do something lovely for someone else. The kids still talk about it and I feel really proud that we did that.

What was your biggest financial challenge?

After the debt, my separation from my partner. We ran a successful doggy day-care business but I left in 2023.

It was a blow to my finances but by then, my social media account was growing in popularity.

I didn’t start off that way, but I wanted to share the journey because being in debt is lonely and soon brands started reaching out to work with me, including my dream money-saving brand Plum, in 2023.

Sometimes being self-employed was a worry, I wondered how I’d cope paying the rent on the small flat I’d moved to, paying my bills and paying towards the mortgage on my ex’s house. 

But I made it work – something would always drop into my inbox. Now I can earn around £3,200 a month, although my income is variable. 

Splurge or spend?

Travel is my biggest splurge – we travel a lot now from 24-hour day trips abroad to longer holidays.

Money isn’t everything. It can become everything when you’re in this job, but it isn’t everything. When I’d paid off the debt, I wanted to hoard every penny when it came in, but now I know what interests me and it’s seeing the world with my kids so I have learnt how to spend again.

Has your experience had an impact on your children? 

The children have learned they can’t just have what they want, they have to save money, and having seen my struggles, I’m sure they don’t want that for themselves.

Jake particularly is good at earning and saving money, but they haven’t taken on my frugality completely, they say I’ve put them off Primark whenever I go in because I used to drag them in there so often, but instead they both use Vinted for clothes and will always look for a deal.

What would you say to others struggling with debt?

Take a day, go through your bank statements and work out where money is coming in and going out.

The whole debt-free community on social media, including Facebook pages and other Instagram accounts is very supportive and you never feel alone. 

Are you impacted? Here’s how to get your loan cleared.

It wasn’t easy but, these change meant that, in just under six years, I was out of debt.

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Since that night, our lives have never been the same.

Listen to article

I’ll never forget being a naive, 18-year-old fresher, checking my bank account at the end of the month to see if I had enough money to go to the pub after uni.

Usually, after rent, splitting bills with housemates, and paying my gym membership from my part-time job, I’d be left with enough for a couple of pints.

Until one day, £2000 magically dropped into my Santander student account. Confused at first as to where it came from, these concerns soon transitioned into ‘I’m rich,’ when I realised my bank had ‘gifted’ me a lovely overdraft to spend at my leisure.

This, of course, was followed by a shopping spree at Beyond Retro, lunch in the Brighton Laines, and an afternoon sesh at East Street Tap. Looking back, I can see how silly my spending habits were and how dangerous they could become.

But with 2K casually landing in a few of my friends’ accounts – during the height of summer – it was safety in numbers.

Thankfully, I managed to pay my overdraft off before the charges kicked in, which saved me a whole lot of future debt. It also forced me to become more responsible with money, focusing on saving it, rather than spending.

But the whole scenario got me thinking: what should your overdraft limit be, according to your age? Because at 18, a random and unasked-for £2000 doesn’t seem like the brightest idea. Hopefully, almost a decade later, it’s a thing of the past.

With this in mind, Metro spoke to Matthew Sheeran, money saving expert at Money Wellness, and finance specialist Pernia Rogers, founder of Your Finance Travel Buddy, to get the low-down.

What should your overdraft limit be?

‘There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much your overdraft limit should be, but we do see some patterns based on age and life stage,’ explains Sheeran.

Rogers agrees, adding: ‘A more practical approach is to set your overdraft limit according to your income, which usually grows as you get older.’

But for clarity, the pair have split these guidelines into age groups:

18-24

‘If you’re 18 to 24, your overdraft limit will typically be somewhere between £100 and £500,’ says Sheeran. At this stage, most people are studying or just starting out in work, so they don’t need or qualify for a large buffer.

If you’re unsure of what bank account to go for as a student or young adult, Rogers says that many student accounts offer interest-free overdrafts of around £500.

‘These can be useful if managed carefully, but it’s important to treat it as a buffer, not free money,’ she warns. If only I’d had such advice back in the day.

25-34

According to Sheeran, this is when we expect to see limits rise to around £500 to £1,000. ‘As people’s income increases, they start taking on more financial responsibilities like rent or bills,’ he states.

Rogers elaborates: ‘Early in your career, between the ages of 25 and 30, when your income is more stable, banks may offer larger overdrafts.’

However, the expert still urges you to be sensible. Rogers says it’s a smart idea to limit your overdraft to about one month’s salary and only use it in emergencies.

35-44

By the time people are in their late thirties or early forties, their overdraft might be as high as £1,500, Sheeran reveals. But ideally, it’s used only for unexpected costs, not everyday spending.

The amount is likely increased to this level due to higher earnings and the expectation that people this age are more financially mature. Meaning, they typically refrain from splurging on superficial purchases.

Once you’re older – around the 30+ age – and more established, you’ll have access to higher limits, explains Rogers. However, your overdraft should never be part of your regular income.

45+

‘Once people reach their mid-forties and beyond, it’s common to see limits start to shrink again,’ Sheeran says. He puts this figure at around £500 to £1,000, as people become both more financially stable and look to reduce their reliance on credit.

Overall, he says it’s important to remember that your overdraft is still a form of borrowing, and if you’re constantly in it, that could be a warning sign that something’s not quite right with your budget.

‘It’s designed to be a short-term safety net, not a regular source of money.’

Every little helps, right?

The cost of being able to be me, and the value of my happiness at finally being free? Priceless.  

The cost of being able to be me, and the value of my happiness at finally being free? Priceless.  

Charles Thompson shares how he turned his finances around (Picture: Supplied)

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…

More than half of Brits saw a drop in disposable income last year.

‘After all of my repayments had gone out, I’d be left with 30p for the whole month.’