As Storm says, if your Citroen agreement is HP, this will be stated on the paperwork. If you are not sure by looking, call the company, they will soon tell you.
If the agreement is HP, then the way you calculate the value of the car is take the current trade value and deduct this from the remainder outstanding on the HP finance. eg if trade value = £5000 and outstanding finance = £15,000, then outstanding debt = £10000 (ie in this example, your car is worth negative £10,000)
If the HP is relatively new, it is pretty normal for the car to have a negative value (especially given the bottom has fallen out of the second hand car market so trade values are so low). This is actually good if you are considering an IVA, as there is no asset value in the car at all. This means there would be no point taking the car away from you.
As Melanie says, your creditors will normally allow you to keep up your car HP payment in your budget as long as it is a reasonable amount. An example of unreasonable would be if the HP you are paying is more than the proposed monthly IVA payment to your creditors
James Falla
Expert in IVA, Bankruptcy and informal Debt Management solutions, with extensive experience of solving personal debt problems over the past 10 years. I am regularly featured on BBC News, Finance Programs and Radio.
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