Martin Lewis: Car finance FREE reclaim tool & guide

Your complaint should be made to the lender that provided the car finance. This is the firm you actually paid each month – not the broker/car dealer.

Check any agreement documentation you have and collect as much information as possible about your car finance agreements (and keep them somewhere safe for future), then head to our car finance complaint tool below. Or a few firms have launched their own enquiry forms you can use.

• Don't know the details? Check your credit report (see how to check for free). If your agreement has been active in the past six years, it should be listed on there. You can also check any old bank statements if you have them.
  
  If you've found the firm's name, but don't know the finance agreement details, give it a call and ask it to provide them. Though be aware, firms only need to keep information on finance agreements for six years after the agreement ends.
  
  If your agreement's older, it's still worth asking as different firms may have different attitudes. But if it can't help, this may all boil down to whether you've found your paperwork. Similar was true in past reclaims, such as PPI and bank charges reclaiming.
  
  If you really can't remember the finance provider, and you've no paperwork, submit a complaint to the dealership where you bought the car. It'll either deal with it, or forward it to the correct lender. Add in as many details as you can about when you bought the car, its registration, plus your name, date of birth and address at the time.
  
  
• My car finance provider is no longer trading. If the provider's been dissolved, you won't be able to make a claim. If it's in administration or in the process of liquidation, you can complain to the administrator (you'll find it on the FCA register). If your complaint's later upheld, you'd likely become a creditor of the finance provider, but you may only get pennies in the pound back (if anything).
  
  This is one of the cases where it may be worth complaining to the broker (the firm that organised your car finance – this could be the car dealer) instead. We've been told it may be possible to, though it's likely there won't be full information until the FCA reports.
  
  
• My car dealer or broker has gone bust. It makes no difference, the responsibility is with your car finance provider, and it should handle your complaint.

Not much until the FCA finishes its investigation on 25 September 2024 (though that may be extended).

If the FCA finds that there's been a widespread issue with the way discretionary commission arrangements were applied to car finance agreements before 2021, it's said it will "identify how best to make sure people who are owed compensation receive an appropriate settlement in an orderly, consistent and efficient way".

The very best outcome for consumers would be that it simply orders firms to pay out to everyone whose car finance had a discretionary commission arrangement and weren't told upfront. Yet we've only ever seen that happen on a couple of smaller mis-selling cases by individual companies who've made a voluntary agreement to do this as part of a settlement.

Looking at past redress schemes, I think the most likely outcome will be that the FCA comes up with a PPI type solution, meaning it sets out strict redress measures and payments, but only for those who have complained (or do complain) within a time limit. I also hope it also considers special provisions to help vulnerable consumers who may struggle to make a complaint.

It should also ensure if a claim is rejected unfairly, you can then take it to the Financial Ombudsman.

All car finance mis-selling updates will go in the free MSE weekly email – do ensure you get that to keep up to date.