Car Finance Mis-selling landmark ruling , 18mth energy fix, 264Mb broadband £17/mth, free crisps & energy drink, 4x free £175+

News! Landmark court ruling
Martin: Car Finance Mis-selling... are you owed £1,000s?
- Use free tool to get your complaint in
- Court ruling makes payouts more likely
- Already complained? Next steps

Back in January, the financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), launched its huge investigation into car finance mis-selling. These are final stage investigations, where it has power to go into firms, done after it already believes there's likelihood of a systemic problem. Since then, 2.4m complaints have been made via our free tool alone.

Originally due to report on 25 Sept, the investigation's result's since been pushed back to May 2025. Yet a new landmark court ruling has sent shockwaves through the car finance world, and certainly makes payouts more likely. Before I get to that though, let's go through the basics of who this applies to - and if you've already complained, I've next steps for you too.

1. Did you buy a car, van, camper van or motorbike on finance? Get a complaint in ASAP. Our Car finance reclaiming guide takes you through it step by step, but in a nutshell, you may be able to claim £1,000s back due to HIDDEN Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) on your policy.

These DCAs are where finance firms let car dealers pump up interest rates, without customers being told, and then bunged 'em extra commission if they did. This meant many likely OVERPAID WITHOUT KNOWING and may be due an average £1,100 back.

If that all stacks up for you... it's important to understand there's no way for you to know if you had a DCA without complaining. That's why our easy free complaint tool does two things...

a) It formally asks the finance company if your policy had a DCA.
b) If you did, it asks the firm to log it as a mis-selling complaint.

Yet get a complaint in ASAP, as it's possible when the ruling comes there may be a time bar introduced, and the sooner you log a DCA complaint may mean the less chance you'll be excluded due to that. Once your complaint is logged, it's a waiting game until the FCA rules in May 2025.

2. Update. Landmark Court of Appeal ruling has the potential to shake up more than just car finance. A shock exploded through the car finance world on Friday, as the Court of Appeal issued a precedent-setting ruling favouring consumers over finance firms. That means this is now the law, though if it goes to a Supreme Court appeal, that could take a different view and overrule it. Simplifying somewhat...

The verdict was unambiguous and said a car sales firm couldn't lawfully receive commission from a finance firm unless it had the customer's 'fully informed consent'. And to have this 'fully informed consent' the consumer would need to be told all material facts, including the calculations and amount of commission. Wow...

3. Already complained? What to do next... Millions have used the tool since we launched it, so unsurprisingly we've had huge numbers of 'What next?' questions.

Yet please bear in mind these are uncharted waters, so I'm making best guesses based on experience from the past mass-reclaim campaigns we've run. In most cases, the court ruling doesn't change anything practical... yet. Here are the main scenarios in brief - there's far more detail in our full what next? help section in the guide...

- It says 'you DID have a DCA'. Great, your complaint is logged, you've done all you need to until May 2025.

- It has only 'acknowledged your complaint'. This is frustrating, yet crucially, it means your complaint is logged. Find out how car finance firms are responding according to our survey to get a feel for whether your delay is normal for the firm (if so, 'it's them, not you') or whether you're an outlier - if the latter, you may want to chase it up.

- It hasn't replied at all. If you complained over a month ago, i) check your email sent box that it did send, ii) check your junk mail for replies, iii) check the email address you sent it to. If all of those are good, see if yours is an isolated incident for the firm - in which case, resend.

- It says 'we need more info' or 'we can't find your info'. If it wants more info, often as you've moved home since you took out the agreement, this is legit - see our it wants more info help for the various different scenarios on this.

- It says 'your car finance DIDN'T have a DCA'. You have clarity that no payout is coming under the current investigation. Yet the court ruling could change that - there's an outside chance all commissions may be looked at. I've already asked the FCA to ensure that if that's the case, you wouldn't be prevented from complaining again.