Black Horse (16%), Volkswagen Financial Services (14%), Stellantis Financial Services (8%) and Santander (8%) have collectively faced a significant surge in complaints, reaching 1,000,000 submissions since the launch of MoneySavingExpert.com’s car finance tool on 6 February 2024.
MoneySavingExpert.com, the consumer help website, has received a total of 1,080,000 complaint letters in less than a month, averaging 30,000 daily.
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The spike in complaints stems from consumers who, between April 2007 and 28 January 2021, bought cars, vans, campervans, or motorbikes through PCP or Higher Purchase (HP) deals.
A notable contributor to the escalating complaints is the use of discretionary commission (DiC) arrangements by car finance brokers, who, during the relevant period, exerted the authority to raise interest rates, resulting in higher commissions. Approximately 40% of these deals involved DiCs, leading to undisclosed overpayments by millions of consumers.
In response to this issue, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) took action by banning DiCs in January 2021 and subsequently launched an investigation in January 2024. The deadline for addressing complaints has been extended until 25 September 2024, aligning with the FCA's report release.
Following the FCA's investigation announcement, MoneySavingExpert.com introduced a free-to-use tool to enable consumers to assess their eligibility and then lodge a complaint.
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By GlobalDataMoneySavingExpert launches car finance reclaim campaign
Explainer: What is Discretionary Commission and why has the FCA launched a probe?
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “The numbers of complaints in not much more than a month is staggering – off the charts – far more than I expected. So, it’s not surprising that some firms are struggling to respond to complaints in a decent time. To frustrated complainers, I’d say for now we should be prepared to give companies some wriggle room on timings, but firms need to urgently step up their complaint-handling resources.
“And this is just the beginning. Even though we were at the vanguard of PPI and bank charge reclaiming, in terms of numbers of complaints, this feels like it is building up even more quickly. In value terms, car finance mis-selling is potentially going to be the second biggest reclaim payout in UK history – possibly over £10bn repaid – which could even provide a fillip to the economy as PPI did.
“Lloyds has already put aside a provision of £450,000,000 towards potential costs and payouts for this. A strong indication that it thinks it, and by inference others, will probably need to pay back money due to DCA mis-selling. Though of course, we won’t know until the FCA’s ruling due in September."
