Martin Lewis has confirmed over 1.2 million are seeking compensation for overcharged interest when funding a vehicle on PCP or HP finance between 2007 and 2021.
Lewis said the tool is now averaging over 30,000 complaints a day and he spoke on breakfast TV today to say that millions could be owed around £1,000 each in compensation, with the total bill reaching “billions of pounds”.
The free tool was launched in February for consumers to use in logging a complaint about discretionary commission agreements (DCAs) in their car loans.
The FCA launched its review after the Financial Ombudsman Service ruled in two cases that lenders’ DCAs, combined with a lack of full disclosure to the customer, had put car buyers at a disadvantage and were unfair. The FCA’s review hopes to quickly determine if this is a widespread issue.
In his latest Money Saving Expert newsletter, Lewis said: “The numbers of complaints are beyond anything I expected, and I expected far bigger numbers than most firms did.
“As they hadn’t planned for this scale, it’s unsurprising many are struggling to respond in a decent time.”
The newsletter explains what next steps consumers should take and also highlighted Black Horse’s £450m “provision towards potential costs & payouts for this”.
Close Brothers has also set aside £400m as part of its own preparations for the wider industry investigation by the FCA.
The information includes indications of when consumers should expect a response from firms like Black Horse, Volkswagen Financial Services, Santander, BMW Financial Services, MotoNovo, Stellantis, Mobilize, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Barclays Partner Finance.
Lewis said: “The reason I’ve been pushing people to complain now is to minimise the risk of you being timed out if there’s a time bar. After all, even the regulator’s own website indicates timing may be an issue.”
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- Source: https://www.am-online.com/news/finance/2024/03/20/martin-lewis-registers-12m-complaints-through-its-car-loan-commission-tool
