New Car Finance Mis-selling, 5.5% kids' savings, £239 vac £99, Xmas Lights Calc, C ostco tips, free £25 on 0%

Major news update: Plus new guide & tool...
Martin: Car Finance Mis-selling... are you owed £1,000s? Now for EVERYONE who's bought a car on finance since 2007
After a landmark court ruling, millions more can now potentially reclaim, including some already turned down, but should you?

If you've a sense of deja vu, you'd be right. I've written a similar headline before, but now the whole thing has expanded, millions more may be able to claim money back on past car finance deals on the back of the regulator's response to a landmark Court of Appeal ruling.

What's changed? Until recently, the prime focus was the regulator's final stage investigation into the 40% of car finance policies with hidden Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) - where dealers could up the interest to get paid more commission without consumers knowing. Our existing Car Finance DCA reclaiming free guide & tool covers that.

Yet a landmark Court of Appeal ruling in October shook things up, with a second issue that covers 99% of car finance policies - all where commission was paid, whether fixed, tiered, DCAs or other - potentially £10bn's worth. So today we launch our new Car Finance Commission Disclosure reclaiming free guide & tool to cover that too.

Let me talk you through what to do in three steps 1: Do a DCA complaint first | 2: New Commission Disclosure complaints | 3: What if you've already done a DCA complaint? First though, a word on m'show.

Step 1. Did you buy a car, van, camper van or motorbike on finance? Start by checking if your car finance had DCA commission.

Back in January, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a final stage investigation into hidden DCAs on past car finance policies. DCAs are where finance firms let car dealers pump up the interest rates charged for individual customers, without customers being told, and then bunged the car dealers extra commission if they did.

This meant many likely OVERPAID WITHOUT KNOWING. The regulator is investigating whether that left people unaware they were paying more than needed (it almost certainly did) and could therefore go elsewhere. See our Car Finance DCA reclaiming guide for full info.

The investigation is unlikely to report before May 2025, but there are decent odds of a mass commission redress system which could see an average £1,100 back. So who should check if they've a DCA case?

Crucially though, there's no way to know if you've had a DCA without asking, so our easy free complaint tool does two things...

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

It's already generated over 2.5m complaints for people. It's worth doing that before anything else here. And the sooner you do it, the better, as it reduces the risk of you being time-barred out once decisions are made.

It's worth noting that as all commissions, including DCAs, are covered by the new Court of Appeal ruling (more below) on a different principle, you could complain that way too. However, my best guess (it's an uncertain situation) at the moment is it is likely better to start with the DCA route (see why, on balance, you should do a DCA claim first).

If you've already done a DCA claim, and been told you didn't have it, then read this next step...

Step 2. A landmark October 2024 Court of Appeal ruling means all car finance deals with undeclared commission were unlawful (though this ruling could be overturned).

In Oct 2024, in a decision that sent shockwaves through the car finance world, the Court of Appeal ruled: "Brokers never obtained the claimants' fully informed consent to the payment... the claimants were not told that it would be [paid], nor the amount nor any other material facts about the commission." Translation: If you weren't told all the facts, including the amount of commission, then it was a breach of the law.

As it's a precedent-setting common law decision, that means right now this is the law in the UK. And as people were rarely told the commission amount, this opens the door to an estimated 99% of car finance cases. So our new Car Finance Commission Disclosure reclaiming guide & tool helps with that.

Yet an application for an appeal to be heard at the Supreme Court has already been put in, and it is almost certain to hear the case. It would not be unusual for the Supreme Court to have a starkly different view to the Court of Appeal and overrule it, thus in practice changing the law again. A decision needs to be made speedily - by spring 2025 - so there's clarity, but there's no guarantee, and the fallout will take time.

Meantime, the regulator has a consultation (a formality, it's almost certain to happen) on putting a 'pause' on firms having to decide on complaints, in order to wait until the Supreme Court's decided, so there's a firm and consistent decision. That consultation reports next week (19 Dec). So who is likely to be covered by the regulator's new pause (and therefore eligible to complain)...

'Yet even if you're eligible, I'd try the DCA route first. If you then find you didn't have a DCA or had car finance after the deadline, look at this path.' See why I'd probably do a DCA first.

If you choose this route, here's what to do...

Our free guide and tool will help you draft your enquiry to the lender that provided the car finance. This is the firm you actually paid each month - not the broker or car dealer.

Check any agreement documentation you have and collect as much information as possible about your car finance agreements, fill in as much detail as possible, and the tool will produce a letter you can send off.

Step 3. Already submitted a DCA claim? What next?

Of course, what you do depends on the response you got, so let's run through the most common ones.