CashNews.co
Even more car owners could be owed thousands in payouts due to alleged mis-selling of finance deals, according to Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis.
Consumer complaints are surging after a Court of Appeal ruling that it is illegal for finance providers to pay commission to car dealers without getting informed consent from customers.
In response, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced it’s considering extending the time banks have to handle customer’s commission complaints.
Discretionary commissions, which incentivised car dealers to increase interest rates without customers knowing, are already under review by the regulator.
This extension applies to all car finance commission complaints, according to Martin Lewis, who says this ‘signals that the FCA is paving the ground to in future broaden the scope of its car finance investigation’.
It’s subject to a possible Supreme Court appeal, but Lewis said: ‘If the hold is extended, almost everyone who has had car finance deals may have a complaint and be potentially due money back.
‘This potentially more than doubles the number of people involved, and would really start to look more like PPI scale of payouts, and a substantial threat to the car finance industry.’
How might this affect you?
Lewis predicts this will make it more likely that discretionary commission cases will lead to payouts for consumers.
Whether the same will also apply to fixed commissions depends on the whether the Supreme Court allows an appeal and upholds last month’s Court of Appeal ruling.
The expert advises people to ‘log their complaints sooner including fixed commission complaints, in order to avoid missing out due to a potential time bar’.
Ultimately, millions of people could get an average of £1,100 back if they make a complaint to the finance company they used.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
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