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You are likely eligible for a car finance claim if your agreement started between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024, though the date window alone does not guarantee a payout. The claim also needs to involve a discretionary commission, an unusually high commission, or a tied dealer arrangement. Your fastest next step is a free agreement finder or a call to your lender to check your paperwork.
TL;DR:
- Claims are mainly available for agreements between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024 involving discretionary, high, or tied dealer arrangements, but eligibility is not guaranteed.
- Gathering paperwork such as the credit agreement, invoices, and clause documents strengthens your case, even if some records are missing; a free agreement finder can identify linked lenders.
- The average compensation is around 830 pounds, with larger loans and higher commissions potentially resulting in bigger payouts, though caps may limit smaller claims.
- The dispute process starts with a written complaint to your lender, followed by escalation to the Financial Ombudsman Service if needed, with no impact on your credit record.
- Using a free eligibility check is recommended before hiring claims firms, which should be reserved for complex cases or when paperwork is incomplete.
Falling inside the FCA’s eligibility window is necessary but not sufficient. The regulator’s own analysis covers a large number of agreements, and it estimates that a significant portion could be eligible under the scheme rules, which means many agreements in the window still may not qualify.
The rules turn on three arrangement types:
Formal exclusions matter just as much as the triggers. Personal contract hire (PCH), agreements taken out for business purposes, and certain high-value loans arranged before 2008 generally fall outside the scheme, and loans above set value thresholds by year are also excluded. The FCA’s design is built around information asymmetry: whether you were told about a commission structure that could shape the deal you were offered, not simply whether commission existed at all.
Before you contact anyone, gather what paperwork you have. Missing documents are common and rarely fatal to a claim, but the more you find, the stronger your case.
If paperwork is missing, contact the lender directly, ask the dealer for archived records, or use a regulated agreement finder that searches for you. These tools typically ask for basic identity details and return the lenders and agreements linked to your name, without needing your car’s registration number.
Pro Tip: Photograph or scan every document you find immediately, even partial ones. A single page showing a commission percentage can be enough to support a complaint.
The standard route starts with a direct complaint and only escalates if needed:
The Ombudsman does not treat undisclosed commission as automatic proof of loss. Its decisions turn on evidence and causation: whether the commission arrangement plausibly changed the deal you were offered, and whether disclosing it would have altered your decision to buy.
A claims management company or law firm can help if your case is complex or your paperwork is thin, but the FCA has warned that fees can reduce your final payout by more than 30%. You never need a representative to complain, since both the lender route and the Ombudsman are free to use directly. If you do choose representation, avoid signing with more than one firm at a time, and check cancellation terms before you commit, since duplicate agreements can create fee disputes later.
The FCA’s compensation scheme was set up in March 2026, then partly suspended after legal challenges from lenders, with a tribunal hearing expected in winter 2026 or early 2027.
Where you stand depends on what you have already done:
The FCA has stated that average compensation across eligible agreements is expected to be around £830. That figure gives a sense of scale, though your own award depends heavily on the size of your loan and commission.
The FCA’s redress model works on two parts. First, it takes an average of the commission you paid and an estimate of the extra interest that commission likely cost you, using bands of 17% or 21% depending on your agreement date. Second, it adds compensatory interest, set at a minimum of 3% per annum, to reflect the time you have been without that money.
Averages hide a wide spread of outcomes:
Do not sign with more than one claims firm at once, and read cancellation and fee clauses closely before agreeing to anything. Keep every original document and lender communication, and ask for written confirmation of dates and amounts.
Pro Tip: If you have already accepted compensation or received a final Ombudsman decision on the same agreement, that claim generally cannot be reopened.
Making a car finance mis-selling claim does not itself involve a credit check, and complaining to your lender or the Ombudsman leaves no mark on your credit file. The process is a dispute about how a past agreement was sold, not a new credit application, so lenders assessing you in future are not shown any record of the complaint itself.
Where things can get complicated is if the claim leads to your original agreement being reworked or partially unwound, since this could, in rare cases, affect the record shown on your credit file for that specific account. This is uncommon and depends on how the lender chooses to settle rather than on the complaint process itself. Using a free agreement finder to check your history also does not affect your score, since these checks typically use identity-matching rather than a credit search.
If you are planning to apply for new car finance soon, there is no reason to delay a mis-selling complaint on an old agreement. The two processes run separately, and a pending complaint about a past deal has no bearing on how a lender assesses a fresh application today.
Start with a free self-check before paying anyone. Most straightforward cases, where the paperwork clearly shows a DCA or high commission, do not need paid representation.
Save a claims firm for genuinely complex cases, missing paperwork, or disputes that reach the Ombudsman stage. Read any fee agreement twice before you sign it.
— Jake
Finding out where you stand does not need to cost anything or take long. Our site finds your car finance agreements for free in under 60 seconds, without needing your car’s registration number or lender paperwork to hand.
If your agreement looks eligible, Make A PCP Claim can refer your case to an affiliated law firm that handles the submission for you, so you are not filling in Ombudsman forms or chasing lenders yourself.
Start with the free check and see whether your agreement qualifies before you decide on the next step.
You are potentially eligible if your agreement ran between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024 and involved a discretionary commission, high commission, or a tied dealer arrangement. Check your paperwork for a commission line, or use a free agreement finder to confirm your lender and dates.
Lenders in the UK generally assess your income, credit history and affordability before approving car finance, alongside standard identity and residency checks. These requirements are separate from mis-selling eligibility, which looks back at how your existing agreement was arranged and disclosed, not at whether you originally qualified for the loan.
The FCA has stated that average compensation across eligible agreements is expected to be around £830, plus compensatory interest of at least 3% per year. Caps apply in roughly one in three cases, so larger loans with higher commission can see bigger awards while others are limited.
Start by complaining directly to your lender in writing, setting out your agreement details and the reason you believe it was mis-sold. If the response is unsatisfactory, escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service, or use a free check to confirm your eligibility before deciding whether to go it alone or seek help.