Have you ever had a vehicle on finance?

A commission claim on vehicle finance is when you seek compensation because your car dealer or broker received a hidden commission from the lender without telling you. In many cases, dealers were able to increase the interest rate on your finance agreement to earn a bigger commission, which meant you paid more than you should have. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has since ruled this practice unfair, so if you had a PCP or HP agreement between 2007 and 2024, you may be entitled to claim back the extra costs.

Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) were very common in vehicle finance, with the Financial Conduct Authority estimating that around 40% of agreements involved them. Under a DCA, dealers could increase the interest rate on a finance deal to earn themselves a bigger commission, often without the customer knowing. This practice affected millions of agreements and is at the centre of today’s mis-sold car finance claims.

A claim can apply to most types of car finance, including Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) agreements, Hire Purchase (HP) agreements, Conditional Sale agreements, and, in some cases, lease or other vehicle finance deals taken out between 2007 and 2024. These are the agreements where hidden commissions were not disclosed.

Most mis-sold car finance claims apply to PCP (Personal Contract Purchase) and HP (Hire Purchase) agreements, as these are where hidden commissions were most common. Traditional lease or rental agreements (where you never own the car and just pay to use it) are generally not included, because commission-linked interest rates weren't usually part of those deals. However, if a lease was structured more like a finance agreement and involved hidden fees or undisclosed commissions, there may still be grounds for a claim.

You might have a claim if your car finance agreement included a hidden commission or unfair interest rate that wasn't explained to you. In many cases, dealers increased the rate to earn themselves a bigger commission, which meant you paid more than you should have. If this happened on a PCP, HP, or similar finance deal taken out between 2007 and 2024, you could be entitled to compensation.

The FCA has paused the investigation of motor finance complaints (from the usual 8-week deadline) whilst they examine the issue of car finance sales that involved commission. This is currently until 31st May 2026, we can still submit a complaint on your behalf but may not receive a response until after this. As it stands, the FCA is consulting on implementing a redress scheme so that compensation payments start from mid 2026 onwards. Lenders should proactively contact consumers who have already complained. For those who haven’t, lenders must contact them (initially within six months) and give them six months to opt in. However, some lenders may not retain data for longer than 6 years, therefore, if you had vehicle finance longer than 6 years ago, your lender might not contact you.