Important Update
On 25 October 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled on 3 cases involving car finance. In these cases, the Court of Appeal decided it was against the law for brokers, such as your retailer, to receive a commission from a lender without first telling the customer about the commission amount and getting their informed consent to the payment.
The lenders involved in the cases are challenging the decision, and permission to appeal to the Supreme Court (the highest court in the UK) has been granted. It is possible the Supreme Court will reverse these decisions, but in the meantime, we have changed how we inform customers of the commission we pay retailers.
Motor finance commissions complaints
The FCA previously placed a complaint handling pause on complaints involving a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) until after 4 December 2025, this was to give providers time to investigate and respond. The FCA is now extending this complaint handling pause to all motor finance commission complaints.
Who this applies to
This applies to you if:
• You used car finance to buy or lease a motor vehicle, for example a car, van or campervan (this includes using either Solutions Personal Contract Plan (PCP), Hire Purchase, Lease Purchase, Contract Hire or Finance Lease).
If this doesn’t apply to you, but you have a complaint about another issue, please see our customer concern policy.
How do I complain?
You can submit your complaint using the form below. Please include as much information as you can to help us find your agreement. Once you've made a complaint, we will send you an acknowledgement.
Already complained about DCA?
If you have already submitted a complaint to us that involved a DCA, you don’t need to do anything further.
If you’ve been told by us previously that your agreement didn’t involve a DCA, but you’re now concerned about commission following the Court of Appeal decision, you can make a new complaint.
Discretionary commission arrangement complaints
On 11 January 2024 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) made an announcement that it would be looking into customer complaints relating to discretionary commission arrangements (DCA) prior to the FCA’s ban on discretionary models in 2021.
The FCA are reviewing arrangements up to 27 January 2021 and will apply to customers who took out a credit agreement during this time where a discretionary commission arrangement was in place with the retailer.
Customers who took a credit agreement after 27 January 2021 and customers who had a hire agreement, are out of scope for a DCA complaint.
Whilst the FCA carries out its review it has paused the 8 week deadline for motor finance firms to provide a final response on discretionary commission complaints. If you have raised a complaint with us regarding a DCA since 17 November 2023 you can expect to receive a final response from us after this pause (i.e. after 4 December 2025).
Customers who have already made a discretionary commission complaint to us, and received a final response during the period 12 July 2023 to 29 April 2025, will now have until 29 July 2026 to refer their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
For further information on the FCA's work in this area, please visit their website.
What is a discretionary commission?
Before January 2021, some lenders allowed brokers (the person that arranges the loan, for example, your retailer) to adjust the interest rates they offered for car finance.
Typically, the amount of commission earned by a broker was determined by the interest rate that the agreement had been contracted at - the lower the interest rate, the lower the commission the broker received, and vice versa. This was known as a discretionary commission arrangement. Since January 2021, this commission model is no longer allowed.
Which customers could this apply to?
· You used car finance to buy a car before 28 January 2021, using either Solutions Personal Contract Plan (PCP), Hire Purchase or Lease Purchase
· Volkswagen Financial Services and your retailer had a discretionary commission arrangement
This doesn’t apply if:
· Your finance agreement had a 0% APR
· You used car finance to buy a car on or after 28 January 2021
· You used a hire agreement, such as a Contract Hire or Finance Lease
If this doesn’t apply to you, then our standard complaints procedure will apply.
How do I contact you about a DCA?
If your enquiry relates to motor commission and you would like to establish if a discretionary commission arrangement applied to your agreement, please complete the enquiry form by clicking on the link below.
If we believe you may have had a DCA we will create a complaint and send you an acknowledgement. If you did not have a DCA we will confirm in our response.
For Porsche agreements entered into before 1 July 2010, Porsche finance was provided by Black Horse Limited (trading as ‘Black Horse’) and you will need to redirect your enquiry to Black Horse Motor commission complaints.
For more information, please see our customer concern policy