Martin Lewis has confirmed over 1.2 million are in search of compensation for overcharged interest when funding a vehicle on PCP or HP finance between 2007 and 2021.
Lewis said the tool is now averaging over 30,000 complaints a day and he spoke on breakfast TV today to say that hundreds of thousands could possibly be owed around £1,000 each in compensation, with the whole bill reaching “billions of kilos”.
The free tool was launched in February for consumers to make use of in logging a grievance about discretionary commission agreements (DCAs) of their automotive loans.
The FCA launched its review after the Financial Ombudsman Service ruled in two cases that lenders’ DCAs, combined with an absence of full disclosure to the shopper, had put automotive buyers at an obstacle and were unfair. The FCA’s review hopes to quickly determine if this can be a widespread issue.
In his latest Money Saving Expert newsletter, Lewis said: “The numbers of complaints are beyond anything I expected, and I expected far greater numbers than most firms did.
“As they hadn’t planned for this scale, it’s unsurprising many are struggling to reply in an honest time.”
The newsletter explains what next steps consumers should take and in addition highlighted Black Horse’s £450m “provision towards potential costs & payouts for this”.
Close Brothers has also put aside £400m as a part of its own preparations for the broader industry investigation by the FCA.
The data includes indications of when consumers should expect a response from firms like Black Horse, Volkswagen Financial Services, Santander, BMW Financial Services, MotoNovo, Stellantis, Mobilize, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Barclays Partner Finance.
Lewis said: “The rationale I have been pushing people to complain now’s to minimise the chance of you being timed out if there is a time bar. In any case, even the regulator’s own website indicates timing could also be a difficulty.”
This Article First Appeared At www.am-online.com
