In the first instance you should contact your lender to assist you with this. If you do not know the name of your lender, you may find it helpful to check your bank statements to see who your payments were made to.

In the first instance you should contact your lender to assist you with this. For your information, due to our group data retention policy we only retain sales related documentation for 7 years from the point of sale, unless we have reason to retain longer.

Most lenders ask you to submit details as you can such as your name, address at the time of the agreement, date of birth, and as many details as you can about the car you purchased such as make and model, dealer name, year of purchase.

Commission is usually a payment. The payment is made by a lender to a dealer or broker when a customer takes out a finance agreement.

On the 11 January 2024 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced their intention to review historical motor finance Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCA) across the motor finance industry. This included the FCA originally implementing a 37 week ‘pause’ to the requirement for firms to respond to such complaints within 8 weeks, to allow the outcome of their review to be taken into account.

On 24 September 2024, the FCA announced their review was taking longer than anticipated and therefore extended the ‘pause’ relating to DCA complaints until 4^th December 2025. They also stated they intend to provide an update to their review in May 2025.

On 19^th December 2024, the FCA published a further update and announced a widening of the ‘pause’ to now include non-DCA commission complaints as well as DCA complaints. They confirmed the ‘pause’ for handling both DCA and non DCA commission related complaints will apply until 4^th December 2025. This was following a judgement issued by the Court of Appeal in relation to finance commission on 25^th October 2024 which has now been appealed to the Supreme Court – see below for more information relating to this.

The FCA have stated they continue to intend to provide a further update to their review into DCA complaints in May 2025 and also provide an update on motor finance non-DCA commission complaints at the same time. However, given the Court of Appeal’s judgment affects both types of complaint, they have stated that the extent of this update in May 2025 will depend on the progress of the appeal to the Supreme Court and the timing and nature of any decision.

As a result of the ‘pause’ relating to both DCA and non-DCA commission related complaints, if you choose to raise a complaint with your lender you will have more time than usual to refer these complaints to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) if a final response is issued. Instead of the usual 6 months deadline, you will have until 29 July 2026, or 15 months from the date of the final response letter, whichever is later.

You can read more about this and the latest updates on the FCA's website here: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints

The Court of Appeal’s judgement on 25th October 2024 in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Limited, Wrench v FirstRand Bank Limited and Hopcraft v Close Brothers [2024] EWCA Civ 1106 (the “Judgement”) involved the Lenders FirstRand Bank and Close Brothers. In these cases, it decided that it was against the law for the dealers to receive a commission from the lender without first telling the customer about the commission amount and getting their informed consent to the payment.

As this gave rise to a number of complex issues that require further consideration and clarity, the matter has now been appealed to the Supreme Court which is the highest court in the UK, and so it is possible that the Judgement may be overturned at a later stage. The Supreme Court has scheduled to hear the appeal in April 2025.

As has been well publicised, the Judgement came as a shock to both lenders and retailers within the industry who understood that they were acting in accordance with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations and the applicable law.

Following the Judgment, on the 19th December 2024, the FCA expanded their ‘pause’ over complaint handling to include non-DCA as well as DCA commission models to allow time for these matters to be resolved before issuing further guidance. You can find more information on the Court of Appeal Judgement and any further updates on the FCA website here: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints

A discretionary commission arrangement (or DCA) is where a lender allowed a dealer or broker to select the interest rate charged to the customer and where the commission paid was linked to the interest rate charged. The FCA banned discretionary commission arrangements (DCA’s) on 28th January 2021.

A Non-DCA commission arrangement (sometimes also called a fixed commission arrangement) is where any commission paid is not linked to the interest rate charged, and usually the interest rate is fixed by the lender. All commission models since 28^th January 2021 have been Non DCA (fixed) models, but many finance agreements taken out before January 2021 also had Non-DCA (fixed) commission models. Although the FCA review (announced on 11^th January 2024) is only related to historic DCA commission models on agreements taken out between April 2007 and 28^th January 2021, the FCA have expanded their pause to include complaint handling on Non-DCA commission arrangements also. You can read more about the reasons for this extension on the FCA Website here: https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints

You should contact your lender as they are best placed to answer this. Most lenders have set up dedicated webpages and online enquiry forms to allow you to do this. Please click here to see a list of the contact details for the lenders we work with.

Yes it does because if you took out your agreement before April 2007 or after 27th January 2021, the FCA have confirmed that your agreement will not be within the scope of their review into DCA’s. The FCA banned DCA’s on 28th January 2021.

Once you have submitted an enquiry to the lender, they will be able to review your agreement and confirm if your agreement was affected by a discretionary commission arrangement.

You should submit any complaint to your lender. Most lenders have set up dedicated webpages and online enquiry forms to allow you to do this. Please click here to see a list of the contact details for the lenders we work with. Your lender will inform you of any next steps when you submit your complaint to them, however please be aware that it is unlikely that your lender will be in a position to issue a ‘final response’ letter until after the conclusion of the pause on 4^th December 2025 and the outcome of the FCA review and the Supreme Court hearing is known.

No. If you arranged your finance between yourself and a lender, there is no commission involved.

Due to data protection rules, the lender will likely require the account holder to provide consent for you to deal on their behalf.