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Compensation of mapped car finance: see how much your claim is worth, since millions could be the payments due

Compensation of mapped car finance: see how much your claim is worth, since millions could be the payments due

A Blackburn -based law firm, legal Coursacs, says they are now working in more than two million cars financing cases, but there are still thousands of cases more out there.

The FCA is ready to confirm its plans for a compensation scheme in the coming months.
The FCA is ready to confirm its plans for a compensation scheme in the coming months.(Image: Getty images)

Millions of drivers can be overcome throughout the country compensation If the financial guardian dog decides that they were misunderstood Automobile financing. The story has been rumbled in the last 12 months, and an important update will be published in the coming weeks.

In a nutshell, the Financial Behavior Authority (FCA) is investigating whether the drivers were overloaded and money could be recovered due to the hidden commission payments that were made when cars were bought in finance Offers The vast majority of new cars, and many of the second hand, are bought with financial agreements, with around two million sold in this way every year. Usually, customers pay an initial deposit, then a monthly rate with interest for the vehicle.

It is projected that the car loan scandal, which is compared to the infamous scandal of payment protection protection (PPI) since 2008, will cost lenders, including Santander UK, Near brothers, Barclays and Lloyds, a group of £ 44 billionAccording to some analysts.

A Blackburn -based lawyers, legal Coursacs, says they are now working in more than two million cases of car financing, but there are still thousands of cases more out there. Here is everything you need to know, including if you could be eligible for compensation payment.

What is the car financing scandal?

The financial behavior authority (FCA) He is currently investigating whether people were unjustly out of pocket due to the so -called “discretionary commission agreements” (DCA) that allowed corridors and car merchants to increase interest on car financing agreements to gain more commission. In a case of the Ombudsman, it was discovered that the driver charged an interest of 5.5% when he could have sold to 2.49%.

The FCA prohibited the DCA in 2021, then in 2024, launched an investigation to see if the drivers owed money. It was believed that around 40% of car financing agreements had hidden positions of DCA. This included offers for cars, trucks, trucks and motorcycles. More specifically, the FCA is investigating the cases of agreements since April 2007, since it is when the defender of the financial people took over the jurisdiction of the complaints of motor finance, until the end of January 2021.

The types of finance covered in the investigation are purchases of personal contracts (PCP) and rental purchases: it does not include rent of personal contracts, which is often known as lease. The vehicle also had to be mainly for personal use, not for commercial use, to be potentially eligible.

But from the launch of the probe, a judgment of the Court of Appeals separately has opened the door to all types of car financing where there was a commission, not only DCAS, which will be included in future compensation payments. The court ruled that Clients should be clearly informed how much commission It would be paid, and they would have to consent to this; Otherwise, it would be illegal for the lender to pay any commission to the concessionaire.

The two lenders involved in the case, Close Brothers and Firstrand Bank, received permission to appeal against the ruling, and this appeal will be heard in the Supreme Court from April 1 to 3. In an update shared last week, the FCA confirmed that he had been granted permission to intervene in the case and had presented a presentation to the Supreme Court.

The FCA confirmed that it will consult a repair scheme and announce the next steps for complaints within six weeks that the Supreme Court reaches its decision. If the court appeal is successful, the repair scheme could include only DCA, or if the court rejects the appeal, it may be open to more types of car financing.

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How many people have been affected by the car loan scandal?

It is believed that tens of thousands of people were affected by the scandal. Legal courts are now dealing with 2.2 million cars finance claims. To clarify the large number of those potentially affected, the company of No Win Win None has compiled a map that details exactly how many people in each constituency of the United Kingdom, together with the average value of each claim.

The data comes from the registrations of the company of January 2025. According to the data, the constituency of Airdrie and Shotts in Scotland It has the largest number of car financing claims, with the total number of 7,495 with a value of £ 17.8 million in general; This makes the average claim of about £ 2,379. This is followed by the Scottish constituency of Hamilton and Clyde Valley, which has 7,163 claims in general. These have a value of £ 17 million, which makes an average claim of around £ 2,377.

The constituency with the largest number of claims in England is Blyth and Ashington with a total number of claims in 4,736. In general, these claims had a value of £ 10 million, which made the average claim of £ 2,201 per person. In Wales, the greatest number of claims came from the constituency of Rhondda and Ogmore with 5,486 claims. This totaled £ 11.7 million, which made the average claim feel at £ 2,136.

What MPS support compensation payments for those affected?

Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves He tried to intervene in the case about concerns about the size of the compensation bill for lenders, since he could undermine the competitiveness of the United Kingdom banks, although this attempt was blocked. At that time, a Treasury spokesman said: “We respect the Court’s decision not to grant our application to intervene … and we will monitor it closely.”

Give me Siobhain McDonagh, a labor member of the Treasury Select Committee, told The Mirror that the legal Courmacs data were “really shocking.” She said: “These data are really shocking when revealing how scandalous this historical behavior has been. It is clear that these working consumers need adequate reparation and that the lenders and all those involved in this need to intensify and make sure that they are properly compensated.”

In an exclusive statement to MirrorBobby Dean MP, Democratic Liberal Deputy for Carshalton and Wallington, said having a car for many people “was not a luxury, but a necessity.” He said: “My mother was a cleaning and when her car broke, it meant that she lost her income. Not everyone has thousands of pounds in the bank to buy a car directly, so loans are increasingly common even for second -hand cars.

“The client has to be able to trust merchants and lenders to act fairly and this scandal states that many have not been honest with people. Given bad practice in the past, consumers will want guarantees that the lenders in fact will contact all those with the right to any compensation due.

Darren Smith, from Courmacs Legal LTD, said that during the crisis of the cost of life, it was difficult to understand why the Labor Government was not “on the side of the consumer who works hard, and added:” much less try to protect the lenders who have cheated them for many years. “

“The government should be defending consumers, not protecting lenders who have led them to take a walk. People deserve their money after being torn off and now they deserve it. Motorists deserve responses and responsibility. These predatory loans practices should never have happened and compensation now must be delivered quickly to those who have been harmed.”

How much compensation could be paid?

The FCA said that if the Court ruled against the appeal and concluded that Finance Motor clients had lost due to “generalized failures” by the lenders, then it would be “likely” that it would consult about a scheme of repair of the entire industry. This confirmation will come within six weeks of the ruling of the Supreme Court. The official FCA investigation will be published in May 2025.

According to this scheme, lenders would have to follow rules to determine if customers had lost and, where they had, offer “appropriate compensation.” The FCA said this would be simpler for consumers to demand that they file a complaint themselves. He added: “We hope that fewer consumers trust a claims management company, which means that they would maintain all the compensation they receive.”

According to the FCA, in a typical motor financing agreement of £ 10,000, the discretionary commission agreements could have caused customers to pay £ 1,100 in interest for a period of four years. The consumer champion Martin Lewis says that if the compensation scheme includes all the additional interest that was charged due to the agreement, then the compensation could sit around £ 1,140.

However, the FCA can also establish a “fair interest rate” scheme and only reimbursement amounts above that. The founder of MSE said this would result in a lower payment than the first method.

Martin Lewis He has been campaigning on this issue during the last year and has previously urged anyone who thinks that he may have been affected to file a complaint now, in case a deadline for complaints retrospectively. It could be affected if you were not informed about the commission and may have paid too much for its car financing, or if it had a car financing agreement containing a DCA.

He must put his complaint directly to the lender who provided the financing of the car, not the corridor or the car dealership from where he obtained his vehicle. Martin’s Money Saving Expert (MSE) website (MSE) It has a free car financing tool To help him with his complaints, and car financing lenders have until December 4 to respond. However, if a repair system is placed, then those affected could contact directly.

In a statement to MSE, the FCA said: “We would like to confirm that anyone who sends a claim will not be” Blacklisting “for a company or has claims included in any evaluation of the application of products (even with linked companies).”

You should keep in mind that you do not need to go through a claims management company to obtain this compensation. At the moment, there are many ads on social networks encouraging drivers to recruit their services, and if you use one, you will have to pay part of the payment you could receive.

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