You would choose to instruct a law firm because:

• ⚫ We take care of the complaint process for you, so you do not have to;
• ⚫ We can help identify agreements that you may no longer have;
• ⚫ We can help identify your lender(s), who you may have forgotten, or who trade under a new name;
• ⚫ We are in a position to insist on full disclosure from your lender(s) of commissions charged and paid:
  • - not just commissions associated with the individual agreement, but arrangements between dealers and lenders for the prepayment of commissions and volume commissions;
  • - and if your lender claims not to have records, we can cross-check with disclosure from other clients’ cases from a similar period in order to argue what your commission type and level is likely to have been;
• ⚫ We are also in a position to check up on other respects in which the arrangements were unfair:
  • - was your lending unsuitable to your circumstances because of being unaffordable?; and
  • - were there other features in the contract, such as the addition of insurance products such as GAP insurance, alloy wheel insurance and paint insurance which:
    • - made your lending more expensive; and
    • - may give rise to claims against dealerships for commissions paid to them by insurers; and
• ⚫ This is a complex area. Previous cases have involved multiple appeals and whilst the FCA is currently consulting on a consumer redress scheme, its rhetoric suggests that the scheme will centre on alleged ‘unfairness’ to customers. We can help clients to frame their claim in the right way so that the correct arguments are raised for their circumstances and so as to ensure that they receive the right level of compensation; and
• ⚫ We can advise whether clients may achieve higher levels of compensation through the Courts.

However, you do not need to use a claims management company or law firm to make a claim for mis-sold car finance. You can make a claim yourself for free by contacting your lender or by using a free complaints service such as Resolver. Under the proposed redress scheme, the FCA has said that lenders will be writing to affected claimants within 6 months and asking whether they wish to ‘opt-in’ to the scheme. There is a possibility, though, that you may not receive correspondence from your lender.

In its online statements, the FCA has previously indicated that in order to make a claim yourself you will need to check to see if you can find a copy of your finance agreements. If that is the case, in order to make a claim yourself, you will need to follow the FCA’s guidance having first checked to see if you can find a copy of your finance agreements, looked through old bank statements, asked the dealer from which you purchased the vehicle for details, or, if the agreement was within the last 6 years, you checked your own credit file.

You may have been mis-sold car finance if:

• ⚫ your interest rate was higher than necessary; or
• ⚫ the dealer or broker earned a commission but did not disclose it to you.

We will do a soft credit check to identify if you've taken out a PCP / HP agreement since 2007.

If we find any agreements, we will then check with your lender(s) to see if any unfair commission was added. If it was, you'll likely be entitled to compensation.