Last updated:
27 February 2026
The FCA is consulting on a compensation scheme for customers who were mis-sold car finance. Anyone eligible could receive an average of around £700 for each agreement. Find out who could get compensation, what you need to do next and why you should avoid claims management companies and law firms.
Claiming compensation you’re owed won’t cost you anything if you do it yourself.
You might have seen adverts for companies who can claim compensation on your behalf. These companies normally take a large cut of any compensation – up to 30%.
A claims management company or law firm won’t be quicker or do anything you can’t do yourself – and avoiding them might save you £100s.
If you’ve already signed up with one of these firms, you can cancel. But you’ll need to check if you have to pay a cancellation fee. If you do, this must be fair and reflect how much work the firm has done already.
Avoid making multiple claims for the same mis-sold car finance. It could cost you money for cancellation fees and might slow down your claim.
If you believe you were misled by advertising, charged unreasonable fees or treated unfairly, you can complain to the firm. If you’re unhappy with their response, you can raise your complaint with:
Under the FCA’s proposed scheme, you will be eligible for compensation if your motor finance agreement:
Your agreement only needs to have been affected by one of these to be eligible for compensation. It also needs to have been agreed between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024.
Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) and Hire Purchases (HP) agreements will be eligible. If you leased a car through Personal Contract Hire (PCH), you won’t get compensation through this scheme.
Many people might not be aware they are eligible for compensation. Talk to people around you and encourage them to submit a complaint if they think they might be eligible – it could be worth £100s and get them a quicker payout.
There are free complaints templates available to make the process easier and they don’t need to use claims management companies.
If your agreement had a DCA that you weren’t properly told about, it’s very likely that you’ll be owed compensation. You’ll be eligible so long as:
DCAs were a hidden type of commission that allowed dealers and brokers to increase the commission they earned by charging customers more.
The arrangement meant that a broker could set a higher interest rate on an agreement, meaning they would earn more in commission.
DCAs were outlawed in January 2021. So, no car finance agreements made since then will include a DCA.
The best way to find out is to check through your car finance paperwork, if you still have it. If this isn’t possible, you can submit a complaint and your lender will contact you if you're eligible.
Even if you're not sure and choose not to complain, you should still get compensation if your agreement included a DCA.
Some firms have claimed that they never used DCAs. You can see a list of companies not using DCAsOpens in a new window on MoneySavingExpert.
The FCA has provided guidelines for how they will decide if you paid an unfairly high commission.
You will be eligible for compensation if your agreement included commission that was:
However, many agreements won’t have made these figures clear.
You can either:
Some motor finance agreements were mis-sold because a contractual tie existed. This means that the dealer had an agreement with a lender to only offer you their finance option rather than searching the market for a better deal.
If you weren’t told about a contractual tie, you’ll be eligible for compensation.
You can either:
The FCA is currently consulting on the proposed compensation scheme. They’re expecting the scheme to begin in early 2026.
Once the scheme starts, your lender will invite you to join the scheme within:
Once you’ve joined the scheme:
It’s possible that some lenders won’t have contact details for affected customers. In this case, you’ll need to reach out to them and look to make a claim.
You’ll have a year from when the scheme starts to contact your lender. So, if you aren’t sure if your lender has your details, it’s a good idea to get in touch with them and submit a complaint.
The FCA’s guidance is that anyone concerned that they weren’t told key details about their motor finance agreement should complain to their lender now, if they haven’t already.
Customers who have submitted a complaint before the scheme begins will get compensation faster.
Using a free template to submit a complaint means you can avoid claims management companies and ensure you get all of the money you’re owed.
There are free complaint letter templates available on:
If you’re not sure who provided your car finance agreement, you can:
If your agreement was active in the last six years, you can also check your credit report. Your provider should be listed in there.
You can then provide this information to your lender as evidence you had an agreement, which will ensure you’re included in the compensation scheme if you’re eligible.
If you already had a complaint rejected but you still believe you’re eligible, you can submit another complaint.
If you decide not to complain again, your lender will still need to contact you if they find that you’re eligible for compensation. If this happens, they’ll ask if you want to opt in for a payout.
Car finance compensation is a big news story – unfortunately, this means fraudsters are contacting people to offer them compensation as a way to trick them into giving away their personal information.
Be extremely careful of any unexpected calls, messages or emails you receive claiming to be from car finance companies or the government. They might pretend you need to enter your bank details, personal information or credit card numbers to receive compensation – and then use this to steal your money or identity.
The FCA hasn’t finished consulting on its compensation scheme yet, so anyone trying to gather your details so that they can pay you is not genuine. For now, you can safely ignore and report any messages of this kind.
Learn more about what to watch out for in our guide Am I being scammed? How to tell if you’ve been targeted.
If you’re worried someone might have stolen your personal information or identity, read our blog post Could someone have stolen your identity?
The FCA will be publishing information about its consultation and what it means for customers. See the latest information from the FCA about car finance complaintsOpens in a new window, or call them on 0800 111 6768Opens in a new window.
