There are 2 main ways to finance a car as follows:

• Personal contract purchase (PCP) - This is the most common type of car finance. It's similar to a loan but, you won't be paying off the full value of the car and you won't own it at the end of the deal, unless you choose to pay a large final payment – usually called a balloon payment.
• Hire purchase - This is where you pay off the full value of the car in monthly instalments. It is a loan that is secured against the car, so you don’t own the car until you complete all of the payments.

Did you pay over the odds due to high interest rates? You might have been sold a deal that was more expensive because your dealer stood to earn a hefty commission by charging you a higher interest rate, rather than providing you with the best deal.

Did the dealership/finance company check you could afford the loan? The company selling you the car finance MUST examine your finances to ensure you can afford it.

Did your salesperson advise that they themselves or their company may be receiving a commission? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have said that commission was paid on 95% of UK Car finance agreements. If you weren’t told about the commission paid then you may have a claim.

First, we’ll undertake a completely free, no obligation check, the timeframe in which this can be completed is dependent on whether we need to retrieve documentation from your lender.

If we determine that you have a claim, this may be processed by us or we may determine that your case is best placed with one of our partner law firms.

The claims process typically takes 2 – 12 months. This will all depend on the basis of your claim and we will advise you of which way your claim will proceed.

The amount you might be able to claim will depend on a number of factors such as:

• the size of your finance
• the length of your term
• the interest rate
• and exactly what you’re complaining about

According to our partner law firms, the average claim value is around £3,000.

This is a completely free check to establish whether you may have a potential claim and if so, what the potential value of it is. Once we have completed this free check you are under no obligation to pursue a claim, either through us, by yourself, or indeed through anyone else.

However, if following the free check you decide that you wish to pursue a claim through ourselves, we will send you our full Terms and Conditions for your completion and these include details of what fees we would charge. You can read these here: Terms and Conditions

Alternatively, should you choose to pursue a claim following this free, no obligation, check and we determine that your case is best placed with one of our partner law firms, the typical fees will be 30-40% of the compensation amount and there may be cancellation fees should you cancel your claim after the cooling off period (from when you complete the law firms paperwork).

If we refer your case to one of our partner law firms, you will not have to pay us anything, we will receive a fee from the law firm for referring your case to them.

No, nothing will change except, where your agreement is still live, the agreement may be corrected to cover any overpayments made and there may be a readjustment of your outstanding monthly payments.

The more details you can recall about your agreement, the more likely it will be that the finance company can locate and verify you against their systems.

This will also help avoid requests for further information which can delay your claim.

It is mandatory for car finance lenders to keep records of their customer’s transactions and dealings for at least 6 years.

If you completed the term of your Finance Deal more than 6 years ago, there may not be any available paperwork.

However, there have been cases in which claims have been made against mis-selling over 20 years ago, often without finance agreement paperwork.

We will assess whether there’s merit in referring to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS)

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the financial services industry in the UK. This includes car finance which covers several types of financial products you can take out when purchasing a car.

Claims will be made against the lender of the finance only.

The broker of the PCP agreement is considered an agent of the lender so the responsibility is on the lender to ensure their brokers behave according to the standards set by the FCA.