One million car finance drivers launch claims for £1,100 payout as Martin Lewis says ‘now’

Over a million drivers have now lodged complaints to see if they could be owed money back from finance deals. Millions of people who bought cars on finance before 2021 could be in line for a payout as part on an investigation into mis-sold commission.

Money expert Martin Lewis has helped generate huge interest in the issue and made it easy for motorists to launch enquiries to see if they are affected. It’s estimated a massive 40% who took out finance deals before January 28, 2021 could be owed £1,100 each on average – meaning drivers stand a fairly good chance of getting money back.

Mr Lewis has urged everyone who had a finance deal before 2021 to check. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is investigating how many customers were mis-sold hidden commission when buying cars.

READ MORE: I challenged car finance firm to see if I was one of millions owed £1,100 – and I got an answer

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A quick-and-easy complaint form has been created by Martin Lewis’ MoneySavingExpert.com to help drivers complain. Details on how to do this can be seen here, while the tool can be found here.

Customers have started to hear back from finance firms to whether ‘discretionary commission arrangements’ were included in their deals. Mr Lewis said he had been stunned by the level of interest from motorists – as he urged those who had not yet complained to do so now.

The finance expert said: “The numbers of complaints in not much more than a month is staggering – off the charts – far more than I expected. So, it’s not surprising that some firms are struggling to respond to complaints in a decent time.

“To frustrated complainers, I’d say for now we should be prepared to give companies some wriggle room on timings, but firms need to urgently step up their complaint handling resources. And this is just the beginning.”

He continued: “Lloyds has already put aside a provision of £450,000,000 towards potential costs and payouts for this. A strong indication that it thinks it, and by inference others, will probably need to pay back money due to discretionary commission arrangements mis-selling. Though of course, we won’t know until the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) ruling due in September.

“And it’s because we don’t know what the FCA will say in September, that eligible people should look at logging a complaint sooner not later – as the unknown means there’s the risk people may be ineligible if they wait to claim. The regulator’s own website information indicates timing may be an issue and says ‘so, if you think you could be running out of time, you should consider complaining to your provider now’.”