What Are Mis-sold Car Finance Refunds?
A Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigation discovered widespread evidence of mis-selling on all types of UK car finance agreements.
Mis-selling occurs when the person buying the car has not been presented with all the information necessary to decide whether the contract represented value for money or was financially viable.
You may be able to get a refund for a mis-sold car finance agreement if the salesperson failed to give you all of the information about your finance agreement, misled you, provided poor advice, or did not inform you of any commissions or interest being charged as part of the agreement.
You can get a car finance refund for mis-sold PCP personal contract purchase car finance agreements, for hire purchase car finance agreements, known as HP finance agreements and for lease agreements.
You can claim for any vehicle, new or used you may have purchased through finance.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said that commission was paid on 95% of UK Car finance agreements, and it is estimated that as much as 40% of these agreements may have been mis-sold.
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Just add a few details and we can validate any car finance agreement you may have had going all the way back to 2007.
We'll then tell you if you can claim and how much you might receive.
START INSTANT CLAIM CHECKClaim For Mis-sold Car Finance With Bott and Co
How Do I Get A Refund For Mis-Sold Car Finance?
As the UK’s leading solicitors in this area of law, we have won several significant cases, including the pivotal test case of Mrs Young vs Black Horse, which has opened the doors to thousands of people being able to receive refunds for mis-sold PCP car finance.
Representing thousands of clients, we have successfully won over 90% of mis-sold car finance claims that have gone to trial since January 2022, with the average refund amount being over £1,600.
Unlike many claims management companies that have entered the market, we have been at the forefront of developing this area of consumer rights law from the very start. We are the only firm to have won cases in court.
We have spent millions in litigation, representing the rights of car finance consumers, and have won numerous test cases that have set a precedent for everyone who may have been mis-sold to have the right to claim, whether Bott and Co. represent them or not.
When Can I Get A Mis-sold Car Finance Refund?
You may be eligible to get a refund for mis-sold car finance if you purchased a car or motor vehicle through financing between April 2007 and January 28, 2021, and the agreement was potentially mis-sold.
Refunds for mis-sold car finance may be due if the salesperson failed to present all finance options, adequately explain the details of your contract, and the interest rates charged, make affordability checks or inform you if they would receive a commission.
Your car finance agreement may have been mis-sold if:
- The car salesperson did not inform you that they would receive a commission from the lender for setting up the financial agreement
- The car salesperson did not inform you of all the finance options available, including explaining the differences and responsibilities of each type of product
- The car salesperson did not inform you, with complete transparency, of the interest rates charged for all finance options and how they may differ
- The car salesperson did not offer the best interest rate available to you
- The car salesperson did not adequately explain the details of the financial contract they sold to you, including the Terms and Conditions
- The car salesperson did not conduct adequate affordability checks or talked you into an unaffordable finance agreement
- The car salesperson used high-pressure sales tactics or did not give you adequate time to consider the agreement.
The law states that the burden of proof is on the lender and/or the car dealership to show that they acted legally in all aspects of the process. If this cannot be proven, you may be entitled to get a refund for your mis-sold car finance agreement.
Why Choose Bott and Co?
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A History of Success
Successful in over 90% of Mis-sold car finance claims
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£1,600
Average compensation amount awarded
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On Your Side
We are the only firm taking lenders to court and winning
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Fully Regulated
We are members of the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Your claim is in safe hands
What Types Of Car Finance Mis-selling Can I Receive A Refund For?
From the thousands of mis-sold car finance clients we have represented, the most common types of car finance mis-selling are:
- Hidden Discretionary Commission Arrangements
- Inflating Interest Rates To Enhance Commission
- Not Carrying Out Affordability Checks
- Not Explaining All Financing Options To The Customer
What Types Of Vehicle Finance Agreements Can I Get A Refund For?
Mis-sold car finance refunds can be made for all of the following types of car finance agreements:
- You can claim if your vehicle was purchased using a personal contract purchase (PCP)
- You can claim if your vehicle was purchased using a hire purchase agreement (HP)
- You can claim if your vehicle was purchased with a personal loan arranged through a dealership
- You can claim if your vehicle was purchased with a lease purchase agreement
- You can claim for all types of vehicles, including cars, vans, trucks, and motorcycles
- You can claim for both new and second-hand vehicles purchased through finance
- Claims can be made for agreements that are still active, and payments are being made
- Claims can be made for agreements that have ended, and the vehicle has been paid off
- You can claim for multiple vehicles at the same time
- You can claim even if the vehicle was repossessed.
How Much Money Can I Get Back For A Mis-sold Car Finance Refund?
The size of the refund for mis-sold car finance you may be able to receive will be dependent on several factors, including:
- The size of the car finance loan – generally, the larger the loan, the more you’ll be owed and able to claim back
- The length of your car finance agreement – you’ll be owed more if you’ve been paying the loan for longer
- The interest rate you paid and the difference between the rate quoted and the rate you should have paid.
Your refund may also be affected by the size of the deposit you put down on the vehicle.
Additionally, currently, the Financial Ombudsman Service awards an additional 8% interest on the overpayment amount.
Check The Size Of Your Mis-Sold Car Finance Refund Amount
Our calculator below estimates how large a refund you may be eligible to receive for a mis-sold car finance agreement.
Add the amount of your loan, the length of your agreement, and the interest rate you paid. Then, compare this against a rate you may have been offered if you weren’t mis-sold.
Mis-sold Car Finance Claims Calculator
You may have overpaid:
£ 0.00
in interest over 5 years
Please note that this calculator only provides a rudimentary calculation of how much extra interest has been paid on a Hire Purchase agreement.
The calculation will be different for PCP agreements and does not factor in the actual length of the agreement or any compensatory interest which may be awarded.
The calculation is illustrative, and under no circumstances should it be used or relied upon in the pursuit of a claim. If in doubt, please speak to us directly about your individual claim.
Examples Of Mis-sold Car Finance Claims We've Won
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Mr P v BMW, In December 2015, Mr P visited an Evans Halshaw dealership and found a Volkswagen Polo that he liked he did not have the money to buy the car so knew that he would need finance.
Being his first car, he was unfamiliar with the options available to him so he relied on the information given by the salesperson who presented him with a deal from Alphera Finance.
Unbeknown to Mr P, Evans Halshaw stood to receive a commission payment of £940 for introducing him to Alphera. To make matters worse, Mr P was also unaware that the higher Evans Halshaw set the interest rate, the more commission they would receive for the introduction.
Being his first car, Mr P reasonably believed that the interest rate was dictated by his financial circumstances and that the dealer had offered him the best deal available.
Mr P instructed Bott and Co to pursue a claim on his behalf but Alphera denied any wrongdoing. Bott and Co were not deterred and took the case to court, where the Judge found in favour of Mr P.
It was found that both Evans Halshaw and Alphera failed to put Mr P in a position to make an informed choice by not disclosing that a large commission payment was going to be paid on terms which incentivised Evans Halshaw to inflate the interest rate and as a result, both had breached numerous consumer credit rules. As a result, the Judge concluded that the relationship was unfair.
The Judge ordered that the commission of £940 be paid by Alphera to Mr P along with interest at 8% from the date of the agreement in 2015 to the date of trial in 2021 – a further £457.
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Mrs B v BMW. In September 2019, Mrs B was on the lookout for a new vehicle to get to and from work. She visited Ideal Car Centre and found a Mercedes Benz C220 but did not have enough savings to buy the car, which was advertised at £8490. Luckily, the salesman told Mrs B that he had a great relationship with BMW finance and would be able to get me a fantastic deal.
The salesman took some details and came back with a monthly figure of £184 which was a little bit more than Mrs B expected but he assured me that I would not be able to get a better deal elsewhere. Unbeknown to Mrs B, BMW paid £1,205.89 in commission to a broker, Auto Union Finance who then paid on a portion of that commission to Ideal Car Centre. At no stage was Mrs B made aware of the involvement of Auto Union or the existence of the commission payment at all.
Mrs B was charged an interest rate of 14.1% APR for the finance. To make matters worse, Ideal Car Centre could have set the interest rate as low as 5.8%. Basically, the higher that the interest rate was set, the more commission Ideal Car Centre would receive for the introduction.
Mrs B instructed Bott and Co to pursue a claim on her behalf but BMW denied any wrongdoing. Despite all of the above, the Court initially dismissed the claim on the basis that the relationship between Mrs B and BMW was not unfair and that despite BMW being found to have breached the
regulatory rules, Mrs B had been unable to prove that a loss followed the breach. Not deterred, we requested (and were immediately granted) permission to appeal.The case went to an appeal hearing at Liverpool County Court in December 2021 and we won.
The appeal judge found in our favour on all 3 grounds, namely that (1) the trial judge should have assessed the fairness of the relationship on the basis of what Mrs B would have done had she actually known about the undisclosed commission, not on the basis of what she did when left in ignorance of the commission arrangement, (2) that BMW could have disclosed the commission arrangement to Mrs B, even if they didn’t know the exact amount at the time, and (3) that the trial judge was wrong to find that there had been no loss for BMW breaching the regulatory rules.
The appeal judge awarded the ‘unfair interest’, which she considered to be the difference between the interest rate Mrs B had been charged (14.1% APR) and the lowest rate available (5.8%), a total of £1,486.08. She also awarded 2% interest on top from the start of the agreement – a further £69.
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In September 2018, Miss W visited an Arnold Clark car dealership and purchased a Ford Kuga.
She part-exchanged her previous vehicle and used part of the trade in price to pay off the outstanding finance on that vehicle and used the balance as a deposit towards the Ford Kuga.
The rest of the purchase price was financed by a hire purchase agreement meaning that Miss W borrowed £15,492 payable by 47 monthly payments of just under £250 and a balloon payment of over £7000. The interest charges on the agreement therefore amounted to just under £3500.
In return for introducing Miss W to BMW, Arnold Clark received a commission payment of just over £1350 but Miss W was never told about this commission arrangement.
Miss W instructed Bott and Co, who brought a claim on the basis that BMW had breached the FCA’s regulatory rules and guidance (‘CONC’) and that the relationship was unfair.
It transpired that BMW, who were willing to lend the money at an interest rate as low as 5.2% APR, allowed Arnold Clark to set the interest rate much higher in order to receive more commission.
Unsurprisingly, Arnold Clark picked a higher interest rate (7.7% APR!) meaning that instead of Miss W having to pay £225 per month, her monthly payments were inflated to just under £250.
This type of commission structure is so obviously unfair to consumers that when the FCA became aware of the widespread practice it was banned with effect from 28 January 2021.
BMW defended the claim all the way to Trial but, unsurprisingly, the Deputy District Judge at Carlisle County Court concluded that the relationship between Miss W and BMW was indeed unfair within the meaning of s.140A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and ordered BMW to repay the amount of the commission payment to Miss W in the sum of £1,351.99 plus interest for a period of 1,266 days (i.e. from the date that the agreement started) at 2% which amounted to a further £93.79.
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In October 2015, Mrs J decided that after 2 years of owning a Vauxhall Corsa, she fancied upgrading to a larger and more expensive car, a Vauxhall Mokka, but was resigned to buying one that was second hand as she could not afford the monthly repayments on a new Mokka.
The trade in price for her Corsa was about £8000, but £8300 was due on the existing finance agreement made 2 years earlier, so she had to put in £300 to clear settle that agreement.
Arnold Clark presented Mrs J with a PCP finance deal from Alphera Financial Services which would mean that Mrs J had to borrow just over £15,000 over a period of 48 months at a monthly payment of just over £285 with a final balloon payment of just under £6,000.
Mrs J wasn’t familiar with the concept of interest, but having been told that she was getting a great deal and deciding that the monthly payments were affordable, she agreed to go ahead.
What Mrs J was not aware of was that there was a secret commission arrangement between Arnold Clark and Alphera that meant that in return for introducing Mrs J to Alphera, Arnold Clark received a commission payment of just over £1600 – Mrs J was never told about this arrangement.
Mrs J instructed Bott and Co to pursue a claim on her behalf and having issued legal proceedings, it became apparent that there was a commission arrangement between Arnold Clark and Alphera which enabled Arnold Clark to increase the interest charged to earn itself greater commission.
Unsurprisingly, Arnold Clark exercised the discretion afforded to them by inflating the interest rate meaning they received a higher commission payment which unbeknown to Mrs J, meant that she would have to pay an additional £2000 in interest over the lifetime of the agreement.
The Financial Conduct Authority has taken a dim view of this sort of discretionary commission arrangement to the extent that such arrangements are now banned, as of January 2021.
Alphera denied any wrongdoing but Mrs J was successful at Blackpool County Court – the Deputy District Judge agreed that Mrs J had been burdened with the effective cost of the commission by having potentially paid a higher rate of interest and ordered repayment of the commission amount of £1608.03 plus interest at the lowest rate available on the commission
arrangement between Arnold Clark and Alphera of 2.9% from the date of the agreement to the date of trial.
How Was Car Finance Mis-sold?
From the thousands of mis-sold car finance cases we have processed, the most common types of miss-selling include:
Discretionary Commission Arrangements
As part of your car finance agreement, the lender must disclose all fees and commissions between themselves and the car dealer. If you are not informed, this is classed as an undisclosed or hidden commission.
Equally, if the salesperson or broker does not clarify that they or the dealership would receive a commission for introducing you to the lender, this is a hidden commission.
It is a car dealership’s legal responsibility to explain the existence of any commission or fee, including the amount they may receive.
Most of our clients who were mis-sold car finance agreements were completely unaware that the car dealership received a commission for simply introducing you to a finance company they chose. It is estimated that 40% of all car financing agreements included a discretionary commission arrangement.
Inflating Interest Rates To Get More Commission
Despite having permission from the lender to offer a lower interest rate, car salespeople offered finance agreements at a higher interest rate to the customer so that they would receive a larger commission. Following the FCA investigation, this is now banned.
Not Explaining All Financing Options To The Customer
Car salespeople are legally responsible for explaining all the finance options available when purchasing a car. This includes the difference in the cost of a PCP agreement compared to an HP agreement, not telling you about any other finance options available, what you may owe at the end of the finance agreement, and any hidden extras added to your contract for things such as insurance, service contracts, or costs for exceeding the mileage limit.
Not Carrying Out Affordability Checks
Many customers have entered into car finance agreements that they may not be able to afford because adequate affordability checks were not carried out.
You may have been mis-sold if you felt trapped in a long-term financial agreement that you could not afford to pay due to the negligence of the car salesperson not conducting affordability checks. You may be able to claim if you struggled to make the monthly payments, went into debt, or missed other financial payments to prioritise your car repayments.
Find Your Car Finance Agreements For Free
Just add a few details and we can validate any car finance agreement you may have had going all the way back to 2007.
We'll then tell you if you can claim and how much you might receive.
START INSTANT CLAIM CHECKWhich Lenders Can I Get A Mis-sold Car Finance Refund From?
We have claims in progress against a large number of lenders, including:
How Long Do I Have To Get A Refund For Mis-Sold Car Finance?
Under Financial Ombudsman Service rules (DISP 2.8.2), you have a maximum of 6 years from the event complained of or 3 years from when you become aware that you had cause to complain.
The ‘event of complained of’ is the commission payment, i.e. the start of the agreement. So you certainly have 6 years from the beginning of your agreement.
If your agreement is older than this, you can still claim if you only became aware of the right to complain within the last three years.
Can I Get A Refund For Mis-Sold Car Finance If I Bought A Used Car Using Finance?
Yes, you can also get a refund for mis-sold car finance for used cars, as long as you entered into a finance agreement to purchase your vehicle, and we can prove you were mis-sold.
Will I Get Blacklisted By Lenders If I Claim For Mis-Sold Car Finance?
No, lenders cannot blacklist you or treat you any worse as a result of making a complaint.
Can I Get A Refund For Mis-sold Car Finance For More Than One Vehicle?
Yes, you can request a refund for each separate agreement you entered where you think you may have been mis-sold.
Find Your Car Finance Agreements For Free
Just add a few details and we can validate any car finance agreement you may have had going all the way back to 2007.
We'll then tell you if you can claim and how much you might receive.
START INSTANT CLAIM CHECK