5 min read
Believe you may have been mis-sold car finance due to an unfair discretionary commission arrangement (DCA)?
No one likes feeling ripped off, so it’s important to understand whether you could be due thousands of pounds in compensation.
Carry on reading to learn more about DCA car finance and how to tell whether a DCA was used as part of your agreement.
We can also help if you believe you have a DCA car finance claim, but have received a disappointing response from your lender. Contact the legal professionals at Justizia today!
What is a DCA car finance?
DCA stands for discretionary commission arrangement – a type of arrangement between lenders and brokers that allowed brokers to adjust the interest rates on certain deals.
This type of car finance arrangement was banned by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in January 2021. However, it was previously used by dealers and brokers to increase their commission by charging a higher interest rate to unsuspecting customers.
What are DCA complaints?
As DCAs unfairly incentivised brokers and dealers to up interest rates in order to pocket a higher commission, they were banned in the UK. However, if you purchased a motor vehicle on finance after April 2007 but before January 28 2021, don't worry, you could still be entitled to compensation.
We always recommend getting in touch with your lender if you’re concerned that a DCA was used as part of your car finance agreement.
However, you may have a valid DCA car finance complaint if:
- You didn’t receive advice regarding your other finance options.
- You were given bad advice about the value of the car at the end of the deal.
- You didn’t know how much commission the broker or dealer was receiving.
- You weren’t warned about the fees for ending the contract early.
- You were misled about the deal’s interest rates.
How do I know if a DCA was applicable to my agreement?
Still unsure whether you had a DCA car finance agreement?
Whether you’ve lost your copy of the agreement or can’t remember the registration of your previous financed vehicle, rest assured, Justizia’s legal professionals can help. You can find out whether a DCA may have been applicable to your agreement by:
Checking your paperwork
A good place to start is by looking at your car finance agreement – which you should have either digitally or physically. While this may not have all the answers, it could prove helpful if you had a particularly high interest rate.
Plus, you might think checking your car finance agreement would be all you need to determine whether a DCA was applicable to your arrangement, but that's not always the case. This is because these agreements rarely mention ‘discretionary commission’. Instead, these car finance contracts are more likely to just include the amount of commission that the broker or dealer is receiving.
While taking a commission is completely legal in the UK, it’s unfair if you’re unaware of how much they’re receiving and why. It’s for this reason that a higher commission may suggest a DCA was applicable to your agreement.
Contacting your car finance lender
Getting in touch with your car finance lender is often the easiest way to determine whether a DCA was applicable to your agreement. This is because they’re legally obliged to let you know whether your car finance agreement included a DCA.
You can usually contact your lender in writing (either a physical letter or email) or by phone. However, many lenders have also set up dedicated pages on their websites to support those who believe they may have been mis-sold DCA car finance. These pages tend to include all the information you'd need, including answers to related frequently asked questions.
They should also offer you the option of filling in a website form to either make an enquiry about your agreement or complaint if you’re confident that you were mis-sold DCA car finance. Once you’ve made your complaint, it may take a matter of weeks or even months until you receive their final response.
If you’re unhappy with this response or believe it’s unfair, please reach out to the helpful team at Justizia.
Operating on a no-win, no-fee basis, we have your best interests at heart!
What to do if you can’t contact your lender
Struggling to contact your car finance lender?
Due to the long-running history of using DCA car finance agreements, it’s possible that your lender may no longer be in business, or you’ve lost all information you had about your lender.
If you’ve lost their details
There are many ways that you may be able to find the details of your car finance lender if you don’t have a physical or digital copy of your agreement. For example, by checking your credit report – this should include all financial agreements you’ve entered into within the past six years.
If they’ve gone bust
Can’t contact your lender because they simply don’t exist anymore?
You may still be able to claim back your hard-earned money from the dealer or broker that arranged the finance for you.
Seeking professional legal support? Contact Justizia
If you believe you’ve been ripped off by a mis-sold DCA car finance product, please don’t hesitate to contact our team today! As our name suggests, we make reclaiming your hard-earned money, well, just easier.
Instead of baffling you with confusing legal and financial jargon, we’ll break down the process of making a mis-sold car finance claim into straightforward steps and stick to our no-win, no-free promise.
You can also trust us to keep you in the loop with regular updates and to operate in line with our key values of integrity, empathy, and respect.
Whether you require support negotiating compensation with your car finance lender or you can’t find details of your agreement, we can help.
Always putting your best interests first, you can rely on us to confidently handle your mis-sold car finance claim on your behalf.
For clear answers to more questions like ‘how do I find out if I had a DCA’ or to find out how we can help with your car finance complaint, please give us a call on 0330 818 3415.
Fill in our form to start your claim
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