How to Claim Mis-Sold Car Finance Yourself, for Free

Make a car finance complaint for free: the five steps

The free route to claim back car finance commission has five steps, and none of them needs a claims company or a solicitor:

1. 1
   Find your lender and the start date of each agreement, from old bank statements, the dealer or your credit file.
2. 2
   Send your complaint to the lender, using its own complaint form or the FCA's template letter.
3. 3
   Keep every letter your lender sends, with the date it arrived.
4. 4
   Reply within 1 month of your lender's decision, to accept it or to challenge it.
5. 5
   Refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of the decision if you still disagree.

The FCA's list of lenders gives each lender's complaint contacts, its complaint form where it has one, and the FCA's template letter or email.

Find your lender and your agreements

Your lender is the company you made the monthly payments to, not the dealer, and old bank statements are the quickest place to find its name. Four other sources fill the gaps:

• The dealer that sold you the vehicle, which arranged the finance and knows which lender financed it.
• Your credit file. Equifax's Car Finance Checker includes most car finance records back to 2007, the FCA says, and Experian and TransUnion also hold credit records.
• The FCA's list of lenders, which shows each lender's contact details so you can match a name you half remember and check you are dealing with the genuine firm.
• A subject access request to a lender you think you used. It must give you a copy of the personal data it holds on you, and organisations normally have one month to reply, the Information Commissioner's Office says.

Another firm that took over a closed lender's agreements, such as a debt purchaser, can be responsible for compensation under the scheme. Car finance is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so the FCA warns you may get nothing if your lender went out of business and no other firm is responsible.

Complain about each agreement you had, one by one. Two agreements for the same vehicle are tested together under the rules. The car finance claims by lender pages cover the largest lenders' own complaint routes, and the car finance claim checker asks five questions from your paperwork to see if an agreement is in the scheme. The car finance claim for a deceased relative page covers complaining for someone who has died.

How far back can you claim?

You can claim mis-sold car finance back to 6 April 2007: the FCA scheme covers agreements taken out from then to 1 November 2024. Finished agreements count as well as ones you are still paying. The scheme looks at the date each agreement started:

• 6 April 2007 to 31 March 2014: Scheme 1, under the FCA's CONRED 6 rules.
• 1 April 2014 to 1 November 2024: Scheme 2, under the FCA's CONRED 5 rules.
• Before 6 April 2007 or after 1 November 2024: outside the scheme, though you can still complain to your lender in the usual way.

One group of older agreements is likely to be out of time (PS26/3). These are cases with high commission only, no discretionary arrangement and no tie, that ended before 26 March 2020, where the paperwork clearly said commission was payable. Your lender must explain a decision like that, and the Financial Ombudsman can review it. The PCP claims and HP finance claim pages cover what each finance type adds. Your complaint gives the lender the agreement's date, so it can check which scheme applies.

Use the FCA template letter

Use your lender's own complaint form if it has one; if not, the FCA's list of lenders gives a template complaint letter or email that you fill in and send. Both routes are free, so you do not need to pay for a car finance claim letter template.

The FCA's template asks for eight details, so gather them first:

• your name;
• your date of birth;
• your current address;
• your address when you took out the agreement;
• the date of the agreement;
• the vehicle's number plate;
• when you bought the vehicle;
• where you bought it from.

The template then asks the lender to investigate, under the FCA scheme, whether any of three arrangements applied to your agreement. They are a discretionary commission arrangement, high commission (at least 39% of the total cost of credit and 10% of the loan), and a tie that gave the lender exclusivity or first refusal. It says that you were not adequately told about any that applied, and asks the lender to confirm it has received your complaint.

Send the complaint to the lender, not the dealer. A dealer or broker that receives a scheme complaint must pass it to the lender (CONRED 5.1.9R). Keep a copy of what you sent and the date you sent it.

What happens after you complain?

Your lender must still tell you by fixed dates if you are not owed anything, though it does not have to work out or pay compensation while the scheme is partly suspended. The FCA set out these dates on 2 July 2026. A complaint made before the end of the scheme's set-up period is already in the scheme. The dates for a mis-sold car finance claim depend on when your agreement started and when you complained:

The "not owed" letters do not cover cases where the lender says the complaint is out of time, or relies on the exception for a car maker's own finance company (FCA, 2 July 2026).

You have 1 month to accept or challenge your lender's decision. Once you accept, the lender must pay within 1 month, and adds simple interest at 8% a year if it pays late (CONRED 5.4.38R and 5.4.39R). Your lender can take unpaid arrears on the same agreement off the amount. The guide to how much compensation for mis-sold car finance shows how the lender works out the figure.

If you disagree: the Financial Ombudsman

The Financial Ombudsman Service is free for consumers, and for scheme cases it checks whether your lender followed the FCA's rules. The Ombudsman's page on car finance commission complaints explains the process, which runs in three steps:

1. 1
   Wait for your lender's decision. The Ombudsman can look at your case once you have your lender's redress decision, or once the deadline for that decision has passed.
2. 2
   Refer it within 6 months of your lender's decision, and by the date its decision letter gives (DISP 2.8; FCA consumer page).
3. 3
   Expect a rules check. The Ombudsman looks at whether your lender applied the scheme rules to your agreement.

Complaints the Ombudsman already held before 30 March 2026 are not affected by the scheme: the Ombudsman decides them itself. Bringing a case to the Ombudsman yourself costs nothing.

Do you need a claims company or solicitor?

No. The FCA says you do not need a claims company or a law firm to take part in its scheme. Under the scheme, your lender works out any compensation with the same rules, whoever sends the complaint.

Claiming through a firm costs a fee, which the FCA says can be up to 36% of your compensation, including VAT. On the FCA's average of £829 per agreement, 36% is £298.44. The guide to car finance solicitors and claims companies explains what firms do, what they charge and how to check one.

Check who you are dealing with

Check any firm or caller against the regulators' own lists before you give them your details. Four checks cover most cases:

• the FCA Warning List of unauthorised firms;
• the FCA Firm Checker, for claims companies;
• the SRA Solicitors Register, for law firms in England and Wales;
• your lender's contact details on the FCA's list of lenders, to confirm that a letter or call really came from your lender.

A lender paying compensation can ask for your account number and sort code. Share them only once you are sure who you are dealing with, and never share a PIN or password with anyone, the FCA says.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority warns that scammers pretend to be car finance companies to get personal and financial details (SRA, 22 July 2026). The Information Commissioner's Office has received over 12 million complaints about nuisance contact since September 2025, the FCA reported on 16 July 2026.

The free route: complaining to your lender is free, and so is the Financial Ombudsman Service. Our calculator gives you an estimate under the FCA's published rules before you start.

Last checked 16 October 2026 against the FCA's consumer page and list of lenders, the FCA statement of 2 July 2026, PS26/3, CONRED 5 and the Financial Ombudsman's car finance pages. Written by Tirion Oman. Spotted an error? Tell us through our contact page; the editorial policy explains how we correct figures.

Sources: FCA, car finance claims · FCA, list of lenders · FCA, scheme partially suspended · PS26/3 · CONRED 5.4 · Financial Ombudsman, complaints about car finance commission · ICO, subject access requests · SRA, motor finance compensation claims