£115m worth of car finance reclaims after just one day?

On Tuesday 7.30pm, MoneySavingExpert.com – the UK’s biggest consumer site – launched its new Car finance hidden commission reclaiming guide and free complaint tool, written by the site’s founder Martin Lewis.

By the end of Wednesday evening, a staggering 262,500 people had already sent off their complaint emails from the tool at www.moneysavingexpert.com/carfinance.

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, says: "These are staggering numbers, bigger even than the final days in the run up to the PPI deadline.

"To put it in context, of the 262,500 complaint emails that have been sent via our free tool, it’s estimated 40% of those will have had the hidden discretionary commission arrangements on them. The typical overcharge – which is likely to be paid back once the FCA reports in September – is £1,100 per agreement. So that would mean a conservative predicted payout of £115,000,000 – conservative as many of the emails cover two, three or four agreements with the same firm.

"I was expecting 50,000 on the first day, which was still huge. This is off the charts and means this reclaim campaign is likely to be bigger than bank charges, and second only to PPI in scale with many billions potentially to be paid out.

"I’d urge anyone who got a car, van, campervan or motorbike on finance before 28 January 2021 to check and get their complaint in soon – the sooner you do it, the less risk of being timed out later."

For full information, see MSE’s car finance commission reclaim guide.