DCA -Formal enquiry about my motor finance agreement

Xyzretro

Dear Martin     
First of all I would like to say a big thank you for your turnkey solution (online letter template). As far as I am concerned, this was tailored for my need and to initiate my query with Hyundai Finance (HF) UK and BMW Finance.  For me the template and the contents were in a ready to use form and it probably took me less than five minutes to submit my query to HF UK.  I say this because I initially wanted to allocate some to do this over the following week, but in the meantime, I said to myself let me take a look at the tool first. Within 5 minutes of accessing the tool I had submitted my query; I did not expect it to take me no time at all. Perhaps a lot of people might be thinking the same way as I was thinking at first and postponing it or not do it at all. Hence my message to anyone who has not submitted their initial query yet – you do not have to put a side a lot of time to do this and you can fit it in with your other chores as the work has already been done by Martin and his team, you can do it in no time.

Update – Hyundai Finance

Key dates: My initial query was addressed to customerservices@hyundai.co.uk on the 7/02/2024. I did not receive an acknowledgement.  Since, you mentioned on 20/02/2024 that you have updated contact details of some car finance companies. On 21/02/2024, I submitted my query to customerrelations@hyundaifinance.co.uk

On 25/02/2024 I received the following acknowledgement

Thank you for your recent email enquiry received 07/02/2024 in relation to a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (“DCA”).

 Please be assured that we are looking into your request and we will aim to respond to you within 28 days of receipt.

 Thank you for your patience.

On 2/03/2024 I received the below formal response from HF UK. (note: I have deleted personal details)

Thank you for your recent enquiry in relation to a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (“DCA”).

 

We are responding to you by email as this is the received method of contact. Emails are not always secure, but we have been careful not to include any sensitive information.

 

Having checked our records, we can confirm that there was not a DCA in place between us and the credit broker relating to your finance agreement:

 

We understand from your request that this is the only information you required to fulfil your Data Subject Access Request and therefore we now consider that your request has been resolved.

 

As there was not a DCA in place in relation to your agreement, we have not treated your communication as a formal expression of dissatisfaction and will therefore not log a complaint on your behalf.

 

If you have also contacted us in relation to a finance agreement incepted on or after 28th January 2021, we can confirm there was not a DCA in place. We have only conducted a search of our records for finance agreements incepted prior to this date, resulting in the identified agreement above.

 

If you have any further queries, please let us know.

 

 My comments to the above response

I was not disappointed with HF’s response as I had two separate quotes from two dealership, for an identical model and specification (this is a limited-edition car that includes a set of extras that are standard) the first one being a dealership very local to me and the second was in London. The local dealer’s quote was around £65/month more than the London dealer. I bought it from the London dealer and at the time I did not try to figure out why this deal was significant cheaper per month over 48 months. When I watched your programme on the 6/02, I thought about the two quotes I had and decided to submit a query anyway and I am content with the response from HF UK. Now I realise why the local dealer’s quote/month was so expensive. I cannot think of any other reason than DCA.

Update BMW Finance

I submitted my query on the 7/02/2024 and received the following acknowledgement

Thank you for your email,

 

This is an automatic response to let you know that we have received your message and one of our team will be in touch as soon as we can.  We are receiving a high number of emails at the moment, so please allow 5 working days for us to respond to your email.

 

If you email is in relation to discretionary commission this has been forwarded onto the correct team commissiondisclosureenquiries@bmwfin.com and a response to your email will be provided within 21 days.

 

Kind regards,

 

BMW Financial Services Customer Escalations Team 

 

My Expectation

At the time I bought my car on PCP (August 2015), I felt the repayment including interest payment was a bit excessive and I was saying to myself this might lead to similar investigations as; PPI, endowment polices etc sometime in the future. Since watching your programme, I did some further research and found that the BoE interest rate in August 2015 was 0.5% (i am sorry there is no provision to attach image of BoE interest graph from 2014 to 2023 to this discussion)  and I paid 5.4% per annum on my PCP. Therefore, I am hoping that BMW Finance company will pay me some compensation. In contrast, in July 2017, interest rate on my PCP with HF UK through a dealership in London was 2.52% per annum and the BoE interest rate was 0.25%, hence I am content with HF UK decision to not log a complaint on my behalf.

dunstonh

As far as I am concerned, this was tailored for my need and to initiate my query with Hyundai Finance (HF) UK and BMW Finance. 

It wasn't that tailered as Hyundai have been responding that they didn't use discretionary interest.   If the tool was tailored, it wouldn't allow you to send in complaints to firms that did not operate on this basis.

 Perhaps a lot of people might be thinking the same way as I was thinking at first and postponing it or not do it at all. 

Postponing it until after the FCA review is complete does make sense.  Otherwise it just creates large administration costs for firms, that will be passed to consumers.  If the firm is guilty (assuming the FCA find wrongdoing) then that is fair enough but a lot of firms are being accused of wrongdoing when there is none and they are picking up the bill for that (which will inevitably see costs rise, which is not very consumer friendly).

Therefore, I am hoping that BMW Finance company will pay me some compensation. In contrast, in July 2017, interest rate on my PCP with HF UK through a dealership in London was 2.52% per annum and the BoE interest rate was 0.25%, hence I am content with HF UK decision to not log a complaint on my behalf.

With BMW the responses so far have been mixed. i.e. in some they say they didn't use it but in others they have.    Anecdotally, it looks like it was more likely to be used with used cars than with new cars.    Also, the FCA review, from what we know so far, seems to be focusing more on used cars and not new cars.

As it stands, you now have to wait until after September to find out.