DCA letters using tool provided on site

Camcam68

We have used the tool on the website to generate emails to send to the various financial institutions who provided finance on our vehicles. We had agreements for 10 cars we have purchased on PCP's between 2010 and 2019.

Here is the result so far.

Email sent to Santander for 2 cars in my name.  Response received and they confirmed 1 without DCA applied and 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Santander for 3 cars in my wife's name. Response received and they confirmed all 3 agreements without DCA applied. 

Email sent to Barclays Partner Finance for  1 car in my name. Response received and they confirmed 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Northridge for 1 car in my wife's name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm status.

Email sent to BMW Finance Ltd for 1 car in my name. Auto reply received only.

Email sent to Mercedes Benz Finance for 1 car in my name. Reply received saying they were having trouble locating account. I have sent them a copy of my agility agreement. Still waiting for further response.

Email send to Jaguar Finance t/a Blackhorse Ltd for 1 car in my name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm. 

So far 2 DCA's identified out of 10 agreements. The agreements identified so far with DCA's were for 'nearly new cars' not brand new. The 4 agreements where no DCA was applied were for brand new cars. Not sure but it looks as if buying cars which are not brand new may have more chance of having DCA applied. 

We shall keep you all posted with any further progress.

foxyclobo

Here's the response I received from Northridge Finance yesterday:

"Dear **********

 

Northridge Motor Finance Discretionary Commission Enquiry

 

We refer to your recent correspondence to Northridge Finance.

 

Due to the volume of enquiries currently being received, it is taking longer than normal to provide you with a full response. We would like to reassure you that if your agreement with Northridge Finance was part of a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA), we will treat your communication as a formal complaint.

 

Please note that the information requested does not constitute personal data as defined under UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and is therefore not a valid Data Subject Access Request.

 

What happens next?

 

In line with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announcement on 11th January we will be applying the temporary complaint handling rules. We will review your agreement and:

 

If your agreement was subject to a DCA arrangement a complaint will be logged. If this is the case you will receive an acknowledgement from us as soon as possible.

 

If it is within the scope of the FCA announcement regarding discretionary commission arrangements, under the temporary rules, you may not receive a further update until after 25 September 2024.

 

If it is outside the scope of the FCA announcement (for example, it was not subject to a discretionary commission arrangement), we will confirm this in writing to you laying out the reasons. We will endeavour to provide this information to you as soon as we can.

 

Please note that no action is required from you at this time and we will be back in touch with a further update within the next 6 weeks.

Kind regards

Customer Relations Team"

Nasqueron

Camcam68 said:

We have used the tool on the website to generate emails to send to the various financial institutions who provided finance on our vehicles. We had agreements for 10 cars we have purchased on PCP's between 2010 and 2019.

Here is the result so far.

Email sent to Santander for 2 cars in my name.  Response received and they confirmed 1 without DCA applied and 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Santander for 3 cars in my wife's name. Response received and they confirmed all 3 agreements without DCA applied. 

Email sent to Barclays Partner Finance for  1 car in my name. Response received and they confirmed 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Northridge for 1 car in my wife's name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm status.

Email sent to BMW Finance Ltd for 1 car in my name. Auto reply received only.

Email sent to Mercedes Benz Finance for 1 car in my name. Reply received saying they were having trouble locating account. I have sent them a copy of my agility agreement. Still waiting for further response.

Email send to Jaguar Finance t/a Blackhorse Ltd for 1 car in my name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm. 

So far 2 DCA's identified out of 10 agreements. The agreements identified so far with DCA's were for 'nearly new cars' not brand new. The 4 agreements where no DCA was applied were for brand new cars. Not sure but it looks as if buying cars which are not brand new may have more chance of having DCA applied. 

We shall keep you all posted with any further progress.

Remember that, despite Martin's wittering, until the FCA make their decision, no-one know if having DCA is even going to be reason for a refund, or even what will happen - plenty of the people who had a deal under DCA may not have had their deal inflated so don't need a refund for example - commission itself is not a problem

It's also to be expected that new car sales are less likely to be affected as they got commission for selling the car, if they bump up the rate and the customer goes away, no car sale, so offering the lowest rate possible is more logical

Nearlyold

Camcam68 said:

We have used the tool on the website to generate emails to send to the various financial institutions who provided finance on our vehicles. We had agreements for 10 cars we have purchased on PCP's between 2010 and 2019.

Here is the result so far.

Email sent to Santander for 2 cars in my name.  Response received and they confirmed 1 without DCA applied and 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Santander for 3 cars in my wife's name. Response received and they confirmed all 3 agreements without DCA applied. 

Email sent to Barclays Partner Finance for  1 car in my name. Response received and they confirmed 1 agreement WITH DCA applied. 

Email sent to Northridge for 1 car in my wife's name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm status.

Email sent to BMW Finance Ltd for 1 car in my name. Auto reply received only.

Email sent to Mercedes Benz Finance for 1 car in my name. Reply received saying they were having trouble locating account. I have sent them a copy of my agility agreement. Still waiting for further response.

Email send to Jaguar Finance t/a Blackhorse Ltd for 1 car in my name. Response received - due to high volume we may take longer than 28 days to confirm. 

So far 2 DCA's identified out of 10 agreements. The agreements identified so far with DCA's were for 'nearly new cars' not brand new. The 4 agreements where no DCA was applied were for brand new cars. Not sure but it looks as if buying cars which are not brand new may have more chance of having DCA applied. 

We shall keep you all posted with any further progress.

Brand New Cars are/were usually advertised alongside competitive interest rates to attract you to buying new which were not in the dealers power to alter hence new car purchases are unlikely to be subject to DCA. 

Gazzlar

I could not find an email address for Jaguar Financial Services, so posted a letter on 9th Feb 2024. To date I have not had a response. Does anyone have an email address for Jaguar Finance Services, or do I send an email to Blackhorse Ltd?

Nasqueron

Gazzlar said:

I could not find an email address for Jaguar Financial Services, so posted a letter on 9th Feb 2024. To date I have not had a response. Does anyone have an email address for Jaguar Finance Services, or do I send an email to Blackhorse Ltd?

Who did you take out finance with? 

Remember that they literally do not need to do anything until after the FCA review, it's possible the letter got lost or put on a pile until the FCA decide what, if any, action needs to be taken.

Gazzlar

I think the finance was with Jaguar Financial Services, because that is on all the paperwork I have.
However the small print, often at the bottom of various pages is says:
Black Horse Ltd t/a Jaguar Financial Services Registered Office: 25 Gresham Street, London, EC2V 7HN.
Registered Number: 661204 England and Wales.
Part of the Lloyds Banking Group".

[Deleted User]

You have made a correct assumption, most lenders have confirmed (not publicly) that DCA is far more prevalent on used vehicles in their 2nd-4th PCP / finance. This makes sense due to (as others have mentioned) the other incentives to sell new cars and the need to keep interest low to sell new cars colliding with the sliding scale incentive that DCAs create (less interest, less commission). Rates of DCA on used / nearly new cars are as high as 90% with certain lenders, whilst new car rates are as low as 20% from the data I’ve seen. Before its mentioned I know we don’t know if DCA matters yet, albeit I am on the other end of that opinion spectrum in that I think it will eventually be the case any undisclosed commission can be an issue, DCA or not. Not after this review but years down the line if the out the box thinking litigation pioneers can win the long fight.

DullGreyGuy

[Deleted User] said:
I think it will eventually be the case any undisclosed commission can be an issue

For a long time now the ICOBs have required commissions to be disclosed for insurance if requested... wanna have a guess at what percentage of people ask @[Deleted User] ?

With insurance and material middlemen there can be more complex arrangements like a profit share - reward those companies that bring in profitable business. These types of things cannot be declared, other a general point that one exists, as its 3-5 years before anyone knows what, if any, profit there was to be shared. 

At the end of the day the consumer cares about the cost, or do you really think that someone offered 7% APR with the dealer getting 1% would reject it and go for the next best offer of 10% APR with no dealer commission just to avoid the dealer getting something from the finance? There are some petty enough to bite off their nose to spite their face but the majority are WIIFM

[Deleted User]

Very few I would imagine. It’s not for us to decide if these arrangements were right or wrong, that is for the FCA and the courts. I don’t think most consumers have any qualms about firms making commission on the sale or after it. Commission on the finance is a little different, I find most people believe it to just be a tool to purchase the vehicle and that commission would be on the car sale. Would they change their mind if they knew about the finance payments too? Depends. You raise a good point that dealers could not know the commission for volume / performance / profit share at the POS and therefore even if you asked they couldn’t realistically tell you the full amount. I am of the opinion that undisclosed commission of any type should be transparent where possible with a credit broker or advisor. Mortgages since 2004 have clearly stated any advisor fee, but also any kickback / commission from the lender in the standard offer document. This is clear and transparent and allows consumers to decide with parity of knowledge. If they were to see a sizeable back end payment they might question it. I know fees and commission are different before it is mentioned. What is in question is if these arrangements, DCA and volume / performance, broke existing guidance where they shouldn’t exist as per CONC 4.5.2. and, mostly for the courts, if any undisclosed commission of this sort could constitute bribes (Wrench vs First Rand appealed decision). Neither of these matter whether the consumer was better or worse off, it is the nature of the arrangement itself that is under scrutiny. Whilst I very much doubt that rescission of loans will become common place as was given and appealed in the above court case, we cannot rule anything out. Dealers simply work with what lenders present them with and trust it is compliant, hence why the lenders will suffer for this if it isn't, not the dealers. The FCAs aim in the long run is to ensure the consumer gets a fair transparent transaction. This has not always been the case, DCA or otherwise.

bluesman65

Just received an email today I expected this would be stalled if you do go to the FCA site it states From 2026 I do understand how massive this in all honestly  I can see this been stalled or even pushed back even more , I can  imagine banks and  all those that are involved are going to fight this , even though I have been confirmed I have a DCA I think its best to forget about for now ,  if we get compensation brilliant happy days,  2026 we shall see would I put money on it no , I do want to thank Martin and the site for the template I did use that , cheers for that  !!