Vauxhall Finance - Unsure How to Proceed Next

merlin82

Hi All,

I took a finance agreement out with Vauxhall Finance in 2010. I don't have the agreement number but I did give them the vehicle registration. 

I have received the following response this morning and unsure how to proceed. Anyone else had similar response?

"Thank you for your email dated 7th February 2024 asking for confirmation of whether we paid the dealer a discretionary commission for your introduction to us.     After making a reasonable and proportionate search of our records (and making due enquiries with appropriate third parties), we've not yet found out if we paid a commission to the dealer and, if so, whether it was a discretionary commission. This is due to the historic nature of your agreement with us.   We apologise for any inconvenience that this may cause you. Should you wish to raise a formal complaint, you are able to do so by sending an email to GBCAR-CSC-Complaints@vauxhallfinance.com.

 

Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Customer Service Centre on 03448 712222.

Yours sincerely

Customer Services "

DullGreyGuy

merlin82 said:

I took a finance agreement out with Vauxhall Finance in 2010. I don't have the agreement number but I did give them the vehicle registration. 

Good records management says you should delete information on loans etc 7 years after the finance is paid off. Given you took the loan out in 2010, even assuming it was a longer than normal finance agreement and so 5 years that would still mean it should have been deleted circa 2022.

GDPR makes it a legal requirement that they remove data that they no longer have a justification to be holding. 

What's your evidence to prove DCA was involved?  Can you even prove the loan existed?


Ultimately the FCA in Sept/Oct will announce what they are requiring companies to do and that inevitably will include how to handle cases where no evidence exists any more. In part it's inevitable going to consider if they discover 1% of finance deals had DCA or 95% of finance deals did. This may be different if it was a new car or a secondhand car.

merlin82

Thank you for your response.

I guess I was also thinking down these lines, which is why I am unsure how to proceed. I don't have the paperwork from so long ago as I suspect they are the same. 

They mentioned that if I want to make a formal complaint then I can but it will be interesting to see how this proceeds because even if people can give their agreement number, how can they evidence if commission was applied if they no longer have the records.

Think I may just sit on this one now and maybe see if I can obtain an agreement number via an old bank statement or something. 

Nasqueron

merlin82 said:

Thank you for your response.

I guess I was also thinking down these lines, which is why I am unsure how to proceed. I don't have the paperwork from so long ago as I suspect they are the same. 

They mentioned that if I want to make a formal complaint then I can but it will be interesting to see how this proceeds because even if people can give their agreement number, how can they evidence if commission was applied if they no longer have the records.

Think I may just sit on this one now and maybe see if I can obtain an agreement number via an old bank statement or something. 

Do note also, commission is not a problem, only if they used the DCA model AND they inflated your rate for more money for themselves

dunstonh

They mentioned that if I want to make a formal complaint then I can but it will be interesting to see how this proceeds because even if people can give their agreement number, how can they evidence if commission was applied if they no longer have the records.

In time, the company, FOS, FCA etc will build a database of those that had DCA and in some cases, there may be enough info available to reconstruct what was borrowed etc.    However, the problem will come if DCA was used positively rather than negatively. i.e. the dealer lowered the loan rate.   Just because DCA exists doesn't mean it was used and doesn't mean it was used negatively.     So, without evidence, it will probably fail.

Pangolin24

Hi Merlin, I had a response from Vauxhall with the exact same wording as you. It does state 'we have not yet found out' indicating that they are not saying that they didn't pay undisclosed commission or that they are ending the search. Like you Im not sure whether because we have lodged the enquiry we now wait until the September proposed date or whether we now have to lodge the formal complaint. There will be a huge number of people in the same boat if records are wiped 7 years after loan repayment due to DPA. 

Robill

I also had a Vauxhall finance arrangement in 2010 but no longer have the details other than the registration number and dealership details. I sent Vauxhall a complaint in February - no response. I sent a follow up request for acknowledgement of my complaint on 21st March. I still have had no acknowledgement of my complaint. What do I do next?

DullGreyGuy

oakley4sa said:

Hi Merlin, I had a response from Vauxhall with the exact same wording as you. It does state 'we have not yet found out' indicating that they are not saying that they didn't pay undisclosed commission or that they are ending the search. Like you Im not sure whether because we have lodged the enquiry we now wait until the September proposed date or whether we now have to lodge the formal complaint. There will be a huge number of people in the same boat if records are wiped 7 years after loan repayment due to DPA. 

And the FCA will consider what to do in the cases where the lender no longer holds records as there will be a significant volume of these. 

dunstonh

Robill said:

I also had a Vauxhall finance arrangement in 2010 but no longer have the details other than the registration number and dealership details. I sent Vauxhall a complaint in February - no response. I sent a follow up request for acknowledgement of my complaint on 21st March. I still have had no acknowledgement of my complaint. What do I do next?

You wait until after September when the complaints process reopens on DCA.