Agreement signed 23rd January 2021

lalascott

Good afternoon, hoping someone can help. I signed my most recent PCP agreement on 23rd January 2021. When I logged a complaint with the company they replied that the FCA introduced a ban on discretionary commission in January so my latest agreement it's in timescale though all correspondence says 28th January 2021.

Does anyone know what I should do from here? Should I take the complaint further?
Thanks.

dunstonh

Good afternoon, hoping someone can help. I signed my most recent PCP agreement on 23rd January 2021. When I logged a complaint with the company they replied that the FCA introduced a ban on discretionary commission in January so my latest agreement it's in timescale though all correspondence says 28th January 2021.

Firms knew that DCA was being banned from that point.  The FCA announced it formally in 2020, but it had been open to consultation from 2019.   So, they had advance notice to stop it by that date.  In reality, this means all of them are likely to have stopped before that date.

Does anyone know what I should do from here? Should I take the complaint further?

So your company is effectively saying they didn't use DCA.    Do you have any evidence they used DCA, or more importantly, used DCA negatively (when used positively, it was a good thing)?

At this time, you have nowhere to take it further.    The complaints process is currently suspended for DCA and the FOS are not taking complaint about DCA either.     So, you wait.

[Deleted User]

Firms knew that DCA was being banned from that point.  The FCA announced it formally in 2020, but it had been open to consultation from 2019.   So, they had advance notice to stop it by that date.  In reality, this means all of them are likely to have stopped before that date.

We finally agree on something! There is hope for us yet. 

Now I’ll say the bit we don’t agree on. If your finance DOES have a commission paid on it but it is not DCA you can ask the lender to investigate it as a complaint and then refer the claim to FOS if you are unhappy with the outcome. The current pause only affects DCAs. Non DCA complaints have the standard 8 week timescale and FOS haven’t paused them. Whilst the expectation is that only DCAs will be considered, we do not know this and live court cases / appeals are dealing with non DCA commissions and could affect this. It is your choice, drop the claim, pursue the non DCA claim now or wait until the outcome in September and reconsider. 

NB. Do check your letter / response for ‘FOS rights’ and ‘Final Response’ as if it says that you only have 6 months as it’s not a paused DCA.