Car finance claim

jess12345

I made a car finance claim and my finance company was in your tool so the email was sent direct from the claim tool. I received this response:

Thank you for your email dated 30/07/2024 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 ukcustomercare@stellantis-finance.com or alternatively visit our website https://www.stellantisfinancialservices.co.uk/support/faqs and select make a complaint.

I'm not sure what to do next, any advice/template would be much appreciated.

born_again

FCA are still looking at this & a decision will be made next year. So there is no guarantee that anyone will get a payout.

Advise, up to you, template? Just follow their instructions.

DullGreyGuy

jess12345 said:

I made a car finance claim and my finance company was in your tool so the email was sent direct from the claim tool. I received this response:

Thank you for your email dated 30/07/2024 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 ukcustomercare@stellantis-finance.com or alternatively visit our website https://www.stellantisfinancialservices.co.uk/support/faqs and select make a complaint.

I'm not sure what to do next, any advice/template would be much appreciated.

Wait, it's inevitable that given the date range and the GDPR requirement to minimise the data you hold that many companies will have appropriately deleted the required information. The FCA is going to have to give direction on what it expects companies to do in these cases. 

dunstonh

I'm not sure what to do next, any advice/template would be much appreciated.

You wait until May 2025 when the FCA publish their report.   However, it's already been pushed back once, and there is ongoing legal action and probably appeals that could see that pushed back into 2026 or more.

The FCA has recognised that data protection has caused issues in their review.  So, they will almost certainly address this in their final report.    

So, you just wait until the FCA give their ruling.

Dillydo

BMW RESPONSE. HELP PLEASE 

I am not sure what this really means .

Dear 

Thank you for your email received on 19 March 2024.

You entered into the Agreement numbered 2678323 on 25 January 2018.

We maintain that the limitation period for any complaint has now expired. The Limitation

Act 1980 states that any contractual claims, statutory claims, or actions based on

misrepresentation is six years from the date you were or should have been aware of the

problem. As you were notified prior to entering into the Agreement that commission

might be paid to the dealer you could have used reasonable diligence to immediately ask

for details before signing the Agreement. You were therefore aware of a potential

complaint when you entered into the Agreement over six years ago.

We do not accept that you have any claim against us not least because of the limitation

issues. However, without prejudice to that position, we confirm that a commission

payment of £450.00 was made by us to the dealer.

The commission model relevant to your Agreement was Fixed and therefore was not a

Discretionary model.

The Ombudsman might not be able to consider your complaint if:

• what you’re complaining about happened more than six years ago, and

• you’re complaining more than three years after you realised (or should have

realised) that there was a problem.

We think that your complaint was made outside of these time limits for the reason set

out above. If the Ombudsman agrees with us, they will not have our permission to

consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances

(see below).

If you do decide to refer your complaint to the Ombudsman, you must do so

within six months of the date of this letter.

If you do not refer your complaint to the Ombudsman within six months of the date of

this letter, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and

so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances.

For more information, please refer to the consumer leaflet at cmc.financial-

ombudsman.org.uk/cmcs/resolving-complaint/ordering-leaflet/leaflet.

You can also get in touch with them via their website at financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

Yours sincerely,

(Removed by Forum Team)

Customer Service Regulations Executive

dunstonh

I am not sure what this really means .

It looks like you have used a template that has muddied the waters.   The issue at hand is DCA.  However, some templates refer to just "commission" or switch interchangeably between them.   So, in this case they have covered off both things in their response.

The first is pointing out that the commission side of the complaint is barred.   That doesn't matter though as that is not what the whole motor finance thing as about.

we confirm that a commission

payment of £450.00 was made by us to the dealer.

The commission model relevant to your Agreement was Fixed and therefore was not a

Discretionary model.

And that bit confirms it was not a discretionary commission. 

So, bottom line is that they have told you want you needed to know and you can put it to bed knowing you were not impacted by DCA.