Bank of Scotland Vehicle Finance (BoSVF) - Freeway Cars leasing scheme for "opt-out" employees.

Coverup

Hello, I have completed the MSE PCP template letter, and I am looking for the contact details for a Bank of Scotland Vehicle Finance scheme called Freeway Cars.

The scheme ran as Freeway Cars from the late 1990s until the mid to late 2000s.

BACKGROUND:

Like many employees in the late 1990s and 2000s whose jobs necessitated visiting client sites, I was entitled to a company car but was also given the option to opt out of taking a company car and be given a cash alternative: Keys vs Cash.

As my job would entail very infrequent client visits that required me to travel by car, I decided to take the cash.

In my "New Joiner Welcome Pack", my employer gave out a pamphlet for car leasing. I could take the money I was receiving instead of the company car, and buy a new one on a lease with the option to purchase at the end through this scheme. Sounded good to me. I signed up, picked up my brand-new car from the local dealership a few weeks later, and duly started to pay £380 per month for the next 3 years.

That was in 1999.

Now I am reading about the PCP complaint, and I'm thinking to myself: did my employer get a big fat commission when I bought my car through this leasing scheme?

I sort of remembered that the scheme was called "Freeway Cars", and that was all I had to go on.

The MSE Free Tool does not give this as an option and I'm not sure if I have any documentation from that period.

I googled "Freeway Cars leasing" and found an old article from the 11th of August 2006, titled "Woolworths to sell cars online with Freeway".

[ Woolworths, going into the car sales business, why? A spokesperson gave this answer, "because the margins are better on cars than CDs". Now we know why!]

The article told me that Freeway was an online motor finance operation already established under the Bank of Scotland.

This confirmed that "Freeway Cars" was real. The next thing I wanted was a reference number, something to tie me to the scheme.

I contacted my bank, Lloyds, through their online chat. After an excruciating 1 hr 40 mins of waiting up to 30 mins for an operative to reply to each of my responses, they finally told me that for security reasons they could only see statements up to 10 years old, and I would need to go into a branch with two pieces of identification to look further back. Luckily, my local branch still exists, so I went in and a cashier was able to find entries for a Direct Debit that was paying out to "FREEWAY", and it had a reference number.

Great, I now have the financial institution (BoSVF) the scheme was run by and a reference number for a Direct Debit. I could now complete the MSE template letter and e-mail it to... Oh, who do I e-mail the letter to?

QUESTION:

So my question to my fellow Forumites is this: has anyone else raised a request for information about a Freeway Cars PCP? And does anyone have an e-mail address I can send my letter to?

Should I just send it to the Bank of Scotland and let them route it to the proper subsidiary? And if so, does anyone have the BoS email address for sending in the MSE letter?

My understanding is Freeway Cars, became or merged with the Lex Leasing subsidiary of the Bank of Scotland, but essentially it is the same organisation under a different name.

Many thanks!

Hoenir

Coverup said:

That was in 1999.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) review of historical motor finance discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs) covers agreements taken out between April 6, 2007, and January 28, 2021. 

dunstonh

So my question to my fellow Forumites is this: has anyone else raised a request for information about a Freeway Cars PCP? And does anyone have an e-mail address I can send my letter to?

What you described sounds like business contract hire.  Not PCP. 

And as mentioned above, it was 1999 which is  8 years prior to the FCA period.

Coverup

Thank you for the feedback.

Interesting that the FCA review period is not earlier. PCPs existed before April the 6th 2007, and I would suggest the commission arrangements could be the same.

Maybe I need to raise a SAR with the Bank of Scotland and only indirectly mention the FCA's review of DCA, and see where that takes me.

It was not a business contract hire as I took this out on a personal basis, it was not organised through my employer, but I do faintly recall submitting a referral code that was given out by my employer when I applied for it (I think it was printed on the brochure). It may be possible that the PCP financing came through the business arm of BoS, if that is what the Vehicle Finance division is, and not the retail side, however, it was a PCP that I took out. At the end of the term I paid the balance and kept the car.

Hoenir

Believe that 6th April 2007 was chosen as the Financial Ombudsman is unable to look at consumer credit complaints until after this date. 

dunstonh

Interesting that the FCA review period is not earlier. 

As mentioned, the FOS cannot look at the complaints.  It also ties into the changes in the consumer credit act that the courts have been using in their decisions.

To consider earlier periods would be like having a change in the road speed from 50 to 30 and then trying to prosecute all those that exceeded 30mph when the limit was 50.