If you bought a car on finance before 28th January 2021, there's a significant chance you paid more than you should have, and you could be owed thousands. This is due to a widespread practice of hidden commissions, particularly a system known as a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (DCA).

What is a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (DCA)?

Think of it as a hidden charge that you were never told about.

For years, lenders allowed car dealers (acting as brokers) the 'discretion' to set the interest rate on your finance agreement within a certain range. The problem was, the higher the interest rate they set for you, the more commission the dealer received from the lender.

This created a clear conflict of interest. The dealer had a direct financial incentive to make your loan more expensive, not to find you the best deal.

The financial regulator, the FCA, investigated this practice and found it was causing "widespread consumer harm," estimating that customers on a typical £10,000 loan were overcharged by an average of £1,100. They banned DCAs entirely in January 2021.

Beyond DCAs: The "Secret Commission" Ruling

The issue doesn't stop with DCAs. In a landmark ruling, the UK's Supreme Court confirmed that it was unlawful for a lender to pay any commission to a dealer without the customer's fully informed consent. This means you had to be told about the existence, nature, and amount of the commission. This broader principle could apply to an even wider pool of finance agreements.

Why Use PCPclaimDirect Instead of Going It Alone?

Consumer champions like Martin Lewis are right to empower people and provide tools to start a claim risk free. You absolutely have the right to do this yourself.

However, the value of using an expert service like PCPclaimDirect is clear: we manage the entire complex process to ensure you get a fair outcome, without any of the hassle.

We Do the Detective Work: Can't find your old paperwork? Don't worry. This is one of the biggest hurdles for people claiming alone. Our systems can locate your past finance agreements, often with just your name and old addresses. That might not be the same for the lender as in many cases, lenders routinely delete or destroy old files after six years, not because they have anything to hide but simply because they cannot realistically store hundreds of millions of documents indefinitely. The difficulty this creates is that key information about your agreements such as the true APR, hidden commissions, or interest charges, may no longer be easily available. With so much data missing or incomplete, there is a real risk of underpayment if a claim is handled without expert oversight. If the bank has deleted your records, how can you expect the correct settlement?

We Speak the Legal Language: We draft and submit the formal complaint, handle all the complex legal correspondence with the lender, and navigate the official regulatory pause put in place by the FCA.

We Fight for a Fair Settlement: Once the pause is lifted, lenders will face a flood of claims. In many cases, lenders are hiring additional staff to cope with what is expected to be millions of PCP claims. While banks will no doubt aim to process these fairly, the sheer volume of cases and the pressure on new staff creates a real risk of errors. Even a small mistake in calculating interest, commission, or APR can significantly reduce the compensation owed. This is where engaging experts makes sense. Our team has years of experience challenging lenders and ensuring the correct entitlement is calculated in full, something that can only be achieved through specialist knowledge of how these agreements were structured and where hidden charges often lie. Our legal experts will assess any compensation offer to ensure it's fair and covers the full extent of your loss, negotiating directly with the lender on your behalf if necessary to ensure that what is rightfully yours, is the full and correct settlement. We take the guesswork and stress out of the final, most crucial step.

Starting a claim is just the first step. Seeing it through to a successful and fair conclusion is the hard part. With our 'No Win, No Fee' guarantee, you get our expert team in your corner, fighting for you every step of the way, at no financial risk.