You may be aware of recent press coverage in relation to motor finance commission complaints, in response to this, the Financial Conduct Authority (the FCA) has recently issued some guidance about how such complaints should be handled see (https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints).
Family Finance has never paid any broker commission under a Discretionary Commissions Arrangements, or DCA. Under a DCA arrangement, the commission received by the credit broker from the lender is linked to the interest rate payable by the customer under a credit agreement to fund the purchase of a motor vehicle and the broker has a discretion to set or adjust that rate.
Our commission payments are all non-discretionary which means the value is set and our customers were always made aware of the arrangement at the point of sale.
The recent changes by the FCA mean non-discretionary commission payment complaints will be affected in the following ways:
- The timeframe to provide customers with a final response to such complaints for non-DCA commission complaints received on or after 26 October 2024 has been extended until after 4 December 2025.
- Once a customer has received their final response from us they will have 15 months from when the final response is sent or until 29 July 2026 (whichever is later) to refer their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If you would like further information please contact us on 01495 717171 or email complaints@familyfinanceltd.co.uk.