How to make a complaint about the Discretionary Car Finance Commission

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) describes a discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) as an arrangement where a finance provider allowed a broker (the person that arranged the finance) to adjust the interest rates they offered to customers.

Typically, the higher the interest rate, the more commission the broker received. The FCA banned this practice in 2021. However, they are currently reviewing the car finance market to understand if motor finance providers have failed to comply with the rules. As part of their review, the FCA will consider if any customers have suffered a loss as a result of these arrangements and if any compensation is due.

This will apply to you if:

• There was a discretionary commission arrangement relating to your agreement.
• You used car finance to buy a car before 28 January 2021. This includes hire purchase agreements, Personal Contract Purchases and fixed-sum loan agreements.

This doesn’t to you apply if:

• You used car finance to buy a car on or after 28 January 2021.
• You used a hire agreement, such as a Personal Contract Hire.

Complaints Process

You can refer your complaints to us as normal. However, while this review is ongoing, the FCA has introduced a temporary 37 week holding period which takes immediate effect from 11th January 2024. This means that there will be a few changes to the usual complaint handling timescales and, as a result, we have longer to review and provide a response to your complaint.

• If you have an eligible DCA complaint, you will not receive a final response within the usual 8-week deadline. the FCA have extended the deadline and as a result, most eligible complaints will not be answered until 25 September 2024 at the earliest.
• If you currently have a DCA complaint in progress with us, the 8-week deadline has been paused and will resume on 25 September 2024.
• If we sent you a final response to your complaint between 12 July 2023 and 10th January 2024, or we send you a final response between 11th January 2024 and 20 November 2024 and you remain unhappy; you have longer to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Usually you have six months from the date of our final response to refer your complaint, however you now have up to 15 months from the date of our final response.
• If your complaint does not relate to a discretionary commission arrangement, the revised complaint handling timescales will not apply and the standard complaints handling procedure will be followed.
• For full details on the complaint handling timescales, please visit www.fca.org.uk/car-finance-complaints.

How to raise a complaint

To assist us with locating details of your account, please provide us with the following information, where known, using any of our contact methods:

• First Name
• Surname
• Any Previous Surname(s)
• Date of Birth
• Ford Credit Account Number(s)
• Vehicle Registration(s)
• Current Address including Postcode
• Contact phone number
• Contact email address
• Previous Address(es) including Postcode(s) relevant to the complaint

You have a number of ways to contact us; you can call or write to us via post or email:

Call us: 0345 712 5490
We are open 9:00am till 5:15pm on weekdays and 9:00 till 1:00pm on Saturdays

Email us: custrel@ford.com*
Our opening hours are 9:30am and 5:15pm weekdays

Write to us: Customer Relations Department, Ford Credit, 1 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN

*Please note that the transmission of information via the internet (including e-mail) is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect personal data, any transmission is at your own risk. Once we have received your information, we will use strict procedures and security facilities to ensure against unauthorised access. To keep your data secure please do not send any Personally Identifiable or Sensitive Personal Information to custrel@ford.com.