How to make a complaint about Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs)

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

FCA Investigation Update

On 24 September 2024, the FCA announced that they are extending the time firms have to respond to Motor Finance complaints involving a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (DCA). They will now announce the findings of their investigation and next steps in May 2025, and have extended the pause on DCA complaints to 04 December 2025.

What this means for eligible DCA Complaints

Whilst you can still refer your complaint to us as normal, if you have an eligible DCA complaint, you will not receive a final response within the usual 8-week deadline.  All eligible DCA complaints will not be answered until after 4th December 2025 at the earliest.  We will notify you in advance of this date whether or not your complaint is DCA eligible.

Eligible DCA complaints will then have until the later of 29th July 2026, or 15 months from the date of their final response letter to refer their complaint to The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) - instead of the usual 6 months. This is so you will not have to decide whether to refer your complaint to the FOS before next steps have been announced by the FCA.

For full details on the complaint handling timescales relevant to DCA complaints, please visit www.fca.org.uk/car-finance-complaints.

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, which can be found here.

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.