Free Car Finance Claim Letter Template

The template

Copy the letter below, replace anything in [brackets] with your own details, and send it to your lender. It already asks the four key questions the FCA scheme turns on.

Keep it polite and factual. You don't need to argue the law. You're asking the lender to check your agreement against the same tests the FCA scheme uses, and to respond in writing.

The letter is worded to cover the three disclosure failures the scheme recognises: a DCA, a high-commission arrangement, and a contractual tie. That way you don't need a separate letter for each, and you keep all your options open.

How to use this letter

Three steps: fill in the brackets, send it to your lender, and keep a dated copy. It works for both the scheme route and a free DIY complaint.

Email is usually fastest and gives you a timestamp automatically. If you post it, send it recorded delivery and keep the receipt.

1. Copy the letter text below into an email or a document.
2. Replace every [bracketed] field with your own details (name, address, lender, agreement number, start date, vehicle).
3. Send it to your lender's official complaints address or web form, and keep a dated copy.

Who to send it to

Send it to your lender (the finance company named on your agreement), not the car dealer. Use their official complaints address or online complaints form.

• Find the lender's name on your original finance agreement. See how to find your lender.
• Look up their complaints address or complaints web form on their site (it's usually in the footer under 'Complaints').
• If your lender has gone bust, the letter still works: send it to the successor firm or the administrator. Car finance is not covered by the FSCS. See lender out of business.
• Send it by email or post and keep a dated copy for your records.

What happens next

The lender usually has up to eight weeks to give a final response. If you're unhappy with it, or hear nothing, you can escalate to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free.

The Financial Ombudsman Service is the free, independent backstop. Read how it works on the FOS process. You do not need a claims-management company at any stage. Parts of the FCA scheme have been suspended with effect from 29 June 2026 while a legal challenge is heard, so lenders do not have to calculate or pay scheme compensation yet, and payouts are expected in 2027 at the earliest, if the scheme is upheld and the judgment is not appealed. Your free complaint still puts your case on record whatever the scheme's timing.

Keep your paperwork tidy

Hold on to every letter, email and decision in one place. If you escalate to the ombudsman, you'll need the chain.

• Save the lender's final response. It shows the date your six-month ombudsman window starts from.
• Note any reference number the lender gives your complaint.
• Keep your original agreement and any statements, in case the ombudsman asks.

Estimate first

Before you send the letter, get a rough idea of your position, for free.

Try the compensation estimator, then follow the full how to claim steps. Any figure you see is an estimate, not a promise. Nobody is guaranteed a payout, and the amount depends on your own agreement.

What the four questions actually test

The four numbered questions in the letter map directly onto the tests the FCA scheme uses to decide whether your agreement qualifies. Asking them in writing forces the lender to put an answer on the record.

Each question targets a specific disclosure failure. A DCA is where the broker could push your rate up and earn more commission for doing so. A high fixed commission is a large one-off payment that still distorted the rate. A contractual tie is where the broker only used one lender, or gave one lender the right of first refusal on your loan. Read the detail on what a DCA is.

The point of asking in writing is that the lender has to confirm or deny each one. If they can't show the commission was disclosed properly, that strengthens any later referral to the ombudsman. It also puts you in the same position the scheme would put you in anyway.

Question four asks for the interest rate and APR you were actually charged. Put that figure into car finance interest to see what it added up to over the full term, and how it compares with a fair rate.

DIY complaint vs a claims firm — what a letter proves

Sending this letter yourself, free, is clear evidence that you tried to resolve the complaint directly, which is what the ombudsman and the scheme expect to see first.

The Financial Ombudsman Service will almost always ask whether you complained to the firm first and gave it eight weeks to respond. A dated copy of this letter is that proof. If you hand the same complaint to a claims-management company, they send a near-identical letter and then take a cut (sometimes up to about 36%) for doing the typing.

There is no special legal wording a CMC uses that this template lacks. The questions are the ones the scheme turns on, so you can send them yourself and keep the fee a firm would charge.

If you've lost the agreement number

You can still complain without the agreement number: give the lender enough detail to find the account instead. Lenders can search their own records.

Don't let a missing reference number stop you. The window for complaining is long, but the sooner a complaint is on record, the sooner the eight-week clock starts. See how to find your lender for locating the firm itself.

• Give your full name at the time, date of birth, and the address you lived at when you took out finance.
• Give the approximate start date and the vehicle make and model.
• Give the name of the dealer or broker if you remember it.
• Ask the lender, in the letter, to confirm the agreement number back to you.