Car Finance Compensation Calculator: Mis-Sold Claim

What is the car finance mis-selling scandal?

Between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024, many UK car finance deals carried hidden discretionary commission that pushed up the interest customers paid. Where that commission wasn't properly disclosed, the agreement may have been mis-sold.

The problem was discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs). Under a DCA, the dealer or broker could set the customer's interest rate within a range, and the higher the rate they set, the more commission they earned from the lender. That created an incentive to push rates up — and customers were rarely told. The FCA banned DCAs on 28 January 2021, but deals dating back to 2007 are affected.

On 1 August 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that this kind of undisclosed commission could make a credit agreement unfair under section 140A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. That ruling opened the door to redress for millions of customers. Read the scandal explained.

Were you mis-sold car finance?

You may have been mis-sold if your deal was taken out between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024, was arranged by a dealer or broker, and involved a commission you weren't told about.

If you took out PCP or HP through a car dealer during the affected window, there's a real chance a DCA applied. You don't need to know for certain to complain — asking the lender whether a DCA applied is the first step, and they have to tell you.

• The agreement dates from 6 April 2007 to 1 November 2024 (PCP or HP arranged through a dealer).
• It was arranged by a dealer or broker, not direct with a bank or lender.
• A discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) may have applied before the ban on 28 January 2021 — see what a DCA was.
• The commission wasn't clearly disclosed to you before you signed.
• Check eligibility in were you mis-sold?.

How much compensation could you get?

There's no set figure — redress reflects the extra interest a hidden commission caused, plus 8% interest on top, and varies case by case. The FCA's average across the scheme is about £829 per agreement.

The FCA's PS26/3 impact estimate put the average redress at roughly £829 per affected agreement, with total redress of about £7.5 billion (and a total scheme cost of about £9.1 billion) across roughly 12.1 million agreements. Your own figure depends on the size of your agreement, the term, the interest rate, and how much the commission inflated it.

Use the estimator above for a rough figure based on your numbers. Treat any number — ours, a claims firm's, anyone's — as an estimate. The scheme decides the final amount, and it's free to claim yourself.

How is redress calculated?

The FCA scheme broadly looks at the extra interest a hidden commission caused, then adds 8% interest per year on top. The exact method is set out in PS26/3 and applied by the lender.

In simple terms: if a hidden DCA lifted your interest rate, the lender has to work out how much extra interest you paid as a result, refund that, and add 8% a year compensatory interest for the time you've been without the money. The scheme's rules handle the detail — including cases where the commission was partly disclosed or where the lender disagreed it was unfair. See the FCA redress scheme explained.