Car finance mis-selling compensation?

[SpokeyDokey]

Mod note:

Political posts removed/edited. Please avoid if you want the thread to remain open.

Thank you.

 

[gbb]

Did you really think you would be getting unbiased 'advice' from the car dealer's salesman? If so you are incredibly niaive - they never have claimed to cover the whole finance market.
The deal would only be the 'best' deal they are willing to offer you from their finance partner - surely that is obvious.

If the APR was too high, then you could look elsewhere to finance the deal, though that might have been a lot more complicated and a lot more work.

Some.points touched on in this convo are in essense quite right...for instance, you brought the car, you knew the package they put together and were happy with it at the time ?
Yes, plain and simple.
What that doesn't cover is the deliberate skewing of rates to favour the seller, thats quite clearly not allowed...and given we seem to have adopted the US model (interest rate depends on your financial score), that makes it almost impossible to compare with an offer someone else was made, you simply have no gauge as to if the offer is correct and fair. In other words, 90% of buyers HAVE to trust the information given is honest, true and correct, its a very complex thing

At the end of the day im cogitating three things.

I had the cars, paid them, had no issues, move on with life. Im quite heavily on this side of the fence

I was (potentially) mis sold a product, everyone's insurance is going up whether we claim or not....so you could argue you might as well claim then... not to do so is to pay extra for no reason whatsoever.

Im retired, caring for two young children with just my pension and child benefit, if I can find a way of easing that load...I will.

All thee are valid, just down to whether I can be bothered having seen anyone else's experiences (if there are.any...and it appears not )

 

[Big T]

Did you really think you would be getting unbiased 'advice' from the car dealer's salesman? If so you are incredibly niaive - they never have claimed to cover the whole finance market.
The deal would only be the 'best' deal they are willing to offer you from their finance partner - surely that is obvious.

If the APR was too high, then you could look elsewhere to finance the deal, though that might have been a lot more complicated and a lot more work.

We were going to go with a bank loan, at around 8% interest. Only to be told by the car salesman that “we can match bank rates“. Fair enough, we thought, so they prepare all the paperwork and we go to sign and find out that the interest rate is 12%! We needed the car PDQ so we were a little over the barrel. Sign up or wait a couple of weeks to arrange a bank loan. So we reluctantly signed up for the loan, thinking we’d been ripped off, and it turns out we were right.

 

[figbat]

I have bought several cars on finance over the years. I am currently on my third car in a row from the same OEM and dealer. I used the Money Saving Expert template email to make a complaint for each finance agreement and the supplier has replied in all three cases that I did pay the hidden commission and therefore my complaints will be added to the list. I am now awaiting the outcome.

This idea that you ‘were happy with the deal so just ignore it’ is why these things keep happening. I would have been even happier had I known that I could have had a better deal. I might have looked elsewhere had I known there was a hidden commission being paid that I could have avoided or negotiated. Being ripped off is not OK just because you can afford it.

 

[tom73]

If you can't find your paper work or remember who the finance company was. Equifax have now set up a free car finance checker which go'd back to 2007.
https://www.equifax.co.uk/products/product-features/car-finance-checker

 

[fossyant]

Not being funny, but this is how car finance has worked - you knew the "agent/car sales person" would get commission on selling you a 'policy' - I've always known this. It's not rocket science.

 

[Moodyman]

Not being funny, but this is how car finance has worked - you knew the "agent/car sales person" would get commission on selling you a 'policy' - I've always known this. It's not rocket science.

You might know, but research shows many don’t. Let’s not get started on the complexities of % APRs.

This is why complex finance is simplified into ‘you only pay xxxx per month’.

 

[Dorset Boy]

You don't walk into an Audi dealership and expect them to offer you a choice of a BMW, a Nissan or a Peugeot.
Likewise, it was always obvious that they didn't offer finance deals from the whole of the market, anymore than popping down to your local Barclays would mean being offered finance from Nat West or Lloyds.
APRs make life easier - you just compare the APR and can see which loan is cheapest, and use that along with the monthly cost.

Maybe the dealers shouldn't have got paid anything for arranging the finance.

 

[fossyant]

Apparently common sense is a rare quality. That's why people are up in arms about the 'commission'.

 

[figbat]

It isn’t about agents getting a commission, it’s about the agents having the discretion to set an interest rate in a contract that inflated their own commission, thus setting up an unregulated and undeclared conflict of interest. In inflating interest rates for personal gain, the consumer paid more than necessary.

 

[simongt]

Just glad we paid cash for our last two cars, so it puts us outside the timeframe; about 14 years thus we don't have to bother with the faff.