Car finance payouts! Will it happen? Have you unknowingly signed up to a claims firm?

The Big Topic in this week’s episode, Martin Lewis explains the latest on Car Finance Mis-selling – what’s going on and why the wait? Martin unpacks it all, with up to 11 million motorists potentially owed a share of £9 billion due to mis-sold car finance deals. So why haven’t payouts started flowing? He explains the key reasons for the delay. Plus, there’s a crucial new development: the financial regulator is now urging consumers not only to complain about the original car finance but also to scrutinise and potentially challenge the claims management firms that many have relied on to handle complaints. Martin lays out what you should be doing right now to protect your claim and maximise any potential payout. Adrian Chiles found himself £15 out of pocket after being charged on his credit card for something he didn’t purchase. Martin explains the simple, powerful consumer protection that can help you reclaim your money quickly. Whether it’s through chargeback or Section 75 protections, he breaks down exactly what to do if you spot an unfamiliar transaction, and how to act fast for the best chance of success. Finally, Martin highlights a worrying trend affecting travellers. He explains how some British Airways customers are being nudged into paying significantly more than necessary for travel permits. If you’re planning a trip, this is essential listening: Martin shares how to avoid overpaying, what to watch out for, and how to make sure you’re only paying what you actually need. If you want to ask Martin a question, you now can! His Question Time podcast lets you ask Martin absolutely anything and everything (within reason!) – so if you’ve always wanted to know his favourite ice cream flavour, if he’s ever pondered the meaning of life, or have a very complicated question about your personal finances, email it to [email protected] mailto:[email protected].

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:10Speaker 01

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• 0:38Martin Lewis?

  I would even more strongly push you towards putting in a complaint. Well done, podcast producer Simon. What a hero. You sorted it all out. Thank you very much. You can ask your card company to go to the vendor's card company and either get out of it for free if it misled you, or get out of it for a reasonable fee if it didn't. Hello, I'm Martin Lewis and this is the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is our big topic episode where each week we lead on one main subject to help you save. Now, usually, most of it comes from my BBC Radio 5 live show with Adrian Charles. But not today, because there is a big change to the promised programming

• 1:19Martin Lewis?

  that was a surprise to everyone, as you will hear in a couple of minutes. Luckily, though, when a hero is needed, while they're tough to find, we at least managed to get podcast producer Simon to step into the breach anyway. In today's episode, the big topic, car finance misselling. I have an update for you. Up to 11 million people eroded a collective nine billion pounds. But why is it so delayed? What should you be doing? And now, a new development. The regulator is urging people to complain, not just about car finance, but also about the claims management firms millions use to complain about car finance. So complain about your car finance complaint, or we'll be explained.

• 2:02Martin Lewis?

  Next, Adrian got charged 20 quid on his credit card for a payment he didn't make. So what's the easiest way to get that money back? Not just for him, but for you as well. Information worth knowing. And beware British Airways' questionable behaviour, as it pushes people to pay far more for travel permits than they need to. Play the theme tune.

• 2:39Speaker 03

  Martin, may I begin by raising a matter of some importance?

• 2:43Martin Lewis?

  Was that a formal request?

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Uh, yes.

• 2:46Martin Lewis?

  You may.

• 2:46Speaker 03

  Okay, thank you very much. I just think this must apply to a few people.

• 2:51Martin Lewis?

  Sure.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  I was in Croatia last week. It's got kind of two halves. Firstly, I just wonder what you do when this is to do with a parking app.

• 2:59Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 2:59Speaker 03

  Right, but many times you'll go away and it might be parking, there'll be other stuff as well, where you kind of just have to download an app and probably put your credit card details in there somewhere.

• 3:11Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 3:11Speaker 03

  I mean, you know, sometimes you've got no choice. I think, well, sort of, how safe, how safe is it?

• 3:17Martin Lewis?

  Well, plastic is always the safest way to pay, always, because you have far more protections than if you pay in cash or bank transfer or cheque. So if you want, talking about safety abroad, the right plastic, using a specialist overseas card, Lloyds Ultra, top pick at the moment, so credit card paid off in full each month.

• 3:33Speaker 03

  And doing it via an app counts as using the plastic?

• 3:37Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, well, yes, as long as you, it's, as long as when it asks how do you pay, you're paying on the credit card, yes.

• 3:42Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 3:42Martin Lewis?

  I mean, there can be some causal breaks, but I'm not going to go into that.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  I mean, this is where I think something's up. So it was a parking app in Croatia, right? And the, and something, you, you kind of, I don't think you can sort of park anywhere where I end up going without this app.

• 4:01Martin Lewis?

  Yeah.

• 4:01Speaker 03

  And it works fine.

• 4:02Martin Lewis?

  Listeners will be disappointed to know I do not know the specifics of Croatian parking app. I'm sorry to let you all down.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  But the, and then when I got back, this wasn't this time when I went, this was, this was a few months ago, a charge popped up on my credit card for parking in Dubrovnik, actually, when I didn't even have a car while I was in Dubrovnik, I just hadn't used it.

• 4:23Martin Lewis?

  Okay.

• 4:24Speaker 03

  So I called, you know, I've got my Martin Lewis head on, I called my credit card company here and, and they think in, well, section 75, it's their issue. And, but they said, well, they just said, no, no, nothing you do, you've got to contact the firm. And, like, you'll be stunned to hear then, I contact this parking app. By every means I could and just heard absolutely nothing back. So, all right, it was 15 quid, which I'll never get back. Right, I'll live with it. But it's just still seems wrong to me. What did I do wrong?

• 4:56Martin Lewis?

  If you forgive me, Adrian, you didn't have your Martin Lewis head on. You had your Adrian Chiles Mastermind head on. Okay.

• 5:03Speaker 03

  There lies the problem. But look, I'm the victim in your victim blaming here. It's not my fault.

• 5:07Martin Lewis?

  I'm not. And the bank should have told you what I'm about to tell you. And in fact, we had an issue on the Question Time podcast. Let me explain. I'll tell you their issue, which mirrors this from the opposite direction. The most important thing to understand, that very powerful credit card protection called Section 75, which means if you buy something and pay for any of it on the card, card company is jointly liable with the retailer, only applies for items that cost between a hundred pounds and thirty thousand pounds.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Right.

• 5:35Martin Lewis?

  Your payment was below the Section 75 threshold.

• 5:37Speaker 03

  Well, that's not what he told me. But anyway.

• 5:40Martin Lewis?

  No, I agree. Now, the case we had on Question Time was someone who, it was a thirty six thousand pound payment.

• 5:45Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 5:46Martin Lewis?

  And Section 75 only applies for items between a hundred pounds and thirty thousand pounds. So I told him, go back and do a chargeback. Now, the difference between chargeback and Section 75 is Section 75 applies if the item costs, or the thing you're buying costs between a hundred pounds and thirty thousand pounds. Even if you only pay a penny on the credit card, the card company is liable for the entire amount. With chargeback, you're only liable for what you put on the card. If you see, so in his case, he'd put six grand on the card or something. So he was only, but he still got the six grand back. Not what he had wanted back, but a lot better than what had been given. But in his case, he asked for Section 75. They didn't mention chargeback and they actually then gave him compensation later because they hadn't mentioned chargeback until I told him to go back.

• 6:31Martin Lewis?

  Chargeback is not a law. Chargeback is an internal process at Visa, Mastercard and Amex that basically says if you've paid for something and haven't got what you paid for, you can ask your card company to go to the vendor's card company, ask it to be frozen and ask you to get the money because you've been charged for something you didn't get. That seems to be the perfect circumstance for what happened to you.

• 6:55Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 6:56Martin Lewis?

  So, but often, unless you specifically say, I want you to do a chargeback on their company, it won't happen.

• 7:03Speaker 03

  Okay, interesting. Again, hold that thought. Sorry, I've got to go to Matt Chorley, who's got some breaking news for us, Matt.

• 7:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, hi Adrian. John Healy, the Defence Secretary, has resigned.

• 7:16Martin Lewis?

  Well, things have all just changed of a sudden because at that moment Adrian interrupted me to say that the Secretary of State for Defence, John Healy, had just resigned, making the extraordinary statement in a letter to the Prime Minister of 'Since then you have been unable and the Treasury has been unwilling to commit the resources that the nation needs to defend the country at this time of rising threats.' So quite understandably, Five Live have moved to rolling coverage of that story and we have swiftly moved to going into a pod only. And I've got podcast producer Simon with me, PPS, are you there? Hi, I am here. I've not resigned yet now. No, that's good. So, here's what we're going to do, just to finish what I was talking

• 7:59Martin Lewis?

  to Adrian about on chargeback. So yeah, the key is if you want to do a chargeback, if you've not got something, and this is especially important for any credit or debit card transactions under £100 and any debit card transactions over £100, because debit card doesn't have section 75, you need to specifically ask them to do a chargeback. That's the point I was making.

• 8:23Martin Lewis?

  And this is just a little note from a more relaxed Martin who's finished recording the podcast, interrupting the Martin who suddenly had to change the whole programme because we were no longer on air on Five Live and we were suddenly doing it podcast only. And the note is to say, well done podcast producer Simon, what a hero, you sorted it all out. Thank you very much. Now, let's get back on with the actual content.

• 8:47Martin Lewis?

  Now, I've got a big update for you on car finance misselling. You will remember, millions of people have missold and are due hundreds of pounds back, although when is a big question. And this is all because in March, the financial regulator, the FCA, announced finally a £9 billion mass redress scheme for the 12 million missold motor vehicle finance agreements.

• 9:10Martin Lewis?

  But this, in a way, isn't about that, although many of you have questions on that, and we're going to come to those in a moment. This is about the fact that the regulator is now saying many people who used claims management companies, or CMCs, or firms of solicitors, which also count as CMCs in this case, to do their claims for motor finance misselling, have been misled and should complain about the CMC. So it's like a double whammy. Not only are people complaining about missold car finance agreements in the first place, but now it has launched a template letter for people to complain about being misled

• 9:52Martin Lewis?

  by car finance claims management companies. I mean, it's almost tough to get my words around because it's so complicated. I mean, this almost feels like a joke, doesn't it? You've got, "Have you been missold, claims management company, over your missold car finance agreement? Well, you may have been missold and you should put a complaint in." It's like a meta case of misselling. So we need to separate it out and understand what's going on. So what I want to do first, I'm going to talk about the latest news, which is for those people who are unhappy with their claims firm, or those who think it treated you unfairly. We'll come on to how you reclaim car finance misselling and whether that's you in a moment, because we've been swamped with people's questions on that.

• 10:35Martin Lewis?

  Before I go into the details on the claims management firm, Simon, I think we've had a couple of people getting in touch over this, haven't we?

• 10:41Speaker 05

  Yeah, so one of them, like Nicky, for example, I tried to claim by myself using the form to be told a company had already done it on my behalf. I've not instructed anyone to do this on my behalf. I got in touch with the company and they wanted to charge me to close their case when I'd never asked them to. Anyone else had this.

• 10:58Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, well, very many other people have had that happen to them. That's one of the core things you can complain about under the regulator's template letter. So anybody who has not properly signed up with a claims management firm and found they've put in a case for them, you can do this. And I will tell you where I think that happens. So you may have seen this on social media, Si. You go onto social media and they will say, "Put your details in our checker to find out if you were missold car finance." Have you seen any of those?

• 11:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah, I have actually, yeah.

• 11:26Martin Lewis?

  Right. Now, what I suspect you don't realise is if you use their checker, in the small print at the bottom is you've just signed up to their claims management firm and to pay them 30% for doing it. That's one of the big reasons lots of people are unaware they've got a claims management company doing this for them. Now, I'm not saying all claims management firms work in that way, but certainly I've been warning about this for a while. So my guess is that's what's happened to Nikki there, is she might have filled out one of those forms just speculatively, you know, you're out scrolling down on your infinite scroll on your Instagram or your Facebook or whatever it is. Oh, I'll have a quick check of that. Oh, oh, I've got one. And moved on and not realised she's just signed up to a claims management firm and

• 12:08Martin Lewis?

  to give away, you know, 30% plus VAT likely of whatever she gets in compensation on the back of this, when she might have been thinking, oh, I'll do that. And then I'll go and DIY it and do it myself on the free tools that are out there. Any more?

• 12:20Speaker 05

  Yeah. So Lucas, he had a gut feeling about this and pulled out of the CMC claim before signing on the dotted line the day of the High Court ruling.

• 12:28Martin Lewis?

  So I think it's really plain before we get into this, for people to understand, there are two possible routes for reclaiming car finance. The easy route is the regulator's mass redress scheme. I mean, it's called a mass redress scheme because the car finance firms themselves will have to seek out people who've been mis-sold, even if they don't complain. My big warning, you want to put a complaint in, it gets you there quicker and it means there can't be any, we haven't got your information issues. We'll talk more about that in a moment. And there are free tools online that you can complain. I've had four million people use mine. So, I mean, they are certainly out there. The other alternative, the militant alternative is to go to court. Now, if you are going to court, that's where I am warmer to using a claims management company or a law firm to do it for you because you're

• 13:12Martin Lewis?

  going to court. Whether you'll actually get much more net is a more open question because of course, if you do use a claims management firm, you're going to be giving away 30% of any winnings you get. And the amount a court might award after 30% off is not that dissimilar to the type of amounts the regulator's talking about. I'd like the regulator to have been talking about a bit more and that way may well come out in the wash. So if you're using this mass redress scheme, you don't need a claims management firm. That's really where this is coming from. So let's go through to what the regulator is saying. The first thing it says is you need to work out if you have grounds to complain, which it says tends to boil down to you were signed up without agreeing to it or pressured into it. Well, that's Nikki's case all over, isn't it?

• 13:55Martin Lewis?

  You were misled about the service, the costs or the chance of success via the claims management firm, or you didn't receive information you should have been given, such as fee details or cancellation rights. Now, that includes things like if you were already represented by another firm and this CMC didn't check, if it didn't give you a key information summary, it didn't give you a clear breakdown of fees, didn't tell you about a 14-day cooling off period, and it didn't tell you crucially about free alternatives or explain how to make a complaint. In all of those cases, you could well have been misled. If so, you can go onto the regulator's website.

• 14:38Martin Lewis?

  So go onto its front page, scroll down and you'll see it say car finance complaints. Click car finance complaints, scroll down and somewhere down there it talks about using a CMC, a claims management company, and within that bit, you've got this template letter. Now, I need to be honest with you, they launched a template letter on Monday, I saw it, I politely but nicely got in touch with the regulator and said that that template letter doesn't work. Remember, most people using this template letter are the type of people who don't want to do DIY claims. They went to a claims management company and it was a really blunt letter. So, look, I've been doing template letters for nearly, well, not 20 years, 18 years probably. And so I gave some suggestions on how to restructure it and putting a front page on that explained what options people had.

• 15:22Martin Lewis?

  They were brilliant, they did that within 24 hours and the letter now there is much improved and I think people will find it useful. What they're saying is, you can either say, "I just want to get out of this free", and anyone in that first category, being signed up to without agreeing or being pressured into it, you should be able to cancel the contract and not pay for it. So Nikki, you should not be giving any money to that claims management firm and you should be using the regulator's template letter. People who are unhappy for other reasons, well, it's about reducing the amount of the fee that you're told because this wasn't done properly and the template letter's in there. The next thing I want to say is, and I get questions on this all the time, lots of people say to me, "I signed up with the CMC before this whole thing happened, I don't want to

• 16:07Martin Lewis?

  use them now, now I know it's so easy to DIY it, what do I do?" Well, if you don't have grounds to complain, but just feel you want to do it yourself now, you do have a right to cancel your claims management company contract. Though it can charge you a reasonable fee that reflects the work carried out. Now, that charge needs to match broadly the work that's been done so far, yet crucially, most car finance complaints are still on hold and at an early stage, so it shouldn't be much. So if you get in touch with them and you say, how much will it cost me to cancel? That must be a reasonable fee. If it doesn't feel reasonable, then you can make a formal complaint and tell them, I don't think that's a reasonable fee. I want you to itemize it and I don't want

• 16:49Martin Lewis?

  to pay that much money. I just want to get out of this, pay a reasonable fee and go and do it myself. Now, the most important point here, both on the complaint if you've been misled, but equally if you want to get out of using a claims management company at this point is this. Firms will often reject complaints, thinking you will give up. Now, I mean, that's all regulated firms, not just claims management firms, I need to say. You do not have to accept that. If you don't think it's resolved your complaint fairly in eight weeks, you can take the same complaint to the relevant ombudsman to get it to adjudicate for free. It should tell you, the firm should tell you in its paperwork, in its website, in its complaint

• 17:29Martin Lewis?

  process, which one of the two ombudsmen is right. And the regulator is very, very strong on this. You do not have to accept the claims management firm as the adjudicator of what the get out of it contract fee is. You have a right to go to the ombudsman. There are two ombudsmen. Is it ombudsmen? Is it ombudsmans? I don't know. You've got the claims management ombudsman, which is part of the financial ombudsman. So that's for firms that are regulated by the FCA. Then you've got the legal ombudsman, which is for firms regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. So you need to look at which is the regulating authority, it shouldn't be this complicated, which is the regulating authority of your claims management firm and that's the

• 18:14Martin Lewis?

  one you'll complain to. The template letter will help. The firm should be telling you this if it rejects your complaint, which ombudsman to go to. I mean, just as a side note, sorry, frustratingly, if you were passed from an FCA-regulated claims firm to a solicitor, you may then need to complain separately to each firm and then go to both ombudsmen.

• 18:36Martin Lewis?

  I know. Either way, big picture on this. If your claims management firm, you're not happy with it, you can complain and either get out of it for free if it misled you, or get out of it for a reasonable fee if it didn't. Be aware though, if you have to pay the fee, you'll have to pay the fee now and we're not talking about that compensation coming on car finance misselling till later. My big question, Simon, did you get that?

• 19:02Speaker 05

  I did get it, fully understood and I'm certain you've set a new world record for the most use of the word ombudsman in one answer.

• 19:09Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, exactly. I mean, look, I'm glad you got it and I just say that one of the advantages on the podcast, go back and listen to it again if you didn't. What I think we should do now, we've had loads of questions about actual car finance misselling as opposed to claims management company misleading over car finance management misselling. Ah! And all this happened the day I was expecting to be doing it with Adrian and we've had to all reorganise and go quickly and just, we're winging this pod only. So hopefully, Simon, you've got some questions, I'm going to do some answers.

• 19:39Speaker 05

  Yes, well, that is always the best way around to do it. We have got quite a lot of questions that have come in.

• 19:47Speaker 05

  First question from Lauren. I emailed last June and got a reply saying I did have a DCA discretionary commission arrangement added to my agreement and said a pause had been applied to reply until the 4th of December 2025 and then the eight week timeframe will start. I've not heard anything at all since. I have even emailed to chase up in April this year with no response. This is from Audi, so VWFS.

• 20:12Martin Lewis?

  Okay, so let's talk timelines. When the regulator announced car finance misselling in March, the proposed timeline is things would start in July and those people who would put a complaint in, because it's much quicker if you put a complaint in than if the firm is having to look for you, would start getting payouts by the end of this year. Then.

• 20:36Martin Lewis?

  What happened is four companies are trying to do effectively a judicial review over the regulator's decision to do a mass repayment scheme. You have Volkswagen Financial Services, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services and Credit Agricole Auto Finance. Now, you can understand they're all car finance firms, they're putting in over the level and the way that the compensation system is working. The other company is Consumer Voice, which is a limited company which acts as an introducer to group legal claims by solicitors and claims management firms. It's being represented by Cormac's Legal Limited.

• 21:18Martin Lewis?

  It was the first one to put in that it was going to be doing a complaint about the FCA and it's trying to push that consumers get more compensation. So it's pushing for more, the finance firms are clearly, I'm sure, pushing for less. What we don't know, and I have heard mutterings, but I genuinely don't know, because Consumer Voice came first, is whether the three financial services firms only put complaints in because Consumer Voice had put a complaint in and they wanted to push it the other way. Whether if Consumer Voice hadn't done that, we might now have the whole scheme running smoothly. Some people have muttered and mooted that to me, I have no basis on that either way round.

• 22:00Martin Lewis?

  Now, what the FCA says, it's hoping it'll only be delayed till October, which means the payouts for those who complain will be happening sometime in 2027 and for those who haven't complained, probably in 2028. It also says though, most lenders are still committed to implementing the scheme, but challenges means timings are uncertain, but firms should be responding to any complaints that come in. What they won't be doing though, is making a decision on the back of it. So look, this is very frustrating, I know, for many people because it's been delayed and delayed and delayed. The regulator, we thought had got it out, we thought it was all going to happen and then these complaints came in and everything's just being on hold another five or six months. So that's that.

• 22:42Speaker 05

  Jay Maverick, would there be any further interest from how long the process is taking? Lewis, he refers to you as.

• 22:48Martin Lewis?

  Well, Maverick, I feel like I'm in Top Gun.

• 22:53Speaker 05

  Does that mean me, Tom Cruise?

• 22:54Martin Lewis?

  No, definitely. I meant your many things, Simon, but Tom Cruise is not one of them. Yeah, well, there will be. There will be further interest. The delay, I mean, in the, again, assuming everything continues as it was already planned to, and one of the things being challenged is the level of interest. I challenged that too, and they did change that after the consultation period. I was one of the people who put in a consultation saying the interest was too low. The interest you will get will be set at the Bank of England base rate plus 1% for all the years that you had the car finance. So if it is delayed by a year, I mean, what is Bank of England base rate at the moment? So you're going to be getting a little short of 5% when you add that 1% on top of for the delay this year. So maverick, I can say, yes, you will be getting further interest due to the delay.

• 23:38Speaker 05

  John Davies says they shouldn't be allowed to delay because a few greedy people think they are owed more. Appalling.

• 23:44Martin Lewis?

  Well, I mean, that's certainly one viewpoint that I've heard a lot. And when that initial consumer voice's challenge came in, I did a poll on whether people would prefer, you know, for a push to get more payments and to get a bigger payout, or they prefer everything to be quicker. And from memory, the result was most people just wanted it to be quicker and were disappointed at the delay that was coming in. So that consumer voice, which, as I say, acts as an introducer to group legal claims firms, it did do that, and that was its decision. And you're entitled to your opinion on it, John.

• 24:17Speaker 05

  Yeah, I mean, Kerry agrees with him. She says, I'd have preferred the option to have a payout or await further court proceedings. Seems to be going on forever.

• 24:24Martin Lewis?

  I've heard that view a lot.

• 24:26Speaker 05

  James asking, is it still too late to claim? And where do I find your template?

• 24:29Martin Lewis?

  It is absolutely not too late to claim. Now, assuming everything continues the way it's going, the most important thing you need to do is get a complaint in. Two reasons for that. One, because if you get a complaint in, rather than waiting for them to come and find you, assuming that you were mis-sold, you will be paid out sooner. I mean, there's lots of delays, but you'll still be ahead in the queue. But the most important reason, I would say, is One of the issues we have with these claims is while firms have to try and track down people who were mis-sold, it goes all the way back to 2007. And because of that, there clearly are documents that are missing. You may have moved house, they may not be able to contact you.

• 25:13Martin Lewis?

  There are loads of problems when they're going to come to finding people. They have to make best efforts, but that doesn't mean they're going to find everyone. So I would far prefer people to have put in a complaint with their details, with as much information as they have, and that will make it easier for firms to track you down. Let's just do the who's eligible bit here. So first of all, it has to be motor vehicle finance, which is car, van, motorbike and camper vans, not caravans because they don't have a motor. It has to be a financial agreement from the 6th of April 2007 to the 1st of November 2024. Those are the eligible dates and it's the date you got the finance. People always ask me, what about the 1st of April 2007?

• 25:56Martin Lewis?

  No, this is a strict date, it's about regulation and when that regulation started. Although one of the challenges that's happening in court is when it should start. So that date could change depending on what happens in the court. Finance types: personal contract purchases, or PCP as they're more commonly known, and higher purchase, not leased cars, leasing doesn't count. The vehicle must primarily be for personal use in most cases, although sole traders and small partnerships for work, if the finance is under £25,000, can count. If you have multiple car finance deals or motor finance deals, which is common, you will be due multiple payouts. Each one is a separate thing, the fact you've had more than one does not discount it. If you've paid the vehicle off, if you no longer own it, this is about the finance.

• 26:42Martin Lewis?

  So the fact you don't have the vehicle, the fact you paid it off, doesn't matter. It's about were you effectively mis-sold and charged too much interest because of the commission? And that's, those are the prime things. I'll go through in a little bit what the three different ways that you were mis-sold. Now, you asked me about complaining, is it too late to complain? This is the big bit you've got to get in your head. At the moment, there is no way for any individual to know they were missold without complaining. Because part of the complaints process is to ask, and the free template letters that are out there, this is what they do, they ask the key questions to find out the information if you were missold.

• 27:24Martin Lewis?

  And the reason that there's no way for you to know is the whole point of the misselling is that they did not disclose to you the activities that they were doing that have seemed to be missold. So you cannot know, because if you did know, you wouldn't have been missold. So the only way to know if you're missold is to ask, did you do this? Because I don't know, because you didn't tell me, because that's the whole way that it worked. So that's why you have to be considering putting a complaint in. As for where to put the complaint in, I don't know if I'm allowed to say, am I, Simon?

• 27:54Speaker 05

  Well, is there a website, has a very popular and charismatic podcast host that has started it a long time ago?

• 27:59Martin Lewis?

  I believe there is a website that has a very popular and charismatic podcast host, but also there's a money website that I'm involved in. But I'm not... Look, I mean, I can't give the website name out. Hopefully it'll work out for yourself. There are other places that have got templates too. My tool has had four million people use it, so you can probably find it for yourself. Or you may be able to find another template out there that will work for you too. So, but there's certainly a lot of DIY resources out there that can help. What's the next question?

• 28:28Speaker 05

  Now, so Jackie, she asked a question that came up quite a few times on the very long list that I get down to, a long list that you then get down to a short list that gets us into this position of asking the questions. And she wants to know, can I claim on behalf of my husband who died last year?

• 28:42Martin Lewis?

  Yes, you can, you can claim, depending on the circumstances. It's either the primary beneficiary who can complain, or the executor of the will who can put in a complaint on behalf of someone who's deceased. The fact someone who has passed away does not stop you complaining. However, I've already talked about my concern about car finance firms even though they are mandated to try and find people who've been mis-sold, finding people because of documentation issues. Clearly, that gets even more difficult if we're talking they have to find out who is the appropriate person for them to be paying mis-selling compensation to for somebody who's passed away. So in this case, I would even more strongly push

• 29:24Martin Lewis?

  you towards putting in a complaint. You can use the same free template letters to put in a complaint going through the FCA's mass redress scheme that I've just talked about. What I would do if you're doing that, you'll need to adapt the letter so that the complaint information is about the deceased person, but you're also noting within the letter that you're acting either as a primary beneficiary or the executor and your name, your relationship to that person and your contact details too. Not a very difficult amendment, you know, just the obvious administrative stuff that they would need to know that you're doing the complaint because this person passed away. When that happens, they will want proof of the death certificate and other things, but just get the complaint in with that basics in the letter. Now, the other thing that people find difficult, because I talk about

• 30:09Martin Lewis?

  as well as the free complaint tools, there is another tool out there, which is Equifax has a car finance complaint tool via its app, which if you go into it, can try and find you all the car finance agreements that you've had since 2007. And I've had great feedback from it. I need to say it isn't universal, not every single car finance agreement is in there, but many people who've lost their car finance details have told me they found it really helpful and it produces the details that you can then put into one of those free tools or template letters out there. If somebody has passed away, you can't use it to find the information of someone who's passed away. But if you get in touch via Equifax's help system, so you need to go online and you can call it or you can

• 30:53Martin Lewis?

  use its web chat or you can write to it via email on its help system to tell them that you're doing a car finance complaint on behalf of someone who's passed away. It can then provide you with the information, but again, for obvious and understandable reasons, it's going to need proof that you're the legitimate person to give that information to, you know, proving death certificate and primary beneficiary. Now, I need to be honest, I've been talking about that now for a couple of months. I've not yet had feedback from anyone who's been through that process of using Equifax to track information for the primary beneficiary. So hopefully it's working, but I don't have the feedback on it. So I, I, I think that answers the question there.

• 31:33Speaker 05

  Joanne wants to know, I used your template for making a claim on one car, but have now remembered another car I had on finance. Will I have to claim that separately, please? Or will all claims in my name be under one?

• 31:45Martin Lewis?

  Well, the most important thing you haven't told me, Joanne, is whether the claim is with the same car finance firm. If it's with the same car finance firm, it is possible they will look at both claims in one, but I would still get in touch with them and ask to update what you sent them originally with the details of the second car finance agreement. If it is with a separate firm, you need to put in a totally separate complaint. I think what, I'm sort of getting the indication, and I don't know, because I've, I've only got the words that you wrote, that you sort of feel like there's a big mass scheme out there where it's all going into this regulator's pot. It's not. The regulator is mandating each motor finance firm to handle the complaints that come into it. So each motor finance firm is handling this separately.

• 32:30Martin Lewis?

  So certainly if you've got two motor finance firms, they are entirely separate and you have to treat them as completely separate cases.

• 32:36Speaker 05

  Sarah wants to know, will they still find you if you don't fill out a claim form?

• 32:41Martin Lewis?

  They will still look for you if you don't fill out a claim form, provided they have the details of your car finance agreement. But you've already heard me quite strongly push you to put in a complaint. Let's just explore that a little bit more. Companies, once your business is over with them, under data protection rules, often talk about an obligation to destroy your information after about six years, so they're not holding on information too long. Now, this can be interpreted in many ways. But effectively, if you had a car finance agreement for, let's say, three or four years, and then it ended over six years ago, they might not have your information, but Equifax might have your information and you might have your information. So you ask me, will

• 33:26Martin Lewis?

  they still find you if you fill in a claims form? Well, they will still be obliged to look for you, but they may not find you because they don't have details of your car finance or motor finance agreement. They might not have details of your current address or how to contact you. So all of that means you would be better putting in a complaint to tell it, this is my car finance details, if you can find them, or even if you can't, just to say, I had car finance with you, it was from this period, whatever you can give them, the more you can give them, the better, and to make sure they've got your updated contact details.

• 33:58Speaker 05

  Alex, when it was announced a few years ago, I used your template to contact Black Horse. Now I just get an email from them every few months, saying they will contact me in 28 days and repeat. Is there anything I can do to chase it up?

• 34:09Martin Lewis?

  No, this is just a symptom of the hold and the legal delay. You know, it was all ready to kick off and then it has to be put on halt. So I'm actually not going to blame Black Horse, which is part of Lloyds. They are at least keeping you up to date with what's going on. And the honest truth is, what's going on is we're all sitting on our hands, waiting for the court to decide. So there is nothing to chase up. They are not going to do anything until later on this year, when hopefully we have a court decision.

• 34:35Speaker 05

  Gavin, is there a risk that we may not get the payouts at all, that we will have to go via the court route and won't be automatic?

• 34:42Martin Lewis?

  It's a very incisive question, Gavin, and yes is the answer. I think...

• 34:49Martin Lewis?

  And some of the conversations I've had with people in the background about this challenge is, I mean, there is always the existential threat that this challenge stops this mass redress scheme. And I think even more so, there is a larger existential threat that it stops all mass redress schemes in future, which I personally would be very, very depressed if that happens. You know, ultimately, for all the years and all the misselling campaigns I've done over the years, we got a billion pounds back for people on bank charges through my templates, we got over £10 billion back for people on PPI. With all these cases where companies were deliberately and systemically trying to profit

• 35:33Martin Lewis?

  or mislead customers, people have said to me, why do we have to complain? If they missold, why don't they just give us our money back? And under this mass redress scheme, that is what the regulator is creeping towards doing, that people who haven't complained will have to be contacted and will have to be given money. Now, while I agree to an extent that the actual payout levels the regulator is giving have been watered down and are less than you going to court, because there are so many people who've been missold and just don't know how to do it, who are information disenfranchised, who are vulnerable,

• 36:16Martin Lewis?

  who don't have the time, who've gone the wrong route, and in some cases who haven't heard about this, or think it's all a scam because of the way that some claims management firms have gone about advertising it, will miss out. And I think that's wrong, and I'm a supporter of the mass redress scheme. But it is under threat. So there's a number of outcomes here. The first outcome is all the court cases lose and we just get on with it in exactly the same system. The second is that there is a tweak, either up or down, to the eligibility and payment criteria in what the FCA has said about its mass redress scheme, but things carry on. The third is the FCA decides that because of a court ruling, it cannot continue with the mass redress scheme,

• 36:59Martin Lewis?

  in which case people will need to make individual complaints and would still be able to go to the Financial Ombudsman. But the basis, it's going to be much more all over the place. Or people could, of course, go to court. And then at the extreme case, of course, there could be a ruling that none of this is relevant anyway and you're not entitled to money. But then I still think people would still be able to go to court. And that would, of course, which is rather interesting where the complaints come from. If everyone had to go to court, that would put a lot more customers in the hands of claims management companies. So Gavin, is there a risk? Yes.

• 37:31Speaker 05

  And finally, Louise wants to know, has anyone who applied for the payout even had an acknowledgement of all their requests?

• 37:38Martin Lewis?

  Yeah, I mean, you should definitely have had an acknowledgement and millions of people have had acknowledgement. Some companies are really pants at this. But you may, at this point, they should absolutely be acknowledging you. And if you put your complaint in, you haven't heard, I would absolutely be getting back in touch with them at this point to say what's happening. Any more?

• 37:59Speaker 05

  That's us.

• 37:59Martin Lewis?

  I think, I'm just thinking, anything I haven't told you? I think I should probably explain the three different types of misselling, which is the one thing that I haven't done. I'm not going to do this in over detail, but just to give you a picture. The first is discretionary commission arrangements, and that's the big one. This is where the interest that you paid was increased to pay the dealer or broker extra commission without you being told that that was happening. So effectively, there was a premium added to the interest rate in order to pay more commission. Now, that's a DCA and that's where it all started. And my original template letters only covered that. They were banned on the 28th of January 2021.

• 38:43Martin Lewis?

  So even though you can complain to a later date, you're only complaining about DCAs till that date. Now, many people, the original template letters and even the current ones, one of the questions they ask is, did you have a discretionary commission arrangement? If you have had a response to that saying, yes, you did have a discretionary commission arrangement.

• 39:05Martin Lewis?

  Then you are very likely, if the FCA scheme goes ahead, to be entitled to money back. You know, and it should be in the that the high hundreds of pounds. But exactly how much you get depends on when you had the discretionary commission arrangement, what the level of commission was, what the size of your agreement was.

• 39:23Martin Lewis?

  If you were told you didn't have a discretionary commission arrangement, you may still have been mis-sold. Now, if you only put in a complaint about discretionary commission arrangements, then the firm will have to look at the other cases, but you won't be in that I've complained group, who were at the head of the distribution table, who'll get their money first. So if you put in one of the early template letters on discretionary commission arrangements, and were told you didn't have one, I'd be putting in another complaint now over the other two types of mis-selling, which are contractual ties. That's where a broker didn't tell you it worked primarily with one lender. There is an exemption here that it now, that if it was obvious capture, so a Volkswagen dealer with Volkswagen Finance doesn't count within this.

• 40:09Martin Lewis?

  But effectively, if they didn't tell you it was working with one lender, so you thought you were going to a competitive panel of car financier, it's not an easy word, of car financiers, and they then effectively save one company first dibs it got you, and they didn't put it to a panel, again, you could have been mis-sold. And there's millions of agreements who are potentially mis-sold there. The final category, unfairly high commission. This is where commission paid to brokers or dealers was 39% or more of the total cost of credit and 10% or more of the total size of the loan. The regulator sees that as excessive. In all these cases, just to remind you, it's only mis-selling if you weren't told and didn't have it overtly declared to you.

• 40:53Martin Lewis?

  But they very, very rarely did. So I don't really see that as a get out. Hopefully, that has given you all the information that you need.

• 41:04Martin Lewis?

  Okay, one final story I just want to do in this podcast. I need to say, if you saw me online, you might have seen we were going to be talking about haggling and different ways to haggle and secrets of the call centre in our tellers. I'm going to hold that because I think that works better when I do it with Adrian and we'll do it in the Five Live podcast next week. I will, of course, be doing a mastermind there. I have one all written and ready to go. It's a good one, too, so I'm slightly disappointed I haven't done it. Hopefully, you're not too disappointed and that you've got some decent info out of this podcast. Now, final point is I want to warn you to beware British Airways questionable behaviour as it pushes people to overpay for ESTAs and other travel permits. This all came from a tweet I got.

• 41:49Martin Lewis?

  Can you still call it a tweet? You can't call it an X. What would you call it? Is it an X post? I'm going to call it a tweet. It all came from a tweet I got from Andy RFC Charman on X. Obviously, it was on X because it's a tweet. He said, "Very disappointing to see that British Airways are now directing their customers who require an ESTA to a third-party site, Sherpa, who charge for their service, rather than going through a direct link to the US Customs and Border Protection site." So my brilliant team did more work into it and absolutely right. British Airways is directing customers to a travel permit tool on its website powered by a firm called Sherpa. And if you then go through that and it sort of says, "We'll help you work out what visas you want," so it's a visa tool, but within it, it talks about travel permits.

• 42:34Martin Lewis?

  If you then go through it and you apply, you will pay more than you would going to the official websites. So, for example, when we checked, Sherpa charged £51 for a US ESTA, ESTA, that costs about £30 when bought directly from the US government, while an Australian E-Visa, which is totally free if you go direct, costs £17 if you go via Sherpa. The same is true, too, that you're going to pay more for a Canadian ETA and a New Zealand ETA. And I suspect, once the European system sets up later on this year, they will be doing

• 43:12Martin Lewis?

  Same there. So my warning to you is be careful going through these third-party sites. You need to be aware that you'll be paying more. Now, Sherpa told us that its service fee is shared between Sherpa and its airline partners, which if so, means British Airways will be making money from this tool on the excess, though neither Sherpa nor BA would tell us how the fee is split. So my overall summary here is I doubt most people would really pay £17 for an Australian eVisa document if they knew they could easily click to get it for free from the official route. So I suspect a material number of people who do pay don't

• 43:56Martin Lewis?

  know they don't need to. And that means that our national flag carrier, British Airways, for me feels a little bit less like it's acting like a flagship and a little bit more like it's acting like a pirate ship. It's not the only one, though. We've seen Sherpa's tool on Thomas Cook and Virgin Atlantic. We've seen tour operator Saga operating via a different system, which is even more expensive than Sherpa when you go through it. So let me be really plain. If you want an Australian eVisa, go to the Australian Government's Home Affairs website where it's free. If you want a Canadian ETA, go to the Canadian Government's ETA website where you'll be led through the process, answering just a few simple questions.

• 44:41Martin Lewis?

  If you want the European Travel Information and Authorization System, the ETIAS, it hasn't started yet. So anyone who's promising to get you one, they're wrong and they're a shyster, so don't touch them. New Zealand ETA, New Zealand Immigration website, US ESTA, go to the ESTA website. For all other visas and travel permits, the rule of thumb, go through the UK Government's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office site, the FCO site, and it'll link you to the right site for your information. Do not pay more than you need. I don't think it's that good that now airlines are just trying to grab an extra digital snack on your cash when it's unnecessary for getting you travel permits and visas

• 45:22Martin Lewis?

  too. Do let me know if you've seen them and if you paid and you didn't realise. Get in touch at [email protected]. And I think that probably is the place to end, Si.

• 45:33Speaker 05

  Perfect.

• 45:35Speaker 05

  Hi, producer Simon here. British Airways and Sherpa have both got in touch with their response to what Martin has said. British Airways says, "We serve customers travelling to hundreds of different destinations where entry requirements vary by nationality and route taken, with some requirements changing at short notice. We offer an optional third-party service to assist with this and check requirements all in one place, and for some destinations, an optional service to help with applications. We make it clear that customers must check the full entry requirements with the relevant government directly. It is also clear that Sherpa is a third-party provider and may charge additional fees. Customers can apply directly via official government channels, also linked on the same page, which are clearly displayed."

• 46:20Speaker 05

  And Sherpa CEO Max Tremaine got in touch, saying, "We are transparent about the difference between the government fee and the Sherpa's service fee, and depending on the integration, we often give the option to go directly to the government system. Before payment, Sherpa provide an itemised cost breakdown, including the government fee and our fee. Travellers opt to use Sherpa because our products make the application process quicker, easier to complete, and we provide application support, unlike many government sites, minimising the likelihood of repeating applications." Back to the pod.

• 46:55Speaker 05

  A different podcast this week.

• 46:56Martin Lewis?

  It is a different podcast. It wasn't what we were planning to do. I hope people have found it useful and interesting, too. And thank you very much for stepping into the breach, Simon, to ask me the questions as we go through.

• 47:05Speaker 05

  Well, I'm just grateful you didn't make me do my Adrian Chiles impression. If Matt Lansley was here, he would have been able to just do it seamlessly.

• 47:10Martin Lewis?

  But I would quite like to hear your Adrian Chiles impression. Do you have one? Because I have one. I do it when I do the podcast. What are we going to say?

• 47:16Speaker 05

  Martin, what shall we do next?

• 47:17Martin Lewis?

  Okay, shall we do it together? The same words. One, two, three.

• 47:21Speaker 05

  Martin, what shall we do next?

• 47:22Martin Lewis?

  What do we do next?

• 47:23Speaker 05

  Can you explain this to me, Martin?

• 47:27Martin Lewis?

  Bye.

• 47:30Martin Lewis?

  And that is it for this week. We tend to put out a new episode every Thursday and Monday. Monday is our Question Time podcast, where you can ask me absolutely anything and everything, open brackets, within reason, close brackets. If you've enjoyed it today, please do tell your friends you've been listening to the Martin Lewis podcast. And why not subscribe? And hey, why not even write us a review? We'd like some, please, as long as they're good. Now, I can't say that. Write them whether they're good or bad. But if you like the podcast, hopefully you'll be more keen to write a review than the people who don't like the podcast, who can't be bothered. And if you've been listening this long and you don't like the podcast, well, you've only got yourself to blame. For the rest of you, though, I hope your pockets are pleased with you.

• 48:24Speaker 06

  Martin Lewis is the founder of MoneySavingExpert.com. But of course, other consumer and price comparison websites are available. You can get in touch with Martin's podcast production team by emailing [email protected]. The offers and rates mentioned in the podcast are correct at the time of recording. However, if you are listening on demand, it's worth double checking as details can date. Remember to subscribe on BBC Sounds and leave us a review however you listen.

• 49:05Speaker 01

  Welcome to The Haunted Library. Join me, Colin Morgan, as I read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. A story of science and ambition, loneliness and longing, and what it truly means to be human. Listen to The Haunted Library wherever you get your podcasts, or find us on YouTube.