Motor Finance Commission
If you borrow money to finance a motor vehicle, your finance provider may pay a commission to your broker or dealer for arranging your finance. If you took out a finance agreement before 28 January 2021, this commission could have been paid under a Discretionary Commission Arrangement (DCA).
| What’s a Discretionary Commission Arrangement? An agreement where a finance provider allowed a broker or motor dealer to decide, within an agreed range, what interest rate would be offered to customers. A payment for arranging the finance was then paid to the broker or motor dealer which was linked to the interest rate. The amount paid would vary depending on how high or low the interest rate agreed was. |
Following concerns about how this type of arrangement could affect customers, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) put a stop to them. This came into effect on 28 January 2021 and led to a high number of enquiries from customers who were worried they could have paid too much because of a DCA. Since then, there have been a number of developments, as set out below. You can find out more information by clicking the date.
11 January 2024 – The FCA announced they would carry out a detailed review of DCAs.
This would look at whether they led to poor practices which resulted in customers losing out. While they completed this work, they said finance providers didn’t have to respond to complaints relating to DCAs within the usual timelines. Customers would also have longer to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
24 September 2024 – The FCA provided an update.
This states they’d set out the findings of their review and next steps in May 2025.
25 October 2024 – The Court of Appeal ruled on 3 cases involving car finance.
In these cases, the Court decided it was against the law for the dealers to have received a commission without first telling the customer all the facts about it, and getting their permission. Click here for The Financial Conduct Authority’s response.
11 December 2024 – The Supreme Court confirmed it will hear an appeal against the Court of Appeal’s judgement.
This is likely to take place in Spring 2025.
19 December 2024 – The FCA provided a further update.
This has given finance providers longer to respond to complaints about any type of motor finance commission. Customers have also been given longer to take their complaint to the FOS.
More information can be found on the Financial Conduct Authority website by clicking here.
What does this mean to me?
We won’t know until the FCA has completed their review. If you think your motor finance agreement with us may have had a commission payment, you can ask us to check. More information about how to do this, along with answers to other questions you may have, can be found in our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Click the question to expand.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I check if my motor finance agreement had a commission payment?
You can ask us by:
- Completing our online motor commission information request. This will ask for all the information we need. Click here to create a motor commission information request.
- Calling us on 0800 9170931. We’re open 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
- Writing to us at Northridge Finance, 1 Donegall Square South, Belfast, BT1 5LR
If you’re calling or writing, you’ll need to give us the information below to help us find your agreement. Don’t worry if you don’t have it all, just give as much as you can. If we need anything more, we’ll be in touch.
- Your full name at the time you took the agreement with us, including any middle names and any name changes (e.g., due to marriage).
- Your address at the time you took the agreement with us, including your postcode.
- Your email address
- Your contact number at the time you took the agreement with us.
- Your date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)
- The 12-digit Northridge agreement number
- The approximate date you took out the agreement
- The name and location of the dealer or broker that arranged the finance.
- The registration number of the vehicle that was financed, including any changes (e.g. personalised plates).
- The make and model of the vehicle that was financed.
I’ve already made a complaint or enquiry about a Discretionary Commission Arrangement – do I need to make another one?
No. If you’ve already made a complaint or enquiry, you’ll have received an acknowledgment from us. You don’t need to do anything else. We’ll be in touch to update you once the FCA provide more information which will enable us to give you a final response.
If a future update from the FCA means your agreement is impacted, we’ll automatically treat your enquiry as a complaint.
I know my agreement had motor finance commission paid. Do I need to do anything?
Yes. You’ll need to let us know by sending us an enquiry as outlined in the FAQ above. This is so we can check your agreement to confirm whether it had commission paid. We can also make sure you’re included when we contact our customers once the FCA finish their review.
What happens after I send you a motor finance commission enquiry?
- We’ll send you a confirmation to let you know we’ve received your enquiry.
- We’ll check the information you’ve given us to see whether any of your agreements with us had a motor finance commission payment.
- If we don’t have enough information to find your agreement, we’ll get in touch. We’ll tell you what we need and how you can send it to us.
- Once we’ve completed our checks, we’ll let you know if your agreement is impacted or not.
- If your agreement is impacted, we’ll treat your enquiry as a complaint. Once the FCA publishes the outcome of its review, we’ll be in touch to update you. More information about complaints is included in the FAQs below.
Can I make a complaint about a motor finance commission payment?
Once we’ve checked and confirmed your agreement is impacted, we’ll automatically treat your enquiry as a complaint. There’s no need for you to make a separate complaint.
If, however, you would like to make a complaint now, you can do this by:
- Calling us free on 0800 917 0931. We’re open from 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Friday.
- Writing to us at:
Complaints Department
Northridge Finance
5th Floor
1 Donegall Square South
Belfast
BT1 5LR
In some cases, the earliest you could hear back from us with a final response is 4 December 2025.
How long will it take for you to respond to my complaint?
While they complete their review, the FCA has made some changes to complaints about any type of motor finance commission.
This means:
- If you make a complaint about motor finance commission, we don’t need to respond to you within the usual 8 week time limit. In some cases, the earliest you could hear back from us with a final response is 4 December 2025.
- If you’re not happy with our response, you’ll have longer to take your complaint to the FOS.
This doesn’t apply to complaints about anything else. We’ll respond to these within the usual timeframes.
What can I do if I am unhappy with your response to my complaint?
You can ask the FOS to look at your complaint. You would normally have to do this within 6 months of getting our final response, but for complaints about any type of motor finance commission, you’ll have longer.
This means if we sent / send you a final response between 12 July 2023 and 29 April 2025 you now have until 29 July 2026 to take it to the FOS.
If we send you a final response between 30 April 2025 and 29 January 2026 you’ll have 15 months from the date of the final response letter to take it to the FOS.
Click here to find out more about how to take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Should I use a Claims Management Company?
A Claims Management Company can make a claim for you, but you’ll have to pay a fee or part of any reward you may get. Click here to find out what to expect.
You, or your Claims Management Company, should only contact us once. If we’re contacted more than once, we’ll need to check who to respond to. This could mean it’ll take longer for us to deal with your enquiry.