In short: the Financial Conduct Authority has confirmed a UK-wide compensation scheme for motor finance customers who weren't told about commission arrangements between their lender and broker between 2007 and 2024. It's worth roughly £9.1 billion across an estimated 12.1 million agreements, with an average payout of £829. The scheme is built primarily around car finance — but if you financed a van through a dealer on a similar Hire Purchase or PCP agreement, it's worth checking where you stand.
What the scheme actually covers
The FCA's redress scheme (confirmed in Policy Statement PS26/3) addresses three specific problems in how motor finance was sold between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024:
- Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs): deals that let the dealer or broker adjust your interest rate upward in exchange for a bigger commission — banned by the FCA from January 2021, but not retrospectively addressed until this scheme.
- Undisclosed high commission: commission worth at least 39% of the total credit cost, or 10% of the loan amount, that wasn't clearly disclosed to you.
- Undisclosed contractual ties: exclusivity or right-of-first-refusal arrangements between your lender and the dealer that weren't made clear.
Who's excluded
Not every agreement from that period qualifies. The FCA has excluded cases where the commission was minimal (£120 or less for agreements before April 2014, £150 or less after), where no interest was charged, where the loan was unusually large (the top 0.5% by value for that year), or where you've already received compensation via the Financial Ombudsman or a court.
Does it cover van finance?
This is the part most coverage glosses over. The scheme and FCA communications are framed around "motor finance" and "car finance" generally, and the vast majority of press coverage, industry commentary and consumer guidance has focused specifically on cars. If you financed a van as a private individual — for example a small van bought partly for personal use, financed via HP or PCP through a dealer — the same underlying regulatory issue (undisclosed commission on a regulated credit agreement) could in principle apply, since the Consumer Credit Act doesn't distinguish agreement types by vehicle category.
However: agreements taken out by a limited company are generally outside consumer credit protections entirely, and the FCA has not published van-specific guidance confirming scope one way or the other at the time of writing. If you financed a van for your trade or business as a sole trader or through a personal HP/PCP agreement in this period, the honest answer is that you should check directly — either by waiting to be contacted (firms must reach out to eligible customers) or by contacting your lender or the Financial Ombudsman Service to ask whether your specific agreement is in scope.
Not sure who you financed with?
If you're trying to identify who to contact, our lenders hub lists contact routes for major UK van finance providers.
Key dates to know
- 30 June 2026: implementation deadline for agreements from 1 April 2014 onward.
- 31 August 2026: implementation deadline for earlier agreements (2007-2014).
- Firms must contact eligible customers within 3 months of their implementation date, and customers then have roughly 6 months to respond.
- 31 August 2027: final deadline to complain if you believe you're eligible but haven't been contacted.
What to do now
You generally don't need to make a claim yourself — firms are required to proactively identify and contact eligible customers. If you believe you had a motor finance agreement (car or van) in this window and haven't heard anything by the relevant deadline above, contact your lender directly and ask whether your agreement has been assessed under the scheme, or raise it with the Financial Ombudsman Service.