On 11th January 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a policy statement to temporarily suspend the requirement for firms to issue responses to Discretionary Commission Arrangement complaints within 8 weeks until 25th September 2024. This applies for vehicles financed before 28th January 2021. For more information on the FCA approach please visit www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints.
What is a Discretionary Commission Arrangement?
Discretionary commission arrangements are agreements between credit brokers and lenders that incentivise brokers to increase how much people were charged for their car loan.
Did Go Car Credit ever use a Discretionary Commission Arrangement?
No, we are pleased to confirm that we have never used a Discretionary Commission Arrangement, meaning our customers have not experienced additional interest, fees or charges as a result of applying for our finance products via a credit broker or car dealership.
What does this mean for me?
You can rest assured that the interest rate agreed was the best available to you at the time you took out your Hire Purchase Agreement with us.
Any complaint received regarding commission arrangements will be reviewed in line with the standard timescales set out under the heading ‘complaints procedure.’
At Go Car Credit, we aim to provide you with the highest standards of service. However, sometimes things can go wrong. When this happens, we encourage our customers to tell us in order for us to look to put things right. This procedure has been created to provide you with clear information on how our complaints process works.
Phone – 01925 696 371
Email – gocarcreditcomplaint@workpro-online.com
Post – Aftersales Department, Go Car Credit Ltd Chadwick House, Floor 1, Birchwood Park, Warrington, WA3 6AE
Please provide us with as much information as possible when making your complaint. This will help us to understand the issue and aid us in resolving it as quickly as possible. Please ensure you include:
• your name and address
• your account number (if known)
• a description of your complaint and how it’s affected you
• when the issue happened
• your contact details and what times are convenient for us to contact you
If your complaint is related to concerns regarding the quality of your vehicle you may need to provide evidence to us to support your concerns. You should send this to us as soon as possible.
Please be aware that should your vehicle have a mechanical fault you should stop driving it immediately. Driving with a known fault can cause additional damage which we may not be able to support you with.
We want to fully understand what’s gone wrong. This is to make sure we get the right person handling your complaint, so they can investigate and fix the situation as soon as possible.
Where there are concerns regarding the quality of your vehicle, we will need to work with your vehicle supplier and/or finance broker. Having as much information as possible on first contact will help us to move your case forward.
Vehicle Quality, Commission complaints where no commission was paid and Customer Service complaints.
Although we have 8 weeks to resolve your complaint, we’ll send you our final response as soon as we’ve completed our investigation. We will ensure to provide regular updates and confirm next steps with you throughout the process.
If we haven’t been able to resolve your complaint in 8 weeks we’ll send you a communication letting you know and what steps you can take. At this stage you can raise your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Further information is provided under the heading ‘Financial Ombudsman Service – Your Rights.’
Complaints regarding Commission Arrangements where a commission payment was made.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have implemented a pause on all complaints linked to the payment of Commission to a Broker or Car Dealership. Full information can be found at www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints. The pause will extend to 4th December 2025. The timescales and approach for closing your complaint will depend on the model of commission paid.
If you raise a commission complaint combined with other concerns, for example customer service concerns, we will split your complaint into two so we can respond to concerns not impacted by the pause as soon as possible.
Complaints not impacted by the FCA pause will be responded to within 8 weeks as set out in the “Vehicle Quality, Commission complaints where no commission was paid and Customer Service complaints” section.
Items regarding commission will be responded to as written in this section of the procedure.
Vehicle Quality, Commission complaints where no commission was paid and Customer Service complaints.
If you don’t agree with our resolution of your complaint, or you do not receive a response within 8 weeks, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within six months of the date of our final response letter.
If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances
Complaints regarding Commission Arrangements where a commission payment was made.
Typically customers have six months to raise their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service upon receipt of a final response letter. Due to the pause, the six month timeframe does not apply, please go to www.fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints, which explains the reasons for this.
If you don’t agree with our resolution of your complaint, you have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge – but you must do so within fifteen months of the date of our final response letter.
If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result of exceptional circumstances.
Phone – 0300 123 9123 or 0800 023 4567
Email – complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Web – www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk
Post – The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London, E14 9SR
