Who qualifies for the FCA motor finance redress scheme, and the 2026 deadlines

The FCA motor finance redress scheme is now confirmed, covering roughly 12.1 million car finance agreements, but a live legal challenge means the calendar matters more than the headline. If your premium car was bought on PCP or HP between April 2007 and November 2024, the dates below decide when you get assessed and whether a complaint logged now puts you near the front of the queue.

Who the redress scheme actually covers

The scheme targets unfair commission, not every car deal. It covers discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs), where the dealer could nudge your interest rate up to earn more, plus high-commission arrangements where the commission was at least 39% of the total cost of credit and at least 10% of the loan, and certain contractual ties between lender and broker. The FCA says about 12.1 million agreements fall inside those rules. If you bought a premium car on PCP or HP and never knew how much the dealer pocketed, you are squarely in the population the scheme was built for. The same commission mechanics sit behind the manufacturer versus broker car finance question many premium buyers weigh up before signing.

Who is shut out: the exclusions that catch people

Plenty of agreements look eligible but are not. Personal contract hire (a lease, PCH) is excluded because you never own the car, so there is no consumer-credit commission to redress. Also out: business-purpose agreements, cases an ombudsman or court has already decided, deals that have already been compensated, and pre-6 April 2008 agreements above £25,000. High-value loans are excluded on a sliding annual threshold too, which reached £82,000 for 2024. That last band catches a chunk of genuinely premium buyers, so a six-figure finance deal on a flagship Range Rover or a Porsche may simply sit outside the scheme. If your agreement is excluded, the older voluntary termination rights under the Consumer Credit Act may still give you a separate route to push back.

The two start dates that split the queue

The scheme does not open on one day for everyone. It splits by when you took the loan. Agreements dated between 1 April 2014 and 1 November 2024, the bulk of recent PCP and HP deals on premium cars, fall into the later band, with the scheme beginning on 30 June 2026. Older agreements dated between 6 April 2007 and 31 March 2014 fall into the earlier band, beginning on 31 August 2026. Knowing which band your finance sits in tells you which set of downstream deadlines applies to you, and there are two routes through them depending on whether you act first or wait.

If you complain before the scheme starts

You can lodge a complaint with your lender now, ahead of the scheme opening, and the FCA has set response deadlines for that route. For later-band agreements (loans from 1 April 2014 to 1 November 2024), your lender must respond by 30 September 2026. For earlier-band agreements (6 April 2007 to 31 March 2014), the deadline is 30 November 2026. Complaining early means your case is assessed, and any compensation paid, sooner rather than later. MoneySavingExpert’s Martin Lewis has been blunt that some delay now looks unavoidable given the legal challenge, but that it remains worth getting a complaint in as soon as you can. If you have already had a balloon dispute, our guide to PCP balloon settlement strategies sits alongside this.

If you do nothing: the auto-contact route

You are not required to lift a finger. Once the scheme starts, lenders must contact eligible customers within six months to flag that they may be owed redress. The trade-off is timing: the auto-contact route runs to a later finish. Final resolution for earlier-band agreements is set for 30 November 2027, and for later-band agreements for 30 September 2027. So waiting is safe but slow, while a complaint filed now is the lever that pulls your assessment forward. For context on the wider commission story, the detailed FCA PS26/3 redress scheme rules set out how lenders must calculate what you are due.

The FCA motor finance redress scheme calendar at a glance

Here is every confirmed milestone in one place, pulled directly from the FCA’s consumer guidance and checked on 3 June 2026. Treat the legal challenge as a live caveat: the dates are the FCA’s published positions, and the regulator has said compensation may slip while it defends the scheme in court.

Why the legal challenge changes your timing, not your right

As of 1 May 2026 the FCA states plainly that “our scheme has been legally challenged, which will delay any compensation,” and that it intends to defend it. MoneySavingExpert has reported that several lenders are challenging the scheme, with the practical effect that the original July start slipped and further movement is possible. The important distinction for a consumer: a challenge to the scheme’s mechanics does not remove your underlying right to complain about an unfair commission arrangement. Logging a complaint now preserves your position whatever the courts decide on the finer points of the calculation method.

Do it yourself: the claims firm warning

This is the part that costs people money. You do not need a claims management company or a law firm to take part. The FCA says so directly, and a CMC can take up to 36% of any payout in fees. On an average £830 redress figure, that is a meaningful slice handed over for a process the FCA has designed to be done by the consumer for free. MoneyHelper and MoneySavingExpert both steer people toward complaining directly to the lender. If a firm cold-calls or texts you promising to fast-track your car finance payout, treat it as a cost, not a shortcut. The same caution applies across the wider GAP insurance after the FCA review space, where third parties also circle.

How the complaint process works in practice

If you want to act rather than wait, a short, methodical run of checks keeps you in control and out of a claims firm’s hands.

• Confirm your agreement type and dates from your finance paperwork or V5C records, so you know which band (earlier or later) and which deadline applies.
• Read the FCA’s own guidance at fca.org.uk/consumers/car-finance-complaints for the current scheme position.
• Complain directly to the lender named on your agreement, in writing, stating you believe a commission arrangement was unfair.
• Use the free DIY tools from MoneySavingExpert or the guidance at MoneyHelper rather than paying a claims firm.
• Keep a dated record of your complaint, because the lender response deadlines (30 September or 30 November 2026 for early complainers) run from the scheme’s structure.
• If the lender rejects you unreasonably, the Financial Ombudsman Service is the escalation route, and its published decisions show how commission complaints have been handled.

Where premium buyers should look next

Redress sits inside a bigger picture of premium car finance risk. If your current deal is heading toward a balloon you cannot meet, the mechanics of PCP versus HP on a Range Rover explain why some buyers end up exposed in the first place. If you part-exchanged and rolled debt forward, our look at negative equity on a premium PCP covers the trap that compounds a bad commission deal. And the data point worth holding onto: the Financial Ombudsman Service’s published decisions on commission complaints have run at high uphold rates, which is part of why the FCA built a structured scheme rather than leaving 12.1 million cases to be fought one by one.

Updated: 3 June 2026. This is general guidance, not personalised financial, tax or legal advice; CDE has not driven this specific vehicle.

Our take

The FCA motor finance redress scheme is a genuine win for the roughly 12.1 million agreements it covers, and on the FCA’s own numbers an average £830 per agreement is worth the modest effort of a direct complaint. Our view: if you bought a premium car on PCP or HP between April 2007 and November 2024 and never saw the commission figure, log a complaint with your lender now rather than waiting for the auto-contact letter, because an early complaint pulls your assessment forward against the 30 September and 30 November 2026 deadlines. Walk away from any claims firm offering to do it for a 36% cut; the process is built to be free. The one caveat we would not gloss over is the live legal challenge, which the FCA itself says will delay compensation, so set your expectations on timing accordingly while keeping your paperwork ready.