Martin Lewis has posted an update that he says could help anyone with car finance make a complaint, doubling the number eligible to apply for potential pay outs.

The consumer champion is urging people who have had any kind of car finance deal to consider 

He posted: "Minutes ago, the regulator, The FCA, announced it's consulting for two weeks (so quick, it's a likely done deal) on extending the time firms have to handle motor finance commission complaints. This is on the back of a Court of Appeal ruling a couple of weeks ago.

He then added: "While not specified in its announcement, I've had it confirmed this applies to ALL car finance commission complaints, not just the Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) complaints previously covered." 

This could mean that in future, the FCA could look more widely in its car finance investigation, not simply at the  40 per cent of past claims that had DCAs (where dealers could increase their commission by increasing interest) but all commissions including fixed commissions.

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This follows the Court of Appeal ruling, which said: "Consumers need to know all material facts including the amount of commission".

Mr Lewis added: "It looks like (I need to dig) if the hold is extended, almost everyone who has had car finance deals may have a complaint (I need to examine timelines of what counts) and be potentially due money back (this includes those already rejected as they were told they 'didn't have a DCA'),

"This potentially more than doubles the number of people involved, and would really start to look more like PPI scale of payouts (and a substantial threat to the car finance industry)."

Customers are advised to log their complaints as soon as possible, including fixed commission complaints, in order to avoid missing out due to a potential time bar.

"I will work with my MSE team to expand our MoneySavingExpert free complaints (that's already had 2.5m complaints through it) to help the new cohort of people who may be able to complain," he added. "These are provisional first thoughts, bashed out at speed, obviously there's more work to do, but it is big."