Who provides this service?

Fairweather Group Ltd, the owner of claim.co.uk, is an FCA authorised Claims Management Company, specialising in financial claims in the motor industry. Our office and team of 12 is based in Manchester, but we cover claimants from all across the UK.

We build tools & systems using the latest technologies to help the public quickly and easily make claims that otherwise they may not be able to make, due to a lack of time, knowledge, or in the case of car finance claims - simply not having the paperwork. We then refer these claims to our trusted legal partners to do the heavy lifting and help them gain the compensation they deserve.

Over the past 4 years, we have helped 179,901 claimants make 203,436 legal claims across a number of different sectors using our free claims management service. Specifically, we have helped over 54,243 claimants make more than 90,675 car finance claims.

Some of the other brands under Fairweather Group include well known websites such as emissions.co.uk, undisclosed.co.uk and claimexperts.co.uk.

What is the car finance claim about?

Before January 2021, some car finance lenders allowed brokers (the person that arranges the loan, like your car dealer) to adjust the interest rates they offered customers for car finance.

Typically, the higher the interest rate, the more commission the broker received. This was known as a discretionary commission arrangement, or DCA for short.

DCA's created an incentive for brokers to increase how much people were charged for their car loan. Because of this, millions of people were overcharged by anywhere from £500 - £8000+ on the interest they paid on their car finance agreements they took out between 2014 and 2020.

The FCA banned this practice in 2021. You're now able to make a claim against your lender to find out if your car finance agreement had a DCA, and if so, to seek compensation for the overcharged interest, as well as statutory interest on that amount.

What information do I have to provide to claim?

In order to start your car finance claim, we will require the following from you:

1. Personal details:
This includes your first name, last name, current address, date of birth, and contact details.

Why we need these:
If you confirm you had car finance between 2014 and 2020 with one of the eligible lenders who used DCA, we will request your personal details to conduct a soft credit check to verify the car finance agreements you had with any of the 20 lenders confirmed to have used DCA between 2014 and 2020.

By using a soft credit check, we do not need the original finance agreement, reg numbers, agreement numbers, or your address history. The soft credit check does not affect your credit score.

What we do with the information you provide for the soft credit check:
- If we do not find any eligible car finance agreements, we do not store any of the information you provide. You can make a Demand Subject Access Request (DSAR) to us to confirm this.
- If you do have an eligible claim, we will store your data for no longer than the mandatory 6 years. We do not sell this data to 3rd parties (such as marketing companies), and we do not process your data for any purpose other than our FCA authorised claims management service.

2. Proof of ID:
If we find eligible agreements from the soft credit check, you will need to provide Proof of ID, in the form of a driver's licence or a passport.

Why we need this:
Providing ID means your assigned "no-win, no-fee" solicitor and your lender know that this is a legitimate, confirmed claim for compensation, and helps stop fraudulent claims being made in your name. It is also used by the law firms we refer your claim to for their compulsory KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML (Anti Money Laundering) checks.

What we do with your Proof of ID:
- If we do not find any eligible car finance agreements, we do not request your ID or store your data.
- If you do have an eligible claim, we will store your ID for no longer than 1 year. Your ID will be provided to the legal firm we refer your claim to, who will be required to provide it to your lender.

A note from our Director, Benjamin Snape.

"As a registered UK Business and a regulated firm by both the ICO and the FCA, I can assure you that your personal information and your documentation is secure. Any misuse of your data or identification documentation could result in:

- Legal action against us under the Fraud Act 2006, as well as offences under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Identity Cards Act 2006, or the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. This could result in both civil and criminal charges.

- Regulatory penalties, fines and restrictions on Fairweather Group Ltd by the FCA and the ICO, ranging from £10,000 - £1m+.

If you have any concerns, please reach out to me through the team at claim.co.uk and I will personally discuss these with you."

How can I check this isn't a scam?

In addition to being a registered UK business, we are also regulated by both the ICO (Information Commissioners Office) and the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). This means we are held to strict standards in terms of what we can say, our financial promotions, and how we act towards our clients.

We have included links to our registrations below for you to confirm these details:

Companies House: Reg No - 12783771
Financial Conduct Authority Register: FRN - 935899
ICO Register, No - ZB048450

What does the FCA enforce? The FCA enforces the principles within the FCA Handbook, and specifically as a CMC The Claims Management: Conduct of Business sourcebook (CMCOB). These regulations ensure we act only in your best interests, and we are subject to fines of £10,000 - £1,000,000+ for mistreatment of customers.

What does the ICO enforce? The ICO specifically enforces UK GDPR / Data Protection Act 2018, as well as the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR). These regulations protect your personal information, and we are subject to fines of £10,000 - £1,000,000+ for misusing your data.

If you have any concerns around your data, please contact us on info@claim.co.uk to arrange a confidential discussion with one of our directors.

What are the fees?

All car finance claims started using our service are offered on a "no-win, no-fee" basis. Your claim will be referred to either Courmacs Legal Solicitors or Reed & Co Solicitors, and your "no-win, no-fee" agreement is with them. You will not have to pay us a fee for our service, as we are paid a referral fee by our legal partners when we refer eligible claims to them.

What "no-win, no-fee" agreements mean for you:

- If your claim is unsuccessful: You will not have to pay a fee.

Instead, the legal firm we refer your claim to will be responsible for all of the costs of managing the claim, as well as paying their staff, any loan repayments, our referral fee and any other associated costs. This is their risk.

- If you cancel your claim before the 14 day cooling off period: You will not have to pay a fee.

If you choose to cancel within 14 days, simply email or call the law firm stating you wish to cancel.

- If your claim is successful: The maximum you will be charged up to 36% including VAT of any compensation. Even if their portion of your compensation does not cover their costs, it is capped at 36%.

- If you cancel your claim after the 14 day cooling off period: You may have to pay a fee.

If you choose to cancel after 14 days, email or call the law firm stating you wish to cancel and ask for a summary of costs. This is typically calculated based on their hourly rate and the work that has been done on your claim. You can see more details on the e-sign documents on the next step.

How I make a claim myself?

You do not need to use a claims management company to make a claim. You can make a complaint to your lender yourself, and if it is unsuccessful you can use the Financial Ombudsman Service for free.

Why would someone use a CMC like you then?

Over 54,000 drivers have used our service to make more than 90,000 claims instead of doing it themselves, and there's a variety of reasons why. Here's some of the most common ones we've been told...

- They don't have all the details: Some lenders (like Black Horse, MotoNovo or Close Brothers) are requiring some or all of the following in order to make a claim:

Vehicle details such as make and model, registration number, or agreement number
Proof of ID
Address History
Full details of your complaint
What you think they should do to put things right

Many people don't have this information, and don't want to spend the time looking for it, drafting their complaint, and then contacting the lender. For that reason, they might use a CMC like us. We spend a huge amount of money each month to access credit data which gives us all we need to verify claims online, meaning you don't have to look for it.

- They just want a professional to do it: Not everyone likes DIY, or mowing their lawn, valeting their car, or cleaning their house. Some people would simply prefer to let a professional do it and spend their time doing something else, especially if it's on a no-win, no-fee basis.

- They don't want to waste time on something that might not be successful: According to the FCA, only 45% of car finance agreements between 2014 and 2020 had DCA's (and as such are eligible to claim against). From our data, some lenders have a much higher percentage of affected agreements, but that is the stated number.

Our service will take you about 3 minutes, then the legal firms take over. Because it's no-win, no-fee, some people would prefer to spend 3 minutes on something that may not make them money than spending any longer if they don't have the information at hand.

- They are worried about getting it wrong: Some people are worriers, and regardless of how easy or hard the claim process is they'll worry about getting it wrong. Some of those people would prefer to just use a professional service and not have the worry.

- They know they'll never get around to it: Many people (including some of our staff) know they have a tendency to say they'll do something, and then keep putting it off until it never actually happens. For some people, they'd prefer to just spend 3 minutes right now and know that it's ticked off the to-do list.

To summarise, you don't have to use us, but our 54,000+ clients have shown us that they value the service we provide.