Financial Ombudsman Car Finance Complaints: When to Refer

Reviewed on 28 October 2026. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) can review eligible disputes with financial businesses without charging consumers. For car finance commission complaints, the correct referral route depends on whether the complaint falls within the FCA scheme.

If your complaint falls within the scheme

The FOS consumer guidance on commission complaints says that you should first ask your lender for a redress determination if you disagree with or want to query its response.

The Ombudsman can generally consider a scheme complaint once you have that determination or the deadline for providing it has passed. Its task is to assess whether the lender followed the scheme rules. It is not an automatic second opportunity to obtain a larger award using a different formula.

This means the ordinary instruction to escalate every unanswered complaint after eight weeks is incomplete for scheme cases.

If the issue is outside the scheme

Complaints about matters such as affordability, vehicle quality or other aspects of the finance can follow a different route. The FOS's general car finance guidance explains the usual approach: complain to the business, then refer if you are dissatisfied with its final response or it has not responded within the applicable period, normally eight weeks.

A letter can address more than one issue. Keep the parts separate in your records so that a commission-related delay does not obscure an answer about another concern.

If your complaint was already with the Ombudsman

The FOS says complaints brought to it before 30 March 2026 are not affected by the new scheme in the same way and will be investigated in due course. Do not start a duplicate referral solely because you have read a new headline. Use your existing case reference to ask for an update.

How to prepare a useful referral

Prepare a brief chronology and attach the lender's decision, your original complaint, relevant agreement pages and any requested review. Explain precisely what you think is wrong: an incorrect date, missing evidence, the commission arrangement or the application of a rule. A short, evidenced account is more useful than a list of unrelated legal claims.

Check the deadline and referral instructions in the lender's letter. There is no single July 2026 deadline that applies to every car finance complaint. If the instructions are unclear or you think a deadline may be close, contact the lender and FOS promptly rather than assuming that the wider scheme suspension pauses your own deadline.

Our rejected-complaint guide provides a practical response checklist.