Martin Lewis: Beware car finance reclaiming ads – you could give away 30% and get NOTHING in return

Watch Martin Lewis' new warning for car finance mis-selling claimants

Full transcript of what Martin said in his video

Martin: "You really need to be careful with car finance reclaiming adverts right now, because you may sign up to one and end up giving away 30% of your money and getting absolutely nothing back in return for it. Now these adverts are everywhere. You'll have seen them. 'You could be owed thousands.' Or 'Check your number plate and file your car finance claim today'.

"They're generally run by claims management firms or law firms who are trying to get you to sign up to 'no win, no fee' deals. Which doesn't sound too bad. But right now you have to understand where in the timetable we are. There is a major case going through the Supreme Court. That's the top court in the land about car finance. And other cases are on hold because of it.

"They heard the case in May. We're expecting them to, what's called 'hand down' – tell us the decision at some point in July. That's not guaranteed, but it's likely to be at some point this month, in July, and everything awaits that.

"But what you need to understand, well, there are two different types of car finance cases, I'm not going into that today. You can read more about that on MoneySavingExpert.com. But for one of the big ones, the regulator, the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority], has stated that it is considering doing an automatic payout system.

"What that would mean: you don't need to claim, firms would have to contact you if you've been mis-sold, and they would have to give you the money. Now, if they're going to do that and you signed up to a 'no win, no fee' firm, then you would still have to give it potentially over 30% of your money, even though it hasn't done anything."

'Don't pay for a service you may not need and lose up to 30% of any money due'

Martin: "And it isn't just me saying this. This is what the regulator has said: 'Consumers should be aware that by signing up now with a claims management firm or law firm, they may end up paying for a service they do not need and losing up to 30% of any money they may receive.'

"So what should you be doing right now when we're only a couple of weeks ago, a couple of weeks away of potentially knowing what is going to happen in all this? Well, the obvious one is you can sit on your hands. You may decide that you want to get a claim in, so you've got a marker in the sand. That's fine. You can do it yourself. And there's a free tool on MoneySavingExpert that autogenerates an email to help you claim if you want to do it that way.

"Remember the big picture, the big message I'm trying to give you right now, is the court may end up ruling that you have already been ripped off once. Don't rip yourself off again by pointlessly signing up to a 'no win, no fee' firm, in the couple of weeks' run-up before we hear what the Supreme Court is going to say.

"You can read far more details about car finance reclaiming, the two different types of cases, on MoneySavingExpert.com. But right now, instead of signing up to a firm, you may well be better off just to sit on your hands and wait and see."