Martin Lewis

if you were already represented by another firm and this CMC didn't check, if it didn't give you a key information summary, it didn't give you a clear breakdown of fees, didn't tell you about a 14-day cooling off period, and it didn't tell you, crucially, about free alternatives or explain how to make a complaint.

In all of those cases, you could well have been misled.

If so, you can go onto the regulator's website.

So go onto its front page, scroll down, and you'll see it say car finance complaints.

Click car finance complaints, scroll down, and somewhere down there, it talks about using a CMC, a claims management company.

And within that bit, you've got this template letter.

Now, I need to be honest with you.

They launched a template letter on Monday.

I saw it.

I politely but nicely got in touch with the regulator and said that that template letter doesn't work.

Remember, most people using this template letter are the type of people who don't want to do DIY claims.

They went to a claims management company and it was a really blunt letter.

So I've been doing template letters for nearly, well, not 20 years, 18 years probably.

And so I gave some suggestions on how to restructure it and putting a front page on that explained what options people had.

They were brilliant.

They did that within 24 hours.

And the letter now there is much improved.

And I think people will find it useful.

What they're saying is you can either say, I just want to get out of this free, and anyone in that first category being signed up to without agreeing or being pressured into it, you should be able to cancel the contract and not pay for it.

So, Nicky, you should not be giving any money to that claims management firm and you should be using the regulator's template letter.