Martin Lewis

People who are unhappy for other reasons, well, it's about reducing the amount of the fee that you're told because this wasn't done properly and the template letter's in there.

The next thing I want to say is, and I get questions on this all the time, lots of people say to me, I signed up with the CMC before this whole thing happened.

I don't want to use them now.

Now I know it's so easy to DIY it.

What do I do?

Well, if you don't have grounds to complain, but just feel you want to do it yourself now, you do have a right to cancel your claims management company contract.

though it can charge you a reasonable fee that reflects the work carried out.

Now, that charge needs to match broadly the work that's been done so far, yet crucially, most car finance complaints are still on hold and at an early stage, so it shouldn't be much.

So if you get in touch with them and you say, how much will it cost me to cancel?

That must be a reasonable fee.

If it doesn't feel reasonable, then you can make a formal complaint and tell them, I don't think that's a reasonable fee.

I want you to itemise it and I don't want to pay that much money.

I just want to get out of this, pay a reasonable fee and go and do it myself.

Now, the most important point here, both on the complaint if you've been misled, but equally if you want to get out of using a claims management company at this point, is this.

Firms will often reject complaints thinking you will give up.

I mean, that's all regulated firms, not just claims management firms, I need to say.

You do not have to accept that.

If you don't think it's resolved your complaint fairly in eight weeks, you can take the same complaint to the relevant ombudsman to get it to adjudicate for free.

It should tell you, the firm should tell you in its paperwork, in its website, in its complaint process, which one of the two ombudsmen is right.

And the regulator is very, very strong on this.