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Broker Coaching - Finance Complaint
I enquired about a car at a dealership several years ago. They called me the next day to tell me that the car wouldn't be ready for another few weeks, I told them I didn't want to wait that long as I was walking an hour home from work every day. They told me about another car they had available. I said I would like to go ahead with it. They then immediately carried out a credit check which I was very uncomfortable with.
When they asked about my employer, I told them I worked at a warehouse (FTSE 100 company) but was working through an agency which I had just started the week prior. They put the place I worked on the application rather than my actually agency employer. When they asked me for my income I told them I wasn't sure, they told me to just use an estimate so I did believing this was ok, I based this on the hours I was working that week and my hourly rate, though didn't account for any deductions from my pay. They approved me for finance instantly. At no point during this conversation did I confirm that I was buying the car and at no point over the past four years has either the broker or lender asked me to verify my employment or my income. I had one £64 payment from my agency job at this point.
Even before I arrived at the dealership two days later, they had already registered me as the keeper of the car before I had signed anything or even seen the car. I was taken through a rushed sales process, given little information, and felt like the car had already been sold to me and felt swept up in it.
I was barely out of uni at the time, had been unemployed for a month after leaving my last job due to stress and was dealing with severe mental health issues. I felt like it was me that made a mistake because I didn't understand what I was doing at the time and despite making every payment so far the last four years have been a struggle to keep up with this car and I've had to hold back on spending for the whole time. I feel pretty dumb for taking four years to realise just how bad this finance deal was for me.
This is just one part of why I've made a complaint to the lender, hopefully this still makes sense, but I'm looking for advice as to how serious this part is. Would this be considered fraud? Did I commit fraud by giving incorrect salary or did the broker commit fraud by lying on the application? I can only assume they did this to get an instant pay-out and commission.
When they asked about my employer, I told them I worked at a warehouse (FTSE 100 company) but was working through an agency which I had just started the week prior. They put the place I worked on the application rather than my actually agency employer. When they asked me for my income I told them I wasn't sure, they told me to just use an estimate so I did believing this was ok, I based this on the hours I was working that week and my hourly rate, though didn't account for any deductions from my pay. They approved me for finance instantly. At no point during this conversation did I confirm that I was buying the car and at no point over the past four years has either the broker or lender asked me to verify my employment or my income. I had one £64 payment from my agency job at this point.
Even before I arrived at the dealership two days later, they had already registered me as the keeper of the car before I had signed anything or even seen the car. I was taken through a rushed sales process, given little information, and felt like the car had already been sold to me and felt swept up in it.
I was barely out of uni at the time, had been unemployed for a month after leaving my last job due to stress and was dealing with severe mental health issues. I felt like it was me that made a mistake because I didn't understand what I was doing at the time and despite making every payment so far the last four years have been a struggle to keep up with this car and I've had to hold back on spending for the whole time. I feel pretty dumb for taking four years to realise just how bad this finance deal was for me.
This is just one part of why I've made a complaint to the lender, hopefully this still makes sense, but I'm looking for advice as to how serious this part is. Would this be considered fraud? Did I commit fraud by giving incorrect salary or did the broker commit fraud by lying on the application? I can only assume they did this to get an instant pay-out and commission.