A recent BBC headline caught my eye: lenders, including major banks may owe car buyers billions of dollars in compensation. Judges are deciding whether these lenders must pay drivers for not disclosing the commission the car dealership got for brokering the auto loan. I know what you’re thinking: British dealerships get kickbacks for setting drivers up with an auto loan? Yes. They absolutely do. And it happens in the U.S. too.

A veteran of the auto finance sector revealed exactly how it works on Quora:

“If you got approved by the finance company the dealer could add points over the finance company’s percentage and they got that difference. Say you were approved for 6 percent but the dealer tells you 8 percent. In that case, the dealer would get 2 percent.” Rob Robinson, Quoar.

Robinson went on to explain that some companies cap the dealership’s bounty at a 3 percent interest rate. Others allow dealerships to tag on as much extra interest as they want.

While a couple percentage points don’t sound like much, they add up over the lifetime of the loan. Nerd Wallet explained that some loans are cash cows for the dealership because they “can generate thousands of dollars in profit.” The BBC interviewed one driver who did the math and realized 25% of the total he’d paid for his car was just going back to the dealership as a kickback and interest payments. Now he may get a payout because the dealership didn’t disclose this.

So what is a car buyer to do? The simplest solution in the US is to get pre-approved for auto financing. A local credit union may give you the best deal. Then take this loan offer, with its lower interest rate, to a dealership and pick out a car.