How to complain depends on the type of services your provider offers.

This guide covers mistakes or problems caused by financial companies, such as: 

• banks, building societies and credit unions 
• insurance companies
• savings providers
• credit card and loan companies
• investment firms.
• financial advisers.

If you’d like to complain about:

• your pension provider, see How to complain about a problem with your pension
• an item not arriving or being faulty, see How to sort a problem with a purchase.

Avoid claims management companies – they’ll usually follow the same process you can do yourself and take a large chunk of any compensation you receive, sometimes up to 40%.

Mistakes happen, so the first step is to tell your provider about the problem. All financial firms will have a customer services team you can contact, usually by live chat, phone, email and post.  

Tell them: 

• what happened 
• why you’re unhappy, and 
  
• what they can do to fix things.  
  

If you cannot agree on a good outcome, ask to make a formal complaint. This usually means your problem is sent to a special team. 

Keep a record of all the communication you make – it’s better to put everything in writing rather than speaking on the phone. 

They then have up to 8 weeks to: 

• investigate 
  
• respond with a resolution – for example, they might offer to fix the issue and pay you compensation.  
  

You can normally choose to accept this or provide more information if you do not think it’s fair. You’ll then be sent a ‘final response’, which is your provider’s final offer.

If you’re unhappy with the outcome of your complaint, you can take it further. The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) will look at your case and decide if your provider needs to do more to resolve things.

Complaining to the FOS is free and easy to do yourself. You do not need to pay anyone to do it for you, like a claims management company or a lawyer.

You can complain to the FOS if: 

• it’s been less than 6 months since your provider’s final response (unless exceptional circumstances mean you miss the deadline, like a bereavement or serious illness), or 
  
• the firm has not sent a final response within 8 weeks. 
  

It usually needs to be within 6 years of the problem first happening. If you were not aware of the issue when it started, you might have longer.

The FOS complaints checkerOpens in a new window will show if they’ll accept your complaint.  

Your case will be investigated to decide if the company has acted in a fair and reasonable way, or whether they need to do more to put things right. 

1. Your complaint and paperwork are reviewed by a case handler. 
   
2. A decision is made on whether your provider: 
   
   • needs to do more, with a recommendation of what to do 
     
   • has done enough – your complaint has been handled fairly. 
     
3. If you and the provider both agree, any recommendations are followed and the process ends. 
   
4. If either of you disagree, the case can be referred to an Ombudsman. 
   
5. A final decision is then made, either: 
   
   • what your provider needs to do to resolve things 
     
   • your provider has handled your complaint fairly. 
     

If you accept the decision, your provider must do what the Ombudsman has said.

If the FOS sides with the company, this is usually where a claim ends – you could choose to go to court, but this is expensive and you might not win.