How to complain about your bank

By Emma Simon Published: 1:18PM GMT 02 March 2010

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The lion"s share of complaints was with the big banks

Customers are not usually fed up with the use they embrace from their banks, but are additionally rebuilt to take movement opposite them. Figures expelled by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) last week showed that there was a jot down series of complaints opposite monetary services companies in the last 6 months of last year.

Not surprisingly, the lion"s share of these gripes and grumbles was with the big banks.

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In sum the FOS perceived some-more than 80,000 complaints from Jul 1 to Dec 31 last year, an enlarge of roughly twenty per cent on the prior 6 months.

The Lloyds Banking Group was the infancy complained-about company, by a far-reaching margin, notching up 20,190 complaints. These embody complaints opposite the assorted banks it owns Lloyds TSB, Halifax and Bank of Scotland as well as the word and dilettante lending divisions.

A orator for Lloyds Banking Group says: "We take all patron complaints unequivocally severely and are committed to operative with the industry and regulators to safeguard that complaints are dealt with fairly, fast and consistently.

"With over thirty million customers, the organisation has the largest patron bottom in the UK. The immeasurable infancy are happy with the use we yield and this is reflected in the low series of complaints we embrace in propinquity to the high series of accounts we hold."

Next in this hurl of contrition was Barclays, that not long ago voiced jot down enlarge for last year. However, this didn"t stop 10,892 of the business angry to the FOS.

Next came Royal Bank of Scotland, that owns NatWest and Direct Line insurance, with 7,098 complaints. Santander, that owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley, had 4,918 complaints; HSBC perceived 3,881.

Emma Parker, a orator for the FOS, pronounced that the ombudsman inspected the consumers" complaints in the infancy of cases. In total, 54 per cent of cases were ruled in the consumers" favour, and the rest were rejected. "Historically this is still utterly high," she says. "We used to find in the consumers" foster usually in about a third of all cases so obviously monetary firms still have a lot to do to urge their complaints-handling procedures."

But she points out that the FOS has seen a big enlarge in the series of companies where the ombudsman, in the infancy of cases, has ruled in the consumers" favour. "Previously there were only eight firms where we inspected some-more than 85 per cent of all cases. But this has risen to fourteen opposite companies."

These embody Black Horse (a lending auxiliary owned by the Lloyds Banking Group), the credit label provider MBNA Europe, the loan companies Firstplus Financial (owned by Barclays), loans.co.uk (also owned by MBNA), Ocean Finance & Mortgage, and Freedom Finance. Egg, a domicile name, has had 82 per cent of complaints inspected in the customers" favour.

Ms Parker said: "These total are unequivocally not great sufficient and we would similar to to see far fewer firms with such high defend rates."

Many of the complaints regard possibly the mis-selling of remuneration word word (typically sole to one side loans or credit cards). There has additionally been an upswing in the series of "banking and credit" complaints. Typically, these are from borrowers who have seen rates on credit cards or loans increased, or serve penalties imposed, when they are struggling with monthly payments.

It is hoped the announcement of these total will means banks to urge their use standards. Until then, consumers can urge their chances of removing calibrate by angry some-more effectively.

Ms Parker adds: "People can feel defensive or broke about complaining. But they should recollect they have a right to aspire to a censure if there is a censure with any monetary product sold. Many business with ideally current complaints destroy to have advance since they get dissapoint and unsettled and mostly destroy to board the censure properly.""

Follow these tips to safeguard that your censure is acted on.

Decide what you wish

Be transparent about the inlet of your censure and what movement you require. Write out the key points and critical information, such as comment or process numbers, when the comment was opened, and on what date the censure occurred.

Talk to your provider

In infancy cases your primary point of hit will be a call centre or internal branch. Ask for a duplicate of the company"s complaints procedure.

Follow up complaints in essay

If the issue cannot be solved by a phone call, send a letter. Set out the contribution logically. State when you spoke to the organisation, and to whom. Enclose photocopies not originals of applicable documents.

Keep ease

Negotiating the obstruction of programmed write menus can exam anybody"s patience. Be well-behaved and respectful to get the most appropriate results.

Stick to the point

Don"t deviating from the conditions of your complaint. If you are being fobbed off, it"s easy to trip in to the "and an additional thing..."" argument. The some-more candid a complaint, the simpler to resolve.

Keep a jot down

At each theatre take a note of whom you speak to, the time and the response.

State how you would similar to the have a difference to be resolved

Are you seeking for a refund, an reparation or compensation? Tell the monetary provider what you want. Be realistic, though: don"t bravery a large figure from the air to be negotiated down. This is expected to have your explain see less credible.

Call in the regulators

Make it transparent that if this issue is not resolved you will take the have a difference to the ombudsman. After eight weeks the association has to yield a "final response"" letter. If you feel this is unsatisfactory, you can take your censure to the ombudsman.

The FOS deals with complaints about banks, construction societies, debt companies, insurers, credit label companies, comment managers, monetary advisers and grant providers (but not association pensions). This is an eccentric settlement use and free for consumers; nonetheless companies compensate �500 for each complaint, in any case of outcome.

Be studious

The FOS will have an primary comment over either you have drift for complaint. It won"t accept, for example, complaints about investment performance, unless you are claiming the product was mis-sold and the risk to collateral was never explained. If the censure is accepted, it can take in between 6 and 9 months to reach a ruling. Providers can interest primary rulings, nonetheless couple of do. A last statute is contracting on the providers, though not on the consumer.

Know when to give up

If the ombudsman rejects your censure you can interest opposite the preference by the ombudsman"s eccentric assessor (details are on the FOS website, www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk). Customers are still free to take authorised movement opposite their provider, for e.g. by the small claims court, but this will cost income and the decider is expected to take in to comment the ombudsman"s outcome and reasoning.