High-cost short term loan complaints almost halved

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has published its latest quarterly financial products and services complaints data. The statistics include the number of enquiries and new complaints received, the number of complaints referred to an ombudsman’s final decision, and the proportion of complaints resolved in consumers’ favour.

The number of complaints about high-cost short term credit (payday loans has almost halved since last quarter, dropping from 14,578 to 7,728. But, for the year to date, FOS has received almost twice as many complaints about payday loans as it did in the whole of 2017/2018

The latest statistics analyse October, November and December 2018 – and for comparison, the complaints FOS received last quarter, as well as those received during the same period last year, and during the whole of 2017/2018.

In the third quarter of 2018/2019 FOS received 161,195 enquiries and 92,903 new complaints – with 9,324 complaints passed to an ombudsman for a final decision. On average, FOS upheld 33% of the complaints resolved.

PPI continued to be the most complained-about financial product, with 40,855 new complaints. PPI complaints made up nearly 44% of all complaints.

Overview of the financial products that consumers complained about most to the ombudsman in the first quarter of 2018/2019:

• Payment protection insurance (PPI) 44%
• Complaints about other products 53%
• Current accounts 15%
• Payday loans 15%
• Credit card accounts 7%
• Car and motorcycle insurance 7%
• House mortgages 5%
• Packaged bank accounts 4%
• Hire purchase 4%
• Buildings insurance 4%
• Overdrafts and loans 3%
• Installment loans 2%
• other products 33%

Click here for the full report.