Scotland’s consumers most often ask the Financial Ombudsman Service for help resolving problems with PPI, payday loans, current accounts, packaged bank accounts and credit cards, its complaints data shows.
An analysis of all the latest cases the ombudsman service took on in April-June 2018 reveals nearly one in ten (9%) complaints are from people in Scotland (9,887 cases). In line with the rest of the UK, around half of those complaints are about PPI (54%).
Excluding PPI, current and packaged bank accounts are the subject of nearly one in four complaints (23%). And nearly one in five complaints are about payday lending (21%). The ombudsman upholds around half of complaints (52%) about credit cards from people in Scotland – more than in the UK (35%).
Complaints about point of sale loans appear in the top ten most complained about products in Scotland, and most are about solar panels. And the next biggest group of complaints were about loans with a private clinic that went into administration.
Financial Ombudsman Service chief ombudsman and chief executive, Caroline Wayman, said: “Most of us have bank accounts and credit cards, so it’s logical we’d see the most complaints about those.
“But we also help people with money matters that might be surprising, like when someone’s taken out a loan to pay for a cosmetic treatment. As well as resolving these complaints fairly, we want to prevent problems arising in the first place — meeting with financial businesses and consumer groups in Scotland helps us to do that.”
The Financial Ombudsman Service is meeting financial businesses and consumer groups to talk about how it resolves complaints fairly and is running workshops for financial advisers and small-medium financial enterprises based in Scotland.
On Tuesday the Financial Ombudsman Service published its latest six-monthly complaints data relating to banks, insurers and other financial businesses. The ombudsman took on 201,600 new cases in the first half of 2018 (Jan-June), a 22% increase in the number of complaints compared to the last six months of 2017. Around 14% of these complaints are related to four Scotland-based financial businesses.
It’s easy and free to complain directly to the Financial Ombudsman Service, without needing to use a claims management company.
Call its Freephone helpline on 0800 023 4567, fill in a complaint form online or fill out a complaint form online and email it to complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk.
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