frequently-asked questions
This section answers a number of frequently-asked questions (FAQs) about:
complaining to the ombudsman
complaints we cover
how can I find out:
–
what types of financial complaints the ombudsman service covers; and
– if my complaint is one you can help with?
We can help with complaints about most financial problems involving products and services provided in (or from) the UK. The areas we cover include:
- banking
- insurance
- mortgages
- credit cards and store cards
- loans and credit
- pensions
- savings and investments
- hire purchase and pawnbroking
- money transfer
- financial advice
- stocks, shares, unit trusts and bonds.
If you're not sure if your complaint is one we can help with, just ask us.
The financial businesses we cover include:
- around 30,000 businesses regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for their retail financial-services activities (you can check whether a business is regulated by the FSA on the FSA's online register);
- around 80,000 businesses who have a standard consumer-credit licence issued by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for their consumer-credit activities (you can check whether a business has a consumer credit licence by searching the OFT's Consumer Credit Register);
- some financial services businesses that were regulated in the past and may not now appear on the FSA's firm-check service;
- some businesses that are based outside the UK and aren't regulated by the FSA; and
- some businesses that provide financial services and products that are "branded" under other companies' names.
Whether we can help with your own particular complaint will depend on:
- whether the business you are complaining about is one that we cover;
- what the complaint is about (there are some restrictions on the types of dispute we can look at);
- when the event you are complaining about took place (time limits apply if you leave it too late to complain); and
- your relationship with the business you are complaining about (for example, we do not always deal with disputes between businesses, or where you are not an actual customer).
The legislation and rules that set out officially what complaints we can and cannot look at (our "jurisdiction") are very complex.
And because some complaints go back a long way, we may need to take account of rules that applied to former complaints schemes that no longer exist.
Our rules say that if a business we cover is unable to resolve your complaint to your satisfaction, it must tell you about your right to refer the dispute to us.
If you're not sure if your complaint is one we can help with, just ask us.
