News & Events

Ombudsman reports rising complaint levels

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has reported a 30 per cent rise in the number of complaints it dealt with in the financial year 2007/08.

Handling a record 794,648 initial enquiries and complaints, FOS said in its annual review of personal finance disputes that one in six of those turned into cases involving its adjudicators and ombudsmen.

However, according to the Credit Services Association (CSA), less than one third of the complaints related to debt collection. Since 7 April 2007, only 27 per cent of all enquiries made were in relation to debt collection or debt purchase while only nine per cent of those led to a case being investigated.

The figures mirror the CSA’s own statistics, where complaints have remained static (449 in 2006 and 428 in 2007) despite an increase in the volumes and values of collections being referred.

"The figures reflect how sophisticated the debt collection industry has become in dealing with its customers," said a CSA spokeswoman. "It is also particularly pleasing when measured against the significant complaints reported against arguably less ‘controversial’ service providers, notably utilities."

The most common grievance was in relation to bank charges with 31,618 complaints lodged. FOS said this tenfold increase was due to the High Court test case currently running between the Office of Fair Trading and eight current account providers.

This article was sourced from www.credittoday.co.uk

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