Figures from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) have revealed that the three most complained about British banks are Barclays, Lloyds and Santander. According to the FSA, Barclays received more than a quarter of a million complaints in the first half of 2011. Lloyds received 181,907 complaints in the six month period, while Santander had 168,888 [...]
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is warning people to steer clear of scam loan companies that take upfront fees but fail to provide credit, or offer unsuitable credit alternatives. The watchdog has seen a 50% year-on-year rise in complaints about loan scams, particularly credit applications that involve upfront fees sent through money transfer companies. [...]
Spanish banking giant Santander has announced it will return all of its call centres to the UK from India after complaints from its customers. It will create 500 jobs as part of the process and it is the latest in a series of customer service focus initiatives from the bank. Santander has a major UK [...]
Bank of Scotland, which is part of the Lloyds Banking Group, has been fined £3.5 million by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The matter arose after the Financial Ombudsman Service received appeals from investors who said their complaints had been rejected wrongly. As a result, the bank has been ordered to pay customers around £17 [...]
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has today said complaints rose in the second half 2010. According to the FOS, it received 97,237 new complaints between 1 July and 31 December – a rise of 15% compared with the first half of 2010. This list only covers those complaints which required mediation. Lloyds Banking Group, which [...]
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and its NatWest subsidiary have been fined by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for “multiple failings”. The fine of £2.8 million was imposed because there was an “unacceptably high risk that customers may not have been treated fairly” due to not handling customers routine complaints in a proper manner. [...]
Banking giant Lloyds has received the highest number of complaints in the first half of 2010 with 288,717 gripes. Figures from City regulator, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), said Barclays and Santander were second and third in the complaints league, with 250,667 and 244,978 complaints respectively. The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which like Lloyds [...]
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has today said complaints rose in the first half of 2010. According to the FOS, it received 84,212 new complaints between 1 January and 30 June 2010 – with more than half of these about the top five banks. Lloyds Banking Group, which is 43% owned by the taxpayer, was [...]
Banking giant Lloyds has confirmed it will no longer sell the controversial payment protection insurance (PPI). Lloyds Banking Group, which is 41% owned by the taxpayer, is the first bank to drop PPI sales and the decision will apply to customers of all its brands including the Halifax, Bank of Scotland and the Cheltenham & [...]
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) said it dealt with a total of 925,095 queries from consumers in the last financial year – a 46% increase on the previous financial year. However, it said it resolved a record number of disputes (166,321) and in 50% of these cases, consumers were awarded compensation. It did highlight, though, [...]
Over two million consumers complained to their bank during the second half of 2009, more than twice as many as during the first half of the year. Between July and December 2.65 million people made a complaint about a financial company, with 2.2 million of those directed at banks and building societies. The FSA said [...]
Senior managers of the UK’s high street banks have been labelled a “disgrace” for failing to take customer complaints seriously. The Financial Services Consumer Panel (FSCP) said the way banks handle customer complaints is “lamentable”. The comments came after a review by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) found that senior staff in the majority of [...]
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is to investigate the way Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) deals with customers’ complaints. The City Watchdog is to examine “certain aspects” of the way the bank deals with complaints but the bank has said it would fully co-operate. A spokeswoman for the FSA said: “We are looking at all [...]
In its second six-monthly set of complaints data relating to individual financial firms, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has today said complaints rose by 18% in the second half of 2009. According to the FOS, it received 82,136 complaints between 1 July and 31 December 2009 – a rise of 12,295 compared with the first [...]
The top five High Street banks accounted for 59% of all complaints received in the first half of this year, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The top five banks are: Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, Abbey and HSBC. The FOS said it would name and shame the banks and force [...]
For the first time ever, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published figures showing the number of complaints made to firms in the financial services industry in the 2006-2008 period. The data has revealed an enormous increase in complaints about banking and loan products, revealing a 122% increase – from 608,620 at the beginning of [...]
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has claimed that an increasing amount of consumers are receiving ‘dismal’ treatment when they complain to financial services institutions. Chief Ombudsman, Walter Merricks, said: “Some in the financial services industry – currently facing significant business challenges – appear to be taking the jaundiced view that having a large number of [...]
The Ombudsman for Estate Agents (OEA) has reported that last year’s decline in house sales was not reflected in his caseload. According to Christopher Hamer, sales activity plummeted by up to 60% in 2008, however, the volume of sales disputes dealt with by his office fell by just 3%. By way of explanation, Mr Hamer [...]
The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI), the trade body for mortgage brokers, has lodged complaints with the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Office of Fair Trading about the growing trend for mortgage lenders to offer new loans to customers applying directly only. Currently, over half of all new home loans are placed through mortgage [...]
M&S Money launches 3% cash ISA
M&S Money has launched an Advantage Cash ISA paying 3 per cent, and which allows transfers in from other ISAs. It can be opened with a minimum deposit of £100 lump sum followed by minimum monthly deposits of £25. The 3% rate is variable, but there is no short-term bonus so the return won’t plummet [...]
Google suspends UK Compare Mortgages site
Google has closed its UK mortgage comparison site which it launched in July last year, after it proved to be less popular than expected. Mortgage comparison sites are designed to allow visitors to compare mortgages quickly and easily without having to visit each lender’s individual site. Google was competing with several well-established comparison sites, including [...]
AA launches ‘black-box’ policy for young drivers
The AA is launching an innovative car insurance policy called Drivesafe which could help younger drivers save up to £850 a year. Younger drivers already pay substantially higher premiums than other motorists and these costs are increasing. A new study by Confused.com suggests insurance costs for younger driver have gone up by 5.7 per cent [...]
ATOL scheme updated to protect online bookers
ATOL, a financial protection scheme managed by the Civil Aviation Authority, is being extended to protect up to six million more holidays a year. The scheme ensures that holiday makers do not lose out financially if a travel company collapses, and that they are not stranded abroad. An increase in the number of holidays booked [...]
Home repossessions lowest for four years
The number of UK homes repossessed fell to 36,200 in 2011, significantly below the Council of Mortgage Lenders’ forecast of 40,000, and lower than 2010 when 37,100 homes were repossessed. With interest rates remaining low and lenders adopting a sympathetic attitude to customers in financial difficulty, repossessions fell to their lowest level since 2007. However, [...]
Monthly pay lasting just 17 days
Workers are running out of money just 17 days after receiving their monthly pay, according to new research by the Halifax bank. This means that the average UK worker spends half the month worrying about money. The study, based on the responses of more than 2,000 adults, found that 10 per cent of workers start [...]
Women disadvantaged by auto-enrolment changes
Government proposals to increase the auto-enrolment threshold to £10,000 could put 1.8 million women at risk of missing out on a pension, the TUC has warned. Under the auto-enrolment scheme, which will be phased in from October, private sector employers will automatically enrol workers between the age of 22 years and the state pension age, [...]
Emergency household repairs company Homeserve is taking longer than expected to get back on track after its operations were suspended last October. The company expected customer numbers to fall by 5% this year but it has increased this estimate to 8% and announced the loss of 200 jobs. It estimates that renewal revenue in 2013 [...]
Sale rumoured for Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks
There is growing speculation that National Australia Bank (NAB) may sell Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank after the Australian parent company announced a strategic review of the two banks’ operations. The Australian economy is performing well and NAB reported strong profits for the final quarter of 2011 but with the UK economy at a virtual [...]
More women experiencing debt difficulties
Women in Debt, which offers female-focused debt advice, has warned that the number of UK women facing serious debt has grown significantly over recent years. The organisation believes that more women will need advice on solving debt problems in the future because they are building up an unsustainable level of indebtedness. Women in Debt’s director, [...]
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