Quarterly complaints data: Q3 2021/22

New enquiries: 64,407 

New complaints: 35,324 

Uphold rate excluding PPI: 39%

Uphold rate including PPI: 38%

Highest uphold rate: short term lending (running account credit) – 80%

Lowest uphold rate: packaged bank accounts – 4%

Most complained-about product: current accounts – 5,522

New complaints from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): 244 (included in totals above)

Top five most complained-about products in Q3 2021/22

1. Current accounts – 5,522
2. Credit cards – 3,263
3. Car or motorcycle insurance – 2,178
4. Personal loans – 1,824
5. Packaged bank accounts – 1,477 

Of the five products listed above, all of them except for packaged bank accounts have featured in the top five since the first quarter of this financial year. PPI had previously been in the top five. As expected, PPI complaints continue to drop following the FCA deadline for making complaints about mis-sold PPI. 

Our Q3 2021/22 trends in more detail

Packaged bank accounts

• As outlined above, packaged bank accounts were one of the most complained-about financial products in the third quarter of this financial year. The majority of complaints are from consumers who believe they were mis-sold the account.
• However, we upheld very few of these complaints: we received 1,477 new complaints about this product but only upheld 4% in the consumers’ favour. This was the lowest uphold rate of all products this quarter. This is a continuing trend – in 2020/21, it was 9%.
• Many consumers feel that they have a complaint simply because they haven’t used the benefits that accompany these types of accounts – such as travel insurance, mobile phone insurance and motor breakdown cover.
• Not using the benefits of a packaged bank account is unlikely to be a sufficient reason for us to conclude that the account was mis-sold. However, if a consumer cannot use the account benefits – for example they cannot use the travel or mobile phone insurance or the roadside cover policy – then we might conclude that the account was mis-sold and tell the bank to refund the fees.
• We look at a range of factors from insurance suitability and account awareness to affordability and sales practices when considering whether a packaged bank account has been mis-sold to a consumer. Read our information for consumers and for financial businesses, including case studies, on our approach to complaints about this product.   

Running account credit

• In Q3 2021/22 the product with the highest proportion of cases upheld in the consumers’ favour was running account credit with an uphold rate of 80%. However, the number of cases we have seen about this issue remains low, with 233 new cases this quarter.
• Running account credit is a type of short-term loan that is similar to an overdraft facility. Borrowers are given a 'limit' that they can draw up to as and when they need to, provided they pay at least the interest off each month. While the credit agreement has no fixed end date, this type of credit is expensive and intended for short term use only.
• In the majority of complaints, consumers tell us the credit facility was not affordable when they took it out, or that their circumstances have changed and they can no longer afford to make repayments. 

Business interruption insurance

• We have seen a continued and significant fall in complaints about business interruption insurance (BII) this quarter, as insurers have gradually been working through the very high number of pandemic-related claims they received.
• To help businesses resolve these complaints early on – and to provide consumers with information about how we would approach these cases – we have outlined our approach to complaints about BII, through case studies and example decisions, so that insurers may reflect our approach in their claims handling and policyholders can be better informed on whether to bring their complaint to us. 

In each release of quarterly data (about both financial products and relating to complaints about claims management companies), we publish the number of new enquiries and new complaints received in the period, together with the number of ombudsman referrals and the percentage of cases upheld in favour of the customer.

From the Q1 2020/21 releases, we changed the threshold for our reporting on the number of new complaints received. In previous releases, we published data where our service had received at least 30 new complaints about a product or service in the relevant reporting period. From Q1 2020/21, we reduced this threshold to the receipt of at least 10 new complaints, to increase the granularity of insight we’re able to offer stakeholders about complaints trends. Products and services where we have received at least one, but fewer than 10 new complaints, will be denoted as “<10”. 

We have also taken the opportunity to update our criteria for publishing uphold rates. Previously, we published the percentage of cases upheld in favour of the customer where we had both received 30 new complaints and resolved 30 complaints (excluding those we dismissed or decided were outside our jurisdiction) about a product or service in the relevant period. From Q1 2020/21, we will publish the uphold rate where we have resolved 30 or more complaints about the relevant product or service in the period – we will no longer apply a threshold relating to the receipt of new complaints when giving uphold rate data.