Complaints we can help with

Complaints we can look at

We can help with complaints about most kinds of financial products and services provided in or from the UK – from bank accounts, debt collection and payday loans to insurance and mortgages. 

Find out more about our approach to complaints about specific types of financial product or service by selecting the area you’d like to read about from the list below:

• Home, travel, motor, wedding and other types of insurance 
• Bank accounts, payments, cards, cash machines and other banking services 
• Fraud and scams 
• Mortgages including early repayment charges, valuations and equity 
• Loans and other types of credit like car finance or debt and repayment problems 
• Investments 
• Pension and annuities 
• Payment protection insurance (PPI) 
• Other complaints – including complaints involving the impact of Covid-19, economic and domestic abuse, the cost of living, or power of attorney.

There may be some occasions where we can’t help with a complaint.

Sometimes we can’t help because your complaint should be dealt with by a different organisation. Or certain time limits might affect whether we can or can't help. There may be other reasons – for example, we won’t usually look into a problem that’s been decided by a court, or one that we’ve looked at already. 

We can help a range of people with a complaint, about financial products or services. Broadly we can look at complaints from individual customers, micro-enterprises and small businesses, and some charities and trusts.

Generally, we can help with complaints about businesses that provide retail financial products and services in or from the UK. It doesn’t matter what your nationality is or where you live.

Our service is free and easy-to-use. You don’t need to pay anyone to represent you, for example a lawyer or claims management company (CMC). But if you want to, you can ask a member of your family, a friend or someone else to help you with your complaint.

Time limits apply when making a complaint. So it’s best to take action as soon as you realise there’s a problem.

We might not be able to help if:

• what you’re complaining about happened more than 6 years ago, and
• you complain more than 3 years from when you became aware (or should have become aware) that you had a reason to complain.
• and you’ll need to contact us within 6 months of the business’s final response.

You need to contact the financial business you want to complain about first, and give them a chance to resolve things, before submitting your complaint to us. You need to tell them what's happened and how you want the problem put right. If you haven't done that yet, read our step by step guide to complaining.