Credit and borrowing money
If you have a complaint about a business that provides consumer credit – such as a payday loan, or home credit business – we can help.
How we handle complaints about credit and borrowing money
Every year we receive complaints from consumers about businesses who offer credit products and services. Consumer credit covers a wide range of credit, lending and borrowing – for example, payday loans, debt collection, home credit and catalogue shopping. We look at complaints about other types of lending and borrowing too, like mortgages.
We’ll look at the facts and circumstances of each complaint. We’ll listen impartially to both parties when deciding what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances. We’ll take into account any relevant laws, regulations and codes of practice. And we’ll look at any supporting additional evidence, which may include reports from third parties or independent experts.
Once we’ve considered everything, we’ll set out our findings, explaining whether we think the business has treated you fairly, or not. If we think the business has treated you unfairly, we’ll set out what we think needs to be done to put things right.
Types of complaint we see
How to complain
Bringing a complaint to us is straightforward and won’t cost you anything. Find out more about how to complain and our complaint process.
How long it takes
In general, for most types of complaints about credit and borrowing money, including car finance, it takes around two to three months for us to allocate cases. However, it can sometimes take longer, depending on what your complaint is about.
We’re working hard to reduce this wait time, so you may hear from us sooner than this.
- Find out more about when you can expect to hear from us once we’ve started to investigate your complaint.
- If you’re facing financial hardship or severe ill health, please let us know.
- If you’re experiencing financial difficulties, you may also find the Money Advice Service website useful, it contains a list of online debt advice services where you can get immediate and personalised help.
Useful resources
If you’re worried about money and finding it difficult to know where to start, the government-backed MoneyHelper service can help you find a way forward. Whether it’s living on a squeezed income, working out how to prioritise your bills and payments, or access to free, expert debt advice, they can help you take the first step towards getting on top of things.
Information for financial businesses
If you’re a business looking for information to help you resolve complaints or want to find out more technical information, you can find more detail about complaints about credit and borrowing money in the business section of our website.