Credit and borrowing money

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 and home credit. 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.

How to complain

Bringing a complaint to us is straightforward and won't cost you anything. You can make your complaint:

• over the phone, speaking to a member of our team
• on this website, using our online complaint form 
• by post (you can print off a complaint form from this website, or call us and we’ll send you one)

Find out more about how to complain. 

How long it takes

It is currently taking around 5 months for us to allocate a complaint about credit and borrowing money to a case handler for review.

If you’re facing financial hardship or severe ill health, please let us know. We’re working hard to reduce this wait time, so you may hear from us sooner than this. Once your complaint is allocated, you can expect to receive an initial assessment within 90 days.

You may also find the Money Advice Service website useful if you want to contact one of the independent free charities that can help people in financial difficulty.