Last updated: 14th August 2019
 

On this page

  1. Can you help with complaints about financial difficulties?
  2. Types of complaints we see
  3. How to complain
  4. What we look at
  5. Case studies
  6. Resources
  7. Detailed information for businesses

Can you help with complaints about financial difficulties?

Being unable to pay money you owe can be really worrying. Money worries might be because of something entirely outside your control, such as unemployment or illness. It's also completely understandable to be anxious about talking about the problems you're having.

If you’re in this situation, speak to your lender as soon as you can. That way, you have the chance to agree an approach that works for you both. This can help you avoid making a bad situation even worse.

Your lender should listen to you and treat you fairly. There are rules and approaches they're expected to follow to help you. 

Types of complaints we see

Some of the complaints we've received from consumers include: 

  • I’m struggling to make my payments and my lender isn’t helping me
  • I’m being treated harshly or unfairly by my lender
  • I’m being charged more for going over my limit
  • My lender has made my financial situation worse
  • My lender won’t accept what I’m telling them I can pay
  • I’m unhappy with what my lender has offered to do

Most of the complaints we see are about:

  • whether people feel their lender is doing enough to help them
  • if they have made things worse by restructuring their borrowing
  • if they added interest or other charges
  • if the lender isn't being sympathetic to their situation

How to complain

If you're concerned about financial difficulties, talk to your lender first. They need to work with you constructively to help you reach a solution.

If you can’t reach an agreement, and you’re unhappy with your lender’s response, then you should make a formal complaint to them. This will give them the chance to put things right.

They have to give you their final response within eight weeks for most types of complaint. If you're unhappy with their response, or if they fail to get back to you, you can get in touch with us.

Find out more about how to complain. 

What we look at

In the same way as for other types of complaint, when a consumer contacts us about financial difficulties we’ll ask:

  • Did the business do everything it was required to do?
  • And if they didn’t, have you, as their customer, lost out as a result?

Our answer to a complaint will reflect what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances. And in considering what’s fair and reasonable, we’ll consider relevant law and regulation, regulators’ rules, guidance and standards, codes of practice, and what we consider to be good industry practice at the time.

When looking at a complaint, we’d expect to see that a lender responded positively and sympathetically to a borrower in financial difficulties.

Case studies

  • Leanne was at the check-out with a trolley full of shopping and a queue behind her, when she was told that her card had been declined. Her debts had been building up and she was fed up of borrowing more money and being broke. She called us.

    How we helped Leanne

    Leanne told us that she just needed some breathing space – and a bit of help managing her debts. We put her in touch with a free debt charity. They worked with her to start reducing her debts. They offered her lender more affordable repayments that left Leanne enough money for the essentials.

  • Jon found out that his dad was being called by a debt collector at several points throughout the day. His dad had told them that he couldn’t afford the payments they were asking for, but they still kept calling.

    How we helped Jon

    When Jon called us and told us about his dad’s situation, we decided to speak to the debt collector on his behalf. It seemed that although they’d been chasing Jon’s dad – they hadn’t tried to find out how much he could actually afford to pay.

    We felt this was unfair. We told them to work with Jon’s dad to find an affordable repayment figure. We also asked them to compensate him for the unnecessary stress and inconvenience they’d caused him.

  • Lewis was struggling with his loan repayments, and he knew they were overdue. He’d ignored the letters from the loan provider, but when he got a letter from a debt collection company, he was worried that he’d get bailiffs knocking on his door.

    How we helped Lewis

    When Lewis called us we explained that companies should only use debt collectors as a last resort. We also suggested that Lewis work out how much he could afford to pay back. We then contacted the loan company on Lewis’s behalf and talked through his problems to stop any further action being taken.

Resources

You can get debt advice or help with your debt problems for free. Contact the Money Advice Service for information and advice about managing your debts.

Detailed information for businesses

If you're a business looking for information to help you resolve complaints, find out more in our detailed information about handling complaints about financial difficulties.