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How to complain

Bringing a complaint to us is straightforward and won’t cost you anything. Find out how you can make a complaint to us about a financial business.  

Last updated: 4 January 2023
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  1. Complain to the financial business
  2. Get a final response letter
  3. Make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman
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Read the transcript of the ‘How to complain’ video. (PDF 76KB)

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Step 1: Complain to the financial business 

  • You should give the financial business you’re unhappy with a chance to sort things out before bringing your complaint to us.
  • If you haven’t complained yet, read our complaining to a financial business guide. 
  • If they don’t reply, or you’re not happy with their final response, you can contact us. Go to step 2 to find out what you need to do to bring a complaint to us. 

Step 2: Get a final response letter 

  • If you’re not happy with the outcome of your complaint to the business, you can ask us to investigate what’s happened. We will need a copy of the final response letter.
  • You will need to make a complaint to us within six months from the date on your final response. You can find out more about time limits affecting your complaint on our website. 
  • If you haven’t received a response to your complaint within eight weeks, you can also refer your complaint to us. 
  • 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.
  • There may be times where we can’t help with a complaint. To get an initial idea, go to step 3 and find out how to check if you can complain to us. 

Step 3: Make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman

Our complaint checker will ask you about some of the things we need to know upfront and will help you check you’re ready to send us your complaint – it will give you an idea of whether we’re able to help you, and explain how to make a new complaint to us.

Make a new complaint

Alternatively, you can also read more information about the types of complaint we can help with and our approach to resolving them in the consumer section of our website.