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What to expect
What to expect once you’ve brought your complaint to us.
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Complaints we can help with
Find out how we resolve complaints about different types of financial product or service.
When you bring your complaint to us – and we’ve checked it’s something we can help with – you’ll be given a case handler to look into your complaint.
Your case handler will:
- ask the business for their side of the story
- see whether the financial business has made a new or updated offer to resolve the complaint before we carry out a full investigation
- weigh up the facts of what’s happened, fairly and impartially
- tell you and the business what we think via an initial assessment
If we think there’s just been a misunderstanding – or you haven’t lost out financially – we’ll explain why. But if we decide you’ve been treated unfairly, we’ll let the business know what we think it should do to put things right. We’re able to resolve most complaints this way. But if you, or the business, don't agree with the initial assessment, either party can request a decision from an ombudsman.
Getting started
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.
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We know some people use AI to help draft emails and documents and to complete forms, but it helps if we can hear about what happened in your own words.
No one can explain your experience – or how it’s affected you – better than you can. And what you write doesn’t need to be formal or contain legal arguments.
While they can be helpful, AI tools can sometimes get things wrong or add unnecessary legal sounding arguments that aren't accurate or relevant. That can make it more difficult for us to review and process what you send us, which may:
- cause a delay, or
- mean we have to come back to you to check the point you're making.
If you do use AI when bringing a complaint to us, please follow these guidelines:
- avoid entering personal information that you wouldn't want shared, such as health or banking information
- only use AI to help you organise information or put it clearly
- check the resulting text carefully.
You are responsible for making sure the resulting text is accurate, relevant and truly represents your experience. If you don't, you may experience delays.
When you contact us, your complaint may be taken on by a case handler there and then. Other times we’ll need to find the right person for your complaint, and they’ll contact you when they’re ready to start looking into it. Either way, your case handler will introduce themselves and ask you for anything important that you haven’t already given us – such as a copy of the final response the business sent to you.
They’ll also contact the business – either to get their side of the story, or to give them a chance to look at your complaint if they haven’t already.
After we’ve heard from the business, we’ll look at all the information we have. We might request more details from you or the business, or you may want to give us more information to look at.
How we’ll communicate with you
We usually sort things out over the phone and in writing – so we won’t ask you to discuss your complaint face to face. We will be clear and straightforward in the way we communicate and we won’t use jargon.
We can also communicate with you using things like large text, Braille, British Sign Language or Relay UK. Find out more about how we make our service accessible to customers with additional needs.
We’ll keep you updated about your case while we’re looking into things, and you can contact us at any point if you have any questions.
Our process
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You can do this by:
- filling in our online complaint form, or
- over the phone.
It's best to use your own words when filling out the form. But if you're considering using artificial intelligence (AI) to help you, read our guidelines on using AI before you start.
Once we have your form, our customer advisers will check we have the information we need to get started. If we think we need more – for example, your account or policy numbers – we will contact you.
We’ll give you a case reference number. Use this when you contact us so we can find your case quickly. Don’t share the number with anyone else unless they are a trusted person helping you with your complaint.
How long it takes
We aim to get back to you to let you know we have set up your case within seven days of receiving your complaint.
If you feel your case needs to be dealt with urgently because you’re struggling financially or have severe ill health, let us know when you send your complaint. Or you can contact us on our helpline quoting your reference number.
Using AI during the complaint process
Some people use AI to help draft emails, documents and complete forms, but it's better for us to hear about what happened in your own words.
No one can explain your experience – or how it’s affected you – better than you can. And what you write doesn’t need to be formal or contain legal arguments.
While they can be helpful, AI tools can sometimes get things wrong or add unnecessary legal sounding arguments that have no basis in law. That can make it more difficult for us to review and process what you send us, which may cause a delay or mean you to resubmit your complaint.
It's also important to note that, when gathering information, AI tools sometimes add it to their databank. When that happens, it's very difficult to control how the tool uses your information later on.
For these reasons, if you do use AI when preparing documents or submitting a form, we recommend that you:
- avoid entering personal information that you wouldn't want shared, such as health or banking information
- only use AI to help you organise information or put it clearly
- check the resulting text carefully.
You are responsible for checking the resulting text is accurate, relevant and truly represents your experience. If you don't, you may experience delays or have to resubmit your complaint.
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Once your complaint has been allocated, one of our investigators will contact you.
This person will be your contact person during the investigation. You can get in touch with us any time with questions, and we’ll keep you updated while we look into things.
We will ask you to reply to our enquiries or requests for information by a particular date, usually within two weeks.
How long it takes
In general, it takes one to two months for us to allocate cases for investigation, but it can sometimes take longer. We’re working hard to reduce this time, so you may hear from us sooner than this.
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Your investigator will:
- ask the business for their side of the story
- look at whether the financial business has made a new or updated offer to resolve the complaint before we carry out a full investigation
- consider all the information about what’s happened, fairly and impartially
How long it takes
We try to resolve things as quickly as possible from the point we get all the information we need to investigate your complaint.
A complex case may mean it takes longer. Your investigator will keep you updated as things progress.
You can read more about the targets we set ourselves when resolving complaints in our service standards.
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If both you and the business agree with what we’ve said, the complaint is settled. Most cases are resolved in this way.
If either of you don’t accept the investigator’s answer, you – or the business – can ask for one of our ombudsmen to review it and make a final decision.
The ombudsman will take a fresh look at your complaint and will issue a final decision.
How long it takes
The time this will take will vary, depending on the type of complaint it is. While you wait, your investigator will continue to be your main point of contact.
Telling you what we think
When we’ve reviewed everything you and the business have told us, we’ll let you know whether we think the business treated you fairly or not. We’ll always explain the reasons behind our initial assessment. If we think the business treated you unfairly, we’ll say what they need to do to put things right.
Both you and the business will be asked whether you agree or disagree with what we’ve recommended. At this point, if both you and the business agree with what we’ve said, the complaint is settled. Most of the cases we see are resolved at this stage.
You may be asked to confirm that you are accepting any compensation recommended by the case handler in full and final settlement of your complaint. Accepting any compensation may mean you won’t be able to pursue the business in court for the same complaint. You may want to consider taking independent legal advice if you are unsure about accepting.
If you disagree with what we said – and have more information that you think will change our assessment – let us know. We may change our view, or it might stay the same – we’ll tell you why either way.
Taking your complaint further
If you or the business don’t want to accept what we’ve said, you can ask for your case to be referred to an ombudsman.
The ombudsman will then look at all the details of your complaint afresh. As part of this process the ombudsman may decide to issue a provisional decision which will set out the decision he/she is minded to make on your case. This will usually be because the ombudsman is thinking of reaching a different outcome or using different reasoning from the initial findings.
The ombudsman will then ask both parties to make any final representations which he/she will consider before either:
- deciding your case has been resolved and closing it, or
- issuing a final decision on your case.
If the ombudsman issues a final decision, you will be asked to confirm by a specified date whether you accept or reject it. If you accept the ombudsman's decision, the business has to do what the ombudsman has told them to do. This might, for example, include making the business pay you compensation. And, if you accept it, it is unlikely you will be able to pursue the business in court for the same complaint.
If you don't want to accept the ombudsman's decision, you don't have to. But it does mean our involvement has come to an end and the business doesn't need to do anything. You may still be able to take legal action against the business, but we won't be involved in this.
Our rules are flexible and there might be some cases where after a provisional decision has been issued, the parties may agree to settle the complaint at that stage, sometimes on the basis proposed in the provisional decision or otherwise. If you agree to compensation offered by a business at any stage, this may mean you won't be able to pursue the business in court for the same complaint. You may want to consider taking independent legal advice if you are unsure about agreeing to a settlement.
How long it takes
We look at each case individually, so how long it takes to sort out a complaint will vary, for example it might depend on how complex it is, or how long it takes to get all the information we need. To help us deal with cases promptly, it is important that consumers and businesses provide us with information as soon as possible when we ask for it.
We will ask you to reply to our enquiries or requests for information by a particular date, and usually within two weeks. If we do not hear from you by the deadline we’ve set, we can move things on to the next stage of our process – this could mean, for example, that we issue findings based on the information we have available, or that we close the complaint as withdrawn in the absence of a response to our enquiries.
It will also take longer if you or the business don't agree with our initial assessment and want to refer the complaint for an ombudsman's review.
You can find up-to-date information on our general timescales – including how long it'll be before we're able to let you know we've received your complaint – on our how long it takes page.
Putting things right
If we decide a business has treated you unfairly, we’ll tell them what they should do to put things right. Sometimes the business simply needs to correct their mistake – for instance, if they’ve cancelled your insurance policy unfairly, we might tell them to reinstate it.
Sometimes we’ll ask the business to pay you compensation. This may be because we think you lost out financially as a result of something they did wrong. Or it might be because the actions of the business meant you experienced distress and inconvenience.
Read more about our approach to calculating compensation.
If you’re unhappy about our service
We want to give you the best possible level of customer service, whatever the outcome of your complaint. But if you’re not happy with the way we’ve handled your case, you can complain.
Find out how to complain about the service we’ve given you.
How we handle unreasonable behaviour
We’re committed to treating all our customers fairly and providing an excellent customer service. However, we understand there may be occasions when issues leading to a complaint can be stressful – or customers may not agree with our final decision.
But our staff always deserve to be treated with respect. So, we won’t tolerate any form of violent, abusive or threatening behaviour towards them. If this happens, we may decide to take further action. Find out more what we consider as unreasonable behaviour and the actions we may take on our unreasonable behaviour policy.
Our service is free and easy to use
You don’t need a lawyer or anyone else to represent you. But if you prefer, you can ask us to talk to a family member, friend or someone else you trust about your complaint.