Festival refunds are not guaranteed so know your rights, warns the Financial Ombudsman Service
4 June 2026
As festival season gets going, many consumers may not understand their rights to getting their money back if things go wrong.
On 8 September 2021, Advancis Limited (best known by its trading name, Buddy Loans) went into administration. Due to the nature of the company, no protection is offered to consumers under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
We are working with the administrators to clarify the impact on the cases already with us.
The administrators have confirmed that whether claims will be accepted – that is, whether complaints will be upheld and someone becomes a ‘creditor’ of the insolvent company – is now a decision for them. They will also decide how much is owed to each creditor.
This means we are unlikely to be able to progress any complaints about Advancis Limited any further, or take on any new cases brought to us.
As a result, we expect to hand complaints to the administrators for them to assess. We’ll do this as soon as we can. We’ll write to individual consumers and claims management companies to explain this, to let them know that they don’t need to do anything further at this stage, and to say that the administrators will get in touch directly.
There is more information on FCA’s website and Buddy Loan’s website.
4 June 2026
As festival season gets going, many consumers may not understand their rights to getting their money back if things go wrong.
21 May 2026
New complaints coming to the Financial Ombudsman Service have returned to more historical levels, following a previous year of significant increased demand.
19 May 2026
We are reminding holidaymakers to double-check their travel insurance ahead of the spring bank holiday getaway.