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.
Today, we’ve published our strategic plans and budget for the next financial year (PDF 2.5MB). This has been approved by the FCA.
We consulted on these plans back in December 2018, and 25 organisations responded. They included major banks, insurers, and industry and consumer groups.
Stakeholders generally welcomed our proposals about the immediate financial year and longer-term future, and said they recognised the challenges we were facing. Their feedback is summarised in the document.
We anticipate receiving 460,000 complaints, including 250,000 about PPI, and 50,000 about short-term lending. Overall, we’re planning to resolve more than half a million complaints.
With fluctuating demand for our service, and expansion of our remit to cover complaints from SMEs and about CMCs, we need to be flexible. It’s a year of big ambitions. But these strategic plans mean people can continue to have confidence we’ll be able to resolve the increasingly complex mix of problems people bring to us, now and in the future.
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.