Humiliated and Insulted

The Financial Ombudsman Service has already released the figures proving that the displeasure with banks and other financial institutions is increasing. Many people who feel they have been cheated by financial services companies regard the Financial Ombudsman Service as the last authority to turn to. In the last year to the end of March there were about 64,591 complaints, 57 per cent of which have been resolved in favour of consumers. The percentage of complains associated with large compensation payouts increased by 25 per cent in comparison with last year. The chief ombudsman, Walter Merricks, shares his opinion that there is a brand new but yet very sad tendency: almost six out of ten complaints received are justified. Normally only a few of the complaints referred to FOS turned out to be justified. Such terrible proportion has been registered for the first time since it started to be examined. Last year 789,877 inquiries were received by the FOS in the year to the end of March. A third part of all disputes was settled in three months period, and eight out of ten cases within nine months. Payment protection insurance which is suggested to be bought by banks and other lenders provoked the major part of discontent. In 31,000 complaints payment protection lays in the base of the dispute, this figures are three times higher than they were last year. Moreover, after a high-profile research the Competition Commission concluded that lenders providing loans benefited from selling Payment protection insurance greatly by having no competition. As a result, clients were overcharged. The only positive thing is that in 89 per cent of such cases the ombudsman resolved the issue in favour of customers. The FOS observes a sustainable increase of complaints about credit cards, which rose by 32 per cent to 18,590. The most common claims are connected with concealment of interest rates and wrongly calculated monthly minimum repayments. Around 76 per cent of complaints were sustained. Despite the assistance of the Government towards borrowers in arrears, some banks coped with such customers in a wrong way. Certainly this fact was reflected on the mortgage complains figures. The ombudsman claims an 11 per cent increase in complaints about mortgages. Mr. Merricks also noticed that some companies in the financial services industry perceive the growing number of customers complains as the unfortunate fact of recession and provide little service, minimal attention at minimum cost even not going deeply into the problem or a case. That is why many people turning to the FOS feel furious, pessimistic, depressed and miserable.