Professional representatives had 26% of financial complaints upheld in their customers’ favour, compared to 36% of customers who handled their own complaint.
Cases were found to be in the customers’ favour for around a third (34%) of all resolved complaints, which is a similar level to the year before.
Overall, the free dispute resolution service received 40% more cases in the last three months of 2024 compared to the same period the year before.
Between October and December last year, there were 68,430 complaints from customers, with 20,000 cases for complaints about credit cards (10,957) and current accounts (8,830).
The number of cases was a slight drop on the 73,692 investigated in the previous quarter but, overall, the service is investigating more complaints than the 2023/24 financial year.
How life insurance can benefit your health and wellbeing over the decades
Sponsored by Post Office
Complaints from professional representatives who handle the admin and communication to the FOS are also rising.
From April to December 2023, less than a quarter (21%) of all complaints received by the FOS were from a professional representative, which might be a claims management company (CMC) or law firm.
However, in the same period a year later, almost half (47%) of all cases about complaints against financial services were made by professional representatives.
From April, CMCs will receive 10 free complaints before being charged £250 to make a complaint on behalf of someone.
If the case is upheld in their favour, the firm can claim back £175 as a partial refund.
This is to deter mass complaints made by CMCs that do not have a good chance of being upheld and therefore increase the waiting time for FOS to give answers to complainants.
As well as a rise in CMC cases, there was also another rise in hire purchase complaints, with 15,956 sent to the FOS compared to 11,817 in the previous three-month period.
This is ongoing from the wave of firms that did not disclose that the car dealer would be getting commission for arranging the finance for the purchased vehicle.
Motor finance firms have until the end of this year to respond to drivers who have raised a motor finance commission complaint.
‘Continuing to see high volumes of motor finance commission cases’
James Dipple-Johnstone, interim chief ombudsman of the FOS, said: “Every year, we help resolve tens of thousands of difficult disputes for consumers and businesses – providing impartial help in often challenging circumstances.
“We are continuing to see high volumes of motor finance commission cases and would encourage businesses to consider whether complaints are covered by the Financial Conduct Authority’s temporary complaint-handling rules.
“Ongoing legal proceedings are impacting our ability to issue final decisions in these cases, but we are putting steps in place to ensure we can resolve them as quickly as possible when we have the clarity we need.”
