Context
Every year FOS shares a review of its annual complaints data, showing the volume of complaints it received and overall uphold rates over the course of the financial year. The data for the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 has been published and he totals in this data include all complaints received and overall uphold rates.
Key points to note and next actions
Between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, the most complained about product was current accounts – 30,635 complaints, compared to 26,039 the previous year.
There were 24,402 credit card complaints, of which 13,584 were due to unaffordable/irresponsible lending (in 2022/23, these figures were 14,504 and 3723 respectively).
Meanwhile fraud and scams cases have risen by a fifth and are now at their highest level with 27,312 complaints in the 2023/24 financial year. Around half of these cases were authorised push payment (APP) scams where someone is tricked into sending money online to a fraudster posing as a genuine payee.
The other three categories in the top five most complained about products were hire purchase (motor), car/motorcycle insurance and conditional sale (motor), all of which saw year-on-year increases.
On average, across all financial products, 37% of the complaints resolved by FOS were upheld in the favour of the complainant, which is an increase from the 35% uphold rate in 2022/23.
Top 5 most complained about products in 2023/24:
- Current accounts – 30,635 (2022/23: 26,039)
- Credit cards – 24,402 (2022/23: 14,504)
- Hire purchase (motor) – 21,441 (2022/23: 11,446)
- Car/motorcycle insurance – 16,322 (2022/23: 11,851)
- Conditional sale (motor) – 7,829 (2022/23: 1,900)