Having reminded firms that its current Plans and Budget Consultation closes soon, FOS has taken the opportunity to restate the views it expressed in the Consultation about the nature of the complaints it expects to receive over the next twelve months.
FOS is expecting more than 181,000 consumer complaints in the next financial year, and expects that many of these complaints will be driven by everyday issues such as unaffordable lending, travel and motor insurance, and fraud and scam cases.
The key personal finance issues where FOS expects to see new complaints about financial providers include:
- a continued rise in disputed transactions, driven by the increasing volume of financial fraud and scams;
- cost-of-living pressures leading to a rise in irresponsible and unaffordable lending complaints;
- a rise in account closure complaints prompted by higher public awareness of the issue;
- motor insurance complaints continuing at a high level, partly due to widescale delays in being able to repair vehicles and impact of second-hand car market on valuations; and
- further complaints about car finance commission arrangements which will be considered in light of changes made by the FCA to complaint-handling rules in this area.