PPI and the Financial Ombudsman Service – FOS

The FOS was set up by Parliament

In the UK the ombudsman's approach to some of the common issues raised in disputes about payment protection insurance (PPI) - including single-premium policies and policies relating to both secured and unsecured lending.

The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS was set up by parliament to can look at complaints about a wide range of financial matters - from insurance and mortgages to investments and credit. Each year the Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS deal with almost a million enquiries and settle over 150,000 disputes.

• The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS are independent experts in dealing with PPI complaints and their service is free to consumers.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS’s job is to settle individual complaints, including PPI complaints between consumers and businesses providing financial services.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS are completely independent and impartial. This means when they decide a complaint, they look carefully at both sides of the story and weigh up all the facts.
• If the Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS decide a business has acted wrongly - and the consumer has lost out as a result then Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS can order matters to be put right. An example of this would be missold PPI.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS can resolve many disputes informally and they settle a third of cases within three months. But some cases are more complex and take more time.
• The Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS aim to settle most disputes within six to nine months, including complaints for missold PPI policies.
• Consumers don’t have to accept any decision the Financial Ombudsman Service - FOS make on complaints, including decisions on missold PPI policies. Consumers are always free to go to court instead. But if they do accept an ombudsman's decision, it is binding both on them and on the business.
• Just contact the Ombudsman and ask it to take on your case. You can either do this via the Financial Ombudsman Service website or by calling 0800 0234 567 (or 0300 123 9123 from a mobile). It will look at each case individually, so if yours is a matter of you saying one thing happened but the company disagrees, the Ombudsman will decide if it thinks the company acted fairly.

Click here to complete your PPI Claim Form