The number of complaints about mortgages and home finance products remained broadly flat in the first half of 2016, but the amount of redress has increased, data has revealed.
Complaints data from City watchdog the Financial Conduct Authority shows there were 76,137 complaints about home finance in the first half of this year, slightly up on 76,047 in the second half of 2015.
Just over half (55.7%) of the 2016 complaints were upheld.
Banks and building societies paid out £19.2m in compensation, up from £16m in the same period last year.
Most home finance complaints (60.8%) were about customer service while 11% were either about advice or arrears. The remaining gripes were over-charging.
The most complained about providers when it came to home finance were:
1. Bank of Scotland 9,894
2. Santander UK 8,760
3. HSBC Bank 6,715
4. Landmark Mortgages 5,894
5. Barclays Bank 5,272
Overall, financial services firms recorded a 2.6% reduction in new complaints between January and June compared to the previous six months.
Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition for the FCA, said: “To see another six months of reduction in the total number complaints is encouraging.
“Firms still need to continue to ensure they are doing all they can to reduce consumer dissatisfaction, but the figures show firms are taking our feedback seriously.”
Comments (1)
As a previous business customer, personal customer and mortgage customer I can confirm that Bank of Scotland were a great bank, they had great service, sensible products and an approachable willingness to help – then they merged with Halifax and it all went downhill from there. Halifax didn’t want the BoS customer base, they only wanted the business. Bank charges went up over night.
Bank charges went up within 6 weeks.
If I needed to get anything done I had to call my old bank manager in Glasgow to arrange it as local branches south of the border don’t have managers, leastways not one that will talk to you.
Even upto last year I couldn’t use a BoS card to deposit cash in the quick deposit machines in a Halifax branch, I had to stand in the queue. When I raised a question about this in the local MK branch I was told its only for customers!! I even got asked if I wanted to convert my BoS account to a Halifax account to become a ‘full’ customer!