Banks receiving 7,000 complaints a day, says watchdog
Are you happy with the service you get from your bank? Well, millions aren't. According to a damning report by the Financial Services Authority, our High Street banks are receiving more than 7,000 complains each and every day, amounting to around 1.3 million over the past six months.
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Poor service, bad advice and mis-selling of financial products make up the majority of the complaints and in some areas, such as mortgages, more than 70 per cent of customers had been given bad advice or sloppy service.
It's the first time that the banks have been forced to reveal the number of complaints lodged and the FSA hopes that by naming and shaming, service might improve.
The most-moaned about bank was Santander, which saw more than 200,000 complaints opened, but British banks didn't fare much better.
Natwest received more than 80,000 over the first six months of the year, Lloyds generated almost 150,000 and Barclays, which topped 245,000 complaints, saw two out of three on insurance upheld, 60 per cent on mortgages and 32 per cent on general banking.
Marc Gander, of the Consumer Action Group, told the Daily Mail: "We're used to banks treating their customers shabbily, however these figures are quite extraordinary.
"You have to wonder where these billions of pounds of taxpayers' money are being spent - it's certainly not on complaints handling."
Indeed not - the report suggests that, far from trying to reach a speedy resolution, many banks are spinning out their response for as long as they can.
Fewer than 50 per cent of cases were handled within the recommended eight weeks.
As part of the report, the FSA published proposals that would require banks to speed up the complaints handling process and increase compensation from £100,000 to £150,000.
Do you trust your bank or have your been subjected to poor service and bad advice? Leave your comments below.
