Rise in disputes taken to ombudsman

A record number of disputes between consumers and credit card companies were taken to the ombudsman last year, driven by a surge in people trying to recoup their cash after something went wrong with a purchase.

A 10% annual rise in the total number of credit card complaints during financial year 2011/12 was recorded by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), amounting to 19,183, the largest figure since records began in 2001.