Between 1 April 2014 and 31 October 2014 13,348 people called the ombudsman to complain about credit broking. This compares to 6,376 calls between financial year 2013/14 (1 April 2013 - 31 March 2014).
There have been 611 credit broking complaints converted since 1 April 2014 – as the majority of these complaints are resolved as soon as the ombudsman gets in touch with the broker.
In two-thirds (63%) of the cases the ombudsman investigated we found in the consumer’s favour.
FOS consumer contact teams have highlighted that most of the front-line contact they receive about payday loans relates to problems with broking. Common themes in consumer complaints are:
- They do not recognise the business that took the fee;
- They did not give permission for the fee to be taken;
- They thought the payment was being taken towards a loan, believing that the business was a provider of credit and not a credit broker.
