The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has revealed that it received 68,735 new complaints during the second quarter.

The ombudsman service said this was 19% higher than Q1 2020/21 and 20% higher than Q2 2019/20.

Between July and September, the FOS said it had continued to see an increase in complaints from people who borrowed money who then felt the debt was unaffordable, while complaints arising from COVID-19 had also seen a rise.

Complaints about credit cards also continued to increase in Q2, with the data showing that quarter-on-quarter new complaints increased by 26%, to 3,828. When compared to the Q2 2019 figures, new complaints about credit cards have seen a 66% increase.

The FOS also found that complaints about payday loans, though still high, are now reaching the ombudsman in much lower volumes compared to peak levels in 2018/19, when it was receiving in excess of 10,000 cases per quarter. In Q2, the FOS continued to see an increase in cases about guarantor loans and home credit, with new complaints about guarantor loans increasing quarter-on-quarter by 298%, to 4,191, while new complaints about home credit climbed by 144%, to 3,199.

Over the same period, although payment protection insurance (PPI) remains the most complained-about product, at 12,742 new complaints in Q2, the FOS said its proportion has continued to decline, following the 15,842 recorded in Q1, 25,892 in Q4 2019, and 41,510 recorded in Q3 2019.

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