Issues ›
Charges and fees
Fees, overdraft charges or penalties the customer says were unfair or unexplained.
18,312banking decisions on this issue
32.1%upheld where an outcome is recorded
40firms with 20+ decisions here
Rules the ombudsman applied
Derived from the rules actually cited in these decisions, ranked by how often they appear — not from an editorial view of which rules matter.
Consumer Credit Act 1974 · cited in 1,029
Consumer credit rights, including Section 75 joint liability for card purchases.
FCA CONC (Consumer Credit sourcebook) · cited in 336
Conduct rules for consumer credit, including affordability and arrears handling.
FCA DISP (Dispute Resolution) · cited in 279
How firms must handle complaints and how the Ombudsman decides them.
FCA Consumer Duty (PRIN 2A) · cited in 85
Requires firms to deliver good outcomes for retail customers.
Payment Services Regulations 2017 · cited in 48
Governs how payment firms must handle authorised and unauthorised payments, including liability for unauthorised transactions.
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 · cited in 46
The statute that creates the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Which firms lose on this
Firms with fewer than 20 decisions on this issue are excluded — the rate would not mean anything.
In the ombudsman’s words
Mrs W complains that Vanquis Bank Limited charged her for a Repayment Option Plan (ROP) which she doesn’t recall agreeing to.
Mr M complains about charges applied to his current account
total charges including buildings insurance of £1,181.60
Mr G had to pay an extra month’s insurance premiums, totalling £129, which he wants the bank to refund.
Quotes are shown only where the exact wording was verified against the decision text.
The US counterpart
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) runs a separate complaint database for American consumers. We map its issue labels onto this issue ourselves — the CFPB does not — and the two datasets are not comparable: UK figures above are ombudsman decisions with an adjudicated outcome, while these are complaints made to a US regulator, most of which are never adjudicated. A count of one is not a count of the other, so no rate, percentage or ratio is calculated between them.
The CFPB recorded 13,890 complaints mapped to this issue, received between April 2025 and October 2026, across all US consumer financial products.
Most common CFPB issue labels within this mapping:
Problem with a lender or other company charging your account — 9,722 complaints
Problem caused by your funds being low — 4,168 complaints
Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, not scoped to banking — the CFPB’s complaint categories span all consumer financial products, not just banking.