Complaints increased 50% between Q1 2012/13 and Q2 2012/13, with a total of 460 complaints being made between July and September. Just under half were settled in favour of the consumer. The total number of complaints made during 2012 as a whole was 1,173, a slight increase from the previous year.
Complaints about guaranteed bonds also increased, doubling between the two quarters, while consumers made 202 complaints about with profit bonds in Q2 compared to 146 in the first quarter of the 2012/2013 financial year.
The surge in complaints about portfolio management mirrors the uptick in complaints about all financial products. More complaints were received by the FOS in the last quarter than in any year between 2000 and 2010, and a total 341,666 were made across all financial products since April 2012.
PPI is still the most complained about financial product, with between 8,000 and 10,000 new complaints being received each week.
