How to win a Financial Ombudsman complaint: the submission is everything.
Short answer: the FOS is free to use, decides on the papers, and awards what you can evidence, which means most complaints fail not on the facts but on the file. A submission built like a case, chronology, rule, breach, loss, remedy, is the whole game. Ours start at £550, with a £150 triage first that tells you honestly whether it is worth it.
The deadline most people miss
You generally have six months from the firm's final response letter to refer the complaint. Before that letter arrives, the rebuttal stage, answering their final response while settlement is still cheap for them, is often the last chance to win without the scheme at all: ours is £345.
What the ombudsman can actually award
Financial loss, distress and inconvenience awards, and directions to put things right, enforceable once you accept. Ask for a specific remedy: schemes rarely award what nobody requested, and vague grievances read as venting, not claims.
Rejected already?
A provisional decision can be challenged with further submissions that address the adjudicator's actual reasoning, ours from £550, and a final decision you reject leaves court routes open. The triage will tell you plainly which category you are in, and when the honest answer is that the amount at stake does not justify the fight.
Fixed fee agreed in writing before any work begins, written reply within 24 hours, handled entirely in writing. Send your enquiry or WhatsApp +44 7822 014 066.