More firms and organisations can use the Financial Ombudsman Service to get redress against financial product providers

The Financial Ombudsman Service was set up by parliament to deal with complaints against any financial organisation

Bank charges, insurers refusing to pay a claim and terms changing on a business credit card are all matters for a well-established, but not necessarily that well-known, official body, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). With new powers granted from 1 April 2019, the FOS could well be a firm's route to fighting big financial institutions—at no cost.

The FOS is a free service, set up by parliament to deal with complaints against any financial organisation. Costs are borne by the financial services sector out of levies collected by the Financial Conduct Authority and case fees.

It is these case fees that make the FOS interesting because, depending on the claim, an institution may settle a case that it might not win, rather than digging in its heels unnecessarily. This is because, as it presently stands, each institution is permitted 25 investigations a year without charge. Beyond that, they pay £650 per case, added to which will be its own internal costs and time; the fee is chargeable whether the institution wins or loses.