Crying all the way to the bank

Given the fierce competition for your custom in the banking world, there is no reason at all for you to endure shoddy service from banks and building societies.

If you are unhappy about a banking product or poor customer treatment, first check out what standard of service you should be able to expect by referring to the Banking Code.

This is a voluntary code which sets standards of good banking practice for financial institutions to follow when dealing with personal customers in the UK. It explains how banks, building societies, credit card companies and National Savings and Investments are expected to deal with you, both day-to-day and in times of financial difficulty. The code applies to current accounts; savings and deposit accounts including mini-cash Isas; loans and overdrafts; card products and services; and payment services.

All institutions that follow the Banking Code should be able to give you a copy of it, or you can download one from the Banking Code Standards Board website.

Your first move with a complaint is to go through your bank or building society's own internal complaints procedure, which its staff members should willingly outline for you. Tips on how to proceed are as follows:

· Ideally, complain in writing, setting out the facts in a clear, logical order. Stick to what is relevant.

· Write 'Complaint' at the top and include important details like your card or account number.

· If you phone, ask for the name and job title of the person you speak to. Keep a note of this together with the date, the time of your call and what was said.

· Try to stay calm and polite, however angry or upset you are. You are more likely to explain your complaint clearly and effectively this way.

· Keep a copy of any letters between you and the firm. You may need to refer to them later.

Under the Banking Code, the institution involved should send you a written acknowledgement within five working days of receiving your complaint and a final response within four weeks, or eight weeks at the outside if more investigative time is needed.

If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you can then take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which provides consumers with a free, independent service for resolving disputes with most kinds of financial firms. However, you can only do this once you have been through the firm's own complaints procedure.

The FOS deals with a huge variety of complaints, including those involving banking products and services, and has handled some 60,000 in the last year with between a third and a half resolved in favour of the complainant.

The first step is to fill in and submit the FOS official complaint form which you can obtain by calling 0845 080 1800, or download from the FOS website. The FOS may be able to fill in some of the details for you over the phone, so you should have all your details ready when you call.

Before signing and returning the complaint form, check that all the information needed is included, such as your bank account number and sort code, and enclose a copy of the firm's final response letter and copies of any documents relevant to your complaint. You need to get the form back to the FOS within six months of receiving the firm's final response letter.

The FOS will start by seeing if it can help resolve matters in an informal way by taking a fresh look at the facts and letting you and the firm know how it thinks you could reach agreement. The majority of complaints are resolved by this initial mediation stage.
If this doesn't work, it will conduct a full investigation into the case, which can take some time. Once completed, the FOS will let you and the firm know how the complaint should be resolved.

"Generally, our aim is to put you in the position you'd be in if things hadn't gone wrong," says the FOS. "This might include our telling the firm to make good your losses. Our decisions are binding on the firm, up to a total of ?100,000. On the other hand, if we think the firm has treated you fairly or is already offering you adequate compensation, we will tell you so."

While FOS decisions are binding on firms, they are not on you, the consumer. You don't have to accept the decision it makes and you are free to take your case to a court of law instead.