Complaints against UK banks continue to rise

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According to new reports complaints against the big high-street banks are continuing to rise.

Latest figures suggest that UK banks are receiving around 1,700 complaints every day, which is an increase of 15 percent form this time last year.

Lloyds, which is also in control of Bank of Scotland and Halifax, saw 330,000 complaints in the last six months of 2010.

UK high street banks have suffered a lot of criticism in recent times, and this latest setback is only going to cast banks in a more negative light.

Earlier in the year Barclays were issued a heavy fine by the FSA for giving customers poor financial products and bad investment advice.

Peter Vicary-Smith, the chief executive of Which? said: “These figures reaffirm the need for a fundamental overhaul to the way many banks pay their staff. When bonus structures reward staff for selling products which may be unsuitable is it any wonder that we are seeing this level of complaints? Nowhere is this clearer than in the handling of PPI complaints, where the Ombudsman’s uphold rate in favour of the consumer points to banks rejecting thousands of legitimate complaints.”

Lloyds customer service manager Martin Dodd said: “We know we still have a lot to do.”

Apparently Lloyds will soon be overhauling their customer services system which they hope will improve the situation.