Banks and insurers are fobbing off unhappy customers at a record rate, the Financial Ombudsman Service says. The independent dispute settler has said it is 'on course' to break last year's record of a million complaints, which flooded in at a rate of one every ten seconds. The FOS forecasts its end-of-year report in April will show a steep 40 per cent rise in complaints to 1.4million. The figure represents the number of customers complaints that have been rejected by companies and then taken to the independent adjudicator.

It suggests that increasing numbers of legitimate gripes are being palmed away by the big financial firms. Overall, new cases reported to the FOS rose 10 per cent for the three months between October and December 2011, hitting 55,907. The company accused was found guilty on more than half of these occasions. And complaint levels are expected to rise further as families traditionally 'spring-clean' their finances at this time of year. This helps unearth sneaky charges and hidden ills, leading to more complaints.....Read more here--: ANOTHER record year of bank complaints: Fobbed off debt and PPI gripes soar in financial squeeze | This is Money