Complaining about an ISA provider

If something goes wrong with an ISA, whether it is a cash ISA, a stocks and shares ISA or a Lifetime ISA, you have a clear route to complain and, if the provider fobs you off, to take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free. The ombudsman can look at cases where you lost money because an adviser or investment company made an admin error, or delayed a transfer or payment into your ISA account, and it can tell the business to compensate you¹.

Complaints about ISAs are not rare. In the first quarter of 2026/27 the ombudsman recorded 620 new complaints about cash ISAs, including cash Lifetime ISAs and Help to Buy ISAs, and 392 about stocks and shares ISAs². Across the whole of 2024/25 the stocks and shares ISA was the most complained-about investment product, with 1,655 new complaints³. So if you are unhappy with how your ISA has been handled, you are far from alone, and the process below is the one thousands of people use each year.

What you can complain about with an ISA

The ombudsman's own guidance on ISAs sets out the kinds of problem it can look at. The common thread is that you lost money because of something the provider, platform or adviser did or failed to do. The examples it gives are an admin error, a delayed transfer or a delayed payment into your ISA account, wrong investment advice, or misleading information that led you into an unsuitable investment¹.

In practice these broad categories cover most of what goes wrong with ISAs:

• Slow or botched transfers. Moving money between ISA providers should keep it inside the tax wrapper, but delays can mean your cash sits earning nothing, or your investments are sold and not repurchased promptly. Providers themselves acknowledge the everyday causes: an issue with the application form, out-of-date information held by the existing provider, or a notice period on the account being transferred from⁷.
• Payments that never made it into the ISA. If a subscription misses the tax year deadline because of a provider error, you can lose the tax-free status of that money for good. The ISA deadline and the end of the tax year explains why the timing matters so much.
• Wrong or misleading information. Being told an investment was suitable when it was not, or being given incorrect terms, falls within the ombudsman's remit¹.
• Admin errors of any kind that leave you out of pocket, from a mis-keyed transfer amount to a closed account that should have stayed open¹.

The volume of complaints gives a sense of where problems cluster. In the first quarter of 2025/26 the ombudsman recorded 391 new complaints about cash ISAs and 361 about stocks and shares ISAs⁸; a year later the stocks and shares ISA figure had risen to 392 and cash ISAs to 620². Complaints about Lifetime ISAs are fewer but can be high stakes, since the money is often tied to a house purchase: 34 new complaints about investment Lifetime ISAs were recorded in the first quarter of 2026/27².

If your complaint is specifically about the stocks and shares held inside your ISA, the ombudsman directs people to its consumer page about ISAs, which is the route described on this page⁹.

Complain to your ISA provider first

The ombudsman is not the first stop. Its rules state that a formal complaint must be made to the company involved before a complaint is brought to the ombudsman, and that it can help once a complaint has been made to the financial business and the customer is unhappy with the answer¹⁰. The same principle runs through UK complaint systems generally: official guidance on making a claim against a firm requires that a complaint has been made to the provider concerned first¹¹.

So the first step is to contact your ISA provider directly and tell it, in writing if possible, what went wrong and what you want it to do. A written complaint creates a record with a date, which matters later because the clock for the provider's final response starts when it receives the complaint. Set out the facts plainly: dates, amounts, what you were told and what happened. Include copies of statements, transfer confirmations or letters, and keep a copy of everything you send.

Ask for a specific outcome, such as compensation for lost interest, the tax you had to pay, or the cost of borrowing. Providers can and do uphold complaints at this stage and pay redress without any need for the ombudsman, and giving them a clear, evidenced case makes that more likely. If they resolve it to your satisfaction, that is the end of the matter.

If you are unhappy with how the provider handles the complaint itself, as well as the underlying problem, say so in the same letter. The ombudsman can look at both the original mistake and the way the complaint was treated.

Eight weeks for a final response

Once the provider has your complaint, it has a deadline. The ombudsman's guidance is that if the business does not send you a final response letter within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with its response, you can bring the complaint to the ombudsman⁴. The same eight week period appears across the ombudsman's consumer guidance for different products¹².

The eight weeks is not a target for the provider to aim at; it is the outside limit for giving you its final response. In that letter the provider should tell you its conclusion, whether it is upholding your complaint, what it intends to do to put things right, and that if you remain unhappy you can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Two things can happen at the end of the eight weeks:

• You receive a final response and you are satisfied. The complaint ends there.
• You receive a final response and you are not satisfied, or eight weeks pass with no response at all. Either way, the door to the ombudsman is open⁴.

Taking your ISA complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service is the free, independent body set up to sort out disputes between consumers and financial businesses. Its guidance confirms you can bring a complaint about your individual savings account to it¹, and the route is the same whether your ISA is a cash account, a stocks and shares portfolio or a Lifetime ISA.

You complain by filling in the ombudsman's complaint form⁵. Before you start, gather the essentials: your final response letter (or the date you first complained, if eight weeks passed without one), the dates and amounts involved, and any evidence of what the mistake cost you. The ombudsman also publishes guidance if you are considering using AI to help complete the form: avoid entering personal information you would not want shared, such as health or banking details, use AI only to help organise information or put it clearly, and check the resulting text carefully⁵.

There is a deadline. You need to make the complaint to the ombudsman within 6 months from the date on your final response⁵. If the provider never responded, the eight week point is what opens the door⁴.

The ombudsman is free: you don't need a claims company

Bringing a complaint to the ombudsman is straightforward and will not cost you anything⁶. The government's consumer guidance describes ombudsman services in the same terms: an ombudsman investigates complaints about organisations for free¹⁴. The ombudsman's own support pages repeat the point: its service is free and easy to use¹², and you do not need a lawyer or anyone else to represent you¹⁵.

Claims management companies sometimes offer to pursue complaints, including about financial products, for a fee or a share of any compensation. Nothing in the ombudsman's process requires one. The complaint form is designed for consumers to complete themselves, and the ombudsman's guidance is explicit that you do not need to pay anyone to represent you, for example a lawyer or claims management company⁵. Since the service is free and the evidence is your own paperwork, paying a share of compensation to an intermediary generally reduces what you keep without adding anything the process needs.

If you want help rather than paid representation, free support is available: the ombudsman's own guidance on what to expect explains the process, and its Business Support Hub provides information to consumer advisers on how a complaint might be looked at¹⁵.

How the ombudsman decides an ISA complaint

The ombudsman does not decide cases like a court applying strict law. Under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, it must determine complaints by reference to what is, in the opinion of the ombudsman, fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case¹⁶. That is the test at the heart of every ISA decision.

In reaching a view, the ombudsman takes account of relevant law and regulations, the regulator's rules, guidance and standards, industry codes of practice and, where appropriate, good industry practice¹². It considers the facts and evidence from both the business and the customer, and then sets out its findings explaining the decision and what needs to be done to put things right¹³. In practice this means:

1. You send your complaint form and evidence.
2. The ombudsman asks the business for its account and documents.
3. A case handler weighs what each side says against the rules and standards that applied at the time.
4. The ombudsman sets out its findings, its decision and what the business must do¹³.

Because the test is fairness rather than a technicality, a mistake that caused you loss can be upheld even where the provider followed its own internal process, and conversely a delay the provider could not reasonably have avoided may not lead to redress. The ombudsman's published case studies show this in action: in one insurance case, its view of what was fair and reasonable led it to tell the insurer to accept the claim¹⁷. ISA cases are decided on the same basis.

Putting things right: lost returns, tax and distress

If the ombudsman thinks the business treated you unfairly, it tells the business to put you back where you would have been if it had not made a mistake, and it may also make an award for distress and inconvenience¹⁸. For an ISA complaint, "putting you back" usually means working out what you lost, which can take several forms.

Lost interest or returns. If a transfer delay left your cash sitting out of the ISA, the redress is typically the interest or returns you would have earned had the money been in the account on time. The ombudsman has a published policy statement on interest on compensation awards, which sets out how interest is applied when it tells a business to pay redress¹⁹.

Tax paid in error. The ombudsman's ISA guidance is specific on this point: where it decides tax was paid on the sale of an investment that should have gone into an ISA, it will ask the business responsible to pay compensation¹. This covers the situation where an admin error or a delayed transfer left money outside the tax wrapper and a tax charge followed.

Costs of borrowing caused by the problem. For Lifetime ISA holders using the money for a house purchase, a provider error can have knock-on effects. The ombudsman's guidance says that if you took a loan or used a credit card, it may recommend a refund with interest²⁰. So if a delayed Lifetime ISA transfer left you short for a deposit and you borrowed to cover it, tell the ombudsman and provide the loan or card details.

Distress and inconvenience. Beyond the financial loss, the ombudsman can recognise the hassle and worry involved, particularly where a house purchase or a tax bill was at stake¹⁸.

Limits on what the ombudsman can award

The ombudsman's redress is not a fixed tariff: it tells the business what is needed to put you back where you would have been, plus any award for distress and inconvenience, based on the facts of the case¹⁸. There is no standard payout for an ISA complaint, and two similar-looking cases can produce different redress because the losses differ.

Separate from the ombudsman, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) protects consumers where a authorised firm has failed. Its protection limits depend on the type of business and the period of failure: for example, where a SIPP operator failed between 3 July 2015 and 31 March 2019, FSCS cover is up to £50,000 per eligible person, per firm²¹. If your ISA provider has failed rather than merely made a mistake, the FSCS claims process is the relevant route, and it has its own rules about escalation: it may refuse a request to escalate a complaint that just relates to the decision outcome²². The page on how your ISA is protected explains the FSCS position for ISA firms in more detail.

Accepting or rejecting the final decision

When the ombudsman finishes a case, it gives a final answer. The decision binds the business if you accept it, so the choice at that point is yours. The ombudsman's own easy-read guidance sets out the position plainly:

Financial Ombudsman Service¹⁰

In other words, accepting the decision ends the matter with the business paying what the ombudsman has told it to pay. Rejecting it does not lead to an appeal within the ombudsman service: the ombudsman cannot look at the case again. Your remaining option is court action, which is a different kind of undertaking entirely. Court proceedings have their own costs and procedures, and unlike the free ombudsman process, going to court without legal advice is a significant step.

Before deciding, read the final answer carefully. It will explain the findings, what the ombudsman decided and why, and exactly what the business has been told to do. If part of your loss has not been addressed, it is worth checking whether the decision explains why before rejecting the whole thing.

Tax on compensation and interest

Compensation for an ISA complaint can itself have tax consequences, and the rules have recently changed in one specific area. New ISA legislation introduced a tax charge on interest on cash held in a stocks and shares ISA or an Innovative Finance ISA. That charge is treated as an amount of tax due under a final and conclusive assessment, payable not later than 6 months after the end of the year in which the interest was paid or credited, and no relief from tax applies to such interest or alternative finance return²³.

For most people the practical points are these:

• Redress that restores lost interest or returns is compensation for what went wrong, and the ombudsman's policy statement on interest on compensation awards governs how interest is calculated on what the business pays¹⁹.
• Interest on cash inside a stocks and shares ISA or Innovative Finance ISA is now within the scope of a specific tax charge, with the payment deadline of 6 months after the end of the year the interest was paid or credited²³.
• Money that stays inside a cash ISA keeps its normal tax treatment; the new charge targets cash held in stocks and shares and Innovative Finance ISAs²³.

The consultation that shaped the ombudsman's approach to interest on compensation drew responses from 40 firms, including insurers, payments firms, retail banking, retail investment and retail lending firms, and 8 consumer groups, which gives a sense of how much attention this area receives¹⁹. If your compensation includes an element for tax you paid because money stayed outside an ISA¹, keep the paperwork showing what tax was charged, since that is what the redress is calculated from.

Where to get help

You do not have to work through a complaint alone, and paid help is not necessary. The main sources of free support are:

• The Financial Ombudsman Service itself. Its complaint form and guidance on what to expect walk you through the process, and its service is free¹⁵. If you are considering using AI to help complete the form, follow its guidelines: avoid entering personal information you would not want shared, use AI only to organise information or put it clearly, and check the resulting text carefully⁵.
• The provider's own complaints process. Start there, in writing, with your evidence¹⁰.
• The FSCS, if the firm has failed rather than simply made a mistake²¹.

For the background that often sits behind an ISA complaint, the guides on how to transfer an ISA, how long an ISA transfer takes and compensation if an ISA transfer is delayed cover the rules providers are expected to follow, and ISAs and tax explains what is tax free and what is not.