The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) have announced that home loans were the subject of almost 10% of the complaints that they received in the last year.
That makes them the second most complained about topic, behind only credit cards. 14% of all complaints were about credit cards, with home loans accounting for 9%.
Total complaints were down 12% on the 2019/20 financial year – which included the early days of the pandemic – with the total number of complaints lodged just over 70,000 in 2020/2021.
“Significantly, complaints involving financial difficulty were down nearly 40 per cent from the numbers we saw the previous year,” Mr Locke said. “That’s a great outcome and reflects the positive response from government and industry to the impact of COVID.
“However, it’s too early to say we’re out of the woods yet. It may be some months before we know the full impact of the end of government emergency support and assistance from financial firms such as deferred loan repayments. And, of course, we are still living with COVID-19.
“It’s important that consumers and financial service providers continue to work together to resolve issues quickly as they emerge,” Mr Locke said. “The past 12 months show what’s possible when that happens.”
PayPal was disproportionately high on the list, coming in fifth place, with 455 complaints against them – though only 3 resulted in a decision in favour of the complainant.
Mortgage brokerages and management companies came out very well on the annual list: of the worst offender, Bluestone, only 32 complaints were made, of which only one was upheld.
