Car insurance complaints to the ombudsman are up by almost half

Between April and June this year, 4,096 people took a complaint about their car or motorcycle insurance to the Financial Ombudsman Service. In the same three months of 2025 the figure was about 2,800.

That is the ombudsman’s own quarterly complaints data, and it names the three things drivers were most unhappy about: claim values, policy cancellations and claim delays. The ombudsman upheld 33 per cent of the motor complaints it resolved in the customer’s favour.

At the same time, the door has narrowed a little. Since 1 October the ombudsman has new powers to dismiss complaints, including where there has been no financial loss, or material distress or inconvenience, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service. A new registration stage, to check that a case is ready to investigate, follows next year.

Here is the detail worth sitting with. More drivers are complaining just as the service is being asked to filter harder. A complaint that says “I was treated badly” and stops there is now easier to set aside. One that shows what the delay or the low offer actually cost is not.

The strongest motor complaints are rarely the angriest. They are the ones with dates. When the car was written off, the adverts used to argue the valuation, the hire car invoices, the days spent without transport, every call and email chasing an answer. Put that to the insurer first. For most complaints it has up to eight weeks to send a final response, and if it does not, you can take the case to the ombudsman, as the Financial Ombudsman Service guide to complaining explains.

None of this is a reason not to complain. A third of motor complaints going the customer’s way is not a small number.

Write your car insurance complaint as if someone who has never met you must decide what it cost you.