Consumer rights · complaints · evidence · escalation

Know your rights.
Challenge what doesn't add up.

ConsumerWise helps you understand what applies, test what an organisation has told you, build the evidence and choose the right route when something goes wrong.

Try a real problem refund refused credit default problem at work flight cancelled subject access

Start with what you know

Choose where you are in the problem.

You do not need to know the Act, regulator or legal phrase first. Start with what has happened, what you have been told, or what needs to happen next.

Browse by subject

Start with the area you recognise.

Twenty-one subject, sector and escalation hubs bring together the guides, practical steps, templates, tools and official references around the problem you are facing.

02Agreements

Contracts

Formation, terms, cancellation, breach, variations, verbal agreements, online contracts and misrepresentation.

FormationTermsBreach
03Information rights

Data & Privacy

UK GDPR, SARs, rectification, accuracy, restriction, erasure, breaches and ICO complaints.

SARsAccuracyICO complaints
05Money & reporting

Credit & Finance

Section 75, chargeback, credit agreements, arrears, affordability, defaults and Financial Ombudsman routes.

Section 75ChargebackDefaults
19Credit files

Credit Reporting

Defaults, arrears markers, PRAAD, data accuracy, CRAs and correcting credit-file information.

DefaultsPRAADInaccurate data

Start with your relationship

What connects you to the organisation?

Complex problems are easier to route when you first identify the relationship: customer, account holder, tenant, employee, data subject or user of a public service.

I bought goods or servicesCustomerI pay for an ongoing serviceSubscriberI bank or make payments with themAccount holderI borrow or use creditBorrowerI rent or live in housing they manageTenant / residentI work for themEmployee / workerI deal with a council or public bodyService userThey hold or use my personal dataData subject

Featured guidance

Useful when the detail matters.

Browse all guides
Data & Privacy

A SAR response is not complete just because a company says it is.

How to compare the request with the response, identify missing categories, understand exemptions and challenge gaps methodically.

Read the guide
Credit reporting

Default notices, default reporting and PRAAD are not the same thing.

Understand the different frameworks before arguing the wrong point.

Understand PRAAD
Complaints

Build a chronology that can survive scrutiny.

Turn emails, calls, records and documents into a clear factual sequence.

Build a chronology
Decision quality

When a response answers around the issue instead of answering it.

Use a failure-to-answer analysis to separate disagreement from a genuine omission.

Audit the response

Practical tools

Work out the next step, not just the theory.

ConsumerWise tools are designed to help work out remedies, organise dates and evidence, test responses and choose the next route.

01
Refund Helper

Work out whether the route is refund, repair, cancellation, delivery, service remedy or payment recovery, and see the law behind it.

 02
Cancellation Rights Checker

Check whether a cooling-off right applies, the deadline, the main exceptions and the official law behind the result.

 03
SAR deadline calculator

Calculate the ordinary response deadline and understand common timing issues.

 04
FOI deadline calculator

Work through the standard working-day response period.

 05
Complaint timeline builder

Turn correspondence and events into a clean chronology.

 06
Regulator & ombudsman finder

Find the likely external route based on sector and complaint type.

Templates

Start with structure. Add your facts.

Templates should help you organise an argument, not encourage copy-and-paste complaints that ignore your own evidence.

Browse all templates
Formal complaintGeneral Subject Access RequestData & Privacy Missing SAR data challengeData & Privacy Credit-file disputeCredit & Finance Ombudsman complaintEscalation Decision challengeOutcome review Failure-to-answer scheduleEvidence Complaint chronologyEvidence

Understand the process

Most disputes become easier when you know what stage you are actually at.

Learn about complaint scope
  1. 01Identify the issue

    Separate the core complaint from every surrounding frustration.

  2. 02Establish the framework

    Work out whether the key source is law, contract, regulation, guidance or a code.

  3. 03Build the evidence

    Chronology, documents, records, missing material and contradictions.

  4. 04Use the internal route

    Make the complaint clear enough that an external reviewer can later understand it.

  5. 05Escalate properly

    ADR, ombudsman, regulator or court - where the route and facts justify it.

Who do I complain to?

The company, the regulator and the ombudsman do different jobs.

ConsumerWise helps you distinguish supervision, complaint resolution, enforcement and redress - and identify the route that actually fits your issue.

Find the right route
ICOData protection & information rights FCAFinancial-services regulation FOSFinancial complaints & redress OfcomTelecoms & communications regulation Communications OmbudsmanTelecom ADR Energy OmbudsmanEnergy complaints LGSCOLocal government & social care PHSOParliamentary & health service complaints

Knowledge Hub

The concepts that sit underneath hundreds of different disputes.

Useful when the problem is not just “what does the law say?” but “how should this evidence, process or decision actually be assessed?”

Law vs rules vs guidance vs industry codes Why records made at the time matter Accuracy vs disagreement What makes a decision properly reasoned? What “fair and reasonable” actually means in context Burden and standard of proof Regulator vs ombudsman Redress, compensation and putting things right

Reference & official material

Go back to the source.

Legislation map Regulators directory Ombudsmen directory Industry codes & standards Consumer glossary Official sources

Why ConsumerWise exists

A confident answer is not the same as a correct answer.

Organisations usually know their own systems and complaint processes better than the consumer facing them. ConsumerWise exists to narrow that imbalance: understand the rule, establish what actually happened, test the evidence and challenge a position that does not add up.

If more consumers use their rights effectively, poor processes become harder for organisations to leave unfixed.

Why I built ConsumerWise