Two employees have also been referred to the watchdog. Charleigh Sinclair-berrow and Jeremy Thomas who worked in the complaints department at their Cardiff Headquarters failed to exercise skill care and diligence under the FCA’s Treating Customers Fairly principles. Regulated firms are also required to communicate with customers in a way that is clear, fair and not misleading.

We have seen evidence of 118118 Money falling very short of that threshold.

118118 Money has also been referred to the FCA for investigation for failing to meet the communication needs of its customers - a requirement the FCA imposes on the firms it regulates - due to the firm employing offshore staff who did not have a sufficient enough grasp of the English language to be able to communicate with its customers.

We identified a case where a customer raised a concern about their direct debit with 118 not being collected. The concern had to be transferred to a UK-based employee because the Taguig City call centre agent, due to poor English proficiency, was unable to clearly explain that the payment had not been taken because a merchant refund to the customer’s card had already covered that month’s required payment.

“This was after being incorrectly told that the customer had missed the payment altogether, and another employee informing the customer that it “could be a technical issue”.

David Goodman, the then Chief Executive, was approached for comment. Naturally, in true CEO-esque fashion, the message has remained unanswered.

There’s a very real reason as the companies offshore their call-handling operations, and it’s nothing to do with some moral conscience to help less advantaged countries to create opportunities for its citizens and to pull them out of poverty. She you can get away with paying 10 times less than the UK’s minimum wage, why wouldn’t you?

Except the only people who suffer from the lack of skill, as well as the lack of clear communications over something as important as your finances, is the consumer.

Sinclair-berrow and Thomas were referred to the FCA for failing to properly address the complaint the customer had over the lack of clear communication. 118 118 Money was also referred for failings in ensuring that all employees had proficient communication skills in the appropriate language when conversing with customers.

If you have a regulator telling you that you need to be able to communicate with your customers in a clear, fair and non-misleading way, common sense would dictate that you ensure that your staff have a good standard of the spoken and written language that is native to your customer base.

We have also seen many reports of irresponsible lending stemming from rulings the FOS has made against the lender after investigator’s found 118118 Money had wrongly approved unaffordable loans which resulted in major financial hardship for many customers.

We have also seen reports from customers of incidences where approved loans had not been credited to their bank accounts.

It’s amazing how a company of such ill repute can continue trading. Much harsher actions from the FCA needs to be taken against companies who continue to fail customers, & who fail to instil confidence in the financial services that consumers rely on every day

We hope that the employees concerned are reprimanded. We have people working in one of the most heavily-regulated industries in the world who have about as much skill, talent, and foresight as a breeze block. It’s no wonder why customer service jobs pay so little when the people of this low calibre are working in those roles.

In the end, 118118 Money were so desperate to get rid of the customer, 118118 Money offered to waive the credit card balance if the customer closed their account, severing the relationship with the lender.

We hope the FCA’s Consumer Duty rules will bring much greater scrutiny to the conduct of the front-line staff working in the firms it oversees.

There certainly needs to be.

Have you been affected by anything mentioned in this article and want to have your story heard? Contact us at press@bluecitycapital.com