Complaints Policy
Our complaints policy
Merchant Advice Service aims to provide businesses with clear, helpful and transparent payments information, provider comparison and provider-matching support.
If you are unhappy with the service you have received from Merchant Advice Service, we want to know about it.
Complaints help us identify where something may have gone wrong, review the way we work and improve the service we provide.
This policy explains how to complain about Merchant Advice Service and what happens after we receive your complaint.
What can I complain about?
You can raise a complaint with Merchant Advice Service about any aspect of the service you have received from us.
This may include concerns about:
- the way your enquiry was handled
- communication from Merchant Advice Service
- information provided by MAS
- the way your business requirements were understood
- a provider-matching or introduction process
- how your information was handled or shared
- the accuracy of information published by Merchant Advice Service
- the conduct of someone acting on behalf of Merchant Advice Service
- any other aspect of your experience with MAS
How to make a complaint
You can make a complaint by email, through our website or in writing.
Email:
Please use “Complaint” in the subject line so that your message can be identified and reviewed promptly.
You can also contact us through the Merchant Advice Service contact page:
https://www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk/contact
Complaints can be sent by post to:
Merchant Advice Service Limited
First Floor, Sterling House
Outrams Wharf
Little Eaton
Derby
DE21 5EL
Telephone: 0800 304 7875
What information should I provide?
You do not need to use a particular form to make a complaint.
Providing the following information can help us investigate the matter more quickly:
- your name
- your business name
- your preferred contact details
- a description of what happened
- relevant dates
- the name of any payment provider or other organisation involved
- copies of relevant correspondence or documents
- what you would like Merchant Advice Service to do to resolve the matter
If some of this information is not available, you can still make a complaint.
What happens after I make a complaint?
We will review the complaint and aim to deal with it fairly and objectively.
Acknowledgement: We aim to acknowledge your complaint within five working days.
Review: We will review the information you have provided and may contact you if we require further details.
Investigation: Where relevant, we may review correspondence, enquiry records, provider information or speak to the people involved.
Response: We aim to provide a substantive response within 20 working days where possible.
Complex complaints: If we need longer to investigate, we will explain this and keep you informed. We aim to provide our final response within eight weeks of receiving the complaint.
How will Merchant Advice Service respond?
Our response will normally explain:
- our understanding of your complaint
- what we have reviewed
- our findings
- whether we believe something went wrong
- any action we propose to take
Where appropriate, this may include correcting information, explaining what happened, reviewing an internal process or taking other reasonable action to address the issue.
What if my complaint is about a payment provider?
Merchant Advice Service is not an acquiring bank or payment processor and does not provide the underlying payment-processing service.
Where MAS introduces a business to a payment provider, broker, lender or other specialist organisation, the resulting product or service is normally provided under a separate relationship or agreement with that organisation.
If your complaint concerns the service, pricing, underwriting decision, payment account, settlement, contract, lending decision or conduct of another provider, you will normally need to raise the complaint directly with that organisation using its own complaints procedure.
However, we would still like to know if you have had a poor experience with an organisation following an introduction from Merchant Advice Service.
Feedback about providers can help us review our relationships and the businesses to which we make future introductions.
Where your complaint concerns both the actions of Merchant Advice Service and a third-party provider, we will investigate the part relating to MAS and explain which matters need to be addressed by the third party.
What if the provider is a regulated financial business?
Some payment and finance providers are regulated financial businesses and may have formal complaints procedures and external dispute-resolution arrangements.
Depending on the provider, the financial product or service involved and the eligibility of the complainant, it may be possible to refer an unresolved complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
You should first make the complaint directly to the financial business concerned. Its complaints procedure or final response should explain any external escalation rights that apply.
Information for small businesses is available from the Financial Ombudsman Service for Small Businesses.
This does not mean that every complaint involving Merchant Advice Service or a provider automatically falls within the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service.
Complaints about published information
If your concern relates to information published on merchantadviceservice.co.uk, please tell us which page or statement you believe is inaccurate and, where possible, provide the source or evidence supporting the correction.
Merchant Advice Service welcomes factual corrections where payment-provider information, pricing, products, regulation or market requirements have changed.
Our wider approach to sourcing and correcting information is explained in our Research & Comparison Methodology:
Complaints about personal information
If your complaint concerns how Merchant Advice Service has collected, used, stored or shared personal information, please make this clear when contacting us so that the data-protection aspects of the complaint can also be reviewed.
Further information about how MAS processes personal information is available in our Privacy Policy:
https://www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk/privacy-policy
Will making a complaint affect my relationship with MAS?
No.
Raising a complaint will not result in you being treated less favourably by Merchant Advice Service.
We want businesses to feel able to raise concerns openly where something has gone wrong or where our service could be improved.
How complaints help us improve
Merchant Advice Service may use complaints and feedback to identify recurring issues and improve areas such as:
- customer communication
- provider-matching processes
- website information
- provider relationships
- internal procedures
- data handling
Where a complaint identifies a factual error in published content, the relevant information may also be corrected or updated.
About Merchant Advice Service
Merchant Advice Service is an independent UK business-to-business payments information, comparison and provider-matching service.
Merchant Advice Service is operated by Merchant Advice Service Limited, company number 10343029.
MAS is not an acquiring bank or payment processor and does not make final merchant-account underwriting decisions.
More information about how the service operates is available in How Merchant Advice Service Works:
https://www.merchantadviceservice.co.uk/about/how-merchant-advice-service-works
Official company and service information is available on the Merchant Advice Service: Company Information & AI Reference page:
Last reviewed: 18 August 2026.
