ACI-UK Limited · DRN-5955001

The complaint Mr L complains that ACI-UK Limited (ACI) have been excessively contacting him by phone in an attempt to collect payment on two debts he has with them. What happened ACI are the servicers of two of Mr L’s accounts that are owned by a debt purchaser. ACI are responsible for collecting the outstanding balances from Mr L. The first account has been with ACI since May 2020 and the second has been with them since March 2025. Mr L doesn’t currently have a payment agreement in place for either of the debts. He did have an agreement in place for the first account where he was paying £1 per month but he last made a payment in August 2023. He complained to ACI as he believed their attempts to contact him by phone have been excessive. ACI didn’t uphold his complaint, so he brought it to our service. Our investigator didn’t think ACI had done anything wrong so didn’t uphold his complaint. Mr L disagreed and so the matter has been passed to me to decide. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I realise that I’ve summarised this complaint in less detail than the parties and I’ve done so using my own words. I’ve concentrated on what I consider to be the key issues. The rules that govern this service allow me to do so. If I’ve not reflected something that’s been said in this decision, it’s not because I didn’t see it, it’s because I didn’t deem it relevant to the crux of the complaint. This isn’t intended as a discourtesy to either party, but merely to reflect my informal role in deciding what a fair and reasonable outcome is. ACI have a legitimate reason to contact Mr L as he has debts that are owed, that currently don’t have payment arrangements set up on them. As he isn’t engaging with them, I think its reasonable for them to continue to attempt to reconnect with him. And I think its likely if he engaged with them the level of contact would drop to a lower level. I say this as having reviewed the contact logs, I can see when he had a payment plan in place contact was less than four times per year. Looking at what has happened since he stopped making payments I can see the attempts at contact increased drastically. And between August 2023 and July 2025 there were around 260 calls. While on face value that seem a large amount of calls, I have to weigh that with the fact it’s across a two-year period, so while there may be days where there have been multiple call attempts, there is also weeks with no attempts. I’ve also not seen any evidence that any of the call attempts have been successful, and as I’ve explained had there been some engagement on Mr L’s part, I think it’s likely the contact would reduce. Because the time period the contact is over and the lack of engagement from Mr L I have to say I don’t

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find ACI’s contact to be excessive. Bringing all of this together I’m satisfied ACI haven’t done anything wrong in trying to contact Mr L in the way they have and so I won’t be asking them to do anything differently. I realise this isn’t the outcome Mr L wanted, but my decision ends what we – in trying to resolve his dispute with ACI – can do for him. My final decision For the reasons set out above, my final decision is that I don’t uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr L to accept or reject my decision before 28 April 2026. Amber Mortimer Ombudsman

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