The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has awarded more than $1.2 million in compensation to central Victorians since establishing 11 months ago.
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AFCA is a free, independent ombudsman scheme developed to help people resolve complaints with their financial firm whether it is bank, insurer or superannuation related.
The authority is in Bendigo Marketplace as part of its Financial Fairness Roadshow today to chat with local residents.
Bendigo saw 236 complaints resolved since November 2018, with $731,000 awarded.
AFCA executive general manager of stakeholder relations Kathy Bowlen said taking a financial complaint to AFCA could be life changing for some people.
"If you're in a dispute with your bank, insurer or superannuation investment, it can be absolutely ruinous. It's really stressful," she said.
"You (often) can't afford to take these companies to court but if you come to AFCA we're free, we're independent and there to help.
"A lot of people have gone to their financial institution to sort it and been told there's nothing more to be done and accepted that. It's worth getting in touch to find out."
Ms Bowlen said small businesses and farmers can also benefit from the help of AFCA.
"There's a lot of people in the country who can use our services but don't know about us," she said.
"What we learned from the banking royal commissions is there's a lot of people who have been badly done by by companies that we have to use and we think are helping us.
"What we try to do is to restore the person back to the circumstance they would have been in had it not been for the poor advice or behaviour of the financial organisations."
Since establishing 11 months ago AFCA has dealt with more than 60,000 complaints.
"We've been inundated with complaints," Ms Bowlen said. "We started in November with 320 employees, now we have close to 800.
"Part of the reason for going out (on the road) is to say, if that's the level of complaints among people who have heard of us, and we know a lot of Australians who have never heard of us, then there are a lot of people who could use our help if only they knew we existed."
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