Contact the consumer helpline

Contact the Citizens Advice consumer helpline (formerly known as Consumer Direct) if you need more help with a consumer problem.

Call the helpline

Citizens Advice consumer helpline: 0808 223 1133

Relay UK - if you can't hear or speak on the phone, you can type what you want to say: 18001 then 0808 223 1133

You can use Relay UK with an app or a textphone. There’s no extra charge to use it. Find out how to use Relay UK on the Relay UK website.

Lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Lines are closed on bank holidays.

To contact a Welsh-speaking adviser: 0808 223 1144

An adviser will answer your call as soon as possible, usually within a few minutes. Once you're speaking to an adviser your call should take an average of 8 to 10 minutes.

Calls from mobiles and landlines are free.

Chat with us online

You can also talk about your consumer issue with a trained adviser online. We’ll try to help you solve your problem or make good progress towards it.

Chat is usually available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

To connect you to the right adviser, we’ll ask you for a few details, including your postcode.

Our chat advisers can't help with energy or post problems, but there are other ways to contact us for help with these.  

Use an online form

You can use one of our forms to get in touch with us:

• energy - the supply of gas or electricity 
• post - an item of mail you have sent or received 
• any other consumer issue

How the consumer helpline can help you

The helpline adviser can:

• give you practical and impartial advice on how to resolve your consumer problem
• tell you the law which applies to your situation
• pass information about complaints on to Trading Standards (you can’t do this yourself)

However, the adviser can’t:

• make a complaint for you
• take legal action on your behalf

Before you contact the helpline

Before you contact the helpline, you should have a pen and paper ready.

To help the adviser give you the most relevant advice, you should be ready to give them as much of the following information as you can:

• brief details of your problem, eg when you paid for the item or the service, how much you paid, how you paid for it, whether you did so in a shop or online
• the seller or trader’s name and address
• what you’ve done so far to try to solve the issue
• your reference number (if you’ve already contacted the helpline about the same problem)

Our staff have the right to do their jobs without being treated badly - find out how we deal with unacceptable behaviour.

What we do with your information

We’ll use the information you’ve given us to answer your query. We might contact you to get your feedback on our service.

We’ll also share your information with Trading Standards and other trusted organisations we work with to help their consumer protection work. They could contact you with more advice, or to ask for more information that will help them with their work.

Tell us when you contact the consumer service if you don’t want your information to be shared.

Find out more about how we use, store and share your information.

If you’re unhappy with the service you've received

You should follow our complaints procedure.