Advice and information on rights when shopping for goods and services and dealing with faulty goods, scams and rip-offs.
The Consumerline website gives help and advice for consumers in Northern Ireland. There is advice on topics such as holidays, buying electrical appliances and using estate agents. There's information on particular situations or issues like buying on credit, counterfeit goods and doorstep selling; as well as practical help with how to complain.
The Office of Fair Trading publishes a range of consumer advice for shopping in the high street, shopping from home and shopping over the internet. It provides advice on specialist areas such as buying a computer, second-hand cars, extended warranties, pawnbroking, ticket agencies and internet auctions.
The Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service provides consumer advice through its consumer advice service, Consumerline (see above).
For more information you can visit the consumer affairs and trading standards section of the website of the Department of Enterprise Trade & Investment (DETI). The site also contains some useful consumer advice, as well as information which may be useful to businesses.
DETI also has useful information about your rights when buying goods and services, and what to do if things go wrong.
DETI and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) publish information on current internet, postal and doorstep scams.
'Rip-off tip-off' was set up by local trading standards to encourage members of the public to report traders who may be running a scam. These include cowboy builders, doorstep traders, counterfeit product sellers, loan sharks, bogus homeworking schemes and bogus competitions.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) issues the latest news about scams and swindles as well as alerts about the most important issues facing consumers in the world of financial services.
The Trading Standards Institute website lists recent product recall and product safety notices issued by manufacturers when they discover faults or problems with their goods.
The following link will take you to a list of local councils in Northern Ireland. You can then go to your local authority website where you can find out more.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) publishes consumer information on financial planning, financial advertising, insurances, pensions, mortgages, investments and savings. Its website also has a budget calculator, a mortgage payment calculator and comparative tables of commercial financial products such as savings accounts, ISAs, endowments, pension annuities and many others.
Since April 2007 it's been an offence for those offering claims management services in areas such as personal injury and endowment mis-selling to work without authorisation or an exemption. Check the 'Claiming compensation' link below to see if providers are authorised and to report complaints about those working inappropriately.
Also, the Ministry of Justice has produced a guide to the regulations called 'Claims Management Regulation: what you need to know'.
The FSA explains issues such as credit scoring and repair, borrowing and debt. Plus there are a range of general answers to questions.
The Food Standards Agency publishes advice on food safety, food labelling and health eating on its websites.
The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland website has details of your rights and responsibilities regarding water and sewerage services.
Government, citizens and rights
