Not regulated by the FCA

[LOVELYDOVEY05]

What does this mean? does anyone know? It sounds disadvantageous

It means not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Whether you have to be regulated by the FCA or not depends on the type of entity and the type of activities carried out.

What is the product/service? May mean you have no-one to complain to if anything goes wrong

It depends on the context, but as long as you're not relying on them for a regulated activity (listed on the FCA website), it shouldn't be a problem and it doesn't make them worse than companies that are regulated.

Regulated activities include things like providing credit, insurance, investment advice, etc.

So a company selling goods might say they can't offer credit plans or insurance as they're not regulated by the FCA (and therefore would be breaching the law to offer those products). Sometimes companies say things like "we can't offer insurance as we're not regulated by the FCA but our sister company is".

Obviously if it's a loan provider or insurer you're looking at, it would be illegal and you should report them, but usually it just means a retail company has opted out of the hassle and cost of being regulated by not offering those kinds of regulated services.