If your broadband connection is driving you bonkers, your credit card provider causing you strife or your bank making your life a misery, a surf of the internet can often lead you to a website set up specifically to moan about the company concerned.

Consumer-revenge websites, long-established in the US, are now commonplace in the UK, too. Some simply lambast companies with the aim of convincing them to change their ways, while others will fight your corner on a range of financial issues.

Talktalkhell.wordpress.com - with the tag line “Less TalkTalk: More Service. The unofficial, unaffiliated TalkTalk blog” - is run by an unidentified TalkTalk customer who decided to write about her bad experience with the phone and broadband provider in May 2006.

Likewise, orangeproblems.co.uk (originally wanadooproblems.co.uk) was set up by Kevin Ellis, a disgruntled customer who initially created the site to “wind up” the company that had left him without a broadband connection for nine weeks. Mr Ellis says: “At first I didn't realise the number of people who also had a problem with Wanadoo/Orange but then the site was mentioned by The Register - a technology website - and it went from strength to strength. Within weeks it had hundreds of members, and two years later it has 7,500 members.”

But if you think that running a busy internet forum will make your first million pounds, think again. The advertisements on orangeproblems.co.uk generate enough income to pay for the server that hosts the site, but little more. Also, there is the risk of being sued by the company that you are criticising.

“Orange knows the site is there,” Mr Ellis says, “but it has never contacted me about it. There is nothing defamatory on there as it's all true.”

Rival Virgin Media does not get off lightly either. There have been more than 300,000 posts about it on cablehell.co.uk discussion forums, with problem-solving sections, including posts from Virgin employees, as well as general rants. Virgin says that it welcomes feedback from customers and recognises that online forums are a great place for discussion. A spokesman says: “We are always happy to assist customers through such websites, and this also helps us to make our customer service even better.”

However, the company refused to comment on how its reportedly poor customer service led the site to be set up in the first place.

Some revenge sites have sprung up in response to topical issues. Among these is consumeractiongroup.co.uk, which was set up by Marc Gander after he had a row with Lloyds TSB about £150 of bank charges that he considered to be unfair and unlawful. He says: “The site was originally set up out of revenge and disgust at Lloyds. I expected it to be a couple of hundred people ranting about their bank, but we now have more than a million hits each month and 175,000 registered members.”

Mr Gander used his background in law to present the case that the penalties banks charge for exceeding overdraft limits, bounced cheques and missed payments are unfair - something that is now the subject of an Office of Fair Trading test case. A friend who is a computer expert took care of the IT side of things. He says: “I am extremely proud of the site and feel that it is responsible for the entire bank charges revolution. As well as offering template letters and free material, it is making banks and others realise that they cannot continue to use bullying tactics.”

If you have a gripe and do not want to go to the trouble of starting a designated website, setting up a “group” on Facebook, the social networking site, is much easier.

NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds TSB are all the subject of groups set up by angry customers, with membership ranging from only a handful of people to a couple of hundred.

Last summer HSBC incurred the wrath of students and graduates alike by announcing that it was withdrawing its interest-free deal on graduate overdrafts. This meant that students with HSBC accounts faced charges of up to £140 if they stayed in the red when they graduated last summer.

The Facebook group “Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-Off” was set up by Wes Streeting, a Cambridge National Union of Students vice-president, and seemed to do the trick. The virtual protest attracted backing from about 5,000 people, had more than 1,200 postings and eventually led to HSBC backing down. The bank said that it was “not too big to listen to its customers”.

But not all financial institutions bow to consumer pressure. This year Egg upset 161,000 credit card customers by either reducing spending limits or cancelling accounts. The internet bank said that it was closing accounts of customers deemed too high-risk because they missed payments or exceeded credit limits. However, internet forums and newspapers were awash with axed customers claiming that they had never put a foot wrong and suggesting that Egg was simply closing unprofitable accounts - that is, those of customers who paid off the balance each month and did not incur interest charges.

Several Facebook groups were set up by disgruntled customers, plus websites entitled egghaters.com and eggcancel.co.uk. Adrian Russell, of Egg, says that the bank tries to monitor external sites to “see if there is any useful feedback”, adding that Egg performed an internal review of its decision to cancel the cards. However, despite the claims that some customers had accounts closed unfairly, the bank has not changed its mind about the cancelled cards.

How to set up an online protest group

To set up your own protest website you first need to register a domain name for the site. This is the www bit that you type into the address bar.

You will also need a server to host the website. Programs such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver are tools you can use to build the site and you then need to upload files to the hosting company.

Once the site is up and running, you need to attract visitors. Tell all your friends to visit the site and spread the word. However, it is crucial that you optimise the content on the website so that it will show up on Google search results.

An alternative would be to set up a weblog using a blogging program such as Wordpress, Blogger or Typepad. This is generally easier and you can be up and blogging within minutes.

If you are a Facebook member, simply go to the “groups” tag on your applications list, click “create a new group”, fill in the required fields and then invite all your Facebook friends to join and spread the word.

Case Study: Egg takes a beating

Emma Baczkur, a student nurse from Peterborough, set up a Facebook group about Egg after she received a letter saying that it was cancelling her credit card account.

The 27-year-old, left, says: “I received a letter from Egg saying that it was cancelling my card and I wasn't happy about it as I had always made payments on time. I think it was cancelled because Egg wasn't making any profit from me, which made me really mad.”

Her Facebook group, touchingly titled “Egg and Citigroup can shove their credit cards up their *****”, attracted more than 30 members within days and played host to a lively debate about Egg's actions.

She says: “I set up the group on the day I got the letter and invited my Facebook friends to join. Then other people I didn't know joined. The group makes it clear that everyone is fed up with the situation - we are not going to keep quiet when they say we are bad customers when we're not.”

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