The number of complaints credit cardholders made to the Reserve Bank of India in 2010 increased by 7.7% from the previous year, the central bank noted in a Feb. 1 report.
The central grievance-handling authority received 18,810 credit card-related complaints last year compared with 17,468 in 2009, according to the Annual Report of Banking Ombudsman Scheme 2009-10,
However, card complaints represented a smaller percentage of overall complaints the ombudsman received. Last year, 23.7% of 79,266 complaints overall were card-related, while in 2009 they represented 25.5% of 69,117 complaints.
“They [credit card complaints] do show a declining trend this year,” the central bank noted in the report. “These complaints include [a very small number of] complaints related to debit cards and ATM cards.”
Common types of card-related complaints last year included issuance of unsolicited credit cards and insurance policies, recovery of premium charges and the charging of annual fees for “free” cards, according to the central bank. Complaints also related to disputes over improper billing, settlement offers conveyed by telephone, nonsettlement of insurance claims after the cardholder had died, abusive calls, excessive charges, and improper debits to accounts.
“A general source of these complaints continues to be the difficulty in accessing the credit card issuers and the poor response from the call centers,” the bank said. “Simply put, this is the issue of nontransparency and mis-selling.”
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