Fox Business recently reported on an analysis done by CreditCard.com regarding complaints against major credit card companies. The analysis was done on data from 2012 involving complaints by customers, data which came from the U.S. Consumer Financial Bureau.
According to the report, Capital One had the most complaints of seven major credit card companies. By volume number, American Express was the company with the fewest complaints. However, it was also the company that was the stingiest when it came to giving credit and other forms of payback.
The data provided by the Consumer Financial Bureau gives customers a first look at what companies receive the most complaints as well as which ones are most likely to pay back their customers who have problems.
According to Fox Business, the deputy director of national priorities at Consumer Actions said that they have been advocating for a long time to make this information public because no company wants to be at the top of that list and they may try to improve.
There are disputes about the data though as Capital One argues that it does not get more complaints than other companies its size do. A spokeswoman for the company said that Capital One is within the same range as other credit card issuers.
Fox Business reports that a separate survey done by the firm J.D. Power states that approximately 11 percent of customers had some kind of problem with their credit card in 2012. This would mean that the fifteen thousand complaints that were filed with the consumer bureau last year were just a small percentage of the problems.
In mid-2012, the consumer bureau started publishing complaints from cardholders on its website without their personal information. When doing their analysis, CreditCards.com looked at seven companies that had three-fourths of the country’s credit card purchases by volume.
According to the data, Capital One had the most complaints overall as well as the most complaints. It had about 18 complaints for every one billion dollars spend in credit card purchases. Citibank was the next highest with 16.5 complaints, and Bank of America came in third with 10.5.
American Express came in on the low end because it had fewer than two complaints for every Discover and Chase came in at about the middle of the group with 6.8 and 5.1 complaints respectively. U.S. Bank was the last of the seven with 2.8 complaints per one billion dollars spent.
According to Fox Business, at the top of the list of disputes was complaints about billing. This is followed by interest rate disputes and complaints about credit reports. Fox Business noted that James Miler, who is the director of banking practice at J.D. Power, said that some of the disputes are outside of the control of the credit card company. Billing disputes usually involve the merchant, but the credit card company ends up caught in the middle.
The credit card bureau has done some research on the complaints though. They have removed duplicate complaints and make sure that the person is a customer of the company. Furthermore, the bureau tracks the process of the complaint and notes any kind of relief that is given to the customer. The customer can also dispute the company’s resolution.
One of the problems facing Capital One is that the complaints brought against it includes ones from this year are ones that were filed against HSBC as Capital One bought their U.S. credit card business last year.
A spokeswoman for Capital One also noted that another method of comparing complaints was by measuring the size of the companies and that by comparing the number of accounts Capital One is in line with its competitors for complaints.
Fox Business notes that CreditCard.com decided to use purchase amount as the measurement because people use their credit cards in different ways. Some people have several credit cards, some of which are barely ever used.
It should also be noted that American Express has more high credit users. These credit card holders are less likely to run into collection disputes, late fees, and other problems that many credit cardholders complain about. In the J.D. Power’s survey, American Express has come in top for customer satisfaction for six years.
Additionally, companies with more new customers tend to get more complaints. This benefits both American Express and Discover, but hurts Capital One who has had a lot of new customers due to their marketing campaign.
Overall, the complaints are down from several years ago, at least due in part to the Credit Card Act of 2009. Over the years as more data is gathered by the consumer bureau, it could become a tool to help consumers choose a credit card.
You can read the original article here.
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