Credit Card Complaints Made Public

Credit card users will now have a fair chance of selecting the most efficient card by easily knowing the number of complaints against a particular issuer. This has been made possible by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which has made public an online database that lists individual-level consumer complaint data related to credit cards. The move is aimed at making the credit market efficient and transparent.

Information associated with the credit card complaints, such as the name of the company that issued the card, the customer’s zip code as well as the complaint type will be revealed in the database. But there will be no access to personal information like the consumer’s name, credit card number or mailing address.

Data released on Tuesday already includes 137 complaints since June 1, with Capital One Financial Corp. (COF - Analyst Report) remaining on the top of the list with 33 complaints. Citigroup Inc. (C - Analyst Report) was the second with 27 complaints, followed by JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM - Analyst Report) with 24 and Bank of America Corp. (BAC - Analyst Report) with 15.

The currently available database on the CFPB website is limited as it includes only credit card complaints since June 1. However, the agency expects the database to substantially grow by next year. In addition to credit card complaints, the agency has plans to include complaints associated with other consumer financial products in its easily accessible online database.

In order to make the system more transparent and efficient, the agency is including detailed data that reveals whether the company has responded to the complaint within time or not. Credit card companies are required to reply within 15 days after a complaint is lodged and need to resolve it within 60 days. If a company fails to do so, the database will capture it.

The disclosure of the credit card complaint information have raised eyebrows of the financial industry as revealing a company’s name is likely to dent its image. It is also argued that such data disclosure might be misleading. Also, questions are raised regarding the verification of complaints that have revealed data. The CFPB, however, has argued that the relation between a customer and the company are checked by it.

Our Take

While we believe that such disclosures might hurt a company’s image to some extent, such measures are in the best interest of the customers and would help check fraudulent activities of banks. It would help improve the transparency of the system on the whole.

Moreover, with these initiatives, banks would be somewhat compelled to serve customers better for fear of losing new customers. The promptness of these institutions in resolving such issues would also increase.

Hence, this overhaul would not only benefit customers but would also keep banks under pressure. Nevertheless, banks that face lesser complaints will gain from such data showcasing as the system will help these banks get more customers automatically.