Collecting Complaints On Your Credit Cards

It is a website full of complaints, and it's all about one thing, credit cards.

The new federal website named the Consumer Complaint Database is a place where consumers can fill out a complaint against their bank issued credit cards. The database is available to the public to see how many and what kind of complaints are being made.

"That information could be used in choosing a credit card issuer," said San Diego State University financial professor David Ely.

But Ely says reading about card complaints may not be the first place to check. He says the first place consumers should turn before picking a card are interest rates, annual fees and benefits.

So how important is the collection of complaints?

"It is information but users need to understand that it is not a full picture of the credit card industry," said Ely.

In fact the federal site does not include any place for consumers to add good or positive experiences.

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news Apr 15

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Billing disputes are the number one complaint, followed by interest rates, canceling accounts, credit reports and identity theft. The top banks and cards are on the list with the most complaints from Capital One and Citibank to Chase and Bank of America.

Right now this Consumer Complaint Database only includes credit card complaints but some are hoping to expand it to include complaints about mortgages and other financial products.