Consumers Rank Credit And Debt Issues, Auto Repair As Top Grievances

Posted by Shane Tyler on August 4 2011 @ 2:05 pm

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Complaints related to the debt and credit industry were second in a survey only to auto repairs. A survey of 31 state, county and city agencies in 18 states found that in 2010, consumers ranked credit card and debit companies as the second-biggest gripe because of billing and fee disputes and aggressive tactics to collect debts, Fox Business reports.

The agencies surveyed received more than 252,000 complaints last year and collected more than $208 million in restitution and savings for consumers, the study found. It also found that half of the agencies told surveyors the biggest challenge they faced last year were budget cuts and limited resources, which forced them to be creative in ways to settle complaints.

Debt-related gripes topped the list of worst complaints, which is accumulated based on the number of grievances, the amount of loss and the vulnerability of the affected consumers and the “outrageousness” of the event being complained about, Fox explains. Debt complaints are the third fastest-growing problem, the survey found.

"Many of the complaint examples that agencies provided were related to the difficult financial situations that consumers and businesses faced last year,” said Anna Huddleston-Aycock, president of one of the survey’s sponsors, the North American Consumer Protection Investigators.

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