businessbusiness

Banks see big jump in complaints for second year in row

By STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Published: March 13, 2010

» 0 Comments | Post a Comment

Complaints to the Better Business Bureau were up nearly 10 percent last year, with the banking industry seeing the biggest jump in unhappy customers.

Nationwide, complaints about banks spiked 42 percent to 29,920 in 2009, according to the annual report released this week by the BBB. That made banks the third-most-complained-about industry, after cell phones and cableand satellite-TV providers.

It was the second year in a row that the industry saw a big jump in complaints. Complaints about banks rose 15 percent in 2008.

"As far as complaints with banking -- that's just on the rise," said Tom Gallagher, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central Virginia. "People are having problems with mortgages. People are having problems with credit cards."

Complaints about banking are the No. 1 category for the Central Virginia BBB, partly because of the presence of Capital One operations here, Gallagher said.

"Overall, our complaints have gone down some. Part of that is because of some companies that closed up. They're gone. They're no longer a factor," Gallagher said, citing Circuit City and LandAmerica.

Nationwide, the overall number of complaints by consumers to the BBB rose 9.7 percent to 1 million. Complaints rose by 7 percent in 2008 and dropped by 3 percent in 2007.

The broader spike in complaints last year reflects pressure consumers feel amid unemployment and the downturn, said Stephen Cox, president and CEO of the nonprofit group.

Consumers can file complaints with their local Better Business Bureau online, via phone or by mail. The group then presents the complaint to the business and asks whether a resolution will be made.

Cell-phone providers got the most complaints with 37,477, a 2.1 percent increase over 2008. The cableand satellite-TV industry got 32,616 complaints, up 8.7 percent.

However, both industries also resolved a greater portion of the complaints against them. Cell-phone companies resolved 97.4 percent of complaints, while the cableand satellite-TV industry resolved 97.2 percent.

The resolution rate by banks dipped slightly to 95.2 percent.