Complaints On Banks: Better Business Bureau May Be Of Some Help
By Janet Peterson on April 17, 2010, 8:33 am Posted in Finance NewsThe Great Recession has made bad guys out of banks, with taxpayer angst channeled at government bailouts and the ‘too big to fail’ ideology of the Bush Administration. And now, it seems, some residents of Main Street are fighting back. According to the Better Business Bureau, consumer complaints about banks shot up more than 42 percent in 2009.
The BBB
“For the second year in a row, banks experienced a significant increase in complaints coinciding with 140 bank failures in 2009,” Stephen Cox, President of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, said in a statement. “Trust in the financial sector is already extremely low and the dramatic increase in BBB complaints against banks reflects the growing discord between consumers and the industry.”
Complaints
The BBB attributed much of the rise to complaints about overdraft fees and other charges, which people seem to be fighting more stridently as jobs and raises have become more scarce. Banking was only the third most complained-about industry after cell phone and television services, but no industry saw a spike in complaints as drastic as the banks. Telephone companies saw the second highest increase, at 11 percent.
Obligation
Businesses are not under legal obligation to settle BBB complaints, but ignoring the watchdog can land a company on a list of vendors of which to be weary. It’s not all bad news, though, as the BBB reports that banks have a 95 percent ‘resolution rate’, meaning all but five percent of the claims are eventually addressed. Most cases take 30 to 60 days to be settled.
The easiest way to file a complaint is through the BBB’s website, which you can check out here: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx. Those who feel they’ve been wronged by a bank can also take their case to the Federal Reserve, which also has an online system available at http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov.
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