Which credit card issuers attract the most complaints? A top 10 list
U.S. PIRG
GE Capital, Capital One, and Barclays top the list of credit card issuer complaint targets, according to a study released Tuesday by the Public Interest Research Group. Among the top 10 targets, American Express received the fewest complaints, with U.S. Bancorp attracting the second-fewest.
The study examined the number of complaints received from consumers by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and accounted for differences in bank size by rating the banks based on complaints per billion dollars of transaction volume.
“The CFPB is empowering consumers to demand accountability from their credit card companies,” said Laura Murray, Consumer Associate for U.S. PIRG Education Fund. “Finally, consumers ripped off by junky credit card add-ons or unfair billing disputes have somewhere to turn.”
Take the list with a grain of salt, however. Even the top complaint-getter by volume, Capital One, received only 5,265 of them -- representing a tiny fraction of the $115 billion worth of transactions it conducted. I do think it's meaningful that American Express so often ends up at the bottom of charts like this. I don't think you can draw any conclusions from most or the ranking, however.