According to a recent report the level of complaints relating to credit cards has rocketed, with consumers making a record number of complaints relating to credit cards over the past year. The figures are based on complaints made to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which states that the past year has been the most uneasy one that it has seen since it was set up. The complaints related to different areas of credit card, but the majority were in relation to default payments handed down by card providers in the event that the monthly repayment was missed or late.

With the effects of the global credit crunch and rising living costs putting major strains on household finances many consumers are being hit with default charges having made a late repayment or missing a repayment altogether. This was one of the areas that many of the credit card complaints related to. Officials from the FOS said that most of the consumer complaints that were received by the service over the year were rejected other than those relating to credit cards.

Consumers have certainly had cause to complain about their credit cards over the past year, with credit card providers using various tricks in order to increase revenue. This includes raising interest rates for no reason, hiking up fees and charges, slashing credit limits without even informing the consumer in some cases, and withdrawing credit card facilities from consumers altogether. One official from the FOS said: “By the end of the 2007-08 financial year we had received more new complaints than in any year since the Ombudsman service was established.”

The figures showed that whilst 2006 saw the FOS receive around 2731 complaints relating to credit cards, for 2007 this figure rocketed to 14,123 complaints.