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As in any business relationship, there will be times when things go wrong and you may feel that you’ve been treated unfairly by your credit card company. Terms may have been changed in ways that hurt you financially, or fees or charges may have been levied in ways that don’t seem fair. While it may seem futile to speak up against such unfair business practices, it often does make a difference to make your voice heard. Filing a complaint may do little or nothing in the short run to address your specific situation, however, if enough people file a complaint about the same thing, it often does produce results over the long term.
So, how do you go about taking action if you feel you’ve been wronged by your credit card company? Your first stop should always be to call your credit card company and try to get them to rectify the situation. In many cases, that will get you the result you want. If you have been a good customer in the past and if your credit rating is good, card issuers want to keep you as a customer.
If you don’t get results with the first person you speak to, ask to speak to a supervisor. If that still doesn’t help, call back some hours later and try again. While credit card companies have certain basic policies, they are implemented differently by different customer service reps, so if you have a reasonable concern, it’s worth trying back several times until you find someone who is willing to accommodate your concerns.
If you still don’t get results, here are the places to file a complaint:
1. Your state’s Attorney General. While your attorney general won’t look at your individual case, they will look into the matter if they get a lot of complaints about the same issue or company, so be sure to file your complaint. Simply look up the Attorney General’s office for your state and mail in your complaint.
2. The Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission is your consumer protection agency. It keeps track of complaints from consumers about credit card companies, and if they get a large number of well-founded complaints, the FTC will take action, so it’s important to make your voice heard. Go to FTCComplaintAssistant.gov.
3. Elected representatives. If you feel the issue is of a more generalized nature, contact your Representative to demand further investigation or tighter regulations. Also consider filing your complaint with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and with the White House.
4. The Better Business Bureau. While the above authorities can help limit the excesses of credit card companies over the long term by creating tighter regulations, the BBB is where you’re more likely to get help with your individual situation. You must be able to provide documentation for your complaint, also keep track of all your contacts with the credit card company, so you can enclose a complete report about your case and how it was handled by the card issuer.
