4 June 2008
A record number of complaints concerning credit cards were made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in the past year, the Chairman has said.
Sir Christopher Kelly revealed that the FOS witnessed more consumer unease in any other year since it was set up.
The organisation stated that most claims by consumers were rejected, apart from those concerning credit cards.
Most of the contact made with the FOS was by people worried about default payments - those payments that were handed down if initial payments were late or were not met at all.
While in, 2006-07 2,731 complaints about credit cards were received, this figure had jumped to 14,123 for the following financial year, it highlighted.
"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," Sir Kelly commented.
An official at the Centre for Economics and Business Research has stated that the base rate of interest could sit at about 5% by the end of the year, news that may also concern those with credit cards.