Complaints relating to card products — ATM, debit and credit cards — continued to be the major source of complaints, constituting nearly a fourth of the total complaints received by the Banking Ombudsman in 2010-11, according to the latest annual report of the Ombudsman.
Though the total number of complaints in 2010-11 was 10 per cent lower at 71,274, against 79,266 in the previous year, the complaints relating to card products in percentage terms was unchanged at 24 per cent of the total.
The card-related complaints, among others, mainly related to unsolicited credit cards, charging of annual fee in spite of being offered the card ‘free', authorisation of loans over phone, non-settlement of insurance claims after the demise of the cardholder, disputes over wrong billing, non-dispensation of money from ATMs, skimming of cards, and abusive calls.
The report said the main reason for the aforementioned complaints is the difficulty faced by bank customers in accessing the card issuing banks from various locations where a person could be using the card or may have lost/misplaced the card.
Pointing out that most of the queries relating to credit cards are handled by call centres, the report observed that the staff employed at these centres was not familiar with the banks' card products or the customers. As such, the response from the call centres was not helpful in resolving customer grievances.
Other complaints
Complaints under ‘others' constituted 29 per cent of the total complaints in 2010-11, against 24 per cent in the previous year. These complaints include non-adherence to prescribed working hours; refusal to accept, or delay in accepting, payments towards taxes as required by the Government and RBI; and non-adherence to the fair practices code.
Complaints relating to delay in payment of pension, pension arrears/ wrong pension calculations, and so on, increased from 6 per cent in 2009-10 to 8 per cent in 2010-11.
Complaints relating to loans and advances, mainly pertaining to educational loans and micro, small and medium enterprise loans, delay in payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills and delayed payment of remittances, was lower at 6 per cent of the total, against 8 per cent in the previous year.
Of the 15 Offices of the Banking Ombudsman (OBO) spread across the country, the maximum number of complaints were received at the Delhi office (15 per cent of the total complaints), followed by Kanpur (12 per cent), Chennai and Mumbai (11 per cent each), and Bhopal, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad (7 per cent each).
The Ombudsman disposed of 72,021 complaints during the reporting period, against 83,335 in the previous year. The rate of disposal was unchanged at 94 per cent.
Group-wise complaints
The complaints received by OBOs from the customers of SBI and its associate banks at 31 per cent (29 per cent in the previous year) of the total complaints was the highest, followed by nationalised banks at 29 per cent (24 per cent), private sector banks at 24 per cent (28 per cent) and foreign banks at 10 per cent (14 per cent).