Complaints by harassed credit card customers regarding problems of overcharging and issuance of unsolicited cards shot up by a chunk as huge as 74% during 2008-09. Customer complaints relating to credit cards reached a figure of 17,648 in 08-09. This statistics has been provided by the annual report of the Banking Ombudsman.

The Banking Ombudsman was appointed by the Reserve Bank of India to look into the matter of increased complaints against banks by customers.

"Complaints relating to credit cards continue to show an uptrend...The number of complaints pertaining to credit cards rose by 74 per cent during 2008-09," the Ombudsman said.

The report clearly tells that the complaints pertain to cases like issuance of unsolicited credit cards, issuance of free cars and charging annual fees against them, abusive calls and selling loans over phone and issuance of insurance policies. Of the total number of complaints received, 26% pertained to credit cards, he report said.

However, since the user base rate of credit card has increased in 2008-09 from the previous year by 24%, the report suggested the need for "better service and transparency at the point of sales by banks."

The report said that RBI has started taking ‘class action' by providing a set of guidelines to all banks as to how to protect their customers.

As per the report, RBI has already initiated class action against a foreign bank regarding the mode of calculation of interest rates on deposit accounts. A PSU bank has been advised not to succumb to borrowers application for a relief and recalculate interest rate on all housing loans as per terms of agreement entered into with all the borrowers Yet another PSU bank was asked to re credit insurance premium that was debited to savings bank account holders without their concurrence under the group insurance scheme.