New Delhi: The banking ombudsman in India has stated that of a total of 34,499 complaints received 7,669 have been credit card related thus making it one of the highest areas in which consumers raised their grievances. Two major credit card issuers in India the ICICI Bank, and SBI Cards have been forerunners in all credit card complaints. SBI Card, a joint venture between the State Bank of India (SBI) and GE Money topped the list with the banking ombudsman receiving as much as 2,654 complaints against the issuer. SBI Cards is the second largest credit card issuer in India.

ICICI Bank, the leading private sector entity, which incidentally is also the largest issuer of credit cards in India followed closely with 1,451 complaints filed against the bank. Most of the complaints include using coercive and strong tactics to recover money, charging of excessive interest rates, charge backs where a customer is not willing to wait for 45 to 60 days for the completion of investigations of a disputed transaction, insurance-related charges on credit cards, misuse, stealing or loss of cards and fraudulent transactions, which are pretty serious. A senior RBI official said, "Almost 90 per cent of the cases that come to the ombudsman are awarded in favor of the customers."

The banks however have their own versions. While a SBI Cards official maintained that the numbers do not give the right picture because these include all cards related complaints including debit cards, Sachin Khandelwal, the ICICI Bank credit cards head said "For a bank having a total base of 9.5 million cards and more than 219.75 million transactions a year, a complaint number of 1,451 works out to around 0.19 complaints per thousand customers.''

Banking ombudsman comes into the picture when a customer is not able to resolve the matter with the bank. The Banking Ombudsman Scheme, 2006 enables resolution of complaints of bank customers relating to certain services rendered by banks. A Banking Ombudsman is person appointed by the RBI to redress customer complaints against certain deficiency in banking services. This scheme came into force from January 1, 2006

The Banking Ombudsman is a quasi-judicial authority, having powers to summon both the bank and the consumer and mediate between them to solve the matter. At present there are 15 Banking Ombudsmen with and their addresses can be found here. According to RBI, Banking Ombudsmen can cover the following disputes.

• Non-payment or inordinate delay in the payment or collection of cheques, drafts, bills, etc.;
• Non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of small denomination notes tendered for any purpose, and for charging of commission for this service;
• Non-acceptance, without sufficient cause, of coins tendered and for charging of commission for this service;
• Non-payment or delay in payment of inward remittances ;
• Failure to issue or delay in issue, of drafts, pay orders or bankers’ cheques;
• Non-adherence to prescribed working hours;
• Failure to honor guarantee or letter of credit commitments ;
• Failure to provide or delay in providing a banking facility (other than loans and advances) promised in writing by a bank or its direct selling agents;
• Delays, non-credit of proceeds to parties' accounts, non-payment of deposit or non-observance of the Reserve Bank directives, if any, applicable to rate of interest on deposits in any savings, current or other account maintained with a bank ;
• Delays in receipt of export proceeds, handling of export bills, collection of bills etc., for exporters provided the said complaints pertain to the bank's operations in India;
• Refusal to open deposit accounts without any valid reason for refusal;
• Levying of charges without adequate prior notice to the customer;
• Non-adherence by the bank or its subsidiaries to the instructions of Reserve Bank on ATM or debit card operations or credit card operations;
• Non-disbursement or delay in disbursement of pension to the extent the grievance can be attributed to the action on the part of the bank concerned, (but not with regard to its employees);
• Refusal to accept or delay in accepting payment towards taxes, as required by Reserve Bank or Government;
• Refusal to issue or delay in issuing, or failure to service or delay in servicing or redemption of Government securities;
• Forced closure of deposit accounts without due notice or without sufficient reason;
• Refusal to close or delay in closing the accounts;
• Non-adherence to the fair practices code as adopted by the bank;
• Any other matter relating to the violation of the directives issued by the Reserve Bank in relation to banking or other services.

Any aggrieved person can file a complaint before the Banking Ombudsman if the reply is not received from the bank within a period of one month, after the bank concerned has received his representation, or the bank rejects the complaint, or the complainant is not satisfied with the reply given to him by the bank.