Credit-card abuse top customer plaint

Financial transactions-related complaints have risen more than twentyfold the past six years, led by issues on the use or abuse of credit cards, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said.

From only 158 complaints, inquiries and requests in 2006, the number of such requests totaled 3,243 in 2011 or a surge in complaints averaging only 53 six years earlier to 270 complaints as of last year.

But BSP Managing Director Johnny Noe Ravalo brushed aside suggestions that financial-services delivery has steadily worsened over the years. He said the rise in consumer complaints, inquiries and requests was more the result of more openness on the part of the banking public to engage the BSP.

“The financial industry is not getting worse in terms of the delivery of services. This is just that the general public is now more open to engage the BSP in issues involving their financial dealings,” he said.

Thirty percent of the time, Ravalo said, the complaints involve credit cards, 28 percent involving deposits and 18 percent involving lending.

Credit-card issues typically involve unfair collection practices, excessive charges and requests to restructure card debts.

Most people don’t know that credit collectors are not allowed to call card borrowers at home beyond 10 p.m. and certainly not before 8 in the morning.

The BSP’s Financial Consumer Affairs Group is not a debt-collection unit and refuses to arbitrate, especially if the issues are legal.

The FCAG determines whether somebody has a legitimate reason for refusing to pay or unable to pay thousands of pesos worth of credit-card debts as opposed to someone who is just trying to evade a financial responsibility. Questions on bank deposits typically involve withdrawal issues, such as joint accounts, and the tracing and verification of bank deposits.

According to Ravalo, financial consumer protection is now an integral part of the legal, regulatory and supervisory framework of most central banks around the world, the Philippines included.

The 20 richest nations of the world, or G-20, encourage such integration and has adopted a set of principles on financial consumer protection that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or OECD closely monitors. (Jun Vallecera, Businessmirror)