Consumers Grow Increasingly Less Satisfied with Credit Card Companies
A survey that was recently conducted by highly respected JD Power and Associates reveals something that I’ll bet you’re not going to be too surprised with. Most especially in these tough economic times.
The survey revealed that more and more credit card account holders are becoming dissatisfied with their credit card company. And as their personal financial picture worsens, so too do their opinions of their credit card issuer.
JD Power takes an annual Credit Card Satisfaction Study and the latest edition found that since the study began in 2007, the satisfaction level is now at its lowest.
They use a point system with 1000 points being the maximum score. Right now consumer satisfaction with their credit card issuer stands at 703 which is the worst showing since the survey began.
Nearly 20% of those surveyed stated that their interest rates were raised since 2008. That is nearly double the number who reported an interest rate hike in the previous survey a year ago.
Not surprisingly, those cardholders that carry a balance from month to month were the least satisfied with their credit card company as they were the target of interest rate hikes more often than cardholders that do not carry balances.
In 2008, 11% of credit card account holders stated that they were charged a late fee. That number increased to 14% in 2009.
It will come as a surprise to no one that credit card issuers, in an attempt to increase their profit margins, are raising interest rates and charging late fees in advance of the new federal credit card reform law that will go into effect in February 2010.
Credit card companies have been hit very hard by the economic recession which has seen an increasing amount of consumers defaulting on their payments while many more are paying down their balances and opting to use debit cards instead of credit cards.
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Related Information:
- Consumer Anger With Credit Card Companies Mounts This will probably come as no surprise to the majority of our readers but we thought we should bring it to your attention anyway because the numbers are quite interesting....
- Credit Card Companies Could Be Hurting Themselves with Interest Rate Increases This certainly is an ironic twist but I can’t help but wondering if credit card companies are raising the interest rates on cardholders are actually hurting themselves in the process....
- Credit Card Companies Are Changing the Way They Do Business As the credit card reform act kicks in and defaults and bankruptcies rise to record levels the credit card companies are finding ways in which to reinvent themselves as quickly...
- Credit Card Companies Report Record Defaults It looks like it’s more bad news for credit card companies. All of the major credit card issuers reported seeing record default rates in the month of May. It is...
