Agency: Credit card terms cause confusion

The new U.S. consumer financial watchdog said there is much confusion about the terms of credit cards, based on complaints it has received from cardholders in recent months.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday released the first batch of data collected on credit card complaints since it opened for business on July 21.

"When consumers contact us, we get a snapshot of how the consumer finance markets are working," Raj Date, the Treasury Department adviser running the agency, said in a statement. "And we are learning that there is a lot of consumer confusion about credit card terms."

The agency said that between July 21 and Oct. 21 it received 5,074 complaints from credit card customers -- and at the top of the list were billing disputes and fraud concerns.

The agency said of the 4,254 complaints it forwarded to card issuers, the companies have said 74 percent have been at least partially resolved. In 71 percent of these cases the customer did not disagree.

The bureau, created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law, is charged with policing markets for products like credit cards and mortgages.

The agency has been heralded by consumer advocates, but it was opposed by the financial industry, which warned it represents a regulatory overreach.

The bureau also issued a proposal Wednesday to publicly release a database of the complaints. It would hold back most information about the cardholder but would name the bank or card issuer on the receiving end of the complaint.

The agency said that where there are differences of opinion over what the data represent about an issuer it expects there will be a public debate that will allow consumers to "reach their own conclusions."