The Banking Ombudsman Annual Report for 2011-2012 which was released in January shows maximum number of complaints are related to cards. Around 14,492 bank customers had card related complains, of which 9350 pertained to ATM/debit cards alone.

Complaints and grievances related to cards outnumbered other complaints as wrongful interest rates and charges on loans, delay or non-receipt of pensions or lost cheques.

In 2011-12, card-related complaints formed one-fifth of the total complaints. And at least half the cases came from three major banks - SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank.

This is followed by Punjab National Bank, Standard Chartered, and Axis Bank.

Major card related problems that clients faced were wrong debits to accounts, skimming of cards, unsolicited credit cards and insurance policies, authorization of loans over phone, erroneous billing, and charging an annual fee on cards despite originally being offered as ‘free'.