According to a recent survey of 36,298 Consumer Reports subscribers, despite a desire to provide value for money and excellent customer service, some familiar names in the US credit card industry have received a black eye.

Providian, Direct Merchants (an HSBC company), Capital One, MBNA, JP Morgan Chase, and HSBC ranked at the back of the pack when it came to rating the companies on interest rate problems, bill timing problems and general problem resolution.

Poor Providian has been in the crapper for years with a poor reputation. And as I remember it all stemmed from accusations that Providian was intentionally delaying the posting of payments to generate late fees.

“According to Providian, a computer programming error caused the San Francisco-based issuer to charge about 700,000 improper late fees since early 1998. The error was uncovered and corrected in July, 1999.” Oops!

Probably most troubling of the reviews was the overall marks received by Providian, Capital One and HSBC for just general customer service.  With two HSBC brands in the bottom six, we can only hope that they work hard to make the top of the list next year.

To read more about this survey, go to Consumer Reports and subscribe for access.