Have you been unhappy with your bank in the past year? Or gotten an unpleasant call from a debt collector? You're not alone.
The Federal Trade Commission received more than 1.8 million gripes from consumers last year about identity theft, used-car sales and advance-fee loans, among others. That marked a 24 percent increase from 2010 and the fifth straight year that the number of complaints rose.
The big jump in complaints is largely because more sources submitted data last year than in 2010, according to David Torok, director of the division of planning and information at the FTC.
While the FTC tracks 30 complaint categories, Bankrate highlights 5 of the top 10 consumer complaints and outlines tips on how to resolve them and to avoid issues in the future.
(The five categories excluded from the top 10 in this slideshow are prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; shop-at-home and catalog sales; Internet services; impostor scams; and telephone and mobile services.)