Credit Unions Are Easily Forgiven -- Banks, Not So Much

By Kali Geldis

To err is human and to forgive is divine, but some consumers find it harder to be godly when it comes to their money.

The Temkin Group, a business that consults on and researches customer experiences, has done a new survey of 10,000 consumers to determine which businesses customers are most and least likely to forgive. The 2012 Temkin Forgiveness Ratings shows a mixed bag for banks and credit unions.

While USAA, a bank that works with military members and their families, took the top spot as the business that participants would be most likely to forgive, other financial services companies didn't fare as well. In fact, when looking at industry averages across the study, credit card companies had the lowest forgiveness rating out of 18 industries while grocery chains and retailers had the highest.

However, consumers as a whole are more forgiving than they were last year, when Temkin conducted the Forgiveness Ratings for the first time. Banks, investment firms and credit card issuers all saw a double-digit jump in their industry forgiveness rating from 2011 to 2012.

So what has caused this increase in consumer kindness? The Temkin Group didn't offer much in the way of analysis of these numbers, but it could be that time heals all wounds and the more distance consumers get from the Great Recession, the more forgiving they will become of the financial institutions that were blamed for the meltdown.

This article originally appeared on Credit.com. Kali Geldis is the Deputy Managing Editor of Credit.com