North Carolina's attorney general is hoping to get wide scale national changes made in the way banks and credit card companies treat their customers.

Attorney General Roy Cooper advocated for a Federal Consumer Financial Protection Agency at his office Tuesday morning.

Its sole purpose would be to oversee the fees, rate increases and other tools that tend to frustrate consumers.

Cooper says complaints have gone up sharply over the last few years, and it's time to streamline the entire system.

For more than 20 years, for example, Cary resident Teri Smith has had an American Express Card; just a couple months ago, she missed a payment and all of a sudden she says her interest rate jumped from 10.24 percent to 27.24 percent.

"It surprised me that they did not take that history into account at all," Smith said. "Just the one missed payment, and ‘boom,' the interest rate goes way high."

It's not just credit card rates or fees that have people frustrated.

Charlotte resident Denise Reaves says was told she couldn't refinance a home loan that lenders originally told her she could.

"Recently they said we didn't have a need for any assistance, which is kind of odd because that's why we started this process nine months ago," Reaves said, "because we feared that we would get to the end of our savings.

It is stories like those that have Cooper speaking out.

"We mediate what we can," Cooper said. "But we're blocked by federal law from taking action in many of these cases."

Cooper is calling for a Federal Financial Protection Agency, saying he's startled by the 662 complaints he's received this year.

"That's 10 times the amount that we received just three years ago in 2006," Cooper said.

Cooper says the solution is to get every state working under the same set of laws. Right now lenders in other states say they don't have to play by North Carolina's rules, making it tough for Cooper to help.

Some new rules are already set to go in effect soon through a reform bill signed into law in May.

Credit card companies will be barred from starting accounts with many people under 21 and will have to honor a 60-day late period before rate increases are allowed.