The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) monthly complaint snapshot for January highlighted consumer complaints about credit reporting products and services, detailing frequently reoccurring issues based on roughly 185,700 such complaints handled by the bureau as of Feb. 1, 2017.
Among the most common issues consumers reported were: problems disputing complaints on their credit reports, inaccurate information on their credit reports and confusion over contributing factors considered in the credit scoring process.
“Credit reports provide the means for consumers everywhere to take important steps in their financial lives,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in a press release. “The bureau will continue to work to ensure that credit reports are accurate and when disputed issues arise on credit reports consumers are able to resolve them quickly and with little hassle.”
Credit reporting was the third most-complained-about product or service for the CFPB in January, accounting for 4,620 of approximately 29,000 total complaints it received for the month. Debt collection was the No. 1 collector of complaints with 7,730 and student loans came in second with 5,389. Together, the top three most-complained-about products or services accounted for about 60 percent of all complaints the bureau fielded during the first month of the year.
Wells Fargo was the most-complained-about company in January, garnering 1,345 complaints, followed by three companies specializing in credit reporting. Those companies were Equifax (1,321), TransUnion (1,205) and Experian (1,140).
“The CFPB has handled approximately 185,700 credit reporting complaints since July 21, 2011, making credit reporting the third most-complained-about product, representing 17 percent of total complaints,” the snapshot states. “Approximately 132,200 (or 71 percent) of all credit reporting complaints handled by the CFPB from July 21, 2011 through January 31, 2017 were sent by the CFPB to companies for review and response. The remaining complaints have been found to be incomplete (27 percent), referred to other regulatory agencies (1 percent), or are pending with the CFPB or the consumer (0.4 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively). Complaints handled by the Bureau, including those sent to other regulators, serve to inform the bureau in its work to supervise companies, to enforce consumer financial laws, to write better rules and regulations, and to educate and engage consumers.”
Louisiana and the New Orleans metropolitan were the focus of the snapshot’s monthly geographic spotlight. The state has submitted about 12,400 complaints to the bureau all-time, of which 19 percent were related to credit-reporting, slightly higher than the 17 percent national average for such complaints. Credit-reporting companies Equifax, TransUnion and Experian were the most-complained-about companies in the state. Debt collection products and services have elicited the most complaints from Louisiana consumers, accounting for 34 percent of all complaints from the state. Nationwide, about 27 percent of submitted complaints pertain to debt collection.
In other state complaint news, Georgia, South Dakota and Mississippi saw the most significant year-to-year increases in complaint volume from November 2016 to January 2017, compared with the same time period 12 months prior. Georgia’s complaint volume increased 59 percent, South Dakota’s went up 43 percent and Mississippi rose 34 percent.