On October 23, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (the Bureau) released its Complaint Snapshot: 50 State Report. According to the Bureau, the report “…provides a high-level overview of trends in consumer complaints and supplements the Consumer Response Annual Report with more recent information on complaints about consumer financial products and services by state.”
From July 2011, when the Bureau began receiving complaints, through June 30, 2018, the Bureau had received approximately 1,578,700 complaints. The Complaint Snapshot: 50 State Report breaks down information at the national and state level. Information analyzed from January 2017 through June 2018 includes the number of complaints, average number of complaints per month, percentage change, and timely response for the US and each state, respectively. The report also analyzes product complaint trends for the top complaint-prone products, submitted from January 1, 2015 through June 30, 2018, for the US and each state, respectively, allowing financial institutions to recognize potential issues in their areas.
Based on complaints received from January 2017 through June 2018, the report notes the following:
- Collectively, US consumers submitted 494,540 complaints to the Bureau, with an average of 27,474 per month;
- The top five complaints for consumers nationwide (based on percentage changed) were money transfer/service and virtual currency, vehicle loans or leases, personal loans, payday loans, and title loans;
- The top five complaints for consumers nationwide (based on volume) were debt collection, credit or consumer reporting, mortgage, credit card, and checking or savings;
- Timely company response rates during this time were 98% nationwide;
- California consumers submitted more complaints that consumers in any other state with 63,096, while Florida, Texas, New York, and Georgia took the next four spots; and
- Wyoming had the fewest complaints with 386 submitted.
The Bureau’s Complaint Snapshot: 50 State Report is available here.