The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a report Tuesday showing that Americans are this year more dissatisfied with financial firms —especially debt collectors, credit reporters, and mortgage lenders.
The watchdog pointed out that among the “Top 10 Most-Complained-About Companies,” credit reporters Equifax and Experian were financial industry leaders in terms of inspiring grievances. Each firm was the subject of more than 900 monthly complaints on average between June and August 2015.
Wall Street giants Bank of America and Wells Fargo, plus another credit reporting company, TransUnion rounded out the top five.
Financial behemoths JP Morgan Chase, Citibank, and Capital One cracked the top ten, along with mortgage lenders Ocwen and Nationstar Mortgage.
“Complaints sent to these companies account for 46 percent of all complaints sent to companies over this period,” the CFPB noted.
Each quarter, the Bureau publishes information it gathers about consumer complaints
The CFPB averaged more than 25,000 complaints a month this quarter—a 16 percent increase from the same time frame last year.
That upward trend was expressed across nearly all financial products, with consumer loans showing the largest increase in customer dissatisfaction at 47 percent.
Payday loan companies, meanwhile, saw the only year-over-year decline (12 percent) in the volume of complaints their customers lodged.
Debt collection services received on average 7,767 complaints a month—by far the most of any financial product reviewed. Credit reporting companies and Mortgage lenders followed, averaging 5,535 and 4,584 consumer monthly protests in the third quarter
Of the fifty states in the union, only five saw a reduction in complaints from this quarter last year: They were Rhode Island, Delaware, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Arkansas.
