CFPB Publishes Monthly Complaint Report

March 1, 2016

On Tuesday, March 1, 2016, the CFPB published volume 8 of its Monthly Report, covering complaints received in January, as well as a focus on the Houston area and complaints pertaining to prepaid cards.  As of February 1, 2016, the Bureau has handled approximately 811,700 complaints, including approximately 21,800 complaints in January 2016.  Notable takeaways included:

 

  • For the second month in a row, the top three “most complained about companies” were non-banks, with the list of company complaints in the same order as the past few months.
  • Year-over-year, complaints about credit reporting were down by seven percent, student loans down by 10 percent and payday loans down by 12 percent.
  • However, student loan complaints saw the biggest increase month-over-month.
  • On the issue of prepaid cards, the most common areas identified by consumers were managing, opening, or closing an account (33 percent) and unauthorized transactions or other transaction issues (29 percent).  Empowerment Ventures, LLC – the parent company of RushCard – had the highest number of prepaid complaints.
  • Houston and surrounding areas have lower mortgage complaints and higher debt collection complaints than the national average.