The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) monthly complaint snapshot shows that consumers continue to complain about errors on their credit reports.
As of Feb. 1, 2017, the bureau had handled approximately 185,700 credit reporting complaints.
“Credit reports provide the means for consumers everywhere to take important steps in their financial lives,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said. “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.”
Consumers reported several problems related to credit reports, including disputes. Consumers continue to experience difficulties when submitting disputes to credit reporting companies. They also complained about inaccurate personal information on credit reports. Frequently consumers state that incorrect or unrecognized names and addresses appear on their reports.
Consumers also report confusion over credit scoring, particularly the variety of scores and scoring “factors” that accompany credit score information.
For January 2017, debt collection was the most-complained-about financial product or service. Of the approximately 29,000 complaints handled in January, 7,730 were about debt collection. Student loans was the second most-complained-about consumer product with 5,389 complaints. Credit reporting was third with 4,620 complaints.
Over the last three months, student loan complaints showed the greatest increase—388 percent—year-over-year. The bureau received 497 student loan complaints between November 2015 and January 2016, while it received 2,425 complaints during the same period a year later.
Georgia, South Dakota, and Mississippi experienced the greatest year-to-year complaint volume increases from November 2016 to January 2017 versus the same period 12 months before. Georgia had 59 percent more complaints during that time, while South Dakota saw complaints jump 43 percent and Mississippi had 34 percent more complaints.
Through Feb. 1, 2017, the bureau had handled a total of roughly 1,110,100 consumer complaints since the CFPB launched the Consumer Complaint Database in June of 2012.