It took a Freedom of Information Act request, but we’ve gotten our hands on the more than 35,000 financial services complaints filed by consumers with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since the agency started receiving such filings in 2011.
It’s a rich data set, including nature of the complaint, financial institution — and ZIP code. We decided to take a closer look at that latter information, to see if we could find some anomalies about the geographic location of the consumers filing complaints with the CFPB.
And indeed, one ZIP code stood out. For the 33496 area — near Boca Raton, Fla. — there are 301 complaints in the system, filed for a variety of reasons and with a number of financial institutions.
For comparison, if you were to aggregate the complaints according to the first three digits of their respective ZIP codes — much larger regions than individual ZIPs — only 13 have more than 300 filings. Here are the top ten, including the one in Southeast Florida, presented with ZIP code population data according to the 2010 census:
Only about 21,000 people live in the 33496 ZIP code. So what gives?
Let’s look further into the complaints: of the 301 entries for 33496, 295 were related to credit card issues, with 157 of those being labeled as billing disputes; 94 as “Identity Theft/Fraud/Embezzlement,” and 30 others as “Claims & defenses against issuer.” The dates, as well as the financial institutions associated with the complaints, are fairly disparate.
We’ve reached out to the CFPB for comment, but haven’t heard back. Is there a problem with the data? Or are citizens of Boca Raton, Fla., just particularly dissatisfied with their financial services?
It’s important to remember the CFPB’s decision to release the data is a much-debated one. While it has been applauded for giving consumers better information to make choices, Kenneth Clayton, the vice president of legislative affairs and chief counsel at the American Bankers Association, recently expressed disappointment in the CFPB’s plan to release unverified credit card complaint data. “While our industry stands ready to work with the CFPB to resolve customer concerns, the Bureau’s plan to release unverified data is disappointing and could mislead consumers,” Clayton said. “Publishing allegations is often different than publishing facts. The Bureau itself acknowledges the complaints could be inaccurate, and in fact plans to disclaim their accuracy.”
What do you think is going on here? Keep checking back as we continue to investigate these issues.
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