The CFPB said Tuesday (Nov. 29) that it released its monthly snapshot spotlighting consumer complaints, and the highest levels of complaints focused on debt settlement and check cashing services.
The overarching concerns were tied, said to the CFPB, to issues of fraud and also the difficulties of finding reliable service. The cumulative tally of complaints across all types of financial services came to more than 1 million at the beginning of this month.
In a statement, Richard Cordray, director of the CFPB, said that the “the products and services” noted in the report “are often utilized by people working to make ends meet who can least afford to have issues with their financial products.”
Drilling down into the numbers, the CFPB said that, of about 4,500 complaints about debt settlement, check cashing and other services, 51 percent worried about fraud, often with debt settlement. The payments offered up to debt collectors, said the complaints, never were sent to the creditors.
