Once Again, Credit Reporting Agencies Lead CFPB’s Monthly Complaint Snapshot

The latest complaints snapshot from the CFPB is in — and once again, credit reporting has managed to lead the pack amongst things consumers are dissatisfied with.  Of the approximately 29,000 complaints handled in January, there were 7,730 complaints about debt collection.

The problems are ongoing — and an extension of complaints about the credit reporting industry that have become routine in this monthly report: consumers continue to say they struggle to resolve errors on their credit reports.

“Credit reports provide the means for consumers everywhere to take important steps in their financial lives,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. “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.” As of Feb. 1, 2017, the Bureau had handled approximately 1,110,100 consumer complaints across all products nationally.

Approximately 185,700 of those were credit reporting complaints. Other than the classic complaint — trouble disputing issues on credit reports — there was some additional color added this time around.  Consumers submitted a high number of complaints about inaccurate personal information on their reports like incorrect or unrecognized names and addresses.

Consumers also noted ongoing confusion about credit scoring and how it works, given the ever-proliferating number of new scores.

As for other complaints, student loans were the second most complained about issue in January 2017,  accounting for 5,389 complaints. The third most complained about financial product or service was credit reporting, accounting for 4,620 complaints.

Georgia, South Dakota, and Mississippi experienced the greatest year-to-year complaint volume increases from November 2016 to January 2017 versus the same time period 12 months before; with Georgia up 59 percent, South Dakota up 43 percent, and Mississippi up 34 percent.

And as for firms in the hot seat — unsurprisingly, given the volume of complaints about credit scoring, Equifax and TransUnion were at the forefront.  Wells Fargo, however, led the pack.