Complaints about credit or consumer reporting, for the second straight year, was the leader in 2018 as the “most-complained about” consumer financial product or service, according to the federal consumer financial protection agency’s Consumer Response Annual Report for 2018, released Friday.
Not only were complaints about credit or consumer reporting the leader again in 2018 out of the 329,800 total complaints the bureau received, the number of complaints was up 27% from 2017, according to the report. The credit/consumer reporting complaints made up 38% of all complaints (for 126,300) the bureau received.
The annual report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is required under the 2010 Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) and, according to the agency, details trends its Consumer Response arm “has seen through the lens of consumer complaints during the past year, but also compares them to trends observed in the prior year.”
Rounding out the top five most complaints in 2018 were: debt collection (81,500, or 24.7%), mortgages (30,100, or 9%), credit cards (8.7%), and checking or saving accounts (25,900, or 7.8%).
Those five areas, combined, accounted for about nine in every 10 complaints received by the bureau in 2018.
Complaints about student loans showed the biggest decrease during the year, down nearly half (48%) from the previous year to 10,400. On the other hand, complaints about credit report organizations showed the biggest increase (33%) from the previous year, with 1,000 complaints received.
Complaints about payday loans were also down in 2018, the CFPB reported, with 2,300 complaints received (down by 19% from the previous year).