WASHINGTON—The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued an updated Complaint Bulletin that it said analyzes the more than 8,000 complaints it received from January through May 2020 and which mention coronavirus or related terms (“coronavirus keywords”).
The bulletin shows that mortgage (19%), credit card (18%), and credit or consumer reporting (18%) complaints top the list of complaints the Bureau has received that mention coronavirus keywords, the agency said.
Highlights of complaints about the consumer financial products and services that mention coronavirus key words include:
- In 55% of mortgage complaints, consumers identified “struggling to pay the mortgage” as the issue
- In 23% of credit card complaints, consumers identified a problem with a purchase shown or statement as the issue
- In 55% of credit or consumer reporting complaints, consumers identified incorrect information on their credit report as the issue
Other Highlights
Other Complaint Bulletin highlights:
- Comparing the weekly average complaint volume before and after the coronavirus emergency declaration, prepaid card complaints saw the greatest percentage increase at 105%, and student loan complaints saw the greatest% decrease at 24%, the Bureau said.
- Servicemembers submitted approximately 1,000 complaints mentioning coronavirus keywords from March through May 2020: 10% of complaints submitted by servicemembers were COVID related compared to 6% of non-servicemember complaints.
- Older Americans, those age 62 and older, submitted approximately 300 complaints mentioning coronavirus keywords from March through May 2020: 10% of complaints submitted by older consumers were COVID related compared to 7% of non-older consumer complaints.
- Consumers have submitted approximately 187,000 complaints to the Bureau in 2020.
Additional Info
The Complaint Bulletin also includes:
- Complaint volume distribution by consumer financial product or service for complaints mentioning coronavirus keywords relative to complaints overall
- Weekly complaint volume by consumer financial product or service with comparisons between the period before and after the declaration of a national emergency
- Highlights of common issues from a systematic review of complaint narratives that mention coronavirus keywords
Since 2011, the Bureau said it has handled more than 2.2 million consumer complaints. More than 5,000 financial companies have responded through this process, providing timely responses to 97% of the nearly 1.6 million complaints sent to them for response.
Complaints in the database can be viewed via a variety of filters.