Each month the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) publishes a monthly report that explores consumers’ financial complaints, and it usually focuses on one region in the country. For January 2016, the agency chose New York State and the New York metro area, which the CFPB defines as the city along with several zip codes in Penn., N.J., and Conn. Here are some of the findings.
(1) A greater share of New Yorkers’ (state and metro) complaints to the CFPB were attributed to financial services such as credit reporting, credit card, and bank account services, compared to other Americans’ complaints.
(2) By contrast they complained less about debt collection than the rest of the country, but all the state, metro area, and the country were about the same for mortgage complaints.
(3) The CFPB found that complaints have grown at a slower pace in New York State and metro New York than the nation. Comparing fourth quarter 2015 to fourth quarter 2014, the average number of complaints per month in the metro area rose from 1,400 to 1,500 (7 percent), but overall, the growth rate was 12 percent. It appears complaints in the New York metro area have plateaued around 1,500 since 2014. They grew rapidly in 2013.
(4) The CFPB’s national report ranked New York State fairly low on the list of states by growth rate in complaints. Complaints in eight states grew by 25 percent or more, but in New York, it was only 13 percent.
(5) Interestingly, the CFPB published a chart showing the number of complaints for the top ten financial services providers in the New York metro area. JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo dominated among banks, but the three credit reporting bureaus made the top five.
The CFPB report warns that the distribution of complaints in the chart reflects the market share of the financial service providers and not necessarily unusual misbehavior by any one of them. The same goes for the financial services the companies provide, so whether Wells Fargo’s mortgage unit is either commonly used by consumers or treats them poorly is unclear.
The CFPB’s report can be found here.
New Yorkers seem to be encountering many of the same problems that most Americans when it comes to dealing with financial services providers. If you are encountering financial difficulties, contacting the CFPB may help, but if your problems are serious enough, it might be more helpful to talk to an experienced New York bankruptcy lawyer.
For answers to more questions about bankruptcy, the automatic stay, effective strategies for dealing with foreclosure, and protecting your assets in bankruptcy please feel free to contact experienced bankruptcy lawyer Brooklyn Bruce Weiner for a free initial consultation.
