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BCFP Tallies Consumer Worries

The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection [1] (BCFP) has released its Complaint Snapshot: 50 State Report [2]. The report highlights the total number of complaints sent to the BCFP nationwide since 2015, providing a clear picture of just what financial products and services U.S. consumers find issue with the most. The numbers are given for the U.S. as a whole as well as broken down state-by-state.

Regarding the mortgage industry specifically, complaints as a total percentage dropped in 2017 compared to 2016, down from 18 percent to 12 percent. Since 2015, there have been a total 155,519 complaints involving mortgage products or services. The largest number of these complaints refer to “trouble during the payment process,” 40 percent of all mortgage-specific complaints, or 61,851 total.

Certain states differ from this national average, however, yielding a higher percentage of complaints just struggling to pay their mortgage. These states include California, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and Washington.  California has the highest overall number of complaints involving mortgages with 24,267—10,841 of which involve struggling to afford monthly mortgage payments.  New Jersey has the highest percentage of its total complaints involving mortgages, standing at 18 percent or 7,719 total.

The state with the lowest number of complaints regarding mortgage products is South Dakota, with only 93 total complaints delivered to the BCFP since 2015.

Naturally, the most consumer complaints came from California, the most populous state in the Union. Florida, Texas, New York, and Georgia came in second, third, fourth, and fifth, respectively, for the most complaints per state. Those living in Wyoming reported the least complaints of all 50 states. The most complaints since 2015 nationwide have concerned debt collection, with credit or consumer reporting second, then mortgage products third. Credit card and checking or savings products received the fourth and fifth highest volume of complaints.  Since the beginning of 2018, average monthly complaints have risen 9 percent.