The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday expanded the capabilities of its Consumer Complaint Database by making complaints searchable by state, revealing that Maryland and New Hampshire have received the most mortgage complaints.
The database now also includes complaints about money transfers and credit reporting.
“This data puts valuable information in the hands of consumers to help them understand what is happening in their states,” said CFPB Director Richard Cordray in a statement. “And by adding credit reporting and money transfer complaints to the Consumer Complaint Database, we are making these important markets more transparent and accountable to all consumers.”
Each entry in the Consumer Complaint Database lists the type of complaint, date of submission, and the company that the complaint is about. Now, with the update, each complaint will have a new field: the state where it came from. Consumers have previously been able to self-report their zip code, but the CFPB says adding the state will help people more easily localize data.
New Hampshire, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Georgia, and Florida are the top five states, per capita, for mortgage complaints.
As of Friday, the database had about 113,000 total complaints. The complaints are only listed in the database after the company in question responds to the complaint or have had the opportunity to do so for 15 days, whichever comes first. The CFPB then uses the complaints, along with other information such as the timeliness of the company’s response, in a variety of ways, such as prioritizing complaints for investigation.
Reverse mortgages have received 330 complaint to date since the CFPB began collecting them.
Written by Alyssa Gerace