The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau recently announced that it was releasing consumer complaints against financial institutions. We're excited by the multiple easy-to-use formats and the variety of data being made available.
Continue readingThe bigger the bank, the higher the complaint rate
The bigger the bank, the higher the rate of consumer complaints. That is the general pattern of a new Sunlight Foundation analysis of just-released consumer complaint data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
The relationship is hardly surprising. The biggest banks consistently score the worst on surveys of customer satisfaction. The most recent survey found Bank of America with the lowest customer satisfaction rate. We find Bank of America to have the second highest rate of complaints, trailing only Capital One, a major issuer of credit cards. Capital One accounts for 21.3% (4,181 of 19,603) of credit card complaints in the CFPB data.
House Considers CFPB Accountability
Policy Intern Cassandra LaRussa wrote this post. On Wednesday, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit... View Article
Continue readingBank fees are up, but disclosure is sorely lacking
As banks continue to raise their fees for consumer accounts, and free checking appears to be going the way of the dodo, banks have a decidedly spotty record on clearly disclosing these fees to their customers--even though they are required to do so by law.
A survey out this week from the site BankRate.com says virtually every way a bank can charge money is up. Sixty percent more noninterest accounts carry fees and balance requirements than they did last year. ATM fees are at an all-time high for the seventh consecutive year. Maintenance fees for checking accounts have increased ...
Continue readingCFPB Releases Their Redesigned Mortgage Forms
Find loan forms confusing? Wish there was a team out there that was working to make them easier for you? Well, you're in luck! The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has set out to redesign mortgage disclosure forms, making them easier for citizens to understand the loans they're accepting when purchasing a home. The CFPB team should be commended for making their design process transparent and involving the public as much as possible. The more importance that is placed on design, the more informed citizens will be — hopefully this will lead to a stronger mortgage lending system.
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