Complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2014 totaled 39,185, a number that should rise by a few hundred as the totals are refined in the coming weeks.
A year-over-year comparison is not possible as complaints weren't collected until mid-year 2013.
On a month-to-month scale, consumer complaints filed in December totaled 2,843, 16.7% more than the 2,436 filed in December 2013 and just one complaint above November's 2,842 total.
December complaints included: 521 credit card complaints (18% of the total); 394 medical complaints (14%); 159 payday loan complaints (6%); and 102 mortgage complaints (4%). The bulk of the complaints cited "other" such as phone, health club, etc. - 761 complaints, or 27%; and "unknown" - 759 complaints, also 27%.
The breakdown included: 1,251 complaints (43%) about continued attempts to collect debt that isn't owed; 545 complaints (19%) about communication tactics; and 496 complaints (17%) about disclosure verification of debts.
WebRecon LLC pulled the data from the CFPB.
The status of December's complaints are as follows:
- 1,900 Closed with explanation (67%)
- 420 Closed with non-monetary relief (15%)
- 231 In progress (8%)
- 136 Untimely response (5%)
- 117 Closed (4%)
- 39 Closed with monetary relief (1%)
Those numbers include 2,624 (92%) timely responses to complaints and 219 (8%) untimely responses.
