Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released
its monthly Complaint Report for October, in which
the CFPB focuses heavily on credit card companies, specifically
calling attention to cardholder complaints alleging unfairness and
lack of understanding of credit products or practices. The
heavy volume of complaints of this type may forewarn increased CFPB
scrutiny of the practices at issue, even if technically lawful.
The CFPB started taking consumer complaints as soon as it got
off the ground in 2011. In 2012, it launched a Consumer Complaint Database. Since that
time, the CFPB has fielded more than 700,000 complaints. According to the CFPB, a company has 15 days to
respond initially to both the consumer and the CFPB and is expected
to close all but the most complicated complaints within 60
days. In general, most credit card issuers respond in a
timely manner.
