If you ask the American public, the average person is happier with their credit card than they are their mortgage. Richard Cordray, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, admitted that the agency is getting fewer complaints about credit cards than were expected when the CFPB was founded in 2009.
Since July 2011, the CFPB has taken in more than 72,297 complaints from consumers in a variety of categories. The Bureau says that it is taking in far more complaints about mortgages than credit cards, a trend it did not expect at launch. Consumers are unhappy about mortgage fraud, particularly as it relates to foreclosures in a post-financial crisis economy. Many of the nation’s mortgages were written with aggressive repayment terms to people who could not afford their monthly payments when a contracted balloon payment period ended.
The improvements in customer views of credit cards is partially linked to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act passed in 2009. It outlawed many marketing practices that put cards in the hands of college students and the unemployed. It also reigned in fees and tricks the credit card industry used to extract more money from fewer credit card users.
The CFPB still has plenty of work to do. Complaints of all kinds are now coming in at 10,000 per month on various financing mechanisms including auto loans, student financial aid packages, and checking and savings accounts.
The CFPB will continue to monitor all levels of personal finance. Recently, the group scored its biggest victory against credit card company Capital One in a settlement that would end the company’s payment insurance program. Other credit card companies have since voluntarily agreed to end the sale of payment insurance, which costs customers an extra 1-2% of their balances as an insurance premium each month.