On December 27 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its monthly report on complaint statistics. The report offers a special focus on debt collection. Looking at the numbers it appears that complaints are trending upward. Compared to the same time period in 2015, complaints about student loan servicing errors are up more than 100%, complaints about credit card collections and servicing are up 36%, and complaints about debt collection are up 10%. Either more people are filing complaints with the CFPB because the government is doing a better job of educating the public about reporting options, or complaints are up because debt collectors, financial institutions and the like are making more errors and injuring more consumers. Either way, the numbers are troubling. Complaints in Massachusetts and New Jersey are both up compared to a year ago.

By far the most complained of financial institutions are Wells Fargo, Citibank, Bank of America, and JP Morgan Chase.

The complete CFPB report can be read here: http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/documents/201612_cfpb_MonthlyComplaintReport.pdf