Bank of America gets most complaints about mortgages, new database shows

Bank of America is the most-complained-about company when it comes to mortgages, garnering more than 15,000 complaints on issues such as loan modifications and servicing since late 2011, according to information released this week from a federal database of consumer complaints.

Other top complained-about companies are Wells Fargo, with about 8,000 mortgage-related complaints, and J.P. Morgan Chase, with about 5,000 mortgage complaints, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s database that covers mortgages, and other products such as credit cards and student loans.

“When we get complaints directly from our customers or through the CFPB or other sources, we thoroughly investigate them and if we’ve made a mistake, we work to do what’s right for our customer,” wrote Tom Goyda, a Wells Fargo spokesman, in an email.

Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase did not respond to a request for comment.

Within the entire database, which contains more than 90,000 complaints, mortgages made up about 55% of complaints.

Looking broadly at all mortgage complaints in the database, the top category was “problems when you are unable to pay,” which made up almost six-tenths of complaints. The “making payments” category constituted about one-quarter of complaints. There were also complaints about loan applications and agreements, among other issues.

Of all mortgage complaints, more than 5% closed with monetary relief, according to the CFPB. About 58% of complaints were closed with an explanation. Another 21% were closed without relief, and 10% were closed with non-monetary relief.

Looking at just at the most-complained-about companies, Bank of AmericaBAC 0.00%, JPMorgan Chase JPM +0.06% and Wells Fargo w WFC +0.05% were among the five mortgage servicers that settled last year</a> with state attorneys-general across the country, as well as the federal government, for servicing violations.

Given their market dominance, one could expect these servicers would also get a lot of complaints. As of the fourth quarter, Wells Fargo had about 19% of the market share  for servicing 1-4 family residential mortgages, while Bank of America and affiliates had 13.5%, and Chase had 11.2%, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a publication following industry trends.

–Ruth Mantell

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