Florida Has Some of the Highest Complaint Rates About Banks, Study Shows

Complaints about banks are increasing across the country, with some of the highest rates of displeasure coming from consumers in Florida, according to a new report.

NerdWallet analyzed complaints filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the past year and found that of the top 25 metropolitan statistical areas with the highest per capita complaint rates, five were in Florida, the most of any state. Though the metro areas ranged widely in population — Tallahassee has only 378,000 residents, while Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach has more than 6 million — they each were estimated to have more than 9complaints per 100,000 residents for the year ending Sept. 30, 2016.

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The most common complaint about banks in almost all of these Florida metro areas had to do with problems involving the opening, closing or management of accounts. This was also the case for previous years, according to an analysis of complaints from 2012 to 2016. The mishandling of accounts was at the center of Wells Fargo’s recent troubles, which resulted in $185 million in fines.

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See the full report for more details about the analysis and methodology.

Caren Weiner Campbell is a staff writer at NerdWallet. Email: ccampbell@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @ccampbell_nw.

The article Florida Has Some of the Highest Complaint Rates About Banks, Study Shows originally appeared on NerdWallet.