Updated: February 2013

2008 Hotline Report

In 2008, Consumer Action's free advice and referral hotline received 4,081 complaints.

While Consumer Action receives consumer complaints and communications on virtually every consumer issue, in this report we summarize the complaints in four categories, “financial Literacy,” “housing,” “insurance,” and “other.”

• Financial literacy included complaints about credit cards, collection agencies, buying a car, credit reports, and identity theft—the five top issues in this category, in that order.
• For housing, the largest number of complaints were received about mortgages, tenant/landlord complaints, and problems with contractors, in that order.
• Medical insurance and auto insurance accounted for the largest numbers in the insurance category.

By point of contact

In terms of how people contact Consumer Action, the highest number of phone-based complaints came in under the housing category. Within housing, a full 77% of tenant-landlord complaints come via telephone, while mortgage complaints have a slight majority by phone as well.

Insurance complaints were skewed the most toward the Internet, with 58% coming via web.

The percentage of Spanish-language housing complaints continues to grow, going from 13% last year to 18% of all housing complaints this year, suggesting that Hispanics are disproportionately suffering in the aftermath of the housing bubble.