WASHINGTON, D.C. -

Consumer complaints possibly made about your finance company, dealership, debt-collection agency or related industry service provider to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau now are available for anyone to see.

For the first time on Thursday, the CFPB turned on its enhanced public-facing consumer complaint database, pushing more than 7,700 consumer accounts of problems they are facing with financial companies concerning auto loans, mortgages, bank accounts, credit cards, debt collection and more.

The CFPB is also publishing a Request for Information seeking input on whether there are ways to enable the public to more easily understand and make comparisons of the complaint information.

“The bureau's work improves as we hear directly from consumers,” CFPB director Richard Cordray said. “Every complaint tells us what people are facing in the financial marketplace. Publishing these consumer stories today is a historic milestone that we believe will lead to better outcomes for everyone.”

SubPrime Auto Finance News scanned through the database’s sorting capability to find complaints associated with an auto loan. While personal information about the consumer has been redacted, the company targeted for the issue can be found easily. Some of the complaints posted with the CFPB since the beginning of the year includes ones involving institutions heavily involved in subprime financing such as Capital One Auto Finance, Exeter Finance, Regional Acceptance, Westlake Financial Services, J.D. Byrider, Consumer Portfolio Services, Ally Financial and Santander Consumer USA.

For industry supporters who maintain the importance of credit availability to subprime consumers, it’s significant to point out that only 62 of the more than 7,700 consumer complaint narratives the CFPB made available when it activated this feature had a connection with an auto loan. And each of those files in the auto space were related to collections activities.

Furthermore, of the entire CFPB Consumer Complaint Database — launched in June 2012 — only 1,821 cases are connected to the auto space. As of this week, the bureau possessed more than 410,000 consumer complaints in that database.

In March, the bureau finalized a policy regulators say is geared to empower consumers to publicly share their stories when they submit complaints to the CFPB. Since the bureau launched this feature, officials pointed out more than half of consumers submitting complaints to the CFPB website have “opted in” to share their accounts of what happened.

Going forward, the CFPB consumer narratives that have been scrubbed of personal information will be added to the complaint database on a daily basis.

The CFPB contends its database is nation’s largest public collection of consumer financial complaints. It includes basic, anonymous, individual-level information about the complaints received, including the date of submission, the consumer’s ZIP code, the relevant company, the product type, the issue the consumer is complaining about, and how the company handled the complaint.

“Consumer narratives provide a firsthand account of the consumer’s experience,” the CFPB said. “The narratives provide context to complaints, are easily searchable, and help spotlight specific trends.

“The narratives can also help consumers to make more informed decisions, as well as encourage companies to improve the overall quality of their products and services and more vigorously compete over good customer service,” regulators went on to say.

The comments included in some of the complaint narratives might be familiar to finance company executives or dealership managers who held previous stints in the collections department.

In one account associated with a conflict with Ally, the consumer said, “I (filed) a complaint with CFPB regarding to Ally to resolve a matter. However, Ally is calling me on an automatic system and blocking their phone calls without resolving these matters. They call my house all day long more than XXXX times. We are in dispute and they refuse to resolve the matter as I am waiting for a supervisor to return a phone call to me however this is an automatic system and then they block the calls the rest of the day.”

Another consumer complaint stated, “My car loan with Regional Acceptance has language in the agreement that states we have two weeks past due date before it is considered late and beyond that there is a charge that can be negotiated with a payment arrangement. I continually make payment arrangements but I receive XXXX-XXXX calls a day once the due date has past. I have requested they stop and they continue, please help. I always pay my bill including any late fees, I’ve never missed a payment. My only issue is sometimes I’m late.”

Meanwhile, a consumer with an issue involving Westlake indicated, “They have repossessed our car and auctioned it off. We get many calls a day. They were sent a notice and still keep calling. Each time we talk they say they will keep calling till we pay. I am XXXX and on XXXX. We do not have enough to pay our regular bills.”

The CFPB mentioned its Consumer Complaint Database is designed to allow users to explore the information, spotlight particular practices and problems and gain valuable insights. Specifically, users can:

• Search for specific product names or features: Users can now search consumer narratives for product names or features such as the brand name of a credit card or a mortgage feature.

• Highlight specific company practices and problems: Users can search for terms in consumer accounts of what happened such as “lost paperwork,” “foreclosure scam,” or “robo-signing.”

• Break down information by state: Users can sort complaints by state and zip code to spotlight local trends and information.

Officials reiterated the CFPB consumer complaint narrative policy lays out the specific procedures and safeguards the Bureau has put in place to publish narratives in the database.

“The policy includes important safeguards for removing a consumer’s personal information and ensuring the informed consent of any consumer who participates,” the bureau said.

Under the CFPB policy, companies also have 180 days to select an optional public-facing response to be included in the public database. These company responses are now included in the database for the first time.

“This policy builds on the safeguards the CFPB’s database already has in place,” the CFPB said.

The agency added complaints are listed in the database after the company responds to the complaint or after it has had the complaint for 15 days, whichever comes first. The CFPB will disclose the consumer narrative when the company provides its public-facing response, or after the company has had the complaint for 60 calendar days, whichever comes first.

No matter what the protocol might be, Consumer Bankers Association president and chief executive officer Richard Hunt still disagrees with the entire concept.

“We are pleased the CFPB agrees with us on the need to normalize the complaint data and is seeking comment on the best approaches. This is a step in the right direction,” Hunt said.

“However, we are profoundly disappointed the bureau is releasing the public narratives,” he continued. “In my opinion, the vast majority of banks will choose not to respond publicly, but will continue the long held tradition of speaking with their customers in confidence.  Publishing unverified one-sided narratives does not benefit consumers.

“The CFPB prides itself on being a data-driven agency, but today’s action is simply a public shaming of banks,” Hunt went on to say.

The bureau's database can be accessed here.