CFPB Complaint Database
The Bureau has on numerous occasions reported that the debt collection industry receives the highest number of complaints.
However, the Bureau fails to contextualize the number of complaints as compared to the number of contacts the ARM industry makes with consumers in a given year, which the Philadelphia Federal Reserve estimates to be well over one billion.
Key Points
- Debt collection complaints account for only 0.005% of all consumer contacts made in a given year by debt collectors.
- Many complaints often address issues that are not fundamentally about the debt collection industry. For example, a consumer may submit a complaint that his or her insurance company should have paid a medical bill.
- 84% of debt collection complaints are closed “with explanation.” ACA members believe consumers deserve to have their complaints addressed and take this responsibility seriously.
- The most troubling aspect of the complaint database is: (1) the Bureau’s broad definition of a complaint and (2) the Bureau’s failure to verify the accuracy of the complaints it receives and 3) not specifying contacts vs. complaints.
- The Dodd-Frank Act requires the Bureau to report annually to Congress about the number of consumer complaints in general and to report semi-annually to the President and designated congressional committees certain analyses of the complaints the Bureau has collected in its databases from the prior year. However, nothing in the statute mandates that the Bureau make the consumer complaint database public.
Consumer Complaints in Context
Debt collection complaints account for only .005% of all consumer contacts made in a given year by debt collectors.
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84% of debt collection complaints are closed “with explanation.”
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Debt collection complaints have dropped 40% year over year.
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Timely responses to complaints from financial services companies come in at 97%.
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