CFPB Monthly Report Returns its Focus to Debt Collection

The CFPB issued its monthly report of consumer complaints and the focus was back to debt collection.  The Report is a high level snapshot of trends in consumer complaints and provides a summary of the volume of complaints by product category, by company and by state.  Additionally, it highlights a product type and a geographic area. 


Here are the highlights:

•  Debt collection, mortgage and credit reporting continue to be the leaders in complaint volume;
• Debt collections complaints comprise 26% of the total cumulative complaints received to date by the CFPB;
• Credit reporting complaints showed the greatest month-over-month percentage increase with a 13% increase;
• As was the case when the CFPB last highlighted debt collection in July 2015, the most common debt complaint was continued attempts to collect a debt not owed;
• The second most common issue for first-party debt collectors was  communication tactics;
• The second most common issue for third party collectors was disclosure/verification of debt;
• The Report also highlights the following additional concerns by consumers:
  • Frequent or repeated calls from debt collectors;
  • Workplace phone calls; and
  • Refusals by debt collectors to honor requests to cease communication;