Who is complaining aboutAttempts to collect debt not owed?
When looking at complaint volume about a company or product, consider company size and/or market share. For example, companies with more customers may have more complaints than companies with fewer customers.
The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it.Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database. A complaint is a consumer's account of a problem; it is not a finding against the company.
Consumers chose the issue “Attempts to collect debt not owed” on 136,885 complaints in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026, up 27% on the 107,505 of the 12 months before. That is 2% of all complaints received.
100% of them were filed under the product “Debt collection”, where the issue makes up 43.2% of that product's complaints.
Company responses on this issue: 71.2% closed with an explanation, 24.8% closed with non-monetary relief, 0.2% closed with monetary relief, and 2.5% still in progress when the file was published. 97.7% were timely.
Which products
| Product (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Debt collection | 136,885 | 100% |
Sub-issues
| Sub-issue (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Debt is not yours | 87,134 | 63.7% |
| Debt was result of identity theft | 37,622 | 27.5% |
| Debt was paid | 9,393 | 6.9% |
| Debt was already discharged in bankruptcy and is no longer owed | 2,736 | 2% |
Which companies, with their size
Ordered by the number of complaints carrying this issue in the last 12 months.
| Company (as named by the CFPB) | Complaints, 12 months | Share | Company size | Per $1bn assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL Holdings LLC | 12,228 | 8.9% | no public measure | — |
| ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. | 8,564 | 6.3% | no public measure | — |
| Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC | 7,821 | 5.7% | no public measure | — |
| Resurgent Capital Services L.P. | 6,273 | 4.6% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC. | 6,002 | 4.4% | no public measure | — |
| Experian Information Solutions Inc. | 5,867 | 4.3% | no public measure | — |
| EQUIFAX, INC. | 5,528 | 4% | no public measure | — |
| CCS Financial Services, Inc. | 4,518 | 3.3% | no public measure | — |
| Kriya Capital, LLC | 3,921 | 2.9% | no public measure | — |
| I.C. System, Inc. | 3,728 | 2.7% | no public measure | — |
| CAINE & WEINER COMPANY, INC. | 2,821 | 2.1% | no public measure | — |
| National Credit Systems,Inc. | 2,632 | 1.9% | no public measure | — |
| Spring Oaks Capital, LLC | 2,337 | 1.7% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC | 1,762 | 1.3% | no public measure | — |
| National Credit Adjusters, LLC | 1,466 | 1.1% | no public measure | — |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 1,359 | 1% | $662bn assets | 2.05 |
| Radius Global Solutions LLC | 1,303 | 1% | no public measure | — |
| Aldous & Associates, PLLC | 1,244 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| TrueAccord Corp. | 1,179 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| Harris & Harris, Ltd. | 1,131 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| Affirm Holdings, Inc | 1,104 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| SUNRISE CREDIT SERVICES, INC | 1,079 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| CITIBANK, N.A. | 958 | 0.7% | $1.98tn assets | 0.48 |
| Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. | 910 | 0.7% | $21bn assets | 42.9 |
| T.S. Holdings | 881 | 0.6% | no public measure | — |
| All other companies, including those not listed by name | 50,269 | 36.7% | — | — |
CFPB: “When looking at complaint volume about a company or product, consider company size and/or market share. For example, companies with more customers may have more complaints than companies with fewer customers.” The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it. 3 of the 25 companies in this table have a public size measure. “No public measure” means the company could not be matched by name to a single institution in the FDIC, NCUA or HMDA files, not that it is small.
How companies responded
- Closed with explanation97,412 · 71.2%
- Closed with non-monetary relief33,968 · 24.8%
- In progress3,432 · 2.5%
- Untimely response1,855 · 1.4%
- All other categories218 · 0.2%
| Measure | This issue | All issues |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with monetary or non-monetary relief | 25.6% | 31.6% |
| Closed with monetary relief | 0.2% | 0.5% |
| Responses marked timely | 97.7% | 99.6% |
Trend
Questions and answers
What does the CFPB issue “Attempts to collect debt not owed” mean?
It is one of the options a consumer selects on the CFPB complaint form to describe the problem. The label is the consumer's choice and is not checked by the Bureau. Sub-issues recorded under it include “Debt is not yours”, “Debt was result of identity theft”, “Debt was paid”.
How many complaints carry this issue?
136,885 in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026 and 486,948 since 2017.
Which products does it apply to?
“Debt collection” (100%).
Does the CFPB verify complaints?
The CFPB does not verify every allegation in a complaint before publishing it. Counts on this page show what consumers reported, not what was found.
Provenance
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database, bulk file downloaded 30 Sep 2026, complaints received through 30 Sep 2026. Only coded fields are used (company, product, sub-product, issue, state, dates, company response, timeliness); complaint narratives are never read, stored or shown. Complaints are published once the company responds or after 15 days, so the most recent two to three weeks are incomplete. Size measures: FDIC BankFind (report date 30 Jun 2026), NCUA call reports (30 Jun 2026), HMDA transmittal sheet (2025), Census Bureau population estimates (2025). All are US government works. Search the CFPB database · Methodology · Report an error.