Issues › Debt or credit management
Who is complaining aboutCharged upfront or unexpected fees?
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 “Charged upfront or unexpected fees” on 605 complaints in the 12 months to 1 Oct 2026, down 21% on the 763 of the 12 months before. That is 0% of all complaints received.
100% of them were filed under the product “Debt or credit management”, where the issue makes up 14.3% of that product's complaints.
Company responses on this issue: 79.7% closed with an explanation, 6.6% closed with non-monetary relief, 4.5% closed with monetary relief, and 3.1% still in progress when the file was published. 88.1% were timely.
Which products
| Product (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Debt or credit management | 605 | 100% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consumer Financial Services Solutions, Inc. | 48 | 7.9% | no public measure | — |
| NATIONAL DEBT RELIEF LLC | 36 | 6% | no public measure | — |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 22 | 3.6% | $662bn assets | 0.03 |
| The J. G. Wentworth Company | 21 | 3.5% | no public measure | — |
| Experian Information Solutions Inc. | 20 | 3.3% | no public measure | — |
| Kikoff Inc. | 19 | 3.1% | no public measure | — |
| FREEDOM FINANCIAL NETWORK | 14 | 2.3% | no public measure | — |
| ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. | 14 | 2.3% | no public measure | — |
| Resurgent Capital Services L.P. | 13 | 2.1% | no public measure | — |
| EQUIFAX, INC. | 11 | 1.8% | no public measure | — |
| ClearOne Advantage, LLC | 9 | 1.5% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSUNION INTERMEDIATE HOLDINGS, INC. | 9 | 1.5% | no public measure | — |
| T.S. Holdings | 7 | 1.2% | no public measure | — |
| Shellpoint Partners, LLC | 7 | 1.2% | no public measure | — |
| Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. | 6 | 1% | $21bn assets | 0.28 |
| SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL | 6 | 1% | $115bn assets | 0.05 |
| CITIBANK, N.A. | 5 | 0.8% | $1.98tn assets | 0.00 |
| BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION | 5 | 0.8% | $2.65tn assets | 0.00 |
| Self Financial Inc. | 5 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| National Credit Systems,Inc. | 5 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| TomoCredit Inc. | 5 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC | 5 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| Americor Funding, LLC | 5 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC. | 4 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| CCS Financial Services, Inc. | 3 | 0.5% | no public measure | — |
| All other companies, including those not listed by name | 301 | 49.8% | — | — |
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. 5 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 explanation482 · 79.7%
- Closed with non-monetary relief40 · 6.6%
- Untimely response37 · 6.1%
- Closed with monetary relief27 · 4.5%
- All other categories19 · 3.1%
| Measure | This issue | All issues |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with monetary or non-monetary relief | 11.4% | 31.5% |
| Closed with monetary relief | 4.6% | 0.5% |
| Responses marked timely | 88.1% | 99.6% |
Trend
Questions and answers
What does the CFPB issue “Charged upfront or unexpected fees” 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.
How many complaints carry this issue?
605 in the 12 months to 1 Oct 2026 and 1,675 since 2023.
Which products does it apply to?
“Debt or credit management” (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 1 Oct 2026, complaints received through 1 Oct 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.