Who is complaining aboutCommunication tactics?
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.
8,866 complaints in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026 carry the CFPB issue label “Communication tactics”, about level with the 9,081 of the 12 months before; 78,193 since 2013.
100% of them were filed under the product “Debt collection”, where the issue makes up 2.8% of that product's complaints.
Company responses on this issue: 70.6% closed with an explanation, 24.8% closed with non-monetary relief, 0.2% closed with monetary relief, and 1.8% still in progress when the file was published. 95.7% were timely.
Which products
| Product (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Debt collection | 8,866 | 100% |
Sub-issues
| Sub-issue (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Frequent or repeated calls | 4,388 | 49.5% |
| You told them to stop contacting you, but they keep trying | 3,165 | 35.7% |
| Used obscene, profane, or other abusive language | 921 | 10.4% |
| Called before 8am or after 9pm | 392 | 4.4% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC | 570 | 6.4% | no public measure | — |
| ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. | 567 | 6.4% | no public measure | — |
| Resurgent Capital Services L.P. | 540 | 6.1% | no public measure | — |
| CL Holdings LLC | 382 | 4.3% | no public measure | — |
| Kriya Capital, LLC | 174 | 2% | no public measure | — |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 155 | 1.7% | $662bn assets | 0.23 |
| T.S. Holdings | 152 | 1.7% | no public measure | — |
| TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC | 143 | 1.6% | no public measure | — |
| Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. | 140 | 1.6% | $21bn assets | 6.59 |
| CCS Financial Services, Inc. | 134 | 1.5% | no public measure | — |
| CITIBANK, N.A. | 106 | 1.2% | $1.98tn assets | 0.05 |
| National Credit Systems,Inc. | 103 | 1.2% | no public measure | — |
| SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL | 102 | 1.2% | $115bn assets | 0.89 |
| Rowland Avenue Management, Inc. A/KA Columbia Debt Recovery, LLC d/b/a Genesis | 83 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| I.C. System, Inc. | 80 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| OneMain Finance Corporation | 80 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| Collection Management Holdings, LLC | 75 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| Spring Oaks Capital, LLC | 72 | 0.8% | no public measure | — |
| Aldous & Associates, PLLC | 65 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| Harris & Harris, Ltd. | 64 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| SUNRISE CREDIT SERVICES, INC | 62 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| Radius Global Solutions LLC | 61 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| CAINE & WEINER COMPANY, INC. | 58 | 0.7% | no public measure | — |
| TrueAccord Corp. | 57 | 0.6% | no public measure | — |
| Credit Control, LLC | 57 | 0.6% | no public measure | — |
| All other companies, including those not listed by name | 4,784 | 54% | — | — |
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. 4 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 explanation6,256 · 70.6%
- Closed with non-monetary relief2,202 · 24.8%
- Untimely response231 · 2.6%
- In progress159 · 1.8%
- All other categories18 · 0.2%
| Measure | This issue | All issues |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with monetary or non-monetary relief | 25.5% | 31.6% |
| Closed with monetary relief | 0.2% | 0.5% |
| Responses marked timely | 95.7% | 99.6% |
Trend
Questions and answers
What does the CFPB issue “Communication tactics” 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 “Frequent or repeated calls”, “You told them to stop contacting you, but they keep trying”, “Used obscene, profane, or other abusive language”.
How many complaints carry this issue?
8,866 in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026 and 78,193 since 2013.
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.