Who is complaining aboutTook or threatened to take negative or legal action?
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 “Took or threatened to take negative or legal action” on 79,049 complaints in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026, up 175% on the 28,718 of the 12 months before. That is 1.1% of all complaints received.
100% of them were filed under the product “Debt collection”, where the issue makes up 24.9% of that product's complaints.
Company responses on this issue: 77.6% closed with an explanation, 16.8% closed with non-monetary relief, 0.1% closed with monetary relief, and 0.8% still in progress when the file was published. 93.9% were timely.
Which products
| Product (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Debt collection | 79,049 | 100% |
Sub-issues
| Sub-issue (CFPB label) | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged | 73,352 | 92.8% |
| Threatened to sue you for very old debt | 1,972 | 2.5% |
| Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit | 1,420 | 1.8% |
| Seized or attempted to seize your property | 751 | 1% |
| Threatened to arrest you or take you to jail if you do not pay | 600 | 0.8% |
| Collected or attempted to collect exempt funds | 554 | 0.7% |
| Sued you in a state where you do not live or did not sign for the debt | 296 | 0.4% |
| Threatened to turn you in to immigration or deport you | 104 | 0.1% |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC. | 4,669 | 5.9% | no public measure | — |
| Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC | 4,617 | 5.8% | no public measure | — |
| CL Holdings LLC | 4,574 | 5.8% | no public measure | — |
| Resurgent Capital Services L.P. | 3,784 | 4.8% | no public measure | — |
| Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. | 2,267 | 2.9% | $21bn assets | 107 |
| Servicer under contract with Federal Student Aid | 1,951 | 2.5% | no public measure | — |
| CCS Financial Services, Inc. | 1,763 | 2.2% | no public measure | — |
| SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL | 1,651 | 2.1% | $115bn assets | 14.3 |
| Kriya Capital, LLC | 1,475 | 1.9% | no public measure | — |
| CITIBANK, N.A. | 1,398 | 1.8% | $1.98tn assets | 0.71 |
| WELLS FARGO & COMPANY | 1,331 | 1.7% | $1.92tn assets | 0.69 |
| JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. | 1,320 | 1.7% | $4.09tn assets | 0.32 |
| CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION | 1,290 | 1.6% | $662bn assets | 1.95 |
| I.C. System, Inc. | 1,189 | 1.5% | no public measure | — |
| Affirm Holdings, Inc | 1,143 | 1.4% | no public measure | — |
| BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION | 1,135 | 1.4% | $2.65tn assets | 0.43 |
| CAINE & WEINER COMPANY, INC. | 1,088 | 1.4% | no public measure | — |
| Spring Oaks Capital, LLC | 1,068 | 1.4% | no public measure | — |
| National Credit Systems,Inc. | 1,034 | 1.3% | no public measure | — |
| AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY | 958 | 1.2% | $214bn assets | 4.48 |
| TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC | 878 | 1.1% | no public measure | — |
| National Credit Adjusters, LLC | 759 | 1% | no public measure | — |
| Kikoff Inc. | 735 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| Self Financial Inc. | 715 | 0.9% | no public measure | — |
| BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE | 643 | 0.8% | $43bn assets | 14.8 |
| All other companies, including those not listed by name | 35,614 | 45.1% | — | — |
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. 9 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 explanation61,320 · 77.6%
- Closed with non-monetary relief13,313 · 16.8%
- Untimely response3,722 · 4.7%
- In progress640 · 0.8%
- All other categories54 · 0.1%
| Measure | This issue | All issues |
|---|---|---|
| Closed with monetary or non-monetary relief | 17% | 31.6% |
| Closed with monetary relief | 0.1% | 0.5% |
| Responses marked timely | 93.9% | 99.6% |
Trend
Questions and answers
What does the CFPB issue “Took or threatened to take negative or legal action” 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 “Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged”, “Threatened to sue you for very old debt”, “Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit”.
How many complaints carry this issue?
79,049 in the 12 months to 30 Sep 2026 and 148,110 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.