The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released its first dataset on complaints against debt collectors this week. The data, which was made publicly available on the Bureau’s Consumer Complaint Database, contains the 5,329 complaints that have been collected since collection began on July 10, 2013.
Although this is only the first in what will be an ongoing series of releases, some insights have already arisen. The most common complaint, which accounts for 40% of all submissions, is “Continued attempts to collect debt not owed.” The second most common, accounting for nearly 20%, is “Communication tactics.” Although the complaints specify 663 separate companies, only 21 companies have had 50 or more complaints filed against them. The data covers type of loan, complaint issue, sub-issue, zip code, company and company response, among other variables.
