CFPB Consumer Complaints: U.S. and Congressional District Data
INSIGHTi
CFPB Consumer Complaints: U.S. and
Congressional District Data
February 2, 2024
Consumers having trouble with a consumer financial product or service—such as with a mortgage,
student loan, credit card, payday loan, bank account, credit reporting, or debt collection—can submit
complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).
This Insight discusses the CFPB’s consumer complaint process and public database and provides analysis
of complaints in FY2023. It also discusses how to get analysis about your congressional district from
CRS.
CFPB Consumer Complaints: Process and Database
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (P.L. 111-203; §1034) requires the
CFPB to establish a consumer complaint system to help consumers address their complaints about
consumer financial products and services in a timely manner. The law also requires the CFPB to publish
an annual report to Congress summarizing complaints received during the previous year. The CFPB uses
consumer complaints to monitor consumer financial markets, prioritize the supervision of companies,
enforce consumer financial laws, and support other CFPB activities.
Consumers can submit complaints either online through the CFPB’s website or by phone. After a
consumer submits the complaint, the CFPB forwards it to the company at issue. The company typically
responds back to the CFPB, which subsequently forwards the response back to the consumer. According
to the CFPB, most companies respond to consumer complaints within 15 days. When appropriate, the
CFPB refers complaints to other relevant federal agencies.
Consumer complaint information is compiled and made publicly available on the CFPB’s website. The
CFPB publishes complaints only after the company has time to respond and confirm that the complaint is
from its customer. The database includes the submission date of the complaint, information regarding the
consumer financial product, the consumer’s issue with the product, and the company’s response to the
consumer, among other things—depending on consumers’ consent to share this information. Consumers
can voluntarily share limited demographic information, such as if they are servicemembers or older
adults. Because it includes information only from the consumers who file complaints, it is important to
note that “this database is not a statistical sample of consumers’ experiences in the marketplace and these
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN12315
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress
link to page 2 link to page 3 Congressional Research Service
2
complaints are not necessarily representative of all consumers’ experiences with a financial product or
company.” Rather, it is a record of the number of consumers who made complaints and certain
information about those consumers and the nature of their complaints.
Consumer Complaint National Analysis
Table 1 lists the most common financial products in the CFPB consumer complaints database during
FY2023. Credit reporting is by far the most common product category about which consumers complain,
accounting for 80.5% of the complaints. The next most common products are debt collection, making up
5.5% of complaints, followed by credit or prepaid cards, checking or savings accounts, and mortgages.
Table 1. Most Common Financial Products Associated with CFPB’s Consumer Complaints
Product Type
Number of Complaints
Percentage of Total Complaints
Credit reporting, credit repair services,
or other personal consumer reports
947,175
80.5%
Debt col ection
64,774
5.5%
Credit card or prepaid card
52,613
4.5%
Checking or savings account
48,197
4.1%
Mortgage
22,527
1.9%
Source: CFPB Consumer Complaints Database.
Notes: Data covers FY2023 (October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), as of January 22, 2024.
Figure 1 lists the most common issues that consumers reported in FY2023. The top three issues reported
all related to credit reporting: (1) incorrect information on your credit report, (2) improper use of your
credit report, and (3) a problem with a credit reporting company’s investigation into an existing problem.
These three complaints made up 80.3% of all complaints that the CFPB received during FY2023. The
fourth most common issue was debt collectors attempting to collect a debt not owed. The fifth related to
managing a checking or savings account.
Congressional Research Service
3
Figure 1. Most Common Issues Reported in CFPB’s Consumer Complaints
Source: CFPB Consumer Complaints Database.
Notes: Data covers FY2023 (October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), as of January 22, 2024.
Congressional District Information
At the state level, the CFPB often publishes information about complaint submission rates and product
composition. In addition, the CFPB’s interactive webpage allows users to see consumer complaint trends
by state. For these reasons, CRS decided to focus its analysis on consumer complaints by congressional
district.
link to page 4
Congressional Research Service
4
Members and congressional staff who want information about CFPB consumer complaints in their
congressional districts relative to the entire nation may contact the authors at their listed emails for a
tailored CRS analysis. Using CFPB’s data, CRS can provide a one-page analysis, as shown as a template
below in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Template of One-Page Congressional District Analysis of CFPB Complaints
Database
Source: CFPB Consumer Complaints Database.
Notes: Members and congressional staffers can request this one-page analysis from the authors. Data covers FY2023
(October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023), as of January 22, 2024.
The counts provided in these one-page analyses are approximations of the total number of complaints
filed from a particular district. CRS used zip code and state information in the CFPB consumer complaint
data to match to congressional district. Some zip codes cross congressional district lines. In those cases,
CRS matched the complaints to both districts. This could result in overcounting for a particular district.
Meanwhile, some complaints did not have location information available and therefore were not included
Congressional Research Service
5
in the district-level analysis. This could result in undercounting for a particular district. Although CRS’s
analysis is not exact, congressional offices may find it useful to have information about the types of
complaints coming from consumers inside their districts and in nearby areas.
Author Information
Cheryl R. Cooper
Graham C. Tufts
Analyst in Financial Economics
Research Assistant
Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
permission of the copyright holder if you wish to copy or otherwise use copyrighted material.
IN12315 · VERSION 1 · NEW