CFPB on Debt Collection: What Consumers are Complaining About

Last month, the CFPB issued the first in a new monthly report focusing on consumer complaints. The report covers complaints by product, state and company, and each issue includes a specific product spotlight and geographic focus. This first report showcases debt collection.

Debt collection represents 32% of complaints submitted in June 2015, and this is the 22nd consecutive month the CFPB handled more complaints about debt collection than anything else.

The debt collection complaints for June 2015 fall into six categories:

Source: CFPB, Monthly Complaint Report Vol. 1, July 2015

You might be surprised to learn the greatest month-over-month percentage decrease (-4%) came from student loan complaints.

What does this mean for members of the accounts receivable management industry? You’re expected to mitigate risk areas. You’re expected to respond to complaints within 15 days and if the complaint can’t be closed within this time period, document work in progress and final resolution within 60 days. Anything done outside this window is considered untimely.

What this report offers is a quantification of consumer satisfaction, keeping the industry informed of changes, trends, anomalies, and areas to focus on for specific improvement.  It begs the question – do you have policies and procedures in place to detect and mitigate risk?

Are your collection operations configurable enough to support evolving regulatory compliance? What are you doing to improve the consumer experience? Let us know in the comments area below. I’ll be writing more about these areas in the weeks to come.

To read the CFPB report go to:  http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201507_cfpb_monthly-complaint-report-vol-1.pdf