U.S. Consumer Complaint Statistics
A national snapshot of consumer complaints against financial companies, computed live from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. Each figure below is aggregated directly from the federal complaint records, not estimated.
- 14,088,398
- CFPB consumer complaints
- 76%
- name a Big-3 credit bureau
- 3,848
- companies on record
- 52
- states & territories
The national picture
Consumers have filed 14,088,398 complaints against 3,848 financial companies in this CFPB dataset, and the three nationwide credit bureaus alone account for about 76% of them, more than every bank, card issuer, and debt collector combined.
- 14,088,398
- CFPB complaints in this dataset
- 76%
- name Equifax, TransUnion or Experian
- 63%
- are about credit reporting
- 3,848
- companies with complaints on record
Aggregate counts across the full CFPB Consumer Complaint Database for companies meeting this dataset's reporting threshold.
Complaints by product
Credit reporting dominates the federal complaint volume; lending, debt collection, and deposit accounts follow well behind. Counts are total complaints on record for each product category.
Cite this page
These statistics are free to quote and link with attribution. Suggested citation:
PlainCredit, "U.S. Consumer Complaint Statistics," based on the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. https://plaincredit.com/statistics/
Source data is in the public domain. The Consumer Complaint Database is published by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Reading these numbers: complaint volume tracks how many consumers a company serves as well as how it treats them, so the largest firms naturally appear most often. Credit-reporting complaints dominate because errors on a credit report affect loans, housing, and jobs, and the same dispute is often filed against all three bureaus. Figures are refreshed when the CFPB updates its public database; they describe complaints filed, not findings of wrongdoing, and are not financial or legal advice.
