Educational, not advice. This article explains how the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s complaint process works. It is general information, not legal or financial advice, and it does not recommend any lender, bank or service.
What this article covers: how to file a CFPB complaint, what happens after you do, what the Bureau’s own figures say about results, where the CFPB itself stands in 2026, and the other places you can complain.
What it does not cover: whether you have a legal claim against a particular company. For that, a lawyer or legal aid office is the route.
In short
- The CFPB complaint portal is working. Filing online usually takes under 10 minutes, or you can call (855) 411-2372.
- Companies generally respond within 15 days, or tell you they need longer and give a final answer within 60 days.
- They almost always respond. In 2025 companies gave a timely response to 99.6% of the complaints sent to them.
- Money back is rare. Most complaints close with an explanation. Monetary relief ranged from 0.02% of credit reporting complaints to 12% of credit card complaints.
- The Bureau’s future is contested, but on 25 September a federal judge ruled that its funding from the Federal Reserve must continue.
- You have other routes too: your bank’s own regulator, your state attorney general and the FTC.
If a bank, lender, debt collector or credit bureau won’t fix a problem, a CFPB complaint is still one of the easiest ways to put pressure on them. It costs nothing, it lands with the company directly, and the company is expected to answer. The Bureau itself has spent 2026 in court and in Congress, though, so it’s fair to ask whether filing does anything any more. Here is how to file a CFPB complaint, what happens after you press send, and what the Bureau’s own numbers say you can expect.
How to file a CFPB complaint
You file at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. The Bureau says “Submitting online usually takes less than 10 minutes.” You can also file by phone on (855) 411-2372, which takes longer.
The CFPB handles complaints about checking and savings accounts, credit cards, credit reports, debt collection, debt and credit management, money transfers and virtual currency, mortgages, payday loans, personal loans, prepaid cards, student loans, and vehicle loans or leases.
What to have ready:
- A clear, short account of the problem, with dates, amounts and what you’ve already asked the company to do.
- Supporting documents, such as statements, letters or screenshots, up to 50 pages.
- The company’s name, chosen from the list in the form.
- Your contact details and address, so the company can respond to you.
Put everything in the first time. The Bureau warns: “Include everything you need to because you generally can’t submit a second complaint about the same problem.”
One rule comes first if your complaint is about a credit report. Where a credit bureau is showing wrong or incomplete information, the complaint page says: “You are required by law to first dispute the information directly with the credit or consumer reporting agency.” So dispute it with the bureau, keep a record of what you sent and when, and complain to the CFPB if that doesn’t fix it. The Bureau has a guide to disputing an error on your credit report.
What happens after you complain
The CFPB sends your complaint to the company, usually fast: in 2025 it sent 97% to a company in a day or less. Then the clock starts. In the Bureau’s words: “Companies generally respond in 15 days. In some cases, the company will let you know their response is in progress and provide a final response in 60 days.”
Once the company replies, you can review its answer and tell the CFPB whether you’re satisfied. Your complaint also becomes data. The Bureau publishes details in its public Consumer Complaint Database “without information that directly identifies you”. Your own account of what happened is a different matter. Until this summer the Bureau published that too, if you agreed. On 14 August 2026 it announced it was “ceasing publication of unverified complaint narratives and visualizations”, and it moved the narratives it had already published to its FOIA Reading Room. So expect the facts of your complaint to show up in the database, but not your own words.
The CFPB also shares complaint data with other state and federal agencies for supervision and enforcement. So a complaint still counts for something even when yours, on its own, changes nothing.
What a CFPB complaint actually achieves
The Bureau’s Consumer Response Annual Report for 2025, published in March 2026, puts numbers on it. Volume has exploded, from about 352,400 complaints in 2019 to 6,635,400 in 2025. And companies almost never ignore them: “Companies overwhelmingly provided timely responses, providing a timely response to 99.6% of the more than 5.9 million complaints sent to them for review in 2025.”
A response isn’t a refund, though. Here is how complaints closed in the three biggest categories:
| Product | Closed with an explanation | Non-monetary relief | Monetary relief |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit or consumer reporting | 51% | 40% | 0.02% |
| Debt collection | 66% | 23% | 0.1% |
| Credit cards | 63% | 19% | 12% |
“Non-monetary relief” means the company changed something without paying you, such as correcting a credit report, stopping collection calls or fixing an account. For credit reports, which make up 88% of all complaints, that is usually the point: you want the wrong entry removed, not a cheque.
One trend stands out. Complaints about debts people didn’t recognise rose 240% in 2025 compared with the previous two years’ monthly average, and the Bureau links it to collections “appearing (or reappearing)” on credit reports. If that’s your problem, dispute the entry with the credit bureau first, and if it stays, a CFPB complaint against both the collector and the credit bureau is exactly what the system is built for.
Where the CFPB stands in 2026
The complaint portal has kept running through a year of lawsuits and hearings. Here is where things stood in late September 2026.
- Leadership. Mark Paoletta has been Acting Director since 1 August 2026, taking over from Russell Vought. The nominee for permanent Director, Brian Johnson, cleared the Senate Banking Committee 13 to 11 on 17 September and is waiting for a vote of the full Senate.
- Funding. On 25 September a federal judge in Oregon, Ann Aiken, rejected the argument that the CFPB can’t draw money from the Federal Reserve while the Fed is losing money. NTD reported: “A federal judge on Sept. 25 rejected the Trump administration’s claim that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) cannot take money from the Federal Reserve while the central bank is losing money.” The case, State of New York v. Vought, is named after the Acting Director whose decision it overturned. It was the second court to reject that theory.
- Staffing. A separate case over plans to cut the Bureau’s workforce by roughly half was still before a federal judge in Washington, with an order against mass layoffs still in place, as at late September.
- Congress. H.R. 10184, which would bring the Bureau into the annual budget process and raise the threshold for its supervision of banks from $10 billion to $30 billion in assets, passed the House Financial Services Committee 28 to 21 on 16 September. It still needs three more committees and a floor vote, and analysts give it little chance of becoming law this year.
None of this stops you filing today. For how the Bureau’s retreat compares with the UK’s tightening of buy now, pay later rules, see our BNPL regulation comparison, which covers H.R. 10184 in more detail.
Other places to complain
You don’t have to pick one. Plenty of people file with the CFPB and with the company’s own regulator at the same time, and that is allowed.
- National banks (names ending “N.A.” and most large banks): the OCC’s HelpWithMyBank.
- State banks that are Federal Reserve members: Federal Reserve Consumer Help.
- Most community and regional banks: the FDIC’s information and support center. The FDIC suggests checking your bank’s primary regulator first, because filing with the right one can be quicker.
- Credit unions: the NCUA Consumer Assistance Center.
- Scams, fraud and identity theft: the FTC’s ReportFraud. The FTC doesn’t resolve individual complaints, but reports feed law enforcement.
- Your state attorney general: find yours through the National Association of Attorneys General. State AGs can act on patterns of complaints against companies in their state.
Frequently asked questions
Can I still file a CFPB complaint in 2026?
Yes. The complaint portal at consumerfinance.gov/complaint is operating, and companies continued to respond to almost all complaints in 2025.
How long does a company have to respond?
Companies generally respond within 15 days. If they need longer, they must say so and give a final response within 60 days.
Will my complaint be made public?
Details go into the public Consumer Complaint Database without information that directly identifies you. Your own description of what happened is no longer published: the Bureau stopped publishing complaint narratives on 14 August 2026.
Will I get money back?
Possibly, but don’t count on it. In 2025, 12% of credit card complaints closed with monetary relief, compared with 0.1% for debt collection and 0.02% for credit reporting. Many complaints end with the company fixing the problem instead.
Can I complain to the CFPB and my bank’s regulator?
Yes. You can file with the CFPB and with the OCC, FDIC, Federal Reserve or NCUA, depending on who supervises your bank or credit union.
Sources
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, “Submit a complaint”, updated 22 September 2026
- CFPB, “The CFPB to Cease Discretionary Publication of Complaint Narratives and Visualizations”, 14 August 2026
- CFPB, Consumer Response Annual Report, January 1 to December 31, 2025, March 2026
- NTD, “Federal Judge Vacates Bid to Cut Off CFPB’s Fed Funding”, 26 September 2026
- American Banker, CFPB director-designate Brian Johnson clears Senate Banking, September 2026
- H.R. 10184, Consumer Financial Protection Accountability and Reform Act of 2026, introduced text (GovInfo)
- Consumer Finance Monitor, House Financial Services Committee approves H.R. 10184, 22 September 2026