Last reviewed: 30 September 2026
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Where do you file a complaint about a credit report, a debt collector, or a debt relief problem?
It depends on the problem. For a wrong item on your credit report, dispute it with the credit reporting company first. For collection, credit reporting, or debt management problems, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) takes complaints and forwards them to the company. For scams, the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) ReportFraud site, your state attorney general, and local police are the routes the agencies themselves point to.
Why it matters
A complaint sent to the wrong place, or too early, can be discarded or wasted. The CFPB says you generally can't submit a second complaint about the same problem, so it is worth choosing the route before you file.[1]
The short version
| Your problem | Where to go | What the agency says it does |
|---|---|---|
| A wrong or incomplete item on your credit report | Dispute with the credit reporting company first. Then, if needed, a CFPB complaint. | The CFPB says you are required by law to first dispute the information directly with the credit or consumer reporting agency. It asks you to attest that you submitted your dispute more than 45 days ago or that it is no longer pending.[1][2] |
| A problem with a debt collector | CFPB complaint ("Debt collection" is a listed product) | Forwards the complaint to the company for a response.[1] |
| A problem with a debt relief or debt management company | CFPB ("Debt and credit management" is a listed product); FTC ReportFraud; state attorney general; local consumer affairs office | The FTC's consumer page says to report a problem with a debt settlement or other debt relief company to ReportFraud.ftc.gov, your state attorney general, or your local consumer affairs office.[1][3] |
| A suspected scam | Local police or sheriff; your state attorney general; adult protective services if the victim is an older person or a person with a disability; the FTC | These are the steps the CFPB lists if you think you have been the victim of a scam.[1] |
| Suspected identity theft behind an error on your report | IdentityTheft.gov | The CFPB points to it as the federal government's resource for reporting and recovering from identity theft.[4] |
The CFPB complaint, in detail
- Products it accepts complaints about include credit reports and other personal consumer reports, debt collection, debt and credit management, credit cards, mortgages, student loans, payday and personal loans, vehicle loans or leases, and others. If your product isn't listed, the CFPB points you to usa.gov for other places to complain.[1]
- What happens next: the CFPB sends the complaint to the company, and if another government agency would be better able to help, it sends it there and tells you. Companies generally respond in 15 days; in some cases the company says its response is in progress and gives a final response in 60 days. You then have 60 days to give feedback on the response.[1]
- What you provide: your name, email, phone number, and address (without an address the company can't respond), the key facts in your own words, and supporting documents up to 50 pages.[1]
- Before you file: the CFPB suggests trying the company first, since companies can usually answer questions specific to your situation.[1]
- What it does with your complaint: it shares it with certain state and federal agencies, and publishes information about it, without information that directly identifies you, in its public Consumer Complaint Database. After you submit, you can't delete your personal information; the CFPB says the current retention period for complaints is 25 years.[1]
- By phone: (855) 411-2372, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday except federal holidays.[2]
The official page is consumerfinance.gov/complaint.
The FTC's ReportFraud, in detail
The FTC says to report fraud, scams, or bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, and that a report goes into its Consumer Sentinel database, which is available to federal, state, and local law enforcement across the country.[5] That describes what happens to a report; it is not a promise to resolve your own dispute with a company, so do not count on a response to your own situation.
Your state
The CFPB says that, for a credit reporting problem, you can complain to your state attorney general, and that your state may have protections beyond the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act.[6] USAGov keeps a directory of state consumer protection offices.[7]
Your options, step by step
- Identify the problem type using the table above.
- For a report error, dispute first. See furnishers and your dispute rights, and what to do if the result comes back "verified".
- Keep records: dates, names, account statements, and letters. The CFPB form takes up to 50 pages of documents.[1]
- Read a complaint's result for what it is. A complaint is not a finding of wrongdoing; see how to read the complaint database.
- Before paying a company for credit or debt help, see the warning signs checklist.
What this page does not cover
It does not tell you which regulator licenses a particular kind of company in your state, and it does not cover complaints about companies we have not reviewed. It does not name or rate any company.
When we will update this page
We revisit it when the CFPB changes its complaint page or its credit reporting notice, when the FTC changes ReportFraud, or when another agency takes over any of these functions.
What you can do next
- Find a company — see which specific US companies we checked and what we could verify.
- How we check — the rules and sources behind each result.
- More credit help guides
- Report an error on this page or in a result.