Key finding
- Complaints about "took or threatened to take negative or legal action" in debt collection went from 10,750 in 2024 to 48,578 in 2025, and 55,304 in 2026 up to 2 October.
- In 2024, 59.2% of them were about threats to damage the consumer's credit. By 2025 it was 85.7%, and by 2026, 92.7%.
- No single company explains it, and most of these complaints carry no published narrative. We cannot say why it happened.
The CFPB complaint database groups every debt collection complaint under one main issue chosen by the consumer. One of them, "Took or threatened to take negative or legal action", was a small category in 2024. In our main investigation we showed that debt collection complaints quadrupled in two years. This note looks inside that number to see what changed.
Debt collection complaints under the issue "Took or threatened to take negative or legal action," by sub-issue. 2026 is partial, through 2 October 2026. Counts for the two series are derived from the sub-issue shares and rounded to the nearest 10. Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database; Kibbo Research analysis.
What the Data Shows
- The issue grew faster than the whole category. Debt collection complaints rose from 155,894 in 2024 to 283,204 in 2025 (+82%). This one issue grew from 10,750 to 48,578, so its share of all debt collection complaints went from 6.9% to 17.2% and, in 2026 to 2 October, to 23.1% (55,304 of 239,536). Its 2026 count to 2 October already exceeds all of 2025.
- It is almost entirely one sub-issue. "Threatened or suggested your credit would be damaged" accounted for 59.2% of the issue in 2024, 85.7% in 2025 and 92.7% in 2026 to 2 October. The other seven sub-issues (such as being sued, having property seized, or being threatened with arrest) fell as a share.
- No single company explains it. The five companies with the most complaints under this issue in 2025 account for 26.2% of the increase between 2024 and 2025 (9,922 of 37,828). The rise is spread across many companies. We do not name companies in this note.
- It is not a move from another product. For the five largest companies under this issue, we checked every product family they appear in between 2022 and 2026. None of their other families shrank as their debt collection volume rose.
- The complaints are mostly empty of text. The share of these complaints with a published narrative fell from 49.8% in 2024 to 16.5% in 2025. (The CFPB stopped publishing new narratives after 14 August 2026, so we do not use the 2026 figure for this comparison.) The consumer's description of the debt type also changed: "I do not know" as the sub-product went from 36.2% in 2024 to 78.6% in 2025, and 88.7% in 2026 to 2 October.
- Geography. Texas accounted for 12.8% of these complaints in 2024, 20.2% in 2025 and 26.9% in 2026 to 2 October. The top 10 states hold 61% to 67% of the total in each period.
- The rise came in steps. The largest monthly increases were in December 2025, October 2025, July 2025, September 2025 and June 2026.
| Period | Issue count | Share of debt collection | Credit-damage share | With narrative |
|---|
| 2024 | 10,750 | 6.9% | 59.2% | 49.8% |
| 2025 | 48,578 | 17.2% | 85.7% | 16.5% |
| 2026 (to 2 Oct) | 55,304 | 23.1% | 92.7% | not comparable (narratives end 14 Aug) |
What We Cannot Say
- Why it happened. The data show a change in what consumers select; they do not show what happened to them. With most of these complaints lacking a published narrative, we cannot read what they describe. We do not offer an explanation we have not tested.
- Whether the threats were real. A complaint is an allegation. It is not a finding that a company broke the law, and company responses are self-reported and not verified by the CFPB.
- Whether the pattern is organised. We did not test whether these complaints were prompted by a service, a campaign or a form. The pattern (one sub-issue, little text, one sub-product label, a concentration in Texas) is something we flag for others to examine.
Method and Limits
- Source: CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, Debt collection product family (harmonised, see crosswalk in the dataset), complaints received from 25 August 2023 so that issue labels come from one taxonomy period. 2026 runs to 2 October (the latest date in our copy).
- Counts for the issue (10,750 / 48,578 / 55,304) reconcile exactly with our full-year tables.
- The split between credit-damage and other sub-issues is calculated from the published sub-issue shares; counts are rounded to the nearest 10.
- The narrative comparison uses 2024 and 2025 only, because the CFPB stopped publishing narratives on 14 August 2026.
- Every step is logged with its date in our research log (Steps 8 and 9).
Related
How to Cite
Kibbo Research (2026). Behind the Debt Collection Surge: Complaints About Credit-Damage Threats Grew More Than Sixfold. getkibbo.com. https://www.getkibbo.com/investigations/cfpb-debt-collection-credit-threats
