Consumer dispute reports covered millions of complaints in 2024. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) received approximately 3,187,900 consumer complaints, while the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Consumer Sentinel Network recorded 6,471,708 consumer reports. These figures measure different reporting systems and should not be added together.
Table of contents
- Complaint volume and routing
- Financial products generating disputes
- How companies resolved complaints
- Credit reporting and debt collection issues
- Fraud, scams and identity theft
- Who reported disputes and where
Complaint volume and routing
The CFPB’s 2024 complaint figures describe how consumer reports moved through its complaint system. The CFPB sent approximately 2,829,400 complaints to companies for review and response, equal to 89% of complaints received. It referred 3% to other regulatory agencies, while 8% were classified as not actionable. These categories describe CFPB processing outcomes, not a finding that every complaint was valid or invalid.
Companies confirmed a commercial relationship and closed approximately 2,674,000 CFPB complaints with an explanation or relief. They provided administrative responses to approximately 84,300 complaints. Among the approximately 2,829,400 complaints sent to companies, companies provided timely responses to 99.7%.
Response timing varied. Approximately 13% of complaints sent to companies were closed within the initial 15-day response period. Approximately 98% were closed within the final 60-day response period. The timing figures therefore show a much larger share reaching closure by the longer period than during the initial response window.
The CFPB’s figures come from the 2024 Consumer Response Annual Report, which reports activity for calendar year 2024.
Financial products generating disputes
Credit or consumer reporting dominated the CFPB’s 2024 complaint categories. It generated approximately 2,703,400 complaints, or 85% of all complaints. Debt collection generated approximately 207,800 complaints, or 7%. Credit cards generated approximately 92,100 complaints, or 3%, while checking or savings accounts generated approximately 67,900, or 2%.
The remaining listed categories were smaller, although each represents a distinct consumer problem area. Money transfer, money service and virtual-currency products generated approximately 27,400 complaints, or 0.9%. Mortgages generated approximately 26,100, or 0.8%.
| CFPB product category | Approximate 2024 complaints | Share of all complaints |
|---|---|---|
| Credit or consumer reporting | 2,703,400 | 85% |
| Debt collection | 207,800 | 7% |
| Credit cards | 92,100 | 3% |
| Checking or savings accounts | 67,900 | 2% |
| Money transfer, money service and virtual currency | 27,400 | 0.9% |
| Mortgages | 26,100 | 0.8% |
The percentages are reported category shares and are rounded. They are useful for showing concentration, but they should not be treated as a complete ranking of every possible consumer dispute outside the CFPB system.
How companies resolved complaints
Across CFPB financial-product complaints in 2024, companies closed 48% with non-monetary relief and 46% with an explanation. Monetary relief accounted for 0.8%. These outcomes describe the CFPB complaint-response data; they do not establish that a particular remedy was adequate in every individual case.
The product-level results differed. Companies sent responses to 99.6% of credit or consumer reporting complaints that the CFPB sent for review. Credit or consumer reporting complaints closed with non-monetary relief accounted for 52% of those complaints, while monetary relief accounted for 0.03%.
Debt-collection complaints had a different reported pattern. Companies responded to 97% of debt-collection complaints sent for review. Debt-collection complaints closed with an explanation accounted for 67%, and those closed with non-monetary relief accounted for 27%.
These figures suggest that “resolution” is not a single outcome. A response may involve an explanation, non-monetary relief or monetary relief, and the mix depends on the financial product. The CFPB report does not support treating all closed complaints as financially compensated disputes.
Credit reporting and debt collection issues
The scale of credit-reporting complaints was especially pronounced. The CFPB sent approximately 2,451,400 credit or consumer reporting complaints to companies, equal to 91% of that product group. Consumers submitted more than 2,514,000 complaints about nationwide consumer reporting agencies in 2024.
Among credit or consumer reporting complaints with closure responses, consumers reported trying to resolve the issue with the company before filing in 86% of cases. Credit-reporting complaint volume in 2024 was 182% higher than the monthly average for the prior two years. The monthly average for complaints about incorrect information on a report was 247% higher than the prior two-year monthly average.
Debt collection also showed sharp movement in selected issues. The CFPB sent approximately 159,700 debt-collection complaints to companies, or 77% of that product group. Consumers reported trying to resolve the issue with the company before filing in 79% of debt-collection complaints.
Complaints about unrecognized debt increased 333% from the prior two-year monthly average in 2024. Complaints in the debt-collection category labeled “Other debt” increased 54% from that prior two-year monthly average. These are comparisons with a monthly baseline, not forecasts of future complaint volume.
Credit-card issues also changed relative to the same type of baseline. The monthly average for the leading credit-card issue, a problem with a credit report or score, increased 240% in 2024 versus the prior two-year monthly average. General-purpose credit-card or charge-card complaints increased 67% from the prior two-year monthly average.
Fraud, scams and identity theft
The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2024 records a broader set of consumer reports than the CFPB’s financial-product complaint system. Sentinel recorded 6,471,708 consumer reports in 2024. Fraud reports accounted for 2.6 million, or 40%; identity-theft reports accounted for 1.1 million, or 18%; and other consumer-protection reports accounted for 2.8 million, or 43%.
By Sentinel category, credit bureaus and information furnishers were largest, with 1,353,175 reports. Identity theft was second, with 1,135,291 reports, and imposter scams were third, with 845,806 reports. Twenty-two percent of imposter-scam reports indicated a dollar loss. Consumers reported losing $2.95 billion to imposter scams in 2024.
Thirty-eight percent of the 2.6 million fraud reports indicated a money loss. Consumers reported more than $12 billion in fraud losses, including more than $5 billion from investment-related scams. The median loss across all FTC fraud reports was $497.
Payment method figures show different concentrations of reported losses. Bank transfers and payments accounted for $2.09 billion in aggregate reported fraud losses. Cryptocurrency accounted for $1.42 billion. These are reported aggregate losses, not an estimate of all losses that occurred.
Who reported disputes and where
The share of fraud reports indicating a money loss varied by age. Consumers aged 20–29 reported losing money in 44% of their FTC fraud reports. The corresponding shares were 24% for consumers aged 70–79 and 21% for consumers aged 80 and over. These percentages describe reports in the FTC system and do not measure every consumer’s probability of experiencing fraud.
Credit-related identity theft remained a major report type. The FTC received 449,032 identity-theft reports involving misuse of an existing credit card or an application for a new credit card.
Military consumers reported more than 99,000 fraud complaints to the FTC. Within that total, they reported 44,587 imposter-scam complaints and more than $199 million lost to imposter scams.
Reported fraud and identity theft were geographically concentrated by per-capita rate. The five states with the highest per-capita rates of reported fraud were Florida, Georgia, Delaware, Nevada and Maryland. For reported identity theft, the five highest-rate states were Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Texas and Delaware. These rankings are based on reports per capita, not total dollar losses or total complaint counts.
Email was the contact method identified in 25% of FTC fraud reports that specified a contact method. Among fraud reports contacted by email, 11% indicated a money loss, totaling $502 million, with a $600 median loss. The email figures apply only to reports that specified a contact method and should not be read as applying to every fraud report.