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The CFPB's newly released 2025 Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Annual Report highlights persistent violations and widespread compliance failures in the debt collection industry, even as the Bureau itself faces an uncertain future.
According to the report, consumers submitted over 207,000 debt collection complaints in 2024, making it one of the CFPB’s largest categories of grievances. The most common concern involved attempts to collect debts not actually owed, often tied to mistaken identity or identity theft.
Credit card debt was the most frequently disputed category, following consumers who said they were unsure what type of debt the collector referenced.
CFPB examinations uncovered recurring violations of federal law, including collectors failing to send required validation notices, contacting consumers at prohibited times, and continuing to call or text after consumers opted out. Examiners also reported instances of collectors using misleading business names, inadequate disclosures that communications were from a debt collector, and credit card issuers selling time-barred debt coded as collectible.
The Bureau noted that several interpretive rules and advisory opinions from prior years, particularly on medical debt collection, were withdrawn in 2025, signaling regulatory recalibration. Meanwhile, the CFPB did not initiate any new FDCPA enforcement actions in 2024, leaving the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as the sole federal agency publicly enforcing debt collection laws. Phantom debt schemes and illegal fee practices remained among the FTC’s top targets.
The report also highlights heightened risks for servicemembers, older Americans, Native American communities and surviving spouses, groups disproportionately harmed by medical billing errors, surprise collections, and credit reporting issues. Complaints from servicemembers reached a record 11,700, the highest ever recorded by the Bureau.
The agency has warned courts it could run out of money and shut down in early 2026, raising the possibility that federal consumer-protection enforcement could soon be dramatically curtailed.
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