Debt Collection Complaints Decline in February as FDCPA Suits Rise

Debt collection complaints published by the CFPB declined nearly 20 percent in February compared to January, according to an analysis by WebRecon LLC. But lawsuits claiming violations of the FDCPA bucked a trend in the month and increased more than 10 percent.

In February, the CFPB published 2,513 debt collection complaints in its public database, down 19.5 percent from January. The total number of complaints published in February will actually rise over the coming weeks as more individual complaints meet the criteria for publication. But the number will still fall well short of January’s.

Breakdown of the debt collection complaints from February:

Total number of debt collectors complained about: 548

The types of debt behind the complaints were:

• 682 Other (phone, health club, etc.) (27.1%)
• 557 Credit card (22.2%)
• 541 Unknown (21.5%)
• 266 Medical (10.6%)
• 183 Payday loan (7.3%)
• 91 Mortgage (3.6%)
• 67 Non-federal student loan (2.7%)
• 65 Federal student loan (2.6%)
• 61 Auto (2.4%)

Most common issues in complaints:

• 1033 Cont’d attempts collect debt not owed (41.1%)
• 492 Communication tactics (19.6%)
• 406 Disclosure verification of debt (16.2%)
• 222 False statements or representation (8.8%)
• 206 Improper contact or sharing of info (8.2%)
• 154 Taking/threatening an illegal action (6.1%)

The top five sub-issues within complaints were:

• 678 Debt is not mine (27%)
• 311 Frequent or repeated calls (12.4%)
• 287 Not given enough info to verify debt (11.4%)
• 242 Debt was paid (9.6%)
• 176 Attempted to collect wrong amount (7%)

In consumer litigation targeting the ARM industry, FDCPA lawsuits increased 10.6 percent in February. Year-to-date, FDCDPA lawsuits are still down a considerable 21 percent from this time last year. TCPA lawsuits increased 6.7 percent compared to January, with year-to-date totals up 35 percent over the first two months of 2014.