Reports

Consumers in Native American communities disproportionately experience medical debt in collections on credit reports.

The CFPB's annual report to Congress summarizes its activities, and those of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), in administering the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 2023. This report also highlights consumer protection issues in medical and rental debt collection.

Removing low-balance medical collections from consumers’ credit reports improved credit scores but has not yet led to more credit applications.

This issue spotlight describes the health savings account (HSA) market, including the complex costs and fees that many consumers with HSAs are forced to pay.

Medical collections on consumer credit reports have been an area of focus for CFPB research in recent years. In addition to studying trends in medical debt as a whole, CFPB reports have documented the burden of medical debt on older Americans, and the incidence of medical collections in rural counties in Appalachia and the Deep South region.

The Bureau’s annual report to Congress summarizes the Bureau’s activities to administer the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 2022 as the primary federal regulator of the consumer debt collection industry. This report also includes activities conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2022 in relation to debt collection.

CFPB report highlighting consumer complaints received by the agency's Office of Servicemember Affairs. The report discusses issues related to digital payment apps also known as [person-to-person (P2P) payment platforms], and actions the agency has taken and the results it has achieved to protect the military community from financial harm.

Medical billing practices can leave people 65 and older with inaccurate bills and attempts to collect amounts they do not owe.

This report highlights some of the risks to consumers of using financing products such as medical credit cards and installment loans (including deferred interest healthcare credit cards) to pay for medical procedures and services.

We study removals of medical collections from credit reports that occurred between 2012-2020 and find associated increases in credit score and credit availability.

This report provides an overview of the trends in third-party debt collections tradelines on consumer credit reports from 2018 to 2022.

An analysis of the risks that nursing home residents and their caregivers face by assessing consumer complaints, nursing home admission contracts, and debt collection lawsuits.

This report focuses on the consumer finances of rural Appalachians, and is the first in a series of reports focusing on the finances of rural consumers.

Charity care is one of the main forms of assistance hospitals offer to low-income consumers to help cover the cost of medical treatment.

This is part of a series of reports of consumer credit trends produced by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau using a longitudinal sample of approximately five million de-identified credit records from one of the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies.

The Office of Servicemember Affairs’ 2021 annual report on the top financial concerns facing servicemembers, veterans, and military families, based on the complaints they submitted to the CFPB.

This report analyzes debt collection and credit or consumer reporting complaints submitted to the Bureau in 2021.

This report summarizes key areas of concern in medical debt collections and reporting. The report begins with a section describing the medical debt landscape. It then discusses the negative consequences of medical debt for consumers. Next, it outlines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical debt. The report concludes with a brief discussion of federal and state regulatory developments.

This report provides a brief overview of third-party debt collections tradelines. It compares tradelines from debt buyers to those from other debt collectors.

Roughly half of all collections tradelines that appear on credit reports are reported by debt collectors seeking to collect on medical bills claimed to be...

Our data point reports are prepared by our Office of Research to provide an evidence-based perspective on consumer financial markets, consumer behavior, and...