Ranking

States With the Highest Collector Complaint Volume

PlainCollector Rankings · Updated September 2026

These twelve states recorded the highest aggregate CFPB complaint volume against debt collectors and credit-reporting agencies, together accounting for 785,199 complaints. Population size, age of the credit market, and state-level consumer-protection statutes all influence where complaints concentrate.

Ranked List

Based on consumer-filed CFPB complaints, not proven violations or a court finding of wrongdoing. Complaint volume also tracks population and reporting activity, not inherent risk.

  1. #1

    Texas

    172,149

    2,473 reporting collectors · most complaints against Equifax, Inc.

  2. #2

    Florida

    124,524

    2,279 reporting collectors · most complaints against Encore Capital Group Inc.

  3. #3

    California

    112,020

    2,387 reporting collectors · most complaints against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC

  4. #4

    Georgia

    85,576

    1,879 reporting collectors · most complaints against Resurgent Capital Services L.P.

  5. #5

    New York

    53,744

    1,598 reporting collectors · most complaints against Transunion Intermediate Holdings, Inc.

  6. #6

    Illinois

    41,794

    1,540 reporting collectors · most complaints against Resurgent Capital Services L.P.

  7. #7

    Pennsylvania

    40,073

    1,429 reporting collectors · most complaints against Transunion Intermediate Holdings, Inc.

  8. #8

    North Carolina

    38,233

    1,462 reporting collectors · most complaints against Equifax, Inc.

  9. #9

    New Jersey

    30,806

    1,278 reporting collectors · most complaints against Resurgent Capital Services L.P.

  10. #10

    Ohio

    30,195

    1,483 reporting collectors · most complaints against Resurgent Capital Services L.P.

  11. #11

    South Carolina

    28,151

    1,258 reporting collectors · most complaints against CL Holdings LLC

  12. #12

    Virginia

    27,934

    1,426 reporting collectors · most complaints against Equifax, Inc.

Why These States Lead the Rankings

Texas, Florida, California, and Georgia appear at the top of this snapshot by total consumer-filed complaints. Texas leads with 172,149 complaints across 2,473 reporting collectors. These totals describe filings, not proven misconduct or the legal protections available in a state.Per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Consumer Complaint Database.

This ranking does not include a verified state-law dataset. It should not be used to infer licensing requirements, filing deadlines, remedies, or the meaning of a complaint in any particular state.

How We Aggregated These States

Each row sums total_complaints from our state_rankings table, which derives from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database state field. The "most complaints against" column shows the single collector with the highest in-state complaint volume, usually one of the major credit-reporting agencies for high-population states. Click any state row for the full list of collectors active in that state, complaint-volume distribution, and per-state grade breakdowns.

Caveats

These are absolute totals, not per-capita rates. A state with 10× the population will naturally generate 10× the complaints even if collection practices are identical. Compare states by complaints_per_100k (where available on individual state pages) for a population-adjusted view. Complaint counts also reflect consumer awareness of the CFPB complaint channel, states with active legal-aid networks and consumer-rights organizations tend to file more complaints regardless of underlying conduct.

Three Structural Drivers Behind State Rankings

The source records the complaint, consumer state, company, product, issue, and response fields. It does not establish which state-level factors caused a ranking, so this page does not make causal claims about licensing, deadlines, insurance coverage, or enforcement.

What State Rankings Do Not Tell You

State of residence in the CFPB dataset is the consumer's reported state, not the collector's. National collectors operate across all 50 states from a small number of corporate addresses. State rankings therefore reflect where consumers are when contacted, not where the collection company is based. The per-state collector breakdown on each state detail page shows which collectors consumers in that state encountered most, which is the more actionable view for residents considering an FDCPA complaint.

Cross-Reference With State Attorney General Data

This is a CFPB-based ranking, not a complete count of every state complaint channel. Researchers should identify and evaluate any additional official source before combining it with this dataset.

How To Interpret a High-Volume State

A state at the top of these rankings is not, by itself, a sign of widespread misconduct in that state. The four most populous states - California, Texas, Florida, New York, together account for roughly a third of all CFPB debt-collection complaints simply because they contain roughly a third of the U.S. consumer-credit market. The per-capita view (visible on individual state pages) is a population-adjusted filing rate. It remains descriptive: it does not show whether residents encounter more unlawful conduct or why the rate differs.

Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Consumer Complaint Database · 2013-2026 Aggregated by consumer state of residence; absolute totals (not population-adjusted).

Every figure on PlainCollector is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.