State complaint profile

Debt collection complaints in Washington

14,503 CFPB complaints filed against 1,146 debt collectors active in Washington.

Complaints
14,503
Collectors
1,146
Top collector
Encore Capital Group Inc.

This data comes from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database and reflects consumer complaints, not proven violations.

Washington at a glance

Washington consumers have filed 14,503 CFPB debt-collection complaints against 1,146 collectors.

14,503
CFPB complaints filed
1,146
collectors active here
#1
most-complained: Encore Capital Group Inc.

State-of-residence is the consumer's address at filing, not the collector's. A complaint is a consumer filing, not a proven violation.

Washington Debt Collection Laws

Washington Collection Agency Act requires all collectors operating in the state to be licensed.

State Mini-FDCPALicensing Required

Contact your state attorney general for current enforcement information.

Insights: Debt Collection in Washington

Consumers in Washington have filed 14,503 CFPB debt collection complaints against 1,146 different collectors. Complaint volume reflects both the size of the collection industry operating in Washington and the willingness of residents to escalate disputes through the federal regulatory process rather than handle them privately with the collector.

Higher per-capita complaint counts in some states correlate with a combination of stronger state-level consumer-protection statutes (which often add private rights of action on top of the federal FDCPA), more active state attorneys general, and more public outreach from the CFPB itself, not necessarily worse collector behavior. The pattern can also reflect debt-buyer concentration: states where large secondary-market buyers route accounts tend to generate elevated complaint flow regardless of the underlying account's origin.

The most-complained-about collector active in Washington is Encore Capital Group Inc., but national-scale buyers and servicers typically dominate complaint volume in every state. For the practical Washington-specific protections that go beyond the federal FDCPA, licensing requirements, statute-of-limitations rules, and exempt-property thresholds, see the state rights note above and our FDCPA rights guide.

Most-complained-about collectors in Washington

By complaints filed from this state

complaints

What this shows These eight collectors draw the most complaints from Washington residents, usually national bureaus and large debt buyers operating in every state.

Source CFPB Consumer Complaint Database

Active Debt Collectors

Sorted by most complaints

Encore Capital Group Inc.

D
720 total complaints ↑ rising

Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC

D
711 total complaints ↑ rising

CL Holdings LLC

D
535 total complaints ↑ rising

Resurgent Capital Services L.P.

D
406 total complaints ↑ rising

Equifax, Inc.

D
309 total complaints ↑ rising

Rowland Avenue Management, Inc. A/KA Columbia Debt Recovery, LLC d/b/a Genesis

F
284 total complaints ↑ rising

Transunion Intermediate Holdings, Inc.

D
252 total complaints ↑ rising

CCS Financial Services, Inc.

F
249 total complaints ↑ rising

Experian Information Solutions Inc.

D
249 total complaints ↑ rising

T.S. Holdings

F
223 total complaints ↑ rising

P.S.C., Inc

D
207 total complaints ↓ falling

Transworld Systems Inc

D
202 total complaints → stable

Citibank, N.a.

D
201 total complaints → stable

Capital ONE Financial Corporation

D
200 total complaints → stable

I.C. System, Inc.

D
167 total complaints ↑ rising

Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.

D
163 total complaints ↑ rising

Synchrony Financial

D
154 total complaints → stable

Renton Collections Inc.

F
145 total complaints ↓ falling

I.q. Data International, Inc.

D
136 total complaints ↓ falling

Bank of America, National Association

D
134 total complaints → stable

ERC

D
134 total complaints ↓ falling

Aldous & Associates, PLLC

D
133 total complaints ↑ rising

National Credit Systems,Inc.

D
128 total complaints ↑ rising

Alliance One, Inc.

D
126 total complaints ↓ falling

Convergent Resources, Inc.

D
118 total complaints ↓ falling

Kriya Capital, LLC

D
112 total complaints ↑ rising

Caine & Weiner Company, Inc.

D
111 total complaints ↑ rising

Evergreen Professional Recoveries, Inc.

C
108 total complaints ↓ falling

HW Holding, Inc

D
105 total complaints → stable

Jpmorgan Chase & Co.

D
102 total complaints ↑ rising

Navient Solutions, LLC.

D
99 total complaints ↓ falling

Merchants Credit Corporation

D
98 total complaints ↓ falling

Armada Corp.

D
90 total complaints → stable

Wells Fargo & Company

D
83 total complaints ↑ rising

American Express Company

D
80 total complaints ↑ rising

Suttell, Hammer & White, P.S

D
79 total complaints → stable

Afni Inc.

D
74 total complaints ↓ falling

Radius Global Solutions LLC

D
73 total complaints ↑ rising

NCB Management Services Inc.

D
71 total complaints ↑ rising

Ray Klein, Inc.

D
71 total complaints ↓ falling

Bonneville Billing and Collections

D
69 total complaints ↑ rising

U.s. Bancorp

D
69 total complaints ↓ falling

Waypoint Resource Group, LLC

F
67 total complaints ↑ rising

Sunrise Credit Services, Inc

D
63 total complaints ↑ rising

Diversified Consultants, Inc.

D
62 total complaints ↓ falling

Harris & Harris, Ltd.

D
62 total complaints ↑ rising

Southwest Credit Systems, L.P.

D
62 total complaints → stable

Spring Oaks Capital, LLC

F
62 total complaints ↑ rising

Audit & Adjustment Co. Inc.

D
60 total complaints → stable

Sequium Asset Solutions, LLC

F
60 total complaints ↑ rising

If a collector is contacting you in Washington

Federal FDCPA rights apply everywhere; some state protections go further.

  • Check the collector's national record and grade before you respond or pay. Browse rankings
  • Demand written debt validation within 30 days of first contact. Validation letter
  • File with the CFPB, your Washington attorney general, or the state finance regulator, the three channels run in parallel. Your rights

Per-capita rate reflects where consumers file, not collector misconduct. Not legal advice, for your situation, consult a licensed attorney.

Data sourced from the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCollector Editorial

About These Collectors

Every collector listed for Washington appears here because at least one consumer from this state filed a complaint with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) naming that company. The page is a per-state slice of the federal Consumer Complaint Database. Most entries are credit-reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, Experian) and large national debt-buyers (Encore Capital, Portfolio Recovery, Resurgent Capital). Smaller regional collectors appear only when complaint volume from Washington residents passes the dataset's inclusion threshold.

What the Grade Means

Each company's letter grade combines four signals: total CFPB complaint volume normalized against company activity (size-adjusted), timely-response rate (the share of complaints answered within the federal 15-day window), consumer-dispute rate (the share of company responses consumers flagged as inadequate), and complaint trend (whether recent volume is rising, stable, or falling). The composite is bucketed A through F on a curve, each grade holds roughly a fifth of the 5,283 graded collectors, so an F reflects the weakest ~20% relative to peers, not an absolute threshold. Click any company to see the breakdown.

Filing a Complaint as a Washington Resident

If you believe a collector named on this page has violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or otherwise mishandled your account, you have three parallel channels. First, the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov/complaint - the federal channel that powers this dataset. Second, the Washington attorney general's consumer protection division, which enforces state-level debt-collection statutes. Third, the state banking-and-finance regulator (which may license debt collectors operating in Washington). The three channels serve different purposes and can be pursued in parallel; we recommend the CFPB first because it produces a public record and a required company response within 15 days.

Methodology Note

State-of-residence in the CFPB record is the consumer's address at the time of complaint, not the collector's address. National collectors operate from a small number of corporate centers (typically Texas, Arizona, Florida, California) but appear on every state's per-state page when consumers from that state file. The state ranking and the per-state collector counts therefore reflect consumer experience, not corporate footprint. For collector headquarters and licensing detail, see the individual collector detail page.

Reading This Page Alongside the National View

Every collector listed here also appears on the national rankings page and on the recent-12-month leaderboard. The state-page slice gives you the Washington-specific complaint volume and per-state collector mix; the national pages give you the full nationwide context for understanding whether a collector's behavior in Washington reflects a structural pattern or a localized issue. We recommend reading both before deciding whether to file a complaint or pursue state-channel remedies, a collector with high state volume but low national volume points toward a regional portfolio acquisition or enforcement gap, while a collector with high state AND national volume points toward a structural compliance issue.

What the Per-Capita Rate Means

The complaints-per-100,000-residents rate normalizes absolute complaint volume against Washington's population, which makes cross-state comparison meaningful. Populous states naturally generate higher absolute complaint counts, but per-capita rate surfaces states where consumers are disproportionately likely to file federal complaints. A high per-capita rate typically reflects some combination of (a) higher uninsured-rate medical-debt activity, (b) weaker state-level debt-collection licensing enforcement, (c) longer statute-of-limitations periods on consumer debt, or (d) active consumer-advocacy infrastructure that directs residents toward the federal complaint channel. None of these factors implies misconduct by any specific collector, they shape the volume at which consumers in a state are willing and able to file complaints with the federal government.

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.