How to file a CFPB complaint, what happens next and does it work

How to file a CFPB complaint: the short version

You file a CFPB complaint online at consumerfinance.gov/complaint, by phone on (855) 411-2372, or by post to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, PO Box 27170, Washington, DC 20038. It is free. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), submitting online usually takes less than 10 minutes, and a phone submission 25 to 30 minutes. The phone line is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, Monday to Friday, except federal holidays (TTY/TDD (855) 729-2372).

The CFPB sends your complaint to the company, and the company generally responds within 15 days, or within 60 days if it tells you its answer is still in progress. You then have 60 days to give feedback on the response.

Before you start, check that the CFPB is the right place. If your problem is with a phone company, an insurer or a shop, the complaint route finder shows which agency takes it and what deadline applies.

Is the CFPB still taking complaints in 2026?

Yes, the CFPB complaint portal was accepting complaints on 27 September 2026, and the agency's own statements in 2026 say it will keep collecting them. The agency has changed how the system works since 2025. These are the changes the CFPB itself has announced:

• 11 November 2025: the CFPB told a court that the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel had concluded it could not lawfully request funds from the Federal Reserve at that time, and that it expected enough money to operate until at least 31 December 2025. Its funding has since been the subject of court cases; this guide does not predict their outcome.
• 24 June 2026: the CFPB announced changes to "restore integrity" to the complaint system. It introduced two-factor authentication (you must verify both an email address and a mobile number to open an account), a notice that you must first dispute credit report errors with the credit bureau, and new categories requiring third parties such as credit repair firms to disclose their involvement.
• 14 August 2026: the CFPB stopped publishing unverified complaint narratives and visualizations in its public database. Its release says it "will continue to collect" complaints, monitor company responses and share complaint information with other regulators.

The CFPB's annual report for 2025, published in March 2026, says it received more than 6.6 million complaints that year and sent 97% of those it forwarded to a company within a day or less.

What the CFPB covers, and what it does not

The CFPB takes complaints about consumer financial products and services: bank accounts, credit cards, credit reports, debt collection, mortgages, money transfers, and several kinds of loans. If it finds another government agency is better placed to help, it forwards your complaint and tells you.

If you were scammed but your bank or payment app refused to help, the complaint is about that company, so the CFPB can take it. For an unauthorized debit or transfer, your rights come from Regulation E, and the scam recovery planner puts the calls and deadlines in order from your payment date.

What to do before you file

The CFPB expects you to contact the company first in most cases, and for credit report errors it is a legal requirement. Its complaint page says companies "can usually answer questions unique to your situation", and a written record of their answer makes your complaint stronger.

For a credit report error, you must dispute the information directly with the credit bureau before you complain. According to the CFPB's credit reporting complaint notice, you cannot submit a complaint to the CFPB until that dispute is no longer pending or 45 days have passed since you filed it. If you skip this step, the company may not respond and the CFPB will stop processing your complaint once the company tells it you did not dispute first.

Example with dates. You dispute a debt on your Experian report on 1 October 2026. According to the CFPB, a credit bureau generally must investigate within 30 days, so by 31 October 2026, and tell you the result within 5 business days of finishing. If the error is still there, you can file with the CFPB once the dispute closes, or from 15 November 2026 if it is still open.

For bank problems there is no fixed wait. For credit card billing errors, the separate rules on the US bank and credit card complaints page apply first.

What you need to file a CFPB complaint

A CFPB complaint needs your contact details, the company's name, a short account of what happened and what you want, and supporting documents of up to 50 pages. The CFPB asks you to "be clear and concise" and to include only the most important dates, amounts and communications.

• Your name, email address, phone number and mailing address (all required).
• The company's name, picked from the list in the form, or its full contact details if it is not listed.
• Account or loan numbers, and the dates and dollar amounts involved.
• Copies of statements, letters, emails or chat logs with the company, up to 50 pages in total.
• What you want the company to do: refund $240 in overdraft fees, correct a late payment mark, stop calls, release an escrow refund.
• If you file for someone else, their signed, written permission. Companies respond only to the consumer or an authorized representative.

You generally cannot submit a second complaint about the same problem, so put everything into the first one.

How to file a complaint with the CFPB, step by step

The online process has five steps and takes most people under 10 minutes once their documents are ready.

1. Create an account at consumerfinance.gov/complaint and verify your email address and mobile number (two-factor authentication since June 2026).
2. Choose the product and the issue that best describe the problem, for example "Checking or savings account" and then the issue closest to yours.
3. Describe what happened in date order, with amounts, and say what a fair resolution looks like.
4. Name the company and attach your documents.
5. Review and submit. You get a complaint number and email updates, and you can check the status in your account or by phone.

A plain, factual complaint gets a more useful answer than a long one. "On 3 September 2026 Bank X charged me three $35 overdraft fees for one card payment of $12.40 that was authorized when my balance was $50.10. I asked for a refund by phone on 5 September and was refused. I want the $105 refunded." gives the company everything it needs.

What happens after you file: the 15-day and 60-day timeline

After you file, the CFPB sends your complaint to the company, which must respond within 15 calendar days or, if it says its response is in progress, give a final response within 60 calendar days. The CFPB then publishes the complaint in its database without your personal details, and you have 60 days to review the response and give feedback.

These dates apply the CFPB's rules to a complaint filed on Thursday 1 October 2026 and sent to the company on 2 October, which is typical: the CFPB sent 97% of complaints to companies in a day or less in 2025.

A company that misses the deadline is recorded in the database as not giving a timely response. In 2025, companies gave a timely response to 99.6% of the 5.9 million complaints sent to them.

Do CFPB complaints work?

CFPB complaints get a written answer almost every time, but most end with an explanation rather than money back, and the chance of relief depends heavily on the product. According to the CFPB's Consumer Response Annual Report for 2025, companies closed 53% of all complaints with an explanation, 37% with non-monetary relief and under 1% with monetary relief. The overall figures are dominated by credit reporting, which made up 88% of complaints.

Non-monetary relief is often the outcome you want: the CFPB's examples include correcting a credit report, stopping debt collection calls, restoring account access and issuing corrected documents. Companies reported $104,831,899 in monetary relief across all 2025 complaints, a figure the CFPB notes is company-reported and not verified.

A complaint also puts your case on record with a federal regulator. The CFPB says it shares complaints with state and federal agencies to support supervision and enforcement and to monitor the market.

If you disagree with the company's response

If you disagree with the company's response, use the 60-day feedback window in your CFPB account to say why. The CFPB shares your feedback with the company and uses it to assess whether companies give accurate, complete and timely answers. The CFPB's published process has no step where it rules on who is right in your individual case, so the feedback is your chance to put the disagreement on record.

Your feedback carries more weight when it is specific: quote the part of the response that is wrong, attach the document that shows it, and restate the outcome you want. After that, your options are:

• write to the company again, citing the CFPB complaint number and its response;
• complain to the company's primary regulator or your state attorney general (next section);
• for a credit report, dispute again with the credit bureau, or directly with the company that supplied the information, sending any new evidence;
• get legal advice, for example from a legal aid office, if the amount justifies it.

The CFPB public complaint database

The Consumer Complaint Database is a public, searchable record of complaints the CFPB has sent to companies, published without information that directly identifies you. According to the CFPB, a complaint is published after the company responds confirming a commercial relationship with you, or after 15 days, whichever comes first.

You can search it at consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints by company, product, issue, state and date, and see how the company closed each complaint and whether it responded on time. Since 14 August 2026 the CFPB no longer publishes consumers' written narratives or its visualizations; narratives published before then are being released through its FOIA Reading Room. Complaints a company returns because of litigation, suspected fraud, business identity theft, an unauthorized third party or duplication are not published.

Searching the database before you file shows how a company usually answers your type of problem, which helps you set a realistic resolution.

Alternatives to the CFPB: OCC, FDIC, NCUA, FTC and your state attorney general

Your bank's primary federal regulator and your state attorney general also take complaints, and you can use them alongside or after the CFPB. Use the FDIC's BankFind tool to see which federal regulator supervises your bank.

The FDIC refers complaints about banks it does not regulate to the CFPB, the OCC or the Federal Reserve, so a complaint sent to the wrong regulator is passed on rather than lost.

What to do next

Gather your documents, send your written complaint to the company if you have not already, and diary the dates: 15 days for the company's response, 60 days for a final one, and 60 days after that for your feedback.

1. Check the right agency and deadline for your problem with the complaint route finder.
2. For a credit report or loan servicer problem, follow the steps on the US loans and credit reports complaints page, starting with a written dispute to the credit bureau.
3. If money left your account through a scam or an unauthorized payment, work through the scam recovery planner the same day, because Regulation E liability limits depend on how fast you report: 2 business days after you learn of a lost card, and 60 days after the statement showing the transfer.
4. File at consumerfinance.gov/complaint and save the complaint number.

For other industries, the complaints hub lists US routes for airlines, utilities, phone and internet, health insurance, landlords and online shopping.