The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Friday began the process to significantly reshape how consumers file complaints, particularly against credit reporting companies, a move that could also have ripple effects across debt collection, banking, and servicing. In a notice published in the Federal Register, the CFPB announced it is seeking public comment on extending and potentially modifying its Consumer Response Intake Form, the backbone of the Bureau’s complaint system.
The timing has drawn attention. The CFPB’s notice was made just days after receiving a letter from the Consumer Data Industry Association, which urged the CFPB to adopt measures it says would reduce abusive or duplicative complaints against credit reporting agencies. Those proposals include:
- Requiring consumers to provide additional sensitive personal information, such as dates of birth
- Implementing two-factor authentication and limiting the number of complaints tied to a single phone number
- Restricting complaints submitted from shared IP addresses, potentially affecting submissions from libraries, shelters, or advocacy organizations
Consumer advocates argue those changes would suppress legitimate complaints rather than fix underlying problems. According to the National Consumer Law Center, consumers filed nearly 5 million credit reporting complaints last year, the vast majority involving the three nationwide credit bureaus.
“Those huge numbers reflect massive issues with credit reports,” said Chi Chi Wu, director of consumer reporting and data advocacy at NCLC, in a statement, warning that new barriers could prevent consumers from seeking help when errors or identity theft damage their credit.
For the collections industry, the issue extends beyond credit reporting. Debt collection is the second most common category of CFPB complaints, and NCLC says those complaints have increased more than fourfold from 2023 to 2025. While the CFPB’s announcement focuses on paperwork and burden estimates, it leaves open the possibility that future changes to the intake process could apply across all complaint categories.
