One year ago, we pondered whether there was any point for a person to make a complaint to America’s financial watchdog.
At the time, the situation was particularly bleak at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Trump administration was trying to fire nearly all of the bureau’s employees. The agency’s acting director, Russell Vought, had issued a stop-work order. A backlog of 16,000 consumer complaints had reportedly piled up. Visitors to the CFPB’s website were briefly greeted with a “404: Page not found” message.
None of these events instilled confidence that the error on your credit report would be addressed anytime soon, if at all.
So why bother, right?
Well, consumers definitely bothered. In 2025, Americans sent over 6.6 million complaints to the CFPB, more than double the amount the agency received the year before. And despite a shrinking workforce and President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to significantly downsize the agency, it appears consumers have been getting timely responses at a similar rate to previous years.
But consumer advocates and former CFPB employees say there are signs indicating you may not be satisfied with the outcome you get. Some also say the bureau appears to be discouraging people from making complaints in the first place. The CFPB itself suggests that it wants to reduce the volume of complaints, saying in a recent report that the system is “overwhelmed by fictitious claims.” And the latest proposal by the agency to cut staff calls for trimming the consumer response team by 40% from what it had at the beginning of 2025.
The CFPB didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Here’s what you should know about making a complaint to the CFPB in 2026.
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How the CFPB Complaint Process Works
Created as part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act in response the 2008 financial crisis, the CFPB’s purpose is to protect consumers from deceptive or unfair practices by credit card companies, lenders, banks and other financial institutions.
An independent agency, the bureau is funded through the Federal Reserve, receiving quarterly transfers that don’t require Congressional approval. The amount of funding the CFPB can receive annually is capped.
The consumer bureau is tasked with setting and enforcing financial rules and with monitoring financial businesses to ensure they’re following the law. When financial institutions run afoul of the law or engage in potentially deceptive practices, the CFPB works to recover funds for affected consumers. Since its creation, the CFPB has returned more than $21 billion in compensation and relief to consumers.
Many CFPB cases begin with a very basic step: Someone makes a complaint.
People can make complaints to the CFPB regarding various financial issues. These can involve credit-reporting errors, credit card disputes, debt collection disagreements and more. The CFPB is statutorily required to maintain and monitor a database of complaints.
You can file complaints with the CFPB in several ways. You can submit a complaint on the agency’s website, over the phone, or by mail. The CFPB also receives complaints from other agencies or members of government. For example, if you reach out to your congressional representative with a complaint about a financial product or institution, they’ll most likely pass it along to the CFPB.
After you’ve filed a complaint, the consumer bureau typically presents it to the company to review. Companies often respond to you within 15 days, detailing any steps they have taken to address the situation. Your complaint is then entered into the CFPB’s public database, with your personal information removed. You’re then given the opportunity to provide feedback.
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CFPB Cuts: Where Things Currently Stand
Ever since a federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt last spring to fire about 1,500 of the CFPB’s then 1,700 employees, that case has pinballed through the courts. In the meantime, the agency has been weakened in other ways.
Attrition has depleted the workforce to less than 1,200. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act slashed the agency’s funding cap by nearly 50%. The agency also took a U-turn on multiple actions, dropping cases and reversing settlements that potentially caused consumers to miss out on as much as $3 billion.
In a late March court filing, the CFPB floated a new proposal to cut the bureau down to 556 employees, saying that number would be sufficient to allow the agency to continue to fulfill its mandated duties, which include tracking consumer complaints.
While the latest proposed cuts would be steep, observers say it appears the administration has shifted from its initial push to dismantle the bureau.
“The footprint is certainly reduced, but we’ve kind of moved away from all the drama about laying off almost the whole staff, eliminating the agency and shutting its doors,” says Eamonn K. Moran, a former CFPB attorney who’s now a partner at Holland & Knight. It’s unclear whether the courts will look more favorably on the latest staffing proposal, which would leave 81 employees on the consumer response team that handles complaints.
Many Republicans and banking groups have criticized the consumer bureau in recent years, with some accusing it of overstepping its authority and saying it creates rules that are too restrictive. They say regulations intended to provide relief to consumers sometimes end up having the opposite effect, resulting in increased costs.
“Smaller the better,” Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott said when asked about his vision for the CFPB at the American Bankers Association Summit in 2025. “Everything we can do to shrink the size of the CFPB, the better off the average consumer is.”
Richard Cordray, who led the CFPB from 2012 to 2017 as its first director, told U.S. News in 2025 that he doesn’t believe the new administration has put much thought into the changes it’s making to the agency.
“They seem to have no enthusiasm whatsoever for recognizing that some of these functions that the bureau performs actually do a lot of good for people and fix a lot of situations,” Cordray said.
More Complaints, but What About Compensation?
The volume of consumer complaints has long been on an increasingly upward trajectory, and 2026 is currently on pace to exceed last year’s record numbers.
But while complaints jumped by 108% from 2024 to 2025, the amount of monetary relief people received increased just 12%, from $93.5 million to about $105 million. Former CFPB employees say this could be a sign that financial companies are betting the agency won’t enforce or investigate many of the claims it might have in the past. In turn, they say, those companies may feel less obligated to provide compensation to affected consumers.
“I’m concerned that people are not getting the same sort of results that they would if they had an active, engaged regulator,” says Erie Meyer, who served as chief technologist and senior advisor to the director at the CFPB from 2021 to 2025.
The meteoric rise in complaints could be attributed to several factors, depending on who you ask. Some argue its simply a natural progression that occurs as more people become familiar with the agency and learn they can make complaints. Others point to an economic environment where many Americans facing a tight budget can’t afford to simply overlook a hidden fee or wrongful charge.
The CFPB says there’s another culprit: Fraudsters looking to game the system.
“Since its inception, the CFPB’s consumer complaint portal has been left vulnerable to credit repair scammers who, among other things, submit large volumes of duplicative complaints, many of which are fraudulent in nature,” the agency wrote in its semi-annual report to Congress in March. “The CFPB is continuing its work to get to the bottom of what is occurring. Having a system that ignores statutorily established procedures and is overwhelmed by fictitious claims distracts the process from legitimate grievances and thus harms the consumers the Bureau has a mandate to protect.”
The agency says in the report that it is working on strengthening the complaint portal to weed out illegitimate claims.
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A Warning Sign
But some question whether the bureau’s tactics may also end up discouraging actual harmed consumers from making claims.
In February, the CFPB added a notice — written in all caps — to the portal cautioning consumers against filing a complaint unless they’ve already taken several prior steps. Consumer groups see it as a warning that will likely deter some people from going any further with their complaint.
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“They’re going to sense that they shouldn’t be filing complaints,” says Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. “That’s the clear signal the bureau is trying to make.”
Meyer says she was alarmed when she first saw the notice go up, and she believes it will leave many people unclear of what they should do.
“I was really surprised to see the agency sloppily throw up pretty close to gibberish in front of people who are desperate just for a straight answer or some kind of help,” she says.
Why You Should Still Make Complaints to the CFPB
Despite the chaos of early 2025 and the spike in complaint volume, the CFPB’s data shows that it has managed to keep pace. The bureau reports that 97% of complaints were passed along to companies within a day. Companies provided a timely response of 15 days or less in 99% of cases, the CFPB says.
Consumer advocates and ex-bureau employees say you should continue to make complaints, even if you have concerns that you won’t get the outcome you desired. Other enforcement agencies, advocacy groups and journalists monitor the database and may take action that could benefit you and others.
State attorneys general have shown a willingness to take up major consumer protection cases, as seen in New York’s $1 billion Zelle lawsuit. In other cases, class-action lawsuits have yielded payouts, such as the recent $425 million Capital One settlement.
Plus, experts note that a new administration’s CFPB could potentially look back at past complaints and take delayed action.
If you’re concerned that making a complaint to the CFPB won’t generate a satisfactory outcome, there are several other avenues you can try. The National Consumer Law Center website provides a list of options for consumers to turn to if they’re looking to make a complaint.
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Should You Even Bother Making a Complaint to the CFPB? originally appeared on usnews.com
Update 05/06/26: This story was previously published at an earlier date and has been updated with new information.
