Debt Collection Complaint Data Shows Shift in What is Angering Consumers

The most popular complaints about debt collection from consumers in January 2012 involved ARM firms calling repeatedly or continuously and calling about a debt consumers claim they didn’t owe or asking for more money than what consumers think they owe.

Those were the same top two categories in 2009, when insideARM.com last analyzed debt collection complaint data from the FTC. But there has been a fairly significant shift in the number of individual complaints that cite those two abuses.

In 2009, nearly half (47.4 percent) of all complaints received by the FTC claimed that collectors were calling them “repeatedly or continuously.” It was the most-cited complaint description by far. In January 2012, only 26.3 percent of complaints cited this issue, a decline of 44.5 percent. Either consumers no longer cared as much about call volumes, or debt collectors were calling less often. One thing is certain: the drop was not due to a change in the collection methodology of complaints.

It’s important to note that the FTC’s complaint descriptions are standard, meaning the language doesn’t change on a source by source basis. The descriptions are worded the same on the FTC’s online complaint form as they are in the FTC’s call center software interface. And the description wording in 2009 was identical to the wording today.

The decline in the call volume complaint was so dramatic, it landed in second place in January, now surpassed by “Falsely Represents Character, Amount, Status of Debt.” That category also declined in total citations.