CFPB Consumer Complaints

CFPB Consumer Complaints

CFPB Consumer Complaint Database has 4M+ consumer complaints about financial products since 2011. Data includes product type, issue, company response, resolution outcome, state, date, and narrative text. Searchable by company, product, date range, state. Products include mortgages, credit cards, student loans, debt collection, credit reporting.

Data Model

• Complaints — individual consumer complaints with unique complaint ID, date received, product, sub-product, issue, sub-issue, company name, state, ZIP code, consumer consent for narrative.
• Company responses — how the company responded: Closed with explanation, Closed with monetary relief, Closed with non-monetary relief, Closed without relief, In progress, Untimely response.
• Products — Credit reporting, Debt collection, Mortgage, Credit card, Student loan, Vehicle loan, Bank account, Payday loan, Money transfer, Prepaid card.
• Narratives — consumer's description of the complaint (only when consumer consented to share).
• Autocomplete — company name suggestions for typeahead/autocomplete when searching complaints.

Gotchas

• Sort parameter: Use sort=created_date_desc for newest first, sort=created_date_asc for oldest first, or sort=relevance_desc for search relevance.
• Size parameter: Controls results per page (default varies). Use size=5 for validation.
• Date format: Dates in responses are ISO 8601. Date range filters use date_received_min and date_received_max.
• Narrative availability: Consumer narratives are only present when the consumer opted in. Many complaints have null narrative fields.
• Company matching: Company names may have variations (e.g. "BANK OF AMERICA" vs "BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION"). Use search text for fuzzy matching.