$BROKE
Debt collector complaints
5,3025.3% upon the week before
complaints in the week to Oct 17
Quiet. 5,302 complaints in the week to Oct 17, up 5.3% on the week before.
From Jun 13 to Oct 17.
Next print
Likely 5,156 for the week to Oct 24, and between 4,637 and 5,733 eight times in ten. Track record
How it is counted
- Counts
- Complaints about debt collection that people file with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, per week. Counted by Tickerz from the Bureau's public complaint database by the day each complaint was received. The week runs Sunday to Saturday. A complaint is published once the company answers or after 15 days, so a week prints three weeks after it ends and can still rise.
- Why it is here
- Nobody calls the government about a debt collector on a good week.
- Terms
- Public domain (CC0), as the database's own API states.
- Cadence
- Weekly, three weeks late. The database updates daily. Newest complete week to Oct 17. Read Nov 12, 21:40 UTC.
- Baseline
- The prior 26 weeks, 14 needed.
Who pays and who collects
Who pays
$1,608 each
US consumers with a third-party collection on their credit report
Average collection amount per person; 4.89 percent of consumers, Q3 2026. Source
- $8.79BPeople with accounts owned by PRA GroupEstimated remaining collections, worldwide, the company's own forecast, as of Sep 30 2026. Source
- $17.90BPeople and creditors paying US third-party collection agenciesIndustry revenue, an IBISWorld estimate cited by the CFPB, estimate dated June 2022. Source
- 321,240 complaintsPeople who filed debt collection complaints with the CFPBComplaints received, product Debt collection, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026. Source
Who collects
$1.72B
Encore Capital Group (Midland Credit Management, United States)
Collections from purchased debt in the United States, nine months to Sep 30 2026. Source
- $621.0MEncore Capital Group (Midland Credit Management, United States)The part collected through lawsuits and legal channels, nine months to Sep 30 2026. Source
- $1.65BPRA GroupCash collections on purchased debt, worldwide, nine months to Sep 30 2026. Source
- $854.5MPRA Group (United States portfolios)Cash collections on United States purchased debt, nine months to Sep 30 2026. Source
- 25,439 complaintsCL Holdings LLCMost debt collection complaints of any company, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026. Source
- 18,158 complaintsResurgent Capital Services L.PFourth most debt collection complaints, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026. Source
Only the two listed debt buyers report collections in public filings; most collectors, including the most complained about company, are private and publish no dollar figure. No primary source gives total US debt in collections in dollars, and complaint counts for the newest weeks are still filling in.
Quote this number
5,302 complaints about debt collectors were filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the week to Oct 17 2026, according to Tickerz, which counts them from the Bureau's public database.
Asked often
- How many debt collection complaints does the CFPB get each week?
- 5,302 complaints about debt collection were filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the week to Saturday Oct 17 2026, counted by Tickerz from the Bureau's public database. Late complaints can still raise the week.
- Where does the $BROKE number come from?
- Tickerz reads it from Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database, product Debt collection. Weekly, three weeks late. The database updates daily. Each number is kept as it was first published, with a timestamped proof, and any later revision is shown beside it.
- Can I download the $BROKE data?
- Yes, free and with no key: the full history as JSON at https://tickerz.com/api/indices/broke and every period as CSV at https://tickerz.com/api/indices/broke/history.csv.
Resolution
- Index
- $BROKE Debt collector complaints. Rulebook v0.2, 2026-10-04.
- Prints
- Weekly, three weeks late. The database updates daily. The newest complete week is on the record after the daily proof at 12:40 UTC.
- As first published
The week ending 2026-10-17 is not timestamped yet. The daily proof at 12:40 UTC adds it.
The number as first published is final for settlement. A revision by the source is shown beside it and never replaces it.
- Fallback
- A week prints three weeks after it ends. If the database says its data is stale, the week stays open. A week that cannot be read is void.
- Precision
- Whole complaints received Sunday to Saturday, product Debt collection, as the database counts them on the day it is read.
- Cost to move
- Cheap in small numbers: a complaint is a web form. Moving a week by much means filing them by the hundred, under a name, with a federal agency.
- Grade
- display. Counted in full from a public domain database, but a week keeps rising as late complaints are published, and anyone can file a complaint. Shown, not settled on.
- For a rulebook
- Settle on the number Tickerz first recorded for $BROKE for the week ending the Saturday named in the contract, published at tickerz.com/x/broke and in GET /api/indices/broke, timestamped daily in Bitcoin with OpenTimestamps.
Embed
Badge
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<iframe src="https://tickerz.com/embed/broke" title="$BROKE on Tickerz" width="480" height="200" style="border:0;max-width:100%" loading="lazy" allow="clipboard-write"></iframe>Proof and data
- Proof
- Every reading is timestamped in Bitcoin once a day, so nobody can change it later. The newest proof covers Nov 12, in Bitcoin block 975,557.Proof fileLive feedHow it works
- Related tokens
- $ECPG$PRAA
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