Short answer: for a problem with a lender or a loan, file with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which sends your complaint to the company for a response (CFPB). If the lender is licensed by your state, you can also contact your state's financial regulator. If the offer was a scam, report it to the FTC as well. You can use more than one.
Where to file
| Where | Use it for | What it does with it |
|---|---|---|
| CFPB complaint portal | A problem with a loan, a lender, a payday loan, debt collection or a credit report | Sends the complaint to the company so it can review it, and may send it to another agency that can help better; it also shares complaints with other state and federal agencies (CFPB). |
| Your state financial regulator | A lender licensed in your state, or a lender you think should be licensed and is not | Each state sets its own process. Find your regulator in the CSBS directory and check its site for how it takes complaints. |
| ReportFraud.ftc.gov | A loan scam, a fake lender, an upfront fee demand, or a misleading offer | Reports go into the Consumer Sentinel Network, a database available to local, state and federal law enforcement, and FTC staff use them to spot patterns and build cases (FTC). |
Before you file with a state, look up the lender's license in NMLS Consumer Access. The license record names the state that issued it, which tells you which regulator to contact.
What to include
The CFPB asks for the same things any regulator will need (CFPB):
- A clear description of the problem, with dates and amounts.
- Supporting documents, such as loan disclosures, statements, emails, texts or receipts. The CFPB portal accepts up to 50 pages.
- The company name, or its full contact details if you have them.
- Your name, email, phone number and address.
- What you want: for example a correction, a refund of a fee, or an explanation.
Keep copies of everything you send and write down the date and confirmation number of each complaint.
Filing with the CFPB, step by step
- Submit online at consumerfinance.gov/complaint or by phone at (855) 411-2372 (TTY/TDD (855) 729-2372), 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET, Monday to Friday.
- You get email updates as the complaint moves forward.
- The CFPB says companies generally respond in 15 days; in some cases a company says its response is in progress and gives a final response in 60 days.
- You can review the company response and have 60 days to give feedback on it.
- The CFPB publishes information about complaints, without details that directly identify you, in its public Consumer Complaint Database.
Timelines above are the CFPB's own description of the process (CFPB). What happens with any one complaint depends on the facts and the company.
If you sent money to a scammer
Report it to the FTC, and contact the bank, card issuer or payment app you used to send the money and ask what it can do. Our guides to advance fee loan scams and fake loan texts and calls show the warning signs.
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Disclosure: Modern Lending Solutions is not a lender, loan broker or agent for any lender or loan broker, and does not make credit decisions. Any compensation we receive is paid by participating lenders, only for advertising services. This guide is general information, not financial or legal advice.