A report issued today by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that 28% of consumers have at least one debt in collections by a third-party debt collector. The report examined collections tradelines—information about a consumer account sent to a credit reporting company, generally on a regular basis—from 2004 to 2008.
Significantly, the report noted that as of the second quarter of 2018, 78% of total third-party debt collections tradelines were for non-financial debt, such as medical, telecommunications or utilities debt. Of those, 58% were for medical debt, while 20% were for telecommunications or utilities debt, the CFPB found.