How Debt Collection Index ranks debt collection agencies
By Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor · Last updated: 4 July 2026
of published facts carry a public source URL and a last-checked date. Nothing unverified is ever published; it waits in a human review queue instead.
What does Debt Collection Index measure?
| Measure | What it tells a buyer | Public source |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing and bond status | Whether the agency is legally allowed to collect in its state. In Texas this means an active $10,000 surety bond on file. | Texas Secretary of State (bond filing); enforced under Finance Code Chapter 392 |
| Industry certifications | Independent, audited standards the agency has chosen to meet. | Issuing bodies' own registers |
| Complaint handling | How an agency's CFPB complaints were actually closed, scored from the agency's own recorded responses, never from unverified allegations. In final validation, not yet applied; see below. | CFPB Consumer Complaint Database |
How is the ranking ordered?
This is the complete rule, exactly as the site applies it. Nothing else influences the order, and any change to this rule is published here on the same day it takes effect.
Who is listed: only agencies with an active $10,000 surety bond on file with the Texas Secretary of State, independently checked against the live register. An agency without an active bond keeps its published profile, showing its honest bond status, but does not appear in any ranked list.
| Order | Rule |
|---|---|
| 1 | Recognised certifications, most first: CLLA, CCAA and ACA International, each verified against the issuing body's own register, never self-reported claims. |
| 2 | Years bonded, longest first, measured from the bond's Date Filed in the Secretary of State register. We use the register's date rather than a self-reported founding year because the register is independently checkable. |
| 3 | Alphabetical, as the final tie-break. |
What about complaint outcomes?
A complaint-handling score is in final validation and is not yet part of the ranking. It is built only from fields the CFPB actively maintains: of an agency's substantively closed complaints, the share that ended with verifiable monetary or non-monetary relief (such as stopping unwanted calls or correcting credit reporting) rather than an explanation alone, measured over a rolling window, with a minimum complaint floor, and compared only against similar-size agencies. An earlier draft of this score was retired before launch when verification against CFPB primary documents showed one of its inputs relied on a data field the CFPB stopped collecting in April 2017; nothing was ever scored or published using it. The final score will be disclosed in full on this page before it appears anywhere on the site.
Where does the data come from?
Only public, checkable records. Each source is linked wherever its data appears.
CFPB Consumer Complaint Database
The US government's public record of consumer complaints about debt collectors, used for complaint counts and outcomes.
Texas Secretary of State (bond filing); enforced under Finance Code Chapter 392
Third-party debt collectors must file a $10,000 surety bond with the Texas Secretary of State before collecting (Finance Code Chapter 392, section 392.101). Texas does not issue a licence as such; the bond filing is the requirement. Bonded collectors appear on the SoS Debt Collector Search. Collecting without a bond violates Chapter 392 and can be a criminal offence.
Source: statutes.capitol.texas.gov · Last checked: 28 June 2026
Certification bodies
CLLA, ACA International, CCAA status is checked against each issuing body's own public register, never self-reported claims alone.
Commercial Law League of America and others
Are rankings ever for sale?
No. This is the rule the whole site is built around. Agencies can pay for clearly-labelled featured placement or for qualified buyer leads, and that revenue keeps the directory free for buyers. But paid placement is always marked as paid, sits apart from the merit rankings, and can never change where an agency ranks. If an agency ever appears above a better-performing rival, the methodology on this page is the only reason.
How does verification work?
Automated agents gather candidate facts from the public sources above, but nothing they gather is published directly. Every fact enters a review queue, where a person checks it against the original source before it is approved. Only records that pass that human review are marked verified and appear on the site, each carrying its source link and last-checked date. If a fact cannot be verified, it stays unpublished; a blank on this site means "not yet proven", never "probably fine". The gate is selective by design: as of the last rebuild, 109 companies have been screened against public records to publish 22 verified profiles.
Common questions about the method
How often is the data checked?
Every published fact on Debt Collection Index shows its own last-checked date, and the site rebuilds from the verified database at least nightly. A fact is only as fresh as its date says it is; we never display a fact without one.
How do I report an error?
Use the corrections policy page to flag any fact you believe is wrong. Corrections are reviewed by a person against the original public source, and any agency named on the site has a right of reply.
Who is accountable for this content?
Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor, is the named person accountable for everything published on Debt Collection Index. The editorial standards page sets out the verification rules every published fact must pass.
Who regulates debt collection agencies in the US?
Several layers. Federally, the CFPB writes the rulebook: Regulation F implements the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which governs collectors of consumer debts. States add their own regimes: in Texas, Finance Code Chapter 392 sets the rules, the Secretary of State holds the bond filings, and the attorney general or a district or county attorney may investigate violations. Commercial (B2B) collection sits mainly under state law and contract rather than the federal consumer statute. A serious agency can tell you exactly which of these regimes it operates under.
What does CLLA certification tell me about a commercial collection agency?
The Commercial Law League of America, a not-for-profit association of creditors’ rights attorneys and commercial collection agencies, runs an agency certification programme with published standards and auditor’s procedures, and maintains a public list and map of certified agencies. Two things follow. First, certification is voluntary, so holding it signals an agency chose external scrutiny. Second, because the certified list is public, the claim is checkable at source, which is how this site verifies it: against CLLA’s own register, never a logo on the agency’s website.