The CFPB received 19,926 student loan complaints from October 2025 through September 2026. 11,403 of them (57%) were about dealing with the lender or servicer. The year before, the count was 20,822.
3,677 complaints were filed under struggling to repay and 2,977 were about incorrect information on a credit report. The product covers both federal and private student loans.
California had the most complaints, 1,972, followed by Texas (1,682) and Florida (1,560). Per resident, the District of Columbia was highest at 14 per 100,000 people.
What these numbers are
These are complaints, not findings. The CFPB does not verify every claim, one person can file more than one complaint, and the issue is the category the consumer picked. Complaint counts also move with awareness of the CFPB and with how companies route customers to it, so a change in the count is not by itself a change in how companies behave.
Complaints by issue
| Issue the consumer chose | Complaints | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Dealing with your lender or servicer | 11,403 | 57.2% |
| Struggling to repay your loan | 3,677 | 18.5% |
| Incorrect information on your report | 2,977 | 14.9% |
| Problem with a company's investigation into an existing problem | 864 | 4.3% |
| Getting a loan | 371 | 1.9% |
| Improper use of your report | 324 | 1.6% |
| Issue with income share agreement | 87 | 0.4% |
| Credit monitoring or identity theft protection services | 82 | 0.4% |
| Issue where my lender is my school | 73 | 0.4% |
| Problem with fraud alerts or security freezes | 53 | 0.3% |
| Unable to get your credit report or credit score | 15 | 0.1% |
Complaints by state
| State | Complaints | Per 100,000 residents |
|---|---|---|
| California | 1,972 | 5.0 |
| Texas | 1,682 | 5.4 |
| Florida | 1,560 | 6.7 |
| Georgia | 1,240 | 11.1 |
| New York | 1,204 | 6.1 |
| Pennsylvania | 961 | 7.3 |
| Illinois | 838 | 6.6 |
| North Carolina | 724 | 6.6 |
| New Jersey | 690 | 7.3 |
| Ohio | 615 | 5.2 |
| Virginia | 597 | 6.8 |
| Michigan | 586 | 5.8 |
| Maryland | 558 | 8.9 |
| Alabama | 431 | 8.4 |
| Massachusetts | 399 | 5.6 |
| South Carolina | 398 | 7.3 |
| Tennessee | 367 | 5.1 |
| Indiana | 345 | 5.0 |
| Arizona | 343 | 4.5 |
| Colorado | 335 | 5.6 |
| Washington | 329 | 4.1 |
| Louisiana | 324 | 7.0 |
| Missouri | 286 | 4.6 |
| Minnesota | 259 | 4.5 |
| Connecticut | 251 | 6.8 |
| Wisconsin | 246 | 4.1 |
| Nevada | 210 | 6.4 |
| Mississippi | 188 | 6.4 |
| Kentucky | 178 | 3.9 |
| Oregon | 175 | 4.1 |
| Utah | 131 | 3.7 |
| Oklahoma | 123 | 3.0 |
| Arkansas | 110 | 3.6 |
| Hawaii | 105 | 7.3 |
| Kansas | 101 | 3.4 |
| District of Columbia | 99 | 14.1 |
| Iowa | 99 | 3.1 |
| Delaware | 98 | 9.3 |
| Nebraska | 84 | 4.2 |
| New Mexico | 75 | 3.5 |
| Idaho | 73 | 3.6 |
| West Virginia | 68 | 3.8 |
| New Hampshire | 67 | 4.8 |
| Rhode Island | 64 | 5.8 |
| Maine | 58 | 4.1 |
| Montana | 46 | 4.0 |
| South Dakota | 24 | 2.6 |
| Vermont | 23 | 3.5 |
| Wyoming | 23 | 3.9 |
| Alaska | 21 | 2.8 |
| North Dakota | 16 | 2.0 |
50 states and D.C. 127 complaints had no state or a territory or military address, so the state rows add to less than the total. The rate per 100,000 residents is our calculation using Census 2024 ACS one-year population.
Source
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Consumer Complaint Database, product "Student loan", date received October 1, 2025 through September 30, 2026, queried through the public API on October 14, 2026. U.S. government data in the public domain. Population: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 one-year estimates (B01003). Our tables are available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Student Loan Complaints by Issue and State," My Credit Guide, October 14, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/student-loan-complaints/.