In the second quarter of 2026, 4.88% of consumers in the New York Fed’s credit panel had a third-party collection on their credit file, with an average amount of $1,577 for people who had one. At the end of 2019 the share was 9.08% and the average was $1,452. In the first quarter of 2003 it was 9.77% and $901.
The lowest share in the series was 4.56% in Q1 2025. The series has 94 quarters. The figures are for the share of people who have a collection item and the average amount per person with one. They do not say how many separate collection accounts a person has, or whether the debt is owed.
| Quarter | Share of consumers with a collection | Average collection amount |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2003 | 9.77% | $901 |
| Q4 2019 | 9.08% | $1,452 |
| Q4 2020 | 7.68% | $1,438 |
| Q4 2021 | 6.28% | $1,234 |
| Q4 2022 | 5.20% | $1,237 |
| Q4 2023 | 4.65% | $1,591 |
| Q4 2024 | 4.62% | $1,631 |
| Q4 2025 | 4.60% | $1,678 |
| Q1 2026 | 4.98% | $1,540 |
| Q2 2026 | 4.88% | $1,577 |
Selected quarters. The CSV has every quarter from the first quarter of 2003 through the second quarter of 2026.
Source and attribution
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, August 2026, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, underlying data page 18 (third-party collections), from the New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel / Equifax. The data are in the New York Fed’s Household Debt and Credit materials. We re-downloaded the workbook on October 11, 2026.
© 2026 Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Content from the New York Fed subject to the Terms of Use at newyorkfed.org.
The New York Fed does not endorse this page, My Credit Guide, or any use of these figures. We have not changed the source figures. Anything labelled as a rank, a change, or a comparison is our calculation.
Our arrangement of the table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)" and keep the New York Fed attribution above whenever you repeat the figures. CC BY 4.0 covers our table, not the New York Fed’s rights in its figures.
Steven Reynolds, "People with a Collection Account," My Credit Guide, October 11, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/collection-accounts/.
A collection on a credit file is separate from the state deadline for being sued over a debt. Both are covered on our statute of limitations by state pages. To dispute an item, use the dispute letter builder.