Find a US debt collection agency with a public track record you can check.
Independent, data-driven agency profiles built from public records: licensing and bond status, certifications and complaint records, every fact sourced and dated.
Which debt collection agencies have the longest verified record?
Ranked on positive, verified measures only. Every fact carries its source, and a company's own claims are marked as its own.
What brings you here?
Two of the most common reasons people check a collector. Pick whichever fits.
Run a collection agency? See how we rank agencies, and how to get listed.
Coverage by state
Each state is checked against the public register that covers it (in New York, New York City's). Band boundaries are identical everywhere, so a band means the same thing in every state.
Texas
Surety bond$10,000 surety bond filed with the Texas Secretary of State, required of every third-party collector under Finance Code Section 392.101.
Source: Texas Secretary of State (bond filing); enforced under Finance Code Chapter 392 · Last checked: October 1, 2026
See all 375 Texas agencies, ranked →Illinois
State licenseCollection Agency Act license issued by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, required of a collection agency operating in the state under 205 ILCS 740, Section 4; an agency collecting for others also keeps a $25,000 surety bond in force behind it.
Source: Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, Division of Financial Institutions · Last checked: September 7, 2026
See all 13 Illinois agencies, ranked →New York
City licenseDebt Collection Agency license issued by New York City's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, required to collect personal or household debts from city residents, wherever the agency is based.
Source: New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (Debt Collection Agency license) · Last checked: August 5, 2026
See all 180 New York agencies, ranked →Florida
State registrationConsumer collection agency registration filed with the Florida Office of Financial Regulation and renewed every year, required under Florida Statutes Section 559.553.
Source: Florida Office of Financial Regulation, Division of Consumer Finance (consumer collection agency registration) · Last checked: October 1, 2026
See all 47 Florida agencies, ranked →California
State licenseDebt Collection Licensing Act license issued by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, required of a debt collector under Financial Code Section 100001 since 2022.
Source: California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI), Debt Collection Licensing Act · Last checked: October 1, 2026
See all 35 California agencies, ranked →Every agency in every band is listed on its state page, in full, with no pagination. Within a band, agencies are alphabetical: no agency is ranked above another, and placement is never for sale.
State registers re-read every week · latest read: October 5, 2026
How this ranking works
Agencies are grouped into bands by how many years they have been continuously covered on their own state's public register: 25 or more years, then 15-24, 5-14, and under 5. The instrument differs by state, a surety bond in Texas and a license in New York City, and the boundaries do not. Within a band, agencies are listed alphabetically, so no agency is ranked above another and there are no ordinal positions. Only agencies whose coverage is active on the register appear in a band. A long unbroken record is a verifiable public record of staying in business under that state's legal requirement; it is not a quality rating. Rankings are never for sale: paid options are clearly labeled and can never change where an agency sits. The full rules are on the methodology page.
Explore the directory
Everything is free for buyers, and every fact carries its public source.
All agencies
The full ranked directory of register-checked US debt collection agencies.
By state
State rules, license and bond requirements, and register-checked profiles, state by state.
By industry
Medical, commercial, government and more, from each agency's own declared specialty.
Enforcement records
Regulator actions against listed agencies, built from the primary documents.
Buyer guides
How to choose an agency, what to ask, and how fees usually work.
Methodology
Exactly what we measure, where the data comes from, and what is never for sale.
Run a collection agency?
Your entry already shows what the public record says, free, whether you claim it or not. Claiming it lets you add the detail only you hold: what you take, how you work, and where. It never changes where you rank.
Independent, and on the buyer's side
We are not a collection agency and we do not take commissions on placements. Rankings are built from public records, checked against those records at the source, and never sold.
Common questions
How does Debt Collection Index rank debt collection agencies?
Debt Collection Index groups agencies by track record on the state register, state by state: the years each has been continuously covered on that state's own public register (a surety bond in Texas, a license in New York City), shown in bands (25+ years, then 15-24, 5-14, and under 5). Only agencies with current coverage appear, and within each band they are listed alphabetically, so no agency is ranked above another. Every published fact links to its public source with the date it was last checked.
Can a debt collection agency pay to rank higher?
No. Rankings on Debt Collection Index are never for sale. Agencies can pay for clearly labeled featured placement or for qualified buyer leads, but paid placement is always marked as such and can never change where an agency sits in the merit rankings.
Does Texas require debt collection agencies to be licensed?
Texas does not issue a collection license as such. Every third-party debt collector must instead file a $10,000 surety bond with the Texas Secretary of State before collecting consumer debts, under Texas Finance Code Chapter 392, Section 392.101. Bonds filed since August 2025 are on the Secretary of State’s TPDC Public Search Portal, the state’s live bond register; the Secretary of State’s older debt collector search, which held filings up to August 2025, was retired on September 29, 2026. The portal does not return every older filing, so if it shows nothing, ask the collector for its Secretary of State file number and search that number.
Why are agencies grouped by state rather than in one national list?
Because the registers are different instruments from different regulators. A Texas surety bond is a $10,000 guarantee from a surety company that a person harmed by a violation can claim against; a New York City license is permission to operate, with no money held. Each is a continuity-of-good-standing signal, so the band boundaries are identical in every state, but the records are never merged into one number that no register asserts. A company covered in more than one state is shown as exactly that: one span per register, each in that register’s own words.
Full detail in the methodology and editorial standards.