Fair Debt Collection Practices Act · Plain English
There are rules about when they may call, how often, what they may say, who else they may speak to, and what they must prove if you ask. Collectors rely on the fact that almost nobody knows any of it.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act became federal law in 1977. In 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added Regulation F, which put firm numbers on things the statute had left vague.
Two points of scope first. The FDCPA applies to debt collectors — companies collecting a debt owed to someone else, including debt buyers. A company collecting its own debt is generally outside it, though other laws may apply. And it covers personal, family and household debts, not business debts.
No contact before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in your local time, unless you have agreed to it.
A collector is presumed to break the law if it calls you more than seven times in seven consecutive days about one debt. It is also presumed unlawful to call again within seven days of actually speaking with you about that debt.
If a collector knows your employer prohibits such calls, it may not contact you at work.
A collector may contact third parties only to find out where you live and work — and generally may not tell them you owe a debt. Discussing your debt with relatives, neighbours or your employer is not permitted.
No threats of violence, no obscene language, no publishing lists of people who allegedly owe, and no calling repeatedly with intent to annoy or harass.
A collector may not misstate the amount owed, falsely imply a lawyer is involved, pose as a government official, threaten arrest, or threaten legal action it does not intend to take or cannot lawfully take.
No collecting amounts not authorised by the agreement or by law — including fees and interest tacked on without a basis.
The seven-in-seven limit is a presumption, not an absolute ceiling — but it puts a number on something that used to be a matter of argument. If you are being called daily, that is worth writing down: the date, the time and the number.
A contemporaneous call log is the single most useful thing a consumer can keep, and almost nobody keeps one.
This is the right people are least aware of and it is among the most useful.
Within five days of first contacting you, a collector must send you written validation information — the amount of the debt, who the creditor is, and a statement of your right to dispute it. Under Regulation F that notice must contain specified details, including information about the debt’s history.
You then have a 30-day validation period. If you dispute the debt in writing within that window, or ask for the name and address of the original creditor, the collector must stop collection activity until it mails you verification.
Debts are sold, resold and bundled. By the time a debt buyer is calling you, the paperwork behind it may be thin — sometimes nothing more than a line in a spreadsheet. A written request for verification is lawful, free, and occasionally ends the matter on its own.
Send it so you can prove you sent it. Certified mail, return receipt.
One caution. Disputing a debt is not the same as the debt disappearing, and paying or acknowledging an old debt can in some states restart the limitations clock on it. Before dealing with a very old debt, that is worth asking a lawyer about — it is one of the places where an innocent step can cost you a real protection.
Time limits are short here. An FDCPA action generally must be brought within one year of the violation — considerably shorter than under the credit reporting statute. If something has happened, waiting is the most common way people lose the ability to do anything about it.
The FDCPA is one of the more approachable consumer statutes, because it provides for statutory damages without requiring you to prove financial loss, and it provides for a successful consumer’s legal costs and attorney’s fees to be paid by the violator.
In practice that means many consumer protection attorneys will look at an FDCPA matter without charging you up front. Ask directly how any lawyer charges before engaging them.
What makes a matter worth their time is almost always the same thing: documentation. A call log with dates and times. The certified mail receipt. The letter that said what it shouldn’t have. Recollection alone is difficult.
The National Association of Consumer Advocates keeps a public directory of attorneys who represent consumers in debt collection matters, searchable by state. It is free to use and it is the sensible starting point.
We receive no payment for this or any other referral, and have no financial relationship with any law firm.
We are not a law firm and cannot tell you whether you have a claim. Nothing here is legal advice, and reading it creates no attorney-client relationship. Whether particular conduct broke the law is a judgment only a licensed attorney can make about your specific facts.
This site is published by BCR Consulting LLC, a Texas company that has worked in consumer credit reporting since 2008. We are not attorneys and we do not practise law.
Debt collection and credit reporting are separate bodies of law that arrive in the same person’s life at the same time. We wrote this because people ask us about collectors constantly, and the honest answers are harder to find than they should be.
We do sell services — we prepare and send disputes on people’s behalf, and sell software for people who’d rather handle it themselves. Everything described on this page you can do yourself, for free, and you are under no obligation to buy anything from us.