The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is the federal law that limits how debt collectors collect personal, family and household debts. It restricts when and where they contact people, bars harassment, false statements and unfair practices, requires a written notice explaining the debt and the right to dispute it, and lets a consumer sue within one year.
Many people facing a debt collector arrive at this question in the middle of something uncomfortable: calls that start before breakfast, a letter about an account they do not recognize, a relative who mentions that "some company" phoned asking about them. Many feel embarrassed, and many are not sure whether the law protects them at all, or whether a collector can say whatever it likes. This page walks through what the FDCPA actually says, who it reaches, and what it makes available when its rules are broken.
What the FDCPA Is and Who It Covers
The FDCPA sits in the United States Code at 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692–1692p. Congress stated its purpose plainly in 15 U.S.C. § 1692(e): "to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors," to keep collectors who behave lawfully from being "competitively disadvantaged," and "to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses."
Three defined terms decide whether the law applies:
- Consumer. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(3), "any natural person obligated or allegedly obligated to pay any debt." The word "allegedly" matters: a person who is told they owe a debt they do not recognize is still a consumer.
- Debt. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5), an obligation or alleged obligation to pay money arising out of a transaction whose subject is "primarily for personal, family, or household purposes," whether or not it has been reduced to judgment. A business debt falls outside that definition.
- Debt collector. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6), a person who uses interstate commerce or the mails "in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another."
The same definition excludes several groups, including officers or employees of a creditor collecting in the creditor's name. A creditor collecting its own debts under its own name is generally not a debt collector, but one using a different name that suggests a third party is collecting is covered.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau implements the statute through Regulation F, 12 C.F.R. Part 1006. The CFPB's overview of debt collection laws and the FTC's debt collection FAQs explain these rules for consumers.
What Debt Collectors May Not Do
Three broad prohibitions form the core of the statute, each followed by a list of examples that the text says does not limit the general rule.
Harassment or abuse. 15 U.S.C. § 1692d bars "any conduct the natural consequence of which is to harass, oppress, or abuse any person." Its examples include threats of violence, obscene or profane language, publishing lists of people who allegedly refuse to pay, and causing a phone to ring "repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass."
False or misleading statements. 15 U.S.C. § 1692e bars "any false, deceptive, or misleading representation." Its examples include falsely representing "the character, amount, or legal status of any debt," falsely implying that someone is an attorney, and threatening "any action that cannot legally be taken or that is not intended to be taken."
Unfair practices. 15 U.S.C. § 1692f bars "unfair or unconscionable means," including collecting any amount not "expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law," and depositing or threatening to deposit a postdated check before its date.
Contact rules add more limits. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(b), a debt collector generally may not discuss a debt with anyone other than the consumer (for this section, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(d) says the term "includes the consumer's spouse, parent (if the consumer is a minor), guardian, executor, or administrator"), the consumer's attorney, a consumer reporting agency if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the creditor's attorney or the debt collector's attorney, unless the consumer consents directly, a court permits it, or it is reasonably necessary to carry out a postjudgment remedy. The exception in 15 U.S.C. § 1692b lets a collector contact others to find the consumer, generally only once and without saying any debt is owed; the page on debt collectors calling family covers that in detail. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(3), a collector may not contact a consumer at work if it knows or has reason to know the employer prohibits it. Under 12 C.F.R. § 1006.6(b)(1), a debt collector generally must not communicate or attempt to communicate with a consumer at an unusual time or place, or at a time or place it knows or should know is inconvenient to the consumer, and in the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a time before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. local time at the consumer's location is inconvenient.
Conduct like this may violate the FDCPA when the conditions in the text are met. Whether a particular call or letter does depends on its facts.
What Debt Collectors Must Do: Required Disclosures and Validation
A letter that arrives without warning about an old or unfamiliar account is where these rules usually start to matter.
The validation notice. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(a), within five days after its initial communication, a debt collector must send a written notice, unless the information was in that first communication or the consumer has paid. It must state the amount of the debt; the name of the creditor; that unless the consumer disputes the debt within thirty days after receiving the notice, the collector will assume it is valid; that if the consumer disputes in writing within that period, the collector will obtain verification or a copy of a judgment and mail it; and that on written request within that period, the collector will give the name and address of the original creditor, if different. Regulation F, at 12 C.F.R. § 1006.34, adds further required content, including the itemization date, an itemization of interest, fees, payments and credits since that date, and the current amount of the debt.
The dispute right. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b), if a consumer disputes the debt or asks for the original creditor in writing within the thirty days, the collector must stop collecting the debt, or the disputed part, until it mails verification, a judgment, or the creditor's name and address. Not disputing "may not be construed by any court as an admission of liability," under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(c).
The right to stop contact. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c), if a consumer notifies a collector in writing of a refusal to pay or a wish that it stop communicating, it must stop, except to say its efforts are ending, that it or the creditor may invoke specified remedies they ordinarily invoke, or that it intends to invoke a specified remedy. The CFPB notes that asking a collector to stop will not necessarily stop a lawsuit or credit reporting.
The "mini-Miranda." Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(11), a collector must disclose in its initial written communication, and in an initial oral one, that it is attempting to collect a debt and that information obtained will be used for that purpose, and in later communications that the communication is from a debt collector. Formal court pleadings are excepted.
How the FDCPA Applies to Calls, Texts, and Electronic Communications
Phone calls are where many people feel the pressure most, and Regulation F speaks to them directly. 12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b)(1) provides that a debt collector "must not place telephone calls or engage any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number." Regulation F then sets presumptions in 12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b): a collector is presumed to comply with that rule if it places calls to a particular person about a particular debt neither more than seven times within seven consecutive days nor within a period of seven consecutive days after a telephone conversation with the person about that debt, and is presumed to violate it if it exceeds either frequency. Calls placed with the person's prior consent given directly to the collector, within seven consecutive days after receiving it, calls not connected to the dialed number, and calls placed to the consumer's attorney, a consumer reporting agency, the creditor, the creditor's attorney or the collector's attorney do not count toward those frequencies. The FTC's debt collection FAQs put the frequencies this way: a collector "can't call you more than seven times within a seven-day period or within seven days after talking with you by phone about a particular debt."
Email and texts are permitted, with conditions. 12 C.F.R. § 1006.6(d) sets procedures a collector may use to avoid an email or text reaching someone other than the consumer, such as sending a text only to a number the consumer has used to text the collector about the debt, or has given the collector direct consent to use, where the consumer has not opted out or withdrawn consent and, within the past 60 days, the consumer texted from that number again or renewed consent, or the collector confirmed through a complete and accurate database that the number has not been reassigned. The CFPB states that a collector using email, text or another electronic medium "must offer you a reasonable and simple method for you to opt out," and may not post publicly about a debt on social media.
Voicemail has its own term. Under 12 C.F.R. § 1006.2(j), a "limited-content message" is a voicemail that includes a business name not indicating debt collection, a request to reply, the name of one or more people to contact, and a reply phone number. It may also include a salutation, the date and time, suggested reply times, and a statement that any representative can help, and nothing else.
A separate statute, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, governs autodialed and prerecorded calls more broadly. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b), it is generally unlawful to make such calls to certain numbers except for emergency purposes or with the called party's prior express consent. Its rules are distinct from the FDCPA's.
What the FDCPA Makes Available When Its Rules Are Violated
15 U.S.C. § 1692k(a) provides that a debt collector who fails to comply with the statute "is liable to such person" for the sum of:
- any actual damage sustained as a result of the failure;
- in an individual action, "such additional damages as the court may allow, but not exceeding $1,000";
- in a class action, that amount for each named plaintiff, plus such amount as the court may allow for other class members, "not to exceed the lesser of $500,000 or 1 per centum of the net worth of the debt collector"; and
- in a successful action, the costs of the action and "a reasonable attorney's fee as determined by the court."
These are what the law makes potentially available, not what any one person receives. Actual damages depend on harm caused by the failure. Additional damages are up to the court, which under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(b) considers factors including how frequent, persistent and intentional the noncompliance was. A court may award fees to the collector if an action was brought in bad faith and to harass. The FTC also notes that a consumer "may still owe the debt" even if a court finds a violation.
Two limits apply. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(c), a collector is not liable if it shows by a preponderance of evidence that the violation was unintentional and resulted from a bona fide error despite procedures reasonably adapted to avoid it. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(d), an action may be brought in federal district court or another competent court "within one year from the date on which the violation occurs." The page on a consumer lawsuit under federal law explains how such actions work across these statutes.
How to File a Complaint About a Debt Collector
Alongside a court action, a consumer may report a debt collector to a government agency. The CFPB's page on harassment by a debt collector states that a person who believes a debt collector is harassing them "can submit a complaint with the CFPB" and "can also contact your state's attorney general." The CFPB's page explaining debt collectors says the same complaint option is open to anyone "having issues with debt collection."
The FTC describes reporting a collector as one option alongside a lawsuit, and notes that "many states have their own debt collection laws that are different from federal laws." According to the CFPB, some state laws cover original creditors while others do not. State law may add protections, and it differs from state to state.
Records often matter in a complaint or dispute. The CFPB describes keeping letters and documents a collector sends and writing down the dates and times of conversations with notes on what was discussed. It also observes that collectors keep their own records of what a consumer says. Where a collected debt also shows up on a credit report, a separate dispute process under the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies; the page on disputing Experian credit report errors covers one bureau's process.
If You'd Like a Consumer Rights Case Review
Whether a collector's calls, letters or messages crossed one of the lines described here depends on the facts, such as which company contacted whom, what was said or sent and when, and whether a written dispute or stop-contact letter went out. This page explains the federal debt collection rules; it does not cover bankruptcy, debt settlement or how to resolve the debt itself. The page on what a consumer rights attorney covers describes the broader set of federal statutes involved.
A reader may request a consumer rights case review through Federal Consumer Rights.
