Debt Collector Harassment: The Seven-Call Rule, Threats, and Calls to Your Family

Some collectors treat pressure as a strategy. A consumer who's frightened into paying today is worth more to them than one who asks questions. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was written with that incentive in mind, and its provisions on harassment and deception are among the most litigated parts of the statute.

Here are the tactics that come up most often and the rules that apply to each.

Calling over and over

Section 1692d(5) of the Act prohibits causing a phone to ring, or engaging someone in conversation, repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass. For years, courts disagreed about how many calls that took.

Regulation F gave a concrete benchmark. Under 12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b)(2), a collector is presumed to violate the rule if, for a particular debt, it places more than seven calls within seven consecutive days, or calls within seven days after having a phone conversation with you about that debt. Unanswered calls count. So do calls that go to voicemail. The presumption can be rebutted, and in some circumstances fewer calls can still be harassment, but a collector calling several times a day is well past the line.

Calling at bad times or at work

Under § 1692c(a)(1), calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. your time are presumed inconvenient. If you tell a collector some other time doesn't work for you, it has to respect that. Under § 1692c(a)(3), it also can't call you at work if it knows or has reason to know your employer prohibits those calls.

Threats

Section 1692e prohibits false, deceptive, or misleading representations, and several of its specific examples cover threats:

• Suggesting you'll be arrested or jailed for not paying. An unpaid consumer debt isn't a crime.
• Threatening a lawsuit or other action the collector doesn't intend to take or can't legally take (§ 1692e(5)).
• Threatening to garnish wages or seize property when there's no court judgment allowing it.
• Pretending to be a lawyer, a government agency, or a credit bureau.

Old debts get their own rule. Regulation F prohibits a collector from suing, or threatening to sue, on a debt that is past its statute of limitations. See 12 C.F.R. § 1006.26(b).

In the Ninth Circuit, which covers California, courts judge these statements from the perspective of the "least sophisticated debtor." A collector can't defend a misleading statement by arguing that a savvier person would have seen through it.

Inflating the balance

Collecting any amount that isn't authorized by the agreement that created the debt, or permitted by law, is prohibited by § 1692f(1). Misstating how much you owe also violates § 1692e(2)(A). Unexplained fees and interest that appear on a collection balance deserve a close look.

Talking to your family, neighbors, or employer

Under § 1692c(b), a collector generally can't discuss your debt with anyone other than you, your spouse, your attorney, or the creditor. A narrow exception in § 1692b lets a collector contact other people only to find out where you are, and even then it can't say you owe a debt. A collector that tells your mother or your boss about your account has violated the Act.

Keeping a record

Harassment claims are won or lost on documentation. Starting with the first call that crosses a line, write down the date and time, the number, the name the caller used, and what was said, as close to word for word as you can, especially any threats. Save voicemails, screenshot your call log, and keep every letter and envelope. If a collector contacted someone else, ask that person to write down what they were told and when.

Be careful about recording calls yourself. California generally requires the consent of everyone on a call before it's recorded. Collectors often record their own calls, and those recordings can be obtained in litigation.

What a claim can recover

A collector that violates the Act is liable under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k for actual damages, which can include emotional distress, plus statutory damages of up to $1,000 and attorney's fees. California's Rosenthal Act, at Cal. Civ. Code § 1788.30, adds its own penalty for willful and knowing violations. The federal deadline is one year from the violation.