What Debt Collectors Can and Can't Do Under the FDCPA

Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act in 1977 after finding that abusive collection tactics were contributing to bankruptcies, job losses, and invasions of privacy. The law, at 15 U.S.C. § 1692 and following, puts debt collectors under a detailed set of rules. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Regulation F, 12 C.F.R. Part 1006, fills in the details on call frequency, electronic communications, and the notices collectors have to send.

One point surprises people: the Act protects you whether or not you actually owe the debt. It regulates how collectors behave, not whether the debt is valid.

Who counts as a debt collector

The federal Act applies mainly to businesses that regularly collect debts owed to someone else. Collection agencies qualify, as do debt buyers who purchase old accounts and attorneys who regularly collect consumer debts. The debt has to be a consumer debt, meaning one incurred primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. Business debts aren't covered.

A lender collecting its own debt usually isn't covered by the federal Act. In California that gap is largely closed by the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Cal. Civ. Code § 1788 and following, which reaches many original creditors and, through § 1788.17, requires them to comply with most of the federal Act's provisions.

What's off-limits

How and when they contact you

Section 1692c limits communications. A collector can't contact you at a time or place it knows or should know is inconvenient, and calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. your time are presumed inconvenient. It can't contact you directly if it knows you have a lawyer for the debt, and it can't call you at work if it knows your employer doesn't allow it. It generally can't discuss your debt with third parties such as relatives, neighbors, or coworkers. And if you tell a collector in writing to stop contacting you, it has to stop, apart from narrow exceptions like notifying you of a specific action it plans to take.

Harassment

Section 1692d bars conduct whose natural consequence is to harass, oppress, or abuse. That includes threats of violence, obscene language, and calling repeatedly to annoy. Regulation F presumes a violation when a collector calls about a particular debt more than seven times in seven days, or within seven days after a phone conversation with you about it. See 12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b). We cover harassment in more depth in a separate article.

False or misleading statements

Section 1692e is the broadest provision. Collectors can't misrepresent the amount or legal status of a debt, pretend to be affiliated with the government or a law firm, threaten action they don't intend to take or can't legally take, suggest you'll be arrested for not paying, or use any other false representation to collect.

Unfair practices

Under § 1692f, collectors can't tack on interest, fees, or charges unless the original agreement or the law allows them. They also can't deposit a post-dated check early, threaten to take property they have no right to take, or send mail whose envelope reveals it's about a debt.

Remedies

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692k, a collector that violates the Act owes your actual damages, additional statutory damages of up to $1,000 in an individual case, and your costs and reasonable attorney's fees. In a class action, the court can award statutory damages to the class of up to $500,000 or one percent of the collector's net worth, whichever is less.

The fee provision is what makes these cases workable. A collector that loses pays the consumer's lawyer, so consumers generally don't pay out of pocket to bring a valid claim.

The Rosenthal Act has its own remedies under Cal. Civ. Code § 1788.30, including actual damages, a statutory penalty of $100 to $1,000 for willful and knowing violations, and attorney's fees. California consumers frequently bring claims under both statutes.

The one-year deadline

An FDCPA claim has to be filed within one year of the violation. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(d). That's short, and it's the main reason to keep your records organized from the first call. Save letters and envelopes, voicemails, texts, and a note of each call with the date, time, and what was said. If you want to challenge whether you owe the debt at all, the validation process is the place to start; we explain it in our article on debt validation.