What Collection Agents Can't Do

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you can be entitled to money damages from the debt collector AND payment of your attorney fees, if the debt collector has done any of the following, even if only once! These rules apply equally to collection agencies, collection attorneys and their employees and "junk debt buyers."

These rules apply equally to true collection agencies (who are collecting consumer debt on behalf of a third-party creditor), collection attorneys and their employees collecting consumer debts, and "junk debt buyers," companies who purchase old debts for pennies on the dollar and collect the accounts as their own. Some states have similar laws which cover the actions of creditors who have internal collection departments to collect their accounts.

The rules and burdens placed on debt collectors by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are extensive. This is not even the entire list!

1. Contact you at times which they know are inconvenient to you.
2. Contact you before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m.
3. Contact you if they know you are represented by an attorney.
4. Contact you at work if they are told that you are not allowed to take calls of that nature while you are working.
5. Continue collection of a debt if you have properly disputed all or part of the debt, until that verification is provided to you. For more information on disputing a debt, click here.
6. Contact you at all to further attempt to collect a debt if you have notified them in writing to cease all communication with you. For more information on sending a “cease and desist” letter to a debt collector, click here.
7. Engage in harassing, oppressive or abusive conduct.
8. Threaten violence or use obscene or profane language when communicating with you.
9. Call you repeatedly or continuously throughout the day to annoy or harass you.
10. Communicate with you without disclosing their identity and disclosing that they a debt collector.
11. Use any false, deceptive or misleading representations to attempt to collect a debt.
12. Misrepresent the amount or legal status of the debt.
13. Falsely represent that they are an attorney or work for an attorney.
14. Falsely threaten you with arrest or imprisonment or imply that you committed a crime by not paying your debt.
15. Falsely represent that you are being sued or are going to be sued if that is true or they don't intend to do it.
16. Use any name other than the true name of their business when communicating with you
17. Pretend to be acting on behalf of a governmental agency when collecting the debt.
18. Collect any amounts which are not authorized by the agreement which created the debt.
19. Communicate or threaten to communicate false information on your credit report. If you notify the debt collector that a debt is disputed, they must notify the credit reporting bureaus of your dispute. For more information on disputing a debt, click here.
20. Communicate with anyone other than you regarding the debt, except for your spouse. Debt collectors cannot divulge to anyone else that you owe a debt, other than your spouse.
21. Communicate with you by postcard.
22. Use fake “official” court or government documents.
23. Debt collectors and debt collection attorneys cannot file a lawsuit against you in a judicial district other than where you live (usually the local city or county court) or where you signed the contract which created the debt.

Debt collectors MUST:

1. Debt collectors must, within 5 days after their first communication with you, send you a specific written notice of some of your rights under the FDCPA.
2. Contact a third party to help attempt to locate you, but they cannot disclose that they are collecting a debt.