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| What rights do I have under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? |
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Last Updated
18th of May, 2010
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Your debt collection rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act include the following:
- Collectors cannot call you repeatedly with the intent to annoy, abuse, or harass you and are NOT allowed to contact you before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. local time.
- If you notify a collector in writing and request that the collector cease further communication, the debt collector must abide by your request.
- Debt collectors may NOT contact a third party to discuss your debt. However, they are permitted to contact your employer, a family member or friend, one time only, to relay a message or obtain contact information for you – but they may not share that they are calling to collect a debt.
- Debt collectors may not contact you at your place of employment if you’ve told them that doing so is prohibited by your employer and/or may jeopardize your employment.
- If a debt collector contacts you about a debt, you have 30 days to respond, in writing, to request that the collector validate the debt, and the collector must comply.
- If you have requested a validation of the debt, the debt collector may not communicate or pursue collection efforts until the collector mails the requested information in their verification response.
- A debt collector may not use deceptive tactics or misrepresent that he/she is an attorney or law enforcement officer.
- A debt collector cannot threaten violence or other criminal means to harm you, your reputation, or your property.
- A debt collector cannot use obscene or profane language in an attempt to abuse, harass, or coerce you into paying a debt.
- Debt collectors cannot threaten to take any action that cannot legally be taken or that they have no intention of taking. This means that they cannot threaten to arrest you or threaten to seize or garnish your wages unless they fully intend to take such action.
- A debt collector may not misrepresent the debt amount. This means that the collector cannot exaggerate or inflate the amount of money you owe.
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