What Debt Collectors Can and Can’t Do Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

What Rights Do Debtors Have? What Collection Efforts Are Prohibited?

When you’re struggling to meet your financial obligations, you have enough on your mind without having to worry about aggressive or abusive debt collectors. That’s one of the reasons Congress enacted the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 1977—to curb oppressive, harassing, and inappropriate tactics by debt collectors.

Debt Collector Actions That Violate the FDCPA

Debt collectors may not take any of the following measures when attempting to recover payment on a debt:

• Engage in abusive or threatening conduct, including threats of arrest (there is no such thing as “debtor’s prison”) or use of profanity
• Discuss your debt with anyone other than you or your spouse
• Make any misrepresentations about your debt or lie to you in any other way
• Falsely represent that they are legal counsel or affiliated with law enforcement
• Harass you or any other person in any way, including calling repeatedly or spamming with emails or text messages
• Threaten to seize your property, unless they have the legal right to do so (e.g., if it’s pledged as collateral for a loan)
• Cash or deposit a post-dated check before the written date
• Charge you late fees or interest, unless agreed to by contract or permitted by state law
• Contact you directly after you’ve advised them (or they know) that you’re represented by legal counsel
• Come to your workplace or call you at work if they know that your employer does not allow personal phone calls
• Call you before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., unless you’ve granted them permission to do so
• Post anything to your social media account that might be visible to the public or your friends
• Include debt collection information, including any information identifiable as coming from a debt collector, on a postcard or outside of an envelope mailed to you
• Call you, your friends, or your family more than seven times in one week

The Rights of Debt Collectors Under the FDCPA

The FDCPA allows persons who are attempting to collect a debt to engage in certain limited actions, including the following:

• Call you between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. (unless you request in writing that they not call)
• Send you letters or other written requests for payment by mail (unless you request in writing that they stop)
• Contact you by text message or email (unless you request in writing that they stop)
• Leave you a voicemail with details about a debt and a request to pay the debt or contact the debt collector
• Contact your family, your employer, or any known friends to obtain information about where you live, where you are employed, or what your phone number is, as long as they do not tell them you owe a debt
• Take legal action against you, including filing a lawsuit to collect a debt, asking a court to enforce a judgment against you, garnishing your wages or income, putting a judgment lien on your property, or attaching assets, including funds in any type of bank account
• Send you a message or make a friend request on your social media account, as long as the message discloses that it’s from a debt collector

Debt collectors also have the right to sell your debt to another collection agency or negotiate with you to accept a lower total payment.