Know your rights under the law!

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a US federal law regulating and governing the policies, practices, and actions of third-party debt collectors collecting debts from consumers on behalf of creditors. The core purpose of this act is to ensure fair and ethical debt collection practices and protect consumer rights. Therefore, it provides guidelines and restrictions to prevent abuse, harassment, or deception by outlining the best communication and information collection/disclosure practices. The FDCPA also serves as a guide for victims of unfair treatment seeking legal action against debt collectors and creditors.

As per section 1692(a)(3) of the FDCPA violations checklist, a consumer is anyone legally obligated to pay a debt to creditors through third-party collectors. Simply put, consumers are people who owe money to another person (friend, family, employer, etc.), financial institutions (banks, credit unions, etc.), or other creditors. The FDCPA protects their rights and ensures a fair, safe, and ethical debt collection process.

Under section 1692(a)(5) of the FDCPA violations checklist, debt is defined as any proven or alleged obligation of a consumer to repay the money they owe to creditors. Common examples of debt include mortgage loan installments, insurance premiums, credit card payments, medical bills, various service fees, etc.

The entities categorized as debt collectors under the FDCPA typically include debt collection agencies or individuals hired by creditors to recover debt from consumers. They include lawyers, collection agents, loan servicers, freelancers, and forms writers. Similarly, creditors include retail companies, hospitals or healthcare providers, banks, credit unions, mortgage lenders, student loan services, and utility companies, to name a few. The FDCPA does not cover original creditors who collect debt under its own name.

In many cases, debt collectors can’t reach consumers directly. Therefore, they can attempt to communicate with the debtor’s friends, employers, family members, etc. in order to locate a consumer. The FDCPA strictly monitors these communications and imposes certain restrictions to protect these third parties and consumers from harassment, deceit, and other unethical practices. For instance, debt collectors are legally obligated to identify themselves to individuals and can only confirm the debtor’s location and contact information without revealing their debt, except if the person is their attorney or spouse. Moreover, they can only approach a third party once unless they believe the information received was wrong or incomplete and the third party has since received better information.

No, the FDCPA prohibits debt collectors from contacting a consumer more than once within 24 hours. This communication restriction protects consumers from stress, undue pressure, and frustration due to repeated contact. Many debtors may consider frequent attempts as harassment. Hence, the FDCPA allows certain debt collectors to engage with debtors multiple times as long as they ask for permission and provide legitimate reasons for the frequent engagement.

No, the FDCPA prohibits the use of postcards for debt collection communications. Postcards are only acceptable for general communications that contain any information related to their debt or the collection. This restriction protects consumers’ privacy and prevents intentional or unintentional disclosure of their financial matters to anyone who handles or sees the postcard.