What Debt Collectors Can and Can't Do: Your FDCPA Rights

Debt collection generated 387,400 complaints to the CFPB in 2025. The most common grievance was the same one it has been every year since 2013: attempts to collect a debt the person doesn't owe.

Those numbers are worth holding onto, because they reframe what feels like a personal problem. The rules below exist because this industry breaks them at scale.

Here's exactly what a collector may do, what it may not, and what happens when it crosses the line.

Who the FDCPA actually covers

Start here, because it decides which rules apply to the person calling you.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act governs third-party debt collectors: agencies collecting on someone else's behalf, and debt buyers collecting accounts they purchased. Portfolio Recovery Associates, Midland Credit Management, LVNV Funding, and Jefferson Capital are all covered.

It generally does not cover an original creditor collecting its own debt in its own name. When Capital One's own recovery department calls about a Capital One card, the FDCPA usually isn't the governing law.

That gap is narrower than it sounds. Many states regulate original creditors directly, with California's Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act the widest-known example, and several other states have their own versions. Federal prohibitions on unfair, deceptive, and abusive practices apply to large creditors regardless. And the moment a creditor hands your account to an agency or sells it, the FDCPA is fully in play.

When and where they can contact you

Time of day. Not before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in your local time. A collector in a different time zone doesn't get to use its own clock.

At work. They may call your workplace until you tell them not to. Once you say your employer doesn't permit these calls, they must stop. Say it in writing and keep a copy, because this is one of the most frequently ignored limits and the easiest to prove.

Inconvenient places or times. If you tell a collector a particular time or place is inconvenient, they can't keep contacting you there.

If you have a lawyer. Once a collector knows you're represented on this debt, it must communicate with your attorney instead of you.

Email, text, and social media. Regulation F, in force since November 2021, allows these channels with conditions. A social media contact must be a private message, never a public post on your profile where others could see it. Every email and text must give you a reasonable, simple way to opt out of that channel. And the collector must identify itself as a debt collector, with one narrow exception for a "limited content message": a voicemail that gives only a name and callback request, specifically so it doesn't reveal a debt to whoever else hears it.

Collection agency

This is [agency name] regarding an important business matter. Call 800-555-0147. Reply STOP to opt out of texts.

Please send written validation of this debt to my address on file. I dispute it until verified.

Collection agency

Your request has been received. A validation notice will be mailed within 5 business days.

An illustrative exchange. A dispute is strongest sent as a letter, but putting it in any written channel starts a record.

How often they can call

This is the rule most people want, and it's more specific than its reputation.

Regulation F says a collector who places no more than seven calls within seven consecutive days about a particular debt, and who does not call again within seven days after a live phone conversation about that debt, is presumed to be complying with the prohibition on harassment.

Three details change how this works in practice:

1. It's per debt, not per person. Someone with four accounts at the same agency may lawfully receive far more than seven calls a week.
2. Exceeding it isn't automatic liability. Going over seven flips the presumption. The collector loses the safe harbor and has to defend the conduct, rather than the call count proving a violation outright.
3. It counts placed calls, not conversations. Unanswered calls count.

The seven-day cooling-off period after an actual conversation is the part collectors most often trip over, and it's simple to document: note the date you spoke, then note every call after it.

Situation	What the rule says
Calling hours	8 a.m.–9 p.m. in your local time
Call frequency	7 calls in 7 days per debt creates a compliance presumption
After speaking with you	No further call about that debt for 7 days
Your workplace	Must stop once you say calls aren't permitted there
Social media	Private messages only, never public posts
Email and text	Allowed, must include a way to opt out
If you're represented	Must contact your attorney instead

• SituationCalling hours

  What the rule says

  8 a.m.–9 p.m. in your local time

• SituationCall frequency

  What the rule says

  7 calls in 7 days per debt creates a compliance presumption

• SituationAfter speaking with you

  What the rule says

  No further call about that debt for 7 days

• SituationYour workplace

  What the rule says

  Must stop once you say calls aren't permitted there

• SituationSocial media

  What the rule says

  Private messages only, never public posts

• SituationEmail and text

  What the rule says

  Allowed, must include a way to opt out

• SituationIf you're represented

  What the rule says

  Must contact your attorney instead

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F (12 CFR Part 1006).

Who they can talk to about your debt

Almost nobody.

A collector may contact third parties for one narrow purpose: to find out your home address, home phone number, and place of work. Even then, it generally may contact each person only once, may not say you owe a debt, and may not identify its employer as a collection agency unless asked directly.

So: no telling your mother, your landlord, your coworkers, or your boss that you're behind on a credit card. Not as pressure, not casually, not at all. Spouses, and in specified circumstances parents of minors and attorneys, are treated differently.

Public shaming is squarely prohibited, and that includes posting on your social media profile where others can see it.

What they can never say or do

The prohibitions fall into three buckets.

Harassment and abuse

• Threats of violence or harm
• Obscene or profane language
• Publishing lists of people who refuse to pay
• Repeated calls intended to annoy or harass
• Calling without identifying themselves

False or misleading statements

• Claiming to be an attorney, a government agency, or law enforcement when they aren't
• Threatening arrest or jail (you cannot be jailed for unpaid consumer debt)
• Misrepresenting the amount you owe
• Threatening to sue, garnish wages, or seize property when they don't intend to, or when they legally can't
• Sending documents designed to look like court papers when they aren't
• Falsely implying you've committed a crime

Unfair practices

• Adding interest, fees, or charges the original agreement or state law doesn't permit
• Depositing a post-dated check early
• Taking or threatening to take property when there's no legal right to it
• Contacting you by postcard, or putting anything on an envelope that reveals a debt

Suing on a debt that's too old

Regulation F prohibits a collector from suing, or threatening to sue, on a debt it knows or should know is past the statute of limitations. The debt can still be collected on. They may ask you to pay, but the courthouse door is closed to them.

Your rights, and how to use them

Four tools. The first two are time-sensitive.

1. Validation

Within five days of first contacting you, a collector must send a validation notice: the amount, the creditor's name, an itemization showing interest, fees, payments, and credits from a reference date, and a statement of your dispute rights.

2. Dispute, within 30 days

Dispute in writing within 30 days of that notice and the collector must stop collecting until it obtains verification and sends it to you. Ask specifically for the original creditor's name, the account number, the balance at charge-off, an itemization of everything added since, and proof this company owns or is authorized to collect the debt.

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Day 30: last day to dispute with the automatic collection pause

The window runs 30 days from receipt of the validation notice. Missing it doesn't make the debt yours; it only ends the automatic-pause protection.

3. Tell them to stop contacting you

Write and say you want no further contact. They must stop, except to confirm they're stopping or to notify you of a specific action such as filing a lawsuit.

Understand the trade-off before you use this. It stops the phone ringing; it does not make the debt go away, and it removes the channel through which you'd negotiate. Cutting off communication with a collector who is deciding whether to sue is not always the move it feels like.

4. Sue

More on what that's worth below.

How to document a violation

Claims are won on records, not recollection. Start a file the moment something feels wrong.

• A call log. Date, time, phone number, the representative's name, and what was said. Every call, including the ones you didn't answer.
• Voicemails. Save them. Don't delete anything.
• Every letter, envelope included. The envelope itself can be the violation.
• Screenshots of texts, emails, and social media messages, with timestamps visible.
• Witnesses. If a collector told your sister about the debt, write down when, and what she was told.

Check your state's recording law before recording a call. Some states require every party to consent; a recording made illegally can create a bigger problem than the one it documents.

What a violation is actually worth

Under the FDCPA you can recover:

• Actual damages: provable losses, including emotional distress in many courts
• Statutory damages of up to $1,000
• Attorney's fees and costs if you win

Two things about that $1,000 are widely misunderstood. It's a cap, not a floor, and it's generally per lawsuit, not per violation. Twenty illegal calls don't multiply into twenty thousand dollars.

The attorney's fees provision is the practically important one. It's why consumer attorneys take FDCPA cases on contingency, and why a case worth a few hundred dollars in damages is still worth someone's time.

You have one year from the date of the violation to file. That deadline is short and it's strict.

Where to report a collector

Reporting is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and is worth doing even if you don't sue. The complaint data is what regulators use to decide who to examine.

Where	What it does
CFPB	Forwards to the company, which must respond; adds to public complaint data
FTC	Feeds law-enforcement databases; no individual case handling
State attorney general	Enforces state collection laws, which are often stricter
State regulator	Many states license collectors and can act on the license

• WhereCFPB

  What it does

  Forwards to the company, which must respond; adds to public complaint data

• WhereFTC

  What it does

  Feeds law-enforcement databases; no individual case handling

• WhereState attorney general

  What it does

  Enforces state collection laws, which are often stricter

• WhereState regulator

  What it does

  Many states license collectors and can act on the license

The CFPB route is the most direct: companies responded to 97% of the debt collection complaints sent to them in 2025. Most were closed with an explanation, but 27% ended in some form of non-monetary relief, which frequently means the account stopped being collected or was corrected.

If a collector has already sued you, the calculus changes entirely. There's a filing deadline, and missing it hands them a default judgment. That's the moment to contact a lawyer or your local legal aid office rather than handling it yourself.

Knowing the rules is not the same as enforcing them

Every right on this page depends on someone tracking dates, writing letters, and following up. Usually that someone is the person who is already stressed about money and getting the calls.

That's the work Felix takes over. We deal with your creditors and collectors directly, keep the paper trail, and bring you offers to approve or decline. Every letter goes out in your name, signed by you, after you've read it. Felix never takes power of attorney.

Checking what you'd qualify for is free and uses a soft credit pull that doesn't affect your score. The FAQ covers how negotiation affects your credit and how your data is handled, and our privacy policy explains what we collect and how long we keep it.