Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) - What is it all about?

• Acting as if they are affiliated with the state or federal government.
• Giving false information about the legal status of the account or any financial compensation that the collector is likely to receive.
• Misrepresenting the agent as a licensed attorney.
• Publishing lists of debtors who don't agree to make payments.
• Threatening debtors with arrest for unpaid debts.
• Using deceptive means to get information about a debtor.
• Falsely implying that a debtor's property will be sold.
• Telling debtors they have committed a criminal offense.
• Sending fake legal documents to the debtor.
• Contacting the debtor using a postcard.
• Soliciting a postdated check to initiate criminal prosecution.

• Debt collectors misrepresent the actual debt amount and demand more than you owe.
• They use obscene, abusive, or profane language while collecting the debt.
• They call a debtor before 8:00 am or after 9:00 pm, and on Sundays. They make collection calls at work even after being asked to stop.
• They threaten to sue, cease property, garnish wages, get you fired, or harm your credit score when they don't have the means or intent to do so.
• They tell a third party, such as a family member, friend, or neighbor, about your debt without your permission.
• They don't disclose that the call is from a collection agency.

As a consumer, the FDCPA grants you rights that protect you from illegal debt collection practices. Read below to know your rights:

Right to information:
When a debt collector contacts you for the first time, they must inform you of your right to dispute the debt. The collector must tell you the actual debt amount, the creditor's name, and that if you do not dispute the debt in 30 days, it will be considered valid. In addition, the collector must send the consumer the details of the debt in writing within five days of the initial telephone contact.

Debt verification:If you have any doubts regarding the debt's validity, you can ask the debt collection agency for written verification within five days. However, you must request it within 30 days of the initial contact from the collector. When you do this, all collection attempts must stop until the debt is verified.

Cease communication letter:
If a collector is calling at your place of work or harassing your friends or neighbors, a cease communication letter can be an effective way to stop the harassment. Once you send the letter, a collector may only inform you about specific legal steps they intend to take.

Privacy:
The FDCPA protects the privacy of debtors by prohibiting collection agencies from informing anyone other than authorized individuals, such as the debtor's attorney or spouse, about the debt. They are not even permitted to leave details on answering machines.

Protection from harassment:
Under the FDCPA, you have the right to protect yourself from any violent or criminal initiative undertaken by collection agencies. The FDCPA further bans the use of profane, obscene, or offensive language.

Payments:
If you have multiple accounts, the collection agency has to apply payments according to your instructions. Plus, they can't apply payments to disputed debts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) updated the FDCPA rules in October 2020. These new rules state that debt collection agencies can text you, email you, or contact you on social media platforms like Facebook. They can send you unlimited texts to collect payment from you. However, they must offer you a way to opt-out of such communication. Debt collectors can only call you seven times a week.

Debt collectors can contact consumers through email and social media platforms, which was not possible before. They are getting one more option to contact or harass consumers. In that sense, the new FDCPA law is good for debt collectors.

The bad news is that most consumers have more than one debt, so they may get more than seven calls per week, since debt collectors can call seven times for each account.

An aggressive debt collector's messaging practices can increase the cost of consumers' cell phone bills who do not have an unlimited text message plan.

The law says that consumers must be able to opt-out of these communications. Now, there is doubt surrounding how many debt collectors will follow this rule. They may ask consumers to make payments without explaining their rights or providing a means to opt-out of burdensome communications.

Consumers have three options:

• They can ask debt collectors to validate the debt in writing.
• They can ask collection agencies to contact them through some other way.
• They can ask debt collection agencies to stop contacting them altogether with a cease and desist letter.

Here are seven ways to find out.

1. Shift the conversation - Whether it is a real debt or a scam, the caller will ask questions. Don't answer them. Instead, reply with questions of your own. A legitimate debt collector will answer your questions, provided that they're relevant to the debt.
2. Receive confirmation - Legally, a debt collector has five days from the first phone call to send you a written confirmation of the debt.
3. Verify the collection agency - Reach out to your state attorney general's office or Department of Consumer Affairs to determine if the collection agency is licensed in your state. Check with the BBB to find out if there have been complaints about the firm. If the agent claims to be associated with an attorney's office, check with the state bar or state office of court administration.
4. Make sure the debt is yours - Since your unpaid debts stay on your report for 7 years, you can pull up your credit report to see if the debt is listed there.
5. Check your state's statute of limitations (SOL) - If the debt is past the statute of limitations for debt collection in your state, the collector can't force you to pay it.
6. Ask to verify the debt - After receiving a written document claiming you owe the debt, you have 30 days to request the collection agency to verify it. Until the collection agency verifies the debt, they have to stop all collection attempts.
7. Make sure the proof is legit - The response you receive from the collection agency could be of any form. It could be a copy of the original credit agreement, a copy of the charge-off statement, or an invoice from the original creditor. It could also simply be information about the debt—the original creditor's name, the account number, charge-off amount, and current balance. However, to strengthen their claim, the collection agency should show you the last four digits of your SSN.

Financial experts and attorneys say that to register a complaint against a debt collector in violation of the FDCPA, you have to meet the following four legal requirements:

You must be a consumer.

• You have consumer debt.
• Debt collectors must have contacted you for payments.
• Debt collectors must have violated the FDCPA or similar state statutes, such as California's Rosenthal statute.

You have to file a lawsuit within a year.

A recent ruling by the Supreme Court says that the one-year deadline for filing an FDCPA lawsuit starts from the time the violation has taken place, not the time it was discovered.

As soon as you get a debt collection letter, reply to it.

A proper collection letter should provide you with the essential information related to your debt. It should include the original creditor's name, how much you owe, the means to make the repayments, and how to dispute any discrepancy.

You can sue a harassing debt collector in a state court.
If you can prove that debt collectors have violated the laws, you are eligible to collect $1000 in statutory damages per violation.

You can file a lawsuit without an attorney in the small claims court.
If you don't want to hire an attorney, you can bring your case to small claims court. You just need to file a simple court document to file the lawsuit. The process will usually take less than two months to complete. It's a faster, less complicated process, but the downside is that there are limits on how much compensation you can seek in small claims court.

You can file a report with your state's attorney general.
A harassed consumer can contact their state's attorney general to report the violation. Some states enforce the FDCPA, or similar laws passed by their state, to protect consumers. So, if the state attorney general gets a violation report against a debt collector multiple times, they might file a suit against the debt collector on behalf of the state.

You can report the violation to a government agency.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) enforces the FDCPA. So, you can contact the FTC to report a debt collector who has harassed you or otherwise violated the FDCPA. You can submit your complaint online using the FTC's Complaint Assistant website.

You can report the matter to the CFPB.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), also works as a problem solver. If a consumer files a complaint against an original creditor or a collector, this agency tries to solve the problem. You can submit your complaint here.

On Sunday, debt collectors may call you between 1 pm and 5 pm. The good news is that the FDCPA prohibits collection agencies from calling you on Sunday at all if you specifically instruct them not to. Likewise, if you tell them not to call you on certain holidays, they must comply. In some states, collection calls during official holidays are strictly prohibited.

If collections agencies call you outside the allowed hours, they violate the FDCPA.

Ask the debt collection agency to call you during the week if you genuinely owe a debt.

Unfortunately, the FDCPA doesn't give you any protection regarding this matter.

The FDCPA doesn't allow the garnishment of federal benefits. However, debt collectors can garnish your federal benefits if you owe alimony, child support, federal tax, or student loans.

The FDCPA doesn't allow debt collectors to garnish wages directly. The debt collectors must first win a judgment against the debtor to garnish any wages.