Your rights

Your rights when a collector contacts you

A plain summary of federal collection rules. Informational only. Owedly does not promise an outcome.

• What this page isThis is general information about federal debt-collection rules, drawn from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It is not legal advice, not a review of your account, and not a finding that any company broke a rule. Coverage depends on who contacted you and on facts this page does not have. State rules can add limits. Owedly is a software and staffing platform. Owedly does not buy or own debts. Owedly doesn't charge consumers to use Resolve.
• FDCPA basicsThe Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1692–1692p, limits how debt collectors may contact people and what they may say. It generally applies to debt collectors, often a business collecting a debt owed to someone else. It does not automatically apply in the same way to every original creditor collecting in its own name. Regulation F (12 CFR Part 1006) is the CFPB rule that implements the FDCPA. Source: the CFPB’s Regulation F and the FDCPA.
• Call frequency: 7-in-7Regulation F presumes a debt collector violates the rule if it calls a person about a particular debt more than seven times within seven consecutive days, or within seven days after a phone conversation about that debt. The presumption can be rebutted, and some calls are excluded, such as calls you consented to directly within the past seven days and calls that do not connect. A raw count of calls is not, by itself, proof of a violation. Source: CFPB Regulation F, 12 CFR § 1006.14(b).
• Time of dayA debt collector generally must not communicate with you at a time or place it knows, or should know, is inconvenient. If the collector does not know otherwise, a call before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. local time at your location is treated as inconvenient. Source: FDCPA § 1692c(a)(1) and CFPB Regulation F, 12 CFR § 1006.6(b).
• Validation noticeA debt collector generally must give you validation information in the initial communication, or in writing within five days after it. Under Regulation F, that notice generally includes the debt collector’s name and mailing information, your name and mailing information, the name of the creditor as of an itemization date, the name of the creditor the debt is currently owed to, an account number (which may be shortened), the itemization date and the amount on that date, an itemization of interest, fees, payments, and credits since that date, the current amount, the date the validation period ends, and an explanation of how to dispute the debt or request the original creditor’s name and address if different. The CFPB publishes a model validation notice. This list is a summary, not every field. Source: FDCPA § 1692g(a) and CFPB Regulation F, 12 CFR § 1006.34.
• The 30-day dispute windowThe validation period generally ends 30 days after you receive the validation notice. If, within that period, you dispute the debt in writing, or you request in writing the name and address of the original creditor, the collector must stop collecting that debt until it mails verification or the original-creditor information. A dispute does not, by itself, erase a debt or decide who is right. If you do not dispute in that window, the collector may treat the debt as valid for its own collection process. That assumption is not a court judgment. Not disputing a debt can't be treated by a court as an admission of liability (15 U.S.C. 1692g(c)). Source: FDCPA § 1692g(a)–(c) and CFPB Regulation F, 12 CFR §§ 1006.34 and 1006.38.

Sources: the CFPB’s Regulation F, consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/regulations/1006, § 1006.14, § 1006.6, § 1006.34, and § 1006.38.

You can draft a validation letter in your browser and send it yourself. Open the debt validation letter tool. Owedly does not send it for you. Nothing you type there is saved.