Personal Contact and Communication

• The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act sets guidelines debt collectors must follow, identifies legal actions you can take when dealing with collectors and establishes your consumer rights against collectors who violate FDCPA guidelines. A major portion of these rights involves appropriate contact and communication and if you prefer, no communication at all. At home, you have the right to limit contact in-person or by phone to reasonable hours, such as between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. You also have the right to stop all contact at your place of employment by telling the collector, either over the telephone or in writing, that you cannot receive calls of this type while at work. Finally, you have the right to stop all contact other than a notification of specific action on the part of the collector, by informing the agency in writing you want all contact to stop (see Resources).
  
  

Outside Contact and Communication

• You have the right to expect a debt collector will not contact members of your family, your employer or anyone else about your debt, other than to confirm your address or place of employment. If a debt collector does contact an outside party to get this information, he can only make contact once and cannot disclose any information about your debt.
  
  

Debt Validation

• You have the right get information about the debt a collection agency says you owe, and to dispute any debt you feel is in error or invalid. According to FDCPA guidelines, within five days of contacting you for the first time, the debt collector must send, in writing, information concerning the debt as well as instructions on how to dispute it. If you exercise your right by responding, in writing, within a 30-day time frame, the agency must stop all collection attempts and provide the information, as well as supporting documentation you ask for (see Resources).
  
  

Reporting Procedures

• You have the right to report any debt collector or collection agency that you feel is violating your consumer rights. According to the Federal Trade Commission, you can report a debt collector to both the Attorney General in your state as well as the FTC (See Resources).
  
  

The Right to Sue

• If the agency cannot prove the debt is valid and continues collection attempts or does not respond to your request, you have the right to sue the debt collector. If you win, a judge can award you up to $1,000 for damages and require the collection agency to reimburse any fees or costs you incur as a result of the filing the lawsuit.