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Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

This essay is published for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice, nor is it intended as a substitute for the advice of your attorney.

There is abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive and unfair debt collection practices by many third-party commercial debt collection agencies and debt collectors. In response to this problem, the U.S. Congress passed The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). This is a federal law that prohibits unfair debt collection practices including lying to, harassing, misleading and otherwise abusing debtors.

The FDCPA primarily governs the activities of debt collectors working for third party collection agencies. The definition found in the FDCPA of a person protected by the Act includes only a "natural person" and not an artificial person such as a corporation or other entity created by statute. However, one or more States have enacted laws in which some or all of the FDCPA rules and regulations apply to creditor companies in addition to third party collection agencies.