Published Friday, February 10, 2023 by Alan Holdren

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) as we will refer to it with the blog is the grouping of Federal Statues that govern what collection agencies/agents are to do and not do. These combined along with some state laws sets the basis from which all collection agencies should work and set policies or face the wrath or their enforcement. Penalties can be assessed to both the company and the individuals working for the companies (sec. 813).

The general purpose for the FDCPA is set the guidelines and regulates the collection industry against those that have and may act outside the lines of good common sense collection practices. As most rules have a basis, I would see in the many readings I have been through this 1” of guidelines that most have come about because someone was out of line and caused rule/law to be formed to combat further abuse.

This book of statues covers everything from the size of type we can use in our letters to the use of abusive language, wording or phrasing to the time of day that an agency or agent can call a person.

These rules apply only to collections on individuals and not on companies or commercial collections that are not governed by these rules. We see changes occurring all the time in these all the time along with state laws. In the absence of a state law, we will always defer to the FDCPA. As Atlas Services is conservative in the interpretation of these you may always want to refer to these with specific questions.

Our general purpose of the blog was to make you aware of the existence of the FDCPA and why it matters in the tangled world of collections.