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Fair Debt Collection Practices Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (or FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. ยง 1692 et seq., is a United States statute added in 1978 as Title VIII of the Consumer Credit Protection Act. Its purposes are to eliminate abusive practices in the collection of consumer debts, to promote fair debt collection and to provide consumers with an avenue for disputing and obtaining validation of debt information in order to ensure the information's accuracy. The Act creates guidelines under which debt collectors may conduct business, defines rights of consumers involved with debt collectors, and prescribes penalties and remedies for violations of the Act. It is sometimes used in conjunction with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Contents

[edit] People and entities covered by the FDCPA

In the United States, debt collectors may use different names such as "collection agency," "factoring company" or some other name that may or may not be understood by a consumer to be a third-party collector (and that might be used to claim immunity from the Act). However, the FDCPA broadly defines debt collectors as "any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another." [1] While the FDCPA generally only applies to third party debt collectors--not internal collectors for an "original creditor" -- some states, such as California, have similar state consumer protection laws which mirror the FDCPA, and regulate original creditors. In addition, courts have generally found debt buyers to be covered by the FDCPA even though they are collecting their own debts.

The FDCPA's definitions of "consumers" and "debt" specifically restricts the coverage of the act to personal and non-commercial transactions. Thus, debts owed by businesses are not regulated.

[edit] Prohibited conduct

The Act prohibits certain types of "abusive and deceptive" conduct when attempting to collect debts, including the following:

  • contacting consumers by telephone outside of the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time
  • contacting consumers in any way (other than litigation) after receiving WRITTEN notice that said consumer wishes no further contact or refuses to pay the alleged debt (unless it is to say that collection efforts are being terminated or that the collector intends to file a lawsuit)
  • contacting consumers at their place of employment (after having been told verbally or in writing that this is not acceptable)
  • continuation of collection efforts after receiving WRITTEN request from consumer for validation of debt, unless/until validation is provided
  • misrepresenting the debt or using deception to collect the debt
  • publishing the consumers name or address on a "bad debt" list
  • adding extraneous "fees" or "charges" to the original balance (unless allowed by law)
  • threatening consumers with arrest or legal action that is not actually contemplated or even possible
  • using abusive or profane language in the course of communication related to the debt
  • revealing or discussing the nature of debts with third parties (other than the consumer's spouse or attorney)
  • reporting false information on a consumer's credit report or threatening to do so in the process of collection
  • filing lawsuits in places other than where the consumer lives or signed the contract

[edit] Required conduct

Further, the FDCPA requires debt collectors to:

  • identify themselves and notify the consumer, in every communication, that the communication is from a debt collector
  • give the name and address of the original creditor (company to which the debt was originally payable) upon the consumer's written request.
  • provide verification of the debt to the consumer upon written request (though what constitutes verification is not spelled out by the Act)
  • notify the consumer of their right to dispute the debt, in part or in full, with the debt collector. Such a dispute must also be reported by the creditor to any credit bureau that reports it.
(If a written dispute or request for verification is sent within 30 days after receiving the first written notice concerning the consumer's rights, then the debt collector must either provide the requested validation information or cease their collection efforts altogether. The so called 30-day "g" validation notice is required to be sent by debt collectors within five days of the initial communication. The consumer's receipt of this notice starts the clock running on the 30-day right to demand validation of the debt from the debt collector. Consumers may still dispute a debt later, but they lose the right to compel the debt collector to produce verification of the debt if they dispute it after the 30-day period has elapsed. A consumer may also verbally dispute a debt--though the consumer does not preserve all of his/her rights by doing so. )

[edit] Enforcement of the FDCPA

The Federal Trade Commission has the authority to administratively enforce the FDCPA using its powers under the Federal Trade Commission Act.[2]

Aggrieved consumers may also file a private lawsuit in a State or Federal court to collect damages (actual, statutory, attorney's fee and court-costs) from third-party debt collectors. The FDCPA is a strict liability law, which means that a consumer need not prove actual damages in order to claim statutory damages of up to $1,000 if a debt collector is proven to have violated the FDCPA. The collector may, however, escape penalty if it shows that the violation (or violations) was the result of a "bona fide error."

Alternately, if the consumer loses the lawsuit and the court determines that the consumer filed the case in bad faith and for the purposes of harassment, the court may then award attorney's fees to the debt collector. Historically, courts have only very rarely ordered consumers to pay debt collectors' attorney fees in a FDCPA case.

[edit] Criticisms of the FDCPA

[edit] By consumer groups

Some consumer groups argue that the FDCPA does not go far enough, and does not provide sufficient deterrence against unscrupulous collection agencies. Consumer groups have complained that the maximum statutory damages contained in the original 1978 version of the law has not kept up with inflation. According to the inflation calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics' website, that same penalty would be the equivalent of $3,105.83 by 2006 standards. The Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Consumer Advocates is the largest consumer advocacy organization in the United States. Its member attorneys bring thousands of such FDCPA suits each year in virtually all 50 states.

Many debt collectors, and the consumer rights attorneys who sue them for violations of the FDCPA rely heavily on the definitive legal treatise on the FDCPA produced by the National Consumer Law Center.

[edit] By the credit industry

Conversely, many in the credit industry have taken the stance that the FDCPA has often been used to file frivolous lawsuits and seek damages for minor technical violations and has, at times, seriously impeded their ability to collect valid debts. Given the strict liability nature of the FDCPA, the collections industry and the insurance companies who provide liability coverage for them have repeatedly lobbied Congress to relax provisions of the law to reduce their civil exposure for these "hyper-technical" violations.

The debt collection industry is supported by an industry trade group based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, called ACA International. The ACA produces a variety of legal compliance materials for debt collectors and serves as an industry lobbyist. The ACA seeks legal and interpretive changes that will assist its members in the collection of debts for their clients. The ACA is also involved in a variety of public relations activities related to the collection industry.

[edit] The FTC Report

For its part, the Federal Trade Commission produces an annual report to Congress of its findings with respect to its FDCPA enforcement activities. This report details consumer complaints to the FTC about alleged debt collector violations of the FDCPA. There were more than 66,000 consumer complaints made to the FTC about unlawful collection activities in 2005. This was an overall increase of more than 14% over 2004. [3]

[edit] External links

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