Debt collection call compliance checklist: Regulation F and the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Regulation F (12 CFR part 1006), which implements it, apply to debt collectors as the law defines them: mainly agencies and third parties collecting consumer debts owed to someone else. Regulation F took effect on November 30, 2021.

Many creditors collecting their own debts fall outside that definition, but follow similar standards because of state laws, client contracts and the risk of unfair or deceptive practice claims. This guide covers what to check on the phone. State laws add their own rules, and your client's script may go further.

• Calling hours. Unless the collector knows otherwise, times before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. at the consumer's location are inconvenient (§1006.6(b)(1)). Use the consumer's local time, not the centre's, and respect any time the consumer has said is inconvenient.
• Call frequency. A collector is presumed to violate the ban on harassing calls if it places more than seven calls about a particular debt within seven consecutive days, or calls within seven days after a telephone conversation about that debt (§1006.14(b)(2)). The day of the conversation counts as the first of the seven. Calls made with the consumer's prior consent and calls that don't connect are not counted.
• Flags on the account. Check for a request to stop communicating, an attorney known to represent the consumer, a dispute that pauses collection, or a bankruptcy before the call is placed.

1. 1

   Confirm right-party contact

   Verify you are speaking to the consumer before saying anything about the debt. Regulation F treats a few others as the consumer, such as a spouse or an executor, but discussing the debt with other third parties is restricted (§1006.6(d)).

2. 2

   Give the required disclosure

   In the initial communication, disclose that you are a debt collector attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose. In every later communication, disclose that it is from a debt collector (§1006.18(e)). The industry calls this the mini-Miranda. If the first communication is a call, the disclosure must also go in the first written communication.

3. 3

   Give or confirm validation information

   Validation information must be provided in the initial communication or within five days after it (§1006.34). If this call is the initial communication, follow the client's process for giving it on the call or sending the notice.

4. 4

   Say only what is true

   No threats of action that cannot or will not be taken, no implied legal consequences, no misstatement of the amount owed. A prohibited phrase should reach QA straight away.

5. 5

   Handle hardship and disputes

   If the consumer mentions job loss, illness or other hardship, offer the client-approved options. If they dispute the debt, log it and follow the dispute process.

6. 6

   Keep card data off the call

   If the consumer pays by card, use a secure payment method so card numbers and security codes don't end up in notes or the recording. See card data and call recordings.

7. 7

   Wrap up accurately

   Record the disposition, any promise to pay with its amount and date, hardship reason, dispute flag and payment channel.

A message that reveals the debt to whoever hears it is a third-party disclosure risk. Regulation F defines a limited-content message: a voicemail with set required content and limited optional content, which does not count as a communication about the debt (§1006.2(j)). Use your client's approved wording exactly.

Collectors must keep records that are evidence of compliance or noncompliance from the start of collection activity on a debt until three years after the last collection activity on it. Regulation F does not require calls to be recorded, but a collector that records calls must keep each recording for three years after the date of the call (§1006.100).

Any system that stores your recordings needs retention set per programme, so recordings are kept for the period each rule requires and deleted on schedule after it.

Score these on every call rather than a sample. A disclosure missed on 1 call in 100 is almost never found by scoring four calls per agent a month. See how to QA every call.