How to deal with debt collectors

They cannot call before 8 in the morning or after 9 at night, your local time, unless you have agreed otherwise.

They cannot contact you at work once you have told them your employer does not permit such calls. Say it, and follow up in writing.

They cannot discuss your debt with anyone else — not your family, employer, neighbours or friends. They may contact third parties only to find out where you live or work, and even then may not say they are collecting a debt.

They cannot threaten violence, use obscene language, or publish your name on a list of people who refuse to pay.

They cannot lie. That includes falsely claiming to be an attorney or a government official, misstating the amount you owe, threatening arrest, or threatening legal action they have no intention or legal right to take. Threatening arrest for an ordinary consumer debt is a particularly common and unambiguously unlawful tactic.

They cannot continue contacting you at all if you tell them in writing to stop — though be clear that this ends the contact, not the debt, and it can prompt them to sue instead of call.

Within five days of first contacting you, a collector must send a validation notice stating the amount, the creditor's name, and your right to dispute it. Sometimes this information is given in the first contact itself.

You then have 30 days to dispute the debt in writing. This is the most valuable right you have, and it is time-limited.

Once you dispute in writing within that window, the collector must stop collection activity until it verifies the debt and sends you the verification. A collector who cannot verify is supposed to stop.

Send the dispute by certified mail with return receipt. The cost is trivial and it creates proof of what you sent and when — which matters if this ends up in court.

Keep every letter, log every call with date, time and what was said, and never rely on a verbal agreement. If a collector agrees to settle, get it in writing before you pay a penny.

Do not acknowledge that the debt is yours while you are still establishing whether it is. Debt is bought and resold repeatedly, records degrade, and collectors chase the wrong person, the wrong amount, and debts already paid with considerable regularity.

Every state sets a statute of limitations on debt — the period during which a creditor can successfully sue you. It is commonly somewhere between three and six years, but it varies substantially by state and by type of debt.

Once that period passes the debt is described as time-barred. You still owe it in principle, but it can no longer be enforced through the courts.

Here is the trap. In many states, making a payment — even a very small one — or acknowledging the debt in writing can restart the limitation period from zero. A $20 payment on a seven-year-old debt can revive the entire balance as a legally enforceable obligation.

This is precisely why collectors buy old debt cheaply and pursue it with offers of small, affordable payments. The offer that sounds generous is often the one that resets the clock.

So before paying anything on an old debt, establish two things: the date of your last payment or activity, and your own state's limitation period for that kind of debt.

A time-barred debt can still appear on your credit report for its own separate period, and collectors may still ask you to pay. Asking is legal; suing on it is not, and threatening to sue on a debt they know is time-barred is unlawful.

Do not ignore a court summons. This is the mistake that turns a disputed debt into a judgment against you.

Most debt collection lawsuits are won by default — not because the collector proved the case, but because the person never responded. A default judgment can lead to wage garnishment and bank account levies, and it is far harder to undo than to prevent.

Respond in writing by the deadline on the papers, even if you believe the debt is not yours or is too old. Filing an answer forces the collector to actually prove its case, which for old purchased debt it frequently cannot do.

Raise the statute of limitations if it applies. In most jurisdictions it is an affirmative defence, meaning it only counts if you raise it — a court will not apply it for you.

Make the collector prove the chain: that the debt is yours, that the amount is right, and that this particular company owns it. Debt sold several times over often arrives with paperwork that cannot establish any of those.

Free help exists. Legal aid organisations handle consumer debt cases, many courts have self-help centres, and nonprofit credit counselling through organisations such as the NFCC is free or low-cost — unlike commercial debt settlement firms.

A collector breaking these rules is not merely behaving badly. The FDCPA allows you to sue for damages, and successful claims can include statutory damages plus your legal costs, which is why some consumer attorneys take these cases at no up-front cost.

Complain to the Federal Trade Commission and to your state attorney general. Complaints build the pattern evidence regulators use for enforcement, and they are free to file.

Check your credit reports. Collection accounts, duplicated debts from resale, and debts you already paid are all common errors, and you have a statutory right to dispute inaccuracies under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Disputing is free and you do it directly with the bureau.

If a debt is genuinely yours and genuinely enforceable, negotiating is reasonable — collectors frequently accept less than the full balance. Get any settlement in writing, including confirmation of how the account will be reported, before paying.

Consider freezing your credit if the debt arose from identity theft rather than your own borrowing. It is free and blocks new accounts being opened in your name.

Beware debt settlement companies charging large up-front fees. Nonprofit credit counselling does the same work for free or at low cost, and no company can compel a creditor to accept less than it is owed.

Finally, know what these rules do not cover. The FDCPA governs third-party collectors and debt buyers, not a creditor collecting its own account in its own name — for that, protection comes from state law, which varies. Federal debts also behave differently: student loans and tax debts can be collected through administrative wage garnishment and refund offset without any court judgment, and federal student loans have no statute of limitations at all. The strategies on this page are aimed at ordinary consumer debt, and government debt needs its own approach.