Debt from a customer who has moved. Debt collectors who aren't covered Under the FDCPA, an institution is not considered a debt collector when it collects. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that protects debtors against abusive collection tactics by debt collectors. Congress created the FDCPA to prohibit debt collectors from using unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices when collecting consumer debts.
The FDCPA generally only applies to third-party debt collectors, not to original creditors. A creditor is defined as the person or entity that granted you the credit in the first place (the original lender). The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is the primary federal law governing debt collection practices. The FDCPA prohibits debt collection companies from using abusive, unfair, or deceptive practices to collect your debts.
The FDCPA only applies to third-party debt collectors, such as those who work for a debt collection agency. The law covers credit card debt, medical bills, student loans, mortgages and other types of family debt. The FTC has gone to court to challenge FDCPA violations committed by companies that used other names to collect their own debts. So, for those accounts, Green Tree donned the extra hat of “debt collector subject to the FDCPA.” Because the FDCPA is designed to protect debtors from third-party debt collectors, it generally doesn't apply to original creditors.
While this definition broadens the number of potential FDCPA plaintiffs, it should be noted that a business debt will continue to be unprotected by the FDCPA. The FDCPA covers the collection of debts that are primarily for personal purposes, family or domestic. In addition, the FTC has taken action under Section 5 when first-party creditors engage in other practices that are expressly prohibited by the FDCPA, for example, by disclosing the existence of a debt to anyone other than the debtor. However, if a creditor is collecting their own debts and using a different name than them, the creditor is not exempt from the FDCPA.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that limits what debt collectors can do when they attempt to collect certain types of debts. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that limits the actions of outside debt collectors who attempt to collect debts on behalf of another person or entity. The FDCPA creates a structure within which debt collectors can work in an attempt to make debt collection a fair and non-aggressive process.
