Owing money does not take away your rights.
This page says, in plain words, what you can ask for when a company or a collection company contacts you about a debt, how to make contact stop, and what Debt Digest itself does and does not do. It is information, not legal advice; a lawyer or a nonprofit credit counselor can tell you how it applies to you.
Five things the law lets you do when a collector contacts you.
These federal rules apply to collection companies, not to every company you owe directly; your state may give you more. If the company on your account is the original lender, ask it in writing what its own dispute and stop-contact process is.
You can ask for it in writing.
When a collection company first contacts you, it has to send you a written notice: how much, who owns the debt now, who the original company was, and how to dispute it. Keep that notice.
FDCPA §1692gYou can dispute it.
If you write to the collector within 30 days of that notice and say you dispute the debt, it has to stop collecting until it sends you proof.
FDCPA §1692g(b)You can tell them to stop contacting you.
Send a short letter (there is one below). After that, a collector may only write once to say it will stop, or to tell you about a specific legal step.
FDCPA §1692c(c)You can refuse calls at work.
Tell the collector your employer does not allow those calls. Saying it is enough; writing it is better.
FDCPA §1692c(a)(3)You can hold them to the rules.
A collector may not contact you before 8 in the morning or after 9 at night in your own time zone, may not threaten you, may not lie about who it is, may not talk about your debt with your family or coworkers, and may not add fees your contract does not allow. If a collector breaks these rules, you can complain to the CFPB and you can sue within one year of the violation.
FDCPA §§1692c, 1692d, 1692e, 1692f, 1692kOne short letter. You do not need a lawyer.
Send it by certified mail with a return receipt, so you can prove it arrived, and keep a copy. You do not have to say why, and you do not have to say whether you owe the money. Stopping contact does not erase the debt, and it does not stop the company from suing you; some people get sued sooner after sending one.
[Your name] [Your address] [Date] [Collector name] [Collector address] Re: Account [number, if you know it] Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c), I am telling you in writing to stop all communication with me about this debt. That includes calls, texts, emails, voicemails and letters, except to confirm you received this notice or to tell me about a specific legal action. [Your signature] [Your printed name]
If your account is open in your Debt Digest account, you can also record a stop-contact request under Contact preferences. Debt Digest writes it down and stops its own messages after one confirmation; the company or collector still has to honor your written request.
Debt Digest is software. It is not a collector and it does not decide your case.
- Debt Digest never calls you, never asks you to pay, and never sends anyone to your door about a debt. Messages about your debt are sent in the name of the company you owe. The only emails Debt Digest sends in its own name are about the account itself: a sign-in link, a password reset, or a receipt for a request you made here.
- Money you pay goes to the company you owe, never to Debt Digest.
- Looking at your options in your account does not run a credit check. If a step would need one, it is said before you take it.
- Your account shows who owns the debt now and who is allowed to work on it, so you do not have to guess.
- When you dispute a debt in your account, Debt Digest writes the dispute down and pauses its own workflow on that account while the company reviews it.