Q.When is a debt collector permitted to speak to someone other than my spouse or me?

A.Federal law places significant restrictions on a debt collector’s ability to speak to someone other than the consumer or the consumer’s spouse.  Under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a debt collector is permitted to speak to anyone only once for the purpose of obtaining contact information about the consumer.

This is known as skip tracing in the industry.  Debt collectors typically attempt to obtain a current address and home and work telephone numbers for the person from whom they are trying to collect a debt, by calling the consumer's neighbors, former neighbors, current and past employers, relatives and family members.  The collection agency employee may also try to obtain information about the consumer’s bank account, and any real estate the consumer owns

When a debt collector makes a skip tracing call, he must state he is calling to confirm and correct contact information.  If requested to do so, the debt collector must provide the name of his employer; otherwise the debt collector is not permitted to identify his employer.

As a general rule, a debt collector is only permitted to make one call to a particular individual for the purpose of obtaining contact information.  Subsequent calls to the same individual may constitute a FDCPA violation.

When a debt collector is making a telephone call for the purpose of obtaining contact information, the debt collector is not permitted to disclose the existence of a debt:  this would constitute a third party disclosure and a violation of the FDCPA.