The rules on collectors, credit reports and robocalls have moved a lot since 2024. Federal agencies pulled back, courts struck rules down, and New York City, New Jersey and Florida wrote their own. Each item below is dated, linked to its source, and says what it means if a collector is calling you or a debt is on your report.
Current as of September 2026
This page tracks changes in the law that governs debt collectors, lenders and credit bureaus. We list only what we could confirm from the source itself: an agency release, a court opinion, the Federal Register, a state legislature, an attorney general, or a major news outlet. Each item links to that source. Where a date or number could not be confirmed, we left it out.
News is not legal advice about your situation. The core rules have not moved: the FDCPA still limits what a collector may say and do, the FCRA still requires accurate credit reports and real investigations of disputes, and both still require a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs.
A federal judge orders the CFPB's funding restored
Judge Ann Aiken of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon ruled for 21 states and the District of Columbia and held that the administration's decision to stop requesting Federal Reserve funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was contrary to law and violated the separation of powers. Courts in Washington, D.C. and Northern California had already ruled against the funding cutoff, and appeals are pending. For consumers, the CFPB's complaint portal and its supervision of collectors and credit bureaus depend on that funding; your own right to sue under the FDCPA and FCRA never did. Read our full post.
New York, New Jersey and other states announced a settlement with subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corporation. New York's release puts the total at $700 million, including more than $630 million in debt relief, for more than 55,000 consumers, about 2,500 of them New Yorkers; New Jersey's release puts it at $694 million. Under the settlement, qualifying consumers get 95% debt relief and the company may not file collection lawsuits against them. New Jersey's release notes that the CFPB permanently dropped its own case in 2025 and the states stepped in.
New York City's new debt collection rules take effect
After two years of delays, the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection rules took effect. A collector contacting a New York City consumer is limited to three communications or attempts per account in seven days across calls, texts and emails (mail is excluded), and none after you respond within that week. The rules reach original creditors once they start collecting, give you 60 days to get written verification of a disputed debt, and create a Notice of Unverified Debt that follows the account. Read our full post.
Tenant screening company to pay $2.25 million over report errors
The FTC announced that RentGrow, a tenant screening company, will pay a $2.25 million civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated the FCRA. The FTC alleged that the same conviction or eviction could appear as several entries, that disputes were marked "invalid" without follow-up, and that consumers were told a landlord had been notified of a correction while the landlord was told nothing had changed. If a screening report cost you an apartment, the FCRA gives you the right to dispute it and requires a reasonable reinvestigation; see tenant screening errors.
New York's FAIR Business Practices Act takes effect
The FAIR Business Practices Act, signed December 19, 2025 (Chapter 708), took effect. The Attorney General called it the first update to General Business Law § 349, New York's main consumer protection statute, in 45 years. The statute now bars unfair and abusive practices as well as deceptive ones. The new categories are enforced only by the Attorney General; a consumer's own lawsuit under § 349(h) is still limited to deceptive acts. For someone dealing with a collector, the private claim works as before, and the Attorney General has broader tools against collection abuses. See our New York page.
FCC again delays the "stop means stop everything" robocall rule
The FCC extended to January 31, 2027 the waiver of one piece of its consent revocation rule: the requirement that a "stop" sent in reply to one type of informational robocall or robotext ends all unrelated robocalls and robotexts from that caller. The rest of the revocation rules have been in force since April 11, 2025. Until then, a stop request clearly covers the kind of message you answered; if you want every call to end, say so in writing. See robocalls and texts.
CFPB says federal law preempts state credit reporting laws
The CFPB published an interpretive rule saying the FCRA generally preempts state laws in broad areas of credit reporting, and it confirmed withdrawal of its 2022 rule that read preemption narrowly. The 2022 rule had said states could forbid reporting whole categories of information, such as medical debt. The new rule itself says the status of any particular state law is for the courts. Read our full post.
Court vacates the CFPB's medical debt credit reporting rule
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas vacated the CFPB's January 2025 rule in Cornerstone Credit Union League v. CFPB. The court agreed with both the Bureau and the plaintiffs that the rule exceeded the CFPB's authority under the FCRA. The rule never took effect. Medical debt can still be wrong on a report, and the ordinary FCRA dispute rights apply to it; see credit report errors.
Supreme Court: judges, not the FCC, decide what the TCPA means
In McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates v. McKesson Corp., the Supreme Court held 6 to 3 that district courts in TCPA cases are not bound by the FCC's interpretations of the statute. They must decide the law's meaning for themselves while giving the agency's view appropriate respect. That cuts both ways for people getting robocalls: FCC rulings that helped callers can be challenged, and so can rulings that helped consumers. Read our full post.
The FTC announced that a collection operation called Blackstone Legal and its owners will be permanently banned from debt collection, with a monetary judgment of $8,254,368, partly suspended. The FTC charged that consumers were pressured to pay debts they did not owe with false threats of lawsuits, credit damage and wage garnishment. A caller who threatens a lawsuit that is not coming, or demands money you do not owe, may be violating the FDCPA; see threats to sue and debt you do not owe.
Florida takes email out of its late-night collection ban
The Governor signed CS/CS/SB 232 (Chapter 2025-23), effective the same day. It amends Fla. Stat. § 559.72(17), the FCCPA rule against collection communications between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m., so that it no longer covers email. Late-night calls and other communications are still covered, and the FCCPA reaches original creditors as well as collectors. See calls at bad hours and Florida.
CFPB withdraws dozens of guidance documents, including debt and credit opinions
The CFPB withdrew a long list of guidance documents. The list includes advisory opinions on collecting medical debt, time-barred debt, pay-to-pay fees, and credit bureaus' name-only matching, plus a circular on reasonable investigation of credit disputes. Withdrawn guidance is not the law itself: the statutes and Regulation F, including its ban on suing or threatening to sue on time-barred debt, still apply.
FTC moves to ban a collector accused of threatening jail
The FTC announced a proposed order permanently banning Global Circulation, Inc. and its owner from debt collection, with a $9,684,338 judgment suspended on surrender of assets. The FTC alleged threats of arrest, wage garnishment and lawsuits over debts consumers did not owe, and a failure to identify as debt collectors as the FDCPA requires. A collector may not threaten arrest; see threats of arrest or jail.
You can now revoke robocall consent any reasonable way
The FCC's consent revocation rules took effect. If you revoke consent to autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts by any reasonable method, the consent is considered revoked and the caller may not send more, unless an exemption applies. One piece, applying a stop request to all unrelated messages from the caller, was delayed and is now set for January 31, 2027. See the TCPA.
CFPB drops enforcement cases, including one over student loan collection
The CFPB dismissed its lawsuit against Capital One with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled, and dropped other cases, including one against a student loan servicer accused of collecting on discharged loans. Agency cases stopping does not stop yours: the FDCPA and FCRA give consumers their own right to sue. Read our full post.
Eleventh Circuit strikes the FCC's one-to-one consent rule
In Insurance Marketing Coalition Ltd. v. FCC, the Eleventh Circuit held that the FCC exceeded its authority by adding a one-seller-at-a-time requirement to "prior express consent" for telemarketing robocalls and robotexts, and vacated that part of the FCC's 2023 order. The ruling concerns telemarketing, not debt collection calls, which still need prior express consent to reach a cell phone with an autodialer or prerecorded voice.
CFPB finalizes a rule to keep medical bills off credit reports
The CFPB issued a final rule amending Regulation V to restrict medical debt on credit reports and its use in lending decisions. It was set to take effect March 17, 2025, was stayed, and was vacated by a Texas federal court in July 2025 before it ever took effect. Read our full post.
New Jersey enacted its Medical Debt Relief Act (P.L. 2024, c.48). Medical creditors and collectors may not report medical debt for services on and after the law's effective date, and credit bureaus may not report paid medical debt or medical debt under $500, whatever its age. The law also caps interest on medical debt at 3% a year and bars wage garnishment for patients earning less than 600% of the federal poverty level. See New Jersey.
Florida shortens the time to sue over medical debt to three years
Florida's HB 7089 (Chapter 2024-183), effective July 1, 2024, set a three-year limit on actions to collect medical debt, counted from when the facility refers the debt to a third party for collection; the limit had been five years. It also bars hospitals and surgical centers from extraordinary collection actions until they check financial assistance eligibility, send an itemized bill and give 30 days' written notice. If you are sued, do not ignore the papers; see sued by a debt collector.
New York AG: collection law firm sued on debts already resolved or paid
The New York Attorney General announced a settlement with the collection law firm Tromberg, Morris & Poulin, LLC and its subsidiary for filing suits on matters already resolved in Housing Court, pursuing debts already paid, and garnishing wages on judgments already satisfied. The firm agreed to $595,600 in restitution for more than 4,000 New Yorkers and $60,000 in penalties. Collecting a debt that is already paid is a false statement of the debt's amount or status; see wrong amount and fees.
Every item comes from a source we read ourselves, linked above. Settlement, judgment and penalty figures are what the government or the court reported in someone else's case. They are not results of this firm and they do not predict what any case is worth. Our source notes for this page are kept with the site's fact ledger and updated when a court or agency acts again.
Reviewed by Mikhail Usher, Esq.
Mr. Usher is the managing attorney of Usher Law Group, P.C. and is admitted in New York, New Jersey
and Florida. He reviewed this page on September 29, 2026. This page explains the law in
general terms and is not legal advice about your case.
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