The Telephone Consumer Protection Act
The TCPA forbids calls to your cell phone made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice unless you gave prior express consent. It applies to collectors and original creditors alike. Each violating call carries statutory damages of $500, up to $1,500 if willful or knowing. Unlike the FDCPA and FCRA, the TCPA does not make the caller pay your lawyer.
The TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227) is different from the collection laws. It does not ask whether the caller is a collector, whether you owe the money, or what was said. It asks how the call was placed and whether you agreed to it. That makes it the law that reaches the original bank, the store card and the servicer, and the law that protects people who get collection calls meant for somebody else. It also makes the evidence simple: your phone's call history and your saved voicemails.
What the TCPA prohibits
The core rule for debt calls is 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii): it is unlawful to make a call, other than for emergency purposes or with the prior express consent of the called party, using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, to a number assigned to a cellular telephone service. A separate rule requires prior express consent for prerecorded or artificial voice calls to a residential line, with exceptions (§ 227(b)(1)(B)).
Two ways to break the rule
- A prerecorded or artificial voice. A voicemail that is a recording, or a call that opens with a robotic voice, is the most common TCPA collection claim. The equipment does not matter.
- An autodialer. Since Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021), an automatic telephone dialing system must use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce the numbers it calls. A dialer that only calls from a stored list may fall outside that definition.
Consent
Consent is the defense in nearly every TCPA case. If you put your cell number on a credit application, the caller will say you consented to calls about that account. Calls to a number you never gave, calls meant for a prior owner of your number, and calls after you clearly told the caller to stop are where consent problems arise. Tell the caller to stop, in writing if you can, and keep a copy; whether and how consent was revoked is often the central fact.
Calls meant for someone else
Collection calls for a stranger happen when a phone number is reassigned or a relative once listed yours. Consent must come from the called party, and a person who never gave the caller or the creditor the number never consented. Tell the caller, once, that it has the wrong number and ask it to stop, then log every call after that. If the caller is a debt collector, telling you about someone else's debt raises separate FDCPA questions about disclosure to third parties (15 U.S.C. § 1692c(b)).
Do-not-call claims
The TCPA also gives a private action to a person who receives more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the do-not-call regulations, for up to $500 in damages per violation, trebled if willful or knowing (§ 227(c)(5)). That provision is aimed at telephone solicitation and rarely fits a pure debt collection call.
What a violation is worth under the statute
| Item | What the statute says |
|---|---|
| Statutory damages | Actual monetary loss or $500 for each violation, whichever is greater |
| Willful or knowing | The court may increase the award up to three times, that is, up to $1,500 per violation |
| Injunction | An action to enjoin the violation |
| Attorney's fees | None: the TCPA has no fee-shifting clause |
| Class cap | None stated in § 227(b)(3) |
47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3).
The damages are counted per call, which is why a log matters. Unlike the FDCPA's $1,000 cap per action, TCPA statutory damages add up call by call. But because the TCPA does not shift fees, the consumer's lawyer is not paid by the defendant under this statute. In practice TCPA claims are brought alongside FDCPA, FCCPA or FCRA claims that do shift fees, or as class actions. Nothing on this page estimates what any case is worth.
Four years
The TCPA has no limitations period of its own. The federal catch-all applies: a civil action under an Act of Congress enacted after December 1, 1990 must be brought within four years after the claim accrues (28 U.S.C. § 1658(a)). Each call is its own violation. Save call screenshots and voicemails now; phones delete them.
How to build the record
- Save every voicemail. A recording proves the prerecorded voice. Export or back them up; do not rely on the carrier to keep them.
- Screenshot the call history. Date, time and number for each call, before the phone rolls them off.
- Log each call. The call log keeps date, time, number and whether it was a recording.
- Write down what you told them. The date you said stop, and how. If you wrote, keep the copy.
- Find out how they got the number. Did you give it to the creditor? Is it a new number that used to belong to someone else?
The robocalls and texts page applies these rules to typical collection calls.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
The TCPA is federal and applies the same way in all three states. When the robocaller is a debt collector, the FDCPA and Regulation F apply to the same calls: more than 7 telephone calls in 7 days about one debt is presumed harassment (12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b)(2)). In Florida, the FCCPA reaches the original creditor's own calls, forbids calls between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. without consent, and shifts fees (Fla. Stat. §§ 559.72(17), 559.77(2)). In New York, GBL § 349 may reach deceptive calling practices. See New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Common questions
Is a prerecorded voicemail from a collector a TCPA violation?
It can be. A call to a cell phone using an artificial or prerecorded voice needs your prior express consent. If you never gave the caller or the creditor your cell number, or the calls were meant for someone else, consent is usually missing. If you did give the number, the question becomes whether consent covered these calls and whether you revoked it.
What counts as an autodialer after Facebook v. Duguid?
Equipment that stores or produces numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator. A dialer that only calls numbers from a stored list may fall outside that definition, so after 2021 autodialer claims are harder. Prerecorded or artificial voice claims do not depend on the equipment and remain the main route.
Does the TCPA make the collector pay my lawyer?
No. The TCPA has no fee-shifting clause. That is why TCPA claims are usually brought together with FDCPA, FCCPA or FCRA claims, which do shift fees, or as class actions.
Do texts count under the TCPA?
Text claims are usually framed under the autodialer part of the rule, so they have to meet the Duguid definition of an autodialer, and consent is still the defense. Whether a particular set of texts qualifies is fact-specific; talk to a lawyer with the texts in hand.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.