§1692a Definitions

Summary

Gives plain meanings for key words used later in the rules. Bureau: the federal agency called the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Communication: sending information about a debt to anyone by any method. Consumer: a real person who owes or is said to owe a debt. Creditor: someone who lends or extends credit or to whom money is owed, but not a person who only bought a defaulted debt to help collect it for someone else. Debt: a person’s obligation to pay money from a transaction meant mainly for personal, family, or household use, even if a court hasn’t entered judgment. Debt collector: a business whose main job is collecting debts or that regularly collects debts for others; it also covers a creditor who uses a different name to collect and, for one rule, firms enforcing security interests. It does not include certain people, such as creditor employees collecting for their employer, related companies collecting only for affiliates, government employees doing official work, process servers, nonprofit credit counselors handling payments, or parties collecting under certain fiduciary, origination, non‑default, or secured‑party situations. Location information: a consumer’s home address and phone or workplace. State: any U.S. state, territory, possession, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, or their local governments.