What the rule says
Regulation F (12 CFR Part 1006) is a regulation the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and other federal laws.
In connection with the collection of a debt, a debt collector must not place telephone calls or engage any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number.
Subject to the exclusions below, a debt collector is presumed to comply with that prohibition if it places telephone calls to a particular person about a particular debt neither more than seven times within seven consecutive days, nor within seven consecutive days after having had a telephone conversation with that person about that debt, with the date of the conversation counting as the first day.
Subject to the same exclusions, a debt collector is presumed to violate the prohibition if its calls to a particular person about a particular debt go beyond either of those frequencies.
Both are presumptions, not fixed limits. The CFPB's official interpretation says the presumption of compliance can be rebutted if it is proven that a debt collector who stayed within the frequencies still placed calls repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass, and the presumption of a violation can be rebutted if it is proven that a debt collector who went beyond them did not.
The factors the interpretation lists as able to rebut the presumption of compliance include the frequency and pattern of calls (its examples include seven calls to the same number within one day), the frequency and pattern of voicemails, the content of the person's prior communications with the debt collector, such as a statement that the person did not wish to be contacted again about the debt, and the debt collector's conduct in prior communications.
Under the same interpretation, "placing a telephone call" includes conveying a ringless voicemail but does not include sending a text message or an email, and the presumption of compliance that comes from staying within the call frequencies relates only to how often the debt collector calls, not to other aspects of the calls.
For these frequencies, a particular debt means each of a consumer's debts in collection; for student loans, it means all student loan debts the consumer owes or allegedly owes that were serviced under a single account number when the debt collector obtained them.
Calls that are not counted
Calls do not count toward the frequencies if they are placed with the person's prior consent given directly to the debt collector, within no more than seven consecutive days after the debt collector receives that consent; if they are not connected to the dialed number; or if they are placed to the consumer's attorney, a consumer reporting agency (if otherwise permitted by law), the creditor, the creditor's attorney, or the debt collector's attorney.
A debt collector must not communicate or attempt to communicate with a person through a medium the person has asked it not to use, except to send an electronic confirmation of an opt-out from electronic communications that contains only a statement confirming the request and that the debt collector will honor it, to respond once through the same medium when the person initiates contact that way, or where otherwise required by applicable law.
Unless the debt collector knows of circumstances to the contrary, a time before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. local time at the consumer's location is inconvenient, and the debt collector must not communicate or attempt to communicate with the consumer at such a time, except with the consumer's prior consent given directly to the debt collector during a communication that does not itself break these limits, or with the express permission of a court.
Who it covers
Regulation F applies to debt collectors as defined in 12 CFR § 1006.2(i), other than persons excluded by section 1029(a) of the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010. The definition covers a person in any business whose principal purpose is the collection of debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect debts owed or due to another; among the exclusions, each with its own conditions, are a creditor's officers and employees collecting in the creditor's name and a person collecting a debt that was not in default when that person obtained it.
The call frequencies apply to calls to "a particular person," and the interpretation's examples include calls to a third party for location information as well as calls to the consumer.
What to ask the debt collector
On which dates in the last seven days were calls placed to this number about this particular debt?
Is there a record of prior consent to call, and on what date was it received?
How does the debt collector take a request not to use a particular medium, such as telephone calls or text messages?
Source for the sections above: 12 CFR §§ 1006.1, 1006.2, 1006.6 and 1006.14, and Supplement I, comments 14(b) — Regulation F (eCFR).
Sources: 12 CFR § 1006.14 (Regulation F, on eCFR) · Supplement I to Part 1006, Official Interpretations (on eCFR) · Comment 14 (CFPB)
Sources last checked: October 21, 2026.
Consumer information — not financial or legal advice.