Glossary
The vocabulary of US consumer-debt collection, defined in one sentence each and cited to the rule the term comes from. Terms are linked automatically the first time they appear anywhere in this reference.
In legal review — not indexed
These definitions are drafted and readable, and stay out of search until an attorney has cleared each one.
7
- 7-in-7
- 7-in-7 is the Regulation F telephone-frequency rule under which a debt collector is presumed to comply with the FDCPA's harassment prohibition if it places no more than seven calls to a particular person about a particular debt within seven consecutive days, and none within seven days after a telephone conversation about that debt.
A
- Account media
- Account media is the underlying account-level documentation for a debt — the signed agreement, periodic statements, transaction history, and payment records — as distinct from the summary data fields that travel in a placement or sale file.
- ACDV
- An ACDV, or Automated Consumer Dispute Verification, is the electronic form a consumer reporting agency transmits to a furnisher to relay a consumer's dispute and collect the furnisher's investigation response.
- Affidavit of debt
- An affidavit of debt is a sworn statement — often the only evidence supporting a default or summary judgment — attesting to the existence, ownership, and amount of a consumer debt based on the affiant's review of business records.
- Attestation
- An attestation is a formal assertion about the design or operation of controls — either a management certification or an independent practitioner's report such as a SOC report — relied on by a bank in lieu of, or alongside, its own testing of a third party.
B
- Bill of sale
- A bill of sale is the executed instrument transferring ownership of a portfolio of accounts from a seller to a buyer, and it is only useful in litigation if it can be tied to the specific account being sued upon.
- Bona fide error defense
- The bona fide error defense relieves a debt collector of FDCPA liability if it proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the violation was unintentional and resulted from a bona fide error notwithstanding the maintenance of procedures reasonably adapted to avoid such error.
C
- Cease and desist
- A cease and desist is a consumer's written notice that they refuse to pay the debt or want the collector to stop contacting them, after which the collector must stop communicating about that debt except to acknowledge termination of efforts or to state that a specified remedy may be or will be invoked.
- Chain of title
- Chain of title is the documented, unbroken sequence of ownership transfers of a debt from the creditor at charge-off through each successive owner to the party now attempting to collect or sue.
- Consent order
- A consent order is a negotiated administrative order in which a respondent agrees, without necessarily admitting the findings, to conduct requirements, compliance obligations, and monetary relief enforceable by the issuing agency.
- Contingency fee
- A contingency fee is a fee payable to the collections firm as an agreed percentage of amounts actually collected, earned only on recovery rather than billed for time.
D
- Default judgment
- A default judgment is the judgment entered against a defendant who has failed to plead or otherwise defend, after the clerk has first entered that party's default.
- Disposition code
- A disposition code is the standardized value a collector or system writes to an account after a contact attempt, recording the outcome — right-party contact, wrong number, no answer, refusal, promise to pay, dispute, attorney representation — and driving the next scheduled action.
E
- e-OSCAR
- e-OSCAR is the automated system the nationwide consumer reporting agencies use to route consumer disputes to furnishers and return furnisher responses.
- Examination
- An examination is a supervisory review conducted by a prudential regulator or the CFPB to assess compliance with federal consumer financial law, obtain information about an entity's activities and compliance systems, and detect risks to consumers and markets.
F
- Furnisher
- A furnisher is an entity that provides information relating to consumers to one or more consumer reporting agencies for inclusion in a consumer report.
G
- Garnishment
- Garnishment is the post-judgment process by which a creditor reaches a judgment debtor's wages held by an employer or funds held by a bank, subject to federal caps and exemptions.
I
- IOLTA
- An IOLTA is an interest- or dividend-bearing lawyer trust account in which interest earned on pooled client funds is remitted to a state bar foundation to fund legal services rather than paid to the lawyer or the client.
- Itemization date
- The itemization date is the single reference date a debt collector selects — last statement, charge-off, last payment, transaction, or judgment — from which the validation notice must itemize interest, fees, payments, and credits.
L
- Limited-content message
- A limited-content message is a voicemail for a consumer that contains only the content Regulation F permits and, because it is defined not to be a "communication" in connection with debt collection, can be left without triggering the mini Miranda or risking a third-party disclosure.
M
- Metro 2
- Metro 2 is the standardized electronic file format furnishers use to report consumer account data to the nationwide consumer reporting agencies, developed and maintained by the Consumer Data Industry Association.
- Mini Miranda
- The mini Miranda is the disclosure a debt collector must make in its initial communication that it is attempting to collect a debt and that any information obtained will be used for that purpose, plus the shorter disclosure in every subsequent communication that the communication is from a debt collector.
N
P
- Permissible purpose
- Permissible purpose is the statutory justification a user must have before obtaining a consumer report, and for collections the operative one is the extension of credit to, or review or collection of an account of, the consumer.
- Placement
- A placement is the assignment of an account or a batch of accounts by a creditor or debt owner to a collections firm or agency for collection, under terms set by a placement agreement, without transferring ownership.
- Post-judgment interest
- Post-judgment interest is the interest that accrues on a money judgment from the date of entry until the judgment is satisfied, at a rate set by the law of the forum that entered it.
- Promise to pay
- A promise to pay, or PTP, is a consumer's commitment during a contact to pay a stated amount on a stated date, logged on the account and used to schedule follow-up and suppress other collection activity until the date passes.
R
- Recall
- A recall is a creditor's withdrawal of a placed account from the collections firm, ending the firm's authority to work it and triggering return of files, cessation of contact, and reconciliation of any fees earned.
- Remittance
- Remittance is the scheduled transfer of collected funds from the firm's trust account to the creditor client, net of the firm's earned fee and any agreed costs, accompanied by an account-level accounting.
- Right-party contact
- A right-party contact, or RPC, is a live conversation with the consumer actually obligated on the account, as opposed to a wrong number, a third party, or an unanswered attempt.
S
- Sampling
- Sampling is the selection of a subset of accounts, calls, letters, or files for transaction testing, sized and structured to support a conclusion about the compliance of the whole population.
- Service of process
- Service of process is the formal delivery of the summons and complaint that gives a court personal jurisdiction over the defendant and starts the defendant's response clock.
- Skip trace
- Skip tracing is the process of locating a consumer or verifying current contact information — address, telephone number, employer — when the information supplied at placement is stale or wrong.
- Suit-readiness
- Suit-readiness is the pre-filing determination that an account carries the documentation, ownership proof, balance support, and limitations-period clearance needed to sustain a collection lawsuit.
T
- Three-way reconciliation
- A three-way reconciliation proves that the trust account's general ledger balance, the sum of all individual client ledger balances, and the adjusted bank statement balance are identical as of the same date.
- Time-barred debt
- A time-barred debt is a debt for which the applicable statute of limitations has expired, and Regulation F flatly prohibits a debt collector from bringing or threatening to bring legal action to collect it.
U
V
- Validation notice
- A validation notice is the disclosure a debt collector must deliver in, or within five days of, its initial communication with a consumer, stating the amount of the debt, the creditor to whom it is owed, an itemization measured from a chosen reference date, and the consumer's rights to dispute the debt and to request the original creditor's name and address.
- Validation period
- The validation period is the window that opens on the date a debt collector provides the required validation information and closes 30 days after the consumer receives or is assumed to receive it.
This is an informational reference, not legal advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. Limitations periods turn on facts this page cannot know — which state's law governs, the contract type, when the claim accrued, and whether anything tolled or revived it. Confirm against the primary source and your own counsel before acting.