# Right-party contact — definition

> 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.

- Source: https://ottoforfirms.com/glossary/right-party-contact/
- Publisher: Otto — https://ottoforfirms.com
- Updated: 2026-07-26
- Status: in attorney review. Served noindex and excluded from the sitemap; do not cite as settled.

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**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.

RPC is operational vocabulary with no definition in the FDCPA or Regulation F, though the CFPB used it in the Regulation F final rule published November 30, 2020, recording industry comments that consumers "have multiple numbers that have to be tried before a right-party contact (RPC) is achieved" and that one large debt buyer reported placing "between 50 and 75 calls per debt before achieving RPC." That tension is the whole point of the § 1006.14(b)(2) frequency limits: the rule constrains attempts per person per debt regardless of how many numbers are on file. For oversight purposes, RPC rate is a productivity metric, not a compliance metric — the compliance metrics sitting next to it are call frequency, time-of-day, and third-party disclosure.

## Primary sources

1. [Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F), 85 Fed. Reg. 76734 (Nov. 30, 2020); cf. 12 C.F.R. § 1006.14(b)(2)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-11-30/pdf/2020-24463.pdf)

## See also

- [7-in-7](https://ottoforfirms.com/glossary/seven-in-seven/)
- [Limited-content message](https://ottoforfirms.com/glossary/limited-content-message/)
- [Skip trace](https://ottoforfirms.com/glossary/skip-trace/)
- [Disposition code](https://ottoforfirms.com/glossary/disposition-code/)

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