All terms

Right-party contact

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.

See also

• 7-in-77-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.
• Limited-content messageA 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.
• Skip traceSkip 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.
• Disposition codeA 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.

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.