All terms

Skip trace

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.

The FDCPA regulates the third-party contact side of it at 15 U.S.C. § 1692b: when contacting anyone other than the consumer for location information, the collector must identify itself, state it is confirming or correcting location information, identify its employer only if expressly asked, not state that the consumer owes a debt, not contact the person more than once absent request or a reasonable belief the earlier response was erroneous or incomplete, not use a post card, and not use any language or symbol indicating it is in the debt collection business. The CFPB acknowledged the practice by name in the Regulation F final rule, published November 30, 2020, observing that "an email address obtained through skip tracing generally lacks the same degree of reliability" as one the creditor obtained from the consumer, and limiting the email safe harbor accordingly. Whether a given skip product is an FCRA consumer report — and therefore requires a permissible purpose — depends on the data source and must be confirmed with the vendor, not assumed.

See also

• Right-party contactA 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.
• Permissible purposePermissible 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.
• Service of processService 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.

Where this appears

• IOLTA trust accounting and three-way reconciliation
• TCPA Consent and Revocation: What Do 47 U.S.C. 227 and 47 CFR 64.1200 Require for Collection Calls and Texts?

Last reviewed 2026-07-29

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.