Language

• According to the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, collection agency representatives are not allowed to use obscene or profane language in their attempts to collect your debt. They are also not allowed to use any language that can be deemed as threatening. For instance, they cannot threaten to damage your property or physically injure you.
  
  

Call Limitations

• Collection agencies, under California state law, are only allowed to call debtors between the hours of 8 a.m. until 9 p.m. Those who call after those hours are breaking state law. The law does not specifically limit how many calls that debt collectors can make. But it does prohibit repeated calls over a short period; this, according to state law, can be deemed as harassment.
  
  

Privacy

• When contacting debtors by mail, debt collection agencies in California are not allowed to include any information on their envelopes that would indicate that the communications are coming from a debt collection agency. These agencies are also not allowed to use postcard mailings to contact debtors. Both measures are ways to protect the privacy of people who do owe money.
  
  

Misrepresentation

• When contacting debtors by phone, debt collection agencies in California are required to announce either their name or the collection agency for which they work. They must not claim to be anyone other than a debt collector. When sending paperwork to debtors, they must not include logos or names that would give the mistaken impression that the documents came from government agencies or anything other than a collection agency.
  
  

Partial Payments

• Debtors who can't pay the entire balance of what they owe in one payment may offer to make partial payments to their creditors until they pay off their entire debt. Debtors should make their request in writing and save a copy. Creditors are not obligated to accept an offer of partial payments.