Debt Collection Letter - California

CALIFORNIA CONSUMER DEBT COLLECTION COMMUNICATION PACKET

Do not send the letter module until every applicable gate is complete. This
packet does not turn a creditor into a federal or California debt collector,
does not assume every obligation is a consumer debt, and does not create a
debtor covenant, contractual default, payment deadline, forum agreement,
attorney-fee right, liability cap, or waiver.

1. Coverage and Sender Classification

A. Obligation

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5), a federal FDCPA debt arises from a transaction
primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. California definitions
and exclusions must be analyzed separately.

This packet is limited to a California consumer-debt communication. California
now applies parts of the Rosenthal Act to specified covered commercial debts
entered into, renewed, sold, or assigned on or after July 1, 2025. Trade credit
and other exclusions require separate analysis. Do not adapt this consumer
packet to commercial debt without reviewing the current commercial-debt text.

B. Sender

The federal definition in 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6), California's Rosenthal
definition, the Debt Collection Licensing Act, and the Fair Debt Buying
Practices Act use different coverage tests.

• ☐ Third-party collection agency

• ☐ Law firm or lawyer collecting a debt

• ☐ Debt buyer or current owner — each coverage test separately analyzed

• ☐ Original creditor collecting in its own name

• ☐ Servicer — acquisition date and account status reviewed

• ☐ Other: [________________________________]

Sender legal name: [________________________________]

Name displayed to consumer: [________________________________]

Federal FDCPA conclusion and basis: [________________________________]

Rosenthal Act conclusion and basis: [________________________________]

DCLA license or exemption conclusion: [________________________________]

California debt collector license number, if applicable: [____________]

DFPI states that persons regularly collecting consumer debt on their own
behalf or for others may fall within California's debt-collector definition,
while the DCLA has stated licensing exemptions. Do not treat a licensing
exemption as an exemption from every collection-practice rule.

C. Communication event

2. California Overlay Gate

A. License and identity

• ☐ Current DCLA license or statutory exemption confirmed.

• ☐ NMLS Consumer Access result retained in the account file.

• ☐ The applicable California license number appears in every written or
  digital communication in at least 12-point type as required by Cal. Civ. Code
  § 1788.11(f).

• ☐ Telephone personnel can provide the applicable license number on request.

• ☐ The sender's true legal or permitted business name and contact information
  are accurate.

B. Time-barred debt

Complete the limitation and credit-reporting-obsolescence analysis before
making any payment request or litigation statement.

If the debt is time-barred, insert the exact applicable Cal. Civ. Code
§ 1788.14(d) notice in the first written communication after the debt becomes
time-barred. Do not combine, paraphrase, or select between the two statutory
forms until counsel determines whether the federal credit-reporting
obsolescence date has passed.

• ☐ Not time-barred

• ☐ Time-barred but not past the FCRA obsolescence date — first statutory form
  attached verbatim

• ☐ Time-barred and past the FCRA obsolescence date — second statutory form
  attached verbatim

• ☐ Do not send pending limitations review

C. Debt-buyer route

If the sender is a debt buyer within Cal. Civ. Code § 1788.50, do not send a
written collection statement until the section 1788.52 record and notice gates
are complete.

• ☐ Sole ownership or authority for all owners verified.

• ☐ Charge-off balance, post-charge-off interest, and post-charge-off fees
  traced.

• ☐ Default or last-payment date verified.

• ☐ Charge-off creditor name, address, and account number verified.

• ☐ Debtor name and last known address from the required historical records
  verified.

• ☐ Every post-charge-off purchaser identified.

• ☐ Current California debt-buyer license number verified.

• ☐ Agreement or other qualifying account document is accessible.

• ☐ Current separate prominent section 1788.52(d) notice is attached in at
  least 12-point type.

• ☐ If another language was principally used in the initial oral contact, the
  current language rule and delivery deadline were completed.

Calendar any written record request. Section 1788.52(c) requires the covered
records without charge within 15 calendar days; if they cannot be provided in
that period, collection must stop until they are provided.

D. Medical and other special debt

California prohibits furnishing medical-debt information to a consumer credit
reporting agency. A written contract creating medical debt on or after July 1,
2025 also carries the statutory section 1785.27 notice. Hospital, health-plan,
student-loan, mortgage, rent, utility, government, servicemember, elder,
identity-theft, deceased-consumer, and language-access rules may add separate
restrictions.

• ☐ Not medical debt

• ☐ Medical debt — no credit-reporting threat or furnishing

• ☐ Any new or modified medical-debt agreement carries the statutory notice

• ☐ Hospital or provider financial-assistance and collection prerequisites
  were separately completed

• ☐ Other subject-matter overlay: [________________________________]

E. Local requirements

Check whether the collector or account is subject to licensing, registration,
disclosure, language, contact, or complaint rules in Los Angeles, San
Francisco, or another locality.

Local review and result: [________________________________]

3. Communication-Safety Gate

For a covered federal debt collector, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a) restricts
inconvenient contacts, direct contact with a known represented consumer subject
to the statutory exceptions, and prohibited workplace contact. Subsection (b)
restricts third-party communications.

• ☐ Delivery time and place are permitted.

• ☐ Representation and attorney contact information were checked.

• ☐ Bankruptcy petition, stay, discharge, and counsel were checked.

• ☐ Envelope, email subject, portal, voicemail, and visible account data were
  reviewed for third-party disclosure.

• ☐ Deceased-consumer, guardian, executor, administrator, and authorized-
  recipient status were checked.

• ☐ Language, disability, servicemember, elder, fraud, identity-theft, and
  hardship concerns were routed.

If a covered consumer gave the debt collector a written refusal-to-pay or
cease-communication notice, 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c) permits only the
communications specified there. Record the notice and counsel's basis before
sending anything.

4. Account Substantiation and Itemization

Do not request payment until the sender can substantiate ownership or
authority, identify the correct consumer and account, and trace every
component.

Regulation F itemization date:

• ☐ Last statement date: [__/__/____]

• ☐ Charge-off date: [__/__/____]

• ☐ Last payment date: [__/__/____]

• ☐ Transaction date: [__/__/____]

• ☐ Judgment date: [__/__/____]

Amount on itemization date: $[________________________________]

Current amount: $[________________________________]

Creditor on itemization date: [________________________________]

Current creditor: [________________________________]

Do not insert a generic California interest rate, late fee, collection cost, or
attorney-fee claim. Verify the actual contract, account type, judgment,
consumer-credit law, payments, waiver, and every charge that applies.

5. Enforcement and Reporting Gate

Do not threaten suit, arbitration, garnishment, attachment, repossession,
credit reporting, criminal action, attorney involvement, or another
consequence unless it is lawful, factually available, and genuinely intended
after review. Do not state that silence is an admission; 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(c)
says it is not.

6. Regulation F Validation-Notice Module

A. Use decision

12 C.F.R. § 1006.34 requires a covered debt collector to provide validation
information in the initial communication, within five days after it, or orally
in the initial communication, subject to the regulation's paid-debt exception.

• ☐ Attach the current CFPB Model Form B-1 with accurately completed fields.

• ☐ Use a counsel-approved notice that remains substantially similar to Model
  Form B-1.

• ☐ Validation information was already provided on [__/__/____]; this is a
  later communication.

• ☐ Regulation F does not govern for this documented reason:
  [________________________________]

Do not rely on the old three-sentence validation paragraph. Section
1006.34(c) requires collector and consumer information, an itemization date,
an itemization of the current amount, protection statements, a validation-
period end date, and segregated consumer-response information.

B. Validation-period calculation

Under 12 C.F.R. § 1006.34(b)(5), the validation period starts when the
collector provides the validation information and ends 30 days after actual
or assumed receipt. For assumed receipt, the collector may use a date at least
five days after provision, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and federal legal
public holidays.

C. Required-information completion record

D. Dispute effect

Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(b), a covered timely written dispute or
original-creditor request requires the debt collector to cease collection of
the debt or disputed portion until it mails the required verification,
judgment copy, or original-creditor information. Collection activity during
the otherwise-open 30-day period may continue only if it does not violate the
FDCPA and does not overshadow or contradict the validation rights.

Dispute / request received: [No / Yes — date and method]

Collection hold entered: [No / Yes — scope and date]

Verification or information sent: [No / Yes — date and method]

7. Communication Disclosure

For a covered federal debt collector, select the disclosure matching the
communication under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(11).

Initial communication

This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information obtained will be used
for that purpose. This communication is from a debt collector.

Subsequent communication

This communication is from a debt collector.

Do not use this language to imply federal coverage when the sender has not
completed the classification. Do not label a formal pleading with language
that paragraph (11) excepts.

8. Collection Letter Module

Date: [__/__/____]

Delivery method: [________________________________]

Private and confidential — intended recipient: [CONSUMER NAME]

[CONSUMER ADDRESS]

Re:

Current creditor: [________________________________]

Original creditor, if different: [________________________________]

Account / reference number: [________________________________]

Current amount: $[________________________________]

Dear [CONSUMER NAME]:

[INSERT THE SECTION 7 DISCLOSURE THAT ACTUALLY APPLIES.]

[SENDER NAME] is contacting you regarding the account identified above. Our
records state that [CURRENT CREDITOR] claims a current balance of $[AMOUNT] as
of [DATE]. The account and itemization information appear in the attached
validation notice or account statement.

Reason for this communication

• ☐ Initial collection communication with current validation notice

• ☐ Later request for voluntary payment

• ☐ Response after verification or substantiation

• ☐ Payment-plan communication

• ☐ Other counsel-approved purpose: [________________________________]

Request

Please review the enclosed information. You may:

• contact us about payment options;

• make a payment using a reviewed method below;

• dispute all or part of the debt;

• request original-creditor information; or

• contact us through your attorney or other authorized representative.

This payment request does not shorten the validation period shown in the
validation notice and does not make silence an admission. No payment deadline
should be inserted unless a separate lawful deadline exists and counsel
confirms that stating it will not overshadow or contradict validation rights.

Payment methods, if offered

Online: [SECURE PAYMENT URL]

Telephone: [PAYMENT PHONE]

Mail: [PAYEE AND PAYMENT ADDRESS]

Reference: [ACCOUNT NUMBER]

Do not request bank credentials, card information, a postdated payment, or a
payment-plan signature unless the sender's authorization, security controls,
fees, recurring-payment terms, cancellation process, and applicable law have
been reviewed.

Contact and dispute information

Collector legal name: [________________________________]

California license number, if applicable: [DISPLAY IN AT LEAST 12-POINT TYPE]

Mailing address for disputes and original-creditor requests:
[________________________________]

Telephone: [________________________________]

Electronic contact, if offered and lawful: [________________________________]

Sincerely,

[AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVE NAME]

[TITLE]

[SENDER LEGAL NAME]

9. Attachment and Post-Send Record

Attachments

• ☐ Current CFPB Model Form B-1 or substantially similar validation notice

• ☐ Account statement or separate itemization

• ☐ Applicable California time-barred-debt notice

• ☐ Applicable debt-buyer notice

• ☐ Language translation or language-access notice

• ☐ Other subject-matter disclosure: [________________________________]

Post-send controls

Sources and References

• CFPB Regulation F § 1006.34

• CFPB debt-collection model forms

• California DFPI debt-collector licensing page

• NMLS Consumer Access

End of California Consumer Debt Collection Communication Packet