Stage guide
Almost every 'know your rights' page teaches the FDCPA. Almost none mention its first limit: by its own terms (15 U.S.C. §1692a(6)) it covers third-party collectors and debt buyers — not the original creditor collecting its own account. If Chase itself is calling, a different set of rules decides what they may do.
California's Rosenthal Act (Civ. Code §1788 et seq.) applies FDCPA-style duties to original creditors. Texas Finance Code chapter 392 does the same — unusually broad, covering anyone collecting consumer debts in Texas. Massachusetts reaches original creditors through its debt-collection regulations (940 CMR 7.00). Maine's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act covers creditors directly. Florida's Consumer Collection Practices Act reaches 'any person' collecting consumer debts. Your state page prints which branch you are in.
Federal law bans unfair, deceptive and abusive practices by the bank itself (UDAAP), and the CFPB takes complaints against the largest card issuers directly — companies must respond. The validation letter still works as a practical matter: issuers maintain dispute processes, and a written dispute creates the paper trail every later step needs. The limitations clock and the revival trap apply identically — those rules bind the debt, not the caller.
Collector type is the decoder's first question because it silently changes the rulebook: your rights against a debt buyer are federal and strong; against the bank, they are state-shaped. Any tool that skips the question is teaching you someone else's rights.
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Once an account is sold, the buyer collecting it is covered by the FDCPA (the Supreme Court's narrow exception is for buyers collecting as their principal business in limited readings — in practice, major buyers operate as covered collectors, and Regulation F's rules are written for them). The original creditor's own earlier calls were judged under the state branch.
In Rosenthal / Texas ch. 392 / Massachusetts 940 CMR states, largely the same conduct rules as the FDCPA. Elsewhere, how often and how they call is policed through federal unfair-practices law (UDAAP) and CFPB complaints rather than a call-count rule — log the calls either way.