Consumer Rights
Your rights when dealing with debt collectors, credit reports, small claims court, credit card disputes, and identity theft.
Covered in this guide:
If a debt collector is harassing you or your credit report is wrong, federal law has teeth. The Fair Credit Reporting Act lets you pull free weekly reports at AnnualCreditReport.com and dispute mistakes — most negatives drop off after seven years. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act bans third-party collectors from calling before 8 a.m., after 9 p.m., or threatening you. The Truth in Lending Act forces lenders to disclose true APR. The Electronic Fund Transfer Act caps debit-card fraud loss at $50 if you report within two days. State laws often stack on top.
Key Federal Laws
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
15 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1681x
Credit reports, disputes
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)
15 U.S.C. §§ 1692–1692p
Debt collector rules
Truth in Lending Act (TILA)
15 U.S.C. §§ 1601–1667f
Credit disclosure
Electronic Fund Transfer Act (EFTA)
15 U.S.C. §§ 1693–1693r
Debit/ATM protections
Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act
15 U.S.C. §§ 2301–2312
Product warranties, lemon law backup
Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
47 U.S.C. § 227
Robocalls, telemarketing, Do Not Call
U.S. Bankruptcy Code
11 U.S.C. §§ 101–1532
Chapter 7/13 debt relief
FTC Act, Section 5
15 U.S.C. § 45
Unfair/deceptive practices
Debt Collection
Before 1977, debt collectors could call your house at 2 a.m., tell your neighbors you were a deadbeat, threaten violence, and pretend to be lawyers or cops. Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Pr...
Credit Report Rights
For most of the 20th century, credit bureaus were closed shops — they kept files on you, sold them to lenders, employers, and landlords, and you had no way to even see what was in there. The Fair Cred...
Small Claims Court
Small claims court is the part of the court system actually built for normal people. No lawyer required, simplified rules, low filing fees ($30 to $75 in most counties), and most cases get a hearing w...
Chargeback Rights
If you paid by credit card and the product was defective, never delivered, or the charge was unauthorized, the Fair Credit Billing Act (1974) gives you the right to dispute it through your card issuer...
Identity Theft Rights
Identity theft became a federal crime in its own right in 1998 with the Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act. Before that, the law treated it as a problem for the bank — you, the person whose...
Lemon Law
Lemon laws exist because, before the late 1970s, buying a new car with a defect that nobody could fix meant you were just stuck with it. California passed the first modern lemon law — the Song-Beverly...
Robocall and Telemarketing Rights
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act passed in 1991, when fax machines were the cutting edge of unsolicited spam. Congress did something unusual when they wrote it: instead of relying on a federal ag...
Data Privacy Rights
The United States is one of the only major economies without a single comprehensive federal data privacy law. Congress has come close several times — the American Data Privacy and Protection Act died...
Bankruptcy Basics
Bankruptcy is a federal court process that exists to give people in over their heads a way out — a clean slate (Chapter 7) or a structured payoff (Chapter 13). It's been a part of American law since t...