A collector is calling about money the business owes. You look up your rights and find the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The five day notice. The thirty day window to dispute. The duty to stop collecting until they verify.

Then you find out none of it applies to you.

The Act defines a debt as an obligation of a consumer from a transaction primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5). A debt your business owes is commercial. Courts have said so plainly. See American Credit Card Processing Corp. v. Fairchild, 11 Misc. 3d 972 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Suffolk County 2006).

So the leverage is not the statute. It is the contract and the record.

Five things I ask for in writing:

(1) Who owns this debt today, and every assignment from the original creditor.

(2) The original agreement with my signature on it.

(3) A full accounting from the first dollar. Every charge, every payment, every fee.

(4) The date of the last payment, because that is what starts the clock on how long they can sue.

(5) Their legal name, state of registration, and collection license number.

Then two things the federal act does not reach. Whether my own state's collection law covers business debt, because many states go further than the federal law does. And my state's time limit for suing on a written contract.

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Information only, not legal advice.