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Sample Cease and Desist Letter Against Debt Collectors

Melissa Lyken | December 20, 2023

Melissa Lyken
Legal Expert, Paralegal
Melissa Lyken, BS

Melissa Lyken is a senior paralegal and legal-finance content writer with over eight years of professional legal and business experience and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Community Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Fact-checked by George Simons, JD/MBA

George Simons
Co-Founder of SoloSuit
George Simons, JD/MBA

George Simons is the co-founder and CEO of SoloSuit. He has helped Americans protect over $1 billion from predatory debt lawsuits. George graduated from BYU Law school in 2020 with a JD/MBA. In his spare time, George likes to cook, because he likes to eat.

Summary: A Cease and Desist Letter can stop a debt collector in their tracks. See below for the full template. If you get sued for a debt use SoloSuit to respond in 15 minutes and win your case.

One of the most annoying things you can experience is the constant calls from a debt collector. Is a debt collector contacting you at work, calling your known associates, or calling you at all hours of the day? Has the statute of limitations passed on your debt? Are you being harassed over a debt that is not yours?

If any of these apply to you, the debt collector might be violating your rights under the FDCPA. Unknown to most, if debt collectors are harassing you, you can take a few steps to fight back and get them to leave you alone. We 'll cover a few tips that you can take to ensure those debt collectors stop harassing you.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

If a debt collector is contacting you, you have certain rights that you can invoke. The FDCPA, or the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, is a federal law that governs how debt collectors can collect on a debt. The FDCPA has regulations in place that allow you to write a letter stating that you refuse to pay the debt or request the debt collector cease any further communication, and by law, they must do so.

After you send the Cease and Desist letter to the debt collector, the FDCPA states that the debt collector can contact you again only to notify you that their collection efforts have stopped or that they are pursuing a different course of action.

Harassing you for debt is prohibited by federal law, but there are also other tactics debt collectors use that you may not know are illegal. These tactics include using threatening or profane language, annoying you with multiple calls during certain hours or not identifying themselves when they call you. Additionally, debt collectors cannot falsely represent themselves by stating that they are an attorney as a means to threaten you.

Has a collector contacted any of your family members or known associates? According to the FDCPA, a debt collector can only contact you, your attorney, or a consumer reporting agency. According to the FDCPA, a debt collector can not:

  • Contact you before 8:00 am or after 9:00 pm in your time zone or at an inconvenient time.
  • Contact you at your place of employment.
  • Contact you if you've retained an attorney. They must cease communicating with you and route all communication to the attorney.
  • Use threatening language or misrepresent themselves.

You can find additional information on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act here.

When Should You Send a Cease and Desist Letter to a Debt Collector?

If a debt collector is constantly harassing you, has not confirmed that the debts are yours, or the statute of limitations has passed for this debt, you may want to send a cease-and-desist letter to the debt collector. There are a few benefits to sending a cease-and-desist letter to a creditor.

  1. The Debt Collector is required to stop harassing you.

  2. If they continue to contact you after you send your cease and desist letter, you can sue them for violating the FDCPA ACT and file complaints with the appropriate agencies.

Now that you know your rights, you can take a few steps to stop any further harassment from annoying debt collectors. You can use the following Cease and Desist letter to debt collectors as a template. You can fill in the appropriate information and mail this to the debt collection agency harassing you.

Sample Cease and Desist Letter:

Insert date
Your Name
Your Address or PO Box
City, State, ZIP
Debt Collector 's Name
Debt Collector 's Address
City, State, ZIP (Sent via Certified Mail)

RE: ACCOUNT NO: XXXXXX NOTICE TO CEASE AND DESIST

To Whom It May Concern,

After receiving numerous calls from [INSERT NAME OF DEBT COLLECTOR] regarding account no: [INSERT ACCOUNT NUMBER], I am hereby providing you notice to cease any further communications regarding this account immediately. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act specifies that debt collectors are to terminate and cease communication upon receipt of written notice.

[INSERT NAME OF DEBT COLLECTOR], has inappropriately and repeatedly contacted me: [Select one of the following that applies to you:

  • Regarding an unverified debt
  • Regarding a debt that I do not own
  • On a debt for which the statute of limitations has expired
  • Is harassing me by calling me at work and contacting known family members and associates
  • I have retained legal counsel, and all communications must be routed to them
  • Is calling me at inappropriate and inconvenient hours
  • Is using methods of threats or intimidation in attempts to collect the debt]

Should you need to provide notice of receipt of this letter, please forward said communications to the address listed above. Any additional correspondence I receive from you will be well documented and used to notify the appropriate agencies of your violation of the FDCPA. Please be advised that if communications continue, I will seek immediate and proper remedy under the law. Additionally, I will file complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and the local attorney general's office.

Sincerely,

Your signature

Your name

Download the template Here.

How to Cover Your Bases

Before you send the letter to the debt collector, you should take a few tips to ensure that you cover your bases. The last thing you want is to send this letter and not know if the debt collector received it or they may later deny receiving the letter. To cover your base in this regard, send the letter via certified mail and take the extra step of requiring a signature. You can request their signature, which confirms their receipt of your letter.

You will want to keep this for your files if they continue to harass you or continue communicating with you after sending your cease-and-desist notice. Even if they do not sign for it, as their address might be a PO Box, sending the letter via certified mail is an excellent option for you. With certified mailing, you can confirm that the letter reaches the intended recipient.

Please note that sending a cease and desist letter will not likely stop a debt collector from attempting to collect a debt from you, but it should end the harassment and other illegal tactics. If the debt collector files a lawsuit after they can no longer contact you regarding the debt, SoloSuit can help you generate your Answer to the Complaint or Petition in 15 minutes and even file it for you!

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James


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