Debt Collectors
ORS 646.639 and ORS 646.641 — what a collector may not do, and $1,000 or actual damages
Oregon's unlawful collection practices section reaches any person that, by any action, conduct or practice, collects or tries to collect a consumer debt owed, or said to be owed, to a creditor or a debt buyer. A consumer debt is one that arises from buying, leasing or borrowing for personal, family or household purposes. Among the practices the section makes unlawful while collecting:
- Using or threatening force or violence against the debtor, the family or their property.
- Threatening arrest or criminal prosecution.
- Threatening to seize, attach or sell property without saying that doing so needs a court proceeding first, where it does.
- Profane, obscene or abusive language.
- Calling repeatedly, or at times known to be inconvenient, with intent to harass or annoy.
- Contacting, or threatening to contact, the debtor's employer about the debt.
- Letters made to look like court papers, or like a government agency's or a lawyer's, when they are not.
- Suing on a debt the collector knows, or with reasonable diligence would know, is barred by the statute of limitations.
- Collecting a debt the collector knows, or should know, does not exist or is not owed.
At work, only within narrow limits. Without the debtor's permission, a collector may not contact the debtor at a workplace other than home, except to write there when no home address is reasonably available, in an envelope that does not reveal a debt collector, or to telephone there after a good faith attempt to reach the debtor at home during the day or between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Even then, not more than once each business week, and not at all once the debtor says not to call there or the collector knows the employer forbids it.
Every first written communication names the collector, the person the debt is being collected for, if any, and the collector's business address. On the phone, the caller gives their own name and the true purpose of the call within 30 seconds of starting it.
A debt buyer shows its papers. A debt buyer, or a collector acting for one, may not sue without business records showing the original creditor's name, the debtor's name and address, who owns the debt, an itemized statement of payments, the balance when the debt was charged off, interest and fees, evidence that the buyer alone owns the debt, the date it was bought, and a copy of the contract or the most recent statement. Once a debtor asks for those documents, collecting before providing them, within 30 days after the request, is an unlawful collection practice.
A person injured by another's willful use of an unlawful collection practice may sue to stop it, or for actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater. The court or the jury may award punitive damages. A prevailing plaintiff may be awarded reasonable attorney fees and costs; a prevailing defendant only where the claim had no objectively reasonable basis.
The action is commenced within three years from the date of the injury. The section's rules on medical debts the Oregon Health Plan or Medicaid would cover, on interest and fees beyond the debt, and on receipts for cash payments are not all reproduced here, and the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies alongside it. Whether a particular call or letter crossed the line is a question for a court and a licensed Oregon attorney.
Sources for this section (2)
- ORS 646.639 — Unlawful collection practices
- ORS 646.641 — Civil action for unlawful collection practice; damages; attorney fees; time for commencing action
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Oregon attorney.