---
kind: "section"
citation: "15 U.S.C. § 1692"
title: "15"
title_heading: "Commerce and Trade"
number: "1692"
heading: "Congressional findings and declaration of purpose"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/15/1692"
units:
  - "Chapter 41 — Consumer Credit Protection"
  - "Subchapter V — Debt Collection Practices"
---

# §1692. Congressional findings and declaration of purpose

- (a) **Abusive practices—** There is abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and unfair [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices by many [debt collectors](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=6). Abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices contribute to the number of personal bankruptcies, to marital instability, to the loss of jobs, and to invasions of individual privacy.
- (b) **Inadequacy of laws—** Existing laws and procedures for redressing these injuries are inadequate to protect [consumers](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=3).
- (c) **Available non-abusive collection methods—** Means other than misrepresentation or other abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices are available for the effective collection of [debts](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5).
- (d) **Interstate commerce—** Abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices are carried on to a substantial extent in interstate commerce and through means and instrumentalities of such commerce. Even where abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices are purely intrastate in character, they nevertheless directly affect interstate commerce.
- (e) **Purposes—** It is the purpose of this subchapter to eliminate abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices by [debt collectors](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=6), to insure that those [debt collectors](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=6) who refrain from using abusive [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and to promote consistent [State](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=8) action to protect [consumers](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=3) against [debt](/usc/15/1692a.md?p=5) collection abuses.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 90–321, title VIII, § 802, as added Pub. L. 95–109, Sept. 20, 1977, 91 Stat. 874.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Pub. L. 90–321, title VIII, § 819, formerly § 818, as added by Pub. L. 95–109, Sept. 20, 1977, 91 Stat. 883, § 818; renumbered § 819, Pub. L. 109–351, title VIII, § 801(a)(1), Oct. 13, 2006, 120 Stat. 2004, provided that: “This title [enacting this subchapter] takes effect upon the expiration of six months after the date of its enactment [Sept. 20, 1977], but section 809 [section 1692g of this title] shall apply only with respect to debts for which the initial attempt to collect occurs after such effective date.”

### Short Title

This subchapter known as the “Fair Debt Collection Practices Act”, see Short Title note set out under section 1601 of this title.