Your Rights and Responsibilities: Debt Collection

Debt Collection

If a financial institution under federal regulation (such as a bank, trust and loan or insurance company) contacts you about a debt you owe, you have rights with respect to how they go about collecting this debt.

Your rights under federal law

A financial institution under federal regulation that contacts you to collect a debt cannot do any of the following things:

• contact your friends, your employer, your relatives or your neighbours for any information other than your telephone number or address, except in the following cases:
  
  
  • the person being contacted has guaranteed (or co-signed) to pay the debt on your behalf
    
    
  • you have asked in writing that the financial institution contact this person
    
    
• suggest to any of the above people that they should pay your debts, except in the case when one of these individuals has co-signed your loan
  
  
• use threatening, intimidating or abusive language
  
  
• apply excessive or unreasonable pressure on you to repay the debt
  
  
• misrepresent the situation or give false or misleading information
  
  
• add costs incurred related to the debt collection to the amount you owe
  
  
• contact you on holidays, before 7:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m., or on Sundays except between the hours of 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. (unless you have specifically asked the institution to do so)
  
  
• call you on your cell phone, unless you have provided that number as a way to reach you.
  
  

If you prefer, you can ask that the institution contact you only in writing.

What you should do if you feel your rights are not being respected

For a full set of rules that apply to debt collection, or if you feel that the financial institution you are dealing with is not respecting your rights, contact the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada toll-free at 1-866-461-3222.