Not long after Congress studied the effects of fair credit reporting it turned its focus on a new issue of fair debt collection. The passing of the Fair debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 1978 brought a balance to the standards of Fair credit reporting and addressed four facts about the debt collection industry.

Congress found abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices by many debt collectors which contributed to the number of personal bankruptcies, to marital instability, to the loss of jobs, and to invasions of individual privacy.

Its second finding was that existing laws and procedures for redressing these injuries are inadequate to protect consumers.

Congress proved that there are debt collection means other than misrepresentation or other abusive debt collection practices which are available for the effective collection of a debt.

And finally, Congress found that abusive debt collection practices are carried on to a substantial extent in interstate commerce and through means and instrumentalities of such commerce. Even where abusive debt collection practices are purely intrastate in character, they nevertheless directly affect interstate commerce.

In conclusion to its findings, Congress created the FDCPA with a purpose to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors, to insure that those debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses.