Glossary
Debt Collector Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential debt collector terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key debt collector vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in debt collector training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Cease and desist
- Request to stop contact.
- Charge-off
- Debt written off.
- Delinquent account
- Past-due account.
- Dialer
- Automated calling system.
- Dispute
- Customer challenge to a debt.
- FDCPA
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
- Mini-Miranda
- Required disclosure.
- Payment plan
- Agreed schedule of payments.
- Promise to pay
- Commitment to pay.
- Recovery rate
- Share collected.
- Reg F
- CFPB debt collection rule.
- Right party contact
- Reaching the actual debtor.
- Settlement
- Agreeing to less than owed.
- Skip tracing
- Locating debtors.
- Validation notice
- Notice of debt details.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Debt Collector practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Debt Collector training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.