Consumer Protection

Restricts auto-dialed calls, prerecorded messages, and marketing texts sent to your phone without consent. Every individual call or text can count as its own violation, which is why a few weeks of daily robocalls can add up quickly. Consent can also be revoked at any time, and contact after that point is its own violation.

Typical Damages

$500 to $1,500

per call or text

Time to File

4 years

Covers new, and in some states used or leased, vehicles with a substantial defect the manufacturer cannot repair after a reasonable number of attempts. The remedy is usually a buyback or a comparable replacement vehicle. Because these are state statutes, the repair-attempt count, mileage limits, and deadlines vary depending on where you bought the car.

Typical Remedy

Refund or replacement

Key Trigger

Repeated failed repairs

Governs what credit bureaus and the companies that report to them are allowed to say about you. Accounts that aren’t yours, balances already paid, and debts past the reporting window all belong in dispute. Once you dispute in writing, the bureau has a limited window to investigate and correct or delete what it cannot verify.

Investigation Window

About 30 days

Common Harm

Denied credit, jobs, housing

Sets the rules third-party debt collectors must follow. It bars threats, calls at unreasonable hours, false claims about what you owe or what happens if you don’t pay, and contacting your employer or family about the debt. You can also demand written validation of a debt, which pauses collection until the company proves it.

Your Strongest Tool

Debt validation letter

Applies To

Third-party collectors

One of the most disruptive credit reporting errors there is: a living person is marked deceased, usually after a mix-up with a joint account, a shared name, or a lender’s bad data feed. Cards stop working, applications are denied without explanation, and ordinary credit monitoring often won’t show why. Correcting it takes a documented dispute with proof of identity sent to each bureau reporting the error.

Usual Cause

Mixed or mismatched files

First Step

Written dispute to all three bureaus