For most people in a medical collection, the right move is not silence — it is a paper trail. Restricting a collector to writing only ends the calls while keeping the channel open for the things you actually need: validation paperwork, itemised amounts, settlement offers in a form you can read twice, and any notice that legal action is coming. This page gives you the exact restriction letter and explains the legal lever underneath it, honestly — because the lever is not quite where most people assume.
General information, not legal advice. This page keeps communication open on one channel. If you want all contact ended instead, that is a different instrument — the cease communication letter — and it carries trade-offs this one avoids.
There is no standalone “writing-only right” written into the FDCPA. The lever is the inconvenient-contact rule: under §805(a)(1) (15 U.S.C. §1692c(a)(1)) and Regulation F §1006.6(b), a collector may not communicate with you at a time or place it knows is inconvenient — and once you tell the collector that telephone calls are inconvenient for you, continuing to use them anyway violates the Act. State regulators state the practical outcome plainly: California’s Attorney General tells consumers you may ask a debt collector to contact you only by mail, or through your attorney. The CFPB maintains a dedicated sample letter for exactly this request (“Here’s how to contact me”) — the restriction letter below is adapted from it.
Two mechanics matter:
[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Date]
[Collection agency name]
[Collection agency address]
Re: Account [account number, if known] — [hospital/provider or creditor name]
To whom it may concern:
Telephone calls from your company are inconvenient for me. Pursuant to
15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(1) and 12 CFR 1006.6(b), do not contact me by telephone
at any number, including my workplace.
Contact me only in writing, by mail to the address above [— or: and, if you
must use email, only at (email address)]. Do not contact me by text message
[delete if inapplicable]. Do not contact any third party about me in
connection with this debt except as the law permits to obtain location
information.
This restriction applies to the account above and to any other account you
hold in my name.
Sincerely,
[Your signature]
[Your printed name]What each part does: the opening sentence is the legal trigger — it declares phone contact inconvenient, which is the fact §1006.6(b) acts on. The workplace sentence stands on its own rule: a collector may not contact you at work once it knows your employer prohibits it (§805(a)(3)) — name that fact if it is true for you. The channel menu is where this page differs from a cease letter: you are not refusing communication, you are choosing its form. The third-party sentence imports the §805(b) limit without restating it.
A cease letter stops the noise, but it also stops the information — and the CFPB’s own guidance warns that you lose the channel through which validation, settlement offers, and warnings flow. The writing-only restriction keeps every one of those arriving, on paper, where you can read them calmly, compare them against your records, and file them as evidence. Collectors also behave differently in writing: statements that would be blurted on a call get reviewed before they are mailed, which is one reason the contact log habit pairs so well with this letter.
Send it the same way as any binding notice in this cluster: signed, copied, certified mail with return receipt requested. If calls continue after the receipt date, each one is a documented violation — log it, and the escalation route is a CFPB complaint.
Can you ask a collection agency to contact you only in writing? Yes. The mechanism is the inconvenient-contact rule: once you notify the collector in writing that phone calls are inconvenient, using them anyway violates §805(a)(1) and Regulation F §1006.6(b). The CFPB maintains a sample letter for exactly this request, and state attorneys general describe the same right to mail-only contact.
How do I stop a debt collector from calling me at work? Tell the collector — in writing — that your employer prohibits personal calls at work. Under §805(a)(3), a collector that knows this may not contact you at your workplace. Naming the fact in your restriction letter makes it stick.
What should I do when a debt collector contacts me? Decide how you want contact to happen before you discuss the debt at all. For most people that means one written channel: send the restriction letter, then handle everything — validation, disputes, offers — on paper.
Can I tell a debt collector to contact me through my lawyer? Yes. Once the collector knows an attorney represents you on the debt, §805(a)(2) requires it to direct communication to the attorney instead of you. The CFPB’s sample letters include one for exactly this instruction.
General information, not legal advice. Sources: 15 U.S.C. §1692c(a); 12 CFR 1006.6(b), (e); CFPB sample letter 5 (“Here’s how to contact me”) and Ask CFPB; California Attorney General debt collection guidance. Currency verified 2026-10-23.