Coverage
All fifty states, and the rule that changes between them
The software is the same everywhere. What differs is the consent rule your recording program has to satisfy — and for a floor that dials across state lines, that is one decision rather than fifty.
One-party and all-party consent
Federal law permits recording a call with one party's consent. Roughly fifteen states require every party on the line to consent, and a collections floor calling nationwide will place calls into them constantly.
For a multi-state floor this collapses into one decision, not fifty. A collector sitting in a one-party state who reaches a consumer in an all-party state has placed a call into that state, and the stricter standard is generally the one that governs it. Trying to branch the behavior per call — different script depending on area code — is both fragile and unnecessary.
The common operational answer is a recording disclosure at the top of every call regardless of destination. It sits naturally beside the debt-collection disclosure most scripts already carry, and it means a collector has nothing to remember mid-dial. Whether that is sufficient for your program is a question for your counsel, not for a software vendor.
One script
Disclose on every call, not on the ones an area code suggests.
Strictest rule
Plan for all-party and the one-party states are covered by definition.
Gated in software
Recording stays off until the attestation is signed.
Where the stricter rule applies
Categorized for orientation. Statutes change and their application depends on facts about your program that we do not know — confirm your position with counsel before you record anyone.
All-party consent (15)
Every party on the call must consent.
One-party consent (35)
One party's consent generally suffices — your collector supplies it.
What else varies by state — and what we will not pretend to know
Consent is the rule the software touches, so it is the one we categorize. Several others matter enormously to a collections operation and we deliberately do not publish per-state tables for them:
- Licensing and bonding. Most states license collection agencies, and requirements, thresholds and surety bond amounts differ substantially. Getting this wrong is an operating problem, not a marketing one.
- Statutes of limitation. The window for suing on a debt varies by state and by debt type, and it interacts with what a collector may say about legal action.
- State-level disclosure requirements. Several states require language beyond the federal mini-Miranda, sometimes with prescribed wording.
A vendor publishing a confident fifty-state table of those, refreshed by nobody, is generating a liability for its customers rather than a resource. Your compliance counsel or your trade association maintains these properly. We would rather send you there than be wrong at scale.
Common questions
- Does CollectionsQA work in every state?
- Yes. It is remote software — there is nothing to ship and nobody to send — and it is in use by agencies regardless of where their collectors sit. What changes state to state is not the software but the consent rule your recording program has to satisfy.
- Which states require all-party consent for call recording?
- Approximately fifteen: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington. The rest generally permit recording with one party's consent, which your collector supplies. Treat this as orientation rather than advice — statutes change, and how they apply turns on facts about your program.
- Our collectors dial across state lines. Which rule applies?
- In practice the stricter one usually governs the call. A collector sitting in a one-party state who reaches a consumer in an all-party state has placed a call into that state, and most agencies plan for the stricter standard rather than trying to branch per call. Your counsel should confirm how that applies to your program.
- How do agencies handle that operationally?
- The common answer is a recording disclosure at the top of every call regardless of destination — which sits naturally beside the debt-collection disclosure most scripts already carry. One script, one behavior, nothing for a collector to remember mid-dial.
- Does the software decide whether we may record?
- No, and deliberately not. Call recording stays switched off until an administrator completes an attestation stating the lawful basis and confirming staff were told. Until that is signed the endpoints do not collect at all. We provide the gate and the record that you passed through it on purpose; the basis itself is yours.
- Do collectors working from home change any of this?
- Not the consent question — a call is a call wherever the collector sits. It changes supervision, which is the gap this product exists for: conversation-only tools cannot see the desktop of someone working from a spare bedroom.
Wherever your collectors sit
One office, all remote, or a mix across a dozen states. Tell us which and we will tell you what to switch on.