How to choose a debt collection agency in Florida
By Kai Greenspan, Founding Editor · Last updated: August 18, 2026
Who Florida's prohibited-practices law applies to. Section 559.72 opens “In collecting consumer debts, a person may not”, not “a debt collector”, so it reaches anyone collecting a consumer debt, including a creditor collecting its own. Your exposure does not end at the agency's door.
Source: leg.state.fl.us · Last checked: August 18, 2026
The five steps, in order
| Step | What to do, and why it comes in this order |
|---|---|
| 1. Decide which kind of firm you are hiring, then verify the right thing | Florida requires a consumer collection agency to register with the Office of Financial Regulation and renew that registration every year, and the register is statewide and public. If you are hiring a collection agency, search it there before anything else: a firm that fails this free check is not worth a fee conversation. But if you are hiring a collection law firm, it will not be on that register at all, because members of The Florida Bar are exempt by statute. For a law firm, check Bar standing instead. Searching the wrong register and finding nothing is the most common way to reach a wrong conclusion in Florida. |
| 2. Match the agency to your debt type | Consumer debt, owed by individuals for personal, family or household purposes, is federally regulated under the FDCPA, and Florida’s own prohibited-practices law is written around consumer debt too. Business-to-business debt sits outside those statutes, under state law and your contract. Florida’s register makes this visible: a consumer collection agency registration is coded CCA and a commercial one COM, and a firm may hold one and not the other. Confirm the agency holds the type that matches your debt. |
| 3. Understand that Florida law reaches you as well | Section 559.72 begins "In collecting consumer debts, a person may not", and lists nineteen prohibited practices. Not "a debt collector", a person. The federal FDCPA generally binds third-party collectors; this Florida section binds anyone collecting a consumer debt, including a creditor collecting its own. Section 559.77 lets the debtor sue directly for actual damages plus up to $1,000 in statutory damages, with court costs and attorney’s fees, within two years. So your exposure does not end at the agency’s door: how your agency behaves, and how your own team behaves, both sit inside the same statute. |
| 4. Read the public complaint record in context, and check any certifications at source | Search the agency in the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database and read it the way the CFPB advises: complaints are records, not verdicts, larger agencies naturally accrue more, and what matters is the pattern and how the agency responded. Certifications such as CLLA are voluntary audited standards whose certified lists are public, so verify any claim against the issuing body’s own register rather than a logo on a website. That is how this site checks them. |
| 5. Only then talk fees, and get everything in writing | Most collection work is contingency: the agency keeps an agreed share of what it recovers. No trustworthy public benchmark for the percentage exists, so ask each agency for its rate in writing, by debt age band, and pin down the cases that cause disputes: direct payments to you after placement, part payments, recalled accounts, legal costs, and cancellation terms. One Florida-specific clause is worth adding: a Florida registration is not transferable or assignable, so if your agency is acquired, ask who holds the registration the work will run under afterwards. |
Step-by-step register instructions: verify a Florida registration. The ranked list built on these measures: Florida agencies.
Source: leg.state.fl.us · Last checked: August 18, 2026
The questions worth asking before you sign
Once an agency has passed the public checks, the remaining risk lives in the agreement, and the disputes that sour agency relationships are rarely about the headline rate. Ask each shortlisted agency, in writing:
- What is your Florida registration number, and when was it first approved? The number begins with CCA and both facts are checkable in the state register in under a minute.
- If you are not registered, which exemption applies? A genuinely exempt firm can name it in one sentence. An evasive answer to a simple statutory question is itself information.
- Do you hold the CCA registration, the COM one, or both? Consumer and commercial are different permissions, and you want the one that matches your accounts.
- What is your rate, by debt age band, in writing? Ask about direct payments made to you after placement, part payments, recalled accounts and legal costs, because that is where disputes start.
- Who holds the registration if you are acquired? A Florida registration is not transferable or assignable, so an acquisition does not carry it across.
- How do you train and monitor against Section 559.72? Nineteen practices are prohibited and the debtor can sue directly, so the answer tells you how seriously the agency takes the statute you are both standing inside.
Common questions about choosing in Florida
Does a collection agency have to be registered in Florida?
Yes, unless it falls into one of nine statutory exemptions. Section 559.553 says a person may not engage in business in Florida as a consumer collection agency without first registering with the Office of Financial Regulation and maintaining that registration, and Section 559.555 requires it to be renewed every year. If you are hiring a collection agency to work Florida consumer accounts, an Approved registration is the baseline check.
The law firm we want to use is not on the register. Is that a problem?
No. Section 559.553(3) exempts members of The Florida Bar from the registration requirement, so a collection law firm is lawfully absent from this register. Check Bar standing rather than the collection agency register. The same exemption list also covers original creditors, banks and their wholly owned subsidiaries, insurance companies, consumer finance companies and certain out-of-state collectors, so absence from the register is a question to ask rather than a conclusion to draw.
Can we be sued under Florida collection law if our agency misbehaves?
Florida law reaches further than the federal FDCPA on this point, and it is worth understanding before you place accounts. Section 559.72 applies to "a person" collecting consumer debts rather than only to third-party collectors, and Section 559.77 gives the debtor a direct civil action for actual damages plus additional statutory damages up to $1,000, together with court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees, brought within two years of the alleged violation. Whether that reaches a particular creditor in a particular arrangement is a legal question for a lawyer, not this page; the point for a buyer is that your own collection conduct is inside the same statute as your agency’s.
What is the difference between CCA and COM on the Florida register?
CCA is a consumer collection agency registration, which is what matters for personal or household debts. COM is a commercial collection agency, covering business-to-business debts. A firm can hold one and not the other, so match the registration type to the debt you are placing.
Every registration says it expires on 31 December. Should that worry us?
No. Florida renews the whole industry in one shared window, between 1 October and 31 December each year, under Section 559.555(6), so every current registration carries the same expiry date. A registration showing Approved with a 31 December expiry is entirely normal, and an agency that has not renewed by late November is early in the window rather than lapsed.
Does Debt Collection Index rank Florida agencies by how much they recover?
No, and no state page on this site does. Recovery rates are self-reported, unaudited and not comparable between agencies, so we do not publish them or rank on them. Florida agencies are grouped by years continuously registered on the state register, with verified certifications and public complaint records shown alongside, all sourced and dated. Placement is never for sale.
Related pages
Florida agencies, ranked
Verified Florida agencies grouped by years continuously registered.
Verify a Florida registration
The free five-minute check against the state register, and who is lawfully exempt.
Florida debt collection laws
The registration rule, the nine exemptions and the prohibited practices, quoted from the statutes.
Choose an agency in Texas
The same five checks, built around the Texas surety bond.
Choose an agency in New York
The same five checks, built around the New York City license.