Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 17 - PROFESSIONS, OCCUPATIONS, AND BUSINESSES (§§ 17-1-101 — 17-107-311) › Subtitle 2 - NONMEDICAL PROFESSIONS (§§ 17-10-101 — 17-56-202) › Chapter 24 - COLLECTION AGENCIES (§§ 17-24-101 — 17-24-512) › Subchapter 5 - ARKANSAS FAIR DEBT COLLECTION PRACTICES ACT (§§ 17-24-501 — 17-24-512) › Section 17-24-502 - Definitions

As used in this subchapter:
(1)
"Communication" means the conveying of information regarding a debt directly or indirectly to a person;
(2)
"Consumer" means a natural person obligated or allegedly obligated to pay a debt;
(3)
(A)
"Creditor" means a person:
(i)
Who offers or extends credit, creating a debt; or
(ii)
To whom a debt is owed.
(B)
"Creditor" does not include a person to the extent that he or she receives an assignment or transfer of a debt in default solely to facilitate collection of the debt for another;
(4)
"Debt" means an obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance, or services that are the subject of the transaction are primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, whether or not the obligation has been reduced to judgment;
(5)
(A)
"Debt collector" means a person who uses an instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in a business whose principal purpose is the collection of debts or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another.
(B)
Except as provided in subdivision (5)(D)(vi) of this section, "debt collector" includes a creditor who, in the process of collecting his or her own debts, uses a name other than his or her own that would indicate that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the debts.
(C)
As used in §
17-24-507(b)(6)
, "debt collector" includes a person who uses an instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails in a business whose principal purpose is the enforcement of security interests.
(D)
"Debt collector" does not include any:
(i)
Officer or employee of a creditor while, in the name of the creditor, collecting debts for the creditor;
(ii)
Person while acting as a debt collector for another person, both of whom are related by common ownership or affiliated by corporate control, if the person acting as a debt collector does so only for persons to whom it is so related or affiliated and if the principal business of the person is not the collection of debts;
(iii)
Officer or employee of the United States or a state to the extent that collecting or attempting to collect a debt is in the performance of his or her official duties;
(iv)
Person while serving or attempting to serve legal process on another person in connection with the judicial enforcement of a debt;
(v)
Nonprofit organization that, at the request of consumers, performs bona fide consumer credit counseling and assists consumers in the liquidation of their debts by receiving payments from the consumers and distributing the amounts to creditors; or
(vi)
Person collecting or attempting to collect a debt owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another to the extent the collection activity:
(a)
Is incidental to a bona fide fiduciary obligation or a bona fide escrow arrangement;
(b)
Concerns a debt that was originated by the person;
(c)
Concerns a debt that was not in default at the time it was obtained by the person; or
(d)
Concerns a debt obtained by the person as a secured party in a commercial credit transaction involving the creditor; and
(6)
"Location information" means:
(A)
A consumer's place of abode and his or her telephone number at the consumer's place of abode; or
(B)
The consumer's place of employment.
Acts 2009, No. 1455, § 1.