Sometimes a debt collection agency will attempt to collect more than one debt from the same person or household. If that is the case, The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act states “If any consumer owes multiple debts and makes any single payment to any debt collector with respect to such debts, such debt collector may not apply such payment to any debt which is disputed by the consumer and, where applicable, shall apply such payment in accordance with the consumer’s directions.”

In other words, the consumer has the choice to decide which debt is paid down first and the collection agency must honor that. In addition, if the consumer has disputed one of the multiple debts, the collection agency may not apply payments to disputed debts.