How should a collector handle cease communication requests for multiple accounts?

• A. Apply the cease request to all accounts automatically.
• B. Respect each account's request individually and cease contact unless legally permissible actions are required.
• C. Ignore cease requests until a lawsuit is filed.
• D. Limit contact to a single channel and ignore others.

Answer: (B)

The main idea is that cease communication requests are attached to specific debts, not to a person or all of their debts. When someone has multiple accounts, you must treat each debt separately and honor the cease request for the particular account that was identified. This means you should stop contacting about that specific debt, unless there is a legally permissible reason to continue (for example, to inform the consumer that legal action will be taken or that collection efforts are being terminated). You can still communicate about other accounts that haven’t had a cease request, or about those accounts if they later submit a new cease request for all communications. This approach protects the consumer’s rights per applicable collection laws while allowing legitimate actions to proceed for debts where no cease has been requested.