TCPA Basics for Anyone Calling or Texting Leads

TCPA compliance for texting leads (and calling them) comes down to four things: get the right kind of consent before you send anything automated or promotional, don’t contact numbers on the Do Not Call list without an exemption, stay inside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the lead’s time zone, and stop the moment someone says stop. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act treats a text like a call, and it lets people sue for $500 per violation, up to $1,500 if it was willful. Run that math on one sloppy campaign to 2,000 numbers and you’re looking at a seven-figure exposure, which is how a texting mistake ends a small brokerage.

This isn’t legal advice. It’s the working knowledge we’d want anyone who calls or texts leads to have, from mortgage loan officers and auto dealers to landlords following up with applicants. If you run real volume, pay a TCPA lawyer to look at your flow once. It’s cheap compared with the alternative.

The statute in one paragraph

The TCPA has two parts that matter to lead follow-up. The first restricts calls made with an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice, especially to cell phones. The second created the national Do Not Call framework for telephone solicitations. The FCC writes the detailed rules, which live in 47 CFR 64.1200, and the statute gives individuals a private right to sue. Class actions follow from there.

TCPA compliance for texting leads: four questions first

Ask these before any campaign, in this order.

Question 1: What kind of message is it?

The rules depend on what the message is for.

Marketing or telemarketing. “Rates just dropped, want to refinance?” “We have three SUVs that fit your budget.” Anything that encourages a purchase. This is the strictest category.

Informational. “Your application is missing a pay stub.” “Your showing is confirmed for 4 p.m.” Lower bar, but if you use an autodialer or prerecorded voice to a cell phone, you still need prior express consent.

People get into trouble when an informational message slides into a pitch. “Your appointment is confirmed, and by the way, we’re running a 0.5% rate special” is a marketing message now.

Question 2: Is it an autodialer or a prerecorded voice?

The consent rules in the TCPA’s first part hinge on technology. For years, almost any texting platform was argued to be an “automatic telephone dialing system.” Then, in 2021, the Supreme Court narrowed the definition in Facebook v. Duguid: to count, the equipment has to use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce numbers.

That helped a lot of texting platforms. It didn’t make texting a free-for-all. Prerecorded and artificial voice calls are still covered regardless of dialer type. The Do Not Call rules don’t depend on autodialers at all. And several states passed their own “mini-TCPA” laws with broader definitions. Florida’s, for example, requires written consent for automated sales calls and texts and limits commercial solicitation calls to between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. So the safe working assumption hasn’t changed: if you’re texting leads at scale, get written consent.

Question 3: What consent do you actually have?

Consent comes in two strengths.

Prior express consent is enough for informational autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to a cell phone. Someone giving you their number in connection with a transaction, like filling out a rental application, generally counts for messages about that transaction.

Prior express written consent is required for marketing calls and texts made with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice. The FCC’s definition is specific. It must be a written agreement bearing the person’s signature, which can be an electronic signature, that clearly authorizes the seller to send marketing messages using that technology to a specific phone number. It also has to tell them, clearly and conspicuously, that they don’t have to agree as a condition of buying anything.

In practice, that means your lead form needs real consent language next to the submit button, an unchecked box or clear signature action, the phone number, and your business name. Save the exact version of the form each lead saw, with a timestamp and IP address. If a lead disputes consent, the burden is on you.

What changed in January 2025

The FCC had adopted a “one-to-one” consent rule in late 2023, which would have required prior express written consent to name a single seller, killing the common practice of comparison sites collecting consent for “our marketing partners.” It was set to take effect January 27, 2025. On January 24, the Eleventh Circuit vacated it in Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC, holding that the FCC had gone beyond what the statute’s plain meaning of “prior express consent” allows.

So you can still buy leads collected with multi-seller consent. But buying leads is where most TCPA lawsuits start. Ask your lead vendor for the consent language, the timestamp and the page URL for every lead, and spot-check them. If they can’t produce it, don’t text those numbers.

What’s coming in April

Separate FCC revocation rules are scheduled to take effect April 11, 2025. Under the new text of 64.1200(a)(10), a person can revoke consent “by using any reasonable method,” a reply of “stop,” “quit,” “end,” “revoke,” “opt out,” “cancel” or “unsubscribe” counts automatically, and you must honor it within a reasonable time not to exceed ten business days. You also can’t require people to opt out only through one channel. A single confirmation text is allowed, and that’s it.

If your CRM only catches the literal word “STOP,” fix that before April.

Question 4: Is the number on a Do Not Call list?

Telephone solicitations to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry are off-limits unless you have the person’s written permission or an established business relationship. The FCC rule defines that relationship narrowly: a purchase or transaction within the last 18 months, or an inquiry or application within the last three months.

That three-month window catches a lot of mortgage and auto teams. A lead who asked about a refinance in October is fair game in December under the EBR exemption. In March, absent other consent, they may not be.

To get the safe harbor for an accidental DNC call, you need written procedures, trained staff, a company-specific do-not-call list, and a process that uses a version of the national registry pulled within the last 31 days. Sellers access the registry through the telemarketer portal.

Also keep your own internal list. Anyone who tells you to stop calling goes on it, permanently, across every rep and every system.

The rules that trip up small teams

Quiet hours. Federal rules bar telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time. A Phoenix team texting East Coast leads at 7:30 p.m. their time is texting at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. Schedule by the lead’s time zone, not yours.

Reassigned numbers. Phone numbers get disconnected and handed to new people constantly. If you text a number that used to belong to your consenting lead, the new owner never consented. The FCC’s Reassigned Numbers Database gives callers a safe harbor under 64.1200(m) if they checked it and it said the number hadn’t been permanently disconnected since consent was obtained.

Wrong line type assumptions. Cell phone rules are stricter than landline rules for autodialed and prerecorded calls. Many teams assume every number in a lead file is a mobile. Checking line type up front tells you which bucket you’re in. We explain the differences in mobile vs. landline vs. VoIP.

Vendors who text for you. If a marketing agency or a lead vendor texts on your behalf, you can still be on the hook. Get their consent records and their DNC process in writing.

Where credit lookups fit in

Lenders and brokers often ask us whether a phone-based credit check creates TCPA issues, or solves them. Neither, really. Our lookup is a soft pull that returns the person’s name, current address, FICO® Score 4 and phone details, including line type, carrier and caller ID name. That’s useful for deciding whether to follow up and how: you’ll know if a number is a landline or VoIP, if the name on the file matches the lead, and if the fraud score on the line is high.

But the lookup doesn’t give you permission to call or text. Two separate laws, two separate permissions. The credit check needs a permissible purpose under the FCRA, usually the person’s OK. The call or text needs TCPA consent. A good lead form asks for both, in clearly separate language. Our credit check consent template covers the FCRA side, and our compliance page sums up the rules for lookups.

For lead teams, a sensible order is: capture the lead with both consents, run the lookup to confirm identity and pre-qualify, then route. We go deeper on that in pre-qualifying leads with a phone number and lead scoring for loan brokers. If you’re wiring lookups into your own systems, our credit score API guide covers sending a stated purpose with every request, so the consent record and the lookup live side by side.

A short compliance checklist

• Separate consent language for marketing calls and texts, with the business name, the phone number and the “not a condition of purchase” disclosure.
• Saved proof of consent for every lead: form version, timestamp, IP, page URL.
• DNC scrub against a registry copy no older than 31 days, plus your internal list.
• Calling and texting only between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the lead’s time zone, earlier where state law requires.
• Opt-outs honored from any reasonable message, across all reps and platforms.
• Reassigned Numbers Database checks before re-engaging old leads.
• Written vendor agreements that cover consent and DNC.

One more habit worth building

Read your own lead form as if you were a plaintiff’s lawyer looking for a reason to sue. Is the consent language visible without scrolling? Does it name you, not just “partners”? Would a normal person understand they’re agreeing to texts? Then text yourself through the whole flow, reply “cancel” instead of “STOP,” and see what your system does. A surprising number of consent problems show up in that ten-minute test, long before a demand letter does.