Question about privacy laws.?

I bought my car from a used car dealership and my payment was due yesterday, I have the money I just forgot to pay it. My question is can the dealership call me and leave detailed messages saying that if I don't pay it by the end of the day they will reposess my car. I'm asking because I used to work in collections for Toyota and if we left a message we could only say who was calling and give a phone number because of privacy issues, you don't know who is going to check their messages. I wasn't sure if the same laws apply to different dealerships or if it was the same. The lady that calls me is very rude and it just makes me mad that she calls me and threatens me because I am one day late on my car payment. Does anyone know or have any idea where I can go to look? Thanks!!

I can afford to pay my car payment I just forgot it was due already. It's really annoying, it's due every 2 weeks. I thought I paid it last week but it was actually 2 weeks ago.

Your state laws may be more specific, but the federal law (Fair Debt Collection Practices act) is not explicit about communications that ~could~ potentially be overheard by a third party:

"COMMUNICATION WITH THIRD PARTIES. Except as
provided in section 804, without the prior consent of the
consumer given directly to the debt collector, or the express
permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, or as
reasonably necessary to effectuate a postjudgment judicial
remedy, a debt collector may not communicate, in connection
with the collection of any debt, with any person other
than a consumer, his attorney, a consumer reporting agency
if otherwise permitted by law, the creditor, the attorney of
the creditor, or the attorney of the debt collector."

So it's possible that you could argue in court that their communication violated that, but where Toyota plays it safe and avoids a potential complaint, this car company apparently feels it's not very likely that someone who can't make their car payment can afford to take them to court.

You can file a complaint on ftc.gov.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collection agencies from communicating with others about the debt. I believe this would include leaving phone messages because, as you mentioned, they do not know who is going to check the phone messages.

However, as mentioned, this law only prohibits collection agencies from doing this. Businesses that are attempting to collect their own debts are not within the scope of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Your state may also have laws that regulate collections agencies or businesses that are attempting to collect their own debts.