FTC Local Calling Time Rule (8am-9pm)

The FTC local calling time rule sets a hard window for when you can dial consumers: no telemarketing calls before 8AM or after 9PM in the consumer's local time. The key phrase is local time. If your call center is in New York and you dial a lead in California, 8PM your time is only 5PM theirs, but a 7PM call from your seat lands at 10PM for them, which is a violation. Calling outside the window, sometimes called a Calling curfew breach, is a common and avoidable mistake when leads span time zones.

Setting call times in VICIdial

In VICIdial you control this with the Local Call Time field on the campaign. While the federal floor is 8AM to 9PM, several states are stricter, so we recommend a standard 9AM to 9PM range that stays safely inside almost every state rule. For finer control, the CALL TIMES section of the admin lets you define Call times with day-of-the-week hours and state-specific windows, so a single campaign can respect both the federal limit and tighter local rules at once. VICIdial uses each lead's area code and GMT offset (lead) to decide which window applies, so accurate lead data matters as much as the setting itself.

Calling hours are one piece of the FTC picture covered in our VICIdial compliance overview, and they pair closely with suppression duties. Before a single call goes out you should already be filtering against the federal Do Not Call list, because hitting a lead at a legal hour does not help if that lead should never have been dialed. Stack honored Permitted calling hours on top of a clean list and your campaign stays inside the rules on both fronts.

How the call time check works

The flow below shows the decision VICIdial makes for every lead before it dials, using the lead's local time against your configured window.

flowchart TD
  A[Lead ready to dial] --> B[Read lead area code]
  B --> C[Compute local time]
  C --> D{Inside call window}
  D -->|No| E[Hold lead until allowed]
  D -->|Yes| F{State rule stricter}
  F -->|Yes| G[Apply state window]
  F -->|No| H[Apply federal window]
  G --> I[Place call]
  H --> I[Place call]

VICIfast campaigns default to the safer 9AM to 9PM window with state-specific times built in, so you are not relying on agents to watch the clock. See pricing to see the plans.