The legal time to call customers in Texas is 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 9:00 p.m. on Sunday, measured in the customer’s local time. Federal law alone would let you start at 8:00 a.m., but Texas tightens that by an hour on weekdays and keeps Sunday mornings off-limits entirely.1eCFR. 47 CFR 64.1200 – Delivery Restrictions2eCFR. 16 CFR 310.4 – Abusive Telemarketing Acts or Practices When state and federal rules differ, the stricter one controls, so these Texas windows are the ones to work from.
What the Hours Cover
The windows apply to live sales calls, prerecorded messages, and automated dialers. It does not matter where your call center sits. If the phone ringing is in Texas, you follow Texas time at the customer’s location. For most of the state that means Central Time, and for the far-west counties on Mountain Time it means adjusting accordingly.
In practice, treat 9:00 a.m. as the earliest safe start Monday through Saturday and noon as the earliest safe start on Sunday. Nine in the evening is the hard stop every night of the week.
Debt Collection Calls Are on a Different Clock
If you are calling to collect a debt rather than to sell something, you are governed by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which allows contact between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. in the consumer’s time zone.3Federal Reserve. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act That is one hour earlier in the morning than Texas allows for sales calls. A consumer can grant permission to call outside those hours, but you cannot assume it. Mixed-purpose calls that include a sales pitch fall back under the telemarketing rules.
Calling Hours Are Only Half the Rule
Even inside the legal window, you cannot call a number that appears on the Texas No-Call List. The Public Utility Commission of Texas maintains the list separately from the national registry, and telemarketers must buy the current version and scrub their calling databases against it before each campaign.4Public Utility Commission of Texas. How to Stop Getting Calls From Telemarketers
Registrations are processed quarterly, so a number added this quarter may not become off-limits until the next cycle:
- Registered January through March: calls must stop by June 1
- Registered April through June: calls must stop by September 1
- Registered July through September: calls must stop by December 1
- Registered October through December: calls must stop by March 1
When You Can Still Call a Listed Number
PUC rules recognize several exemptions from the no-call list:
- You have an existing business relationship with the customer.
- The relationship recently ended, in which case you have until the later of one year or the next published list to stop calling.
- The call is business-to-business, unless the business asks you to stop.
- The call is to collect a debt.
- You are a state-licensed seller whose sale will not close until an in-person presentation, and you are not using an autodialer.
- You do not meet the legal definition of a telemarketer at all.
Even with an exemption, a direct request to stop calling must be honored.5Legal Information Institute. 16 Texas Administrative Code 26.37 – Texas No-Call List
What You Have to Say on the Call
Before a sale closes over the phone, Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 302.202 requires the seller to disclose the full street address of the location the salesperson is calling from and, if different, the principal address of the business. If you are offering a free item, gift, or prize, you also have to disclose details about it, including how many people actually received it during the past 12 months.6State of Texas. Texas Business and Commerce Code Section 302.202 – Disclosures Required Before Purchase
Separately, the federal Truth in Caller ID Act makes it illegal to transmit misleading caller ID information with intent to defraud or cause harm.7Congress.gov. Public Law 111-331 – Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009 The number showing on the customer’s phone must be real and callable. Spoofing a caller ID to disguise a telemarketing operation violates federal law regardless of whether the call itself was placed in a legal window.
Robocalls and Automated Texts Need One-to-One Consent
Since January 27, 2025, the FCC’s one-to-one consent rule requires each business to obtain its own separate written permission from a consumer before placing robocalls or automated texts. A comparison-shopping website can no longer collect a single consent and share it with multiple sellers; each seller needs its own checkbox or equivalent disclosure, tied to a clear statement that the consumer will receive automated calls or texts from that specific seller, about subject matter logically related to the website where consent was given.8Federal Communications Commission. One-to-One Consent Rule for TCPA Prior Express Written Consent
The rule applies to autodialed calls and prerecorded or artificial-voice messages. A live, manually dialed sales call does not need this written consent, but it still has to fall inside the Texas calling hours and respect the no-call list.
What a Violation Costs
Each violation of Chapter 302 carries a civil penalty of up to $5,000, and every illegal call is counted as a separate violation.9State of Texas. Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 302 – Regulation of Telephone Solicitation A campaign that places hundreds of calls outside the legal window can generate serious exposure in a matter of days. If the Texas Attorney General obtains an injunction and the telemarketer violates it, penalties climb to $25,000 per violation of the injunction, capped at $50,000 for all injunction violations combined.
Fraudulent telemarketing can also trigger liability under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act. A consumer who proves the seller acted knowingly can recover up to three times their economic damages, and intentional misconduct can multiply both economic and mental anguish damages by the same factor.10State of Texas. Texas Business and Commerce Code Chapter 17 – Deceptive Trade Practices These are civil remedies pursued by consumers in court, and they sit on top of whatever the state collects.