State directory

Collecting debt in Maryland: licensing, bonds and statutes of limitations.

Any person doing business as a collection agency in Maryland (collecting consumer claims owed by Maryland residents for another, or collecting owned claims that were in default when acquired) must hold a collection agency license from the State Collection Agency Licensing Board, issued through NMLS, with a $350 annual fee and a surety bond of at least $50,000.

License required Bond $50,000 Written contracts: 3 yearsVerified 2026-09-20

General information, not legal advice. Every figure on this page links to the statute, rule or regulator page it came from, with the operative words quoted, and the date we verified it. Rules change; confirm with the regulator or your counsel before acting, and tell us if something here is out of date.

Licensing and bonding

Do you need a license to collect in Maryland?

The license fee is $350 per year under COMAR 09.03.13.02; ignore the regulator's older fee page that still lists $700 per two-year term. The $50,000 bond is the statutory floor and the Board may require more, up to $1,000,000, based on the licensee's volume and financial condition.

Requirement
License required
Md. Code Ann., Bus. Reg. § 7-301(a) (Maryland Collection Agency Licensing Act, Bus. Reg. Title 7)
Regulator
State Collection Agency Licensing Board, Office of Financial Regulation (Commissioner of Financial Regulation), Maryland Department of Labor
Licensing page
Surety bond
$50,000

Statutory range $50,000 to $1,000,000, amount set per licensee by the Board considering business volume, financial condition, operations, management and control persons (§ 7-304(j)(2)). Regulator's 2024-11-18 advisory: 'Applicants must also provide a surety bond in the amount of at least $50,000; all surety bonds are managed through the NMLS Electronic Surety Bond functionality.' Bond runs to the Board as obligee; filed with the initial application and with each renewal (§ 7-302(c), § 7-306(b)(4)); surety liability continues 3 years after cancellation or loss of license (§ 7-304(d)(7)); cancellation effective 90 days after Board receives notice (§ 7-304(e)(3)). Only the $50,000 floor is confirmed as the amount actually demanded.

Md. Code Ann., Bus. Reg. § 7-304(j)(1)
NMLS
Yes, via NMLS

Bus. Reg. § 7-301(f): applicants for initial license or renewal 'shall apply for the initial license or license renewal through NMLS' on or after July 1, 2017. Regulator: 'OFR manages collection agency licensure for the Board utilizing the Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS)'. NMLS license type: Collection Agency License; bonds are NMLS electronic surety bonds; exempt affiliates register as Exempt Collection Agency Registrant.

Application fee
$350

COMAR 09.03.13.02A (read 2026-09-20 on regs.maryland.gov): 'The initial license fee required by Business Regulation Article, §§7-302(a) and 7-302.1, Annotated Code of Maryland, is $350 for a 1-year license term.' Bus. Reg. § 7-302(a)(2) also authorizes a nonrefundable investigation fee set by the Board; COMAR 09.03.13.02 lists no separate investigation fee. The regulator's older fee page (licfees.shtml, last updated 2016) still shows $700 per two-year term; it is superseded by COMAR (amended eff. July 2, 2018) and the 2024-11-18 advisory ('the annual license fee is $350'). NMLS processing fees are additional and not verified (NMLS checklist PDF could not be fetched).

COMAR 09.03.13.02A; Md. Code Ann., Bus. Reg. § 7-302(a)(2)
Renewal fee
$350

annual, renews December 31

COMAR 09.03.13.02B; Md. Code Ann., Bus. Reg. § 7-306
Branches and other fees
See note

No branch licenses since July 1, 2023 (HB 686, Ch. 567 of 2023). Regulator page: 'Effective July 1, 2023, individual licenses for locations other than the principal executive office are not required and will not be issued.' Additional Maryland business locations must be disclosed on a 'List of Locations Engaging in Maryland Business' form uploaded to NMLS; no branch fee. Bus. Reg. § 7-301(c): licensee may do business 'only at a licensed location or as otherwise authorized by regulation'. Licensees are also subject to the OFR annual non-depository assessment under Fin. Inst. § 2-120 and COMAR 09.03.02.10 (amount not stated on the pages read).

Other requirements
11 items

application under oath through NMLS (MU1) listing legal and trade names, principal executive office, additional locations, control persons, FEIN, formation state/date, consumer-complaint contact, and resident agent (§ 7-302(b)); resident agent name, address and telephone (§ 7-302(b)(7)); nonrefundable application fee and investigation fee (§ 7-302(a)); good moral character, financial responsibility, business experience and general fitness finding by the Board (§ 7-303(b)); electronic surety bond in NMLS (§ 7-304; OFR advisory 2024-11-18); disclose all additional Maryland business locations via NMLS location list; may do business only at a licensed location or as authorized by regulation (§ 7-301(c), § 7-305, regulator page, eff. July 1, 2023); maintain NMLS record current; NMLS unique identifier is the license number (§ 7-301(d),(f), § 7-305(c)-(d)); posting of licensing information at licensed location and on website (§ 7-306.1; not read in full); annual OFR non-depository assessment (Fin. Inst. § 2-120; COMAR 09.03.02.10); remote-work conditions for employees working from unlicensed locations (COMAR 09.03.02.08); affiliated (common-ownership) collectors exempt under § 7-102(b)(10) must register as 'Exempt Collection Agency Registrant' in NMLS and renew annually Nov 1 to Dec 31 (OFR advisory 2022-04-08)

Who needs it
Third-party collection agencies
Yes
Debt buyers
Yes
Collection law firms
It depends
Out-of-state agencies collecting from residents
Yes
Original creditors collecting their own accounts
No

Exemptions. Bus. Reg. § 7-102(b): title does not apply to a bank; a federal or State credit union; a mortgage lender; a person acting under a court order; a licensed real estate broker collecting rent or allied charges; a savings and loan association; a title company as to escrow business; a trust company; a lawyer collecting for a client (unless the lawyer has a non-lawyer employee engaged primarily to solicit debts or contact debtors); and a commonly-owned affiliate collecting only for its affiliates where collection is not its principal business and it files its name, contact and resident agent with the Board first (now via NMLS registration). § 7-301(b): license not required of a regular employee of a creditor collecting the creditor's own claims, or a regular employee of a licensed agency acting within scope of employment.

Statutes of limitations

How long can a debt be sued on in Maryland?

Maryland gives most consumer debt, including credit cards, three years, and since October 2016 a payment or acknowledgment made after that period cannot revive a consumer debt or restart the clock. Judgments last 12 years and can currently be renewed without limit; a proposal to cap renewals was sent back for further study in February 2026.

Written contract
3 years
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101
“A civil action at law shall be filed within three years from the date it accrues unless another provision of the Code provides a different period of time within which an action shall be commenced.”
Oral contract
3 years
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101
“A civil action at law shall be filed within three years from the date it accrues unless another provision of the Code provides a different period of time within which an action shall be commenced.”
Promissory note
6 years
Md. Code, Com. Law § 3-118(a)-(b) (negotiable note, 6 years); Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-102(a)(1) (12 years if under seal); § 5-101 (3 years for a non-negotiable, unsealed note)
“an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within 6 years after the due date or dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within 6 years after the accelerated due date.”

Three tiers: a negotiable note gets 6 years under UCC § 3-118 (demand note: 6 years after demand, or barred after 10 years with no payment of principal or interest, § 3-118(b)); a note under seal gets 12 years under § 5-102(a)(1), except an owner-occupied residential mortgage note (§ 5-102(c)(2)) or hospital consumer debt (§ 5-102(c)(3)); anything else falls to the § 5-101 three-year residual period, which expressly yields where 'another provision of the Code provides a different period'.

Open account and credit card
3 years
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101; § 5-1201 (consumer debt definition); § 5-1202(a)
“A civil action at law shall be filed within three years from the date it accrues unless another provision of the Code provides a different period of time within which an action shall be commenced.”

Maryland has no open-account statute; a credit-card account is an unsealed simple contract under the § 5-101 three-year catch-all, not a § 5-102 specialty. Neither pass located a reported Maryland appellate decision expressly classifying credit-card debt; the Fourth Circuit in In re Dubois, No. 15-1945 (4th Cir. Aug. 25, 2016) treats consumer debt as 'beyond Maryland's three-year statute of limitations ... See Md. Code Ann., Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101,' and the Court of Appeals in Cain v. Midland Funding (Nos. 38/39, Sept. Term 2020, Aug. 4, 2021) applied § 5-101 in the debt-buyer context to the consumer's claims. Md. Rule 3-306(d) (form DC-CV-106) requires assigned-consumer-debt plaintiffs to plead charge-off date and last-payment date and certify the claim is within limitations. Com. Law § 2-725 gives 4 years for a contract for sale of goods; retail-installment sale-of-goods debt may fall there.

Judgment
12 yearsrenewable
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-102(a)(3); Md. Rule 2-625 (circuit court); Md. Rule 3-625 (District Court)
“A money judgment expires 12 years from the date of entry or most recent renewal. At any time before expiration of the judgment, the judgment holder may file a notice of renewal and the clerk shall enter the judgment renewed.”
Medical debt (special rule)
3 years
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-102(c)(3)
“This section does not apply to: ... (3) A contract, including a contract under seal, or a promissory note or other instrument under seal that is: (i) Related to an obligation of a consumer to pay consumer debt ... that arises from hospital services ... and (ii) Between a consumer and a hospital”

Not a distinct period; the rule is that hospital consumer debt can never use the 12-year specialty period even if the paper is under seal, so it stays at § 5-101's three years. Health-Gen. § 19-214.2 adds pre-suit conditions for hospitals (financial-assistance screening, payment-plan policy, 240-day wait, affidavit) but no separate limitations period.

When the clock starts, and what restarts it
Accrual

§ 5-101 runs 'from the date it accrues' and does not define accrual for a debt. For a negotiable note, Com. Law § 3-118(a) fixes accrual at the stated or accelerated due date. For a contract for sale of goods, Com. Law § 2-725(2): 'A cause of action accrues when the breach occurs, regardless of the aggrieved party's lack of knowledge of the breach.' For an assigned consumer debt, Md. Rule 3-306(d)(6)-(7) (form DC-CV-106) requires the plaintiff to plead the charge-off date and 'the date of the last payment on the consumer debt or of the last transaction giving rise to the consumer debt' and to certify the claim is within limitations. Neither pass read a Maryland appellate opinion fixing the accrual date for a credit-card account (first missed payment/default vs. last payment); treat accrual-on-breach as the unverified working rule.

Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101; Com. Law § 3-118(a); Com. Law § 2-725(2); Md. Rule 3-306(d)
Partial payment restarts the period
It depends
Written acknowledgment restarts the period
It depends
Columbia Ass'n v. Poteet (Md. Ct. Spec. App. July 1, 2011), quoting Potterton v. Ryland Group, 289 Md. 371, 378 (1981); limited for consumer debt by Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-1202(b)(1)
“an acknowledgment of a debt barred by the statute of limitations removes the bar and revives the remedy ... the limitations period was restarted from the date of the acknowledgment”
Borrowing statute
No
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-115 (product-liability only); Title 5, Subtitle 1 otherwise silent

The only borrowing-type provision in Title 5 is § 5-115, limited to product-liability personal-injury claims arising in a foreign jurisdiction. No general borrowing statute for contract or debt claims; Maryland treats limitations as procedural and applies its own period as forum (case law, not verified from a primary opinion in either pass). Pass A noted a March 2020 D. Md. decision applying a Delaware choice-of-law clause to the revival question (secondary report only).

Time-barred debt
Status after the period runs
Unenforceable

The debt exists but cannot be sued on; a suit can be defended by raising the defense.

Collector must disclose that the debt is time-barred
No
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-1202(a)
“A creditor or a collector may not initiate a consumer debt collection action after the expiration of the statute of limitations applicable to the consumer debt collection action.”

Both passes searched (Cts. & Jud. Proc. Title 5; Com. Law Title 14, Subtitle 2 MCDCA; COMAR) and found no Maryland statute or regulation requiring a time-barred-debt disclosure in collection communications. Instead § 5-1202(a) bars filing suit (or arbitration) on expired consumer debt, effective Oct. 1, 2016 (2016 Md. Laws ch. 579/580, HB 1491/SB 771). The State Collection Agency Licensing Board advisory to debt purchasers states 'nor may one threaten or imply legal action on time-barred debt.' Federal Reg. F (12 CFR 1006.26) still applies.

A payment revives a time-barred debt
No
Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-1202(b)

(b)(1): 'Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any payment toward, written or oral affirmation of, or any other activity on the debt that occurs after the expiration of the statute of limitations applicable to the consumer debt collection action does not revive or extend the limitations period.' (b)(2) carve-out for 'a separate written agreement or written payment plan entered into by the debtor and the creditor or collector before the expiration of the statute of limitations.' Applies to 'consumer debt' as defined in § 5-1201. For non-consumer debt the pre-2016 common-law acknowledgment rule (Jenkins v. Karlton; Poteet) would still govern; not verified from a primary opinion.

Sources

Where this page comes from.

Researched in two independent passes from primary sources (the statute, the administrative code and the regulator's own pages), then reconciled against the text where the passes disagreed. Verified 2026-09-20. Licensing is re-verified quarterly and limitation periods annually.

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