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

“it must be shown that there was a payment of a portion of an admitted debt, made and accepted as such, accompanied by circumstances amounting to an absolute and unqualified acknowledgment by the debtor of more being due, from which a promise may be inferred to pay the remainder”

Both passes agree. GOL 17-101 'does not alter the effect of a payment of principal or interest', preserving the common-law rule stated in Lew Morris. For consumer credit transactions, CPLR 214-i bars any restart once the period has expired; a qualifying payment before expiry can still restart the clock.

“An acknowledgment or promise contained in a writing signed by the party to be charged thereby is the only competent evidence of a new or continuing contract whereby to take an action out of the operation of the provisions of limitations of time for commencing actions under the civil practice law and rules other than an action for the recovery of real property.”

Both passes agree. The signed writing 'must recognize an existing debt and must contain nothing inconsistent with an intention on the part of the debtor to pay it' (Lew Morris). For consumer credit transactions, no written or oral affirmation revives or extends the period after it expires (CPLR 214-i).

Both passes agree. CPLR 202: 'An action based upon a cause of action accruing without the state cannot be commenced after the expiration of the time limited by the laws of either the state or the place without the state where the cause of action accrued, except that where the cause of action accrued in favor of a resident of the state the time limited by the laws of the state shall apply.' King applied it to a debt buyer's credit-card claim: the claim must be timely under both New York's and the accrual state's periods when the plaintiff (or its assignor) is a non-resident; Discover's Delaware residence made Delaware's three-year period apply and the claim was time-barred. 'Portfolio, as the assignee of Discover, is not entitled to stand in a better position than that of its assignor.' A contractual choice-of-law clause does not import the other state's limitations period unless it expressly says so.

“If a debt collector knows or has reason to know that the statute of limitations for a debt may be expired, before accepting payment on the debt, the debt collector must provide the consumer with clear and conspicuous notice, in the same medium ... by which the debt collector will accept payment”

STATE (23 NYCRR 1.3, re-read on LII; adopted Dec. 3, 2014, N.Y. Register Vol. XXXVI Issue 48, no later version shown): applies to 'debt collectors' under 23 NYCRR 1.1(e) (third-party collectors and debt buyers; excludes creditors' own employees). 1.3(a) requires reasonable procedures to determine the SOL; 1.3(b) requires notice before accepting payment that (1) the SOL may be expired, (2) suing on it violates the FDCPA, (3) the consumer may stop a suit by raising the SOL, (4) no admission, affirmation, acknowledgment, promise or waiver is required, and (5) payment or acknowledgment 'may restart' the SOL; 1.3(c) gives safe-harbor text beginning 'We are required by regulation of the New York State Department of Financial Services to notify you of the following information.' The 1.3 safe-harbor text predates CPLR 214-i; DFS's industry letter of Apr. 7, 2022 says collectors must not tell consumers a CPLR 214-i debt can be revived by payment and offers conforming sample language. NYC (current through Dec. 31, 2026): Admin. Code § 20-493.2(b) forbids a licensed agency to 'Contact a consumer about or seek to collect a debt on which the statute of limitations for initiating legal action has expired unless such agency first provides the consumer such information about the consumer's legal rights as the commissioner prescribes by rule'; 6 RCNY § 2-191(a) prescribes the notice ('WE ARE REQUIRED BY LAW TO GIVE YOU THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION ABOUT THIS DEBT. The legal time limit (statute of limitations) for suing you to collect this debt has expired...') in every permitted communication, 12-point contrasting type adjacent to the amount. NYC (from Jan. 1, 2027): the SHIELD Rule (Notice of Adoption published in The City Record Feb. 26, 2026) repeals § 2-191 and moves the duty to 6 RCNY § 5-77(i): a mailed Notice of Time-Barred Debt ('THE TIME TO SUE ON THIS DEBT HAS EXPIRED. IF YOU ARE SUED ILLEGALLY: ... Note: If you make a payment on this debt, the creditors' right to sue you and make you pay the entire debt may start again') before any other contact, a 14-day waiting period, the disclosure in every communication and in any oral contact, and no settlement or payment may be taken until the notice steps are satisfied; § 5-77(d)(12) also bars selling or placing time-barred debt without notice to the recipient. The February 2026 NOA stated an effective date of September 1, 2026; DCWP's FAQ dated 08/04/2026 (footnote 2) states that 'DCWP published a Notice of Change of Effective Date in The City Record that the SHIELD Rule goes into effect on January 1, 2027, not September 1, 2026' and that DCWP will propose an amendment 'for the sole purpose of aligning the text of the Rule with the new effective date.' The August 2024 DCWP amendments never took effect (postponed to Apr. 1, 2025, Oct. 1, 2025, then indefinitely) and are withdrawn by the 2026 rule.

NO for consumer credit transactions, the subject of this page: CPLR 214-i, 'Notwithstanding any other provision of law, when the applicable limitations period expires, any subsequent payment toward, written or oral affirmation of or other activity on the debt does not revive or extend the limitations period' (verified against the enacted bill text of S153, ch. 593 of 2021, § 4). For non-consumer contract debt the common-law rule preserved by GOL 17-101 still operates: a part payment revives only if it is 'a payment of a portion of an admitted debt, made and accepted as such, accompanied by circumstances amounting to an absolute and unqualified acknowledgment by the debtor of more being due' (Lew Morris), and a signed writing that recognizes the debt and contains nothing inconsistent with an intention to pay restarts the period; so the non-consumer answer is 'conditional'. Status: the CPLR bars the action (the defense must be pleaded, CPLR 3018(b)); the debt is not extinguished, which is why 23 NYCRR 1.3 and the NYC rules tell consumers they may choose to pay.