Collecting debt in North Dakota: licensing, bonds and statutes of limitations.
Anyone engaging in debt collection with a debtor residing in North Dakota, including debt buyers, must hold a Department of Financial Institutions collection agency license through NMLS ($400 nonrefundable investigation fee plus $400 annual license fee due with the application, $50 per branch) with a $50,000 surety bond and $25,000 minimum net worth; licenses expire December 31 each year.
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 Rules change; confirm with the regulator or your counsel before acting, and tell us if something here is out of date.
Do you need a license to collect in North Dakota?
North Dakota licenses any agency or debt buyer that collects from a North Dakota resident, with no in-state office required; the license runs through NMLS, costs $800 at application ($400 investigation fee plus $400 annual fee) and $400 per year after, and requires a $50,000 bond and $25,000 net worth. Only attorneys licensed in North Dakota are exempt, and only for their own actions.
Flat $50,000 for every licensee, in the form prescribed by the commissioner; the commissioner may require a new bond when an action is commenced on the bond, and a new bond must be filed immediately after any recovery on it (13-05-04.1). Failure to maintain the bond is grounds for suspension or revocation (13-05-08(1)(d)). Older third-party pages quoting $10,000-$25,000 are stale; the current Century Code text says $50,000.
13-05-03(2)-(5) authorizes use of the nationwide multistate licensing system and registry; DFI FAQ: 'All collection agencies licensed by our Department are registered through the NMLS system' and applications go through the NMLS Resource Center. NMLS state-specific checklist PDFs returned 403 in pass B and were not read.
Total due with a new application is $800 before NMLS charges: 13-05-04 (re-read from the ndlegis.gov Century Code PDF 2026-09-20): 'At the time of making such application, the applicant shall include payment in the sum of four hundred dollars, which is not subject to refund, as a fee for investigating the application, and the sum of four hundred dollars for the annual license. In addition, the applicant shall pay a fifty dollar annual fee for each branch location.' DFI FAQ: 'North Dakota license fees include a $400 initial application fee and a $400 annual license fee, which is required at each subsequent renewal'; 'licensees will be responsible for NMLS charges, including processing fees, criminal background check fees, and credit report check fees.'
annual, renews December 31 (NMLS renewal window November 1 to December 31; statute requires the renewal application 30 days before expiration)
$50 annual fee per branch location (13-05-04); each branch office requires commissioner approval by application (13-05-02.1). A 'virtual office' (remote employees under the agency's control, no records kept there, not held open to the public) is not a branch (13-05-02.1). Examination and visitation fees at an hourly rate set by the commissioner (13-05-06(2)). Delinquent renewal fee $50 (13-05-05).
minimum net worth of $25,000 continuously maintained; remediation plan within 20 business days of a deficiency notice or the license may be revoked (13-05-04.2); trust account: no commingling of customer money; separate bank account for customer funds until disbursed (13-05-07(4)); client's share of collections deposited into a federally insured trust account within forty-eight hours (N.D. Admin. Code 13-04-02-11); disbursements of $25 or more to clients within 30 days after the monthly closing, under $25 within 60 days (13-04-02-12); background checks / fingerprints via NMLS: FBI criminal history, personal history, independent credit report, and administrative/civil/criminal findings (13-05-03(3)); records of all sums collected and disbursed kept six years; notify DFI of records location and custodian on ceasing operations (13-05-07); branch licenses / approval for each branch office, $50 per branch (13-05-02.1, 13-05-04); registration with the North Dakota Secretary of State if required; failure to maintain it is grounds for revocation (13-05-03(1)(c), 13-05-08(1)(e)); notice of change of name or address within 20 business days (13-05-05.1); biennial report (13-05-08.1); ownership change: new application from the purchaser within 45 days if the commissioner requires (13-05-05); individual debt collectors appointed by the agency must be of good moral character and their names and addresses forwarded to the department (N.D. Admin. Code 13-04-02-03); child support collection: license required if debtor or creditor resides in ND or the order or record is ND-based; payments remitted to HHS within five business days (13-05-02.2); respond to DFI information requests within the stated time (minimum 10 days) or the application may be denied (13-05-07.1, amended 2025 H.B. 1127); no physical presence in North Dakota required (DFI FAQ)
Exemptions. 13-05-02.3 exempts: North Dakota-licensed attorneys (limited to the attorney's own actions); licensed real estate brokers acting within their license; banks; trust companies; building and loan associations; credit unions; state and federal agencies and their employees on official duties; abstract companies doing escrow business; creditors collecting their own debts; mortgage servicing companies; persons who purchase or take accounts receivable for collateral purposes; creditmen on the staff of a non-collection-agency employer; public officers, receivers or trustees acting under court order.
How long can a debt be sued on in North Dakota?
North Dakota gives every contract debt, including credit cards, six years, and a voluntary partial payment that acknowledges the whole debt restarts the clock; whether that also revives a debt already past six years has not been decided by the state's Supreme Court. Judgments docketed on or after August 1, 2021 carry a twenty-year lien and cannot be renewed by affidavit; older judgments have a ten-year lien renewable once.
“The following actions must be commenced within six years after the claim for relief has accrued: 1. An action upon a contract, obligation, or liability, express or implied, subject to the provisions of sections 28-01-15 and 41-02-104.”
“An action upon a contract, obligation, or liability, express or implied”
“an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay a note payable at a definite time must be commenced within six years after the due date or dates stated in the note or, if a due date is accelerated, within six years after the accelerated due date.”
“An action upon a contract must begin within six years after the claim for relief has accrued. N.D.C.C. § 28-01-16(1). The statute of limitations for an action to collect an account stated accrues on the date when the statement is made ... while the statute of limitations for an action to collect a simple open account accrues on the date that each service or item on the account is provided.”
Both passes agree. North Dakota has a single six-year period for all contract claims, express or implied, so the written/oral/open-account distinction does not change the number. Kadrmas treated an open account for services as a § 28-01-16(1) contract claim and distinguished 'simple open account' (accrual item by item) from 'account stated' (accrual when the account is stated). No North Dakota Supreme Court opinion specifically classifying credit-card debt was located, but every contract theory (written cardholder agreement, open account, account stated) lands in § 28-01-16(1). § 28-01-37 (mutual open current accounts with reciprocal demands) accrues from the last item proved on either side and is unlikely to fit a one-sided consumer card account. Sale-of-goods contracts: § 41-02-104 (UCC 2-725, 4 years) is expressly carved out of § 28-01-16(1).
“For a judgment docketed after August 1, 2021, the judgment is a lien on all the real property, except the homestead, of every person against whom the judgment is rendered ... for twenty years from the time of docketing the judgment in the county in which it was rendered.”
Both passes recorded 10 years, the period to bring an action upon a judgment (§ 28-01-15(1)); no such action may be commenced within nine years of rendition without leave of court (§ 28-01-34). The judgment's enforceable life is longer: § 28-21-01 lets the creditor 'at any time within twenty years after the entry of judgment ... proceed to enforce the judgment by execution.' Two lien and renewal regimes, both read from the official Century Code chapter PDFs: (a) judgments docketed before Aug. 1, 2021: lien ten years from docketing (§ 28-20-13(2)); renewable once by affidavit filed within ninety days before the ten years expire (§ 28-20-21), which continues the lien ten more years (§ 28-20-23); cancelled of record after ten years if not renewed or twenty years if renewed (§ 28-20-35(1)); §§ 28-20-21 to 28-20-23 are repealed effective Aug. 1, 2031. (b) judgments docketed on or after Aug. 1, 2021: lien twenty years from docketing (§ 28-20-13(3)), no affidavit renewal, cancelled of record twenty years after entry (§ 28-20-35(2)). 'Renewable' is conditional because affidavit renewal exists only for pre-Aug.-2021 judgments; for later judgments the only extension is a new action on the judgment in years nine to ten (§§ 28-01-15(1), 28-01-34). Drafting gap: § 28-20-13 says 'before' and 'after' August 1, 2021 while § 28-20-35 says 'on or after', leaving a judgment docketed on that exact date unaddressed.
Contract claims: six years 'after the claim for relief has accrued' (§ 28-01-16), i.e. breach. Kadrmas: 'the statute of limitations for an action to collect an account stated accrues on the date when the statement is made ... while the statute of limitations for an action to collect a simple open account accrues on the date that each service or item on the account is provided.' Mutual open current accounts: § 28-01-37, from the last item proved on either side. Notes: § 41-03-18, six years from the stated or accelerated due date; demand notes six years after demand or barred after ten years without payment. Judgments: action on a judgment within ten years after the claim accrued (§ 28-01-15(1)); execution within twenty years of entry (§ 28-21-01). After a qualifying partial payment the period runs anew from the payment (Kadrmas, quoting Teigen, J.: 'set the statute of limitations running anew'). Absence from the state tolls (§ 28-01-32) unless the courts have jurisdiction over the absent person.
“a part payment, to be effectual to toll the running of the statute of limitations, must be voluntary, free from uncertainty as to identity of the debt, and must be made and accepted as a payment of a part of a larger debt, under circumstances consistent with intent to pay the balance.”
Both passes agree. § 28-01-36 preserves 'the effect of any payment of principal or interest'; Kadrmas (overruling Erenfeld, applied 'prospectively and retroactively') holds 'partial payments on an open account may, under the circumstances enunciated in Justice Teigen's dissent in Erenfeld, toll the statute of limitations for the entire debt'; the creditor bears the burden of showing the requisites. A payment by one co-obligor does not toll as to the other unless made at the other's request or with the other's agreement or ratification (Langlie; Roles, as described in Kadrmas).
“No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract, whereby to take the case out of the operation of this chapter, unless the same is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged thereby, but this section does not alter the effect of any payment of principal or interest.”
Both passes agree. Kadrmas: 'the plain language of the statute requires a written acknowledgment or promise of a new or continuing contract for purposes of tolling the statute of limitations'; an oral acknowledgment is a nullity for limitations purposes.
Both passes agree. The full chapter 28-01 text was searched for 'borrow', 'another state', 'other state' and 'barred by the laws'; none appears. § 28-01-32 tolls for absence from the state (except where the courts have jurisdiction over the person) but does not borrow foreign periods. § 28-01-15(1) gives ten years for an action on a foreign judgment measured by North Dakota law only.
The debt exists but cannot be sued on; a suit can be defended by raising the defense.
Both passes agree. Chapter 13-05 (collection agency licensing and conduct) was searched for 'statute of limitation', 'time-barred', 'time barred' and 'barred'; its prohibited-acts section (§ 13-05-06.3) covers false statements, prohibited fees and failure to account only. The reconciler also read the Department of Financial Institutions' rule chapter N.D. Admin. Code 13-04-02 (Collection Agencies, §§ 13-04-02-01 to 13-04-02-14: prohibited practices, threats, harassment, deceptive representations, unfair means, trust accounts) from ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/13-04-02.pdf; it contains no 'limitation' or 'barred' language. No North Dakota time-barred-debt disclosure rule exists in statute or rule. Under § 28-01-39 the limitations objection 'can only be taken by answer', i.e. an affirmative defense. Federal Regulation F (12 CFR 1006.26) applies.
Both passes agree the value is conditional and both flagged post-bar revival as undecided; the reconciler re-read Kadrmas in full and confirms it. Kadrmas holds a voluntary, identified, unrestricted partial payment 'may ... toll the statute of limitations for the entire debt' and adopts the principle that 'a part payment of a debt may, under proper circumstances, constitute such an acknowledgment of a larger debt that will raise an implication of a new promise to pay the balance and set the statute of limitations running anew.' On its facts every payment fell within six years of the last item or payment (services July 1978 to July 1982; payments April 1984, November 1985, September 1987, August 1989; suit January 1990), so the court framed the rule as tolling and never decided whether a payment made AFTER the six years have already expired revives the barred balance. The doctrine it adopted is the same one other states apply to barred debts, but no North Dakota opinion located by either pass or the reconciler decides the post-bar question. Status: the statute bars commencement of the action; nothing in ch. 28-01 extinguishes the debt.
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.
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t13c05.pdf
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t13c05.html
- ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/13-04-02.pdf
- www.nd.gov/dfi/about-dfi/non-depository/frequently-asked-questions-non-depository
- ndlegis.gov/assembly/69-2025/regular/bill-overview/bo1127.html
- ndlegis.gov/assembly/68-2023/regular/documents/23-8088-01000.pdf
- legiscan.com/ND/bill/2093/2019
- www.suretybonds.com/blog/north-dakota-collection-agencies-see-bond-increase/
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c01.pdf
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c20.pdf
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t28c21.pdf
- ndlegis.gov/cencode/t41c03.pdf
- ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/html/13-04.html
- static.case.law/nw2d/508/cases/0341-01.json
- law.justia.com/cases/north-dakota/supreme-court/1993/930141-3.html
- law.justia.com/cases/north-dakota/supreme-court/1993/
- www.courtlistener.com/opinion/1805000/kadrmas-lee-jackson-pc-v-bolken/
Resolvah enforces the North Dakota rules at the point of contact.
Licensing by state, time-barred rules, call frequency and consent, checked before anything sends. See it on your own portfolio.
