Alaska — Collection Agency Act (AS 08.24) + SOL

Authority

Alaska licenses collection agencies but has no mini-FDCPA. AS 08.24 is a pure entry-gate, trust-accounting and recordkeeping statute administered by the Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing (AS 08.24.041, .045; AS 08.01.010(12) puts collection agencies inside the centralized-licensing chapter). It contains exactly one conduct rule (AS 08.24.320, documents resembling court process) and no harassment, call-time, call-frequency, validation or disclosure provisions. Collection conduct in Alaska is governed by the FDCPA plus the state's UDAP statute, the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act (UTPCPA), AS 45.50.471–.561, enforced by the Attorney General and by private treble-damage action. A separate, narrower body of FDCPA-style rules — 3 AAC 01.210–.220 — binds first-party creditors that are AS 06 financial institutions (banks, credit unions, savings institutions, small-loan and deferred-deposit licensees) collecting their own paper.

Limitations: AS 09.10.053 — three years for all contract actions, one bucket, no written/oral/open split. Negotiable notes run six years under AS 45.03.118(a) (Alaska's UCC §3-118). Judgments and sealed instruments run ten years under AS 09.10.040.

Verification note. www.akleg.gov/basis/statutes.asp and .../aac.asp are JavaScript endless- scroll apps; the Alaska Legislative Affairs Agency's own server renders full section text at the print endpoints statutes.asp?media=print&secStart=<sec>&secEnd=<sec> and aac.asp?media=print&secStart=<T.CC.SSS>&secEnd=<T.CC.SSS>, and its full-Code/AAC search at /basis/Search/SearchResults?search=<q>&source=<All|Statutes|AAC|bills>&yearStart=&yearEnd= returns per-source hit counts (the facet line) that make negative findings auditable. All statute and AAC text below was pulled from those official endpoints on 2026-08-12. Two Alaska sources are bot-blocked: www.commerce.alaska.gov (DCCED) 403s all automated fetch — licensing facts here come from Internet Archive captures of the official DCCED pages plus DCCED's own CollectionStatutes.pdf pamphlet; and courts.alaska.gov resets the connection on repeat automated requests (curl exit 56) and times out automated fetch, with no usable archive path — Alaska case law is manual-verification-only, so every case-law-dependent point on this page is labeled UNVERIFIED rather than asserted.

Operative text

Entry gate — license required, and who it reaches (AS 08.24.090)

(a) A person other than a collection agency licensed and authorized under this chapter may not for compensation (1) conduct a collection agency business in this state; (2) collect claims for others in this state; (3) solicit the right to collect or receive payment of a claim for another; (4) advertise or solicit either in print, by letter, in person or otherwise, the right to collect or receive payment of a claim for another; (5) seek to make collection or obtain payment of a claim on behalf of another. (b) This chapter does not apply to the following when engaged in the regular course of their respective businesses: (1) attorneys at law; (2) persons regularly employed on a regular wage or salary in the capacity of credit men or a similar capacity, except as an independent contractor; (3) banks, including trust departments of banks, fiduciaries and financing and lending institutions; (4) common carriers; (5) title insurers and abstract companies while doing an escrow business; (6) licensed real estate brokers; (7) employees of licensees under this chapter; (8) substation payment offices employed by or serving as independent contractors for public utilities. (c) A violation of this section is a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a jail for not to exceed one year, or by a fine of not more than $1,000, or by both. — AS 08.24.090 (emphasis added)

The alias trap that pulls a first-party creditor back in:

(2) "collection agency business" means the business of engaging directly or indirectly and having as a primary or secondary object, business or pursuit the solicitation of claims for collection or repossession of collateral security or the collection of claims owed or due or asserted to be owed or due to another or the repossession of collateral security; (A) a house, agency, firm, person, corporation or voluntary association using a name other than its own in collecting its own claims with the intention of conveying, or which tends to convey, the impression that a third party has been employed, is conducting a collection agency business within the meaning of this chapter; (B) a person who sells, attempts to sell, gives away or attempts to give away to another person, other than a licensee under this chapter a system of collection letters, demand forms or other printed matter where the name of a person other than a creditor appears in a manner to indicate that a request or demand is being made by another person, other than the creditor, for the payment of a sum due, or asserted to be due, or who solicits or accepts accounts for collection on a contingent or percentage basis or by a fee or outright purchase for collection purposes, is considered to be in the collection agency business within the meaning of this chapter; — AS 08.24.380(2) (emphasis added)

Three licenses, not one — agency, branch, operator (AS 08.24.100)

(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a licensee may not engage in the collection agency business unless and until the collection agency and each branch office of the agency is under the management and control of a licensed operator for each office. The department may waive this requirement for a period not to exceed 90 days upon the death or disability of an operator or for other good cause. (b) The operator's license is renewable on or before July 1 of each second year. — AS 08.24.100

Operator qualifications — note there is no examination:

(a) To qualify for an operator's license, the applicant shall (1) be a high school graduate, or have the equivalent education of a high school graduate; (2) be of good moral character; (3) not have been convicted of violating this chapter, nor have any unsettled complaints under this chapter against the applicant; (4) not have been convicted of a felony or a crime of larceny or embezzlement or a crime involving moral turpitude; (5) be 19 years of age or older at the time of application; (6) not be a disbarred attorney or have filed bankruptcy; (7) pay the biennial license fee. (b) The commissioner may waive or modify the requirements specified in (a)(1), (3), (4) and (6) of this section for good cause shown. — AS 08.24.110

DCCED's own FAQ states the structure the same way:

To operate in Alaska, you must obtain an agency license, and the operator must also obtain a license. Both the agency and operator licenses are issued together, as the agency license cannot be granted without an active operator license. (AS 08.24.100 & AS 08.24.130) … There are three types of licenses: Agency, Branch and Operator license — DCCED, Div. of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, "Regulation of collection agencies — Frequently Asked Questions" (Internet Archive capture 2025-08-28 of the official page; commerce.alaska.gov 403s automated fetch)

Bond — $5,000 (AS 08.24.140, .150)

(a) The application must be accompanied by … (3) a bond running to the state with a surety or sureties to the satisfaction of the department, and conditioned that the licensee shall, within 30 days after the close of each calendar or fiscal month, report and pay to the licensee's customers the net proceeds due and payable of all collections made during the calendar or fiscal month that exceed $20. (b) All money collected by an agency belonging to a client shall be deposited in a trust account and cleared at the end of each month. The department may audit any agency transaction. — AS 08.24.140

(a) The bond provided for in AS 08.24.140 shall be in the sum of $5,000, executed by the applicant, as principal, and by a corporation that is licensed or authorized to transact business of fidelity and surety insurance within the state as surety. … (b) A licensee may, at any time, file with the department a new bond. A licensee may in lieu of a bond make a $5,000 cash deposit with the department, the deposit to be held by the department under the same terms and conditions as if bond in that amount were posted. — AS 08.24.150 (emphasis added)

AS 08.24.310 requires a separate license and bond for each business name the agency uses.

Fees — 12 AAC 02.160

(a) The following fees are established for collection agencies: (1) application fee for initial license, $50; (2) operator license fee for all or part of the initial biennial license period, $50; (3) biennial operator license renewal fee, $50; (4) agency license fee for all or part of the initial biennial license period, $50; (5) biennial agency license renewal fee, $50; (6) branch office license fee, for all or part of the initial biennial license period, $50; (7) biennial branch office license renewal fee, $50; (8) delayed renewal penalty, $50; (9) nonrefundable fingerprint processing fee, as set out under 12 AAC 02.105(19). (b) Under AS 08.24.370, all nonresident operator and agency fees are double the fees established in (a) of this section, except for branch office fees. — 12 AAC 02.160

Licenses expire June 30 of each second year and renew as of July 1 (AS 08.24.200(a)); 15 days' delinquency suspends the license, 30 days revokes it (AS 08.24.200(b)).

The suit bar — unlicensed agencies cannot sue in Alaska courts (AS 08.24.300)

A collection agency is not entitled to maintain a suit or action involving the collection of money on behalf of its customers in a court of this state without alleging and proving that it is licensed and has procured a bond, as provided in this chapter. A copy of the collection agency license, certified by the department to be a true and correct copy is prima facie evidence of the licensing and bonding of the collection agency for the term expressed in the copy of the license. — AS 08.24.300 (emphasis added)

The only conduct rule in the Act (AS 08.24.320)

Forms of demand or notice or other documents drawn to resemble court process may not be used by collection agencies in the collection of bills, accounts, or other indebtedness. — AS 08.24.320

Plus the trust-account and recordkeeping regime: a separate customer trust account cleared monthly, a permanent per-payment receipt record (debtor name, amount, creditor, date/form of payment, remaining balance), six years of collection/payment accounting records and two years of other records, and a ban on false entries or early destruction (AS 08.24.280); a street-address public office open during normal working hours (AS 08.24.330); a verified annual statement by January 31 (AS 08.24.210); and 15-day new-hire and termination reporting (AS 08.24.340, .350).

Penalties and enforcement

A collection agency or an operator who fails on written demand to render a true and complete account to the person from whom an indebtedness was taken for collection or who fails to turn over to that person the proceeds of the collection within 30 days after written demand, or who fails to comply with any of the provisions of this chapter is punishable by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment for not more than three months, or by both. — AS 08.24.360 (emphasis added)

The department may apply to the superior court for an injunction to temporarily restrain a violation of this chapter or a regulation adopted under it, conduct investigations of alleged violations of this chapter and regulations adopted under this chapter, and perform other action necessary to accomplish the purposes of this chapter. — AS 08.24.051

The centralized-licensing chapter adds the commissioner's cease-and-desist and injunction powers over any occupation listed in AS 08.01.010 — which includes collection agencies (AS 08.01.010(12)) — plus books-and-records examination at the licensee's cost and subpoena power (AS 08.01.087(b)), and citations for unlicensed activity where each day is a separate violation (AS 08.01.102). License discipline for fraud, embezzlement, false pretenses, moral turpitude, extortion, conspiracy to defraud, or violation of the chapter is in AS 08.24.290.

First-party creditors that are AS 06 financial institutions — 3 AAC 01.210–.220

These are the closest thing Alaska has to a state FDCPA, and they bind lenders collecting their own debts, not licensed collection agencies:

(a) A creditor may not communicate with a debtor regarding the collection of a debt without the prior written consent of the debtor or pursuant to an order by a court of competent jurisdiction (1) after written notification from an attorney representing the debtor that all further communications regarding the loan must be addressed to the attorney, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable time to the creditor's inquiries regarding the debt or the attorney consents to direct communication with the debtor; (2) at the debtor's place of employment unless the debtor's employer permits employees to receive those communications during working hours. (b) Any creditor communicating with any person for the purpose of acquiring information regarding the whereabouts of the debtor, e.g., the debtor's residence, telephone number, or place of employment, may not in any way use a form of communication or otherwise indicate that the debtor owes any debt. (c) A creditor who has assigned an alleged debt to a credit reporting agency shall, upon receipt of a written notice from the debtor that any part of the alleged debt is disputed, forward a copy of the written notice to the credit reporting agency. (d) A creditor may not (1) take or threaten to take any nonjudicial action to effect dispossession or disablement of property if (A) there is no present right to possession of the property through an enforceable security interest; (B) in the case of a threat, there is no present intention to effect dispossession or disablement of the property; (C) the property is exempted by law from dispossession or disablement; (2) threaten to take any action which, if taken, would violate any law; (3) obtain a signed confession of judgment, when permitted to do so by Alaska law, by deception or coercion or on a document which is not clearly labeled "Confession of Judgment." — 3 AAC 01.210

A creditor may not use any false, deceptive or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt, including but not limited to the following: (1) any false representation (A) that the lender is vouched for, bonded by, or affiliated with the United States or any state; (B) of the character, amount or legal status of any debt; (C) of any services rendered or compensation due the creditor for the collection of any debt; (D) that documents are not legal process forms or do not require action by the debtor; (2) communicating or threatening to communicate to any person credit information which is known to be false or, if a debt is disputed, failing to communicate that fact when giving credit information. — 3 AAC 01.220

The scope limiter is the chapter's definition of "creditor":

(2) "creditor" means a financial institution with a certificate of authority or license issued by the department under AS 06 to conduct business as a financial institution in this state including, but not limited to, commercial and mutual savings banks, savings associations, trust companies, finance company licensees, and premium finance company licensees; — 3 AAC 01.910(2) (emphasis added)

Four other AAC chapters pull 3 AAC 01.210–.220 into their own licensee populations: 3 AAC 11.120 (deferred deposit advance / payday licensees under AS 06.50 — "the regulations regarding debt collection activities under 3 AAC 01.210 – 3 AAC 01.220 apply to the provisions of this chapter"), 3 AAC 06.420 (banks under AS 06.15), 3 AAC 03.420 (credit unions under AS 06.45), and 3 AAC 12.395.

UDAP — AS 45.50.471 (UTPCPA)

(a) Unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of trade or commerce are declared to be unlawful. (b) The terms "unfair methods of competition" and "unfair or deceptive acts or practices" include the following acts: … (12) using or employing deception, fraud, false pretense, false promise, misrepresentation, or knowingly concealing, suppressing, or omitting a material fact with intent that others rely upon the concealment, suppression, or omission in connection with the sale or advertisement of goods or services whether or not a person has in fact been misled, deceived, or damaged; … (14) representing that an agreement confers or involves rights, remedies, or obligations that it does not confer or involve, or that are prohibited by law; — AS 45.50.471

The credit hook is in the definitions:

(9) "goods or services" includes goods or services provided in connection with a consumer credit transaction or with a transaction involving an indebtedness secured by the borrower's residence; — AS 45.50.561(a)(9) (emphasis added)

Remedies:

(a) A person who suffers an ascertainable loss of money or property as a result of another person's act or practice declared unlawful by AS 45.50.471 may bring a civil action to recover for each unlawful act or practice three times the actual damages or $500, whichever is greater. The court may provide other relief it considers necessary and proper. … (f) A person may not commence an action under this section more than two years after the person discovers or reasonably should have discovered that the loss resulted from an act or practice declared unlawful by AS 45.50.471. — AS 45.50.531 (emphasis added)

(b) In an action brought under AS 45.50.501, if the court finds that a person is using or has used an act or practice declared unlawful by AS 45.50.471, the attorney general, upon petition to the court, may recover, on behalf of the state, a civil penalty of not less than $1,000 and not more than $25,000 for each violation. — AS 45.50.551(b) (emphasis added)

AS 45.50.551(a) adds up to $50,000 per violation of an injunction. AS 45.50.542 makes the Act's protections non-waivable; AS 45.50.537 governs fee-shifting; AS 45.50.535 gives a private injunction right even without actual damages.

The Alaska Department of Law states the Act's application to collections in terms:

A debt collector is someone who attempts to collect a debt you owe to someone else. The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Alaska Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Act prevent debt collectors from using unfair and deceptive practices when collecting a debt. — Alaska Dep't of Law, Consumer Protection Unit, "Debt Collections" (law.alaska.gov, emphasis added)

The statutory exemption that has to be read alongside it:

(a) Nothing in AS 45.50.471 – 45.50.561 applies to (1) an act or transaction regulated by a statute or regulation administered by the state, including a state regulatory board or commission, unless the statute or regulation does not prohibit the practices declared unlawful in AS 45.50.471; … (c) The exemption in (a)(1) of this section does not apply to an act or transaction listed in AS 45.50.471(b) or regulated under AS 06.60. — AS 45.50.481 (emphasis added)

Call frequency and call times — no state rule (verified negative)

Alaska imposes no call-frequency cap and no call-time window on debt collection. Method: the full text of AS 08.24 (all sections, .010–.380) and of 3 AAC 01 was pulled and scanned — the only time-related words in either are AS 08.24.330's requirement that the agency office be open "during normal working hours" and 3 AAC 01.210(a)(2)'s workplace-contact rule. The Alaska Department of Law's own consumer page attributes the 8am–9pm window to federal law, not state law:

There are limits on the times and places a debt collector can contact you. The FDCPA prohibits a debt collector from contacting you at work if they know your employer prohibits it. A debt collector is also prohibited from contacting you at unusual times or places if you haven't agreed to it, including contacting you before 8:00 AM and after 9:00 PM. — Alaska Dep't of Law, "Debt Collections" (emphasis added)

Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption (12 CFR 1006.14(b)(2)) and §1006.6(b)(1)(i)'s 8am–9pm window are therefore the operative limits in Alaska.

Time-barred-debt disclosure — none (verified negative)

No Alaska statute or regulation requires a time-barred-debt disclosure, and none bars suit on a time-barred debt as such. Method: AS 08.24 full text carries no disclosure or limitations provision; the akleg full-Code search for "time-barred" returns Statutes (0), AAC (0) (14 hits, all committee minutes); the AG's consumer page describes only the FDCPA's five-day validation notice. Nothing in Alaska corresponds to Tex. Fin. Code §392.307 or Cal. Civ. Code §1788.14(d).

Statute of limitations — AS 09.10.053 (three years, one bucket)

Sec. 09.10.053. Contract actions to be brought in three years. Unless the action is commenced within three years, a person may not bring an action upon a contract or liability, express or implied, except as provided in AS 09.10.040, or as otherwise provided by law, or, except if the provisions of this section are waived by contract. — AS 09.10.053 (emphasis added)

The AS 09.10.040 carve-out — judgments and sealed instruments, ten years:

(a) A person may not bring an action upon a judgment or decree of a court of the United States, or of a state or territory within the United States, and an action may not be brought upon a sealed instrument, unless the action is commenced within 10 years. — AS 09.10.040(a)

Residual catch-all:

An action for a cause not otherwise provided for may be commenced within 10 years after the cause of action has accrued. — AS 09.10.100

Accrual on mutual open accounts:

In an action brought to recover a balance due upon a mutual, open, and current account where there have been reciprocal demands between the parties, the cause of action accrues from the date of the last item proved in the account on either side. But when a period of more than one year elapses between any of a series of items or demands, they are not included as part of the account. — AS 09.10.110 (emphasis added)

Negotiable notes — AS 45.03.118 (six years, not three)

Alaska enacted Revised UCC Article 3, so a note is six years, displacing AS 09.10.053:

(a) Except as provided in (e) of this section, 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. (b) Except as provided in (d) or (e) of this section, if demand for payment is made to the maker of a note payable on demand, an action to enforce the obligation of a party to pay the note must be commenced within six years after the demand. If no demand for payment is made to the maker, an action to enforce the note is barred if neither principal nor interest on the note has been paid for a continuous period of 10 years. — AS 45.03.118(a)–(b) (emphasis added)

Subsections (c)–(g) give the standard Revised Article 3 periods: unaccepted drafts 3 years from dishonor or 10 years from the date of the draft (whichever expires first); certified checks, teller's/cashier's/traveler's checks 3 years from demand; certificates of deposit 6 years from demand; accepted drafts 6 years; conversion, money-had-and-received, breach of warranty and residual Article 3 claims 3 years.

Tolling and the borrowing statute

When the cause of action accrues against a person who is out of the state or concealed in the state, the action may be commenced within the periods provided in this chapter after that person returns to the state or when the concealment ceases. If a person departs from the state or conceals one's person after the cause of action accrues, the time of absence or concealment is not part of the time limited for the commencement of the action. — AS 09.10.130

When a cause of action has arisen in another state or in a territory or foreign country between nonresidents of this state, and by the laws of the state, territory, or country where the cause of action arose that action cannot be maintained because of a lapse of time, the action may not be maintained in this state. — AS 09.10.220 (emphasis added)

Minority and mental-illness/disability tolling is in AS 09.10.140(a), capped at two years after the disability ceases; AS 09.10.180 requires the disability to have existed when the right accrued.

Revival — Alaska is a payment-restarts state (AS 09.10.200, .210)

This is the section most likely to be assumed backwards. Alaska has two revival statutes that point in opposite directions for acknowledgments versus payments:

Sec. 09.10.200. Acknowledgment or promise. No acknowledgment or promise is sufficient evidence of a new or continuing contract to take the case out of the operation of this chapter unless the acknowledgment or promise is contained in writing, signed by the party to be charged, and, as to instruments affecting real estate, acknowledged and recorded in the office of the recorder of the district where the original contract was filed or recorded. This section does not alter the effect of any payment of principal or interest. — AS 09.10.200 (emphasis added)

Sec. 09.10.210. Past due payments. When a past due payment of principal or interest is made upon any evidence of indebtedness, the running of the time within which an action may be commenced starts from the time the last payment is made. — AS 09.10.210 (emphasis added)

And a new-promise accrual sentence, which appears (oddly) inside the real-property section:

… In an action upon a new promise, fraud, or mistake, the running of the time within which an action may be commenced starts from the making of the new promise or the discovery of the fraud or mistake. … — AS 09.10.230 (third sentence; the section is otherwise about actions relating to real property)

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

• You need a license to collect in Alaska, and you need three of them. An agency license, an operator license for every office, and a branch license for every additional location. The bond is only $5,000 (or a $5,000 cash deposit), the fees are $50 each (doubled for nonresidents), the term is biennial expiring June 30, and there is no exam. Operating unlicensed is a misdemeanor: up to a year in jail and/or $1,000 (AS 08.24.090(c)).
• The license reaches third-party collection only. AS 08.24.090 gates collecting "for compensation … for others." Original creditors collecting their own paper are outside the Act — unless they collect under a name other than their own in a way that implies a third party is involved, which AS 08.24.380(2)(A) makes unlicensed collection-agency business.
• AS 08.24 is not a mini-FDCPA. There is no harassment section, no fee restriction, no misrepresentation section, no validation requirement, no call cap and no call window. The one conduct rule bans documents drawn to resemble court process. What actually polices collector conduct in Alaska is the FDCPA plus the UTPCPA, which the Alaska Department of Law says in terms applies to debt collectors, backed by treble damages or $500 (whichever is greater) per unlawful act and AG penalties of $1,000–$25,000 per violation.
• A separate rule set catches first-party lenders — but only regulated ones. 3 AAC 01.210–.220 give AS 06 financial institutions (and, by cross-reference, payday, bank and credit-union licensees) FDCPA-shaped duties on their own collections: attorney-representation cutoff, workplace-contact rule, no third-party disclosure of the debt, dispute-forwarding to the CRA, no bluffing about repossession or unlawful action, and no false statements about the character, amount or legal status of the debt. A generic retailer or medical provider collecting its own paper is in none of this — for them it is FDCPA-exempt first-party collection plus the UTPCPA.
• SOL is three years across the board, and Alaska really does mean one bucket: "a contract or liability, express or implied" covers written contracts, oral contracts and open accounts alike. Credit cards fall in the same three-year bucket (interpretation — the statute does not name credit cards, but a cardholder agreement is a contract express or implied and there is no competing open-account period; contrast Alabama or Georgia, where the split is real).
• Notes are the exception: six years, under AS 45.03.118(a). Any table that shows Alaska notes at three is collapsing the UCC period into the general contract period.
• Judgments and sealed instruments are ten years (AS 09.10.040), as is the residual catch-all (AS 09.10.100).
• Revival: Alaska is one of the most permissive states, not one of the strictest. A past-due payment restarts the clock by statute from the date of the last payment (AS 09.10.210), and AS 09.10.200 goes out of its way to say it does not disturb that. A bare oral acknowledgment or promise does not count — that route requires a writing signed by the debtor — but the statute frames the signed writing as sufficient "to take the case out of the operation of this chapter," which is revival language, not merely a live-clock restart. Alaska must not be treated as a no-revival state.

Traps / edge cases

• The three-year period is contractually waivable. AS 09.10.053 ends "except if the provisions of this section are waived by contract." A cardholder or loan agreement can lengthen or eliminate Alaska's contract limitations period. A calculator that hard-codes three years will be wrong on any account whose agreement contains such a waiver, and the agreement, not the statute, controls. Treat a waiver clause as attorney-review territory rather than modeling it.
• Sealed instruments run ten years, not three (AS 09.10.040(a)). Rare in consumer paper, but it is a statutory carve-out written into AS 09.10.053 itself.
• AS 09.10.110 is an accrual rule, not a period. It only fires on a mutual, open, and current account with reciprocal demands — i.e. running accounts between merchants, not a one-way consumer card balance. Its one-year gap rule (items separated by more than a year drop out of the account) is easy to mis-apply to consumer revolving debt, where it does not belong.
• The revival direction is the opposite of Texas. Do not carry a no-revival assumption into Alaska. AS 09.10.210 is an affirmative statutory payment-restart with no expiry qualifier in its text. UNVERIFIED: whether AS 09.10.210 also revives a claim on which the three years have already fully run is not answered by the statute — AS 09.10.200's "take the case out of the operation of this chapter" language plainly contemplates post-expiry revival for signed acknowledgments, and its final sentence preserves payment's effect, but no statute states the post-expiry payment rule outright. Alaska case law would resolve it and courts.alaska.gov is unreachable to automated fetch (see Verification note) — attorney review before auto-re-aging on a post-expiry payment.
• The UTPCPA state-regulation exemption is a live fight, not a clean answer. AS 45.50.481(a)(1) exempts acts "regulated by a statute or regulation administered by the state … unless the statute or regulation does not prohibit the practices declared unlawful in AS 45.50.471." Collection agencies are state-regulated (AS 08.24), but AS 08.24 prohibits essentially none of the practices in AS 45.50.471 — and AS 45.50.481(c) removes the exemption entirely for the enumerated AS 45.50.471(b) practices. The Department of Law's published position is that the Act reaches debt collectors. UNVERIFIED: the scope of the (a)(1) exemption as applied to AS 08.24 licensees is a case-law question and Alaska case law is manual-verification-only here.
• Absence tolling is broad on its face. AS 09.10.130 suspends limitations for the whole period a defendant is out of the state — meaningful in Alaska, where seasonal and out-of-state residency is common. Whether it applies to a defendant who remains amenable to service is a case-law question (UNVERIFIED — same block). Do not toll automatically.
• The borrowing statute is unusually narrow. AS 09.10.220 only bars an Alaska action where the cause arose elsewhere between nonresidents. It does not import another state's shorter period when the debtor is an Alaska resident.
• AS 08.24.300 is a real defense. An unlicensed or unbonded agency cannot maintain a collection suit in Alaska courts, and must plead and prove licensure and bonding. A litigation workflow that files in Alaska without a recorded, in-force license and bond exposes the claim to dismissal.
• Each business name needs its own license and bond (AS 08.24.310) — a DBA or brand used for a client portfolio is a separate licensed entity in Alaska's scheme.
• Records retention is six years for collection/payment accounting (AS 08.24.280(a)), longer than the three-year SOL — a retention policy pegged to the SOL will violate the licensing statute.
• The 90-day operator-vacancy cliff. If an office loses its licensed operator, AS 08.24.100(a) allows a waiver of at most 90 days; DCCED's FAQ confirms that past 90 days without an assigned operator "you will not be able to operate."
• No medical-debt rules — yet. No Alaska statute or regulation addresses medical debt (akleg full-Code search for "medical debt": Statutes (0), AAC (0)). WATCH: HB 178 (34th Leg., "MEDICAL DEBT: INFORMATION, DISCRIMINATION," Rep. Mina) would add AS 45.48.800 barring a medical creditor or medical debt collector from reporting medical debt to consumer credit reporting agencies. Status as of 2026-08-12: (H) FIN since 2025-05-09 — passed House Labor & Commerce as CSHB 178(L&C), pending in House Finance, not enacted. The 34th Legislature runs through 2026, so it is live.

Related

• ../federal/fdcpa/overview.md
• ../federal/reg-f/call-frequency.md
• ../federal/reg-f/time-barred-debt.md
• ./tx.md · ./wa.md · ./_matrix.md