Michigan — two conduct statutes (Occupational Code art. 9 + RCPA) + SOL

Authority

Michigan splits collections conduct across two parallel statutes with near-identical prohibited-act lists, sorted by who you are rather than what you did:

1. Occupational Code, 1980 PA 299, article 9 — MCL 339.901 to 339.920. Licensed collection agencies. LARA (Bureau of Professional Licensing) licenses; a Board of Collection Agencies sits under MCL 339.902. Private action with treble-damage exposure at §339.916; unlicensed practice is a misdemeanor under §339.601.
2. Regulation of Collection Practices Act, 1981 PA 70 — MCL 445.251 to 445.258 ("RCPA"). "Regulated persons" — creditors collecting their own paper, in-house employees, banks, credit unions, licensed lenders, attorneys collecting in their own name. Enforced by the Attorney General (cease-and-desist, §445.253; civil fines, §445.256) and by private action at §445.257.

Statute of limitations for suit on a debt: Revised Judicature Act of 1961, MCL 600.5807(9) (contract, 6 years), with MCL 440.3118 for negotiable instruments. Revival: MCL 600.5866.

Verification note: legislature.mi.gov serves official MCL section text over HTTPS at https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-<chapter>-<section>. Its certificate chain is incomplete, so automated fetch fails on it; text below was pulled with curl from those official URLs on 2026-08-11. Every page carried the banner "Michigan Compiled Laws Complete Through PA 20 of 2026." LARA's own site 403s automated fetch at www.michigan.gov and redirects the bcc path; the live collection-agency page is under bpl and was pulled with curl.

Operative text

Who is covered — art. 9 (agencies) vs RCPA (everyone else)

Article 9 — "collection agency" (third-party collectors; original creditors and their employees are carved out):

(b) "Collection agency" means a person that is directly engaged in collecting or attempting to collect a claim owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another, or, subject to subsection (2), repossessing or attempting to repossess a thing of value owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another arising out of an expressed or implied agreement. … Collection agency does not include a person whose collection activities are confined and are directly related to the operation of a business other than that of a collection agency such as, but not limited to, the following: (i) A regular employee who collects amounts for 1 employer if all collection efforts are carried on in the name of the employer. (ii) A state or nationally chartered bank that collects its own claims. … (xi) An attorney who is handling a claim or collection on behalf of a client and in the attorney's own name. (xii) A forwarding agency that, acting on behalf of a creditor or lender, forwards a claim, collection, or repossession only to a licensed collection agency that is licensed under this article … — MCL 339.901(1)(b)

Anti-evasion — a sham purchase does not move you out of art. 9:

This article applies to a person who, by a device, subterfuge, or pretense, makes a pretended purchase or takes a pretended assignment of an account from another person to evade this article. — MCL 339.903

RCPA — "regulated person" (the mirror set: those whose collecting is incidental to some other business):

(g) "Regulated person" means a person whose collection activities are confined and are directly related to the operation of a business other than that of a collection agency including any of the following: (i) A regular employee who collects accounts for 1 employer if the collection efforts are carried on in the name of the employer. (ii) A state or federally chartered bank that collects its own claim. … (vii) A business that is licensed by this state under a regulatory act that regulates collection activity. (viii) An abstract company that is engaged in an escrow business. … (xi) An attorney who is handling a claim or collection on behalf of a client and in the attorney's own name. — MCL 445.251(1)(g)

(a) "Claim" or "debt" means an obligation or alleged obligation for the payment of money or thing of value arising out of an expressed or implied agreement or contract for a purchase made primarily for personal, family, or household purposes. — MCL 445.251(1)(a) (identical text at MCL 339.901(1)(a))

Entry gate — license per place of business (art. 9)

(1) Except as otherwise provided in this article, a person shall not operate a collection agency or commence in the business of a collection agency without first applying for and obtaining a license under this article from the department for each place of business. (2) A person is not subject to the licensing requirement of subsection (1) if the person's collection activities in this state are limited to interstate communications. This subsection does not exempt a person from other requirements of law that regulate collection practices. (3) The department may require financial statements, references, or other information it considers necessary to determine the qualifications of the applicant … (4) Each individual, partner of a partnership, or officer or director of a corporation that is an applicant shall be not less than 18 years of age, be of good moral character, and have the financial responsibility, reputation, and experience such as to command the confidence of the community … — MCL 339.904

Bond — a range, with the operative amount set by the department:

The department shall require a collection agency to file and maintain in force for each license a corporate surety or a cash bond conditioned upon the faithful accounting of all money collected upon accounts entrusted to the collection agency in a form prescribed by the department in a sum the department considers necessary, but for not less than $5,000.00 nor more than $50,000.00. The bond shall be for the benefit of a person damaged by the wrongful taking of money collected by the agency or failure of the collection agency to report or remit proceeds of collections made. A person injured may bring an action upon the bond. … An action on a bond shall not be commenced after the expiration of 1 year from the effective date of cancellation of the bond. — MCL 339.907

LARA sets the starting amount and the fee (official licensing guide, revision date 1/26/2026):

Surety Bond – Applicants for the collection agency license must obtain a surety bond or cash bond in the amount of $5,000 for the first year of operation. The amount of the bond for subsequent years will be based upon the amount of average monthly business as reported in the Annual Report of Business and Operations … Collection Agency Owner Managed License: $475.00 [application fee + 3 year license fee] … Renewal Cycle: 3 years — LARA/BPL, Michigan Collection Agency Owner Managed Licensing Guide, rev. 1/26/2026

Penalty for operating unlicensed (general Occupational Code enforcement section):

(1) A person shall not engage in or attempt to engage in the practice of an occupation regulated under this act or use a title designated in this act unless the person possesses a license or registration issued by the department for the occupation. … (4) Except as otherwise provided for in section 735, a person, school, or institution that violates subsection (1) or (2) is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $500.00, or imprisonment for not more than 90 days, or both. (5) … a second or any subsequent time is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000.00, or imprisonment for not more than 1 year, or both. — MCL 339.601

A licensed agency's manager must be licensed and, per §339.911, meet experience/exam requirements; §339.909 requires a separate trust account for collected funds.

Prohibited practices — the twin lists

MCL 339.915 (licensees) and MCL 445.252 (regulated persons) are near-verbatim twins, subdivisions (a) through (r)/(q). The subdivision that carries the call-time window and the harassment standard is identical in both:

(n) Using a harassing, oppressive, or abusive method to collect a debt, including causing a telephone to ring or engaging a person in telephone conversation repeatedly, continuously, or at unusual times or places which are known to be inconvenient to the debtor. All communications shall be made from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. unless the debtor expressly agrees in writing to communications at another time. All telephone communications made from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. shall be presumed to be made at an inconvenient time in the absence of facts to the contrary. — MCL 339.915(n); identical text at MCL 445.252(n)

Other operative subdivisions common to both lists (abridged; text quoted from MCL 339.915, with MCL 445.252 differing only in trivial wording):

(e) Making an inaccurate, misleading, untrue, or deceptive statement or claim in a communication to collect a debt or concealing or not revealing the purpose of a communication when it is made in connection with collecting a debt. (f) Misrepresenting in a communication with a debtor any of the following: (i) The legal status of a legal action being taken or threatened. (ii) The legal rights of the creditor or debtor. (iii) That the nonpayment of a debt will result in the debtor's arrest or imprisonment, or the seizure, garnishment, attachment, or sale of the debtor's property. (iv) That accounts have been turned over to innocent purchasers for value. (h) Communicating with a debtor, except through billing procedure, when the debtor is actively represented by an attorney, the attorney's name and address are known, and the attorney has been contacted in writing by the credit grantor or the credit grantor's representative or agent, unless the attorney representing the debtor fails to answer written communication or fails to discuss the claim on its merits within 30 days after receipt of the written communication. (i) Communicating information relating to a debtor's indebtedness to an employer or an employer's agent unless the communication is specifically authorized in writing by the debtor subsequent to the forwarding of the claim for collection, the communication is in response to an inquiry initiated by the debtor's employer or the employer's agent, or the communication is for the purpose of acquiring location information about the debtor. (q) Failing to implement a procedure designed to prevent a violation by an employee. (r) Communicating with a consumer regarding a debt by postcard. — MCL 339.915

RCPA-only addition (no art. 9 twin):

(s) Employing a person required to be licensed under article 9 of Act No. 299 of the Public Acts of 1980 … to collect a claim unless that person is licensed under article 9 … — MCL 445.252(s)

Licensee-only additions — MCL 339.915a (last amended by 2017 PA 197, eff. 2018-03-13, which relaxed the attorney-employment ban). Operative fee/trust/timing rules:

(e) Demanding or obtaining a share of the compensation for service performed by an attorney in collecting a claim or demand, or collecting or receiving a fee or other compensation from a consumer for collecting a claim, other than a claim owed to the creditor under the provisions of the original agreement between the creditor and debtor. (h) Failing to deposit money collected into the trust account required under this article. (i) Commingling money collected for a client with the collection agency's own general or operating funds. (k) Refusing or intentionally failing to remit to a client all money collected, due, and owing the client, less any commission owed to the licensee, within 45 days after the day on which the money is collected. (l) Failing to give a debtor a written receipt for cash payment, or for any other payment if a receipt is specifically requested … (q) Accepting a check or other payment instrument postdated by more than 5 days unless the debtor is notified in writing of the person's intent to deposit a postdated check or instrument not more than 10 nor fewer than 3 business days before the deposit. (r) Depositing or threatening to deposit a postdated check or other postdated payment instrument before the date on the postdated check or instrument. — MCL 339.915a(1)

Michigan's own validation notice — MCL 339.918 (licensees only)

(1) Within 5 days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with a collection of a debt, a collection agency shall send the consumer, unless the following information is contained in the initial communication or the consumer has paid the debt, a written notice containing all of the following information: (a) The amount of the debt owed. (b) The date the communication was sent to the debtor. (c) The name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed. (d) A statement specifying that unless the consumer, within 30 days after receipt of this notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or a portion of the debt, the debt will be assumed to be valid. (e) A statement specifying that, if the consumer notifies the collection agency in writing within 30 days after receipt of this notice, that the debt, or any portion of the debt, is disputed, the collection agency shall obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and that a copy of the verification or judgment shall be mailed to the consumer … (2) If the consumer notifies the collection agency in writing, within 30 days after receiving the written notice, that the debt … is disputed, collection of the debt or any disputed portion of the debt shall cease until the collection agency obtains verification of the debt and a copy of the verification or judgment is mailed to the consumer … Verification … shall include the number and amount of previously made payments and the name and address of the original creditor, if different from the current creditor, or a copy of the judgment against the debtor. (3) The failure of a consumer to dispute the validity of a debt under this section shall not be construed as an admission of liability by the consumer. — MCL 339.918

Location information (both statutes, near-identical):

(1) A collection agency communicating with any person other than the debtor, for the purpose of acquiring location information about the debtor, shall state all of the following: (a) The name of the individual seeking the location information. (b) Whether the purpose of the communication is for confirmation or correction of location information about the debtor. (2) For purposes of this article, location information shall consist only of a debtor's place of abode and place of employment and the telephone number at each place. — MCL 339.919; identical text at MCL 445.258

Call-frequency cap — none

Neither statute states a numeric contact cap. The complete section lists of both acts were retrieved and read (art. 9: §§339.901–339.920, of which §§339.905 and 339.914 are repealed; RCPA: §§445.251–445.258). The only frequency rule in either is the harassment standard in §339.915(n) / §445.252(n) quoted above ("causing a telephone to ring or engaging a person in telephone conversation repeatedly, continuously"). Reg F's 7-in-7 presumption is the operative numeric limit in Michigan.

Statute of limitations — MCL 600.5807 (renumbered in 2018)

Sec. 5807. (1) A person may not bring or maintain an action to recover damages or money due for breach of contract or to enforce the specific performance of a contract unless, after the claim first accrued to the person or to someone through whom the person claims, the person commences the action within the applicable period prescribed by this section. … (3) Except as otherwise provided in this section or another statute of this state, the period of limitations is 10 years for an action founded on a bond of a public officer. … (5) The period of limitations is 10 years for an action founded on a covenant in a deed or mortgage of real estate. … (8) The period of limitations is 10 years for an action on a bond, note, or other like instrument that is the direct or indirect obligation of, or was issued by although not the obligation of, this state or a county, city, village, township, school district, special assessment district, or other public or quasi-public corporation in this state. (9) The period of limitations is 6 years for an action to recover damages or money due for breach of contract that is not described in subsections (2) to (8). — MCL 600.5807 (History: 1961, Act 236, Eff. Jan. 1, 1963; Am. 2018, Act 15, Eff. May 7, 2018)

Catch-all backstop (also 6 years):

All other personal actions shall be commenced within the period of 6 years after the claims accrue and not afterwards unless a different period is stated in the statutes. — MCL 600.5813

Accrual:

Except as otherwise expressly provided, the period of limitations runs from the time the claim accrues. The claim accrues at the time provided in sections 5829 to 5838, and in cases not covered by these sections the claim accrues at the time the wrong upon which the claim is based was done regardless of the time when damage results. — MCL 600.5827

In actions brought to recover the balance due upon a mutual and open account current, the claim accrues at the time of the last item proved in the account. — MCL 600.5831

Negotiable instruments — Michigan's UCC §3-118, uniform text, 6 years:

(1) Except as provided in subsection (5), 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. (2) Except as provided in subsection (4) or (5), 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 6 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. … (7) Unless governed by other law regarding claims for indemnity or contribution, an action (i) for conversion of an instrument, for money had and received, or like action based on conversion, (ii) for breach of warranty, or (iii) to enforce an obligation, duty, or right arising under this article and not governed by this section must be commenced within 3 years after the cause of action accrues. — MCL 440.3118 (Am. 1993, Act 130, Eff. Sept. 30, 1993)

Judgments:

(3) Except as provided in subsection (4), the period of limitations is 10 years for an action founded upon a judgment or decree rendered in a court of record of this state, or in a court of record of the United States or of another state … The period of limitations is 6 years for an action founded upon a judgment or decree rendered in a court not of record … Within the applicable period of limitations prescribed by this subsection, an action may be brought upon the judgment or decree for a new judgment or decree. The new judgment or decree is subject to this subsection. — MCL 600.5809(3)

Tolling and choice of law

If any person is outside of this state at the time any claim accrues against him the period of limitation shall only begin to run when he enters this state unless a means of service of process sufficient to vest the jurisdiction of a Michigan court over him was available to the plaintiff. If after any claim accrues the person against whom the claim accrued is absent from this state, any and all periods of absence in excess of 2 months at a time shall not be counted as any part of the time limited for the commencement of the action unless while he was outside of this state a means for service of process sufficient to vest the jurisdiction of a Michigan court over him was available to the plaintiff. — MCL 600.5853

Filing does not by itself stop the clock — service (or jurisdiction) does:

The statutes of limitations or repose are tolled in any of the following circumstances: (a) At the time the complaint is filed, if a copy of the summons and complaint are served on the defendant within the time set forth in the supreme court rules. (b) At the time jurisdiction over the defendant is otherwise acquired. … — MCL 600.5856 (Am. 2004, Act 87)

Borrowing statute — shorter of the two periods, unless the claim accrued in favor of a Michigan resident:

An action based upon a cause of action accruing without this state shall not be commenced after the expiration of the statute of limitations of either this state or the place without this state where the cause of action accrued, except that where the cause of action accrued in favor of a resident of this state the statute of limitations of this state shall apply. … — MCL 600.5861

All actions and rights shall be governed and determined according to the law under which the right accrued, in respect to the limitations of such actions or right of entry. — MCL 600.5869

Revival — MCL 600.5866 (writing) and MCL 600.5865 (payment, evidence limit)

Express or implied contracts which have been barred by the running of the period of limitation shall be revived by the acknowledgment or promise of the party to be charged. But no acknowledgment or promise shall be recognized as effective to bar the running of the period of limitations or revive the claim unless the acknowledgment is made by or the promise is contained in some writing signed by the party to be charged by the action. — MCL 600.5866

No endorsement or memorandum of any payment, written or placed upon any promissory note, bill of exchange, or other writing, by or on behalf of the party to whom the payment was made or was purported to have been made, shall be allowed as evidence of the payment for the purpose of barring the running of the period of limitations. This section merely limits the evidence which may be allowed to be given for the purpose of showing part payment which would bar the running of the period of limitations, and is not to be deemed to have any control over the effect of part payment which is proved by other evidence. — MCL 600.5865

Time-barred debt — no Michigan statute

Neither act contains a suit bar, an anti-revival rule, or a scripted time-barred-debt disclosure. Verified by reading the complete section list of both acts (art. 9 §§339.901–339.920 and RCPA §§445.251–445.258, both retrieved from the official act indexes) plus the RJA limitations chapter list (MCL 600.5801–600.5869). Reg F §1006.26 is the only time-barred-suit constraint that reaches Michigan accounts.

Penalties and private right of action

Article 9 (against licensees):

(1) A person who suffers injury, loss, or damage, or from whom money was collected by the use of a method, act, or practice in violation of this article or rules promulgated under this article, may bring an action for damages or other equitable relief. (2) If the court finds for the petitioner, recovery shall be in the amount of actual damages or $50.00, whichever is greater. If the court finds that the method, act, or practice was a wilful violation, it may award a civil penalty of not less than 3 times the actual damages, or $150.00, whichever is greater and shall award reasonable attorney's fees and court costs incurred in connection with the action. — MCL 339.916

RCPA (against regulated persons) — same shape:

(1) A person who suffers injury, loss, or damage, or from whom money was collected by the use of a method, act, or practice in violation of this act may bring an action for damages or other equitable relief. (2) In an action brought pursuant to subsection (1), if the court finds for the petitioner, recovery shall be in the amount of actual damages or $50.00, whichever is greater. If the court finds that the method, act, or practice was a wilful violation, the court may assess a civil fine of not less than 3 times the actual damages, or $150.00, whichever is greater, and shall award reasonable attorney's fees and court costs incurred in connection with the action. — MCL 445.257

AG enforcement of the RCPA:

(1) The attorney general may order a regulated person to cease and desist from violating this act. (2) A regulated person ordered to cease and desist is entitled to a hearing … if he or she files a written request within 30 days after the effective date of the order. (3) If a regulated person fails to comply with a cease and desist order … the attorney general may commence an action in the circuit court for Ingham county or in a circuit court for a county where the person is doing business … The court may impose a fine or not more than $500.00 for each violation of the cease and desist order. — MCL 445.253

(1) In an action brought under this act, if the court finds that a regulated person has wilfully violated this act, the attorney general, upon petition to the court, may recover, on behalf of the state, a civil fine not exceeding $500.00 per violation. (2) A regulated person engaging in a recurring course of wilful conduct in violation of this act shall be fined not more than $5,000.00 for the first offense, and not more than $10,000.00, or imprisoned for not more than 1 year, or both, for a second or subsequent offense. — MCL 445.256

FLAGGED — pending medical-debt legislation (not law as of 2026-08-11)

The MCL banner reads "Complete Through PA 20 of 2026"; none of the following has been enacted. Statuses read from the official bill pages on legislature.mi.gov on 2026-08-11:

• SB 451 (2025) — "medical debt act." Passed Senate 3/11/2026 (27-8); House Health Policy reported it 6/17/2026; sits at second reading in the House. As passed by the Senate it would bar consumer reporting agencies from reporting medical debt below the FHFA conforming-loan-limit threshold, bar medical creditors/collectors from furnishing it, and add a mandatory initial-written-communication disclosure:

  Sec. 11. A collection agency shall include the following statement in the collection agency's initial written communication to a consumer: "Michigan law prohibits consumer reporting agencies from reporting medical debt information, unless the consumer report will be used in connection with a credit transaction that involves, or that may reasonably be expected to involve, a principal amount that exceeds the national conforming loan limit value for a 1-unit property, as determined annually by the Federal Housing Finance Authority.". — SB 451 (S-2), as passed by the Senate 2026-03-11 — PENDING BILL TEXT, NOT LAW

• SB 449 / SB 450 (2025) — hospital financial assistance act; passed Senate 3/11/2026, in the House.
• SB 701 / SB 702 (2025) — cap the interest rate on medical debt (amending MCL 445.903) and prohibit foreclosure or wage garnishment for medical debt; both passed the Senate 35-0, in the House at second reading.
• HB 6071 / 6072 / 6073 (2026) — House companions to the SB 449–451 package; HB 6073 is the medical-debt credit-reporting bill. At second reading.

Plain English

Interpretation — the quotes above win on any conflict.

• Michigan licenses collection agencies, per office. LARA/BPL issues the license (§339.904), a bond starting at $5,000 is required (§339.907 + LARA guide), the fee is $475 for a 3-year owner-managed license, and operating unlicensed is a misdemeanor (§339.601(4): ≤$500 / ≤90 days; ≤$1,000 / ≤1 year on repeat).
• The big licensing carve-out is §339.904(2): interstate communications only. An out-of-state agency whose Michigan activity is limited to calls, letters, and email into the state does not need the license — but subsection (2) says in terms that it still owes every conduct rule. Do not read "no license" as "no rules."
• First-party creditors are covered — by the RCPA, not by article 9. Michigan does not exempt creditors from conduct regulation; it routes them into a mirror statute with the same prohibited-act list, AG enforcement, and the same private action.
• There IS a statutory 8 a.m.–9 p.m. window (§339.915(n) / §445.252(n)) — Michigan is not a federal-floor-only state on call times. The state text applies to "all communications," not just telephone calls, and only a written consumer agreement opens another time.
• No frequency cap. Reg F 7-in-7 governs.
• Michigan has its own validation notice (§339.918): 5 days to send it (vs. Reg F's 5-day validation-information rule), a 30-day written-dispute window, cease collection until verification is mailed, and verification content specified by statute (payment count and amounts + original creditor's name and address).
• SOL is 6 years for essentially every consumer debt: contract claims under §600.5807(9), notes under §440.3118(1), and anything left over under §600.5813. Because all three roads lead to 6, the written/oral/open-account distinction does not change the answer in Michigan.
• Revival runs both directions. A signed writing acknowledging the debt revives an already-barred contract claim (§600.5866) — Michigan permits post-expiry resurrection, unlike TX/NV/WA. Part payment is governed by common law, not §600.5866; §600.5865 presupposes that part payment can bar the running of limitations but bars the creditor's own endorsement as proof of it.

Traps / edge cases

• The subsection numbering changed. The 6-year contract period is MCL 600.5807(9), not (8). 2018 PA 15 (eff. 2018-05-07) rewrote the section and pushed the catch-all down; (8) is now the 10-year public-obligation bond period. Any citation to "600.5807(8)" for a 6-year consumer contract is citing the wrong subsection of the current statute and points at a 10-year rule.
• Which statute applies to a licensed agency is a genuine counsel question. On the text, §445.252 binds only a "regulated person," defined as someone whose collecting is incident to "a business other than that of a collection agency" (§445.251(1)(g)) — which reads licensed agencies out of the RCPA and into art. 9. But §445.251(1)(g)(vii) sweeps in "a business that is licensed by this state under a regulatory act that regulates collection activity," and §445.251(1)(b) defines "collection agency" inside the RCPA. INTERPRETATION — no case law was retrieved from an official source. Because the two prohibited-act lists are near-identical, the practical exposure is the same either way; the difference matters for which private action and which enforcement agency. Treat dual coverage as the safe operating assumption and route the question to counsel before pleading strategy.
• "Treble damages" is drafted as a fine, not as damages. §445.257(2) says the court "may assess a civil fine of not less than 3 times the actual damages"; §339.916(2) says "civil penalty." Neither says who receives it. UNVERIFIED — the payee of the 3x amount is not resolved by the statutory text; attorney fees and costs, by contrast, are mandatory ("shall award") on a willful finding. Do not model the 3x as automatic plaintiff recovery.
• Willfulness carries a criminal tail under the RCPA. A "recurring course of wilful conduct" is punishable by fines to $5,000/$10,000 and up to a year's imprisonment (§445.256(2)) — a sharper edge than most state mini-FDCPAs.
• The 45-day remittance clock and the trust-account rules are licensure conditions with a private action attached (§339.915a(1)(h)–(k) + §339.916). Client-fund timing is a compliance surface in Michigan, not just a contract term.
• Consumer-paid fees are barred by §339.915a(1)(e) unless the fee is owed to the creditor "under the provisions of the original agreement" — the same shape as TX §392.303(a)(2), but stated as a licensee prohibition.
• Postcards are flatly prohibited in both statutes (§339.915(r), §445.252(r)), as is any communication to an employer about the debt absent a post-referral written authorization (§339.915(i) / §445.252(i)) — stricter than FDCPA §1692c(b)'s framing.
• The absence-tolling statute is unusually aggressive: every absence from Michigan longer than 2 months is excluded from the running of the period (§600.5853), unless service sufficient to vest jurisdiction was available. Modern long-arm jurisdiction makes the exception swallow most fact patterns — interpretation; attorney review, never an automatic adjustment in a calculator.
• §600.5865 is an evidence rule, not a revival rule. Read carefully: it does not grant part-payment revival, it assumes part payment "would bar the running of the period of limitations" and then forbids proving it by the creditor's own ledger endorsement. The substantive part-payment rule is common law. Flag as attorney review; do not ship a boolean "payment restarts the clock" for Michigan.
• A sham debt purchase does not escape art. 9 (§339.903) — relevant to any structure that "sells" paper to an unlicensed affiliate for collection.
• Filing suit on the last day does not save the claim. §600.5856(a) tolls only "if a copy of the summons and complaint are served on the defendant within the time set forth in the supreme court rules" — a filing that is never timely served leaves the limitations period running.
• Demand notes die at 10 years of no payment even without a demand (§440.3118(2)) — a separate hard backstop from the 6-year clock.

Related

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